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<p>A black bear perches in a tree in Panama City, Fla., in May 2014. (Andrew Wardlow/The News Herald/AP)</p>
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Hunters killed 298 black bears over the weekend during the first legal hunt in Florida in more than two decades, state wildlife officials said Monday.</p>
<p>The total was 22 below the state's legal limit of 320, but officials said more could turn up in the next day or two.</p>
<p>Florida approved the hunt earlier this year, saying the state's black bear population had grown too large and that attacks on people had become more common. As Florida has become the third-most populous state in the U.S., people have continued moving deeper into bear habitat at a time when the animals' numbers have grown.</p>
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<p>Part of the reason for the bear's comeback was the state's ban on hunting after black bear numbers plummeted into the hundreds, giving them legal protections meant to preserve imperiled species.</p>
<p>With animal lovers protesting the decision to open hunting season on bears, more than 3,500 people purchased bear hunting permits, even though the cap was just 320. Officials scheduled a week for the hunt, but by Sunday the high number of bears killed surprised hunting officials.</p>
<p>Two of the four hunting zones created by Florida fish and game officials were closed after the first day when limits in those areas were exceeded quickly. Officials said bear numbers in those areas were probably larger than they thought - their estimates were based on 2002 data - and that they would survive the excess killing.</p>
<p>"This is core wildlife management, this is not spin," said Thomas Eason, the director of habitat and species conservation division for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.</p>
<p>Although state officials admitted they were "surprised" by the number of bears that were killed by hunters, they said Monday they anticipate holding bear hunts on an annual basis as now occurs in 32 other states.</p>
<p>They also continued to defend the hunt, saying it was heavily regulated and that they remained in constant contact with the hunters who received permits via text message, social media and email.</p>
<p>Diane Eggeman, the FWC's director of hunting and game management division, conceded that the protests surrounding the hunt did motivate state officials to shut it down even though they were still a little below the initial goal they set.</p>
<p>"The scrutiny and the controversy over this increased our willingness, our resolve to be a really conservative hunt," she said.</p>
<p>A few citations were issued, Eggeman said. One to a hunter caught killing a cub - the rules made it illegal to kill any bear under 100 pounds. The others were issued to hunters who used bait, also a no-no.</p> | Amid outcry, Fla. says short bear hunt season ran smoothly | false | https://abqjournal.com/665844/amid-outcry-fla-says-short-bear-hunt-season-ran-smoothly.html | 2 |
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<p>AUSTIN, Texas — A Central Texas man who pulled a handgun from his waistband while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car talked about suicide before fatally shooting himself, authorities said Tuesday.</p>
<p>As 19-year-old Zachary Khabir Anam was being driven to jail following his arrest Sunday on suspicion of shoplifting and possessing a controlled substance, he began having conversations with Officer Iven Wall about suicide and his concerns he was suicidal, Austin interim police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference.</p>
<p>“Officer Wall again let him know there would be services and counselors available to him at the jail. At which point he made a comment somewhat to the effect he wasn’t sure he could wait that long,” Manley said.</p>
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<p>Anam managed to pull his arms around his right side, grabbed a handgun hidden in a rear waistband and pointed the weapon at his own head with threats to shoot himself, Manley said.</p>
<p>Wall stopped the car and after a brief standoff in which the officer ordered Anam to drop the weapon, he shot himself.</p>
<p>The confrontation was recorded on the dashboard camera of a police patrol car that had followed Wall and was driven by Officer John Ricker.</p>
<p>Manley declined to comment on whether Anam had been properly searched as Wall has not yet been interviewed by investigators.</p>
<p>“There are still questions we are still working through as we conduct this investigation,” Manley said.</p>
<p>Wall and Ricker have both been placed on administrative leave.</p>
<p>The police department has very strict policies that require officers to search individuals taken into custody even if they have been searched and handcuffed by private security officers, Manley said. Anam had initially been detained by security officers with a Macy’s store.</p>
<p>The gun that Anam shot himself with was a Glock .380 semi-automatic pistol that had been reported stolen in a burglary of a vehicle that occurred in Austin in 2016, he said.</p>
<p>Manley said the police department has offered its condolences to Anam’s family.</p>
<p>Anam had a prior criminal record, including a 2016 drug possession charge.</p> | Chief: Handcuffed man talked suicide before shooting himself | false | https://abqjournal.com/924981/police-reviewing-if-handcuffed-man-who-shot-himself-searched.html | 2017-01-10 | 2 |
<p>Lauren Gibbs and Aja Evans were picked Saturday as the push athletes who will join pilots Elana Meyers Taylor and Jamie Greubel Poser on the U.S. Olympic women’s bobsled team.</p>
<p>Gibbs will be in Meyers Taylor’s sled at the Pyeongchang Games. Evans will push for Greubel Poser, a combination that earned the U.S. a bronze medal at the Sochi Games four years ago — as well as a gold medal in a World Cup race at the Olympic track in South Korea last season.</p>
<p>“We don’t take this decision light-heartedly,” USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Darrin Steele said. “The selection committee chose the athletes they think have the best chance of bringing home hardware from Korea for Team USA. I wish we could take the entire team with us because they’ve all proven how hard-working and determined they are in addition to being incredibly talented.”</p>
<p>Briauna Jones will go to Pyeongchang as the team’s alternate, and could be called upon if either Gibbs or Evans is injured.</p>
<p>Lolo Jones, who pushed Meyers Taylor to a World Cup gold earlier Saturday in St. Moritz, Switzerland, did not make the team. She was bidding to become a four-time Olympian — twice in the summer as a hurdler, twice in the winter as a bobsledder.</p>
<p>Meyers Taylor won silver in Sochi with Lauryn Williams, who has since retired.</p>
<p>Meyers Taylor and Greubel Poser will both have medal potential in Pyeongchang. Meyers Taylor is ranked second in this season’s World Cup points race, Greubel Poser fourth.</p>
<p>The U.S. used six push athletes in World Cup races this season, and five had legitimate cases for Olympic team inclusion — meaning the selection committee had long known it would have a brutal time picking a roster for Pyeongchang.</p>
<p>It got even tougher Saturday.</p>
<p>The U.S., which expected to get three sleds qualified for the Olympics, wound up with only two after USA-3 driver Brittany Reinbolt missed the third berth by finishing about one-sixth of a second slower than she needed to at the St. Moritz World Cup on Saturday. So instead of five women being under consideration for three push spots, it became five for two.</p>
<p>Athletes were told to prepare for an 11 p.m. local time announcement in St. Moritz, where the committee was meeting. That announcement got pushed back about 30 minutes, presumably because the committee needed more time to crunch its data.</p>
<p>The U.S. is the only nation to win at least one medal in every Olympic women’s bobsled race, including the silver and bronzes from Sochi four years ago. Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers won gold at Salt Lake City in 2002, Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming claimed silver at Turin in 2006, and Erin Pac and Meyers Taylor — then a brakeman — got bronze at Vancouver in 2010.</p>
<p>The Olympic teams for men’s bobsled, women’s skeleton and men’s skeleton are scheduled to be nominated Monday.</p>
<p>Lauren Gibbs and Aja Evans were picked Saturday as the push athletes who will join pilots Elana Meyers Taylor and Jamie Greubel Poser on the U.S. Olympic women’s bobsled team.</p>
<p>Gibbs will be in Meyers Taylor’s sled at the Pyeongchang Games. Evans will push for Greubel Poser, a combination that earned the U.S. a bronze medal at the Sochi Games four years ago — as well as a gold medal in a World Cup race at the Olympic track in South Korea last season.</p>
<p>“We don’t take this decision light-heartedly,” USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Darrin Steele said. “The selection committee chose the athletes they think have the best chance of bringing home hardware from Korea for Team USA. I wish we could take the entire team with us because they’ve all proven how hard-working and determined they are in addition to being incredibly talented.”</p>
<p>Briauna Jones will go to Pyeongchang as the team’s alternate, and could be called upon if either Gibbs or Evans is injured.</p>
<p>Lolo Jones, who pushed Meyers Taylor to a World Cup gold earlier Saturday in St. Moritz, Switzerland, did not make the team. She was bidding to become a four-time Olympian — twice in the summer as a hurdler, twice in the winter as a bobsledder.</p>
<p>Meyers Taylor won silver in Sochi with Lauryn Williams, who has since retired.</p>
<p>Meyers Taylor and Greubel Poser will both have medal potential in Pyeongchang. Meyers Taylor is ranked second in this season’s World Cup points race, Greubel Poser fourth.</p>
<p>The U.S. used six push athletes in World Cup races this season, and five had legitimate cases for Olympic team inclusion — meaning the selection committee had long known it would have a brutal time picking a roster for Pyeongchang.</p>
<p>It got even tougher Saturday.</p>
<p>The U.S., which expected to get three sleds qualified for the Olympics, wound up with only two after USA-3 driver Brittany Reinbolt missed the third berth by finishing about one-sixth of a second slower than she needed to at the St. Moritz World Cup on Saturday. So instead of five women being under consideration for three push spots, it became five for two.</p>
<p>Athletes were told to prepare for an 11 p.m. local time announcement in St. Moritz, where the committee was meeting. That announcement got pushed back about 30 minutes, presumably because the committee needed more time to crunch its data.</p>
<p>The U.S. is the only nation to win at least one medal in every Olympic women’s bobsled race, including the silver and bronzes from Sochi four years ago. Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers won gold at Salt Lake City in 2002, Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming claimed silver at Turin in 2006, and Erin Pac and Meyers Taylor — then a brakeman — got bronze at Vancouver in 2010.</p>
<p>The Olympic teams for men’s bobsled, women’s skeleton and men’s skeleton are scheduled to be nominated Monday.</p> | Gibbs, Evans picked as US Olympic women’s bobsled pushers | false | https://apnews.com/3be60598882245478ca2b7609ef210bc | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p>“Pro-Life” vs. “It’s MY Life.”</p>
<p>Ed. note: This is a guest post by Juliana Britto Schwartz.&#160;By day,&#160;Juliana&#160;is a student at University of California, Santa Cruz. By night, she is a Latina feminist blogger at&#160; <a href="http://julianabritto.com/" type="external">Julianabritto.com</a>, where she writes about reproductive health justice, immigration, and feminist movements in Latin America.</p>
<p>You all remember&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Savita Halappanavar</a>,&#160;right? Well, the world is looking at another Savita right now, and the only thing standing between her and life is a group of Salvadoran politicians.</p>
<p>Savita Halappanavar&#160;was a pregnant&#160; <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/14/1187721/tragic-death-ireland-denied-abortion/" type="external">woman living in Ireland</a>&#160;who was denied a life-saving abortion because her doctors could still detect a fetal heartbeat and were therefore required by law not to terminate the pregnancy. <a href="" type="internal">She died of blood poisoning while her husband watched</a>.</p>
<p>“Beatriz” is 22 years old, 18 weeks pregnant with an anencephalic fetus (meaning that the fetus will not survive outside of the womb), and suffering life-threatening pregnancy complications. However, Beatriz lives in El Salvador, one of the rare countries in which abortion is illegal under all circumstances, including threat to the mother’s life.</p>
<p>A month ago, Beatriz’s hospital and the organization&#160;Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Therapeutic, Ethical and Eugenic Abortion&#160; <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/04/24/in-el-salvador-yet-another-womans-life-subordinated-to-non-viable-fetus/" type="external">petitioned the Supreme Court of El Salvador</a>&#160;to provide her the abortion she needs. Though the government has agreed to consider it, they are delaying, and her condition has since worsened significantly.</p>
<p>If her doctors go on with the abortion, they could face up to 12 years of prison time. Beatriz could face anywhere between 2-50 years in prison, where she would join the 19 other women currently incarcerated in El Salvador for undergoing abortions.</p>
<p>As it stands, Beatriz has to decide between dying and leaving behind her baby son and husband, or going to jail.&#160;</p>
<p>And Beatriz isn’t the only one. Let’s not forget that there are so many other Beatrizes out there. There are the Beatrizes that don’t have the resources or connections to get hospital care, and instead undergo one of the&#160; <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/04/24/in-el-salvador-yet-another-womans-life-subordinated-to-non-viable-fetus/" type="external">35,000 unsafe clandestine abortions that happen in El Salvador per year.</a>&#160;There are the Beatrizes that live in the rest of Latin America, where only four countries have legalized elective abortions ( <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/IB_AWW-Latin-America.pdf" type="external">Cuba, Guyana, Puerto Rico</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/26/uruguay-new-abortion-law-breaks-ground-women-s-rights" type="external">Uruguay</a>) and the rest restrict it to some variation of “in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the mother’s health.”</p>
<p>And there are <a href="" type="internal">Beatrizes who live in the U.S.</a>, the women who live hours from their nearest abortion clinic, the women who can’t afford the costs of seeking out abortion care, or the women who live in states where their <a href="" type="internal">abortion rights are being threatened each day</a>.</p>
<p>Beatriz might seem far away, but we are all Beatriz. Her fight is our fight.</p>
<p>So let’s do something.</p>
<p>How to help:</p>
<p>1.&#160; <a href="http://action.rhrealitycheck.org/page/s/save-beatriz-life" type="external">Sign the petition</a>&#160;to the Supreme Court and President of El Salvador.</p>
<p>2. Send a tweet:</p>
<p>Help share! @CorteSupremaSV: Please #SaveBeatriz by granting her the life-saving abortion she needs!&#160; <a href="http://buff.ly/10QBB3C" type="external">http://buff.ly/10QBB3C</a>&#160;#latinafeminism</p>
<p>Compartan!&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/CorteSupremaSV" type="external">@CorteSupremaSV</a>: Beatriz merece vivir. Ortogale el aborto que necesita para salvar su vida!&#160; <a href="http://buff.ly/10QBB3C" type="external">http://buff.ly/10QBB3C</a>&#160;&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SaveBeatriz" type="external">#SaveBeatriz</a></p>
<p>3. Help a Beatriz near you. Donate to an&#160; <a href="http://www.fundabortionnow.org/" type="external">abortion fund</a>, volunteer at your local clinic, protest anti-choice legislation, help a friend get birth control, talk to a young woman about contraception. Just DO it.</p> | We already lost Savita in Ireland. Don’t let Beatriz die in El Salvador. | true | http://feministing.com/2013/04/30/we-already-lost-savita-in-ireland-dont-let-beatriz-die-in-el-salvador/ | 4 |
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<p>DALLAS — A Newsweek reporter who has epilepsy said he had a seizure after being sent a message on Twitter intended to trigger such an episode and is seeking information from the social media company to identify the person responsible for the tweet.</p>
<p>The image in question — which included a strobe effect and the words, “You deserve a seizure for your posts” — was apparently sent in response to Kurt Eichenwald’s outspoken criticism of President-elect Donald Trump. Eichenwald, who has a home in Texas, said in court documents that the image triggered a seizure.</p>
<p>Eichenwald posted a signed copy of a Dallas County District Court order to Twitter on Tuesday that allows him to depose Twitter executives and orders the company to preserve any information or documents regarding the person who sent the image. Eichenwald wrote that “Twitter agreed to an expedited order,” meaning the company won’t challenge the request for information. Eichenwald is seeking the information for a potential lawsuit, likely against the person who sent the tweet since court document say he doesn’t plan to sue Twitter.</p>
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<p>A Twitter representative said via email that the company does not comment on individual accounts or investigations. Guidelines for law enforcement listed on the company’s website include a requirement for a court order or subpoena before it releases user information.</p>
<p>The deposition request, filed Monday, said that Twitter suspended the account of @jew_goldstein “upon learning of the assault.” The sender had identified him or herself with the alias Ari Goldstein.</p>
<p>The sender “succeeded in his effort to use Twitter as a means of committing assault, causing Petitioner to have a seizure which led to personal injury,” Eichenwald’s attorneys wrote.</p>
<p>Eichenwald’s attorney didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday. Eichenwald did not immediately return an email seeking comment.</p>
<p>Eichenwald told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he has received numerous copycat strobe messages from “people who identify themselves as Trump supporters” and that he is reporting each of them to Twitter to ask that their accounts be suspended.</p>
<p>“It is amazing to me that simply because I am a political reporter, simply because I write about Donald Trump that we have become so sick and twisted in this country that people think they have the right and obligation to inflict potentially very serious injury,” he said.</p>
<p>Mark Bennett, a Houston criminal defense and free speech attorney, said he believes a lawsuit alleging physical harm from a tweet would be “novel.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know of a case where someone has been sued or prosecuted for speech online causing physical harm,” he said. “It’s a tough sell because there’s a lot of distance between the speech and the injury.”</p>
<p>However, Houston attorney Joe Larsen said Eichenwald doesn’t appear to be challenging the speech.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s fair to say (Eichenwald) is saying he was harmed by the form of speech. I don’t think he’s suing about that. I think the ultimate suit will be one for assault,” said Larsen, who is a board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.</p>
<p>Twitter’s transparency report shows more than 2,500 requests for user information were made regarding criminal allegations in the United States in the first six months of this year. The company released some information in 82 percent of those requests, according to the report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to remove reference to Ari Goldstein being the name of a character on “Entourage.”</p> | Newsweek reporter seeks ID of Twitter user after seizure | false | https://abqjournal.com/912834/newsweek-reporter-seeks-id-of-twitter-user-after-seizure.html | 2016-12-20 | 2 |
<p>Judge <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2017/03/21/neil-gorsuch-s-charm-offensive-confuses-bias-with-ideology.html" type="external">Neil Gorsuch</a> is likely not going to be a great Supreme Court Justice. Based on his prior judicial opinions and his answers (or often non-answers) to Senate questions, he appears to have a disturbing lack of empathy for people like the <a href="http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202781824025/Lawyers-in-Gorsuch-Frozen-Trucker-Case-Surprised-at-Attention?slreturn=20170229143505" type="external">freezing truck driver</a> who was fired for making the only human choice possible and leaving his trailer under dire circumstances (two other judges <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/21/1645803/-Gorsuch-says-law-gave-a-truck-driver-two-choices-Freeze-or-be-fired-His-fellow-judges-disagreed" type="external">said</a> the firing violated federal law).</p>
<p>Gorsuch's <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=4&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiC27ewmvrSAhUBKiYKHY-dBSoQFgglMAM&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fpowerpost%2Fneil-gorsuch-confirmation-hearings-supreme-court-nominee-heads-into-day-3%2F2017%2F03%2F21%2F2c346a8c-0e93-11e7-ab07-07d9f521f6b5_story.html&amp;usg=AFQjCNHKb0xXkwpBlKGsvN6BO25IqiQfyg&amp;sig2=E-AEkMooyjy0XYBLc7O_FQ&amp;bvm=bv.150729734,d.eWE" type="external">stated</a> method of deciding constitutional questions is either <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2017/01/31/trump-s-supreme-court-pick-is-payoff-to-the-religious-right.html" type="external">na've or dishonest</a>. He can't possibly believe that the justices resolve hard constitutional cases just by "striv[ing] to understand what the words on the page mean. Not import words that come from us, but apply what you, the people's representative, the lawmakers, have done."</p>
<p>The "words on the page" will not tell us anything valuable about balancing the speech rights of corporations against fighting corruption, whether independent prosecutors are constitutional, or whether strict gun laws trump Second Amendment rights. These and other constitutional issues that reach the United States Supreme Court are there in large part because the text and history of the Constitution cannot resolve them.In addition, Gorsuch, when he is confirmed, will be sitting in <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2016/02/13/replacing-scalia-obama-s-mission-impossible.html" type="external">a stolen seat</a>. Despite a lot of misinformation from Senate Republicans and their followers, not allowing President Obama to name any replacement for Justice Scalia for almost a year contravened Senate norms of fair dealing and set a terrible precedent.</p>
<p>Given all of the above, I fully understand why so many Democrats want to see a filibuster of Neil Gorsuch. In addition to standing up for what is right, such a move would placate and maybe even energize the base of the party. Moreover, not filibustering may well antagonize the base at a time when its momentum and money is sorely needed.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Senate Democrats shouldn't take the bait. Leaving the filibuster on the table is the best strategy for people taking a long view of the future of the United States Supreme Court.</p>
<p>The Republicans currently hold 52 Senate seats and Vice-President Pence breaks any 50-50 ties. Well placed folks have told me that the GOP will vote lockstep on the Gorsuch nomination. Thus, just as in 2013 when the Democrats in the Senate ended the filibuster for lower court judges and executive branch nominees by a simple majority vote (the so-called nuclear option), the Republicans will now end the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if that is necessary to place Gorsuch on the bench. Make no mistake, the GOP is fully committed to Gorsuch.</p>
<p>I am not the only progressive who thinks the filibuster is a mistake. Professor Rick Hasen of the University of California at Irvine <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91762" type="external">explains</a> the risks:</p>
<p>Democrats hold a pair of twos. They don't have much they can do. Triggering a fight over the filibuster will gain attention, but Democrats can only do it once. The Gorsuch nomination restores the balance of power on the Court to the position it was in before Justice Scalia's death.</p>
<p>Imagine if in a year or so Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, or Kennedy leave the Court. Then things get MUCH worse from the point of view of progressives. Then Roberts becomes the swing voter and there goes affirmative action, abortion rights, etc. If you think things with the Supreme Court are bad for progressive now they can get much, much worse.</p>
<p>Better to save the firepower for that fight. It is possible that Senators like Susan Collins would be squeamish about such a nominee, and they might not vote to go nuclear. At that point, people can take to the streets and exert public pressure.</p>
<p>The future under a Trump presidency is highly uncertain as scandal after scandal erupts. Should there be another vacancy on the Court (and given the ages of Justices Ginsburg, Kennedy and Breyer, that is highly likely), the political balance on the Court for decades will hang in the balance. The fight over the next seat may well be much more important to moderate conservatives (yes, there are a few left) than the seat once occupied by Scalia. The time for Democrats to go to war is then, not now, especially as this is a battle that cannot be won right now.</p>
<p>I would have been in favor of the Senate Democrats boycotting the hearings and the vote altogether in protest of what happened to Merrick Garland. But it is too late to play that card. Therefore, the only remaining question is how Democrats should play the current hand to maximize leverage and chances of success in the future. This is an issue of strategy not principle. The answer is to put the filibuster card back in the deck. That decision does not guarantee it will work next time but the players both at the table and away from the table may be very different the next time a vacancy arises. Sometimes the best strategy is simply to leave the table and come back to play another day.</p> | The Democrats Should Not Filibuster Gorsuch | true | https://thedailybeast.com/the-democrats-should-not-filibuster-gorsuch | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>The man accused of carrying out a series of terror bombings in New York City and New Jersey was moved Tuesday from a hospital to the medical wing of a Trenton, N.J., prison, authorities said.</p>
<p>Ahmad Khan Rahimi, 28, had been hospitalized after he was shot several times during a gunbattle with police in Linden, N.J., on Sept. 19, two days after one bomb blew up in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and an explosive pressure-cooker device was discovered nearby.</p>
<p>No one was killed in the bombing in New York City but nearly 30 people were injured. A pipe bomb allegedly left by Rahimi blew up along the planned route of a charity run in Seaside Park, N.J., earlier that day, but no one was injured. A bomb at an Elizabeth, N.J., train station blew up as a police inspected it with a robot.</p>
<p>Rahimi was <a href="" type="internal">formally charged</a>Monday with attempting to murder police officers. He also faces federal charges in connection with the bombings.</p>
<p>Rahimi was moved Tuesday to the hospital wing of the state prison in Trenton, a senior official said.</p>
<p>Federal officials have said he was seriously wounded in the shootout, with some of the rounds narrowly missing vital organs. At one point, they said, it appeared that he might not survive.</p> | Suspect in New York, New Jersey Bombings Moved From Hospital | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suspect-new-york-new-jersey-bombings-moved-hospital-n668556 | 2016-10-19 | 3 |
<p>HSBC plans to "acknowledge and apologize" for failing to spot and deal with money laundering within the bank during a U.S. Senate panel hearing next week, according to an internal memo sent by its chief executive.</p>
<p>"It is right that we are held accountable and that we take responsibility for fixing what went wrong," Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver said in a note sent to staff and seen by Reuters.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has been investigating HSBC for months as part of an effort by Congress to probe shadowy money flows. The title of the hearing is "Vulnerabilities to Money Laundering, Drugs, and Terrorist Financing: HSBC Case History."</p>
<p>The Senate committee will release a list of people they plan to call up later this week.</p>
<p>HSBC spokesman Gareth Hewett declined to comment on the memo, but said the bank plans to "fully cooperate" with any investigations.</p>
<p>The appearance by Europe's biggest bank at the committee hearing comes about a week after Barclays former chief executive Bob Diamond appeared before a parliamentary inquiry in Britain for its role in fixing the rate at which banks lend to each other.</p>
<p>Reuters originally reported in January that HSBC was under Senate investigation. Reuters subsequently reported in May that the bank has been the subject of an investigation by two U.S. Attorney offices.</p>
<p>HSBC also is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department. Those probes also are examining whether HSBC was vulnerable to illicit funds moving through the bank.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | HSBC to Apologize for Failure to Spot Money Laundering: Memo | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/07/11/hsbc-to-apologize-for-failure-to-spot-money-laundering-memo.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
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<p>NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenya police official says the husband of an Australian teacher has been arrested as a suspect in her murder last week.</p>
<p>Area police chief Cunningham Suiyanka Tuesday confirmed the arrest of Cyrus Bernard Maina Njuguna, and his cousin, John Njuguna Waithira. Suiyanka said Maina is the prime suspect in the murder of his estranged wife, Gabrielle.</p>
<p>Suiyanka said Gabrielle had complained of receiving threats from her husband before her killing and had obtained a restraining order as the couple was divorcing.</p>
<p>Her death was initially reported as robbery but a post-mortem indicated she could have been shot while kneeling. Police said Gabrielle was killed while walking home in Karen, one of Kenya’s most affluent neighborhoods that has experienced several crimes of passion that have caught national and international attention.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Kenya police arrest husband for murder of Australian teacher | false | https://abqjournal.com/1082299/kenya-police-arrest-husband-for-murder-of-australian-teacher.html | 2 |
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<p>On last week's "Real Time," Bill Maher took on conservative personality Michael Smerconish to defend John and Elizabeth Edwards' right to privacy: "Since they announced this last week, so many people have become experts on what you should do when you get sick, when I don't think it's really anybody's business but theirs."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politicstv.com/" type="external">(h/t: Politicstv.com)</a></p>
<p>Watch it:</p>
<p />
<p /> | Bill Maher Says Mind Your Own Business | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/bill-maher-says-mind-your-own-business/ | 2007-04-06 | 4 |
<p>Authorities detained Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and hundreds of his supporters on Monday, as they mounted demonstrations across the nation against government corruption.</p>
<p>The protests are the second mass action&#160;called by Navalny since March 26. He has announced his intention to run for president next year and has drawn a new generation to the streets through a relentless online campaign.</p>
<p>Over 200 were detained in Moscow and Saint Petersburg an hour into the protest, according to an NGO that tracks arrests, with Navalny himself picked up by police in his building as he was headed to the event.</p>
<p>On central Moscow's Tverskaya Street, a helicopter hovered overhead as riot police lined up and pushed back against the crowd, grabbing people and leading them to police vans as others shouted "Putin is a thief!" and "Freedom to Navalny!"</p>
<p>The action also drew thousands to the streets in many other cities across Russia, with authorities sanctioning some gatherings and banning others. Some reports said authorities threatened university students with expulsion if they attended.</p>
<p>The 41-year-old Navalny's anti-corruption videos have needled the country's most powerful and drawn to the streets crowds unseen since a wave of protests against President Vladimir Putin's re-election to a third term in 2012.</p>
<p>The recent rallies were galvanized by a film released by Navalny in early March, which accused Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling vast personal wealth through a shadowy network of foundations, which has since been viewed over 22 million times.</p>
<p>"Putin has been in power for 17 years and is not planning to leave. He has usurped all power," said protester Alexander Tyurin, 41. "Corruption is a system. I work in a construction company, and everything is mired in corruption."</p>
<p>Another protester Yevgeny, 19, said he was expelled from his&#160;university after participating in a previous rally. "Our government shouts that enemies are everywhere and is becoming closed in on itself," he said.&#160;</p>
<p>"We want turnover among those in power. Pressure on young people has increased," he said.</p>
<p>Navalny has brought out a new generation to the streets through his embrace of YouTube, and his team was broadcasting from various actions across the country from a studio set up in Moscow, though the electricity was periodically cut — forcing the presenter to speak in total darkness.</p>
<p>The head of Navalny's anti-corruption group FBK, Roman Rubanov, was detained by police who came to his house, arrest tracking group OVD-Info said.</p>
<p>Navalny would be charged with administrative offenses of resisting arrest and a second violation of demonstration organization rules, Moscow police said.</p>
<p>The wave of protests called by Navalny coincides with a public holiday, Russia Day, with Putin handing out awards and holding a reception in the Kremlin.&#160;</p>
<p>Turnout was difficult to calculate as ordinary people mingled with those protesting, but thousands filled the Tverskaya street area in Moscow, with many waving Russian flags and banners.</p>
<p>On the eve of the event which Moscow had authorized, Navalny announced the protest was changing location to Tverskaya because authorities blocked his efforts set up a stage and sound equipment.</p>
<p>Authorities "are forbidding any contractors from getting us a stage and sound," he wrote on his blog Sunday.&#160;</p>
<p>"We are canceling the rally on Sakharov Avenue and moving it to Tverskaya Street," a main thoroughfare to the Kremlin, he said.</p>
<p>Moscow City Hall labeled the decision a "provocation" while the police warned that "any provocative actions by the protesters will be viewed as threat to public order and immediately thwarted."</p>
<p>The protest eventually coincided with events held by the City Hall for Russia Day like the re-enactment of various eras in Russian history, from World War I trenches to a Renaissance fair and sword fighting.</p>
<p>In surreal scenes, dozens of buses filled by policemen were parked nearby ahead of the rally while ordinary people gawked at actors in period costumes.</p>
<p>Later, however, riot police and national guard moved in even on people sitting in nearby cafes, shouting, "Go away! There is an unauthorized protest here!"</p> | Opposition leader, hundreds more arrested in Russia protests | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-06-12/opposition-leader-hundreds-more-arrested-russia-protests | 2017-06-12 | 3 |
<p>The person who coined the phrase "saving for a rainy day" must have been a property owner with home drainage problems.</p>
<p>The financial costs of poor drainage can be substantial, and the human health costs significant too.</p>
<p>Prevention is important, and many clues exist for predicting trouble, says Ryan Larsen, a civil engineer with NDS Inc., a manufacturer of drainage products in Woodland Hills, California.</p>
<p>"Low spots in the landscape can be hard to see, but areas where the ground is wet for long periods of time after it rains or the sprinklers run are locations where water is collecting," Larsen said.</p>
<p>Discoloration and mold growth on a home's foundation, and places where stucco, siding or paint easily fall off a house are indications that water is pooling, he said. "You should suspect water is getting into your home if you detect damp or musty smells in your basement or crawl space," he said.</p>
<p>Most homes have some kind of drainage problem, and most often the damage comes from rain gutters, Larsen said.</p>
<p>"Because a lot of homes have gutter downspouts that lead straight to the ground, you've got all this water coming off the roof and pouring to just one point, where it can collect against a home's foundation and flood landscapes and planter areas," he said. "Fortunately, gutter problems are also the easiest to fix with a downspout extender."</p>
<p>The financial costs of poor drainage can add up. Outlays for drying basements can range from $1,000 to $10,000, according the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program. Repairing foundation damage can cost anywhere from $3,500 to $25,000, the National Association of Realtors says.</p>
<p>The human health costs of poor drainage on properties also can be sizeable, Larsen said. "Poorly drained runoff from roofs can enter basements or flow inside homes through foundational cracks or leaks where it can warp floorboards and turn finished rooms into mildewy and moldy messes that can attract insects and rodents."</p>
<p>Inadequate drainage also cracks foundations, creates standing water that ruins yards and gardens, and allows breeding spots for disease-carrying mosquitoes and heartworms.</p>
<p>"Soggy, poorly graded ground spells certain doom for lawns, shrubs, plants and gardens," Larsen said.</p>
<p>Three of the most common solutions for drainage problems are catch basins, pop-up emitters and French drains.</p>
<p>Catch basins trap sediment and contaminants beneath downspouts for drainage to safer locations. Pop-up emitters are connected to underground drainage pipes and channeled away from structures. The pop-up tops allow water to drain when full but remain closed when empty to keep out rodents and debris. French drains are gravel-filled trenches that direct storm water away from specific areas. They collect water over their entire length, rather than from one particular spot.</p>
<p>With water drainage problems, though, come opportunities, said Monica Day, a water resources educator with Michigan State University Extension.</p>
<p>"Be creative," Day said. "There are positive ways of dealing with too much water. Keep it in the soil but where it's not damaging anything. Let (ornamental) plants grow there to filter out the water and retain it.</p>
<p>"That provides beautification as well as practicality," she said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>For more about heading off drainage problems in the yard, see this fact sheet from the Cooperative Extension System: <a href="http://articles.extension.org/pages/63492/practices-to-improve-drainage" type="external">http://articles.extension.org/pages/63492/practices-to-improve-drainage</a></p>
<p>You can contact Dean Fosdick at [email protected]</p>
<p>The person who coined the phrase "saving for a rainy day" must have been a property owner with home drainage problems.</p>
<p>The financial costs of poor drainage can be substantial, and the human health costs significant too.</p>
<p>Prevention is important, and many clues exist for predicting trouble, says Ryan Larsen, a civil engineer with NDS Inc., a manufacturer of drainage products in Woodland Hills, California.</p>
<p>"Low spots in the landscape can be hard to see, but areas where the ground is wet for long periods of time after it rains or the sprinklers run are locations where water is collecting," Larsen said.</p>
<p>Discoloration and mold growth on a home's foundation, and places where stucco, siding or paint easily fall off a house are indications that water is pooling, he said. "You should suspect water is getting into your home if you detect damp or musty smells in your basement or crawl space," he said.</p>
<p>Most homes have some kind of drainage problem, and most often the damage comes from rain gutters, Larsen said.</p>
<p>"Because a lot of homes have gutter downspouts that lead straight to the ground, you've got all this water coming off the roof and pouring to just one point, where it can collect against a home's foundation and flood landscapes and planter areas," he said. "Fortunately, gutter problems are also the easiest to fix with a downspout extender."</p>
<p>The financial costs of poor drainage can add up. Outlays for drying basements can range from $1,000 to $10,000, according the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program. Repairing foundation damage can cost anywhere from $3,500 to $25,000, the National Association of Realtors says.</p>
<p>The human health costs of poor drainage on properties also can be sizeable, Larsen said. "Poorly drained runoff from roofs can enter basements or flow inside homes through foundational cracks or leaks where it can warp floorboards and turn finished rooms into mildewy and moldy messes that can attract insects and rodents."</p>
<p>Inadequate drainage also cracks foundations, creates standing water that ruins yards and gardens, and allows breeding spots for disease-carrying mosquitoes and heartworms.</p>
<p>"Soggy, poorly graded ground spells certain doom for lawns, shrubs, plants and gardens," Larsen said.</p>
<p>Three of the most common solutions for drainage problems are catch basins, pop-up emitters and French drains.</p>
<p>Catch basins trap sediment and contaminants beneath downspouts for drainage to safer locations. Pop-up emitters are connected to underground drainage pipes and channeled away from structures. The pop-up tops allow water to drain when full but remain closed when empty to keep out rodents and debris. French drains are gravel-filled trenches that direct storm water away from specific areas. They collect water over their entire length, rather than from one particular spot.</p>
<p>With water drainage problems, though, come opportunities, said Monica Day, a water resources educator with Michigan State University Extension.</p>
<p>"Be creative," Day said. "There are positive ways of dealing with too much water. Keep it in the soil but where it's not damaging anything. Let (ornamental) plants grow there to filter out the water and retain it.</p>
<p>"That provides beautification as well as practicality," she said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>For more about heading off drainage problems in the yard, see this fact sheet from the Cooperative Extension System: <a href="http://articles.extension.org/pages/63492/practices-to-improve-drainage" type="external">http://articles.extension.org/pages/63492/practices-to-improve-drainage</a></p>
<p>You can contact Dean Fosdick at [email protected]</p> | Rain gutters cause many home drainage problems | false | https://apnews.com/amp/8b6faa938f7445ae94f7acd29c345652 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>It was a busy week for politics in Nevada. The recall efforts targeting a trio of state senators appeared to be heating up before coming up with a dud. And the crowded Republican primary field in Nevada’s most competitive congressional district got a little bigger when former local TV reporter joined the fray.</p>
<p>The recalls cometh … maybe?</p>
<p>Republicans backing the recall efforts were riding high back in October after submitting the needed signatures to push the recall against Joyce Woodhouse, the state Democratic senator from District 5 in Henderson, into a special election.</p>
<p>But Monday, lawyers involved in a federal case challenging the recalls filed an injunction asking the court <a href="" type="internal">to stop the recalls</a>. U.S District Court Judge James Mahan set a hearing date of Nov. 29 for oral arguments in that case.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Woodhouse recall committee’s head, Stephen Silberkraus, filed a pair of complaints with the secretary of state’s office in which he questioned recall opponents’ tactics.</p>
<p>Then came the second recall, which ended not with a bang, <a href="" type="internal">but a fizzle</a>.</p>
<p>The committee looking to oust Sen. Patricia Farley, I-Las Vegas, turned in less than a third of the needed 7,107 signatures to force a recall election. Farley would be up for re-election in 2018 but has said several times she is not seeking re-election in District 8, located in Summerlin.</p>
<p>That leaves just one more group of recall signatures left to be filed. The third recall targets Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, who represents District 6 in the northwest Las Vegas Valley.</p>
<p>The deadline for signatures to be turned in for the Cannizzaro recall is Tuesday.</p>
<p>New candidates</p>
<p>Former KLAS-TV, Channel 8, consumer reporter <a href="" type="internal">Michelle Mortensen joined the crowded GOP primary</a> for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, which Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen is vacating to run for U.S. Senate. Mortensen, who left the TV station days before her announcement, slammed her former profession in her campaign announcement, saying she was “fed up with the liberal media attacking conservatives and conservative values.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Derek Uehara</a>, who unsuccessfully ran for Henderson City Council in 2015, announced he will challenge former Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers in the Republican primary for state treasurer. Current Treasurer Dan Schwartz, also a Republican, is running for governor.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Kyle</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chamberlain</a>, a 29-year-old freelance photographer and videographer, said Thursday he will run as a Democrat in Nevada’s gubernatorial race. Clark County commissioners Steve Sisolak and Chris Giunchigliani are also running in that primary.</p>
<p>Endorsements</p>
<p>Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson endorsed Democratic attorney general candidate Aaron Ford.</p>
<p>Current Attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt endorsed Republican Wes Duncan in the attorney general’s race. Duncan previously served as Laxalt’s first assistant attorney general. Duncan’s campaign also announced receiving endorsements from 15 of the state’s 17 sheriffs last week. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo and Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong have not yet weighed in on the race.</p>
<p>Contact Colton Lochhead at [email protected] or 702-383-4638. Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ColtonLochhead" type="external">@ColtonLochhead</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p /> | Recall dud, gubernatorial bid finish busy week in Nevada politics | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/recall-dud-gubernatorial-bid-finish-busy-week-in-nevada-politics/ | 2017-11-12 | 1 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Progressive organizations, from trade unions to large nonprofits, have long struggled to find ways of aligning their values with their work. In these organizations, "management" is often uttered with an air of disgust, seen—correctly—as the source of many of the injustices the staff works to fight. Yet, in spite of this, our organizations have tended to adopt the same management systems found in business and government, blind to the ways we perpetuate some of the very things we criticize in other institutions.</p>
<p>Ultimately, if we want to create a world of democracy, transparency, and egalitarianism, we need to start to demonstrate what that looks like in our own work. How do we make decisions? Who does what jobs, and why? How do we treat each other?</p>
<p>If we can't manifest our values in our own offices, it seems unlikely that we can do so in our communities, cities, or countries. Yet many social change organizations continue to churn out formulaic reiterations of the organizing systems constructed by Anglo-American industrialists a century and a half ago. At their core is the idea that a few great leaders will create hierarchies led by specialists and experts, and that the rest of us will be given a box (or cubicle) to fit within, to implement the visions of the infallible heroes at the top.</p>
<p>Some organizations have concluded that workplace dictatorships are simply a necessary evil on the road to a better world. Luckily, though, there have always been those less inclined to believe in the old fallacy of "the ends justify the means," which assumes that any steps towards a positive result are acceptable, even if they would be seen as unethical in any other context. Instead, some have chosen to explore what it might look like to do socially useful things in groups without undermining their core values in the process.</p>
<p>My new book, Anarchists in the Boardroom, tells the stories of Argentine worker-run factories, Occupy encampments, and direct actions against tax-dodging corporations to highlight some of the emerging alternatives to our inherited systems of organizing. There is something deeply human about these non-hierarchical systems that seems to bring out the best in us. They allow us to find our own ways of supporting the causes we believe in, rather than slotting us into hierarchies and departments that prescribe how we are meant to do so. Below are a few key lessons that could help our organizations to embrace the humanity of the people that make them up:</p>
<p>While there were far more differences than similarities among the nearly one thousand Occupy camps that emerged around in the world in late 2011, consensus-based decision-making was one of the movement's hallmarks.</p>
<p>This was no coincidence. Drawing on previous movements from Spain and Latin America, Occupiers knew that decisions made by a small part of a big group tend to lack the collective investment needed to turn those decisions into widespread action. Alternatively, when it comes to big-picture questions, decisions made by as-close-to-everybody-as-possible tend to create meaningful buy-in for whatever decisions emerge (even if this is initially a time-consuming process).</p>
<p>This is a fundamental difference between representative democracy and the participatory kind, which treats decision-making as constructive compromise rather than a fight to win by "50 percent plus one." Fundamentally, consensus-based decisions build trust among those involved, encouraging them to find their own autonomous ways of taking those decisions forward. The value of this trust-building shouldn't be underestimated.</p>
<p>Without trust, even the best systems fall apart. There's a structural level to any form of democracy, but there's also a personal one. If we aren't working to build trusting relationships between colleagues, members, supporters, and others within and around our organizations, we will struggle to make those organizations the places we want them to be.</p>
<p>Trust helps us move beyond the formal structures of democratic process to the spirit of it, in which mutual accountability informs each of our individual actions without the need for an extensive decision-making process every time. In social movements the need to be trustworthy is amplified because the personal risks involved are often higher than in most formal organizations. Luckily, in most situations people respond to being trusted by becoming more trustworthy. Mutual trust breeds mutual accountability, which tends to push most of us to do better at the things we care about.</p>
