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<p>FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Rocky Mountain National Park almost set another visitation record in 2017.</p>
<p>The Coloradoan <a href="http://noconow.co/2n9C3Zq" type="external">reported</a> Wednesday that the park’s visitation last year was less than 2 percent shy of the 4.5 million visitors it saw in 2016.</p>
<p>Last year was the first time since 2013 the park hasn’t set a visitation record.</p>
<p>The park says that visitation has increased about 40 percent since 2012. The increase has been partly attributed to Front Range population growth and recent centennial celebrations for Rocky and the National Park Service.</p>
<p>The increased traffic has park managers evaluating ways to protect visitors. Last summer and fall, vehicle access was restricted during congested periods in the highly trafficked Bear Lake Road corridor, Wild Basin area and Alpine Visitor Center. Park managers will do so again in 2018.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, <a href="http://www.coloradoan.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.coloradoan.com" type="external">http://www.coloradoan.com</a></p>
<p>FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Rocky Mountain National Park almost set another visitation record in 2017.</p>
<p>The Coloradoan <a href="http://noconow.co/2n9C3Zq" type="external">reported</a> Wednesday that the park’s visitation last year was less than 2 percent shy of the 4.5 million visitors it saw in 2016.</p>
<p>Last year was the first time since 2013 the park hasn’t set a visitation record.</p>
<p>The park says that visitation has increased about 40 percent since 2012. The increase has been partly attributed to Front Range population growth and recent centennial celebrations for Rocky and the National Park Service.</p>
<p>The increased traffic has park managers evaluating ways to protect visitors. Last summer and fall, vehicle access was restricted during congested periods in the highly trafficked Bear Lake Road corridor, Wild Basin area and Alpine Visitor Center. Park managers will do so again in 2018.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, <a href="http://www.coloradoan.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.coloradoan.com" type="external">http://www.coloradoan.com</a></p> | Rocky Mountain National Park nearly hits visitation record | false | https://apnews.com/6fab2b8b10784ad8bd1b9ae419e71481 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
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<p>County commissioners approved the budget reductions this week, a total of $436,962 that represents cuts department directors made from nearly every aspect of county operations, including the IT maintenance contracts, senior programs and phone services for the Sheriff’s Office.</p>
<p>The cuts won’t result in any job losses or cause any programs to be shut down, county spokesman Sidney Hill said.</p>
<p>“That’s why he gave department directors the directive to figure out where they could cut,” Hill said.</p>
<p>But the cuts will mean changes.</p>
<p>For the Sheriff’s Office, reducing the phone budget by $4,000, from $27,500 to $23,500, meant giving up a landline at a substation in Cuba and trimming the cellphone plan after a review revealed there were more phones than needed, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Jessica Mascareñas.</p>
<p>“Everyone who needs one still has one,” she said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Reducing the Animal Control budget from $18,000 to $15,000 will mean the Sheriff’s Office will have to monitor carefully how many animals it can take to the Watermelon Mountain Ranch shelter in Rio Rancho, where it has to pay fees, Mascareñas said.</p>
<p>Hill said the reductions were needed to avoid incurring a budget deficit because the county is not receiving payments for housing federal prisoners at the county detention center. For example, the revenue loss amounted to $600,000 between March and the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2012. He said the federal revenue helped boost budgets across all county departments.</p>
<p>The U.S. Marshals Service pulled prisoners from the jail in March last year over concerns about three suicides, two of them federal inmates, that occurred there in 2011.</p>
<p>Before that, the county jail was averaging 150 to 170 prisoners daily at a reimbursement rate of $67 per inmate. The county revamped its procedures and expected to begin housing federal prisoners again in August but as of last month none were staying overnight at the jail.</p>
<p>The county in February approved hiring a consultant to help the detention center meet federal requirements so prisoners can be returned, but it is unclear when that will be, Hill said. — This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Sandoval County trimming budget by $437K | false | https://abqjournal.com/176531/sandoval-county-trimming-budget-by-437k.html | 2013-03-09 | 2 |
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<p>The home-dialysis market is a growing one because of the rise in incidence of diabetes and other diseases that can have an impact on kidney function. NxStage Medical (NASDAQ: NXTM) has done its best to tap into that market, but in its efforts to maximize growth in sales of its life-changing equipment, the company hasn't yet been able to reach consistent profitability. Coming into Tuesday's fourth-quarter financial report, NxStage investors weren't expecting that to change, but the news that the home-dialysis specialist gave suggests that 2017 could be the year in which NxStage turns its income statement around and starts delivering black ink on the bottom line.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Let's look more closely at NxStage Medical to see how it did and why it expects better times in the year ahead.</p>
<p>Image source: NxStage Medical.</p>
<p>NxStage Medical's fourth-quarter results showed the opportunity that the company has in front of it. Revenue was up 4% to $93 million, a record result that was $1 million higher than the company had forecast. NxStage posted a loss of $1.6 million for the quarter, which worked out to $0.02 per share and was near the midpoint of the $1 million to $2 million range that NxStage had predicted in its previous guidance.</p>
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<p>Looking more closely at the report, NxStage continued to benefit from the strength of its System One platform. Sales there were up 10% from the year-ago period, driven by a 13% rise in sales of the System One for home use. Critical care revenue from System One inched higher by 3%, slowing from its faster pace of growth earlier in the year but still contributing to the company's overall success.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, NxStage kept de-emphasizing its in-center business. Revenue from the division fell more than a fifth from year-ago levels, reflecting its strategic decision away from its more traditional dialysis products.</p>
<p>However, services revenue continued to climb. Gains for the quarter approached 50%, capping a year in which sales from services more than doubled.</p>
<p>CEO Jeffrey Burbank was happy with how things have turned out for NxStage. "Our focus on innovation and execution is delivering the results we talked about," Burbank said, "and setting the foundation for the next wave of growth." The CEO also reminded investors that its products and services are having a positive impact on patient lives, which is in keeping with the company's core mission.</p>
<p>Moreover, NxStage Medical sees its achievements bearing fruit in the near future. As Burbank put it, "We're excited about 2017 and are pleased to see our product pipeline development efforts continue to progress. We have many milestones on the horizon, including the introduction of our [peritoneal dialysis] system targeted for the end of this year."</p>
<p>Nowhere is NxStage's optimism more evident than in its guidance. Sales of $400 million to $405 million for the full 2017 year would represent another roughly 10% rise in NxStage's top line, with the company targeting 15% growth in home-based revenue. The home-dialysis specialist also said that it expects to have positive net income for 2017. First-quarter results should be generally favorable as well, with sales of $95 million to $97 million and modest losses of between $1 million and $3 million remaining roughly in line with current expectations.</p>
<p>Still, investors have been waiting for NxStage to become profitable for quite a while. They had already anticipated that 2017 would be a groundbreaking year for the company, and so the pressure will be on for NxStage to deliver on its full promise for the year.</p>
<p>Perhaps as a result, NxStage investors didn't react all that strongly to the news, and the stock traded down by about half a percent in pre-market trading following the announcement. Yet in the long run, NxStage will be able to look back at this critical time and decide whether it did everything it could to support its fundamental business prospects for its long-term future.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NxStage MedicalWhen 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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx" type="external">Dan Caplinger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends NxStage Medical. 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> | 2017 Should Bring NxStage Medical a Profit | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/28/2017-should-bring-nxstage-medical-profit.html | 2017-03-16 | 0 |
<p>Chicago TribuneBy Tim JonesTribune national correspondentPublished March 19, 2003Some of the biggest rallies this month have endorsed President Bush's strategy against Saddam Hussein, and the common thread linking most of them is Clear Channel Worldwide Inc., the nation's largest owner of radio stations.In a move that has raised eyebrows in some legal and journalistic circles, Clear Channel radio stations in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Antonio, Cincinnati and other cities have sponsored rallies attended by up to 20,000 people. The events have served as a loud rebuttal to the more numerous but generally smaller anti-war rallies.</p> | Media Giant's Rally Sponsorship Raises Questions | false | https://poynter.org/news/media-giants-rally-sponsorship-raises-questions | 2003-03-19 | 2 |
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<p>Under the old pet ordinance, there are some restrictions in place that I believe go overboard. Below I will briefly touch on some topics.</p>
<p>1. Circuses – Under the proposed changes, any live animal entertainment will be required to be in compliance with federal and New Mexico laws. They will provide a copy of, and maintain, a valid resident or non-resident permit with New Mexico Game and Fish.</p>
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<p>The old pet ordinance would actually eliminate any animal entertainment company from coming here if they have had any allegation of a violation in the last five years, regardless of whether it was true. Even if they had a minor citation, would it be reasonable to shut them down? How fair would it be to shut down any of the many restaurants who have received a health department violation at one time, without giving them the chance to correct the problem? Are we to assume that all live animal exhibits are guilty of animal cruelty?</p>
<p>2. Pet Stores – Under the proposed changes, we wouldÂ&#160; allow pet stores to continue to sell puppies and kittens, with requirements for a warranty, two random inspections each year and facility maintenance and disinfection standards to be met. We also increase cage size and materials standards.</p>
<p>A well-respected veterinarian in our community who spoke in favor of these changes, also made a very good point that it is easier to regulate a pet store than to force everyone to buy their pets from the backyard breeders on Craigslist. The old ordinance actually bans the sale of puppies and kittens at pet stores. We cannot assume that all pet stores are buying from “puppy mills.” It is also contradictory that the creators of the old ordinance felt it necessary to make it illegal for a hobby breeder – legitimate breeder- to sell to a pet store.</p>
<p>3. Animal shelters, pet-sitting services, pet daycares, pet aquatics, training facilities, grooming services – under the proposed changes, we would remove the micro-management of the day-to-day operations of a consumer-based business.</p>
<p>If customers are dissatisfied with their services, they won’t stay in business for long. I have also read numerous comments in the papers accusing us of removing the requirements for animal facilities to provide a clean environment. Not true. It would be smart for those criticizing to actually read the proposed changes in their entirety.</p>
<p>4. I have also heard it said that we are just doing this so the city can make money. While we do have to consider that the circus was prevented from performing at the Santa Ana Star Center in May because of the pet ordinance – Albuquerque’s Tingley Coliseum was happy to have them and their gross receipts – this is about doing what makes sense. I want to be fair, and not make laws based on assumptions or profiling certain groups. Let each individual be judged for their own actions and accept the reward or punishment. Children get sick, hurt or abused in schools and daycares every day, but do we shut them all down? No, we look at ways to fix the problems, and/or punish the individuals responsible.</p>
<p>We can find a common ground that ensures the welfare of the animals and the welfare of the businesses and individuals. It does not have to be one or the other. We need laws that make sense and are not based on assumptions. — This article appeared on page 20 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Setting Record Straight on Pet Vote | false | https://abqjournal.com/140096/setting-record-straight-on-pet-vote.html | 2012-10-20 | 2 |
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<p>If I can just avoid saying or doing anything outrageous for a few more days, Trump must be thinking, then I actually might win this thing.</p>
<p>Or at least, it sounds as if Trump is thinking this, because he said it aloud during a Wednesday night rally in Pensacola, Fla.</p>
<p>“Stay on point, Donald,” Trump said, talking to himself mid-speech. “Stay on point. No sidetracks, Donald.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Trump indeed has a knack for taking media pressure off his opponent with inflammatory comments at his campaign events. During one memorable week in August, for instance, the Republican nominee made headlines with a wild assertion that President Barack Obama is the “founder of ISIS” and a suggestion that if Clinton wins the election, “Second Amendment people” could “maybe” do something about her and her judicial appointments.</p>
<p>Those remarks distracted from a bad stretch for Clinton that included scrutiny of her record as a job creator and a release of State Department emails indicating some Clinton Foundation donors received special access to the department while Clinton was secretary of state.</p>
<p>So Trump gave himself sound advice Wednesday. It was just a rather public pep talk.</p>
<p>The timing was not random. Earlier in the day, he had gotten himself sidetracked at a rally in Miami, where he launched into a standard complaint about press coverage – then singled out NBC News’s Katy Tur for ridicule by his supporters.</p>
<p>Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told CNN between the Miami and Pensacola events that she had talked to NBC News about the episode. Did she also talk to her candidate about exercising restraint?</p>
<p>In another appearance on CNN on Thursday morning, Conway did not dispute anchor Chris Cuomo’s suggestion that Trump was “channeling” his campaign manager when he talked to himself onstage.</p>
<p>CUOMO: You know what the giveaway was? He does not refer to himself as “Donald.” He says “Trump.” Is he channeling you? Is that the advice you’re giving him?</p>
<p>CONWAY: Oh, look, I think Donald Trump does his best when he’s talking about issues and when people get to see the Donald Trump that we know, who’s incredibly gracious and really funny and is doing this for all the right reasons.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Staying “on point” is clearly a challenge for Trump. A moment after his “no sidetracks” conversation with himself, Trump called Clinton “totally unhinged” – not exactly “gracious” or “funny” or “talking about issues.”</p>
<p>He just can’t help himself. And Trump’s impulsiveness clearly worries Conway.</p>
<p>In an A-plus use of a split-screen, CNN played a clip of Trump in Pensacola while showing Conway’s reactions in an adjacent frame.</p>
<p>Conway’s expression when Trump told himself to “stay on point”: Nodding. Smiling. Thumbs up. She even appeared to mouth the word “winning.”</p>
<p>Compare that to Conway’s expression when Trump called Clinton “unhinged”; Eyebrows up. Smile fading. Eyes shifting uncomfortably.</p>
<p>Conway’s thought bubble in that moment said something like, This is not what we just talked about, Donald.</p>
<p>Maybe Conway is going to have another chat with her candidate. Maybe Trump will repeat it to himself (and us) at his next rally.</p>
<p>—</p>
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<p>trump-onpoint</p> | ‘Stay on point, Donald’: Where did Trump’s inner monologue come from? | false | https://abqjournal.com/881455/stay-on-point-donald-where-did-trumps-inner-monologue-come-from.html | 2 |
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<p>Their weekly POW résumés:</p>
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<p>• Senior forward Pierce Hornung, Colorado State: 17.0 points, 12.0 rebounds, 60.9 percent shooting. Colorado State won home games against Boise State and Wyoming in the past week to improve to 5-2 in league play.</p>
<p>• Sophomore guard Hugh Greenwood, New Mexico: 14.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 76.9 percent shooting, 5-of-6 3-point shooting for 83.3 percent, 10-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. UNM won a road game at Wyoming on Wednesday and home game over Nevada on Saturday to improve to 6-1 in league play.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Should Greenwood win the award, he would be the third Lobos player to earn the honor this season joining Tony Snell (Nov. 19) and Alex Kirk (Dec. 31 and Jan. 14). It would be UNM’s fourth Player of the Week award as a team.</p>
<p>In the 2011-12 season, UNM had just one player, Drew Gordon, win Player of the Week honors. He won that award four times last season.</p>
<p>LOBOS LINKS: <a href="" type="internal">Roster</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Schedule/Results</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Geoff Grammer’s blog</a></p> | Who Will Win Mountain West Player of the Week? The Candidates… | false | https://abqjournal.com/238810/who-will-win-mountain-west-player-of-the-week-the-candidates.html | 2 |
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<p>Aug. 18 (UPI) — Tropical Storm Harvey is expected to move through the Windward Islands into the eastern Caribbean Sea on Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center advised.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/181152.shtml" type="external">The storm</a> is moving westward at 18 mph, with sustained winds of 40 mph extending up to 60 miles from the center, the center’s 8 a.m. advisory said. Its center is located between the islands of Barbados, on the storm’s east, and St. Lucia, on its west.</p>
<p>The storm is heading toward St. Lucia. The Barbados government cancelled its tropical storm warning after it passed, but a tropical storm warning is in effect for the islands of Martinique, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia.</p>
<p>The national hurricane center expects rainfall of two to four inches, which could prompt life-threatening flash floods and mudslides across the Windward Islands.</p> | Caribbean's Windward Islands prepare for Tropical Storm Harvey | false | https://newsline.com/caribbeans-windward-islands-prepare-for-tropical-storm-harvey/ | 2017-08-18 | 1 |
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<p>The online survey for parents, students and teachers is posted on the APS website, said Todd Resch, APS associate superintendent for high schools.</p>
<p>“The reason a survey is going out is we are actively seeking stakeholder input,” Resch said.</p>
<p>Resch said he hopes 20,000 people or more complete the survey.</p>
<p />
<p>APS is considering a schedule change in part because its current “modified block” schedule has not helped with student achievement, said interim Superintendent Brad Winter during a community forum.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Like the current schedule, the two proposals call for a seven-period day, but each organizes those periods in a different way. Students would not lose electives under either proposal.</p>
<p>APS officials said they are hopeful the proposed changes would lead to academic improvement because they would create smaller class sizes and allow teachers to see their students more often than the current schedule, said APS spokeswoman Johanna King.</p>
<p>Under the current modified block schedule, most teachers only see their students three times a week.</p>
<p>Under the two proposed changes, teacher would see students either four or five times a week.</p>
<p>Both of the proposed schedules could also save APS $4.6 million, according to district officials.</p>
<p>The savings would come from reduced staffing costs because teachers would teach an additional class each day. Resch said the district should not need to lay anyone off because changes would eliminate positions that are currently vacant.</p>
<p>Cost savings could be a key selling point as the district is facing a projected budget shortfall for next year.</p>
<p>The projected shortfall is currently about $20.4 million, Chief Financial Officer Don Moya said at Tuesday’s forum.</p>
<p>Moya added that projection could change as next year’s budget is built over the coming months.</p>
<p>Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein said teachers are paying attention to the proposed changes and she is urging them to participate in the survey.</p>
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<p /> | APS surveys families, teachers about schedule changes | false | https://abqjournal.com/553863/aps-surveys-families-teachers-about-schedule-changes.html | 2 |
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<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:</p>
<p>5-9-7-2, Wild: 5</p>
<p>(five, nine, seven, two; Wild: five)</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:</p>
<p>5-9-7-2, Wild: 5</p>
<p>(five, nine, seven, two; Wild: five)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 4 Day' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/2964eadb006d4f20b311a138368b9ab5 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
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<p>FRANKFURT, Germany — President Donald Trump keeps criticizing Germany’s trade surplus with the United States. Germans say their products are just better and people want to buy them.</p>
<p>One thing isn’t in dispute: German companies sold 107 billion euros ($120 billion) worth of goods to U.S. customers last year. Going the other way, U.S. companies sold 58 billion euros ($65 billion) worth of stuff to Germany. The result: a German trade surplus of 49 billion euros ($55 billion).</p>
<p>Trump tweeted Tuesday that “we have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO &amp; military. Very bad for U.S. This will change.” He also told EU officials that Germany was “very bad” on the trade question during his stop in Brussels last week.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>What’s behind all this? Here’s a look at Germany’s trading relationship with the U.S. and the rest of the world.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Q: Why does Germany sell so many goods in the United States?</p>
<p>A: Germans, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, are quick to say that German companies just make better products. There’s something to that, as anyone noting all the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche rides in well-heeled neighborhoods will have to concede. Germany’s export success also depends on less glamorous goods, often highly technical industrial equipment made by smaller firms that dominate global niche markets. They have a lot of practice at exporting and they’re good at it.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Q: So trade is all one way — advantage Germany?</p>
<p>A: Despite concerns about the surplus there are benefits to businesses and workers in both countries from their close and longstanding business ties. Germany is the sixth-largest export market for the U.S.</p>
<p>Also, German companies often invest, hire and sell in the United States rather than exporting there. Around 600,000 people in the U.S. work for German companies, according to the German American Chambers of Commerce in New York. They include familiar corporate names such as chemical firm BASF, drug company Bayer, mobile communications provider T-Mobile USA, and food retailer Trader Joe’s. Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz has a factory in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, while Volkswagen makes cars in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was in fact the largest single auto exporter, sending $9.5 billion worth of SUVs through the Port of Charleston to the rest of the world.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Q: Does Germany manipulate its currency to make its goods cheaper and gain advantage?</p>
<p>A: Germany doesn’t have a currency it can manipulate since it belongs to the 19-member euro currency union. Germany does, however, benefit from a recently weaker euro. The euro’s fall has been in large part due to monetary stimulus by the European Central Bank. The ECB has printed more than 1.8 trillion euros and pumped them into the financial system to lift inflation and growth. Such monetary stimulus can weaken a currency, and the euro has slid from near $1.40 in May 2014 to $1.12 now.</p>
<p>If Germany had its own currency, it’s likely the opposite would have happened. Countries that run large trade surpluses often see their currencies gain in value, making their goods more expensive for foreigners and eventually reducing the surplus. The International Monetary Fund said in 2016 that the country’s real effective exchange rate is undervalued by 10-20 percent.</p>
<p>Germans point out they can’t tell the ECB what to do, since it’s independent. Ironically, Germans — including the two that sit on the 25-member ECB governing council — have been among the leading critics of ECB stimulus, saying it bails out countries with weak finances and lots of debt through lower borrowing costs. Yet German exports are beneficiaries too, through the weaker euro.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Q: So it’s all out of Germany’s control?</p>
<p>A: Not entirely. Germany’s emphasis on exports is in part a result of government policies over the years. The government chooses to run budget surpluses rather than step up borrowing and spending, even with interest rates at historic lows. That suppresses spending by Germans, including on imports. In 2003-4, the previous government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder shook up the country’s welfare state, cutting long-term unemployment benefits, loosening rules on firing workers and on part-time and temporary work. Since then, German wage increases have lagged, making the country more competitive on exports but reducing consumer demand for goods.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Q: Is Trump alone in criticizing Germany’s trade surplus?</p>
<p>A: No. Others have also complained about Germany’s trade and investment surplus with the eurozone and the rest of the world. Then-Premier Matteo Renzi of Italy said last year that the German surplus isn’t good for the eurozone. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wrote in 2015 that Germany’s trade surplus “is a problem” since government policy leads to less spending by Germans, in a region that needs all the growth it can get. More wage increases and consumer demand in Germany would help other eurozone economies, the thinking goes.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Q: What could Germany do?</p>
<p>A: Bernanke said that “Germany has several policy tools at its disposal to reduce its trade surplus — tools that, rather than involving sacrifice, would make most Germans better off.” Those steps could include more spending on roads, bridges and airports. That could help increase domestic income and spending. Germany could also improve domestic demand by reducing red tape and regulation on professions like lawyers, accountants, architects, and engineers. That would lower the cost of those services to firms.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Q: How likely is any of that?</p>
<p>A: Such changes aren’t ruled out over the longer term. But German leaders tend to look at their trade performance as a source of pride and jobs. Merkel’s conservatives tout balanced budgets as an achievement. And it’s an election year.</p> | What’s behind the German trade surplus angering Trump? | false | https://abqjournal.com/1010881/whats-behind-the-german-trade-surplus-angering-trump.html | 2017-05-31 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9781610391757-0" type="external">Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years</a></p>
<p>By Geoffrey Nunberg</p>
<p>PublicAffairs</p>
<p>It’s hard to say what makes an asshole an asshole, but you know ’em when you see ’em—from Donald Trump to that guy in the SUV who refuses to use his freakin’ turn signal. Here, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg of the University of California-Berkeley briskly and entertainingly traces how a bit of World War II GI slang became an ubiquitous epithet and a moral category that’s come to embody our polarized politics. Though he doesn’t buy into simplistic notions of civility, Nunberg is concerned about the toxic side of assholism: When we declare someone an asshole, we’re usually giving ourselves leave to act like one.</p>
<p>This review originally appeared in our <a href="" type="internal">September/October issue</a> of Mother Jones.</p> | Quick Reads: “Ascent of the A-Word: by Geoffrey Nunberg | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/book-review-ascent-a-word-asshole-geoffrey-nunberg/ | 2012-08-13 | 4 |
<p>On Tuesday, GOP candidate Mitt Romney was asked by a voter what he would do to “secure our religious freedoms” as president.</p>
<p>Romney’s answer was unexceptional: he would protect religious freedoms &#160;- unlike the president, he said, who clearly has a secular agenda.</p>
<p>I’m interested less in Romney’s generic, to-be-expected answer than that he was asked the question in the first place. It’s a sign that a new conservative strategy surrounding social issues, first articulated in the courts around 2005, is sifting down to regular Joe Conservatives.</p>
<p>Under the old strategy, conservatives set off the culture wars. They called themselves the Moral Majority, said that gays, feminists, etc., were going to hell, and basically said that they are right because they believe God thinks they are right and everyone else is wrong.</p>
<p>The old strategy gave rise to the “gayness is a choice” argument, the “gays are perverts because gay sex is perverted” argument and the “marriage is only between a man and a woman because its always been that way” argument.</p>
<p>For a while, that strategy was pretty effective. In fact, Santorum is still working that old playbook, and it seems to be helping him gather delegates.</p>
<p>But the culture is changing, and just painting homosexuality as being wrong – and for that matter, having sex outside marriage as being wrong – just isn’t working as well anymore.</p>
<p>Enter the New Strategy.</p>
<p>The New Strategy focuses on rights instead of values. It says that religious conservatives believe that a certain set of things (marriage equality, gay adoption, employers paying for contraception) is wrong – but that they understand not everyone thinks that way. However, whether you agree with the morality or not, says the New Strategy, we can all agree that we value religious freedom and the state shouldn’t be infringing on ours.</p>
<p>The fight against this New Strategy has been playing out for the past few years all over the country, but it’s been heating up recently. Less than a year ago in New York, a vote on marriage equality was delayed until religious exemptions were added (they were harmless). The Roman Catholic Church used the strategy to try to pressure the Obama Administration not to mandate contraceptive coverage in his health care plan. And in Virginia on Tuesday, a “conscience clause” allowing private, religious adoption agencies to discriminate against gays and lesbians was sent to the governor.</p>
<p>The change in strategy is smart – very smart – in part because it is so sneaky.</p>
<p>For one thing, it plays on cherished American beliefs. Americans, as a people, are very drawn to rights arguments. A strong belief in civil and human rights is a founding principle of our country and at the very center of our national character. A belief in religious freedom, in particular, is vital to the American understanding of itself. America exists, after all, because brave religious pilgrims sought the freedom to exercise their religious beliefs.</p>
<p>Whether one is religious or not (I happen to be), this argument resonates with Americans at all levels, from Congress to the courts, from legislatures to the layperson. No one wants to infringe on religious freedom. Allegations of this sort are taken very, very seriously, as they should be.</p>
<p>But is that what’s happening here? With gay marriage, with gay adoption, is it true that the state, by giving one group full rights, is therefore infringing on another group’s beliefs?</p>
<p>No – or I think, not usually, and not in most of these cases.</p>
<p>If the state was insisting that congregations marry gay people in their church, in their synagogue, that would be obviously infringing. That’s an easy one, because that’s not what civil marriage does.</p>
<p>Adoption is a bit trickier. But I feel pretty confident in saying that equal access to adoption isn’t infringing on religious freedoms if</p>
<p>1. The adoption agency gets any state money and</p>
<p>2. The agency lets people not of its faith adopt from the agency or work for the agency.</p>
<p>If, for example, a Catholic agency lets a straight Hindu couple adopt – well,&#160; that couple is clearly not comporting with their theology, is it? It can’t be that the agency can pick and choose – seemingly at random – which of their principles they are going to stand behind and which they aren’t. (It’s OK if you don’t believe in Jesus, but not OK if you’re Christian and gay!) That sort of randomness tends to look an awful lot like discrimination.</p>
<p>But fundamentally, the New Strategy is sneaky because it asks for the state to privilege a small subset of religious beliefs – in general, Catholic and evangelical Protestant ones. Note that the same people who squeal about gay marriages trampling their religious beliefs had no problem protesting a Muslim center planned for lower Manhattan. And I’m sure they aren’t advocating for fringe Mormon groups in Utah to be allowed to practice polygamy, even though polygamy is part of their founding texts.</p>
<p>And they are certainly not trumpeting the right of more liberal Christian denominations to be heard, since those congregations perform gay and lesbian marriages.</p>
<p>No, New Strategy activists aren’t upholding a principle, but rather a particular belief system. They are not looking for religious freedom. They are looking for a religious monoculture. They want domination.</p>
<p>Which is exactly what the Constitution, in its clause prohibiting the establishment of a state religion, was trying to avoid.</p>
<p>The New Strategy isn’t religious freedom for all – its religious freedom for a few. And that makes it very un-American.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Jennifer Vanasco is an award-winning writer who specializes in national electoral politics and LGBT and women’s issues. Most recently, she was Editor in Chief of MTV Network’s gay news and politics website <a href="http://365gay.com" type="external">365gay.com</a>. For 15 years, she wrote a nationally-syndicated newspaper column on gay and lesbian politics and life. Her work has appeared in the Village Voice, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post and WNYC public radio’s politics blog. She lives in Manhattan with her fiancée Jenny.</p>
<p>Her website is <a href="http://jennifervanasco.com/" type="external">JenniferVanasco.com</a> – please follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/JenniferVanasco" type="external">@JenniferVanasco</a> and like her on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jennifer-Vanasco/225744810775104" type="external">Facebook</a>.</p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">adoption agencies</a>, <a href="" type="internal">freedom</a>, <a href="" type="internal">freedom of religion</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Gay Adoption</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Gay Marriage</a>, <a href="" type="internal">gay sex</a>, <a href="" type="internal">gender</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Homosexuality</a>, <a href="" type="internal">human sexuality</a>, <a href="" type="internal">joe conservatives</a>, <a href="" type="internal">lgbt rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">monoculture</a>, <a href="" type="internal">new strategy</a>, <a href="" type="internal">religious</a>, <a href="" type="internal">religious beliefs</a>, <a href="" type="internal">religious freedom</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Same-Sex Marriage</a>, <a href="" type="internal">separation of church and state</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Sexual Orientation</a>, <a href="" type="internal">social issues</a>, <a href="" type="internal">strategy</a>, <a href="" type="internal">whose</a></p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | Whose Religious Freedoms? | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/whose-religious-freedoms/politics/2012/02/23/35211 | 2012-02-23 | 4 |
<p>WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (RNS) — Often when Mike Sheppard listens to the stories of the Crucifixion or Mary's discovery of the empty tomb, he gets so distracted he almost forgets he's behind the wheel.</p>
<p>“There are points in the New Testament where you'll be brought to tears while you're driving down the road,” said Sheppard, 56, a computer software technician in Winston-Salem, N.C.</p>
<p>Sheppard, a Southern Baptist, said he's read the sacred text many times, but listening to The Word of Promise audio Bible really transports him to the first century.</p>
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<p>Christian publishers are increasingly catching up with their multimedia-savvy consumers and offering Bibles beyond the traditional book format. Eager listeners like Sheppard can buy the story on tapes, CDs, MP3 downloads, iTunes and in other formats.</p>
<p>Andrew Block, founder and president of the audio Bible company GoBible, started his company after noticing technology wasn't reaching the faith-based niche.</p>
<p>“I just didn't see anyone using new technology to bring people of faith content that's important to them in an easy and affordable manner,” Block said.</p>
<p>GoBible's The Listener's Bible looks like it's cut out for Gen-Y listeners, with an iPod-like screen and buttons made in the image of the popular portable music device. The entire Old and New Testaments are available, with 70 hours of 31,000 verses individually marked so listeners can scroll through.</p>
<p>A study conducted by the company in the spring of 2007 showed their listeners landed all over the demographic map — from tech-savvy youngsters to gray-bearded Methuselahs.</p>
<p>Similarly, the makers of the celebrated audio recording Inspired by … The Bible Experience were pleasantly surprised that people of all ages are buying their New and Old Testament audio Bibles. The recording features actors Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington, along with Pentecostal pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes.</p>
<p>“The concern was that this would just be a trendy thing — that people would purchase it because of the star power — but then not really get engaged in the Bible. But just the opposite has been happening,” said Paul Caminiti, vice president and publisher of Bibles for Zondervan, which produced The Bible Experience.</p>
<p>Some users have reported they use the GoBible device to listen along while they're reading and help with some of the trickier name pronunciations, Block said.</p>
<p>“We never created GoBible to replace the reading of the [written] word,” Block said. “Rather, we see it as a supplement. It's for people who don't always have the time.”</p>
<p>Listening to the Bible on audio can bring new meaning into the text for some.</p>
<p>“When you listen to it, the readers bring from their experience,” Sheppard said. “Sometimes the voices bring out a nuance that may bring insight that you hadn't thought of before.”</p>
<p>Pointing to the Bible's history as an oral text, Caminiti said, “The Bible was really written to be listened to.”</p>
<p>Jim Lahman, 48, a native of Brunswick, Ohio, uses the Bible Experience recording when he teaches his adult Bible study class. He encourages his students to read along as they listen to the actors, who are complemented by sound effects like bleating sheep and barking dogs.</p>
<p>“It really adds depth to the Bible study,” Lahman said. “It's just not sitting there reading the Bible.”</p> | High-tech audio Bibles bring Scriptures to life, users say | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/high-techaudiobiblesbringscripturestolifeuserssay/ | 3 |
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<p>Even though the Trump White House administration is seeking tighter cooperation of China when it comes to the North Korean issue, that does not mean they are willing to give Xi Jinping's government a free pass on further developing the South China Sea islands it claims.</p>
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<p>For that reason, the Pentagon confirmed that a Navy destroyer sailed past one of the islands China claims today, to the latter's anger.</p>
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<p>The US Chafee, a guided-missile destroyer, carried out maneuvering operations near the Paracel islands.</p>
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<p>China's Defense Ministry responded: "We demand the U.S. side earnestly take steps to correct its mistakes."</p>
<p />
<p>As you know, China started building military bases on seven of the small islands in the South China sea which are not internationally assigned but which the Beijing Communist government claims belong to them.</p>
<p />
<p>On each of these islands, it has built landing strips for airplanes, missile defense systems and radar systems, thus enlarging its controlled territory in the Asian seas, much to the discomfort of its neighbors.</p>
<p />
<p>Also, the South Chinese sea is incredibly rich in natural resources and has an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil stashed in its bottom.</p>
<p />
<p>And of course, 30% of all the world's shipping trade passes through the South China sea, so whoever controls it, can control most of the world's raw goods.</p>
<p />
<p>In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ms Hua Chunying repeated that the Paracels were clearly Chinese territory: "China will continue to take resolute measures to protect Chinese sovereign territory and maritime interests. China urges the U.S. to conscientiously respect China's sovereign territory and security interests, conscientiously respect the efforts regional countries have made to protect peace and stability in the South China Sea, and stop these wrong actions."</p>
<p />
<p>Most of the territory China claims could be disputed by the government of the Philippines, a historic US ally. The artificial islands China built are not officially on the agenda for the Duterte-Trump talks yet when the US President visits in November, but few doubt that the issue will not be discussed.</p>
<p />
<p>Source:</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-military-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-warship-sails-near-islands-beijing-claims-in-south-china-sea-u-s-officials-idUSKBN1CF2QG" type="external">reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-military-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-warship-sails-near-islands-beijing-claims-in-south-china-sea-u-s-officials-idUSKBN1CF2QG</a></p> | US Navy Flirts with China's Forbidden Islands in The South Seas | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/9465-US-Navy-Flirts-with-China-s-Forbidden-Islands-in-The-South-Seas | 2017-10-11 | 0 |
<p>Va. state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)</p>
<p>RICHMOND, Va. — Gay Virginia state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) has introduced a resolution in support of removing a same-sex marriage ban from the commonwealth’s constitution.</p>
<p>A summary of the resolution <a href="http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+SJ2" type="external">notes</a> the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year in the Obergefell ruling extended marriage rights to same-sex couples throughout the country.</p>
<p>“More and more people, as time goes by, realize they have nothing to fear from loving gay couples committing their lives to one another,” Ebbin told <a href="http://www.gayrva.com/news-views/virginia-senator-takes-first-steps-to-remove-same-sex-marriage-ban-from-state-constitution/" type="external">GayRVA.</a> “This will pass eventually, whether it’s this year, or next year, we’ll keep at it.”</p>
<p>Virginia voters in 2006 approved the state’s marriage amendment by a 56-43 percent margin.</p>
<p>Both houses of the General Assembly have to approve Ebbin’s resolution before it goes on the ballot.</p>
<p>Ebbin in 2014 introduced a bill that also sought to remove the marriage amendment from the state constitution. It died in the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Adam Ebbin</a> <a href="" type="internal">gay marriage</a> <a href="" type="internal">marriage equality</a> <a href="" type="internal">Obergefell v. Hodges</a> <a href="" type="internal">same-sex marriage</a> <a href="" type="internal">U.S. Supreme Court</a> <a href="" type="internal">Virginia</a> <a href="" type="internal">Virginia General Assembly</a></p> | Resolution seeks to nullify Va. marriage ban | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2015/12/02/resolution-seeks-to-nullify-va-marriage-ban/ | 3 |
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<p>A wave of anti-police&#160;protests&#160;since the 2014 killing of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri, is creating strains at law enforcement agencies across the United States, forcing out some police chiefs and top prosecutors.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A driving force behind the change has been Black Lives Matter, a national organization whose name is a potent symbol for demonstrators railing against police violence, according to law enforcement officials and academics.</p>
<p>"What Black Lives Matter has been able to do is to maintain a focus on this issue and a persistence that has lasted for over two years now," said Jody Armour, a professor at University of Southern California's Gould School of Law.</p>
<p>Armour, who has expertise in police and racial profiling, called the movement "the power of democracy unleashed."</p>
<p>"Black Lives Matter" has again been used as a rallying cry in the cases of two unarmed black men shot dead by police this week in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, and organizers have begun mobilizing.</p>
<p>Formed in 2012 after the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida, Black Lives Matter's national profile exploded in mid-2014 after white police officer Darren Wilson shot dead unarmed black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson.</p>
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<p>Angry&#160;protests&#160;have roiled the country since, and police chiefs and top prosecutors in big and small cities have been ousted.</p>
<p>In San Francisco, the police killing of 26-year-old Mario Woods in December sparked months ofprotests&#160;and demands for the ouster of police chief Greg Suhr. In May, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee asked him to step down, saying tensions between police and people of color had "come into full view."</p>
<p>In Chicago, two-term Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez lost her Democratic primary bid by a landslide in March, after activists dogged her campaign over her handling of the 2014 police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.</p>
<p>Her loss came just months after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel ousted then-police superintendent Garry McCarthy, saying it was an "undeniable fact" that public trust in police had eroded. As evidence, he cited Black Lives Matter&#160;protests&#160;organized after a video of the killing was released.</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE AND MINNEAPOLIS</p>
<p>The group has used demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience to pressure police chiefs and elected officials. At times their lead has been followed by more established groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and local clergy, as was the case in Chicago.</p>
<p>Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said local politicians were much more responsible for the string of departures and firings than protesters.</p>
<p>"I know from being involved in this work for around 50 years, that (since Ferguson) we've seen more of these political terminations than we've seen in years past," he said.</p>
<p>Hundreds of demonstrators converged on a convenience store in Baton Rouge on Wednesday where two police officers fatally shot 37-year-old Alton Sterling, an unarmed black man who was selling CDs, early on Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>Protesters on Thursday also gathered at the mansion of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton in St. Paul, about 10 miles (15 km) southeast of where 32-year-old Philando Castile was shot by a police officer after a traffic stop on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Both of the killings were captured on video.</p>
