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<p>Right now, the evidence is on full view in Indiana. As part of a deal with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign, Kasich isn't campaigning in the Hoosier State, which votes on Tuesday.</p>
<p>But he and his supporters are still telling people to vote for him - even though a vote for the Ohio governor is basically a vote for Donald Trump. If Kasich's supporters in Indiana want him to have any chance at the nomination, they will vote for Cruz.</p>
<p>Here's why.</p>
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<p>Trump has a slim lead in current polling averages in Indiana. He's at 37 percent, with Cruz close behind at 35 percent. Kasich is far behind with 16 percent.</p>
<p>If Kasich's voters switch to Cruz (and all else remains equal), then Cruz will win big. If they stay put, Trump might narrowly prevail. Indiana has 57 delegates: 30 will go to the statewide winner; of the remaining 27, 3 each will go to whomever wins in the state's nine congressional districts.</p>
<p>Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has given Cruz a lukewarm endorsement, so perhaps the Texas senator will get a boost from that. But there are signs Trump is rallying nationwide, so he may be doing better than the Indiana polls indicate.</p>
<p>For Kasich to have a shot at the nomination, he has to prevent Trump from getting to 1,237 delegates on the first ballot at the Republican convention. It doesn't matter how many delegates Cruz has at that point, since he can't get to 1,237. (Cruz can't get close to delegates on the first ballot, even if he wins all of the unbound, uncommitted delegates. But if Cruz clearly has the delegates to win on the second ballot, it's possible that he might be able to win on the first ballot after all if Kasich and Marco Rubio release the delegates they can release and Cruz gets all of them.)</p>
<p>All that matters for Cruz and Kasich is reaching a second ballot, when now-bound delegates are free to vote their preferences. After that, if Cruz can't put together a majority, it will become possible for someone else to win. I don't think Kasich stands much of a chance even in that unlikely chain of events, but at least it's possible.</p>
<p>Trump's big sweep in New York on April 19 and in the five states that voted this week have put the reality-TV star ahead of the pace he needs to reach 1,237 bound and committed delegates by the end of the primaries and caucuses on June 7.</p>
<p>But he still needs to win plenty of delegates in Indiana and California to reach that mark. (Trump can still make the delegate count even if he's shut out in Indiana, but it would raise the target of how many he needs to win in California. If Trump sweeps in Indiana, he'll need to win only a relatively small number of congressional districts in California to reach 1,237.)</p>
<p>And it isn't just about numbers. If Trump can win big in Indiana, expect any Republican party actors who would ever consider supporting him to go ahead and accept him as the nominee. And that support, in turn, will help Trump do well in California on June 7.</p>
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<p>Kasich is also helping Trump by refusing to debate Cruz one on one after Trump dropped out of the debates. The Ohio governor has thus denied himself as well as Cruz free media exposure and a chance to make Trump look cowardly and arrogant for opting out.</p>
<p>A normal candidate in Kasich's position would have dropped out long before now. By failing to do so, he helped end the chances of the mainstream conservatives who were running. It's impossible to say what would have happened if Kasich had dropped out after New Hampshire, for example, or after South Carolina and Nevada - but the odds are strong that the GOP nomination fight would have turned out differently.</p>
<p>Is it just an ego trip? Does he unfathomably misunderstand the rules of the game? Have party actors foolishly advised him to do what he's been doing? Perhaps we'll find out after the campaign ends.</p>
<p>But for now, it's pretty simple: Kasich is Donald Trump's best weapon, and he has been since February.</p>
<p>Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist covering U.S. politics.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | By staying in race, Kasich boosting Trump's chances | false | https://abqjournal.com/766500/by-staying-in-race-kasich-boosting-trumps-chances.html | 2 |
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<p>U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday, logging a third straight day of gains as crude oil stabilized. The S&amp;P 500 finished 6.94 points, or 0.4%, higher at 1,993.39. The Dow industrials finished 44.24 points, or 0.4%, higher at 16,943.56, while the Nasdaq Composite finished four points, or 0.3%, higher at 4,707.42. It was the U.S. market's first three-day winning streak since Feb. 17. Chesapeake Energy Corp. surged 94 cents, or 26.3%, to $4.34, making it the largest gainer on the S&amp;P 500 for the second straight day. Kroger Co. slid $2.91, or 7.2%, to $37.74, making it the index's biggest loser.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | U.S. Stocks Close Higher For 3rd Straight Day | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/03/us-stocks-close-higher-for-3rd-straight-day.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p />
<p>October jobs report comes in below forecasts, but ISM strong</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>U.S. stocks closed at records on Friday, with major indexes extending their lengthy upward moves on the back of strong results at Apple, which offset a mixed set of economic data, including a lackluster October jobs report.</p>
<p>Where did stocks close?</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22.93 points, or 0.1%, to 23,539.19. The S&amp;P 500 gained 7.99 points, or 0.3%, to 2,587.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 49.49 points, or 0.7%, to 6,764.44.</p>
<p>All three hit all-time intraday highs during the session and closed at records. Both the Dow and the S&amp;P posted their fourth straight daily rise. The Nasdaq marked its 63rd record close of 2017, breaking the record for all-time-high finishes in a calendar year.</p>
<p>For the week, the Dow added 0.5%, the S&amp;P was up 0.3% and the Nasdaq advanced 0.9%. The week marked the eight straight weekly gain for both the Dow and the S&amp;P, the longest such streak for both since November 2013. The Nasdaq closed out its sixth positive week in a row, matching a streak that ended in early March.</p>
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<p>What drove the market?</p>
<p>The October payroll report showed 261,000 jobs added last month. While this was well below the 325,000 that had been expected, there was positive news in the unemployment rate dipping to 4.1% from 4.2%, the September report getting revised from a loss to a gain, and the August payroll tally also getting lifted. The October report suggested that there are still lingering effects from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which had muddled September's labor-market results.</p>
<p>The health of the U.S. labor market is one of the key measures for the Fed in considering in determining the path for interest rates. Traders are pricing in a more than 98% probability of a rate increase next month, according to the CME Group data.</p>
<p>What are strategists saying?</p>
<p>"The report was obviously still distorted by the hurricanes, though the net gain in the month was pretty solid. There was a good amount of jobs growth, a notable decline again in the unemployment rate, all of which sends the clear message that the labor market is tight," said Charles Lieberman, chief investment officer of Advisors Capital Management. "Ultimately there wasn't a big enough surprise to change market direction."</p>
<p>The dollar rose against all other major currencies, with the ICE Dollar Index up 0.3% at 95.008.</p>
<p>Which stocks are in focus?</p>
<p>Shares of Apple Inc.(AAPL) climbed 2.6%, closing in on a $900 billion valuation. The gain came after the iPhone maker late Thursday reported earnings that easily beat estimates. The stock is the biggest company in the market, and as such has an outsize weight on all three major indexes.</p>
<p>With the day's gain, Apple rose for its sixth time of the past seven sessions, bringing its year-to-date advance to nearly 50%.</p>
<p>Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.(VRX.T) jumped 3.9% after the drugmaker late Thursday said the Food and Drug Administration has approved the company's Vyzulta drug.</p>
<p>Pandora Media Inc.(P) slumped 25% after the music-streaming company late Thursday said its loss widened in the third quarter. Friday marked the biggest one-day percentage decline for the stock since October 2015, and the weakness took it to an all-time low.</p>
<p>Starbucks Corp shares rose 2.1% after the coffee chain's sales number out late Thursday missed Wall Street forecasts, though it also agreed to sell its Tazo tea brand to Unilever.</p>
<p>Sotheby's(BID) fell 3.3% after reporting its quarterly results.</p>
<p>What else was in focus?</p>
<p>The Institute for Supply Management's nonmanufacturing index rose more than expected to come in at 60.1%, the strongest reading since August 2005. Separately, factory orders rose 1.4% in September, while the IHS Markit U.S. services index stayed at 55.3 in October. A reading of at least 50 denotes expansion.</p>
<p>Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said that there may be some slack in the U.S. labor market during a speech on monetary policy and the 2018 outlook at the Women in Housing and Finance luncheon in Washington, D.C. He also said he didn't expect to see major changes at the Fed if Powell is in charge.</p>
<p>What are other markets doing?</p>
<p>Oil prices continued higher, with the U.S. benchmark rising 2%, where it traded at a more-than-two-year high. Metals were mixed, and gold was down 0.6% at $1,270 an ounce.</p>
<p>Asian markets closed mixed, with Japan's exchanges closed for the Culture Day holiday. Stocks in Europe rose, setting the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index on track for at 0.5% weekly gain.</p>
<p>Bitcoin is up 3.7% at $7,287.75 and hit a fresh all-time high.</p> | Stocks end at records as Apple results cap strong week of earnings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/03/stocks-end-at-records-as-apple-results-cap-strong-eeek-earnings.html | 2017-11-03 | 0 |
<p>Advocates for better health services for students are asking Gov. Rod Blagojevich to more than double funding for school-based health centers in 2008.</p>
<p>Activists want an additional $5 million to open 20 new centers across the state, including Chicago, and to enhance services in existing facilities. Currently, the state spends roughly $4 million annually on the centers.</p>
<p>Representatives from the Illinois Coalition for School Health Centers, as well as students from Chicago Public Schools, rallied recently at the James R. Thompson building in Chicago to press the governor to include the additional funding when he announces his 2008 budget on March 7.</p>
<p>The group is also working to garner support from legislators as they hammer out details of the budget this spring, says Karen Berg, the policy director for the coalition.</p>
<p>But with the state facing tight financial times, winning additional funding is likely to be a tough sell. “In any government, there are priorities that have to be weighed,” says Berg. “The reality for this program is that there are other things that [also] need more funding.”</p>
<p>Chicago currently has 23 school-based centers; 18 receive state funding. Nationally, the number of centers is on the rise, up 200 in recent years to a current total of about 1,700, according to the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.</p>
<p>Linda Juszczak, deputy director of the National Assembly, says most school-based centers are located in communities where families have limited access to medical care. The centers, which typically work with a sponsoring medical facility to provide free or low-cost health services during school hours, make medical care more accessible for students by removing financial and transportation barriers.</p>
<p>Limited access is a tremendous problem, Juszczak says. “Sometimes [centers] are the sole source of care.” The National Assembly is pushing for legislation for more federal funding.</p> | Activists: School-based health clinics need cash | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/activists-school-based-health-clinics-need-cash/ | 2007-03-07 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Wikimedia Commons/ <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:110723_hammon_300x400.jpg" type="external">Becky Hammon</a> ( <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" type="external">CC-BY-SA</a>)</p>
<p>After 16 years playing basketball for the WNBA, San Antonio Stars point guard Becky Hammon is moving on — to the sidelines. To coach male players for the NBA.</p>
<p>Although this is a major move figuratively speaking, Hammon won’t technically be going very far from where she’s been, as she’ll be joining the coaching staff of the San Antonio Spurs as a full-time assistant coach, that team’s Coach Gregg Popovich announced on Tuesday (per <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/sports/basketball/spurs-hire-becky-hammon-as-nbas-first-full-time-female-coach.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times</a>):</p>
<p />
<p>Hammon, 37, becomes the second woman to serve on an N.B.A. coaching staff. The first was Lisa Boyer, who was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers staff in the 2001-2 season. Boyer, however, worked part time and was not paid by the team. Hammon has been hired to a full-time, paid position.</p>
<p>“Having observed her working with our team this past season, I’m confident her basketball I.Q., work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs,” Coach Gregg Popovich said Tuesday in a statement.</p>
<p>In addition to her run with the Stars, and previously with the New York Liberty, Hammon played with the Russian national team in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.</p>
<p>–Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Kasia Anderson</a></p> | Spurs Make Becky Hammon the NBA's First Female Full-Time Coach | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/spurs-make-becky-hammon-the-nbas-first-female-full-time-coach/ | 2014-08-06 | 4 |
<p>Social Justice Warriors have been ruining sports, and it's not stopping anytime soon. The latest strike is against the LPGA tour where last week it was announced they would be changing their dress code to require the ladies on tour to dress <a href="" type="internal">more modestly</a>.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Officially banned are plunging neck lines, tight leggings as pants, and no more short skirts.</p>
<p>Despite this seemingly conservative move, this seems like an <a href="" type="internal">SJW maneuver</a> to try to limit the sex appeal of the tours' most attractive athletes because that’s sexist and misogynistic.</p>
<p>But is it?</p>
<p>At least two professional golfers, Lexi Thompson and Paige Spiranac, are not happy about the changes to the dress code.</p>
<p>Watch as I show you the cheeky response from Thomson, the number three ranked female golfer in the world, and the more poignant critique from Spiranac.</p>
<p>According to numbers compiled back in 2011 by Sports Business Daily, fans of the LPGA tour are 63 per cent male while fans of the PGA tour are similar at 64 per cent male. If men are your primary marketing audience, why give them another reason to change the channel, lower ratings and dry up your corporate sponsorships?</p>
<p>Current HBO and former ESPN sports personality Bill Simmons summed up the difference between why women’s sports like golf and tennis get decent viewership compared to women’s basketball and the WNBA stating back in 2006:</p>
<p>“Well, the vast majority of WNBA players lack crossover sex appeal…. The baggy uniforms don’t help.”</p>
<p>And neither will this change to the LPGA Tour dress code.</p> | SJWs strike world of sports: Plunging necklines and short skirts OUT for LPGA Tour | true | https://therebel.media/sjws_strike_world_of_sports_plunging_necklines_and_short_skirts_out_for_lpga_tour | 2017-07-26 | 0 |
<p>Sprint is claiming some success in its very aggressive bid to lure customers away from rival carriers.</p>
<p>The wireless carrier said Thursday that it had 967,000 new customers during its third quarter. Of those, 30,000 were for lucrative contract-based wireless plans, up 20 percent from the same quarter a year ago, the company said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Sprint Corp. jumped more than 7 percent before the opening bell.</p>
<p>Sprint made a grab for new customers last month, offering to cut whatever people were paying at Verizon or AT&amp;T in half if they defected.</p>
<p>Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kansas, is the third largest cellphone carrier behind those two carriers. Sprint's other brands include Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile and Assurance Wireless.</p> | Sprint lures thousands of new customers after aggressive bid to pull them from rival carriers | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/01/08/sprint-lures-thousands-new-customers-after-aggressive-bid-to-pull-them-from.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - U.K. lawmakers will quiz executives of Starbucks, Google and Amazon about how they have managed to pay only small amounts of tax in Britain while racking up billions of dollars worth of sales here.</p>
<p>The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is charged with monitoring government financial affairs, has invited the companies to give evidence amid mounting public and political concern about tax avoidance by big international companies.</p>
<p>"It is hard for the ordinary person to believe it's fair," said Margaret Hodge, a member of parliament for the opposition Labour party and chairman of PAC.</p>
<p>"It makes people incredibly angry in the current fiscal climate," she added, in reference to the austerity measures which large budget deficits have forced on the U.K., and other countries.</p>
<p>Britain and Germany last week announced plans to push the Group of 20 economic powers to make multinational companies pay their "fair share" of taxes following reports of large firms exploiting loopholes to avoid taxes.</p>
<p>A Reuters report last month showed that Starbucks had paid no corporation, or income, tax in the UK in the past three years.</p>
<p>The world's biggest coffee chain paid only 8.6 million pounds ($13.74 million) in total U.K. tax over 13 years during which it recorded sales of 3.1 billion pounds.</p>
<p>Campaign group <a href="http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/" type="external">UK Uncut</a>, which is opposed to government austerity measures and which has organized protests against British telecom operator Vodafone and pharmacist Boots over their tax practices, said in a statement on Monday that they planned to target Starbucks.</p>
<p>In response, Starbucks said it followed the tax rules in every country where it operates and sought to pay its fair share of taxes. "We are committed to being transparent on this issue and look forward to appearing before this committee," a spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Tory Alstead will give evidence to the committee, as will Matt Brittin, Chief Executive Officer of Google U.K., and Andrew Cecil, Brussels-based Director of Public Policy for Amazon, a PAC spokesman said.</p>
<p>Google's filings show it had $4 billion of sales in the UK last year, but despite having a group-wide profit margin of 33 percent, its main U.K. unit had a tax charge of just 3.4 million pounds in 2011.</p>
<p>The company avoids U.K. tax by channeling non-U.S. sales via an Irish unit, an arrangement that allowed it to pay taxes at a rate of 3.2 percent on non-U.S. profits. Amazon's main UK unit paid less than 1 million pounds in income tax last year. The company had U.K. sales worth $5.3 to 7.2 billion, filings show.</p>
<p>Amazon avoids U.K. taxes by reporting European sales through a Luxembourg-based unit. This structure allowed it to pay a tax rate of 11 percent on foreign profits last year - less than half the average corporate income tax rate in its major markets.</p>
<p>Google declined to comment. Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Hodge and former financial services minister Paul Myners told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that the government should consider a new revenue-based tax to ensure profits from U.K. sales didn't go offshore.</p> | U.K. Lawmakers to Question Execs in Tax Dodging Probe | true | http://occupy.com/article/uk-lawmakers-question-execs-tax-dodging-probe | 4 |
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<p>CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James couldn't get to 30,000 career points and he and his Cleveland teammates couldn't stop Paul George, Russell Westbrook or Carmelo Anthony as the Oklahoma City Thunder thumped the Cavaliers 148-124 on Saturday for their fourth straight win.</p>
<p>Oklahoma City tied the record for the most points scored against Cleveland in a regulation game. Philadelphia scored 148 back in 1972.</p>
<p>George scored 36, Westbrook had 23 and 20 assists and Anthony scored a season-high 29 as the Thunder embarrassed the Eastern Conference champions, whose defensive issues aren't improving. Cleveland has lost 10 of 14.</p>
<p>James finished with 18 points and is seven shy of becoming the seventh player in NBA history to reach the 30,000-point plateau. His next chance is Tuesday when the Cavs visit San Antonio.</p>
<p>ROCKETS 116, WARRIORS 108</p>
<p>HOUSTON (AP) — Chris Paul scored 33 points and 11 rebounds, James Harden had 22 points and Houston held off Golden State to snap its 14-game road winning streak.</p>
<p>Harden stepped back from Stephen Curry for a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to make it 114-108 with 1:10 left. Harden then blocked Curry's 3-point attempt after a timeout, and Paul made two free throws with 28 seconds left.</p>
<p>Golden State lost away from home for the first time since Nov. 22. The Warriors had won seven straight in Houston.</p>
<p>Kevin Durant led Golden State with 26 points, Draymond Green had 21 and Curry added 19 on a night he went 5 of 15 on 3-point attempts.</p>
<p>76ERS 116, BUCKS 94</p>
<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joel Embiid had 29 points and nine rebounds and Philadelphia pulled away from undermanned Milwaukee for its seventh win in eight games.</p>
<p>Ben Simmons added 16 points and nine assists, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot added 16 points in a rare start as the Sixers (22-20) moved past Milwaukee (23-22) for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.</p>
<p>Khris Middleton had 23 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists for the Bucks in their second straight loss. They were without top scorer Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was sitting out the first of two games to rest a sore right knee.</p>
<p>Fellow starter Malcolm Brogdon (family matter) also wasn't available. Tony Snell (15 points) and Sterling Brown (14 points) moved into the lineup, and the Bucks rallied from 16 points down to tie it before fading in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>TIMBERWOLVES 115, RAPTORS 109</p>
<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Andrew Wiggins scored 29 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had all 22 of his points in the second half as Minnesota rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit to beat Toronto.</p>
<p>Playing without leading scorer Jimmy Butler, the Wolves managed to overcome Towns' early foul trouble and hot perimeter shooting by the Raptors to snap a two-game skid.</p>
<p>Kyle Lowry led Toronto with a season-high 40 points on 14-for-25 shooting, including 6 of 10 from behind the arc. The Raptors shot 54 percent in the first half, when they led by as many as 11.</p>
<p>JAZZ 125, CLIPPERS 113</p>
<p>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 23 points and Utah close out Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Despite missing starting guard Rodney Hood because of a leg injury, Utah set season bests for points in the first quarter (39) and first half (76). It never trailed while ending the Clippers' six-game winning streak.</p>
<p>Lou Williams paced the Clippers with 31 points, 10 steals and seven assists, and he helped cut the lead to single digits in the fourth quarter. Blake Griffin added 25 points and eight rebounds.</p>
<p>PELICANS 111, GRIZZLIES 104</p>
<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jrue Holiday scored 13 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, DeMarcus Cousins had 24 points and 10 rebounds, and New Orleans beat Memphis.</p>
<p>Anthony Davis had 21 points and 12 rebounds but did not score his first points of the second half until he dunked with 1:15 to go in the game, giving the Pelicans a 108-102 lead.</p>
<p>Darius Miller added 12 points in a reserve role for New Orleans, which never trailed but very nearly blew a 21-point lead.</p>
<p>BULLS 113, HAWKS 97</p>
<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Robin Lopez scored 20 points, Lauri Markkanen added 19 and Chicago easily beat Atlanta.</p>
<p>The Bulls, coming off a seven-point home loss to defending NBA champion Golden State three days ago, have won four of five. They never trailed, taking an 11-pont lead midway through the first quarter on Lopez's dunk and going up 17 on Markkanen's dunk in the closing seconds of the first half.</p>
<p>Dennis Schroder scored 18 points and Dewayne Dedmon had 11 for Atlanta, which showed why it's spent the season at or near the bottom of the NBA standings.</p>
<p>TRAIL BLAZERS 117, MAVERICKS 108</p>
<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Damian Lillard hit his first nine shots — including seven 3-pointers — en route to 31 points, and Portland beat Dallas.</p>
<p>Lillard shot 10 of 15 from the floor and handed out nine assists. CJ McCollum added 26 points for Portland, which won its third straight game overall and season-best sixth straight at home.</p>
<p>Wesley Matthews led Dallas with 23 points. Dirk Nowitzki and Dennis Smith Jr. scored 21 points each, with Nowitzki reaching a season high.</p>
<p>HEAT 106, HORNETS 105</p>
<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kelly Olynyk scored 14 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, including a free throw with 0.2 seconds left, to help Miami erase a five-point deficit in the final 34 seconds and stun Charlotte.</p>
<p>Wayne Ellington had 26 points on six 3-pointers, Joe Johnson had 22 points and Olynyk was brilliant down the stretch.</p>
<p>Nic Batum scored a season-high 26 points and Kemba Walker had 22 for Charlotte, which had a two-game winning streak snapped.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP basketball: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball</a></p>
<p>CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James couldn't get to 30,000 career points and he and his Cleveland teammates couldn't stop Paul George, Russell Westbrook or Carmelo Anthony as the Oklahoma City Thunder thumped the Cavaliers 148-124 on Saturday for their fourth straight win.</p>
<p>Oklahoma City tied the record for the most points scored against Cleveland in a regulation game. Philadelphia scored 148 back in 1972.</p>
<p>George scored 36, Westbrook had 23 and 20 assists and Anthony scored a season-high 29 as the Thunder embarrassed the Eastern Conference champions, whose defensive issues aren't improving. Cleveland has lost 10 of 14.</p>
<p>James finished with 18 points and is seven shy of becoming the seventh player in NBA history to reach the 30,000-point plateau. His next chance is Tuesday when the Cavs visit San Antonio.</p>
<p>ROCKETS 116, WARRIORS 108</p>
<p>HOUSTON (AP) — Chris Paul scored 33 points and 11 rebounds, James Harden had 22 points and Houston held off Golden State to snap its 14-game road winning streak.</p>
<p>Harden stepped back from Stephen Curry for a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to make it 114-108 with 1:10 left. Harden then blocked Curry's 3-point attempt after a timeout, and Paul made two free throws with 28 seconds left.</p>
<p>Golden State lost away from home for the first time since Nov. 22. The Warriors had won seven straight in Houston.</p>
<p>Kevin Durant led Golden State with 26 points, Draymond Green had 21 and Curry added 19 on a night he went 5 of 15 on 3-point attempts.</p>
<p>76ERS 116, BUCKS 94</p>
<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joel Embiid had 29 points and nine rebounds and Philadelphia pulled away from undermanned Milwaukee for its seventh win in eight games.</p>
<p>Ben Simmons added 16 points and nine assists, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot added 16 points in a rare start as the Sixers (22-20) moved past Milwaukee (23-22) for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.</p>
<p>Khris Middleton had 23 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists for the Bucks in their second straight loss. They were without top scorer Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was sitting out the first of two games to rest a sore right knee.</p>
<p>Fellow starter Malcolm Brogdon (family matter) also wasn't available. Tony Snell (15 points) and Sterling Brown (14 points) moved into the lineup, and the Bucks rallied from 16 points down to tie it before fading in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>TIMBERWOLVES 115, RAPTORS 109</p>
<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Andrew Wiggins scored 29 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had all 22 of his points in the second half as Minnesota rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit to beat Toronto.</p>
<p>Playing without leading scorer Jimmy Butler, the Wolves managed to overcome Towns' early foul trouble and hot perimeter shooting by the Raptors to snap a two-game skid.</p>
<p>Kyle Lowry led Toronto with a season-high 40 points on 14-for-25 shooting, including 6 of 10 from behind the arc. The Raptors shot 54 percent in the first half, when they led by as many as 11.</p>
<p>JAZZ 125, CLIPPERS 113</p>
<p>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 23 points and Utah close out Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Despite missing starting guard Rodney Hood because of a leg injury, Utah set season bests for points in the first quarter (39) and first half (76). It never trailed while ending the Clippers' six-game winning streak.</p>
<p>Lou Williams paced the Clippers with 31 points, 10 steals and seven assists, and he helped cut the lead to single digits in the fourth quarter. Blake Griffin added 25 points and eight rebounds.</p>
<p>PELICANS 111, GRIZZLIES 104</p>
<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jrue Holiday scored 13 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, DeMarcus Cousins had 24 points and 10 rebounds, and New Orleans beat Memphis.</p>
<p>Anthony Davis had 21 points and 12 rebounds but did not score his first points of the second half until he dunked with 1:15 to go in the game, giving the Pelicans a 108-102 lead.</p>
<p>Darius Miller added 12 points in a reserve role for New Orleans, which never trailed but very nearly blew a 21-point lead.</p>
<p>BULLS 113, HAWKS 97</p>
<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Robin Lopez scored 20 points, Lauri Markkanen added 19 and Chicago easily beat Atlanta.</p>
<p>The Bulls, coming off a seven-point home loss to defending NBA champion Golden State three days ago, have won four of five. They never trailed, taking an 11-pont lead midway through the first quarter on Lopez's dunk and going up 17 on Markkanen's dunk in the closing seconds of the first half.</p>
<p>Dennis Schroder scored 18 points and Dewayne Dedmon had 11 for Atlanta, which showed why it's spent the season at or near the bottom of the NBA standings.</p>
<p>TRAIL BLAZERS 117, MAVERICKS 108</p>
<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Damian Lillard hit his first nine shots — including seven 3-pointers — en route to 31 points, and Portland beat Dallas.</p>
<p>Lillard shot 10 of 15 from the floor and handed out nine assists. CJ McCollum added 26 points for Portland, which won its third straight game overall and season-best sixth straight at home.</p>
<p>Wesley Matthews led Dallas with 23 points. Dirk Nowitzki and Dennis Smith Jr. scored 21 points each, with Nowitzki reaching a season high.</p>
<p>HEAT 106, HORNETS 105</p>
<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kelly Olynyk scored 14 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, including a free throw with 0.2 seconds left, to help Miami erase a five-point deficit in the final 34 seconds and stun Charlotte.</p>
<p>Wayne Ellington had 26 points on six 3-pointers, Joe Johnson had 22 points and Olynyk was brilliant down the stretch.</p>
<p>Nic Batum scored a season-high 26 points and Kemba Walker had 22 for Charlotte, which had a two-game winning streak snapped.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP basketball: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball</a></p> | Thunder thump Cavs 148-124, keep LeBron shy of 30,000 points | false | https://apnews.com/amp/ee43de085e4b49c7b5059be92514cb9e | 2018-01-21 | 2 |
<p>Fort Worth, TX — A Fort Worth police officer’s actions against an innocent woman were so disturbing that it actually prompted the department to fire him. The 22-year-veteran of the force, Sgt. Kenneth Pierce was fired this week after body camera footage showed him hold an innocent woman by the hair and arm and demand his rookie partner taser her.</p>
<p>On Monday, a use of force review was completed which noted that Pierce’s conduct that August night was “absolutely unacceptable.”</p>
<p>According to police, the incident began when Pierce and the rookie officer were called to an apartment&#160;complex for assistance regarding a domestic disturbance. The subsequent interaction was captured on body camera footage and was discovered during a mandatory “use of force” review, according to the department.</p>
<p>Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald told reporters that Sgt. Pierce “impatient, initiated an unnecessary physical confrontation, and then ordered a rookie police officer to ‘Tase’ the woman.”</p>
<p>As the body camera footage shows, the rookie and Pierce confront the couple at a residence and demand that they turn around and face the wall. The woman in the video is entirely compliant and tells the officers that her baby is inside the home.</p>
<p>The officers then tell the woman to show them the 5-year-old girl who was inside the apartment.</p>
<p>The woman admits that she called police&#160;because she wanted her boyfriend to leave. However, instead of protecting the woman and asking the man to leave her home, they treated her like a criminal—even though she admitted to calling them.</p>
<p>The police officers did not know the law and when the woman refused to show them her ID, they reacted with force.</p>
<p>To be clear, there is no requirement under Texas law to carry ID nor does a person <a href="http://penalcode.austintexascriminaldefense.com/38.02.html" type="external">have to identify themselves to an officer</a> unless they’ve been lawfully arrested. This was hardly a lawful arrest.</p>
<p>The woman did take her ID out, but she refused to hand it over to the officers once they turned from protectors to a threat. This refusal infuriated the officers. Ignoring the law, the officer demanded once again that the woman show her ID.</p>
<p>“If I knew police were going to be like this, I wouldn’t have called y’all,” the unnamed woman said.</p>
<p>After she refused to hand over her ID once more, police moved in to place her under arrest, again, unlawfully. Remember, she was the victim here.</p>
<p>“Let my hand go, let my hand go!” the woman—who is now being kidnapped—yells over and over again.</p>
<p>Pierce then grabs the woman by her right arm and by the back of the head and holds her in position as he demands his partner “Tase her.”</p>
<p>The woman collapses to the ground and is handcuffed. She begs the police to allow her to call her brother to pick up her daughter but they refuse.</p>
<p>“You’re getting CPS,” one officer can be heard saying, noting that Child Protective Services will be called in to take her daughter away.</p>
<p>“This taser is still on. I will tase you again,” says the rookie, before exclaiming, “I don’t give a fuck right now.”</p>
<p>“I’m confident that everyone who sees this video, including members of this department, will agree this supervisor’s response and subsequent behaviors are absolutely unacceptable,” Fitzgerald said.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“We are built on a foundation of being problem-solvers,” Fitzgerald added. “Pierce responded in an opposite manner, and he escalated the situation endangering everyone involved, including his fellow officers.”</p>
<p>Naturally, the police union has come out in full support of the fired cop and&#160;Terry Daffron, attorney for the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas,&#160; <a href="http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article190458874.html" type="external">tells the Star-Telegram</a>&#160;that he doesn’t agree with Fitzgerald’s assessment of the video. Daffron will be representing Pierce in his appeal.</p>
<p>“They are making claims that Pierce escalated the situation, and I don’t see it that way,” Daffron told the Star-Telegram. “I see that she was completely noncompliant with everything she was asked to do. He came in and was trying to help the rookie officer gain control to try to get her to comply.”</p>
<p>Make no mistake, the woman in the video below will most assuredly think twice before the next time she calls the police for help.</p> | WATCH: Cop Holds Innocent Woman by the Hair, Forces His Partner To Taser Her | false | https://studionewsnetwork.com/police-videos/watch-cop-holds-innocent-woman-hair-forces-partner-taser/ | 2017-12-22 | 3 |
<p>Companies hired to spot wrongful foreclosures made more than $1 billion in a review process that was ultimately scuttled. Meanwhile, banks prepare to divide a $3.3 billion settlement between nearly 4 million borrowers without identifying who needs the money most.</p>
<p>The review was led by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and involved 10 major banks, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.</p>
<p>“Because they have no idea how many borrowers were harmed, the regulators are spreading the cash payments over all 3.8 million borrowers — whether there was evidence of harm or not,” The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/business/bank-deal-ends-flawed-reviews-of-foreclosures.html?nl=todaysheadlines&amp;emc=edit_th_20130111&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">reported</a>. “As a result, many victims of foreclosure abuses like bungled loan modifications, deficient paperwork, excessive fees and wrongful evictions will most likely get less money.”</p>
<p>Bruce Marks, chief executive of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, told the paper that “It’s absurd that this money will be distributed with such little regard to who was actually harmed.”</p>
<p />
<p>Interviews by The New York Times with more than 25 people who reviewed foreclosures, 15 current and former regulators and six bank officials revealed that the process was deeply flawed from the start, in November 2011.</p>
<p>“Several former employees of a consulting firm doing reviews said that their managers showed bias toward the bank that hired them,” the paper reported. “Other reviewers said that the test questions used to evaluate each loan were indecipherable and in some cases the process failed to catch serious harm. Many borrowers said they had never heard of the review or were so baffled by the process that they gave up or dismissed it as just another empty promise.</p>
<p>“A critical flaw from the start was that the federal government farmed out the work of scouring the millions of foreclosures to several consulting firms that charged as much as $250 an hour and outsourced work to contract employees, many of whom had no experience reviewing mortgages, according to the reviewers, regulators and bankers,” the paper added.</p>
<p>Reviewers said oversight by the regulators was virtually nonexistent. Employees hired by one of the consulting companies, Promontory Financial, said the absence of a watchdog enabled some consultants to misrepresent and minimize the number of borrowers found to be harmed. One reviewer said her supervisors “routinely kicked back loans where she had identified harm,” the paper said.</p>
<p>Reviews conducted by other banks were at the least merely inefficient. Some were deliberately exploitative. Deloitte, the consulting firm hired to examine foreclosures for JPMorgan Chase, brought in reviewers to look at documents before the examination standards were “ironed out” and cleared to begin.</p>
<p>“Employees sat around with no work for more than a month while collecting a paycheck,” the paper reported. “&#160;‘We would just read our books,’ one of the reviewers said.”</p>
<p>Deloitte took issue with such reports. “We strongly disagree with this characterization of the complex independent foreclosure review process and fully stand behind the quality of our work,” a company spokesman said.</p>
<p>Examiners said a single review would take up to 20 hours per file — “more than double the eight hours consultants originally promised regulators,” the paper reported.</p>
<p>Hear a Deloitte CEO talk about his company’s commitment to “leading the profession and setting the standard of audit excellence,” in this <a href="http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/About/index.htm" type="external">promotional video</a>:</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | Inside the Sham Foreclosure Review Process | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/inside-the-sham-foreclosure-review-process/ | 2013-01-12 | 4 |
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been both a major concern of American diplomacy since 1967 and the arena of persistent failure.</p>
<p>There are many reasons for America’s failure to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians but the most fundamental one is that it is a dishonest broker. As a result of its palpable partiality towards Israel, America has lost all credibility in the eyes not only of the Palestinians but of the wider Arab and Muslim worlds.</p>
<p>The so-called peace process has been all process and no peace. Peace talks that go nowhere slowly provide Israel with just the cover it needs to pursue its expansionist agenda on the West Bank.</p>
<p>The asymmetry of power between Israel and the Palestinians is so great that only a third party can bridge the gap. In plain language, this means leaning on Israel to end the occupation and to permit the emergence of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>In theory America is committed to a two-state solution to the conflict but in practise it has done very little to push Israel into such a settlement. It is not that America lacks the means to bring pressure to bear on Israel. On the contrary, Israel is crucially, and almost exclusively, dependent on America for military, diplomatic, and financial support.</p>
<p>America’s financial support amounts to three billion dollars a year. So the leverage is there. The real problem is that American leaders are either unable or unwilling to exercise this leverage in order to promote a just settlement of this tragic conflict.</p>
<p>The most depressing aspect of the situation is that despite its proven inability to make progress on the Palestinian track, America continues to cling to its monopoly over the peace process. In the aftermath of the June 1967 War, America arrogated to itself a near-monopoly over the diplomacy surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict.</p>
<p>During the Cold War, the main purpose of American diplomacy was to exclude the Soviet Union, the ally of radical Arab states, from the quest for peace in the Middle East. After the end of the Cold war, America continued to marginalise Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations. The UN has the authority as well as a duty to regulate this conflict because it is a threat to international peace and security. But the Americans undermined its efforts and routinely used their veto on the Security Council to defeat resolutions that were critical of Israel.</p>
<p>American contempt towards the UN reached a new height during the two Republican administrations of George W. Bush. The attitude of the neoconservatives is illustrated by the following conversation between a senior UN official and a venerable Republican Senator. The official asked “Why are you Americans so hostile to the UN? Is it ignorance or is it indifference?” And the Senator allegedly replied: “I don’t know and I don’t care!”</p>
<p>Barack Obama’s election was widely expected to usher in a more even-handed policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the Cairo speech of June 4 2009, Obama stated that the bond with Israel is unbreakable but he also expressed deep empathy for the Palestinians and wanted there to be no doubt that: “the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own”.</p>
<p>Obama is an inspiring orator. However, to use an American phrase, he has talked the talk but he has not walked the walk. The rhetoric has changed but in practical terms there has been more continuity than change. Partiality towards Israel remains the order of the day and it vitiates the possibility of a genuinely even-handed policy.</p>
<p>To be fair to Obama, he recognised at the outset that Jewish settlements on the West Bank are the main obstacle to progress. He admitted, in effect, that there can be a peace process but no peace if Israel continues the colonisation of the West Bank. At his first meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, on May 18 2008, Obama insisted on a complete settlement freeze.</p>
<p>A week later Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explained: “The President wants to see a stop to settlements. Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions… That is our position…And we intend to press that point”. The position was admirably clear but she and the president failed to press the point. They backed down.</p>
<p>The direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks launched by Secretary Clinton in Washington on September 2 are the best that could be expected after this and subsequent climb-downs. But these talks are an exercise in futility. There is an Arabic saying that something that starts crooked, remains crooked. These peace talks started in a crooked way because they did not meet the most fundamental Palestinian requirement: a complete freeze on settlement activity.</p>
<p>All that Netanyahu reluctantly agreed to was a partial settlement freeze for a period of ten months. The ban did not apply to the 3,000 housing units that had already been approved or to East Jerusalem, which Israel had illegally annexed following the June 1967 Six-Day War.</p>
<p>When the ban expired on September 27, Netanyahu refused to extend it. Shirking his responsibility as prime minister, he simply called on the settlers to exercise restraint. A more vacuous statement is difficult to imagine. Predictably, as the Israeli media has reported, the bulldozers are back at work in the Jewish settlements near Nablus, Ramallah, and Hebron.</p>
<p>The conclusion is inescapable: Netanyahu is not a genuine partner for the Palestinians on the road to peace. Land-grabbing and peace-making simply do not go together and Netanyahu has opted for the former.</p>
<p>Netanyahu is like a man who, while negotiating the division of a pizza, continues to eat it.</p>
<p>The American position is pusillanimous and feeble. Instead of taking a firm position on the side of the Palestinians and pressing the point of principle, they press the weaker party to make more and more concessions. Under these conditions, the prospects of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are close to zero.</p>
<p>There is no light at the end of the tunnel, only more illegal settlements, and consequently more strife, more violence, more bloodshed, and ultimately another war.</p>
<p>AVI SHLAIM is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of <a href="" type="internal">Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations</a> (Verso, 2009).</p>
<p>This article first appeared on the University of Oxford, Department of Politics and International Relations Blog.</p> | Dishonest Broker | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/10/22/dishonest-broker/ | 2010-10-22 | 4 |
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<p>U.S. businesses are heartened by President Barack Obama's push to extend Bush-era tax cuts, but they are not ready to declare a breakthrough in an often-tense relationship with the <a href="" type="internal">White House</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Obama's first two years in office have been characterized by conflict with companies over policies ranging from his controversial healthcare law to financial regulation reform.</p>
<p>When Democrats lost their majority in the House of Representatives to Republicans in the November elections, a chastened Obama promised to would work harder to reach out to the business community, an important constituent in his drive to boost the economy.</p>
<p>The tax cut package is part of that process. The compromise bill would extend low tax rates for two years for all income levels, including the wealthiest Americans and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/smallBusiness" type="external">small business Opens a New Window.</a> owners who fall into a high-income tax bracket.</p>
<p>Obama disliked extending the cuts for higher earners as Republicans demanded but agreed to do so in order to secure middle class tax relief and unemployment insurance extensions.</p>
<p>Companies welcomed that move.</p>
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<p>"He certainly came out and compromised on the big tax deal ... to keep tax rates low for business owners," said Chris Walters, manager of legislative affairs at the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), a lobby group for small companies that have an average of 8-10 employees.</p>
<p>Walters said it was too early to tell whether a major change between Obama and business had taken place.</p>
<p>"The proof will be in the pudding for what types of actions the administration makes working with the new Congress next year," he said.</p>
<p>The <a href="" type="internal">White House</a> believes progress has been made already. It points to Obama's recent business-oriented trip to Asia and successful negotiation of a free trade agreement with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/south-korea" type="external">South Korea Opens a New Window.</a> as evidence of a business-friendly administration trend.</p>
<p>Further, on Wednesday the president will meet with 20 chief executives from corporations such as <a href="" type="internal">Dow Chemical</a> Co, <a href="" type="internal">Google</a> Inc, and <a href="" type="internal">Boeing</a> Co to discuss job creation, export promotion, tax reform, and deficit reduction.</p>
<p>"The president believes a robust economic recovery will only come through a partnership with the public and private sector," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.</p>
<p>"The working session (with CEOs) is an opportunity for the president to continue building strong partnerships in the business community toward that goal."</p>
<p>NOT A THAWING OF RELATIONS</p>
<p>That gesture may be effective for some, but not everyone in the business world is impressed.</p>
<p>Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a lobby group that has clashed repeatedly with the White House, said the tax package and Korea trade pact were only two items on a long wish list.</p>
<p>"In two areas where the business community has been, for two years, calling for action, we're seeing some action take place," he said. "I don't know why everyone in the press would suddenly consider this a thawing of relations."</p>
<p>Josten pointed out that the Korea trade pact was not a done deal and the tax cut bill had not yet passed. The U.S. Senate is expected to approve the tax package by an overwhelming margin on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Paul Merski, chief economist at the Independent Community Bankers of America, a group that represents 5,000 smaller banks nationwide, said businesses would be watching Obama's choice to replace outgoing economic adviser <a href="" type="internal">Larry Summers</a> for further evidence of a business-friendly evolution.</p>
<p>The tax cut bill, in the meantime, was a positive signal.</p>
<p>"It's definitely a step in the right direction to help support the business community, particularly the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/smallBusiness" type="external">small business</a> owners nationwide that would be seriously injured by the tax increases," Merski said.</p>
<p>"It remains to be seen whether, you know, this is just kind of a deal that happened because it's crunch time ... or whether these are pro-growth tax measures that are genuinely supported by the administration."</p>
<p>The administration supports the package now, but Obama has said he will not support extending tax relief for the wealthiest Americans again in two years.</p>
<p>That doesn't sit well with companies that would like certainty for business planning over a longer time horizon.</p>
<p>"We would like to start there and hope that the president is going to be willing to work with the Congress to extend those rates into the future," said the NFIB's Walters.</p>
<p>"This is only a two-year tax plan."</p> | No Turning Point Yet in Obama Relations With Business | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2010/12/15/analysis-turning-point-obama-relations-business.html | 2016-03-22 | 0 |
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<p>Martinez signed the bill, sponsored by Democrat Pete Campos of Las Vegas, during an event Monday in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>The measure passed both chambers on unanimous votes during the recent 60-day legislative session.</p>
<p>The legislation expands the pool of people eligible to receive financial aid from the state's nurse educators fund. It's aimed at those who pursue advanced nursing degrees to teach the next generation of nurses at public colleges and universities.</p>
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<p>The state Higher Education Department spent nearly $145,000 on the nurse loan-for-service program last year. At the time, only faculty members were eligible to receive aid.</p>
<p>Lawmakers have called for spending $850,000 in general funds on the program next year.</p> | Martinez signs bill to encourage nurses to become educators | false | https://abqjournal.com/565461/martinez-signs-bill-to-encourage-nurses-to-become-educators.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="http://www.santafebrewing.com/age_verification" type="external">Santa Fe Brewing Co.</a> has signed a lease to put a tasting room at Green Jeans Farmery, a new shipping container retail project/hydroponic farm just north of Interstate 40 near Carlisle.</p>
<p>The taproom could open as early as next spring.</p>
<p>Santa Fe Brewing president and owner Brian Lock said the site selection ends a nearly three-year search for a Duke City location. He said he chose Green Jeans because of its visibility from the interstate, proximity to hotels and because it wasn’t “a traditional strip mall or something that was just kind of ordinary.”</p>
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<p>“We’ve had a lot of requests, and I was kind of waiting for the right spot to open up,” he said. “And I feel this is the perfect fit.”</p>
<p>Green Jeans — the brainchild of Albuquerque businessman Roy Solomon — will feature shipping-container construction, a growing trend in commercial and residential developments.</p>
<p>Lock said the Santa Fe Brewing space will feature eight of the crates, mostly the traditional size — 40 feet long, 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide — though a few may be taller. There will be at least one rooftop patio.</p>
<p>He said he and his wife have worked on possible configurations using their son’s toy building blocks.</p>
<p>“We’ve actually come up with what we think is a pretty cool design using those eight containers and literally build it out of Legos,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to take to the architects and show them.”</p>
<p>Green Jeans will ultimately feature about 7,000 square feet of buildings. Santa Fe Brewing is the first business to sign a lease, but Solomon said he’s planning to add several more tenants.</p>
<p>He said the final mix could include food and perhaps a flower shop and bike shop — vendors who “would be complementary — something to fit into the mood of what we’re doing.”</p>
<p>In addition to the retail component, Green Jeans will feature a hydroponic farm. Solomon said he’s already begun that portion of the project, starting with the planting inside a container already on site.</p>
<p>For more on the project, check out <a href="" type="internal">this Journal story</a> from July.</p> | Santa Fe Brewing to open first Albuquerque taproom | false | https://abqjournal.com/490654/santa-fe-brewing-to-open-first-albuquerque-taproom.html | 2 |
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<p>I have become that older woman standing up front with raised hands during prayer. I met her during the Pastors Conference at Huguenot Road Baptist Church at the Baptist General Association of Virginia meeting in 1999. She was then about my age now, nicely dressed, attractive and pleasant when I spoke with her after the session.</p>
