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<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A suburban Portland man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping a young woman as she walked to work.</p>
<p>KPTV-TV <a href="http://www.kptv.com/story/37203989/gresham-man-sentenced-to-25-years-for-the-rape-of-19-year-old" type="external">reports</a> Orion Mears of Gresham was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to rape, sodomy, robbery and kidnapping in the November 2016 incident. He also pleaded no contest for a rape that happened 16 years ago.</p>
<p>In November 2016, the 19-year-old woman was walking to work at 4 a.m. when Mears stopped and asked her the time. He attacked her shortly thereafter and threatened her with a gun.</p>
<p>Police arrested Mears a few days later after receiving tips from the community.</p>
<p>Mears did not make a statement in court.</p>
<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A suburban Portland man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping a young woman as she walked to work.</p>
<p>KPTV-TV <a href="http://www.kptv.com/story/37203989/gresham-man-sentenced-to-25-years-for-the-rape-of-19-year-old" type="external">reports</a> Orion Mears of Gresham was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to rape, sodomy, robbery and kidnapping in the November 2016 incident. He also pleaded no contest for a rape that happened 16 years ago.</p>
<p>In November 2016, the 19-year-old woman was walking to work at 4 a.m. when Mears stopped and asked her the time. He attacked her shortly thereafter and threatened her with a gun.</p>
<p>Police arrested Mears a few days later after receiving tips from the community.</p>
<p>Mears did not make a statement in court.</p> | Man sentenced to 25 years for rape of teen walking to work | false | https://apnews.com/b9c49f52545d4ed683716d7bc2ea1d99 | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p>LOUISVILLE (KY)WAVE 3&#160;</p>
<p>By David McArthur</p>
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<p>(LOUISVILLE, October 31st, 2003,&#160;5 p.m.) -- The Archbishop's door is now open to abuse victims from the $25.7 million settlement. Louisville's Archdiocese made the offer months ago, but says legalities often got in the way. On Friday, the first victim to file was pleasantly surprised in the first private meeting with Archbishop Thomas Kelly. WAVE 3's&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">David McArthur</a> reports.</p>
<p>Two people once divided have now met face to face. And Mike Turner, the first person to file a lawsuit against the Archdiocese, says "it was a very good meeting."</p>
<p>Turner says "Archbishop Kelly couldn't be more receptive and a pleasure to talk to."</p> | Abuse Victim Meets With Archbishop | false | https://poynter.org/news/abuse-victim-meets-archbishop | 2003-11-01 | 2 |
<p>Fox News contributors Steve Cortes and Mary Anastasia O’Grady on President Trump touting U.S. economic growth during his speech at the United Nations and the Federal Reserve unrolling its balance sheet.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve on Wednesday is widely expected to pave a way forward for reducing its large balance sheet. Investors are mostly looking past that news, instead watching for the central bank’s views on inflation and the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>With the conclusion of the Fed’s September meeting on tap, U.S. stocks have climbed to new highs this week amid continued optimism over the economy. The markets have responded positively to strength in the labor market and robust corporate earnings, largely shrugging off the Fed’s shift from dovish recession-era policies.</p>
<p>“It’s really more about the economy than what any central banks are saying or doing,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial. “We’ve had very low inflation. That has the Fed scratching their head, with low unemployment and aging economic cycle. At the same time, the economy looks good, and we’ve seen strong earnings.”</p>
<p>The Fed has already detailed how it will slash a nearly $4.5 trillion portfolio. In June, members of the Federal Open Market Committee introduced a plan to allow as much as $6 billion worth of government bonds and $4 billion in mortgage-backed securities to roll off its balance sheet each month. The Fed will raise the cap every quarter, ultimately shedding $30 billion in Treasury bonds&#160;and $20 billion in mortgage bonds per month.</p>
<p>The Fed is expected to turn its attention to interest rates later this year. Persistently low inflation, as well as costly destruction from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, have dampened the odds of a rate hike in December. Still, market trends signal a better-than-even chance that the Fed stays the course and lifts the federal funds rate another quarter of a percentage point. The last rate hike came in June, when the Fed set the fed funds rate to a range of 1% to 1.25%.</p>
<p>Fresh data on the economy reinforced projections for a December rate hike. The consumer price index rose 0.4% in August, the Labor Department said last week. Inflation is now up to 1.9% over the past 12 months, bringing it closer to the Fed’s 2% target.</p>
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<p>“The report contributed to the shifting view that the Fed may, indeed, raise rates once again in December, a view that had been discounted following months of frustratingly low inflation readings,” Ameriprise Chief Market Strategist David Joy said in a note to clients.</p>
<p>Investors will be closely watching Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s press conference Wednesday for her views on the latest inflation data, while the economic impact of recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida also remains a central theme. The Atlanta Fed cut its forecast for third-quarter GDP to 2.2% from 3%, though it cited disappointing retail sales and industrial production, Joy noted. Moody’s Analytics said Harvey and Irma may have caused up to $200 billion in combined damage.</p>
<p>Beyond the Fed’s September meeting, stocks could enter a stretch of volatility in October as third-quarter earnings begin to roll in and a December rate hike comes to the forefront. Detrick said the S&amp;P 500 has gone 10 months without a 3% correction, the second-longest streak in history. October is also one of the most volatile times for the markets, historically.</p>
<p>“Could the Fed potentially kick off the normal volatility we see this time of year? We wouldn’t be shocked,” Detrick said.</p> | Investors seek Fed clues on inflation, economy | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/20/investors-seek-fed-clues-on-inflation-economy.html | 2017-09-20 | 0 |
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<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Los Angeles police officer sought for two weekend killings — and who threatened to kill police — is a suspect in an overnight shooting in nearby Riverside that killed one officer and critically wounded another, police said today.</p>
<p>The shooting happened early this morning in the Los Angeles suburb of Corona. The wounded officer is in surgery. A third officer suffered a graze wound.</p>
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<p>Two Newton station officers on security duty in the same area were also involved in a shooting overnight, but they weren’t hurt, police said.</p>
<p>Former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner is the suspect who’s wanted in the killings of Monica Quan and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence, who were found shot to death in their car at a parking structure Sunday night, Irvine police Chief David L. Maggard said at a news conference Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Dorner, 33, implicated himself in the killings with a multipage “manifesto” that he wrote that included threats against several people, including members of the LAPD, police said. They gave no further details on the document or its contents.</p>
<p>Autopsies showed that Quan and Lawrence were killed by multiple gunshot wounds in the parking structure at their condominium in Irvine, Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said earlier Wednesday.</p>
<p>Quan, 28, was an assistant women’s basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Lawrence, 27, was a public safety officer at the University of Southern California.</p>
<p>The killings brought mourning and disbelief at three college campuses, Fullerton, USC, and Concordia University, where the two met when they were both students and basketball players.</p>
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<p>Police do not know Dorner’s whereabouts, and authorities were seeking the public’s help in finding him.</p>
<p>“We have strong cause to believe Dorner is armed and dangerous,” Maggard said, adding that the LAPD and FBI are assisting in the case.</p>
<p>Police said the U.S. Navy reservist may be driving a blue 2005 Nissan Titan pickup truck. His last known address was in La Palma in northern Orange County near Fullerton.</p>
<p>Dorner was with the department from 2005 until 2008, when he was fired for making false statements.</p>
<p>Quan’s father, a former LAPD captain who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against Dorner at the time of his dismissal, LAPD Capt. William Hayes told The Associated Press Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Randal Quan retired in 2002. He later served as chief of police at Cal Poly Pomona before he started practicing law.</p>
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<p>According to documents from a court of appeals hearing in October 2011, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field training officer, Sgt. Teresa Evans. Dorner said that in the course of an arrest, Evans kicked suspect Christopher Gettler, a schizophrenic with severe dementia.</p>
<p>Following an investigation, Dorner was fired for making false statements.</p>
<p>Richard Gettler, the schizophrenic man’s father, gave testimony that supported Dorner’s claim. After his son was returned on July 28, 2007, Richard Gettler asked “if he had been in a fight because his face was puffy” and his son responded that he was kicked twice in the chest by a police officer.</p>
<p>7:13am — Fired LA Cop Sought in Killings</p>
<p>Monica Quan, assistant basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton, and her fiance Keith Lawrence were shot to death Sunday. (AP Photo)</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities are seeking a fired Los Angeles police officer suspected in the killings of two people including a Cal State Fullerton basketball coach whose father represented the suspect in front of a disciplinary board when he lost his job, police said Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Former LAPD officer and U.S. Navy reservist Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, is the suspect in the killings of Monica Quan, 28, and her 27-year-old fiancé Keith Lawrence, who were found shot to death in their car at a parking structure Sunday night, Irvine police Chief David L. Maggard said at a news conference.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Police said Dorner implicated himself in the killings with a multi-page “manifesto” that he wrote that included threats against several people, but would give no further details on the document or its contents.</p>
<p>Police do not know Dorner’s whereabouts, and authorities were seeking the public’s help in finding the suspect.</p>
<p>“We have strong cause to believe Dorner is armed and dangerous,” Maggard said, adding that the LAPD and FBI are assisting in the case and anyone who sees the suspect should immediately call 911.</p>
<p>Dorner was with the department from 2005 until 2008, when he was fired for making false statements.</p>
<p>Quan’s father, Randal Quan, a former LAPD captain who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against Dorner at the time of his dismissal, LAPD Capt. William Hayes told The Associated Press Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Randal Quan, who the LAPD said was the first Chinese-American captain in department history, retired in 2002. He later served as chief of police at Cal Poly Pomona and went on to practice law.</p>
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<p>Police said Dorner’s manifesto included threats against members of the LAPD.</p>
<p>“We are looking at the manifesto and will do an assessment in terms of the threat against those listed in it, and determine what level of protection each of them will need,” Hayes said.</p>
<p>Police said he may be driving a blue, 2005 Nissan Titan pickup truck and his last known address was in La Palma, Calif., in northern Orange County near Fullerton.</p>
<p>According to documents from a court of appeals hearing in October 2011, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field training officer, Sgt. Teresa Evans, saying in the course of arrest she kicked suspect Christopher Gettler, a schizophrenic with severe dementia.</p>
<p>Following an investigation, Dorner was fired for making false statements.</p>
<p>Richard Gettler, the schizophrenic man’s father, gave testimony that supported Dorner’s claim. After his son was returned on July 28, 2007, Richard Gettler asked “if he had been in a fight because his face was puffy” and his son responded that he was kicked twice in the chest by a police officer, he testified.</p>
<p>Autopsies showed both were killed by multiple gunshot wounds in the parking structure at their condominium in Irvine, Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said earlier Wednesday.</p>
<p>Lawrence, the other victim, was a public safety officer at the University of Southern California.</p>
<p>The killings brought mourning and disbelief at three college campuses, Fullerton, USC, and Concordia University, where the two met when they were both students and basketball players.</p> | UPDATED: Ex-LA Cop Suspected in Calif. Killing Rampage | false | https://abqjournal.com/166774/fired-la-cop-sought-in-killings.html | 2013-02-07 | 2 |
<p>Thursday was a bruising day for American health care.</p>
<p>In Congress, House Republicans rushed through an Obamacare replacement bill, <a href="" type="internal">without waiting</a> for a CBO score, that is likely to cause tens of millions to lose health insurance. The bill would also allow states to roll back coverage for essential health benefits like hospitalizations, and to revoke protections for people with pre-existing conditions.</p>
<p>These policies will be particularly devastating for women and other people who can get pregnant. Before Obamacare required plans to cover essential health benefits, it <a href="" type="internal">was more common</a> for insurance plans to opt not cover maternity and neonatal care than it was for them to cover it, and this care was often extremely expensive.</p>
<p>Plus, rape, domestic violence, sexual assault, Cesarean sections, and post-partum depression can all be classed as pre-existing conditions — meaning that Trumpcare opens the door for rape survivors, for example, to choose between reporting their rape and accessing affordable health insurance.</p>
<p>A story of male priorities on women’s health care, in two acts.</p>
<p>But that’s not all. President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price also indicated that, even aside from the sweeping changes to existing protections under Obamacare, the White House is ready to start rolling back birth control coverage.</p>
<p>On Thursday morning, President Trump signed an “executive order on religious freedom,” which would both make it easier for faith leaders to <a href="" type="internal">preach politics</a>, and for employers to claim a religious exemption against providing contraceptive health care coverage to their employees.</p>
<p>“Your long ordeal will soon be over,” <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/04/donald-trump-religious-liberty-johnson-amendment/101277724/" type="external">Trump told</a> the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns that objected to Obamacare’s mandate that all health insurance plans cover birth control without additional co-pays.</p>
<p>Price immediately released a press release saying he was pleased to have the opportunity to rethink the mandate.</p>
<p>The Trump administration will likely take steps to eliminate or weaken the contraception coverage mandate.</p>
<p>“We welcome today’s executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to reexamine the previous administration’s interpretation of the Affordable Care Act’s preventive services mandate, and commend President Trump for taking a strong stand for religious liberty,” his <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/05/04/secretary-price-welcomes-opportunity-to-reexamine-contraception-mandate.html" type="external">press release says</a>. “We will be taking action in short order to follow the President’s instruction to safeguard the deeply held religious beliefs of Americans who provide health insurance to their employees.”</p>
<p>It’s a move that health care advocates <a href="" type="internal">have long expected</a> from Price, who has previously objected to Obamacare’s birth control mandate. In his confirmation hearing, Price <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/health-care-news/articles/2017-01-18/tom-price-leaves-door-open-to-gutting-obamacares-free-birth-control-provision" type="external">refused to commit</a> to keeping this Obamacare provision intact. Years before that, Price <a href="" type="internal">dismissed the idea</a> that women may struggle to access contraception.</p>
<p>“Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There’s not one,” Price said in an interview with ThinkProgress <a href="" type="internal">in 2012</a>. “The fact of the matter is this is a trampling on religious freedom and religious liberty in this country.”</p>
<p>Now, as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Price has immense control over how to enforce the essential benefits provision, and will likely use Trump’s order to expand the exemptions for employers, allowing them to refuse to cover some or all birth control options.</p>
<p>It’s a move that could have real consequences for those relying on Obamacare’s no-copay provision.</p>
<p>In a March study, researchers at polling firm PerryUndem found that one in seven women said that if they had to pay any money for their birth control at all, they wouldn’t be able to afford it. One in three said that they could afford to pay only $10 or less.</p>