<p>Formalized roles and hierarchies undermine trust by giving some individuals power over others, which is one of the fundamental reasons so many movements have avoided these structures. Instead, social movements (at their best) allow people to work together more fluidly, slipping between roles and following their individual passion to work where they are inspired to, rather than where someone else has told them to. A <a href="http://www.foster.washington.edu/centers/facultyresearch/Pages/harmonious-passion.aspx" type="external">growing body of evidence</a> suggests that people in all fields achieve far more when they have a strong sense of autonomy over what they do, as opposed to when they are told what to do and how to do it.</p>
<p>In the range of examples I explore in my book, there is a noticeable absence of planning meetings or strategy retreats. When I met with the activists who helped kick-start <a href="http://rabble.ca/news/2013/06/occupy-sandy-horizontal-lessons-community-based-disaster-recovery" type="external">Occupy Sandy</a>—the self-organized disaster response effort that emerged after Hurricane Sandy hit—they told me that they didn't spend time "sitting in a room strategizing together," but instead got out and did what was needed.</p>
<p>This ad hoc responsiveness is often the norm in movements. It demonstrates the notion that the specifics of a movement's direction can't and shouldn't be determined before experiencing the on-the-ground realities. That responsiveness was more important than anything that could be conceived in a boardroom or conference center, months or years in advance.</p>
<p>The primary lesson I've found in bringing learning from grassroots social movements to organizations, is that organizational change, as with social change, is most effective when it comes from the grassroots. As in society more widely, if those of us lacking executive powers decide to wait for those in charge to bring us participatory democracy, we'll be waiting a long time.</p>
<p>Sometimes this is because of fundamentally different values often held by those who succeed in climbing institutional ladders. But more often it is simply the inability of a small group to know the right direction for a much larger one.</p>
<p>More involvement means more perspective. More perspective means better odds of finding solutions and ways of doing things we've traditionally missed. Thus, participatory democracy is better for achieving our social aims, and is within the reach of us all.</p>
<p>So it's over to you. How will you start your workplace revolution?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Read more:</p> | Three Things Activists in the Office Can Learn from the Street | true | http://yesmagazine.org/people-power/three-reasons-why-participatory-democracy-helps-build-a-stronger-workplace | 4 |
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<p>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Relatives of some of the 44 crew members aboard an Argentine submarine that went missing in the South Atlantic asked Russia on Monday to carry on with the search two months after the vessel disappeared.</p>
<p>An explosion occurred near the time and place where the ARA San Juan vanished Nov. 15. Argentina has given up hope of finding survivors, but the navy has continued hunting for the vessel.</p>
<p>Russia is now the last of 18 foreign country that have assisted the search in an area of some 1,500 square miles (4,000 square kilometers).</p>
<p>The Argentine navy says that it is looking for options, including hiring private companies, in case Russia withdraws.</p>
<p>Families of the crew gathered outside the Russian Embassy in Buenos Aires Monday and made a desperate plea to Russia, asking it to continue searching for their loved ones with ships that carry remotely operated vehicles capable of deep seafloor searches.</p>
<p>“We’ve come to thank Russia and ask that it doesn’t withdraw. I have hope and faith that they’re still floating there,” said Antonio Niz, father of crew member Luis Niz.</p>
<p>The Russian government has not announced an end date for its assistance.</p>
<p>The German-built TR-1700 class submarine disappeared as it was sailing from the southernmost port of Ushuaia to Mar del Plata after a patrol.</p>
<p>The navy says that the vessel’s captain reported on Nov. 15 that water entered the snorkel and caused one of the sub’s batteries to short-circuit. The captain later communicated that it had been contained.</p>
<p>Some hours later, an explosion was detected near the time and place where the San Juan was last heard from. The navy says the blast could have been caused by a “concentration of hydrogen” triggered by the battery problem reported by the captain.</p>
<p>President Mauricio Macri has vowed a full investigation, and last month, the government dismissed the head of its navy as part of the probe into the disappearance.</p>
<p>But families and some experts say it’s not enough, and some suggest the search should be widened.</p>
<p>“I suspect that it didn’t sink but that it kept sailing, neither afloat nor sunk, and it was carried adrift with the current,” said Alejandro Kalfayan, a merchant marine captain who specializes in the search of submerged objects. He suggested the search should focus instead some 100 to 200 nautical miles (185 to 370 kilometers) northeast of the current area.</p>
<p>Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said that finding the submarine has been as “difficult as trying to find a 6-centimeter (2-inch) cigarette in a soccer field.”</p>
<p>Family members and friends of the San Juan crew recently sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking him to support the search “until the very end.”</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Associated Press journalists Debora Rey and Leo La Valle contributed to this report.</p>
<p>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Relatives of some of the 44 crew members aboard an Argentine submarine that went missing in the South Atlantic asked Russia on Monday to carry on with the search two months after the vessel disappeared.</p>
<p>An explosion occurred near the time and place where the ARA San Juan vanished Nov. 15. Argentina has given up hope of finding survivors, but the navy has continued hunting for the vessel.</p>
<p>Russia is now the last of 18 foreign country that have assisted the search in an area of some 1,500 square miles (4,000 square kilometers).</p>
<p>The Argentine navy says that it is looking for options, including hiring private companies, in case Russia withdraws.</p>
<p>Families of the crew gathered outside the Russian Embassy in Buenos Aires Monday and made a desperate plea to Russia, asking it to continue searching for their loved ones with ships that carry remotely operated vehicles capable of deep seafloor searches.</p>
<p>“We’ve come to thank Russia and ask that it doesn’t withdraw. I have hope and faith that they’re still floating there,” said Antonio Niz, father of crew member Luis Niz.</p>
<p>The Russian government has not announced an end date for its assistance.</p>
<p>The German-built TR-1700 class submarine disappeared as it was sailing from the southernmost port of Ushuaia to Mar del Plata after a patrol.</p>
<p>The navy says that the vessel’s captain reported on Nov. 15 that water entered the snorkel and caused one of the sub’s batteries to short-circuit. The captain later communicated that it had been contained.</p>
<p>Some hours later, an explosion was detected near the time and place where the San Juan was last heard from. The navy says the blast could have been caused by a “concentration of hydrogen” triggered by the battery problem reported by the captain.</p>
<p>President Mauricio Macri has vowed a full investigation, and last month, the government dismissed the head of its navy as part of the probe into the disappearance.</p>
<p>But families and some experts say it’s not enough, and some suggest the search should be widened.</p>
<p>“I suspect that it didn’t sink but that it kept sailing, neither afloat nor sunk, and it was carried adrift with the current,” said Alejandro Kalfayan, a merchant marine captain who specializes in the search of submerged objects. He suggested the search should focus instead some 100 to 200 nautical miles (185 to 370 kilometers) northeast of the current area.</p>
<p>Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said that finding the submarine has been as “difficult as trying to find a 6-centimeter (2-inch) cigarette in a soccer field.”</p>
<p>Family members and friends of the San Juan crew recently sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking him to support the search “until the very end.”</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Associated Press journalists Debora Rey and Leo La Valle contributed to this report.</p> | Families of missing sub crew ask Russia to continue search | false | https://apnews.com/818a9db5b6e64e1f932ebecd303b7524 | 2018-01-15 | 2 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“One small step for marijuana, one great leap for science”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Pot, weed, grass, reefer, joint, marijuana – by whatever name it is called – cannabis (most commonly called marijuana) is being decriminalized. A bi-partisan group of senators have prepared a bill that The Daily Beast calls “One small step for marijuana, one great leap for science.”</p>
<p>The federal government now makes it illegal to use the cannabis plant (marijuana) in any form; but if The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States Act (CARERS) is passed by Congress it will eliminate the federal ban on medical marijuana in the states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Currently, 23 states and the District of Columbia have laws permitting use of medical marijuana. Texas recently introduced legislation to allow medical use of marijuana and Florida will have the issue on its 2016 ballot.</p>
<p>The Appropriations Act that was passed in December, 2014, contained a Section (538) that prohibited the Department of Justice from using its funds to interfere in the implementation of state marijuana laws and also forbade any federal agency from interfering with state laws. CARERS goes further: It reclassifies marijuana from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 2 drug. Schedule 1 drugs are defined as having high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use, and lack of accepted safety for use. Some examples are heroin, LSD, and ecstasy. &#160;Schedule 2 drugs are described as having less potential for abuse, possibility of leading to psychological or physical dependence, but also having a currently accepted use in medical treatment. Examples include cocaine, Demerol, and OxyContin.</p>
<p>Until it was illegalized in 1937, extract of cannabis sative (marijuana) was among the top three most prescribed medicines in the U.S. &#160;Needless to say, its use as a medicine was extremely limited after it became illegal. Today, it is used to treat pain, muscle spasticity (seizures), nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, and loss of appetite in HIV/AIDS patients. For many seriously ill people it is the only drug that helps them without causing debilitating side effects.</p>
<p>In recent years national polls have shown that 70% of voters approve use of medical marijuana. Notably, many republicans over the age of 34 years do not. The average age of 2012 republicans voting in the presidential primary election was 51 years.</p>
<p>Opponents of CARERS cite insufficient data about the safety and effectiveness of the drug as reasons for their opposition. Because cannabis is being removed from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2, large scale tests can now be conducted and researchers can gather evidence as to the medical value of the drug. Meanwhile, many ill people can have legal access to the medicine that works best for them.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Marijuana To Be Federally Decriminalized | true | http://politicalblindspot.com/marijuana-to-be-federally-decriminalized-2/ | 2015-03-18 | 4 |
<p>CINCINNATI (AP) — Left-hander Paul Maholm (mu-HALL-uhm) has agreed to a minor league contract with the Cincinnati Reds, who have invited him to major league spring training with a chance to earn a roster spot.</p>
<p>The 32-year-old pitched for the Dodgers last season before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while covering first base on Aug. 1. He went 1-5 with a 4.84 ERA in eight starts and 22 relief appearances.</p>
<p>Maholm pitched seven seasons with the Pirates. He also has pitched for the Cubs, Braves and Dodgers.</p>
<p>The Reds are looking for pitching depth after training starter Mat Latos to Miami and starter Alfredo Simon to Detroit in December. The final two spots in their rotation are open to competition.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Joe Kay on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/apjoekay" type="external">http://twitter.com/apjoekay</a></p>
<p>CINCINNATI (AP) — Left-hander Paul Maholm (mu-HALL-uhm) has agreed to a minor league contract with the Cincinnati Reds, who have invited him to major league spring training with a chance to earn a roster spot.</p>
<p>The 32-year-old pitched for the Dodgers last season before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while covering first base on Aug. 1. He went 1-5 with a 4.84 ERA in eight starts and 22 relief appearances.</p>
<p>Maholm pitched seven seasons with the Pirates. He also has pitched for the Cubs, Braves and Dodgers.</p>
<p>The Reds are looking for pitching depth after training starter Mat Latos to Miami and starter Alfredo Simon to Detroit in December. The final two spots in their rotation are open to competition.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Joe Kay on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/apjoekay" type="external">http://twitter.com/apjoekay</a></p> | Reds sign left-hander Paul Maholm to minor league deal | false | https://apnews.com/2688ed0af860439e93584ba327864fef | 2015-02-02 | 2 |
<p>America promised to bring democracy to Iraq, but more than two months after provisional elections, things have gone from photo-op to fiasco. The New York Times reports on the “threats, intrigue, back-room deal-making, protests, political paralysis and, increasingly, popular discontent” that have come to characterize the Iraqi political process.</p>
<p>If this is a preview of the national contest next winter, President Obama’s troop withdrawal plan could implode.</p>
<p>New York Times:</p>
<p>Two and a half months after the elections, the 14 provinces that voted have only now begun forming provincial councils, the equivalent of state legislatures in the United States. Five provinces, including Babil, Najaf and Basra, still have no functioning governments, despite a deadline that passed last week, as party leaders squabble over the selection of governors, council chairmen and their deputies.</p>
<p />
<p>Elections that were supposed to strengthen Iraq’s democracy, unite its ethnic and sectarian factions and begin to improve sorely needed basic services — water, electricity, roads — have instead exposed the fault lines that still threaten the country’s stability.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/world/middleeast/16province.html?ref=global-home" type="external">Read more</a></p> | They Don't Build Democracies Like They Used To | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/they-dont-build-democracies-like-they-used-to-2/ | 2009-04-16 | 4 |
<p>It’s not often these days that we see the news media expending much effort, but Bush’s new economic stimulus plan- and its homunculus, the Democratic version of same- has got America’s media panting like fatties on a treadmill. I have never seen such rising to the occasion in all my born days. You’d think they were forming a bucket brigade to put out a fire in the church steeple; certainly they’re carrying water (knowing this administration, the water is from the Klamath River). Why? This tax plan is a pig in a poke; it’s also the reason toilets have lids. This tax plan is an unsightly hog, but the Powers That Be are desperate to ensure ordinary Americans buy the thing.</p>
<p>Why would the puling Pollyannae of our media let us down in this way? Why would they work so hard to fool us into thinking the Bush tax plan is anything more than a reeking eructation right in the average American’s face? Because there’s a new class in this country. We have always had the poor, the middle class, and the rich; there are subdivisions like ‘super-rich’, ‘upper middle class’, ‘blue collar’, and ‘might as well eat your own legs’. These don’t address the most potent class of all: the Threatened Class.</p>
<p>The Threatened Class is composed mostly of upper-middle types who were quivering on the edge of being really well emboodled, although many of its members are simply dopes who think they’re well off but are actually wretched (cf. Libertarians). Besides real estate brokers, ex-Internet types who Got Out Early, and devoted market players, the Threatened Class includes most of the influential folks in the media. All the ‘people’ you see on TV are part of the Threatened Class, as are the editors, producers, and analysts who guide what the cognoscenti will say.</p>
<p>The Threatened Class encompasses all those who have wine cellars but no summer home, or summer homes but no yacht, and so on, until you get to the pathetic boobs who share leases on private jets but can’t afford a jet of their own. The Threatened Class is for people who have the better part of a million bucks in their personal thrift, up to around six million. Money they can retire on if they’re careful. You can lose that much really fast, if things don’t go your way. Happened when WWW turned out to stand for ‘What a Withered Wallet’. That’s what threatens this class. They could lose everything, and be right back in the ‘chugging Aqua Velva behind a dumpster’ class.</p>
<p>So these pundits &amp; co. are all members of the Threatened Class, and they worked hard to get what they have, or sucked a lot of fragrant ass to get it, which amounts to the same thing; and they see there’s this terrible danger that all their greedy, single-minded soulless money-grubbing could come to naught, in which case they sold their principles, their hearts and their lives (in ascending order of value) for nothing. In such a situation you will do much to keep your gelt safe, and the safest thing these days is to convince consumers to keep consuming and little investors to keep investing, while you try to figure out where to hide your dough. And a big, fat tax break wouldn’t hurt, either. How can you lose?</p>
<p>After all, when things are good it’s fine to defend the little guys, the slobs who didn’t have the sense or financial backup to get through an expensive college; but disaster looms on all sides. Forget journalistic integrity for a second here_this is about your retirement, dammit! The truth will set you free from your money. If Americans understood that the media diagrams showing the ‘average savings’ of some thousand dollars actually meant tens- even hundreds- of thousands for the really rich and a handful of twenties for themselves, they might cool off to the whole idea, especially when weighed against the effect it will have on the civil infrastructure (such as roads and schools they are forced to use because they can’t afford private jets or schools). To simulate this economic stimulus plan’s effect on the American common weal, drop a Ritz cracker into 200 gallons of boiling chlorine bleach. If it wasn’t in the Threatened Classes’ personal interest to misrepresent this stinker of a plan, its media wing wouldn’t dream of trying to make the thing look good. Easier to put lipstick on the genitals of a moose. But it’s a struggle they’re willing to undertake: either fard the nards, or expose this historic policy fraud and join with the common man in a struggle for lasting economic measures that will require sacrifice from everybody, even the Threatened Class.</p>
<p>When the Titanic sank in 1997, the ship’s officers (led by Capt. James Cameron) did their level best to ensure the very richest folks got into lifeboats first, and then the officers climbed in after them and cast off, leaving the poor to practice their dogpaddles on the poopdeck. Why did the poor folks listen? Because the officers were authorities, trusted figures who Knew What To Do. Today’s Threatened Class, as exemplified by the media, are just exactly like the officers aboard the Titanic. If they can keep the masses quiet just a little longer, they can secure themselves a place in the lifeboats. Maybe that’s a cynical analogy, but why else would they attempt to gloss over this ghastly plan? Think it over. Meanwhile I’ll be in the third class lounge, building a raft out of the piano.</p>
<p>BEN TRIPP is a screenwriter and political cartoonist. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Class Warfare at the Marina | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/01/11/class-warfare-at-the-marina/ | 2003-01-11 | 4 |
<p>U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte called the lifting of sanctions “the turning point of a historical page that should brighten the future of a people and a region.” It simply will not do so. Thirteen years of sanctions has drastically altered the fundamental nature of Iraq’s economy; history has shown repeatedly that the infrastructure of economic warfare always outlives the war itself. To distract attention from this fact, representatives to the UN from the United States continued to chastise Saddam Hussein for diverting money from the “oil for food program” to his personal bank accounts.</p>
<p>No doubt Hussein is guilty, but this is really beside the point. The United States, with its long history of love-hate relationships with dictators, should know by now that dictators welcome sanctions and embargos.</p>
<p>Sanctions allow dictators to blame the world, often rightfully, for their domestic problems. By portraying the country as under attack, they are able to reduce internal dissent. In response to sanctions, dictators are often relieved of the duty of serious social spending and can justify to its citizen’s the increase in military spending.</p>
<p>The longer the sanction, the more porous. Black markets are created and with them a vast criminal underground infrastructure to support them. This particular lesson was made quite clear during the US embargo of Iran which did not stop weapons from reaching the Ayatollah, but succeeded in allowing France to gain a new customer. Furthermore, the embargo drove up the prices for black market weapons, which again did not make them prohibitively expensive, but instead contributed to the rise of smuggling and arms running. The profits of this smuggling, however, could not go into the Iraqi economy now any more than the black market profits in Iran could then. There is little to consume there and few legitimate ways to earn a decent return. Instead, smugglers resorted then and continue to resort now to the illicit economy of off-shore banks where privacy laws protect the smugglers and help enable the money to be laundered. Laundered money doesn’t stay home. It rarely pays taxes. It has a strange purity. It can show up in other places, often as weapons, and its new owners are hard to identify until far too late.</p>
<p>The banking networks of criminals and financiers (here, as is often the case, quite indistinguishable) overlap with legitimate banks and create enormous headaches for intelligence agencies. The whole purpose of such things is, of course, to obscure any trail, but without this black market it would have been much easier to keep tabs on Hussein’s official and personal expenditures. It would, therefore, have improved intelligence on his alleged arsenal.</p>
<p>Not incidentally, on the day before the lifting of these sanctions, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Defense had another intelligence difficulty. It has admitted that it cannot keep tabs on its own military expenditures. Over a trillion dollars is missing from the military budget and it cannot be explained. Could this be the result of some kind of underworld involvement? After what has been learned recently about Halliburton’s bribes in Niger and Bechtel’s years of overcharging of the Saudi regime for unnecessary construction projects, it is not an unreasonable assumption. But as is often the case with the Bush administration, hypocrisy is the least of the problems.</p>
<p>More serious is how the sanctions in Iraq, now that they are lifted, will create a fresh round of legal looting. Smugglers will simply become legitimate mercantilists. They will now have a larger customer base than previously when they could only deal with the Hussein regime. Now they will be free to move goods in both directions and their buying power, larger after the huge profits from busting the embargoes, will only improve their volume and allow them other efficiencies. They may have to pay taxes, but these may well be less than the pay-offs and bribes under the sanctions. They will buy whatever few goods the Iraqi people produce and sell them abroad rather than to their fellow Iraqis who could not likely afford the middle man’s mark up. This means that the profits from Iraqi products will continue to flow out of Iraq, not back into the domestic economy.</p>
<p>The answer is increased foreign investment in Iraq, according to the free-market fundamentalists behind the Bush administration’s policies. This is what is at stake in Bush’s proposed free-trade plan for the region, no protection for what little of Iraq’s industries still exist. The big idea, or the alleged idea, is that opening the door for foreign investment will allow this undeveloped nation to skip ahead, to acquire the latest technology, and so forth. There is no evidence, however, that a free-trade zone increases foreign investment throughout a country, only in small pockets, and then only in industries that require technology to extract natural resources. A statement today by John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., suggests that: “It is time for the Iraqi people to benefit from their natural resources.”</p>
<p>The US is not serious about siring a real modern industrial economy in this region. It is unlikely the billions in oil revenue that Iraq will produce right now will be used to buy capital equipment or build factories or do anything that will make for a sustainable economy. Where does Negroponte say this money will go to? Rebuilding the infrastructure. And who is doing that? Bechtel. Halliburton. So this money, too, will not remain in Iraq.</p>
<p>One is forced to decide whether Powell and Negroponte are being disingenuous when they hype this deal or whether they are simply oblivious to the economic underpinnings of market capitalism. But how can they be oblivious to the fact that the agreement they negotiated still binds Iraq to pay down its $400 billion in debt, a debt taken on during Hussein’s rule. How can it be that Hussein lost his illegitimacy, but that his debts remain legitimate?</p>
<p>On this point, George Soros, philanthropist and convicted inside trader, makes more sense than the Bush administration. Soros rightly argues that these debts should be forgiven because doing so would send a message to the financial world that there are risks to supporting dictatorships.</p>
<p>Not canceling these debts is not only an exploitative, imperial policy, but also validates the whole network of off-shore banking, foreign subsidiaries, and corporate intermediaries that US and European financial institutions use to get around the sanctions and embargoes imposed by their governments.</p>
<p>It must be pointed out that the IMF and the World Bank both have a seat on the advisory committee overseeing all of this. For them, “building infrastructure” means renovating ports, pipelines, etc. These things are designed to get the natural resources out of the country.</p>
<p>What will then happen is what happened in Latin America. Trade volume will improve, but the profits will go to transport companies, the industries devoted to exporting natural resources (former and current smugglers. Little investment will be made in businesses that provide basic goods so these were imported from abroad, furthering their dependence on US and European imports. No money will go into programs that would redistribute the arable land or modernize the once robust agricultural industry of the region, although, here and there some new farm equipment will appear, just as it did under the failed “oil for food”. The remaining agricultural industry will be undercut by US grain subsidies (long a standard practice of the IMF) and it will draw people away from rural areas into the cities. There will not be enough industry in urban areas to employ the migrants. The urban centers themselves will not have had their infrastructure rebuilt. No money, for example, will go to fix the crumbling school system. This will guarantee that these workers will not be of much use to either Iraq or Halliburton. And the Iraqis will not be able to afford whatever few goods can be produced domestically. These will be exported and consumed abroad. So the standard of living will not improve.</p>
<p>The money from these exports will remain modest, just enough to cover expenses but not enough to encourage expanded manufacturing. So no new textile mills, no new Iraqi pharmaceutical plants will be built. The considerable income from oil will go to pay debt. That money gone, US banks will be asked make loans to the Iraqi government, but that money will have to go to pay for imports of basic materials, not to build industry. Essentially, they will borrow to consume and be forced to sell, say, the Tigris and Euphrates themselves. Perhaps, then, as this cycle continues, leftist governments will appear, again just as they have in South America. And, as with those, the US will attempt to undermine them. The vicious circle. Though, of course, some will argue that when Halliburton and Bechtel arrive, they will spend money in Iraq and that they may even hire a few Iraqis on the cheap. The old trickle down theory once again. But what perhaps do they do when this worn-out platitude turns perilous again? Cut the dividend tax? Bring back the Shah?</p>
<p>One thing is certain: it is not a time to celebrate. It is a time to change the way underdeveloped nations are treated. As much debt as possible should be forgiven. Not all. Russia, for example, is owed $4 billion and needs it to pay its debts. France, who certainly the US does not mind slighting, should as Soros says, lose their investment, as should Citibank and all the US corporations who used fronts and intermediaries to get around sanctions. Companies like RJ Reynolds, who illegally sold billions of dollars of cigarettes in Iraq through intermediaries, should be tried for tax evasion, if not treason, and forced to pay a huge fine, equal to at least the amount of lost tax revenue. This money could go to the UN fund for Iraq. The UN should help guide the Iraqi economy toward a post-oil economy and set up a tariff regulation advisory board to protect fledgling Iraqi industries such as agriculture. Money spent to build infrastructure should not only to restoring airports and harbors, but to schools and educational equipment, to building Iraqi state-owned pharmaceutical factories, to modernizing existing equipment. Land reform will be needed. Everything should be done to keep the mercantile class (former smugglers) from repatriating their money abroad. This may well involve a little wealth redistribution.</p>
<p>STANDARD SCHAEFER is an independent economic journalist in Los Angeles. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Lifting the Sanctions | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/05/23/lifting-the-sanctions/ | 2003-05-23 | 4 |
<p>Many years ago my mother told me about a trip she took with a group of people to attend a national denominational training event. If you knew my mother, you would know she could hardly tell it without laughing.</p>
<p>The event was far enough away that they had to spend the night to get there. The driver told everyone to be ready and in his car the second morning at a certain time. They had just enough time to make it for the start of the event.</p>
<p>Ten minutes after the deadline, the three passengers were in the car, but the driver was not. As the passengers tried to figure out what might be going on, my mother said the last time she saw him, he was in her room helping her with her luggage.</p>
<p>My mother got out of the car, and went to her room. The door was slightly open. When she went in she saw no one but heard voices coming from the bathroom.</p>
<p>When she got to the bathroom she saw the housekeeper leaning back over the commode with her eyes open wide, and a very scared look on her face. She was repeatedly saying “Yes, sir” to everything the other person was saying to her.</p>
<p>The other person was the driver. He had out his four spiritual laws booklet, and was confronting her about her need to be saved. His normal mode was as a confrontational evangelist. He was also known as a highly politically person who wanted to make sure the laws of the land and the doctrinal positions of his denomination conformed to his theology.</p>
<p>He was a big “E” Evangelical for sure. Yes, as good as he was in many ways, he did not understand the small “e” evangelical role that emphasizes the warmth of the Good News, the gospel, the kerygma, the unconditional love of Jesus Christ as a sacred trust that includes both the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. He wanted to save people from something rather than help them be reconciled to our Triune God.</p>
<p>It is the big “E” Evangelical about whom the moderate and progressive Protestants continually say, “We are not them.” I understand and appreciate that position. I even agree with it. I just wish some moderates and progressives did not spend so much time defining themselves by what they are not.</p>
<p>To call on an overused cliché, I suspect too many moderates and progressives are “throwing out the baby with the bath water.” They are choosing to downplay and perhaps even to ignore small “e” evangelical, which means they are at times leaving out the best thing we have to offer as Christians — Good News.</p>
<p>As such they create an unbalanced Christianity. Balanced Christianity is able to articulate and act on the four “Goods.” These are Good Faith, Good Community, Good Works and Good News. Any movement or organization of civil people can have Good Community and Good Works. Nothing about these two demands the presence of Christianity.</p>
<p>Unique to Christianity are two things. One is our Good Faith in the worship of the Triune God. The other is the Good News we share about a reconciliation of individuals with the Triune God, and a life of unconditional love as best exemplified by the living Word of God.</p>
<p>As a moderate Baptist, I choose not to give away the small “e” evangelical word, or a balanced Christianity that affirms belief and action surrounding all four “Goods.” I believe too strongly in what a deep, balanced Christianity can do to mold a fully devoted follower of Christ, and congregations which are models of a Christ-centered, faith-based community. And in doing so, the small “e” evangelical word works well for me.</p>
<p>I gladly give away the big “E” Evangelical word to those who seem to speak more about judgment than grace, more about the written word of God rather than the living Word of God, and more about creating a theocracy with their form of American civil religion than a country of religious liberty.</p>
<p>They can have that label if it still works for them. If you have read the latest book by Robert P. Jones titled The End of White Christian America, you will see the big “E” Evangelicals are increasingly marginalized from the political scene. The big “E” word may not work much longer.</p>
<p>As for me, I will hold on to the small “e” word of evangelical as meaning the Good News within the constellation of the four “Goods.” I speak them with delight, without hesitation, and knowing that some people will still get the small “e” and the big “E” confused.</p> | Are moderates/progressives confusing the ‘e’ word with the ‘E’ word again? | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/are-moderatesprogressives-confusing-the-e-word-with-the-e-word-again/ | 3 |
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<p>BodyArmor is launching its first-ever national television advertising campaign during the NBA Playoffs this week, as founder Mike Repole and his business partner, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, look to challenge Gatorade’s decades-long dominance of the U.S. sports drink marketplace.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Bryant, who is BodyArmor’s third-largest investor, wrote, directed and narrated the 60-second spot. The commercial carries the slogan “Obsession is Natural” and features several BodyArmor endorsers and equity partners, including James Harden of the NBA’s Houston Rockets and Mike Trout of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels. The ad airs for the first time Wednesday night on TNT, when Harden’s Rockets face the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of their opening round series.</p>
<p>Bryant and Repole say the slogan hits on the elements that are key to BodyArmor’s strategy for taking on Gatorade, which maintains an overwhelming share of the market – an athlete’s obsession with their craft, and BodyArmor’s use of natural ingredients like coconut water as opposed to artificial colors or sugars.</p>
<p>“It all comes down to the product having a point of differentiation,” Bryant, who was given creative control over the campaign, told FOX Business. “Once you establish a superior product, getting it into the marketplace and onto the shelf becomes the priority. Creating the message and communicating what separates the product - and individual athletes - from the competition, is the fun part.”</p>
<p>The national TV campaign is debuting at a critical time in BodyArmor’s development. The brand has enjoyed steady growth since Repole, who is best known as the cofounder of VitaminWater and SmartWater, launched the sports drink company in 2011. Sales grew to $130 million in 2016 – a 154% increase over the previous year, according to Repole. This year, the company is aiming to reach between $250 million and $300 million in retail sales.</p>
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<p>Those numbers are still miniscule when compared to Gatorade, which owns anywhere from a 70% to 80% share of the U.S. sports drink market, according to various estimates. The Pepsi-owned brand saw wholesale sales of more than $3.5 billion in 2015, according to Beverage Marketing Corporation. At the time, BodyArmor barely registered on market tracking services.</p>
<p>Repole is aiming for BodyArmor to have a 5% share of the market by the end of 2017. By 2025, he wants to accomplish the gargantuan task of surpassing Gatorade as the country’s top sports drink brand.</p>
<p>Repole said Bryant has been pushing for a national TV campaign since at least 2014. But with distribution in all 50 states through a partnership with Dr. Pepper Snapple Group and a growing stable of athlete endorsers that also includes world no. 1 golfer Dustin Johnson and New York Knicks phenom Kristaps Porzingis, Repole said the time is finally right.</p>
<p>“Now we’re in major accounts like Kroger and Sam’s Club and Target and WaWa and QuikTrip. Now that we’re in all 50 states, now that we have major distribution – you can pick us up in any county, in any state, including Alaska and Hawaii – now is the reason why the timing is right,” Repole told FOX Business. “Even though there’s low awareness [about the brand], there’s enough awareness that’s going to make us a $250 million to $300 million retail brand this year. Now it’s about putting the pedal to the metal and really driving awareness.”</p>
<p>Aside from his role as a top investor, Repole says Bryant is uniquely suited to pitch BodyArmor’s mission to the masses, given his status as a world-class athlete, as someone who played basketball well into his 30s in a league that skews younger, and as a parent.</p>
<p>Bryant, who told Repole when he invested in the brand in 2013 that he wanted to be heavily involved in marketing and creative elements of the business, said that BodyArmor is “obsessive” about creating a healthier, more effective product than the competition. Bryant considers the emphasis on a next-generation formula as a key “point of differentiation” from Gatorade.</p>
<p>“I enjoy storytelling and have always taken an active role in my campaigns throughout my career,” Bryant said.&#160;“As an investor in BodyArmor, this is additional value I bring to the brand. I’m able to provide a creative voice – as an athlete – to give the product an authentic and credible voice.&#160;As a storyteller, I most enjoy finding that one point of differentiation and finding a unique way to get people to understand the message.”</p> | Kobe Bryant, BodyArmor Launch Sports Drink's First National TV Campaign | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/18/kobe-bryant-bodyarmor-launch-sports-drinks-first-national-tv-campaign.html | 2017-04-18 | 0 |
<p>Nov. 25 (UPI) — Pakistani officials on Saturday summoned the army to restore order in Islamabad after hundreds of people were injured in violent protests over two weeks.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/25/asia/pakistan-islamabad-protest/index.html" type="external">CNN reported</a> more than 250 people were injured and at least two people died during the protests. The list of those injured includes 111 police or other security forces, Dr. Tahir Nadeem, a physician at Pakistani Institute of Medical Services <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/pakistan-police-clash-anti-blasphemy-protesters-171125152436525.html" type="external">told Al Jazeera</a>.</p>
<p>At least 8,000 police officers in riot gear and a paramilitary police force used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd of 2,000 protesters, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/world/asia/pakistan-protests-khadim-hussain-rizvi.html?mtrref=www.google.com" type="external">New York Times report</a>. The demonstrators tossed rocks with their hands or slingshots.</p>
<p>Since Nov. 8, protesters have blocked a major road between Islamabad and Rawalpindi to highlight their demand for the resignation of Law and Justice Minister Zahid Hamid because of legislation that would scale back requirements for lawmakers to mention the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.</p>
<p>The demonstrators support the hardline Islamist cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi.</p>
<p>The Times reported at least 150 protesters were arrested.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/25/pakistan-calls-on-army-to-restore-order-as-blasphemy-protests-spread" type="external">protests spread to other cities</a> in Pakistan, including Karachi, Lahore, Hyderabad and Faisalabad. Like in Islamabad, they blocked main roads and caused traffic jams.</p>
<p>The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority took private television stations off the air. State-run PTV, which hasn’t been reporting on the protests, remains on the air.</p> | Pakistan summons army after violent protests | false | https://newsline.com/pakistan-summons-army-after-violent-protests/ | 2017-11-25 | 1 |
<p>LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese police say they seized about 2 metric tons (2.2 tons) of Moroccan hashish from a boat and arrested a Spaniard during a night-time operation on the country’s southern coast.</p>
<p>Police said the hashish was divided into 70 bales and stowed on a 7-meter (23-foot) boat that entered a coastal inlet near Tavira, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of the capital, Lisbon.</p>
<p>Officers intercepted the boat and a van that was waiting on a bank before dawn Thursday, arresting a 46-year-old man. Several other suspects are believed to have escaped.</p>
<p>Large seizures of hashish from Morocco are not uncommon in southern Portugal and Spain due to their proximity to North Africa. Smugglers often take the drug to northern Europe by truck.</p>
<p>LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese police say they seized about 2 metric tons (2.2 tons) of Moroccan hashish from a boat and arrested a Spaniard during a night-time operation on the country’s southern coast.</p>
<p>Police said the hashish was divided into 70 bales and stowed on a 7-meter (23-foot) boat that entered a coastal inlet near Tavira, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of the capital, Lisbon.</p>
<p>Officers intercepted the boat and a van that was waiting on a bank before dawn Thursday, arresting a 46-year-old man. Several other suspects are believed to have escaped.</p>
<p>Large seizures of hashish from Morocco are not uncommon in southern Portugal and Spain due to their proximity to North Africa. Smugglers often take the drug to northern Europe by truck.</p> | Portuguese police seize 2.2 tons of hashish from Morocco | false | https://apnews.com/475c5a92f7b448e18cd652655ff69cec | 2016-07-28 | 2 |
<p>Stocks were slammed on Thursday, with high-flying technology and biotech shares leading the declines that saw the Nasdaq posting its worst session in more than two years.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed unofficially down 266 points or 1.62 percent. The selling was worse, however, in the tech-laden Nasdaq, which had its worst day since November 2011, dropping 129 points or 3.1 percent. The broader S&amp;P 500 slumped just over 2 percent.</p>
<p>"Clearly investors are nervous about high-flying momentum stocks. There is a rethink on whether better earnings and economic data will support a resumption of the momentum that was driving biotechnology and higher-flying technology stocks earlier in the year," said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones.</p>
<p>Momentum tech stocks were the big losers. Facebook fell over 5 percent, while Google, Priceline and Amazon.com all dropped over 4 percent. Biotechnology stocks were bludgeoned too, with Zogenix down almost 9 percent, Pacific Biosciences of California more than 6 percent and ChemoCentryx slumping over 11 percent.</p>
<p>"The market is coming to its senses in some of the high-flying tech names; it looked like there were some pretty hefty amounts being paid for the prospect of eventual earnings. Any of us in the market more than 15 years feels the hot breath on the backs of our necks when we see such high prices being paid for tech stocks," said Jerry Webman, chief economist at Oppenheimer Funds.</p>
<p>The dollar turned lower against the currencies of major U.S. trading partners; the 10-year Treasury yield used in determining mortgage rates and other consumer loans fell 6 basis points to 2.634 percent.</p>
<p>On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for June delivery gained $14.60, or 1.1 percent, to $1,320.50 an ounce, while crude-oilfutures for May delivery fell 20 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $103.40 a barrel.</p>
<p>Investors appeared to ignore positive economic news. The Labor Department earlier reported jobless claims dropped to the lowest level in nearly seven years, with initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropping 32,000 to 300,000 last week, below expectations and the lowest since May 2007.</p> | Stocks Tumble in Tech Share Rout; Nasdaq’s Worst Day in 2 Years | false | http://nbcnews.com/business/markets/stocks-tumble-tech-share-rout-nasdaqs-worst-day-2-years-n77181 | 2014-04-10 | 3 |
<p>President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager said Tuesday he’s not surprised at all that North Korea appears to be backing down from its <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/North-Korea-Kim-Guam-missile/2017/08/15/id/807663/" type="external">threats to attack Guam</a>, considering the president’s tough stand against the Asian country’s growing aggressions.</p>
<p>“What we have seen from previous administrations for 30 years is trying to coddle North Korea, trying to work with them,” Lewandowski told Fox News’ <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/5541583873001/?playlist_id=930909787001#sp=show-clips" type="external">“Fox and Friends”</a> program.&#160;“What this president said was ‘you don’t want to mess with me.'”</p>
<p>Defense Secretary James Mattis was also very clear that if North Korea launched a missile at the United States, it would be a “declaration of war,” said Lewandowski.</p>
<p>“We are the world’s greatest superpower,” said Lewandowski. “The president of the United States was very clear that if North Korea tries to do something against the United States, he will react swiftly and decisively, and it will be complete annihilation.”</p>
<p>Lewandowski on Tuesday also defended Trump’s statements on Charlottesville, after people criticized him for waiting until Monday to specify hate groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis</p>
<p>“The president has been very clear that he is not in this to please the media; he is in it to serve the American people,” said Lewandowski. “The fact that lives were lost down in Charlottesville was a terrible tragedy. There is no place in civilized society for this.”</p>
<p>Trump “condemned this in the very strongest terms humanly possible,” said Lewandowski, but the mainstream media and liberals don’t want to give the president the credit that he deserves..</p>
<p>“The president was very forceful the day that this happened,” said Lewandowski. “He came out and made another statement about this from Washington, D.C. yesterday, and they still don’t want to give him the credit because that’s not the narrative that they want to have on the president.”</p>
<p>And even though Trump added to his statements, “the fake news” won’t give him credit. “If this was anybody else, they would be praising the president for his swift answer on Saturday when it happened and the follow-up yesterday when he went out again and criticized this disgusting, terrible display of anti-semitism that should have never taken place.”</p>
<p>Actions such as what happened in Charlottesville, on either side, should not be considered acceptable, said Lewandosk.</p>
<p>“There is no place in civilized society for any kind of this hatred,” he said. “I think what the president was trying to say was it’s not acceptable on the alt left. It’s not acceptable on the alt right. It’s not acceptable anywhere in a civilized society.”</p>
<p>There were also a number of arrests on Trump’s inauguration day, Lewandowski pointed out.</p>
<p>“I don’t understand why people continue to destroy buildings,” said Lewandowski. “It has nothing to do with overturned cars, lighting things on fire,” said Lewandowski. “When people take matters into their own hands and decide to rip down statues or destroy things, personal property or public property because they think it’s the right thing to do, that’s called vandalism.”</p> | Lewandowski: NKorea Backing Down Because of Trump's Tough Talk | false | https://newsline.com/lewandowski-nkorea-backing-down-because-of-trumps-tough-talk/ | 2017-08-15 | 1 |
<p>“Male, pale and stale” – that was the sentiment among some commentators in print and online&#160;Wednesday&#160;after&#160;the newly announced&#160;BAFTA&#160;nominations exhibited a lack of gender and ethnic diversity in the awards’ most prominent categories. Only two of the 20 actors and actresses nominated for their performances were not white.&#160;The most notable absence, however, was of women in […]</p> | BAFTA Answers Critics Over Lack of Female Director Nominations | false | https://newsline.com/bafta-answers-critics-over-lack-of-female-director-nominations/ | 2018-01-10 | 1 |
<p>West Virginia has two good reasons to feel confident heading into next season.</p>
<p>Announcements by quarterback Will Grier and wide receiver David Sills earlier this month that they will return instead of enter the NFL draft has amped up excitement in Morgantown, West Virginia, about the Mountaineers’ potential to compete for a Big 12 championship.</p>
<p>“Getting those juniors back is important,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “We’ve got some momentum going into 2018.”</p>
<p>That potential might be possible only if the defense has a turnaround. But the offense should be set.</p>
<p>Grier threw for 3,490 yards and 34 touchdowns <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/west-virginia-qb-will-grier-hurts-throwing-hand-vs-texas" type="external">before breaking a finger on his throwing hand</a> Nov. 18 against Texas and missed the rest of the season. He’ll be the top returning quarterback in the pass-happy league with the departures of Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph.</p>
<p>“He came here to win the Big 12 and to be the best that he can be,” Holgorsen said. “I just don’t think we’re there yet. That was kind of my message to him, and he agreed. There’s just unfinished business here.”</p>