<p>Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said heightened media attention and the ubiquity of cell phones have fueled recent firings and resignations.</p>
<p>"There's a far greater public awareness that's going on and it's increased (protesters') ability to affect the process," Pasco said.</p>
<p>He said the attention has made police chiefs an easy scapegoat for politicians aiming to quell unrest.</p>
<p>"Whenever there is a problem, is Rahm Emanuel going to resign or is he going to fire the police chief?" Pasco said, referring to the Chicago mayor. "Is the mayor of San Francisco going to resign, or is he going to fire the police chief? That's the question."</p>
<p>Melina Abdullah, professor and chair of pan-African studies at California State University Los Angeles, said keeping the heat on elected officials has been critical to the movement's success.</p>
<p>"With sustained pressure there, we can make sure there is a response," said Abdullah, an organizer of the local Black Lives Matter chapter. "We know another murder is going to happen."</p>
<p>(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Jason Szep and Richard Chang)</p> | Wave of Anti-Police Protests Strains U.S. Law Enforcement | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/08/wave-anti-police-protests-strains-u-s-law-enforcement.html | 2016-07-08 | 0 |
<p>An American Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on Saturday night after a row of seats became unbolted from the floor.</p>
<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/american-airlines-seats-loose-flight-emergency-landing/story?id=17364171#.UGmg0Y7FVGE" type="external">ABC News reported</a> the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident, which occurred on a Boeing 757 aircraft which was flying from Boston to Miami.&#160;</p>
<p>With fears that the seats could have gone airborne, particularly if there was turbulence, the flight had to be grounded.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/plane_seats_go_ying_wT7T2QbcQCv44uAhEjgtJK" type="external">The New York Post reported&#160;</a>it is the latest in a string of problems for American Airlines, which is also battling employee issues, cancellations, and bankruptcy.&#160;</p>
<p>Aviation officials told The Post the situation with the loose seats was highly dangerous.</p>
<p>"The seats were completely not attached,? said Sam Mayer, a New York-based AA pilot and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.</p>
<p>"With turbulence, you have to be cautious. That's why everyone has to stow everything under the seat to prevent loose objects from flying around the cabin - and you've got a whole row of seats unbolted," Mayer said.</p>
<p>In July, an American Airlines flight headed to Los Angeles has landed safely in Miami after reporting a problem with cabin pressure, <a href="http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/07/12/american-airlines-flight-headed-to-los-angeles-makes-emergency-landing-in-miami-to-check-cabin-pressure/" type="external">Fox News reported.</a></p>
<p>That same month, turbelence left 12 people injured on an American Airlines flight.</p> | American Airlines emergency landing, seats become loose mid-flight | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-10-01/american-airlines-emergency-landing-seats-become-loose-mid-flight | 2012-10-01 | 3 |
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<p>DETROIT — A Michigan doctor accused of sexually abusing gymnasts was sued Tuesday by 18 women and girls, the latest legal action over alleged assaults, mostly at his clinic at Michigan State University.</p>
<p>The lawsuit against Dr. Larry Nassar, Michigan State, USA Gymnastics and a Lansing-area gymnastics club was filed in federal court in western Michigan. It makes claims of civil rights violations, discrimination and negligence.</p>
<p>The Associated Press usually doesn’t name people who allege sexual abuse, but one of the plaintiffs, Rachael Denhollander, 32, of Louisville, Kentucky, talked publicly about the lawsuit. She said she was assaulted by Nassar while seeing him for wrist and back injuries at age 15 in 2000.</p>
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<p>Denhollander, who was a gymnast, said she didn’t file a complaint at the time because she believed her “voice would not be heard.” She said Nassar was held in high esteem at Michigan State and was also affiliated with USA Gymnastics.</p>
<p>The abuse alleged by the 18 women and girls occurred over 20 years. They ranged in age from 9 to 29 at the time.</p>
<p>Most were minors “cloaked with innocence and trust of their youth,” attorney Stephen Drew told reporters.</p>
<p>In 1999 and 2000, a Michigan State runner and a softball player complained to the university’s sports medicine staff that Nassar had molested them with his hands, but no investigations were conducted, according to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Nassar now faces at least five civil lawsuits. Through lawyers, he’s denied the allegations. He hasn’t been charged with any crimes related to his work at Michigan State, although he’s charged with sexually assaulting a girl at his Holt, Michigan, home.</p>
<p>Separately, Nassar is charged in federal court with possessing child pornography. He’s being held in jail without bond.</p>
<p>Michigan State said it won’t comment on specific allegations in the latest lawsuit. It said campus police investigated a complaint against Nassar in 2014 but no charges were filed. The school said it received no other complaints until last August.</p>
<p>Nassar was subsequently fired for not complying with employment requirements put in place after the 2014 complaint. Michigan State hasn’t elaborated.</p>
<p>Campus police still are investigating Nassar with state and federal authorities. Outside lawyers also are advising the university on an internal review of his work.</p>
<p>Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics said it cut ties with Nassar in 2015 when it first heard allegations about the doctor.</p>
<p>“We find it appalling that anyone would exploit a young athlete or child in this manner,” the organization said in a statement.</p>
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<p>Follow Ed White at <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external">http://twitter.com/edwhiteap</a></p> | 18 females sue gymnastics doctor, allege sexual abuse | false | https://abqjournal.com/924691/18-females-sue-gymnastics-doctor-allege-sexual-abuse.html | 2017-01-10 | 2 |
<p>Karma, it turns out, is a borscht.</p>
<p>A Ukrainian group calling itself Cyber Hunta has released more than a gigabyte of emails and other material from the office of one of Vladimir Putin’s top aides, Vladislav Surkov, that show Russia’s fingerprints all over the separatist movement in Ukraine.</p>
<p>While the Kremlin has denied the relationship between Moscow and the separatists, the emails show in great detail how Russia controlled virtually every detail of the separatist effort in the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine, which has torn the country apart and led to a Russian takeover of Crimea.</p>
<p>And unlike the reported Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee, the Ukrainian hack reached deep into the office of the Russian president.</p>
<p>“This is a serious hack,” said Maks Czuperski, head of the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council (DFRL), which has searched through the email dump and <a href="https://medium.com/dfrlab/breaking-down-the-surkov-leaks-b2feec1423cb#.k8bng48o3" type="external">placed selected emails on-line</a>.</p>
<p>“We have seen so much happen to the United States, other countries at the hands of Russia,” said Czuperski. “Not so much to Russia. It was only a question of time that some of the anonymous guys like Cyber Hunta would come to strike them back.”</p>
<p>A senior U.S. intelligence official said the U.S. “had no role” in the hack.</p>
<p>Surkov has been a close aide to Putin for more than a decade, serving as both deputy prime minister and Putin’s deputy chief of staff. The hacked emails date from 2014, a period during which Surkov was called the “gray cardinal” of the Kremlin, Putin’s behind-the-scenes aide responsible for managing Russia’s most crucial operations. He guided separatists not just in Ukraine, but in breakaway “republics” in Georgia as well.</p>
<p>It’s as if the Russians were able to hack the email of Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security director and close aide to President Obama.</p>
<p>Specifically, the anonymous Ukrainian hackers were able to download the Outlook email accounts of Surkov’s assistants, including a “Masha” and an “Yevgenia,” according to the DFRL. Surkov himself apparently doesn’t use email. The files included “the inbox, outbox, drafts, deleted email, spam, etc.,” said Czuperski, noting 2,337 messages in total were dumped.</p>
<p>A senior U.S. official, asked if the material was authentic, told NBC News that there was “nothing to indicate otherwise.”</p>
<p>Hidden in the one gigabyte file are a variety of materials that provided evidence of Russian involvement at the highest levels in the war in eastern Ukraine, which has taken the lives of 10,000 people, including the 298 passengers and crew of Malaysian Flight 17, shot down by a separatist missile in July 2014 over Ukraine.</p>
<p>There is a list of casualties in the Donbass region of Ukraine sent from a high-ranking separatist official, and a list of candidates for office in a sham election. One email notes that the individuals with asterisks next to their name were “checked by us” and are “especially recommended.” Days later, those same names were announced as having been “elected.”</p>
<p>There are expense reports and a proposal for a government press office in Donetsk, scene of some of the fiercest fighting -- a three-person operation for separatist propaganda, with an editor, reporter and webmaster.</p>
<p>One U.S. official told NBC News that the material confirms much of what the U.S. believed was going on at the time, that the Kremlin was running the separatists at a micro-level. In fact, the official noted that Surkov’s name was the first on a list of Russians and Ukrainians placed under executive sanctions by President Obama in March 2014, citing his role in the separatist movement. The action froze his U.S. assets in the United States and banned him from entering the country. Similar sanctions were imposed by the European Union.</p>
<p>Czuperski said he believed that since Russian authorities realized they were dealing with a violation of international law, they wanted to keep the details in their emails close-hold. He said that while he believes there is likely more hacked material, and that it may prove politically sensitive, he doesn’t know that for sure, or whether “Cyber Hunta,” like WikiLeaks, will continually dump material.</p>
<p>“It’s all time and probability -- how much effort you put in and how much effort the adversary puts in,” he said.</p> | Payback? Russia Gets Hacked, Revealing Putin Aide’s Secrets | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/payback-russia-gets-hacked-revealing-putin-aide-s-secrets-n673956 | 2016-10-28 | 3 |
<p>In response to a letter from congressional&#160;Democrats, the Office of Government Ethics this week asked the White House Counsel's office to review whether a top White House ethics official violated ethics rules himself.</p>
<p>Several Democrats sent a letter to OGE Director Walter Shaub in May that asked him to look into whether Stefan Passantino, the White House's ethics official, violated ethics rules barring him from being involved in personnel matters for former clients who are executive branch appointees.</p>
<p>Democrats raised concerns to Shaub because Passantino shared with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-28/icahn-s-126-million-gain-on-biofuel-deal-prompts-criticism" type="external">Bloomberg News</a> the administration's determination that Carl Icahn, who serves as an adviser to President Donald Trump, is not an official White House employee, according to Shaub's letter. Passantino used to work&#160;at the law firm that provided services to Icahn.</p>
<p>Shaub wrote in his <a href="https://medium.com/oversightdems/potential-ethics-breach-bcaac7d8c63d" type="external">Wednesday letter</a> to the Democrats&#160;that he did not have enough information to reach a conclusion on the matter.</p>
<p>"OGE lacks the information needed to assess this news report," Shaub wrote, adding that he is not aware of whether Passantino was involved in forming the White House legal opinion that Icahn is not a White House employee.</p>
<p>Shaub said he has asked the White House counsel to look into the matter and determine "whether action is warranted." He said that the White House "is in a position to ascertain the relevant facts and is responsible for monitoring its appointees' compliance with ethics requirements."</p> | OGE Asks White House To Review Whether Top Ethics Aide Violated Rules | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ethics-office-review-passantino | 4 |
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<p>NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut attorney has pleaded guilty to a child exploitation charge.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors say 51-year-old Peter Kruzynski, of Shelton, pleaded guilty to enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say Kruzynski used his cellphone and text messaging to entice a boy under the age of 16 to engage in sexual activity.</p>
<p>Authorities say he also used his phone to take photographs of the victim engaged in sexually explicit conduct.</p>
<p>Kruzynski was arrested in September 2016 and has been in custody since October 2016 when his bond was revoked for failing to comply with his release conditions.</p>
<p>He faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing on March 28.</p>
<p>Kruzynski he was suspended from the practice of law following his arrest.</p>
<p>NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut attorney has pleaded guilty to a child exploitation charge.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors say 51-year-old Peter Kruzynski, of Shelton, pleaded guilty to enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say Kruzynski used his cellphone and text messaging to entice a boy under the age of 16 to engage in sexual activity.</p>
<p>Authorities say he also used his phone to take photographs of the victim engaged in sexually explicit conduct.</p>
<p>Kruzynski was arrested in September 2016 and has been in custody since October 2016 when his bond was revoked for failing to comply with his release conditions.</p>
<p>He faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing on March 28.</p>
<p>Kruzynski he was suspended from the practice of law following his arrest.</p> | Attorney pleads guilty to child enticement charge | false | https://apnews.com/amp/11008d083b22464e8202dc642eb2fb1a | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>Ever since the beginning of the current global economic crisis, the focus of both critical analysis and public odium has been speculative capital. In the populist narrative, it was the breathtaking shenanigans of the banks in an atmosphere of deregulation that led to the economic collapse. The “financial economy,” characterized as parasitic and bad, was contrasted to the “real economy,” which was said to produce real goods and real value. Resources flowed into speculative activities in finance, resulting in a loss of dynamism in the real economy and eventually leading to credit cutoff at the height of the crisis, causing bankruptcies and massive layoffs.</p>
<p>Vampire Squid versus Corporate Galahad?</p>
<p>The principal villain in this narrative is Goldman Sachs. The image of this Wall Street denizen has been etched in the public mind by Matt Taibbi’s&#160; <a href="" type="internal">description</a>&#160;of it as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”</p>
<p>In this account, the old nemesis of the progressive analysts, the transnational corporation (TNC), slips quietly into the background. Indeed, it is seen as part of the real economy, as the commonly used term “non-financial corporation” implies. In contrast to the investment banks that create fictitious products like derivatives, TNCs are said to create real products like Apple’s nifty iPads and iPhones. While Goldman Sachs is pictured as a vampire squid, Apple is depicted as a corporate Galahad that can be relied on to deliver the consumer’s wildest desires. In one survey, 56 percent of Americans associated nothing negative with Apple.</p>
<p>A recent&#160; <a href="" type="internal">two-part</a>&#160; <a href="" type="internal">series</a>&#160;in the&#160;New York Times&#160;on Apple, however, reminds us that transnational corporations and their practice of outsourcing jobs are front-and-center when it comes to the current economic crisis. And it is not only “smokestack” corporations like GM and Boeing that have massively shifted work from the United States to cheap labor havens abroad, but also those involved in the knowledge industry. Indeed, the highest proportion of firms with an offshoring strategy belongs to the information technology and software development industries. But while HP and Dell have become associated with outsourcing, Apple’s prowess at turning out products that capture the popular imagination has kept it from being tainted with the image of being a labor exporter.</p>
<p>Apple and Outsourcing</p>
<p>Apple earned over $400,000 in profit per employee in 2011, more than Goldman Sachs or Exxon. Yet in the last few years, it has created few jobs in its home base and prime market, the United States. According to the&#160;Times&#160;account, “Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas, a small fraction of the over 400,000 American workers at General Motors in the 1950s, or the hundreds of thousands at General Electric in the 1980s. Many more people work for Apple’s contractors: an additional 700,000 people engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple’s other products. But almost none of them work in the United States. Instead, they work for foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost all electronics designers rely upon to build their wares. “</p>
<p>The genesis of the financial crisis, in fact, cannot be separated from the strategic moves of “real economy” actors like Apple. Their readiness to leave their home base and home market was one of the central causes of the crisis. The creation of credit was the central link between this trend in the real economy and the dynamics of finance. Before we examine this link, however, it is important to review some facts about outsourcing.</p>
<p>It is estimated that&#160; <a href="http://www.workingamerica.org/upload/OutsourcingReport.pdf" type="external">8 million</a>&#160;U.S. manufacturing jobs were eliminated between June 1979 and December 2009. One&#160; <a href="http://prospect.org/article/plight-american-manufacturing" type="external">report</a>&#160;describes the grim process of deindustrialization: “Long before the banking collapse of 2008, such important U.S. industries as machine tools, consumer electronics, auto parts, appliances, furniture, telecommunications equipment, and many others that had once dominated the global marketplace suffered their own economic collapse. Manufacturing employment dropped to 11.7 million in October 2009, a loss of 5.5 million or 32 percent of all manufacturing jobs since October 2000. The last time fewer than 12 million people worked in the manufacturing sector was in 1941. In October 2009, more people were officially unemployed (15.7 million) than were working in manufacturing.”</p>
<p>Outsourcing and Stagnation in the Real Economy</p>
<p>This decimation of the manufacturing sector, which involved the elimination a massive number of well-paying manufacturing jobs, played a central role in the stagnation of income, wages, and purchasing power in the United States. In the three decades prior to the crash of 2008,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Robert Reich notes</a>, the wages of the typical American hardly increased, and actually dropped in the 2000s.</p>
<p>This stagnation of income posed a threat to both business and the state. To the first, the slow growth of demand would translate into overproduction and, thus, diminished profits in the corporations’ key market. To the state, it posed the specter of rising social conflict and instability.</p>
<p>The threat of a stagnant market was thwarted—temporarily—by the private sector via a massive increase in credit creation by banks, who lowered lending standards and hooked millions of consumers into multiple credit cards, with a great deal of the funds lent sourced from China and other capital-exporting Asian economies. Credit kept consumption up and fueled the boom in the 1990s and the middle of the first decade of the 21st&#160;century.</p>
<p>Washington tried to ward off political resentment by adopting a strategy of “populist credit expansion,” that is, making easy credit for housing available for low-income groups via Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Political stability was not the only outcome of this approach; it was accompanied by greater profitability for speculative capital. As&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Raghuram Rajan writes</a>, “As more money from the government flooded into financing or supporting low income housing, the private sector joined the party. After all, they could do the math, and they understood that the political compulsions behind government actions would not disappear quickly. With agency support, subprime mortgages would be liquid, and low-cost housing would increase in price. Low risk and high return—what more could the private sector desire?”</p>
<p>The Apple-China Connection</p>
<p>Co-opting the masses with credit expansion collapsed with the financial implosion of 2008. Today, millions of Americans are both without jobs and in terrible debt. But, as the continuing high unemployment rate indicates, the export of jobs continues unabated, and China remains the favored destination.</p>
<p>Part of the reason South China retains its primacy as an investment site is that Chinese suppliers, with subsidies from the state, have established an unbeatable supply chain of contiguous factories, radically bringing down transport costs, enabling rapid assembly of an iPad or iPhone, and thus satisfying customers in a highly competitive market in record time.</p>
<p>Steve Jobs, the legendary founder of Apple, played a key role in creating this system. Apple executives recount his wanting a glass screen for the iPhone that could not be scratched, and his wanting it in “six weeks.” After one executive left that meeting, says the&#160;Times, he booked a flight to China. “If Mr. Jobs wanted perfect,” he recalled, “there was nowhere else to go. “</p>
<p>Mastery of the economics of the supply chain is, however, only one of the reasons Jobs and Apple favored China. The central reason continued to be cheap labor that is disciplined by the state. What emerges in the&#160;Times&#160;account about Apple’s practices is that, despite its protestations about being a socially responsible firm, Apple bargains hard, allowing its contractors “only the slimmest of profits.” Thus, “suppliers often try to cut corners, replace expensive chemicals with less costly alternatives, or push their employees to work faster and longer. “The only way you make money working for Apple is figuring out how to do things more efficiently or cheaper,” said an executive at one company that helped bring the iPad to market. “And then they’ll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut.” Not surprisingly, a number of Apple suppliers have been plagued with accidents, including explosions, since, as one former Apple executive put it, “If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.”</p>
<p>The consequences of severe cost-cutting have not only been accidents but also protests by workers. Some of them took the tragic route of suicide, such as those that occurred in 2009 and 2010 at Foxconn, a notorious, gigantic corporate contractor, while others resorted to spontaneous labor actions that were put down forcefully by management and the state.</p>
<p>Apple’s products are top of the line, distinguished by their superior design, engineering, and personality or “soul.” But the company’s march to market supremacy has been accomplished at tremendous cost to both American and Chinese workers. The iPad and iPhone are engineering masterpieces. But these commodities are not simply material. They also incarnate the social relations of production. They are the expression of the marriage between a demanding enterprise that has become the cutting edge corporation of our time and what Slavoj Zizek has called today’s “ <a href="http://www.tni.org/article/authoritarian-china-loses-luster-tncs-flirt-democratic-indonesia-and-brazil" type="external">ideal capitalist state</a>”: China, with the freedom it offers capital along with its unparalleled capacity to discipline labor. One cannot but agree with Jared Bernstein, a former White House economic adviser, when he told the&#160;Times, “If it’s [the Apple system] the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.”</p>
<p>Walden Bello&#160;is a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, and a senior analyst of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South. He is a columnist for&#160; <a href="http://www.fpif.org/" type="external">Foreign Policy In Focus</a>&#160;and&#160;&#160;the author of&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844673316/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Food War</a>.</p> | The Apple Connection | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/02/08/the-apple-connection/ | 2012-02-08 | 4 |
<p>jsmith/iStock</p>
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<p>There’s no denying that America is experiencing&#160;the largest drug epidemic in its history: Around 2.5&#160;million Americans are addicted to opioids like <a href="" type="internal">heroin and prescription painkillers</a>. Last week, <a href="https://gov.alaska.gov/newsroom/2017/02/governor-walker-issues-disaster-declaration-on-opioid-epidemic/" type="external">Alaska</a> became the latest state to declare the opioid epidemic a public health disaster.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump has particularly strong support in areas that have been hit hard by the crisis. Yet if Obamacare is repealed, as Trump has repeatedly promised, thousands of Americans would lose access to their <a href="" type="internal">daily or weekly treatment</a> for opioid addiction.</p>
<p>Here’s what gutting Obamacare would mean for the people who depend on it to fight America’s opioid epidemic:</p>
<p />
<p>Kathleen Frydl, a historian and the author of The Drug Wars in America, recently <a href="https://medium.com/@kfrydl/the-oxy-electorate-3fa62765f837#.4domhxmah" type="external">found</a> that in nearly every Ohio and Pennsylvania county with high drug overdose rates, Trump’s share of the 2016 vote was 10 points higher than Romney’s in 2012, Clinton’s share was 10 points lower than Obama’s in 2012, or both. While the link between the drug epidemic and Trump’s popularity is circumstantial, “When you’re dealing with counties that have overflowing hospital parking lots, the message that America is already great doesn’t resonate with people,” Frydl says.</p>
<p>It’s not just overdoses: Trump overperformed in counties with high rates of “deaths of despair,” or deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide, according to <a href="http://aese.psu.edu/directory/smm67/Election16.pdf" type="external">research</a> by Penn State sociologist Shannon Monnat. Counties with high despair death rates and high Trump turnout weren’t necessarily the poorest, but they were, generally speaking, financially worse off than they were a generation ago. “They’re places that have been experiencing economic downturn for at least the last three decades,” Monnat says. “There’s been a heavy loss in manufacturing jobs, natural resource extraction jobs—there’s a sense in these places that there’s been a dismantling of the American dream.”</p>
<p>What has health advocates particularly worried is that the states with the highest overdose rates also rely the most on Obamacare. West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky, and Massachusetts, have the first, second, third, and seventh highest overdose rates in the country, respectively, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of uninsured residents in those four states would roughly triple if the ACA were repealed.</p>
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<p>These maps from the <a href="http://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/pdf/255456/ACAOpioid.pdf" type="external">Department of Health and Human Services</a> show this overlap. In the first map, red states have the highest overdose rates; in the second, red states have the most residents per capita who would lose their insurance if Obamacare is repealed.</p>
<p>If Obamacare disappears, nearly 3 million Americans with addiction disorders would lose some or all of their health insurance coverage, according to <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/313672-keep-obamacare-to-keep-progress-on-treating-opioid-disorders" type="external">recent research</a> by Richard Frank and Sherry Glied, professors of health economics at Harvard and public service at New York University, respectively. Of those, about 222,000 would lose opioid addiction treatment.</p>
<p>Last December, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, Congress enacted the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/6/text" type="external">21st Century Cures Act</a>, which will allocate $1 billion over the next two years to expand access to opioid addiction treatment. But Frank and Glied estimate that repealing the ACA provisions that address substance abuse and mental disorders would take away at least $5.5 billion annually from the treatment of low-income Americans with mental health and addiction disorders. A one-time $1-billion increase in spending would “not even serve as much of a bandage,” they <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/313672-keep-obamacare-to-keep-progress-on-treating-opioid-disorders" type="external">write</a>.</p>
<p>The ACA has been particularly important for those seeking addiction treatment, says Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University psychiatry professor who advised the Obama administration on drug policy. “It was designed to be very broad, but at the same time we knew that if there was anything that this would help a lot for, it’s addiction,” he says.</p>
<p>Before the ACA went into effect, a third of individual market insurance policies didn’t cover substance abuse treatment, including medications like <a href="" type="internal">buprenorphine</a> that have proven critical to keeping former opioid users off of drugs. The ACA deemed substance abuse and mental health treatment to be essential health benefits, and now insurance plans are required to cover them.&#160;In states that expanded Medicaid, 20 percent of hospital admissions for substance abuse and mental health disorders were uninsured in 2013, before the bulk of the expansion provisions kicked in. By the middle of 2015, the uninsured rate had fallen to five percent.</p>
<p>In addition, Obamacare covers Americans who are are most at risk of becoming addicted to opioids: People with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line have a 50 percent higher risk of having an opioid problem than people with higher incomes. Humphreys adds that most users start using heroin or pain-killers when they’re young. Since the ACA lets children stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26, it’s easier for young users to access treatment.</p>
<p>Without the ACA, says Humphreys, “We’re back where we were before: bad access, low quality of care, and a lot of patients being turned away.”</p>
<p>The ACA hasn’t fixed everything. While it’s increased the number of people with coverage, there’s still not nearly enough <a href="" type="internal">treatment capacity</a>, leading to big gap between the number of people who have treatment and those who need it. About 420,000 people who suffer from opioid addiction don’t have access treatment. Frank and Glied estimate that repealing the ACA would widen this treatment gap by 50 percent, bringing the number Americans who can’t get opioid treatment to 640,000.</p>
<p>Apart from the ACA, there’s the more general issue that federal funding for addiction treatment and services has <a href="http://nasadad.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/SAPT-Block-Grant-Fact-Sheet-2016-1.pdf" type="external">flatlined</a> over the past decade, says Andrew Kessler, founder of health policy consulting firm Slingshot Solutions. Overall, states get about two thirds of their funding for addiction prevention from Department of Health and Human Services block grants—and given the rate of inflation, those grants have lost about a quarter of their purchasing power. Under Mick Mulvaney, the former representative from South Carolina who was confirmed as Trump’s budget director last week, “we’re bracing for a very austere budget,” says Kessler.</p>
<p>Congressional Republicans have long promised to repeal Obamacare. Many proposals that Republicans have put forward, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s “ <a href="https://abetterway.speaker.gov/_assets/pdf/ABetterWay-HealthCare-PolicyPaper.pdf" type="external">A Better Way</a>,” would eliminate the requirement for insurance policies to cover essential benefits, including substance abuse and mental health treatment.</p>
<p>This has some GOP leaders worried. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, whose state has been hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic, <a href="http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/ohio/ohio-gov-kasich-worried-about-obamacare-repeal/382900262" type="external">warned</a> fellow Republicans in January about the implications of Obamacare repeal. “What happens to drug treatment, what happens to mental health counseling?” he asked. As Humphreys puts it, Republicans “ought to realize that they will really harm their own constituents pretty substantially if they took this away.”</p>
<p /> | Gutting Obamacare Would Leave 3 Million Americans Without Drug Treatment | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/affordable-care-act-obamacare-substance-abuse-opioids/ | 2017-02-20 | 4 |
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<p>A stark reminder of the vulnerability of government and business computer systems to cyber attacks was highlighted yet again on Wednesday when a top U.S. financial regulator revealed hackers had breached their electronic database of market-moving corporate announcements. Not just was the database exposed, but it now appears that the hackers behind the breach also profited from information gained there. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Edgar filing system was breached in 2016 according to the regulator but it wasn't until last month that the agency realized the cyber criminals likely profited by making illicit trades.</p>
<p />
<p>Edgar contains millions of filings from corporations including quarterly earnings, mergers and acquisitions.</p>
<p>The hackers were able to infiltrate the SEC's system to view announcements before they were made public which allowed them to make trades they knew would become profitable. The treasure trove of information was enough to make anyone rich who had access to it. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said the SEC is in the process of reviewing the breach and determining exactly what information was compromised and is "coordinating with the appropriate authorities." The SEC announcing the cyber attack comes just weeks after the credit-reporting giant Equifax Inc. revealed a series of breaches that compromised millions of users personal data.</p>
<p />
<p>Bradley Bondi is a former SEC enforcement attorney who is now working in the private sector and weighed in on the SEC breach, "This hack illustrates that protecting against hackers isn't as easy as the government sometimes expects of companies. Everyone is vulnerable at any time." Since the investigating is ongoing, the SEC did not reveal exactly which companies were affected by the 2016 breach. They did reveal that they know how the breach occurred which was due to a software vulnerability in Edgar and has since been "patched promptly after discovery."</p>
<p />
<p>On Twitter:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ErvinProduction" type="external">@ErvinProduction</a></p>
<p>Tips? Info? Send me a message!</p>
<p />
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-21/sec-says-hack-of-edgar-may-have-led-to-illicit-trading-profits" type="external">bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-21/sec-says-hack-of-edgar-may-have-led-to-illicit-trading-profits</a></p> | SEC Says Hackers Breached Edgar System Responsible For Managing Market-Moving Corporate Disclosures | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/8408-SEC-Says-Hackers-Breached-Edgar-System-Responsible-For-Managing-Market-Moving-Corporate-Disclosures | 2017-09-21 | 0 |
<p>MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont lawmakers say they may require all residents to have health insurance if the elimination of the individual mandate causes a significant number to drop their coverage.</p>
<p>Vermont Public Radio <a href="http://digital.vpr.net/post/lawmakers-may-consider-mandate-require-all-vermonters-have-health-insurance" type="external">reports</a> some lawmakers fear the drop in coverage could lead to an increase in private health insurance premiums.</p>
<p>The individual mandate included in the Affordable Care Act required Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty. Its repeal was included in the Republican tax bill passed Dec. 20.</p>
<p>Al Gobeille, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, says Republican Gov. Phil Scott's administration will review a state individual mandate should the numbers of Vermonter with coverage drop.</p>
<p>The state Senate Health Care Committee will take testimony on the issue in January.</p>
<p>MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont lawmakers say they may require all residents to have health insurance if the elimination of the individual mandate causes a significant number to drop their coverage.</p>
<p>Vermont Public Radio <a href="http://digital.vpr.net/post/lawmakers-may-consider-mandate-require-all-vermonters-have-health-insurance" type="external">reports</a> some lawmakers fear the drop in coverage could lead to an increase in private health insurance premiums.</p>
<p>The individual mandate included in the Affordable Care Act required Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty. Its repeal was included in the Republican tax bill passed Dec. 20.</p>
<p>Al Gobeille, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, says Republican Gov. Phil Scott's administration will review a state individual mandate should the numbers of Vermonter with coverage drop.</p>
<p>The state Senate Health Care Committee will take testimony on the issue in January.</p> | Vermont lawmakers to explore state individual mandate | false | https://apnews.com/amp/bd4a967adfed406aae684d87416b3641 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>With the collapse of the Boehner-Obama talks, it looks as if something closer to “regular order” in the legislative branch will probably be needed to produce the final deal to raise the debt limit. The House is moving toward taking up a plan drafted by the speaker and his lieutenants, and Senate majority leader Harry Reid is drafting a competing version for his chamber.</p>
<p>This is a good development. Because it’s been clear for some time now that President Obama has been the real roadblock.</p>
<p>The president and his advisers wanted to take what looked on its surface like a potential problem for them—the need to raise the debt limit—and turn it into an opportunity. They have had three primary objectives in this fight. First, the president has wanted to force congressional Republicans to agree to a large tax hike. Such a hike would partially mask the government’s spending problem for a time (though not permanently), and thus ease the pressure for spending cuts. It would also badly divide the conservative coalition going into an election year. In other words, it would be a real “twofer” for the president and his party and would certainly be trumpeted as such by the mainstream press.</p>
<p>Second, the president has wanted to further advance the Obamacare vision for health care. That has meant no meaningful move toward repeal and replace, and in fact further changes in Medicare and Medicaid that are in the spirit of Obamacare’s central-planning philosophy.</p>
<p>The president’s third objective has been to reposition himself politically. His first two years in office were dominated by the so-called “stimulus” proposal and Obamacare—efforts that cemented the electorate’s perception of him as a big-spending, big-government liberal. Heading into 2012, the president and his advisers desperately want to change his image, especially among independent voters, and they were hoping that a “$4 trillion” deficit-cutting plan would do the trick.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for the president, as the details of his talks with Speaker Boehner have spilled out into the press, it hasn’t helped him shed his well-earned reputation as a big spender. The dominant story line that has emerged is that the president has insisted on a $1.2 trillion tax hike to get a deal, and Republicans have said no, especially given the president’s insistence that a serious rewrite of the health-care entitlements, including Obamacare, is “off the table.” By holding firm, Republicans have—so far—denied the president the ability to shift political blame onto them for the tax hikes he wants to impose on working Americans. Consequently, as matters stand today, the debt-limit talks have only further exposed the president as a big-government liberal.</p>
<p>So Republicans have acquitted themselves remarkably well to date. The question is, what should they do now?</p>
<p>First, House Republicans must realize that, at this stage, they have to pass a credible plan through their chamber. Having rejected the Obama “grand bargain,” they need to show the country they are willing to pass a debt-limit increase on reasonable terms to avoid the real, if sometimes exaggerated, risks associated with a debt-limit crisis. The two-step process that <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59817.html" type="external">Speaker Boehner outlined to his colleagues today</a> looks like it should do the trick in that regard. It would impose discretionary spending caps for a decade, thus producing real restraint on domestic appropriations. The savings—about $1.2 trillion over ten years—would be accompanied by a substantial and immediate increase in the debt limit.</p>
<p>In addition, the Boehner plan would empower a special bipartisan joint committee of House and Senate members to draft further budget-cutting reforms, including entitlement changes. The target would be an additional $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over ten years. The recommendations of this committee would go to an up-or-down vote in both the House and the Senate, probably sometime in early 2012.</p>
<p>Senator Reid and his Democratic colleagues are objecting to the Boehner plan on the grounds that it would force another debt-limit showdown in 2012, almost certainly with the same disputes about taxes and entitlements. Fair enough. House and Senate Republicans should be open to a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20083100-503544.html" type="external">reasonable counter-offer</a> from Senator Reid, especially if it is an offer that could actually pass in the Senate.</p>
<p>The details of course matter immensely here. The legislation to raise the debt limit needs to include real spending restraint, not gimmicks or smoke and mirrors. But if the cuts in a Reid counter-offer are real, and if they are of a size to comfortably allow an even larger bump up in the debt limit, Republicans should be open to moving in that direction if doing so would produce a final deal with Senate Democrats.</p>
<p>Because, from a strategic point of view, even a resolution of the kind Reid is pursuing—one giving the president a debt-limit hike into 2013—would give Republicans all they need from this fight, if the spending cuts are indeed real and not focused on defense. There would be no “grand bargain” for the president, and <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/272311/gang-six-disaster-worst-plan-so-far-james-c-capretta" type="external">no “Gang of Six” plan</a>. There would be sizeable, even historic spending cuts, with no accompanying tax increase. There would be no tacit approval of Obamacare. And there would be no political fallout from the unpredictable economic turmoil that could accompany a hiatus in federal borrowing.</p>
<p>It’s true that such a deal would also mean giving up on entitlement reform before 2013. But, given what’s happened over the past two months, it’s obvious that genuine entitlement reform isn’t going to happen with this president in the Oval Office.</p>
<p>Republicans have successfully dodged several bullets to this point. It’s now time for them to see that they are in a good position to close a deal on their terms&amp;mdashand then move on.</p>
<p>James C. Capretta is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He was an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2004.</p> | Getting to ‘Yes’ | false | https://eppc.org/publications/getting-to-yes/ | 1 |
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<p>By Jeff Brumley</p>
<p>The modern interim pastor is radically different from his or her predecessors, ministers and congregational coaches say.</p>
<p>It’s increasingly rare for an interim to be a mere placeholder between full-time pastors in a church. And relatively few are simply retired ministers wanting to stay active in ministry or make a little extra spending money, experts say.</p>
<p>Instead, their skill in preaching and pastoral care has to be matched with strong qualifications in conflict resolution, coaching and vision-casting.</p>
<p>“It’s a specialized calling,” said Mark Tidsworth, president of Pinnacle Leadership Associates in South Carolina and himself a part-time intentional interim pastor — though between pulpits at the moment.</p>
<p />
<p>“They are troubleshooters and many times they are called in times of crisis,” he said.</p>
<p>The position also increasingly requires a lot of specialized training, according to Tidworth.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lifeway.com/Article/Transitional-pastor-overview" type="external">LifeWay Christian Resources</a> in Nashville, Tenn. and the <a href="http://healthychurch.org/" type="external">Center for Congregational Health</a> in Winston-Salem, N.C., offer programs preparing ministers for interim work, especially in Baptist churches. Coursework ranges from conflict management to guiding congregations through the process of self-discovery and missional advancement.</p>
<p>Intentional interim pastors — those hired specifically to bring such coaching skills with them — must rely on such training and their own experience to handle the job, Tidworth said.&#160;“They also need to be sure of themselves.”</p>
<p>‘A growth industry’</p>
<p>Baptists are not alone seeing the transformation in the interim pastor role.</p>
<p>Tom Harris, executive director of <a href="http://www.interimpastors.com/" type="external">Interim Pastor Ministries</a>, said the demand for trained interims has doubled in the past three years among the mostly evangelical churches his ministry serves.&#160;And they expect to see that trend continue thanks to the continued challenges churches face in today’s society.</p>
<p>“Our culture is very conflicted and it’s bringing to our churches more conflict and discontinuity,” Harris said.</p>
<p />
<p>As that happens, pastor turnover increases as ministers find it more difficult to remain in the good graces of their congregations, Harris said.</p>
<p>The need for interims will also rise as pastors in the Baby Boomer generation begin to retire at higher rates — at least in the evangelical churches Harris’ ministry serves.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, younger generations are less interested in established churches, making it harder for some congregations to find full-time pastors.</p>
<p>As a result, Interim Pastor Ministries is seeing a growing demand for the ministers it trains — either as traditional, intentional or interventionist interims.</p>
<p>“I think it’s a growth industry — and that’s kind of sad to say,” he said.</p>
<p>‘They are professionals’</p>
<p><a href="https://baptistnews.wufoo.com/forms/z12s58rr1emaq5f/" type="external" />Of those three kinds of interim pastors, the most common among Baptists and others today is the intentional, said George Bullard, author and leadership coach with the South Carolina-based Columbia Partnership.</p>
<p>They are brought in for all of the usual pastoral and preaching responsibilities but also to help churches find their purpose and direction and to open the way for a healthy pastor search process, Bullard said.</p>
<p>What he and others are finding is that pastors in the 55-65 age range, with full-time pastoring under their belts, are stepping forward for training in this area, and increasingly reporting callings to this ministry, Bullard said.&#160;“They function very well in those roles because they are professionals.”&#160;</p>
<p>‘Working to get out of a job’</p>
<p>And many enjoy the old-fashioned parts of ministry that still are expected of modern-day interims.</p>
<p>“I visit hospitals, I interact with people, go to lunch with people and counsel people,” said Layne Smith, the new intentional interim at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas.</p>
<p>“I have not done weddings, but I have done and participated in funerals — and that’s holy ground,” he said. “I develop friendships with people across the board.”</p>
<p>The Hendersonville, N.C., native served as a senior pastor for more than 26 years before feeling a call to interim ministry. In 2007 he underwent training through the Center for Congregational Health. In 2009, at 59, he embarked on this first interim position in Charlotte and has completed two more interim pastorates since then.</p>
<p>The evolution of the interim pastor has been inspired by a realization by churches that more is needed between full-time leaders.</p>
<p />
<p>“Churches are seeing now that the interim time is not merely down time but an opportunity to explore where God is calling them and to get clear about their vision,” Smith said.</p>
