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<p>It was only a matter of time before the “pull down” NAFTA and WTO trade agreements on U.S. wages and jobs would be followed by “pull down” contract demands by U.S. corporations on their unionized workers toward levels of non-unionized laborers.</p>
<p>The most recent illustration of this three-decade reversal of nearly a century of American economic advances for employees is the numerous demands by Verizon</p>
<p>Here are just a few of the concessions the new Verizon CEO, Lowell McAdam, is insisting upon:</p>
<p>–More power to contract out and offshore jobs to add to the 25,000 already in that category; thereby undermining job security.</p>
<p>–a freeze on pensions;</p>
<p>–elimination of the sickness and death benefit program;</p>
<p>–reduction in sick days; and</p>
<p>–a major increase in employee contributions to and deductibles under their health insurance coverage.</p>
<p>Mr. Lowell McAdam would surely have trouble feeling the pain of his workers who brave the elements storm or shine to afford him a salary of over 1.5 million dollars PER MONTH plus perks and benefits.</p>
<p>Watching Verizon profits soar year after year, noticing Verizon stock rise faster than its competitors, knowing that the company’s top five executives took in over $250 million between them in the last four years, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) took their members on strike on August 7, 2011. “Unfair and unacceptable” was their cry on the picket lines up and down the east coast.</p>
<p>These workers pay their taxes. While the tax lawyers for their bosses have figured out how to turn Verizon into a vast tax escapee. According to the super-accurate Citizens for Tax Justice, Verizon Communications made a total of $32.5 billion dollars in pretax U.S. profits during 2008, 2009, 2010. Far from paying the maximum federal corporate income tax rate of 35 percent on these ample profits, Verizon’s federal income tax was negative $951 million or negative 2.9 percent!</p>
<p>Some of these saved tax revenues have been getting into expensive daily full page advertisements (not deductible it is hoped) in the Washington Post, The New York Times, and other large newspapers. Verizon’s brazen assertions reflect the limitless arrogance of a multinational behemoth.</p>
<p>Verizon’s headlines its ad with these words: “They claim we’re asking union-represented employees to contribute to their own health care premiums. THEY’RE RIGHT. Verizon is proposing that its union-represented employees contribute more toward the cost of rising health care. 135,000 non-union Verizon employees already pay a portion of the healthcare premium. We’re just asking our union -represented employees to chip in like everybody else. We think that’s fair.”</p>
<p>There you have it – the “pull down” ultimatum to the level of the voiceless majority of Verizon workers. Of course Verizon bosses with their fat paychecks do not have to worry at all about co-payments and larger deductibles in their gold-plated health plan.</p>
<p>Another anti-union Verizon ad featured this assertion: “They claim we want to strip away 50 years of contract negotiations. THEY’RE RIGHT. The union contracts that have expired were drafted over 50 years ago, when people still used rotary phones. Verizon is proposing to update the contracts in a reasonable manner to reflect the changing times.”</p>
<p>The CWA leaders recognize that some changes need to be made and have offered compromises. But fifty years ago, a telephone company CEO never dared pay himself anywhere near the multiple that today’s Verizon executives get compared to the average workers. Maybe then the CEO would get 20 times the entry level wage. Now it is between two hundred to four hundred times.</p>
<p>Verizon does have one last argument. At the bottom of each full-page ad, it describes exacting concessions from its workers as “all in an effort to best position Verizon to serve our customers.” Are those the same customers who are subject to all kinds of extremely one-sided fine print that spells suppression of rights, overcharges, termination fees, penalties and other straitjackets of contract serfdom? Are those the same customers who have to wait and wait to get their service and billing complaints addressed and questions answered? Are those the same customers who can never get Verizon to put what its spokespersons say on the phone in writing?</p>
<p>The CWA workers went back to their jobs on August 22, 2011. Verizon had threatened to cut off their medical, dental and optical benefits by August 31.Their 2008 contract continues until ongoing negotiations with the company are concluded for a new contract.</p>
<p>Verizon keeps saying that what they’re doing just “reflects the changing times.” The times are changing – skyrocketing executive pay packages and corporate profits – slashing benefits for the workers and their families – shredding of all moral authority by example from the top.</p>
<p>If negotiations break down in the coming weeks and the CWA goes out on strike again, consumer advocates and their organizations should make it explicitly clear that Verizon can’t excuse what they’re doing to workers in order to better “serve our customers.”</p>
<p>Verizon is going increasingly wireless. They are also going increasingly shameless!</p>
<p>Ralph Nader&#160;is a consumer advocate and author of the fictional&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!</a></p> | Verizon: From Wireless to Shameless | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/08/23/verizon-from-wireless-to-shameless/ | 2011-08-23 | 4 |
<p />
<p>There’s a painting in the Louvre, I think, by some dead Frenchman, called The Crowning of Charlemagne. It’s an enormous mural that takes up the whole wall of one gallery–very important artistically and all that–but its interest for a student of politics lies in its portrayal of Christmas Day, 800 A.D., when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, until then a mere King of the Franks, Emperor of Rome and all that remained of its empire. Charlemagne had already raped and conquered most of this land, but he didn’t really feel he could look himself in the mirror until he had that crown on his head. Leo, though short on troops, had something even sexier: the power to crown Charlemagne emperor.</p>
<p>Something about a column William Safire wrote for the New York Times near Christmas Day, 1992 A.D., got me thinking of Leo and Charlemagne. Safire was confiding, to more than a million of his closest friends, the schmoozing he had done at a party earlier in the week, “at Kay’s for Bill.” (If you have to ask, forget it.) Not much happened there, just the usual kneeling and kissing of rings. After a hectic and frequently disturbing exercise in television democracy, all the stars were back in place in Washington’s insider constellation. As he tells it, Safire, Pope of the Punditocracy, was hanging around the living room, minding his own business, when “sure enough,” Bill Clinton (formerly King of the Ozarks) came his way. The president paid his respects, promising Safire, “You write it, I’ll read it,” and then disappeared into the night. As if cued by a bishop offstage, along came Hillary. “You gave me some good advice early in the campaign,” she told Safire. “I took it.”</p>
<p>I should think so. Woe to the politician or politician’s spouse (as Jimmy Carter, Nancy Reagan, and George Bush learned to their respective misfortunes) who gets on the wrong side of one of Safire’s obsessions. It must be fun to watch politicians rail against Washington and tap into the anger of voters worried about losing their jobs, their health care, their futures, only to find the same politicians purring, “Washington is a better place than most Americans think it is,” over dinner at Kay’s barely a month after the election. Going home and writing it up in your Times column the next morning without fear of retribution because, hey, after all, you’re Safire– what can a mere president do to you?–that, I imagine, is better than sex.</p>
<p>In the five months since the election, progressives have been beating themselves on the head, asking over and over, how the hell can we invest our hopes and dreams for a new America in a guy whom William Safire supported for president? Clinton is apparently as much at home with conservative pundits and corporate shills as he is with innovative progressive thinkers. Just who is getting sold the snake oil here? Is it the Neocons, the party hacks, the old-line Southern pols, whose palms Clinton needs to grease in order to smooth the way for a revitalization of government and redistribution of political power? Or is it us? Somebody, certainly, left our names off Kay’s guest list.</p>
<p>The key to understanding Clinton’s politics is that, unlike Ronald Reagan, the guy doesn’t seem to believe in any clearly delineated doctrines or political philosophy. Clinton has comfort levels. He has feelings. He is, in the words of one staffer, “all nerve endings.” The staffer describes Clinton as “the most empathetic person of all time.”</p>
<p>On the campaign trail, Clinton came into contact with people in real pain, fighting real struggles, and this transformed him. Their pain became his, and so, temporarily, did their struggles. That’s how the guy managed to convince us he was for real.</p>
<p>Now that he’s in office, Clinton has assembled people with whose judgment he is comfortable. He listens hard, and accepts or rejects their advice depending on whether it makes him feel OK about himself. Clinton doesn’t really care what these people’s political inclinations are. Intellectually and politically, he figures he can take care of himself. That’s why the only political common ground between many of Clinton’s advisers is Clinton.</p>
<p>Clinton reasons, to borrow a term from philosopher Charles Taylor, “dialogically.” His sense of authenticity is situational, proceeding from a pragmatic understanding of a problem, rather than from any deep-seated philosophy or ideology. This dialogical self-definition helps explain the smorgasbord of cabinet choices that appears to reflect no political philosophy save pragmatism. That’s why visionaries like Bob Reich, Laura Tyson, Donna Shalala, Bruce Babbitt, and Tony Lake ended up in the same cabinet with Lloyd Bentsen and Ron Brown. Safire and company feel pretty good about these appointments, particularly when you throw in Neocon Les Aspin at Defense and hard- line Reaganite R. James Woolsey at the CIA.</p>
<p>Liberals and progressives ultimately made their stand on tokenism, thereby demonstrating just how corruptive identity politics have become for the Left’s hope of any real influence in American politics. The quota cops’ highly publicized “demands” for ethnic and sexual representation could not have been more self-defeating. Not only did Clinton’s perceived acquiescence give his adversaries the impression that he was a man who could be rolled, but it also probably robbed him (and us) of some of our best people–people like Tim Wirth, who, as energy secretary, could have done far more for the goal of a stronger, safer economy than a nuclear power industry executive who happens to be a black woman. The promise of the Clinton administration was not that the O’Learys, Browns, and Frederico Penas of the world (whose previous salaries put them up in a microscopic percentile of black, Hispanic, and female America’s income-earning population) would run cabinet departments instead of getting rich in the private sector. The promise was that all of minority America would find better jobs, affordable health care, safer neighborhoods, and decent schools for their children.</p>
<p>There are good reasons to worry about Clinton’s cabinet. Even if Clinton does sustain the kind of superhuman political endurance he demonstrated at his two-day economics seminar and intimately involves himself in every major decision his government faces, there will still be lots of little judgments, affecting the lives of millions of people, that will be made by the hacks and conservatives running the departments. It may be impossible to govern the country, at this point in history, without at least the tacit cooperation of the Bentsens, the Safires, and the people who get invited over to Kay Graham’s house for dinner. Keeping them pissing out from inside the tent, scheming and maneuvering on behalf of your program, is probably the smartest way to go–for now.</p>
<p>In the long run, the most crucial question is what dialogical effect these appointees (in conjunction with the conservative crowing of the punditocracy) might have on Clinton himself. The problem with Clinton’s having regressive advisers is that he will start feeling comfortable around regressive advice. In the whorehouse that is Washington, the question is less who you lie down with than how the transaction has changed you once you’ve put your clothes back on.</p>
<p>Clinton presently has the power, as Ronald Reagan did twelve years ago, to smooth-talk the punditocracy and its establishment allies into a whole new political frame of reference. But to do so, he will need to listen less to Bentsen and Safire and more to the thinkers who helped him channel the anger and frustration of 1992 into the most progressive economic platform a major candidate has run on since 1936.</p>
<p>Those thinkers are already firmly committed to Clinton, should he decide to listen to them. And he just might. After all, he married one.</p>
<p /> | MotherJones MA93: The court rules | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1993/03/motherjones-ma93-court-rules/ | 2018-03-01 | 4 |
<p>Shares of Otonomy are rising Wednesday after the biotech drug developer's initial public offering raised $100 million.</p>
<p>The offering of 6.3 million shares, 1 million more than initially predicted, priced at $16 each, the high end of Otonomy's estimate. That suggests strong demand for the shares, and the company raised more money than it had expected.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>San Diego-based Otonomy Inc. is developing treatments for ear diseases. It plans to use the proceeds of its IPO to get regulatory approval for its antibiotic AuriPro and sell the drug, and to research other products.</p>
<p>Otonomy stock is up $1.40, or 9 percent, to $17.40 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq. Its ticker symbol is "OTIC."</p> | Shares of Otonomy rise after IPO raises $100M, more than ear disease drug developer predicted | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/08/13/shares-otonomy-rise-after-ipo-raises-100m-more-than-ear-disease-drug-developer.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>GX_GR110</p>
<p>Springfield, IL Fri, Sep 01, 2017 USDA-IL Dept of Ag Market News</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>***No Report on Mon, Sept 4, due to the holiday.***</p>
<p>Chicago Terminal Grain Report</p>
<p>To Arrive Truck and Rail Bids for Grain Delivered to Chicago. The</p>
<p>following quotations represent Bids ($/ bu) from Terminal Elevators,</p>
<p>Processors, Mills, and Merchandisers after 1:30 p.m. today.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Grain Bids Delivery Change Basis Change</p>
<p>SRW Wheat 3.9875-4.2075 30 Days UP 13.5-UP 10.5 -40Z to -18Z No Comp</p>
<p>Soybeans 9.2650-9.3450 Spot DN 2.75-UP 3.25 -23X to -15X DN 7-DN 1</p>
<p>Soybeans 9.2450-9.3450 15-30 Days UP 2.25-UP 4.25 -25X to -15X DN 2-UNCH</p>
<p>Terminal Elevator Bids</p>
<p>Corn 3.2025-3.2525 Spot UP 3 -35Z to -30Z No Comp</p>
<p>Corn 3.2025-3.2525 15-30 Days UP 3 -35Z to -30Z No Comp</p>
<p>Processor Bids</p>
<p>Corn 3.2025-3.3525 Spot DN 2-UP 10 -35Z to -20Z No Comp</p>
<p>Corn 3.2425-3.4025 15-30 Days DN 2-UP 10 -31Z to -15Z No Comp</p>
<p>Changes are cents per bushel. Spot = up to 15 days</p>
<p>Soybeans = US 1 Yellow; Corn = US 2 Yellow</p>
<p>Chicago Board of Trade month symbols: F January, G February, H March, J</p>
<p>April,</p>
<p>K May, M June, N July, Q August, U September, V October, X November, Z</p>
<p>December</p>
<p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p>--------</p>
<p>Monthly Prices for: July 2017</p>
<p>SRW Wheat 4.9603</p>
<p>Processor Corn (Spot) 3.6953</p>
<p>Terminal Corn (Spot) 3.5448</p>
<p>Soybeans (Spot) 9.6775</p>
<p>Source: USDA-IL Dept of Ag Market News Service, Springfield, IL</p>
<p>David Humphreys 217-782-4925 [email protected]</p>
<p>In state only toll free 888-458-4787</p>
<p>www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/gx_gr110.txt</p>
<p>www.ams.usda.gov/LPSMarketNewsPage</p>
<p>1433C dh</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 01, 2017 15:59 ET (19:59 GMT)</p> | USDA Chicago Terminal Grain - Sep 1 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/01/usda-chicago-terminal-grain-sep-1.html | 2017-09-01 | 0 |
<p>Callers to rape crisis centers have reported an act that has left them shaken, wondering if it constitutes rape: After agreeing to have sex with a condom, their male partner intentionally removed it sometime during intercourse.</p>
<p>It’s called “stealthing,” and its impact as sexual assault is the focus of a research paper exploring if and how one can prosecute the act.</p>
<p>“Nonconsensual condom removal during sexual intercourse exposes victims to physical risks of pregnancy and disease and, interviews make clear, is experienced by many as a grave violation of dignity and autonomy,” <a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Alexandra Brodsky</a>, a graduate of Yale Law School, wrote in her research paper “‘Rape-Adjacent’: Imagining Legal Responses to Nonconsensual Condom Removal.”</p>
<p>It was published Wednesday in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law.</p>
<p>In the paper, <a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Ms. Brodsky</a> cites interviews with male and female victims who realized their partner removed the condom at the moment of re-penetration, others who didn’t realize it until after ejaculation and one who was told the following morning.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Ms. Brodsky</a>’s paper seeks to find legal avenues to hold men accountable for this behavior.</p>
<p>Challenges of reporting and prosecuting rape are logistical and psychological. A victim may not come forward for fear of character defamation, being blamed for the crime against him or her or having to relive the crime through testimony.</p>
<p>In researching her paper, <a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Ms. Brodsky</a> said she was unable to find a “single domestic legal case concerned with the removal of a condom during sex.” She wrote she found online forums of men discussing and praising the practice of “stealthing.”</p>
<p>While “one can imagine a range of motivations for ‘stealthers’ — increased physical pleasure, a thrill from degradation — online discussions suggest offenders and their defenders justify their actions as a natural male instinct — and natural male right,” she wrote.</p>
<p>One commenter on the online forum ExperienceProject.com wrote that he knows the practice is wrong and doesn’t condone it for others, but then offers detailed instructions on how to commit a successful “stealth.”</p>
<p>Another commentator said he didn’t believe a woman actually wants to have sex with a condom.</p>
<p>“Oh I completely agree with this [‘stealthing’],” the commentator wrote. “To me you can’t have one and not the other.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Ms. Brodsky</a> wrote that others went further by saying that stealthers’ sexual partners “deserve to be impregnated.”</p>
<p>The women <a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Ms. Brodsky</a> interviewed said they initially worried about unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, but many also expressed feelings of being violated.</p>
<p>One woman said “the harm mostly had to do with trust. He saw the risk as zero for himself and took no interest in what it might be for me and from a friend and sexual partner.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Ms. Brodsky</a> proposes two primary ways to argue that nonconsensual removal of a condom negates the original consent and then prosecute the act as sexual assault.</p>
<p>The first is to argue that while the victim consented to being touched by a condom, she or he did not consent to being touched by the skin of the penis.</p>
<p>“The law is clear that one may consent to one form of sexual contact without providing blanket future consent to all sexual content,” she wrote.</p>
<p>The second is to argue that “stealthing” is consent violation because of the risks posed by having sex without a condom.</p>
<p>“Because of the increased risk, the removal of the condom transforms the sexual act into a different act, such that consent to one is not carried over to consent to the other,” <a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Ms. Brodsky</a> wrote.</p>
<p>However, a new civil law should be defined and adopted to protect victims of “stealthing,” <a href="/topics/alexandra-brodsky/" type="external">Ms. Brodsky</a> concluded.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2017/apr/30/stealthing-sex-assault-of-removing-condom-during-i/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Law paper condemns ‘stealthing’ assailants removing condoms during intercourse without consent | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/30/stealthing-sex-assault-of-removing-condom-during-i/ | 2017-04-30 | 0 |
<p>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attacked Trump on Thursday, calling the president a "dotard."</p>
<p>"I will surely and definitely tame the deranged U.S. dotard with fire," Kim said in a statement published by Korean Central News Agency, Korea's official news publication. If you were born in the last 100 hundreds years, you're probably wondering what a "dotard" even is.</p>
<p>A quick Google search reveals that a dotard is "an old person, especially one who has become weak or senile." The Merriam-Webster dictionary revealed much of the world was curious as to what the archaic word meant, noting on twitter that searches for the word were "high as a kite."</p>
<p>The dictionary of record noted the word was the equivalent of "imbecile" and was first used around the 14th century. It is derived from the Middle English word "doten," which means "to dote." The word was used by famous English writer Geoffrey Chaucer in "The Canterbury Tales," and appears in William Shakespeare's work as well, according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/09/21/a-short-history-of-the-word-dotard-which-north-korea-called-trump/?utm_term=.454fcdafd201" type="external">Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>South Korean freelance journalist Jihye Lee noted Kim's statement literally translates to "old beast lunatic," which was later translated to dotard.</p>
<p>It's not the first time the word has been used as an insult by politicians. The Post noted former President Martin Van Buren was called a dotard around 175 years ago.</p>
<p>Kim's statement comes after Trump threatened to destroy North Korea while speaking at the U.N. on Tuesday. The president followed up his comments with new financial sanctions on the hermit country on Thursday.</p>
<p>Trump and Kim have exchanged insults and fiery rhetoric since the former entered office. Trump's latest jab refers to Kim as a "madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people." He added that he "will be tested like never before!"</p>
<p /> | Kim Jong Un called Trump a 'dotard.' Here's what that means. | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/09/22/politics/kim-jong-un-calls-trump-dotard | 2017-09-22 | 1 |
<p>On a sunny Saturday morning in October, about 100 teachers from 25 schools on probation have gathered for a monthly workshop at DePaul University’s Center for Urban Education, the schools’ external partner.</p>
<p>The workshops are aimed at introducing teachers to new methods of instruction and helping schools learn from each other through teachers designated as “connectors.”</p>
<p>Accordingly, center director Barbara Radner gets the October workshop going by asking the teachers to talk about progress they’ve seen in the first quarter of the school year. “One way we all learn,” she says, “is when you tell us what’s happening.”</p>
<p>One upper-grade teacher relates how she has had her students make books describing the parts of speech. “I’m sure they understand it very well now,” she says.</p>
<p>Another talks about her students keeping math journals, in which they describe in words the process they used to find their answers. Marybeth Rand, a primary-grade connector from Beidler Elementary School, had just started using math journals with her own students and is encouraged by her colleague’s success.</p>
<p>In addition to sharing experiences, the connectors also receive samples of the reading and math portions of new state achievement tests, called ISAT for Illinois Standards Achievement Tests, which students will take for the first time in February. They also receive samples of lesson plan calendars for the second quarter and several strategies for teaching math and writing.</p>
<p>Rand notes that through the ISAT math sample, she learned that students will be asked to explain how they arrived at their answers. “I was really glad I went and found that out because I’m unfamiliar with the ISAT,” she adds.</p>
<p>Jessie Hudson, a special needs teacher at Beidler, says she was taking several good ideas back to Beidler, including using big books not just as literature lessons but also to teach things like word families and rhyming words.</p>
<p>“I’ll tell the other special needs teachers about these things,” she says the day after the workshop, “and I’ll try to incorporate them into my class.”</p> | Saturday school for teachers | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/saturday-school-teachers/ | 2005-07-26 | 3 |
<p>An alternative Denver based newspaper is loooking to hire a marijuana critic to report on the booming dispensary business.</p>
<p>From <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8319950.stm" type="external">BBC.com</a></p>
<p>A US newspaper says it has received well over 100 applicants for the post of marijuana critic - many of whom have offered to work for free.</p>
<p>The alternative Denver newspaper, Westword, is seeking a writer for its weekly review of Colorado's booming medical marijuana dispensaries.</p>
<p>But there is a catch - candidates must have a medical ailment allowing them to enter a dispensary and use marijuana.</p>
<p>Fourteen US states now allow the sale of some sort of medical cannabis.</p>
<p>The boom in medical marijuana dispensaries&#160;is no smll matter. According to Fortune magazine a dispensary in Oakland California has 30,000 customers and brings in $20 million per year.</p>
<p>With the Obama administration's recent move to ease prosecution of medical marijuana users to are obeying state laws this business will only grow larger.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Post #2414</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Newspaper Seeks Pot Critic | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/newspaper-seeks-pot-critic/ | 2009-10-22 | 0 |
<p>The U.N. military commander in Sudan has announced that the war in Darfur — which has killed more than 300,000 people — is over. Three million Sudanese remain displaced as the conflict ostensibly shifts from full-blown war to mere “security issues.”</p>
<p>The BBC:</p>
<p>The six-year war between forces loyal to Sudan’s government and rebels in Darfur has effectively ended, the UN’s military commander in the region says.</p>
<p>General Martin Agwai, who is leaving his post this week, said the vicious fighting of earlier years had subsided as rebel groups split into factions.</p>
<p />
<p>He says the region now suffers more from low-level disputes and banditry.</p>
<p>The UN says 300,000 people have died in Darfur, but the Sudanese government puts the figure at 10,000.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8224424.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | War Is Over! (If You Say So) | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/war-is-over-if-you-say-so/ | 2009-08-27 | 4 |
<p>JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – England’s Chris Paisley produced six birdies in a faultless final round of 66 to claim a maiden European Tour victory by winning the South African Open at the Glendower Golf Club outside Johannesburg on Sunday.</p>
<p>Paisley, 31, finished with a tournament total of 21 under-par, three shots ahead of home favorite Branden Grace (68), the world number 30 and highest ranked player in the field.</p>
<p>It was another round of consistent golf from Paisley, whose wife Keri acted as his caddie this week with his regular bagman on holiday.</p>
<p>He only dropped three shots over the four days and improves on his previous best European Tour finish of third at the 2015 BMW International Open.</p>
<p>“I just can’t believe it to be honest,” Paisley said at the trophy presentation. “I just played great, I played out of my skin. I didn’t think I was capable of playing that well to be honest.”</p>
<p>Paisley had special praise for his wife, the first time she has carried his bags.</p>
<p>“I can’t say enough about how good a job she did all week. It is her first time as a caddie and she didn’t put a foot wrong. I can’t thank her enough.”</p>
<p>Starting one shot behind Paisley overnight, Grace had briefly hit the front after he started his round birdie-eagle.</p>
<p>Yet a double-bogey on the sixth for Grace restored the lead for the Englishman, who held on to his advantage with birdies at regular intervals.</p>
<p>South African JC Ritchie (65) finished third after a colorful final round that included two eagles, six birdies and three bogeys to leave him at 16 under par.</p>
<p>His previous best finish on the European Tour was tied for 23rd at the Tshwane Open in 2016.</p>
<p>Tournament host Ernie Els (69) finished at eight under-par, tied for 31st position.</p>
<p>The tournament is the second oldest Open championship in the world having first been formally played in 1903.</p>
<p />
<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> | Perfect Paisley claims maiden European Tour victory at SA Open | false | https://newsline.com/perfect-paisley-claims-maiden-european-tour-victory-at-sa-open/ | 2018-01-14 | 1 |
<p>Karachi,&#160;Pakistan’s largest city,&#160;has long been plagued by urban violence, often attributed to ethnic or political disputes.</p>
<p>According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, more than 1,400 people were killed in the city in violent incidents in the first eight months of 2011. In July alone there were 358 killings.&#160;And the violence is affecting businesses especially hard.</p>
<p>“They came with gunmen,” said Parveen Rehman, who heads a social development organization in Karachi. “Five or six went into the courtyard and they said that ‘today we will occupy this place no matter what.' "</p>
<p>Rehman said the armed thugs wanted to take over the group’s compound. Luckily, she said, a person in her organization knew someone more powerful. So they turned to him for help.</p>
<p>“He came and he said if you fire then we’ll fire many more rounds,” Rehman said. “So imagine, to save ourselves, we went to a bigger thug.”</p>
<p>This is by no means an isolated incident. Many organizations and businesses face similar problems. And it’s especially hard to fix because the violence goes right to the top, including city officials and political parties.</p>
<p>Karachi houses almost every different ethnic and political group in the country: Muhajirs, Pashtuns, Baloch, Sindhis, not to mention a range of Islamist groupings.</p>
<p>All of the different groups have political organizations that claim to represent them. And most of those groups have their own militias. Rehman said grabbing land brings lots of power.</p>
<p>“There is continuous battle over various segments of land in Karachi between various groups of people who I would not say are given sanction by any one political party; but who as a strategy align themselves with political parties,” Rehman explained. “And police and of course all the government departments and the elected members are all partners in this. Because the money involved is so much, that overnight you can earn so much more.”</p>
<p>It’s a strategic mix of politics, crime and business. Once a political party’s thugs steal land, it’s divided and illegally sold to others. And that creates an instant – beholden – constituency.</p>
<p>This phenomenon of “land-grabbing” exploits the weakness of state institutions, as well as the ever-increasing demand for housing not met by the government. About half of Karachi’s estimated 17 million people live this way, dependent on one private group or another for their homes.</p>
<p>“It could be housing, transport, drinking water, even electricity,” said Haris Gazdar, a political economist at the Collective for Social Science Research in Karachi. “Most of all, all of these activities are underpinned by informal systems of contract enforcement. So contracts were then enforced by private people, sometimes in collusion with government officials who had all kinds of side deals with them. So you had a situation where the private use of violence was legitimate.”</p>
<p>Add to the mix a massive influx of arms to Karachi during the wars in nearby Afghanistan, since the 1980s, creating what is referred to locally as the “Kalashnikov culture.”</p>
<p>And today, everyone in the city seems to be armed. There are twice as many private security guards in the city as police officers, not to mention tens of thousands of private weapons.</p>
<p>Faisal Subzwari is a government minister from the MQM, a party that represents the Muhajir community and which is often accused of using strong arm tactics. Subzwari denied that his party has its own militia, but he admitted to carrying a weapon. He called it only normal to be armed.</p>
<p>“It’s my lawful right to have licensed armed weapons and people must have them. Why? I am quoting you specific examples of inaction from the police’s part, politically motivated targeted killings, and politically motivated ethnic cleansing. If the government isn’t doing anything, rather helping out criminals and gangsters then in order to save my skin at least I would acquire a licensed weapon which is not a crime in Pakistan today,” Subzwari said.</p>
<p>So everyone is armed because everyone else in the city is armed. As political economist Haris Gazdar explains, trying to change this “arms race” will be extremely difficult.</p>
<p>“The major kind of gaps in urban planning and political management, and the existence of military governments over long periods of time have led us there,” Gazdar said. “And realistically we shouldn’t expect any political party to give up on this model on its own.”</p>
<p>And until that happens, expect the seemingly unchecked violence in Karachi to continue.</p> | 2011 brings a violent and bloody year of ethnic conflict to Karachi, Pakistan | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-01-19/2011-brings-violent-and-bloody-year-ethnic-conflict-karachi-pakistan | 2012-01-19 | 3 |
<p />
<p>NVIDIA's (NASDAQ: NVDA) recently completed fiscal year was one for the history books. The company's stock price in its fiscal 2017 skyrocketed 229% as the chipmaker strengthened its position in its core GPU gaming segment, and expanded further into artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and driverless car tech.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But despite a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/18/nvidias-blowout-quarter-in-6-metrics.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">stellar fiscal fourth-quarter Opens a New Window.</a> earnings report in early February, the company's stock price is down about 3% over the past three months (at the time of this writing). Investors may be wondering if that stock price sputter isjust a blip on the long-term radar, or if NVIDIA's growth days are really over. To get a better picture of what's happening, let's take a look at the chipmaker's current prospects and problems:</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>NVIDIA brought in about 62% of its revenue in Q4 (which ended Jan. 29) from its GPU gaming segment, andrevenues from that business increased 66% year over year. That's great news for the company, which holds more than 70% of the discrete desktop GPU market share right now. The company's ability to maintain its commanding position in the GPU market and continue growing those revenues is crucial to its stability -- and so far, it's pulling those feats off quite well.</p>
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<p>But NVIDIA is doing much more with its processors than just enhancing computers for gaming. The company's chips also power its Drive PX 2 self-driving car supercomputer, and sit at the heart of robust machine-learning data centers.NVIDIA's automotive revenue grew 37% year over year in Q4, and data center revenue shot up by 205%.</p>
<p>The company believes that these two markets will be <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/19/2-ways-nvidia-is-beating-the-competition.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">major growth drivers Opens a New Window.</a> going forward, with the autonomous car market expected to hit $77 billion by 2035 and NVIDIA's GPU-powered data centers and products -- like its DGX-1 supercomputer -- giving it a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/28/nvidias-artificial-intelligence-opportunity-in-1-c.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">total addressable market in AI of $5 billion. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>I recently highlighted <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/23/3-things-that-could-hurt-nvidia-corp.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">three potential problems Opens a New Window.</a> NVIDIA may face in another article, and it's worth reiterating them here. First of all, its strong position in gaming GPUs will be challenged a bit more when rival Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) releases its new high-end GPU architecture, called Vega, later this year.</p>
<p>Vega is expected to go head-on against NVIDIA's popular GTX-1080 card, and marks a shift of focus for AMD from mid-range GPUs to the higher-end market. It's still unclear how much this will impact NVIDIA -- if at all -- but it's certainly something investors should keep an eye on.</p>
<p>Additionally, NVIDIA's position in the driverless car technology market will face increased pressure after Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) recently announced its plan to buy self-driving tech leader Mobileye (NYSE: MBLY) for $15.3 billion. Mobileye holds about 70% of the worldwide market foradvanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and that dominant position, paired with Intel's processors, could pose a challenge to NVIDIA's automotive plans.</p>
<p>If all that weren't enough, Intel is also targeting the AI market. The company holds about a 99% market share in the server market right now, and it doesn't want to cede any of that to NVIDIA. That's why Intel has made <a href="https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/krzanich-ai-day/" type="external">several AI purchases Opens a New Window.</a>recently, among them a company calledNervana Systems that Intel expects will help it achieve a 100-fold increase in neural network performance over the next three years.</p>
<p>So are NVIDIA's growth days over? In short, probably not. The company still holds a very strong position in its core business -- GPU gaming -- and even rising competition from AMD won't take that away any time soon. It's also early in the game for both driverless car technologies and AI, and NVIDIA has just as much potential to excel in both as rival Intel.</p>
<p>But investors should be conservative in how much they expect NVIDIA to grow. The company is already trading at forward P/E of 32, which makes it a bit expensive compared to the average P/E ratio of 26 for tech sector overall. A large share of NVIDIA's stock price gains in 2016 were driven by investors' excitement over its future opportunities (and, of course, its strong earnings reports), but that means a lot of optimism is now baked into the stock. Thus, 2017 could produce more tempered share price gains for NVIDIA.</p>
<p>Find out why Nvidia is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now</p>
<p>Motley 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 market!*)</p>
<p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now. Nvidia <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;impression=35caccd4-d0a1-4f15-afca-ac0665630dc8&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">is on the list Opens a New Window.</a> -- but there are nine others you may be overlooking.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;impression=35caccd4-d0a1-4f15-afca-ac0665630dc8&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewsie/info.aspx" type="external">Chris Neiger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. 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> | Are NVIDIA's Growth Days Over? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/31/are-nvidia-growth-days-over.html | 2017-03-31 | 0 |
<p>The woman who accused Jameis Winston of raping her in 2012 filed a civil lawsuit against the former Florida State University quarterback and top NFL draft prospect on Thursday.</p>
<p>Erica Kinsman says Winston, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2013, raped her in a Tallahassee hotel room after she was given a shot of an unknown liquor at a bar on Dec. 7, 2012.</p>
<p>Police never filed any criminal charges in the case, and FSU has ruled Winston <a href="http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/12/21/jameis-winston-cleared-in-fsu-code-of-conduct-hearing/" type="external">didn’t violate its code of student conduct</a>.</p>
<p>"Since others have refused to hold him accountable, our client will," Kinsman’s attorney, John Clune, said in a statement.</p>
<p>A request for comment from Winston’s lawyer was not immediately returned. The university declined to comment on the new lawsuit.</p>
<p>The suit, filed in Ninth Judicial District Circuit Court in Orlando, alleges sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It doesn’t specify a dollar amount but said it seeks more than $15,000 in damages.</p>
<p>The suit claims Kinsman was at a Tallahassee bar on Dec. 6 when a man she believes was Winston gave her a shot, and she became separated from her friends. The suit says she was put in a cab by three men and taken to a hotel room where Winston had sex with her her despite her repeated protestations of "no, no," and "please stop."</p>
<p>Winston has denied any wrongdoing, and said the sex was consensual.</p>
<p>The prosecutor who said he lacked enough evidence to charge Winston was highly critical of the police investigation, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/16/sports/errors-in-inquiry-on-rape-allegations-against-fsu-jameis-winston.html" type="external">telling the New York Times last year</a>that police "just missed all the basic fundamental stuff" like failing to immediately interview a witness who recorded — and later deleted — part of the sex act on video, and failing to track down the cab driver or get video from the bar.</p>
<p>Winston was awarded the Heisman Trophy in 2013 and led FSU's team to a BCS championship over Auburn that same season. Winston is expected to be a top pick in the NFL draft, which is on April 30.</p> | Sex Assault Accuser Erica Kinsman Sues NFL Prospect Jameis Winston | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sex-assault-accuser-erica-kinsman-sues-nfl-prospect-james-winston-n343171 | 2015-04-17 | 3 |
<p>Essex 40, Spaulding 22</p>
<p>Hazen Union 50, Richford 35</p>
<p>Milton 46, Winooski 45</p>
<p>Mount St. Joseph Academy 54, Poultney 25</p>
<p>North Country Union 46, Enosburg Falls 34</p>
<p>Essex 40, Spaulding 22</p>
<p>Hazen Union 50, Richford 35</p>
<p>Milton 46, Winooski 45</p>
<p>Mount St. Joseph Academy 54, Poultney 25</p>
<p>North Country Union 46, Enosburg Falls 34</p> | Wednesday’s Scores | false | https://apnews.com/728aa59ba0104d79b1f0b176f466b6f5 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>By Jeff Brumley</p>
<p>For two decades, career pastor and two-time interim Mike Queen dreamed about getting a bunch of guys together to discuss and listen to their favorite music.</p>
<p>Now fully retired and living in Wilmington, N.C., Queen finally pulled it off Feb. 5 when 16 men descended on his house, cherished music in hand.</p>
<p />
<p>But what happened in the three-hour session that unfolded, while satisfying Queen’s 20-year itch, surprised him, too, both in the variety of music shared and in what turned out to be, for him at least, a spiritual experience.</p>
<p>“For me, anytime we come together like that, it is important,” Queen said. “We didn’t try to make it some super-spiritual event, but we didn’t run away from that, either.”</p>
<p>‘The most ecclectic playlist’</p>
<p>That the retired pastor would find a way to mix fellowship and love-of-music doesn’t surprise those who know him best.</p>
<p>“That is quintessentially who he is,” said Jayne Davis, minister of spiritual formation at <a href="http://www.fbcwilmington.org/" type="external">First Baptist Church in Wilmington</a>, where Queen served as pastor for 25 years before retiring.in 2011.</p>
<p>Even <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110703/ARTICLES/110709913?tc=ar" type="external">a local newspaper story</a> about his retirement led with artists included on Queen’s iPod playlist (they included Bruce Springsteen, B.B. King, Lynyrd Synyrd and Alabama).</p>
<p>“He has the most eclectic playlist,” Davis said. “You’d probably have to Google half the songs if he showed it to you.”</p>
<p>Music played a huge role in Queen’s career and preaching. Davis said she once asked him when and how during services he managed to worship when he had so many responsibilities.</p>
<p />
<p>“He didn’t have to think about it,” she said. “He went straight to the music. He said it was during the music that the was able to worship most.”</p>
<p>He incorporated that into his preaching, too.</p>
<p>“He would often throw in a lyric to underscore the point he was trying to make,” Davis said.</p>
<p>One of Queen’s ministerial gifts was an ability to blend his interests with those of others —&#160;and then to find what those in a group have in common.</p>
<p>It’s what makes Queen a good congregational coach as co-coordinator for the Carolinas with the <a href="http://healthy-churches.org/" type="external">Center for Healthy Churches</a>, a role he shares with Davis.</p>
<p>“I think he has a deep and natural understanding of what we share in common, and he always looks for that,” she said.</p>
<p>The evening of music at Queen’s house may not have been planned as a specifically spiritual night, Davis said, but it’s likely he and some of the group would have experienced it as one.</p>
<p>“I think he can’t help but tease that out of the conversation because of who he is,” she said.</p>
<p>“It speaks a lot to how we can use the things that we share in common to talk about things that are difficult,” Davis added. “The barriers drop and we are reminded that we share a lot on this journey.”</p>
<p>‘Really weird, in a way’</p>
<p>There certainly were some apparent barriers to be overcome at Queen’s house that Thursday evening.</p>
<p>One was the group of 16 men.</p>
<p>“I had put together a list, not of my best buddies, but men who at some point … had talked to me about music and expressed their love of music in general,” Queen said.</p>
<p>Although all connected to First Baptist in Wilmington, many of them didn’t know each other. Some do not regularly attend.</p>
<p>They were different in many ways, including age: the youngest is 20 and the oldest —&#160;Queen —&#160;is 69.</p>
<p>Their connections to music also varied widely. Three are DJs, three or four play guitar and a couple play keyboards. Some are on the church praise team and some simply like music.</p>
<p>“It was really weird, in a way,” Queen said.</p>
<p>‘Literally all over the place’</p>
<p>The music each man brought with him was more unusual still.</p>
<p>The rule that night was that all would bring a recording of one song to share with the group. It didn’t have to be their favorite song, necessarily, just one that spoke to them or moved them in some way.</p>
<p>“We were literally all over the place,” he said.</p>
<p>There were Christian songs, ballads, beach music and blues.</p>
<p>“There was country, rock and the Indigo Girls,” Queen said. “It was as eclectic as it could have possibly been —&#160;every kind of genre.”</p>
<p>It’s why the evening was so rewarding, as each man briefly explained to the group why he had chosen the song he did.</p>
<p>“There was richness to the experience of being surprised by the music we brought,” he said.</p>
<p>Queen said it’s why he invited 18 to the gathering (two were out of town and could not attend).</p>
<p>“I could have controlled things a bit more if I had picked five or six guys who like music that I like,” he said. “But I … intentionally didn’t do that —&#160;10 or so of them I had no idea what their musical taste was.”</p>
<p>‘The angst and the pathos’</p>
<p>But while music was the universal connector,&#160;it was in the surprising variety and selections that the spiritual experiences were to be had.</p>
<p>The retired pastor had his own surprise for the group in sharing a song by Guy Clark titled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5XGfMrWYa0" type="external">Dublin Blues</a>. It’s about a man spurned by his true love and whose life descends into smoking and heavy drinking.</p>
<p>Queen said he has never experienced those things, but was moved by the tragedy that beset the man speaking through the song.</p>
<p>“The lyrics of that song communicate the angst and pathos and pure sadness of loving someone who doesn’t love you back,” he said. “That’s a spiritual thing that goes on in that song.”</p>
<p>Another participant brought in a song by Rush, the Canadian rock trio known for the intensity of their jams and the depth of their lyrics.</p>
<p>“You could tell the words touched him very deeply.”</p>
<p>&#160;Another shared Gordon Lightfoot’s 1970s ballad <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A&amp;list=RD9vST6hVRj2A#t=0" type="external">Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>Queen said he heard the religious yearnings in the song, including the line that asks, “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”</p>
<p>A Harry Chapin song, though more upbeat, still conveyed spiritual meaning. “It was about the continuity of life, and I think we experienced that,” Queen said.</p>
<p>“Three hours we sat there, playing this music.”</p>
<p>Queen said impact of the evening would not have been the same had a CD been passed around with those same songs on it. It took being together.</p>
<p>“The group experience is what we’ll remember,” he said.</p> | Unexpected spirituality emerges from night of sharing music | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/group-finds-spirit-by-sharing-in-retired-pastor-s-passion-for-music/ | 3 |
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<p />
<p>MasterCard, operator of the world's second-largest payments network, reported a slightly better-than-expected quarterly profit as customers spent more using its cards.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>However, the company's net income fell 6 percent as operating costs jumped by a quarter.</p>
<p>MasterCard's net income fell to $959 million, or 86 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.02 billion, or 89 cents per share, a year earlier.</p>
<p>Analysts on average expected a profit of 85 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>Gross dollar volumes - the total value of transactions made by customers - rose 13 percent to $1.1 trillion on a local currency basis.</p>
<p>Cross-border volumes - the value of transactions made by card holders outside the card-issuer's country - jumped 12 percent.</p>
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<p>Total operating costs rose to $1.1 billion from $879 million. Net revenue rose 9.7 percent to $2.45 billion.</p>
<p>Bigger rival Visa Inc cut its full-year revenue and profit forecast last week, citing a lack of improvement in cross-border spending.</p>
<p>Purchase, New York-based MasterCard's shares were up marginally in light premarket trading. The stock has risen only about 1 percent this year.</p>
<p>(Reporting By Sudarshan Varadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Ted Kerr)</p> | MasterCard 1Q Profit Beats Expectations as Purchase Volumes Rise | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/28/mastercard-1q-profit-beats-expectations-as-purchase-volumes-rise.html | 2016-04-28 | 0 |
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<p>Pete Lukes, pictured, and his wife, Maggie, opened Piattini this month. The California Culinary Institute graduate closed his Terra Bistro earlier this year to focus on Piattini. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Terra, take two?</p>
<p>Not exactly.</p>
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<p>Chef Pete Lukes - who just closed Terra Bistro after a 16-year-run in the North Valley - is doing something slightly different at Piattini, the new restaurant he and his wife Maggie opened this month at 1403 Girard NE.</p>
<p>The menu is bigger, but the plates are smaller. There is more space but a less formal ambiance. The name is new, and the neighborhood is, too.</p>
<p>But the food? Terra fans should recognize quite a bit of it.</p>
<p>"We were an Italian restaurant (at Terra), and we went to small-plate Italian format," Lukes says. "But about 80 percent of the menu came with us, just scaled it down a bit."</p>
<p>Lukes says he went with a small-plates concept to inspire communal dining and allow patrons to try multiple dishes in one sitting. Customers could craft a meal of parmesan fries ($5), calamari ($12) and fettuccine alfredo ($11). Groups might graze on lemon-pesto chicken wings ($7), grilled asparagus with prosciutto di Parma ($10), house-made meatballs ($10) and the penne primavera ($12).</p>
<p>Piattini is a 105-seat, small-plate Italian restaurant owned by chef Pete Lukes and his wife, Maggie. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Piattini also does 11-inch Neapolitan-style pizzas, and they are an early fan favorite.</p>
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<p>"We import our flour from Italy, which makes a big, big difference in the crust quality," Lukes says.</p>
<p>Most dishes fall into the $5-$13 range, though there are some more expensive and substantial choices dubbed "large plates." (Example: The "Agnello" featuring grilled lamb loin chops with a fig-mint tapenade, feta, aged balsamic and two sides for $28).</p>
<p>Lukes, raised mostly in Albuquerque, attended the University of New Mexico, where he studied economics and finance. He later attended the California Culinary Academy and spent more than a decade working in the San Francisco area for the likes of Hubert Keller, an accomplished chef known to TV audiences for his work on the "Top Chef" cooking shows.</p>
<p>Lukes opened Terra in 1998 but closed it earlier this year to focus on Piattini, which - with as many as 105 seats - is about twice the size of Terra.</p>
<p>He says the Indian School/Girard area is ideal given the population density, UNM-bound traffic and sophisticated customer base.</p>
<p>"It is the best location in the city for a restaurant," he says.</p>
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<p>Piattini's 4,000-square-foot building previously housed a grocery store, but Maggie Lukes says the exterior reminded her of a 1930s diner.</p>
<p>An intern architect and a licensed interior designer who recently left Studio Southwest Architects to help manage Piattini, Maggie Lukes says that diner look inspired certain design elements at Piattini, like the counter seating facing the open kitchen and the stripe of red, neonesque lighting that wraps around the building.</p>
<p>But the overall aesthetic is more contemporary. A striking burst of bright green upholstery on the banquette seating offsets the darker, woody hues used elsewhere.</p>
<p>"We just wanted it comfortable - comfortable but upscale," Maggie Lukes says.</p>
<p>Pete Lukes says he wanted a place that anyone "in any attire" would feel welcome.</p>
<p>Piattini launched with dinner-only hours but is debuting its lunch menu - adapted from the dinner menu but with several sandwich and "big salad" options - this week.</p>
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<p>Piattini is now open at 11 a.m. through dinner Tuesday through Sunday. Monday is dinner only, 5-9 p.m. The phone number is 792-1700.</p>
<p>Pendleton moves across town</p>
<p>Albuquerque's Pendleton shop has a new home.</p>
<p>Pendleton Woolen Mills has moved its Albuquerque store to 8000 Paseo del Norte NE. Clerk Nancy Platt is shown in the new 3,300-square-foot location. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Pendleton recently swapped its store at 1100 San Mateo NE for a new location at Paseo del Norte and Wyoming. The move consolidated what was two stores into a single, 3,300-square-foot space.</p>
<p>Pendleton had been at the San Mateo/Lomas intersection since 1994 but was one of few remaining tenants in the shopping center now anchored by Ace Hardware.</p>
<p>By moving, Pendleton joins a center with tenants that include Flying Star, Lilly Barrack, Simply Amish and Vintage 423 restaurant.</p>
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<p>"Relocating the store to The Shops at Paseo retail area provided a beautiful space, with the opportunity to showcase the Pendleton brand in a lifestyle presentation," Robin Crowell, the company's director of stores, said in an email. "The new Pendleton location is in a fast-growing market, and the store has great visibility to consumers."</p>
<p>The new space - decorated with gray and white paint and industrial looking OSB board - provides a simple canvas for the brightly colored merchandise.</p>
<p>Pendleton Woolen Mills' calling card may be blankets, but the Portland, Ore.-based company also offers a wide range of clothing for men and women.</p>
<p>And, no, it's not all wool-based sweaters and jackets. The selection also includes denim, shorts, cotton T-shirts and accessories such as belts and hats.</p>
<p>The new store is split loosely between men's and women's apparel, with colorful blankets hung and stacked throughout.</p>
<p>Pendleton is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday (extended until 7 p.m. on Thursday) and from noon-5 p.m. on Sunday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The address is 8000 Paseo del Norte NE. The phone number is 255-6444.</p>
<p>Satellite shelving franchise plans</p>
<p>Satellite Coffee franchises were supposed to start cropping up this year in Albuquerque and beyond, but that is no longer likely to happen.</p>
<p>Jean Bernstein, CEO of Satellite and its sister company Flying Star, said last summer she expected as many as 20 franchise caf's to open by the end of 2015.</p>
<p>But she said last week that she isn't currently working in that direction.</p>
<p>"I've put (franchising) on hold for a little bit. I still have all of the pieces in place, but it turns out it's quite a bit of work, even greater work that we anticipated," she says.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Bernstein says she's instead devoting her energy to the 17 existing Flying Star and Satellite locations and couldn't say for sure when she might resume the franchising plan. But, she notes, the work done toward creating a Satellite franchise model should still come into play.</p>