<p>Without coverage, that means they’d likely be going without birth control or have to choose options based on cost rather than which works best for them medically, either of which could have a huge impact over their short and long-term financial stability.</p>
<p>All of which means, even if the House version of Trumpcare does not become law — and it still has a long journey ahead of it — the Trump administration is set to actively roll back protections on women’s heath coverage.</p> | Tom Price ‘welcomes’ the chance to roll back birth control coverage | true | https://thinkprogress.org/tom-price-birth-control-coverage-a87009b7b418 | 2017-05-04 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Reinforcing its strong connection with social conservatives, the Trump administration announced Thursday a new federal office to protect medical providers refusing to participate in abortion, assisted suicide or other procedures on moral or religious grounds.</p>
<p>Leading Democrats and LGBT groups immediately denounced the move, saying “conscience protections” could become a license to discriminate, particularly against gay and transgender people.</p>
<p>The announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services came a day ahead of the annual march on Washington by abortion opponents, who will be addressed via video link by President Donald Trump. HHS put on a formal event in the department’s Great Hall, with Republican lawmakers and activists for conscience protections as invited speakers.</p>
<p>The religious and conscience division will be part of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal anti-discrimination and privacy laws. Officials said it will focus on upholding protections already part of federal law. Violations can result in a service provider losing government funding.</p>
<p>No new efforts to expand such protections were announced, but activists on both sides expect the administration will try to broaden them in the future.</p>
<p>Although the HHS civil rights office has traditionally received few complaints alleging conscience violations, HHS Acting Secretary Eric Hargan, painted a picture of clinicians under government coercion to violate the dictates of conscience.</p>
<p>“For too long, too many health care practitioners have been bullied and discriminated against because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions, leading many of them to wonder what future they have in our medical system,” Hargan told the audience.</p>
<p>“The federal government and state governments have hounded religious hospitals and the men and women who staff them, forcing them to provide or refer for services that violate their consciences, when they only wish to serve according to their religious beliefs,” Hargan added.</p>
<p>After Hargan spoke, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 Republican in the House, provided an example of the kind of case the new office should tackle. McCarthy told the audience he has “high hopes” that the “arrogance” of a California law known as AB 775 “will be investigated and resolved quickly.”</p>
<p>That law, which requires anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to post information about abortion and other services, is the subject of a free-speech challenge brought by the pregnancy centers that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Although the HHS civil rights office traditionally has gotten a small number of complaints involving religious and conscience rights, the number has grown since Trump was elected.</p>
<p>Office director Roger Severino said that from 2008 to Nov. 2016, HHS received 10 such complaints. Since Trump won, the office has received 34 new complaints. Before his appointment to government service under Trump, Severino was an expert on religious freedom, marriage, and life issues at the conservative Heritage Foundation.</p>
<p>The new HHS office joins the list of administration actions seen as pleasing to social conservatives, including expanded exemptions for employers who object to providing contraceptive coverage, and the White House move to bar military service by transgender people. Those initiatives have run into legal challenges.</p>
<p>Democrats, LGBT organizations and some civil liberties groups were quick to condemn the administration’s latest action.</p>
<p>“They are prioritizing providers’ beliefs over patients’ health and lives,” Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “This administration isn’t increasing freedom — they’re paving the way for discrimination.”</p>
<p>On Capitol Hill, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., pledged to keep a close eye on the new enforcement office. “Religious freedom should not mean that our health care providers have a license to discriminate or impose their beliefs on others,” Pallone said. He is the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over many health care issues.</p>
<p>LGBT-rights organizations suggested some medical providers will be emboldened to shun gay, lesbian and transgender patients.</p>
<p>“LGBT people have already been turned away from hospitals and doctors’ offices,” said Rachel Tiven, CEO of Lambda Legal. “The Orwellian ‘Conscience and Religious Freedom’ unit simply provides guidance on how they can get away with it.”</p>
<p>But conservatives said the new office will help maintain balance in the health care system. It’s a world that has become increasingly secular, even if many of its major institutions sprang from religious charity.</p>
<p>“In the context of health care, Americans have very deep, sincere differences on a number of ethical and moral matters,” said Heritage Foundation analyst Melanie Israel. “It’s these conscience protections that allow us to work and live alongside each other despite our differences.”</p>
<p>Monday marks the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers David Crary and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Reinforcing its strong connection with social conservatives, the Trump administration announced Thursday a new federal office to protect medical providers refusing to participate in abortion, assisted suicide or other procedures on moral or religious grounds.</p>
<p>Leading Democrats and LGBT groups immediately denounced the move, saying “conscience protections” could become a license to discriminate, particularly against gay and transgender people.</p>
<p>The announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services came a day ahead of the annual march on Washington by abortion opponents, who will be addressed via video link by President Donald Trump. HHS put on a formal event in the department’s Great Hall, with Republican lawmakers and activists for conscience protections as invited speakers.</p>
<p>The religious and conscience division will be part of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal anti-discrimination and privacy laws. Officials said it will focus on upholding protections already part of federal law. Violations can result in a service provider losing government funding.</p>
<p>No new efforts to expand such protections were announced, but activists on both sides expect the administration will try to broaden them in the future.</p>
<p>Although the HHS civil rights office has traditionally received few complaints alleging conscience violations, HHS Acting Secretary Eric Hargan, painted a picture of clinicians under government coercion to violate the dictates of conscience.</p>
<p>“For too long, too many health care practitioners have been bullied and discriminated against because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions, leading many of them to wonder what future they have in our medical system,” Hargan told the audience.</p>
<p>“The federal government and state governments have hounded religious hospitals and the men and women who staff them, forcing them to provide or refer for services that violate their consciences, when they only wish to serve according to their religious beliefs,” Hargan added.</p>
<p>After Hargan spoke, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 Republican in the House, provided an example of the kind of case the new office should tackle. McCarthy told the audience he has “high hopes” that the “arrogance” of a California law known as AB 775 “will be investigated and resolved quickly.”</p>
<p>That law, which requires anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to post information about abortion and other services, is the subject of a free-speech challenge brought by the pregnancy centers that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Although the HHS civil rights office traditionally has gotten a small number of complaints involving religious and conscience rights, the number has grown since Trump was elected.</p>
<p>Office director Roger Severino said that from 2008 to Nov. 2016, HHS received 10 such complaints. Since Trump won, the office has received 34 new complaints. Before his appointment to government service under Trump, Severino was an expert on religious freedom, marriage, and life issues at the conservative Heritage Foundation.</p>
<p>The new HHS office joins the list of administration actions seen as pleasing to social conservatives, including expanded exemptions for employers who object to providing contraceptive coverage, and the White House move to bar military service by transgender people. Those initiatives have run into legal challenges.</p>
<p>Democrats, LGBT organizations and some civil liberties groups were quick to condemn the administration’s latest action.</p>
<p>“They are prioritizing providers’ beliefs over patients’ health and lives,” Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “This administration isn’t increasing freedom — they’re paving the way for discrimination.”</p>
<p>On Capitol Hill, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., pledged to keep a close eye on the new enforcement office. “Religious freedom should not mean that our health care providers have a license to discriminate or impose their beliefs on others,” Pallone said. He is the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over many health care issues.</p>
<p>LGBT-rights organizations suggested some medical providers will be emboldened to shun gay, lesbian and transgender patients.</p>
<p>“LGBT people have already been turned away from hospitals and doctors’ offices,” said Rachel Tiven, CEO of Lambda Legal. “The Orwellian ‘Conscience and Religious Freedom’ unit simply provides guidance on how they can get away with it.”</p>
<p>But conservatives said the new office will help maintain balance in the health care system. It’s a world that has become increasingly secular, even if many of its major institutions sprang from religious charity.</p>
<p>“In the context of health care, Americans have very deep, sincere differences on a number of ethical and moral matters,” said Heritage Foundation analyst Melanie Israel. “It’s these conscience protections that allow us to work and live alongside each other despite our differences.”</p>
<p>Monday marks the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers David Crary and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.</p> | New Trump office would protect conscience rights of doctors | false | https://apnews.com/23327a85a22245afa2f63a7483b9ee5b | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Remember those bones found under a car park (parking garage, I think?) in Leicester, England? At the time, I <a href="" type="internal">wrote</a> archaelogists were guessing they were the bones of Richard III. Today, the speculation has ended!</p>
<p>Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family. Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from the University of Leicester, told a press conference to applause: "Beyond reasonable doubt it's Richard."</p>
<p>Richard, who died in battle 1485, will be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral.</p> | Those Car Park Bones? Richard III's! | true | https://thedailybeast.com/those-car-park-bones-richard-iiis | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The inspector general for the Energy Department has concluded that a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission disclosed confidential material from a major investigation during a public conference last March.</p>
<p>That diclosure potentially threatens the integrity of the agency’s regulatory and enforcement work, he said.</p>
<p>Jon Wellinghoff was no longer chairman of the agency when he played a clip at the conference showing an energy trader undergoing questioning.</p>
<p>A Democrat, Wellinghoff was appointed to the commission in 2006 and served as FERC’s chairman from 2009 to 2013. The agency regulates the interstate transmission of natural gas, oil, and electricity.</p>
<p>Wellinghoff, an energy law attorney, says he did nothing wrong. He said the clip was from a closed investigation and did not identify the company that was being investigated. It demonstrated the need for traders to answer questions more forthrightly, he said. He added that he no longer has the clip, but there’s no reason it should be kept from the public or press.</p>
<p>“The IG has got it completely wrong,” Wellinghoff said during a telephone interview.</p>
<p>But the inspector general’s report said FERC’s own general counsel told investigators that Wellinghoff should have known that the deposition was not for public distribution. Investigative materials remain non-public unless ordered released by FERC’s commissioners or through a Freedom of Information Act release, the report said.</p>
<p>“It was clear to us that Mr. Wellinghoff was or should have been fully aware that the public release of the video clip he divulged was inappropriate,” the IG’s report said.</p>
<p>An undisclosed law firm brought the video to FERC’s attention, complaining that the release could have a chilling effect on the willingness of witnesses to provide information in the future.</p>
<p>The inspector general’s report recommended that FERC’s current chairman determine whether Wellinghoff violated confidentiality requirements and to determine what, if any, sanctions are available.</p>
<p>The report also said commissioners should determine whether regulatory or congressional action is needed so that FERC has the authority to sanction former employees who disclose non-public information.</p>
<p>The report said the commission is also taking steps to enhance the guidance given to departing employees on how to handle non-public information they had access to during their time at FERC.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The inspector general for the Energy Department has concluded that a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission disclosed confidential material from a major investigation during a public conference last March.</p>
<p>That diclosure potentially threatens the integrity of the agency’s regulatory and enforcement work, he said.</p>
<p>Jon Wellinghoff was no longer chairman of the agency when he played a clip at the conference showing an energy trader undergoing questioning.</p>
<p>A Democrat, Wellinghoff was appointed to the commission in 2006 and served as FERC’s chairman from 2009 to 2013. The agency regulates the interstate transmission of natural gas, oil, and electricity.</p>
<p>Wellinghoff, an energy law attorney, says he did nothing wrong. He said the clip was from a closed investigation and did not identify the company that was being investigated. It demonstrated the need for traders to answer questions more forthrightly, he said. He added that he no longer has the clip, but there’s no reason it should be kept from the public or press.</p>
<p>“The IG has got it completely wrong,” Wellinghoff said during a telephone interview.</p>
<p>But the inspector general’s report said FERC’s own general counsel told investigators that Wellinghoff should have known that the deposition was not for public distribution. Investigative materials remain non-public unless ordered released by FERC’s commissioners or through a Freedom of Information Act release, the report said.</p>
<p>“It was clear to us that Mr. Wellinghoff was or should have been fully aware that the public release of the video clip he divulged was inappropriate,” the IG’s report said.</p>
<p>An undisclosed law firm brought the video to FERC’s attention, complaining that the release could have a chilling effect on the willingness of witnesses to provide information in the future.</p>
<p>The inspector general’s report recommended that FERC’s current chairman determine whether Wellinghoff violated confidentiality requirements and to determine what, if any, sanctions are available.</p>
<p>The report also said commissioners should determine whether regulatory or congressional action is needed so that FERC has the authority to sanction former employees who disclose non-public information.</p>
<p>The report said the commission is also taking steps to enhance the guidance given to departing employees on how to handle non-public information they had access to during their time at FERC.</p> | Energy IG takes issue with video played at conference | false | https://apnews.com/9d8cf1eed9b14618873fa69d1cd7088c | 2015-06-10 | 2 |
<p>Hillary Clinton's book, What Happened, isn't even on shelves yet and it's already on the clearance rack.</p>
<p>The tome, where Clinton shakes her Magic 8-Ball repeatedly to reveal exactly what caused her to lose the November presidential election (because, of course, it couldn't have been her), hits stores on Tuesday, and several major booksellers have slashed prices by more than 40%.</p>
<p>Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Barnes &amp; Noble online list the book's hardcover edition for $17.99, a steep discount from the cover price of $30.</p>
<p>That's definitely helping the book climb the bestseller charts; What Happened is already the #6 bestseller on Amazon and, as of Tuesday morning, is just shy of clearing the top ten on Wal-Mart.</p>
<p>Amazon and Barnes &amp; Noble both regularly discount new releases that they believe will be big sellers, but it's almost certain that publisher Simon &amp; Schuster is in on the plan. After paying Clinton a reported $18 million (or more) for her thoughts on the presidential election (as well as a re-issue of her 1995 book, It Takes a Village, and a forthcoming compilation of the failed Democratic candidate's favorite quotes), the publisher wants to make sure Clinton cracks into The New York Times bestseller list.</p>