<p>I certainly did not talk to her about her behavior; that sort of thing was just not done in my style of Baptist Christianity. As I recall, she needed directions. But it turns out she led me, indirectly, to where I am now.</p>
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<p>First of all, God convicted me at a later time concerning the inner gossiping I did, with myself, about how foolish she looked and why can't those charismatic people do their thing in their own churches. But I repented of my thoughts and attitude, and value anew our BGAV and all that it has stood for during its long history.</p>
<p>We in the BGAV allow our member churches to be themselves, to make their own rules for personal behavior, to create a church constitution, elect deacons and all that ordinary stuff which makes a church one which is led by the Holy Spirit, rather than by the Southern Baptist Convention. Yes, we are associated with that once august group and still have hope that it may one day repent of its arrogance, just as I did after my experience in Richmond almost 10 years ago.</p>
<p>Now I often find myself kneeling by the side of the bed, or sitting in my living room wing chair with arms raised, praising God for who he is and all that he has done in my life, and continues to do. What a joy — “praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him ….”</p>
<p>Peggy Sawyers, Monterey</p> | Upraised hands | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/upraisedhands/ | 3 |
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<p>The Trump Administration, the House Committee on Ways and Means, and the Senate Committee on Finance released a nine page document last week outlining the new tax plan, aptly called The United Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code.&#160;While short on specifics, the plan outlines four goals aimed at simplifying the tax code, cutting taxes, leveling the playing field for American businesses, and bringing back overseas business income. Here's a summary of the major changes that may affect how much tax you pay.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The new tax framework plans to simplify the tax code by reducing the number of tax brackets. The plan outlines consolidating the seven current tax brackets to just three at 12%, 25%, and 35%. Since income levels for each tax bracket are not identified in this framework, it is impossible to tell at this time whether the consolidation will help or hurt you (unless you're currently in the 39.6% bracket). However, the framework hints that an additional top tier rate may apply so taxes remain progressive.</p>
<p>The new plan proposes almost <a href="https://www.fool.com/taxes/2017/10/02/why-trumps-doubled-standard-deduction-wont-do-yo-2.aspx?source=isesitlnk0000001&amp;mrr=0.33&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=a31095e0-a885-11e7-9eef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">doubling the standard deduction Opens a New Window.</a> with the goals of both decreasing and simplifying taxes. The standard deduction would increase to $24,000 for married joint filers and $12,000 for single taxpayers. The plan eliminates the personal exemption and consolidates it into the larger standard deduction.&#160;However,&#160;notably absent is the Head of Household filing status, which could hurt single parents.</p>
<p>The plan also aims to provide tax relief by increasing the <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/11/15/the-child-tax-credit-what-you-need-to-know.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=a31095e0-a885-11e7-9eef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">child tax credit Opens a New Window.</a> and increasing the income threshold at which a family is eligible to receive this credit. The framework also introduces a provision for a $500 tax credit for dependent care, which will provide some relief to the millions of Americans who care for older family members.</p>
<p>However, the framework identifies no specific information for how much of an increase the child tax credit will be or at what income level a family would be able to qualify for this credit. Since the proposal eliminates the personal exemption for dependents, we must wait for the tax-writing committees to do their work so we can see if this proposal will be helpful or if it will create an increased tax burden for larger families.</p>
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<p>The new tax framework proposes elimination of the AMT, the estate tax, and most itemized deductions. If approved, upper-middle and upper class taxpayers will no longer have to calculate itemized deductions only to find out that they must pay the higher AMT instead.</p>
<p>Most tax experts agree that the <a href="https://www.fool.com/taxes/2017/03/16/how-alternative-minimum-tax-can-cost-you-thousands.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=a31095e0-a885-11e7-9eef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">AMT Opens a New Window.</a>, which was originally intended to make sure the wealthy paid their share of taxes, has increasingly affected upper-middle class from high personal income tax states or with larger families. Eliminating the AMT will be welcome to most; however, there's no indication of how the tax revenue lost from dropping the AMT will be replaced.</p>
<p>Most itemized deductions are also on the chopping block, with the exceptions of the <a href="https://www.fool.com/mortgages/2017/03/06/preparing-your-taxes-the-mortgage-interest-deducti.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=a31095e0-a885-11e7-9eef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">home mortgage interest deduction Opens a New Window.</a> and charitable donations. Also spared from elimination are tax benefits for higher education benefits and retirement security. While no specifics are mentioned, it is encouraging that the new tax framework promises measures to encourage and even raise retirement plan participation.</p>
<p>Notably missing from the framework is any reference to continuing the local and state tax deduction. Eliminating this write-off will certainly be unpopular for anyone who lives in a locality or state with a high tax rate.</p>
<p>Finally, the new tax framework eliminates the estate tax. The tax in its current form only taxes estates valued over $5.49 million. Therefore, most Americans will not be affected by the elimination of the estate tax.</p>
<p>The new tax framework also addresses reducing taxes on businesses. If you're a small business owner, the maximum tax rate for sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S corporations will be reduced to 25%.</p>
<p>The framework also proposes reducing the corporate tax rate to 20% and includes other provisions for favorable tax treatment of corporations. Some economic research indicates that reducing the corporate tax burden should benefit Americans by providing the corporations the ability to increase worker wages or prevent the tax burden from shifting to the consumer in the form of increased prices for goods.</p>
<p>With so many tax provisions left unfinished in the framework, the tax-writing committees have their work cut out for them. It's October, so there's little time to write legislation to flesh out the details for the massive tax reform proposal. With lawmakers eager to get something done, taxpayers will be watching Washington carefully during the autumn months to see what the final product ends up looking like.</p>
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<p>(ABP) — Judging from the absence of squirming and giggling, Holly Smith’s children’s sermon was quite the hit Sunday morning at Island View Baptist Church in Orange Park, Fla. Five little girls gathered on the steps leading to the pulpit and choir loft and listened intently to a brief message about the differences between fictional literature and Scripture.</p>
<p>They stayed focused during the reading of Hebrews 4:12 and perked up when Smith, the congregation's children's ministry director, held up a copy of Green Eggs and Ham followed by a Bible. “I have one just like it,” a girl no more than 5 or 6, said of the Scripture. “I’m glad you do,” Smith replied.</p>
<p />
<p>With that, the girls marched off to children’s church and the rest of the congregation got down to the business of worship. For Smith, it was another challenging but meaningful sermon delivered. “I think the kids really relate to it,” she said. “They need to have an understanding of the biblical perspective that they don’t get in a lot of places.”</p>
<p>The children’s sermon has its share of critics in sanctuaries and seminaries across the country, with some calling for an end to a tradition they consider to be ineffective and inappropriate in the 21st century church. Their basic complaint is that the sermons do little more than placate adults and relegate kids to secondary status within congregations.</p>
<p>Others say the sermons can be effective, but it would be better if children's spiritual growth was addressed in the context of regular worship.</p>
<p>“If I had my perfect world, if I had my way, there would not be a children’s sermon,” said Janice Haywood, childhood ministry specialist and adjunct professor of Christian education at Campbell University Divinity School. Instead, the regular Sunday sermon “would be inclusive of the children in the congregation.”</p>
<p>But Haywood continues to teach the practice to her divinity students because so many churches use it. “The children’s sermon is here to stay," she said, "even the bad ones the adults love.”</p>
<p>The tradition is widespread and spans across denominations.</p>
<p>A September article in The United Methodist Reporter traced the children's sermon to the 1880s, adding that it became widespread in Mainline churches during the 1970s. About half of all United Methodist churches “offer some sort of children’s moment” within worship, the article said.</p>
<p>The practice is also found in many non-denominational and evangelical churches. It's common in Baptist churches, whether conservative, moderate or progressive, Haywood said.</p>
<p>“It’s prevalent,” she said. “Theological position doesn’t seem to figure into it.”</p>
<p>Critics say children’s sermons are often preached at the children’s expense in order to provide humorous moments for adults. At other times they are awkward exchanges resulting in confusion among the children and discomfort for adults.</p>
<p>Haywood said she’s heard of others using the children’s sermon as a way of preaching to parents, with the message going way over the youngsters’ heads.</p>
<p>“I have all kinds of anecdotal stories about the things that went haywire — and they go bad more than they go good,” she said. “It’s really painful.”</p>
<p>As a result, some are seeking an end to the children's sermon. A Methodist bishop has argued that children’s sermons are inappropriate because they reduce the gospel to moralistic mush.</p>
<p />
<p>Kevin Collison, pastor of Island View Baptist Church in Orange Park, Fla., said the church is intentional in keeping its children's sermons. (ABPnews photo by Jeff Brumley)</p>
<p />
<p>“'Boys and girls, I know that you are bored stiff by Christian worship, that you can’t get anything out of what we do when we praise God, so come down front and I’ll take a few minutes to try to make this interesting for you,'” Bishop Will Willimon wrote on his “A Peculiar Prophet” blog in 2010.</p>
<p>Willimon also blasted the children’s sermon, and the children’s worship that often follows, for subdividing worship by generation.</p>
<p>“We wouldn’t interrupt the congregation’s worship with, ‘And now I would like all those of you who are over 65 to come down front while I say something sentimental and sappy to all of you old folks,’” Willimon wrote.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the bishop added, his problem with children’s sermons boils down to two points: “they are not for children and are usually not sermons.”</p>
<p>But they can be if taken seriously by the preacher, said Leslie Rosencrans, minister of congregational life at Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.</p>
<p>Rosencrans acknowledges the shortcomings identified by critics of the practice but said many of those faults result from incorrect assumptions that they are easy to deliver because they are short and for children. The truth is those factors make the sermons difficult to properly prepare and deliver, she said.</p>
<p>“The hard thing about children’s sermons is you have a shorter time to get your message across, and your audience is a lot more wiggly than your congregation might usually be.”</p>
<p>Rosencrans said she spends three to five hours on a children’s sermon that might last three to five minutes. The goal is to distill Scripture and theology into a short message that keeps children’s attention and edifies them.</p>
<p>The preacher also must be aware of children’s developmental stages at different ages, and always avoid metaphors and allegories.</p>
<p>“Otherwise there’s a real danger of it becoming entertainment or not being taken seriously,” Rosencrans said.</p>
<p>Despite the challenges, Rosencrans said she’s an advocate for children’s sermons, because they are often the only way children are actively included in worship.</p>
<p>“It’s important to teach them what’s important in our faith,” Rosencrans said. “With the children’s sermon we are able to do that in the context of our service.”</p>
<p>That's why children's sermons are an intentional part of worship at Island View, Pastor Kevin Collison said.</p>
<p>On some mornings the children’s sermon or the children’s church — or both — are canceled to give youngsters a chance to experience important moments in worship.</p>
<p>“What we try to do is strike a balance between including children in worship and having a focused time for the younger children.”</p>
<p>Otherwise, the sermon function’s to give children that touchpoint in worship, he said.</p>
<p>“Holly and I agree the children’s sermon should be a sermon, not just a cute story,” he said. “They’re not good when they veer off into moralisms and generalities.”</p>
<p>And a children’s sermon done correctly can often move adults, too, Smith said.</p>
<p>“Adults will come up to me and say it opened an avenue for them to understand things better,” she said.</p>
<p>Jeff Brumley ( <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>)&#160;is assistant editor of Associated Baptist Press.</p> | Fan or foe, children’s sermon here to stay | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/fanorfoechildrenssermonheretostay-2/ | 3 |
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<p>Meet Ajay Banga. The son of an Indian army officer, Banga was born in Khadki, a cantonment a few hours outside Mumbai. After studying economics at Delhi University, he took an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management and began an illustrious career working for corporate giants like Nestlé and PepsiCo. In 2010, Banga was appointed CEO of Mastercard, headquartered in Purchase, New York.</p>
<p>He is one of only a handful of Fortune 500 heads to complete his primary, secondary, and post-secondary education entirely in India.</p>
<p>Banga took on a healthy company and made it <a href="https://ycharts.com/companies/MA/profit_margin" type="external">even more profitable</a>. In 2009, Mastercard earned a profit of $1.5&#160;billion on revenues of $5.1&#160;billion. In 2013, profit reached $3.1&#160;billion on revenues of $8.4&#160;billion. The company’s stock has jumped 330&#160;percent over the past five years.</p>
<p>He’s been rewarded well for his efforts: last year Banga took home over $13&#160;million and cemented his status as a darling of the business press, saluted in magazines like Fortune, and <a href="http://chiefexecutive.net/mastercard-ceo-ajay-banga-named-2014-top-wealth-creator-chief-executive-magazine/" type="external">named</a> the world’s “Top Wealth Creator” by Chief Executive magazine.</p>
<p>He specializes in innovation. At least, that’s what business papers proclaim: Banga has “doubled down on technology,” “launched an in-house innovation arm,” and introduced Mastercard Contactless, a new wireless payment system.</p>
<p>Most innovatively of all, he has narrowed his gaze on the world’s 2.5&#160;billion “unbanked” inhabitants. As a feature in Fortune describes, Banga realizes that “much of the opportunity for the company is in parts of the world where a digital wallet is still decades away.” He’s at the forefront of a growing group of business leaders who appreciate that there are profits to be made in global poverty.</p>
<p>What Fortune doesn’t add is where the money for Banga’s investments in the “unbanked” masses is coming from. A good deal of it is, in fact, not coming from the company he leads. It’s not coming from Mastercard shareholders, and it’s certainly not coming out of his ever-expanding pay packet. It’s coming from the coffers of the world’s most powerful philanthropic organization: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.</p>
<p>In 2014, the Gates Foundation <a href="http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/gates-foundation-awards-11-million-for-financial-inclusion-in-africa" type="external">announced</a> an $11&#160;million grant to Mastercard to establish a financial inclusion “lab” in Nairobi, Kenya. The grant will last three years, after which Mastercard has indicated that, should the venture prove sufficiently lucrative, the company may be willing to foot the bill for further financial expansion in the region.</p>
<p>Mastercard’s management rationalized the grant in economic terms: investing in developing nations such as Kenya is risky, and there’s no guarantee that investments will pay off. As Mastercard explains in a press release, the money from the Gates Foundation enables the company to reach “new markets that may otherwise be commercially unviable.”</p>
<p>The gift to Mastercard — and it is a gift, rather than a loan or an equity investment — is the latest in a long list of donations that the Gates Foundation has offered to the world’s wealthiest corporations. From Vodafone, a British company notorious for paying zero corporate tax in the United Kingdom, to leading education companies such as Scholastic Inc., the Gates Foundation doesn’t simply partner with for-profit companies: it subsidizes their bottom-line.</p> | The Philanthropy Hustle | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2015/11/philanthropy-charity-banga-carnegie-gates-foundation-development/ | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>When it looked like the world would end in nuclear disaster,&#160;Peter Donaldson got the call.</p>
<p>The calm, authoritative BBC news announcer took on some unusual recordings at the height of the Cold War, including the messages to be read in event of nuclear war.&#160;"This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons," he read.&#160;"Stay in your own house, there's nothing to be gained in trying to get away.”</p>
<p>The messages were even more chilling because of his perfectly neutral delivery.</p>
<p>Donaldson, a BBC radio announcer for more than 40 years,&#160;died Tuesday at the age of 70. For many British people, his calm authoritative manner epitomized the BBC and a certain sense of Britishness. John Humphries, a journalist who worked with him for many years, described Donaldson’s voice as "rich and warm and resonant and without a trace of affectation ... when he read the news you trusted him.”</p>
<p>Donaldson was born in Egypt in&#160;1945 and spent much of his childhood in the Middle East. After working as an actor,&#160;he joined the British Forces Broadcasting Service —&#160;a radio service for the British armed forces —&#160;as an announcer. His first work for the BBC was for the music station Radio 2. He later moved to Radio 4, the main talk radio station for British audiences.&#160;</p>
<p>Toward&#160;the end of his career, Donaldson publicly wondered&#160;whether his&#160;style of announcing was beginning to sound outdated. He told the Arena television program&#160;that he had come to terms with that idea that there was an "evolution"&#160;in broadcasting.</p>
<p>"[It is]&#160;leaving me behind,"&#160;he said. "That is [a move] toward&#160;a more informal style. Not that I want to be a stuffed shirt.&#160;It's the way the world changes. It's not only on the BBC. Everywhere is changing. And there comes a stage where an old dog doesn't."</p> | How the BBC planned for the end of the world | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-11-03/peter-donaldson-voice-bbc-and-cold-war-has-died | 2015-11-03 | 3 |
<p>The white working class is ready. Are you?</p>
<p>The 2016 Democratic primary gives us a way of assessing <a href="" type="internal">the potential for organizing among white workers.</a> This may sound surprising since the corporate media created a narrative about how white workers supported Trump in the general election. But clear-eyed observers such as <a href="" type="internal">Konstantin Kilibarda and Daria Roithmayr</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Mike Davis</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Bill Fletcher</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Jeffrey St.Clair</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Jake Johnston</a> have countered that story.</p>
<p>It was the Democrats that abandoned the working class with Trump merely holding on to the Romney electorate as <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article147475484.html" type="external">Clinton underperformed Obama in almost every demographic</a> including white workers. The corporate story about white workers in the general election obscures a far more important story for activists and organizers. In order to reverse the drift toward war and corporate rule, we will have to launch bold and aggressive campaigns that replace the discredited <a href="" type="internal">corporate forms of identity politics</a> and meritocratic thinking typical of the Democrats.</p>
<p>The Clinton machine tried to assemble an unconvincing coalition, bringing working people and urban professionals together to support a fundamentally corporate and imperial agenda. This project failed, and will fail again, but that failure can open the door to grassroots democracy. The Sanders campaign strongly suggests that victory is possible. If activists and dissident political movements can offer visionary leadership and mount determined organizing drives then millions of white workers will join the movements for social justice and economic democracy.</p>
<p>Greater Appalachia</p>
<p>While an overall analysis of the primary or general election is beyond the scope of this article, we can learn a good bit by looking at “Greater Appalachia.” By this I mean the region of the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to northern Alabama. I realize this is not the typical way of describing Appalachia.[1]</p>
<p>Greater Appalachia is however appropriate for assessing the political potential of the white working class because this region is demographically far whiter than the rest of the country, solidly working class, and ethnically more Scots-Irish.</p>
<p>Southern Appalachia is a region of stubborn poverty. Central Pennsylvania, Upstate New York and New England, outside of the metropolitan areas, have, like the rest of <a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/our-miserable-21st-century/" type="external">the country, never recovered from the 2008 crisis</a>. These areas are also distant from the urban political machines which have long histories of producing votes for machine politicians.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="" type="internal">New York Times</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">The electoral map of the 2016 Primary</a> in the New York Times captures the general trends. From northern Alabama to Maine, it shows that Sanders was very competitive where he did not win outright. Where Clinton did win, it was by narrow margins. It is reasonable to assume that had the <a href="http://www.election-justice-usa.org/Democracy_Lost_Update1_EJUSA.pdf" type="external">DNC not rigged the primary for Clinton</a> or the media not presented Clinton as the “ <a href="" type="internal">presumptive nominee</a>” or <a href="" type="internal">elevated Trump</a> with billions in free publicity, Sanders would have done far better.</p>
<p>Sanders voters in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York voted later in the primary season persisting in their dissent&#160; long after the narratives of Clinton’s “inevitably” were widely circulated by party elites and corporate media.</p>
<p>Clinton did worse and Sanders better in the Appalachian region of every state.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Daily Kos, a news outlet friendly to Clinton, offered the following analysis.</a></p>
<p>“The Democratic primary exhibited an even starker division between each state’s Appalachian and non-Appalachian regions. While Clinton won every state except West Virginia, she performed worse in every state’s Appalachian region and Sanders easily won Appalachian Kentucky and North Carolina. Sanders also came very close to victory in Appalachian Maryland, Ohio, and Virginia despite Clinton easily winning the remainders of those states. Clinton won by a comfortable margin in southern Appalachia outside of North Carolina, but still performed dramatically worse than in the rest of those states.”</p>
<p>If we move north, we see support for Sanders in the rural upland regions of Central Pennsylvania and Upstate New York.</p>
<p>While the definition of Appalachian Pennsylvania is unclear, the core of the majority white working class mountain region that follows the ridges of the Appalachian chain in central Pennsylvania voted for Sanders.[2] In three of the central state mountain counties where Clinton does win – Fulton, Bedford and Union – the machine wins by razor thin majorities. <a href="" type="internal">“Sanders, for his part, performed strongly in the rural parts of the state, winning rural voters 50-48 and carrying Central Pennsylvania 50-49.</a>”</p>
<p>In upstate New York, Sanders wins all but three counties. <a href="" type="internal">In the Catskills, just outside of suburban NYC, Sanders wins Sullivan Country 56.1 to 43.9, Ulster County 62.6 to 37.4 and Dutchess County 51.5 to 48.4.</a></p>
<p>As a general indication of class consciousness, in NY, <a href="" type="internal">“Clinton won voters who said Wall Street does more to help the economy, Sanders won among those who said it hurts the economy.</a>”</p>
<p>It is interesting to note that many counties in New York flipped from voting for Obama in the 2008 general to Trump in 2016. <a href="" type="internal">Fourteen NY state counties flipped from voting for Obama twice to voting for Trump.</a> Was this a sign of bigotry unleashed by Trump? Or was it the deep disappointment in Clinton, who, as former Senator from New York, had failed to keep her promise of jobs and economic development? Or both? We need more evidence.</p>
<p>Sanders went from strength to strength in New England, where he took three of four counties in Western Massachusetts and won all of Vermont, all of New Hampshire, and all of Maine.</p>
<p>The story is not just that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fphU15M6Ps" type="external">Bernie would have won</a>, although all the polls agree. The story is that win or lose, the Sanders campaign shows us what might be. And that assessment is positive enough to encourage anti-racist, union, community organizing, anti-war and environmental movement building among the white working class.</p>
<p>Young Workers of America Unite!</p>
<p>Young workers face the economic crisis head on. If the Sanders campaign is any measure, then young white workers, and young workers from all backgrounds, are fired up and ready for change.</p>
<p>Organizers, listen up!</p>
<p>+&#160; <a href="http://civicyouth.org/young-women-and-non-black-youth-favored-sanders-on-super-tuesday-issue-priorities-drive-differences-in-vote-choice-by-age/" type="external">Young Women Voted Differently than Older Women</a></p>
<p>+ Young women (ages 17-29) who participated in the Democratic Super Tuesday primaries favored Sanders 57% over Clinton 41%.</p>
<p>+&#160; <a href="http://civicyouth.org/record-breaking-youth-turnout-continues-clinton-and-trump-still-lagging-with-young-voters/" type="external">In North Carolina, almost three-quarters (72%) of Democratic youth supported Sanders.</a></p>
<p>+&#160; <a href="http://civicyouth.org/record-breaking-youth-turnout-continues-clinton-and-trump-still-lagging-with-young-voters/" type="external">In Missouri, Sanders received overwhelming youth support at 78%.</a></p>
<p>+&#160; <a href="http://civicyouth.org/record-breaking-youth-turnout-continues-clinton-and-trump-still-lagging-with-young-voters/" type="external">Young Ohio voters supported Sanders 81% to 19%.</a></p>
<p>+&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Young people in the West Virginia continued to support Sanders far more than the presumptive Democratic nominee. Young voters, ages 17-29, favored Sanders 70% to 25%.</a></p>
<p>+&#160; <a href="" type="internal">In Maryland, Sanders received 68% of youth support.</a></p>
<p>+&#160; <a href="" type="internal">In Michigan, young voters went for 81% for Sanders.</a> “Michigan mirrored early majority-white states where Sanders received extremely strong support from young people.”</p>
<p>+ New York <a href="" type="internal">“Overall Sanders won among voters age 18-29 in the Empire State, capturing 65% of this demographic.”</a></p>
<p>+ In Pennsylvania, <a href="" type="internal">Sanders swept younger voters with a stunning 83-17</a>. These numbers are so lopsided we can say with confidence that Sanders did well with young white workers.</p>
<p>+&#160; <a href="http://civicyouth.org/young-women-and-non-black-youth-favored-sanders-on-super-tuesday-issue-priorities-drive-differences-in-vote-choice-by-age/" type="external">Young Democrats Want More Liberal Policies and an Honest Nominee</a> On Super Tuesday, 44% percent of young Democratic primary voters, compared to 28% Democratic voters of all ages, wanted to see more liberal policies rather than a continuation of Obama’s policies. White youth were the most likely to choose this answer….Finally, young Democratic primary voters were more likely (32%) than other age groups to name Income Inequality as the most important issue facing the nation, though “Jobs and Economy” continues to be their top priority (41%). [emphasis added]</p>
<p>“ <a href="" type="internal">In the 20 states for which we have data</a>, nearly 2 million young people have voted for Senator Sanders, almost three times more youth votes than any other candidate in either party….More youth have voted for Senator Sanders than for Clinton and Trump combined.”</p>
<p>Since I am using electoral data as a general indicator of what is possible, the white working class, the young white working class in particular, is ready for change.</p>
<p>The corporate order — in all of its extremism and excess — is in decline and disarray whether managed by an Obama, a Clinton or a Trump.</p>
<p>Corporate politics can only offer more of the same: perpetual war and global empire, mass incarceration and mass surveillance and the <a href="" type="internal">hollowing out of all of our once democratic institutions</a>from elections, to unions, to the Bill of Rights, to education.&#160; The crazy corporate crusade to pillage the planet and impose inequality and austerity cannot be sustained.</p>
<p>Things fall apart; the extreme center cannot hold.[3]</p>
<p>As the white working class — and the whole working class — becomes increasingly unmoored from its tethers, some will soar and some will crash.&#160; But as the great organizer Ella Baker said: “ <a href="" type="internal">Give light and the people will find a way.”</a></p>
<p>Notes.&#160;</p>
<p>1/&#160;I make no pretense at offering a comprehensive analysis of the complex historical trends, cultural characteristics, and demographics that make up the either the traditional core of Appalachia, lying south of the Mason-Dixon line, or the northern upland regions of Pennsylvania, New York, and New England.</p>
<p>2/&#160;The Daily Kos article cited above uses a broader definition of Appalachian Pennsylvania much more favorable to Clinton.</p>
<p>3/&#160;Apologies to Yeats, <a href="" type="internal">The Second Coming</a></p> | The Sanders Campaign, Greater Appalachia and Young Workers | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/05/05/the-sanders-campaign-greater-appalachia-and-young-workers/ | 2017-05-05 | 4 |
<p>July 24 (UPI) — Drilling services contractor Halliburton said Monday it beat out every one of its rivals in the international market, but the gains came mostly from North America.</p>
<p>Total revenue for Halliburton, which has headquarters in Houston, was $5 billion, a 16 percent increase from the first quarter. Executive Chairman Dave Lesar said revenue growth from North America increased 24 percent, which was better than the 21 percent increase in the land rig count in the United States.</p>
<p>“More broadly, we outperformed our major peer in every geo-market, demonstrating that we continue to grow our global market share,” he said in <a href="http://www.halliburton.com/public/news/pubsdata/press_release/2017/hal-2Q17-earnings-release.pdf" type="external">a statement</a>.</p>
<p>International revenue for Halliburton was $2.2 billion, a 7 percent increase from the previous quarter. In terms of real momentum, the European and African markets were the primary drivers for growth, with the $679 million in revenue representing a 12 percent gain from the previous quarter.</p>
<p>Halliburton said most of that increase came from a rebound in activity in the North Sea and Russia. Aker BP, joint venture of Norwegian energy companies and a regional subsidiary of BP, was one of the first energy companies reporting second quarter figures. With a strong North Sea portfolio, the company said it expected <a href="https://www.upi.com/Aker-BP-a-Norwegian-company-expecting-higher-production/9251500026606/" type="external">to produce</a> between 135 million barrels of oil equivalent and 140 million barrels of oil equivalent per day for all of 2017, an upward revision of about 5 percent.</p>
<p>Halliburton’s gains for the first quarter were stronger than rival Schlumberger, but lower monetarily. Schlumberger <a href="https://www.upi.com/Driller-sees-strength-concentrated-outside-North-America/2971500640440/" type="external">reported revenue</a> for the three months ending June 30 at $7.4 billion, up 8 percent from the previous quarter. Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard said the outlook for North America during the second half of the year was robust, but more positive signs were emerging in the international market.</p>
<p>Kibsgaard added that several new final investment decisions offshore are making the international market attractive. Sector consultant group <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wood_Mackenzie/" type="external">Wood Mackenzie</a> found the oil and gas industry sanctioned 15 new developments, which is the equivalent of about 8 billion barrels of new reserves. That compares with final investment decisions for 12 new projects last year, or about 8.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent.</p>
<p>Halliburton <a href="https://www.upi.com/Halliburton-acquires-pumping-service-company/6471499339193/" type="external">in early July</a> fortified its position in the industry by acquiring Summit ESP, identified as a leader in pumping technology and services. That followed its unsuccessful takeover bid for rival Baker Hughes, which has since joined forces with the oil and gas division of General Electric.</p> | Drilling services contractor Halliburton reports $5 billion profit | false | https://newsline.com/drilling-services-contractor-halliburton-reports-5-billion-profit/ | 2017-07-24 | 1 |
<p>Conservative commentators are rejoicing at the thought that Democrats may be the new “permanent minority party,” relegated to the fringes of irrelevance as a protest movement rather than a governing coalition.</p>
<p>Self-described centrist think tank Third Way has even <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/06/democrats-may-be-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-permanent-minority-party/" type="external">asserted</a> that Democrats are fast becoming a “coastal” party with popular support only among voters in the East and West coasts. In contrast, Republicans appear to have command over the the Southwest, the Heartland, and the South where the majority of Congressional seats lie.</p>
<p>“Overall, that translates into a decisive GOP advantage in the House of Representatives — one that is <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/11/08/hillary-clinton-will-win-but-dont-celebrate-gop-control-of-congress-is-baked-in-for-years-to-come/" type="external">not likely to shift</a> anytime soon,” <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/06/democrats-may-be-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-permanent-minority-party/" type="external">reports</a> The Daily Caller. “The vast majority of <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/18/republicans-build-on-their-dominance-in-state-legislatures.html" type="external">state legislatures</a> — 32, a record — are in GOP hands, as are a majority of the state houses. And Democrats face enormous challenges in the U.S. Senate in 2018 because they must <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/306210-10-senate-seats-that-could-flip-in-2018" type="external">defend at least 10 seats in states that Trump won</a> in 2016 — while the GOP occupies virtually none that are considered vulnerable to reversal.”</p>
<p>With control of the Supreme Court within grasp, a GOP-controlled House, Senate, and White House, what’s stopping Republicans from indefinitely monopolizing the American political landscape?</p>
<p>As nice as it may be to imagine that the Republican party has a secure hold on power, such an assessment seems to be rather premature, if not overly optimistic.</p>
<p>The fact is, the GOP is still ideologically split three ways. The Trump Right may have taken the White House, but some of the administration’s policies are proving to fly in the face of sound conservative principles. From infrastructure spending to entitlements, Trump’s Republican party dabbles in Keynesian economics far too often for the average conservative. The Trumpian right and the conservative right (see: Ted Cruz) are further challenged by “moderate” Republicans or what the mainstream likes to call “mainstream” Republicans (think Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell). These factions are going away anytime soon.</p>
<p>Moreover, while the Democratic party’s push for demographic warfare may have failed this election cycle, that doesn’t mean that minority ethnic and racial communities won’t come through for the donkey party in the future.</p>
<p>Trump’s electoral victory largely relied on working class white voters coming out in big numbers for the GOP. But the white majority is losing its edge. In the next few decades, whites will be a minority racial group. With migration patterns as they are and higher fertility rates, immigrant populations will swell in numbers. It’s no secret that today most minority ethnic and racial groups identify as registered Democrats.</p>
<p>If the GOP wants to continue winning, it needs to appeal to these voters. Whether that means articulating conservative principles, including individualism, traditional values, and free market virtues, in a coherent and attractive way or “broadening the tent” by moving to the center-right has been a topic of intense debate for decades now. But either way, the GOP cannot simply rely on its current voting blocs to win successive electoral victories.</p>
<p>Further, Trump’s successes or failures in the White House will largely determine the American people’s likelihood to vote for the Republican party in the coming years. Midterm elections are always uphill battles for the incumbent party. If Trump proves to be a poor governing executive, then the GOP will surely suffer in 2020. However, if Trump rides the waves of triumph and pursues policies popular with everyday Americans, voters may reward Republicans with consistent victories.</p> | Are The Democrats The New ‘Permanent Minority’ Party? | true | https://dailywire.com/news/13308/are-democrats-new-permanent-minority-party-michael-qazvini | 2017-02-08 | 0 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — A new financing offering could make home solar cheaper and more attractive to homeowners, and keep the adoption of home solar growing.</p>
<p>The offer, announced by SolarCity this week, is a loan that allows homeowners to install their own solar system on their roof for little or no money down, and pay less for electricity. Previous plans, while popular, turned off some because the solar company owned the system.</p>
<p>“The value proposition is becoming clearer and less complicated for consumers,” says Patrick Jobin, an analyst at Credit Suisse. “Solar is going mainstream.”</p>
<p>SolarCity’s new loan deal and current similar deals that involve leases or power purchase agreements can pay off — if you have the right roof in the right state.</p>
<p>For the deals to work, your roof can’t be shrouded in shade and you have to be paying a relatively high price for power.</p>
<p>Your state also has to allow you to trade the solar power you generate but don’t use for the power you need at night or when the sun isn’t shining.</p>
<p>For that reason, the national solar companies that offer these deals, such as SolarCity, Sunrun, Sungevity and Vivint Solar, operate only in certain states, concentrated mostly in the Northeast, Southwest and West. For now, solar can’t compete with the power prices and regulations in Southeast and parts of the Midwest.</p>
<p>To help determine if a solar system is right for you, the solar company takes a look at your bill, and your roof, and then figures out if it can offer you a break on your bill.</p>
<p>The plans work by addressing solar’s big drawback: high upfront cost. A typical system costs $30,000. Before the lease deals and power purchase deals were rolled out starting in 2007 and 2008, that steep initial hit turned off many consumers.</p>
<p>A lease or loan deal spreads that upfront cost — reduced by a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the system — over 20 or 30 years, making the payments look more like monthly electric bills.</p>
<p>As the panels produce power, you need to buy less from your utility. You come out ahead if the savings on your power bill is bigger than the monthly loan or lease payment.</p>
<p>Lease and power purchase agreements now account for two-thirds of home solar installations, according to Shayle Kann of GTM Research.</p>
<p>The difference between a loan and a lease or purchase agreement is that the homeowner owns the system, and the federal tax credit comes to the homeowner, instead of to the solar company or its financier.</p>
<p>When the value of the federal tax credit — $9,000 for a typical system — is factored in, homeowners can pay substantially less for power over the life of the panels.</p>
<p>Most customers would probably prefer a loan, Kann said, assuming the savings are the same.</p>
<p>SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive said the company can offer the loans now because it has better access to financing, it can predict the performance of panels well, and it has decreased installation costs dramatically.</p>
<p>SolarCity’s loan terms do not require a lien on the house, which should ease the process of selling a home during the loan period. But, like competing lease plans, the loan generally requires a high credit score. SolarCity will only lend to those with a credit score of at least 680.</p>
<p>The loans will be offered initially at 4.5 percent over 30 years. Customers pay only for the power the panels produce each month, instead of a fixed amount. If the panels produce more in a given month, customers will pay their loan off faster. Solar power is cheaper than power from the electric utility, so a customer’s monthly electricity cost would fall further.</p>
<p>If the panels produce less, the customer pays less to SolarCity and, in theory, will not have to pay the loan off in full. But SolarCity is confident that it can predict the output of the panels over 30 years well enough to ensure the loan will be repaid.</p>
<p>“It takes the production risk of the system off the customer’s plate and puts it on Solar City’s,” Kann says.</p>
<p>Jonathan Fahey can be reached at <a href="http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey" type="external">http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey</a> .</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — A new financing offering could make home solar cheaper and more attractive to homeowners, and keep the adoption of home solar growing.</p>
<p>The offer, announced by SolarCity this week, is a loan that allows homeowners to install their own solar system on their roof for little or no money down, and pay less for electricity. Previous plans, while popular, turned off some because the solar company owned the system.</p>
<p>“The value proposition is becoming clearer and less complicated for consumers,” says Patrick Jobin, an analyst at Credit Suisse. “Solar is going mainstream.”</p>
<p>SolarCity’s new loan deal and current similar deals that involve leases or power purchase agreements can pay off — if you have the right roof in the right state.</p>
<p>For the deals to work, your roof can’t be shrouded in shade and you have to be paying a relatively high price for power.</p>
<p>Your state also has to allow you to trade the solar power you generate but don’t use for the power you need at night or when the sun isn’t shining.</p>
<p>For that reason, the national solar companies that offer these deals, such as SolarCity, Sunrun, Sungevity and Vivint Solar, operate only in certain states, concentrated mostly in the Northeast, Southwest and West. For now, solar can’t compete with the power prices and regulations in Southeast and parts of the Midwest.</p>
<p>To help determine if a solar system is right for you, the solar company takes a look at your bill, and your roof, and then figures out if it can offer you a break on your bill.</p>
<p>The plans work by addressing solar’s big drawback: high upfront cost. A typical system costs $30,000. Before the lease deals and power purchase deals were rolled out starting in 2007 and 2008, that steep initial hit turned off many consumers.</p>
<p>A lease or loan deal spreads that upfront cost — reduced by a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the system — over 20 or 30 years, making the payments look more like monthly electric bills.</p>
<p>As the panels produce power, you need to buy less from your utility. You come out ahead if the savings on your power bill is bigger than the monthly loan or lease payment.</p>
<p>Lease and power purchase agreements now account for two-thirds of home solar installations, according to Shayle Kann of GTM Research.</p>
<p>The difference between a loan and a lease or purchase agreement is that the homeowner owns the system, and the federal tax credit comes to the homeowner, instead of to the solar company or its financier.</p>
<p>When the value of the federal tax credit — $9,000 for a typical system — is factored in, homeowners can pay substantially less for power over the life of the panels.</p>
<p>Most customers would probably prefer a loan, Kann said, assuming the savings are the same.</p>
<p>SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive said the company can offer the loans now because it has better access to financing, it can predict the performance of panels well, and it has decreased installation costs dramatically.</p>
<p>SolarCity’s loan terms do not require a lien on the house, which should ease the process of selling a home during the loan period. But, like competing lease plans, the loan generally requires a high credit score. SolarCity will only lend to those with a credit score of at least 680.</p>
<p>The loans will be offered initially at 4.5 percent over 30 years. Customers pay only for the power the panels produce each month, instead of a fixed amount. If the panels produce more in a given month, customers will pay their loan off faster. Solar power is cheaper than power from the electric utility, so a customer’s monthly electricity cost would fall further.</p>
<p>If the panels produce less, the customer pays less to SolarCity and, in theory, will not have to pay the loan off in full. But SolarCity is confident that it can predict the output of the panels over 30 years well enough to ensure the loan will be repaid.</p>
<p>“It takes the production risk of the system off the customer’s plate and puts it on Solar City’s,” Kann says.</p>
<p>Jonathan Fahey can be reached at <a href="http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey" type="external">http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey</a> .</p> | Can you go solar? Leases, loans make it possible | false | https://apnews.com/4573828c1bd1460d8c839c36238e03c5 | 2014-10-08 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Run to the trees Trees will be burning Run to the sea Sea will boiling All on that day</p>
<p>So, summer, the frivolous season of our supposed repose, now brings dread, east and west, north and south. As summer peaks in the west, everything dries and dies, and as the suffocating heat grows inland and the dry grass whispers we start watching the skies fearfully for lightning, and we wait for the news that actually it wasn’t lightning; it was a tossed cigarette, a forgotten campfire, some guys shooting rifles, a firebug with a can of gasoline. And then the sight of the firestorm on the jagged horizon, moving faster than anything that doesn’t fly, the flames joining together in an impossible roaring uprush that feeds on itself, that grows like a living thing, and the trees light up like great torches, the pain of whose immolation we cannot feel because thanks to the scientific worldview we know trees have no brains and no nerve endings and thus don’t feel pain anyway. They are just matter, burning.</p>
<p>Of course, coming from a species that has set alight its own members, with their highly developed nervous systems, when it seemed politically necessary, this suggests that even if we did think individual trees felt pain we wouldn’t necessarily care if we needed other things more than large numbers of trees, which we clearly do, because we, collectively, are watching them go up in flames on a grander scale every year without making much of a peep about it, and the trashed trophy homes and cars scattered back in there are all we can really mourn for, the only things that have a compelling reality for us. Forests grow back, right?</p>
<p>Except when they don’t, because some invisible calculus has determined that the underlying conditions which made their existence possible are gone. We may not be there yet for what’s left of the great boreal forests, but we won’t actually know when the threshold is crossed – invisible means just that. Chaos theory means just that. Biologists have identified a phenomenon in complex living systems called “critical slowing down” whereby those systems become gradually less resilient in the face of repeated onslaught until some non-trivial boundary is crossed and they collapse. Where is the line, exactly? Well, the scientists tell us with marvelous equanimity, that’s precisely the puzzle. Hard to say…</p>
<p>We of the bourgeoisie rise momentarily from our stupor when fascists begin to stir in the shallows of our societal swamp, ironically more like some monstrous presence out of an H.P. Lovecraft story than the miscegenated, racist, fever-dream monsters Lovecraft actually gave us. We’ll even take the kids out for an afternoon to send those fascists back “where they came from,” which is the same place we come from, so good luck with that. But when the distant forests burn in their hundreds of millions of acres over the longer, hotter, drier summers, we barely so much as sigh – what good would marching in the streets do?</p>
<p>Whether we can see it or not, the inanimate (to us) forests have been set alight by the lineaments of our gratified desire: cars, roads, houses, electronic devices, cosmetic surgery, food from everywhere. Thanks, capital! Thanks, science! No more hands and backs into the hard labor of pulling sustenance from the soil or forging steel or tending gigantic machines – our livelihoods are gained now by our dancing fingertips alone! Who will be the first bourgeois to blow up that bargain? Who will be the first of the expendable classes not to seek it? And at least we are compensated by the quality of the sunsets – what beauty there is in annihilation really! It’s as if we told ourselves, well, all those tiki torches sure did make for a pretty procession!</p>
<p>Those who can’t turn their attention to other distant horrors or daily cares will then have to listen to the insane barking of politicians who blame tree-loving enviros for preventing responsible forest-destruction that would, according to those wise men of capital, make these fires of growing intensity, scale and frequency somewhat less damaging. Never mind the climatic elephant in the ideological room, that’s a non-starter with men whose fanatical devotion to the profit system can be diminished by no preponderance of evidence. Why bother to argue, even shoving the elephant aside for a second, that massive thinning and brush clearing further dries out the forests and impoverishes their soils, making them even more susceptible to catastrophic burning, or that “responsible logging” is an oxymoron when you throw in economies of scale? Why argue that the vast, safe, checkerboard tree plantations of the coastal Northwest are no more forests anyway than Nebraska’s wheat fields are prairies? Not even apples and oranges, it’s apples and ball bearings. There is no basis for a discussion because there is no shared conceptual framework. That living systems have any right to exist apart from our usage of them is inconceivable within capitalist (or socialist, frankly) doxa.</p>
<p>I am reminded of the late, great Douglas Adams’ little parable about the first humans: how they decided they needed a currency in order to build civilization and chose to make leaves their currency because of how easy they were to collect and exchange and then in turn saw that the unending regeneration and proliferation of leaves made the currency almost worthless, and so set out to burn down the trees en masse to increase the value of the leaf…</p>
<p>Here in San Francisco under an unprecedented heatwave tamped down inside a pall of smoke from massive fires to the north and south, on Labor Day, what did we do? Go to the park and incinerate chunks of already burned trees to cook our meat with friends and loved ones. Can you hear those heads on Easter Island speaking to you yet?</p>
<p>I am also reminded of a poem I read in junior high school that sent shivers of timelessness down my spine, Robert W. Service’s “The Pines:”</p>
<p>We surge in a host from the sullen coast, and we sing in the ocean blast; From empire of sea to empire of snow, we grip our empire fast…&#160;</p>
<p>To us was the Northland given, ours to stronghold and defend; Ours till the world be riven in the crash of the utter end.</p>
<p>Not so a century on, all bets on eternity are off; those timeless legions could fall before the firestorm and the insect hordes in less than an eyeblink of geological time. They could be gone before we are…</p>
<p>Meanwhile in the east and south as summer culminates they are watching the shore, the gray line of hissing waves, the blank horizon. Somewhere beyond it, still invisible, that shape you can only really grasp from above, in the abstract realm of the weather map: a hundred-mile-wide cloud vortex rotating and growing like, yes, like a living thing as it speeds across the ocean, its course as unpredictable as child’s spinning herself faster and faster through a room, until – presto, change-o! – there it is on your town’s doorstep, everything turned in moments to whirling water, no more up or down, just the unified roaring of wind, surging waves, downpour, all one single moving mass the force of which turns houses to matchsticks, walls to rubble.</p>
<p>And then the rain. More water than you thought possible coming out of just one piece of sky, but not a biblical deluge by a long chalk, because after all they are still roasting in the bone-dry heat a few hundred miles to the west, so how can this be happening over your head? Fifty inches of rain burying your elevated off-ramps in water, not just the dirt tracks of all those impoverished millions Somewhere Else, whose similar and simultaneous plight barely raises your news channel’s equivalent of an eyebrow, but your freeways, your marvels of engineering and sheer amount of concrete coverage, your center of can-do, charge ahead, build-baby-build culture. All this in a floodplain, on the shores of a rising sea. Where would the water go?</p>
<p>Last summer the fires incinerated a northern oil city, this summer the rains inundated a southern oil city, but we don’t dig the symbolism, you know; it’s tacky and retrograde to mention it. Keep your fable-filled mouth shut and keep on admiring the non-existent drapery on that guy wearing the crown, much easier.</p>