<p>"All the processes and branding work and everything that we did for the franchise is being implemented in terms of improvements here," she says. "We've learned a lot more. We've done a lot of refreshing on the brand. Little by little, you'll see all of that happen here."</p>
<p>There also are some changes afoot at Flying Star, most recently the removal of the magazines.</p>
<p>Bernstein says more customers are tuned into the Internet, so she "reluctantly" let the magazines go. She's working with Penny Design remodeling plans that will supplant the racks with more space for seating.</p>
<p>True Value expands</p>
<p>Looking for some hardware in the Heights?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The owners of Albuquerque's Lomas Boulevard True Value store recently opened a second location at the Promenade Shopping Center at Eubank and Spain.</p>
<p>Heights True Value - a franchise owned by Arizona-based JNG Holdings LLC - stocks hardware and other home-repair and improvement items such as plumbing and electrical supplies, lawn and garden equipment and paint.</p>
<p>Co-owner Jim Capin says his company was looking for a second Albuquerque location and felt the far Northeast Heights area was lacking a "neighborhood hardware store."</p>
<p>Promenade owner Jan Wilson says True Value took over about 15,000 square feet of the 33,000 square feet vacated by Charter Bank several years ago. Baila Dance and Fitness Studio and Enhanced Wellness each joined the center in 2013, absorbing the rest.</p>
<p>With expansions by existing tenants Eye Associates of New Mexico and All World Travel, every space at the center is now full, Wilson says.</p>
<p>And that's not all!</p>
<p>Check out <a href="" type="internal">my blog</a>&#160; for news about Boxing Bear, the new brewery/winery/home brew shop planned for the old Elliott's restaurant space at 10200 Corrales Rd. NW and for more about The Vortex Theatre's plans to turn the old Langell's Art Supply store into a new theater.</p>
<p>If you have retail news to share, contact me at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or 823-3864. For more regular updates on Albuquerque shopping and restaurant news, visit my blog at abqjournal.com or follow @ abqdyer on Twitter.</p>
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<p /> | Smaller plates in a bigger space at Piattini | false | https://abqjournal.com/373441/pendleton-consolidates-at-paseo-shop.html | 2 |
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<p>Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev called on Russia to hold new elections after two days of protests against what many have called a fraudulent election, the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/07/gorbachev-russian-elections-void" type="external">Associated Press reported.</a></p>
<p>"More and more people are starting to believe that the election results are not fair," Gorbachev told the Interfax news agency. "I believe that ignoring public opinion discredits the authorities and destabilizes the situation."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/111202/vladimir-putin-russia-elections-kremlin-golos" type="external">Vladimir Putin silences political watchdog ahead of Russian elections</a></p>
<p>He said Russian authorities "must admit that there have been numerous falsifications and ballot stuffing."</p>
<p>Sunday's parliamentary election delivered a defeat for Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, which won less than 50 percent of the votes.</p>
<p>Thousands of people have poured into the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg to protest the elections. Russia responded by deploying <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/111206/russia-troops-streets-moscow-police-post-election-protests" type="external">thousands of interior ministry troops</a> and police. Eyewitnesses posted reports on social networking sites of buses filled with military personnel arriving in the center of the capital, Ria Novosti news agency reported.</p>
<p>Police arrested up to 800 of the demonstrators, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16066061" type="external">BBC reported.</a></p>
<p>More opposition rallies as well as pro-Putin demonstrations are expected, the AP reported.</p>
<p>"The big question now is whether the fledgling protest movement can maintain its momentum," stated BBC.</p> | Gorbachev: Russia must hold new elections | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-12-07/gorbachev-russia-must-hold-new-elections | 2011-12-07 | 3 |
<p />
<p />
<p>**Bumped up from TAM Wire. Posted by Isaac T**</p>
<p>My immediate reaction was to compare the melting down of 5000 firearms to a book burning, but that’s not quite accurate.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Via Dan Zimmerman: thetruthaboutguns.com — LA Melts Down 5000 Firarms to Build Roads</p>
<p />
<p>The next time you’re stuck in traffic on an LA freeway, think for a moment about what’s underneath you. That concrete you’re not rolling on could be supported by the remnants of confiscated and turned-in boomsticks. “Nearly 5,000 handguns, rifles and other weapons were destroyed Wednesday as part of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s 21st annual Gun Melt event, authorities said…Interim Los Angeles County Sheriff John Scott and other law enforcement officials were on hand for the annual event at the Gerdau Steel Mill in Rancho Cucamonga, which donates its furnace, equipment and personnel to convert the weapons into steel rebar to be used in construction of freeways and bridges.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/08/daniel-zimmerman/guns/" type="external">Continue reading</a></p> | true | http://tammybruce.com/2014/08/la-annual-gun-melt-event-destroys-5000-firearms.html | 0 |
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<p>If we cannot trust what the government tells us about weapons of mass destruction, terrorist events, and the reasons for its wars and bailouts, can we trust the government’s statement last Friday that the US economy gained 151,000 payroll jobs during October?</p>
<p>Apparently not. After examining the government’s report, statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reported that the jobs were “phantom jobs” created by “concurrent seasonal factor adjustments.” In other words, the 151,000 jobs cannot be found in the unadjusted underlying data. The jobs were the product of seasonal adjustments concocted by the BLS.</p>
<p>As usual, the financial press did no investigation and simply reported the number handed to the media by the government.</p>
<p>The relevant information, the information that you need to know, is that the level of payroll employment today is below the level of 10 years ago. A smaller number of Americans are employed right now than were employed a decade ago.</p>
<p>Think about what that means. We have had a decade of work force growth from youngsters reaching working age and from immigration, legal and illegal, but there are fewer jobs available to accommodate a decade of work force entrants than before the decade began.</p>
<p>During two years from December 2007 – December 2009, the US economy lost 8,363,000 jobs, according to the payroll jobs data. As of October 2010, payroll jobs purportedly have increased by 874,000, an insufficient amount to keep up with labor force growth. However, John Williams reports that 874,000 is an overestimate of jobs as a result of the faulty “birth-death model,” which overestimates new business start-ups during recessions and underestimates business failures. Williams says that the next benchmark revision due out next February will show a reduction in current employment by almost 600,000 jobs. This assumes, of course, that the BLS does not gimmick the benchmark revision. If Williams is correct, it is more evidence that the hyped recovery is non-existent.</p>
<p>Discounting the war production shutdown at the end of World War II, which was not a recession in the usual sense, Williams reports that “the current annual decline [in employment] remains the worst since the Great Depression, and should deepen further.”</p>
<p>In short, there is no employment data, and none in the works, unless gimmicked, that supports the recovery myth. The US rate of unemployment, if measured according to the methodology used in 1980, is 22.5%. Even the government’s broader measure of unemployment stands at 17%. The 9.6% reported rate is a concocted measure that does not include discouraged workers who have been unable to find a job after 6 months and workers who who want full time jobs but can only find part-time work.</p>
<p>Another fact that is seldom, if ever, reported, is that the payroll jobs data reports the number of jobs, not the number of people with jobs. Some people hold two jobs; thus, the payroll report does not give the number of employed people.</p>
<p>The BLS household survey measures the number of people with jobs. The same October that reported 151,000 new payroll jobs reported, according to the household survey, a loss of 330,000 jobs.</p>
<p>The American working class has been destroyed. The American middle class is in its final stages of destruction. Soon the bottom rungs of the rich themselves will be destroyed.</p>
<p>The entire way through this process the government will lie and the media will lie.</p>
<p>The United States of America has become the country of the Big Lie. Those who facilitate government and corporate lies are well rewarded, but anyone who tells any truth or expresses an impermissible opinion is excoriated and driven away.</p>
<p>But we “have freedom and democracy.” We are the virtuous, indispensable nation, the salt of the earth, the light unto the world.</p>
<p>PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.&#160; His latest book, <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">HOW THE ECONOMY WAS LOST</a>, has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Phantom Jobs | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/11/08/phantom-jobs/ | 2010-11-08 | 4 |
<p>MN says the trial was a pivotal event in Middle East history: this represented a televised spectacle of Iraqis having a tangible step towards reestablishing the rule of law and showing that the tyranny of the old regime had ended. (But many thought the trial should've been held at the International Criminal Court at the Hague, as opposed to a special tribunal in Iraq. Who made that decision?) It was an organized group of Iraqis, the ICC had no tribunal over the case, and the Iraqis had the right to try Saddam. (You describe how the trial gave Saddam a voice again, and how he used the TV spotlight. Did you regret that you helped give him that stage?) MS: That was a repeat of aspects of Nuremberg as well as Milosevic's trial at the Hague, and we warned the judges that Saddam should be kept bottled up. But the Iraqis wanted to play by their traditions and let Saddam speak, which I personally thought was a disaster. (I think most in the West will remember the end point of the trial, his execution, and the cell phone video which leaked out. The execution was a chaotic scene, and do you think that'll provide an enduring legacy of Iraq's sectarianism?) MN: I think a sad reality is that the execution accomplished in two minutes what the defense tried to accomplish in the whole trial. There's a lot more to the execution than just that cell phone video. (The book also talks about how long the preparations were for Saddam's trial.) MS: The evidence was being collected at the time of the First Gulf War, especially in northern Iraq, where Human Rights Watch got truckloads of evidence. That is the information that ultimately led to Saddam's conviction. (This week we saw the prosecutor of the ICC ask for an arrest warrant for the Sudanese President, al-Bashir. What parallels are there between the cases of Bashir and Saddam?) MN: Saddam's trial shows how people try to grasp on the complex issues of international law at a domestic level and the fact is that had never been done in the Arab speaking world. That's an incredibly important accomplishment, and one that most likely has encouraged Bashir's indictment. MS: This also shows the end of impunity, despite the extraordinarily challenging nature of these cases.</p> | Saddam's final chapter | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-07-16/saddams-final-chapter | 2008-07-16 | 3 |
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<p>Procter &amp; Gamble(NYSE: PG), the conglomerate that owns some of the world's most recognizable consumer products brands, such as Charmin, Tide, and Pampers, has a undergone some major changes in the past few years. Even though this company has faced stagnating sales in recent quarters, its historical dividend yield, decision to split off many of its non-performing brands to focus on long-term profitability, and relative market strength make this company look like a solid long-term play.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Because it's such a large, established business, investors shouldn't expect massive gains in revenue or earnings in the short term, but here are a few charts to show the impressive long-term history of this company.</p>
<p>Image source: Procter &amp; Gamble.</p>
<p>P&amp;G's sales appear to be in decline, going from over $80 billion in 2013 to just $65 billion in the most recent year. However, this drop in sales is not just because P&amp;G is losing ground in the products it sells; it's because P&amp;G has sold off more than half of its brands.In 2014, P&amp;G implemented a new strategy to drive growth by divesting those sub-brands that weren't helping the company grow earnings. As a result, around 100 brands have been sold off in the past two years, with 65 core brands now making up all of P&amp;G's sales and earnings.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PG/revenues_annual" type="external">PG Revenue (Annual)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Sales for fiscal 2016, which ended June 30, dropped from to $65 billion from $70 billion a year ago, but the proceeds of those brand sales led to a net income boost of 50% year over year.P&amp;G management has said it plans for another $10 billion in cost cuts over the next five years as it focuses more on the highest-performing segments,which should help drive even more earnings growth in years to come.</p>
<p>P&amp;G's dividend has remained a strong part of this company's overall investment appeal, and its historical moves in steadily increasing its payout should give investors confidence.P&amp;G has raised its payout consistently in each of the past 60 years. The company's most recent boost in April moved its dividend to $2.68 annually, which makes for a 3.1% yield at the current share price.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PG/dividend" type="external">PG Dividend</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a></p>
<p>Even though sales have fallen amid the company's turnaround strategy and the company's organic growth has been pressured by the strong dollar, its stock price has risen steadily. As seen in the following chart, even during times of broad market sell-offs, such as in 2000 or the recession of 2008, P&amp;G has remained a pretty consistent stock, since many of P&amp;G's products are non-cyclical, such as diapers and soap.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PG" type="external">PG</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a></p>
<p>That chart takes into account P&amp;G's various stock splits in its long history. The company has done a 2-for-1 split five times since going public, most recently in 2004, and it's <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/08/30/is-procter-gamble-due-for-a-stock-split.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">possible that it could do so again soon Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>P&amp;G has been around for more than 100 years, and its history of rewarding shareholders who stick with the company over the long term shows no signs of stopping. There's very little chance that P&amp;G will ever be a high-growth company again, or one that's very sexy in the products it offers or the headlines it makes. For investors more concerned with steady growth for the long term instead of an exciting company, P&amp;G's history shows that it could be a great buy going forward.</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=2667&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><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/BSMcNew/info.aspx" type="external">Seth McNew Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | P&G Stock History -- Why Procter & Gamble Co. Looks Good Long-Term | true | http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/11/04/pg-stock-history-why-procter-gamble-co-looks-good-long-term.html | 2016-11-04 | 0 |
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<p>Richard Drew/Associated PressSaucy tikka masala is a natural topping for a nan pizza.</p>
<p>dish is made worldwide.</p>
<p>These days, nan – Indian flatbread – is available in nearly every grocery store. It can be plain or flavored, and even stuffed.</p>
<p>Nan used to be an occasional treat when I’d go out to eat at an Indian restaurant. It was hard not to fill up on the nan before the meal arrived. But now that nan is as available as pita bread, you can enjoy it at home.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The small size and light and airy texture of store-bought nan makes it a shoo-in for a quick pre-made pizza crust. And because I wanted to keep the pizza in the spirit of India, I am topping the pizza with chicken tikka masala. The ever-popular dish is chock-full of chunks of chicken simmered in an aromatic, creamy and slightly spicy tomato sauce full of onions, garlic, ginger, cumin and turmeric.</p>
<p>This sauce is the perfect thing to brighten up a boneless, skinless chicken breast and will “dress” to impress grilled shrimp, pork and countless vegetables. I used to think that I could only have this exotic sauce in an Indian restaurant, but truth be told, it is one of the easiest pan sauces to make.</p>
<p>NAN PIZZA WITH CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA</p>
<p>2 tablespoons clarified butter (ghee)</p>
<p>1 tablespoon olive oil</p>
<p>2 cups white onions, finely chopped (1 large onion)</p>
<p>3 cloves garlic, grated</p>
<p>1 inch piece of ginger root, grated</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>3 tablespoons tomato paste</p>
<p>2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika</p>
<p>1 teaspoon ground cumin</p>
<p>¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper</p>
<p>1 teaspoon sea salt</p>
<p>½ teaspoon turmeric powder</p>
<p>¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon</p>
<p>2 cups crushed tomatoes</p>
<p>½ cup heavy whipping cream or sour cream</p>
<p>2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes</p>
<p>2 cups grated mozzarella cheese</p>
<p>4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese</p>
<p>4 prepared nan bread</p>
<p>Heat clarified butter or ghee and olive oil in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Sauté onions until translucent. Add garlic and ginger. Stir to combine and continue sautéing until the garlic and ginger begin to turn golden.</p>
<p>Add tomato paste, paprika, cumin, cayenne, salt, turmeric and cinnamon. Sauté for a couple more minutes to “toast” the spices.</p>
<p>Add the crushed tomatoes and chunks of chicken. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes with the lid on. Stir occasionally. Stir in cream. Continue to simmer on low heat with the lid off, stirring occasionally until the sauce is reduced and the consistency of thick gravy. The sauce can be made in advance and kept for two days in the refrigerator.</p>
<p>To use: Preheat oven to 400 F. Lay the nan out on a rack set into a sheet pan and sprinkle a small amount of the grated cheese on the bread. Top the cheese with the tikka masala, leaving a ½-inch border around the edge. Sprinkle the top with more grated cheese. Place in the oven for about 15 minutes. The pizza is done when the cheese is melted and the edges are crisp.</p>
<p>Remove from the oven and brush the edges with a little olive oil while it is still hot. Serve and enjoy.</p>
<p>PER SERVING: 490 calories; 227 calories from fat; 25 g fat (13 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 92 mg cholesterol; 975 mg sodium; 41 g carbohydrate; 4 g fiber; 7 g sugar; 28 g protein.</p>
<p /> | Nan gives pizza an Indian accent | false | https://abqjournal.com/973549/nan-gives-pizza-an-indian-accent.html | 2 |
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<p>The upgrades were announced Monday at a meeting of the Legislative Council.</p>
<p>"Let's see if it happens; I've been waiting 20 years," said Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, of the long-sought bathroom.</p>
<p>Men in the House have a bathroom right off the House members' lounge, just a few feet from the House floor.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But the 26 women in the House have to walk around a hallway to the Senate side of the building to use the female senators' bathroom - and hope they remembered to take a key.</p>
<p>"We miss votes," said Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who has been lobbying for years for a more convenient bathroom. "I missed two or three very important votes. We do not have facilities close enough to the floor."</p>
<p>Stewart sponsored a nonbinding House memorial in 2009, which passed unanimously, that urged development of a plan for a women's bathroom off the House lounge.</p>
<p>But by then the recession had hit, and the Legislature put a halt to remodeling projects.</p>
<p>Now, the state budget for the year that begins July 1 includes $2.5 million for Capitol upgrades. The Legislative Council Service, the Legislature's administrative arm, is coming up with a plan for the new bathroom.</p>
<p>House Speaker Ken Martinez, D-Grants, said it should be a top priority.</p>
<p>"Honestly, it's embarrassing. - I really want this done," he told legislative leaders Monday.</p>
<p>The current Capitol was dedicated at the end of 1966 and underwent some remodeling in the early 1990s.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>"I just think that nobody considered it. People used to think that legislators were men," Stewart told the Journal .</p>
<p>The biggest chunk of the $2.5 million is expected to go for upgrades to the voting systems, which were put out to bid Monday.</p>
<p>The House's electronic voting system - lawmakers press buttons at their desks and their individual votes show up on boards on the chamber's walls - has been in place since the 1980s and has been plagued by glitches in recent years.</p>
<p>"Members hit their buttons and it doesn't record. The wiring has just become brittle," longtime House Chief Clerk Steve Arias said.</p>
<p>The new system, expected to be ready for the January 2015 legislative session, will have the 70 members voting on touch screens on iPads affixed to their desks. New display boards will be installed. The current system will be left in place as a backstop for at least the first year, in case there are problems.</p>
<p>The 42-member Senate still votes the old-fashioned way - answering yes or no when the clerk calls the roll - but that information is fed into an electronic system that creates the official record. Display boards on the walls show what's being voted on and give final tallies.</p>
<p>"The software just needs to be upgraded," and new display boards will be larger and easier to read, Senate Chief Clerk Lenore Naranjo said.</p>
<p>The Senate chamber is currently draped in plastic from floor to ceiling as workers prepare to smooth out the popcorn-like plaster finish in two areas. Similar work was done in the House last year because that ceiling had started to rain down small bits of plaster.</p>
<p>Both chambers will get new carpeting on the floors and in the visitors' galleries, and building elevators will be upgraded.</p>
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<p /> | Potty parity coming for the Roundhouse | false | https://abqjournal.com/394985/potty-parity-to-become-reality-at-roundhouse.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation released on Friday a summary of its July 2 interview with U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary&#160;Clintonconcerning its investigation of her use of a private email server while secretary of state.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It also released a summary of its overall investigation.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Eric Beech and Julia Edwards; Editing by Susan Heavey)</p> | FBI Releases Documents Related to its Clinton Email Investigation | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/09/02/fbi-releases-documents-related-to-its-clinton-email-investigation.html | 2016-09-02 | 0 |
<p>Animal poachers in India can now be shot on sight, after lawmakers in the western state of Maharashtra passed legislation Wednesday to defend tigers, elephants, and other wildlife from attacks, <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Action-against-tiger-poachers-will-not-be-considered-a-crime/articleshow/13395646.cms" type="external">the Times of India reported</a>.</p>
<p>The state's forest guards should not be "booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers," Maharashtra's Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam said Tuesday, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gtsAfDO87w5zoLqZLwmw-hLv6RQg?docId=811313c6cb854495b0d085ad9957bafb" type="external">the Associated Press reported</a>.</p>
<p>There have been no cases of tiger poachers being shot or killed in Maharashtra, but guards have been charged in the past for shooting illegal loggers or fishermen, the state's chief wildlife warden S.W.H. Naqvi told the AP.&#160;</p>
<p>The state also announced plans to put more rangers and jeeps on patrol in the forest, and will offer secret payments to those who tip off officials about poachers and animal smugglers, according to the AP.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/chatter/asian-unicorn-possible-extinction-laos-vietnam" type="external">&#160;'Asian unicorn' so elusive, it could be gone (VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>So far this year, 14 tigers have been killed by poachers in India - one more than for all of 2011, according to the <a href="http://www.wpsi-india.org/wpsi/index.php" type="external">Wildlife Protection Society of India</a>. Eight of those deaths occurred in Maharashtra, the AP reported.&#160;</p>
<p>India is home to about half of the world's estimated 3,200 tigers, in wildlife reserves accross the country, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/23/indian-state-forest-guards-poachers" type="external">the Guardian reported</a>, but the endangered animals are seriously threatened by illegal poaching.&#160;</p>
<p>"These poachers have lost all fear. They just go in and poach what they want because they know the risks are low," said Divyabhanusinh Chavda, the head of the World Wildlife Fund in India and a key member of the National Wildlife Board, the AP reported.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/south-africa/120229/rhino-poaching-kruger-park-sanparks-officials-arrested" type="external">South Africa: Kruger park rangers, guides arrested over rhino poaching (UPDATES)</a></p>
<p>Tigers are targeted because their parts (especially their bones, which Chinese texts say help promote healing and have anti-inflammatory properties) are prized in traditional Chinese medicine and turn large profits on the black market, but they are hardly the only animals poachers go after: Rhinos and elephants are hunted for their horns or tusks, and leopards are killed by villagers who fear they will attack their homes or livestock.</p> | Animal poachers can be shot on sight, say new Indian state orders | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-23/animal-poachers-can-be-shot-sight-say-new-indian-state-orders | 2012-05-23 | 3 |
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. envoy for Libya said Wednesday that military forces "are flexing their muscles in many parts of the country" and the oil-rich nation needs a competent government.</p>
<p>Ghassan Salame told the Security Council that "the specter of violence remains present," pointing to clashes between forces allied with two rival communities close to Libya's border with Tunisia, rival groups at a flashpoint in the eastern vicinity of the capital of Tripoli, and heightened tension around the city of Derna.</p>
<p>He said he was delivering the briefing by videoconference from Tunis and not Tripoli as he had planned "because bloody clashes at the airport have halted all flights in and out ... for the whole week."</p>
<p>Libya fell into chaos after the ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 and since 2014 it has been split between rival governments and parliaments based in the western and eastern regions, each backed by different militias and tribes.</p>
<p>Salame said negotiations to amend a U.N.-brokered political agreement in December 2015 to create a unity government "have crystalized consensus on the much-needed adjustments."</p>
<p>"Although a formal agreement is yet to be reached, this consensus is desirable and reachable," he said.</p>
<p>Salame said Libya needs a government that can deliver desperately needed public services, unify the country's institutions, provide order and justice, and preside over elections that would end the current transition.</p>
<p>He lamented that civilians continue to be killed and injured "in crossfire and indiscriminate attacks" and "armed groups fight recklessly in residential areas, with no thought to the safety of civilians."</p>
<p>Libya already has "20 million pieces of arms" and the arms embargo on the North African nation "has never been more important," Salame said.</p>
<p>"It is for this reason that recent reports of a large shipment of explosives intercepted by the Greek Coast Guard are particularly alarming," he said.</p>
<p>Salame said the U.N. panel of experts monitoring the arms embargo on Libya is looking into the shipment.</p>
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. envoy for Libya said Wednesday that military forces "are flexing their muscles in many parts of the country" and the oil-rich nation needs a competent government.</p>
<p>Ghassan Salame told the Security Council that "the specter of violence remains present," pointing to clashes between forces allied with two rival communities close to Libya's border with Tunisia, rival groups at a flashpoint in the eastern vicinity of the capital of Tripoli, and heightened tension around the city of Derna.</p>
<p>He said he was delivering the briefing by videoconference from Tunis and not Tripoli as he had planned "because bloody clashes at the airport have halted all flights in and out ... for the whole week."</p>
<p>Libya fell into chaos after the ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 and since 2014 it has been split between rival governments and parliaments based in the western and eastern regions, each backed by different militias and tribes.</p>
<p>Salame said negotiations to amend a U.N.-brokered political agreement in December 2015 to create a unity government "have crystalized consensus on the much-needed adjustments."</p>
<p>"Although a formal agreement is yet to be reached, this consensus is desirable and reachable," he said.</p>
<p>Salame said Libya needs a government that can deliver desperately needed public services, unify the country's institutions, provide order and justice, and preside over elections that would end the current transition.</p>
<p>He lamented that civilians continue to be killed and injured "in crossfire and indiscriminate attacks" and "armed groups fight recklessly in residential areas, with no thought to the safety of civilians."</p>
<p>Libya already has "20 million pieces of arms" and the arms embargo on the North African nation "has never been more important," Salame said.</p>
<p>"It is for this reason that recent reports of a large shipment of explosives intercepted by the Greek Coast Guard are particularly alarming," he said.</p>
<p>Salame said the U.N. panel of experts monitoring the arms embargo on Libya is looking into the shipment.</p> | UN envoy says military forces in Libya are flexing muscles | false | https://apnews.com/amp/3818510e990d4e97855e9b3844a07ebc | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday afternoon's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 3 Day" game were:</p>
<p>2-5-4, Wild: 1</p>
<p>(two, five, four; Wild: one)</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday afternoon's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 3 Day" game were:</p>
<p>2-5-4, Wild: 1</p>
<p>(two, five, four; Wild: one)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 3 Day' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/bba63040ab51468b863171012b347921 | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>An enormous amount of money has been sent to Haiti to help the country recover from its devastating earthquake. So why has so little changed in Haiti — from piles of rubble to tent cities — since right after the quake struck?</p>
<p>That’s one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&amp;A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.</p>
<p>If you have your own news-related question that you’d like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions(at)ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>You can also tweet your questions to AP, using #AskAP.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What’s the status of relations between Turkey and Israel?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Karzan Omer Ali</p>
<p>Slemani, Iraq</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Relations between Turkey and Israel are at their lowest point since the two countries embarked on a policy of strategic cooperation after the first Israeli-Palestinian accord in 1993.</p>
<p>&#160;Israel’s good ties with Turkey eased the Jewish state’s isolation in a region overwhelmingly hostile to its presence. Ankara benefited from a strong defense alliance with Israel’s powerful, high-tech military and an influx of Israeli tourists.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>But ties began fraying after Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of an Islamic-oriented party, became Turkey’s prime minister in 2003.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The situation quickly deteriorated after Israel’s winter 2008-09 war in the Gaza Strip. Erdogan criticized the steep Palestinian death toll, and memorably stormed off a stage with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the Davos World Economic Forum days after the fighting ended.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Relations suffered another blow after Israeli naval commandos raided a Turkish ship that sought to bust Israel’s blockade of Gaza in May, killing nine activists. Israel says its troops acted in self-defense. But after the raid, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel, canceled joint military drills and began banning Israeli military aircraft from Turkish airspace.</p>
<p>Turkey is committed to binding contracts with Israeli companies, but further business is in doubt.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Josef Federman</p>
<p>AP News Editor</p>
<p>Jerusalem</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>I have heard reports from people on the ground in Port-au-Prince that the rubble remains on the ground from the earthquake, tent cities have grown, residents are making housing inside dilapidated buildings, garbage is piled on the streets and the only buildings being built are of government interest.</p>
<p>My question: Where did the charity funds go to rebuild Haiti for the people of Haiti?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Angela Lewis,</p>
<p>Avon Park, Fla.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>It’s true: Port-au-Prince looks much like it did in February, other than the fact it’s now raining every day. Of some 20 million cubic yards of rubble left by the disaster, less than 2 percent has been cleared. Serious reconstruction has not started.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, more people than ever are living under tarps and in tents: 1.6 million and counting. Some who didn’t lose their homes can no longer afford rent or are following foreign aid to the camps. And the tarps are falling apart.</p>
<p>It’s easy to look at all this and ask where the money went. The answer isn’t so simple. A lot of secondary crises that could have happened didn’t, or haven’t yet, like disease outbreaks, flooding catastrophes or famine — and some of that can be traced to the aid effort.</p>
<p>And the Haitian government, which was severely compromised in the quake and not so capable before, says the slow pace of reconstruction is important for preventing corruption and planning a sustainable city.</p>
<p>But it’s also reasonable to ask why more hasn’t improved. Presidential elections and hurricanes are both potentially on the way. Once the distraction of the World Cup is over, we may find out just how much frustration the grinding recovery has left behind.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Jonathan M. Katz</p>
<p>AP Correspondent</p>
<p>Port-au-Prince, Haiti</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Can you tell me how many states have now passed the Uniform POA Act?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Tommy L. Jones</p>
<p>St. Louis</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Uniform Power of Attorney Act was created in 2006 to set uniform standards for people to choose a representative to act on their behalf in a legal or business matter if they become incapacitated.</p>
<p>When planning their estate, people often grant “durable” power of attorney to a friend or relative to represent their interests in the event they canot do so themselves.</p>
<p>Many states have different standards for granting durable power of attorney, and that’s led to confusion and occasional mischief by people claiming to represent others when they are not authorized to do so. The Uniform Power of Attorney Act was designed so every state can have the same standards and prevent the misuse of the law.</p>
<p>It’s been approved by seven states so far — Maryland, Virginia, Wisconsin, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Maine, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Beth Fouhy</p>
<p>Associated Press Writer</p>
<p>New York</p> | Ask AP: Turkey and Israel, Haiti’s Slow Progress | false | https://abqjournal.com/8238/ask-ap-turkey-and-israel-haitis-slow-progress.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but remained below levels associated with a healthy labor market.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 284,000 for the week ended Jan. 9, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims were unrevised.</p>
<p>Still, it was the 45th consecutive week that claims remained below the 300,000 mark, which is associated with strong labor market conditions. That is the longest such stretch since the early 1970s.</p>
<p>Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 275,000 in the latest week. The increase likely reflects volatility rather than a change in labor market conditions, as the data is difficult to adjust during holidays. Claims also tend to increase at the start of each quarter.</p>
<p>A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing the data and only claims for Puerto Rico had been estimated. The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it strips out week-to-week volatility, rose 3,000 to 278,750 last week.</p>
<p>The labor market has largely shrugged off weakness in the economy, with nonfarm payrolls surging in December. Economic growth has been hit by a strong dollar, slowing global demand, efforts by businesses to slim an inventory bloat, and spending cuts by energy companies.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid rose 29,000to 2.26 million in the week ended Jan. 2. The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims increased 5,250 to 2.22 million.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao)</p> | Jobless Claims Rise by 7,000 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/01/14/jobless-claims-rise-by-7000.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Following Jesus — while dealing with family, friends, work, school, the larger world and one’s self — gets complicated.&#160; Throw in background noise from political campaigns, product advertising and advocates of all sorts, and it is little wonder we lose our way.</p>
<p>How might we stay focused on following Jesus, while living in the world as it is?&#160; I suggest we ask ourselves three questions each day.</p>
<p>Am I implementing the Great Commission?&#160; Jesus commanded us to make disciples.&#160; He forged disciples by entering into mentoring relationships, modeling and articulating what it meant to be a person devoted to God, and walking with disciples in the making through good and hard times.</p>
<p>&#160;Am I implementing the Great Expectation?&#160; Jesus told us to minister to others at their point of need, as if we were caring for him.&#160; He provided concrete examples of what such ministry looks like:&#160; feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those imprisoned and the like.</p>
<p>&#160;Am I implementing the Great Commandment? &#160;&#160;Jesus insisted we practice loving God, others and ourselves well.&#160; Such love pulls into Christ’s mindset, one in which rights and privileges give way in favor of sacrifice.</p>
<p>The three questions fuse mind, heart and actions.&#160; They focus our time and energy on the matters important to Christ.&#160;&#160; Centered in Christ by means of the three questions, we become able to move into and engage the world without losing our way.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Three questions | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/three-questions/ | 3 |
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<p>Update: <a href="" type="external">Paul Woodward has discovered an earlier video posted to the Web from which the following was apparently culled</a>, via what he calls "creative editing." Obviously, raw footage is preferable, but it isn't clear if the effect of the editing was actually any falsification of the sordid reality of what occurred.</p>
<p>Original posting:</p>
<p>The Israeli military attempted to confiscate and erase the photographic and video evidence of its brutal asault on the Mavi Marmara aid ship on Memorial Day. But it turns out that digital images can often be recovered after erasure, and can be put on small memory sticks that can be hidden in nooks and crannies of luggage. So some images are in fact surfacing.</p>
<p>The most damaging is a film of an Israeli soldier kicking an American citizen while the latter is on the ground,and then executing him. This film completely <a href="" type="external">refutes the rightwing Israeli government's narrative of besieged lightly armed troops haplessly fending off naked aggression</a> on the part of the aid workers. (In the Israeli scenario the victim would not be prostrate on the ground being kicked before being shot). The video, which has not been confirmed, is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlElXOJV4CA&amp;feature=player_embedded" type="external">now at YouTube</a>:</p>
<p>Warincontext.com says that they asked the Israeli military about the video but did not get a substantive comment</p>
<p>See <a href="" type="external">also Tikkun's remarks.</a></p> | Video Shows Israeli Commando Executing American | true | http://juancole.com/2010/06/video-shows-israeli-commando-executing-american.html | 2010-06-10 | 4 |
<p>Image: Christoph Lingg/JB Pictures</p>
<p />
<p>Well past midnight on a steamy summer night last year, I clutched the handle next to the passenger’s seat in a large U-Haul truck as it bounced through construction barricades on the Cross Bronx Expressway, listening to my cargo crash against the walls as Howard, knuckles white with tension, swung the loose steering wheel to keep us on course. Sheer guts had put him in the driver’s seat. This man, from whom I’ve now been divorced a little longer than the decade we were married, inspired groans from our teenage sons with his contentment in the 55 mph lane on interstate highways. Ryan and Darren, the main glue between us for nearly 20 years, were following in the car behind, all of us exhausted and a little slaphappy after lifting and toting since dawn.</p>
<p>I was acutely aware that this was “the first day of the rest of your life”–certainly, it was destined to be the last day of life as I’d known it. A recently paroled mother/writer/suburbanite, I was about to begin a solo life in New York City, the first time in 47 years I would not have to filter every decision through the needs and expectations of other people. The irony of having my once-husband and two former dependents launch me into independence made this surreal journey somehow more provocative.</p>
<p>The close relationships in our postnuclear family continually baffled friends, but I wasn’t surprised when Howard called from Ann Arbor and volunteered his two-week vacation to help me pack my emptying nest in Connecticut. The sturdy friendship we retrieved from our divorce was rebuilt slowly from the powerful alloy of regret and apology, an interactive chemistry that eventually produces genuine change. We’d never imagined, when we naively recited those vows to love and honor each other for life back in 1970, we would mainly be providing each other unlimited opportunities for mercy.</p>
<p>Mercy is the antidote for the crushing pain that invariably follows the loss of innocence, and only the numb don’t need it. Most recently, Howard had to forgive the hard time I gave him with a memoir I’d just finished on 20 years of motherhood. Long familiar by now with the public compromises of an ex-wife who writes, he said reading the manuscript made him feel “like a jerk or a fool.” When I asked him to identify the offending passages, it took three weeks before he called back. “It wasn’t what you wrote that made me feel like a fool,” he said quietly, utterly undefended. “It’s my life I wish I could revise.” Only in hindsight was it clear how he’d taken this fork instead of that, how decisions made in Michigan affected people he loved in Connecticut. Growing instead of shrinking from the truth, he understood we had no control, of course, over what other people would do with it.</p>
<p>The first review had arrived by fax that morning, shortly before I unplugged and packed the machine. I asked if the noxious label that would be appearing next to his name again and again had hurt. “Yeah,” he admitted, “it got to me.” He smiled ruefully, said he’d had a sudden image of us appearing together on a “Geraldo” show: “Deadbeat Dads and the Women Who Love Them.” We laughed. Then we kept moving.</p>
<p>These are perilous times for anyone living outside “the traditional family,” since the reigning politicians are determined to bring back the social dictatorship of the ’50s. Certainly, the contemptuous labels we’ve had to live under- broken home, latchkey children, absentee mother, deadbeat dad- make it difficult for outsiders to recognize all the thinking and striving most postnuclear families do.</p>
<p>It’s more than a little frightening to see how swiftly the White Guys’ Movement has revived the old formula for ridding a country of its conscience during hard economic times: First, you label whole segments of the population as the Other. Then, when the suffering comes, it’s possible to believe they deserve it. If any of your own relatives turn out to be among the despised populations- a gay son, maybe, a divorced sister- well, mercy is notably absent from the current roster of family values.</p>
<p>Since the neighborhood I was moving into was teeming with Others– accented immigrants, hyphenated Americans, single moms, low- income families–I knew that casualties from the “Contract on America” would be falling within my direct line of vision. It was already impossible to walk through the Upper West Side without encountering lifeless bodies laid out on every block, the parched bottom layer of the trickle-down economy. This reality apparently doesn’t look so bad if you take it in through numbers and indexes in The Wall Street Journal, where investors declare a “good economy” if profits are up. There is scant coverage on the business pages, and rarely any photos, of people going down. Mothers and children are so invisible in the national news, investors might not even know we are out here, laboring in the same economy. Business columnists uniformly regard the collapse of communism as “the triumph of capitalism.” Triumph? From the passenger window, capitalism without compassion looks a lot like Calcutta.</p>
<p>As Howard took the exit on the Upper West Side and aimed the truck down Broadway, I looked out the window at the street people I’d driven past hundreds of times, but never as a neighbor. What did being a “good neighbor” mean in this community, where the utterly destitute and the fantastically wealthy live within blocks of each other? How would I stay in touch with reality, when the daily reality is so unreal? Do I put on an armband, own my affinity with the Others–or do I wear mental blinders, try not to know what I know? I’ve never been able to establish any distance from street people–I keep thinking they’re my relatives. I still scan their faces for signs of my brother Frank, even though I know it’s irrational since I delivered the eulogy at his funeral more than a decade ago.</p>
<p>I’m more or less resigned to my role as an easy mark for panhandlers–a readily identifiable “Sucker Man,” as my son Darren would say in sticky situations, remembering a childhood toy with suction cups that glowed in the dark. I feel especially sucked in by street people with obvious symptoms of mental illness. Frank’s madness used to terrify me, as it did him, and I spent years looking into his wild eyes on psychiatric wards, trying to make contact, trying to stare fear down by knowing it. If you make eye contact with panhandlers, know their stories, the buck in your pocket is already in their hands. I think of these tiny contributions as payments against my huge debt to all the strangers who were kind to Frank.</p>
<p>We lost him periodically, between hospitals and jail cells and mental institutions and home–those scary times when this frail, brilliant, desperately ill young man was “out there” somewhere, totally dependent on the compassion of others. Walking through Manhattan, I still make sidewalk diagnoses of manic depression, autism, schizophrenia, paranoia. . . all being treated on the streets since political reformers in the late ’60s stopped “warehousing” the mentally ill. Few voters back then understood the loathsome “warehouses” were the last stop for the most helpless, or that the alternative to inept and underfunded hospitals would be no care at all. A theater of the absurd, America’s sidewalks reflect the insanity of a national health care policy that now jails the mentally ill before treating them.</p>
<p>Howard had acquired a new nickname that week after he’d dropped a 27-inch television a customer had brought in for repairs. “Hey, Crash!” the wise guys he worked with now greeted him, “How’s it goin’?” With all my material possessions in the U-Haul, I had nothing to lose with Crash at the wheel since my alternate driver was Anthony, the Connecticut neighbor who’d shorn the roof off a delivery van when he plowed into a sign that read, “Clearance-8′.” (“Sure I saw it,” he later told the hospital staff. “I forgot I was in the stupid truck.”) I already missed Anthony and the rest of the gang who regularly camped out around our kitchen table.</p>
<p>I loved that raucous household, blooming with growth and optimism. The quiet solitude after Ryan and Darren left for college felt abrupt. In truth, our quality time together was sometimes down to five minutes a day by then, and the main noise was running water. My landlady had been shocked by our water bills and asked if she should send a plumber to check for leaks. “No,” I confessed, “I’m growing male adolescents here. They need a lot of showers.” I offered to pay the difference, since watering teenagers was more economical and effective than therapy, and ultimately easier on the environment. The boys would emerge in elevated moods, skin flushed and wrapped in terry cloth. Every time I would come across those alarming headlines about young male violence and try to imagine what might save us, I’d think: Showers. If every kid in America had enough private time in the bathroom to get a grip, to feel just great for a moment, wouldn’t it have to improve civilization?</p>
<p>I was lucky to find a “prewar” apartment, Manhattan shorthand for big rooms that haven’t been subdivided into six studios with pantry kitchens and broom-closet bathrooms. Space is so precious in New York, custody suits over rent-controlled apartments are common when couples split up. After postwar prosperity devolved into today’s social Darwinism, whole working-class families now read, watch television, eat, make love, fight, cry, laugh, yell, and sleep all in the same room.</p>
<p>Driving through Harlem a few years ago, I got lost in an urban canyon between tall, crumbling buildings. The narrow street was solidly double-parked, and I noticed every car was occupied: One man was reading by flashlight, another was having a cigarette, a pair of teenagers was car-dancing to a radio, another pair was sinking slowly into the seat. Here, on the streets, people were in the only private room at home. It’s no wonder tempers flare and violence erupts during steamy summers in the city. Who can take a shower in a car?</p>
<p>My neighborhood is “in transition,” as we say, between an elegant past and present cruelties, a microcosm of the growing class divisions in America. One block west of my building, uniformed doormen with epaulets safeguard well-to-do residents who are likely to be liberal, generous contributors to the soup kitchen in the nearby cathedral. One block east, crack vials litter the sidewalks where street people and drug addicts spend the night. The haves and have-nots live cheek by jowl here with remarkable civility I think, given the givens. The thief who would eventually steal my car radio did not break any windows, and left a screwdriver behind on the seat. When the car was broken into again a week later, nothing was taken. Somebody evidently just needed a room.</p>
<p>My suburban habit of getting close to neighbors is trickier here because they come and go sometimes within the same day. It’s hard to learn all their names without mailboxes. And the names sometimes change. The woman with the wild gray hair and bedroom slippers who growls at pedestrians on the west side of Broadway calls herself “Bad Bertha,” but when she’s sitting quietly on the east side, her hair tucked neatly into a bun and feet prettily aligned in ballet shoes, her name is “Irena.” The exuberantly manic guy who works the street outside the Hungarian Pastry Shop calls himself “the Lord’s Apostle,” and sings a gospel rap that sounds like a kind of Gregorian Dixie. One rhyme made me laugh, and a laugh in Manhattan is worth a buck to me: “I love Christ, Jesus Christ/The only Man who’s been here twice.”</p>
<p>But there was a dramatic shift in my street relationships when Howard, the boys, and I were finishing renovations on the apartment. That whole week, nobody hit on us for money. Instead, panhandlers grinned and nodded when we passed them during errands and lunch breaks, as though we were old comrades. Maybe they only solicit suburban commuters, I thought, and now recognize us as neighbors. Then I realized how we were dressed: paint- splattered T-shirts, sweaty kerchiefs, shoes covered with sawdust and Spackle. Crash’s work outfit was truly special–Howard had grabbed a pair of old sweats from the Goodwill pile in Connecticut and didn’t discover the cord was missing until he put them on in New York. We searched the vacant apartment for a piece of string or elastic, but all we came up with from work supplies was a roll of duct tape. Even the craziest panhandlers weren’t tempted to solicit change from a guy wearing a cummerbund of silver duct tape.</p>
<p>If our degrees of separation could melt with a change of attire perhaps the current experiment with “casual days,” when corporations relax formal dress codes on Fridays, should go even further. Maybe Mondays should be down-in-the-socks day. Princely executives could become paupers once a week and get to know the folks who are so invisible to Wall Street Journal readers. In their starched collars and knotted ties and pressed twill, so many of the Suits who bustle down Broadway dodging strollers and shopping carts look either uncomfortable or angry, as if everybody wants their stuff. Most everybody probably does.</p>
<p>But suppose they relieved themselves of this burden once a week, surrendered their gaberdine armor and leather belts for a Goodwill outfit and roll of duct tape. Would they be less angry if nobody was hitting on them? If they got grins and nods on the streets, if they made eye contact and learned the names of the Others, would they be tempted to open up membership in the tight little group of “we Americans”? It’s almost too poignant to imagine, but could the in-it- together camaraderie on the streets even move the white guys to share their drugs? The comprehensive health coverage for Congress and the military is costing taxpayers a bundle, but that entitlement program never appears on the Republicans’ list of “financial burdens.”</p>
<p>Party strategist William Kristol chastised GOP colleagues for compromising their economic goals after Democrats launched an aggressive campaign with the “politics of compassion” during the last presidential election. Addressing a conference on C-Span, he warned his fellow Republicans not to be sidetracked by worries about poor people next time. If the rich could become richer still, objections to ruthlessness become moot: “The politics of growth trump the politics of compassion,” he declared over and over. Greed trumps mercy every time. It was late at night when I heard this game plan in my hotel room almost two years ago. I couldn’t think of anyone to call, anything to do. Now Kristol is publisher of a new, right-wing magazine financed by Rupert Murdoch, and Kristol’s colleagues have taken Capitol Hill. Should I have called 911?</p>
<p>After unloading and returning the truck, my tired crew crashed on mattresses flush with the floors and didn’t get up until noon. The next day, muscles sore but freshly showered, we were in elevated moods after lunch in a local Chinese-Cuban restaurant. “Chinese- Cuban-Americans,” I said, wondering how I would keep track of the hyphens here. “Imagine fleeing the Gang of Four and landing in Castro country.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Howard said, “then risking your life in an open boat and washing up here just in time for the Gingrich Gang.” Ryan and Darren gave each other a worried look, familiar by now with their progenitors’ habit of getting worked up over politics. They hated hearing about suffering they couldn’t do anything about. If we were going to saddle them with family values of mercy and justice in these mean times, they wanted to know how to fend off despair. Though we are not regular church-goers, the religion in our postnuclear family is an interfaith amalgam of Catholic beatitudes and Lutheran heresies and Zen koans–I suggested a visit to St. John the Divine. The largest Episcopal cathedral in North America, its towering spire of magnificent masonry now sits sullenly under rusted iron scaffolding, renovations stalled once more while fundraising efforts are applied to more immediate emergencies. Dean James Morton has the formidable task of convincing wealthy parishioners deeply committed to art and historic preservation that their first obligation, as Episcopalians, is to serve the community–in their case, ceaseless waves of troubled kids, addicted veterans, dying homosexuals, and homeless immigrants. In the turf wars between the Suits and the Others in this West Side Story, the cathedral is the parking lot where miracles happen.</p>
