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<p>WASHINGTON – The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to interview President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner as part of a sweeping investigation into potential links between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.</p>
<p>Kushner volunteered to be interviewed by the committee, according to a White House official, making him the fourth member of Trump’s campaign operation to come forward in the past week offering to speak with congressional investigators.</p>
<p>A Senate source confirmed that the interview had been offered, but said that it would not be scheduled until the committee “has received any documents or information necessary to ensure that the meeting is productive for all sides.”</p>
<p>According to a senior congressional official, committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., spoke with the White House counsel “some weeks ago” to warn that the committee would be seeking to speak with administration officials, including Kushner. The White House indicated to the committee over the weekend that Kushner would be willing to participate.</p>
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<p>According to The New York Times, Kushner met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during both the election and transition period, and later, at Kislyak’s request, met with Sergey Gorkov, chief of Russian government-owned Vnesheconombank.</p>
<p>The congressional official was not aware that Kushner had met with the Russian banker.</p>
<p>A White House official said that Kushner was the “official primary point of contact” with foreign governments and officials during the campaign and transition period.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the House intelligence committee said that the committee has not decided whether it will interview Kushner.</p> | Senate panel plans to interview Trump son-in-law Kushner in Russia probe | false | https://abqjournal.com/976807/senate-panel-plans-to-interview-trump-son-in-law-kushner-in-russia-probe.html | 2017-03-27 | 2 |
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<p>The decision to take the votes a day before they were scheduled was made with the OK of an assistant attorney general.</p>
<p>Martin Esquivel, an Albuquerque school board member and attorney who specializes in open government issues, said the commission violated the state Open Meetings Act and that holding a re-vote is not enough.</p>
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<p>The Public Education Department referred questions to the Attorney General’s Office, whose spokesman, Phil Sisneros, said the office cannot comment extensively because of threatened litigation, but he did give a written statement. “We maintain that after careful consideration, we determined that the right thing to do was to cure the alleged violation at the next board meeting,” he said.</p>
<p>Commission Chairwoman Carolyn Shearman offered a nearly identical statement, also citing threatened litigation.</p>
<p>The commission will re-do its votes to renew the charters of North Valley Academy and Horizon Academy West.</p>
<p>Esquivel said the attorney general should take a stronger stand on the issue. He said that office, which is charged with enforcing the Open Meetings Act, should make it clear the act was violated, and the commission should have to start from scratch in considering the two charter renewals.</p>
<p>Esquivel said that, according to the Open Meetings Act, public boards have 15 days to “cure” or fix a violation. Otherwise, actions become null and void.</p>
<p>“You can’t just say, ‘Oh we screwed up, we’ll fix it next time,’ ” he said. “There has to be some declaration that what happened at the last meeting is null and void.”</p>
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<p>Esquivel became involved in the case because he represents a former head of North Valley Academy, and he had hoped to comment on the charter’s renewal. The vote was scheduled for Dec. 14 but was held on Dec. 13 instead.</p>
<p>According to minutes from the Dec. 13 meeting, then-commission chairman Andrew Garrison asked Assistant Attorney General Mark Reynolds whether the commission could legally move up the two votes. Reynolds is counsel for the commission.</p>
<p>Garrison asked what would happen if a member of the public showed up Friday, wishing to comment on the charters that had already been renewed. Reynolds told him there would be no legal problem. According to the minutes, Reynolds said: “Mr. Chair, I have absolutely no problem with that. That much is clear. I have much more heartburn with not hearing them today, rather than tomorrow. Changing around like this, there’s absolutely no problem at all with that.”</p>
<p>Sisneros would not make Reynolds available for an interview.</p>
<p>Esquivel said Reynolds’ role in the decision makes the matter even more serious.</p>
<p>“I’ve seen many public bodies make mistakes without legal counsel,” Esquivel said. “This one is vastly different, given that an attorney from the AG’s office was giving the PEC the green light to proceed.”</p>
<p>The next commission meeting is set for Feb. 1, and the agenda has not been finalized. — This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Charter Schools To Get New Vote | false | https://abqjournal.com/157872/charter-schools-to-get-new-vote.html | 2013-01-05 | 2 |
<p>Not only does it seem rumors of a all-female Ghostbusters may be true, the cast is turning out to be a comedy lover’s dream. <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/new-all-female-ghostbusters-cast-767610" type="external">The Hollywood Reporter</a>reported Tuesday January 27 that the studio has picked its anti-ghost quartet: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon.</p>
<p>Director Paul Feig will be helming the project. He himself broke the casting news on Monday by <a href="https://twitter.com/paulfeig/status/560178147954421760" type="external">tweeting</a> a photo of the four actresses with no caption, then following with a tweet explaining, “In other news, #Ghostbusters will be hitting theaters July 22, 2016. Save the date!”</p>
<p>Feig directed both McCarthy and Wiig in their box office hit Bridesmaids. Wiig earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing the film and McCarthy was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her endearingly bizarre character.</p>
<p>THR writes the McCarthy has formally signed on to the project, and that negotiations are close to concluding with Wiig, Jones, and McKinnon. McKinnon has been on Saturday Night Live since 2012 and won an Emmy nomination for her work last year. Jones began on SNL as a writer and has made the transition to featured player in the 2014 season. She can currently be seen in movie theatres in Chris Rock’s latest film Top Five.</p>
<p>The Ghostbusters reboot has traveled a long road. Original director Ivan Reitman and original castmembers Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, and Ivan Ramis had all agreed to the project but signing star Bill Murray had proved difficult. Ramis passed away in 2014 and Reitman decided to step down from the film, leaving room for Feig and the all-female group.</p>
<p>Shooting is rumored to begin this summer in New York.</p>
<p /> | New all-female Ghostbusters cast includes Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/28/new-all-female-ghostbusters-cast-includes-kristen-wiig-and-melissa-mccarthy/ | 2015-01-28 | 3 |
<p>On April 4th, Haiti’s electoral council announced that, according to preliminary results, Michel Martelly had been selected Haiti’s new president. A kompa singer and long-time proponent of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Martelly worked with the dreaded FRAPH death squads that killed over 5000 people in Haiti after the first coup against President Jean- Bertrand Aristide in 1991. Martelly supporters had announced they would “burn down the country” if he were not selected. &#160;&#160;Only a small number of Haitians – around 20% by most estimates – voted in the elections, the smallest percentage in 60 years to participate in any presidential elections in &#160;the Americas. Fanmi Lavalas, the party of Aristide and by far the most popular in Haiti, was banned from participation. Why should people vote? It was a “selection,” not an “election,” we were told over and over again. By the second round on March 20th, Haitians had to choose between Martelly or Mirlande Manigat, a right-wing member of Haiti’s tiny elite. One Haitian friend told us, “This is a choice between cholera and typhoid. You cannot make such a choice.”</p>
<p>Yet the bitter taste of the dismal elections could not diminish the joy of “the return.” As the plane carrying President Aristide and his family back from a 7-year forced exile in South Africa approached the Port-au-Prince airport on March 18th, there were about 50 of us in the inner courtyard of his home. A day before, we had watched quietly as dozens of Haitians methodically painted walls, swept the same floors over and over again to make sure they were spotless, and fixed any last remnant of the destruction that took place at this house after the coup on February 29, 2004.</p>
<p>We had heard that President Aristide (called Titid throughout Haiti) would arrive at &#160;the airport around noon, but we had gone to the house earlier to avoid the crush. I had come with a dear friend, Pierre Labossiere, representing the work of the Haiti Action Committee. We were both honored and overwhelmed to be there.</p>
<p>Rumors spread via cell phone: “He’s at the airport, making a speech.” “The car is coming.” We heard a roar. “Lavalas” means “flash flood”: the flood of the poor, who can accomplish wonders when they feel their strength. Thousands were climbing over two sets of walls, rushing past security, engulfing the courtyard. Within minutes, the roofs and trees were filled. There was no room to move. Yet in the midst of total chaos, there was discipline and restraint. “Get off the roof,” someone shouted. “It’s Titid’s roof.” “Don’t damage the trees.” Then the singing and the chanting began. “We will not vote in the election. We have no candidate. Welcome back Titid. Welcome back&#160; schools.&#160; Welcome back hope.&#160; Lavalas – we bend, but we do not break.”</p>
<p>I was standing next to a Haitian grass roots organizer and school director. Her school had been under attack since the coup, but she had persevered and kept up the work. She has been the heart of earthquake relief in her community. She had tears in her eyes. “I’ve been working in the movement since I was 15. I am so happy. So happy.”</p>
<p>We saw another friend, who had been imprisoned during the last terrible years of &#160;Duvalier, and now lives in one of the internal refugee camps. We asked her, “Are you going into the house?” She said, “No, I can always see the President. It’s more important to hand out water to the people. They are so thirsty.”</p>
<p>I could only imagine the reaction of the U.S. State Department, which tried so hard to stop this moment. President Barack Obama had made a last-minute call to President Zuma of South Africa demanding that he prevent the return until after the new round of presidential elections. What did he think of this scene? Was he even watching?</p>
<p>Finally, it was possible for some of us to get in the house. The people outside stayed and stayed, pressed against the windows – and then left, but not until cleaning the courtyard, picking up what had been dropped.</p>
<p>&#160;Mildred Aristide greeted us at the door. “Isn’t it beautiful out there?” she asked.</p>
<p>So many, in and outside of Haiti, had worked for this moment. Not because Aristide is a savior or can solve all the problems in Haiti. Not because his return will end cholera, or bring the 1.5 million people out of those terrible earthquake camps. This was a basic issue of justice and self-determination. A democratically elected president had been illegally removed from office and banished from his homeland – and the majority of Haitians never accepted his removal. They wanted him home.</p>
<p>Why?&#160; Under <a href="" type="internal">Lavalas administrations</a>, more schools were built than in the entire history of Haiti. The government opened 20,000 adult literacy centers, prioritizing the education of women. Health clinics sprung up in remote rural areas. A powerful AIDS treatment and prevention program was launched. The hated military was disbanded. The minimum wage doubled. The tiny group of rich people who have run Haiti forever were actually asked to pay taxes – and, if they didn’t, their names were read over the radio. The Aristide administration demanded restitution from France for the $21.7 billion that France had extorted from Haiti as its price for Haiti’s abolition of slavery. With the first payment on this debt in 1830, Haiti had to close its public school system. Aristide raised the issue forcefully in 2003 and said that justice should be done.</p>
<p>Slowly, even as the Bush Administration blocked needed loans, financed an elite opposition, and organized paramilitary operations against the government, Aristide was fulfilling his promise to move the nation from “misery to poverty with dignity.” It was a start, but an historic one.</p>
<p>At the January 1, 2004 bicentennial celebrations of the Haitian Revolution, hundreds of thousands of Haitians filled Port-au-Prince with banners and flags celebrating the first black republic, the only nation to successfully break the bonds of slavery, raising five fingers to demand that Aristide be able to serve his full five-year term. They were poor, they were black, and they knew that the movement they had fought so hard to build was under frontal attack. As reported in Randall Robinson’s book, An Unbroken Agony, his wife, Hazel Robinson, looked out at the crowd and commented on the power of the scene to the OAS Ambassador sitting next to her.&#160; “Well, he does not have the support of the real people,” the OAS official responded. “He has 80 to 90%, but they’re not the ones that matter.”</p>
<p>&#160;For the U.S. government, these Haitians didn’t matter. Unable to manufacture an “uprising” against Aristide, the United States took direct action on February 29th, swooping in special operations forces and kidnapping – yes, that is the word Haitians use to describe what happened – the President and his wife Mildred, taking them on a long journey to the desolate French neo-colony of the Central African Republic. The long exile had begun.</p>
<p>Haiti solidarity activists denounced the coup. We demonstrated, educated, and &#160;organized, attempting to counter the drumbeat of lies about Aristide, the myth of his “resignation,” the notion that “popular upheaval” had overthrown him. And we sent delegations to Haiti, to learn from grass roots organizers who were now under constant attack.</p>
<p>Visiting Haiti in late June of 2004, we watched as the United Nations force (MINUSTAH), headed by the government of Brazil, took over the military occupation of the country from the troops of the U.S., France and Canada. Now it was a multilateral operation, like Iraq, like Afghanistan – with the imprimatur of the United Nations. A “peacekeeping force,” we were told.</p>
<p>Yet the people we met said the UN soldiers were disrespectful and, at times, brutal – blue helmeted soldiers pointing guns. We saw hundreds of political prisoners locked up in overcrowded cells with no water. We talked to people whose houses had been burned in the Central Plateau. We saw schools that had been destroyed, clinics ransacked, the Medical School at the Aristide Foundation taken over by UN troops and 247 medical students forced to flee their campus. And we saw demonstrations – small ones in such a dangerous time – demanding the release of political prisoners.</p>
<p>Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a legendary fighter for human rights in Haiti, was still there, feeding children at his church in St. Claire. He told us, “I receive many death threats. But I will not leave Haiti. I left under Duvalier, but they will not force me out again.” He would later be arrested and beaten in a church, and then imprisoned – released only after developing the leukemia that would lead to his death in 2009.</p>
<p>From 2004-2006, MINUSTAH. in coordination with Haiti’s coup government, launched <a href="http://haitiinformationproject.net/" type="external">search and destroy operations</a> to root out Lavalas bases in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas. According to a study published in The Lancet, over 8000 deaths and 35,000 rapes (many thousands committed by security forces) occurred during this period.</p>
<p>&#160;A delegation from the San Francisco Bay Area was in Haiti right after one of those raids. 350 heavily armed <a href="" type="internal">UN forces had attacked</a> the pro- Lavalas shantytown of Cite Soleil. Sixty people were killed, houses were destroyed, and bullet holes were everywhere. The delegation took pictures, interviewed residents, and came home. They went directly to the offices of the The New York Times with all their documentation. But The Times would not take the story. The UN had told them it wasn’t true.</p>
<p>The presidential election of 2006 was held under foreign military occupation. When Rene Preval, who had been a Lavalas president after Aristide, entered the campaign, the base of Lavalas swept him into office. They believed that Preval would bring back Aristide, would free the political prisoners, and develop new economic and social initiatives for the poor.</p>
<p>Not much changed. Preval had developed strong ties to the United States and the UN. He had no interest in bringing back Aristide, and moved to deepen the structural adjustment programs (privatization of the telephone company, new contracts for elite import-export barons, reduced social investment) demanded by the international authorities and the Haitian elite. The price of rice and gas soared. There were more raids into Cite Soleil. The U.S. State Department proclaimed that Haiti was “more stable.”</p>
<p>When we returned to Haiti in 2007, many Lavalas organizers were through with Preval. They said it plainly: “He’s in the arms of the Americans, he does their bidding.” He had broken all communication with the base that elected him. Aristide had always talked to the people – and had always listened.</p>
<p>During our visit, we spent days with Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a psychologist, Lavalas leader and human rights activist. At a demonstration in front of UN headquarters, he spoke on a small bullhorn while French and U.S. military personnel took pictures of him and the other protestors. He called for a halt to privatization, an end to the UN occupation, and the return of President Aristide. Two weeks later, Lovinsky was kidnapped and disappeared. Preval said nothing. The UN was silent. There was no investigation.</p>
<p>By 2009, the Preval government had lost any legitimacy among the poor in Haiti. As the cost of food spiraled upward, thousands of Haitians marched on the Presidential Palace. “Food riots,” the press called them.</p>
<p>Then the earthquake hit. We saw the terrifying images of destruction, the 300,000 dead, the unbearable conditions in the camps, the courage and dignity with which Haitians faced the impossible. Haiti touched hearts around the world. But a devastating Haitian tragedy presented opportunity for others. NGO’s descended. Bill Clinton and George Bush announced a joint fund and visited the country. The U.S. took charge of the “reconstruction.”</p>
<p>Five months later, Haiti looked as if the quake had hit the day before. We met with people in two different camps. They spoke with urgency: “We have received no aid from the United Nations or the Red Cross since March.” “We need food.” “We need work.” “The NGO’s pay themselves and give us nothing.” “Preval does not care for us.” “Bill Clinton is not our president.” “Titid must come home.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aristidefoundationfordemocracy.org/" type="external">The Aristide Foundation</a>, created in 1996 as a center for grass roots social, educational and economic development, was buzzing with activity. With no government or NGO assistance, the Foundation was doing what it could: setting up mobile health clinics and schools in the refugee camps, training mental health workers to provide “relief for the spirit.” Young educators and activists told us that their generation was “motivated,” that they would do anything for Haiti. Fifteen hundred people – three quarters of them women – packed into the Foundation’s main auditorium for a “Democratic Debate.” Women in and out of the Foundation had passed around a petition to Barack and Michelle Obama calling for Aristide’s return and, within days, <a href="http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/content/sign-haitian-women's-petition-return-jean-bertrand-aristide-and-his-family" type="external">20,000 women</a> had signed it. 10,000 Haitians took to the streets in Port-au-Prince on July 15th, Aristide’s birthday.&#160; The time had come.</p>
<p>Now Aristide has returned, in defiance of the United States; brought home by his people and a determined <a href="" type="internal">international campaign</a>.</p>
<p>The task is daunting. Barred from elections, Lavalas has no representatives in the legislature, and will have no official power within the state. Partnering with the Haitian elite, the U.S. is setting up sweatshops in the Port-au-Prince area and preparing to dig up the country’s mineral wealth. Bill Clinton co-chairs an on-going Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, sitting on over $10 billion. U.S. AID pours money into U.S.-based NGO’s that pay more for staff than for projects. Thirteen thousand UN soldiers and police maintain a seemingly permanent foreign occupation. Cholera – introduced to Haiti by UN forces from Nepal – has spread. A Harvard/UCSF study now predicts 800,000 cases. Marrtelly plans to reestablish the military and sharpen the attack on Lavalas. And his compatriot, Duvalier, is there – a spectre haunting the country anew.</p>
<p>Still, the return means so much. The fundamental goal of coups and &#160;counter-insurgency is to sever the connection between a popular movement and the people, to destroy even the belief that transformative social change is possible. At Aristide’s house, in the streets of Port-au-Prince, it was clear that the coup and occupation have not been able to do this. Fueled by a hard-won victory, grass roots organizers – who have never stopped their work – have already taken heart. There will be powerful initiatives in education and health care, and the steady incorporation of a new generation into a movement that has bent but not broken. And a trusted voice of the poor is now back, whatever may come. &#160;&#160;In his speech at the airport, as he and his family re-touched Haitian soil, Aristide commented on the undemocratic and exclusionary elections. He focused on the need to include everyone in the life of the country: “Every Haitian without exception, because every person is a human being, so the vote of every person counts.”</p>
<p>Visiting friends and family in New York a short time after returning from Haiti, I had a chance to meet with Haitian community organizers in Brooklyn. I asked one woman, now an assistant teacher in a second grade class, why she had joined Lavalas. What struck her, she said, was Aristide’s slogan, “Tout Moun Se Moun.” She translated it as, “Every one, each person counts.” And she said, “I am filled with joy that he is back home.”</p>
<p>ROBERT ROTH is an educator and co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee. He is also on the board of the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Haiti Before and After Aristide’s Return | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/04/11/haiti-before-and-after-aristide-s-return/ | 2011-04-11 | 4 |
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<p>TUCSON, Ariz. - A New York City man has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for sexually extorting an 11-year-old Arizona girl he enticed using internet chat rooms.</p>
<p>A federal judge in Tucson sentenced 21-year-old Steven Antepara on Monday. He had previously pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a minor.</p>
<p>The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona says Antepara met the girl in an online chat room. He coerced her to photograph herself in sexually explicit poses and send him the photos. He then threatened to post the girl's images online unless she sent him more pictures and participated in explicit web chats using Skype.</p>
<p>Antepara used the same tactics to get other girls to send him explicit photos and investigators found hundreds of child pornography images on his computer.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | NY man gets 18 years for sex extortion of Arizona girl, 11 | false | https://abqjournal.com/599462/ny-man-gets-18-years-for-sex-extortion-of-arizona-girl-11.html | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration has thrown the weight of the U.S. government behind the protesters taking to the streets of Iran, rooting them on despite the risk of helping Iranian authorities dismiss a week of major demonstrations as the product of American instigation.</p>
<p>As Iran's supreme leader accused "enemies of Iran" of trying to destabilize his country, the State Department on Tuesday pressed Tehran to unblock social media sites used by the protesters. It even offered advice to tech-savvy Iranians on circumventing state internet controls.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump declared it was "time for change" in Iran, and other officials floated the possibility of additional sanctions. At the United Nations, Ambassador Nikki Haley sought a Security Council meeting to show support for those protesting in the Islamic Republic.</p>
<p>"We want to help amplify the voices of the Iranian people," said Haley, who appeared before cameras to recite the chants of protesters across Iran. She said Iran's claim that other countries were fomenting the unrest was "complete nonsense," describing the dissent as homegrown.</p>
<p>Borrowing from a response playbook it has used before, Iran's government blamed the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Britain for the protests. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 78-year-old supreme leader, said Iran's enemies were using money, weapons, politics and spies "to create problems for the Islamic system, the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution."</p>
<p>Trump was undeterred, praising Iranians for "finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime." In an allusion to possible sanctions in response to human rights violations, Trump said the United States would closely monitor the situation.</p>
<p>"The U.S. is watching!" the president tweeted. He followed up on Wednesday: "Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!"</p>
<p>Beyond rhetoric, though, it wasn't clear what the Trump administration could do substantively to empower the protesters, who are railing against corruption, mismanagement and economic woes including higher food prices. His support also sets up a potential test of his presidential leadership if the protests - already deadly - grow more violent.</p>
<p>At least 21 people have died and hundreds have been arrested over six days of demonstrations, the largest in Iran since the "Green Movement" that erupted in 2009 following a disputed presidential election. The new outbreak started in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, and has expanded to many others.</p>
<p>Iranian authorities have sought to suppress the protests in part by shutting down key social media sites protesters use to communicate, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and the messaging app Telegram. On Tuesday, Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein urged Iran's government to unblock the sites.</p>
<p>"They are legitimate avenues for communication," Goldstein said. He said the U.S. has an "obligation not to stand by."</p>
<p>Iranians seeking to evade the blocks can use virtual private networks, Goldstein said. Known as VPNs, the services create encrypted data "tunnels" between computers and can be used to access overseas websites blocked by the local government.</p>
<p>The primary U.S. goal is to ensure enough global attention to deter Iranian authorities from violently cracking down on protesters with impunity, said a senior State Department official involved in Iran policy. The official wasn't authorized to comment by name and demanded anonymity.</p>
<p>For Trump, the protests have served as an unexpected but welcome opportunity to rally the world against Iran, and U.S. officials said the administration was actively encouraging other countries to back the protests. Early U.S. attempts to get European allies to coordinate their messaging with the U.S. ran into obstacles, but several countries including France and Italy have joined in expressing concerns.</p>
<p>In the U.S., Trump's full-throated support for the protesters has renewed the debate about how best to encourage change in Iran, whose government Trump deems a top national security threat.</p>
<p>Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. took a more cautious approach during the last major wave of anti-government protests. It was concerned about enabling Iranian authorities to exploit longstanding suspicions of the U.S., dating back to American and British support for a 1953 coup toppling Iran's elected prime minister.</p>
<p>Ben Rhodes, Obama's former deputy national security adviser, said "too much ownership" of the protests by Trump would likely be counterproductive.</p>
<p>"I can't imagine that the people marching in the streets of Iran are looking to Donald Trump for inspiration or support," Rhodes said. "I just don't think it helps things for the White House to make this into a U.S.-versus-the-Iranian-government circumstance."</p>
<p>But former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a staunch Iran critic, said it's a given Tehran will portray dissent as externally provoked.</p>
<p>"That's a very weak excuse for American inaction and inconsistency with our own interests and values. I'm glad President Trump is not following that advice," Lieberman said in an interview.</p>
<p>It wasn't immediately clear what effect Trump's support was having on the protests, although Iran's state TV reported his tweets and some Iranians shared them online.</p>
<p>When it comes to supporting the Iranian aspirations, Trump's credibility may be dented by his hostility to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and his inclusion of Iranians in his travel bans.</p>
<p>Trump's insistence in an October speech on using the term "Arabian Gulf" in place of the Persian Gulf also riled the Iranian public. There also was criticism of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for saying America was working with people in Iran for a "peaceful transition of that government."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration has thrown the weight of the U.S. government behind the protesters taking to the streets of Iran, rooting them on despite the risk of helping Iranian authorities dismiss a week of major demonstrations as the product of American instigation.</p>
<p>As Iran's supreme leader accused "enemies of Iran" of trying to destabilize his country, the State Department on Tuesday pressed Tehran to unblock social media sites used by the protesters. It even offered advice to tech-savvy Iranians on circumventing state internet controls.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump declared it was "time for change" in Iran, and other officials floated the possibility of additional sanctions. At the United Nations, Ambassador Nikki Haley sought a Security Council meeting to show support for those protesting in the Islamic Republic.</p>
<p>"We want to help amplify the voices of the Iranian people," said Haley, who appeared before cameras to recite the chants of protesters across Iran. She said Iran's claim that other countries were fomenting the unrest was "complete nonsense," describing the dissent as homegrown.</p>
<p>Borrowing from a response playbook it has used before, Iran's government blamed the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Britain for the protests. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 78-year-old supreme leader, said Iran's enemies were using money, weapons, politics and spies "to create problems for the Islamic system, the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution."</p>
<p>Trump was undeterred, praising Iranians for "finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime." In an allusion to possible sanctions in response to human rights violations, Trump said the United States would closely monitor the situation.</p>
<p>"The U.S. is watching!" the president tweeted. He followed up on Wednesday: "Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!"</p>
<p>Beyond rhetoric, though, it wasn't clear what the Trump administration could do substantively to empower the protesters, who are railing against corruption, mismanagement and economic woes including higher food prices. His support also sets up a potential test of his presidential leadership if the protests - already deadly - grow more violent.</p>
<p>At least 21 people have died and hundreds have been arrested over six days of demonstrations, the largest in Iran since the "Green Movement" that erupted in 2009 following a disputed presidential election. The new outbreak started in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, and has expanded to many others.</p>
<p>Iranian authorities have sought to suppress the protests in part by shutting down key social media sites protesters use to communicate, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and the messaging app Telegram. On Tuesday, Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein urged Iran's government to unblock the sites.</p>
<p>"They are legitimate avenues for communication," Goldstein said. He said the U.S. has an "obligation not to stand by."</p>
<p>Iranians seeking to evade the blocks can use virtual private networks, Goldstein said. Known as VPNs, the services create encrypted data "tunnels" between computers and can be used to access overseas websites blocked by the local government.</p>
<p>The primary U.S. goal is to ensure enough global attention to deter Iranian authorities from violently cracking down on protesters with impunity, said a senior State Department official involved in Iran policy. The official wasn't authorized to comment by name and demanded anonymity.</p>
<p>For Trump, the protests have served as an unexpected but welcome opportunity to rally the world against Iran, and U.S. officials said the administration was actively encouraging other countries to back the protests. Early U.S. attempts to get European allies to coordinate their messaging with the U.S. ran into obstacles, but several countries including France and Italy have joined in expressing concerns.</p>
<p>In the U.S., Trump's full-throated support for the protesters has renewed the debate about how best to encourage change in Iran, whose government Trump deems a top national security threat.</p>
<p>Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. took a more cautious approach during the last major wave of anti-government protests. It was concerned about enabling Iranian authorities to exploit longstanding suspicions of the U.S., dating back to American and British support for a 1953 coup toppling Iran's elected prime minister.</p>
<p>Ben Rhodes, Obama's former deputy national security adviser, said "too much ownership" of the protests by Trump would likely be counterproductive.</p>
<p>"I can't imagine that the people marching in the streets of Iran are looking to Donald Trump for inspiration or support," Rhodes said. "I just don't think it helps things for the White House to make this into a U.S.-versus-the-Iranian-government circumstance."</p>
<p>But former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a staunch Iran critic, said it's a given Tehran will portray dissent as externally provoked.</p>
<p>"That's a very weak excuse for American inaction and inconsistency with our own interests and values. I'm glad President Trump is not following that advice," Lieberman said in an interview.</p>
<p>It wasn't immediately clear what effect Trump's support was having on the protests, although Iran's state TV reported his tweets and some Iranians shared them online.</p>
<p>When it comes to supporting the Iranian aspirations, Trump's credibility may be dented by his hostility to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and his inclusion of Iranians in his travel bans.</p>
<p>Trump's insistence in an October speech on using the term "Arabian Gulf" in place of the Persian Gulf also riled the Iranian public. There also was criticism of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for saying America was working with people in Iran for a "peaceful transition of that government."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP</p> | Trump roots on Iran's protesters, declares 'time for change' | false | https://apnews.com/amp/968cd8933a994043b330bb98034c940e | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
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<p>Actually, he claims to have found enough within the first week.</p>
<p>He’s sprinkled those ingredients into a menu of three short plays, all of which he hopes will provide “wall-to-wall laughs.” They will be performed today through Sunday and March 28-29 at the Black Box Theater in Warehouse 21.</p>
<p>“In today’s world, when you turn on the TV or look at the headlines, I think people need a little escape,” he said. “The overall theme of this is it’s not ‘The Iceman Cometh.'”</p>
<p>He hastened to add that he loves Santa Fe.</p>
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<p>“But I lost a great line” by moving here, the playwright added. When people used to ask him how he liked living in his former home of Los Angeles, he said he always answered: “I could be unhappy anywhere.”</p>
<p>But now he’s happy, he said.</p>
<p>Bloomberg had his first full-length play produced a year ago in Santa Fe: “Queen of Madison Avenue,” which played at the Lensic with Ali MacGraw in the title role. He said that play is being shopped to various repertory companies around the country.</p>
<p>After that production, he came up with an interesting approach to force himself to pen some new plays. Back in November, he said, producer Linda Krull and he booked Warehouse 21 for five performances in March.</p>
<p>“I did not have the slightest idea what I was going to put in it,” Bloomberg said.</p>
<p>With the incentive of a deadline – money is the other inspiration cited by this former scriptwriter, who worked on a variety of television shows during the 1980s – he came up with the three short plays that will open tonight.</p>
<p>Celine Rosario Lopez, left, and Deborah Dennard rehearse a scene from “Unreal Housewives of Santa Fe.”</p>
<p>This opener has its roots in a show Bloomberg did on local radio station KSFR. He said he needed to fill seven minutes, so he wrote “The Unreal Housewives.”</p>
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<p>“Everyone loved the title,” Bloomberg said.</p>
<p>Dennis Carroll is a co-writer on this play, fleshed out from the radio segment, which is a parody of all those “Real Housewives” shows that clutter the TV listings. This play doesn’t even have a plot, Bloomberg said, referring to it as “strictly a romp.”</p>
<p>“The cast is delicious,” made up of six comedic actresses, he said. One character is a former student from the Sorbonne and graduate of St. John’s who has nabbed her own real estate license. Two are recently married lesbians who run an art gallery. Butterfly on Lotus is a New Ager. Another is a “wonderful” Hispanic lady married to a Los Alamos scientist and the final character is a recent New Yorker who misses Bloomingdales, but still has Jackalope.</p>
<p>This is a play that Bloomberg wrote in 2005, but dusted off and updated about a potential romantic matching of a liberal Democratic woman and a conservative Republican advance man for Jeb Bush.</p>
<p>“I realized I didn’t have to change anything” other than inserting some current political names, he said. “The country is even more divided than it was in ’05.”</p>
<p>The two meet on the Plaza – well, they’re thrown together by a friend of the woman who can’t even spit the complete word “Republican” out of her mouth.</p>
<p>“They’re attracted to each other, but can two people with such opposite political views develop a relationship?” Bloomberg said. “It’s funny, but it has something to say.”</p>
<p>He denies, by the way, that the plot was inspired by the marriage of James Carville, top strategist for President Bill Clinton’s campaigns, and Mary Matalin, who worked for President George H. W. Bush’s 1992 re-election.</p>
<p>“I can’t stand either one,” Bloomberg said.</p>
<p>‘Guess Who’s Coming to Santa Fe?’</p>
<p>This tells of a “couple from hell” who visit acquaintances they knew in Chicago who recently moved to Santa Fe.</p>
<p>“Everyone in the audience will identify with this,” said Bloomberg, who added that the story grew from a real-life incident that occurred to him. But he clammed up when nudged for details.</p>
<p>The couple who moved to Santa Fe are deliriously happy with their new home and dread the arrival of their visitors, whom they were happy to escape when they left the Windy City, he said. But, they figure, they can put up with them for a few days.</p>
<p>But the visitors are so enchanted by Santa Fe that they announce they, too, plan to move there. “It builds from there,” he said, with machinations undertaken by the current residents to convince the other couple that Santa Fe would be a terrible place to live.</p>
<p>You’ll have to go, though, to find out if their discouraging words force their unwelcome visitors to flee.</p>
<p /> | Going for ‘wall-to-wall’ laughter | false | https://abqjournal.com/557902/going-for-walltowall-laughter.html | 2 |
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<p>A passenger jet flies past the FAA control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. (Cliff Owen/The Associated Press)</p>
<p>WASHINGTON – Air traffic controllers are at greater risk for fatigue, errors and accidents because they work schedules known as “rattlers” that make it likely they’ll get little or no sleep before overnight shifts, according to a government-sponsored report.</p>
<p>Three years after a series of incidents in which controllers were found to be sleeping on the job, a National Research Council report released Friday expressed astonishment that the Federal Aviation Administration still permits controllers to work schedules that cram five work shifts into four 24-hour periods.</p>
<p>The schedules are popular with controllers because at the end of the last shift they have 80 hours off before returning to work the next week. But controllers also call the shifts “rattlers” because they “turn around and bite back.”</p>
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<p>The report also expressed concern about the effectiveness of the FAA’s program to prevent its 15,000 controllers from suffering fatigue on the job, a program that has been hit with budget cuts. And the 12-member committee of academic and industry experts that wrote the report at the behest of Congress said FAA officials refused to allow them to review results of prior research the agency conducted with NASA examining how late-night work schedules affect controller performance.</p>
<p>The FAA-NASA research results “have remained in a ‘for official use only’ format” since 2009 and have not been released to the public, the report said.</p>
<p>An example of the kind of schedule that alarmed the report’s authors begins with two consecutive day shifts ending at 10 p.m. followed by two consecutive morning shifts beginning at 7 a.m. The controller gets off work at 3 p.m. after the second morning shift and returns to work at about 11 p.m. the same day for an overnight shift – the fifth and last shift of the workweek.</p>
<p>When factoring in commute times and the difficulty people have sleeping during the day when the human body’s circadian rhythms are “promoting wakefulness,” controllers are “unlikely to log a substantial amount of sleep, if any, before the final midnight shift,” the report said.</p>
<p>“From a fatigue and safety perspective, this scheduling is questionable and the committee was astonished to find that it is still allowed under current regulations,” the report said. The combination of “acute sleep loss” while working overnight hours when circadian rhythms are at their lowest ebb and people most crave sleep “increases the risk for fatigue and for associated errors and accidents,” the report said.</p>
<p>FAA officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.</p>
<p>The National Air Traffic Controllers Association defended the scheduling, citing the 2009 study that hasn’t been publicly released. The union said in a statement that NASA’s research showed that “with proper rest periods,” the rattler “actually produced less periods of fatigue risk to the overall schedule.”</p>
<p>In 2011, FAA officials and then-Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood promised reforms after a nearly a dozen incidents in which air traffic controllers were discovered sleeping on the job or didn’t respond to calls from pilots trying to land planes late at night.</p>
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<p /> | Air traffic controllers’ schedules invite fatigue, study finds | false | https://abqjournal.com/415400/study-air-traffic-controllers-schedules-invite-fatigue.html | 2 |
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<p>A Rams team seemingly headed nowhere in mid-October all but locked up a Class 5A playoff spot by knocking off visiting Cibola 17-7 on Friday night.</p>
<p>Rio Rancho (4-5 overall, 2-0 in District 1-5A) also knocked off Volcano Vista last week and will now face Cleveland in a district-title showdown in next week's regular-season finale. Who'd have figured?</p>
<p>"No one but us," Rams senior Tim Foley said with a wide smile.</p>
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<p>Foley played a huge role in Friday's victory, recovering a critical fumble, tossing a go-ahead touchdown pass to Zack Rogers and capping things with a 39-yard scoring run. On offense, Foley rushed for 98 yards, passed for 49 and had three receptions for another 12 yards.</p>
<p>"Having him in three different spots helps," Rio Rancho coach David Howes said. "It makes it hard for people to key on him."</p>
<p>Howes had even more enthusiastic praise for his defense, which stuffed the Cougars (3-6, 0-2) throughout the game. Cibola managed just 161 yards and had as many punts (seven) as it did first downs.</p>
<p>Trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Cougars took advantage of a short Rio Rancho punt and took the lead on a Mark Tapia's 19-yard TD run. But things turned around when Foley recovered a Cibola fumble at the Cougars' 7 with 4:25 left. He hit Rogers with the go-ahead, 6-yard touchdown pass two plays later.</p>
<p>– Ken Sickenger</p>
<p>ST. PIUS 28, MORIARTY 6: At Moriarty, the Sartans (5-4, 2-0 in District 5-4A) virtually clinched a district title by capitalizing on the Pintos' mistakes.</p>
<p>Moriarty (5-4, 1-1) fumbled on the second play from scrimmage, and St. Pius took over on the Pintos' 21. Four plays later, junior quarterback Trey Casaus hit Quintin Rizek in the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown strike.</p>
<p>St. Pius led 7-0 at halftime.</p>
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<p>With 8:23 left in the third quarter, St. Pius blocked a Moriarty punt, and Rizek recovered at the Pintos' 8. John Garcia scored on a 4-yard run moments later for a 14-0 lead.</p>
<p>Isaac Leon's 5-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter expanded the advantage to 21-0 and put the game away.</p>
<p>– Harold Smith</p>
<p>BERNALILLO 42, SANTA FE 14: In Santa Fe, Juan Carlos Molinar knew his number would be called; just not this many times.</p>
<p>The Bernalillo senior had a staggering 44 touches for 255 yards to lead the Spartans (4-5, 3-0 District 2-4A) over Santa Fe (4-5, 1-2) at Ivan Head Stadium. The win clinched the district title for Bernalillo for the second straight year.</p>
<p>Even with the heavy workload, Molinar wasn't complaining.</p>
<p>"The coaches called on me and I just did what I could. It was working so I rolled with it," he said. "I would do anything to help my team get close to winning another district title."</p>
<p>When asked how he felt after carrying the ball on nearly every Spartan play, Molinar smiled.</p>
<p>"I feel great – I could go another few quarters," he said with a wink.</p>
<p>The Spartans scored on each of their first two drives and never trailed. The Demons made things interesting with a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Jordan Booth-Homer to start of the second half, closing the gap to 14-7, but with Molinar scoring a touchdown in the third quarter and three in the fourth, the game was never seriously in doubt.</p>
<p>"We made a couple little mistakes tonight – like that kickoff return – but we played great," Bernalillo coach Ken Noel said. "We completely dominated the line of scrimmage. We never once told the kids we needed to win by this much or that much to become district champs. We just told them we had to win."</p>
<p>– Vince Kong</p>
<p>VALLEY 49, RIO GRANDE 14: At Milne Stadium, quarterback Jerry Goodyear threw four touchdown passes to lead the Vikings to a District 5-5A victory.</p>
<p>One of those TD passes went to Mario Flores, back in the lineup after missing about a month with a shoulder injury. Flores also intercepted two passes.</p>
<p>The Vikings are 3-6 overall and 2-1 in 5-5A. The Ravens are 1-8 and 0-3.</p> | Surging Rio Rancho Controls Fading Cibola | false | https://abqjournal.com/1543/surging-rio-rancho-controls-fading-cibola.html | 2 |
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<p>By Vicki Brown</p>
<p>“The church building is not a monument. It’s an instrument for God,” Timothy Williams, pastor of Bethsaida Missionary Baptist Church in Mexia, Texas,&#160;believes.</p>
<p>His wife, Cheryl, director of apartment ministries for Buckner International, is praying her church and others will use that instrument to help grandparents called upon to take responsibility for their grandchildren either full- or part-time.&#160;</p>
<p>Taking on parenting duties — sometimes after years of living in an empty nest — and giving up their own plans can take a toll.</p>
<p>While many participate in senior adult activities and programs their churches offer, they still have needs most congregations aren’t yet meeting.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, the church in America has been very slow to recognize the importance of grandparents in the lives of children—and even slower to acknowledge the growing issue of grandparents raising grandchildren,” said Cavin T. Harper, executive director of the <a href="http://www.christiangrandparenting.net/" type="external">Christian Grandparenting Network</a>.</p>
<p>Harper, author of <a href="http://www.christiangrandparenting.net/bookstore/product/24-not-on-our-watch" type="external">Not on Our Watch</a>, started the network to help churches understand that role and to provide some resources to grandparents.</p>
<p>Sandy Abernathy, a retired licensed assisted-living/Alzheimer’s administrator in Tennessee, also sees that while churches offer ministries for mature adults, few target grandparenting issues. She believes the help some grandparents get most often comes from their peers.</p>
<p>Cultures with strong family ties seem to better understand the need. “Our rural, black and Hispanic sister churches may have been quicker in addressing these issues … because historically families within these churches may have held to a stronger maternal home-lead tradition and/or greater ties to grandparent involvement within the immediate family unit,” she said.</p>
<p>What needs can churches help meet?</p>
<p>• Provide a support group.&#160;</p>
<p>Cheryl Williams points to emotional needs as a place to start. Emotional and financial issues are the primary concerns caregiving grandparents face, she explained.</p>
<p>&#160;“They have already raised children and now they’re starting over,” she said. Parenting “looks very different now because of the different struggles children face.”</p>
<p>Some adults feel guilty that their adult children are unable, or sometimes unwilling, to care for their family. A support group provides a safe haven in which to express guilt or even anger over the situation.&#160;</p>
<p>• Provide an after-school program for the children, which will help them and give their caregivers a break.</p>
<p>• Enlist members to mentor children, to show them that other adults do care for them. Enlist grandparents with similar experiences to mentor those who are just beginning the journey.</p>