<p>The interim period is ideal for that because it gives congregations time to figure out who they are and where they want to take their ministries — and use that vision as the basis for conducting a pastor search, Smith said.</p>
<p>And the idea is not for the interim to lead that process, but to facilitate lay people as they work through those processes, he said.</p>
<p>Smith said his top rule as an interim is to never be a candidate for that open position.</p>
<p>“That helps me be perceived as an honest broker,” he said. “I am not working to get a job, I am working to get out of a job.”</p> | Interim pastoring has evolved into skilled calling, Baptists say | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/interim-pastoring-has-evolved-into-skilled-calling-baptists-say/ | 3 |
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<p>The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week.</p>
<p>Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., increased by 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 233,000 in the week ended Jan. 20, the Labor Department said Thursday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected 237,000 new claims last week.</p>
<p>Write to Sharon Nunn at [email protected] and Sarah Chaney at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>January 25, 2018 08:53 ET (13:53 GMT)</p> | U.S. Jobless Claims Rose Last Week | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/31/u-s-jobless-claims-rose-last-week.html | 2018-01-25 | 0 |
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<p>If you want to learn more about gardening, the Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardener Program will be accepting applications for its Master Gardener 2014 Class.</p>
<p>The 14-week program offers instruction and knowledge about gardening in your own backyard. It consists of college-level classes that are research-based, and most are taught by New Mexico State University staff.</p>
<p>Registration begins Aug. 15. The class begins Jan. 7 at the Albuquerque Garden Center, 10120 Lomas NE. For information, you can attend an informational meeting at 4 p.m. Sept. 12 at the garden center. For class details and to download a 2014 application, go to abqmastergardeners.org.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Xeric Garden Club leads habitat tour</p>
<p>The Xeric Garden Club of Albuquerque is offering a master gardener-led tour of the club’s certified Wildlife Habitat Garden.</p>
<p>On the tour you can learn about creating wildlife habitats and see how they use native plants to support natural wildlife. The event is free and open to all ages.</p>
<p>It will be from 10-11 a.m. Monday at the Albuquerque Garden Center, 10120 Lomas NE For information, go to xericgardenclub.org.</p>
<p>Taos tour shows 4 different styles</p>
<p>Take a tour across Taos today looking into four different styled homes. The Los Jardineros Garden Club of Taos is hosting its 2013 Garden and Home Tour from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.</p>
<p>The tour showcases four energy-efficient, sustainable homes with styles ranging from “unique charm” to “contemporary adobe.”</p>
<p>Adding to the experience, there will also be six Taos artists painting in the gardens of the homes on tour.</p>
<p>Tickets are $25 at any of the homes or at the Enos Garcia Elementary School parking lot, 305 San Fernando St. No children under age 12 are allowed. For information go to gardencluboftaos.org/Tour2013.</p>
<p>Screwdriver holds selection of bits</p>
<p>SKIL’s new 360 Quick Select cordless screwdriver has a rotating magazine that stores 12 of the most common drill bits, making the tool look a little like a revolver. The bit window is illuminated to make selection easier, and the tool also has a built-in LED light to illuminate the work surface.</p>
<p>The screwdriver has a suggested retail price of $49.99 and is available at Lowe’s, Home Depot and Sears stores.</p> | Tips and temptations | false | https://abqjournal.com/241303/tips-and-temptations-2.html | 2013-08-03 | 2 |
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<p>That’s what Valencia County Commissioner Donald Holliday and his wife of 30 years, Valerie, aim to find out.</p>
<p>After the third time of putting their Bosque Farms property on the market, the farm sold. Now the commissioner will have to resign his position on the commission.</p>
<p>“I am resigning,” Holliday said. “I don’t know the exact date, but I am resigning.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>With the sale of the property, Holliday said they have until August to vacate their home. Even though he hasn’t decided on an official date, Holliday said all the options they are considering will take him out of his commission district and possibly out of state.</p>
<p>“It has been a great privilege to serve on the commission,” Holliday said. “I hate leaving. This came up and it is such an opportunity. If I had realized this was the direction things were going to go, I wouldn’t have run for re-election.”</p>
<p>Holliday was elected to the commission for the first time in 2008 and to his second term in 2012.</p>
<p>Once Holliday resigns from the commission, the governor will appoint his replacement.</p>
<p>The decision to leave Valencia County, and probably the state, comes from a desire to go see new places, Holliday said.</p>
<p>“I’m not leaving because things are bad. I’m not mad about anything,” he said. “I’m not dying, not getting a divorce. This is a beautiful place to grow up, to raise a family. But there are other beautiful places and this is an opportunity to enjoy them with my wife.”</p>
<p>The couple’s three children are grown, living on their own and doing well, he said.</p>
<p>“I’ve been in business since 1983,” said Holliday, who owns Holliday Fence Co. “I’m done building fences. I guess I’ll be semi-retired, but I’ll find something to do.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I’m the guy who wants to see what’s on the other side of the mountain. We have a myriad of opportunities in front of us. I’m not sure which one we’ll take.”</p>
<p>While he equated his first couple of years as a commissioner to being thrown into a rattlesnake pit, Holliday said the county has made some very positive changes.</p>
<p>“Right now, we are administratively awesome,” he said. “We have made some really good choices and gotten some really good people.”</p>
<p>As a board, the decisions the commissioners made weren’t always right, he said, but “we’re only human. The next commission can come in and change everything. That’s the way it works.”</p>
<p>Looking back at his five-and-a-half years in office, Holliday said there are some things that went well while others didn’t.</p>
<p>“Take solid waste. As much as people fear it, you have to give it time and it will work,” he said. “Be positive.”</p>
<p>He was also happy to at least see the expansion to the county jail started, although it’s still a ways from completion.</p>
<p>“We all had ideas that were great. I thought the idea for a new administration building was fantastic,” he said. “But bottom line, we didn’t have the money. We have a $14 million budget and a $26 million appetite.”</p>
<p>Looking at the county’s future, Holliday encouraged residents and the governing body to look at what the community has to offer, such as copious amounts of sunshine.</p>
<p>“We have a lot of sun. I think the PNM solar project was a big accomplishment,” he said. “And more things like that could be on the way.”</p>
<p>Holliday said his strength as an elected official was that he was “just Don,” and people could talk to him and he would listen.</p>
<p>“I think people felt comfortable with me. I think I served openly, honestly and truthfully,” he said before pausing and then breaking into laughter. “And I probably said some things I shouldn’t have.”</p>
<p>Spending most of his 54 years in the county was a wonderful thing, Holliday said.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure what we’re going to do exactly. But like the guy told me, ‘The sun will come over the Manzanos tomorrow. There’s no stopping that,’” he said.</p>
<p>And no matter where he ends up, Holliday is pretty sure “every day will be a holiday.”</p> | Valencia Co. commissioner to resign | false | https://abqjournal.com/212558/valencia-co-commissioner-to-resign.html | 2 |
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<p>International stocks trading in New York closed lower on Wednesday.</p>
<p>GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK.LN) and America Movil SAB (AMX) were among the companies with ADRs that traded actively.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The BNY Mellon index of American depositary receipts fell 0.6% to 149.13. The European index decreased 0.5% to 138.62, the Asian index dropped 0.8% to 173.81, the Latin American index was down fractionally to 253.63 and the emerging markets index declined 0.6% to 321.82.</p>
<p>ADRs of GlaxoSmithKline fell 5.7% to $38.19 after management raised concerns that the company's interest in Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) over-the-counter business could put its dividend at risk.</p>
<p>ADRs of America Movil declined 6.2% to $17.81 as the company continued to struggle to restore service in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.</p>
<p>ADRs of Novartis AG (NVS) dropped 2.1% to $81.37 after being downgraded by Barclays.</p>
<p>ADRs of Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) rose 1.4% to $3.66 after the company reported that third-quarter pretax profit more than doubled on year and raised its financial targets for 2017.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Write to Imani Moise at [email protected]</p>
<p>International stocks trading in New York closed mostly lower on Thursday.</p>
<p>Nokia Corp. (NOK) and Anheuser-Busch Inbev NV (BUD) were among the companies with ADRs that traded actively.</p>
<p>The BNY Mellon index of American depositary receipts fell 0.4% to 148.55. The European index decreased 0.5% to 137.88, the Latin American index fell 1.8% to 248.98 and the emerging markets index declined 0.9% to 319.04. The Asian index increased 0.2% to 174.17.</p>
<p>ADRs of Nokia plunged 21% to $4.76 after it reported a wider third-quarter net loss and warned of a tough 2018 as it battles fierce Chinese competition and an industry-wide spending slump.</p>
<p>ADRs of STMicroelectronics NV (STM) jumped 10% to $23.08 after strong third-quarter results beat expectations, with its imaging division being a surprising standout.</p>
<p>ADRs of Anheuser-Busch InBev fell 1% to $120.41 as sales of Bud Light and Budweiser continue to lose fizz faster than the world's biggest brewer can slash costs.</p>
<p>Write to Austen Hufford at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 26, 2017 19:38 ET (23:38 GMT)</p> | ADRs End Mostly Lower | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/21/adrs-end-mostly-lower.html | 2017-10-26 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/MS.jpg" type="external" />President Barack Obama's administration is knowingly allowing illegal immigrant gangsters from Mexico and Central America into the United States, and some are even being reunited with their family members.&#160; The gang members reportedly belong to some of the most dangerous gangs in Central America and Mexico, like MS-13, but [?]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/06/14/Report-Obama-Admin-Knowing-Letting-Illegal-Immigrant-Gangsters-into-US" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.breitbart.com</a></p>
<p /> | Report: Obama Admin Knowingly Letting Illegal Immigrant Gang Members into US | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/report-obama-admin-knowingly-letting-illegal-immigrant-gang-members-into-us/ | 0 |
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<p><a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-bQD" type="external">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>New ‘aviation improvements’ are being proposed in the wake of the downing of Germanwings Flight 9525, as the Hegelian dialectic continues to produce more ‘solutions’ that are derived from a crime scene which points to a plane that was <a href="" type="internal">hijacked remotely</a> via its standard Boeing-Airbus <a href="" type="internal">Uninterruptible Autopilot System</a>.</p>
<p>21WIRE previously demonstrated how both the mainstream media and civil authorities have begun floating the idea of <a href="" type="internal">‘remote control’</a> passenger aircraft – even though that technology is already in place. This call for ‘aviation reform’ is based on the new official dialectic guidelines which now stipulate that “human pilots are fallible and therefore, cannot be trusted”, even though statistical studies consistently reveal that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flying-is-still-the-safest-way-to-travel-2013-7" type="external">passenger air travel is still the world’s safest mode of long distance mass transport</a>.</p>
<p>The dialectical guidelines have been expanded, with the concept of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_privacy" type="external">medical privacy</a> is also coming under fire.</p>
<p>A bevy of media ‘experts’ and authorities claim that the accused Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was “mentally ill” and is a “mass murderer” because he allegedly hid his ‘illness’ from authorities. Only there is no actual hard evidence to make these serious capital charges stick.</p>
<p>There are a number of indications in this story that point to the media and French authorities unjustly framing Lubtiz. According to one expert testimony (below), “The chances of killing others are higher for non-depressed than for depressed people”.</p>
<p>Although it contains many of the false assumptions of the official media narrative of the Germanwings incident, the article below presents some of the main legal and ethical arguments regarding the medical confidentiality/records issue, but readers should also examine the actual forensic merits of the initial Lubitz case – in order to learn what really happened on Flight 9525 from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany, on March 24, 2015…</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> TRIAL BY MEDIA: co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Conversation <a href="http://www.science20.com/the_conversation/after_andreas_lubitz_should_pilots_have_less_medical_privacy-154843" type="external">Science 20</a></p>
<p>Since it was revealed that Andreas Lubitz – the co-pilot who purposefully crashed Germanwings Flight 9525, killing 150 people – had been treated for psychiatric illness, a debate has ensued over whether privacy laws regarding medical records should be less strict when it comes to professions that carry special responsibilities.</p>
<p>It has been widely argued that Germany’s privacy laws were to blame for the tragedy. The Times, for example, <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4397392.ece" type="external">headlined an article</a>: “German obsession with privacy let killer pilot fly.” Similarly, another article <a href="http://time.com/3761895/germanwings-privacy-law/" type="external">published in TIME</a> said “German privacy laws let pilot ‘hide’ his illness from employers.”</p>
<p>While Dirk Fischer, German lawmaker and the transport spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/german-plane-crash/germanwings-crash-should-pilots-surrender-medical-records-n333776" type="external">called for</a> airlines to have mandatory access to pilots’ medical records, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, president of the German Medical Association (BÄK), disagreed. Montgomery <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/31/germanwings-plane-crash-insurers-compensation-costs-200m" type="external">believes</a> that current laws are appropriate, since aviation doctors are already relieved of their duties of confidentiality if they think a pilot could put other people’s lives at risk. If Lubitz’s doctor did not alert Germanwings, it must have been because Lubitz did not seem like a threat.</p>
<p>Confidentiality and trust</p>
<p>There are two arguments for why Lubitz’s doctor did the right thing by not disclosing Lubitz’s depression to his employer. First, functional doctor-patient relationships depend on trust. If confidentiality between patients and doctors is breached, patients will no longer trust their doctors. And a lack of trust will lead (at least some) patients to hide some of their symptoms or refrain from seeking medical attention altogether for fear of bad consequences, such as stigmatization and work-related penalties.</p>
<p>More dangerous than a pilot with a mental illness – or any number of other professions that carry the responsibility of a great many lives – is that one with a mental illness who will not seek treatment because he does not trust his doctor.</p>
<p>For these reasons, philosopher Kenneth Kipnis goes even further. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265160500506308#abstract" type="external">He argues</a> that confidentiality should be “far closer to an absolute obligation that it has generally taken to be” and that doctors should honor confidentiality even in cases where the patient might harm a third party. If patients come to doctors for help, doctors have a chance at avoiding a possible catastrophe. If patients lose trust on doctors and do not ask for help, nothing will be gained – patients will remain afflicted by their illnesses and people who might be put at risk by patients will remain at risk.</p>
<p>In the days before the crash, Lubitz <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/02/germanwings-crash-second-black-box-found" type="external">searched</a> online both for medical treatments and for ways to commit suicide, which suggests he was undecided as to what to do. So another way of thinking about his scenario is that perhaps if he had trusted his doctor even more – and shared with him or her the way in which he was thinking of committing suicide – his doctor could have done more to help him and to protect the passengers of the aircraft he piloted.</p>
<p>What is relevant to reveal?</p>
<p>Lubitz’s doctor also did the right thing by not revealing his depression to Germanwings because his depression was far from obviously related to his crime. Simon Wessely, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and an adviser to the British army, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/28/germanwings-plane-crash-alps-depression-doctor" type="external">said</a> that “there isn’t a link between depression and aggressive suicide”. Jürgen Margraf, psychologist and professor at Bochum University, likewise <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/german-plane-crash/germanwings-crash-should-pilots-surrender-medical-records-n333776" type="external">told</a> NBC News that, given the sheer weight of numbers involved, you are far less likely to be harmed by a person with depression than by a person without depression: “The chances of killing others are higher for non-depressed than for depressed people,” he said.</p>
<p>Furthermore, given the lack of relationship between depression and the pilot’s crime, it was not obviously in the public’s interest to know about Lubitz’s depression and morally questionable that his medical history of depression has been exposed so freely. In Germany, medical confidentiality is supposed <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/after-germanwings-crash-some-call-for-measured-response-to-medical-confidentiality-rules-1427818552" type="external">to be valid after death</a>. Publicly disclosing Lubitz’s ailment harms the public trust in doctor-patient confidentiality after death – and it may stigmatise people who are suffering from depression but who would never hurt anyone (but themselves).</p>
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<p>READ MORE GERMANWINGS NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Germanwings Files</a></p> | Germanwings False Flag: The Hegelian Odyssey of Andreas Lubitz Continues | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/04/16/germanwings-false-flag-andreas-lubitz/ | 2015-04-16 | 4 |
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<p>&#160; &#160; Ohio Gov. John Kasich. (Rogelio V. Solis / AP)</p>
<p>As House Budget Committee chairman in the 1990s, Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has claimed to be a friend of the working poor and a foe of Hillary Clinton, worked with the Clintons to throw Americans off welfare — a bipartisan project that helped double the rate of extreme poverty in the United States.</p>
<p>Zaid Jilani reports at The Intercept:</p>
<p />
<p>In 1996, the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans worked hand in hand to pass what they called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, colloquially known as “welfare reform.”</p>
<p>The legislation famously “ended welfare as we know it,” replacing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The newly-created TANF placed a time limit on how long the federal government would extend financial assistance to poor families.</p>
<p>Kasich was one of the legislation’s prime movers. After clashes between Clinton and the Republicans over earlier versions of the bill, Kasich introduced what went on to become the final legislation in June 1996. By late July, the administration and the Republicans had solved their disagreements, and a conference bill coasted to passage by a 328-101 vote (Bernie Sanders, another presidential contender, opposed it).</p>
<p>The emblem for Bill Clinton’s welfare reform — which Hillary vigorously supported at the time — was a black mother named Lillie Harden who had gotten herself off welfare after two years by landing a job. Bill said of her, “I want to make more people like that woman, Lillie Harden. So I’ve got a plan to do it. And it’s just the beginning.”</p>
<p>Six years after passage of the welfare reform law, Harden had a stroke, journalist Jason DeParle discovered. “She was unable to get on Medicaid because she was no longer on welfare, and she couldn’t afford her $450 monthly bill for prescription drugs,” Jilani writes.</p>
<p>“It didn’t pay off in the end,” Harden said of her work to get off welfare. She died in March 2014 at 59.</p>
<p>Continue reading <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/02/13/john-kasich-and-the-clintons-collaborated-on-law-that-helped-double-extreme-poverty-in-america/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | John Kasich Teamed With Clintons on 1990s Law That Helped Double Extreme Poverty | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/john-kasich-teamed-with-clintons-on-1990s-law-that-helped-double-extreme-poverty/ | 2016-02-15 | 4 |
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<p>That was the advice that Suzanne “Suzy” Poole handed out to almost everyone – and that she herself followed with a passion, according to friend Anna Jane Sitton Hays of Santa Fe.</p>
<p>“She didn’t let anything get in the way… She was just undauntable,” Hays said. “She’s probably the most forceful woman I’ve known.”</p>
<p>In her 85 years, Poole performed in the original cast production of “Guys and Dolls,” entertained with the USO in South Korea, worked on the John F. Kennedy Center’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, celebrated her 80th birthday by hang-gliding over the Alps, and donated substantial amounts of money to the arts in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, particularly to the Opera and Popejoy Hall.</p>
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<p>And she did things her way.</p>
<p>Just 36 hours before her July 4 death, she left the Mayo Clinic so she could spend her final hours in her Albuquerque home with her two beloved dogs, said her secretary, Monty Blodgett.</p>
<p>“We weren’t sure she would survive the flight,” Blodgett said. But she did and, unable to speak as she was carried into her home on a stretcher, she celebrated the fulfillment of her last wish by giving her staff a high-five, he said.</p>
<p>“Our community was very lucky to have Suzy here,” said Thomas Tkach, director of Popejoy Hall. “She was such a supporter for the arts.”</p>
<p>But it wasn’t clear from the start that she’d be a pillar of the community, said Hays. When her new husband, a well-established attorney both in Washington, D.C., and New Mexico, brought her here from New York, everyone was atwitter that Rufus G. Poole Sr. had “married a young Broadway showgirl,” said Hays. “It was buzz, buzz, buzz.”</p>
<p>Those stereotypes quickly disappeared, said Hays, who estimated she was about 15 when she met the new bride in Carlsbad, where Rufus Poole was visiting her father, Jack Sitton, then editor of the paper.</p>
<p>“I fell in love with her – and so did everybody,” Hays said.</p>
<p>Poole became fascinated by the performing arts when her mother took her to productions in Milwaukee while she was growing up in Wisconsin, Tkach said. She graduated from the Curtis Institute for the Arts in Philadelphia and studied music and voice in Paris at the Ecole des Arts Americains. She later taught voice at the University of New Mexico, after performing in “Guys and Dolls,” an opera telecast of “Casey at the Bat,” and more.</p>
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<p>Poole’s financial generosity was enabled by her father’s patents on “see-through paper” – better known as cellophane.</p>
<p>Instrumental with her husband on a committee to bring a performing arts center to UNM, she later gave Popejoy Hall $655,874 in 2009 to help buy a new state-of-the-art sound system.</p>
<p>And she gave advice as well as money, Tkach said, cautioning him to be very careful about the seats in the hall. He found she knew exactly what she was talking about, he said, when the hall’s technical director told him that holes at the bottom of previous seats had played a role in absorbing sound.</p>
<p>Opera support</p>
<p>The couple also were on board at the beginnings of the Santa Fe Opera, where she later underwrote productions starting with “Die Fledermaus” in 1986 to “Faust” last year, according to general director Charles MacKay. Poole also provided the funding for a simulcast of “La Boheme” in 2007 in parks in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.</p>
<p>But her generosity didn’t just play on the big stage; it came on a personal level as well.</p>
<p>“A couple of years ago, a singer was ill with throat problems,” MacKay said. “Suzy mobilized a care package with vitamins and remedies and made a special trip to Santa Fe to deliver it. She gave specific instructions on how to use these various things.”</p>
<p>“She was always coming up with ideas for what people should do to feel better,” Hays said. “She always had ideas for everyone.”</p>
<p>Workers at Popejoy often scrambled to find extra tickets for Poole, who always had her own subscription, but would meet people and want them to see a performance, Tkach said. A workman would be repairing her home, and she’d buy him tickets to a show, he said.</p>
<p>And while she could be a demanding boss, Blodgett said, she also would reward workers with cruise vacations. “She sent my family on a cruise to Alaska a couple years ago,” he said.</p>
<p>“She had a lot of humor,” he said, and she told many stories to entertain those around her. One was that she and her husband arranged to have a helicopter drop seeds back in the late ’50s to vegetate the Oxbow, a marshy area along the Rio Grande below their home.</p>
<p>“She loved to travel. She came back from Russia only six or seven months ago,” said Blodgett, adding that she often took Great Performance tours to enjoy music and theater around the world.</p>
<p>An Internet search reveals that she was a regular donor to Republican political candidates. She also donated money to animal protection organizations, such as Best Friends in Kanab, Utah, and worked with environmental efforts, Blodgett said.</p>
<p>“She always had two doggies,” he said, adding that staff are taking care of the two rescue dogs she had when she died. “Governor and Tosca were her favorite doggie names.”</p>
<p>MacKay described Poole as almost operatic in her personality. “She had a very big personality and a very big presence,” he said. “She was a very special human being … known for her warmth and candor.”</p>
<p>Poole’s body has been cremated and her remains will be interred with her family at a cemetery in a small Wisconsin town, according to Blodgett. No public memorial has been scheduled. courtesy of french mortuary Suzanne “Suzy” Poole, a philanthropist and vocalist, died July 4 at her Albuquerque home. She was a major supporter of the Santa Fe Opera, Popejoy Hall and other performing arts organizations, as well as animal protection and environmental causes. Philanthropist ‘Had a Very Big Presence’</p>
<p>Suzanne Poole</p> | Philanthropist ‘Had a Very Big Presence’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/117696/philanthropist-had-a-very-big-presence.html | 2012-07-11 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>In his campaign, or rampage, Trump has done more than take a sledgehammer to the Republican Party. He almost seems to be reinventing politics in a way that makes both major parties seem hidebound, sluggish and concerned mostly with self-perpetuation - which, in fact, they are.</p>
<p>When he announced his candidacy, no one outside of Trump's household dreamed he would be dominating the Republican field three weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Given the way he has set the agenda for the campaign, it's tempting to call him a master strategist - except I don't believe he has a strategy. Or needs one.</p>
<p>Instead, Trump is guided by instinct. The whole campaign has been like his stream-of-consciousness Twitter feed or his improvisational jazz-riff campaign speeches. He tests a new theme and gauges the response. If it's working, he pushes harder; if not, he moves on. Kick out the illegal immigrants and build a wall on the border. Bar Muslims from entry because they might be terrorists. Abolish gun-free zones, even in schools.</p>
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<p>Many of Trump's positions are abhorrent. Many are inconsistent with traditional American values, Republican Party dogma, various articles of the Constitution and Trump's own past views.</p>
<p>But substance is, in a way, less important than style. The important thing is that Trump, by being transgressive in the way he speaks, gives listeners the license to be transgressive in the way they think.</p>
<p>When he rails against "political correctness," he's talking about the manners and courtesies that many of us would call being "civil." But his in-your-face bullying strikes a chord with the large segment of the Republican electorate that is tired of being polite: middle-class, non-college-educated white voters who have not prospered over the last two decades and see demographic change as a threat.</p>
<p>Trump was quick to understand how angry the Republican base is with the party establishment. Vote for us, GOP leaders said, and we'll stop illegal immigration, repeal the Affordable Care Act, slash spending, reduce the long-term federal debt and basically stop everything President Obama is trying to do. They failed to deliver - and now someone is calling them on it.</p>
<p>Trump's appeal to primary voters involves an appeal to racial and ethnic animus; he gives supporters permission to bemoan the fact that "they" - Mexicans and Muslims, primarily, but also African-Americans and uppity women - are changing the nation.</p>
<p>His arena-size rallies have become set pieces in which big, boisterous crowds get to act out their "Make America Great Again" fantasies. If protesters didn't show up to advocate the Black Lives Matter movement or tolerance toward Muslims, Trump would have to hire actors to play those parts. Antagonists are necessary for the moments of catharsis when interlopers are identified, scorned and physically ejected. It is a symbolic enactment of the grand purification Trump promises.</p>
<p>The other candidate touching a nerve with the left-behinds - minus the racism - is Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, who is also kind of an un-politician.</p>
<p>But if Sanders falls short, the eventual GOP nominee will face a formidable and experienced politician who cannot possibly run as anti-establishment.</p>
<p>If the Republican nominee is Trump, he can hardly back away from his categorical pledge on immigration - to expel 11 million undocumented migrants and build a wall along the border with Mexico - so maybe that would energize Latino voters in support of Clinton. But he would do everything possible to lower passions among other loyal Democrats - while stoking them among the new "take back the country" voters.</p>
<p>How disgusted is the country with traditional politics and politicians? Democrats had better explore that question - or be surprised by the answer.</p>
<p /> | Trump campaign instinctively corrals voter disgust | false | https://abqjournal.com/704515/trump-campaign-instinctively-corrals-voter-disgust.html | 2 |
|
<p>IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — For much of coach Fran McCaffery’s eight-year tenure at Iowa, things seemed to be moving in the right direction.</p>
<p>This season has gone sideways.</p>
<p>The Hawkeyes have surprisingly lost their way after returning almost the entire team that nearly made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Granted, the starter they lost was Peter Jok, the Big Ten’s leading scorer. But Iowa still looked like an up-and-coming squad with a bright future.</p>
<p>Instead, the young Hawkeyes have paired an up-and-down offense with a terrible defense, and have sunk to the bottom of the league after five straight upper-division finishes in the Big Ten.</p>
<p>Iowa (10-10, 1-6 Big Ten), fresh off an ugly 80-64 loss at Rutgers, hosts third-ranked Purdue (18-2, 7-0) on Saturday.</p>
<p>“I’m going to keep going at guys that I think have ability and I think have prepared and worked hard enough to deserve an opportunity to play in that game. So I’ll keep putting him in. I won’t just give up on a guy,” said McCaffery, who has gone deep into the bench at times in an effort to find a rotation that works. “I might move a guy ahead of another guy. That’s bound to happen, especially when you’re losing some games like we have. You’re going to make some adjustments.”</p>
<p>What’s so strange about Iowa’s slide is that there doesn’t seem to be many clear answers as to why the team has played so poorly.</p>
<p>The lack of a true point guard beyond Jordan Bohannon has been a problem. Still, Iowa is sixth nationally with 18.6 assists per game, so it’s not as though sharing the ball has been a major issue.</p>
<p>Iowa does need a lead guard who breaks down opposing defenses while protecting the ball, creates more space for talented big men Luka Garza and Tyler Cook, and frees up Bohannon to focus more on scoring.</p>
<p>McCaffery’s son, Connor, a true freshman, might someday be that guy. But McCaffery has had an awful start this winter, missing 10 games because of a sprained ankle and mononucleosis, and then undergoing a tonsillectomy in late December.</p>
<p>“Sometimes we’re playing fast. We’ve got to slow it down a little. And veteran teams understand that a little bit better,” McCaffery said. “The other thing is if we’re having an off night. Can we pound the glass? Can we get some of them back? We have done that in some games, and we have not done that in some games.”</p>
<p>The good news for Iowa fans is that McCaffery’s track record — and the talent he’ll bring back in 2018-19 — suggests that this season could prove to be a fluke.</p>
<p>Cook (14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds a game) has blossomed into one of the Big Ten’s better big men. The 6-foot-11 Garza (10.5 points, 6.5 rebounds a game), a freshman, has the potential to join Cook in that category as early as next season, and Bohannon is shooting 44.5 percent on 3s even though stopping him from shooting 3s is often the top priority on opposing scouting reports.</p>
<p>“He’s developed ways to get open. I think the tendency is, when you’re a really good shooter, to force and just jack. He doesn’t do that because, if he did, he wouldn’t be shooting 45 percent. So he’ll wait, and it will come eventually,” McCaffery said.</p>
<p>Iowa will also add prep star Joe Weiskamp, a four-star shooting guard who is expected to give the Hawkeyes a badly-needed presence on the wing.</p>
<p>But nothing will change until the Hawkeyes start playing much better defense. Until that happens, a program that seemed destined to be a NCAA Tournament threat for years to come will instead occupy the Big Ten basement.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to be more focused and give a better effort defensively,” Cook said. “We haven’t played hard enough consistently to win games against good teams.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">https://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — For much of coach Fran McCaffery’s eight-year tenure at Iowa, things seemed to be moving in the right direction.</p>
<p>This season has gone sideways.</p>
<p>The Hawkeyes have surprisingly lost their way after returning almost the entire team that nearly made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Granted, the starter they lost was Peter Jok, the Big Ten’s leading scorer. But Iowa still looked like an up-and-coming squad with a bright future.</p>
<p>Instead, the young Hawkeyes have paired an up-and-down offense with a terrible defense, and have sunk to the bottom of the league after five straight upper-division finishes in the Big Ten.</p>
<p>Iowa (10-10, 1-6 Big Ten), fresh off an ugly 80-64 loss at Rutgers, hosts third-ranked Purdue (18-2, 7-0) on Saturday.</p>
<p>“I’m going to keep going at guys that I think have ability and I think have prepared and worked hard enough to deserve an opportunity to play in that game. So I’ll keep putting him in. I won’t just give up on a guy,” said McCaffery, who has gone deep into the bench at times in an effort to find a rotation that works. “I might move a guy ahead of another guy. That’s bound to happen, especially when you’re losing some games like we have. You’re going to make some adjustments.”</p>
<p>What’s so strange about Iowa’s slide is that there doesn’t seem to be many clear answers as to why the team has played so poorly.</p>
<p>The lack of a true point guard beyond Jordan Bohannon has been a problem. Still, Iowa is sixth nationally with 18.6 assists per game, so it’s not as though sharing the ball has been a major issue.</p>
<p>Iowa does need a lead guard who breaks down opposing defenses while protecting the ball, creates more space for talented big men Luka Garza and Tyler Cook, and frees up Bohannon to focus more on scoring.</p>
<p>McCaffery’s son, Connor, a true freshman, might someday be that guy. But McCaffery has had an awful start this winter, missing 10 games because of a sprained ankle and mononucleosis, and then undergoing a tonsillectomy in late December.</p>
<p>“Sometimes we’re playing fast. We’ve got to slow it down a little. And veteran teams understand that a little bit better,” McCaffery said. “The other thing is if we’re having an off night. Can we pound the glass? Can we get some of them back? We have done that in some games, and we have not done that in some games.”</p>
<p>The good news for Iowa fans is that McCaffery’s track record — and the talent he’ll bring back in 2018-19 — suggests that this season could prove to be a fluke.</p>
<p>Cook (14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds a game) has blossomed into one of the Big Ten’s better big men. The 6-foot-11 Garza (10.5 points, 6.5 rebounds a game), a freshman, has the potential to join Cook in that category as early as next season, and Bohannon is shooting 44.5 percent on 3s even though stopping him from shooting 3s is often the top priority on opposing scouting reports.</p>
<p>“He’s developed ways to get open. I think the tendency is, when you’re a really good shooter, to force and just jack. He doesn’t do that because, if he did, he wouldn’t be shooting 45 percent. So he’ll wait, and it will come eventually,” McCaffery said.</p>
<p>Iowa will also add prep star Joe Weiskamp, a four-star shooting guard who is expected to give the Hawkeyes a badly-needed presence on the wing.</p>
<p>But nothing will change until the Hawkeyes start playing much better defense. Until that happens, a program that seemed destined to be a NCAA Tournament threat for years to come will instead occupy the Big Ten basement.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to be more focused and give a better effort defensively,” Cook said. “We haven’t played hard enough consistently to win games against good teams.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">https://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Iowa scuffling along with trouble on both ends of court | false | https://apnews.com/ff367dc7b97a4c9da45c573314f69711 | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A 115-year-old desert tortoise that disappeared from its garden at a New Mexico senior living community was returned.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque Journal reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2w9xGQb" type="external">http://bit.ly/2w9xGQb</a> ) the tortoise, Diablo, was returned Friday to Manzano del Sol Village. He had ventured to the backyard of a nearby home after a family bought the shell-wearing wanderer from kids at a local park.</p>
<p>Millie Tjeltweed, who owns Diablo, says she doesn't know the circumstances of the tortoise's disappearance.</p>
<p>Tjeltweed says the family that purchased Diablo called the senior living community after seeing a news report on the tortoise's disappearance. Tjeltweed and some administrators from the facility went over to the home, and Tjeltweed was able to verify that it was her pet of 35 years.</p>
<p><a href="#e506f650-5270-4161-ab0c-2d0451b4a6d1" 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> | Missing 115-year-old tortoise returned to New Mexico owner | false | https://abqjournal.com/1040373/missing-115-year-old-tortoise-returned-to-new-mexico-owner.html | 2017-07-29 | 2 |
<p>At least 17&#160;people were wounded Sunday evening when a torrent&#160;of <a href="http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/landrieu-calls-ninth-ward-mass-shooting-act-of-domestic-terrorism/36617504" type="external">gang-related</a>&#160; <a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/11/bunny_friend_park_shooting_wha.html" type="external">gunfire descended</a>&#160;on hundreds of revelers at a block party following&#160;a parade in New Orleans.&#160;To reporters and their readers, the&#160;incident’s&#160;high casualty count would seem to fit the definition of a mass shooting. But&#160; <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder/serial-murder-1#two" type="external">according to the&#160;Federal Bureau of Investigation</a>&#160;(FBI), the bloodshed&#160;wasn’t deadly enough&#160;to warrant&#160;the classification.</p>
<p>Subscribe to receive The Trace’s newsletters on important gun news and analysis.</p>
<p>The FBI only considers an incident a mass shooting if it results in at least four&#160;fatalities, not including&#160;the perpetrator.&#160;That threshold excludes some high-profile shootings.&#160;John Houser’s July rampage in a Louisiana movie theater, for example, left nine injured and two dead — enough to make national headlines, but not the law enforcement agency’s official mass shooting list.&#160;The FBI definition may also have contributed to a tendency among the public to give little attention to multiple-victim shootings&#160;taking place in&#160;urban settings. Using the FBI’s framework, outbursts of violence that rocked communities this summer in Detroit ( <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/detroit-shooting-at-block-party-basketball-court/" type="external">10 people shot at a block party</a>) and Philadelphia ( <a href="http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/breaking/Ogden-STreet-Shooting-308747231.html" type="external">11 people shot at a block party</a>) did&#160;not qualify as mass shootings.</p>
<p>To keep these incidents from slipping under the radar, organizations like the <a href="http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015" type="external">Mass Shooting Tracker</a>&#160;are&#160;seeking to redefine what a mass shooting means.&#160;The Tracker relies on&#160;crowdsourced submissions to record&#160;shootings across the United States, and categorizes a mass shooting as at least four people shot, not just killed.&#160;In the last year, the Tracker’s more&#160;liberal definition has gained significant momentum, earning citations and coverage from the Associated Press,&#160;Reuters, CNN, and&#160;The Guardian, among others.</p>
<p>An <a href="" type="internal">October profile</a>&#160;of the&#160;Tracker&#160;in The Trace shows&#160;how these dueling definitions have the potential to dramatically shape public&#160;perception (emphasis added):</p>
<p />
<p>The FBI’s metric has long been used by the media and academics, and according to <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder/serial-murder-1#two" type="external">that definition</a>, last week’s Oregon college shooting is the 32nd mass shooting in the U.S. in 2015. That’s a relatively small number, especially as a subset of the 108,000 people killed or injured by intentional or accidental gunfire each year. But since it’s mass shootings that attract the most public interest, the reigning measure of such incidents could have the effect of underplaying the true extent of the gun violence the country experiences.</p>
<p>Leading the push for an updated criteria is the <a href="http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Main_Page" type="external">Mass Shooting Tracker</a>, a crowdsourced website that grew out of the cheeky gun news subreddit&#160; <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/" type="external">/r/</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/GunsAreCool/" type="external">GunsAreCool</a>. It defines a mass shooting as one with four or more people hit by bullets&#160;in one event, <a href="http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Main_Page" type="external">arguing</a> that a shooting “means ‘people shot.’” To the Mass Shooting Tracker, an&#160;incident in which four people are wounded, but no one is killed, is still a mass shooting. According to its database, the Umpqua Community College shooting was the 295th mass shooting of the year.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Two Redditors Are Changing the Way the Media Counts Mass Shootings</a></p>
<p />
<p>By the Tracker’s definition, the spray of bullets that hit the crowd in New Orleans was just one of five mass shootings in the U.S. this weekend. On Saturday morning, a 28-year-old man <a href="http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/11/21/multiple-people-reportedly-shot-in-baltimore/" type="external">was fatally shot</a> and four people —&#160;including a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old — were wounded in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/04/freddie_gray_death_a_closer_look_at_the_tragically_impoverished_and_violent.html" type="external">where Freddie Gray lived</a>. Five people <a href="http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/11/21/multiple-people-reportedly-shot-in-baltimore/" type="external">were shot</a> at a bar in Newburgh, New York, early Saturday. Five people were wounded in <a href="http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/11/22/several-injured-capitol-hill-shooting/76213088/" type="external">a shooting</a> in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle early Sunday, and that afternoon, four people in their 20s <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/7/71/1122687/four-shot-north-lawndale" type="external">were shot</a> in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. None of those events, of course, met the FBI’s mass shooting criteria.&#160;</p>
<p>[Photo: Cheryl Gerber/Getty Images]</p> | The Gunfire That Injured 17 People in New Orleans Was One of Five Mass Shootings Last Weekend | false | https://thetrace.org/2015/11/new-orleans-mass-shooting-block-party-fbi/ | 2015-11-24 | 3 |
<p>Evan Vucci/AP</p>
<p />
<p>The alt-right movement, reveling in the spotlight cast upon it by the Donald Trump campaign, made its debut to the mainstream media on Friday with a press conference to lay out its goal of an all-white society and its love for Trump.</p>
<p>The once-fringe movement has suddenly found a prominent place in the Trump campaign and among its most loyal backers. Stephen Bannon, the Trump campaign CEO, was until recently the head of the conservative website Breitbart News, which he <a href="" type="internal">called</a> “the platform for the alt-right.” But the movement’s moment in the limelight got off to a rough start.</p>
<p>Originally set to be held at the National Press Club, Friday’s event was canceled earlier in the week when the venue scuttled it amid security concerns. Not to be deterred, the alt-right leaders came up with a new plan: a secret location.</p>
<p>Reporters covering the event were instructed to go to the entrance of the Old Ebbitt Grill, near the White House. There, they would encounter a man in a charcoal suit and brown tie who would reveal the new location of the conference. Shortly after 1 p.m., I approached the restaurant and saw the man in the gray suit standing outside. He instructed me to round the corner to the Willard Hotel and make my way downstairs to the Peacock Lounge. Soon after I arrived, Richard Spencer, the man who coined the term “alt-right,” kicked off the event.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry we had to put you through this wild goose chase,” said Spencer, who runs a white nationalist group called the National Policy Institute. Spencer noted that the National Press Club has previously held three NPI events. “We are, from what we can tell, the first guest that have been censored for what is clearly ideological reasons.”</p>
<p>Spencer invited <a href="" type="internal">two prominent members</a> of the movement to join him. One was Peter Brimelow, the founder of the website VDARE.com, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as an “immigrant-bashing hate site that regularly publishes works by white supremacists, anti-Semites, and others on the radical right.” (Brimelow freely admitted during the event that he publishes white nationalists.) The other was Jared Taylor, a self-described “race realist” who explained why the white race is superior to all others (except for East Asians, he said, who are superior to whites). The audience was a mix of reporters and what appeared to be alt-right members and fans.</p>
<p>Spencer had fashioned a logo for the occasion, consisting of a golden triangular letter A followed by an R made of two stacked triangles. He said it had a young, futuristic look, in contrast to the flags and eagles that adorn the logos of the past. So what did these futuristic triangles represent? Spencer proposed the following “mantra” for his movement: “Race is real, race matters, and race is the foundation of identity.” The ultimate ideal is that the world be divided into ethno-states so that white people could have a “homeland.”</p>