<p>Still beautiful despite its present humility, the stately edifice is buzzing with civilian activity. Before New York adopted a recycling program, parishioners brought their garbage to church, where the homeless turned aluminum cans into cash. Two biologists now work out of the church to restore the urban watershed in Upper Manhattan, and hold community workshops on environmental issues. The doors are open to anyone who wants in–on the Feast of St. Francis, when members bring pets to the procession honoring all God’s creatures, even elephants come to St. John the Divine.</p>
<p>In the park next to the interfaith elementary school at the church, we stopped before an installation by sculptor Frederick Franck. A row of six steel panels are aligned on the lawn perpendicular to the path, each with a silhouette of the same human figure cut from the center, the first one slightly larger than life, the last a miniature version of the shrinking figure itself. The inscription quotes the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy: “In all our deliberations we must be mindful of the impact of our decisions on the seven generations to follow ours.” Franck titled the sculpture Seven Generations, but there are only six figures. The viewer, standing squarely at the mouth of the tunnel, must become the seventh. We each took turns looking through the five ghostly silhouettes, connecting with the tiny figure at the end. Step aside from your place in the human chain, it disappears.</p>
<p>How did the Iroquois chiefs come to their remarkably long view of personal responsibility? How did they make the connection between their business decisions in Michigan and domestic life in Connecticut? Were they all in difficult relationships? Did they speak the hard truth, argue and apologize, let mercy change them? Seemingly larger than life in their war paint and headdresses, did the chiefs declare a casual day at the Haudenosaunee Council, light the pipe and pass it around? Did they inhale?</p>
<p>The architects of the Republican Party’s future can’t be worried about the next seven generations- William Kristol said it’s not even practical to care about most of this one. “You cannot in practice have a federal guarantee that people won’t starve,” he told Harper’s during a candid forum with five other white guys, explaining how Republicans envision the future. Some people will have to suffer, but “that’s just political reality,” said author David Frum. Obviously unaware of Dean Morton’s work with New York Episcopalians, Frum apparently doesn’t think “the sort of people who make $100,000 contributions to the Republican Party” can get behind poor people. “Republicans are much more afraid of angry symphonygoers than they are of people starving to death,” he said.</p>
<p>The main problem with running a merciless government is that in a democracy, millions of voters have to agree to starvation. This requires a certain “finesse,” said media adviser Frank Luntz. “I’ll explain it in one sentence: I don’t want to deliver bad news from a golf course in Kennebunkport.” Republicans are depending on Rush Limbaugh, the undisputed master of political spin, to keep people dizzy and laughing about starvation plans. Labeling people like me “compassion fascists” for trying to get people like him interested in mercy, Limbaugh is so popular even The New York Times compromised its editors when marketing executives hired him to advertise the newspaper. In the new morality of bottom-liners, it’s OK to have a propagandist represent the “newspaper of record,” if it increases sales. Vice must be spun into virtue before we can get to the Republican future, but everybody’s doing their part.</p>
<p>Several years ago, Ivan Boesky spoke to students at the University of California while on tour to promote a new book. “Greed is healthy,” he inspired them. “You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.” Boesky’s invocation of avarice didn’t stir any action from Republican crusaders fighting “a cultural warIfor the soul of America,” in which Pat Buchanan sees the enemies as “radical feminists and homosexuals.” Talk about a dazzling public relations coup: The party championing morality in America has declared that charity is impractical, greed is healthy, compassion is fascist, and mercy is the responsibility of other people. If future schoolchildren have to recite a prayer written by these folks, whatever will it say? “Dear God, please give me more of everything than I’ll ever need and I promise not to care about anyone else.”</p>
<p>Though I’m not an Episcopalian, visiting St. John’s always makes me wish I could pray. I envy the solace my family and friends have talking to God. My own spiritual meditations are generally addressed to my brother Frank, the euphoric madman who left abruptly at age 36, delirious with love and forgiveness as he answered God’s call. I still want him to tell me: Is heaven better than the transient hotel where the Chicago police found his body? Sitting in the garden at St. John’s, I remembered our last conversation on the lawn at Elgin State Hospital. He asked me why I loved him and I said, “Because you are a fool, and I love fools.”</p>
<p>“But Jesus said, ‘There are no fools,'” he replied, quoting a scriptural fragment from his seminarian days.</p>
<p>“I know,” I replied. “But I think what Jesus really meant is that we are all fools,” I said, paraphrasing J.D. Salinger. I told him I thought he was the king of fools. He laughed, said I must be the queen. I don’t blame God for the scrambled thinking that led to Frank’s suicide. I can’t even be sure there is a God. I believe my divinely crazy brother heard God say what he wanted to hear. Many mentally ill people think they are in direct touch with the Almighty. The Lord’s apostle outside the pastry shop, the toothless guy at D’Agostino, even Bertha on her bad days will offer the panhandler’s benediction: “God bless you,” they say, whether the quarter comes or not. Republican Christians today are getting some frenzied directives as the political scene becomes ever crazier, and they too hear exactly what they want to hear: God wants everybody to get married, wants women to stay home, doesn’t want gays in the military, doesn’t want national health insurance. I can’t share their faith that a supreme benevolence is behind all these messages, but if the polls are correct and most Americans do think somebody’s God should be directing all our lives, let’s please not pick the one who’s inspiring pro-lifers to get automatic weapons. Until we have a firmer grip on our common reality, maybe we could all follow the harmless god who’s telling the autistic disciple on 34th Street, over and over: “Go to Macy’s nine-to- five, Go to Macy’s nine-to-five.” We could leave the credit cards home, stay out of trouble. Just look.</p>
<p>It was a beautiful summer night on Broadway as we walked home from our last dinner together, grateful there were no more boxes to move. When a U-Haul truck rattled down the street, Crash laughed and asked, “Do you think they’d have less business if the company was named, ‘U-Bust-Your-Ass’?” Our laughing foursome attracted looks from our neighbors, but few grinned or nodded, as if we’d become strangers again. Darren noticed too.</p>
<p>“This is too weird,” he said. “People are staring at us because we look so normal. Like Mom and Pop and the two boys from Iowa.” He was struck by the irony of having been labeled the weirdos in almost every neighborhood we’ve lived in, then arriving here–where weirdos abound–and being mistaken for regular guys.</p>
<p>“We should wear a sign,” he said. “We’re Not What You Think.” Maybe everyone should wear that sign through the next election, since there’s so much confusion about the Other. As bad decisions in Washington crush good people in Harlem, even “liberal” politicians are telling us to prepare for further compromises–live a little leaner, do more charity work, tighten our belts. What can they be thinking? My neighbors are already living in cars, doing-it-yourself, holding pants up with duct tape. There is plenty of self-help and personal responsibility out here, where people watch each other’s kids and take mostly working vacations, if we take them at all.</p>
<p>How did the white guys ever get the impression they are doing all the work? Because they are earning all the big bucks? Why are the Republicans so mad–why so furious with mothers? Do they need more Prozac? Since all the female labor sustaining them at home and at work is so invisible, so seemingly profitless, they can’t seem to hold the picture that somebody’s valuable work is responsible for the fact their children are alive, their Contracts are typed. The arrogance and ignorance of the current political leadership is so stupefying, you don’t even want to argue with these boys–you “just want to slap them,” as a high-ranking official recently told Molly Ivins. Maybe that’s why the white guys loathe mothers so much- we remind them they have to share, take turns, grow up.</p>
<p>The next morning we loaded the roof of Howard’s car so high with the boys’ sports equipment, easels, and trunks, we had to make one last trip to the hardware store for longer bungee cords. It was a hectic departure as the Clampetts hit the road, and I waved from the curb as they mouthed their final goodbyes through the window. Still smiling, I stayed on the curb for a long time, sorry the party was over. Letting go rarely comes naturally to me, and I felt my worry reflexes kick in as the car turned the corner.</p>
<p>Almost every family value Howard and I tried to give our sons will give them nothing but trouble, if they choose to live them. As two young, educated white guys who could qualify as insiders if they got behind the Contract on the rest of us, there are bound to be days they’ll feel like Sucker Man, stuck with mercy when greed is called trump. I know it’s a peculiar wish for a mother, but I hope they never quite fit in with their crowd. Certainly their affinity with their dad, a truly original odd man out, was a heartening sign. I could see them all laughing for the next 750 miles. Folding my arms, I looked up at the cathedral. I wished I could pray. I remembered my religious instructor’s belief that we were all fools, walking from one hallowed ground to the next. Dear God, I thought, please let us be merciful fools.</p>
<p>Mary Kay Blakely, a contributing editor at Ms. and The Los Angeles Times Magazine, is author of American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie; and is working on a new book about political depression called Red, White, and Oh So Blue.</p>
<p /> | A beautiful day in the neighborhood | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1995/11/beautiful-day-neighborhood/ | 2018-11-01 | 4 |
<p>A group of more than 100 American Buddhist leaders are calling on their fellow faithful to resist President Donald Trump’s administration, saying his policies are hurting the nation’s “most vulnerable communities.”</p>
<p>On Monday, the Canada-based Buddhist publication Lion’s Roar <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/stand-against-suffering/" type="external">published a lengthy letter</a> decrying the president’s policy agenda, with signers arguing that Buddhists have an obligation to respond to suffering with “loving-kindness, wisdom, calm minds, and courage.”</p>
<p>“In this time of crisis, we hear the cries of millions who will suffer from regressive policies of the new U.S. administration targetting our most vulnerable communities,” the statement, which uses Canadian verbiage, reads. “We hear the cries of a nation whose democracy and social fabric are at risk. We join in solidarity with many others who are also hearing these cries, knowing that together we can be a remarkable force for transformation and liberation.”</p>
<p>“Buddhism is respected around the world as a religion of compassion and peace,” it adds. “We are wanted and needed in this movement, and we have much to contribute.”</p>
<p>“If the policies of the new administration prevail, millions of people in vulnerable and less privileged communities will&#160;suffer.”</p>
<p>Signers stressed that “Buddhism does not align itself with any party or ideology,” but noted that the current political moment is a unique.</p>
<p>“If the policies of the new administration prevail, millions of people in vulnerable and less privileged communities will suffer,” the statement, which doesn’t mention Trump by name, reads. “Hopes will be dashed. Undoubtedly, lives will be lost. International conflict will intensify and environmental destruction will worsen.”</p>
<p>The letter also suggested various ways for Buddhists to aid the vulnerable during the Trump era, such as joining protests or lending their worship spaces to the <a href="" type="internal">New Sanctuary Movement</a> to aid undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation.</p>
<p>“Our Buddhist communities can become centers of protection and vision,” it reads. “This can take many forms. It can mean providing sanctuary for those in danger or skilfully confronting those whose actions would harm the vulnerable among us. It can be standing up for the environment or becoming an active ally for those targeted by hate and prejudice.”</p>
<p>Top-level cardinal hopes the president will listen to “dissenting voices.”</p>
<p>Signatories included a host of prominent Buddhist teachers and thinkers, including 13 major names such as author Jack Kornfield, writer <a href="" type="internal">Rev. angel Kyodo williams</a>, Roshi Joan Halifax, and monk-activist Bhikkhu Bodhi.</p>
<p>“Now…that the Trump administration has been issuing executive orders and proposing bills and policies that clash so strongly with Buddhist ethical values, even the most reticent Buddhist teachers are starting to feel the need to speak up,” Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi told ThinkProgress in an email. He noted that he tentatively expects Buddhists to make similar statements in the future.</p>
<p>Buddhists make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, <a href="http://ava.publicreligion.org/#religious/2015/States/religion/14" type="external">according to PRRI</a>, representing a wide array of traditions and theological schools. Melvin McLeod, editor-in-chief of Lion’s Roar magazine, lauded this diversity as a strength of the community, but said sweeping expressions of political solidarity such as Monday’s letter — while certainly <a href="http://www.ecobuddhism.org/bcp/all_content/buddhist_declaration/" type="external">not</a> <a href="https://jizochronicles.com/2011/11/07/an-open-letter-from-buddhist-and-yoga-teachers-and-leaders-in-support-of-the-occupy-movement/" type="external">unprecedented</a> — are “quite unusual.”</p>
<p>“I think it is really the first time such a broad and diverse group of Buddhist teachers have come together,” McLeod told ThinkProgress. “It does represent a broad consensus of Buddhist teachers.”</p>
<p>The letter is the latest in a growing wave of faith-based opposition to Trump’s agenda. Since his election in November, progressive and conservative religious groups have voiced passionate resistance to the president’s <a href="" type="internal">cabinet nominations</a>, <a href="" type="internal">plan to repeal Obamacare</a>, <a href="" type="internal">both</a> <a href="" type="internal">versions</a> of the Muslim ban, <a href="" type="internal">budget proposals</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">stance on climate change</a>, among other issues.</p>
<p>This post was updated to include comments from Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. It was also corrected to remove a quote attributed to Bodhi that was actually Bodhi quoting McLeod.</p> | The latest group opposing Trump’s policies: Buddhists | true | https://thinkprogress.org/the-latest-group-opposing-trumps-policies-buddhists-b1d6116806da | 2017-04-03 | 4 |
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<p>LEESBURG, Va. — Police say a 35-year-old man may have roamed comic book conventions around the country to lure teenage girls into sex.</p>
<p>The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that Derrick Jones of Catonsville, Maryland, was arrested in Utah on a charge of soliciting sexual contact with a teenage girl in Virginia through social media.</p>
<p>Police say Jones provided transportation for the girl to travel from her Ashburn home to meet him in the Baltimore area.</p>
<p>They want to know about girls Jones contacted in other states. Since March, police say, Jones has been to conventions in Orlando; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona; Los Angeles and Sacramento, California, and Salt Lake City.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Cops probe whether man used comic conventions to lure teens | false | https://abqjournal.com/997685/cops-probe-whether-man-used-comic-conventions-to-lure-teens.html | 2017-05-03 | 2 |
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<p>MITCHELL, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota man is suing Coca-Cola after allegedly finding a mouse in a can of soda.</p>
<p>The Daily Republic ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2qiyJdQ" type="external">http://bit.ly/2qiyJdQ</a> ) reports that Duane Putzier says he became ill, missed 60 hours of work and accumulated $1,000 in medical bills after finding the mouse on June 7.</p>
<p>Coca-Cola Co. attorneys argue the mouse would have been more decomposed if it really had been in the can for six weeks, the amount of time between bottling and consumption. Attorney Brian Johnson calls the claim an attack on the Atlanta-based company's brand.</p>
<p>Putzier is seeking $2,026, plus any general damages proven at trial, with interest.</p>
<p><a href="#fc12bdba-76be-4296-8651-c853a513e42b" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | South Dakota man claims he found mouse in Coca-Cola can | false | https://abqjournal.com/994400/south-dakota-man-claims-he-found-mouse-in-coca-cola-can.html | 2017-04-27 | 2 |
<p>On Thursday, the Washington State Supreme Court struck a blow <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/319900-washington-court-rules-against-florist-who-refused-flowers-for-gay#.WKYAyNB2L5w.twitter" type="external">against religious freedom</a>, ruling that a religious Christian florist who wouldn’t provide flowers for a gay wedding will have to pay over $1,000 for discrimination.</p>
<p>Not only did the court refuse to rule against Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom’s 2015 order that fined Barronelle Stutzman $1,001 for refusing to provide flowers to Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, there wasn’t one member who dissented; the nine member court ruled unanimously for the gay couple.</p>
<p>Stutzman, a devout Southern Baptist, had appealed the lower court’s verdict, thus putting the state’s nondiscrimination law before state Supreme Court in Olympia for the first time.</p>
<p>Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud wrote for the court, “Discrimination based on same-sex marriage constitutes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”</p>
<p>Gay rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the suit, rejoiced; Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the Human Rights Campaign, chortled, “This was a reasonable application of a state non-discrimination law. It’s consistent with the way that states and frankly the federal government have applied non-discrimination law across time.”</p>
<p>But Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, slammed the ruling, saying, “The Washington State Supreme Court’s ruling tramples on our nation’s long-held tradition of respecting the freedom of Americans to follow their deeply held beliefs, especially when it comes to participating in activities and ceremonies that so many Americans consider sacred. The time to protect religious freedom is now.”</p>
<p>Stutzman said Ingersoll was her customer for 10 years; she knew he was gay when she refused to provide him flowers. She asserted, "Rob can certainly believe what he would like to do on marriage, and has the right to do that. I'm just asking for the same right . . . When you think that the government is coming in telling you what to think and what to do ... we should all be very, very scared . . . You know, it's not just my freedom, it's everybody's freedom.”</p>
<p>The Alliance Defending Freedom, representing Stutzman, said they <a href="http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/crime/article133086579.html" type="external">will appeal</a> the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Four states. Alabama, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Virginia are considering bills that would businesses to refuse service to same-sex couples.</p> | TYRANNY: Washington Supreme Court Rules Christian Florist Must Supply Flowers For Gay Wedding | true | https://dailywire.com/news/13566/tyranny-washington-supreme-court-rules-christian-hank-berrien | 2017-02-16 | 0 |
<p>Four years before I was brought to Fort Dix, New Jersey, shackled on a civilian bus that was filled with soldiers who had gone either AWOL or were wanted as deserters, a riot had taken place at the stockade on that base.*&#160;&#160; The riot was in response to brutality against prisoners in the brig.&#160; Thirty-eight men charged as rioters were starved, beaten, and caged.&#160; Tensions had been growing for months between the military brass and some of the MPs who guarded the soldiers in the brig.&#160; The population of the stockade had grown from over 200 to more than 700 as the Vietnam War became more and more unpopular among soldiers and the larger society.&#160; By the time the war was over in 1975 (direct U.S. military involvement ended in 1973), more than 500,000 men had either gone AWOL or deserted.</p>
<p>Originally named the Fort Dix Thirty-Eight, soldiers who were charged with rioting faced courts-martial, resulting in the sentencing of some men to three years in military prison. About the same time official representatives of the U.S. traveled to Vietnam to investigate the use of the infamous tiger cages used against the Vietnamese.&#160; In October 1969, just before the huge nationwide antiwar rally on October 15, thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Wrightstown, New Jersey where Fort Dix is located in support of the antiwar soldiers.</p>
<p>All of the detainees who exited the bus I traveled on were placed in several two-story white clapboard World War II-era barracks.&#160; The stockade was located just beyond these barracks, now a cinder-block building surrounded with barbed wire, replacing the clapboard buildings where prisoners had been housed when the 1969 riot took place.</p>
<p>When I arrived at Dix, I knew about the conditions at the stockade and the riots and courts-martial that had taken place.&#160; I was frightened by the prospect of being placed in this stockade. The conditions that led to the riot and the resulting trials had been publicized in antiwar literature.&#160; Similar to the present, however, trying to determine the truth about military issues was difficult to find in the mainstream press. Much information had either been self-censored by writers who dealt with the war, censored by editors, or reported through the filter of what the government wanted known. There was no such thing as “imbedded journalists” during Vietnam, in the sense of how reporters are used today, but self-censorship and censorship by media outlets was the same during the Vietnam War as it is today. Only a few brave writers challenged the status quo.</p>
<p>I was lucky.&#160; I was able to afford a lawyer who argued before the company commander to keep me out of the brig.&#160; I had appealed orders to report for active duty and was savvy about not speaking to military brass without my lawyer present. Many, however, who were not so fortunate were immediately sent to the prison.</p>
<p>In 1977 I applied to the Carter amnesty program, and my discharge was retroactively upgraded to 1973.&#160; I had balked at using the Ford clemency program of 1974, its guidelines punitive toward military resisters, clearly favoring draft resisters. Military resisters, under the Ford program, were given “bad” discharges that could later be upgraded to clemency discharges, discharges that offered no benefits. While the Carter program was seen as more “liberal” in its treatment of military resisters, only about 16,000 benefited from this amnesty out of about 430,000. Few veterans received a discharge “under honorable conditions,” and nearly all who received upgraded discharges were barred from receiving any benefits.&#160; The latter was seen as vindictive and reflected the nation’s and government’s disdain for those who had opposed the war from within the military.&#160; Technically, a soldier who received a so-called “bad” discharge, and did not oppose the war, could receive veterans’ benefits, but those who opposed the war from within the ranks of the military were barred by law from receiving any benefits. Many soldiers who resisted the Vietnam War were in dire need of benefits.</p>
<p>When cases of torture were reported at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, opened in 2002 to house over 700 prisoners from the war in Afghanistan, I was not surprised.&#160; When detainees there were originally denied Constitutional rights and rights under the Geneva Conventions, I was not shocked, knowing just how far the government and military could go in inflicting punishment at bases in the U.S. and around the world. The military had inflicted abuse on its own soldiers during the Vietnam War, targeting those who did not fit the mold of military discipline.</p>
<p>In 2004, when reports of torture and abuse by the military at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were reported, once again I knew that none of this was new and had been practiced on U.S. soil.</p>
<p>The U.S. is supposed to be a beacon of democracy to the world.&#160; I was naïve enough to believe this ideal during the Vietnam War, and thought that the lessons of that war would humanize the society.&#160; Instead, the government has sought to extend its neo-liberal economic agenda around the globe and to project raw military power in preemptive wars.&#160; It has been a long, long time since the nation actually has had to defend itself against an enemy. With the outbreak of World War II, the nation had to act.&#160; Following the Cold War, intelligence agencies and the military were not able to stop the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.&#160; Instead they launched a war against the people of Afghanistan, stole rights from U.S. citizens in the name of security, and launched a war against Iraq, leaving that nation in ruins.</p>
<p>HOWARD LISNOFF is an educator and freelance writer.&#160; He can be reached through his Web site at <a href="http://www.notesofamilitaryresister.net/" type="external">www.notesofamilitaryresister.net</a>.</p>
<p>*Crowell, Joan.&#160; Fort Dix Stockade Our Prison Camp Next Door. New York: Links Books, 1974.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | When Torture Was Practiced on U.S. Soil | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/07/15/when-torture-was-practiced-on-u-s-soil/ | 2008-07-15 | 4 |
<p>(Reuters) - Celgene Corp will pay $9 billion in cash to buy experimental cancer drugmaker Juno Therapeutics Inc, bulking up its developmental pipeline as it works to reduce reliance on its own cancer treatment Revlimid.</p>
<p>Celgene said on Monday it would pay $87 per share for the roughly 90 percent of Juno it does not already own.</p>
<p>Juno focuses on chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, known as CAR-T, which harnesses the body’s own immune cells to recognize and attack malignant cells. These types of gene therapies have been pegged by many in the pharmaceutical industry as a new frontier in cancer treatment.</p>
<p>Celgene’s bid represents a nearly 29 percent premium to Juno’s closing price of $67.81 on Friday, and the company’s shares were trading just below the bid at $86.12 on Monday morning. Juno’s stock was worth less than $46 as recently as last week, before the Wall Street Journal reported that the two companies were working on a deal.</p>
<p>Celgene has lost nearly 30 percent of its value since October, as investors sold off shares on concerns over patent challenges to its long-time cash cow Revlimid, weak sales of its key psoriasis drug Otezla and the failure of an experimental Crohn’s disease drug that had been touted as a potential blockbuster.</p>
<p>“Celgene is in a desperate situation,” said Brad Loncar, chief executive of Loncar Investments, which runs the Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF. “Their revenue growth is running out of gas and they needed to fix this immediately.”</p>
<p>Shares of Celgene were at $102.61 on Monday.</p>
<p>The two companies have been working together since 2015, when Celgene picked up 9.3 percent of Juno for $93 a share.</p>
<p>Juno is yet to get an approval for a CAR-T drug, unlike its rivals Kite Pharma, bought by Gilead Sciences Inc for nearly $12 billion in 2017, and Novartis AG.</p>
<p>Juno’s closest drug to approval is its JCAR017 treatment for a type of blood cancer. The companies said they expect it to be approved in 2019 and could bring in peak sales of about $3 billion worldwide.</p>
<p>It has had previous setbacks in developing the treatments, and shut down development of one leukemia treatment due to severe neurotoxicity that led to five patient deaths.</p>
<p>Analysts said new treatments from Juno should help diversify Celgene’s revenue base. Revlimid currently accounts for more than 60 percent of its sales.</p>
<p>The deal is the second Celgene Chief Executive Mark Alles has struck in January, after agreeing to pay $1.1 billion - and as much as $7 billion if certain milestones are reached - for privately-held Impact Biomedicines.</p>
<p>The Summit, New Jersey-based company also has partnerships with bluebird bio Inc and Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc, both of which are developing cancer treatments.</p>
<p>Celgene said the latest acquisition is expected to add to its 2020 target net revenue incrementally, but will not affect adjusted earnings forecast of more than $13 per share.</p>
<p>The deal was one of two large biotech deals on Monday morning, as French drugmaker Sanofi also agreed to buy U.S. hemophilia expert Bioverativ for $11.6 billion, its biggest deal for seven years.</p>
<p>J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is the financial adviser for Celgene and Morgan Stanley &amp; Co for Juno.</p>
<p>Proskauer Rose LLP and Hogan Lovells will be the legal counsel for Celgene and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP for Juno.</p>
<p>Reporting by Michael Erman in New York and Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by , Manas Mishra and Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Andrew Hay</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc’s experimental drug to treat a rare and fatal disease linked to heart failure reduced deaths and need for hospitalizations in a late-stage study.</p> FILE PHOTO: A company logo is seen at a Pfizer office in Dublin, Ireland November 24, 2015. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton
<p>The company’s clinical study investigated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of an oral dose of tafamidis capsules compared with a placebo in 441 patients.</p>
<p>Pfizer said tafamidis met the main goal of statistically significant reduction in deaths and frequency of cardiovascular-related hospitalizations compared with a placebo at 30 months. The data also showed that tafamidis was generally well tolerated by the enrolled patients.</p>
<p>Tafamidis was being tested for the treatment of transthyretin cardiomyopathy, a condition that results from deposits of transthyretin protein in the heart, which leads to eventual heart failure.</p>
<p>Brokerage SunTrust Robinson Humphrey said it expects tafamidis global sales of $130 million in 2022.</p>
<p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted tafamidis a ‘fast track’ designation in June last year. The designation aims to facilitate the development and expedite the review process for certain drugs and vaccines for serious conditions.</p>
<p>Currently, there are no approved medications in the United States for the treatment of transthyretin cardiomyopathy.</p>
<p>However, Stifel analyst Stephen Wiley noted that the data could be a negative for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Ionis Pharma, whose shares were down in regular trading.</p>
<p>Alnylam and Ionis are developing drugs for the treatment of hereditary TTR amyloidosis, also caused by a buildup of transthyretin protein in the body.</p>
<p>Some investors could look at Pfizer’s data as providing validation for both the companies’ drugs, Wiley said, adding that he believed the data could potentially complicate product labeling for both the drugs.</p>
<p>Alnylam closed down 8.3 percent at $119.1, while Ionis closed at $44.08, down 4 percent.</p>
<p>Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra, Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BOSTON (Reuters) - Impax Laboratories Inc has agreed to pay $20 million to consumers and insurers to resolve claims that the drugmaker entered an anticompetitive deal to delay launching a generic, cheaper version of acne medication Solodyn.</p>
<p>The accord, disclosed in papers filed in federal court in Boston, brought to an end a rare trial in a class action lawsuit involving an alleged “pay-for-delay” patent litigation settlement between a brand-name drugmaker and a generic company.</p>
<p>Such settlements occur when a brand-name drugmaker pays a generic rival to delay releasing a cheaper version of its product in exchange for resolving court challenges to patents covering the treatment.</p>
<p>According to the plaintiffs, Impax in 2008 settled a lawsuit it filed challenging a weak patent Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp held for Solodyn by agreeing to delay releasing its generic version until 2011.</p>
<p>In exchange, Impax received $40 million, allowing Medicis to maintain its Solodyn monopoly longer, the plaintiffs allege. But for that settlement, Impax would have launched its generic version “at-risk” while the litigation continued, they say.</p>
<p>Hayward, California-based Impax denied that there was any such arrangement to delay competition.[nL1N1QU1FY]</p>
<p>Thursday’s settlement came in the third week of the trial and after the plaintiffs finished presenting their evidence against Impax, which in October agreed to combine with Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC.</p>
<p>“It’s a fair result,” Douglas Baldridge, a lawyer for Impax, said outside of court.</p>
<p>The deal marked the final settlement in the litigation. Impax previously agreed to pay $35 million to resolve class action claims brought on behalf of direct purchasers of Solodyn such as retailers.[nL1N1QS06H]</p>
<p>Mid-trial, Impax on Sunday settled lawsuits by retail pharmacy operators including CVS Health Corp, Rite Aid Corp, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, Kroger Co, Albertsons Companies Inc and HEB Grocery Company LP. Terms were not disclosed.</p>
<p>Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, which acquired Medicis in 2012, said in February it would pay $58 million to resolve related claims.</p>
<p>Jurors had been asked only to determine liability because damages would have been determined at a later trial.</p>
<p>Lawyers for the consumers and insurers had alleged that because of the “pay-for-delay” settlement, they were overcharged by up to $790.3 million, according to an October court ruling.</p>
<p>“The fact that the case was presented to you had a lot to do with this case settling,” U.S. District Judge Denise Casper told jurors before excusing them on Thursday morning.</p>
<p>The case is In re Solodyn (Minocycline Hydrochloride) Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, No. 14-md-02503.</p>
<p>Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by David Gregorio; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, David Gregorio and Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday expanded the use of Amgen Inc’s leukemia drug Blincyto to include patients who are in remission but still have residual signs of the disease.</p> FILE PHOTO: A view shows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland August 14, 2012. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo
<p>The drug, part of a class known as bispecific antibodies, is already approved for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) whose cancer has returned after treatment or did not respond to previous treatment, such as chemotherapy.</p>
<p>The expanded approval is for patients with “minimal residual disease,” meaning the presence of cancer cells below a level that can be seen under a microscope. Such patients, who can now be identified with new molecular testing, still have an increased risk of relapse.&#160;</p>
<p>The FDA approval marks the first time molecular tests are being used to identify patients for early intervention in order to prevent cancer from reappearing, said Gregory Friberg, head of oncology global development at Amgen.</p>
<p>In studies, four out of five patients with residual ALL showed no signs of the disease after a single cycle of Blincyto, he said. The drug can cause serious side effects including a potentially life-threatening inflammatory condition called cytokine release syndrome.</p>
<p>An estimated 5,960 Americans will be diagnosed with ALL this year, and around 1,470 will die from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.</p>
<p>Amgen’s sales of Blincyto, which has an average wholesale price near $173,000, totaled $175 million last year.</p>
<p>Reporting by Deena Beasley; editing by Bernadette Baum and Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Arkansas’ attorney general on Thursday joined the widening mass of litigation against opioid manufacturers, accusing three drugmakers of promoting addictive painkillers in ways that falsely denied or trivialized their risks.</p> A Johnson &amp; Johnson building is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake
<p>Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed a lawsuit in state court in Little Rock accusing Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson &amp; Johnson and Endo International Plc of engaging in misleading marketing practices.</p>
<p>The case made Arkansas at least the 17th U.S. state to sue manufacturers of prescription opiods amid a nationwide epidemic of addiction to the painkillers.</p>
<p>The lawsuit contended the drugmakers spent millions of dollars on promotional activities that downplayed the risks of addiction associated with opioids while falsely touting the benefits of using the drugs to treat chronic pain.</p>
<p>“The reckless actions of these opioid manufacturers have wreaked havoc upon Arkansas and her citizens for far too long,” Rutledge said in a statement.</p>
<p>Purdue, the manufacturer of OxyContin, denied the allegations in a statement while saying it is “deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis.”</p>
<p>Johnson &amp; Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit - which manufactures drugs including the opioid Duragesic, a form of fentanyl - called its marketing activities “appropriate and responsible.” Endo did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>Prescription opioids are intended to treat pain, but the outbreak of addiction to the drugs has led to a tsunami of lawsuits by cities and counties. The lawsuits have sought to recoup damages from drugmakers for their role in the epidemic.</p>
<p>Opioids were involved in more than 42,000 overdose deaths in 2016, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>
<p>At least 433 lawsuits are consolidated before U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland, who has been pushing for a quick settlement and has invited state attorneys general with cases and probes not before him to participate in the talks.</p>
<p>Plaintiffs’ lawyers pursuing the case have generally not quantified the potential costs involved in the cases but have compared them with litigation by states against the tobacco industry that led to 1998’s $246 billion settlement.</p>
<p>The U.S. Justice Department in a March 1 filing sought 30 days to evaluate participating in the litigation, citing the “substantial costs that the federal government has borne as a result of the opioid epidemic.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Celgene to buy Juno for $9 billion to boost cancer pipeline Pfizer's rare heart disease drug succeeds in late-stage study Impax reaches $20 million deal to end trial over generic drug's delay FDA expands use of Amgen leukemia drug Blincyto to patients with relapse risk Arkansas sues opioid manufacturers for roles in epidemic | false | https://reuters.com/article/juno-ma-celgene/update-3-celgene-to-buy-juno-for-9-bln-to-boost-cancer-pipeline-idUSL4N1PH3WR | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>There was no way I was going to get out of seeing “The Return of the King,” the final installment of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. In fact, it was more or less a forced viewing, word-of-mouth and community pressure to know what was going on was so great. Days ahead of time, my husband bought tickets for us, our children and several of their friends, lest our little movie house on the prairie sell out on opening Friday.</p>
<p>I’ll skip the plot summary, since the movie has been promoted relentlessly for more than a year and a half. Jackson shot all three parts at the same time, and parceled them out into simultaneous global blockbuster openings. Return of the King and the two previous installments are being reviewed in the same reverential terms as George Lucas’s Star Wars trilogy. “Lord of the Rings” is said to be a classic, to have re-set the bar for fantasy movies. The battles of Aragorn, Legolass and Gandalf against the evil empire of Mordor are supposed to mark our kids’ childhoods the way the adventures of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker stamped an earlier generation’s imaginations. But I’ve always thought adults who like to sit around and talk about great Star Wars moments are dim, at best. There’s something I’m missing, I guess, because the movie opened earlier this week at midnight (on a school night) and hundreds of kids and otherwise sensible adults stayed up until 4 a.m. to see it.</p>
<p>I asked my 10-year-old son what I should look for. “Cool weapons, awesome moves, and awesome special effects. Like the oilephants, and the ents, those are giant walking trees. And trolls. I want to see trolls.” That about sums it up. The last two installments of The Lord of the Rings had kicked off an almost overwhelming epidemic of imaginary sword fighting and bow-making in our neighborhood. Which in itself isn’t so bad, except that constant vigilance is called for when the 10-year-olds are always flailing away at each other with branches, measuring sticks, broom handles and anything else that can be imagined into a weapon.</p>
<p>As I settled into my seat for a long, 3 1/2 hour bout with my stiff shoulder and cranky back, I tried to work up a good attitude. Surely ” Return of the King” would provide something interesting to think about. I read the J. R. R. Tolkien books in high school, when they were a cool, cultish fashion to indulge, and then forgot them completely. Now my kids are reading and rereading them. The movies are said to be as close to the interminable books as movies can be, so what else would hold my interest?</p>
<p>As my son pointed out, the digital special effects, as well as ordinary old costumery and scene setting, are remarkable. An entire parallel world has been created, with remarkable attention to detail. I found myself studying the textures of textiles, and the chasing and burnishing of swords. There are terrifying flying dragons, horrifyingly steep mountain trails, a marvelously defended city, a realistic volcano eruption, and oilephants, warrior-mastodons decked out for battle, the Middle Earth version of a Bradley fighting vehicle. It’s a war movie after all, and the main action is the desperate movement from one badly overmatched battle to another. Despite all the carnage and force, there’s more bravery than blood, more sorrow at the prospect of death than actual parting. I sat in a row behind the 10-year-olds and watched their heads. What would draw their attention? They were transfixed — the only thing that made them move were some giant animatronic eagles. But that makes sense, because these boys are all serious ornithologists. There was only one troll.</p>
<p>At first it would seem that the digital special effects are an efficiency. For example, instead of hiring 1000 people to canter downhill on horses for the camera, you can hire 100, and digitally multiply them by 10. “Return of the King” is full of some of the most massive battle scenes you’ll ever see, mostly digitally enhanced — the mind turns to World War I, for example, to wonder what if there’d been aerial photography over the trenches?</p>
<p>But in fact the digital technology is a very expensive investment, and only a few firms (Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic being one of the leaders) are good enough to deliver the sort of effects we see in “The King.” Art and skill aside, movies are a huge, increasingly world-wide business and their profits aren’t just measured in box office receipts and popcorn sales — if this were the case, a 3 1/2 hour movie would be a bad investment, because theaters couldn’t turn over the seats often enough. So the special effects must be there for another reason: they help knit the movie into a web of thousands of other products, and they mutliply the product. One example is the shift, since the introduction of the digital video disc, to the practice of re-viewing a movie: DVDs allow the movie to be viewed again with commentaries, translations, outtakes and alternative endings. They aren’t just videos in a new form, they are a new product in themselves. Special effects give DVD makers lots more to show, in a recycling, reusing sort of way.</p>
<p>But perhaps the most important part special effects play is to create interest and word-of-mouth far beyond the hard-core fandom of Middle Earth impersonators that exists around books. Since in film today the profits are really made in licensed merchandise, spinoffs, video and DVD sales, and promised sequels, all the buzz about the digital battle scenes and lumbering mastodons is adding extra oomph to an industry that’s always depended on blockbusters. It’s an industry that also has been deeply threatened by television, cable, and video cassette rentals. The real success of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is that it’s profits are supposed to crest in the billions, not the mere millions, through integrated merchandising. The New York Times reports that the licensing rights for “Lord of the Rings” video games alone will bring a minimum of $20 million.</p>
<p>It’s impossible where I live to meet someone who hasn’t seen the latest of the trilogy, or isn’t planning to see it, or hasn’t heard about it. Our local bookstore is doing a brisk business in volumes that explain the special effects, the swords, the back story, the costumes and of course, the preparation of handsome actors. So it’s hard not to think that the triumph of the “Lord of the Rings” movies is really the triumph of an intricate, consolidated marketing system, on a global scale. Peter Jackson and his actors and writers and technicians will all win Oscars for sure, for their service to this world-wide industry. Still, we want more trolls!</p>
<p>SUSAN DAVIS teaches at the University of Illinois.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | a Review of Lord of the Rings | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/12/26/a-review-of-lord-of-the-rings/ | 2003-12-26 | 4 |
<p>ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Numbers Evening" game were:</p>
<p>7-4-6, Lucky Sum: 17</p>
<p>(seven, four, six; Lucky Sum: seventeen)</p>
<p>ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Numbers Evening" game were:</p>
<p>7-4-6, Lucky Sum: 17</p>
<p>(seven, four, six; Lucky Sum: seventeen)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Numbers Evening' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1a026e10ba714bb4875e1e30fa7d5079 | 2018-01-10 | 2 |
<p>Investing.com – Indonesia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.</p>
<p>At the close in Jakarta, the added 1.02%.</p>
<p>The best performers of the session on the were Sat Nusapersada Tbk (JK:), which rose 34.72% or 50 points to trade at 194 at the close. Meanwhile, Alfa Energi Investama Tbk PT (JK:) added 23.64% or 325 points to end at 1700 and Graha Andrasentra Propertindo Tbk PT (JK:) was up 21.48% or 29 points to 164 in late trade.</p>
<p>The worst performers of the session were Asuransi Bintang Tbk (JK:), which fell 19.17% or 74.00 points to trade at 312.00 at the close. Asuransi Harta Aman Pratama Tbk PT (JK:) declined 16.15% or 31 points to end at 161 and Rimau Multi Putra Pratama (JK:) was down 14.87% or 145 points to 830.</p>
<p>Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Jakarta Stock Exchange by 192 to 131 and 125 ended unchanged.</p>
<p>Crude oil for November delivery was up 0.06% or 0.03 to $51.59 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in December fell 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $57.15 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.17% or 2.19 to trade at $1290.89 a troy ounce.</p>
<p>USD/IDR was down 0.01% to 13458.0, while AUD/IDR fell 0.23% to 10568.00.</p>
<p>The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 93.00.</p>
<p />
<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> | Indonesia stocks higher at close of trade; IDX Composite Index up 1.02% | false | https://newsline.com/indonesia-stocks-higher-at-close-of-trade-idx-composite-index-up-1-02/ | 2017-09-29 | 1 |
<p>By Barrett Owen</p>
<p>“Be strong and bold … for it is God who goes ahead of you.”— Moses to Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:6</p>
<p>I love Moses’ phrase, “God is gone ahead of you.” Rob Bell talks about it in his latest book, What We Talk about When we Talk about God. Bell (and Moses) is arguing that God is simultaneously in the present and in the future pulling us into a better tomorrow.</p>
<p>The Greeks had a word for this: telos. It means God’s dragging, enticing and luring us into the Great Unknown.</p>
<p>Ministers must be people who believe God has gone ahead of us. That’s the deep, sacred work of vocational ministry. We listen and discern, hope and hold on, pray and believe that God’s in what we’re doing, and we can be unafraid and undismayed for God is gone ahead of us.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="http://www.needtobreathe.com/liveroom" type="external">NEEDTOBREATHE</a>&#160;fan. In their song Keep Your Eyes Open, the chorus says, “If you never leave home, if you never let go, you’ll never make it to the Great Unknown … so keep your eyes open .”</p>
<p>We ministers must be people who keep our eyes open. We stand on the precipice of what Diana Butler Bass calls the Great Spiritual Awakening, and we’re the ones people look to in order to see it, to interpret it. So keep your eyes open.</p>
<p>Or you’ll miss it. You’ll miss what God is doing in and around your community. You’ll miss how God is translating life’s moments for a better tomorrow.</p>
<p>People show up at church every Sunday looking for a better tomorrow. They believe God is ahead of them, but they can’t see where or how to get there. They need help deciphering the Divine. That’s our job.</p>
<p>People need ministers translating God’s power, analyzing life’s movements, and listening to the spirit of the living God. When we believe God has gone ahead of us, then we’re on the right road to helping these people experience a better tomorrow.</p>
<p>And despite reasons not to be, we pastors must remain hopeful, for the story we tell is that we worship and serve a God who isn’t done with us yet. There’s more to come, more to the story, more to see. There are new beginnings to experience. We just have to look up on the horizon and believe that as we go, God is ahead of us preparing the way.</p>
<p>If and when we do this, we give people eyes to see the spirit of the living God. We give them eyes to see injustices flying all around. We give them eyes to see despair in the midst of fear, brokenness in the midst of insecurity, and shame in the midst of regret.</p>
<p>That’s the message of the gospel. That’s God’s hope for humankind. That’s the definition of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia_(theology)" type="external">metanoia</a>.&#160;That’s the whole issue with forgiveness, and that’s good news worth sharing. If we want to see God, then we need to start by looking ahead.</p>
<p>Here’s to believing God is not done with us yet.</p>
<p>Here’s to helping others see God.</p>
<p>Here’s to a better tomorrow!</p> | Here’s to a better tomorrow | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/here-s-to-a-better-tomorrow/ | 3 |
|
<p>Julio Maldonado faces flying into an uncertain future if federal authorities succeed in deporting this former construction worker to Peru, the South American country he left 39-years-ago as a three-year-old child.</p>
<p>Maldonado faces deportation due to dictates of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA).</p>
<p>This law requires expulsion of both illegal immigrants and legal aliens like Maldonado who have criminal records.</p>
<p>Maldonado’s predicament is truly Kafkaesque from the circumstances producing his criminal record to the fact that federal authorities imprisoned him for four years based on his refusal to sign his deportation papers.</p>
<p>Maldonado resisted the deportation stressing he was wrongfully convicted, a claim supported by medical evidence, a jury’s verdict and a judicial ruling.</p>
<p>The case involving Maldonado and his cousin Denis Calderon has become a mini-controversy in Philadelphia, Pa, the city where they were convicted in 1997.</p>
<p>The prosecutor who convicted these cousins – Seth Williams – is widely recognized as front-runner in this year’s race to become Philadelphia’s next District Attorney. If the highly qualified Williams wins the November election as expected, he will become the first African-American elected as Philadelphia’s top prosecutor.</p>
<p>Williams terms the predicament of Maldonado and Calderon (who also faces deportation to Peru) “unfortunate” but Williams vigorously denies that their convictions constitute a miscarriage of justice.</p>
<p>“What I did in that case was stand up for the victim!” Williams said recently. “Maldonado and Calderon were found guilty.”</p>
<p>An advocate for Maldonado/Calderon, their cousin Maria Rolon, decries the convictions and deportation of her kin as unjust persecution. “They were the victims of a hate crime and have been discriminated against since then,” said Rolon, whose advocacy actions include creating a website <a href="http://denisandjulioandfaith.com/" type="external">http://denisandjulioandfaith.com/</a>.</p>
<p>In August 1996 Maldonado and Calderon were attacked in the Oxford Circle section of Northeast Philadelphia by a crowd of drunken white males shouting racist slurs.</p>
<p>Maldonado, who lived in New York City at the time, was visiting Calderon who lived in Oxford Circle, the only Latino family in a predominately white area.</p>
<p>When the cousins walked towards a neighborhood bar to buy a beer, crowd members confronted them, shouting anti-black slurs, mistakenly thinking they were African-American.</p>
<p>When Calderon told crowd members that he and Maldonado were Latinos the slurs shifted from N-word based to anti-Hispanic epithets. As the cousins retreated towards Calderon’s home members of the crowd chased them, raining beer bottles on them before pouncing.</p>
<p>During that attack, one member of the crowd, 18-year-old Christian Saladino, collapsed and was hospitalized comatose. Police arrested the cousins after crowd members told police the cousins attacked them and pounded Saladino with metal objects.</p>
<p>Police did not lodge any charges against any of the drunken attackers who freely admitted using racist slurs, throwing bottles and battling with the cousins.</p>
<p>Calderon says one drunk slugged him as he talked with a policeman and the officer ignored that assault. Yet when Calderon sought to hit that attacker, the policeman handcuffed Calderon.</p>
<p>Seemingly biased police enforcement in racially charged incidents is a recurring problem in the predominately white Northeast section of Philadelphia. Rolon said police and prosecutors also ignored the intense intimidation unleashed on neighbors supportive of Calderon.</p>
<p>While Seth Williams currently characterizes that 1996 clash as a “street fight” between “a large crowd of white teenagers” and the two Hispanic males, Rolon says that attack by a “racist mob” forced her cousins to defend themselves.</p>
<p>Williams concedes the cousins had a right to self-defense but says the pair lost their right to self-defense when they escalated the fight by using weapons: a baseball bat and a ‘Club’ auto steering wheel lock.</p>
<p>Williams argued in court that Saladino was an innocent bystander who Maldonado maliciously struck on the base of his skull with the ‘Club.’ That blow, Williams said recent, triggered a hemorrhage that incapacitated Saladino.</p>
<p>Maldonado had taken the ‘Club’ from his car as attackers pummeled him.</p>
<p>Maldonado admitted swinging the ‘Club’ at a man he saw stabbing Calderon but testified that he merely grazed the shoulder of this assailant prosecutor Williams later championed in court as “the victim” – Saladino.</p>
<p>After Maldonado freed Calderon from those men bashing him, Calderon ran into his house, telling his wife to call 911. Rolon said Calderon went back outside to rescue Maldonado from the crowd, taking a bat with him because crowd members were on his porch threatening to burn the house down.</p>
<p>Williams says Calderon should have waited for police to arrive instead of leaving his house armed with that baseball bat.</p>
<p>Williams, Philadelphia’s former Inspector General, remains convinced that Maldonado blow caused Saladino’s coma.</p>
<p>Williams maintains this position despite no medical records specifically documenting blunt force trauma as the cause of Saladino’s collapse. For example, medical records cited in the most recent Pa appellate ruling in this case list the cause of Saladino’s collapse and subsequent coma as “unknown.”</p>
<p>EMT personnel who treated Saladino at the clash scene, ER doctors and CAT scans did not find any signs of blunt force trauma to Saladino’s head or body consistent with accounts from Saladino’s friends who testified later that the cousins brutally beat Saladino on the head, back and stomach with those metal objects.</p>