<p>• Provide helpers to go with grandparents to meet with teachers and social workers or to secure assistance.&#160;</p>
<p>“It makes a difference in the way in which people deal with them,” Williams said. Often grandparents will not completely understand teachers’ explanations, and sometimes officials and agency heads will talk down to older adults.</p>
<p>• Help grandparents become immersed in the church’s “culture,” Abernathy advised.&#160;</p>
<p>“The church can offer the expanded world of loving support through all its programs.” Encourage grandparents to get their grandchildren plugged into activities — giving them opportunities to grow and providing the adults some respite.</p>
<p>• Discover ways to provide financial assistance. Many congregations provide school supplies. But churches also can help grandparents network with one another to swap or exchange services. Congregations can provide presents at Christmas or for birthdays, and offer childcare. A clothes closet or a swap day to exchange school uniforms might be needed.&#160;</p>
<p>“Many seniors are on fixed incomes. Taking care of their grandchildren requires additional expense a grandparent wasn’t prepared for,” Williams said.</p>
<p>• Deal with issues. Offer seminars on cultural changes, educational needs and changes in parenting approaches. Self-care is also an important issue, Williams and Abernathy agreed. Churches can provide exercise groups and workshops on emotional and spiritual wellbeing.</p> | Churches can help grandparents | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/churches-can-help-grandparents/ | 3 |
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<p>First lady Melania Trump has said little about what she intends to do with her prominent position. But in new court documents, her lawyers say that the "multi-year term" during which she "is one of the most photographed women in the world" could mean millions of dollars for her personal brand.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>While the new documents don't specifically mention her term as first lady, the unusual statement about her expected profits drew swift condemnation from ethics watchdogs as inappropriate profiteering from her high-profile position, which is typically centered on public service.</p>
<p>The statement came Monday in a libel lawsuit the first lady re-filed in a state trial court in Manhattan. Trump has been suing the corporation that publishes the Daily Mail's website over a now-retracted report that claimed she once worked as an escort. In the filing Monday, Trump's lawyers argued that the report was not only false and libelous, but also damaged her ability to profit off her high profile and affected her business opportunities.</p>
<p>Trump "had the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as an extremely famous and well-known person, as well as a former professional model, brand spokesperson and successful businesswoman, to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world," the lawsuit said.</p>
<p>The products could have included apparel, accessories, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care and fragrance, among others, the suit says. The first lady is seeking compensatory and punitive damages of at least $150 million.</p>
<p>Richard Painter, who advised former President George W. Bush on ethics, said the language in the lawsuit shows Melania Trump is engaging "in an unprecedented, clear breach of rules about using her government position for private gain. This is a very serious situation where she says she intends to make a lot of money. That ought to be repudiated by the White House or investigated by Congress."</p>
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<p>Painter is part of a group of attorneys suing the president for an alleged violation of a constitutional clause that prohibits presidents from receiving foreign gifts or payments.</p>
<p>In response to questions from The Associated Press, Charles Harder, Melania Trump's attorney, said "the first lady has no intention of using her position for profit and will not do so. It is not a possibility. Any statements to the contrary are being misinterpreted."</p>
<p>Harder did not respond to a follow-up question about what the lawsuit means by "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."</p>
<p>To Painter and others, there is no ambiguity.</p>
<p>"She's not talking about the future," Painter said. "She's talking about earning money now."</p>
<p>Scott Amey, general counsel of the Washington watchdog Project on Government Oversight, said it is "another example of the first family blurring the line between public service and private business interests."</p>
<p>Trump previously filed the lawsuit against Mail Media Inc. in Maryland, but a judge earlier this month ruled the case was filed in the wrong court. The lawsuit is now filed in New York, where the corporation has offices.</p>
<p>Trump also had sued blogger Webster Tarpley for reporting the unsubstantiated rumors. Trump filed the lawsuit in Maryland after both Tarpley and the Daily Mail issued retractions.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Melania Trump's attorneys said they'd settled the Maryland case against Tarpley.</p>
<p>"Mr. Tarpley has issued the attached retraction and apology to Mrs. Trump and her family, and agreed to pay her a substantial sum as a settlement," Harder's office said in a statement.</p>
<p>Melania Trump's previous work in marketing has drawn scrutiny before.</p>
<p>On Inauguration Day, the official White House biography for Melania Trump originally included an explicit reference to her jewelry collection, which it noted was sold on the home-shopping channel QVC. By the next day, that bio had been edited and simplified to say that she had "launched her own jewelry collection."</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for the first lady said the website was updated out of "an abundance of caution" and that the jewelry line is no longer available in any case.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump continues to financially benefit from his global business empire, breaking from past practice. Previous presidents and their families have divested from business interests and placed their holdings in a blind trust, although there is no legal requirement to do so.</p>
<p>Trump handed daily management of the real estate, property management and licensing to his adult sons and a longtime Trump Organization employee.</p> | Melania Trump says White House could mean millions for brand | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/07/melania-trump-says-white-house-could-mean-millions-for-brand.html | 2017-02-07 | 0 |
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<p>Shutterstock</p>
<p>This post originally ran on <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/138166804500" type="external">Robert Reich’s website</a>.</p>
<p>The Democratic contest has repeatedly been characterized as a choice between Hillary Clinton’s “pragmatism” and Bernie Sanders’s “idealism” – with the not-so-subtle message that realists choose pragmatism over idealism.</p>
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<p>But this way of framing the choice ignores the biggest reality of all: the unprecedented, and increasing, concentration of income, wealth and power at the very top, combined with declining real incomes for most and persistent poverty for the bottom fifth.</p>
<p>The real choice isn’t “pragmatism” or “idealism.” It’s either allowing these trends to worsen, or reversing them. Inequality has reached levels last seen in the era of the “robber barons” in the 1890s. The only truly pragmatic way of reversing this state of affairs is through a “political revolution” that mobilizes millions of Americans.</p>
<p>Is such a mobilization possible? One pundit recently warned Democrats that change happens incrementally, by accepting half loaves as being better than none. That may be true, but the full loaf has to be large and bold enough in the first place to make the half loaf meaningful. And not even a half loaf is possible unless or until America wrests back power from the executives of large corporations, Wall Street bankers and billionaires who now control the bakery.</p>
<p>I’ve been in and around Washington for almost 50 years, including a stint in the cabinet, and I’ve learned that real change happens only when a substantial share of the American public is mobilized, organized, energized and determined to make it happen. That’s more the case now than ever.</p>
<p>The other day Bill Clinton attacked Sanders’s proposal for a single-payer health plan as unfeasible and a “recipe for gridlock.” But these days, nothing of any significance is politically feasible and every bold idea is a recipe for gridlock. This election is about changing the parameters of what’s feasible and ending the choke hold of big money on our political system. In other words, it’s about power – whether the very wealthy who now have it will keep it, or whether average Americans will get some as well.</p>
<p>How badly is political power concentrated in America among the very wealthy? A study published in the fall of 2014 by two of America’s most respected political scientists, Princeton professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern’s Benjamin Page, suggests it’s extremely concentrated.</p>
<p>Gilens and Page undertook a detailed analysis of 1,799 policy issues, seeking to determine the relative influence on them of economic elites, business groups, mass-based interest groups and average citizens. Their conclusion was dramatic: “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically nonsignificant impact upon public policy.” Instead, Gilens and Page found that lawmakers respond almost exclusively to the moneyed interests – those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.</p>
<p>I find it particularly sobering that Gilens and Page’s data came from the period 1981 to 2002. That was before the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United opinion, which opened the floodgates to big money in politics, and before the explosion of Super Pacs and secretive “dark money” whose sources do not have to be disclosed by campaigns. It stands to reason that if average Americans had a “near-zero” impact on public policy then, the influence of average Americans is now zero.</p>
<p>Most Americans don’t need a detailed empirical study to convince them of this. They feel disenfranchised, and angry toward a political-economic system that seems rigged against them. This was confirmed for me a few months ago when I was on book tour in America’s heartland, and kept hearing from people who said they were trying to make up their minds in the upcoming election between supporting Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.</p>
<p>At first I was incredulous. After all, Sanders and Trump are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. It was only after several discussions that I began to understand the connection. Most of these people said they were incensed by “crony capitalism,” by which they meant political payoffs by big corporations and Wall Street banks that result in special favors such as the Wall Street bailout of 2008.</p>
<p>They wanted to close tax loopholes for the rich, such as the special “carried interest” tax break for hedge-fund and private-equity partners. They wanted to reduce the market power of pharmaceutical companies and big health insurers, which they thought resulted in exorbitant prices. They were angry about trade treaties that they characterized as selling-out American workers while rewarding corporate executives and big investors.</p>
<p>Somewhere in all this I came to see what’s fueling the passions of voters in the 2016 election. If you happen to be one of the tens of millions of Americans who are working harder than ever but getting nowhere, and you feel the system is rigged against you and in favor of the rich and powerful, you will go in one of two directions.</p>
<p>Either you will be attracted to an authoritarian bigot who promises to make America great again by keeping out people different from you and recreating high-paying jobs in America. Someone who sounds like he won’t let anything or anybody stand in his way, and who’s so rich he can’t be bought off.</p>
<p>Or you’ll be attracted to a political activist who tells it like it is, who has lived by his convictions for 50 years, who won’t take a dime of money from big corporations or Wall Street or the very rich, and who is leading a grass-roots “political revolution” to regain control over our democracy and economy. In other words, you will be enticed either by a would-be dictator who promises to bring power back to the people, or by a movement leader who asks you to join together with others to bring power back to the people.</p>
<p>Of the two, I would prefer the latter. But what about the “pragmatic” Hillary Clinton? I have worked closely with her and have nothing but respect for her. In my view, she’s clearly the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have.</p>
<p>But the political system we now have is profoundly broken. Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have because he’s leading a political movement for change.</p> | This Is the Most Pragmatic Way to Fix American Democracy | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/this-is-the-most-pragmatic-way-to-fix-american-democracy/ | 2016-01-28 | 4 |
<p>A controversial ban preventing a nine-year-old girl from photographing her school meals has been lifted following a storm of protest on the internet. Martha Payne, from Argyll in Scotland, has now recorded more than three million hits on her NeverSeconds blog.</p>
<p>Argyll and Bute Council said press coverage of the blog had led catering staff to fear for their jobs but council leader Roddy McCuish later told the BBC he had instructed senior officials to lift the ban immediately.</p>
<p>Martha began publishing photographs of her Lochgilphead Primary School lunches on 30 April.</p> | Photo Ban For Nine-Year-Old School Lunch Blogger Lifted | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-06-15/photo-ban-nine-year-old-school-lunch-blogger-lifted | 2012-06-15 | 3 |
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<p>WEST CHESTER, Pa. – An Albuquerque hot-air balloon pilot killed during a landing mishap near Philadelphia died of an accidental neck injury.</p>
<p>That’s the conclusion of an autopsy on Jeff Hooten, 47. The findings were released Tuesday by the Chester County coroner’s office.</p>
<p>Police say Hooten fell out of the basket Sunday while reaching to grab a rope to deflate the balloon. They say he was dragged after becoming stuck between the basket and the ground.</p>
<p>Preliminary information from the Federal Aviation Administration indicates Hooten might have fallen out when the balloon bounced after a hard landing.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the U.S. Hot Air Balloon Team, which operates the balloon, did not immediately return a request for comment.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Hot-air balloon pilot died of neck injury | false | https://abqjournal.com/417022/hot-air-balloon-pilot-died-of-neck-injury.html | 2014-06-18 | 2 |
<p>Political polarization between Republicans and Democrats on “fundamental political issues [such as] government, race, immigration, national security [and] environmental protection” have “reached record levels,” according to a <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/the-partisan-divide-on-political-values-grows-even-wider/" type="external">Pew Research Center (PRC) study</a> published on October 5.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/section-1-growing-ideological-consistency/" type="external">Record levels</a> of political divisions across partisan lines were recorded during Barack Obama’s presidency, expanding further during Donald Trump’s presidency.</p>
<p>Differences between political viewpoints across partisan lines are greater than they are across lines of “gender, race and ethnicity, religious observance or education,” concludes PRC.</p>
<p>PRC’s phrasing of its polling statements — to which poll respondents indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement — embedded left-wing axioms; “Government should do more to help the needy,” “Racial discrimination is the main reason why black people can’t get ahead these days,” and “immigrants strengthen the country with their hard work and talents.”</p>
<p>View graphs below depicting widening partisan gulfs on political issues below.</p>
<p>Over the past six years, Democrats have moved left and Republicans have moved right in their views toward “government aid to the needy”:</p>
<p>While there has been a consistent party gap since 1994 on government aid to the poor, the divisions have never been this large. In 2011, about twice as many Democrats as Republicans said the government should do more for the needy (54% vs. 25%). Today, nearly three times as many Democrats as Republicans say this (71% vs. 24%).</p>
<p>PRC notes growing partisan division regarding alleged racial discrimination against blacks:</p>
<p>When the racial discrimination question was first asked in 1994, the partisan difference was 13 points. By 2009, it was only somewhat larger (19 points). But today, the gap in opinions between Republicans and Democrats about racial discrimination and black advancement has increased to 50 points.</p>
<p>PRC notes a growing partisan divide on views of immigrants:</p>
<p>There has been a major shift in Democrats’ opinions about immigrants. The share of Democrats who say immigrants strengthen the country has increased from 32% in 1994 to 84% today. By contrast, Republicans are divided in attitudes about immigrants: 42% say they strengthen the country, while 44% view them as a burden. In 1994, 30% of Republicans said immigrants strengthened the country, while 64% said they were a burden.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Pew Research: Record-Level Partisan Gaps Over 'Fundamental Political Issues' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/22341/pew-research-record-level-partisan-gaps-over-robert-kraychik | 2017-10-16 | 0 |
<p>NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (UPI) — U.S. President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a>‘s refusal to certify the Iran deal could further erode relations with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/North_Korea/" type="external">North Korea</a> at a time of high tensions on the peninsula, a former U.S. State Department official said Saturday.</p>
<p>Speaking at The New Yorker Festival, Wendy Sherman, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs in the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Barack_Obama/" type="external">Obama</a> administration, said if Trump decides to not certify the deal and “kick it over to Congress,” the measure could have a negative impact.</p>
<p>“Decertification will have an effect on the trust deficit,” Sherman said. “There are eight reports Iran has complied with the deal [to roll back its nuclear program], and it’s a multilateral agreement.”</p>
<p>“Why, then, would North Korea talk with us?”</p>
<p>Sherman was speaking on a panel, featuring North Korea analysts and a journalist, each who have had extensive contact with the regime through negotiations or travel to the country.</p>
<p>All panelists, including <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/James_Clapper/" type="external">James Clapper</a>, the former director of national intelligence, agreed escalating tensions between North Korea and the United States are a source of worry.</p>
<p>“Whether or not North Korea’s nuclear-tipped missile technology works or not, it doesn’t matter,” Clapper said. “They have achieved deterrence.”</p>
<p>Clapper said he, like other analysts, is not worried <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kim_Jong_Un/" type="external">Kim Jong Un</a> would use his nuclear capability to attack the United States.</p>
<p>“What does worry me though is the rhetoric getting out of hand, a conflict at the demilitarized zone,” that divides North and South Korea, Clapper said.</p>
<p>The former head of intelligence also suggested North Korea’s provocations are a form of propaganda.</p>
<p>“They know that without the image, the perception of that capability, nobody would pay attention to them.”</p>
<p>Sherman agreed image, or visibility, is a priority for Kim.</p>
<p>“My sense of Kim Jong Un, who I have not met, because he is young and has less visible experience, less training than his father did, he has to publicly show his brutality even more,” the former U.S. State Department official said.</p>
<p>Sherman was comparing the current leader to his father <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kim_Jong_Il/" type="external">Kim Jong Il</a>, who she met while serving as policy coordinator for North Korea under the Clinton administration.</p>
<p>“Kim Jong Il was transactional. He was ready to do a deal,” Sherman said, adding North Korea’s policies are being formulated for regime survival.</p>
<p>South Korea-based political analyst <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Robert_Kelly/" type="external">Robert Kelly</a> said there is concern of a “spiral, a miscalculation,” owing to a new dynamic of escalating rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang.</p>
<p>“If the president would get off Twitter, that would help a great deal,” Kelly said. “The incendiary rhetoric. I don’t know anyone in the analyst community who thinks this is helping.”</p>
<p>Clapper said Trump’s rhetoric is unhelpful, but credited administration officials, including Secretary of Defense <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/James_Mattis/" type="external">James Mattis</a>, State Secretary <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Rex_Tillerson/" type="external">Rex Tillerson</a>, and National Security Advisor <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/HR-McMaster/" type="external">H.R. McMaster</a>, for handling the crisis.</p>
<p>The president “does have a very sound group of advisors,” Clapper said. “I’m not sure Kim Jong Un has that around him…other than medal-bedecked generals dutifully writing down what the leader says.”</p>
<p>But the former national intelligence chief also said he doesn’t think Kim Jong Un is crazy.</p>
<p>“North Koreans are very rational,” Clapper said. “Whatever you want to say about the North Koreans, they’re consistent. I do think they understand the implications of dropping a missile on Guam. If they do something kinetic, they understand what the implications are.”</p>
<p>Clapper also said an interest section or a kind of permanent presence in Pyongyang could serve a purpose to prevent tragedies like the death of Otto Warmbier.</p>
<p>The former U.S. official, unlike proponents of isolating Pyongyang, said there might be government bureaucrats in North Korea who are open to change.</p>
<p>Clapper, who visited Pyongyang on a mission to free U.S. detainees in 2014, said in an informal conversation at least one official expressed a different sentiment than the bellicose rhetoric of North Korea propaganda.</p>
<p>“As I was leaving the official told me, ‘I’ve been to Seoul and I’ve seen what’s there. I hope one day we will reunify’,” Clapper said.</p> | Ex-U.S. official: Trump's position on Iran could hurt North Korea efforts | false | https://newsline.com/ex-u-s-official-trumps-position-on-iran-could-hurt-north-korea-efforts/ | 2017-10-07 | 1 |
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<p>Christians wanting to pray in the church of St. Anthony in Italy were told that they cannot pray loudly, that they must pray in silence so as not to <a href="" type="internal">offend the Muslims</a> living in the parish. According to <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/06/parishioners-told-pray-silence-migrants/" type="external">one report:</a></p>
<p>Parishioners visiting a church in Italy were told they must “pray in silence” so as not to disturb African migrants being housed there.</p>
<p>Some of the faithful hoping to practice their Christianity at the church of St. Anthony in Ventimiglia were surprised when they were told by Caritas volunteers they couldn’t recite the rosary and would instead have to pray in silence out of respect to migrants who are living there.</p>
<p>Caritas is ostensibly a Catholic charity, although much of its resources are spent on facilitating mass migration to Europe; the organisation even boasts that it contributes to and seeks to influence European Union (EU) “asylum” policies. Caritas reports that they have been distributing 600 meals a day to migrants in Ventimiglia.</p>
<p>After one of the female parishioners requested that the migrants be taken to another church so that she could recite the rosary, the parish priest, Don Rito, appeared and accompanied her and the other visitors to another church.</p>
<p>The Northern Italian town of 55,000 people has recently been overwhelmed with hundreds of migrants. More than 50 Africans have been crossing into Ventimiglia every day, hoping that from there they will be able to enter France. The town’s mayor, Enrico Ioculano, has said that this is “an untenable situation.”</p>
<p>Mr. Ioculano has admitted that Ventimiglia is struggling to meet the costs of the migrant influx. It was discovered that the national government will pay for less than half the town’s €220,000 bill — for unaccompanied migrants alone — accrued in the first five months of this year. Dozens of migrants in the area have also had to be vaccinated in recent days due to an outbreak of chickenpox amongst the migrant guests of St Anthony’s Church.</p>
<p>It seems that Catholics are being tyrannized by their own government in favor of Muslim heretics.</p>
<p>A rally of conservative Christians in Rome was attacked by both Muslims and Italian police. The Muslims spat at the Christians, and began to scream, “Death to the Pope [Francis]!” And they also held signs that said, “A good Christian is a <a href="" type="internal">beheaded Christian</a>!” The police then forced the Christians out and yelled, “Disperse!” The Christians had no choice but to end the rally, while the Muslims continued their rally.</p>
<p>To describe to us this persecution, Shoebat.com interviewed a member of the rally, Tommy Pacinotti, a Christian activist and a Ph.D. scholar in medieval history. Here is the video:</p>
<p />
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/catholic-church-in-italy-tells-christians-do-not-pray-to-jesus-loudly-because-it-will-offend-the-muslims/" type="external">Freedom Outpost</a></p>
<p>Theodore Shoebat is the Communications Director for <a href="http://rescuechristians.org/" type="external">Rescue Christians</a>, an organization that is on the ground in Muslim lands, rescuing Christians from persecution. He is the author of two book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982567901/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0982567901&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=freedomoutpos-20" type="external">For God or For Tyranny</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977102157/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0977102157&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=freedomoutpos-20" type="external">In Satan’s Footsteps: The Source and Interconnections of all Evil</a> , he also has a DVD series called “Christian Militancy,” which is on Christian warfare and our fight against evil and tyranny.</p>
<p>Article reposted with permission from <a href="http://shoebat.com/2016/06/08/catholic-church-in-italy-tells-christians-do-not-pray-to-jesus-loudly-because-it-will-offend-the-muslims/" type="external">Shoebat.com</a></p>
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<p /> | Catholic Church In Italy Tells Christians: Do Not Pray To Jesus Loudly Because It Will Offend The Muslims | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2016/06/10/catholic-church-in-italy-tells-christians-do-not-pray-to-jesus-loudly-because-it-will-offend-the-muslims/ | 0 |
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<p>Twentieth Century Fox Television filed the lawsuit Monday in Los Angeles seeking a judge’s order that the network can continue to use the title “Empire” for its series starring Oscar nominee Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson.</p>
<p>The lawsuit states the San Francisco-based record label Empire Distribution Inc., has sent letters demanding as much as $8 million from Fox. Empire Distribution claims the show’s title is creating confusion with its artists and the network should either pay or change the show’s title.</p>
<p>“It isn’t just a fictional show,” Empire Distribution CEO Ghazi Shami wrote in a statement released Tuesday. “They are functioning as a record label in the real world.”</p>
<p>The lawsuit states Empire Distribution has a pending trademark application for use of the word, but that an initial filing was rejected. The trademark application was filed after the showed premiered in January, the lawsuit states.</p>
<p>“Empire” has become a hit for Fox, with its ratings rising each week and nearly 17 million viewers tuning in for the show’s recent Season One finale. The show is about drama within a music and entertainment company run by Howard’s fictional character, Lucious Lyon.</p>
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<p>Music from the show has also been turned into chart-topping album.</p>
<p>The violent tendencies and homophobia of Lyon’s character threaten to tarnish Empire Distribution’s business, Empire Distribution’s attorney Michael Hobbs Jr., wrote in a Feb. 16 letter.</p>
<p>Empire Distribution’s “conduct threatens to place a cloud over Fox’s intellectual property rights in the fictional television series ‘Empire’ and the Soundtrack Music,” Fox’s lawsuit states.</p>
<p>“We are confident that this is a textbook trademark infringement case,” Hobbs wrote in a statement Tuesday.</p>
<p>The lawsuit was first reported on Tuesday by The Hollywood Reporter.</p> | Fox sues record label in dispute over ‘Empire’ title | false | https://abqjournal.com/559699/fox-sues-record-label-in-dispute-over-empire-title.html | 2 |
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<p>Even if you don't live in Alberta, the NDP's outrageous new $3 billion a year carbon tax will effect you, too.</p>
<p />
<p>Tonight I'm officially unveiling our new campaign, <a href="http://www.stopthecarbontax.com" type="external">StopTheCarbonTax.com</a>.</p>
<p>It's more than just a petition -- we're rolling out lawn signs, asking for volunteers and a lot more.</p>
<p>So please watch and see how you can help. We HAVE to stop this attack on Canada's oil and gas industry -- because that's exactly what it is.</p>
<p>Our friend <a href="" type="internal">Paige MacPherson</a> is my guest, explaining the role the Canadian Taxpayers Federation will play in the fight to <a href="http://www.stopthecarbontax.com" type="external">stop this Alberta NDP tax grab.</a></p>
<p>I promised we'd start talking about rebuilding the Canadian conservative movement, as part of our <a href="http://www.RebuildTheRight.ca" type="external">RebuildTheRight.ca</a>conversation. My guest to talk about the future of the party is Alberta Conservative MP Garnett Genuis.</p>
<p>And of course, I'll read some of our viewer mail, good and bad! I want to hear from you too -- please tell us what you think in our comments or via email, Twitter or Facebook.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.TheRebel.media/join" type="external">JOIN TheRebel.media FREE</a> for more fearless news and commentary you won’t find anywhere else. <a href="https://the-rebel-store.myshopify.com/collections/the-peoples-republic-of-alberta" type="external">"The People's Republic of Alberta":</a>Tell Notley and her NDP how you feel with this t-shirt and hat designONLY from TheRebel.media store</p> | NEW: StopTheCarbonTax.com PLUS the future of the Conservative Party and more | true | http://therebel.media/launch_of_stopthecarbontax_com_plus | 2015-11-23 | 0 |
<p>MOSCOW — A Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria on Monday killing all five people on board, officials told state-run media.</p>
<p>President Vladimir Putin's spokesman told reporters the Mi-8 chopper had just delivered humanitarian aid to the besieged city of Aleppo when it was downed in Syria's Idlib province.</p>
<p>Dmitri Peskov said the crew "died a heroic death, because they tried to steer the aircraft away to minimize casualties on the ground," the state-run TASS news agency reported.</p>
<p>The Russian Ministry of Defense said earlier Monday that the helicopter was shot down by ground fire while it was returning to Russia's Hmeymim airbase in Syria's Latakia province.</p>
<p>Video posted on social media showed the burning wreckage of a helicopter in an open area. The footage, which NBC News was unable to immediately verify, showed several bodies alongside the mangled aircraft.</p>
<p>Eliot Higgins, a visiting research associate at the <a href="http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/warstudies/index.aspx" type="external">Department of War Studies at King's College London</a>, noted that the videos and photos appeared to show an empty rocket pod lying next to the wreckage.</p>
<p>Higgins said on Twitter that the onus would be on Russia to prove that the chopper was in fact delivering humanitarian aid.</p>
<p>In September, Russia began launching airstrikes to support the Syrian regime, which is locked in a years-long civil war against a complex patchwork of rebel groups.</p>
<p>Just last week the United States <a href="" type="internal">said it was "deeply concerned"</a>at Russia's plan of a "large-scale humanitarian operation" in Aleppo, where more than 300,000 people remain trapped by fighting.</p>
<p>State Department spokesman John Kirby said Moscow's announcement of corridors for civilians and fighters to leave the city "appears to be a demand for the surrender of opposition groups and the evacuation of Syrian civilians."</p>
<p /> | Russian Military Helicopter Shot Down in Syria; 5 Killed | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-military-helicopter-shot-down-syria-5-killed-n620731 | 2016-08-01 | 3 |
<p />
<p>It is obvious to anyone who has traveled around the United States that cultural assumptions, behaviors, and norms vary widely. We all know, for instance, that the South is more politically conservative than the Northeast. And we at least vaguely assume that this is rooted in different outlooks on life.</p>
<p>But why do these different outlooks exist, and correspond so closely to different regions? In a <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/05/15/1317937111.full.pdf" type="external">paper</a> recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (and discussed more <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tightness-and-looseness-a-new-way-to-understand-differences-across-the-50-united-states/" type="external">here</a>), psychologists Jesse R. Harrington and Michele J. Gelfand of the University of Maryland propose a sweeping theory to explain this phenomenon. Call it the theory of “tightness-looseness”: The researchers show, through analysis of anything from numbers of police per capita to the availability of booze, that some US states are far more “tight”—meaning that they “have many strongly enforced rules and little tolerance for deviance.” Others, meanwhile, are more “loose,” meaning that they “have few strongly enforced rules and greater tolerance for deviance.”</p>
<p>The 10 tightest states? Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The 10 loosest, meanwhile, are California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Vermont. (Notice a pattern here?)</p>
<p>Harrington and Gelfand measure a state’s tightness or looseness based on indicators such as the legality of corporal punishment in schools, the general severity of legal sentences, access to alcohol and availability of civil unions, level of religiosity, and the percent of the population that is foreign. But really, that’s just the beginning of their analysis. After identifying which states are “tighter” and which are more “loose,” the researchers then trace these different outlooks to a range of ecological or historical factors in the states’ pasts (and in many cases, lingering into their presents). For as the authors write, tighter societies generally have had to deal with “a greater number of ecological and historical threats, including fewer natural resources, more natural disasters, a greater incidence of territorial threat, higher population density, and greater pathogen prevalence.”</p>
<p>That applies nicely to the United States. The “tight” states, it turns out, have higher death rates from heat, storms, floods, and lightning. (Not to mention tornadoes.) They also have higher rates of death from influenza and pneumonia, and higher rates of HIV and a number of other diseases. They have higher child and infant mortality. And then there’s external threat: The South, in the Civil War, was defending its own terrain and its own way of life. Indeed, the researchers show a very strong correlation between the percentage of slave-owning families that a state had in the year 1860, and its “tightness” measurement today.</p>
<p>It makes psychological sense, of course, that regions facing more threats would be much more inward-looking and tougher on deviants, because basically, they had to buckle down. They didn’t have the luxury of flowery art, creativity, and substance abuse.</p>
<p>Still not done, Harrington and Gelfand also show that their index of states “tightness” and “looseness” maps nicely on to <a href="" type="internal">prior analyses</a> of the differing personalities of people living in different US states. Citizens of “tight” states tend to be more “conscientious,” prizing order and structure in their lives. Citizens of “loose” states tend to be more “open,” wanting to try new things and have new experiences.</p>
<p>Other major distinguishing factors between “tight” and “loose” states:</p>
<p>In sum: It’s a very interesting theory, and one with quite a scope. Or as the authors put it: “tightness-looseness can account for the divergence of substance abuse and discrimination rates between states such as Hawaii and Ohio, reliably predicts the psychological differences…between Colorado and Alabama, helps to explain the contrasts in creativity and social organization between Vermont and North Dakota, and provides some understanding concerning the dissimilarity in insularity and resistance toward immigration between Arizona and New York.”</p>
<p>In these days of extreme political dysfunction, America itself is in increasing need of an explanation. Now, maybe, we have one.</p>
<p /> | Forget Red State, Blue State: Is Your State “Tight” or “Loose”? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/us-states-tightness-looseness-map/ | 2014-07-07 | 4 |
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<p>With the storm barreling toward the tip of Florida for perhaps a catastrophic blow this weekend, normally quick trips turned into daylong journeys on crowded highways amid a constant search for gasoline and lodging. Airline seats out of Florida were in short supply as well.</p>
<p>Mari and Neal Michaud loaded their two children and dog into their small sport-utility vehicle and left their home near Cocoa Beach about 10 a.m., bound for an impromptu vacation in Washington, D.C. Using a phone app and calls to search for fuel along the way, they finally arrived at a convenience store that had gasoline nearly five hours later.</p>
<p>The 60-mile trip up Interstate 95 should have taken an hour, Mari Michaud said.</p>
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<p>“There was no gas and it’s gridlock. People are stranded on the sides of the highway,” she said. “It’s 92 degrees out and little kids are out on the grass on the side of the road. No one can help them.”</p>
<p>Late Thursday, the National Hurricane Center issued the first hurricane warning for the Keys and parts of South Florida, including some of the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people. It added a storm surge warning and extended watch areas along the east and west coasts.</p>
<p>As people along the Atlantic Coast anxiously watched the behemoth, Irma battered the northern Caribbean, killing at least 11 people and leaving thousands homeless after destroying buildings and uprooting trees.</p>
<p>At least 31,000 people fled the Florida Keys, which could begin seeing wind and rain from Irma as early as Friday night, Gov. Rick Scott said. He noted the size of the powerful Category 5 storm, and told residents not to become complacent.</p>
<p>“It is wider than our entire state and could cause major and life-threatening impacts from coast to coast. Regardless of which coast you live on, be prepared to evacuate,” Scott said.</p>
<p>Scott ordered all schools and state offices to close Friday through Monday. Florida State and the University of Florida canceled their home football games scheduled for Saturday.</p>
<p>NASA secured Kennedy Space Center and SpaceX launched an unmanned rocket for an experimental flight. Kennedy closed its doors to all nonessential staff and a crew of about 120 people will ride out the storm on site.</p>
<p>Most of the critical buildings at Kennedy are designed to withstand gusts of up to 135 mph (220 kph). Irma’s wind could exceed that if it reaches Cape Canaveral.</p>
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<p>With winds that peaked at 185 mph (300 kph), Irma was the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic.</p>
<p>Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal ordered evacuations for all areas east of Interstate 95, including the city of Savannah, and authorized about 5,000 National Guard members to help with response and recovery.</p>
<p>Noel Marsden said he, his girlfriend, her son and their dog left Pembroke Pines north of Miami with plans to ride out Irma in Savannah, only to find the city was also shutting down because of Irma. Marsden isn’t sure where they’ll all end up.</p>
<p>“I’ve got a buddy in Atlanta and a buddy in Charlotte. We’ll wind up one of those two places because there are not hotels, I can tell you that,” he said.</p>
<p>The last time Georgia was struck by a hurricane of force Category 3 or higher happened in 1898.</p>
<p>Irma’s eventual path and Florida’s fate depends on when and how sharp the powerful hurricane takes a right turn, National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini said.</p>
<p>“It has become more likely that Irma will make landfall in southern Florida as a dangerous major hurricane,” the Hurricane Center said in a forecast discussion Thursday afternoon.</p>
<p>The last Category 5 storm to hit Florida was Andrew in 1992. Its winds topped 165 mph (265 kph), killing 65 people and inflicting $26 billion in damage. It was at the time the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump urged people to “be careful, be safe” during Hurricane Irma. In a tweet, Trump remarked that Irma “is raging but we have great teams of talented and brave people already in place and ready to help.”</p>
<p>Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach — the unofficial Southern White House — sits in the path of the storm.</p>
<p>U.S. Air Force Reserve weather officer Maj. Jeremy DeHart flew through the eye of Irma at 10,000 feet Wednesday and through Hurricane Harvey just before it hit Texas last month.</p>
<p>He said Irma’s intensity set it apart from other storms.</p>
<p>“Spectacular is the word that keeps coming to mind. Pictures don’t do it justice. Satellite images can’t do it justice,” DeHart said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Reeves reported from Ormond Beach. Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington; Gary Fineout in Tallahassee and David Fischer in Miami contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>HURRICANE NEWSLETTER — Get the best of the AP’s all-formats reporting on Irma and Harvey in your inbox: <a href="http://apne.ws/ahYQGtb" type="external">http://apne.ws/ahYQGtb</a></p> | Traffic nightmare as 500K people told to leave South Florida | false | https://abqjournal.com/1060291/traffic-nightmare-as-500k-people-told-to-leave-south-florida.html | 2017-09-08 | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — The State Department says top U.S. diplomat Rex Tillerson has recused himself from TransCanada’s application for a presidential permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.</p>
<p>Environmental group Greenpeace has called for Tillerson, former CEO of oil giant Exxon Mobil, to take that step.</p>
<p>The pipeline, which would bring oil from Canada to the U.S., was halted by then-President Barack Obama. In one of his first decisions as president, Donald Trump invited the Keystone builder, TransCanada, to resubmit its application to construct and operate the pipeline.</p>
<p>Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday that Secretary of State Tillerson decided in early February to recuse himself from TransCanada’s application. He has not worked on it at the State Department and will “play no role in the deliberations or ultimate resolution” of the application.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Tillerson recuses himself from Keystone pipeline decision | false | https://abqjournal.com/965846/tillerson-recuses-himself-from-keystone-pipeline-decision.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>The resolution directs city staff to draw up potential amendments to city code “related to the establishment of a permitted use in certain zoning districts for urban food production and farm stands.”</p>
<p>Poki Piottin manages the Gaia Gardens land. The urban farm generated complaints by some neighbors, leading to a city inspection and citations for city code and other violations.</p>
<p>The measure also directs the city to work with local groups to develop a plan that would enable Santa Feans to sell and purchase food grown at community gardens and similar sites. Additionally, it wants to explore the potential for large-scale community gardens in areas such as a the new Southwest Activity Node Park in southwest Santa Fe.</p>
<p>Lurking on the edge of the committee’s conversation was how the resolution might relate to Gaia Gardens, a local urban farm located off the Arroyo de los Chamisos Trail that garnered attention this summer after complaints by some neighbors led to a city inspection and a raft of citations for various city code and other violations.</p>
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<p>Councilor Chris Calvert said he doesn’t have a problem with supporting local agriculture but “I don’t want to promote bad behavior.”</p>
<p>Calvert said he doesn’t want the resolution to ultimately lead to helping a “private farm” – he never named Gaia Gardens – get around current code.</p>
<p>BUSHEE: A supporter of urban agriculture</p>
<p>CALVERT: Doesn’t want to help a “private farm”</p>
<p>“I don’t want the goal of urban agriculture to be a cover for undesirable activity on certain people’s parts,” Calvert said.</p>
<p>He and others said they don’t want to rush the resolution, particularly since local food groups intend to unveil a Santa Fe food plan this fall. The Public Works Committee agreed that any amendments or changes to city code should be consistent with the new plan.</p>
<p>Katherine Mortimer, the city’s manager for Sustainable Santa Fe programs, said questions such as how community gardeners can sell their surplus product were being discussed among groups such as the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission and Santa Fe Food Policy Council before Gaia Gardens gained publicity.</p>
<p>Some of the issues involved with Gaia Gardens could potentially be resolved during the broader discussion called for by the resolution, Mortimer said.</p>
<p>Councilor Patti Bushee, who is sponsoring the resolution, told the Journal it was Gaia Gardens – notwithstanding the many layers involved in the farm’s unique situation – that got her thinking about how city code doesn’t really allow community gardener-types to sell their produce.</p>
<p>Bushee said she supports urban agriculture and believes its promotion, albeit with appropriate guidelines, would be beneficial for the Santa Fe community.</p>
<p>Councilor Rebecca Wurzburger said she’d like to put more emphasis on developing a strategic plan for locally grown produce and secondarily consider delivery methods such as vendor stands.</p> | SF drafting urban farming regulations | false | https://abqjournal.com/253175/sf-drafting-urban-farming-regulations.html | 2013-08-25 | 2 |
<p />
<p>At a time when many traditional retailers have struggled, discount chains have done well. That may be why investors punished Fred's Inc. (NASDAQ: FRED) after the company released disappointing February sales numbers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts.</a></p>
<p>Fred's, which owns and operates 643 discount general merchandise stores and three specialty pharmacy-only locations in the southeastern United States, reported on March 3 that overall sales for February dropped 3.5%, while comparable-store sales fell by 4%, after gaining 0.8% in the same month in the prior year.</p>
<p>In addition to having a rough sales month, Fred's is still in limbo when it comes to possibly buying 865 stores from Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBA) and Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) for $950 million in cash. That deal would more than double the size of the company, which essentially makes any past sales trends irrelevant.</p>
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<p>Those two pieces of news were enough tosend the company's share price steadily downward throughout March. After opening the month at $17.98, shares ended March at $13.10, a 27% drop, according to data provided by <a href="http://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Fred's would have a much larger traditional pharmacy business if its deal with Walgreens goes through. Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>CEO Michael K. Bloom blamed the down month on consumers getting their tax refunds later than they traditionally do. He also made it clear in his remarks in the company's <a href="http://www.fredsinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Final-FRED-Reports-February-Sales-Release.pdf" type="external">press release Opens a New Window.</a> on its February sales that he does not expect the negative trend to continue.</p>
<p>What's next for Fred's depends on if federal regulators decide to allow the Walgreens purchase of Rite Aid to proceed. It's possible that as a condition of that deal happening, Walgreens will have to sell off even more locations, and Fred's could be the beneficiary of that.</p>
<p>Going forward, it's hard to judge the company's prospects until you know what the chain will look like, but bad sales numbers could be a simple case of bad timing. That, of course, would suggest a big bounce-back in April, when it reports its March sales numbers.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Fred'sWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=2309fc0d-f36b-4c6e-80de-183f6b7ee547&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now...and Fred's wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=2309fc0d-f36b-4c6e-80de-183f6b7ee547&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dankline/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Kline Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Here's Why Fred's, Inc. Shares Lost 27% in March | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/04/heres-why-freds-inc-shares-lost-27-in-march.html | 2017-04-04 | 0 |
<p>A look at the upcoming week around the Atlantic Coast Conference:</p>
<p>GAME OF THE WEEKEND: Georgia Tech at No. 15 North Carolina. The Yellow Jackets' visit to Chapel Hill marks the best game on a weekend lineup bereft of matchups of Top 25 teams. Georgia Tech (10-7, 3-1) stumbled through the nonconference schedule before finding themselves, winning three of their first four ACC games and reeling off four straight wins to move into a tie for third place heading into Thursday night's home game against No. 2 Virginia. The Tar Heels (14-4, 3-2) <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/no-15-north-carolina-holds-no-20-clemson-87-79" type="external">held off Clemson</a> and have won three in a row to follow a two-game losing streak.</p>
<p>LOOKING AHEAD: Virginia is starting a stretch in which five of seven games are on the road, with one of the few home games in that stretch coming next Tuesday night when Clemson visits in the league's next matchup of Top 25 teams. The Cavaliers have the best road record in the ACC during the past six years, going 27-19 away from Charlottesville.</p>
<p>PLAYER TO WATCH: North Carolina State big man Omer Yurtseven is putting up <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/nc-state-upsets-no-19-clemson-78-77-devoes-missed-ft" type="external">some big numbers</a> . Entering Thursday night's game against Wake Forest, he's averaging 17 points and 6.3 rebounds over his last three games. He has a team-best 33 blocked shots, is second on the team with a 6.7 rebounding average and has made 11 of 17 3-pointers (64.7 percent).</p>