<p>With Grier out for most of the final three games, West Virginia lost three straight and finished 7-6, including <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/moss-utah-run-past-west-virginia-30-14-heart-dallas" type="external">a 30-14 loss to Utah</a> in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“I feel like we have a lot to prove next year,” Sills said. “The Big 12 was really good this year.”</p>
<p>West Virginia’s offensive line will return mostly intact and Sills will be back to anchor a solid receiving corps.</p>
<p>Sills led the nation during the regular season with 18 touchdown catches while Gary Jennings finished with a team-high 97 catches for 1,096 yards. West Virginia also has speedster and return man Marcus Simms and adds transfer wide receiver T.J. Simmons from Alabama.</p>
<p>West Virginia must replace two-time 1,000-yard rusher Justin Crawford but have experience at running back in Kennedy McKoy and Martell Pettaway.</p>
<p>Now, about that defense. The Mountaineers were eighth in the Big 12 in total defense and gave up points in bunches at times, including <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/mayfield-leads-no-3-oklahoma-past-west-virginia-59-31" type="external">59 to Oklahoma</a> and 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter of <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-23-west-virginia-survives-baylor-38-36" type="external">a close victory over one-win Baylor</a> . Their 31.5 points allowed per game was their highest total since 2013.</p>
<p>The Mountaineers return most of the starters on a unit that was picked apart by injuries. The clear leader will be linebacker David Long, who had 16 tackles for loss, including a school-record seven against Oklahoma State.</p>
<p>With Grier, the offense scored at least 20 points in a quarter nine times, equaling the output from the previous four years combined. But it <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-24-wvu-has-gone-scoreless-second-half-last-2-games" type="external">also had puzzling droughts at other times</a> and issues with dropped passes and turnovers.</p>
<p>The schedule could be in West Virginia’s favor in 2018. In even numbered years the Mountaineers play five league games at home, as opposed to four in odd-numbered years. The most intriguing game might be the opener Sept. 1 against Tennessee and new coach Jeremy Pruitt in Charlotte, North Carolina, just south of Grier’s hometown of Davidson.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>West Virginia has two good reasons to feel confident heading into next season.</p>
<p>Announcements by quarterback Will Grier and wide receiver David Sills earlier this month that they will return instead of enter the NFL draft has amped up excitement in Morgantown, West Virginia, about the Mountaineers’ potential to compete for a Big 12 championship.</p>
<p>“Getting those juniors back is important,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “We’ve got some momentum going into 2018.”</p>
<p>That potential might be possible only if the defense has a turnaround. But the offense should be set.</p>
<p>Grier threw for 3,490 yards and 34 touchdowns <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/west-virginia-qb-will-grier-hurts-throwing-hand-vs-texas" type="external">before breaking a finger on his throwing hand</a> Nov. 18 against Texas and missed the rest of the season. He’ll be the top returning quarterback in the pass-happy league with the departures of Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph.</p>
<p>“He came here to win the Big 12 and to be the best that he can be,” Holgorsen said. “I just don’t think we’re there yet. That was kind of my message to him, and he agreed. There’s just unfinished business here.”</p>
<p>With Grier out for most of the final three games, West Virginia lost three straight and finished 7-6, including <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/moss-utah-run-past-west-virginia-30-14-heart-dallas" type="external">a 30-14 loss to Utah</a> in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“I feel like we have a lot to prove next year,” Sills said. “The Big 12 was really good this year.”</p>
<p>West Virginia’s offensive line will return mostly intact and Sills will be back to anchor a solid receiving corps.</p>
<p>Sills led the nation during the regular season with 18 touchdown catches while Gary Jennings finished with a team-high 97 catches for 1,096 yards. West Virginia also has speedster and return man Marcus Simms and adds transfer wide receiver T.J. Simmons from Alabama.</p>
<p>West Virginia must replace two-time 1,000-yard rusher Justin Crawford but have experience at running back in Kennedy McKoy and Martell Pettaway.</p>
<p>Now, about that defense. The Mountaineers were eighth in the Big 12 in total defense and gave up points in bunches at times, including <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/mayfield-leads-no-3-oklahoma-past-west-virginia-59-31" type="external">59 to Oklahoma</a> and 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter of <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-23-west-virginia-survives-baylor-38-36" type="external">a close victory over one-win Baylor</a> . Their 31.5 points allowed per game was their highest total since 2013.</p>
<p>The Mountaineers return most of the starters on a unit that was picked apart by injuries. The clear leader will be linebacker David Long, who had 16 tackles for loss, including a school-record seven against Oklahoma State.</p>
<p>With Grier, the offense scored at least 20 points in a quarter nine times, equaling the output from the previous four years combined. But it <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-24-wvu-has-gone-scoreless-second-half-last-2-games" type="external">also had puzzling droughts at other times</a> and issues with dropped passes and turnovers.</p>
<p>The schedule could be in West Virginia’s favor in 2018. In even numbered years the Mountaineers play five league games at home, as opposed to four in odd-numbered years. The most intriguing game might be the opener Sept. 1 against Tennessee and new coach Jeremy Pruitt in Charlotte, North Carolina, just south of Grier’s hometown of Davidson.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | With Grier, Sills returning, West Virginia pumped for 2018 | false | https://apnews.com/dfd98847bacb4e82a8d333991c101b02 | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
<p>CHICAGO (AP) — Kris Bryant put up another big number on Friday.</p>
<p>Bryant agreed to a $10.85 million, one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs, a record for a player eligible for arbitration for the first time.</p>
<p>"I guess for some players it might be stressful, but I really enjoyed the whole process of it," Bryant said before the start of the team's annual fan convention. "You play to get to this point in your career, and I've put in so much hard work behind the scenes to get to this point. It just feels so rewarding."</p>
<p>The previous mark was held by former Philadelphia slugger Ryan Howard, who was awarded $10 million by a three-person panel in 2008. The Cubs and Bryant avoided arbitration, and the 26-year-old third baseman receives a hefty raise after making $1.05 million last year.</p>
<p>"I don't look at money records," Bryant said. "I guess the records on the field are way more important, because when you're doing that, you know, you're helping the team. But it really is a cherry on top when you get paid millions of dollars to do something that you've loved since you were 4 years old."</p>
<p>The Cubs also reached one-year deals with right-hander Kyle Hendricks ($4,175,000), shortstop Addison Russell ($3.2 million) reliever Justin Wilson ($4.25 million) and infielder Tommy La Stella ($950,000). The team exchanged figures with reliever Justin Grimm, but president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said he hopes to strike a deal before an arbitration hearing.</p>
<p>Bryant was selected by Chicago with the No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft, a key moment in the Cubs' ascension from perennial loser to annual championship contender. He hit .292 with 39 homers and 102 RBIs in 2016, winning the NL MVP award and helping Chicago win the World Series for the first time since 1908.</p>
<p>The 2015 NL Rookie of the Year batted .295 with 29 home runs and 73 RBIs last year.</p>
<p>"I'm happy for K.B. I thought he got a fair and record award," Epstein said, "which just shows a lot of the special things he's been able to accomplish and the special teams he's been on as well."</p>
<p>Epstein said there were no substantive discussions this winter on a long-term deal for Bryant, who is represented by Scott Boras.</p>
<p>"I'll hear anything that they have to offer," Bryant said. "I'd be a fool not to."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Jay Cohen can be reached at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP baseball: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</a></p>
<p>CHICAGO (AP) — Kris Bryant put up another big number on Friday.</p>
<p>Bryant agreed to a $10.85 million, one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs, a record for a player eligible for arbitration for the first time.</p>
<p>"I guess for some players it might be stressful, but I really enjoyed the whole process of it," Bryant said before the start of the team's annual fan convention. "You play to get to this point in your career, and I've put in so much hard work behind the scenes to get to this point. It just feels so rewarding."</p>
<p>The previous mark was held by former Philadelphia slugger Ryan Howard, who was awarded $10 million by a three-person panel in 2008. The Cubs and Bryant avoided arbitration, and the 26-year-old third baseman receives a hefty raise after making $1.05 million last year.</p>
<p>"I don't look at money records," Bryant said. "I guess the records on the field are way more important, because when you're doing that, you know, you're helping the team. But it really is a cherry on top when you get paid millions of dollars to do something that you've loved since you were 4 years old."</p>
<p>The Cubs also reached one-year deals with right-hander Kyle Hendricks ($4,175,000), shortstop Addison Russell ($3.2 million) reliever Justin Wilson ($4.25 million) and infielder Tommy La Stella ($950,000). The team exchanged figures with reliever Justin Grimm, but president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said he hopes to strike a deal before an arbitration hearing.</p>
<p>Bryant was selected by Chicago with the No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft, a key moment in the Cubs' ascension from perennial loser to annual championship contender. He hit .292 with 39 homers and 102 RBIs in 2016, winning the NL MVP award and helping Chicago win the World Series for the first time since 1908.</p>
<p>The 2015 NL Rookie of the Year batted .295 with 29 home runs and 73 RBIs last year.</p>
<p>"I'm happy for K.B. I thought he got a fair and record award," Epstein said, "which just shows a lot of the special things he's been able to accomplish and the special teams he's been on as well."</p>
<p>Epstein said there were no substantive discussions this winter on a long-term deal for Bryant, who is represented by Scott Boras.</p>
<p>"I'll hear anything that they have to offer," Bryant said. "I'd be a fool not to."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Jay Cohen can be reached at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP baseball: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</a></p> | Bryant gets $10.85M, record for 1st arbitration eligible | false | https://apnews.com/amp/401064c668bc4df3b14977f61f17dd1e | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is scheduled to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes Thursday. The software giant's shares closed Wednesday at $73.86, an all-time high. Here's what to expect.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>EARNINGS FORECAST: Analysts surveyed by S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence expect Microsoft to report adjusted per-share earnings of 71 cents, up from 69 cents a year earlier. Adjusted results exclude items such as deferred revenue and restructuring charges. A year ago, the company reported net of 39 cents a share.</p>
<p>REVENUE FORECAST: Analysts expect Microsoft to post adjusted revenue of $24.29 billion, up from $22.64 billion a year earlier. The adjusted number reflects Windows 10 revenue deferrals.</p>
<p>WHAT TO WATCH:</p>
<p>-- CLOUDY CONDITIONS: Microsoft continues to ramp up its business of selling web-based, on-demand computing processing and storage. Stifel Nicolaus &amp; Co. analyst Brad Reback estimated in a recent research note that Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing business grew about 87% in the quarter to $1.1 billion, continuing "to close the gap" with market pioneer and leader Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). In the fiscal third quarter, Azure revenue grew 93%. He credited Microsoft's "maturing product offering" as well as its ability to sell hybrid offerings that combine cloud services with software that runs in customers' own data centers. Microsoft's commercial-cloud run-rate -- the last month of sales of its Azure and Office 365 products, multiplied by 12 -- should hit $18 billion, up 49% year-over-year, Mr. Reback estimated.</p>
<p>-- DATA-CENTER SPENDING: To handle its growing cloud business, Microsoft needs to build costly data centers around the globe. The company, along with Amazon and Alphabet Inc.'s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), spent a combined $31.54 billion in 2016 in capital expenditures and capital leases, up 22% from 2015, according to company filings. That rate of spending is likely to continue as Microsoft works to keep pace with its rivals, in turn making it more costly for would-be competitors to catch up. Mr. Reback estimated Microsoft will post $3 billion in capital expenses in the quarter, bringing the company's fiscal year total to $8.9 billion. He expects the annual number to climb to $11.4 billion in the current fiscal year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>-- SURFACING SALES: Three months ago, the biggest blemish on Microsoft's results was a 26% decline in revenue from the company's Surface line of computers. At the time, Microsoft attributed the slide to older Surface computers in the market, as well as increased price competition. Since then, Microsoft has rolled out a new Surface laptop for the education market, and an update to its Surface Pro tablet-laptop hybrid device. Those products, though, became available toward the end of the quarter and aren't likely to have factored much into the company's top line.</p>
<p>-- SHRINKING WINDOWS: Sales of personal computers, the vast majority of which run Microsoft's Windows operating system, continue to decline. Last week, International Data Corp. reported world-wide PC shipments fell 3.3% in the second quarter, while Gartner Inc. estimated the drop at 4.3%. Since More Personal Computing, comprised largely of Windows revenue, remains Microsoft's largest segment, PC declines continue to dog the company's results. Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss estimated in a research report that revenue for the segment slid 4.3% to $8.52 billion, as sales of Windows to computer makers fell 2% to $2.67 billion.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 20, 2017 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)</p> | Microsoft earnings: What to watch | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/20/microsoft-earnings-what-to-watch.html | 2017-07-20 | 0 |
<p>JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — One man is in custody in connection with a fatal shooting in Joplin, and police continue searching for a second suspect.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/one-arrested-in-weekend-shooting-another-still-sought/article_f8f88744-ebf7-5ed7-923a-246d81b98a62.html" type="external">The Joplin Globe</a> reports that 27-year-old Moses Ramsey was arrested Tuesday. He is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in a shooting on Sunday that killed 47-year-old Sean Harris.</p>
<p>Harris was found shot at an apartment complex and died at a hospital.</p>
<p>Another man arrived at a hospital around the same time in a private vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound. His injuries aren't life-threatening.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Kimberly Fisher says Ramsey is accused of encouraging 47-year-old Artilius Jordan to shoot Harris because they believed Harris was having a relationship with Jordan's girlfriend.</p>
<p>Jordan is at large but is charged with first-degree murder and other counts.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external">http://www.joplinglobe.com</a></p>
<p>JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — One man is in custody in connection with a fatal shooting in Joplin, and police continue searching for a second suspect.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/one-arrested-in-weekend-shooting-another-still-sought/article_f8f88744-ebf7-5ed7-923a-246d81b98a62.html" type="external">The Joplin Globe</a> reports that 27-year-old Moses Ramsey was arrested Tuesday. He is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in a shooting on Sunday that killed 47-year-old Sean Harris.</p>
<p>Harris was found shot at an apartment complex and died at a hospital.</p>
<p>Another man arrived at a hospital around the same time in a private vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound. His injuries aren't life-threatening.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Kimberly Fisher says Ramsey is accused of encouraging 47-year-old Artilius Jordan to shoot Harris because they believed Harris was having a relationship with Jordan's girlfriend.</p>
<p>Jordan is at large but is charged with first-degree murder and other counts.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external">http://www.joplinglobe.com</a></p> | 1 suspect in custody, 1 still sought in Joplin killing | false | https://apnews.com/amp/b4557e3bdfe94796925f089a36eb9bd6 | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 4" game were:</p>
<p>6-0-2-2</p>
<p>(six, zero, two, two)</p>
<p>¶ Ticket-holders with all four winning numbers in the order given win the top prize. Lesser amounts are also awarded to ticket-holders with other varying combinations of the winning numbers.</p>
<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 4" game were:</p>
<p>6-0-2-2</p>
<p>(six, zero, two, two)</p>
<p>¶ Ticket-holders with all four winning numbers in the order given win the top prize. Lesser amounts are also awarded to ticket-holders with other varying combinations of the winning numbers.</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Daily 4' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/2e5996739b4d44e19d89eca1b67a0cb4 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>TURIN, Italy (AP) — Juventus closed the gap on Serie A leader Napoli back to just one point as the six-time defending champion eased past Genoa 1-0 on Monday.</p>
<p>Douglas Costa scored in the 16th minute, the first conceded by Genoa in five league matches. It was a less than convincing performance from Juventus but it was never really troubled, as goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny — standing in for the still-injured Gianluigi Buffon — was little more than a spectator.</p>
<p>"What was important was to win," Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. "At the end there was a bit of nervousness because we were lacking in energy a bit.</p>
<p>"We could have finished off the match in the first half, and again with a couple of occasions after the break. We didn't manage to so compliments to Genoa."</p>
<p>The battle for the Serie A title is shaping into a two-horse race. Juventus moved 10 points clear of third-placed Lazio, although the capital side has a match in hand.</p>
<p>"The season is still long and all those who are behind us can still get back into the race," Allegri said. "It was important to stay in Napoli's slipstream."</p>
<p>Juventus needed to win after Napoli beat Atalanta 1-0 on Sunday.</p>
<p>Allegri's side started brightly and had an early chance to take the lead but Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin did well to keep out a free kick from specialist Miralem Panic.</p>
<p>However, it did not take much longer to strike. Douglas Costa passed out left to Mario Mandzukic, who played a delightful return ball for the Brazil midfielder to slot into the bottom left corner.</p>
<p>TURIN, Italy (AP) — Juventus closed the gap on Serie A leader Napoli back to just one point as the six-time defending champion eased past Genoa 1-0 on Monday.</p>
<p>Douglas Costa scored in the 16th minute, the first conceded by Genoa in five league matches. It was a less than convincing performance from Juventus but it was never really troubled, as goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny — standing in for the still-injured Gianluigi Buffon — was little more than a spectator.</p>
<p>"What was important was to win," Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. "At the end there was a bit of nervousness because we were lacking in energy a bit.</p>
<p>"We could have finished off the match in the first half, and again with a couple of occasions after the break. We didn't manage to so compliments to Genoa."</p>
<p>The battle for the Serie A title is shaping into a two-horse race. Juventus moved 10 points clear of third-placed Lazio, although the capital side has a match in hand.</p>
<p>"The season is still long and all those who are behind us can still get back into the race," Allegri said. "It was important to stay in Napoli's slipstream."</p>
<p>Juventus needed to win after Napoli beat Atalanta 1-0 on Sunday.</p>
<p>Allegri's side started brightly and had an early chance to take the lead but Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin did well to keep out a free kick from specialist Miralem Panic.</p>
<p>However, it did not take much longer to strike. Douglas Costa passed out left to Mario Mandzukic, who played a delightful return ball for the Brazil midfielder to slot into the bottom left corner.</p> | Juventus beats Genoa 1-0 to trail Napoli by 1 point | false | https://apnews.com/amp/30339852944d4a6a86a1cd98e2a8d24b | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Palestinian elections will take place on 9 January. EU monitors observing the election process have seen Israel’s wall, that in the words of John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, “constitutes de facto annexation of Palestinian territory by forcible means.” Six months ago on 9 July, the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the UN, held that Israel’s wall, and its associated régime of permits and closed military zones, are contrary to international law.</p>
<p>Whilst journalists have rightly picked up on this point, many have overlooked paragraph 159, which sets out in clear and unequivocal terms the legal obligations of the international community. These include the duties of non-recognition, non-assistance, preventing the wall from impeding the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and ensuring Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law. Whilst sceptics have pointed out that an advisory opinion is not binding per se, the legal obligations stipulated in that paragraph are.</p>
<p>The EU, as an international organisation made up of its constituent states, has a responsibility, in the same way as states do, to abide by the ICJ’s opinion. The EU is set up by treaties which are governed by international law. The European Court of Justice has held that customary international law is binding upon the EU. At least two of the obligations set out in the ICJ’s opinion are of a customary character. All 25 members of the EU voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution which demanded that Israel comply with its legal obligations as identified in the advisory opinion.</p>
<p>The wall–which consists of a series of concrete blocks, fences, ditches, patrol roads and watchtowers–is designed to buttress existing settlements perched on hilltops surrounding occupied East Jerusalem, and to support those settlements strategically built over Palestinian water reserves. Its construction is incompatible with the creation of an independent, sovereign, viable Palestinian state as envisaged in the Road Map and the European Council’s Seville Declaration. The ICJ held that Israel must cease building the wall, dismantle what has been built in occupied territory, repeal all legislation enabling its construction, and compensate Palestinians. Israel is still building the wall in clear violation of international law.</p>
<p>The EU cannot bring to an end Israel’s violations or ensure its compliance with humanitarian law simply by issuing statements, declarations and démarches. In support of the peace process, the EU could bring pressure to bear by withdrawing preferential trade from Israel until it abides by its obligations under international law. Under the EU-Israel association agreement, access to the common market is conditional upon “respect for human rights”, which forms an “essential element” of the agreement. Israel does not satisfy the human rights requirement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This was confirmed in three separate UN reports by Catherine Bertini, John Dugard and Jean Ziegler, who found that Israel was in breach of its international humanitarian and human rights obligations.</p>
<p>In light of the advisory opinion, the very legality of this agreement is questionable. This is especially so since the ICJ, from which there is no appeal, held that the construction of the wall “constitutes breaches by Israel of several of its obligations under the applicable international humanitarian and human rights instruments.” It is difficult to see why Israeli products should be exempt from EU customs and excise duty when it is in material breach of this agreement. Israel should not be benefiting from the unlawful policies and practices it adopts towards the Occupied Palestinian Territories. At the very minimum, the EU should censure Israel by withdrawing its privileged trading status.</p>
<p>In May, during “Operation Rainbow” the UN Special Rapporteur, John Dugard, called for an arms embargo to be imposed against Israel modelled along the lines of the 1977 embargo imposed on apartheid South Africa. His call went unheeded. Dugard, a South African, does not believe there is a possibility of sanctions being imposed against Israel since it can always rely on the United States to veto such an attempt. It is quite clear that US support for Israel has emasculated the Security Council and has rendered it powerless to bring peace to the Middle East.</p>
<p>The EU must step into the breach. If need be it can act unilaterally. On 22 April 1980, during the hostage crisis in the American Embassy in Tehran, the EU imposed sanctions against Iran for violating the laws of diplomatic immunity. The EU acted after the Soviet Union vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council that sought to impose sanctions on Iran. It justified its act by saying “the situation created a concern for the whole international community.” If the EU could then act without express authorisation from the Security Council, it could surely do so today. The EU need not be concerned about US vetoes. The US may have a seat in the Security Council, but it does not have a seat in the European Council.</p>
<p>As Vaughan Lowe, Professor of International Law at Oxford University, noted before the ICJ: “The wall is not simply a present hardship, but marks the boundary of the miserable patch of land into which Israel intends to force the Palestinian people, in a grotesque caricature of the two-State vision that is as far from justice as it is from legality.” The Court agreed with this sentiment by a 14 to 1 majority, as did the UN General Assembly by a 150 to 6 majority. The EU, however, is trying to develop a stronger relationship with Israel through the European Neighbourhood Policy because it believes this will “enhance its ability to influence” that country. The EU has not had much success so far. It should think again.</p>
<p>VICTOR KATTAN is a Director of Arab Media Watch. This article is based on a presentation he gave at Leiden University organised by the Europa Institute. The article will appear in Volume 13 of the Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2002–2004). He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The EU and Middle East Peace | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/01/08/the-eu-and-middle-east-peace/ | 2005-01-08 | 4 |
<p>After several quarters of steady deal-making, The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO)&#160;can see the finish line in its goal of selling nearly all of its bottling operations to bottling partners.</p>
<p>The company currently has every remaining U.S. bottling territory either under sale agreement or letter of intent to be sold.&#160;In the meantime, Coca-Cola continues to complete refranchising transactions with joint-venture partners and independent bottlers everywhere from China to the African continent.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Related changes to the company's profit and loss statement are gradually working their way through with each passing quarter. Let's look at some early quantitative and qualitative effects of Coke's big strategy shift.</p>
<p>In the second quarter of 2017, Coca-Cola's <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/operating-margin.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bdd16322-88e7-11e7-b480-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">operating margin Opens a New Window.</a>, adjusted for refranchising asset impairment and restructuring charges, increased by 375 basis points, or nearly four percentage points, over the first quarter of 2016.&#160;According to CFO Kathy Waller, the improvement in operating margin is due mostly to the exit from lower-margin bottling operations.</p>
<p>One of the areas where margin relief is most visible is Coca-Cola's depreciation expense account. Through the first six months of this year, the company has booked $629 million of depreciation, versus $903 million within the same period last year -- a 30% reduction.</p>
<p>As Coca-Cola sells off its bottling businesses, depreciation for equipment-intensive manufacturing facilities disappears from its books. One could rightly point out that depreciation is a non-cash expense. But it's a real expense in that it <a href="https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/how-to-calculate-capital-expenditure-depreciation.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bdd16322-88e7-11e7-b480-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">traces the diminishment of the useful life of physical assets Opens a New Window.</a>. Equipment must be repaired and eventually replaced. The declining depreciation on Coca-Cola's ledger will ultimately translate into a greater retention of cash that's generated from operations.</p>
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<p>This phenomenon is one of the primary benefits of moving to a "capital light" model, in which Coca-Cola becomes more of a brand innovator and marketer than a manufacturer with heavy annual capital expenditures.</p>
<p>Higher operating margin, along with easier control of working capital as manufacturing payables and receivables diminish, means that Coca-Cola should be able to generate higher cash flow from its revenue. It should also show an improved correlation between cash flow and profit.</p>
<p>While the company still has several quarters remaining until all bottling operations are divested, its financial statements show evidence that the cash cycle is already getting optimized:</p>
<p>So far this year, Coca-Cola is generating approximately the same percentage of cash flow from its revenue totals as in 2016. But the proportion of operating cash flow to net income is impressive and bodes well for the organization's ability to be both more profitable and more cash generative, despite projected revenue declines from bottling divestitures.</p>
<p>Even if we add back $500 million in 2017 refranchising impairment charges in excess of prior-year impairments, the ratio of OCF to net income still stands at 113%, versus 2016's ratio of 78%. As I've cautioned, it's early yet, but the tea leaves indicate promise ahead.</p>
<p>Coca-Cola isn't abandoning manufacturing altogether: It's keeping its concentrates business, which supplies syrups to the ubiquitous Coke fountains we see in restaurants, convenience stores, and innumerable other concessions venues. But leaving bottled production to capable partners allows management more room to focus on portfolio extension.</p>
<p>Moreover, I believe that the narrowed focus also helps the executive team to inject higher risk-taking into Coca-Cola's formerly cautious culture. Indeed, as CEO James Quincey remarked on the company's July earnings call in regard to portfolio beverage experimentation:</p>
<p>In sum, Coca-Cola is moving from a manufacturing mindset to an innovation mindset. The bottles in the preceding picture provide a good example. Coca-Cola Plus is a beverage variant launched in Japan this year that includes the ingredient "indigestible dextrin," a type of starch, used to minimize fat absorption. According to Coca-Cola, Plus is the company's first drink ever to receive the coveted Foods for Specified Health Uses label from the Japanese government.</p>
<p>While I'm not sure I want to try it next time I visit Japan, Plus is nonetheless an offering meant to appeal to an increasingly health-conscious Japanese beverage consumer. And it's typical of the sometimes-quirky experiments and risks investors can expect to see more of from Coca-Cola in the coming years, as it leaves the cares of bottling behind. &#160;</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Coca-ColaWhen 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-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ae8b3a0f-80af-4311-96c2-ee46452da5a0&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bdd16322-88e7-11e7-b480-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Coca-Cola 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-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ae8b3a0f-80af-4311-96c2-ee46452da5a0&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bdd16322-88e7-11e7-b480-0050569d4be0&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 August 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFfinosus/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bdd16322-88e7-11e7-b480-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Asit Sharma Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the 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;uuid=bdd16322-88e7-11e7-b480-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Coca-Cola's Refranchising Effort Shows Early Signs of Success | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/24/coca-colas-refranchising-effort-shows-early-signs-success.html | 2017-08-24 | 0 |
<p>There are several types of stocks that tend to outperform the market during crashes and corrections. One big category is long-established dividend-growth stocks, particularly those that have raised their dividend every year for a long time period. Companies like AT&amp;T, Procter &amp; Gamble, and Johnson &amp; Johnson immediately come to mind. These stocks have increased their dividends by 32, 60, and 54 consecutive years, respectively, and all three handily beat the S&amp;P 500 in 2008, the last time the market crashed.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In addition, consider companies that sell non-discretionary items at the cheapest prices. Dollar stores, such as Dollar Tree, are an excellent example of this, as they sell products that people need (as opposed to things they want) at lower prices than their competitors. Many businesses like this actually do better in tough economies, as they benefit from consumers who become more value-conscious. In fact, while the S&amp;P 500 lost nearly 38% in 2008, Dollar Tree actually gained 65% for the year.</p>
<p>As many successful investors know, it's more important to outperform during the tough times than it is to capture the market's performance in years when everything is going up. And while there's no way to accurately predict when the next market correction or crash will come, stocks like these can help you get through it in good shape.</p>
<p>Offer from The Motley Fool: The 10 best stocks to buy nowMotley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. In fact, the newsletter they run,Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the S&amp;P 500!*</p>
<p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/mms/mark/sa-bbn-usat?aid=8867&amp;source=isausttxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6830&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here to get access to the full list! Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of 3/24/2017.</p>
<p>Offer from The Motley Fool: The 10 best stocks to buy nowMotley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. In fact, the newsletter they run, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the S&amp;P 500!*</p>
<p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/mms/mark/sa-bbn-usat?aid=8867&amp;source=isausttxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6830&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here to get access to the full list! Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of 3/24/2017.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/KWMatt82/info.aspx" type="external">Matthew Frankel Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of AT and T. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Johnson and Johnson. 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> | Ask a Fool: What Are Some Stocks That Could Protect Me From a Market Crash? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/24/ask-fool-what-are-some-stocks-that-could-protect-me-from-market-crash.html | 2017-03-24 | 0 |
<p>Tiny unmanned SeaFox submersibles are being rush delivered to the Persian Gulf to respond to the possibility of Iran mining the Strait of Hormuz, <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/07/submersibles-persian-gulf-to-oppose-iran.html" type="external">the LA Times reported.</a></p>
<p>The subs are around four feet long which come with a camera, sonar, and an explosive charge to detonate mines. In many ways, they're a way to give the United States more leverage in negotiations between Iran and the United Nations Security Council.</p>
<p>The subs are incredible; they can find, identify, and destroy underwater anti-ship mines. They take the hit so that ships don't have to.&#160;</p>
<p>The latest round of sanctions in Iran are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-oil-sanctions-working-2012-7" type="external">having a massive impact on the Iranian economy.</a></p>
<p>The SeaFox subs are in the Gulf in the event that Iran tries an economic counterattack by closing the Strait of Hormuz.&#160; A fifth of the world's oil must pass through the Strait, and multiple <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-considers-closure-of-strait-of-hormuz-after-european-union-sanctions-2012-7" type="external">Iranian leaders have indicated that they could mine</a> it and effectively close it to drive the price of oil up and make the rest of the world bleed.&#160;</p>
<p>Four MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters arrived along with the first of the upcoming fleet of undersea drones, and four mine sweeping ships.</p>
<p>The SeaFox costs $100,000 and moves up to six knots. The thing is, they're one-time use. The charge that detonates the mine also destroys the sub.&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>Despite the new wave of violence in the Middle East and worldwide criticism over Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the US ambassador to the UN has a controversial message: “The sky’s still up there. It hasn’t fallen.”</p>
<p>“When the president made this comment (recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital) on Wednesday, everybody said the sky was going to fall. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the sky’s still up there. It hasn’t fallen,” Nikki Haley <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/c/haley-sky-hasnt-fallen-after-jerusalem-move/vp-BBGuW7a" type="external">told</a> CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ She <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDQYzEd1Dns" type="external">made</a> a similar comment to CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’&#160;</p>
<p>The ambassador’s comments may, from her comfortable UN seat in New York, seem almost factual. However, the situation in the Middle East is far less peaceful and it may seem to some as though the sky has indeed fallen.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412596-arab-league-us-sanctions-jerusalem/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Hundreds have been injured in ‘Day of Rage’ protests across Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza since Trump’s announcement. On Friday alone, two Palestinians were killed and over 1,000 others injured.</p>
<p>Two people were also <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412534-israel-gaza-strikes-rockets/" type="external">killed</a> and dozens wounded in Gaza after Israel launched airstrikes on alleged Hamas targets on Saturday. It came after three rocket attacks were launched at Israeli territory, following a call from Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for a new Palestinian intifada following Trump’s decision.&#160;</p>
<p>The term “intifada” has long been associated with two Palestinian uprisings against Israel. The first occurred from 1987 to 1993, while the second – and more violent – took place in the early 2000s, and lasted around four years. More than 4,000 people, mostly Palestinians, died in the second intifada. A third intifada has been predicted for years, and may soon come to light if people heed the calls of Haniyeh, who says Trump’s decisions amounted to a “declaration of war.”</p>
<p>Trump’s decision has also sparked protests in other areas throughout the Muslim world, with a massive <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412627-us-embassy-beirut-riots-jerusalem/" type="external">rally</a> outside the US diplomatic mission in Lebanon on Sunday, which resulted in protesters breaking down the embassy’s gates and shouting pro-Palestinian slogans. People also took to the streets of Asian capitals to <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412507-muslims-rallies-asia-trump/" type="external">protest</a> against Trump’s decision, particularly in the Muslim-majority countries of Malaysia and Indonesia. Around 3,000 people also gathered in front of the main mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh.&#160;</p>
<p>Protests in Berlin saw Israeli flags being burned. Some 2,500 people came out for the latest <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412674-germany-antisemitism-protests-berlin/" type="external">rally</a> on Sunday, which took place under the slogan “Jerusalem will always be the capital of Palestine.”&#160;A massive rally was also held in Paris on Saturday, with demonstrators turning up with signs that read “Boycott Israel” and “Free Palestine.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412488-trump-israel-jerusalem-palestine/" type="external">READ MORE:&#160;‘US declaration on Jerusalem adds fuel to the fire in destabilized Middle East region’</a></p>
<p>Trump’s decision has also sparked criticism from America’s biggest allies, including the United Kingdom. Speaking during a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said the UK “disagrees” with Trump’s decision. France also said it “regrets” the move made by the White House, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that Berlin “does not support” Trump’s position, since the status of the city “is to be resolved in the framework of a two-state solution.”</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412547-trump-jerusalem-city-discord/" type="external" /></p>
<p>EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also stated that the European Union would continue to recognize the “international consensus” on Jerusalem. “The only realistic solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine is based on two states with Jerusalem as the capital of both,” Mogherini said while standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a news conference in Brussels on Monday.</p>
<p>Even despite the protests, Haley insisted multiple times on Sunday that Trump’s move was “the right thing to do.” She told “Face the Nation’ that “it’s just reality” because Jerusalem is the indisputably the capital of Israel.</p>
<p>Haley also implied during a UN Security Council meeting on Friday that only the United States – not the other 14 nations comprising the council – has credibility when it comes to mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The United States has credibility with both sides. Israel will never be, and should never be, bullied into an agreement by the United Nations, or by any collection of countries that have proven their disregard for Israel’s security,” she <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/412609-haley-palestine-us-exceptionalism/" type="external">said</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>On Friday, she noted that previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements had been signed on the White House lawn. However, Haley likely shouldn’t hold her breath for more sentimental moments to take place on the lawn, particularly after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas canceled an upcoming meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence. In addition, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki stressed that there would be no contact at all between US and Palestinian officials. He said his government was seeking a new mediator, as Washington had surrendered its neutrality with Trump’s declaration.</p>
<p>Pence is also being snubbed by religious leaders, including by Egyptian Coptic Pope Tawadros II. The Coptic Church announced that it had “excused itself from hosting Mike Pence,” citing Trump’s decision, which came at an “unsuitable time” and was made “without the consideration for the feelings of millions of people,” MENA news agency reported.</p> | 'Sky hasn't fallen': Haley downplays Middle East turmoil after Trump's Jerusalem decision | false | https://newsline.com/039sky-hasn039t-fallen039-haley-downplays-middle-east-turmoil-after-trump039s-jerusalem-decision/ | 2017-12-11 | 1 |
<p />
<p>The 21st century so far has been a blur of one disruptive financial event after another. The bursting of the dot-com bubble. 9/11. The real estate collapse. Oil prices nearing $150 a barrel. The financial crisis. The Great Recession. Disappearing saving account rates. A sudden plunge in gold prices. It's no wonder people have so much trouble thinking ahead to the future, when the present is continually challenging.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>However, failing to <a href="http://www.savingsaccounts.com/money/savings-account/short-term-and-long-term-savings.html?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-173437310" type="external">plan for the future Opens a New Window.</a> can eventually bring on a crisis of its own. A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts projects that the typical late-baby-boomer is saving enough to replace just 60 percent of pre-retirement income; the typical generation-Xer is on track to retire on just half of pre-retirement income.</p>
<p>Even with so much demanding your attention in day-to-day life, it is important to keep one eye on the future.</p>
<p>5 ways to keep long-term savings on track</p>
<p>Despite a disruptive and fast-changing environment, here are five ways you can keep your <a href="http://www.savingsaccounts.com/money/savings-account/habits-of-highly-effective-savers.html?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-173437310" type="external">long-term saving Opens a New Window.</a> on track:</p>
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<p>The older you get, the more you realize how closely the present and the future are linked. You can have the most positive impact on that future if you make it part of how you think about the present at all times.</p>
<p>The original article can be found at SavingsAccounts.com: <a href="http://www.savingsaccounts.com/money/savings-account/how-to-keep-long-term-savings-on-track.html?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-173437310" type="external">5 ways to keep long-term savings on track Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 5 Ways to Keep Long-Term Savings on Track | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/18/5-ways-to-keep-long-term-savings-on-track.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>The Trump International Hotel / Getty Images</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Alex Griswold</a> October 12, 2017 4:08 pm</p>
<p>A claim from an unverified Twitter account said the user's friend was handed a flyer after check-in at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which directed recipients to an online petition asking for CNN not to be shown on televisions in federal buildings.</p>
<p>The petition is real enough, hosted on the White House <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/ask-federal-buildings-stop-showing-cnn-public-televisions" type="external">site</a>, launched by President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A friend is required 2 stay @ Trump hotel in DC 4 work. They handed her this @ check in. This is NOT OK <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@CNN</a> check it out <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/1stAmend?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#1stAmend</a> <a href="https://t.co/60rwiCGW9U" type="external">pic.twitter.com/60rwiCGW9U</a></p>
<p>— 6million$woman (@ackrantz11) <a href="https://twitter.com/ackrantz11/status/917926381547335680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 11, 2017</a></p>
<p>"Please issue an order to the agencies and employees who work for you as Chief Executive of the U.S., that they are to shut off this negative force undermining your presidency," asks the petition, which only has 51 signatures.</p>
<p>The woman offered no proof the flyer had been handed out by the hotel, other than an apparent&#160;Facebook post by an anonymous friend.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it recieved thousands of retweets and was shared by several celebrities and media figures.</p>
<p>Even a few Never Trump conservatives shared the tweet while still asking for confirmation.</p>
<p>In a statement, the Trump Hotel told the Washington Free Beacon that the tweet was not true.</p>
<p>"We have no knowledge of this and it is not true," a spokeswoman said simply.</p> | Liberals Spread Unverified Claim That Trump Hotel Handed Out Petition Attacking CNN | true | http://freebeacon.com/politics/liberals-spread-unverified-claim-trump-hotel-handed-petition-attacking-cnn/ | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
<p>Free speech and Islam appear to be sworn enemies. Anybody who dares to draw the Prophet, let alone insults Islam, must face the firing squad. That’s exactly what happened to 21-year-old Sina Dehghan. According to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4363626/Iran-sentences-man-21-DEATH-insulting-Islam.html" type="external">The Daily Mail</a>, Denghan “has been sentenced to death after 'insulting the prophet' of Islam on an instant messaging app. Sina Dehghan was 19 when he was arrested by the Iranian revolutionary guard at a military barracks in Tehran in October 2015 for insulting the national religion on the messaging app LINE.”</p>
<p>Iranian authorities managed to extract a forced confession out of Dehghan, say human rights activists. Authorities promised the young man a pardon if chose to confess his so-called crime. He obliged and the authorities double-crossed him. The confession was taped on-camera and prosecutors have used the footage to incriminate the young man.</p>
<p>“But after signing the confession, prosecutors dropped the agreement and kept Dehghan incarcerated at Arak Prison,” notes The Mail.</p>
<p>Iran also promised Dehghan’s release in exchange for his family’s obedience and quiet during the judicial process, adding another lie to the pile.</p>