<p>Yes, we humans may lurch onward through alternately drenched and smoke-filled landscapes, billions of the poor in constant forced migration from war or famine or genocide, the bourgeoisie cutting out the middle man in the delivery system and simply melding themselves with machines, killing off any remnants of the mythological in their cybernetic psyches because in that was contained what they would otherwise have to understand as self-fulfilling prophecy: the lost Golden Age, the lost Eden. Which we were once taught was a poetic reference to a mythical past, but was actually our civilization’s symbolic roadmap to its own future. Will their pseudo-intelligent implanted daemons save those future elites from realizing what some long-since exterminated peoples had conceptualized without technical assistance ages before: that what we experience as time is neither a one-dimensional line in a four-dimensional block, nor a closed loop of eternal return, but more like an infinite manifold of zero dimensions in which all times equally exist? And thus, began their mythic stories with: “Once upon a time, in the future…”</p>
<p>Beyond all the immediate drama is the resiliency of life and the dispensability of individual species, and the foretold outcome when they begin to gnaw away at life’s negentropic feedback loops, its relentless climbs up the chain of complexity. Something will probably survive us here, if and when all our thrashing fails. What will it be? Don’t you wish you could know? But “it” will be made by circumstances that aren’t knowable in advance. There’s no better proof that time is real than the existence of the living world, no matter what our relativistic physical equations purport to say in their lifeless abstractions of it.</p>
<p>Beyond even this planet’s little story is the near infinity of worlds, each one likely unique as a snowflake or fingerprint. You come from one irreplaceable, fabulously life-filled place, and you, a uniquely self-aware being there, make that place uninhabitable – I can’t know this of course, but I imagine that does something to you, something that’s not eradicable, cannot be superseded. Turns you into a kind of monster. Are we then to be imperialists and colonizers in perpetuity, throughout the universe? To become the saurian or cybernetic aggressors whose behavior we’ve projected onto other “races” in our space-opera fantasias? Is it cowboys and Indians in space, forever? There is no more nihilistic thought, and I say that with all the regret of a one-time Star Trek fan.</p>
<p>But I’m betting (well, actually, I’m hoping, bets are foolish), pace Mr. Hawking and Mr. Musk, that we don’t make it off the runway. We may manage to rocket Wall-E to Mars to trundle for generations over the lonely rocks while overshoot sends us zinging past critical slowing down into catabolic collapse, but I can’t countenance a full-on Blade Runner outcome here. My utopian alternative – that we come to love our home above all else, and shape ourselves to please it – might not pass the laugh test either, but the beauty of time is its creativity, and the enormity of its span.</p>
<p>Pre-conditions humans are currently establishing will not have linear outcomes. Our species retains the ability to evolve into something more than an unprecedented annihilator of biodiversity and sower of a geological layer of plastic detritus, but here’s the catch – only if we can shed what we call civilization, which is as much an evolutionary dead-end as the line of dinosaurs whose decomposition currently powers it. We did without it for a long, long time, in many places – was that life really just nasty, brutish and short? I don’t think the Haudenosaunee would have said so, or the Arawak. (Which doesn’t mean a future non-civilization would look anything like that.) Of course, you and I, and all the bourgeois typists would no longer be possible, but – small price to pay, no? Once upon a time, in the future…</p>
<p>Meanwhile, summer is changing, the skies are filling with fire and rain. Our long national 1950s is disintegrating before our eyes. Our empire that never dared to speak its name is in lock step with all previous empires that did, as they crumbled. We can keep turning away from the firestorm and the flood, but they will be with us now, close as our own shadows, as will all the other ways we are failing to thrive, whether we turn to face them or not.</p> | Fire and Rain | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/09/08/fire-and-rain/ | 2017-09-08 | 4 |
<p>A fine cloud of dust blows like brown snow across an unmarked gravel road near Stickney, S.D. The dust catches in the throat like smoke, and the tiny glasslike shards sting the eyes. However hard it is for humans, who can easily find shelter to escape the mini dust cyclones, its much worse on the animals. “It’s hard on the livestock,” says Dale Larsch, 39, who has 160 head of cattle and around 2,000 acres of corn, soybeans, and pasture land. “We’ve had a lot of sickness from the dust and insects, from pinkeye to pneumonia.”</p>
<p>Larsch, like most farmers and ranchers in the Midwest affected by the <a href="" type="internal">worsening drought of 2012,</a> is making contingency plans to get through one of the worst years in recent memory. He grew up on a farm and can’t remember a drought worse than this one. He won’t be harvesting most of his corn to sell this year. Instead, he has already cut much of it for silage to feed his cattle through the winter. But it won’t be enough. “I’ll have to sell a few head—maybe 15 percent—because I won’t be able to feed them,” he told The Daily Beast. “But we won’t get anywhere near the price they are worth.”</p>
<p>A few miles down the road, Tyler Gerlach, 28, and his brother LaRon, 40, who took over their uncle’s farm about six years ago, are facing a similar plight with their grain crops. They farm about 3,000 acres, divided into corn, winter wheat, and soybeans. Rows and rows of their corn that should be more than six feet tall and lush are nothing more than <a href="" type="internal">brown leaves fluttering in the dry wind</a>. Tyler opens an ear of corn to show the stunted growth. There are only a few pale kernels where golden corn should be. “There’s no grain here,” he says. “We’ll have to decide whether or not it is worth the price of the fuel to even run the combine through this.”</p>
<p>Droughts have always been part of farming and ranching in the hardest-hit areas of the Midwest. But this year is particularly bad because it is so widespread, says Larsch. Usually when one part of the agricultural heartland is affected, producers from other areas can fill in the vacuum. But with more than half of the United States suffering extreme drought conditions, there simply won’t be enough corn, grain, and livestock to feed the rest of the nation. Still, many of the farmers affected by the drought resent that they are already being blamed for <a href="" type="internal">higher food prices</a> in the rest of the country. It’s a math equation that doesn’t make much sense, especially on grain-based foods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that only about 10 percent of individual products like bread are affected by the cost of grain. The rest is <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0801-bf-drought-prices-20120801,0,4749595.story" type="external">attributed</a> to processing, packaging, and transportation.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure I get the math,” says Gerlach. “Some of the food prices should not be affected by this drought. Someone along the line is taking advantage of the bad news and making a profit on this drought.”</p>
<p>But some prices will justifiably be affected. When farmers like Larsch can’t feed their cattle, they cull their herds, which could initially cause a drop in beef prices in the supermarkets, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. But within a few months, prices will likely spike because of shortages. If farmers aren’t raising as many cattle, hogs, or poultry, there won’t be as much supply in stores.</p>
<p>Ethanol-based fuel is the one of the most vulnerable sectors of the 2012 drought. If there is no corn, many ethanol plants will have to suspend production. In what has become a Catch-22 situation, many farmers in the Midwest contract the presale of corn to the ethanol plants, meaning that regardless of their harvest, they have to provide corn to honor the contracts. Most ethanol plants won’t accept a monetary payout in lieu of corn, which means that farmers who lose their entire corn crops may still have to buy corn from out of state to meet their ethanol obligations.</p>
<p>One of the biggest myths that irks farmers is the misconception that crop insurance somehow replaces a good year’s harvest in full. Crop insurance does not cover losses of livestock, but it is compulsory for most farmers. The government subsidizes the premiums as an incentive to produce more crops. During bad years like 2012, the insurance offsets losses, but farmers agree that it does not even come close to equating having a good crop.</p>
<p>Farmers can decide how much of their crop to insure—from about 60 percent of an individual field to 80 percent of a whole farm. Premiums vary, and payouts are based on a 10-year history of the farmer’s yields. But in a state like South Dakota, it costs farmers between $500 and $600 an acre to plant a crop, including buying or renting the land; purchasing seed, fertilizer, and chemicals; and running the machinery to get it in the ground. During a good year, a farmer may make $700 to $800 an acre—and much more in some states—leaving a profit of about $100 to $200 an acre to invest in next year’s planting. The rest goes to farm maintenance or the purchase of new equipment—and an average tractor can cost up to a quarter of a million dollars.</p>
<p>During a drought, even with insurance, farmers won’t even break even, meaning there is no money left over to invest. “If farmers don’t make money, no one makes money,” says Tyler Gerlach. “Local businesses suffer the most, but so do big manufacturing companies and seed and fertilizer companies. Everybody loses when farmers have a bad year.”</p>
<p>Most farmers use the same calculation: of every 10 years, three or four will be below optimum because of weather, either too much or too little rain or natural disasters like hailstorms that can wipe out entire crops in a few minutes. Larsch says most farmers are set up for at least one bad year. “We have had a couple of good years in a row,” he says, “so most farmers will have been saving for years like this. But a couple of these in a row, and we will start seeing farm sales. We’ve had to learn to deal with this before. And we will deal with it again.”</p>
<p>The Gerlachs, who expect a 70 percent loss this year, say it’s just the nature of the business they are in. “You understand the risk when you are in a business where you basically throw yourself at the mercy of the weather,” says Tyler. “This is a bad year, but next year could be even worse. That won’t change what we do.”</p> | Midwest Drought Forces South Dakota Farmers and Ranchers to Abandon Crops and Thin Herds | true | https://thedailybeast.com/midwest-drought-forces-south-dakota-farmers-and-ranchers-to-abandon-crops-and-thin-herds | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>The debate started with a question from an audience member who asked whether the candidates feel they are modeling appropriate behavior for youth, noting that “the last presidential debate could’ve been rated as MA — mature audiences.”</p>
<p>It quickly proved to be an apt observation. The second question, from CNN’s Anderson Cooper, was about Republican nominee Donald Trump’s vulgar 2005 comments describing grabbing women’s genitals. Trump responded by calling it locker room talk, then began talking about the Islamic State group “chopping off heads” and “drowning people in steel cages.”</p>
<p>Elliot Fladen, who was watching the debate at a private club in Denver with his daughters Dagny, 5, and Areli, 2, quickly checked to make sure the older girl had in her earbuds.</p>
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<p>“They’re too busy playing Minecraft and other things to pay attention,” said Fladen, 36, a Libertarian who says he’s considering voting for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton because he can’t imagine Trump as president. “If they wonder what’s going on, I’ll explain it to them in an appropriate way.”</p>
<p>Sarah Parsons Fein, 38, of Tempe, Arizona, also tried to distract her young children, who tuned in and out of the debate as it played at their home. The stay-at-home mom found some of it disturbing for her three kids, ages 3 to 9, including the discussion about Trump’s lewd comments about women.</p>
<p>“When they started talking about grabbing women’s genitals, I kind of wanted to do a dance in front of them, like ‘Hey, look at Mommy!” she joked.</p>
<p>She said she has discussed rape culture with her older children but worries about the impact if Trump gets elected.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure that I want my children to know that someone can say and do such terrible things and still be president,” she said.</p>
<p>Drew Bauer, 45, of Scottsdale, Arizona, was a little worried about letting his 10-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter watch the debate but felt that it was important for them to see it.</p>
<p>“If it was bad, then I figured it was worthwhile for them to watch — even if it was bad,” he said.</p>
<p>The kids stuck through most of it before they got bored and fell asleep.</p>
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<p>The small-business owner said his children know the “PG version” of what’s recently happened and that they have asked questions, but they mostly want to know whom their dad is voting for.</p>
<p>Bauer and his wife are registered independents. He said he was on the fence about voting for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, but he’s decided on Clinton.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Samantha Shotzbarger and Alina Hartounian contributed from Phoenix.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show that Fladen watched debate at private club in Denver, not his home.</p> | Parents’ problem: Watch debate with kids, risk awkward talk | false | https://abqjournal.com/863919/parents-problem-watch-debate-with-kids-risk-awkward-talk.html | 2016-10-09 | 2 |
<p />
<p>One size smaller than a Fiesta, the tiny Ford Ka sedan is a big seller in South America. Buttough economic conditions have kept Ford inthe red in South America for over two years now. Image source: Ford Motor Company.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>South America has been a tough spot for Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) for a few years now. The Blue Oval <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/29/ford-earnings-a-tough-fourth-quarter-sets-the-stag.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">lost $1.16 billion in South America in 2014 Opens a New Window.</a> and another <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/01/what-ford-wants-you-to-know-about-its-big-losses-i.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">$832 million last year Opens a New Window.</a> -- and the losses have continued into 2016.</p>
<p>The challenge: Steep recessions in key markets like Brazil and Argentina have clobbered new-car sales across the industry, and discounting has dented profit margins further.</p>
<p>To no one's surprise, Ford posted another loss in South America in the second quarter. But there was a glimmer of good news in the company's latest report.</p>
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<p>Ford's pre-tax loss in South America was <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/28/ford-earnings-profit-down-9-on-pricing-pressures-a.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">$265 million in the second quarter Opens a New Window.</a> versus a $185 million loss a year ago. Wholesale shipments and revenue both fell, and Ford's decision to limit its margin-crushing discounts cost it in terms of market share as well.</p>
<p>Image source: Ford Motor Company.</p>
<p>"South America [in the second quarter] was a story that is very much what it has been over the last number of quarters," CFO Bob Shanks said during Ford's second-quarter earnings call. "External conditions, particularly in Brazil continue to be pretty challenging. We saw a decline in the top line as you can see, double digits. Revenue was down 17%. That decline is entirely due to the weaker currencies.Market share was down as we focused on the most profitable parts of our portfolio, amid increasing discounts across the industry. You can see the results in terms of margin and pre-tax results. This is largely what you have been seeing through the first half [of 2016]. I will say that [Ford's executive team in South America] continues to do a good job of focusing on the things that it can manage, particularly on cost."</p>
<p>The next slide shows the factors that helped and hurt Ford's second-quarter result in South America versus its result from the second quarter of 2015.</p>
<p>Image source: Ford Motor Company.</p>
<p>As you can see, Ford's result was hurt by lower sales volumes, pricing pressures, and exchange-rate swings. But there was a $132 million bright spot. "We once again delivered very strong cost performance," Shanks said. "If you think about the last year, we have delivered over $400 million of good news on cost performance [in South America]."</p>
<p>"But as you can see just to the left of that, we continue to see difficulties in [competitively increasing] pricing enough to be able to offset the effects of high local inflation and the weaker local currencies," Shanks added.</p>
<p>But, Shanks said, things might be starting to look up.</p>
<p>Later in the conference call, Shanks was asked whether signs of improving fundamentals in the Brazilian economy might affect Ford's outlook for the rest of the year and into 2017 in South America.</p>
<p>"I think it's a little bit too early," Shanks said, noting that the improvements have yet to be seen in the pace of new-car sales in the region. But, he said, Ford is starting to think that an improvement might show up next year.</p>
<p>"Our early view is that there could be very, very, very, small levels of growth [in Ford's bottom line in South America] next year," Shanks said. "Nothing to quite hum about, but it would be great to see a positive number with no brackets around it."</p>
<p>Shanks said that Ford will give more detail on its expectations for 2017 during its annual briefing in October. But the hint is that it might guide toward a small profit in South America next year. That would be happy news for Ford shareholders.</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/TMFMarlowe/info.aspx" type="external">John Rosevear Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. 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> | Why Ford Is Slightly Optimistic About a Turnaround in South America | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/12/why-ford-is-slightly-optimistic-about-turnaround-in-south-america.html | 2016-08-12 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Not only are local <a href="" type="internal">DAs farming out debt collection to sleazoids</a> who then get to be pretend to be law enforcement officials, but guess what else? Debt collectors are now <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/business/04dead.html?scp=1&amp;sq=debt%20collectors&amp;st=cse" type="external">gunning after the dead</a>. From the NYT:&#160;</p>
<p>“The banks need another bailout and countless homeowners cannot handle their mortgage payments, but one group is paying its bills: the dead.</p>
<p>Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departed’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.</p>
<p>The people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent. But they take responsibility for it anyway.”</p>
<p>You have to read the whole piece to understand just how scuzzy their methods are, especially at a time when so many are financially devastated. They give these operators special classes in faking empathy and other forms of emotional blackmail. The only bright spot is that about half of DCM’s grave robbers don’t make it past the first 90 days of torturing an unemployed person whose mom just died. Yoga and foosball is enough to get the rest of them through the day, though.</p>
<p>Imagine DCM going bankrupt (i.e. corporate death). Would it still pay the debts it had legally incurred but was no longer legally responsible for? Yeah, that could happen.</p>
<p /> | Debt Collectors: How Low Will They Go? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/03/debt-collectors-no-limit-how-low-theyll-sink/ | 2009-03-06 | 4 |
<p>Today in Havana, before beginning a self-glorifying, Communist-praising speech touting his magical termination of the Cold War in the Western hemisphere, President Obama led off with a fulsome six-sentence, 52-second pledge to fight terrorism. That generous contribution to the fight against Islamic savagery in Brussels, Belgium, included this throwaway line: “The world must unite. We must be together, regardless of nationality, regardless of race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism.”</p>
<p>Well, that’s nice.</p>
<p>Except that one particular faith has been somewhat less-than-helpful in fighting the scourge of terrorism. Obama’s hopeful normative narrative – we should all get together to fight terrorism, and we should all be bestest friends, and we should all put aside our differences to weave flower-chains – bears no relation whatsoever to reality.</p>
<p>Here’s the sad reality: Islam has a terrorism problem. Of course. You’d have to a dolt not to notice this, you’d have to be a useful idiot to ignore it, or you’d have to be slave to an evil ideology of multiculturalism to cover it up. Obama and his leftist friends are one of those three.</p>
<p>Here are five signs one particular religion may have a terrorism problem.</p>
<p>The “Surprise” Test. So, you just found out that there was a major coordinated terrorist attack in a Western capital. There were multiple attackers, at least one suicide bomber, and people screaming in a foreign language unique to a particular region of the world. How surprised would you be if these people ended up being Buddhists? Jews? Christians? Now, how surprised would you be to learn that they’re young Muslim men, that they shouted in Arabic, and that they had connections with an Islamic terrorist group? Not that surprised? That’s because it’s not surprising, as we’ll see in the Statistical Probability Test.</p>
<p>The “Friend” Test. Your childhood friend just got out of jail after a long history of criminal activity. He just converted to Christianity and wants to travel to Israel to visit Bethlehem. You are most likely to:</p>
<p>Now assume that your friend converted to Islam as a result of outreach from his local mosque, and he wants to visit Saudi Arabia on Hajj. How does that calculus change?</p>
<p>The Statistical Probability Test. But all of this is gut feeling, subject to the biases and vicissitudes of individual human beings. After all, maybe you’re just an Islamophobe! Gut feelings don’t cut it. So, let’s look to the statistics. In the same scenario as the “surprise” test – a suicide bombing victimizing others – there were 452 attacks in 2015. According to <a href="" type="internal">The Times of Israel</a>, 450 of those were carried out by Muslims, and the other two were carried out by Kurds (Muslim) and a female leftist in Turkey (possibly Muslim). So no, you’re not wrong about your feelings in the “surprise” or the “friend” test.</p>
<p>The Correlation Test. Okay, so all the suicide bombings are Muslim. But perhaps that’s just a tiny minority of Muslims who engage in such activities. First, that would still indicate a problem within a particular religion, exclusive to that religion. But second, it’s not a tiny minority of Muslims who believe in the principles undergirding anti-Western terrorism. Here’s my widely-viewed video on the subject:</p>
<p>Mass Muslim immigration correlates significantly with increased acts of terrorism and anti-Western violence, as Europeans are finding out.</p>
<p>The Ideology Test. I tend not to care about the particulars of religious practice or the specifics of a founding religious document – I care far more about behavior. But suffice it to say that ideologies are not all equivalent in their level of conflict with Western civilization. Islam today is in unique conflict with Western civilization – not because the Koran is horrible or because a thousand years ago Mohammed conquered the surrounding tribes, but because modern-day devotees of Mohammed disproportionately want to imitate his behavior.</p>
<p>Don’t worry – Democrats and international leftists will continue to promulgate the myth of multiculturalism and diversity, and so damn their constituents to a higher possibility of death at the hands of Islamic terrorists. Then they’ll remind us that Islamophobia is the real threat and that all religions are equally prone to violence and brutality.</p>
<p>They’ll be lying. But it won’t matter. After all, pretty words matter more than the preservation of Western civilization or its citizens.</p> | 5 Ways To Tell If Your Religion Has a Terrorism Problem | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4294/5-ways-tell-if-your-religion-has-terrorism-problem-ben-shapiro | 2016-03-22 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Oil prices jumped 1 percent on Monday as Iraqi forces entered the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, taking territory from Kurdish fighters and briefly cutting some crude output from OPEC's second-largest producer.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"We’re seeing increased geopolitical tension in the Middle East providing support in the market today, namely in Iraqi Kurdistan, and some uncertainty around Iran," said Anthony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging LLC in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.</p>
<p>Iraq's Kurdistan briefly shut down some 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production from major fields Bai Hassan and Avana due to security concerns. Iraq launched the operation on Sunday as the crisis between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) escalated. The KRG voted for independence in a Sept. 25 referendum.</p>
<p>Brent crude futures were up 62 cents or 1 percent at $57.79 per barrel at 11:02 a.m. (1502 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 36 cents or 0.7 percent at $51.81 per barrel.</p>
<p>The government said its troops had taken control of Iraq's North Oil Co, and the fields quickly resumed production. The KRG government said oil continued to flow through the export pipeline, and it would take no steps to stop it.</p>
<p>Still, the action unsettled the market. Some 600,000 bpd of oil is produced in the region, and Turkey has threatened to shut a KRG-operated pipeline that goes to the Turkish port of Ceyhan at Baghdad's request.</p>
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<p>Renewed worries over U.S. sanctions against Iran also drew attention. On Friday U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday refused to certify that Tehran was complying with the accord even though international inspectors say it is.</p>
<p>Under U.S. law, the president must certify every 90 days that Iran is complying with the deal. Congress now has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran.</p>
<p>During the previous round of sanctions, roughly 1 million bpd of Iranian oil was cut off. Analysts said renewed sanctions were unlikely to curtail that level of exports, yet they warned it could still be disruptive.</p>
<p>Cuts to U.S. drilling rigs, and an explosion overnight at an oil rig in Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain, also boosted prices.</p>
<p>Oil consumption has been strong, especially in China, where the central bank governor said the economy is expected to grow 7 percent in the second half, defying widespread expectations for a slowdown.</p>
<p>Sources said China was offering to buy up to 5 percent of Saudi Aramco directly, a move that could give Saudi Arabia more flexibility as it plans to float the world's biggest oil producer on the stock market.</p>
<p>(By Julia Simon; Additional reporting by Libby George in London, Henning Gloystein in Singapore; editing by David Evans and David Gregorio)</p> | Oil jumps 1%; fighting shuts output in Iraq's Kirkuk | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/16/oil-jumps-as-fighting-in-iraqs-oil-rich-kirkuk-shuts-output.html | 2017-10-16 | 0 |
<p />
<p>It's official: Denmark is buying new fighter jets -- and Lockheed Martin will build them.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Out with the old, in with the new. Denmark is replacing Lockheed Martin F-16s (right) with brand-new F-35A stealth fighter jets -- also from Lockheed. Image source: <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2014/top-35-f35-photos.html" type="external">Lockheed Martin Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>For more than a decade now, Denmark's politicians have <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/12/28/russia-builds-a-new-air-force-to-dominate-arctic-s.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">hemmed and hawed Opens a New Window.</a> over which plane to pick to replace the country's aging fleet of F-16 Falcon fighter jets. With Denmark one of the nine countries that originally signed up to help design and build Lockheed Martin's vaunted F-35 stealth fighter jet, you might have thought that would be an easy decision to make.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, after getting a gander at the <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/18/how-lockheed-martins-grand-plan-for-the-f-35-fell.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">F-35's gold-plated price tag Opens a New Window.</a>, Denmark apparently had second thoughts, and insisted Lockheed fly head-to-head against Boeing which offered its F/A-18 Super Hornet as an option, and Eurofighter, which offered the Typhoon, to win Denmark's business. That competition has finally wrapped up, however, and the results are in: Lockheed wins.</p>
<p>Last week, in a joint announcement by the Danish Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Denmark confirmed that Lockheed Martin has won the competition. Just as soon as Parliament OKs the purchase, the Royal Danish Air Force will start the process of acquiring 27 F-35A fighter jets. The cost, estimated at $4.5 billion, will be worth more than 9% of annual revenue to Lockheed Martin.</p>
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<p>That's of course grand news for Lockheed Martin. Combined with recent news that the company has driven down the price tag on its F-35s to less than $100 million ( <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/08/did-lockheed-martins-f-35-stealth-fighter-just-get.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">for U.S. buyers, at least Opens a New Window.</a>), it looks like the F-35 is getting some lift beneath its wings again. And with 27 new planes among which to spread out development costs, the F-35 will likely get incrementally cheaper for future buyers.</p>
<p>In the course of evaluating its various options, Denmark concluded that the F-35 offers superior "survivability" relative to either the Boeing F/A-18 or the Eurofighter Typhoon. The Danes found the F-35 to be more "mission effective," and said it has more future development potential as well.</p>
<p>Of course, as I said, Denmark was not without a dog in this fight. The country's taxpayers helped to develop the F-35, and according to the analysts at Defense-Update.com, Denmark contributed $291 million to the airplane's development costs. When all was said and done, it's not too terribly surprising to learn that Denmark chose the F-35 on its qualitative merits -- but here's something that may surprise you...</p>
<p>They decided the F-35 is actually cheaper than the competition, too.</p>
<p>Data source: <a href="http://defense-update.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-12-at-1.57.53-PM.png" type="external">Defense-Update.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>For an aircraft that's been so heavily reported to cost $1.5 trillion, that's a pretty astonishing conclusion. But the well-known <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/08/02/pentagon-may-rethink-lockheed-f-35-stealth-fighter.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">$1.5 trillion figure Opens a New Window.</a> refers to the entire cost of buying and maintaining some 3,100 F-35 fighter jets, in all three configurations, over a period of 60 years. When Denmark was evaluating the plane's cost (and those of its rivals), they did so in the context of what it would cost to buy a set number of aircraft and operate them for a term of 30 years. What you see above is what Denmark concluded those costs would be, per plane.</p>
<p>And as you can see, they found the F-35 to be cheaper than any alternative.</p>
<p>Is Denmark right about the F-35 being cheaper than the Boeing F/A-18 and the Eurofighter Typhoon? That remains to be seen. (Ask me again in 30 or 60 years.) What's important right now is that in a head-to-head competition, Denmark has concluded that the F-35 is the cheapest plane of the three -- and as the only fifth-generation combat jet in a field of fourth-gen warbirds, the best-quality plane as well.</p>
<p>That's a big vote of confidence in the F-35, and one that should go a long way toward reassuring future buyers of the aircraft. It's <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/12/07/a-rare-bit-of-good-news-for-lockheed-martins-f-35.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">a rare bit of good news Opens a New Window.</a> for Lockheed Martin investors as well.</p>
<p>4 out of 5 Danish dentists agree: Lockheed's F-35 beats Eurofighter's Typhoon. Image source: <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2014/top-35-f35-photos.html" type="external">Lockheed Martin Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/21/lockheed-martin-beats-boeing-again-this-time-for-4.aspx" type="external">Lockheed Martin Beats Boeing Again -- This Time for $4.5 Billion Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDitty/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Rich Smith Opens a New Window.</a>does not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him on <a href="http://caps.fool.com/?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Motley Fool CAPS Opens a New Window.</a>, publicly pontificating under the handle <a href="http://caps.fool.com/ViewPlayer.aspx?t=01002844399633209838&amp;source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFDitty Opens a New Window.</a>, where he's currently ranked No. 299 out of more than 75,000 rated members.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Lockheed Martin Beats Boeing Again -- This Time for $4.5 Billion | true | http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/05/21/lockheed-martin-beats-boeing-again-this-time-for-45-billion.html | 2016-05-21 | 0 |
<p>PARIS (Reuters) - Carrefour ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CARR.PA" type="external">CARR.PA</a>) cut its 2017 profit forecast for the second time in six months on Wednesday, as its new boss prepares to unveil a turnaround plan for the world’s second-largest retailer next week.</p>
<p>The French supermarket group said it now expected recurring operating profit of about 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion). That would be down 15 percent year-on-year at current exchange rates, worse than the 12 percent drop it forecast in August.</p>
<p>Several analysts, including at Barclays and HSBC, had been expecting the downgrade given the challenges the company faces in several markets.</p>
<p>“2017 was clearly disappointing,” finance chief Matthieu Malige told analysts, citing “strong commercial pressure in France and food deflation in Brazil, the group’s second-largest market after France.</p>
<p>The new profit forecast also reflects an increase in distribution costs in Carrefour’s main markets, higher depreciation after a period of significant investments, a more difficult environment in Argentina and 150 million euros of losses at the former Dia stores that Carrefour is converting.</p>
<p>Carrefour, Europe’s largest retailer and world No.2 behind U.S. group Wal-Mart ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>), said 2017 sales reached 88.24 billion euros, a like-for-like rise of 1.6 percent but a slowdown from 3 percent growth in 2016.</p> IMPROVING Q4 SALES
<p>Fourth quarter sales alone, however, reached 23.33 billion euros, just above analysts’ average forecast of 23.2 billion.</p>
<p>Stripping out fuel, currency and calendar effects, fourth quarter revenue grew 1.9 percent year-on-year, a sequential improvement from 0.5 percent growth in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Improving the French hypermarket business is a priority for new boss Alexandre Bompard, who joined in July.</p> The logo of Carrefour is seen on a shopping trolley at the Carrefour Nantes Beaujoire hypermarket in Carquefou, France, January 15, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
<p>That goal has eluded several predecessors amid online competition and price discounting from other rivals such as unlisted supermarket operator Leclerc.</p>
<p>Bompard will unveil his strategy for Carrefour on Jan. 23.</p>
<p>In France, where Carrefour makes 47 percent of its sales, like-for-like revenues rose 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter following a 0.9 percent drop in the third.</p>
<p>The improvement reflected a successful ‘Black Friday’ promotion campaign and year-end promotions, the company said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CARR.PA" type="external">Carrefour SA</a> 15.935 CARR.PA Paris Stock Exchange +0.01 (+0.09%) CARR.PA WMT.N CASP.PA
<p>French hypermarket sales also improved, rising 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter after falling 1.7 percent in the third.</p>
<p>Earlier on Wednesday, Carrefour’s smaller rival Casino ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CASP.PA" type="external">CASP.PA</a>) posted weaker fourth quarter sales, hitting its shares, with analysts disappointed by Casino’s guidance for 2017 profit growth in its core French business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Mark Potter</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Two U.S. regulators have proposed Wells Fargo &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">WFC.N</a>) pay $1 billion in penalties to resolve probes into auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses at the third largest U.S. bank, overshadowing its first quarter results.</p>
<p>The San Francisco-based lender, which reported a quarterly profit, said it may have to restate results to reflect the final settlement. The proposed penalties were reported earlier this week by Reuters.</p>
<p>Analysts said that while the $1 billion penalty would not make a significant dent to its balance sheet, it may take the bank some time to repair the damage to its reputation.</p>
<p>Shares of the bank fell 3.4 percent to $50.89.</p>
<p>“Operationally, Wells Fargo can recover, but reputationally and how a billion dollars will weigh on them - only time can tell,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley in Boston.</p>
<p>“Companies have come back from worse than this but right now they’re still in the eye of the storm,” he added.</p>
<p>The bank, still smarting from a prolonged sales scandal in its retail banking business, found inconsistencies at its auto lending and mortgage in the summer of 2017 - leading to further probes by regulators.</p>
<p>To appease investors and regulators, the bank overhauled its operational structure, shook up its board and hired a new compliance officer.</p>
<p>But this failed to impress the U.S. Federal Reserve, which imposed restrictions in February on the bank’s growth, forbidding it to expand its balance sheet beyond 2017 levels until it makes internal changes that addressed risk management.</p>
<p>“A bank’s balance sheet is the engine for profit growth,” said Kyle Sanders, analyst at Edward Jones. “The constraints on Well’s ability to take on deposits and make new loans will likely result in lagging earnings growth for Wells relative to peers in the near-term.”</p>
<p>Wells estimates restrictions on balance sheet growth will cut annual profit by $300 million to $400 million this year.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan repeatedly sought to reassure investors that the bank was stable despite the regulatory restrictions.</p>
<p>“I’m confident that our outstanding team will continue to transform Wells Fargo into a better, stronger company; however, we recognise that it will take time to put all of our challenges behind us,” Sloan said in the bank’s first-quarter results statement on Friday.</p>
<p>But as recently as last month, the bank also said it was examining its wealth and investment management business for possible customer abuse, including overcharging and inappropriate referrals, after inquiries from government agencies.</p> PROFIT RISES, REVENUE DIPS
<p>Despite its ongoing woes, the bank reported a 6 percent jump in profit, saying net income applicable to common stock rose to $5.53 billion, or $1.12 per share in the quarter ended March 31, from $5.23 billion, or $1.03 per share a year ago. ( <a href="https://reut.rs/2HgHNMt" type="external">reut.rs/2HgHNMt</a>)</p> A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo
<p>Analysts on average expected $1.06 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo has been struggling to reduce expenses, but failed to keep a leash on costs in the quarter despite Sloan’s vow to slash $4 billion in costs by 2019 by closing hundreds of branches and taking other measures.</p>
<p>Total noninterest expenses for the first quarter rose 3.3 percent to $14.24 billion.</p>
<p>Sloan reiterated his 2019 cost savings target, and said his non-interest expense dollar target range for full-year 2018 remains unchanged.</p>
<p>In January, the company had said it remained committed to reducing its expenses by $2 billion by the end of 2018.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">Wells Fargo &amp; Co</a> 50.89 WFC.N New York Stock Exchange -1.81 (-3.43%) WFC.N
<p>Total revenue in the quarter fell 1.4 percent to $21.93 billion. Total loans slipped 1.2 percent to $947.3 billion, hurt most by a decline in average loans in its community banking unit, which includes consumer banking.</p>
<p>Non-interest income from mortgage banking, an area where the bank supersedes its peers, fell 23.9 percent due to rising interest rates.</p>
<p>Income tax expenses fell 36 percent to $1.37 billion following President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul last year.</p>
<p>Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham, Bernard Orr</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Wall Street is hoping that first-quarter earnings growth and corporate forecasts are strong enough to bring the FAANG group of stocks back into favor and take the spotlight off worries that caused the recent sell-off in the high-flying group.</p> FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>With valuations below recent peaks, the group - comprised of Facebook, Amazon.com, Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Netflix ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>) and Google parent Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) - could get some relief if the companies beat, or at least meet, Wall Street estimates.</p>
<p>Shares in the group, which led the S&amp;P 500 to record highs in January, often trade together. They were pummeled late in the quarter on worries about a data privacy scandal at Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and U.S. President Donald Trump’s public criticism of Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>). On top of this, fears of a trade war with China escalated during the quarter.</p>
<p>For the group, analysts expect average first-quarter year-over-year earnings growth of 25.8 percent, up from 12.4 percent growth in the fourth quarter and a 12.8 percent increase a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>“All we’re getting now is negative news ... once we start to see the numbers, you’re going to see a bigger spotlight on the success these companies are having,” said Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta, which holds shares in the FAANG stocks.</p>
<p>Morgan says he is in a wait-and-see mode until after the first report from Netflix, which is due to be issued on Monday. Analysts expect Netflix earnings growth of 59 percent and revenue growth of 39 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>The entire group was hurt by fears that Facebook and other internet firms including Google would face onerous regulations or slowing advertising revenue growth after Facebook said nearly 87 million of its members’ personal data was improperly leaked.</p>
<p>Facebook fell almost 24 percent below its early February record to hit $149.02 on March 26, its lowest point since July last year, due to the scandal. Google had fallen almost 18 percent below its late January record by March 28.</p>
<p>Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia said the $76-million Chase Growth fund cut its Facebook investments to 1.8 percent from 3.1 percent of its portfolio due to the scandal. Tuz may stay on the sidelines until there is more clarity on Facebook’s prospects.</p>
<p>“If fundamentals remain strong with usage staying strong and the company doesn’t get hit with any severe fines or regulations we might very well buy again,” said Tuz, whose firm also owns Amazon.com, Apple and Google shares.</p>
<p>“We feel good about three out of the five FAANGs- Amazon, Apple, Google,” he said.</p>
<p>Amazon.com stock was hurt by criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he would take a serious look at what he claimed were the online retailer’s unfair advantages with taxes and shipping rates. It fell 16.3 percent between March 13 and April 4.</p>
<p>The broader technology sector was also hammered by fears of a trade war with China, a big source of revenue. Apple derived about 20 percent of its revenue from China in its fiscal year 2017. Investors seek details how big the financial risks are in the face of events such as a trade war, new regulations or a stronger dollar.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">Apple Inc</a> 174.73 AAPL.O Nasdaq +0.59 (+0.34%) AAPL.O NFLX.O GOOGL.O FB.O AMZN.O
<p>“The guidance will be more important,” said Robert Phipps, a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin, referring to comments on quarterly conference calls about the potential financial impact of all these issues.</p>
<p>But Patrick Palfrey, equity Strategist at Credit-Suisse in New York is mainly focused on strong estimates for the sector, which has posted impressive growth “time and time again.”</p>
<p>“I can’t help but look at the group and have a positive outlook even with the current uncertainties,” said Palfrey.</p>
<p>Fund flow data shows investors were warming up to the sector again. Science and technology funds showed inflows of $152 million on the week ending April 11 after outflows of $610.9 million the previous week, which had marked the first weekly retreat since early February, according to Thomson Reuters Lipper data.</p>
<p>Facebook has risen about 11 percent from its most recent low while Google has climbed 5 percent above its recent trough; Apple is roughly 6 percent higher than its early April low, as is Amazon.com. Netflix has gained about 15 percent in the last 7 sessions.</p>
<p>Options trading flows suggest that much of the fear of the recent sell-off has faded. But while bears have been exiting positions, bulls have yet to make a big move into the space.</p>
<p>Open options contracts on key sector exchange-traded funds, PowerShares QQQ Trust ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QQQ.O" type="external">QQQ.O</a>) and Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=XLK.P" type="external">XLK.P</a>), show investor preferences for puts at or close to multi-month lows, according to Trade Alert data. Put options give investors the right to sell shares at a certain price in the future and are often used as a hedge.&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>“Investors have been buying the dip a little bit, but in very small sizes, without very large conviction, until they see the earnings,” said Ilya Feygin, senior strategist at WallachBeth Capital LLC, in Jersey City, New Jersey.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices extended recent gains and a gauge of global stocks eased on Friday as concern over a broader conflict in Syria left investors nervous, while U.S. bank shares led Wall Street lower.</p> FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>The State Department said on Friday that it had proof that Syria carried out a recent chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma.</p>
<p>The prospect of Western military action in Syria that could lead to confrontation with Russia hung over the Middle East.</p>
<p>Oil prices added to recent gains that drove them to highs not seen since late 2014 and posted their biggest weekly gain since July.</p>
<p>“The geopolitical jitters just keep getting priced in here more and more, as we get closer to the moment of the strikes, if there are any,” said John Kilduff, partner at hedge fund Again Capital Management. He noted that Syria poses a large risk to global stability because of its relationship with powerful oil producers.</p>
<p>On Wall Street, fear of broader conflict in Syria further unnerved investors, while financial stocks led the day’s declines.</p>
<p>Shares of JPMorgan Chase ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>) were down 2.7 percent after its earnings missed estimates, while Citigroup ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=C.N" type="external">C.N</a>) dropped 1.6 percent despite beating profit estimates. An S&amp;P 500 index of bank stocks .SPXBK fell 2.6 percent.</p>
<p>Weak loan growth weighed on bank shares, said RJ Grant, head of trading at Keefe, Bruyette &amp; Woods in New York. “If you didn’t own financials going into the quarter, there was nothing in the numbers today that would make you excited about owning them,” Grant said.</p>
<p>The banks’ results kicked off the U.S. earnings reporting period. Tax cuts are expected to help corporate America post its biggest quarterly profit growth in seven years. Earnings at S&amp;P 500 companies are estimated to grow by 18.4 percent from a year earlier.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 122.91 points, or 0.5 percent, to 24,360.14, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> lost 7.69 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,656.3 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 33.60 points, or 0.47 percent, to 7,106.65.</p>
<p>For the week, the S&amp;P 500 was up 2 percent, the Dow rose 1.8 percent and Nasdaq gained 2.8 percent.</p>
<p>The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.FTEU3" type="external">.FTEU3</a> rose 0.10 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed 0.15 percent. The MSCI index ended the week with its strongest performance in five.</p>
<p>In the oil market, U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 32 cents to settle at $67.39 a barrel, while Brent crude LCOcv1 rose 56 cents to $72.58.</p>
<p>The dollar was little changed against a basket of major currencies as traders waited for more clarity on a possible Western military intervention in Syria.</p>
<p>The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was 0.03 percent higher at 89.78.</p>
<p>The Japanese yen weakened 0.01 percent versus the greenback at 107.36 per dollar.</p>
<p>Aluminum hit a six-year high on Friday and posted its biggest weekly gain since the current contract was launched after the United States imposed sanctions on Russia’s UC Rusal ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=0486.HK" type="external">0486.HK</a>), the world’s second-biggest producer.</p>
<p>London Metal Exchange aluminum CMAL3 hit its highest since March 2012 at $2,340 a ton before retreating to close at $2,285, down 1.7 percent.</p>
<p>Spot gold XAU= added 0.7 percent to $1,345.01 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 gained 0.50 percent to $1,348.60 an ounce.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co</a> 110.3 JPM.N New York Stock Exchange -3.07 (-2.71%) JPM.N C.N .DJI .SPX .IXIC
<p>In the bond market, the U.S. Treasury yield curve hovered at its lowest level in more than decade as short-dated yields have risen more than longer-dated ones this week on expectations of further interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve.</p>
<p>Graphic: U.S. yield curve flattest in a decade</p>
<p>The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) stepped into the currency market and bought another HK$3.368 billion ($429.08 million) in Hong Kong dollars late in the U.S. session on Friday, as the local currency hit the weaker end of its trading range.</p>
<p>Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 3/32 in price to yield 2.8248 percent, from 2.834 percent late on Thursday.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: World stocks set for best week in a month - <a href="https://reut.rs/2IQUDhs" type="external">reut.rs/2IQUDhs</a>)</p>
<a href="https://reut.rs/2IQUDhs" type="external" />
<p>(GRAPHIC: U.S. yield curve flattest in a decade - <a href="http://reut.rs/2CkkWKx" type="external">reut.rs/2CkkWKx</a>)</p>
<a href="http://reut.rs/2CkkWKx" type="external" />
<p>Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Rodrigo Campos; additional reporting by Richard Leong, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Sinead Carew and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York, Editing by Dan Grebler and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">GE.N</a>) said on Friday it took a $4.24 billion equity charge and reduced earnings for the last two years by 30 cents a share, figures in line with expectations the company set earlier this year when it said it would comply with new accounting standards.</p> FILE PHOTO: The General Electric logo is pictured on the General Electric offshore wind turbine plant in Montoir-de-Bretagne, near Saint-Nazaire, western France, November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
<p>The maker of power plants, jet engines, medical devices and other industrial goods had estimated the after-tax, non-cash impact would be about $4.2 billion, plus reduced earnings for 2016 and 2017 of about 29 cents a share.</p>
<p>The accounting change prompted GE to recast two years of past financial statements to reflect lower income and asset values under the new standard, and those will be reflected when GE reports first-quarter results on April 20.</p>
<p>The value of GE’s contract assets are being written down, but that does not change the value of the long-term contracts GE has, nor does it affect GE’s cash flow or earnings estimates for 2018, GE said.</p>
<p>The adjustments appear within expectations, Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said. “Now the focus moves to next Friday’s earnings.”</p>
<p>The figures suggest GE executives have gotten to the bottom of some accounting issues and bolster confidence in Chief Executive Officer John Flannery after a series of financial surprises, including underestimating the impact of insurance policies that prompted a $6.2 billion charge in the fourth quarter, analysts said.</p>
<p>GE shares were down 1 percent at $13.35 in aftermarket trading after rising 2.4 percent on Friday.</p>
<p>The new accounting standard governs how companies estimate and recognize revenue from long-term contracts, and is designed to make a company’s cash flow more closely match its income, accounting experts and analysts said.</p>
<p>The prior standard allowed companies to recognize future revenue from such agreements more quickly. The new standard shifts revenue to later in the contract duration, analysts said.</p>
<p>Companies typically use the cost of providing services as a basis for estimating future revenue from the contracts, but the process can lead to over- or under-estimating the value of the contracts as assets on the balance sheet, experts say.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">General Electric Co</a> 13.5 GE.N New York Stock Exchange +0.32 (+2.43%) GE.N
<p>GE’s contract asset tally has soared 70 percent to $28.8 billion in 2017, from $16.9 billion in 2014, most of it in its power and aviation units. The majority of the total reflects revenue GE has already booked but for which it has not billed customers, which creates the gap between profit and cash flow, according to GE’s regulatory filings.</p>
<p>GE also made adjustments for new accounting standards for pensions, cash flow and taxes on Friday.</p>
<p>GE’s accounting is under scrutiny after earnings swung to a loss last year and GE said its 2018 results would be at the low end of its forecasted range of between $1.00 and $1.07 a share.</p>
<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into GE’s accounting for contract assets, raising investor concern but GE has said it is not overly concerned about the investigation.</p>
<p>GE said in February that it expects to make the adjustments as it switches to the new accounting standards for contracts.</p>
<p>GE said it chose to restate 2016 and 2017 earnings, a more exacting standard under the new rules, because it will allow investors to compare 2018 results with the prior years.</p>
<p>Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Bill Rigby and Clive McKeef</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Carrefour warns on profit again ahead of strategy plan Wells Fargo faces $1 billion fine from loan abuses Wall Street eyes earnings stabilizer after FAANG stocks wobble Stocks dip, oil gains as Syria fears go on; U.S. bank shares fall GE books $4.2 billion charge, restates earnings as expected | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-carrefour-results/carrefour-warns-on-profit-again-ahead-of-strategy-plan-idUSKBN1F628R | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Dear Dave,</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>My current employer offers a regular 401(k) and a Roth 401(k). I’ve got several years before I retire, so which one should I choose?</p>