<p>INSIDE THE NUMBERS: One of the key advanced statistics indicates the ACC is home to some strong defenses. According to Ken Pomeroy's efficiency ratings, six of the top 14 defenses in Division I are in the ACC. Virginia, as expected, ranks No. 1 while Miami is seventh. Four ACC schools — Syracuse, North Carolina, Clemson and Louisville — hold down Nos. 11-14.</p>
<p>ON THE WOMEN'S SIDE: Second-ranked Louisville is continuing its roll through conference play. The Cardinals (19-0, 5-0) routed then-No. 2 Notre Dame by 33 points on their way to earning the highest ranking in program history. Looming large is a visit to 12th-ranked Florida State (16-2, 4-1) on Sunday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Compiled by AP Sports Writer Joedy McCreary in Raleigh, North Carolina.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</p>
<p>A look at the upcoming week around the Atlantic Coast Conference:</p>
<p>GAME OF THE WEEKEND: Georgia Tech at No. 15 North Carolina. The Yellow Jackets' visit to Chapel Hill marks the best game on a weekend lineup bereft of matchups of Top 25 teams. Georgia Tech (10-7, 3-1) stumbled through the nonconference schedule before finding themselves, winning three of their first four ACC games and reeling off four straight wins to move into a tie for third place heading into Thursday night's home game against No. 2 Virginia. The Tar Heels (14-4, 3-2) <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/no-15-north-carolina-holds-no-20-clemson-87-79" type="external">held off Clemson</a> and have won three in a row to follow a two-game losing streak.</p>
<p>LOOKING AHEAD: Virginia is starting a stretch in which five of seven games are on the road, with one of the few home games in that stretch coming next Tuesday night when Clemson visits in the league's next matchup of Top 25 teams. The Cavaliers have the best road record in the ACC during the past six years, going 27-19 away from Charlottesville.</p>
<p>PLAYER TO WATCH: North Carolina State big man Omer Yurtseven is putting up <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/nc-state-upsets-no-19-clemson-78-77-devoes-missed-ft" type="external">some big numbers</a> . Entering Thursday night's game against Wake Forest, he's averaging 17 points and 6.3 rebounds over his last three games. He has a team-best 33 blocked shots, is second on the team with a 6.7 rebounding average and has made 11 of 17 3-pointers (64.7 percent).</p>
<p>INSIDE THE NUMBERS: One of the key advanced statistics indicates the ACC is home to some strong defenses. According to Ken Pomeroy's efficiency ratings, six of the top 14 defenses in Division I are in the ACC. Virginia, as expected, ranks No. 1 while Miami is seventh. Four ACC schools — Syracuse, North Carolina, Clemson and Louisville — hold down Nos. 11-14.</p>
<p>ON THE WOMEN'S SIDE: Second-ranked Louisville is continuing its roll through conference play. The Cardinals (19-0, 5-0) routed then-No. 2 Notre Dame by 33 points on their way to earning the highest ranking in program history. Looming large is a visit to 12th-ranked Florida State (16-2, 4-1) on Sunday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Compiled by AP Sports Writer Joedy McCreary in Raleigh, North Carolina.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</p> | Georgia Tech-UNC game headlines this week in the ACC | false | https://apnews.com/amp/86fe8744f4d04f43b951c1b5c6cb1677 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>DENVER (AP) - Whether to crack down on marijuana in states where it is legal is a decision that will now rest with those states' top federal prosecutors, many of whom are deeply rooted in their communities and may be reluctant to pursue cannabis businesses or their customers.</p>
<p>When he rescinded the Justice Department's previous guidance on marijuana, Attorney General Jeff Sessions left the issue to a mix of prosecutors who were appointed by President Donald Trump's administration and others who are holdovers from the Barack Obama years.</p>
<p>Legal experts do not expect a flood of new cases, and people familiar with the job of U.S. attorney say prosecutors could decide against using already limited resources to seek criminal charges against cannabis companies that abide by state regulations or their customers.</p>
<p>"There are higher priorities: terrorism and opiates to start with," said Rory Little, a former prosecutor and a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law. "You also have to draw the jury pool from the local people, who appear to generally support the state policy. You're not going to waste your resources on cases you can't win or cases your community is against."</p>
<p>Until Sessions' announcement on Thursday, federal prosecutors followed guidelines laid out in the so-called Cole memo, which was issued by the Justice Department during the Obama administration. The memo discouraged prosecutors from going after people participating in the marijuana trade in states where recreational marijuana is legal, except in cases with aggravating factors.</p>
<p>Sessions revoked that document and others, citing the fact that pot remains illegal under federal law.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors are not elected, but they often have long histories working in their districts. They are surrounded by attorneys who have spent their careers arguing federal cases before judges who can make their displeasure with a U.S. attorney known in sentencing decisions and in the scheduling of cases. That environment will not change because of a memo from the attorney general, Little said.</p>
<p>But the change will undoubtedly create some confusion and an uneven landscape, said John Walsh, the former U.S. attorney for Colorado appointed by Obama who left the office in 2016.</p>
<p>Prosecutors in Western states wanted guidance from the Justice Department when the likelihood of state marijuana legalization became clear in 2010 and 2011. They hoped to avoid a patchwork of prosecution strategies, Walsh said.</p>
<p>"When the policy is so broad and uncertain that it's left case by case to different decision makers, it creates confusion and uncertainty that can be unjust," Walsh said.</p>
<p>The author of the Obama administration's policy, James Cole, told the AP it was intended to put states on notice that they had to regulate the industry and the federal government would still prosecute cases that threatened public safety. The goal, he said, was to encourage a tightly regulated industry letting legitimate businesses operate but keeping cartels and gangs out.</p>
<p>"I couldn't immunize people through the policy, but it did give them a level of comfort that was enough for them to say, if I behave, we're basically going to be OK," Cole said.</p>
<p>The change, he said, removes "clarity and consistency" for an industry that depended on it.</p>
<p>U.S. attorneys around the country responded cautiously to Sessions' announcement. Some issued written statements suggesting the change would not dramatically alter their approach to marijuana.</p>
<p>In Colorado, U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer said his office will continue to focus on "identifying and prosecuting those who create the greatest safety threats to our communities around the state."</p>
<p>Troyer took over the office on an acting basis when Walsh, the Obama appointee, left. In November, Sessions named him the interim U.S. attorney. Trump could nominate a replacement at any time or decide to keep Troyer, a career prosecutor and attorney.</p>
<p>The new U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling, a Trump appointee who was confirmed by the Senate in mid-December, called marijuana "a dangerous drug" in his statement on Sessions' action. But he also said his office will focus on "bulk cultivation and trafficking cases, and those who use the federal banking system illegally" while considering its available resources, the seriousness of each crime and its effects.</p>
<p>In California's Eastern District, newly sworn-in U.S. Attorney McGregor "Greg" Scott grew up in Humboldt County, deep in California's famed "Emerald Triangle" marijuana-growing region. He later became a career state and federal prosecutor who has spoken favorably of a previous federal marijuana crackdown.</p>
<p>Scott's spokeswoman, Lauren Horwood, said he declined to comment on the most recent federal move.</p>
<p>"The cultivation, distribution and possession of marijuana has long been and remains a violation of federal law for all purposes," she later said in a statement. "We will evaluate violations of those laws in accordance with our district's federal law enforcement priorities and resources."</p>
<p>Brian Vicente, a Denver attorney who co-wrote Colorado's 2012 constitutional amendment legalizing recreation marijuana, said the industry will closely examine the background of any new U.S. attorney nominees.</p>
<p>"If this is in any way accompanied by a changing of the guard through the appointment of very conservative, anti-marijuana candidates, that's a red flag," he said.</p>
<p>Walsh, the former U.S. attorney for Colorado, said sitting and incoming top federal prosecutors in pot-friendly states should rely on their staffs, who have years of experience investigating cases, to put marijuana in context with other priorities.</p>
<p>"Those people make decisions about which cases they can win and which cases are crucial," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Thompson reported from Sacramento, California. Associated Press writers Sadie Gurman in Washington and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to use the correct spelling of Brian Vicente's name.</p>
<p>DENVER (AP) - Whether to crack down on marijuana in states where it is legal is a decision that will now rest with those states' top federal prosecutors, many of whom are deeply rooted in their communities and may be reluctant to pursue cannabis businesses or their customers.</p>
<p>When he rescinded the Justice Department's previous guidance on marijuana, Attorney General Jeff Sessions left the issue to a mix of prosecutors who were appointed by President Donald Trump's administration and others who are holdovers from the Barack Obama years.</p>
<p>Legal experts do not expect a flood of new cases, and people familiar with the job of U.S. attorney say prosecutors could decide against using already limited resources to seek criminal charges against cannabis companies that abide by state regulations or their customers.</p>
<p>"There are higher priorities: terrorism and opiates to start with," said Rory Little, a former prosecutor and a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law. "You also have to draw the jury pool from the local people, who appear to generally support the state policy. You're not going to waste your resources on cases you can't win or cases your community is against."</p>
<p>Until Sessions' announcement on Thursday, federal prosecutors followed guidelines laid out in the so-called Cole memo, which was issued by the Justice Department during the Obama administration. The memo discouraged prosecutors from going after people participating in the marijuana trade in states where recreational marijuana is legal, except in cases with aggravating factors.</p>
<p>Sessions revoked that document and others, citing the fact that pot remains illegal under federal law.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors are not elected, but they often have long histories working in their districts. They are surrounded by attorneys who have spent their careers arguing federal cases before judges who can make their displeasure with a U.S. attorney known in sentencing decisions and in the scheduling of cases. That environment will not change because of a memo from the attorney general, Little said.</p>
<p>But the change will undoubtedly create some confusion and an uneven landscape, said John Walsh, the former U.S. attorney for Colorado appointed by Obama who left the office in 2016.</p>
<p>Prosecutors in Western states wanted guidance from the Justice Department when the likelihood of state marijuana legalization became clear in 2010 and 2011. They hoped to avoid a patchwork of prosecution strategies, Walsh said.</p>
<p>"When the policy is so broad and uncertain that it's left case by case to different decision makers, it creates confusion and uncertainty that can be unjust," Walsh said.</p>
<p>The author of the Obama administration's policy, James Cole, told the AP it was intended to put states on notice that they had to regulate the industry and the federal government would still prosecute cases that threatened public safety. The goal, he said, was to encourage a tightly regulated industry letting legitimate businesses operate but keeping cartels and gangs out.</p>
<p>"I couldn't immunize people through the policy, but it did give them a level of comfort that was enough for them to say, if I behave, we're basically going to be OK," Cole said.</p>
<p>The change, he said, removes "clarity and consistency" for an industry that depended on it.</p>
<p>U.S. attorneys around the country responded cautiously to Sessions' announcement. Some issued written statements suggesting the change would not dramatically alter their approach to marijuana.</p>
<p>In Colorado, U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer said his office will continue to focus on "identifying and prosecuting those who create the greatest safety threats to our communities around the state."</p>
<p>Troyer took over the office on an acting basis when Walsh, the Obama appointee, left. In November, Sessions named him the interim U.S. attorney. Trump could nominate a replacement at any time or decide to keep Troyer, a career prosecutor and attorney.</p>
<p>The new U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling, a Trump appointee who was confirmed by the Senate in mid-December, called marijuana "a dangerous drug" in his statement on Sessions' action. But he also said his office will focus on "bulk cultivation and trafficking cases, and those who use the federal banking system illegally" while considering its available resources, the seriousness of each crime and its effects.</p>
<p>In California's Eastern District, newly sworn-in U.S. Attorney McGregor "Greg" Scott grew up in Humboldt County, deep in California's famed "Emerald Triangle" marijuana-growing region. He later became a career state and federal prosecutor who has spoken favorably of a previous federal marijuana crackdown.</p>
<p>Scott's spokeswoman, Lauren Horwood, said he declined to comment on the most recent federal move.</p>
<p>"The cultivation, distribution and possession of marijuana has long been and remains a violation of federal law for all purposes," she later said in a statement. "We will evaluate violations of those laws in accordance with our district's federal law enforcement priorities and resources."</p>
<p>Brian Vicente, a Denver attorney who co-wrote Colorado's 2012 constitutional amendment legalizing recreation marijuana, said the industry will closely examine the background of any new U.S. attorney nominees.</p>
<p>"If this is in any way accompanied by a changing of the guard through the appointment of very conservative, anti-marijuana candidates, that's a red flag," he said.</p>
<p>Walsh, the former U.S. attorney for Colorado, said sitting and incoming top federal prosecutors in pot-friendly states should rely on their staffs, who have years of experience investigating cases, to put marijuana in context with other priorities.</p>
<p>"Those people make decisions about which cases they can win and which cases are crucial," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Thompson reported from Sacramento, California. Associated Press writers Sadie Gurman in Washington and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to use the correct spelling of Brian Vicente's name.</p> | Prosecutors in pot-friendly states will decide on crackdown | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e73abf14d7814017ae5249687d15723c | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>Shares of tech companies were little changed as investors took to the sidelines ahead of a big week of earnings for the sector.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal reported that chip designer Qualcomm had amended the "risk factors" section of filings with the Securities Exchange Commission to alert investors to the danger that its licensing model, where chip producers pay it for use of its designs, could be undermined by court challenges.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>-By Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 21, 2017 17:41 ET (21:41 GMT)</p> | Tech Shares Flat as Market Awaits Earnings -- Tech Roundup | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/21/tech-shares-flat-as-market-awaits-earnings-tech-roundup.html | 2017-04-21 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Honeywell International Inc said on Friday it had cut 3,017 positions across all its businesses in the third quarter, mainly related to the separation of its automation and control solutions business into two new reporting segments.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Honeywell had 129,000 employees as of Dec. 31.</p>
<p>The company took a charge of $202 million including severance costs of $155 million, it said in a regulatory filing. (http://bit.ly/2eog8La)</p>
<p>(Reporting by Shalom Aarons in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)</p> | Honeywell cut 3,017 jobs in third quarter | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/10/21/honeywell-cut-3017-jobs-in-third-quarter.html | 2016-10-21 | 0 |
<p>BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — Publishers of a weekly newspaper in Alabama are buying three weekly newspapers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.</p>
<p>Campbell Newspapers, which owns the Choctaw Sun-Advocate in Gilbertown, Alabama, announced Thursday that they are buying The Biloxi-D'Iberville Press, The Ocean Springs Record, and the Ocean Springs Gazette.</p>
<p>The sale will close on Tuesday. No price or terms were disclosed.</p>
<p>Bay Corp. is selling The Biloxi-D'Iberville Press and the Ocean Springs Record. James and Cindy Ricketts are selling the Ocean Springs Record.</p>
<p>The new owners plan to combine the two Ocean Springs publications as the Ocean Springs Gazette &amp; Record, beginning with a Jan. 4 edition.</p>
<p>Tommy and Dee Ann Campbell, who own Campbell Newspapers, say the newspapers will be redesigned with more news, features and local editorials.</p>
<p>BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — Publishers of a weekly newspaper in Alabama are buying three weekly newspapers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.</p>
<p>Campbell Newspapers, which owns the Choctaw Sun-Advocate in Gilbertown, Alabama, announced Thursday that they are buying The Biloxi-D'Iberville Press, The Ocean Springs Record, and the Ocean Springs Gazette.</p>
<p>The sale will close on Tuesday. No price or terms were disclosed.</p>
<p>Bay Corp. is selling The Biloxi-D'Iberville Press and the Ocean Springs Record. James and Cindy Ricketts are selling the Ocean Springs Record.</p>
<p>The new owners plan to combine the two Ocean Springs publications as the Ocean Springs Gazette &amp; Record, beginning with a Jan. 4 edition.</p>
<p>Tommy and Dee Ann Campbell, who own Campbell Newspapers, say the newspapers will be redesigned with more news, features and local editorials.</p> | Alabama publisher buys 3 Mississippi weekly newspapers | false | https://apnews.com/amp/d13a0377185444bf9d695a6c32881b79 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>The PreTribulation Rapture Of The Church The Chuch Expectantly Waits For The Return Of Jesus</p>
<p>"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." <a href="javascript:;" type="external">1 Thessalonians 4:16-18</a> "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane [and] vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness." <a href="javascript:;" type="external">2 Timothy 2: 15,16</a> Introduction To The Rapture - Part 1 in a Series There is much more information about this subject than could be contained in a single lesson, no matter how inclusive or exhaustive that lesson might be. So consider this the first in a series dealing with the Rapture, and all it's components, as taught in both the Old and New Testaments. As we go along, I will do my best to include as many topical stories, myths and legends of the past 100 years that have sprung up about this doctrine. Briefly, here are the four known "schools of thought" as it pertains to the Rapture and it's occurence:</p>
<p>It's a hotly-contested topic, for sure. Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, Post-Trib, No-Trib...from any angle you look at it, there are many differences of opinion on the topic of the Rapture of the Church in the End Days. And the Bible is written in such a way that the reader is led to draw their own conclusions as to what the Bible teaches. God knows your heart, as well as your motivation on a given subject. He will either lead you into Truth, or, will keep you from it. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned." This passage from <a href="javascript:;" type="external">1 Corinthians 2</a> shows clearly that unless we are sold out to God, we cannot know what His Word teaches. "But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." It is not brainpower which causes us to understand the Bible, but rather a right spirit and a heart that searches after God, and when we have done that, then God opens our understanding to receive His Truth. And with that, let us begin...</p> Introduction To The Rapture - Part 1 in a Series PreTribulation MidTribulation PostTribulation No Tribulation Not all prophecy was meant to be understood by all generations Click here | The PreTribulation Rapture Of The Church | true | http://nowtheendbegins.com/pages/rapture/the_rapture.htm | 0 |
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<p>Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa. (Flickr / Cancillería del Ecuador)</p>
<p>The Ecuadorean government is proposing a law to give all migrants in the country legal status.</p>
<p>Ecuador is an important migrant destination and has Latin America’s largest refugee population, largely fueled by the conflict in neighboring Colombia.</p>
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<p>In his weekly address, President Rafael Correa said, “The right to migrate is guaranteed in the rules. No human being will be considered illegal.”</p>
<p>As TeleSUR <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/No-Human-Considered-Illegal-Under-New-Ecuadorean-Migrant-Law-20150607-0020.html" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>The new legislation will cover all areas of migration, as well as visas, passports, and identity documents for foreigners.</p>
<p>According to Correa, the current law has been in place since 1979 and constitutes 18 different categories of visa, but with the new rules this will be reduced to four.</p>
<p>“They guarantee rights to foreigners in Ecuador: asylum seekers, the stateless, among others,” he added.</p>
<p>The government will also introduce programs to integrate foreigners into day-to-day Ecuadorean life.</p>
<p>Human rights groups that have criticized Correa for offering inadequate protection to vulnerable migrants will surely welcome the policy. In its country <a href="https://www.hrw.org/americas/ecuador" type="external">profile</a>, Human Rights Watch has condemned Ecuador’s government for “asylum application procedures that do not provide rigorous safeguards that international standards require.”</p>
<p>–Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Roisin Davis</a></p>
<p /> | 'No Human Considered Illegal' Under Ecuador’s New Migration Law | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/no-human-considered-illegal-under-ecuadors-new-migration-law/ | 2015-06-10 | 4 |
<p>By Piya Sinha-Roy</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – For most fans of “The Simpsons,” the name Nancy Cartwright may ring a bell as the voice of 10-year-old troublemaker Bart Simpson over 28 seasons of the Fox animated show.</p>
<p>Now, the actress is hoping to establish her own voice by documenting a surreal adventure, “In Search of Fellini.”</p>
<p>Cartwright, 59, co-wrote the new film, out in U.S. theaters this weekend, a mostly autobiographical tale of how her obsession with filmmaker Federico Fellini led to her own impromptu solo Italian adventure to find the elusive director.</p>
<p>“All the writers on ‘The Simpsons,’ they’ve created this legacy … and to be a part of that has been such a privilege,” Cartwright told Reuters.</p>
<p>“For me personally, I would like to be able to, as an artist, establish my own voice.”</p>
<p>“In Search of Fellini” follows Lucy, a young, naive girl living a sheltered life with her mother in a small Midwestern American town until she undergoes a spiritual awakening watching Fellini’s 1954’s “La Strada” and goes to Italy.</p>
<p>The film traces Lucy’s journey through idyllic highs, such as falling in love, and crippling lows, such as an encounter with an older, male stranger that quickly goes wrong quickly – a scenario that Cartwright said she lifted directly from her own experiences.</p>
<p>“As a writer, I thought it absolutely had to be in there. I couldn’t hold onto something that had happened to me because I’m embarrassed to share that I was so naive or stupid,” she said.</p>
<p>Bringing the story to screen was a nearly 30-year effort, Cartwright said.</p>
<p>“I certainly didn’t have the power back then that I have now, I didn’t speak Italian, I didn’t have connections that I have now worldwide, so it took a little bit of time for the physical world to catch up with Nancy’s dream,” she said.</p>
<p>Cartwright said she hopes to write and produce more projects after her experience on “In Search of Fellini.” Meanwhile, she will return in the 29th season of “The Simpsons” in October, continuing her tenure as Bart and characters such as Ralph Wiggum and Nelson Muntz.</p>
<p>Fox Broadcasting has confirmed “The Simpsons” will continue to its 30th season and Cartwright said she does not foresee an end.</p>
<p>“As long as the actors are alive, I think we’ll do the show … I don’t see any of us being replaced,” she said.</p>
<p>“We could be around for another 30 years,” she added with a laugh.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | 'The Simpsons' actress finds her own voice 'In Search for Fellini' | false | https://newsline.com/039the-simpsons039-actress-finds-her-own-voice-039in-search-for-fellini039/ | 2017-09-16 | 1 |
<p>BEND, Ore. (AP) — Gas stations in two central Oregon counties will continue to pump gas for customers despite a new law allowing self-serve gasoline in rural counties that takes effect in a few days.</p>
<p>Employees at several stations in Crook and Jefferson counties said they are unaware of any plans to change to self-service, the Bulletin <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com/business/5874934-151/hit-or-miss-in-crook-jefferson-for-self-service-gas" type="external">reported</a> .</p>
<p>Others told the newspaper they were unaware that the new law takes effect Monday.</p>
<p>Oregon is currently one of two states that does not allow customers to pump their gas.</p>
<p>A law passed by the Legislature in May and signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown in June will allow Oregon counties with 40,000 residents or less to deviate from that.</p>
<p>Some station managers told the paper Thursday that their attendants would continue servicing patron’s cars just as it has been done since 1951.</p>
<p>“Our regular, longtime customers love coming here and talking to us while we pump their gas,” said Shelby Perkins, a cashier at a 76 gas station in Prineville.</p>
<p>She added that wasn’t sure regular customers even knew how to operate the pumps.</p>
<p>Darlene Forseth, manager at Main Station Express in Prineville and Justin Bidiman, owner of the Metolius Market in Metolius, said they will continue relying on attendants since their stations are not equipped for self-service.</p>
<p>“My equipment is not set up for credit cards,” he said, “so we don’t have any way of recording the gallons.”</p>
<p>The Culver Shell &amp; Feed in Prineville is part of the handful of gas stations that are ready for self-service, said owner Jeffrey Honeywell Thursday.</p>
<p>“We are going to take advantage of it,” he said.</p>
<p>His gas station had changed to “sundown to sun-up” self-serve gas when the state legalized it in 2015.</p>
<p>There will be someone available to assist customers, Honeywell said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Bulletin, <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com" type="external">http://www.bendbulletin.com</a></p>
<p>BEND, Ore. (AP) — Gas stations in two central Oregon counties will continue to pump gas for customers despite a new law allowing self-serve gasoline in rural counties that takes effect in a few days.</p>
<p>Employees at several stations in Crook and Jefferson counties said they are unaware of any plans to change to self-service, the Bulletin <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com/business/5874934-151/hit-or-miss-in-crook-jefferson-for-self-service-gas" type="external">reported</a> .</p>
<p>Others told the newspaper they were unaware that the new law takes effect Monday.</p>
<p>Oregon is currently one of two states that does not allow customers to pump their gas.</p>
<p>A law passed by the Legislature in May and signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown in June will allow Oregon counties with 40,000 residents or less to deviate from that.</p>
<p>Some station managers told the paper Thursday that their attendants would continue servicing patron’s cars just as it has been done since 1951.</p>
<p>“Our regular, longtime customers love coming here and talking to us while we pump their gas,” said Shelby Perkins, a cashier at a 76 gas station in Prineville.</p>
<p>She added that wasn’t sure regular customers even knew how to operate the pumps.</p>
<p>Darlene Forseth, manager at Main Station Express in Prineville and Justin Bidiman, owner of the Metolius Market in Metolius, said they will continue relying on attendants since their stations are not equipped for self-service.</p>
<p>“My equipment is not set up for credit cards,” he said, “so we don’t have any way of recording the gallons.”</p>
<p>The Culver Shell &amp; Feed in Prineville is part of the handful of gas stations that are ready for self-service, said owner Jeffrey Honeywell Thursday.</p>
<p>“We are going to take advantage of it,” he said.</p>
<p>His gas station had changed to “sundown to sun-up” self-serve gas when the state legalized it in 2015.</p>
<p>There will be someone available to assist customers, Honeywell said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Bulletin, <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com" type="external">http://www.bendbulletin.com</a></p> | Many central Oregon gas stations to pass on self-service | false | https://apnews.com/bc84888a311f49899688ba20a98dc63b | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
<p />
<p>This scene is from a TV documentary called Death in the West. It is one of the most powerful anti-smoking films ever made. You will never see it.</p>
<p>In fact, for Mother Jones to recently view a pirated videotape of the documentary was technically a violation of a London court order.</p>
<p>Death in the West was filmed in 1976 by director Martin Smith, reporter Peter Taylor and a crew from This Week, a weekly show on Britain’s independent Thames Television network. The show is roughly the British equivalent of 60 Minutes. Taylor’s searing half-hour film simply intercuts three kinds of footage. The first is old Marlboro commercials–cowboys ligiting up aroudn the chuck wagon, galloping across the plains at sunset, and so forth. The second is interviews with two Philip Morris executives who claim that nobody knows if cigarettes cause cancer. The third is interviews with six real cowboys in the American West who have lung cancer or, in one case, emphysema. And after each cowboy, the film shows the victim’s doctor testifying that he believes his patient’s condition was caused by heavy cigarette smoking.</p>
<p>After opening with a commercial showing Marlboro men around a campfire, the film cuts to another campfire, where narrator Taylor is interviewing cowboy Bob Julian. “For Bob,” Taylor says, “the last roundup will soon be over.”</p>
<p>“I started smoking when I was a kid followoing these broncobusters,” says Julian. “I thought that to be a man you had to have a cigarette in your mouth. It took me years to discover that all I got out of it was lung cancer. I’m going to die a young man.” (He live only a few months after the interview.)</p>
<p>Emphysema victim John Holmes, the man with the oxygen tank on his horse, tells what it’s like to periodically gasp for breath. “It’s hard to describe…it feels as if someone has their fingers down in my chest.” Another man interviewed, Harold Lee, had only a few months to live, and you can see it in his stubbled, emaciated face.</p>
<p>Death in the West was shown only once, from London, to an audience of some 12 million TV viewers, in September 1976. It was high noon for Philip Morris, and the company walked in with guns blazing. Philip Morris promply sued Thames Television and the got a court order preventing the film from being shown until its suit could be heard. The order even prohibits the filmmakers from discussing the film publicly. Despite its tradition of free speech, Britain has nothing quite resembling First Amendment protection for the press.</p>
<p>Philip Morris sued Thames for deception and breach of copyright, claiming that it was “sandbagged and double-crossed” into allowing Marlboro commercials to be used in a film the cigarette company thought was going to depict its product more favorably. This is a little hard to believe, given the fact that Peter Taylor had previously made several widely viewed films about cigarettes for British television, which were, to put it mildly, not pro-industry. One of them is License to Kill, a film about the tobacco industry; another is a profile of a man dying of lung cancer.</p>
<p>Philip Morris also has spent considerable money trying to prove that the six cigarette victims in the film were not bona-fide cowboys. “They sent a couple of lawyers from Kansas City to see me. They just showed up on my doorstep,” said rancher Holmes in a tlephone interview recently. “They wanted to prove that maybe other things than cigarettes had caused my emphysema. They were very sly in their questions. One of the men took down everything I said, like a court reporter. They wanted to know how long I had been in the cattle business, was it my vocation or avocation? I’ve had this ranch 20 years, but they tried to make a big thing of the fact that some of that time I was also teaching school.”</p>
<p>Obviously, cowboys who spend all their days on horseback and around chuck wagons probably don’t exist any more, but Taylor and his crew insist that they found men who were their closest possible equivalent. Their point, of course, was to show that despite Marlboro advertisiung, virile, rugged outdoor types can get lung cancer as easily as anyone else. One of the cigarette victims they filmed was a former cattlebrand inspector (the Philip Morris lawyers didn’t reach him in time and found only an angry widow). Another was an Oklahoma rodeo rider; another, a man who had been born and brough up on a cattle ranch. Four of the six men are now dead.</p>
<p>What Philip Morris obviously most wanted to prevent with its lawsuit was the showing of Death in the West in the United States. Marlboro is the world’s largest-selling cigarette; but the huge American market, where the brand is No. 1 by a large margin, is where the money really is. There are two trillion Marlboros smoked in the United States each year, and the widespread U.S. showing of Death in the West could damage the he-man image promoted by the most successful cigarette advertising in history ($27.2 million worth in 1977). Philip Morris has good reason for its fears: before the injuction, the American Cancer Society was eager to use the film in its anti-smoking program, and 60 Minutes was negotiating to buy it from Thames TV. Officials at 60 Minutes had seen a print of the film and were enthusiastic about using a part of it on the air. “But then,” explains the show’s senior producer, Palmer Williams, “the people from Philip Morris–and I don’t know how–heard we were interested. They came over here right away and wanted to know why. The very next day, out came this Queen’s Bench Warrant or whatever the hell it was, barring Thames TV from selling the film anywhere in the world. So we couldn’t get it.”</p>
<p>Philip Morris was also doubtlessly embarrassed bcause one of its two executives interviewed by Taylor, Dr. Helmut R. R. Wakeham, vice president for its science and technology, USA division, makes a fool of himself on camera. Defending cigarettes medically is, after all, a pretty thankless task. Wakeham is unnerved by Taylor’s relentless questioning and fails miserably. First, Taylor prods him into admitting that known carcinogens are found in cigarettes. Trapped, Wakeham flounders: “There are all kinds of things that are unhealthy…what are we to do, stop living?” Wakeham dismised a World Health Organization report on smoking as being full of “extreme statements” and says, “The average doctor is a layman with respect to intimate knowledge of smoking and health.” When Taylor presses him again about the carcinogens, he lamely replies, “Anything can be considered harmful. Apple sauce is harmful if you get too much of it.”</p>
<p>James Bowling, Philip Morris’ senior vice president and director of corporate affairs, and the company’s point man in its anti-anti-smoking campaign, fares much better. Philip Morris’ public-relations operation is to the tobacco industry what Mobil’s is to the oil industry, and Bowling is the consummate smoothie. The lesson seems to be: if you’re faced with defending an impossible position, don’t lose your cool, pretend ignorance and cite statistics, even if they’re not true. Saying “I happen to believe in what I’m doing,” Bowling calmly lectures Taylor in a Southern accent, chain-smoking the whole while. “If I thought that cigarettes cause cancer,” he confidently tells Taylor through clouds of smoke, “I would not smoke myself, I would not permit my wife or children to smoke. Why do 98 percent of smokers never get anything? [Not true: one in ten American smokers get lung cancer, says the National Cancer Institute, not to mention those stricken with other disease.] Or why do nonsmokers get lung cancer? Doesn’t it all add up to the fact that we don’t know and that nobody knows?”</p>
<p>Death in the West will almost certainly never be shown again. Philip Morris says it will settle its suit out of court if Thames Television returns the commercials and all footage of Wakeham and Bowling. This would eviscerate the film which is, of course, what the company wants. Although the good guys would probably win in court, the suit will never come to trial because it would cost Thames Television an estimated quarter-million dollars to mount a full-scale defense–money the company doesn’t want to spend, since that’s far more than it could earn by further sales of the film. Taylor, film director Smith and the other people who worked on Death in the West can’t afford that kind of expense themselves. Today, the film remains locked in a London court vault, headed off at the pass.</p>
<p /> | Shoot-Out in Marlboro Country (cont’d) | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1996/03/shoot-out-marlboro-country-contd/ | 2018-03-01 | 4 |
<p>Without question immigration currently is a hot button issue for all Americans, all Christians and all Virginia Baptists. Daniel Carro, coordinator of the Latino Network of Virginia Baptists and professor of divinity at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies, writes passionately on the subject in the 2nd Opinion piece titled “What should lawmakers do?” printed in the Herald, Aug. 9. At the risk of appearing insensitive to a very sensitive issue I want to question or take exception to a few points in Professor Carro's opinion piece.</p>
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<p>First, at the outset, he states, “Nobody should think — and that includes lawmakers — that illegal aliens are in this situation because of their choice” (underscoring mine). That statement boggles the mind! One need only to see TV news coverage of Latino immigrants crossing the Rio Grande, climbing border fences, and trying to outrun U.S. Border Patrol agents to know that these individuals have a choice. Of course, children born in this country to illegal aliens have no choice, but thanks to our constitution such offspring are not illegal — a constitutional provision worthy of debate if we really want to counter illegal immigration. Our daughter, a dedicated public school teacher in Texas, deals with such children on a daily basis — “sweet kids” she calls them, but their presence is putting a burden on under-funded school systems across the country.</p>
<p>Second, throughout the rest of the article Professor Carro adopts the use of the politically correct but factually incorrect adjective “undocumented” rather than “illegal.” Why are we unwilling to label an illegal act as such? If someone steals your car, as mine was once stolen and wrecked by thieves, he is not listed by the police as an “undocumented” driver. Further comparative examples of such imprecise language usage are unnecessary.</p>
<p>Third, Professor Carro contends he is not trying to instruct lawmakers, but while lawmakers “must do something” he only suggests things they should not do. “The worst thing a lawmaker can do is to legislate under fear,” he says and claims that “national security is best served when freedom is allowed …. Classifying people by race or national origin does not help…,” the implication being that we need have no fear that illegal entries across our borders could include persons who intend to do us harm. Of course racial profiling has become a “no-no” for police and airport screeners, but only males of Middle-Eastern descent perpetrated the terror of 9/11.</p>
<p>Fourth, Carro says lawmakers should avoid “the trap of legislating to their own counties.” Disapproving of the actions by local legislators in Prince William County, Va., to control immigration in their county, he expands that line of thought by suggesting that since international migration is a social phenomenon that crosses borders, solutions for a particular country, e.g. the United States, “should be resolved on a national and international scale.” Would he have the World Court in Geneva decide what immigration laws are appropriate for the United States?</p>
<p>“Finally,” says Carro, “lawmakers should not legislate as if the only people who are breaking immigration laws are illegal immigrants.” He concedes that they are breaking the law but suggests that “when so many people are ‘breaking the law,' isn't it time to change these … laws?” Such logic would suggest that we need to change the laws against embezzlement, assault, robbery, and a plethora of other statutes because so many people are breaking them. I doubt that he would favor doing so. He concludes by saying, “It is due time for lawmakers to resort to information and creativity,” suggesting we study the laws of Europe, Asia and Australia, as though countries in Europe and Asia have found solutions to similar problems. Not likely! Certainly not in England or France.</p>
<p>I share many of Professor Carro's concerns about the welfare of immigrants — legal and illegal — to our shores. But he and other critics of our local and national lawmakers' efforts to find satisfactory solutions to this intractable problem seldom address themselves to the reasons that we have the problem — namely, the laws and practices of Mexico and Central America countries that do not provide opportunities for their own people. I would rather that he and his Latino Network of Virginia Baptists address their complaints and recommendations to the presidents and lawmakers of those countries with concrete suggestions for improving the welfare of their people within their own borders. At the bottom line, his implied solution is that the United States throw open the doors to any and all who desire to come to America. Does anyone doubt that if we had contiguous borders with many nations in Africa or the Middle East that we would be inundated by immigrants from those countries? The Latino Network members might be less welcoming were that the case.</p>
<p>Dan Polk is a member of Derbyshire Baptist Church in Richmond.</p> | SECOND OPINION: Responding to the immigration crisis | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/secondopinionrespondingtotheimmigrationcrisis/ | 3 |
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<p>“Pity the Billionaire,” the new book by Harper’s Magazine columnist Thomas Frank, surveys the politics of the last three years to determine why the American right survived and thrived after an economic crash caused by a 30-year love affair with the so-called free-market that it procured. Salon speaks to Frank by phone. –ARK</p>
<p>Salon:</p>
<p>Early in the book, you describe the moment in the spring of 2009 when free-market economics had been so thoroughly discredited that Newsweek could run a cover story proclaiming, “We’re all socialists now.” What happened? Why did that moment dissipate?</p>
<p>I saw that cover so many times [at Tea Party events]. For these people, that rang the alarm bell. I think the AIG moment [when the bailed-out insurance behemoth used taxpayer relief to dole out huge bonuses to its executives] was in some ways the high point of the crisis, when [the politics] could have gone either way. There was this amazing public outrage, and that for me was the turning point. Newsweek had another cover, “Thinking Man’s Guide to Populism,” and I remember this feeling around the country, that people were just furious. Somehow the right captured the sense of anger. They completely captured it. You could say they had no right to it, but they did. And one of the reasons they were able to do it was because the liberals were not interested in that anger.</p>
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<p>I’m speaking here of the liberal culture in Washington, D.C. There was no Occupy Wall Street movement [at that time] and there was only people like me on the fringes talking about it. The liberals had their leader in Barack Obama … they had their various people in Congress. But these people are completely unfamiliar with populist anger. It’s an alien thing to them. They don’t trust it, and they have trouble speaking to it. I like Barack Obama, but at the end of the day he’s a very professorial kind of guy. The liberals totally missed the opportunity, and the right was able to grab it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/12/28/the_rise_of_utopian_market_populism/" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Thomas Frank on 'Utopian Market Populism' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/thomas-frank-on-utopian-market-populism/ | 2011-12-29 | 4 |
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<p>A newspaper in Dallas, TX just heard loud and clear what its readers think about their endorsement of Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and it’s not good for their bottom line.</p>
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<p>The Dallas Morning News decided to buck 75 years of Republican endorsements and go with Clinton, which has resulted in push-back from their readers, according to <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/20/the-dallas-morning-news-is-paying-dearly-for-endorsing-hillary-clinton/" type="external">The Daily Caller</a>.</p>
<p>Dallas is a fairly liberal city, although it has been 40 years since the state of Texas has gone for the Democrats in a presidential election.</p>
<p>Breaking news updates and daily headlines from a news source you can trust.</p>
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<p>Readers have expressed their disagreement with the endorsement by cancelling their subscriptions, leaving angry comments, and even protesting in front of the Dallas Morning News building.</p>
<p>Dallas Morning News editor Mike Wilson acknowledged the push-back in an email to <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2016/dallas-morning-news-paid-a-price-for-its-hillary-clinton-endorsement/430900/" type="external">Poynter</a>: “Certainly we’ve paid a price for our presidential recommendation.”</p>
<p>Traditional media sources, particularly newspapers, have been struggling to maintain readership, and this subscriber revolt will undoubtedly be problematic for the Dallas publication.</p>
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<p>“But then, we write our editorials based on principle, and sometimes principle comes at a cost” Wilson said. Yeah, principles and “Hillary Clinton endorsement” just don’t go together, sorry.</p>
<p>“I’ve had a lot of conversations with readers lately, and I respect their views and their right to disagree with us,” he added. “The most important thing to us is that they vote, even if it’s not for our favorite candidate, because democracy doesn’t work if people don’t vote.”</p>
<p>The paper described Clinton’s mountain of negatives as “warts,” and went went on to lambaste GOP nominee Donald Trump with typical liberal tripe.</p>
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<p>The Dallas Morning News, who endorsed a woman that is hellbent on destroying America and everything conservatives stand for, asserted that “Trump’s values are hostile to conservatism.”</p>
<p>While this is the mantra of the Never Trump movement, regardless of what you think about Trump ideologically (I’d argue that some of the concerns about Trump are more about elitist, establishment, hand-wringing hysteria cloaked as “principled conservatism” than any real, fact-based, logical reasoning), the idea that Clinton would be better is patently absurd.</p>
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<p>One reader wrote this comment about Clinton and the Dallas Morning News’ endorsement:</p>
<p>“To endorse a proven Liar, a person who schemes and manipulates the truth, a person who broke the law and violated national security, and a person who flaunts doing the wrong thing and then blaming others. You have no credibility.”</p>
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<p>The Dallas Morning News can certainly endorse whoever they’d like… and the readers can put their money elsewhere.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see what happens if too many people cancel their subscriptions. Wilson talks about principle now, but will he be singing the same tune when that principle sinks the ship?</p>
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<p>What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</p> | Major Newspaper Endorses Hillary; IMMEDIATELY Pays the Price | true | http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/major-newspaper-endorses-hillary-immediately-pays-the-price | 0 |