<p>It’s unclear what Dehghan actually said on the messaging app that the zealot mullahs of Iran found so offensive. But that’s immaterial. As an Islamic supremacist regime, Iran does not pay deference to the idea of free speech. Islam supersedes all.</p>
<p>Dehghan’s death penalty was confirmed in January and upheld by Tehran’s highest court. Insulting the prophet is punishable by death, according to Iranian Penal Code.</p>
<p>Anyone can fall victim to the Islamophobia thought police. Anyone.</p>
<p>Case in point. Dehghan “was a conscript posted as a guard in military barracks,” explains The Mail. “[He] had just four days left in his military service when he was arrested in 2015."</p>
<p>According to Iran's Islamic Penal Code, insulting the prophet is punishable by death.</p>
<p>Dehghan’s co-defendents, Sahar Eliasi and Mohammad Nouri, were also charged and convicted for similar offenses. Elias was sentenced to seven years in prison, but successfully cut down his punishment to three years after going through an appeals court process. Nouri was less lucky. He was sentenced to death for insulting the prophet. International monitors and human rights groups have yet to receive information about the Supreme Court’s ruling on his fate.</p> | Iran Sentences 21-Year-Old To Death After ‘Insulting Islam’ On Messenger App | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14966/iran-sentences-21-year-old-death-after-insulting-michael-qazvini | 2017-03-30 | 0 |
<p>WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Police in Worcester say a 26-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a close female relative.</p>
<p>Officers responded to a Bailey Street home Saturday night to check the welfare of a female resident. A caller reported the woman may have been harmed by a relative, and that relative had gone to a local Dunkin' Donuts.</p>
<p>Authorities found the 56-year-old woman dead inside the home and the man outside the doughnut shop. Police believe the woman died from direct trauma. An autopsy is planned.</p>
<p>Police say they can't release the names of the woman and man yet because of domestic violence laws.</p>
<p>The man was charged with aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and domestic assault and battery. Police say more charges may be filed.</p>
<p>WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Police in Worcester say a 26-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a close female relative.</p>
<p>Officers responded to a Bailey Street home Saturday night to check the welfare of a female resident. A caller reported the woman may have been harmed by a relative, and that relative had gone to a local Dunkin' Donuts.</p>
<p>Authorities found the 56-year-old woman dead inside the home and the man outside the doughnut shop. Police believe the woman died from direct trauma. An autopsy is planned.</p>
<p>Police say they can't release the names of the woman and man yet because of domestic violence laws.</p>
<p>The man was charged with aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and domestic assault and battery. Police say more charges may be filed.</p> | Man charged in close relative's death in Worcester | false | https://apnews.com/amp/0d4117014d584ccdb46f3ed6d47b635b | 2017-12-31 | 2 |
<p>From taking chartered flights for non-business-related matters to allegedly calling Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) to threaten her if she did support the Republicans’ attempt repeal Obamacare, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s alleged misconduct is under growing scrutiny not only from the press but from with his own agency.</p>
<p>Speaking at a right-wing think tank last Friday, Zinke vowed not to change his travel habits, but his defiance came as the Department of the Interior’s inspector general was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-interior-zinke/u-s-interior-dept-watchdog-launches-probe-into-zinkes-travel-idUSKCN1C72M2" type="external">opening an investigation</a> into his use of taxpayer-funded chartered planes for both official and unofficial trips.&#160;The investigation represents one of at least three ongoing probes into Zinke’s conduct at the Interior Department.</p>
<p>House Democrats <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-interior-zinke/u-s-interior-dept-watchdog-launches-probe-into-zinkes-travel-idUSKCN1C72M2" type="external">asked</a> the Interior Department’s inspector general for the newest investigation after Zinke and his wife took taxpayer-funded charter and military flights. Zinke’s wife, Lolita Zinke, is the chairperson of the campaign of Troy Downing, who is hoping to get the Republican nomination to run against Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), an incumbent who will be seeking reelection in 2018. Downing is a California businessman who lives&#160; <a href="https://themontanapost.com/2017/08/10/lets-talk-about-troy-downing-for-a-moment/" type="external">part-time</a> in Montana.</p>
<p>“Because the secretary’s spouse is leading a senate campaign in Montana, taxpayer funded travel for Mrs. Zinke, especially to or from Montana, deserves heightened scrutiny,”&#160; Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA) wrote in a letter Monday to the inspector general’s office. Grijalva is the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. and McEachin is ranking member on the Committee’s oversight subcommittee.</p>
<p />
<p>Aside from Zinke’s travel practices, the Interior Department’s office of inspector general also is <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060062173" type="external">conducting a probe</a> into his decision to transfer about 50 senior federal employees to new positions inside the department. The inspector general is also investigating reports that Zinke <a href="" type="internal">made phone calls</a> pushing Murkowski, chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to support the Republicans’ effort to repeal Obamacare or risk losing federal support for economic development in Alaska.</p>
<p>“Secretary Zinke’s willingness to deliver these threats speaks volumes about his ethical standards and demonstrates that Interior’s policy positions are up for political grabs, rather than based on science or the public interest,” Grijalva&#160; <a href="http://democrats-naturalresources.house.gov/media/press-releases/grijalva-zinke-threats-against-alaska-over-trumpcare-vote-raise-ethical-questions-threaten-environment" type="external">said in a statement</a>.</p>
<p>In a speech at the Heritage Foundation last week, Zinke <a href="" type="internal">described concerns</a> about his use of chartered planes as “in the words of General Schwarzkopf, a little ‘b.s.’ on travel.” He claimed chartered flights were only used when “no commercial flights existed to meet” his official schedule.</p>
<p>Interior secretary joins club of Trump officials living high on the taxpayer dime.</p>
<p />
<p>Zinke failed to mention that in the instance of at least one of the flights in question, the scheduled event was a speech to a hockey team owned by one of Zinke’s wealthiest campaign donors. At that June event, Zinke met with members of Las Vegas’s new professional hockey team, the Vegas Golden Knights. Instead of taking a commercial flight that left a few hours earlier, Zinke took a private chartered flight to Kalispell, Montana, near his home in Whitefish, Montana, that cost taxpayers $12,375.</p>
<p>In defense of missing the commercial flight, an Interior Department spokesperson told E&amp;E News that department ethics officials determined Zinke’s speech to the hockey team in Las Vegas “was well within the department’s mission” because the hockey team represented a “key audience of people” the Interior Department is “trying to target to use our public lands.”</p>
<p>The inspector general’s office investigation into Zinke’s travel is “at its earliest phases,” Politico reported, quoting a spokesperson with the inspector general’s office.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, other&#160;cabinet members are giving Zinke a run for his money as the most ethically challenged top official in the Trump administration.</p>
<p>EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has <a href="" type="internal">run up</a> nearly a million dollars in controversial spending since taking office, maintaining a massive <a href="" type="internal">personal security detail</a>, an <a href="" type="internal">unnecessary soundproof phone booth</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/09/27/epas-pruitt-took-charter-military-flights-that-cost-taxpayers-more-than-58000/?utm_term=.38c1d3876a4e" type="external">nearly $58,000 worth of private chartered and military flights</a>.</p>
<p>Pruitt's travel and security detail are also under scrutiny, as EPA faces massive cutbacks across its budget.</p>
<p />
<p>The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/us/politics/epa-scott-pruitt-calendar-industries-coal-oil-environmentalists.html?_r=0" type="external">reported</a> Tuesday that Pruitt meets regularly with company officials in industries that the EPA oversees.&#160;Since taking office in February, Pruitt has “held back-to-back meetings, briefing sessions and speaking engagements almost daily with top corporate executives and lobbyists from all the major economic sectors that he regulates — and almost no meetings with environmental groups or consumer or public health advocates,” the newspaper wrote.</p>
<p>Using private jets has already cost one cabinet secretary his job: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned last week after Politico <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/21/tom-price-private-charter-plane-flights-242989" type="external">reported</a> that he took chartered flights, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.</p>
<p>“Forcing Tom Price from office does not come close to answering questions in the Trump administration about the abuse of taxpayer funds when Ryan Zinke and Scott Pruitt are unrepentantly wasting hundreds of thousands on their own luxurious travel and sticking hardworking Americans with the bill. They deserve Price’s fate and should be removed from office immediately,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2017/09/pruitt-and-zinke-deserve-prices-fate" type="external">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Interior Department launches third investigation into Sec. Zinke’s alleged misconduct | true | https://thinkprogress.org/investigations-into-ryan-zinke-73c568782682/ | 2017-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>SANTA FE (AP) — New Mexico has a new website where people can see information related to registered sex offenders and get real-time email notifications if an offender moves their neighborhood.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez unveiled the website on Thursday. She says it’s the first time that the information is available to parents and the community in a single source that’s consistent throughout New Mexico.</p>
<p>New sex offender registration requirements will go into effect Monday. The changes will tighten registration requirements and close a loophole for out-of-state sex offenders.</p>
<p>Previously, some sex offenders registered in another state did not have to register upon moving to New Mexico.</p>
<p>The changes also require sex offenders to register any names, email addresses and other monikers used on social networking sites.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | NM tightens sex offender registration laws | false | https://abqjournal.com/215689/nm-tightens-sex-offender-registration-laws.html | 2013-06-28 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Robert W. Rubin, president and CEO of the institute, responded that the use of animals for research is “heavily regulated” by a variety of federal agencies.</p>
<p>“We are diligent about following all regulations to the letter and self-report any incidents to appropriate agencies,” Rubin said Thursday in a written statement.</p>
<p>The nonprofit research institute, located on Kirtland Air Force Base, uses monkeys, dogs, rabbits and other animals to study causes and treatments for respiratory illnesses and studies required for federal approval of new drugs. LRRI has government and private clients ranging from pharmaceutical companies to the Department of Defense.</p>
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<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection report also cited an undated incident in which a primate involved in biosafety level 3 research escaped its primary enclosure and had to be recaptured.</p>
<p>Biosafety level 3 research at LRRI investigates potentially deadly illnesses and toxins transmitted by inhalation, such as avian flu virus, bacillus anthracis and ricin.</p>
<p>“The animal remained contained in the room and was recaptured but illustrates the type of risk posed by not having enough adequately trained personnel to prevent such errors,” a USDA inspector wrote in the July 16 report. The report did not identify the type of primate that escaped.</p>
<p>Inspectors said the incident shows the importance of properly tracking and training personnel involved in animal studies. The report said LRRI’s methods for tracking research staff, particularly those working in biosafety level 3 projects, violates a section of federal law.</p>
<p>In response to questions about specific findings in the report, Rubin said the USDA findings “are not final and are still very much in dispute. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for us to comment on them at this time.”</p>
<p>The report followed a routine inspection in June. The USDA is required to inspect institutions that use species covered by the Animal Welfare Act. The findings could result in fines against LRRI following an appeals process.</p>
<p>In 2011, LRRI was required to pay a $21,750 fine as a result of six violations of the law between 2007 and 2009. Violations included failure to consider alternatives to procedures that caused pain or distress to animals, and failure to ensure qualified employees were performing procedures.</p>
<p>Other incidents cited in the July report involved the deaths of animals at LRRI, including:</p>
<p />
<p /> | Research institute accused of violating Animal Welfare Act | false | https://abqjournal.com/446359/research-institute-accused-of-violations.html | 2 |
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<p>DENVER (AP) _ These Colorado lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Cash 5</p>
<p>04-08-13-15-17</p>
<p>(four, eight, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $20,000</p>
<p>Lotto</p>
<p>08-09-18-23-31-39</p>
<p>(eight, nine, eighteen, twenty-three, thirty-one, thirty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $2.1 million</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>1-4-2</p>
<p>(one, four, two)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>4-7-7</p>
<p>(four, seven, seven)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>12-29-30-33-61, Powerball: 26, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(twelve, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-three, sixty-one; Powerball: twenty-six; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $570 million</p>
<p>DENVER (AP) _ These Colorado lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Cash 5</p>
<p>04-08-13-15-17</p>
<p>(four, eight, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $20,000</p>
<p>Lotto</p>
<p>08-09-18-23-31-39</p>
<p>(eight, nine, eighteen, twenty-three, thirty-one, thirty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $2.1 million</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>1-4-2</p>
<p>(one, four, two)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>4-7-7</p>
<p>(four, seven, seven)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>12-29-30-33-61, Powerball: 26, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(twelve, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-three, sixty-one; Powerball: twenty-six; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $570 million</p> | CO Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/amp/0b86d729b0eb4c88918832cb11529402 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>It's the gift that keeps on giving.</p>
<p>A new viral 'invisible box challenge' video has taken the internet -- and the Circa office -- by storm. The premise of the challenge is pretty simple and entertaining to watch.</p>
<p>The trick involves stepping onto the "box" with one foot and then hopping over it with the other foot.</p>
<p>When done right performers look like they're momentarily walking on air.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5141523/Viral-video-shows-girl-stepping-invisible-box.html" type="external">According to the DailyMail</a>, this challenge has been around for years, but after one football player and one cheerleader performed the trick to perfection, it has resurfaced again on social media.</p>
<p>Check out some of the best videos below.</p>
<p /> | The Circa office tried the 'invisible box' challenge and it wasn't a complete fail | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/12/05/whoa/circa-tried-the-viral-new-invisible-box-challenge | 2017-12-06 | 1 |
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<p>When Nevada tips off against the New Mexico Lobos at 9:15 p.m. tonight on a nationally broadcast game on ESPN2, fans will get to watch Nevada’s Marcus Marshall and Cameron Oliver (combining to average 35.5 points per game) square off against New Mexico’s Tim Williams and Elijah Brown (averaging a combined 35.2 points per game).</p>
<p>Craig Neal is just hoping the Lobos (9-6, 2-1 MWC) don’t get caught up in standing around and watching the show – something that has gotten the best of the team’s role players at times when others dominate the scoring.</p>
<p>“Yeah, there is (a risk of that happening), and we’ve got to get better at that,” Neal said. “I mean, we’re averaging (74.6 points) a game and we’ve got two guys getting, like, 35. In the last game, they got 47 (Williams scored 30, Brown 17).</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Yeah, we’ve got to find a third and fourth scorer and we’ve got to get more production from other guys, but they also have to step up and make some plays and make some shots.”</p>
<p>Neal would like big outings from the “others” on the Lobos roster, who carried the team to victory down the stretch of Sunday’s road win at San Diego State, but suffered a huge blow Friday when an MRI report confirmed junior forward <a href="" type="internal">Xavier Adams suffered a torn ACL</a> in his right knee during Wednesday night’s loss at Utah State.</p>
<p>Adams, a 6-foot-4 guard/forward, didn’t light up any particular statistical category, but was clearly a high-energy, physical presence when needed off the bench.</p>
<p>His absence after eight minutes of play on Wednesday already hit the team hard as the Aggies scored 19 second-chance points off 12 offensive rebounds – something Adams has played a large role in preventing in recent weeks.</p>
<p>The problem for UNM tonight is that Nevada (13-3, 2-1) – in addition to the 6-3 Marshall, a Missouri State transfer who leads the MWC in scoring, and the 6-8 Oliver, who had 26 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots in last year’s MWC Tournament win that ended the Lobos’ season – also has the league’s leading offensive rebounder.</p>
<p>Sophomore forward Jordan Caroline (6-7) averages 3.9 offensive rebounds per game and had a career-high eight in Wednesday’s home win over San Diego State in Reno.</p>
<p>Getting caught up in only focusing on Marshall and Oliver could open up big games for Wolf Pack players like Caroline if the Lobos aren’t careful.</p>
<p>“I just think we have to rebound better as a team,” said Neal. “That’s got to be one of our focuses. … Our guys know they’ve got to rebound better.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Nevada, which ended UNM’s season in the quarterfinal round of last season’s MWC Tournament, was widely considered the favorite to win the MWC after an 11-2 non-conference record.</p>
<p>But the Lobos have reason for optimism. Not only is the Wolf Pack 0-4 all-time in the Pit, but in two regular season games between the teams last season, with much of the same rosters, the Lobos proved to have a matchup advantage.</p>
<p>UNM led by as many as 18 points in a home win on Dec. 30, 2015, and by as many as 20 in a rematch win March 5 in Reno.</p>
<p>“My philosophy is we match up good with everybody if we play like we did at San Diego State,” Neal said. “If we have a chip on our shoulder or we have something to prove … if we feel like our backs are against the wall, we play really, really good.”</p>
<p>LATE NIGHT WITH THE LOBOS: The 9:15 start time is dictated by the ESPN Family of Networks as part of a contract with the MWC. It is the second of four such ESPN 9 p.m. or later starts for UNM this season. There are also three 8 p.m. or later starts on the CBS Sports Network.</p>
<p>“I’m not a big fan of the 9:15 start, but that’s part of it to get on ESPN, so our guys will be ready,” Neal said.</p>
<p>Unlike in MWC football, where ESPN or ESPN2 games came with a $500,000 payday to help cushion the blow of lower attendance, the basketball deal comes with no such luxury. Instead, it’s all about exposure.</p>
<p>“It’s about the TV contract,” Neal said. “We want to take our brand national. And we want to do some things national, the conference does.</p>
<p>“But I don’t know how many people east of the Mississippi other than my family in Indiana is going to be watching an 11:15, 12 o’clock (ET) tip. But we’re excited to play on ESPN, and they’ve been great partners to us over the years. So it’s great to be on national TV.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p> | Nevada-UNM men: Those who stay up could see quite a show | false | https://abqjournal.com/922902/top-two-scoring-duos-square-off-in-the-pit.html | 2017-01-06 | 2 |
<p>In over 20 years as a Fool, Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner has had his share of celebrity encounters.</p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="http://www.fool.com/podcasts/rule-breaker-investing/?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Rule Breaker Investing Opens a New Window.</a>, he reaches back into his mental vault to tell the story of how he met Donald Trump after shorting his then-casino company. It's a tale steeped in Fool history that offers a look into the mind of the man now running for president.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What's patently obvious from the story is that Trump has never lacked in confidence, nor has he ever been humble. Still, while the essence of the man has always been there, this episode shows that sometimes Donald Trump is more complex than he is portrayed by the news media.</p>
<p>A transcript follows the video.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2759&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>{%video%}</p>
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<p>This podcast was recorded on Aug. 3, 2016.</p>
<p>DAVID GARDNER:</p>
<p>And welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing. Thanks for spending a little bit of your summer with us.</p>
<p>This week it's going to be a little bit of storytelling. It's probably one of our 10 greatest stories in Fool history (not that there is such a list), but since I've been all the way through the history (about 23 years and counting), as I think back on some of our great brushes and funny moments, I have to include our one encounter with Donald Trump and what I learned from it.</p>
<p>It's a story that I wrote down at the time. In fact, we had opened up a short position in 1997, shorting Donald Trump's company, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts. The ticker symbol was (DJT). We had opened the short on April 30th of 1997 at about $8.50, and by the late summer of 1999, a couple of years later, it had dropped to below $5 a share. It was an excellent short, especially in light of the stock market's performance, which was raging over those two years. The market rose more than 60% over that same time, so it was a very profitable short.</p>
<p>Now you might be wondering what portfolio I am talking about. Just a little bit of history, here. The very first day The Motley Fool launched online was on America Online, August 4th of 1994. And on that very first day we said: "Here's $50,000 of our own real money. We think average, individual investors like ourselves can beat the market. We want you to be able to watch what we're doing and transparently follow along. You can even mimic our trades. In fact, we're going to tell you, before we make the trade, what we're doing so you can actually front-run us, if you like." And from that day forward, The Motley Fool's been operating with real money and scoring ourselves and portfolios ever since.</p>
<p>So it was that original Fool Portfolio, which got renamed the Rule Breaker Portfolio. I took over full-time management of it a few years into the mid-1990s (1996-1997 or so), and we decided back then we were going to short some companies with our portfolio. I don't do as much today. It's not something I've talked much about on Rule Breaker Investing, the podcast. It's not part of my services today in Rule Breakers or Stock Advisor, and even in Motley Fool Supernova, with real-money portfolios, we don't short.</p>
<p>I have no problems with shorting. I actually think shorting can be a smart thing to do. All you're doing, really, is instead of trying to buy low and sell high, you're trying sell high first and then buy low later. I think it's a perfectly fair thing to do in the markets.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I think some people who do short selling are not the most ethical people, because in a lot of cases, they're trying to make money fast, and so there's a lot of rumor-mongering and questionable timing of anonymous articles. You'll see them on Seeking Alpha and other places where people are trying to move stocks. It's something that I don't really see any of my patient, long-term investor friends or peers in the publishing world ever do.</p>
<p>But overall, I think shorting is just fine. It's part of America, it's part of our markets, and that's what we did back then. We would sometimes short a position. It was never more than 10% or maybe 15% of the portfolio. If I were shorting today, which I don't, I would always keep it to a minor part of my portfolio. But that's what we did back then. We had fun with some companies, and one of them was Trump's company.</p>
<p>So what I wanted to do this week is just share with you the actual written material that came out of our one brush with Donald Trump when his CEO at the time, Nicholas Ribis, called us and invited us up to meet Trump and talk about the short in his office. I'm going to give you the original reading. It's verbatim. You can even Google this article and read along with me, if you like. I think if you type in the phrase "I Own the Water," maybe even without quotes around it, we might pop up first on Google. No. 1 in the search results for this article, "I Own the Water": The Motley Fool's Brush with Donald J. Trump.</p>
<p>So there we were, standing in the spaciousness of the gilded and marbled lobby of Trump Tower, pressing the UP button.</p>
<p>The voicemail had come in a few weeks before.</p>
<p>"David, this is Nicholas Ribis, CEO of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts. Give me a call at your convenience." Nasal voice, no-nonsense but friendly, New Jersey accent. Short and to the point.</p>
<p>But what was the point?</p>
<p>My first reaction was one of amusement, amusement tinged with a faint anxiety. What was this about? We have never had any dealings with any of the companies we have shorted in the Rule Breaker portfolio, and if you know Wall Street, you know that companies by and large hugely dislike any entity that is short their stock. Further, the Rule-Breaking act of shorting the stock of Donald Trump's public company, a profitable move of a few years' duration, couldn't have made us popular with one of America's better-known tycoons.</p>
<p>My Foolish mates and I settled on an 80% likelihood that they wanted to have us up and discuss their company, and a 20% likelihood that all manner of other things (some quite unpleasant) might be in store.</p>
<p>Always one aiming to live life to its fullest, I called Mr. Ribis back right away. He was an avuncular chap, and quickly warmed to the subject.</p>
<p>"David, thanks for the call. I think you know me! Listen, I'd like an opportunity to have you up and tell you our story. We're very excited about our prospects and we want to share those with you.</p>
<p>"You're a smart boy. And I know you have not been a fan of the company. But hey, who knows? You might even like me! So I could come down there or if you'd like to come up here, we'd love to have you. And Donald would like to meet you."</p>
<p>Recognizing one of those unique opportunities that life sometimes tosses a Fool's way, I made my flight plans shortly thereafter. That was about a month ago, August 3rd. What follows is what happened.</p>
<p>First off, I invited three others to go along. Jeff Fischer, my fellow Rule Breaker Portfolio manager, was a shoo-in. I also wanted to invite Dale Wettlaufer, longtime writer and analyst for the Fool, present manager of the Boring Portfolio, and an expert at untangling financial statements. And our fourth was a wildcard, a talented young woman who was one of 40 interns we had here at Fool HQ this summer and someone who did some superb support work for us here in RuleBreakerville.</p>
<p>I didn't know at the time that not only had she never been to New York City, but she had never even flown on an airplane. So August 3rd should remain a story for years to come for this college student, because not only did she fly on an airplane, and not only did she visit New York City, but her exclusive stop was none other than the private offices of Donald J. Trump.</p>
<p>Now that's Foolish.</p>
<p>On the flight up, I mused. Splitting open the proverbial foil bag of peanuts, I confessed to my colleagues that I had some regrets. "I think I've been a bit hard on Donald. Anyone else feel that way? I mean, heck, for a while there I was referring to Trump as 'Tiny.' 'Tiny' this and 'Tiny' that. Remember?"</p>
<p>Jeff did.</p>
<p>"I mean, it was a year and a half ago. I've grown up a lot."</p>
<p>No one agreed.</p>
<p>Dale spoke next. Thrusting out his chin ever so slightly, he said, "I don't think I've ever hit the guy below the belt"...somewhat smugly, I thought. It didn't take me long to thumb through our packet of Foolish writings on Trump to our Dueling Fools dated April 22, 1998, in which Dale played the role of The Bull. In his memorable document, he leads off, "Man, I must be a masochist taking the bull side of Trump Hotels &amp; Casino Resorts. I mean, come on. The stock's trading symbol is made up of the initials of Donald J. Trump, whose marquee name is highlighted in the company's SEC filings as an asset. I sometimes think at least one of the syllables in 'asset' captures the essence of this throwback to the Gilded Age."</p>
<p>Touch, Dale.</p>
<p>OK, so there we were, standing in the spaciousness of the gilded and marbled lobby of Trump Tower, pressing the UP button.</p>
<p>We were headed to the top, the 26th floor, where we were shortly met at reception by Mr. Ribis. "Come right back. Donald is waiting."</p>
<p>We proceeded into Trump's office. It was very large -- two offices' worth -- decorated with many pictures of Mr. Trump and friends on the walls, an architectural model or two, and a mammoth desk that had, among other things, a printed sheet of dollar bills on it.</p>
<p>Donald is about six foot one, and basically looked like the pictures we all see of him ... except that he was wearing his hair long in back and had his mane slicked. Looked kind of a like a high-roller, actually. Anyway, a traditional handshake, and a smile, and we were off.</p>
<p>"So anyway, I've made a lot of mistakes with this company," was his first line. "One mistake was what happened with the Marina." Well, for those not familiar, what has hurt DJT shares most for the past three years was the company's decision to purchase from Trump himself the Trump Marina property. Now, in the opinion of the market, Trump the private investor induced Trump the public corporation to pay up too much for the property, remunerating Trump the private investor at the expense of Trump the public company. Further, the public company took on a tremendous amount of debt to finance that purchase. Ever since, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts has had about $2 billion in debt at high interest rates, putting its annual interest payments right about in line with its annual pull from casinos. Hence our short -- hence our profitable short.</p>
<p>In his own way, Donald was admitting a mistake, an act many people might deem most unDonaldlike. Even then, he was sort of like the Fonz from television's Happy Days trying to say he was sorry -- Fonz was never very good at that. Donald has a tendency to admit a mistake but then in the next breath undercut that by explaining why it wasn't really a mistake. In fact, the Marina is a good property, he tells you, though not as good as the boardwalk.</p>
<p>"Now the boardwalk, we got a million people going up and down the boardwalk every day. A million people."</p>
<p>"That's right," said Ribis, "a million people. You can go down over there right now and see it."</p>
<p>"And we got the boardwalk. But the Marina is an attractive property as well, just not the boardwalk. Now Wynn --"</p>
<p>And we'll pause here to introduce one of Donald's primary adversaries -- no, make that his archrival: Steve Wynn, CEO, Mirage Resorts. As Trump was sewing up Atlantic City, establishing strong relations with the state government while he bought most of the prime real estate, Wynn was busy building an empire centered on Las Vegas. Trump has never entered Las Vegas. But Wynn is crossing the line. He's trying to enter Atlantic City.</p>
<p>Now, this is the key information you need to know before you listen to Trump on Wynn: Trump borrowed lots of money to establish a near monopoly in Atlantic City, and the act of Wynn trying to enter Atlantic City to compete with that monopoly could cripple Trump's hard-won territory. Donald needs his properties to pay off, with little competition, in order to repay the debt. If the town opens up and admits competition, he might never make the money to repay the debt, and DJT winds up in those Great Bankrupt Fields in the Sky.</p>
<p>It probably doesn't help that in a recent big business magazine survey, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts placed last in the race to be America's Most Admired Company. Meanwhile, Wynn's Mirage Resorts has frequently been near the very top of that list throughout the 1990s.</p>
<p>So Trump really does not like Wynn. In one of the more memorable press releases issued this decade, reported on two years ago in a Jeff Fischer Rule Breaker recap, Mirage stated: "For [Trump's] inexcusable and inappropriate conduct, there will most definitely be a day of reckoning. The conduct of Trump ... threatens the welfare of the shareholders and the employees of the company. Mirage Resorts sympathizes with them [and believes] that the men chosen to lead the company have no understanding of their responsibilities or the rules of proper conduct." This is trash talk the likes of which we rarely witness in button-down corporate America. This is long before the World Wrestling Federation would go public.</p>
<p>"Now Wynn," Trump said, "he's trying to get down there around the Marina. As I told you, it's an OK property, but it's not the boardwalk." Ribis shook his head in agreement. So did we. "Plus, I got all the water. So what's he going to do, exactly? I own the water. Wynn will spend a billion five and I have all the water!</p>
<p>"Now you may wonder why I had you in. I give you credit. You guys are very influential. You know my daughter, Ivanka?"</p>
<p>We did. Ivanka, for those not familiar, is an 18-year-old supermodel. (By the way, it's not enough just to be a model anymore, eh? Either you're a "supermodel" or you're auditioning for B movies and telling people that what you really want to do is direct.) As an 18-year-old supermodel, Ivanka has done Sasson jeans ads and hosted the Miss Teen USA pageant. And apparently, she has excellent taste. You see, here's what he said:</p>
<p>"Ivanka reads what you guys write. We get these other nice things said about us on Wall Street, but then she only listens to you guys. She came to me and said, 'Daddy, the Fools say that you have a crummy company.' So that's why I had you in."</p>
<p>Our conversation ran an hour and six minutes. What I'll spare you is the numbers being batted back and forth, earnings before income tax and depreciation (EBITDA) for each of his properties. "E-bit-da this and e-bit-da that," aggregating to $310-$340 million EBITDA next year. "We'll do that." Also: "We're going to refinance the Marina, because it's a prime property that we can get less than 9 percent interest on."</p>
<p>More: "We'll do $75 million this year in cash flow, and $100 million next year. We might do better."</p>
<p>I asked my "deeper question," the one that I use to try to understand companies and managers. It's a simple one: "What are your long-term aims, and the long-term aims of your business?" This is what I care about, by the way, as an investor. It's this question which often quickly reveals insights not only into a business, but into the character of the person running it. I wanted to know here if he was serious about this "gaming" industry, for the long term.</p>
<p>"Basically, I'm a real-estate developer. I haven't focused enough on Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, but I plan to. This is important to me."</p>
<p>It does have his name. But we are then handed a brag sheet showing his other company, his private real-estate company which owns, for example, the building we were sitting at the top of. This company is the one investors would find more interesting, one that has many admirers.</p>
<p>It was time to put down the Styrofoam cup of Coca-Cola and walk out. "I have always said," said CEO Ribis, "that the greatest asset any business can have is Donald J. Trump. And now you have met him, and so now you can agree with me." Uh, whatever. On the way out, I asked the affable Mr. Ribis how much of Donald's time would actually be devoted to DJT. "We think we'll get 50% of his time," was the answer. That might not sound like the amount you want from the chairman of a company, but then again, it was more than he'd been giving. Which had been his point.</p>
<p>OK, to the point.</p>
<p>We have held this short position with the belief that Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts will go bankrupt. We've been pretty good with shorts; actually, sometimes we haven't been "greedy" enough. Take our previous short, Quarterdeck, which made us a cool 20%...but, if we'd only held!</p>
<p>For two years we have watched DJT largely flounder as a public company, having shorted it at $8.50 on April 30, 1997, and seeing it close today under $5. With the S&amp;P 500 up 67.8% since that day, we've managed to find a short that lost more than 40% of its value over that time. This will rank among our best shorts ever, especially given market conditions.</p>
<p>But following our meeting with Trump, we no longer believe that DJT will go bankrupt anytime soon. Perhaps Trump is just a convincing salesman, with nothing to back it up. All the talk is about the future. I really don't know; perhaps I don't have enough of the "e-word" (experience) to evaluate this yet. "I give you my word," he said, looking us straight in the eye. "We are totally focused on reducing the debt, paying off the debt, and increasing cash flow." We are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. If he follows through, our short will certainly not be profitable from here. A big "if," right? No doubt about that.</p>
<p>But in the end -- I confess it! -- I liked The Donald. I liked Ribis. You have to admire some aspects of Trump, and for me personally it starts with his willingness to invite us over in the first place. There's something very Foolish about that. He's made some mistakes, he'll be the first to tell you, even if he goes on to qualify the statement. And he's in a business for which I have no admiration and very little respect. But the last image I had as I walked out of his office was him pointing to his phone, saying, "You can call me, anytime. I'll answer your questions."</p>
<p>We live in a world today in which some companies I otherwise admire won't even allow us private shareholders to listen to their quarterly conference calls!</p>
<p>"You can call me, anytime. I'll answer your questions."</p>
<p>In the next five days, we are covering our short sale of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts. It is time to move on, and I believe we can find other better shorts from here.</p>
<p>Fare thee well, Donald.</p>
<p>Fool on,</p>
<p>--David Gardner, September 8, 1999</p>
<p>And so there it was, and here we are, together, about 17 years later. It's been amazing, everything that's happened in these 17 years, whether we think about the stock market, which has had two death-defying drops in 2001 and 2008-2009; but overall has also been a great place to have had your money invested, now, for 17 years and counting.</p>
<p>For Trump, himself, much has changed. He has a lot more currency today. There's a lot more awareness of who he is and what he's doing. There are a lot of people who don't like him very much, and yet he is seemingly running about even in the polls.</p>
<p>I'm not a political creature, and I'm not sharing this story with you this week out of any political motivation. In fact I think, as has often been said, politics make us worse. It's one of the reasons I've generally tried to stay out of political commentary or the political world. It just doesn't interest me that much. I love the things that bring us all together; not things that are often predicated on dividing us apart.</p>
<p>So the only aftermath to share about the Trump story (and maybe you already knew this) [is] I will point out that what he said he would do, he did not do. And in fact, five years after we closed that short ... the week that I wrote the article I just read you ... five years after that, the company went bankrupt, and our short, which was initiated again at $8.50 in 1997 about seven years later, would have declined to zero, and as a short seller that makes you very happy. You never actually have to pay for the money that you sold high in the first place. You just keep it.</p>
<p>Fool on!</p>
<p>As always, people on this program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Learn more about Rule Breaker Investing at RBI.Fool.com.</p>
<p>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://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?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Rule Breaker Investing: What a Fool Learned from Donald Trump | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/11/rule-breaker-investing-what-fool-learned-from-donald-trump.html | 2016-08-11 | 0 |
<p>UTICA (MI)The Macomb DailyBy Chad Halcom, Macomb Daily staff writerAn investigation of child pornography on the computer of a Catholic priest is nearly complete, police and prosecutors say, and a decision could come this week on whether to file criminal charges. The Rev. Timothy Szott, pastor of St. Lawrence Catholic Community in Utica, has been on administrative leave from the church since Feb. 12 while police have combed through three computers and numerous compact discs for alleged images of naked children."We're awaiting some final reports from the forensic team examining the material," said William Harding, chief of operations for the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office. "We've already had some oral reports on what they've found, but we need some things in writing."</p> | Investigation of Utica priest nears completion | false | https://poynter.org/news/investigation-utica-priest-nears-completion | 2003-06-02 | 2 |
<p>Update to a <a href="" type="internal">story from last month</a>: Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory has produced a video to his constituents, explaining why he switched parties from Democrat to Republican. &#160;This made him the first black Republican state senator in Louisiana since Reconstruction.</p>
<p>To reiterate my earlier reservations, I'm not a big fan of party switchers. &#160;Party affiliation is a big deal, something voters take into account when casting their ballots. &#160;Switching parties in the middle of a term has never seemed entirely fair to me.</p>
<p>Having said that, I thought Guillory's speech at the time of his party switch was excellent, and this video is even better. &#160;The gentleman from Louisiana is playing my tune when he says, "At the heart of liberalism is the idea that only a great and powerful Big Government can be the benefactor of social justice for all Americans. &#160;But the Left is concerned with one thing: control. &#160;And they disguise this control as charity."</p>
<p />
<p>"The idea that blacks - or anyone else, for that matter - need the government to get ahead in life is despicable," says Guillory. &#160;"And even more important, this idea is a failure. &#160;Our communities are just as poor as they have always been. &#160;Our schools continue to fail our children. &#160;Our prisons are filled with young black men who should be at home, being fathers. &#160;Our self-initiative, and our self-reliance, have been sacrificed, in exchange for allegiance to our overseers."</p>
<p />
<p /> | Elbert Guillory explains why he went Republican | true | http://humanevents.com/2013/06/18/elbert-guillory-explains-why-he-went-republican/ | 2013-06-18 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Top officials at two of the Federal Reserve's most hawkish regional banks weighed in against further monetary policy easing, and a third on Thursday suggested the Fed may not need to wait until late 2014 before raising interest rates.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The remarks, from Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser, Kansas City Fed President Esther George and Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, underscore the divide that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke faces if, as financial markets expect he will, he pushes for a new round of stimulus as soon as next month.</p>
<p>But neither do they suggest that Bernanke will necessarily face a barrage of dissents: none of the three have a vote this year on the Fed's policy-setting committee.</p>
<p>The Fed under Bernanke has kept rates near zero since December 2008 and has said it expects economic conditions will stay weak enough to keep them there until at least late 2014.</p>
<p>The central bank has also bought $2.3 trillion in Treasuries and housing-backed bonds to stimulate the economy, and most economists expect any new stimulus to take the form of further bond buys.</p>
<p>Plosser, one of the Fed's keenest hawks, said he was "very dubious" about whether additional bond purchases would have a positive impact.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"There are diminishing returns to these actions," he was quoted as telling The Wall Street Journal. "The evidence is not strong that somehow more (bond purchases) are going to help the unemployment rate move faster to where we'd like it to be. I don't see that there is much benefit."</p>
<p>Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, speaking in the booming oil town of Williston, N.D., forecast economic growth of 2.5 percent to 3 percent this year and next -- faster than what most of his colleagues and private-sector economists expect.</p>
<p>He also suggested the Fed may need to raise rates sooner than late 2014.</p>
<p>"I would not have chosen to put that date as far out as the committee did," he said.</p>
<p>DOVES VS HAWKS</p>
<p>U.S. unemployment remains pinned above 8 percent, and many private forecasters expect economic growth will hover around 2 percent for the rest of 2012 and into next year, a pace that would bring down the jobless rate only very slowly.</p>
<p>The U.S. economy also remains vulnerable to potential shocks from the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the possibility that U.S. lawmakers may fail to avert tax hikes and spending cuts slated to kick in automatically in January.</p>
<p>Responding to those conditions, the Fed's dovish wing, including Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans have called for the U.S. central bank to unleash a new round of stimulus to combat high unemployment, which registered 8.3 percent in July.</p>
<p>John Williams, the head of the San Francisco Fed and considered a policy centrist, last week said he too favored another round of bond-buying.</p>
<p>With so many people out of jobs, these policymakers argue, there is little upward pressure on prices, giving the Fed room to flood markets with easy money to boost employment without fear of sparking inflation.</p>
<p>But Kocherlakota sounded less sanguine about the inflation threat. "That 8.3 percent isn't translating to as much downward pressure on prices as we would normally think," he said.</p>
<p>Both Plosser and Kocherlakota have staked out similar positions before.</p>
<p>George's views, as Kansas City Fed's new chief, are less well known. Her remarks Wednesday evening and widely disseminated on Thursday suggest she is following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Thomas Hoenig, who consistently spoke out against easing in his final years at the central bank.</p>
<p>George, who will rotate into a voting spot on the policy-setting committee in 2013, likewise sounded skeptical in remarks on Wednesday night that additional action would yield positive returns.</p>
<p>"Is there anyone not borrowing today or purchasing a house because interest rates aren't low enough?" George said at a Fairfax Industrial Association event in Kansas City, Kansas, according to a report in the Kansas City Star newspaper.</p>
<p>"The more important question for my colleagues and me is whether the Federal Reserve should do any of that," George said. "That, of course, is where our views begin to diverge."</p>
<p>(Reporting by Todd Melby in Williston and Alister Bull in Washington; Writing by Ann Saphir; Editing by Sandra Maler)</p> | Fed Hawks Swoop In to Make Case Against More Easing | true | http://foxbusiness.com/news/2012/08/17/fed-hawks-make-case-against-further-easing.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>Andrea Mitchell / AP</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Elizabeth Harrington</a> August 3, 2016 5:05 pm</p>
<p>NBC News has added an "editor's note" to its report in which Andrea Mitchell called Juanita Broaddrick rape claims "discredited," after revelations that the network deleted that word from its video.</p>
<p>The Washington Free Beacon <a href="" type="internal">reported</a> Tuesday that NBC News had stealth-edited Mitchell's segment in May to remove the line where Mitchell said Broaddrick's claim that Bill Clinton raped her had been "discredited."</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the NBC News website made no mention that the video had been altered.</p>
<p>"Donald Trump is getting some heat from Hillary Clinton's campaign after using the term "rape" while talking about a long-denied allegation of sexual misconduct by former President Bill Clinton," the caption for the report read.</p>
<p />
<p>But by Wednesday afternoon, the <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/video/hillary-clinton-blasts-donald-trump-for-bill-clinton-rape-allegation-688716867956" type="external">piece</a> had been updated with an "editor's note."</p>
<p>"Editor's Note: In the original version of this report, we referred to Ms. Broaddrick's allegations as "discredited,"" NBC News said. "While questions have been raised about her account, upon review, on May 19, we removed that word."</p>
<p />
<p>Many questioned Mitchell's bias after she used the word "discredited" to describe Broaddrick, who says that Bill Clinton raped her while he was the attorney general in Arkansas in 1978.</p> | EXCLUSIVE: NBC Adds 'Editor's Note' to Stealth-Edited Andrea Mitchell Report | true | http://freebeacon.com/culture/exclusive-nbc-adds-editors-note-stealth-edited-andrea-mitchell-report/ | 2016-08-03 | 0 |
<p>Amnesty International said Thursday that the Mexican government needs to do more to protect journalists from the attacks of drug cartels.</p>
<p>The government's failure to act, the London-based human rights organization said, has led to increased violence against reporters across Mexico.</p>