<p>Jennifer</p>
<p>Dear Jennifer,</p>
<p>Take the Roth!</p>
<p>If you put your money into a Roth 401(k), and by retirement age there’s $1 million in there, that money is yours tax-free. By comparison, if it’s in a regular 401(k), you’ll pay taxes on that $1 million, which will come out to about $300,000—maybe $400,000 at the rate things are going now. You’ll lose 30 to 40 percent of your money.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>My personal 401(k) is a Roth. And in this situation, yours should be too!</p>
<p>-Dave</p>
<p>Dear Dave,</p>
<p>My mom passed away recently, and she left behind three timeshares. I inherited them, plus I’m the executor of the estate. They’re all paid for, except for the yearly maintenance fees, which total about $1,500. I don’t think I want them, but I’m not sure what to do. Do you have any advice?</p>
<p>-Joe</p>
<p>Dear Joe,</p>
<p>I’m really sorry to hear about your mom. I know you’ve got a lot of emotions going on right now, and taking on the task of overseeing the estate is a serious responsibility.</p>
<p>There are two issues here. One, as the executor you have to decide what’s best for the estate. Number two, do any of the other heirs want these things? I wouldn’t want them, I can tell you that. I realize they’re basically free things—all you have to do is pay the maintenance fees—but by the time you do that, you probably could’ve gone somewhere else. For that kind of money, you can stay in some pretty nice spots and not have the ongoing liability.</p>
<p>Right now, the estate has the responsibility for the maintenance fees. I would call the timeshares and tell them the estate isn’t going to keep them, and that you’re going to deed them back to the companies. The way I look at it, you can have a lot of fun for $1,500 a year. You can go where you want, when you want. You’re not roped into a specific place and date. Part of the appeal of getting away is being able to go where you like at a time that’s right for you.</p>
<p>I understand there may be some sentimental value attached to these, Joe. But timeshares are a horrid, inconvenient product. My sentiment would be, “I’m out of here!”</p>
<p>-Dave</p>
<p>*Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover,EntreLeadership and Smart Money Smart Kids. His newest best-seller, Smart Money Smart Kids, was written with his daughter Rachel Cruze, and recently debuted at #1. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.</p> | 401(k) vs Roth 401(k): Which is Better? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/06/17/401k-vs-roth-401k-which-is-better.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>NEW DELHI, India — When you’re the chief minister of a huge state and the frontrunner to be India’s next prime minister, all things are possible.</p>
<p>Including, it seems, becoming the celebrated author of a collection of eight literary short stories.</p>
<p>Narendra Modi’s book “ <a href="http://www.amazon.in/Abode-Love-Narendra-Modi/dp/9350642387/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1398886103&amp;sr=1-2" type="external">Abode of Love</a>” hit the bookstores at the beginning of April, in the midst of a month-long election, ending May 12, to decide who will run the world’s largest democracy.</p>
<p>Speaking of power, here’s an innovation that has even eluded American marketers: The reviews of Modi’s stories are, unconventionally, placed inside the book. Each of the eight tales is followed by a critique by a noted Gujarati author or academic.</p>
<p>Many of these reviews take more space than the actual stories.</p>
<p>To call them “fawning” may be an understatement.</p>
<p>Modi, according to the so-called critics, is a “prolific storyteller,” “an able and capable storyteller,” “an author who successfully touches the hearts of his readers more than once,” “a poet of the highest calibre.”</p>
<p>It goes on: “Gujarat has lost a great storyteller,” a writer who has “given a shape to the roaring ocean of emotions in his heart,” who has penned “such tenderly written and inspiring works,” that reminded one critic of Chekhov. Another implored, “I only wish to have more such gems from his pen.”</p>
<p>If Narendra Modi fails in his bid to run this nation, he will surely be India’s next Shakespeare.</p>
<p>The 63-year-old candidate for the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party turned his hand to writing between 1975 and 1977. During those years, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had called a state of emergency which banned most political activity, forcing Modi-the-politician to kick up his heels and brandish a pen.</p>
<p>Since then the stories, written in Gujarati, have been resting in Modi’s notebook, while the man has gone from minor political aide to chief minister of Gujarat and runaway favorite to win India’s highest office.</p>
<p>“Abode of Love” was published after the “prodding of friends and well-wishers” according to the publisher, Rajpal. The English translation appeared at the beginning of April.</p>
<p>It is impossible to read Modi’s collection without considering the gulf in experience between the twenty-something author and the fearsome politician whose charismatic rallies even seem to have <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10778094/Pakistan-backs-Narendra-Modi-as-Indias-next-prime-minister.html" type="external">convinced Pakistanis</a> that he is the right man to lead India.</p>
<p>Modi’s opponents, some of whom refer to him as the <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/lok-sabha-elections-2014/news/After-fresh-Modi-attack-TMC-calls-him-Butcher-of-Gujarat/articleshow/34303321.cms" type="external">Butcher of Gujarat</a>, will look for traces of <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/godhra-and-somnath-remain-caught-in-12-year-time-warp/articleshow/34350430.cms" type="external">Godhra</a>. Was there anything in the young Modi that might indicate the anti-Muslim riots of 2002 that led to the deaths of nearly 2000 people?</p>
<p>His supporters may wonder if the stories show anything of Modi the great developer, the politician credited — some believe <a href="http://qz.com/171409/gujarat-by-the-numbers/" type="external">wrongly</a> — with the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17156917" type="external">Gujarat success story</a>, where power cuts are a thing of the past and businessmen queue up for Modi magic.</p>
<p>In fiction, Modi’s main themes are reliable ones for a politician. He stands for love, motherhood and if not apple pie or <a href="http://www.spicytasty.com/indian-sweets/rasmalai/" type="external">rasmalai</a> then a certain sort of correctness about how to behave. These are not counter-cultural stories that pick apart social issues India faces, such as caste bigotry or women’s rights.</p>
<p>They are not overtly political either, with the exception of “Igniting Values,” a story about a young woman called Jharna to whom the “western way of life came naturally” but who realises by the end that a woman should sacrifice her own well-being for her husband’s. The idea chimes with the highly conservative ideals of some on the Hindu right who have <a href="http://world.rediff.com/news/article/www/news/2009/feb/02-why-are-women-always-the-target.htm" type="external">beaten up women</a> for going to pubs, or village councils which <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Khap-bans-jeans-and-T-shirts-for-girls-in-Hisar/articleshow/17933563.cms" type="external">ban girls</a> from wearing jeans.</p>
<p>Motherhood was clearly a concern for the young Modi, who may not have seen his own mother for several years when he wrote the stories. He walked out on his parents at the age of 18 over their insistence that he <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/131025/narendra-modi-could-be-india-s-next-prime-minister-s" type="external">consummate a marriage</a> arranged when he was a boy.</p>
<p>We are introduced to Sunanda, a young stepmother who struggles for two years to win over her teenage stepdaughter. After tension turns into angry words, Sunanda writes a letter to the girl saying she just wants to be a good mother. For the young Modi, this was enough to solve the relationship’s difficulties. The two young women hug and become firm friends. Any resentment the girl might have felt toward a woman who had replaced her own dead mother and usurped her father’s affections is gone in the scribbling of a few words. It is an easy, instant solution, a wish fulfilled. And Modi enjoys fulfilling wishes. He governs Gujarat by inspiration, according to his biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, often having an idea in the morning and driving his army of staff to implement it as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Yet “Abode of Love” is about death as much as it is about motherhood.</p>
<p>A recent death or an impending death is a theme in almost all the stories in Modi’s collection. Sunanda’s step-daughter misses her mother. Another story sees a young man lay flowers in memory of a political activist shot dead by police. “Room No. 9” tells of the final weeks of a cancer sufferer. “The Lamp” is about a new widow struggling to deal with her in-laws’ dislike. “Bridge” sees another widow remember her husband who died trying to save people caught in a collapsed temple. And “Rebirth of Anuraag” is about a teacher, Anuraag, who blames himself for the suicide of a pupil.</p>
<p>What are we to make of this melancholic Modi, a figure that is so at odds with the witty, energetic, macho politician whose own persona seems to have caught the imagination of millions of Indians?</p>
<p>Is this a sign of a troubled boy, who missed his parents and worried about them? Or was it an effort to understand and empathise with ordinary people he met as a political aide, an attempt to imagine what the pain of loss was like?</p>
<p>Modi gives us few clues. In his introduction, he speaks of his hope that the stories “have the fragrance and beauty of relationships, the ring of integrity and truth, melancholy contrasting with the flavors of blooming emotions and mirth.” Later, he asks his readers to try to find their own abode of love within their conscience, confident that he has found his. And when the election results are announced on May 16, India will know whether its own abode of love has room for Modi.</p> | The frontrunner to be India's next prime minister is apparently the nation's Shakespeare | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-05-02/frontrunner-be-indias-next-prime-minister-apparently-nations-shakespeare | 2014-05-02 | 3 |
<p>College campuses are ground zero for the outrageous behavior of social justice warriors which has ranged from mass-chanting protests to rioting and violence. Over the last several years, Americans have quietly observed the increasingly disturbing and escalating antics of progressive university students.</p>
<p>The throngs of masked rioters who have violently shut down events by conservative and alt-right speakers over the last year — via threats or actions — ironically refer to themselves as "anti-fascists," or Antifa for short. Antifa has been around in various forms across the globe for some time. This article speaks specifically about the masked thugs rioting and inciting violence on college campuses, e.g. Berkeley.</p>
<p>The formation of the new American Antifa isn't sudden; it evolved, in part, from a single student screaming at a Yale professor in late 2015.</p>
<p>Just prior to Halloween 2015, the Intercultural Affairs Council at Yale University sent an email to students which offered advice regarding potentially offensive costumes. The Associate Master of Silliman College, Erika Christakis, publicly responded to the email. In her <a href="https://www.thefire.org/email-from-erika-christakis-dressing-yourselves-email-to-silliman-college-yale-students-on-halloween-costumes/" type="external">response</a>, after a long and very politically correct preamble, she simply asked:</p>
<p>Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious … a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive? American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition.</p>
<p>This simple message set into motion a shocking chain of events that would eventually lead to the resignation of Christakis, as well as her husband, Nicholas, who was the Master at Silliman College.</p>
<p>A pivotal moment in the eventual formation of groups like the new American Antifa occurred when a mob of students surrounded Nicholas Christakis in the middle of campus and in broad daylight. Several students castigated Christakis, but one in particular helped move the current Antifa culture forward. This student didn't care what Christakis had to say, she simply wanted to scream in front of an audience:</p>
<p>"As your position as Master, it is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students that live in Silliman. You have not done that. By sending out that email, that goes against your position as Master. Do you understand that?"</p>
<p>Christakis responded meekly: "No, I don't agree with that."</p>
<p>This caused the student to scream: "Then why the f*** did you did you accept the position?! Who the f*** hired you?!"</p>
<p>As Christakis attempted to calmly explain himself, the female student let loose, repeatedly interrupting him: "It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! You understand that?! It's about creating a home here! ... You should not sleep at night! You are disgusting."</p>
<p>The student received approval from many around her, with other students poetry-snapping and shouting encouragement.</p>
<p>It must be seen to be believed:</p>
<p />
<p>Public outrage is similar to a drug, and human beings build a tolerance to the euphoric or calming effects of most drugs after repeated usage. Individuals like the screaming student at Yale surely feel a sense of euphoria when publicly displaying their "righteous" outrage.</p>
<p>Over time, however, simple anger isn't enough. Singular displays of outrage evolve into mass displays of outrage. This was the case when Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro gave a speech at Pennsylvania State University.</p>
<p>The Daily Wire's Joshua Yasmeh previously <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>:</p>
<p>As the president of Penn State Republicans began to introduce Shapiro, shouting began reverberating throughout the lecture hall. Throngs of social justice warriors decided to assemble outside raising their voices in protest. ...</p>
<p>Amidst the intermittent eruptions outside, Shapiro proceeded to calmly explain the themes of his speech. A few words in, the mob shouted in unison: “Let us in!” The students inside appeared visibly rattled. With the increasingly forceful and disruptive demands of the mob outside, it was easy to forget you were on an American college campus. Again, the mob issued their demand: “Let us in!” Defiantly, Shapiro replied: “No!”</p>
<p>Footage from that event can be seen <a href="https://youtu.be/JLpa6fsTxCA" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>When this behavior no longer scratches the itch for self-righteous euphoria, non-physically aggressive displays transform into physically aggressive ones. This was the case when Shapiro gave a speech at California State University, Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Once again, Joshua Yasmeh <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>:</p>
<p>As Shapiro spoke to a relatively calm audience inside, protests erupted outside the event room. Protesters assaulted, harassed, intimidated, shouted down, and berated event-goers, according to Daily Wire reporters on the scene. One attendee claimed that he got "punched in the ear" by a protestor. Another man, who is disabled, was pushed and kicked multiple times.</p>
<p>Footage from that event can be seen <a href="https://youtu.be/CmdYPnePJMQ" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>And as physically aggressive displays evolve, they naturally become even more truculent. This hostility was seen at Middlebury College in Vermont when author Charles Murray was set to give a speech. After multiple disruptions, the speech was moved to a private location where Professor Allison Stanger live-streamed a Q&amp;A with Murray.</p>
<p>As Murray and Stanger attempted to leave, protesters surrounded them and pounded on their vehicle. The Daily Wire <a href="" type="internal">quoted</a> Bill Burger, vice president for communications and marketing at Middlebury, who said:</p>
<p>"During this confrontation outside McCullough, one of the demonstrators pulled Prof. Stanger’s hair and twisted her neck. ... She was attended to at Porter Hospital later and (on Friday) is wearing a neck brace."</p>
<p>As demonstrations become more hostile and the law gets involved, activists are forced to don covers to mask their identity so as not to get arrested. Make no mistake, however, the new American Antifa — the masked and violent activists shutting down speeches by Ann Coulter and others — are merely an advanced evolution of the screaming student at Yale.</p>
<p>Antifa activists surely get a rush from behaving violently and fascistically. The only reason they wear masks is for their own legal protection. If nothing is done to push back against this thuggery, it will only continue to progress until someone is seriously injured or killed.</p> | Why The 'New American Antifa' Was The Inevitable Result Of Liberal Outrage | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15892/why-antifa-was-inevitable-result-liberal-outrage-frank-camp | 2017-04-30 | 0 |
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<p>Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) provided fresh evidence of its turnaround on Tuesday by posting a narrow fiscal fourth-quarter earnings beat and sales that fell much less than Wall Street had feared.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The stronger-than-anticipated results along with mostly in-line guidance helped juice H-P’s shares more than 7% in after-market trading.</p>
<p>H-P said it earned $1.4 billion, or 73 cents a share, last quarter, compared with a loss of $6.9 billion, or $3.49 a share, a year earlier.</p>
<p>Excluding one-time items, it earned $1.01 a share, down 13% from the year before. Analysts had been calling for EPS of $1.00.</p>
<p>Revenue fell 3% to $29.1 billion, easily trumping the Street’s view of $27.91 billion. Cash flow from operations slumped 31% to $2.8 billion.</p>
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<p>“Our Q4 results demonstrate that HP's turnaround remains on track heading into fiscal 2014. While we still have much more work to do, our business units and their core assets are delivering on HP's strategy to help customers thrive by providing solutions for the New Style of IT,” H-P CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement.</p>
<p>H-P said its personal systems revenue dipped 2% last quarter as commercial sales tumbled 10%, offsetting a 4% gain for commercial revenue. Desktop units dropped 5%, while notebook units increased 3%.</p>
<p>Printing revenue dipped 1% even as total hardware units increased 6%.</p>
<p>H-P’s enterprise group reported a 2% increase in revenue as growth in networking and industry standard servers offset a 17% drop in business critical systems sales.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, H-P projected fiscal first-quarter non-GAAP EPS of 82 cents to 86 cents, compared with the Street’s view of 85 cents.</p>
<p>For the full year, H-P sees non-GAAP EPS of $3.55 to $3.75, which is basically in line with forecasts from analysts for $3.65.</p>
<p>H-P said it returned $763 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks during the quarter.</p>
<p>Shares of Palo Alto, Calif.-based H-P soared 7.89% to $27.07 in extended trading Tuesday afternoon. H-P has already soared 76% year-to-date and 99% over the past 12 months.</p> | Hewlett-Packard Spikes as 4Q Sales Fall Less Than Feared | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/11/26/hp-reports-earnings.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>Tourism Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu hasn’t said why the drop occurred, but there were declines in 2012 in two areas that have been affected by violence: border tourism and cruise ship stopovers.</p>
<p>The number of cruise ship passengers stopping in Mexico dropped 3 percent in 2012 and more than 15 percent over the past two years. The number of border visitors dropped 5.3 percent in 2012, according to Tourism Department figures.</p>
<p>Mexican border cities such as Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo have experienced continued waves of drug cartel violence, and a number of cruise operators have dropped port calls along Mexico’s western Pacific coast. Both areas have been affected by drug-fueled violence that has cost more than 70,000 lives in the past six years.</p>
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<p>The drops contributed to a 1.2 percent decline in overall international tourism to Mexico in 2012.</p>
<p>“We have indications that we may drop one or two places, but we’re not sure because the figures aren’t ours, they are from the World Tourism Organization,” Ruiz Massieu said Monday.</p>
<p>The WTO regional director for the Americas, Carlos Vogeler, said Tuesday it may be less a story of Mexico losing tourists, than about other countries making big gains and overtaking Mexico.</p>
<p>“You have to take into account that there are countries that have made a great deal of progress in attracting international visitors,” Vogeler said. “For example, Russia has improved its figures, Malaysia has improved its own, and Austria. There are a number of countries that have increased their numbers significantly.”</p>
<p>And he noted Mexico has continued to gain in tourism revenues. Income from International tourists rose 7.1 percent in 2012, despite the decline in the number of visitors.</p>
<p>“According to our initial data, Mexico has increased its income, apparently because people who arrive by air (rather than crossing a land border or arriving on a cruise ship) generally spend more time, and more money, in the country,” Vogeler said.</p>
<p>Ruiz Massieu seemed fairly calm about the whole affair.</p>
<p>“What this administration and the Tourism Department are doing is looking to the future. … We want to be more competitive globally. We want to diversify our tourism industry,” Ruiz Massieu said, referring to efforts to diversify beyond what has long been the country’s staple: American tourists visiting beach resorts.</p>
<p>While she did not offer specific figures, Ruiz Massieu said Mexico had attracted a large number of spring break visitors this year.</p>
<p>“The spring breakers season is ending and we had a very strong turnout at our main resorts. … We’re very happy that we continue to be a favorite destination for that sector,” she said.</p>
<p>Tourism industry sources say that some Mexican resorts such as Cancun appear almost immune to problems in other parts of the country. The Travel Leaders Group, a network of independently owned and operated travel agencies in the U.S., noted that Cancun continues to be the second-most popular destination among Americans.</p>
<p>“It appears that travelers are quite savvy on the situation in Mexico and understand that there are many popular and safe destinations to visit,” Travel Leaders spokeswoman Kathy Gerhardt wrote earlier this year. “Also, many people are repeat visitors to Mexico. Based on their past experience in a particular destination or at a particular resort, they feel very comfortable traveling there again.”</p> | Mexico may lose Top 10 tourist spot | false | https://abqjournal.com/180368/mexico-may-lose-top-10-tourist-spot.html | 2013-03-20 | 2 |
<p>By Joanne Silberner</p>
<p>Editor's note: This story is part of a special series on Cancer's New Battleground: The Developing World. View more stories and multimedia from this series at <a href="http://www.theworld.org/cancer-new-battleground/" type="external">TheWorld.org/Cancer</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Jackson Orem is a busy man. He directs the Uganda Cancer Institute – the only dedicated cancer treatment facility in a country of 33 million people.</p>
<p>Yet he still finds time to see patients, like Musa Settimba.</p>
<p>“Good to see you,” Orem says as he enters a small exam room furnished with little more than a chair and table.</p>
<p>“Good morning, doctor,” Settimba replies.</p>
<p>Settimba is here for a checkup. He has a type of gastrointestinal cancer that is often fatal, even in countries with access to the latest medical care.</p>
<p>Orem has arranged for Settimba to get Gleevec — a very effective and costly new cancer drug &#160;—for free, courtesy of the manufacturer. There’s paperwork involved, and drugs for only a few cancers are available this way. It’s a godsend for Settimba, who has been doing very well.</p>
<p>“You are getting one of the best treatments for this disease,” Orem tells his patient.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Settimba is the rare exception.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Discouraging Statistics</p>
<p>The survival rate for patients who make it to the Uganda Cancer Institute is astonishingly low.</p>
<p>“We get about 22,000 new cases (annually),” Orem says.</p>
<p>Of those, 20,000 die within a year.</p>
<p>Orem says most Ugandans don’t have a real concept of cancer as a set of diseases that can be diagnosed and treated. In some tribal languages, there is no word for cancer.</p>
<p>“People are dying because they don’t have a system,” Orem says. “They don’t have early diagnosis. They don’t actually even know that they have cancer.”</p>
<p>And the people who do realize they have cancer often hide it. They fear being stigmatized.</p>
<p>“Once you are diagnosed with cancer, they think that it’s already a death sentence,” Orem says.</p>
<p>They’re partly right. Most people don’t come in until the very last stages of cancer. At that point, no doctor anywhere could do much for them.</p>
<p>(Join us and experts from the medical field for <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/313050668800207/" type="external">a Facebook chat</a> about the issues of cancer in the developing world. All day Wednesday.)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Lack of Attention</p>
<p>Orem studied oncology at Case Western Reserve University in the United States and then came back to Uganda to head this government-owned cancer institute in 2004. For several years, he was the only oncologist in the entire country.</p>
<p>“It was really very, very demanding,” he says. “I can’t explain how I was managing, because actually I was doing everything.”</p>
<p>Orem doesn’t complain about the hard work, but some things make him cringe. One of them is a comment he’s heard expressed by people from developed countries — that cancer doesn’t hit poor people.</p>
<p>“People think that malaria kills (and) other diseases are killing people from a low socioeconomic status. But cancer is the same,” he says. “The truth of the matter is that cancer is a disease of the African person just like any other person elsewhere in the world.”</p>
<p>The perception that cancer is not a problem of Africans leads to a lack of money, he says.</p>
<p>“When you ask for funding for cancer, nobody is going to give (it to) you. But if you ask for funding for these other diseases, they say, ‘All right, your priority is correct, we are going to give you some funds.’ I think that is actually the reason why things are the way they are.”</p>
<p>There is also a perception that cancer is too expensive to treat, and treatment is too high-tech, to be done in poor countries. Orem says that’s not necessarily true.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A New Push</p>
<p>Orem walks up a hill to show off the Uganda Cancer Institute’s expansion plans.</p>
<p>The Ugandan government is putting up what will be a modern, 200-bed cancer hospital to replace the 120 bare-bones beds of the current Institute down below.</p>
<p>“You see that expanse of a building with a blue roof?” Orem says, pointing. “That is the outpatient department.”</p>
<p>In that building is a clinic like some you might see in the US, where patients receive chemotherapy through intravenous lines. There is also a building with the beginnings of a modern pharmacy.</p>
<p>None of the buildings include a gamma beam generator or a robot that can do surgery, but some conditions can be treated as successfully here as in the U.S.</p>
<p>And now Orem has the help of five Ugandan cancer specialists who recently received training in Seattle, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.</p>
<p>What keeps Orem going is that people in the West are beginning to take interest.</p>
<p>Last year, the United Nations urged that more be done to detect and treat cancer in the developing world. George and Laura Bush recently toured Africa to bring attention to breast and cervical cancer.</p>
<p>“People are much more receptive to our messages than before,” Orem says. “It looks like we are beginning to make an inroad.”</p>
<p>Still, he says, when it comes to fighting cancer, Uganda is just at the starting point.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>This story was reported with assistance from Jennifer Bakyawa. The series was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.</p> | Cancer's New Battleground: In Uganda, Jackson Orem fighting to establish cancer care | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-12-04/cancers-new-battleground-uganda-jackson-orem-fighting-establish-cancer-care | 2012-12-04 | 3 |
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<p>It is common for U.S. companies to conduct mergers with foreign counterparts. However, it seems to be a current trend for them to seek foreign tax shelters in reaction to what are perceived to be high corporate taxes at home.</p>
<p>It is not unusual that Burger King merged with Tim Hortons. By doing so, the new company will account for more than $23 billion in worldwide sales and more than 18,000 locations in approximately 100 countries. It will become the third-largest fast-food chain in the world. By establishing the headquarters in Toronto, the new merger is following a popular strategy called tax inversion, which simply means that a company (in this case Burger King) relocates its headquarters to a country with lower taxes, while still maintaining the bulk of its operations in its home country.</p>
<p>Signs for a Tim Hortons restaurant, foreground, and a Burger King restaurant are displayed along Peach Street in Erie, Pa. (The Associated Press)</p>
<p>For Burger King’s case, the implementation of a tax-inversion strategy is telling. In the U.S., the company is subject to a 35 percent corporate tax rate. In Canada, the company will have to pay a 15 percent corporate tax rate, along with an 11.5 percent tax rate that is applied in Toronto, for a combined rate of 26.5 percent. This results in an 8.5 percent difference, which will allow the Burger King portion of the company’s profits to be subject to a lower tax rate, and thus millions of dollars in savings. These savings can be used in market development or to attract new investors.</p>
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<p>The latest wave of companies adopting the tax-inversion strategy has set off finger-pointing between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S., each side accusing the other of adopting counterproductive positions or ignoring the problem while U.S. companies move their headquarters to foreign countries. President Barack Obama has accused these companies of taking advantage of an “unpatriotic loophole” and leaving hardworking U.S. families to pick up the slack. Republicans accuse the president of being a “tax and spend” liberal and providing no leadership on this issue.</p>
<p>Solutions being proposed to fix the loophole range from lowering U.S. corporate income taxes to penalizing tax-aversion practitioners. However, the tax-aversion issue, much like immigration reform, seems destined to end up in a Congress that is stuck in political quagmire when it comes to solving critical issues.</p>
<p>Business environments are not static – they need to constantly be tweaked and improved based upon what the competition is doing. Countries cannot exist without facing competition for attracting new investment and creating jobs by other countries that are desperate for the same things – unless of course we take an extreme example such as North Korea, whose citizens routinely are at the bottom of most socioeconomic charts.</p>
<p>Nor do countries only compete in their own region. On the contrary, countries in regions such as North America have formed trading blocs to compete against other regions of the world. The irony in the Burger King case is that the U.S.’s most important trading partner, Canada, is benefiting at the expense of the U.S.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that countries compete in a global market, and they have to make themselves as attractive as possible to successfully land business investment, which leads to a multiplier effect of supplier bases and new employment. The other cold, hard fact is that the number one goal of corporate boards of directors is to maximize the value of the shareholders’ stock. This often puts a local company in a position of being caught between patriotism for its home country, making money for its stockholders and being able to compete globally.</p>
<p>The solution to the tax-aversion problem is not an easy one. For countries, there is a fine line between attracting businesses to boost the economy versus giving the farm away in order to attract investment. Attracting and retaining investment depends on a myriad of factors including a skilled workforce, supplier bases, good infrastructure, minimal red tape, job-creation incentives and a favorable tax base. Some of these factors will take years to improve, and all of them need to be tended to in the long term. As the competition fine tunes its approach, the U.S. must do the same.</p>
<p>In the meantime, unless we are content as a nation to stand by while companies relocate their headquarters to countries with more favorable tax environments, Obama and Congress need to come up with a solution for the tax-inversion issue as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Tax-inversion strategy can pay dividends | false | https://abqjournal.com/462093/taxinversion-strategy-can-pay-dividends.html | 2 |
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<p>There is a peculiar argument favored by politicians, bank managers, airline representatives, and sales-people of various stripes that goes something like this: “Your interests are important. The customer/voter is my top priority. Trust me.” Such claims will sometimes be accompanied by presumably substantiating evidence as part of glossy promotional material. It helps, of course, if the person making the claim is either ruggedly handsome or a gaunt beauty, and groomed to a pitch of stereotypic trustworthiness.</p>
<p>Right. I would hope that the visceral impulse of half-way rational people is to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. Even minimal scrutiny of the behaviors of those fielding the “trust me” argument often reveals the obvious: self-interest is a top priority along with serving the narrow special interests of those holding the reins of power and finances, typically the maximization of profits, prestige, and influence for these select few. Think shareholders, corporate bosses, political donors, and ideological allies. Certainly not the gullible client, customer, voter or larger abstract “public” so devotedly cultivated. The obvious.</p>
<p>“Trust us” with Grizzly Bears?</p>
<p>So when I hear wildlife managers in the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho saying “trust us” to manage Yellowstone’s grizzly bear population, my initial response is skepticism and suspicion. And it doesn’t fill me with warm fuzzy feelings when I further hear and read that these state managers are categorically refusing to be held accountable in any authoritative way to the federal government or the national public if and when the reins of grizzly bear management are handed over by the US Fish &amp; Wildlife Service (FWS).&#160; <a href="" type="internal">The letter submitted by the States</a>&#160;as part of their comments on the FWS’s proposal to remove Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for Yellowstone’s grizzlies makes interesting reading. The States are clearly in it for power gains and ideological gratifications.</p>
<p>Moreover, there is little ambiguity about the fact that, in practice, state wildlife managers see predators such as grizzly bears primarily as competitors, nuisances or even varmints—and this despite the palliatives and platitudes you can find in State plans. The reasons are pretty obvious. State management more closely resembles a for-profit venture organized around huntable&#160;surpluses of big game than it does an exercise in fulfillment of the public trust. Wildlife managers are slaved to the narrow special interests of hunters, fishers, and livestock producers by shared culture and political vulnerabilities, but more fundamentally by dependence on the marketing and sales of arms, ammunition, and licenses to kill elk and deer (for more on all of this read&#160; <a href="" type="internal">the first</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">second</a>&#160;blogs in my series on state wildlife management). Unless you are a hunter, none of this is a&#160;prima facie&#160;basis for “trust.”</p>
<p>Based on What Plans?</p>
<p>And then read the details of State plans for managing Yellowstone’s grizzly bears; plans that the States have offered as evidence of trustworthiness; plans that the States insist are, at the same time, entirely discretionary. Which may actually be a good thing given how unconscionably and appallingly inadequate they are.</p>
<p>The centerpiece of State plans consists of a&#160; <a href="http://media.wix.com/ugd/d2beb3_f24bee725e9748369ada4aef19f1d1a5.pdf" type="external">tristate Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)</a>&#160;that details methods for managing grizzly bear mortality. These methods specify aspirational mortality rates linked to different estimated grizzly bear population sizes as well as the means by which permitted deaths are to be allotted to the three involved States. The MOA goes on to describe benchmarks that, if “violated,” would putatively trigger discretionary reviews of management. All fine and good.</p>
<p>But read further. The MOA assumes that male grizzlies can be killed at twice the rate as female grizzlies without jeopardizing population stability, and that bears living inside protected areas (i.e., National Parks) will be counted towards estimates of total population size, which will then be used as the basis for calculating total numbers of bears able to be killed during a given year. The MOA considers a certain percentage of this total to be “discretionary,” all of which is allotted to States (i.e., none to the National Park Service [NPS] or involved Tribes), and from which comes the bears available for state-administered trophy hunting. The States pointedly excluded the NPS and Tribes from development of the MOA and make no provision for either to be authoritatively involved in its implementation—this for two jurisdictions that collectively support over a third of Yellowstone’s grizzly bear population. Your eyebrows should be elevated at this point.</p>
<p>A Recipe for Killing</p>
<p>Without being exhaustive, even this minimal description of the MOA highlights some aspects that are a recipe for trouble. First, you can’t kill males at twice the rate you kill females and have a stable population. Males and females are replenished at an equal rate (i.e., the sex ratio of cubs is roughly 1:1), which means you can’t sustainably kill more males. Second, bears on NPS and Tribal jurisdictions are being used by the States to subsidize their killing of bears elsewhere without explicitly involving either sovereign entity in any deliberations or considering population-level consequences. Because grizzly bears protected by National Parks will be dying at a comparatively low rate, the de facto mortality rate of bears on non-Park jurisdictions will be higher than the population-wide target or guideline. As a consequence, there will be a net outflow of bears from Parks to non-park jurisdictions. The subpopulation in Parks will be a reproductive engine (i.e., “source”) subsidizing otherwise unsustainable killing in the State-administered subpopulation (i.e., “sinks”). And the brunt of this will be borne by male grizzly bears.</p>
<p>And then consider this. Estimates of total population size will be based almost exclusively on sightings of females with cubs made over three successive years. Given a three-year reproductive cycle, this yields an estimated total number of reproductive females. Other classes of bears are accounted for in calculations of total population size simply by applying various fixed multipliers, notably including the assumption that independent males are equal in number to independent females (i.e., a 1:1 sex ratio). The MOA makes explicit provision for adjusting these multipliers (including the ratio of males to females) only if estimated total population sizes fall below certain thresholds, thereby triggering discretionary reviews leading to discretionary revisions. In other words, state managers could be slaughtering males within their jurisdictions and, because this segment is not directly monitored, continue to generate increasingly phony and inflated population estimates driven almost solely by sightings of reproductive females—without dropping below any population triggers and thereby without triggering any corrective actions.</p>
<p>With Predictable Destructive Outcomes</p>
<p>This doesn’t need to be left as a verbal hypothetical. I found it easy enough to specify a model that embodied the essentials of the methods contained in the States’ MOA, including a source-sink structure, variable but lower death rates within Parks, procedures for estimating total population size based on sightings of females with cubs, the meting out of “discretionary” deaths according to population-level guidelines for mortality rates, the realization of resulting de facto death rates on non-Park lands, and changes in prescribed mortality rates in accord with changes in estimated population size driven by numbers of reproductive females. Once specified, I was then able to use this model to project what would likely happen with implementation of MOA protocols employing the notable (and probably untenable) assumption that Yellowstone’s grizzly bear habitat would remain static. Key results are in figure 1, immediately below.</p>
<p>Figure 1. Results of a stochastic model simulating implementation of methods for post-delisting management of Yellowstone’s grizzly bear population described in the tristate MOA. Figure 1A shows trends in numbers of independent males and females in source (i.e., Park) and sink (i.e., non-Park) populations. Figure 1B shows trends in “real” and estimated total population sizes relative to population thresholds linked to management triggers, along the magnitude of discrepancy—or error—between estimated and real population sizes.</p>
<p>Hopefully without belaboring the obvious, there are some more-or-less guaranteed outcomes from implementation of the MOA. First and foremost, numbers of independent males will tank outside of National Parks, primarily because they will be subject to grossly unsustainable mortality rates. Numbers of independent males inside Parks will decline slightly because of losses to net out-migration. Numbers of reproductive females will remain steady to slightly increasing, leading to increasingly inflated estimates of total population size, despite a collapse of the male segment on non-Park lands. Within eight or so years population estimates will have been inflated by roughly 200 bears over “reality,” but without detection and without triggering any corrective measures.</p>
<p>And this is probably an optimistic scenario. The model does not include the on-going and foreseeable effects of unraveling habitat conditions (see&#160; <a href="" type="internal">this blog</a>&#160;for a synopsis). Nor are the effects of declining female reproductive success included, foreseeably attributable to lack of sufficient breeding males outside the Parks and, before that, an ephemeral pulse of elevated cub mortality caused by social turmoil.</p>
<p>What do I make of this? It’s pretty obvious. The methods contained in the States’ MOA are so egregiously flawed as to call into question the competence and motives of the wildlife managers who concocted them. The Plan certainly does not build a case for trust.</p>
<p>And Then There is History</p>
<p>And then there is the history of state management. Without being exhaustive, there are two observations of particular relevance to the rather dismal track record that the states of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana have established managing our endangered large carnivores.</p>
<p>First, consider how the states of Idaho and Montana have managed wolves since ESA protections were removed in 2011. I don’t have the space here to elaborate on all of the relevant details (see the third point in&#160; <a href="http://media.wix.com/ugd/d2beb3_e86f96129de8439e83dd47e782fa913f.pdf" type="external">this document</a>), but a consistent pattern emerges. It is clear that both states unapologetically embarked upon a post-delisting wolf-killing program that was designed to reduce wolf populations in service of, first, controlling depredations on behalf of livestock operators disinclined to take the most basic of precautions; second, achieving inflated goals for elk and deer populations; and, third, offering essentially unlimited sport hunting opportunities. There is no evidence that either Idaho or Montana were attempting to serve other “values,” foster something as apparently inconsequential as wolf-derived ecological services, or, even, Heaven forbid, accommodate the inevitable toll of predation in goals for ungulate populations. Wyoming and Montana have both made clear that these are the outcomes planned for grizzly bears as well, barring, perhaps, a more circumscribed approach to sport-hunting.</p>
<p>Second, consider why grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem ended up on the Endangered Species list in the first place. Between 1959 and 1970 grizzly bear deaths in areas under state jurisdiction accounted for the majority of mortality in this region. Of these deaths, 84% were attributable to sport hunting. And, of these, 59% were adults—33% adult males and 26% adult females. In short, the states of Wyoming and Montana were administering a sport hunt that was unsustainable, manifest in the patently small size of the grizzly bear population at the time it was given ESA protections in 1975. The States were clearly&#160;not&#160;managing for recovery nor increases in Yellowstone’s grizzly bear population during the 1960s and early 1970s. More certainly yet, the States remained wedded to a regime of sport hunting on the basis of principle and custom, and with little apparent reference to or regard for information on population trend. Montana’s devotion to the ethos of hunting is evident in the fact that this state continued to administer a sport hunt of grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem until forced by litigation to stop in 1991, sixteen years after the population was listed by the FWS as Threatened.</p>
<p>“Trust us.” Are You Kidding?</p>
<p>The institution of state wildlife management in the tristate region of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana is despotic, corrupt, and fundamentally anti-predator. By design, it disenfranchises the vast majority of Americans and, because of transactional financial dependencies, overtly caters to a small number of special interest groups. It is interesting to me that very few people are even aware of these structural problems, and of those who are cognizant there is an alarming tendency to concoct narratives (e.g., the North American Model of Wildlife Management) that justify the corruption. Moreover, the demographic profile of hunters (mostly white less-well-educated males) overlaps almost exactly with Trumps’ misogynist, racist, jingoistic, and otherwise bigoted core supporters; the very same people who seem to have little respect for or understanding of democratic institutions. We can pretty much count on state wildlife managers catering to this crowd in their management of Yellowstone’s grizzly bears, including the pathetic few who apparently need a stuffed grizzly bear in their den to prop up a frail ego.</p>
<p>“Trust us.” Are you kidding?</p> | A Recipe for Killing: the “Trust Us” Argument of State Grizzly Bear Managers | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/10/25/a-recipe-for-killing-the-trust-us-argument-of-state-grizzly-bear-managers/ | 2016-10-25 | 4 |
<p>Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is on his way to steal yo girl.</p>
<p>Or at least that’s what one man accused him of at a Sunday campaign event in Florida.</p>
<p />
<p>In video of the incident posted online, a man stood up during Rubio’s stump speech to say “Marco Rubio is trying to steal my girlfriend.”</p>
<p>“They met in New Hampshire, and she doesn’t look at me the same way anymore,” he said. “I’m serious!”</p>
<p>Rubio responded: “That’s alright. Hey, we don’t beat up our hecklers at our events, so.”</p>
<p>The crowd chanted “Marco” as the man was being escorted out of the venue.</p>
<p>“I didn’t even win New Hampshire,” Rubio joked.</p>
<p>The run-in led <a href="https://twitter.com/mckaycoppins/status/709104402301370373" type="external">some on Twitter</a> to speculate the man was an actor hired to disrupt the event.</p>
<p>Rubio’s events have been targeted by stunt protests in the past. After a poor debate showing in early February where the Republican <a href="" type="internal">repeated himself several times</a>, an <a href="" type="internal">activist dressed as a robot</a> tussled with Rubio’s New Hampshire campaign chair at an event in the state.</p>
<p>h/t <a href="http://gawker.com/man-accuses-marco-rubio-of-trying-to-steal-his-girlfr-1764661655" type="external">Gawker</a></p>
<p>Watch the video via the Associated Press:</p>
<p /> | Man Accuses Rubio Of Trying To Steal His Girlfriend During Florida Rally | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/marco-rubio-steal-yo-girl-florida | 4 |
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<p>PITTSBURGH (AP) — The University of Pittsburgh has suspended a fraternity and temporarily barred all Greek life organizations from hosting events with alcohol after a student was hospitalized in an “alcohol-related incident.”</p>
<p>University officials have not released specifics about what led to the student’s hospitalization on Thursday. They declined Tuesday to comment on the student’s condition.</p>
<p>The school did not identify the fraternity involved, but Sigma Chi’s national office says the Pitt chapter has been suspended for apparently violating alcohol and drug policies.</p>
<p>A statement from the university says the “gravity of situation” demands reflection on the role of alcohol in campus life.</p>
<p>Last year, the drinking death of a 19-year-old fraternity pledge at Penn State yielded criminal charges against 26 people.</p>
<p>PITTSBURGH (AP) — The University of Pittsburgh has suspended a fraternity and temporarily barred all Greek life organizations from hosting events with alcohol after a student was hospitalized in an “alcohol-related incident.”</p>
<p>University officials have not released specifics about what led to the student’s hospitalization on Thursday. They declined Tuesday to comment on the student’s condition.</p>
<p>The school did not identify the fraternity involved, but Sigma Chi’s national office says the Pitt chapter has been suspended for apparently violating alcohol and drug policies.</p>
<p>A statement from the university says the “gravity of situation” demands reflection on the role of alcohol in campus life.</p>
<p>Last year, the drinking death of a 19-year-old fraternity pledge at Penn State yielded criminal charges against 26 people.</p> | Pitt suspends fraternity after student hospitalized | false | https://apnews.com/464cdb3a134f4ed4b6615d7749d60961 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security</p>
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<p>The lead article in this issue argues that realist scholars of international relations no longer embrace realism's core principles. Realism, according to Jeffrey Legro of the University of Virginia and Andrew Moravcsik of Harvard University, "is in trouble." They base this observation on their analysis of recent scholarship by neoclassical and defensive realists who, in an effort to address anomalies found in realist theory, have instead undermined the theoretical core of realism itself.</p>
<p /> | Is Anybody Still a Realist? | false | http://belfercenter.org/publication/anybody-still-realist | 2018-10-03 | 2 |
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<p>Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Image source: iStock/Thinkstock.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A leading bank analyst, Rafferty Capital Markets' Dick Bove, thinks banks should stop buying back so much stock. This goes against the prevailing belief that buybacks bolster shareholder value. Is Bove right, and specifically in the case of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)?</p>
<p>At the beginning of this month, Bove wrote:</p>
<p>Bove makes an important point. Despite investors' infatuation with buybacks, the general rule is that they impair shareholder value. Studies have shown, for instance, that companies that spend their money on things like research and development, acquisitions, and capital expenditures, tend to outperform those that allocate a substantial share of their earnings to buybacks.</p>
<p>The problem is that, just like individual investors, companies have a habit of buying high and selling low. Bank of America serves as a case in point. In the five years before the financial crisis, it repurchased over 750 million shares at an average price of $52 per share, equating to around $40 billion. A few years later, in an effort to raise capital to survive the crisis, it then issued 3.5 billion new shares at an average price of $13.47, for a total of $47.5 billion.</p>
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<p>This hasn't been good for Bank of America's shareholder value. The dilution caused when it issued shares in 2009 is the principal reason why the bank's stock price is still down by approximately 70% compared to its pre-crisis high.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/BAC" type="external">BAC Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, it's important to appreciate that well-executed buybacks are one of the most-potent ways for a company to boost shareholder return. This was the point of William Thorndike's excellent book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Outsiders-Unconventional-Radically-Rational-Blueprint/dp/1422162672" type="external">The Outsiders Opens a New Window.</a>, which traced the performance of the eight CEOs of publicly traded companies that created the most value for shareholders since World War II. Many of them, Thorndike found, were able to do so through buybacks.</p>
<p>Take Henry Singleton as an example. Over the course of Singleton's 27-year tenure atop the 1960s-era conglomerate Teledyne, the company bought back 90% of its stock, yielding a 42% compound annual return on the buybacks. "No one has ever bought in shares as aggressively," noted Charlie Munger. The net result is that a single dollar invested in Teledyne at the beginning of Singleton's reign grew to $181 by the time he retired less than two decades later.</p>
<p>It's also worth pointing out that banks, particularly big banks, have little choice nowadays but to repurchase stock. As a part of the annual stress tests, known as the comprehensive capital analysis and review, the Federal Reserve exercises veto power over a bank's capital plans. And the Fed has made it clear that it prefers banks to use buybacks as opposed to dividends to return capital, as buybacks can be halted to preserve capital without causing the same degree of concern that accompanies a dividend cut.</p>
<p>If banks didn't buy back stock, in turn, two things would happen. In the first case, because the capital would then just accumulate on a bank's balance sheet, it would weigh on a bank's return on equity, as capital is in the ratio's denominator. This would then incentivize banks to take on more risk in an effort to juice profitability through higher-yielding assets. Consequently, in the case of the nation's biggest banks -- i.e., those that are subject to the Fed's veto over capital actions -- using buybacks is a necessary evil.</p>
<p>This isn't to say that Bank of America's buybacks right now are bad. Quite the opposite is, in fact, is true. If a bank is going to repurchase stock, then it should do so when its stock price, or rather its valuation, is low. More specifically, a bank should buy back stock when its shares trade near or below book value.</p>
<p>This is the situation Bank of America finds itself in right now, with its shares trading for a 40% discount to book value.Even Warren Buffett, who is no fan of using buybacks or dividends to boost Berkshire Hathaway's value, uses them in this way. He's said that Berkshire will repurchase its stock if it trades for less than 1.2 times book value.</p>