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<p>As I've <a href="" type="internal">mentioned</a> a few times <a href="" type="internal">before</a> on Poynter Online, I'm an unapologetic news junkie.&#160;In the course of a single day, or a night, I'll skim several hundred or sometimes several thousand headlines and articles.&#160;More often than not, I end up with a handful of headlines that I can't resist sending to friends.&#160;Out of that came <a href="" type="internal">Headline of the Day</a>, a Poynter Online&#160;feature that allows registered users to add the headlines they like (good, bad, or ugly) and everyone else to vote on them daily.At times, it seems like a one-man party,&#160;with the winning headline securing a single vote most days: mine.&#160;That's just fine by me, I enjoy picking the winner.&#160;But our stats paint a different picture: lots of lurkers, just no voters.&#160; Last night, I added my <a href="" type="internal">1,000th headline</a>: <a href="http://www.nbc4columbus.com/news/2745138/detail.html" type="external">Man Wearing Chicken Suit Robs Kroger</a>.&#160;I only hope it doesn't draw attention to our recently retired president, <a href="" type="internal">Jim Naughton</a>.&#160;So much for spending his idle time in a kayak.To commemorate the headline millennium, I've picked some of my favorites.&#160;All of these are actual news stories, not one-liners from a witty blog.&#160; Many of these links are now dead, or in an archive behind a dollar sign.&#160;All I can say is, you should have been at the party when it was hopping.After you browse the headlines below, <a href="" type="internal">tell us which one you like best</a>. <a type="external" href="">My personal favoritesThis is the type of headline I like; creative with a nice gait, maybe even a laugh.&#160;&#160;&#160; •</a> <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/24hour/weird/story/655854p-4927234c.html" type="external">Kite takes flight with Norwegian in tow</a> • <a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/11/30/BA95569.DTL" type="external">Woman found dead with arrow in head</a> • <a href="http://www.canoe.ca/WinnipegSports/ws.ws-01-27-0049.html" type="external">Gannon's cannon plugged by Bucs</a> • <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/09042003_animal_roosters.html" type="external">Roosters on Boosters</a> • <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003350555,00.html" type="external">Three cheers for Spears rear</a> • <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/TechTV/TechTV_google_030227.html" type="external">Are You Gaga for Google?</a> • <a href="http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/front/RTGAM/20021217/wbing1217a/Front/homeBN/breakingnews" type="external">Hurley snubs Bing's boon</a> • <a href="http://robots.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/05/01/sprj.nilaw.iraq.boyband/index.html" type="external">Baghdad boy band bid for big break</a>• <a href="http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0304/0429wankers.html" type="external">Pudgy porkers pare pounds with new wanker's diet</a> • <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=496559" type="external">Flying moose lands on car's roof</a> • <a href="http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/Crime_Court/0,5583,2-1343-1345_1319760,00.html" type="external">Police chief fries thief</a> • <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/965114.asp?0bl=-0" type="external">Chong gonged for selling bongs</a> • <a href="http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mcherald/5257933.htm" type="external">ROOSTER DIES AT PAWS OF PATRON</a> • <a href="http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/weird_news/5529508.htm" type="external">Snack whacker fails to nip Nipchee in bud</a> • <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay06.html" type="external">A pro's pro pulling a con's con</a>• <a href="http://www.sptimes.com/2003/01/08/TampaBay/Proprietor_loses_to_c.shtml" type="external">Proprietor loses to city's propriety</a> • <a href="http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=waymoresports/Layout/Article_Type1&amp;c=Article&amp;cid=1035777392358&amp;call_page=WM_Home&amp;call_pageid=979619472127&amp;call_pagepath=Home/Home" type="external">Birdie barrage on creampuff courses</a> • <a href="http://www.nypost.com/commentary/54536.htm" type="external">IT'S STRAIT-LACED LADY VS. TIED-UP TEMPTRESS</a> • <a href="http://wcco.com/water/watercooler_story_007173648.html" type="external">It's Bowie Like Doughy, Not Bowie Like Howie</a> • <a href="http://asia.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/01/17/offbeat.scoopers.ap/index.html" type="external">First-ever pooper scooper powwow</a> • <a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/04/BA3993.DTL" type="external">Crabbers crabby over ruined traps</a> • <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2817093.stm" type="external">Pancake physics to cut batter splatter</a> • <a href="http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-01-09&amp;nav=VIEW&amp;id=9817XIH6C02030109" type="external">Fake Food Soaps Bought By Wicked Folks</a> • <a href="http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0302/0218airrage.html?" type="external">Flying waitresses ready to clip pesky perverts' wings</a> • <a href="http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_1616890,00.html" type="external">Quarter pounded at McDonald's</a> • <a href="http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2003/mft03041602.htm" type="external">Kraft: Who Cut the Cheese?</a>&#160; <a type="external" href="" />Obvious With headlines like these, who needs the story?&#160; • <a href="http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20021212_1001.html" type="external">Snow Storms May Be Precursor of Winter</a> • <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=79&amp;art_id=vn20030324060620479C299759&amp;set_id=1" type="external">Bombs are frightening, SA human shield says</a> • <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/local/wsaz/m303699.asp?0ct=-302" type="external">Police find body in cemetery</a> • <a href="http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0603/89594.html" type="external">Investigators: Flaming Car With Body Inside 'Suspicious'</a> • <a href="http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-05-06&amp;nav=VIEW&amp;id=SE9L60F7331030506" type="external">First-Time Exotic Dancers Should Avoid The Pole</a> • <a href="http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story533.html" type="external">Local people want local news</a>• <a href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/1757/1129160.html" type="external">Meaningless headlines provide an illusion of substance</a> • <a href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3417722.html" type="external">Minnesota's population aging faster than predicted</a> • <a href="http://www.local6.com/technology/2464229/detail.html" type="external">Man Invents Glow-In-The-Dark Lightbulb</a> • <a href="http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0,1854,556134,00.html" type="external">Hemp Beer Creates a Buzz</a> • <a href="http://www.orange-today.co.uk/news/story/sm_727377.html?menu=news.quirkies" type="external">Speeding motorist blamed Coke</a> • <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-02-26-mind-intuition_x.htm" type="external">There's a gut feeling about this whole intuition thing</a> • <a href="http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/02/19/waa19.xml&amp;sSheet=/news/2003/02/19/ixnewstop.html/news/2003/02/19/waa19.xml" type="external">Lesbian Japanese monkeys challenge Darwin's assumptions</a> • <a href="http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-01-23&amp;nav=VIEW&amp;id=AY3PQ868187030123" type="external">Survey Says: People Do Stupid Things While Driving</a> • <a href="http://postgazette.com/breaking/20030117tonguep9.asp" type="external">Girl gives frozen metal pole a lickin', her tongue keeps on stickin'</a>• <a href="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/5039194.htm" type="external">Raiders lively as King Tut (he's dead)</a> • <a href="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&amp;storyID=2294212" type="external">Sept. 11 Suspect Moussaoui Wants to Torture Ashcroft</a> • <a href="http://www.nbc4.tv/news/1940666/detail.html" type="external">Authorities Seek Flasher - Police: Man Typically Wears No Pants</a> • <a href="http://ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-03-14&amp;nav=VIEW&amp;id=93IW702I1O4030314" type="external">`Spooning' Comes Second To `Forking' And `Knifing'</a> • <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0130fearfactor30-ON.html" type="external">'Fear Factor' to feature bobbing in blood</a> • <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2703355.stm" type="external">Indian testicle attack 'is murder'</a> • <a href="http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-02-11&amp;nav=VIEW&amp;id=15I03HX98F2030211" type="external">Cremated Clowns And Dogs Get Equal Treatment</a> • <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&amp;cid=127&amp;e=6&amp;u=/030211/7/38rtp.html" type="external">STUDENT LOANS ARE FOR SUCKERS</a> • <a href="http://www.nature.com/nsu/030106/030106-4.html" type="external">29 hours is a year on OGLE-TR-56b</a> • <a href="http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-02-05&amp;nav=VIEW&amp;id=0K0724SO6A2030205" type="external">Iraqi War Is Really A Bid To Steal E.T. Technology</a> • <a href="http://www.uwire.com/content/topae021003001.html" type="external">Short on style: Mullets set to make comeback</a> <a type="external" href="" />Not so obvious Don't assume everyone knows what you're talking about. • <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Entertainment/ap20030401_1365.html" type="external">Grandmother Gives Sex Advice on Oxygen</a> • <a href="http://newspapers.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&amp;pnpID=475&amp;NewsID=450741&amp;CategoryID=9945&amp;on=0" type="external">Forest Service employees donate to Glory Hole</a> • <a href="http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp?c_id=atl" type="external">Bong, Ramirez linked at the arm</a> • <a href="http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-film.html?2003-12/19/11.00.film" type="external">Pope Likes The Passion</a>• <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/news/index.ssf?/news/more/11windban13.html" type="external">Wind ban in effect for Ohio Turnpike</a> • <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/login.php?grid=28,15&amp;uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesonline.co.uk%2Farticle%2F0%2C%2C3-902784%2C00.html%3Fgavalidate&amp;gareason=login" type="external">Michael Jackson is arrested in handcuffs</a> <a type="external" href="" />Oops This will be a blurb about the 'oops' category.&#160; Replace this with real text.&#160; • <a href="http://www.timesdispatch.com/sports/more/MGB2LH9BY6D.html" type="external">big headline goes rightyy here</a>• <a href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/1757/807441.html" type="external">Placeholder story for testing purposes</a> • <a href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/1757/1129150.html" type="external">Dummy stories provide excellent content for prototypes</a> • <a href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/1757/1129140.html" type="external">Test story for section 1637</a> • <a href="http://www.clevelandlive.com/newsflash/news/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?o0331_BC_OH-XGR--Budget-Spendi&amp;&amp;news&amp;newsflash-ohio" type="external">awhfonhoflsstfdlmlsar</a>• <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/sports/6696476.htm" type="external">gsdgsd gsdgsdgsdggsi</a> • <a href="http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2003/01/24/rtr857739.html" type="external">CORRECTED - CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-Japan call interest rate under zero for first</a> • <a href="http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-4/106849464588642.xml" type="external">Poll: Alabamians believe not enogh spent on education</a>&#160; <a type="external" href="" />Animal headlines You can't go wrong with a good animal headline ... can you? • <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;cid=817&amp;ncid=757&amp;e=10&amp;u=/ap/20030520/ap_on_fe_st/drinking_pig" type="external">'You Can't Beat a Drinking Pig'</a>• <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;cid=1516&amp;ncid=1516&amp;e=1&amp;u=/afp/20031022/od_afp/australia_sweden_snakes_031022125357" type="external">Swede jailed in Australia over trouser snake smuggle attempt</a> • <a href="http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=VX4BF3O1WMNYICRBAEKSFEY?type=oddlyEnoughNews&amp;storyID=1606899" type="external">Fire-starting cat saves family</a>• <a href="http://213.159.10.102/germany.asp?pad=190,205,&amp;item_id=33065" type="external">Man whips fiancee with cat</a>• <a href="http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=973906" type="external">Rescued Sea Lions Released to Waiting Sharks</a>• <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&amp;cid=817&amp;ncid=757&amp;e=10&amp;u=/ap/20021211/ap_on_fe_st/balding_bears" type="external">Fla. Black Bears Look Like 'Bald Rats'</a> • <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--poopdispute0107jan07,0,7201091.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire" type="external">Dog lovers supporting man in poop flap</a>&#160;&#160; <a type="external" href="">Cliché animal headlines Anyone can do a man bites dog headline.&#160; •</a> <a href="http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/AnimalAntics/0,,2-1343-1348_1368425,00.html??" type="external">Pigs eat farmer</a> • <a href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/1451/3386564.html" type="external">A dog-shoots-man story</a> • <a href="http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ZSHKYX2MFBPNQCRBAELCFEY?type=oddlyEnoughNews&amp;storyID=2599524" type="external">Man bites dog</a> • <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/13/1039656200678.html" type="external">Man bites croc</a> • <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/5682163.htm" type="external">Syracuse Police Say Man Bites Dog</a> • <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/london/3033171.stm" type="external">Man 'killed by own dog'</a> &#160; • <a href="http://www.nbc4columbus.com/news/2124048/detail.html" type="external">Pet Cat Shoots Boy</a> • <a href="http://www.local6.com/sh/news/stories/nat-news-185974820021229-151253.html" type="external">Man's Face Infested With Ants</a> • <a href="http://www.nbc10.com/news/1837797/detail.html" type="external">TV Personality Sues After Alleged Dolphin Injury</a> • <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/3023369.stm" type="external">Badger rampage injures five</a> • <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&amp;u=/nm/20021107/od_uk_nm/oukoe_life_squirrel&amp;e=5" type="external">Squirrel terrorises town</a> • <a href="http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/default.asp?target=bear_sub1.htm" type="external">Bear Attacks Sub</a>• <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story159175.html" type="external">Girl really got run over by a 'reindeer'</a> • <a href="http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2744791a4560,00.html" type="external">Seal bites rail commuter</a> • <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=29&amp;art_id=vn20030217054500682C521964&amp;set_id=1" type="external">Man falls to his death: dog arrested</a> • <a href="http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/AnimalAntics/0,,2-1343-1348_1366919,00.html" type="external">Bull terrier arrested</a>&#160;&#160; <a type="external" href="">Show me the monkeys ... indeed. After 1,000 headlines, one thing I've learned is that everyone secretly wants to write monkey headlines.&#160; •</a> <a href="http://www.lowcountrynow.com/stories/102502/LOCmonkeys.shtml" type="external">Show me the monkeys</a> • <a href="http://www.worldonline.co.za/news/news_center_030506.608317.html" type="external">Monkey offers lice-removal service</a> • <a href="http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030324-064259-1443r.htm" type="external">Morocco offers US monkeys to detonate mine</a> • <a href="http://www.thisisnorthscotland.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=84106&amp;command=displayContent&amp;sourceNode=83936&amp;contentPK=4621113" type="external">H'ANGUS THE MONKEY HUMILIATED POLITICIAN</a>• <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0210SCIENCE-AIDS-MICROBICIDE-DC.html" type="external">Invisible condom protects monkeys from AIDS</a> • <a href="http://www.local6.com/orlpn/news/stories/news-192879220030122-120101.html" type="external">Rodeo Monkey Shows Spurs At Stock Show</a> • <a href="http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/bln/nmmonkey9.html" type="external">Man pleads guilty to primates in pants</a>• <a href="http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&amp;storyID=1939001" type="external">Man smuggled monkeys in pants</a>• <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/5633320p-6609042c.html" type="external">Man hid monkeys in pants, pays price</a> • <a href="http://www.suntimes.co.za/2003/05/11/news/gauteng/njhb03.asp" type="external">Monkey goes ape and bites man's ears</a> • <a href="http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=115997&amp;command=displayContent&amp;sourceNode=115996&amp;contentPK=6975805" type="external">MONKEY KICKS WIFE OUT OF BED</a>• <a href="http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=87" type="external">Monkey Visits German Pizzeria, Vandalizes Toilet</a> • <a href="http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_10589446.shtml" type="external">Green Bay City Council will consider monkey’s owner’s appeal</a> • <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=34538" type="external">When Monkeys Are Not Men</a> • <a href="http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/2/12/nation/monkey1&amp;sec=nation" type="external">Woman dies in crash caused by monkey</a> • <a href="http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030516/NEWS15/105160140" type="external">Toledo Zoo displays new swamp monkey</a> • <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/911508.asp?0si=-&amp;cp1=1" type="external">Typing monkeys, but no Shakespeare</a> • <a href="http://www.wftv.com/news/2149598/detail.html" type="external">Police On The Lookout For Unarmed But Potentially Dangerous Monkey</a> • <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/daily/22/odds_monkey.htm" type="external">Police on the lookout for runaway monkey</a> • <a href="http://www.mid-day.com/metro/malad/2003/march/47682.htm" type="external">Monkey terror on Marve Road</a> • <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-monkeys032403,0,4531048.story?coll=orl-home-headlines" type="external">Five endangered monkeys stolen from Hillsborough County sanctuary</a> • <a href="http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/71601.htm" type="external">HOT MONKEY LOVE</a>• <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=29&amp;click_id=29&amp;art_id=qw1034153280252B216&amp;set_id=1" type="external">Monkey of a mayor falls into sex trap</a> • <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20030311T000000-0500_40879_OBS_KILLING_OF__MONKEY_MAN__SPARKS_PROTEST.asp" type="external">Killing of 'Monkey Man' sparks protest</a> <a type="external" href="">...and beaver headlines. •</a> <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/strange/032503_sn_beaver.html" type="external">Man finds beaver on porch</a> • <a href="http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=71923" type="external">Beavers no match for Trojans</a> • <a href="http://www.middletownpress.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10739790&amp;BRD=1645&amp;PAG=461&amp;dept_id=10856&amp;rfi=6" type="external">Tips for dealing with beavers</a> • <a href="http://oregonstate.theinsiders.com/2/212055.html" type="external">Beaver Bytes</a> • <a href="http://www.reddeeradvocate.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=107&amp;cat=59&amp;id=160748&amp;more=" type="external">Castor wants to erect giant beaver</a> • <a href="http://newsobserver.com/24hour/nation/story/1049171p-7377310c.html" type="external">Activists upset by Girl Scouts in Alaska who trap, skin beavers</a>• <a href="http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/APNews/News/ap0008r" type="external">Girl attacked by rabid beaver</a>• <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/daily/31/beavers.htm" type="external">New Jersey town celebrates its beavers</a> &#160; <a type="external" href="" />Headlines that kept me from reading the article A good headline should entice the reader.&#160;These made me want to avoid the article.&#160;There are some things I just don't want to know.&#160; • <a href="http://www.njo.com/newsflash/jersey/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?j0111_BC_NJ--ButtocksBrawl&amp;&amp;news&amp;newsflash-newjersey" type="external">Police: Man slashes friend in argument over who had the hairiest buttocks</a>• <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=qw1043989741543B214" type="external">Man shot in drunken penis-size competition</a> • <a href="http://www.moultrieobserver.com/articles/2003/12/19/news/news02.txt" type="external">Grits argument turns violent</a> • <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--couple-stabbing0325mar25,0,5427026.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire" type="external">A game with handcuffs, blindfold and a paring knife</a> • <a href="http://www.newschannel9.com/vnews/topstories/1050938592" type="external">Charges Dropped In Scrotum Biting</a>• <a href="http://tv.yahoo.com/news/ne/20021107/103668120004.html" type="external">Andy Dick kills son's 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See Bucs run over the Raiders</a> • <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=30&amp;art_id=qw1042442461735S163&amp;set_id=6" type="external">Venus rises to the occasion</a> • <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/03/12/alpaca.farms.ap/" type="external">Farmers see alpacas as a stable investment</a> • <a href="http://www.megastar.co.uk/ents/news/2003/08/04/sMEG01MTA1OTk5ODc1MzE.html" type="external">Not Gigli-ing now</a> • <a href="http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0306/0601brother.html" type="external">Lewd ladies living free and easy in lecherous lodgings wired for smut</a>[ <a href="" type="internal">Share your favorites</a> and <a href="" type="internal">tell us why you like them</a>. ]</p> | 1,000 Headlines in 460 Days | false | https://poynter.org/news/1000-headlines-460-days | 2004-01-07 | 2 |
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<p>PHOENIX — Two young children were near their mother Tuesday when she was shot dead in the parking lot of a Phoenix apartment complex, police said.</p>
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<p>The 35-year-old woman was shot at close range with the children present and the children were unharmed, said Sgt. Vince Lewis, a Phoenix police spokesman.</p>
<p>No arrest had been made and police did not release a suspect description or the identity of the victim.</p>
<p>The Arizona Republic (https://goo.gl/ABzT30 ) reported that several apartment complex residents said they heard a quarrel and loud banging around 5:30 a.m. but went back to bed when they could not see anything from their apartment window.</p>
<p>Lewis said the woman was shot multiple times shortly before 6 a.m.</p>
<p>The children were in the custody of officials until authorities find an adult relative, Lewis said.</p>
<p>Lewis said there was no indication that the shooting was related to a series of 2016 shootings believed to be the work of a serial killer who shot victims outside after dark who were in their cars and in front of houses.</p>
<p>Seven people were killed and two others wounded in two predominantly Latino neighborhoods located about 10 miles apart.</p> | 2 children were near mother shot dead in Phoenix parking lot | false | https://abqjournal.com/939251/phoenix-police-woman-fatally-shot-in-parking-lot.html | 2017-01-31 | 2 |
<p>Aug. 8 (UPI) — The North Korean military on Tuesday threatened a missile strike near the U.S. territory of Guam, saying a recent bomber flight based from the island “may provoke a dangerous conflict.”</p>
<p><a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/search1/2603000000.html?cid=AEN20170809001051315" type="external">A spokesman</a> from the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army told state-run Korean Central News Agency that the military is “now carefully examining the operational plan for making an developing fire at the areas around Guam with medium-to-long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12.”</p>
<p>The statement came in the hours after a U.S. intelligence analysis determined <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/North_Korea/" type="external">North Korea</a> has made a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missile. Earlier in the day, President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a> warned North Korea <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/asia/north-korea-un-sanctions-nuclear-missile-united-nations.html?action=Click&amp;contentCollection=BreakingNews&amp;contentID=65675432&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;_r=0" type="external">not to make any more threats</a> against the United States. In July, North Korea said it would “strike a merciless blow” at the United States if Washington ever attempted to remove <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kim_Jong_Un/" type="external">Kim Jong Un</a> from power.</p>
<p>“They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump said from his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “[Kim] has been very threatening beyond a normal state and as I said they will be met with fire and fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”</p>
<p>Guam is home to Anderson Air Force Base, from which two U.S. B-1B bombers <a href="http://www.pacaf.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1272434/south-dakota-airmen-arrive-ready-to-fight-tonight-from-guam/" type="external">deployed on a mission</a> with the South Korean and Japanese air forces on Monday. The aircraft flew over Japanese airspace before passing over the Korean Peninsula.</p>
<p>North Korea’s threat cited the mission, calling for a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/politics/north-korea-considering-guam-strike-trump/index.html" type="external">potential strike</a> on “Anderson Air Force Base in which the U.S. strategic bombers, which get on the nerves of [North Korea] and threaten and blackmail it through their frequent visits to the sky above south Korea, are stationed and to send a serious warning signal to the U.S.”</p>
<p>Earlier Tuesday, unnamed U.S. officials told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/north-korea-now-making-missile-ready-nuclear-weapons-us-analysts-say/2017/08/08/e14b882a-7b6b-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_nkorea-1212p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&amp;utm_term=.7ac53df89dd6" type="external">The Washington Post</a> and <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/north-korea-can-put-nuclear-weapon-missile-officials-believe-n790871" type="external">NBC News</a> that the Defense Intelligence Agency completed the analysis in July.</p>
<p>“The IC [intelligence community] assesses North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles,” the assessment states, as read to The Post.</p>
<p>The report comes after North Korea launched an improved ballistic missile with intercontinental range in July, Pyongyang’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/07/28/North-Korea-test-fires-improved-ballistic-missile/3081501256656/" type="external">second missile launch</a> in less than a month.</p>
<p>Analysts believed North Korea was years from miniaturizing a nuclear warhead, a technically demanding feat. It’s unclear whether North Korea has successfully tested the new design, though last year Kim Jong Un’s regime declared it had.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/08/02/Trump-signs-bill-toughening-sanctions-on-Russia-Iran-and-North-Korea/7131501684813/" type="external">the United States</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/08/05/UN-Security-Council-passes-tough-new-sanctions-on-North-Korea/8121501962604/" type="external">the United Nations</a> increased sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear activity.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, North Korea said it would take “physical action” in reaction to new U.N. sanctions.</p>
<p>“Packs of wolves are coming in attack to strangle a nation,” a statement from Pyongyang carried by KCNA said. “They should be mindful that [North Korea’s] strategic steps accompanied by physical action will be taken mercilessly with the mobilization of all its national strength.”</p>
<p>Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said the news Tuesday “increases the urgency of the time sensitivity” of U.S. efforts to address North Korea’s nuclear threat.</p>
<p>“Assuming everything is true, including that intelligence assessment both existing and everything being accurate, there are still important unknowns,” <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/politics/north-korea-missile-ready-nuclear-weapons/index.html" type="external">he told CNN</a>.</p>
<p>Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Rex_Tillerson/" type="external">Rex Tillerson</a> urged Southeast Asian countries <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/08/08/Tillerson-urges-Asian-nations-to-pressure-North-Korea/4191502208726/" type="external">to isolate</a> North Korea both economically and diplomatically.</p> | North Korea considers strike near Guam after U.S. bomber mission | false | https://newsline.com/north-korea-considers-strike-near-guam-after-u-s-bomber-mission/ | 2017-08-08 | 1 |
<p>Despite his record unpopularity, it would appear that President Bush wants to go out of office with a bang.&#160; Having failed to overthrow Hugo Chávez through an attempted coup, the White House now hopes to escalate pressure on Venezuela’s President by other means.</p>
<p>On Saturday, a U.S. navy plane strayed into Venezuelan airspace.&#160; Venezuelan Defense Minister Gustavo Rangel said that the aircraft “practically flew over” the island of La Orchila – where Venezuela has a military base and President Hugo Chávez has a residence – and another island before turning back.&#160; U.S. officials claimed the plane had “navigational problems.”</p>
<p>“This is just the latest step in a series of provocations,” Rangel said.</p>
<p>From Orchila to the Fourth Fleet</p>
<p>Indeed, tensions have been mounting in recent days.&#160; The Navy is now reactivating its fourth fleet in the Caribbean.&#160; The fleet, which will include a nuclear aircraft carrier, will be based in Mayport, Florida.</p>
<p>The fleet hasn’t seen any action in Caribbean waters since World War II.&#160; In February 1942, the Germans sank a number of oil tankers full of Venezuelan crude.&#160; The attack caused a nationalist outcry in Venezuela and Caracas began to side more openly with the allies.&#160; In response to the attacks the U.S. patrolled the area, hunting down Nazi submarines which were wreaking havoc on allied shipping.&#160; After the war, with no more German U-boats prowling Caribbean waters, the Fourth Fleet was dissolved.</p>
<p>So, why resuscitate the fleet now?</p>
<p>The navy claims the move is necessary to protect maritime security.&#160; The real reason however may have more to do with Washington’s desire to wage a kind of psychological war against the Chávez government and to foment a climate of political tension.</p>
<p>From Laptops to Border Incursions</p>
<p>In its quest to get rid of Chávez, the White House has also sought to spark tensions between Colombia and Venezuela.&#160; There’s a good chance that the U.S. Southern Command passed crucial military intelligence to the Bogotá government when the latter attacked an encampment of FARC guerrillas inside Ecuadoran territory.&#160; After the March 1 assault, which resulted in the deaths of guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes as well as 20 other insurgents, and which arguably constituted an act of international terrorism, the Colombian authorities claimed that Chávez and Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s pro-Venezuelan President, were doing their utmost to support the FARC.</p>
<p>As evidence they produced documents allegedly found on FARC laptop computers which remarkably survived the attack intact.&#160; The documents, Colombia says, prove that Chávez has provided weapons, munitions, and $300 million in aid to the FARC.&#160; After conducting its own investigation, Interpol declared that Colombia did not modify, delete or create any files, although the Andean nation did not always follow internationally accepted methods when handling the computers.&#160; The agency stated that the documents came from a FARC camp, but investigators could not conclusively prove that the information contained within the documents was totally accurate.</p>
<p>In Washington, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack pounced on Interpol’s report, remarking that the laptop files indicating Venezuelan support for the FARC were “highly disturbing.”&#160; Chávez has rejected the accusations, calling the Interpol report a “clown show” that “doesn’t deserve serious comment.”&#160; The Venezuelan leader said all relations with Colombia as well as his country’s cooperation with Interpol would undergo “deep review.”&#160; Seeking to rhetorically destroy his adversaries, Chávez referred to Interpol chief Ronald Noble as a “mafioso” and “an aggressive Yankee cop.”&#160; In yet another memorable outburst from the Venezuelan leader, Chávez added that Noble’s true name was “Mr. Ignoble.”</p>
<p>As if relations between Colombia and Venezuela could slip no further, on Saturday, the same day that the U.S. navy plane passed into Venezuelan airspace, Chávez accused Bogotá of sending its troops across the border in an illegal incursion.&#160; The two South American nations share a 1,370-mile border that winds through mountains and thick patches of jungle.&#160; In a written statement, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro said that 60 Colombian troops had been intercepted in Venezuela’s western Apure state, about 875 yards from the nations’ shared border.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Controversy Over Guajira</p>
<p>Amidst ominous signs that the U.S. might be seeking to destabilize the Venezuelan government, a new controversy is swirling.&#160; William Brownfield, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia, recently remarked that the U.S. would consider relocating its military air base at Manta, Ecuador to Colombia.&#160; According to the New York Times, an area mentioned in later reports was the Guajira region near the Venezuelan border.&#160; Colombia’s foreign minister, Fernando Araújo, quickly denied that Colombia had any plans to allow the United States to establish a base in Guajira.</p>
<p>The controversy could not have come at a worse time.</p>
<p>Already, tensions have risen as a result of secessionist efforts in the westernmost state of Zulia which spans the Venezuelan Guajira region.&#160; Recently, the Chávez opposition in Zulia proposed a feasibility study for potential independence from the federal government.&#160; What’s more, Zulia Governor Manuel Rosales, who lost to Chávez in the December 2006 presidential election, announced his support for his state’s autonomy.</p>
<p>Speaking on his weekly TV show Aló, Presidente!, Chávez warned opposition leaders that any move towards Zulia autonomy would lead to confrontation. “I advise those individuals who want to break up Venezuela to think it through very well. We won’t tolerate a political fragmentation of our country,” he declared, adding that any such attempts would be met with force.&#160; The Venezuelan leader went on to say that Zulia autonomy constituted an “imperial plan” designed and supported by the United States to take control of strategic oil areas.</p>
<p>An impoverished region, the Guajira is home to Wayúu Indians who come and go across the frontier.&#160; The area is full of barren desert and straddles the Colombian-Venezuelan border.&#160; Geographically remote, the Guajira has historically been embroiled in diplomatic controversy.&#160; In 1928, Colombian authorities were so concerned about secessionist plots in the region that Bogotá’s House of Deputies met in secret session to discuss “moves of Yankee agents in the Departments of Santander and Goagira which sought to provoke a separatist movement which, united to Zulia [in the midst of the Venezuelan oil zone] would form the Republic of Zulia.”</p>
<p>As a result of the tangled history, any talk of installing a U.S. presence in the area inevitably stirs nationalist passions.&#160; Chávez has stated that “We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire,” referring to the U.S.&#160; As media reports surfaced, local authorities in the Guajira raised their voices in protest.&#160; Eber Chacón, a Chávez supporter and the Mayor of Páez, a local indigenous municipality, called on the Wayúu in Colombia and Venezuela to repudiate attempts by the Venezuelan opposition to divide them with their “autonomist and separatist positions.”&#160; Chacón added that installing a U.S. base in Guajira would represent a potential threat to hemispheric security.</p>
<p>From Manta to Colombia</p>
<p>How did we get to the point where the U.S. is actually thinking about closing its military base in Manta, Ecuador and opening a new one in Colombia?&#160; That is a question I seek to answer in my book, <a href="" type="internal">Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left</a> (Palgrave-Macmillan), just released in April of this year.</p>
<p>In Ecuador it is difficult to ignore the public climate of hostility towards the U.S. military base at Manta, which is used for drug over flights of Colombian air space.&#160; The facility, located 160 miles southwest of Quito on the coast, is a large installation which is technically not controlled by the United States but belongs to the Ecuadoran air force.</p>
<p>Many Ecuadorans believe that the United States is trying to draw their nation more deeply into the Colombian conflict, which has spilled over the border.&#160; The air base at Manta was leased to the U.S. military for 10 years in 1999, and President Rafael Correa made it clear even before he was elected that he did not plan to extend the lease once it expired in 2009.</p>
<p>During a trip to Quito, I found myself on the campus of the city’s Catholic University.&#160; At a table, a woman was registering people to go on a bus trip to the coast to protest the base at Manta.&#160; In the hallway, I met Gualdemar Jiménez, a local activist.</p>
<p>U.S. Air Base at Manta: A Social Disaster</p>
<p>“Manta used to be a purely fishing town,” he explained.&#160; “Now the fishermen don’t have access to certain parts of the ocean, which are closed off for security reasons.”&#160; On the sea, U.S marines had intercepted Ecuadoran boats, even sinking some vessels.&#160; “The marines are not the Ecuadoran coast guard,” Jiménez declared indignantly.</p>
<p>He went on to tick off a number of other problems associated with the U.S. airbase.&#160; For example, the base had gradually expanded over time.&#160; This expansion had displaced campesino farmers from their traditional lands.&#160; In addition, there had been environmental damage: within the local area, hillsides had been destroyed in an effort to acquire the necessary raw materials to mix asphalt and repave the runway.</p>
<p>The Manta air base contributes some $7 million to the local economy annually, but activists are critical of the lack of real economic development in the area.&#160; The marines don’t do any shopping in Ecuadoran markets, nor do they utilize local transportation.&#160; “The only thing they contribute to is local discos and prostitution,” Jiménez explained bitterly.</p>
<p>“What you´re describing is hardly unique,” I remarked.&#160;&#160; “It reminds me of the history of other U.S. military bases.”</p>
<p>“It´s a trend that is repeated around the world,” Jiménez said.&#160; “In Vietnam, you had houses of prostitution springing up as well.”</p>
<p>Now that Correa is likely to give the U.S. the boot, the Americans must figure out where they may go next.&#160; The Defense Department doesn’t have too many options: across South America, Pink Tide nations are unlikely to host a prolonged U.S. military presence on their soil.&#160; About the only country which might agree is Colombia, but for different reasons such a move would prove perilous.</p>
<p>If U.S. troops were deployed to Colombia, they would be stationed in the middle of a war zone and would be exposed to attacks by the FARC.&#160; Politically, opening a new base on Colombian soil would further antagonize Chávez across the border.&#160; Whether the Pentagon decides to station its base in Guajira amongst the Wayúu or elsewhere in Colombia, the installation is likely to give rise to prostitution and other negative social consequences for the local population, just like Manta.</p>
<p>NIKOLAS KOZLOFF is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S.</a> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), and <a href="" type="internal">Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left</a>(Palgrave Macmillan, April 2008).</p> | U.S. Military Bases in South America | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/05/21/u-s-military-bases-in-south-america/ | 2008-05-21 | 4 |
<p>The U.S. economy hits a molasses spring, Obama reminds voters that he killed bin Laden, Romney appears to be the last Republican standing and Syria shows a tin ear for U.N. criticism. NPR’s Mike Pesca and David Frum, columnist and blogger for the Daily Beast/Newsweek, join Robert Scheer on this week’s “Left, Right &amp; Center.” –ARK</p>
<p /> | 'Left, Right & Center': Playing the Bin Laden Card | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/left-right-center-playing-the-bin-laden-card/ | 2012-04-28 | 4 |
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>What: Shares of Triumph Group (NYSE: TGI), a global leader in manufacturing and overhauling aerospace structures, systems and components, plunged 18% Thursday morning after the company released its first quarterly results of fiscal 2017.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So what: By the numbers, it was a difficult quarter for Triumph Group, as 2017 will be a year of transition. Triumph's first-quarter sales declined 7% from the prior year to $893.3 million. Despite a mid-single-digit decline in the top line, its operating income took a large hit, declining by 57% over the same time period, from nearly $108 million down to $46.7 million.</p>
<p>The massive decline in operating income was in large part due to pre-tax charges of $46.1 million for multiple events. First, a $15.7 million charge was for strike costs related to the ratified IAM collective bargaining agreement in Spokane. Second, a $14.2 million charge was related to a memorandum of understanding with Northrop Grumman. Third, a $10.1 million charge was for restructuring costs. Lastly, a $6.1 million inventory writedown was associated with excess start-up costs.</p>
<p>Excluding those charges, Triumph's net income was $51.6 million, or $1.04 per diluted share -- still a significant decline from last year's $1.27 per diluted share.</p>
<p>Now what: There's no denying that the company's fiscal 2017 will be challenging amid facility consolidations, cost reduction and divestiture actions. However, on the bright side, the company noted growing partnerships with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Spirit AeroSystems -- three important top-tier customers. Investors can hope that after this nearly 20% decline, the company's new four-business unit structure will create more sustainable, and more profitable, financial performances in the quarters ahead -- but expect a bumpy road.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTwoCoins/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Miller Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Shares of Triumph Group Plunged 18% Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/28/why-shares-triumph-group-plunged-18-today.html | 2016-07-28 | 0 |
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<p>Veronica Velarde Tiller, shown in a scene from "A Thousand Voices," a PBS documentary about Native American women, created a guide to contemporary Indian tribes.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Historian and researcher Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, a Jicarilla Apache, has taken a long time to tell her story.</p>
<p>She's told and published the stories of her tribe and the 567 federally recognized tribes across the country, in her encyclopedic "Tiller's Guide to Indian Country," a third edition just released this month.</p>
<p>"It always seemed to me that Indian history stopped in the 1890s after the era of the big chiefs - like Chief Seattle, Sitting Bull, Geronimo - but there was no contemporary history," she says, explaining her mission of creating "Tiller's Guide to Indian Country."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The book, first published in 1996 and updated about every 10 years, provides a profile of each tribe, so that agencies and corporations, including the federal government, will know a little before they negotiate. It has been used by many, including the U.S. Supreme Court and cited in the court's findings.</p>
<p>"We're not invisible anymore," she says. "The Indian economic renaissance is a powerful success story of the resilience of the human spirit and the promise of America itself. Many tribes have lifted themselves out of poverty to develop their diverse businesses."</p>
<p>National expert LaDonna Harris, a Comanche and president emeritus of Americans for Indian Opportunity, says in the book's introduction that Tiller has helped the entire country become aware of contemporary Indian tribes.</p>
<p>Harris praises Tiller's wide-ranging research and writing, saying she has captured the transition of many tribes from relocation and termination to economic success: "Veronica Tiller has virtually singlehandedly stepped forth to provide material to fill that gap in curriculum materials for virtually every corner of America," she says, adding the guide should be available to governments, schools and libraries.</p>
<p>"All of us, Native and non-Native alike, should take pride in the tribal communities and economies described here because they represent what can happen when this country is willing to recognize mistakes, reverse course and allow the human spirit in each of us to flourish."</p>
<p>Veronica Velarde Tiller, right, attends the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco earlier this month with her husband, David Harrison, left, and actress Irene Bedard, center. Tiller accepted the Best Documentary Film award for Silver Bullet Productions of Santa Fe for "A Thousand Voices." Bedard narrated the film.</p>
<p>Assimilation</p>
<p>Now that Tiller has shepherded a third edition through to publishing, she plans to write her memoir.</p>
<p>"It's my story of assimilation, my view of the whole assimilation process," she says during an interview in a coffee shop near her Northeast Heights home. "It's how we live in two different worlds."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>She started telling parts of her story in "A Thousand Voices," an award-winning PBS documentary about Native American women in New Mexico.</p>
<p>Tiller, who went to boarding school in Dulce, N.M., shared some of those memories in the film.</p>
<p>"Today I couldn't think of the idea of my kids being separated from me when they were only 6 or 7 years old and putting them into an institution known as a boarding school. You might as well put them in prison," she says.</p>
<p>Tiller, who has two grown daughters, one in California and one in Colorado, survived boarding school and then took a job cleaning and helping an Albuquerque family so she could attend Valley High School. She went straight to the University of New Mexico, with the help of a tribal scholarship, after graduating from Valley in 1966.</p>
<p>Ten years later she became the first Jicarilla Apache to graduate with a doctorate in history. "Education was always a very important part of our lives. We were never told we couldn't do it, but there were obstacles. Poverty was the biggest one. I think the average American just doesn't understand how hard it was for us on the reservation. The poverty was so extreme."</p>
<p>Veronica Velarde Tiller, about 14, wears her ceremonial Jicarilla Apache dress in this 1964 photo.</p>
<p>Missing history</p>
<p>It was in high school that she began to understand that someone needed to write Native American history. "In my history class at Valley High School, we studied the presidents. I got so sick and tired of hearing about American presidents. There was nothing about New Mexico. There was nothing about the West and nothing at all about the Jicarilla Apaches. It seems to me the path of learning history is to see how you fit in. That's hard to do, if there's nothing about you or your people in the history books."</p>
<p>She remedied some of that ignorance, when her graduate school dissertation was published as a book about the Jicarilla Apache.</p>
<p>She says after New Mexico became a U.S. territory, the Jicarilla were moved around New Mexico, before being resettled in northern New Mexico, near their original lands.</p>
<p>"They tried to put us on Bosque Redondo with the Navajo, but the Jicarilla were so scattered, they could never round us all up," she says. "They tried to consolidate us with the Mescalero in southern New Mexico, but the Jicarilla didn't like it there."</p>
<p>She says her great-grandfather, Huerito Mundo, was one of the leaders who brokered a deal that allowed the Jicarilla to return to the north central part of the state.</p>
<p>She remembers a great-uncle, Garfield Velarde, who lived to return north and helped her family with his wisdom and healing. "I remember meeting him as a young girl. I was in awe of him. We went to see him for spiritual guidance or healing. He was a powerful medicine man."</p>
<p>She also plans to write a biography of Velarde.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Painful memories</p>
<p>She grew up on the reservation and when she was 5 her father died. With eight children, Tiller says her mother had a hard time even though they lived on a ranch. Part of their difficulties stemmed from tribal customs.</p>
<p>"They don't do this any more, but in the old days when the father, the husband, passes away you have to desert your house, because it belongs to the dead," she remembers. "According to our customs we abandoned the house in the winter of 1954."</p>
<p>She remembers the chill of living out of the back of a pickup truck. "We were on our own land, near the windmill. We had blankets, a fire and a little tent."</p>
<p>By the time all of the children were in boarding school, those winter and summer vacations were the hardest for her mother. "In the summers we didn't have anything to eat. Maybe if she had traded one of the cattle for a cow, it wouldn't have been so hard. There are things, that if my mom had known, (life) could have been easier."</p>
<p>Tiller remembers traveling to China when she was a professor at the University of Utah from 1976 to 1980. She identified with the Chinese woman who was their guide, because the woman was trying so hard to dress like her American guests, but failing in those early days of east-west cultural exchange, wearing mismatched prints and knee-high stockings. "I could identify with the way they lived and the way they dressed. We were like that growing up - thinking we were dressing like the other Americans. I laugh about it now, but it was painful then."</p>
<p>"In my view, it was sad, but it was also humorous," she explains of her youth. "In my memoir, I want to tell the good parts."</p>
<p>Family, home</p>
<p>Despite living in two worlds, she knew the love of her family and the open spaces of her home. "We didn't have a TV, but we had our animals and our horses. We loved our horses, running and racing. The wonderful thing about that huge family was that we were all friends. My brothers and sisters and I are all still friends."</p>
<p>She met her husband of 30 years, David Harrison, on a research trip to Washington, D.C., and discovered she was much more suited for research and writing than teaching in Utah.</p>
<p>Harrison, a member of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma, says he is proud of the work Tiller has done, because it has helped protect the resources of so many tribes. "We both started working for tribes throughout the West. Our interests converged and it's been going on like that ever since."</p>
<p>He says "Tiller's Guide" is respected around the country. "I'm incredibly proud of her. There is nothing of its kind anywhere to be found."</p>
<p /> | Raising her voice: Albuquerque author fulfills her mission to put Native Americans back in history books | false | https://abqjournal.com/682790/raising-her-voice.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>“Local mom makes $6,795/month part-time!” How? Easy! Posting links on websites. Helping charities raise money. Signing up friends. And really, it is possible — but then, so is winning the lottery this week.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Follow that ‘mom’ offer (how did they know what town I live in?) and you’ll find yourself on a page that explains how posting carefully crafted links around the Web can enable you to cash in on a cut of thousands of transactions — as an affiliate marketer. That’s not untrue. Get a friend to buy something from Amazon through your links and you can earn a small percentage of the transaction. Of course, to earn $6,795 a month that way, you would need more like 400,000 friends to buy something from Amazon. But click around for a while, and you will ultimately find the real point of the elaborate website: pay $40 a month (or $300 or a year!) and someone will teach you how to get 400,000 paying friends.</p>
<p>With 5% of Americans stuck in part-time jobs they wish were full-time, it’s no surprise that millions of Americans would be interested in work-at-home jobs to supplement their incomes. Stay-at-home-parents, the unemployed struggling in between jobs, small entrepreneurs hoping to get ahead — the potential target for work-at-home advertisements is enormous. That’s why you see the ads EVERYWHERE — all over Google, <a href="http://www.credit.com/personal-finance/3-dumb-things-you-can-do-with-email/?utm_source=Fox&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=IB_1&amp;utm_campaign=work_home_scam" type="external">your email inbox Opens a New Window.</a>, and even stapled to telephone poles around your town.</p>
