text
stringlengths 0
127k
| title
stringlengths 0
777
| hyperpartisan
bool 2
classes | url
stringlengths 26
278
| published_at
stringlengths 0
10
| bias
int64 0
4
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>NEW YORK — Whether or not you believe that voting fraud is a problem in the U.S., one thing is certain: Tidying up outdated voter rolls is sometimes easier said than done. Just ask election officials in the nation’s largest city.</p>
<p>After an independent review found that New York City’s voting lists contained people who were dead or in prison, elections officials began an aggressive purge in 2014 and 2015 that eliminated more than 200,000 supposedly invalid registrations.</p>
<p>The result? A record number of complaints during the 2016 presidential primary from legal voters who turned up to cast a ballot, but found that they were no longer registered.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Democracy itself is under attack,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, declared last week after announcing plans to join a federal lawsuit over the way the purge was handled.</p>
<p>New York City’s bungled purge offers a cautionary tale for elected officials, led by President Donald Trump, who warn that inaccurate voter rolls are leading to voter fraud across America.</p>
<p>Trump has vowed to establish a commission to examine the situation. Senior policy adviser Stephen Miller sounded the alarm again on Sunday.</p>
<p>“You have millions of people who are registered in two states or who are dead who are registered to vote. And you have 14 percent of noncitizens, according to academic research, at a minimum, are registered to vote, which is an astonishing statistic,” Miller said, using a statistic hotly contested by many academics.</p>
<p>He also claimed, without offering evidence, that voters from Massachusetts were illegally bused into New Hampshire during the last election — an allegation denied by New Hampshire Republicans.</p>
<p>It’s unclear exactly how many people are registered to vote in America who shouldn’t be.</p>
<p>Federal law requires election officials to remove people after they die or move, but that doesn’t always happen in a timely way.</p>
<p>In New York City, the lawsuit said the Board of Elections disregarded several rules governing the maintenance of voter lists.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>People who hadn’t voted since the 2008 presidential election were sent letters demanding that they verify their status. If they didn’t respond within two weeks in some cases, their registration was canceled. City researchers took other unorthodox steps, too, like buying a subscription to the genealogy site Ancestory.com to help verify identities.</p>
<p>Trump and his representatives have repeatedly cited a 2012 Pew Center study that revealed 24 million voter registrations in the U.S. were not valid or “significantly inaccurate.” That included 1.8 million dead people listed as eligible to vote.</p>
<p>The study’s author David Becker, however, found no evidence of actual voter fraud.</p>
<p>He says voter registration lists have improved since the report was released. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission reported that nearly 14.8 million names were removed from voter rolls in 2014 for reasons such as death, felony convictions, having moved or failing to respond to confirmation notices.</p>
<p>“The lists are as good as they’ve ever been,” Becker told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Still, he encouraged election officials to eliminate ineligible registrations. If nothing else, he said, improved voter rolls help to improve confidence in the electoral system.</p>
<p>New York City is hardly alone in its push to root out ineligible voters.</p>
<p>Republican election officials in Florida and Colorado launched aggressive efforts to eliminate noncitizens and otherwise ineligible voters from their rolls before the 2012 election. But after warning that tens of thousands of noncitizens may have been registered, 141 cases were confirmed in Colorado and 207 in Florida.</p>
<p>“It is to everyone’s benefit to have our rolls clean. But it’s also to our benefit to make sure we’re doing so in a way that doesn’t disenfranchise eligible voters,” said Myrna Perez, deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy program, who authored an extensive study of voter purges in 2008.</p>
<p>Leaving them in a messy state can also undermine confidence. New York Republican Party chairman Ed Cox is among those who are sure it could lead to fraud.</p>
<p>“I think they’re perfectly happy to let some of these names just be on here so they can use them with respect to people voting who shouldn’t vote,” he told The Associated Press. “In an important election they will bring in buses of people from New Jersey and they will take them from poll place to poll place if we don’t have good poll watchers and a good ballot security in place.”</p>
<p>There is no evidence of Cox’s claim.</p> | Purge outdated voter rolls? NYC tried it, with bad results | false | https://abqjournal.com/949618/purge-outdated-voter-rolls-nyc-tried-it-with-bad-results.html | 2017-02-14 | 2 |
<p>WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A rocket launched from New Zealand on Sunday successfully reached orbit carrying small commercial satellites.</p>
<p>California-based company Rocket Lab said its Electron rocket, which carries only a small payload of about 150 kilograms (331 pounds), successfully deployed an earth imaging and two other satellites for weather and ship tracking after blastoff from the Mahia Peninsula on North Island’s east coast.</p>
<p>Company CEO and founder Peter Beck, a New Zealander, said the launch marks the beginning of a new era in commercial access to space. He said that deploying customer payloads on a second test flight “is almost unprecedented.”</p>
<p>The company last May reached space with its first test launch, only to abort the mission due to a communication glitch. It has official approval to conduct three test launches and sees an emerging market in delivering small devices, some as big as a smartphone, into orbit.</p>
<p>The satellites would be used for everything from monitoring crops to providing internet service.</p>
<p>WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A rocket launched from New Zealand on Sunday successfully reached orbit carrying small commercial satellites.</p>
<p>California-based company Rocket Lab said its Electron rocket, which carries only a small payload of about 150 kilograms (331 pounds), successfully deployed an earth imaging and two other satellites for weather and ship tracking after blastoff from the Mahia Peninsula on North Island’s east coast.</p>
<p>Company CEO and founder Peter Beck, a New Zealander, said the launch marks the beginning of a new era in commercial access to space. He said that deploying customer payloads on a second test flight “is almost unprecedented.”</p>
<p>The company last May reached space with its first test launch, only to abort the mission due to a communication glitch. It has official approval to conduct three test launches and sees an emerging market in delivering small devices, some as big as a smartphone, into orbit.</p>
<p>The satellites would be used for everything from monitoring crops to providing internet service.</p> | Rocket launched in New Zealand deploys commercial satellites | false | https://apnews.com/d2f52afdee994e4980f8246cd75418e8 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>“Led Zeppelin was a creative force that you can’t just snap your fingers and create,” Jimmy Page tells me when I ask why the band didn’t continue in 1980 after the death of John Bonham, and why he doesn’t expect them to reunite again as they did at London’s O2 in 2007. “It was a blend of these four master musicians, and each of us were important to the sum total of what the band was. I like to think that if it had been me that wasn’t there, the others would have made the same decision not to carry on. Besides, we couldn’t just get somebody in there and say, ‘Do this, this way?’ That wouldn't have been honest or of the same creative nature that we had always striven for. And it’s why we still have only done it properly once."We’re midway through our hour-long chat about the latest—and final— <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;docId=1003013661&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;pf_rd_i=led%20zeppelin&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_p=2104550322&amp;pf_rd_r=08ADKP7YRGV5BBT0MG0J&amp;pf_rd_s=desktop-auto-sparkle&amp;pf_rd_t=301&amp;qid=1438029005&amp;ref=spks_0_0_2104550322&amp;tag=nyrocculexa-20&amp;linkId=PHELQBCYTT2Q3BW3" type="external">batch of deluxe reissues</a> from the <a href="" type="internal">Led Zeppelin</a> catalog, and I’m seated across from Page in his elegant hotel suite sharing a coffee. It’s truly striking how sharp Page’s memory is for details from the hazy ’70s, when Led Zeppelin were rock gods among men. He’s quick to correct dates, the working titles of songs, studios, you name it. He brushes off questions about drug use and the occult, not to mention <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-10-wildest-led-zeppelin-legends-fact-checked-20121121/led-zeppelin-once-defiled-a-groupie-with-a-mud-shark-19691231" type="external">the nagging legends</a> of the band’s days on the road with aplomb, anticipating the questions and firmly, but graciously, setting his boundaries. Still, Page is well aware that fans pour over every morsel of news about a potential reunion.</p>
<p>But as he sees it, it’s just not in the cards.</p>
<p>“We tried it a few times,” he says of the various attempts at a reunion over the years. “It always seemed to be done in a hurry and it never worked. That’s why the O2 show was done with such intent. We rehearsed loads so that Jason—John’s son—felt like he was part of the band and not just some novelty. We all needed it to be that way. But I can’t foresee doing it again, because we all have to agree and agree for the right reasons.”</p>
<p>Page is referring, it seems, to singer Robert Plant’s unwillingness to revisit his Led Zeppelin days. And, now that the reissues are out of the way, the legendary guitarist is looking forward to recording some new music of his own.</p>
<p>“I’ve been totally focused for the past few years on getting the remasters right and then promoting them,” Page says. “But on July 31, when the last batch of remasters comes out, I’ll be able to exhale and think about doing something new. I’ll be able to think about the guitar, and recording new music—because I’ve already gotten music written—and I’m really looking forward to that and really focusing on it.”</p>
<p>Page is sharp, funny and dashing, but more than anything, it’s obvious how proud he is of what Led Zeppelin, the band that was his brainchild, achieved. Yes, Jimmy Page is a bigger Led Zeppelin fan than you can ever hope to be, and who better to be at the helm of the band’s legacy?</p>
<p>It’s no surprise, then, that he’s keen for fans and critics to reevaluate Coda, the album the band released after Bonham’s death, especially now that it’s been expanded to three discs.</p>
<p>“For people who want a new Led Zeppelin album, well, here it is,” Page says, with a wry smile.</p>
<p>At the time of its release, in the shocking aftermath of drummer John Bonham’s death, and owing to its hodgepodge nature (it contained tracks that spanned the band’s career), the album was both loved and hated.</p>
<p>“I think fans expected—wanted—more tracks from the sessions for In Through The Out Door, or maybe that had been recorded after that,” Page says. “They wanted us to finish tracks that had us playing with Bonzo. But sadly those didn’t exist.”</p>
<p>When I tell Page how, on its initial release, Coda felt like the band’s first official bootleg—providing a glimpse into the band’s creative process similar to what he’s done with the companion discs for the band’s recent reissue campaign—he seizes on the idea.</p>
<p>“Absolutely,” Page agrees. “It was a contractual album. It was put to me that there was an album owing to the record company. I was like, ‘Oh god,’ you know? But if it’s owing, it means they wanted it yesterday. I didn’t want to face doing it. But knowing that we had <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaSnMZ973V4" type="external">“Bonzo’s Montreux,”</a> that was recorded between Presence and In Through the Out Door to fit in the middle—that Bonzo and I had worked on, as a centerpiece—made it work for me. Obviously we didn’t have John Bonham, but we did have John Bonham as an orchestra. That seemed so natural and fitting. Coda was a very difficult album to piece together, but it was meant to be the mother of all codas, a celebration, and a way to bring a lot of fun to people.”</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>Now, after 14 months of deluxe reissues of the Led Zeppelin catalog, with the core albums remastered by Page himself, the band will release its last three studio albums— <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YB9BL2C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00YB9BL2C&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=nyrocculexa-20&amp;linkId=P2G3C2SRG4LBWVE5" type="external">Presence</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YB9BL7W/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00YB9BL7W&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=nyrocculexa-20&amp;linkId=UGDHZW5KNQ72XWPG" type="external">In Through the Out Door</a>, and Coda—in remastered and deluxe versions. Page, who also compiled single companion discs for each release that mirrored the original albums’ content as closely as possible, granting the listener insight into the making of each album, seems proud of his achievement, and the praise the packages have received.</p>
<p>“From my point of view, the companion discs needed to stand on their own,” Page explains of the reissue campaign. “They needed to be of that sort of stature. When we began this it was hard to explain to people, because no one had ever done anything like this before, where they revisited each album and created companion discs with outtakes that were from the time of the making of each album, and took you inside the creative process. We knew it wasn’t just a few things thrown together. We knew the time that had gone into it. But it was hard to explain that when we started this. But now that everything is out there, people understand it, and the response has been phenomenal. So it’s like, mission accomplished. It’s cool.”</p>
<p>And how involved were his former bandmates, Robert Plant and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, in revisiting the catalog, and did the idea of making new music ever come up?</p>
<p>“Robert had some tapes of rough mixes, and some lyrics that he contributed to the books, and I played them both everything along the way,” Page says. “But I was the producer, so I knew what was there [in the vaults] and I had the vision for the project, I suppose, so they left me to it.”</p>
<p>There wasn’t really time, or reason, to talk about other things, Page says. Still, the nine remastered albums and companion discs are a remarkable achievement, and a welcome addition to the catalog for any Led Zeppelin fan. Still, Page seems most proud of the underdog of the bunch, Coda.</p>
<p>“When I started to think about it originally, we wanted to do something in the best taste possible, under the circumstances,” Page explains. “Obviously some people were disappointed, because they’d have liked a new album rather than something which was posthumous, and they didn’t want John Bonham to not be around anymore. But who did, man?”</p>
<p>Thirty years later, when it came time to approach the companion discs for the band’s albums, Page knew he wanted Coda to be the centerpiece—the “new” Led Zeppelin album fans had clamored for for so long.</p>
<p>“When I was mapping the whole project out, I’d already made up my mind that Coda was again going to be a huge celebration of everything,” Page says. “Purely by the fact of making Coda a double, I really wanted to put out just about everything [in the vaults]. I knew I was going to finish with two companion discs for the last one, with all the studio stuff that people might have heard about, the stuff that helped create the mythology of Led Zeppelin. So here it is, folks. I’m giving it all to you!”</p> | Jimmy Page on a Led Zeppelin Reunion: ‘I Can’t Foresee Doing It Again’ | true | https://thedailybeast.com/jimmy-page-on-a-led-zeppelin-reunion-i-cant-foresee-doing-it-again | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>There was a single defection.</p>
<p />
<p>House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) was overwhelmingly re-elected Tuesday to be the speaker for the 115th Congress with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) the only Republican to vote against him.</p>
<p>The 46-year-old speaker enters the new Congress with Republicans in control of all three branches of government and a real shot at passing an agenda he's been promoting for years, including corporate and personal tax overhauls and a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>But Ryan's speakership will hardly be unfettered. With President-elect Donald Trump to be sworn in later this month, Ryan will have to compromise on his own agenda and sometimes take a backseat with a President who doesn't follow traditional Republican orthodoxy. Trump and Ryan don't share the same positions on free trade nor are they in agreement about a major infrastructure package that could cost a trillion dollars.</p>
<p>Once seen as the GOP's policy and agenda setter, Ryan will likely now take on a new role as a key implementer or Trump's agenda.</p>
<p>It's still unclear exactly what kind of speakership Ryan will carve out in the post-Obama era. With Trump elected, House Freedom Caucus members appear to be less combative than they have been in the past. A blockbuster revelation <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443236/donald-trump-conservatism-right-wing-future" type="external">in the National Review</a> in December revealed that some Freedom Caucus members were considering not requiring spending on the trillion dollar infrastructure bill to be entirely offset with spending cuts elsewhere, which would represent a major break from their seven years of calls for fiscal austerity. Now that Trump is in control, Ryan may see more cooperation and unity in his conference than he has in a long time.</p> | Paul Ryan Elected House Speaker With Just A Single Republican Defection | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/paul-ryan-elected-speaker-with-a-single-republican-defection | 4 |
|
<p>Photo by thierry ehrmann | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>The radiation effects of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant triple meltdowns are felt worldwide, whether lodged in sea life or in humans, it cumulates over time. The impact is now slowly grinding away only to show its true colors at some unpredictable date in the future. That’s how radiation works, slow but assuredly destructive, which serves to identify its risks, meaning, one nuke meltdown has the impact, over decades, of 1,000 regular industrial accidents, maybe more.</p>
<p>It’s been six years since the triple 100% nuke meltdowns occurred at Fukushima Daiichi d/d March 11th, 2011, nowadays referred to as “311”. Over time, it’s easy for the world at large to lose track of the serious implications of the world’s largest-ever industrial disaster; out of sight out of mind works that way.</p>
<p>According to Japanese government and TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) estimates, decommissioning is a decade-by-decade work-in-progress, most likely four decades at a cost of up to ¥21 trillion ($189B). However, that’s the simple part to understanding the Fukushima nuclear disaster story. The difficult painful part is largely hidden from pubic view via a highly restrictive harsh national secrecy law (Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, Act No. 108/2013), political pressure galore, and fear of exposing the truth about the inherent dangers of nuclear reactor meltdowns. Powerful vested interests want it concealed.</p>
<p>Following passage of the 2013 government secrecy act, which says that civil servants or others who “leak secrets” will face up to 10 years in prison, and those who “instigate leaks,” especially journalists, will be subject to a prison term of up to 5 years, Japan fell below Serbia and Botswana in the Reporters Without Borders 2014 World Press Freedom Index. The secrecy act, sharply criticized by the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations, is a shameless act of buttoned-up totalitarianism at the very moment when citizens need and in fact require transparency.</p>
<p>The current status, according to Mr. Okamura, a TEPCO manager, as of November 2017: “We’re struggling with four problems: (1) reducing the radiation at the site (2) stopping the influx of groundwater (3) retrieving the spent fuel rods and (4) removing the molten nuclear fuel.” (Source: Martin Fritz, The Illusion of Normality at Fukushima, Deutsche Welle–Asia, Nov. 3, 2017)</p>
<p>In short, nothing much has changed in nearly seven years at the plant facilities, even though tens of thousands of workers have combed the Fukushima countryside, washing down structures, removing topsoil and storing it in large black plastic bags, which end-to-end would extend from Tokyo to Denver and back.</p>
<p>As it happens, sorrowfully, complete nuclear meltdowns are nearly impossible to fix because, in part, nobody knows what to do next. That’s why Chernobyl sealed off the greater area surrounding its meltdown of 1986. Along those same lines, according to Fukushima Daiichi plant manager Shunji Uchida: ”Robots and cameras have already provided us with valuable pictures. But it is still unclear what is really going on inside,” Ibid.</p>
<p>Seven years and they do not know what’s going on inside. Is it the China Syndrome dilemma of molten hot radioactive corium burrowing into Earth? Is it contaminating aquifers? Nobody knows, nobody can possibly know, which is one of the major risks of nuclear meltdowns, nobody knows what to do. There is no playbook for 100% meltdowns. Fukushima Daiichi proves the point.</p>
<p>“When a major radiological disaster happens and impacts vast tracts of land, it cannot be ‘cleaned up’ or ‘fixed’.” (Source: Hanis Maketab, Environmental Impacts of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Will Last ‘decades to centuries’ – Greenpeace, Asia Correspondent, March 4, 2016)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the world nuclear industry has ambitious growth plans, 50-60 reactors currently under construction, mostly in Asia, with up to 400 more on drawing boards. Nuke advocates claim Fukushima is well along in the cleanup phase so not to worry as the Olympics are coming in a couple of years, including events held smack dab in the heart of Fukushima, where the agricultural economy will provide fresh foodstuff.</p>
<p>The Olympics are PM Abe’s major PR punch to prove to the world that all-is-well at the world’s most dangerous, and out of control, industrial accident site. And, yes it is still out of control. Nevertheless, the Abe government is not concerned. Be that as it may, the risks are multi-fold and likely not well understood. For example, what if another earthquake causes further damage to already-damaged nuclear facilities that are precariously held together with hopes and prayers, subject to massive radiation explosions? Then what? After all, Japan is earthquake country, which defines the boundaries of the country. Japan typically has 400-500 earthquakes in 365 days, or nearly 1.5 quakes per day.</p>
<p>According to Dr. Shuzo Takemoto, professor, Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University: “The problem of Unit 2… If it should encounter a big earth tremor, it will be destroyed and scatter the remaining nuclear fuel and its debris, making the Tokyo metropolitan area uninhabitable. The Tokyo Olympics in 2020 will then be utterly out of the question,” (Shuzo Takemoto, Potential Global Catastrophe of the Reactor No. 2 at Fukushima Daiichi, February 11, 2017).</p>
<p>Since the Olympics will be held not far from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident site, it’s worthwhile knowing what to expect, i.e., repercussions hidden from public view. After all, it’s highly improbable that the Japan Olympic Committee will address the radiation-risk factors for upcoming athletes and spectators. Which prompts a question: What criteria did the International Olympic Committee (IOC) follow in selecting Japan for the 2020 Summer Olympics in the face of three 100% nuclear meltdowns totally out of control? On its face, it seems reckless.</p>
<p>This article, in part, is based upon an academic study that brings to light serious concerns about overall transparency, TEPCO workforce health &amp; sudden deaths, as well as upcoming Olympians, bringing to mind the proposition: Is the decision to hold the Olympics in Japan in 2020 a foolish act of insanity and a crude attempt to help cover up the ravages of radiation?</p>
<p>Thus therefore, a preview of what’s happening behind, as well as within, the scenes researched by Adam Broinowski, PhD (author of 25 major academic publications and Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University): “ <a href="" type="internal">Informal Labour, Local Citizens and the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Crisis: Responses to Neoliberal Disaster Management</a>,” Australian National University, 2017.</p>
<p>The title of Dr. Broinowski’s study provides a hint of the inherent conflict, as well as opportunism, that arises with neoliberal capitalism applied to “disaster management” principles. (Naomi Klein explored a similar concept in The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Knopf Canada, 2007).</p>
<p>Dr. Broinowski’s research is detailed, thorough, and complex. His study begins by delving into the impact of neoliberal capitalism, bringing to the fore an equivalence of slave labor to the Japanese economy, especially in regards to what he references as “informal labour.” He preeminently describes the onslaught of supply side/neoliberal tendencies throughout the economy of Japan. The Fukushima nuke meltdowns simply bring to surface all of the warts and blemishes endemic to the neoliberal brand of capitalism.</p>
<p>According to Professor Broinowski: “The ongoing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station (FDNPS), operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), since 11 March 2011 can be recognised as part of a global phenomenon that has been in development over some time. This disaster occurred within a social and political shift that began in the mid-1970s (ed. supply-side economics, which is strongly reflected in America’s current tax bill under consideration) and that became more acute in the early 1990s in Japan with the downturn of economic growth and greater deregulation and financialisation in the global economy. After 40 years of corporate fealty in return for lifetime contracts guaranteed by corporate unions, as tariff protections were lifted further and the workforce was increasingly casualised, those most acutely affected by a weakening welfare regime were irregular day labourers, or what we might call ‘informal labour.”</p>
<p>In short, the 45,000-60,000 workers recruited to deconstruct decontaminate Fukushima Daiichi and the surrounding prefecture mostly came off the streets, castoffs of neoliberalism’s impact on “… independent unions, rendered powerless, growing numbers of unemployed, unskilled and precarious youths (freeters) alongside older, vulnerable and homeless day labourers (these groups together comprising roughly 38 per cent of the workforce in 2015)&#160;found themselves not only (a) lacking insurance or (b) industrial protection but also in many cases (c) basic living needs. With increasing deindustrialisation and capital flight, regular public outbursts of frustration and anger from these groups have manifested since the Osaka riots of 1992.” (Broinowski)</p>
<p>The Osaka Riots of 25 years ago depict the breakdown of modern society’s working class, a problem that has spilled over into national political elections worldwide as populism/nationalism dictate winners/losers. In Osaka 1,500 rampaging laborers besieged a police station (somewhat similar to John Carpenter’s 1976 iconic film Assault on Precinct 13) over outrage of interconnecting links between police and Japan’s powerful “Yakuza” or gangsters that bribe police to turn a blind eye to gangster syndicates that get paid to recruit, often forcibly, workers for low-paying manual jobs for industry.</p>
<p>That’s how TEPCO gets workers to work in radiation-sensitive high risks jobs. Along the way, subcontractors rake off most of the money allocated for workers, resulting in a subhuman lifestyle for the riskiest most life-threatening jobs in Japan, maybe the riskiest most life-threatening in the world.</p>
<p>Japan has a long history of assembling and recruiting unskilled labor pools at cheap rates, which is typical of nearly all large-scale modern industrial projects. Labor is simply one more commodity to be used and discarded. Tokyo Electric Power Company (“TEPCO”) of Fukushima Daiichi fame adheres to those long-standing feudalistic employment practices. They hire workers via layers of subcontractors in order to avoid liabilities, i.e. accidents, health insurance, safety standards, by penetrating into the bottom social layers that have no voice in society.</p>
<p>As such, TEPCO is not legally obligated to report industrial accidents when workers are hired through complex webs or networks of subcontractors; there are approximately 733 subcontractors for TEPCO. Here’s the process: TEPCO employs a subcontractor “shita-uke,” which in turn employs another subcontractor “mago-uke” that relies upon labor brokers “tehaishilninpu-dashi.” At the end of the day, who’s responsible for the health and safety of workers? Who’s responsible for reporting cases of radiation sickness and/or death caused by radiation exposure?</p>
<p>Based upon anecdotal evidence from reliable sources in Japan, there is good reason to believe TEPCO, as well as the Japanese government, suppress public knowledge of worker radiation sickness and death, as well as the civilian population of Fukushima. Thereby, essentially hoodwinking worldwide public opinion, for example, pro-nuke enthusiasts/advocates point to the safety of nuclear power generation because of so few reported deaths in Japan. But, then again, who’s responsible for reporting worker deaths? Answer: Other than an occasional token death report by official sources, nobody!</p>
<p>Furthermore, TEPCO does not report worker deaths that occur outside of the workplace even though the death is a direct result of excessive radiation exposure at the workplace. For example, if a worker with radiation sickness becomes too ill to go to work, they’ll obviously die at home and therefore not be reported as a work-related death. As a result, pro-nuke advocates claim Fukushima proves how safe nuclear power is, even when it goes haywire, because there are so few, if any, deaths, as to be inconsequential. That’s a boldfaced lie that is discussed in the sequel: Fukushima Darkness – Part 2.</p>
<p>“As one labourer stated re Fukushima Daiichi:&#160;‘TEPCO is God. The main contractors are kings, and we are slaves’.&#160;In short, Fukushima Daiichi clearly illustrates the social reproduction, exploitation and disposability of informal labour, in the state protection of capital, corporations and their assets.” (Broinowski)</p>
<p>Indeed, Japan is a totalitarian corporate state where corporate interests are protected from liability by layers of subcontractors and by vested interests of powerful political bodies and extremely harsh state secrecy laws. As such, it is believed that nuclear safety and health issues, including deaths, are underreported and likely not reported at all in most cases. Therefore, the worldview of nuclear power, as represented in Japan at Fukushima Daiichi, is horribly distorted in favor of nuclear power advocacy.</p>
<p>Fukushima’s Darkness – Part 2 sequel, to be published at a future date, discusses consequences.</p> | Fukushima Darkness | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/11/22/fukushima-darkness/ | 2017-11-22 | 4 |
<p>It looks as if retailers are continuing to dump Donald Trump-related products from their shelves: Ivanka Trump has experienced yet another blow to her retail “empire” by being pulled from Bed Bath &amp; Beyond.</p>
<p>Back in February, Nordstrom <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/business/nordstrom-ivanka-trump.html?_r=0" type="external">dropped</a> Ivanka Trump’s brand from its stores. The official reason was “poor performance” of merchandise, but many believe it was a move that came amidst the #GrabYourWallet campaign, which encouraged customers and retailers to boycott&#160;purchasing and selling items that can be traced back to President Trump, his family members, and even his donors.</p>
<p>And daddy dearest threw a fit.</p>
<p />
<p>Now, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond is following suit by <a href="http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/04/03/bed-bath-beyond-just-dealt-ivanka-trump-major-blow/" type="external">pulling</a> all Trump-related items from their shelves.</p>
<p />
<p>However, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond has made an official statement proclaiming they aren’t making this move to physically manifest a political stance, but merely to remove her product from stores that aren’t selling her product well.</p>
<p />
<p>Despite all of this “not really politically correct” conjecture, here is what’s happening: America is voicing their opinions through their monetary influence. By not purchasing these types of products on a national level, they are being pulled from shelves because of under-performance. This means Ivanka Trump is being hurt right where she is trying to pad: her pockets.</p>
<p>And it sends a message to the rest of the Trump family: that we, as Americans, control more monetary gain than they realize.</p>
<p>With the Trump family doing everything they can to <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-donald-trump-family-business-money-20161117-story.html" type="external">line their pockets</a> with as much monetary benefit as possible&#160;during this time of power, it’s nice to know that the actions of millions of individuals across the nation (and the world) are finally creating ripples that the Trump family can “hear.”</p>
<p>If we keep going in this direction, it could be possible to raise our monetary voices loud enough to catch their attention. If we keep going in this direction, it could be possible to show them in a way they understand that we do not approve nor will we sit back and watch what is being done to this country passively.</p>
<p>Or, maybe the products are crap and no one likes them.</p>
<p>Either way, it gets the message across. Either way, someone in the Trump family no longer gets to profit off this insane game being played.</p>
<p>Either way, our voices get heard.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Featured image courtesy of <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Bed-Bath-and-Beyond-Salaries-E1961.htm" type="external">GlassDoor</a>.</p> | The Trump Family Is Finally Seeing Repercussions Where It Hurts The Most — Their Pockets (TWEETS) | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2017/04/03/the-trump-family-is-finally-seeing-repercussions-where-it-hurts-the-most-their-pockets-tweets/ | 2017-04-03 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>LONDON — Exit talks between Britain and the European Union will resume next week, the two sides announced Tuesday, as U.K. Brexit chief David Davis said the divorce settlement is likely to favor the EU financially.</p>
<p>The EU and Britain’s Brexit department said in a joint statement that the two sides will meet Nov. 9 and 10 for a sixth round of negotiations.</p>
<p>Five previous rounds overseen by Davis and chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier have failed to resolve big differences on key issues, including the amount Britain must pay to settle its financial obligations to the 28-nation bloc. Britain has suggested a figure of about 20 billion euros ($23 billion), while the EU side puts it at 60 billion euros ($70 billion) or more.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The U.K. is due to leave the EU in March 2019, and the stagnating talks have raised fears it could crash out without a deal, with huge economic and legal consequences.</p>
<p>Britain hopes EU leaders will declare at a meeting in December that talks have made enough progress on divorce terms to move onto future relations and trade.</p>
<p>Davis insisted Tuesday he is confident Britain is “on timetable” to get a good outcome by March 2019.</p>
<p>In a hint that Britain is preparing to raise its offer on the Brexit bill, Davis told a parliamentary committee that “the withdrawal agreement, on balance, will probably favor the Union in terms of things like money and so on.”</p>
<p>He added that “the future relationship will favor both sides and will be important to both of us.”</p>
<p>He also rebuffed allegations that Britain is unprepared for Brexit, saying the tax and customs department would recruit as many as 5,000 new staff next year to deal with expected changes.</p>
<p>The government also says it has committed more than 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) to cover Brexit costs until 2022.</p>
<p>Britain voted by 52 percent to 48 percent in June 2016 to leave the EU, and the country remains deeply divided over the issue.</p>
<p>On Tuesday the U.K. statistics agency said one of the chief claims by Brexit advocates during the referendum was wide of the mark.</p>
<p>The Office for National Statistics said Britain’s net transfer to the EU in 2016 was 9.4 billion pounds ($12.4 billion). That’s about 180 million pounds per week, around half the 350 million pounds the Vote Leave campaign said could be saved in case of Brexit and spent on health care.</p>
<p>That claim is seen to have boosted support for the campaign for Britain to leave the EU.</p> | Brexit talks to resume as UK deal likely to favor EU | false | https://abqjournal.com/1085757/uk-payments-to-eu-are-half-sum-touted-by-brexit-advocates.html | 2017-10-31 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) had a rough second quarter. Revenue and earnings were both pretty close to analysts' estimates, but management admitted that hepatitis C revenues were in a long-term decline and doesn't yet know when they'll hit a minimum table. With its major growth engine sputtering, Gilead didn't have a lot of great news to share.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Aside from its HIV franchise. That segment rocked.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>HIV top-line numbers were impressive enough: Q2 global HIV sales grew to $3.1 billion, up 15% year over year. But the drivers behind it were even better.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Truvada revenue grew by an impressive 26.2% year over year in the United States. The primary reason: The drug is increasingly being used for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, a CDC-recommended regimen designed to prevent the spread of HIV. Truvada is the drug in the regimen. Gilead's management estimates that between 60,000 and 70,000 U.S. patients use Truvada for PrEP -- roughly one-third of the drug's domestic prescription volume. The opportunity here for Gilead is substantial: Demand for Truvada for PrEP will probably keep building as educational campaigns designed to reduce HIV infection rates persuade more people to use the drug preventatively -- and stay on it for years to come.</p>
<p>Genvoya, the first of the new <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/03/viiv-healthcare-attacking-but-gilead-prepares-to-s.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">TAF-containing regimens Opens a New Window.</a> designed to grow Gilead's market share, saw its sales double from Q1 to Q2 to $268 million, putting the drug at a blockbuster run rate with under a year in the market. (Now that's growth that, as an investor, I'm excited about.) Gilead COO Kevin Young noted that Genvoya's launch "represents the most successful HIV launch since the introduction of Atripla, the first single-tablet regimen, a decade ago." He continued: "After its first six months of availability, Genvoya is already the most prescribed regimen for both treatment-naive and switch patients." (The quote comes from <a href="http://www.spcapitaliq.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>).</p>
<p>Of course, the vast majority of those switch patients are switching from another Gilead drug.</p>
<p>But that's a good thing too.</p>
<p>It seems weird, but Gilead's management noted approvingly that 90% of Genvoya switches came from Gilead therapies -- and that a similar percentage of switches to newer products Odefsey and Descovy also came from other Gilead drugs.</p>
<p>Viread, which is one of the primary building blocks in most of Gilead's older HIV cocktails, can have some nasty side effects with extended treatment, particularly bone loss in some patients. TAF, which replaces Viread to create Genvoya, Odefsey, and Descovy, has fewer side effects and is similarly efficacious.</p>
<p>To understand why Gilead wants cannibalization, you have to consider the dynamics of the HIV market: In many cases, HIV-infected patients will be on these drugs for decades. Minimizing side effects is key to retaining market share -- and, as Gilead Executive VP Paul Carter explained last quarter, because of the TAF regimens, "fewer patients who switch from Gilead TDF [Viread]-containing regimens move to non-Gilead products."</p>
<p>If Gilead can move these switchers to regimens containing TAF, it can continue treating them for potentially decades more. There's also the minor issue of patents: Most of the older Viread regimens see their U.S. patents expire within the next five years (Viread in 2018, Truvada in 2021, Complera/Eviplera in 2022). Patent expiry will open up these drugs to generic competition -- which probably will largely wipe out Gilead's profits on these drugs. But the TAF regimens, as newer drugs, have a wee bit longer before they'll be hit with generic competition. Genvoya, for example, has patent protection until 2030.</p>
<p>So if Gilead successfully switches patients to these similarly efficacious drugs, which also come with fewer side effects, it'll both keep these patients longer and retain its pricing power. Seems like a win-win.</p>
<p>And for those wondering, Gilead and the FDA are in discussions about what studies would be needed to replace Truvada as the treatment for PrEP with a TAF-based regimen. More to come in the coming quarters.</p>
<p>Roughly 79% of HIV patients in the United States are on a Gilead HIV regimen. If you can believe it, that's down from past quarters. For example, in Q1 2015, Gilead had 81% market share. But with the TAF-based regimens providing Gilead with a solid defense -- and even some offense, as Genvoya got 10% of its switch patients from non-Gilead therapies -- this looks like a franchise set to throw off lots of profits for a long time hence.</p>
<p>With Gilead setting itself up for success in HIV treatment into the 2030s, the question is simple: What's next? And although I don't pretend to know the answer, I would speculate that we'll be seeing management put its <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/06/30/the-overlooked-reason-why-i-think-gilead-sciences.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">fantastic talent for acquiring other businesses Opens a New Window.</a> to work in the coming quarters.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2518&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFEnterprise/info.aspx" type="external">Michael Douglass Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Gilead Sciences. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Gilead Sciences. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The 1 Big Bright Spot in Gilead Sciences' Otherwise Dismal Quarter | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/03/1-big-bright-spot-in-gilead-sciences-otherwise-dismal-quarter.html | 2016-08-03 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Over eight weeks, prosecutors weaved experts' testimony with survivors' personal stories to try to convince jurors that Holmes was sane when he opened fire on a midnight showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises."</p>
<p>The former neuroscience student killed 12 people and wounded 70.</p>
<p>For its last witness, the prosecution called a survivor whose story was among the most heart-wrenching. Ashley Moser was paralyzed and suffered a miscarriage in the shooting, and her 6-year-old daughter, Veronica, was killed.</p>
<p>Moser came to the witness stand in a motorized wheelchair. She described hearing what she thought were kids setting off fireworks in the theater, and wanting to leave.</p>
<p>She reached for her daughter's hand, but it slipped away.</p>
<p>As Moser testified from her wheelchair, Holmes stared straight ahead, slightly swiveling in his chair.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The prosecution rested after displaying Veronica's kindergarten graduation picture.</p>
<p>Holmes' lawyers will call their own psychiatrists and present other evidence to argue that Holmes was in the grips of a psychotic episode at the time of the shootings and should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.</p>
<p>They plan to begin their case Thursday. The defense says Holmes' mental illness distorted his sense of right and wrong, a key factor the jury must consider in determining if he was sane.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Prosecution in Colorado theater shooting case rests after 8 weeks | false | https://abqjournal.com/601451/prosecution-in-colorado-theater-shooting-case-rests-after-8-weeks.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) is a precious metals company, but it isn't a traditional miner like Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE: NEM) or Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE: FCX). Investors looking at the gold and silver space should take the time to analyze what that means because it changes the risk equation. In the end, Royal Gold isn't risk free, but it may not be as risky as your typical 'gold' stock.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A Newmont Mining employee working a mine. Image source: Newmont Mining.</p>
<p>A miner like Newmont digs holes in the ground, pulls out gold, and sells it. Royal Gold doesn't do that. It provides cash up front to miners for the right to buy a portion of the future gold and silver production from a mine at reduced rates. For example, in mid-2015 Royal Gold provided $610 million to Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) in support of the company's Pueblo Viejo mine. In return, Royal Gold got the right to buy gold and silver at 30% of the spot price up until a certain threshold and then at 60% of the spot price.</p>
<p>Royal Gold likes this because it builds in low costs. Miners are fond of such agreements, known as streaming deals, because they allow miners to avoid issuing stock, selling debt, or going to a bank. Sometimes those sources of funding can be extremely expensive, for example during deep industry downturns (like 2015). Royal Gold's role as a streaming company changes the traditional precious metals model in a big way.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>For example, you've already seen that Royal Gold locks in low costs for the silver and gold it buys. But the bigger issue for investors is the other side of the equation. Miners like Newmont and Barrick have been working hard to cut costs lately. Newmont, for example, has trimmed its all-in sustaining costs from $1,170 an ounce for gold to an expected $870 to $930 an ounce in 2016. It's impressive cost cutting, but it also means that Newmont may have let costs get a little out of hand during the salad days. Royal Gold's business model effectively stops that from happening.</p>
<p>Newmont has been cutting costs, but Royal Gold's costs are low by design. Image source: Newmont Mining.</p>
<p>Then there's the difference on the balance sheet. Freeport's long-term debt made up around 80% of its capital structure at the end of the third quarter. To be fair, there's extenuating circumstance here, most notably an ill-timed and large investment in the oil space. And it's working hard to trim that heavy load to more manageable levels. However, Royal Gold's approach is to cut a streaming deal with short-term debt and then to issue stock to permanently finance that spending. Royal Gold has no long-term debt at all.</p>
<p>And then there's the counter cyclical aspect to Royal Gold's business. When other precious metals miners were pulling in their horns because of low gold and silver prices, Royal Gold was growing its business. Barrick Gold is a perfect example. It's been cutting costs by focusing on its best assets, which has lowered production from 7.2 million ounces in 2013 to an expected 5 million to 5.5 million ounces in 2016. Royal Gold, by contrast, reported record gold equivalent volumes in fiscal year 2016, up by more than 35% over 2015. That's largely because of it's ability to step in with funding when banks and investment markets won't (or because miners see such financing costs as prohibitive).</p>
<p>Barrick is shrinking production so it can keep costs low. Image source: Barrick Gold.</p>
<p>None of this is to suggest that Royal Gold is risk free. It can invest in a mine that never gets built, a mine stoppage would stop its "stream" of gold and silver, and precious metals prices will have a big impact on its top and bottom lines. But, compared to traditional miners, Royal Gold is a lot less risky because low costs are built into the business model, long-term debt is avoided, and it can actually benefit when miners are suffering. If you are looking for a precious metals investment, Royal Gold should be on your short list.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Royal Gold When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=71ce4649-2e68-4e2b-b19f-ece7c9575453&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Royal Gold wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=71ce4649-2e68-4e2b-b19f-ece7c9575453&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/ReubenGBrewer/info.aspx" type="external">Reuben Brewer Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold. 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> | How Risky Is Royal Gold, Inc.? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/17/how-risky-is-royal-gold-inc.html | 2017-01-16 | 0 |
<p>Reflect for a moment, if you will, on a gathering of Christians in Nashville, TN, a week ago. A few hundred of the most prominent Christian leaders in the country across all denominations came together to sign what is being called "The Nashville Statement."</p>
<p>The statement merely reaffirms two thousand years of orthodox Christianity. The statement reaffirms marriage is between one man and one woman. It reaffirms God made us male and female and therefore transgenderism is incompatible with the Christian faith. It reaffirms the Bible lists homosexuality as a sin thereby rendering its acceptance as incompatible with the Christian faith.</p>
<p>These are not new ideas. In fact, they are ideas specifically found in any Bible you pick up. They are New Testament ideas. These are ideas inside mainstream Christianity. They are views shared by more than one billion Christians around the world. Nonetheless, you would have thought John Piper, John MacArthur, Russell Moore and R.C. Sproul had murdered someone in Nashville last weekend.</p>
<p>The mayor of Nashville denounced the Nashville Statement for using the name of the city to perpetuate hate. For the record, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which organized the statement signing, names the statements generated by the group by the city in which they are signed. Other people assailed the statement for being signed the same weekend Harvey hit Texas as if a long scheduled meeting in Tennessee needed to contemplate the weather patterns of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.</p>
<p>The hysteria from people who never read the Bible telling people who take the Bible seriously what is in it has been off the charts. Some people, like author Jen Hatmaker, objected to the Nashville Statement purely on emotional grounds. She, like so many others, has substituted Christian doctrine and sound theology for the emotion of what makes one's self feel good. If you feel good, that must be what Jesus wanted. I assure you he did not feel good when nailed on the cross.</p>
<p>Now, step away from religion and delve into the other subject one is not supposed to talk about in polite company -- politics. In Charlottesville, VA, white nationalists were met by Antifa protestors. Even the police reported Antifa showed up looking for a fight. But if anyone pointed that out, they were accused of excusing the white nationalists' behavior. Last week, Antifa savagely beat people in Berkeley, CA. Despite there being no white supremacists counter-protesting, many prominent leftwing activists denounced anyone who called out Antifa. To them, Antifa had a moral calling to push back against their kissing cousins in the white supremacist movement. And they are kissing cousins, just as the Nazis and Communists were.</p>
<p>In both instances, silence is a weapon. The devil cannot perpetuate lies when truth is spoken. As long as people speak up, it is harder to capture the minds of the young. So you must shut up and be silent. Those who would turn the world upside down are committed to ensuring your silence. You will be bullied, harassed, chased out of business, and run out of the town square. A single candle in darkness provides light so all the candles must be blown out.</p>
<p>The devil's silence is coming most noticeably for the church in America. Cultural revolutionaries assail orthodoxy Christianity as hateful and bigoted. If you adhere to the faith, you must be one of those hicks or rubes bitterly clinging to guns and religion. What these cultural revolutionaries will not say, but know, is that you are a hopeless cause. They are, instead, targeting your children.</p>
<p>That is why you have an obligation to speak up. They only win in silence. The lie only stands in the absence of truth. That is why they try to make it costly for you to speak up. At a minimum they hope to convince you, your spouse, your pastor, and your friends that it is not worth it to speak up. But speak up you must.</p>
<p>The secular left in America is increasingly angry and increasingly violent. But both are just weapons with which they will intimidate you into silence. So speak up.</p>
<p>To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.</p>
<p>COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM</p> | ERICKSON: The Devil's Silence | true | https://dailywire.com/news/20534/erickson-devils-silence-erick-erickson | 2017-09-02 | 0 |
<p>Health insurance is a critical aspect of your financial planning, but it's also extremely difficult to understand. Health-insurance policies extend for dozens, or even hundreds, of pages in some cases, and there's a lot of confusion about what various terms, phrases, and contract provisions really mean. Below, we'll look at several often-misunderstood aspects of health insurance that can cost you a lot of money if you don't grasp them correctly. By knowing more about your insurance, you can make the most of your health coverage and make smart choices about exactly which coverage options to pick.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/15/what-managed-care-organizations-are-and-how-invest.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=01382d60-6e28-11e7-8478-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Managed care organizations Opens a New Window.</a> have done a lot to cut the cost of healthcare for patients, but they also impose restrictions on the medical professionals and services you can use. Some policies still allow you to see any doctor of your choosing, but most health-maintenance organizations and preferred-provider organizations offer additional savings if you use doctors and other professionals that are within the policy's covered network.</p>
<p>It's essential to look at exactly how your policy distinguishes between in-network and out-of-network services, because some policies have extremely draconian provisions in this regard. You can count on getting less coverage and having to pay more in out-of-pocket costs for out-of-network providers in nearly every situation, but some policies provide almost no coverage for providers who aren't in their networks, except in emergencies. Before you casually visit an out-of-network provider, it's worth contacting your health insurer to find out exactly what will and won't be covered.</p>
<p>Many health-insurance policies come with deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, but people routinely get confused about the two terms. A <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/06/05/5-ways-to-cut-healthcare-costs-if-your-deductible.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=01382d60-6e28-11e7-8478-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">deductible Opens a New Window.</a> is an amount that you have to pay out of your own pocket before your insurance coverage kicks in. After you pay the deductible, then your insurance will start paying its portion of your healthcare expenses, with typical arrangements involving a split between what the insurer pays and what you're responsible for covering yourself.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/06/25/5-things-to-look-for-when-shopping-for-health-insu.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=01382d60-6e28-11e7-8478-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Out-of-pocket maximums Opens a New Window.</a> come into play after you've fulfilled any deductible you have and have incurred additional healthcare expenses. Once the total of your deductible and your proportional share of costs after your insurance starts paying out benefits reaches the out-of-pocket maximum, you'll stop paying anything toward further costs.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>For instance, say you have a $1,000 deductible, and after that, your insurance pays 80% of costs, with you having to cover 20% until you hit an out-of-pocket maximum of $5,000. You'd be responsible for the first $1,000 in expenses each year. After that, you'd have to pay 20% of the next $20,000 in costs, with insurance paying the other 80%. Once you hit $21,000 in expenses, you would reach your $5,000 out-of-pocket maximum, and any further healthcare needs would be paid entirely by insurance.</p>
<p>The two concepts are quite different, but some people still get confused. It's especially important to know the deductible amount, because that represents money out of your pocket before your insurance does anything at all. Knowing the difference can help you avoid a costly mistake in selecting coverage.</p>
<p>Finally, the biggest mistake that many people make in choosing health insurance is to <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/10/6-states-where-the-average-health-insurance-premiu.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=01382d60-6e28-11e7-8478-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">focus too much on the monthly premium amount Opens a New Window.</a>. Remember, the true value of health-insurance coverage depends on two things: what it costs and what it covers. Costs include not only the premiums you pay upfront, but also the copayments, coinsurance amounts, and deductibles that you're responsible for paying. Often, low-premium policies have weaker coverage that require you to pay a higher share of any expenses you incur. That can work out well for healthy people, but if you frequently need medical services, then low-cost premiums can be deceptively attractive.</p>
<p>The best way to determine the value of a policy for you is to figure out how much each policy would cover in a typical year based on your past medical experience. Be sure to include not only the premium payments, but also what your insurance won't cover, and then find the policy that produces the minimum total cost.</p>
<p>You might also want to build in a margin of safety, understanding that health can deteriorate unexpectedly. With many policies, however, you can switch to a more comprehensive plan at your next open enrollment period if your health worsens. That makes the long-term consequences of an incorrect choice less dire, although you should still prefer to get things right the first time.</p>
<p>Health insurance is tricky, and misunderstandings can cost you. Pay close attention to your health-insurance policy, and ask questions if you don't grasp something. That way, you'll avoid costly mistakes down the road.</p>
<p>The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.&#160; <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=01382d60-6e28-11e7-8478-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=01382d60-6e28-11e7-8478-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Health Insurance Misunderstandings That Could Cost You | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/10/3-health-insurance-misunderstandings-that-could-cost.html | 2017-07-26 | 0 |