<p>Spencer’s ideas about race are intertwined with his support for Trump. Spencer explained that he likes Trump’s immigration policy, which not only calls for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants but also reduces legal immigration into the country. (Spencer’s ideal policy would also favor immigrants from Europe.) But as Spencer put it, it’s Trump’s more intangible qualities that make him a hero of the alt-right. To Spencer, Trump’s brash style suggests a white savoir, unwilling to be bullied by the politically correct crowd.</p>
<p>“I don’t think our support of Trump is really about policy at the end of the day,” Spencer said. “I think it’s really about Trump’s style, the fact that he doesn’t back down, the fact that he’s willing to confront his enemies…You look at that and you think, ‘This is what a leader looks like.'”</p>
<p>Spencer continued, “It really is about him and it’s about, in a way, projecting onto him our hopes and dreams. There’s something called ‘meme magic,’ <a href="#correction" type="external">*</a> and that is a self-fulfilling prophecy…We want to make Trump; we want to imagine him in our image. And that is maybe—you can see that in a meme of Trump as a Napoleon or Trump as some figure out of the Dune novels in an arcade of the future in a robotic suit of armor fighting enemies. All of that stuff is silly, all of that stuff is ridiculous, but it actually gets at something real and that is that we want something more, we want something heroic, we want something that is not defined by liberalism or individual rights or bourgeois norms. We want something that is truly European and truly heroic.”</p>
<p>For this description, Spencer was greeted with much applause by his fans in the room. He elaborated that rather than a multicultural America, his ideal is a white empire. He described his “dream…ethno-state” as “a homeland for all Europeans,” which would take an “imperial form.”</p>
<p>“It’s very similar to the idea of Zionism for Jews in the 19th century,” he said. “It’s actually very similar to the ideal of communism for the left in the 19th century. It’s not here, it’s in the future, we should dream about it.”</p>
<p>What would this utopia look like? Spencer said it’s too far off to get into specifics. But he and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/26/jared-taylor-alt-right-clinton-trump" type="external">Taylor</a>, whose role at Friday’s event was to give academic assurances that the races of the world are not equal, disagreed on whether Jews would be welcomed into the white utopia homeland. Spencer took the position that they were not “European” and therefore would take their place in their own ethno-state. Taylor countered, “I don’t think that if a Jewish person identifies with the West and with Europe than that’s something that we should deny.” As Spencer acknowledged, the alt-right has yet to sort out these mere details.</p>
<p>But Spencer did offer up a vision of an alt-right society. “If the alt-right were in power, we would all have arrived here via magnetic levitation trains,” he said. “We would have passed by great forests and beautiful images of blond women in a wheat field with their hands, running them through the wheat.” The audience tittered. “It would be a wonderful sight.”</p>
<p />
<p>Correction: An earlier version of this article contained a transcription error.</p>
<p /> | Alt-Right Movement Presents Its Vision for an All-White Society With Trump Paving the Way | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/alt-right-makes-its-main-stream-debut/ | 2016-09-09 | 4 |
<p>MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is expected to win re-election for the seat he was earlier forced to vacate, and return to his position in parliament on Saturday, just over a month after he was kicked out over a dual citizenship crisis that cost the government its majority.</p>
<p>Joyce faces a record 16 rivals for the seat of New England, in rural New South Wales, and should he win, it will give the conservative coalition government some much-needed relief in restoring its slim majority.</p>
<p>Joyce has repeatedly said he was “confident, not cocky” about winning the seat of New England again, five years after he first entered federal parliament.</p>
<p>“I said right at the start that you can’t take anything for granted, () the feedback I’m getting as I travel around the electorate is that people just want us to get on with the job of governing,” he told SBS.</p>
<p>Joyce was one of a group of lawmakers known as the “Citizenship Seven” whose eligibility to sit in parliament was thrown into doubt when it was found they were dual citizens, a status that is barred for politicians under Australia’s constitution to prevent split allegiances.</p>
<p>The High Court ruled on Oct. 27 that Joyce, along with four of the seven other lawmakers, was ineligible to remain in parliament, forcing Saturday’s by-election. Joyce was found to be a dual citizen of New Zealand, a status he has since rescinded.</p>
<p>The deputy leader position has remained vacant since the High Court ruling.</p>
<p>Joyce’s chances to regain his seat were particularly helped after an independent candidate considered to be his biggest competition decided not to run. The nationalist One Nation Party, led by Pauline Hanson, also decided against fielding a candidate in favor of campaigning for the recent Queensland state election, in which they are expected to win zero seats, despite polling predicting them winning up to 12 seats.</p>
<p>The last day of campaigning for the by-election was marred by a call for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to step down as a “Christmas gift” to the nation.</p>
<p>New South Wales Nationals state leader and deputy premier John Barilaro caused a stir with his comments, telling radio station 2GB that a new leader is needed to “put the country and its people first.</p>
<p>“Turnbull is the problem, the prime minister is the problem,” he said. “He should step down, allow for a clean-out of what the leadership looks like federally.”</p>
<p>The surprise comments were quickly rebuffed by Joyce, who said they were “very unhelpful” and “insulting.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think you should be criticizing leadership. You’re criticizing the captain of your team, your own team, why would you do that?” Joyce told SBS.</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> | Australia's former deputy PM expected to win election, reclaim seat | false | https://newsline.com/australia039s-former-deputy-pm-expected-to-win-election-reclaim-seat/ | 2017-12-01 | 1 |
<p>In Israel, the debate over whether to attack Iran is reaching a fever pitch.</p>
<p>Officials there say the time to make a decision about an Israeli attack is now. They say Iran’s nuclear program, combined with its anti-Israel rhetoric, is a threat to Israel’s very existence.</p>
<p>While American officials oppose an Israeli-led strike, Israel is bracing itself for a potential Iranian counterattack.</p>
<p>A few days ago, a flyer arrived in mailboxes across Israel. It said: "this is the absolute last chance to pick up your gas mask. Don’t be left unprotected. Get your gas masks today at a local Jerusalem mall."</p>
<p>About 50 people were waiting in line at the mall. Some had been there for hours.</p>
<p>A man waiting for the mask said he didn’t care, but came to get the masks because his wife wanted them.</p>
<p>“I know nothing is going to happen. They can’t mess with Israel, it’s not a joke,” he said.</p>
<p>Another woman said she was getting the masks because, as a parent, she felt the need to be responsible and wanted to take the necessary precautions. But she said it is life as usual.</p>
<p>There are other signs that Israel is preparing itself for war.</p>
<p>This week the army sent text messages to people across the country — testing its alert system in case officials need to warn civilians about incoming missiles. Tel Aviv’s city hall says it has designated 60 underground parking garages as makeshift bomb shelters for wartime. Even Israel’s main TV news channel says it is looking to build an underground studio to continue broadcasts during wartime.</p>
<p>All of this comes as Israeli officials ratchet up their rhetoric about the dangers of a nuclear Iran.</p>
<p>Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, emphasized that point Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg News.</p>
<p>“Just today an Iranian general came out and pledged to wipe Israel off the map, and diplomacy hasn’t succeeded. So we have come to a critical juncture where important decisions have to be made,” he said.</p>
<p>The outgoing minister-in-charge of the military’s home front command says Israel should expect a month-long war with hundreds or more of Israeli casualties. And an official who said he met this week with Israel’s prime minister and defense minister says they intend to make a decision about an Iranian strike before November.</p>
<p>Pundits in Israel and a group of writers and intellectuals are accusing Israel’s leaders of warmongering. But in parliament Thursday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak defended the deliberations.</p>
<p>“There isn’t a subject in the last generation, not a matter of peace or war, that has been discussed in more depth and with such attention and even transparency as the Iran question has,” he said.</p>
<p>Israel seems poised for an attack. But the one thing missing is U.S. support, implicit or explicit. Israeli papers report that Netanyahu is willing to back off on an attack if Obama promises to publicly state that the United States will attack Iran if it must. Israeli officials refuse to confirm or deny such a request has been made to the Obama administration.</p>
<p>Israeli military historian Martin van Crevald said Netanyahu and Obama are engaged in a very complicated dance.</p>
<p>“They don’t trust each other. They hate each other, they loathe each other,” he said. “This makes communication very difficult because on the one hand, if you are Netanyahu, how do you stoke the flames without going too far? And if you are Obama, how do you restrain Netanyahu without turning the Iranians off the hook?”</p>
<p>The crux of this debate is whether a nuclear Iran poses an existential threat to Israel? Some Israeli leaders say yes. But van Crevald says no.</p>
<p>Israel is believed to be a nuclear power, he says, and no nuclear power has ever nuked another nuclear power. Not even the most ruthless dictators. The very real threat, van Crevald says, is what could happen if Israel attacks Iran. Iran could respond with a constant stream of missiles for a very long time, and Israel’s economy could grind to a halt.</p>
<p>“One missile a day, two missiles a day. Then a pause. Then another one,” he said. “Just enough to keep Israel semi paralyzed. Falling one here, one there, very unpredictable. This could be the end of Israel.”</p>
<p>That one-missile-a-day scenario is just one of many possibilities experts here are considering. In the days ahead, we’ll probably hear a dozen more.</p> | As Israel prepares for war with Iran, some citizens say the government is warmongering | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-08-17/israel-prepares-war-iran-some-citizens-say-government-warmongering | 2012-08-17 | 3 |
<p>The Syrian government has refused to yield to the demands of its opponents so far.</p>
<p>But the growing turmoil in the country cannot be good for the Assad regime.</p>
<p>The violence is depressing Syria's economy, which in turn is diminishing the regime's income and its ability to keep the money flowing to supporters.</p>
<p>Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks to Alastair Smith, professor of politics at New York University.</p> | The Inner Workings of Syria's Corruption | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-12-23/inner-workings-syrias-corruption | 2011-12-23 | 3 |
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<p>The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for most of northern Colorado and parts of southern Wyoming for all of Sunday and for Monday morning. Strong thunderstorms and tornadoes developed in Nebraska and were threatening to push south on Sunday. The storm also created high winds across the West.</p>
<p>Kyle Fredin, a meteorologist for the weather service in Boulder, said the weather pattern is typical for this time of year, and "it's going to be kind of the same thing pretty much through the end of June."</p>
<p>Several tornadoes were reported in southern Nebraska, blowing down outbuildings, damaging homes and knocking out power. Large hail and strong winds seen in the state were expected to head south into Kansas, and a tornado watch was issued for parts of Oklahoma.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The storm was expected to weaken as it heads northeast from the Plains, possibly bringing rain as it moves into the Great Lakes, the weather service said.</p>
<p>In Colorado, Department of Transportation officials said plunging temperatures and heavy, wet snow created icy road conditions, and multiple accidents were reported on several highways.</p>
<p>Southwest of Denver, a seven-car pileup Sunday evening injured a sheriff's deputy on U.S. 285 near the community of Doubleheader, <a href="http://bit.ly/1uSsRFP" type="external">The Denver Post reported</a>. Three others were hurt, but their injuries didn't appear to be life-threatening.</p>
<p>Weather was likely a factor in the crash, but its cause was still being investigated, sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Kelley told the newspaper.</p>
<p>"The roads are just really bad out there," she said.</p>
<p>In another Highway 285 crash, the State Patrol said a Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy who was helping a motorist that slid off the roadway was taken to a hospital with undetermined injuries after the deputy's parked car was stuck by an SUV. Two people in the SUV were also hospitalized as a precaution.</p>
<p>Snow amounts could vary greatly as temperatures continue to drop later Sunday. But up to 15 inches could fall at higher elevations and 4 to 9 inches could fall at lower elevations, including Denver and other cities along Colorado's Front Range.</p>
<p>"May snow certainly isn't unheard of here in Colorado, even down in the Denver metro area," said David Barjenbruch, another weather service meteorologist in Boulder. "If we see the total accumulations that we are anticipating from this storm, we are certainly going to see a top 10 May snow event for the Denver metro area."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Barjenbruch said a foot of snow had already fallen in the foothills of Larimer County northwest of Denver by Sunday morning, and workers along much of the Front Range can expect a "slushy, sloppy morning commute" Monday.</p>
<p>The weather service also warned that snow could be heavy and wet enough to snap tree limbs and power lines, causing power failures. Winds gusting up to 30 mph could reduce visibility, and slushy roads could be treacherous to drive.</p>
<p>Julie Smith, a spokeswoman for Denver International Airport, said crews have treated runways in anticipation of dropping temperatures Sunday night.</p>
<p>"At this point we are seeing some delays with our airlines while they are getting their deicing operations up and running, and we do expect the airlines to be fully deicing in the morning," she said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Denver officials plan to deploy up to 70 snowplows overnight to prepare for Monday's commute.</p>
<p>In southern Wyoming, the storm forced transportation officials to close a 150-mile stretch of Interstate 80 from Cheyenne to Rawlins on Sunday.</p>
<p>The weather service said mountainous areas in south-central Wyoming got up to 2 feet of snow, and the metro areas of Cheyenne and Laramie averaged 6 to 10 inches. Rob Cox, a weather service meteorologist in Cheyenne, said he expects more accumulation overnight, likely an additional 2 to 4 inches in some locations.</p>
<p>"There will be a lot of water after all this is said and done," he said, adding that there could be some localized flooding.</p>
<p>In the West, high winds at the bottom of the storm sent dust blowing across Arizona and New Mexico, and the Los Angeles area had been under "red flag" fire warnings, with authorities saying blazes could quickly spread out of control under low humidity, gusty winds and dry conditions.</p>
<p>The storm is the result of a low-pressure system moving east colliding with a cold air mass from the north. Spring-like weather was expected to return to the Rockies by Tuesday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Kristi Eaton in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.</p> | Spring snowstorm hits Rockies, threatens Plains | false | https://abqjournal.com/398637/spring-snowstorm-hits-rockies-threatens-plains.html | 2 |
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<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28914776@N05/9342971013/in/photolist-feBaM8-ej27L9-9P4v7Q-7W1EoQ-8ifHJG-83WYxd-53f5o-7WcN1d-7TSWwS-5D3e4e-7ao5LC-8xa6cs-4qSSmf-5B2bot-4bYd3-7K2fi5-6T3adK-bmk7tQ-egqaeL-e7urZ8-71iCNi-6R8cF7-4zRcGZ-dhoA6B-aQe7bF-9c12GN-bMrXyg-euaVEC-5sdk6M-2q1AQ-aquRDi-aqxkzU-aquURK-aquURt-aquRDg-aquKrp-aquKrt-aquKrn-aquRD4-aqxtMA-aquKri-aqxEeo-aqxtME-aqxtML-aquURD-aquRD8-aqxtMU-aquURx-aqxBXj-aqxkA7-aquKrk"&gt;Patricio Arrambide&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/10/us-cities-where-fewest-commuters-get-work-car/7390/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/" type="external">Atlantic Cities</a> website and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://iqc.ou.edu/" type="external">Institute for Quality Communities</a> at the University of Oklahoma recently dug through the latest Census metrics on how Americans commute to work, a dataset locally notable for the fact that Tulsa and Oklahoma City don’t compare all that well. Relative to the 60 largest cities in America, Oklahoma City ranks last in the share of commuters – 2.2 percent of them – who get to work by biking, walking or transit. That’s as much a reflection of the design of the city as the preferences of its commuters: Simply put, Oklahoma City was <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2011/11/oklahoma-city-walkability-weight-loss/520/" type="external">built for cars</a>.</p>
<p>In the process of unearthing this ignoble distinction, IQC fellow Shane Hampton also posted <a href="http://iqc.ou.edu/2013/10/22/the-latest-bike-walk-and-transit-usage-data/" type="external">some nice visualizations</a> of how major cities <a href="http://iqc.ou.edu/2013/10/23/modeshare2012/" type="external">stack up against each other</a> by commuter mode share. The data comes from the 2012 American Community Survey, which records how people primarily get to and from their jobs (not necessarily how they make all of their daily trips, to destinations like the grocery store or church). The original charts are interactive, with individual data points. But we’ve pulled out a few here as well.</p>
<p>New York, not surprisingly, has the highest share of non-car commuters (67 percent):</p>
<p>Cities listed in order from largest to smallest percentage of commutes by biking, walking or transit.</p>
<p>Breaking that down by region and individual mode share, here is the Northwest, the Midwest, and the Southeast. Beware, each scale is different: &#160;</p>
<p>Northeast</p>
<p>Midwest</p>
<p>Southeast</p>
<p>And here is a range of cities – from notably different climates, Hampton points out – where biking mode share has significantly increased in the last decade:</p>
<p />
<p>All charts courtesy of the University of Oklahoma Institute for Quality Communities.</p> | CHARTS: How Environmentally-Friendly Are Your City’s Commuters? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/environment-commute-city-bike-car-transit-charts/ | 2013-10-30 | 4 |
<p>Absent some kind of dramatic last-minute reversal in public opinion, marriage equality looks like a done deal in Maryland.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/10/18/National-Politics/Polling/question_7471.xml?uuid=kTzYHBkYEeKtSuWpWLYKHg#" type="external">The latest poll from the Washington Post</a> puts supporters of same-sex marriage with 52 percent of the vote to 43 percent opposed. Maryland’s marriage equality law was passed earlier this year, but no marriages will actually take place until it is approved by a majority of voters in the state.&#160;Maine and Washington are also facing same-sex marriage referendums, and while no state has yet adopted same-sex marriage rights through a popular vote, as the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/maryland-leans-toward-historic-embrace-of-same-sex-marriage-in-vote-next-month/2012/10/18/a91dedba-1885-11e2-9855-71f2b202721b_story.html" type="external">article accompanying the poll</a> points out, marriage equality is leading in all three states.</p>
<p>Naturally, you don’t want to draw too large of a conclusion from a single poll. But <a href="http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/contests/md-ballot-12-repeal-gay-marriage" type="external">Talking Points Memo‘s Polltracker</a> shows that while the divide narrowed somewhat in early fall, support for same sex marriage in Maryland has grown in recent weeks:&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Anti-gay rights groups like the National Organization for Marriage have pinned their hopes on flipping the minority vote by <a href="" type="internal">employing conservative black religious leaders</a>&#160;as spokespeople in order to discredit the idea of same-sex marriage as a civil right. But among black voters, like other Americans, <a href="" type="internal">approval of same-sex marriage rights has been rising</a>.</p>
<p>What anti-gay rights groups are banking on is the idea that the polls don’t accurately reflect what people do when they get in the ballot box, and there’s been some evidence of that in the past. But given the numbers in Maryland, November 7th may mark the expiration date of NOM’s racial wedge strategy.&#160;</p> | Marriage Equality Looking Like a Done Deal in Maryland | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/marriage-equality-looking-done-deal-maryland/ | 2012-10-19 | 4 |
<p>Of all the world’s potential hotspots, one of the most unlikely is tucked into the folds of the Himalayas. It is a slice of ground that is little more than frozen rock fields and soaring peaks that is decidedly short on people, resources and oxygen. But for the past year it has been a worrisome source of friction between India and China, including incursions by Chinese troops, the wounding of several Indian border police, and a buildup of military forces on both sides.</p>
<p>Some Indian analysts go so far as to say that China has how replaced Pakistan as India’s greatest threat, while Beijing has been uncharacteristically assertive in pushing its claims for a sizable chunk of India’s Arunachai Pradesh state.</p>
<p>Sorting out why the two huge Asian nations are facing off over ground that all but the hardiest of goats avoid, involves a combination of the past: colonialism’s bitter legacy—and the present: current U.S. efforts to maintain its pre-eminent role in the region.</p>
<p>The area in question, which borders Tibet and covers an area about the size of Austria, is delineated by a boundary that has shifted over the millennia. The British drew the current line in 1914, but the Chinese have never recognized the agreement that established it—the so-called “Simja Convention”—because they saw it as just another treaty forced on China by Western colonial powers.</p>
<p>Because the area in dispute was once connected to Tibet, Beijing says the region is part of China.</p>
<p>So far the tension on the border has resulted in little more than Chinese soldiers painting rocks red on the Indian side, and the one shooting incident that wounded two members of the Indo-Tibetan Police Force. The Indians have responded by moving 30,000 troops and its latest warplanes into the area.</p>
<p>The region has long been a volatile one, and similar tensions in 1962 sparked a 32-day war that killed 3100 Indian and 700 Chinese soldiers, and resulted in a humiliating defeat for New Delhi.</p>
<p>India’s Right, led by the Bharatija Janata Party (BJP), has raised the specter of the 1962 war and is demanding that India respond to Chinese “aggression.” “India must take adequate precautions,” says BJP President Rajnath Singh. Retired Indian Air Force Marshall Fali Homi says that China now poses a bigger threat than India’s traditional adversary, Pakistan, and former Indian National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra predicts a China-India war within five years.</p>
<p>Some Indians even charge—without evidence— that China is supporting India’s homegrown Maoists, or “Naxilites,” who are waging a low-key insurgency against the Indian government.</p>
<p>The rhetoric on the Chinese side is less bombastic, but Beijing’s statements have been unusually sharp, especially after the Dalai Lama visited the region this past November.</p>
<p>China’s prickliness over its borders is hardly new, but with the exception of its attack on Vietnam in 1979, Beijing has threaded a careful path between asserting its power, and reassuring its neighbors that it isn’t about to become the bully on the block. Why then the pugnaciousness over what can hardly be considered strategic ground?</p>
<p>Enter the United States.</p>
<p>In 2005, the Bush Administration executed a full court press to bring India into an alliance with Washington and its allies in the Pacific region—specifically Australia, South Korea, and Japan—to counter the rise of China. Washington warned that the Chinese military, in particular its naval arm, was expanding rapidly and would soon pose a threat to other nations in Asia. The U.S. and India held joint military operations, and the U.S. urged New Delhi to actively patrol the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.</p>
<p>India’s former UN ambassador, Arundhati Ghose, told the Financial Times that China’s navy is “flexing its muscles” and “what they want to do is to say, ‘We are the big boys here and Asia can only afford one power,’”</p>
<p>Countries that border the region control 60 percent of the world’s oil reserves and more than 30 percent of its natural gas</p>
<p>Since 80 percent of China’s oil and gas supplies transit the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, talk of joint patrols was certain to draw a response from Beijing, and indeed, the Chinese Navy is increasingly making its presence known in the area. China is also in the process of developing a series of friendly ports—its so-called “string of pearls”—from Africa through Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>The Bush Administration also pushed through Congress the “1-2-3 Agreement” through Congress that allows India to violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by buying uranium on the world market even though New Delhi won’t sign the pact. This will allow India to rapidly increase its nuclear arsenal, which is certain to spark a similar buildup by Pakistan.</p>
<p>The nuclear deal is not all about strategy. U.S. companies are due to make billions building nuclear power plants in India. And India is considering buying $15 billion in arms from the U.S’s largest arms company, Lockheed-Martin.</p>
<p>China has long had a friendly relationship with Pakistan and is Islamabad’s leading military supplier. It is concerned that tension between India and Pakistan could lead to war; a war that the Pentagon predicts would likely escalate into a nuclear exchange. A recent study by climate scientists Alan Robock and Brian Toon found such a war would result in a “nuclear winter” that would devastate China, indeed, much of the world.</p>
<p>New Delhi and China are also at loggerheads over Afghanistan, with the Chinese dubious of the U.S. war and the Indians strongly supportive. With a number of NATO allies getting ready to bring their troops home, the Obama administrations has pressed India to back the war, going so far as to touch on the sub-continent’s third rail: intercommunal violence.</p>
<p>Writing in the Indian publication Outlook, Bruce Riedel, chair of the Administration’s Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review, says that defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan is essential, or India’s Muslim minority will “face the danger of radicalism.” That is incendiary talk in that part of the world. A recent report on the massacres of Muslims following the destruction of a mosque 17 year ago placed much of the blame for the savage intercommununal bloodletting on the BJP</p>
<p>China’s response to the growing U.S.-Indian alliance was to oppose the “1-2-3 Agreement,” block India’s application for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, and try to torpedo a loan from the Asian Development Bank to fund flood control in Arunachai Pradesh.</p>
<p>Yet the current tensions between India and China over 90,000 thousand square miles of ice and rock fly in the face of a growing interdependence between the two Asian giants. China is now India’s number one trading partner. Bilateral trade has risen from under $3 billion in 2000 to almost $52 billion in 2008, and is growing at almost three times the rate of U.S.-China trade. Estimates are that by 2020, China-India trade will surpass $410 billion, a figure equal to last year’s U.S.-China trade. With China’s powerful manufacturing sector, and India’s wealth of raw materials and its cutting-edge technology industry, the two countries complement one another.</p>
<p>China needs India’s iron ore, bauxite and manganese, and India needs China’s low-priced manufactured goods to upgrade its infrastructure. China also has huge foreign reserves to invest, although cross-border investment is still modest.</p>
<p>Both nations also share a colonial experience. Some 300 years ago, the two countries accounted for approximately 50 percent of the world’s GDP. By the middle of last century, they were among the world’s poorest nations. China is on track to become the second largest economy in the world, and India may claim third place in the coming decades.</p>
<p>There have been efforts by both sides to tamp down the border dispute. Asked about tensions between New Deli and Beijing, India’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor replied that “things seem to be very good,” adding that “minor irritants” had been blown our of proportion by the media.</p>
<p>Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held what he called “frank and constructive” talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during the recent meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.</p>
<p>And yet the region remains a witch’s brew of dangerous hot spots and powerful cross currents: the U.S. escalation in Afghanistan, ongoing tension between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, and Washington’s sometimes warm, sometimes cool attitude toward China.</p>
<p>Indian newspapers have been filled with headlines like “Red Peril,” and “Enter The Dragon,” and senior Indian national security advisor M.K. Narayamen warned that “media hype” could set off an “unwarranted incident or accident.” Chinese newspapers and websites have also reflected strong nationalist sentiments over the issue.</p>
<p>If the Obama administration wants to avoid making a dangerous situation worse, it should revisit the “1-2-3 Agreement” and put the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem back on the table. During his presidential campaign, Obama promised to pressure both sides on Kashmir, the flash point for three wars between India and Pakistan, but under intense Indian pressure, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Special Envoy to South Asia Richard Holbrook dropped the issue.</p>
<p>It is also time for the U.S. to realize that it can no longer dominate Asia, and that, in its efforts to maintain its former status as top dog in the region, it has exacerbated tensions between a number of countries in the area, tensions that have the potential to produce catastrophic consequences.</p>
<p>CONN HALLINAN can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>This article originally appeared in <a href="http://www.fpif.org" type="external">Foreign Policy in Focus</a>.</p> | A Danger in Thin Air | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/02/15/a-danger-in-thin-air/ | 2010-02-15 | 4 |
<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Minnesota Lottery's "Gopher 5" game were:</p>
<p>04-06-12-26-41</p>
<p>(four, six, twelve, twenty-six, forty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $160,000</p>
<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Minnesota Lottery's "Gopher 5" game were:</p>
<p>04-06-12-26-41</p>
<p>(four, six, twelve, twenty-six, forty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $160,000</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Gopher 5' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/4aa93f5bbe2f4f6d88ee4af7e9750611 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Martin Kaymer and Rafael Cabrera-Bello, tied at 4 under after both shooting 69s, had the lowest scores after two full rounds. But George Coetzee was at 9 under after eight holes at the Emirates Golf Club and overnight leader Sergio Garcia was at 8 under.</p>
<p>Woods withdrew before starting his second round with back spasms.</p>
<p>Kaymer criticized the decision to suspend play.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Hard to understand the difference between the morning play and now, therefore even more surprised about the decision @EuropeanTour,” the German wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p>Coetzee, however, supported the decision.</p>
<p>“We saw this one tree go down. You get a warning it’s about to collapse and start squeaking. I was walking under the trees hearing the squeaking and thinking, this could be me,” the South African said. “It’s a little bit dangerous out there with the trees collapsing and stuff. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.”</p> | Dubai Desert Classic suspended by strong wind | false | https://abqjournal.com/942233/dubai-desert-classic-suspended-by-strong-wind.html | 2017-02-03 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christopher Buckley: Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama</a></p>
<p>The son of William F. Buckley decided—shock!—to vote for a Democrat.</p>
<p>October 10, 2008</p>
<p>Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon. It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/10/the-conservative-case-for-obama.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
<p>(Read Buckley's follow-up column about getting fired from the National Review <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/14/sorry-dad-i-was-fired.html" type="external">here</a>.)</p>
<p>______________________________________________</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">California, You Can Forget My Taxes</a></p>
<p>Singer Melissa Etheridge rails against the passage of the gay-marriage ban in California--and she won't be paying the state a dime.</p>
<p>November 6, 2008</p>
<p>Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/06/you-can-forget-my-taxes.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/03/the-last-lap.html" type="external">The Last Lap</a></p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>Historian Sean Wilentz talks to Jesse Jackson and civil-rights veterans about their awe of—and tensions with—the Obama campaign.</p>
<p>November 3, 2008</p>
<p>“I’ve been able to see our nation get better,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson muses, in joyful anticipation of Barack Obama’s impending presidential victory. Jackson is reflecting on what he called “sixty years of battles to democratize democracy.” Tuesday’s ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/03/the-last-lap.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/06/behind-the-glow.html" type="external">Behind the Glow</a></p>
<p>Jennifer Lopez opens up about motherhood, Scientology, and a "nervous breakdown" that she's never publicly discussed.</p>
<p>October 6, 2006</p>
<p>"Don't blow the horn," I tell my driver as we approach the gates. "I'm sure we're being watched. A guard will appear." Sure enough, the ornate iron gates swing open and a large Latin guard speeds toward us on a Segway Human Transporter, his ear glued to a walkie-talkie." I'm here to see Miss Lopez," I inform him ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/06/behind-the-glow.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/11/what-sarah-palin-didnt-say.html" type="external">Tina Brown: What Sarah Palin Didn't Say</a></p>
<p>The interviews with Sarah Palin in her TV media blitz have failed to answer the only question I'm interested in: Now that it's all over, Sarah, who does look after the kids?</p>
<p>November 11, 2008</p>
<p>I could never see a shot of the dynamite-looking Palin sashaying out to greet the crowd in those borrowed gladrags without thinking of what it must be like backstage. If it was anything like the early childrearing ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/11/what-sarah-palin-didnt-say.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Toure: Can We Say "Fuck Whitey" If the President is Black?</a></p>
<p>Obama's victory creates an identity crisis for black men. Whom do we rail against if the guy in the Oval Office is one of us?</p>
<p>November 5, 2008</p>
<p>Obama’s election necessitates a rethinking of what it means to be a black man. In our blood there’s a rebelliousness, in our heart there’s a certainty that America hates us, and in our soul there’s an acceptance that America considers us the monster. Black men call ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/05/the-end-of-fuck-whitey-1.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/30/my-sugar-daddy.html" type="external">My Sugar Daddy</a></p>
<p>Some might call it prostitution. I call it a "mutually beneficial arrangement" that pays for my killer wardrobe.</p>
<p>November 30, 2008</p>
<p>Mutually Beneficial Arrangement. That is the polite term that popular culture has coined for the type of relationship I’m in. Had one asked me if this was the sort of relationship I could see myself being involved in a few years ago ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/30/my-sugar-daddy.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
<p>(Read her sugar daddy's response <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.)</p>
<p>______________________________________________</p>
<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/16/the-return-of-chest-hair.html" type="external">Return of Chest Hair</a></p>
<p>From Mad Men's Jon Hamm to Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick, torso-fros are (finally) making a comeback. Plus: A gallery of the hottest fuzz.</p>
<p>December 16, 2008</p>
<p>Ever since Adam caught Eve checking out that snake, men have spent way too much time worrying about the appearance of their manhood. What’s more important, the size of the wave or the motion of the ocean? Well, I’m here to make a bunch of men more neurotic by telling you the answer ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/16/the-return-of-chest-hair.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/08/mutts-like-me.html" type="external">Mutts Like Me</a></p>
<p>Is Barack Obama America's first "black" president, or America's first "biracial" president? The Daily Beast's Patricia J. Williams on why the discussion is ridiculous.</p>
<p>November 8, 2008</p>
<p>It was surely meant as a wry aside when, speaking about his daughters’ search for a puppy, Barack Obama observed that most shelter dogs are “mutts like me.” My first thought, however, was: “Ain’t I a mutt, too?” In fact, of course, we’re all mutts ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/08/mutts-like-me.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/25/the-christian-sexual-awakening.html" type="external">Why Are Christians Having Better Sex Than the Rest of Us?</a></p>
<p>A Texas pastor has come up with one of the best public policy proposals of the decade: have more sex. Tucker Carlson weighs in.</p>
<p>November 25, 2008</p>
<p>Let’s concede right up front that you hate evangelicals. Most affluent, educated people do. Where I live, they're the most unpopular group there is. How do I know this? Because of the reaction ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/25/the-christian-sexual-awakening.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/02/the-last-dick.html" type="external">The Last Dick</a></p>
<p>When Richard B. Cheney exits his undisclosed location next month, he will probably be the last major figure in American life to answer to the name "Dick."</p>
<p>December 2, 2008</p>
<p>When Richard B. Cheney moves out of One Observatory Circle on January 20, it will mark the much-anticipated end to an era of man-sized safes, undisclosed locations, and vice-presidential shooting sprees. ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/02/the-last-dick.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/15/mccains-auntie-says-hes-losing.html" type="external">McCain's Auntie Speaks</a></p>
<p>McCain's 96-year-old Aunt Rowena talks to The Daily Beast about press bias and why she gets a kick out of Bill Clinton.</p>
<p>October 15, 2008</p>
<p>“He’s losing,” Rowena Willis, John McCain’s 96-year old aunt said. ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/15/mccains-auntie-says-hes-losing.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/15/im-in-love-with-david-gergen.html" type="external">I'm In Love With David Gergen</a></p>
<p>The romance began late at night, with a glass of red wine and an episode of The Situation Room.</p>
<p>October 15, 2008</p>
<p>I can’t hold in the truth any longer. My feelings are too large to live just within the confines of my heart. I need everyone to know:</p>
<p>I am passionately in love with David Gergen. ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/15/im-in-love-with-david-gergen.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
<p>______________________________________________</p>
<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/27/sarah-palins-a-brainiac.html" type="external">Sarah Palin's a Brainiac</a></p>
<p>The former editor in chief of Ms. magazine (and a Democrat) on what she learned on a campaign plane with the would-be VP.</p>
<p>October 27, 2008</p>
<p>It's difficult not to froth when one reads, as I did again and again this week, doubts about Sarah Palin's “intelligence,” coming especially from women such as PBS's Bonnie Erbe, who, as near as I recall, has not herself heretofore been burdened with the Susan Sontag of Journalism moniker. ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/27/sarah-palins-a-brainiac.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/19/we-miserable-catholics.html" type="external">We Miserable Catholics</a></p>
<p>Angela's Ashes author Frank McCourt on the movie Doubt, about a power struggle over the first black student in a strict school in the Bronx--and the unique joylessness of the Irish Catholic Church.</p>
<p>December 19, 2008</p>
<p>'I can fight you,' says Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman.)</p>
<p>'You'll lose,' says Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep.) ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/19/we-miserable-catholics.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/14/how-rick-warren-became-a-media-darling-in-spite-of-himself.html" type="external">Rick Warren's Double Life</a></p>
<p>America's Pastor has a nice-guy image. But it is belied by what he says on Sundays.</p>
<p>November 14, 2008</p>
<p>Here is how evangelical superstar Pastor Rick Warren, who will deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration, described his philosophy this August: “I have never been considered a part of the religious right, because I don't believe politics is the most effective way to change the world.” ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/14/how-rick-warren-became-a-media-darling-in-spite-of-himself.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/15/shopping-in-secret.html" type="external">What Rich People Don't Want You to Know About Their Spending</a></p>
<p>Hide the Hermes orange and the Tiffany blue—today's wealthy consumers are asking for unmarked bags to disguise their luxury purchases. The Daily Beast investigates.</p>
<p>December 15, 2008</p>
<p>Last week, Kathleen Fuld, wife of Lehman Brothers C.E.O. Dick Fuld, stopped by the Hermès boutique on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue to buy some holiday gifts. As she paid for her purchases, she vetoed the store’s signature orange bag and asked for a plain white one instead. ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/15/shopping-in-secret.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/11/hold-the-dressing.html" type="external">Hold the Dressing</a></p>
<p>My night at an all-nude New York dinner party.</p>
<p>November 11, 2008</p>
<p>"If anyone young is reading this, go, right this minute, put on a bikini and don't take it off until you're 34." This is Nora Ephron, reminding us that now— right now—is the peak naked moment of our lives, the highest point on a steep slope of sagging. I remembered this rule when my email dinged with a dinner invitation. The invite contained details about the host (a friend of a friend), the cuisine (Indian) and the attire (none). A nude dinner party. ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/11/11/hold-the-dressing.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/17/the-bag-lady-papers.html" type="external">The Bag Lady Papers</a></p>
<p>Alexandra Penney—a New York artist and former editor of Self Magazine—lost her life savings in the Madoff debacle. She shared her wrenching trauma in a Daily Beast exclusive.</p>
<p>December 17, 2008</p>
<p>Last Thursday at around 5 p.m., I had just checked on a rising cheese soufflé in my oven when my best friend called.</p>
<p>"Heard Madoff's been arrested,” she said. “I hope it's a rumor. Doesn't he handle most of your money?” ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/17/the-bag-lady-papers.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/28/so-long-obama.html" type="external">Wendy Button: So Long, Democrats</a></p>
<p>A speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton on why she voted for McCain.</p>
<p>October 28, 2008</p>
<p>Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.” ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/28/so-long-obama.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/23/totally-justified.html" type="external">It Was Worth It</a></p>
<p>Sarah Palin's $150,000 shopping spree seems more justified when you remember what she was, um, wearing before her Nieman's trip. A gallery.</p>
<p>October 23, 2008</p>
<p>Yesterday it was <a href="" type="internal">reported</a> that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on outfitting John McCain's running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Outrageous! Until you take a gander at what she was wearing before, at which point the price tag appears altogether reasonable. Here’s a retrospective of the <a href="http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/08/29/sarah-palin-total-vpilf/" type="external">VPILF's</a> wardrobe, pre-makeover. ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/10/23/totally-justified.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
<p>______________________________________________</p>
<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/10/the-dc-sex-blogger-on-how-she-went-from-slut-to-housewife.html" type="external">The D.C. Sex Blogger on How She Went From Slut to Housewife</a></p>
<p>In a Daily Beast exclusive, Jessica Cutler, the former Hill aide behind the explosive "Washingtonienne" sex blog, explains why she gave up the louche life to settle down and get married. (And no, she's not pregnant.)</p>
<p>December 10, 2008</p>
<p>Four years ago, Jessica Cutler was a 26-year-old Senate aide with a hugely popular secret sex blog. Under the pseudonym “The Washingtonienne,” she chronicled her extraordinary sex life, which frequently involved sleeping with D.C. power players who <a href="http://wonkette.com/4162/the-lost-washingtonienne-wonkette-exclusive-etc-etc" type="external">paid her for sex</a>. ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/10/the-dc-sex-blogger-on-how-she-went-from-slut-to-housewife.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/09/the-dirty-little-secret-of-motherhood.html" type="external">The Dirty Little Secret of Motherhood</a></p>
<p>Project Runway star and mother of six, Laura Bennett, on why choosing a favorite child is not only okay—it's actually healthier for the family</p>
<p>December 9, 2008</p>
<p>I have a favorite child. I hear you gasping in horror. I actually believe every mother does, just won’t admit it. It’s the dirty little secret of motherhood. Why is it so horrible? It’s not Sophie’s Choice or anything. I’m not saying I don’t love all of my children, just that I don’t always like all of them, at least not every day (or week, or month, or year). ... <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2008/12/09/the-dirty-little-secret-of-motherhood.html" type="external">MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p> | Our Hottest Stories of 2008 | true | https://thedailybeast.com/our-hottest-stories-of-2008 | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>The Democrats are howling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign over <a href="" type="internal">a trumped-up controversy</a> that appears to be a " <a href="" type="internal">nothingburger</a>." Per usual, the Democrats are conveniently forgetting their own recent attorney general's controversy-ridden record; Eric Holder was enmeshed in scandal yet the Democrats never called on him to resign.</p>
<p>Here are five things Holder did that didn't prompt the Democrats to call for his resignation.</p>
<p>1. Holder was held in contempt by Congress for stonewalling investigations into Operation Fast and Furious. As the <a href="" type="internal">Daily Wire</a> has previously explained:</p>
<p>"Operation Fast and Furious involved the Obama administration arming drug cartels and thugs south of the border as a means to undermine the Second Amendment. The program resulted in the death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. One of the Islamic terrorists in the Garland, Texas, attack also used a gun that was obtained through the Fast and Furious program."</p>
<p>Fast and Furious was in Holder's purview, so the fact that he kept obstructing investigations into it is quite telling.</p>