<p>Why These Scams Work</p>
<p>Sure, most of these jobs are a scam. The vast majority are. But like all good scams, there’s a reason work-from-home ploys continue to survive — there’s a grain of truth in the offers. Heck, more than a grain of truth. Yes, you can make money working from home. It’s just very, very hard, and not at all lucrative unless you are also a scam participant. But it can be done. And that’s why the scams are so persuasive.</p>
<p>Christine Durst <a href="http://www.ratracerebellion.com/" type="external">runs the website RatRaceRebellion.com Opens a New Window.</a>, where she picks through thousands of scams in an attempt to find legitimate work-from-home jobs. She says for every one real opportunity, there are 60 scams.</p>
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<p>Not great odds. Better than winning the lottery. Barely.</p>
<p>What distinguishes a “real” work at home opportunity? That’s easy. Low pay, very hard work, and nothing you would really want to do long-term.</p>
<p>Even the “real” paying jobs often rely on a little sleight of hand. Durst says the most popular offering right now involves link posting.</p>
<p>“The real con comes after you’ve made the initial purchase — usually about $97 — and they call to try to upsell you with expensive and worthless coaching and training programs,” she said. “I’ve met people who have lost thousands of dollars on these schemes.”</p>
<p>Other popular offers involve helping <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/11/avoid-charity-scams/?utm_source=Fox&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=IB_3&amp;utm_campaign=work_home_scam" type="external">charities raise money Opens a New Window.</a>. One offer I read said (rather cynically) that fundraising is a $6 billion business.</p>
<p>“We’d like to show you how to start a profitable career in this tremendous industry,” it read. The example offered: get a high school football team to buy $9,000 worth of fundraising product, and you’ll earn $800 in commissions. The ad continues by claiming that one brand new distributor earned “$7,200 by simply making a few phone calls.” Want to find out how? Pay $367 to become a “gold distributor.” (Not only should that make wary of joining a work-at-home program, but it should give you pause before you buy that next fundraising product sold for your local school.)</p>
<p>It’s important to note that these work-from-home propositions aren’t fake — people do make real money working with these kinds of firms. They just aren’t what they seem, and you don’t want to be a sucker. In the end, most of these sites only offer to help you make money the old-fashioned way — by turning your friends into even bigger suckers. Forget selling charity products or products with links. You’ll make real money by selling training memberships to other people you know. In other words, you have to be in on it, too.</p>
<p>Don’t do that. It’s an easy way to lose friends. And in your desperation to finally close a sale and make back some of the money you’ve invested, you just might do something that is misleading or deceptive and end up with a legal problem. Remember, the folks who create these products are very careful and precise in how they word their offers, and often have lawyers keeping them on the right side of the law. You don’t.</p>
<p>So what’s a legitimate <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2014/08/how-to-make-an-extra-1000-a-month-91849/?utm_source=Fox&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=IB_4&amp;utm_campaign=work_home_scam" type="external">work-from-home Opens a New Window.</a> job? Writing, for one. Plenty of folks make $10 or $20 an hour writing blog posts. That’s hard work. Virtual assistants make about that much, too, doing annoying detail work for professionals like scheduling appointments. Translation services can be mildly lucrative, but you need a pretty specialized skill to do that. There’s even money to be made taking surveys, though we’re really talking pennies.</p>
<p>Tips for Spotting Scams</p>
<p>So how do you spot a scam? Your best rule of thumb is this: Anytime you have to pay money before you make money, you aren’t <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2014/10/how-your-job-search-could-threaten-your-identity-97695/?utm_source=Fox&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=IB_5&amp;utm_campaign=work_home_scam" type="external">applying for a real job Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Durst says some ads carry tell-tale <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2014/09/7-scams-that-just-wont-die-94638/?utm_source=Fox&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=IB_6&amp;utm_campaign=work_home_scam" type="external">signs they are scams Opens a New Window.</a>. If “work&#160;from&#160;home” appears in the title of the ad, for example, it’s probably a come-on. So are claims that no experience or resume are required, or ads that provide no job description at all. Finally, the most obvious tip-off of all: bikinis.</p>
<p>“Palm Trees, Mansions, Beaches &amp; Bikinis,” Durst&#160;says. “If the ad you’re looking at features palm trees, a mansion and a Ferrari, it’s probably a scam. Successful scammers often bag their prey by dangling enticing things in front of them – much like kidnappers do.”</p>
<p>Bob Sullivan is author of the New York Times best-sellers Gotcha Capitalism and Stop Getting Ripped Off. His stories have appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and hundreds of other publications. He has appeared as a consumer advocate and technology expert numerous times on NBC's TODAY show, NBC Nightly News, CNBC, NPR's Marketplace, Terry Gross' Fresh Air, and various other radio and TV outlets. He helped start MSNBC.com and wrote there for nearly 20 years, most of it penning the consumer advocacy column The Red Tape Chronicles. See more at <a href="http://www.bobsullivan.net" type="external">www.bobsullivan.net Opens a New Window.</a>.&#160;</p> | How to Spot a 'Work From Home' Scam | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/11/19/how-to-spot-work-from-home-scam.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
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<p>In the ongoing saga of drama surrounding the Clintons, Bill’s brother Roger was arrested for drunk driving in Southern California — one day before the state&#160;primary.</p>
<p>After being stopped by authorities in Redondo Beach, Roger Clinton reportedly refused to allow authorities to test his blood alcohol content, and remains behind bars with a bail set for $15,000.</p>
<p>Though his arrest will undoubtedly cause issues for <a href="" type="internal">Hillary Clinton</a> in California, the more controversial issue surrounds Bill Clinton’s <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010120/aponline104904_000.htm" type="external">pardoning</a> of his brother — on January 20, 2001 — the very day he left office.</p>
<p>Roger’s crime? In the mid-1980s, he was arrested after selling cocaine to an undercover police officer. But that’s not all.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB920423518737447500" type="external">Dan Lasater</a>, close friend of Bill, served time with Roger for cocaine-related crimes. But according to testimony, to say they were “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/06/millennials-meet-roger-clinton-hillarys-brother-in-law-who-just-got-arrested-once-again/" type="external">selling</a>” cocaine would be an extreme understatement.</p>
<p>“Dan Lasater, who was best friend of Bill Clinton, who went to jail with Roger Clinton for cocaine — and by the way, let me explain something,” <a href="" type="internal">Larry Nichols</a>, former Director of Marketing for the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, explained in a documentary, pointing to court documents, “they didn’t sell cocaine. No. They were giving it away. Huge piles of cocaine” in Lasater’s “office — huge piles of it at the parties. Ashtray upon ashtray full at the parties — and they would give it to young girls. That’s sick. I mean, they were giving a highly addictive drug to young girls.”</p>
<p>And, according to Doc DeLaughter, former Arkansas police investigator who headed the Dan Lasater case — and who witnessed testimony in court — the girls weren’t legal-age teens:</p>
<p>“One particular one comes to mind, was a fourteen-year-old cheerleader — I don’t know if [she was from] Little Rock — she was a virgin … and ultimately he ended up sending her to a physician of his. The physician put her on birth control pills. He used cocaine in order to, uh … ultimately she lost her virginity, and she got addicted to cocaine.”</p>
<p>Despite this rather damning scenario, which the aforementioned fourteen-year-old testified under oath about in court, Bill still somehow justified pardoning Roger.</p>
<p>“The last I heard of her,” Nichols continued, “when we had her subpoenaed back to the federal grand jury, she was a hooker in Lake Tahoe.”</p>
<p>DeLaughter discussed that grand jury testimony as follows:</p>
<p>“During the last investigation, we had numerous witnesses for the federal grand jury … had extensive testimony, of people that were connected with Lasater, drug use, and everything else. His cocaine use had become used as a tool, for sexual favors, and also for, uh, business deals [muffled] influence people. And that’s when Lasater had become quite flamboyant with his cocaine use, and ultimately led to his arrest and conviction.”</p>
<p>Remember, also, this narrative <a href="" type="internal">Nichols</a> explained was only one of the girls mentioned as having attended parties where Roger Clinton and Lasater made available free cocaine for anyone in attendance.</p>
<p>Roger pled guilty to the cocaine charge, as the Washington Post theorized, likely because the exchange had been captured in video footage, and ultimately served a year in prison.</p>
<p>Roger has also been arrested for drunk driving previously — just one month <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050228222449/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/02/22/burton.rich.02/" type="external">after</a> receiving the pardon from his brother.</p>
<p>As the questionable conduct of <a href="" type="internal">the Clinton family</a> continues to conspicuously top headlines, the motivation for Bill to pardon Roger is a pertinent point. While the former president touted a clamp down on such activity with the omnibus crime bill in 1994 — which arguably led to the rise of the modern prison-industrial complex — Bill has since controversially <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/09/12/347736999/20-years-later-major-crime-bill-viewed-as-terrible-mistake" type="external">backtracked</a>, calling the law ‘a terrible mistake.’ But reflecting back on the pardon of Roger Clinton should draw intense criticism, again.</p>
<p>Perhaps, at this point, the bigger headline would be finding out the Clintons weren’t involved in some shady or criminal behavior.</p>
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<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://thefreethoughtproject.com/bill-clinton-pardoned-brother-huge-cocaine-conspiracy-jail/" type="external">The Free Thought Project</a></p>
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<p /> | Bill Clinton Pardoned His Brother in Huge Cocaine Conspiracy — Now He’s In Jail Again | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2016/06/07/bill-clinton-pardoned-his-brother-in-huge-cocaine-conspiracy-now-hes-in-jail-again/ | 2016-06-07 | 0 |
<p>MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts ended up under friendly fire on Tuesday when his colleague Chris Matthews launched into a tirade against his own network for airing "goddamn" ads by rightwing groups.</p>
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<p>Matthews appeared irritable from the beginning of the segment on Roberts' afternoon show and brushed off small talk with his fellow host.</p>
<p>Moments earlier, Roberts had played an ad by by the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, which attacked GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul's foreign policy as insufficiently hawkish.</p>
<p>Matthews said that unlike the "piggish" elites of the Republican Party, average voters who send their children to war would not be interested in more hawkish foreign policy.</p>
<p>"Those people are not impressed by these goddamned ads," Matthews said, scowling.</p>
<p>"I certainly wouldn't put them on free, Tom. That's what we should stop doing," Matthews added in an apparent reference to the clip that had been played. "Stop running rightwing ads for free on our network."</p>
<p>Roberts tried to get a word in, naming the group behind the ad.</p>
<p>"What the hell is that?" Matthews interrupted. "Come on."</p>
<p>Roberts laughed nervously.</p>
<p>"They're all front groups. They're hawkish, rightwing front groups," Matthews said. "Let's not pretend like some nice people got together and thought we oughta go to war, and nation-build, and knock off another government."</p>
<p>Watch the clip:</p>
<p /> | Chris Matthews Shames MSNBC For Airing 'Goddamn' Rightwing Ads (VIDEO) | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chris-matthews-goddamn-ads-msnbc-rand-paul | 4 |
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<p><a href="http://crashtheparty.org/post/16767434921/fred-thompson-republicans-third-party-debate" type="external">#CrashTheParty: "People don't have confidence in either party"-Sen. Fred Thompson</a></p>
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<p>Former Senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson tells us, "A lot of people don't have a lot of confidence in either party. But it's our job to convince them that it doesn't have to be this way."</p>
<p>We spoke with Thompson about the two-party systaem after the Republican presidential?</p> | #CrashTheParty: 'People don't have confidence in either party'-Sen. Fred Thompson | false | https://ivn.us/2012/01/30/crashtheparty-people-dont-have-confidence-in-either-party-sen-fred-thompson/ | 2012-01-30 | 2 |
<p>Quotient founder Steven Boal on the state of the retail sector.</p>
<p>As the holiday shopping season quickly approaches, a new report finds more holiday shoppers are turned off by Black Friday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Only 35% of shoppers intend to do most of their shopping on Black Friday this year, according to PwC, down from 59% in 2015.</p>
<p>Steven Boal, founder of Quotient, says Black Friday deals are no longer restricted to one day, telling the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, “It sure feels like every day is Black Friday.&#160;In fact, I got an email this morning from Walmart saying ‘here’s your Black Friday circular in advance, but deals are on sale now, come look at them.’”</p>
<p>When Bartiromo asked if this was a result of the Amazon effect, Boal responded, “It’s certainly getting interesting, you know, with Amazon and Whole Foods particularly locking up recently.”</p>
<p>Boal says it is also a broader “technology effect” on the brick-and-mortar retailers, saying on “Mornings with Maria,”“As it stands today, retailers are knowing their shoppers so well and they know them before they walk into the stores, they can actually have an influence on what they’re going to buy right before they even get into the store.&#160;It almost feels like you’re getting a Black Friday deal that’s personalized to you all the time now.”</p>
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<p>According to Boal, brick-and-mortar retailers have to improve the customer experience, beginning in the parking lot, to be able to compete against Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).</p>
<p>“The experience has to be very good because the barrier is so high right now.&#160;It’s very easy for you to get online and order something and with free shipping and expedited shipping and like you said before, the ‘Amazon effect,’ you know, you can get things delivered in two or three hours now.”</p>
<p>But Amazon may need to prepare for the comeback of Walmart (NYSE:WMT).</p>
<p>“What I think people should pay attention to now is Walmart’s getting a lot of its mojo back with their acquisition of Jet.com and Mark Lowry joining that company… he’s having a big effect on the changes that are going on.”</p> | Amazon shifting consumer landscape of Black Friday | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/09/amazon-shifting-consumer-landscape-black-friday.html | 2017-11-09 | 0 |
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<p>The problem is not that Middle America is indifferent to the well-being of the planet or more frequent natural disasters; the problem is that most climate and environmental advocates are indifferent to the needs of Middle America.</p>
<p>Many environmentalists argue that the best way to address climate change is for Americans to change their lifestyles and make sacrifices for the good of the planet. Americans are told they must consume less, waste less and spend more to buy clean energy. While David Brooks’ “Bourgeois Bohemians” may be able to retrofit their homes with solar panels and drive Chevy Volts, most of us can’t.</p>
<p>The recession has Americans prioritizing the economy over the environment. Gallup noted in March that since 2009 Americans have favored economic growth over environmental protection, after nearly 30 years of public opinion showing the opposite.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Yet the same month, a survey revealed that 72 percent of Americans think addressing climate change should be a priority. In other words, most Americans want action against climate change, but they are hesitant to support policies that force them to make lifestyle changes.</p>
<p>This doesn’t stack up well against the climate policies that most environmentalists overwhelmingly support. Had Congress passed cap-and-trade legislation in 2009, energy prices would have increased as much as 20 percent in some states, according to an analysis by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon. A national Clean Energy Standard would raise electricity prices by up to 30 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration.</p>
<p>Little surprise, then, that policymakers and voters are wary of climate-change policy; it’s become a hair shirt that Americans are expected to wear for the “good of the planet.” Middle America has long been told what not to do: not to buy incandescent light bulbs, drive gas-guzzling cars and trucks, or use dirty energy. Instead, many Americans want policies that give them viable clean-energy choices to fight climate change without making it harder to pay the bills.</p>
<p>Luckily, such a strategy is not only possible, but it is also the only way for the United States to play its role in mitigating climate change. This Middle America climate-change strategy follows two principles.</p>
<p>First, the policy goal should be to provide clean-energy choices that are no more expensive than today’s carbon-based fuels. According to an April report from the Breakthrough Institute, a California-based think tank, wind power (without subsidies) typically costs 15 percent to 73 percent more than an advanced natural gas plant. Utility-scale solar power costs upward of 73 percent to 248 percent more. Costs are significantly higher when expensive energy storage is added in. Electric vehicles can cost up to twice as much as a gasoline equivalent and don’t provide the same range and refueling flexibility as gasoline-powered cars. In short, today’s clean-energy technologies are simply not cost- and performance-competitive, even with subsidies.</p>
<p>Second, the best way to make clean energy ready for prime time is through public investments in innovation. Climate-change policy must aggressively support developing better clean-energy choices, not propping up today’s Edsels. Look no further than the shale natural gas boom. For almost 30 years the federal government aggressively invested in the research and development of breakthrough drilling techniques and partnered with industry to demonstrate new technologies.</p>
<p>The result? Between January and May, U.S. carbon emissions fell to a 20-year low; 48 percent of that resulted from substituting coal for cheap shale natural gas, while little, if any, came from deploying subsidized wind and solar, according to Michael Levi, the director of the climate change program at the Council on Foreign Relations.</p>
<p>No one is against clean-energy innovation, but support cannot be fleeting or shallow. Instead, if we are to get affordable and effective clean-energy technologies, federal support needs to shift away from propping up inferior technology and toward funding the research and development necessary to achieve superior technology.</p>
<p>This will require at least three times the current federal investment in such R&amp;D as well as a cohesive policy strategy that links technology development to commercialization.</p>
<p>To those who say we can’t afford this in a time of budget constraints, one answer would be to shift much of the estimated $11 billion spent this year on subsidizing high-cost clean-energy technologies and the roughly $5 billion in tax breaks provided to mature fossil fuels to clean-energy research, development, prototyping, testing and demonstration projects.</p>
<p>As long as environmentalists keep pushing a policy agenda that fails to provide Americans with better choices, voters and elected officials will keep kicking the can down the road. A smarter strategy would be to re-envision U.S. climate policy as a vehicle for innovating cheaper and better clean-energy options for all Americans, not just those who can afford them.</p>
<p>The writer is a senior policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.</p> | Clean-Energy Choice Is the Future | false | https://abqjournal.com/145721/cleanenergy-choice-is-the-future.html | 2012-11-12 | 2 |
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<p>In November and December, traditionally a slow period for films, the state will see 10 productions in various stages of the filming process – pre-production, principal photography or post-production.</p>
<p>“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” said Nick Maniatis, New Mexico Film Office director.</p>
<p>Those 10 productions – three movies and seven television shows – translate into more than 13,000 part-time and full-time jobs.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And many of the productions are repeat customers.</p>
<p>For instance, “Soldado,” the sequel to the Oscar-nominated film “Sicario,” recently began filming in the Duke City.</p>
<p>The same is true for television shows. Sony Pictures is producing the third season of “Better Call Saul,” the spin-off of the five-season blockbuster “Breaking Bad.”</p>
<p>NBC Universal recreated a street scene to use for its highly anticipated show, “Midnight, Texas.” (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)</p>
<p>And NBC Universal, which is responsible for “In Plain Sight” and “The Night Shift,” is in the middle of production on the highly anticipated freshman series “Midnight, Texas.”</p>
<p>Maniatis said the surge is due to a combination of factors.</p>
<p>“The productions are comfortable with our program and know how it works,” he said. “They know how good our crew is and how good our facilities are. It’s a win all around.”</p>
<p>The influx of films may also be tied to other states tinkering with their incentive packages.</p>
<p>Louisiana, which has been a force in the film industry, has suffered a downturn since mid-2015. Legislators there passed a law aimed to control ballooning costs for its generous incentive program and eventually placed a yearly cap of $180 million on payouts to film companies.</p>
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<p>While the cap remains much higher than New Mexico’s, just the uncertainty of lawmakers discussing changes can dampen film interest, said Maniatis.</p>
<p>The budget for “Soldado” budget is estimated around $30 million and it is expected to take three months to film here.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, one week of filming a TV production funnels $1 million into the community, according to the Albuquerque Film Office.</p>
<p>A single episode usually takes eight days to shoot. Newer shows pour even more money into the production through startup costs. And the state’s film incentives – a 30 percent tax rebate on all New Mexico goods and services, and a $50 million cap on incentives – remains one of the most stable in the country.</p>
<p>“Louisiana is dealing with what we saw in 2011,” Maniatis said, referring to New Mexico lawmakers’ discussion and eventual altering of incentives. “When you start to make changes, film companies take notice. It will take them (Louisiana) two or three years to recover. We may be reaping some of the benefit of the fallout.”</p>
<p>Thousands of workers</p>
<p>Albuquerque Studios currently has all of its studios in use. The entire state is seeing an influx of TV and film productions. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)</p>
<p>Since Oct. 31, the NM Film Office has announced the productions “Midnight, Texas,” “Soldado,” “Get Shorty” and “Monsters of God.”</p>
<p>Those four productions alone will hire a total 7,400 background actors and employ 1,064 crew members.</p>
<p>This is in addition to the current productions “Better Call Saul,” “Cliffs of Freedom” and “Godless,” which are hiring 3,150 background actors and 580 crew members.</p>
<p>Maniatis said it helps that each production is at a different point in the process.</p>
<p>“Some of the productions will pick up many of the crew members once they’re done. It’s designed to keep New Mexicans working.”</p>
<p>The film office keeps track of all the productions in the state and those coming.</p>
<p>“We work with those that are interested in coming here,” he said. “It’s like putting together a puzzle. We will have to ask productions to push two weeks until another project is done. We help create jobs and, in my estimation, that’s our most important mission.”</p>
<p>Full house</p>
<p>Albuquerque Studios has had one of its busiest years and all nine stages are full.</p>
<p>Matt Rauchberg, senior vice president for business development at Albuquerque Studios, said all the state’s studios basically are busy.</p>
<p>“Santa Fe (Studios) is full. Garson (Studios) is full,” he said. “I-25 Studios has a production coming in,” Rauchberg says.</p>
<p>NBC Universal spent about $2. 5 million on building a set in the back lot of Albuquerque Studios for “Midnight, Texas.” (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)</p>
<p>One of the exciting things for Rauchberg is the new back lot that “Midnight, Texas” built on the property.</p>
<p>Just behind studios 6 and 7, NBC Universal spent $2.5 million building a Western street for the TV series.</p>
<p>“The buildings continue to demonstrate how we are building our infrastructure and facilities,” Rauchberg said. “We’ll have tremendous interior sets and a modern Western street. It’s an asset.”</p>
<p>Rauchberg pointed to improved production talent, as well.</p>
<p>“We have spent 10 years building skilled crew and some of the best sound stages,” he said. “We couldn’t do this volume of high-end TV without the skilled crew.”</p>
<p>No sign of slowdown</p>
<p>Maniatis doesn’t see any signs of slowing down.</p>
<p>He and his staff are constantly looking for new productions to lure to New Mexico.</p>
<p>“We have a lot of interest in the state and we’ve been putting out a lot of great work,” he said. “We will also go after a show. I wanted to get ‘Westworld’ on HBO and I tried to bring Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ here. Those didn’t work out, but we’re trying.”</p>
<p>Maniatis’ goal is to bring film projects to the entire state.</p>
<p>“When ‘Batman v Superman’ went to Deming, I was thrilled,” he said. “Recently, ‘Hostiles’ went up to Farmington. I met with people in Gallup on how to get productions there. Albuquerque and Santa Fe will always get their fair share. I am trying to spread it around.”</p>
<p>The state is coming off a second record year for the film industry.</p>
<p>In fiscal year 2016, which ended July 1, the direct spend into the state economy reached $387 million.</p>
<p>That’s up from fiscal year 2015’s record high of $288 million.</p>
<p>Maniatis hopes there will be another record for fiscal year 2017.</p>
<p>“The whole industry is about creating jobs,” he said. “This is one of the biggest job creators in the state. And it’s growing.”</p>
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<p /> | ABQ film biz keeps rolling | false | https://abqjournal.com/887812/abq-film-bi-zkeeps-rolling-2.html | 2 |
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<p>The shop is located at 12418 N.M. 14 in Cedar Crest next to Sandia Artisans.</p>
<p>Sacramento Mountain Weavers was started in Cloudcroft in 2007 by Kelly Stewart and Kenny Nix. They bring their yarn in from the Mora Mill near Taos and dye it themselves.</p>
<p>Kenny Nix, left, and Kelly Stewart recently relocated their shop, Sacramento Mountain Weavers, to Cedar Crest. The shop has been located in Cloudcroft and locations in Albuquerque. (Nicole Maxwell/Mountain View Telegraph)</p>
<p>They recently moved the shop from the Hoffmantown Shopping Center in Albuquerque on Menaul and Wyoming. The Cedar Crest location opened Sept. 1.</p>
<p>“We like the mountain feel, it’s like being back in Cloudcroft,” Nix said. Stewart agreed. “We love being back here,” Stewart said.</p>
<p>Nix and Stewart host several artists in their shop, including Marita Parisi, Fred Black, Gayle and Sherry Bone, Pam Schrode, and Julie and Ashley Cloutman. Black was recently certified New Mexico True.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The personality of the weaver comes out in the weavings, even if the same product is used,” Stewart said.</p>
<p>The shop is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Nix and Stewart take commissions and items can be purchased through their website <a href="http://www.sacramentomountainweavers.com" type="external">sacramentomountainweavers.com</a>.</p>
<p>For information, call 933-1666.</p>
<p /> | Wool wonderland moves to East Mountains | false | https://abqjournal.com/867867/wool-wonderland-moves-to-east-mountains.html | 2 |
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<p>Report Chapter - The Law Reviews</p>
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<p>"Although not universally acknowledged, the US commercial privacy regime is arguably the oldest, most robust, well developed and effective in the world. The US privacy system has a relatively flexible and non-prescriptive nature, relying more on post hoc government enforcement and private litigation, and on the corresponding deterrent value of such enforcement and litigation, than on detailed prohibitions and rules. With certain notable exceptions, the US system does not apply a ‘precautionary principle’ to protect privacy, but rather allows injured parties (and government agencies) to bring legal action to recover damages for, or enjoin a party from, ‘unfair or deceptive’ business practices."</p>
<p /> | The Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity Law Review | false | http://belfercenter.org/publication/privacy-data-protection-and-cybersecurity-law-review | 2015-11-01 | 2 |
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<p>Recently <a href="http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/06/anonymous-takes-down-world-cup-related-brazilian-sites/" type="external">the hacktivist group Anonymous took down a slew of World Cup associated, and Brazilian government websites</a>. Many outside of South America were left wondering what FIFA and the World Cup had done to get in the crosshairs of both Anonymous and thousands of protestors this year.</p>
<p>One image has answered that question for many social media users. It brings into sharp focus the insane levels of inequality that plague the country.</p>
<p>Many on Twitter have captioned the photo “the two faces of Brazil” or “Las dos caras de Brasil.”</p>
<p>The image shows fans throwing trash into a dumpster where a young, apparently homeless woman is living, or scavenging for food.</p>
<p>The picture was originally snapped during the Confederation’s Cup tournament which was held in Brazil last year, but it’s&#160;re-emergence is further evidence of a growing backlash against the World Cup by many ordinary Brazilians who are angry at the nation’s decision to spend lavishly on the tournament while there is so much poverty and income inequality throughout the country.</p> | This One World Cup Image Says It ALL About Brazil’s Inequality | true | http://politicalblindspot.com/this-one-world-cup-image-says-it-all-about-brazils-inequality/ | 2014-06-16 | 4 |
<p />
<p>As many readers probably know, on July 31, freelancer Shane Bauer, Sara Shourd and Joshua Fattal accidently crossed the Iraqi border into Iran where they are currently held. (Shane’s article <a href="/politics/2009/09/sheik-down" type="external">“The Sheikh Down”</a> is in the current issue).</p>
<p>To follow news about the three, or if you’d like to tweet messages of support for them and for their families (highly encouraged), please use the twitter hashtag #ssj (the first letter of each of their first names).</p>
<p>Oh, and please RT word about the new hashtag! The more voices of concern, the sooner the three are likely to return.</p>
<p>Earlier today, the State Department issued the message below. (I learned of it from someone who tweeted using #ssj.)</p>
<p>Missing and Detained Americans in Iran</p>
<p>Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State Washington, DC August 15, 2009</p>
<p>The United States is deeply concerned about the welfare of our American citizens who have been detained or are missing in Iran. We once again urge Iran’s leadership to quickly resolve all outstanding American citizen cases.</p>
<p>This includes the case of the American scholar, Kian Tajbakhsh, who has spent his career working to enhance mutual understanding between Iran and the United States. The government of Iran should immediately release Mr. Tajbakhsh from detention and allow him to depart Iran to continue his academic pursuits.</p>
<p>Regarding the three American hikers, Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer, and Sarah Shourd, who were detained by Iranian authorities on July 31, we once again call on the Iranian government to live up to its obligations under the Vienna Convention by granting consular access and releasing these three young Americans without further delay.</p>
<p>We also remain concerned about the case of Robert Levinson, who has been missing in Iran since March 9, 2007. We call on the Government of Iran to assist in providing any information on his whereabouts and in ensuring his prompt return to the United States.</p>
<p>Our goal is to ensure the safe return of all our missing or unjustly detained American citizens to the United States as quickly as possible so that they can be reunited with their families. &#160;</p>
<p /> | #SSJ | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/ssj/ | 2009-08-15 | 4 |
<p>WACO, Texas—Renowned evangelical philosopher Francis Beckwith has become a Roman Catholic and, as a result, has resigned as president—and also as a member—of the Evangelical Theological Society.</p>
<p>Beckwith, associate professor of church-state studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, said the decision he made to seek “full communion” with the Roman Catholic Church grew from his desire to find “historical and theological continuity” with the early Christian church.</p>
<p>Beckwith, famous for his arguments against abortion and for intelligent design, has been a leading figure in the ETS, the prominent academic society for conservative Protestants.</p>
<p>But his views on the church and society, which he acknowledged are “Catholic-friendly,” have drawn criticism from some Baptists. He served as associate director of Baylor's J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies from 2003 to early 2007, despite protests from descendents of the institute's namesake, who said Beckwith's views denied church-state separation. His application for tenure at Baylor was first denied but granted on appeal.</p>
<p>Because Beckwith was a Catholic in his youth, he needed only to go to confession and receive absolution to become Catholic again, he said. Even after returning to his Roman Catholic faith, he planned to remain a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, he said, “because I can in good conscience, as a Catholic, affirm the ETS doctrinal statement.”</p>
<p>The statement, signed by ETS's 4,100 members, affirms the doctrine of the Trinity and that “the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs.”</p>
<p>Beckwith said on his blog May 5 that he was planning to wait until after his presidential term was over in November to make the move because “I wanted to make sure that my return to the Church brought as little attention to ETS as possible.” But then, he continued, “my 16-year-old nephew, Dean Beckwith, called me and asked if I would be his sponsor when he receives the sacrament of Confirmation on May 13”—a role that requires good standing in the Catholic Church.</p>
<p>Rather than tell his “dear nephew” no, Beckwith said, he decided to return to Catholicism April 29, when he and his wife, Frankie, presented themselves at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Waco. “My wife, a baptized Presbyterian, is going through the process of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults,” Beckwith wrote.</p>
<p>As word of his conversion spread, however, attracting some negative attention from evangelical bloggers, he decided to resign his ETS presidency and membership immediately.</p>
<p>“Although I firmly believe that I can sign the ETS doctrinal statement in good conscience, my high-profile presence in ETS will likely result in … public conflict…,” he said May 7 on his blog.</p>
<p>“Because, as I noted in my prior posting on this matter, that I deeply desire a public conversation among Christians about the relationship between Evangelicalism and the Great Tradition, a public debate about my membership status, with all the rancor and stress that typically goes with such disputes, would preempt and poison that important conversation,” he wrote. “For this reason, I am resigning as a member of ETS.”</p>
<p>The ETS executive committee issued a response May 8 praising Beckwith but calling his resignation “appropriate” in light of the differing belief systems of evangelicals and Catholics.</p>
<p>Beckwith, a member of the ETS since 1984. He said his return to Catholicism was unexpected.</p>
<p>“[M]y work in philosophy, ethics, and theology has always been Catholic-friendly, but I would have never predicted that I would return to the Church, for there seemed to me too many theological and ecclesiastical issues that appeared insurmountable,” he said in his blog. “However, in January, at the suggestion of a dear friend, I began reading the Early Church Fathers as well as some of the more sophisticated works on justification by Catholic authors.</p>
<p>“I became convinced that the Early Church is more Catholic than Protestant and that the Catholic view of justification, correctly understood, is biblically and historically defensible. Even though I also believe that the Reformed view is biblically and historically defensible, I think the Catholic view has more explanatory power to account for both all the biblical texts on justification as well as the church's historical understanding of salvation prior to the Reformation all the way back to the ancient church of the first few centuries.”</p> | Baylor professor becomes Catholic, resigns as head of evangelical group | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/baylorprofessorbecomescatholicresignsasheadofevangelicalgroup/ | 3 |
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<p>Image source: P&amp;G.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Procter &amp; Gamble (NYSE: PG) is on track to close out another year of weak stock price gains. With just a few trading days to go in 2016, its 7% increase amounts to about half of the Dow's advance.</p>
<p>Despite huge direct cash returns to shareholders, the consumer goods titan hasn't been able to reward its owners with solid growth lately.</p>
<p>Instead, it lost market share in a stubbornly slow-growth industry environment.</p>
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<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PG" type="external">PG</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>This hasn't been just a recent struggle, as P&amp;G undershot its core sales and profit growth targets in each of the last two fiscal years. As a result, the stock has underperformed the broader Dow over the last 5-year and 10-year time frames. Add dividends into the mix, and the gap closes, but P&amp;G still trails its index.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PG/revenues_ttm" type="external">PG Revenue (TTM)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a>.</p>
<p>Revenue is down by over 20% since 2011. Some of that decline can be tied to currency devaluations, which aren't within the company's control. Another part of the slump came from strategic moves aimed at slimming down the product portfolio to a more manageable, more profitable size.</p>
<p>However, P&amp;G has also lost market share in each of the last two fiscal years, with organic growth slowing to a 1% pace last year. Rivals Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and Unilever (NYSE: UL), meanwhile, have been consistently growing at between 3% and 5% each year, and both project similar gains ahead in 2017.</p>
<p>Image source: P&amp;G investor presentation.</p>
<p>The many pressures on its business resulted in a slight decline in core earnings in each of the last two years. P&amp;G's stated target is for profits to rise in the high single-digit range each year, and yet they fell by 2% in fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2016. Executives are optimistic that the current year will finally bring a return to form, with core earnings projected to rise about 6%.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PG/cost_of_goods_sold_ttm" type="external">PG Cost of Goods Sold (TTM)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a>.</p>
<p>P&amp;G has sliced billions of dollars out of its cost infrastructure through initiatives like reducing its workforce, using more automation in its production process, and dramatically simplifying its supply chain. Savings have yielded over $8 billion since the efficiency projects began about five years ago, and P&amp;G <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/16/procter-gamble-cos-plan-to-save-10-billion.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">plans to remove an additional $10 billion Opens a New Window.</a> from its expenses over the next five fiscal years.</p>
<p>Data source: Company financial filings.</p>
<p>Cost cuts have bought P&amp;G precious space to continue investing in the business during a multiyear slowdown in the industry. Its dividend growth pace took a major step down, though. This year's 1% uptick was the weakest in modern time for P&amp;G shareholders. While the boost kept the company's impressive 60-year growth streak alive, a payout ratio that crested 100% of earnings forced management to take a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/13/procter-gamble-cos-dividend-3-reasons-to-expect-a.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">conservative approach to dividend growth Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PG/average_shares_outs_diluted_annual" type="external">PG Average Diluted Shares Outstanding (Annual)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a>.</p>
<p>Procter &amp; Gamble is spending aggressively to retire its stock. It directed an average of $12 billion per year toward cash returns since fiscal 2011, most of which was aimed at share buybacks. That annual figure is <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/29/how-procter-gamble-co-plans-to-deliver-22-billion.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">rising to $14 billion Opens a New Window.</a> over the coming years thanks to the almost $10 billion of cash that P&amp;G raised through selling off many of its brands. As a result, P&amp;G's share count is trending lower, which has helped protect investors from a more dramatic drop in per-share profits.</p>
<p>Solid cash returns to shareholders are likely to continue thanks to the company's world-class operating strength. However, market-beating capital gains aren't likely until P&amp;G can find a way to return to an organic sales growth pace that at least modestly outperforms the markets in which it competes.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Procter and Gamble When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=bc02a56a-4edb-46d4-a9e1-8824e3298396&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of Nov. 7, 2016.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSigma/info.aspx" type="external">Demitrios Kalogeropoulos Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Kimberly-Clark and Unilever. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Procter & Gamble Co. in 6 Charts | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/20/procter-gamble-co-in-6-charts.html | 2016-12-20 | 0 |
<p>The woman sobbed quietly into her hands for a few minutes. Composing herself as best she could, she looked into the eyes of the 18-year-old.</p>
<p>“I forgive you,” she declared. “But you are going to have to prove to me and to the community that you won’t do something like this again.”</p>
<p>This scenario is the heart of restorative justice — an opportunity to restore broken relationships, to stop destructive behaviors early and to repair as much of the harm done to victims as possible.</p>
<p>But the definition and focus of this form of redress for crime depend upon who leads the effort. Some state governments and ministries deal primarily with legislation. Some focus on victims; others include all prison-related ministries and outreach efforts.</p>
<p>The Restorative Justice Ministry Network of North America is considered among the leading authorities on the concept in the United States. Emmett Solomon began the ministry shortly after retiring as director of chaplains for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in 1993. He wanted to provide a network for all individuals and churches doing any form of jail and prison ministry.</p>
<p>The network now includes more than 60,000 people, ministries and churches. Solomon helps facilitate connections among ministries and the prison system, and he offers restorative justice conferences and training throughout the year.</p>
<p>His network website ( <a href="http://www.rjmn/" type="external">www.rjmn</a>. net) lists all member ministries from across North America and their contact information.</p>
<p>Restorative justice, according to Solomon, is a systematic response that emphasizes healing of the victim, the community and the offender. The network encourages programs that focus on repairing the harm done, that involve all three groups affected and that help transform the current judicial system by getting the community more directly involved in government solutions.</p>
<p>Solomon encourages each ministry or person interested in applying restorative justice concepts to answer three questions that touch the three aspects of each crime:</p>
<p>What will it take to restore the peace in the community broken by the crime?</p>
<p>What will it take to restore the victim’s autonomy?</p>
<p>What will it take to eventually restore the offender to the community?</p>
<p>Regardless of the approach — victim, offender or community — the restorative justice concept ultimately targets change at the corrections system itself.</p>
<p>The Restorative Justice Ministry Network cites a March 29 Parade magazine story that estimates the U.S. prison population at 2.3 million, nearly five times the world average. Currently, the U.S. system tends to focus on retributive justice — the Old Testament eye-for-an-eye concept — in which an offender pays for the crime by living behind bars.</p>
<p>Not only is the incarceration rate higher, under the current U.S. system, offenders are likely to commit additional crimes once released. In December 2007, the U.S. Justice Department noted two-thirds of released prisoners would commit a crime within the first three years.</p>
<p>Solomon believes the incarceration rate proves retribution or revenge-based punishment doesn’t work. The restorative justice philosophy does not let criminals go free. Instead, it holds the offender accountable and provides a means for him or her to repay the debt. It also provides opportunities for the offender to change his or her attitudes toward community and tries to help build or restore the bonds between the offender and his or her family and social group.</p>
<p>Several state governments have implemented restorative justice practices, often relying on assistance from not-for-profit and faith-based organizations. A majority of state governments seems to allow some form of restorative justice activity or ministry. About half provide some funding or programming. And at least 21 states offer victim/offender dialogs and reparative activities, according to Jeananne Markway, reentry/restorative justice coordinator for the Missouri Department of Corrections.</p>
<p>Missouri was one of the first states to implement restorative activities as program options for offenders in all its adult facilities. Inmates at each institution can choose to participate in programs either initiated by outside groups or that are supported by donations from those groups.</p>
<p>Each year since 1997, more than 14,000 offenders have provided about 200,000 volunteer hours to assist several agencies and victims. Offenders make quilts, wooden toys, educational materials and other items, and participate in several additional projects.</p>
<p>“We remind everyone to bring it back to the victim,” Markway explained.</p>
<p>Programs are not forced on offenders. Instead, they must willingly participate.</p>
<p>“Inmates are attracted to and willing to work for the elderly and children,” she added.</p>
<p>Colorado also provides some resources for restorative justice. The state offers a facility for its program, known as the Longmont Community Justice Partnership. Inmates who are willing to take responsibility for their crime are sent to Longmont where they are given an opportunity to meet their victims and/or representatives from the community.</p>
<p>They learn the impact of their crime and agree to conditions to repair the harm they caused. According to that state’s statistics, an&#160; average&#160; of&#160; 90&#160; percent of those who enter it and sign an agreement complete the program and are accepted into their communities. The average rate of re-arrest stands at only 10 percent.</p>
<p>Missouri gives all crime victims an opportunity to make a statement to the court about the crime’s impact on their lives and families. Victims also are granted an opportunity to speak to the Impact of Crime on Victims classes for offenders.</p>
<p>The 40-hour curriculum is divided into 10 classes that help offenders develop sensitivity to victims, respect for the rights of others and an understanding that actions demand accountability.</p>
<p>“The class helps them see the ripple effect,” Markway explained. “Victims share their stories about what the crime has done to them. … Victims play a very important role … to let offenders know the impact and the pain their crime has caused.”</p>
<p>Offenders “must learn that they have to make choices … and that there is no justification for any crime — not abuse, not poverty, nothing that they have gone through. So many started out as victims themselves. They have to discover that there are positive ways to get help,” she added.</p>
<p>Many states, including Missouri and Texas, allow victims to speak directly to the offender. Usually, victims must initiate any meeting, and each side must agree to it. Often, the meeting will open additional dialog between attorneys and prosecutors. Sometimes the session will help direct sentencing.</p>
<p>Some states, such as Virginia, do not have formal restorative policies or programs in place. The Virginia Department of Corrections tends to see the face-to-face meeting as a formal approach to restorative justice. “We handle that on a case-by-case basis,” communications director Larry Traylor noted.</p>
<p>However, outside programs are welcomed. Churches and groups may contact chaplain services and submit a request to offer a program through a local correctional institution or through the state, Traylor said.</p>