<p>Joe the Plumber Joseph Wurzelbacher says at least 70 percent of union members will vote for Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Joe Wurzelbacher, who gained national attention during the 2008 presidential race as ‘Joe the Plumber’ for a discussion he had with then Senator Barack Obama during a campaign stop, weighed in on the 2016 presidential race and how blue-collar union workers will impact the election.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>When asked how many private sector union members he felt would come out in support of Donald Trump on election day, Wurzelbacher replied, “I’d say at least 70% and the reason why, now I worked for Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU) a couple years ago cause I wanted to understand really the union and the union process and what’s going on.&#160; I hate when people talk about things they know nothing about.&#160; And I met a lot of great Americans at the union, a lot of hard workers, but I also met a lot of lazy guys who use the system to get what they want.”</p>
<p>Wurzelbacher then pointed out the difference between union leadership and the union members.</p>
<p>“Union leadership’s been bought for a long time and I think we all know that here in this station.&#160; But union membership, they understand what happens with the trade agreements and what Trump wants to do as far as renegotiating them and making them better for the American worker and you’re talking about the blue-collar union worker,” Wurzelbacher told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney.</p>
<p>Wurzelbacher explained that even though union workers understand the impact of the trade agreements, issues such as education and jobs are the main focus for households across America.</p>
<p>“No, what they zero in on is making sure their kids got a good school system, making sure they can put food on the table and actually put a little bit of money in the bank as opposed to what’s been happening for the last eight years.&#160; You know, everyone’s been struggling, you have to work two or three times harder to make what you did eight years ago as today.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>When Varney asked if America can get back the kind of manufacturing base it once had 30 years ago, Wurzelbacher responded, “We have to, it’s not about ‘can we,’ we have to.&#160; For America to be great again, to move forward in this world, this world economy, we have to become a powerhouse again and Donald Trump’s the only one that’s going to make that happen.”</p>
<p>According to Wurzelbacher a potential Hillary Clinton presidency would be a continuation of the policies that have hurt U.S. manufacturing for decades.</p>
<p>“Hillary Clinton keeps on beating the same drum that’s been essentially sinking America for the last 30 years.&#160; So if we don’t become a manufacturer powerhouse again, you know, America is gonna go the sideways of Rome.”</p> | 'Joe the Plumber' on Union Members' Split with Leadership in the Voting Booth | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/09/06/joe-plumber-on-union-members-split-with-leadership-in-voting-booth.html | 2016-09-06 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque police are reporting numerous accidents caused by slick roads in the area and have closed the on and off-ramps at Coors and I-40.</p>
<p>Officer Tanner Tixier called the conditions, especially in the Coors/I-40 are are “terrible.” The latest road conditions can be viewed at <a href="http://nmroads.com" type="external">nmroads.com</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Slick roads prompt I-40 ramp closures | false | https://abqjournal.com/547322/slick-roads-prompt-i-40-ramp-closures.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>&#160; &#160; Sculpture of a heralder atop the Mormon Draper Utah Temple on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. ( <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/31543164@N08/" type="external">Michael Wiffren</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" type="external">/ CC BY 2.0)</a>)</p>
<p>Utah’s Republican-dominated Legislature passed a bill that would bar employers and landlords or property owners from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity while also protecting religious institutions that object to homosexuality.</p>
<p>The New York Times reports:</p>
<p />
<p>The legislation, known as “the Utah compromise,” has been hailed by Mormon leaders and gay rights advocates as a breakthrough in balancing rights and religious freedom, and as a model for other conservative states. But leaders of some other churches oppose it, saying it would not sufficiently protect the rights of individuals who have religious objections to homosexuality.</p>
<p>The vote was an extraordinary moment for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is opposed to same-sex marriage, but sent two of its leading apostles to a news conference on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake City last week to endorse the antidiscrimination bill. Legislators and gay rights advocates said having the blessing of the church leaders turned the tide in the Legislature, where most members are Mormons.</p>
<p>… The bill, however, does not address what has become one of the most divisive questions on gay rights nationwide: whether individual business owners, based on their religious beliefs, can refuse service to gay people or gay couples — for example, a baker who refuses to make a cake for a gay wedding.</p>
<p>Read more <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/us/politics/utah-passes-antidiscrimination-bill-backed-by-mormon-leaders.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&amp;smid=nytcore-iphone-share&amp;_r=0" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | Utah Passes Anti-Discrimination Bill With Support From Mormon Leaders | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/utah-passes-anti-discrimination-bill-with-support-from-mormon-leaders/ | 2015-03-12 | 4 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Black residents in a dozen counties in Texas are more likely than white residents to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though the two groups use the drug at about the same rate, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas maintains in a recent report that analyzed national data.</p>
<p>Local law enforcement officials serving a dozen counties in Texas have demonstrated “racially biased drug enforcement,” the ACLU of Texas said in June, citing its report, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/billions-dollars-wasted-racially-biased-arrests" type="external">“Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests.”</a>&#160; <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>The ACLU of Texas has contacted 15 law enforcement agencies in East Texas counties and asked for policy changes, noting that the state had the second highest number of marijuana-possession arrests in the country in 2010.</p>
<p>That year, more than half of all arrests in Texas were for marijuana. Blacks were only 12 percent of the state’s <a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/48000.html" type="external">25 million residents</a> in 2010 but made up more than a quarter of all marijuana-possession arrests.</p>
<p>“This data is clear evidence that police target Blacks for marijuana use. And nowhere in Texas is this practice as prevalent as in a corridor stretching from Houston, up through East Texas, into the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.</p>
<p>Van Zandt and Cooke counties rank first and fourth, respectively, in the country for having the highest disparity rate of Black-white marijuana arrests, according to the ACLU.</p>
<p>The organization found that Blacks in Van Zandt County were more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession 34 more times than whites. In Cooke County, Black residents were 25 more times likely than whites to be arrested for having the drug.</p>
<p>Of the <a href="https://www.aclutx.org/2013/06/06/racially-biased-arrests/" type="external">12 counties of concern</a> to the ACLU of Texas, the lowest “more likely of arrest” rate was 4.</p>
<p>Equal Voice News contacted the sheriffs for Van Zandt and Cooke counties for comment and context about the ACLU findings.</p>
<p>Van Zandt County Sheriff M.L. Ray, who took office in January 2013, called the findings unacceptable. “We are certainly taking measures here to make sure that we can correct anything that we may be doing that’s contributing to this,” he said in a phone message.</p>
<p>Equal Voice News will provide the response from the Cooke County sheriff should it arrive.</p>
<p>In 2010, while 2,403 Black residents were arrested for marijuana possession in Van Zandt County, only 71 white residents were apprehended for the same reason, according to the ACLU report. The county had 52,661 residents and 2.8 percent of them were Black.</p>
<p>Cooke County, during the same year, had a population of 38,438 people and its Black population was 2.9 percent. But there were 3,029 Black residents in that county who were arrested by local law enforcement officials for having marijuana. In comparison, only 123 white residents were detained for the same crime.</p>
<p>Ezekiel Edwards, a report author who leads the Criminal Law Reform Project for the ACLU, pointed out that these arrest rates have a significant impact on people, their families and neighborhoods. “The aggressive policing of marijuana is time consuming, costly, racially biased and doesn’t work,” he said in a statement.</p>
<p>The marijuana arrest report is one of the first in the country to examine this issue at a state and county level and by race.</p>
<p>The national arrest rate for marijuana was actually higher during the first three years of President Barack Obama’s administration compared to the same period when President George W. Bush led the country, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/us/marijuana-arrests-four-times-as-likely-for-blacks.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times reported</a>, noting that polls show a majority of people in the country support legalization of the drug.</p>
<p>The media outlet also interviewed Phillip Atiba Goff, a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, who pointed out, along with the ACLU, that there are federal programs that give financial incentives to local law enforcement agencies for meeting arrest goals.</p>
<p>Certain types of crimes, Goff reportedly said,&#160;are cheaper and easier to process.</p>
<p>An ACLU of Texas spokesman said one goal is to review local law enforcement policies and work with sheriffs, local police and judges on the disparity.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aclutx.org/" type="external">ACLU of Texas</a> works on protecting civil rights and personal liberties, as well as public education efforts. The group has been active in Texas since 1938. Note: This story was updated on Aug. 7 to include a response from Van Zandt County Sheriff M.L. Ray.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">ACLU of Texas</a>, <a href="" type="internal">American Civil Liberties Union</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Criminal Justice</a>, <a href="" type="internal">marijuana</a>, <a href="" type="internal">marijuana arrests</a>, <a href="" type="internal">pot arrests</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Texas</a></p> | ACLU: Police in East Texas Show Bias in Marijuana Arrests | true | http://equalvoiceforfamilies.org/aclu-police-in-east-texas-show-bias-in-marijuana-arrests/ | 4 |
|
<p>The Disney Channel is set to premiere its first coming-out storyline of a 13-year-old boy on the hit show Andi Mack this week.</p>
<p>Rated the network's #1 show for children ages 6 to 14, Andi Mack follows the story of a girl who discovers that the girl she thought was her older sister is actually her mother. Season 2 premieres this Friday and finds Andi hoping that her parents will get married.</p>
<p>But the drama doesn't end there.</p>
<p>Young viewers will also watch as Andi's best friend Cyrus, a key character in the show, realizes that he's gay and has a crush on a fella named Jonah who Andi also has a crush on.</p>
<p>As the episodes unfolds, Cyrus will reportedly come out to a supportive mutual friend named Buffy, a scene intended "to provide positive role models for children — and adults — watching."</p>
<p>Future episodes will apparently follow Cyrus' "journey to self-acceptance" as he figures out how to tell his girlfriend Iris that he is indeed a homosexual.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://deadline.com/2017/10/disney-channel-andi-mack-character-come-out-gay-1202194584/" type="external">Deadline Hollywood</a>, The Disney Channel ran this plan by child development experts and screened the episodes to organizations including GLAAD, PFLAG, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and Common Sense Media, who all thought this sounded like a perfect storyline for the six-to-fourteen year old audience members.</p>
<p>“With more and more young people coming out as LGBTQ, Andi Mack is reflecting the lives and lived experiences of so many LGBTQ youth around the country,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “Television reflects the real life world and today that includes LGBTQ youth who deserve to see their lives depicted on their favorite shows. Disney has been a leader in LGBTQ inclusion and there are so many young people who will be excited to see Cyrus’ story unfold.”</p>
<p>The Walt Disney Co. released a general statement on its characters and storylines:</p> | Disney Channel To Air Its First Gay Coming-Out Storyline | true | https://dailywire.com/news/22764/disney-channel-air-its-first-gay-coming-out-chase-stephens | 2017-10-26 | 0 |
<p>Stocks are moving slightly higher in midday trading as investors look ahead to a busy week for corporate earnings.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,086 as of 11:45 am. Eastern time.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index rose three points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,105. The Nasdaq composite increased 25 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,021.</p>
<p>JetBlue Airways surged 6 percent after the airline reported a big increase in passengers last month.</p>
<p>The market is coming off a second weekly gain in a row. It hasn't had a three-week winning streak since late February.</p>
<p>Bond prices didn't move much. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 1.95 percent.</p> | US stock market creeps up to start the week as investors look toward corporate earnings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/04/13/us-stock-market-creeps-up-to-start-week-as-investors-look-toward-corporate.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>The Obama administration says 9.5 million people are already signed up for 2015 coverage under the president's health care law. That's on track to surpass the goal set last year.</p>
<p>The Health and Human Services department Tuesday reported enrollment numbers through the middle of January.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>More than 7.1 million people signed up in the 37 states where the federal government is running the insurance markets, and 2.4 million signed up in states running their own exchanges.</p>
<p>The health insurance exchanges offer subsidized private coverage to people who don't have access on the job.</p>
<p>It's too early to say if the 9.1 million sign-up target set by HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell will be met, because that only counts people who've sealed the deal by paying their first month's premiums.</p> | Gov't: 9.5 million already signed up for 2015 coverage under Obama's health law | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/01/27/govt-5-million-already-signed-up-for-2015-coverage-under-obama-health-law.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>“Politics is the shadow cast on society by big business… the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance…”</p>
<p>John Dewey, 1859-1952</p>
<p>The bad moon of another campaign season rises. The depoliticized, disinformed, and disengaged American electorate twitch in their culture-coffins. Soon they will be urged to arise and plod across the dim landscape. Robotically they will stand in line to perform their ritual; attempting to hungrily suck meaning from the wizened and bloodless corpse of a rumored democracy. Then, still famished, they will return to their vaults. But the moon will rise again, and so will they — on and on.</p>
<p>It’s that time again in Obamanation, where two corporate-approved candidates and their running-mates cluster on the right side of the arena. The Anointed signal over the heads of their fans to the funders in the posh VIP suites above the faux-fray. McCain is Able, his sponsors assure the audience. He has the proven character to bomb civilian power plants and irrigation projects. Though he admits to not knowing much about economic issues, he clings tenaciously to Laffer-ism, the totally discredited notion that cutting taxes on rich folks and their corporations increases Treasury revenue.</p>
<p>In a grotesque and Rove-ian move he passed over his ally, apologist, and prompter, Jihad Joe Lieberman for the VP spot in favor of proven breeder, exploiter, and weapon wielder Sarah Palin. As governor of Alaska, Palin consistently sided with oil, mining, and “safari” interests, including those who enjoy shooting fleeing wolves from the comfort of airplanes. Now that she’s officially tapped, some questions are arising about the “vetting” process behind her cynical nomination.</p>
<p>But as John Dolan noted to AlterNet readers (9/2/08), “Perhaps the saddest aspect of Palin’s disgusting record on environmental issues is the fact that it’s hardly even being mentioned in the debate about her nomination. Most of the focus, for an audience of suckers weaned on celebrity gossip, seems to be about her mothering skills, her daughter’s pregnancy and whether she was Miss Congeniality or just a runner-up in some beauty pageant. The fact that she makes her living helping to wipe out whole species, poison productive watersheds and play to the … great-white-hunter fantasies of her constituency hardly seems worth a mention.”</p>
<p>Obama, and his hair-plugged hack of a VP contestant are long on empty oratory and eager to partition Iraq while escalating the carnage in Afghanistan. But as Michael Yates has written recently (CP, 8/26), “Obama has failed to say anything meaningful” about issues of importance to working people: “Will he make the Occupational Safety and Health Act a real law and not the dead letter it is now. Will he engineer a public works program that rebuilds the infrastructure of … forgotten [mill] towns and puts their people back to work?… Will he do something about public education and get rid of the corporate-inspired No Child Left Behind legislation? …Stop wasting billions of dollars on … criminal wars? Demand that unions be made legal in Iraq?”</p>
<p>Yates notes that Obama’s labeling corporate shill and gaffe-meister Joe Biden as “’working class’ … tells us just how lame U.S. politics are.” Still, he laments, “Obama might have won over the voters Hillary Clinton got by pretending she was still a working class woman from Scranton, while she slugged down shots and beers in [Pennsylvania] bars. He could have intertwined his hand with the hand of the white worker, like the emblem of the old Packinghouse Workers Union, and gone out on the stump and told the truth about class struggle. A lot of white workers would have eaten this up.”</p>
<p>Such solidarity-based electoral politics is a practical impossibility at present of course. As professor Paul Street, wrote in his Brave New America piece recently, “The popular majority of the citizens —the People — in whose name U.S. ‘democracy’ purports to function is politically disinterested, infantilized, obedient, distracted, and divided. An increasingly spectator-ized and subordinate public is shepherded by the professional political class across a painfully narrow business and Empire-friendly field of political, policy, and ideological ‘choices.’”</p>
<p>He quotes from Sheldon Wolin’s new book Democracy Inc. : Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism : “The citizenry, supposedly the source of government power and authority as well as participant, has been replaced by the ‘electorate,’ that is, by voters who acquire a political life at election time. During the intervals between elections the political existence of the citizenry is relegated to a shadow-citizenship of virtual participation. Instead of participating in power, the virtual citizen is invited to have ‘opinions’ : measurable responses to questions to questions predesigned to elicit them….”</p>
<p>“…In elections parties set out to mobilize the citizen-as-voter, to define political obligation as fulfilled by the casting of a vote. Afterwards, post-election politics of lobbying, repaying donors, and promoting corporate interests — the real players — takes over. The effect is to demobilize the citizenry, to teach them not to be involved or to ponder matters that are either settled or beyond their efficacy.”</p>
<p>Street notes that this evolving new totalitarian system “requires no great sacrifice or strength on the part of its subject populace. It creates a ‘soft,’ childish, and fearful citizenry that is asked mainly to buy things, to watch their telescreens, and perhaps to occasionally vote…”</p>
<p>And so another tawdry and demeaning campaign season begins in arenas named by and for corporations. Outside these “secure” sites, journalists and dissenters to empire/ “managed democracy” are bloodied, roughed up and arrested by latter-day Praetorian Guards. The debased, diversionary jibes and twaddle spewing out of these coliseums, feverishly reported by the corporate press would sicken and shame a truly sovereign people.</p>
<p>But here, as the sun sets on what’s left of America the Dutiful, we stir ever so slightly. November night will soon descend.</p>
<p>Briefly emerging from our comfy-crypts, The Time is upon us again.</p>
<p>RICHARD RHAMES is a dirt-farmer in Biddeford, Maine (just north of the Kennebunkport town line).</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Your Ad Here</a> &#160;</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Bad Campaign Moon Rising | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/09/06/bad-campaign-moon-rising/ | 2008-09-06 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Interest rates on new credit card offers remained stuck at 14.96% Wednesday, according to the CreditCards.com Weekly Credit Card Rate Report.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>This is the sixth consecutive week that the national average annual percentage rate (APR) remained unchanged.</p>
<p>Most credit card issuers left interest rates alone this week. Chase tested a new Web offer on the Chase Slate card. However, the issuer's most recent offer -- which is 1 percentage point above its earlier rate -- didn't affect the national average because the card's lower rate offer is still available.</p>
<p>Previously, applicants who accessed the Slate card online were offered an APR range of 11.99% to 21.99%.&#160; Now, some applicants may be offered a slightly higher range of possible APRs, starting at 12.99% and topping out at 22.99%.</p>
<p>Credit card issuers frequently test new online offers by temporarily offering multiple rates.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>New credit reaches 5-year high Over the past several months, credit card issuers have gradually stepped up their marketing efforts and have courted new cardholders more aggressively than they did in 2012.</p>
<p>Over the first six months of 2013, for example, issuers mailed 23% more credit card offers than they did in the first six months of 2012, according to the market research firm Mintel Comperemedia.</p>
<p>New <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/equifax-reports-improving-delinquency-rates-165828166.html" type="external">data Opens a New Window.</a> released July 25 by the consumer reporting agency Equifax suggests that issuers' renewed efforts to attract more cardholders is working. So far, issuers have made 6% more new loans in the first half of 2013 than they did during the same period in 2012.</p>
<p>In addition to approving more cardholders, issuers are also being less stingy with the amount of credit they're willing to give. Thanks to higher credit limits and a larger number of new accounts, the total amount of new credit being issued to new and current cardholders is now at its highest point since 2008, according to Equifax.</p>
<p>Between January 2013 and April, issuers approved about $62 billion in new credit -- up from $58 billion in the first four months of 2012.</p>
<p>The total amount of available credit that issuers are approving these days is a big step-up from the first few years following the 2008 financial crisis, when issuers sharply reduced the amount of credit they were willing to lend. According to Equifax, issuers approved 74% more credit in the first four months of 2012 than they did during the same period in 2010.</p>
<p>Private sector job openings on the rise Card issuers are being more generous in part because the jobs situation for U.S. consumers appears to be on an upswing.</p>
<p>In the first six months of 2013, for example, employers added approximately 1.2 million new jobs to the economy, according to the Labor Department's most recent estimates.</p>
<p>Private sector employers, in particular, are creating significantly more new jobs this year than they did in the first years after the Great Recession.</p>
<p>In July, private sector employers added 200,000 new jobs, according to a report released July 31 by the payroll processing firm ADP. In June, private employers added just slightly fewer jobs: 198,000.</p>
<p>Jobs in which workers provide a service, rather than produce some kind of good, made up the majority of new jobs added to the economy this month. Manufacturing jobs declined by 5,000 in July. All other industries added jobs, according to the report.</p>
<p>"Job growth remains remarkably stable," said Moody's analytics economist Mark Zandi in a <a href="http://www.adpemploymentreport.com/2013/July/NER/docs/ADP-NATIONAL-EMPLOYMENT-REPORT-July2013-Final-Press-Release.pdf" type="external">press release Opens a New Window.</a> accompanying the report. "Businesses are adding to payrolls in most industries and across all company sizes. The job market has admirably weathered the fiscal head winds, tax increases and government spending cuts. This bodes well for the next year when those head winds are set to fade."</p>
<p>See related: <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/average-credit_card_debt-1276.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Average credit card debt? Take your pick</a></p> | Rates Remain Locked at 14.96% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/31/rates-remain-locked-at-146.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky will become the first hockey player to lend his voice to “The Simpsons,” when he appears in an episode set to air next month.</p>
<p>“Simpsons” executive producer Al Jean tells NHL.com that the show was looking for “heroes of winter” for the Dec. 11th episode “and there couldn’t be a bigger hockey hero than Wayne Gretzky.”</p>
<p>Gretzky, known as “The Great One” in hockey circles, won four Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers before moving on to play for Los Angeles, St. Louis and the New York Rangers. The Oilers tweeted out a picture of the cartoon version of Gretzky, in which he has four fingers on each hand and yellow skin, just like other “Simpsons” characters.</p>
<p>The league’s website says that Gretzky recorded his role over the summer.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Wayne Gretzky lending his voice to ‘The Simpsons’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/892357/wayne-gretzky-lending-his-voice-to-the-simpsons.html | 2016-11-18 | 2 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — It’s been a rough few years for stock-picking mutual-fund managers, and investors keep dumping them for the higher returns and lower expenses of index funds.</p>
<p>Now, stock pickers say, market conditions are starting to turn in their favor as stocks increasingly go in different directions rather than moving in unison. Many are feeling so confident that they’re paring down the number of stocks they hold to concentrate on the select few they expect to be big winners.</p>
<p>A concentrated approach gives stock pickers the potential to achieve much better returns than an index fund. But it can also increase risk.</p>
<p>That means investors should pay close attention to another number when checking out a mutual fund. Along with fees, returns and volatility, have a look at how many stocks a fund owns. It may be fewer than you think.</p>
<p>FIGHTING AGAINST THE TIDE</p>
<p>Over the last several years, only a handful of actively managed funds have kept up with the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index or other benchmarks, let alone beat them.</p>
<p>Last year, 86 percent of large-cap stock fund managers fell short of the S&amp;P 500, in line with the historical average. For the decade through 2014, 82 percent of large-cap funds couldn’t keep up with the S&amp;P 500, according to S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices.</p>
<p>Investors noticed, and pulled $153 billion from actively managed U.S. stock funds in the first 10 months of this year, according to Morningstar. Nearly that much, $121 billion, went into their index-fund rivals.</p>
<p>Returns haven’t necessarily been poor for actively managed funds. Most are up strongly in recent years. They just haven’t earned enough over the index to make up for the higher expenses they charge. One reason is how uniformly stocks have been behaving.</p>
<p>With interest rates at record lows in recent years and the Federal Reserve buying billions of dollars in bonds to stimulate the economy, stocks climbed and fell together in great herds. In 2013, 91 percent of stocks in the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index rose.</p>
<p>When the whole market is moving up as one, it doesn’t matter much which stock a fund manager picks. So why not stick with index funds, which track the broader market and charge much lower fees?</p>
<p>As Peter Clark, managing director at Jennison Associates, puts it: an actively managed portfolio “struggles when the tide lifts all boats.”</p>
<p>A MORE SPLIT MARKET</p>
<p>This year has seen a shift in that pattern. The S&amp;P 500 is more evenly split between winners and losers. At one end is Netflix, up 154.5 percent through Wednesday. At the other is Consol Energy, down nearly 80 percent.</p>
<p>Fund managers expect this more fractured market to continue, as the Federal Reserve pulls back its stimulus measures. The central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates this upcoming week for the first time in nearly a decade. In such a market, stock pickers say they’ll finally get rewarded for choosing the right stocks and avoiding the wrong ones.</p>
<p>Jennison’s Clark says he is focusing on industries that are producing strong revenue growth, such as technology, health care and companies that rely on discretionary spending by consumers. Growth is still scarce in the global economy, and Clark expects that the few companies which manage to achieve it will be rewarded.</p>
<p>Clark is also focusing on fewer stocks. Jennison’s global equity portfolio is invested in about 40 stocks, for example. A couple years ago, it was closer to 55.</p>
<p>HIGHER REWARD, HIGHER RISK?</p>
<p>Bob Burnstine is an unabashed stock picker. He used to work at Harris Associates, whose Oakmark Select fund holds only 20 stocks. Since 2011, he’s been investing for clients at Fairpointe Capital, and he now is the lead portfolio manager at the Aston/Fairpointe Focused Equity mutual fund, which holds just 30 to 35 stocks.</p>
<p>That approach has worked in the past. Burnstine beat his benchmark, the Russell 1000 index, and the S&amp;P 500 for the three years through 2014. But this year, the strategy has hurt him.</p>
<p>Burnstine’s fund doesn’t own any shares of Netflix. Or Amazon, or Facebook, or Alphabet, Google’s parent company. He thinks they’re too expensive. But they’ve also been the driving force behind this year’s market gains. As a result, his fund is down 9.2 percent in 2015, versus a 1.3 percent return for an S&amp;P 500 index fund.</p>
<p>Burnstine asks that investors measure him by how he does over a three- to five-year period, which is about how long he plans to hold a stock when he buys it.</p>
<p>“It comes with the territory,” he says. “We don’t look like any of the benchmarks. Over the near term, if we’re in the wrong stocks that aren’t working now, that can hurt us. Any manager can have a good year or a bad year.”</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — It’s been a rough few years for stock-picking mutual-fund managers, and investors keep dumping them for the higher returns and lower expenses of index funds.</p>
<p>Now, stock pickers say, market conditions are starting to turn in their favor as stocks increasingly go in different directions rather than moving in unison. Many are feeling so confident that they’re paring down the number of stocks they hold to concentrate on the select few they expect to be big winners.</p>
<p>A concentrated approach gives stock pickers the potential to achieve much better returns than an index fund. But it can also increase risk.</p>
<p>That means investors should pay close attention to another number when checking out a mutual fund. Along with fees, returns and volatility, have a look at how many stocks a fund owns. It may be fewer than you think.</p>
<p>FIGHTING AGAINST THE TIDE</p>
<p>Over the last several years, only a handful of actively managed funds have kept up with the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index or other benchmarks, let alone beat them.</p>
<p>Last year, 86 percent of large-cap stock fund managers fell short of the S&amp;P 500, in line with the historical average. For the decade through 2014, 82 percent of large-cap funds couldn’t keep up with the S&amp;P 500, according to S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices.</p>
<p>Investors noticed, and pulled $153 billion from actively managed U.S. stock funds in the first 10 months of this year, according to Morningstar. Nearly that much, $121 billion, went into their index-fund rivals.</p>
<p>Returns haven’t necessarily been poor for actively managed funds. Most are up strongly in recent years. They just haven’t earned enough over the index to make up for the higher expenses they charge. One reason is how uniformly stocks have been behaving.</p>
<p>With interest rates at record lows in recent years and the Federal Reserve buying billions of dollars in bonds to stimulate the economy, stocks climbed and fell together in great herds. In 2013, 91 percent of stocks in the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index rose.</p>
<p>When the whole market is moving up as one, it doesn’t matter much which stock a fund manager picks. So why not stick with index funds, which track the broader market and charge much lower fees?</p>
<p>As Peter Clark, managing director at Jennison Associates, puts it: an actively managed portfolio “struggles when the tide lifts all boats.”</p>
<p>A MORE SPLIT MARKET</p>
<p>This year has seen a shift in that pattern. The S&amp;P 500 is more evenly split between winners and losers. At one end is Netflix, up 154.5 percent through Wednesday. At the other is Consol Energy, down nearly 80 percent.</p>
<p>Fund managers expect this more fractured market to continue, as the Federal Reserve pulls back its stimulus measures. The central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates this upcoming week for the first time in nearly a decade. In such a market, stock pickers say they’ll finally get rewarded for choosing the right stocks and avoiding the wrong ones.</p>
<p>Jennison’s Clark says he is focusing on industries that are producing strong revenue growth, such as technology, health care and companies that rely on discretionary spending by consumers. Growth is still scarce in the global economy, and Clark expects that the few companies which manage to achieve it will be rewarded.</p>
<p>Clark is also focusing on fewer stocks. Jennison’s global equity portfolio is invested in about 40 stocks, for example. A couple years ago, it was closer to 55.</p>
<p>HIGHER REWARD, HIGHER RISK?</p>
<p>Bob Burnstine is an unabashed stock picker. He used to work at Harris Associates, whose Oakmark Select fund holds only 20 stocks. Since 2011, he’s been investing for clients at Fairpointe Capital, and he now is the lead portfolio manager at the Aston/Fairpointe Focused Equity mutual fund, which holds just 30 to 35 stocks.</p>
<p>That approach has worked in the past. Burnstine beat his benchmark, the Russell 1000 index, and the S&amp;P 500 for the three years through 2014. But this year, the strategy has hurt him.</p>
<p>Burnstine’s fund doesn’t own any shares of Netflix. Or Amazon, or Facebook, or Alphabet, Google’s parent company. He thinks they’re too expensive. But they’ve also been the driving force behind this year’s market gains. As a result, his fund is down 9.2 percent in 2015, versus a 1.3 percent return for an S&amp;P 500 index fund.</p>
<p>Burnstine asks that investors measure him by how he does over a three- to five-year period, which is about how long he plans to hold a stock when he buys it.</p>
<p>“It comes with the territory,” he says. “We don’t look like any of the benchmarks. Over the near term, if we’re in the wrong stocks that aren’t working now, that can hurt us. Any manager can have a good year or a bad year.”</p> | Seeing opportunity, stock-pickers narrow their portfolios | false | https://apnews.com/49f7fa7b7cf64c45a2aed9bb9245c90c | 2015-12-10 | 2 |
<p>The 2013 report from <a href="http://bnhr.org/" type="external">Border Network for Human Rights</a> (BNHR) lists about two dozen incidents involving questionable law enforcement actions, immigration matters and Latino residents who live in and around El Paso, Texas.</p>
<p>As in: A person identified as “J.F.” reported on Feb. 20, 2013 that a police officer stopped him for a minor traffic infraction – but asked to see his social security number, said he would arrest him if he did not exit his car and threatened to summon U.S. immigration agents to the scene. A person identified as “M.B.” said that in June 2012 sheriff deputies entered his house saying they had received a report of domestic abuse – though “M.B.” explained there was no such incident and he never consented to a search.</p>
<p>So, when Fernando Garcia, the BNHR executive director, and volunteers tallied the answers from the annual “Abuse Documentation Campaign” in December, they discovered something unexpected. For the first time since the extended interviews of residents began 13 years ago, no one filed a report alleging a civil rights or abuse violation involving the U.S. Border Patrol in the El Paso area.</p>
<p>“We were skeptics. We thought we weren’t reaching out to enough people. We extended the campaign by another week,” Garcia recalled.</p>
<p>“We set up documentation tables in public places, in schools, churches, community centers, parks and ports of entry.”</p>
<p>The answer remained the same. What worked?</p>
<p>For the past dozen years or so, Garcia, his staff and community volunteers conducted interviews with residents that lasted up to 45 minutes. Then, they discussed their findings in public and held forums and meetings to engage law enforcement officials to find solutions – or at least start a dialogue.</p>
<p>They also held seminars in Spanish to let El Paso-area residents know about their rights under the U.S. Constitution, especially regarding searches and seizures and what a law enforcement official can and cannot do.</p>
<p>“It was 13 years of organizing and educating,” Garcia said. “This doesn’t mean that abuses don’t happen. But it is a success.”</p>
<p>Equal Voice News contacted the Border Patrol for a comment regarding the BNHR report, their outreach efforts and years of community meetings. A federal spokeswoman in El Paso said that she would look into the matter.</p>
<p>Around 1999 and 2000, Latino residents living along the U.S.-Mexico border in this Texas city had a different view of Border Patrol agents, Garcia said. When Border Patrol trucks rolled by in neighborhoods, kids playing outside would scatter.</p>
<p>BNHR’s first report &#160;in 2000 found that out of 100 interviews – which had location and testimony – 70 percent of the respondents said they had some type of concern with the Border Patrol, including questions over possible racial profiling, unlawful searches and verbal abuse.</p>
<p>Garcia took the findings to the local news media and talked about “abusive” practices. That prompted a call from the Border Patrol and a request for a meeting.</p>
<p>“They were upset,” Garcia recalled. “They said, ‘Why didn’t you come to us first?'”</p>
<p>BNHR contacted the Border Patrol several times, Garcia said, but the efforts led nowhere.</p>
<p>“But we agreed back then to open direct communication channels with the Border Patrol and to do joint community forums and to talk about the &#160;rights of individuals and the authority of the Border Patrol,” he said.</p>
<p>In the El Paso area, the Border Patrol created a community relations officer position, who does not wear a uniform and is unarmed. That person started attending community forums to answer questions.</p>
<p>“We worked with them to have someone who was not threatening,” Garcia said.</p>
<p>BNHR also made and passed out literature outlining the Fourth and Fifth amendments – in English and Spanish – so that residents and law enforcement officials are both aware of unreasonable searches and seizures and due process of law, said Irma Cruz, a coordinator with the community group.</p>
<p>By 2006 and 2007 – years after the engagement began and pressure tactics were used – the BNHR annual interviews started showing fewer community concerns involving the Border Patrol. At one point, less than half of the respondents had issues with the Border Patrol, Garcia said.</p>
<p>By 2009 and 2010, complaints involving the federal agency dipped to 20 percent of the respondents. “We still had problems. Every year, we met with them and gave them the results. That was part of our commitment,” Garcia said.</p>
<p>But the “accountability mechanism,” as he pointed out, was in place and having community residents take on the role of “human rights promoters,” as well as attorneys and professors interested in the U.S.-Mexico border, took root.</p>
<p>“There were a lot of elements of mistrust at the beginning. When the Border Patrol realized that BNHR wasn’t a traditional organization, that this was a community organization with many members, who are part of the process, they realized they were dealing with a community,” Garcia said.</p>
<p>“I believe that was key.”</p>
<p>BNHR and community members also were willing to hold meetings with Border Patrol officials. In some places, Garcia said, Border Patrol officials only hear blame and complaints.</p>
<p>“Some organizations don’t want to engage with the Border Patrol. If you do, you’re selling out,” he said. “But one day, we don’t want to document any abuse.”</p>
<p>Cruz, a coordinator with BNHR, pointed to one lesson that she has learned by working on this annual project and raising awareness of El Paso residents.</p>
<p>“The Constitution is for everyone in this country,” she said. “We are not just protesting. We are giving solutions and finding answers to problems.”</p>
<p>___________</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Brad Wong</a>&#160;is assistant news editor for Equal Voice News.</p>
<p>2014 © Equal Voice for America’s Families Newspaper</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Border complaints</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Border Network for Human Rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Border Patrol news</a>, <a href="" type="internal">El Paso</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigrants</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigration violations</a>, <a href="" type="internal">U.S. Border Patrol</a></p> | In El Paso, Border Complaints Drop - Thanks to Organizing | true | http://equalvoiceforfamilies.org/in-el-paso-border-complaints-drop-thanks-to-organizing/ | 4 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>HONOLULU — Before a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu took off carrying a passenger whose inflight behavior prompted bomb-threat procedures and military fighter jets to escort the plane, passengers complained to American Airlines workers that the man was scaring them, a woman who was on the flight said Wednesday.</p>
<p>Anil Uskanli, 25, of Turkey, tried to get to the front of the plane during last week’s flight and crewmembers feared his laptop contained explosives, said a criminal complaint charging him with interfering with a flight crew.</p>
<p>Jaime Reznick, of Los Angeles, said when she arrived at the gate Friday morning Uskanli was pacing, laughing to himself and staring down passengers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He boarded the plane first even though he was assigned an economy seat.</p>
<p>“We’re all really worried about him being on the plane,” Reznick said she told an employee who let Uskanli board. “He’s a threat. He’s acting weird. He’s scaring us.”</p>
<p>None of the passengers interviewed by the AP after the flight landed in Honolulu Friday said they complained about being afraid of him before the plane took off.</p>
<p>American spokesman Ross Feinstein said the airline will look into Reznick’s allegations.</p>
<p>Reznick said she wrote to American Airlines Friday to complain that allowing Uskanli to fly put people in danger.</p>
<p>“We understand the situation may have caused you discomfort; and for that, we apologize,” the airline said in a response giving her 10,000 bonus miles.</p>
<p>Uskanli raised other red flags while still at Los Angeles International Airport, but experts say a lack of communication and an airline’s hesitancy to be caught on video booting a passenger played a role in allowing him to fly.</p>
<p>He had purchased a ticket at an airline counter in the middle of the night with no luggage and had been arrested after opening a door to a restricted airfield.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Because of the prior incident involving the restricted area and because he was determined to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, crewmembers took Uskanli to the plane in a wheelchair, the FBI complaint said.</p>
<p>He was not in a wheelchair at the gate, Reznick said.</p>
<p>FBI spokesman Arnold Laanui declined to comment on the discrepancy. “Police, media and eye witness accounts often conflict,” he said in an email. “This is not unusual, especially in the aftermath of chaotic, traumatic and/or frightening situations.”</p>
<p>A federal judge in Honolulu on Monday ordered that Uskanli undergo a mental competency evaluation after his federal public defender requested it.</p>
<p>Uskanli left Hawaii on a government flight for prisoners on Wednesday, a lawyer said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Airlines Writer David Koenig in Dallas and AP Writer Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report.</p> | Passenger: airline was warned about disruptive man at gate | false | https://abqjournal.com/1008236/passenger-airline-was-warned-about-disruptive-man-at-gate.html | 2017-05-24 | 2 |
<p>Qiam missile / Screenshot from YouTube</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Bill Gertz</a> May 12, 2016 4:58 am</p>
<p>Iran’s military recently publicized a third underground missile facility and showed the launch of a new ballistic missile through the top of a mountain.</p>
<p>U.S. intelligence agencies said in a recent internal report on the launch that the new underground missile facility was disclosed by Iran in March.</p>
<p>It was the third time since October that Tehran showed off an extensive network of underground missile facilities. The new video, however, for the first time shows a missile launch from one of the country’s underground launch facilities.</p>
<p />
<p>Disclosure of the new video comes as Iran this week conducted the third launch of a ballistic missile since January, when the nuclear deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons development went into effect.</p>
<p>Two missiles were launched in March, including one shown in the video, identified as a Qiam-1, or Uprising-1, that appears to be a smaller variant of Iran’s Shahab-3 missile.</p>
<p>Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Monday that he could not confirm the latest Iranian missile test but is aware of the reports.</p>
<p>The Pentagon is developing special precision-guided bombs and missiles designed to penetrate reinforced deep underground bunkers like Iran’s missile facilities.</p>
<p>"Iran has to abide by U.N. resolutions with regard to ballistic missiles tests, and if they have violated or not been consistent with those resolutions, that clearly would be a concern for us," he said.</p>
<p>Iran has produced three videos of its underground missile storage and launch facilities that are designed to highlight Tehran’s defiance of the United Nations resolution on the Iranian nuclear deal that calls for a halt to nuclear-related missile tests.</p>
<p>The latest video was disclosed March 9 by the Mehr New Agency, run by the hardline Islamic Propagation Office, which is in turn affiliated with the Qom seminary.</p>
<p>The missile test was the last stage of an exercise held by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps aerospace division that the report said was part of several missiles being fired from different parts of the country.</p>
<p>The video begins with grainy footage showing an underground tunnel where missiles are stored on either side.</p>
<p>The video then shifts to a concrete cavern where what appears to be a Qiam-1 ballistic missile is being set up beneath a launch tube in the ceiling of the cavern.</p>
<p>The video then shows a news announcer stating that on March 8 a Qiam missile was launched "from the depths of the earth."</p>
<p>The final scene shows a missile lifting off through the top of a mountain.</p>
<p>Rick Fisher, a military affairs analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said the latest missile video is disturbing.</p>
<p>"It is not likely that Iran simply figured out this method of launching liquid fueled missiles from tall caves with launch holes that reach the surface, that until launch are very well concealed from overhead surveillance," Fisher said.</p>
<p>"It is my suspicion that this launch method was pioneered by China and if that is the case, then we need to revise our estimates of the number of DF-4 and DF-5 ICBMs that China may be able to launch at the Untied States."</p>
<p>The concealed cave launchers allow states like Iran, China, and North Korea to hide large numbers of missiles for decades.</p>
<p>"This method of cave-launch may also be in use in North Korea, again allowing Pyongyang to conceal a significant number of missiles from overhead/space detection," Fisher said.</p>
<p>The Iranian missile propaganda campaign began in October when Iran disclosed a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/15/iran-reveals-huge-underground-missile-base-with-broadcast-on-state-tv" type="external">video</a> showing an extensive network of tunnels and troops with medium- and long-range surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.</p>
<p>The video was made public three days after Iran tested a new long-range missile that the United States said undermined a U.N resolution.</p>
<p>Then in January a second <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=foQu-s3yPls" type="external">video</a> was released by official Iranian media showing tunnels filled with road-mobile Shahab-3 ballistic missiles and new Emad precision-guided missiles.</p>
<p>The second tunnel video was released by the Tasnim news agency and state television.</p>
<p>Iranian state-run media quoted Brig Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace division, as saying in October the Iranians have numerous underground missile tunnels around the country that are some 1,500 feet below ground.</p>
<p>"The Islamic Republic’s long-range missile bases are stationed and ready under the high mountains in all the country’s provinces and cities," Hajizadeh said.</p>
<p>"This is a sample of our massive missile bases," he said, adding "a new and advanced generation of long-range liquid- and solid-fuel missiles" is slated to be deployed in 2016.</p>
<p>The January video included footage of Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani visiting the IRGC’s new underground "missile town" where Emad missiles have been deployed.</p>
<p>The locations of the missile tunnels were not disclosed.</p>
<p>IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami was quoted in the video reports as saying Iran has 14 underground missile depots located at depths of between 90 feet and 1,500 feet.</p>
<p>The underground facilities appear modeled after China’s underground missile facilities that were disclosed for the first time several years ago.</p>
<p>China has an estimated 3,000 miles of underground nuclear and missile facilities that has been dubbed the <a href="http://www.asianarmscontrol.com/ugwlong" type="external">Great Underground Wall</a>.</p> | Iran Shows Off Third Underground Missile Site | true | http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-shows-off-third-underground-missile-site/ | 2016-05-12 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>CONROE, Texas — Three children trapped on the second floor of a burning house died early Friday, despite the efforts of police officers to rescue them as flames engulfed the building near Houston. Six members of the same family were hurt, including three with serious injuries, authorities said.</p>
<p>Montgomery County sheriff’s Lt. Scott Spencer said the children’s bodies were found amid the debris of the home that collapsed during the fire. The blaze spread to adjacent properties, destroying at least one more home, Spencer said.</p>
<p>About 10 people lived at the house, including a woman and her brother, both with children, and their parents, Spencer said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Montgomery County Fire Marshal’s Office said the children who died were Terrance “TJ” Mitchell, 13; Kaila Mitchell, 6; and Kyle Mitchell, 5.</p>
<p>Their 10-year-old brother was rescued but injured. His condition hasn’t been released.</p>
<p>The children’s grandfather and uncle were listed in serious condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, while their grandmother was in good condition at Memorial Hermann-The Woodlands Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said. All suffered smoke inhalation and burns.</p>
<p>Three police officers also suffered smoke inhalation and lacerations.</p>
<p>Montgomery County Fire Marshal Jimmy Williams said two Shenandoah police officers were the first to arrive and helped members of the extended family escape. But Williams said the heat and flames prevented the officers from climbing a stairwell.</p>
<p>“They tried to reach the second floor but they were not able to reach the children,” he said.</p>
<p>The officers were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and other injuries. A third officer with another department also was hurt.</p>
<p>“They certainly risked their lives to do what they could,” Williams said.</p>
<p>Other members of the family were taken to hospitals with injuries, including a 10-year-old boy in critical condition with severe burns.</p>
<p>“My heart immediately sunk for the family,” neighbor Traniqa White told the Houston Chronicle. “I’ve known these kids since they were born. And my heart just aches for the mom.”</p>
<p>The fire began about 4 a.m. in a neighborhood of aging homes near Conroe, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Houston. Williams said it’s too early to know the cause.</p> | Texas house fire kills 3 children, injures 6 other people | false | https://abqjournal.com/1002554/3-children-die-3-relatives-badly-hurt-in-texas-house-fire.html | 2017-05-12 | 2 |
<p>The punchline: This is supposed to be a site that critiques the media. But what does NewsBusters do instead? It makes stuff up.</p>
<p>The idiocy <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/09/13/nyt-virtually-ignores-sept-12-dc-rally-gives-obama-mn-speech-nearly-top-" type="external">honors</a> go to Tom Blumer, who states as fact that Saturday's D.C. anti-Obama rally "drew an estimated 1-2 million people." Where did that (bogus) number come from? Blumer won't say. He never provides a link and never quotes a single law enforcement source to back up that claim. Of course, Blumer can't do that because the "1-2 million people" number is a flat-out lie. <a href="/blog/2009/09/12/weird-michelle-malkin-forgot-to-include-a-link/154508" type="external">It's pure right-wing fantasy</a>.</p>
<p>But that does not stop Blumer from delving into all kinds of (Wikipedia!) research to explain just where Saturday's rally stands in terms of the largest D.C. events while. Blumer does this, of course, while using concocted numbers to size-up the modest crowd.</p>
<p><a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/09/13/nyt-virtually-ignores-sept-12-dc-rally-gives-obama-mn-speech-nearly-top-" type="external">Behold</a> the NewsBusters wonder:</p>
<p>If even the low end of the D.C. rally estimate holds, it would be the largest-ever gathering in Washington not related to a presidential inauguration -- larger than the misnamed Million Man March (October 16, 1995; while others claimed almost a million were there, the National Park Service estimated 400,000), larger than Moratorium Day (November 15, 1969; Wikipedia says it had 500,000; other sources report lower numbers), and larger than the day of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech (August 28, 1963; 250,000).</p>
<p>If the high end of the estimate holds, it would be the largest gathering of any kind in Washington, exceeding the 1.8 million claimed to have attended Barack Obama's presidential inauguration.</p>
<p>Again, keep in mind the "1-2 million people" <a href="/blog/2009/09/12/updated-malkins-2-million-protester-claim-its-l/154515" type="external">is pure fiction</a>. It's a nifty-sounding number dreamt up by right-wingers. It has no basis in reality. But that doesn't stop NewsBusters from using bogus numbers to critique the "liberal media."</p> | NewsBusters clings to bogus claim of 2 million protesters; hilarity ensues | true | http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909140018 | 2009-09-14 | 4 |
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday evening's drawing of the Indiana Lottery's "Quick Draw Evening" game were:</p>
<p>06-09-12-15-17-26-28-36-43-44-50-52-58-62-63-64-67-69-70-72, BE: 12</p>
<p>(six, nine, twelve, fifteen, seventeen, twenty-six, twenty-eight, thirty-six, forty-three, forty-four, fifty, fifty-two, fifty-eight, sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four, sixty-seven, sixty-nine, seventy, seventy-two; BE: twelve)</p>
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday evening's drawing of the Indiana Lottery's "Quick Draw Evening" game were:</p>
<p>06-09-12-15-17-26-28-36-43-44-50-52-58-62-63-64-67-69-70-72, BE: 12</p>
<p>(six, nine, twelve, fifteen, seventeen, twenty-six, twenty-eight, thirty-six, forty-three, forty-four, fifty, fifty-two, fifty-eight, sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four, sixty-seven, sixty-nine, seventy, seventy-two; BE: twelve)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Quick Draw Evening' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e67a0b2007b9449785865bb26e4629f4 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>MOSCOW — The IOC is asking Russia to provide details of how anti-doping procedures were carried out over a five-year period as the Olympic body investigates the country’s drug scandals.</p>
<p>The IOC set up a disciplinary commission in July under former French Constitutional Court judge Guy Canivet to look into allegations that Russia covered up hundreds of doping cases, including at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.</p>
<p>Vitaly Smirnov, a former IOC member from Russia who runs a government-backed anti-doping commission, said he had received requests from the International Olympic Committee to provide records regarding Russian anti-doping procedures from 2010-15.</p>
<p>Smirnov said his commission has collected the information from Russian sports officials and government bodies, and plans to provide the details to the IOC this week.</p>
<p>“We received from the IOC disciplinary commission the letter in question, including serious questions regarding the organization of the anti-doping system,” Smirnov said. “We’ve received almost all the answers to these questions and this week we are sending our answer to the disciplinary commission.”</p>
<p>Smirnov, a former sports minister in Soviet times, said he did not believe there was any state backing for doping, a key accusation leveled by the World Anti-Doping Agency.</p>