<p>Tests did prove that Saladino was legally drunk at the time of his collapse. EMT personnel suspected a drug overdose and gave an overdose countering injection. Medical tests were not performed to determine drug levels in Saladino’s body.</p>
<p>Rolon faults Williams for downplaying that Calderon was a hard-working family man and homeowner with “no reason to attack twenty drunks.” She also scores Williams for sidestepping Saladino’s history of arrests for violence which undercuts contentions that Saladino was a mere bystander.</p>
<p>One appellate ruling noted an arrest of Saladino days before the brawl for attacking a policeman. Williams says Saladino’s record was irrelevant to the fact that he was viciously beaten. Saladino collapsed in front of Calderon’s house. According to testimony, Saladino ran to the street in front of Calderon’s house after the fight started.</p>
<p>A Philadelphia judge convicted the cousins on assault and conspiracy charges in 1997, accepting contradictory testimony from members of that drunken, racist-slur spewing crowd. The cousins received identical 2-10-year sentences.</p>
<p>When Saladino died two years after the clash, prosecutors filed murder charges against Maldonado and Calderon contending the young man’s death was a direct result of the beating.</p>
<p>But a jury acquitted the cousins based largely on testimony from a forensic pathologist who provided evidence that Saladino’s rare blood disorder most likely caused his 1996 collapse.</p>
<p>A report prepared by that pathologist prior to the murder trial stated it was his “opinion that Christian Saladino could have collapsed as the result of either a pre-existing natural disease process or drugs of abuse. However, his medical condition was not as the result of being struck by an instrument/weapon such as a club.”</p>
<p>That pathologist did not testify during the assault trial.</p>
<p>That murder trial medical testimony caused the Philadelphia judge who initially convicted the cousins to overturn their clash related convictions.</p>
<p>But prosecutors appealed that judge’s ruling, securing reinstatement of those clash convictions on a technicality that contradicted their position during the assault trial of the cousins.</p>
<p>Prosecutors successfully argued that the failure of the pathologist to testify at the assault trial did not harm the cousin’s defense because their trial lawyers got the prosecution’s principal medical expert to admit that no records showed Saladino’s condition stemmed from external trauma like a beating.</p>
<p>Yes, prosecutors conceded in appellate court what they had denied in trial court: no medical records documented that the glancing blow from Maldonado and/or the alleged beating by Calderon caused Saladino’s collapse.</p>
<p>After Maldonado and Calderon served more than two years in prison for the clash related conviction, federal authorities initiated deportation proceedings. When the cousins refused to assist with their deportation by signing required papers, the feds imprisoned them in 2005 for failing to cooperate.</p>
<p>Maldonado served four years in a Pennsylvania jail contracted by federal immigration authorities.&#160; Calderon remains in an immigration prison in Pa serving the sentence for refusing to sign his deportation papers. Federal authorities re-imprisoned Maldonado shortly after his release months ago and now push for his deportation to Peru.</p>
<p>“My cousins are innocent and we know that once they are deported, it’s a permanent exile,” Rolon said.</p>
<p>“I didn’t want to go public with this. I just wanted Seth to do the right thing, acknowledge that my cousins were victims and oppose their deportation,” said Rolon,</p>
<p>“We’ve been told that Julio was sent to Louisiana and apparently will be deported,” said Rolon said who’s petitioned Pa’s Governor Ed Rendell for a full pardon and is separately petitioning Homeland Security officials to stay her cousins deportation until Rendell decides the pardon request.</p>
<p>Defenders of Seth Williams say he did his job properly in prosecuting Maldonado/Calderon for assault, the later murder charge and challenging their appeals.</p>
<p>In a fair system prosecutors would actively seek to right wrongful convictions.</p>
<p>A Pa Supreme Court ruling in 1889 declared that the duty of prosecutors is to seek “justice only…and it is as much the duty of the district attorney to see that no innocent man suffers as it is to see that no guilty man escapes.”</p>
<p>However, in Philadelphia’s often perverted justice system, prosecutors routinely pursue justice crushing convict-at-all-costs practices that frequently involve bending or breaking the law.</p>
<p>Nearly two-thirds of the cases where Pa courts overturned convictions due to misconduct by prosecutors originated in Philadelphia according to an extensive investigation conducted by The Center for Public Integrity examining a 33-year period.</p>
<p>Compounding convict-at-all-costs practices by Philly prosecutors is their penchant for clawing to maintain tainted convictions.</p>
<p>Courts have faulted some famous Philly prosecutors for foul practices.</p>
<p>The Pa Supreme Court, in a stinging 1978 ruling, blasted a then former Philly DA Office official for “misleading” testimony in a murder case where he helped his former colleagues perpetrate “a fraud” to secure a conviction.</p>
<p>The name of the official specifically cited in that ruling is Ed Rendell, Pa’s Governor who served two terms as Philadelphia District Attorney.</p>
<p>Changing the “culture” among Philadelphia prosecutors – including eliminating convict-at-all-costs practices – is a key campaign pledge of Seth Williams…a pledge that Rolon and others wonder if Williams will fulfill.</p>
<p>LINN WASHINGTON JR. is a columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune who writes frequently about justice system issues.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A Kafkaesque Deportation | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/10/21/a-kafkaesque-deportation/ | 2009-10-21 | 4 |
<p>If you are a military member or spouse, please come join me this Thursday at the Fox and Friends plaza in Midtown Manhattan for a live career fair featuring some of the largest companies in the nation that are focused on getting you Deployed to Employed.</p>
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<p>TEMUCO, Chile (AP) — When Pope Francis visits the de facto capital of Chile's Mapuche people, he will be inserting himself into one of Latin America's longest-running conflicts involving indigenous populations, and one that periodically erupts in violence.</p>
<p>Leaders of both the Mapuches and the Chilean government have said in recent weeks they hope Francis can facilitate dialogue on disputes dating to the late 19th century, when the Mapuches, known for their ferocity resisting Spanish and other European settlers, were definitively defeated by the Chilean military.</p>
<p>At stake are many thorny issues: ownership of ancestral lands in the southern Araucania region, legal recognition of the Mapuches' language and culture, and discrimination that their leaders say permeates all facets of life.</p>
<p>"In practical terms, we as a people don't exist. It's shameful," said Hugo Alcaman, president of ENAMA, a Mapuche group that encourages local businesses and advocates social change. "We need negotiations. We hope that the pope plants the seeds for it to happen."</p>
<p>How far the pope goes in any statement supporting the Mapuches will be closely watched, and even fretted over. Francis, a native of neighboring Argentina and the first pope from Latin America, has shown strong support for indigenous peoples during visits in other countries. In Bolivia in 2015, he went so far as to apologize for the Roman Catholic Church's "grave sins" committed against indigenous communities during the colonial era.</p>
<p>His visit to Temuco on Wednesday takes him to a region of high volatility. While the vast majority of Chile's estimated 1 million citizens of Mapuche descent oppose using violence, a small number use it to push their agenda.</p>
<p>In recent years scores of churches have been among the targets — including three firebombed Friday in the nation's capital, Santiago. Like in previous incidents in Araucania, pamphlets extolling the Mapuche cause were found at the scene of one of the churches, though no arrests were made and no group has claimed responsibility.</p>
<p>"There is both hope and worry about the pope's visit," said Emilio Taladriz, director of Multigremial de la Araucania, a conglomerate of unions across several industries. "The area is still one of conflict."</p>
<p>Protests are expected in Temuco, including outside the Maquehue Air Base where the pope will celebrate Mass. It was built on land that was taken from Mapuches in the early 20th century and remains a point of friction.</p>
<p>Chilean authorities plan to deploy more than 4,000 police officers in Temuco's streets as, flanked by 16 police vehicles, Francis rides in the popemobile down a central avenue before visiting an order of nuns.</p>
<p>A Mapuche choir will participate in the Mass, and afterward the pope will have lunch with a group of Mapuches hand-picked by local bishops.</p>
<p>Fernando Diaz, a priest in the Temuco area who has worked with Mapuches for years, expressed disappointment that Francis is not scheduled to meet with any of the leaders of the cause.</p>
<p>"The visit has been planned so the pope sees as little of the reality as possible," Diaz said.</p>
<p>Massimo Faggioli, a Vatican expert and theology professor at Villanova University in Philadelphia, said every papal visit disappointments someone over who gets or does not get an audience, but the pope generally finds a way to carve out time for what is important to him.</p>
<p>"Usually Francis has a good ear and tries to adapt," said Faggioli.</p>
<p>The first papal visit to Chile since Saint John Paul II in 1987 comes as the Catholic Church's role with indigenous peoples in the Andean nation of 17 million people has shifted.</p>
<p>During the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, many Chilean bishops pushed to protect native peoples and get their cultures recognized. But today the hierarchy is much more aligned with business interests.</p>
<p>In 1987, John Paul II gave a pointed nod to Mapuches that surely prompted cringes within Pinochet's government, which was unsympathetic toward indigenous groups and cracked down on any form of dissent.</p>
<p>During his homily, John Paul said faith in God could overcome all human-caused problems, implicitly referring to friction between Mapuches and the Chilean state.</p>
<p>"It's for this reason that the pope, from Temuco, encourages the Mapuches to conserve with healthy pride the culture of its people," the former pontiff said, adding that included "the traditions and customs, the language and its own values."</p>
<p>Since then, the Mapuches have made significant strides. The return of democracy in Chile in the 1990s set the stage for creation of a government body, the National Corporation of Indigenous Development, that is dedicated to issues related to the country's native peoples and spurred many changes.</p>
<p>Some ancestral lands have been returned. University scholarships have been set aside for Mapuches along with other benefits not open to all Chileans. Various aspects of Mapuche culture, such as many foods, have become part of the mainstream.</p>
<p>Still, problems persist, ranging from economic to social. Araucania remains the country's poorest region, and Mapuches complain of frequent abuse at the hands of security forces.</p>
<p>One case that reverberated strongly in the community involved the arrest of two Mapuche brothers, ages 13 and 17, while police were searching for five wanted Mapuche men in December 2016.</p>
<p>The 17-year-old, Brandon Hernandez Huentecol, was shot in the back by a police officer while face-down on the ground, resulting in a nearly two-month stay in the hospital and several surgeries for a shattered pelvis.</p>
<p>The officer has not been charged and failed to appear in court in response to a summons to testify.</p>
<p>Over a year later, the boy's mother is beseeching Francis to bring his influence to bear.</p>
<p>"I know you are a man who professes Christian values and love for thy neighbor and for those who can't defend themselves," Ada Huentecol, said recently in an open letter to the pope. "That is why I ask that you help us, that you speak up and demand justice for my son."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Mauricio Cuevas reported from Temuco, and Peter Prengaman reported from Paihuano, Chile.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Prengaman on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/peterprengaman" type="external">www.twitter.com/peterprengaman</a></p>
<p>TEMUCO, Chile (AP) — When Pope Francis visits the de facto capital of Chile's Mapuche people, he will be inserting himself into one of Latin America's longest-running conflicts involving indigenous populations, and one that periodically erupts in violence.</p>
<p>Leaders of both the Mapuches and the Chilean government have said in recent weeks they hope Francis can facilitate dialogue on disputes dating to the late 19th century, when the Mapuches, known for their ferocity resisting Spanish and other European settlers, were definitively defeated by the Chilean military.</p>
<p>At stake are many thorny issues: ownership of ancestral lands in the southern Araucania region, legal recognition of the Mapuches' language and culture, and discrimination that their leaders say permeates all facets of life.</p>
<p>"In practical terms, we as a people don't exist. It's shameful," said Hugo Alcaman, president of ENAMA, a Mapuche group that encourages local businesses and advocates social change. "We need negotiations. We hope that the pope plants the seeds for it to happen."</p>
<p>How far the pope goes in any statement supporting the Mapuches will be closely watched, and even fretted over. Francis, a native of neighboring Argentina and the first pope from Latin America, has shown strong support for indigenous peoples during visits in other countries. In Bolivia in 2015, he went so far as to apologize for the Roman Catholic Church's "grave sins" committed against indigenous communities during the colonial era.</p>
<p>His visit to Temuco on Wednesday takes him to a region of high volatility. While the vast majority of Chile's estimated 1 million citizens of Mapuche descent oppose using violence, a small number use it to push their agenda.</p>
<p>In recent years scores of churches have been among the targets — including three firebombed Friday in the nation's capital, Santiago. Like in previous incidents in Araucania, pamphlets extolling the Mapuche cause were found at the scene of one of the churches, though no arrests were made and no group has claimed responsibility.</p>
<p>"There is both hope and worry about the pope's visit," said Emilio Taladriz, director of Multigremial de la Araucania, a conglomerate of unions across several industries. "The area is still one of conflict."</p>
<p>Protests are expected in Temuco, including outside the Maquehue Air Base where the pope will celebrate Mass. It was built on land that was taken from Mapuches in the early 20th century and remains a point of friction.</p>
<p>Chilean authorities plan to deploy more than 4,000 police officers in Temuco's streets as, flanked by 16 police vehicles, Francis rides in the popemobile down a central avenue before visiting an order of nuns.</p>
<p>A Mapuche choir will participate in the Mass, and afterward the pope will have lunch with a group of Mapuches hand-picked by local bishops.</p>
<p>Fernando Diaz, a priest in the Temuco area who has worked with Mapuches for years, expressed disappointment that Francis is not scheduled to meet with any of the leaders of the cause.</p>
<p>"The visit has been planned so the pope sees as little of the reality as possible," Diaz said.</p>
<p>Massimo Faggioli, a Vatican expert and theology professor at Villanova University in Philadelphia, said every papal visit disappointments someone over who gets or does not get an audience, but the pope generally finds a way to carve out time for what is important to him.</p>
<p>"Usually Francis has a good ear and tries to adapt," said Faggioli.</p>
<p>The first papal visit to Chile since Saint John Paul II in 1987 comes as the Catholic Church's role with indigenous peoples in the Andean nation of 17 million people has shifted.</p>
<p>During the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, many Chilean bishops pushed to protect native peoples and get their cultures recognized. But today the hierarchy is much more aligned with business interests.</p>
<p>In 1987, John Paul II gave a pointed nod to Mapuches that surely prompted cringes within Pinochet's government, which was unsympathetic toward indigenous groups and cracked down on any form of dissent.</p>
<p>During his homily, John Paul said faith in God could overcome all human-caused problems, implicitly referring to friction between Mapuches and the Chilean state.</p>
<p>"It's for this reason that the pope, from Temuco, encourages the Mapuches to conserve with healthy pride the culture of its people," the former pontiff said, adding that included "the traditions and customs, the language and its own values."</p>
<p>Since then, the Mapuches have made significant strides. The return of democracy in Chile in the 1990s set the stage for creation of a government body, the National Corporation of Indigenous Development, that is dedicated to issues related to the country's native peoples and spurred many changes.</p>
<p>Some ancestral lands have been returned. University scholarships have been set aside for Mapuches along with other benefits not open to all Chileans. Various aspects of Mapuche culture, such as many foods, have become part of the mainstream.</p>
<p>Still, problems persist, ranging from economic to social. Araucania remains the country's poorest region, and Mapuches complain of frequent abuse at the hands of security forces.</p>
<p>One case that reverberated strongly in the community involved the arrest of two Mapuche brothers, ages 13 and 17, while police were searching for five wanted Mapuche men in December 2016.</p>
<p>The 17-year-old, Brandon Hernandez Huentecol, was shot in the back by a police officer while face-down on the ground, resulting in a nearly two-month stay in the hospital and several surgeries for a shattered pelvis.</p>
<p>The officer has not been charged and failed to appear in court in response to a summons to testify.</p>
<p>Over a year later, the boy's mother is beseeching Francis to bring his influence to bear.</p>
<p>"I know you are a man who professes Christian values and love for thy neighbor and for those who can't defend themselves," Ada Huentecol, said recently in an open letter to the pope. "That is why I ask that you help us, that you speak up and demand justice for my son."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Mauricio Cuevas reported from Temuco, and Peter Prengaman reported from Paihuano, Chile.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Prengaman on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/peterprengaman" type="external">www.twitter.com/peterprengaman</a></p> | Joy, angst over pope visit to Chile's restive Mapuche region | false | https://apnews.com/amp/0466c37e25df404788e2219ac9a64446 | 2018-01-14 | 2 |
<p>In a move that could set a new trend in the industry, Goldman Sachs ( <a href="/quote.html?stockTicker=GS" type="external">GS</a>) revealed plans on Wednesday to begin disclosing the value of its money market mutual funds on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The switch comes as investors and regulators push Goldman and other fund managers to increase transparency in the $2.7 trillion fund industry.</p>
<p>"As a leading provider of liquidity solutions, we believe that more frequent disclosure and greater transparency will benefit investors," James McNamara, president of Goldman Sachs Mutual Funds, said in a statement. "It is our belief that this level of transparency will also benefit the ongoing dialogue around potential regulatory changes to money market funds."</p>
<p>Goldman said it will begin disclosing the daily market value for its U.S.-domiciled commercial paper money market funds effective on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The Wall Street heavyweight said it plans to also release similar metrics on government and municipal funds next week and the daily value of non-U.S. money market funds in the "near future."</p>
<p>This marks a big change for Goldman, which currently releases money market fund values monthly, but with a 60-day lag. Still, money funds, which are considered among the safest investments, don't typically see dramatic day-to-day fluctuations.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>With an estimated $133 billion in assets under management, Goldman is the No. 8 U.S. money-fund firm, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing research firm Crane Data.</p>
<p>Shares of New York-based Goldman gained 0.26% to $133.40 ahead of Wednesday's opening bell, putting them on pace to maintain their 12-month gain of 35%.</p>
<p /> | Goldman Sachs to Reveal Fund Values on Daily Basis | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/01/09/report-goldman-to-report-fund-values-on-daily-basis.html | 2013-01-09 | 0 |
<p>First, a confession: Presidential historian Allan J. Lichtman and I were colleagues at American University for many years, but I have not talked to him since I retired six years ago. I did recently listen to him when he talked about his new book, <a href="" type="internal">The Case for Impeachment</a>. It’s interesting that Lichtman has written this book since he—of virtually all the presidential scholars out there—predicted that Donald Trump would win the election. Lichtman has been predicting the results of our presidential elections for decades with total accuracy, using keys that he devised years ago. My point, however, is to state that I do not regard my review of his book as a conflict of interest. I do not mean to link myself to the Trumps and the Kushners of the world (and the Republicans in Congress) and how they interpret conflicts of interest. I am simply stating that I feel qualified to review The Case for Impeachment without bias, in spite of the fact that I know the writer.</p>
<p>Second—and this is my stronger feeling about writing such a review—I remain a total believer in verifiable facts, something that, again, separates me from Trumps, Kushners, and Republican operatives. The world is flat; that can be verified. Donald Trump, who has the hands and brain of a six-year-old, is a chronic liar, something that can be verified by his own statements and one’s own eyes. (“Lock her up” and begging the hackers to locate more of Hillary Clinton’s emails, both recorded on video, although my sense is that Republicans no longer believe their eyes). So Donald Trump’s fall—to state the obvious—will very likely be the result of his own deplorable statements. Lichtman believes that it is still too early to determine what will happen, but with the sacking of James Comey as I was writing this review, and now the top secret information he released to the Russians earlier this week, Trump’s own statements continue to entrap him. Since he cannot control his gibberish (like a six-year-old), we all need to listen carefully as he continues to tie the noose around his own neck.</p>
<p>What is so compelling about The Case for Impeachment is the plethora of acts by Donald Trump that in a sane world would have brought him down long before he even ran for president. Past actions by an individual can be included in the grounds for <a href="" type="internal" />impeachment, not simply those that have happened since the inauguration. Thus, violations of the fair housing act, his fraudulent charity that amounted to “laundered tax-free donations for his own gain,” a fraudulent university, attempts at starting a casino in Cuba during the economic embargo, plus his employment of undocumented immigrants—all of these acts would have led to the downfall of another person, but not Trump, a past master for deceit and fraud, or a wily fox, always out-tricking his pursuers (mostly by lying). But—and this is Lichtman’s point—they can still be used in the amassing of details for a possible impeachment.</p>
<p>All of the other actions that Lichtman documents about Trump’s infractions are almost totally proven by the man’s own career, statements, and acts. They include conflicts of interest, which actually do exist in spite of Republican intransigence; “lies, lies, and more lies,” which, again, can easily be verified; Trump’s war against women (one of the women he has abused may finally get her case heard); the Russian connections; the continual abuse of power; and—perhaps one of the most surprising—“the case against humanity.” The last of these has recently become the prerogative of the International Criminal Court. If Americans are too lily-livered to indict the man, the International Court can. The court, in The Hague, Netherlands, “recently expanded its priorities to include the prosecution of governments and individuals for crimes against humanity through ‘destruction of the environment,’ which could include catastrophic climate change.”</p>
<p>And then there’s treason, the likely outcome of the Russian investigation. It’s pretty obvious to me that Michael Flynn will end up in prison. Hopefully, there will be others. Lichtman says that if the collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians is proven, the country will have no other option than to impeach the president. Like Richard Nixon’s averted impeachment, even Republicans will be forced to admit the obvious when the facts are overwhelming.</p>
<p>The other transgressions that Lichtman chronicles against Trump include his repeated abuse of power; his wars against the judiciary and the media; even his use of fake news. Of the latter, Lichtman writes, “Trump projects onto the press his own inveterate lying when he scoffs that what they report is ‘fake news.’ Through this tactic of classic Orwellian doublethink, falsehood becomes truth and truth becomes falsehood, all in the service of ‘Big Brother.’ Yet Trump is willing to accept news from the media that suits his purposes.” Even his followers at some time will realize that the Emperor has no clothes, especially when they realize that he has only one reason for being president: monetizing his, his extended family’s, and his rich friends’ connections.</p>
<p>So the question is how likely is it that Donald Trump will be impeached? Excluding the possibility that that will happen if Trump is charged with treason, Lichtman states that there is only one fool-proof outcome for impeachment that will turn the tide against our lying president: “only if the people demand it.” That demand has not yet been reached a critical mass, but we are getting closer to it. As for myself, I believe that there is no possibility that Republican operatives will remove their benefactor from office, without a massive push from the people. But that will eventually happen.</p>
<p>Balanced critic that he is, Lichtman even provides a final chapter (“Memo: The Way Out”) for Trump to avoid impeachment, but—in spite of practical recommendations—Trump cannot hear any other opinion than his own. He’s not going to totally divest from his crooked investments. And he’s certainly not going to “add a shrink to the white house physicians.” That would require an element of sanity not demonstrated by our occupant in the White House. Still, you need to read The Case for Impeachment, a brilliant analysis of every fraudulent act committed by the child in the White House.</p>
<p>Allan J. Lichtman: <a href="" type="internal">The Case for Impeachment</a> Del Street Books, 304 pp., $24.99</p> | Review: Allan Lichtman’s “The Case for Impeachment” | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/review-allan-lichtmans-the-case-for-impeachment/ | 2017-05-19 | 4 |
<p>Monday, August 22, 2016 by <a href="author/jdheyes" type="external">JD Heyes</a></p>
<p>//www.newstarget.com/2016-08-22-top-5-ways-you-can-use-eucalyptus-to-treat-diseases-chicken-pox-influenza-and-more.html</p>
<p />
<p>One of the most <a href="//www.essentialoils.news/" type="external">useful oils</a> when it comes to medical treatment and overall health maintenance is eucalyptus, and because of that, many people who prep for hard times ahead stockpile it for emergency use.</p>
<p>But it is also essential for <a href="//rangerorganicemergencyfood.naturalnews.com/RangerOrganicEmergencySurvivalFood.html" type="external">homesteaders</a> who are trying to live either off the grid or as independently as possible.</p>
<p>The use of the oil of eucalyptus dates back to the Aborigines – the native people of Australia – who crushed their leaves to use the herb/oil compound as treatment for health ailments, while using the tree’s wood to flavor food and clean the air, Off The Grid News <a href="//www.offthegridnews.com/alternative-health/the-essential-oil-that-treats-chicken-pox-colds-and-foot-problems-too/" type="external">reports</a>.</p>
<p>These days eucalyptus essential oil, which is taken from blue gum trees, is distinct and stimulating in the way it smells. It can clear stuffed nasal passages and used often as a cold and cough remedy. What’s more, eucalyptus has been found to be a very strong antiseptic that can kill airborne germs. It has a cooling effect on the body, which helps soothe pain.</p>
<p>And when used in aromatherapy, eucalyptus oil works well as a decongestant, which helps treat and alleviate flu symptoms, sinus problems and fever, while the aroma stimulates the mind.</p>
<p>The oil has many uses, including:</p>
<p>— Deodorizing and disinfecting: You can diffuse essential eucalyptus oil into the air by adding an air diffuser, but you can also do so utilizing a vaporizer, humidifier, or by simply putting some into an oil burner.</p>
<p>If you’re looking to deodorize and neutralize smells, simply put five drops of eucalyptus oil on a cotton ball and put it in a dresser drawer, trash can, dirty laundry room or anywhere you have persistent odor problems.</p>
<p>You can even use this oil as a chemical-free underarm deodorant, put a few drops in the underarm seam areas of shirts and jackets. Deodorize gym shoes or work boots by rubbing about four drops of the oil into the shoes’ insoles.</p>
<p>— Treating chicken pox and measles: A common childhood disease, chicken pox causes reddened, itchy spots that cannot be scratched, lest they become infected and leave scarring. Eucalyptus oil can be a great help in reducing the itchiness and helping keep the pox themselves from becoming infected.</p>
<p>When adults get the disease – known as shingles – it can be excruciatingly painful. You can alleviate some of the pain by running drops of &#160;eucalyptus oil onto affected areas.</p>
<p>— Use it as an expectorant: Essential eucalyptus oil contains nearly 70 percent eucalyptol, which makes it very effective in <a href="//www.naturalcures.news/" type="external">relieving chest congestion and coughing</a> associated with the flu, colds and bronchitis. In addition, it can relieve symptoms of runny noses and coughing caused by hay fever and sinusitis.</p>
<p>— Shower bomb: When you place drops of essential eucalyptus oil onto the floor of your shower or bathtub, they slowly melt in the warm water and then release tiny molecules of essential oils. The molecules are dispersed in the steam and aroma fills the air of your bathroom. This is a handy respiratory remedy that can also reduce anxiety.</p>
<p>— Foot bath: Eucalyptus essential oil can really offer relief to tired, sore, achy feet. Place some in steaming water to relax your feet while the oil helps improve blood flow, ease trapped nerves and soothe pain.</p>
<p>Sources for this story include:</p>
<p><a href="//www.offthegridnews.com/alternative-health/the-essential-oil-that-treats-chicken-pox-colds-and-foot-problems-too/" type="external">OffTheGridNews.com</a></p>
<p><a href="//www.naturalnews.com/045607_eucalyptus_oil_skin_infections_antiseptic.html" type="external">NaturalNews.com</a></p>
<p>Tagged Under: Tags: <a href="tag/eucalyptus-oil" type="external">Eucalyptus oil</a>, <a href="tag/health" type="external">health</a>, <a href="tag/remedy" type="external">remedy</a></p> | Top 5 ways you can use Eucalyptus to treat diseases: chicken pox, influenza, and more | true | http://newstarget.com/2016-08-22-top-5-ways-you-can-use-eucalyptus-to-treat-diseases-chicken-pox-influenza-and-more.html | 0 |
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<p>Political choices have real world consequences and Ontario residents are now seeing that play out as more jobs leave the province over sky high electrical rates.</p>
<p />
<p>When you look at what is happening, and who caused it, you need to worry about Ontario's disease spreading to the rest of Canada if Justin Trudeau wins the next election.Goodyear's most efficient plant was recently forced to shut down and move to Mexico, taking Ontario jobs with it.Why is Ontario manufacturing crumbling?</p>
<p>Even a liberal think tank places the blame on the "green" energy policies pushed on the province by Gerald Butts, who's now one of Justin Trudeau's top advisors.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.TheRebel.media" type="external">JOIN TheRebel.media</a> for more fearless news and commentary you won’t find anywhere else. <a href="http://www.TheRebel.Media/TheMegaphone" type="external">VISIT our NEW group blog The Megaphone!</a> It’s your one-stop shop for rebellious commentary from independent and fearless readers and writers. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/CBCExposed" type="external">READ Brian Lilley's book CBC Exposed:</a>It's been called "the political book of the year"</p> | Trudeau advisor Gerald Butts' "green" energy policies cost Ontario 300,000 jobs -- admits liberal think tank | true | http://therebel.media/trudeau_advisor_gerald_butts_green_energy_policies_cost_ontario_300_000_jobs_admits_liberal_think_tank | 2015-04-30 | 0 |
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<p>An Albuquerque judge imposed the maximum sentence Thursday for a man who caused the death of a former State Police officer in June 2008 while fleeing from police in a stolen vehicle.</p>
<p>Judge Jacqueline D. Flores sentenced Jason Butner, 24, to 11½ years plus two years of parole. She also recommended that the New Mexico Adult Parole Board require Butner to attend counseling and pay restitution to the family of Leo Baca, the man who died, and to Vicki Anderson, owner of the stolen vehicle.</p>
<p>“We’ve forgiven him in our hearts, but we realize that it’s not safe to have him in our community,” Nick Baca, Leo Baca’s son, told the judge during the sentencing hearing at the Bernalillo County Courthouse on Thursday. He asked that the maximum sentence be imposed.</p>
<p>Butner apologized to the Baca family.</p>
<p>“Mrs. Baca I wanted to apologize for my stupidity on your loss and no doubt your soulmate,” he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Jean McCray, Butner’s attorney, said Butner punishes himself everyday for what happened.</p>
<p>Butner pleaded guilty Feb. 20 to vehicular homicide and other charges.</p>
<p>A Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy saw Butner speeding through an Econo Lodge motel parking lot near Tramway last June. Butner led the deputy on a high speed chase in a stolen vehicle, police said.</p>
<p>He ran a red light and crashed into the car driven by Baca at Juan Tabo and Constitution NE, police said. He then fled on foot and was arrested a few hours later.</p>
<p>Leo Baca died at University of New Mexico Hospital and his wife, Connie, suffered minor injuries.</p> | Fatal Crash Nets 11-Year Jail Term | false | https://abqjournal.com/8314/fatal-crash-nets-11-year-jail-term.html | 2 |
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<p>Ronnie Floyd, pastor of the largest Southern Baptist church in Arkansas, will be nominated as president of the Southern Baptist Convention next month.</p>
<p>Georgia pastor Johnny Hunt, who until a week ago was the nominee favored by the SBC's conservative leaders, will instead nominate Floyd, whose candidacy was first reported in Associated Baptist Press May 5.</p>
<p>“As most would know, I had been asked to have my name placed for nomination as president,” Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga., said in a news release posted May 7 on the website of Floyd's church, First Baptist of Springdale, Ark.</p>
<p>“In fact, at the Jacksonville pastors‚ conference [in February] the announcement was made,” Hunt continued. However, “due to not getting the real peace I needed in my heart to do this,” he said, he called Floyd to say with “an equal conviction that I believed he was the man God had raised up for such a time as this to lead Southern Baptists.”</p>
<p>Hunt said Floyd “called me last Wednesday and informed me that he will humbly accept this nomination due to God speaking to him dramatically through Acts 16:6-10. He never sought it one moment, but was drafted supernaturally to let me nominate him to be our next president.”</p>
<p>The presidency has been the key to gaining and retaining control of the 16 million-member denomination and its agencies. The SBC's inerrantist leaders have controlled the position for almost three decades, usually running unopposed.</p>
<p>Unlike most previous years, however, the leadership's candidate likely will face opposition from one or more other factions in the convention — most notably a loose-knit group of younger conservatives protesting what they call the leadership's narrow and exclusivistic track record. The election is set for the first day of the June 13-14 convention in Greensboro, N.C.</p>
<p>The dark horse in this year's presidential election could be Wade Burleson, the International Mission Board trustee whose complaints about exclusionary IMB policies almost cost him his spot on the board.</p>
<p>Complicating the picture this year, a blue-ribbon SBC panel is calling for the election of officers who come from churches that contribute at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts to the denomination's central budget — a standard few recent presidents could meet.</p>
<p>First Baptist Church of Springdale reported $221,000 in gifts to the SBC's Cooperative Program budget in 2005, representing 1.85 percent of undesignated receipts of $11,952,137. However, the church reported a total of $489,862 given for all Southern Baptist causes, which would include special missions offerings, and more than $2.6 million given to all world evangelism and mission causes.</p>
<p>During Floyd's nearly 20-year pastorate, the Springdale church has grown from 3,700 members to more than 16,000 and baptized over 11,700 people. Floyd is a former chairman of the SBC Executive Committee and former president of the SBC Pastors' Conference, a common precursor to the denominational presidency.</p>
<p>No other candidates have announced for SBC president this year. But Wade Burleson has become a favorite of the younger conservatives, especially the bloggers who have been tracking the IMB turmoil.</p>
<p>Benjamin Cole, one of those young leaders, said in a statement May 8 that “a contested election for convention president seems inevitable.”</p>
<p>“I believe the discussion that is about to ensue is both healthy and necessary for the sake of reform and renewal in our convention, and I intend to participate vigorously and charitably in that discussion before and after the annual meeting in Greensboro,” Cole said.</p>
<p>Burleson told ABP in March he is not interested in denominational politics. But he has sounded more and more open to a possible nomination in his recent weblog postings.</p>
<p>In a May 2 post that read like a campaign speech, Burleson tried to deflect the attention: “I frankly am too busy for convention work. I don't want it, need it, or seek it. … If I believed a nomination to a position of service in the SBC would be detrimental to providing solutions to [the SBC's exclusivism], I would decline that nomination without hesitation. I will do what I believe is best for the convention — period.”</p>
<p>Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., called for SBC leaders to abandon their cause of “convention conformity” and become more inclusive. “Unless we stop shrinking the parameters of what it means to be a Southern Baptist, we will end up being a narrow, isolated sect within Christendom and lose our ability to reach the world for Christ,” Burleson wrote.</p>
<p>Burleson participated in the meeting of younger conservatives May 2-3 that produced the “Memphis Declaration,” a statement of repentance for the triumphalism, arrogance and isolationism the signers said threatens the SBC's integrity. (See page 2 of this issue.)</p>
<p>Burleson is the only candidate mentioned whose church would meet the 10 percent standard for SBC giving. Emmanuel Baptist Church gave $105,000 to the Cooperative Program in 2005, representing 14 percent of undesignated receipts of $750,000.</p>
<p>Another faction making waves this year is the SBC's Calvinists. Increasingly organized and vocal, they will likely have a candidate to support, at least for first vice president.</p>
<p>Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., is expected to be nominated for SBC office, most likely first vice president. Dever, a prominent spokesman for Calvinist or Reformed theology in the SBC, was traveling out of the country and could not be reached for comment.</p>
<p>The vice presidential offices, which are more honorary than powerful, usually attract little attention before the June convention. This year, however, two confirmed nominees have surfaced for second vice president.</p>
<p>Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., will be nominated by Bill Dodson, a pastor in Kentucky. Drake is a regular fixture at Southern Baptist conventions, leading the charge in the SBC's boycott of Disney and frequently making resolutions on a number of topics.</p>
<p>And J. D. Greear, pastor of the Summit Church in Durham, N.C., will be nominated for second vice president, according to Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., who is expected to nominate him.</p>
<p>Greear may have an advantage, since the convention will be in nearby Greensboro, N.C. He was touted as representative of the “young leaders in the SBC.” But Drake participated in the recent meeting in Memphis organized by younger pastors.</p>
<p>Neither church meets the proposed standard for Cooperative Program giving, however.</p>
<p>Drake's church reported $1,000 given through the Cooperative Program last year, just over 1 percent of the church‚s reported receipts of $96,450. Greear's church reports $16,500 in gifts through the Cooperative Program, slightly less than 1 percent of the church's total undesignated receipts of $1.7 million.</p>
<p>Dever's church would not release giving records for the congrega- tion.</p>
<p>The Southern Baptist Convention has been working to revive sluggish Cooperative Program giving, which funds the denomination's mission boards and other agencies. A February report of the Ad Hoc Cooperative Program Committee calls for the election of future convention officers on both the state and national levels from churches that give at least 10 percent through the Cooperative Program.</p> | Floyd to be nominated SBC president, but other candidates likely to follow | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/floydtobenominatedsbcpresidentbutothercandidateslikelytofollow/ | 3 |
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<p>Stars: they're just like us. And, Hollywood photographer Sid Avery was the first to show that to the world. Avery captured the private moments of Hollywood's biggest celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor, proving they were more than just the glamorous people they appeared on the big screen. On Saturday, to mark the 75th year since he took his first celebrity photo, <a href="http://www.mptvimages.com" type="external">mptv</a> (a photo agency Avery founded to help preserve photographer's images) will host a one-day exhibition and sale of Avery's most iconic photos. Here, Audrey Hepburn is seen on the Paramount lot with her pet dog, Famous, in 1957.</p>
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<p>Marlon Brando at his Beverly Glen home in Los Angeles, 1953.</p>
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<p>Steve McQueen drives his 1957 XK-SS Jaguar through Nichols Canyon in Hollywood, 1960.</p>
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<p>Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor on location while shooting Giant in Marfa, Texas, 1955.</p>
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<p>James Dean on the set of Rebel Without a Cause, 1955.</p>
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<p>Audrey Hepburn looks into her dressing room mirror, 1957.</p>
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<p>Ocean's Eleven cast (left to right), 1960: Richard Conte, Buddy Lester, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Akim Tamiroff, Richard Benedict, Henry Silva, Norman Fell, and Clem Harvey.</p>
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<p>Steve McQueen at his Hollywood home, 1960.</p>
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<p>Frank Sinatra at a Capitol Records recording session in Los Angeles circa 1957.</p>
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<p>Photo of Sid Avery circa 1960.</p>
<p /> | Sid Avery Captures the Private Moments of Hollywood's Golden-Era Stars (Photos) | true | https://thedailybeast.com/sid-avery-captures-the-private-moments-of-hollywoods-golden-era-stars-photos | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
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<p>Investors in certificates of deposit who dive into that CD cookie jar early face hefty fines that eat away at their principal.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Bankrate's 2014 CD Early Withdrawal Penalty Survey found that CD savers may pay handsomely for snacking too soon on their investment.</p>
<p>And it's not just interest earned that is at stake. Of the institutions surveyed, 90% will confiscate some of the original principal put into the CD, if the accrued interest is less than the required penalty.</p>
<p>That's counter to the very reason for investing in CDs in the first place, says Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate's chief financial analyst.</p>
<p>Source: Bankrate.com</p>
<p>Source: Bankrate.com</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"Investors look to CDs more for a return of their money than a return on their money, and early withdrawal penalties threaten the return of the investment they're trying to protect," he says.</p>
<p>Do the math</p>
<p>The penalties that banks and credit unions charge for withdrawing money early from a CD vary widely.</p>
<p>For instance, a person who invests $10,000 in a two-year CD but then decides to pull the money out after only a year could pay as little as $3.33 at Gateway Bank in San Francisco, or as much as $400 at Salem Five in Boston, according to Bankrate's survey.</p>
<p>"The first step is to pull out the calculator" when deciding whether to pull money out of a CD before it's matured, says Donald Cummings, founder of Blue Haven Capital in Geneva, Illinois. He says it's important to remove emotion from the decision and consider every cost angle.</p>
<p>The most common penalty for CDs with maturities of less than a year continues to be three months' interest, the same as what was found in Bankrate's 2012 survey. The 2012 survey was the last time Bankrate studied CD early withdrawal penalties</p>
<p>The most common penalty for one-year and two-year CDs was six months' interest, also the same as the last survey. For five-year CDs, both six months' interest and 12 months' interest penalties showed up most often in the survey.</p>
<p>Dipping into principal</p>
<p>Dan Geller, executive vice president of Market Rates Insight, studies CDs and CD rates and says early withdrawal fees have become more of a hot topic in recent years, with bankers gearing up for an eventual rise in interest rates as the Federal Reserve unwinds its policy of quantitative easing, or QE, that jump-started the economy.</p>
<p>"They are trying to entice consumers to get in now," Geller says.</p>
<p>CDs are theoretically built with higher interest rates than more liquid products because a consumer is agreeing to park his or her money for a set period of time. Banks use money from consumers' CD holdings to finance loans, so their goal is to keep consumers from pulling out their money early.</p>
<p>A different investing environment</p>
<p>But institutions have been running into a problem in recent years, Geller says. Since many CD withdrawal penalties are tied to the CD's yield and since CD yields are in the toilet, the penalty doesn't have the same significance it used to have.</p>
<p>"Customers are saying, 'I'll sign up for a three-year CD, but because the early withdrawal penalties are so low, if I find a better deal, I'll just jump ship,'" Geller says.</p>
<p>Instead, some banks "are taking part of the principal now to make it more, I don't want to say punitive, but more meaningful. The whole idea of the penalty is to serve as a deterrent to early withdrawal," Geller says.</p>
<p>Read the fine print</p>
<p>Because of the variety of early withdrawal fees mandated by different banks and credit unions, it's important to read the fine print.</p>
<p>McBride says that before investing in a CD, the investor needs to check:</p>
<p>"Investors should know the specifics of the CD early withdrawal penalty before investing, just in case they incur a need to withdraw funds early," McBride says. He says banks in this year's survey typically allow a grace period of seven or 10 days on automatically renewing CDs without incurring a penalty.</p>
<p>Stiff penalties on even low-yielding CDs</p>
<p>Don't just assume that a CD with lower yields will have lighter penalties if you take out money early, McBride says. In fact, some of the most onerous penalties found in the survey are on lower yield offerings.</p>
<p>For instance, Capital One has a two-year CD that yields just 0.2%, but it charges $25 and 3% of the amount withdrawn as an early withdrawal penalty. In contrast, East Boston Savings Bank's two-year CD offers a yield of 0.7%, but it has an early withdrawal penalty of only three months' interest.</p>
<p>McBride says banks with larger market share tend to be less competitive on yield, "and we see some overlap between that and more onerous penalties."</p>
<p>Consider your options</p>
<p>Consumers may have been fairly tolerant of early withdrawal penalties when yields were high, but Geller says CDs have become less favorable investments with low yields since the recession.</p>
<p>"They've lost their appeal, even with the segment that used to cherish this savings vehicle," Geller says. A slightly better yield than other conservative investments may not be worth it for consumers who can't lock up their money for a specific amount of time, he says.</p>
<p>Still, CDs can be good for some consumers, Geller says.</p>
<p>He says liquid CDs are one option available to avoid CD early withdrawal penalties, if a consumer decides to jump ship early on a CD. Liquid CDs allow investors to take money out of their accounts without incurring a fine. However, liquid CDs tend to offer lower yields than a more traditional CD.</p>
<p>Cummings says he counsels consumers to stay away from liquid CDs and other CDs with lots of bells and whistles. He says the best thing that consumers can do is plan ahead and not lock up any money in a CD that they may need before it matures.</p>
<p>"I encourage people to think," Cummings says.</p>
<p>Copyright 2014, Bankrate Inc.</p> | CD Early Withdrawal can Trigger Hefty Fees | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/06/30/cd-early-withdrawal-can-trigger-hefty-fees.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Photo by Fibonacci Blue | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>I wasn’t surprised that some of our leading “thought leaders” didn’t know that Nigerians are among the most highly educated immigrants. I wasn’t. I visited Nigeria in 1999 and met a number of intellectuals, scholars, and writers. Upon my return, I published two anthologies that included 41 Nigerian writers, selected and edited by Nigerian writer Toyin Adewale-Gabriel. Yet during a discussion of President Trump’s describing African countries as “shitholes,” ignoring the fact that some African countries have a higher GDP than the United States, his critics demonstrated that they’d succumbed to the same stereotypes as Trump. One CNN reporter even referred to Africa as a country.</p>
<p>The late Cyprian Ekwensi, one of Nigeria’s leading writers, told me that he got most of his news about the African continent from the BBC. Indeed, unlike on American media, one can find African artists, intellectuals and politicians and business people appearing on that network.</p>
<p>If Donald Trump and his fans consider African countries as “shitholes” that’s how they’re shown in the American media and schools, which is why some of the fiercest racial brawls occur on high school and college campuses. Trump voters, who are delighted by their leader’s dig at Haiti and African countries, might be surprised to learn that Chinese universities offer courses in African and African American culture. I visited one where over sixty professors have been assigned to the study of African American literature. China and the United States are competing for African minds. The dozens of Chinese scholars whom I met on two trips to China are familiar with African-American and Haitian writers whose books have never been reviewed by the American media.</p>
<p>I’ve also visited Haiti. I published a book by the late Dr. Louis P. Mars, the distinguished Haitian psychiatrist. The book, <a href="" type="internal">The Crisis of Possession in VooDoo</a>, was translated from the French by the late film-maker, Kathleen Collins.</p>
<p>During a visit to his Pétion-Ville home in 1978, he showed me a picture of his ancestor, who was dressed in the style of the Napoleonic era soldier, and informed me that he had fought alongside American troops at the battle of Savannah in 1779. Dr. Mars was Haiti’s ambassador to Washington during the administration of John F. Kennedy. His country has a grand tradition in literature and art. The works of Haitian painters hang in leading museums in the United States and Europe. Haitian music has international admirers. One of them was Manno Charlemagne who died last December. He was called “the Bob Marley of Haiti.”</p>
<p>Despite its poverty, partially because European countries will never forgive Haiti for the humiliation of France during the revolt of 1804, Haitians have a proud history. Thomas Jefferson and other slave owners were afraid that the revolt would give their own African captives ideas.</p>
<p>Some of the commentators sought to balance the president’s portrayal of immigrants from “shithole countries” by going to the other extreme. That of going overboard as they lumped together all immigrants as virtuous. I heard such talk during a conference in France and told the audience that for some Black Americans immigration means the arrival of more racists to add to the ones who are already here. Such boosters ignore immigrants who behave badly toward traditional Black Americans. The Daily Beast and The Los Angeles Times reported the behavior of a Latino gang called Big Hazard toward Black project dwellers:</p>
<p>Two years after seven do-or-die loyals of one of L.A.’s original Latino gangs allegedly tossed Molotov cocktails into their neighbors’ homes to “get the n—-ers out of the neighborhood.”</p>
<p>The law finally caught up with them. On Thursday, the feds unsealed what is being called one of ‘largest civil rights indictments in local history,’ alleging that the gang members ruthlessly waged a race-fueled campaign against innocent African American families—all with young children—to get them off their prized turf.</p>
<p>And when I hear commentators hail immigrants as hard working and among those groups with low crime rates, I figure that they are signifying on traditional Blacks, that is, criticizing Blacks without mentioning their name. These commentators, who attended schools where studying the War of the Roses was more important than studying American history, are unaware that no ethnic group has contributed to American prosperity as much as Black Americans. Profits made from slavery were higher than those of all other industries, banks, railroads, combined. After the Emancipation, which Blacks won as a result of a general strike, they were encouraged to place all of their money in a Freedman’s Savings Bank. It was called, “The Black man’s cow, but the white man’s milk,” because most of the mortgage loans went to Whites. When the bank failed, the government reneged on its promise to guarantee the deposits made by Blacks. That has been the pattern since then. Through redlining, the deposits of Blacks have been used to finance the equity of others, and though the media regularly depict Blacks as takers, most of the entitlements go to Trump voters.</p>
<p>MSNBC talk show host Joy Reid reports that her immigrant parents from British Guyana and&#160; the Democratic Republic of Congo &#160;speak disparagingly of American Blacks, as many African and Caribbean immigrants do, and the late author Harold Cruse and others view Caribbean immigrants as honorary Whites, some of whom share the attitudes of Whites toward Black Americans. Some of the immigrants from Mexico have been exposed to racist depictions of Blacks in the Mexican media of the sort that even the American media abandoned in the 1930s. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the Mexican government recognized Africa as Mexico’s “third root.”</p>
<p>Frank Chin, one of the pioneers of Asian-American Literature, was blunt when he said that Chinese Americans are used as the model minority to embarrass Blacks. But today’s model minority can be tomorrow’s scapegoat.</p>
<p>A 19th century California newspaper admonished Japanese immigrants to work hard. Like Blacks.</p>
<p>Such is the ignorance and even fear of Africa that when I told Americans that I was going to visit Nigeria, they said I’d get a disease from which I would never recover, or I’d be murdered even before I left the airport. I had a great time.</p>
<p>Finally, it’s possible for a country regarded as a shit hole to become one that earns international respect. Donald Trump’s mother was from Scotland.</p>
<p>Copyright© 2018 by Ishmael Reed.</p> | Using Immigrants to Shame America Blacks | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/01/30/using-immigrants-to-shame-america-blacks/ | 2018-01-30 | 4 |
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<p>SANTA FE — Gov.-elect Susana Martinez plans to pay for her inauguration with private donations, but it’s uncertain whether a new state law limiting campaign contributions will apply to the money that’s raised.</p>
<p>Martinez spokesman Danny Diaz said no decision has been made by the incoming governor on how to structure her inaugural fundraising organization but she intends to disclose contributions that are accepted.</p>
<p>“Irrespective of how it is set up, and irrespective of whether it’s required or not to disclose, we will voluntarily do so,” Diaz told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The day after the general election, a new law went into effect that caps contributions to candidates and political committees.</p>
<p>An individual or business can give $5,000 per election to a statewide candidate such as governor. New Mexico previously allowed statewide and legislative candidates and political committees to accept contributions of any amount.</p>