<p>Most states that offer programs rely on some sort of funding through the groups that assist. Most restorative justice programs in Colorado raise money through outside donations.</p>
<p>In Missouri, the system relies on groups to contribute necessary materials, even for items that are donated to public schools. Kid Smart, a St. Louis-area organization, provides the raw materials for inmates to create school supplies such as flash cards, journals and other items.</p>
<p>People and groups donate fabric, yarn, thread, wood, nails and other supplies so inmates can create toys, backpacks and blankets for children or lap quilts for veterans hospitals.</p>
<p>Offenders in nine Missouri institutions have developed restorative justice gardens. Seeds, fertilizer and implements are donated. The more than 200,000 pounds of produce grown make a difference in food pantries and domestic violence shelters across the state.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">Vicki Brown</a> is managing editor of Missouri Baptists’ Word &amp; Way.</p> | Restorative justice aims to heal broken relationships, stop destructive behavior | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/restorativejusticeaimstohealbrokenrelationshipsstopdestructivebehavior/ | 3 |
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<p>On Tuesday night, he swept Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin – states that voted twice for Barack Obama and that rank near the top in manufacturing jobs. Although his promise to restore the glory days of building cars and pouring steel sometimes made him sound like a guy who learned about past-their-prime factory towns by watching “Roger &amp; Me” and listening to “Born in the U.S.A.,” he tapped into a still-strong nostalgia for a time when a young man could go straight from high school to an industrial job that paid enough to support a family.</p>
<p>When Trump Force One flew into Flint, Michigan, in August 2015 for the Genesee County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, the man who’s now president-elect told an anecdote about seeing “boatloads” of Japanese cars in the Port of Los Angeles, then promised to stop Ford from investing $2.5 billion in Mexican engine plants. He knew his audience.</p>
<p>“Mexico is killing us on trade,” Trump said to cheers from 3,000 listeners, the biggest Lincoln Day crowd in the county’s history. “Mexico is the new China . . . They’re taking our factories, and they’re rebuilding these massive plants in Mexico.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“My brothers went to GM out of high school,” said Genesee County Republican Party Chairman Michael Moon, who invited Trump to Michigan. “By 1980, that was over. We’ve lost a ton of manufacturing jobs out of this state. They went to Mexico. We’re gonna get killed by these countries. Getting involved in the global economy, you’ve got to have some kind of national pride. We’ll take care of our own country, then if there’s something left for you, we’ll take care of you.”</p>
<p>Clinton, on the other hand, seemed to take the Upper Midwest for granted, never campaigning in Wisconsin and finally making a panicky visit to Detroit on the Friday before the election. In the 1980s, Michigan was the forging ground of the Reagan Democrats: hawkish, socially conservative, suburban, blue-collar workers who ignored the United Auto Workers’ entreaties to vote for Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. (Their heartland, Macomb County, just north of Detroit, voted for Obama in 2012 but gave Trump 54 percent of its vote on Tuesday.)</p>
<p>If there’s such a thing as a Trump Democrat, he’s exemplified by Bill Peek, a UAW member who worked 41 years for General Motors at the Saginaw Central Foundry. Peek’s favorite president was John F. Kennedy “because he went toe to toe with the Russians,” and he voted once for Bill Clinton. But he voted for Trump. He liked Trump’s stands on immigration (“The immigrants coming over here, the illegal ones, when is our people gonna get fed?”), on China (“They keep loaning us money; they’re going to own the United States”), and on slapping a 35 percent tariff on auto imports. (“All of our businesses should be penalized if they move their plants overseas. He’s gonna put his foot down.”)</p>
<p>“He’s ahead of Clinton in my book,” Peek said. “He’s a businessman. If anybody’s gonna get us out of here and get us back on our feet like it should be, he’s the one.”</p>
<p>Trump promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by Bill Clinton in 1993 over the objection of organized labor and has since been blamed for the loss of manufacturing jobs to Third World countries with lower wage and labor standards. Nowhere is that a sorer point than in Flint. In 1980, GM employed 80,000 in the Flint area; today, it employs 7,200. Flint’s decline began a decade before NAFTA, but the trade deal was seen as just another kick at the auto industry. In 1999, GM closed Buick City, a Flint assembly plant that once provided a living to 28,000 workers. Since its demolition, the site has gone the way of all Flint, with poplars and yarrow pushing through cracks in the asphalt.</p>
<p>“NAFTA was one of the biggest things that hurt the United States,” said Trump supporter Phil Hall, a salesman for a laser engraving company that does half its business with the auto industry. “NAFTA’s not something I agree with. GM’s big in this area. Since 1993, when that happened, there have been so many shutdowns of plants. I can’t tell you how many people have lost their jobs.”</p>
<p>The loss of manufacturing, and the economic power that goes with it, also resulted in demographic changes that made the Rust Belt states more inviting territory for Trump. Michiganders call the 2000s the “Lost Decade.” During those years, Michigan lost half its automaking jobs and fell to 35th in per capita income among states. It hemorrhaged residents, with many using their college degrees as tickets out: Michigan is 34th in proportion of college graduates. No one is moving in to replace them: Only Louisiana has a higher percentage of native-born residents. As Michigan has become older, less educated, less unionized, less urbanized and more insular, it has become more reactionary.</p>
<p>The brain drain from the old factory towns to the big cities contributed to Trump’s victory in the electoral college. He narrowly won the Rust Belt states, while Clinton posted a commanding victory in Illinois. The only industrial Midwestern state she won, it’s home to tens of thousands of young Michiganders, Wisconsinites, Ohioans and Pennsylvanians who fled their home towns for Chicago, the region’s cultural and financial capital, a city that’s winning in the 21st-century global economy at the expense of surrounding states. Had those college graduates found opportunities at home, they might have flipped their states to Clinton.</p>
<p>Even Michigan’s economic recovery since the Great Recession is not as good as it looks on paper: The unemployment rate of 4.5 percent is below the national average, but that’s not because there are more jobs — it’s because there are fewer workers. Health care has replaced manufacturing as the state’s No. 1 employment sector, and even the new automaking jobs start at $14 an hour, half of what they used to pay.</p>
<p>Will Trump be able to deliver on his promise to bring manufacturing back to the Rust Belt? Probably not. Most of the jobs that disappeared were lost to automation, not globalization. GM can now makes as many cars with 5,000 workers as it did with 25,000 in the 1960s. Others were lost to right-to-work states in the South. Attacking Mexican and Japanese workers for stealing American jobs, though, was also a way for Trump to combine economic nationalism with the ethno-nationalism that was such a big part of his appeal to white voters. (Although Ford may have helped his case when it announced in September that it’s moving all small-car production to Mexico.) But unlike Clinton, at least he had a message for people who feel left behind by globalization, and he was able to portray his opponent as a member of the political elite that has sold and hollowed them out.</p>
<p>– McClelland is the author of “Nothin’ but Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times and Hopes of America’s Industrial Heartland.” Follow @tedmcclelland</p>
<p>trump-rustbelt-comment</p> | The Rust Belt was turning red already. Donald Trump just pushed it along. | false | https://abqjournal.com/885709/the-rust-belt-was-turning-red-already-donald-trump-just-pushed-it-along.html | 2 |
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<p>The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it won't consider a lawsuit filed by two other states challenging Colorado's pot law. But lawyers say that Nebraska and Oklahoma officials could pursue other legal challenges down the road.</p>
<p>For now, the many states considering pot laws this year won't have immediate guidance from the nation's high court about whether they're free to flout federal drug law by regulating the drug.</p>
<p>Instead, the 26 states and Washington, D.C., that allow marijuana for medical or recreational purposes don't have any immediate roadblocks on their marijuana laws.</p>
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<p>Nebraska's attorney general said Monday that his state would consider trying again to challenge Colorado's pot law, just not directly to the nation's highest court.</p>
<p>"What it basically tells us is to go forth in the federal district court to start off the lawsuit," Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said.</p>
<p>A lawsuit by some Nebraska and Kansas law enforcement officials was dismissed last month by a federal court in Denver.</p>
<p>"It doesn't mean that all the legal wrangling is done," said Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver who studies drug law.</p>
<p>"It just means that for a case to end up before the Supreme Court before we have a new president is extremely unlikely."</p>
<p>Marijuana legalization advocates immediately seized on the Supreme Court's announcement as a signal that states are free to legalize marijuana if they wish.</p>
<p>"States have every right to regulate the cultivation and sale of marijuana, just as Nebraska and Oklahoma have the right to maintain their failed prohibition policies," said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project.</p>
<p>"Colorado has done more to control marijuana than just about any other state in the nation. It will continue to set an example for other states that are considering similar laws in legislatures and at the ballot box."</p>
<p>But Colorado officials weren't so sure. Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican who opposes legal weed, said that while Nebraska and Oklahoma chose the wrong legal approach, pot is very much a question in need of federal guidance.</p>
<p>"The legal questions surrounding (marijuana) still require stronger leadership from Washington," Coffman said in a statement Monday.</p>
<p>There is a pending federal lawsuit challenging Colorado's pot law, though the plaintiffs aren't from Nebraska or Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Two southern Colorado residents last year sued a neighboring marijuana company, saying the business violates federal drug law and should be blocked. The residents are represented by the Washington-based Safe Streets Alliance, which seeks to have a federal court throw out the state's entire regulated marijuana industry. A Denver District Court judge dismissed that lawsuit on Monday, though the plaintiffs could still challenge state officials in federal appeals court.</p> | Supreme Court pot announcement extends legalization debate | false | https://abqjournal.com/744166/supreme-court-pot-announcement-extends-legalization-debate.html | 2 |
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<p>Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton promise to bring back jobs lost to foreign producers. &#160;There are many questions about these promises but the most important are whether they can do it, and how many jobs can be brought back. This piece focuses on the second issue.</p>
<p>How many factory jobs can be brought back? We’ve lost a lot of them. Manufacturing employees were 30% of the non-farm work force in 1955. Now they’re just 8.5%. To get the factory work force back to the relative weight it had in 1955, we’d have to add 31,000,000 factory jobs. That’s not going to happen.</p>
<p>Thanks to automation we don’t need as many factory workers as we used to. But we could have more than we do now. Imagine that through selective tariffs and less currency manipulation by China and other nations, government policy could cut the $600 billion manufacturing trade deficit in half. In that ideal situation, we might add two million jobs in the manufacturing sector.</p>
<p>Two million new factory jobs would be a plus for American workers. If these jobs offered better-than-average pay and benefits and union protections too, think what they could do if they went to the south side of Chicago, high-poverty areas of Milwaukee, to coal areas of West Virginia, to Fresno, Cleveland, Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and the state of Mississippi.</p>
<p>These areas are among the poorest in the nation. We hear about them when a police officer shoots a young person of color or when residents go on a shooting spree. But politicians and the media don’t pay much attention otherwise. The major party conventions were held in two of these cities. Did one mainstream politician or journalist tour high-poverty neighborhoods and offer a credible analysis of causes and cures? I must have missed it.</p>
<p>More good jobs for poor areas would be a plus. But two million factory jobs won’t bring back the golden age of the factory worker, and they won’t make much of a dent in our good-jobs deficit. Fighting China and Mexico is not a jobs policy. To draw into the labor force millions of workers who have dropped out because of lousy job markets and to push the official unemployment rate closer to full employment–let’s say 2%–we need 10 million more jobs than we are currently getting.</p>
<p>That many extra jobs won’t come in factories and they won’t come by making the 1% richer with tax cuts. They will have to be created directly by the federal government in the public and private sector. We can start with the physical infrastructure, which is in D+ condition, and the social infrastructure, where we can expand affordable child care, cut class size in public schools, and much more. Neither candidate has made a major commitment in these areas.</p> | Can We Bring Back Many Factory Jobs? Let’s Do the Math | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/09/08/can-we-bring-back-many-factory-jobs-lets-do-the-math/ | 2016-09-08 | 4 |
<p>WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish government is debating the idea of bringing Syrian refugees to Poland for medical treatment, a high-ranking senator said Friday.</p>
<p>Poland's conservative government has been at odds with European Union leaders for refusing to accept any migrants under an EU relocation plan intended to ease the pressure on traditional landing spots such as Greece and Italy.</p>
<p>But following a change of prime minister this month and after the EU recently opened a censuring process over some other government policies, Poland has started discussing bringing refugees in for treatment, within the so-called "humanitarian corridors."</p>
<p>Conservative Deputy Senate Speaker Adam Bielan said Friday that a "discussion on the subject is taking place within the government."</p>
<p>"I believe that we can consider temporary aid to those most needy, elderly people, small children, especially Christians," Bielan said on TVN24, stressing he was not speaking for the government.</p>
<p>He said it should be outlined up front how long patients would require treatment, how long they would stay in Poland and "what happens when they are ready to return to Syria."</p>
<p>After assuming power two years ago, the government led by Poland's Law and Justice party cited security concerns in going back on a promise by its liberal predecessor to take some 7,000 refugees from elsewhere in Europe. Poland's influential Catholic Church has criticized the revised stance.</p>
<p>Kornel Morawiecki, a senior Polish lawmaker and the father of the country's new prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said earlier this week that accepting 7,000 refugees should not be a problem for Poland, a nation of almost 40 million people.</p>
<p>But he said any newcomers should be expected to adopt the ways of Poland.</p>
<p>"We could try and make them Poles," Kornel Morawiecki said.</p>
<p>___________</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show the spelling of lawmaker's first name is Kornel, not Kortnel.</p>
<p>WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish government is debating the idea of bringing Syrian refugees to Poland for medical treatment, a high-ranking senator said Friday.</p>
<p>Poland's conservative government has been at odds with European Union leaders for refusing to accept any migrants under an EU relocation plan intended to ease the pressure on traditional landing spots such as Greece and Italy.</p>
<p>But following a change of prime minister this month and after the EU recently opened a censuring process over some other government policies, Poland has started discussing bringing refugees in for treatment, within the so-called "humanitarian corridors."</p>
<p>Conservative Deputy Senate Speaker Adam Bielan said Friday that a "discussion on the subject is taking place within the government."</p>
<p>"I believe that we can consider temporary aid to those most needy, elderly people, small children, especially Christians," Bielan said on TVN24, stressing he was not speaking for the government.</p>
<p>He said it should be outlined up front how long patients would require treatment, how long they would stay in Poland and "what happens when they are ready to return to Syria."</p>
<p>After assuming power two years ago, the government led by Poland's Law and Justice party cited security concerns in going back on a promise by its liberal predecessor to take some 7,000 refugees from elsewhere in Europe. Poland's influential Catholic Church has criticized the revised stance.</p>
<p>Kornel Morawiecki, a senior Polish lawmaker and the father of the country's new prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said earlier this week that accepting 7,000 refugees should not be a problem for Poland, a nation of almost 40 million people.</p>
<p>But he said any newcomers should be expected to adopt the ways of Poland.</p>
<p>"We could try and make them Poles," Kornel Morawiecki said.</p>
<p>___________</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show the spelling of lawmaker's first name is Kornel, not Kortnel.</p> | Poland discussing bringing refugees in for medical treatment | false | https://apnews.com/amp/136228c5b0874e52beb9c52a4bc2cda9 | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
<p>Advisers and aides were quick to come to President Trump’s defense after he on Friday night&#160; <a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/20788354/president-donald-trump-speaks-nfl-player-protests" type="external">criticized National Football League players who protest during the national anthem</a>, saying&#160;at a political rally in Huntsville, Ala.: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired! He’s fired!’ ”</p>
<p><a href="http://time.com/4955038/trump-twitter-nfl-protest/" type="external">Time reports:</a></p>
<p>“I think what the president is saying is that the owners should have a rule that players should have to stand in respect for the national anthem,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “This isn’t about Democrats, it’s not about Republicans, it’s not about race, it’s not about free speech.”</p>
<p>He continued, “They can do free speech on their own time.”</p>
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<p>Marc Short, director of the White House’s Legislative Affairs, said Trump’s stance was the same as the “vast majority” of Americans, who he said believe that kneeling during the national anthem is disrespectful. “The president believes it is his role to improve race relations,” Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”</p>
<p>On “Fox News Sunday,” Short defended Trump’s tweets and denied that he has “re-opened … racial wounds” with them. <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-forced-to-defend-the-presidents-nutty-nfl-hate-tweeting" type="external">The Daily Beast</a> continues:</p>
<p>Within the Trump White House, senior aides and staff quickly formulated a clear path forward on the spin—that the American people, or at least the majority of them, agree wholeheartedly with the president about respecting the flag, first responders, and the U.S. military. Whatever the merits of the specific arguments on police brutality or freedom of speech, this is a “culture war”-type skirmish that could slightly aid President Trump, or at least not hurt him, according to White House officials speaking to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely.</p>
<p>One senior official noted that though some of the president’s outbursts on the issue have seemed “nutty,” this kind of public behavior and feuding on the president’s part are all but expected and “standard.” Another official simply observed that @realDonaldTrump’s NFL-related tantrums were less likely to cause an international incident than tweets about Kim Jong Un.</p>
<p>Trump on Saturday morning&#160; <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/trump-withdraws-invitation-to-stephen-curry-to-visit-white-house-after-nba-star-says-i-dont-want-to-go/" type="external">used his Twitter account</a>&#160;to tell Warriors star player Stephen Curry he wasn’t welcome to visit the White House, writing: “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” The head coach of the team, Steve Kerr, commented in an interview with CNN that “in normal times, we would be very easily able to set aside political differences and go visit, have a great time, and that’d be awesome. But these are not ordinary times. Probably the most divisive times in my life.”</p>
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<p>He added that “the idea of civil discourse with a guy who is tweeting and demeaning people and saying the things he’s saying is sort of far-fetched. Can you picture us really having a civil discourse with him?”</p>
<p>He continued,&#160;“How about the irony of, ‘Free speech is fine if you’re a neo-Nazi chanting hate slogans, but free speech is not allowed to kneel in protest?’ No matter how many times a football player says, ‘I honor our military, but I’m protesting police brutality and racial inequality,’ it doesn’t matter. Nationalists are saying, ‘You’re disrespecting our flag.’ Well, you know what else is disrespectful to our flag? Racism. And one’s way worse than the other.”</p>
<p>Another <a href="http://time.com/4955050/trump-obama-nfl-nba-kaepernick-kneeling/" type="external">Time article</a> contextualizes the debate:</p>
<p>But while a year ago, it was the act of kneeling in protest [against] police treatment of African Americans that captured the most attention, in 2017, it appears to be Trump’s unconventional response to the act. Since Friday, the Commander in Chief has called for&#160; <a href="http://time.com/4955039/donald-trump-twitter-nfl-nba-boycott/" type="external">NFL fans to walk out of games</a>&#160;if they saw a player kneel, and added on Twitter that the NFL should fire or suspend players who take a knee.</p>
<p>The article also contrasted Trump’s volatile reaction with Obama’s diplomatic one:</p>
<p>Obama did not call for the NFL to fire or suspend any of its players for the incident. Instead, he encouraged onlookers to think about why Kaepernick was taking action.</p>
<p>“I want Mr. Kaepernick and others who are on a knee, I want them to to listen to the pain that that may cause somebody who, for example, had a spouse or a child who was killed in combat and why it hurts them to see somebody not standing. But I also want people to think about the pain he may be expressing about somebody who’s lost a loved one that they think was unfairly shot,” Obama said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/24/us/nfl-trump-take-knee-protests/index.html" type="external">CNN reports</a> that an NFL front office source said, “What you just saw was a variety of responses with the theme of unity. All across the league, owners, coaches and players came together to decide what was best for them. If Trump thought he could divide the NFL, he was wrong.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Trump's Advisers and Aides Defend His NFL Comments | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/trumps-advisers-aides-defend-nfl-comments/ | 2017-09-24 | 4 |
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<p>MONACO — In a story April 20 about a flying car, The Associated Press reported erroneously the driving range of the AeroMobil vehicle. It is 700 kms (435 miles), not 100 kms (62 miles).</p>
<p>A corrected version of the story is below:</p>
<p>Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Flying car to go on sale</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A Slovakian company called AeroMobil unveiled on Thursday its version of a flying car, a light frame plane whose wings can fold back, like an insect, and is boosted by a hybrid engine and rear propeller</p>
<p>By MILOS KRIVOKAPIC and ANGELA CHARLTON</p>
<p>Associated Press</p>
<p>MONACO — It may not be quite like the Jetsons, but for over a million dollars you too can soon fly around in a car.</p>
<p>A Slovakian company called AeroMobil unveiled on Thursday its version of a flying car, a light-framed plane whose wings can fold back, like an insect, and is boosted by a hybrid engine and rear propeller.</p>
<p>It will be available to preorder as soon as this year but is not for everyone: besides the big price tag — between 1.2 million and 1.5 million euros ($1.3 million-$1.6 million) — you’d need a pilot’s license to use it in the air.</p>
<p>“I think it’s going to be a very niche product,” said Philip Mawby, professor of electronic engineering and head of research at the University of Warwick.</p>
<p>Several companies are working on flying cars, either like Aeromobil’s two-seater that needs a runway, or others that function more like helicopters, lifting off vertically. But not many companies are seriously looking at marketing these vehicles anytime soon, Mawby said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The technology is there… The question is bringing it to the market at an affordable cost, and making it a useful product.”</p>
<p>Among the big questions is how to control the air traffic if there are hundreds of such vehicles zipping through the air. There is no control except for traditional aircraft, notes Mawby.</p>
<p>So while vehicles like the AeroMobil could be used for recreational purposes by people who have a large piece of land, flying cars are unlikely to become a mass market reality anytime soon, he says.</p>
<p>The AeroMobil has a driving range of about 700 kms (435 miles) and a top speed of 160 kph (99 mph). When flying, its maximum cruising range is 750 kms (466 miles), and it takes about three minutes for the car to transform into a plane.</p>
<p>“You can use it as a regular car,” said Juraj Vaculik, co-founder and CEO of Aeromobil, at the unveiling in Monaco. Though it is not legal –yet — to take off from a highway.</p>
<p>The previous AeroMobil 3.0 prototype made news in 2014 when it was presented in Vienna, but no test-flight took place then. It crashed during a test flight in Slovakia in 2015 with its inventor Stefan Klein on board. He escaped largely unharmed.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Charlton reported from Paris. Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.</p> | Correction: Monaco-Flying Car story | false | https://abqjournal.com/990696/is-it-a-bird-is-it-a-plane-flying-car-to-go-on-sale-2.html | 2017-04-20 | 2 |
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Practice by practice, game by game, Joe Harge is piecing together a basketball team.</p>
<p>“We’re having growing pains,” the New Mexico Highlands men’s basketball coach says. “But we’re figuring it out.”</p>
<p>The Cowboys (2-1) have 16 players, including walk-ons and redshirts, and, Harge says, all but three are new.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to get rid of everybody’s baggage,” Harge says. “We’ve got to get them to buy into our system.”</p>
<p>Many of them started at Division I programs.</p>
<p>Lavell McDade, a 6-foot-4 junior guard who signed with Cincinnati out of high school, averages 15.7 points and 6.0 assists a game for Highlands.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Manny Cass, a 6-7 junior and McDade’s high school teammate from Carbondale, Ill., was a UTEP recruit and averages 12.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.</p>
<p>Stuart Sullivan, a 6-8 junior guard who signed with TCU out of high school, averages 11.7 points and has made 10 of his 17 3-point attempts. He had 19 points, including five 3-pointers, in NMHU’s 92-70 exhibition loss to New Mexico earlier this month.</p>
<p>Junior Roland Fitch, a sturdy 6-7, 270-pound center, played in the NCAA Tournament with Alabama State in 2009. He averages 12.0 points and 5.7 boards for the Cowboys.</p>
<p>They also added 6-3 guard Stargell Love, who was one of the top high school point guards in 2010 and signed with Baylor.</p>
<p>“We’ve got some kids who have credentials,” Harge says. “They’re at Division II because of circumstances.”</p>
<p>But not all of them are from out of state. Dominick Baca, who averages 10.3 points and has five steals, is a 6-2 junior guard from Pecos.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Harge is no stranger to re-creating a roster on the fly — after all, he’s coached minor league professional basketball.</p>
<p>“You’d have a new team every year, maybe every month,” Harge says. “It’s something I’ve been through many times before.”</p>
<p>With an RMAC schedule that includes Colorado School of Mines (on Saturday) and third-ranked Metro State (Jan. 4), the Cowboys will get a good idea of where they stand nationally. Harge believes he knows.</p>
<p>“The sky’s the limit,” Harge says. “We’re good enough to compete with any Division II team and a lot of Division I teams. … We’ll continue to get better.”</p>
<p>ENMU: Manzano grad Kyle Lantz scored 18 points on Wednesday night to lead the Greyhounds (4-3) to a 76-67 win over Angelo State in their Lone Star opener. Lantz, a 6-2 junior guard, was 8-of-11 on field goal attempts.</p>
<p>WNMU: Chad Carter, a 6-6 senior from Tucson, is averaging 12.3 points and 5.0 rebounds for the Western New Mexico men (1-3).</p>
<p>… Senior guards Morgan Wohltman (13.0 points) and Kassie Scott (12.0 points and 6.0 rebounds) lead the Mustang women (1-3).</p>
<p>Both teams play Colorado Mines on Friday and Colorado Christian on Saturday.</p>
<p>NMJC: New Mexico Junior College (8-1) is 25th in the latest men’s NJCAA rankings.</p>
<p>NORTHERN N.M.: Orlando Echave, a 6-7 sophomore from Santa Fe, leads the NAIA Eagles (3-10) with 11.0 points and 7.1 rebounds a game. — This article appeared on page D5 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | New Faces for NMHU | false | https://abqjournal.com/238310/new-faces-for-nmhu.html | 2 |
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<p>DUBAI (Reuters) – Food price inflation eased in Qatar during August, government data showed on Saturday, suggesting the country was finding ways to reduce the impact of economic sanctions imposed by other Arab states.</p>
<p>Food prices jumped after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Doha on June 5, closing Qatar’s land border with Saudi Arabia – across which many perishable goods had been imported – and disrupting maritime shipping routes.</p>
<p>Food and beverage prices climbed 4.5 percent from a year earlier in July, their fastest increase since at least 2014, and shot up 4.2 percent from the previous month.</p>
<p>In August, however, food and beverage prices only rose 2.8 percent from a year ago and fell back 0.6 percent from July, suggesting Qatar had succeeded in establishing new channels to obtain food economically.</p>
<p>Qatari shipping lines, which lost the use of Dubai as a trans-shipment center because of the sanctions, have been establishing new services via Oman, Kuwait and the Indian subcontinent. Qatari food processors have boosted their operations to make up for the disruption to imports.</p>
<p>Saturday’s data showed the sanctions were still having a major impact on Qatar’s real estate market, however, by hurting business sentiment and prompting some investors from other Arab states to offer their properties for sale.</p>
<p>Housing and utility prices sank 4.0 percent from a year earlier in August, their biggest drop for at least several years, and fell 0.4 percent from the previous month. In July, they had slipped 3.6 percent from a year ago.</p>
<p>Qatar’s overall consumer price index dropped 0.4 percent from a year earlier in August, its first fall since at least early 2015, when the current data series began.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Food price inflation eases in Qatar after leap due to sanctions | false | https://newsline.com/food-price-inflation-eases-in-qatar-after-leap-due-to-sanctions/ | 2017-09-16 | 1 |
<p>Dec. 30 (UPI) — Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, who was killed in a chokehold by a New York Police Department officer in 2014, died Saturday after a heart attack.</p>
<p>“She passed away this morning,” a tweet posted to <a href="https://twitter.com/es_snipes/status/947114329064787968" type="external">Erica Garner’s Twitter account</a> by family members Saturday morning read. “The reports are real. We didn’t deserve her.”</p>
<p>“Her heart was bigger than the world,” another tweet posted to her account read. “She cared when most people wouldn’t have. She was good. She only pursued right, no matter what.”</p>
<p>The 27-year-old mother of an 8-year-old girl and 4-month old boy had a heart attack on <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/12/25/Daughter-of-NYPD-chokehold-victim-in-coma-after-heart-attack/4521514217750/" type="external">Dec. 23</a> and was on life support in a Brooklyn hospital.</p>
<p>A message posted on her Twitter account said she had brain damage “from lack of oxygen while in cardiac arrest.”</p>
<p>“She was a warrior, she was a fighter and we didn’t pull the plug on her,” Esaw Snipes, Erica Garner’s mother, said to the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/erica-garner-daughter-police-chokehold-victim-dies-article-1.3727554" type="external">New York Daily News</a>. “She left on her own terms.”</p>
<p>Snipes said the cardiac arrest was brought on by an asthma attack.</p>
<p>She also had a heart attack after giving birth to a boy named after her father in August.</p>
<p>Doctors said the pregnancy had put a strain on her heart, which doctors discovered was enlarged, her mother, Snipes, said</p>
<p>Erica Garner became a victim’s advocate after her father, 43, died when he was placed in a chokehold by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo in 2014 over the alleged sale of untaxed cigarettes on Staten Island.</p>
<p>A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo. In September, the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board recommended the NYPD discipline Pantaleo because he used a banned chokehold while trying to arrest Garner.</p> | Daughter of NYPD chokehold victim dies | false | https://newsline.com/daughter-of-nypd-chokehold-victim-dies/ | 2017-12-30 | 1 |
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<p>In an address to the Women and Justice Summit in Istanbul, Erdogan laid out his view of a “much more fair, humane and conscientious way” of treating women than as the equal of men.</p>
<p>“You cannot bring women and men into equal positions; that is against nature because their nature is different,” he told the gathering hosted by the Women and Democracy Association, to rousing applause, according to Turkish media accounts of the speech.</p>
<p>He called motherhood the role that the Islamic religion defines as women’s highest priority and repeated his often expressed view that Turkish women should have at least three children.</p>
<p>Erdogan, who was elected president in August after serving as prime minister for the previous 11 years, has been accused of eroding the secular foundation of modern Turkey that has been in place since it emerged in 1923 from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.</p>
<p>During his tenure as government chief, his Justice and Development Party imposed new curbs on alcohol sales, removed restrictions on wearing veils in state offices and instituted other labor policies that saw the country fall 15 places to rank 120th among 136 nations in the 2013 World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, a fellow conservative Islamist, provoked a feminist revolt in July when he criticized Turkish women for departing from the religion’s ideal of feminine modesty by smiling in public.</p>
<p>Turkey’s daily Hurriyet newspaper noted that women’s rights groups constantly criticize Erdogan and the party he led until his election to the purportedly nonpartisan presidency for the “increasingly conservative and authoritarian political culture they say it is fostering.”</p>
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<p /> | No gender equality for Turkey’s president | false | https://abqjournal.com/501370/no-gender-equality-for-turkeys-president.html | 2 |
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<p>A <a href="http://opinionsavvy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/OS-SC-2.12.16.pdf" type="external">new poll</a>out of South Carolina shows 36.3 % of likely GOP presidential primary voters favoring Donald Trump. 19.6% favoring Ted Cruz, 14.6 % selecting Marco Rubio, 10.9% voting for Jeb Bush, 8.7% for John Kasich, and 4.7% picking Ben Carson. The poll was conducted February 10-11. The margin of error was 3.5%.</p>
<p>With the establishment lane for candidates other than Trump clogged with the presence of Rubio, Bush, and Kasich, no clear establishment candidate can surge forth as a rival to Trump and Cruz for the nomination. Trump’s establishment credentials have already been <a href="" type="internal">noted here.</a> If, for example, Bush and Kasich dropped out, ostensibly transferring their votes to Rubio, he would be polling at roughly 34% and rivaling Trump in the state. If Carson’s supporters reflect his actual conservative policies and would transfer to the most conservative candidate, Cruz, he would poll roughly 24%.</p>
<p>“Very conservative” voters placed Cruz first; “somewhat conservative” voters placed Trump first. “Liberal” voters gave Trump a massive lead.</p>
<p>Among voters 18-29, Rubio led, with Trump second; among voters 30-44, Trump and Cruz were tied, among voters 45-64, Trump led with Cruz second, and those over 65 voted Trump first, with Cruz and Rubio tied for second. When voters were asked which candidate would be there second choice, Rubio led with 18.7% of the vote; followed by Cruz at 17%.</p>
<p>Interestingly, despite South Carolina’s reputation as an uber-conservative state, only 42% of voters described themselves as “very conservative,” while 35.8% described themselves as “somewhat conservative.” 65% of respondents claimed they were evangelical or born-again Christians.</p>
<p>40% of voters said they hailed from upstate, meaning areas including Greenville, Spartanburg, or Rock Hill; 32% claimed their homes came from the midlands, including Columbia, North Augusta/Aiken, or Florence, and 28% asserted they came from the Lowcountry/Coastal South Carolina areas, such as Charleston, Myrtle Beach, or Hilton Head.</p> | New SC GOP Poll Shows Establishment Lane Clogged, Trump Dominating Among Liberals | true | https://dailywire.com/news/3347/new-sc-gop-poll-shows-establishment-lane-clogged-hank-berrien | 2016-02-12 | 0 |
<p>There is a lot going on in the world right now. The stock market is roiled in historic volatility. Donald Trump is being investigated for colluding with Russia and obstruction of justice (among other crimes). The government is facing another possible shutdown hinging on Trump’s insistence on building a useless border wall and punishing immigrants who were brought here as children. But this is what Fox News regards as the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/06/democratic-ags-swarm-trump-administration-with-lawsuits.html" type="external">big story</a> of the day, featuring it at the top of their website:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2030387803642671" type="external" /></p>
<p>The article predictably puts Democrats in a negative light, casting them as obstructionists who simply want to monkey wrench Donald Trump’s sincere efforts to make America great again. It begins…</p>
<p>“Nancy Pelosi. Chuck Schumer. The Russia probe. The “deep state.” Of all the obstacles that could potentially thwart the Trump agenda, add to that tempest the flood of lawsuits now being plotted by blue-state attorneys general who have made no secret of their disdain for the administration’s policies.”</p>
<p>So Fox News is asserting that Democratic leaders and the GOP-appointed special counsel are aligned in a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine the President. With partisan-charged rhetoric like “thwart,” “tempest,” “flood,” and “plotted,” Fox News makes its biases clear. And they seem to be surprised that “blue-state attorneys general” have political differences with the extremist agenda of Trump and his blindly obedient Republican comrades.</p>
<p>The article also characterizes the work of the Democratic AGs as purely partisan, rather than inspired by their Democratic principles. Fundraising and campaigning takes up a fair amount of space in the column. But most of all the author focuses on the “sheer volume” of multistate lawsuits (35 so far) that have been filed against the Trump administration. Near the end of the article it finally acknowledges that “Republican attorneys general brought 46 multistate legal challenges” during the Obama administration. Although that was for the full eight years.</p>
<p>If there are any reasons to justify an increase in lawsuits currently, it’s because Trump and his cohorts are so determined to violate the law. In so many areas of his government, this president continues to prove his disdain for the law. It infects almost every cabinet department. And the GOP-run Congress refuses to conduct any oversight. That’s why it has been necessary for Democrats to respond by going to court. The issues span ObamaCare, DACA, Muslim bans, the environment, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loans, network neutrality, fracking and offshore drilling, transgender troops, civil and voting rights, and many more.</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p>
<p>If anything, it’s surprising that there haven’t been even more lawsuits. There surely will be as time goes by. Trump continues to break laws related to his businesses. He is still profiting from his presidency. And many of his cabinet secretaries are doing the same. That is, the ones that haven’t already been forced out in scandal and disgrace. And yet, the only thing that Fox thinks is newsworthy about this is that honest public servants are working hard to do something about Trump’s lawlessness. Meanwhile, Fox couldn’t care less about the lawlessness itself.</p> | Attack of the Democratic AGs: Fox News Freaks Out Over ‘Swarm’ of Trump Lawsuits | true | https://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D35544 | 4 |
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<p>WASHINGTON - Planned Parenthood is a huge health organization with an annual budget of more than $1.1 billion that offers its clients much more than abortion services - although it did perform 327,000 of those last year.</p>
<p>The national nonprofit reports that about 2.7 million people visit its clinics annually for services ranging from cancer screenings to contraception.</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood now finds itself at the center of controversy after the release of secretly filmed videos that showed its doctors casually discussing the sale of fetal organs to research clinics.</p>
<p>Thank-you notes are posted at Planned Parenthood's Rio Rancho clinic. More than 1,800 abortions were performed by Planned Parenthood in New Mexico last year, according to the organization. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>In one video, a doctor jokes about wanting to buy an expensive sports car. The videos have renewed debate nationally and in Congress about whether federal dollars should fund any part of the organization, and have also raised questions about Planned Parenthood's mission, budget and operations.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The biggest chunk of the total budget for Planned Parenthood's affiliate offices - $528.4 million - is federal money.</p>
<p>Another $305.3 million comes from nongovernment sources such as insurance payments, while private donors and foundation grants account for $257.4 million. The organization also raised another $54.7 million from fees charged to clients.</p>
<p>At the same time that Congress is debating Planned Parenthood's funding, critics of the group point to what they contend are high salaries for executives at the nonprofit organization.</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood's president, Cecile Richards, received a salary of $591,000 in 2013, according to a report by the American Life League, an anti-abortion group that analyzed the group's tax filings. The report found that the salaries of the top 20 highest-paid CEOs at Planned Parenthood affiliates around the country ranged from $220,000 annually to $372,000.</p>
<p>Vicki Cowart, CEO of Planned Parenthood's Denver-based Rocky Mountain office, which oversees New Mexico, received $254,213 in 2013, according to the report. Late last month, she issued a statement on the recent release of the controversial videos.</p>
<p>"We are certain that no laws were broken and that accusations made by those who oppose Planned Parenthood's mission and services are false," Cowart's statement said in part.</p>
<p>Nationally, Planned Parenthood has 85 affiliates and more than 800 clinics.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In New Mexico, nearly 20,000 people - a majority of them women - visited Planed Parenthood's six clinics from September 2013 to October 2014.</p>
<p>Just two of those clinics provide abortions, and neither collects fetal tissue or organs for medical research, according to Cathy Alderman, vice president for public affairs for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. More than 1,800 surgical or medically induced abortions were performed by Planned Parenthood in New Mexico last year, Alderman said.</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood's annual report says that abortions account for only 3 percent of its services, although critics dispute this figure, and in New Mexico the number of abortion patients would be closer to 9 percent of the total.</p>
<p>Forty-two percent of Planned Parenthood's services are related to sexually transmitted infections and diseases, 34 percent to contraception or birth control, 9 percent to cancer screenings and prevention and 11 percent of its services are for "other women's health services such as immunization and pediatric care." Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms.</p>
<p>Messages promoting health care are posted in the Planned Parenthood clinic in Rio Rancho. Officials with Planned Parenthood say that two of the organization's six clinics in New Mexico perform abortions. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Role of Medicaid</p>
<p>By law, none of the federal money Planned Parenthood receives is used to perform abortions, except in rare cases.</p>
<p>"Federal funds are prohibited from covering abortion - except in the dire circumstances of rape, incest, or when the life of the woman is in jeopardy," according to a statement provided to the Journal by Planned Parenthood of New Mexico. "Planned Parenthood fully complies with this and all government restrictions."</p>
<p>But critics contend that money is fungible and that some abortion-related procedures are billed separately as other services.</p>
<p>A large chunk of the group's federal money comes from Medicaid, the federal health care program for poor people, which also includes state funds. And a large percentage of women who go to Planned Parenthood in New Mexico are covered by Medicaid, about 50 percent.</p>
<p>But Planned Parenthood's clinics are open to anyone, and they provide services on a sliding scale depending on the client's income. Another block of federal money provided to the group comes from Title X, a program that guarantees a woman's right to family planning services regardless of her ability to pay for them.</p>
<p>"Our doors are open to anybody who needs our services," Alderman said.</p>
<p>Federal law prohibits states from rejecting health care providers from Medicaid reimbursement because they offer certain services, such as abortions. U.S. House and Senate legislation proposed to eliminate federal funding for abortion would also cancel the Medicaid funding.</p>
<p>Last week, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, both Republicans, announced that they are voiding Planned Parenthood's Medicaid contracts with their states.</p>
<p>Proponents of cutting federal funds for Planned Parenthood say the money would be shifted to other providers of women's health care services. Planned Parenthood's supporters argue that such a shift would make it more difficult for women to obtain timely reproductive services.</p>
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<p /> | In the crosshairs | false | https://abqjournal.com/625599/planned-parenthood-faces-new-questions.html | 2 |
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<p>The Common Core education standards that many states have adopted have sparked a huge nationwide outcry from conservative grassroots activists and legislators, who see these federal government education standards as being nothing more than “Socialized Education.” In Florida, a state that is considered by many as being “Ground Zero” in the battle against Common Core, state leaders are somewhat split on whether to fully support the standards or not.</p>
<p>Senator Marco Rubio is by far the biggest name in politics, who has sided with conservatives, and opposes Common Core.</p>
<p>Representative Debbie Mayfield (R) has even filed a bill that would scrap the newly adopted Common Core standards from being implemented in the state.</p>
<p>But what else can be done to stop Common Core?</p>
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<p>The controversial education standards are still being implemented, and funding is being provided through state budgets. Congressional candidate Jorge Bonilla, who is running for Congress against Representative Alan Grayson, is calling for a full nationwide defunding of the Common Core standards.</p>
<p>My position on Common Core has been crystal clear from the beginning: that education oversight is the sole province of parents and local school boards, and that our children deserve an education instead of indoctrination.</p>
<p>Jorge Bonilla</p>
<p>As a father of two small boys, I am deeply concerned about the kind of education that may be available to them, and this concern is central to my opposition to Common Core.</p>
<p>Concern over our children’s education is a bipartisan issue. Common Core is opposed on both sides of the aisle, by conservative red-state Members of Congress, as well as by teacher union rank-and-file in deep-blue states.</p>
<p>Curriculum concerns run the gamut; from testing requirements to word-intensive math problems that automatically disadvantage children with parents that have limited English proficiency.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there are serious questions surrounding the legality of the program. Supporters claim that Common Core is a voluntary state program, but in fact, receipt of education-related funding upon acceptance of the standards gives off the appearance of government coercion.</p>
<p>From last year’s defund debates we learned that the best way to stop implementation of a cumbersome, top-down federal program is simply to strip it of its funding before it can be fully implemented.</p>
<p>Therefore, I respectfully call on Congress to act on the recommendations laid out in Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) “Dear Member” letter. It is time to defund Common Core.- <a href="http://bonillaforcongress.com/time-to-defund-common-core/" type="external">Jorge Bonilla</a></p>
<p>Is this the way conservatives will be able to defeat Common Core, by charging forward with a “Defund Obama care” style campaign?</p> | GOP Congressional Candidate Calls For Defunding Common Core | true | http://shark-tank.com/2014/04/04/gop-congressional-candidate-calls-for-defunding-common-core/ | 0 |