<p>Smirnov was speaking as two outside experts appointed by WADA gave speeches to an audience of Russian sports officials on how to comply with anti-doping rules.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | IOC asks Russia for records of anti-doping procedures | false | https://abqjournal.com/874470/russia-says-ioc-asked-for-records-of-doping-history.html | 2016-10-25 | 2 |
<p>Brazilian politician Jair Bolsonaro, who has been compared to Donald Trump, just finished a visit to the United States that was cut short as he cancelled an appearance at George Washington University in Washington, DC. He is currently polling second in Brazil’s 2018 presidential race.</p>
<p>The cancellation was not surprising (there were some others in New York City). A&#160; <a href="" type="internal">letter</a>&#160;signed by dozens of academics argued that his appearance at the university “would be helping a racist, sexist, homophobic right ― wing extremist to achieve international recognition and solidify the political viability of his candidacy.” This was apparently the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">purpose</a>&#160;of his trip. But opposition and protests made it clear that he would have to answer questions at GWU that nobody who had said and advocated the things he has would want to answer.</p>
<p>Bolsonaro greatly upped his international notoriety when he cast his vote in April last year in favor of impeaching then president Dilma Rousseff. He announced that his vote was dedicated to Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, an army colonel who ran an infamous torture center under the dictatorship. Dilma herself was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">tortured</a>&#160;by Ustra’s unit.</p>
<p>His racist, misogynist, and anti-gay statements have been so violently over-the-top that the comparison to Trump ― whom Bolsonaro sees as a role model ― is almost unfair to Trump. He told a female fellow member of Congress that he would not rape her because she “did not merit it.” He wants police to be able to kill more people, in a country where extrajudicial executions by police ― especially of Afro-Brazilians ― are already a serious problem. He claims that the 1964–85 military dictatorship was not a dictatorship.</p>
<p>How does someone like this even have a chance at the presidency of Brazil?</p>
<p>Like Trump, his rise has had help from much of the Brazilian media; and like Trump, this is paradoxical because most of the big media outlets that have helped him don’t like him at all.</p>
<p>But his only hope at present is that the country’s politicized judiciary ― with help from the media ― may prevent the country’s most popular leader from running. Former president Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party (PT) is currently polling at 36 percent, with Bolsonaro a distant second at 16 percent. A judge who has repeatedly&#160; <a href="http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/brazilian-coup-threatens-democracy-and-national-sovereignty" type="external">demonstrated</a>&#160;his animosity toward Lula convicted him in July for allegedly accepting an apartment as a bribe from a big construction company. However, neither Lula nor his wife ever stayed in the apartment, nor did they sign any document indicating ownership. The evidence for the “bribe” came from an executive who had his sentence reduced from 16 to 2 years in exchange for his testimony.</p>
<p>There is one part of Bolsonaro’s dictatorship nostalgia that his opponents will have to deal with. In an interview with Bloomberg News last week, he&#160; <a href="" type="internal">said</a>&#160;that young Brazilians should “talk to their grandparents about how that period [of the dictatorship] was and how it is today.”</p>
<p>During the dictatorship (1964–85) the income of the average Brazilian more than doubled, with GDP per person&#160; <a href="http://www.rug.nl/ggdc/" type="external">growing</a>&#160;117 percent (3.8 percent annually on average). All of this growth was before 1980, when Brazil was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Despite terrible inequality, most Brazilians’ living standards rose very rapidly.</p>
<p>But growth collapsed in the 1980s. From the end of the dictatorship in 1985, to 2015, GDP per person has grown at only about 1.1 percent annually.</p>
<p>And the vast majority of this growth took place after 2003, when Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party became president. By 2012, poverty had been&#160; <a href="http://cepr.net/publications/reports/the-brazilian-economy-in-transition-macroeconomic-policy-labor-and-inequality" type="external">reduced</a>&#160;by 55 percent and extreme poverty by 65 percent. But the deep recession that began in 2015 ― from which the economy is finally just emerging ― reversed some of these gains. This allowed the deeply corrupt politicians of the Brazilian right to topple Dilma Rousseff in a “parliamentary coup.”</p>
<p>The lesson is not that Brazil needs a dictatorship, but rather that for democracy to take hold in Brazil, the next progressive government must advance farther from the failed neoliberal&#160; <a href="" type="internal">policies</a>that began in the 1980s and 1990s.</p>
<p>Brazil’s democracy was dealt a devastating blow when Dilma was impeached and removed from office for something that a federal prosecutor&#160; <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/the-world-in-transition/brazilian-prosecutor-finds-no-crime-committed-by-dilma-will-the-law-count-for-anything-in-brazil" type="external">concluded</a>&#160;was not even a crime. The sentencing of Lula made it even&#160; <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/brazils-most-popular-leader-has-been-convicted-of-corruption-on-flimsy-evidence/" type="external">clearer</a>&#160;that Brazil’s traditional corrupt elite was willing to throw the rule of law and electoral democracy under the bus in order to retake power from the Workers’ Party, which they had never accepted as a member of their club.</p>
<p>But can they get away with it? And are they willing to risk that part of the price may be the kind of international disgrace and humiliation that Americans have suffered under a Trump presidency?</p>
<p>This article originally appeared in <a href="" type="internal">US News &amp; World Reports</a>.</p> | The Brazilian Trump’s Visit to Washington Ends in Failure | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/10/24/the-brazilian-trumps-visit-to-washington-ends-in-failure/ | 2017-10-24 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Aaron Sandoval, a resident of north Durango, was being held Wednesday at the Robert E. DeNier Youth Services Center on suspicion of burglary and sexual assault, both felonies, according to a city of Durango news release.</p>
<p>An arrest warrant was served Tuesday afternoon at the juvenile detention center where Sandoval was being held on other charges, and his bond on the new charges was set at $250,000, according to The Herald.</p>
<p>Sandoval is accused of forcibly entering the Durango home of a 20-year-old woman on Aug. 14 and sexually assaulting her while armed with a screwdriver, The Herald said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The woman told police she had been sleeping but awoke to find Sandoval straddling her in her bed, the paper reported.</p>
<p>Police believe Sandoval is also responsible for several incidents involving peeping through windows and tampering with window screens in the same general vicinity as the August attack, The Herald said.</p> | Teen Arrested in Durango Sex Assault | false | https://abqjournal.com/146419/teen-arrested-in-durango-sex-assault.html | 2 |
|
<p>MADISON (NJ)The New York TimesBy DANIEL J. WAKINPublished: December 2, 2003</p>
<p>ADISON, N.J., Nov. 30 — Theresa Mulvoy keeps track of sheet music, takes attendance and gives a vocal boost as a volunteer for the children's choir at St. Vincent Martyr Church here.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Soon she will also give her fingerprints.</p>
<p>Mrs. Mulvoy is one of thousands of volunteers and members of the staff and clergy in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson who are expected to undergo criminal background checks in the coming months. The scrutiny is part of efforts by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to repair the damage from the clerical sexual abuse scandal and to reassure members that children are safe in the hands of the church.</p>
<p>Dioceses around the country are at various stages of investigating their volunteers and employees, and many have been doing so to some degree for years. But the efforts have grown more focused as auditors hired by the bishop's conference are due to report in January on compliance with new church guidelines.</p> | To Volunteer at Church, First Be Fingerprinted | false | https://poynter.org/news/volunteer-church-first-be-fingerprinted | 2003-12-02 | 2 |
<p>NASA says it's not helping GM with the technical issues surrounding an ignition switch defect that has sparked the recall of 2.6 million vehicles — but it stands ready to assist other federal agencies with their investigations.</p>
<p>The switch defect can cause the engine to turn off unexpectedly, and that's been linked to dozens of crashes and at least 13 deaths. The issue has been the focus of an investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, <a href="" type="internal">stormy congressional hearings</a>, <a href="" type="internal">lawsuits and a Justice Department probe</a>.</p>
<p>NASA's engineering expertise can come in handy for such investigations. In 2011, at the behest of the NHTSA, the NASA Engineering and Safety Center <a href="" type="internal">issued a report</a> concluding that faulty electronics were not to blame for the unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">NASA could take on a similar role in the GM case</a>: A source at GM who is familiar with the recall investigation told NBC News correspondent Gabe Gutierrez that the details of any cooperation with NASA were "being worked out." The source said there were plans for GM officials to meet with NASA next week but provided no further details.</p>
<p>For now, "NASA is not working with GM on its ignition switch issue," agency spokesman Chris Rink told NBC News.</p>
<p>Another NASA representative, Bob Jacobs, explained that it would be difficult for the space agency to assist GM directly. "That would require considerable interagency coordination, just because of the existing investigations," Jacobs told NBC.</p>
<p>It's more likely that NASA would respond to a request for help from the NHTSA. "If the investigating agencies asked for assistance, we would provide help as we have in past instances," Jacobs said.</p>
<p>NHTSA spokeswoman Kathyrn Henry said that "it's logical" to ask NASA for technical help if it's needed, but that the investigation was still in its early stages. "We're in the process of receiving the requested documents from GM," she told NBC News.</p>
<p>NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez contributed to this report.</p> | NASA Needs Federal OK to Study GM Ignition Flaw | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/gm-recall/nasa-needs-federal-ok-study-gm-ignition-flaw-n78196 | 2014-04-11 | 3 |
<p>By Common Dreams staff / <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/05/12/nothing-further-add-spicer-shuts-down-questions-trumps-tapes-tweet" type="external">Common Dreams</a></p>
<p>White House press secretary Sean Spicer at Friday afternoon’s press briefing. (Screen shot via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWOhtKffItY" type="external">YouTube</a>)</p>
<p>White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer refused multiple times during the daily press briefing to clarify President Donald Trump’s Friday morning tweets, saying he had “nothing further to add” when asked about Trump’s <a href="" type="internal">cryptic warning</a> to former FBI director James Comey.</p>
<p />
<p>Watch:</p>
<p>Spicer likewise demurred when asked if there are “recording devices in the Oval Office,” and later said he was “not aware” of audio recordings of the January 27th dinner between Trump and Comey.</p>
<p>Regarding White House audio recordings of the January 27th Trump/Comey dinner. Press Sec. Sean Spicer tells me, “I’m not aware of that.”</p>
<p>— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) <a href="https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/863098265390153732" type="external">May 12, 2017</a></p>
<p>Spicer does not answer if the White House, or Trump, is taping conversations in the Oval Office.</p>
<p>— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/863091215134228480" type="external">May 12, 2017</a></p>
<p>Sean Spicer has given some firm denials in this press briefing. In questions about whether Trump tapes conversations, he didn’t deny.</p>
<p>— Matt Viser (@mviser) <a href="https://twitter.com/mviser/status/863090616389038082" type="external">May 12, 2017</a></p>
<p>The press secretary also claimed <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473" type="external">Trump’s “tapes” tweet</a>—which has raised abundant questions—”speaks for itself.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, when probed on whether Trump really wanted to cancel the White House press briefings ( <a href="" type="internal">another threat he tweeted</a> Friday morning), Spicer said the president was “dismayed” at how the media “parses every little word and make it more of a game of gotcha.”</p>
<p>WH spokesman complains that “every word is picked apart” by the press covering him.</p>
<p>Yep. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/thatshowitworks?src=hash" type="external">#thatshowitworks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wordsmatter?src=hash" type="external">#wordsmatter</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/journalism101?src=hash" type="external">#journalism101</a></p>
<p>— Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) <a href="https://twitter.com/DefenseBaron/status/863094834818555904" type="external">May 12, 2017</a></p>
<p>Trump might cancel daily briefing because he’s ‘dismayed’ that the press ‘parses every little word’ — and no, I didn’t just make this up.</p>
<p>— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) <a href="https://twitter.com/GlennThrush/status/863089927478812673" type="external">May 12, 2017</a></p> | Spicer Shuts Down Questions on Trump Tweet During Friday Press Briefing | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/spicer-shuts-down-questions-on-trump-tweet-during-friday-press-briefing/ | 2017-05-12 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Ja-hmariay McDavid, 19 (Roswell Police)</p>
<p />
<p>Roswell Police Spokesman Todd Wildermuth said 19-year-old Ja-hmariay McDavid turned himself in hours after shooting Milton Hopkins, 37, to death. McDavid is charged with voluntary manslaughter.</p>
<p>He said the shooting happened, around 11:50 a.m., at a home in the 200 block of West Matthews. Hopkins was taken to the hospital where he died.</p>
<p>“The domestic dispute that ended in the shooting involved relatives and boyfriend and girlfriends,” Wildermuth said.</p>
<p>He said responding officers got the name and description of McDavid but could not find him.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It wasn’t until the late afternoon that McDavid showed up to the Roswell Police Department accompanied by family, Wildermuth said.</p>
<p>He said McDavid was questioned before being booked into Chaves County Detention Center. McDavid is currently being held without bond.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Roswell man shot dead during fight, police say | false | https://abqjournal.com/1115626/roswell-man-shoots-another-dead-during-fight-police-say.html | 2 |
|
<p>About 40 people were detained in Moscow on Sunday when Russian Orthodox Church activists threw water and shouted prayers at gay-rights demonstrators at two separate rallies.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/27/us-russia-protest-detentions-idUSBRE84Q07I20120527" type="external">According to Reuters</a>, some Orthodox activists attempted to punch protesters, grabbing their rainbow flags and stomping on them in front of TV cameras. The protests took place outside city hall and parliament, and neither was sanctioned by Moscow authorities.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/120329/russian-bill-would-fine-gay-propaganda" type="external">Russian bill would fine 'gay propaganda'</a></p>
<p>Prominent gay-rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev is said to be among&#160;those arrested near city hall, <a href="http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120527/173701495.html" type="external">reported Russia's RIA Novosti</a>.</p>
<p>Demonstrators were said to be protesting the lack of a gay pride parade in the Russian capital and a bill that would ban "homosexual propaganda,"&#160; <a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/150-detained-at-anti-kremlin-rallies/459315.html" type="external">according to The Moscow Times</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/05/27/Moscow-police-arrest-40-at-gay-rally/UPI-80461338135934/" type="external">UPI also reported</a> the rallies was held to observe the anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia in 1993.</p>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/27/world/europe/russia-rally-arrests/index.html?hpt=hp_t2" type="external">According to CNN</a>,&#160;similar demonstrations have been held in previous years, but generally haven't involved the police.</p>
<p>Activists have been petitioning the government for a pride parade in Moscow for years, but have always been denied, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/moscow-police-detain-40-as-gay-activists-demand-right-to-hold-parade-face-christian-protest/2012/05/27/gJQArvQFuU_story.html" type="external">reported the Associated Press</a>. Former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov has described gay pride parades as "satanic" and current mayor Sergei Sobyanin doesn't approve because he sees gatherings for gay rights as offensive to the religious beliefs of many Russians.</p> | Moscow: 40 gay-rights, Orthodox Church activists arrested during protests | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-27/moscow-40-gay-rights-orthodox-church-activists-arrested-during-protests | 2012-05-27 | 3 |
<p>Aug. 4 (UPI) — Veteran wide receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Anquan_Boldin/" type="external">Anquan Boldin</a> has yet to sign with a new team this preseason, but the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Buffalo-Bills/" type="external">Buffalo Bills</a> have the best odds of locking him up.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.betonline.ag/sportsbook" type="external">BetOnline.ag compiled the odds</a> for which teams are the favorites to sign Boldin. The Bills are +130 to sign the three-time Pro Bowler. The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tampa-Bay-Buccaneers/" type="external">Tampa Bay Buccaneers</a> have +800 odds to sign the veteran wide receiver.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carolina_Panthers/" type="external">Carolina Panthers</a> (+1400), <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Atlanta-Falcons/" type="external">Atlanta Falcons</a> (+1800), <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Miami-Dolphins/" type="external">Miami Dolphins</a> (+2000), <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jacksonville-Jaguars/" type="external">Jacksonville Jaguars</a> (+2000), and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tennessee-Titans/" type="external">Tennessee Titans</a> (+2000) round out the top five favorite franchises to sign Boldin.</p>
<p>Boldin has the best chance to sign with the field (+175).</p>
<p>BetOnline.ag also gave the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_England_Patriots/" type="external">New England Patriots</a> 11-4 odds to repeat as Super Bowl champions. The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Jets/" type="external">New York Jets</a> have 500-1 odds to win the Super Bowl, the worst odds in the NFL. The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Seattle-Seahawks/" type="external">Seattle Seahawks</a> (17-2), <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Green_Bay_Packers/" type="external">Green Bay Packers</a> (9-1), <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dallas-Cowboys/" type="external">Dallas Cowboys</a> (9-1) and Atlanta Falcons (10-1) follow the Patriots as favorites to win the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Vince_Lombardi/" type="external">Vince Lombardi</a> trophy.</p>
<p>Boldin, 36, was a second round pick by the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Arizona-Cardinals/" type="external">Arizona Cardinals</a> in the 2003 NFL Draft. He played his first seven years in the desert before joining the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Baltimore-Ravens/" type="external">Baltimore Ravens</a> in 2010. He played for the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/San-Francisco-49ers/" type="external">San Francisco 49ers</a> from 2013 to 2015, before joining the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Detroit-Lions/" type="external">Detroit Lions</a> last season. Boldin had 584 yards and eight touchdowns in 16 games in 2016.</p>
<p>Boldin visited the Bills in July. He turns 37-years-old in October. <a href="https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NFL/2017/07/21/Anquan-Boldin-visiting-Buffalo-Bills-Monday/3611500664829/" type="external">Initial reports suggested</a> that Boldin wanted to stay close to home in Florida when he signed with a new franchise.</p> | Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers best bet to sign Anquan Boldin | false | https://newsline.com/buffalo-bills-tampa-bay-buccaneers-best-bet-to-sign-anquan-boldin/ | 2017-08-04 | 1 |
<p>While 2017 was a great year for stocks in general, a handful of healthcare companies produced truly spectacular results for their investors. Three companies in particular -- Pieris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PIRS), Sangamo Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SGMO), Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MDGL) -- all gained at least 400% during the year.</p>
<p>So what drove the gains, and could there be more upside ahead?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Pieris Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharma that is focused on anemia, immuno-oncology, and respiratory diseases. Investors can thank a series of positive announcements for the massive jump in 2017, including:</p>
<p>What's more, this wasn't the first time that Pieris succeeded at getting a big pharma company to take notice. Pieris had previously struck collaboration deals with industry giants like Allergan, Sanofi, Roche, and Daiichi Sankyo.</p>
<p>Given the vote of confidence from the big boys and clinical success, it isn't hard to figure out why shareholders had a great year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The new gene-editing technique known as CRISPR is getting <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/13/this-technology-could-make-you-rich-and-change-the.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">a lot of attention Opens a New Window.</a> from investors these days (and for good reason), but CRISPR isn't the only game in town. Sangamo has been working on a gene-editing technology called zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) for years and is <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/30/heres-why-sangamo-therapeutics-rose-as-much-as-149.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">much further along Opens a New Window.</a> with the development process than those who focus exclusively on CRISPR. The company boasts a number of products that are already in the clinic, including potential treatments for mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS), beta thalassemia, hemophilia, and HIV.</p>
<p>Sangamo's stock went parabolic in 2017 thanks to a handful of positive updates, the most important of which was the signing of an important deal with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). The pharma giant agreed to pay $70 million up front to get their hands on SB-525, which is Sangamo's hemophilia drug candidate. Pfizer clearly sees a lot of potential for the product candidate, which makes sense since it has already earned fast-track designation from the Food and Drug Administration. SB-525 is currently being used in a phase 1/2 study, and if all goes well, then a phase 3 program could be right around the corner.</p>
<p>In early 2018, Pfizer doubled down on its partnership by announcing that the two companies would be teaming up to find a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The deal netted Sangamo an additional $12 million in up-front payments.</p>
<p>Pfizer's willingness to throw money at Sangamo twice should speak volumes about the company's technology and long-term potential.</p>
<p>Madrigal's shareholders can thank a pair of positive clinical updates for its monster run in 2017.</p>
<p>The good times got started in September. Investors learned that an independent data safety-monitoring board recommended that the company's phase 2 study involving its drug MGL-3196 as a treatment for heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) should move forward. Since the NASH market is projected to <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/24/better-buy-gilead-sciences-inc-vs-amgen.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">be huge Opens a New Window.</a>, investor enthusiasm from the news seemed warranted.</p>
<p>However, Madrigal's shares really took off in early December after investors got a l <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/12/06/why-madrigal-pharmaceuticals-stock-is-on-fire-toda.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ook at the data Opens a New Window.</a> from the study. The phase 2 trial showed that using MGL-3196 met the study's primary endpoint and showed a range of improvements when compared to a placebo. Madrigal's shares nearly doubled on the day the news was released.</p>
<p>There are no currently approved NASH treatments on the market, so if MGL-3196 is the real deal, then Madrigal's investors could be in for a financial windfall.</p>
<p>I'm a believer that winners tend to keep on winning, so I don't think it is a bad idea for risk-loving investors to take a small position in all three of these speculative stocks right now. However, I must admit that Pieris Pharmaceuticals is the most intriguing one to me. The company has already managed to extract up-front payments from an impressive pool of partners, which is something that <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/29/1-great-biotech-stock-you-have-never-heard-of.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">I like to see Opens a New Window.</a> when I'm considering a small-cap biotech stock. What's more, even after the big run, Pieris' market cap is only about $300 million, so there could be plenty of upsides left if any of its early-stage compounds work out.</p>
<p>Having said that, all three of these companies are still in the early stages of product development, so there is still a ton of risk on the table. For that reason, I won't be committing any capital to them right now, but I do plan to follow their progress with great interest.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Sangamo TherapeuticsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=fbdb3d69-4159-4cf0-9373-2a443c81ba32&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Sangamo Therapeutics wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=fbdb3d69-4159-4cf0-9373-2a443c81ba32&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 2, 2018</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=101eb4b0-efd9-11e7-b07f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Scorching-Hot Healthcare Stocks -- Are They Buys? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/13/3-scorching-hot-healthcare-stocks-are-buys.html | 2018-01-06 | 0 |
<p />
<p>In a move that will surely break outgoing President Obam's heart, Republican Sen. Rand Paul is ready with his bill aimed at replacing the contentious Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.</p>
<p />
<p>The senator from Kentucky gave a teaser via a photo he tweeted of the bill titled Obamacare Replacement Act and promised to reveal more details later this Sunday.</p>
<p />
<p>Paul tweeted the message: "Coming this week: The Obamacare Replacement bill. Done drafting the bill." The senator also promised to give media interviews to discuss the replacement bill.</p>
<p />
<p>Republican lawmakers have made repealing and replacing the signature Obama health care program the first order of business in the 115th Congress. GOP legislators have tried for years to come up with a plan to replace Obamacare, but no plan has been released publicly. This is the best time and chance yet for the replacement bill to finally get going, since Republicans now hold majorities in both the House and the Senate, and with a Republican President set to take over the White House. Repealing the Obamacare was a campaign promise of President-elect Donald Trump who's set to be inaugurated five days from now.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump has also actively sought to have the ObamaCare law replaced quickly, echoing Paul's sentiments.</p>
<p />
<p>The House on Friday took the first decisive move toward repealing the ObamaCare with a vote along party lines to approve a budget resolution that will pave the way for the law to wind down. Paul voted against the budget resolution, though, arguing that it didn't balance.</p>
<p />
<p>Speaker Paul Ryan has announced that Republicans will work on a strategy to replace ObamaCare at a joint House-Senate GOP retreat the week following Trump's Inauguration on January 20.</p>
<p />
<p>Obama has fervently appealed for the incoming administration to retain his signature law, at one point even suggesting that Trump could simply rename the law Trump Care from ObamaCare. The Republicans knew better and did not succumb to Obama's bait.</p> | ObamaCare Replacement Bill All Ready Says Senator Rand Paul | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/1049-ObamaCare-Replacement-Bill-All-Ready-Says-Senator-Rand-Paul | 2017-01-15 | 0 |
<p>Banks, lenders and other financial companies declined after Federal Reserve minutes hinted that the central bank may not boost interest rates again in 2017 after all. The Strategic and Policy Forum advisory council of chief executives led by Blackstone Chief Executive Steven Schwarzman disbanded in reaction to President Donald Trump's apparent tolerance of white supremacist protesters in Charlottesville, Va. "Racism, intolerance and violence are always wrong," added Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase and a member of the council, in a memo to staff. "There is no room for equivocation here: the evil on display by these perpetrators of hate should be condemned and has no place in a country that draws strength from our diversity and humanity." Electronic-trading firm DRW Holdings agreed to buy high-frequency trader RGM Advisors, the latest sign of how the long period of low volatility is putting pressure on algorithmic trading approaches.</p>
<p>-Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 16, 2017 16:46 ET (20:46 GMT)</p> | Financials Stocks Down After Fed Minutes - Financials Roundup | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/16/financials-stocks-down-after-fed-minutes-financials-roundup.html | 2017-08-16 | 0 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-196864433/stock-photo-soldier-fun-and-funny-child-dressed-in-military-cap-playing-war-games.html?src=tluCcwtwyTenAqLE4TXjrg-1-12"&gt;Fernando Cortes&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock</p>
<p />
<p>Iowa Republican National Committee member Tamara Scott has a special theory about the <a href="" type="internal">flood of child migrants</a> entering the United States: What if they’re secretly ninjas?</p>
<p>Republican congressmen have previously argued that the 70,000 youths who will come across the border in 2014 are being brought over to <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/louie-gohmert-obama-lets-immigrants-into-u-s-so-theyll-vote-democrat/" type="external">bolster</a> Democratic voter rolls at some point in the distant future, or that they are carrying a deadly disease that <a href="" type="internal">does not actually exist</a> in their home countries. Scott, in a Thursday radio segment flagged by <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gop-committeewoman-warns-child-migrants-highly-trained-warriors-who-will-rise-against-us-ame" type="external">Right Wing Watch</a>, sought to outdo them all:</p>
<p>For us just to open our borders it’s chaos we don’t know orderly who’s coming in, who’s not. When we see these kids, you and I think young kids, we think maybe 12-year-olds, maybe even…middle-schoolers. But we know back in our revolution, we had 12-year-olds fighting in our revolution. And for many of these kids, depending on where they’re coming from, they could be coming from other countries and be highly trained as warriors who will meet up with their group here and actually rise up against us as Americans. We have no idea what’s coming through our borders, but I would say biblically it’s not a Christian nation when you entice people to do wrong.</p>
<p>This is a terrible idea for a Red Dawn sequel.</p>
<p /> | Iowa GOP Official Warns That Child Migrants Might Be Highly Trained “Warriors” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/iowa-gop-official-child-migrants-secret-warriors/ | 2014-08-22 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>From 7 p.m. Monday until&#160; to 10 a.m. this morning, Santa Fe police responded to 14 weather-related fender benders in the city limits, police reported.&#160; No major injuries reported. The busiest times for crashes seemed to be around 9:30 am and 7 am today.</p>
<p>Santa Fe Public Schools have been canceled on Tuesday due to weather.</p>
<p>Rio Rancho Public Schools and APS East Mountain Schools are on a two-hour delay. All other APS schools are running on regular schedule.</p>
<p>For a full list of delays and closures, visit KOAT's <a href="http://www.koat.com/weather/closings" type="external">closings page.</a></p>
<p>People make their way along Vista Grande in Eldorado, Tuesday February 4, 2014. The area got around 4 inches of snow Tuesday morning. Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Santa Fe schools closed; Rio Rancho, East Mountain schools on 2-hour delay | false | https://abqjournal.com/347595/rio-rancho-east-mountain-schools-on-2-hour-delay.html | 2014-02-04 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Saigon 2 owner Vicky Truong holds a plate of Tamarind Jumbo Prawns at her Rio Rancho restaurant. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>The egg roll: a cylinder of cabbage and meat wrapped up in dough and deep-fried. Sometimes a menu might say, "spring roll," but they're all the same at Asian restaurants, and barely passable at best, right? Not so fast - at least not when it comes to a proper Vietnamese spring roll, wrapped in rice paper rather than wonton skin.</p>
<p>You'll find none better than at Saigon 2 Vietnamese Restaurant in Rio Rancho. The original Saigon (still open on San Mateo) under owner Vicky Truong's direction was already a contender for the best in the city.</p>
<p>The second location in 2011 means no long drives from anywhere in town for crackling hot spring rolls that will leave you grinning and iced coffee that will get your heart racing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>After ordering those Egg Rolls ($7.75 for six), try one as-is to appreciate the texture and flavor. Then, wrap the next roll up in the included cilantro and lettuce, making an amazing combination of cool and hot, herbal and vegetal. You might never eat spring rolls "plain" again.</p>
<p>Other notable appetizers include a pair of Roasted Quail ($7.75), a heavily seasoned feast of dark meat in yin-yang balance between hearty and delicate, or Tamarind Mussels ($9.75), sweet-tart sauce flanked by grilled white onions.</p>
<p>With can't-miss appetizers already filling up one's belly, it's easy to see that Saigon 2 is a good place to take a crowd, ordering willy-nilly and enjoying the spoils that will spread across the table. Everyone can enjoy a few sips of any of the five kinds of beef Pho ($7.95), whether augmented by meatballs or rare beef or tendon, or all three.</p>
<p>For the apex of rice noodle perfection, however, there must be Bun. Bun is the term for rice noodles, typically steamed and served "naked" in a bowl with various toppings. It's a cool rice bowl in noodle form, but oh so much more.</p>
<p>The best topping is No. 29, Grilled Onion Beef ($7.95). Thin strips of beef are wrapped around tender onions, everything cooked together until meltingly tender. The noodle bowl is topped with fresh herbs and chopped peanuts; all you need to do is chop and mix it together with the sauce of your choice and dig in.</p>
<p>Honestly, months could be spent on this delight of a menu, finding your favorites and enjoying even those that don't make the top tier. Special Rice Plate No. 79 ($8.95) is a plainly-named foodie find with lemongrass chicken, fried prawns, and an astonishingly simple fried rice that completes the plate.</p>
<p>Fish dishes abound, like the fancy whole Steamed Bass with Black Bean Sauce ($19.95). Take your time to savor each morsel from top to bottom.</p>
<p>Great food pairs well with Vietnamese Iced Coffee ($2.95), or a tart Fresh Lemonade ($2.95). What goes with everything, however, is Vicky's charisma and insistence on calling everyone who steps through her doors "honey." Vicky, you're the sweetest. Keep at it.</p>
<p /> | The perfect spring roll: Find it at Saigon 2 in Rio Rancho, and pho and noodle bowls, too | false | https://abqjournal.com/645854/spring-roll.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The move comes after prosecutors grilled Park for 14 hours last week over suspicions that she colluded with a jailed confidante to extort from companies and committed other wrongdoing when she was in office.</p>
<p>The Seoul prosecutors’ office said in a statement that it asked a local court to issue an arrest warrant for Park. The Seoul Central District Court said it would hold a hearing Thursday to decide on the prosecutors’ request.</p>
<p>The court is expected to ask Park to attend the hearing, and its decision on her fate will likely come by Friday, according to court officials.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>An arrest is the next step before Park can be formally charged with crimes such as extortion, bribery and abuse of power. A bribery conviction alone is punishable by up to life in prison.</p>
<p>Park has denied any legal wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Even if the court dismisses the request, prosecutors can still indict and charge her. Prosecutors said Park’s alleged crimes were “grave,” and that she should also be arrested because her alleged accomplice, confidante Choi Soon-sil, and other suspects in the scandal have been arrested.</p>
<p>Political analysts have said that arresting Park would also boost tensions and create a backlash from her conservative supporters ahead of an election in May to choose her successor.</p>
<p>While in office, Park had presidential immunity from prosecution and had refused to meet with prosecutors.</p>
<p>Prosecutors accuse Park of conspiring with Choi and a top presidential adviser to pressure 16 business groups, including Samsung, to donate 77.4 billion won ($69 million) to two nonprofits that Choi controlled and allegedly used for personal profit. The companies told investigators that they couldn’t refuse because they feared business disadvantages such as government tax investigations.</p>
<p>Prosecutors believe the money Samsung gave Choi could qualify as bribes provided to Park. Prosecutors also accuse Park of conspiring with Choi and top officials to blacklist artists critical of her policies and deny them state financial support.</p>
<p>Park has apologized for putting trust in Choi, but said she only let her edit some of her presidential speeches and provide the president with some “public relations” help.</p>
<p>The opposition-controlled parliament in December impeached Park over the allegations and suspended her presidential powers and responsibilities before the Constitutional Court ruled on March 10 to dismiss her as president.</p>
<p>The allegations plunged the country into political turmoil, with both Park’s opponents and supporters staging massive street rallies. Three of her supporters, mostly elderly conservative citizens, died during clashes with the police after the March 10 court ruling.</p>
<p>Park, South Korea’s first female president, is a daughter of late dictator Park Chung-hee, one of the most divisive figures in the country’s history. Conservative supporters revere him as a hero who lifted a war-torn nation from poverty, while liberal critics remember him as a horrible human rights abuser who tortured and imprisoned his political rivals.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.</p> | South Korean prosecutors push to arrest ousted president | false | https://abqjournal.com/976564/south-korean-prosecutors-push-to-arrest-ousted-president.html | 2017-03-27 | 2 |
<p>Oksana Aslanova Image Source: <a href="http://conservativepapers.com/news/2013/12/29/muslim-suicide-bomber-kills-16-in-volgograd-russia/#.UsExC_RDtZ9" type="external">Conservative Papers</a></p>
<p>How many times must we sit idly and listen to the rhetoric spewed by world governments that seek to protect Islam?</p>
<p>For those who may have missed the story over the weekend, at least 17 people are now confirmed dead from a suicide bomber in Volgograd (Southern Russia, formerly known as Stalingrad). <a href="http://www.rt.com/news/volgograd-blast-victims-russia-937/" type="external">RT.com</a> reports:</p>
<p>“According to verified information, the explosion at the railway station in Volgograd has claimed 16 lives,”Russia’s Investigative Committee said. However later Interfax news agency reported that the death toll has risen to 17, after one victim who was in critical condition died overnight.</p>
<p>At least 44 people were injured, 38 of whom were hospitalized, including a nine-year-old girl. The child has been taken to a local hospital and is expected to be flown to Moscow soon.</p>
<p>The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism, the committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="http://rt.com/news/explosion-russia-video-volgograd-941/" type="external">blast</a>&#160;took place at 12.45 local time inside the building of the railway. It is “thought to have been carried out by a female suicide bomber,” according to the anti-terrorism committee’s statement.</p>
<p>Since the time when the original suspect was identified there has been a development. She was identified by her severed head, ironically enough. Now there has been the discovery of <a href="http://www.rt.com/news/volgograd-blast-victims-russia-937/" type="external">a severed finger which is believed to be from a male co-conspirator</a>:</p>
<p>The female was initially identified as Oksana Aslanova, a close friend of Naida Asiyalova – also known as ‘Amaturahman’ – who was behind the October Volgograd attack. Aslanova is said to have been married twice to two militants, both eliminated earlier.</p>
<p>A few hours later, more evidence emerged suggesting that a man could have also been involved in the attack. The version, which was also picked up by investigators, came after a male finger with a pin from a grenade was found at the scene.</p>
<p>No information seems to be available for the potential identity of the male but we know a couple of things about&#160;Oksana Aslanova. She is a muslim convert who was not once but twice widowed by militant jihadists. Let’s get a bit of background on her friend&#160;Naida Asiyalova and the subculture that they were both seemingly products of. <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/1229/Suicide-bomber-strikes-Russia.-Another-black-widow" type="external">Christian Science Monitor</a> reports:</p>
<p>A similar bombing barely two months ago, which demolished a Volgograd city bus and killed six people, was revealed to be the work of a female suicide bomber from Russia’s insurgency-wracked southern province of Dagestan. Such women have been dubbed “black widows” because they often turn out to be family members of Islamist rebels killed by Russian security forces, recruited to stage revenge attacks on “soft” Russian targets.</p>
<p>If the suicide bomber turns out to be this woman from Dagestan then there is no doubt that she came from a breeding ground for terrorism and that she had a plausible motive.</p>
<p>Here is a video of the explosion:</p>
<p>Here is a video of the aftermath:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>More details are sure to follow. Was the third time the charm for Aslanova? Was the male finger found attached to the grenade pin a third husband?</p>
<p>Any time I find myself writing about Islamic terrorism I find myself just a little more nauseous than before.</p>
<p>I am sure I speak for many when I say that I grow weary of reporting these stories. I am sure that you are sick of reading these stories as well. But, until people and world governments wake up, we have to keep throwing the truth out there.</p>
<p>Oksana Aslanova was a beautiful young woman at one time. Now she is just another <a href="" type="internal">Rolling Stone cover</a> waiting to happen.</p>
<p>Wake up people.</p>
<p>This is not the “Religion of Peace.”</p>
<p>Update: <a href="" type="internal">A 2nd Attack happened less than 24 hours later when a bus was hit by a suicide bomber, killing another 14 people.</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | No Surprise: Alleged Russian Suicide Bomber Another Muslim Convert | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2013/12/30/surprise-alleged-russian-suicide-bomber-another-muslim-convert/ | 2013-12-30 | 0 |
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put the best face possible on NATO's decision on Thursday to take over enforcing the Libya no-fly zone but its failure to take full responsibility for protecting civilians.</p>
<p>Speaking after the compromise decision reached by the 28 members of the Western security alliance, Clinton said military planners had been authorized to take on the "broader civilian protection mission" and NATO was well suited to do so.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>NATO countries agreed to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya to protect civilians against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces, but fell short of taking full command of all military operations in the oil-exporting North African state.</p>
<p>Speaking at the State Department, Clinton said Gaddafi's forces had been pushed back, a humanitarian disaster had been averted in Benghazi, the rebels' stronghold, and that Gaddafi's air force and air defenses were now largely ineffective.</p>
<p>While acknowledging the United States' primacy in the early days of the military operation, Clinton said there had been a significant drop in the number of U.S. aircraft flying missions as those of other nations increased.</p>
<p>"Today we are taking the next step. We have agreed, along with our NATO allies, to transition command and control for the no-fly zone to NATO," she said.</p>
<p>"All 28 allies have also now authorized military authorities to develop an operations plan for NATO to take on the broader civilian protection mission," she added. "NATO is well-suited to coordinating this international effort."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Clinton: Qaddafi Troops Pushed Back, Remain Threat | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/03/24/clinton-qaddafi-troops-pushed-remain-threat.html | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
<p>On Thursday, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/admin-revokes-blocked-program-to-protect-immigrant-parents/2017/06/15/48058556-523c-11e7-b74e-0d2785d3083d_story.html?utm_term=.8ab0e5caef99" type="external">Department of Homeland Security</a> announced its official revocation of President Obama’s executive amnesty for illegal immigrant parents. According to the Associated Press:</p>
<p>Homeland Security [Secretary] John Kelly formally revoked a policy memo that created the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program. The revocation came on the fifth anniversary of another effort that has protected hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.</p>
<p>In reality, Obama’s DAPA program never took effect; a federal judge stayed it, pointing out that Obama had exceeded his authority. It’s unclear whether Trump will actually begin deporting more illegal immigrant parents, especially since the Trump administration has continued to fight back against deportation of the so-called DREAMers.</p>
<p>Actually, in the same memo announcing the revocation of DAPA, the Homeland Security Secretary said that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals would remain in place — breaking a key campaign promise.</p>
<p>As Daniel Horowitz of Conservative Review pointed out last week:</p>
<p>Trump’s DHS has issued almost 125,000 “DACA” cards (per Obama’s unlawful <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/444157/trump-going-cancel-daca-or-not" type="external">Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals</a> order) to illegal aliens through the second quarter of this fiscal year (January through March). ... This surpasses the 122,000 level of amnesty cards issued during the final quarter of Obama’s presidency (Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2016), which means the Trump administration is not even slowing down the pace!</p>
<p>Just last week, Kelly assured Congress, “We are not, not, not targeting DACA registrants right now,” and pleaded with Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.</p>
<p>So, will the Trump administration begin actually keeping its commitment to begin deporting those Obama attempted to protect under DAPA? It’s difficult to tell. That uncertainty is still a step up from the Obama administration’s obvious unwillingness to consider deportation for entire classes of illegal immigrants. And Trump’s vagary has had some predictable results: the number of people attempting to cross the border illegally has dropped dramatically. But there's no question that the Trump administration's open position on DACA is a new, shocking development for a president who pledged widespread deportations of illegal immigrants as a key campaign promise.</p> | GOOD TRUMP, BAD TRUMP: Department of Homeland Security REVOKES Obama Executive Amnesty For Illegal Immigrant Parents, KEEPS IT For Illegal Immigrant Kids | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17600/good-trump-department-homeland-security-revokes-ben-shapiro | 2017-06-16 | 0 |
<p>Gushing ash from Bali's Mount Agung volcano has dissipated into a wispy plume of steam, and Australian airlines that canceled some flights to the Indonesian resort island on the weekend have returned to near-normal schedules.</p>
<p>Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency said Monday the volcano remains at its highest alert level but most of Bali is safe for tourists.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The exclusion zone around the volcano still extends 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the crater in some directions. More than 55,000 people are living in shelters.</p>
<p>Airlines Jetstar and Virgin Australia, which canceled flights over the weekend even as the ash cloud shrank dramatically, said they were resuming services Monday.</p>
<p>The region's volcanic ash monitoring center in Darwin, Australia, has stopped issuing advisories for Agung, reflecting that it's currently posing no threat to aircraft. It would resume advisories if there's another eruption.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of tourists were stranded when ash closed Bali's international airport for nearly three days last week.</p>
<p>Indonesian government volcanologists say Agung's crater is about one-third filled by lava and there is still a high risk of more eruptions.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The volcano's last major eruptions in 1963 killed more than 1,100 people and it was active for more than a year.</p>
<p>David Boutelier, a geologist at the University of Newcastle in Australia, said the chance of a violent explosion is still "very high" but possibly not as high as several weeks ago because pressure is being released.</p> | Bali volcano emits wispy plume of steam, flights resume | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/12/03/bali-volcano-emits-wispy-plume-steam-flights-resume.html | 2017-12-04 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 3 Sep, 2017 14:01Edited time: 3 Sep, 2017 14:19</p>
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to “appropriately deal” with the recent nuclear test conducted by North Korea, Chinese Xinhua news reports.</p>
<p>“The two leaders agreed to stick to the goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and keep close communication and coordination to deal with the new situation,” the report says.</p>
<p>The presidents&#160;met in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen for the ninth BRICS summit, which is scheduled for September 3-5.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/401861-pyongyang-tested-hydrogen-bomb/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the North Korean test, adding that in a situation like this, it is essential “to keep composure and to restrain from any acts, which may lead to further escalation of tensions.”</p>
<p>The test is “another example of Pyongyang’s outright disregard” of UN Security Council resolutions and international law, the ministry said in a <a href="http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2851809" type="external">statement</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>“We cannot but regret the fact the DPRK [North Korea] leadership is creating grave threats to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the whole region by its actions, which are aimed at undermining the global non-proliferation regime. The continuation of this line is fraught with grave consequences for the DPRK itself.”</p>
<p>On Sunday, North Korean state media reported that Pyongyang successfully tested a hydrogen bomb which can be mounted on an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The test followed Pyongyang’s claims that it developed a new, more advanced hydrogen nuke that is small enough to be fitted on an ICBM.</p>
<p>The bomb test was a “perfect success” and was a “meaningful” step to complete the North’s nuclear weapons program, state television reported.</p>
<p /> | Putin & Xi agree to ‘appropriately deal’ with N. Korea nuclear test – Xinhua | false | https://newsline.com/putin-xi-agree-to-appropriately-deal-with-n-korea-nuclear-test-xinhua/ | 2017-09-03 | 1 |
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the North Carolina Lottery’s “Cash 5” game were:</p>
<p>04-22-23-24-41</p>
<p>(four, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, forty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $257,000</p>
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the North Carolina Lottery’s “Cash 5” game were:</p>
<p>04-22-23-24-41</p>
<p>(four, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, forty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $257,000</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Cash 5’ game | false | https://apnews.com/c73072952a5d495b94fb89cd73077aad | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
<p>Sitting in front of your computer won’t do it.</p>
<p>Watching C-Span won’t do it.</p>
<p>E-mailing your member of Congress won’t do it.</p>
<p>We’re going to have to get off the couch.</p>
<p>And directly confront the three branches of our government.</p>
<p>Obama’s White House.</p>
<p>The Democrat-controlled Congress.</p>
<p>And the for-profit health insurance corporations.</p>
<p>To help us get the job done, we have created Single Payer Action.</p>
<p>Our purpose – direct action to demand a single payer health insurance system in the United States.</p>
<p>First action: Wednesday March 11, 2009, 10 a.m.</p>
<p>A group of activists will protest in front of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. (1150 22nd Street, N.W. Either Dupont Circle Metro or GWU/Foggy Bottom Metro.)</p>
<p>America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is the main Washington lobbying group for the health insurance corporations.</p>
<p>AHIP will be meeting at the hotel to discuss plans to derail single payer. ( <a href="" type="internal">http://www.ahip.org/links/policy2009/</a>)</p>
<p>We will be protesting outside.</p>
<p>Demanding an end to an industry that causes at least 18,000 deaths a year (that’s the estimate of Americans who die every year due to lack of health insurance.)</p>
<p>Single payer would be Medicare for all.</p>
<p>It would give health insurance to every American citizen.</p>
<p>No deductibles.</p>
<p>No co-pays.</p>
<p>No in network.</p>
<p>No out of network.</p>
<p>Everybody in.</p>
<p>Nobody out.</p>
<p>And that would mean free choice of doctor and hospital.</p>
<p>Anywhere in the United States.</p>
<p>The majority of Americans support single payer.</p>
<p>The majority of doctors support single payer.</p>
<p>Only the rip-off health insurance corporations and the politicians they fund are opposed.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Under single payer, health insurance corporations as we know them will be driven out of business.</p>
<p>At the demonstration, some of us will burn our health insurance bills.</p>
<p>It will be a symbolic act.</p>
<p>Single payer legislation (HR 676) will effectively make it crime to sell basic health insurance for profit.</p>
<p>Single payer will be the equivalent of the death penalty for health insurance corporations as they exist.</p>
<p>So, pass the word.</p>
<p>Join single payer action.</p>
<p>March 11, 2009.</p>
<p>10 a.m.</p>
<p>Ritz-Carlton Hotel</p>
<p>1150 22nd St. N.W.</p>
<p>Bring your health insurance bills.</p>
<p>We’ll bring the matches.</p>
<p>(For more information, write <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Burn Your Health Insurance Bill! | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/03/03/burn-your-health-insurance-bill/ | 2009-03-03 | 4 |
<p>Major U.S. oil and gas producers made steeper cuts to their annual capital expenditure targets in 2016, their second straight year of reduced spending, as they attempt to cope with a slump in oil prices that began in mid-2014.</p>
<p>Up to Wednesday's close, U.S. crude prices had fallen more than 52 percent since June 2014, after factoring in a 9 percent rise on Wednesday on news of an OPEC deal to cut output for the first time since 2008.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Global exploration and production spending is expected to fall by 26 percent in 2016 to below $400 billion for the first time since 2009, with the most severe cuts being made by North American producers, according to Evercore ISI data.</p>
<p>The top 25 U.S. oil companies by output have reduced their 2016 budgets by a combined $54 billion, or 40 percent, according to a Reuters analysis, much steeper than a 29 percent cut last year.</p>
<p>Devon Energy Corp has slashed its 2016 capital budget by about $4 billion, or 72 percent, the biggest cut among global independents, while Whiting Petroleum Corp axed its budget by $1.93 billion, or 78 percent, the biggest among U.S. shale-focused companies.</p>
<p>(Compiled by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)</p> | Factbox: U.S. oil companies cut 2016 capex by $54 billion, or 40 percent | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/12/01/factbox-us-oil-companies-cut-2016-capex-by-54-billion-or-40-percent.html | 2016-12-01 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>LOGAN (AP) — Authorities say a Los Lunas man is dead after apparently drowning at Ute Lake State Park.</p>
<p>New Mexico State Police say 63-year-old Walter Bell was found floating in the lake by his wife after launching their boat in the water Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>Beatrice Bell told police that she drove away from the launching dock to park the couple’s vehicle and returned about 15 minutes later.</p>
<p>She pulled her husband to the shoreline after discovering him floating face down in the water.</p>
<p>State Parks officers performed CPR until paramedics arrived on scene, but authorities say Walter Bell was later pronounced dead at Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Los Lunas man dies at Ute Lake | false | https://abqjournal.com/219365/los-lunas-man-dies-at-ute-lake.html | 2013-07-10 | 2 |
<p>Costas Lapavitsas is a professor in economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He teaches the political economy of finance, and he's a regular columnist for The Guardian. Costas is also a former parliamentarian for Syriza in Greece.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. This is Reality Asserts Itself with our guest Costas Lapavitsas, who now joins us again in the studio.