<p>In sum, Bove is right that, as a general rule, banks should rely less on buybacks if their objective is to grow long-term shareholder value. But the unique regulatory situation confronting banks combined with the prevailing low valuations of bank stocks, suggest to me that, if there is an appropriate time for banks to buy back stock, it's now.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2759&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/JohnMaxfield37/info.aspx" type="external">John Maxfield Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Bank of America. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America. 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> | Should Bank of America Buy Back Stock? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/17/should-bank-america-buy-back-stock.html | 2016-08-17 | 0 |
<p />
<p>As more and more professionals pour into the job seeking ranks, many are looking for alternatives to the typical jobs seeking tactics. Facing a tough labor market, job seeks with senior management backgrounds are asking: What is an executive search firm?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Job candidates often confuse executive search firms with recruitment, staffing, and placement firms, but from both the job seeker and employer perspective, there is quite a difference.</p>
<p>Executive search firms typically work directly with C-suite executives, boards, and division heads of companies on a retainer basis. The client organization exclusively contracts with the executive search firm to fill a particular position. The types of positions they focus on are senior level (senior management and executive leadership) and high salary ($300,000 and up). Consultants in these executive search firms usually reach out to a national pool of candidates (often employed) who meet a specific set of criteria. Candidates who express interest are then put through a fairly extensive vetting process before being presented to the client for final selection. The vetting process usually includes a battery of ability and personality assessments, role plays, and interviews.</p>
<p>On the other hand, recruiters and placement firms tend to focus on the full gamut of positions and usually operate on a contingency basis. In other words, if you get hired (and typically stay on for a minimum agreed upon period of time), they receive a commission. Recruiters are typically more localized in their searches and maintain pools of job seekers.</p>
<p>I recently had the opportunity to chat with Juan Luis Betancourt, client partner with Korn/Ferry International and guest advisor to Donald Trump on this season’s The Apprentice, about how executive search firms work and what candidates and employers should know about them.</p>
<p>For senior management and executive level candidates looking to get out there on the market, Betancourt has three tips to keep in mind when trying to get on the radar screen of an executive search firm:</p>
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<p>1.) Know the Top Global Executive Search Firms. According to Betancourt, there are five &#160;major global firms: Korn/Ferry International, Egon Zehnder International, Heidrick &amp; Struggles, Russell Reynolds, and Spencer Stuart.</p>
<p>2.) Find the Firm for Your Industry. &#160;Find out which executive search consultants in these firms are focused on your industry and position and find out how to get on their radar. Keep in mind, executive search consultants like Juan typically get up to 400 e-mails a day, so be sure to be quick and to the point in your communications.</p>
<p>3.) Establish Relationships. Cultivate relationships with these consultants and understand it takes time. Unlike recruiters or placement firms, executive search consultants don’t typically go out and solicit candidates for their database. They conduct very specific searches based on requests by their clients.</p>
<p>According to Betancourt, “at the end of the day, skill sets are a commodity, there are literally hundreds of candidates who match the skill requirements, so our focus is on leadership competence, personality and fit with the culture of the company.”</p>
<p>Considering the current environment, getting on the radar of an executive search firm won’t be an easy task. However, for those in the management and leadership ranks out there searching, Betancourt’s advice is certainly worth considering.</p>
<p>Michael “ <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/DrWoody/68127538503" type="external">Dr. Woody” Woodward, Opens a New Window.</a> PhD is a CEC certified professional coach who holds a PhD in organizational psychology. Dr. Woody is founder of the consulting firm HCI and author of the new book <a href="http://www.DrWoody.com" type="external">The YOU Plan: A 5-step Guide to Taking Charge of Your Career in the New Economy. Opens a New Window.</a></p> | How to Get Executive Search Firm to Notice You | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2010/12/06/executive-search-firm.html | 2016-03-17 | 0 |
<p>Shares of some top credit card companies are mixed at 1 p.m.:</p>
<p>American Express Co. rose $.04 or percent, to $95.39.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Capital One Financial Corp. rose $.48 or .6 percent, to $83.50.</p>
<p>Discover Financial Services fell $.07 or .1 percent, to $62.82.</p>
<p>Mastercard rose $.57 or .8 percent, to $76.10.</p>
<p>Visa Inc. rose $.74 or .3 percent, to $214.99.</p> | Credit Card companies shares mixed at 1 p.m. | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/12/26/credit-card-companies-shares-mixed-at-1-pm.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>The jury in Las Cruces federal court found Amado Acevedo-Gonzalez, 36, a Mexican national, and Yolanda Rodriguez, 50, a U.S. citizen who formerly resided in Mexico, guilty of multiple drug trafficking and money laundering charges after a four-day trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico.</p>
<p>An October 2015 indictment charged Acevedo-Gonzalez, Rodriguez and 18 others in a conspiracy that spanned Doña Ana, Luna and Bernalillo counties, in which operatives shipped cocaine and marijuana in tractor-trailers from Mexico to an Albuquerque auto body shop.</p>
<p>From there, members of the ring coordinated with crime bosses in Mexico to distribute the contraband, collect proceeds and smuggle the cash back to Mexico.</p>
<p>Federal agents used court-authorized wiretaps to gather evidence over a 10-month investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.</p>
<p>Agents seized more than $267,000 in drug proceeds, other assets valued at $153,000 and a tractor-trailer packed with marijuana. They also seized or purchased 6.2 kilograms of cocaine, 2.9 kilograms of methamphetamine, about 1,040 kilograms of marijuana and 351 grams of heroin.</p>
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<p>Specifically, Acevedo-Gonzalez was pinned for distributing marijuana for the organization, while Rodriguez acted as a courier, transporting drugs and drug proceeds from Albuquerque to Mexico. Acevedo-Gonzalez faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and Rodriguez faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.</p>
<p>Ten other people named in the indictment have pleaded guilty, while eight others remain fugitives.</p>
<p>The multi-agency investigation included the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Border Patrol under the U.S. Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which combines the resources and expertise of federal agencies and their local counterparts in a coordinated effort to disrupt and dismantle major drug trafficking organizations.</p>
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<p /> | Federal jury convicts two in drug trafficking case | false | https://abqjournal.com/863181/jurors-convict-drug-ring-members.html | 2 |
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<p>JAN. 7, 2011</p>
<p>Tucked away under the authority of the California State Library, the <a href="http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/" type="external">California Research Bureau</a> “provides nonpartisan research services to the Governor and his staff, to both houses of the legislature, and to other state elected officials.” In a questionable move in 2009, the CRB went out on a good-sized limb and predicted that the foreclosure crisis “would end in 2010, when employment losses bottom out and housing prices start rising again.” Did they use a Ouija board?</p>
<p>Last year Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, touted <a href="" type="external">Agenda 2010</a>, a legislation package that claimed to create 140,000 jobs in the state, based on research provided by the CRB. “Agenda 2010 represents a real, nonpartisan, empirically supported effort to help create jobs for Californians,” said Steinberg in a press release.</p>
<p>The CRB <a href="http://senweb03.senate.ca.gov/focus/agenda2010/pdf/Memorandum_employment_impacts_feb2010_steinberg.pdf" type="external">concluded</a> in 2010 that the jobs package “would create 100,000 jobs, create $6.7 billion in economic activity per year, save the General Fund approximately $2.3 billion in increased revenue and avoided costs, and result in a net increase in employment of approximately 300,000 jobs- reducing unemployment by 275,000.”</p>
<p>But unemployment in the state is up, now topping 12.6 percent.</p>
<p>In a February 2010 press release about <a href="" type="external">Agenda 2010</a>, Steinberg said, “I have been through enough budgets to know that the only way to increase and sustain the tax base is to create high wage jobs.”</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware that lawmakers established the creation of high wage jobs… unless perhaps they are expanding government and union jobs.</p>
<p>Bills in the <a href="http://senweb03.senate.ca.gov/focus/agenda2010/legislation.aspx" type="external">Agenda 2010</a> package included SB 77 (Pavely), which stated that it would create 10,500 jobs by allowing business owners to receive state-funded loans for energy retrofits. But the repayment process is a little trickier, through assessments on owners’ property tax bill. This bill’s “research” was provided by the decidedly liberal group <a href="http://nextten.org/" type="external">Next 10</a>.</p>
<p>Another beauty in the bill package was <a href="http://senweb03.senate.ca.gov/focus/agenda2010/updates.aspx" type="external">SB 964</a> (Alquist), which appropriated $500,000 from the High Speed Rail bond funds to pay for research to determine what skills are necessary to build the state’s high speed rail system.&#160;The bill was supposed to “train 5,000 Californians” for employment.</p>
<p>The stated primary purpose of the Agenda 2010 was “investment of public funds to create jobs.”&#160;There were no bills offering tax cuts to business owners for job creation, or to the state’s taxpayers in order to create incentives for personal spending. Democrats apparently think that spending more state money is what creates jobs, only proving once again that California has too many lawyers in charge, and too few economists.</p>
<p>The fallacy of Agenda 2010’s bills is that new jobs will be created because of additional state spending. Legislators think that jobs will be created to retrofit business owners’ buildings, or that new consultants will be hired to help the High Speed Rail Authority decide what job skills are needed by its employees.</p>
<p>Nothing could be further from the truth. Business owners will hire existing contractors to perform the energy retrofits. Those contractors will not hire new people, but will use existing staff and familiar subcontractors. Consultants will not hire new employees – particularly since one person can determine in about 30 minutes what job skills are needed for employment with the High Speed Rail Authority.</p>
<p>The Democrats’ bill package is designed for only one purpose – to spend public money on unionized employees at the expense of the taxpayer.</p>
<p>Steinberg claimed that the High Speed Rail Authority would create 50,625 jobs, and the Multifamily Housing Program at the Department of Housing and Community Development would create 2,965 jobs. Democrats insisted that spending federal transportation funds on shovel-ready projects to improve highways, streets and roads, as well as public transit systems would create 54,000 jobs. They also said the “Gas Tax Swap” would save 18,000 jobs.</p>
<p>Who writes this stuff? Only people with no private sector experience could live in such an economic Shangri-La.</p>
<p>In his Jan. 2 op ed in the Sacramento Bee, Steinberg continued his advocacy for “pushing the budget down to local governments,” echoing the phrase used by nearly all Democratic candidates and legislators.</p>
<p>The state Democratic leader has been saying for months that he wants to not only push some state services down to the local governments, but also to make it easier for counties to collect taxes.</p>
<p>“The only alternative in this difficult fiscal environment is to rethink the roles of government at both the state and local levels and shift programs, along with the dollars to run them, closer to the people served,” Steinberg said last year when he first began the push for “local control.”</p>
<p>And&#160;Governor Jerry Brown echoed the theme in his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7pkozsljuA&amp;feature=related" type="external">campaign commercials</a>: “We’ve got to take power from the state capital and move it down to the local level, closer to the people.”</p>
<p>This just sounds like more double-speak from state leadership.</p>
<p>“We need to “devolve” some services and funds to local growth,” claimed one editorial.</p>
<p>Devolve?</p>
<p>A favorite phrase of many Democrats’ is “empowering local government to do a better job.” Then there’s “replacing top-down, silo-based governance with community approaches.”</p>
<p>The carefully worded expressions used recently by Democratic players include, “Regional collaboration,” “We need a community dialogue,” and “Bringing government closer to the people.”</p>
<p>But if you read what Democratic legislators and leaders are really saying, then the agenda is quite clear: Unless the state raises taxes, California will become insolvent.</p>
<p>So which taxpayers should receive tax increases? The wealthy? The already stressed middle-class employed workers who are still losing homes and scrambling to keep jobs? …or the underemployed who take any job just to keep from going on the public dole?</p>
<p>According to most elected Democrats, the best place to find more tax “revenue” is from property and business owners. Democrats charge that property owners have not been paying a fair share of taxes for more than 30 years, thanks to Proposition 13, and business owners can and should pay more.</p>
<p>And to get Californian’s attention, they will order services cut.</p>
<p>Brown is already threatening drastic cuts to crucial services in the state – or we all can pony-up with more tax money next election in order to keep our police and sheriffs, teachers, water and sewer services. The talk never turns to substantive cuts to the cost of ever-growing government pensions, benefits, salaries and entitlement programs.</p>
<p>Steinberg said that legislators cannot right the budget with cuts alone, but when added up, the additional spending in their Agenda 2010 bills would save the state more than enough. Or, they could just cut the High-Speed-Rail-to-nowhere program.</p>
<p>Legislators claim they can “save” by spending, proving that they just don’t want to have to stop spending. I wonder what Agenda 2011 will bring.</p>
<p>-Katy Grimes</p> | Waiting To See Agenda 2011 | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2011/01/07/what-will-agenda-2011-look-like/ | 2018-01-20 | 3 |
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<p>A male suspect was being questioned by police but had not been charged as of late Tuesday night. Capt. Aric Wheeler confirmed the suspects were picked up by the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office and the Española Police Department.</p>
<p>Jeannie Sandoval, 30, will be charged with an open count of murder and a charge of tampering with evidence, police said.</p>
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<p>The death was reported just after noon Tuesday at an apartment near the Luisa Senior Center, Wheeler said. He said police went into the home and confirmed a man was dead inside. They then backed out of the apartment while awaiting crime scene investigators and a search warrant.</p>
<p>Wheeler said police believe the body could be that of George Ortiz, although he said police were hesitant to positively identify the body because of the condition of the crime scene. He said forensic evidence, such as dental records, could be used to make the connection before police “formally” identified the victim as Ortiz.</p>
<p>Wheeler said the apartment had fire damage, which was visible from an open window that had smoke damage around the stucco.</p>
<p>Crime scene investigators wearing protective covers over their shoes shined flashlights in the window. Wheeler would not say whether the victim’s body was burned or whether arson could be a factor in the death. He said he could not go into details about a motive.</p>
<p>Wheeler said at least one of the suspects was related to Ortiz. He said the two suspects were picked up in a Toyota Camry that was registered to Ortiz.</p>
<p>Rio Arriba Sheriff’s Office spokesman Jake Arnold says the suspects were found after Santa Fe police put out a be-on-the-lookout notice for a vehicle in connection with the homicide.</p>
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<p>The vehicle and the two suspects were found at the Walgreens store in Española and were taken into custody by Sheriff Tommy Rodella and Lt. Vince Crespin.</p>
<p>Jessie Valladares, a caretaker for one of the people at the complex where the killing took place, said she showed up for work around 7 a.m. Tuesday and didn’t notice anything unusual.</p>
<p>She said Ortiz was cared for by a woman she thought was his daughter. She last saw them sitting together at the dinner table on Monday.</p>
<p>Wheeler said the homicide was unusual for the neighborhood.</p>
<p>“It’s extremely quiet for the most part,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of problems in this area.”</p>
<p>The complex sits near the senior center, where volunteer Christine Mendoza said Ortiz helped out by washing dishes and serving food. Mendoza said she last saw Ortiz on Monday, serving breakfast.</p>
<p>“It’s just unbelievable he isn’t here,” she said. “He’s not with us today.”</p>
<p>Another woman around the center called Ortiz a “wonderful man.”</p>
<p>“He will be missed,” she said.</p> | Woman Held in S.F. Senior Center Death | false | https://abqjournal.com/142732/woman-held-in-s-f-senior-center-death.html | 2 |
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<p>The European Union's top Brexit negotiator on Monday took an uncompromising approach to the Brexit talks over the next few crucial weeks, saying it's up to Britain to offer solutions on outstanding issues and insisting other EU decision-makers could be more unyielding than he has been.</p>
<p>Michel Barnier told a conference in Brussels that London needs to provide clear proposals soon to find a way for the U.K. to leave the EU in 2019 but still have a transparent, open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"Those who wanted Brexit must offer solutions," Barnier told a gathering at the Center for European Reform.</p>
<p>Britain is hoping EU leaders will agree at a Dec. 14-15 summit to start talking about post-Brexit relations and trade. But the EU is demanding "sufficient progress" first on the Irish border, the rights of citizens affected by Brexit and the bill Britain must pay to settle its commitments to the bloc.</p>
<p>Barnier has said Britain has until the end of November to demonstrate that progress.</p>
<p>On Monday, he dashed British hopes that the EU is prepared to make big compromises, saying the bloc's legal rules and commitments had to be respected. And he said there was no point in him being lenient, since EU nations, their legislators and the European Parliament will have to approve any deal, too.</p>
<p>Barnier warned that Britain would not get the close free-trade deal it seeks with the EU unless it stuck to a "European model" of the economy. Some British advocates of Brexit want the U.K. to adopt a low-tax, light-regulation free-market economic model once it leaves the bloc.</p>
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<p>"Does it want to stay close to the European model or does it want to gradually move away from it?" Barnier asked. He said Britain's answer could be decisive since it will "shape also the conditions for ratification of that partnership in many national parliaments and obviously in the European Parliament."</p>
<p>"I do not say this to create problems but to avoid problems," he said. A late rejection of a divorce agreement in the fall of 2018 by European legislators could create immense problems when Britain leaves on March 29, 2019.</p>
<p>He also dashed hopes for a compromise in which Britain could still use some of the EU's single market of free movement of goods, services, capital and labor.</p>
<p>Since Britain wants to end the free movement of people, Barnier said, "this means that the U.K. will lose the benefits of the single market. This is a legal reality."</p>
<p>Barnier also has been steadfast in insisting Britain should settle its outgoing bill before leaving. Britain has offered some 20 billion pounds (22.5 billion euros, $26 billion), but the EU is seeking more than double that.</p>
<p>The British government's Brexit committee is meeting Monday to discuss negotiations. Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman would not confirm reports that Britain is preparing to increase its offer on the Brexit bill by as much as 20 billion pounds.</p>
<p>"The PM has been clear — the U.K. will honor commitments we have made during the period of our membership," said spokesman James Slack.</p>
<p>But he said "specific-figure scenarios are all subject to negotiation."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Lawless reported from London.</p> | EU takes tough approach to Brexit as talks enter key weeks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/20/eus-barnier-says-uk-must-offer-ireland-solutions-for-brexit.html | 2017-11-20 | 0 |
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<p>Image source: Roche.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In 2014, shares of Exelixis , a drug developer focused on creating cancer therapies, got throttled. At the time, the company seemed to be on the ropes after its COMET trials, which examined Cometriq (a treatment currently approved to treat metastatic medullary thyroid cancer) as a treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, flopped.</p>
<p>Missing out on a widely diagnosed indication was one problem. But the other issue for Exelixis was that it was quickly burning through its remaining cash on hand. With Cometriq only delivering minimal revenue from patients with aggressive thyroid cancer, drug development costs were leaving the company with steep losses. If those losses continued, there was no telling if Exelixis would survive to see the end of 2015 or 2016.</p>
<p>Two events that changed Exelixis' path But times have changed in a big way. Last year, Exelixis announced two key events that helped shape its future.</p>
<p>Image source: Exelixis.</p>
<p>First, in July Exelixis delivered the top-line results from its METEOR study of Cometriq as a treatment for second-line metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The results, as well as results released from subgroup analyses months later, showed a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival for the Cometriq arm versus the placebo. Following its new drug application filing and expedited review process, Exelixis and its shareholders will find out if Cometriq's label will be expanded on or before its PDUFA action date of June 22, 2016.</p>
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<p>The other catalyst was the mid-November Food and Drug Administration approval of Cotellic (an Exelixis-developed compound) in combination with Roche's Zelboraf as a treatment for BRAF V600E or V600K mutation metastatic melanoma. As sales of the combination increase, the revenue and profit share will swing more toward Roche, but the approval gives Exelixis another foot in the door in oncology.</p>
<p>With renewed prospects for revenue growth, this left only one aspect left to tackle: Exelixis' cash burn. On Monday, Exelixis put that worry to bed.</p>
<p>Exelixis finally snags a licensing partner Expecting only to hear Exelixis' management team discuss its fourth-quarter performance and 2016 fiscal guidance, Wall Street and shareholders were instead treated to a press release after the closing bell that described the company's new licensing partnership with Ipsen for Cometriq in areas outside the United States, Canada, and Japan.</p>
<p>Image source: Flickr user Nguyen Hung Vu.</p>
<p>Under the terms of the deal, Ipsen will receive the rights to current and future potential indications for Cometriq in all markets but those three. The companies also agreed to collaborate on current and future indications.</p>
<p>In return, Ipsen will pay $200 million up front to Exelixis. Additionally, Exelixis can earn regulatory milestone payouts that include $60 million for the approval of Cometriq in the EU for RCC, and $50 million upon filing and approval for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC, in the EU. Exelixis also remains eligible to earn up to $545 million in commercial milestones, and up to a tiered 26% royalty in sales of the drug in territories covered by Ipsen.</p>
<p>Michael Morrissey of Exelixis explained the move:</p>
<p>With an extra $200 million in its coffers from this deal, and a probable $60 million milestone payment upcoming after Cometriq wins approval as anRCC treatment in the EU, Exelixis could soon have more than $510 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments at its disposal. Exelixis ended fiscal 2015 with $253.3 million. Although it's still losing money, this added cash cushion will give Exelixis years to build up its two products and conduct additional research into new cancer therapies.</p>
<p>Promise and pitfallsAs an Exelixis shareholder, this news is exactly what I wanted to hear. Removing the near-term uncertainties that a cash crunch could have created allows investors to focus on the potential launch of Cometriq for second-line RCC (assuming approval by the FDA) and the uptake of Cotellic in combination with Zelboraf for metastatic melanoma.</p>
<p>Additionally, there's promise that Cometriq, Cotellic, or perhaps both, would work well in combination with cancer immunotherapies. Immunotherapies are a new class of cancer drug that work to expose cancer cells to the immune system so they can be more effectively found and destroyed. Roche is already conducting a study of its experimental immunotherapy drug atezolizumab in combination with Cotellic, and it wouldn't be surprising to see additional studies of this type undertaken.</p>
<p>Image source: Bristol-Myers Squibb.</p>
<p>Of course, even as an optimistic shareholder, I also see potential risks. Theapproval of Bristol-Myers Squibb's cancer immunotherapy drug Opdivo for second-line RCC has allowed it to gobble up substantial market share. Even if the FDA approves Cometriq, Opdivo is likely to remain the preferred second-line therapeutic. However, if Cometriq can garner a market share of just 10% as the next-in-line therapy behind Opdivo, it could generate substantial top-line sales and strongly curb cash outflow.</p>
<p>Of bigger concern is the CELESTIAL trial for advanced HCC, which is due to deliver top-line data in 2017. The METEOR study's primary endpoint was progression-free survival, and in every previous study with Cometriq that I can recall, it's hit the predefined PFS endpoint. However, COMET's goal involved hitting a statistically significant improvement in overall survival (OS). While Cometriq has a history of delivering a positive trend in OS, it doesn't always hit "statistical significance" when it comes to the amount of improvement. Thus, there's always the concern that CELESTIAL may not deliver the results investors are expecting. Also, keep in mind that different cancer types can react differently to the same medication, so at this point, my concerns are nothing more than musings based on findings in different cancer types.</p>
<p>For the time being I remain excited about Exelixis' future, and I believe this licensing deal should go a long way toward removing its near-term uncertainties. I'd suggest circling June 22 on your calendars, as the label expansion decision due by that date will the next likely major catalyst for Exelixis.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/01/exelixis-finally-snags-a-licensing-partner-for-com.aspx" type="external">Exelixis Finally Snags a Licensing Partner for Cometriq Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a>owns shares of Exelixis, but has no material interest in any other companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/tmfultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, track every pick he makes under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/trackultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TrackUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TMFUltraLong" type="external">@TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>.The Motley Fool recommends Exelixis. 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> | Exelixis Finally Snags a Licensing Partner for Cometriq | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/01/exelixis-finally-snags-licensing-partner-for-cometriq.html | 2016-03-27 | 0 |
<p>Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP</p>
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<p>Former CIA director John Brennan testified on Monday that he grew alarmed last summer about efforts by the Russian government to “suborn”—perhaps unwittingly—members of the Trump campaign, and that his concerns formed the basis for the FBI’s probe into possible collusion between Trump officials and the Kremlin. His remarks came during a hearing of the House intelligence committee, which is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, including potential coordination with the president’s campaign.</p>
<p>When Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) pressed Brennan on whether he had seen any evidence of collusion, Brennan replied: “I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and US persons involved in the Trump campaign that.” He added, “I don’t know whether or not such collusion…existed…but I know that there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to determine whether or not US persons were actively conspiring, colluding with Russian officials.”</p>
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<p>Later in the hearing, Gowdy continued to push Brennan about whether he had seen “evidence of collusion, coordination, conspiracy between Donald Trump and Russia state actors.” Brennan said he could answer that query more fully in a subsequent closed hearing, but noted that the intelligence regarding Russian contacts and the Trump campaign “raised concerns in my mind about whether or not those individuals were cooperating with the Russians—either in a witting or unwitting fashion—and that served as the basis for the FBI investigation to determine whether such collusion, cooperation occurred.”</p>
<p>Brennan, who stepped down when Trump took office and took the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2016/12/1/13793608/cia-brennan-trump-bbc-interview" type="external">unusual step</a> of criticizing an incoming president, explained it was not the CIA’s job to make a judgment about whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia but to supply the FBI with the evidence it had gathered to investigate the case.</p>
<p /> | Ex-CIA Chief: There Was Intel About Trump Campaign-Russia Contacts That FBI Needed to Probe | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/john-brennan-testifies-trump-russia-contacts-raised-concerns-collusion/ | 2017-05-23 | 4 |
<p>JOHANNESBURG—Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday was sworn in as South Africa’s new president after the resignation of Jacob Zuma, whose scandals brought the storied African National Congress to its weakest point since taking power at the end of apartheid.</p>
<p>“I will try very hard not to disappoint the people of South Africa,” Ramaphosa said in ending his speech to parliament shortly after ruling party lawmakers elected him. He said the issue of corruption is on “our radar screen.”</p>
<p>Ramaphosa was the only candidate nominated for election after two opposition parties said they would not participate. The two parties instead unsuccessfully called for the dissolution of the National Assembly and early elections.</p>
<p>Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng presided over the parliamentary election and congratulated Ramaphosa, who had been Zuma’s deputy and in December was narrowly elected leader of the ruling party over Zuma’s ex-wife.</p>
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<p>Zuma resigned after years of scandals that damaged the reputation of the ruling ANC, which had instructed him this week to step down or face a parliamentary motion of no confidence that he would almost certainly lose. Zuma denies any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa is South Africa’s fifth president since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. On Friday evening, he is expected to deliver the state of the nation address that had been postponed during the ruling party’s days of closed-door negotiations to persuade Zuma to resign.</p>
<p>As some South Africans cheered the end to Zuma’s era, the rand currency strengthened against the dollar in early trading Thursday.</p>
<p>The country’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, will cooperate with Ramaphosa if he acts in the interests of the South African people, said party leader Mmusi Maimane.</p>
<p>“We will hold you accountable and I will see you in 2019 on the ballot box,” Maimane said.</p>
<p>Members of a smaller opposition party walked out of parliament before the election, saying the ANC plan to choose a new president was “illegitimate.”</p>
<p>Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, said ANC lawmakers had failed to hold former Zuma to account for alleged corruption and had therefore violated the constitution.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa now is challenged with reviving the reputation of the ANC, Africa’s most prominent liberation movement, which fought apartheid and has been in power since the first all-race elections in 1994. The party’s popularity fell as anger over corruption allegations grew and it suffered its worst showing at the polls in municipal elections in 2016.</p>
<p>The prospect of facing a possible coalition government for the first time helped push some ANC leaders to decide that Zuma had to go.</p>
<p>On Thursday the foundation of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, welcomed Zuma’s departure but said the state must act against “networks of criminality” that have hurt the country’s democracy.</p>
<p>As the country marks the centenary of Mandela’s 1918 birth, “there is a need to reckon with the failures of the democratic era,” the foundation said. “We believe that we are at a critical moment in our history, one which offers us the unique opportunity to reflect, to rebuild, and to transform.”</p>
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<p>Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at&#160; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/torchiachris" type="external">www.twitter.com/torchiachris</a></p> | Cyril Ramaphosa Sworn In as South Africa's New President | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/ramaphosa-set-become-new-south-african-president/ | 2018-02-15 | 4 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A truck believed to be tied to a string of recent burglaries crashed into a wall Tuesday morning on Albuquerque’s West Side, according to the Albuquerque Police Department.</p>
<p>The maroon Ford pickup was connected to recent residential burglaries where the front doors of the homes were kicked in, said police spokesman Officer Robert Gibbs. Police received a call late in the morning Tuesday that two men in a similar truck were knocking on doors and ringing doorbells.</p>
<p>Police stopped the truck at Coors and St. Joseph’s and gave the driver, Arthur Sanchez, 34, a ticket for driving on a suspended license, Gibbs said. The other man in the car, Aaron Montoya, 38, was allowed to drive. There were two children, 7 and 7 months old, in the truck, as well.</p>
<p>A police helicopter watched the truck after the traffic stop, and officers saw Sanchez and Montoya force their way into two homes in the neighborhood east of Unser and north of Montaño. At one house, the men were seen carrying out a flat-screen TV, Gibbs said.</p>
<p>Officers in the area approached the truck, and Sanchez fled on foot while Montoya sped off in the vehicle. Sanchez was quickly taken into custody, and the helicopter continued to follow Montoya as he drove south on Unser at speeds up to 100 mph, Gibbs said.</p>
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<p>Montoya lost control at the intersection of Unser and Tierra Pintada and crashed into a wall. He was taken into custody with a minor cut below his eye.</p>
<p>The children in the truck were unharmed and put in care of their mother.</p>
<p>The men were arrested on charges of burglary, conspiracy and child abuse.</p>
<p>Montoya had been arrested about 18 times between 1995 and 2004, Gibbs said. Sanchez had been arrested about 26 times between 1996 to 2011. — This article appeared on page 26 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Truck Crashes After Chase | false | https://abqjournal.com/102201/truck-crashes-after-chase.html | 2012-04-26 | 2 |
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Alize Johnson had 24 points and 17 rebounds and Missouri State held off Valparaiso for a 64-57 victory on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Johnson was 9-of-14 shooting, made three 3-pointers and collected his eighth straight double-double. Jarred Dixon finished with 12 points for Missouri State (15-5, 5-2 Missouri Valley Conference), which swept the Crusaders and has won six of its last eight.</p>
<p>Dixon hit a jumper, Johnson scored eight points, and Obediah Church capped a 12-2 run with a dunk that stretched Missouri State’s one-point lead to 57-46 with five minutes to play.</p>
<p>Tevonn Walker scored the next five points, and Max Joseph made a 3-pointer during an 11-4 spurt that pulled the Crusaders to 61-57 with 33 seconds left. Dixon made 3 of 4 free throws to seal it.</p>
<p>Markus Golder scored 12 points and Walker had 10 to lead Valparaiso (11-9, 2-5).</p>
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Alize Johnson had 24 points and 17 rebounds and Missouri State held off Valparaiso for a 64-57 victory on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Johnson was 9-of-14 shooting, made three 3-pointers and collected his eighth straight double-double. Jarred Dixon finished with 12 points for Missouri State (15-5, 5-2 Missouri Valley Conference), which swept the Crusaders and has won six of its last eight.</p>
<p>Dixon hit a jumper, Johnson scored eight points, and Obediah Church capped a 12-2 run with a dunk that stretched Missouri State’s one-point lead to 57-46 with five minutes to play.</p>
<p>Tevonn Walker scored the next five points, and Max Joseph made a 3-pointer during an 11-4 spurt that pulled the Crusaders to 61-57 with 33 seconds left. Dixon made 3 of 4 free throws to seal it.</p>
<p>Markus Golder scored 12 points and Walker had 10 to lead Valparaiso (11-9, 2-5).</p> | Johnson has double-double, Missouri State beats Valpo 64-57 | false | https://apnews.com/b53db42e786e4e2a876ffdb0b146b613 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>By Damien McElroy</p>
<p>A sword-wielding executioner carried out the death sentence on Rizana Nafeek in the town of Dawadmy, near Riyadh, just hours after the country's Interior Ministry ratified the court verdict against her.</p>
<p>Nafeek was given the death sentence in 2007 for smothering the infant while working as the child's nanny. She had been accused of killing the 4-month-old boy two years earlier following an argument with his mother.</p>
<p>Nafeek however, who was aged only 17 at the time of the alleged offense, insisted that the child had choked to death on milk during a bottle feed.</p>
<p>The Sri Lankan government appealed against the death penalty, but the Saudi Supreme Court upheld it in 2010. Despite an international campaign for clemency, that verdict was finally ratified by the country's Interior Ministry yesterday.</p>
<p>The announcement the execution had taken place shocked Nafeek's supporters who had expected the government of Sri Lanka to enter into negotiations to pay blood money for clemency.</p>
<p>A global campaign to save Nafeek had been led by a British charity <a href="http://www.asafeworldforwomen.org/" type="external">Safe World for Women</a>, founded by an English activist, Chris Crowstaff. Her supporters claimed her execution would be a breach of child rights.</p>
<p>"Saudi Arabia knew Rizana Nafeek was a child [but] they beheaded her anyway," said Joanne Michele, a researcher with the group. "Rizana Nafeek had no access to lawyers either during her pre-trial interrogation or during her first trial."</p>
<p>Nafeek was found guilty of smothering the infant after signing a confession written in Arabic that she did not understand and later retracted.</p>
<p>Mahinda Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan president, condemned the swift execution of Nafeek as the country's parliament in Colombo observed a minute's silence in her memory.</p>
<p>The government was still assembling the members of a diplomatic delegation to Riyadh to plead her case when the sentence was carried out.</p>
<p>"President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a personal appeal on two occasions immediately after the confirmation of the death sentence, and a few days ago to stop the execution and grant a pardon to Miss Rizana Nafeek," the Sri Lankan government said.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.hrw.org/home" type="external">Human Rights Watch</a> was among the groups to <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/08/saudi-arabia-halt-execution-sri-lankan-migrant-worker" type="external">campaign against</a> the beheading of Nafeek because she was 17 at the time of the killing.</p>
<p>"In executing Rizana Nafeek, Saudi authorities demonstrated callous disregard for basic humanity as well as Saudi Arabia's international legal obligations," said Nisha Varia, its senior women's-rights researcher.</p>
<p>But Sri Lankan activists said the country's government shared the blame because it had not pushed Saudi Arabian authorities hard enough to save Nafeek's life.</p>
<p>"All Sri Lankans should regard today as a day of shame," the <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/08/saudi-arabia-halt-execution-sri-lankan-migrant-worker" type="external">Asia Human Rights Commission</a> said. "There is no doubt that the charge of murder against Rizana is wrong. The laws in Saudi Arabia fall short of universally accepted norms concerning investigations of crimes."</p>
<p>Last year the government of Indonesia, another country that supplies tens of thousands of maids to Saudi Arabia, paid $534,000 to a Saudi family as an official payment of "blood money" in order to spare the life of an Indonesian maid.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia <a href="/content/newsweek/2010/07/09/the-world-s-most-barbaric-punishments.html" type="external">beheaded</a> as many as 76 people last year under its strict code of Islamic law.</p>
<p>Cases of abuse, torture, and imprisonment of maids and other domestic servants has led some countries including Indonesia and Philippines to introduce restrictions on recruitment of maids by Saudi Arabian agencies after a public outcry.</p> | Saudi Arabia Beheads Sri Lankan Maid | true | https://thedailybeast.com/saudi-arabia-beheads-sri-lankan-maid | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p />
<p>&#160; &#160; President Obama at a Hillary Clinton event in Florida on Friday. (Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP)</p>
<p>Every week, Truthdig’s editors seek to present an image that singularly renders the world’s trouble, triumph or toil.</p>
<p>“You have a chance to shape history,” <a href="http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/10/28/obama-seeks-get-out-vote-clinton-orlando-rally/92856636/" type="external">President Obama told a crowd of 9,000 people</a> at a campaign stop for Hillary Clinton in Orlando, Fla., on Friday. “Hillary needs your help. I need your help. America needs your help. Let’s get to work.”</p>
<p />
<p>Two weeks earlier WikiLeaks revealed how the Clinton/Obama-led corporate wing of the Democratic Party works. An <a href="https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/8190" type="external">email sent in October 2008</a> and hacked from the personal account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta showed Citigroup executive Michael Froman <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/362836-emails-citigroup-obama-cabinet/" type="external">submitting names for dozens of positions</a> in then-candidate Obama’s anticipated presidential Cabinet.</p>
<p>“The cabinet list ended up being almost entirely on the money,” <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/137798/important-wikileaks-revelation-isnt-hillary-clinton" type="external">wrote David Dayen</a> of the New Republic about the leaked message. “It correctly identified Eric Holder for the Justice Department, Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security, Robert Gates for Defense, Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff, Peter Orszag for the Office of Management and Budget, Arne Duncan for Education, Eric Shinseki for Veterans Affairs, Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services, Melody Barnes for the Domestic Policy Council, and more.”</p>
<p>“For the Treasury, three possibilities were on the list: Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Timothy Geithner.”</p>
<p>Geithner ended up as Obama’s treasury secretary, while Summers was a key author of the response to the 2008 recession as director of Obama’s National Economic Council. And these men ensured that Froman’s Citigroup continued to benefit from the largest bailout the federal government gave during the financial crisis.</p>
<p>“Many already suspected that Froman, a longtime Obama consigliere, did the key economic policy hiring while part of the transition team,” Dayen explained. “We didn’t know he had so much influence that he could lock in key staff that early, without fanfare, while everyone was busy trying to get Obama elected. The WikiLeaks emails show even earlier planning; by September the transition was getting pre-clearance to assist nominees with financial disclosure forms.”</p>
<p>Dayen grants that Americans “want an incoming administration to be well-prepared and ready to go when power is transferred. For Obama, coming into office while the economy was melting down, this was particularly true. But the revelations also reinforce the need for critical scrutiny of Hillary Clinton [italics added], and for advocacy to ensure the next transition doesn’t go like the last, at least with respect to the same old Democrats scooping up all the positions of power well in advance.”</p>
<p>Many pundits who support Clinton advise voters to focus exclusively on defeating Donald Trump. “[T]here is a logic to that idea,” Dayen wrote. “Trump would legitimately be a terrifying leader of the free world. But there are consequences to the kind of home-team political atmosphere that rejects any critical thought about your own side. If the 2008 Podesta emails are any indication, the next four years of public policy are being hashed out right now, behind closed doors. And if liberals want to have an impact on that process, waiting until after the election will be too late.”</p>
<p>“Who gets these cabinet-level and West Wing advisory jobs matters as much as policy papers or legislative initiatives. It will inform executive branch priorities and responses to crises. It will dictate the level of enforcement of existing laws. It will establish the point of view of an administration and the advice Hillary Clinton will receive. Its importance cannot be stressed enough, and the process has already begun.”</p>
<p>Citing former Obama budget director Peter Orszag’s suggestion this week that progressive Democrats, led by Elizabeth Warren, should be given the power to appoint their people to certain positions in exchange for certain concessions to the Wall Street-aligned wing, Dayen writes that progressives have a greater chance to shape policy in 2016 than they did at the start of the Obama administration. And they should fight for it: “The demand to only hold one thing in your head at a time—that Trump must be stopped—would squander this opportunity.”</p>
<p>As Obama said Friday, progressives “have a chance to shape history.” But only if they speak up before the election.</p>
<p>This article was amended on Oct. 30 to more accurately state Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers’ roles in the protection of Citigroup during the financial crisis.</p> | Photo of the Week: Obama, Who Let Citigroup Staff His First Cabinet, Calls for Voter Solidarity | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/photo-of-the-week-obama-who-let-citigroup-staff-his-first-cabinet-calls-for-voter-solidarity/ | 2016-10-30 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>In Southern California, the Los Angeles Police Department's detectives are asking the public to assist in providing any crucial information that could lead to the possible identification and arrest of a kidnap suspect.</p>
<p>Yesterday on July 5, 2017, at around noon, in the 15000 block of El Cajon Street, Los Angeles Police Department's Mission Division officers responded to a call about a kidnapping situation.</p>
<p>Police released a video of the kidnapping which shows the victim talking with a larger sized overweight male. He was driving a light blue Chrysler minivan, which police say is possibly a Town and Country Van and was parked on the curb next to the victim.</p>
<p>In the footage, you can see female attempts to walk away, but the male then decided to follow her. He opens the sliding door of the van as he continues to talk to her. The male suspect then grabs the victim by the hair and forcibly throws her inside the van.</p>
<p>Her attempts to escape fail as he pushes her back inside before accessing the driver's seat and driving away with the victim still inside the van.</p>
<p>The female victim appears to be Hispanic, with long black hair, around 25 to 35 years old. The male is about 250 pounds, and around 30 to 35 years old. He is seen wearing a baseball cap that is turned backward.</p>
<p>If anyone has possible information that could identify the suspect or the victim contact the LAPD Mission Division at <a href="tel:18188389800" type="external">1-818-838-9800</a> and during non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-247.</p>
<p>If you prefer to remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS <a href="tel:18002228477" type="external">1-800-222-8477</a>. Tipsters may also go to <a href="http://www.lapdonline.org" type="external">lapdonline.org</a>, and click on "Anonymous Web Tips."</p>
<p />
<p>Source</p>
<p><a href="http://breaking911.com/caught-camera-woman-still-missing-kidnapper-grabs-hair-throws-van/" type="external">breaking911.com/caught-camera-woman-still-missing-kidnapper-grabs-hair-throws-van</a></p> | Woman Kidnapped In Broad Daylight, Manhunt Ongoing | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/4795-Woman-Kidnapped-In-Broad-Daylight-Manhunt-Ongoing | 2017-07-06 | 0 |
<p>2017 Toyota Corolla 50th Anniversary Special Edition</p>
<p>BASE PRICE: $18,500 for L; $18,935 for LE; $19,335 for LE Eco; $20,445 for SE; $21,665 for SE 6MT; $21,825 for XLE; $21,900 for 50th Anniversary Special Edition.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>PRICE AS TESTED: $24,517.</p>
<p>TYPE: Front-engine, front-wheel drive, five-passenger, mid-size sedan.</p>
<p>ENGINE: 1.8-liter, double overhead cam, inline four-cylinder with VVT-i.</p>
<p>MILEAGE: 28 mpg (city), 35 mpg (highway).</p>
<p>TOP SPEED: 111 mph.</p>
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<p>LENGTH: 183.1 inches.</p>
<p>WHEELBASE: 106.3 inches.</p>
<p>CURB WEIGHT: 2,950 pounds.</p>
<p>BUILT AT: Blue Springs, Miss.</p>
<p>OPTIONS: Power tilt/slide moonroof $850; paint protection film $395; illuminated door sills $309; universal tablet holder $99; rear bumper protector $79.</p>
<p>DESTINATION CHARGE: $885.</p> | Fact sheet: 2017 Toyota Corolla | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/08/fact-sheet-2017-toyota-corolla.html | 2017-02-08 | 0 |
<p>Between the 1930s and 60s, writer Joseph Mitchell kept The New Yorker real. Week after week, he gave the magazine's elite readership portraits of people who live in the city's fringes. He specializied in misfits and outcasts -- saloon-keepers, street preachers, gypsies and a 93-year-old "seafoodetarian" who believed that his special diet would keep him alive for another 20 years.&#160;Those stories were some of hte most beloved in the magazine's history. Mitchell died in 1996. Now he himself has been profiled in a new biography by Thomas Kunkel. &#160;Kunkel tells us about Mitchell's life and work.</p> | Joseph Mitchell's Literary Journalism | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-09-27/joseph-mitchells-literary-journalism | 2015-09-27 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
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<p>“If you don’t cut emissions, we’re just going to have to ask for more money because the damage is going to be worse,” Ronald Jumeau of the Seychelles said at U.N. climate talks.</p>
<p>The report was bound to sharpen disputes in Lima over who pays the bills for the impacts of global warming, whose primary cause is the burning of coal, oil and gas but which also includes deforestation. It has long been the thorniest issue at the U.N. negotiations, now in their 20th round.</p>
<p>Rich countries have pledged to help the developing world convert to clean energy, and adapt to shifts in global weather that are already adversely affecting crops, human health and economies. But poor countries say they’re not seeing enough cash.</p>
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<p>Projecting the annual costs that poor countries will face by 2050 just to adapt, the United Nations Environment Program report deemed the previous estimate of $70 billion to $100 billion “a significant underestimate.” It had been based on 2010 World Bank numbers.</p>
<p>The report says new studies indicate the costs will likely be “two to three times higher,” possibly even as high as $500 billion.</p>
<p>But that’s only if global warming stays below 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit compared to pre-industrial times, the limit set in the U.N. talks. Scientists say that would require cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that the world is nowhere near on track to accomplish.</p>
<p>“The report provides a powerful reminder that the potential cost of inaction carries a real price tag,” UNEP director Achim Steiner said in a statement.</p>
<p>Climate change impacts, including rising sea levels, shifts in rainfall patterns and more intense heat waves, affect all countries but the latter aren’t well equipped to cope.</p>
<p>They need help to protect their shorelines, crops and freshwater resources from rising seas, droughts and floods.</p>
<p>“We know what needs to be done. We just need the dollars or euros,” said Jumeau, who is also spokesman for small island states. The Seychelles is struggling to protect beaches from eroding, freshwater wells from drying up and coral reefs from being damaged, he said.</p>
<p>There is concern in Latin America that gains against poverty in the past two decades will be reversed due to climate change.</p>
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<p>A World Bank study this year found two degrees of warming would cause crop yields in Brazil to drop by 30-70 percent for soy and 50 percent for wheat.</p>
<p>Rich countries have pledged to provide $100 billion by 2020 to help developing countries reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change. They are not on track to deliver. Their governments provided about $25 billion in adaptation money to developing countries in 2012-2013, the UNEP report said.</p>
<p>Jumeau noted that the U.S. Congress approved more than twice as much in a disaster aid package after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.</p>
<p>The talks’ host country, Peru, is one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Already, it faces diminished highland water supplies from melting glaciers and global warming has also hurt the fishing industry.</p>
<p>The U.N.’s World Food Program says 3 million Peruvians – or one in 10 – are highly vulnerable to food insecurity and natural disaster risks.</p>
<p>Yet, like most developing nations, what it spends on adapting to climate change, including highlands reservoirs and irrigation projects, will have to compete with other urgent needs, such as improving education, public health and public transport.</p>
<p>“There isn’t enough money and there aren’t resources specifically earmarked to finance adaptation in Peru,” said Lenkiza Angulo, who runs adaptation projects in the Andean nation funded by the Swiss government and valued at $11 million.</p>