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<p>According to a new WWF report, seventy percent of commercial marine fisheries are on the decline. Rashid Sumaila directs the Fisheries Center the the University of British Columbia. He tells us about the problems facing the global fisheries industry, and what consumers can do to encourage sustainable fishing practices. Dr. Sumaila is also the guest in our online Science Forum.</p> | Science Forum: Global fisheries decline | false | https://pri.org/stories/2010-11-18/science-forum-global-fisheries-decline | 2010-11-18 | 3 |
<p>Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons</p>
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<p>This news is particularly relevant heading into <a href="" type="internal">Copenhagen</a>…for those who think conservation of any kind is impossible or unattainable or out of keeping with American goals.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3098/" type="external">US Geological Survey</a> released a <a href="http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/" type="external">study</a> today showing that Americans used less water in 2005 than 35 years ago—despite a 30 percent population increase. Most of the decline is attributable to alternative cooling methods at <a href="" type="internal">power plants</a> and to more efficient <a href="" type="internal">irrigation systems</a>.</p>
<p>(The <a href="http://atlas.aaas.org/index.php?part=2" type="external">AAAS reminds us</a> that some commercial farmers in the US have doubled the crops they grow with a given amount of irrigation water by using sub-surface drip irrigation.)</p>
<p>In 2005, 297 million Americans used 410 billion gallons of water per day. That’s 5 percent less than in 1980, the year of peak water use, when there were 227 million Americans. Or ~1,400 gallons of water per day per American in 2005, compared with ~2,000 gallons per person per day in 1980. Not bad. And a reminder that trends can be managed, not just suffered.</p>
<p>The quick stats on water use in the US today:</p>
<p>We need to remember however that a changing climate requires changes in water planning. In a <a href="" type="internal">blog posted last year</a>, I cited a study in <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5863/573" type="external">Science</a> predicting water supplies will decrease substantially in parts of North America as the globe warms (as well as in parts of Europe, the Middle East, Africa).</p>
<p>Wonder about your own water footprint? Read <a href="" type="internal">Josh Harkinson’s fine MoJo piece</a>.</p>
<p>Drip, drip, drip. It’s all finite. Let’s act accordingly.</p>
<p>CORRECTION: Now made in the water use per American per day. Thanks to readers.</p>
<p /> | US Uses Less Water Now Than 35 Years Ago | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/11/us-uses-less-water-now-35-years-ago/ | 2009-11-04 | 4 |
<p>For the Geo Quiz Tuesday, we are going to test your knowledge of royalty.</p>
<p>Can you name the country where Crown-Prince Willem and Princess Maxima will soon become king and queen?</p>
<p>The celebrations get underway next week.</p>
<p>The inauguration committee commissioned a song called "King's Song" to mark the ascent to the throne.</p>
<p>But tens of thousands of people have signed an online petition saying they don't like the song. Many are threatening to leave this low-lying country if it's used in the ceremony to honor what will be the country's first king in more than a century.</p>
<p>There's no word yet from the 75-year-old abdicating Queen Beatrix about the rap lyrics in the song or all the complaints.</p>
<p>The "King's Song" was written for an inauguration of a new king.</p>
<p>Crown Prince Willem-Alexander is set to become the next King of the Netherlands, the answer to our Geo Quiz.</p>
<p>Dutch journalist Jans Roos says the "King's Song" is not very popular.</p>
<p>Have a listen and decide for yourself. Add your thoughts about the song in the comments below.</p> | 'King's Song' Not Fit for a King? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-04-23/kings-song-not-fit-king | 2013-04-23 | 3 |
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/23/politics/terry-mcauliffe-fbi-doj-federal-investigation-campaign-contributions/" type="external">Under investigation</a> by the Department of Justice’s public integrity unit over donations to his gubernatorial campaign from foreign nationals, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s time as a board member of the ostensibly charitable Clinton Global Initiative has come under scrutiny. McAuliffe has denied that the investigation is at all connected to Clinton Foundation.</p>
<p>Given his status as an insider loyalist of the Clintons, The Daily Wire thought it worthwhile to compose the following listicle of McAuliffe's highlights.</p>
<p>RESTORED VOTING FOR 200K EX-CONS AS A GOTV EFFORT FOR CLINTON</p>
<p>Confident that convicted felons will be more likely aligned with Democratic politics, McAuliffe signed an executive order allowing ex-convicts - including those convicted of violent offenses - to vote in presidential elections.</p>
<p>Left-wing newspaper The Washington Post inadvertently notes the racial dimension of this get-out-the-vote effort targeting blacks:</p>
<p>“The Democratic governor’s decision particularly affects black residents of Virginia: 1 in 4 blacks in Virginia has been permanently banned from voting because of laws restricting the rights of those with convictions.”</p>
<p>Seen as a “purple state,” Virginia was won by President Barack Obama in 2012 by less than 150,000 votes. In 2008, then Senator Obama defeated Senator John McCain by 230,000 votes. Similar margins were seen in 2000 and 2004 with George Bush’s victories over Al Gore and then Senator John Kerry, respectively.</p>
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<p>BUILT A ‘VISA-FOR-SALE’ SCHEME USING GOVERNMENT LOANS AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT</p>
<p>Founding GreenTech in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/mcauliffes-greentech-car-company-launched-with-high-hopes-but-reality-dogs-campaign/2013/08/10/76cf7f90-e5c1-11e2-a11e-c2ea876a8f30_story.html" type="external">2010</a> by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/greentech-formula-has-made-big-profits-for-mcauliffe/2013/09/21/3c6e332c-2136-11e3-b73c-aab60bf735d0_story.html" type="external">hyping</a> it as a future manufacturer of electric cars which would benefit from “billions” of dollars in government subsidies and tax credits, McAuliffe leveraged his political connections in soliciting investment - which came exclusively from the federal government, the state of Virginia, and Chinese nationals.</p>
<p>Heavily reliant on the the EB-5 program of the US government, foreign investors can essentially purchase green cards by “investing” $500,000 in an American company. <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2013/08/10/where-did-37-million-invested-in-mcauliffe-s-greentech-go/" type="external">$7.5 million was invested</a> in GreenTech through this program, described as a “ <a href="http://assets.americarisingarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/15170157/merged-2.pdf" type="external">visa-for-sale scheme</a>” with “national security implications” by Virginia officials.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton's brother Anthony Rodham (left) and Terry McAuliffe (center)</p>
<p>Gulf Coast Funds Management, whose former CEO is Anthony Rodham - Hillary Clinton’s brother - aligned itself GreenTech, with the two becoming “sister companies” according to GreenTech’s COO.</p>
<p>McAuliffe and Rodham also <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/complicated-legal-backstory-terry-mcauliffes-car-company/story?id=19959500" type="external">lobbied</a> then Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to obtain visas for Chinese investors meeting the $500,000 EB-5 threshold.</p>
<p>Watch a 30-minute film produced by Citizens United on the scandal below.</p>
<p>VETOED A BAN OF STATE FUNDING FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD</p>
<p>At the end of March, McAuliffe <a href="http://pilotonline.com/news/government/virginia/mcauliffe-vetoes-bill-he-says-threatens-planned-parenthood/article_c1a6ec24-53f1-5708-9309-4850d11cbe09.html" type="external">vetoed</a> legislation that sought to ban state funding of Planned Parenthood. Going to the abortion company’s location in Richmond for a photo op, he claimed to be “proud” to veto legislation amounting to an “attack on women’s health care rights.”</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood <a href="http://virginiafreecitizen.com/2014/05/14/bankrolled-planned-parenthood-mcauliffe-pushes-looser-abortion-clinic-rules/" type="external">donated</a> over $1.7 million to McAuliffe’s 2013 gubernatorial campaign. NARAL donated an additional $56,000 to McAuliffe's campaign for governor.</p>
<p><a href="https://issuu.com/actionfund/docs/2014-2015_annual_report_final_20mb/1" type="external">About half</a> of Planned Parenthood’s over $1 billion in revenues in 2015 came from taxpayers via governmental redistribution.</p>
<p>BAILED OUT THE CLINTONS WHEN THEY WERE ‘DEAD BROKE’</p>
<p>After the Clintons vacated the White House in 2001 - “dead broke” according to Hillary Clinton - McAuliffe <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/keyraces2000/stories/house090499.htm" type="external">loaned</a> the former first family $1.35 million for a home in Chappaqua, where the former first lady was planning her senatorial campaign.</p>
<p>The investment paid off, with McAuliffe <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/23/flashback-120-clinton-foundation-donors-gave-13-4-million-to-terry-mcauliffes-campaigns/" type="external">securing more than $13.4 million</a> in donations for his political campaigns from Clinton Foundation donors.</p>
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<p>PROUDLY BAILS ON FAMILY FOR POLITICAL BENEFIT</p>
<p>McAuliffe’s 2008 memoir recalls how he left his wife Dorothy’s side immediately before and after the birth of their daughter Sarah to attend parties presumably for fundraising.</p>
<p>On the way home from the hospital after the birth of his son, McAuliffe <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/the-time-terry-mccauliffe-left-the-delivery-for-a-washington?utm_term=.ewBMgLvEGZ#.xf5oRae8W3" type="external">stopped by a fundraiser</a> dinner, leaving his wife and newborn son in the car while he went inside for “maybe fifteen minutes.” The event was hosted by United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters President Marty Maddaloni, raising "a million bucks for the Democratic Party."</p>
<p>Listen to an excerpt from his audiobook below, read by McAuliffe himself, in which he describes shortly leaving his wife and newborn son in the car on the way home from the hospital.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Five Things You Need To Know About Terry McAuliffe | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5992/five-things-you-need-know-about-terry-mcauliffe-robert-kraychik | 2016-05-24 | 0 |
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<p>No matter what happens Tuesday when the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges go live, experts say it will be too early to call the marketplaces a failure or success.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“October 1 is much ado about nothing,” says Larry Kocot, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Some may not want to write a check [in October] so they may wait. The real crunch time happens toward the end of the enrollment period, prior to benefits starting.”</p>
<p>Tuesday kicks off open enrollment season on the health-insurance marketplaces which runs through March 31, 2014. Uninsured Americans, along with those looking for different coverage options, can start shopping on the state and federally-run exchanges &#160;for a policy, but any purchased plans won’t kick in until Jan. 1—a major reason why enrollment numbers likely won’t be impressive early on in the launch, says Kocot.</p>
<p>He says December will likely be the month to watch regarding health-care enrollment. Under the ACA, every individual in the U.S. has to have insurance by March 31, 2014, or face a penalty of $95 a year, or 1% of their annual income—whichever is higher.</p>
<p>A general buzz about the exchanges has increased as the launch date approaches, especially as the Obama administration unveils more information surrounding the exchanges, including premium price estimates.</p>
<p>Last week, the Health Department reported the average monthly premium for Americans, before subsidies, would be around $328. Those who are eligible for subsidies are those who make up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. For an individual, this tops out at around $45,000 per year, and for a family of four, this cuts off at around $94,000 a year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.</p>
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<p>Kocot, a former senior advisor to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), who worked on the rollout of the Medicare Part D program in 2006 and is familiar with how consumers react to new health coverage options.</p>
<p>“Some tried to enroll as soon as the ages opened, but many waited,” he says.</p>
<p>Some even say that 2014 will be too early to determine the success of the exchanges, says Benjamin Conley, benefits attorney at Chicago’s Seyfarth Shaw. He points to the Congressional Budget Office’s own projections that six million out of an estimated 50 million people in the U.S. without insurance will enroll on the first year.</p>
<p>“The key will be what the enrollee’s health characteristics are,” Conley says, of how well the exchanges fare for consumers in terms of premium rates. “If it’s all sick people, the exchanges are in a death spiral where costs will go up, healthy people drop off and the exchanges never become viable. But if a million people enroll across all 50 states--and 80% are healthy, which is what the law needs--the momentum will carry from there.”</p>
<p>Many employer-sponsored plans also operate on a calendar year, says Conley, so their open enrollment periods come later in November and December. For Conley, who works with companies to help them navigate the law, 2016 will be a more crucial year to watch. This will be one full year after the employer mandate goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, and businesses with at least 50 employees will have to either offer coverage to workers or face a penalty of $2,000 per worker, per year.</p>
<p>“The employer mandate is a crucial component of the law,” he says. “Until the penalties start ramping up, you won’t really be able to assess if the law is successful.”</p>
<p>Even those operating on the exchange front say the laws’ judgment day will not be Oct. 1. Craig Thomas, Florida Blue senior vice president and chief strategy and marketing officer, says while the day is historic, it’s the first of many open enrollment periods. Florida Blue is the largest insurer in the state.</p>
<p>“We think early on, the biggest key is how much awareness is out there on the market,” Thomas says. “It’s about how many people understand that now is an opportunity to start shopping, and the start to make new choices.”</p>
<p>Craig also expects momentum to build in December as awareness grows. Thomas says the under-65 population of insured could potentially double from between 800,000 and 900,000 to nearly 1.7 million.</p>
<p>Despite this rationale, Kocot says detractors will still be quick to judge on open enrollment day.</p>
<p>“Clearly, there will be some who say this is a failure no matter what happens, but I don’t think it’s a failure until we see people involved, and see what they can do, and how they can use their benefits,” Kocot says.</p> | ObamaCare’s Kickoff on Oct. 1: ‘Much Ado About Nothing?’ | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/09/30/oct-1-why-it-does-and-doesnt-matter.html | 2017-02-08 | 0 |
<p />
<p>School shootings can happen anywhere, anytime. But it’s worth looking at the gun control laws in Virginia after <a href="http://www.570news.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w041698A" type="external">today’s tragedy at Virginia Tech</a> and noting that the state has a poor track record when it comes to gun control.</p>
<p>The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which issues an annual state reportcard on gun laws, <a href="http://www.stategunlaws.org/viewstate.php?choose_state=Go&amp;st=VA" type="external">gives the state a C-</a>, noting that the state is outright failing when it comes to safety locks and standards. The state also doesn’t allow cities to regulate guns, and it doesn’t execute background checks on private sales – perhaps significant in this case – and it allows open carry of a handgun that has a capacity of twenty rounds or less. (The NRA tracks gun legislation closely as well. Check out the latest happenings in Virginia, or in any other state, via the <a href="http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/State/" type="external">NRA-ILA’s clickable map</a>.)</p>
<p>Earlier today President’s Bush spokesperson Dana Perino <a href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0704/S00223.htm" type="external">addressed</a> today’s events and was asked how the President will respond in terms of gun regulations:</p>
<p>I would point you back to the fact that President, along with Secretary Spellings, hosted last October a conference on school gun violence after the Amish school shooting and the other shootings that had happened, because the tragedies are the ones that just collectively break America’s heart…As far as policy, the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. And certainly bringing a gun into a school dormitory and shooting…obviously that would be against the law and something that someone should be held accountable for.</p>
<p>Q: Does there need to be some more restrictions? Does there need to be gun control in this country?</p>
<p>Perino: If there are changes to the President’s policy we will let you know. But we’ve had a consistent policy of ensuring that the Justice Department is enforcing all of the gun laws that we have on the books and making sure that they’re prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.</p>
<p>A reporter then pushed Perino (who’s not yet comfortable with being pushed) noting that while Governor of Texas, Bush ushered in legislation eliminating the age restriction on gun possession.</p>
<p>Q: Should there be some kind of federal age limit, as far as the President is concerned, raising the age for gun possession in this country?</p>
<p>Perino: Unfortunately, I’m going to have to go back and look at what the record was in Texas.</p>
<p>Well, Dana, let me help you out. Texas is <a href="http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/articles_publications/publications/gun_report_20000401/GunReport.pdf" type="external">one of six states</a> (Alabama, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Maine, Texas and Wyoming are the others) where there is no minimum age for possession. Virginia isn’t one of these states, and the shooter of 30+ people and himself was not a minor, but gun control laws in aggregate help determine the accessibility of weapons and can impact the outcome of a tragic situation.</p>
<p>There is much, much more to be learned about what went down today, and how this troubled man got his hands on a gun is only a small part of the story. But be sure, just about everyone wishes it had been harder for him to do so.</p>
<p /> | Virginia Home to Lax Gun Laws | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/04/virginia-home-lax-gun-laws/ | 2007-04-16 | 4 |
<p>From Sac Bee:</p>
<p>In a sometimes contentious legislative hearing Tuesday, state senators told&#160; <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/California+Department+of+Transportation/" type="external">California Department of Transportation</a>&#160;officials that their management of data falsification by a technician in one of the agency’s testing units suggests pervasive management problems.</p>
<p>“I’m a little bit troubled about what seems to be a systemic problem in the agency,” said Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar. “I’m concerned that it took a whistle-blower and the press to bring this to light … .</p>
<p>“I can only imagine if you were a private entity caught in falsifying data, what the consequences would be.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/23/4074999/state-senators-see-broad-management.html#mi_rss=Top%20Stories" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a></p> | State senators see broad management problems in Caltrans | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/state-senators-see-broad-management-problems-in-caltrans/ | 2011-11-24 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Car discounts climbed to a post-recession high in September, as automakers face sputtering sales and growing competition between brands.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Even though demand for new vehicles remains strong, auto sales haven’t been able to maintain the rapid growth that carried the industry to record sales of 17.5 million vehicles in 2015. Monthly sales have leveled off in recent months, and in September, automakers continued to report slower deliveries. Detroit’s Big 3 of General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE:FCAU) all reported sales declines, while Toyota (NYSE:TM) booked a modest increase of 1.5%.</p>
<p>The cooler sales reports mean brands are clamoring for market share, fueling higher incentives on new cars, SUVs and trucks. Incentive spending was trending toward a record $3,923 per vehicle, beating the previous high of $3,753 in December 2008, J.D. Power and LMC Automotive said in their September forecast.</p>
<p>Sales during Labor Day weekend, traditionally a busy period for auto sales and promotions, ticked 1% lower year-over-year despite higher incentives.</p>
<p>According to TrueCar (NASDAQ:TRUE), BMW led the pack with discounts averaging $6,732 per vehicle, a 44% increase versus a year ago. Fiat Chrysler, Ford, GM, Hyundai, Subaru and Nissan also offered more discounts last month.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Incentive spending as a percentage of average transaction prices was 10.2% last month, up from 9.7% in September 2015.</p>
<p>Mark LaNeve, Ford’s vice president, U.S. marketing, sales and service, said automakers including Ford pushed additional incentives into the marketplace in September. Ford ran Labor Day promotions through Sept. 6, while some competitors’ deals lasted until Sept. 10.</p>
<p>“There was a lot of incentive activity, very aggressive sales events, for the Labor Day period,” LaNeve told analysts and reporters on a conference call Monday. “I wouldn’t characterize it as the entire month was made in the first 10 days, but I think a contributing factor was aggressive and successful Labor Day promotions.”</p>
<p>While sales have flattened, automakers are still posting big monthly numbers. Ford expects industrywide sales to finish the year just slightly below last year’s all-time high, and September’s seasonally adjusted annual rate is estimated to hit 17.7 million units.</p>
<p>September also faced a tough year-over-year comparison. A year ago, industry sales ran at a SAAR pace of 18.2 million vehicles, which was the best mark in 10 years. According to LaNeve, incentives don’t pose a concern given that sales remain near peak levels.</p>
<p>“I would say the business is as competitive as I’ve seen in my 32 years, but it’s competitive in a very strong industry,” LaNeve explained. “Where the industry doesn’t feel too good is when it’s real competitive at a 10 million [SAAR] industry, which it was six or seven years ago. So I’ll take this all day long, but it is very, very competitive out there.”</p> | Time to Buy a Car? Automakers Pump Up Discounts as Sales Sputter | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/10/03/time-to-buy-car-automakers-pump-up-discounts-as-sales-sputter.html | 2016-10-03 | 0 |
<p>Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer testified Monday that “Scooter” Libby <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/washington/29cnd-libby.html?ex=1170738000&amp;en=62a96e3b2934873d&amp;ei=5070&amp;emc=eta1" type="external">revealed</a> Valerie Plame’s CIA status three days before he claims to have learned the information. Fleischer also said Libby mentioned that the matter was “hush-hush.”</p>
<p>New York Times:</p>
<p>Mr. Fleischer, testifying in Mr. Libby’s trial under a grant of immunity, said Mr. Libby told him over lunch on July 7, 2003, that the wife of a critic of President Bush’s Iraq policy worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. That is three days before he told a grand jury that he first learned her name.</p>
<p>“This is hush-hush,” Mr. Fleischer recalled Mr. Libby as saying in effect. “This is on the Q.T. Not many people know about this.”</p>
<p />
<p>Mr. Fleischer said he had lunch with Mr. Libby in the White House mess that Monday, July 7, and that they had a general conversation (“We talked a little football”) before Mr. Libby brought up the subject of Valerie Wilson, a covert C.I.A. agent whose husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat, had criticized the president’s Iraq policy in an opinion essay in The New York Times.</p>
<p>The former Bush spokesman testified that Mr. Libby said, “She works at the C.I.A., she works in the counter-proliferation division.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/washington/29cnd-libby.html?ex=1170738000&amp;en=62a96e3b2934873d&amp;ei=5070&amp;emc=eta1" type="external">Read more</a></p> | More Bad News for Libby | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/more-bad-news-for-libby/ | 2007-01-30 | 4 |
<p />
<p />
<p>Breaking News out of Syria as Iran has fired missiles into Eastern Syria in what appears to be a retaliatory strike against the Islamic State.</p>
<p />
<p>In the Iranian Capital of Tehran on June 7th the Iranian Parliament was under siege by gunmen who claimed allegiance to ISIS. Tehran has now reacted with explosive new strikes in the first ever ground to ground strikes from Iran into Syria.</p>
<p />
<p>The Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran posted on it's website "In this operation, several ground-to-ground midrange missiles were fired from IRGC bases in Kermanshah Province and targeted Takfiri forces in the Deir Ezzor region in Eastern Syria.?</p>
<p />
<p>Sepah News, the reporting website stated that the IRGC uses the term Takfiri to describe ISIS.</p>
<p />
<p>Tehran is still reeling in anger over the attacks on it's Parliament and against the shrine of it's historic republic's founder Ayatollah Khomeini.</p>
<p />
<p>The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has accused Saudi Arabia of assisting ISIS in the attacks in it's Capital City only further to increase the tensions in the region. Syria itself has been involved in a brutal Civil War since 2011 that has amounted to massive civilian and insurgent casualties.</p>
<p />
<p>Iran has strongly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against anti-government rebel groups and ISIS, which is primarily based in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Saudi Arabia along with Israel are both known to wish to oust Assad while Russia supports Iran in the defense of Assad.</p>
<p />
<p>Source</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/18/middleeast/iran-launches-missiles-into-syria/index.html" type="external">cnn.com/2017/06/18/middleeast/iran-launches-missiles-into-syria/index.html</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Iran Launches Missiles Into Syria | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/3916-Iran-Launches-Missiles-Into-Syria | 2017-06-18 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 7 Sep, 2017 02:41</p>
<p>As Hurricane Irma’s destructive path nears Florida, a sheriff is warning sex offenders to beware of officers checking IDs at shelters. But now people are worried the rules will also affect others with outstanding warrants.</p>
<p>The first tweet sent out on Wednesday by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, explained the office’s protocol for those seeking shelter from hurricane Irma.</p>
<p>“If you go to a shelter for #Irma, be advised: sworn LEOs will be at every shelter, checking IDs. Sex offenders/predators will not be allowed.”</p>
<p>The sheriff explained the tweet further by writing on top of it,&#160;“If you go to a shelter for #Irma and you have a warrant, we’ll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/402261-hurricane-irma-katia-jose/" type="external">READ MORE: Tropical triple threat: Irma followed by Hurricanes Katia &amp; Jose</a></p>
<p>Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/_Adam_Dion_/status/905485515591487489" type="external">users</a> were <a href="https://twitter.com/donjose/status/905490633833500676" type="external">outraged</a> by the <a href="https://twitter.com/gimme1/status/905519895168696320" type="external">statements</a> as the potentially life-threatening storm approaches southeast Florida.</p>
<p>“Are you saying those without an ID will be turned away from shelter?”&#160;one Twitter user asked.</p>
<p />
<p>Are you saying those without an ID will be turned away from shelter?</p>
<p>— byron (@byron_c) <a href="https://twitter.com/byron_c/status/905457445505511424" type="external">September 6, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>On Wednesday, Irma made <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/402151-hurricane-irma-landfall-barbuda/" type="external">landfall</a> on the Caribbean, as it headed into Puerto Rico. Winds of 185mph passed over the island nation of Barbuda. Heavy <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/402214-irma-caribbean-landfall-content/" type="external">rain</a> accompanied the strong winds, while Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy and the neighboring island of Antigua were also impacted by the elements brought on by the hurricane, <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/" type="external">according</a> to the US National Hurricane Center.</p>
<p>In preparation for Irma’s eventual landfall on Florida, Monroe County and coastal areas of Miami-Dade County started to evacuate on Wednesday.</p>
<p>As of <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/402135-hurricane-irma-us-navy-tolls-suspended/" type="external">Tuesday</a> evening, residents fleeing southeast Florida were notified they do not have to pay tolls on Florida roads. The <a href="http://www.flgov.com/2017/09/05/gov-scott-directing-the-suspension-of-all-tolls-across-florida/" type="external">order</a> was issued by Governor Rick Scott to keep traffic flowing during Irma so people can safely evacuate.</p>
<p>“If you’re told to evacuate, get out quickly,” Scott said Wednesday morning, according to CNN. “We can expect additional evacuations as this storm continues to come near our state.”</p>
<p>Alone, the greater Miami area is home to about six million people who will bear the brunt of the storm. It is not known exactly how many people are currently seeking shelter or how many may have warrants out on them.</p>
<p>RT America contacted the sheriff’s office, and was told a public information officer would call back with further information.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p /> | Florida sheriff offers jail as ‘secure shelter’ for those with warrants fleeing Hurricane Irma | false | https://newsline.com/florida-sheriff-offers-jail-as-secure-shelter-for-those-with-warrants-fleeing-hurricane-irma/ | 2017-09-06 | 1 |
<p>BURBANK, Calif.-- So the rumors of a Fallon-Leno swap were true. Jimmy Fallon has <a href="http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/nbcentertainment/pressreleases?pr=contents/press-releases/2013/04/03/jaylenoannounce1292972.xml" type="external">finally inked a deal with NBC</a> to take over for Jay Leno as the host of 'The Tonight Show' starting in spring 2014.</p>
<p>NBC announced on Wednesday afternoon that Leno will host his final "Tonight Show" from the Burbank studios next spring and Fallon will take over shortly after that.</p>
<p>The show <a href="http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/04/03/official-jimmy-fallon-to-replace-jay-leno/" type="external">will be moved from California to</a> its original home in New York City's 30 Rock and will be executive produced by Saturday Night Live chief Lorne Michaels.</p>
<p>"We are purposefully making this change when Jay is #1, just as Jay replaced Johnny Carson when he was #1. Jimmy Fallon is a unique talent and this is his time. I'm thrilled he will become the sixth host of 'The Tonight Show' at exactly the right moment," said Steve Burke, Chief Executive Officer of NBCUniversal.</p>
<p>The move will be the second time that Leno has tried to retire from the late night comedy show.</p>
<p>In 2009, Leno was removed as the host of "Tonight" to be replaced by Conan O'Brien.</p>
<p>The switch up didn't work and after nine weeks O'Brien went back to his hosting chair at "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" while Leno claimed his role as host of "Tonight".</p>
<p>The failed move left tensions between Leno and NBC executives that Leno says aren't a problem this time around.</p>
<p>"The main difference between this and the other time is I’m part of the process," <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/business/media/nbc-confirms-fallon-will-succeed-leno.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">Leno told the New York Times in an interview.</a></p>
<p>"The last time the decision was made without me. I came into work one day and — you’re out." This time around "there really aren’t any complications like there were the last time," he added. "This time it feels right."</p>
<p>There does not seem to be any bad blood between Leno and Fallon, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tv-column/post/its-official-jimmy-fallon-to-replace-jay-leno-on-the-tonight-show/2013/04/03/3ec85446-9c7e-11e2-9a79-eb5280c81c63_blog.html" type="external">who joked with each other Wednesday</a>as news of the swap was released.</p>
<p>"Congratulations Jimmy. I hope you’re as lucky as me and hold on to the job until you’re the old guy. If you need me, I’ll be at the garage," said Leno.</p>
<p>Jimmy responded, "I’m really excited to host a show that starts today instead of tomorrow."</p>
<p>There has been no announcement about who will fill Fallon's shoes on 'Late Night'.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | It's official! Get ready for 'The Tonight Show' with Jimmy Fallon starting 2014 | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-04-03/its-official-get-ready-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon-starting-2014 | 2013-04-03 | 3 |
<p>Jan 23 (Reuters) - Strongbridge Biopharma Plc:</p>
<p>* STRONGBRIDGE BIOPHARMA PLC ANNOUNCES PROPOSED PUBLIC OFFERING OF 5 MILLION ORDINARY SHARES Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TREBES, France (Reuters) - Two people were killed when a gunman screaming “Allahu Akbar” shot at police and took hostages in a supermarket in southwestern France on Friday and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the incident appeared to be a terrorist act.</p>
<p>(Graphic: France hostages - <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2pCMp4m" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2pCMp4m</a>)</p>
<p>A source at the Interior Ministry said two had died. “It is a temporary assessment as it could unfortunately get worse. Three people are wounded, including one of them seriously,” the source said.</p>
<p>Eric Menassi, the mayor of the town of Trebes, told BFM TV that the hostage-taker was now alone with one police officer in the supermarket and all other hostages were free.</p>
<p>The station reported that the hostage-taker has claimed allegiance to Islamic State and that he has demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam - the prime surviving suspect in the Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015.</p>
<p>More than 240 people have been killed in France in attacks since 2015 by assailants who pledged allegiance to, or were inspired by, Islamic State.</p>
<p>The man first shot at four police officers in the historic town of Carcassonne before barricading himself in the Super-U supermarket in Trebes, about 8 km (5 miles) to the east.</p>
<p>A police union official said the attacker had killed one person with bullet in the head in Carcassonne before the hostage-taking.</p> Police are seen at the scene of a hostage situation in a supermarket in Trebes, Aude, France March 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from a social media video. LA VIE A TREBES/via REUTERS
<p>Menassi also told LCI TV that the man had entered the shop in Trebes screaming “Allahu Akbar, (God is greatest) I’ll kill you all”.</p>
<p>Philippe said: “All the information we have as I speak lead us to think that this would be a terrorist act.”</p>
<p>Carole, who was shopping at the supermarket, described how people had taken refuge in a cold room.</p> Police are seen at the scene of a hostage situation in a supermarket in Trebes, Aude, France March 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from a social media video. LA VIE A TREBES/via REUTERS
<p>“A man shouted and fired several times. I saw a cold room door, I asked people to come and take shelter,” she told Franceinfo radio. “We were ten, and we stayed an hour. There were more gunshots and we went out the back door.”</p>
<p>French investigators believe they have identified the hostage-taker. The man is known to the intelligence services and flagged in a database of radicalized Islamist militants, Franceinfo reported.</p>
<p>Police in helmets and body armor took up positions around the Super-U supermarket.</p>
<p>The Paris prosecutor’s office said counter-terrorism prosecutors were investigating the incident but did not comment on the possible Islamic State allegiance.</p>
<p>Earlier, the Interior Ministry had said security forces were carrying out an operation at a supermarket in southern France. Interior Minister Gerard Collomb was on his way.</p>
<p>The UNSA police union also said on Twitter a police operation was underway after an individual had earlier shot at four officers in the Carcassone region, wounding one of them.</p>
<p>Reporting by Johanna Decorse in Toulouse, John Irish, Leigh Thomas, Emmanuel Jarry and Bate Felix in Paris; Writing by Ingrid Melander and David Stamp; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW/GENEVA, Russia (Reuters) - Russia will likely prepare a list of restrictions on imported products from the United States in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, Moscow’s trade ministry said on Friday, according to Interfax news agency.</p>
<p>The announcement came after China threatened to retaliate to U.S. President Donald Trump’s measures, stoking fears of a looming global trade war.</p>
<p>“We will prepare our position, submit it to the Economy Ministry and apply to the WTO (the World Trade Organization),” Russia’s Deputy Trade Minister, Viktor Yevtukhov, said, according to Interfax.</p>
<p>“We will probably prepare proposals on the response measures. Restrictions against the American goods. I think that all countries will follow this path,” Yevtukhov added.</p>
<p>The United States has said the tariffs are needed to protect its national security and therefore do not need to be cleared by the WTO. Many trade experts disagree saying they fall under the jurisdiction of the Geneva-based global trade body.</p>
<p>Russian steel and aluminum producers have been playing down the potential impact of the U.S. tariffs. But Russia’s Trade Ministry said there would be an impact.</p>
<p>Russian steel and aluminum producers may lose $2 billion and $1 billion, respectively, from the U.S. tariffs introduction, Yevtukhov said, citing preliminary estimates for the Trade Ministry. It was not clear whether he was referring to annual losses.</p>
<p>China’s commerce ministry said on Friday that the country was planning measures against up to $3 billion of U.S. imports to balance the steel and aluminum tariffs, with a list of 128 U.S. products that could be targeted.</p>
<p>Reporting by Polina Devitt, Tom Miles, Anastasia Lyrchikova and Polina Ivanova; writing by Polina Devitt; editing by Andrew Heavens</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders called on U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday to make permanent an EU exemption from U.S. metal import duties, saying they reserved the right to respond “in a proportionate manner” to protect the bloc’s interests.</p> Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker attend the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2018. Olivier Hoslet/Pool via Reuters
<p>The 40-day exemption granted by Washington was like U.S. President Donald Trump “putting a gun to our head”, Belgium’s prime minister complained. The EU’s trade chief demanded that the United States drop “artificial deadlines”.</p>
<p>Trump said on Thursday he would suspend tariffs for the EU, the United States’ biggest trading partner, as well as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. The tariffs are suspended until May 1 as discussions continue.</p>
<p>In a joint statement, EU heads of state and government, meeting for a summit in Brussels, said the measures could not be justified on national security grounds - the basis cited by Washington - and that the exemption should be permanent.</p>
<p>“The European Council regrets the decision by the United States to impose import tariffs on steel and aluminum,” they said. “Sector-wide protection in the U.S. is an inappropriate remedy for the real problems of overcapacity.”</p>
<p>The leaders also said they supported steps taken by the European Commission to respond to the U.S. measures “as appropriate and in a proportionate manner”.</p>
<p>Cecilia Malmstrom, the trade commissioner who negotiates on behalf of the 28 nations, said Europeans did not want to be penalized by actions prompted largely by accusations of Chinese dumping and said Washington and Brussels should be cooperating.</p>
<p>“The U.S. and EU should be tackling such issues together. We now look forward to pursuing a dialogue with the U.S. on trade issues of common concern, such as global steel overcapacity,” she said on Twitter.</p>
<p>“These discussions between allies and partners should not be subject to artificial deadlines.”</p> Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
<p>German industry, aware that Trump has warned he could raise duties on EU cars, welcomed the reprieve but said the threat of a trade war had not disappeared.</p>
<p>“We still have the threat of escalating global trade conflict. And U.s. President Donald Trump will demand a price for the tariff exclusion,” Thilo Brodtman, head of Germany’s VDMA engineering federation said in a statement.</p>
<p>European steelmakers group Eurofer said the danger to the EU market had not disappeared, with the exemption only temporary, and that the EU needed its own quotas or tariffs to stop steel otherwise bound for the United States from flooding into Europe.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>Europe says it wants to avert a trade war but the European Commission has proposed a series of measures if the White House hits EU producers.</p>
<p>It would launch a challenge at the World Trade Organization, consider measures to prevent a surge of metal imports into Europe and impose import duties on U.S. products to “rebalance” EU-U.S. trade. Malmstrom said the EU was keeping its options open.</p>
<p>The counter-measures would include EU tariffs on U.S. orange juice, tobacco, bourbon and Harley-Davidson Inc motorcycles.</p>
<p>Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the EU did not want a trade war but would respond “firmly” if the president took “the wrong decision”.</p>
<p>Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel underlined the irritation among some EU leaders at Trump’s negotiating tactics.</p>
<p>“I have the impression that the U.S. leader wants to negotiate with the European Union by putting a gun to our head,” Michel said as he arrived at the EU summit.</p>
<p>“That’s a strange way to negotiate with an ally.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt and Paul Carrel in Berlin; writing by Richard Lough; editing by Noah Barkin and Philip Blenkinsop</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China urged the United States on Friday to “pull back from the brink” as President Donald Trump’s plans for tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese goods moved the world’s two largest economies closer to a trade war.</p>
<p>The escalating tensions sent shivers through financial markets as investors foresaw dire consequences for the global economy if trade barriers start going up.</p>
<p>Trump is planning to impose the tariffs for what he says is misappropriation of U.S. intellectual property. A probe was launched last year under Section 301 of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act.</p>
<p>“China doesn’t hope to be in a trade war, but is not afraid of engaging in one,” the Chinese commerce ministry responded in a statement.</p>
<p>“China hopes the United States will pull back from the brink, make prudent decisions, and avoid dragging bilateral trade relations to a dangerous place.”</p>
<p>In a presidential memorandum signed by Trump on Thursday, there will be a 30-day consultation period that only starts once a list of Chinese goods is published. That effectively creates room for potential talks to address Trump’s allegations on intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers.</p>
<p>Though the White House has said the planned tariffs were a response to China’s “economic aggression”, Trump said he views China as “a friend” and the two sides are in negotiations.</p>
<p>A Chinese commerce ministry official said both sides were in touch.</p>
<p>Still, it is unclear under what terms China and the U.S. are willing to talk, with Beijing adamant that the U.S. tariffs constitute a unilateral move that it rejects.</p>
<p>China has always said it will not hold talks with the U.S. within the framework of the Section 301 probe, Chen Fuli, director-general of the commerce ministry’s department of treaty and law, told reporters.</p>
<p>“Currently, we are not looking to get in a negotiation again,” a senior U.S. official told reporters in Beijing.</p>
<p>If China wants to avoid U.S. tariffs, it needs to start taking concrete action, the official said, adding that Washington has not given Beijing any to-do list to remedy trade ties.</p>
<p>(U.S. imports from China: <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2FMsz1Q" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2FMsz1Q</a>)</p>
<p>(U.S. trade in goods with China: <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2GcOZIH" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2GcOZIH</a>)</p> READY TO RETALIATE
<p>China showed readiness to retaliate by declaring plans to levy additional duties on up to $3 billion of U.S. imports including fruit and wine in response to U.S. import tariffs on steel and aluminum, which were due to go into effect on Friday.</p>
<p>The inevitable fall in demand from a full-blown trade war would spell trouble for all economies supplying the United States and China.</p>
<p>Feeling the chill, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2.5 percent, tracking heavy losses on Wall Street. China’s main indexes tumbled the most in six weeks, skidding up to 3.6 percent.</p> FILE PHOTO - A worker checks steel wires at a warehouse in Dalian, Liaoning province, China May 15, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
<p>“Today’s (U.S.) tariffs amount to no more than a slap on the wrist for China,” Mark Williams, Chief Asia Economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note. “China won’t change its ways. Worries about escalation therefore won’t go away.”</p>
<p>Williams estimated that the $506 billion that China exported to the United States drove around 2.5 percent of its total gross domestic product, and the $50-60 billion targeted by the U.S. tariffs contributed just around 0.25 percent.</p>
<p>Trump, however, appears intent on fulfilling election promises to reduce the record U.S. trade deficit with China. A commentary published by the official Xinhua news agency said the United States had adopted a “Cold War mentality”, and “panic” over China’s economic rise was driving Washington’s confrontational approach.</p>
<p>U.S. multi-nationals at a business gathering in Shanghai were warned by Stephen Roach, a Yale University economist, “to prepare for the worst” and make contingency plans until calmer heads prevail.</p>
<p>Roach said he could foresee “the Chinese government moving to restrict, in some form or another, the financial as well as the supply chain activities of American companies operating in this country.”</p>
<p>Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China would not hold back in retaliating.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>“It’s impolite not to give as good as one gets,” Hua told reporters.</p> LOW HANGING FRUIT
<p>Alarm over Trump’s protectionist leanings mounted earlier this month after he imposed hefty import tariffs on steel and aluminum under Section 232 of the 1962 U.S. Trade Expansion Act, which allows safeguards based on “national security”.</p>
<p>On Friday, Trump gave Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Brazil and South Korea and the European Union temporary exemptions. China was not exempted even though it was a far smaller supplier than Canada or South Korea.</p>
<p>Also omitted from the exemption list was U.S. ally Japan, though a government spokesman said Tokyo would press to be included. And Finance Minister Taro Aso expressed empathy with Washington over protecting intellectual property.</p>
<p>China’s retaliation against the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum appeared restrained.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-eu-reax/eu-complains-of-trumps-gun-to-our-head-over-tariffs-idUSKBN1GZ14K" type="external">EU complains of Trump's 'gun to our head' over tariffs</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-russia/russia-eyes-restrictions-on-u-s-imports-in-response-to-tariffs-idUSKBN1GZ17L" type="external">Russia eyes restrictions on U.S. imports in response to tariffs</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-wto/u-s-steel-tariffs-meet-barrage-of-criticism-at-wto-idUSKBN1GZ1XI" type="external">U.S. steel tariffs meet barrage of criticism at WTO</a>
<p>China has drawn a list of 128 U.S. products that could be hit with tariffs if the two countries are unable to reach an agreement on trade issues, the ministry said.</p>
<p>Without giving a timeframe, the commerce ministry said China was considering implementing measures in two stages: first a 15 percent tariff on 120 products including steel pipes, dried fruit and wine worth $977 million, and later, a 25 percent tariff on $1.99 billion of pork and recycled aluminum.</p>
<p>U.S. wine exports to China last year were $79 million, according to the U.S. Wine Institute, which represents Californian wine makers.</p>
<p>Fruit growers in California, Florida, Michigan and Washington all stood to lose as China’s list also included close to 80 fruit and nut products. The U.S. exported $669 million of fruit, frozen juice and nuts to China last year, and it was the top supplier of apples, cherries, walnuts and almonds.</p>
<p>“With the restrained response, China hopes Trump can realize his errors and mend his ways,” said Xu Hongcai, deputy chief economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a Beijing think tank.</p>
<p>“If we really want to counter, the strongest response would be to target soybean and automobiles. China is drawing its bow but not firing. We still have some cards to play.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by John Ruwitch, Elias Glenn, Dominique Patton, Josephine Mason, Ben Blanchard, Christian Shepherd, Meng Meng, Tom Daly, Wang Jing and Lusha Zhang; Editing By Simon Cameron-Moore</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Strongbridge Biopharma Announces Proposed Public Offering Of 5 Mln Ordinary Shares Two people killed in French supermarket hostage-taking Russia eyes restrictions on U.S. imports in response to tariffs EU complains of Trump's 'gun to our head' over tariffs China urges U.S. away from 'brink' as Trump picks trade weapons | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-strongbridge-biopharma-announces-p/brief-strongbridge-biopharma-announces-proposed-public-offering-of-5-mln-ordinary-shares-idUSASB0C1ZT | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>Dystopian entertainment is all the rage now that Donald Trump is president, and the more unglued it sounds about an approaching American totalitarian state, the better, hence the liberal cheerleading for "The Handmaid's Tale," a TV series made for the streaming service Hulu.</p>