<p>However, the new law governs fundraising and expenditures for a “political purpose,” which is defined as “influencing or attempting to influence” an election or preprimary nominating convention.</p>
<p>Because of that definition, the state’s campaign finance law may not apply to money raised and spent for a governor’s inauguration, according to Steve Allen, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, which lobbied for contribution limits that were enacted in 2009 but only took effect this month.</p>
<p>“I think it probably should be covered. But given this language … it doesn’t seem to cover it,” Allen said after reviewing the law because of questions raised by the AP.</p>
<p>If businesses or individuals make large donations to pay for inaugural activities, Allen said, it could create the appearance that an incoming governor is “going to owe some favors.”</p>
<p>There are many unanswered questions about inaugural fundraising because of changes in state law since the last inauguration after Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson won re-election four years ago, said Sen. Peter Wirth, a Santa Fe lawyer and Democrat who’s sponsored campaign finance reform legislation.</p>
<p>“There are various shades of gray here,” said Wirth.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If inaugural fundraising isn’t covered by the campaign finance law, there’s no requirement for disclosure of contributions. If the law does apply, Wirth said, it’s uncertain whether money collected by a campaign committee can be properly spent for inaugural expenses.</p>
<p>The law restricts the uses of campaign funds, allowing expenditures for political purposes, some expenses incurred by legislators, donations to the state’s budget account, retiring campaign debts and donations to other candidates.</p>
<p>“The reasons we passed the campaign act was specifically to prevent these types of high-dollar donations. So if in fact the money is going through a campaign committee, then it seems to me there needs to be compliance with the new limits,” said Wirth.</p>
<p>Even if the campaign finance law doesn’t apply to inaugural fundraising, he said, some donors may face restrictions under a 2007 law that capped the value of gifts given to elected and appointed state officials, legislators and state employees.</p>
<p>The law imposes a $250 limit on the value of individual gifts and yearly cap of $1,000 on the combined value of gifts that can be given to any one state official by a lobbyist, their employer or government contractor.</p>
<p>Attorney General Gary King’s office declined to say whether the campaign contribution limits apply to inaugural fundraising.</p>
<p>King’s spokesman, Phil Sisneros, said an answer would require the office to prepare a legal opinion but those can be requested only by a state official, legislator or prosecutor.</p>
<p>Corporations, businesses and labor unions helped cover the costs for Richardson’s inauguration on Jan. 1, 2007, and the contributions were disclosed later that year by his re-election campaign committee.</p>
<p>Corporate sponsors and sales of tickets to inaugural balls paid for Richardson’s 2003 inauguration, which cost more than $400,000. There was no charge to attend Richardson’s 2007 inaugural ball.</p>
<p>Allen didn’t recall that inaugural fundraising was debated when the Legislature considered the contribution limits measure.</p>
<p>“The contributions limits bill that we passed in 2009 was a nice first step but it has to be one in a series of steps if we are going to be serious about getting a handle on this overall problem of the influence of money in politics in New Mexico,” said Allen.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Martinez Plans To Pay for Inauguration With Private Donations | false | https://abqjournal.com/10307/martinez-plans-to-pay-for-inauguration-with-private-donations.html | 2 |
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<p>Jan 19 (Reuters) - Aviva Plc:</p>
<p>* ‍AVIVA COMPLETES SALE OF TAIWAN JV​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Christian Sewing, currently co-deputy chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>), is to become the new CEO of Germany’s biggest lender, replacing John Cryan, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.</p> Christian Sewing, member of the board of Germany's Deutsche Bank is pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, February 2, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
<p>Sewing, a German national, would replace Cryan, a Briton, at a time when the bank is trying to strengthen its brand in its home market. Cryan has been in office less than three years but investors have lost faith that he can return the bank to profitability after three consecutive years of losses.</p>
<p>The promotion of Sewing, 47, with a background in retail banking, auditing and risk, comes as Deutsche Bank and its major shareholders debate the path forward for the investment banking unit where revenues have slowed and key staff defected.</p>
<p>His appointment could signal a shift in emphasis away from Deutsche Bank’s strategy of seeking profit growth through the investment bank and giving investment bankers greater influence.</p>
<p>Marcus Schenck, currently Sewing’s fellow co-deputy CEO who also helps oversee the investment bank, is close to leaving the bank, the people familiar with the matter said.</p>
<p>Sewing tops a list of candidates as the preferred option to be presented by Chairman Paul Achleitner at a hastily arranged board call for Sunday evening, the people familiar with the matter said. A second external candidate is also being proposed though that person’s chances for the top spot are slim, the second person said.</p>
<p>Sewing would assume the helm at the company’s annual general meeting in May, German magazine Der Spiegel said on its website. Der Spiegel was first to report on Sunday that Sewing would likely become the bank’s next CEO.</p>
<p>Deutsche Bank said late on Saturday that the board would discuss the CEO position and make a decision.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on Sunday.</p> BLOW TO SCHENCK
<p>In picking up the baton, Sewing would also face challenges including further cost cutting, intense competition at home and abroad, and increased regulation.</p>
<p>Sewing, a member of the management board since 2015, currently oversees the bank’s private and commercial bank division, which includes the Postbank retail banking unit.</p>
<p>He joined Deutsche Bank in 1989 and has worked in Frankfurt, London, Singapore, Tokyo and Toronto, according to the bank’s website.</p>
<p>“Our view is that Sewing seems to be an OK candidate,” said a major investor who spoke on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Sewing’s appointment would be a blow to Schenck, a former Goldman Sachs ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GS.N" type="external">GS.N</a>) investment banker long considered a future CEO at Deutsche.</p>
<p>Schenck had signaled he was looking for opportunities outside the bank. Garth Ritchie would stay on as sole head of the investment bank, said the first person familiar with the matter. There is still internal debate on the outcome, said the second person.</p> John Cryan, CEO of Germany's Deutsche Bank is pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, February 2, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
<p>Achleitner had begun a search last month to replace Cryan following a flurry of negative headlines after the bank reported a third consecutive annual loss.</p>
<p>Cryan has said he is “absolutely committed” to the bank. But Achleitner has remained silent, to the disappointment of major investors seeking clarity. Sunday’s board call is intended to provide that clarity.</p> “DYSFUNCTIONAL COMPANY”
<p>The leadership debate also parallels concern about the direction of Deutsche’s investment bank, whose swift expansion in the years leading up to the financial crisis is blamed for many of the bank’s current woes.</p>
<p>The investment bank’s revenue in 2017 was down 25 percent compared with 2015, a steeper fall than those suffered by its rivals. The division employed more than 41,000 staff at the end of 2017, up 4 percent from 2015, but key staff have left.</p>
<p>The bank is conducting a global review of the investment bank, known internally as Project Colombo, a person with direct knowledge of the matter has said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">Deutsche Bank AG</a> 11.352 DBKGn.DE Xetra -0.31 (-2.64%) DBKGn.DE GS.N
<p>Octavio Marenzi, CEO of consultancy Opimas said Sewing’s appointment would mean more focus on commercial and retail banking and wealth management.</p>
<p>“It looks like the board of directors is capitulating on the investment banking front,” Marenzi said.</p>
<p>Cryan, the son of a jazz musician, married into the wealthy Du Pont family of the United States. He took charge at Deutsche in 2015 to overhaul the bank after years of rapid growth under investment bankers.</p>
<p>But his tumultuous tenure as CEO highlights many of the bank’s underlying issues.</p>
<p>Early on, Cryan quickly announced thousands of job cuts to trim costs but reversed the bank’s plans to sell its Postbank retail business after tepid interest from buyers.</p>
<p>Some of Germany’s most senior politicians criticized Cryan for paying 2.3 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in staff bonuses, four times higher than the previous year, after the bank had made losses in 2017.</p>
<p>The bank’s chief operating officer Kim Hammonds, told a colleagues recently that the bank was “the most dysfunctional company” she had ever worked for, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.</p>
<p>Over the past weeks, a number of names have surfaced as possible replacements for Cryan. But some analysts wonder whether anyone will be able to do a better job on turning the bank around.</p>
<p>“There has been actually a disciplined execution in a tough environment by this team,” said Peter Nerby, who analyses the bank for Moody’s. “I wonder if anyone really has a better way to get there. It’s not obvious to me what that way would be.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Andreas Framke, Tom Sims, Edward Taylor, and Hans Seidenstuecker; Editing by Christoph Steitz, Susan Fenton and Jane Merriman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday there would be a “big price to pay” after medical aid groups reported dozens of people were killed by poison gas in a besieged rebel-held town in Syria.</p> U.S. President Donald Trump walks as he returns to the White House after a trip to Lewisburg, West Virginia, in Washington D.C., U.S., April 5, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
<p>As international officials worked to try to confirm the chemical attack which happened late on Saturday in the town of Douma, Trump took the rare step of directly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin in connection with the incident.</p>
<p>The Syrian state denied government forces had launched any chemical attack and Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally, called the reports bogus.</p>
<p>“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay,” Trump wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p>The White House declined to clarify what consequences Trump had in mind. Last year, the United States launched a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base days after a sarin gas attack in northwestern Syria blamed on Assad.</p>
<p>The Russian Foreign Ministry warned against any military action on the basis of “invented and fabricated excuses”, saying this could lead to severe consequences.</p>
<p>A joint statement by the medical relief organization Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the civil defense service, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 people had died in the attack. Others put the toll even higher.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-iraq-trump/trump-spoke-with-iraqi-pm-about-syria-chemical-attack-white-house-idUSKBN1HF0W2" type="external">Trump spoke with Iraqi PM about Syria chemical attack: White House</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-un/u-n-security-council-expected-to-meet-monday-on-syria-attack-diplomats-idUSKBN1HF0TU" type="external">U.N. Security Council expected to meet Monday on Syria attack: diplomats</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-ghouta-iran/iran-says-syria-gas-attack-reports-excuse-for-military-action-idUSKBN1HF0R2" type="external">Iran says Syria gas attack reports 'excuse' for military action</a>
<p>The United Nations Security Council is likely to meet Monday afternoon on the chemical attack at the request of the United States and eight other members, diplomats said.</p> ‘HORRIBLE’ IMAGES
<p>Last week Trump said he wanted to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, though his advisers have urged him to wait to ensure Islamic State militants are defeated and to prevent Assad’s ally Iran from gaining a foothold there.</p>
<p>There are about 2,000 U.S. troops on the ground in the country working to help fight Islamic State militants.</p>
<p>A top Trump security aide said on Sunday the United States would not rule out launching another missile attack. “I wouldn’t take anything off the table,” said Tom Bossert, the White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”</p>
<p>“We are looking into the attack at this point,” he said, adding that the photos of the incident are “horrible.”</p>
<p>In one video shared by activists, the bodies of around a dozen children, women and men, some with foam at the mouth, were seen. “Douma city, April 7 ... there is a strong smell here,” a voice can be heard saying.</p>
<p>Reuters could not independently verify the reports.</p>
<p>One factor in Trump’s decision to bomb Syria last year was the television images of dead children.</p>
<p>Trump will be joined at the White House on Monday by John Bolton, who takes over as White House national security adviser.</p>
<p>Trump has shaken up his core national security team in the past two weeks, replacing national security adviser H.R. McMaster and firing Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.</p>
<p>Bolton, a hard-charging former UN ambassador, praised Trump’s missile response last year, though he has generally focused more on Iran as a bigger national security threat.</p>
<p>Trump was set on Monday to talk with senior military leadership at a previously scheduled meeting at the White House.</p>
<p>U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had warned in March during a trip to Oman that chlorine attacks would be “very unwise,” saying Trump had “full political maneuver room” to respond, though he stopped short of threatening retaliation.</p> SHELTERING IN BASEMENTS
<p>The Syrian Observatory monitoring group said it could not confirm whether chemical weapons had been used in the attack on Saturday. Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said 11 people had died in Douma as a result of suffocation caused by heavy bombardment.</p>
<p>Medical relief organization SAMS said a chlorine bomb hit Douma hospital, killing six people, and a second attack with “mixed agents”, including nerve agents, had hit a nearby building.</p>
<p>Basel Termanini, the U.S.-based vice president of SAMS, which operates medical facilities and supports medics in Syria, told Reuters another 35 people had been killed at a nearby apartment building, most of them women and children.</p>
<p>The joint statement from SAMS and the civil defense said medical centers had taken in more than 500 people suffering breathing difficulties, frothing from the mouth and smelling of chlorine.</p>
<p>Tawfik Chamaa, a Geneva-based Syrian doctor with the Syria-focused Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), a network of Syrian doctors, said 150 people were confirmed dead and the number was growing. “The majority were civilians, women and children trapped in underground shelters,” he told Reuters.</p>
<p>Douma is in the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus. Assad has won back control of nearly all of eastern Ghouta from rebel groups in a Russian-backed military campaign that began in February, leaving just Douma in rebel hands.</p>
<p>The Ghouta offensive has been one of the deadliest in Syria’s seven-year-long war, killing more than 1,600 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.</p>
<p>Taking Douma would seal Assad’s biggest victory since 2016, and underline his unassailable position in the war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people since it mushroomed from protests against his rule in 2011.</p>
<p>Reporting by Dahlia Nehme and Tom Perry in Beirut, Mustafa Hashem in Cairo, Roberta Rampton, John Walcott, Mark Hosenball, Michelle Price and Sarah Lynch in Washington, Michelle Nichols in New York, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Anthony Deutsch in Amstersdam, John Irish in Paris, and Polina Ivanova in Moscow; Writing by Tom Perry and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Adrian Croft and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BUDAPEST, Hungary (Reuters) - Most polling stations closed and the vote count began in Hungary’s election on Sunday, after a very high turnout that could threaten Viktor Orban’s parliamentary majority.</p> Hungarian women, wearing traditional costumes, fill their ballot papers at a polling station during Hungarian parliamentary elections in Veresegyhaz, Hungary April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
<p>Following an acrimonious campaign in which the rightwing nationalist prime minister projected himself as a savior of Hungary’s Christian culture against Muslim migration into Europe, all opinion polls had put his Fidesz party well ahead.</p>
<p>A strong victory could embolden him to put more muscle into a Central European alliance against the European Union’s migration policies. Orban, Hungary’s longest-serving post-communist premier, opposes deeper integration of the bloc.</p>
<p>Interim data at 1630 GMT showed voter turnout at 68.13 percent, exceeding final turnout in the past three elections.</p>
<p>A high turnout in a 2002 vote consigned Orban to eight years of opposition. In contrast, the turnout was only 61.7 percent in the last election, in 2014, which gave him a massive victory.</p>
<p>Orban’s opponents were cheered by the enthusiasm of Hungarians to vote.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-hungary-election-majority/hungarys-fidesz-unlikely-to-win-two-thirds-majority-lawmaker-idUSKBN1HF0UZ" type="external">Hungary's Fidesz unlikely to win two-thirds majority: lawmaker</a>
<a href="/article/us-hungary-election-office/hungary-to-release-first-preliminary-election-results-at-1930-gmt-idUSKBN1HF0VJ" type="external">Hungary to release first preliminary election results at 1930 GMT</a>
<a href="/article/us-hungary-election-turnout/interim-turnout-in-hungarys-election-hits-68-13-percent-idUSKBN1HF0FA" type="external">Interim turnout in Hungary's election hits 68.13 percent</a>
<p>“We are convinced that high turnout definitely reflects ... that people want a change in government,” Socialist spokeswoman Bernadett Budai was quoted as saying by national news agency MTI.</p>
<p>Fidesz lawmaker Gergely Gulyas told private broadcaster ATV his party was unlikely to retain its two-thirds parliamentary majority.</p>
<p>“A two-thirds victory is possible if neither side loses more than 10 districts and there is a difference of at least 20 percent between the winner and the runner-up,” Gulyas said.</p>
<p>“I consider this unlikely. I think this is outside the category of reality.”</p>
<p>Voters were no longer allowed to join queues at polling stations from 1700 GMT, but those already in line were being allowed to cast their ballots, meaning voting could continue for hours more at the busiest stations.</p>
<p>In central London, emigre Hungarians queued for hundreds of meters in the rain to vote, some waiting for more than two hours.</p>
<p>Some pollsters said voter turnout above 70 percent could signal that the opposition was mobilizing supporters efficiently, and might even deprive Fidesz of its parliamentary majority.</p>
<p>“High turnout means, most probably, less mandates for Fidesz than in the previous term,” said Peter Kreko, director of think tank Political Capital.</p>
<p>But he added that since all parties, including Fidesz, had mobilized intensively, it did not necessarily mean Orban was threatened with defeat.</p>
<p>Orban has far-right admirers across Europe who like his tough line on migrants and a landslide win would show that his single-issue campaign, arguing that migration poses a security threat, had paid off.</p> A woman casts her ballot during Hungarian parliamentary election in Gyongyos, Hungary, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger MIGRATION “LIKE RUST”
<p>Critics say Orban has put Hungary on an increasingly authoritarian path and his stance on immigration has fueled xenophobia.</p>
<p>After casting his vote in a wealthy district of Budapest, he said: “From here I will go and take part in mobilizing voters ... I am asking everyone to take part in the election.”</p>
<p>Asked by journalists if he was fighting the European Union, Orban said: “The EU is not in Brussels. The EU is in Berlin, in Budapest, in Prague and in Bucharest.”</p>
<p>He reiterated he would stand up for Hungary’s interests and said Hungary was a loyal member of international organizations.</p>
<p>“We love our country and we are fighting for our country,” he said.</p>
<p>A strong win for Orban would boost other right-wing nationalists in Central Europe, in Poland and in neighboring Austria, and expose cracks in the 28-nation EU.</p>
<p>While Fidesz led all opinion polls before the vote, there is a small chance that the fragmented opposition could strip Fidesz of its parliamentary majority if voters frustrated with Orban’s policies choose tactical voting in the 106 constituencies.</p>
<p>The strongest opposition party is the formerly far-right Jobbik, which has recast its image as a more moderate nationalist force. It has been campaigning on an anti-corruption agenda and urged higher wages to lure back hundreds of thousands of Hungarians who have left Hungary for western Europe.</p>
<p>Clad in a green jacket and white shirt, Jobbik leader Gabor Vona, 39, arrived to vote in the eastern city of Gyongyos, his home town and the district where he is likely to win a seat.</p>
<p>“Everyone should go to vote because this election determines Hungary’s course not for four years but for two generations at least,” he told reporters. “Emigration may or may not define Hungary, and I would prefer that it does not.”</p>
<p>The EU has struggled to respond as Orban’s government has, in the view of its critics, used its two landslide victories in 2010 and 2014 to erode democratic checks and balances. It has curbed the powers of the constitutional court, increased control of the media and appointed loyalists to key positions.</p> Slideshow (11 Images)
<p>Orban is credited with keeping the budget deficit under control, reducing unemployment and some of Hungary’s debt, and putting its economy on a growth track.</p>
<p>On Friday, at his closing campaign rally, he vowed to protect his nation from Muslim migrants, saying: “Migration is like rust that slowly but surely would consume Hungary.”</p> OUTSIDE CHANCE OF SURPRISE
<p>The anti-immigrant campaign has gone down well with many of the roughly two million core voters of Fidesz.</p>
<p>“My little daughter must be my primary concern, to make her future safe. Safety is first,” said Julia Scharle, 27, holding her child outside the polling station where Orban cast his vote. She would not reveal her voting preference.</p>
<p>In March the government gave pre-election handouts to millions of families and pensioners.</p>
<p>A poll by Zavecz research institute published on Friday showed Fidesz had 46 percent support among decided voters, while Jobbik had 19 percent. The Socialists came in third with 14 percent. Voter turnout was estimated between 64 and 68 percent.</p>
<p>However, one-third of voters were undecided.</p>
<p>In 2014, Fidesz won a two-thirds majority in the 199-seat parliament with 133 seats.</p>
<p>If Orban wins again, he is expected to continue his economic policies, with income tax cuts and incentives to boost growth.</p>
<p>His business allies are expected to expand their economic domains. Businessmen close to Fidesz have acquired stakes in major industries like banking, energy, construction and tourism, profiting from EU funds.</p>
<p>“Only a dramatic outcome of the election would force a significant shift in the direction of policymaking,” Barclays said in a note.</p>
<p>Writing by Krisztina Than; additional reporting by Simon Dawson; editing by Janet Lawrence and Andrew Roche</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary’s National Election Office expects to start publishing preliminary results of Sunday’s parliamentary election at around 1930 GMT, said its head, Ilona Palffy.</p>
<p>Interim data at 1630 GMT showed voter turnout at 68.13 percent, exceeding final turnout in the past three elections.</p>
<p>Voters were no longer allowed to join queues at polling stations from 1700 GMT, but some polling stations stayed open to allow those already in line to cast their ballots.</p>
<p>Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; editing by Andrew Roche</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Aviva Plc Completes Sale Of Taiwan JV Deutsche Bank picks insider Christian Sewing as new CEO: sources Trump says 'big price to pay' for Syria chemical attack Vote count begins in Hungary's election as Orban fights to retain power Hungary to release first preliminary election results at 1930 GMT | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-aviva-plc-completes-sale-of-taiwan/brief-aviva-plc-completes-sale-of-taiwan-jv-idUSFWN1PD1IT | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Wildlife rescuers in Florida were summoned to help a manatee found struggling to escape from a life vest keeping it on the surface of the water.</p>
<p>Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue said personnel dived into the water on Wednesday afternoon to investigate reports of a manatee that appeared to be struggling with a tracking device, but the rescuers quickly discovered the mammal was actually <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fortlauderdalefirerescue/posts/1586031648150956" type="external">stuck in a personal flotation device.</a></p>
<p />
<p>The Fire Rescue team followed the manatee until a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission team arrived to take over the rescue.</p>
<p>FWC marine biologist Amber Howell said the juvenile manatee had likely just set off on its own after spending is first 1-2 years with its mother.</p>
<p>"We wanted to make sure it was big enough and healthy enough to be on its own," Howell <a href="https://www.local10.com/news/local/fort-lauderdale/authorities-try-to-help-manatee-in-distress-in-fort-lauderdale" type="external">told WPLG-TV.</a></p>
<p>Howell said the manatee was checked out and released with a tracker about 5 p.m. Wednesday.</p> | Manatee rescued from life jacket in Florida | false | https://upi.com/Odd_News/2018/01/25/Manatee-rescued-from-life-jacket-in-Florida/5541516894345/ | 2 |
|
<p>Jan. 20 (UPI) — Nigerian police rescued two Americans and two Canadians abducted by gunmen earlier in the week, an official said Saturday.</p>
<p>All four are safe and at their respective embassies in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, Nigeria’s State Commissioner of Police Agyole Abeh <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/20/africa/nigeria-abducted-americans-canadians-rescued-intl/index.html" type="external">told CNN</a>.</p>
<p>Police arrested one suspect and are seeking others, he said. No ransom was paid, Abeh added.</p>
<p>The four were found inside a bush at about 6 a.m. Saturday in Kagarko local government area of Kaduna State after a massive manhunt, Abeh <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/police-confirm-release-of-abducted-expatriates-in-kaduna/" type="external">told reporters</a>.</p>
<p>The foreign nationals, who members of an investment team for a solar power project in Kafanchan district in Southern Kaduna, were abducted at 7 p.m. Tuesday while traveling from Kaduna city to Abuja.</p>
<p>“The abductors ambushed them along with police escorts who traveled with them. Two policemen were killed in the gun battle,” Kaduna State Police spokesman Mukhtar Aliyu told CNN.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/01/17/2-Americans-2-Canadians-kidnapped-in-Nigeria/1201516236017/" type="external">After the ambush</a>, authorities dispatched an anti-kidnapping unit to search for the gunmen and the victims.</p>
<p>Last year, the U.S. State Department warned travel to Kaduna and seven other states in northern Nigeria are dangerous because of robbery and abduction.</p>
<p>Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group based in northeast Nigeria, has targeted Kaduna.</p> | Nigerian police rescue kidnapped Americans, Canadians | false | https://newsline.com/nigerian-police-rescue-kidnapped-americans-canadians/ | 2018-01-21 | 1 |
<p>What’s up with Barack Obama? The candidate for change once promised to take on the powerful banking interests but is now doing their bidding. Finally, a leading Democrat, in this case Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, has a good idea for monitoring the Wall Street fat cats who all but destroyed the American economy, and the Obama administration condemns it.</p>
<p>Dodd wants to take supervisory power from the Federal Reserve, which is controlled by the banks it pretends to monitor, and put it in the hands of a new independent agency. That makes sense given the Fed’s abject failure to properly monitor the financial sector over the past decade as that industry got drunk on greed. As Dodd’s spokeswoman Kirstin Brost put it: “The Federal Reserve flat out failed at supervising the largest, most complex firms.” But White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee frets that taking power from the Fed would cause financial industry “nervousness.” Isn’t that the whole point of government regulation — to make the bandits look over their shoulders before they launch their next destructive scam?</p>
<p>Not so in the view of Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, who blithely insists that the Fed “is the best agency equipped for the task of supervising the largest, most complex firms,” despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary. There is some irony in the fact that the largest of those complex firms got to be “too big to fail” because of the radical deregulatory legislation that Wolin drafted during his previous incarnation as the Treasury Department’s general counsel in the Clinton administration. Wolin is now deputy to Timothy Geithner, who as head of the New York Fed in the five years preceding the banking meltdown looked the other way as the disaster began to unfold.</p>
<p>Why is Barack Obama allowing these retreads from the Clinton era who went on to great riches on Wall Street to set economic policy for his administration? The fatal hallmark of this president’s financial policy is that it is being designed by the very people whose previous legislative efforts created the mess that enriched them while impoverishing the nation, and they now want more of the same.</p>
<p />
<p>In the Clinton years, Wolin was general counsel to then-Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, the key architect of the radical deregulation that caused the recent banking collapse. Summers went off to work for hedge funds and banks that paid him $15 million in 2008 while he was advising Obama. Meanwhile, Wolin became general counsel for Hartford Insurance Corp., which had to be bailed out by the taxpayers because it took advantage of the radical deregulation that he helped write into law.</p>
<p>Wolin, Geithner and Summers were all protégés of Robert Rubin, who, as Clinton’s treasury secretary, was the grand author of the strategy of freeing Wall Street firms from their Depression-era constraints. It was Wolin who, at Rubin’s behest, became a key force in drafting the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which ended the barrier between investment and commercial banks and insurance companies, thus permitting the new financial behemoths to become too big to fail. Two stunning examples of such giants that had to be rescued with public funds are Citigroup bank, where Rubin went to “earn” $120 million after leaving the Clinton White House, and the Hartford Insurance Co., where Wolin landed after he left Treasury.</p>
<p>Both Citigroup and Hartford would not have gotten into trouble were it not for the enabling legislation that the three Clinton officials pushed through while they were in power. But even with that law, had Geithner been on the case protecting the public interest while head of the New York Fed, much of the damage could have been avoided.</p>
<p>Thanks to the legislation that Wolin helped write, the limits preventing mergers between insurance companies and banks imposed during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency was reversed. Hartford got into banking, and as The Washington Times observed in a scathing editorial, “Hartford … rushed to buy regulated savings and loans just so they could call themselves banks and qualify for government TARP funds.” Wolin collected his millions while the taxpayers were obliged to cover Hartford’s losses.</p>
<p>It is depressing for a columnist who had great hopes for Obama to be forced by the facts to credit editors at the right-wing Washington Times for getting it right when they opined: “Revolving doors between industry and the administration and fat-cat political contributors getting bailed out at taxpayer expense sound like business as usual. This certainly isn’t change we can believe in.” Please, Mr. President, say it ain’t so.</p> | Who Are You and What Have You Done With the Community Organizer We Elected President? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/who-are-you-and-what-have-you-done-with-the-community-organizer-we-elected-president/ | 2009-11-18 | 4 |
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Latest on special elections in Wisconsin (all times local):</p>
<p>9:55 p.m.</p>
<p>Democrat Patty Schachtner says her victory in a special Senate election sends a message that voters are tired of negative politics.</p>
<p>Schachtner defeated Republican state Rep. Adam Jarchow Tuesday in a race to replace Republican Sheila Harsdorf, who is now state ag secretary. It was a big upset for Democrats in a district that is usually reliable for Republicans.</p>
<p>Schachtner, the St. Croix County medical examiner and a Somerset school board member, says she ran a positive campaign and has always had a "be kind" message.</p>
<p>She says the win could be a bad sign for Republicans across the state later this year.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:22 a.m.</p>
<p>Republican state Rep. Adam Jarchow and Democrat Patty Schachtner are facing off in a special election to fill a vacant state Senate seat.</p>
<p>Tuesday's race in northwestern Wisconsin's 10th Senate District is to replace Republican Sheila Harsdorf, who resigned to serve as state agriculture secretary.</p>
<p>The results won't affect control of the Senate, where Republicans hold an 18-13 advantage.</p>
<p>Two other open legislative seats, both in southeastern Wisconsin, were also being filled Tuesday.</p>
<p>Democrat Greta Neubauer is running unopposed to replace retiring Democrat Cory Mason in the 66th Assembly District.</p>
<p>Republican Rick Gundrum faces Democrat Dennis Degenhardt in the solidly conservative 58th Assembly District. The winner there will replace Bob Gannon, who died in October.</p>
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Latest on special elections in Wisconsin (all times local):</p>
<p>9:55 p.m.</p>
<p>Democrat Patty Schachtner says her victory in a special Senate election sends a message that voters are tired of negative politics.</p>
<p>Schachtner defeated Republican state Rep. Adam Jarchow Tuesday in a race to replace Republican Sheila Harsdorf, who is now state ag secretary. It was a big upset for Democrats in a district that is usually reliable for Republicans.</p>
<p>Schachtner, the St. Croix County medical examiner and a Somerset school board member, says she ran a positive campaign and has always had a "be kind" message.</p>
<p>She says the win could be a bad sign for Republicans across the state later this year.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:22 a.m.</p>
<p>Republican state Rep. Adam Jarchow and Democrat Patty Schachtner are facing off in a special election to fill a vacant state Senate seat.</p>
<p>Tuesday's race in northwestern Wisconsin's 10th Senate District is to replace Republican Sheila Harsdorf, who resigned to serve as state agriculture secretary.</p>
<p>The results won't affect control of the Senate, where Republicans hold an 18-13 advantage.</p>
<p>Two other open legislative seats, both in southeastern Wisconsin, were also being filled Tuesday.</p>
<p>Democrat Greta Neubauer is running unopposed to replace retiring Democrat Cory Mason in the 66th Assembly District.</p>
<p>Republican Rick Gundrum faces Democrat Dennis Degenhardt in the solidly conservative 58th Assembly District. The winner there will replace Bob Gannon, who died in October.</p> | The Latest: Schachtner: Win shows voters tired of negativity | false | https://apnews.com/amp/994313c5da87426282e7352ae1d8417f | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>Texas is set to execute its <a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2013-06-21/texas-poised-to-hit-500th-execution/" type="external">500th person</a> on Wednesday. Since the death penalty was restored 36 years ago, Texas has led in the number of executions, accounting today for <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/25/texas-execution/2456255/" type="external">40 percent</a> of the country’s total. More than half of those have happened under Governor Rick Perry’s (R) watch.</p>
<p>Kimberly McCarthy, who received the death penalty for murdering a white woman, will be given a lethal injection Wednesday barring a last-minute intervention. Her sentence has been halted multiple times: Once because of a claim that minority jurors were improperly struck by prosecutors in her trial. It was delayed again because Texas considered passing a North Carolina-modeled <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20130121-dallas-da-craig-watkins-to-push-for-law-allowing-appeals-based-on-racial-factors.ece" type="external">Racial Justice Act</a> to allow people of color to appeal their sentence on grounds of discrimination. Texas never proceeded with the legislation, and North Carolina recently <a href="" type="internal">removed the extra protections</a> for people of color.</p>
<p>The University of Denver found that a black person is <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/50" type="external">more likely</a> to receive a death sentence in Houston, Texas than white defendants. The Dallas Morning News has reported that prosecutors have systematically stacked the jury pool <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9033376/ns/us_news-life/t/report-dallas-prosecutors-bar-black-jurors/#.UcoToPnvtyw" type="external">with white jurors</a>, rejecting black jurors at twice the rate. Given the state’s <a href="" type="internal">spotted history</a> on voting rights for minorities, it is not surprising Texas’ justice system is tainted by race as well.</p>
<p>During his presidential run, Perry said that Texas’ capital punishment system “works just fine. You may not agree with them, but we believe in our form of justice.” Texas’ morbid milestone includes the executions of <a href="" type="internal">juveniles and mentally disabled people</a>, in addition to a slate of <a href="" type="internal">potentially innocent people</a>.</p> | Texas Is Executing Its 500th Person | true | http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/26/2213071/texas-500-executions/ | 2013-06-26 | 4 |
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<p>Earlier this week, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown released one of the few specific policy proposals of his campaign. Republican opponent Meg Whitman has criticized Brown for being too vague on his plan to reform California’s struggling government. Now he’s hitting back with a plan to curb the exploding cost of state worker pensions, and it sounds an awful lot like the key elements of deals Governor Schwarzenegger has negotiated with the state’s unions.</p>
<p>In a move that came as a surprise to many, and could chill support from the labor unions that currently back Jerry Brown’s bid for governor, Brown <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-brown-pensions-20100723,0,6543305.story" type="external">is calling</a> for state employees to contribute more to their retirement funds, and says he would raise the age of retirement from 55 to 60 for newly hired state workers. Meg Whitman would make it 65, and apply the change to all state employees, including current workers.</p>
<p>Another key difference between the two, is that Jerry Brown wants to maintain the state’s pension system, which pays out benefits to retired state workers from California’s budget. Whitman prefers to keep the pension system for current workers, while transitioning into a more 401(k)-style plan for future hires. Enacting her plan, Brown argues, “is to cast everyone into the loving embrace of Wall Street.”</p>
<p>But it’s important to remember that California’s state workers are already at the mercy of Wall Street for their pension. Just how did the state’s pension program get so bad in the first place- so that even the union-backed Democratic candidate for governor is calling for a reduction in benefits and an increase in the retirement age? It all started in 1999 when CalPERS, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (which invests its holdings on Wall Street) made some pretty incredible forecasts about the future value of its stocks.</p>
<p>CalPERS projected in 1999 that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would reach 25,000 by 2009, 595,000 by 2049 and 28 million by 2099! On these projections, the Legislature passed massive increases in benefits for state workers without matching increases in worker contributions to their retirement. A decade later, the Dow is in the 10,000s and the state’s projections were clearly inaccurate.</p>
<p>It also seems that CalPERS hasn’t learned its lesson, <a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/15/pensions-and-partying-its-1999/" type="external">telling</a> a journalist just last year that “it implicitly forecasts the Dow to double in 10 years and hit 7 million by 2099.” Any comprehensive reform of the state’s pension system must address the fact that CalPERS essentially gambles with the taxpayers’ money and the state workers’ contributions.</p>
<p>No individual saving for retirement, or fund manager with a business reputation to protect, could afford to make such irresponsible projections. But with the taxpayer to bail CalPERS out of every miscalculation, there is no incentive to rein in forecasts and plan responsibly.</p>
<p>At this point Californians should be asking: Why should the state be making the retirement and investment decisions for its employees instead of putting those choices in their hands?</p> | Jerry Brown calls for Schwarzenegger-style pension reform | false | https://ivn.us/2010/07/24/jerry-brown-calls-schwarzenegger-style-pension-reform/ | 2010-07-24 | 2 |
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<p>Ahlam al-Tamimi, 37, who chose the target of the 2001 attack and guided the bomber there, told The Associated Press that she “lived in fear” for her life until this week’s high court ruling, in part because she had received threats, including from U.S. citizens, on social media.</p>
<p>She said she can’t leave her native Jordan for fear of arrest if she travels abroad.</p>
<p>Al-Tamimi has been unapologetic about her role in one of the deadliest of scores of Hamas suicide bombings during the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule. She said Palestinians have a right to resist by any means, including with such attacks, against what she portrayed as a brutal military occupation.</p>
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<p>“We are an oppressed people defending ourselves,” al-Tamimi said in an interview this week in her home in the Jordanian capital, Amman. “We want Israel to leave our land so we can live in quiet.”</p>
<p>Asked about her role in the killing of civilians, including children, she said: “I don’t target children, but when the bomb goes off, it goes everywhere.”</p>
<p>The blast at the Sbarro restaurant in downtown Jerusalem went off on the afternoon of Aug. 9, 2001. The assailant detonated explosives hidden in a guitar case packed with nails. Fifteen people were killed, including seven between the ages of two and 16, and scores of people were wounded.</p>
<p>Al-Tamimi was arrested by Israel several weeks after the bombing and sentenced to 16 life terms. She was released in a 2011 Israel-Hamas prisoner swap.</p>
<p>Since then, she has been a familiar media presence, including at one point hosting a talk show on a Beirut-based Hamas-run TV station about Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.</p>
<p>She has also spoken repeatedly about the attack, saying she was pleased with the high death toll.</p>
<p>On Monday, Jordan’s high court ruled that al-Tamimi cannot be extradited from Jordan to the United States because the two countries don’t have an extradition treaty.</p>
<p>In the U.S., she faces a charge of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the U.S. against U.S. nationals. The charge was filed under seal in 2013 and announced by the Justice Department last week.</p>
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<p>Al-Tamimi also became the newest and 29th entry on the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists.</p>
<p>She said the U.S. has no right to charge her, arguing that she was already tried and sentenced in Israel.</p>
<p>“How come I should be returned to jail again for the same charge,” she said Tuesday.</p>
<p>She said the U.S. proceedings disrupted the life she built with her husband Nizar, 43, who was also released in the 2011 swap, after serving 19 years for killing an Israeli.</p>
<p>Arnold Roth, whose 15-year-old daughter Malka, a U.S. citizen, was killed in the Sbarro blast, said this week’s Jordanian court ruling was “appalling.”</p>
<p>He said the aftermath of al-Tamimi’s release has been difficult. “It’s hard enough to lose a child,” he said. “I can tell you that it is worse” to see those involved in the blast being celebrated.</p>
<p>Al-Tamimi was active in the Islamic militant group Hamas while studying journalism at the West Bank’s Bir Zeit University at the time of the second Palestinian uprising. On her Twitter account, she describes herself as the first woman in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing.</p>
<p>The uprising marked an especially bloody period in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with some 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis killed by early 2005.</p>
<p>Palestinians carried out shooting and bombing attacks, while Israeli forces reoccupied the West Bank in a harsh crackdown. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.</p>
<p>The leading Palestinian political factions, Hamas and Fatah, are at odds over a solution to the conflict with Israel.</p>
<p>Fatah, under Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who oversees a West Bank-based autonomy government, hopes to set up a Palestinian state alongside Israel, roughly along the pre-1967 lines.</p>
<p>Hamas has called for Israel’s destruction, but is formulating a new political program that refers to statehood in pre-1967 lines, without saying if it would consider this an end to the conflict with Israel or a stepping stone to an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine.</p>
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<p>Daraghmeh reported from Ramallah, West Bank.</p> | Jordan planner of 2001 blast relieved US extradition blocked | false | https://abqjournal.com/974647/jordan-planner-of-2001-blast-relieved-us-extradition-blocked.html | 2017-03-23 | 2 |
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<p>Last fall, OPEC sent shock waves through the oil market by agreeing to its first output cut in eight years. That decision marked a notable policy shift by the oil cartel, because it meant theabandonment of its pump-and-dump strategy, which it instituted in an ill-fated attempt to push high-cost shale producers out of the market. While that previous plan did drive the price per barrel below the breakeven level of most shale producers, it also led to breakthroughs in the drilling cost structure.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>That said, OPEC's latest policy doesn't seem to be having the desired impact, either. One look at an oil-price chart shows that oil today isn't much higher than it was when OPEC made its policy change:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/indicators/brent_crude_oil_spot_price" type="external">Brent Crude Oil Spot Price</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>That stagnant price level, along with recent comments from oil ministers, suggests that OPEC thinks current oil prices are still too low. However, that doesn't mean it'll be in a rush to provide further support.</p>
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<p>OPEC's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, gave the market a subtle hint of where it thought crude prices were heading in 2017 when it released its fiscal budget late last year. The kingdom projected that it would pull in $128 billion from oil sales in 2017, up a staggering 46% from last year. According to analysts, the country's base case is that crude would fetch around $55 per barrel this year, though it only needed oil around $50 to balance the budget. By setting its base case around $55, the Middle Eastern nation could generate a surplus to reduce the national debt, which more than doubled last year because of low oil prices.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, several other OPEC countries used a lower oil price when setting their budgets. Nigeria, for example, based its budget on $42.50 oil. However, it needed oil much higher to balance its budget, with a mid-$50 oil price potentially cutting its budget deficit in half.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Ideally, OPEC hoped that its initial six-month deal to reduce oil output would fix the oil market's oversupply problem and put a floor under oil prices somewhere in the mid-$50s. However, given the continued climb in U.S. oil inventories -- which remain near record levels and caused oil to sell off in recent weeks -- it appears that this plan isn't working as quickly as expected.</p>
<p>OPEC members have therefore started to signal an openness to extend their output cuts. For example, OPEC's monitoring committee recently met to discuss the status of the agreement, and according to reports, several members expressed support for an extension of the deal beyond this June. One of those was Iran's oil minister, who said that "it seems that most of the OPEC and non-OPEC (countries) are going to extend the agreement, but time is needed to evaluate the situation and to have face-to-face meetings and discussions with others." Those comments signal that many in OPEC aren't happy with where oil prices are at the moment.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Still, OPEC needs to weigh the weaker-than-hoped-for current oil pricing level with the potential for a problem down the road if its actions take crude prices up too far too fast. That's a scenario Goldman Sachs recently warned against when the investment bank said that an extension of the cuts could backfire and cause a sharp price increase above $60 a barrel, which might cause U.S. shale drilling to come roaring back.</p>
<p>For example, leading shale driller EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) expects to grow its oil output 18% this year while living within cash flow at $50 crude. However, it has an abundance of low-cost drilling locations, enabling it to quickly ramp up its oil growth rate at higher oil prices. In fact, EOG Resources projects it can ramp its oil growth rate up from 15% annually at $50 oil to 25% annually if crude averages $60 a barrel.</p>
<p>EOG Resources isn't alone. Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ: FANG) expects to grow its production by a remarkable 60% this year while living within cash flow thanks to the impact of a recent acquisition and organic drilling. Yet it plans to run only eight rigs this year to achieve that growth rate, which is well below the 15 to 20 rigs it can run across its expanding acreage position. It's a resource base that provides Diamondback Energy with a "runway for unprecedented growth for years to come," leaving it ample room to accelerate its drilling program and pull growth forward if oil prices rise sharply. Several rivals possess similar upside given their low-cost position in U.S. shale plays, which is something that might cause OPEC to remain cautious.</p>
<p>It's becoming clear that OPEC doesn't like where oil prices are at the moment. But given shale's growth potential, OPEC has to walk a fine line between the desire for higher oil prices and the risk of setting off another shale boom. That'swhyit's entirely possible that it might wait until the 11thhour before committing to extending the output cuts, not wanting to provide shale drillers with any incentive to accelerate.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than EOG ResourcesWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of EOG Resources. 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 OPEC Really Thinks About Current Oil Prices | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/05/what-opec-really-thinks-about-current-oil-prices.html | 2017-04-05 | 0 |
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<p>BEIRUT — A cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey went into effect in war-ravaged Syria at midnight Thursday, a potential breakthrough in the six years of fighting that have left more than a quarter-million people dead and triggered a refugee crisis across Europe.</p>
<p>If it holds, the truce between the Syrian government and the country’s mainstream rebel forces will be followed by peace talks next month in Kazakhstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in announcing the agreement. He described it, however, as “quite fragile” and requiring “special attention and patience.”</p>
<p>The first half-hour of the cease-fire was one of “comprehensive calm,” said Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He said that before the truce came into force, the government was bombing several areas, including the province of Aleppo and suburbs of the capital, Damascus.</p>
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<p>The truce had the backing of both Russia, Syria’s chief battlefield ally, and Turkey, which has been supporting the rebels. Russia said the deal was signed by seven of Syria’s major rebel factions, though none of them immediately confirmed it, and one of them denied signing.</p>
<p>Several previous cease-fires in the Syrian civil war all collapsed, some of them in a matter of days. And this latest agreement, like previous ones, does not include extremist factions such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s branch in Syria.</p>
<p>Still, the deal raised hopes for a political settlement to the ruinous war, in part because the landscape has significantly shifted recently.</p>
<p>For one thing, the tide has turned in Syrian President Bashar Assad’s favor militarily over the past year, with the government retaking the city of Aleppo from the rebels just days ago. Also, Turkey, which is fighting Kurdish and Islamic militants at home, appears more willing to strike a bargain with Russia if it means protecting its borders.</p>
<p>“This is a different political scene, and one would expect some outcomes to emerge,” said Hilal Khashan, political science professor at the American University of Beirut. He cautioned, however, against expecting immediate results from the first round of talks.</p>
<p>Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem welcomed the cease-fire agreement said there is a “real chance” for a political settlement.</p>
<p>In comments made to Syrian TV, he said the Syrian government will attend the peace talks “with an open mind,” but he suggested it would not be willing to compromise on Assad’s fate. Assad’s remaining in power has been a major sticking point in the crisis.</p>
<p>“Everything is negotiable except national sovereignty and the people’s right to choose its leadership,” al-Moallem said.</p>
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<p>Putin said the cease-fire will be guaranteed by both Moscow and Turkey. Turkey has been allowing opposition forces to use its long border with Syria to cross back and forth. The agreement was also praised by Iran, another of Assad’s strongest backers.</p>
<p>Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the truce will include 62,000 opposition fighters across Syria and that the Russian military has established a hotline with its Turkish counterpart to monitor compliance. Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will be welcome to join the peace process once he takes office.</p>
<p>Putin said he ordered the Russian military to scale back its presence in Syria, where it has provided crucial support to Assad’s forces. Putin didn’t say how many troops and weapons will be withdrawn. He said Russia will continue “fighting international terrorism in Syria” and supporting Assad’s military.</p>
<p>The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, welcomed the cease-fire announcement, saying he hopes the agreement will save civilian lives, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and pave the way for productive peace talks.</p>
<p>Earlier Thursday, Turkey called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from Syria. The Iranian-backed extremist group has sent thousands of fighters to support Assad and has been playing an instrumental role in the civil war since 2013.</p>
<p>Foreign fighters from around the world have joined both sides of the Syrian conflict, which has displaced half the country’s population and produced more than 4 million refugees. Many of those refugees have been streaming into Europe, fueling anti-immigration sentiment and terrorist fears that are reshaping the continent’s political landscape.</p>
<p>Syria’s military noted that the cease-fire comes after the “successes achieved by the armed forces,” an apparent reference to the fierce fighting in Aleppo.</p>
<p>Osama Abo Zayd, a spokesman for mainstream Syrian opposition groups, told reporters in the Turkish capital of Ankara that 13 armed opposition factions have signed the agreement.</p>
<p>He said the peace talks will be based on the Geneva 2012 declaration that calls for a governing body with full executive powers to run Syria during a transition period. “This means that there will be no presence for Assad in the future,” he said.</p>
<p>However, Khashan, the political analyst, said Assad’s exit is “out of the question.” “Neither the Russians nor the Iranians would allow it to happen,” he said.</p>