<p>"Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist," said Javier Zuniga, a special advisor to Amnesty International. "Mexican authorities have to show that they do not tolerate threats and violence against the media by putting in effective preventative measures, leading impartial investigations on these attacks and assuring those responsible are brought to justice."</p>
<p>The comments follow a new wave of attacks on media outlets.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/que-pasa/gangsters-decapitate-mexican-blogger" type="external">(See gangsters decapitate Mexican blogger)</a></p>
<p>On Tuesday, a group of armed men drove past offices of <a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/16/armed-men-attack-mexican-newspaper/" type="external">the Siglo del Torreon</a> in the northern state of Coauhuila and sprayed the building with bullets.</p>
<p>On Monday, two employees of the El Financiero disappeared in the state of Zacatecas.</p>
<p>On Nov. 6, assailants burned down offices of El Bueno Tono newspaper in state of Veracruz.</p>
<p>In 2000, when Mexico ended 71 years of one party rule, journalists hoped they would enjoy a new era of freedom.</p>
<p>However, since then a total of 74 Mexican journalists have been murdered according to National Human Rights Commission.</p>
<p>Most attacks are believed to come from drug cartels who now finance death squads in much of Mexico.</p>
<p>But in the vast majority of journalists killings, no culprits have been arrested or convicted. &#160;</p> | Amnesty International calls to protect Mexican journalists | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-18/amnesty-international-calls-protect-mexican-journalists | 2011-11-18 | 3 |
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<p>The lawsuit also asserts that Baylor officials conspired to damage his reputation and keep him from getting another coaching job. It also seeks damages for emotional distress and likely ending his career as a coach “on any level.”</p>
<p>“Some people think themselves above the law, but the laws of Texas establish accountability for everyone, even renegade, self-dealing regents of a Christian university,” Briles’ lawsuit states.</p>
<p>The lawsuit was filed in Llano County in central Texas. It names Baylor regents Chairman Ronald Murff, board members J. Cary Gray and David Harper, and Baylor Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Reagan Ramsower.</p>
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<p>Baylor officials declined immediate comment Thursday night.</p>
<p>“I’d like to hear these regents and Mr. Ramsower tell their story under oath in broad daylight and open court,” Briles attorney Ernest Cannon said.</p>
<p>The lawsuit demands Baylor officials to turn over documents and provide sworn testimony. I also notes that former Baylor volleyball coach James sit for sworn interviews</p>
<p>Briles was fired last May after an investigation determined Baylor mishandled reports of alleged sexual and physical assaults, some by football players. Briles denies he knew about and failed to report alleged assaults.</p>
<p>The lawsuit accuses the regents and Ramsower of spreading false information through media interviews with Texas and national outlets on the advice of a recently-hired media relations firm, G.F. Bunting + Co., which was not named as a defendant.</p>
<p>Regents first told The Wall Street Journal in October that 17 women had reported domestic violence or sexual assaults that involved 19 football players since 2011, including four gang rapes.</p>
<p>Those figures had never been disclosed to Briles when he was fired or during his settlement after he sued for wrongful termination, Briles’ lawsuit said.</p>
<p>Briles argues that releasing those figures was intended to falsely portray him as hiding knowledge of alleged attacks. Allegations that he knew about and failed to report the alleged attacks are “false” and created to “expose Coach Briles to public hatred, contempt, ridicule and cause him financial injury,” the lawsuit says.</p>
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<p>The allegations have prevented Briles, who had built Baylor into a Big 12 and national power, from getting another coaching job, the lawsuit states.</p>
<p>“These defendants have been relentless in their false attacks upon Coach Briles in the media despite his repeated requests they cease and retract their onslaught of untruths,” the lawsuit said.</p>
<p>Briles’ name has been rumored for several jobs but he has not received an offer. Earlier this week, his name surfaced as a candidate for the vacancy at Houston, but school officials there put out a statement that he would not be interviewed.</p>
<p>Briles’ lawsuit is the latest development in a scandal that has rocked the nation’s largest Baptist university.</p>
<p>An investigation by the law firm Pepper Hamilton earlier this year found that the school mishandled assault claims for years. Briles was fired, school President Ken Starr was demoted and eventually left, and McCaw resigned. McCaw was recently hired as athletic director at Liberty University in Virginia.</p>
<p>The school is facing several federal lawsuits by women who say the university ignored or tried to suppress their claims of sexual and physical assault.</p>
<p>Several of Baylor’s most prominent financial donors, including Drayton McLane and John Eddie Williams, whose names adorn Baylor’s new $266 million football stadium and field, respectively, have questioned the integrity of the Pepper Hamilton report and the actions of the board of regents. McLane has said he wants to see Briles’ “honor restored.”</p>
<p>The Briles lawsuit notes the Pepper Hamilton report criticized said the university failed to set up proper investigation procedures. Regents are now trying to hide their failures by scapegoating Briles, the lawsuit says.</p>
<p>“By their actions, the (Baylor officials) are allowing the alleged rapists and assaulters to walk free, thereby confirming that they are more interested in ruining Coach Briles’ name, reputation and career than they ae bringing criminals to justice,” the lawsuit said.</p> | Briles sues Baylor officials for libel and conspiracy | false | https://abqjournal.com/905338/briles-sues-baylor-officials-for-libel-and-conspiracy.html | 2016-12-08 | 2 |
<p>Male inmates who think they are women not only deserve to have their sex-change operations paid for, but, according to a California judge's ruling Thursday, they also must have access to feminine commissary items like necklaces and scarves.</p>
<p>U.S. Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas ruled that transgender inmates in California must be allowed “female-oriented commissary items including nightgowns, robes, sandals, scarves and necklaces as part of a settlement that will make California the first state to pay for an inmate’s sex reassignment surgery,” <a href="http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/06/09/judge-transgender-california-inmates-must-get-female-oriented-items/" type="external">reports</a> CBS Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Shiloh Quine, 56, is a convicted murderer, serving a life sentence with charges of kidnapping and robbery pilled on, too. The murderer is set to have his sex change surgery in December.</p>
<p>In August, the state decided that Quine would have his transgender surgery paid for and that all male inmates within the state be provided “some” female goods. But because this is California we are talking about, they went ahead and took another step off the edge and mandated that a whole slew of other female items be provided to male criminals too.</p>
<p>Quine’s attorneys argued that the prohibition of some female items “based solely upon gender norms” was discriminatory. “They objected to continuing to bar male inmates from having clothing designed specifically for women,” notes CBS LA.</p>
<p>Vadas agreed, saying the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation should give transgender inmates or those having symptoms of gender dysphoria in men’s prisons at least some access to chains and necklaces, pajamas and nightgowns, robes, sandals, scarves, T-shirts and walking shoes.</p>
<p>And get this, male inmates are now also allotted “supervised access to pumice stones, emery boards and curling irons.” Thank God.</p>
<p>Sadly, “bracelets, earrings, hair brushes and hair clips” were disallowed due to safety and security concerns.</p>
<p>“Transgender women like Shiloh shouldn’t be denied items that every other woman in CDCR custody has access to,” argues Ilona Turner, legal director at the Oakland-based Transgender Law Center. “We are pleased that the court recognizes the importance of having access to clothing and personal items that reflect a person’s gender, and that denying items because someone is transgender is discrimination.”</p>
<p>Adding some common sense and morality to the issue was legal director at the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation Kent Scheidegger, who called the ruling “ridiculous.”</p>
<p>“Civil rights laws should not create a right to such minor matters. The civil rights of prisoners are to not be treated cruelly, and getting down to such details goes far beyond what a reasonable interpretation of civil rights laws would provide,” said Scheidegger.</p>
<p>He also argued that male inmates wearing and using female items will make them a target for abuse within the prison.</p>
<p>“Sexual assault does happen in prison," he said, "it’s a major problem and certainly people who have a feminine appearance are more likely to be targets."</p>
<p>It's a good thing we have judges like Vadas looking out for murderous kidnappers.</p>
<p>Image above (AP): Dec. 10, 2013. Inmates hang out on their bunks in a new unit in the Harris County Jail for gay, bisexual and transgender inmates in Houston, Texas.</p> | CA Judge: Prisons Must Let Transgender Inmates Have Scarves And Necklaces | true | https://dailywire.com/news/6510/ca-judge-prisons-must-let-transgender-inmates-have-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-06-11 | 0 |
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<p>Jones, who trains at Jackson-Wink MMA Gym in Albuquerque, won a unanimous decision Saturday at UFC 182 in Las Vegas, Nev., over Daniel Cormier to retain his light heavyweight title and improve to 21-1.</p>
<p>Then on Tuesday, Jones announced he was entering a drug-treatment facility after the revelation of the failed random drug test, administered by the Nevada Athletic Commission on Dec. 4.</p>
<p>White acknowledged Wednesday that the UFC knew about the failed drug test before Saturday’s fight. But benzoylecgonine is not banned by World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines for out-of-competition use, and the commission abides by the WADA guidelines.</p>
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<p>WADA defines “out-of-competition” testing as any time other than “in competition,” which it further defines as 12 hours before a competition, through the competition and the “(sample) collection process related to such competition.”</p>
<p>So Jones wasn’t penalized or suspended before his victory, and White told America’s Pregame on Wednesday that Jones “had the right” to fight and that White could not prevent it.</p>
<p>Yahoo! Sports reported that Jones made his entire $500,000 purse, minus the $50,000 that the commission deducted for his role in an Aug. 4 brawl with Cormier after a news conference.</p>
<p>Why the Dec. 4 drug test screened for substances not banned by WADA is unclear.</p>
<p>The Nevada Athletic Commission still could impose disciplinary measures on Jones. The UFC also could discipline Jones, but is showing no indication it plans to do so. In a statement of support Tuesday, White issued a statement that in part read: “I’m confident that he’ll emerge from this program like the champion he truly is.”</p>
<p>In another statement, Jackson-Wink general manager Ricky Kottenstette said: “We were disappointed upon receiving the news of the positive test but stand behind Jon 100 percent as he enters the rehabilitation facility to move past this point in his life.”</p>
<p>However, Jones may be in trouble for a matter unrelated to the drug test.</p>
<p>The website <a href="http://MMAweekly.com" type="external">MMAweekly.com</a> reported Wednesday that a deputy attorney general in Nevada is investigating whether Jones lied under oath in September about losing a lucrative endorsement because of the news conference brawl in August.</p>
<p>The Nevada Athletic Commission’s decision on how to punish Jones and Cormier for the brawl was to consider external consequences to their actions, the website said. It was then that Jones said he had lost a “six-figure” sponsorship with Nike as a result of the news conference brawl. The commission ultimately fined both fighters and ordered them to perform community service.</p>
<p>But in the run-up last month to Saturday’s fight, Jones said he and Nike had parted ways prior to the Cormier scuffle. Then last week, he said the brawl “sped up” his split with Nike.</p>
<p>The positive drug test is the latest twist in a tumultuous career for Jones. “People make mistakes, I wish the best for Jon &amp; his family. I know he will make a full recovery, I will do whatever I can to support him,” tweeted Israel Martinez, a wrestling coach and one of four coaches in Jones’ corner on Saturday.</p>
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<p /> | Jones under investigation | false | https://abqjournal.com/522877/jones-under-investigation.html | 2 |
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<p>OMAHA, Neb. — Employees of billionaire Warren Buffett’s company will again have the chance to win as much as $1 million a year for life if they can correctly guess the sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.</p>
<p>The contest is open only to the more than 350,000 employees of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate Buffett leads.</p>
<p>Winning that top prize is difficult because upsets routinely happen in the NCAA tournament.</p>
<p>But Berkshire will also offer a $100,000 prize for the person with the bracket that remains perfect the longest.</p>
<p>If more than one person ties in the contest the prize will be split. For instance, last year two people tied and each received $50,000.</p>
<p>Berkshire owns more than 90 companies, including Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, See’s Candy and Fruit of the Loom.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Buffett’s firm again offers big prize for employee brackets | false | https://abqjournal.com/965761/buffetts-firm-again-offers-big-prize-for-employee-brackets.html | 2 |
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<p>Unfortunately, the political fight could well have negative long-term impact on the U.S. Senate and its formerly cherished reputation as a “deliberative” body, and it makes the nation’s highest court even more politicized.</p>
<p>This was a bloody, partisan fight reminiscent of a running playground spat but with much greater consequences.</p>
<p>It was triggered in part by the refusal last year of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, to even consider outgoing President Obama’s nomination of the Merrick Garland to the high court, saying the incoming president should have that prerogative. Garland appeared to be well qualified but never even got to answer questions.</p>
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<p>And McConnell’s refusal was triggered in part by former Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and his heavy-handed change of Senate rules in 2013 – when Democrats had the Senate majority – to confirm Obama’s picks for federal judges by a simple majority vote. Under Reid’s move, only Supreme Court justices were still subject to a 60-vote cloture rule.</p>
<p>All of those machinations are the result of the hyperpartisan divisions that are likely to curtail, if not kill, filibusters and supermajorities – along with any realistic hopes for a timely return to bipartisan cooperation in the best interests of the whole nation.</p>
<p>But back to the direct beneficiary of the nuclear option, or some say “constitutional” option, soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.</p>
<p>McConnell, as expected, thwarted the Democrats’ filibuster by employing a parliamentary procedure that allows the Senate to override a rule or precedent by a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of by a supermajority of 60 votes. The predictable result was a 55-45 party-line vote to end debate, and 54-45 to confirm, with three Democrats joining the Republicans.</p>
<p>There’s really no question that Gorsuch is qualified, nor that he restores a moderately conservative slant to the nation’s highest court.</p>
<p>His credentials: an undergraduate degree from Columbia and law degree from Harvard, both with honors, and a doctor of philosophy from Oxford. He clerked for Justice Byron White and then Justice Anthony Kennedy. He was rated “well-qualified” by the American Bar Association’s judicial-selection panel (its highest rating), and is a member of the federal Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules.</p>
<p>He has a reputation for being thoroughly prepared in court, well-spoken and committed to the rule of law.</p>
<p>And unlike his ascension to the Supreme Court, the Senate voted unanimously to approve him to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – which includes New Mexico – in 2006.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting, too, that he replaces Justice Antonin Scalia – one of the court’s most conservative judges, who died in February 2016.</p>
<p>Democrat arguments that Gorsuch is “extreme,” “dangerous” and “outside the mainstream” are without merit – except for pandering to the base. The real mystery here is why they picked this candidate for a fight they were virtually certain to lose with such enormous consequences.</p>
<p>Senate Democrats will no doubt lick their wounds for a while and continue their rant against the very tactics they employed when they were the majority party. What goes around comes around – and both parties would do well to remember that truism.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: Bitterly partisan battle puts Gorsuch on bench | false | https://abqjournal.com/985240/bitterly-partisan-battle.html | 2 |
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<p>Cheetah the chimp, who starred in "Tarzan" films in the early 1930s, has died. He was 80.</p>
<p>The "Tarzan" chimpanzee had been living at the&#160; <a href="http://suncoastprimate.homestead.com/" type="external">Suncoast Primate Sanctuary</a> in Palm Harbor, Florida, since around 1960.&#160;He died of kidney failure, <a href="http://suncoastprimate.homestead.com/" type="external">the sanctuary said on its website</a>.</p>
<p>Cheetah acted in "Tarzan" films from 1932-34, starring alongside Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan, the sanctuary said.&#160;</p>
<p>In the wild, the average chimp lives for 45 years, <a href="http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/chimpanzee/" type="external">according to National Geographic</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/news/regions/americas/united-states/chimpanzee-research-should-be-restricted-us-panel-rep" type="external">&#160;Chimpanzee research should be restricted, US panel reports</a></p>
<p>Debbie Cobb, a spokeswoman for the sanctuary, <a href="http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2011/dec/27/1/tarzan-co-star-cheetah-dies-at-palm-harbor-sanctua-ar-341123/" type="external">told the Tampa Tribune</a>that Cheetah was an outgoing chimp who loved fingerpainting, football and nondenominational Christian music.</p>
<p>"He was very compassionate .... He could tell if I was having a good day or a bad day. He was always trying to get me to laugh if he thought I was having a bad day," Cobb said.</p>
<p>A volunteer at the sanctuary <a href="http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2011/dec/27/1/tarzan-co-star-cheetah-dies-at-palm-harbor-sanctua-ar-341123/" type="external">told the Tribune</a> that Cheetah also had an impressive throwing arm.</p>
<p>"When he didn't like somebody or something that was going on, he would pick up some poop and throw it at them. He could get you at 30 feet with bars in between," Ron Priest told the paper.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16344309" type="external">According to the BBC</a>, Cheetah the chimp who died in Florida was not the only "Tarzan" chimpanzee.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cheetathechimp.org/bio.htm" type="external">A chimp called "Cheeta"</a>who lives in Palm Springs, California was said to be the chimp in the "Tarzan" films.</p>
<p>But following research for a biography of Cheeta, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112500939.html" type="external">recounted in a Washington Post story</a>, the claim was withdrawn.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/south-africa-rhino-poaching-horns-poisoned" type="external">South Africa: Rhino horns poisoned to thwart poachers</a></p> | Cheetah the 'Tarzan' chimp dead, aged 80, in Florida | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-12-28/cheetah-tarzan-chimp-dead-aged-80-florida | 2011-12-28 | 3 |
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<p>The New Mexico Activities Association voted in September to clarify its bylaws and no longer allow teams of home-schooled students to participate in Science Olympiad and other competitions. The NMAA maintains that the policy change was driven by the need to comply with a 2007 state law.</p>
<p>Under the NMAA's current policy, individual home-schooled students can partake in sanctioned activities and competitions - both athletic and academic - if they become a member of the team from the public school in the district they live in.</p>
<p>The change prompted protests from home-schooled students and their parents, some of whom have claimed it could lead to home-schooled students being unable to take part in activities in cases in which their local public school either doesn't have a team or the existing team is already full.</p>
<p>Martinez, the state's two-term Republican governor, is open to changing state law to ensure home-schooled students are not excluded.</p>
<p>"The governor believes home school students should have the opportunity to take part in these activities and competitions," Martinez spokesman Chris Sanchez said in a recent statement. "They're young people who want to take part in extracurricular activities and should have every ability to do so."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, officials with the New Mexico Activities Association have met with concerned parents of home-schooled students and recently struck an agreement to allow home-school teams to continue participating in Science Olympiad - but not other sanctioned competitions or activities - for the current school year, NMAA Associate Director Dusty Young said Wednesday.</p>
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<p>He said the issue will be revisited after this year, but insisted the NMAA has never tried to block home-schooled students from participating in sanctioned state activities and competitions and is merely trying to comply with state law.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque Area Home Schoolers Science Olympiad Team has won numerous awards in recent years at the middle school and high school level, and the team's head coach said last month the NMAA's policy change just "came out of the blue."</p>
<p>In all, the NMAA oversees competitions in 13 sports and 23 activities, including choir, rodeo and speech and debate.</p>
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<p /> | Governor speaks up for home-schooled students | false | https://abqjournal.com/688717/gov-supports-homeschoolers.html | 2015-12-10 | 2 |
<p>A trade-off between efficiency and coverage</p>
<p>By Kyley McGeeney and Courtney Kennedy</p>
<p>As telephone interviewing costs continue to rise and cellphones represent an increasing share of survey samples, survey researchers are exploring approaches to make these designs more cost-effective. A recent advancement in telephone random-digit-dial (RDD) studies <a href="#fn-284228-1" type="external">1</a> is the ability to identify nonworking cellphone numbers using what are known as “activity flags.” Activity flags allow researchers to remove flagged nonworking cellphone numbers from the sample before they are dialed, thereby helping to contain rising interview costs.</p>
<p>One concern with using these flags, however, is that they might also erroneously flag eligible cellphone numbers for removal from the sample and in turn reduce the survey population coverage rate. This reduction in coverage can lead to bias in the resulting survey estimates.</p>
<p>Pew Research Center recently investigated the performance of these flags in the Center’s 10,000 case, dual-frame RDD survey of U.S. adults <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/" type="external">conducted in early 2014</a>. The primary finding is that while there was a measurable reduction in the population coverage rate, the effect on final weighted estimates was small.</p>
<p>Telephone survey researchers are very interested in using activity flags as a tool to combat rising data collection costs. One factor driving up the cost of cellphone interviewing is the substantial share of nonworking numbers in the sample dialed by interviewers. This results in wasted interviewer time. The incidence of nonworking numbers in the U.S. cellphone RDD frame was approximately 38% in 2015, based on results from Pew Research Center surveys.</p>
<p>Survey sample vendors began offering activity flags in 2012 as a way to increase interviewing efficiency. How the flag is created varies across vendors. Depending on the vendor, the flag reflects either past calling activity of a given number or a real-time test of the number’s status as in service or not. Pew Research Center evaluated both types of activity flag by appending them to the cellphone sample drawn for a national RDD survey. Consistent with other research, <a href="#fn-284228-2" type="external">2</a>&#160;researchers found that the flag relying on the real-time test performed better than the flag based on past calling activity. Analysis in the report is based solely on the real-time test flag.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Among the 124,811 cellphone numbers dialed in the 2014 Pew Research Center survey studied here, roughly six-in-ten (62%) were flagged as active, nearly one-third (32%) were flagged as inactive and the remainder (6%) had unknown status.</p>
<p>A comparison of the activity flags to the final dispositions assigned by the interviewers reveals that while the flag is accurate for the majority of cases, there are both false positives (numbers flagged as active that are actually nonworking or nonresidential) and false negatives (numbers flagged as inactive that are actually working and residential).</p>
<p>Among the flagged-inactive cases, 15 percent were found to be working and residential (false negatives). Among the flagged-active cases, 10 percent were found to be nonworking or nonresidential (false positives).</p>
<p>False positives are basically harmless, aside from the loss in efficiency. False negatives, however, have the potential to reduce the survey coverage rate. This increases the risk of noncoverage error, which is when the people who have a chance to be sampled for a survey differ from those who have no chance of being selected, leading to bias in the survey’s estimates.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Pew Research Center estimates that 8% of all working, residential cellphones in the U.S. are erroneously flagged inactive, which is several points higher than a previous study reported. <a href="#fn-284228-3" type="external">3</a>&#160;Taken together with the fact that 91% of U.S. adults own a cellphone, the result is a 7-percentage-point reduction in sample coverage of U.S. adults. For a national cellphone sample, this reduces the estimated net coverage rate of U.S. adults from about 91% to 83%. <a href="#fn-284228-4" type="external">4</a></p>
<p>These net rates are based on estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s January to June 2015 National Health Interview Survey that 3% of adults have no telephone and another 6% have a landline but no cellphone. For national RDD surveys of adults, the inclusion of a landline sample substantially mitigates the reduction in coverage from excluding flagged-inactive numbers (from 97% coverage to 93%, rather than 83%).</p>
<p>It is possible to avoid any coverage reduction by using the activity flags to subsample flagged-inactive numbers rather than to wholly exclude them. In other words, despite their being flagged as inactive, the researchers would dial 50% of these numbers and then weight up their results to compensate for the lower sampling rate. Decreased precision and increased cost are two downsides of subsampling with these flags – at least in theory. The weighting adjustment to correct for the subsampling may increase the variance (reflected in an increased design effect <a href="#fn-284228-5" type="external">5</a>)&#160;and thus reduce the precision of survey estimates. Also, subsampling involves retaining some fraction of the flagged-inactive numbers in the sample, which reduces interviewer productivity relative to the exclusion approach. Considering that the activity flag currently costs 7 cents per number to append, the net cost savings may be marginal at best under the subsampling approach.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Flagged-inactive respondents are younger, less educated and lower income than flagged-active respondents. They are also more likely to be black non-Hispanic and less likely to be registered to vote or married than flagged-active respondents.</p>
<p>All of these demographic groups are considered hard to reach in surveys because they are less likely to respond. Typically, they are either not found in the resulting respondent sample at the same levels they are found in the population or researchers take great pains in terms of time or cost to have them adequately represented. Excluding or undersampling flagged-inactive cases from the sample means reducing the very respondents that researchers have the hardest time interviewing.</p>
<p>While excluding flagged-inactive cellphones reduces the survey coverage rate and disproportionately excludes hard-to-reach demographic groups, it does not appear to have a meaningful effect on bias, at least for public opinion surveys. Adults with cellphones erroneously flagged as inactive do differ systematically on several dimensions from those with flagged-active cellphones, as described above, but they constitute too small a fraction of the population to meaningfully move estimates. In the survey, 2% of all cellphone sample interviews and 1% of the combined (cellphone plus landline) sample interviews were with adults reached on numbers erroneously flagged as inactive using the activity flag.</p>
<p>To assess whether excluding or subsampling flagged-inactive phones would have changed the study estimates, researchers created experimental weights simulating each scenario. The weight simulating exclusion precisely followed the survey weighting protocol, but discarded the 101 interviews with flagged-inactive cellphones. The weight simulating subsampling (at a rate of 50%) also followed the survey weighting protocol but discarded a random half of the 101 interviews with flagged-inactive cellphones and weighted up the cases in the non-discarded half by the inverse of the simulated subsampling rate (1/50%=2).</p>
<p>For the 11 common opinion survey questions analyzed, the weighted estimate simulating exclusion or subsampling of flagged-inactive cellphones were virtually indistinguishable from the final weighted survey estimates. The average difference from the final survey estimate was near zero under both the exclusion and the subsampling simulations.</p>
<p>While full sample estimates were basically immune to use of the activity flags, it was not clear if this result would hold for subgroups – particularly subgroups that are more likely to have cellphones erroneously flagged as inactive. To test this, the Center repeated the analysis for blacks and adults ages 18-29. For estimates based on blacks, the average difference from the full sample figures ticked up slightly to 0.4 and 0.2 percentage points in the exclusion and subsampling simulations, respectively.</p>
<p>For estimates based on adults ages 18 to 29, the average difference from the full sample figures ticked up slightly to 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points in the exclusion and subsampling simulations, respectively. The overall conclusions, however, did not change. For many public opinion surveys, including most work conducted by Pew Research Center, differences of that magnitude (i.e., less than half a percentage point) are too small to trigger serious concerns about bias.</p>
<p>Survey designers can exclude or subsample flagged-inactive cases from their samples and, in turn, save money by reducing the amount of time that interviewers spend manually dialing unproductive numbers. One team of researchers <a href="#fn-284228-6" type="external">6</a>&#160;estimated that excluding flagged-inactive numbers reduced the amount of labor hours needed for telephone interviewing by as much as 20 percent. Some survey research firms now routinely exclude flagged-inactive cellphone numbers from their samples in order to increase efficiency.</p>
<p>Based on this analysis, Pew Research Center decided to forego using activity flags as standard practice in its polling – not out of concern about bias (researchers found very little) but out of concern for the population coverage rate. Maintaining the highest possible coverage rate has always been a priority in the Center’s work. For the time being, the potential efficiency gains do not justify the coverage rate reduction in our studies.</p> | Cellphone Activity Flags | false | http://pewresearch.org/2016/10/24/cellphone-activity-flags/ | 2016-10-24 | 2 |
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Maine supreme court this week denied an appeal by a man serving a life sentence for a rape and killing in 1994.</p>
<p>Foster Bates contended post-trial tests found the DNA of three other men on a sock used to gag the victim, and that the evidence could've yielded an acquittal if it'd been available at his trial.</p>
<p>The court ruled Tuesday that the DNA test was inconclusive and did not justify a new trial.</p>
<p>Bates was convicted in 2002 in the death of 22-year-old Tammy Dickson, who was found bound and gagged in her South Portland apartment on Feb. 20, 1994. Her 2-year-old son remained in a crib for three days.</p>
<p>Bates' attorney says the two had a consensual sexual relationship but that Bates did not kill the woman.</p>
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Maine supreme court this week denied an appeal by a man serving a life sentence for a rape and killing in 1994.</p>
<p>Foster Bates contended post-trial tests found the DNA of three other men on a sock used to gag the victim, and that the evidence could've yielded an acquittal if it'd been available at his trial.</p>
<p>The court ruled Tuesday that the DNA test was inconclusive and did not justify a new trial.</p>
<p>Bates was convicted in 2002 in the death of 22-year-old Tammy Dickson, who was found bound and gagged in her South Portland apartment on Feb. 20, 1994. Her 2-year-old son remained in a crib for three days.</p>
<p>Bates' attorney says the two had a consensual sexual relationship but that Bates did not kill the woman.</p> | Supreme court denies appeal in rape, murder in Maine | false | https://apnews.com/amp/3e76a9365bde46f1b9a5d411746dccf9 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>Editor’s note: This is the first of a <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/spain/140801/uk-tourism-spain-mallorca-magaluf-tourists-gone-wild" type="external">two-part series</a> about the ways budget airlines and changing tourism trends affect communities in Britain and abroad.</p>
<p>GREAT YARMOUTH, UK — In the good old days, tourists flocked like migratory birds to this resort town on England’s southeast coast.</p>
<p>Resident Grace Edwards, 67, slept the summers of her girlhood in a single bedroom with her parents and brother so the other rooms in their house could be rented to holidaymakers.</p>
<p>“They’d come off the bus in their bright-colored clothes,” she said with fondness. “It was so exciting to see them come in.”</p>
<p>Although tourists still come to Great Yarmouth, that golden era seems a long time ago.</p>
<p>More in the series: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/spain/140801/uk-tourism-spain-mallorca-magaluf-tourists-gone-wild" type="external">Tourists gone wild, or how not to earn a free drink</a></p>
<p>The beautiful Edwardian theatres on Marine Parade now house arcade games and mini-golf ticket offices. A once-stately hotel overlooking the sea is a strip club. And where Edwards’s mother served breakfast to B&amp;B customers, Edwards dishes up hot meals for locals in need at a church-run drop-in center.</p>
<p />
<p>Great Yarmouth isn’t alone in its struggles. Decades after evolution in the tourism industry triggered their decline, Britain’s seaside towns are caught in a rip current of economic and social problems, compounded by changes in the government welfare benefits on which many residents depend.</p>
<p>Unemployment and welfare reforms have affected cities across the UK, but these former resorts share a unique set of challenges. Economic deprivation in England’s seaside towns is worse than in the country as a whole, according to government studies quoted in a report last year from the Centre for Social Justice.</p>
<p>“In 2011, it was a bleak picture, but nothing could have prepared me for what it was like in 2013,” said Sue Smithurst, a researcher who interviewed residents for two reports on local poverty for the Great Yarmouth Community Trust.</p>
<p>Postwar heyday</p>
<p>When the weather is right, Great Yarmouth’s seafront has a cheerful, kitschy appeal. On a recent weekend, the beach and main drag of Regent Road were full of British families enjoying fish and chips and sticks of “rock,” the baton-sized hard candy without which no seaside trip is complete.</p>
<p />
<p>Great Yarmouth and resort towns like it saw their heyday in the postwar years of the 1950s and 1960s, when an annual trip to the seaside was the highlight of many working- and middle-class families’ calendars.</p>
<p>Factories and mines in the north of England closed down for two weeks each summer so workers could vacation with their families. “Fortnighters” arrived in Great Yarmouth by the thousands from industrial centers like Sheffield and Birmingham.</p>
<p>The summer season brought an infusion of cash and energy that kept the town going throughout the year. Local schools altered their calendars to accommodate the holidays tourist-trade families took in the fall after their seasonal customers returned home.</p>
<p>More in the series: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/spain/140801/uk-spain-mallorca-magaluf-sex-booze-and-wizards-12-hours-magaluf" type="external">Sex, booze and wizards: 12 hours in Magaluf</a></p>
<p>“When I was a kid, it felt like summer went on forever,” said Kerry Robinson-Payne, a member of the Great Yarmouth Borough Council whose family has lived in the area for four generations.</p>
<p>She remembers the annual night of free rides for local kids so the beachfront amusement parks could test safety before opening to tourists — “They wouldn’t do that now,” she says with a laugh — and the friendships formed with returning visitors: “You got to know the people year after year. They’d become like family as well.”</p>
<p>Fast decline</p>
<p>The decline of Britain’s seaside resorts began in the 1970s and 1980s with the rise of the package holiday. Tour companies chartering flights offered all-inclusive jaunts to Spain and other reliably sunny countries for less than the cost of an often-cloudy week on the British coast.</p>
<p>Then the explosive popularity of low-cost airlines such as Easyjet and RyanAir in the late 1990s and early 2000s delivered the deathblow.</p>
<p>The cheap international travel market has proved too powerful to resist. Direct flights to sun-drenched resorts in Spain and Portugal leave daily from the airport in Blackpool, a once-popular northern beach town that now has England’s highest rate of children in state care.</p>
<p />
<p>With the tourists went the jobs. In June, 3.7 percent of residents in Great Yarmouth claimed unemployment benefits, according to government figures — well above the national rate of 2.5 percent. In December, during the off-season, the figure was 5.1 percent.</p>
<p>Although those numbers have declined since last year, many suspect the drop owes more to a year-old government crackdown on benefit claims than any improvement in living conditions.</p>
<p>“When you hear that 20,000 people have gone off [the welfare rolls], you think, Hello! Twenty thousand people have been sanctioned this week,” says Patricia Slade, a volunteer at the Great Yarmouth Food Bank.</p>
<p>End of the line</p>
<p>It’s a story common to rusting towns across Britain: a major industry departed, be it manufacturing, mining or tourism, with nothing to take its place.</p>
<p>In the case of former seaside resorts, their distinct geography hastened their decline. Some vacant hotels and guesthouses were converted to care homes for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill, increasing the share of the population that relies on social services.</p>
<p>Others were purchased by private landlords and converted to the inexpensive studio apartments known as “bedsits.”</p>
<p>The availability of cheap housing and promise of seasonal work drew people from all over the country in need of a jumpstart. Prisons directed released offenders to former resort towns such as Blackpool, Margate and Rhyl.</p>
<p>People still come to the sea with hopes of cheerier weather and seasonal work, but many end up disappointed.</p>
<p>“We get a lot of people coming from London, Essex, the Midlands thinking the beaches are paved with gold,” says Annette Carter, an advisor with Disabled Information and Advice Line Great Yarmouth. “But we are a very deprived area.”</p>
<p>Brian Thorne agrees. He heads the Pathway Cafe and Support Centre, a church-sponsored drop-in center that offers hot meals every Friday to people who are homeless, impoverished or otherwise in need.</p>
<p />
<p>When the center opened three months ago, Thorne thought it would be hosting 30 people a week by now.</p>
<p>Last Friday, 70 visitors walked through the doors — elderly people with canes, tense-looking young men, a young pregnant couple who stood in line for tea with arms around each other protectively.</p>
<p>“We are the end of the line,” says Thorne, 69, who has lived in Great Yarmouth since he was 7. “People come here thinking there’s lots of jobs, and then they’re stuck.”</p>
<p>Blame the immigrants</p>
<p>For some frustrated by the lack of jobs and opportunity, the area’s population of immigrants — primarily from Portugal and eastern Europe — seems to offer an explanation.</p>
<p>“It isn’t England no more,” said Janet Ellis as she waited for a Pathway meal of fish and chips.</p>
<p>The 52-year-old lives in Great Yarmouth with her unemployed son, who’s 23. He’s applied to every employer in town since leaving school, she said, even the seasonal ones, without a bite.</p>
<p>“The foreigners take over and they take all the jobs as well,” she said. “I wish the government would do something about it.”</p>
<p>Politicians have been quick to capitalize on that sentiment. Candidates from the anti-immigration party Ukip took 10 of the 13 seats up for re-election in Great Yarmouth’s local elections in May, ousting Conservatives and Labour Party councilors alike.</p>
<p>Privately, employers say the local population lacks skills. One recruiter told the Centre for Social Justice that while he’d rather hire locals, he’s found it more cost-effective to pay airfare and lodging for 450 Portuguese workers each summer than to deal with the absences and “wrong attitude” endemic to local workers.</p>
<p>“There is a sad irony to the situation Great Yarmouth finds itself in,” the center’s report noted. “Holiday-makers who used to fill the hotels now jet across to Portugal while Portuguese workers wing their way over to Great Yarmouth to work.”</p>
<p />
<p>Dismal prospects</p>
<p>The government has tried to help address the problem by promising to hand over to seaside communities half of revenues from marine assets in the Crown Estate, a state-controlled portfolio of investments, until 2015. Great Yarmouth has received $1.3 million in grants so far.</p>
<p>Placed against the total need, however, that sum is a drop in a bucket: The borough faces an $8 million funding gap in the next four years. On Tuesday the local council publicly appealed for money-saving tips to add to its own proposals of yanking out streetlights, charging more for public burials, taxing mobile home residents and selling off public buildings.</p>
<p>“I often hear that Yarmouth is a place of low aspiration and ambition, and I think I disagree with that,” said Andrew Forrest, chief executive officer of the Priory Centre, a social services hub.</p>
<p>It’s not that there are no ambitions here, he said, only that “poverty crushes your feeling that you can achieve them.”</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/united-kingdom/140723/uk-queen-elizabeth-raise" type="external">Good news! One of the world’s richest women is getting a raise</a></p> | The towns that EasyJet killed | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-08-03/towns-easyjet-killed | 2014-08-03 | 3 |
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<p />
<p>Board of Regents’ Chairman Greg Patterson on Wednesday declined to release a copy of the report delivered to the board that prompted the decision.</p>
<p>“On behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents, we are wholeheartedly committed to the continued success of the University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine,” Patterson said. “It is because of our strong support of this institution that we convened an independent review.”</p>
<p>Patterson said the board does not believe more board inquiry is necessary, but they have asked UA President Ann Weaver Hart to create a comprehensive business plan to guide the medical school in the future.</p>
<p>The Board of Regents, which oversees Arizona’s three state universities, commissioned the report after the Arizona Medical Association requested an independent review of circumstances surrounding the departure of Dr. Stuart Flynn, the former dean of the university’s Phoenix medical school, and other members of his management team.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Chic Older, who is the executive vice president of the Arizona Medical Association, said the board’s response is too abstract to understand since they will not say what the review found.</p>
<p>Older said the physicians’ organization is not going to give up on getting more answers.</p>
<p>Hart said in a statement Wednesday that she is pleased that the review found no grounds for further board inquiry.</p>
<p>“I also appreciate that the board acknowledged the University of Arizona’s demonstrated excellence in medical education and research and significant enhancements to health care in Arizona,” Hart said. “The progress made is largely due to the vision and valuable contributions of Dr. Skip Garcia and his team of committed physician scientists.”</p> | Regents end probe into leadership at UA medical school | false | https://abqjournal.com/876275/regents-end-probe-into-leadership-at-ua-medical-school.html | 2016-10-27 | 2 |
<p>California’s fiscal future looks positively dire. The budget deficit is expected to soar to more than 40 billion (more than 1,000 per resident) over the next year. It is the perfect storm of falling tax revenues caused by the popping of the equity and real estate bubbles, and soaring unemployment claims. But the Legislature and the governor are not the only ones to blame; just look at the results of the last election.</p>
<p>Voter ignorance is in large part to blame as well.</p>
<p>Admittedly, the state fiscal crunch was not nearly as bad back in November of 2008, but it was still as bad as it had ever been and experts knew things were going to get worse.</p>
<p>Yet even during a time of record deficits, California voters sought fit to approve four propositions that will directly aggravate the deficit: propositions <a href="/propositions/proposition-1/2008/10/1/proposition-1a-high-speed-rail-bonds" type="external">1A</a>, <a href="/propositions/proposition-3/2008/10/1/proposition-3-children%E2%80%99s-hospitals-bond-act" type="external">3</a>, <a href="/propositions/proposition-9/2008/10/1/proposition-9-victims-rights-and-protection-act" type="external">9</a>, and <a href="/propositions/proposition-12/2008/10/3/proposition-12-bond-act-2008" type="external">12</a>. All together, those propositions will cost the state more than 24 billion in future spending. Of the 12 initiatives (some had negligible fiscal effects) on the 2008 ballot, only 1 might have had a positive fiscal impact: Proposition 5 (expanded parole for drug offenders), which failed by a 60-40 margin.</p>
<p>The ballot initiative system is wrecking California’s fiscal future. The average voter does not understand the consequences of passing new spending through ballot initiative and simultaneously having a constitutionally mandated balanced budget. What happens when the unstoppable force behind Props 1, 3, 9, and 12 meet the immovable object of the state’s balanced budget requirement? The largest state budget deficit, and soon the largest simultaneous budget cuts and tax increases in the history of all 50 states.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, the ballot initiative system is being abused. It now has devolved into a grab-bag for special interests, and the solution for any powerful lobby that cannot get its way in Sacramento.</p>
<p>Prop 3, which floated bonds to finance children’s hospitals, was almost a carbon copy of Proposition 61, another budgetary end-around, which passed in 2004. It was the same in virtually every respect, except of course for a more modest price tag. The beneficiaries of Proposition 61 saw how easy it was to get their way, and did so again recently with Prop 3.</p>
<p>Props 3, 9, and 12 were good example of why the system needs to be reformed. On the surface, Prop 3 looked like a great cause, and it wasn’t easy for anyone to vote against money for children’s hospitals. The commercials with Jamie Lee Curtis and numerous sick children really put a human face on the issue. The sad reality is that there are a million good causes, and public money can’t be used to support every one of them.</p>
<p>Leaving the merits aside, Proposition 9 will cost the state an undetermined amount in extra prison costs by denying parole. Veteran’s care, typically a federal responsibility has been shifted to the state with Proposition 12, which will cost 1.8 billion so that veterans can buy farms and homes.</p>
<p>These three propositions all had two things in common: First, none had budget offsets or tax increases built in, so they all are guaranteed to make the budget crisis worse. Jamie Lee Curtis bragged on television that Prop 3 “[didn’t] raise taxes, it saves lives.” This is at best a half-truth. California requires a balanced budget. So by spending 2 billion over the next 30 years on bonds and interest, that’s 2 billion cut from somewhere else, or more likely 2 billion more that has to be raised in new taxes.</p>
<p>So more accurately, Prop 3 does raise taxes, it just hasn’t done it quite yet.</p>
<p>Secondly, they benefited very small constituencies at the expense of the average taxpayer. This reason is exactly how they got onto the ballot in the first place. To get an initiative onto the ballot, there is a paltry filing fee and a requirement for signatures of 5 percent of the people who voted in the last election. That amounts to about 434,000 signatures.</p>
<p>It seems like a lot, but take for example Prop 3. Because the benefits go to such a small segment of the state, it’s easy to get everyone who stands to benefit to sign. After getting the signatures everyone involved in the health care field and their families, you have enough.</p>
<p>Propositions 6, 7, and 10 were other examples of a small group trying to pry open the state’s coffers for their own private gains. Luckily, those measures failed, but given the relative ease of getting an initiative on the ballot, they will certainly be back.</p>