<p />
<p />Thanks for joining us again.
<p />
<p />So we've been talking about Finance Exploits Us All, which is the subtitle of Costas's new book. And I'm going to quickly introduce Costas again, and then we're just going to pick up where we left off, with the question of, well, so what's wrong with finance exploiting all of us? I mean, don't you need to borrow money?
<p />
<p />But, first of all, Costas is a professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His most recent book is Profiting without Producing: How Finance Exploits Us All.
<p />
<p />Well, if we didn't have finance, goes the argument, you wouldn't have mortgages. You'd have to, you know, say, well, I'm going to earn so much over the next 20 years, but I can't buy a house at the end of 20 years, I need a house now, so I can pledge a little bit of my wages for the next 20 years, and if I don't have finance, I can't get my mortgage and buy the house. And the same goes for businesses and such. I mean, we need finance for all this to work, don't we?
<p />
<p />COSTAS LAPAVITSAS, PROF. ECONOMICS, UNIV. OF LONDON: What a nice story this is. Yes. Obviously--.
<p />
<p />JAY: I'm doing my best to represent them here.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Obviously, modern advanced capitalism needs finance. There's no question at all about it. The real issue is: do we need financialization? In other words, do we need a system in which finance does all these powerful and marvelous things that it is doing?
<p />
<p />Now, when we approach it from the perspective of households and the mortgages we're looking at, we get a very interesting dimension. Why do households need finance? Obviously, as you rightly say for mortgages--and it wouldn't be just that; it would also be health, it would also be education for--.
<p />
<p />JAY: Credit card purchases.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Credit card purchases, but also education. Education--student debt, as you know, is vast in this country. Therefore households need credit to study and to acquire the skills that they will then need for the labor market.
<p />
<p />JAY: I mean, and one should just make the side note that, in fact, most of the industrialized world, education's free or next to free. This is one of the few countries where it costs so much [crosstalk]
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Actually, student loans are becoming bigger and bigger in many parts of the world, and student indebtedness, or indebtedness to support young people through education, is actually becoming bigger and bigger.
<p />
<p />JAY: In Europe as well?
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: In Europe as well. The United Kingdom is very similar, and other parts of Europe--not quite--
<p />
<p />JAY: Not like here.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: --like here, like in the United States, but they're still--.
<p />
<p />JAY: And there are still countries where it's free.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Undoubtedly. But we're looking at what--
<p />
<p />JAY: Anyway, that was a side note.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: --we're looking at what trends are coming out of--and what form they take.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: So households, households then need finance for these reasons.
<p />
<p />Now, these are not business reasons. One must start from that, because otherwise you get lost. This is--households do not need finance for the same reasons that a business would need finance. There is no production to sustain. There is no value to create. There is no profit to be made. This is money you need to acquire basic goods and services that you need to keep yourself and your family and to do something in life.
<p />
<p />JAY: And one more side note: you do need to contextualize it that a lot of the household need for finance is a consequence of social policy, meaning wages are too low, you--.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: That's exactly what I'm coming to. So you need these goods and you use finance for that. Now, why do we need to use private finance for that? The reason why we need to use private finance for that, increasingly, is because these needs are covered through various systems of provision.
<p />
<p />Now, historically, we've had a strong public presence in these systems of provision--public stuff for mortgages, public stuff for health, for education, and so on. What we've had the last three, four decades is a retreat of public provision and the emergence of private provision. And that's why we ended needing more and more--.
<p />
<p />JAY: Now, just make that simpler, by public provision, for example a government health insurance plan versus a private health insurance plan.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: That's it. That's it. Public means, public ways of facilitating access to these basic services and needs that people need.
<p />
<p />Now, if these public methods of provision of these things retreat and become smaller, private provision will emerge, and that means private finance. So the reason why households have come to depend more and more on private finance--and we all know how huge that is--is fundamentally because the public aspect of provision in household life has become smaller and smaller.
<p />
<p />JAY: I mean, one of the most concrete examples is health care.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Absolutely.
<p />
<p />JAY: The number-one cause of bankruptcies in the United States is health care crises, health crises that people can't afford, and they go bankrupt. And compare that to Canada, where there's a government health insurance program--as far as I know, there are zero bankruptcies as a result of health care.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: [crosstalk] yeah, I don't know. But that's basically it.
<p />
<p />So couple that with stagnant or slowly rising real wages and you've got a story of financialization of households in the modern era. You've got people being sucked into the realm of finance and banks discovering a new terrain of profit-making.
<p />
<p />JAY: Okay. So in the realm of household, changes in social policy could eliminate most, if not all, actually, need for finance, or it could be done publicly. Instead of going to a for-profit bank, you could go to a local credit union, get a reasonably priced mortgage, and not suffer from predatory lending, where they're trying to give you a mortgage they know you'll never be able to afford.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: That's it. And now we're beginning to move--we're beginning to see how one can oppose and fight these tendencies that have happened.
<p />
<p />But let's discuss a little bit more, I would say, how it worked.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, 'cause I want to move to the other side, 'cause if you're talking global trade and global transactions, the argument for the big banks is you can't have global flows of capital without them; you need institutions at their scale to deal with the global flow of capital.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Absolute nonsense.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, that's their argument.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: I know. But let me just get this stuff on households a little bit clearer.
<p />
<p />So what have we got here? We've got a system in which households have got to depend on private finance, basically, and they're sucked into the system, and their wages and salaries and savings become a social profit for banks. We've got a direct transfer. I would call that financial expropriation. It's a kind of secondary exploitation of households. Our incomes, our savings become a social profit-making for banks. And predatory lending is just the extreme case of this. Right?
<p />
<p />JAY: So you're not only making--you're not only getting taken, if you want, on you buy something, and usually there's a profit made when you buy the thing; but they're skinning you twice, 'cause they're getting you on the credit card interest.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Well, that's it. That's it. And you're getting--and there's interest that comes out of your income, which goes to the private financial system, or other fees, commissions, and so on. For what?
<p />
<p />JAY: Which is why every department store wants their own credit card now.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Yes. And for what? What exactly is the service? It's very difficult to see the benefits that come to society from these systems.
<p />
<p />So the derivatives markets that we mentioned previously have been a key element in the banks profiting twice from this, and more times, because you combine this way of meeting the financial--new financial needs of households with the growth of derivatives markets, you've got turbo-charged finance and financialization. And that's what we lived through in the 2000s: the banks make a profit out of lending to people, out of transacting the financial assets, subsequently moving into the derivatives markets. A system is created whereby profits are made left, right, and center out of the incomes [crosstalk]
<p />
<p />JAY: That's a really important part, 'cause the bank themselves, and especially the bank--I mean, people call them the banksters themselves, the people running the banks--are making these enormous fees in all these transactions, and to some extent they don't even care if--
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: That's it.
<p />
<p />JAY: --a big percentage of people will never pay off their credit cards, will go bankrupt. They're making money on both sides.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: [incompr.] lend them the money. That's why. The issue isn't lending them the money. The issue is making the money out of transacting the debts out of playing games with--and that's exactly what financialization of banks is all about, transformation of banks is all about. You make the profit out of trading in the financial asset, out of facilitating it, and you get a nice cut out of it, a fee and a commission, or you trade yourself. And someone else is actually the eventual lender, someone else is carrying the eventual holder of the obligation. And you you are right, 'cause--you think you're right, because you've--but, as we know, [you weren't?] right because they were still implicated and they got ruined in 2008. But that was the logic.
<p />
<p />Now, could it have been done otherwise? Well, derivatives and mortgage securitization and so on is a very old thing, and it is possible to do it safely. As we know, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and so on in this country for many, many years provided credit for housing on a public basis, some time ago on a public basis, and they securitized the stuff, and it was perfectly safe if you don't move into the realm of the financialized private finance that begins to see this as an excellent opportunity to make extra profits out of transacting in this stuff.
<p />
<p />Here we've got an example, then, of financial engineering, the use of a technique that has to do with derivatives which goes completely mad and creates all kinds of social problems once private finance in the new world moves in on the act and sees it as an excellent opportunity for profit. Who pays the price in it? Households as they lose their homes, as large parts of their income end up as financial profit, and so on. That's what I mean by financial expropriation: exploitation of ordinary people directly through finance.
<p />
<p />JAY: And this is what happened in '08 is that banks can make so much money bundling mortgages and selling them on the derivatives market, they actually don't care that the people can't pay the mortgages. Of course, the bet was real estate will never go down, so it doesn't matter if they default; they'll just sell the house again and--except it turned out real estate can go down,--
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Yes. Of course.
<p />
<p />JAY: --and it turned out that it was all what they call toxic assets.
<p />
<p />But before we get to the other thing I was going to raise, just to kind of close this point, has anything changed since '08? I mean, is there any reason it can't all happen again?
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Banks don't lend so much, it's true, and they don't lend for mortgages and so on now, partly because they burned their fingers in 2008, 2009 and now they're wary of lending to households and so on, certainly nothing like what used to happen.
<p />
<p />But banks are also making big profits in different ways because they can use the money that has become available to them through public means for lending abroad, for shifting money abroad, and for stock market investment. So they don't have to move into the household field. So things have changed, because, for instance, U.S. households have got difficulty refinancing mortgages and so on as a result of that.
<p />
<p />But structurally, no, nothing has changed.
<p />
<p />JAY: Okay. The other big argument from the big financial institutions and the fact that they are so big (and then we get into this too-big-to-fail argument), they say the need to be too big because the flow of capital around the world is in the trillions of dollars moving all over the place. You need institutions of their scale to deal with that.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Yeah. That's obviously a more complex and more general argument about, obviously, housing and mortgages and so on.
<p />
<p />JAY: Not just that. I'm just talking about big companies trading and buying and selling and, you know, at--.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Yeah, and big banks and so on. Now, I want to say a number of things on this which--I mean, it's a difficult issue, but I want to say a number of things on this which are very important, I think, for understanding modern capitalism.
<p />
<p />The world of free capital flows, completely deregulated capital flows, or at least very heavily--highly deregulated capital flows, is something that emerged properly in the era of financialization, slowly. The argument was that just as we want free markets in goods and in labor, because, presumably, this has very strongly beneficial effects for the economy and improves welfare, so we want a free market in capital across borders, because why not? It's a good, it's a commodity.
<p />
<p />Well, it's not a commodity like others. And the benefits to economies and to society generally from free movement of capital have never been demonstrated clearly. It's an ideology. There is no good empirical economic study, and not even a particularly good theoretical demonstration of why that is.
<p />
<p />JAY: Just to be really clear what we're talking about, the argument is that if any government tries to impose restrictions on either capital leaving a country or coming into a country and try to impose some kind public interest mandate on that, the argument goes, that's actually counterproductive, because it slows down production, it causes economic problems, and you'll have more growth if you just let capital come and go. And that's the argument.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: That's the argument, yeah, because essentially you are regulating this market, you've got state intervention, you're not allowing the seller and the buyer, the supplier of the funds and the user of the funds, to meet freely, because you're imposing some kind of regulation, and therefore you're preventing the market in this kind of money to find its equilibrium, and therefore you are creating outcomes which are nonbeneficial, problematic for economy and society.
<p />
<p />There is no good economic theory that would actually show that free trade in capital can be compared to free trade in goods, 'cause you can have this argument by goods, right? But there is no good economic theory that would say that, and there is no empirical study that would actually show convincingly strong beneficial effects for growth and so on from free capital flow.
<p />
<p />On the contrary, there's study after study that has shown already from the 1980s--there's a very well known Latin American economist, Diaz-Alejandro, who wrote a famous paper in 1985, "Good-Bye Financial Repression, Hello Financial Crash", and he was absolutely right. There are arguments that say, if you lift controls over these flows, you don't gain anything visible in economic performance and you create huge risks of instability and crash.
<p />
<p />JAY: And this was, we can see right now, what's happening with a little bit of lowering of the quantitative easing here: the money started flowing out of the emerging markets, Turkey's rates go from 7 percent to 12 percent, they go into crisis; now maybe some money comes back at 12 percent, except now the Turkish interest rates are so high, it's going to paralyze their economy.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: So this argument that you need big banks to support big capital flows, in a sense--.
<p />
<p />JAY: [incompr.] you need big private banks, they argue.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: [incompr.] big private banks. It's actually--
<p />
<p />JAY: 'Cause there is another alternative, isn't there?
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: --it's actually a little bit back-to-front in the sense that do we really need free capital flows in the first place. And even the IMF, right, this citadel of respectable mainstream conservative economic opinion, in recent years has come out and said, hang on a minute, maybe we need to rethink this, maybe we need capital controls, maybe this free movement of capital across borders actually benefits the banks and a few other people who've got a finger in the pie, but the impact isn't that--the beneficial impact on everybody else is not that clear. Even the IMF has said that. So we need to be skeptical about the very argument of free capital flows in the first place.
<p />
<p />And then, do you really need big banks for that, seriously? Is that what we need? Do we really need the giants and behemoths of high finance to support flows of--. Why couldn't we do it through public mechanisms if we really wanted to do it? What exactly would preclude and prevent some kind of public mechanism [incompr.] if you [crosstalk]
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, if I owned a private bank, it would preclude me from making a killing.
<p />
<p />LAPAVITSAS: Ah, that--yes, of course. So that argument doesn't really cut much ice with me, or with many other economists either.
<p />
<p />JAY: So this is something we've talked in previous interviews--and I'm sure we will again. But if in the final analysis we're saying the financialization has terrible consequences for the economy and ordinary people's lives at the level of the economy, what does it mean in terms of politics? And we're going to get into that in the next segment.
<p />
<p />So please join us for a continuation of Reality Asserts Itself with Costas Lapavitsas on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
<p />The Real News Network | Is Financialization Necessary for a Modern Economy? - Costas Lapavitsas on Reality Asserts Itself (5/8) | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D767%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D11915 | 2014-05-27 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE - The New Mexico Recycling Coalition will be developing a training program and providing technical assistance to help Native American communities around the state with recycling programs.</p>
<p>The work is being funded with a $40,000 grant from the federal government. The funding was announced Monday.</p>
<p>As part of the program, 20 eligible tribes will benefit.</p>
<p>The project was developed based on outreach done by the Recycling Coalition. The group found that many challenges hinder how tribes are able to launch or expand their solid waste diversion programs. One of those challenges is the rural nature of the state.</p>
<p>The group's executive director, Sarah Pierpont, says training sessions will be held at tribal collection centers and a couple of audits will be done to better understand the waste streams in tribal communities.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Federal grant aims to bring recycling to New Mexico tribes | false | https://abqjournal.com/655260/federal-grant-aims-to-bring-recycling-to-new-mexico-tribes.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Authorities are seeking to extradite Alex Perez, 24, back to Michigan where he is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, the Berrien County prosecutor's office said.</p>
<p>Perez was arrested earlier Friday in Georgetown, Colorado, more than 1,100 miles from Coloma in southwestern Michigan, where the bodies of Renee Mitchell, 27, and John Mitchell, 67, were found late Thursday.</p>
<p>An Amber Alert was issued when police learned that Perez's and Renee Mitchell's 3- and 4-year-old daughters were missing from the home in Coloma.</p>
<p>Clear Creek County sheriff's deputy Paul Osckel spotted Perez and the girls in a parked, running vehicle Friday morning in Georgetown, about 50 miles west of Denver, the sheriff's office said.</p>
<p>Perez was arrested after a brief struggle. The girls were placed with Colorado's Department of Human Services.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Police believe Perez was headed back home to Los Angeles, Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Fabian Suarez said.</p>
<p>An investigation revealed that Perez "was recently present" in the Coloma area "and in the home of the deceased within the last 48 hours," the Berrien County prosecutor's office said Friday afternoon in a release.</p>
<p>Autopsies were to be performed on the bodies of Renee Mitchell and John Mitchell.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear Friday if Perez had a lawyer.</p> | Man charged in 2 Michigan slayings arrested in Colorado | false | https://abqjournal.com/706917/man-charged-in-2-michigan-slayings-arrested-in-colorado.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Ryan Gosling plays a struggling musician in the film “La La Land.” (SOURCE: Dale Robinette/Lionsgate)</p>
<p>On Broadway, of course, we’ve got the “Hamilton” phenomenon, making the stage musical feel more vital and relevant than it has in years. And we have popular live TV revivals like “Grease” and “Hairspray.”</p>
<p>Now, in time for Christmas, there’s the eye-popping, heart-lifting “La La Land,” which both honors and modernizes the screen musical to such joyful effect that you might find yourself pirouetting home from the multiplex.</p>
<p>OK, perhaps we exaggerate. “La La Land,” created by the copiously talented writer/director Damien Chazelle and featuring the dream pairing of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, is not for everyone.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Perhaps you don’t like music, or singing, or dancing. Or romance, or love, or beautiful people falling in love. Or sunsets, or primary colors, or pastels. Or stories. Or, heck, the movies themselves. If you don’t like any of those things, maybe stay home.</p>
<p>Otherwise, be prepared: By the end, something will surely have activated those tear ducts. The one complaint I overheard upon leaving the film was: “I didn’t have enough Kleenex.”</p>
<p>The first obvious gift of “La La Land” is its sheer originality. Let’s start with the music. Unlike in so many other films, nobody else’s hits are used here. The affecting score is by Justin Hurwitz, with lyrics by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul (also getting kudos for Broadway’s “Dear Evan Hansen.”)</p>
<p>Our setting is Los Angeles, and so it begins – as it must – on a jammed freeway. But unlike Michael Douglas in “Falling Down,” the drivers here simply brush off their frustrations, exit their cars and break into song and dance.</p>
<p>This virtuoso number, “Another Day of Sun,” which was filmed on a freeway interchange with about 100 dancers toiling in sizzling weather, establishes Chazelle’s high-flying ambitions. It also tells us we’d darned well better be ready for people to break out into song – because that happens in musicals. And it introduces our main characters.</p>
<p>Sebastian (Gosling) is a struggling jazz pianist with dreams of opening his own club. Mia (Stone) is an aspiring actress, working as a barista while auditioning for TV parts. They clash on the freeway. She gives him the finger.</p>
<p>They have a second bad meeting at a piano bar. Finally, they meet a third time, at a party. Suddenly, they find themselves on a bench overlooking the Hollywood Hills at dusk. And then … they dance.</p>
<p>Is it Astaire and Rogers (or Charisse)? Yes and no. Stone and Gosling are charming musical performers, but way less polished and ethereal than their cinematic forebears. This human quality in their first duet makes us root for them.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And we keep on rooting. It’s hard to imagine better casting here. Gosling’s Sebastian is suave and sexy but also ornery and unsure of himself; Stone’s Mia is warm and ebullient but also fretful and self-doubting. They need each other to chase their respective dreams.</p>
<p>But what will success mean? And can they possibly achieve it together? It’s this pillar of the story that lends it a very modern, melancholy bite.</p>
<p>Chazelle, 31, shows his love for cinema with references both sly and overt to classics like “Singin’ in the Rain” and Jacques Demy’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.” And then there’s the nod to “Rebel Without a Cause,” with a scene at LA’s Griffith Observatory.</p>
<p>There, at a place built to watch the stars, the two dancing lovers actually lift up into them.</p>
<p>It’s corny, sure, and gorgeous and romantic. As Sebastian says to his sister earlier in the film, “You say ‘romantic’ like it’s a bad word!” In a musical, ‘romantic’ is never a bad word.</p>
<p>Some people resist musicals because in real life, people never break out into song; they just speak their feelings. To which musical lovers say: “Exactly! And this is why we need musicals.”</p>
<p>Long live the musical. Bring enough Kleenex.</p>
<p>4 stars</p>
<p />
<p>RATED: PG-13 (for some language) WHEN: Now showing WHERE: Century 14 Downtown, Century Rio 24, Winrock 16, Regal Santa Fe Stadium 14 (Santa Fe)</p>
<p /> | ‘La La Land’ honors, modernizes big-screen musical | false | https://abqjournal.com/917095/days.html | 2 |
|
<p>Most accounts of the long roller-coaster ride of the idea of universal national service see William James as the father of the idea. After delivering an influential address at Stanford University in 1906, the popular philosopher elaborated his proposal in 1910 in a long, widely read essay titled “The Moral Equivalent of War.”</p>
<p>“This is my idea,” James wrote. “Instead of military conscription, a conscription of the whole youthful population to form for a certain number of years a part of the army enlisted against Nature.” Through such service, he asserted, “injustice would tend to be evened out” and “numerous other goods to the commonwealth” would result. “Our gilded youths” would “get the childishness knocked out of them” and “come back into society with healthier sympathies and soberer ideas.” He predicted: “It is only a question of blowing on the spark until the whole population gets incandescent.”</p>
<p>In the decades since, there has been a continuing discussion over James’s idea—whether it should be mandatory or voluntary, and, if voluntary, whether it could become as common an expectation as finishing high school is now. There have been high and low points for national service. The question today remains: Can blowing on the spark succeed in making enough Americans incandescent about the idea so that it becomes an accepted part of our culture?</p>
<p>James’s ideas were first turned into reality when Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in 1933. As governor of New York, he had taken steps to engage the state’s jobless young men in conservation work. On his desk in the Oval Office was a report showing that half a million young men were out of school and out of work.</p>
<p>During his first days in office, he told the secretaries of Labor, Agriculture, the Interior, and the Army that he wanted to create a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to get those unemployed young men into the woods—off the streets and into hard work in our national parks, forests, and public lands that had been ignored far too long. Labor would find and enlist the jobless youth, Interior and Agriculture would select the projects most in need, and the Army would build the camps and supply trained military staff to supervise the CCC men.</p>
<p>It was part voluntary national service, part jobs bill, designed to provide aid during a time of massive unemployment. Within a few weeks of taking office, FDR sent a message to Congress with a very short bill authorizing the creation of a Civilian Conservation Corps with up to 275,000 young men who were between the ages of 18 and 25, unmarried, and unemployed. (A somber fact is that it was open only to men, and the young black men who were enlisted did so in segregated camps.) Signing the bill on March 31, FDR said he wanted a quarter-million CCC men at work by the end of summer. By July 1, the Cabinet team, including Army Colonel (later General) George C. Marshall, reported that more than 275,000 corps members were in some 1,300 camps.</p>
<p>By 1942, when most of the men of the CCC graduated into military service in World War II, more than three million of them had planted three billion trees, cleared 125,000 miles of trails, and developed 800 state parks. For many, the experience helped turn their lives around for the better. One of the last camps to be organized was initiated by Dartmouth College faculty and students, and named Camp William James. To this day, the speed and success of the launching of the CCC constitute achievements that made FDR’s “first hundred days” a standard many presidents seek to match.</p>
<p>A personal note: In 1947, on a former troop ship converted to a student ship heading to Europe, I was stirred to embrace the idea of national service. In my case, the source of that inspiration was not William James but a group of young men, singing night and day. I cornered one and asked what they were up to. He said they were Mormons, and explained, “When a Mormon man comes of age, the question is not, ‘Will I serve?’ but ‘Where will I serve a year or more?’ as a missionary.” Their group chose to help in devastated Europe.</p>
<p>On the ship’s deck, I thought to myself, That’s what ought to happen for all Americans as they become full adults. I may have read James’s essay in college, but the sea change in my thinking came aboard that ship sailing to Europe.</p>
<p>The rest of this backward glance is within the memory of many readers. In the 1960 presidential campaign, when John F. Kennedy proposed a Peace Corps—in which full-time volunteers, most of them young, would serve for two years—President Eisenhower derided it as “a juvenile experiment.” Vice President and presidential candidate Richard Nixon likened it to “draft evasion.” Others called it a “Kiddie Corps.”</p>
<p>Countering that was the surprising enthusiasm of college students, whose generation had been dubbed silent and apathetic. Without waiting for Congress, the young President created a “temporary Peace Corps,” appointed Sargent Shriver to organize and direct it, and sent the first Peace Corps volunteers to Ghana. Four months later, the bill passed after Shriver and his deputy, Bill Moyers, visited every member of Congress.</p>
<p>By the fall of 1962, all signs indicated that the “experiment” was going to be a success. On the White House lawn, after sending forth volunteers who had trained at Georgetown and Howard Universities, President Kennedy showed his high hopes. Among the 600 there that day were 300 about to fly (with me) to Addis Ababa (where I was headed to become the Peace Corps Special Representative to Africa and director of the Ethiopia program). Emperor Haile Selassie had asked Kennedy for 500 Peace Corps teachers in order to double the number of secondary-school teachers in the country, a goal that was achieved in the years that followed.</p>
<p>Walking back to the Oval Office, a happy Kennedy said to me, “This will be serious when there are 100,000 volunteers a year—one million each decade, who serve in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.” Then, he predicted, “at last there’ll be a large constituency for an informed foreign policy.”</p>
<p>When Shriver left the Peace Corps in 1966, there were 16,000 volunteers serving in 55 countries, including those in training. Vice President Hubert Humphrey talked of the 50,000 he expected would come in that decade. President Johnson had as vice president been the first chairman of the Peace Corps Advisory Council and was a strong champion of its expansion. Kennedy’s speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, called the Peace Corps “one of John F. Kennedy’s proudest achievements, the epitome of his call for service and sacrifice.”</p>
<p>Yet the enlarged Peace Corps Kennedy imagined never came to pass. Blamed on the growing demands of the Vietnam War, appropriation cuts began in 1967 and continued during the Nixon Administration until the number of recruits fell to fewer than 5,000 a year. In the twenty-first century, the number has risen modestly, up to about 8,000 a year.</p>
<p>The same fate blocked the bold ideas for national service that President Johnson advanced for the War on Poverty. He appointed Shriver to be the director of this major domestic program. Along with the Job Corps, Head Start, and Community Action, Shriver created VISTA, the Volunteers in Service to America, to be “the ground troops” for the assault on poverty. He wanted full-time VISTA volunteers to soon match, in numbers, the several hundred thousand corpsmen of the CCC.</p>
<p>On George Washington’s birthday in 1965, at the University of Kentucky, President Johnson urged the nation to “search for new ways” through which “every young American will have the opportunity—and feel the obligation—to give at least a few years of his or her life to the service of others in this nation and the world.” That was a high point for the idea of national service becoming a common expectation for all young Americans coming of age. A year later, in his tug of war between the cost of the growing struggle in Vietnam and the ambitious plans for the War on Poverty, Johnson told Shriver he could not fund the crucial next steps toward overcoming poverty. VISTA would never reach even 10,000 volunteers.</p>
<p>The search for new ways and means for full-time youth service continued in the 1970s and ’80s. Some cities and states formed different kinds of youth corps. Many followed the model of the CCC of old, rather than the Peace Corps and VISTA, and drew mainly those who were poor and unemployed. The largest was the California Conservation Corps, organized in 1976 by Governor Jerry Brown. It grew to 3,000 participants per year, continued through Republican and Democratic state administrations, and is still operating today. Its motto, “Hard work, low pay, and miserable conditions,” resembled the Peace Corps’s best recruiting poster, “The Toughest Job You’ve Ever Loved.”</p>
<p>In 1979, the Potomac Institute’s “Report of the Committee for the Study of National Service” concluded “that the nation’s social, economic, educational, environmental, and military needs, including the need of young people to serve and be productive, and the need of our society to regain a sense of service, together make a compelling case for moving toward universal service for American youth.” It called for “the country to move towards such universal service by stages and by incentives but without compulsion.”</p>
<p>President Ronald Reagan began the 1980s with his own version of citizen service: “Let us pledge to restore, in our time, the American spirit of volunteer service, of cooperation, of private and community initiative, a spirit that flows like a deep and mighty river through the history of our nation.” Yet for those campaigning for all young Americans to have the opportunity to do full-time national service, the river seemed more like many separate streams.</p>
<p>The latter part of the decade saw a burst of new calls for national youth service. In 1986, a major study by Richard Danzig and Peter Szanton, National Service: What Would It Mean?, was published with considerable impact. In 1988, the Democratic Leadership Council, including Governor Bill Clinton and Senator Sam Nunn, released its landmark report, “Citizenship and National Service,” calling for all young people to serve, and proposing that federal college student aid be conditioned on such service.</p>
<p>Senator Ted Kennedy opposed that proposed big stick, but he framed an alternative bill based on the carrot of new student aid for service. Kennedy’s bill was combined with President George H.W. Bush’s proposed legislation supporting the Points of Light initiative to increase traditional unpaid volunteering. This led in 1990 to the first National Service Act, which included a commission with authority to test different approaches to full-time national service. The President appointed the first special assistant for national service, Gregg Petersmeyer, who helped bring both parties together for a truly bipartisan bill.</p>
<p>In his 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton found that his most popular campaign promise was offering that carrot of additional college aid to all who served a year or more in the community. When he visited the new City Year program in Boston, funded in part by the 1990 bill, he said a light bulb went off in his head: “Something like this is what I want for all American young people.”</p>
<p>As President, Clinton asked Congress to enact the quantum leap he had proposed in the campaign. Senators Kennedy and Barbara Mikulski took the lead in framing and passing the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. The President appointed Eli Segal CEO of the new Corporation for National and Community Service in order to manage the new national-service program, which was named AmeriCorps and launched with fanfare. Almost all governors formed the bipartisan state commissions the act required for the allocation of AmeriCorps positions. But there was a cloud over this progress—only six Senate Republicans had voted to pass the national-service bill.</p>
<p>After the 1994 Republican sweep of Congress (of which I was one of the casualties, losing to Rick Santorum), one of the first acts of the new House of Representatives was to defund AmeriCorps. In response to this challenge, the President asked me to become CEO of the new corporation, to help him save AmeriCorps. The AmeriCorps budget was significantly cut, but thereafter, despite the opposition of House Republicans, appropriations for the Corporation and for AmeriCorps positions increased each year in Clinton’s second term, with the number of positions reaching 50,000 by 2000.</p>
<p>Just before his death in 1995, former Michigan Governor George Romney—whose son, Mitt, was a strong supporter of national service and especially of City Year—set in motion a plan that led to additional Republican support. Romney (who was called “Mr. Volunteer Service”) enlisted the Corporation and the Points of Light Foundation to realize his dream of a summit at which all living presidents and leaders from all sectors of society would gather to support citizen service and show it was not a partisan issue.</p>
<p>In 1997, President Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush convened the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future in Philadelphia, with four out of the five living presidents, and Nancy Reagan representing her husband, along with some 30 governors, 100 mayors, and 2,000 other leaders. Gen. Colin Powell chaired the summit and launched America’s Promise Alliance, which included national youth service as one of its main aims.</p>
<p>After the summit, Republican Senator Dan Coats of Indiana, who had voted against AmeriCorps, published a persuasive opinion piece, “Why I Changed My Mind about AmeriCorps.” Ohio Representative John Kasich, chairman of the House Budget Committee, also changed his mind and gave his backing. In 2000, when he first ran for President, John McCain announced his support, and said, “I was wrong about AmeriCorps.”</p>
<p>By the turn of the twenty-first century, it seemed to be widely accepted that national service by young Americans had become a lasting dimension of volunteering in the United States. Forty-nine governors signed a letter to Congress supporting the reauthorization and strengthening of AmeriCorps.</p>
<p>The September 11 attacks ushered in a period of patriotic nonpartisanship and additional momentum for national service. In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush called for 4,000 hours of service—or two years—by every American, the doubling of the Peace Corps, and an increase in AmeriCorps positions from 50,000 to 75,000. He created the USA Freedom Corps White House Council to coordinate federal support for national service and appointed John Bridgeland to lead it.</p>
<p>At that point, with the Republican President asking Congress for a 50-percent increase in national-service positions, and the chairman of the Republican Party, former Governor Marc Racicot of Montana, strongly in agreement, there was reason for supporters of national service to believe that the Republican Party was starting on a new journey toward a national consensus for large-scale national service. But while AmeriCorps did grow, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan divided the nation on political lines, and momentum stalled.</p>
<p>During his 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Obama proposed a goal of 250,000 national-service positions. That idea and the bill that made it reality—the 2009 Serve America Act, sponsored by Senators Kennedy and Hatch, and supported by Senators McCain and Clinton—was the most recent high point for the idea of national service. Obama signed the bill into law with strong bipartisan support during his first hundred days. Once again, the road forward seemed clear. But yet again, events intervened. The 2010 midterm elections changed the political landscape. As in 1995, the House of Representatives voted to eliminate funding for AmeriCorps. At this writing, the new budget proposed by the House leadership would terminate not only AmeriCorps but all the programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service, including the Senior Corps.</p>
<p>In the current political stalemate, President Obama has done what he can to stave off a quantum leap backward for national service. His limited power for executive action is already being tapped by the White House Task Force on Expanding National Service, which asks all federal departments and appropriate agencies to explore and report how the engagement of national service volunteers can help them accomplish their missions.</p>
<p>With the fifth anniversary of the Serve America Act this spring, it seems clear that further expansion of full-time national service through major new appropriations from Congress is unlikely. Indeed, the continuation of federal support for national service may be in danger, despite the support of the hundreds of nonprofit organizations benefitting from the service of AmeriCorps members, and the work of the outstanding new CEO of the corporation, Wendy Spencer, a Republican and longtime leader on the issue of national service.</p>
<p>While Congress stalls, there is an opportunity to give new life to the idea of national service. Gen. Stanley McChrystal and a group of former generals, veterans of all ranks, and like-minded civic leaders are stepping forth with a new initiative, focused on the independent sector, to make a service year at home or abroad an opportunity for all young Americans. They foresee a time when the numbers of young Americans in civilian service years will equal the one million volunteers in military service. Then the “goods to the commonwealth” that William James envisioned will become an integral part of the education of Americans as self-governing citizens.</p> | Can National Service Become Integral to Our Culture? From the Symposium A Nation in Service The Economics: Why National Service Is Worth It | true | http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/33/can-national-service-become-integral-to-our-culture/ | 2014-06-21 | 4 |
<p>In recent speeches, President Obama has repeatedly claimed that “our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.” The White House says he’s referring to the decline in the deficit as a percentage of the nation’s economy from 2009 to 2012. But that’s not the “fastest rate” of deficit reduction in 60 years. It fell at a faster rate from 2004 to 2007.</p>
<p>Obama has dropped the talking point into no fewer than five speeches focused on “Jobs for the Middle Class” during the course of a week.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/30/remarks-president-jobs-middle-class-073013" type="external">July 30 in Tennessee</a>: Our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/07/24/president-obama-speaks-economy#transcript" type="external">July 24, in Illinois</a>: And our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/25/remarks-president-economy-warrensburg-missouri" type="external">July 25, in Missouri</a>: And our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/25/remarks-president-economy-jacksonville-fl" type="external">July 25, in Florida</a>: And our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/27/weekly-address-better-bargain-middle-class" type="external">July 27, weekly address</a>: Our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.</p>
<p>It sounds like an impressive accomplishment to bolster the president’s case that the economy is getting better. And if the official White House transcripts are any indication, it is a reliable applause line.</p>
<p>To back it up, the White House press office points <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/historicals" type="external">to historical data</a> showing that deficits, as a percentage of gross domestic product, fell from 10.1 percent in 2009 to 7 percent in 2012. (See Table 1.2.) That’s a 3.1 percentage point drop, and the last time the U.S. saw a larger drop over an equivalent period of time was 1946 to 1949, when the deficit went from 7.2 percent of GDP to a surplus of 0.2 percent of GDP (a change of 7.4 percentage points), White House spokesman Bobby Whithorne wrote to us in an email.</p>
<p>To be sure, that is a marked drop in the deficit. But it’s not the “fastest rate” of deficit reduction — which speaks to relative speed.&#160; That may sound like a mathematical technicality, but it reveals a large contextual difference.</p>
<p>Due to the recession, the deficit as a percentage of GDP spiked in 2009 to a level not seen since the mid-1940s. So it had further to fall than usual.</p>
<p>When Obama took office in 2009, he <a href="" type="internal">inherited</a> a projected deficit of $1.2 trillion. He added another $200 billion in deficit spending to that. As a percentage of GDP, the deficit in fiscal year 2009 came to 10.1 percent. That’s by far the highest percentage over the last 60 years (you have to go back to the World War II years between 1942 to 1945 to see higher figures). Over the last 60 years, deficits as a percentage of the GDP have averaged 2.4 percent. The deficit was 3.2 percent in 2008, the year before Obama took office; and it was 1.2 percent the year before that. In other words, it had a long way to drop from 2009.</p>
<p>“Think about it this way,” Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense wrote to us in an email. “I like to compare budget numbers to diets. Bob weighs 400 pounds and loses 60 pounds in a year. Ralph is 210 pounds and loses 40 pounds in a year. Bob has lost more weight than Ralph, but Ralph is losing it faster, at a 19% rate versus a 15% rate.”</p>
<p>Ellis noted, correctly, that the deficit as a percentage of GDP fell 31 percent from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012. But he pointed to two other four-year periods when the deficit fell at a faster rate — in fact, more than twice as fast:</p>
<p>“So anyone can play with the numbers,” Ellis said. “Obviously, it’s a significant reduction. But let’s face it there was a lot to reduce. The deficit was morbidly obese.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the numbers can be sliced many different ways. The White House chose a four-year window for its comparison, but the deficit as a percentage of GDP has fallen more over shorter periods of time. For example, it fell 3.2 percentage points in 1969 (from a deficit of 2.9 percent in 1968 to a surplus of 0.3 percent of GDP in 1969).</p>
<p>This chart gives a fuller picture of deficits over the last 20 years. (Note: The years showing as negative numbers are years of budget surpluses.)</p>
<p />
<p>Joshua Gordon, policy director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization that seeks to educate the public about federal budget issues, told us that regardless of the wording, it’s a fact that the deficit is dropping rapidly.</p>
<p>In fact, although the White House didn’t cite it, the <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2014/assets/14msr.pdf" type="external">newly released mid-year projection</a> from the White House Office of Management and Budget for the 2013 fiscal year shows that due to rising revenues, the 2013 deficit is now projected to be $759 billion — $214 billion lower than the $973 billion deficit projected in the original budget. As a percentage of GDP, the 2013 deficit is now projected to equal 4.7 percent. The <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/44172-Baseline2.pdf" type="external">nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects</a> an even lower 2013 deficit of $642 billion, or 4 percent of GDP. That’s still above the level in 2008 (or any year since 1992), but it’s substantially lower than 2009. (Even if those projections pan out, however, Obama’s talking point wouldn’t be correct.)</p>
<p>As we noted in our latest “ <a href="" type="internal">Obama’s Numbers</a>” piece, budget estimates show federal spending for the current fiscal year running 6.7 percent above the levels that Obama inherited when he first took office. Obama’s spending increases have been far more modest than his predecessor’s. Federal outlays increased by 33 percent in Bush’s first term (comparing actual spending for fiscal 2005 with that for fiscal 2001, which was the last year for which Bill Clinton set spending levels). And spending rose another 34 percent in Bush’s final term, even after subtracting Obama’s $203 billion from fiscal 2009.</p>
<p>But Gordon warns not to give too much credit to Obama or Congress for the drop in the deficit. That’s mostly due to the growth — albeit slow — of the economy, bringing the government more revenue than expected, he said. The <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/44172-Baseline-OneColumn.pdf" type="external">CBO says</a> the increased revenue is also due to tax increases, most notably the expiration of the payroll tax cut and the higher rates enacted on upper-income taxpayers.</p>
<p>“That’s allowing deficits to come down,” Gordon said. “The deficit is not shrinking only, or even mostly, because of the actions of Congress or the president.”</p>
<p>Nor has Obama or Congress taken action to solve the long-term deficit crisis facing the nation due to an aging population that will cause the cost of programs like Social Security and Medicare to soar in coming decades.</p>
<p>“They are reducing the deficit in the short term, but the drivers of the long-term increases in the deficit have not been substantially altered by any action of the president or Congress,” Gordon said.</p>
<p>It’s also important to note that deficits are one-year figures, and should not be confused with the national debt, which is a sum of the cumulative effect of yearly deficits. As we <a href="" type="internal">noted recently</a>, given current deficit projections, it’s nearly certain that the debt will more than double during the Obama presidency.</p>
<p>— Robert Farley</p> | Deficits Falling (From Way Up) | false | https://factcheck.org/2013/08/deficits-falling-from-way-up/ | 2013-08-01 | 2 |
<p>They couldn’t contain themselves in Chicago this week, where the front-page headline following the debut of rookie quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mitchell-Trubisky/" type="external">Mitchell Trubisky</a> screamed in capital letters more than an inch high, “THE FUTURE IS WOW!”</p>
<p>This followed just a tad more than a half of work by Trubisky in the exhibition opener against a bunch of people wearing <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Denver_Broncos/" type="external">Denver Broncos</a> uniforms who will mostly be looking for work in another month.</p>
<p>Call it premature excitement.</p>
<p>And it makes you wonder: Why are we always looking for instant saviors in a line of work where history tells us, with few exceptions, it takes time to learn the job?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Bill_Walsh/" type="external">Bill Walsh</a> tried to force <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Joe_Montana/" type="external">Joe Montana</a> into the lineup in his second year with the 49ers and had to bench him. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Elway/" type="external">John Elway</a> was benched twice as a rookie. Jim Plunkett eventually won two Super Bowls, but did not have a winning record as a starter until his 10th season.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brett_Favre/" type="external">Brett Favre</a> so exasperated with his first coach that he was traded away. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Peyton_Manning/" type="external">Peyton Manning</a> threw 28 interceptions as a rookie. It took five years for <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Terry_Bradshaw/" type="external">Terry Bradshaw</a> to establish himself as a starter. A San Francisco newspaper welcomed <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Steve_Young/" type="external">Steve Young</a> as a starting quarterback by running a reader poll to ask whether Young or Steve Bono should be the 49ers’ QB.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kurt_Warner/" type="external">Kurt Warner</a>, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this month, had a job stocking grocery shelves for $5.50 an hour and might never have played in the NFL if the Rams hadn’t become desperate due to an injury to their presumed starter in 1999.</p>