<p>Why such a deep discount, though? Well, if Clinton's previous works are any indication, there will be a lot of leftover copies of What Happened lining store shelves come Christmas. Clinton's memoir Hard Choices, sold well its first week, but sales dropped by 43.5% the second week. Her book with then-vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine, Stronger Together, sold less than 3,000 copies in its first week.</p>
<p>Unless people are really curious as to "what happened," the publisher is right to be fearful Clinton's latest work will tank, too.</p> | HALF OFF: Retailers Slash Prices On Hillary Book Before It Even Hits The Shelves | true | https://dailywire.com/news/20938/half-retailers-slash-prices-hillary-clinton-book-emily-zanotti | 2017-09-12 | 0 |
<p />
<p>By September you’ll be able to watch at least one TV newsmagazine every day of the week. Even Fox, whose young audience normally revels in programs like “Beverly Hills, 90210,” will try its hand at the burgeoning format. Fox’s “Front Page” and its frosh brethren, “Turning Point” (ABC), “Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric” (NBC), and “Eye to Eye with Connie Chung” (CBS), will each struggle to project a unique voice in what “Eye to Eye” Executive Producer Andrew Heyward has dubbed “a sea of Nuzak.” Even Disney is getting into the act, with its new syndicated newsmagazine, “The Crusaders,” scheduled to launch this fall.</p>
<p>In the past, there were few enough newsmagazines that each could have a night of its own. In the weeks ahead, producers will find themselves in a war of attrition as their programs face the added challenge of sharing a night with a competing newsmag.</p>
<p>Why have the fates smiled on informational programming? Have TV programmers awakened to a higher calling than anesthetizing us with dopey dramas and sitcom pabulum? Doubtful. There are other reasons for the renaissance:</p>
<p>* Newsmagazines are cheap. The average hour of prime-time dramatic or action programming costs roughly $1 million per episode to produce. A newsmagazine–even with a million-dollar anchor like Connie Chung– costs half that. “It’s the cost accountants, not the programmers, who are cloning our show,” “60 minutes” Executive Producer Don Hewitt told Mother Jones. “What happened was that cost accountants said, ‘Hey, here’s a way to get through the recession.'”</p>
<p>* The real-life drama of the newsmagazines grabs TV audiences more viscerally than the best programs penned by Hollywood’s star dramatists. There is a laundry list of dramatic failures in the past three seasons (like NBC’s “I’ll Fly Away” and ABC’s “Civil Wars”), but newsmagazines have proved to be low-cost ratings successes. NBC’s “Law &amp; Order,” arguably the best-written dramatic hour on TV, consistently takes second place in its time period to CBS News’s “48 Hours.” Last season, the ABC newsmagazine “20/20” beat CBS’s critically acclaimed drama “Picket Fences.” Even a newer program like “Dateline NBC” consistently delivered larger audiences than ABC’s “Civil Wars.”</p>
<p>“The newsmagazines are the new dramas,” says CBS’s Andrew Heyward. “Since no new TV drama has [successfully] been developed in the past three years, it’s clear that truth is stranger than fiction.”</p>
<p>* Conventional wisdom says: If you air them, they will watch. Network programmers are now aware that if they leave an informational program on the air long enough, viewers will come around. The highest-rated newsmagazine, “60 MINUTES,” has also been on the air the longest (twenty-five seasons). ABC’s “20/20,” which has been on the air the second-longest (fifteen seasons), also wins in its time period. Neither were ratings dynamos out of the gate.</p>
<p>* News programs amortize the costs of network news divisions. Large corporations like General Electric (which owns NBC) and Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., avoid the public-relations headache of sacking news personnel. Networks also showcase their high-priced correspondent- stars as something other than sporadic backup anchors for the evening news. Jane Pauley, for example, co-anchors “Dateline NBC,” while ABC’s Diane Sawyer fronts “PrimeTime Live.”</p>
<p>* Upscale Americans often work late and skip the evening news. Many of these viewers, whom advertisers covet, still have a reflexive need for a quick fix of news at day’s end. The newsmagazines speak to that need.</p>
<p>* Advertisers are willing to pay a premium for commercial time on these shows. They believe that newsmagazine watchers pay closer attention to the TV than sitcom fans. As Eric Braun of Frank Magid and Associates points out, “To watch a sitcom, you can kind of go on automatic pilot.”</p>
<p>* Newsmagazines are the perfect vehicles for channel surfers. Generally, the programs are broken down into segments that can be watched with no prior knowledge of previous episodes. A virgin viewer is at a greater disadvantage if he jumps into an episode of “LA Law” than if he parachutes into the second half hour of “60 MINUTES.”</p>
<p>* The genre fills a void left by the local newscasts’ willful secession of good stories. As local newscasts try to outsensationalize their competitors, they invariably choose stories for their headlines rather than their narrative value. Tabloid shows like “Hard Copy” and “A Current Affair” were the first to take up the narrative slack. “Local news gave up on storytelling and started covering fires and car chases,” says David Corvo, the executive producer of Fox’s “Front Page.” “One of the reasons tabloid shows succeeded is that they tell stories with beginnings, middles, and ends.”</p>
<p>Several years ago, TV producers realized that newsmagazines also could win big audiences by telling compelling stories like “the tabs.” Network producers have thankfully eschewed the tabs’ penchant for reenactment and checkbook journalism. Of course, network news producers are often graduates of the nation’s journalism schools, while the tabs are run largely by a mafia of Australian journalists, many of whom have done time in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.</p>
<p>* Network magazines shoot compelling narratives, thanks to recent technical advances. Cameras have gotten lighter and smaller. Lighting has improved. Talented producers like Mark Obenhaus of “Day One” (known for his handsomely shot, almost lyrical pieces) are referred to by their colleagues as “filmmakers.”</p>
<p />
<p>What will be the immediate results of the newsmag glut? Heightened competition for A-list stories will be one of the first behind-the- scenes effects. Topics like car-jacking and society murderers will get done to death.</p>
<p>In addition, the glut is already having a detrimental effect on the quality of the correspondents. The towpath that the older TV correspondents traveled (cub reporter at a local station, national correspondent, foreign correspondent, and finally crusader on a newsmag) has broken down. Instead, many of today’s correspondents earned their stripes dodging makeup men.</p>
<p>CBS News’s Morley Safer and Fox’s Ron Reagan, Jr., perform similar duties on their respective programs (“60 MINUTES” and “Front Page”), but the path each took to his post speaks volumes about what a newsmag glut portends. Safer cut his eyeteeth in Canadian broadcasting and distinguished himself reporting from the front lines in Vietnam. Ronnie II has danced in his tightie-whities on “Saturday Night Live,” hosted a late-night talk show, and hosted/produced news documentaries for the E! network.</p>
<p>The glut will also have positive effects, as the newer shows struggle to develop fresh ways to tell familiar stories. Imagine a newsstand filled with thirteen titles, all of which are slight variations on Newsweek, and you begin to grasp the lack of voice in the TV newsmag world. The correspondents, the graphics, the music, and the length of segments may differ from program to program, but the formats are remarkably similar, usually slight variations on either “60 MINUTES,” with its three-story-per-hour format, or “48 Hours,” with its single- theme structure. When Steve Friedman, former executive-in-charge of “Dateline NBC,” was asked how his show would differ from the others, he quipped, “How is ‘Murphy Brown’ different from ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’? How is ‘Roseanne’ different from ‘All in the Family’?”</p>
<p>Andrew Heyward brings a touch of whimsy to “Eye to Eye” with CBS correspondents Bill Geist and Robert Krulwich. Geist once penned memorable Talk of the Town-type articles for the New York Times, and, on “Eye to Eye,” Krulwich delivers off-the-cuff pieces like “A Day in the Life of a Phone Booth.”</p>
<p>David Corvo, executive producer of “Front Page,” has told his reporters that he wants segments with attitude. “I’ve tried to instill in everybody an attitude that would be a unifying force,” says the producer. “We should tweak the cultural and political icons.” Corvo wants his reporters to file essays and observation pieces in addition to news pieces, and he intends to use short bites as lead-outs to commercials.</p>
<p>Don Hewitt of “60 Minutes” isn’t worried about the new competition. “We know something that I’m amazed no one else has figured out. What keeps you there is what you hear more than what you see. We don’t put words to pictures, we put pictures to words. It’s telling stories, and the ’60 Minutes’ repertory company tells stories better than anyone in broadcasting.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, the newsmag glut will probably prove to be another passing fancy in an industry where every “Addams Family” has its “Munsters” and every “Bewitched” its “I Dream of Jeannie.” By next summer, the ranks should have thinned, as the best survive and the imitators head for the showers.</p>
<p>John Brodie covers TV and film for Variety.</p>
<p /> | MotherJones SO93: The truth squads | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1993/09/motherjones-so93-truth-squads/ | 2018-09-01 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/comcast/" type="external">Comcast</a> is pulling the plug on <a href="http://variety.com/t/plaxo/" type="external">Plaxo</a>, an address-book synchronization service that the cable giant had once imagined would become a massive social-media property.</p>
<p>The Plaxo service will no longer be available as of Dec. 31, 2017, at the end of the day, according to a notice <a href="https://www.plaxo.com/" type="external">on its site</a>. <a href="http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/disney-fox-sale-talks-comcast-1202628942/" type="external">Comcast</a> said it will begin purging user data on Jan. 1, 2018.</p>
<p>At one point, Plaxo claimed to have more than 50 million registered accounts. The service consolidated users’ contacts across multiple sources, automatically updating information across devices and platforms. Plaxo users also could share personal info like photos, birthdays and mailing addresses.</p>
<p>Comcast acquired Plaxo in 2008 in a deal <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2008/05/14/confirmed-comcast-bought-plaxo-deal-closed-today/" type="external">reportedly</a> worth between $150 million and $170 million. “While it’s sad to say goodbye to Plaxo, we’re eager to put more focus into our expanding core products within the Xfinity family,” Plaxo said in a statement on its website.</p>
<p>Plaxo was founded in 2002, before Facebook was a glimmer in young Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.</p>
<p>Comcast had hoped to turn Plaxo into a way “to bring the social media experience to mainstream consumers,” according to a blog post by the startup’s founders at the time of the acquisition. Among the ideas floated: discovering new TV shows to watch based on friends’ recommendations and sharing photos with friends and family that they could view “online, at work, on their mobile device, or in their living room watching TV.” But Plaxo never expanded beyond being a utility for syncing contacts.</p>
<p>Founders of Plaxo included Sean Parker, creator of Napster and Facebook’s first president. Another one of the the company’s founders, Minh Nguyen, was convicted for the 2015 murder of his ex-wife’s husband and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3525863/Minh-Nguyen-gets-life-prison-gunning-Corey-Mattison-husband-pregnant-ex-wife-Denise-Mattison.html" type="external">sentenced to life in prison</a>.</p>
<p>Plaxo is providing info for users on how to <a href="https://help.plaxo.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/105/0/how-to-export-my-contacts-from-plaxo" type="external">export their contacts</a>&#160;on the help section of its site (at <a href="https://help.plaxo.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/105/0/how-to-export-my-contacts-from-plaxo" type="external">this link</a>).</p> | Comcast Is Shutting Down Plaxo, An Early Social Network | false | https://newsline.com/comcast-is-shutting-down-plaxo-an-early-social-network/ | 2017-12-04 | 1 |
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<p />
<p>Going vertical early and often — and successfully — Valley on Saturday night clinched its first district championship since 2002, throttling Rio Grande 56-13 at Milne Stadium.</p>
<p>The win cemented the District 5-5A title for the Vikings (6-3, 3-0), who were eager to take the modestly-sized district championship trophy over to an adoring fan base.</p>
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<p>“We’ve been working so hard for this,” said junior wide receiver Aaron Molina, who hauled in two long touchdown passes from quarterback Bo Coleman in the decisive first half, when Valley raced to a 43-6 lead.</p>
<p>“When (first-year coach Enrico Marcelli) first came in, he wanted district. And we wanted it, too.”</p>
<p>Marcelli, Cibola’s offensive coordinator before the Vikings made him the youngest APS head coach at 29, made winning district one of his first points of emphasis when he arrived in January.</p>
<p>“We stuck to the plan,” he said, “and the kids kept working hard, and the hard work paid off.”</p>
<p>Said Coleman, “This is amazing. Ever since YAFL, I’ve been up there (in the stands) wanting to win district.”</p>
<p>Valley closes out the regular season next Saturday with a rare morning game. The Vikings take on Highland (3-6, 2-2) at 10 a.m., the first of three games that day at Milne.</p>
<p>Marcelli said he has no illusions about how the Vikings will be treated by the playoff selection committee next weekend. He does not expect Valley, even as a district champion, to get a first-round home game. — This article appeared on page D8 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Valley Routs Ravens, Wins 5-5A Title | false | https://abqjournal.com/238110/valley-routs-ravens-wins-55a-title.html | 2 |
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<p>A self-driving Uber SUV struck and killed a pedestrian in suburban Phoenix in the first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle — a crash that could have far-reaching consequences for the new technology.</p>
<p>The fatality Sunday night in Tempe was the event many in the auto and technology industries were dreading but knew was inevitable.</p>
<p>Uber immediately suspended all road-testing of such autos in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. The testing has been going on for months as automakers and technology companies like the ride-hailing service compete to be the first with cars that operate on their own.</p>
<p>The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human backup driver at the wheel when it hit 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she was walking a bicycle outside the lines of a crosswalk, police said. She died at a hospital.</p>
<p />
<p>Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed condolences on his Twitter account and said the company is working with local law enforcement on the investigation.</p>
<p>The National Transportation Safety Board, which makes recommendations for preventing crashes, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which can enact regulations, sent investigators.</p>
<p>Tempe police Sgt. Ronald Elcock said local authorities haven’t drawn any conclusions about who is at fault but urged people to use crosswalks. He told reporters at a news conference Monday the Uber vehicle was traveling around 40 mph when it hit Helzberg immediately as she stepped on to the street.</p>
<p>Neither she nor the backup driver showed signs of impairment, he said.</p>
<p>The public’s image of the vehicles will be defined by stories like the crash in Tempe, said Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who studies self-driving vehicles.</p>
<p>Although the Uber vehicle and its human backup could be at fault, it may turn out that there was nothing either could have done to stop the crash, he said.</p>
<p>Either way, the fatality could hurt the technology’s image and lead to a push for more regulations at the state and federal levels, Smith said.</p>
<p>Autonomous vehicles with laser, radar and camera sensors and sophisticated computers have been billed as the way to reduce the more than 40,000 traffic deaths a year in the U.S. alone. Ninety-four percent of crashes are caused by human error, the government says.</p>
<p>Autonomous vehicles don’t drive drunk, don’t get sleepy and aren’t easily distracted. But they do have faults.</p>
<p>“We should be concerned about automated driving,” Smith said. “We should be terrified about human driving.”</p>
<p>In 2016, the latest year available, more than 6,000 U.S. pedestrians were killed by vehicles.</p>
<p>The federal government has voluntary guidelines for companies that want to test autonomous vehicles, leaving much of the regulation up to states.</p>
<p>Many states, including Michigan and Arizona, have taken a largely hands-off approach, hoping to gain jobs from the new technology, while California and others have taken a harder line.</p>
<p>California is among states that require manufacturers to report any incidents during the testing phase. As of early March, the state’s motor vehicle agency had received 59 such reports.</p>
<p>Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey used light regulations to entice Uber to the state after the company had a shaky rollout of test cars in San Francisco. Arizona has no reporting requirements.</p>
<p>Hundreds of vehicles with automated driving systems have been on Arizona’s roads.</p>
<p>Ducey’s office expressed sympathy for Herzberg’s family and said safety is the top priority.</p>
<p>The crash in Arizona isn’t the first involving an Uber autonomous test vehicle. In March 2017, an Uber SUV flipped onto its side, also in Tempe. No serious injuries were reported, and the driver of the other car was cited for a violation.</p>