<p>Big fiscal problems like the one we have today will never be solved by a fickle and uniformed voting populace, only exacerbated. Our problems can only be solved by professional legislators. The California Voter Guide summarizing all the 2008 ballot initiatives took more than an hour to read. How many voters actually read through the entire thing? Unfortunately, most of voters made up their mind based on a 30 second TV commercial. When the decisions are left up to professional legislators whose job it is to know the issues, we can expect to have fewer problems.</p>
<p>To prevent further fiscal damage, either the threshold of 5 percent should be raised substantially, or ballot measures that are not revenue neutral should be disallowed. I prefer the later. If special interests want to spend money on special projects, let them but make them pay for it at the same time. In the short run, it wouldn’t do much, but in the long run, leaving the tough fiscal decisions for the legislature and not the capricious populace will make the fiscal process much healthier.</p>
<p>Revenue neutrality is absolutely critical for future ballot initiatives. Not too long ago, Proposition 63 (2004) increased taxes on incomes above 1 million to finance state mental health services. Leaving aside merits, that proposal was far superior to any on the 2008 ballot because it actually paid for itself.</p>
<p>Two years from now, there will be more spending proposals on the ballot, and California voters will continue to make life impossible for the Legislature, unless the initiative process itself is amended. It won’t be easy, but it needs to be done.</p> | Why and How to Reform the Ballot Initiative System | false | https://ivn.us/2009/02/25/why-and-how-reform-ballot-initiative-system/ | 2009-02-25 | 2 |
<p>Sneaker and sport apparel manufacturer, Nike (NYSE: NKE), grew its direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel eight times faster than its wholesale business last year. While this channel only generated $9.1 billion of revenue, or 28% of Nike brand sales for the company in fiscal 2017, it accounted for 70% of the growth.</p>
<p>Investors should understand how Nike's company-owned stores, digital commerce platform, and international locations are all playing a part in this exciting, and increasingly important, part of the company.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>As you can see from the chart below, DTC growth is powering results for the overall company, despite its minority share of the top line.</p>
<p>In the most recent earnings call, CFO Andy Campion emphasized the importance of the direct channel by saying it was "more productive and profitable than other less differentiated consumer experiences."</p>
<p>The DTC business is both fast growing and high margin -- a strong combination. Next up, let's peel back the onion and look specifically at company-owned stores, which account for the bulk of revenue in this channel.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>At the end of fiscal 2017, the company had 243 Nike brand and in-line stores in the U.S. with another 713 in non-U.S. locations. These 956 stores racked up an impressive $6.9 billion in sales last year and put up solid same-store sales performance, too. Recall that&#160; <a href="https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/what-are-same-store-sales.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e8d93bc-9749-11e7-920e-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">same-store sales Opens a New Window.</a> compare stores that have been open for more than a year and have not changed significantly in size nor been permanently relocated in the past year.</p>
<p>While growth has been decelerating across the globe, the numbers outside the U.S. remain robust. All regions outside the U.S. enjoyed currency-neutral growth of 9% or more, which is especially impressive since Nike doesn't include its digital sales as part of these numbers.</p>
<p>The company also uses these stores to highlight its brand. For example, the&#160; <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/10/nike-incs-new-soho-store-shows-why-the-future-of-r.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e8d93bc-9749-11e7-920e-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">New York Soho district store Opens a New Window.</a> is an impressive&#160;five-story showroom, complete with a half-court basketball court to allow customers to perform real-world product testing.</p>
<p>And while company-owned stores make up the biggest component of DTC revenue, the digital channel is growing even faster.</p>
<p>Nike includes sales from its 45 e-commerce websites and its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/08/23/will-nikes-new-app-help-its-bottom-line.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e8d93bc-9749-11e7-920e-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Nike+ Opens a New Window.</a> and <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/16/why-investors-should-pay-attention-to-nikes-snkr-2.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e8d93bc-9749-11e7-920e-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Nike+ SNKRS Opens a New Window.</a> apps as part of its digital commerce sales. This subset of the DTC channel has almost doubled in the last three years to $2.2 billion in 2017, with 30% growth in the most recent fiscal year. During the latest earnings call, Campion highlighted how e-commerce helps the top and bottom lines.</p>
<p>While the company doesn't break out its digital business in any more detail than a total revenue number, it certainly is an important growth driver, along with international DTC sales.</p>
<p>International sales make up more than half of total DTC revenue, coming in at $4.6 billion for fiscal 2017. Every single one of the company's international regions grew faster than North America, and by a wide margin. The DTC business in every region also grew several times faster than its corresponding wholesale business.</p>
<p>To highlight the size of this international presence, Nike's direct business in China is equal to&#160;Under Armour's entire global DTC operation at $1.5 billion when you compare the two company's most recent fiscal-year numbers.</p>
<p>There's no denying that Nike is still dependent on its wholesale partners, as they accounted for 72% of Nike Brand revenue last year. But its direct to consumer business is growing faster than wholesale, no matter how it's measured, while contributing more to the bottom line. It's no wonder that the company is looking to press the accelerator on the DTC channel. Investors should watch this part of the company closely if they want a clear vision of future growth at Nike.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NikeWhen 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=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=0f36d00f-ea23-4c85-979c-ef70b4e8a435&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e8d93bc-9749-11e7-920e-0050569d32b9&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 September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBwithbike/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e8d93bc-9749-11e7-920e-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Brian Withers Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Nike, Under Armour (A Shares), and Under Armour (C Shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nike, Under Armour (A Shares), and Under Armour (C Shares). 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=4e8d93bc-9749-11e7-920e-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Under the Covers of Nike's High-Growth Direct-to-Consumer Business | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/19/under-covers-nikes-high-growth-direct-to-consumer-business.html | 2017-09-19 | 0 |
<p>Do people in the pew have any options for finding information if their local church, state organization or national denominational body refuses do divulge it?</p>
<p>Not many — but technology and government offer a couple of options.</p>
<p>Social media</p>
<p>When Wade Burleson felt Southern Baptists weren’t getting the information they deserved from the International Mission Board, he turned to blogging.</p>
<p>Elected as an IMB trustee in 2005, the Enid, Okla., pastor pushed for transparency in the missionary-sending agency and openly criticized on his blog board decisions requiring IMB-appointed missionaries to have been baptized in a Southern Baptist-affiliated church and disallowing private prayer language.</p>
<p />
<p>“The problem with the IMB was that the IMB trustees took it upon themselves of narrowing the doctrines of cooperation … and going beyond the Baptist Faith &amp; Message,” the Southern Baptist Convention’s doctrinal statement, he said in a recent interview. “I felt I had an obligation to tell what happened.”</p>
<p>None of the trustees had written or read a blog, including his, Burleson said. “But they were furious because they felt I was violating confidentiality.”</p>
<p>Their anger intensified in 2006 when Burleson continued blogging about the agency in the face of a new rule —trustees “must publicly affirm” approved actions they do not “privately support.”</p>
<p>Burleson believes “there was a fundamental shift” at Baptist Press, the denomination’s news agency, and at most state convention news journals. Most became a public relations arm of their respective agencies “because the trustees are controlled by [national and state convention] executive committees.”</p>
<p>By blogging as a means to get information to people in the pews, Burleson believes “frankly, I was doing what BP should have been doing.”</p>
<p>Many religious organizations, including Baptists, have adopted technology — websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media — to get their message out.</p>
<p>But some see a danger in their use.</p>
<p>Glenn Akins, assistant executive director of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, sees blogging and social media as an “extreme form” as a means of holding someone accountable — one that only “someone with a burr under his saddle” would turn to after exhausting “normal” channels to get information. “When a system isn’t held accountable, people will go to extremes,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that they can’t get to the issue in another format.”</p>
<p>Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics &amp; Religious Liberty Commission, wants more transparency in social media and believes those who criticize should do so openly.</p>
<p>“People shouldn’t be blogging and tweeting about churches unless they are willing to sign their real names,” he said.</p>
<p>Burleson also urges some caution. “Blogs have taken the place of the free press,” he said. When looking for information, readers should consider whether the blogger has professional credentials. “Some blogs can be discounted.”</p>
<p>Legal</p>
<p>Like government bodies, nonprofit organizations have some legal regulations and constraints, particularly under the Internal Revenue Service. Many forms not-for-profits are required to file are public record, which means citizens can access the information, often online.</p>
<p>But houses of worship and most religious organizations fall in a different category.</p>
<p>For example, most charities and nonprofits are required to file an annual information return — IRS Form 990 or Form 990-EZ — or an annual electronic notice of their tax-exempt status. However, several exceptions to the requirement mean most religious organizations do not have to file.</p>
<p>Affiliated agencies that might have been required to file often are exempt as well if they are included under a larger organization’s group exemption.</p>
<p>Some agencies, such as the Missouri Baptist Foundation, file as independent entities. The foundation began filing the 990 after its trustees removed the organization from Missouri Baptist Convention control.</p>
<p>Nonprofits that file 990s are required to release a copy to anyone who asks. Individuals also may request a copy directly from the IRS, or can find them through GuideStar, a nonprofit group that many foundations use to verify information before issuing grants.</p>
<p>Other documentation about a church or specific agency might be available through state or federal courts if the entity has been a party to legal action.</p>
<p>In roughly 100 years of case law, the U.S. Supreme Court has developed the principle that the government may regulate religious institutions only in so far as it does not tamper with internal the church’s governance or interpret doctrine.</p>
<p>Most court proceedings also are public record and are available through state and federal court systems, or by searching the Internet for names of the parties involved.</p>
<p>Often government agencies contract with religious entities, such as children’s homes or facilities for older adults, to provide services. Much of the information relating to transactions between the governmental body and the religious agency is public record.</p>
<p>Citizens, as well as journalists, can claim public information that an agency refuses to release by filing freedom of information requests.</p>
<p>Vicki Brown ( <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>) is managing editor of the Word &amp; Way.</p>
<p>Relates stories:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.religiousherald.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=6958&amp;Itemid=61" type="external">In a low-trust environment, do churches operate on a need-to-know basis?</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.religiousherald.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=6957&amp;Itemid=61" type="external">Denominational entities struggle to find balance between privacy and openness</a></p> | Social media and public records offer options to fact-finders | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/socialmediaandpublicrecordsofferoptionstofact-finders/ | 3 |
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<p>Shares of <a href="" type="internal">Starbucks</a> (NASDAQ:SBUX) eased after hours on Wednesday upon the company’s release of only tepid second-quarter results and bleak outlook, though its consumer products segment continued to grow as part of its long-term expansion efforts.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Seattle-based café operator posted net earnings of $261.6 million, or 34 cents a share, compared with $217.3 million, or 28 cents a share, in the same quarter last year, matching average analyst estimates polled by Thomson Reuters.</p>
<p>Revenue for the coffee giant was $2.78 billion, up 10% from $2.5 billion a year ago, virtually matching the Street’s view of $2.73 billion. Sales were led across all of its geographical units, with U.S. and international revenues up 6% and 15%, respectively.</p>
<p>“Starbucks’ record fiscal second quarter results reflect solid performance and execution across all of our businesses,” said <a href="" type="internal">Howard Schultz</a>, the company’s chief executive. “Our sales, traffic and customer trends all point to the expanding power of the Starbucks business and brand.”</p>
<p>Starbucks, which announced last quarter plans to start producing single-cup brewing systems rivaling industry leader Keurig, has been making strides to widen its portfolio away from just traditional cafes.</p>
<p>The company has expanded its presence in grocery stores and announced a deal last quarter with Green Mountain Coffee (NASDAQ:GMRC) that now makes Starbucks the exclusive, licensed super-premium brand on the Keurig platform.</p>
<p>Starbucks prematurely terminated a grocery distribution contract with Kraft (NYSE:KFT) earlier this year in a move that led to a public and costly battle. But with the help of expansion and transition of its packaged coffee and tea businesses to a direct model, the company’s global consumer products group saw revenues climb 30% to $204.7 million.</p>
<p>Starbucks’ board of directors declared a cash dividend of 13 cents a share payable on May 27 to shareholders of record on May 11.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, the company sees fiscal earnings only in the range of $1.46 to $1.48 a share, narrowly below <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street</a> estimates of $1.50.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Starbucks 2Q Profit Climbs 20%, But Outlook Soft | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/04/27/starbucks-2q-profit-climbs-20-outlook-disappoints.html | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
<p>Brazilian animal rescue organization <a href="http://www.quatropatinhas.com.br/4Patinhas/" type="external">Quatro Patinhas</a> (Four Paws) knows that most people looking for a pet in the area pass up the crowded, broke shelters to buy a new puppy at the pet store instead. To change the way customers look at shelter pets, the organization secretly swapped the very pricey pet store animals with rescues, who are free to adopt. After planting hidden cameras, they watched&#160;the magic unfold — and tried to somehow keep their eyes dry as the rescues walked away with new loving homes. [ <a href="https://www.thedodo.com/pet-store-replaces-pets-with-rescues-1118723269.html" type="external">The Dodo</a>]</p> | It’s Time To Cry: This Pet Store Secretly Replaced The Animals For Sale With Lovable Rescues | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-05-01/its-time-to-cry-this-pet-store-secretly-replaced-the-animals-for-sale-with-lovable-rescues/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Drescues | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>THE NORTH AFRICAN peoples have a common destiny. In Tunisia, after the arrest of the Chenik government came oppression, with all its violence. After the assassination of my friends Ferhat Hached and Hedi Chaker, there was virtually war. In Morocco, deposition of the Sultan engendered terror and counter-terror.</p>
<p>But in both nations the ordeal by force gave way to negotiations; in both cases, a free confrontation made it possible for France to realize it had everything to gain by recognizing the legitimate aspirations of people in revolt. Beyond these crimes and struggles and by way of negotiation a Franco-Tunisian and, no doubt, a Franco-Moroccan friendship have been formed which will prove to be more lasting than any protectorate system.</p>
<p>The most significant drama in the world today is taking place in Algeria. Blood no longer flows in Korea, Indochina or Tunisia; peace is at hand in Morocco. But in Algeria war is raging. Because of this fact, the painfully erected scaffolds in Tunisia and Morocco still are unstable and precarious. They run the risk of collapsing, whereas peace with the Maghreb would inspire a new era in which France's legitimate influence would replace an unacceptable colonial regime.</p>
<p>For peace to come and a true Franco-Algerian friendship to be born France must begin by recognizing the facts. France, taking into account Algerian national feeling, must recognize that Algeria is a nation and that this nation must decide its own fate.</p>
<p>* President of the Tunisian nationalist movement, Neo-Destour, and premier of the new independent Tunisian government.</p>
<p /> | The War in Algeria: Algeria is a Nation | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/war-algeria-algeria-nation | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>Thieves who purloined an iPhone and an iPad in recent heists in Santa Fe apparently took pictures of themselves with the devices, and those “selfies” are now in the hands the police – thanks to so-called cloud technology.</p>
<p>“In both cases, these pictures are priceless,” said Santa Fe police spokeswoman Celina Westervelt.</p>
<p>The Apple products were taken in two separate incidents. On Aug. 20, someone stole the iPad, a computer and other items from a home on Via Manzana. The iPhone was snatched from a car while the owner was paying a gas station attendant on Airport Road about two months ago.</p>
<p>It turns out that victims in both theft cases were able to retrieve what appear to be self-portraits taken with the Apple devices after they were stolen.</p>
<p>The pictures were available thanks to iCloud software, which syncs files from the devices and uploads them to a remote server that users can access from another device.</p>
<p>And now those selfies – the one from the iPad looks more like an accidental snapshot, the police say – are serving as wanted posters.</p>
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<p>Westervelt said the pictures show that technology is providing police with new sources of intelligence and leads in what otherwise would likely be “dead-end cases.”</p>
<p>Two pictures from the stolen iPad show a man in a green “Rio Chama Santa Fe NM” hat, a moustache and a goatee grinning into the camera. The iPhone guy took a close up and another photograph posing without a shirt on but wearing a black Nike headband.</p>
<p>Anyone with information about either photogenic suspect is asked to call the Santa Fe police at 505-428-3710 or CrimeStoppers at 505-955-5050.</p>
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<p /> | ‘Selfies’ may help ID device thieves | false | https://abqjournal.com/258046/selfies-may-help-id-device-thieves.html | 2 |
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<p>With reductions in state funding, falling enrollment and the state’s stagnant population, there has been a suggestion that New Mexico has too many colleges.</p>
<p>Our state currently has 31 public higher education institutions, 10 branch community colleges, and 77 access points into higher education.</p>
<p>During a recent town hall discussion on higher education, New Mexico Higher Education Secretary Barbara Damron noted that “we may have too many (schools); we may not have too many.” Her department is working on a study due by the end of the year to find out, and all of us support her efforts.</p>
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<p>While that study is being conducted, I believe it’s important to emphasize a few important points that should be at the forefront of any discussion about the future of higher education in New Mexico.</p>
<p>First and foremost, higher education should be viewed as an investment into entire communities rather than solely a commodity benefitting individual students.</p>
<p>According to a recent study, students who graduate from New Mexico’s four-year colleges and universities see an average return of more than 150 percent of tuition costs within five years.</p>
<p>That’s 150 percent of their monetary investment – and yours – going straight back into the communities they live and work within a very short period of time, creating a domino effect of development and upliftment.</p>
<p>One Northern student who joined the college after veering off the traditional educational path, worked his tail off and graduated magna cum laude in May, and now makes $80,000 a year at a local job he loves.</p>
<p>Was this a return on investment for that individual? Yes. For his family? Absolutely. But we should also see this as a return on investment for our community, and, yes, for the state of New Mexico.</p>
<p>Like many Northern graduates, he and his family are staying in northern New Mexico – their hearts, their families and their lives are centered here; they are buying real estate, shopping in local stores, paying more taxes and supporting local businesses of all types. In other words, his effort, and the state’s investment in higher education, ultimately helps everyone in New Mexico.</p>
<p>Another point we should not lose sight of is that affordable higher education should not be reserved for students who live in, or close to, big cities. We at Northern New Mexico College primarily serve rural communities in one of the most underserved regions in the state, and possibly in the country. For our students, an education isn’t just helpful – it is transformative.</p>
<p>It is not in New Mexico’s interests to force such students out of their communities and away from their support systems while they attempt to gain an education. On the contrary, we should be doing more to accommodate rural populations by developing programs that address their local educational and economic needs, to revive our rural economies and create sustainable development. That way we make sure that rural populations learn – and earn – in their communities without needing to move in search of educational and economic opportunities elsewhere.</p>
<p>Secretary Damron’s efforts are right on track. We do need to study this issue carefully, and to explore ways to make our higher education systems more efficient and productive. But let us also make sure that we don’t leave anyone out any further on the periphery. Those short-term gains may have long-term consequences for our state.</p>
<p /> | Caution needed on college closures | false | https://abqjournal.com/1047197/caution-needed-on-college-closures.html | 2 |
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<p>Fang Zhe/Xinhua/ZUMAPress</p>
<p />
<p>In the past week or two, there’s been crowing on the left about anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist’s slipping influence, as a small—emphasis on small—number of congressional Republicans murmur that they might accept a tax/spending deal that includes a hike in rates for the wealthy. For years, Norquist has been the whip of the conservative movement, leaning on GOP candidates and legislators to commit to and stand by a no-tax pledge and acting as prosecutor, judge, and jury whenever any Republican considered any initiative that might possibly be characterized as a tax increase. But as President Barack Obama bargains (toughly) with House Speaker John Boehner as the fiscal cliff (or bump) nears, Norquist, his cachet waning or not, is not Boehner’s problem. He is not the force that is preventing the speaker from striking a deal with an electorally energized Obama. The true obstacle is Boehner’s own comrades: those scores of tea partiers in the House Republican caucus who detest compromise—especially with the president. As Boehner tries to forge an accord with Obama, he has to watch carefully his colleagues and his back.</p>
<p>This has been the challenge for Boehner for the past two years. There’s not much doubt that in the summer of 2011 he sincerely desired attaining the so-called grand bargain Obama offered: spending cuts and Medicare and Medicaid reductions (that were harder on providers than beneficiaries) in return for greater tax revenues squeezed from the wealthy and corporations and a hike in the debt ceiling. And Boehner presumably would fancy producing such a mighty deal now. But two summers ago Boehner was warned by moderate Republicans in his caucus that if he accepted anything resembling the package Obama was offering he would face a rebellion, perhaps a mutiny, within his own caucus that might be led by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. That could have led to his demise as speaker.</p>
<p>This basic dynamic—Boehner cannot haggle freely with the president due to the intense opposition to a deal within his own ranks—has not fundamentally changed. What has changed is the president’s hand. According to senior administration officials, Obama is not eager to go over the cliff, but he is willing. If no deal is reached by the end of the month, all the Bush tax cuts—for the rich and not rich—will evaporate. Obama would then demand in early January that the new Congress immediately pass legislation to reinstate the lower tax rates for the bottom 98 percent. Boehner and the Republicans presumably will find it difficult to say no and insist they will only vote for such tax relief if it includes breaks for the wealthy or cuts in Medicare and other government spending. As a Democratic strategist close to the White House says, “For years we’ve tried to make the case that the Republicans are willing to hold up tax cuts for 98 percent to help the guys at the top. This is the cleanest shot we’ve gotten at this.”</p>
<p>On the surface, there have been signs of movement within the House Republican caucus after the recent election. Several of Boehner’s colleagues, led by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), have said that they could accept a compromise that would include higher tax rates for the rich. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), for instance, <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/sns-rt-us-usa-fiscal-taxesbre8as1df-20121129,0,3509119.story" type="external">said</a> he “wouldn’t have a problem with letting those tax rates [for the high-end earners] go up.”</p>
<p>Democratic strategists on and off Capitol Hill suspect that these Republicans are uttering such statements with Boehner’s approval (perhaps even at his request) to provide the speaker more negotiating room—with the White House (“look, we Republicans are trying to be reasonable”) and, more important, with the hardliners of his own caucus (“look, our party is divided on this point, we have to give a little”). Yet there’s no sign yet the tea partiers will afford Boehner much flexibility.</p>
<p>The tea partiers did take a hit in the last election. Two prominent members of the caucus, Joe Walsh and Allen West, were sent packing, and its chair, Michele Bachmann, barely survived. But of the 55 members of the tea party caucus, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-08/tea-party-freshmen-to-become-sophomores-by-keeping-house-seats" type="external">at least 51 won reelection</a> —and there are others in the House GOP caucus who identify with the tea party. This group still is the most powerful bloc among the House Republicans. And given that many of these tea partiers represent gerrymandered districts safe for GOPers but where they could face a primary challenge from the right should their anti-Obama resolve slacken, these die-hard Rs, who have ideological reasons for opposing a deal, also have plenty of political motivation to decry compromise.</p>
<p>That means they have cause to make life tough for Boehner. Not only might they oppose any package he crafts with Obama, costing Boehner votes he will need to bring to the table; they could threaten Boehner’s speakership. On January 3, House Republicans will meet to vote for their speaker for the next Congress. If 18 or so tea partiers don’t vote for Boehner—they can vote for a GOPer who decides to challenge Boehner, someone else (a candidate for speaker doesn’t even have to be nominated), or merely vote “present”—he will not become speaker. Under House rules, the roll call vote is repeated until someone receives a majority of the votes cast. It would only take a small collection of ticked-off Republicans to block Boehner or delay his reelection as speaker.</p>
<p>Cantor, meanwhile, remains in the wings. “He has become overly ambitious,” says a former House Republican who remains in contact with his past colleagues, “and he has only one constituency now: the House tea partiers.” And despite the mini-boomlet of House GOPers expressing acceptance regarding an increase in tax rates for the rich, this ex-Republican lawmaker notes there has been “no shift” in the overall attitude of House tea partiers and, consequently, no major change in the power balance within the Republican caucus. Boehner remains in a position to be held hostage by his own Jacobins.</p>
<p>The speaker could try to just say no to his conservatives and forge ahead, daring them (and perhaps Cantor) to take a run at him. But he has not demonstrated such moxie in the past. During the fight at the end of last year over extending Obama’s payroll tax cut, Boehner did reject the call of his tea partiers to hold firm in opposition—yet only after Senate Republicans decried the House GOP’s obstructionism on this point.</p>
<p>Boehner is in a jam, and Obama has greater leverage this round. When the president struck the <a href="" type="internal">2010 lame duck tax-cut accord</a> with Republicans and won a second stimulus in return for a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts for the upper brackets, he vowed that was a one-time only deal. Not many political observers paid attention to that pledge. After all, Obama had vowed during the 2008 campaign to smother the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy, and he had traded that promise for this second stimulus. But now Obama will get what he wants—the expiration of those tax cuts for the rich—if nothing happens, if no big deal emerges. So he can afford to play it tough.</p>
<p>According to White House aides, Obama is holding firm on two key demands for a pre-cliff deal: some sort of boost in the upper-bracket tax rates (maybe not an immediate return to the full pre-Bush levels) and an agreement on raising the debt ceiling that will avoid another going-over-the-edge confrontation. Both of these demands will be difficult for Boehner to meet, especially with House conservatives eagerly eyeing the debt ceiling as another opportunity to extract ransom from the White House.</p>
<p>The current crisis—or near-crisis—is not a matter of policy. It’s politics. Left to his own devices, Boehner would probably be delighted to okay an agreement that was Simpson-Bowles-ish, light up a Camel, and call it a day. But he remains the leader of a pack that includes dozens who either have a theological antipathy to raising taxes on the wealthiest or fear being mau-maued from the right—or both. Can he abandon or whipsaw this gang? This has been Boehner’s problem all along—and it’s not likely to disappear just because there’s a holiday or a cliff ahead. You usually have to dance with the ones who brung ya—even if they are lemmings running toward the edge.</p>
<p /> | John Boehner’s Hostage Crisis | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/john-boehner-fiscal-cliff-tea-party/ | 2012-12-03 | 4 |
<p>The President's rhetoric is fine; the implementation much less impressive.</p>
<p>It will not, in fact, do at all. It is useful that the President, in his State of the Union and subsequent messages, acknowledged that the war in Vietnam could not be used to submerge every social requirement. His assertion that "we will not permit" Vietnam to deflect from "prosecuting with vigor and determination our war on poverty" keeps Negro rights and the Great Society programs on the public agenda.</p>
<p /> | Vietnam and Meat in the Sandwich | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/vietnam-meat-sandwich | 2018-03-01 | 4 |
<p>GE slumps after earnings miss; Bank shares pop</p>
<p>U.S. stocks rose on Friday, with major indexes trading at or near records after the Senate passed a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year, a move that is seen as paving the way for the tax reform many investors believe is vital to keeping the bull market alive.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What are stock indexes doing?</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 63 points, or 0.3%, to 23,226. The S&amp;P 500 gained 7 points, or 0.3%, to 2,569. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 29 points, or 0.4%, to 6,634.6.</p>
<p>All three indexes hit intraday records in early trading, and are on track for weekly gains. The Dow is up 1.6% for the week while the S&amp;P is up 0.6% and the Nasdaq is up 0.3%.</p>
<p>The Dow and the S&amp;P 500 are set to close out their sixth straight weekly gain, while the Nasdaq is on track for its fourth straight positive week. This is the longest stretch of weekly gains for the Dow since a seven-week rally that ended in December, and the longest for the S&amp;P since a six-week stretch that ended in March.</p>
<p>What's driving markets?</p>
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<p>Late Thursday, the Senate passed a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/senate-republicans-approve-budget-proposal-clearing-path-to-tax-overhaul-2017-10-19), seen as clearing a hurdle to the Trump administration's goal of overhauling the tax code. The rally for stock markets since the surprise election of President Donald Trump has been driven in part by hopes that a Republican-led Congress will introduce lower taxes, seen as stimulating growth.</p>
<p>Read:What's next for a tax overhaul after the Senate passed its budget (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-next-for-a-tax-overhaul-after-the-senate-passed-its-budget-2017-10-20)</p>
<p>Trump lauded the 51-49 vote on Twitter, saying it would be the "first step toward massive tax cuts for the American people."</p>
<p>(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/921242760685998080)</p>
<p>Bank stocks were among the beneficiaries of the news, with the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) up 0.9%, nearing a 10-year high. J.P. Morgan Chase &amp; Co. (JPM) rose 1.2% while Citigroup (C) was up 0.8%.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Politico reported Thursday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-reportedly-leaning-toward-powell-for-fed-chairman-2017-10-19) that Trump is leaning toward Fed. Gov. Jerome Powell to replace Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen when her term ends in February.</p>
<p>Yellen is on the Fed speaker list Friday, scheduled to talk about monetary policy since the financial crisis at the National Economics Association at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Ahead of that, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester will appear on a panel discussion on regulation at Columbia University in New York at 2 p.m. Eastern. Mester isn't a voting member of the Fed.</p>
<p>In the latest economic data, existing home sales rose 0.7% in September (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/existing-home-sales-eke-out-small-gain-in-september-2017-10-20), breaking a three-month losing streak and topping the consensus analyst forecast.</p>
<p>What are strategists saying?</p>
<p>"The move could allow Republicans to pass their proposed tax reform later this year or early next year, including a proposed $1.5 trillion tax cut. The next step is for the House of Representatives to take up the legislation, which could happen next week," said Marshall Gittler, chief strategist at ACLS Global.</p>
<p>"Action instead of gridlock and the possibility of tax cuts are likely to keep U.S. sentiment strong and U.S. stocks underpinned, which should allow the Fed to keep hiking rates," Gittler said in his note to clients Friday.</p>
<p>Which stocks are in focus?</p>
<p>Shares of General Electric Co.(GE) slumped 2.9% after the industrial conglomerate reported earnings that widely missed forecasts and it cut its outlook (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ge-earnings-miss-for-first-time-in-2-12-years-2017-10-20).</p>
<p>Procter &amp; Gamble Co.(PG) dropped 3.1% after the consumer products company reported quarterly profit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/procter-gambles-stock-falls-after-results-2017-10-20) that rose above expectations but revenue that came up a bit shy.</p>
<p>Honeywell International Inc.(HON) picked up 0.3% after revenue beat consensus views (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/honeywell-shares-rise-13-after-q3-profit-match-revenue-beat-2017-10-20).</p>
<p>Celgene Corp.(CELG) sank 10% after the biotech company abandoned three Crohn's disease drug trials.</p>
<p>PayPal Holdings Inc.(PYPL) jumped 5% after the online payment company late Thursday reported an earnings and revenue beat (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/paypal-shares-rise-on-third-quarter-revenue-beat-2017-10-19).</p>
<p>Skechers USA Inc.(SKX) soared 37% after the footwear retailer's earnings out late Thursday beat analyst forecasts (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/skechers-shares-rally-after-earnings-sales-beat-2017-10-19).</p>
<p>Earnings thus far this season have largely come in ahead of expectations, helping support equity prices despite concerns over valuation.</p>
<p>Boeing Co.(BA) rose 1.3% after China Southern Airlines Co. (ZNH) agreed to by 38 aircraft from the U.S. plane maker. Singapore Airlines Ltd. (C6L.SG) is also expected to complete an order of 39 Boeing planes next week.</p>
<p>Shares of Atlassian Inc.(TEAM) jumped 23%. The Australian cloud-software company's results and outlook beat forecasts after the close.</p>
<p>Read:Atlassian heads toward $10 billion market cap with a story to tell (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/atlassian-heads-toward-10-billion-market-cap-with-a-story-to-tell-2017-10-19)</p>
<p>(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/atlassian-heads-toward-10-billion-market-cap-with-a-story-to-tell-2017-10-19)How are other assets trading?</p>
<p>In Asia markets closed mostly higher (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asia-pacific-stocks-start-lower-edge-back-into-positive-territory-2017-10-19), with the Hong Kong Hang Seng ending 1.2% higher. European stocks rose slightly (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-nudge-higher-as-volvo-rallies-2017-10-20), helped by a jump for Volvo AB (VOLV-B.SK).</p>
<p>Oil prices declined, with West Texas Intermediate crude down 0.9% at $50.84 a barrel (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-selloff-continues-as-traders-question-opec-strategy-2017-10-20). Gold futures dropped 0.5% to $1,284 an ounce (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-drops-to-2-week-low-as-dollar-gains-strength-on-tax-reform-hopes-2017-10-20).</p>
<p>The ICE U.S. Dollar Index gained 0.2% to 93.434, with the greenback gaining (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-storms-higher-on-revived-hopes-for-tax-cuts-2017-10-20) on news of the budget proposal.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 20, 2017 11:28 ET (15:28 GMT)</p> | MARKET SNAPSHOT: Stocks Hit Records As Senate Clears Tax-reform Hurdle; Earnings Also Support | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/20/market-snapshot-stocks-hit-records-as-senate-clears-tax-reform-hurdle-earnings-also-support.html | 2017-10-20 | 0 |
<p>We’ve made it through 2017. The first-season installment of presidential Tweetville is ending where it began, on the Palm Beach, Fla., golf course of Mar-a-Lago. Though we are no longer privy to all the footage behind the <a href="http://deadline.com/2017/12/cnn-donald-trump-truck-camera-shot-block-golf-course-obama-1202233430/" type="external">big white truck</a>, we do know that, given the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/25/mar-a-lago-membership-fee-doubles-to-200000.html" type="external">doubling of its membership fees</a>, others on the course will have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/notable-members-of-trumps-mar-a-lago-club-2017-3" type="external">higher stakes</a> in the 2018 influence game.</p>
<p>The billionaire who ran on an anti-establishment platform went on a swamp-filling, deregulatory and inequality-producing tear, in the process creating the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2017/07/05/the-4-3-billion-cabinet-see-what-each-top-trump-advisor-is-worth/#7a5be0065dfc" type="external">wealthiest Cabinet</a> in modern United States history and expanding his own empire along the way. His offspring, Russia-related investigations aside, didn’t do too shabbily either. White House policy adviser Ivanka Trump’s brand <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-13/ivanka-trump-store-is-said-to-open-thursday-in-new-era-for-brand" type="external">opened a splashy new store</a> in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, just in time for Christmas.</p>
<p>If you look at the stock and asset markets, as Donald Trump tends to do (and as Barack Obama did, too), you’d think all is fine with the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 24 percent this year. The <a href="http://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/dow-jones-us-real-estate-index" type="external">Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index</a> rose 6.20 percent. The price of one <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/charts?locale=en-US" type="external">Bitcoin rose</a> about 1,646 percent.</p>
<p>On the flip side of that euphoria however, is the fact that the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-job-growth-picks-up-flat-wages-raise-consumer-spending-worries-idUSKBN1D308L" type="external">median wage</a> rose just 2.4 percent and has remained effectively stagnant relative to inflation. And although the unemployment rate fell to a 17-year low of 4.1 percent, the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.7 percent, its lowest level in nearly four decades—particularly difficult for new entrants to the workforce, such as students graduating under a $1.3 trillion pile of unrepayable or very challenging <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-bubble-investment-is-private-abs-goldman-2017-12" type="external">student loan debt</a>. (Not to worry though: Goldman Sachs is on that, promoting a way to profit from this debt by stuffing it into other assets and selling those off to investors, a la shades of the subprime mortgage crisis.)</p>
<p />
<p>Those of us living in the actual world without billionaire family pedigrees possess a healthy dose of skepticism over the “Make America Great Again” sect that believes Trump has transformed America “hugely,” for record-setting markets don’t imply economic stability, nor do 40 percent corporate tax cuts translate into 40 percent wage growth. We can march forward into 2018 carrying that knowledge with us.</p>
<p>But first, a recap. For the U.S. financial system, 2017 was marked by five main themes: The GOP’s “You All Just Got a Lot Richer” Corporate Tax Reduction Plan; Big Banks Still Bad; The Fed’s Minor Policy Shift; Debt; and Deregulators Appointed to Positions of Regulatory Authority.</p>
<p>Banks Are Still Big and Bad</p>
<p>The Big Six banks have paid billions of dollars in settlements for a variety of frauds committed before and since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, but that didn’t keep them from tallying up new fines in 2017. The nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, agreed to <a href="https://www.corp-research.org/jpmorganchase" type="external">pay $53 million in fines</a> for scamming African-American and Latino mortgage borrowers with disproportionately higher rates than for white borrowers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau <a href="https://www.corp-research.org/citigroup" type="external">fined Citigroup $28.8 million</a> for not disclosing foreclosure-avoiding actions. Bank of America <a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/28/judge-fines-bank-america-45-million-for-heartless-treatment-mortgage-borrowers.html" type="external">got fined $45 million</a> for its foul treatment of a California couple trying to save their home.</p>
<p>But the Big Six bank that received the most attention in 2017, as it did in 2016, was <a href="https://financialadvisoriq.com/search/search/advanced?referrer_module=companyTag&amp;q=%22Wells+Fargo%22" type="external">Wells Fargo</a>. The number of people affected by its fake-account creation scandal grew from 2 million reported in 2016 to about 3.5 million. That increase resulted in Wells Fargo expanding its associated <a href="https://financialadvisoriq.com/c/1824523/211663" type="external">class-action settlement</a> to $142 million.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo was mired in smaller scandals, too. For instance, it charged 800,000 customers for auto insurance they didn’t need, raised mortgage rates for certain customers without properly disclosing it was going to, and made a bunch of unauthorized adjustments to people’s mortgages.</p>
<p>No Glass-Steagall Reinstatement, More Deregulation</p>
<p>The idea of reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 featured in both the Democratic and the Republican National Committees’ platforms during the campaign season. But Trump’s treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, made it clear multiple times there would be no such push from the administration, arguing against doing so before senators including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.</p>
<p>To emphasize his disdain for regulation and oversight, Mnuchin also pushed the Financial Stability Oversight Council, over which he presides, to vote 6 to 3 to rescind American International Group’s designation as posing a potential threat to the U.S. financial system. Thus, AIG will no longer be <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-bc-us--aig-systemic-risk-20170929-story.html" type="external">paying penance for its role</a> at the epicenter of the last financial crisis by filing regular risk reports anymore. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen also supported the move.</p>
<p>Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Bashing</p>
<p>In a major blow to citizen security, Richard Cordray, the Obama-appointed regulator, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/11/15/richard-cordray-is-stepping-down-as-head-of-consumer-financial-protection-bureau/?utm_term=.e0a7758f5b64" type="external">resigned as director</a> of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in November.</p>
<p>During his six years at the helm of the CFPB, which the Dodd-Frank Act formed in 2011, the 1,600-person regulatory entity <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/" type="external">accomplished a lot</a>. It has provided $11.9 billion in relief to consumers for enforcement actions affecting more than 29.1 million people, handled 1.2 million consumer complaints and garnered timely responses on concerns for 97 percent of consumers.</p>
<p>Still, Trump appointed White House budget director Mick Mulvaney to the post that Cordray vacated. Remember: Mulvaney as a congressman <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-names-mulvaney-to-cfpb-wants-to-tear-agency-apart-2017-11" type="external">wasn’t a fan of protecting consumers</a>. “I don’t like the fact that [the] CFPB exists,” he said. “I will be perfectly honest with you.”</p>
<p>Over at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Joseph Otting, Mnuchin’s former partner in the takeover of IndyMac and subsequent flurry of foreclosures, was confirmed to the top position. In that spot, Otting will be able to help the Trump administration dial back more post-crisis bank regulations.</p>
<p>The Fed and Debt Bubbles</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/12/13/federal-reserve-raises-interest-rates-for-third-time-in-2017/#67f40b327a53" type="external">raised rates three times</a> this year. With trepidation that more or larger hikes would cause a market meltdown (because cheap money has lifted banks and markets over the past decade), each time <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=HfT" type="external">the Fed acted</a>, it did so by the smallest sliver it could—25 basis points. All told, this brings the total rate hikes of 2017 to 75 basis points. The short-term interest rate now sits in a 1.25 percent to 1.5 percent range.</p>
<p />
<p>As part of its rate-hike-into-strength message, the Fed forecast that the job market and economy will further improve in 2018. Trump’s appointed Fed leader, Janet Yellen’s No. 2 man, Jerome Powell, will take stewardship of the Fed in February 2018. Policywise, he will do exactly what Yellen and Ben Bernanke did before him, given that’s how all his votes went—albeit while advocating less oversight of the big banks. That’s because cheap money turbo-boosts the stock market, and quick rate hikes can harm the bond markets.</p>
<p>The reality is that the Fed and the administration are scared that selling too many bonds back into the capital markets will result in broader sell-offs, which could lead to another credit squeeze and possible recession, not to mention losses for the big banks exposed to those corporations.</p>
<p>Zombie Companies</p>
<p>Fueled by <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NCBDBIQ027S" type="external">cheap Fed money</a> and low rates, the amount of outstanding corporate debt has nearly doubled from pre-crisis levels of $3.4 trillion to record levels of $6.4 trillion.</p>
<p />
<p>By Oct. 1, U.S. investment-grade <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4114189-u-s-corporate-debt-issuance-pace-record-year" type="external">corporate debt issuance</a> had already surpassed $1 trillion—beating 2016’s pace by three weeks. The amount of speculative-grade (or junkier) corporate debt issued during the first three quarters of 2017 was 17 percent higher than over the same period in 2016. Altogether, that means that U.S. corporate issuance is set for another record year, as well as the sixth consecutive year of increased corporate debt issuance.</p>
<p>As history has shown us, all bubbles pop. Until then, certain companies are the equivalent of the living dead. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS), or central bank of global central banks, defines zombie firms as “firms that could not survive without a flow of cheap financing.” The latest <a href="http://www.talkmarkets.com/content/economics--politics/zombie-corporations-10-of-companies-depend-on-cheap-fed-money?post=159711" type="external">BIS Quarterly Report</a> labeled one of every 10 corporations in emerging (EME) and advanced countries as a “zombie.”</p>