<p>2. Holder <a href="" type="internal">didn't prosecute members of the New Black Panther party</a> despite their obvious efforts at voter intimidation. John Fund explained in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203550604574361071968458430" type="external">a Wall Street Journal column</a> that witnesses saw one New Black Panther member unveil "a nightstick at the entrance and pointed it at voters and both made racial threats" and another shouted, "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!"</p>
<p>And yet, Holder's Department of Justice did not prosecute these New Black Panther members. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/12/03/reminder-president-obama-marched-with-the-black-panthers-n1926857" type="external">Barack Obama himself marched with the New Black Panthers in 2007</a>.</p>
<p>3. Holder's Department of Justice shook down banks and redistributed the funds to left-wing organizations. For instance, after the Justice Department reached a $16.6 billion settlement with Bank of America, those funds were funneled towards organizations like "National Council of La Raza, Operation Hope, National Community Reinvestment Coalition and Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America," per <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/28/doj-to-give-money-from-bank-of-america-settlement-to-liberal-activist-groups/" type="external">The Daily Caller</a>. Many of these organizations also received money from the DOJ after settlements with JP Morgan Chase, Countrywide Financial Corporation and Citbank.</p>
<p>4. Holder was instrumental in obtaining clemency for the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN) terrorists in 1999. As the deputy attorney general, Holder pressured his underlings at the Justice Department "to drop their opposition to" these clemencies so it wouldn't appear that President Bill Clinton wasn't following the recommendations of his Justice Department, reported the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/09/nation/na-holder9" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a>. For more on the barbaric, violent nature of the FALN terrorists and how the move was solely to help Hillary Clinton's New York Senate campaign, <a href="" type="internal">read the Daily Wire's interview with Joseph Connor, whose father was murdered by the FALN terrorists, here</a>.</p>
<p>5. Holder didn't prosecute former Obama Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson, despite evidence of "pay-to-play." Per <a href="http://humanevents.com/2011/12/09/holder-blago-richardson-triangle-of-sleaze/" type="external">Michelle Malkin</a>:</p>
<p>Even as they tapped Richardson to serve as Obama’s first Commerce Secretary, the White House transition team knew about Richardson’s pay-to-play scandal involving a California company, CDR Financial Products. FBI and federal prosecutors had launched their probe of CDR’s activities in New Mexico in the summer of 2008. The feds had been digging into a nationwide web of favor-trading between financial firms and politicians overseeing local government bond markets. CDR was tied to a doomed bond deal in Alabama, which, according to Bloomberg News, threatened to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. CDR raked in nearly $1.5 million in fees from a New Mexico state financial agency after donating more than $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and Native American voters and to pay for expenses at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the news service reported. The state agency that awarded the money consisted of five Richardson appointees and five members of his gubernatorial cabinet. CDR made contributions both shortly before and after securing consultant work with the state of New Mexico. CDR’s president also contributed $29,000 to Obama’s presidential campaign. After Holder dropped the case, New Mexico Republicans blasted the lack of transparency in the decisions and the refusal to heed the advice of experienced, non-political prosecutors and FBI investigators.</p>
<p>Holder's tenure as attorney general was clearly marked with putting politics above the law, something that is antithetical to Sessions. The Democrats hate that about Sessions, which is why they're attempting to smear him yet stayed silent about Holder's sleazy actions leading the Justice Department.</p>
<p>Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter" type="external">@bandlersbanter</a>.</p> | Democrats Want AG Sessions To Resign. Here Are 5 Things Obama AG Eric Holder Never Resigned Over. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14031/democrats-want-ag-sessions-resign-here-are-5-aaron-bandler | 2017-03-02 | 0 |
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<p>Everything they did at Tent City was outside, because Tent City was outside, too.</p>
<p>The desert complex — erected in 1993 — became Joe Arpaio’s signature achievement during his 24 years as the Maricopa County sheriff, the physical manifestation of his flashy, Wild West, no-nonsense law and order mentality that made him a national celebrity and treasured ally of President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>But it also cast a dark mark on Phoenix and attracted criticism from civil rights groups who called Arpaio’s methods needlessly harsh.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In November, the voters ousted Arpaio, a Republican, who faces trial for criminal contempt of court for ignoring a court order in a racial profiling case involving his notorious immigration patrols. Paul Penzone, a Democrat and retired Phoenix police sergeant, was elected on the promise of rolling back existing law enforcement policies he viewed as purposeless and self-aggrandizing.</p>
<p>Now he’s following through.</p>
<p>First, Penzone ditched the pink panties, then launched an investigation into the practicality of Tent City.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the new sheriff in town announced he would shut it down completely.</p>
<p>“This facility is not a crime deterrent, it is not cost efficient, and it is not tough on criminals,” he said at a news conference. “That may have been the intent when it was first opened. But this facility became more of a circus atmosphere for the general public. Starting today, that circus ends and these tents come down.”</p>
<p>Within 45 to 60 days, authorities plan to transfer at least half of the current inmates to the region’s five other detention centers, Penzone said. It could take several months to empty the facility because many of those staying at Tent City are in work release programs, which means they come and go for jobs outside the facility</p>
<p>The hundreds of men and women who lived there are people who have already been convicted of a crime, but they are not necessarily hardened criminals. They’re there for low-level misdemeanor offenses — many for DUI convictions.</p>
<p>During his campaign, Penzone hinted that he would shutter Tent City, but often emphasized the importance of basing that decision not on conjecture or gut instincts, but data and fact. He assembled an advisory committee with members from across the political spectrum to conduct a “methodical review” of the economic and safety challenges at Tent City.</p>
<p>Their conclusion was unanimous, which Penzone said proved what he already knew: Arpaio’s signature jail was nothing more than a political stunt that served his swaggering persona more than the taxpayers.</p>
<p>Closing Tent City will save Maricopa County an estimated $4.5 million, Penzone said, and help buoy staffing at the department’s other strapped detention centers. Safety and economic efficiency remain the sheriff’s priority, he said.</p>
<p>“There is no empirical evidence to show that this facility in any way deters crime,” Penzone said.</p>
<p>Arpaio told the Arizona Republic: “That’s his call, OK? Not mine. I’m not going to second-guess him,” he said. “If I was still the sheriff, those tents would never be gone.”</p>
<p>Sign up for the Today’s WorldView Newsletter The Washington Post.</p> | New sheriff in town to close Joe Arpaio’s outdoor Tent City jail, of pink underwear fame | false | https://abqjournal.com/982834/new-sheriff-in-town-to-close-joe-arpaios-outdoor-tent-city-jail-of-pink-underwear-fame.html | 2 |
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<p>Fresh from the fray of <a href="" type="internal">“Retardgate,”</a> as some <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/retardgate-part-ii-rush-limbaugh-out-tards-rahm-emanuel/" type="external">media outlets</a> called it, <a href="" type="internal">Sarah Palin</a> this week sought to expose another dark and insidious force aligned against her. By which she meant an episode of the TV cartoon Family Guy. On <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjJTSSdkqJk&amp;feature=player_embedded" type="external">the episode in question</a>, the awkward teen character Chris Griffin dates a girl who has Down syndrome—and at one point identifies her mother as “the former governor of Alaska.”</p>
<p>Palin chose one of her preferred media forums— <a href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=305122263434#!/sarahpalin" type="external">her Facebook page</a>—to argue that the line of dialogue “mocked” her special-needs son, Trig. She called it <a href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=305122263434" type="external">“another kick in the gut,”</a> powerful language that’s apparently calculated to remind us she’s been hurt before, and the blows are felt most in that part of the body where intuitions—and babies—come from. In effect, she’s saying the blows are an attack on common sense, disabled children and womankind.</p>
<p>But irony is a harsh master:&#160;the cartoon character in question was voiced by a woman with Down syndrome, professional actress <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0295141/" type="external">Andrea Fay Friedman</a>, and she thinks Palin is the one who lacks common sense—or at least “a sense of humor” or “sarcasm.”</p>
<p>“I was making fun of Sarah Palin, but not her son,” Friedman tells the New York Times today in a <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/family-guy-voice-actor-says-palin-does-not-have-a-sense-of-humor/" type="external">candid interview.</a></p>
<p>Beyond its obvious problems, Palin’s latest claim of victimhood certainly isn’t helping endear her to the public. As Kevin Drum <a href="" type="internal">noted last week</a>, the more Americans see of Palin, the less they like her. And the responses to Palin’s Family Guy <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/fox-hollywood-what-a-disappointment/305122263434" type="external">comment on Facebook</a>—there were 10,567 and counting as this story went online—are largely unsupportive of the former governor’s viewpoint.</p>
<p>Friedman, too, thinks Palin’s concern for special-needs children is disingenuous. “My mother,” <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/02/actress-from-family-guy-sets-record.html" type="external">she says,</a> “did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”</p>
<p /> | Sarah Palin’s Family Guy Faux Pas | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/02/sarah-palins-family-guy-faux-pas/ | 2010-02-20 | 4 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — Sylvia Douglas twice voted for President Barack Obama and last year cast a ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton. But when it comes to “Obamacare,” she now sounds like President-elect Donald Trump. This makes her chuckle amid the serious choices she faces every month between groceries, electricity and paying a health insurance bill that has jumped by nearly $400.</p>
<p>“It’s a universal thing, nobody likes it,” Douglas, a licensed practical nurse in Huntsville, Alabama, said of Obama’s signature law. “They need to fix it with whatever works, but not make more of a mess like they have now.”</p>
<p>That Americans agree on much of anything is remarkable after a presidential race that ripped open the nation’s economic, political and cultural divisions. But on the brink of the Trump presidency, a new poll finds ample accord across those divisions on the need to do something about health care in the United States.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>More than 4-in-10 Republicans, Democrats and independents say health care is a top issue facing the country, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed. That’s more than named any other issue in the survey, conducted Dec. 14-19.</p>
<p>But there seems to be little agreement on what to do about it.</p>
<p>Democrats say they want to fix problems in the current program — among them, rising costs and dwindling competition — but not dismantle it. They warn that the GOP is threatening the coverage gained by 20 million people under the 2010 overhaul.</p>
<p>Republicans want to repeal Obama’s signature law but fear the political damage of stranding millions of Americans who secured coverage. Congress’ nonpartisan budget analyst lent weight to that concern Tuesday, estimating that a bill passed in 2016 to only repeal — not replace — the law would result in 18 million more uninsured people and a spike in premiums.</p>
<p>Trump says he has a plan, but so far he’s given no details. He told The Washington Post last weekend that his approach would provide “insurance for everybody.”</p>
<p>Congressional Republicans say the revamp will offer “universal access” to coverage, not quite the same thing</p>
<p>The desire to fix Obamacare stretches across party lines, but some are skeptical it can be done.</p>
<p>“It can’t be made to work,” said James Gemind, a 55-year-old restaurant worker from Orlando, Florida. “That’s why both sides have been unanimous in their agreement that it has to be repealed or replaced. Part of it is funding; it just does not exist to insure everybody.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Health care aside, in the poll there was more modest agreement on other national priorities.</p>
<p>About a third of Republicans and a quarter of Democrats put unemployment among their top issues. About a fifth named the economy in general as a top priority regardless of party, according to the poll. Most Americans said the government should put a substantial amount of effort toward addressing the public’s priorities, but few expect much will be accomplished in the next year, the survey said.</p>
<p>Overall, domestic issues including health care, education, the environment and racism were cited by 86 percent of Americans.</p>
<p>But Democrats were more likely to mention the environment, racism and poverty, while Republicans were more likely to cite immigration, terrorism, government spending and taxes.</p>
<p>Immigration was named by 40 percent of GOP respondents, compared to 15 percent of Democrats. Trump during the campaign connected immigration to national security and vowed to build a wall along the southern U.S. border and make Mexico pay for it — an idea Mexican leaders have not accepted. Trump now says Mexico will pay for it “eventually.”</p>
<p>In a turn-around from a year ago, most Republicans now say the country is on the right course, while Democrats have become more pessimistic.</p>
<p>But it’s health care reform that survives this era of division, in part because it touches on peoples’ day-to-day quality of life, and in the most personal ways.</p>
<p>Douglas’ husband is disabled and she recently was diagnosed with a condition that required abdominal imaging. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama is now the only provider in her state exchange — a fact she blames for the boost in her monthly premium, from around $600 to nearly $1000. Additionally, she learned, her deductible had zoomed to $4,000. That torpedoed work she’d done to build a future.</p>
<p>“I was going to buy a new home, I was getting my credit straight, but now that is down the drain,” Douglas said. “Obamacare helped the less-fortunate, and that’s what I liked about it. I had no idea it would tear out the middle class like this.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>The AP-NORC poll of 1,017 adults was conducted Dec. 14-19, 2016, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.</p>
<p>Interviews were conducted online and using landlines and cellphones.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>AP-NORC: <a href="http://www.apnorc.org/" type="external">http://www.apnorc.org/</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to delete the incorrect reference to a “monthly” deductible.</p> | AP-NORC Poll: Americans of all stripes say fix health care | false | https://abqjournal.com/930266/ap-norc-poll-americans-of-all-stripes-say-fix-health-care.html | 2017-01-18 | 2 |
<p>Democrats must be in trouble if The Daily Beast is running a headline <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/04/white-supremacists-running-for-political-office-in-2012-in-growing-numbers.html" type="external">White Supremacist Stampede</a>, with this opening line:</p>
<p>Add to the growing list of candidates considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 America’s most famous white-power advocate: David Duke.</p>
<p>Ah yes, the David Duke card gets played.</p>
<p>Duke is an anti-Semitic kook who is far more likely in recent years to be <a href="http://www.ruthfullyyours.com/2011/04/12/mark-steyn-david-duke-a-posterboy-for-islamists-in-canada/" type="external">hobnobbing</a> with <a href="" type="internal">anti-Israel</a> European leftists and <a href="http://youtu.be/Jwq7e9pOMs8" type="external">Islamists</a> than with anyone associated with&#160;the Republican Party or the Tea Party movement.</p>
<p>Yet The Daily Beast trots out a possible (inevitable?) Duke run for President to try to back up a false meme, that there is a “stampede” of Neo-Nazi candidates running in elections as Republicans.</p>
<p>What is the source for that screed?&#160; The Southern Poverty Law Center, which uses&#160; <a href="" type="internal">fear mongering</a> as a tool to solicit donations.&#160;&#160; (And regularly <a href="" type="internal">tries to smear</a> the Tea Party movement.)</p>
<p>But the facts elicited in the article defeat the headline.&#160; Only nine candidates who expressly spout&#160;white supremacist&#160;ideology were identified by the SPLC in the article, out of thousands of candidates who run in races nationwide (emphasis mine):</p>
<p>“We’ve seen increasing numbers of white supremacists and others on the radical right running for electoral office for several years now and we likely had more in the last election than in any other in recent memory,” says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Although extremely few of these people are elected, especially if their views become known during the campaign, the fact that there are so many openly running for public office reflects the growth of white nationalism over the last 10 years.”</p>
<p>Potok’s group tracked 23 candidates in 2010 with radical right-wing views, nine of whom they described as white supremacists or white nationalists. (The others had extreme immigration and world-conspiracy views but did not specifically have links to white organizations.)</p>
<p>Nine white supremacist candidates?&#160; In the whole country?&#160; With its multi-hundred <a href="" type="internal">million dollar</a> endowment, SPLC only could find nine candidates?</p>
<p>The Daily Beast is going to have to do better than the David Duke card.</p>
<p>Update:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Joshua Green Strikes Out</a>.</p> | Daily Beast Plays The David Duke Card | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/07/daily-beast-plays-the-david-duke-card/ | 2011-07-05 | 0 |
<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>Fifty years after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech envisioned unity between blacks and whites, a new study finds a growing gap in racial attitudes and experiences in America.</p>
<p>“We do not live in a post-racial nation, … but in a land of two Americas divided by race, and less willing than ever to find a common ground of understanding,” David Briggs of the Association of Religion Data Archives <a href="http://blogs.thearda.com/trend/featured/as-black-white-gap-widens-americans-do-not-want-to-talk-about-race/" type="external">wrote</a>, describing findings of the <a href="http://www.thearda.com/pals/" type="external">2012 Portraits of American Life Study</a>.</p>
<p>The study, a second wave of a major study on religion and race led in 2006 by sociologists Michael Emerson of Rice University and David Sikkink of the University of Notre Dame, found increases in the percentage of both whites and blacks who felt they have been treated unfairly because of their race. One in four agreed with the statement: “It’s OK to have a country where the races are basically separate from one another, as long as they have equal opportunity.”</p>
<p>In 2012, nearly half of blacks, including 52 percent of black Protestants, said they thought about their race daily. Just 10 percent of whites reported the same degree of racial awareness.</p>
<p>Nearly six in 10 white Americans — including 69 percent of white evangelical Protestants — believe one of the best ways to improve race relations is to stop talking about race. That’s up from 45 percent in 2006. The percentage of black Americans saying the same thing also rose from 31 percent in 2006 to 39 percent in 2012, including 44 percent of black Protestants.</p>
<p>In 2006, slightly more than a third of white respondents said the government should do more to help minorities increase their standard of living. In 2012, just a quarter of white respondents favored such government action. During the same period, the percentage of black respondents favoring a greater role for government rose from 71 percent in 2006 to 79 percent in 2012.</p>
<p>Both races increasingly view themselves as victims of racial prejudice. Fourteen percent of whites said they had been treated unfairly because of their race in the last three years, up from 8 percent in 2006. The percentage of blacks reporting prejudice rose from 36 percent in 2006 to 46 percent in 2012.</p>
<p>Observers termed the findings sobering in a year that saw 50th anniversary commemorations of the Civil Rights Movement — including Dr. King’s Aug. 28, 1963, words at the Lincoln Memorial,&#160; <a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm" type="external">considered</a> one of the top 100 speeches in American history, and the Dec. 5 <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/05/world/africa/nelson-mandela-dies/" type="external">death</a> of Nelson Mandela, a symbol of racial reconciliation for his work to end apartheid in South Africa.</p>
<p>A recent controversy over a television reality show hinted at how differently Americans perceive the issue of racism. “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, in the news for expressing his views on homosexuality in a magazine interview, also commented that he never heard blacks he knew in pre-Civil Rights Louisiana complain about their treatment by whites.</p>
<p>Dwight McKissic, a prominent black Southern Baptist pastor who has in the past pointed out his own denomination’s shortcomings in matching its rhetoric on racial reconciliation with concrete action, gave Robertson a pass, saying there was some truth to his comment and that it didn’t suggest all Southern blacks were happy under Jim Crow.</p>
<p>Fred Luter, the first African-American to be elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that he agreed with Robertson about homosexuality but took exception to his views on race.</p>
<p>Luter, <a href="http://www.franklinabc.com/" type="external">pastor</a> of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, said in a <a href="http://www.komonews.com/news/entertainment/Church-leader-disputes-Duck-Dynasty-patriarchs-race-remarks-237244251.html" type="external">story</a> distributed by Associated Press that there was nothing happy about segregation or “being hung in a tree because of your race,” adding that blacks were definitely complaining, if not to Robertson.</p>
<p>Alan Bean, a white American Baptist minister who leads Friends of Justice — a ministry that spotlights racial inequality in America’s criminal justice system — said people like Robertson and Fox News personality Megyn Kelly, criticized for saying both Santa Claus and Jesus were white, “don’t mean to be mean” but think like they do because of “social isolation.”</p>
<p>“This is probably too obvious to need saying, but I’ll say it anyway,” Bean wrote in a blog Dec. 20. “African-Americans in the pre-civil rights South didn’t complain to their white overlords, especially the poor whites who sometimes worked next to them. Uttering complaints about the way you were being treated or about the heartbreaking unfairness of Jim Crow segregation was an excellent way to get fired or, if the good old boys within earshot were so inclined, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/phil-robertsons-america/282555/" type="external">lynched</a>.”</p> | Study says race perception gap widening | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/study-says-race-perception-gap-widening/ | 3 |
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<p>The McCain campaign has informed broadcast media that they should block off an hour for McCain’s acceptance speech on Thursday night. An hour? That’s a lot of McCain. Or any politician. Is the campaign expecting his speech to be interrupted by numerous ovations? Does it want to prove to voters that McCain can pull off such a strenuous action?</p>
<p>McCain has never been accused of being a stem-winder. So even when it’s time for the most important speech of his long political career, less may be more.</p>
<p /> | Looking to the GOP’s Finale: Too Much McCain? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/looking-gops-finale-too-much-mccain/ | 2008-09-04 | 4 |
<p>“I’m not too intimidating, I don’t think.”</p>
<p>President Obama was telling Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan that Malia’s high school prom date had nothing to fear. But it will hardly be surprising if detractors and kibitzers from both political parties use that bit of self-reflection to diagnose one of the fundamental problems afflicting the Obama White House.</p>
<p>Nobody seems to be afraid of the guy. That, according to conventional Washington wisdom, is a major reason why his political and policy agendas are stuck in a ditch on Capitol Hill, and why Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Supreme Ayatolla, Ali Khamenei, seem to view the Leader of the Free World with something less than shock and awe.</p>
<p>When Kelly told the president “We’re terrified!” and Michael claimed “We’re scared to death!”, they were simply being the big kidders we all know them to be.</p>
<p>The president has been having a tough time of it lately—a blossoming scandal at the Veterans Administration, foreign policy troubles that have only gotten worse, and his own job approval ratings down in the basement—so it’s understandable that he’d seek sweet relief by appearing on Friday’s installment of Live With Kelly &amp; Michael. After all, with the notable exception of Jerry Springer, daytime television, with its largely female viewership, is a combat-free environment, potentially allowing an embattled politician to communicate his message unchallenged.</p>
<p>Yet, in a sit-down that was taped at the White House on Thursday, Obama—his legs crossed in relaxed mode—might have been charming, self-deprecating, earnest, and appealing, but he did little to help himself out of his political rut and probably even dug in deeper.</p>
<p>Asked straight-up by Strahan whether he would ask for Eric Shinseki's resignation as Secretary of Veterans' Affairs, Obama promised to “have a serious conversation with him about whether he is prepared and has the capacity to take on the job of fixing it,” but not before spending two minutes trying to contextualize the scandal with a bowlful of warm verbal porridge that didn’t conceal the rat’s head popping up in the middle.</p>
<p>Hearing the president ladle praise on the quality of the VA’s medical services, and claim credit for reducing veterans homelessness by 25 percent, while distancing himself from historical “backlogs” and “inefficiencies,” many viewers had to wonder what planet he is on. Obama might have been factually correct in many of his assertions, but he was tonally discordant—and politically out of this world. (Later on Friday morning Obama accepted Shinseki’s resignation.)</p>
<p>Indeed, he brought more obvious passion to a discussion of the perils of concussions in high school and college sports—the subject of an all-day White House summit—than to the infuriating incompetence and possible criminality occurring (at least, organizationally) right under his nose.</p>
<p>In another, possibly problematic, point in the session, Obama stopped just short of endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, and seemed to convey that he considers Vice President Biden—who has openly mused about a 2016 candidacy—an also-ran.</p>
<p>“We’re buddies,” he said of his former secretary of state, who ran against him 2008 in an often-acrid primary battle. “I always admired her. As soon as she got here, she couldn’t have been more effective and more loyal, and since that time is a really, really good friend.”
</p>
<p>And here’s the money quote that is apt to give Joe Biden fits: “I don’t know what she’s gonna decide to do, but I know if she were to run for president, I think she’d be very effective at that.” He relegated his vice president, meanwhile, to a group of “some hardworking, effective…people around me…and I love them to death.”</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>As required on daytime television chatfests, the president also revealed some personal details: He generally goes to bed at 2 a.m., after reading through his briefing papers, and gets up at 7 a.m. for a daily workout. He has no plans to dye his graying hair. “I see Michelle in the hair salon, and it’s just too much work. It takes my barber 20 minutes to cut my hair.”</p>
<p>He told Ripa that if Michelle Obama ever told him she’d like to run for office herself, “I would say, ‘Where did you take my wife?’ Had there been an alien body-snatching going on? One thing I can promise you: Michelle will not run for office.”</p>
<p>He indicated he wasn’t mad at an aggressive player in a pickup basketball game a couple of years ago who inadvertently split Obama’s lip with an errant elbow, requiring the president to get 12 stitches. “I’m not sure he got invited back,” Obama confided, “but I did send him a picture [taken at the moment of the injury by a White House photographer] and wrote him, ‘You’re the only man who ever got away with cold-cocking the president.’ ”</p>
<p>He also noted how “jarring” it was to see Malia, his daughter in high heels for the first time when she went to that first prom. He would not say if she had a male date.</p>
<p>At one point, Strahan asked him what he’d most like to do if he could just be a normal person.</p>
<p>“I’d take a walk,” the president answered, and there was a dreamy look in his eyes. “I would walk through this gate…I might walk out to the Lincoln Memorial and sit on there. Maybe I’d wander around and find myself at a little outdoor café or something and just sit and watch people go by. The thing you miss most about being president is just anonymity.”</p>
<p>There was more genuine heartfelt feeling in that particular answer than any of the others Obama gave.</p> | ‘Michelle Will Not Run For Office’: Obama's Daytime TV Confessional | true | https://thedailybeast.com/michelle-will-not-run-for-office-obamas-daytime-tv-confessional | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
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<p>I love to travel, but I hate the ever-escalating prices. Worse yet, the fees!</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Fortunately, there are ways to save money this summer if you’ve decided not to “staycation” this year. If you’re flying, schedule your time off when others are working. According to Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com, cheaper times to travel are early spring and late summer. Also, pick a weekday to fly. Most people want to fly on Saturday or Sunday and fares reflect that demand. If you fly into and out of major airports – the big cities with the most competition among carriers – you are more likely to bring down the price.</p>
<p>My husband and I are planning a trip to Europe in late summer. We purchased tickets six weeks ago and have watched as fares have risen since then. I feel lucky, but the reality is that the fares could just as easily come down later this summer as the airlines try to fill empty seats. It’s always a crapshoot when to book your summer vacation, but one way to game the system is to use websites like Kayak.com that will give you advice on whether they believe, based on their data, fares will go up in the next week.</p>
<p>If you are flying domestically, the good news is this: Travelocity reports that prices are down for Memorial Day weekend. The average price of a domestic ticket is $341, down $6 from last year.</p>
<p>Not everybody will fly to their summer vacation destination. Some of us will drive. One app that can help you with that is 'Waze,' which gives you free GPS navigation turn by turn – plus, it tells you where you’ll encounter traffic backups and even speeding traps! It relies on community participation, so you may find the bigger cities have the most robust reporting of traffic issues.</p>
<p>Getting away is essential and getting a good price on your days away is not that hard</p> | Money-Saving Travel Tips | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/05/02/money-saving-travel-tips.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>As the revelation that two passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines plane were traveling on stolen passports demonstrates, it remains frighteningly easy to purchase fraudulent passports and other official identification papers overseas.</p>
<p>Dateline NBC showed in 2007 just how easy it can be. Producers used hidden cameras to buy passports stolen from tourists as well as fraudulent passports apparently issued by corrupt government officials.</p>
<p>Stolen passports were so prevalent in Lima, Peru, that brokers were hawking them on the street, within blocks of government buildings.</p>
<p>The passports were “from whatever country you want,” one broker said.</p>
<p>In a downtown marketplace, a broker pulled a handful of stolen passports out of a black plastic bag.</p>
<p>“I've got Canadian, from various places—England,” the broker said.</p>
<p>Many of the passports were stolen from tourists and ranged in price from a few dollars for a South American passport to $100 for a British passport. Dateline producers purchased a passport from Great Britain that had been stolen from Alison Shelley while she was on vacation in Peru.</p>
<p>“I stood in a cafe in Lima with no passport and no money at all, and I just felt really lost and just scared, really wanted to go home,” Shelley told Dateline after being alerted that her passport had been sold on the black market.</p>
<p>Shelley’s passport had been entered into Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database, created in 2002 in the wake of the Sept. 11attacks, and might have set off alarms had someone attempted to use it to enter the United States. But that’s often not the case if they fly elsewhere, as only the U.S., Great Britain and the United Arab Emirates routinely check the database, according to Interpol.</p>
<p>Of greater concern to law enforcement authorities than a stolen passport is a genuine passport issued under a false identity. These passports are impossible to check against the database because they read as legitimate.</p>
<p>In Lima, a broker named “Jorge” promised Dateline a genuine Spanish passport supplied through what he described as criminal contacts within government agencies.</p>
<p>“The document I am giving you is very clean. It doesn't have even a single stamp. It was obtained here in the Spanish consulate,” Jorge said. “They sell them from the inside. I have people who get them from there.”</p>
<p>That document, purportedly obtained from a corrupt official inside a Spanish embassy, cost $1,750.</p>
<p>Jorge also produced a genuine-looking Peruvian passport, for which he charged $900. The fraudulent passport didn’t raise any suspicions from a Chilean border agent when it was used to successfully cross the Peruvian border into Chile.</p>
<p>An expert hired by Dateline also obtained a fraudulent Venezuelan passport in Caracas and flew to the Dominican Republic and Mexico without a problem.</p>
<p>Last year passengers were able to board planes more than a billion times without having their passports screened against Interpol's databases.</p>
<p>Sometimes, authorities do flag them. Nabeel Hussain, 30, who was convicted in 2009 in connection with a terrorist suicide mission intended to blow up seven passenger jets with liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks, was arrested at Stansted Airport outside London in September as he tried to board a plane to Turkey using a fraudulent passport.</p>
<p>Hussain had served four years of an eight-year sentence before being released on parole. One condition of parole was that he could not leave the country. Detectives believe he was planning to travel to Syria to join militants in the civil war, but Hussain has denied the allegation.</p>
<p>The passengers using stolen passports aboard Malaysian Airlines flight were from Iran. Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, 29, and Pouria Nourmohammadi, 18, used Austrian and Italian passports that were recorded in Interpol’s database to board the China-bound MH 370 flight.</p>
<p>Investigators have said they do not believe the Iranians had anything to do with the jet’s disappearance, but Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble used the publicity that the use of the fake passports generated to highlight the risk posed by the black market in official documents.</p>
<p>“It remains of serious concern to Interpol that approximately four out of every 10 international passengers are not being screened against our SLTD database, and this should be a worry for us all.”</p>
<p>He said much the same thing in 2007: “People should be very troubled by how a gaping hole that existed before the September 11th terrorist attacks, before the Madrid attacks, the London attacks, that the gaping hole is still gaping. It might be smaller in this country, that country, but globally speaking it's still a gaping hole.”</p>
<p>Follow NBC News Investigations on <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCInvestigates" type="external">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NBCInvestigates" type="external">Facebook</a></p> | Passport Black Market Remains ‘a Gaping Hole’ in Air Security | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/passport-black-market-remains-gaping-hole-air-security-n56271 | 2014-03-19 | 3 |
<p>10-year Treasury yield climbs past 2.30%</p>
<p>Treasury prices retreated Tuesday, pushing up yields, as a surge in commodities prices helped stoke expectations about inflation, which have suffered amid lackluster economic data.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The selling of government paper comes ahead of the conclusion of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, where central bankers could set the market up for the looming normalization of the central bank's balance sheet.</p>
<p>The yield on the 10-year benchmark note climbed 7.5 basis points to 2.328%, while the 30-year bond yield rose 7.9 basis points to 2.912%, as both securities notched their largest one-day jump since March 1. The 2-year note's yield made a more modest gain of 2.5 basis points to 1.390%. Bond prices move inversely to yields.</p>
<p>Long-dated rates steadily climbed throughout the day after a surge in stocks and commodities added to appetite for risk, prompting investors to switch out of assets perceived as havens. Crude prices jumped 3.34% to $47.89 per barrel, the best single-session dollar gain since last December, (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-continues-to-gain-as-opec-raises-hopes-of-market-rebalancing-2017-07-25) after Saudi Arabia and Nigeria vowed to curb its oil exports and limit output. Other industrial metals rose, too.</p>
<p>"It's been a risk-on trade today, oil prices rising sharply, equity markets are showing in a nice rally, too," said Larry Milstein, managing director of Treasurys trading at R.W. Pressprich &amp; Co.</p>
<p>The broad gains in commodities strengthened the outlook for inflation, energizing the day's move towards higher yields as it can corrode the value of bonds' fixed payments. Tepid inflation expectations have kept a lid on long-term yields even as the Federal Reserve has signaled its intention to raise rates further and start reducing its balance sheet this year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"What's been driving Treasury yields lower is the low inflation environment, so after we saw a pickup in commodities, we've seen a bit of a reversal," said Milstein.</p>
<p>See: Will falling oil prices keep the Fed from hiking rates? (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/will-falling-oil-prices-help-bond-investors-beat-the-fed-2017-06-23)</p>
<p>Although analysts say the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's interest-rate setting body, is unlikely to name the start date for the balance sheet tapering on Wednesday, the FOMC could help brace investors for a September announcement by saying it could happen sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>"The expectation is that either on tomorrow or September meeting they'll give a specific date," said Mike Collins, senior investment officer at PGIM fixed income. "Our guess is they won't give a specific date tomorrow. It's prudent to give themselves more flexibility."</p>
<p>Some analysts feel a large price-insensitive buyer leaving the market could drain liquidity, and hurt stock and bond prices. Economists from Goldman Sachs estimated the runoff of the Fed's portfolio could contribute to a roughly 20 basis point jump in the 10-year Treasury yield.</p>
<p>"Shrinking the balance sheet is likely to reverse the portfolio rebalancing effects of quantitative easing--which lowered the market supply and increased the prices of risky assets--on asset prices," wrote Daan Struyven, an economist at Goldman Sachs.</p>
<p>See: Fed to stick to plans for rate hike, balance-sheet selloff this year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-retreat-fed-to-stick-to-plans-for-rate-hike-balance-sheet-selloff-this-year-2017-07-24)</p>
<p>Treasury yields began their day's ascent after a record high reading (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/german-business-sentiment-hits-record-high-in-july-2017-07-25)from a German business sentiment indicator drove the German 10-year benchmark yield, higher, pushing it up 5.6 basis points to 0.566%. U.S. government paper tends to closely follow the movements</p>
<p>The Conference Board reported that consumer confidence index climbed to 121.1 in July from 117.3 in June (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-confidence-back-near-16-year-high-2017-07-25), beating the median forecast of 116.9 from economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department conducted a successful auction of 2-year notes.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 25, 2017 16:52 ET (20:52 GMT)</p> | BOND REPORT: Long-dated Treasury Yields Jump Most In 4 Months As Stocks, Commodities Rally | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/25/bond-report-long-dated-treasury-yields-jump-most-in-4-months-as-stocks-commodities-rally.html | 2017-07-25 | 0 |
<p>Legendary astronaut John Young, who walked on the moon and later commanded the first space shuttle flight, has died, NASA said Saturday. Young was 87.</p>
<p>The space agency said Young died Friday night at home in Houston following complications from pneumonia.</p>
<p>NASA called Young one of its pioneers - the only agency astronaut to go into space as part of the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, and the first to fly into space six times. He was the ninth man to walk on the moon.</p>
<p>"Astronaut John Young's storied career spanned three generations of spaceflight," acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot said in an emailed statement. "John was one of that group of early space pioneers whose bravery and commitment sparked our nation's first great achievements in space."</p>
<p>Young was the only spaceman to span NASA's Gemini, Apollo and shuttle programs, and became the first person to rocket away from Earth six times. Counting his takeoff from the moon in 1972 as commander of Apollo 16, his blastoff tally stood at seven, for decades a world record.</p>
<p>He flew twice during the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s, twice to the moon during NASA's Apollo program, and twice more aboard the new space shuttle Columbia in the early 1980s.</p>
<p>His NASA career lasted 42 years, longer than any other astronaut's, and he was revered among his peers for his dogged dedication to keeping crews safe - and his outspokenness in challenging the space agency's status quo.</p>
<p>Chastened by the 1967 Apollo launch pad fire that killed three astronauts, Young spoke up after the 1986 shuttle Challenger launch accident. His hard scrutiny continued well past shuttle Columbia's disintegration during re-entry in 2003.</p>
<p>"Whenever and wherever I found a potential safety issue, I always did my utmost to make some noise about it, by memo or whatever means might best bring attention to it," Young wrote in his 2012 memoir, "Forever Young."</p>
<p>He said he wrote a "mountain of memos" between the two shuttle accidents to "hit people over the head." Such practice bordered on heresy at NASA.</p>
<p>Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who orbited the moon in 1969 as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked its surface, considered Young "the memo-writing champion of the astronaut office." Young kept working at Johnson Space Center in Houston "long after his compatriots had been put out to pasture or discovered other green fields," Collins wrote in the foreword of "Forever Young."</p>
<p>Indeed, Young remained an active astronaut into his early 70s, long after all his peers had left, and held on to his role as NASA's conscience until his retirement in 2004.</p>
<p>"You don't want to be politically correct," he said in a 2000 interview with The Associated Press. "You want to be right."</p>
<p>Young was in NASA's second astronaut class, chosen in 1962, along with the likes of Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad and James Lovell.</p>
<p>Young was the first of his group to fly in space: He and Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom made the first manned Gemini mission in 1965. Unknown to NASA, Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich on board, given to him by Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra. When it came time to test NASA's official space food, Young handed Grissom the sandwich as a joke.</p>
<p>The ensuing scandal over that corned beef on rye - two silly minutes of an otherwise triumphant five-hour flight - always amazed Young. Sandwiches already had flown in space, Young said in his book, but NASA brass and Congress considered this one a multimillion-dollar embarrassment and outlawed corned beef sandwiches in space forever after.</p>
<p>Two years later, with Gemini over and Apollo looming, Young asked Grissom why he didn't say something about the bad wiring in the new Apollo 1 spacecraft. Grissom feared doing so would get him fired, Young said. A few weeks later, on Jan. 27, 1967, those wires contributed to the fire that killed Grissom, Edward White II and Roger Chaffee in a countdown practice on their Cape Canaveral launch pad.</p>
<p>It was the safety measures put in place after the fire that got 12 men, Young included, safely to the surface of the moon and back.</p>
<p>"I can assure you if we had not had that fire and rebuilt the command module ... we could not have done the Apollo program successfully," Young said in 2007. "So we owe a lot to Gus, and Rog and Ed. They made it possible for the rest of us to do the almost impossible."</p>
<p>Young orbited the moon on Apollo 10 in May 1969 in preparation for the Apollo 11 moon landing that was to follow in a couple months. He commanded Apollo 16 three years later, the next-to-last manned lunar voyage, and walked on the moon.</p>
<p>He hung on for the space shuttle, commanding Columbia's successful maiden voyage in 1981 with co-pilot Robert Crippen by his side. It was a risky endeavor: Never before had NASA launched people on a rocket ship that had not first been tested in space. Young pumped his fists in jubilation after emerging from Columbia on the California runway, following the two-day flight.</p>
<p>Crippen called flying with Young "a real treat."</p>
<p>"Anybody who ever flew in space admired John," said Crippen, a close friend who last spoke to him a few months ago.</p>
<p>Young made his final trek into orbit aboard Columbia two years later, again as its skipper.</p>
<p>Young's reputation continued to grow, even after he stopped launching. He spoke out on safety measures, even before the Challenger debacle.</p>
<p>"By whatever management methods it takes, we must make Flight Safety first. If we do not consider Flight Safety first all the time at all levels of NASA, this machinery and this program will NOT make it," he warned colleagues.</p>
<p>As then chief of the astronaut corps, Young was flying a shuttle training aircraft high above Kennedy Space Center when Challenger ruptured. He took pictures of the nose-diving crew cabin. The seven Challenger astronauts never knew of all the dangerous O-ring seal trouble leading up to their flight. "If I had known these things, I would have made them aware, that's for damn sure," Young wrote in his book.</p>
<p>Young noted that even his friends at NASA considered him "doom and gloom," and that a shuttle launch "always scared me more than it thrilled me."</p>
<p>He always thought the probability was there for a space shuttle accident, he observed in his autobiography, given that it was "such an incredibly complex machine."</p>
<p>"It wasn't pessimism. It was just being realistic," he wrote.</p>
<p>Yet Young maintained that NASA and the nation should accept an occasional spaceflight failure, saying it's worth the risk.</p>
<p>"I really believe we should be operating (the shuttle), flying it right now, because there's just not a lot we can do to make it any better," Young said in 2004, a year after the Columbia tragedy. Another year passed before shuttle flights resumed.</p>
<p>Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, Young maintained the United States should be doing two to three times the amount of space exploration that it was doing. NASA should be developing massive rockets to lift payloads to the moon to industrialize it, he said, and building space systems for detecting and deflecting comets or asteroids that could threaten Earth.</p>