<p>It's based on a loopy 1985 novel by the radical feminist Canadian author Margaret Atwood, which imagines the United States quickly falling under a theocratic dictatorship based on its Puritan roots. America becomes a patriarchy called the Republic of Gilead. All women are deprived of their rights and forbidden to read. Due to environmental degradation, very few women can conceive a child, so a slave class of handmaids are created, whose entire purpose is giving birth. The handmaids wear dowdy red gowns (to represent menstrual blood) with large white bonnets that obscure their faces.</p>
<p>Liberals called this story "very timely" in 1985 and never stopped declaring it timely. On CBS, the TV series' star Elizabeth Moss proclaimed: "When everyone signed on, it felt incredibly relevant. It was written in 1985, and it's been relevant every decade since. I think it's just in this country, there's a relevance now that is striking everybody."</p>
<p>When Hillary Clinton accepted the Champion of the Century award from Planned Parenthood, she referred to the book and show as a warning for feminist vigilance. Moss gushed on CBS that this was a "huge honor," saying, "we all respect her so much." For her part, Atwood said that after the 2016 presidential election, "the cast woke up in the morning and thought, we're no longer making fiction -- we're making a documentary."</p>
<p>This is why conservatives tend to laugh when liberals rail against the scourge of "fake news." There is no faker news than the notion that America is on the precipice of a Puritan patriarchy under President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>But the left pretends it's real. In an adoring NPR "All Things Considered" interview on April 26, host Audie Cornish pointed out: "The 'Handmaid's' costume has appeared in real life in recent times. Silent protesters wore similar costumes in a demonstration against the passage of abortion restrictions in Texas." She asked Elisabeth Moss, "How weird was that?" Moss replied: "Oh, not weird, awesome. I mean, so, so cool. This costume, this color, the bonnets, they're so iconic. And they stand immediately for feminism and women's rights. ... it's a very moving thing."</p>
<p>Like Moss, co-star Samira Wiley expressed how cool it was to make leftist propaganda. She said: "A television show, at the end of the day can be art, and it can elicit real change. I just feel so blessed to be able to be a part of something that can elicit real change."</p>
<p>In the real world, it's the "theocrats" like the Little Sisters of the Poor that are being forced to bow to the Libertine Left's demands to fund contraceptives for employees. The Democratic platform endorsed forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions.</p>
<p>Now imagine someone in 1985 had written a dystopian novel about how there was this large abortion conglomerate, a business so inhumane that it would rip unborn babies limb from limb and then sell the body parts to research laboratories. A female doctor babbles over a salad: "We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver because we know that, so I'm not gonna crush that part. I'm gonna basically crush below. I'm gonna crush above. And I'm gonna see if I can get it all intact."</p>
<p>But to the left, the Republic of Gilead is "incredibly relevant," while actual videotapes of Planned Parenthood doctors are denounced as irrelevant fiction.</p>
<p>L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.</p>
<p>COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM</p> | BOZELL & GRAHAM: The Fake News of 'The Handmaid's Tale' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/16383/fake-news-handmaids-tale-l-brent-bozell-iii | 2017-05-12 | 0 |
<p>The US didn't get there in 2016.</p>
<p>But a war-ravaged West African nation was able to make it happen 10&#160;years earlier, when Liberia elected Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — a 60-something grandmother — to lead their nation.&#160;</p>
<p>Market women made up the key demographic that helped catapult Sirleaf to the presidency.&#160;That is,&#160;the small business owners who sell street food and trinkets on Liberia's roadsides.&#160;</p>
<p>Those women didn't mind stooping to a few tricks on voting day in 2006, says Helene Cooper, author of the new biography, " <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Madame-President-Extraordinary-Journey-Johnson/dp/145169735X" type="external">Madame President; The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.</a>"</p>
<p>"Some of the mothers stole their sons' voter ID cards. Some women were hanging out at the bar at the side of the road, and they were offering these guys money for their voter ID cards," Cooper says. "In the polling lines, I talked to two women who were passing the same baby around to the different women saying, 'You can pretend you're a nursing mother, and they'll let you jump to the front of the line so&#160;you don't have to wait in line for eight, 10, 12 hours like everybody else is doing.'"</p>
<p>Sirleaf's opponent in 2006 was celebrity soccer star, striker George Weah. Liberian men idolized Weah, although he had no experience in government or&#160;administration.&#160;</p>
<p>"The women rose up en masse to back Sirleaf," Cooper says. "They were willing to take all sorts of shortcuts and play dirty with the men because they were so convinced that after years of civil war only a woman could lead Liberia. They thought she had nothing to do with the civil war, and they were afraid that the men would take them back to war."&#160;</p>
<p>Sirleaf campaigned on a promise to serve for only one term. But she ran a second time and won, although her opponent withdrew from&#160;the election, raising allegations of voting irregularities. Today, she's still in charge, although Liberians are slated to go to the polls and choose a new leader next October.&#160;</p>
<p>"For the first time in Liberian history, you're going to have a 'post-president,' somebody who steps down at the end of their term and leaves," Cooper says. "She's going to be that rare African president who steps down and leaves democratically —&#160;not waiting until they're shot&#160;or killed or run out of town." &#160;</p>
<p>And when it comes to her successor, Sirleaf says she isn't weighing in.&#160;</p>
<p>"The biggest part of her legacy has been the absence of war for 12 years and the fact that women in Liberia now believe that they can be a political force," Cooper says.&#160;</p> | How hard is it to elect a female head of state? Liberians made it look easy. | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-03-07/how-hard-it-elect-female-head-state-liberians-made-it-look-easy | 2017-03-07 | 3 |
<p>US Ecology&#160;(NASDAQ: ECOL) reported second-quarter 2017 results after the market closed on Thursday that suggests that business conditions in the industrial sector are improving, though still challenging. The environmental services company's revenue grew 3% and adjusted earnings per share edged up 2.7% year over year.</p>
<p>US Ecology also reiterated its previously issued 2017 guidance but said adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is tracking to the lower end of the guidance range.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The market had a relatively muted reaction, with shares closing down 1.6% on Friday. The stock has returned 9.3% in 2017 through Friday, versus the S&amp;P 500's 11.7%.</p>
<p>Adjusted EPS excludes the impact from foreign currency translation, the non-cash writedown of deferred financing fees, and business development expenses.</p>
<p>For context -- though long-term investors shouldn't pay too much attention to Wall Street's near-term estimates -- analysts were looking for US Ecology to turn in adjusted EPS of $0.37 on revenue of $128.47 million. So the company slightly beat the earnings estimate but fell short on revenue.</p>
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<p>Revenue in US Ecology's key base business, which is part of its environmental-services business, increased 3% from the year-ago period. (The base business doesn't include the "event business," or non-recurring projects of 1,000 tons or more.) This result would have been better, but the company had to shut down of one of its treatment facilities because of severe wind damage in March. The quarter marks two consecutive quarters of revenue growth, suggesting that the base business' rebound has legs.</p>
<p>Year-over-year revenue changes in the base business over the previous few quarters are as follows:</p>
<p>Here's how the two segments performed:</p>
<p>Within environmental services, treatment and disposal revenue rose 6% and transportation revenue jumped 15% year over year. The field and industrial services' results were negatively affected by the expiration of a contract that wasn't renewed and softer overall market conditions for industrial and remediation services.</p>
<p>Here's what CEO Jeff Feeler had to say in the press release:</p>
<p>US Ecology reaffirmed its previously issued full-year 2017 guidance. However, it noted that adjusted EBITDA is tracking to the lower end of the guidance range.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than U.S. EcologyWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFMcKenna/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6be99b44-7409-11e7-a9c8-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Beth McKenna</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends U.S. Ecology. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6be99b44-7409-11e7-a9c8-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | US Ecology Earnings Reflect a Business Environment that's Slowly Improving | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/29/us-ecology-earnings-reflect-business-environment-thats-slowly-improving.html | 2017-07-29 | 0 |
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<p>And he fired his nutritionist.</p>
<p>Thursday night, mmafighting.com reported that the Johnson-Borg fight had been canceled because of illness on Borg’s part. Later, the UFC confirmed the report.</p>
<p>“Due to a viral illness to UFC flyweight contender Ray Borg, (Saturday’s) main event bout against champion Demetrious Johnson has been cancelled,” the UFC said in a statement. “Borg was deemed unfit to compete by the UFC medical team.”</p>
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<p>MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani quoted Borg’s nutritionist, Dr. Michelle Ingels of Perfecting Athletes, as saying Borg’s withdrawal was not related to difficulties in cutting to the 125-pound flyweight limit. Borg twice has come in overweight for fights but said last week that making weight for Saturday’s fight would not be a problem.</p>
<p>Friday, Borg said in a statement that he was no longer working with Perfecting Athletes or with Ingels, who, he said, “was not authorized to speak on my behalf.”</p>
<p>As recently as May, Borg had praised Perfecting Athletes for the company’s help in improving his weight-cutting methods. Perfecting Athletes is designed specifically to help athletes cut weight safely.</p>
<p>In the statement, Borg did not provide details regarding the nature of his illness.</p>
<p>This was the second time Borg has had a fight scrapped because he fell ill. A scheduled fight against Ian McCall was canceled in September 2013 and was never rescheduled.</p>
<p>The Johnson-Borg fight was to have been Johnson’s 11th title defense. With a victory, he would have surpassed Anderson Silva’s record of 10 straight successful title defenses.</p>
<p>Saturday’s card, UFC 215, was to take place as scheduled in Edmonton, Alberta. A women’s bantamweight title fight between champion Amanda Nunes and challenger Valentina Shevchenko was elevated to main-event status. Nunes successfully defended her title with a victory by split decision.</p>
<p>In his statement, Borg said, “I want to say I’m sorry to the fans and to Demetrious Johnson for being unable to fight. I want to say thank you to Dr. (Jeff) Davidson and to Jeff Novitsky for looking out for my health and best interests.”</p>
<p>On Saturday, Perfecting Athletes released a statement: “Perfecting Athletes has a long history of exceptional care and a reputation for putting our clients’ health and safety above all else. We honor and respect our clients’ privacy and have never commented about them without prior consent. We have the utmost respect for Ray as an athlete and wish him the very best.”</p>
<p>‘KOWBOJ’ TO POLAND: Jackson-Wink welterweight Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (32-9) will headline a UFC card in Gdansk, Poland, against Darren Till (15-0-1) on Oct. 21, the UFC announced, confirming multiple reports online.</p>
<p>Earlier, it was reported online that Jodie Esquibel (6-2), Cerrone’s J-W teammate, will make her UFC debut on the Gdansk card against Polish veteran Karolina Kowalkiewicz (10-2).</p>
<p>Esquibel has confirmed the matchup on social media, but the UFC has made no announcement.</p> | MMA: Borg apologizes for withdrawal | false | https://abqjournal.com/1061514/mma-borg-apologizes-for-withdrawal.html | 2 |
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<p>After you retire, your investing focus should shift away from growth and toward income and capital preservation. This can mean getting rid of some of your more-volatile stocks, and buying some others that can produce solid performance while still allowing you to sleep at night.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>One good place to look for ideas is in the portfolio of the greatest long-term investor of all time, Warren Buffett. Here are two great examples of Buffett's favorite stocks that retirees may want to consider for their portfolios.</p>
<p>Things to look for in a post-retirement stockThere are a few characteristics that good retirement stocks tend to possess. Keep in mind that the stocks in your portfolio don't necessarily have to have all of these, but the more the better.</p>
<p>An oil stock that makes money even when oil crashesThe entire energy sector has plunged lately -- or has it? One stock that Warren Buffett has been aggressively buying isPhillips 66 , which not only has handily outperformed other oil stocks since prices crashed, but is actually up despite the persistent low prices.</p>
<p>One reason for this is the diversity of the company's business. Phillips 66 has operations in the refining and marketing, chemicals, and midstream portions of the oil industry. And many of the company's operations actually perform better when oil prices drop.</p>
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<p>Unlike the other stock mentioned here, Phillips 66 isn't a predictable dividend machine. The stock yields 2.5% now, but the quarterly dividend has grown rapidly during the past few years.</p>
<p>However, return of capital to shareholders is a big priority for management. Sure, the dividend is a work in progress, but management has spent $6 billion on buybacks since 2013. I'm confident that management will remain shareholder friendly, and I'd have to assume Warren Buffett feels the same way -- after all, Berkshire Hathaway owns a 14.3% stake in the company, including several large investments during the past year.</p>
<p>A great brand name and cost advantagesAs far as predictable dividends go, it doesn't get much better than Coca-Cola , a longtime Buffett favorite that currently pays a 3.1% yield. The company has paid dividends every year since 1920, and has increased its payout for 53 consecutive years.</p>
<p>Many people have a negative outlook on Coca-Cola because of declining demand for sugary drinks like its flagship product. While this is certainly a valid concern, investors should be aware that its namesake beverage and other high-sugar products are just one of Coca-Cola's many product offerings. The company currently has 20 separate brands with more than $1 billion in annual revenue each, and its ventures into water, tea, and juice beverages have helped revenue to continue to grow despite changing consumer tastes.</p>
<p>Speaking of brand names, Coca-Cola's is one of the most valuable in the world, which gives the company pricing power over rivals -- this is why you pay more for Coca-Cola than a generic brand. Adding to this competitive advantage is one of the most impressive and efficient distribution networks of any company in the world, as well as lots of cash to use for marketing, advertising, and R&amp;D.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that Coca-Cola is a safe bet for retirees who want income and growth, without too much downside risk.</p>
<p>Keep most of your money in stocks like theseIt's a common misconception that retirees should get out of stocks completely, and instead keep their money in fixed-income investments like bonds and CDs. While these definitely have a place in retirees' portfolios, nothing could be further from the truth.</p>
<p>High-quality dividend stocks like these should make up the majority of older investors' portfolios, even after retirement. The problem with fixed-income instruments -- other than the fact that interest rates are historically low right now -- is that they'll do nothing to help you keep up with inflation. After all, $1.00 when you retire at 65 will not have the same value when you're 85. For this reason, it's extremely important to create a growing income stream, and the best way to do that is with rock-solid stocks like the ones I mentioned here.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/29/2-warren-buffett-stocks-retirees-can-buy-now.aspx" type="external">2 Warren Buffett Stocks Retirees Can Buy Now</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/KWMatt82/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Matthew Frankel Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway and Coca-Cola. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 2 Warren Buffett Stocks Retirees Can Buy Now | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/29/2-warren-buffett-stocks-retirees-can-buy-now.html | 2016-03-29 | 0 |
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<p>A security gate stands outside the Tesla Motors gigafactory site east of Reno, Nev. (David Calvert/For The Washington Post)</p>
<p>CARSON CITY, Nev. - Electric carmaker Tesla's northern Nevada battery plant is creating jobs more slowly than first projected, although state officials say it's still making satisfactory progress.</p>
<p>A progress report issued this week by the Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development said there were 272 people working at the Tesla and Panasonic factories at the end of the year. That's lower than the 700 jobs initially projected for the end of 2015, according to a September 2014 report available to state lawmakers when they were deciding whether to approve a $1.3 billion tax incentive package for Tesla.</p>
<p>"In its application to the state for abatements, the company refined its annual job creation projections to more accurately reflect that the construction of the gigafactory would be completed in phases instead of all at once as the state's economic impact report initially projected," economic development office spokeswoman Jennifer Cooper said in a statement. "While this will be reflected in the quarterly reports that the company submits to GOED, it does not alter the anticipated investment of at least $3.5 billion or the employment of 6,500 once the factory reaches full production."</p>
<p>Nevada landed the factory after an intense competition between several states. Economic development officials said the gigafactory has started shipping out battery packs and powerwalls, a product that stores power from solar panels so homeowners can use solar energy at night or when the sun isn't shining.</p>
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<p>Tesla reported it had invested $374 million in capital in Nevada so far, below the early prediction of $1 billion by the end of 2015. During the last three months of 2015, there were an average of 894 construction workers at the site each week - 74 percent of whom were Nevada residents, according to the memo.</p>
<p>"Tesla is making satisfactory progress toward meeting the investment requirements necessary to continue the support of the project," economic development officials wrote, referring to state tax credits and other incentives offered when projects meet investment and job creation thresholds.</p>
<p>The Tesla package that lawmakers approved in 2014 laid the groundwork for another incentive package cleared in 2015 for electric carmaker Faraday Future. State officials said the $335 million Faraday package, which includes infrastructure investments in North Las Vegas and tax incentives, is structured more conservatively than the Tesla deal to reflect that the company hasn't yet brought a car to market and is more of an unknown quantity.</p> | Tesla gigafactory job creation slower than first projected | false | https://abqjournal.com/718366/tesla-gigafactory-job-creation-slower-than-first-projected.html | 2 |
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<p>The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/greg-gianforte-bodyslams-reporter-ben-jacobs-montana" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>The Republican candidate for Montana’s congressional seat slammed a Guardian reporter to the floor on the eve of the state’s special election, breaking his glasses and shouting, “Get the hell out of here.”</p>
<p>Ben Jacobs, a Guardian political reporter, was asking Greg Gianforte, a tech millionaire running for the seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, about the Republican healthcare plan when the candidate allegedly “body-slammed” the reporter.</p>
<p>“He took me to the ground,” Jacobs said by phone from the back of an ambulance. “This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in reporting on politics.” Jacobs subsequently reported the incident to the police. Gianforte’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Audio of the abortive interview recorded by Jacobs captures the altercation, and appears to reference previous questioning from another Guardian reporter. “I’m sick and tired of you guys,” Gianforte said. “The last guy who came here did the same thing. Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here. The last guy did the same thing. Are you with the Guardian?”</p>
<p>Gianforte is likely livid about this Guardian report by Ben Jacobs from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/28/greg-gianforte-republican-candidate-congress-russia-companies" type="external">late last month</a>:</p>
<p>A Republican congressional candidate has financial ties to a number of Russian companies that have been sanctioned by the US, the Guardian has learned. Greg Gianforte, who is the GOP standard bearer in the upcoming special election in Montana, owns just under $250,000 in shares in two index funds that are invested in the Russian economy to match its overall performance.</p>
<p>According to a financial disclosure filed with the clerk of the House of Representatives, the Montana tech mogul owns almost $150,000 worth of shares in VanEck Vectors Russia ETF and $92,400 in the IShares MSCF Russia ETF fund. Both are indexed to the Russian equities market and have significant holdings in companies such as Gazprom and Rosneft that came under US sanctions in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of the Crimea.</p>
<p>The holdings, while substantial, make up only a small portion of Gianforte’s wealth. The congressional candidate, who made a fortune starting a software company which was later sold to Oracle, has assets estimated to be worth between $65m and $315m, according to his financial disclosure.</p>
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<p />
<p /> | BREAKING: GOP House Candidate Greg Gianforte “Body Slams” Reporter On Eve Of Special Election [AUDIO] | true | http://joemygod.com/2017/05/24/breaking-republican-us-house-candidate-greg-gianforte-body-slams-reporter-eve-special-election/ | 2017-05-24 | 4 |
<p>As speculation builds that the vanished plane might have been hijacked by an individual with aviation skills, Malaysian investigators are looking into who else on board could have flown the Boeing 777 and who might have had a motive to commandeer the jet.</p>
<p>But police said they also are looking at the psychological background of the pilot and co-pilot, their family lives and connections, though currently there's no evidence linking them to any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Friends of 27-year-old co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, the son of a high-ranking civil servant who joined the national carrier in 2007, described him as a quiet, humble and respectful man, who lived with his deeply religious parents in a middle-class home.</p>
<p>“His father still cries when he talks about Fariq. His mother too."</p>
<p>One man at the mosque in his neighborhood said that Fariq's attendance was spotty due to his job, but that he attended regularly, even several times a day, when he was in town.</p>
<p>Ahmad Sarafi Ali Asrah, head of the community mosque, told The Associated Press that Fariq's family was distraught.</p>
<p>“His father still cries when he talks about Fariq. His mother too,” said Ahmad Sarafi.</p>
<p>Fariq had only recently started co-piloting the Boeing 777 and had accrued 2,763 hours of flight experience.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, had more than 18,000 flight hours and had worked for Malaysia Airlines since 1981.</p>
<p>A man dedicated to flying, Zaharie had a flight simulator at home he himself had built. The AP reported the pilot was also a grandfather and enthusiastic handyman, who had posted several YouTube videos on home improvement projects.</p>
<p>Neighbors of both men told the AP they were both committed to their respective communities. Fariq played futsal, a modified form of soccer popular in Southeast Asia, with neighborhood children and paid for their sports shirts, the AP reported.</p>
<p>Zaharie was known for cooking food for community events or making sure his wife and children did when he couldn't attend, the AP reported, adding that the pilot had also volunteered to be a poll monitor in recent elections.</p>
<p>"If there were to be a real takeover, that would be the time when the crew will be moving in and out to serve the cockpit the drinks or refreshments."</p>
<p>A Malaysian official said Friday that during the crucial first hour of Flight 370 there would have been an opportunity to break into the cockpit, despite security precautions.</p>
<p>"If there were to be a real takeover, that would be the time when the crew will be moving in and out to serve the cockpit the drinks or refreshments," said Ismail Nasaruddin, president of the Malaysian National Union of Flight Attendants.</p>
<p>Fariq has drawn heavy criticism since it was revealed he and another pilot invited two women to sit in the cockpit for a flight from Phuket, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur in 2011 — claims Malaysia Airlines has said it was investigating.</p>
<p>The airline also defended Zaharie's right to have a flight simulator at home, when the issue came under fire at a news conference.</p>
<p>Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said "everyone is free to do his own hobby."</p> | Missing Jet Pilot, Co-Pilot Had Strong Ties to Family, Community | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/missing-jet-pilot-co-pilot-had-strong-ties-family-community-n53336 | 2014-03-15 | 3 |
<p>Bundestag President Wolfgang Schaeuble ordered German MPs to stop “inappropriate” usage of mobile devices during sessions, though he himself was once reportedly caught wistfully playing Sudoku on his tablet while discussing the landmark Greece bailout.</p>
<p>Wolfgang Schaeuble, president of the German Bundestag (the lower house of parliament) told lawmakers they now should pocket their mobile devices and stop tweeting from inside plenary sessions, broadcaster Deutschlandfunk reported on Wednesday. “The use of [mobile] devices to take pictures, tweet or disseminate news about plenary procedures is inappropriate and therefore not wanted during Bundestag sessions,” Schaeuble wrote in a letter to 709 MPs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/336028-kazakhstan-ban-smartphones-leak/" type="external">READ MORE: Kazakhstan bans use of smartphones in govt offices to stop leaks, says leaked memo</a></p>
<p>The Bundestag speaker explained that he wanted to remind MPs of the rules, pedantically adding: “Generally, devices, especially mobile phones and tablets, may only be used with restraint and in a manner appropriate for your participation [in plenary sessions].”</p>
<p>Shortly after the news was broken by German media, several MPs responded with irritation and anger – via Twitter.</p>
<p>“Devices to use Twitter are unwanted? You can watch a session live but we’re not allowed to tweet about it?” Frank Sitta, deputy faction leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) tweeted. He asked rhetorically: “Is it OK to go out [to use a device]? Is it OK to use Facebook or Instagram, or hand-written documents?”</p>
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<p>„Geräte zum Twittern“ sind unerwünscht? Man kann die Sitzung zwar live verfolgen, aber wir dürfen nichts über den Plenarverlauf twittern? Also wenn man rausgeht ist es ok? Facebook und Instagram gehen klar? Ein handschriftlicher Brief wäre ok? Das ergibt doch alles keinen Sinn! <a href="https://t.co/jkYtWLIKRn" type="external">https://t.co/jkYtWLIKRn</a></p>
<p>— Frank Sitta (@franksitta) <a href="https://twitter.com/franksitta/status/933446559211061248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 22, 2017</a></p>
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<p>Kordula Schulz-Asche, a Green Party MP, tweeted: “I would go out or carry kilograms of paper to read documents. But this is all bad for the environment and my shoulders. Long live digitalization.” She also said the problem is that the Bundestag has no WLAN connection.</p>
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<p>Ich könnte auch razsgehen oder wieder kiloweise Papier schleppen, um Dokumente zu lesen. Das wäre aber schlecht für die Umwelt UND meine Schultern. Es lebe die Digitalisierung.</p>
<p>— Kordula Schulz-Asche (@K_SA) <a href="https://twitter.com/K_SA/status/933444677390471168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 22, 2017</a></p>
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<p />
<p>Ehrlich gesagt haben wir ohnehin das Problem, dass es im Bundestag kein WLAN gibt.</p>
<p>— Kordula Schulz-Asche (@K_SA) <a href="https://twitter.com/K_SA/status/933460080737050624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 22, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Left Party member Niema Movassat said he has “little understanding of banning the use of Twitter in Bundestag … commenting on actual events is transparency.”</p>
<p>The Bundesrat, the upper house, ridiculed Schauble’s letter, tweeting: “There is no Twitter ban yet at Bundesrat … we have WLAN!”</p>
<p>While Schaeuble, a veteran politician and former finance minister, is something of a social media neophyte, he is no stranger to mobile devices, as the 2012 Sudoku incident proves.</p>
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<p />
<p />
<p>Some MPs reminded of Schauble’s gaming preferences. “I am for a Twitter ban and for a compulsory Sudoku in the Bundestag,” wrote Andreas Lenz, member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party.</p>
<p>ARD reported in 2012 that Schaeuble was into playing Sudoku combinations at a time when the Bundestag was debating a €130-billion (US$154-billion) aid package for Greece, which was balancing on the brink of bailout. Notably, the broadcaster was forced to discard the footage after the Bundestag told the channel “making of unauthorized images of personal documents in a readable way” was prohibited, <a href="http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/wolfgang-schaeuble/sudoku-szene-hat-nachspiel-fuer-ard-22894628.bild.html" type="external">Bild</a> reported.</p> | German MPs vent on Twitter after Bundestag speaker asks them to pocket cellphones | false | https://newsline.com/german-mps-vent-on-twitter-after-bundestag-speaker-asks-them-to-pocket-cellphones/ | 2017-11-24 | 1 |
<p>We have a winner.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Out of 15 cartoons selected by me</a> from the past 5 years of A.F. Branco cartoons, Legal Insurrection readers voted for the best cartoon.</p>
<p>It was a close vote, possibly influenced by Russian bot accounts and meddling, and the winner was “That Was Then”:</p>
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<p>Monday, November 21, 2016</p>
<p />
<p>With a close second place by “Crash of Civilization”:</p>
<p>Thursday, July 31, 2014</p>
<p />
<p>For all the cartoons and votes, visit the original post,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Cartoonist A.F. Branco 5th Anniversary at Legal Insurrection (Reader Poll Best Cartoon)</a></p> | Voted Best Cartoon – “That Was Then” | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/08/voted-best-cartoon-that-was-then/ | 2017-08-09 | 0 |
<p>The Washington Redskins is an old team sports brand name with no suitable place in the nation’s capital when Barak Obama takes office as the first African-American President of the United States. Of course, Indigenous America has its own museum on the Mall. Official Washington believes it treats First Nations with the respect due predecessors and compatriots. To make this a little truer, this public sports slur about Red Skins could to be remedied while the rest of Indian affairs is left on President Obama’s plate; especially, neglects inherent in the day to day follow through by the Federal government and Congress in confirming the nation’s Constitutional obligation to honor the trust relationship between America and the tribes, (a relationship taken up and confirmed by the Founders and by the Crown before them). You and I can eliminate the sports slur. Modern tribes and Native American advocacy groups, have other, more productive ways to expend their political energy and resources than to waste time on this old stereotype. Why should they expend energy fighting to eliminate an obvious joke on the jokers? Changing the name should be of no more remark than wiping away graffiti in public restrooms. Jews did not have to lobby to get the Jew’s Harp renamed a “mouth harp?” It just happened; tastes change and old prejudices stand out like sour thumbs.</p>
<p>The Washington Redskins are the corporate professional team in Washington D.C. (Maryland, actually) with national visibility every time they play. The second most valuable franchise in the National Football League, it was also the very last to integrate its team under threat of eviction from its home stadium. News travels slowly in this organization.</p>
<p>If we get this artifact of yesteryear rebranded before the Inauguration, everyone wins. With the renaming, Redskin paraphernalia will become hot selling collectibles, or, at least, will be hyped as “collectible”, until it is in the hands of collectors, like shares of stock. New fans will focus on the merits of the Washington team instead of its curious and anomalous name, in this era, so transcendent of racial self-consciousness in our thinking and world views, that red skin communicates a danger sign for cancerous melanoma and not danger of a savage attack by marauding warriors. So it is time to move on.</p>
<p>What should we next call the Washington football team? I tried post-Thanksgiving word associations to link the teams’ place to the political capital of America, and its consequential place in the world of American political symbols, as well as all the threatening associations from names usually chosen for American football teams. Team names aren’t all threatening. But, Dolphins (and Cardinals) aside, there is usually some testosterone bubbling just under the surface, a word message that this team has dangerous potential, and should not be screwed with because its players are, well, Steelers, or Packers, or Jaguars. Each name conveys a team and a player, known to threaten a tough fight, if necessary, and always, always ready to fight back. There is a proletariat feel to the names except in the case of New York where Giants rule and usually win. As we all know. The trick is to find and pick the name that both our nation and locals can identify as appropriate to Washington, D.C. because it is emblematic of latent and overt power and, also, one which hints at how Washington behaves. Here’s my starter list of substitutes for the “Redskins.” Pick one or add another.</p>
<p>The Washington Elites, Powers, Power-brokers, Deciders, Deceivers, Army, Guns, Leathernecks, Riflemen, Snipers, Taxers, Taxmen, Occupiers, Bombers, Partisans, Independents, Crats (as in Bureau), Tribes, Tribesmen,Warriers, Sovereigns, Exploiters, Defenders, Tough Guys, Pols, Terminators, Bagmen, Millionaires, Billionaires, Missile men, Spoilers, Senators ( a rebirth ), Rogues, Brokers (as in legs and arms), Golem, Godfathers, Muscle, Tailgaters, Rockers, Gladiators, Killers, Protectors, Psychos, Highjackers, Defectors, Preemptors, Prevaricators (sorry), Flags (Probably, not), Bagmen, Swagmen, Dominators, Guards, Big shots, Politicos, Candidates, Bloggers, Lasers, Grazers, Hipsters, Raptors, Tipsters, Punks, Dreamers, Police, Strikers, Censors, Freedmen, Feds, Bankers, Lenders, Foreclosures, Evictors, Cannibals, Contaminators, Liberators, Invaders, Oppressors, Suppressors, Saviors, Creditors, Liquidators, Thinkers, Skinners, Potato Skins, Hit men, Conspirators, Onion Skins, (Just) Skins, All Skins, Dealers (as in Wheeler-), Spacemen, Big Butts ( suggested by a female fan), Demonstrators, Resisters, Pranksters, Operators, Metro-liners, Plaintiffs, Spies, Judges, High Courts (this is Washington), Suites, Streets, Testicles, Tentacles, Rats, Predators, Mobsters, Muggers, Moneymen, Wild men, Heretics, Gods, Thrashers, Crashers, Mashers, Mercenaries, Gangsters, Controllers, Capitalists, Machineguns, Workers or Obamamen.</p>
<p>To complete this project before Inauguration Day, it needs a blogger to set up a Web site, to collect new names for the Redskins and ship them over to Redskin corporate management with the final recommendations for new names by participants, included., President -elect Barack Obama has too much on his plate. Our task is a small, but symbolic, step to move things along, so next year‘s Thanksgiving sports ritual will not mock members of tribes in America. Many of our foreign policy woes relate to problems with tribes, not nation states. A good first step is often one taken at home. Our little project will be given a title familiar to all who know American Indian policy’s primary historical goal when dealing with tribes. We’ll call it, “Operation Redskin Removal.”</p>
<p>STEVE CONN lived in Alaska from 1972 until 2007. He is a retired professor, University of Alaska. His e mail is <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Operation Redskin Removal | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/12/01/operation-redskin-removal/ | 2008-12-01 | 4 |
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<p>And former New Mexico resident Chris Browning wants to be a bigger part of it.</p>
<p>Browning, who got his start in the film industry while he was living in Taos, was the guest speaker for this year’s Film and Media Day at the Roundhouse on Monday.</p>
<p>“The industry got me my life back,” Browning told the large crowd of supporters. “I was living on the street for five years. And the film industry gave me a way to make a living and get on the right track again.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Browning has since moved to Los Angeles. He has appeared in the TV shows “Westworld,” “Timeless,” “Agent Carter,” “Supergirl” and “Ray Donovan,” to name a few.</p>
<p>Also speaking was Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, who is co-sponsoring film-related legislation with Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Mesilla Park.</p>
<p>Earlier Monday, the legislation, House Bill 192, was in the House Taxation and Revenue Committee, where it was temporarily tabled pending more clarity in the state’s budget outlook.</p>
<p>The bill would increase and index the aggregate amount of credits allowed in a fiscal year and require the state Taxation and Revenue Department to promote rules on determining residency.</p>
<p>Currently, there is a $50 million limit on the credits paid out in a fiscal year. The bill would gradually increase that limit, starting with a jump to $53.8 million in the 2018 budget year.</p>
<p>“Your voices matter to get the bill out of committee and to the house floor,” Ely told the crowd. “We want to create a climate in New Mexico where we have a vibrant industry.”</p>
<p>Also Monday, hundreds of extras lined up for an open casting call for the final season of “Longmire,” while Shoot New Mexico and IATSE Local 480 also announced the creation of The New Mexico Film &amp; TV Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>The project will honor the hundreds of individuals who have contributed to New Mexico’s success as an established leader in storytelling and production.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“This business didn’t just pop up overnight,” said Jon Hendry, business agent for the IATSE Local 480 film technicians’ union. “The explosive growth under the Johnson, Richardson and Martinez administrations was built on a solid foundation that was already here. The many national award-winners we represent, and the great movies and TV shows shot here all need to be memorialized from its inception.”</p>
<p>Browning said being able to come back to the Land of Enchantment was a great opportunity for him to speak to others about working hard in the film industry.</p>
<p>He’s also working on a TV pilot and feature film, which he plans to film in New Mexico.</p>
<p>“The TV show and film are written to take place in New Mexico,” he says. “I would love to get back here and film in Taos. New Mexico is my home and it’s where I want to be.”</p>
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<p /> | NM’s film and TV industry celebrated | false | https://abqjournal.com/949476/nms-film-and-tv-industry-celebrated.html | 2 |
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<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/networkosaka/2984638227/sizes/z/in/photostream/"&gt;Network Osaka&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href="http://www.creativecommons.org" target="_blank"&gt;Creative Commons&lt;/a&gt;).</p>
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<p>Democrats appear poised to suffer major losses in next Tuesday’s midterm elections. Polling guru Nate Silver puts the over-under for the number of seats the Dems will lose in the House at 51—12 more than they need to lose control of the lower chamber. But some liberals are still hopeful that the Dems will hold on to a small majority—and that a smaller, more ideologically coherent Dem caucus will be more successful. The Nation‘s Ari Berman summarized this argument in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/opinion/24berman.html?_r=1" type="external">New York Times</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/opinion/24berman.html?_r=1" type="external">op-ed</a> on Sunday ( <a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/lets-send-blue-dogs-to-nice-farm-in.html" type="external">Digby agrees with him</a>):</p>
<p>Democrats would be in better shape, and would accomplish more, with a smaller and more ideologically cohesive caucus. It’s a sentiment that even Mr. Dean now echoes. “Having a big, open-tent Democratic Party is great, but not at the cost of getting nothing done,” he said. Since the passage of health care reform, few major bills have passed the Senate. Although the Democrats have a 59-vote majority, party leaders can barely find the votes for something as benign as extending unemployment benefits.</p>
<p>A smaller majority, minus the intraparty feuding, could benefit Democrats in two ways: first, it could enable them to devise cleaner pieces of legislation, without blatantly trading pork for votes as they did with the deals that helped sour the public on the health care bill. (As a corollary, the narrative of “Democratic infighting” would also diminish.)</p>
<p>I beg to differ. In the House, you need 218 votes to pass legislation. A smaller caucus may be more ideologically coherent. But the person who is the 218th vote on any given piece of legislation still holds the most power. With fewer conservative Dems to choose from as potential 216th, 217th, and 218th votes, the conservative Dems that remain will have even more power than they have now. If you’re talking about things like messaging and narrative, having a smaller majority might be better (and being in the minority might be best). But if you’re talking about passing legislation, each additional Democratic vote beyond 218 reduces the leverage of any potential holdouts.*</p>
<p>Of course, none of this is likely to matter, since the Dems will almost certainly lose the House. When you’re not in the majority, you don’t have to worry about catering to the whims of moderates at all!</p>
<p>*Liberals should still try to mount primary challenges against members of Congress who are too conservative for their districts/states. Conservatives do the opposite all the time. Those sorts of primary challenges are conservatives’ most effective method of making the GOP more conservative—far more effective than just hoping for moderate Republicans to lose to Democrats.</p>
<p /> | Counting to 218 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/10/counting-218/ | 2010-10-27 | 4 |
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<p>The Senate passed a bill on Tuesday to outlaw so-called “partial-birth abortions,” the first federal ban of its kind. Bush will sign off on the bill, no doubt with a flourish, but the matter won’t end there. Abortion-rights advocates promise a constitutional challenge.</p>
<p>The ban, of course, eliminates “intact dilatation and extraction,” a procedure that involves extracting the fetus from the womb before removing it intact, typically in the 5th or 6th month of pregnancy.</p>
<p>Bush called the ban “very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America.” Although the measure cruised through the Senate, 64-34, its not so clear it’ll make it through the legal battles ahead. Abortion-rights advocates have already promised to take the bill to court, saying it’s too broad and doesn’t include necessary exemptions for cases involving the health of the mother. Legal types say opponents are on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/politics/22ABOR.html?hp" type="external">solid ground</a>.</p>
<p>A similar Nebraska law was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2000. In that case, Stenberg v. Carhart, the Court indicated that the law was unconstitutional because it failed to provide an exception ensuring the health of the mother and was too broadly written, with the potential to prohibit other types of abortion procedures (which would overstep the limits set by Roe v. Wade). The 2000 Supreme Court decision invalidated Nebraska’s ban on the procedure and up to 30 other state laws.</p>
<p>Critics say that since the Supreme Court set out such clear guidelines in the Nebraska case, it should have been easy for Congress to construct a bill that followed them. But this one doesn’t. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0310220139oct22,1,5125503.story?coll=chi-news-hed" type="external">The Chicago Tribune</a> reports:</p>
<p>“When the Supreme Court invalidated state laws three years ago that banned a controversial procedure known as partial-birth abortion, the justices handed legislators a road map of sorts for drafting new statutes. In the court’s 5-4 majority opinion, and in a separate opinion by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the justices indicated they would approve laws that were narrowly written to ban only a specific procedure and included an exception that allowed doctors to perform the procedure if the woman’s health dictated it. But the legislation Congress sent to President Bush late Tuesday doesn’t clearly do either.”</p>
<p>Why doesn’t the law provide for the health of the mother? According to Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the <a href="http://www.aclj.org/" type="external">American Center for Law and Justice</a>, a conservative advocacy group, that would have left too much wiggle room for doctors. Health exceptions could be interpreted too broadly, Sekulow says, giving doctors virtually any reason to perform the procedure.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, ban supporters are confident the bill will survive all constitutional challenges. According to the Washington Times, <a href="http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031021-112742-9765r.htm" type="external">a Gallup poll in January</a> showed that 70 percent of Americans wanted federal legislation banning this type of abortion. <a href="http://www.aclj.org/news/pressreleases/031021_pba_ban_approval.aspACLJ" type="external">The American Center for Law and Justice</a>, which has pledged to assist in defending the new law in court, released this message affirming their belief in the bill’s legality:</p>
<p>“This national ban on partial-birth abortion is well crafted and legally sound and we’re confident that it will survive a constitutional challenge. After President Bush signs this measure into law, we will work aggressively to see that this ban clears the legal challenges and survives the constitutional attacks that will follow. It’s clear that both Congress and most Americans want to see this gruesome procedure outlawed.”</p>
<p>Some critics argue that the ban passed so easily because it is a misunderstood procedure, often depicted in graphic and gruesome terms. Pro-lifers call it “partial-birth abortion,” and the term has stuck.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr10-03-03.cfm%20Statement%20from%20ACOG:" type="external">American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)</a>, the national medical organization representing 90 percent of all Ob-Gyns in the country, the procedure is not significantly different from other abortion procedures. They call it a “a rare variant of a more common midterm abortion procedure know as dilatation and evacuation. ACOG condemns the bill in a statement on their website, explaining that congress has no place second-guessing a doctor’s judgment of what’s best for a patient:</p>
<p>“ACOG’s Statement of Policy explains why ACOG believes such legislation to be ‘inappropriate, ill advised, and dangerous’…Although a select panel convened by ACOG could identify no circumstances under which intact D&amp;X would be the only option to protect the life or health of a woman, intact D&amp;X “may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman, and only the doctor, in consultation with the patient, based upon the woman’s particular circumstances, can make this decision (emphasis added).</p>
<p>“The medical misinformation currently circulating in political discussions of abortion procedures only reinforces ACOG’s position: in the individual circumstances of each particular medical case, the patient and physician–not legislators–are the appropriate parties to determine the best method of treatment.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ericzorn/chi-zornlog,1,1456053.story?coll=chi-news-hed" type="external">Eric Zorn</a> of the Chicago Tribune argues that pro-choice activists have remained unconvincing in their arguments and haven’t made a case for the keeping the procedure legal. He writes that while the ACOG’s opinion may be valuable, it wasn’t made available enough:</p>
<p>“If the latter half of this statement is true–I can’t judge either way, as my medical education ended with high school biology–ACOG, the National Abortion Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood have truly failed to get the word out to the public.”</p>
<p>Most abortion supporters worry that this law would open the way to flood of legislation banning other procedures. The <a href="http://www.cc.org/content.cfm?id=88" type="external">Christian Coalition</a> says “bring ’em on!” “This is a very historic vote for America and it is just a matter of time before the infamous Supreme Court decision, ‘Roe V. Wade’ is overturned.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, the legislation may be just the rallying point pro-choice advocates have been waiting for. Zorn speculates on what the bill will mean for future legislation on abortion:</p>
<p>“The question now is going to be whether this victory by opponents of abortion rights, if upheld by the courts, is the thin end of a wedge that will result in the banning of many more types of abortion procedures, or whether it will slow or reverse the anti-abortion movement by robbing it of its best issue and energizing abortion-rights supporters.”</p>
<p /> | Partial Setback | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/10/partial-setback-0/ | 2003-10-23 | 4 |
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