<p>Corporate debt of nonfinancial U.S. companies as a percentage of GDP <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/article/what-this-scary-chart-tells-me-about-the-market-cm880788" type="external">has surged before</a> each of the last three recessions. This year, it reached 2007 pre-crisis levels. That didn’t end well last time. Plus, now, that debt has been powered by central banks the world over.</p>
<p>And whereas, in the past, companies used some of their debt to invest in real growth, this time corporate investment has remained relatively low. Instead, companies have been on a spree of buying their own stock, establishing a return to 2007-level stock buybacks.</p>
<p />
<p>Corporations and Taxes</p>
<p>Companies have taken advantage of cheap money to increase their debt and buy their own stock, even though Trump and the GOP peddled the notion that decreasing their tax rate by a whopping 40 percent would move them toward diverting their money from the stock and bond markets into jobs and wages.</p>
<p>The GOP tax bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. Collectively, large U.S. companies only pay an average effective tax rate of 18 percent anyway. They only contribute 9 percent to the <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/amount-revenue-source" type="external">overall tax receipts</a> the U.S. government receives each year.</p>
<p>Companies like General Electric haven’t paid any taxes in a decade. But more to the point, that tax cut is another form of cheap money giveaway. Even Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, concurred. He <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/13/jamie-dimon-says-tax-cut-will-cause-companies-to-buy-back-stock.html" type="external">called the tax cut</a> a “QE4” (another round of quantitative easing, added to the three rounds the Fed executed over the past decade to <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/" type="external">reach $4.41 trillion in credit</a>).</p>
<p>Looking Ahead to 2018</p>
<p>As we enter the new year, consider this: All the Fed talk about “tapering” or reducing the size of its book, and even the 75 basis points of rate hikes, are a setup for the next act of the same play.</p>
<p>Since the Fed’s announcement that it was going to stop reinvesting the interest payments on the bonds it’s holding, the size of its book has been about the same. There’s always a mismatch between what the Fed says and what it does.</p>
<p>So despite its tapering talk, the Fed’s balance sheet is down a mere $10 billion (an equivalent of a rounding error) this year. Its book of assets remains at $4.41 trillion, a figure equivalent to 23 percent of U.S. GDP. Incoming Fed Chair Powell is more likely to keep supplying cheap money than withdrawing it from the markets in the instance of any wobbles.</p>
<p>What does that mean? Financially speaking, 2018 will be a precarious year of more bubbles inflated by cheap money, followed by a leakage that will begin with the bond or debt markets. The GOP tax cuts won’t technically kick in monetarily for corporations until after the year is over in 2019, but the anticipation of extra funds will fuel more buybacks. This will help to provide cover for any rate hikes the Fed implements, because it provides corporations the ability to boost their own share prices further.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and other smaller regulatory authorities in Washington will push for greater deregulation of the financial systems and banking industry on any level possible. If there is another financial crisis in 2018 or later, it will be worse than the last one because the system remains fundamentally unreformed, banks remain too big to fail and the Fed and other central banks continue to control the flow of funds to these banks (and through to the markets) by maintaining a cheap cost of funds.</p>
<p>Politically, no one in any position of power will do anything to fix any of this.</p> | The Next Financial Crisis Will Be Worse Than the Last One | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/next-financial-crisis-will-worse-last-one/ | 2017-12-29 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Anchorage, Alaska, was warmer Tuesday than Jacksonville, Florida. The weather in the U.S. is that upside down.</p>
<p>That's because the Arctic's deeply frigid weather escaped its regular atmospheric jail that traps the worst cold. It then meandered south to the central and eastern United States.</p>
<p>And this has been happening more often in recent times, scientists say.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHY IS IT SO COLD?</p>
<p>Super cold air is normally locked up in the Arctic in the <a href="http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/cold/polar_vortex.shtml" type="external">polar vortex</a> , which is a gigantic circular weather pattern around the North Pole. A strong polar vortex keeps that cold air hemmed in.</p>
<p>"Then when it weakens, it causes like a dam to burst," and the cold air heads south, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside Boston.</p>
<p>"This is not record-breaking for Canada or Alaska or northern Siberia, it's just misplaced," said Cohen, who had <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/autumnwinter/predicts.jsp" type="external">forecast</a> a colder than normal winter for much of the U.S.</p>
<p>IS THIS UNUSUAL?</p>
<p>Yes, but more for how long - about 10 days - the cold has lasted, than how cold it has been. On Tuesday, Boston tied its seven-day record for the most consecutive days at or below 20 degrees that was set exactly 100 years ago.</p>
<p>More than 1,600 daily <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datatools/records" type="external">records</a> for cold were tied or broken in the last week of December, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For Greg Carbin of the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center, the most meaningful statistics are how last week's average temperature was the second coldest in more than a century of record-keeping for Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City, third coldest in Pittsburgh and fifth coldest in New York City.</p>
<p>IS IT JUST THE U.S.?</p>
<p>Pretty much. While the United States has been in the deep freeze, the rest of the globe has been toastier than normal. The globe as a whole was 0.9 degrees (0.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal Tuesday and the Arctic was more than 6 degrees warmer than normal (3.4 degrees Celsius), according to the University of Maine Climate Change Institute's <a href="http://cci-reanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/" type="external">analysis</a> .</p>
<p>WHAT'S NEXT?</p>
<p>The cold will continue and could actually worsen for much of the East Coast this weekend because of a monster storm that's brewing in the Atlantic and Caribbean, what meteorologists are calling a "snow hurricane" or "bomb cyclone."</p>
<p>But forecasters don't think the storm will hit the East Coast, keeping most of the snow and worst winds over open ocean, although parts of the Northeast are still likely to get high winds, waves and some snow.</p>
<p>"For the Northeast, this weekend might be the coldest of the coldest with the storm," said Jason Furtado, a University of Oklahoma meteorology professor. "We could be ending (the cold snap) with a big hurrah."</p>
<p>WHAT MAKES THE POLAR VORTEX MOVE?</p>
<p>This is an area of hot debate and research among scientists and probably is a mix of human-caused climate change and natural variability, said Furtado. Climate change hasn't made the polar vortex more extreme, but it probably is making it move more, which makes the weather seem more extreme, he said.</p>
<p>A recent study by Potsdam Institute climate scientist Marlene Kretschmer found the polar vortex has weakened and meandered more often since 1990, but that study focused more on Europe. Ongoing research shows that there seems to be a similar connection for more frequent Arctic cold snaps like what the U.S. is now experiencing, Kretschmer said.</p>
<p>HOW CAN IT BE SO COLD WITH GLOBAL WARMING?</p>
<p>Don't confuse weather - which is a few days or weeks in one region - with climate, which is over years and decades and global. Weather is like a person's mood, which changes frequently, while climate is like someone's personality, which is more long-term, Furtado said.</p>
<p>"A few cold days doesn't disprove climate change," Furtado said. "That's just silly. Just like a couple down days on the stock market doesn't mean the economy is going into the trash."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/borenbears" type="external">@borenbears</a> . His work can be found <a href="http://tinyurl.com/sethap" type="external">here</a> .</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This Associated Press <a href="" type="internal">series</a> was produced in <a href="https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2017/ap-and-howard-hughes-medical-institute-collaborate-to-enhance-science-journalism" type="external">partnership</a> with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Anchorage, Alaska, was warmer Tuesday than Jacksonville, Florida. The weather in the U.S. is that upside down.</p>
<p>That's because the Arctic's deeply frigid weather escaped its regular atmospheric jail that traps the worst cold. It then meandered south to the central and eastern United States.</p>
<p>And this has been happening more often in recent times, scientists say.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHY IS IT SO COLD?</p>
<p>Super cold air is normally locked up in the Arctic in the <a href="http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/cold/polar_vortex.shtml" type="external">polar vortex</a> , which is a gigantic circular weather pattern around the North Pole. A strong polar vortex keeps that cold air hemmed in.</p>
<p>"Then when it weakens, it causes like a dam to burst," and the cold air heads south, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside Boston.</p>
<p>"This is not record-breaking for Canada or Alaska or northern Siberia, it's just misplaced," said Cohen, who had <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/autumnwinter/predicts.jsp" type="external">forecast</a> a colder than normal winter for much of the U.S.</p>
<p>IS THIS UNUSUAL?</p>
<p>Yes, but more for how long - about 10 days - the cold has lasted, than how cold it has been. On Tuesday, Boston tied its seven-day record for the most consecutive days at or below 20 degrees that was set exactly 100 years ago.</p>
<p>More than 1,600 daily <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datatools/records" type="external">records</a> for cold were tied or broken in the last week of December, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For Greg Carbin of the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center, the most meaningful statistics are how last week's average temperature was the second coldest in more than a century of record-keeping for Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City, third coldest in Pittsburgh and fifth coldest in New York City.</p>
<p>IS IT JUST THE U.S.?</p>
<p>Pretty much. While the United States has been in the deep freeze, the rest of the globe has been toastier than normal. The globe as a whole was 0.9 degrees (0.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal Tuesday and the Arctic was more than 6 degrees warmer than normal (3.4 degrees Celsius), according to the University of Maine Climate Change Institute's <a href="http://cci-reanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/" type="external">analysis</a> .</p>
<p>WHAT'S NEXT?</p>
<p>The cold will continue and could actually worsen for much of the East Coast this weekend because of a monster storm that's brewing in the Atlantic and Caribbean, what meteorologists are calling a "snow hurricane" or "bomb cyclone."</p>
<p>But forecasters don't think the storm will hit the East Coast, keeping most of the snow and worst winds over open ocean, although parts of the Northeast are still likely to get high winds, waves and some snow.</p>
<p>"For the Northeast, this weekend might be the coldest of the coldest with the storm," said Jason Furtado, a University of Oklahoma meteorology professor. "We could be ending (the cold snap) with a big hurrah."</p>
<p>WHAT MAKES THE POLAR VORTEX MOVE?</p>
<p>This is an area of hot debate and research among scientists and probably is a mix of human-caused climate change and natural variability, said Furtado. Climate change hasn't made the polar vortex more extreme, but it probably is making it move more, which makes the weather seem more extreme, he said.</p>
<p>A recent study by Potsdam Institute climate scientist Marlene Kretschmer found the polar vortex has weakened and meandered more often since 1990, but that study focused more on Europe. Ongoing research shows that there seems to be a similar connection for more frequent Arctic cold snaps like what the U.S. is now experiencing, Kretschmer said.</p>
<p>HOW CAN IT BE SO COLD WITH GLOBAL WARMING?</p>
<p>Don't confuse weather - which is a few days or weeks in one region - with climate, which is over years and decades and global. Weather is like a person's mood, which changes frequently, while climate is like someone's personality, which is more long-term, Furtado said.</p>
<p>"A few cold days doesn't disprove climate change," Furtado said. "That's just silly. Just like a couple down days on the stock market doesn't mean the economy is going into the trash."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/borenbears" type="external">@borenbears</a> . His work can be found <a href="http://tinyurl.com/sethap" type="external">here</a> .</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This Associated Press <a href="" type="internal">series</a> was produced in <a href="https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2017/ap-and-howard-hughes-medical-institute-collaborate-to-enhance-science-journalism" type="external">partnership</a> with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.</p> | Science Says: Why there's a big chill in a warmer world | false | https://apnews.com/amp/d7809e71d48d44399966aabfce26115e | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/4672499359/"&gt;White House&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175546/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_road_to_amnesia/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>It’s the saddest reading around: the little announcements that dribble out of the Pentagon every day or two—those terse, relatively uninformative death notices: rank; name; age; small town, suburb, or second-level city of origin; means of death (“small arms fire,” “improvised explosive device,” “the result of gunshot wounds inflicted by an individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform,” or sometimes something vaguer like “while conducting combat operations,” “supporting Operation Enduring Freedom,” or simply no explanation at all); and the unit the dead soldier belonged to. They are seldom 100 words, even with the usual opening line: “The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.” Sometimes they include more than one death.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" /></p>
<p>They are essentially bureaucratic notices designed to draw little attention to themselves. Yet cumulatively, in their hundreds over the last decade, they represent a grim archive of America’s still ongoing, already largely forgotten <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175336/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_war_is_a_drug/" type="external">second Afghan War</a>, and I’ve read them obsessively for years.</p>
<p>Into the Memory Hole</p>
<p>May is the official month of remembrance when it comes to our war dead, ending as it does on the long Memorial Day weekend when Americans typically take to the road and kill themselves and each other in far greater numbers than will die in Afghanistan. It’s a weekend for which the police tend to <a href="http://douglascountysentinel.com/view/full_story/3294899/article-Memorial-Day-Holiday-Big-increase-in-traffic-fatalities-predicted" type="external">predict</a> rising fatalities and news reports tend to celebrate any <a href="http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=464577" type="external">declines</a> in deaths on our roads and highways.</p>
<p>Quiz Americans and a surprising number undoubtedly won’t have thought about the “memorial” in Memorial Day at all—especially now that it’s largely a marker of the start of summer and an excuse for cookouts.</p>
<p>How many today are aware that, as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day" type="external">Decoration Day</a>, it began in 1865 in a nation still torn by grief over the loss of—we <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/civil-war-toll-up-by-20-percent-in-new-estimate.html" type="external">now know</a>—up to 750,000 dead in the first modern war, a wrenching civil catastrophe in a then-smaller and still under-populated country? How many know that the first Decoration Day was held in 1865 with 10,000 freed slaves and some Union soldiers parading on a Charleston, South Carolina, race track previously frequented by planters and transformed in wartime into a grim outdoor prison? The former slaves were honoring Union prisoners who had died there and been hastily buried in unmarked graves, but as historian Kenneth Jackson <a href="http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/25705.html" type="external">has written</a>, they were also offering “a declaration of the meaning of the war and of their own freedom.”</p>
<p>Those ceremonies migrated north in 1866, became official at national cemeteries in 1868, and grew into ever more elaborate civic remembrances over the years. Even the South, which had previously marked its grief separately, began to take part after World War I as the ceremonies were extended to the remembrance of all American war dead. Only in 1968, in the midst of another deeply unpopular war, did Congress make it official as Memorial Day, <a href="http://www.hnn.us/articles/127087.html" type="external">creating</a> the now traditional long holiday weekend.</p>
<p>And yet, when it comes to the major war the United States is still fighting, now in its 11th year, the word remembrance is surely inappropriate, as is the “Memorial” in Memorial Day. It’s not just that the dead of the Afghan War have largely been tossed down the memory hole of history (even if they do get official attention on Memorial Day itself). Even the fact that Americans are still dying in Afghanistan seems largely to have been forgotten, along with the war itself.</p>
<p>As the endlessly <a href="http://newyork.newsday.com/news/nation/poll-only-27-percent-support-afghanistan-war-1.3707773" type="external">plummeting</a> opinion polls indicate, the Afghan War is one Americans would clearly prefer to forget—yesterday, not tomorrow. It was, in fact, regularly classified as “the forgotten war” almost from the moment that the Bush administration turned its attention to the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and so declared its urge to create a Pax Americana in the Greater Middle East. Despite the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175176/tomgram:__state_of_surge,_afghanistan/" type="external">massive “surge”</a> of troops, special operations forces, CIA agents, and civilian personnel sent to Afghanistan by President Obama in 2009-2010, and the ending of the military part of the Iraq debacle in 2011, the Afghan War has never made it out of the grave of forgetfulness to which it was so early consigned.</p>
<p>Count on one thing: there will be no Afghan version of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Lin" type="external">Maya Lin</a>, no Afghan Wall on the National Mall. Unlike the Vietnam conflict, tens of thousands of books won’t be pouring out for decades to come arguing passionately about the conflict. There may not even be a “who lost Afghanistan” debate in its aftermath.</p>
<p>Few Afghan veterans are likely to return from the war <a href="http://hnn.us/articles/31396.html" type="external">to infuse</a> with new energy an antiwar movement that <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/12656055-418/iraq-afghan-veterans-against-war-return-medals.html" type="external">remains small</a> indeed, nor will they worry about being “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0814751474/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">spit upon</a>.” There will be little controversy. They—their traumas and their wounds—will, like so many bureaucratic notices, disappear into the American ether, leaving behind only an emptiness and misery, here and in Afghanistan, as perhaps befits a bankrupting, never-ending imperial war on the global frontiers.</p>
<p>Whistling Past the Graveyard of Empires</p>
<p>If nothing else, the path to American amnesia is worth recalling on this Memorial Day.</p>
<p>Though few here remember it that way, the invasion of Afghanistan was launched on a cult of the dead. These were the dead civilians from the Twin Towers in New York City. It was to their memory that the only “Wall” of this era—the <a href="http://www.911memorial.org/" type="external">9/11 Memorial</a> at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan—has been built. Theirs are the biographies that are still remembered in <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175437/tom_engelhardt_let%27s_cancel_9/11" type="external">annual rites nationwide</a>. They are, and remain, the dead of the Afghan War, even though they died before it began.</p>
<p>On the other hand, from the moment the invasion of Afghanistan was launched, how to deal with the actual American war dead was always considered a problematic matter. The Bush administration and the military high command, with the Vietnam War still etched in their collective memories, feared those uniformed bodies coming home (as they <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175017/tom_engelhardt_body_count_nation" type="external">feared and banished</a> the “body count” of enemy dead in the field). They remembered the return of the “body bags” of the Vietnam era as a kind of nightmare, stoking a fierce antiwar movement, which they were determined not to see repeated.</p>
<p>As a result, in the early years of the Afghan and then Iraq wars, the Bush administration took relatively draconian steps to cut the media off from any images of the returning war dead. They <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55816-2003Oct20?language=printer" type="external">strictly enforced</a> a Pentagon ban, in existence since the first Gulf War, on media coverage and images of the coffins arriving from the war fronts at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. At the same time, much publicity was given to the way President Bush <a href="http://busharchive.froomkin.com/A54460-2004Apr6.html" type="external">met privately</a> and emotionally—theoretically beyond the view of the media—with the families of the dead.</p>
<p>And yet, banned or not, for a period the war dead proliferated. In those early years of Washington’s two increasingly catastrophic wars on the Eurasian mainland, newspapers regularly produced full-page or double-page “walls of heroes” with tiny images of the faces of the American dead, while their names were repeatedly <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-614916.html" type="external">read</a> in somber tones on television. In a similar fashion, the antiwar movement toured the country with little “cemeteries” or displays of <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-01-22-chicago-boots_x.htm" type="external">combat boots</a> representing the war dead.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />The Pentagon ban ended with the arrival of the Obama administration. In October 2009, six months after the Pentagon rescinded it, in an obvious rebuke to his predecessor, President Obama traveled <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100015312/barack-obama-was-right-to-see-coffins-coming-back-to-dover/" type="external">to Dover Air Base</a>. There, inside a plane bringing the bodies of the dead home, he reportedly prayed over the coffins and was later photographed offering a salute as one of them was carried off the plane. But by the time the arrival of the dead could be covered, few seemed to care.</p>
<p>The Bush administration, it turns out, needn’t have worried. In an America largely <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175507/tom_engelhardt_remotely_piloted_war" type="external">detached from war</a>, the Iraq War would end without fanfare or anyone here visibly giving much of a damn. Similarly, the Afghan War would continue to limp from one disaster to the next, from an American <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/murder-in-afghanistan-spiegel-tv-s-kill-team-documentary-a-754554.html" type="external">“kill team”</a> murdering Afghan civilians “for sport” to troops <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-marines-soul-searching-urinating-video/story?id=15353762#.T7w7Gr89aUc" type="external">urinating</a> on Afghan corpses (and videotaping the event), or <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/18/nation/la-na-afghan-photos-20120418" type="external">mugging</a> for the camera with enemy body parts, or an American sergeant <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2012/0323/Sgt.-Robert-Bales-charged-with-premeditated-murder-of-17-Afghans" type="external">running amok</a>, or the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175509/engelhardt_turse_blown_away" type="external">burning of Korans</a>, or the raising of an <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/09/us-military-marines-nazi-ss-flag-photo" type="external">SS banner</a>. And, of course, ever more regularly, ever more unnervingly, Afghan “allies” <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47440148/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/t/us-led-imperative-peril-trained-afghans-turn-enemy/" type="external">would turn their guns</a> on American and NATO troops and blow them away. It’s a phenomenon almost unheard of in such wars, but so <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-two-soldiers-20120513,0,7092854.story" type="external">common</a> in Afghanistan these days that it’s gotten its own label: “green-on-blue violence.”</p>
<p>This has been the road to oblivion and it’s paved with forgotten bodies. Forgetfulness, of course, comes at a price, which includes the escalating <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2011/06/2011629145430649752.html" type="external">long-term costs</a> of paying for the American war-wounded and war-traumatized. On this Memorial Day, there will undoubtedly be much cant in the form of tributes to “our heroes” and then, Tuesday morning, when the mangled cars have been towed away, the barbeque grills cleaned, and the “heroes” set aside, the forgetting will continue. If the Obama administration has its way and American special operations forces, trainers, and advisors in reduced but still significant numbers <a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2012/05/22/for-public-consumption-nato-pullout-wont-actually-remove-troops-from-afghanistan/" type="external">remain</a> in Afghanistan until perhaps <a href="http://video.msnbc.msn.com/dylan-ratigan-show/47253169#47253169" type="external">2024</a>, we have more than another decade of forgetting ahead of us in a tragedy that will, by then, be beyond all comprehension.</p>
<p>Afghanistan has often enough been <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175040/tom_engelhardt_the_imperial_unconscious" type="external">called</a> “the graveyard of empires.” Americans have made it a habit to whistle past that graveyard, looking the other way—a form of obliviousness much aided by the fact that the American war dead conveniently come from the less well known or forgotten places in our country. They are so much easier to ignore thanks to that.</p>
<p>Except in their hometowns, how easy the war dead are to forget in an era when <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175507/tom_engelhardt_remotely_piloted_war" type="external">corporations go to war</a> but Americans largely don’t. So far, <a href="http://icasualties.org/OEF/index.aspx" type="external">1,980</a> American military personnel (and significant but <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/world/asia/afghan-war-risks-are-shifting-to-contractors.html" type="external">largely unacknowledged</a> numbers of private contractors) have died in Afghanistan, as have 1,028 NATO and allied troops, and (despite <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39036" type="external">U.N. efforts</a> to count them) unknown but staggering numbers of Afghans.</p>
<p>So far in the month of May, 22 American dead have been listed in those Pentagon announcements. If you want a little memorial to a war that shouldn’t be, check out their hometowns and you’ll experience a kind of modern graveyard poetry. Consider it an elegy to the dead of second- or third-tier cities, suburbs, and small towns whose names are resonant exactly because they are part of your country, but seldom or never heard by you.</p>
<p>Here, then, on this Memorial Day, are not the names of the May dead, but of their hometowns, announcement by announcement, placed at the graveside of a war that we can’t bear to remember and that simply won’t go away. If it’s the undead of wars, the deaths from it remain a quiet crime against American humanity:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15244" type="external">Spencerport</a>, New York</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15248" type="external">Wichita</a>, Kansas</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15250" type="external">Warren</a>, Arkansas</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15251" type="external">West Chester</a>, Ohio</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15253" type="external">Alameda</a>, California</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15256" type="external">Charlotte</a>, North Carolina</p>
<p>Stow, Ohio</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15257" type="external">Clarksville</a>, Tennessee</p>
<p>Chico, California</p>
<p>Jeffersonville, Kentucky</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15275" type="external">Yuma</a>, Arizona</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15276" type="external">Normangee</a>, Texas</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15277" type="external">Round Rock</a>, Texas</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15280" type="external">Rolla</a>, Missouri</p>
<p>Lucerne Valley, California</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15282" type="external">Las Cruses</a>, New Mexico</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15296" type="external">Fort Wayne</a>, Indiana</p>
<p>Overland Park, Kansas</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15300" type="external">Wheaton</a>, Illinois</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15299" type="external">Lawton</a>, Oklahoma</p>
<p>Prince George, Virginia</p>
<p><a href="http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15304" type="external">Terre Haute</a>, Indiana.</p>
<p>As long as the hometowns pile up, no one should rest in peace.</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the <a href="http://americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a> and the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608460711/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s</a> as well as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. His latest book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a> (Haymarket Books). To listen to Timothy MacBain’s latest Tomcast audio interview in which he discusses what Americans should consider remembering on Memorial Day, click <a href="http://tomdispatch.blogspot.com/2012/05/tomdispatch-founder-and-author-most.html" type="external">here</a> or download it to your iPod <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=j0SS4Al/iVI&amp;amp;subid=&amp;amp;offerid=146261.1&amp;amp;type=10&amp;amp;tmpid=5573&amp;amp;RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fpodcast%2Ftomcast-from-tomdispatch-com%2Fid357095817" type="external">here</a>. [Note on Further Reading: For those interested in exploring the history of Memorial Day, there’s no better place to visit than the always fascinating website <a href="http://hnn.us/articles/12140.html" type="external">History News Network</a>.&#160; For carefully put together records on American and NATO deaths in Afghanistan, visit <a href="http://icasualties.org/OEF/index.aspx" type="external">icasualties.org</a>. &#160;Simply to keep up on American war news, not always the easiest thing in the mainstream media these days, make sure to visit <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/" type="external">Antiwar.com</a> (as I do daily).] Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook.</a> To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | Afghanistan: Our Forgotten War | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/memorial-day-afghanistan-forgotten-war/ | 2012-05-25 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>The jury deliberated about 80 minutes before finding Marcos Maestas guilty of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery but not guilty of a charge of tampering with evidence, the News Journal said.</p>
<p>Maestas is facing a 12-year sentence — nine for the armed robbery and three for conspiracy — but defense attorney Jennifer Burrill said Maestas should get credit for the three years he already has spent in jail, the paper reported. The sentencing date has not been set.</p>
<p>Maestas, Patrick Quintana, Juana Griego and Santos Preciado, all of Tucumcari, were arrested following the robbery of American Heritage Bank in Melrose in April 2010, the News Journal said. All of Maestas’ co-defendants pleaded guilty and have been incarcerated.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>6:43am 2/2/12 — Melrose Bank Robber Gets 12 Years</p>
<p>By ABQnews Staff</p>
<p>Patrick Quintana, 26, of Tucumcari, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his conviction on one count of armed robbery and one count of conspiracy in connection with the April 12, 2010, robbery of American Heritage Bank in Melrose, 9th Judicial District Attorney Matthew Chandler said in a <a href="http://www.cnjonline.com/news/robbery-46578-armed-one.html" type="external">news release</a>.</p>
<p>Quintana and three other people left Tucumcari intending to rob the Melrose bank, and when three of the suspects, including Quintana, entered the bank they placed a “closed” sign on the front door, threatened bank employees and left with nearly $30,000 in cash, the DA’s Office said in the release.</p>
<p>With the help of witnesses, officers spotted the suspects’ vehicle traveling toward Tucumcari, and some witnesses and officers saw clothing, weapons and money being thrown out of the vehicle before all four suspects were arrested after being stopped at a roadblock, the release said.</p>
<p>While the state had argued for the maximum 15-year sentence, state District Judge Stephen Quinn imposed 12 years in prison, followed by two years of intensively supervised probation, according to the release.</p>
<p>Quinn also found that Quintana’s crime was a serious violent offense and ordered him to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.</p>
<p>7:42am 9/7/11 — Tucumcari Woman Sentenced for Melrose Bank Robbery</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Juana Griego, 20, of Tucumcari, was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for her part in a 2010 daylight robbery of American Heritage Bank in Melrose, the <a href="http://www.qcsunonline.com/news/bank-9722-robbery-griego.html" type="external">Quay County Sun</a> reported.</p>
<p>Griego, who was convicted of armed robbery and tampering with evidence, must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence and will serve two years of intensive supervised parole on her release, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Andrea Reeb.</p>
<p>Griego and three others were charged with robbing the bank of $30,000 shortly after it opened for business on the morning of April 12, 2010, the Sun said.</p>
<p>Wearing baseball caps and bandanas to hide their faces, the robbers scrawled a misspelled note on the back of a Spider Man comic book and stuck it to the front door of the bank, saying “closed until further notice,” according to police.</p>
<p>The bank’s chief executive officer, Gordon Morris of Melrose, pursued the four in a chase that exceeded 95 mph and used his cell phone to call police, who were able to stop and arrest the four on N.M. 209, the Sun said.</p>
<p>The other three defendants were Marcos Maestas, 20; Patrick Quintana, 25; and Santos Preciado, 18, all of Tucumcari, the paper reported.</p>
<p>Preciado pleaded guilty to bank robbery on Dec. 1 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to earlier reports.</p>
<p>Maestas and Quintana are awaiting trial, according to the Sun.</p>
<p>***********************************************************************************************************</p>
<p>10:25pm 12/2/10 — One of Four People Accused in Melrose Bank Robbery Gets 12 Years: Other three defendants are awaiting trial.</p>
<p>One of the four people accused of robbing a Melrose bank last April has been sentenced to serve 12 years in prison, the <a href="http://www.cnjonline.com/news/one-41099-count-armed.html" type="external">Clovis News Journal</a> reported.</p>
<p>The newspaper said that according to a news release from the District Attorney’s Office, state District Judge Stephen Quinn also sentenced Santos Preciado, 19, to serve two years of intensively supervised parole after his release.</p>
<p>The news release said Preciado was sentenced for one count of armed robbery, one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and one count of tampering with evidence, the News-Journal reported.</p>
<p>The charges stemmed from the April 12 robbery of the American Heritage Bank in Melrose. The other three defendants are awaiting trial, according to the newspaper.</p>
<p>Wednesday, 14 April 2010 16:18</p>
<p>Authorities recovered $16,460 from a backpack found in the vehicle four people are accused of using in an attempt to get away after they allegedly robbed a Melrose bank, the Clovis News Journal reported.</p>
<p>The newspaper said that according to the Curry County Sheriff’s Office, the bank is conducting an audit to ensure all the money is accounted for.</p>
<p>Marco Maestas, 20, Patrick Quintana, 25, Juana Griego, 19, and Santos Preciado, 18, all of Tucumcari, have been charged with felony counts of armed robbery, conspiracy and tampering with evidence in connection with Monday’s robbery of the American Heritage Bank in Melrose, according to the News Journal.</p>
<p>Police said the weapons used in the robbery — a pellet gun, a machete and a baseball bat — were recovered, the newspaper reported.</p>
<p>The News Journal said that according to court records, the robbers posted a handwritten, misspelled note on the back of a Spider-Man comic book page on the front door of the bank after entering the building. The newspaper reported that according to arrest affidavits filed Tuesday in Curry County Magistrate Court, the note said, “closed intill further notice, Thank you.”</p>
<p>Monday, 12 April 2010 17:25</p>
<p>Four people arrested in connection with a bank robbery Monday morning in Melrose have been charged with armed robbery and other charges are pending, Curry County Undersheriff Wesley Walker told the Clovis News Journal.</p>
<p>The four, three men and a woman, all of Tucumcari, were being held at the Curry County Detention Center, according to the newspaper. They have been identified as Marcos Maestas, 20, Patrick Quintana, 25, Juana Griego, 19, and Santos Preciado, 18.</p>
<p>The four are accused in the robbery of the American Heritage Bank in Melrose, which the bank’s president, Mac Langford, said occurred less than 15 minutes after the bank opened at 9 a.m. Monday, the News Journal reported.</p>
<p>Waller told the newspaper the Sheriff’s Office received a call about 9:20 a.m. reporting that four people had robbed the bank using a pellet gun, machete and baseball bat.</p>
<p>The News Journal said that according to Waller, a bank employee followed the getaway car and gave details until law enforcement officers took over the pursuit. Waller said the suspects disposed of weapons and disguises during the pursuit.</p>
<p>Lt. Cleo Baker of the State Police said the four were arrested without incident at a State Police road block on N.M. 209 just outside of House, the newspaper reported.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Monday, 12 April 2010 13:03</p>
<p>Four people — three men and one woman — have been arrested in connection with the robbery Monday morning of the American Heritage Bank in Melrose, the Clovis News Journal reported.</p>
<p>The newspaper said the four suspects were arrested by Curry County sheriff’s deputies at about 10 a.m. after a chase through Curry County into Quay County.</p>
<p>The suspects were reported to be armed with a gun, bat and machete, the News Journal reported.</p>
<p>The newspaper said that according to Mac Langford, president of American Heritage Bank in Melrose, the bank was robbed in the first 15 minutes of the day. The bank opened at 9 a.m.</p> | UPDATED: 2010 bank robber found guilty | false | https://abqjournal.com/212168/updated-2010-bank-robber-found-guilty.html | 2013-06-19 | 2 |
<p>National Heroes Acre, an imposing martial monument about ten kilometers west of Harare’s city center, holds the graves of the favored icons of Robert Mugabe’s party, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zimbabwe-African-National-Union-Patriotic-Front" type="external">Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front</a> (ZANU-PF).</p>
<p>The shrine, designed in the shape of an AK-47, has a tomb of the unknown soldier, a towering obelisk, and other harsh polygonal structures made of black granite, all of which give the place a brutal, authoritarian ambience.</p>
<p>Locals, with the help of North Koreans, constructed the site to honor the protagonists of the lengthy guerrilla war that won Zimbabwe its independence from the racist, minority white <a href="" type="internal">Rhodesian regime</a>.</p>
<p>North Korean officers later trained soldiers who would be deployed in the south and west of the country in a campaign that resulted the deaths of twenty thousand suspected anti-government victims among the Ndebele community.</p>
<p>While the shrine has “national” in its name, it really belongs to ZANU-PF elites; while it is supposed to be a repository of national memory, a commemoration of what is best about Zimbabweans, it instead displays ZANU-PF’s hegemony over the country.</p>
<p>In a speech there last month, Mugabe attacked his latest opponent, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/17/evan-mawarire-thisflag-movement-leader-challenges-/" type="external">Evan Mawarire</a>. There was nothing particularly remarkable about what Mugabe said; it was business as usual for a president who has successfully fought off political opponents for the last thirty years.</p> | The Resilient Robert Mugabe | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2016/08/robert-mugabe-evan-mawarire-this-flag-zimbabwe/ | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
<p>Eight weeks after starting a job as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new social-media director, Scott Kleinberg quit, <a href="https://t.co/VqGQAdBjrShttps://nypost.com/2016/06/29/de-blasios-social-media-director-quits-calls-colleagues-political-hacks/" type="external">savaging</a> his former boss and his organization in a searing Facebook post that he later removed.</p>
<p>Kleinberg asserted that he quit in order to salvage his health and his sanity, writing:</p>
<p>Well, that was fast. I moved to NYC for a dream job, and that’s not what I got. I tried to stick it out, but it was impossible. I don’t even know the word quit, but for the sake of my health and my sanity, I decided I needed to do just that. Now, for the first time in my life, I’m unemployed. It hasn’t been easy, and I’m turning to you for help.</p>
<p>I ended up with political hacks, plus a boss who just couldn’t get. It was a bad combination for sure … No one should have to go to bed every day with pains in their chest, and no one should have to work 13 hours a day week after week plus weekends … And when someone offers you a job and then takes pieces of it away so it’s no longer the job that you were offered, it’s time to pack it in and find something else. I haven’t slept more than 3 hours a night — 4 if I’m lucky — in at least a month … I couldn’t post anything without getting it approved. Crazy but true. Just one of the many things wrong with everything.</p>
<p>Ignoring the fact that Kleinberg had worked as the social media editor for one of the biggest newspapers in the country, The Chicago Tribune, before his stint working for de Blasio, City Hall spokeswoman Andrea Hagelgans patronized, “New York City government is a tough, fast-paced job that is not for everyone.</p>
<p>On May 3, the New York City official website <a href="http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/422-16/mayor-de-blasio-changes-his-communications-lineup" type="external">trumpeted</a> Kleinberg’s hiring, writing, Scott Kleinberg will join City Hall as Director of Social Media and Digital Engagement. Kleinberg and his team will infuse personality and engagement into the social media channels for the Office of the Mayor and City government as a whole.</p>
<p>Patrick Muncie, the campaign spokesman for NYC Deserves Better, which supports de Blasio opponent Bradley Tusk, stated, “We will gladly meet with Scott, if he’s interested.”</p> | De Blasio’s Social Media Director Says He Had To Quit Or Lose His Mind | true | https://dailywire.com/news/7106/de-blasios-social-media-director-says-he-had-quit-hank-berrien | 2016-06-30 | 0 |
<p>No one’s ever said Bill Clinton didn’t love women in his own way.</p>
<p>In fact, most of the country over 20 years old or so knows more about Clinton’s way of loving – and the trail it can leave — than mere political awareness would require.</p>
<p>Photo: <a href="http://www.cheaphumidors.com/blog/humor/4-legendary-presidents-smoking-cigars/" type="external">Cheaphumidors.com</a></p>
<p>So word that the former president and the foundation he heads <a href="https://www.ijreview.com/2014/02/114488-can-guess-pro-womany-democrat-won-womans-day-mag-pro-woman-award/" type="external">were honored Tuesday&#160; by Woman’s Day magazine</a> drew more than a few laughs in the Twitter world.</p>
<p>And the award being called a “Red Dress” didn’t help matters.</p>
<p>For everyone who cares, Clinton was accepting the award on behalf of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation’s work against childhood obesity.</p>
<p>Everyone else — meaning everyone reading this — can check out some of the responses here, take a 16-year stroll down memory lane, and remember the most famous blue dress that ever came out of the White House.</p>
<p>Some offerings were a little more moralistic …</p>
<p>More proof libs are mentally ill: <a href="https://twitter.com/billclinton" type="external">@billclinton</a> sexual predator given Woman’s Day Red Dress Award. Seriously? What. The. Hell. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23tcot&amp;src=hash" type="external">#tcot</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23tgdn&amp;src=hash" type="external">#tgdn</a></p>
<p>— SPINELESS_Rs_SUCK (@LIBSRSCUM) <a href="https://twitter.com/LIBSRSCUM/statuses/433598645032599552" type="external">February 12, 2014</a></p>
<p>Some were downright grim …</p>
<p>Bill Clinton graciously accepted his Woman’s Day Award. Up next, Kermit Gosnell will be receiving his plaque for Pediatrician of the Year.</p>
<p>— Holly Fisher (@HollyRFisher) <a href="https://twitter.com/HollyRFisher/statuses/433596952932925440" type="external">February 12, 2014</a></p>
<p>One was simply speechless.</p>
<p>Some people know when to keep their mouth shut.</p> | Tell me Woman’s Day did not just give Bill Clinton an award by this name | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2014/02/12/tell-me-womans-day-did-not-just-give-bill-clinton-an-award-by-this-name-100398 | 2014-02-12 | 0 |
<p>(Reuters) – FIFA has ordered the World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Senegal, played in November 2016, to be replayed after the referee was banned for life.</p>
<p>FIFA said in March that Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey had been banned for life after they found him guilty of unlawfully influencing a match result following South Africa’s 2-1 win over Senegal in African Group D.</p>
<p>FIFA did not give further details but African soccer’s governing body (CAF) said at the time that Lamptey had wrongly awarded a penalty to the South Africans and suspended him for three months.</p>
<p>The life ban for Lamptey was recently upheld by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).</p>
<p>“The Bureau for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers ordered a replay of the qualification match between South Africa and Senegal held on 12 November 2016,” FIFA said in a statement on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“The match will be replayed within the November 2017 international window, with the exact date to be confirmed in due course.</p>
<p>“As stated in the FIFA World Cup regulations, this decision shall come into effect immediately but shall be subject to confirmation by the Organizing Committee for FIFA Competitions&#160;at its next meeting, scheduled for 14 September,” added the FIFA statement.</p>
<p>CAF had said that Lamptey was guilty of “poor performance” in the match and “awarded a wrong penalty for handball despite the fact that the ball never touched the hand of the player”.</p>
<p>Thulani Hlatshwayo converted the penalty in the 42nd minute and Thulani Serero added another goal three minutes later.</p>
<p>Lamptey previously served a six-month ban, imposed by CAF, for wrongly awarding a goal during a CAF Champions League semi-final in 2010.</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> | FIFA orders South Africa-Senegal qualifier to be replayed after referee banned | false | https://newsline.com/fifa-orders-south-africa-senegal-qualifier-to-be-replayed-after-referee-banned/ | 2017-09-06 | 1 |
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<p>Another man met them there. With him, Schneider pushed Nelson to the ground and kicked him at least 30 times with steel-toed boots while Nelson begged for his life, according to court documents. Nelson was choked and stripped of his clothes before they drove away in his car, taking Nelson’s wallet, credit cards and clothing with him.</p>
<p>Barefoot and naked, Nelson knocked on the doors of nearby homes, asking residents to call 911. Hours after being transported to a Boise, Idaho, hospital with broken ribs and a bleeding ear, he died of cardiac arrest.</p>
<p>In a state court Monday, Schneider pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, saying he intended to rob Nelson but not kill him, the Idaho Statesman reported. He admitted to kicking the man repeatedly and acknowledged that his actions caused Nelson’s death.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Afterward, Idaho U.S. attorney Wendy J. Olson announced that Schneider, 23, of Nampa, Idaho, had been indicted on federal hate crime charges by a grand jury for willfully assaulting Nelson because of his sexual orientation. The indictment alleges that Schneider’s actions resulted in the death of his victim. The charge is punishable by up to life in prison, supervised release of not more than five years and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled to be arraigned this week in U.S. District Court in Boise before Magistrate Ronald Bush. A trial date will be set at the same time.</p>
<p>The fatal beating of the openly gay man has been compared by some in the community to the murder of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student from Wyoming whose torture and subsequent death set off a nationwide debate about hate crimes and homophobia and led to the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.</p>
<p>“Folks are grieving the loss of a fellow colleague, as well as facing the reality that our community can be a hostile and sometimes very dangerous place for folks who identify as LGBTQIA,” said Adriane Bang, director of the Gender Equity Center at Boise State University.</p>