<p>"The country needs it. The world needs it. Civilization needs it," Young said in 2000, adding with a chuckle, "I don't need it. I'm not going to be here that long."</p>
<p>In his book, Young noted that his "relentless" stream of memos about volcanic super-eruptions and killer asteroids was aimed at scaring and educating at the same time. Humans need to start living off the planet in order to save the species, he stressed again and again, pointing to the moon. "Some folks surely regarded me as a crackpot," he wrote. "But that didn't stop me."</p>
<p>Young spent his last 17 years at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in management, focusing on safety issues. He retired at the end of 2004, seven months shy of NASA's return to space following the Columbia accident.</p>
<p>Young was born Sept. 24, 1930 and grew up in Orlando, Florida. He became interested early on in aviation, making model planes. He spent his last high school summer working on a surveying team. The job took him to Titusville due east of Orlando; he never imagined that one day he would be sitting on rockets across the Indian River, blasting off for the moon.</p>
<p>He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952 and went on to join the Navy and serve in Korea as a gunnery officer. He eventually became a Navy fighter pilot and test pilot.</p>
<p>Young received more than 100 major accolades in his lifetime, including the prestigious Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1981.</p>
<p>Even after leaving NASA, he worked to keep the space flame alive, noting in his official NASA biography that he was continuing to advocate the development of technologies "that will allow us to live and work on the moon and Mars."</p>
<p>"Those technologies over the long (or short) haul will save civilization on Earth," he warned in his NASA bio, almost as a parting shot.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein and AP writer Julie Watson contributed. Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to clarify that Robert Lightfoot is acting NASA administrator.</p>
<p>Legendary astronaut John Young, who walked on the moon and later commanded the first space shuttle flight, has died, NASA said Saturday. Young was 87.</p>
<p>The space agency said Young died Friday night at home in Houston following complications from pneumonia.</p>
<p>NASA called Young one of its pioneers - the only agency astronaut to go into space as part of the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, and the first to fly into space six times. He was the ninth man to walk on the moon.</p>
<p>"Astronaut John Young's storied career spanned three generations of spaceflight," acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot said in an emailed statement. "John was one of that group of early space pioneers whose bravery and commitment sparked our nation's first great achievements in space."</p>
<p>Young was the only spaceman to span NASA's Gemini, Apollo and shuttle programs, and became the first person to rocket away from Earth six times. Counting his takeoff from the moon in 1972 as commander of Apollo 16, his blastoff tally stood at seven, for decades a world record.</p>
<p>He flew twice during the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s, twice to the moon during NASA's Apollo program, and twice more aboard the new space shuttle Columbia in the early 1980s.</p>
<p>His NASA career lasted 42 years, longer than any other astronaut's, and he was revered among his peers for his dogged dedication to keeping crews safe - and his outspokenness in challenging the space agency's status quo.</p>
<p>Chastened by the 1967 Apollo launch pad fire that killed three astronauts, Young spoke up after the 1986 shuttle Challenger launch accident. His hard scrutiny continued well past shuttle Columbia's disintegration during re-entry in 2003.</p>
<p>"Whenever and wherever I found a potential safety issue, I always did my utmost to make some noise about it, by memo or whatever means might best bring attention to it," Young wrote in his 2012 memoir, "Forever Young."</p>
<p>He said he wrote a "mountain of memos" between the two shuttle accidents to "hit people over the head." Such practice bordered on heresy at NASA.</p>
<p>Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who orbited the moon in 1969 as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked its surface, considered Young "the memo-writing champion of the astronaut office." Young kept working at Johnson Space Center in Houston "long after his compatriots had been put out to pasture or discovered other green fields," Collins wrote in the foreword of "Forever Young."</p>
<p>Indeed, Young remained an active astronaut into his early 70s, long after all his peers had left, and held on to his role as NASA's conscience until his retirement in 2004.</p>
<p>"You don't want to be politically correct," he said in a 2000 interview with The Associated Press. "You want to be right."</p>
<p>Young was in NASA's second astronaut class, chosen in 1962, along with the likes of Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad and James Lovell.</p>
<p>Young was the first of his group to fly in space: He and Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom made the first manned Gemini mission in 1965. Unknown to NASA, Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich on board, given to him by Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra. When it came time to test NASA's official space food, Young handed Grissom the sandwich as a joke.</p>
<p>The ensuing scandal over that corned beef on rye - two silly minutes of an otherwise triumphant five-hour flight - always amazed Young. Sandwiches already had flown in space, Young said in his book, but NASA brass and Congress considered this one a multimillion-dollar embarrassment and outlawed corned beef sandwiches in space forever after.</p>
<p>Two years later, with Gemini over and Apollo looming, Young asked Grissom why he didn't say something about the bad wiring in the new Apollo 1 spacecraft. Grissom feared doing so would get him fired, Young said. A few weeks later, on Jan. 27, 1967, those wires contributed to the fire that killed Grissom, Edward White II and Roger Chaffee in a countdown practice on their Cape Canaveral launch pad.</p>
<p>It was the safety measures put in place after the fire that got 12 men, Young included, safely to the surface of the moon and back.</p>
<p>"I can assure you if we had not had that fire and rebuilt the command module ... we could not have done the Apollo program successfully," Young said in 2007. "So we owe a lot to Gus, and Rog and Ed. They made it possible for the rest of us to do the almost impossible."</p>
<p>Young orbited the moon on Apollo 10 in May 1969 in preparation for the Apollo 11 moon landing that was to follow in a couple months. He commanded Apollo 16 three years later, the next-to-last manned lunar voyage, and walked on the moon.</p>
<p>He hung on for the space shuttle, commanding Columbia's successful maiden voyage in 1981 with co-pilot Robert Crippen by his side. It was a risky endeavor: Never before had NASA launched people on a rocket ship that had not first been tested in space. Young pumped his fists in jubilation after emerging from Columbia on the California runway, following the two-day flight.</p>
<p>Crippen called flying with Young "a real treat."</p>
<p>"Anybody who ever flew in space admired John," said Crippen, a close friend who last spoke to him a few months ago.</p>
<p>Young made his final trek into orbit aboard Columbia two years later, again as its skipper.</p>
<p>Young's reputation continued to grow, even after he stopped launching. He spoke out on safety measures, even before the Challenger debacle.</p>
<p>"By whatever management methods it takes, we must make Flight Safety first. If we do not consider Flight Safety first all the time at all levels of NASA, this machinery and this program will NOT make it," he warned colleagues.</p>
<p>As then chief of the astronaut corps, Young was flying a shuttle training aircraft high above Kennedy Space Center when Challenger ruptured. He took pictures of the nose-diving crew cabin. The seven Challenger astronauts never knew of all the dangerous O-ring seal trouble leading up to their flight. "If I had known these things, I would have made them aware, that's for damn sure," Young wrote in his book.</p>
<p>Young noted that even his friends at NASA considered him "doom and gloom," and that a shuttle launch "always scared me more than it thrilled me."</p>
<p>He always thought the probability was there for a space shuttle accident, he observed in his autobiography, given that it was "such an incredibly complex machine."</p>
<p>"It wasn't pessimism. It was just being realistic," he wrote.</p>
<p>Yet Young maintained that NASA and the nation should accept an occasional spaceflight failure, saying it's worth the risk.</p>
<p>"I really believe we should be operating (the shuttle), flying it right now, because there's just not a lot we can do to make it any better," Young said in 2004, a year after the Columbia tragedy. Another year passed before shuttle flights resumed.</p>
<p>Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, Young maintained the United States should be doing two to three times the amount of space exploration that it was doing. NASA should be developing massive rockets to lift payloads to the moon to industrialize it, he said, and building space systems for detecting and deflecting comets or asteroids that could threaten Earth.</p>
<p>"The country needs it. The world needs it. Civilization needs it," Young said in 2000, adding with a chuckle, "I don't need it. I'm not going to be here that long."</p>
<p>In his book, Young noted that his "relentless" stream of memos about volcanic super-eruptions and killer asteroids was aimed at scaring and educating at the same time. Humans need to start living off the planet in order to save the species, he stressed again and again, pointing to the moon. "Some folks surely regarded me as a crackpot," he wrote. "But that didn't stop me."</p>
<p>Young spent his last 17 years at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in management, focusing on safety issues. He retired at the end of 2004, seven months shy of NASA's return to space following the Columbia accident.</p>
<p>Young was born Sept. 24, 1930 and grew up in Orlando, Florida. He became interested early on in aviation, making model planes. He spent his last high school summer working on a surveying team. The job took him to Titusville due east of Orlando; he never imagined that one day he would be sitting on rockets across the Indian River, blasting off for the moon.</p>
<p>He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952 and went on to join the Navy and serve in Korea as a gunnery officer. He eventually became a Navy fighter pilot and test pilot.</p>
<p>Young received more than 100 major accolades in his lifetime, including the prestigious Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1981.</p>
<p>Even after leaving NASA, he worked to keep the space flame alive, noting in his official NASA biography that he was continuing to advocate the development of technologies "that will allow us to live and work on the moon and Mars."</p>
<p>"Those technologies over the long (or short) haul will save civilization on Earth," he warned in his NASA bio, almost as a parting shot.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein and AP writer Julie Watson contributed. Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to clarify that Robert Lightfoot is acting NASA administrator.</p> | NASA: Legendary astronaut, moonwalker John Young has died | false | https://apnews.com/amp/369e1a734dfc46ae99409b4be0f89e87 | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p>HOUSTON (AP) — Three men have been charged with capital murder after investigators accused them of following a suburban Houston couple to their home in an upscale gated community, forcing them into their house at gunpoint, killing them, then ransacking their house.</p>
<p>The Harris County Sheriff's Office says Aakiel Ricardo Kendrick, Khari Ty Kendrick and Erick Alfredo Peralta were arrested Wednesday. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says one of the men confessed to killing Bao and Jenny Lam, both 61, Thursday at their Spring home.</p>
<p>Gonzalez says the men crawled under the gate to the community and waited for the Lams to return from dinner out Thursday night before forcing them at gunpoint to lead them into the house. Gonzalez said the Lams were killed execution style and their home ransacked for guns and jewelry.</p>
<p>All were denied bond and remain in Harris County Jail. None have attorneys.</p>
<p>HOUSTON (AP) — Three men have been charged with capital murder after investigators accused them of following a suburban Houston couple to their home in an upscale gated community, forcing them into their house at gunpoint, killing them, then ransacking their house.</p>
<p>The Harris County Sheriff's Office says Aakiel Ricardo Kendrick, Khari Ty Kendrick and Erick Alfredo Peralta were arrested Wednesday. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says one of the men confessed to killing Bao and Jenny Lam, both 61, Thursday at their Spring home.</p>
<p>Gonzalez says the men crawled under the gate to the community and waited for the Lams to return from dinner out Thursday night before forcing them at gunpoint to lead them into the house. Gonzalez said the Lams were killed execution style and their home ransacked for guns and jewelry.</p>
<p>All were denied bond and remain in Harris County Jail. None have attorneys.</p> | 3 charged with capital murder in Houston-area couple's death | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a75ce98249774844a2777e8d2171b126 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>Since taking the reins of power in the "new Egypt" more than 7 months ago, the nation's military-led interim government has been accused of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-casbah/egypt-military-admits-carrying-out-forced-virginity-tests" type="external">torture</a>, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/110718/egypt-youth-revolution-press" type="external">intimidating journalists</a>, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/110908/egypt-anti-israeli-hosni-mubarak-middle-east-protests" type="external">trying civilians in military courts</a>, and of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-casbah/egyptian-protesters-continue-sit-ins-despite-government-conce" type="external">being slow to enact democratic reforms</a> following the February ouster of Hosni Mubarak.</p>
<p>Now, Egyptian activists have a new fear: a seemingly never-ending state of emergency under a Mubarak-era law that critics believe curbs human rights.</p>
<p>Egypt's ruling military council ordered heightened security and pledged to expand the nation's draconian emergency law on Saturday, following a violent weekend of clashes between police and protesters in the streets near Israel's embassy in Cairo.</p>
<p>Some areas of the building that houses Israel's embassy were breached after thousands of Egyptian demonstrators <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/110908/egypt-anti-israeli-hosni-mubarak-middle-east-protests" type="external">demolished a 9-foot tall concrete barrier</a> outside the mission on Friday.</p>
<p>Most of Israel's diplomatic staff was evacuated from Egypt the following day, leading many to question the future of the 1979 peace treaty between the two nations.</p>
<p>Egypt's military rulers, however, reaffirmed their commitment to peace with Israel. &#160;But they also threatened to <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/20868/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-minister-of-information-Emergency-law-reviv.aspx" type="external">revive Egypt's despised emergency law</a>, which was relaxed following Mubarak's departure, in a bid to help prevent future clashes.</p>
<p>And the new security crackdown may have already begun. &#160;</p>
<p>(GlobalPost in Cairo:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/egypt/100513/egypt-state-emergency-mubarak-human-rights-elbaradei" type="external">Egypt's never-ending state of emergency</a>)</p>
<p>Egypt's government announced earlier this week that it would reintroduce special security courts that were used while Mubarak was in office, <a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE78B3GM20110912" type="external">reports Reuters</a>. &#160;So far, 130 people have already been arrested since Friday's clashes, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/12/egypt-live-rounds-protest-crackdown" type="external">according to the Guardian</a>. &#160;And <a href="http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/egypt/legal-experts-say-amending-extending-emergency-law-illegal.html" type="external">Daily News Egypt reports</a> that Egypt's interior ministry is now warning that security forces could begin using live ammunition to protect certain buildings if the police believe their lives are in danger.</p>
<p>Egypt's modern-day emergency law came into effect after Mubarak took office in 1981.</p>
<p>The original purpose of the law was to combat extremism, but critics argue that the state of emergency took away virtually all human rights at the discretion of Egypt's security services.</p>
<p>Getting rid of the emergency law was a key demand of protesters in Tahrir Square earlier this year.</p>
<p>"The emergency law gives state security the impunity to control elections, conduct arbitrary detention and military tribunals, and even torture," Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/turkey/100414/egypt-protest-cairo-mubarak" type="external">told GlobalPost</a> months before Egypt's uprising. "The government can do anything they want in the name of public peace."&#160;</p>
<p>Activists, human rights groups, and legal experts in Egypt have already questioned the legality of the current return to the state of emergency.</p>
<p>At least one protest challenging the law <a href="http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/494928" type="external">has been called</a>&#160;for later this month in Cairo's Tahrir Square. &#160;</p> | Egypt's continued state of emergency | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-09-12/egypts-continued-state-emergency | 2011-09-12 | 3 |
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<p>A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld regulations that allow the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump to set aside seating for supporters and to determine the location of demonstrations along the inaugural parade route Friday.</p>
<p>The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is a blow to free speech advocates who argued that the sidewalk in front of Trump’s luxury hotel and nearby Freedom Plaza should be wide open to protesters.</p>
<p>In a 30-page opinion, Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard noted that at least 70 percent of the space along the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route is available on a first-come, first-served basis to individuals and permitted groups, including the ANSWER Coalition, which brought the lawsuit.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The First Amendment requires that regulations leave “ample space for peaceful demonstrations,” said Pillard, who was joined by Judges Patricia Millett and Sri Srinivasan. “The First Amendment does not, however, support ANSWER’s claim of a right to displace spectator bleachers with its own demonstration at Freedom Plaza.”</p>
<p>In practical terms, the unanimous ruling from the three judges appointed by President Barack Obama means that the president-elect’s inauguration committee can reserve space for supporters on the sidewalk in front of the Trump International Hotel and at Freedom Plaza.</p>
<p>But the group ANSWER, whose acronym stands for Act Now to Stop War &amp; End Racism, has also received permits to stage a large-scale demonstration Friday at the Navy Memorial in the 700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW and for a section of Freedom Plaza for up to 10,000 people, according to the National Park Service.</p>
<p>Park Service spokesman Michael Litterst said the court properly “recognized that the NPS policies reasonably balance the priority need for the Presidential Inaugural Committee along very limited parts of the parade route with the First Amendment rights of demonstrators to assemble and be heard, and the right of the public to participate in the inaugural events.”</p>
<p>The case was filed long before Trump was elected and is the latest chapter in ongoing litigation over Park Service regulations that determine the location of Inauguration Day demonstrations.</p>
<p>The Presidential Inaugural Committee, a private entity, is controlled by the president-elect and responsible for planning most of the inaugural celebration activities, including selling tickets to watch the parade.</p>
<p>Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the nonprofit Partnership for Civil Justice Fund who argued the case for ANSWER, said the decision amounts to the privatization of public space during one of the nation’s most significant political events for a partisan fundraising organization.</p>
<p>The court is “treating these locations along the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route as if they are VIP ticket sales to a concert as opposed to recognizing the fundamental political nature of the overall event,” she said.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Perry Stein contributed to this report.</p> | Court upholds Park Service rules on location of inaugural parade protests | false | https://abqjournal.com/929378/court-upholds-park-service-rules-on-location-of-inaugural-parade-protests.html | 2017-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>By Todd WallackSan Francisco ChroniclePublished on 1/24/2004</p>
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<p>Excerpt:</p>
<p>But some outside observers questioned whether it was smart to exempt Calandra from its standard ethics policy. "It would be difficult for the public to make a distinction between a commentator and a news reporter,'' said Aly Colón, who teaches ethics courses for the Poynter Institute, a journalism training center in St. Petersburg, Fla.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Colón said Calandra's stock holdings made it impossible for readers to know whether he was touting stocks because he truly thought they were good investments, or because he was hoping the recommendations would boost the value of his own investments.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/01/24/BUG6G4GTVQ1.DTL" type="external">More of this article...</a> <a href="" type="external">Search Google News for more quotes by Aly Colón...</a></p> | Media Ethics Eyed | false | https://poynter.org/news/media-ethics-eyed | 2004-01-28 | 2 |
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<p>Police told him that he stalked his ex-girlfriend, 25-year-old Stephani Lawson.</p>
<p>They told him he violated a restraining order she had taken out of against him. They told him he threatened to kill her.</p>
<p>They told him he did all this via Facebook.</p>
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<p>From September to December 2015, Tyler Parkervest was arrested four times, all stemming from these claims, the Orange County Register reported. He was charged with multiple felonies, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.</p>
<p>Which must have first been confusing, given that Parkervest didn’t do any of it.</p>
<p>Then, it must have been frightening when his bail was raised to $200,000 last December and to pay it his grandparents had to offer their Irvine, Calif., home for collateral.</p>
<p>Finally, police caught on.</p>
<p>From the beginning, Lawson had been alerting police to Parkervest’s supposed crimes. She filed eight police reports against him, claiming that he would drive by her home and that he threatened to kill not only her but her young daughter as well.</p>
<p>“Lawson alleged that the threats came from a Facebook account named ‘Tyler Parker,'” Orange County District Attorney Investigator Loren Dawson said.</p>
<p>Eventually, police discovered that the account didn’t actually belong to Parkervest, though it bore his likeness. Lawson, instead, had created it in a (mostly successful) attempt to frame her former boyfriend.</p>
<p>Last week, Lawson was convicted and sentenced to one year in jail after she “pleaded guilty to one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, or deceit, and one felony count of perjury,” according to a statement from the Orange County DA.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Police grew suspicious of Lawson last May, when she testified during a preliminary hearing about some of the messages Parkervest had supposedly sent to her – one which included a particularly horrific claim.</p>
<p>“The Facebook messages threatened Lawson from testifying in court and one message stated a friend had fun raping Lawson’s daughter,” Dawson said.</p>
<p>But when she displayed screen grabs of the messages, some grew suspicious.</p>
<p>“One of my DA colleagues looked at it and said it doesn’t look right, and that triggered in our mind maybe we need to look into this further,” Deputy District Attorney Mark Geller told the City News Service.</p>
<p>So they launched a follow-up investigation in to these statements, obtaining search warrants for both Facebook and T-Mobile records.</p>
<p>Though they launched the investigation in May, it took “all summer” to access the records because the tech companies kept “kicking back” warrants, according to Geller.</p>
<p>“We had to go around and around with them all summer until we got the documents we needed,” he told the City News Service.</p>
<p>Finally, though, they received the records showing that Lawson wasn’t the victim. The threats had come from her own devices.</p>
<p>No, she wasn’t the victim at all. She was the perpetrator.</p>
<p>“The T-Mobile records showed that Lawson disguised herself as Parkervest with a similar Facebook account,” Dawson said. “Lawson sent herself numerous criminal threats from the phony ‘Tyler Parker’ Facebook account and reported to law enforcement that Parkervest sent her the messages. Lawson had Parkervest arrested four times for crimes that he did not commit.”</p>
<p>She was arrested on Sept. 28 in her hometown of Las Vegas, and charges against Parkervest were dropped on Oct. 6, according to the Orange County DA.</p>
<p>Though the charges against Parkervest were eventually dropped, his story concluded with a sad coda. His grandparents, the same ones who offered their home as collateral for bail, attended each one of his court hearings.</p>
<p>There were many.</p>
<p>But his grandmother died before he was exonerated.</p>
<p>After his release, Parkervest moved to Texas with his grandfather.</p>
<p>facebook-impersonate</p> | Woman impersonates ex-boyfriend on Facebook and nearly wrecks his life | false | https://abqjournal.com/903062/woman-impersonates-ex-boyfriend-on-facebook-and-nearly-wrecks-his-life.html | 2 |
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<p>Scenes from American higher education:</p>
<p>“Do I work a shift to feed our kids, or do I come to school to try and better our lives? Doing papers until midnight is really hard when you are thinking, ‘How am I going to feed my kid in the morning?’” – <a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2016/01/02/health/students-fight-food-insecurity-on-maine-campuses/" type="external">Copeland</a>, a mom attending Southern Maine Community College</p>
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<p>“Almost as bad as the hunger itself is the stress that you’re going to be hungry. I spend more time thinking ‘How am I going to make some money so I can go eat?’ and I focus on that when I should be doing homework or studying for a test.” – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/more-college-students-battle-hunger-as-education-and-living-costs-rise/2014/04/09/60208db6-bb63-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html" type="external">Vaughn</a>, an economics major at George Mason University</p>
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<p>“We’ve had kids who’ve called us and said, ‘I haven’t eaten for two days.’ Often they’re pretty humiliated because it’s not an ask they want to make. It’s easier to talk about the cost of books or tuition.” – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/more-college-students-battle-hunger-as-education-and-living-costs-rise/2014/04/09/60208db6-bb63-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html" type="external">Monica Gray</a>, Director of the College Success Foundation in the District of Columbia</p>
<p>These are surely not stories that one might expect to hear from our college campuses. But we do hear them and they’re true. For decades, we’ve known that inadequate nutrition and hunger <a href="http://borgenproject.org/effects-of-hunger-on-education/" type="external">inhibit</a> <a href="http://www.unicef.org/lac/World_Hunger_Series_2006_Full(1).pdf" type="external">learning</a>. Yet when it comes to higher education, where concern over low college graduation rates—especially at community colleges—dominates policy discussions, food insecurity is rarely addressed.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://wihopelab.com/publications/Wisconsin_HOPE_Lab_Hungry_To_Learn.pdf" type="external">Wisconsin HOPE Lab</a> survey of ten community colleges across the nation indicated that 52 percent of the more than 4,300 students responding qualify as food insecure. At <a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2016/01/02/health/students-fight-food-insecurity-on-maine-campuses/" type="external">Southern Maine Community College</a>, that figure is 31 percent. At the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/think-finals-are-tough-real-challenge-for-growing-number-of-college-students-is-getting-enough-to-eat/" type="external">City University of New York</a>, researchers estimate that at least 100,000 students have trouble getting enough food. The nonprofit <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-hunger-crisis-americas-universities" type="external">Feeding America</a> reports that 10 percent of their 46.5 million clients are college students, and 31 percent of those students say they’ve had to choose between paying for food and paying for education.</p>
<p><a href="http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2016/jan/osu-participation-snap-help-improve-student-food-access" type="external">Oregon State University</a> just became one of only a handful of colleges across the nation to participate in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), allowing students who receive SNAP benefits to purchase food at a market on campus. In <a href="http://blogs.wgbh.org/on-campus/2015/12/21/going-hungry-community-college-students-seek-food-assistance/" type="external">Massachusetts</a>, 25 of the state’s 28 public campuses are now assisting students in need of food assistance. There are more than 250 food pantries operating on college campuses around the country today whereas there were just a handful less than ten years ago, thanks in part to the efforts of the <a href="http://www.cufba.org/" type="external">College and University Food Bank Alliance</a>.</p>
<p>These are all steps in the right direction, but they are insufficient. Many undergraduates can’t access SNAP because they have difficulty meeting the program’s <a href="http://www.clasp.org/resources-and-publications/publication-1/SNAP-Policy-Brief_College-Student-Eligibility-Update.pdf" type="external">requirement</a> that they work at least 20 hours per week while in college. Meanwhile, college food pantries provide inconsistent access to fresh food. As the numbers above demonstrate, food insecurity in higher education is still a problem.</p>
<p>This is a national crisis. Postsecondary education is a critical step in the ladder to economic security in the twenty-first century—a high-school degree simply doesn’t cut it anymore. That is why policymakers on both the <a href="http://www.freecollegenow.org/the_oregon_promise" type="external">left</a> and the <a href="http://tennesseepromise.gov/" type="external">right</a> are supporting efforts to ensure that every American can afford to enroll for at least two years of postsecondary education. Indeed, free community college efforts, promise programs, and dual enrollment opportunities all provide support to help students <a href="http://driveto55.org/promise-provides-enrollment-boost/" type="external">transition to college</a>. But neither they nor the financial aid system ensure that students’ basic needs are met so that they can go to college ready to learn.</p>
<p>We propose a straightforward solution: Expand the National School Lunch Program to include community colleges.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-school-lunch/" type="external">National School Lunch Program</a> was introduced to K-12 education in 1946, several decades after private charities began providing food to hungry students. <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/NSLP-Program%20History.pdf" type="external">Policymakers</a> grew concerned that hungry students performed worse than other students, and so called the program an “integral” part of the school system.</p>
<p>Today we have the same problem in higher education. The students who had access to meals in high school and become food insecure in college find themselves stuck, academically and socially. Moreover, students who were hungry in high school tend to also be hungry in college.</p>
<p>Many community colleges meet the same criteria as high-poverty K-12 schools: about half have student bodies that have at least <a href="http://www.tcf.org/assets/downloads/20130523-Bridging_the_Higher_Education_Divide-INTEGRATION.pdf" type="external">50 percent Pell</a> Grant recipients. Most Pell recipients have family incomes at or below the current school lunch eligibility cutoff of 185 percent of the <a href="http://www.finaid.org/educators/ProfileofPellGrantRecipients.pdf" type="external">poverty line</a>. The mechanisms in place for operating and delivering food to elementary, middle, and high school students can transfer to the community college setting. Whenever undergraduates are coming to school to attend class, they can receive a free, hot meal for lunch.</p>
<p>Hunger exists in higher education. We can argue its extent or severity, but malnutrition is a serious problem that affects educational attainment. We know how to <a href="http://people.virginia.edu/~jvp3m/abstracts/SchoolLunch.pdf" type="external">address it</a>. What remains now is a question of will.</p> | The Hidden Hunger Problem on Campus | true | http://democracyjournal.org/arguments/the-hidden-hunger-problem-on-campus/ | 2016-02-18 | 4 |
<p>The central focus for today is probably still going to be Fed Chair Yellen testifying to Congress, once again.</p>
<p>Yesterday’s <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/yellen20170712a.htm" type="external">testimony</a> confirmed this year’s other rate hike and quantitative policy tightening process that the market expected, but the discussions about the longer-term neutral rate of Fed funds and caution on the inflation outlook gave investors a reason to be cheerful.</p>
<p>There is, perhaps, some confirmation bias to this.</p>
<p>Fed Chair Yellen’s comments were very measured, but markets wanted to see what they wanted to see these days.</p>
<p>The market reaction was not that excessive, so it seems unlikely that there will any attempt to alter the perception with today’s remarks.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, yesterday, the Bank of Canada has joined the tightening party by rising for the first time in seven years its key benchmark interest rate to 0.75 percent from 0.5 percent.</p>
<p>The necessity of abnormally low rates in a normal economic climate is really becoming harder by the day to justify. Even an accommodation addict like the ECB President Draghi is struggling.</p>
<p>The Fed’s <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/BeigeBook_20170712.pdf)" type="external">Beige Book</a> of economic anecdotal evidence reported limited inflation pressures now, but some potential for the future. The report reads: “In general, growth in input costs was restrained. Some contacts reported ability to pass along commodity input increases as they occurred. According to the Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations survey, year-over-year unit costs were up 1.9 percent in June …&#160; expect unit costs to rise 2.0 percent over the next twelve months.”</p>
<p>About the labor market and wage growth we read: “Labor markets tightened further for both low- and high-skilled positions, particularly in the construction and IT sectors …&#160; Wages continued to grow at a modest to moderate pace in most Districts, and many firms attributed these wage gains to tighter labor market conditions. Wage pressures generally trended with employment conditions, and rising wage pressures were noted among both low- and high-skilled positions.”</p>
<p>This acknowledges the obvious point that average hourly earnings are not the same thing as wage growth. In fact, it is perfectly possible for average earnings to go down while everyone earns more money.&#160;</p>
<p>The U.S. consumer was also reported to be spending money, although not it seems on sport utility vehicles.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, China joined the very long list of countries reporting better export growth with strength in their numbers today. Chinese exports rose by 11.3 percent year-on-year (y/y) in June whilst imports expanded 17.2 percent, which resulted in a $42.77 billion trade surplus that was also up from May’s $40.8 billion.</p>
<p>Exports to the U.S. increased 19.7 percent on the year to $37.85 billion, which is the highest growth rate since February 2015. The <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-13/china-june-exports-rise-17-3-as-global-trade-rebound-continues)" type="external">trade surplus</a> with the U.S. came in at $25.4 billion, up from $22.0 billion, which was the largest since October 2015.</p>
<p>This is of course a potentially difficult subject because President Trump tends to get excited about such things and the mention on the Trump twitter feed is not generally constructive.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, what the trade data is signaling, and not just from China, is that global demand remains relatively robust.</p>
<p>Better consumer demand in the United States as signaled by the continuous rise in <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEhp7CsXgAAZ7xM.jpg:large" type="external">consumer credit</a>.</p>
<p>Also sustained consumption in Europe supports exports from trading nations, and the volume of trade is currently at a <a href="http://www.mail2world.com/Attach/1/2/5/125BEF26-134A-48D5-9730-717C7F9FA4D9_hans_etienne_parisis_mail2world_com/pastedImage.png" type="external">record share of real global GDP</a>.</p>
<p>Because it is and will be important for investors in the foreseeable future, today, the UK government will publish the “Great Repeal Bill,”&#160;which is in my opinion more a piece of theater rather than of substance, dealing with exit from the European Union (EU).</p>
<p>The expectation is that the bill will be subject to amendments. Those amendments are very unlikely to include any change to the principle of exit from the EU.</p>
<p>The opposition labor party is as committed to leaving, perhaps more committed to leaving than the governing conservative party. Around 85 percent of the votes of the last election were cast for parties that wish to exit the European Union.</p>
<p>It raises an interesting question: will the UK parliament exert sovereignty?</p>
<p>In the nineteenth century parliament determined legislative details quite frequently. Perhaps, power will now move from the executive legislative branch once again.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Insiders/HansParisis/bio-85/" type="external">Etienne “Hans” Parisis</a>&#160;is a bank economist who has advised global billionaires and governments on the financial markets and international investments.</p> | Yellen Gets Investor Attention for Second Day | false | https://newsline.com/yellen-gets-investor-attention-for-second-day/ | 2017-07-13 | 1 |
<p>By Molly T. Marshall</p>
<p>Travel recently took me to Andalusia, ancestral home of Flannery O’Connor in Milledgeville, Ga. I had not visited the home in person, but only through the ways in which her novels and short stories were grounded there. The farm provided the stability her writing required; her bounded life, constricted by lupus, allowed her vocation to flourish.</p>
<p>I peered into the spare room where she spent the mornings typing what she dared not quench. Her small desk, single bed, oak bookcases and threadbare rug were the meager supplement to her wide-ranging imagination.</p>
<p>“ <a href="http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html" type="external">A Good Man is Hard to Find”</a> and “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Violent-Bear-It-Away/dp/0374530874" type="external">The Violent Bear it Away”</a> were honed in these environs. The simplicity of her life here gives truth to her well-known statement: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” And many considered hers an odd life. Peacocks and poetry and a plantation house helped her write about pain and grace, freaks and faith.</p>
<p>Her prayer journal has been published of late, and in it we find the depth of her faith, her deep longing for God. Indeed, the whole journal seems to be a burning desire for nearness to God. Her humanity and ironic humor shine through. One of my favorite lines — repeated twice — is: “I would like to be a mystic and immediately.”</p>
<p>She does not suffer fools gladly, as her acerbic wit conveys. One of my favorite lines is, “I don’t deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.” Yet, she is ineluctably drawn to God, and her writings are haunted by the presence of Christ.</p>
<p>This author had a profound sense of being simply “the instrument for Your story.” Her reflections, written as an intimate conversation with God, displayed her yearning to convey her faith in compelling ways, even as she struggled with dimensions of the sacramental life of her Catholicism. She was ambitious, yet humble, and her perceptive take on the human condition is bracing.</p>
<p>One entry in the journal caught my attention in this season of Thanksgiving:</p>
<p>When I think of all I have to be thankful for I wonder that You don’t just kill me now because You’ve done so much for me already &amp; I haven’t been particularly grateful. My thanksgiving is never in the form of self sacrifice — a few memorized prayers babbled once over lightly. All this disgusts me in myself….</p>
<p>O’Connor’s willingness to name her struggle to give thanks can prompt us to similar honest confession. We are not particularly grateful either much of the time.</p>
<p>Perhaps our sin is that of presumption; as life rocks along without too many incursions of chaos, providence becomes the air we breathe, imperceptible most of the time. God’s faithfulness in sustaining our lives goes unnoticed, and the humility of praise does not well up.</p>
<p>Our American forebears were wise to recognize that they had been preserved through hardship and therefore giving thanks was the proper response. The lore surrounding the “first Thanksgiving” eludes historical precision; however, as a nation we continue to observe this secular/sacred day devoted to gratitude.</p>
<p>Being grateful can be painful, of course, in the midst of suffering and the “cry of absence” when loved ones no longer accompany us. Some seats will be empty as family and friends gather for the feast.</p>
<p>For those not invited, the season is even more painful. When it is more challenging to express our thanksgiving, we begin to live into the Pauline admonition to “give thanks … at all times” (Ephesians 5:20) as a discipline that cultivates a grateful heart.</p>
<p>I am astonished at the capacity of those with few material goods to be thankful. Because they see life itself as a gift in their precarious contexts, their praise is worthy of emulation. The joyous music of tribal churches in Myanmar, which I will witness in this coming week, invites our participation and a deepening of thankful worship.</p>
<p>The only appropriate rejoinder to grace is to give thanks. O’Connor cautions that this is a challenge. “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.” Indeed, the change we most need in our time is faithful expressions of gratitude, even if we feel the pain of our less than supple hearts.&#160;</p>
<p>At the end of the journal entry describing her ingratitude, O’Connor comes around to this inclusio:</p>
<p>Thank you, dear God, I believe I do feel thankful for all You’ve done for me. I want to. I do.</p>
<p>And so do we, I trust. Happy Thanksgiving!</p> | Not particularly grateful | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/not-particularly-grateful/ | 3 |
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<p>These are some of the familiar names who are holders of the Order of Canada, that country’s highest honor for lifetime achievement.</p>
<p>Add swimmer Benoît Huot to that list.</p>
<p>Huot is a paraswimmer who holds 20 Paralympic medals, including nine golds. He and the rest of the Canadian National Team are in Santa Fe this week and next for some high-altitude training at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center in preparation for the upcoming 2017 Mexico City World Para Swimming Championships. The team will join several local and regional teams for the Santa Fe Open at the GCCC today through Sunday.</p>
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<p>After he added his 20th medal – a bronze in the 400-meter freestyle in the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro – Huot was honored by his country.</p>
<p>“It’s quite rare for an athlete to receive it; in over 50 years, there are only about 180 athletes on the list,” Huot said. “It was pretty surprising and humbling. It’s an honor to receive the Order of Canada. I guess it’s like the American’s Medal of Freedom. We met with the prime minister. It was very touching.”</p>
<p>Huot was born with a club foot, leaving him with a smaller calf and a smaller foot.</p>
<p>Sports like hockey or running were not an option.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t until he saw a para-swimmer being interviewed – one who had a similar condition – that he turned his talents in that direction.</p>
<p>It put Huot on a life path that has taken him from one end of the globe to the other.</p>
<p>“It’s a great privilege to represent your country, wear the Maple Leaf and go around the world competing,” he said. “That’s what comes to my mind when I think about it. I’m lucky to have such a long career and hopefully still be competitive.”</p>
<p>The Rio games were his fifth paralympics. He set a Canadian record in the 100-meter backstroke with a time that was faster than his gold-medal performance in Athens in 2004.</p>
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<p>“I had a great time in Rio,” Huot said. “It’s everything that you learn as human being, and you grow from the sport and you become a better person. At the end of the day, you’re speaking about representing your country and being a proud Canadian. That’s what makes me very proud of the past 20 years.”</p>
<p>His teammate, Aurélie Rivard, also brought home some hardware from Rio, winning gold in the 50-, 100- and 400-meter freestyle events, and a silver in the individual medley, earning Rivard the female Para Swimmer of the Year award. All four of her times were Canadian records, and the 50 and 400 marks were world records.</p>
<p>“It’s basically my life,” said Rivard, 21, who is missing all her fingers on her left hand. “My entire life surrounds that. I’ve been a part of this since I was 13. When I was that age, I was a very shy kid, very insecure. Swimming helped me get out of those bad feeling toward myself. I would find myself every day getting out of my comfort zone, and traveling the world and learning. Today, it’s my passion. I’m very lucky to be able to do what I love for a living.”</p>
<p>Extolling the virtues of para-sports is one of the things that the Canadian team espouses – not just on a competitive level, but also on a personal level.</p>
<p>“There’s great potential for local athletes to become involved in para-sports, even if it’s just for their physical health,” said James Hood, Canadian team leader. “We hope we can open the minds of local citizens that anybody can participate.”</p>
<p>The team got here last weekend and will be staying until Sept. 25 before heading to Mexico City.</p>
<p>For these world travelers, New Mexico has been a bit different, with few reference points other than what they have seen on television.</p>
<p>“I really like this place,” Rivard said. “The only reference I had for New Mexico was ‘Breaking Bad.’ But it’s nice. We have everything we need, it’s all very nice. We’re planning on going downtown (the Plaza) and seeing Meow Wolf. We’ve heard a lot about that. We try to do as much as we can.”</p>
<p>Having training facilities in a place with other amenities was important, Hood said.</p>
<p>“Santa Fe has a great reputation for museums, culture and art,” he said. “Having other activities to do around training has been a big mental and physical help. Being away from home for seven weeks is a long time for anybody and being with the same 32 people for seven weeks can be rough.</p>
<p>“So having the variety and having opportunities to explore different environments is helpful both to the athletes and the staff.”</p>
<p /> | ‘I really like this place’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/1063833/i-really-like-this-place-ex-canadian-national-para-swimming-team-trains-in-santa-fe-for-the-world-championships.html | 2 |
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<p>Thailand's baht. Kazakhstan's tenge. South Africa's rand. Peru's nuevo sol.</p>
<p>In emerging markets worldwide, currencies are plunging over fears that developing economies are on the verge of a crippling fall. Success stories until recently, emerging economies are seen as casualties now - of slower growth in China, plunging prices for commodities like oil and iron ore, the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates and homegrown threats.</p>
<p>The damage has spilled across oceans, with the turmoil jolting investors in New York, Tokyo and Europe. Investors there worry that China and other major emerging economies will reduce their imports. They also fear a trade-disrupting currency war as some countries desperately lower their currencies' value to gain a competitive edge. A lower-priced currency makes a country's goods cheaper for foreigners.</p>