<p>And on, and on, and on.</p>
<p>Bradshaw’s on-again, off-again early career is a good example of how developing a NFL quarterback takes time. A couple of decades later, Young struggled so mightily with Tampa Bay that executives and coaches around the NFL could hardly stifle a chuckle when Walsh, the 49ers’ quarterback guru, traded for him. Young later led the NFL in passer efficiency six years in a row on the way to the Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>Finding a quarterback, clearly, takes patience.</p>
<p>Teams are always searching and frequently overpay. Last spring, three teams (Chicago, Houston, Kansas City) traded up in the first round to select a QB. But four of the last eight Super Bowls were won by quarterbacks who were not first-round draft choices.</p>
<p>In fact, of the four Super Bowls in this recent stretch won by first-rounders, only two – Green Bay with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Aaron_Rodgers/" type="external">Aaron Rodgers</a> in 2011 and Baltimore with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Joe_Flacco/" type="external">Joe Flacco</a> in 2013 – were won by quarterbacks playing for the team that drafted them.</p>
<p>And furthermore, only three quarterbacks (Warner, Favre and Ken Stabler) have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the last decade, and none of them was a first-round draft choice.</p>
<p>Patience, however, is not a virtue for NFL fans nor, in many cases, for NFL journalists. But for every Manning, who started every game beginning with his rookie season and eventually, you may recall, developed into a pretty good quarterback, there is a <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Phil-Simms/" type="external">Phil Simms</a>, whose career foundered for several years, in part due to injuries that set back the learning curve, before he eventually played well enough to set a record for passing accuracy in the Super Bowl.</p>
<p>Which brings us back to Chicago.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Fox/" type="external">John Fox</a>, the Bears’ head coach, tried to defuse the Trubisky mania by pointing out, “First time we threw <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tim_Tebow/" type="external">Tim Tebow</a> out in Denver was pretty similar.” You remember Tebow actually helped the Broncos win a playoff game in 2011. Lasted three seasons in the NFL.</p>
<p>Several years before that, when the Broncos were coached by a legitimate quarterback guru, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mike_Shanahan/" type="external">Mike Shanahan</a>, they drafted a quarterback named <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jay_Cutler/" type="external">Jay Cutler</a>. Cutler is a modern-day incarnation of a former San Francisco quarterback named Steve DeBerg, of whom Walsh once solemnly intoned, “He plays just good enough to get you beat.”</p>
<p>Early on, one Denver columnist called Cutler “the greatest thing since raspberry jam.”</p>
<p>As it turned out, Cutler played just good enough in Denver to get Shanahan fired, and the next coach traded him to Chicago, which greeted him as a combination of Johnny Unitas and Otto Graham. On his arrival in the Windy City, one columnist wrote, “The Bears now have the best quarterback in the NFC.”</p>
<p>Fast forward to today. Cutler is now expected to be the savior in Miami, he has a .500 record for his NFL career and one playoff appearance in 11 seasons. The irony is that he had the best year of his career when <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Adam-Gase/" type="external">Adam Gase</a>, the current Dolphins’ head coach, was his offensive coordinator in Chicago, and, well, connect the dots. A career-long record of mediocrity suggests Cutler is, well, mediocre, but perhaps Gase is a miracle worker who can get to him.</p>
<p>In any event, Cutler’s career, and inversely, the roads traveled by Bradshaw, Young and Simms provide compelling evidence that it’s idiotic to fall head over heels for a quarterback after one exhibition game or even one season. But it’s a clear sign of how challenged some teams in the league are to find a decent quarterback that it takes so little to get them and their fans excited.</p>
<p>There have been quarterbacks who were great from the get-go, but you can pretty well count them on one hand. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dan_Marino/" type="external">Dan Marino</a> led the AFC in passer rating as a rookie in 1983. More recently, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matt_Ryan/" type="external">Matt Ryan</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Russell_Wilson/" type="external">Russell Wilson</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ben_Roethlisberger/" type="external">Ben Roethlisberger</a> led their teams to the playoffs as rookies.</p>
<p>But if you really want to know why it’s stupid to make a rush to judgement on a quarterback, consider the case of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Robert-Griffin-III/" type="external">Robert Griffin III</a>, the second player chosen in the 2012 draft. He led the Redskins to the playoffs as a rookie, has never has been able to recreate his first-year success and, at age 27, is looking for work after flunking out in that NFL graveyard in Cleveland.</p>
<p>So, let’s contain the first-week excitement, even the first-year excitement, please. Quarterback is the hardest job in professional sports, and you’ll usually be disappointed looking for instant success.</p>
<p>Ira Miller is an award-winning sportswriter who has covered the National Football League for more than five decades and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. He is a national columnist for The Sports Xchange.</p> | Ira Miller: Let's tap brakes on anointing rookie quarterbacks | false | https://newsline.com/ira-miller-let039s-tap-brakes-on-anointing-rookie-quarterbacks/ | 2017-08-17 | 1 |
<p />
<p>TUESDAY, July 18, 2017 — Having a handsome husband often motivates plain Jane types to diet, a new study finds.</p>
<p>But the same isn’t true of wives who are good-looking themselves.</p>
<p>And men displayed little motivation to diet regardless of their own or their wife’s attractiveness, investigators found.</p>
<p>“The results reveal that having a physically attractive husband may have negative consequences for wives, especially if those wives are not particularly attractive,” said study co-author Tania Reynolds, a doctoral student at Florida State University.</p>
<p>Fearing she’ll fall short of her partner’s expectations could increase a less attractive woman’s risk of developing eating disorders and other health problems, the study authors suggested.</p>
<p>“The research suggests there might be social factors playing a role in women’s disordered eating,” Reynolds said in a university news release.</p>
<p>The National Eating Disorders Association estimates 20 million women in the United States suffer from a significant eating disorder at some time in their life. These disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. Depression, anxiety, substance abuse and dissatisfaction with life have been linked to extreme weight-loss behaviors, the researchers noted.</p>
<p>The new study included 113 newlywed couples in the Dallas area, who agreed to be rated on their attractiveness. On average, they were in their late 20s.</p>
<p>Participants completed questionnaires that included statements such as, “I feel extremely guilty after eating,” “I like my stomach to be empty,” and “I’m terrified of gaining weight.”</p>
<p>Previous research has indicated that some women overestimate their partner’s wish for them to be thin, Reynolds said.</p>
<p>Study co-author Andrea Meltzer said the study findings suggest that relationships may hold clues to women’s reasons for dieting.</p>
<p>“In order to better understand women’s dieting motivations, the findings of this study highlight the value of adopting an approach that focuses on a couple’s relationship,” said Meltzer. She is an assistant professor of psychology at Florida State.</p>
<p>Reynolds said supportive partners can assist women who worry about their weight.</p>
<p>“One way to help these women is for partners to be very reaffirming, reminding them, ‘You’re beautiful. I love you at any weight or body type,'” Reynolds said.</p>
<p>Or, she added, they can focus on positive qualities outside of attractiveness, saying, for example, “I really value you because you’re a kind, smart and supportive partner.”</p>
<p>One possible future area of research would be to examine whether women are more motivated to diet when they are surrounded by attractive female friends, Reynolds said.</p>
<p>“If we understand how women’s relationships affect their decision to diet and the social predictors for developing unhealthy eating behaviors, then we will be better able to help them,” she said.</p>
<p>The findings were published online recently in the journal Body Image.</p>
<p>More information</p>
<p>The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more on <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/eating-disorders/index.shtml" type="external">eating disorders</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.</p> | Study: Women driven to be thinner when husband is hot | false | https://newsline.com/study-women-driven-to-be-thinner-when-husband-is-hot/ | 2017-07-18 | 1 |
<p>I toss in an unfamiliar bed. Strange bed. Strange room. Strange town. Strange country. A stranger in a strange land, I sleep fitfully in a country not my own. The hotel door bangs open. Heavy boots shake the room as armed soldiers surround me. Angry voices. Blinding lights. Paralyzing panic. Groggy, I am slow to react. Too slow. Rough hands jerk me off the bed and onto the hard floor. A boot presses on my spine and another on my neck. Face down, I am pinned to the floor. My hands are cuffed behind my back, so tightly that my arm sockets burn with pain.</p>
<p>A stifled scream corks my throat. After the scream finally breaks loose, I slip into my native tongue, not their language. All the while the soldiers shout at me, but I only understand every 10th word. Though I shout back, they apparently don’t understand me. I have been thrust into a Kafkaesque nightmare. I have read “Kafka,” but I am certain the soldiers have not.</p>
<p>Under the cover of night, I am whisked to a solitary cell in a maximum-security prison. My pleas for a phone call are ignored. I have not been allowed to contact family or friends. I’m terrified that my wife and daughter are worried about me. My requests to see a lawyer also fall on deaf ears.</p>
<p>The only people I see are my captors. Every day they haul me into an interrogation room to grill me with questions. Surrounded by stone-faced soldiers and unsympathetic translators, I hear the same questions day after day. Same hostile questions. Same open skepticism. Same life-or-death threats.</p>
<p>The days stretch into a sameness like a living death. My claustrophobic cell shrinks to the dimensions of a coffin. No one on the outside knows where I am or if I’m alive. Down to a flicker of hope, I am spirited in the night to a new prison, hundreds of miles, maybe thousands of miles from my old cell.</p>
<p>New prison. Same questions. Same threats. Same loneliness. Same living death. The first transfer presages a second — and a third. I feel like the pea in a shell game. I picture my wife, maybe a lawyer and my friends pounding on a prison door, only to discover that I had been whisked away, hidden under another shell. The captors stay a step ahead.</p>
<p>Disoriented by frequent moves and forced isolation, I forget where I am, what country is holding me. Am I a political prisoner in South America? Eastern Europe? Southeast Asia? Have I joined the swelling ranks of “los desaparecidos,” the disappeared ones?</p>
<p>But my name isn’t Paul, and I’m not in South America, Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia. My name could be Pablo or Nikita or Omar, and I am a prisoner in the United States. I have been branded a terrorist suspect, though the basis for the suspicion may be vague, flimsy or not spelled out at all.</p>
<p>Forget the books and movies. There is no phone call from prison, no lawyer in the visiting room and no judge watching over my case. There are only captors, questions and solitary cells.</p>
<p>SIMPLISTIC ANALYSIS</p>
<p>In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States joined the ranks of countries that allow the police to pick up noncitizens (if certified by the U.S. attorney general as terrorist suspects) and detain them almost indefinitely with virtually no judicial oversight. Even the expansive detention powers granted by Congress last month fell short of Attorney General John Ashcroft’s bid for the right to detain noncitizen terrorist suspects indefinitely with no judicial oversight.</p>
<p>While Congress should be commended for rejecting Ashcroft’s radical proposal, Congress erred by shifting the burden of proving the need for greater detention powers and by undervaluing judicial oversight as a deterrent to abuse of those powers. Granted, elected officials tremble at the prospect of being branded as soft on terrorists (more toxic than past charges of being soft on communists or drugs), but was it too much for Congress to force the administration to prove a need for expanded detention powers to battle terrorism?</p>
<p>Instead of careful deliberation of the long-term implications of removing an important check on law enforcement, the simplistic analysis was that foreigners had committed horrific crimes and that noncitizens have fewer rights than citizens. That noncitizens enjoy fewer rights than citizens should have been the beginning of the analysis, not its end. Before we weaken judicial oversight of police, law enforcement should bear a heavy burden of proof that judges are impeding their terrorism probes.</p>
<p>The executive branch made no such showing here. Indeed, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, federal courts have issued hundreds of material witness warrants for citizens and noncitizens. There is simply no evidence that the courts, by retaining oversight over the detention of citizens and noncitizens (including those detained in a terrorism investigation), are thwarting law enforcement in any way.</p>
<p>More than 1,100 people have been detained by law enforcement in connection with the Sept. 11 investigation — some for hours, some for days, some for weeks, some for who knows how long — and the toll climbs daily. Disturbing stories are surfacing that some detainees have been cut off from phones, family, friends and lawyers. Some apparently are being shuttled from prison to prison.</p>
<p>Except for aggregate (and unreliable) numbers, the Department of Justice does not release information about the detainees. Thus, there are more than 1,100 case studies bearing directly on the scope of the present detention powers — case studies that should have been carefully reviewed by Congress before it granted law enforcement greater detention powers.</p>
<p>The vast majority of police detentions are undertaken in good faith and pursuant to law, but cops occasionally overstep the bounds. In a system of checks and balances, the presumption should be that, when the police obtain greater powers, judicial oversight is tightened. Only on the most compelling showing of necessity (with the burden falling squarely on law enforcement) should the police gain greater powers by relaxing or removing judicial oversight.</p>
<p>It’s easy, too easy, to take rights from noncitizens. After all, it’s not our problem, right? It’s not our problem unless, of course, we happen to be sleeping in another country, not our own. And if we close our eyes too tightly and too long, we may fall asleep in the United States and wake up in another country, not our own.</p>
<p>Paul Coggins is a principal in the Dallas office of Fish &amp; Richardson, a national intellectual property, complex litigation and technology firm. He is a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.</p> | Kafka and the Patriot Act | true | https://counterpunch.org/2001/11/26/kafka-and-the-patriot-act/ | 2001-11-26 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Moctesuma Esparza, the head of California-based Maya Cinemas, has claimed Santa Fe’s Railyard overseers were catering to rich, north-side Anglos by choosing Violet Crown Cinema, which specializes in art house films at its Austin theater, to take over the cinema space.</p>
<p>At the same time, representatives of Santa Fe’s two major art screens have pointed out the abundance of movie screens for a city this size and warned that their own theaters might suffer with the presence of the newcomer, perhaps forcing them to close down.</p>
<p>But no one has raised another question worth considering: In this day and age, is a multiplex cinema really the best option for bringing people into the Railyard? Can we assume that, if you build it, they will come?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>At The Screen and the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe has two wonderful venues for art and independent films. The screens are large, the seats are comfortable, the sight lines and sound are good, and the workers are friendly film buffs. The floors aren’t sticky and you’re not distracted by loud explosions or other sounds coming from the movie showing door.</p>
<p>Perhaps most important, the parking lots next to them are free and reasonably accessible, and they are located away from Santa Fe’s traffic-impaired downtown.</p>
<p>Folks are the Railyard are promising that parking stubs would be validated to make parking free for people coming to the movies. That certainly would be possible for the parking garage in the Railyard.</p>
<p>But that garage has been located in a spot that is not the easiest to access, as anyone who has tried to reach it on a busy Farmers Market day can attest.</p>
<p>More than once, traffic on those narrow streets leading to the parking garage has been backed up in both directions while a driver, usually in an oversize SUV, decides that he or she is entitled to an open parking space on the opposite side of the street, and backs and inches forward, over and over again, to get to it.</p>
<p>Also, on your way to the parking garage, both cars and people pop out into the streets, leading to too many near-misses. A voyage to the parking garage is a crawl, or even a dead stop if you happen to take a route that gets held up by a train.</p>
<p>On a dead day, it’s not bad getting to the garage. On a busy day, it’s a royal pain. So the more successful the theater is, the less attractive the parking will be.</p>
<p>A nice, big lot is readily accessible from Paseo de Peralta by Warehouse 21, but it has machines where you pay for your parking, and then display the payment receipt on your windshield.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>That wouldn’t be an option for free parking, though. Even if the theater gave you a free parking pass after you paid your admission, who would want to walk all the way back to display it in their car window before heading back to the theater for the movie?</p>
<p>As for paying for that parking, how many times have we found ourselves queued up behind a person stumbling through the directions on the machine, puzzled as to whether he or she is doing something wrong or whether the durn thing simply (once again) isn’t working right?</p>
<p>As for the south side, Regal has a 14-screen theater with blockbuster movies easily reached from Cerrillos and Airport roads, with a big, free parking lot. Surrounding it are a host of restaurants that offer a wide range of cuisines, many of them reasonably affordable and almost all run by local operators.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a co-worker complained to me that he couldn’t find lunch for less than $15 in the Railyard. (Hint: A lot of people don’t consider $15 lunches affordable.)</p>
<p>For those of us not within walking range of the Railyard, driving to a theater there could turn out to be downright annoying.</p>
<p>And, by the way, other theaters aren’t the only competition.</p>
<p>Sure, there’s something attractive about watching a movie on a large screen, sharing the experience and reactions with a lot of other people. (Well, unless they’re kicking the back of your seat, talking or texting, with that little phone screen shining up into your eyes.) There is some excitement in seeing a movie as soon as it comes out.</p>
<p>But people are buying larger and larger home screens these days. And it doesn’t hurt all that much to wait for Netflix or some form of video streaming, which is cheaper, plus you don’t have to worry about someone spilling a soft drink down your neck.</p>
<p>Watching a movie at home, you can pause it while you transfer laundry to the dryer, or spoon your dinner onto a plate after it’s done cooking. We’re all multitasking more and more, after all.</p>
<p>For this south-sider who enjoys art films, the current options are a lot more attractive than fighting my way into the Railyard.</p>
<p>Jadrnak is city editor of the Journal Santa Fe/Journal North.</p> | Will another cinema really bring people to the Railyard? | false | https://abqjournal.com/192059/will-another-cinema-really-bring-people-to-the-railyard.html | 2013-04-24 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Soros Fund Management is a pillar of Wall Street because of its sheer size and proven ability to outperform the broader markets on a regular basis, despite the retirement of its founder George Soros in 2015. As a result, this fund has a particularly strong influence in terms of shaping market sentiment, making it a good idea to know which stocks Soros Fund Management is buying and selling on a quarterly basis.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>George Soros. Image source: Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/boellstiftung/13307813654" type="external">Heinrich-Bll-Stiftung Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Per the recently released 13F filings with the SEC, this top money management fund reportedly bought shares of the iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index ETF , Gilead Sciences , and Novavax in the first quarter of 2016. Armed with this information, let's consider whether retail investors should follow in the fund's giant footsteps.</p>
<p>Biotech and biopharmaceutical stocks of all stripes and colors have been getting smashed in 2016. The overarching reason is the rhetoric emanating from the U.S. presidential election that's creating uncertainty about the future of Obamacare, and the pricing schemes of pharmaceutical products going forward. However, the slowing growth trajectory of top dogs in biotech like Gilead Sciences, along with a handful of pivotal clinical setbacks, have also played key roles in the industry's recent pullback. Taken together, these various headwinds have helped to drive the IBB down by more than 20% in the first quarter:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/IBB" type="external">IBB</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Even so, the IBB remains a good way to gain exposure to this volatile, yet promising, group of stocks. After all, the IBB sports 189 different holdings in the biotech and biopharma space, giving investors a balanced mix of stable large-cap companies and more speculative clinical-stage companies.</p>
<p>Why did Soros Management pick up the IBB? In the first quarter, the fund closed a number of smallish positions in biopharma -- many of which are held in the IBB. So, my take is that the fund was simply consolidating its position in biotech by buying the IBB, and perhaps taking advantage of the ETF's massive sell-off in the first part of 2016 as well.</p>
<p>Gilead Sciences also caught the fund's attention in the first quarter, with Soros Fund Management opening a smallish position of 3,600 shares in the biotech. This fund is known to open marginal positions and later ramp up (or sell off) said positions, depending on how the stocks behave in the short term.</p>
<p>Gilead is particularly interesting from this viewpoint because the biotech's stock has continued to print lower lows due to pricing pressure and increasing competition on its hepatitis C franchise, composed of Sovaldi and Harvoni. In fact, Gilead is now trading close to its 52-week lows after posting weaker-than-expected sales of its most valuable drug franchise in the first quarter:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/GILD" type="external">GILD</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a>.</p>
<p>From an outsider's perspective, the fund's investing thesis seems to revolve around Gilead bouncing back sometime soon. To do so, though, Gilead is probably going to need to execute a largish bolt-on acquisition to shore up its top line moving forward. Unfortunately, at the momentthe marketisn't placing much of a premium on the biotech's clinical assets in oncology or liver diseases outside of hepatitis C, meaning that all eyes remain on the biotech's flattening top line.</p>
<p>While Gilead does have the funds necessary to pursue a merger large enough to juice its top line, history implies that such a move is highly unlikely, as the biotech has tended to buy smaller clinical-stage companies in the past. Then again, Gilead is entering a new phase of its life cycle, brought forth by the unprecedented success of Sovaldi and Harvoni. As such, management might be more willing than usual to go after big game, so to speak.</p>
<p>Because Novavax is a clinical-stage vaccine company, the market saw fit to thrash the stock in the first part of the year. As a result, this small-cap biotech is now trading well below its 52-week highs:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/NVAX" type="external">NVAX</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a>.</p>
<p>The kicker is that little has changed in terms of Novavax's value proposition. While the Street is a tad concerned about the commercial prospects of its experimentalRSV F vaccine in healthy pregnant women, due to somewhat disappointing mid-stage results, the vaccine is making stellar progress in its clinical program for the elderly. Specifically, Novavax reported in its first quarter earnings release that the vaccine's pivotal late-stage study in elderly adults should produce top-line data by the third quarter of 2016, meaning that a regulatory filing could come as soon as the first quarter of 2017. Topping it off, the biotech exited the first quarter with a healthy$433.9 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities.</p>
<p>As a regulatory approval for elderly adults could very well propel this experimental vaccine to blockbuster status, Novavax looks, to me, to be grossly undervalued at current levels. So, like Gilead, the fund's interest in Novavax is probably related to the possibility of a turnaround in the near term.</p>
<p>I personally like all three,but I would also caution against taking a short-term view with these particular equities. The IBB is an easy way to gain exposure to pretty much the entire field of publicly traded biotechs, which is a promising prospect in light of the jaw-dropping amount of innovation going on within biotech at present. Gilead, for its part, remains a solid company due to its management team, positive cash flows, and strong cash position. Finally, Novavax is perhaps the stock with the biggest upside potential, based on the blockbuster aspirations of its lead produce candidate, which is barreling toward a regulatory filing within the next 12 months.</p>
<p>Having said that, these three biotech plays are all going to be subject to the whimsy of the political season, implying that they will most likely struggle to break out until the U.S. presidential election wraps up in November. Once this headwind has passed, though, I fully expect the biotech rally to recapture some of its former glory, which should benefit all three. In other words, it's probably a bad idea to buy them hoping for a quick profit, but investors with a longer-term outlook may want to start to pick up some shares while they are trading far below their former highs.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/21/billionaire-george-soros-fund-bought-these-stocks.aspx" type="external">Billionaire George Soros' Fund Bought These Stocks: Should You? Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/gbudwell/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">George Budwell Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (ETF). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Gilead Sciences. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Billionaire George Soros' Fund Bought These Stocks: Should You? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/21/billionaire-george-soros-fund-bought-these-stocks-should.html | 2016-05-21 | 0 |
<p>Aug. 4 (UPI) — Rocky and The Expendables icon <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Sylvester_Stallone/" type="external">Sylvester Stallone</a> has booked a guest appearance on NBC’s family drama, This is Us.</p>
<p>“Can you guess what special guest star we’re going to see in Season 2? The one and only… @TheSlyStallone! #ThisIsUs,” <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCThisisUs/status/893176513285062656" type="external">the show’s Twitter account</a> said Thursday.</p>
<p>Starring <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Milo_Ventimiglia/" type="external">Milo Ventimiglia</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mandy_Moore/" type="external">Mandy Moore</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Sterling-K-Brown/" type="external">Sterling K. Brown</a>, Chrissy Metz and Justin Hartley, the flashback-heavy series follows the lives of a pair of white twins and the same-aged, black brother their parents brought into the family the day they were born. Season 2 is to begin Sept. 26.</p> | Sylvester Stallone to guest star on 'This is Us' | false | https://newsline.com/sylvester-stallone-to-guest-star-on-this-is-us/ | 2017-08-04 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a slightly faster rate in the fourth quarter than earlier estimates, as consumers ramped up spending that’s expected fuel growth throughout 2017.</p>
<p>The gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, expanded at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the October-December period, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The figure is an improvement from the previous estimate of 1.9 percent. The added strength stemmed from stronger consumer spending, which offset an increased drag from trade.</p>
<p>Many economists project growth of around 2 percent in the current January-March quarter, but they expect greater strength as the year progresses as bullish consumers keep spending.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Consumer spending will lead growth thanks to higher incomes from more jobs and rising wages, as well as likely tax cuts,” said PNC Economist Gus Faucher, who predicted GDP growth for all of 2017 at 2.3 percent.</p>
<p>That would be a significant improvement from anemic growth of 1.6 percent in 2016, the weakest showing in five years. Since the Great Recession ended in June 2009, the economy has averaged annual GDP growth of just 2.1 percent, the slowest recovery since the end of World War II.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump has pledged to boost GDP growth to 4 percent or better, though private economists are doubtful he can achieve that goal given the headwinds the economy faces from an aging workforce and disappointing productivity growth.</p>
<p>He said his economic program of tax cuts, deregulation and increased spending in such areas as the military and infrastructure would boost the economy back to growth rates not seen on a sustained basis in decades.</p>
<p>Trump’s legislative agenda faced a setback last week when Republicans were forced to pull a measure to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law because they did not have enough votes in the House of Representatives. Despite the setback, Trump has said the administration will soon unveil a plan to cut individual and corporate tax rates, a key component of his stimulus program.</p>
<p>Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week that even if the initial goal of getting the tax measure approved by August slips, he still believes the plan can win congressional approval by this fall.</p>
<p>Mnuchin has cited a lower goal of growth above 3 percent. Private economists, however, believe the impact of Trump’s stimulus efforts will be even smaller. Top forecasters with the National Association for Business Economists on Monday projected GDP growth this year of 2.3 percent, rising only slightly to 2.5 percent in 2018.</p>
<p>One complicating factor for Trump’s program is the Federal Reserve, which earlier this month boosted a key interest rate for the second time in three months and retained a projection for a total of three rate hikes this year. The Fed is raising interest rates to make sure that inflation does not become a problem but higher rates could make it harder to achieve faster GDP growth.</p>
<p>For the fourth quarter, the government revised its estimate for consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of economic activity, to a growth rate of 3.5 percent from a previous estimate of 3 percent.</p>
<p>The economy also got a boost from slightly stronger rebuilding of business stockpiles. However, these increases were offset somewhat by a bigger trade deficit, which subtracted 1.8 percentage points from growth in the fourth quarter, and less business investment than previously estimated.</p>
<p>The release Thursday was the government’s third look at GDP for the fourth quarter. It will issue its first look at first quarter GDP on April 28.</p> | US economy grew at steady 2.1 percent rate in Q4 | false | https://abqjournal.com/979023/us-economy-grew-at-2-1-percent-rate-in-q4.html | 2017-03-30 | 2 |
<p>Guns. You already know the right opinion to have on that topic, right? Well, maybe this is something you’ve not considered before.</p>
<p>Guns are the biggest issue that keep a good portion of country folks voting Republican even when it may be the Democrats who best serve them in the end. Realistically, if this isn’t something that is addressed by urban liberals, things won’t change. If progressives want to hold power for an extended period of time, this is an issue that must eventually be grappled with.</p>
<p>Now, sit down and drink your tea. I’m not trying to change your opinion about guns in your own neighborhood. Or, the NRA. And you can make all the laws you want. But, you need to understand this basic fact:</p>
<p>An urban person thinks a gun is a good way to get mugged. Which they are completely correct in believing.</p>
<p>A rural person thinks a gun is a good way to catch some food if they’re out of work and the kids are hungry. Which they are completely correct in believing.</p>
<p>Now, that’s the simplified version, obviously. But, it needs to be said that most liberals or potential liberals see the same thing very differently than you might.</p>
<p>Feeding one’s family is a primal issue. Guns are about protecting that family, but in this case, from starving. (Or, the unspoken fear passed down in your heritage of starving.) If you have a hard time understanding this perspective, think of people in your family who suffered during the Great Depression and how it effected them (and maybe you) to this day.</p>
<p>Starving gets in your bones. You pass it down to your kids. And, often, their kids. Rural folks who may have always had “enough” still know in their bones that any day, as the old saying goes, the creek can rise.</p>
<p>Now, this very real fear may be covered by macho posturing about guns along the way. Most, though not all, country folks don’t actually want fourteen hundred assault rifles anymore than you do. Admitting you’re afraid one day you may not be able to feed your kids without hunting down their next meal, though, is embarrassing to admit to someone who’s never had that experience.</p>
<p>‘Cause, let’s face it. Folks who produce their own food are stigmatized. It’s only recently since backyard chickens and urban farms are taking off that it’s been seen as actually progressive to toil for your food. Think about it. An urban person with a pitchfork is radical while a country person is not.</p>
<p>I worry that a lot of what coud be our party is driven off by these spoken and unspoken attitudes. And, truthfully, a lot more folks than you assume do have rural backgrounds and it does effect what they believe. When I told her I was writing this piece, a wonderfully progressive friend confided in me about her boyfriend. Even though he has thirty years of progressive credentials on his side, she is scared to tell her other friends that he hunts and fishes.</p>
<p>Because, of course, they just wouldn’t understand.</p>
<p>They’d start testing everything she says about him for some hint of reactionary politics, some sense of him being a traitor to the cause. Because, of course, rednecks just aren’t progressive. But they are. We just call them leftnecks.</p>
<p>Rural America is full of people with a class consciousness and a progressive bent. But, once they pick up that feeding their family (as it is instinctively perceived) is at risk, you’re in trouble.</p>
<p>Really, producing your own food is a class issue in itself. While it helps insulate you from the economy at large, it also takes many more hours than a regular full time job, which many folks work in addition to farming. No matter where you live, some cash is necessary in this world. Even when you produce milk, eggs, meat, fruit and greens for your own table, as well as having your own source of water, the electric company, at the very least would rather not be paid in eggs.</p>
<p>The amount of time spent caring for animals or crops is actually not worth it in many ways, especially financially. So, why do people do it? Why do they stick it out year after year?</p>
<p>Because, honestly, it feels right. When you put milk in your morning coffee and you know the name of the worker (in this case an animal) that produced that milk, you feel differently about it. You appreciate it more. Sure it tastes better, but it’s far more than that. It feels better. Something is very right with the world. And your life.</p>
<p>So, please, hear me on that level.</p>
<p>Even if you hate guns and would never let your kids play with toy ones. Even if you despise factory farming. Don’t mix up those real issues with regular folks who are trying to support their families. These folks I’m speaking of are not the enemy. Hunting and fishing are how more folks make it through each year than you may realize. Take the trophy hunter out of your mind for a moment. He is a very different character than I’m speaking about.</p>
<p>Folks who hunt often count on it feeding them for the next six months. If they can afford a big enough freezer, for the next year. Seen this way, it becomes more apparent that some folks have very real survival (not survivalist) issues attached to guns.</p>
<p>Even if they do not hunt themselves, if they’ve been raised knowing that grandma got through one winter just on squirrel meat and boiled water from the creek alone, they have a heritage of it. They know that a gun may one be the only thing between them and actual starvation.</p>
<p>With all the poverty programs that progressives work so hard to put in place, you might still be wondering why such a food obsessed set of folks still often swings Republican. Well, here’s how it is.</p>
<p>Republicans, as they see it, protect their family’s right to supply their own food. That’s it. If you can understand that, you will have the key to understanding much of what you may find incomprehensible about the voting patterns of rural America.</p>
<p>So, since most folks (no matter where they live) consider politicians to be bozos, it’s basically the bozo who will feed you now, or the bozo who will make sure you can feed yourself later. So, they choose Bozo #2. Because, as you may have figured by now, rural folks are proud of their ability to be self sufficient. So, at it’s basic, all the hullaballoo around guns sometimes just comes down to this: the ability to sustain your family with your own two hands.</p>
<p>So, the next time you start to write someone off because they mention they hunt (or they look like someone who might hunt) consider instead just talking about food with them. You might make a new friend. Or, at the least, find out where to get cammo pants at a discount.</p>
<p>Best Ever Country Style Cornbread</p>
<p>I’m going to let you use whatever recipe you want. Because, I get a feeling you’ll want to sweeten it up which is a no-no in my book. So, you use your batter, but bake it my way. Let’s see how that combination works.</p>
<p>Stick your cast iron skillet (go borrow one from your redneck Republican neighbor if you don’t have one) in the oven with the oil or grease already in it. Go back to the counter and mix your batter however you like. Once the fat is hot enough to make your batter sizzle when it’s dropped in, you’re ready to bake. Proceed as usual.</p>
<p>That sizzle you heard was your cornbread making itself the most delicious crust ever, which is important in a good cornbread. When it’s done, it should just pop right out of the pan. When you return your skillet to your redneck neighbor, be nice, and include some cornbread as a thank-you. He might just decide you’re not as weird as he thought you were.</p> | The Politics of Cornbread | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/07/29/the-politics-of-cornbread/ | 2011-07-29 | 4 |
<p>President <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a>’s recent comments about potentially revoking broadcasting licenses from network news outlets critical of his administration has prompted a member of his own party to question the commander-in-chief’s commitment to upholding the constitutionally protected right to free speech.</p>
<p>“Mr. President: Words spoken by the President of the United States matter,” Sen. Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican, said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/BenSasse/status/918296123269189632" type="external">statement</a> Wednesday evening. “Are you tonight recanting of the oath you took on January 20th to preserve, protect and defend the First Amendment?”</p>
<p>The senator’s statement was shared on his Twitter account shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday evening and garnered roughly 16,000 retweets within 12 hours of being posted.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> ignited a firestorm earlier Wednesday for suggesting federal regulators review NBC’s broadcasting license after the network reported earlier that morning that the president wanted to dramatically increase the size of America’s nuclear arsenal.</p>
<p>“Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN,” <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/918110279367643137" type="external">responded</a> Wednesday morning on Twitter.</p>
<p>“With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/918112884630093825" type="external">said</a> in another tweet. “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!” he said in another.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> ultimately moved his tirade from Twitter to the Oval Office, rehashing his comments during a conversation later Wednesday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying: “It’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write,.”</p>
<p>Mr. Sasse, meanwhile, was hardly the only person on Capitol Hill put off by the president’s remarks. Sen. Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, wrote Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday asking his agency to “withstand any urges from President <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> to harm the news media and infringe upon the First Amendment.” Sen. Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire Democrat, also implored Mr. Pai to denounce the president’s “unacceptable attack on the free press.”</p>
<p>Neither Mr. Pai nor the FCC immediately commented publicly on the president’s comments or subsequent firestorm, but Jessica Rosenworcel, one of the FCC’s five commissioners, tweeted a reaction to <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>’s musing about challenging NBC’s broadcating license.</p>
<p>“Not how it works,” Ms. Rosenworcel <a href="https://twitter.com/JRosenworcel/status/918122410620194816" type="external">tweeted</a> Wednesday in response to the president’s comment along with a link to the FCC’s public broadcasting manual. “Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy. Hope my FCC colleagues can all be on the same page with respect to 1st Amendment,” she said in <a href="https://twitter.com/JRosenworcel/status/918209985150115845" type="external">another</a> tweet.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="" type="internal">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Sen. Ben Sasse doubts Trump’s commitment to First Amendment after recent anti-media remarks | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/12/ben-sasse-doubts-donald-trumps-commitment-to-first/ | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
<p>Just a few years ago, “film music in concert” translated to short suites by big-name movie composers (Henry Mancini, John Williams) performed at summer pops concerts. Today, established American orchestras that once didn’t look at the merging of screen and music seriously, take heed of live-to-picture performances as very big business, with concert halls packing in audiences around the world.</p>
<p>That’s something of a surprise, considering how most classical musicians had traditionally looked down their collective noses at movie music.&#160;“Film music was a pejorative, and that was the end of it,” David Newman says. Now they see the attendance figures, and attitudes have changed considerably.</p>
<p>Indeed, just a month ago, the New York Philharmonic completed a three-week, four-film “Star Wars” series with Newman conducting John Williams’ scores for the original trilogy plus “The Force Awakens” to sold-out crowds at New York’s David Geffen Hall. “The orchestra absolutely killed it,” says Newman. “I don’t think it could be played any better.”</p>
<p>And the possibilities aren’t limited to films. TV shows including “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/game-of-thrones/" type="external">Game of Thrones</a>” and “House of Cards” are placing music-and-montage center stage, offering variations on the live-to-pic presentation involving singers and dancers augmenting the film in real-time. A superstar composer such as <a href="http://variety.com/t/hans-zimmer/" type="external">Hans Zimmer</a>, meanwhile, is drawing tens of thousands to his rock-concert-style performances.</p>
<p>“There is an ever-growing expansion of the marketplace,” says Jamie Richardson, producer for Film Concerts Live!, which presents other classic Williams scores including “E.T.,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jurassic Park,” “Jaws” and the just-announced “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Its 2017 bookings have already surpassed those from last year, “and that is with a lot more product in the marketplace” such as the “Harry Potter” films, offered by CineConcerts, the “Star Wars” films, controlled by Disney/Lucasfilm, and others.</p>
<p>Steve Linder, another producer with Film Concerts Live! and a veteran of film-music presentation dating back to the ’90s, points out that improvements in technology have made it easier for orchestras to take on a live-to-film presentation, which requires digital projection capabilities and sometimes click-track synchronization devices.</p>
<p>And, symphony planners are realizing, there is an ancillary benefit: “Orchestras have routinely reported to us that anywhere from 60% to 70%, sometimes 80%, of the people at our concerts, are hearing a symphony orchestra live for the first time,” says Richardson. “The hope is that some will come back and experience Beethoven and Mozart as well.”</p>
<p>There’s no doubt that it’s profitable. According to live entertainment trade Pollstar, box office grosses for Live Nation’s “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/it-game-of-thrones-1202599713/" type="external">Game of Thrones</a> Live Concert Experience,” which played across North America earlier this year, often approached or exceeded $1 million per date in venues including New York’s 28,790-capacity Madison Square Garden and L.A.’s 17,500-seater the Forum. That rivals revenue of an A-list pop star’s sold-out stops.</p>
<p>A 2018 tour has just been announced, including Europe and the U.S., again with “Game of Thrones” composer Ramin Djawadi conducting.</p>
<p>“I decided to make this a hybrid,” Djawadi tells Variety. “Between the traditional orchestra concert and more contemporary things that you might see in a rock concert, pyro, snow … it embraces the audience more.”And if fans are looking for clues to what’s coming next, they may find some in concert. It’s like “a two-hour trailer for the next season,” quips the composer. “You really get a breakdown of the characters and the plot.” For the new tour, “they will see a whole new show; we are completely redesigning the stage,” he says. In each city he conducts a 40-piece orchestra and 20-voice choir.</p>
<p>Producer Richard Kraft’s elaborate “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” show, based on the 1971 movie, played over the weekend at the Hollywood Bowl, complete with singers, dancers, projections and scratch and sniff tickets. He is attempting to take the next step in presenting film music to live audiences. Kraft, who earlier did versions of “The Little Mermaid,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “La La Land” with live performances accompanying the films, calls these “celebrations of the movie … an enhancement. They’re not traditional symphonic concerts, singing concerts, or theatrical stage presentations. My goal for the shows we’re doing is more resembling an evening at Disneyland than an evening at a concert hall.”</p>
<p>The most radical reinvention of the film-music concert is probably Zimmer’s recent world tour. Says the composer of “The Lion King,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Dark Knight” and “Inception”: “I wanted film music to break out of the pigeonhole of ‘film music.’ What would happen if you unleashed it onto an audience that was not filled with film music fans?”</p>
<p>Zimmer decided on two rules: No images from the films and no conductor. As his business partner and producer Steven Kofsky notes, “He didn’t want to be a guy with his back to the audience. He wanted it to be entertainment. No conductor, no music stands.”</p>
<p>So Zimmer’s concerts feature no film clips at all. Audiences figure out for themselves what he’s playing, and they have to guess whether it’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” or “Driving Miss Daisy.”</p>
<p>“If you’re looking at images, you’re not really committing to the experience of seeing the musicians play,” Zimmer says. “The music can stand on its own two feet.”</p>
<p>It’s worked. Zimmer’s concerts frequently passed the $1 million gross-per-venue mark, from New York’s Radio City Music Hall to London’s Wembley Arena, according to Pollstar data.</p>
<p>Coachella was the test, Zimmer recalls: “They had the courage to put us on the same stage as Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga.” The L.A. Times later referred to the booking as “a stroke of mad genius.”</p>
<p>Adds producer Kraft: “The term ‘film music concert’ can now mean anything.’”</p> | From ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Game of Thrones,’ Film and TV Music in a Live Setting Is Thriving | false | https://newsline.com/from-star-wars-to-game-of-thrones-film-and-tv-music-in-a-live-setting-is-thriving/ | 2017-11-09 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>WASHINGTON – We should mourn, but we should be angry.</p>
<p>The horror in Newtown, Conn., should shake us out of the cowardice, the fear, the evasion and the opportunism that prevent our political system from acting to curb gun violence.</p>
<p>How often must we note that no other developed country has such massacres on a regular basis because no other comparable nation allows such easy access to guns? And on no subject other than ungodly episodes involving guns are those who respond logically by demanding solutions accused of “politicizing tragedy.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It is time to insist that such craven propaganda will no longer be taken seriously. If Congress does not act this time, we can deem it as totally bought and paid for by the representatives of gun manufacturers, gun dealers and their very well-compensated apologists.</p>
<p>A former senior Obama administration official once made this comment to me: “If progressives are so worked up about how Washington is controlled by the banks and Wall Street, why aren’t they just as worked up by the power of the gun lobby?” It is a good question.</p>
<p>There was a different quality to President Obama’s response to this mass shooting, both initially and during his Sunday pilgrimage to offer comfort to the families of victims. I think I know why. It is not just that 20 young children were killed, although that would be enough.</p>
<p>For some months now, there have been rumblings from the administration that Obama has been unhappy with his own policy passivity in responding to earlier mass shootings and was prepared in his second term to propose tough steps to deal with our national madness on firearms.</p>
<p>He spoke in Newtown in solidarity with the suffering, but pointed toward action. No, he said, we are not “doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm.” He added: “We will have to change.”</p>
<p>And his initial statement Friday pointed to his exasperation. “We have been through this too many times,” he said, reciting our national litany of unspeakable events, and insisting that we will “have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”</p>
<p>“Regardless of the politics.” That is what it will take. This phrase comes easily to a president who just fought his last election, but he and the rest of us must change the politics of guns for those who will face the voters again. We cannot just be sad. We must be angry. We cannot just shake our heads. We must wield our votes and declare that curbing gun violence is not one issue among many but a paramount concern for our country.</p>