<p>Saeed Sadek, a professor of political sociology at Cairo’s Future University, said Assad has no power to accept or reject any deals.</p>
<p>“He is now under the control of Moscow, Tehran and Ankara. All these countries will decide his future,” he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Najib Jobain in Cairo and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.</p> | Cease-fire goes into force in war-ravaged Syria | false | https://abqjournal.com/917493/syrian-government-rebels-sign-cease-fire-deal-says-russia.html | 2016-12-29 | 2 |
<p>PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — State Sen. Neal Tapio says he will form a legislative work group to examine state immigration and refugee resettlement programs in South Dakota.</p>
<p>The Watertown Republican said Monday the group would analyze the programs’ “financial and societal” effects on state and local governments.</p>
<p>Tapio says it will be made up of lawmakers, but won’t be an official legislative committee.</p>
<p>Tapio says the committee plans to create an “exhaustive” analysis including financial impacts in areas like education and law enforcement.</p>
<p>Taneeza Islam, executive director of the nonprofit South Dakota Voices for Peace, says immigrants, refugees and Muslims contribute significantly to the state’s economy and culture.</p>
<p>The announcement comes as Tapio prepares to run for Congress. He would face Secretary of State Shantel Krebs and Dusty Johnson, a former public utilities commissioner, in the 2018 Republican primary.</p>
<p>PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — State Sen. Neal Tapio says he will form a legislative work group to examine state immigration and refugee resettlement programs in South Dakota.</p>
<p>The Watertown Republican said Monday the group would analyze the programs’ “financial and societal” effects on state and local governments.</p>
<p>Tapio says it will be made up of lawmakers, but won’t be an official legislative committee.</p>
<p>Tapio says the committee plans to create an “exhaustive” analysis including financial impacts in areas like education and law enforcement.</p>
<p>Taneeza Islam, executive director of the nonprofit South Dakota Voices for Peace, says immigrants, refugees and Muslims contribute significantly to the state’s economy and culture.</p>
<p>The announcement comes as Tapio prepares to run for Congress. He would face Secretary of State Shantel Krebs and Dusty Johnson, a former public utilities commissioner, in the 2018 Republican primary.</p> | GOP lawmaker starting group on immigration, refugee programs | false | https://apnews.com/6e1ba468e55e484b834e40caacf8a751 | 2018-01-08 | 2 |
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<p>Pennsylvania State <a href="" type="internal">Rep. Brian Sims</a> today sent an open letter to his Republican U.S. Senator, Pat Toomey. In an elegant and intelligent plea, Sims urged Toomey to support <a href="" type="internal">ENDA</a>, and didn’t hold back.&#160;The&#160;Employment Non-Discrimination Act will have its first vote in the U.S. Senate on Monday.</p>
<p>“Senator, I not only urge you as an openly gay man, but also as a fellow lawmaker and Pennsylvanian to vote in favor of ENDA when the legislation comes up for a vote next week, but I encourage you in the strongest terms possible to state right now, unequivocally, that you will be a co-sponsor of the bill as well.”</p>
<p>“I believe that there is no single piece of civil rights legislation in existence that is more impactful to members of the LGBT community than a fully inclusive ENDA,” Sims writes. “This legislation does not create special rights, but simply includes hardworking LGBT people among the categories of Americans which the government is already protecting from employment discrimination. No one should lose their job, be subjected to discriminatory treatment or harassment, or be denied the opportunity for advancement because of bigotry, fear or hatred.”</p>
<p>Sims notes that Toomey has “a tremendous opportunity” to “proclaim your support for a more equal nation.”</p>
<p>While we all continue to grapple with issues of faith, morality, family and government, what is clear is that we are a people who believe in giving everyone a fair shot and a fair shake.</p>
<p>Sims also wisely linked ENDA to Toomey’s “steadfast commitment to job creation and increasing economic opportunities for the state,” and noted that while “the fringe opposition to equality may be a difficult burden to bear at times, the citizens of Pennsylvania are clear in their overwhelming support for these types of basic, commonsense protections.”</p>
<p>Toomey has also served as a U.S. Congressman, and as&#160;president of the Tea Party activist group,&#160;Club for Growth. While not serving as an elected official, Toomey did support the repeal of DADT, but still has a “0″ rating from HRC. He has voted for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, and he voted to ban adoption by same-sex couples in Washington, D.C.</p>
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<p>&#160; <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/180772069/State-Rep-Brian-Sims-Pens-Open-Letter-to-Senator-Toomey-pdf" type="external">State Rep. Brian Sims Pens Open Letter to Senator Toomey.pdf</a></p>
<p>Image: Brian Sims via his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=641445792534211&amp;set=a.318727944805999.89865.318727104806083&amp;type=3&amp;theater" type="external">Facebook</a> page</p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">Brian Sims</a>, <a href="" type="internal">employment non-discrimination act</a>, <a href="" type="internal">ENDA</a>, <a href="" type="internal">pat toomey</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Pennsylvania</a></p>
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<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Six-time champion Novak Djokovic, 2017 winner Roger Federer and 2016 champion Angelique Kerber will look to book quarterfinal spots on Day 8 of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>Federer has an afternoon match Monday on Rod Laver Arena against former top-ranked junior Marton Fucsovics, while Djokovic plays a fourth-round night match against Hyeon Chung. Kerber takes on Hsieh Su-Wei.</p>
<p>Djokovic and Federer could meet in the semifinals.</p>
<p>Under mostly sunny skies, 2017 U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys opened play at Rod Laver Arena against eighth-seeded Caroline Garcia.</p>
<p>The forecast high temperature was about 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit).</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Six-time champion Novak Djokovic, 2017 winner Roger Federer and 2016 champion Angelique Kerber will look to book quarterfinal spots on Day 8 of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>Federer has an afternoon match Monday on Rod Laver Arena against former top-ranked junior Marton Fucsovics, while Djokovic plays a fourth-round night match against Hyeon Chung. Kerber takes on Hsieh Su-Wei.</p>
<p>Djokovic and Federer could meet in the semifinals.</p>
<p>Under mostly sunny skies, 2017 U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys opened play at Rod Laver Arena against eighth-seeded Caroline Garcia.</p>
<p>The forecast high temperature was about 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit).</p> | Quarterfinal places on line at Australian Open on Day 8 | false | https://apnews.com/f62947e804f4495e8d272fe37e890455 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
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<p>Sgt. Alicia White, the first accused officer to give a sit-down interview, told WMAR-TV and The Baltimore Sun for stories broadcast and published late Thursday that she was devastated by State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s announcement after Freddie Gray’s 2015 death. She hadn’t consulted a lawyer since it had never occurred to her that she would be implicated, she said.</p>
<p>“I felt blindsided,” White said. “I didn’t see that coming at all. I was devastated. I broke down and started crying. It was hard; it was a hard pill to swallow.”</p>
<p>White was responsible for investigating complaints about Gray’s arrest, Mosby said in the televised announcement. Gray was already injured when White first encountered him, Mosby said, but she “spoke to the back of Mr. Gray’s head,” and did nothing more when he didn’t respond.</p>
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<p>White’s interaction with Gray lasted just seconds, attorney Ivan Bates said, and if he was indeed injured then, White didn’t see anything medically wrong and wasn’t trained to recognize the injuries an autopsy showed Gray had suffered.</p>
<p>White was charged with manslaughter, assault and misconduct. Prosecutors dropped all charges after three officers were acquitted, but they’ve said they only did so because they believe the judicial system was stacked against them. White maintains she did nothing wrong.</p>
<p>“I still believe that, when I went to work that day, I did everything that I was trained to do,” White said. “Unfortunately, that day someone lost their life. But I feel like everything I was trained to do, I did.”</p>
<p>Asked if she would have done anything differently, White answered, “No.”</p>
<p>White said she prayed for Gray’s family as they struggled with loss and for her hometown as unrest broke out. White faced severe anxiety, and said at one point she was rushed to a hospital. The stress led her and her fiance to call off their engagement, and without pay, she said she faced financial difficulties. She has since received $96,800 in back pay and is now assigned to the training academy in an administrative role.</p>
<p>Still, the case is not yet behind her. An internal investigation has not yet concluded and White and four of the other officers in the case are suing Mosby for defamation.</p>
<p>The country’s current police brutality debate is fueled in part by the Gray case. Gray was a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken while he was handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained in the back of a police van in April 2015. The death set off protests and the worst riots in the city in decades.</p>
<p>The Department of Justice launched a patterns-and-practice investigation into the Baltimore Police Department afterward and found officers routinely used excessive force, made unlawful stops and were racially discriminatory. The department has undertaken similar wide-reaching investigations into the police in Chicago, Cleveland, Albuquerque and Ferguson, Missouri, among other cities.</p>
<p>White hopes to return to policing and granted interviews as she works to clear her name. She said she still believes she can serve the community.</p>
<p>“This is home for me. So to be able to continue to help serve the community in which I grew up in, that’s important to me,” she said.</p>
<p>White was assigned to Councilman Brandon Scott’s neighborhood and he worked with her at the community children’s center, where he said people would “welcome her back with open arms.”</p>
<p>“I know her character,” he said. “This is someone I trust with my life and, more importantly, that we entrust with the lives of young people in the neighborhood.”</p> | Baltimore officer says custody-death charges surprised her | false | https://abqjournal.com/892157/baltimore-officer-says-custody-death-charges-surprised-her.html | 2016-11-18 | 2 |
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<p>With its deal to be acquired by AT&amp;T (NYSE: T) progressing toward closing sometime in 2017, TV content giant Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) on Wednesday announced fourth-quarter sales and profit increases that reflected solid growth across its content portfolio.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Here's how the headline results compared to the prior-year period.</p>
<p>Data source: Time Warner's financial filings.</p>
<p>Softening results out of the Turner broadcasting segment were more than offset by improvements at both the Home Box Office and Warner Bros. divisions.</p>
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<p>Highlights of the quarter included:</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>CEO Jeff Bewkes highlighted the broader results that showed improvements across each of Time Warner's content segments in 2016. "All our operating divisions increased revenue and profits while also making investments to capitalize on the growing demand for the very best video content and new ways to deliver it to audiences around the world," Bewkes said in a press release.</p>
<p>"We had another very successful year in 2016, demonstrating once more Time Warner's ability to deliver strong financial performance alongside creative and programming excellence," he continued, while citing Warner Bros' leading position in TV content, HBO's first-place ranking in critical awards, and Turner's success at growing audiences at TBS, TNT, and Adult Swim. As for the upcoming merger with AT&amp;T, management said, "We remain on track to close the transaction later this year."</p>
<p>While they wait for the deal to pass through the rest of its regulatory hurdles, investors can expect to see lumpy results out of Time Warner's three biggest divisions in 2017. It's unlikely, for example, that programming costs will continue to trend lower at HBO, and so profitability should contract in the quarters ahead. Meanwhile, falling advertising revenue is worth keeping an eye on at Turner since the company can't rely solely on double-digit jumps in distribution fees to keep the segment growing.</p>
<p>Yet Time Warner overcame similar challenges through the past fiscal year and its broad results demonstrate the power of its diverse approach to monetizing content. Sure, sales and profits were hurt by a falling pay-TV subscriber base and lower video game revenue. But Time Warner offset those headwinds to post a near-$700 million (or 10%) improvement in operating income for the year.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSigma/info.aspx" type="external">Demitrios Kalogeropoulos Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Time Warner. 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> | Time Warner Inc. Boosts Fourth-Quarter Revenue by 11% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/08/time-warner-inc-boosts-fourth-quarter-revenue-by-11.html | 2017-02-08 | 0 |
<p>After a long and lively Emmy campaign season, TV industry insiders head for the Microsoft Theater today eagerly anticipating the epic finale of the most suspenseful competition in a decade.</p>
<p>Not since “Mad Men” began its four-peat winning streak in 2008 has there been such a wide open field for the night’s most prestigious trophy: best drama series.</p>
<p>What is predictable: host Stephen Colbert is sure to offer up plenty of political humor in his monologue, and look for winners to also share some fiery political sentiments in their speeches.</p>
<p>During the past 72 hours of pre-Emmy revelry, a strong sentiment has emerged in favor of NBC’s “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/this-is-us/" type="external">This Is Us</a>.” There is a widespread feeling — expressed by many with no connection to the show or the Peacock — that it would be “good for the business” if a broadcast network series were to win for the first time since Fox’s “24” in 2006.</p>
<p>A “This Is Us” victory would signal to the creative community that the old-guard networks can still be kudos contenders. And it would reward creator Dan Fogelman and studio 20th Century Fox TV for delivering what seemed to be the impossible in a multiplatform world: a broad-based, must-see hit. The hope is that a “This Is Us” win would convince nervous networks to invest in original ideas that break the storytelling mold.</p>
<p>But the narrative of the night could just as easily turn to becoming a milestone for the digital crowd. A win for Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” would be a David-versus-Goliath triumph for the smallest of the Big Three streamers. It would also be a major statement for MGM Television, the studio behind the adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel.</p>
<p>Or, the night could end with Netflix claiming its first drama series Emmy, for “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/stranger-things/" type="external">Stranger Things</a>,” “The Crown” or “House of Cards.” Of the three, the level of affection among Emmy voters seems to be strongest for “Stranger Things.” The town loves a good by-the-bootstraps story, as creators Ross and Matt Duffer delivered in coming out of nowhere to charm fans and critics with a sci-fi whodunit that offered a loving homage to 1980s genre pics.</p>
<p>Even in this glossy field, no one is counting out the chance that the scrappy Jimmy McGill might elbow his way to the stage. AMC’s “Better Call Saul” had an undeniably impressive third season, and Emmy wins are in the DNA of the “Breaking Bad” prequel, after all.</p>
<p>The comedy series race is almost as unpredictable. HBO’s reigning champ “Veep” is the frontrunner, after back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016. FX’s “Atlanta” is putting up a powerful fight, armed with its Golden Globe win and a year’s worth of critical raves for Donald Glover’s intimate portrait. But there’s also a strong feeling that ABC’s “Black-ish” and Netflix’s “Master of None” are wild cards.</p>
<p>There’s even less clarity in the variety-talk series field. Will Samantha Bee triumph for TBS’ “Full Frontal”? Will HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” score a repeat win? Might Emmy host Stephen Colbert do a victory lap around the stage for his surging “Late Show”? Or will James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel or Bill Maher crash the party?</p>
<p>In this year of hard-edged political humor, nothing is sacred, and nothing is a shoo in — with the exception of the variety sketch category. After the muscle that “Saturday Night Live” flexed in the opening months of the Trump era, the Earth will stop spinning on its axis if the venerable NBC sketch comedy doesn’t take the trophy tonight.</p>
<p>All the uncertainty surrounding the night’s big winners should make for a lively ceremony. Nominees will be sweating it out, for sure, but other Emmy attendees probably won’t. The forecast calls for the temperature in downtown Los Angeles to stay at an unseasonably low 73 degrees during the late-afternoon red carpet processional. What’s more, in an Emmy first that is oh-so-L.A., the carpet area will be tented and air-conditioned.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the LAPD said Friday that major tourist venues would see “increased security measures” after the recent London underground attack.</p>
<p>The 2017 Emmy Awards airs live tonight on CBS at 5pm PT/8pm ET.</p>
<p>(Pictured: Emmy telecast producers Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, host Stephen Colbert, CBS’ Jack Sussman and the Television Academy’s Hayma Washington)</p> | Emmys 2017: Politics and a Possible Network Comeback Take Center Stage | false | https://newsline.com/emmys-2017-politics-and-a-possible-network-comeback-take-center-stage/ | 2017-09-17 | 1 |
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<p>Jay Miller</p>
<p>SANTA FE – Last week I wrote about the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In the column, I mentioned that the signing took place on July 4, 1776.</p>
<p>I should have said the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence on July 4. It was signed only by John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, and Charles Thompson, the secretary, on July 4. Congress also voted on July 4 to have the Declaration embossed on parchment. The embossed copy was signed by 50 members on August 2.</p>
<p>This mistake was pointed out to me by the respected Librarian Emerita of the Alamogordo Public Library, June Harwell. I apologize for the mistake. I knew better because Harwell had contacted me about the same mistake before. I had no reason to slip up again.</p>
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<p>To all my readers, please take the time to point out my mistakes or to disagree with my opinions.</p>
<p>For 25 years, I listed my contact information at the end of my columns. At the urging of family members, I discontinued the practice about a year ago for security reasons.</p>
<p>Actually, I never received anything I would call a threat during all those years. While covering the tumultuous effort to dig up Billy the Kid and his mother 10 years ago, I received an odd phone call from someone who was completely unfamiliar.</p>
<p>I shared the story with a fellow writer who allowed as how I wasn’t smart enough to know a threat when it hit me in the face. All I can say is that I went on to compile all my columns on the subject of the Kid and I’m still around to talk about it. The book is called “Billy the Kid Rides Again.” By the way, that saga continues.</p>
<p>I think we are overly concerned about security. If security screening at an airport ever were to catch a single terrorist, we would hear about it ad infinitum. Some say airport security makes them feel safer. It just makes me feel irritated that I had to get to the airport two hours early to stand in line.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez is overly security-conscious. She promised a transparent government, unlike that of former Gov. Bill Richardson. But she rejects records requests, often because it would compromise security.</p>
<p>Except for major public events, she does not like people to know where she is going. Gov. Bill Richardson sent out a list of everything on his calendar at the beginning of every week.</p>
<p>Gov. Martinez doesn’t want people to know where she is going. She has even rejected requests for the whereabouts of her large security force because that could compromise her security.</p>
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<p>Now the first gentleman even gets security. Yes, that happens at the national level and probably in some states. Richardson had a large security force because he liked to travel with an entourage.</p>
<p>But in New Mexico, large security forces are more of an exception. We talked in the last column about former Gov. Dave Cargo’s security force of one.</p>
<p>Surveillance is a related issue. Many are incensed at the number of surveillance cameras that seem to be everywhere. I say the more the better. They do catch crooks. And I don’t care if they are always looking at me because I don’t plan to do anything wrong – or even embarrassing.</p>
<p>Drones are another related issue these days. They are like mobile surveillance cameras. They started out small, looking like model airplanes. Then, without much notice, they morphed into something that looks more like a supersonic jet fighter that fires bullets and drops bombs.</p>
<p>It doesn’t bother me that they track down terrorists in other countries and snuff them out. I feel safer.</p>
<p>(Jay Miller can be contacted at 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Phone: 505-982-2723. Fax: 505-984-0982. Email: [email protected]. I’m hiding this column from my family.)</p> | Are we overly concerned about security? | false | https://abqjournal.com/220996/are-we-overly-concerned-about-security.html | 2013-07-14 | 2 |
<p>Nov. 16 (UPI) — A German court ruled Thursday that Kuwait Airways can bar Israeli passengers from boarding its planes.</p>
<p>Kuwaiti law prohibits companies from doing business from Israelis and in its ruling the court said it was <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/kuwait-airways-can-bar-israeli-passengers-german-court-rules/a-41414435" type="external">“not reasonable” for the airline</a> to transport a person if it would result in legal consequences for its employees.</p>
<p>A passenger sued the airline in 2016 after it refused to fly him from Frankfurt, Germany, to Bangkok via Kuwait City.</p>
<p>The court in Frankfurt said the ruling didn’t consider “whether the law of a foreign country … makes sense” and the passenger couldn’t be compensated because the airline’s action wasn’t discriminatory under German law.</p>
<p>“Germany’s anti-discrimination law prohibits, among other things, discrimination because of race, ethnicity or confession,” the court said. “Discrimination because of citizenship is, by contrast, not covered by the law.”</p>
<p>The passenger’s attorney, Nathan Gelbar, said <a href="https://www.jta.org/2017/11/16/news-opinion/world/kuwait-airways-can-ban-israeli-passengers-german-court-rules" type="external">his client would appeal</a> the ruling.</p>
<p>“This is a shameful ruling for democracy and for Germany,” he said. “This ruling cannot be allowed to stand.”</p>
<p>Frankfurt Mayor Uwe Becker condemned the law and Kuwait Airways’ actions, saying the airline should no longer be allowed to operate in the country.</p>
<p>“An airline that practices discrimination and anti-Semitism by refusing to fly Israeli passengers should not be allowed to take off or land in Frankfurt, or at any other airport in Germany,” Becker said. “This Kuwaiti law, that is deeply anti-Semitic and that forbids the transport of Israelis, cannot be legal grounds for the violation of international standards.”</p> | German court rules Kuwait Airways can deny Israeli passengers | false | https://newsline.com/german-court-rules-kuwait-airways-can-deny-israeli-passengers/ | 2017-11-16 | 1 |
<p />
<p>The Obama campaign has <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/Robocall_trashes_Barack_Hussein_Obama.html" type="external">nabbed a robocall</a> left on the voicemail of a Nevada supporter that refers to Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama” four times. No word on who is funding the ad.</p>
<p>On the other side, <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/Bill_Clinton_claims_he_witnessed_voter_suppression.html" type="external">Bill Clinton</a>, top Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe, and <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2008/01/18/nevada-turns-ugly-clinton-campaign-alleges-voter-intimidation-by-obama-organizers/" type="external">other Clinton surrogates</a> are alleging that union officials are intimidating union members into caucusing for Obama. They are claiming that Clinton-friendly union members are being told to stay away from the caucuses. (This, by the way, will have the effect of delegitimizing the caucus if Obama wins. That is likely the point of the Clinton camp’s agitating.)</p>
<p>All of this builds on the <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/01/6913_obamas_supporte.html" type="external">nasty radio ad</a> Obama supporters are airing in Spanish.</p>
<p /> | Dems Get Dirty in Nevada | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/01/dems-get-dirty-nevada/ | 2008-01-19 | 4 |
<p>The Obama campaign’s new ad uses an old trick and takes quotes from newspapers out of context.</p>
<p>This is the second time in as many weeks that we’ve <a href="" type="internal">written</a> about Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s misleading use of quotes pulled from newspapers. This ad is running in Nevada in advance of Saturday’s caucus.</p>
<p>&amp;amp;lt;param name="src" value="http://video.factcheck.org/play/hIUWgfCqcwI" /&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /&amp;amp;gt;</p>
<p>[TET ]</p>
<p>Obama for America Ad: "President"</p>
<p>Obama: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.</p>
<p>Obama: I’ll be a president who finally makes health care affordable to every single American by bringing Democrats and Republicans together. I’ll be a president who ends the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle class tax cut into the pockets of working Americans. And I’ll be a president who ends this war in Iraq and finally brings our troops home. We are one nation and our time for change has come.[/TET]</p>
<p>Universally Wrong About Health Care Plan</p>
<p>The ad flashes the quote "Obama offers universal health care plan." That was a headline on a May 29, 2007, Associated Press story.</p>
<p>Correction, Jan. 17: We originally reported that the AP story didn’t include the quote used in the ad. We were looking at the final version sent on the AP wire that day. But the Obama campaign contacted us to point out, correctly, that an earlier version of that story included those words as a headline.</p>
<p>However, the story merely <a href="http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05/30/news/politics/16_01_515_29_07.txt" type="external">reported</a> that Obama said he would sign a universal health care plan. The article goes on to cast doubt on the universality of his own plan:</p>
<p>AP: Obama’s first promise as a presidential candidate was that he would sign a universal health care plan into law by the end of his first term in the White House. But there is some dispute over whether his plan would provide universal care. It’s aimed at lowering costs so all Americans can afford insurance, but does not guarantee everyone would buy it.</p>
<p>It’s an important distinction we’ve raised a <a href="" type="internal">few</a> <a href="" type="internal">times</a>. Obama’s plan wouldn’t guarantee that every individual had health insurance, just that everyone would have the opportunity to obtain it. The AP story also includes a quote from a representative of Families USA, a liberal group that pushes for expanded government health coverage, who says, "It’s not totally clear that it would result in universal coverage." The ad even shows video of Obama using more accurate language when he says he wants to make "health care affordable."</p>
<p>Cutting Out the Critique</p>
<p>The ad also shows a quote that says "Obama opposed Iraq war from the start." The AP <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/WireStory?id=3677868&amp;page=1" type="external">analysis</a> from Oct. 2, 2007, certainly did say that, but it also included some less-than-flattering words about Obama’s stance on Iraq.</p>
<p>AP: Nobody can dispute that Barack Obama opposed the Iraq war from the start and, with striking prescience, predicted U.S. troops would be mired in a costly conflict that fanned "the flames of the Middle East." But nobody should accept at face value the Illinois senator’s claim that he was a "courageous leader" who opposed the war at a great political risk. … And once elected to the U.S. Senate two years later, Obama waited months to show national leadership on Iraq.</p>
<p>The article goes on to point out that Obama had been quite politically careful about how he approached the war.</p>
<p>We’re used to seeing ads for movies that artfully clip fragments of reviews that may, in fact, pan the film in question. Candidates should know better. This might be a good time to remember an admonition we heard a few times when we were children: No running with scissors.</p>
<p>– by Justin Bank</p>
<p>Fournier, Ron. "Analysis: Obama prescient on Iraq, but ‘courageous leader’ tag may be a stretch." <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/WireStory?id=3677868&amp;page=1" type="external">Associated Press</a>, 2 Oct. 2007.</p>
<p>Glover, Mike. "Taxes on wealthy would rise to pay for health care under Obama plan." <a href="http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05/30/news/politics/16_01_515_29_07.txt" type="external">Associated Press</a>, 29 May 2007.</p>
<p>Whitesides, John. "Obama calls for middle-class tax relief." Reuters, 19 Sept. 2007.</p> | Obama’s Creative Clippings Part Deux | false | https://factcheck.org/2008/01/obamas-creative-clippings-part-deux/ | 2008-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>The labor market has been showing signs of a stable recovery as employers continued to add jobs in May, but job seekers with a year or more of unemployment on their resume are still facing a tough battle to getting hired.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Whether it was by choice or a layoff, job seekers looking to re-enter the job market need to learn how to best sell and market themselves to prove to hiring managers they are still valuable and relevant.</p>
<p>“Sometimes it’s more of a sales job to convince someone you are up to speed and keeping up with the industry,” says Pamela Skillings, , co-founder of Skillful Communications. “It can be a little bit more challengin <a type="external" href="" />g. You need someone to be open to the idea that you still have something to contribute.”</p>
<p>Parents who took time off to raise children are often overwhelmed with the idea of leaving the house and the job-searching process. After all, they have to contend with gaps in their resume and concerns that they may not be current on the latest industry trends and skills. To combat this, expert suggest doing volunteer work or consulting to highlights talents and expertise.</p>
<p>Know Where to Look</p>
<p>Applying for jobs with family-friendly companies may also reduce anxiety about reentering the workforce. There are many online resources that rank and show companies’ culture and values. “Target any businesses that have earned recognition for work/life balance,” suggests Skillings.</p>
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<p>Job hunters with resume gaps should also look at small and medium-sized businesses. Skillings&#160; says larger corporations tend to shy away from hiring people with gap years, but adds smaller &#160;&#160;companies are more likely to overlook any breaks as long as the right skills and enthusiasm were present.&#160;</p>
<p>Pass the First Hurdle</p>
<p>With the surge of resumes coming in for open positions, companies use automated software to help filter out the applications. Resumes with a gap could get overlooked, so experts recommend not listing employment in chronological order at the top of the page. Instead, opt for a skills- based resume that groups applicable skills and accomplishments at the top.</p>
<p>“The trend is to not do a chronological resume,” says Theresa Andrikanich, a talent search marketing manager at Progressive Insurance. She also notes that candidates with 20 years of experience with no time out of the labor market are switching to this technique to better highlight their skill sets.</p>
<p>How to Handle the Interview</p>
<p>The interview process is always nerve-racking, but even more so for those who haven’t put on a business suit in a couple years. But experts say job seekers need just one thing: confidence.</p>
<p>“What we hear often times is they feel like they lost the edge when the go on an interview,” says Andrikanich. “Confidence is a key factor in how you sell yourself.”</p>
<p>She suggests talking about the idea of going back to work with family and friends as soon as possible to make the topic more comfortable and to get any insight, advice and job leads. Hold mock interviews and look for sample questions online to be as prepared as possible.</p>
<p>Start Networking</p>
<p>Networking is a key element of getting back into the workforce, and don’t be afraid to solicit tips and connections from family, friends and former co-workers.</p>
<p>Be sure to create an online profile that includes a LinkedIn page, and join career-related industry groups.</p>
<p>“If you are trying to come back you have to make sure you are putting yourself out there and that you are comfortable in your own skin,” says Andrikanich.</p> | Been out of Work for a While? Here’s How to Re-enter the Labor Market | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/06/12/been-out-work-for-while-heres-how-to-re-enter-labor-market.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>&#160; Even as the new “Scopes Trial” over evolution vs. “intelligent design” is underway in Dover, PA, the proof that those who disparage Darwin are hypocrites and charlatans is right in front of us.</p>
<p>The Creationist-in-Chief, in his latest press conference, expressed concern that the Bird Flu virus could evolve into a strain capable of being transmitted from human to human, instead of just from bird to bird or bird to human. If so, he warned, it could lead to up to 2 million deaths in the U.S. alone. Accordingly, he is proposing using the military to quarantine areas of outbreaks. His backers in the Republican-led Congress just slid $3.9 billion into the latest military funding bill to cover epidemic preparedness in case the Bird Flu evolves into a human flu.</p>
<p>What was that? The flu virus “evolves”?</p>
<p>H-m-m-m-m. I wonder what else evolves? Life on earth, perhaps?</p>
<p>Are we saying that viruses evolve, but not bacteria? Or that only simple organisms evolve, but not complex animals? I wonder where one draws the line?</p>
<p>Let’s be honest here. If we’re dealing with intelligent design–an intelligence surely way beyond our own pathetic efforts at reason and logic–then why worry about Bird Flu? Why blow nearly $4 billion (money that could more profitably fund a month of God’s work killing the Iraqi heathen) on military preparedness for an epidemic? If the bird Flu virus starts suddenly infecting humans, it must be the Maker’s intention, and who are we to try to interfere? The proper recourse would be to pray, not pay.</p>
<p>If evolution is just so much bunk from the academy, why worry about it. It ain’t gonna happen.</p>
<p>There’s no such thing as evolution, right?</p>
<p>DAVE LINDORFF is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512283/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal</a>. His new book of CounterPunch columns titled “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512984/counterpunchmaga" type="external">This Can’t be Happening!</a>” is published by Common Courage Press. Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at <a href="http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/" type="external">www.thiscantbehappening.net</a>.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | God’s Pandemic | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/10/07/god-s-pandemic/ | 2005-10-07 | 4 |
<p>Correspondent Bill Wheeler was awarded the first annual GroundTruth fellowship for field reporting on emerging democracies in the Middle East. In this running blog series for GroundTruth, Wheeler goes inside the militias that are still holding sway in the chaotic aftermath of Libya’s civil war.</p>
<p>TRIPOLI, Libya —&#160;Today the academy where Gaddafi's notorious female bodyguard once trained is painted with an image of the rebels’ tricolor flag, guarded by the men who helped topple his regime. On the day I visited, several lingered at the front gate wearing mismatched camouflage uniforms. One wore a red arm cuff with white lettering that signified he was operating under the authority of the state. At the front door, a wall tapestry with a portrait of the dictator as a young man was being used as a doormat, so that anyone who entered must first trudge across his face.</p>
<p>Inside I found Faraj Swehli, a hardline commander from a powerful clan, presiding over a lavish office paneled in wood and outfitted with leather sofas and glass tables. He sat behind an angular desk and, after greeting me, began flipping channels on a large flat-screen TV across the room. He wore an open collared shirt beneath a gray satin blazer, a pinky ring and a short beard. He carried himself with the air of a businessman–turned–warlord, and spoke softly, deliberately, like someone who is used to being listened to.</p>
<p>I would later learn that Swehli was a major player on the Supreme Revolutionary Council. His story illustrates how security in Libya today is a function of the <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/groundtruth/how-militias-took-control-post-gaddafi-libya" type="external">trajectories set in motion by the war</a>, which made new power centers of cities that were revolutionary strongholds. Chief among them is Swehli’s hometown, Misrata, which accounts for nearly half the experienced fighters and weapons caches in the country.</p>
<p>After security forces killed protesters in Misrata and crowds chased the police out of the city, Swehli, whose great grandfather was a legendary figure in the resistance to Italian colonial rule, had set about building his own brigade.&#160;</p>
<p>They began by using single-shot hunting rifles and Molotov cocktails. Over months of brutal house-to-house fighting some 300 armed fighters— who at first traveled to the battlefield by car with friends, then coalesced into larger units around the most able leaders — scurried through blasted-out walls between buildings where loyalist snipers were perched on the rooftops. The fighters moved shipping containers up block by block as they took control of each street to gradually box in their enemy. They grew into hierarchical brigades capable of deploying tanks and heavy artillery while guarding miles of front lines in three directions.&#160;</p>
<p>By war’s end, their numbers reached about 40,000 men in 236 close-knit, battle-hardened brigades, which were known for their strong loyalties and reputation for fearlessness.</p>
<p>After Misrata’s liberation, Swehli and his men moved west to join the fight in a neighboring town. They decided they would head straight to Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli. By then, rebels were making a dramatic push from the western mountains. A fierce race was on between multiple forces closing in on Tripoli from three sides.</p>
<p>Even though the rebels were all ostensibly fighting for the same goal, the geography of the war had heightened old tribal and regional divisions and also inspired new ones. The revolution had begun in the east, under the leadership of experienced opposition figures and army officers, who found a safe haven behind the NATO-enforced no-fly zone to defect with relative ease.&#160;</p>
<p>But after the rebel army got bogged down along the eastern front, they were seen as bystanders in the west, where local brigades formed, armed themselves, and trained their mostly civilian fighters with limited outside help.</p>
<p>Rather than by a single conquering army, the war would be won in a series of independent uprisings, leaving heavily armed groups — each with its own narrative of sacrifice and victory — in competition with one other and a weak national army and interim government that many viewed suspiciously because of their ties to the former regime.</p>
<p>Swehli’s men were so determined to get to the capital first that they staged a mutiny, warning him that if the revolutionaries from Zintan —&#160;another revolutionary stronghold that Misratans now consider their rivals —&#160;were to beat them to Tripoli “you will be our only enemy.”</p>
<p>But on August 20, 2011, Tripoli’s underground revolutionaries coordinated an uprising that brought residents out into the streets to take control of their neighborhoods, securing up to 80 percent of the capital in one night. He and his men joined the other militias rushing into the neighborhoods where loyalists were still fighting.</p>
<p>Over the next two months, his men participated in the fighting in the last two loyalist holdouts.&#160;</p>
<p>“I went to Sirte and liberated Sirte,” he said. “I was one of the first to enter Bani Walid, and I liberated Bani Walid.”&#160;</p>
<p>As the various brigades from around the country settled down in the capital, they soon began to clash over control of strategic sites. They also found new freedoms. The groups from Misrata and Zintan earned a reputation for looting, theft and involvement with drugs. I heard a new saying about how Gaddafi had spent 42 years trying to get Libyans to hate Misrata; it didn't work, but after the war Misratans themselves finally succeeded where the dictator had failed.&#160;</p>
<p>Militias from both cities, empowered by new weapons caches, launched attacks against tribal rivals that had sided with the regime, turning their cities into ghost towns: a UN investigation concluded that Misratans’ campaign of collective punishment against Tawerghans — the displacement of 40,000 people, kidnapping, torture and extrajudiciary killings — qualify as crimes against humanity. By this time, militia members talked of the need to turn over power to a central authority. But as time went on they continued to ignore authorities’ calls to leave the capital, and went on talking about submitting to state authority while consolidating their control and seeming ever more pleased with their new power.&#160;</p>
<p>“Leaders in Misrata watched these developments warily but made a cynical calculation,” described a fascinating piece of research by Brian McQuinn, a former conflict analyst who spent the better part of a year on the ground in Misrata researching the evolution of armed groups for his doctoral thesis in anthropology at Oxford University. The damage that Misratan militias in Tripoli were doing to both their city’s reputation and security in the capital was overshadowed by the strategic value of having proxies — like Swehli’s forces — to maintain their influence over the post-war transition.&#160;</p>
<p>Today, Swehli told me, he is “helping to build the country,” in charge of operations rooms and more than 10 police units under the umbrella of the national army. Since liberation, the state has outsourced security roles —&#160;guarding oil fields, border security, police and military functions —&#160;to an untold number of former revolutionaries operating under varying degrees of official recognition. But unlike regular security forces, they have resisted breaking up their command structures so their men can be integrated as individuals. This raises serious questions about <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/groundtruth/militias-new-strategy-libya-occupy-oil-field" type="external">where their loyalties truly lie</a>.</p>
<p>When I asked whether working as part of the national army meant anything more than wearing an official band on one's arm, since they are the same tight units of fighters working together under the same commanders they fought with during the revolution, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.&#160;</p>
<p>“There's something called team spirit, “ he said. “When a team has fought and suffered together, they are not going to leave that team easily.”&#160;</p>
<p>If the government had incorporated the revolutionary commanders into the army from the beginning, he continued, the state would never have had to worry about the loyalties of their brigades in the first place. But it's not too late. If they hire the commanders now, they will be able to control the revolutionaries.</p>
<p>There is a power struggle underway over the rebuilding of the army, and revolutionaries and veteran army officers are both trying to position themselves to benefit. The divide that runs through parliament, between the National Forces Alliance and the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliated blocs, is mirrored in the divide between competing blocs of allied forces in the security sector. A central question is how far the revolutionary camp wants the uprooting to go.</p>
<p>When I asked about the specific duties of his police units, Swehli said their job was to track down loyalists from Gaddafi's police and army — a dubious and subjective distinction in practice. He flipped through a sheaf of pages on his desk with name after name after name of wanted individuals. When I asked whether there was room for anyone at all who had served in Gaddafi's army or police, or whether only the leaders should be excluded from the new security forces, he said all the remnants of the regime must be gotten rid of: they were all thieves who shared Gaddafi's ideology.&#160;</p>
<p>Swehli had lost two brothers, 25 cousins, and 30 people from his brigade during the war, he said, and he intends to track down those that he holds responsible. “I don't have any more cousins —&#160;they're all dead,” he told me. “I will never let anyone escape who fought against me and the country.” The commander agreed to let me spend some time with his men, observing them as they tracked down the names on their wanted list. But he soon stopped answering my calls. Only later did I begin to hear allegations his men were involved in criminal activity.</p>
<p>In contrast to the generic description of “lawless militias” used in the press, McQuinn’s research argues that the majority of armed groups in Misrata cooperate closely with local authorities. But Swehli’s brigade is one of the rare exceptions — a rogue brigade accused of selling memberships to Tripoli residents and engaging in extortion.&#160;</p>
<p>According to McQuinn’s research, the Swehli brigade took over control of the western gate in Misrata, the first checkpoint on the highway to Tripoli, which gave them leverage over anyone trying to enter or leave the city. Allegations of corruption and arbitrary detention eventually emerged, and local military and civilian leaders intervened, negotiating an agreement for his men to surrender control of the gate to the Interior Ministry. But then they didn't.&#160;</p>
<p>In February 2012, the Tripoli division of his brigade generated an international backlash,&#160; detaining two British journalists working for an Iranian outlet, whom he refused to release for a few weeks, claiming in a press conference that they were spies. The next day his men confiscated two Interior Ministry vehicles passing through the city's gate. Local officials scrambled a force drawn from 20 different brigades to take back control of the gate, and in the confusion that followed an ammunition depot caught fire and exploded, killing two people. After an emergency meeting that night, the brigade finally surrendered the gate.</p>
<p>************</p>
<p>For 18 years, Mokhtar Lakhdar served under the Gaddafi regime as a commando and instructor before he retired and went into tourism. In the first days of the revolution, he led fighters to seize a massive weapons depot. Two Air Force jets were sent to attack them and destroy the depot, he said, but through a fortunate turn of events the pilots instead dumped their payload in the desert and defected to Malta.&#160;</p>
<p>The fighters spent three days unloading weapons, with which they armed surrounding communities and opened a strong western front that analysts said was key to liberating the capital. “This cache is really what saved the mountain,” he said. Within weeks, they built a dirt landing strip and their international allies began flying in arms. “All the world was focused on the western front.”&#160;</p>
<p>Now he remembers those times fondly. “It was actually easier during the war. We were on the front line, but we were drinking tea, making jokes, laughing. We knew what our goal was. It was clear.”</p>
<p>Now he feels mentally exhausted from worrying about what direction the country is headed. &#160;</p>
<p>With a wiry frame, a tousled head of thick silver hair and a moustache, Lakhdar wore a black suit with an open-collared shirt. He was seated behind a desk in front of a chic orange slate wall on a Tripoli farm that had formerly been an intelligence station. Through a half-shuttered window I could see a rooster running through the weeds beside an empty swimming pool.&#160;</p>
<p>After the war, the Zintanis — both a tribe and a city — attacked and drove out the neighboring Mashashiya, their historical rivals whom they accuse of having sided with Gaddafi; in Tripoli, unruly Zintani brigades have earned widespread public disapprobation. But they see themselves as being ideologically and politically independent.&#160;</p>
<p>“We are Arabs. We are Muslim. But we are patriots,” said Lakhdar. “We support the legitimacy of the state.” But because Zintan’s revolution was led by former army officers, who retain ties to their former comrades from the national army in the east, they are also seen as leaning towards the old guard, hence in opposition to the Islamists and hardline revolutionaries.&#160;</p>
<p>Hence his frustration with the growing religious and political divisions in the country. He didn’t see religious extremists fighting on the front lines, he says, and neither did all the foreign officials and journalists that came to Zintan during the war to make sure they weren’t arming terrorists (his iPhone displays a photo he took with a smiling Hillary Clinton).&#160;</p>
<p>“Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and understanding,” he said. “And integrity and transparency. All these other gangs who want to hijack that in the name of religion, we don’t want these people. And if we feel that one day they will pose a threat to the security of Libya, we will face them down.”</p>
<p>He’s just as discouraged by the politicians who have emerged to claim their slice of the pie, and the brinksmanship of the two biggest parties, the Muslim Brotherhood and Mahmoud Jbril’s National Forces Alliance. “There are political parties now that have their own personal militias,” he said.&#160;</p>
<p>Othman Mlegta, from Zintan, the brother of the NFA's biggest sponsor, heads the Qaaqaa brigade —&#160;an 18,000-man unit operating under the auspices of the National Army that is seen, essentially, as Jbril’s personal guard. Congressman and hardliner Abdulrahman Swehli is tied to his own militia in Misrata, while the Muslim Brotherhood has its own allied forces.</p>
<p>It’s just like in the old regime, when Gaddafi’s sons each had their own military brigades. “The only thing that has changed is the names,” Lakhdar said.</p>
<p>And whenever they don’t like the way things are going, they can try to exert their power through the militias, he said.&#160;</p>
<p>“How were they able to pass the Political Isolation law? A lot of young armed men came with 14.5 mm guns and they laid sieges. I mean, this is a huge event! I don't think people realize it. It was a coup,” he said. “Libya as a state was sacked.”&#160;</p>
<p>This reporting was supported by a grant from <a href="http://www.correspondentsfund.org/" type="external">The Correspondents Fund</a>.</p> | Libya's militia-splintered state | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-08-28/libyas-militia-splintered-state | 2013-08-28 | 3 |
<p>Photographer Eric Smith captured this photo in Redondo Beach, California, of a dude so engrossed in his phone that he missed a humpback whale and her calf breaching right next to him. According to Smith, others on the boat alongside the guy scurried to take pictures, but he still never looked up. I'm no saint in the phone-abstinence department either, but I'm still giving this total side-eye.&#160;"He could have been texting his mom in the hospital for all I know," Smith told ABC News, and he has a point, but still, this is mighty bleak. [ <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/05/phone-humpback-whale_n_6619166.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news&amp;ir=Weird%20News" type="external">HuffPost</a>; <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/man-misses-whale-feet-glued-phone/story?id=28718265" type="external">ABC News</a>]</p> | Here's Your Daily Inspiration To Put Away Your Damn Phone | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-02-06/heres-your-daily-inspiration-to-put-away-your-damn-phone/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dmurica | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>Pete Marovich/ZUMA</p>
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<p>Editor’s note February 16, 2016: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was <a href="" type="internal">found dead on Saturday</a>, February 13, at a ranch outside Marfa, Texas. His many reflections on homosexuality formed a notable part of his judicial legacy. This story was published in March 2013, as the court prepared to hear historic gay rights cases.</p>
<p>Justice Antonin Scalia has written that “it is our moral heritage that one should not hate any human being or class of human beings.” Judging by the things he has said in court or written in his legal opinions about gays and lesbians, he doesn’t really mean it.</p>
<p>On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments <a href="" type="internal">over whether the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s ban on same-sex marriage are constitutional</a>. Despite Scalia’s long public history of expressing revulsion and contempt for gays and lesbians, on the subject of whether people of the same sex should be allowed to marry,&#160;he is among the nine people whose opinions will really matter. Here are the lowlights of Scalia’s anti-gay comments:</p>
<p>“Flagpole Sitting”&#160;</p>
<p>What’s a little frat-boy humor between justices? In 2003, during oral arguments in <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZD.html" type="external">Lawrence v. Texas</a>, the case challenging a Texas law that criminalized homosexual sex, Scalia came up with a tasteless analogy to illustrate the issue. “[S]uppose all the States had laws against flagpole sitting at one time, you know, there was a time when it was a popular thing and probably annoyed a lot of communities, and then almost all of them repealed those laws,” Scalia asked the attorney fighting the Texas law. “Does that make flagpole sitting a fundamental right?”</p>
<p>Let’s throw gay people in jail because some people don’t like them</p>
<p>In his dissent in Lawrence, Scalia argued that moral objections to homosexuality were sufficient justification for criminalizing gay sex. “Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children’s schools, or as boarders in their home,” he wrote. “They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive.” Some people think obesity is immoral and destructive—perhaps New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg should have imprisoned people who drink sugary sodas rather than trying to limit the size of their cups.</p>
<p>Laws banning homosexual sex are like laws banning murder</p>
<p>In his dissent in the 1996 case <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/94-1039.ZD.html" type="external">Romer v. Evans</a>, which challenged Colorado’s ban on any local jurisdictions outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, Scalia brought out an analogy that he’s used to attack liberals and supporters of LGBT rights for years since. “Of course it is our moral heritage that one should not hate any human being or class of human beings,” Scalia wrote, in the classic <a href="http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/prebuttal" type="external">prebuttal</a> phrasing of someone about to say something ludicrous. “But I had thought that one could consider certain conduct reprehensible—murder, for example, or polygamy, or cruelty to animals—and could exhibit even ‘animus’ toward such conduct. Surely that is the only sort of ‘animus’ at issue here: moral disapproval of homosexual conduct[.]”&#160;It’s true that people generally disapprove of murder, but there’s more going on in laws banning murder than mere disfavor—the rights of the person being murdered, for example.</p>
<p>…And like laws banning child pornography, incest and bestiality</p>
<p>Scalia decided to take the “moral disapproval” argument up a notch in his dissent in Lawrence, writing that the Texas ban on homosexual sex “undeniably seeks to further the belief of its citizens that certain forms of sexual behavior are ‘immoral and unacceptable,'” like laws against “fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality, and obscenity.” Scalia later tees up “prostitution”&#160;and “child pornography” as other things he thinks are banned simply because people disapprove of them.</p>
<p>Homosexual couples are like roommates</p>