<p>Herzberg’s death is the first involving an autonomous test vehicle but not the first in a car with some self-driving features. The driver of a Tesla Model S was killed in 2016 when his car, operating on its Autopilot system, crashed into a tractor-trailer in Florida.</p>
<p>The NTSB said that driver inattention was to blame but that design limitations with the system played a major role in the crash.</p>
<p>The U.S. Transportation Department is considering further voluntary guidelines that it says would help foster innovation. Proposals also are pending in Congress, including one that would stop states from regulating autonomous vehicles, Smith said.</p>
<p>Peter Kurdock, director of regulatory affairs for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety in Washington, said the group sent a letter Monday to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao saying it is concerned about a lack of action and oversight by the department as autonomous vehicles are developed. That letter was planned before the crash.</p>
<p>Kurdock said the deadly crash should serve as a “startling reminder” to members of Congress that they need to “think through all the issues to put together the best bill they can to hopefully prevent more of these tragedies from occurring.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Krisher reported from Detroit, Fonseca reported from Flagstaff, Arizona. Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this story.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show that federal investigators found Tesla’s Autopilot system was a factor in the deadly Florida crash.</p> | Uber Suspends Self-Driving Tests After Pedestrian Is Killed | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/uber-suspends-self-driving-tests-after-pedestrian-is-killed/ | 2018-03-19 | 4 |
<p>President Donald Trump on Tuesday returned to one of his favorite topics to tweet about —&#160;#FakeNews.</p>
<p>Fascinating to watch people writing books and major articles about me and yet they know nothing about me &amp; have zero access. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FAKE?src=hash" type="external">#FAKE</a> NEWS!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/907588803161939968" type="external">September 12, 2017</a></p>
<p>The impetus for Trump’s tweet would appear to be the new book that came out Tuesday by NBC News reporter Katy Tur titled, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Unbelievable-Front-Row-Craziest-Campaign-American/dp/0062684922/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newsmedi9a-20&amp;linkId=JWQX7Q4SOSP2L6BP" type="external">“Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in History.”</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/trump-slams-reporter-media/2016/06/06/id/732470/" type="external">Tur was a target</a> of Trump’s during the campaign, having been called out by then-candidate Trump more than once.</p>
<p>Tur on Tuesday appeared on MSNBC’s <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/katy-tur-details-her-unbelievable-experience-covering-donald-trump-in-new-book-1044673091654" type="external">“Morning Joe”</a> program to plug her book and detail what it was like to cover the Trump campaign.</p> | Katy Tur Book Released, Trump Takes Another Swing at #FakeNews | false | https://newsline.com/katy-tur-book-released-trump-takes-another-swing-at-fakenews/ | 2017-09-12 | 1 |
<p>Janus Henderson Portfolio Manager Bill Gross discusses President Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve Chairman.</p>
<p>On Thursday, President Trump nominated Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen as the next Federal Reserve chairman.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Janus Henderson Portfolio Manager Bill Gross on Thursday disagreed with President Trump’s decision to nominate Powell as head of the central bank and discussed who he would have preferred.</p>
<p>Many believe that Powell fits Trump’s economic agenda because he is expected to help ease banking regulations.</p>
<p>“I think though that he is soft on regulation and that pleases the market, but it doesn’t please me necessarily, and in addition I think he lacks the proper appreciation for our credit-based financial system,” Gross told FOX Business' Trish Regan on "The Intelligence Report."</p>
<p>Powell worked at the private equity firm Carlyle Group in 1997, before being appointed as a member of the Fed’s board of governors in 2012 by former President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Gross believes that Powell’s previous experience working in private equity will work against him when running the Fed.</p>
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<p>“I really don’t think as an investor in private equity that he had a sense of credit creation, credit destruction [and] the shadow banking system. I think many of his speeches have been devoid of some of that intellectual discussion, and I think it’s important going forward should we see the potential for another Lehman moment that we have a Fed chairman that knows what’s going on. I’m not so sure at the moment that he does,” he said.</p>
<p>Gross gave suggestions as to who he would have nominated as Fed chair.</p>
<p>“I would have preferred perhaps Paul McCulley from Pimco who forecasted the debacle and talked about the Minsky Moment. Otherwise I would have preferred Neel Kashkari, who’s a legitimate Fed governor and has displayed some pretty instructive ideas going forward,” he said.</p>
<p>Regardless of his criticism for Yellen, Gross said that he would prefer if she stayed as Fed chair.</p>
<p>“I’m not perfectly content with her, but she’s done a decent job. She’s a little model oriented or too model oriented, and I think you need to be more subjective these days in terms of structural ideas that can’t necessarily be modeled like Janet Yellen and others have done at the Fed,” he said.</p>
<p>Though nominated by the president, the Senate will have the final say in whether Powell will be confirmed.</p> | Powell is not the best choice for Fed chair: Bill Gross | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/02/powell-is-not-best-choice-for-fed-chair-bill-gross.html | 2017-11-02 | 0 |
<p>ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. (AP) — Officials say they’re investigating a possible case of measles in southwest Wyoming.</p>
<p>Sweetwater County school officials announced in mid-December that a junior high school student had come down with measles.</p>
<p>County health officials said Friday additional testing is being done but there’s no sign of an outbreak.</p>
<p>The Rock Springs Rocket-Miner <a href="http://www.rocketminer.com/news/officials-give-update-on-measles-investigation/article_0c5d60b0-f5f0-5a70-8e6e-ff5b16dd5f52.html" type="external">reports</a> Wyoming hasn’t had a measles case since at least 2010.</p>
<p>Sweetwater County officials say the measles immunization rate among schoolchildren in the county is better than 95 percent.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Rock Springs (Wyo.) Rocket-Miner, <a href="http://www.rocketminer.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.rocketminer.com" type="external">http://www.rocketminer.com</a></p>
<p>ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. (AP) — Officials say they’re investigating a possible case of measles in southwest Wyoming.</p>
<p>Sweetwater County school officials announced in mid-December that a junior high school student had come down with measles.</p>
<p>County health officials said Friday additional testing is being done but there’s no sign of an outbreak.</p>
<p>The Rock Springs Rocket-Miner <a href="http://www.rocketminer.com/news/officials-give-update-on-measles-investigation/article_0c5d60b0-f5f0-5a70-8e6e-ff5b16dd5f52.html" type="external">reports</a> Wyoming hasn’t had a measles case since at least 2010.</p>
<p>Sweetwater County officials say the measles immunization rate among schoolchildren in the county is better than 95 percent.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Rock Springs (Wyo.) Rocket-Miner, <a href="http://www.rocketminer.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.rocketminer.com" type="external">http://www.rocketminer.com</a></p> | Officials investigate possible Wyoming measles case | false | https://apnews.com/92e26e26d5fe46ba8489ed4d1d503709 | 2017-12-30 | 2 |
<p>It could be that obese kids are just likelier to catch colds, but research suggests that adenovirus 36 may actually be rewriting fat cells in children, causing them to gain more weight.</p>
<p>Certainly diet and exercise are crucial factors, but researchers say their findings indicate that childhood obesity is a more complex condition than previously thought.</p>
<p>(Just to be clear, adenovirus is not the cause of what we call the common cold, but a common cause of colds.)? PZS</p>
<p>MSNBC:</p>
<p />
<p>"This shows that body weight regulation and the development of obesity are very complicated issues," said the study's senior author, Dr. Jeffrey Schwimmer, an associate professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego and director of Weight and Wellness at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. "It's not simply a case that some children eat too much and others don't. There are children who eat all the wrong things in all the wrong quantities who are not obese."</p>
<p>Outside experts cautioned that the new research doesn't prove that the virus causes weight gain - it's entirely possible that obese kids are just more likely to get the virus.</p>
<p>Still, earlier research with cells in petri dishes suggests that the virus may cause changes in the body that lead to weight gain. Some studies have shown that the virus can enter fat cell precursors, rewiring them to spew out more fat cells, while others have shown that the virus can modify fat cells themselves so that they store more fat.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39235187/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Cold Virus Linked to Childhood Obesity | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/cold-virus-linked-to-childhood-obesity/ | 2010-09-20 | 4 |
<p>Supporters of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi were promised a <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jsv162Rp7uIW7NsxDIVJyeNx43OA?docId=CNG.8fabe1d27e5e3d2a5bea3238ea2a7b6a.6d1" type="external">“safe exit and full protection”</a>&#160;if they agreed to end their month-long sit-ins in Cairo Thursday.</p>
<p>The offer from the Interior Ministry came a day after Egypt’s new leadership ordered police to clear two protest camps on the grounds they posed a threat to national security and were terrorizing citizens.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/130731/egypt-s-government-orders-police-put-end-cairo-sit-pr" type="external">More from GlobalPost:&#160;Egypt orders police to ‘put an end’ to Cairo sit-in</a></p>
<p>Muslim Brotherhood protesters have been staging sit-ins in Cairo and Giza since Morsi was ousted by the military on July 3.</p>
<p>"The Interior Ministry ... calls on those in the squares of Rabaa el-Adawiya and Nahda to listen to the sound of reason, side with the national interest and quickly leave," <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-offers-safe-passage-morsis-supporters-132126789.html;_ylt=AwrNUbEgfvpRlV0AfprQtDMD" type="external">Interior Ministry spokesman Hany Abdel-Latif was quoted as saying.</a></p>
<p>The ministry “pledges a safe exit and full protection to whoever responds to this appeal.”</p>
<p>But protesters show no signs of backing down from their demands for the reinstatement of the deposed Islamist leader.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Egypt&amp;src=hash" type="external">#Egypt</a>: Protesters in Nasr City are now saying morning prayers. Still large crowds in the square [Al Jazeera] <a href="http://t.co/tE9iheicyT" type="external">pic.twitter.com/tE9iheicyT</a></p>
<p>— AJELive (@AJELive) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJELive/statuses/362759454573355008" type="external">August 1, 2013</a></p>
<p>Allaa Mostafa, a spokeswoman for the Anti Coup Alliance, which is organizing demonstrations, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jsv162Rp7uIW7NsxDIVJyeNx43OA?docId=CNG.8fabe1d27e5e3d2a5bea3238ea2a7b6a.6d1" type="external">told the Agence France-Presse</a> that “we are going to continue our peaceful sit-ins and our peaceful protests.”</p>
<p>The order to clear the sit-ins has <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/31/us-egypt-protests-idUSBRE96U0RX20130731" type="external">raised fears of more bloodshed</a> and international efforts to avoid further violence have gathered pace.&#160;</p>
<p>EU Middle East envoy Bernardino Leon and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle are in Cairo to help both sides find a peaceful resolution to the dispute.</p>
<p>US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking from Pakistan Thursday, said <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/kerry-egyptian-military-restoring-democracy_n_3690083.html" type="external">the Egyptian military was "restoring democracy"</a> not taking over. He said the military intervened after millions of Egyptians asked it to, fearing Egypt's descent into violence.</p>
<p>US Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham are expected to make a trip next week to talk with Egypt's military leaders.</p>
<p>#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }</p> | Egypt: Morsi supporters reject offer for 'safe exit' if they end sit-in protests | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-08-01/egypt-morsi-supporters-reject-offer-safe-exit-if-they-end-sit-protests | 2013-08-01 | 3 |
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening’s drawing of the North Carolina Lottery’s “Pick 3 Evening” game were:</p>
<p>2-7-8, Lucky Sum: 17</p>
<p>(two, seven, eight; Lucky Sum: seventeen)</p>
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening’s drawing of the North Carolina Lottery’s “Pick 3 Evening” game were:</p>
<p>2-7-8, Lucky Sum: 17</p>
<p>(two, seven, eight; Lucky Sum: seventeen)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Pick 3 Evening’ game | false | https://apnews.com/28cb20e5fc5e4c8490adfedaece17c64 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>The current political landscape resembles a soap opera, as the media breathlessly hype every little move by President Trump. But it's all a sideshow to distract from the reality that America as we know it is descending further and further into the abyss of progressivism.</p>
<p>That descent is chronicled in Mark Levin's new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M2BRJMW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" type="external">Rediscovering Americanism and the Tyranny of Progressivism</a>, which will be released on Tuesday and provides a sobering warning about the state of the country. Levin delves into the philosophical origins of the progressivism and how it seeks to establish utopia at the expense of individual liberty.</p>
<p>Progressivism is antithetical to the values of limited government, federalism and personal freedom enshrined in America's founding documents, yet the utopian philosophy has been on the rise for the past 100 years with both Democrats and Republicans embracing it, aided by the media and academia. The tentacles of the ever-ubiquitous federal government further ensnare society with each passing day.</p>
<p>Levin <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mark-levin-calls-for-uprising-against-left-we-have-no-choice/article/2626909" type="external">warns</a> that the country's descent into progressivism will eventually reach a "final outcome of which is an oppression of mind and soul."</p>
<p>"The equality they envision but dare not honestly proclaim, is life on the hamster wheel, where one individual is indistinguishable from the next," writes Levin.</p>
<p>That's why there has to be an ideological re-awakening for Americanism.</p>
<p>"Because our values are in such a precarious state, he argues that a restoration to the essential truths on which our country was founded has never been more urgent," the advance notes of the book's publisher, Threshold Edition, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/20/inside-the-beltway-mark-levins-call-to-rediscover-/" type="external">states</a>. "Understanding these principles, in Levin’s words, can 'serve as the antidote to tyrannical regimes and governments.' Rediscovering Americanism is not an exercise in nostalgia, but an appeal to his fellow citizens to reverse course."</p>
<p>Levin provided the following comments to <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mark-levin-calls-for-uprising-against-left-we-have-no-choice/article/2626909" type="external">The Washington Examiner</a>:</p>
<p>We asked him for some thoughts as the book debuts, and Levin said, "My new book covers a lot of territory — philosophy, history, economics, law, culture, etc. And I look deeply into what is meant by Americanism, republicanism, individualism, capitalism. What do we mean by natural law, unalienable rights, liberty, and property rights? From where do these principles come? Why are they important?"</p>
<p>"Conversely, what are the ideological forces arrayed against these human and American imperatives, from where do they come, and how do they endanger us as a free and prosperous people? What motivates its advocates? And what is meant by progressivism, historicism, scientism, Marxism, etc.?"</p>
<p>He concludes, "Knowledge is the key to restoring our republic, which is the purpose of Rediscovering Americanism and the Tyranny of Progressivism."</p>
<p>As of this writing, Levin's book is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-books-Amazon/zgbs/books/ref=zg_bs_nav_0" type="external">the third best-selling book on Amazon</a>, suggesting that maybe there is some hope for a revival of Americanism.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter" type="external">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a></p> | Levin Warns Of The Dangers Of Progressivism | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17884/levin-warns-danger-progressivism-aaron-bandler | 2017-06-23 | 0 |
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<p>FARMINGTON (AP) — A 24-year-old San Juan County man has been arrested in the shooting death of a man whose sister alerted authorities after reading Facebook posts.</p>
<p>Farmington police say U.S. marshals arrested Mark Hinojos on Tuesday evening in the killing early Monday morning of 39-year-old Randy McKenzie.</p>