<p>One vehicle for funding adaptation – as well as mitigating damages from climate change – is The Green Climate Fund, which nearly reached the $10 billion mark on Friday with a $258 million pledge from Norway.</p>
<p /> | U.N.: Climate change will cost more | false | https://abqjournal.com/506645/un-climate-change-will-cost-more.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>When Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) first introduced the Echo, it was a bit of a novelty, little more than a voice-controlled music player that had some very rudimentary digital assistant features. Slowly and steadily, however, the company has increased what Alexa, the name used to address the artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant in the device, can do.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Echo and its sister product, Dot, now can serve as the base that controls your home. Developers from hundreds, perhaps thousands, of companies have been rolling out products that integrate with Echo and countless more have been embedding Alexa into their devices. In addition, the Amazon devices and their AI "brain" were one of the big topics at January's Consumer Electronics Show with Alexa-enabled or controllable devices being very well represented.</p>
<p>Amazon has jumped to a lead in the race to control the smart home of the future, which, for some people, has become the smart home of the present. What's hard to know, because the online retailer does not share much, if any, data on devices sold, is exactly how big the market for Echo has become.</p>
<p>Amazon's Echo and the smaller Dot have the Alexa AI built in. Image source: Amazon.</p>
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<p>While Amazon does not share sales data, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) has analyzed the company's user base and come up with an estimate as to how many Echos have been sold. The research firm said its analysis indicates that 8.2 million Amazon customers in the United States have purchased an Echo device since its late-2014 introduction.</p>
<p>CIRP also found that awareness of the Echo has risen dramatically among the online retailer's customers. The research company estimates that among U.S. Amazon customers, awareness of the devices increased to 82% as of Dec. 31, 2016, up from 47% a year before that and 20% on March 31, 2015 (the first quarter after its introduction).</p>
<p>"Amazon efforts to promote the expanded Echo product line appears to have paid off," said CIRP Partner Josh Lowitz in a statement. "With traditional media advertising and prominent placement at the Amazon.com website, Echo product awareness among Amazon customers continued its rapid ascent in the fourth quarter of 2016."</p>
<p>Echo has benefited from Amazon cleverly building the user base. It did that by first making the device exclusively available to Prime members, selling to early adopters for $99, half its normal price. It then kept adding features, built word of mouth, and added the cheaper Dot to further grow the brand.</p>
<p>"The installed base of homes with Amazon Echo devices has grown dramatically, and close to tripled in the past twelve months," said CIRP Partner Mike Levin in a statement. "Amazon promoted Echo aggressively over the holiday shopping season, with especially aggressive pricing for the Echo Dot. The new models account for close to half of sales since Amazon introduced them earlier in 2016."</p>
<p>Amazon has the lead and it has a customer base that it can market to, but it will face challenges to its dominance in this space. Alphabet's Google released an Echo knockoff for the holiday season and other major players including Microsoft have their own speaker plus voice-controlled AI devices either available or planned.</p>
<p>The online retailer does have two big advantages. First, it has the 8.2 million customers CIRP estimates own an Echo device. That can (and should) be a word-of-mouth army taking some of the fear out of buying a product that many people may be aware of, but not quite understand. Second, Amazon has hundreds of millions of customers in its database that it can market to. Those are people whose shopping habits the retailer knows well, which should allow it to customize offers to get people to buy an Echo.</p>
<p>Other competitors will certainly succeed in this space, but Amazon has made the category viable. The retail giant has built a smart, useful product that has gotten better literally every week since its introduction. That should make Echo/Alexa a growth business for Amazon, giving it a valuable beachhead in millions, eventually tens of millions of homes.</p>
<p>Find out why Amazon.com is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now</p>
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<p>Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's Board of Directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dankline/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Kline</a> owns shares of Microsoft. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Amazon.com. 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</a>.</p> | Alexa, How Big Is Amazon's Echo? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/30/alexa-how-big-is-amazon-echo.html | 2017-01-30 | 0 |
<p>Editor's note: This is part of a two-part series called Know your Taliban. Click <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/pakistan/131004/pakistani-taliban-TTP-militants" type="external">here for part two, Who are the Pakistani Taliban?</a></p>
<p>BUZZARDS BAY, Mass.&#160;—&#160;A Christian church, a crowded market, a bus full of government employees&#160;— these are some of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/28/world/asia/bus-bombing-in-pakistan-kills-government-employees.html" type="external">latest targets in Pakistan</a>’s increasingly violent domestic war, which pits diverse militant groups against a government that seems powerless to rein them in.</p>
<p>On Thursday, militants attacked a rival group in northwest Pakistan, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/131003/at-least-13-die-militants-clash-pakistan" type="external">killing more than a dozen people</a>.</p>
<p>Most of the assaults are attributed to “the Taliban,” although that term covers a multitude of sins in the Afghan-Pakistan corridor.</p>
<p>A militant group calling itself Jundullah, meaning Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/23/pakistan-church-bombings-christian-minority" type="external">attack on the Christian church</a> in Peshawar on Sept. 22, which killed at least 85. Jundullah says the bombing was payback for Muslims killed in the US drone war — a continuing source of anger in Pakistan.</p>
<p>Jundullah is thought to be one of dozens of splinter groups under the umbrella of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, the organization generally known as the Pakistani Taliban.</p>
<p>But <a href="http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/25-Sep-2013/ttp-says-no-links-with-jundullah" type="external">TTP disavowed Jundullah</a>, saying that the alleged bombers had no links to the Taliban.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/29/pakistan-bomb-blast-peshawar" type="external">TTP has also distanced itself</a> from the market attack on Monday, which killed at least 42 and injured more than 100.&#160;</p>
<p>Given the current state of militancy in Pakistan, which has seen a proliferation of myriad groups with similar names and overlapping goals, it may be all but impossible to tell, with any degree of certainty, whether Jundullah is part of the Taliban network.</p>
<p>Even less certain is what the Pakistani government can or is willing to do to stop the violence. After all, it was the country’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence organization, the ISI, that provided the support that gave the Taliban its start.</p>
<p>As noted journalist and author James Fergusson told <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/interview-baradar-taliban-pakistan-afghanistan-release/25113548.html" type="external">Radio Free Europe</a>, “There is a very good expression in that part of the world that when the ISI created the Taliban they created a tiger — the question is whether they have the tiger by the head or by the tail.”</p>
<p>The rise and fall (and rise?) of the Afghan Taliban</p>
<p>The word “Taliban” conjures up the bearded, black-turbaned militants who swept to power in Afghanistan in 1996. They imposed a brutal regime that confined women to their homes, kept girls from schools, forced men into the mosques to pray five times a day and blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas.</p>
<p>They had cut their fighting teeth during the anti-Soviet jihad, generously supported, along with other mujahedeen groups, by the United States and Pakistan.</p>
<p>Once the Soviets left, in 1989, and Afghanistan descended into civil war, the ISI maintained its links with the group of religious students known as the Taliban as they battled the warlords who were tearing the country apart.</p>
<p>Pakistan’s calculus was simple: They wanted to have a regime in place they could deal with or even, perhaps, control.</p>
<p>“Elements of Pakistan's intelligence agency … provided the Taliban with advisers and materials in their battles with rival warlords, ensuring a friendly government that controlled most of Afghanistan,” according to a report published by the <a href="http://www.cfr.org/pakistan/us-pakistan-military-cooperation/p16644" type="external">Council on Foreign Relations</a> in 2008.</p>
<p>The Taliban were chased out of Kabul by the US invasion in October 2001, as Washington sought to punish the Afghan regime for harboring Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.</p>
<p>But they did not stay gone; by 2005 they had mounted a robust insurgency that continues to this day.</p>
<p>A cozy relationship</p>
<p>The Afghan Taliban is largely a nationalist organization focused on driving out the foreign armies and regaining power. It still enjoys fairly good relations with Pakistan, something that makes the US unhappy.</p>
<p>Taliban leader Mullah Omar and his closest advisers are almost certainly living in Pakistan. They are referred to as the “Quetta shura,” after the Pakistani town where they’re believed to be based.</p>
<p>Pakistan is a major recipient of US aid, and is seen as a major ally in the fight against terrorism.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41856.pdf" type="external">Congressional Research Service</a> says, since 1984, the US government has pledged more than $30 billion in direct aid to the country. About half of that’s been for military assistance, and more than two-thirds of it appropriated after 2001.</p>
<p>Given this perceived partnership, Washington would like for Islamabad to be a little less hospitable to fighters who are making life difficult for US and allied soldiers in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Haqqani network</p>
<p>This is especially true of the <a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/30/kabul-hotel-attack-what-is-the-haqqani-network/" type="external">Haqqani network</a>, a group of Afghan militants loosely allied with the Taliban, under the leadership of Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin. The network is believed to be responsible for some of the most daring and high-profile attacks in Kabul, including the storming of the Serena Hotel in 2008 that killed six.</p>
<p>The Haqqanis are close to Pakistan’s government, which has resisted calls to go after the militants within its borders, US officials say.</p>
<p>“It’s fairly well known that the … Inter-Services Intelligence agency has had a long relationship with the Haqqani network,” former <a href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=63647" type="external">Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told a Pakistani newspaper</a> during a visit in 2011. “Addressing the network is, from my perspective, critical to the solution set in Afghanistan.”</p>
<p>The Afghan Taliban members share their Pashtun ethnicity with their Pakistani brothers-in-arms. Both groups are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. Both are hostile to foreigners and neither is overly sympathetic to the Shia sect of Islam.</p>
<p>But there the similarity ends. It is, in fact, quite misleading that the Pakistani militants, who arose later and have a very different worldview, call themselves “Taliban.”</p>
<p>“The fact that they have the same name causes all kinds of confusion,” Gilles Dorronsoro, a French scholar of South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/world/asia/23taliban.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times interview</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, says writer and researcher Alex Strick van Linschoten, who has lived among the Taliban fighters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the name is about all they share.</p>
<p>“To be honest, the Taliban commanders and groups on the ground in Afghanistan couldn’t care less what’s happening to their Pakistani brothers across the border,” he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/world/asia/23taliban.html?_r=0" type="external">said</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Jean MacKenzie worked as a reporter in Afghanistan from October 2004 to December 2011, first as the head of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, then as a senior correspondent for GlobalPost.</p> | Who bombed Pakistan's Christians? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-05/who-bombed-pakistans-christians | 2013-10-05 | 3 |
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<p>For many Americans, "audit" is one of the scariest words in the English language. However, there are a couple of things you should know. First, few returns actually get audited -- about eight out of every 1000 are selected. And while some are selected at random, many tax returns are chosen for a reason. With that in mind, if any of these three things apply to you, your likelihood of an audit may be higher than average.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If you're self-employed, the chances of the IRS taking a closer look at your tax return increase significantly. In addition to people who work exclusively in their own business, this also includes taxpayers with some freelance income. Essentially, everyone who fills out a Schedule C is a greater audit risk. For example, in a recent tax year, if your Schedule C listed $100,000 or more in gross receipts, you had an audit risk of 3.6% -- about four times the rate of people who work for an employer.</p>
<p>Image Source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>The reason for this is simply that there is a lot more room for abuse if you're self-employed. If you're paid by an employer, you receive your paycheck and taxes are withheld. On the other hand, self-employed individuals have many deductions available to them, and many of these are easy to exaggerate. For example, deducting business meals and expenses can set off bells at the IRS, especially if they aren't typical for your line of work.</p>
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<p>Claiming 100% business use of a vehicle is another small business audit trigger, as is the home office deduction. Both of these are claimed by many people who aren't actually entitled to them. Few vehicles are used for business 100% of the time, and home offices have to meet a rather specific <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/02/05/work-from-home-this-tax-deduction-may-be-for-you.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">IRS definition Opens a New Window.</a>. There are other often-abused self-employed deductions, and this is the reason the IRS likes to take a closer look at many returns with a Schedule C.</p>
<p>The IRS does a great job of compiling data on the tax returns it processes. Because of this, the IRS knows what they average taxpayer with your income donates to charity, pays in mortgage interest, and claims for many other deductions.</p>
<p>Therefore, if any of your deductions looks exceptionally high, the IRS might want to take a closer look. For example, the average taxpayer in the $50,000-$100,000 adjusted gross income (AGI) range who itemizes claims a $3,147 charitable deduction. So, if you earned $75,000 last year and claim donations of $3,500, it's unlikely to set of any alarms at the IRS. On the other hand, if you earned $75,000 and claimed $20,000 in donations, there's a strong possibility that the IRS will want to verify your claim.</p>
<p>The same goes for other deductions as well. Another good example is the deduction for unreimbursed moving expenses if your move was related to the start of a new job. If you earn $60,000 per year, the IRS might wonder if you really spent $15,000 to move to your new home (average is $2,980), or if you fudged the numbers a little. <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/28/the-average-americans-tax-deductions-how-do-yours.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Here's Opens a New Window.</a> a guide to more of the average deductions, so you can see how yours stack up.</p>
<p>Perhaps the biggest single factor that influences your audit risk, aside from doing something blatantly wrong like claiming dependents who don't exist, is your income.</p>
<p>I mentioned in the introduction that just 0.8% of all tax returns get audited. Well, if you're in one of the middle income brackets, the audit rate is as low as 0.47%. However, if your reported income is extremely high or low, your audit risk could be many times higher. For example, if your AGI is between $200,000 and $500,000, your chance of an audit jumps to 1.54%. Earn over $1,000,000? Your audit risk is over 8%. The highest earners in the U.S., those with AGI over $10 million, get audited nearly 35% of the time. On the other end of the spectrum, tax returns with no reported income are audited 3.78% of the time, about 4.5 times the overall average.</p>
<p>Source: TaxFoundation.org.</p>
<p>The reason? The IRS has limited resources to enforce the tax code, and this has been especially true in the last few years. Therefore, like any efficient business, the enforcement agents spend their time where the most potential for revenue lies.</p>
<p>Think of it this way -- if you're an IRS agent and you audit the tax return of a married couple who earns $75,000, you might find some errors that result in a few hundred dollars of additional tax revenue. If you audit someone who earns $5 million per year, any significant errors or miscalculations could bring in thousands and thousands of dollars in additional tax revenue.</p>
<p>Again, just because one of these "red flags" applies to you doesn't imply that you've done anything wrong, or that you should fear an audit. If you gave a lot to charity last year, you should certainly claim every penny of it. If you're self-employed, you should absolutely take advantage of every deduction to which you're entitled. And if you have a high audit risk because you make a lot of money, well, I'm sure there are a lot of low-risk individuals with moderate incomes who would love to trade places with you.</p>
<p>The point is that while everyone should keep proper tax documentation, it's doubly important to be thorough if you're a high audit risk. Just be prepared to back up every single deduction, credit, and income source you claim on your tax return, and you shouldn't have anything to worry about.</p>
<p>The $15,834 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 $15,834 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. <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;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;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Tax Red Flags the IRS Looks for | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/09/3-tax-red-flags-irs-looks-for.html | 2017-02-09 | 0 |
<p>Korean rapper Psy has revealed he has finished a new song — but he's still working on the dance moves to go with it.</p>
<p>“I think I got it!!! #NewSingle,” <a href="https://twitter.com/psy_oppa" type="external">Psy's official Twitter account posted</a> on Feb. 6. “Now gotta look for da #NewMove!!!”</p>
<p>The pop star will release a new album, and hopefully hit song, in April.</p>
<p>Psy became an overnight success around the world with "Gangnam Style" and its accompanying dance moves, and made history when his hit song "Gangnam Style" became the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/psys-gangnam-style-becomes-most-watched-youtube-video-of-all-time-with-805-million-views-8348586.html" type="external">most viewed YouTube music video of all time</a>.</p>
<p>Its overwhelming popularity was largely due to the trademark "horse" dance that accompanies the song, which mocks the fashion-conscious people in the Gangnam district of South Korea's capital, Seoul.</p>
<p>Since then he has been in high demand, with reports he flew to Malaysia from Brazil with his team of dancers last week, for a reported fee of $630,000.</p>
<p>Psy has told fans he's determined to repeat the success.</p>
<p>While not giving too much away, the star has said his new album will include a mix of English and Korean songs, and his new dance move will have something to do with sports, <a href="http://www.allkpop.com/2013/01/psy-drops-a-few-hints-about-his-new-song-after-gangnam-style" type="external">Allkpop reported.</a></p>
<p>Psy also dismissed rumors he would be collaborating with other artists, saying: “I don’t think I’ll be doing any collaborations until my new track is done, and it’s not done yet, but I’m thinking of doing it by myself, so I can prove I can do it one more time.”</p>
<p>Earlier this week Psy performed at the celebrations following the inauguration of Park Geun-hye, South Korea's first female president, <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/k-town/1549866/psy-brings-gangnam-style-to-korean-presidential-inauguration" type="external">according to the Hollyword Reporter.</a></p> | 'Gangnam Style' Psy to release new song in April | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-02-28/gangnam-style-psy-release-new-song-april | 2013-02-28 | 3 |
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<p>Image source: Sysco.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares ofSysco (NYSE: SYY)rose 10.7% last month, according to data provided by <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/home.aspx" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>. The food distributor delivered fiscal first-quarter results that largely surpassed investors' expectations.</p>
<p>Sysco reported first-quarter revenue that jumped 11% to $14 billion, boosted by the company's <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/22/amazoncom-jumps-and-sysco-drops-as-stocks-soar.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">acquisition Opens a New Window.</a> of Brakes Group, a European food service distributor, for $3.1 billion in February. The higher sales combined with margin gains helped to fuel a 29% surge in adjusted earnings, to $0.67 per share.</p>
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<p>Those results topped Wall Street's projections for $13.9 billion in revenue and $0.58 in EPS. Impressively, this came despite a challenging overall environment for the food services sector.</p>
<p>"I am pleased with our first quarter performance which built upon the favorable results we have achieved over the past several quarters," said CEO Bill DeLaney in a press release. "We continued to focus on supporting the needs of our customers and achieved strong earnings growth through solid execution in a softening industry environment."</p>
<p>Looking ahead, some of the headwinds Sysco has faced amid a sectorwide slowdown in spending may be abating. Fears of a " <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/13/why-panera-bread-texas-roadhouse-and-bjs-restauran.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">restaurant recession Opens a New Window.</a>" have lessened since Election Day, as many market prognosticators expect President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress to push for tax cuts and fiscal stimulus. Those measures, along with the increased consumer confidence they could bring about, may help to boost consumer spending at restaurants, and by extension, demand for Sysco's food distribution services. As such, Sysco's November gains could be a sign of a larger move still to come in the months and years ahead.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Sysco When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGuardian/info.aspx" type="external">Joe Tenebruso Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Sysco Corp. Stock Jumped 10.7% in November | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/09/why-sysco-corp-stock-jumped-107-in-november.html | 2016-12-09 | 0 |
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<p>The New Mexico Activities Association levied four forfeits against the Dons last month after first-year volunteer assistant coach Brandon Hernandez videotaped a game between St. Michael’s and Robertson, unknowingly in violation of association bylaws.</p>
<p>District IV Judge Abigail Aragon ruled that attorneys for West Las Vegas coach David Bustos — acting as a parent on behalf of his son, D.J. Bustos, as well as the rest of the Dons players — and assistant coach Steve Sandoval “failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that they have a substantial likelihood of succeeding on the merits” in the case.</p>
<p>Therefore, Aragon ruled, the preliminary injunction has been denied.</p>
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<p>The West Las Vegas games&#160; originally scheduled for Jan. 20 against Robertson and Jan. 31 and Feb. 17 will remain as forfeits.</p>
<p>Still to be decided, however, is the game last week between the Dons and Cardinals that the judge ordered to be played in originally granting the restraining order.</p>
<p>West Las Vegas won 71-56 and D.J. Bustos scored 23 points.</p>
<p>“Since the (Feb. 8) game between West Las Vegas High School and Robertson proceeded prior to the present decision, the matter of forfeiture will be addressed at a final hearing,” Aragon wrote in her ruling. That game, however, is already listed as a 2-0 defeat in Robertson’s favor on MaxPreps.com.</p>
<p>Las Vegas attorney Art Bustos, lead counsel on the case for the West Las Vegas contingent, said that leaves not only the outcome of the game undecided, but also the points scored by Bustos, who became the state’s all-classes career scoring leader Saturday.</p>
<p>“Right now the 23 he scored are up in the air,” Art Bustos said. “But he’ll break the record again on the court.”</p>
<p>The next hearing on the issue is scheduled for Feb. 21, he said, the day District 2-4A is scheduled to begin its tournament.</p>
<p>West Las Vegas, ranked third in Class 4A, finishes the regular season at Pojoaque Valley today.</p>
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<p>In making her decision, Aragon said sufficient evidence was not presented that:</p>
<p>n the players would suffer irreparable harm;</p>
<p>n that any injury the Dons players would suffer outweighs any injury to the players from St. Michael’s and Robertson; and</p>
<p>n it would be adverse to the public interest.</p>
<p>In addition, Aragon wrote, “exempting one school from a well-established rule while requiring the other school members to comply is adverse to the public interest.”</p>
<p>In addition, she wrote, West Las Vegas was already on probation from the fall when the football team used an academically ineligible.</p>
<p>The legal battle has been a weeks-long saga that started when NMAA executive director Sally Marquez initially assessed a two-game suspension for coach Bustos and Hernandez. But on the same day Marquez issued her original ruling, she changed it to West Las Vegas forfeiting all of its District 2-4A games with both the Cardinals and the Horsemen, a total of four games.</p>
<p>Then, on Feb. 1, Aragon granted a temporary restraining order in favor of coach Bustos and Sandoval and against the NMAA, putting on hold the mandated forfeits. She held a day-long hearing on the case on Friday.</p> | Judge denies injunction in West Las Vegas case | false | https://abqjournal.com/949411/judge-denies-injunction-in-west-las-vegas-case.html | 2 |
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<p>OSLO, Norway (AP) — Severin Freund of Germany secured his fourth straight ski jump World Cup victory Sunday to further extend his lead in the overall standings with just two events left.</p>
<p>Freund had jumps of 132 and 128 meters on the large hill to win with 258.9 points, beating Japanese veteran Noriaki Kasai by four points. Kamil Stoch of Poland and Peter Prevc of Slovenia were tied for third with 251.5 points. Prevc, who is second overall, had the longest jump of the day with 134.5 meters in the second round but is now 94 points behind Freund with two ski flying events to come in Slovenia next week.</p>
<p>Freund capped a perfect week that started with a win in Kuopio, Finland, on Tuesday followed by victories in Trondheim on Thursday and Oslo on Saturday.</p>
<p>OSLO, Norway (AP) — Severin Freund of Germany secured his fourth straight ski jump World Cup victory Sunday to further extend his lead in the overall standings with just two events left.</p>
<p>Freund had jumps of 132 and 128 meters on the large hill to win with 258.9 points, beating Japanese veteran Noriaki Kasai by four points. Kamil Stoch of Poland and Peter Prevc of Slovenia were tied for third with 251.5 points. Prevc, who is second overall, had the longest jump of the day with 134.5 meters in the second round but is now 94 points behind Freund with two ski flying events to come in Slovenia next week.</p>
<p>Freund capped a perfect week that started with a win in Kuopio, Finland, on Tuesday followed by victories in Trondheim on Thursday and Oslo on Saturday.</p> | Freund earns 4th straight ski jump World Cup win | false | https://apnews.com/00d823bafde943a1904c1508ade1f0db | 2015-03-15 | 2 |
<p>The editors of Esquire magazine once wrote, “If there is one thing that always comes out of a terrible tragedy, it is really dumb legislation.”</p>
<p>On October 25, 2001, a mere 45 days after the 9/11attacks, Congress passed, with virtually no debate, House Resolution 3162, entitled “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” Act. You’ve probably heard it called by its ominous acronym: USA PATRIOT.</p>
<p>The PATRIOT Act, running longer than 340 pages, amends more than 50 current federal statutes and was passed in the Senate by a vote of 98-1, with the lone dissenting vote cast by Democratic Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin.</p>
<p>The PATRIOT Act has been back in the news lately for two reasons: First, the Senate Intelligence Committee decided in a closed session last week to allow “administrative subpoenas” that would allow the FBI to obtain terrorism suspects’ medical and other records without going through a judge. Second, President Bush last week started a campaign to support PATRIOT, traveling the nation on a self-righteous promotion tour of the act and other proven misguided tactics in our continuing “war on terror.” It’s all in anticipation of Dec. 31, 2005, the date when 16 provisions of PATRIOT are set to expire or “sunset.”</p>
<p>So the debate over whether to renew certain objectionable provisions of PATRIOT is coming to a head. On one side is President Bush and his administration supporters. On the other is a bipartisan coalition calling itself “Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances”, leading the charge to promote alternatives to the PATRIOT act and make certain that unconstitutional provisions of PATRIOT rightfully expire at the end of December. Led by political polar opposites-the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Conservative Union-this coalition seeks to increase grassroots awareness of the pitfalls of PATRIOT and show President Bush and all Americans that opposition to USA PATRIOT and the desire to protect civil liberties is a non-partisan issue of importance to all Americans.</p>
<p>Opponents of the PATRIOT Act have welcomed the introduction of S. 737-the bipartisan Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act of 2005-sponsored by Senators Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and currently being considered in the Senate.</p>
<p>The SAFE Act would provide the stronger standards for judicial oversight and review of federal law enforcement investigations that are clearly missing from the PATRIOT Act. It also would correct provisions of USA PATRIOT that are not due to sunset in December.</p>
<p>One notable improvement the SAFE Act has over PATRIOT is much-needed judicial oversight in the use of the so-called “sneak and peek” provision. The “sneak-and-peak” provision of PATRIOT (Section 213) allows law enforcement agencies to conduct secret searches of anyone’s home or apartment without a warrant or even notification to the owner. This means that investigators could potentially enter anyone’s place of residence, take pictures, download computer files and seize items without informing them of the search until days, weeks or even months later. PATRIOT contains a “catch-all” provision that would permit the use of this extraordinary power in virtually any criminal investigation that the government deemed fit without any sort of significant judicial oversight. Under the SAFE Act, “sneak and peek” could be used only when a federal judge finds that not using it would result in endangered lives or tampering of material evidence.</p>
<p>The one major shortcoming of the SAFE Act is that it fails to address PATRIOT’s overbroad definition of “domestic terrorism.” That portion still needs to be amended to ensure that political activists exercising their legitimate First Amendment rights cannot be targeted by a fanatical administration intent on staging political witch hunts.</p>
<p>Why is the upcoming “sunset” date so important? Many provisions of PATRIOT have opened a new chapter in the debate on the application of constitutionally suspect laws in the post-9/11 world that we live in today. Although not all 340 pages of PATRIOT Act are legally controversial, there are major sections of the law that should tremendously concern those who cherish due process, free speech and other fundamental protections guaranteed by the United States Constitution.</p>
<p>For example, Sections 411 and 802 of PATRIOT broadly expand the official definition of “domestic terrorism,” so that college student groups who engage in certain types of protests could very well find themselves labeled as “terrorists.” For example, the Sheriff of Hennepin County, Minn., once declared that the student groups “Anti-Racist Action,” “Students Against War” and “Arise” were all potential ‘terrorist’ threats.</p>
<p>This week, Republicans joined with Democrats in the House of Representatives to pass an amendment to an appropriations bill introduced by Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., which would block one of the PATRIOT Act’s most controversial provisions-Section 215. Under Sections 215 and 505 of PATRIOT, law enforcement officials are given broad access to any type of record-sales, library, financial, medical, etc.-without having to show probable cause of any crime. PATRIOT also forbids the holders of this information, such as university librarians and college registrars, from disclosing that they have ever provided such records to federal officials.</p>
<p>A University of Illinois survey of American public libraries found that at least 545 libraries have been asked for records by law enforcement in the year following 9/11 alone. According to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, approximately 200 colleges and universities have turned over student information to the FBI, INS and other law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>While the bipartisan forces rejecting Section 215 are indeed cause for celebration, the victory party may be short-lived. The White House has promised to veto the measure. Fortunately, other signs of resistance to the Patriot Act can be found in cities and states throughout the country.</p>
<p>Since its inception in October 2001, the debate over privacy and constitutional issues raised by PATRIOT has motivated more than four states and 357 cities, representing more than 55 million people in 44 states, to pass resolutions officially condemning portions of PATRIOT in their local, city and state legislatures. In addition to resolutions passed in more than 200 smaller cities, the list of successful resolutions includes those passed in the large metropolitan cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Philadelphia. In addition, the states of Hawaii, Alaska, Maine and Vermont have also passed statewide resolutions condemning portions of PATRIOT as being unconstitutional and infringing on individual rights.</p>
<p>Even traditionally conservative voices like former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Republican Senators Larry Craig of Idaho, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have all publicly voiced criticism of the PATRIOT Act.</p>
<p>Come December 31st, our nation’s character will be protected and American will be stronger if we see these unconstitutional provisions of USA PATRIOT ride off into the sunset.</p>
<p>ARSALAN IFTIKHAR is national legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest American Muslim advocacy group in Washington.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Patriots Against the PATRIOT Act | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/06/22/patriots-against-the-patriot-act/ | 2005-06-22 | 4 |
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<p>NEW YORK — After many years of divisiveness, the Boy Scouts of America have opened their ranks to gay and transgender boys. Yet a different membership dispute persists: a long-shot campaign to let girls join the BSA so they have a chance to earn the prestigious status of Eagle Scout.</p>
<p>Just last week, after the BSA announced it would admit transgender boys, the National Organization for Women issued a statement urging the 106-year-old youth organization to allow girls to join as well. NOW said it was inspired by the efforts of a 15-year-old New York City girl to emulate her older brother, who is an Eagle Scout.</p>
<p>“Women can now hold all combat roles in the military, and women have broken many glass ceilings at the top levels of government, business, academia and entertainment,” said NOW President Terry O’Neill. “It’s long past due that girls have equal opportunities in Scouting.”</p>
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<p>For now, it appears the Boy Scouts will hold firm. Communications director Effie Delimarkos noted that the BSA already has some coed programs and might consider more of them, but views boys-only programs as a fundamental cornerstone of its mission.</p>
<p>“We’re certainly committed to finding program options that work for the entire family — it’s an area we continue to evaluate,” Delimarkos said. “But we also feel that the benefit of a single-gender program is an important priority.”</p>
<p>The goal of coeducating the Boy Scouts has a long history.</p>
<p>In 1995, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of a California girl, Katrina Yeaw, accusing the BSA of discrimination for rejecting her application to join. The case reached the California Supreme Court, which upheld the BSA’s right to set its own membership criteria. In 2015, a group of girls in Northern California formed an independent troop called the Unicorns and unsuccessfully applied to affiliate with the BSA.</p>
<p>More recently, New York City teen Sydney Ireland, supported by her father, attorney Gary Ireland, has been campaigning to join the Boy Scouts, which her brother, Bryan, has belonged to for a decade.</p>
<p>Among other initiatives, Sydney has posted a petition on Change.org and appeared in an online video that has attracted more than 2.6 million views. Via repeated road trips to London, Ontario, she’s also become a member of Scouts Canada, which has been coed since 1998.</p>
<p>For several years, Sydney has been an unofficial member of her brother’s troop in Manhattan, participating in many of its activities but unable to earn merit badges to start on the path to Eagle rank.</p>
<p>“Everybody in Troop 414 has been completely positive,” Sydney said in an interview. “They’ve never questioned why I want to be part of it — they know how great an organization it is.”</p>
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<p>Sydney says her quest to join the Boy Scouts doesn’t reflect any disrespect of the Girl Scouts, which is independent of the BSA and has remained girls-only since its founding in 1912.</p>
<p>“The Girl Scouts is great for some people,” she said. “But the Boy Scouts should allow everyone in. I want that kind of experience.”</p>
<p>In her Change.org petition, which has more than 6,400 supporters, Sydney alludes to the prestige of the Eagle Scout rank — literally a badge of honor for many astronauts, political leaders and business executives. The BSA, on its web site, says the rank “has represented a milestone of accomplishment — perhaps without equal — that is recognized across the country and even the world.”</p>
<p>“I am determined to be an Eagle Scout,” Sydney declares. “It isn’t just a hobby, it’s access to some of the best leadership training there is.”</p>
<p>The Girl Scouts, unsurprisingly, contend their Gold Award is comparable to the Eagle Badge in terms of a young person’s achievement and civic mindedness.</p>
<p>“Employers look for the Gold Award on women’s resumes,” said Andrea Bastiani Archibald, a psychologist who provides expertise on girls’ development for the Girl Scouts’ national programming.</p>
<p>While the Boy Scouts have established several coed programs, including Venturing and Sea Scouts, the Girl Scouts remain girls-only.</p>
<p>“We know that girls learn best in an all-girl, girl-led environment,” Bastiani Archibald said. “It’s unfortunate that some people still consider belonging to a male membership organization superior to belonging to a female one.”</p>
<p>Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York City branch of NOW, has a different perspective on the push to make the Boy Scouts coed.</p>
<p>“We feel the timing is right to be talking about this,” she said. “In the climate of disrespect for women that we’re living in, there’s a huge value in bringing boys and girls together to work in teams, to learn about respect and compassion and leadership, like only Scouting can do.”</p>
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<p>Follow David Crary on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/CraryAP" type="external">http://twitter.com/CraryAP</a></p> | Boy Scouts face renewed push to let girls join the ranks | false | https://abqjournal.com/946295/boy-scouts-face-renewed-push-to-let-girls-join-the-ranks.html | 2017-02-09 | 2 |
<p>There are moments in history that require a speech, even if it is as brief as the “Alea jacta est” (“The die is cast”) pronounced by Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon.&#160; It had to be crossed that day, precisely when the ministers of defence of the sovereign states of the western hemisphere were meeting in the city of Santa Cruz, where the Yankees had been encouraging secessionism and the disintegratrion of Bolivia.</p>
<p>It was Monday the 21st and the news agencies were devoting their time to divulging and commenting on the NATO meeting in Lisbon where that war-mongering institution, using arrogant and uncouth language, proclaimed its right to intevene in any country of the world wherever their interests were being felt to be threatened.</p>
<p>They were completely ignoring the fate of billions of people, and the real causes of poverty and suffering of most of the planet’s inhabitants.</p>
<p>NATO’s cynicism deserved an answer, and that arrived in the voice of an Aymara Indian from Bolivia, in the heart of South America, where a more human civilization had blossomed before the Conquest, colonialism, capitalist development and imperialism imposed the rule of brute force, based on the power of more developed weapons and technologies.</p>
<p>Evo Morales, president of that country, elected by the vast majority of his people, with indisputable arguments, information and facts, perhaps even before being aware of the monstrous NATO document, provided an answer to the policy&#160; that the United States government has historically been carrying out with the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.</p>
<p>The policy of might expressed through wars, crimes, violations to consitituions and the laws; training the officers of the armed institutions in conspiracies, coups d’état, political crimes that were used to overthrow progressive governments and install regimes of force to which they regularly offered political, military and media support.</p>
<p>Never was there a more timely speech.</p>
<p>Many times using the expressive manner of his Aymara language, he stated truths that will go down in history.</p>
<p>I shall attempt to briefly summarize what he said, using his own phrases and words:</p>
<p>“Thank you very much.</p>
<p>“It is a great satisfaction to receive you, the ministers of defence of the Americas,&#160; in Santa Cruz de la Sierra; Santa Cruz, the land of Ignacio Warnes, of Juan José Manuel Vaca, rebellious men who from 1810 fought and gave their lives for the independence of our beloved Bolivia.</p>
<p>“Men such as Andrés Ibáñez,&#160; Atahuallpa Tumpa, a native brother who, during the republic, fought for autonomy and for equality for all the peoples of our lands.</p>
<p>“Welcome to Bolivia, land of Túpac Katarí, land of Bartolina Sisa, of Simón Bolívar and of so many men who fought 200 years ago for the Independence of Bolivia and many countries in the Americas.</p>
<p>“Latin America […], in recent years, is living through profound democratic transformations seeking equality and dignity for the peoples…”</p>
<p>“…following the footsteps of Antonio José de Sucre, of Simón Bolívar, of so many native, mestizo and Creole leaders who lived 200 years ago.”</p>
<p>“Exactly one week ago, we were celebrating the bicentenary of the Army of Bolivia which, on November 14th of 1810, native peoples, mestizos &#160;and Creoles had organized as a military force to fight against Spanish domination…”</p>
<p>“In recent years, Latin America again takes up that decision to free ourselves as in a second liberation that is not only social or cultural but also economic and financial for the peoples of Latin America.</p>
<p>“…this 9th &#160;Conference of Ministers of the Defence has on its agenda gender and multiculturalism in the Armed Forces, democracy, peace and security for the Americas, natural disasters, humanitarian aid and the role of the Armed Forces; an appropriate agenda, an agenda that is well-conceived to discuss the hopes of the peoples, not just of Latin America, but of the world”.</p>
<p>“In 1985 […] the only ones who could be elected or could elect authorities were those having money, those who had a profession or who spoke Spanish or Castilian.</p>
<p>“Therefore, less than 10 percent of the Bolivian population could take part in electing or being elected as authorities, and more than 90 percent of us had no rights […] there have been various processes […] some reforms, but in 2009, with the participation of the Bolivian people for the very first time, a new Plurinational State Constitution was passed by the Bolivian people.”</p>
<p>“…in this new Constitution, of course the most excluded sectors […] had no rights to be elected or to elect the State authorities of the Republic of Bolivia.</p>
<p>“More than 180 years had to go by for us to make some profound transformations and incorporate these historically excluded sectors in Bolivia, and I hope I am not mistaken, I think it is the only country not just in the Americas but in the entire world where 50 percent of the ministers are women and 50 percent are men.”</p>
<p>“Of course beyond norms, the constitution […] I think that this is the political decision we must take in order to include the most abandoned sectors; after the Constitution was approved by the Bolivian people in 2009, the most excluded, reviled people, those that were considered to be animals, those that were the indigenous movement, now they are represented in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly as well as in the departmental assemblies.</p>
<p>“Something important; for the indigenous movements that do not have a large population, special electoral districts have been created&#160; so that our brothers and sisters from the highlands, the valleys and the eastern part of Bolivia may be represented.</p>
<p>&#160;The single candidate system also allow for our indigenous brothers and sisters to be represented in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly …”</p>
<p>“In this way, we permit these indigenous brothers and sisters, who were left out and condemned to extermination, to be present.”</p>
<p>“…that had never happened before …”</p>
<p>“…when I was a young man, as a union leader&#160; I would sometimes dispute with the Armed Forces and later, when I became president, I realized that a large part of the Armed Forces comes from the peasant communities, particularly those in the valleys…”</p>
<p>“Dear Ministers: I would like to tell you that never before did we have such participation; before, it was merely the color of your skin that determined your class in society and now, a indigenous person, a union leader, an intellectual, a professional, a business leader, a soldier, a general, anyone can become the president, democratically.&#160; Before, we didn’t have this way of changing Bolivia and our constitution.</p>
<p>“When this conference is putting forth the idea of only democracy, security and peace, of reviewing history, of reviewing the norms, this is for me very exciting; it is a pleasure to review these things dealing with democracy, security and peace in the Americas or in the world, not just for the sake of reviewing.</p>
<p>“If we talk about democracy in Bolivia’s past, there was only a contractual democracy; there was no party that could win with more than 50% as the Constitution of the Plurinational State declares …”</p>
<p>“…up to 2005, from 1952, the 1950s, in Bolivia there were only ‘contractual democracies’; there were parties winning with 20 percent, 30 percent …”</p>
<p>“A party in third place could become president; it all depended on the contracts and the distribution of the ministers.&#160; This kind of contract was precisely the kind that used to be guided by the United States ambassador.&#160; Our compatriots, our Bolivian brothers and sisters, should remember 2002, for example, when there was no winner having more than 50 percent; the party with the highest percentage in the voting got 21 percent. And there was the former US ambassador, Manuel Rocha, pulling together, uniting the neoliberal parties, in order for there to be a government: and those governments didn’t last, they could not endure.</p>
<p>“Luckily, thanks to the conscience of the Bolivian people, these kinds of democracies are being eliminated; now we do not have a ‘contractual democracy’, but a legitimate democracy in the hearts of the Bolivian people who accompany it with the thoughts and feelings coming from the suffering of peoples, under a government program.”</p>
<p>“…a program that brings dignity to the Bolivians, a program that seeks equality of all Bolivians, men and women; a program that recovers its natural resources, a program that allows basic services to be a human right…”</p>
<p>“…when some of our opposition, like yourselves, every country has its opposition, tells us, some totalitarian government, a dictatorial government, is it my fault that this program proposed by a party has more than two-thirds support in the different bodies of the Plurinational State, by myself I have not been able to win the mayoralty of the city of Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>“We respect our mayor, they won, but I salute you, Mr. Mayor, for the actions you undertook last week to fight against the speculation […] congratuations Mr. Mayor, you have my respect…”</p>
<p>“And some say to us, one single philosophy, there is no single philosophy; only a program that is working in the different social sectors at the head of social movements of the indigenous peoples and the workers can obtain the support needed to change Bolivia.</p>
<p>“But what do we face along the road if we talk about democracy, conspiracy, coup d’état, attempts at coups&#160; in 2008 […] who was it that contributed to this coup? The former US ambassador.</p>
<p>“I was looking over some history […] about the 1946 coup d’état when the president was Lt. Col. Gualberto Villarroel, who said as president, I am not the enemy of the rich, but I am more a friend to the poor; this patriotic soldier was the first president who called together the indigenous peoples’ congress.</p>
<p>“Another president, Germán Bush, a soldier, who stated: I have not become the president to serve the capitalists.</p>
<p>“The first president to nationalize natural resources, was another soldier, David Toro; I’m speaking of 1937 or 1938 […], but this soldier was hanged in 1946, they assassinated him in the Palace.”</p>
<p>“…and so the offensive was concentrated on the massive part of the Palacio Quemado that was under fire from Illimani Street, at the corner of Bolívar, from Comercio Street, from the Police and from behind from the La Salle and Kersul buildings where the US consulate is located.”</p>
<p>“…watching the fire coming from the Kersul Building, where the US consulate was, and which had been investigating this patriotic soldier who had ensured the first native congress, strafing the building, shooting to kill that soldier…those are the documents we are looking over.</p>
<p>“…history repeats itself; I had to face an ambassador who organizes, who plans to terminate my presidency using anti-democratic means, and I think that this gets repeated all over the world.</p>
<p>“But a comrade, a compatriot of ours who has been the victim of so many military coups tell me: President Evo, you have to watch out for the United States Embassy, there have always been coups d’état all over Latin America and, he says to me, there has never been a coup in the United States because there is no US embassy; I really start to see the truth that history does not hear coups d’état.</p>
<p>“…we, the countries who have suffered attempts at coups from 2002 in Venezuela, 2008 in Bolivia, 2009 in Honduras, 2010 in Ecuador; and we must acknowledge, compatriots from Latin America or the Americas, that the US had a victory in Honduras, strengthening that coup, the American empire has had a victory over us, but also the peoples of the Americas, in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have won […] what will the future bring?; we shall see the future.”</p>
<p>“…this internal assessment should be a profound debate by the ministers of defence to guarantee the democracies […] my ancestors, my people, have permanently been victims of coups, bloody coups, not because they wanted the military, the Armed Forces, but because of internal and external political decisions designed to terminate revolutionary governments, the governments that are born of the people; that is the history of Latin America.”</p>
<p>“…we have the right to propose for ourselves the ways of guaranteeing democracy in each country, but without coups, or coup attempts.</p>
<p>“We would like this conference of ministers of defence to guarantee an true peoples’ democracy, respecting our regional differences, the differences from sector to sector.</p>
<p>“But also, when we speak of peace, I am saying, how can we have peace if there are military bases?&#160; And there too I can speak with some knowledge because I have been the victim of these US military bases, with the excuse of a war against drug trafficking.</p>
<p>“When I was a soldier, a private in the Armed Forces in 1978, the officers and non-commissioned officers taught me to defend the Homeland; the Armed Forces are there to defend the homeland, the Armed Forces cannot permit any foreign uniformed and armed soldier to be in Bolivia.</p>
<p>“…when I became a leader, I personally have been witness to the fact that uniformed and armed DEA members were leading the Armed Forces and the National Police, armed with machine guns, with the excuse of fighting agains drug trafficking against the social movements, persecuting by flying light planes over the marches from Santa Cruz, from Cochabamba, from Oruro, and they couldn’t find us, not with their light planes; and they would say that these were ghost marches, some ghost marches; thousands of comrades looking for retribution and seeking dignity and the sovereignty of out peoples.”</p>
<p>“…I am convinced that it we the people fight for our dignity, for our sovereignty, this cannot be done with military bases nor with military interventions, no matter how small we may be, we, the countries called under-developed, countries called developing countries; we have dignity, we have sovereignty.&#160; Also, when I had a seat in parliament they tried to make me support immunity for officials of the US embassy.</p>
<p>“What is immunity? So that US embassy officials, including the American DEA, should they comit some crime, wouldn’t be tried under Bolivian laws; this was an open invitation to kill, to wound us as they did in my region.”</p>
<p>“…Peace is the legitimate daughter of equality, and of dignity which is social justice; if there is no dignity, then there is no&#160; social justice and we cannot guarantee peace; how can we give a guarantee?&#160; Because there are peoples who rise up in rebellion because there is an injustice.”</p>
<p>“…listening to our UN Secretary General talking about the doctrines, the doctrines we know about in Bolivia, an anti-Communist doctrine that says coups should take place to militarily intervene in the mining communities because of the social movements; the mining communities were great revolutionaries aiming to transform Bolivia.</p>