<p>Not content to analogize laws singling out people on the basis of sexual orientation to laws banning murder, Scalia suggested in his dissent in Romer that the relationships of same-sex partners were comparable to those of roommates. “[Colorado’s ban] prohibits special treatment of homosexuals, and nothing more,” Scalia wrote. “[I]t would prevent the State or any municipality from making death benefit payments to the ‘life partner’ of a homosexual when it does not make such payments to the long time roommate of a nonhomosexual employee.” Like his “flagpole sitting” comment, this remark goes far beyond the law in expressing Scalia’s basic animus towards same-sex couples, implying that what they experience together cannot even properly be considered love.</p>
<p>First they came for the Cubs haters…</p>
<p>Scalia’s dissent in Romer is a long lament over the supposed “special rights” being granted to people on the basis of sexual orientation. In one section, he complains that banning&#160;discrimination based on sexual orientation in hiring amounts to granting gays and lesbians&#160;special treatment that Republicans, adulterers, and Cubs haters don’t get. He writes “[A job] interviewer may refuse to offer a job because the applicant is a Republican; because he is an adulterer; because he went to the wrong prep school or belongs to the wrong country club; because he eats snails; because he is a womanizer; because she wears real animal fur; or even because he hates the Chicago Cubs.”&#160;</p>
<p>Have gays and lesbians tried NOT having homosexual sex?</p>
<p>During oral arguments in Lawrence, the attorney challenging the Texas law argued that it was “fundamentally illogical” for straight people to be able to have non-procreative sex without being harassed by the state while same-sex couples did not&#160;have the right to be “free from a law that says you can’t have any sexual intimacy at all.” But Scalia pointed out that gays and lesbians could just have sex with people of the opposite sex instead. “It doesn’t say you can’t have—you can’t have any sexual intimacy. It says you cannot have sexual intimacy with a person of the same sex.” Later on in his dissent, Scalia argued that Americans’ constitutional right to equal protection under the law wasn’t violated by the Texas law&#160;for that reason. “Men and women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, are all subject to [Texas’] prohibition of deviate sexual intercourse with someone of the same sex.” That should sound familiar: It’s the same argument defenders of bans on interracial marriage used to make,&#160; <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0388_0001_ZO.html" type="external">arguing that the bans were constitutional because they&#160;affected whites and blacks equally</a>.</p>
<p>Scalia has been on a tear lately, <a href="" type="internal">calling the Voting Rights Act a “racial entitlement”</a>&#160;and <a href="" type="internal">ripping into the president in a dissent on Arizona’s harsh anti-immigration law</a> in the middle of an election season. But when it comes to LGBT rights, he’s been off the rails for a long time.</p>
<p /> | Here Are the 7 Worst Things Antonin Scalia Has Said or Written About Homosexuality | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/scalia-worst-things-said-written-about-homosexuality-court/ | 2013-03-26 | 4 |
<p>Sept. 29 (UPI) — Data showing weak consumer spending in the United States and signs of oil in the Kurdish north of Iraq helped push crude oil prices slightly lower early Friday.</p>
<p>Crude oil prices have been on the rise for most of September. Early support came from hurricanes that hit the southern United States and upended seasonal factors that would normally send oil prices lower. Parts of the U.S. refining sector idled by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Harvey/" type="external">Hurricane Harvey</a> started to show clear signs of recovery only this week.</p>
<p>Late September support, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.upi.com/US-dismayed-by-Kurdish-vote/4131506425890/" type="external">followed a vote</a> for independence in the Kurdish north of Iraq, which ships about 300,000 barrels of oil per day north to a port in Turkey. While a small percentage of total Iraqi potential, the risk of regional instability put wind in the sails of the rally for oil prices.</p>
<p>On Friday, joint venture partners from Canada and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Abu_Dhabi/" type="external">Abu Dhabi</a> said they reached <a href="https://www.upi.com/Energy-News/2017/09/29/Oil-sales-agreement-reached-with-Kurdish-government/4411506689246/?utm_source=sec&amp;utm_campaign=sl&amp;utm_medium=1" type="external">a sales agreement</a> with the Kurdish government that would support exports. Despite the saber-rattling, there are few indications that oil work has been disrupted in the Kurdish north.</p>
<p>The price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was <a href="http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/crude-oil/brent-crude-oil-last-day.html" type="external">down 0.3 percent</a> at 9:11 a.m. EDT to $56.97 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, was <a href="http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/crude-oil/light-sweet-crude.html" type="external">down 0.1 percent</a> to $51.51 per barrel.</p>
<p>Market analysts this week said the September rally was running out of steam and new yearly highs were the likely peak for the short term. That likely explained the drop in crude oil prices after the early Thursday session lift from <a href="https://www.upi.com/Energy-News/2017/09/28/Crude-oil-rally-extends-on-strong-US-economic-figures/9471506604553/?utm_source=sec&amp;utm_campaign=sl&amp;utm_medium=7" type="external">strong figures</a> for growth in U.S. gross domestic product.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department <a href="https://bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm" type="external">reported Friday</a> that consumer spending increased 0.1 percent in August, after showing a 0.3 percent gain during the previous month. Personal income also moved lower.</p>
<p>That followed <a href="https://www.upi.com/Energy-News/2017/09/29/US-data-show-petroleum-supply-and-consumer-demand-dropped/5001506678895/?utm_source=sec&amp;utm_campaign=sl&amp;utm_medium=5" type="external">a report</a> from the American Petroleum Institute that showed demand for consumer fuels dipped in August.</p>
<p>The price of oil will be influenced later in the day when drilling services company Baker Hughes publishes weekly data on rig counts, which serve as a barometer for confidence in the energy sector. A decline in the United States would indicate energy companies are spending less, while an increase would be indicative of future production gains.</p> | Oil prices in soft decline early Friday in weak consumer spending | false | https://newsline.com/oil-prices-in-soft-decline-early-friday-in-weak-consumer-spending/ | 2017-09-29 | 1 |
<p>Annapurna’s “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/detroit/" type="external">Detroit</a>” is being re-released in theaters today, Dec. 1, and awards screeners were recently sent out. The film was written by Mark Boal and directed by <a href="http://variety.com/t/kathryn-bigelow/" type="external">Kathryn Bigelow</a>, their third collaboration after “Hurt Locker” (in which both won Oscars, with the film named best picture) and “Zero Dark Thirty.” In an &#160;email to Variety, Bigelow cited the work of her below-the-line colleagues on “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/in-contention/zeitgeist-oscar-race-dunkirk-get-out-wonder-woman-1202599528/" type="external">Detroit</a>,” set during the 1967 uprising.</p>
<p>Production designer Jeremy Hindle</p>
<p>Jeremy Hindle is a master craftsman. Sifting through hundreds of photographs from the time period, Jeremy can identify the handful of frames necessary to create an entire three-dimensional universe in which the story may live, and out of a single image he creates a color palette which will influence and guide all aspects of the film, from photography to sets to wardrobe. Jeremy not only provides a visual landscape, but he burrows far beneath the surface, meeting with people from the period, discovering the narrative inside the narrative, the pulse inside the man, around which the set is built.</p>
<p>Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd</p>
<p>The best way to describe Barry Ackroyd is that he is truly a force of nature. &#160;His cinematography defines an experiential, highly physicalized image capture, encouraging a freedom that actors describe as being similar to that of a theatrical stage – allowing the actor to roam, invent, and own every moment on screen. Barry intuits the actor with his lens; he anticipates, almost uncannily, an actor’s every move. It is a kind of symbiotic dance, both intimate and muscular, private and demonstrative, letting the impulse of the actor guide and inspire.</p>
<p>Editors William Goldenberg, Harry Yoon</p>
<p>Working within this language of “free form” photography can be challenging for the editorial department, but William Goldenberg and Harry Yoon welcomed the challenge and the complexity of this free-form style. They refined the narrative and provided a structure wherein the emotional fabric of the story is not only developed, but coheres. William and Harry mine the emotional nuance captured by the camera in its raw form, and present it to us as a cohesive highly articulated narrative.</p>
<p>Sound Paul Ottosson, Ray Beckett</p>
<p>Ray Beckett, sound recordist, captured every sound in its pure, raw state – the result of which is a seamless translation from set to screen requiring very limited, if any, ADR.&#160;This raw sound was then annealed and shaped by the artistic expertise of Paul Ottosson.&#160; Paul paints with sound. He composes a soundscape that feels both intimate and infinite. His attention to detail immerses you, inviting you, not just to watch, but to experience, and experience in a way that you are incapable of resisting. Paul’s ability to create a multi-faceted and layered soundscape allows him to rise to, and enjoy, the challenge of a scene that includes both explosive gunshots and whispered commands.</p>
<p>Casting director Victoria Thomas</p>
<p>Casting with Vicki Thomas was a unique and treasured experience; it was exciting and gratifying to see the way she absorbed each character, and then tirelessly searched for the actor capable of bringing that character to life.&#160; The cast needed to work as individuals but also in a group, as in the case of the Dramatics – a group that works seamlessly together yet retains their individuation. Her instincts are uncanny, her talent a rare and inspiring gift.</p>
<p>Song “It Ain’t Fair” by Questlove</p>
<p>“It Ain’t Fair,” by Questlove, magnified the vivid, sad, tragic story of the Algiers Motel one night in July 1967. Providing a bridge between the past and current state of affairs, Questlove reminds us of the lessons we should have learned that fateful night, lessons all to reminiscent of today, signaling the loss of humanity while seeking, demanding change long overdue.</p> | Kathryn Bigelow Salutes Her Below-the-Line Colleagues on ‘Detroit’ | false | https://newsline.com/kathryn-bigelow-salutes-her-below-the-line-colleagues-on-detroit/ | 2017-12-01 | 1 |
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<p><a href="http://sage.abqjournalfit.com/2013/08/24/headline-204/experts-gross-email/" type="external" />Does the number of emails in your inbox rival the federal debt? Learn some simple tricks to get it down to a manageable size.</p>
<p>Nikki and Elizabeth, her professional organizer, are congratulating themselves as they look at Nikki’s clutter-free home office. Then Nikki says, “If only my computer were this organized.”</p>
<p>Elizabeth says she is not a computer expert, but she does have a system to help Nikki get control of her email.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Elizabeth has some tips to help Nikki manage her inbox. The first one is “Unlisted.” Nikki’s inbox is overflowing with ads from every store where she shops, plus all their affiliates. Nikki has been giving stores her email thinking she would be a better shopper with information about upcoming sales.</p>
<p>What she has actually done is give the stores permission to drown her in spam. Nikki says she doesn’t even look at the ads anymore because she gets so many. Elizabeth tells Nikki, “If you wouldn’t give them your cell phone number don’t give them your email.</p>
<p>The next tip is: “Unsubscribe.” If you are getting emails you don’t want, take a few seconds to unsubscribe. If the emails are suspicious-looking, don’t even open them. Immediately block the sender so you won’t be exposed to phishing scams.</p>
<p>Elizabeth and Nikki decide that Nikki’s homework before the next organizing session is to Unsubscribe from the sites that are spamming her. Just like junk snail mail, you have to get off the lists to stop it.</p>
<p>Elizabeth’s easy tip for this is to sort the inbox by “From.” Going through the list, Nikki can easily see which emails she has opened and which ones she is ignoring and should stop. After she unsubscribes, she can delete all the emails from that sender from her inbox.</p>
<p>Nikki commits to spending 15 minutes a day hitting the unsubscribe button.</p>
<p>Next post: Nikki and Elizabeth “Unclutter” Nikki’s email.</p>
<p>Learn along with Nikki as she and Elizabeth, the Professional Organizer, get the house organized room by room. Start the series <a href="http://sage.abqjournalfit.com/2012/09/08/nikki-works-with-elizabeth-the-professional-organizer-from-ask-the-experts/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright© 2013 Elizabeth Tawney Gross, Organizing For Everyday, LLC</p>
<p>Ask the Experts panelist Elizabeth Tawney Gross is the owner of Organizing for Everyday and a certified professional organizer in chronic disorganization. Send her a question at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Find out more about her at <a href="http://org4everyday.com" type="external">org4everyday.com</a>.</p>
<p>To ask Elizabeth a question, type in the comments field below. Or ask a question by emailing <a href="" type="internal">[email protected].</a></p> | Drowning in Email: How to Save Yourself | false | https://abqjournal.com/510936/headline-204-2.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Being able to switch quickly from cruiser to touring bike with fast-release saddlebags and windshield should make Polaris Industries' new Indian Springfield a popular choice. Image source: Indian Motorcycle.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It's been a long, long time since Harley-Davidson has had serious competition in the American-made big-bike market, but Polaris Industries is beginning to give it a real run for its money, with the new Springfield edition of its Indian Motorcycle nameplate just the latest to gun its engines.</p>
<p>Harley still owns almost half of the U.S. motorcycle industry, but it can no longer afford to ignore its rival. The slippage it's seeing in sales and shipments is a direct testament to the successful reintroduction Polaris achieved with the Indian brand. And up and down the model lineup, it is showing it is quite capable of going toe to toe with Harley-Davidson.</p>
<p>The Indian Springfield is now taking aim squarely at the Road King, the heart of Harley's touring bike segment. That's important: Of the more than 266,000 bikes Harley-Davidson shipped in 2015, fully 43% of them were touring models, and that's actually down from the year before, when they accounted for 45% of the total. Its cruiser shipments were down as well last year, and it's no coincidence that Polaris just introduced the Chief Vintage, Chief Classic, and Chieftain models. With more than three-quarters of Harley's bike sales in these two divisions, another model that could swipe even more sales is troubling.</p>
<p>And the Springfield may be even more of a headache because it's flexible enough to ride between both segments, with quick-detach windshields and removable saddlebags that allow riders to shift easily between cruiser and touring. The bags and the handlebars are both remote-locking. It should be a bike that appeals to a broader range of customers than usual for Indian, and indicates that Polaris wants to compete across the board.</p>
<p>It has a big hole to drive through to do so, too. When Harley-Davidson reported fourth-quarter earnings back in January, it noted it was targeting its new outreach customers more than its core customers. It wants the outreach group to grow faster than the core, and it appears to be having some success: Outreach customer growth hit 6.5%, ahead of its core base and double the rate of industry growth.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>That lack of attention to what has traditionally been Harley's bread-and-butter customer gives Polaris an opening, and if its sales are any indication -- motorcycle revenues were up 67% in 2015 even as Harley-Davidson's sales fell 6% -- it's taking it.</p>
<p>Targeting the same niche as the Road King, Polaris Industries Springfield could give Harley-Davidson a run for its money. Image source: Indian Motorcycles.</p>
<p>Named after the birthplace of the original Indian Motorcycle company, the Springfield comes equipped with the same Thunder Stroke 111-inch, 1,811-cc engine that Indian puts in its similar-class bikes like the Chieftain and Roadmaster models, and with a starting price just under $21,000, it's priced above the Chief Vintage but below the Chieftain.</p>
<p>It comes after Indian introduced the Scout Sixty, the <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/12/12/polaris-gunning-for-harley-new-indian-scout-sixty.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">lowest-priced model Opens a New Window.</a> the bike maker offers, which, at under $9,000, is targeted toward the same new riders Harley is going after with its Street 500 and 750 models. The Springfield, though, is a feature-rich bike, and comes with options like heated driver and passenger seats, soft lowers, a 17-gallon accessory trunk, and heated grips.Its versatility makes it a vehicle that could appeal to new riders wanting a heavyweight bike, riders who may have previously considered a Harley Road King, which starts at under $19,000.</p>
<p>Polaris now has bikes all across the size and price spectrum, and ought to take even more share of the market with the latest introduction. Even so, it sold just nearly $700 million worth of motorcycles last year, and that includes its Victory brand and the Slingshot three-wheeler. Harley-Davidson, on the other hand, sold more than $4.1 billion worth of bikes.Polaris and the Indian nameplate still have a long way to go.</p>
<p>Sure, Milwaukee-based Harley may be stumbling a little as <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/20/did-harley-davidson-inc-make-its-numbers-by-using.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">bike buyer dynamics change Opens a New Window.</a>, but it shouldn't be counted out. Of course, that doesn't mean motorcycle enthusiasts can't still enjoy seeing a vibrant market develop for heavyweight bikes, particularly if it comes with the styling and heritage of an Indian.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/13/can-indian-springfield-dethrone-harleys-road-king.aspx" type="external">Can the New Indian Springfield Dethrone Harley's Road King? Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFCop/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Rich Duprey Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Polaris Industries. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Can the New Indian Springfield Dethrone Harley's Road King? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/13/can-new-indian-springfield-dethrone-harley-road-king.html | 2016-03-13 | 0 |
<p>A 59-year old woman saw her life sentence overturned on Friday after a judge determined that she had been wrongfully convicted of a crime nearly two decades ago.</p>
<p>Susan Marie Mellen was all smiles in a Los Angeles courthouse Friday afternoon after it was announced that she was being released from prison. Earlier in the day, a judge determined that Mellen had been unjustly convicted of a crime that she didn’t commit back in the late 90s.</p>
<p>In 1997, Mellen was arrested and convicted of orchestrating the murder of a homeless man who happened to be her ex-boyfriend, according to the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/susan-marie-mellen-wrongfully-convicted-murder-freed-after-spending-17-years-prison-1703336" type="external">International Business Times</a>. But there was no physical evidence linking Mellen to the murder. In fact, Mellen was convicted based solely off the witness testimony of a woman who was found out to be a habitual liar, according to the judge that freed Mellen. Mellen’s arresting officer was also found to have been involved in getting the wrongful convictions of two men that were ultimately found to be not guilty of any crimes.</p>
<p>After being convicted, Mellen was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Throughout the ordeal though, Mellen maintained her innocence, and she was finally exonerated thanks to the work of a project known as Innocence Matters. Innocence Matters is a group dedicated to getting wrongful convictions overturned and freeing those who are indeed innocent of the crimes that they are serving time for.</p>
<p>When the announcement came that Mellen was being freed, she was given the opportunity to speak. According to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/10/11/woman-convicted-california-murder-released-from-prison-after-17-years-in-prison/" type="external">Fox News</a>, not only did Mellen speak, but she also did a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpZRPCZfz_E" type="external">classic dance</a> that was popularized a decade before she was convicted.</p>
<p>Mellen was greeted by her three adult-aged children, and her first grandchild that she had never met before. After being released from prison, Mellen said that she forgave all parties involved, including those that helped get her convicted. Now, she will look to make up for loss time with her children and family, and to properly get integrated into a society that she has not been a part of since the last millennium.</p>
<p /> | Woman exhonerated from prison, 17 years after wrongful conviction | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/10/11/woman-exhonerated-from-prison-17-years-after-wrongful-conviction/ | 2014-10-11 | 3 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usarmyafrica/4046519220/sizes/z/in/photostream/"&gt;US Army Africa&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>They’re involved in Algeria and Angola, Benin and Botswana, Burkina Faso&#160;and Burundi, Cameroon and the Cape Verde&#160;Islands.&#160;And that’s just the ABCs of the situation.&#160;Skip to the end of the alphabet and the story remains the same:&#160;Senegal&#160;and the Seychelles, Togo and Tunisia,&#160;Uganda and Zambia.&#160;From north to south, east to west, the Horn of Africa to the Sahel, the heart of the continent to the islands off its coasts, the US military is at work.&#160;Base construction, security cooperation engagements, training exercises, advisory deployments, special operations missions, and a growing logistics network, all undeniable evidence of expansion—except at US Africa Command.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />To hear AFRICOM tell it, US military involvement on the continent ranges from the miniscule to the microscopic.&#160;The command is adamant that it has only a single “military base” in all of Africa: Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.&#160;The head of the command <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/us-military-pays-close-attention-to-boko-haram-militants/1681488.html" type="external">insists</a> that the US military maintains a “small footprint” on the continent. AFRICOM’s chief spokesman has consistently minimized the scope of its operations and the number of facilities it maintains or shares with host nations, asserting that only “a small presence of personnel who conduct short-duration engagements” are operating from “several locations” on the continent at any given time.&#160;</p>
<p>With the war in Iraq over and the conflict in Afghanistan winding down, the US military is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-military-drone-surveillance-is-expanding-to-hot-spots-beyond-declared-combat-zones/2013/07/20/0a57fbda-ef1c-11e2-8163-2c7021381a75_story.html" type="external">deploying</a> its forces far beyond declared combat zones.&#160;In <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2013/0218/How-US-military-plans-to-carry-out-Obama-s-pivot-to-Asia" type="external">recent years</a>, for example, Washington has very publicly <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/11/americas_pacific_century" type="external">proclaimed</a> a “ <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/what-exactly-does-it-mean-that-the-us-is-pivoting-to-asia/274936/" type="external">pivot to Asia</a>,” a “rebalancing” of its military resources eastward, without actually <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/what-exactly-does-it-mean-that-the-us-is-pivoting-to-asia/274936/" type="external">carrying out</a> wholesale policy changes.&#160;Elsewhere, however, from the Middle East to South America, the Pentagon is increasingly engaged in <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175557/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_changing_face_of_empire" type="external">shadowy operations</a> whose details emerge piecemeal and are rarely examined in a comprehensive way.&#160;Nowhere is this truer than in Africa.&#160;To the media and the American people, officials insist the US military is engaged in small-scale, innocuous operations there.&#160;Out of public earshot, officers running America’s secret wars say: “Africa is the battlefield of tomorrow, today.”</p>
<p />
<p>The proof is in the details—a seemingly ceaseless string of projects, operations, and engagements.&#160;Each mission, as AFRICOM insists, may be relatively limited and each footprint might be “small” on its own, but taken as a whole, US military operations are sweeping and expansive.&#160;Evidence of an American pivot to Africa is almost everywhere on the continent.&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/craig-whitlock/2011/02/28/AB5dpFP_page.html" type="external">Few</a>, however, have paid <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-06-13/world/35462541_1_burkina-faso-air-bases-sahara" type="external">much notice</a>.</p>
<p>If the proverbial picture is worth a thousand words, then what’s a map worth? Take, for instance, the one created by TomDispatch that documents US military outposts, construction, security cooperation, and deployments in Africa.&#160;It looks like a field of mushrooms after a monsoon.&#160;US Africa Command recognizes 54 countries on the continent, but refuses to say in which ones (or even in how many) it now conducts operations. An investigation by TomDispatch has found recent US military involvement with no fewer than 49 <a href="http://www.africacheck.org/reports/how-many-countries-in-africa-how-hard-can-the-question-be/" type="external">African nations</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>In some, the US maintains bases, even if under other names. In others, it trains local partners and proxies to <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/" type="external">battle militants</a> ranging from Somalia’s al-Shabaab and Nigeria’s Boko Haram to members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. &#160;Elsewhere, it is building facilities for its allies or infrastructure for locals. Many African nations are home to multiple US military projects. Despite what AFRICOM officials say, a careful reading of internal briefings, contracts, and other official documents, as well as open source information, including the command’s own press releases and news items, reveals that military operations in Africa are already vast and will be expanding for the foreseeable future.&#160;</p>
<p>A Base by Any Other Name…</p>
<p>What does the US military footprint in Africa look like? <a href="http://www.africom.mil/about-the-command/directors/colonel-thomas-a-davis" type="external">Colonel Tom Davis</a>, AFRICOM’s Director of Public Affairs, is unequivocal: “Other than our base at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, we do not have military bases in Africa, nor do we have plans to establish any.” He <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175574/" type="external">admits</a> only that the US has “temporary facilities elsewhere…that support much smaller numbers of personnel, usually for a specific activity.”&#160;</p>
<p>AFRICOM’s chief of media engagement Benjamin Benson echoes this, telling me that it’s almost impossible to offer a list of forward operating bases. “Places that [US forces] might be, the range of possible locations can get really big, but can provide a really skewed image of where we are…versus other places where we have ongoing operations. So, in terms of providing a number, I’d be at a loss of how to quantify this.”&#160;</p>
<p>A briefing prepared last year by Captain Rick Cook, the chief of AFRICOM’s Engineering Division, tells a different story, making reference to forward operating sites or FOSes (long-term locations), cooperative security locations or CSLs (which troops periodically rotate in and out of), and contingency locations or CLs (which are used only during ongoing operations). A separate briefing prepared last year by Lieutenant Colonel David Knellinger references seven cooperative security locations across Africa whose whereabouts are classified.&#160;A third briefing, produced in July of 2012 by US Army Africa, identifies one of the CSL sites as Entebbe, Uganda, a location from which US contractors have flown secret surveillance missions using innocuous-looking, white Pilatus PC-12 turboprop airplanes, <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-06-14/world/35462335_1_contractors-missions-central-african-republic" type="external">according</a> to an investigation by the Washington Post.&#160;</p>
<p>The 2012 US Army Africa briefing materials obtained by TomDispatch reference plans to build six new gates to the Entebbe compound, 11 new “containerized housing units,” new guard stations, new perimeter and security fencing, enhanced security lighting and new concrete access ramps, among other improvements.&#160;&#160;Satellite photos indicate that many, if not all, of these upgrades have, indeed, taken place.&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A 2009 image (above left) shows a bare-bones compound of dirt and grass tucked away on a Ugandan air base with just a few aircraft surrounding it.&#160;A satellite photo of the compound from earlier this year (above right) shows a strikingly more built-up camp surrounded by a swarm of helicopters and white airplanes.&#160;</p>
<p>Initially, AFRICOM’s Benjamin Benson refused to comment on the construction or the number of aircraft, insisting that the command had no “public information” about it. Confronted with the 2013 satellite photo, Benson reviewed it and offered a reply that neither confirmed nor denied that the site was a US facility, but cautioned me about using “uncorroborated data.” (Benson failed to respond to my request to corroborate the data through a site visit.) “I have no way of knowing where the photo was taken and how it was modified,” he told me. “Assuming the location is Entebbe, as you suggest, I would again argue that the aircraft could belong to anyone…It would be irresponsible of me to speculate on the missions, roles, or ownership of these aircraft.” He went on to suggest, however, that the aircraft might belong to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( <a href="https://twitter.com/MONUSCO" type="external">MONUSCO</a>) which does have a presence at the Entebbe air base. A request for comment from MONUSCO went unanswered before this article went to press.</p>
<p>This buildup may only be the beginning for Entebbe CSL. Recent contracting documents examined by TomDispatch indicate that AFRICOM is considering an additional surge of air assets there—specifically hiring a private contractor to provide further “dedicated fixed-wing airlift services for movement of Department of Defense (DoD) personnel and cargo in the Central African Region.” This mercenary air force would keep as many as three planes in the air at the same time on any given day, logging a total of about 70 to 100 hours per week. If the military goes ahead with these plans, the aircraft would ferry troops, weapons, and other materiel within Uganda and to the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan.</p>
<p>Another key, if little noticed, US outpost in Africa is located in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. An airbase there serves as the home of a Joint Special Operations Air Detachment, as well as the Trans-Sahara Short Take-Off and Landing Airlift Support initiative. According to military documents, that “initiative” supports “high-risk activities” carried out by elite forces from Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara. Lieutenant Colonel Scott Rawlinson, a spokesman for Special Operations Command Africa, told me that it provides “emergency casualty evacuation support to small team engagements with partner nations throughout the Sahel,” although official documents note that such actions have historically accounted for only 10% of its monthly flight hours.&#160;</p>
<p>While Rawlinson demurred from discussing the scope of the program, citing operational security concerns, military documents again indicate that, whatever its goals, it is expanding rapidly. Between March and December 2012, for example, the initiative flew 233 sorties. In the first three months of this year, it carried out 193.</p>
<p>In July, Berry Aviation, a Texas-based longtime Pentagon contractor, was awarded a nearly $50 million contract to <a href="http://www.berryaviation.com/latest-news/330-berry-aviation-expands-airlift-support-into-africa-for-ustranscom.html" type="external">provide</a> aircraft and personnel for “Trans-Sahara Short Take-Off and Landing services.”&#160;Under the terms of the deal, Berry will “perform casualty evacuation, personnel airlift, cargo airlift, as well as personnel and cargo aerial delivery services throughout the Trans-Sahara of Africa,” according to a statement from the company. Contracting documents indicate that Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia are the “most likely locations for missions.” &#160;</p>
<p>Special Ops in Africa</p>
<p>Ouagadougou is just one site for expanding US air operations in Africa.&#160;Last year, the 435th Military Construction Flight (MCF)—a rapid-response mobile construction team— <a href="http://themilitaryengineer.com/index.php/component/k2/item/204-answering-the-call-across-continents" type="external">revitalized</a> an airfield in South Sudan for Special Operations Command Africa, according to the unit’s commander, Air Force lieutenant Alexander Graboski.&#160;Before that, the team also “installed a runway lighting system to enable 24-hour operations” at the outpost.&#160;Graboski states that the Air Force’s 435th MCF “has been called upon many times by Special Operations Command Africa to send small teams to perform work in austere locations.” This trend looks as if it will continue. According to a briefing prepared earlier this year by Hugh Denny of the Army Corps of Engineers, plans have been drawn up for Special Operations Command Africa “operations support” facilities to be situated in “multiple locations.”&#160;</p>
<p>AFRICOM spokesman Benjamin Benson refused to answer questions about SOCAFRICA facilities, and would not comment on the locations of missions by an elite, quick-response force known as <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/8250/nswu-10-commissioning-provides-socafrica-operation" type="external">Naval Special Warfare Unit 10</a> (NSWU 10).&#160;But according to Captain Robert Smith, the commander of Naval Special Warfare Group Two, NSWU 10 has been engaged “with strategic countries such as Uganda, Somalia, [and] Nigeria.”&#160;</p>
<p>Captain J. Dane Thorleifson, NSWU 10’s outgoing commander, recently mentioned deployments in six “austere locations” in Africa and “every other month contingency operations—Libya, Tunisia, [and] POTUS,” evidently a reference to President Obama’s <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/02/politics/obama-africa-trip" type="external">three-nation trip</a> to Africa in July.&#160;Thorleifson, who led the unit from July 2011 to July 2013, also said NSWU 10 had been involved in training “proxy” forces, specifically “building critical host nation security capacity; enabling, advising, and assisting our African CT [counterterror] partner forces so they can swiftly counter and destroy al-Shabab, AQIM [Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb], and Boko Haram.”</p>
<p>Nzara in South Sudan is one of a string of shadowy forward operating posts on the continent where US Special Operations Forces have been <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175574/" type="external">stationed</a> in recent years. Other sites <a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2012/04/30/news/wheres-joseph-kony-us-troops-have-yet-to-find-him/" type="external">include</a> Obo and Djema in the Central Africa Republic and Dungu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.&#160; <a href="http://www.soc.mil/swcs/SWmag/archive/SW2601/SW2601WagingSpecialWarfareInAfrica.html" type="external">According</a> to Lieutenant Colonel Guillaume Beaurpere, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, “advisory assistance at forward outposts was directly responsible for the establishment of combined operations fusion centers where military commanders, local security officials, and a host of international and non-governmental organizations could share information about regional insurgent activity and coordinate military activities with civil authorities.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805086919/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />Drone bases are also expanding.&#160;In February, the US announced the establishment of a new drone facility in Niger.&#160;Later in the spring, AFRICOM spokesman Benjamin Benson confirmed to TomDispatch that US air operations conducted from Base Aerienne 101 at Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s capital, were providing “support for intelligence collection with French forces conducting operations in Mali and with other partners in the region.”&#160;More recently, the New York Times noted that what began as the deployment of one Predator drone to Niger had <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/world/africa/drones-in-niger-reflect-new-us-approach-in-terror-fight.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">expanded</a> to encompass daily flights by one of two larger, more advanced Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, supported by 120 Air Force personnel. &#160;Additionally, the US has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-african-network/2012/06/13/gJQAmozvaV_graphic.html" type="external">flown</a> drones out of the Seychelles Islands and Ethiopia’s Arba Minch Airport.&#160;</p>
<p>When it comes to expanding US outposts in Africa, the Navy has also been active. &#160;It maintains a forward operating location— <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175567/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s_shadow_wars_in_africa_/" type="external">manned</a> mostly by Seabees, Civil Affairs personnel, and force-protection troops—known as Camp Gilbert in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.&#160;Since 2004, US troops have been stationed at a Kenyan naval base known as Camp Simba at Manda Bay.&#160;AFRICOM’s Benson portrayed operations there as relatively minor, typified by “short-term training and engagement activities.”&#160;The 60 or so “core” troops stationed there, he said, are also primarily Civil Affairs, Seabees, and security personnel who take part in “military-to-military engagements with Kenyan forces and humanitarian initiatives.”&#160;</p>
<p>An AFRICOM briefing earlier this year suggested, however, that the base is destined to be more than a backwater post.&#160;It called attention to improvements in water and power infrastructure and an extension of the runway at the airfield, as well as greater “surge capacity” for bringing in forces in the future. &#160;A second briefing, prepared by the Navy and obtained by TomDispatch, details nine key infrastructure upgrades that are on the drawing board, underway, or completed.&#160;</p>
<p>In addition to extending and improving that runway, they include providing more potable water storage, latrines, and lodgings to accommodate a future “surge” of troops, doubling the capacity of washer and dryer units, upgrading dining facilities, improving roadways and boat ramps, providing fuel storage, and installing a new generator to handle additional demands for power. &#160;In a March article in the National Journal, James Kitfield, who visited the base, shed additional light on expansion there.&#160;“Navy Seabee engineers,” he <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/outsourcing-the-fight-against-terrorism-20130307" type="external">wrote</a>, “…have been working round-the-clock shifts for months to finish a runway extension before the rainy season arrives. Once completed, it will allow larger aircraft like C-130s to land and supply Americans or African Union troops.”</p>
<p>AFRICOM’s Benson tells TomDispatch that the US military also makes use of six buildings located on Kenyan military bases at the airport and seaport of Mombasa.&#160;In addition, he verified that it has used Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport in Senegal for refueling stops as well as the “transportation of teams participating in security cooperation activities” such as training missions.&#160;He confirmed a similar deal for the use of Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia.</p>
<p>While Benson refused additional comment, official documents indicate that the US has similar agreements for the use of Nsimalen Airport and Douala International Airport in Cameroon, Amílcar Cabral International Airport and Praia International Airport in Cape Verde, N’Djamena International Airport in Chad, Cairo International Airport in Egypt, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Moi International Airport in Kenya, Kotoka International Airport in Ghana, ‎ Marrakech-Menara Airport in Morocco, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Nigeria, Seychelles International Airport in the Seychelles, Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Botswana, Bamako-Senou International Airport in Mali, and Tunis-Carthage International Airport in Tunisia. &#160;‎All told, according to Sam Cooks, a liaison officer with the Defense Logistics Agency, the US military now has 29 agreements to use international airports in Africa as refueling centers.&#160;</p>
<p>In addition, US Africa Command has built a sophisticated logistics system, officially known as the AFRICOM Surface Distribution Network, but colloquially referred to as the “new spice route.” It connects posts in Manda Bay, Garissa, and Mombasa in Kenya, Kampala and Entebbe in Uganda, Dire Dawa in Ethiopia, as well as crucial port facilities used by the Navy’s CTF-53 (“Commander, Task Force, Five Three”) in Djibouti, which are collectively referred to as “the port of Djibouti” by the military.&#160;Other key ports on the continent, according to Lieutenant Colonel Wade Lawrence of US Transportation Command, include Ghana’s Tema and Senegal’s Dakar.&#160;</p>
<p>The US <a href="http://www.dla.mil/DLA_Media_Center/Archive/newsarticle0906.aspx" type="external">maintains</a> 10 marine gas and oil bunker locations in eight African nations, according to the Defense Logistics Agency. AFRICOM’s Benjamin Benson refuses to name the countries, but recent military contracting documents list key fuel bunker locations in Douala, Cameroon; Mindelo, Cape Verde; Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire; Port Gentil, Gabon; Sekondi, Ghana; Mombasa, Kenya; Port Luis, Mauritius; Walvis Bay, Namibia; Lagos, Nigeria; Port Victoria, Seychelles; Durban, South Africa; and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.&#160;</p>
<p>The US also continues to <a href="http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/namru3/Pages/Naval%20Medical%20Research%20Unit3.aspx" type="external">maintain</a> a long-time Naval Medical Research Unit, known as NAMRU-3, in Cairo, Egypt.&#160;Another little-noticed medical investigation component, the US Army Research Unit-Kenya, operates from facilities in Kisumu and Kericho.</p>
<p>Key to the Map of the US Military’s Pivot to Africa, 2012-2013</p>
<p>Green markers: US military training, advising, or tactical deployments during 2013Yellow markers: US military training, advising, or tactical deployments during 2012Purple marker: US “security cooperation”Red markers: Army National Guard partnershipsBlue markers: US bases, forward operating sites (FOSes), contingency security locations (CSLs), contingency locations (CLs), airports with fueling agreements, and various shared facilitiesGreen push pins: US military training/advising of indigenous troops carried out in a third country during 2013Yellow push pins: US military training/advising of indigenous troops carried out in a third country during 2012</p>
<p>(In and) Out of Africa</p>
<p>When considering the scope and rapid expansion of US military activities in Africa, it’s important to keep in mind that certain key “African” bases are actually located off the continent.&#160;Keeping a semblance of a “light footprint” there, AFRICOM’s headquarters is located at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart-Moehringen, Germany.&#160;In June, Süddeutsche Zeitung <a href="http://international.sueddeutsche.de/post/52323491304/exclusive-us-armed-forces-piloting-drones-from-bases" type="external">reported</a> that the base in Stuttgart and the US Air Force’s Air Operations Center in Ramstein were both integral to drone operations in Africa.</p>
<p>Key logistics support hubs for AFRICOM are <a href="http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/africacommand.htm" type="external">located</a> in Rota, Spain; Aruba in the Lesser Antilles; and Souda Bay, Greece, as well as at Ramstein.&#160;The command also <a href="http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/africacommand.htm" type="external">maintains</a> a forward operating site on Britain’s Ascension Island, located about 1,000 miles off the coast of Africa in the South Atlantic, but refused requests for further information about its role in operations.&#160;</p>
<p>Another important logistics facility is located in Sigonella on the island of Sicily. Italy, it turns out, is an especially crucial component of US operations in Africa.&#160;Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa, which provides teams of Marines and sailors for “small-footprint theater security cooperation engagements” across the continent, is based at Naval Air Station Sigonella.&#160;It has, according to AFRICOM’s Benjamin Benson, recently deployed personnel to Botswana, Liberia, Djibouti, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Tunisia, and Senegal.</p>
<p>In the future, US Army Africa will be based at Caserma Del Din in northern Italy, adjacent to the recently <a href="http://www.stripes.com/news/us-army-opens-new-base-in-northern-italy-1.228494" type="external">completed</a> home of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.&#160;A 2012 US Army Africa briefing indicates that construction projects at the Caserma Del Din base will continue through 2018. The reported price-tag for the entire complex:&#160;$310 million. &#160; &#160;</p>
<p>A Big Base Gets Bigger</p>
<p>While that sum is sizeable, it’s surpassed by spending on the lone official US base on the African continent, Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.&#160;That former French Foreign Legion post has been on a decade-long growth spurt.&#160;</p>
<p>In 2002, the US dispatched personnel to Africa as part of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA).&#160;The next year, CJTF-HOA took up residence at Camp Lemonnier, where it resides to this day.&#160;In 2005, the US struck a five-year land-use agreement with the Djiboutian government and exercised the first of two five-year renewal options in late 2010.&#160;In 2006, the US signed a separate agreement to expand the camp’s boundaries to 500 acres.</p>
<p>According to AFRICOM’s Benson, between 2009 and 2012, $390 million was spent on construction at Camp Lemonnier.&#160;In recent years, the outpost was transformed by the addition of an electric power plant, enhanced water storage and treatment facilities, a dining hall, more facilities for Special Operations Command, and the expansion of aircraft taxiways and parking aprons.&#160;</p>
<p>A briefing prepared earlier this year by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command lists a plethora of projects currently underway or poised to begin, including an aircraft maintenance hangar, a telecommunications facility, a fire station, additional security fencing, an ammunition supply facility, interior paved roads, a general purpose warehouse, maintenance shelters for aircraft, an aircraft logistics apron, taxiway enhancements, expeditionary lodging, a combat aircraft loading apron, and a taxiway extension on the east side of the airfield.&#160;</p>
<p>Navy documents detail the price tag of this year’s proposed projects, including $7.5 million to be spent on containerized living units and workspaces, $22 million for cold storage and the expansion of dining facilities, $27 million for a fitness center, $43 million for a joint headquarters facility, and a whopping $220 million for a Special Operations Compound, also referred to as “Task Force Compound.”</p>
<p>Plans for Construction of the Special Operations or “Task Force” Compound at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti</p>
<p>According to a 2012 briefing by Lieutenant Colonel David Knellinger, the Special Operations Compound will eventually include at least 18 new facilities, including a two-story joint operations center, a two-story tactical operations center, two five-story barracks, a large motor pool facility, a supply warehouse, and an aircraft hangar with an adjacent air operations center. &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>A document produced earlier this year by Lieutenant Troy Gilbert, an infrastructure planner with AFRICOM’s engineer division, lists almost $400 million in “emergency” military construction at Camp Lemonnier, including work on the special operations compound and more than $150 million for a new combat aircraft loading area.&#160;Navy documents, for their part, estimate that construction at Camp Lemonnier will continue at $70 million to $100 million annually, with future projects to include a $20 million wastewater treatment plant, a $40 million medical and dental center, and more than $150 million in troop housing. &#160;</p>
<p>Rules of Engagement</p>
<p>In addition, the US military has been supporting construction all over Africa for its allies.&#160;A report by Hugh Denny of the Army Corps of Engineers issued earlier this year references 79 such projects in 33 countries between 2011 and 2013, including Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tunisia, The Gambia, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.&#160;The reported price tag: $48 million.</p>
<p>Senegal has, for example, received a $1.2 million “peacekeeping operations training center” under the auspices of the US Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program. ACOTA has also supported training center projects in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda.</p>
<p>The US is planning to finance the construction of barracks and other facilities for Ghana’s armed forces.&#160;AFRICOM’s Benson also confirmed to TomDispatch that the Army Corps of Engineers has plans to “equip and refurbish five military border security posts in Djibouti along the Somalia/Somaliland border.”&#160;In Kenya, US Special Operations Forces have “played a crucial role in infrastructure investments for the Kenyan Special Operations Regiment and especially in the establishment of the Kenyan Ranger school,” <a href="http://www.soc.mil/swcs/SWmag/archive/SW2601/SW2601WagingSpecialWarfareInAfrica.html" type="external">according</a> to Lieutenant Colonel Guillaume Beaurpere of the 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group.</p>
<p>AFRICOM’s “humanitarian assistance” program is also expansive.&#160;A 2013 Navy briefing lists $7.1 million in humanitarian construction projects—like schools, orphanages, and medical facilities—in 19 countries from Comoros and Guinea-Bissau to Rwanda.&#160;Hugh Denny’s report also lists nine Army Corps of Engineers “security assistance” efforts, valued at more than $12 million, carried out during 2012 and 2013, as well as 15 additional “security cooperation” projects worth more than $22 million in countries across Africa. &#160;</p>
<p>A Deluge of Deployments</p>
<p>In addition to creating or maintaining bases and engaging in military construction across the continent, the US is involved in near constant training and advisory missions.&#160;According to AFRICOM’s Colonel Tom Davis, the command is <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175574/tomgram%3A_u.s._africa_command_debates_tomdispatch" type="external">slated</a> to carry out 14 major bilateral and multilateral exercises by the end of this year.&#160;These include Saharan Express 2013, which brought together forces from Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, among other nations, for maritime security <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10462/saharan-express" type="external">training</a>; Obangame Express 2013, a counter-piracy exercise <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10389/exercise-obangame-express-2013" type="external">involving</a> the armed forces of many nations, including Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Togo; and Africa Endeavor 2013, in which the militaries of Djibouti, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, and 34 other <a href="http://www.dvidshub.net/news/111991/national-guard-reserves-bring-more-africa-endeavor#.Ug6YbG2wWpk" type="external">African nations</a> took part.</p>
<p>And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.&#160;As Davis told TomDispatch, “We also conduct some type of military training or military-to-military engagement or activity with nearly every country on the African continent.”&#160;A cursory look at just some of US missions this spring drives home the true extent of the growing US engagement in Africa.&#160;</p>
<p>In January, for instance, the US Air Force began <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10206/us-airlift-of-french-forces-to-mali" type="external">transporting</a> French troops to Mali to counter Islamist forces there. &#160;At a facility in Nairobi, Kenya, AFRICOM provided military intelligence training to junior officers from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and South Sudan.&#160;In January and February, Special Operations Forces personnel <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10915/silent-warrior-strengthens-partner-development" type="external">conducted</a> a joint exercise code-named Silent Warrior with Cameroonian soldiers.&#160;February saw South African troops travel all the way to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to take part in Cobra Gold 2013, a multinational training exercise cosponsored by the US military.</p>
<p>In March, Navy personnel <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10570/military-to-military-engagement" type="external">worked</a> with members of Cape Verde’s armed forces, while Kentucky National Guard troops spent a week <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10545/us-soldiers-make-big-impact-on-small-islands" type="external">advising</a> soldiers from the Comoros Islands.&#160;That same month, members of Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10628/ugandan-forces-train-with-us-marines-for-somalia-mission" type="external">deployed</a> to the Singo Peace Support Training Center in Uganda to work with Ugandan soldiers prior to their assignment to the African Union Mission in Somalia.&#160;Over the course of the spring, members of the task force would also mentor local troops in Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Burkina Faso, the Seychelles, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Liberia.</p>
<p>In April, members of the task force also began <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10846/us-marines-sailors-train-senegalese-military" type="external">training</a> Senegalese commandos at Bel-Air military base in Dakar, while Navy personnel deployed to Mozambique to <a href="http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=74347" type="external">school</a> civilians in demining techniques. Meanwhile, Marines <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10743/artllerymen-help-make-convoy-a-success-during-exercise-african-lion-13" type="external">traveled</a> to Morocco to conduct a training exercise code-named African Lion 13 with that country’s military.&#160;In May, Army troops were sent to Lomé, Togo, to <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10926/us-army-africa-sponsors-african-deployment-partnership-training-in-togo" type="external">work</a> with members of the Togolese Defense Force, as well as to Senga Bay, Malawi, to <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10798/malawi-defense-force-soldiers-complete-final-phase-of-pre-deployment-instruction" type="external">instruct</a> soldiers there.</p>
<p>That same month, Navy personnel <a href="http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=74301" type="external">conducted</a> a joint exercise in the Mediterranean Sea with their Egyptian counterparts.&#160;In June, personnel from the Kentucky National Guard <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10861/2-138th-fsc-shares-best-ecp-practices-with-djiboutian-army" type="external">deployed</a> to Djibouti to advise members of that country’s military on border security methods, while Seabees teamed up with the Tanzanian People’s Defense Force to <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/10899/seabees-and-tpdf-team-up-for-boat-ramp-project-in-tanzania" type="external">build</a> maritime security infrastructure.&#160;That same month, the Air Force airlifted Liberian troops to Bamako, Mali, to conduct a six-month peacekeeping operation. &#160;</p>
<p>Limited or Limitless?</p>
<p>Counting countries in which it has bases or outposts or has done construction, and those with which it has conducted military exercises, advisory assignments, security cooperation, or training missions, the US military, according to TomDispatch‘s analysis, is involved with more than 90% of Africa’s 54 nations. While AFRICOM commander David Rodriguez maintains that the US has only a “small footprint” on the continent, following those small footprints across the continent can be a breathtaking task.</p>
<p>It’s not hard to imagine why the US military wants to maintain that “small footprint” fiction. &#160;On occasion, military commanders couldn’t have been clearer on the subject.&#160;“A direct and overt presence of US forces on the African continent can cause consternation… with our own partners who take great pride in their post-colonial abilities to independently secure themselves,” wrote Lieutenant Colonel Guillaume Beaurpere earlier this year in the military trade publication Special Warfare. Special Operations Forces, he added, “must train to operate discreetly within these constraints and the cultural norms of the host nation.”</p>