<p>And we will have to avoid the paralysis induced by those who cast every mass shooting as the work of one deranged individual and never ever the result of flawed policies. We must beware of those who invoke complexity not to further understanding but to encourage passivity and resignation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Yes, every social problem and every act of violence have complicated roots. But we already know that it is far too easy to obtain guns in the United States and far too difficult to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. And we already know that weapons are available that should not even be sold.</p>
<p>What, minimally, might “meaningful action” look like? We should begin with: bans on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons; requiring background checks for all gun purchases; stricter laws to make sure that gun owners follow safety procedures; new steps to make it easier to trace guns used in crimes; and vastly ramped-up data collection and research on what works to prevent gun violence, both of which are regularly blocked by the gun lobby.</p>
<p>After mass shootings, it’s always said we must improve our mental-health system and the treatment of those who may be prone to violence. Of course we should. But this noble sentiment is too often part of a strategy to evade any action on guns themselves.</p>
<p>Not this time. Americans are not the only people in the world who confront mental-health problems. We are the only country that regularly experiences horrors of this sort. The difference, as the writer Garry Wills has said, is that the United States treats the gun as a secular god, immune to rational analysis and human intervention.</p>
<p>We must depose the false deity. We must act now to curb gun violence, or we never will.</p>
<p>Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail: <a href="" type="external">[email protected]. &gt;</a></p> | Stop Worshiping God of Guns | false | https://abqjournal.com/154082/stop-worshiping-god-of-guns.html | 2012-12-18 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>They’re frequently asked during mayoral forums what they would do to get a handle on the problem. In their responses, several of the candidates have relayed to voters how crime has personally impacted them or members of their family.</p>
<p>What follows is the mayoral candidates’ views – in their own words – regarding how they would address the city’s crime issue. The answers are in response to two questions on Journal questionnaires sent to the candidates, who were restricted to 40 words for each answer.</p>
<p>Other cities have solved the crime problem. It’s not unsolvable. It comes down to leadership. I’d find a new chief and review the command staff, individually. We need more police on the beat, where they can fight crime effectively.</p>
<p>Undoubtedly, crime. Our crime epidemic has spiraled nearly into a state of lawlessness. This is the current administration’s failure. Our community deserves trust in its police department, rebuilt through an appropriately-staffed and highly trained police force.</p>
<p>Crime; I will take a multipronged approach to aggressively combat crime in our city by holding criminals and our criminal justice system accountable; collaboration with the DA’s Office, U.S. Attorney and federal partners widens our net to ensure repeat offenders are prosecuted.</p>
<p>Crime – it affects everything from quality of life to job creation. We need to give back the keys to APD from DOJ; build better coordination with the DA; and demand judges send repeat offenders to prison where they belong.</p>
<p>Albuquerque is a strong, special place with immense challenges. We have the highest crime rates in a decade and fewer job opportunities. Few are getting ahead, many left behind. Let’s meet these challenges head-on and build a safe, inclusive, innovative city.</p>
<p>Albuquerque is plagued by an unprecedented rise in auto theft, property crimes, and violent crimes – with fewer officers on the streets, and fewer criminals in our jail. We will make our city the worst place to be a criminal.</p>
<p>Crime, but crime is a symptom of economics, health, and opportunity. We’ll address mental health and homelessness to decrease crime. In turn, we’ll create a larger and more invigorated workforce and business climate to bring jobs and opportunity to Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Crime and public safety:</p>
<p>a. Complete DOJ agreement, meeting or exceeding terms.</p>
<p>b. Replace police chief.</p>
<p>c. Address issues related to: poverty (systemic); patterns of low educational outcomes (systemic); addiction; non-optimal job prospects (systemic); apathy of public toward sharing responsibilities for keeping neighborhoods safe and crime-free. 1. What is the biggest issue facing the city, and how would you address it?</p>
<p>2. What would you do to tackle Albuquerque’s crime problem? We need more police on the beat, and but we must address problems in the command staff, including the chief, which will help address morale problems in the department.</p>
<p>Albuquerque needs targeted police units to reduce violent and property crime. Community policing and partnership efforts must be supplemented with stringent pretrial procedures, repeat-offender review with enhanced criminal prosecution, mental health training, treatment for individuals with addiction and gang prevention.</p>
<p>By supporting my chief to work with technology and proven practices like the Albuquerque Regional Auto Theft Unit, to attack our metro-wide auto theft problem, and a Felony Case Review Team to ensure all investigated felony cases are complete, ready for prosecution and tracked.</p>
<p>In the short term, I’ll look for resources, create partnerships and bring those resources to bear to stamp out our crime wave. One potential partner is the fully staffed Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department. Use budgeted city dollars to strategically deploy sheriff’s deputies in the city.</p>
<p>Our plan includes instituting real community policing; embracing and completing DOJ efforts; taking better care of our front-line officers by no longer waiting for others, pointing fingers, or making excuses for officer shortage; and addressing addiction, mental health and homelessness.</p>
<p>Keep repeat offenders in jail and out of our neighborhoods, put 1,200 officers on our streets performing community policing, and ensure they are well-led, better-paid, and well-trained with the resources to do their job effectively.</p>
<p>Finish the Department of Justice mandate, fully staff police and legal departments, and overhaul emergency service delivery. Through non-officer, service-based response to homelessness and addiction, we save money, reduce strain on officers, and provide better outcomes and services for all residents.</p>
<p>See #1.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Crime is top priority for mayoral candidates | false | https://abqjournal.com/1057744/crime-is-top-priority-for-mayoral-candidates.html | 2 |
|
<p>A black bear stopped skiers in their tracks and made headlines last week when it <a href="http://www.komonews.com/news/offbeat/Bear-turns-heads-on-Lake-Tahoe-ski-slopes-239939411.html" type="external">ran across a busy ski slope near Lake Tahoe</a>. January is usually peak hibernation season, but Nevada wildlife officials say many bears have been skipping or delaying their months-long snoozes in favor of loitering near houses and businesses to rifle through trash bins. The reason for the change in behavior: year on year of dry winters and an abundance of garbage in easy reach.</p>
<p>"Over the years during the light winters, some bears will sleep five or six days out of the week and wake up on garbage days when they know there will be garbage available," Chris Healy, spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, told NBC News.</p>
<p>Last year was a dry year, and the NDOW responded to 97 bear calls. In 2009, a good year for snow, the rangers were only called out for about 40 bears.</p>
<p>Between 400 and 700 bears live in Nevada, and about 40 percent of those live in the Lake Tahoe region, according to NDOW estimates. The Incline Village region in the north and the Heavenly Mountain Resort in the south are a source for many bear calls.</p>
<p>In general, hibernating bears can be woken by human activities or disturbance, and a lack of food before the winter. Food available during winter can draw them out as well, <a href="http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/people-vcs/faculty/nelson.aspx" type="external">Lynne Nelson</a>, associate professor at Washington State University who studies cardiac rhythms in hibernating bears, wrote to NBC News in an email.</p>
<p>Nevada isn't alone. A mild Nordic winter has <a href="http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140108/unusual-weather-disrupts-timber-industry-sweden-bears-sleep-finland" type="external">woken bears in Finland</a>, and warmer weather in California has <a href="http://www.news10.net/news/local/article/268553/2/Why-are-bears-not-hibernating-yet" type="external">delayed hibernation for some bears out and about in Yosemite National Park</a>. Wandering bears <a href="http://personalliberty.com/2014/01/10/black-bear-resisting-hibernation-in-alaskan-capital/" type="external">have been spotted in Juneau, Alaska as well</a>.</p>
<p>"I suspect there could be a combination of effects," Nelson said. For example, warm weather draws out bears who are tricked into thinking it's spring. When colder weather returns, they return to their den to sleep.</p>
<p>Skipping a regular hibernation cycle could affect the health of the bears. Studies in other hibernating species show that hibernating individuals tend to be healthier than those that don't power down for the winter, Nelson said.</p>
<p>Being out and about also increases chances of run-ins with humans. The ski slope runner had a "happy ending," Healy said, and NDOW is sometimes forced to euthanize unlucky animals who have broken into houses and pose a threat. If the bears can be captured and released in nearby woodland, the NDOW does that instead.</p>
<p>If early 2014 turns out dry, the NDOW is bracing for many more bear calls this year.</p> | Hooked on Garbage, Nevada Bears Quit Hibernation | false | http://nbcnews.com/science/environment/hooked-garbage-nevada-bears-quit-hibernation-n9431 | 2014-01-14 | 3 |
<p>Was there ever a luckier clan than the Bancrofts, whose elders okayed the $5 billion sale of the Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. on Tuesday. There’s been some solemn talk about the Bancrofts’ “stewardship of this national institution” since they acquired the Dow Jones company a century ago. In fact the Journal was an undistinguished little sheet till a journalistic genius called Barney Kilgore decided in the years after World War II that a businessman in San Francisco should be able to read the same paper as one in Chicago or New York. Kilgore devised the technology to do this, along with the paper’s reportorial stance, serious but often humorous, in the style of the Midwest which is where Kilgore – a Hoosier — was from.</p>
<p>Kilgore made the Bancrofts really rich and they continued in that state for almost half a century though their stewardship was either indifferent or inept, beyond the pleasant chore of raking in the money. Now they can trouser Murdoch’s gold and trot off into the sunset, mumbling that they have extracted all the usual pledges from Rupert Murdoch that he will respect the Journal’s editorial independence.</p>
<p>Surely the 76-year mogul must quake with inner merriment as he goes through this oft-repeated rigmarole, which I listened to almost 30 years ago when he bought the the Village Voice. So far as I can remember Murdoch issued a pledge to us not to fire the editor as he stepped into the elevator on the fifth floor of the Voice’s offices on University Place and by the time he stepped out on the ground floor the editor had already been dismissed, as if by osmosis and Murdoch’s man was settling into the editorial chair.</p>
<p>The only reason why Murdoch might respect the Journal’s independence, at least in the opinion pages, is that the views expressed there are even more rabid than his own, and perhaps Murdoch savors the possibility that one day he might call up Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor, and hint that he might moderate his tone.</p>
<p>The Journal’s editorial stance of fanatic neo-connery was established by the late Robert Bartley from the mid-70s onward, and his pages bulged with every mad fantasy of the cold war lobby. (I did an enjoyable ten year stint on these same pages through the 1980s as the token left guest columnist, barking every three weeks at the political and corporate elites from my kennel on the op ed page.) Bartley led the charge against effete liberalism, and since by the late 70s American liberalism had thoroughly lost its nerve and really was effete, Bartley carried the day, by far the most influential editorial page editor in American journalism. More than its sometimes excellent reporting, Bartley gave the Journal its high profile in Washington as well as on Wall Street.</p>
<p>From the moment Murdoch made his famous $60 a share offer the actual sale has not been an edifying sight. But then, a Gadarene-like stampede for money seldom is. The final sale was consummated when Murdoch agreed to throw in a sweetener – as much as $40 million — for the bankers and lawyers standing at the Bancroft family elbow and, with supposed dispassion, advising them what to do.</p>
<p>Merrill Lynch, urging the Bancrofts to sell, is promised $18.5 million for this wise counsel which, derisive commentators have suggested, may not have been entirely objective.</p>
<p>Analysts of the media industry have turned out thousands of words about the synergies and kindred virtues consequent upon Murdoch’s successful bid. Maybe so. In such takeovers, things seldom go according to plan. But for now Murdoch has carried the day, acquiring for a monstrous sum an over-praised newspaper in poor straits.</p>
<p>Call it his revenge for the story the Journal ran about Murdoch’s Chinese wife Wendi Deng in November, 2000, methodically detailing the romantic liaisons that helped her her to the United States, and ultimately to a very powerful position in the Murdoch empire at her husband’s side, particularly in assisting in Murdoch’s business relationships with the People’s Republic. The piece was not unflattering to Ms Deng’s achievements, but also one that Murdoch would not forget or forgive. During the recent sale six Journal staffers in the paper’s Chinese bureau signed a public letter expressing fears that Murdoch’s commercial interests would compromise the paper’s reporting on China. Murdoch is unlikely to forget or forgive that either. This is a saga for Dumas or Balzac.The</p>
<p>The Politics of Hillary</p>
<p>One of Chicago’s top Republican fund-raisers, Terry Duffy, has just announced that he’s endorsing Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2008 election.</p>
<p>He’s the executive chairman of the entity formed by the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), which respectively were the largest and second largest derivatives exchanges in the U.S.</p>
<p>Duffy says Mrs Clinton “understands the important role that financial markets play in our global economy as well as the economic opportunities and risk management benefits these critical markets create for all.”</p>
<p>It’s true that Mrs C knows a bit about “risk management”.</p>
<p>Let’s say you want to turn $1,000 into $100,000 by trading in cattle futures. That’s risky. You might lose a bundle. On the other hand, you might manage your risk prudently by using as your commodities broker a man with close connections to an immensely powerful agribusiness eager to bring financial benefit and hence a feeling of profound gratitude and obligation to Mrs C and her husband Mr C, at that time inhabiting the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Arkansas. That’s risk management.</p>
<p>Obama: Worrisome Signs of Sanity Imperil His Bid</p>
<p>Obama’s in trouble with the pundits. First he said in the You Tube debate that he would be prepared to meet with Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Fidel Castro to hash over problems face to face. The pundits promptly whacked him for demonstrating “inexperience”.</p>
<p>Experienced leaders order the CIA to murder such men.</p>
<p>Now Obama has even fiercer fire by saying he would not use nuclear weapons “in any circumstance” to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance,” Obama told AP Thursday, adding after a pause, “involving civilians.” Then he quickly added, “Let me scratch that. There’s been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That’s not on the table.” (For more on Obama and nuclear weapons see <a href="" type="internal">Sherwood Ross’</a> story in this weekend’s edition of CounterPunch.)</p>
<p>I’m beginning to respect this man. He displays sagacity well beyond the norm for candidates seeking the Oval Office. He realizes, if only in mid-sentence, that when you drop a nuclear bomb, it will kill civilians. He also realizes that strafing the Hindu Kush with thermonuclear devices in the hopes of nailing Osama Bin Laden is a foolish way to proceed.</p>
<p>Once again he is being flayed for his “inexperience”, first and foremost by Hillary Clinton, the risk taker.</p>
<p>It’s always been part of the hazing ritual inflicted by the pundit class on presidential candidates in America – particularly women –to get them to admit that they are entirely ready to drop nuclear bombs or launch nuclear missiles and thus kill millions of people.</p>
<p>I vividly remember Sen. Harold Hughes of Iowa, a great man, being asked on a Sunday show years ago whether he was ready to run for the nomination. He answered, “When I tell you that if as President I was told that the Russians had launched a nuclear strike, and that missiles were speeding towards America, I would order that we not launch nuclear missiles in retaliation, you will understand that I am not a candidate for the presidential nomination.”</p>
<p>In other words Hughes was saying correctly that since he wasn’t a deranged mass murderer he could not possibly qualify as presidential timber.</p>
<p>The Politics of Pain</p>
<p>“Pain starts to spread as state shuts its wallet…” (Los Angeles Times headline, August 3, 2007.)</p>
<p>“The budget standoff is forcing California to cease funding hundreds of health-and child-care providers. Some are hanging by a thread.” (Los Angeles Times subhead, August 3, 2007.)How about “The budget standoff is forcing California to cease funding highway construction, or prison construction, or subsidies for poison spray programs, or SWAT munition enhancements, or …</p>
<p>Nah. Stick it to the kids.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p> | Rupert Murdoch and the Luck of the Bancrofts | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/08/04/rupert-murdoch-and-the-luck-of-the-bancrofts/ | 2007-08-04 | 4 |
<p>South America is being shaken economically. Argentina’s banking system has all but collapsed: money has become a scarce item, indeed, even after devaluating to three-quarters of its previous worth. Venezuela, having survived a coup d’etat in April, braces for the permanence of its democratic institutions–notwithstanding its leader. After years of Fugimori’s hard line rule, Peru is now bursting at the seams as a president actually seems committed to righting social ills, though with State coffers empty. Uruguay attempts to keep afloat with its sinking currency. And Ecuador has already been dollarized; Chile, a special case since ’73; Colombia, the banality of a 35-year-long war…</p>
<p>And in the middle of it all stands South America’s largest economy, Brazil. With its currency now hovering at 3-3.4 for a dollar, the Brazilian real–now more appropriately called the ‘irreal’– has lost a third of its value in the last year, an increase only slightly below the 1999 devaluation that bade farewell to any illusions behind the experiment of pegging local currencies to the dollar.</p>
<p>Still, the rabid speculation on the currency and vacillating financial vulnerability has more of a political reason than an economic one. This is because presidential elections in Brazil are set for October 6, and leftwing candidate, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva of the Partida dos trabalhadores (PT) is ahead. Correction: he is still ahead. Steve Cobble, a political analyst and Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies has contributed a thoughtful and lucid article on the subject to The Nation magazine (dated August 5).</p>
<p>To be sure, the article is timely. Despite all its exoticism, Brazil still remains little known in North America. It is Latin America’s largest nation and has been by far its largest economy (though its gross GDP has now been surpassed by Mexico). While the elections are three months away, the international press is observing the build-up to the elections most attentively. With the currency crisis becoming ever more acute, it is still unclear whether Lula and the PT can keep sheltering themselves from its public fallout. To top things off, Treasury Secretary O’Neill arrives in South America on Sunday August 4 to visit Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.</p>
<p>Cobble has addressed his stirring plea to the American progressive community on ways to support the PT, though Brazilian law prohibits all candidates and parties from receiving foreign funding. The reasons for which the PT should be worthy of such help are clear enough. Through its fifteen some years of existence, the PT has remarkably kept the reputation of an honest party. Some critics boast that it is the luxury only a party remaining perpetually in the opposition can afford. Others would counter that in a political system carpeted with thieves, white-collar crime only mildly declines with partial power.</p>
<p>Cobble’s piece is relatively short, which means there remain important issues necessarily left unattended. Notwithstanding its concision, I would add that the predominantly “ideological” angle of the article somewhat skews the stakes of these elections and Brazil’s role as a major continental player.</p>
<p>Cobble first provides a brief description of the geopolitical history of Brazil, particularly highlighting U.S. positions on preceding elections. This sprightly introduction, in which he expresses hopes for a Democrat victory in the US this fall, is followed by a three-point action plan for the American progressive community to take regarding the Brazilian elections. His observations and analyses converge into one key phrase: “our goal is not to intervene in Brazilian elections; it is to keep powerful corporate actors and their allies from intervening to subvert Brazilian democracy”.</p>
<p>The criticism I hold of Cobble’s piece deals especially with the dominance of the ideological tone over the economic one. By ideological, I mean that Cobble solely focuses on the objective of the political posture of the PT. It most certainly is a leftwing party, headed by the former head of the Metalworkers’ Union, Lula himself. The party actually developed concurrently to Solidarisnosk (Solidarity) in Poland in the late seventies. At that time, Brazil was ruled by a military junta, and had been by a series of them after democracy was overthrown in 1964. A putsch by the Air Force had been in the plans for a considerable amount of time. In 1954, it was deferred in extremis by the dramatic suicide of President Getulio Vargas. But in 1964 as then-president Joao Goulart prepared to press through Congress with a series of major land reform laws, the military seized the country’s democratic institutions.</p>
<p>Since folding to public demonstrations for the return to democracy in 1985, Brazil is now moving into its fourth consecutive presidential elections. Much has been written about Chile’s democratic tradition, but Brazil has proved by far to be the Cone’s most durable democracy.</p>
<p>After surviving the debt crisis, Brazil’s most discomforting economic woe in the early nineties was spiraling inflation. In 1994 when current President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of the Brazilian Social-Democratic party, passed the “Plano real”, he replaced the existing “cruzero” by basically pegging the “real” to the dollar. Such moves to stabilize inflation were particularly encouraged by the IMF and Bill Clinton’s staff of economic planners. The aims of this policy, despite how they may now appear in hindsight, were in fact oriented at increasing an emerging market’s capacity at modernizing its industrial sectors by increasing its ability of importing costly foreign technology.</p>
<p>The downside to such flexibility is that the export market suddenly changes qualitatively. From an emerging market, a country like Brazil was propelled to first-world status through the cost of its products on the international market. A readjustment of the real was thus impending if only to counterbalance the relative weakness of Brazilian industry faced with the big players. That’s because a country does not bridge the gap between ’emerging market’ to ‘first world power’ as easily as doctrinarian advocates of neo-liberal globalization contend. Yet for the sake of re-election, President Cardoso overstretched the real’s critical mass by holding firm on its peg to the dollar. Only weeks after his re-election, won precisely on the grounds of Brazil’s sparkling economy, this resulted in the real being devaluated to counter a massive stock market collapse and capital flight.</p>
<p>That was only the early sign of the failure of the “Washington Consensus”. The term refers, of course, to the apparent shift in U.S. policy toward Latin America as heralded by Bill Clinton. Under its terms, the U.S. adopted a purely business relationship–with the exception of Colombia and, to a lesser extent, Bolivia–with Latin America.</p>
<p>Brazil’s current vulnerability lies in its isolated position with respect to the powerful economic community blocks of the world. Once conceptualized as a “pivotal” country, it has been and remains the driving force of the South American free trade zone, the Mercosul (in Portuguese). What remains of the free zone as the other members (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) suffer the collapse of their economies is really an open question. The immediate backlash of their crises is on Brazil’s trade deficit. Its economy barely grew in 2001 at 2%, a depressing level for a trade zone containing an estimated 50 million middle class consumers, whose purchasing power nonetheless remains under stress.</p>
<p>Within this international scenario, Brazil remains committed to a democratic system. And such a system, and its promises of social reform, holds a powerful place in the heart of the Brazilian people. That reform has been slow is largely an internal factor. President Cardoso’s team, however, has succeeded in driving a wedge into corruption where others have only secured it. Still, to keep power Cardoso was forced to seek alliance with unsavory parties, which has ultimately held his reformist dreams in check.</p>
<p>Internationally, ever since assuming power the Republican government in the U.S. has continually stirred up tensions with Brazil, if only through mishaps. In the early weeks of Bush’s presidency, though, President Cardoso demonstrated his diplomatic flair by maneuvering a deal between China and the U.S. on the fallen spy plane the Chinese refused to release from their territory. A swift thank you followed, but the Bush proposal for the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas did not reflect Brazil’s vision for economic partnership. And the recurrence of American protectionism on steel and its massive agricultural subsidies has not sat well with Brazilian parties across the board.</p>
<p>This is because with its population of 173 million, Brazil is very close to being a big league player. Still, it can only fall short in trying to make it on its own. Earlier this year, a possible rapprochement between Brazil and France had lain on the horizon as opinion polls were citing Lionel Jospin as successor to Chirac and the country’s second Socialist president.</p>
<p>That was not to be. Brazil’s leftwing party is now quite alone on a terrain if not populated by wolves then at least deeply lacking in possible alliances.</p>
<p>This is the context in which the PT is calling for the Brazilian people’s vote. Internally there is a strong desire and need for change. Unfortunately, there is no candidate as much of a leader as Lula in the fray. I say “unfortunately” not because Lula would not be “prepared” to lead the country, as many professedly astute voters believe. It is unfortunate because if Lula is not elected, then chances of profound reform will be postponed yet again. And with the growing attack on the currency, a chance might be lost for another generation. In a country chocked with urban violence, this may well prove to be catastrophic.</p>
<p>The current presidential elections have 19 official candidates. They have been filtered down to four, soon to be squeezed again to three. As in other presidential systems of this kind, lying somewhere between the French and American parliamentary democracies, by the time the candidates get ground down to two for the second round many political alliances formed will have formed.</p>
<p>The questions facing the PT are delicate. In a desire to reassure Brazilians that its purpose is first and foremost to create consumer incentives to boost local industries, its commitment is to create jobs and growth. Its most popular promise is to massively raise the minimum wage and place priorities on education. Yet faced with international pressure, the PT has moderated a number of its promises. This has had an ironic though not surprising effect, given that its strongest supporters are Brazil’s 70 million impoverished “under-class”. When the PT appeals to a larger audience, its standing in opinion polls decreases. Judging by recent polls if they are at all reliable–and like polls in any country they are open to skeptical interpretation–, the PT seems to lose the votes it gains by fine-tuning its discourse to a more “moderate” pitch. As the PT is renown for gathering more of the nation’s brains than any other party, party strategists must be wondering at what political cost election is still worth if the party folds to international pressure on its economic policies.</p>
<p>The progressive community in the U.S., Canada and Europe admire the PT for good reason. They are essentially the only party left from a generation ago who have not watered down their social commitment to the point of libeling the term “progressive”. Neither Blair, nor Clinton, nor McDonough, Shroeder, or Jospin for that matter were comfortable with the heritage they increasingly came to misrepresent — which is assuming the first two ever embodied it at all.</p>
<p>The PT rank and file emerges from the industrial ABC region of Sao Paulo State. In the southern regions of the country it appeals to the populations descending from Northern European immigrants. The real enemies of the party, though, are the large landowners of the northeastern states, who maintain disproportionately large representational power for their meager numbers.</p>
<p>Moreover, criticism of American policy toward Latin America is not the monopoly of the PT. In a strange twist of fate, after solidly supporting the 1964 coup d’etat, the U.S. later saw itself sidelined as an economic player. Though rightwing, the military was no less nationalist. And let there be no mistaking the meaning of this: populism is free of political stripes. Pleading to nationalism is the populist’s strongest card. But populism rarely amounts to reform. The project to which the PT is committed is all but populist. Its reform platform is squarely equal to a progressive vision.</p>
<p>Under the military dictatorship, political populism translated economically into a closed country and sealed market. The country became a quasi-autonomous unit on many fronts, until president Cardoso’s liberalist policies, coinciding with Clinton’s ‘soft imperial’ Washington doctrine, opened up the country to foreign imports and investment. That the Brazilian political class had no choice over this matter should be borne in mind. Brazil had reached double-digit growth rates throughout the seventies with the ISI system (Import-substituting industrialization). But with mounting debt, ISI showed signs of exhaustion. To continue such spectacular growth, industrialists had to export more broadly, which meant opening the country in turn to imports. Since then, debt has only increased. Though Brazil’s economy grew by 4.2% in 2000, its debt servicing costs Brazil $ 25 billion yearly, calculated on a real trading at 2.5 for $1 US.</p>
<p>And then there are Brazil’s banks. The PT intends fully to move toward restructuring banks, though gradually. Brazil’s banks are among the most profitable in Latin America. Due to IMF policy, they have also some of the highest lending rates in the world, which is basically an impediment to the development of small and medium local businesses. Under the gentlemanly mood reigning between the semi-independent Central Bank, the IMF and private banks, the PT must move carefully and transparently to assure their creditors of the fruits gained by reducing the prime lending rate–even at the risk of causing inflation so long as inflation in turn stimulates productivity and increases salaries. As things stand now, inflation is low but persistent, without any substantial increase in salaries, let alone any residual power of the currency internationally. Nonetheless, Brazilian banks have been agitated at the PT’s stances. In the end, they may turn out to have been the main instigators behind the present currency speculation.</p>
<p>These economic indicators make up the knowledge without which it is impossible to cheer for a PT victory. A PT government will be a full player, like Cobble indicated, in a fair global trade system. Yet it cannot do so alone. And at this point the American progressive community–and for the record, Canada’s — is simply too weak and profoundly lacking in power to be of any help to the PT.</p>
<p>The result is that Cobble’s prescriptions are merely promissory notes. The North-American progressive community should have already had a strong position on economic partnership with Brazil. But as union workers in the steel, sugar and tobacco sectors have shown, and as workers in the fruit, especially orange juice, and beef sectors have felt, Brazil often appears more threatening to middle and lower class Americans and their jobs than to the upper classes, for whom Brazil’s bond market is a sure source of income.</p>
<p>It is unclear how America’s progressive community can deal with this situation as predominantly critical voices on globalized free trade seem to prevent enough research and press exposure to cover the powerful sides of Brazilian life. Moreover, Paul O’Neill’s statements on American television on July 28 are completely out of line. Since Mr O’Neill has proved useless on saying anything about American plutocratic trends as the background to the market’s downward turn, it is obviously easier to prod Brazil’s oligarchy. The human costs, however, may not be the same.</p>
<p>It is in light of the economic instability into which a PT victory may throw the country that American progressives should be putting the questions of business involvement first. Unlike Venezuela, Brazil has a striving and vibrant economy, and large consumer base. Destabilizing its leadership has nothing to do with private profiteers trying to get their hands on the oil booty. On the other hand, undue social instability could disturb the country’s democratic institutions. If that’s the case, the American progressive community will have to avow that boisterously raising voices is not enough.</p>
<p>If it’s a matter of legitimating the PT according to its socialist ideals no matter the cost of necessary alliances and compromises, North American progressives may in fact have to face the fact that they have much work to do at home before adequately representing situations abroad.</p>
<p>So how to go about an informed and insightful strategy regarding the Brazilian elections? As a prescription to the powerful, it is easy: Mr O’Neill had best mark his words during his current visit to the region if the Administration does not want to wind up with a region profoundly hostile to U.S. foreign economic policy.</p>
<p>But how about to those North Americans who do not hold power? How can we prevent uttering and/or muttering statements about the southern countries that ultimately only serve the business interests at home we are so determined to expose as the exploitative and self-serving interest of shareholder monopoly capitalism?</p>
<p>For one thing, trying to forge foreign policy for Latin America by speaking in the name of the progressive community, while still remaining tied to the Democratic party, requires facing a moment of truth. Does Steve Cobble favor eliminating trade barriers, for one? If so, that’s counter to the Democrat’s overall position (and to Canada’s Liberal party), which is why splitting ties from it should be stimulated even further.</p>
<p>Clinton’s Washington Consensus now appears as quite unreal in its expectations. One cannot expect a local currency to be pegged to the dollar while still defending the sovereignty of local businesses that are continually under pressure to comply with the game rules set by northern countries. Moreover, the wealth of America’s consumer market and its productive power are daunting for any individual country to confront on its own when based in the trade principles set out by the OECD and WTO.</p>
<p>In the past, even the US economy would have been at the mercy of other powerful currencies were it not for the Federal government massively funding its industrial sector–identical to the way China is now doing. Maintaining American hegemony over continental trade, at the cost of stifling the growth of southern countries is an agenda on which the Democratic Party differs little from the Republicans.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the North American middle class’s commitment to globalization is not merely blind faced and hypocritical, it must seek out analyses from other points of view on how to apply the principles of free trade on internationalist grounds. If the middle class is not satisfied in upholding the imperialist aims of the North America upper-classes, then we must be able to usher in a cohesive and collaborative team of politicians, economists, entrepreneurs, investors and intellectuals to spread the purpose of novel ties and innovative policies toward the continental economy. The people in the south are expecting nothing else from our privileges.</p>
<p>In the end, despite the philosophical glamour of watching a leftwing party elected to govern Brazil, North-American spokespersons for the progressive community will have to move much further left and cut its ties with the Democrats and Liberals if they ever hope to be convincing to southern nations as to the effectiveness of their long-term commitment to help pull the region out from economic slumber and into a more affluent partnership.</p>
<p>Norman Madarasz is a Canadian philosopher currently living and working in Rio de Janeiro. He welcomes comments at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | The Elections in Brazil | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/08/04/the-elections-in-brazil/ | 2002-08-04 | 4 |
<p>Lately, it seems like everyone is <a href="http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/how-makerbots-replicator2-will-launch-era-of-desktop-manufacturing/all/" type="external">talking about 3-D printers</a>. Until recently, these devices have been seen either as novelties or as expensive pieces of equipment suited only for industrial use. Now, however, they are quickly becoming affordable to individuals, and capable of producing a wider range of practical items. Just as the computer became a vector for pervasive file-sharing as soon as cheap PCs and internet connections were widespread, we may soon find ourselves living in a world where cheap 3-D printers allow the dissemination of designs for physical objects through the Internet.</p>
<p>The line between science fiction and reality is moving rapidly. Scroll through <a href="http://boingboing.net/tag/3d-printing" type="external">these links</a> at BoingBoing and you’ll see 3-D printers churning out everything from guitars to dolls to keys to a prosthetic beak for a bald eagle.</p>
<p>Ensconced in the home, the 3-D printer is a <a href="http://store.makerbot.com/replicator-404.html" type="external">step toward</a> the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Star_Trek)" type="external">replicator</a>: a machine that can instantly produce any object with no input of human labor. Technologies like this are central to the vision of a post-scarcity society that I outlined in <a href="" type="internal">“Four Futures.”</a>&#160;It’s a future that could be glorious or terrible, depending on the outcome of the coming political struggles over the adoption of these new technologies. As the title of a <a href="http://www.publicknowledge.org/it-will-be-awesome-if-they-dont-screw-it-up" type="external">report</a> from Public Knowledge puts it, “It will be awesome if they don’t screw it up.”</p>
<p>Battles over 3-D printing will be fought on two fronts, and two mechanisms of power are likely to be mobilized by the rentier elites who are threatened by these technologies: intellectual property law and the war on terror.</p> | The 3-D Printed Future and Its Enemies | true | http://jacobinmag.com/2012/10/the-3-d-printed-future-and-its-enemies/ | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>For the second consecutive month, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-home-prices-20110727,0,4597932.story" type="external">home prices</a> in major U.S. cities rose slightly in May, according to the Standard &amp; Poor's/Case Shiller index. Yet economists claim the 1 percent increase is more indicative of the season than a sign of recovery.</p>
<p>Spring is typically a popular time for families to go house shopping, housing experts say, compared with winters when a larger proportion of sales are <a href="" type="external">foreclosures</a> purchased by investors.</p>
<p>Sixteen of the 20 metro areas tracked by the Case-Shiller index released Tuesday posted increases on a month-over-month basis, the L.A. Times reports. But only Washington D.C. was up from May 2010, rising 1.3 percent. From April to May, Los Angeles was up 0.5 percent, San Diego 0.2 percent and San Francisco 1.8 percent. Overall, home prices slid 4.5 percent when compared with last May.</p>
<p>"We have now seen two consecutive months of generally improving prices," David Blitzer, chairman of the index, told the New York Times. "However, we might have a long way to go before we see real recovery."</p>
<p>In separate housing data released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/business/economy/home-prices-ticked-up-in-may.html?ref=us" type="external">new home sales</a> dropped to a three-month low of 1 percent, putting sales at an annualized pace of 312,000 and dashing hopes of a rebound that could help fuel broader economic growth.</p>
<p>After federal tax credits expired last year, the housing market fell into a renew slump with home prices falling to a new low in March - a low even lower than the recession-era bottom hit in April 2009. Since then, prices have slowly increased.</p>
<p>With more and more homes headed into foreclosure and fewer buyers on the hunt, house prices are likely to remain depressed for the rest of this year, experts say. It hasn't helped that the unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent in June and that consumer confidence remains weak.</p>
<p>A depressed housing market also hurts related businesses such as residential construction, home improvement and furniture companies - hampering key drivers of an overall U.S. economic recovery even further. &#160;</p> | U.S. home prices slightly up, economic forecast down | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-07-27/us-home-prices-slightly-economic-forecast-down | 2011-07-27 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Clifford Acuna</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. - Clifford R. Acuna was allegedly involved in the armed robbery of the Giant Gas Station on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe on April 12, 2008, according to a police report.</p>
<p>Three males robbed the business just after noon and one was armed with a handgun. The suspect vehicle was stopped a short time later and three suspects fled into a nearby mobile home park. Acuna was arrested a short time later.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A man arrested in Santa Fe on Tuesday afternoon on a probation violation warrant has four active court cases including charges of armed robbery with a deadly weapon and escape from a community custody release program, authorities said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Clifford R. Acuna, 25, was arrested by a sheriff's deputy on East Frontage Road after it was determined he had an active arrest warrant on a probation violation from the New Mexico Department of Corrections, the sheriff's office said. Acuna was booked into the county jail on a no bond warrant.</p>
<p>Acuna has four current cases in First Judicial District Court including armed robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, battery on a household member and escape from the community program, according to Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alex Tomlin and court records.</p>
<p>Details on the alleged crimes were not immediately available.</p> | Man arrested in Santa Fe has pending robbery, escape cases | false | https://abqjournal.com/348845/man-arrested-in-santa-fe-has-pending-robbery-escape-cases.html | 2 |
|
<p>So-called "'birthers" are OK with Donald Trump abandoning their cause, as long it helps him win the presidency — even if they still believe Obama was born in Kenya and don't necessarily agree with his claim that Hillary Clinton started their movement.</p>
<p>"President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period," Trump said Friday in Washington, D.C., reversing course on a five-year campaign to undercover proof that Obama was not really born in Hawaii. No evidence was revealed during the course of that time to back up his initial claim.</p>
<p>But in his 40-second statement, Trump replaced one conspiracy theory with another by claiming Clinton “started the birther controversy.” That is simply not true, according to <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2016/05/hillary-clinton-wasnt-a-birther/" type="external">multiple independent</a> <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/16/donald-trump/fact-checking-donald-trumps-claim-hillary-clinton-/" type="external">fact checkers</a>, who call the claim “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/05/06/donald-trumps-ridiculous-claim-that-hillary-clinton-started-the-birther-movement/" type="external">ridiculous</a>.”</p>
<p>And now, even some leading birther activists tell NBC News that Clinton was not involved in their effort.</p>
<p>Trump didn’t start the birther movement either, but he was by far its highest-profile spokesperson.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Analysis: Trump's Lengthy History of Conspiracy Theories and Rumors</a></p>
<p>In addition, almost all its prominent activists have flocked to Trump’s campaign — from the handful of members of Congress who supported “birther bills” to Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who launched an investigation that claimed to prove Obama’s birth certificate was a fraud, and Orly Taitz, the dentist and lawyer who the press once dubbed “the birther queen.”</p>
<p>Phil Berg, the Pennsylvania lawyer who brought the very first lawsuit challenging Obama’s eligibility to serve as president in August in 2008, was a lifelong Democrat who switched his party registration this year to vote for Trump in the primary.</p>
<p>"Trump brought the attention because Trump had a lot of attention back in 2011 and he brought this issue to the forefront," Berg said Friday.</p>
<p>The movement had murky origins in email chains and internet forums among conservatives as well as hardcore Clinton supporters who were upset that she lost the primary to Obama. While Clinton’s campaign had at times stoked the image Obama as different, they never claimed he was not American.</p>
<p>Berg told NBC News that while he supported Clinton in 2008, he had no contact with her campaign before or after he filed his lawsuit, and that it did not have anything to do with her campaign. “I heard nothing from the Clinton campaign,” Berg said.</p>
<p>"Who started the movement? I don’t know, I’m not sure," he added.</p>
<p>Berg is still pursuing the cause, and said he recently got a tip from a Kenyan man who was his passenger. (Berg drives part-time for the car service Lyft.) But he said he understands that Trump wants to "get back to the issues of the day and I don’t blame him."</p>
<p>Taitz, the dentist and lawyer who led many of her own birther lawsuits, urged her fellow believers to give Trump a pass for abandoning the cause.</p>
<p>“Trump is hands down the best candidate to turn the country around,” she wrote in <a href="http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/trump-needs-to-win-and-turn-the-nation-around-i-have-no-problem-with-him-concentrating-on-election-and-not-obamas-ids/" type="external">a blog post</a>Thursday. “My word to my supporters: let Trump win the election. There are only 8 weeks left. Now is not the time to talk about Obama, he is not running for president, Clinton is. Keep the eye on the prize!!!”</p>
<p>In an interview, Taitz said she does believe that Clinton started the birther movement. But when asked why, she pointed to Berg, who she said was chairman of the Clinton’s campaign in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, at the time.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Trump Kept 'Birther' Beliefs Going Long After Obama's Birth Certificate Was Released</a></p>
<p>In fact, Berg was chairman of the county Democratic Party — not Clinton’s campaign. When corrected and informed that Berg denied having any contact with Clinton’s campaign, Taitz changed the subject: “It’s not about Clinton and it’s not about Trump. It’s about Obama.”</p>
<p>Asked for more evidence that Clinton started the movement, Taitz replied, again referring to Berg, “This is the evidence that I’ve seen.”</p>
<p>Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff and the founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, still believes Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery. But said he agrees with Trump’s decision to drop the issue for now. “Move on Donald and keep up the fight,” he said.</p>
<p>“Trump had the courage to come out and look at it and agree with Sheriff Arpaio’s investigation. Any second grader who saw it would have said the same thing, the evidence was so clear, ” Mack said.</p>
<p>Asked if he agreed with Trump that Clinton started the birther movement, Mack seemed puzzled, as if he had never thought about it. “I certainly wouldn’t put it past her,” he said. “But I have no evidence of that.”</p>
<p>Asked who he thought did start the movement, Mack replied, “I have no idea.”</p>
<p>It’s no surprise that Trump has attracted birthers, who say they mostly support him for his stance on immigration, trade, and other issues — rather than for his beliefs about Obama’s birthplace.</p>
<p>In fact, as Talking Points Memo <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/trump-introduced-by-a-birther-at-event-where-he-walked-back-birtherism" type="external">reported</a>, one of the men who introduced Trump at his anti-birther press conference Friday has flirted with the conspiracy theory. Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney once wrote an affidavit stating there are "widespread and legitimate concerns that the President is constitutionally ineligible to hold office.”</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump Finally Admits President Obama Born in U.S.</a></p>
<p>Jerome Corsi, who advanced many theories about Obama’s origin at the website World Net Daily, which has paid for giant billboards asking for Obama’s birth certificate, declined to comment on Trump’s reversal. Asked if he agreed with Trump that Clinton started the birther movement, Corsi replied in an email, “I pass.”</p>
<p>Clinton’s campaign and her supporters are not ready to give Trump a pass on this issue, and Clinton herself called on Trump Friday to apologize to Barack Obama.</p>
<p>As recently as Wednesday evening, Trump had refused to say he believed Obama was born in the United States, even as his campaign officials claimed Trump did.</p>
<p>Why? “I think the bottom line is he doesn’t know. He’s not sure,” Roger Stone, the longtime Trump ally and informal adviser, told Boston Herald Radio Friday morning. “That’s not the same as ‘I’m certain the president was born either in Hawaii’ or ‘I’m certain that he was not.’”</p> | Trump May Be Abandoning ‘Birthers,’ but They’re Not Abandoning Him | false | http://nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-may-be-abandoning-birthers-they-re-not-abandoning-him-n649591 | 2016-09-16 | 3 |
<p>I'm an Electoral College Geek, so we're going to be spending a reasonable amount of time on the subject. As I <a href="" type="internal">wrote not too long ago</a>, putting aside the national head-to-head polls and looking at Electoral College counts, Obama has a big edge, and I'll be monitoring that pretty closely.</p>
<p>Today I read of Pennsylvania. PPP <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/22/1093899/-Obama-leads-big-in-Pennsylvania" type="external">is out with a poll</a> showing Obama 50, Romney 42, basically unchanged since a 49-42 Obama advantage in March. We're getting to the point where these trends are, while far from decisive yet, starting to count for something.</p>
<p>New Hampshire is out of play. That's a 10-point Obama lead. Nevada has crept into Obama's column, which surprised me when it started happening because the economy there was so miserably bad, but apparently it's been turning around (Kevin, are you reading?). And don't buy this latest Wisconsin poll showing a tie. That was a poll of likely recall voters, and that means the sample was probably heavy on pro-Walker voters.</p>
<p>The starkest way to put it is like this. Obama won nine states in 2008 that George Bush had won in 2004. You know them, or should: Florida (29), Ohio (18), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), Indiana (11), Colorado (9), Iowa (6), Nevada (6), and New Mexico (5). Obama can lose eight of them. That's right, he can give eight of the nine back, as long as the one he wins is Florida, and he hits 275 EV's. And there are many alternative scenarios.</p>