<p>His body was found along an oil field road in the Farmington area.</p>
<p>Police say McKenzie’s sister contacted authorities after reading Facebook posts indicating her brother had been killed.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Police say Hinojos faces charges of second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to tamper with evidence.</p>
<p>It’s not immediately known whether he has a lawyer.</p>
<p>Two other people also have been arrested in the case. They’re accused of tampering with evidence and conspiring to tamper with evidence.</p> | San Juan Co. man arrested in fatal shooting | false | https://abqjournal.com/323142/san-juan-co-man-arrested-in-fatal-shooting.html | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Farmington man who went missing in April may be the victim of foul play, New Mexico State Police said in a newly released endangered person advisory.</p>
<p>Jim Murray, who was 52 when he was last seen on a videotape buying liquor at a Farmington store on April 17, suffers from heart problems, high blood pressure and has a colostomy bag, the advisory said.</p>
<p>A Farmington Police Department incident report says he left his wallet behind, his computer was on, his walker and cane were found against a wall, and his bicycle — which he usually took — was found locked up, according to the advisory.</p>
<p>A Farmington police detective suspects foul play.</p>
<p>Murray, who also has a warrant out for his arrest, was 52 at the time of his disappearance, is 6 feet tall, weighs 200 pounds, has brown hair and green eyes, the advisory said.</p>
<p>Anyone with information is asked to call Farmington police at (505) 334-6622 or the State Department of Public Safety missing person hotline at 1-800-457-3463.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Missing man may be victim of foul play | false | https://abqjournal.com/225503/missing-man-may-be-victim-of-foul-play.html | 2013-07-25 | 2 |
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<p>Early in the spring, the Economic Policy Institute, Washington’s most consistent source of progressive policy ideas, held a fundraising roast in honor of one of its founders, Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Hosted by Molly Ivins, and featuring such stalwart wits as Barney Frank and John Kenneth Galbraith, the toasts occasionally rose above the root canal standard that such events bring to mind, but it proved painful nevertheless.</p>
<p>The hopes that had once animated the people in the room for a progressive, intellectually animated administration personified by Reich and others like him had died a long time ago. Reich, the lonely, not-quite-resurgent liberal, was still in office, as were Donna Shalala and Laura D’Andrea Tyson, but the thrill was gone. Washington was once again a Republican town, and nobody cared what a bunch of labor leaders and liberal intellectuals thought about anything.</p>
<p>This is unfortunate for a number of reasons, but a strong one is that Reich, more than anyone else in the administration, holds the key to Clinton’s re-election.</p>
<p>The administration’s lone liberal holdout, Reich has continued to dance with the girl that brung him. He fought hard for Clinton’s promised investment package in the first administration budget–and lost. He went to the mat for a significant rise in the minimum wage–and lost. Most significantly, he floated the idea of moving the welfare debate from picking on single mothers to attacking “aid to dependent corporations” — and was swatted down before he even had a chance to lose.</p>
<p>Aside from being a genuine wit and an eloquent policy wonk, Reich speaks the language of class. OK, so he rarely uses the word proletariat, and even seems to have trouble with the word union. Nevertheless, his division of the American people into an “underclass,” an “overclass,” and an “anxious class” unmasks the fiction that “we” are all in this together.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to stop pointing fingers at each other,” complains Clinton, “so that we can join hands.” But to speak of joining hands with the likes of Gingrich, a newly far-right-leaning Bob Dole, and the rest of the Republican Congress is to saw off most of what remains of the Democratic Party and send it out to sea.</p>
<p>What this administration desperately needs to do is to change the subject. Fighting school lunch cuts rallies the faithful but does not reach into the anxieties of the “anxious class.” Neither do slightly less draconian welfare rules, or barely less regressive tax cuts.</p>
<p>In April, the president’s advisers hinted that Clinton was at last ready to change the subject at a speech he gave before the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Dallas, where Gingrich and others were also to appear. The president, it was promised, would define his administration–and hence, his re-election campaign–in the Reichian terms of education and training.</p>
<p>Instead, Clinton rejected the idea at the last minute and gave a speech patterned entirely on Gingrich’s “Contract.” The president took a Chinese-menu approach to the Contract, accepting a few ideas from column A while taking polite issue with the direction of column B. It was as if he were planning to run for re-election on the slogan “Not Quite as Venal as Newt.”</p>
<p>Clinton could move the debate off those hot-button issues that lead Americans to turn to mean-spirited charlatans like Newt by picking up on Reich’s suggestion–made immediately after the November election without any clearance from the White House–that Congress go after corporate welfare.</p>
<p>Ideologically, the idea appeals to analysts across the board, including the right-wing libertarians at the Cato Institute, the self-conscious centrists at the Democratic Leadership Council, and the wishy-washy liberals at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. And these subsidies and tax breaks cost us anywhere from $53-$87 billion a year, depending on whether you believe the Progressive Policy Institute or the Cato Institute.</p>
<p>When asked why the White House refuses to embrace Reich’s idea, administration sources explain that the notion of going after corporate welfare is great “in the abstract,” but the particulars always get reduced to “this administration is raising taxes again.” This fear was exactly the reason the administration refused to consider a single-payer health care policy, and that decision turned out to be a disaster.</p>
<p>The impression one gets from discussions with White House staff is that Clinton and his closest advisers have great affection for Reich and just wish they lived in the kind of world where Reichian economics might be practicable. But really, gentlemen, let’s be adults about this. A senior White House official explained to me at dinner recently that of the three serious social democratic leaders elected in the West in the past dozen years or so, French President Francois Mitterrand, British Prime Minister James Callaghan, and Bill Clinton, only Clinton managed to avoid an all-out assault by the global market elites on his policies. This is, of course, because Clinton tailored his policies to accommodate those markets. But would it have been any better, the adviser asked, if Clinton had fought them and lost?</p>
<p>Still, Clinton, or more precisely, Harold Ickes, his de facto campaign manager, may ultimately decide that Reich’s populist, class-tinged rhetoric is the president’s only hope for winning re-election. Clinton himself is clearly leaning in the opposite direction, but this is a man who could win the America’s Cup for his ability to sail with prevailing political winds. Might focusing on corporate welfare work? Well, it would attack the deficit in a serious fashion; it would define Clinton as a fighter for real people: and it would cast Republicans as defenders of the privileged and powerful.</p>
<p>But maybe the more important question is this: Would a return to a populist economic election strategy have any implications for the way Clinton would govern in a second term? The answer to that is almost certainly not. And not merely because Clinton has no stomach for making enemies or for upsetting the Washington establishment. Just as important is the way he and his advisers have defined the problem in the first place. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (a Goldman Sachs alum), the driving political and intellectual force behind the administration’s economic policies, is not a man even to countenance such discussion except in the strictly political sense of feeding some red meat to Greenberg, Carville, Begala, and the other politicos.</p>
<p>The real danger of campaigning on an insincere policy would not simply be that those who believed Clinton the first time around would feel even stupider. But that this time, the alienation of squeezed workers and would-be Democrats will be further translated into nihilistic, anti-political rage. The right will continue to stoke the fires of self-pity and paranoia as long as Democrats fail to present people with a better alternative.</p>
<p>Promising to fight, only to switch once elected, is a surefire formula for the kind of backlash that threatens not merely Democrats, but democracy.</p>
<p>Journalist Eric Alterman is Mother Jones’ Washington, D.C. correspondent.</p>
<p /> | The Reich Stuff | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1995/07/reich-stuff/ | 2018-07-01 | 4 |
<p>By ignoring the historic role government played in enabling economic growth, the prevailing myths about how the U.S. became prosperous allow lawmakers, officials and lobbyists to craft policies that prevent the majority of Americans from taking their rightful share of the national wealth, Jeff Madrick <a href="http://harpers.org/archive/2013/02/revised-history/" type="external">writes</a> in Harper’s Magazine.</p>
<p>“What myths would a good alternative economic history debunk?” Madrick asks.</p>
<p>“The first might be that America owed its rapid economic growth in the nineteenth century to the small size of its federal government.” Secondly, “misinterpretations and distortions” promoted by academics like the “respected conservative economics professor” and New York Times columnist Tyler Cowen have encouraged readers to misattribute the postwar boom to “plentiful natural resources … technological advances, and an increasingly educated population.”</p>
<p>Another is the view that “debilitating inflation [in] the 1970s was caused by … the Federal Reserve’s creating too much money through the imposition of very low interest rates.” And the last — and this one’s a doozy — is that Ronald Reagan’s tax cut and deregulation program in the early 1980s revitalized the economy.</p>
<p />
<p>As with many issues of public misunderstanding, the treatment involves a full reckoning of the available empirical evidence. As the liberal historian Howard Zinn wrote, the “chief problem in historical honesty isn’t outright lying” but the “omission or de-emphasis of important data.” Fortunately for us, Madrick — unlike many of his lauded and well-compensated peers — is a good student of Zinn’s.</p>
<p>First, Madrick tells us that growth in the country’s early history was helped by “the many regulatory and legal reforms that went into effect in those years … guaranteeing fair competition in business and the right of ordinary people to buy land.” With revenue collected from high taxes, the state financed investments in canals and railroads, developed free primary education, built sewers and water sanitation systems, and spurred the development of manufacturing. And the economic benefits of slave labor would not have been possible without able government enforcement.</p>
<p>Second, postwar “diplomatic machinations” and the persistent threat of American aggression kept oil prices artificially low during an era in which petroleum consumption tripled. Technological advances were spurred by deficit spending recommended to American presidents in previous decades by British economist John Maynard Keynes. Education, vital to the occupation and performance of complex jobs, was funded by government as well.</p>
<p>The late conservative Chicago economist Milton Friedman is largely responsible for the misleading notion that inflation in the 1970s was a result of the Federal Reserve’s decision to shrink interest rates. “Friedman’s view has since become conventional history,” Madrick writes. “But the belief is mostly wrong. More likely culprits … were two years’ worth of major crop failures, which led to soaring food prices, and the Arab nations’ oil-price hike, which quadrupled prices, from roughly $3 a barrel to $12 by 1974.” Moreover, “there is no empirical evidence to suggest that higher inflation rates would reduce economic growth.”</p>
<p>As for Reagan, the policies of the “Teflon president” (a nickname he <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080124192405/http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=REAGAN-SCHROEDER-06-09-04&amp;cat=WW" type="external">earned</a> for his ability to “do almost anything wrong and not get blamed for it”) “badly failed,” Madrick writes. “Under Reagan, income inequality began to rise rapidly after three decades of solid increases in earnings across all income levels. The top 10 percent of earners received 92 percent of all new income during this period, compared with 35 percent of the rise in income from 1960 to 1969.</p>
<p>“Furthermore, [w]ages grew far faster after Clinton’s tax hike than after the implementation of Reaganomics. And as for revitalizing productivity, output per hour of work — the key measure of the economy’s ability to produce income — rose far more slowly under Reagan than it did before or after.</p>
<p>“The assumption that technology, natural resources, and a more educated workforce are the only important sources of growth leads us to believe that Keynesian policies are not valuable,” Madrick notes. “The assumption that inflation has been caused by the Federal Reserve’s effort to keep unemployment down leads to policies that keep interest rates high, unemployment up, and wages low. Romanticizing the achievements of Ronald Reagan leads many to believe that tax cuts inevitably generate rapid economic growth.”</p>
<p>“Most damaging, however, are views of history … that fail to recognize the central place of government policy and intervention in economic growth. One tragic result of such views was the extreme financial deregulation and weak implementation of existing regulation that led directly to the financial crisis and the Great Recession. Another result is the weakness of current policies aimed at supporting the recovery — in particular, the failure to adopt a second fiscal stimulus back in 2009, and current austerity policies that will further diminish growth and perhaps even lead to a recession this year.”</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | The Anti-Economist: Misleading American History | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-anti-economist-misleading-american-history/ | 2013-01-29 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>Hamburger enthusiasts in Europe are eyeing what is going on in Britain with an ever increasing unease. For the first time since starting the sales of Big Macs and McNuggets over there, the employees of global chain McDonalds are going on strike in Britain.McDonalds opened in the UK in 1974 and has never faced strike action by its employees before.</p>
<p />
<p>The union of Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, which is one of Britain's oldest trade unions and represents some 80,000 of the 115,000 McDonald's staff in the UK (where the hamburger giant has 1,249 restaurants) is calling for an increase in salary to about 10 British pounds an hour, or some 13 US dollars.</p>
<p />
<p>So far, not much of a response has come from staff who are afraid of getting fired. In South East London there will be a first strike though. Some 40 staff will go on strike as form today at two restaurants in Cambridge and Crayford.</p>
<p>Workers were fed-up with taking home so little pay whilst the pound has dropped considerably versus both the Euro and the US dollar in the past year, making products in supermarkets considerably more expensive. Also inflation has risen quite remarkably. Meanwhile certain areas of Britain has seen house prices plummet for six months straight.</p>
<p />
<p>During all this, the McDonald's chief executive, Mr Steve Easterbrook, reporter that he took home a total pay package of $15.35m last year, further infuriating the McDonalds staff.</p>
<p>Asking for a reaction to the planned strike, McDonald's issued a statement via their spokesman which said: "As announced in April this year, together with our franchisees, we are providing our people with the option of a guaranteed-hour contract, and all restaurants will have these contracts in place by the end of 2017. We are proud of our people at McDonald's. They are at the heart of all we do and we work hard to ensure that our teams are treated fairly. Our internal processes underpin that commitment."</p>
<p />
<p>Source:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/mcdonalds-workers-strike-cambridge-crayford" type="external">theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/04/mcdonalds-workers-strike-cambridge-crayford</a></p> | McDonald's Goes On Strike for the First Time Ever in Britain | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/7569-McDonald-s-Goes-On-Strike-for-the-First-Time-Ever-in-Britain | 2017-09-04 | 0 |
<p>Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) on Wednesday stood behind his declaration that European cities have Muslim “no-go zones” and went on to say that if the U.S. wasn’t careful, it would be seeing its own “no-go zones” soon.</p>
<p>The term, a reference to alleged areas under Muslim control that follow Sharia law and are off-limits to the police, came under widespread criticism last week after a self-styled terrorism expert on Fox News said all of Birmingham, England was a “no-go zone.”</p>
<p>Fox News was later forced to apologize multiple times for its coverage of Muslims in Europe and admitted there is no credible evidence such areas exist.</p>
<p>Despite that, Jindal used the phrase this weekend during a speech in London and has repeatedly said that the “zones” exist.</p>
<p />
<p>On Wednesday, Fox host Neil Cavuto provided the governor an opportunity to walk back the terminology. But Jindal would not relent.</p>
<p>“If people don’t want to come here to integrate and assimilate, what they’re really trying to do is set up their own culture, their own communities,” Jindal said. “What they’re really trying to do is overturn our culture. We need to recognize that threat.”</p>