<p>“In the 1950s, 1960s, they accused us of being Red Communists to the leaders of the mining sector so that we should be imprisoned, exiled, put on trial, even massacred; that era has passed; by now they cannot accuse us of being Reds or Communists – we all have the right to think differently.</p>
<p>“If, for a country or a region, the solution is Communism: fine; for another country it is Socialism: fine.&#160; It is the democratic decision of any country.</p>
<p>“But when we have won that struggle and they can no longer justify it with an anti-Communist doctrine to silence the people, to replace presidents, to change governments, another doctrine appears: the war on drugs.</p>
<p>“Of course it is the obligation of all of us to fight against drugs […] Bolivia is not a drug-culture, Bolivia is not a cocaine-culture, but where is it that cocaine comes from? It comes from the markets of developed countries, that isn’t the responsibility of the national government, but we are obliged to fight against it.”</p>
<p>“…behind the war on drug trafficking there cannot be geopolitical interests that need the excuse of the drug war&#160; to demonize the social movements, to criminalize the social movements, to confuse the coca leaf with cocaine, to confuse the coca grower with the drug trafficker, or the legal consumption of the coca leaf with the dependence on the narcotic.</p>
<p>“Why is it that they didn’t fight against coca right from the last century, if coca is so harmful?&#160; The Europeans were the first landowners to exploit the coca leaf, surely it wasn’t a detour to cocaine.</p>
<p>“Before, the US governments used to give certificates of acknowledgement to the best producers of coca leaves: why?&#160; So that the coca leaf grower could supply coca leaves to the tin miners and the US could take the tin to the United States.</p>
<p>“…the world knows, you all know, that the so-called war on drugs has failed; we have to change those policies, of course, what is this new policy, such as for example, ending the banking secrets:&#160; could it be that great drug trafficker, the big fish in the drug trafficking world, carries his money in his backpack, in his suitcase, travelling by plane, no, going around the banks – why not end the banking secret in order to end drug trafficking in order to control that drug trafficker?</p>
<p>“Why doesn’t every country defend its borders against the entry of all drugs with similar technology, radars? I think there is a capacity out there to control and we cannot control; and it is with the excuse of the war on drug trafficking that controls are put in place, especially directed towards how to recover natural resources for the trans-nationals.”</p>
<p>“…the former US ambassador Manuel Rocha who says: Don’t vote for Evo Morales.&#160; Evo Morales is the Andean Bin Laden and the coca growers are the Taliban.</p>
<p>“In other words, dear ministers, ministers of defence, according to this type of doctrine, you are at this very moment meeting with the Andean Bin Laden and my comrades from the social movements are the Taliban.&#160; Such accusations, often bending the truth out of shape.”</p>
<p>“…now, when they can no longer sustain these anti-Communist, anti-terrorist ideas and doctrines there is another new doctrine that we heard about a few days ago and I would like to take this opportunity to inform my people through the media.</p>
<p>“On the 17th of this month, a meeting of some Latin Americans and some US congressmen in the United States was held, a forum, which stated that there was danger in the Andes, threats to democracy, to human rights and inter-American security.</p>
<p>“…Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said that in recent years we have been observing with concern the efforts of several countries in the region, such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua , Rafael Correa in Ecuador, which are trying to consolidate their power &#160;at any cost, the ALBA Alliance members with Chavez at the head, one after the other manipulating the democratic systems of their countries to serve their own autocratic goals.</p>
<p>“Perhaps we should tell that congresswoman that we didn’t win, like in the US by a margin of one percent or two, here we win by more than 50 percent, or more than 60 percent, and in some regions by more than 80 percent and that is real democracy.</p>
<p>“What does the agenda say about Daniel Ortega, but the coca agenda promoted by Evo Morales, it is a brand new alliance with Iran and Russia, the case of Rafael Correa, the doubtful constitutional reforms with anti-American candidates.</p>
<p>“…under my leadership Bolivia will have agreements, alliances with the entire world; nobody can stop me because we have that right, we are a cultura of dialogue.”</p>
<p>“…without stable democratic partnerships we cannot have regional security: regional security or security for the United States? Now, more than at any other time, is when the US supports its enemies or weakens its enemies; now is the time for the OAS to absolve its legacy of double standards and finally makes its member states comply with the principles and obligations in the inter-American Democratic Charter; it would be a good idea to review the Inter-American Charter.</p>
<p>“The second congressman (he is talking about&#160; Connie Mack, and he explains his ideas in these words), I have everything he wrote, all his speeches, but to save time I shall try to summarize, I’d like to speak about some observations for the last six years as member of this Congress, I have frankly seen&#160; two administrations: the Republicans and the Democrats.</p>
<p>“Along these lines I think that this idea both the administrations have had in regards to Hugo Chávez, is that we shall not intervene, let’s just sit back and let him implode by himself; and the other thought is, what if&#160; Hugo Chávez is crazy, and what does he say, I don’t go for any of these ideas so I don’t think Hugo Chávez is crazy and I don’t think the approach of letting him implode is going to work, Hugo Chávez is a threat to freedom and democracy in Latin America and around the world.”</p>
<p>“…this is what concerns me most, I hope therefore that we become the following majority in the next Congress, as chairman of the subcommittee we shall do just that, we shall look after Chávez, whether defeating him politically or exploding him physically.”</p>
<p>Next, Evo states:</p>
<p>“I would say that this congressman Connie Mack is a self-confessed murderer or conspirator against our comrade brother the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez.</p>
<p>“If anything should happen to the life of Hugo Chávez, the only person responsible will be this US congressman.&#160; He says it publicly and it is written in the media and in his speech.”</p>
<p>“Comrade, brother secretary general of the OAS, you have to throw us out of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia and also another place, also Nicaragua, and apply sanctions: what does that mean? Surely it is an economic blockade like the one against Cuba.”</p>
<p>“I think that’s what the sanctions refer to, so how can some of us countries in the Americas guarantee security and peace when these are the proposals being made by some congressmen, by some Latin Americans.</p>
<p>“I was looking over in this respect, the reason why they had expelled Cuba in 1962, supposedly for being Leninist, Marxist and Communist, Cuba is thrown out of the OAS; now the new doctrine is an anti-ALBA doctrine since, in these countries,&#160; we greet Fidel and Chávez and other presidents, since having an instrument such as ALBA is having an instrument for integration, solidarity, unconditional solidarity, sharing instead of competing, practicing policies of complimentarism and not competition.</p>
<p>“…within that competition only small groups benefit and not the majorities who aspire to that from their presidents.</p>
<p>“Within these policies of competition and not complimentarism, not even capitalism is the solution for capitalism – that is the financial crisis.</p>
<p>“…the new doctrine much like earlier there were the doctrines from the School of Panama, the southern command was trainning our military, they shut that down thanks to the struggles of the people and now the School of the Americas is no longer around; what do we have now?&#160; Joint operations with special forces.”</p>
<p>“…I admire some of the officers of my Armed Forces who give details about those training sessions that they carry out each year on a rotational basis in the different countries of the Americas; what are they for? To propose to them how to wipe out those revolutionary countries, countries that are making profound changes in democracy, training sessions even to rehearse or teach snipers to kill the leaders.</p>
<p>“…with great indignation I had seen some pictures of these joint operations with special forces that rotate from country to country; of course Bolivia no longer participates, as long as I am the president, in these types of joint operations to keep on attacking democracy.</p>
<p>“…for the indigenous peoples’ movement […] this planet, or Pachamama, can exist without human beings, but we human beings cannot live without the planet, without Pachamama.”</p>
<p>“…capitalism is not private ownership because sometimes they try to confuse us and they say that President Evo is questioning capitalism; they are going to take away our homes, our cars; no, private ownership is guaranteed.”</p>
<p>“…the new constitution guarantees a plural economy and that plural economy ensures private ownership, it ensures communal ownership, state ownership and that of all the other social sectors, but when we are talking about capitalism we are talking about&#160; this irrational, irresponsible and unlimited&#160; growth.”</p>
<p>“Our comrades can no longer find water in the Amazon; when we start drilling in some region we have to go deeper and deeper to find very little water, and when we cannot ensure water on account of drought, exactly the result of&#160; global warming, that family must be left to fate, there are billions of them in the world, they are climatic migrants.</p>
<p>“We are not going to resolve that with the participation of the Armed Forces; we are not going to be able to resolve it with the participation of the ministers of defence or with cooperation; it is a structural world-based matter.”</p>
<p>“…we would like to resolve here, for the middle and long term, that the best solution is to put an end to disasters, or putting an end to natural disasters is putting an end to capitalism, changing those exaggerated industrialization policies.</p>
<p>“Of course all of our countries would like to become industrialized, to industrialize for life, to industrialize to be human beings and not to industrialize to end life and human beings; there are doctrines that proclaim and promote war, there are peoples or states living from war and that must end; and what we really have to end are those great weapons industries that put an end to life.”</p>
<p>“…I know that many ministers are bringing messages from their presidents, from their governments, their people; but let’s responsible to life, and being responsible to life means being responsible to the planet, or to Pachamama, our Mother Earth, and being responsible to Mother Earth, the planet or Pachamama is to respect the rights of Mother Earth.”</p>
<p>“…I would hope that the Americas, through you the ministers of defence,&#160; can lead the guaranteeing of the rights of Mother Earth in order to ensure human rights, life, humankind, not only for the Americas but for the entire world; I feel that we bear a great responsibility in this situation.</p>
<p>“I would like to acknowledge the participation of our Armed Forces, and to be honest with you, I was very much afraid, afraid in the year 2005, 2006, when I came to the Presidency, whether the Armed Forces would be with me or against me in this process.”</p>
<p>“…the Armed Forces taking part in social works, in structural changes, recovering the mines, supporting the policies for the recovery of the natural resources; these Armed Forces are now beloved by the Bolivian people.”</p>
<p>“…the people feel they have Armed Forces that are for the people; now we fortunately have two important bodies in the Plurinational State: the social movements that defend their natural resources and the Armed Forces are also defending their natural resources, and if we go back to 1810, it is obvious that the Armed Forces were born defending their natural resources, the identity and sovereignty of our peoples; only during some times were our Armed Forces used for evil, not to blame the commanders, but because of oligarchic interests or interests that were not of the people, and that obviously caused us a lot of harm.”</p>
<p>“…with policies being imposed from above and abroad, coming from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, privatizations, public companies being sold out to foreign interests.”</p>
<p>“…just the profits […] 18 percent was for the Bolivians and 82 percent went to the transnational corporations.</p>
<p>“On May the first of 2006, in a supreme decree, first we decided on State control of our natural resources and second, we are convinced that whoever invests has the right to recover their investment and has a right to have profits, and we said that now, with 18 % they could have profits and recover their investment; technicians showed this to me and from the first of May of 2006, 82 percent was for the Bolivians and 18 percent went to the investing corporations; so goes the nationalization in regards to their investments.”</p>
<p>Evo concludes his speech by contributing irrefutable information about the economic results achieved by the revolution.</p>
<p>“Before, the GDP in 2005 was 9 billion dollars, in 2010 it was 18.5 billion dollars of GDP.</p>
<p>“…with the World Bank and the IMF average income per person per year $1000 […] in our government it is $1,900.”</p>
<p>“…in 2005, Bolivia was the second to last country in international reserves and now we have improved from international reserves of&#160; $ 1.7 billion, to this year when we now have $9.3 billions…”</p>
<p>“…when we were dependent on US governments we could not even eradicate illiteracy; thanks to the unconditional cooperation of Cuba especially, and Venezuela, two years ago we declared Bolivia to be a territory free of illiteracy, after almost 200 years.</p>
<p>“In exchange for this cooperation, what does Cuba ask of us?&#160; Nothing.&#160; This is called solidarity; sharing the little we have and not sharing what is left over, that is what I learned from Comrade Fidel, a man I admire very much.”</p>
<p>Out of sheer modesty, Evo didn’t speak of the colossal advances obtained by the Bolivian people in matters of health.&#160; In the ophthalmological field alone, some 500,000 Bolivians had eye surgeries, health services reach all Bolivians and about 5,000 General Comprehensive Medicine specialists are being educated and will shortly be graduated.&#160; That sister country of Latin America has more than enough reason to feel proud.</p>
<p>Evo concludes:</p>
<p>“…without the IMF, I mean, if they don’t impose economic policies of privatizations, of auctions, we could be better off in democratic matters, if we didn’t depend on the United States we would improve our democracy in Latin America, it is the result of these last five years that I have been president.”</p>
<p>“Of course by saying this I am not saying that Bolivia now no longer needs cooperation, Bolivia still needs international loans, international cooperation, I acknowledge the European countries cooperating&#160; in Latin America, facilitating loans because we are in a process of profound transformations …”</p>
<p>“…that the peoples have the right to decide by themselves alone about their democracy, about their security, but while we have interventionist attitudes for any excuse […] we shall surely have to wait for the liberation of the people and as we can see they are going to keep on rebelling.</p>
<p>“For that reason, I am sure of rebellion towards revolution, of revolution towards decolonization …”</p>
<p>After Evo’s speech, a mere 48 hours later, Chávez’ speech fell like a bolt from the skies.&#160; The lights of rebellion &#160;are illuminating the skies of Our America.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Evo Answers NATO | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/11/26/evo-answers-nato/ | 2010-11-26 | 4 |
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<p>Jaime Edgar Alderete, 34.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A man enraged by the sight of a truck parked in front of his ex-girlfriend's apartment fired a gun at the building several times, striking three vehicles, according to court documents.</p>
<p>On May 2, police responding to a call at the St. Anthony Apartments on Indian School NW were told 34-year-old Jaime Edgar Alderete fired five rounds in the direction of his ex-girlfriend's apartment, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.</p>
<p>Alderete is referred to as Angel Alderete, 29, in the criminal complaint and his booking sheet lists eight other variations in names and date of birth.</p>
<p>Alderete's ex-girlfriend told police he had come to her apartment around noon to pick up his wallet which he had left there a couple days earlier. When he saw a grey truck parked outside her apartment Alderete accused his ex-girlfriend of visiting with another man, according to the complaint.</p>
<p>She said he told her he was going to get a gun and come back and kill her.</p>
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<p>An hour and a half later a woman told police she saw Aldarete arrive at the complex in a gold Toyota Camry, exit the car, and fire on a neighboring apartment, striking three vehicles and the building. She said she recognized him as a resident of a different apartment in the complex.</p>
<p>Alderete's ex-girlfriend told police she did not see him shoot at her apartment, but heard the sound of gun fire.</p>
<p>Police found several bullet holes in three cars parked in front of the targeted apartment, as well as in the building, according to the complaint. Alderete has a lengthy history of assault on household members, burglary and drug possession, according to online court records.</p>
<p>Alderete was arrested Monday and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center. He is charged with aggravated assault on a house hold member and shooting on a dwelling, as well as probation violations.</p> | Man arrested for allegedly shooting at ex-girlfriend's apartment | false | https://abqjournal.com/596521/man-arrested-for-allegedly-shooting-at-ex-girlfriends-apartment.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>While it may get under the skin of your competitors, guerrilla marketing has the potential to pay off in a big way.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>One example of how guerilla marketing can benefit a business is Beats by Dre, a headphone manufacturing company started by hip-hop artist Dr. Dre in 2009. The London School of Marketing recently analyzed the rapid rise of Beats by Dre and found that guerrilla marketing has helped the business grow to a multi-billion brand in just five years.</p>
<p>Guerrilla marketing is a low-cost method of promoting a business, product or service through personal interactions, such as word-of-mouth.</p>
<p>"Guerrilla marketing is considered unethical by some, but it is definitely an exciting and cost-effective way to get the biggest bang for the smallest buck," the London School of Marketing's Marcie MacLellan wrote in a recent in a recent article. "Ideally, this type of marketing is for small businesses that do not have a large budget but want to make an edgy introduction to the public."</p>
<p>In its analysis, the London School of Marketing found that simply giving away high-end audio equipment to celebrities has resulted in tremendous exposure for Beats. <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6289-making-the-most-of-your-marketing-plan.html" type="external">[5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Marketing Budget]</a></p>
<p>"These individuals in turn wear it to their public appearances, which ultimately results in media attention," MacLellan wrote.</p>
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<p>The 2012 Summer Olympics and this summer's FIFA World Cup are two examples of how the giveaways have paid off. In the 2012 Summer Olympics, Panasonic paid more than $100 million to be the Games official headset sponsor.</p>
<p>While Panasonic furnished their headphones to all of the athletes, Beats sent theirs to many of the top athletes, such as U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps and British diver Tom Daley. MacLellan said that in the end, Beats wound up getting more airtime than Panasonic, which helped Beats' sales soar during the three weeks of the Olympics.</p>
<p>This summer, Sony, the official headphone sponsor of the World Cup in Brazil, wanted to avoid a similar situation and banned all players from wearing Beats equipment at matches and media events. MacLellan said that despite the ban, many star players were seen wearing Beats headphones to and from practice and outside the stadium.</p>
<p>"The banning worked out perfectly for Beats because, as Ellen Leanse, a former executive at Google and Apple, noted, 'Beats isn't a sponsor, so the message is more authentic and credible,'" MacLellan wrote.</p>
<p>MacLellan said in the end, this type of guerrilla marketing has worked extremely well for Beats.</p>
<p>"As evident from the amount of uproar each tactic has caused, they definitely worked," MacLellan said.</p>
<p>While guerilla marketing can be beneficial, businesses trying this tactic should be wary of the potential downsides.</p>
<p>"Apart from generating instant irritation from your competitors, guerrilla marketing techniques that are not thought through can ruffle the feathers of consumers, result in fines or prison sentences, or backfire altogether," MacLellan wrote. "But Beats proves that, if used wisely and creatively, guerrilla marketing can be a great way for any company to cost-effectively market a product or a service with a 'bang.'"</p>
<p>Originally published on <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/" type="external">Business News Daily.</a></p> | Need a Low-Cost Marketing Strategy? Go Guerrilla | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/08/27/need-low-cost-marketing-strategy-go-guerrilla.html | 2016-04-07 | 0 |
<p>The Board of Education is expected this month to approve operators for about half of the 13 additional charter schools it is authorized to open.</p>
<p>In April, the Illinois Legislature doubled Chicago’s charter school quota, raising it to 30. The School Board quickly approved two new charters, Chicago Children’s Choir Academy and KIPP Ascend Academy, leaving 13 to go.</p>
<p>Twenty-five community groups, non-profit organizations and educational institutions are in the running. But Greg Richmond, CPS chief officer of new school development, says only five to seven will be approved now.</p>
<p>Richmond and seven members of the board’s 20-person charter evaluation team reviewed each of the applications, measuring it against a variety of criteria, including a strong curriculum plan and community support. Following the review, interviews were granted to 16 applicants—the board isn’t saying which ones.</p>
<p>“Every year we’ve created charters, we’ve raised the bar,” says John Ayers, executive director of Leadership for a Quality Education, a business organization that works with Chicago charters. “CPS has gotten smarter about what works as far as charters are concerned.”</p>
<p>In addition to educational plans, the basic step of securing a workable building was essential, Richmond says.</p>
<p>“I can’t think of a scenario where we would grant a charter to someone without a building,” Richmond says. “It’s hard to evaluate other parts of an application without that core element in place.”</p>
<p>But as Ayers points out, finding a quality building is a challenge. While bigger charters have the ability to pay brokers to find acceptable sites for them, smaller community groups often have to settle for options like former parochial schools that are old and in disrepair.</p>
<p>Applicants also need to show that they have a realistic plan for budgeting and finance, Richmond says.</p>
<p>“The truth is that good charter schools have to raise a lot of money,” says Allison Jack, an educational consultant who worked on several of the applicants’ proposals. “But they shouldn’t be judged solely on the depth of their pockets.”</p>
<p>Jack says funds typically can be obtained more easily once a school has proven its worth, and that applicants “should be judged based on their potential to accumulate funds, not just on the funds they’ve already secured.”</p>
<p>Richmond agrees, but notes that it takes a healthy combination of vision and practicality to ensure a successful school. “It’s important to have lofty aspirations to inspire the board and community, but it’s just as important to have the practical, day-to-day considerations outlined,” he says.</p>
<p>The following examples indicate the variety of applicants.</p>
<p>YMCA</p>
<p>Several observers single out the YMCA as one of the strongest applicants; the organization is the largest YMCA affiliation in the country and has an annual budget of $90 million.</p>
<p>However, the YMCA has no educators on its staff. As a result, it has opted for an extra year of planning, with the goal of opening in fall 2005, says Pat Welborn, the organization’s interim director for charter schools.</p>
<p>Welborn says she doesn’t think the YMCA’s selection is “a slam dunk. The competition is going to be very serious.” The group’s proposal spells out a curriculum focused on arts integration and rigorous academics.</p>
<p>Namaste</p>
<p>The brainchild of two Teach for America educators who met in 1993 in Houston, Namaste is the Hindi greeting that means “my inner light salutes your inner light.” Based on the theory that a healthy body paves the way for a healthy mind, Namaste would aim to teach students about nutrition and physical fitness, as well as provide them with a rigorous academic curriculum.</p>
<p>“Poor nutrition and lack of physical exercise are major barriers for inner-city kids,” says Allison Slade, a dual language teacher at Oak Terrace Elementary in north suburban Highwood. “They lead to poor concentration in the classroom and poor health.”</p>
<p>Slade developed the concept with Katherine Graves, a master’s degree candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.</p>
<p>Namaste would provide breakfast and lunch to students, as well as an hour of physical education every day.</p>
<p>Entrepreneurship Center</p>
<p>Herb Gordon, a retired businessman who has been a consultant to CPS for the past 10 years, is the lead organizer for this academy, which would seek to prepare high school students for the work world.</p>
<p>Students would graduate with real work experiences and the ability to envision and run a small business, Gordon says. The curriculum would be based on both Illinois’ academic standards as well as the standards from the National Business Education Association. The curriculum would include three years of entrepreneurship courses.</p> | Board set to fill half of charter slots | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/board-set-fill-half-charter-slots/ | 2005-07-28 | 3 |
<p>The Chicago Blackhawks signed forward <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Bryan_Bickell/" type="external">Bryan Bickell</a> to a one-day contract Wednesday so he can officially retire from the NHL as a member of the team.</p>
<p>Bickell, 31, was a member of three Stanley Cup championship teams (2010, 2013, 2015) with the Blackhawks and played 384 of his 395 career NHL games in Chicago.</p>
<p>Bickell played his last NHL game with the Carolina Hurricanes in April after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis last November.</p>
<p>“As any professional athlete will tell you, stepping away from the game is extremely difficult especially given my circumstances,” Bickell said in a statement released by the Blackhawks. “I’m honored to be retiring a Chicago Blackhawk — a team that has given me and my family so many great memories. I appreciate Rocky Wirtz, John McDonough and Stan Bowman for allowing me this opportunity.”</p>
<p>Originally selected in the second round (41st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft by the Blackhawks, Bickell recorded 136 points (66 goals, 70 assists) in his 10-year NHL career. He scored a career-high 37 points (17 goals, 20 assists) during the 2010-11 season with the Blackhawks.</p>
<p>The 6-foot-4, 223-pound Bickell skated in 75 career Stanley Cup Playoffs games, totaling 20 goals and 19 assists.</p>
<p>The native of Bowmanville, Ontario, announced he had multiple sclerosis on Nov. 12, 2016, while with the Hurricanes. He was placed on injured reserve and began receiving treatment for the illness. He returned from injured reserve on April 4 and played four games with Carolina before his final game.</p>
<p>“We are thankful to Bryan for his accomplishments on the ice and we look forward to hearing his voice in raising awareness for multiple sclerosis as he fights the disease,” Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said.</p>
<p>During the 2013 run to the Stanley Cup with Chicago, Bickell appeared in all 23 games, scoring 17 points (nine goals, eight assists). In Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final, he scored the game-tying goal with 1:16 remaining in the third period. That goal was followed by a <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dave_Bolland/" type="external">Dave Bolland</a> goal just 17 seconds later that clinched the Stanley Cup for the Blackhawks.</p>
<p>Bickell played 11 games of the 2016-17 season with the Hurricanes. He scored a shootout goal in his final NHL game on April 9, helping the Hurricanes to a 4-3 win at Philadelphia.</p> | Chicago Blackhawks: Bryan Bickell signs one-day contract to retire with former team | false | https://newsline.com/chicago-blackhawks-bryan-bickell-signs-one-day-contract-to-retire-with-former-team/ | 2017-10-04 | 1 |
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<p />
<p>Prices rose 3.3 percent in December compared with 12 months earlier, real estate data firm Zillow said Friday. Although that increase is less than the recent appreciation in home values, a surge in apartment costs in several of the hottest markets indicates that renters who aspire to buy homes face mounting financial challenges.</p>
<p>The share of Americans who own their homes has slipped to 64.4 percent from a peak of 69.2 percent in 2004, the result of the housing market crash that triggered the Great Recession in late 2007 from which the U.S. economy is still recovering more than seven years later. Because fewer Americans can afford to buy a home, demand for apartments and rental houses has pushed up prices at a time when newly graduated millennials are starting to leave their parents’ homes.</p>
<p>“We do not have the affordable rental housing resources to meet” the demand, said Barry Zigas, director of housing policy at the Consumer Federation of America, at an industry conference this week.</p>
<p>Rental prices have risen 52 percent since 2000, while incomes for renters have only increased 25 percent, said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. The higher costs make it difficult for renters to save for a down payment, which then causes them to rent for a longer period of time and delay any potential home purchases.</p>
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<p>“You don’t have to be a housing economist to see that there is a problem there,” Humphries said.</p>
<p>Additional construction has yet to significantly limit price growth nationwide. Builders broke ground on 376,000 apartment complexes last year, a 10.2 percent increase from 2013, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. By contrast, single-family house construction rose just 1.4 percent last year.</p>
<p>Rents jumped 15.4 percent in the San Francisco area to a median monthly cost of $3,031, an increased mirrored by San Jose where prices were up 14.5 percent to $3,187 a month. Rents climbed 10.5 percent in Denver to $1,817 a month. Kansas City also notched a substantial 8.5 percent gain to $1,204 a month.</p>
<p>Still, tenants are catching a break elsewhere. In Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC, rents rose by less than 2.2 percent. Rents in Minnesota’s Twin Cities area ticked up a mere 0.1 percent this past year to $1,501.</p> | Monthly US rents keep climbing, especially in San Francisco | false | https://abqjournal.com/530745/monthly-us-rents-keep-climbing-especially-in-san-francisco.html | 2 |
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<p>Over the last five years, the Sundance Film Festival has had an extraordinary run. Think about it: In 2014 alone, the festival saw the premieres of “Boyhood” and “Whiplash.” In 2013, it had “Fruitvale Station,” in 2015, it had “Manchester by the Sea,” and then, just last year, “Get Out” and “Call Me by Your […]</p> | Sundance 2018: Where Are the Masterpieces? Sorry, There Are None (Opinion) | false | https://newsline.com/sundance-2018-where-are-the-masterpieces-sorry-there-are-none-opinion/ | 2018-01-23 | 1 |
<p>STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Miles Reynolds scored 23 points, Roberto Gallinat added 21 and Pacific beat Loyola Marymount 88-82 in overtime to snap a five-game skid on Saturday night.</p>
<p>Pacific’s Namdi Okonkwo scored on the Tigers’ first three overtime possessions, twice with dunks, to make it 72-67 with 3:00 to go. The Tigers (6-9, 1-1 West Coast Conference) pushed the lead to 76-68 on Reynolds’ jumper with 1:21 left. The Lions (5-8, 0-2) scored on their next four possessions to rally within four but got no closer.</p>
<p>The Tigers made all 14 of their free throws in the overtime period.</p>
<p>Okonkwo finished with 12 points, and Jack Williams and Jahlil Tripp added 11 each for the Tigers.</p>
<p>James Batemon had 22 points, Steven Haney added 17, Eli Scott had 15 and Mattias Markusson 12 for the Lions.</p>
<p>Neither team led by more than three over the final 8:56 of regulation and both teams went scoreless over the final 1:35. Jeffery McClendon had a steal with 17 seconds left to give the Lions the final possession, but Batemon’s 3-point attempt missed off the back of the rim to send it to overtime.</p>
<p>STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Miles Reynolds scored 23 points, Roberto Gallinat added 21 and Pacific beat Loyola Marymount 88-82 in overtime to snap a five-game skid on Saturday night.</p>
<p>Pacific’s Namdi Okonkwo scored on the Tigers’ first three overtime possessions, twice with dunks, to make it 72-67 with 3:00 to go. The Tigers (6-9, 1-1 West Coast Conference) pushed the lead to 76-68 on Reynolds’ jumper with 1:21 left. The Lions (5-8, 0-2) scored on their next four possessions to rally within four but got no closer.</p>
<p>The Tigers made all 14 of their free throws in the overtime period.</p>
<p>Okonkwo finished with 12 points, and Jack Williams and Jahlil Tripp added 11 each for the Tigers.</p>
<p>James Batemon had 22 points, Steven Haney added 17, Eli Scott had 15 and Mattias Markusson 12 for the Lions.</p>
<p>Neither team led by more than three over the final 8:56 of regulation and both teams went scoreless over the final 1:35. Jeffery McClendon had a steal with 17 seconds left to give the Lions the final possession, but Batemon’s 3-point attempt missed off the back of the rim to send it to overtime.</p> | Pacific ends 5-game skid, beats Loyola Marymount 88-82 in OT | false | https://apnews.com/baafd411604545668121ee1f53e458c8 | 2017-12-31 | 2 |
<p>Jan 19 (Reuters) - EM-Tech Co Ltd :</p>
<p>* Says it plans to buy bluetooth headset related machinery equipment and inventory for 6.26 billion won</p>
<p>Source text in Korean: <a href="https://goo.gl/1aQHyB" type="external">goo.gl/1aQHyB</a></p>
<p>Further company coverage: (Beijing Headline News)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIRUT (Reuters) - A chemical attack on a rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta killed dozens of people, a medical relief organization and a rescue service said, and Washington said the reports - if confirmed - would demand an immediate international response.</p>
<p>A joint statement by the medical relief organization Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the civil defense, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 people had died.</p>
<p>The Russian-backed Syrian state denied government forces had launched any chemical attack as reports began circulating on Saturday night. The government said rebels in the eastern Ghouta town of Douma were collapsing and spreading false news.</p>
<p>Reuters could not independently verify the reports.</p>
<p>The lifeless bodies of around a dozen children, women and men, some of them with foam at the mouth, were shown in one video circulated by activists. “Douma city, April 7 ... there is a strong smell here,” a voice can be heard saying.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-ghouta/syria-says-ready-to-start-rebel-talks-after-alleged-gas-attack-idUSKBN1HF074" type="external">Syria says ready to start rebel talks after alleged gas attack</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-ghouta-russia/russia-denies-chemical-weapons-used-in-syrias-douma-ifax-reports-idUSKBN1HF0AL" type="external">Russia denies chemical weapons used in Syria's Douma, Ifax reports</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-ghouta-negotiati/negotiations-underway-between-rebel-group-and-russians-over-douma-idUSKBN1HF09Z" type="external">Negotiations underway between rebel group and Russians over Douma</a>
<p>The U.S. State Department said reports of mass casualties from an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma were “horrifying” and would, if confirmed, “demand an immediate response by the international community”.</p>
<p>President Bashar al-Assad has won back control of nearly all of eastern Ghouta in a Russian-backed military campaign that began in February, leaving just Douma in rebel hands. After a lull of a few days, government forces began bombarding Douma again on Friday.</p>
<p>The offensive in Ghouta has been one of the deadliest of the seven-year-long war, killing more than 1,600 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.</p>
<p>The Observatory said it could not confirm whether chemical weapons had been used in the attack on Saturday.</p>
<p>Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said 11 people had died in Douma as a result of suffocation caused by the smoke from conventional weapons being dropped by the government. It said a total of 70 people suffered breathing difficulties.</p>
<p>Medical relief organization SAMS said a chlorine bomb hit Douma hospital, killing six people, and a second attack with “mixed agents” including nerve agents had hit a nearby building.</p>
<p>Basel Termanini, the U.S.-based vice president of SAMS, told Reuters another 35 people had been killed at the nearby apartment building, most of them women and children.</p>
<p>SAMS operates 139 medical facilities in Syria where it supports 1,880 medical personnel, according to its website.</p>
<p>“We are contacting the U.N. and the U.S. government and the European governments,” he said by telephone.</p>
<p>The joint statement from SAMS and the civil defense said medical centers had received more than 500 cases of people suffering breathing difficulties, frothing from the mouth and smelling of chlorine.</p>
<p>One of the victims was dead on arrival, and six died later, it said. Civil defense volunteers reported more than 42 cases of people dead at their homes showing the same symptoms, it said.</p>
<p>Syrian state news agency SANA said the rebel group in Douma, Jaish al-Islam, was making “chemical attack fabrications in an exposed and failed attempt to obstruct advances by the Syrian Arab army,” citing an official source.</p>
<p>U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauret recalled a 2017 sarin gas attack in northwestern Syria that the West and the United Nations blamed on Assad’s government.</p>
<p>“The Assad regime and its backers must be held accountable and any further attacks prevented immediately,” she said.</p>
<p>“The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks,” Nauert said in a statement.</p>
<p>The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons during the conflict.</p>
<p>Reporting by Dahlia Nehme and Mustafa Hashem; additional reporting by Patrick Rucker and Tim Ahmann in Washington, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Sandra Maler, Larry King</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Christian Sewing, currently co-deputy chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>), is to become the new CEO of Germany’s biggest lender, replacing John Cryan, Der Spiegel reported on its website on Sunday.</p> Christian Sewing, member of the board of Germany's Deutsche Bank is pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, February 2, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
<p>A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment.</p>
<p>The German magazine said that Chairman Paul Achleitner will nominate Sewing at a hastily called board meeting on Sunday evening. Sewing, 47, would assume the helm at the company’s annual general meeting in May, the report said.</p>
<p>Deutsche Bank confirmed late on Saturday that the board would discuss the CEO position and make a decision.</p> John Cryan, CEO of Germany's Deutsche Bank is pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, February 2, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
<p>Sewing, a German national, would replace Cryan, a Briton, at a time when the bank is trying to strengthen its brand in its home market.</p>
<p>Cryan has been in office less than three years but investors have lost faith that he can return the bank to profitability after three consecutive years of losses.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">Deutsche Bank AG</a> 11.352 DBKGn.DE Xetra -0.31 (-2.64%) DBKGn.DE
<p>In picking up the baton, Sewing would face challenges including further cost cutting, intense competition at home and abroad, increased regulation and questions about the future path of the investment bank.</p>
<p>Sewing oversees the bank’s private and commercial bank division, which includes the Postbank retail banking unit. He has been a member of the management board since 2015.</p>
<p>Sewing joined Deutsche Bank in 1989 and has worked in Frankfurt, London, Singapore, Tokyo and Toronto, according to the bank’s website.</p>
<p>His appointment would be a blow to co-deputy Marcus Schenck, long considered a future CEO. The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Schenck has been in discussions to leave the lender as soon as next month.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Susan Fenton</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HOUSTON (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco took the first steps to integrating a petrochemicals business into the United States’ biggest oil refinery, which is operated by its subsidiary Motiva Enterprises.</p> FILE PHOTO - Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil &amp; Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
<p>Aramco’s Chief Executive Amin Nasser signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth $8 billion-$10 billion with Honeywell UOP ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HON.N" type="external">HON.N</a>) and Technip FMC ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FTI.N" type="external">FTI.N</a>) to study petrochemical production technology for use in a chemical plant the company is considering building at the Port Arthur refinery.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was winding up a two-week visit to the United States, was present at the signing in Houston, Texas, on Saturday along with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih and U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry.</p>
<p>“These agreements signal our plans for expansion into petrochemicals,” Motiva’s Chief Executive Brian Coffman said.</p>
<p>Aramco, which wants to develop its downstream business as the government prepares to sell up to 5 percent of the world’s largest oil firm in an initial public offering (IPO) this year, wants to use oil as a major petrochemicals feedstock.</p>
<p>Coffman also said Motiva was evaluating boosting the 603,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur refinery’s capacity to 1 million or 1.5 million bpd, which would make it the largest in the world.</p>
<p>The aromatics unit for which Honeywell UOP’s technology is being considered under one of the MoUs, would convert benzene and paraxylene, byproducts of gasoline production, into 2 million tons annually of feedstocks for chemicals and plastics.</p> FILE PHOTO - Chief Executive Officer of ARAMCO, Amin Nasser speaks during an interview with REUTERS in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
<p>The other MoU would allow Aramco to use Technip FMC’s mixed-feed ethylene production technologies in the United States. The technology would produce 2 million tons a year of ethylene, which is used to make plastics, Motiva said.</p>
<p>The final investment decision on setting up a multi-billion-dollar petrochemical plant at Port Arthur is not expected until 2019, and is “dependent on strong economics, competitive incentives, and regulatory support,” Aramco said in a statement.</p>
<p>Coffman did not provide a timeline for the possible expansion of the Port Arthur refinery’s crude oil processing capacity.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HON.N" type="external">Honeywell International Inc</a> 142.74 HON.N New York Stock Exchange -3.66 (-2.50%) HON.N FTI.N RELI.NS CVX.N PSX.N
<p>“That’s something we’re evaluating, we’re studying for in the future,” he said.</p>
<p>The 1.2-million bpd Reliance Industries ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RELI.NS" type="external">RELI.NS</a>) refinery in Jamnagar, India, has the world’s largest crude oil processing capacity.</p>
<p>Aramco said last year that it would invest $18 billion in Motiva to expand the refinery and move into petrochemical production.</p>
<p>Other U.S. companies, including Chevron Phillips Chemical Co CHEPH.UL - a joint venture of Chevron Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CVX.N" type="external">CVX.N</a>) and Phillips 66 ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PSX.N" type="external">PSX.N</a>) - and Exxon Mobil Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=XOM.N" type="external">XOM.N</a>), have recently opened plants, like the one Motiva is considering, to process ethane into ethylene.</p>
<p>Chevron Phillips is considering building a second ethane cracker on the Gulf Coast of Texas.</p>
<p>The price tag for a large ethane cracker is typically over $6 billion, according to analysts. In addition to taking refining byproducts, ethane crackers provide hydrogen for refineries to use in making motor fuels.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Susan Fenton</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia dismissed reports of a deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria’s Douma, Interfax news service reported on Sunday, citing Russia’s Ministry of Defence.</p>
<p>At least 49 people have been reported killed in the attack on the rebel-held enclave of Douma on Saturday evening.</p>
<p>“We decidedly refute this information,” Major-General Yuri Yevtushenko, head of the Russian peace and reconciliation center in Syria, was cited as saying.</p>
<p>“We hereby announce that we are ready to send Russian specialists in radiation, chemical and biological defense to collect information, as soon as Douma is freed from militants. This will confirm the trumped-up nature of these statements,” Yevtushenko is quoted as saying.</p>
<p>Damascus has denied mounting any such attack and has blamed rebels for spreading false news.</p>
<p>Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Larry King</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-EM-Tech to buy tangible assets for 6.26 bln won Dozens reported killed in suspected Syria gas attack; Damascus denies Christian Sewing to become new CEO of Deutsche Bank: Spiegel Aramco takes step to integrating petrochems into United States' biggest refinery Russia denies chemical weapons used in Syria's Douma, Ifax reports | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-em-tech-to-buy-tangible-assets-for/brief-em-tech-to-buy-tangible-assets-for-626-bln-won-idUSL3N1PE370 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p />
<p>This <a href="http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/7/292005d.asp" type="external">guy</a> just can’t believe how much Hollywood hates America, freedom, and our brave soldiers – or something like that. From his hysterical TownHall.com <a href="http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/Apuzzo20050810.shtml" type="external">column</a> (sorry for the redundancy, but I want to be clear):</p>
<p />
<p>Here’s the pitch: with box-office numbers trending down, studio executives are suddenly greenlighting movies they can describe to shareholders as ‘controversial’ or ‘timely.’ Whether the films are anti-American or otherwise demoralizing to the war effort is apparently immaterial. Its appetite whetted by “Fahrenheit 9/11″‘s $222 million worldwide gross, Hollywood thinks it’s found a formula for both financial security and critical plaudits: noxious anti-American storylines, bathed in the warm glow of star power.</p>
<p>Shocking! Hollywood to make films with eye towards market demand! Just what sort of <a href="http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html" type="external">trend</a> <a href="http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/ap/" type="external">lines</a> might these heartless profit-mongers be looking at?</p>
<p /> | H’w’d Thinks Terrorists are Boffo! | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/08/hwd-thinks-terrorists-are-boffo/ | 2005-08-11 | 4 |
<p />
<p>National Beef may not be a cash cow, but it's one of many subsidiaries Leucadia counts on for cash flows. Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Leucadia National Corp.(NYSE: LUK) can be a challenging company to understand and value. After all, there's Jefferies, the investment bank that's at the core of the company; a group of partly- and wholly-owned operating companies led by National Beef; and also Leucadia's $700 million-plus stock portfolio, primarily made up of a 23% interest inHRG Group Inc.In other words, Leucadia is made of a lot of moving parts across unrelated industries.</p>
<p>And while it may be a little harder to follow the company's various businesses, CEO Rich Handler and team are convinced that owning a variety of strong cash-producing businesses can make for market-beating returns. The trick? Utilizing the strengths of Jefferies to find great investment banking opportunities to put the cash flows produced by the operating businesses to work at Jefferies, or by acquiring more cash-cow businesses.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, more than one of those parts has struggled over the past year or so, and that's been a bad recipe for investors, with shares down about 20% over the past year.However, it's looking like Leucadia may have started turning the page, reporting what Handler called "more normal" results at Jefferies, strong earnings from National Beef after an ugly 2015, and steady growth in many of its other businesses. Let's take a closer look at Leucadia's second quarter results.</p>
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<p>In the second quarter, Leucadia reported net income attributable to Leucadia shareholders of $57.3 million, good for $0.15 per share. This was less than the $0.25 per share the market was expecting, as fellow Fool Dan Caplinger covered in the <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/21/can-leucadia-national-survive-market-volatility.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">earnings preview Opens a New Window.</a>, but the company's earnings before income tax was $139.5 million, and the company said its income tax expense is "substantially non-cash" because of its federal NOLs, or net operating losses within its subsidiary businesses.</p>
<p>Here are some highlights on the results across Leucadia's businesses and investments:</p>
<p>These are just a few select operating results from some of Leucadia National's operating businesses. There are many more, including a car dealership joint venture, an Italian wireless broadband provider, timber, gold mining, plastics manufacturing, and energy assets owned either wholly or in part by the company. And the bottom line last quarter was that some of the most important ones, such as Jefferies and National Beef, not only performed well but didn't weigh the company down like they have in recent quarters.</p>
<p>One of the realities of investing in Leucadia is that its business results, especially at Jefferies, will be "lumpy" because of the unpredictable nature of Jefferies' investment banking results from quarter to quarter. But at the same time, that investment banking business can be incredibly profitable and provide management with the kind of capital that it can use to buy great businesses to add to the Leucadia family.</p>
<p>Over time, these investments should pay off and help reduce the ups and downs tied to Jefferies.This quarter we got a glimpse of this, with National Beef rebounding from a rough year-plus with beef prices and inventories, and Berkadia, Garcadia, Conwed, Linkem, and several other operating businesses and joint ventures delivering strong cash flows and growth.But at the same time, it's going to take years for those businesses to get big enough to smooth out the lumps at Jefferies.</p>
<p>But if there's anything investors should take away from this past quarter's results, it's that things are stabilizing at Jefferies and National Beef after a tough 2015. That should give Handler and team even more cash flows to invest in a bigger, better Leucadia National.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/elihpaudio/info.aspx" type="external">Jason Hall Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Leucadia National. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Leucadia National. 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> | Where's the Beef? Leucadia National Corp. Seems to Have Found It | true | http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/08/08/where-beef-leucadia-national-corp-seems-to-have-found-it.html | 2016-08-08 | 0 |
<p>MANILA (Reuters) - A Philippine law enforcement agency has summoned the head of Rappler, a news site known for challenging President Rodrigo Duterte, to answer a complaint related to cyber crime, adding to problems for an outlet central to a row over press freedom.</p> Journalists work at the office of Rappler in Pasig, Metro Manila, Philippines January 15, 2018. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao
<p>The country’s corporate regulator last week revoked the site’s operating license for violating the constitution’s restrictions on foreign ownership of media, while the justice minister on Wednesday ordered an investigation into Rappler’s possible criminal liability.</p>
<p>Known for its investigative reporting, Rappler has repeatedly drawn the ire of the volatile Duterte, who on Tuesday called it a “fake news outlet”, but he denied influencing the regulator, or going after journalists. [nL3N1PC2S7]</p>
<p>Rappler is permitted to operate pending an appeal. It denies violating the constitution and has accused the Duterte administration of harassment.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Rappler confirmed it had received a subpoena by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), a copy of which seen by Reuters, ordering its chief executive Maria Ressa, one of the site’s investors, and one of its former journalists to appear at the NBI offices on Monday to “give your side in a certain investigation”.</p>
<p>Rappler Managing Editor Glenda Gloria told Reuters the subpoena, dated Jan. 10, was received only on Thursday afternoon, eight days after the date of issue.</p>
<p>The subpoenas were based on a complaint from a businessman who featured in a Rappler story in 2012. Neither the nature of the complaint, nor the date in which it was filed, were stated in the subpoena.</p>
<p>Media and human rights groups have expressed alarm at what they say is an attempt by the Duterte administration to intimidate the media.</p>
<p>The government denies it is cracking down on journalists, and says Rappler broke the law by granting an American investor the power to have a say in its operations. Rappler insists that is not the case.</p>
<p>Rappler’s reporting has included close scrutiny of Duterte’s deadly war on drugs and a series of investigative reports into what it says is his government’s strategy to “weaponise” the internet, using bloggers on its payroll to stir up anger among online supporters who threaten and discredit Duterte’s critics.</p>
<p>The government denies that.</p>
<p>Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre on Thursday defended his decision to order probes into Rappler.</p>
<p>“Rappler should welcome this investigation so that it will have the chance to prove the innocence it claims to have,” he said in a statement, responding to what Rappler calling that investigation a “fishing expedition”.</p>