<p>If Obama wins just Ohio and Iowa, or Ohio and Nevada, he's in, with 270. He's nine points up in Iowa right now and is very unlikely to lose it. He's also not going to lose New Mexico, where he's up by double digits. So put it another way. Of the nine flipped states, Romney will win Indiana. But then he has to run the table in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia. That's not impossible but it's all pretty tall order.</p>
<p>And again, class, why? Because the R's have made themselves too crazy even for moderate-to-conservative states like Virginia and Colorado. It's just fine with me if they never figure this out.</p> | State by State, It's Still Obama | true | https://thedailybeast.com/state-by-state-its-still-obama | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>Most recently a number of progressive pundits have argued that with the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, intelligence and hope are once again not only embraced but promoted as part of an essential element of American culture. At work in this discourse is a qualified endorsement of Obama’s emphasis on hope, one that is audacious in its reach and courageous in its ability to see beyond the wretched cynicism and inflated self-interest that accompanied the embrace of an unchecked and unprincipled market fundamentalism celebrated with great fervor since the Reagan revolution of the 1980s.&#160; But the country needs more than a notion of hope that is audacious; it needs a conception of educated hope, one that is both bold in its vision and keen in its understanding that only by&#160; supporting those institutions&#160; that provide the conditions for an educated citizenry can reform actually work in the interest of sustaining a substantive democracy in which hope as a precondition for politics itself.</p>
<p>Educated hope begins in opposition to a long legacy of privatization and corporatization that has shaped the public imagination, especially with respect to public and higher education.&#160; Oddly enough, Obama seems to miss this. He is a strong advocate for education that is engaged, critical, and on the side of public service an yet he reduces the goal of higher education to providing a competitive work force, while supporting some of the most reductionistic and instrumental elements of educational reform.&#160;&#160; What are we to make of Obama’s call for educational reform in the public school system, one&#160; that celebrates intelligence and public service while endorsing the brain-dead methods of drill and skill testing schemes and pay for performance objectives that have so guttered public schooling for the last eight years. These approaches are not about schooling but training and punishment. In fact, they are methods that have been used as part of the right-wing war on public schooling that has been going on in full blast since the Reagan era. What is one to make of the audacity of hope in Obama’s appointment of&#160; Arnie Duncan as Secretary of Education–more well known for supporting bankrupt accountability schemes, charter schools, and establishing military academies for those kids viewed as disposable.&#160; Similarly, where is the audacity of hope when it comes to rescuing higher education from the creeping hand of corporatization and militarization that now structures the governance and research initiatives in so many these schools.</p>
<p>In opposition to the corporatizing&#160; of everything educational, parents, teachers, intellectuals, and young people&#160; need to define and reclaim public and higher education as a resource vital to the democratic and civic life of the nation. At the heart of such a task is the challenge for&#160; academics, cultural workers, and labor organizers to join together and oppose the transformation of public and higher education into a consumer oriented corporation more concerned about accounting than accountability. <a href="#_edn1" type="external">1</a>&#160; As Zygmunt Bauman reminds us, schools are&#160; one of the few public spaces left where students can learn the “skills for citizen participation and effective political action. And where there is no [such]&#160; institutions, there is no “citizenship” either.” <a href="#_edn2" type="external">2</a></p>
<p>Defending public and&#160; higher education as a vital public sphere is necessary to develop and nourish the proper balance between democratic public spheres and commercial power, between identities founded on democratic principles and identities steeped in forms of competitive, self-interested individualism that celebrate selfishness, profit making, and greed.&#160; This view suggests that public and higher education be defended through intellectual work that self-consciously recalls the tension between the democratic imperatives or possibilities of public institutions and their everyday realization within a society dominated by market principles.&#160; If formal education is to remain a site of critical thinking, collective work, and social struggle, public intellectuals and progressive social forces&#160; need to expand its meaning and purpose. That is, they need to define public and higher education as a resource vital to the moral life of the nation, open to working people and communities whose resources, knowledge, and skills have often been viewed as marginal.&#160; The goal here is to redefine such knowledge and skills to more broadly reconstruct a tradition that links critical thought to collective action, human agency to social responsibility, and knowledge and power to a profound impatience with a status quo founded upon deep inequalities and injustices.</p>
<p>There is more at stake here than recognizing the limits and social costs of a market fundamentalism that reduces all relationships to the exchange of goods and money, there is also the responsibility on the part of critical intellectuals and other activists to rethink the nature of the public. In addition there is&#160; the need to address new forms of social citizenship and civic education&#160; that have a purchase on people’s everyday lives and struggles expressed through a wide&#160; range of institutions.&#160; In light of this profound crisis of spirit, vision, and economics now facing the nation,&#160; I believe that academics and others bear an enormous responsibility in opposing Obama’s courtship with&#160; neoliberal values&#160; by&#160; bringing democratic political culture back to life. Part of this challenge suggest creating new locations of struggle, vocabularies, and subject positions that allow people in a wide variety of public spheres to become more than they are now, to question what it is they have become within existing institutional and social formations, and “to give some thought to their experiences so that they can transform their relations of subordination and oppression.” <a href="#_edn3" type="external">3</a></p>
<p>In part this suggests that it is important for educators, parents, young people and others to take Obama’s notion of hope seriously by resisting his administration’s use of neoliberal values to shape any discourse about educational reform.&#160; At the same time, the defense of education as a democratic public sphere should extend to further efforts to push the Obama administration in providing the financial and ideological support for giving all students regardless of race, ethnicity, or class position access to a quality education that does not carry the burden of life long debt. Of course, in the first instance, Obama must recognize that education is more than a financial investment, it is an investment in educating future generations to what it means to take seriously not only their own sense of civic courage and agency, but the need to struggle for a democracy that is never finished and always has to be on guard in not allowing itself to degenerate in to a new form of authoritarianism.</p>
<p>Obama is right in wanting to revitalize the language of civic education as part of a broader discourse of hope, but this discourse must extend to the conditions that make political agency and critical citizenship possible in a global world, and to ground such a call in defense of militant utopian thinking as a form of educated hope. Utopianism in this context suggests that any viable notion of the political must address the primacy of pedagogy as part of a broader attempt to revitalize the conditions for individual and social agency while simultaneously addressing the most basic problems facing the prospects for social justice and&#160; global democracy.</p>
<p>Educators&#160; need a new vocabulary for linking hope, social citizenship, and education to the demands of substantive democracy.&#160; I am suggesting that educators and others&#160; need a new vocabulary for connecting how we read critically to how we engage in movements for social change. I also believe that simply invoking the relationship between theory and practice, critique and social action will not do. Any attempt to give new life to a substantive democratic politics must address both how people learn to be political agents and, what kind of educational work is necessary within what kind of public spaces to enable people to use their full intellectual resources to both&#160; provide a profound critique of existing institutions and struggle to create, as Stuart Hall puts it,&#160; “what would be a good life or a better kind of life for the majority of people.” <a href="#_edn4" type="external">4</a></p>
<p>As educators, writers, parents, and workers we are required to understand more fully why the tools we used in the past feel awkward in the present, often failing to respond to problems now facing the United States and other parts of the globe. More specifically,&#160; we face the challenge posed by the failure of existing critical discourses to bridge the gap between how the society represents itself and how and why individuals fail to understand and critically engage such representations in order to intervene in the oppressive social relationships they often&#160; legitimate.</p>
<p>At his best Obama’s notion of hope signals something crucial about the bankruptcy of the old political languages and the need for a new vocabulary and vision for clarifying our intellectual, ethical and political projects, especially as they work to reabsorb questions of agency, ethics, and meaning back into politics and public life. But this is not the language of post-partisanship and consensus, it is the language of civic responsibility, engaged citizenship, power, and social justice.&#160; Along these lines, Sheldon Wolin has&#160; argued that we need to rethink the notion of loss and how it impacts upon the possibility for opening up democratic public life. Wolin points to the need for progressives, theorists, and critical educators to resurrect and raise questions about “What survives of the defeated, the indigestible, the unassimilated, the ‘cross-grained,’ the ‘not wholly obsolete’.” <a href="#_edn5" type="external">5</a>&#160; He argues&#160; that “something is missing” in an age of manufactured politics and pseudo-publics catering almost exclusively to desires and drives produced by the commercial hysteria of the market.&#160; What is missing is a language, movement, and vision that refuses to equate democracy with consumerism, market relations, and privatization. In the absence of such a language and the social formations and&#160; public spheres that make it operative, politics becomes narcissistic and caters to the mood of widespread pessimism and the cathartic allure of the spectacle. Instead of the audacity of hope, maybe we need a language that embraces a militant utopianism while constantly being attentive to those forces that seek to turn such hope into a new slogan or punish and dismiss those who dare look beyond the horizon of the given.</p>
<p>Hope, in this instance, is the precondition for individual and social struggle, the ongoing practice of critical education in a wide variety of sites, the mark of courage on the part of intellectuals in and out of the academy who use the resources of theory to address pressing social problems. But hope is also a referent for civic courage and its ability to mediate the memory of loss and the experience of injustice as part of&#160; a broader attempt&#160; to open up new locations of struggle, contest the workings of oppressive power, and undermine various forms of domination.</p>
<p>At its best, hope translates into civic courage as a political practice, one which often begins when one’s life can no longer be taken for granted. In doing so, it makes concrete the possibility for transforming politics into an ethical space and public act that confronts the flow of everyday experience and the weight of social suffering with the force of individual and collective resistance and the unending project of democratic social transformation.</p>
<p>Educated hope involves struggle, assumes a boldness that sees beyond the discourse of consensus, and takes seriously a view of education that views learning as part of an engaged and practical politics that is inextricably linked to the quality of moral and political life of the wider society . There is more at stake here than the semantics of hope, there is the question of whether a democracy can survive without an educated citizenry.</p>
<p>HENRY A. GIROUX holds the Global TV Network chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Canada. His most recent books include: “ <a href="" type="internal">Take Back Higher Education</a>” (co-authored with Susan Searls Giroux, 2006), “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594514232/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex</a>” (2007) and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594515212/counterpunchmaga" type="external">“Against the Terror of Neoliberalism: Politics Beyond the Age of Greed</a>” (2008). His newest book, “Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability?” will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2009.</p>
<p>Sources.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" type="external">1.</a>. Bill Readings, The University in Ruins (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; pp, 11, 18.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" type="external">2.</a>&#160; Zygmunt Bauman, In Search of Politics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), p. 170.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" type="external">3.</a>.&#160; Lynn Worsham and Gary A. Olson, “Rethinking Political Community: Chantal Mouffe’s Liberal Socialism,” Journal of Composition Theory 19:2 (1999), p. 178.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" type="external">4.</a>&#160; Stuart Hall cited in Les Terry, “Travelling ‘The Hard Road to Renewal,” Arena Journal, N0. 8 (1997), p. 55.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" type="external">5.</a>&#160;&#160;Sheldon Wolin, “Political Theory: From Vocation to Invocation,” in Jason Frank and John Tambornino, eds. Vocations of Political Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), p. 4.</p> | The Audacity of Educated Hope | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/01/23/the-audacity-of-educated-hope/ | 2009-01-23 | 4 |
<p>It's been a full 203 days since Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election in a stunner to real estate mogul and former reality star Donald Trump, and yet the former secretary of state has been unable to come to terms with the defeat, let alone accept her status as politically irrelevant.</p>
<p>Hillary is running on fumes of delusions of grandeur and propping herself up with wild excuse-making.</p>
<p>In an interview with New York Magazine, an image of Hillary's irrelevance post-2016 Election Day is painted in vivid colors when writer Rebecca Traister <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/05/hillary-clinton-life-after-election.html" type="external">depicts</a> the former first lady "working" on May 10:</p>
<p>“Clinton checks with her communications director, Nick Merrill, about what’s happened in the past hour — she’s been exercising — and listens to the barrage of updates, nodding like a person whose job requires her to be up-to-date on what’s happening, even though it does not.”</p>
<p>As concisely put by The New York Post's <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/05/30/latest-look-into-hillary-clintons-life-shows-she-still-doesnt-get-it/" type="external">Maureen Calahan</a>: "Formerly one of the most powerful women in the world, [Hillary's] now a disgraced ex-pol casting about for influence, engaged in some light grifting, still surrounded by sycophantic and unpaid ex-staffers, attempting to write her memoirs, reporting to her offices in New York City where nothing ever happens, and establishing another foundation."</p>
<p>In other words, Hill, unable or unwilling to leave the padded-walled, mirror-free Hillary World, can't take a hint. It's over.</p>
<p>The in-depth look at Hillary from NY Mag continues to expose the cracks via photographs: Images of Hillary watching CNN, aptly dubbed the Clinton News Network by conservatives privy to their overwhelming bias; a photo of the Democrat solo, reading through mail from supporters, a visual sure to evoke pity from even ruthless opponents; "Selfies with Hillary," and all that that implies; and the fallen politician longingly peering out of her Midtown office with no work on her desk to be found.</p>
<p>And then there's the pathological excuse-making for her downfall; no one can blame others as well as Queen Hill.</p>
<p>Matter-of-factly, Hillary pours the blame on former FBI Director James Comey, "the Russians" and Republican-enabled voter suppression all in one breath. It's actually quite impressive.</p>
<p>"I would have won had I not been subjected to the unprecedented attacks by Comey and the Russians, aided and abetted by the suppression of the vote, particularly in Wisconsin," she says.</p>
<p>Then there's WikiLeaks, the "minions," who are presumably those "deplorables" she referenced in prepared remarks during the election, and the "right-wing media."</p>
<p>"Clinton says she thinks she 'underestimated WikiLeaks and the impact that had, because I thought it was so silly.' Those hacked emails, dripped out over weeks, says Clinton, 'were innocuous, boring, inconsequential. And each one was played like it was some breathless flash. And so you got Trump, in the last month of the campaign, talking about WikiLeaks something like 164 times; you’ve got all his minions out there, you’ve got the right-wing media just blowing it up. You’ve got Google searches off the charts.'"</p>
<p>Continuing the masterful blame-game, Hillary discusses the media bias against Don--. Oh, that's right, she believes the media were biased against her.</p>
<p>"Look, we have an advocacy press on the right that has done a really good job for the last 25 years. They have a mission. They use the rights given to them under the First Amendment to advocate a set of policies that are in their interests, their commercial, corporate, religious interests," the privilege politician whines. "Because the advocacy media occupies the right, and the center needs to be focused on providing as accurate information as possible. Not both-sides-ism and not false equivalency."</p>
<p>Hillary also <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-russia-election-10344696" type="external">blamed</a> sexism for the loss, which she has done repeatedly since November 8.</p>
<p>Adding to the already lengthy list of those responsible for her inability to campaign her way out of a paper bag, Hillary reportedly went off on the Democratic National Committee for their inadequate "data operation" and the Democrat Party in general at the Recode's Code Conference in California, on Wednesday.</p>
<p>"I'm now the nominee of the Democratic Party. I inherit nothing from the Democratic Party," <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/31/politics/hillary-clinton-recode-loss/" type="external">said</a> Hillary. "It was bankrupt, it was on the verge of insolvency, its data was mediocre to poor, non-existent, wrong. I had to inject money into it -- the DNC -- to keep it going."</p>
<p>"I take responsibility for every decision I make," she said, "but that's not why I lost."</p>
<p>So, to recap, here's the short-list of who and what is responsible for Hillary's defeat:</p>
<p>1. FBI Director James Comey</p>
<p>2. Russians</p>
<p>3. Republican-enabled voter suppression</p>
<p>4. WikiLeaks</p>
<p>5. "Minions"</p>
<p>6. Right-wing media</p>
<p>7. Sexism</p>
<p>8. DNC</p>
<p>9. Democrat Party</p>
<p>As you might have noticed, missing from that feel-good blame exercise was little old Hillary, one of the most scandal-ridden and charisma-deficient presidential candidates in modern history.</p>
<p>Go figure.</p>
<p>Peddling back to her delusions of grandeur, Hillary boasted about beating both Donald Trump and wild-haired socialist Bernie Sanders. "I beat both of them," she bragged.</p>
<p>Of course, Hillary's popular vote "win" in the 2016 election is about as relevant as she is now. And her win against Democratic opponent Sanders came with much help from the media, as exposed by WikiLeaks, and the those sweet Super Delegates.</p>
<p>The only thing real in Hillary World is her delusion.</p> | The Sad Delusions Of A Down-And-Out Hillary Clinton | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17022/sad-delusions-down-and-out-hillary-clinton-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2017-05-31 | 0 |
<p>Amazon.com&#160;(NASDAQ: AMZN) already has a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/01/4-reasons-why-amazon-is-so-hard-to-compete-with.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=0d4d02f4-aa0c-11e7-8946-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">number of advantages Opens a New Window.</a> over the competition. Its reputation for low prices keeps customers from comparison shopping on the internet, and the convenience it offers with Prime two-day free shipping means that many of its customers don't even care if they're getting the lowest price on Amazon as the convenience of Prime is worth paying a little extra.</p>
<p>And, of course, Prime itself is a competitive advantage with its smorgasbord of benefits that none of its competitors can match, which keeps them within Amazon's ecosystems.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Now, however, it seems the company has carved out another advantage that could be more insidious than any other. The e-commerce giant has become the top recruiter among MBA students, replacing the traditionally coveted posts at Wall Street banks and top consulting firms.</p>
<p>According to&#160;the&#160;Wall Street Journal, Amazon has hired 1,000 MBAs over the last year, thriving among the business school set due to a combination of the company's own reputation and an aggressive recruiting push.</p>
<p>Amazon sends as many as ten recruiters to school events, and the company has hosted 650 MBA students on its own campus. Meanwhile, the company's reputation for fast growth, experimentation in a wide range of industries, and an eagerness to embrace new ideas has made it a popular choice with MBA classes. Two years after&#160;The New York Times published a much-read investigative report depicting Amazon as a soul-crushing workplace, the company now seems to be a more popular employer than ever.</p>
<p>All of the big tech companies are considered desirable places to work for engineers, managers, and other strivers, but a company is often nothing more than the people working for it. Success or failure depends on the talent walking into the hiring office. For instance, Amazon's success with Alexa's voice-activated technology or cloud computing may be primarily due to the quality of the employees who pioneered such initiatives, as well as the culture that shaped them.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>It's clear that Amazon understands this, especially at a time when the job market is tighter than at any point in the last ten years. Not only is the company aggressively going after MBA students, but it's using similar tactics to hire low-wage employees to staff its fulfillment centers. The company held a nationwide job fair in early August to recruit as many as 50,000 employees to pick and pack orders at its warehouses, but the timing was canny, coming just before other retailers announced their own holiday hiring plans. Holding such an event in August, rather than October or November, allows Amazon to get a head start on the holiday season and hire the best of the available talent pool.</p>
<p>In addition to being the top choice among MBA graduates, Amazon is also being serenaded by more than 50 cities to host its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/15/amazons-2nd-headquarters-presents-a-quandary-for-h.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=0d4d02f4-aa0c-11e7-8946-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">second headquarters Opens a New Window.</a>. The company is leveraging its reputation for growth and innovation on both ends of the equation, which gives it a leg up over competitors like&#160;Wal-Mart&#160;(NYSE: WMT).</p>
<p>Wal-Mart's own tech division, WalMart Labs, has long struggled to keep up with Amazon and others at the forefront of e-commerce and tech, and has been described by some employees as having no defined culture and being uninspiring, bureaucratic, and directionless.</p>
<p>Even Marc Lore, the Founder of Jet.com who now heads Wal-Mart's e-commerce operations, was once dismissive of working for the retail giant, saying when Jet was independent, "If someone is unhappy here and doesn't see an opportunity for growth, OK, good luck, go to Walmart." The implication is clear. Wal-Mart is a stodgy, uninteresting place to work. That may be changing under Lore's command, but Amazon's reputation is becoming a key advantage for hiring.</p>
<p>The incoming crop of talent may not provide immediate benefits to Amazon, but the company is known for its long-term focus. If it can retain these top recruits for the years to come, they will provide yet another long-term advantage for Amazon.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than AmazonWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ffa5037d-93d2-4649-8df2-123b01349df4&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=0d4d02f4-aa0c-11e7-8946-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Amazon wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ffa5037d-93d2-4649-8df2-123b01349df4&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=0d4d02f4-aa0c-11e7-8946-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFHobo/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=0d4d02f4-aa0c-11e7-8946-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Jeremy Bowman Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=0d4d02f4-aa0c-11e7-8946-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Top Business Students Are Flocking to Amazon. Here's Why. | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/07/top-business-students-are-flocking-to-amazon-heres-why.html | 2017-10-07 | 0 |
<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Nick Saban saved his best for No. 6.</p>
<p>He’s won plenty of national titles with better players than everyone else.</p>
<p>This time, it was all about the coach.</p>
<p>If there was ever any doubt that Saban will go down as the greatest ever to prowl a college sideline, it was totally erased with the championship that pulled him even with the Bear.</p>
<p>In a most un-Saban-like move, he switched quarterbacks at halftime of the national championship game, the kind of desperate ploy you might expect from a brash young up-and-comer, not a 66-year-old all about the methodical process — covering every base, accounting for every scenario, winning over and over again without a lot of drama.</p>
<p>Tua Tagovailoa, a ukulele-playing, left-handed freshman from Hawaii, took the field at the start of the third quarter with Alabama trailing 13-0 and doing absolutely nothing on offense. The Tide had accounted for just four first downs and 97 yards with two-year starter Jalen Hurts taking the snaps, but it was a bold decision nonetheless by the wily ol’ coach.</p>
<p>After all, this was the biggest game of the season, and Hurts was the one who led Alabama there for the second year in a row. He’s a proven winner, having lost only two out of 28 games coming into Monday night, and it certainly would’ve been the safe bet to stick with him a little longer.</p>
<p>But Saban — who refuses to let the game pass him by even as coaches young enough to be his sons keep attempting to take him down (including former assistant Kirby Smart, who now coaches Georgia) — switched to Tagovailoa without hesitation.</p>
<p>It might go down as the greatest decision in a career filled with them.</p>
<p>Tagovailoa completed 14 of 24 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns, the last of them <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/walk-alabama-beats-georgia-ot-national-title" type="external">a 41-yard strike in overtime to DeVonta Smith that gave Alabama a 26-23 victory over Georgia</a> on Monday night.</p>
<p>“We’ve had this in our mind that, if we were struggling offensively, that we would give Tua an opportunity, even in the last game,” Saban said. “No disrespect to Jalen, but ... I thought Tua would give us a better chance and a spark, which he certainly did.”</p>
<p>The Tide rallied from a pair of 13-point deficits, and managed to pull it together after Andy Pappanastos shanked a 36-yard field goal try that would’ve won the game on the final play of regulation. Georgia went on offense first in overtime and, after Jake Fromm took a huge sack, the Bulldogs settled for Ricardo Blankenship’s 51-yard field goal.</p>
<p>Alabama’s offense took the field and immediately fell into a huge hole. Georgia sniffed out a screen pass, Tagovailoa couldn’t pick up his next option and Georgia dumped the youngster for a 16-yard loss.</p>
<p>One play later, the Tide was national champions.</p>
<p>With the poise of a veteran, Tagovailoa looked to his right, causing the Georgia safeties to slide toward that side of the field. Then he swung the other way, launching a pass to Smith streaking down the left sideline. He ran right by cornerback Malkom Parrish, who clearly thought he had help from safety Dominick Sanders, and hauled in a pass that was delivered in stride as he glided all alone into the end zone.</p>
<p>Saban has now won five national titles in his 11 years at Alabama, and his first season doesn’t really count since he had to rebuild a program that had become a laughingstock under a string of mediocre coaches. When you throw in a BCS title from his time at LSU (albeit a shared title, since Southern Cal was voted No. 1 in The Associated Press poll), he’s matched Bryant for the most championships by any coach.</p>
<p>And, really, Saban has the edge.</p>
<p>One of Bryant’s titles comes with a huge asterisk. In 1973, the Tide finished No. 1 in the coaches’ poll, which was finalized before the bowls. Alabama went on to lose to No. 2 Notre Dame 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl, giving the AP title to the Fighting Irish.</p>
<p>Let’s be honest, nobody outside of Tuscaloosa and the Bryant family views that team as the best in the land.</p>
<p>Another feather in Saban’s cap is the way he’s won his championships. During the 2011 season, the Crimson Tide stifled LSU 21-0 with one of the great defensive performances in college football history. Two years ago, Alabama needed a dynamic offense and great special teams play to pull out a 45-40 victory over Clemson.</p>
<p>This time, he had to make a change right in the middle of the game at the most prominent position on the field.</p>
<p>That’s a new one, even for Saban.</p>
<p>“Somebody tried to give me a game ball,” he said. “It has to be a team ball.”</p>
<p>Saban shows no signs of slowing down or giving the least bit of thought to retirement. He’ll celebrate this title like he did all the other ones, for about 24 hours before he gets back to work in pursuit of No. 7.</p>
<p>“Every team wants to be successful,” he said. “The message to the team tonight after this game was I hope you take something from this game and the resiliency that you showed in this game and it helps you be more successful in life.</p>
<p>“It’s not just about winning the championship,” Saban added, no doubt remembering a final-second loss to Clemson in last year’s title game. “I know that’s what you all write about and what you talk about and all that. We like winning, and we hate losing. But there’s more to it than that.”</p>
<p>Winning sure makes it a lot more fun, though.</p>
<p>As Smith hauled in the title-clinching pass, Saban ripped off his headset, threw his arms in the air and let out a bit of a scream.</p>
<p>For once in his life, he seemed caught off guard.</p>
<p>It only lasted a moment.</p>
<p>“I couldn’t believe it,” Saban said, shaking his head and repeating himself.</p>
<p>“I could not believe it.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963" type="external">www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963</a> . His work can be found at <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/paul%20newberry</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP college football coverage: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Nick Saban saved his best for No. 6.</p>
<p>He’s won plenty of national titles with better players than everyone else.</p>
<p>This time, it was all about the coach.</p>
<p>If there was ever any doubt that Saban will go down as the greatest ever to prowl a college sideline, it was totally erased with the championship that pulled him even with the Bear.</p>
<p>In a most un-Saban-like move, he switched quarterbacks at halftime of the national championship game, the kind of desperate ploy you might expect from a brash young up-and-comer, not a 66-year-old all about the methodical process — covering every base, accounting for every scenario, winning over and over again without a lot of drama.</p>
<p>Tua Tagovailoa, a ukulele-playing, left-handed freshman from Hawaii, took the field at the start of the third quarter with Alabama trailing 13-0 and doing absolutely nothing on offense. The Tide had accounted for just four first downs and 97 yards with two-year starter Jalen Hurts taking the snaps, but it was a bold decision nonetheless by the wily ol’ coach.</p>
<p>After all, this was the biggest game of the season, and Hurts was the one who led Alabama there for the second year in a row. He’s a proven winner, having lost only two out of 28 games coming into Monday night, and it certainly would’ve been the safe bet to stick with him a little longer.</p>
<p>But Saban — who refuses to let the game pass him by even as coaches young enough to be his sons keep attempting to take him down (including former assistant Kirby Smart, who now coaches Georgia) — switched to Tagovailoa without hesitation.</p>
<p>It might go down as the greatest decision in a career filled with them.</p>
<p>Tagovailoa completed 14 of 24 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns, the last of them <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/walk-alabama-beats-georgia-ot-national-title" type="external">a 41-yard strike in overtime to DeVonta Smith that gave Alabama a 26-23 victory over Georgia</a> on Monday night.</p>
<p>“We’ve had this in our mind that, if we were struggling offensively, that we would give Tua an opportunity, even in the last game,” Saban said. “No disrespect to Jalen, but ... I thought Tua would give us a better chance and a spark, which he certainly did.”</p>
<p>The Tide rallied from a pair of 13-point deficits, and managed to pull it together after Andy Pappanastos shanked a 36-yard field goal try that would’ve won the game on the final play of regulation. Georgia went on offense first in overtime and, after Jake Fromm took a huge sack, the Bulldogs settled for Ricardo Blankenship’s 51-yard field goal.</p>
<p>Alabama’s offense took the field and immediately fell into a huge hole. Georgia sniffed out a screen pass, Tagovailoa couldn’t pick up his next option and Georgia dumped the youngster for a 16-yard loss.</p>
<p>One play later, the Tide was national champions.</p>
<p>With the poise of a veteran, Tagovailoa looked to his right, causing the Georgia safeties to slide toward that side of the field. Then he swung the other way, launching a pass to Smith streaking down the left sideline. He ran right by cornerback Malkom Parrish, who clearly thought he had help from safety Dominick Sanders, and hauled in a pass that was delivered in stride as he glided all alone into the end zone.</p>
<p>Saban has now won five national titles in his 11 years at Alabama, and his first season doesn’t really count since he had to rebuild a program that had become a laughingstock under a string of mediocre coaches. When you throw in a BCS title from his time at LSU (albeit a shared title, since Southern Cal was voted No. 1 in The Associated Press poll), he’s matched Bryant for the most championships by any coach.</p>
<p>And, really, Saban has the edge.</p>
<p>One of Bryant’s titles comes with a huge asterisk. In 1973, the Tide finished No. 1 in the coaches’ poll, which was finalized before the bowls. Alabama went on to lose to No. 2 Notre Dame 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl, giving the AP title to the Fighting Irish.</p>
<p>Let’s be honest, nobody outside of Tuscaloosa and the Bryant family views that team as the best in the land.</p>
<p>Another feather in Saban’s cap is the way he’s won his championships. During the 2011 season, the Crimson Tide stifled LSU 21-0 with one of the great defensive performances in college football history. Two years ago, Alabama needed a dynamic offense and great special teams play to pull out a 45-40 victory over Clemson.</p>
<p>This time, he had to make a change right in the middle of the game at the most prominent position on the field.</p>
<p>That’s a new one, even for Saban.</p>
<p>“Somebody tried to give me a game ball,” he said. “It has to be a team ball.”</p>
<p>Saban shows no signs of slowing down or giving the least bit of thought to retirement. He’ll celebrate this title like he did all the other ones, for about 24 hours before he gets back to work in pursuit of No. 7.</p>
<p>“Every team wants to be successful,” he said. “The message to the team tonight after this game was I hope you take something from this game and the resiliency that you showed in this game and it helps you be more successful in life.</p>
<p>“It’s not just about winning the championship,” Saban added, no doubt remembering a final-second loss to Clemson in last year’s title game. “I know that’s what you all write about and what you talk about and all that. We like winning, and we hate losing. But there’s more to it than that.”</p>
<p>Winning sure makes it a lot more fun, though.</p>
<p>As Smith hauled in the title-clinching pass, Saban ripped off his headset, threw his arms in the air and let out a bit of a scream.</p>
<p>For once in his life, he seemed caught off guard.</p>
<p>It only lasted a moment.</p>
<p>“I couldn’t believe it,” Saban said, shaking his head and repeating himself.</p>
<p>“I could not believe it.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963" type="external">www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963</a> . His work can be found at <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/paul%20newberry</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP college football coverage: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Column: Nick Saban’s 6th championship is the best of all | false | https://apnews.com/ca682803d6a643cbb5bad2b5e0a3f5ab | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>Dozens of Arkansas police officers have paid tribute to a beloved K-9 deputy. The dog named Pajti spent years fighting crime before being diagnosed with bone cancer. A procession of officers followed as Pajti’s handler took him to be euthanized. (Jan. 25)</p>
<p>Dozens of Arkansas police officers have paid tribute to a beloved K-9 deputy. The dog named Pajti spent years fighting crime before being diagnosed with bone cancer. A procession of officers followed as Pajti’s handler took him to be euthanized. (Jan. 25)</p> | Officers Bid Farewell to Beloved K9 Deputy | false | https://apnews.com/amp/ec3a982e57654fb2b7c89990286c3ad8 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Reno city councilwoman is accusing the owners of a strip club of using low-income residents as “political pawns” by threatening to raise the rent at an adjoining weekly motel if the city follows through with a plan to force existing strip clubs out of downtown.</p>
<p>The Reno Gazette-Journal <a href="http://tinyurl.com/y9kbu4ev" type="external">reports</a> dozens of tenants of the Ponderosa Motel pleaded with council members Wednesday to strike a deal with the clubs after the owner of the motel and neighboring White Orchid club threatened to double their rent.</p>
<p>Velma Shoal, who lives at the motel with her 15-year-old granddaughter, was among those who responded to the owner’s plea to put pressure on the council. She said the motel is the only thing that keeps them from becoming homeless.</p>
<p>Councilwoman Neoma Jardon says using the tenants as “political pawns” is a “disgusting tactic.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, <a href="http://www.rgj.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.rgj.com" type="external">http://www.rgj.com</a></p>
<p>RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Reno city councilwoman is accusing the owners of a strip club of using low-income residents as “political pawns” by threatening to raise the rent at an adjoining weekly motel if the city follows through with a plan to force existing strip clubs out of downtown.</p>
<p>The Reno Gazette-Journal <a href="http://tinyurl.com/y9kbu4ev" type="external">reports</a> dozens of tenants of the Ponderosa Motel pleaded with council members Wednesday to strike a deal with the clubs after the owner of the motel and neighboring White Orchid club threatened to double their rent.</p>
<p>Velma Shoal, who lives at the motel with her 15-year-old granddaughter, was among those who responded to the owner’s plea to put pressure on the council. She said the motel is the only thing that keeps them from becoming homeless.</p>
<p>Councilwoman Neoma Jardon says using the tenants as “political pawns” is a “disgusting tactic.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, <a href="http://www.rgj.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.rgj.com" type="external">http://www.rgj.com</a></p> | Controversy heats up over Reno strip club proposal | false | https://apnews.com/9236d398ffd84342b1c19261af466b37 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p />
<p>When results of TrueCar, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: TRUE) second quarter hit the wires, investors responded favorably, sending the stock to a new 52-week high. That high is nice and all, but the stock still trades far below levels witnessed a couple of years ago before the company hit multiple speed bumps starting early last summer. A picture is worth a thousand words, so they say, so let's try to put TrueCar's better-than-expected second quarter into three important and telling graphs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It's a simple fact that eventually even the greatest of companies with the most popular products will have slowing sales in the face of saturation. The problem is when a slowdown happens before that saturation, due to competition or other factors, and that is a hurdle TrueCar is currently facing.</p>
<p>Image source: TrueCar, Inc. Chart by author.</p>
<p>For such a young company, it's problematic to see that year-over-year units sold -- which are new-vehicle transactions consumers complete at dealerships causing the latter to pay TrueCar for the sales lead -- screech to a halt near 0%.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The question isn't whether the growth is slowing, because that's clear, but whether management can revive its top-line growth. Investors hoping the company can do just that were optimistic when hearing about a new affinity partnership that should be completed and announced in the back half of 2016.</p>
<p>For those who aren't aware, an affinity partnership is an agreement between TrueCar and a large organization such as USAA or Sam's Club, both of which are already working with TrueCar. Consider that TrueCar's affinity partnerships generate only 30% of the website's unique visitors but contribute a higher 60% of unit sales. Depending on what organization TrueCar is close to inking a partnership with, it could definitely help revive sales.</p>
<p>Another way to generate incremental revenue from its network of more than 10,000 dealerships is to simply make each dealership better at closing their sales leads. That's been a focus for TrueCar as it helped improve its dealerships' appearance on its website and has expanded its sales staff to help improve the sales process on both ends. The good news is that, if the second quarter is any indication, it's working.</p>
<p>Data source: TrueCar, Inc. Chart by author.</p>
<p>What you'll want to note here is that during the third quarter of 2015 when the revenue per dealership spikes, it's due to roughly the same amount of revenue being spread across a smaller dealership count. That was basically a neutral result. Now, looking at the first two quarters of 2016 and you can see that as the dealership count spikes to an all-time high, revenue per dealership actually moved higher. In my opinion, it wouldn't have been surprising to see revenue per dealership decline with such a spike in dealership numbers, and the fact that it didn't means TrueCar is helping each of its dealerships generate incremental revenue.</p>
<p>Also, as TrueCar and AutoNation continue to repair their rocky relationship, there was some great news coming from the latter. According to Automotive News, citing AutoNation's chief marketing officer, Marc Cannon, the close rate, quality of traffic, and value/pricing equation all vastly improved from when the partnership previously dissolved.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, the graph that matters the most is what appears on the company's bottom line.</p>
<p>Data source: TrueCar, Inc. Chart by author.</p>
<p>TrueCar was hitting its stride in 2014 before falling off a cliff early last summer. It's been a rough road since then, but the company has posted three consecutive quarters of improving adjusted EBITDA and management noted that the best is yet to come this year -- TrueCar's fourth quarter is likely to be its best quarterly result of the year.</p>
<p>As always, investors cheered when management moved its full-year guidance higher during the second-quarter conference call. TrueCar is maintaining its top-line forecast for full-year units to reach 780,000 and revenue to reach $270 million, but its adjusted EBITDA moves from breakeven to between $5 million and $6 million.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this was a strong quarter even as units sold slowed. It's very promising that the company's sales force is seemingly improving the effectiveness of its dealership network, as well as working behind the scenes to attract new affinity partners that could generate substantially more revenue and bottom-line earnings. Stay tuned. The second half of 2016 will be very telling for whether the rebound has legs.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2691&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTwoCoins/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Miller Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of TrueCar. The Motley Fool recommends TrueCar. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | TrueCar, Inc.'s Better-Than-Expected Q2 in 3 Telling Graphs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/08/10/truecar-inc-better-than-expected-q2-in-3-telling-graphs.html | 2016-08-10 | 0 |
<p>“As a shareholder and director of our company, I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else,” current Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a speech in 1990, when she was first lady of Arkansas.</p>
<p>The largest grocery retailer in the U.S. and the biggest company in the world by revenue, Wal-Mart has long been criticized for paying its workers poverty wages. Because those workers often require financial assistance from the U.S. government, Wal-Mart effectively receives a subsidy on labor.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p /> | VIDEO: Hillary Clinton in 1990: I'm 'Proud of Wal-Mart' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/video-hillary-clinton-in-1990-im-proud-of-wal-mart/ | 2015-05-25 | 4 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Brigitte Bardot, known at present as an animal rights campaigner, told her followers on Twitter that they should reject Macron in the election because she fears that the situation of animals would deteriorate under his presidency should he win. Bardot gave a compelling statement as she declared: "The contempt he gives to animal suffering can be seen in the total lack of empathy reflected in the coldness of his steel eyes."</p>
<p />
<p>Bardot elaborated to say that while the scandals are increasing, Macron takes the side of the animal breeders and the hunters against animal rights associations that are fighting with the lobbies that seem to hold power over Macron.</p>
<p />
<p>Bardot is a known supporter of Marine Le Pen, and she has been vocal of her support for the feisty Le Pen since early this year. Bardot also gave her take on France's contemporary culture in a wide-ranging interview with Le Figaro. The popular film icon of the 1950s and 1960s and one of the best known sex symbols of her time had pretty explosive views to share.</p>
<p />
<p>The actress said French people live in a period when everything is vulgar, ordinary, and mediocre. She said "France no longer has the radiance, the majesty it had."</p>
<p />
<p>Bardot also did not hesitate to answer the question on whether she was close to Le Pen's controversial anti-mass migration party, the Front National. She said that she's very patriotic since she was raised by a father and a grandfather who fought for France and instilled in her a love for her homeland. Bardot said she is not proud of what France is today. She denied being a fascist, any more than Marine Le Pen is.</p>
<p />
<p>The film icon gives credit to Le Pen as she stressed: "Marine Le Pen has the will to take France in hand, to restore borders and give priority to the French."</p>
<p />
<p>An acknowledged symbol of women's liberation, Bardot told Le Figaro that she was against the Muslim face veil. She said "Communitarianism takes on too much importance. It is the culmination of thirty years of laxity."</p>
<p />
<p>Bardot an avowed animal rights advocate is also a vocal opponent of Muslim halal slaughter, which often involves slaughtering an animal without stunning it, causing pain and distress before death.</p>
<p />
<p>Also a free speech activist, the 82-year-old actress faced trial five times between 1997 and 2008 for allegedly " inciting racial hatred" including for comments criticizing mass Muslim immigration in France. On one occasion, she was convicted for "decrying the loss of French identity and tradition due to the 'multiplication of mosques while our church bells fall silent for want of priests."</p>
<p />
<p>Bardot, with the courage of her convictions and the strength of her words and ideas is certainly someone a candidate would want for an ally.</p>
<p />
<p>Source:</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/05/03/brigitte-bardot-macron-lack-empathy-cold-steel-eyes/" type="external">breitbart.com/london/2017/05/03/brigitte-bardot-macron-lack-empathy-cold-steel-eyes</a></p> | Brigitte Bardot Rips Macron and his "Cold, Steel Eyes" | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/2697-Brigitte-Bardot-Rips-Macron-and-his-Cold-Steel-Eyes | 2017-05-03 | 0 |
<p />
<p>As&#160;demonstrators continue to protest what was clearly a rigged election, police are responding with&#160;”water cannon, batons, tear gas and live rounds,” <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110582.stm" type="external">according to the BBC today</a>. For those&#160;who want to follow what’s going on in Tehran’s streets, I’m listing some sources for breaking news and ongoing updates. With the government trying to effect a news blackout,&#160;this is first-hand reporting on the fly–and at considerable risk to those providing it.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://tehranbureau.com/" type="external">Tehran Bureau</a>, which describes itself as “an independent online magazine about Iran and the Iranian diaspora,” is running&#160;this <a href="http://twitter.com/TehranBureau" type="external">Twitter feed</a>, describing developments as they happen.</p>
<p>Our old colleague Laura Rozen is constantly updating a series of news links on Iran on <a href="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/" type="external">The Cable</a>, the blog she runs for&#160;Foreign Policy. It includes on-the-scenes reporting from Tehran Bureau and other on-the-ground sources, as well as a roundup of the best reports from more traditional Western and local new sources, official statements, and the like.&#160;She’s heard that in Washington,&#160;State and White House officials are glued to it.</p>
<p>There are&#160;also plenty of&#160; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWozRk-kDxE" type="external">clandestine videos&#160;</a>being released on YouTube and elsewhere, most of them shot on cell phones, showing the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99p5ziag7rA&amp;eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoundingbloggers%2Ecom%2Fwordpress%2F2009%2F06%2Fvideo%2Diranian%2Dpolice%2Dbeat%2Dunarmed%2Dwoman%2F&amp;feature=player_embedded" type="external">beating</a>, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8110582.stm" type="external">tear gassing</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIrX6UiXReE" type="external">shooting</a> of protestors.&#160;This&#160;one, sent to me by an Iranian reporter,&#160;reportedly shows how the Ahmadinejad regime prepared stacks of fradulent ballots before the election even began.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;Even as we follow the current news,&#160;for members of the <a href="http://unsilentgeneration.com/" type="external">Silent Generation</a>like myself, all of this will likely bring back memories of 1953,&#160;when a coup overthrew nationalist premier Mohammed&#160;Mossadegh. While the images are familiar, however, the situation is quite different: Rather than a homegrown democratic movement, the 1953 coup was <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB28/" type="external">engineered by the CIA</a>, aided by British intelligence. At the height of the Cold War, the West could not&#160;tolerate the leftist Mossadegh, especially seeing that he intended to take over the oil business from the international corporations.</p>