<p>“If we don’t, we’re gonna see a replica of what’s happening in Europe in America,” Jindal continued. “We’re gonna see our own no-go zones if we’re not serious about insisting on assimilation and integration.”</p>
<p>Cavuto also asked Jindal to comment on former MSNBC guest <a href="" type="internal">Arsalan Iftikhar</a> who on Monday accused Jindal of “trying to scrub some of the brown off his skin.”</p>
<p>“It’s foolish that MSNBC even gave somebody like this a platform,” Jindal said.</p>
<p>He also discussed his parents’ decision to come to America.</p>
<p>“We need to stop calling ourselves African Americans, Indian Americans,” Jindal said, “My parents came here over 40 years ago…. If they wanted us to be Indians, they would’ve stayed in India.”</p>
<p>Cavuto then asked whether he’d take anything back.</p>
<p>“Absolutely not,” Jindal said.</p> | Bobby Jindal: US Will Have Its Own ‘No-Go Zones’ Unless We Take This Seriously | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bobby-jindal-no-go-zones-america | 4 |
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<p>President Bush’s bum-rush slotting of John Roberts for US Supreme Court Chief Justice constitutes a poke in the eye to current Justice Clarence Thomas.</p>
<p>For critics of the reactionary Thomas, this poke provides a perverse silver lining in the dark cloud of Roberts’ reign as CJ.</p>
<p>Thomas, the loyal water boy for the far right-wing, is an ardent opponent of affirmative action as a remedy for decades of racial discrimination against African-Americans.</p>
<p>President Bush often cited Thomas as his “model” for a conservative Supreme Court justice even hinting that he could envision the Court’s only black as Chief Justice.</p>
<p>However, when Bush had an opportunity to act on his accolades for Thomas, he opted to elevate a fledgling federal appellate judge to head the nation’s highest court.</p>
<p>What poetic justice that Thomas’ dreams of rising to Chief Justice through either seniority or loyal service (certainly not through prodigious intellect) are dashed by white affirmative action, that racial discriminatory hiring practice that Thomas claims no longer exists.</p>
<p>The hiring practices of President Bush highlight the hypocrisy of conservative critics of affirmative action programs for non- whites.</p>
<p>Conservative critics of affirmative action for non-whites advance variations of a theme John Roberts included in 1981 memo he authored during service in the US Justice Department as a foot soldier for the ‘Reagan Revolution.’</p>
<p>While castigating a US Civil Rights Commission report defending affirmative action, Roberts inaccurately assailed affirmative action as bound to fail because it required “the recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates.”</p>
<p>Ideologues like Roberts always overlook the legions of ‘inadequately prepared’ beneficiaries of White Affirmative Action.</p>
<p>Exhibit A of an inadequately prepared candidate is Michae ­ “You’re doing a heck of a job Brownie” ­ Brown, the former head of FEMAwhose incompetence compounded the post- Katrina disaster.</p>
<p>Brown lacked substantive disaster management experience, heading a horse-show organization before sliding into FEMA.</p>
<p>Brown’s initial entrance into FEMA resulted from his hiring by his old college roommate.</p>
<p>Joe Allbaugh, Bush’s original FEMA head, hired college chum Brown as FEMA’s top lawyer after the International Arabian Horse Association dropped Brown for poor performance.</p>
<p>Allbaugh ­ a product of white affirmative-action himself ­ also lacked prior disaster management experience.</p>
<p>Allbaugh’s pre-FEMA experience included heading the Bush- Cheney presidential campaign in 2000 and serving as Chief of Staff for Texas Governor Bush.</p>
<p>Bush promoted Brown to head FEMA after Allbaugh left the critical emergency response agency to set up a private company to cash-in on government contractsanother variant of white affirmative action.</p>
<p>Hiring inadequately prepared candidates is a hallmark of the Bush Administration that has recently slotted a veterinarian to head the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health and the niece of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency despite her paltry law enforcement experience.</p>
<p>Bush’s disastrous Iraq invasion is a quagmire straight from the ideology-blinded minds of his Neo-conservative political appointees ­ a cabal inadequately prepared to conduct foreign policy.</p>
<p>The white affirmative-action practiced by the Bush Administration is particularly galling because this crew crusades so audaciously against affirmative-action applied to persons of color.</p>
<p>The same President Bush who proudly bashes affirmative action contracting for non-whites as improper “racial preferences” arrogantly provides special preference, multi- billion dollar no-bid contracts to connected corporations like Halliburton, the firm once headed by Bush’s Vice-President, Dick Cheney.</p>
<p>Bush’s selection of John Roberts for Chief Justice is a glaring example of white affirmative-action irrespective of Roberts’ respected legal acumen elevating him above the ranks of an inadequately prepared candidate.</p>
<p>The bigot Bush designated Roberts to replace, the late William Rehnquist, at least spent fourteen years as a Supreme Court Justice before his elevation to Chief Justice.</p>
<p>Roberts has less than three years experience as a federal appeals court judgegetting that lofty position without having any prior judicial experience.</p>
<p>White affirmative action aided Roberts during many steps in his career.</p>
<p>Roberts landed a plum clerkship with a federal appeals judge after his Harvard Law School graduation, followed immediately by a prestige elevating clerkship with US Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist ­ who never hired a black law clerk.</p>
<p>From that Supreme Court slot, young lawyer Roberts went on to hold prominent, law shaping positions with the Reagan and Bush I administrations.</p>
<p>This presidential service boosted Roberts’ private lawyer career, elevating him to millionaire status.</p>
<p>As a legal strategist for President Ronald Reagan, Roberts enthusiastically participated in the conservative onslaught against affirmative action that craftily changed standards that eventually crippled legal defenses for programs implemented to remediate decades of American apartheid.</p>
<p>Roberts, in another 1981 Justice Department memo, declared that “under our view of law, it is not enough to say that blacks and women have been historically discriminated against as groups and therefore are entitled to special preferences.”</p>
<p>This ‘view’ Roberts’ advanced to his boss, the US Attorney General, dripped with conservative spin designed to obscure factual realities of history.</p>
<p>Contrary to Roberts’ deceptive twist of the historical record, blacks have always sought fairness not special favors.</p>
<p>In 1799, when seventy black Philadelphians petitioned Congress to protect America’s free blacks from illegal kidnapping into slavery, their petition asked that free blacks be “admitted to partake of the liberties and unalienable rights” promised in the US Constitution.</p>
<p>That 1799 petition ­ indignantly rejected by Congress ­ contained no requests for ‘special preferences.’</p>
<p>Those Philadelphia petitioners and successive generations of blacks have always sought equal justice under the law ­ the very phrase chiseled in stone over the entrance of the US Supreme Court buildingthe same building that Roberts says he gets a “lump in his throat” every time he enters to argue a case.</p>
<p>Interestingly, a key legal impetus for elevating white affirmative-action came through the 1896 US Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson.</p>
<p>That infamous ruling in a railroad discrimination case from New Orleans established legalized ‘separate but equal’ racial apartheid across Americaa few decades after the Civil War ended slavery.</p>
<p>Rehnquist, while serving as a Supreme Court clerk, wrote a memo opposing the seminal Brown school desegregation case stating the Court should uphold the Plessy separate-but-equal segregation precedent.</p>
<p>Rulings by Roberts as an appeals judge exhibit a Rehnquist-like streak of sophistically using the rule-of-law to suppress justice in civil rights cases.</p>
<p>In a 2004 civil rights ruling, Roberts rejected pleas for justice from a black Washington DC teen arrested, handcuffed and jailed by police at age 12 for eating a single French fry in a subway station entrance during a ‘zero tolerance’ crackdown on eating by riders.</p>
<p>Roberts defended transit police arresting juveniles while simply giving adults citations on the specious ground that adults wouldn’t lie to police about their names while children might not give “truthfuli dentifying information.”</p>
<p>During President Bush’s January inauguration speech, he urged America to “abandon all the habits of racism.” Giving a Supreme Court slot to a man with a history of defending racism certainly upholds conservative political traditions but it contradicts the President’s call to abandon racism.</p>
<p>When the Supreme Court begins its new term and Clarence Thomas continues his stump-like silence at least there is a plausible explanation for his not asking questions.</p>
<p>He’s stewing over white affirmative action depriving him of his dream: becoming Chief Justice.</p>
<p>Linn Washington Jr. is a graduate of the Yale Law Journalism Fellowship Program. He is a columnist for the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest African-American owned newspaper.</p>
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<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Spectre of White Affirmative Action | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/09/28/the-spectre-of-white-affirmative-action/ | 2005-09-28 | 4 |
<p>July 18 (UPI) — Authorities are investigating a social media video of a woman walking through a historic Saudi Arabian village in a short skirt, sparking Internet outrage.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/07/18/a-video-of-a-woman-in-a-skirt-sparks-outrage-in-saudi-arabia/?utm_term=.3757c31485d7" type="external">brief footage</a>, of a woman identified as Khulood walking at a historic fort in Ushayqir, 95 miles from Riyadh, showed her clothes violating Saudi Arabia’s conservative dress code. Her miniskirt and crop-top, and uncovered head, were the topic of debate on social media on Monday in the religiously conservative country.</p>
<p>By law, women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear a loose fitting cloak called an abaya, although foreign visitors are exempt.</p>
<p>Some people called for her arrest and trial, suggesting that if she lives in Saudi Arabia, she should accept its laws. Others lauded her bravery and noted that two recent and prominent visitors to the country, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Melania-Trump/" type="external">Melania Trump</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ivanka_Trump/" type="external">Ivanka Trump</a>, chose not to wear abayas or head coverings and received little criticism for their decision.</p>
<p>The video shows her walking at Ushayqir Historic Village in Najd province, one of Saudi Arabia’s most conservative regions. It was first posted to Snapchat over the weekend, and was later seen on Twitter.</p>
<p>The Saudi newspaper Okaz reported on Monday that Ushayqir official called on police and the provincial governor to find and arrest Khulood. The local Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, regarded as the religious police, announced it was in contact with authorities over the video, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40633687" type="external">the BBC said</a>.</p> | Saudi woman in short skirt causes Internet uproar | false | https://newsline.com/saudi-woman-in-short-skirt-causes-internet-uproar/ | 2017-07-18 | 1 |
<p>A123 Systems , the lithium-ion battery maker backed by a $249 million U.S. government grant, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, prompting Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign to accuse the Obama administration of "gambling away billions of taxpayer dollars."</p>
<p>The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing came after a $465 million rescue deal with Chinese auto parts supplier Wanxiang Group unraveled.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A123, which has tapped half of its government grant, agreed to sell its automotive operations, including two factories in Michigan, for $125 million to Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls Inc, a leading battery supplier and another recipient of federal green subsidies.</p>
<p>The bankruptcy illustrates the sharp reversal of A123's fortunes since 2009, when its stock rose 50 percent on the first day of trading on the Nasdaq. But weaker-than-expected demand for hybrids and missteps, including a costly battery recall, hit A123's bottom line and left the start-up with excess capacity.</p>
<p>The bankruptcy filing, on the day of the second of three debates between President Barack Obama and Romney, gave Republicans fresh ammunition ahead of the Nov. 6 election to attack Obama's subsidies for green energy.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Energy allotted about $90 billion for various clean-energy programs through the administration's stimulus package. Of that, at least $813 million went to energy companies that eventually filed for bankruptcy, including the grant to A123 and a loan to solar panel maker Solyndra.</p>
<p>Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul cited the A123 bankruptcy as proof of Obama "gambling away billions of taxpayer dollars on a strategy of government-led growth that simply does not work."</p>
<p>Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fletcher countered that the investments helped to more than double renewable energy production from wind and solar, "creating good-paying jobs and bringing manufacturing back to our shores."</p>
<p>Romney argues that the government should not pick corporate winners and losers, while Obama has countered that such investments are needed to bolster the U.S. position in advanced batteries and other cutting-edge green technology.</p>
<p>"The riskiest strategy of all is not competing aggressively for the technologies of tomorrow and the jobs that come," Dan Leistikow, DOE director of public affairs, said in a blog post. "In an emerging industry, it's very common to see some firms consolidate with others as the industry grows and matures."</p>
<p>FILING COMES AFTER 8-MONTH SEARCH</p>
<p>A123 has come under pressure over the last year after Fisker Automotive cut battery orders for its Karma plug-in hybrid in October 2011. This year, A123 had to recall battery packs made for Fisker, which made up 26 percent of A123's revenue in 2011.</p>
<p>The bankruptcy filing comes after roughly eight months of attempts by A123 to find a buyer or strategic investor, Chief Financial Officer David Brystash said in a court filing. In March, A123 hired Lazard Freres &amp; Co, which contacted 74 potential partners and investors.</p>
<p>Twenty-four discussed the process with Lazard, but only Wanxiang offered to invest in A123 as a going concern. In August, A123 announced the $465 million rescue deal with Wanxiang, which immediately gave A123 a $22.5 million loan, including a cash advance of $12.5 million.</p>
<p>Future cash infusions from Wanxiang were contingent on A123 meeting certain requirements, included getting approval from the Committee of Foreign Investment and the Chinese government as well as the absence of any default. Shortly before filing for bankruptcy, it became apparent that A123 would fall short of some of those conditions, according to court documents.</p>
<p>Johnson Controls has provided $72.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing to A123. Johnson Controls said its interest "is consistent with (Johnson Controls') long-term commitment to being a market leader in the advanced battery industry."</p>
<p>Fisker said it welcomed A123's deal with Johnson Controls, adding that the automaker had enough batteries for Karma through the first quarter of 2013. A123 also supplies batteries for the Chevrolet Spark EV that will be introduced next year by General Motors Co. GM said it expects no delays in the program.</p>
<p>In a research note, Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker said Johnson Controls would be able to wring out costs in A123 and possibly bring the company to break-even quickly.</p>
<p>Johnson Controls supplies batteries to Ford Motor Co, BMW and Daimler, among others.</p>
<p>A123 expects to sell its non-automotive operations and has identified certain bidders, according to the filing. A123 listed total assets of $459.8 million and liabilities of $376 million in its Chapter 11 petition.</p>
<p>WINNERS AND LOSERS</p>
<p>A123 had promised to create 38,000 U.S. jobs, including 5,900 at its own plants, in return for the government funding under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative.</p>
<p>Johnson Controls, which supplies lithium-ion batteries to a number of vehicle manufacturers, also received a $299 million grant under the same program. A123 has tapped $132 million, or about half, of its U.S. grant, the DOE said.</p>
<p>"The disposition of the remaining grant funds will be decided later as we continue to work with the new owners as they determine their plans for the future," DOE spokewoman Jen Stutsman said in an email to Reuters.</p>
<p>The highest-profile recipient of federal funds, Solyndra, will square off in court Wednesday against the Internal Revenue Service and the DOE as it argues for its bankruptcy plan.</p>
<p>That plan provides $300 million-plus in tax breaks for Solyndra's venture capital backers while potentially leaving the government with zero return on its investment. Every class of creditor has approved the deal except the government.</p>
<p>The case is In re:A123 Systems Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No:12-12859.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | A123 Files for Bankruptcy | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/10/16/a123-files-for-bankruptcy.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