<p>Prosecutors dropped Schneider’s charges of felony robbery, theft and robbery conspiracy in exchange for his guilty plea on the murder charge. He faces up to life in prison. Prosecutors can recommend a fixed sentence as high as 28 years before parole eligibility, and the defense can ask for as little as 10 years.</p>
<p>Deputy Canyon County Prosecutor Chris Boyd said Schneider had lured and beaten other victims “many, many times before.” He called the beating of Nelson “particularly brutal,” the Idaho Statesman reported.</p>
<p>Jayson Woods, 28, of Nampa, is accused of helping Schneider as he beat and robbed Nelson of his car, wallet and other possessions. Kevin R. Tracy, 21, of Nampa, and Daniel Henkel, 23, of Wilder, are accused of hiding nearby in case Nelson put up a struggle.</p>
<p>Woods’s trial began in District Court on Monday, and Tracy and Henkel are scheduled as witnesses. Tracy is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 6 on first-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy charges. Henkel is set for trial March 6 on the same charges. They have both pleaded not guilty, the Idaho Statesman reported.</p>
<p>Investigators identified and arrested Schneider by comparing his tattoos to a photo in the Backpage ad. They found the others with the help of a woman who called the sheriff’s office to say her SUV had been used to drop Schneider off at the Walmart. According to court documents, the woman said Woods held her inside the SUV, drove her around and forced her to perform sex acts with random men for money.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In the wake of the news last spring, family and friends mourned Nelson’s death, recounting memories of his distinctive baritone voice, his talent for theater lighting and his love for baking croissants.</p>
<p>He was in his late 40s when he finished his bachelor’s degree in public relations at the University of Idaho in 2011. He hoped to work as a development director, possibly one day managing fundraising for a political campaign, the Idaho Statesman reported.</p>
<p>Nelson was anything but shy, and gave presentations to university classes about his experiences as an openly gay man, according to University of Idaho Professor Becky Tallent.</p>
<p>“Somebody brought up Matthew Shepard in class one day,” she said. “Steven said something along the line of, ‘I hope to God we’ve gotten past that kind of violence.'”</p>
<p>According to KTVB, Tallent said her friend and former student had previously received homophobic slurs and even a punch, but frequently let cruel comments roll off his back.</p>
<p>“As he put it, people are just sometimes so bigoted that there’s nothing you can do to talk to them,” she said.</p>
<p>Tallent said she was horrified to hear of the brutal way in which her friend died.</p>
<p>“For one human being to do this to another is just beyond the pale, especially as someone as generous as Steven Nelson,” she said.</p> | Idahoan admits to brutal murder of gay man as he pleaded for his life | false | https://abqjournal.com/934524/idahoan-admits-to-brutal-murder-of-gay-man-as-he-pleaded-for-his-life.html | 2 |
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<p>Given the burgeoning popularity of the product, a ban makes sense. E-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that allow a vaporized liquid to be inhaled by the user, are touted by advocates as a safer and cheaper alternative to traditional cigarettes. Use among both adults and minors has doubled in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>
<p>But the jury is still out on the “safer” idea – the federal Food and Drug Administration is set to issue new guidelines on the devices in the near future; health professionals point out that there is yet little research into the effects of nicotine delivered without smoke.</p>
<p>More to the point, many of these devices dispense nicotine, the highly addictive component of tobacco, in the vapor they emit. So how much can the devices really be said to differ from regular cigarettes?</p>
<p>Because of the addiction factor – and the fact that the overall health impact to users has yet to be determined – it makes sense to restrict their use. Minors under 18 are already prohibited from buying cigarettes and other tobacco products, the use of which involve well-established health risks. Likewise it’s illegal to supply minors with tobacco, and there are numerous constraints on the advertising of these products to young people.</p>
<p>At least one Santa Fe e-cigarette dealer says he’s all for a ban on the nicotinized products, though he said he hopes that in Santa Fe at least, any proposed city ordinance will allow the non-nicotinized devices, often delivering flavored vapor, to continue to be sold to minors.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In our view, such pharmaceutical hairsplitting would likely make the ban on nicotinized e-cigarettes for minors unenforceable. Better to restrict the availability of the devices to minors across the board, which also might head off habits that could lead to nicotine versions of e-cigarettes or to old-fashioned tobacco.</p>
<p>For now, the proposed Santa Fe ban applies only to the sale of e-cigarettes with nicotine, but the measure has only now started moving through the City Council review process.</p>
<p>New Mexico and Santa Fe would join more than two dozen other state and local governments in regulating e-cigarettes if the ban for minors were adopted. At this point, tighter regulation makes the most sense.</p>
<p /> | All e-cigarettes should be banned for minors | false | https://abqjournal.com/304579/all-ecigarettes-should-be-banned-for-minors.html | 2 |
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<p>This week our selection of Truthdig-flavored videos includes a shocking short documentary on the evangelical war on evolution; a bird’s-eye view of perhaps the first ever avatar-attended virtual peace rally; and a troubling home movie of a U.S. Humvee engaging in bumper-car action in Baghdad.</p>
<p>No. 1: Evangelicals Make War on Evolution</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.veoh.com/videos/v227726hEHmFWsm" type="external">short documentary</a> is perhaps as scary as it gets: Creationists indoctrinate children into believing that humans and dinosaurs coexisted a few thousand years ago.</p>
<p>Watch it:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>No. 2: Avatars Against the War</p>
<p>While thousands of people were in D.C. protesting the war on Jan. 30, more than 120 digital versions of people gathered online in the Second Life world to stage a virtual protest.</p>
<p>Watch a video of it:</p>
<p>No. 3: How Americans Get Around Town</p>
<p>“Countdown” aired this troubling video of American soldiers negotiating Iraqi traffic by bumping cars out of the way and driving on the wrong side of the road. The soldiers would rather avoid making themselves stationary targets than build goodwill among the already outraged Iraqis.</p>
<p>Watch it:</p>
<p />
<p>No. 4: A ‘Comatose’ Congress</p>
<p>Reacting to Congress’ inability to even bring a debate about Bush’s troop escalation plan to the floor, <a href="http://www.jwharrison.com/blog/2007/02/07/the-daily-show-non-binding-resolutions-and-dem-candidates/" type="external">Jon Stewart said</a>, “It turns out they weren’t even capable of hollow posturing.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.jwharrison.com/blog/2007/02/07/the-daily-show-non-binding-resolutions-and-dem-candidates/" type="external">Watch it</a></p>
<p /> | Weekly Video Roundup | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/weekly-video-roundup-5/ | 2007-02-10 | 4 |
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<p>However, the Fed’s carefully worded statement hinted that expectations for economic growth and inflation are strengthening, as consumer and business sentiment has improved and oil prices have rebounded from ultra-low levels in recent months.</p>
<p>Analysts had widely expected the Fed’s key interest rate to remain at 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent, following the central bank’s decision to lift interest rates at its previous two-day policy meeting in December. On Wednesday morning, futures markets pointed to a 96 percent chance that the Federal Reserve would remain on hold. Yet market were closely watching for clues as to how the Fed might pursue further interest rate hikes in 2017. In its statement, the Fed subtly hinted that the environment for such hikes might be improving.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In its statement, the Fed removed references to “declines in energy prices and in prices of non-energy imports” that it said had earlier dragged on inflation. It also added that “measures of consumer and business sentiment have improved of late.”</p>
<p>While the Federal Reserve has long planned to pursue a slow but steady course of normalizing interest rates, it has emphasized that the pace will hinge on the progress of the economy. If the economic recovery beings to pick up speed, the central bank will also move more quickly to raise interest rates from the ultra-low levels at which they have hovered since the financial crisis.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s election has buoyed expectations for growth, but also introduced a greater level of uncertainty about the direction of the economy. Trump has pledged to slash individual and corporate taxes and boost infrastructure spending through tax credits. These measures could spark further economic growth, but they could also drive up inflation – forcing the Fed to raise interest rates to keep prices stable.</p>
<p>Yet that path is not certain, economists say. They also point to Trump’s proposals of imposing high tariffs on imports from China, Mexico and other countries, measures that run the risk of triggering retaliation or even a trade war. That could clamp down on U.S. exports and the economy.</p>
<p>The market, so far, has expected the rosier scenario. Stock markets have rallied since Trump’s election with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing above 20,000 for the first time on record. The dollar has also strengthened on expectations that tax cuts and spending will help to heat up the economy.</p>
<p>Markets rose slightly after the Fed statement on Wednesday, with the three major indexes up less than 1 percent.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In December, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said some Fed officials had incorporated estimates for how government spending might influence the economy into their forecasts. She also said that the Fed was “operating under a cloud of uncertainty” when it came to the economy’s course and that it would have to “wait and see what changes occur.”</p>
<p>Stephen Oliner, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that stimulative measures from the Trump administration did run the risk of igniting inflation, given low unemployment and the strength of the economy. “The Fed definitely is on high alert about the possibility that fiscal stimulus at this late stage of the cycle could be inflationary if it’s not met by a significant tightening in monetary policy.”</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve has long sought to gradually lift interest rates from the near-zero levels of the financial crisis. But in the past few years, its efforts have often been frustrated by unspectacular growth, low inflation and deep uncertainties in the global and domestic economy.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate at the end of 2015, the first increase since the Great Recession. In December it raised its benchmark rate again to the current level of between 0.5 percent and 0.75 percent. The Fed had initially anticipated as many as four hikes in 2016, but a stock market crash in China and Britain’s widely unanticipated decision to exit the European Union has encouraged the central bank to remain cautious.</p>
<p>“Right now our foot is still pressing on the gas pedal, though, as I noted, we have eased back a bit,” Yellen told a crowd at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in January. “Our foot remains on the pedal in part because we want to make sure the economic expansion remains strong enough to withstand an unexpected shock, given that we don’t have much room to cut interest rates.”</p>
<p>Going forward, the Fed aims to move gradually to head off signs of emerging inflation. By doing so, it hopes to avoid a situation in which inflation suddenly spikes and the Fed needs to raise its interest rate more quickly, a move which could run the risk of destabilizing the economy.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>At its December meeting, the median expectation of the committee was for three rate hikes in 2017. The market remains more reserved, however, with the largest proportion of investors expecting two rate hikes this year to bring the Fed funds rate to between 1 and 1.25 percent.</p>
<p>David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide Mutual, said that for the last several years Fed projections have overstated what the central bank has ended up accomplishing. “Financial markets have been a more accurate predictor of what Fed policy actually is than the Fed’s own projections. . . We’ll see if markets are again a more accurate predictor of Fed policy than the Fed itself.”</p>
<p>Trump’s measures come at a time when the economy is chugging along, though at a slower rate than some past periods of economic expansion. Economists say the U.S. labor market appears strong, with the unemployment rate now nearing pre-recession levels at 4.7 percent in December. Yet measures of GDP growth and inflation remain relatively tepid.</p>
<p>This combination has caused some economists to question whether the United States is still facing headwinds that will continue to evaporate in the next few years, or if the financial crisis somehow permanently moved the economy to a lower potential level of growth – for example, if workers retired early and no longer want to rejoin the labor force. In June, Yellen showed signs of embracing this second interpretation when she commented that slow growth and low inflation might be a “new normal.”</p>
<p>Economic projections released by the Fed in December indicated that the central bank expects the economy to grow 2.1 percent in 2017 and 2.0 percent in 2018. Those figures would be far below the 4 percent growth rates targeted by the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Trump has both publicly complimented and criticized Yellen. In mid-2016, he said he had “great respect” for her. But he also repeatedly accused her and the Fed of keeping rates low to boost economic growth and cement former President Obama’s legacy – claims that Yellen has firmly denied.</p>
<p>“I think she is very political, and to a certain extent, I think she should be ashamed of herself,” Trump said in September.</p>
<p>Yellen has signaled that she will serve out the remainder of her term, but analysts believe Trump may replace her when that term ends on Feb. 3, 2018. With his election, Trump immediately inherits two vacant spots on the board of governors, which help to set monetary policy.</p> | Fed leaves interest rate unchanged | false | https://abqjournal.com/941420/fed-leaves-interest-rate-unchanged.html | 2 |
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<p>As White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales originated, authorized, approved, and aided and abetted grave breaches of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 (e.g., torture and Gitmo kangaroo courts), which are serious war crimes. In other words, Gonzales is a prima facie war criminal. He must be prosecuted under the Geneva Conventions and the US War Crimes Act.</p>
<p>For example, article 129 of the Third Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War provides in relevant part with respect to prima facie U.S. war criminals such as Gonzales: “Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such graves breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts.”</p>
<p>To the same effect is article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention protecting Civilians in wartime. This obligation to prosecute Gonzales applies to every High Contracting Party to the Geneva Conventions, which means almost every state in the world, including the United States of America–still “the land of the free, and the home of the brave” despite incumbent US Attorney General John Ashcroft, another prima facie war criminal. And there is no statute of limitations for the commission of such serious war crimes. No wonder the Bush Jr administration has done everything humanly possible to sabotage the International Criminal Court.</p>
<p>The same conclusions can be reached by the application of the Pentagon’s own U.S. Department of the Army Field Manual 27-10, The Law of Land Warfare, which, by its own terms, also applies to civilian government officials such as Gonzales involved in ordering or aiding and abetting or conspiring to commit war crimes</p>
<p>Despite the pusillanimous predilections of Senator Leahy, the U.S. Senate must reject his nomination. As a prima facie war criminal, Gonzales is not fit to be Attorney General of the United States of America. Should Gonzales travel around the world in that capacity, then human rights lawyers around the world will attempt to get him prosecuted wherever he might go along the lines of what they did to General Pinochet in London. Like pirates, war criminals are “hostes humani generis”–the enemies of all humankind. A fitting description for Bush Jr and his gang of war criminals.</p>
<p>Francis A. Boyle, Professor of Law, University of Illinois, is author of <a href="" type="internal">Foundations of World Order</a>, Duke University Press, <a href="" type="internal">The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">Palestine, Palestinians and International Law</a>, by Clarity Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | War Criminal as Attorney General? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/11/18/war-criminal-as-attorney-general/ | 2004-11-18 | 4 |
<p>Discussion Paper - Harvard Kennedy School</p>
<p />
<p>Concerned that the regulatory process has become excessively litigious and adversarial, scholars and policymakers have increasingly urged federal regularos to adopt more consensual methods of creating public policy. Notwithstanding the overwhelming interest in and support for negotiated rulemaking, administrative agencies have only infrequently relied on the formal regulatory process. Over its thirteen year history, the negotiated rulemaking process has yielded only thirty final administrative rules. By comparison, the federal government publishes over 3,000 final rules each year through the ordinary notice-and-comment process. Why have federal agencies relied so little on negotiated rulemaking.</p>
<p>This paper addresses this question by assessing the impact of negotiated rulemaking on its two major purposes: (1) reducing overal rulemaking time; and (2) decreasing the amount of litigation over agency rules. Unlike most other studies, I examine the use of negotiated rulemaking by all federal agencies over the past thirteen years. My analysis suggests that the asserted problems used to justify negotiated rulemaking have been overstated. Negotiation ordinarily pervades the rulemaking process, and litigation is vastly less common than previously supposed. Similarly, negotiated rulemaking has been overstated as a viable strategy for gaining consensus and avoiding the occasional lawsuit.</p>
<p>Negotiated rulemaking consumes more resources for agencies and stakeholders than does notice-and-comment rulemaking, and it fails to yield any significant impact on the levels of litigation or controversy which normal rulemaking occasionally engenders. Indeed, 6 out of the 12 negotiated rules adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have resulted in court challenges, a litigation rate higher than the overall rate for EPA rules. Ultimately, my findings question the growing call among scholars and policymakers for reforming the regulatory process to rely more extensively on formal negotiated rulemaking. Formal negotiation, it seems, will not eliminate conflict and controversy in the regulatory process any more than it does in the legislative process. Efforts to mandate the use of regulatory negotiation will accomplish little in the way of reducing litigation or promoting more effective regulation and may well serve only to burden regulatory agencies further.</p>
<p /> | Assessing Consensus: The Promise and Performance of Negotiated Rulemaking | false | http://belfercenter.org/publication/assessing-consensus-promise-and-performance-negotiated-rulemaking | 2 |
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<p>Aug. 18 (UPI) — A wildlife charity in Singapore shared video of an orphaned flamingo chick taking a walk in a pair of specially-made blue shoes.</p>
<p>Wildlife Reserves Singapore posted a video Thursday <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wrs.sg/videos/10154669505562051/" type="external">to Facebook</a> showing Squish, the 2-month-old greater flamingo chick, taking a walk in the blue booties caretakers made for him so he wouldn’t hurt his feet on hard surfaces.</p>
<p>The group said Squish was abandoned as an egg and has been raised on a special formula that resembles flamingo milk for just over two months.</p>
<p>“Squish loves flaunting those shiny blue shoes! This adorable ball of grey has been the subject of much love and pampering — human carers even custom made Squish a fancy pair of shoes for his daily exercise,” the group said.</p> | Orphaned flamingo baby gets custom blue shoes to protect feet | false | https://newsline.com/orphaned-flamingo-baby-gets-custom-blue-shoes-to-protect-feet/ | 2017-08-18 | 1 |
<p>J.R. Vulpis</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/laura-clery/" type="external">Laura Clery</a> is taking her face-morphing routine to <a href="http://variety.com/t/snapchat/" type="external">Snapchat</a> with a new short-form sketch series for <a href="http://variety.com/t/comedy-central/" type="external">Comedy Central</a>.</p>
<p>The internet comedian — who has more than 3.2 million Facebook followers and 1.3 million on Instagram — wrote, directed and stars in “The Laura Clery Project.” The three-episode show is slated to go live on Comedy Central’s Snapchat Discover channel Tuesday, and the cable network has an option to order more episodes.</p>
<p>In each of the 60- to 90-second sketches, Clery plays herself talking to three different characters, created using Snapchat-like facial filters: an insane, murderous baby; a bearded dude who aggressively hits on her during a study session; and a perverted, chain-smoking 70-year-old woman based on Clery’s real-life aunt.</p>
<p>“I use a lot of Snapchat filters in my comedy,” Clery said. “I thought it would be cool to do a show without any makeup or prosthetics.”</p>
<p />
<p>The twist: Clery wasn’t allowed to use Snapchat’s facial filters for the show for legal reasons, because Comedy Central has the option to distribute it on its own properties. Instead, the characters in “The Laura Clery Project” were created using CGI effects by post-production company Bubba’s Chop Shop, based in Van Nuys, Calif.</p>
<p>“We brought in a post-production team to create filters from scratch,” Clery said. “I basically had to send this post-production team pictures of what I wanted it to look like. I shot the stuff all as me, and they added this all in post.”</p>
<p>“The Laura Clery Project” Snapchat show will not include one of her most popular characters: Helen, a fat-faced, aggressively flirtatious woman who is constantly trying to get in the pants of Steven (played by Clery’s real-life husband).</p>
<p>Helen has her own show in <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/facebook-watch-video-shows-us-launch-1202543689/" type="external">Facebook’s recently launched Watch episodic video section</a>, called&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/helphelensmash/" type="external">“Help Helen Smash,”</a>&#160;which currently has nearly 280,000 followers. Clery said she’s working to get investors to fund an animated series on Facebook based on the Helen character — which she hopes could turn into a half-hour show. “I want to get out a season of 90-second animated ‘Helen’ shows on Facebook, then I want to go to Netflix and say, ‘Let’s do a 22-minute show,’” she said.</p>
<p>Clery, 31, also is developing a Facebook show for another character, Pamela Pupkin, a healthy-living/cooking “expert” who will bring in real-world chefs and authors as guests — segments that quickly devolve into a train wreck. That’s being produced with Canvas Media Studios and eOne. The comedian-actress-writer-director has garnered a 2017 Streamy Awards nomination for best comedy channel.</p>
<p>“I want to keep putting out shows on digital,” said Clery. “I’m not that interested in TV that much.”</p>
<p>The deal with Comedy Central for the Snapchat show was brokered by her manager, Larry Shapiro of Ensemble Digital Studios, and JR Satery of the Gersh Agency. Clery’s lawyer is Matt Wallerstein.</p> | Laura Clery Stars in Snapchat Facial-Filter Sketch Series for Comedy Central | false | https://newsline.com/laura-clery-stars-in-snapchat-facial-filter-sketch-series-for-comedy-central/ | 2017-09-05 | 1 |
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<p>ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) — A driver who went missing after a one-car rollover in New Mexico says he later woke up in a field of donkeys.</p>
<p><a href="http://goo.gl/qybzKn" type="external">KOAT-TV reports</a> New Mexico State Police say the driver called 911 seven hours after investigators failed to find any victims from the crash in Roswell late Friday.</p>
<p>The driver, whose name has not been released, told 911 dispatchers that he was lost and found himself surrounded by the animals.</p>
<p>Authorities say the man claims he and a passenger were drinking the night before but didn’t remember what happened next.</p>
<p>Police say the driver suffered injuries to a shoulder and his hands and the passenger suffered back injuries.</p>
<p>The driver was issued multiple citations, but the charges haven’t been released.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Missing driver says he woke up in field of donkeys | false | https://abqjournal.com/463779/missing-driver-says-he-woke-up-in-field-of-donkeys.html | 2 |
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<p>WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — For a guy who made eight of his 10 shots, Wichita State center Shaquille Morris sure made his two missed shots memorable.</p>
<p>He could laugh about them after scoring 19 points and getting the result No. 17 Wichita State desperately needed — an 81-62 victory over Central Florida on Thursday night.</p>
<p>After making his first seven shots, Morris missed a one-handed alley-oop, his thundering effort leaving the basket shaking for some time. Morris' last shot was a 3-point attempt in which he landed on the defender's foot and rolled his ankle, ending his night with 6:05 to play.</p>
<p>Morris was just happy to end a two-game losing streak for Wichita State (16-4, 6-2 American Athletic Conference).</p>
<p>"We took care of what we needed to do," Morris said. "We're trying to get back to playing angry and doing what we're known for."</p>
<p>Darral Willis had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Shockers, many of whom noted tough practices since losing at Houston on Saturday.</p>
<p>"We were kind of intimated at Houston," Shockers coach Gregg Marshall said. "The guys did not respond after being punched in the mouth.</p>
<p>"It's about time to figure that out."</p>
<p>Dayon Griffin scored 15 points to lead Central Florida (13-7, 4-4 American). B.J. Taylor had 12 points for the Knights.</p>
<p>After getting outrebounded 22-19 in the first half, Wichita State outrebounded Central Florida 29-16 in the second half.</p>
<p>Each team's leading scorer, and preseason all-conference selection, had a difficult night. Taylor was 4 of 15 from the floor, while Wichita State guard Landry Shamet had just 4 points on 2-of-9 shooting. Shamet did have a game-high six assists.</p>
<p>But Marshall liked how his team played overall, scoring 81 points against a tough defensive opponent — the Knights entered fifth nationally in defensive field goal percentage — while compiling 16 assists and six turnovers.</p>
<p>"We just got a lot of contributions from a number of guys," Marshall said. "Shaq with his scoring. And Darral looked healthy and active."</p>
<p>Knights coach Johnny Dawkins said his team wore down late.</p>
<p>"They're deep enough where they can keep rotating bodies in and out," he said. "They keep the pressure on you, keep a high pace."</p>
<p>LINEUP CHANGES</p>
<p>Earlier in the week, Marshall hinted at changes to the starting lineup. It was more than a small alteration.</p>
<p>Austin Reaves replaced Conner Frankamp at guard, Markis McDuffie replaced Zach Brown at forward, and Rauno Nurger supplanted Morris at center.</p>
<p>"I just thought it was time for McDuffie to get in there," Marshall said.</p>
<p>Marshall said Morris and Frankamp missed Monday's practice with physical ailments, and the team implemented a new rule that anyone who does not make every practice that week will not start.</p>
<p>"I used to have that rule but had kind of let it go with a veteran team," Marshall said. "We brought it back."</p>
<p>HEY COACH</p>
<p>Many of the Knights stopped by Wichita State's bench during warmups to say hello to Shockers assistant Donnie Jones, Central Florida's head coach from 2010-2016.</p>
<p>Jones recruited six of the team's current players. Injured center Tacko Fall had a long chat with Jones.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE:</p>
<p>Central Florida: The Knights were unable to steal an upset on the road but now have two straight home games.</p>
<p>Wichita State: The Shockers avoid losing two straight games at Koch Arena for the first time since February 2011.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Central Florida: The Knights host Connecticut on Tuesday</p>
<p>Wichita State: The Shockers host Tulsa on Sunday</p>
<p>WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — For a guy who made eight of his 10 shots, Wichita State center Shaquille Morris sure made his two missed shots memorable.</p>
<p>He could laugh about them after scoring 19 points and getting the result No. 17 Wichita State desperately needed — an 81-62 victory over Central Florida on Thursday night.</p>
<p>After making his first seven shots, Morris missed a one-handed alley-oop, his thundering effort leaving the basket shaking for some time. Morris' last shot was a 3-point attempt in which he landed on the defender's foot and rolled his ankle, ending his night with 6:05 to play.</p>
<p>Morris was just happy to end a two-game losing streak for Wichita State (16-4, 6-2 American Athletic Conference).</p>
<p>"We took care of what we needed to do," Morris said. "We're trying to get back to playing angry and doing what we're known for."</p>
<p>Darral Willis had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Shockers, many of whom noted tough practices since losing at Houston on Saturday.</p>
<p>"We were kind of intimated at Houston," Shockers coach Gregg Marshall said. "The guys did not respond after being punched in the mouth.</p>
<p>"It's about time to figure that out."</p>
<p>Dayon Griffin scored 15 points to lead Central Florida (13-7, 4-4 American). B.J. Taylor had 12 points for the Knights.</p>
<p>After getting outrebounded 22-19 in the first half, Wichita State outrebounded Central Florida 29-16 in the second half.</p>
<p>Each team's leading scorer, and preseason all-conference selection, had a difficult night. Taylor was 4 of 15 from the floor, while Wichita State guard Landry Shamet had just 4 points on 2-of-9 shooting. Shamet did have a game-high six assists.</p>
<p>But Marshall liked how his team played overall, scoring 81 points against a tough defensive opponent — the Knights entered fifth nationally in defensive field goal percentage — while compiling 16 assists and six turnovers.</p>
<p>"We just got a lot of contributions from a number of guys," Marshall said. "Shaq with his scoring. And Darral looked healthy and active."</p>
<p>Knights coach Johnny Dawkins said his team wore down late.</p>
<p>"They're deep enough where they can keep rotating bodies in and out," he said. "They keep the pressure on you, keep a high pace."</p>
<p>LINEUP CHANGES</p>
<p>Earlier in the week, Marshall hinted at changes to the starting lineup. It was more than a small alteration.</p>
<p>Austin Reaves replaced Conner Frankamp at guard, Markis McDuffie replaced Zach Brown at forward, and Rauno Nurger supplanted Morris at center.</p>
<p>"I just thought it was time for McDuffie to get in there," Marshall said.</p>
<p>Marshall said Morris and Frankamp missed Monday's practice with physical ailments, and the team implemented a new rule that anyone who does not make every practice that week will not start.</p>
<p>"I used to have that rule but had kind of let it go with a veteran team," Marshall said. "We brought it back."</p>
<p>HEY COACH</p>
<p>Many of the Knights stopped by Wichita State's bench during warmups to say hello to Shockers assistant Donnie Jones, Central Florida's head coach from 2010-2016.</p>
<p>Jones recruited six of the team's current players. Injured center Tacko Fall had a long chat with Jones.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE:</p>
<p>Central Florida: The Knights were unable to steal an upset on the road but now have two straight home games.</p>
<p>Wichita State: The Shockers avoid losing two straight games at Koch Arena for the first time since February 2011.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Central Florida: The Knights host Connecticut on Tuesday</p>
<p>Wichita State: The Shockers host Tulsa on Sunday</p> | Morris helps No. 17 Wichita State to 81-62 win over UCF | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e93847357f984b3691c60b85dea68da5 | 2018-01-26 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The scramble to get everything ready for the launch of the world’s first commercial flights from Spaceport America came to a screeching halt nearly a month ago when Virgin Galactic’s spaceship broke up over the California desert during a test flight.</p>
<p>There was heartbreak, but now the New Mexico Spaceport Authority is scrambling again. This time, the focus is on drawing more tenants to the nearly quarter-billion-dollar spaceport and maintaining support among state lawmakers.</p>
<p>Christine Anderson, the authority’s executive director, learned this week she might have to do that one legislator at a time.</p>
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<p>Anderson was called out by Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, for handing members of an interim legislative finance committee a presentation filled mostly with photographs. Lundstrom and other lawmakers wanted hard numbers and more details about what plan the authority has to get past the Virgin Galactic mishap and get the taxpayer-financed spaceport off the ground.</p>
<p>“It just made all of us look like idiots, like we don’t do our homework,” Anderson said. “That’s not the case whatsoever.”</p>
<p>Anderson pointed to a meeting just a month earlier with the same committee in which she testified for six hours about what the spaceport authority has done, how much money it has spent and on what projects, how much revenue it’s likely to bring and what needs to be done going forward.</p>
<p>The testimony covered everything from the salaries and benefits of spaceport employees to how much is spent to keep the lights on at the futuristic building in southern New Mexico.</p>
<p>“It was all in there,” Anderson said.</p>
<p>Lundstrom didn’t hear any of it. She wasn’t at that meeting and neither were dozens of other legislators.</p>
<p>Anderson acknowledged Friday that the spaceport authority needs to do a better job of getting its message across to each lawmaker, and one of the important parts will be fostering more cooperation with business leaders to “beat the bushes” as the search continues for tenants.</p>
<p>The authority’s board of directors is planning another meeting before the year’s end to discuss updates to its business plan, and Anderson has called for meetings with state economic development officials to enlist their help in drawing in more business.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Spaceport America’s anchor tenant is Virgin Galactic. With flights delayed indefinitely, the state stands to lose about $1.7 million a year.</p>
<p>Anderson expects to erase some of the deficit with revenue from other events, including fashion and auto photo shoots and more rocket launches by companies such as UP Aerospace.</p>
<p>According to spaceport projections, more money will come from lease and user fees related to the testing scheduled to begin next spring for a reusable rocket being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.</p>
<p>SpaceX has spent $2 million in infrastructure improvements at spaceport, and Virgin Galactic is forecast to spend more than $3 million building out the main hangar and terminal that has become the face of the spaceport.</p>
<p>Spaceport officials told lawmakers this week that one of the challenges in courting new tenants is that many are years away from becoming operational. That won’t help fill the temporary void left by Virgin’s delay.</p>
<p>Still, Lundstrom and other lawmakers said they want to see the spaceport succeed because of the implications that would have for New Mexico and the burgeoning commercial space industry.</p>
<p>For Anderson, who retired from the Air Force after 30 years of civilian service, support for Spaceport America doesn’t involve politics.</p>
<p>“It’s more of a gut feeling: Do I believe in space? Do I believe in this project?” she said. “Even if you don’t, let’s try to make it successful because we’ve already committed.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | New Mexico spaceport sets sights on new customers | false | https://abqjournal.com/500657/space-tourism-spaceport-america.html | 2014-11-23 | 2 |
<p>U.S. equities and stock exchange traded funds stumbled as traders were reminded that politics can still affect market sentiment after President Donald Trump’s eldest son revealed possible Russian support during the election campaign. The S&amp;P 500 Index, along with related funds including the SPDR S&amp;P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY), iShares Core S&amp;P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV) and… <a href="https://www.etftrends.com/trump-russia-political-imbroglio-keeps-pressure-on-u-s-stock-etfs/" type="external">Click to read more at ETFtrends.com. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Trump, Russia Political Imbroglio Keeps Pressure on U.S. Stock ETFs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/11/trump-russia-political-imbroglio-keeps-pressure-on-u-s-stock-etfs.html | 2017-07-11 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ: SWKS) will look to extend its momentum when it releases its second-quarter fiscal 2017 results on April 27. Shares of the semiconductor specialist have risen over 30% this year, thanks to a terrific <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/20/why-skyworks-solutions-stock-popped-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">first-quarter performance Opens a New Window.</a> back in January and a bright outlook driven by potential gains at its largest customer, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Here's what investors should expect from Skyworks' upcoming earnings.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Wall Street expects Skyworks' second-quarter revenue to increase 8.4% from the prior-year period to $840 million, in line with the company's <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/15/why-skyworks-solutions-inc-stock-jumped-229-in-jan.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">guidance Opens a New Window.</a>. As it turns out, analysts were originally expecting lower revenue of $818 million, but contract wins at Chinese smartphone companies and Apple-related tailwinds led to a stronger outlook.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Skyworks should be able to meet its guidance, as Apple -- which accounts for 40% of the chipmaker's revenue -- hasn't slashed its iPhone builds as severely as it did last year. Nikkei <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/within-expectations-apple-will-cut-iphone-production-to-start-2017/articleshow/56263244.cms" type="external">reports Opens a New Window.</a> that Cupertino's iPhone production dropped 30% in the first quarter of 2016, which led to a marginal 2% increase in Skyworks' revenue. But the decline was relatively softer at 10% in the recently concluded quarter, explaining the stronger growth expected this time around.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Skyworks' stronger revenue growth is expected to boost its earnings to $1.40 per share, mitigating the negative impact of a 1-percentage-point decline in the gross margin from first-quarter levels. Wall Street was originally forecasting $1.24 per share in earnings, but Apple's relatively stronger iPhone production will play a key role in boosting its bottom line.</p>
<p>Image source: Skyworks Solutions.</p>
<p>Skyworks' guidance will largely depend on Apple's production timeline for the next iPhone. Late last month, Economic Daily News reported that the iPhone supply chain is already in motion, as key supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing will start mass-producing the A11 chip in April. The report also stated that TSMC could manufacture 50 million A11 chips by July, with another 50 million expected in the remainder of the year.</p>
<p>Such a scenario means that Skyworks' guidance could top expectations once again, though analysts should take the report with a grain of salt, as rumors have begun of iPhone production bottlenecks. Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri believes Apple is struggling with low yields for the fingerprint sensor that's supposed to be integrated into the display itself. This problem could force Apple to push its production timeline back, negatively affecting Skyworks' guidance.</p>
<p>It can't be denied that Apple will play a big part in deciding Skyworks' outlook, but there's another catalyst that investors shouldn't ignore. The chipmaker has been <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/29/how-skyworks-solutions-inc-is-growing-beyond-apple.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">gaining content Opens a New Window.</a> at Chinese smartphone companies such as Vivo, OPPO, and Huawei by launching specific products targeted at this market.</p>
<p>For instance, the SkyOne Ultra 2.5 front-end LTE solution that was launched earlier this year will help the chipmaker target the growing demand for LTE chipsets in the Chinese market. China is the biggest market for LTE smartphones globally, and Chinese vendors such as OPPO, Vivo, and Huawei are now dominating the global marketplace.</p>
<p>This is good news for Skyworks investors, as sales of the top 10 Chinese original equipment manufacturers for smartphones could rise 39% this year, with Vivo, OPPO, and Huawei expected to cross the 500 million-unit mark.</p>
<p>Skyworks' focus on diversifying its business elsewhere should help it do well during lean iPhone manufacturing periods. For instance, OPPO recently launched its new flagship phone, the F3 Plus, which should help Skyworks boost its sales during the June quarter as it supplies radio frequency chips to the smartphone maker.</p>
<p>Skyworks Solutions investors, therefore, can expect an optimistic outlook from the company once again, thanks to its gains outside Apple, while an early production ramp-up of the next iPhone could be another tailwind.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Skyworks SolutionsWhen 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=bd98182c-017d-40b8-bfbe-2a2dda391612&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 Skyworks Solutions 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=bd98182c-017d-40b8-bfbe-2a2dda391612&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/TechJunk13/info.aspx" type="external">Harsh Chauhan Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Skyworks Solutions. The Motley Fool has the following options: short August 2017 $87 calls on Skyworks Solutions and short August 2017 $85 puts on Skyworks Solutions. 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> | What to Expect From Skyworks Solutions' Q2 Earnings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/22/what-to-expect-from-skyworks-solutions-q2-earnings.html | 2017-04-22 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Starbucks Corp on Monday announced changes to its loyalty program that will mean some customers will have to spend more money at the coffee chain to earn free food and drinks.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Under Starbucks' current rewards program, customers earn redeemable points for every purchase. The new program will award points for every dollar spent, a change that is sure to spark complaints from customers who are used to accumulating points with frequent purchases of drip coffee and other lower-cost items from the Seattle-based chain.</p>
<p>The widely anticipated change to the Starbucks Rewards program in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico comes as airlines and other companies have been tweaking their rewards programs to make them generally less-generous to consumers.</p>
<p>Starbucks customers now earn one "star" per purchase and may redeem 12 stars for a free food and drink item. Starting in mid-April, customers will get two stars for every $1 spent but need 125 stars to get a free item.</p>
<p>Matthew Ryan, Starbucks global chief strategy officer, said the change was not a way to weaken Starbucks' rewards program. The vast majority of Starbucks customers will earns rewards at the same pace they do today and the total percentage of revenue that Starbucks will provide as rewards will remain constant, Ryan said.</p>
<p>However, he acknowledged that the change will affect a small minority of the more than 11 million active users of Starbucks' reward program.</p>
<p>About 1 percent of the chain's total transactions now come from "check-splitters," customers who request two or more transactions in a single visit to earn stars more quickly, Ryan said.</p>
<p>While the change could mean that some Starbucks customers get less for their stars than previously, it will benefit those who spend the most, said Patrick Surry, chief data scientist at Hopper, who has analyzed airline miles programs.</p>
<p>"It aligns the incentives so the more you spend, the more you get back," Surry said.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Dan Grebler)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Starbucks Tightens Loyalty Program's Rewards | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/02/22/starbucks-tightens-loyalty-programs-rewards.html | 2016-02-22 | 0 |
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<p>Republican Scott Baird and Democrat Manuel Gonzales participated in a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of New Mexico on Thursday night where they shared views on many policy issues, but took shots at each other when they each got to ask the other a question.</p>
<p>Asked about whether they would consider requiring deputies to use lapel camera as the Albuquerque Police Department requires of most officers for every interaction with citizens, Baird said, “The (sheriff’s) department doesn’t have a credibility problem. Deputies are trusted. I don’t think it’s the proper time.”</p>
<p>Baird added that requiring deputies to film all interactions isn’t fair to victims of crime and other people who are recorded after approaching police.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Current BCSO policy requires deputies to audio record many encounters with citizens. Baird said he wouldn’t change that.</p>
<p>Gonzales said APD would have been better off implementing its lapel camera policy just for officers who had use-of-force or civil rights complaints against them.</p>
<p>APD and city officials have said lapel cameras aim to increase transparency because people can have proof of how officers treat people. But they raise questions when the cameras fail to record an encounter.</p>
<p>Both candidates are retired deputies. Baird retired as a chief deputy and Gonzales was appointed sheriff and served for a little more than a year before losing an election to Dan Houston in 2010.</p>
<p>The candidates were each asked 20 questions on topics including marijuana decriminalization, using surplus military equipment, citizens filming law enforcement officers and recreational shooting in the East Mountains.</p>
<p>When given the chance to ask each other questions, Baird said he was part of current-Sheriff Dan Houston’s transition team, and he said Gonzales refused to work with him and locked him out of the building.</p>
<p>Baird questioned Gonzales’ ability to collaborate with other law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>Gonzales said he has an impeccable internal affairs record and was insulted and disrespected by the question. He then asked Baird about his criminal convictions – Baird has three DWI convictions from the 1980s – and said Baird had been disciplined after internal affairs investigations. He asked Baird to explain why he is the best choice for sheriff given his history.</p>
<p>Baird said he has been open and honest about troubles in his past.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 2 in sheriff race oppose lapel cameras | false | https://abqjournal.com/473921/race-oppose-lapel-cameras.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>She was one of 65 households that can receive free food through August as part of a new program sponsored by a $50,000 grant from Morgan Stanley. The grant has allowed Roadrunner Food Bank to set up distribution sites at eight schools in Albuquerque and Las Cruces.</p>
<p>Volunteer Mahonri Perez,, right, helps Esperanza Sanchez, carry donated food items to her vehicle at the Parajito Elementary School on Tuesday June 18, 2013. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis-Journal)</p>
<p>Every two weeks, food distribution will be held at Pajarito and four other schools in Albuquerque, and at three schools in Las Cruces until the week of Aug. 5. At one of the schools, Atrisco Heritage Academy High, distribution is weekly, according to Sonya Warwick, food bank spokeswoman.</p>
<p>“It makes me feel really good. We’re doing what we need to do to take care of our kids,” said Brown, 31, whose three sons are 2, 6 and 8, and whose daughter is 11 months old. While she studies to become a medical assistant at Brookline College, her husband works at a golf course. “I don’t feel self-conscious or embarrassed,” she said, “because my kids are worth it.”</p>
<p />
<p>For information on getting food from food banks, call Roadrunner’s food referral line at 505-349-8841.</p>
<p>Like many of the parents, she learned about the program when the school sent letters home in students’ backpacks when school let out for the summer.</p>
<p>Using baby strollers, laundry baskets, wheeled carts and milk crates, families showed up to tote home the food that would feed 144 adults and 162 children, 80 of whom are students at Pajarito, according to volunteer Pamela Campos, the school’s family support liaison who helped run the three-hour donation.</p>
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<p>Recipients lined up 50 strong outside the school before 10 a.m. and went inside the school’s gym a few at a time to stock up on Texas onions, yellow squash, green zucchini, key limes, pasta shells, rice, pinto beans, dried tomatoes, bagged bagels and cereal. There were also six boxes of whole frozen chickens. “Everybody gets one, OK?” Campos called out to families. “One chicken per client.”</p>
<p>Unlike state meal distribution programs, the Roadrunner-Morgan Stanley collaboration provides food that is not intended for immediate consumption, but that can make a variety of meals over the course of a week. Like state-run programs, it aims to substitute for the free and reduced meals offered when school is in session.</p>
<p>“It helps me a lot because without this I can’t make it,” said Esperanza Sanchez, 36, a mother of six kids ranging in age from 8 to 18 whose husband works part time in construction. “We’re eight; there’s a lot.”</p>
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<p /> | New program feeds hungry kids | false | https://abqjournal.com/212049/new-program-feeds-hungry-kids.html | 2013-06-19 | 2 |
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