<p>The two events are not entirely disconnected, however. The CIA-engineered coup reinstalled the despotic Shah of Iran, which in turn led more or less directly to the Islamic Revolution and the repressive regimes of today. In addition, the destructive history of American meddling inevitably affects the U.S. government’s response to the current uprising.&#160;</p>
<p>The Obama administration is under pressure–mostly from the right–to make a more aggressive response to the situation in Iran. But American support for the protestors–or for Ahmadinejad’s rival Mir Hussein Mussavi–is tantamount to the kiss of death. As Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/world/middleeast/20policy.html?_r=1&amp;partner=rss&amp;emc=rss" type="external">told the New York Times</a>: “If we overtly take sides, the regime could well react with a massive and bloody crackdown on the demonstrators using the pretext that they are acting against an American-led coup.” Or, as he might have said, another American-led coup.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | The Iranian Uprising and Its Cold War Precursors | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/06/iranian-uprising-and-its-cold-war-precursors/ | 2009-06-20 | 4 |
<p>July 28 (UPI) — The Soyuz MS-05 mission is set to launch, carrying the Expedition 52 crew to the International Space Station.</p>
<p>The Soyuz-MS spacecraft and its rocket are ready and waiting on its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The duo are scheduled to blast off at 11:41 a.m. EDT.</p>
<p>The launch and flight will be streamed <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public" type="external">live on NASA TV</a>.</p>
<p>The spacecraft will carry cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy, who will serve as commander of mission, as well as flight engineers Randy Bresnik from NASA and Paolo Nespoli from the European Space Agency, to the International Space Station.</p>
<p>“The trio will take a six-hour, 19-minute ride from Earth to the station’s Rassvet module,” NASA wrote in a blog update.</p>
<p>The 6 p.m. docking will also be streamed live on NASA TV.</p>
<p>Ryazanskiy, Bresnik and Nespoli will spend five months living and working on the space station. While they’re there, they’ll spend many hours in the weightless laboratories, conducting a variety of science experiments related to biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.</p> | Watch live: Expedition 52 crew prepares to fly to International Space Station | false | https://newsline.com/watch-live-expedition-52-crew-prepares-to-fly-to-international-space-station/ | 2017-07-28 | 1 |
<p>Good protesters.</p>
<p>It’s fair to say that the complex anti-government protest movements in both Venezuela and Ukraine were boiled down by US corporate media to send a clear message to their domestic audience: These are the good guys.</p>
<p>In Ukraine, the takeaway was that there are two sides, and the people seeking to topple the government (successfully, as it turned out) wanted to be more like us. On NBC Nightly News (2/18/14), correspondent <a href="" type="internal">Richard Engel</a> explained: “The Ukrainian government is backed by Moscow. The protesters want closer ties with Europe and the United States.”</p>
<p>ABC World News correspondent <a href="" type="internal">Terry Moran</a> (2/19/14) framed it this way:</p>
<p>Not good.</p>
<p>Will this country of 46 million people turn West toward the US and Europe and democracy, or turn East to Vladimir Putin and Russia, which ruled here for centuries?”</p>
<p>And ABC anchor <a href="" type="internal">Diane Sawyer</a> (2/20/14) called it</p>
<p>an unremitting duel between protesters who say they want Western freedom and police enforcing the alliance with Russia and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and all that he represents.</p>
<p>This casting of the conflict is obviously simplistic. There is a case to be made that now-deposed Yanukovych spurned an economic deal with the European Union–one that he seemed inclined to accept weeks earlier–because it was insufficient to deal with the scale of the country’s economic problems (Reuters, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/19/uk-ukraine-russia-deal-idUKBRE9BI0E320131219" type="external">12/19/13</a>), which made Putin’s offer more attractive.</p>
<p>That is not to suggest that anti-government protesters do not have serious grievances with the state of their country. Likewise, it has to be said that, for all the portraits of a movement that wants US-style freedoms, a substantial minority of the protest movement is drawn from fascist and neo-Nazi factions (Guardian, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/29/ukraine-fascists-oligarchs-eu-nato-expansion" type="external">1/29/14</a>; Slate, <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/02/20/russia_says_the_ukrainian_protesters_are_fascists_and_nazis_are_they.html" type="external">2/20/14</a>).</p>
<p>In Venezuela, meanwhile, demonstrators are similarly labeled. Here’s Mariana Atencio on ABC World News (2/23/14):</p>
<p>It’s been 12 straight days of violent clashes here in Venezuela. On one side, students and the middle class. On the other, police and pro-government groups, followers of the party of anti-American President Hugo Chavez.</p>
<p>So it’s students versus people who support the “anti-American” government–not difficult to figure out whose side you’re supposed to take. Nor did Newsweek ( <a href="http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/02/28/leopoldo-lpez-gives-venezuela-image-revolutionary-who.html" type="external">2/21/14</a>) leave much doubt when it described protest leader Leopoldo Lopez this way:</p>
<p>With twinkling chocolate-colored eyes and high cheekbones, López seems to have it all: an attractive and supportive wife, two children who get along with each other and impossibly adorable Labrador puppies. He is charismatic, athletic and good-looking.</p>
<p>In the Washington Post ( <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/carnaval-could-sap-venezuela-protests/2014/02/26/50088b96-9f10-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html%20%20" type="external">2/26/14</a>), the Venezuelan protests were portrayed as a reaction to the country’s “hangover from 14 years of Chávez rule: a country with not enough milk or sugar in the supermarkets and far too many carjackings and murders in the streets.”</p>
<p>If that were the most important legacy of the past dozen years, you’d expect the entire country to be protesting–and it’d be hard to fathom how Chavez and current president Nicolas Maduro managed to win numerous elections. But in truth, by many indicators, life for poor Venezuelans sharply improved during the Chavez years (FAIR Media Advisory, <a href="" type="internal">3/6/13)</a>, which explains their support for his party.</p>
<p>But the lesson is these are protest movements–despite adopting militant and in some cases <a href="http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/shocking-riot-videos-and-pics-watch-protesters-destroy-armored-vehicle-with-molotov-cocktails-graphic-images_02182014" type="external">quite violent</a> tactics–that US media by and large were cheering.</p>
<p>In the midst of these conflicts, a new report from Amnesty International ( <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/trigger-happy-israeli-army-and-police-use-reckless-force-west-bank-2014-02-27" type="external">2/27/14</a>) on Israeli violence in the West Bank “documented the killings of 22 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank last year, at least 14 of which were in the context of protests.” The report received minimal coverage in the US press, though–and perhaps because–it raised profound questions about how a close US ally attacks protesters against military occupation.</p>
<p>Would the US press champion the cause of Palestinian demonstrators, or criticize harsh Israeli response to dissent? How about actually cheering on violent Palestinian resistance? It is simply unfathomable–Palestinians are the wrong kind of protester.</p> | The Good Kind of Protesters–and the Bad Kind | true | http://fair.org/blog/2014/03/04/the-good-kind-of-protesters-and-the-bad-kind/ | 2014-03-04 | 4 |
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama speaks to reporters in front of a makeshift memorial to the victims of the Pulse Nightclub massacre in downtown Orlando on June 16, 2016. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)</p>
<p />
<p>“This was an act of terrorism but it was also an act of hate,” he told reporters after he and Vice President Biden placed bouquets at a makeshift memorial in downtown Orlando that pays tribute to the 49 people who died inside Pulse Nightclub on June 12. “This was an attack on the LGBT community. Americans were targeted because we’re a country that has learned to welcome everyone, no matter who you are or who you love. And hatred towards people because of sexual orientation, regardless of where it comes from, is a betrayal of what’s best in us.”</p>
<p>Obama and Biden visited the memorial after they met with the families of the victims for about two hours at a nearby arena in which the Orlando Magic play. The president and the vice president also met with survivors and Pulse Nightclub’s owners and staffers who were working when the gunman opened fire.</p>
<p>“For so many people here who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, the Pulse Nightclub has always been a safe haven, a place to sing and dance, and most importantly, to be who you truly are,” said Obama.</p>
<p>The president noted that many of the victims were from Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>“Sunday morning, that sanctuary was violated in the worst way imaginable,” said Obama.</p>
<p>Obama’s remarks appeared to be directed towards Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who has come under fire from activists and their supporters for not specifically mentioning the LGBT community in his public remarks about the massacre.</p>
<p>Scott described the massacre as <a href="" type="internal">“an attack against the gays”</a> in an exclusive statement he gave to the Washington Blade on Tuesday after he visited the same memorial from which Obama and Biden spoke. CNN’s Anderson Cooper earlier this week directly challenged state Attorney General Pam Bondi over her opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples and other LGBT-specific issues in Florida.</p>
<p>“The fact that they can’t even say…LGBT <a href="" type="internal">is incredibly offensive,”</a> Tim Evanicki, entertainment manager at Parliament House, a gay hotel and entertainment complex near downtown Orlando, told the Blade on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Obama spoke at the memorial three days after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reiterated his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S. and suspend immigration from areas “when there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe and our allies.”</p>
<p>The president earlier this week sharply denounced Trump over his comments. The Human Rights Campaign on Thursday organized a protest against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as he arrived at a D.C. law firm to give a deposition.</p>
<p>“You can’t make up the world into ‘us’ and ‘them,’ and denigrate and express hatred towards groups because of the color of their skin, or their faith or their sexual orientation and not feed something very dangerous in this world,” said Obama as he spoke at the memorial.</p>
<p>“So if there was ever a moment for all of us to reflect and reaffirm our most basic beliefs that everybody counts and everybody has dignity, now is the time,” he added. “It’s a good time for all of us to reflect on how we treat each other, and to insist on respect and equality for every human being.”</p>
<p>Obama in his remarks also reiterated his calls for gun control.</p>
<p>“Today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, why does this keep happening?” said Obama. “They pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage.”</p>
<p>Obama traveled to Orlando hours after Democrats ended a 15-hour filibuster to try to block gun sales to those on the federal terrorism watch list. The president on Thursday said he welcomes the news that the Senate could vote on the issue and on another proposed amendment to a spending bill that would require background checks for firearm sales at gun shows and online as early as Monday.</p>
<p>“I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing,” said Obama. “I hope that senators who voted no on background checks after Newtown have a change of heart. And then I hope the House does the right thing, and helps end the plague of violence that these weapons of war inflict on so many young lives.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Barack Obama</a> <a href="" type="internal">bisexual</a> <a href="" type="internal">gay</a> <a href="" type="internal">Joe Biden</a> <a href="" type="internal">lesbian</a> <a href="" type="internal">Pulse Nightclub</a> <a href="" type="internal">transgender</a></p> | Obama: Orlando nightclub massacre ‘attack on the LGBT community’ | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/06/16/obama-orlando-nightclub-massacre-attack-on-the-lgbt-community/ | 3 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>RENO, Nev. — The star witness who helped convict the triggerman who killed a high-ranking Hells Angels’ boss at a Nevada casino in 2011 says he was lying when he testified that the shooting was an assassination plot orchestrated by a rival motorcycle gang, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Prosecutors think the recantation is a lie, but it could make it more difficult to get another murder conviction against Ernesto Gonzalez, a former Vagos gang member. He’s scheduled to be tried again in August after the Nevada Supreme Court threw out the conviction because of improper jury instructions.</p>
<p>Legal scholars say it’s hard to predict jurors’ reaction to recanted testimony, but it raises questions about the claims of suspects who make deals with prosecutors to take the stand in exchange for more lenient sentences, as Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick did.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>His testimony helped put Gonzalez in prison for life for carrying out an organized hit on Jeffrey Pettigrew during a brawl on a crowded casino floor in Sparks that sent gamblers diving for cover under blackjack tables.</p>
<p>Gonzalez, 59, insists there was no plot. He said he opened fire because Pettigrew and another Hells Angel were kicking his partner so hard he thought they would kill him.</p>
<p>The only witness who claimed personal knowledge of the conspiracy was Rudnick, an ex-Vagos vice president from Los Angeles who provoked Pettigrew into fighting. He was released from prison in 2016 after serving two years for conspiracy to commit murder.</p>
<p>Rudnick testified that the Vagos international president gave Gonzalez the “green light” for the killing as the gangs feuded over turf in San Jose, where Pettigrew was the Hells Angels chapter president.</p>
<p>In new court filings, Rudnick claims he fabricated that story under pressure from prosecutors to get a plea deal that he thought would keep him out of prison and put him in the federal witness protection program.</p>
<p>His declaration is not dated, but Gonzalez’s lawyer, David Houston, told the AP it was signed May 17, 2016, in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>“He states that he lied and there was never any conspiracy or meeting to ‘green light’ a hit,” Houston said. “He says he was told he’d get probation if he testified the way the state wanted him to.”</p>
<p>In a handwritten note riddled with misspellings, Rudnick said “there was no conspiracy” to kill Pettigrew.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It was just a fight between me and him,” he wrote in the document signed by two witnesses, including a private investigator hired by Houston.</p>
<p>Rudnick says the prosecutor, Karl Hall, now Reno’s city attorney, didn’t believe his original account.</p>
<p>“He told me … what he wanted me to change to lie for him,” Rudnick wrote, suggesting he had no choice but to comply. “I was looking at 25 years in prison.”</p>
<p>Hall declined to comment.</p>
<p>Sean O’Brien, a professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Law School, said plea deals with co-conspirators raise questions about testimony that’s later withdrawn.</p>
<p>“There are incentives,” O’Brien said of agreements providing leniency. “It is bought-and-paid-for testimony.”</p>
<p>Houston, Gonzalez’s lawyer, said Rudnick’s reversal is significant because he apparently committed perjury and it’s unclear if he would show up if prosecutors tried to force him to take the stand again.</p>
<p>Houston declined to comment on where Rudnick is now, and prosecutors would not say if they know his whereabouts, intend to subpoena him to testify or might charge him with perjury.</p>
<p>Typically, in such situations — or when a witness dies — previous testimony can be re-entered into the record. But that’s not necessarily the case if there’s reason to believe it was false.</p>
<p>It’s a point of contention set for court hearings in May ahead of Gonzalez’s new trial.</p>
<p>“It is more likely that the recanting statement is false,” Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Amos Stege wrote this month. He declined further comment.</p>
<p>“Regarding the defense counsel’s questionably timed ‘affidavit,’ courts across the nation universally regard post-conviction recantations with extreme suspicion,” district attorney spokeswoman Michelle Bays said in an email. “The Vagos criminal enterprise is vast and they are known for violence, intimidation and extortion.”</p>
<p>Houston is trying to compel Rudnick’s public defender to testify about the plea agreement at Gonzalez’s new trial and bar the earlier testimony unless he reappears.</p>
<p>“If the sworn declaration is to be believed, the state would propose to obtain a conviction against Mr. Gonzalez based on perjured testimony,” Houston wrote in court documents last week. “Simply reading Mr. Rudnick’s testimony in, when we all know it was false … invites a second reversal on this case.”</p>
<p>O’Brien said judges should be “very cautious of this type of evidence no matter who is using it.”</p>
<p>“But to me, it’s sort of counterintuitive when the prosecution says the testimony that we bought and paid for is more reliable than this gratuitous recantation,” the professor said.</p>
<p>O’Brien said former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Wolff put it best: “The only thing we really know about these people is they are liars.”</p> | Plot to kill gang boss a lie, witness now says | false | https://abqjournal.com/994435/witness-says-he-lied-about-casino-gang-killing.html | 2017-04-27 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>NEW YORK — The crude pipe bomb that exploded beneath the streets of New York this week served as a chilling reminder of the vulnerability of the city’s subway, a 24-hour-a-day operation with 472 stations and more than 5 million daily riders.</p>
<p>While police say the nation’s largest subway system has some of the tightest security possible that still allows busy New Yorkers to get where they’re going, they acknowledge they can’t be everywhere or anticipate every kind of attack, particularly in this era of lone-wolf terrorism.</p>
<p>“It’s very difficult and it’s getting harder,” John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, said on CBS’s “This Morning.” “This is not the al-Qaida model, where a cell of people who are communicating with a base are an intelligence problem.” Instead, he said, the threat is coming from people “where the conspiracy is within the confines of their own mind.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Investigators say that appears to be what happened Monday, when a Bangladeshi immigrant indoctrinated into terrorism through Internet videos strapped a bomb to his body and set it off in a busy passageway. He was the only one seriously hurt, suffering burns on his hands and torso.</p>
<p>Akayed Ullah, 27, was charged with federal terrorism-related offenses punishable by up to life in prison and was informed of the charges via video Wednesday as he lay in his hospital bed. He did not enter a plea and said little during the hearing, which lasted a little over 10 minutes.</p>
<p>It was the second lone-wolf terror attack on the city in six weeks. On Oct. 31, a man in a rented truck mowed down cyclists and pedestrians on a crowded bike path, killing eight.</p>
<p>But the blast this week was the first bombing on the subway in 23 years, a streak police attribute in part to a multilayered security approach that begins with 3,000 officers underground every day, patrolling trains and platforms.</p>
<p>That’s bolstered by hundreds of security cameras, including one that captured detailed pictures of Monday’s explosion, and roving teams of officers with heavy weapons and dogs to sweep subway stations and trains. Officers are outfitted with pager-size radiation detectors to guard against a radioactive “dirty bomb.” Police also conduct tens of thousands of random bag searches in the system each year.</p>
<p>Yet those officers are confronted daily with thousands of people of every background, from every corner of the globe, carrying big backpacks, suitcases and large boxes, with no easy way of knowing whether any of those items contain a bomb.</p>
<p>As a result, police have to rely on riders as their eyes and ears, constantly reminding them, “If you see something, say something.”</p>
<p>“Look up from your phones. Look up from your books now and then. Take your earphones out. You can’t say something when you see something if you don’t look at it,” Joseph Fox, chief of the NYPD’s transit bureau, urged New Yorkers after the attack.</p>
<p>While some have wondered whether more can be done to prevent these kinds of attacks, police and politicians have repeatedly said that measures such as adding metal detectors and bag checks to all stations could bring the system to a crawl.</p>
<p>“You can’t have a police person on every block at every moment — that would be impractical,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a TV interview this week. “But in terms of the sophistication of our security system, it’s second to none on the planet.”</p>
<p>Only about six crimes are reported per day in the entire subway system.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.</p> | Bombing underscores NYC subway system’s vulnerability | false | https://abqjournal.com/1105880/would-be-suicide-bomber-in-new-york-city-faces-court-hearing.html | 2017-12-12 | 2 |
<p>The spike in racist tweets that followed President Obama’s re-election came from the southeastern part of the U.S., according to a group of geography experts that mapped out the origins of the bigoted comments.</p>
<p>The New York Daily News:</p>
<p>Tweets calling the president a “monkey” or using racial epithets prompted a group of geography experts to try and break down whether the hateful language was more prevalent in some areas of the country than others.</p>
<p>As it turns out, it was.</p>
<p />
<p>The bigoted tweets serve as a “useful reminder that technology reflects the society in which it is based, both the good and the bad,” said geography research group Floating Sheep.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/map-pinpoints-election-online-hate-tweets-article-1.1199402#ixzz2BkySfkf8" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>Among the group’s findings is that the highest prevalence of hate speech on Twitter can be found in Alabama and Mississippi. Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana also supplied a high ratio of bigoted tweets.</p>
<p>More analysis from <a href="http://www.floatingsheep.org/2012/11/mapping-racist-tweets-in-response-to.html" type="external">Floating Sheep</a>:</p>
<p>The prevalence of post-election racist tweets is not strictly a southern phenomenon as North Dakota (3.5), Utah (3.5) and Missouri (3) have very high LQs. Other states such as West Virginia, Oregon and Minnesota don’t score as high but have a relatively higher number of hate tweets than their overall twitter usage would suggest.</p>
<p>…Keep in mind we are measuring tweets rather than users and so one individual could be responsible for many tweets and in some cases (most notably in North Dakota, Utah and Minnesota) the number of hate tweets is small and the high LQ is driven by the relatively low number of overall tweets. Nonetheless, these findings support the idea that there are some fairly strong clustering of hate tweets centered in southeastern U.S. which has a much higher rate than the national average.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Tracy Bloom</a>.</p> | Racist Election Tweets Mapped Out | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/racist-election-tweets-mapped-out/ | 2012-11-10 | 4 |
<p>President Trump's decision to launch missiles at Syria has garnered support from America’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/07/world/middleeast/world-reactions-syria-strike.html" type="external">allies,</a> like England, France and Germany. Lawmakers in Washington also largely <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/07/donald-trump-russia-john-mccain-vladimir-putin/100160530/" type="external">support</a> the move.</p>
<p>Many of Trump’s fans, though — especially his most prominent and vocal supporters — are feeling disenchanted.</p>
<p>Trump ran on an isolationist platform, promising to put “America first" and speaking out against US intervention in conflicts around the world.</p>
<p>Now, to some, it seems like he’s moving in the opposite direction.</p>
<p>“What Trump did was nothing less than a betrayal, a betrayal of his supporters, of his message 'America first,' of his promise to be different, to learn from the mistakes of the past and chart a new course,” <a href="" type="internal">alt-right leader Richard Spencer</a> told <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/04/trumps-disillusioned-supporters/522336/" type="external">The Atlantic.</a> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/04/trumps-disillusioned-supporters/522336/" type="external">“</a>I'll wait and see, of course, but I'm not sure I can continue to support him. Most all of the alt-right feels the same way.”</p>
<p>On Twitter, many other commentators have expressed similar sentiments:</p>
<p>Trump vowed to stay out of the mess in the Middle East and focus on our own country. This is not what we voted for.</p>
<p>— Baked Alaska™ (@bakedalaska) <a href="https://twitter.com/bakedalaska/status/850162532568317952" type="external">April 7, 2017</a></p>
<p>But off of Twitter, another&#160;Trump supporter, Lou Mavrakis, says he doesn’t care all that&#160;much about what the president does in Syria. He cares much more about what Trump does in America.&#160;</p>
<p>"I don’t want to be the '9-1-1' of the world,” Mavrakis says. “I want to worry about my own situation.”</p>
<p>Mavrakis is the mayor of Monessen, a steel town in southwestern Pennsylvania. He voted for Trump because he hoped&#160;the president would&#160;reinvigorate his struggling his city. He was counting on Trump to support new infrastructure and bring back jobs.&#160;</p>
<p>But so far things have not changed much.&#160;</p>
<p>“I’m 75 years old. I’ve been patient, but I don’t have much time to live,” says Mavrakis. “I mean how much longer can I live? Something’s gotta trickle down to me.”</p>
<p>Still, the mayor has not given up on Trump just yet.&#160;</p>
<p>“It’s early in the game,” he says. “Let’s give a guy a chance.”</p> | After attack on Syria, Trump supporters question his commitment to 'America first' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-04-07/after-attack-syria-trump-supporters-question-his-commitment-america-first | 2017-04-07 | 3 |
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - A widely followed gauge of expected near-term stock price gyrations perked up on Tuesday to a six-week high as traders took to the equity options market to pick up some protective contracts.</p> FILE PHOTO: A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. December 28, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo - RC1977485420
<p>The Cboe Volatility Index, better known as the VIX, was up 1.35 point at 11.51.</p>
<p>While the VIX, often referred to as Wall Street's "fear index," is still well below its long-term average of around 20, it was on pace for its largest single-day gain in about two months.</p>
<p>Hopes of strong earnings, supported by a steep cut in corporate taxes, and solid global economic growth have bolstered Wall Street's optimism at the start of 2018.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, The Dow Jones Industrial Average raced past the 26,000 mark for the first time. The S&amp;P 500 hit a record high of 2,807.54, before giving up gains.</p>
<p>VIX options volume jumped to 1.7 million contracts or about twice the daily average, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert. VIX options allow traders to build protection against future stock swings.</p>
<p>Analysts pegged the rush for protection against volatility to investors' unease with stocks' lofty heights, growing risk of government shutdown this week and news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon.</p>
<p>"I think it's probably the subpoena of Steve Bannon by the Mueller Special Counsel," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin.</p>
<p>"Because no one really knows what's going to come out of that, how disruptive it might be," he said.</p>
<p>Bannon has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in a probe into alleged ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, partisan finger-pointing over immigration policy on Tuesday left the U.S. Congress and the White House stumbling closer to a possible federal government shutdown by the end of the week.</p>
<p>Regardless of why investors are anxious, it makes sense to pick up some protection, said Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden &amp; Co.</p>
<p>"The real thing is that so many key indices and sectors have become really, really overextended," said Purves.</p>
<p>On Friday, the S&amp;P 500 Index's 14-day relative strength index (RSI) hit 83.4, the highest since late 1996, according to Thomson Reuters data. An RSI above 70 indicates overbought conditions, analysts said.</p>
<p>"Why would you not buy some protection? No one is going to think you are stupid for doing that," Purves said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Daniel Bases and Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON/JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump accused OPEC on Friday of "artificially" boosting oil prices, drawing rebukes from some of the world's top energy exporters.</p>
<p>"Looks like OPEC is at it again. With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea. Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!" Trump wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p>It was unclear what triggered the tweet, Trump's first mention of OPEC on social media during his term.</p>
<p>U.S. oil prices are near a three-year high, at close to $70 a barrel, and have been rising since OPEC and non-OPEC producers including Russia cut supply in January 2017 to end a global oil glut and price collapse.</p>
<p>Trump's tweet came shortly after officials from top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said they would like to see prices climb even higher and that they were still far from their goal of ending the supply glut.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trump-oil-opec/trumps-tweet-gatecrashes-opecs-celebration-idUSKBN1HR2OA" type="external">Trump's tweet gatecrashes OPEC's celebration</a>
<p>The cartel is expected to restrain supply through the end of this year, and possibly into 2019.</p>
<p>Three Saudi officials told Reuters this week they would be happy to see oil hit $80 or $100 a barrel. Higher prices drive up gasoline prices for motorists worldwide and rising energy costs feed inflation. But higher oil prices have also benefited the U.S. energy industry, feeding rapid growth in output from shale fields. U.S. oil output is at record levels.</p>
<p>Despite Trump's comments, oil benchmarks ended the day modestly higher, rebounding from early losses.</p>
<p>Several members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries responded to the tweet, saying prices were not artificially inflated.</p>
<p>Delegates at an OPEC/non-OPEC monitoring committee meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia said oil prices were higher partially because of global political tensions, mentioning sanctions on Venezuela, threats to the Iran nuclear agreement, strikes on Syria and saber-rattling over North Korea.</p>
<p>OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said the output cut agreement halted the collapse in global oil prices, and is "on course to restore stability on a sustainable basis in the interest of producers, consumers and the global economy."</p>
<p>"We don't have any price objective in OPEC, and not in this joint endeavor with non-OPEC," Barkindo said on Friday, in response to Trump's tweet.</p>
<p>The group is next slated to meet in June to discuss output policy. Ministers from both Iraq and the United Arab Emirates also disagreed with Trump on Friday, with Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi saying prices are "not very high" and that the market is stabilizing.</p>
<p>Trump gave no details on what action his administration might take regarding oil or OPEC, and the White House did not respond to elaborate on the issue on the record.</p>
<p>"We have a difficult time seeing how OPEC would in any way be swayed here in terms of changing course, in terms of policy," said Michael Tran, commodity strategist at RBC.</p>
<p>OPEC's output fell in March to an 11-month low, according to a Reuters survey. The cartel has targeted the five-year average of inventories in 35 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries as a barometer for the deal's success.</p>
<p>As of mid-April, those inventories were 2.85 billion barrels, or 43 million more than the five-year average; a year ago, it was 268 million barrels above that benchmark.</p>
<p>This week, crude futures benchmarks Brent LCOc1 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 hit their highest since November 2014, with Brent touching $74.75 and U.S. crude $69.56 per barrel. [O/R]</p> FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump departs the White House for a trip to Miami, Florida, in Washington D.C., U.S. April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
<p>That has raised fuel costs, with average U.S. prices for gasoline hitting $2.75 a gallon on Wednesday, according to motorist advocacy group AAA, up more than 30 cents from a year earlier and at their highest since July 2015.</p>
<p>Trump is "just trying to relate to his base when it comes to the retail gasoline prices, so he's blaming OPEC for this," said Josh Graves, senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago.</p>
<p>Beyond OPEC's supply management, crude prices have been supported by expectations that Washington will re-introduce sanctions on OPEC-member Iran, and might expand sanctions against Venezuela after that country's presidential election next month.</p>
<p>"If one concern about reinstating sanctions on Iranian oil is the impact that it could have on oil prices, then it could be a preemptive measure to blame OPEC instead," said Antoine Halff, senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.</p>
<p>Hedge funds and other speculators hold a record level of bullish bets on Brent, on expectations of further price rises.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>The U.S. government cannot legally influence oil prices other than through releasing oil from its strategic reserve which it does occasionally.</p>
<p>This year's budget agreement includes the sale of about 100 million barrels of crude oil - about 15 percent of the reserve - as U.S. oil production recently hit a record at more than 10 million barrels a day. That release is not related to high oil prices, and analysts said it signaled Washington was not concerned about the potential for future global shortages.</p>
<p>"Washington has fully given up this idea of scarcity. You don't get to the point of selling your strategic reserves to balance your budget if you think the world is short," said Kevin Book, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Stephanie Kelly, Ayenat Mersie and Scott DiSavino in New York, and Roberta Rampton in West Palm Beach, Florida; Writing by David Gaffen; Editing by Simon Webb and Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. has opened a probe into alleged coordination by AT&amp;T Inc, Verizon Communications and a telecommunications standards organization to hinder consumers from easily switching wireless carriers, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday.</p> FILE PHOTO: An AT&amp;T logo is pictured in Pasadena, California, U.S., January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo
<p>Verizon and AT&amp;T acknowledged the government probe and said they were working with regulators.</p>
<p>At issue is a technology that could make carriers' business more volatile. Called eSIM, it allows consumers to switch wireless providers without having to insert a new physical SIM card, an identifying microchip. That makes it easier to compare wireless networks and easily select a new service when desired.</p>
<p>Verizon called the probe "much ado about nothing," adding that it has been working with the Justice Department for several months "regarding the inquiry," according to spokesman Rich Young.</p>
<p>The New York Times reported on Friday that the Justice Department had opened an investigation about five months ago after at least one device maker and one wireless carrier filed formal complaints with the Justice Department.</p>
<p>The Justice Department sent demands to AT&amp;T, Verizon and the GSMA, an industry standards-setting group, on efforts to thwart eSIM.</p>
<p>Apple Inc and other equipment makers have complained to the Justice Department about wireless carrier practices related to eSIM technology, two sources familiar with the matter said. Apple declined to comment.</p>
<p>"The reality is that we have a difference of opinion with a couple of phone equipment manufacturers regarding the development of e-SIM standards. Nothing more," Verizon's Young said.</p>
<p>An AT&amp;T spokesman said in an email: "Along with other GSMA members, we have provided information to the government in response to their requests and will continue to work proactively within GSMA, including with those who might disagree with the proposed standards."</p>
<p>News of the probe comes at a critical time for AT&amp;T which is being sued by the Justice Department to stop its deal to buy media company Time Warner Inc.</p>
<p>The U.S. government has argued in a trial that is nearing completion that the proposed deal would spur AT&amp;T to charge its pay TV rivals more for Time Warner content.</p>
<p>However, Judge Richard Leon, who will decide if AT&amp;T will be allowed to buy Time Warner, is unlikely to consider a report of potential wrongdoing by the wireless giant because it is irrelevant to the merger trial under way in Washington, said Seth Bloom, a veteran of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.</p>
<p>The Department of Justice and the GSMA, the telecommunications standard setting group, declined to comment on news of the investigation.</p> FILE PHOTO: The Verizon logo is seen on the side of a truck in New York City, U.S., October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Shares of AT&amp;T and Verizon dipped after the initial Times report, with AT&amp;T closing down 0.4 percent at $34.67, and Verizon ending off 1.1 percent, at $47.90.</p>
<p>The person briefed on the matter told Reuters that other wireless operators potentially received inquiries from the government.</p>
<p>It is common practice for the Justice Department to send CIDs, the civil equivalent of a subpoena, to all major players in the industry because the agency wants evidence from companies that allegedly participate in any conspiracy as well as those outside of it, according to Ethan Glass, a former trial attorney with the Justice Department now at the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart &amp; Sullivan LLP.</p>
<p>The source said the Obama administration had investigated similar claims in 2016 but did not take any action.</p>
<p>Consumer advocates learned in February that Verizon was apparently planning to lock phones as an anti-theft measure, and later were told by industry participants that Verizon was working with AT&amp;T in hopes of convincing the GSMA to create a standard for locking the phones, according to Harold Feld, a senior vice president at Public Knowledge.</p>
<p>Consumer advocates support the idea of an electronic SIM card, which is in the process of being rolled out, since it allows phone owners to bargain hunt and contract with any network or to shift networks easily while traveling, said Feld.</p>
<p>"I am very happy that the DOJ is taking its job as a cop on the beat very seriously," said Feld.</p>
<p>Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru, Sheila Dang in New York and David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington; Writing by Chris Sanders; Editing by Dan Grebler, Peter Henderson and Sandra Maler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's ZTE Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=0763.HK" type="external">0763.HK</a>) ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=000063.SZ" type="external">000063.SZ</a>) said on Friday that a U.S. ban on selling parts and software to the company was unfair and threatens its survival, and the mobile phone and telecommunications equipment maker vowed to safeguard its interests through all legal means.</p> The logo of China's ZTE Corp is seen on a building in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China April 19, 2018. Picture taken April 19, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
<p>The U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, or BIS, this week banned American companies from selling to ZTE for seven years, saying the Chinese company had broken a settlement agreement with repeated false statements.</p>
<p>"It is unacceptable that BIS insists on unfairly imposing the most severe penalty on ZTE even before the completion of investigation of facts," ZTE said in its first response since the ban was announced.</p>
<p>"The denial order will not only severely impact the survival and development of ZTE, but will also cause damages to all partners of ZTE including a large number of U.S. companies," the statement said.</p>
<p>ZTE said it regards compliance as the cornerstone of its strategy, invested $50 million in export control compliance projects in 2017 and plans to invest more this year.</p>
<p>A senior U.S. Commerce Department official told Reuters earlier this week that it is unlikely to lift the ban.</p>
<p>"There is no provision currently for that to occur," the official said, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.</p>
<p>One U.S. attorney who declined to be named because the firm has clients with interests in the case described the ban as "a death sentence" for ZTE.</p>
<p>When sanctions reach this level, U.S. courts generally do not second guess a decision from the executive branch, said the attorney.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department has an appeals process for companies to try to get off the list, but it is unclear whether that would be available to ZTE because the case had been previously subject to a settlement, according to people familiar with the matter.</p> The inside of a ZTE smart phone is pictured in this illustration taken April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/Illustration
<p>Even so, ZTE would have little recourse in the near term because appeals would have to be approved by the BIS, the same agency that issued the ban.</p>
<p>Companies must submit appeals to a committee that would issue a ruling within 30 days, according to the agency's website.</p>
<p>ZTE's best chance would be if U.S. companies choose to lobby the Trump administration to lift the ban to save their business with ZTE, said Adams Lee, an international trade attorney at Harris Bricken.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=0763.HK" type="external">ZTE Corp</a> 25.6 0763.HK Hong Kong Stock -- (--%) 0763.HK 000063.SZ BABA.N TRADE WAR
<p>The ban has escalated U.S.-China tensions after the two nations threatened each other with tens of billions of dollars in tariffs, fanning worries of a full-blown trade war.</p>
<p>In China, there has been a patriotic backlash with an outpouring of support for ZTE on social media and most domestic newspapers have chosen to put the lion's share of the blame for ZTE's troubles on the country's heavy reliance on foreign semiconductors.</p>
<p>ZTE chairman Yin Yimin told domestic media on Friday at its Shenzhen headquarters that the firm would increase research and development.</p>
<p>"Relying on oneself is better than relying on others," state media Xinhua quoted Yin as saying.</p>
<p>E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BABA.N" type="external">BABA.N</a>) said on Friday it had acquired a Chinese chipmaker, underlining its commitment to driving chip-industry development.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the U.S. government is considering using an emergency law to restrict Chinese investments in sensitive U.S. technologies, a senior Treasury official said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Trade in ZTE shares has been suspended since Tuesday. As of Monday's close, they were worth some $19 billion.</p>
<p>Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree and Sijia Jiang in Hong Kong; additional reporting by Sheila Dang in New York; editing by Edwina Gibbs, Christopher Cushing, Jim Finkle and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - SunTrust Banks Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=STI.N" type="external">STI.N</a>) said on Friday it discovered that a former employee may have attempted to download some information on nearly 1.5 million clients and share it with a criminal third-party.</p>
<p>The company said it believes the information included names and account balances, but not personally identifiable information, such as social security numbers, account numbers, pins, user IDs, passwords or driver's license numbers.</p>
<p>The Atlanta, Georgia-based regional bank's shares fell 0.5 percent to $66.69.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Officer William Rogers brought the incident to light on a post-earnings call with analysts on Friday. He said the attempt to download client information was made six to eight weeks ago.</p>
<p>"We began our own internal investigation and through that process, approximately 6 to 8 weeks ago, we discovered that the former employee attempted to download client information," Rogers said.</p>
<p>No significant fraudulent activity has been identified, Rogers said.</p>
<p>A SunTrust spokeswoman, Sue Mallino, refused to disclose the location of the branch where the employee attempted to steal data. She also declined to disclose the identity of the criminal third-party and said the matter was under investigation.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=STI.N" type="external">SunTrust Banks Inc</a> 66.84 STI.N New York Stock Exchange -0.19 (-0.28%) STI.N
<p>SunTrust also said that as of last week, it believed the stolen information had not left the bank.</p>
<p>Rogers said this was not a data breach, adding the employee was not authorized to get that level of information, and that the company was reviewing its systems and capabilities.</p>
<p>In a press release shortly after the call, the bank said it was proactively notifying the 1.5 million affected clients that certain information, such as address, phone number and certain account balances may have been exposed, and said it is working with outside experts and coordinating with law enforcement on the matter.</p>
<p>"While management appears to be proactively addressing the data issue, we expect a degree of uncertainty to persist as the duration, breadth, and financial impact of any related investigations (both internal and external) are not yet known," Evercore analysts wrote in a client note.</p>
<p>The incident will not result in any material impact to earnings, the bank said.</p>
<p>SunTrust said it will offer identity protection services to all of its clients free of charge, not just those potentially impacted.</p>
<p>SunTrust reported a 36 percent rise in quarterly profit helped by a rise in net interest income and lower expenses.</p>
<p>Reporting By Aparajita Saxena and Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Stock 'fear index' snaps out of extended snooze, jumps to six-week high Trump rails against high oil prices, OPEC pushes back U.S. said to investigate AT&T, Verizon over wireless collusion claim: source China's ZTE slams U.S. ban, says company's survival at risk SunTrust says ex-employee may have shared info on 1.5 million clients | false | https://reuters.com/article/usa-stocks-volatility/stock-fear-index-snaps-out-of-extended-snooze-jumps-to-six-week-high-idUSL1N1PB1NB | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening’s drawing of the Indiana Lottery’s “Daily Four-Evening” game were:</p>
<p>0-5-7-7, SB: 3</p>
<p>(zero, five, seven, seven; SB: three)</p>
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening’s drawing of the Indiana Lottery’s “Daily Four-Evening” game were:</p>
<p>0-5-7-7, SB: 3</p>
<p>(zero, five, seven, seven; SB: three)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Daily Four-Evening’ game | false | https://apnews.com/6a3b7aea2fb849d181ab7f9343e3ab42 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Judge Stephen Pfeffer also found probable cause to support several other charges in the case, but rejected a tampering with evidence count against Anaya.</p>
<p>Anaya, 54, is charged with shooting and killing Theresa Vigil, 51, and Austin Urban, 16, in a dispute over $100 in back rent.</p>
<p>Relatives of the shooting victims were happy after the hearing that the case is proceeding toward trial. “We hope our son gets justice,” said Joshua Vigil, boyfriend of Austin Urban’s mother.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Natalie Vigil, 17, Theresa Vigil’s daughter and Austin Urban’s girlfriend, testified last month that Anaya came to the mobile home the mother and daughter lived in off Old Agua Fria Road, south of the Interstate 25-St. Francis Drive interchange, on Jan. 23 and demanded the monthly rent. Anaya owned the residence and rented it to the Vigils.</p>
<p>When the Vigils were $100 short, an argument ensued and Anaya punched both Theresa and Natalie Vigil, according to Natalie’s account. Urban came from another room and tried to intervene, and Anaya first shot Urban once and then fired a second shot that killed Theresa Vigil, the daughter said.</p>
<p>Anaya initially tried to get Natalie and another witness – Javier Salcido, 17, who was playing video games with Urban before the gunfire – to put the two shooting victims in a car trunk.</p>
<p>Anaya has been held without bail since his arrest following a days-long manhunt after the January shootings. Anaya has had mental problems in the past, as detailed in files that are part of an extensive criminal record, but he was recently found competent to stand trial. He has entered not-guilty pleas.</p>
<p>His preliminary hearing – which started with a day of testimony in late May – was intended for the prosecution to put on evidence so Pfeffer could determine whether there was probable cause to support the charges and allow the case to proceed toward trial.</p>
<p>The only testimony Tuesday was from Santa Fe County sheriff’s Detective David Jaramillo. He said that when police tracked Anaya down four days after the shootings – at a vacant mobile home not far from the one where Theresa Vigil and Urban were killed – Anaya pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger, but it didn’t fire.</p>
<p>1st or 2nd-degree?</p>
<p>Joe Campbell, Anaya’s attorney, argued for second-degree murder charges for Anaya instead of first-degree, maintaining the evidence presented so far doesn’t show the shootings were willful and deliberate.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He maintained that Anaya as the mobile home owner, and without testimony during the preliminary hearing of a specific rental agreement, had “authorization” to enter the residence. Campbell also noted that the testimony has been that Anaya didn’t start shooting immediately and only fired his gun after Urban intervened in the argument. Campbell said there was no testimony that Anaya was aware Urban was in the house before then.</p>
<p>But Deputy District Attorney Tim Williams said the evidence meets the standard for first-degree murder. He noted that Anaya came back to the mobile home with a loaded gun after an initial discussion about the rent, “slammed the door open” and struck the two women before the gunfire ensued. He said coming into the renters’ place the way he did constituted aggravated burglary.</p>
<p>Judge Pfeffer, in finding there was probable cause to support the first-degree murder charge, said the evidence presented was that Anaya entered the home “in a hostile manner” with the intention that he was going “to obtain what he believed was his with any means it was going to take” and would kill anyone in his way.</p>
<p>The judge also found probable cause to support other charges, including aggravated burglary and – for allegedly pulling the trigger on the gun pointed at Detective Jaramillo that didn’t fire – aggravated assault on a police officer.</p>
<p>But Pfeffer said that the fact that Anaya put the apparent murder weapon in what’s been described as a lunch box and took it with him when he fled the scene of the homicides didn’t constitute tampering with evidence.</p>
<p>Pfeffer compared what Anaya did with an armed bank robber who leaves the bank with his weapon. “I don’t know if he has to donate it at the scene” to avoid a tampering charge, Pfeffer said.</p>
<p>Yvonne Vigil, grandmother of Austin Urban, said after the hearing that the legal system seemed to be working very well and “they’re going to nail him (Anaya).”</p>
<p>As the hearing broke up, she thanked Jaramillo in the courtroom and told him: “I’m glad you’re alive, and he didn’t take you, too.”</p> | Landlord Faces Trial on 1st-Degree Murder Charges | false | https://abqjournal.com/112474/landlord-faces-trial-on-1stdegree-murder-charges.html | 2012-06-13 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.