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<p>Second Congressional District Rep. Steve Pearce, left, greets people who attended his town hall at the Ruidoso Convention Center on Saturday. (Lauren Villagran/Journal)</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p>RUIDOSO – Republican Congressman Steve Pearce faced hundreds of impassioned constituents Saturday during his first town hall since the election.</p>
<p>Only one punch was thrown – and not even over politics. Sheriff Robert Shepperd said two men scuffled after one took a photo of the other against his wishes. The event at the Ruidoso Convention Center drew some 300 people and was rowdy, but otherwise nonviolent.</p>
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<p>“The most important thing that happened is that we, with very different viewpoints, sat down and had a civil discussion,” Pearce told the Journal after the two-hour town hall. “Yes, it was rowdy. I don’t mind that at all. People do have strong opinions, and this is how the process works.”</p>
<p>Republican lawmakers across the country have faced fired-up crowds, many of them Democrats angry at President Donald Trump over his plans for health care, education, public lands, the environment, immigration and the border. Pearce drew criticism for weeks for not holding a town hall sooner, although he did hold a conference call during which his office said some 10,000 people phoned in.</p>
<p>New Mexico’s second congressional district spans the state’s border with Mexico and is one of the largest districts in the country, geographically speaking. Constituents showed up in force from Ruidoso, Las Cruces, Artesia, Roswell and Carlsbad. Pearce started by requesting questions from people who disagreed with him.</p>
<p>There were plenty who did. Questions about Republicans’ plans for expanding private use of public lands and the proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act dominated much of the discussion, along with concerns about education reforms and the fate of Planned Parenthood women’s health clinics, which Republicans have vowed to defund.</p>
<p>Wayne McDonald of Alamogordo stood up in the front row and told Pearce that, after the congressman voted to repeal the ACA, also known as Obamacare, he called his office to ask if the government was going to take away his wife’s Medicaid. The office said “not for a long time,” McDonald told Pearce.</p>
<p>“How do I explain to my wife when we’re sitting in the doctor’s office – that we finally got to sit in – that ‘don’t worry, Steve Pearce says it’s not going to happen for a long time?’ What is a long time? And when are you going to take her health care away from her?”</p>
<p>Pearce told him “the Affordable Care Act is in the process of total collapse” before being momentarily drowned out by boos.</p>
<p>He continued, “We either do nothing or we do something. That is where we are. Now, you have heard Mr. Trump. You have seen me vote for repeals, and the idea is that we are going to repeal and replace. Our leader Mr. (Paul) Ryan has said we’re not going to leave anybody hanging.”</p>
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<p>Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, is Speaker of the House.</p>
<p>Members of the Democratic Party of Lincoln County gather outside the convention center in Ruidoso after the town hall meeting hosted by Republican Rep. Steve Pearce on Saturday. (Lauren Villagran/Journal)</p>
<p>Between shouts and jeers, the subject of civil political discourse itself became a theme of the town hall. More than one constituent said they were worried about how harsh political rhetoric has become. One woman pleaded with Pearce, “What can you do to help bring us all together?”</p>
<p>Pearce described ways he has tried to reach across the aisle, particularly with Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a West Texas Democrat with whom he has sponsored immigration reforms in the past.</p>
<p>“I take it personal when people look with contempt on the opposite viewpoint,” Pearce said. “I am here to listen to opposite viewpoints.”</p>
<p>A dozen or so members of the Democratic Party of Lincoln County gathered outside the convention center afterward holding fluorescent-colored signs with “Hands off our public lands” and “Social Security needs to be saved – from Republicans.” As the group shouted answers to a television reporter’s questions, one woman said, “I think he listened, but I’m not sure he changed his mind any.”</p>
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<p /> | Hundreds turn out for Rep. Pearce’s rowdy town hall | false | https://abqjournal.com/962055/hundreds-turn-out-for-rep-pearces-rowdy-town-hall.html | 2017-03-04 | 2 |
<p>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening’s drawing of the Kansas Lottery’s “Super Kansas Cash” game were:</p>
<p>14-25-27-29-30, Cash Ball: 9</p>
<p>(fourteen, twenty-five, twenty-seven, twenty-nine, thirty; Cash Ball: nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $270,000</p>
<p>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening’s drawing of the Kansas Lottery’s “Super Kansas Cash” game were:</p>
<p>14-25-27-29-30, Cash Ball: 9</p>
<p>(fourteen, twenty-five, twenty-seven, twenty-nine, thirty; Cash Ball: nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $270,000</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Super Kansas Cash’ game | false | https://apnews.com/5cadfb2bf55c47b2b9fa59ac97e529e1 | 2017-12-31 | 2 |
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<p>Melissa Westbrook, 22, was pronounced dead at about 10:40 a.m. today at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, according to her father, Dannie Lee.</p>
<p>San Juan County Sheriff’s Office detective Lt. Kyle Lincoln confirmed today that Westbrook had died.</p>
<p>He said the case is still under investigation. No arrests have been made and no charges have been filed in connection to the case.</p>
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<p>Deputies were dispatched to No. 1 County Road 3959 at about 3 p.m. Monday in response to a shooting. Police said they found a 22-year-old woman had been shot at the home. At the time, a 20-year-old man was taken into custody as a person of interest, police told The Daily Times.</p>
<p>Westbrook was initially transported to San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington and was later transferred to UNM Hospital in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Westbrook’s uncle, James Lee, said family members have been trying to get a copy of the police report to learn more about the shooting. Lee, who lives in Bakersfield, Calif., spoke to The Daily Times today in a phone interview. He said Dannie Lee visited his daughter in the hospital in Albuquerque on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Lincoln said he has not heard from relatives. He said police reports will not be shared while the case remains under investigation, but, he said, the Sheriff’s Office can share information about the case with family members who inquire.</p>
<p>James and Dannie Lee both said they have heard from other relatives several versions of what happened on Monday.</p>
<p>Lincoln said police have not determined if a crime was committed. He said police have interviewed all of the people involved in the case.</p>
<p>“We’re going over all the details and evidence to confirm everyone’s statement,” Lincoln said.</p>
<p>Lincoln said police will speak with the San Juan County District Attorney’s Office before deciding whether or not to press charges.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Joshua Kellogg covers education for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4627.</p>
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<p>©2016 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.)</p>
<p>Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at <a href="http://www.daily-times.com" type="external">www.daily-times.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
<p>_____</p> | 22-year-old woman dies after Crouch Mesa shooting | false | https://abqjournal.com/910355/22-year-old-woman-dies-after-crouch-mesa-shooting.html | 2 |
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<p>LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria’s president missed his weekly cabinet meeting for the third straight time Wednesday as concerns mounted about his health, while his wife took to Twitter to defend him.</p>
<p>President Muhammadu Buhari disappeared for six weeks of medical leave in London earlier this year, leading some to call for his replacement. The 74-year-old returned to work in mid-March but often works from home, according to aides.</p>
<p>The uncertainty over Buhari’s health has raised fears of instability in Africa’s most populous nation and one of its top oil producers.</p>
<p>A tweet from his office on Wednesday said the latest cabinet meeting was being presided over by the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, who had been in charge during the president’s medical leave.</p>
<p>Buhari’s office last month put out a statement saying he remained in charge even though doctors had advised “on his taking things slowly.” On his return to Nigeria in March, he made reference to blood transfusions and said he had not been so sick in decades.</p>
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<p>The president was following his doctor’s advice to take some rest on Wednesday, Information Minister Lai Mohammed told reporters.</p>
<p>“Mr. President will stick to his doctor’s advice so that he can recover much more quickly,” Mohammed said.</p>
<p>The minister added that Buhari will soon “go back for further treatment,” but it was not clear whether that means another trip to London.</p>
<p>Buhari’s wife, Aisha, tweeted late Tuesday that her husband’s health “is not as bad as it’s being perceived.”</p>
<p>Nigeria continues to grapple with crises that include Boko Haram extremist attacks, millions facing starvation in the country’s northeast and an economy that last year contracted for the first time in a quarter-century.</p> | Nigerian president misses cabinet meeting amid health fears | false | https://abqjournal.com/997574/nigerian-president-misses-cabinet-meeting-amid-health-fears.html | 2017-05-03 | 2 |
<p>Investigating the Accuracy and Faithfulness To The Original</p>
<p>written by <a href="http://samgipp.com/" type="external">Dr. Sam Gipp</a></p>
<p>The New King James Version The New King James Version unlike most modem translations is based on the correct Antiochian manuscripts instead of the corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts. Unfortunately, the men doing the translation work view the Bible as imperfect. They would vehemently deny this charge in public because their jobs depend on it, but in fact they do not believe that ANY Bible is perfect. Not even their own New King James Version! Thus, to them, the Bible is lost ("settled" in heaven) and the minds of scholars are the only hope of rescuing its "thoughts" from oblivion. Remarkably, the New King James Version, which claims to be more "conservative" than the New International Version, also has its fair share of problems. The New King James Version omits the following words:</p> Reference NKJV | true | http://nowtheendbegins.com/pages/KJV/what-about-the-new-king-james-version.htm | 0 |
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<p>A large crowd of protesters gathered outside the White House on Wednesday to demand an independent investigation into President Trump’s ties to Russia.</p>
<p>The protest was organized to take place at noon Eastern, with participants demanding that a special prosecutor be put in charge of the ongoing Trump/Russia investigation. Protesters are assembling just one day after the controversial firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing the agency’s probe into conversations the Trump campaign had with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 campaign. Progressive groups like MoveOn.org sent out emails promoting the demonstration adjacent to the North Lawn of the White House.</p>
<p>Crowd starting to amass in front of the White House. <a href="https://t.co/mueF0Np75p" type="external">pic.twitter.com/mueF0Np75p</a></p>
<p>— Jesse Berney (@jesseberney) <a href="https://twitter.com/jesseberney/status/862339870420860932" type="external">May 10, 2017</a></p>
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<p>The crowd was apparently so big that the chants of “No more lies!” were audible from the White House briefing room, where&#160;reporters were assembled to ask&#160;questions about the Comey firing. The Los Angeles Times’ Mike Memoli tweeted a photo of the crowd, reporting that the chanting was heard by all reporters present.</p>
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<p>The protest wasn’t attended by just liberals — one particular sign caught the eye of Twitter user Cate Hall, who tweeted a sign held by a woman that read “I &lt;3 Rule of Law – CONSERVATIVE &#160;AND NOT OK WITH THIS – Country Before Party.” Other protesters held Russian flags originally distributed at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that had Trump’s name on them.</p>
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<p>Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is currently serving as Acting Director of the FBI in Comey’s stead, and is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee on Thursday. Trump has not, as of this writing, announced any potential candidates to replace Comey. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is <a href="" type="internal">actively opposing</a> any effort to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the Trump/Russia probe, arguing that it would complicate ongoing Congressional investigations.</p>
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<p>Jamie Green is a contributor for the Resistance Report covering the Trump administration, and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.</p> | Protesters gather outside White House to demand independent Russia investigation | true | http://resistancereport.com/politics/wh-protesters-russia-crowd/ | 2017-05-10 | 4 |
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<p>Image source: The Motley Fool.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>TripAdvisor(NASDAQ: TRIP) has been a big winner in the travel sector over the years, riding a trend that has also lifted its peersExpediaandPriceline.</p>
<p>TripAdvisor, which has focused on travel reviews and makes money selling ads against the content, is in the midst of transition as it rolls out a booking service to complete directly against online travel agents and adapts to the mobile space. However, those growing pains showed in its latest report, as thestock tumbled following the release.</p>
<p>Shares are down over 8% as of mid-day trading as the company posted a 3% decline in revenue and a sharper drop in profits as you can see in the chart below:</p>
<p>Data source: TripAdvisor earnings report.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Click-based ad revenue was the key culprit here as sales in that category, which makes up more than half of total revenue, fell 15% to $201 million. Profits also got squeezed, as the company lifted its spending on technology and marketing. Technology and content expenses jumped 24% to $62 million, while marketing expenses increased 5% to $202 million. The company is spending more on marketing and tech capabilities as it expands into areas such as direct hotel bookings, mobile, and airline reviews, which it launched last month.</p>
<p>TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer sounded optimistic when discussing the quarter, saying, "We took important steps along our key initiatives during the second quarter." He also emphasized that the company is building for the long-term.</p>
<p>The company continues to focus on adding supply to its Instant Booking platform and now has more than 500,000 hotels listed -- TripAdvisor launched the new platform globally during the quarter.</p>
<p>Management is focused on diversifying away from hotels into airlines, restaurants, activities, and other parts of the travel experience. TripAdvisor has been experiencing headwinds from competition in the travel industry, as Airbnb has made waves in hospitality. It is also seeing revenue per user slide as it transitions to mobile, which can provide challenges for advertising due to the smaller screen and lower monetization rate.</p>
<p>The company noted challenges from terrorist attacks and other such events outside its control and said that soft trends have continued into July.</p>
<p>Ultimately, TripAdvisor's success will be determined by its ability to navigate the transition to a mobile-first company, build out its Instant Booking platform, and diversify into non-hotel revenue. With millions of reviews, TripAdvisor has a unique asset in this space and leveraging it through bookings makes sense.</p>
<p>The management team has proved its savvy in the past, avoiding the pitfalls of other review-based websites such asYelp orAngie's List, but tangling in bookings with Priceline, Expedia, and now Airbnb could be its toughest challenge yet.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFHobo/info.aspx" type="external">Jeremy Bowman Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Priceline Group and TripAdvisor. The Motley Fool recommends Yelp. 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> | TripAdvisor Inc Takes Investors on a Rough Ride | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/04/tripadvisor-inc-takes-investors-on-rough-ride.html | 2016-08-04 | 0 |
<p>As we look for silver linings in this global recession, maybe we should switch lenses—and look for a pink lining instead. Evidence is emerging that women could be the key to getting us out of this crisis. Indeed, if there’d been more of us around at the higher echelons of finance, the world might not have charged so headlong into this slump in the first place.</p>
<p>Women, it turns out, are no longer P.C. nods to corporate diversity; we are the hottest business commodity around, in this economic environment, as much as any other. And this new recognition of corporate clout is giving us power beyond our feminist dreams.</p>
<p>Look at these numbers. In our new book, Womenomics, we call them pink profits.</p>
<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2009/06/02/i-just-had-a-baby-ill-call-you-back.html" type="external">Read an excerpt from Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success</a></p>