<p>On a visit to the Pentagon earlier this summer, AFRICOM’s Rodriguez <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/us-military-pays-close-attention-to-boko-haram-militants/1681488.html" type="external">echoed</a> the same point in candid comments to Voice of America: “The history of the African nations, the colonialism, all those things are what point to the reasons why we should… just use a small footprint.”</p>
<p>And yet, however useful that imagery may be to the Pentagon, the US military no longer has a small footprint in Africa.&#160;Even the repeated claims that US troops conduct only short-term. intermittent missions there has been officially contradicted.&#160;This July, at a change of command ceremony for Naval Special Warfare Unit 10, a spokesman noted the creation and implementation of “a five-year engagement strategy that encompassed the transition from episodic training events to regionally-focused and persistent engagements in five Special Operations Command Africa priority countries.”</p>
<p>In a question-and-answer piece in Special Warfare earlier this year, Colonel John Deedrick, the commander of the 10th Special Forces Group, sounded off about his unit’s area of responsibility.&#160;“We are widely employed throughout the continent,” he said. “These are not episodic activities.&#160;We are there 365-days-a-year to share the burden, assist in shaping the environment, and exploit opportunities.”&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://concernedafricascholars.org/bulletin/issue85/ifeka/" type="external">Exploitation</a> and “ <a href="http://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2013/05/2013521122644377724.htm" type="external">persistent engagement</a>” are exactly what <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200909180975.html" type="external">critics</a> of US military involvement in Africa have <a href="http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,155571,00.html" type="external">long feared</a>, while <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/" type="external">blowback</a> and the unforeseen consequences of US military action on the continent have already contributed to catastrophic <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/" type="external">destabilization</a>.</p>
<p>Despite some candid admissions by officers involved in shadowy operations, however, AFRICOM continues to insist that troop deployments are highly circumscribed.&#160;The command will not, however, allow independent observers to make their own assessments.&#160;Benson said AFRICOM does not “have a media visit program to regularly host journalists there.”&#160;</p>
<p>My own requests to report on US operations on the continent were, in fact, rejected in short order.&#160;“We will not make an exception in this case,” Benson wrote in a recent email and followed up by emphasizing that US forces are deployed in Africa only “on a limited and temporary basis.”&#160;TomDispatch‘s own analysis—and a mere glance at the map of recent missions—indicates that there are, in fact, very few limits on where the US military operates in Africa.&#160;</p>
<p>While Washington talks openly about <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2012/05/03/pivot-out-rebalance-in/" type="external">rebalancing</a> its military assets to Asia, a pivot to Africa is quietly and unmistakably underway.&#160;With the ever-present possibility of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/" type="external">blowback</a> from shadowy operations on the continent, the odds are that the results of that pivot will become increasingly evident, whether or not Americans recognize them as such. &#160;Behind closed doors, the military says: “Africa is the battlefield of tomorrow, today.”&#160;It remains to be seen just when they’ll say the same to the American people.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Nick Turse is the managing editor of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a> and a fellow at The Nation Institute.&#160;An award-winning journalist, his work has appeared in the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/24/opinion/la-oe-turse-afghanistan-and-vietnam-20120424" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a> and <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/pentagon-book-club" type="external">The Nation</a>, on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23427726" type="external">the BBC</a>, and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175635/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_a_war_victim%27s_question_only_you_can_answer/" type="external">regularly</a> at TomDispatch. He is the author most recently of the New York Times bestseller <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805086919/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam</a>.&#160;You can catch his conversation with Bill Moyers about that book by <a href="http://billmoyers.com/segment/nick-turse-describes-the-real-vietnam-war/" type="external">clicking here</a>.&#160;His website is <a href="http://www.nickturse.com/" type="external">NickTurse.com</a>.&#160;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> | The Startling Size of US Military Operations in Africa | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/us-military-bases-africa/ | 2013-09-06 | 4 |
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<p>Kelli Cooper, VP, Albuquerque Community Foundation. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Kelli Cooper, the longtime creative brains behind the nonprofit Albuquerque Community Foundation, got her professional start in the highly competitive world of marketing and advertising.</p>
<p>And her route into that world started in 1974 with a work uniform and a greeting for customers at the Lee Galles car dealership, across from the University of New Mexico when she was a student there.</p>
<p>“I was a mini-maid, which was a group of young women who basically were service-repair girls who worked in the service department,” said Cooper, now vice president of the Albuquerque Community Foundation.</p>
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<p>“Lee Galles had this great idea of hiring college students,” said Cooper, 61. “It was so great, because the dealership was across the street from the university … I often run into the old ABQ guard who remembers being driven home from the … dealership by a mini-maid. Lee Galles went on to package and sell the concept to car dealers across the country.”</p>
<p>After Galles started the Competitive Edge advertising agency, Cooper moved over to that business in 1978. She remained there for 18 years until she had two of her three children and no longer wanted to travel as much as was required.</p>
<p>Eventually, the world of nonprofits and volunteerism came calling. It was deeply rooted in Cooper’s blood; when she was in second grade, her mother – whom she described as a “professional volunteer” – signed her up to work with the Mothers March, an annual fundraiser for the March of Dimes.</p>
<p>Cooper started at the Albuquerque Community Foundation as a volunteer, which turned into a part-time job, which resulted in a full-time gig.</p>
<p>Now, Cooper is vice president of the Albuquerque Community Foundation, which has 400 funds with nearly $90 million in assets under management.</p>
<p>Where did you go to high school?</p>
<p>Del Norte. I was really involved. I was on the dance team. I was the girl that never missed a game or an event and had a really good group of girlfriends that were born and raised and lived in the same neighborhood.</p>
<p>Are you still friends with them today?</p>
<p>Yes. I think that’s one of the beautiful things about growing up in a town this small is that you run into people, and intersections and collisions happen every single day. Just today, well it’s ironic, Randy (Royster), the CEO here, and I actually went to Monroe Junior High School together, and today a lady called to set up an endowment fund, and she said, “I think I knew you guys from Monroe Junior High School.” So it’s just Albuquerque, and as we’ve hired some people that are transplants, I realized how valuable that is – to live in a town that you can go anywhere and know somebody.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Did you have a professional mentor?</p>
<p>I guess it would be Lee Galles. He was a genius and so far ahead of his time. My mother has also been extremely important in my life. She was 22 when she had me, so we’ve always been more like best friends than mother and daughter, and she was always the biggest community volunteer that there ever was. She had me out doing stuff with her when I was 5 or 6 years old and has been a huge part of my life and probably this field that I wound up being in.</p>
<p>Explain that.</p>
<p>(After the Mothers March of Dimes work) … It kind of never stopped after that. She was asked to be the chairman of the grand opening of the Albuquerque Convention Center in 1973. She immediately formed a teenage volunteer committee, which I was the chair of. I was a junior at Del Norte High School. We ended up going to every single high school and getting participation from all of them, so when the grand opening of the original convention center happened, there was my mom as the big chair. There was me as the teenage volunteer committee chair, and it was phenomenal. It was such a great community intersection.</p>
<p>Did you try to pass that along to your kids?</p>
<p>Yes, I absolutely have. I have a daughter right now who is 22 and just graduated from college, and she’s now living in Harlem, teaching in the South Bronx … And though it is the toughest of the tough environments – she calls me crying every single night – but she loves it, she absolutely loves it.</p>
<p>What do you like to do on your days off?</p>
<p>I am an avid hot yoga person. Yes, I go and sweat. I love to cook and that comes from my mother, my family and the whole event-planning thing. I love to have parties. I have these two big old standard poodles that are a full-time job … They have to be walked and run and all of those types of things, so I do that.</p>
<p>What do you like to cook?</p>
<p>I’ve totally changed my cooking skills over the years. I’ve gone from a piece of meat, a piece of starch and a vegetable, and a piece of bread on every plate, to things that are more current, more modern. We’re having more bowl things. I now have containers of every kind of seed, every kind of legume…. I’ve gotten a lot less afraid to be creative. And maybe that’s because I’m no longer feeding three kids. I have a little more room to play.</p>
<p>Hobbies?</p>
<p>Skiing, I bike. I live pretty close to the mountain; I love to be on that bike trail. I think that mountain is one of the most beautiful and energizing things that I’ve ever known. Because I’ve always known it.</p>
<p>What is your biggest regret?</p>
<p>Not having children younger.</p>
<p>How old were you?</p>
<p>I was 29 when I had my first, but 39 when I had my last. So there was a pretty big gap, and I would have loved to have had my kids younger so that there would be more time, after your last kid is out of the home, to start thinking about bigger ideas and new ideas. My kids have all been very active in sports, and I’ve spent my life sitting in bleachers, and I’m only one year out of that.</p>
<p>What is something about you that people don’t know? I think that I’m not nearly as outgoing as people think I am. I am perfectly happy sitting at my desk here, doing the back-end work. That’s really what I did for my first 10 years here. I’m really more of a one-on-one introvert. That’s what I think about myself.</p>
<p>What was the best moment of being a parent?</p>
<p>I can think of one, just recently. I got a text message from my daughter. She texted, “Mom and dad, I just wanted to tell you thank you for everything that you did for me and Casey and Corey growing up.” And she went into this story about this kid she was with that day in school, and she said, “You don’t know the hell that a lot of kids in our country are exposed to every day. We had a beautiful childhood, and you supported us in everything we tried to do, and I just wanted to say thank you.”</p>
<p>Pet peeves?</p>
<p>I’m not big on elitism, I really think of everybody as an equal, and it offends me when somebody starts thinking that they’re better than somebody else.</p>
<p>If you were giving out advice to a young woman just starting out, what would it be?</p>
<p>It would be to communicate well. To be honest. To be open and not afraid to ask questions.</p>
<p>Full name at birth: Kelli Kay Burch</p>
<p>Age: 61</p>
<p>Birthplace: Albuquerque</p>
<p>Spouse: Kevin Cooper, married since 1983</p>
<p>Children: Casey Cooper, 31; Corey Cooper, 29; Dixie Cooper, 22; one 12-year-old grandchild</p>
<p>Pets: Kona and Janet, giant standard poodles</p>
<p>Current job title: Vice president, Albuquerque Community Foundation, 18 years</p>
<p>Previous jobs: Competitive Edge, an ABQ-based startup advertising firm that grew into a national firm with nine branches, 100 employees across the U.S.</p>
<p>Positions with outside organizations: City Alive Leadership Team</p>
<p>Community service: My work at the Albuquerque Community Foundation is fascinating because it allows me to intersect with over 100 nonprofits annually. My true interests are in those nonprofit organizations and collaborations working to lift their clients from poverty, providing long-term solutions to self-sufficiency rather than Band-Aid solutions.</p>
<p>DID YOU KNOW?</p>
<p>• Cooper helped develop the Albuquerque Community Foundation’s Future Fund, an endowment that just celebrated its 20th anniversary. Its mission is to encourage young people to contribute.</p>
<p>• She describes herself as a “total neat freak. If there’s anything out of place, it drives me a little crazy.”</p>
<p>• Cooper and her husband travel often to San Diego “and spend time there on the water.”</p>
<p /> | One-on-One with Kelli Cooper | false | https://abqjournal.com/1122437/one-on-one-with-kelli-cooper.html | 2 |
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<p>A woman heading in to work at a florist shop in North Carolina Thursday morning led police to a man <a href="" type="internal">accused of gunning down nine people</a> at a historic African-American church in South Carolina the night before.</p>
<p>Debbie Dills spotted the black car being driven by alleged gunman Dylann Roof at around 10:20 a.m. and called a friend, who notified police, <a href="http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/local/2015/06/18/florist-led-shelby-police-to-charleston-shooting-suspect/28936821/" type="external">NBC station WCNC in Charlotte reported.</a></p>
<p>"I paid close attention to the pictures on TV, but I thought, 'No. It can't be him,'" Dills, of Gastonia, N.C., told the station. "I noticed the car. And I noticed the boy's haircut," Dills said.</p>
<p>Dills, who was on her way to work at Frady’s Florist, followed the black Hyundai along Highway 74 while the man she called, Todd Frady, called Kings Mountain Police, who notified Shelby Police and led to Roof's arrest. the station reported.</p>
<p>Roof, 21, is accused of <a href="" type="internal">opening fire</a>at a Bible study meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston at around 9 p.m. Wednesday, killing nine people, including the church pastor, <a href="" type="internal">the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney</a>, who is also a state senator. The massacre is being investigated as a hate crime.</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="" type="internal">Tributes Paid to 'Kind-Hearted' Victims</a></p>
<p>Attempts to reach Frady and Dills by NBC News were not immediately successful. Kings Mountain Police confirmed that a call about the suspicious car was made to that department, and they notified Shelby police.</p>
<p>Shelby police said they got the call from Kings Mountain Police at 10:32 a.m., and by 10:43 a.m. officers observed the car and made the traffic stop and took Roof into custody. Shelby is about 245 miles northwest of Charleston.</p>
<p>Dills said she was nervous as she followed Roof’s car until she saw police. "I thought please don't let him think I'm following him," Dills told the station.</p>
<p>She said the tragic events in Charleston weighed heavy on her mind that morning, and she downplayed her role in the arrest.</p>
<p>"It's nothing to do with me — I'm telling you, the Lord had me where I needed to be on [U.S.] 74, he had me watching the news," Dills said.</p>
<p>"We just did our jobs as Christians and citizens," she told the station.</p> | Florist Heading to Work Spotted Alleged Church Gunman Dylann Roof | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/woman-heading-work-spotted-alleged-church-gunman-dylann-roof-n378081 | 2015-06-19 | 3 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) hasn't exactly had the best 2016. Shares of the biotech are down about 20% year to date as sales of its hepatitis C drugs slumped from pricing pressure, and as doctors have worked through the initial bolus of hepatitis C patients waiting for a new therapy.</p>
<p>While hepatitis C drug sales were down 19% year over year in the second quarter, overall sales fell just 6% thanks to a 15% boost in sales of its HIV and other antiviral drugs.</p>
<p>Unlike hepatitis C drugs, which are a cure, HIV drugs generally need to be taken for a patient's entire lifetime. Rather than needing a constant addition of new patients to replace the cured ones, like Gilead requires just to maintain its hepatitis C franchise, sales of HIV drugs can build on previous quarter's sales with just a fraction of patients needing to be replaced.</p>
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<p>Gilead's HIV sales have grown thanks to the launch of new drugs.</p>
<p>Data source: Gilead Sciences.</p>
<p>Getting three drugs approved in four months might seem like an amazing feet, but Genvoya, Odefsey, and Descovy are all drug cocktails that just contain one new drug -- the same drug in each: tenofovir alafenamide (TAF).</p>
<p>And in each cocktail, TAF is just a substitution for a related drug, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). Once Gilead was able to show that one combination containing TAF worked just as well as the older cocktail containing TDF, it stood to reason that the other cocktails would follow suit.</p>
<p>TAF has two main advantages over TDF. It appears to be safer, with fewer kidney and bone issues, which is what's driving sales now. Many sales are probably switches from the TDF-containing versions, which doesn't help Gilead all that much, but the safer version should also convince some doctors to start newly diagnosed patients on TAF-containing medications rather than competitors.</p>
<p>TAF is also more potent, so it takes up a smaller volume of the pill, which could allow for single-pill regimens combining TAF and other drugs, where TDF would make the pill too large to be swallowed comfortably. Gilead, for instance, is <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/12/29/gilead-sciences-inc-cant-do-it-alone.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">working Opens a New Window.</a> with Johnson &amp; Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) to combine TAF and a couple of other Gilead drugs with Johnson &amp; Johnson's Prezista in a single pill. Johnson &amp; Johnson's Prezista is currently approved to be taken with another drug, Norvir, but the two pills have to be taken separately, which isn't as convenient.</p>
<p>In addition to the TAF-containing drugs, Gilead's HIV franchise is benefiting from increased sales of Truvada as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the risk of HIV infection in people who are likely to be exposed to the virus. U.S. sales of Truvada were up 26% year over year in the second quarter.</p>
<p>Last month, the European Commission approved Truvada for PrEP, so Gilead should start to see a boost in Truvada sales across the pond. It usually takes a few months to set up reimbursement in many European countries. It'll be interesting to see if counties with single-payer systems, such as the United Kingdom, feel the cost is worth the benefit of reduced HIV infections.</p>
<p>With Gilead's hepatitis C drugs making up just over half of total product sales, double-digit declines -- for however long they last -- will have detrimental effects on overall sales that gains in sales of Gilead's HIV drug franchise may not be able to fully keep up with. At some point, though, the year-over-year comparisons for hepatitis C drugs won't be too bad, and hopefully the HIV drugs will still be giving Gilead a boost at that point.</p>
<p>The biggest win in 2017, though, could come from an acquisition by Gilead Sciences. The company ended June with more than $24 billion in the bank and recently raised another $5 billion in a debt offering. A smart acquisition could help spur sales growth, deadening the blow from declining hepatitis C drug sales.</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=2518&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><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBiologyFool/info.aspx" type="external">Brian Orelli Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Gilead Sciences. The Motley Fool has the following options: short October 2016 $85 calls on Gilead Sciences. The Motley Fool recommends Johnson and Johnson. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Biggest Win in 2016 So Far | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/22/gilead-sciences-inc-biggest-win-in-2016-so-far.html | 2016-09-22 | 0 |
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<p>Hundreds of children in Chicago will opt out of the state's standardized testing next week. At a press conference on Monday, parent Cassandra Creswell held up paperwork from the 11 tests given to students in pre-K through the 8th grade. (Via Chicago Teachers Union Facebook page) &#160;</p> | Chicago Students and Parents Say 'No' to State Tests | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16359/no_on_standardized_tests_say_students_parents_in_chic | 2014-02-27 | 4 |
<p>CLEVELAND (AP) - The weather conditions will be suitably brutal. Like the Cleveland Browns' season.</p>
<p>Despite temperatures forecast in the single digits, thousands of disillusioned fans are expected to attend a parade on Saturday to commemorate - and protest - the historically inept 0-16 season.</p>
<p>Nothing like some floats and frostbite.</p>
<p>The "Perfect Season Parade" organizer Chris McNeil's tongue-in-cheek tweet more than a year ago spawned a small uprising within Cleveland's passionate fan base. He's spent the past few days finalizing preparation for the parade. There will be a bus, RVs, an ambulance and hearse - to symbolically bury the season.</p>
<p>Fans will make a counter-clockwise "no victory" lap around FirstEnergy Stadium to form a zero to match the team's win total.</p>
<p>"There's no turning back now," said McNeil, who has been condemned and praised leading up to the parade.</p>
<p>A season-ticket holder, McNeil never wanted the parade to happen. The Browns, though, turned an intended joke into reality by becoming the second team in NFL history to lose 16 games in a season. In joining the 2008 Detroit Lions, Cleveland's team has found a new low in nearly two decades of disgrace since returning as an expansion franchise in 1999.</p>
<p>The Browns were stumbling toward a 1-15 record in 2016 under first-year coach Hue Jackson. McNeil, who like other fans was basking in the aftermath of the Cavaliers winning the NBA title to end the city's 52-year championship drought, posted a sarcastic message on Twitter about the Browns: "This team deserves a parade."</p>
<p>The sentiment created a stir on social media. Soon McNeil, better known as @Reflog_18 on Twitter, was obtaining a permit from the city to hold a parade. But it was canceled when the Browns finally won on Christmas Eve after 14 straight losses.</p>
<p>McNeil gave money raised to hold the event to the Cleveland Food Bank, a gift that reached nearly $50,000 after Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam doubled the donation.</p>
<p>McNeil never considered the possibility of another parade, but when the Browns lost in Pittsburgh last Sunday, it became official.</p>
<p>He's organized on the fly, hiring security, taking out insurance and renting portable bathrooms. McNeil set up a GoFundMe account to help cover expenses. Excedrin donated nearly $8,000, saying Browns fans didn't need another headache after what they've endured.</p>
<p>As of Friday morning, the event's Facebook page says 6,300 people have committed to attend and 20,000 more are interested.</p>
<p>McNeil knows of fans flying from California. Area hotels have informed him that guests intend to attend the parade despite a weather forecast better suited for penguins and polar bears.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, McNeil has sensed the tone change from sarcastic to serious. Browns fans are demanding better.</p>
<p>"Some people are saying they want to turn this thing around," he said. "Others say they want to fire Hue Jackson or change ownership. Others just want to go down there and have a cathartic experience."</p>
<p>The Browns haven't impeded McNeil and understand this comes with the territory after going 1-31 in two years.</p>
<p>"We greatly appreciate the passion of all our fans and we apologize to them for not making 2017 an enjoyable season," the Browns said in a statement. "We certainly hear them and understand their frustration. Obviously, we want the same thing as our fans; winning results. We are committed to doing everything we can to improve and build them the type of team they most certainly deserve."</p>
<p>McNeil is criticized by some who feel he's mocking the Browns and only bringing more embarrassment to Cleveland, whose image was scarred for years by the city's sports failures.</p>
<p>He argues his goal was to give fans a voice to reach the Haslams.</p>
<p>"People know we have been wronged by this organization and we deserve better and they know while it's a tongue-in-cheek thing by calling it a parade, it really is a protest," he said. "We're not out here saying we're happy about 0-16. When I think of embarrassment, I think of a team that has won one game in two years."</p>
<p>CLEVELAND (AP) - The weather conditions will be suitably brutal. Like the Cleveland Browns' season.</p>
<p>Despite temperatures forecast in the single digits, thousands of disillusioned fans are expected to attend a parade on Saturday to commemorate - and protest - the historically inept 0-16 season.</p>
<p>Nothing like some floats and frostbite.</p>
<p>The "Perfect Season Parade" organizer Chris McNeil's tongue-in-cheek tweet more than a year ago spawned a small uprising within Cleveland's passionate fan base. He's spent the past few days finalizing preparation for the parade. There will be a bus, RVs, an ambulance and hearse - to symbolically bury the season.</p>
<p>Fans will make a counter-clockwise "no victory" lap around FirstEnergy Stadium to form a zero to match the team's win total.</p>
<p>"There's no turning back now," said McNeil, who has been condemned and praised leading up to the parade.</p>
<p>A season-ticket holder, McNeil never wanted the parade to happen. The Browns, though, turned an intended joke into reality by becoming the second team in NFL history to lose 16 games in a season. In joining the 2008 Detroit Lions, Cleveland's team has found a new low in nearly two decades of disgrace since returning as an expansion franchise in 1999.</p>
<p>The Browns were stumbling toward a 1-15 record in 2016 under first-year coach Hue Jackson. McNeil, who like other fans was basking in the aftermath of the Cavaliers winning the NBA title to end the city's 52-year championship drought, posted a sarcastic message on Twitter about the Browns: "This team deserves a parade."</p>
<p>The sentiment created a stir on social media. Soon McNeil, better known as @Reflog_18 on Twitter, was obtaining a permit from the city to hold a parade. But it was canceled when the Browns finally won on Christmas Eve after 14 straight losses.</p>
<p>McNeil gave money raised to hold the event to the Cleveland Food Bank, a gift that reached nearly $50,000 after Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam doubled the donation.</p>
<p>McNeil never considered the possibility of another parade, but when the Browns lost in Pittsburgh last Sunday, it became official.</p>
<p>He's organized on the fly, hiring security, taking out insurance and renting portable bathrooms. McNeil set up a GoFundMe account to help cover expenses. Excedrin donated nearly $8,000, saying Browns fans didn't need another headache after what they've endured.</p>
<p>As of Friday morning, the event's Facebook page says 6,300 people have committed to attend and 20,000 more are interested.</p>
<p>McNeil knows of fans flying from California. Area hotels have informed him that guests intend to attend the parade despite a weather forecast better suited for penguins and polar bears.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, McNeil has sensed the tone change from sarcastic to serious. Browns fans are demanding better.</p>
<p>"Some people are saying they want to turn this thing around," he said. "Others say they want to fire Hue Jackson or change ownership. Others just want to go down there and have a cathartic experience."</p>
<p>The Browns haven't impeded McNeil and understand this comes with the territory after going 1-31 in two years.</p>
<p>"We greatly appreciate the passion of all our fans and we apologize to them for not making 2017 an enjoyable season," the Browns said in a statement. "We certainly hear them and understand their frustration. Obviously, we want the same thing as our fans; winning results. We are committed to doing everything we can to improve and build them the type of team they most certainly deserve."</p>
<p>McNeil is criticized by some who feel he's mocking the Browns and only bringing more embarrassment to Cleveland, whose image was scarred for years by the city's sports failures.</p>
<p>He argues his goal was to give fans a voice to reach the Haslams.</p>
<p>"People know we have been wronged by this organization and we deserve better and they know while it's a tongue-in-cheek thing by calling it a parade, it really is a protest," he said. "We're not out here saying we're happy about 0-16. When I think of embarrassment, I think of a team that has won one game in two years."</p> | Misery march: Browns fans facing bitter cold for 0-16 parade | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a33e99b405f9466b8c82978ecd60668d | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>WASHINGTON — Senators grilled U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch during a daylong hearing Tuesday at which the appellate judge refused to reveal his leanings on controversial topics like abortion rights, gun rights and religious freedoms.</p>
<p>Gorsuch, 49, used the back and forth with lawmakers to assert his independence as a judge and distance himself from the controversies swirling around the man who nominated him, President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa, led Gorsuch into friendly exchanges that allowed him to tout his judicial independence and his pledge to follow the law, even if it involved actions by Trump.</p>
<p>“Nobody in this country is above the law, and that includes the president,” Gorsuch said.</p>
<p>Gorsuch said he would be an independent jurist — not beholden to the executive and legislative branches of government.</p>
<p>“I have no difficulty ruling for or against any party” Gorsuch told the panel. “There is no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge, we just have judges.”</p>
<p>“You want someone who is going to put politics aside,” Gorsuch told senators.</p>
<p>But while Gorsuch enjoys wide support among Republicans, Democrats grumbled about the GOP blockade of Judge Merrick Garland, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to sit on the high court.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court seat became vacant when Justice Antonin Scalia died Feb. 13, 2016 in Texas. He died of natural causes.</p>
<p>Even though Obama nominated Garland for the post, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to hold a hearing.</p>
<p>The political gambit paid off. Trump was elected and selected Gorsuch from a list of 21 candidates vetted by the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.</p>
<p>Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said “Judge Garland would be on the bench today” if it were not for Republican actions to block the nomination.</p>
<p>“I think it’s shameful,” Leahy said. “I think it has damaged the reputation of this committee.”</p>
<p>When other senators asked Gorsuch to speak about Garland, Gorsuch remained unmovable.</p>
<p>“I’m not going to get involved in politics,” Gorsuch said.</p>
<p>Gorsuch, a Colorado native, was first appointed to the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006 by President George W. Bush. Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate on unanimous voice vote.</p>
<p>He now faces two more days of hearings before the Senate acts on his confirmation.</p>
<p>Grassley has set a vote on the nominee on April 3, with a full Senate vote following.</p>
<p>If confirmed, Gorsuch would be the first westerner on the high court since Sandra Day O’Connor of Arizona.</p>
<p>Gorsuch shot down a claim brought to the Judiciary Committee by two women at the University of Colorado Law School, who said Gorsuch asked inappropriate questions about women’s family planning in a legal ethics class.</p>
<p>A teacher of the course, Gorsuch said an ethics textbook was used and followed, and that the question to the class was about how many women have been asked such questions by employers.</p>
<p>He was surprised that women still face obstacles that O’Connor faced when she graduated from law school and was forced to take work as a secretary, despite her Stanford University law degree.</p>
<p>Senators spent the day trying to pin down Gorsuch on his leanings on controversial issues.</p>
<p>Gorsuch told Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that Trump never asked how the federal judge would rule on abortion rights, or the landmark Roe v. Wade case.</p>
<p>“I would have walked out the door,” Gorsuch said.</p>
<p>He dodged other questions about case law, and legal precedent. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked about a case that allows residents in the District of Columbia to possess a weapon for self-defense, even though DC has strict laws that prohibit gun ownership.</p>
<p>Whatever is in the ruling, Gorsuch said, “I follow the law.”</p>
<p>Likewise, Gorsuch said legal precedent would suggest that a reinstatement of torture as an interrogation technique would be outside the law.</p>
<p>When Graham said Trump could face impeachment if he tried to reinstate torture techniques like waterboarding, Gorsuch said impeachment is under the purview of Congress.</p>
<p>“No man is above the law,” Gorsuch said.</p>
<p>Democrats on the committee sought to portray Gorsuch as a champion of big business and against “the little guy.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the GOP effort to get Gorsuch confirmed was bankrolled by a $10 million ad buy from a special interest group.</p>
<p>Contact Gary Martin at 202-662-7390 or [email protected]. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.</p>
<p>RELATED</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch tries to rise above partisan rancor at hearing</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch to fill Supreme Court vacancy</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Nevada AG throws support behind Supreme Court pick Gorsuch</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">White House pushes for Senate to confirm Gorsuch for Supreme Court</a></p>
<p /> | Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch says he will be impartial jurist | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/supreme-court-nominee-gorsuch-says-he-will-be-impartial-jurist/ | 2017-03-21 | 1 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has signed a new executive order intended to make more efficient the federal permitting process for construction of transportation, water and other infrastructure projects without harming the environment.</p>
<p>Trump’s order includes revoking an earlier executive order signed by President Barack Obama concerning projects built in flood plains, White House officials said. The Obama order required that such projects built with federal aid take rising sea levels into account. Trump has suggested the predicted risks from sea level rise driven by climate change are overblown.</p>
<p>Describing his action, Trump said projects will still be subjected to environmental safeguards.</p>
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<p>“It’s going to be quick, it’s going to be a very streamlined process,” Trump said. “And by the way, if it doesn’t meet environmental safeguards, we’re not going to approve it. Very simple. We’re not going to approve it.”</p>
<p>Building trade groups had urged Trump to revoke the flood plain order, saying it was overly bureaucratic and increased the cost of projects. The Obama order was especially unwieldy because it didn’t standardize across the government how sea level rise was to be taken into account, which left each federal agency to come up with its own standards, said Jimmy Christianson, an attorney with the Associated General Contractors.</p>
<p>A recent draft of an upcoming report from scientists representing 13 federal agencies say sea levels along U.S. coastlines could rise by more than one foot on average by 2050, potentially more in the Northeast and western Gulf of Mexico. A projected increase in the intensity of hurricanes in the North Atlantic will increase the probability of “extreme coastal flooding.”</p>
<p>Environmentalists said Tuesday that ignoring the reality of the Earth’s changing climate is shortsighted.</p>
<p>“What this order will do is ensure that we will waste more taxpayer money because federal agencies will no longer have to consider long-term flood risks to federally funded infrastructure projects,” said Jessica Grannis, who manages the adaptation program at the Georgetown Climate Center.</p>
<p>The president, speaking at a news conference at Trump Tower in New York, said it can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and 17 years to approve an ordinary highway project because of burdensome regulations. Under Trump’s order, agencies must complete environmental reviews of projects within two years on average. Trump signed another executive order on streamlining environmental and public reviews of infrastructure projects his first week in office.</p>
<p>“We used to have the greatest infrastructure anywhere in the world. And today we’re like a third-world country,” Trump said, using a term referring to the economically developing nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America.</p>
<p>Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has said that regulations, not a lack of funding, are a primary holdup faced by transportation infrastructure projects. But a Treasury Department report released earlier this year found that “a lack of public funding is by far the most common factor hindering completion” of major transportation and water infrastructure projects.</p>
<p>Democrats have said the administration would be better off implementing streamlining provisions already in law than attempting new efforts. Congress passed transportation funding laws in 2012 and 2015 with dozens of streamlining provisions.</p>
<p>A report by the Transportation Department’s inspector general this spring found that although the department had completed work necessary to implement a majority of the 42 streamlining provisions in the 2012 law, they had still not been implemented because regulators had to make changes to comply with the requirements of the 2015 law.</p>
<p>Shannon Eggleston, the American Association of State, Highway and Transportation Officials’ program director for environment, said there is still room to make adjustments to the processes for complying with laws protecting endangered species and air quality that won’t hurt the environment.</p> | Trump signs order to speed infrastructure construction | false | https://abqjournal.com/1048491/trump-signs-order-to-speed-infrastructure-construction.html | 2017-08-15 | 2 |
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<p>China stocks pulled back from seven-month highs on Tuesday as a sharp correction in bank shares offset sustained strength in the property sector.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Both the blue-chip CSI300 index and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5 percent, to 3,378.25 and 3,110.04 points, respectively.</p>
<p>Expectations of fresh monetary easing soon, which has fueled the recent market rally, cooled after a senior central bank official said China's banking system has ample liquidity, and that interest rates are already at a low level.</p>
<p>"You see a lot of excitement in markets now as people see the chance of making quick money in some sectors, such as real estate," said Wu Kan, head of equity trading at investment firm Shanshan Finance.</p>
<p>"But the state of the economy doesn't justify a sustained market rally. Sector rotation is more likely."</p>
<p>The banking sector dropped 2 percent on profit-taking, following the previous session's jump. Bank of Ningbo, the most expensive among China's listed lenders, plunged 6.8 percent in huge volume.</p>
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<p>But real estate stocks remained strong, with an index tracking the sector rising 3.2 percent to a fresh seven-month high, bringing gains so far this month to 26 percent.</p>
<p>Bellwether Vanke jumped 10 percent to an all-time high - the third straight session in which it had risen 10 percent.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Pete Sweeney; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)</p> | Why Did China Stocks Retreat From 7-Month Highs? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/16/why-did-china-stocks-retreat-from-7-month-highs.html | 2016-08-16 | 0 |
<p>Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, with much prodding from Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, is thinking about using some of that $700 billion to buy ownership stakes in shaky banks. The scheme would ostensibly give taxpayers a share in the fortunes of the bailed-out institutions.</p>
<p>The prospect of pumping taxpayer money into unstable banks is hard to swallow, but then so is the current plan to buy up all the junk securities that none of these institutions can sell to anyone else.</p>
<p>AP via Google:</p>
<p>An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return.</p>
<p />
<p>This official said all the new powers granted in the legislation were being considered as the administration seeks to deal with a serious credit crisis that has caused the biggest upheavals on Wall Street in seven decades and continues to roil global markets.</p>
<p>Supporters of this approach, such as Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., argue that injecting fresh capital into U.S. banks who want to participate in the program would be an effective way to bolster banks’ balance sheets and get them to resume lending. Taxpayers would benefit because the government would receive an equity stake in the bank in return for providing the capital.</p>
<p><a href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hQC8hiYQJGPIlP-U7tAZ_9p2Oe2gD93MR1I80" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Is Paulson Going Bank Shopping? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/is-paulson-going-bank-shopping/ | 2008-10-09 | 4 |
<p />
<p>If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules for filing income, estate, and gift tax returns and paying estimated tax are generally the same whether you are in the United States or abroad. Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside.</p>
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<p>If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien residing overseas, or are in the military on duty outside the U.S., on the regular due date of your return, you are allowed an&#160; <a href="http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96768,00.html" type="external">automatic 2-month extension Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;to file your return and pay any amount due without requesting an extension. For a calendar year return, the automatic 2-month extension is to June 15.</p>
<p>If you are unable to file your return by the automatic 2-month extension date, you can request an additional extension to October 15 by filing&#160; <a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4868.pdf" type="external">Form 4868 Opens a New Window.</a>before the automatic 2-month extension date. However, any tax due payments made after June 15 will be subject to both interest charges and failure to pay penalties.</p>
<p>If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien (Green Card Holder) and you live in a foreign country, mail your U.S. tax return to:</p>
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<p>Estimated tax payments should be mailed with form 1040-ES to:</p>
<p>Taxpayers with an AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) of $57,000 or less can electronically file their tax return for free using&#160; <a href="http://www.freefile.irs.gov/index.html" type="external">freefile Opens a New Window.</a>. Taxpayers with an AGI greater than $57,000 can either use the&#160; <a href="http://www.freefile.irs.gov/how-efile-works.html" type="external">Free File Fillable Forms Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;or&#160; <a href="http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=226820,00.html" type="external">efile by purchasing commercial software Opens a New Window.</a>. A limited number of companies provide software that can accommodate foreign addresses. To determine which will work best for you, get help <a href="http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html" type="external">choosing a software provider Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Each taxpayer who files, or is claimed as a dependent on, a U.S. tax return will need a social security number (SSN) or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN). To obtain a SSN, use form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card. To get form SS-5, or to find out if you are eligible for a social security card, contact a Social Security Office or visit&#160; <a href="http://www.socialsecurity.gov/foreign/" type="external">Social Security International Operations Opens a New Window.</a>. If you, or your spouse, are not eligible for a SSN, you can obtain an&#160; <a href="http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96287,00.html" type="external">ITIN Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;by filing form W-7 along with appropriate documentation.</p>
<p>You must express the amounts you report on your U.S. tax return in U.S. dollars. If you receive all or part of your income or pay some or all of your expenses in foreign currency, you must translate the foreign currency into U.S. dollars. Taxpayers generally use the yearly average exchange rate to report foreign-earned income that was received regularly throughout the year. However, if you had foreign transactions on specific days, you may also use the exchange rates for those days. Exchange rates can be found at&#160; <a href="http://www.military.com/businesses/small/article/0,,id=130524,00.html" type="external">Foreign Currency and Currency Exchange Rates Opens a New Window.</a>. Yearly average currency exchange rates for most countries can be found at&#160; <a href="http://www.military.com/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=206089,00.html" type="external">Yearly Average Currency Exchange Rates Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The IRS Office in Philadelphia provides international tax assistance. This office is open Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. EST and can be contacted by:</p>
<p>The IRS has customer service personnel available to provide tax assistance in the following Embassies and Consulates abroad:</p> | Military Taxes: Doing Taxes Overseas | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/01/21/military-taxes-doing-taxes-overseas.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>I grew up in a cop family in Chicago, so when the Democrats arrived for the 1968 convention, I didn’t go anyplace close to where people might be engaging in confrontation–not Lincoln Park, not the International Amphitheater, not Michigan Avenue. I knew first-hand how potentially catastrophic demonstrating might be, how certain cops could get pretty psychotic if they were opposed. At that time getting sapped by the police struck me as pointless (it still does).</p>
<p>During college I had turned against the war and had also become a big Mailer fan. At that time, Mailer would go on the Merv Griffin show in the afternoon and call LBJ a war criminal and, in effect, a motherfucker–how cool was that, especially compared to today’s literary artists, who politically tend to be rather less forthright. In 1967, after the Pentagon anti-war march, I hung out at the news stand every day waiting for On the Steps of the Pentagon, his piece for Harper’s magazine.</p>
<p>I knew he was covering the ’68 political conventions, so I hung around downtown once the Dems arrived, celebrity watching and hoping to meet the man himself. (I did get on an elevator with Robert Lowell at the Hilton and road for a few floors, but was too awestruck to say anything; besides, he had the frightening look that day, close up, of somebody who just might explode from the tension inside.)</p>
<p>I looked all week but I couldn’t locate Mailer, though I just missed him one day when he addressed the protesters in Grant Park (I did get into the Hubert Humphrey suite at the Hilton and met one of the speech writers, but that’s another story). The convention finished on Thursday night, and Friday morning I gave it one last shot, stopping at the Hilton, the lobby still putrid from the tear gas and stink bombs Mailer would later describe so vividly. I picked up the house phone and asked for Mailer’s room on the off chance he might be staying there . . . and was put right through!</p>
<p>“Hello.” That Brooklyn growl.</p>
<p>“Mr. Mailer,” I said. “You don’t know me, but I wonder if I could stop by before you leave town. I have a poem to give you.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, OK, come on up.” He gave me a room number.</p>
<p>Well, I was completely flabbergasted by this impending brush with greatness, if that’s what it would turn out to be. What did I, a 22-year-old nobody, a policeman’s kid, have to say to Norman Mailer–Harvard grad, literary legend, TV star, major American celebrity! And what did he have to say to me?</p>
<p>In my pocket was a brief poem, a meditation on surrender and self-destruction, which contained a line inspired by Mailer’s title for the book on the Pentagon march, The Armies of the Night, itself lifted from Mathew Arnold’s “Dover Beach.”</p>
<p>The hotel room door opened and there was the literary legend, dripping wet, just out of the shower, wrapped only in a large towel, having just applied Brylcreem (the scent was unmistakable) to his wet hair. We shook hands; he pointed over his shoulder and introduced me to his friend Jose Torres, who was still in bed half-asleep and barely glanced my way. I mumbled some greeting or other and handed Mailer the poem, which he read quickly, and I asked him for an autograph. He tore off the bottom of the page and wrote, using my pen: “To PATRICK O’HAYER, after reading ‘O When Is It Ignoble?” (signed) Norman Mailer.” I said thanks, and something like, My god, what an amazing week! Mailer concurred but pretty quickly ushered me out of the room with “Nice to meet you and good luck with your writing.”</p>
<p>And that was it. Well, almost. Later that year I was drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps (they draft into the Naval service in time of war). I sent Mailer a note critical of some of his political writing (I’d fallen under the baleful influence of Mailer’s cellmate at the Pentagon march, Noam Chomsky). In his reply to me, I discovered that Mailer was also a master of the personal insult: “Stop beating your fat pussie [sic] red Irish gums . . . If you want to correspond then show some literary manners to your betters.” Good grief, but I was put in my place.</p>
<p>A couple years later, nevertheless, I started sending him an occasional poem and he was invariably encouraging–he even agreed to do a blurb for my second collection. Obviously, this was mainly a one-sided correspondence–the star on one side, the fan on the other. But he was awfully kind to this beginning writer, and certainly generous to someone he knew, really, not at all.</p>
<p>In 1984 he sent me this in response to some generic complaining: “Your last letter . . . sounds like my life. I fill my home with kids and I dream of having a year to myself to do nothing but read. Also, am obliged to interest myself in the problem of making money much more than I want to. Ah, these universal traps.”</p>
<p>Indeed!</p>
<p>PATRICK O’HAYER can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A Portrait of Mailer and a Young Poet | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/11/17/a-portrait-of-mailer-and-a-young-poet/ | 2007-11-17 | 4 |
<p>Is a blatant anti-homosexual law alive and unwell in the state of California? 286 (e) of the California Penal Code makes it a misdemeanor to engage in consensual sodomy while incarcerated. Subsection ‘e’ is the only law on the books that I know of prohibiting consensual sodomy with an adult. Given the need for rules and discipline in a penal setting, as well as to protect those who might be involved in a not-so-consensual manner, the presence of the law itself is not the question here. The question lies in its inclusion in PC 290.</p>
<p>PC 290 requires those with past convictions of certain sex offenses to register with the police for the rest of their lives. The law came into effect in 1998, but because the laws protecting people from retroactive punishment take a hiatus when it comes to sex offenders, those convicted prior to the law’s effect must register. Therefore, the many people out there who took a deal prior to 1998 for a relatively lenient sentence, whatever their chances of winning at trial (or whatever may have actually happened), face a possible felony conviction if they fail to make their sex offender status public, forever.</p>
<p>A recent client, CF, was convicted of PC 286 (e) in 1985 when he was 18. He says he is still a friend of the other person involved (there’s no place for the word “victim” here). He is currently on parole for 2nd degree, or commercial, burglary. Given the aforementioned hiatus from the laws against retroactive punishment, a parolee with a 290 offense at any time in his or her past is subject to the residency restrictions of Proposition 83, or “Jessica’s Law”: They cannot reside within 2000 feet of a park or a school. In other words, someone paroled to a Bay Area county with these conditions will likely be homeless by law.</p>
<p>When I saw that CF’s sole 290 offense was the PC 286 (e) conviction in 1985, I went to the Penal Code hoping for that “gotcha” moment where I could show the Board of Prison Terms that he never had to register in the first place. That moment never came: The list in PC 290 includes all of PC 286, with no subsections excluded. Therefore, a person whose sole sex offense was consensual sex with another adult (over 20 years ago) has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and must be homeless while on parole.</p>
<p>The inclusion of PC 286 (e) in PC 290, or rather, the non-exclusion of subsection (e), was either missed by the legislature or is a blatant anti-homosexual law in which Justice Scalia can take some small comfort after laws prohibiting consensual sodomy outside the prison walls were found unconstitutional. Feel free to contact your California representative and inform her or him about the mistaken and/or bigoted inclusion of Section 286 (e) of the California Penal Code in Section 290.</p>
<p>MARC GARDNER is a defense lawyer in the Bay Area. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | California’s Anti-Homosexual Laws are Alive and Unwell | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/09/09/california-s-anti-homosexual-laws-are-alive-and-unwell/ | 2008-09-09 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Applied Materials.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What: Shares of semiconductor equipment giant Applied Materials soared 19.3% in May, according to data provided by <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/CIQDotNet/Login.aspx" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>. The company's fiscal second-quarter earnings report beat analyst estimates on all fronts, and order growth was strong.</p>
<p>So what: Applied Materials reported quarterly revenue of $2.45 billion, roughly flat year over year and slightly above analyst expectations. Orders surged 37% year over year, driven mainly by growth in the company's display business. The display segment received $700 million of new orders during the quarter, up from just $120 million during the prior-year period. New orders for equipment related to flash memory also surged, counteracting a steep decline in DRAM equipment orders.</p>
<p>Earnings also came in above analyst estimates, with Applied Materials reporting non-GAAP EPS of $0.34, up from $0.29 during the same period last year. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.32 per share. Applied Materials' earnings growth was driven by a drop in operating expenses, with general and administrative costs falling by 35% year over year.</p>
<p>Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson summed up the quarter: "In our second quarter we booked our highest orders in 15 years and we expect to deliver record earnings in fiscal 2016. We are making significant progress with our strategy in semiconductor, display and service, and have a great pipeline of differentiated products that will fuel future growth."</p>
<p>Now what: Strong order growth for Applied Materials led the company to issue guidance that was well ahead of analyst expectations. The company expects revenue in the third quarter to grow by 14% to 18% sequentially, compared to analyst estimates calling for just 2% growth. The company expects non-GAAP EPS between $0.46 and $0.50 in the third quarter, above the $0.36 analysts were expecting.</p>
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<p>Applied Materials operates in a cyclical industry, and it's important to remember that orders can both surge and dry up without much warning. For now, investors are pushing the stock higher on solid results and extremely strong order growth.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/02/why-applied-materials-stock-surged-19-in-may.aspx" type="external">Why Applied Materials Stock Surged 19% in May Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Timothy Green Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Applied Materials Stock Surged 19% in May | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/02/why-applied-materials-stock-surged-1-in-may.html | 2016-06-02 | 0 |
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