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<p>The Dow Jones industrials plunged 530 points, more than 3 percent, Friday on top of a 358-point drop Thursday. Tokyo's Nikkei index shed 3 percent Friday.</p>
<p>For all the markets' jitters, many economists say they remain confident that the U.S. economy is resilient enough to withstand a slowdown in the developing world. And Europe's economy appears to be emerging from its long slump.</p>
<p>Even so, the trouble in emerging markets is a surprising and unsettling reversal.</p>
<p>"It's remarkable just how things turned around so quickly," says Neil Shearing, an economist at Capital Economics and a former British Treasury official.</p>
<p>Consider Peru. Three years ago, its capital, Lima, was chosen to host an International Monetary Fund's meeting of global finance officials in what was seen as a celebration of Latin America's arrival in the economic big leagues.</p>
<p>But with the event six weeks away, Latin America's outlook has descended from boom to gloom. Peru's economy has steadily slowed, and its currency, the nuevo sol, has plunged 2.5 percent against the U.S. dollar in the past month.</p>
<p>And Peru boasts one of the region's healthiest economies. Brazil's economy is expected to shrink this year and next. Its currency, the real, is down 7 percent the past month and more than 30 percent the past two years. The Mexican peso closed Friday at a record low against the dollar.</p>
<p>It's hardly just Latin America. Kazakhstan's currency plummeted this week after the government decided to let it trade freely. The South African rand fell this week to a 14-year-low against the U.S. dollar. Turkey's lira hit a record low against the dollar this week.</p>
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<p>Hung Tran, an executive managing director at the Institute of International Finance, expects developing countries to post 3.8 percent economic growth this year, down from 4.3 percent in 2014. The institute is on the verge of cutting that forecast further.</p>
<p>Analysts point to a primary culprit:</p>
<p>"It's all coming from China," says Masamichi Adachi, an economist with JP Morgan Chase in Tokyo. "Brazil, South Africa, many countries are commodity exporters, and the final destination is all going to China."</p>
<p>The Chinese economy is slowing more sharply than most people had expected from the double-digit growth rates of the mid-2000s. The world's second-biggest economy is expected to grow 7 percent this year, which would be its slowest pace since 1990.</p>
<p>Beijing is trying to manage a transition from rapid growth based on exports and often-wasteful spending on factories, real estate and infrastructure to slower, steadier expansion based on consumer spending.</p>
<p>That transition means China would need fewer raw materials - Chilean copper, Nigerian oil, Brazilian iron ore. That helps explain why China's pullback has loosed carnage in global commodity prices: The Standard &amp; Poor's GSCI commodity index, which tracks 24 commodities prices, is down nearly 20 percent this year.</p>
<p>Emerging markets were already feeling the squeeze last week, when China devalued its currency, the yuan. That step ignited a semi-panic.</p>
<p>"The devaluation is a red flag about China's current economic situation," says Kurt Braybrook, who runs a Shanghai company that does quality control work. A falling yuan raises the risk that other countries will devalue their currencies to catch up.</p>
<p>Most countries can't blame China and the vagaries of the global commodities market for all their problems.</p>
<p>South Africa is battling labor strife. Brazil is contending with a corruption scandal at state-owned oil giant Petrobras. Turkey is struggling to form a government while its military battles the Islamic State extremist group and Kurdish separatists.</p>
<p>Adding to the pressure: America's Federal Reserve is expected, perhaps at its September meeting, to raise the short-term rate it controls from near zero. Investors could respond by moving even more money out of emerging markets to seek higher U.S. rates. That would lift the dollar higher and emerging market currencies even lower.</p>
<p>A Fed rate hike could also squeeze emerging market companies that have borrowed in U.S. dollars. Those companies would struggle to accumulate enough local currency to pay their now-more-expensive dollar-denominated debt.</p>
<p>Tran at the Institute for International Finance says dollar borrowing by emerging market companies surged from $700 billion in 2010 to $2 trillion through March.</p>
<p>The rising dollar and the hoard of dollar loans recall the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. Back then, a currency sell-off triggered an emerging market debt crisis that became a disaster for countries such as Indonesia and South Korea.</p>
<p>But the picture is less alarming now, analysts say. For one thing, developing countries have stockpiled foreign reserves that they can use to buy their own currencies and stop a crisis.</p>
<p>What's more, emerging market companies that borrowed in dollars in recent years tended to take out longer-term loans, notes Joaquin Cottani, Standard &amp; Poor's chief economist for Latin America. During the "97-"98 crisis, companies had taken out short-term loans and couldn't refinance when the loans came due during a panic.</p>
<p>"Countries have learned from their experiences," says Monica de Bolle, visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Goodman reported from Caracas, Venezuela. AP Writers Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo, Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong, Nataliya Vasilyeva and James Ellingworth in Moscow, Suzan Fraser in Istanbul, Lynsey Chutel in Johannesburg and E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to fix spelling of the Brazilian oil company to Petrobras, not Petrobas.</p> | Sinking currencies point to jitters about emerging economies | false | https://abqjournal.com/632192/sinking-currencies-point-to-jitters-about-emerging-economies.html | 2 |
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<p>Hundreds of Jordanians staged protests outside the Israeli embassy in Amman, Friday, demanding the dissolution of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty among other demands. This actions follows from a week-old shooting incident that left two Jordanians dead.</p>
<p>The protesters marched from the Kalouti Mosque to the embassy following Friday prayers, the New Arab reports. They called for the termination of the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan as well as withdrawing from the gas deal the kingdom struck with Tel Aviv in September 2016.</p>
<p>The demonstrators also demanded the Israeli embassy be shut down. They tried to advance towards the building but were blocked by police, the Times of Israel reports.</p>
<p>Earlier, dozens of Jordanian MPs reportedly signed a motion calling for the embassy’s closure. The document also demanded the Jordanian ambassador to Israel be recalled.</p>
<p>Friday’s protest is the latest in a series of demonstrations that has followed the fatal shooting incident at the embassy. On July 28, hundreds of people joined a similar rally outside the Israeli embassy. They were also calling for the abolition of the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/397498-jordan-teen-israeli-embassy/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Three days earlier, thousands of Jordanians joined the funeral procession of the teenager shot dead by an Israeli security guard during a standoff at the embassy. “No to an Israeli embassy or ambassador on Jordanian land” and “Death to Israel,” people chanted.</p>
<p>On July 23, an Israeli guard shot dead 17-year-old Mohammed Jawawdeh, a furniture assembler, who allegedly attempted to attack him inside the embassy compound. Another Jordanian, bystander Bashar Hamarneh, was reported killed by accidental fire during the standoff, Israel said.</p>
<p>The incident is viewed as the most serious since Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994 and has brought on a diplomatic spat between the neighboring states. The guard, who shot the teenager, was allowed to leave for Israel together with the rest of the embassy staff after the investigators heard “his account of the incident” at the embassy.</p>
<p>On his return to Israel, the guard received a warm welcome from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This prompted further outrage in Jordan and in some other Arab countries, as people on social media expressed indignation at his release and the greeting he received at home.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/397741-abdullah-jordan-netanyahu-embassy/" type="external" /></p>
<p>On July 27, Jordanian King Abdullah II slammed Netanyahu for giving a hero’s welcome to the guard and called on the Israeli prime minister to put him on trial. On Friday, Israel said it would launch a preliminary investigation in the July 23 shooting incident.</p>
<p>The Israeli justice ministry said the country’s attorney-general ordered police to look into the shooting, as reported by Reuters.</p>
<p>“Further along, as findings arise, the option will be considered of asking the Jordanian authorities… to provide additional material to the police,” the ministry added.</p>
<p>The Israeli authorities has also considered offering compensation to the family of the bystander killed in the incident, according to Reuters.</p>
<p>In Jordan, the guard has meanwhile been charged in absentia with two counts of murder and bearing an unlicensed firearm, Jordanian media report, citing the country’s Attorney General, Dr Akram Masaadeh.</p> | Hundreds demand closure of Israeli embassy in Jordan after shooting of teenager | false | https://newsline.com/hundreds-demand-closure-of-israeli-embassy-in-jordan-after-shooting-of-teenager/ | 2017-08-04 | 1 |
<p>European leaders rebuffed British Prime Minister Theresa May's pitch to revive stalled Brexit talks on Thursday, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was confident negotiations would advance by December.</p>
<p>The Brexit talks are running in circles: Officials from the other 27 European countries say they need more specifics on which past spending pledges the U.K. will commit to before talks can progress to Britain's future trade relationship with the EU. London, however, doesn't want to yield on money until it has assurances on the shape of Britain's future trading relationship with the EU.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Over dinner with the other EU leaders, Mrs. May didn't budge on the issue of money. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said "there were no new proposals."</p>
<p>Slow progress at what was supposed to be a key moment underlines how Mrs. May's political weakness is complicating talks, sowing uncertainty for businesses in the U.K. With less than a year-and-a-half until the U.K. is expected to leave the bloc, any failure to reach a deal is likely to cause enormous disruptions for businesses that rely on unrestricted trade between the U.K. and the EU. Such a scenario could pose big risks to the U.K. and European economies.</p>
<p>Delays in negotiations could lead to further headaches for businesses operating in the U.K. Goldman Sachs Group Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein tweeted Thursday that he will "be spending a lot more time" in Frankfurt after enjoying "great meetings, great weather" there. He added the hashtag #Brexit.</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs and other international banks in London are preparing contingency plans for Brexit and lenders are looking at building up teams in Frankfurt, among other European cities.</p>
<p>Ms. Merkel struck an upbeat note, saying she was confident that divorce discussions would make enough progress by December for negotiations to move to a second stage where the two sides discuss the future trade relationship. But she warned that phase would be even more complex.</p>
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<p>"The good spirit, the good atmosphere of the negotiations will be maintained," Ms. Merkel said. She said that talks taking longer than anticipated "doesn't mean we won't continue to work hard to reach the second stage, which is undeniably going to be more complicated than the first stage."</p>
<p>However, speaking on her way into the summit on Thursday afternoon, Ms. Merkel struck an upbeat note, saying she believed that divorce discussions would make enough progress by December for negotiations to move to a second stage where the two sides discuss the future trade relationship.</p>
<p>"I'm confident that we'll be able to advance to phase two in December," Ms. Merkel said.</p>
<p>Four months into talks, negotiations have been limited to terms of Britain's departure from the EU: How much money it owes the bloc, the treatment of three million EU citizens living in the U.K and the one million Britons living in the EU, and how Brexit will affect the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and Ireland.</p>
<p>Mrs. May had hoped to move beyond divorce issues to start negotiating the future trade relationship this month.</p>
<p>On Thursday, she told the leaders of the other 27 European Union countries that she recognized discussions had been difficult over the summer but believed her commitment in September to honor the U.K.'s financial obligations should have been enough to break the impasse. She appealed to them to help craft a deal that could win backing at home.</p>
<p>"There is increasingly a sense that we must work together to get to an outcome we can stand behind and defend to our people," she told the leaders.</p>
<p>Once Mrs. May leaves the summit Friday, the other EU leaders are set to agree that they will begin preliminary discussions on the future trade relationship among themselves so the bloc is prepared for negotiations with Britain by year-end.</p>
<p>Mrs. May sought to inject new energy into negotiations by saying Thursday that she wants to make it as easy as possible for EU citizens in Britain to stay after Brexit. She said Brussels and London are within "touching distance" of reaching an agreement on the issue.</p>
<p>But EU diplomats said a number of issues remained outstanding, including what role the European Court of Justice would play in protecting the rights of EU citizens living in the U.K. Irish leader Leo Varadkar also said Britain needs to get more specific on its ideas for working out smooth border arrangements between Northern Ireland and Ireland after Brexit.</p>
<p>After poor election results in June, in which Mrs. May's Conservatives lost their majority in Parliament, Mrs. May has faced additional pressure from euroskeptics within her cabinet and party who want her to take a more hard-line approach.</p>
<p>"We understand the domestic difficulties, but that's not our problem," said one EU official.</p>
<p>Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila said Thursday that EU leaders were frustrated by the slow progress in negotiations. When asked if officials were preparing for the possibility of not reaching a deal, he said: "Not yet."</p>
<p>--Emre Peker contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Jenny Gross at [email protected], Valentina Pop at [email protected] and Laurence Norman at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 19, 2017 19:57 ET (23:57 GMT)</p> | U.K. Pushes Citizens' Rights to Advance Brexit Talks -- 5th Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/19/u-k-pushes-citizens-rights-to-advance-brexit-talks-5th-update.html | 2017-10-19 | 0 |
<p>The expansion of the U.S. economy will hit its six-year mark in June. Though growth overall has generally been mild, this recovery has proved to be one of the most durable and steady periods of growth since World War II.</p>
<p>At 69 months (assuming it endures through March) and counting, this recovery is the fifth-longest since World War II and sixth-longest since record-keeping began in the 1850s.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The longest recovery on record was the 10-year period that lasted from March 1991 until March 2001, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which officially determines the beginnings and ends of recoveries and recessions.</p>
<p>Below are the U.S. economy's previous cycles of expansion in the post-World War II era:</p> | Duration of US economic recoveries since World War II, at a glance | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/03/27/duration-us-economic-recoveries-since-world-war-ii-at-glance.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>Ivon Baray-Luna, 31, pleaded guilty in Charleston, S.C., last Friday to one count each of conspiracy, transferring false identification documents and transporting illegal aliens, according to a news release from the agency. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. No sentencing date has been set.</p>
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<p>Also arrested in the case last summer were Alma Rosa Ortiz-Calzada, the purported ringleader, from South Carolina; and four other Albuquerque residents – Alfred Padilla, 47; Victor Alvarez, 25; Elizabeth Lopez, 42; and Alfredo Saenz, 39.</p>
<p>Ortiz-Calzada also pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy, transferring false identification documents and transporting illegal aliens, according to the news release. She faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and $250,000 fine. A sentencing date has not been set for her.</p>
<p>The cases against the others are still pending.</p>
<p>Federal investigators have said 30 people from five states were part of the ring using false documents to fraudulently obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses.</p>
<p>More than 150 licenses were identified as illegally obtained.</p>
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<p>New Mexico and Washington state are the only states that allow illegal immigrants to obtain the same driver’s license as a U.S. citizen, but proof of a local address is required.</p>
<p>For the third year, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is trying to repeal the law that allows driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. However, she recently said she would consider a compromise if she is unable to get the law repealed.</p>
<p>According to an indictment in the case, the New Mexico residents would help people in South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia get the licenses.</p>
<p>“It was part of the conspiracy that individuals who were in the country illegally … and not residents of New Mexico, would obtain driver’s licenses from New Mexico using false documents and through false representations,” the indictment said. — This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | ABQ Man Guilty in License Fraud | false | https://abqjournal.com/163617/abq-man-guilty-in-license-fraud.html | 2013-01-26 | 2 |
<p>In July, the University of California, Berkeley, initially attempted <a href="" type="internal">to prevent</a> Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro from speaking there in September, claiming they were “unable to identify an available campus venue.” That ultimately led to a <a href="" type="internal">back-and-forth</a> culminating in the city of Berkeley <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/15/berkeley-spent-600000-for-security-at-ben-shapiro-event/" type="external">shelling out $600,000</a> for security for the event, with concrete barriers erected and <a href="https://www.aei.org/publication/in-berkeley-shapiro-spoke-but-antifa-won/" type="external">700 police officers present</a> to guard the city from riots.</p>
<p>They <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/10402" type="external">never learn</a>.</p>
<p>UCLA, which is supposed to host a speech by Shapiro on November 13, has informed the student Republican group sponsoring the event that they will have to cough up exorbitant security fees if many people come to the event who are not UCLA students, faculty, and staff.</p>
<p>As a result, on Monday, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/files/BruinRepublicansLetter.pdf" type="external">letter</a> to UCLA requesting that the university rescind the requirement and modify the policy. ADF wrote, “The Supreme Court has said, ‘speech cannot be financially burdened, any more than it can be punished or banned, simply because it might offend a hostile mob.’ Imposing security fees based on the perspective offered by Bruin Republicans and its speaker is viewpoint discrimination. Thus, the University is violating Bruin Republicans’ First Amendment rights.”</p>
<p>ADF reports: “UCLA admits that there’s ‘no way’ the student group will be able to afford the fees if charged — fees of the kind that the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear violate the First Amendment. The school didn’t impose the same requirement on other events that attracted large outside audiences. In 2014, it paid $300,000 to Hillary Clinton to speak at the school. Of the 1,800 tickets for that event, 1,400 were sold to the highest bidder (mostly off-campus purchasers) and only 400 were given away to students.”</p>
<p>ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer pointed out, “As the U.S. Supreme Court has made very clear, public universities can’t enact policies that effectively stifle free speech just because administrators fear protestors might show up. The reason for that is simple: Speech isn’t free if all it takes to silence it is for someone else to object. The high court has specifically stated that security fees, such as the ones at UCLA, aren’t constitutionally permissible.”</p>
<p>The UCLA Policy on Costs of Safety Services at Campus Events Sponsored by Registered Campus Organizations should have been applied to every campus event hosted by every student organization, including the roughly 1,200 student organizations hosting thousands of events every year, but it has only been applied four previous times; two of those were Bruin Republican events. ADF pointed out:</p>
<p>Mike Cohn, Director of Student Organizations, Leadership &amp; Engagement, acknowledged that the policy had been "dormant" for a while. But like a ghoul in the night, the University decided to resurrect the policy so that it can haunt its favorite target, Bruin Republicans, because the University has determined that other members of the campus community may object to the content and viewpoint to be expressed at the Event. Here, the University assessed the security fees based on the viewpoint of Bruin Republicans’ event and speaker. Mr. Cohn is requiring Bruin Republicans, and its officers, to agree to pay some unspecified amount — which he acknowledges will be so large that they will be unable to pay — because Shapiro’s topics and views are controversial.</p> | UCLA Tries To Stop Shapiro Speech With Unconstitutional Fee To College Republicans | true | https://dailywire.com/news/22640/ucla-tries-stop-shapiro-speech-unconstitutional-daily-wire | 2017-10-23 | 0 |
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<p>That depends.</p>
<p>As with any malady, the right treatment hinges on the correct diagnosis. You don't recommend better diet and exercise for a shark bite. Biden is a treatment for one symptom, not the whole disease.</p>
<p>The latest ABC/Washington Post poll numbers underscore the continuing crisis. Only 39 percent of voters find Clinton honest and trustworthy; 56 percent don't. Asked whether Clinton understands the problems faced by "people like you," only 46 percent said yes.</p>
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<p>Some Democrats believe the secret-email-server story is driving everything, and if she can just get that behind her, all will be well. But more people are starting to recognize that the email story is a symptom of Clinton's bigger problems. If she had the political skills or charisma to explain her way out of this mess, she would have done so already. She doesn't and she hasn't.</p>
<p>But Clinton's problems are also indicative of the Democrats' more systemic challenges. Specifically that Barack Obama is a deeply polarizing figure who has been fairly disastrous for his party.</p>
<p>Of course, liberals can make the case that he's been great for the nation or for liberalism - or both. But there really is no disputing that he's been terrible for the Democratic Party, costing Democrats control of Congress, state legislatures and governorships.</p>
<p>"No president in modern times has presided over so disastrous a stretch for his party, at almost every level of politics," Jeff Greenfield wrote in Politico. "It's almost a crime," Democratic Party Vice Chair Donna Brazile told Greenfield. "We have been absolutely decimated at the state and local level."</p>
<p>Obama's presidency has been the most consistently polarizing in the history of modern polling. He is popular with partisan Democrats and few others. But that can be misleading. According to a Rasmussen poll, 86 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of independents think the country is on the wrong track. Democrats tend to agree, albeit by a smaller margin (48 percent to 42 percent). But one need only compare the sad turnout for some Clinton events with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' monster rallies to see that the enthusiasm even among Democrats is against the status quo. And Clinton is nothing if not a status quo candidate. Perhaps not in all of her positions, but certainly in terms of her persona and "brand."</p>
<p>The same political party rarely wins three presidential elections in a row, and when it does, it is only when the country is satisfied with the party's direction and the incumbent is popular.</p>
<p>So let's sum up the symptoms. The country is in a very sour mood and searching for change. Populist anti-establishment discontent runs like a prairie fire through the grass roots of both parties. The incumbent president is polarizing and unpopular. The Democratic bench has been cleared of viable young alternatives who could successfully promise a major course correction. (Greenfield notes that when Obama leaves office, he'll pretty much be the only Democratic leader not eligible for Social Security.) The Democratic front-runner is a stiff, inauthentic establishment figurehead.</p>
<p>And the solution to these problems is - Joe Biden, the 72-year-old sitting vice president who ran unsuccessfully for the job twice? Really?</p>
<p>Yes, Biden clears the curb-height hurdle of being more charismatic than Clinton. But Biden, first elected to the Senate in 1972, is arguably even more of an establishment figure than Clinton. Moreover, Clinton has at least a little room to distance herself from Obama. Biden has none. In fact, he gives every indication that he thinks the Obama administration has been a story of one brilliant success after another.</p>
<p>Even if you forget his other problems - the logorrhea, the gaffes and the plagiarism - he is the ultimate "stay the course" candidate. And that's the last thing anyone needs, the Democrats most of all.</p>
<p>Copyright, Tribune Media Services Inc.; e-mail to [email protected].</p>
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<p /> | Biden helps 1 symptom, not disease | false | https://abqjournal.com/645538/biden-helps-1-symptom-not-disease-2.html | 2015-09-17 | 2 |
<p>The View stars Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walked out on Bill O’Reilly Thursday when the right wing pundit insisted on blaming all Muslims for the September 11 attacks. They pointed out that a small group of extremists carried them out, not “Muslims” as O’Reilly was insisting. When he kept repeating his smear of the whole religion (1.5 billion people), the two of them stood up and walked out.</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Here is the blow-up</a>:</p>
<p>Barbara Walters criticized her co-hosts for having departed but then took up their point and insisted to O’Reilly that he is wrong. She finally got him to back down and say he did not mean to blame all Muslims and to say that he had spoken ‘inartfully.’</p>
<p>Elizabeth Hasselback then intervened and blamed President Obama for the confusion, saying he had forbidden people to use the word “terrorst,” and and started talking about ‘Muslim extremists’ instead, and that it would have been better just to keep talking about terrorists because terrorists exist across all faiths.</p>
<p>Hasselback is right in the second part of her assertion, but is mistaken if she thinks that President Obama ever ‘forbade’ the use of the term “terrorism” or “terrorist” with reference to Muslim extremists.</p>
<p>See for instance <a href="" type="external">his diction when he spoke about the attempted crotch-bombing over Detroit</a> by a recruit from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.</p>
<p>Some of the confusion was deliberately sowed by O’Reilly, who used the phrase “Muslims attacked us.” If he had said “the Muslims attacked us,” it would have been clear that he meant all of them. By leaving off the definite article, he was able to imply that all Muslims attacked the US on September 11 but provided himself with plausible deniability.</p>
<p>I have <a href="" type="internal">have pointed out that the September 11 attacks contravened Islamic law in several important respects.</a> So there was nothing ‘Muslim’ about it and indeed Usama Bin Laden appears to have admitted as much when he said that those young men had no ‘fiqh’ or Muslim law.</p>
<p>I am filled with admiration for Goldberg and Behar, who responded exactly as all decent human beings should when face to face with what is essentially a blood libel. Here I disagree with Barbara Walters. There is some discourse that is inappropriate for reasoned discussion on the mass media.</p>
<p>If Walters had had a guest on who insisted that “Jews attacked us” in the USS Liberty incident of 1967, instead of specifying that it was only some Israeli military personnel, would she really have sat there and listened to it and broadcast it to millions of viewers.</p>
<p>Television is a hot medium, and given the passions running high in the election season, O’Reilly was shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.</p>
<p>Moreover, O’Reilly is an artificial pundit who is where he is because media billionaire Rupert Murdoch put him on the air. He is nobody on his own and has never had an interesting or original thought. He is moreover, <a href="" type="external">a prominent stalker of a female staff member,</a> and it is shocking that Walters should have him on The View to talk to an audience of women.</p>
<p>It should not be lost sight of that O’Reilly’s true target was not “Muslims” but President Obama, and what O’Reilly was attempting to imply was that Obama was insufficiently sensitive to the need to act in bigoted ways toward Muslims (e.g. denying them their constitutional rights on grounds of non-Muslim ‘sensitivities.’) White people’s feelings were hurt in the South for decades at the attempt of African-Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote.</p>
<p>There is still a gender gap, with women more favorable to Democrats and the president, and O’Reilly’s effort was to address that constituency with his Islamophobic message, which in turn was a Republican message.</p>
<p>Goldberg and Behar have restored some decency to the US mass media when it comes to Muslim-baiting. Bravo!</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Joy Behar discussed the matter further with former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura</a> on her own show, in which she said she walked out because what O’Reilly said was in her view hate speech. Ventura is a mixed bag. On the one hand he made the correct point that if people have a constitutional right, that is the end of the story. You can’t take it away from them. On the other, he unfortunately brought up a ‘truther’ perspective that exonerated even radical Muslims. The evidence that al-Qaeda carried out 9/11 is overwhelming and it is disturbing to me when people try to let them off the hook. Here is the Behar video:</p> | Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar Walk out on O’Reilly’s Muslim-Baiting | true | http://juancole.com/2010/10/whoopi-goldberg-and-joy-behar-walk-out-on-oreillys-muslim-baiting.html | 2010-10-15 | 4 |
<p>While Fox and CNN were telling you what to think about black Baltimoreans’ response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, The Real News Network convened a town hall discussion in which members of the community were free to speak for themselves.</p>
<p>“Generally speaking,” one young man said in response to a question about the curfew instituted by city officials, “my problem with news coverage — the mainstream media coverage — is that people always want to moralize on black folk when we destroy property in the face of injustice, but no one moralizes on the police officers who kill black people. And so we’re having all this conversation about, ‘Is it right or wrong that we’re destroying CVS?’ CVS is not of and from the black community, so if a black person sees a CVS and is angry about the killing of Freddie Gray, then, you know, that’s gonna happen. So what we should do is fix the racism and white supremacy that’s embedded in the systemic oppression of black folk, not moralizing on 17-, 16- and 15-year-olds who bomb a CVS.”</p>
<p>He continued: “When you start using words like ‘state of emergency,’ ‘national guard,’ ‘curfew,’ these are all words of social control, and the thing is, when you look at it from a systemic level, this is always how this country has dealt with black people. When you look at the different protests that happened during the LGBT movement, no one calls those things riots. They called them ‘fighting for justice.’ They called them ‘fighting for freedom.’ But when black people do it, all of a sudden we’re rioters, and people use the words like ‘thug’ in the media. But it’s like, if your son or daughter was killed by the police, I’m sure you would riot. If I was killed by the police, I would think my family would riot. So the thing is, we should be looking at it from a systemic standpoint and understand the ways in which we could transform systems.</p>
<p>… “I don’t think violence is a great strategy. I don’t endorse it as a strategy, but if people are upset, I’m not gonna tell black people you can’t be violent. You should probably be mad. And if you’re not mad, then something’s wrong. And so we should be using this as an opportunity to pull in young black people, to figure out how we can get them involved in actually making systemic change and not let them get high off their adrenaline and come down after a week of chaos. And so, to answer your question about the curfew, I think that was an afterthought: ‘We need to get social control over the Negroes.’ That’s what they were doing.”</p>
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<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | Town Hall: Black Baltimoreans Discuss How the Media and State Treat Them | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/town-hall-black-baltimoreans-discuss-how-the-media-and-state-treat-them/ | 2015-05-08 | 4 |
<p>President Obama has been under media fire for kowtowing to China on his visit there, specifically for not publicly mentioning the host country’s human rights record. No wonder! Hypocrisy is the favored tool in foreign policy diplomacy, and here the President failed to utilize it. He gave it a day off.</p>
<p>It’s possible that some of Washington’s managers take the idea of U.S. moral superiority seriously, a recurring symptom of myth overdose. It’s also possible that the merchants of official state information take it seriously, for the same reason. Even the man on the street is not immune to its pervasive reach.</p>
<p>But a moment’s thought should suffice in ridding ourselves of this notion of U.S. moral superiority. People are basically the same wherever you go. People are not states. States rule over people. States are amoral. States propagandize their people.</p>
<p>Here’s a U.S. propaganda theme with its desired result, illustrating that when used artfully, propaganda goes unrecognized:</p>
<p>Question: Can the U.S. be a pariah nation?</p>
<p>Answer: Only those that resist the U.S. can become pariahs.</p>
<p>It’s only with a blind eye that policymakers and media enablers can trumpet our democracy and moral uniqueness. Thus the criticism of Obama, allowing for an eye that is not blind, is that he has failed to display the customary degree of hypocrisy – call it a dearth of hypocrisy – in dealing with the Chinese.</p>
<p>Behind our democratic facade lies a capitalist dictatorship, devoid of morality. The manager of this capitalist dictatorship is the Republican/Democratic Party, essentially one party in that they both represent the economic interests of big business. Through the hands of either its Republican or Democratic faction, big business is always in complete control of state power. The party apparat is beyond the reach of ordinary citizens, yet it controls all citizens and is not beholden to them other than the ritualistic and periodic seeking of their “approval” at the voting booth.</p>
<p>The citizen (particularly if well educated) looks upon the state, in something closely akin to superstition, as the only entity capable of providing for the common good. Through generations, this long teaching permeates the public consciousness until we willingly place the state, and its political managers, above ourselves. This we do in spite of the fact that the two political factions that alternately take possession of state power have long been, and remain, inherently corrupt.</p>
<p>Oddly, the inherent corruption of political managers is not a subject of controversy. It is readily accepted by the common man. Politics is more popularly regarded as a business, rather than a profession, putting it a level beneath prostitution (Eliot Spitzer’s experience notwithstanding).</p>
<p>The crisis is not one of misunderstanding on the part of the citizen. It is a crisis of impotence. As a remedy all the Republican/Democratic Party can offer is the ballot box, this after controlling the entire election pageant down to the debating commission itself. The continued impotence of the citizen is paramount to the keepers of the status quo, whereby power rests in the hands of the permanent few over the obedient many.</p>
<p>This system will not change itself. Short of a military defeat by a foreign power, or an internal revolution, control will not be wrested from these party interests. There is, however, a modest proposal that will mitigate the unbalanced power that the politician has over the people. A single term limit – one – of suitable length for all offices. The term “reelection” to disappear from our jargon. This will, simultaneously, free up and devalue the politician.</p>
<p>This could come about through a national referendum (We don’t have many of these, do we?). Don’t expect a politician near you to initiate it.</p>
<p>You might think, in a country that huffs and puffs about being a beacon for democracy, that all citizens would be consulted about important decisions (And what national decisions are unimportant?).</p>
<p>There is an argument against this. That it is too unwieldy and time-consuming, and that the public is ill-equipped to make such decisions.</p>
<p>There is a counter-argument to this. Secrecy serves the powerful and the hidden agenda. In a true democracy, it is the job of the state to fully inform its citizens, trust them, and allow them to control their own destinies.</p>
<p>JAMES ROTHENBERG can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | China Kowtow | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/11/27/china-kowtow/ | 2009-11-27 | 4 |
<p>The state broadcaster/MSNBC North/CBC has gone fully off the rails.</p>
<p>Yesterday, when mocking Republican presidential candidate for eating KFC with a knife and fork, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cbcnews/posts/10154487369439604" type="external">official CBC News Facebook page posted</a> "Another day, another reason why Donald Trump shouldn't have a Twitter account." State broadcaster fans even began calling out the post, writing "Why don't you tell us a little about Clinton?. Julian Assange says "1,700 emails in Hillary Clinton's collection" proves she sold weapons to ISIS in Syria . Or Trump eating chicken is more important news to report?" <a href="" type="internal">SELL THE CBC</a>Another wrote, "So trump eating kfc with a fork and knife is a headline.. While Clinton's lies and more lies.. Scandals and more scandals are not.. Good non bias journalism cbc.. Perfect example of why there should not be state funded media and also one of the many reasons that main stream media is dying.."About two hours after the insulting post, which came as a result of your tax dollars, the CBC edited the comment to "The slogan isn't "utensil lickin' good" for a reason." It's just as unfunny and just as much of a waste of our tax dollars. And yet another reason to sell the CBC.</p> | CBC Facebook page goes fully biased, says Donald Trump shouldn't have a Twitter account | true | http://therebel.media/cbc_facebook_page_goes_fully_biased_says_donald_trump_should_delete_his_twitter_account | 2016-08-03 | 0 |
<p>The internet had a field day last week when it was suggested that our next president was a pervert. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the guy that’s about to run our country has been accused of enjoying a golden shower or two.</p>
<p>A restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland decided to cash in on this ‘golden’ opportunity.</p>
<p>After Buzzfeed released unsubstantiated allegations that President-elect Donald Trump hired prostitutes to&#160; <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.rnqNG812z#.pijkWqB05" type="external">urinate</a> all over him, the Golden Shower burger was created for Community Restaurant and Lounge. Mark Bucher and Nevin Martell sold it for $20, and $5 of each sale went to Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>The yellow cheddar and mustard dribbled over the sides of the beef patty, which we imagine might have happened with Trump’s own patty. That small, tiny pickle is the perfect symbol of his potentially own shortcomings. A reminder that those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.</p>
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<p>Since no trip to the whorehouse is complete without a Happy Ending, the meal was topped off with a lemon glazed donut. After feasting on beef smothered in bright yellow sauce and swallowing that pickle in one or two bites, patrons got to enjoy a donut dripping with white and lemon glaze.</p>
<p>The symbolism of the glaze colors isn’t lost.</p>
<p>While the burger only sold for one day, let it serve as a reminder that karma is real. If Trump can get elected after bragging about sexual assault and reducing us down to objects, then we can fight back with dark symbolism that supports something he clearly despises: equality for women.</p>
<p>Pussy’s are starting to grab back, bitch.</p>
<p>Feature Image: Screenshot Via <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonian/status/819266967840444418" type="external">Twitter</a>&#160;</p> | Golden Opportunity With Golden Shower Burger | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2017/01/19/golden-opportunity-with-golden-shower-burger/ | 2017-01-19 | 4 |
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<p>He was the school's president from 1902 to 1910, reforming it, transforming it and setting it on the path to academic excellence. He left the school and soon became America's 28th president - a great one, some people believe - but he was born in the pre-Civil War South and was a contemptible racist most of his life. A bit late, he is being held accountable for that.</p>
<p>Some students are demanding that Wilson's name be expunged from the Princeton campus, most prominently the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.</p>
<p>They also want a mural of him taken down. They feel so strongly about this that they occupied the university president's office, holding it for 32 hours until the school's administration agreed to consider their demands.</p>
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<p>Similar demonstrations have occurred at other colleges and universities. Amherst College's students and faculty have voted to boot its mascot, the red-coated and bewigged Lord Jeff, a British general who may have sent blankets infected with smallpox to the Indians.</p>
<p>His name is plastered on several New England locations, including the town in Massachusetts where the school is located. Lord Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Montreal, hero of so many battles, has finally met ignominy.</p>
<p>Lord Jeff is one thing, Wilson another. The severe-looking president was in many ways a transformational progressive.</p>
<p>He advocated women's right to vote (the 19th Amendment) and the eight-hour workday, and he supported the Clayton Antitrust Act as well as the creation of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission. He also backed the implementation of the federal income tax, a progressive way for the government to raise funds.</p>
<p>In foreign affairs, he took the U.S. into World War I and helped create the League of Nations, which America, to his painful regret, did not join. He formulated an internationalism we now call "Wilsonian" that has influenced American foreign policy ever since.</p>
<p>What's lacking in the Princeton debate over Wilson, and similar debates elsewhere, is an appreciation for the word "and." Instead, "but" is too often substituted, so that a person becomes one thing or another - not two things at once.</p>
<p>Sometimes those things are in conflict, as with Thomas Jefferson. He drafted the Declaration of Independence, founded the University of Virginia and championed religious freedom. And he was a slaveholder. Still, I would keep his monument on the Tidal Basin.</p>
<p>George Washington, like Jefferson, owned slaves, freeing them only after he and his wife died. Andrew Jackson extended American democracy, yet he was brutal to the Indians.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Henry Ford made his car ubiquitous and paid his workers well. He was also an anti-Semite whose newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, advanced his bigotry. The paper had a huge circulation.</p>
<p>The ability and willingness to keep two opposing views in mind at the same time are hallmarks of adulthood. We grow up to respect the gray.</p>
<p>Black or white, one or the other, is childish. It represents the worldview of someone who does not know the world.</p>
<p>Lyndon Johnson abused his aides, cheated on his wife, supported racial segregation early in his career - and embraced civil rights as president.</p>
<p>More to the moment: Ben Carson is a brilliant surgeon and a political ignoramus. Neither one cancels out the other, but in choosing a president, one is more important than the other.</p>
<p>Still, there can be a tipping point where one quality simply obliterates all the others. When I look at Wilson's portrait, I might think first of the League of Nations and second how as a sick man his wife secretly governed in his stead - and not give primacy to his racism.</p>
<p>But I am white, so Wilson's support of Jim Crow laws and his determination to implement them in the Civil Service may not give me the same emotional jolt that they do a black person.</p>
<p>So, what are we to do with Jefferson, Jackson or Wilson? Can Americans of color be expected to honor historical figures who hardly honored their ancestors and instead enslaved, exploited and even killed them? That can be hard.</p>
<p>Still, we have an obligation to place historical figures in the context of their times and to accord them what they, in some instances, did not accord others: understanding. Woodrow Wilson was not one thing or another. He was one thing and another.</p>
<p>It's a lesson Princeton should teach.</p>
<p>E-mail: [email protected]. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
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<p /> | Many historic legacies are complex | false | https://abqjournal.com/680972/many-historic-legacies-are-complex.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Dear Cashing In,</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>I belong to a nonprofit organization and have a business mileage credit card. Could I use these miles for personal use, or could I buy them from the company? Please advise, I do not want any IRS issues for me or my organization. The card is in my name.&#160;</p>
<p>-Anees</p>
<p>Dear Anees,</p>
<p>Judging from your question, it sounds like you have a small-business credit card, which is different from a corporate card. Small-business cards are usually issued in the name of an individual, who shares payment liability with the company. A corporate card is issued in the organization's name and usually -- though not always -- liability for payment rests with the corporation.</p>
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<p>If the card is in your name, it was issued based on your credit record and the miles are yours to use as you see fit. Unless your organization stipulates that you consider those miles a benefit to be used for company business only and requires you to account for them, I would view them as a perk of the job.</p>
<p>Points earned on a corporate card are owned by the company, but even then, the points awarded by the airline for the miles you're flying are yours. If it's your name on the plane ticket, those are your miles.</p>
<p>As for Internal Revenue Service issues, you shouldn't worry. The last official statement by the IRS regarding the use of business-earned frequent flier miles and credit card points indicated the feds do not, at least for now, consider ordinary miles as income.</p>
<p>Issued in 2002, the statement says: "Consistent with prior practice, the IRS will not assert that any taxpayer has understated his federal tax liability by reason of the receipt or personal use of frequent flier miles or other in-kind promotional benefits attributable to the taxpayer's business or official travel. Any future guidance on the taxability of these benefits will be applied prospectively."</p>
<p>I checked with a CPA and he says reward miles earned on a company credit card are still considered a non-issue at tax time. "There have been no additional pronouncements from the IRS since then, which could lead one to believe that they have no desire to get involved in this issue, especially since it's been over 10 years since their last comment on the subject," says accountant Paul Conway.</p>
<p>Citibank caused a stir in 2012 when it issued 1099 tax forms to customers, requesting they report to the IRS the value of frequent flier miles they had received as bonuses for opening new bank accounts. Two people filed a federal lawsuit, claiming Citibank should have warned customers before issuing the incentive. They also asserted the award shouldn't have been taxable in the first place.</p>