<p>Reporting by Manuel Mogato and Martin Petty; Editing by Alison Williams</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>QUITO (Reuters) - Two Ecuadorean journalists and their driver, who were kidnapped last month by Colombian insurgents, have been killed, the leaders of both nations said on Friday, vowing justice.</p> Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno gives a news conference after two Ecuadorean journalists and their driver, who were kidnapped last month by Colombian insurgents, have been killed, in Quito, Ecuador April 13, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Tapia
<p>“Regrettably, we have information that confirms the murder of our compatriots,” Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno said on state television. “It seems these criminals never planned to deliver them back safely.”</p>
<p>On Thursday, Moreno gave the group, former fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who refused to demobilize under last year’s peace deal with Colombia, 12 hours to prove the hostages were alive or face a military operation.</p>
<p>Moreno returned to Ecuador that day from a regional summit following reports El Comercio reporter Javier Ortega, photographer Paul Rivas and driver Efrain Segarra were killed.</p> Relatives of the victims arrive for a meeting, after two Ecuadorean journalists and their driver, who were kidnapped last month by Colombian insurgents, have been killed, in Quito, Ecuador April 13, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Tapia
<p>On Wednesday, a statement apparently issued by the Oliver Sinisterra front - a faction of the former FARC guerrillas that refused to adhere to a 2016 peace agreement - reported the Ecuadoreans had died in a failed rescue operation.</p>
<p>Colombia denied any rescue attempt.</p>
<p>The journalists and their driver were on assignment for the Quito-based El Comercio newspaper on the border between Ecuador and Colombia when they were seized on March 26.</p>
<p>A proof-of-life photograph released shortly after their kidnapping showed them chained and padlocked by their necks.</p>
<p>Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos pledged full cooperation with Ecuador and said operations had begun against the rebels on both sides of the border.</p>
<p>“The FARC no longer exist... These are criminals dedicated to drug-trafficking,” he said at the summit in Lima. “They will feel the full force of the law and our armed forces.”</p> Slideshow (5 Images)
<p>More than a thousand FARC fighters refused to demobilize under the accord with Santos and continued trafficking across the nation. Those operating in Colombia’s southern jungles have attacked Ecuadorean security forces along the border.</p>
<p>The FARC, which battled for more than a half century, attacked military targets and civilian towns but generally allowed journalists to work freely, unless they went against the rebels’ interests.</p>
<p>The media crew was reporting on violence in the Esmeraldas region of the border when they were snatched by a group led by an Ecuadorean man identified as Walter Artizala, alias “Guacho.”</p>
<p>Colombia and Ecuador have both offered $100,000 each for information leading to his capture.</p>
<p>Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Additional reporting by Silene Ramirez in Santiago, Terea Cespedes in Lima; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Dan Grebler and Bernadette Baum</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Russia’s intelligence agencies spied on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia for at least five years before they were attacked with a nerve agent in March, the national security adviser to Britain’s prime minister said.</p> Salisbury District Hospital is seen after Yulia Skripal was discharged, in Salisbury, Britain, April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
<p>Mark Sedwill said in a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday that email accounts of Yulia had been targeted in 2013 by cyber specialists from Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-britain-russia-skripal-diplomacy/russian-envoy-says-uk-spying-claims-about-skripals-a-big-surprise-idUSKBN1HK1UK" type="external">Russian envoy says UK spying claims about Skripals a "big surprise"</a>
<a href="/article/us-britain-russia-eu-diplomacy/eu-envoy-returns-to-moscow-after-recall-over-double-agent-poisoning-idUSKBN1HK2BM" type="external">EU envoy returns to Moscow after recall over double agent poisoning</a>
<p>Sedwill also said in the letter, which was published by the government, that it was “highly likely that the Russian intelligence services view at least some of its defectors as legitimate targets for assassination.”</p>
<p>The Skripals were targeted by what London says was a nerve agent attack that left both of them critically ill for weeks. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said it is highly likely that Moscow was behind the attack.</p>
<p>Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted on Friday that a report this week by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) did not confirm the origin of the poison used against the Skripals.</p>
<p>Lavrov said the report only confirmed the composition of the substance and that Britain’s claim that it confirmed the UK position on the Skripal case was overstated.</p> Chemical weapons body backs UK on Novichok attack
<p>Separately on Friday, Russia’s ambassador to Britain said he was concerned the British government was trying to get rid of evidence related to the case.</p>
<p>“We get the impression that the British government is deliberately pursuing the policy of destroying all possible evidence, classifying all remaining materials and making an independent and transparent investigation impossible,” Alexander Yakovenko told reporters.</p>
<p>He also said Russia could not be sure about the authenticity of a statement issued by Yulia Skripal on Wednesday in which she declined the offer of help from the Russian embassy.</p>
<p>Reporting by Kate Holton; Writing by William Schomberg and Elisabeth O'Leary; Editing by Stephen Addison</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>Good morning. U.S. and Chinese trade will loom large over <a href="" type="internal">talks among Latin American leaders</a> in Peru today, as a heated dispute between the world’s two biggest economies continues to fan fears of a trade war.</p> Vendors sit under umbrellas inside a wholesale flower market in Bengaluru, India, April 12, 2018. REUTERS/Abhishek N. Chinnappa
<p>For&#160;all the news you need to start your day,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">subscribe to the News Now newsletter</a>.&#160;The best of Reuters news delivered right into your inbox absolutely free.</p>
<p>TRADE</p>
<p>Throughout U.S. farm country, where Trump has enjoyed strong support, tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are <a href="" type="internal">boosting costs</a> for equipment and infrastructure, according to Reuters’ interviews with farmers, manufacturers, construction firms and food shippers.</p>
<p>A car valve, the size of a thumb - used in car braking systems assembled in U.S. plants - is an example of a product in China’s ‘ <a href="" type="internal">workshop of the world</a>’ caught up in the storm of trade war fears.</p>
<p>China’s rising investment in research and expansion of its higher education system mean that it is fast closing the gap with the United States in intellectual property and the struggle to be the <a href="" type="internal">No.1 global technology power</a>, according to patent experts.</p>
<p>RUSSIA</p>
<p>The prospect of Western military action in Syria that could lead to confrontation with Russia hung over the Middle East but there was <a href="" type="internal">no clear sign</a> that a U.S.-led attack was imminent.</p>
<p>International chemical weapons experts were traveling to Syria to investigate an alleged gas attack by government forces on the town of Douma which killed dozens of people. <a href="" type="internal">Click here</a> for a graphic that charts the latest documented cases of chemical attacks in Syria.</p>
<p>&#160;Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said international relations should not depend on the <a href="" type="internal">mood of one person</a> when he wakes up in the morning, in apparent reference to Trump.</p>
<p>&#160;Russia’s lower house of parliament is to <a href="" type="internal">here</a>"&gt;consider draft legislation that would give the Kremlin powers to ban or restrict a list of U.S. imports, reacting to new U.S. sanctions on a group of Russian tycoons and officials.</p>
<p>COMMENTARY:&#160;What U.S. generals get wrong about Afghanistan</p>
<p>Since U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan ousted the Taliban from power in 2001, a succession of U.S. military commanders have repeated versions of the same message: that the situation there is changing for the better, with victory in sight. But lost in all this positioning, <a href="" type="internal">says writer Patricia Gossman</a>, is the fact that since 2009 the war has claimed the lives of 28,291 civilians and injured 52,366.&#160;The U.S. military can do a better job of understanding why these civilians are dying, and take steps to develop more credibility with ordinary Afghans.</p>
<p>REUTERS TV</p>
<p>The United Nations says Islamist fighters from Nigeria’s Boko Haram militant group have abducted over 1,000 children, many of whom would turned into child soldiers or forced into marriage.</p>
<p>Masaaki Nagumo has made his dreams a reality by creating a giant humanoid inspired by the anime series, Gundam.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Friday that Washington estimates that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have used chemical weapons at least 50 times during the seven-year-long conflict.</p>
<p>“Our President has not yet made a decision about possible action in Syria. But should the United States and our allies decide to act in Syria, it will be in defense of a principle on which we all agree,” Haley told the U.N. Security Council.</p>
<p>“All nations and all people will be harmed if we allow Assad to normalize the use of chemical weapons,” Haley said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Philippine investigators summon boss of news site derided by Duterte Ecuadorean journalists held by Colombian rebels confirmed dead Russia spied on Skripal and daughter for at least 5 years: UK Friday Morning Briefing U.S. envoy to U.N. says Syria used chemical weapons 50 times | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-philippines-media/philippine-investigators-summon-boss-of-news-site-derided-by-duterte-idUSKBN1F72FP | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON – With his chronically gravelly voice and relentlessly liberal agenda, Sherrod Brown seems to have stepped out of “Les Miserables,” hoarse from singing revolutionary anthems at the barricades. Today, Ohio’s senior senator has a project worthy of Victor Hugo – and of conservatives’ support. He wants to break up the biggest banks.</p>
<p>He would advocate this even if he thought such banks would never have a crisis sufficient to threaten the financial system. He believes they are unhealthy for the financial system even when they are healthy. This is because there is a silent subsidy – an unfair competitive advantage relative to community banks – inherent in being deemed by the government, implicitly but clearly, too big to fail.</p>
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<p>The Senate has unanimously passed a bill offered by Brown and Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, directing the Government Accountability Office to study whether banks with more than $500 billion in assets acquire an “economic benefit” because of their dangerous scale. Is their debt priced favorably because, being TBTF, they are considered especially creditworthy? Brown believes the 20 largest banks pay less – 50 to 80 basis points less – when borrowing than community banks must pay.</p>
<p>In a sense, TBTF began under Ronald Reagan with the 1984 rescue of Continental Illinois, then the seventh-largest bank. In 2011, the four biggest U.S. banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) had 40 percent of all federally insured deposits. Today, the 5,500 community banks have 12 percent of the banking industry’s assets. The 12 banks with $250 billion to $2.3 trillion in assets total 69 percent. The 20 largest banks’ assets total 84.5 percent of the nation’s GDP.</p>
<p>Such banks, which have become bigger relative to the economy since the financial crisis began, are not the only economic entities becoming larger.</p>
<p>Last year, The Economist reported that in the past 15 years the combined assets of the 50 largest U.S. companies had risen from around 70 percent of GDP to around 130 percent. And banks are not the only entities designated TBTF because they are “systemically important.” General Motors supposedly required a bailout because a chain of parts suppliers might have failed with it.</p>
<p>But this just means that the pernicious practice of socializing losses while keeping profits private is not quarantined in the financial sector.</p>
<p>To see why TBTF also can mean TBTM – too big to manage – read “What’s Inside America’s Banks?” in the January/February issue of The Atlantic. Frank Partnoy and Jesse Eisinger argue that banks are not only bigger but also “more opaque than ever.” And regulations partake of the opacity: The landmark Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, separating commercial from investment banking, was 37 pages long; the 848 pages of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law may eventually be supplemented by 30 times that many pages of rules. The “Volcker rule” banning banks from speculating with federally insured deposits is 298 pages long.</p>
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<p>There is no convincing consensus about a correlation between a bank’s size and supposed efficiencies of scale, and any efficiencies must be weighed against management inefficiencies associated with complexity and opacity. Thirty or so years ago, Brown says, seven of the world’s 10 largest banks were Japanese, which was not an advantage sufficient to prevent Japan’s descent into prolonged stagnation. And he says that when Standard Oil was broken up in 1911, the parts of it became, cumulatively, more valuable than the unified corporation had been.</p>
<p>Brown is fond of the maxim that “banking should be boring.” He suspects that within the organizational sprawl of the biggest banks, there is too much excitement. Clever people with the high spirits and adrenaline addictions of fighter pilots continue to develop exotic financial instruments and transactions unknown even in other parts of the sprawl.</p>
<p>He is undecided about whether the proper metric for identifying a bank as “too big” should be if its assets are a certain percentage of GDP – he suggests 2 percent to 4 percent – or simply the size of its assets (Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, has suggested $100 billion).</p>
<p>By breaking up the biggest banks, conservatives will not be putting asunder what the free market has joined together. Government nurtured these behemoths by weaving an improvident safety net, and by practicing crony capitalism. Dismantling them would be a blow against government that has become too big not to fail.</p>
<p>Aux barricades!</p>
<p>Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p> | Too big to fail is simply just too big | false | https://abqjournal.com/167782/too-big-to-fail-is-simply-just-too-big.html | 2013-02-11 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Harlem.jpg" type="external" />Jesse Watters went down to Harlem this week to talk to New Yorkers about the Donald Sterling racism scandal. LA Clipper owner Sterling was fined $2.5 million and banned from the NBA this week after news broke regarding his racist comments against blacks. Not only were the people upset [?]</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/05/sad-even-in-harlem-obama-gets-a-bad-wrap-on-race-relations-video/" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.thegatewaypundit.com</a></p>
<p /> | Obama Gets Bad Wrap In Race Relations in?. Harlem? | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/sad-even-in-harlem-obama-gets-a-bad-wrap-on-race-relations-video/ | 0 |
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<p>Working in&#160; <a href="https://www.recruiter/recruiting.html" type="external">recruiting Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;and HR requires you to perform a myriad of tasks to meet one objective: hiring the best talent. If you want to find the right person, you have to heavily invest time, energy, and resources in sourcing, prescreening, interviewing, and onboarding.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Because hiring is such an involved process, even seasoned veterans can make mistakes. What follows are&#160;five of the most common mistakes recruiters and hiring managers make, as well as some advice on how you can avoid them:</p>
<p>1. Hiring Candidates Who Misrepresent Themselves</p>
<p>An overwhelming&#160;number of candidates fib to some degree on their resume, and many business owners and employers have had the unfortunate experience of hiring a candidate whose skill set turned out not to match what their resume advertised. So how can HR managers filter legitimate, truthful candidates from those who are exaggerating their credentials?</p>
<p>Assessments and screening tests are easy and effective ways to verify a candidate's competencies, work styles, and integrity.</p>
<p>2. Asking the Wrong Question</p>
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<p>Many HR professionals would&#160;say that asking questions is their favorite part of the job, but problems arise when they get too carried away, dragging an interview past its scheduled wrap-up time. Many thought leaders recommend asking a maximum of six questions during the initial interview.</p>
<p>There are prescreening tools out there that can help interviewers generate customized question lists based on each candidate's skills and background. (We make one such tool <a href="http://www.talentclick.com/solutions/hiring-assessment-tool/" type="external">at TalentClick, for example Opens a New Window.</a>.)</p>
<p>3.&#160;Spending Time Interviewing the Wrong People</p>
<p>Phone interviews only provide a limited amount of insight into a candidate. HR managers really don't know whether or not they've made the right decision in inviting a candidate to interview until the moment that candidate arrives at the office.</p>
<p>Video interviewing is&#160;an effective solution for getting a better read on candidates during the prescreening process, before they are invited to a first-round interview. Video technology&#160;can also be used later in the interview process to save on travel costs if a candidate is based far away&#160;from your business.</p>
<p>4. Not Checking References</p>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140819084335-2417166-could-you-spot-a-fake-employment-reference" type="external">A survey of U.K.-based companies Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;found that 17 percent of employees have used phony references while applying for jobs. Given statistics like this, HR managers should make sure they do some snooping on platforms such as LinkedIn&#160;to double- and triple-check every reference a candidate offers.</p>
<p>5. Disregarding Overqualified Candidates</p>
<p>HR and hiring managers usually dismiss overqualified candidates out of fear: fear that these candidates&#160;will ask for higher salaries, be disengaged because&#160;the role is not challenging enough,&#160;and/or leave the company very soon after being hired.</p>
<p>However, overqualified candidates bring several benefits to the table, including ease of management, strong leadership skills, the willingness to take on&#160;new challenges, and self-sufficiency.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>With these tips, you should have a much easier time&#160;identifying candidates who will become top performers and contributors to your company's vision and success!</p>
<p>Greg Ford is CEO and cofounder of <a href="http://www.talentclick.com/" type="external">TalentClick Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 5 Hiring Mistakes to Avoid | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/12/01/5-hiring-mistakes-to-avoid.html | 2016-12-06 | 0 |
<p>Merck (MRK.XE) said on Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Samsung Biologics (207940.SE) that extends an agreement to supply raw materials for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.</p>
<p>Under the agreement, Merck's life-science business MilliporeSigma will provide single-use equipment, as well as cell line, cell culture media and chromatography to Samsung Biologics to help accelerate biologics development.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Samsung's biopharmaceutical arm and the German pharmaceutical company had already signed a supply agreement for raw materials in 2014.</p>
<p>Write to Euan Conley at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 01, 2017 03:19 ET (07:19 GMT)</p> | Merck and Samsung Biologics Extend Partnership | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/01/merck-and-samsung-biologics-extend-partnership.html | 2017-11-01 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://goo.gl/NMtzYU" type="external">Shutterstock</a></p>
<p>Usually when we report on voters’ disapproval of Congress, it’s with the caveat that most people like their own incumbents. That’s not so anymore.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/167024/record-low-say-own-representative-deserves-election.aspx" type="external">Gallup</a>, by way of <a href="http://politicalwire.com/" type="external">Political Wire</a>: “The enduring unpopularity of Congress appears to have seeped into the nation’s 435 congressional districts, as a record-low percentage of registered voters, 46%, now say the U.S. representative in their own congressional district deserves re-election. Equally historic, the share of voters saying most members of Congress deserve re-election has fallen to 17%, a new nadir.”</p>
<p>The numbers are culled from a poll conducted Jan. 5-8 of this year.</p>
<p />
<p>Gallup says Congress could look very different after the midterms: “The 17% of voters who now say most of Congress deserves re-election is well below the roughly 40% threshold that has historically been associated with major electoral turnover.”</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Peter Z. Scheer</a></p> | Throw the Bums Out: Americans Sour on Their Own Representatives | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/throw-the-bums-out-americans-sour-on-their-own-representatives/ | 2014-01-25 | 4 |
<p>SAN FRANCISCO — The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/San-Francisco-Giants/" type="external">San Francisco Giants</a> traded third baseman <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Eduardo_Nunez/" type="external">Eduardo Nunez</a> to the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Boston-Red-Sox/" type="external">Boston Red Sox</a> during their game against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Pittsburgh-Pirates/" type="external">Pittsburgh Pirates</a> on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>San Francisco received right-handed pitching prospects Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos.</p>
<p>Nunez had a two-run double and scored two runs in three plate appearances Tuesday being replaced by Kelby Tomlinson in the fifth inning, giving him a .308 average with four home runs and 31 RBIs in 76 games for the Giants this season.</p>
<p>The 30-year-old was acquired by the Giants last July 28 from the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Minnesota-Twins/" type="external">Minnesota Twins</a> for left-handed pitcher Adalberto Mejia.</p>
<p>Nunez is owed approximately $1.5 million for the rest of the year. He will be a free agent after the season.</p>
<p>Anderson, 22, went 6-3 with a 3.42 ERA in 18 starts with high Class A Greenville and low Class A Salem this season. He was drafted by Boston in the third round in 2016 out of the University of Florida.</p>
<p>Santos, 17, was signed by the Red Sox as an international free agent in 2015. He went a combined 5-3 with a 2.79 ERA over the last two seasons in the rookie-level Dominican Summer League.</p> | Boston Red Sox trade for Eduardo Nunez from San Francisco Giants during game | false | https://newsline.com/boston-red-sox-trade-for-eduardo-nunez-from-san-francisco-giants-during-game/ | 2017-07-26 | 1 |
<p>(Why are the fashion police not turning away now?) It depends on the political situation there, for example on inside or outside pressure. It also has to do with summer�when it's warmer and people are more tempted to wear lighter clothes, the authorities are a bit tougher for the first few weeks. (But this is the hairstyles in addition to the clothes.) This has always been an issue, but now with 60-70% of houses having satellite dishes they can watch the internet and MTV and the culture of punk hairstyles is fashionable and boys are wearing spiky hair. So people have gotten stopped for that. (What happens if you do get caught?) If you stand in front of the authorities, which more and more young people are doing�we used to be more afraid of and respectful of the authorities�so they might get dragged into a car and taken to headquarters and have to stay there for a few hours, get questioned, sign a paper promising that they'll never do this again. Occasionally they force them to cut their hair right then. But there is a general air of lack of respect to all of these decrees so the authorities fight back against that a bit harder. When I grew up it wasn't as easy and I always went with the rules. But later after a couple of days of going around with my friends and family, I noticed boys and girls are walking hand in hand a lot more now, being more affectionate. I was initially comfortable with this and found it strange.</p> | Iran's latest campaign against western attire | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-06-16/irans-latest-campaign-against-western-attire | 2008-06-16 | 3 |
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<p>Mergers have become commonplace as hospital megachains increasingly dominate the American health care market. But those mergers often go unscrutinized by state regulators, who fail to address the resulting risks to patients losing access to care, according to a <a href="http://www.whenhospitalsmerge.org/" type="external">new report released today.</a></p>
<p>MergerWatch, which analyzes the hospital industry and opposes faith-based health care restrictions, surveyed health care statutes and regulations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It found that only 10 states require government review before hospital facilities and services can be shut down. Only eight states and DC mandate regulatory review when hospitals enter into more informal partnerships rather than full-scale mergers, closing a loophole that exists in other states for deals to pass with minimal state oversight.</p>
<p>Smaller, local hospitals often agree to merge with larger chains in order to survive. The goal is to cut overlapping services, negotiate better deals with insurance companies, and share in the cost savings. But without state protections, local residents can see health services disappear, sometimes without a chance to weigh in.</p>
<p>“In a number of states, there is no oversight at all. So hospitals are just doing what makes business sense for them,” says Lois Uttley, one of the report’s co-authors and the director of MergerWatch. “Someone needs to be looking out for the patients and the community.”</p>
<p>Sometimes the loss of services is ideological: As <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/catholic-hospitals-grow-and-with-them-questions-of-care" type="external">ProPublica</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones</a>have reported, the expansion of Catholic hospitals in Washington State and Arizona led to restrictions on women’s health services and end-of-life counseling. Other times it’s just the bottom line: Expensive services such as pediatrics, obstetrics, and emergency room and neo-natal intensive care may be cut when a nonprofit hospital is taken over by a for-profit one, according to the report.</p>
<p />
<p>Even when state regulatory programs exist, they often fail to protect consumers from reductions in health care services. That’s because state oversight programs were largely written in the 1960s and ’70s, when hospitals were expanding and the main fear was duplication of facilities and services. Today, however, the opposite is happening: The number of hospitals in the United States has declined by about 240 over the past 15 years in the United States. Meanwhile, the country’s remaining hospitals are consolidating at a faster rate: 112 hospital deals were announced in 2015, which is a 70 percent increase from 2010, according to a recent analysis by Kaufman, Hall &amp; Associates LLC, a management consulting firm.</p>
<p>Many state governments offer few avenues for consumers to express their concerns about proposed hospital deals. Just six states require a public hearing for every merger application under review, MergerWatch found. In the absence of public forums, grassroots battles against hospital mergers have been taking place across the country, driven largely by local residents only after health care services have been restricted.</p>
<p>Consider <a href="" type="internal">Arizona</a>: In 2010, the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center partnered with the Carondelet Health Network, a Catholic system. Many residents of rural Sierra Vista only became aware of this after they discovered new restrictions on birth control, including tubal ligations and vasectomies, as well as on end-of-life options for the elderly.</p>
<p>“It happened before anybody had any input from the community,” Dotti Wellman, 77, a longtime Sierra Vista resident who helped organize protests against the partnership, told ProPublica. “I was very angry to think that families were going to be denied care. Quite honestly, if something happened to me, I didn’t want to go there.”</p>
<p>Bruce Silva, a gynecologist who was based at the health center, <a href="" type="internal">saw patients denied care</a>, including a woman who needed an emergency abortion after miscarrying one of her 15-week-old twins. He describes the essential paradox of the situation: “What they felt was morally reprehensible was what I felt was the moral thing to do.” He explained that the nearest non-Catholic hospital was about 100 miles away and some patients in this rural area could not even afford the gas. “It was denying access to people who were poor,” he told ProPublica.</p>
<p>For several months, according to Wellman, she and a group of community residents—mostly elderly patients over the age of 60—picketed the hospital every weekday for around four hours. Some residents provided the state attorney general’s office sworn statements of their views. After a year, the health center decided to end its partnership with the Catholic system.</p>
<p>Two years after the failed affiliation with Carondelet, Sierra Vista partnered with a larger for-profit hospital system that built a new facility and renamed it Canyon Vista Medical Center. In April, the parent company finalized a merger with another regional health care group, forming an even bigger entity, called RCCH Healthcare Partners, whose expanded reach covers 12 states.</p>
<p />
<p>Jeff Atwood, a spokesman for RCCH, declined to comment on the Sierra Vista-Carondelet partnership. Gary Hopkins, a spokesman for Tenet Healthcare Corporation, the majority owner of Carondelet since September, said he could not comment because the partnership predates Tenet’s involvement.</p>
<p>Many states do allow the state attorney general to review transactions when they involve nonprofit hospitals to ensure that their charitable status won’t be compromised. Some hospital mergers might also trigger antitrust review at the state or federal level, which aims to protect consumers (and their wallets) by making sure a single hospital system doesn’t gain monopoly-esque control over an entire area. Since November, the Federal Trade commission has challenged proposed hospital mergers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Illinois.</p>
<p>Christine Khaikin, a co-author of the report, called MergerWatch’s work a “jumping off point” to “open the eyes of legislators and policymakers that the regulation of hospital transactions is not inherently bad. It can be used to the consumers’ advantage, and we’re hoping to start really engaging health care advocates in the states.”</p>
<p /> | This Data on Hospitals Will Make You Sick | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/how-hospital-mergers-put-patients-at-risk/ | 2016-06-09 | 4 |
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<p>SANTA FE - Thoma Family Investments LLC has purchased the Railyard Galleries buildings on South Guadalupe Street in Santa Fe from Rose and John Utton, the LLC announced Wednesday.</p>
<p>The LLC plans to retain five art galleries now leasing space at 540, 544, 550 and 554 S. Guadalupe, said spokesman Don Siegel. One reason for the purchase - is how much we like the current tenants,? he said</p>
<p>In a news release, he said, "Rose and John have done a terrific job by being early developers in the Railyard, and have been committed to these well-designed buildings with multiple uses contributing to the vitality of both the North and Baca Railyards".</p>
<p>Siegel added that "we are also excited to be part of the Railyard community, and have found the leadership of the Railyard to be very supportive in helping Santa Fe become more vibrant."</p>
<p>Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Railyard Galleries property sold | false | https://abqjournal.com/768405/railyard-galleries-property-sold.html | 2 |
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<p>WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man authorities say stabbed a woman 19 times and left her to die on the street has been convicted of first-degree murder.</p>
<p>The Telegram &amp; Gazette reports that a jury Friday found 28-year-old Pedro Solis guilty of fatally stabbing Cherise Hill in Worcester in December 2015.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say Solis wanted the 31-year-old mother of three dead because she had seen him stab a man days earlier, and feared she would report him to police.</p>
<p>Solis faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.</p>
<p>Another man who police say participated in the attack on Hill testified against Solis and in exchange will be allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.</p>
<p>Solis' lawyer says his client was "an innocent man" who had been falsely accused.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Telegram &amp; Gazette (Worcester, Mass.), <a href="http://www.telegram.com" type="external">http://www.telegram.com</a></p>
<p>WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man authorities say stabbed a woman 19 times and left her to die on the street has been convicted of first-degree murder.</p>
<p>The Telegram &amp; Gazette reports that a jury Friday found 28-year-old Pedro Solis guilty of fatally stabbing Cherise Hill in Worcester in December 2015.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say Solis wanted the 31-year-old mother of three dead because she had seen him stab a man days earlier, and feared she would report him to police.</p>
<p>Solis faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.</p>
<p>Another man who police say participated in the attack on Hill testified against Solis and in exchange will be allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.</p>
<p>Solis' lawyer says his client was "an innocent man" who had been falsely accused.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Telegram &amp; Gazette (Worcester, Mass.), <a href="http://www.telegram.com" type="external">http://www.telegram.com</a></p> | Man convicted in fatal stabbing of Massachusetts woman | false | https://apnews.com/amp/847298a15123469fb53df158f360c0b7 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Mideast carriers are having fun at United Airlines' expense.</p>
<p>Dubai-based Emirates <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDa00JZBQp0" type="external">released an ad</a> after video went viral of a United passenger being forcefully removed that toyed with the Chicago-based carrier's longtime slogan. “Fly the friendly skies … this time for real,” it read.</p>
<p>Royal Jordanian <a href="https://twitter.com/RoyalJordanian/status/851526371327311873" type="external">tweeted</a> a no-smoking picture saying “drags on our flights are strictly prohibited by passengers and crew.”</p>
<p>Now Qatar Airways is getting in on the gag too. An <a href="https://twitter.com/qatarairways/status/852147267956027392" type="external">update</a> Wednesday for its iPhone app says it “doesn't support drag and drop. We take care of customers as we unite them with their destinations.”</p>
<p>Emirates and Qatar have been criticized by U.S. carriers over their rapid U.S. expansion. All three airlines have been caught up in the U.S. ban on electronics onboard.</p>
<p><a href="#f9c1a456-1dc0-4918-880a-564e5ea1c47a" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Fly the funnier skies: Mideast airlines troll United | false | https://abqjournal.com/987127/fly-the-funnier-skies-mideast-airlines-troll-united.html | 2017-04-13 | 2 |
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<p>So three years ago, the Los Angeles-based actress began to write.</p>
<p>The subject – a woman’s menstrual cycle – she decided to tackle is deemed by many as taboo.</p>
<p>But she wanted it out there.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It’s kind of perfect timing,” she says during a recent phone interview. “Earlier this year, Newsweek had a cover with a tampon on it. The story was about getting over the shaming part of having a period.”</p>
<p>Barton’s film, “Girl Flu” follows the life of 12-year-old Bird, played by Jade Pettyjohn.</p>
<p>In the film, Bird is having the worst week of her life – she gets her first period, is ditched by her impulsive, free-spirited mom and learns that you can never really go back to the Valley.</p>
<p>The film also stars Katee Sackhoff, Jeremy Sisto, Heather Mtarazzo, Judy Reyes and Diego Josef.</p>
<p>The film will screen at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival at 5 today and at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at Violet Crown Cinema.</p>
<p>As Barton wrote the script, she wanted to create many layers to the story, though Bird would be the focus of the film.</p>
<p>And she wanted a new generation of women not to fear the rite of passage.</p>
<p>“It’s not a crass joke,” she says. “I felt like we needed a heartfelt coming-of-age story. I have so much hope and want little girls to have a much better experience.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Barton wanted to keep the story focused on the friends and family of Bird and how they help her through this life-changing event.</p>
<p>She wanted to look at the whole system that surrounds the young girl.</p>
<p>“Jenny (the mother) really does have things to offer her daughter, though she doesn’t know it,” Barton says. “Jenny is very free and not so responsible. In many ways, the story becomes twofold. Both Jenny and Bird don’t really want to grow up, but they have to.”</p>
<p>Barton’s film is gaining steam on the film festival circuit.</p>
<p>In seven weeks, Barton will have traveled to 10 film festivals with the film.</p>
<p /> | ‘Girl Flu’ a ‘non-crass’ look at a woman’s menstrual cycle | false | https://abqjournal.com/871880/taking-on-a-taboo.html | 2 |
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<p>In 1968, Republicans nominated the highly unlikable Richard Nixon for the presidency. He won narrowly, not because he was such a genius, but because the Democrats decided to implode: campus takeovers, race riots, and chaos at the Democratic National Convention made Americans feel unsafe. Nixon campaigned as the anti-chaos candidate – a strong law and order man who would restore sanity in a country gone insane.</p>
<p>Most Americans remember the late 1960s as a time of disorder and craziness, a time when all moral standards broke down, a time when crime skyrocketed and social fabric tore wide open. Democrats remember it fondly as a time of change and protest, their shining moment. Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.salon.com/2008/04/08/hillary_1968/" type="external">publicly tracks</a> her political activism to 1968. The Democrats believe that they were virtuous in undermining America during the Vietnam War; they believe they did yeoman’s work in promulgating the sexual revolution; they believe they helped racial minorities by creating a vast welfare state and destroying city governments all over the country. And they believe that riots and violence were part and parcel of that hope and change.</p>
<p>And now those Democrats are back, preaching the 1960s gospel to their friends’ grandchildren. Hillary panders to the Black Lives Matter movement; Barack Obama incentivizes riots; Bernie Sanders promotes violence. At least in the 1960s, Democrats could claim that there were deep ills worth fighting: the aftermath of Jim Crow, restrictions against women in the workplace. What’s the big deal today? Transgender bathrooms?</p>
<p>But young people always have a need for communal activism. They feel the need to change the world, to rebel against authority. George Orwell summed up this sentiment well in 1940, explaining why young Germans flocked to Nazism:</p>
<p>Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all 'progressive' thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don't only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades.</p>
<p>But ironically, the violence and chaos will have a predictable result: the rise of a strong figure to quash it. 1968 ended in Nixon’s victory; the continuation of that legacy led to the rise of Ronald Reagan. When Donald Trump tweets thusly, most Americans nod along:</p>
<p>The protesters in New Mexico were thugs who were flying the Mexican flag. The rally inside was big and beautiful, but outside, criminals!</p>
<p>The rioters of 1968 will never die in the minds of the Democrats. But they will destroy any semblance of peace and prosperity in perpetuity.</p> | For Leftists, It’s Always 1968 | true | https://dailywire.com/news/6035/leftists-its-always-1968-ben-shapiro | 2016-05-25 | 0 |
<p>PHOENIX (AP) — A serial killing suspect shot and killed nine people, including his own mother, and used a victim’s gun in some of the slayings that unfolded in a three-week span late last year, authorities said Thursday.</p>
<p>Shell casings, DNA, stolen jewelry and a cellphone taken from a victim were among the pieces of evidence that investigators used to tie Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 35, to the killings, according to court documents.</p>
<p>“It should appall every one of us in the room that he managed to kill nine people period, let alone in such a short period of three weeks,” said Sgt. Jonathan Howard, a Phoenix police spokesman.</p>
<p>The seven men and two women were shot between Nov. 27 and Dec. 17 in their homes, suburban apartment complexes, in a parked car or while outside, the documents state.</p>
<p>Cooksey, described by police as an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but investigators were still trying to determine motives in a few of the attacks, according to police officials in Phoenix, Glendale and Avondale.</p>
<p>“We have witnesses that are identifying relationships between the suspect and his victims but we have yet to discover what kind of started this entire spree,” Howard said.</p>
<p>A number of details were withheld by police who cited the ongoing investigation.</p>
<p>Authorities were not discounting the possibility that Cooksey could be linked to other crimes. Howard encouraged anyone who has information about his relationships or activities to call police.</p>
<p>The victims included Jesus Real, 25, the brother of Cooksey’s ex-girlfriend. Real was asleep in his Avondale home on Dec. 11 when he was shot twice in the face. Avondale police say Real’s sister and Cooksey had broken up the night before.</p>
<p>Another victim, 43-year-old Maria Villanueva, was seen on surveillance video arriving at a Glendale apartment complex on Dec. 15 and then leaving with an unknown man in the driver’s seat.</p>
<p>Her partially nude body was found the next morning in a Phoenix alley and her car was found abandoned at another complex in Glendale.</p>
<p>Investigators found a cellphone and a bloody men’s shirt inside. DNA on the shirt matched Cooksey’s, court documents said. The cellphone was also confirmed to be his.</p>
<p>Cooksey was arrested Dec. 17 for the shooting deaths of his mother and stepfather in their home and has been jailed since then on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of being a felon in possession of a weapon.</p>
<p>Gary Beren, an attorney who represents Cooksey, didn’t immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment.</p>
<p>Cooksey was rebooked into jail Thursday in the seven additional homicide cases, Howard said. He was being held on a $5 million bond, according to a court document.</p>
<p>“I’m just proud as heck that he’s off the street,” said Glendale police Chief Rick St. John.</p>
<p>Cooksey previously served 16 years in prison for manslaughter and armed robbery and had been free for 18 months, authorities said.</p>
<p>It’s the second time in the past few years that Phoenix has dealt with serial killings. Aaron Juan Saucedo has been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in drive-by shootings in 2015 and 2016 that left nine people dead and two others wounded.</p>
<p>Saucedo has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Paul Davenport and Jacques Billeaud contributed to this story.</p>
<p>PHOENIX (AP) — A serial killing suspect shot and killed nine people, including his own mother, and used a victim’s gun in some of the slayings that unfolded in a three-week span late last year, authorities said Thursday.</p>
<p>Shell casings, DNA, stolen jewelry and a cellphone taken from a victim were among the pieces of evidence that investigators used to tie Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 35, to the killings, according to court documents.</p>
<p>“It should appall every one of us in the room that he managed to kill nine people period, let alone in such a short period of three weeks,” said Sgt. Jonathan Howard, a Phoenix police spokesman.</p>
<p>The seven men and two women were shot between Nov. 27 and Dec. 17 in their homes, suburban apartment complexes, in a parked car or while outside, the documents state.</p>
<p>Cooksey, described by police as an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but investigators were still trying to determine motives in a few of the attacks, according to police officials in Phoenix, Glendale and Avondale.</p>
<p>“We have witnesses that are identifying relationships between the suspect and his victims but we have yet to discover what kind of started this entire spree,” Howard said.</p>
<p>A number of details were withheld by police who cited the ongoing investigation.</p>
<p>Authorities were not discounting the possibility that Cooksey could be linked to other crimes. Howard encouraged anyone who has information about his relationships or activities to call police.</p>
<p>The victims included Jesus Real, 25, the brother of Cooksey’s ex-girlfriend. Real was asleep in his Avondale home on Dec. 11 when he was shot twice in the face. Avondale police say Real’s sister and Cooksey had broken up the night before.</p>
<p>Another victim, 43-year-old Maria Villanueva, was seen on surveillance video arriving at a Glendale apartment complex on Dec. 15 and then leaving with an unknown man in the driver’s seat.</p>
<p>Her partially nude body was found the next morning in a Phoenix alley and her car was found abandoned at another complex in Glendale.</p>
<p>Investigators found a cellphone and a bloody men’s shirt inside. DNA on the shirt matched Cooksey’s, court documents said. The cellphone was also confirmed to be his.</p>
<p>Cooksey was arrested Dec. 17 for the shooting deaths of his mother and stepfather in their home and has been jailed since then on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of being a felon in possession of a weapon.</p>
<p>Gary Beren, an attorney who represents Cooksey, didn’t immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment.</p>
<p>Cooksey was rebooked into jail Thursday in the seven additional homicide cases, Howard said. He was being held on a $5 million bond, according to a court document.</p>
<p>“I’m just proud as heck that he’s off the street,” said Glendale police Chief Rick St. John.</p>
<p>Cooksey previously served 16 years in prison for manslaughter and armed robbery and had been free for 18 months, authorities said.</p>
<p>It’s the second time in the past few years that Phoenix has dealt with serial killings. Aaron Juan Saucedo has been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in drive-by shootings in 2015 and 2016 that left nine people dead and two others wounded.</p>
<p>Saucedo has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Paul Davenport and Jacques Billeaud contributed to this story.</p> | Phoenix police: Serial killing suspect tied to 9 attacks | false | https://apnews.com/b22c1bef1ba44d2fb3145d18a71c2eb6 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HAR.JO) said Thursday it will exceed its fiscal 2017 gold production target by 3.6%.</p>
<p>The South African mining company said gold production for the year ended June 30, is expected to be 1.088 million ounces, compared with the production guidance of 1.05 million ounces.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"We will continue to focus on increasing cash margins through safe, predictable and profitable production," Chief Executive Peter Steenkamp said.</p>
<p>Harmony is expected to announce its full-year results on Aug. 17.</p>
<p>-Write to Razak Musah Baba at [email protected]; Twitter: @Raztweet</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 13, 2017 05:29 ET (09:29 GMT)</p> | South African Miner Harmony to Exceed FY17 Gold Production Target | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/13/south-african-miner-harmony-to-exceed-fy17-gold-production-target.html | 2017-07-13 | 0 |
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<p>Susan Pickering, left, senior manager of Sandia National Laboratories? Nuclear Energy Safety Technologies, discusses Sandia's work in nuclear safety with Anne Harrington of the National Nuclear Security Administration and Denis Flory of the International Atomic Energy Administration. Harrington and Flory toured Sandia's facilities on Monday. (Randy Montoya/Sandia National Laboratories)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Measures for keeping nuclear materials out of the wrong hands can be as straightforward as a stout post beam designed to stop massive, speeding trucks in their tire tracks.</p>
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<p>Or they can be as complex as fencing draped with a web of sensors so acute they can differentiate the movements of men from those of jackrabbits.</p>
<p>"For decades, Sandia has been developing systems and technologies for providing security to nuclear facilities," Pablo Garcia, senior manager for the Global Nuclear Security and Nonproliferation Department at Sandia National Laboratories, said Monday. "The one thing to know is that no one system is perfect."</p>
<p>Garcia said multiple systems and strategies are necessary to safeguard nuclear materials in nonmilitary facilities such as hospitals, clinics and nuclear power plants.</p>
<p>This may be the most important lesson learned by 44 nuclear operators and policy makers from 36 countries who on Monday started the three-week international training course on the physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear facilities. Sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the class has been held at Sandia every 18 months since 1978. Since its inception, more than 800 people from 73 countries have taken the course, which is offered to participants only once.</p>
<p>A news conference Monday at Sandia's Center for Global Security and Cooperation commemorated the fact that the class starting this week is the 25th in the course's history.</p>
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<p>Garcia provided an overview of security techniques and technologies as he showed visitors around a display area at the center.</p>
<p>"We work with vendors, hospitals and clinics to provide security for medical machines because we don't want the bad guys to get these (nuclear) materials," he said. "We have been doing this for decades for the Department of Energy, and we continue to work with facilities in the U.S. and other countries to provide security."</p>
<p>Denis Flory of the IAEA and Anne Harrington of the NNSA both praised the course, which is taught by experts at Sandia.</p>
<p>"Look around this room and this facility to see why this course is offered here," Harrington said, indicating the displays - exhibits, videos, diagrams - outlining the history of nuclear security. "You're getting hands-on instruction by people who do this for a business."</p>
<p>Harrington said that when the course began 37 years ago, the emphasis was on protecting nuclear materials from external threats.</p>
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<p>"It used to be the outside threat that was the most serious threat," she said. "Now we have to add to that the challenge of someone on the inside trying to get (nuclear) material out."</p>
<p>Among the countries represented by students in this year's class are Canada, Australia, France, Pakistan, Egypt and Mexico.</p>
<p>Julius Sabo, a security manager for a nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic, took the course in 2006. He was at Sandia on Monday in the role of guest lecturer for the security course.</p>
<p>"This is a great opportunity to learn with the best experts," Sabo said. "This is grand, the highest level. This is the University of Nuclear Protection."</p>
<p />
<p /> | Sandia teaches nuclear safety course | false | https://abqjournal.com/573108/sandia-teaches-nuclear-safety-course.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Dear Dr. Don,&#160;</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>I was given two quotes on refinancing a mortgage. One is at 4.125 percent with minimum fees including a $5,400 lender credit. The second quote is at 4 percent, but my loan amount increases by about $7,000. The higher rate would be about $7,000 more expensive at the end of the loan term. The monthly payments differ by just a couple of bucks.</p>
<p>Which is best: the lower principal or the lower interest rate? The impact of $7,000 seems small. I'm tempted to go with the higher rate because my principal would be lower. Help!</p>
<p>Thanks, -- Celestine Chooses</p>
<p>Dear Celestine,</p>
<p>It depends partly upon how long you plan to be in the home. If you expect to be a short-timer, you'd want the lender credit and slightly higher interest rate. Someone expecting to be in the house for the long haul should opt for the lower interest rate.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.bankrate.com/partners/sem/IP-mortgage-rates-v2.aspx?pid=p:foxbz?ic_id=mtg_st" type="external">Search for the lowest mortgage rates</a></p>
<p>My guess is that you don't have the cash to pay closing costs, so you have two options: Capitalize the cost by adding it to the loan amount, or pay a slightly higher interest rate and accept the lender credit to cover most or all of your closing costs. What are the total closing costs on the loan with the lender credit? You'll want to review the good faith estimates on the two loans to see the closing cost differences. If they're both $7,000, then you'll need to bring $1,600 cash to closing on the loan with the lender credit.</p>
<p>You want to minimize total costs over the time you expect to retain the mortgage.</p>
<p>You can use Bankrate's <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/mortgage-calculator.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">mortgage payment calculator</a> along with the calculator amortization schedule to determine the loan balances and interest expense over that horizon.</p>
<p>Here's a table showing a scenario for a $300,000 mortgage at the two interest rates you provided. I'm going to assume there's $1,600 in closing costs above the lender credit. That cost is capitalized by adding it to the loan balance. To make the monthly cash flows the same, I'm also going to assume that the difference in the monthly payments is used as an additional principal payment.</p>
<p>In this 10-year horizon example, the lender credit mortgage has the advantage, mainly because of a lower loan balance. While this is not your precise situation, it at least provides a framework for comparing your choices.</p>
<p>Get more news, money-saving tips and expert advice by signing up for a free <a href="http://app.bankrate.com/prefcenter/signup.cfm?t=newsletter" type="external">Bankrate newsletter</a>.</p>
<p>Ask the adviser</p>
<p>To ask a question of Dr. Don, go to the " <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/ask.asp" type="external">Ask the Experts</a>" page and select one of these topics: "Financing a home," "Saving and Investing," "Senior Living" or "Money." Read more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/advisers/drdon.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Dr. Don columns</a> for additional personal finance advice.</p>
<p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2014, Bankrate Inc.</p> | How to Choose Between 4% Mortgages | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/11/24/how-to-choose-between-4-percent-mortgages.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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