<p>The IRS said Citi was right: <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/irs-taxable-income-credit-card-rewards-points-gift-1277.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Bonus awards are taxable</a> when they're an incentive to open an account, since they are not "earned" through spending, as credit card rewards are. You're on safer ground with a credit card, given that your dilemma is specifically addressed in the 2002 statement.</p>
<p>See related: <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/cathleen-mccarthy-who-owns-frequent_flier_miles-from-corporate_credit_card-1433.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Who owns frequent flier miles from a corporate credit card?</a>, <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/irs-taxable-income-credit-card-rewards-points-gift-1277.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Reward point 'gifts' are taxable, says the IRS</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/6-questions-company-credit-card-1267.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Reward point 'gifts' are taxable, says the IRS</a></p> | Are Miles Earned on my Employer's Credit Mine, and are They Taxable? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/04/16/are-miles-earned-on-my-employer-credit-mine-and-are-taxable.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>In 2013, after working with the Legislature for months on a comprehensive overhaul of California’s public school finances, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The governor called the law “historic” and hailed its dual goals: providing much more resources to directly help English-language learner students and foster children students, and providing more flexibility to local decision-makers on spending priorities.</p>
<p>Under the law, each school district was supposed to adopt a&#160;Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) to ensure English-learners and foster children were getting the extra help that Brown and lawmakers promised. These plans outline district priorities and relate them to funding decisions.</p>
<p>Three years later, California education reform groups increasingly question how the LCFF is working out. They cite little evidence of more resources going to struggling students and many instances of extra dollars going into general school district budgets, with the <a href="http://www.capradio.org/articles/2015/07/20/torlakson-says-lcff-money-can-go-to-teacher-raises" type="external">blessing</a> of Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.</p>
<p>This frustration led to the unusual decision last week of three reform groups —&#160;Public Advocates, Education Trust-West and Californians Together — to simultaneously issue studies that question how local LCAPs are being implemented.</p>
<p>EdSource has a <a href="http://edsource.org/2016/advocacy-groups-urge-state-board-to-tighten-lcap-requirements/562856" type="external">roundup</a> of their concerns:</p>
<p>Districts are not providing the level of transparency promised in exchange for increased spending flexibility,” wrote Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm that <a href="http://edsource.org/2016/complaint-says-district-must-revise-lcap-in-passing-big-pay-raise/562315" type="external">has threatened to sue</a> the West Contra Costa Unified School District for failing to disclose how it planned to spend millions of dollars on high-needs students. “Most districts are missing the opportunity to use the LCAP as a comprehensive planning tool for continuous improvement.”</p>
<p>“The usefulness of the LCAP as a means of accountability is compromised by the difficulty in gleaning a sense of coherence and what the plan actually entails,” Californians Together, a coalition of parent, professional and civil rights organizations focused on the needs of English language learners, wrote in a <a href="http://www.ciclt.net/ul/calto/LCAPSReview2016Web.pdf" type="external">report, published this month</a>, analyzing LCAP plans to improve services for English learners.</p>
<p>The reports, which follow similar analyses last year, studied several dozen LCAPs for the current school year from large and small, urban and rural districts. Public Advocates’ report, released Wednesday, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2801479-LCFF-LCAP-Analysis-PublicAdvocates041316.html" type="external">can be found here</a>. Education Trust-West’s report is <a href="https://west.edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/11/ETW-April-2016-Report-Puzzling-Plans-and-Budgets-Final.pdf" type="external">here.</a></p>
<p>All three reports made the same overall criticisms: that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to find out how much some districts are spending on high-needs students; to track the expenditures over time; and to find a justification or rationale for districts’ spending decisions.</p>
<p>Part of the reason for the frustration of reform groups isn’t related to problems implementing the Local Control Funding Formula at the district level. It’s with Gov. Brown, whose appointees on the State Board of Education sided with Torlakson on the question of whether the funds could be used for teacher raises and other broad district expenses.</p>
<p>At the 2013 signing ceremony for LCFF, Brown depicted the law as reflecting a historic new commitment to helping English-language learners. But of late, Brown administration officials have emphasized the “local control” aspect of the law — not the promises that more direct help would be given to the 1.4 million students who struggle with English in state public schools.</p>
<p>In a January 2015 telephone interview with editorial writers after unveiling his proposed 2015-16 budget. the governor said he would look into complaints that funds were going to teacher raises, not English-language learners.</p>
<p>But a year later, his aides took a sharply different position. In a January telephone interview with editorial writers after the governor unveiled his proposed 2016-17 budget,&#160;state Finance Director Michael Cohen said LCFF was meant to empower officials at local districts to make their own decisions. If they considered teacher raises a priority, the Brown administration had no issues with that, Cohen said.</p>
<p>The reform groups will present their critical findings about the law’s implementation to the State Board of Education at a meeting in May. The board is expected to try to fine-tune LCAP rules to make them easier to comply with and complete.</p>
<p>State Board of Education President Michael Kirst acknowledged local concerns about how unwieldy the process had become as a February state Senate hearing. But that hearing didn’t focus on the larger question of whether the LCFF’s initial goal of directly helping English-language learners and foster children was actually driving decisions at the district level.</p> | 3 new studies rap how school ‘reform’ law is working | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2016/04/19/three-new-studies-question-ca-education-policies/ | 2018-04-20 | 3 |
<p>By Steven Scheer</p>
<p>JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s main public-sector labor union went on a half-day strike on Sunday, closing the airport, the stock exchange, banks and all government ministries as part of a protest against mass layoffs planned by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TA:).</p>
<p>The debt-ridden Teva (N:), one of Israel’s largest companies and the world’s largest generics drugmaker, last week said it would cut its global workforce by more than a quarter, or 14,000 jobs.</p>
<p>Some 1,700 jobs will be cut and a manufacturing site will be closed in Israel, prompting anger from unions and politicians, who believe Teva’s employees should not pay for the company’s failed investments abroad.</p>
<p>Sunday is the beginning of the Israeli work week. Hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike until 12:00 pm (1000 GMT) and many held solidarity rallies outside Teva facilities.</p>
<p>The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange said the trading day would be shortened, opening at 1 pm and closing as usual at about 4:30 pm.</p>
<p>All departing flights – mainly from Europe – at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport between 8 am and at least 12 pm were either canceled or delayed. Similarly, no flights will be allowed to land until after 12 pm.</p>
<p>Trains and buses were initially supposed to strike as well, but the Histadrut labor federation decided to allow public transit to operate so that soldiers could get back to their bases, as they typically do on Sunday mornings.</p>
<p>“We are fighting on behalf of Teva’s workers to save Israel’s industry … and to convey the message that layoffs are the last and not the first step in the public and private sectors,” said Histadrut chief Avi Nissenkorn.</p>
<p>He called the current crisis the fault of Teva’s management and board, adding: “It is the state’s responsibility to prevent thousands of Israeli families from paying the price for this.”</p>
<p>Saddled with nearly $35 billion in debt since acquiring Allergan’s (N:) Actavis generic drug business for $40.5 billion, Teva made a series of changes after Kare Schultz joined as its new chief executive on Nov. 1.</p>
<p>Its two-year restructuring plan is intended to reduce Teva’s cost base by $3 billion by the end of 2019, out of an estimated cost base for 2017 of $16.1 billion.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Schultz last week, asking that he keep layoffs in Israel to a minimum. Schultz said Teva would maintain its headquarters in Israel.</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> | Strike briefly shuts down Israel over Teva Pharm job cuts | false | https://newsline.com/strike-briefly-shuts-down-israel-over-teva-pharm-job-cuts/ | 2017-12-17 | 1 |
<p>Watch as the Jimmy Kimmel Show interviews people in the street about Hillary’s ‘dishonesty.’</p>
<p>Who better to judge Hillary’s honesty than people who are lying about what they know? Jimmy Kimmel’s Lie Witness News asks people about her imaginary emails.</p>
<p />
<p>This summarizes everything about the 2016 election. Next time you see the media trumpet Hillary’s unfavorable ratings, understand what’s behind it.</p>
<p>The brilliance of this clip is that it encapsulates an entire presidential election in three minutes.</p> | WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel’s Video About Hillary’s ‘Lies’ Is Beyond Brilliant | true | http://bluenationreview.com/jimmy-kimmels-video-about-hillarys-lies/ | 2016-06-30 | 4 |
<p>A Michigan anti-bullying bill that became a “pro-bullying” bill, and called a blueprint for how to bully and get away with it, will be changed to remove the protections for religious or moral-based harassment, says the bill’s most out-spoken advocate. Michigan State Senator, Democrat&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Gretchen Whitmer</a>, said in an interview yesterday that after meeting with Republican lawmakers she believes the bill’s language will be fixed.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2011/11/whitmer_says_anti-bullying_bil.html" type="external">MLive</a>:</p>
<p>“It looks like they are poised to do that,” Whitmer told&#160; <a href="http://wjr.com/Sectional.asp?id=34612" type="external">WJR’s Paul W. Smith</a>&#160;on Tuesday morning, an election day across the state. “I’m glad to say that there are people on both sides of the aisle that believe that we should not legitimize excuses for tormenting a student in school.”</p>
<p>Last week, Senate legislators came to blows over&#160; <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billengrossed/Senate/htm/2011-SEBS-0137.htm" type="external">SB 137</a>, or Matt’s Safe Schools Law, after Democrats accused Republicans of creating a “ <a href="http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/11/senate_democrats_charge_republ.html" type="external">license to bully</a>” after the following language was added to the bill, which would otherwise put tougher restrictions on bullying in schools altogether if passed into law:</p>
<p>Amendment of the constitution of the United States or under article I of the state constitution of 1963 of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil’s parent or guardian. This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil’s parent or guardian. “Frankly, no one I talked to has any idea what the Senate Republicans were thinking when they decided to put this language in. We need to protect our kids. In the name and memory of Matt Epling, we need to do the right thing,” Whitmer said.</p>
<p>Senator Whitmer said last week in an impassioned speech, “the saddest and sickest irony of this whole thing is that it’s called ‘Matt’s Safe School Law’. And after the way that you’ve gutted it, it wouldn’t have done a&#160;damn thing to save&#160;Matt!”</p>
<p>Yesterday Todd Heywood at the <a href="http://michiganmessenger.com/53792/first-amendment-scholar-anti-bullying-legislation-badly-written" type="external">Michigan Messenger</a> quoted a First Amendment scholar who said the legislation was “badly drafted.”</p>
<p>“The bill does not prohibit bullying. It does not apply to students. It does not require any student to do anything or to refrain from doing anything. It requires school boards to adopt anti-bullying policies,”&#160; <a href="http://www.law.virginia.edu/lawweb/faculty.nsf/FHPbI/2210483" type="external">Douglas Laycock</a>, Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School. “It does not require the school boards to include language protecting First Amendment rights. In fact, subsection 8 appears to be entirely meaningless. It says that this section does not abridge rights under the First Amendment (which it could not do even if it tried), and this section does not prohibit statements of religious belief or moral conviction. But this section doesn’t prohibit any other statements either. It doesn’t prohibit bullying statements.”</p>
<p>Hopefully, the bill soon will respect the name of Matt Epling, and all children who suffer bullying, regardless of the religious or moral motivation of their tormentors.</p>
<p />
<p>(h/t: <a href="http://www.towleroad.com/2011/11/mibullying.html" type="external">Towleroad</a>)</p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">abuse</a>, <a href="" type="internal">aggression</a>, <a href="" type="internal">behavior</a>, <a href="" type="internal">bill</a>, <a href="" type="internal">bills</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Bully</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Change</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Education</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Ethics</a>, <a href="" type="internal">gretchen whitmer</a>, <a href="" type="internal">matt epling</a>, <a href="" type="internal">may be</a>, <a href="" type="internal">morals</a>, <a href="" type="internal">persecution</a>, <a href="" type="internal">religious beliefs</a>, <a href="" type="internal">social issues</a>, <a href="" type="internal">social psychology</a>, <a href="" type="internal">united states constitution</a>, <a href="" type="internal">whitmer</a></p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | “Pro-Bullying” Bill With Religious Harassment Protections May Be Changed | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/pro-bullying-bill-with-religious-harassment-protections-may-be-changed/legislation/2011/11/09/29879 | 2011-11-09 | 4 |
<p>JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening's drawing of the Missouri Lottery's "Pick 4 Evening" game were:</p>
<p>1-3-4-5</p>
<p>(one, three, four, five)</p>
<p>JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening's drawing of the Missouri Lottery's "Pick 4 Evening" game were:</p>
<p>1-3-4-5</p>
<p>(one, three, four, five)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 4 Evening' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/8ccc3a015ee447e6aaa3a8ed66d3e0b2 | 2017-12-30 | 2 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — This winter’s nasty flu season has peaked and is clearly retreating, a new government report shows.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of flu season left, but it’s clear we’re decreasing and that flu season has peaked,” said Dr. Michael Jhung of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>
<p>Flu illnesses were at their highest levels around New Year’s Day, Jhung said. The CDC released the new flu numbers Friday.</p>
<p>The flu bug spreading across the nation this winter is a type that tends to hit the elderly especially hard. Worse, the flu vaccine isn’t working very well against the strain that is making most people sick.</p>
<p>Health officials have said since last fall that this season would be unusually severe. They proved correct, by at least one measure: Flu-related hospitalizations of the elderly are the highest since the government started tracking them nine years ago.</p>
<p>About 217 out of every 100,000 people 65 and older have been hospitalized with flu-related illness. The previous record was 183 per 100,000 two years ago.</p>
<p>So far, the flu has played a part in the deaths of 80 children. On average, about 100 children die from the flu each year.</p>
<p>Last week, flu was widespread in 32 states, down from 40 the week before. Flu-related doctor’s office visits were high in 15 states, down from 26 states the week before.</p>
<p>Among infectious diseases, flu is considered one of the nation’s leading killers. CDC estimates 24,000 Americans die each flu season, on average.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>CDC report: <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/" type="external">http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/</a></p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — This winter’s nasty flu season has peaked and is clearly retreating, a new government report shows.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of flu season left, but it’s clear we’re decreasing and that flu season has peaked,” said Dr. Michael Jhung of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>
<p>Flu illnesses were at their highest levels around New Year’s Day, Jhung said. The CDC released the new flu numbers Friday.</p>
<p>The flu bug spreading across the nation this winter is a type that tends to hit the elderly especially hard. Worse, the flu vaccine isn’t working very well against the strain that is making most people sick.</p>
<p>Health officials have said since last fall that this season would be unusually severe. They proved correct, by at least one measure: Flu-related hospitalizations of the elderly are the highest since the government started tracking them nine years ago.</p>
<p>About 217 out of every 100,000 people 65 and older have been hospitalized with flu-related illness. The previous record was 183 per 100,000 two years ago.</p>
<p>So far, the flu has played a part in the deaths of 80 children. On average, about 100 children die from the flu each year.</p>
<p>Last week, flu was widespread in 32 states, down from 40 the week before. Flu-related doctor’s office visits were high in 15 states, down from 26 states the week before.</p>
<p>Among infectious diseases, flu is considered one of the nation’s leading killers. CDC estimates 24,000 Americans die each flu season, on average.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>CDC report: <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/" type="external">http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/</a></p> | CDC: Nasty flu season has peaked, is retreating | false | https://apnews.com/6a82a03be9db4002bbf054f16112561c | 2015-02-13 | 2 |
<p>An atheist group on Wednesday sued over the inclusion of steel beams in the shape of a <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/atheists-sue-cross-world-trade-center-museum/story?id=14169830" type="external">cross</a>, dubbed the "World Trade Center Cross," in the exhibit at the National September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York, ABC News reported:</p>
<p>Jane Everhart, who is part of the atheist's suit, derided the cross as nothing more than "ugly piece of wreckage" that "does not represent anything - but horror and death."</p>
<p>Last weekend the 17-foot cross, which was found in the rubble of of the World Trade Center site, was given a "ceremonial blessing" by the Rev. Brian Jordan, taken from its temporary home near St. Peter's Church and lowered 70 feet into its permanent home inside the museum.</p>
<p>The American Atheists filed the <a href="http://www.atheists.org/upload/WTC_Complaint.pdf" type="external">lawsuit</a> in Manhattan State Supreme Court, saying the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/APff6ef67bd49547e4a93073b5422ccea8.html" type="external">museum</a> is a public institution and shouldn't promote one specific religion over others, according to the Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit asks that a judge either order the cross removed, or order that other religions and beliefs be equally represented.</p>
<p>According to CNN:</p>
<p>The "government enshrinement of the <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-26/us/new.york.wtc.cross_1_atheist-group-american-atheists-cross?_s=PM:US" type="external">cross</a> was an impermissible mingling of church and state," the American Atheists say in a press statement.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/07/atheists-sue-to-block-wtc-cross-from-911-memorial/1" type="external">lawsuit</a> argues that including the Roman Christian-style cross at the museum site violates the First and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the New York State Constitution, according to USA Today.</p>
<p>"Many of American Atheists' members have seen the cross, either in person or on television, and are being subjected to and injured in consequence of having a religious tradition not their own imposed upon them through the power of the state," the complaint states. The group wants a nonreligious exhibit included if the cross isn't removed.</p>
<p>In a statement, the Memorial President Joe Daniels said the mission of the museum is to tell the history of <a href="http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/New_York/News/2011/07_-_July/Atheist_group_fights_steel_cross_at_9/11_museum/" type="external">9/11</a> through artifacts that relate to that day such as the cross, according to Reuters:</p>
<p>"This steel remnant became a symbol of spiritual comfort for the thousands of recovery workers who toiled at ground zero, as well as for people around the world. In the historical exhibition, the cross is part of our commitment to bring back the authentic physical reminders that tell the story of 9/11 in a way nothing else can," Daniels said in the statement.</p>
<p>The American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian legal advocacy group, slammed the lawsuit and said it would support the placement of the cross at <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/ground-zero-cross-is-focus-of-battle-between-atheists-and-christians/2011/07/27/gIQAWs6GdI_blog.html" type="external">Ground Zero</a>, according to the Washington Post.</p>
<p>"This is another pathetic attempt to rewrite the Constitution and rewrite history by removing a symbol that has deep meaning and serves as a powerful remembrance to that fateful attack nearly 10 years ago," Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ told the Law Blog.</p>
<p>The atheist group said it had previously requested of the September 11 Memorial and Museum that it allow them to display their own memorial next to the steel-shaped cross, possibly in the form of an atom or an American flag, to be a symbol of the "500 non-religious Americans" who were "among the victims of the 9/11 attack," ABC News reported. The group claims there was no response to their request.</p> | Atheist group files lawsuit over "World Trade Center Cross" at 9/11 museum site | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-07-28/atheist-group-files-lawsuit-over-world-trade-center-cross-911-museum-site | 2011-07-28 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>JOHN McCLUSKEY: Faces death penalty in murders</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera read the verdict out loud – guilty of a total of 20 counts – in a courtroom packed with FBI agents, including the special agent in charge, other law enforcement officials, news media and the family of the victims.</p>
<p>McCluskey, who looks pale, gaunt and older than his 48 years – a far cry from the tall, beefy convict shown in photos at trial – remained calm as the verdict was read.</p>
<p>The charges stem from the Aug. 2, 2010, carjacking of Oklahoma couple Gary and Linda Haas from a rest stop on Interstate 40 in New Mexico and their subsequent murders in Guadalupe County.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>After he and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint for the truck and trailer that would allow McCluskey and his co-defendants to continue on the lam, Gary Haas was forced to drive into a rural area north of I-40 in Guadalupe County and pull over. The couple was ordered into the camper/trailer, and both were shot. The trailer was subsequently torched, with the bodies inside, using liquor the couple had brought for their annual Colorado camping vacation.</p>
<p>McCluskey and co-defendants Casslyn Welch, his girlfriend and cousin, and Tracy Province, a fellow escapee from the state contract prison in Kingman, Ariz., were charged with conspiracy to commit carjacking, carjacking resulting in death, tampering with a witness, conspiracy to interfere with commerce and gun-related charges.</p>
<p>Gary Haas’ younger sister, Linda Rook, said after the verdict that it was “good news for what we wanted” – the death penalty.</p>
<p>“It’s still very emotional,” she said. The family wrote prosecutors, including U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in support of seeking the death penalty.</p>
<p>The penalty is to be decided by the jury in a separate phase of trial that has been projected to last even longer than the first phase, which began Aug. 19.</p>
<p>Rook, her mother, Vivian Haas, and other family members have occupied the front row of the courtroom throughout the trial. Since the murders of Gary and Linda, they have endured major health issues, Oklahoma storms, and other deaths in the family.</p>
<p>The jurors, who were drawn from all over the state, deliberated for a day on Thursday, took Friday off and resumed deliberations on Monday. By 3 p.m., they had reached a verdict.</p>
<p>On the first day of deliberations, jurors asked to again see the video interview of Casslyn Welch with an FBI agent in which she revels in the prison escape that she was instrumental in planning and carrying out, and in which she refers to the victims as “Ma and Pa Kettle” and “Okies.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The court refused and instructed them that they had all the evidence.</p>
<p>The upcoming penalty phase could begin next week. During that phase, which is to be subdivided into two parts, prosecutors will present aggravating factors under the federal death penalty statute, and the defense will present mitigating factors weighing against it.</p>
<p>Those factors may include mental health evidence.</p>
<p>Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt reminded the judge that within 24 hours of conviction on a death-eligible charge, the defense must file a document saying whether attorneys plan to use mental health evidence during the penalty phase. The defense already has given notice of its plans to use such evidence, but could alter course.</p>
<p>The defense team, led by Michael Burt of San Francisco, gave notice in March of plans to use expert evidence relating to a mental disease or defect.</p>
<p>The notice said a forensic neuropsychologist had conducted more than two dozen tests on McCluskey and was about to conduct magnetic resonance imaging and other kinds of electronic imaging tests.</p>
<p>Province and Welch, who entered guilty pleas that avoided a potential death penalty prosecution for them, and who and testified at McCluskey’s trial in the guilt/innocence phase, may be recalled for the penalty phase. They face up to life in prison, but neither has been sentenced.</p>
<p>Welch and Province were the star witnesses in the guilt/innocence phase of the trial, each testifying for well over a day. Both were firm in insisting it was McCluskey who shot the Haases, giving no warning of his plans before shots rang out, despite a defense assault on their credibility.</p>
<p>Members of the Haas family also are expected to testify.</p>
<p>“We actually have subpoenas,” Linda Rook said.</p>
<p />
<p /> | McCluskey guilty of murdering Okla. couple | false | https://abqjournal.com/277452/mccluskey-guilty-of-2-murders.html | 2013-10-07 | 2 |
<p>Deadspin <a href="http://deadspin.com/roger-goodell-slams-trumps-divisive-comments-about-pl-1818686851" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the President of the United States demonstrated a “lack of respect” and “failure to understand” when Donald Trump attacked players who protest racial injustice and called for those “sons of bitches” to lose their jobs. In typical Goodell fashion, the statement manages to both hit its target “hard” while dedicating the bulk of its substance to bolstering the character of the league he’s captained since 2006.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p /> | NFL Blasts Trump’s “Disrespectful” Attack On Protests | true | http://joemygod.com/2017/09/23/nfl-blasts-trumps-disrespectful-attack-protests/ | 2017-09-23 | 4 |
<p>Mali is in the grip of an unprecedented political crisis.</p>
<p>It’s one of the most serious crises since the landlocked West African country gained independence from France in 1960.&#160;Soldiers staged a coup in March but cannot agree on a way forward for the country.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Mali’s Tuareg rebels have taken control of the north of the country, in alliance with Islamic militants</p>
<p>Many Tuaregs have taken shelter from the violence in&#160;neighboring Burkina Faso.&#160;The Sahel reserve stretches from Mali into the Northern tip of Burkina Faso, a land of dry bush, bare trees and patches of sunburnt grass giving way to sand. Shacks made of sticks and a patchwork of drapes and carpets dot the yellow horizon.</p>
<p>Tuaregs fleeing fighting between Tuareg rebels and government forces in north Mali have flocked here by the tens of thousands. They’re among the 300,000 people who have been displaced by the conflict since January, according to the U.S. State Department and the United Nations refugee agency.</p>
<p>Many Tuaregs who fleed to this stretch of Burkina Faso have been here before, and they’ve settled back into what has become a forced second home — once again.</p>
<p>A 69-year old Tuareg says he moved back under the same tree where he spent almost three years in the mid-1990s.</p>
<p>Another Tuareg, Yaya Ag Mohamed, was a kid the last time his family fled violence in north Mali.</p>
<p>“I started elementary school here in Burkina Faso” he said. “Today, I’m a father of two, and here I am again, a refugee once more. We’re pulled back into the same situation, at every stage of life.”</p>
<p>Four Tuareg rebellions have broken out since Mali gained independence 52 years ago. Each time, scores fled the military crackdown against Tuareg fighters and civilians. But in April, Tuareg rebels drove Mali’s authorities out and proclaimed independence for the Azawad, the Tuareg name for Mali’s Northern region.</p>
<p>Tuareg fighters didn’t manage this on their own. They joined forces with a loose coalition of Islamist groups. They shared a common enemy, but not the same long-term goals. Tuaregs fought for a state, Islamists for the imposition of Sharia law.</p>
<p>Idoual Ag Bala, a veterinarian at the refugee camp, calls the Islamists’ attempt to impose a radical form of Islam ‘colonial.’</p>
<p>“What Islam are they going to teach me? I’m already a Muslim, and that’s enough, thanks God!” he said. “We don’t want Sharia law. Our culture is steeped in a moderate and tolerant Islam. Their Islam is an import from Pakistan and Afghanistan, and we don’t want it.”</p>
<p />
<p>Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has thrived in the region in the past few years. Now, the Al Qaeda franchise operates unopposed amidst North Mali’s chaos. New Islamist groups have emerged there as well.</p>
<p>In Gao, North Mali’s most populous city, young people demonstrated against a new ban on watching TV, listening to music or playing video games. Locals say armed groups opened fire on the protesters.</p>
<p>Tuareg refugees say there’s a lot of confusion over where the extremists come from and how many they are. But Idoual, the veterinarian, says what they do know about them is alarming enough to keep refugees from returning home.</p>
<p>“Americans are scared about Islamists. The French are scared about Islamists. Everybody is scared about these groups!” he said. “So why would we, poor African citizens, be any less scared? I’m scared!”</p>
<p>Refugees who’ve just arrived at the camp bring stories that stoke the fears. Mohamed ag In’Tahma crossed over the border last week with 20 relatives and two other families. He says they left their village because of the new rules imposed by Islamists. They brought clothing with them, he says. A burka-like covering for the women, long clothes that cover elbows for the men.</p>
<p>“Men can’t greet women on the street,” he said. “No one dares go out any more. If you’re caught doing something wrong, or wearing something inappropriate, they threaten to beat you if they catch you again.”</p>
<p>Mohamed says Tuareg rebels, who support a secular republic, are starting to speak out against Sharia, but they aren’t strong enough to fight back. He says most locals believe a clash between Islamists and seculars is coming — yet another reason for civilians to flee.</p>
<p>Fatoumata Oylet Aybala, a women’s leader at the refugee camp, says the best way for the international community to help defeat the Islamic militants is to recognize a Tuareg independent state.</p>
<p>“Once our leaders are in charge, once we have a country, a government and allies, then we’ll be able to fight for the traditions and values of the Tuareg people.”</p>
<p>But so far not a single country has recognized the breakaway state, and Mali could soon request help from West African countries to regain control of the lost territory.</p>
<p>Refugees in Burkina Faso know they might be here for a long time. Sitting on a bench in the afternoon heat, a group of young men listen to Tuareg music on a cell phone.</p>
<p>They say at least here they’re safe ... &#160;and they can still indulge in some cherished tribal tunes.</p> | Violence in Mali leads Tuareg refugees to flee the country, coming Islamic law | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-29/violence-mali-leads-tuareg-refugees-flee-country-coming-islamic-law | 2012-05-29 | 3 |
<p>The National Security Agency's Utah Data Center is huge, with a footprint in the Utah desert of more than 1 million square feet.</p>
<p>It's being constructed as a warehouse of sorts for NSA data - though exactly how it will be used is a closely guarded secret.</p>
<p>But that it's having a hard time getting up and running is becoming well-known.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Gorman_Siobhan" type="external">Siobhan Gorman</a>,&#160;the Intelligence Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal,&#160;reports there have been 10 power meltdowns at the new facility over the past 13 months.&#160;These surges make it difficult to do something as simple as plugging in a computer.&#160;</p>
<p>This delay certainly isn't making life easy for one of the nation's largest spy operations.</p>
<p>"There's enormous pressure for the NSA to get this center up and running," Gorman said. "They see it as absolutely critical to their mission."</p>
<p>The cause of the surges continues to puzzle the contractors building the data center. It's been under investigation for more than a year, but the slow crawl toward an answer may be due to the sheer number of contractors and sub-contractors working on the building:</p>
<p>It took six months for investigators to determine the causes of two of the failures. In the months that followed, the contractors employed more than 30 independent experts that conducted 160 tests over 50,000 man-hours, according to project documents.</p>
<p>The failures are also expensive. Gorman reports each failure causes about $100,000 in damages. In September, contractors told the NSA they thought they had identified the problem and were in the process of fixing it.</p>
<p>But the the US Army Corps of Engineers, which has been dispatched to try and help with the problem, isn't so sure. The agency said there's no proof yet that the contractors are correct in identifying the problem.</p> | NSA has expensive problem with the power supply at its secretive Utah Data Center | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-09/nsa-has-expensive-problem-power-supply-its-secretive-utah-data-center | 2013-10-09 | 3 |
<p>The death of Benazir Bhutto in December, tensions within the country and concerns over President Pervez Musharraf's leadership (and his regime's relationship with the U.S. government) registered in a loud and clear message from Pakistanis at the polling booths Monday: Musharraf is standing on shaky ground.</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>Pakistanis dealt a crushing defeat to President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections on Monday, in what government and opposition politicians said was a firm rejection of his policies since 2001 and those of his close ally, the United States.</p>
<p>Almost all the leading figures in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the party that has governed for the last five years under Mr. Musharraf, lost their seats, including the leader of the party, the former speaker of Parliament and six ministers.</p>
<p />
<p>Official results are expected Tuesday, but early returns indicated that the vote would usher in a prime minister from one of the opposition parties, and opened the prospect of a Parliament that would move to undo many of Mr. Musharraf's policies and that may even try to remove him.</p>
<p>The early edge went to the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, which seemed to benefit from a strong wave of sympathy in reaction to the assassination of its leader, Benazir Bhutto, on Dec. 27, and may be in a position to form the next government.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/world/asia/19pstan.html?_r=1&amp;hp&amp;oref=slogin" type="external">Read more</a></p> | End of an Era | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/end-of-an-era/ | 2008-02-19 | 4 |
<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - Capitaland Mall Trust:</p>
<p>* QTRLY NET PROPERTY INCOME S$ 119.258 MILLION VERSUS S$116.2 MILLION</p>
<p>* QTRLY GROSS REVENUE S$ 172.4 MILLION VERSUS S$169.3 MILLION</p>
<p>* QTRLY DISTRIBUTION PER UNIT WAS ‍2.90​ CENTS Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy destroyer carried out a “freedom of navigation” operation on Friday, coming within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built by China in the South China Sea, U.S. officials told Reuters.</p> FILE PHOTO: The warship USS Mustin sails near the port in Sihanoukville, 223 km (139 miles) west of Phnom Penh, October 11, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer
<p>Friday’s operation was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters.</p>
<p>The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the USS Mustin traveled close to Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands and carried out maneuvering operations. China has territorial disputes with its neighbors over the area.</p>
<p>Neither China’s Foreign nor Defence Ministries immediately responded to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The U.S. military has a longstanding position that its operations are carried out throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies, and they are separate from political considerations.</p>
<p>However, the latest operation, the first since January, comes just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump lit a slow-burning fuse when he signed a presidential memorandum that will target up to $60 billion in Chinese goods with tariffs, but only after a 30-day consultation period that starts once a list is published.</p>
<p>The United States has criticized China’s construction of islands and build-up of military facilities in the sea, and is concerned they could be used to restrict free nautical movement</p>
<p>Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting to Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Larry King and Alison Williams</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump shook up his foreign policy team again on Thursday, replacing H.R. McMaster as national security adviser with John Bolton, a hawk who has advocated using military force against North Korea and Iran.</p>
<p>The move, announced in a tweet and a White House statement, came little more than a week after Trump fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and nominated Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.</p>
<p>The shake-up shows Trump, in office for 14 months, surrounding himself with advisers more likely to agree with his views and taking his foreign policy in a more hawkish direction.</p>
<p>What it means for a prospective summit meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is unclear. The meeting is supposed to happen by the end of May, but an exact time and place have yet to be settled on.</p>
<p>Bolton’s appointment could doom the already endangered Iran nuclear deal. It could also lead to friction with Trump on how tough to be on Russia, with the president still holding out hope for improved ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>The news of Bolton’s appointment followed a meeting he had with Trump in the Oval Office. Even Bolton was caught by surprise. “I didn’t really expect an announcement this afternoon, but it’s obviously a great honor,” he told Fox News after the announcement. “I’m still getting used to it.”</p>
<p>Bolton, 69, is a Fox News analyst who contemplated a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. He is a familiar figure in Washington, with a walrus-like moustache and hard-charging views on many global challenges.</p>
<p>Some members of Congress immediately questioned his selection for the critical position in the White House.</p>
<p>“This is not a wise choice. Mr. Bolton does not have the temperament or judgment to be an effective national security adviser,” Democratic Senator Jack Reed said in a statement.</p>
<p>Bolton tweeted on Jan. 11 that time was running out on stopping North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. He said: “We’ve got to look at the very unattractive choice of using military force to deny them that capability.”</p>
<p>At a time when Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, unless Europe agrees to change it, Bolton has tweeted that the deal “needs to be abrogated.”</p>
<p>He has also called for “effective countermeasures to the cyber war that Russia is engaging.”</p> ‘STRONG SIGNAL’
<p>Elliott Abrams, a senior foreign policy aide to former Republican President George W. Bush, praised Trump’s choice, saying Bolton “proved when we were both in the Bush administration that he is an excellent and forceful bureaucrat.”</p> FILE PHOTO -- Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton (L) speaks in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S. February 24, 2017, and White House National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster joins the daily briefing in Washington, U.S. July 31, 2017, in this combination photograph. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts, Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
<p>Whether Bolton, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for Bush, will be able to swallow his own views has been debated by foreign policy experts since he appeared on Trump’s radar. His hiring does not require U.S. Senate confirmation.</p>
<p>Bolton said in the Fox News interview that his past statements on various issues were behind him and he would be an honest broker ensuring the president sees all the options available to him.</p>
<p>“The important thing is what the president says and the advice I give him,” he said.</p>
<p>Still, analysts said Bolton’s views would be influential.</p>
<p>“Bolton has long been an advocate for pre-emptive military action against North Korea, and his appointment as National Security Adviser is a strong signal that President Trump remains open to these options,” said Abraham Denmark, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia under former President Barack Obama.</p> Slideshow (7 Images)
<p>“We should also expect an even more confrontational approach to China - a trade war may just be the beginning of a broader geopolitical competition,” he said.</p>
<p>Bonnie Glaser, Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said: “Bolton has long supported regime change in North Korea and closer ties with Taiwan. Fasten your seat belts.”</p>
<p>As the State Department’s top arms control official under Bush, Bolton was a leading advocate of the 2003 invasion of Iraq - which was later found to have been based on bogus and exaggerated intelligence about President Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorism.</p> ‘MUTUALLY AGREED’
<p>McMaster, hired early in Trump’s presidency to replace scandal-tarred Michael Flynn as national security adviser, had widely been expected to leave soon. Trump found McMaster’s style grating. The two had frequently clashed in meetings and Trump had been looking for a replacement, advisers said.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trump-bolton-asia/human-scum-and-bloodsucker-boltons-white-house-appointment-fans-worries-over-hawkish-record-in-asia-idUSKBN1GZ0CO" type="external">'Human scum and bloodsucker': Bolton's White House appointment fans worries over hawkish record in Asia</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trump-bolton-role/for-super-hawk-bolton-surrender-is-not-an-option-idUSKBN1GZ09C" type="external">For super-hawk Bolton, 'Surrender is Not An Option'</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trump-bolton-tweets-factbox/factbox-want-to-know-how-bolton-will-advise-trump-read-his-tweets-idUSKBN1GY3E3" type="external">Factbox: Want to know how Bolton will advise Trump? Read his tweets</a>
<p>The White House said Trump and McMaster had “mutually agreed” that he would leave. “I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job &amp; will always remain my friend,” Trump’s tweet said.</p>
<p>“The two have been discussing this for some time. The timeline was expedited as they both felt it was important to have the new team in place, instead of constant speculation. This was not related to any one moment or incident, rather it was the result of ongoing conversations between the two,” a senior White House official said.</p>
<p>The announcement came a day after Trump was angered by a leak of information from his presidential briefing papers that said he was advised specifically not to congratulate Putin on his disputed election victory. Trump told reporters he had congratulated Putin.</p>
<p>McMaster, 55, is to stay on until mid-April. He said in a statement he was also requesting retirement from the U.S. Army, in which he holds the rank of three-star general.</p>
<p>White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had been hoping to entice McMaster into another military assignment in order to qualify as a four-star general.</p>
<p>Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by by Warren Strobel, Yara Bayoumy and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark is considering taking steps against Russia in response to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury in Britain, in addition to measures taken by the European Union, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Friday.</p> Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen briefs the media at a European Union leaders informal summit in Brussels, Belgium, February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
<p>“The government will over the next few days very seriously consider if and how Denmark in addition to the decisions we have contributed to collectively can support Britain,” Lokke Rasmussen told broadcaster TV 2 in Brussels.</p>
<p>The steps could include calling back Danish diplomats in Russia or expelling Russian diplomats in Denmark, according to TV2.</p>
<p>Reporting by Teis Jensen; Editing by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Alison Williams</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - A convoy of vehicles left the British Embassy in Moscow on Friday ahead of a Russian deadline for 23 diplomats to leave the country, a Reuters camera operator said.</p> Police officers watch a car leaving the British embassy compound in Moscow, Russia March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>Russia expelled 23 British diplomats last Saturday in a carefully calibrated retaliatory move against London, which has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in southern England.</p>
<p>Reporting by Dmitry Madorsky and Christian Lowe; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Jack Stubbs</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Capitaland Mall Trust Posts Qtrly Net Property Income Of S$119.3 Mln Exclusive: U.S. warship sails near disputed islands in South China Sea, officials say Trump picks hardliner Bolton to replace McMaster as national security adviser Denmark considering steps against Russia over nerve agent attack: PM Convoy departs British embassy in Moscow ahead of expulsion deadline | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-capitaland-mall-trust-posts-qtrly/brief-capitaland-mall-trust-posts-qtrly-net-property-income-of-s1193-mln-idUSFWN1PI1AA | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
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<p>COLORADO SPRINGS – Police say a 14-year-old Colorado girl was fatally shot by her stepfather after a report of a burglary at her home.</p>
<p>Colorado Springs police spokesman Larry Herbert said that the girl’s stepfather fired the shot, but that it wasn’t known whether he had mistaken the teen for a burglar.</p>
<p>Police said the girl was shot around 6 a.m. Monday and later died at the hospital.</p>
<p>The stepfather hasn’t been arrested or identified and it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether charges should be filed.</p>
<p>Herbert said police are looking at the stepfather’s intent and whether he acted recklessly as they investigate the shooting.</p>
<p>Colorado’s “Make My Day” law allows residents to defend themselves against intruders.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Police: Girl shot and killed by stepfather | false | https://abqjournal.com/325784/police-girl-shot-and-killed-by-stepfather.html | 2 |
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