<p>Companies that employ more women make more money. A two-decade-long survey by Pepperdine University of 215 Fortune 500 companies found that by every measure of profitability—equity, revenue, and assets—companies with the best record for promoting women outperform the competition. Indeed, those companies with the very best record beat the average by up to 116 percent.</p>
<p>The University of California at Davis has drawn similar conclusions. It recently found that companies with women in senior management have “stronger relationships with customers and shareholders and more diverse and profitable business.”</p>
<p>This pattern holds even, and maybe especially, right now. A study of the French stock exchange last year shows that the more women there were in a company’s management, the less its share price fell in that bad year. In fact, the only large French company whose share price actually rose last year was Hermès, which also has the second largest feminized management team of any company on the CAC 40.</p>
<p>So, what’s going on?</p>
<p>Well, companies are finding that women’s management styles are not only different, but good for business. It’s now pretty clear that Mars and Venus have muscled their way into the boardroom, too. When it comes to business styles, women are more open and inclusive than men. We tend to encourage broader participation in meetings and like to foster consensus. We nurture subordinates more effectively and prefer conciliation over confrontation, empathy over ego. We are also more cautious, more risk averse. We take a longer term view of decision making than men.</p>
<p>It’s those last qualities which seem to stand up to this particular economic climate. The theory behind the French stock exchange figures is that in this environment, investors prefer more cautious management.</p>
<p>Add to those pink profits and feminine traits the fact that we women are better educated (we earn 57 percent of all undergraduate degrees in America and 58 percent of all graduate degrees) and better at spending (we now buy more than half of all cars in America and are responsible for 83 percent of all consumer purchases) and you begin to see the wave of power driving womenomics.</p>
<p>With a talent shortage looming, companies need us as never before. They know it and we should, too, because it is the key to revolutionizing the workplace to fit our particular female needs.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>This is the other side of the Womenomics equation. We can take that power and use it to live and work the way we’ve always really wanted.</p>
<p>In 2003 Harvard Business School released a study confirming what we all suspected: Professional women were leaving the workplace in greater numbers than they were joining it, for the first time ever. Faced with the agonizing clash between 60-hour a week jobs and the desire to be good mothers, women were deciding they couldn’t do it all. In the battle of kids vs. career, kids usually won.</p>
<p>If well-educated, professional women are going to stay in the workplace, and God knows, the economy really needs them, then the workplace simply has to change. Our feminist forebears bust a gut to get us here, and we are eternally grateful. They bought into the career ladder, with their heads down and their own needs shelved. They were simply grateful to be at the boardroom table—they certainly didn’t think they could redesign that table to suit their own needs.</p>
<p>But now we can. Those same companies need us so badly that we are in a position to ask for what we want. And what we want is quite simply time.</p>
<p>If well-educated, professional women are going to stay in the workplace, and God knows, the economy really needs them, then the workplace simply has to change.</p>
<p>According to research by the Families and Work Institute, the number of women prepared to trade status and money for time is growing an astonishingly fast rate. In 1992, 57 percent of all college-educated women said they wanted to move to jobs with more responsibility. By 2002 that number had fallen to 36 percent. By 2007 it was down again; only 28 percent of us wanted more responsibility. That’s a 30-point drop in 25 years! The linear corporate ladder doesn’t get us where we want to be. Our careers need to be waves where we can dial up and down, according to the changing demands of our lives.</p>
<p>Often, but by no means always, spurred on by the demands of motherhood, women are negotiating for different work models. We have spoken to women all across America in industries as diverse as law, finance, engineering, and communications who are using their skills and clout to create flexible, balanced, and saner work lives.</p>
<p>But here’s where the revolution really starts and we believe it heralds the biggest workforce shift since World War II first ushered women into the workplace in such large numbers. Many of the women we talked to are negotiating these four-day weeks, work from home, part time, flex time, alternative schedules on their own during hushed conversations with their bosses. But some work for companies who are embracing this change from top to bottom and from woman to man.</p>
<p>Companies like Capital One, Sun Microsystems, Best Buy, and Deloitte and Touche realize that flexibility is no longer a favor to be handed out like candy at a children’s birthday party, it is a sound business strategy. It starts with desperately needed talent retention—companies can’t afford to loose those valuable women, remember. But it soon becomes a profitable exercise in itself.</p>
<p>When Best Buy threw out the clock and allowed employees to work to their own schedules, when and where they wanted, measuring their performance purely on results, not hours in the street, it found that productivity increased by a stunning 40 percent. Technology allowed its workers to work wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted, so long as they met the bottom line. Employees, male and female, were so thrilled to be treated like adults that they returned the compliment in commitment and performance.</p>
<p>Women are improving the performance of corporate America. Womenomics is improving the lives of those women.</p>
<p>Plus: <a href="" type="internal">Check out Book Beast, for more news on hot titles, authors and excerpts from the latest books.</a></p>
<p>Claire Shipman is the senior national correspondent for ABC News' Good Morning America and a regular on This Week with George Stephanopoulos . Previously, Shipman was the White House correspondent for NBC news and a reporter for CNN in Moscow , where she earned multiple awards for her coverage of the demise of the Soviet Union. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children.</p>
<p>Katty Kay is the Washington correspondent and anchor for BBC World News America . She is also a contributor on Meet the Press , The Charlie Rose Show , and The Chris Matthews Show , as well as a regular guest host for Diane Rehm on NPR. Kay grew up in the Middle East and now lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and four children.</p> | Can Women Save the Economy? | true | https://thedailybeast.com/can-women-save-the-economy | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
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<p>An Australian shepherd named Jade was found in the Canyon area Friday, 42 days after she went missing.</p>
<p>"She's skin and bones, but otherwise she seems perfectly fine," owner David Sowers of Denver said.</p>
<p>Sowers said Jade ran off after an auto wreck on July 23 while he and his girlfriend, Laura Gillice, were driving through the park with the dog.</p>
<p>"When they tried to get her out of the car she bolted and she ran into the woods," Sowers said. "She disappeared for, like, 15 days, and I thought she was gone."</p>
<p>Over the last several weeks, signs were posted and an Internet campaign started asking park visitors to keep an eye out for the dog.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Reports of Jade being seen roaming the park started coming in. Sowers and his girlfriend, who were both injured in the wreck, had returned to Yellowstone several times to look for the dog before finding her Friday.</p>
<p>"I haven't been following doctors' orders very well," said Sowers, who suffered injuries to his ribs, arm and leg in the accident. "They told me not to be doing this, but I wanted to find my dog."</p>
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<p /> | Lost dog found 42 days later | false | https://abqjournal.com/640172/lost-dog-found-42-days-later.html | 2 |
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<p>Rosemary Carver, a Donald Trump supporter, arrives at his primary election night event at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday night.Gerald Herbert/AP</p>
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<p>On Tuesday night, Donald Trump’s campaign <a href="https://twitter.com/JDiamond1/status/709888939088338944" type="external">reportedly turned away</a> a Politico reporter who covers the candidate, after the reporter had helped write a story critical of Trump’s campaign manager earlier in the day.</p>
<p>So who did get into the ritzy victory party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida? Rich people. NBC reporter Katy Tur shared the decadent outfits at the party for the candidate whose campaign depends on economically struggling voters.</p>
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<p>Trump did have <a href="" type="internal">cause to celebrate</a>: He is the projected winner in the Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois primaries on Tuesday. John Kasich won his home state of Ohio, while Missouri has not yet been called.</p>
<p /> | Check Out the 1-Percent Bling at Donald Trump’s Victory Party | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/check-out-1-percent-bling-donald-trumps-victory-party/ | 2016-03-16 | 4 |
<p>They wouldn't yield to terrorists, dictators or diseases. They brought light to the world.</p>
<p>A look at seven&#160;stories in 2015 that inspired us.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>The historic Buddhas of Bamiyan statues have made a return to the Afghan valley as 3D light projections.</p>
<p>Ali M Latifi</p>
<p>The Taliban thought it had&#160;destroyed one of the world's wonders, the monumental&#160;Buddha statues of the Bamiyan Valley.</p>
<p>But the Buddhas&#160;shine again in&#160;the towering cutouts in the mountainside where they&#160;stood for centuries. They&#160;are back, thanks to 3-D light projection. And they look great.&#160;</p>
<p>The technology that gives us images of Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson in concert, and&#160; <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27939865" type="external">Narendra&#160;Modi on the campaign trail</a>, has been applied to&#160;the Bamiyan Buddhas. Now,&#160;3-D light projects on the empty cliff where the statues once stood. The device that controls the illumination&#160; <a href="http://www.khaama.com/return-of-bamyan-buddhas-with-help-of-3d-image-display-9468" type="external">was a gift from a Chinese couple</a>&#160;to the Afghan people.</p>
<p>The illumination has brought relief to many of the locals who&#160;the Taliban forced in 2001 to destroy the Buddhas.&#160;"I regretted it at that time, I regret it now and I will always regret it," one of the workers, bike repairman&#160;Mirza Hussain,&#160; <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31813681" type="external">told the BBC in March</a>. <a href="" type="internal">Read more on this story</a>&#160;— and on an effort to use the world's biggest 3-D printers <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3376093/Ancient-arch-Palmyra-site-destroyed-Isis-recreated-Trafalgar-Square-world-s-largest-3D-printer-call-action.html" type="external">to restore images from the ISIS-destroyed statues</a> of Palmyra, Syria.&#160;</p>
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<p>Kasia Hassan, a mother of nine who doesn’t know her age, cooks dinner for her family in the dim light of traditional kerosene lamps called kibataris. The lamps emit a thick, noxious smoke and are prone to tipping over and starting fires. ''Solar mamas'' are installing less-dangerous power on her island of Zanzibar.</p>
<p>Sam Eaton</p>
<p>They can flip the switch on homes — and on gender roles.</p>
<p>On the island of Zanzibar,&#160;13 new “solar mamas” as they call themselves — all illiterate mothers — are changing the island's future, electrifying hundreds of homes that used to rely on dangerous wood- and charcoal-burning for light (pictured above).</p>
<p>Recruited and trained by an Indian NGO, the solar mamas&#160;install&#160;systems that include&#160;photovoltaic panels, a battery, an inverter, three LED lamps and a phone charger. It takes&#160;half an hour to complete. Once done,&#160;the owner of the house plugged in her phone, a convenience she used to pay someone else to do.</p>
<p>The women had electrified 600 homes by summer — and are viewed with new respect as they change their countryside. <a href="" type="internal">Read more about them.</a></p>
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<p>Inge Rapoport, at age 102, did what the Nazis tried to stop her from doing.</p>
<p>Dr. Tom Rapoport</p>
<p>Seventy-seven years ago, she wasn't allowed to get her doctorate because she was Jewish.</p>
<p>In June, at age 102, Inge Rapoport&#160;finally got her degree from the University of Hamburg. It was her second medical degree; she'd earned her M.D. after World War II in the United States.</p>
<p>“She’s incredible,” said her son, Tom Rapoport, a professor at Harvard Medical School. “I’m very proud of her.”&#160;</p>
<p>Inge Rapoport says that getting this medical degree, now, was never about her.</p>
<p>“I did it ...&#160;to undo a Nazi injustice. It was for the university and for all of the Jews who suffered the same injustice,” she said. <a href="" type="internal">Read more about her</a>.</p>
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<p>A girl stands in line in front of a bus with other passengers traveling to Nairobi. They are in the town of Mandera at the Kenya-Somalia border, where terrorist group al-Shabab has launched attacks against non-Muslims.&#160;</p>
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<p>Goran Tomasevic/Reuter</p>
<p>The orders were clear from the Islamic militants who stopped the bus. They wanted all Christians on one side. All Muslims on another.</p>
<p>The Kenyans knew what would happen. At least twice before, terrorists had separated hostages — and killed the Christians.</p>
<p>This time, the passengers would not move.&#160;"Whatever you're going to do, do it to all of us here, otherwise we cannot be separated," passengers <a href="" type="internal">recounted to the BBC</a>&#160;in December.</p>
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<p>Former President Jimmy Carter takes questions from the media in August during a news conference about his&#160;cancer diagnosis and treatment plans.</p>
<p>John Amis/Reuters</p>
<p>In August, Jimmy Carter had one wish when he announced to the world that he was battling brain cancer.&#160;</p>
<p>Before reporters, the 91-year-old former president appealed for momentum to vanquish Guinea worm, a scourge he has nearly brought to an end from&#160;decades of work.</p>
<p>"I would like the last Guinea worm to die before I do," Carter said.</p>
<p>In December, he got more time: It was announced that his cancer was in remission.</p>
<p>Watch out, Guinea worm.</p>
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<p>Las Palmitas and the “macro mural” in its final stage.</p>
<p>The German Crew collective/Facebook</p>
<p>It was an audacious project: Paint 200 homes in a crime-ridden neighborhood to create a work of beauty.</p>
<p>This "living mural" has led to new jobs, a lower crime rate&#160;and more optimism among the residents of a hillside neighborhood in Pachucha,&#160;Mexico.</p>
<p>The giant artwork has turned the&#160;Las Palmitas district into what the project leaders have dubbed the “first magical neighborhood” — a play on the Mexican government’s separate initiative to promote “magical towns” ( <a href="http://www.sectur.gob.mx/pueblos-magicos/" type="external">Pueblos Mágicos</a>) as tourism destinations.</p>
<p>More art, please! ( <a href="" type="internal">Read on for the full story</a>.)</p>
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<p>Relatives mourn over the coffin of Adel Akram Termos, who saved countless people by stopping a suicide bomber after another explosion on November 13 in Lebanon.</p>
<p>Karamallah Daher/Reuters</p>
<p>His act of courage inspired a world stunned by terrorist attacks in Beirut and in Paris.</p>
<p>Adel Termos, a Beirut resident out with his young daughter, witnessed a horrific bombing in November&#160;— then he made a split-second decision that saved countless lives.&#160;</p>
<p>As a second suicide bomber moved toward onlookers clustering at the scene of the explosion, Termos rushed the suspect.&#160;</p>
<p>"He tackled him to the ground, causing the second suicide bomber to detonate," says blogger and physician Elie Fares, who lives in Beirut. "There are many many families, hundreds of families probably, who owe their completeness to his sacrifice."&#160; <a href="" type="internal">More on his story.</a></p>
<p>Readers, what stories brought you hope this year? Let us know in the comments section below.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">'Because it's 2015.'&#160;Five stories from Canada that charmed us.</a></p> | Saving Christians, fighting a scourge, bringing light: The year in hope | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-12-24/saving-christians-fighting-scourge-bringing-light-year-hope | 2015-12-24 | 3 |
<p>It sounds like something out of a horror flick, but doctors in India say they found and removed a 5-inch live worm from a man's eye.</p>
<p>PK Krishnamurthy, 75, came to Fortis Hospital in Mumbai complaining of "itching and irritation" in his right eye for the past two weeks, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-18640495#TWEET166513" type="external">BBC News reported</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/talking-urinal-cakes-used-curb-drunk-driving-michigan" type="external">Talking urinal cakes used to curb drunk driving in Michigan</a></p>
<p>Eye expert&#160; Dr V. Seetharaman <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/indian-doctor-removes-13centimetre-live-worm-from-mans-eye-20120629-218n8.html" type="external">told Agence France-Press</a> he was shocked by what he found -- a writing, threadlike parasite swimming around in the man's eye.</p>
<p>"It was wriggling there under the conjunctiva," he told AFP. "It was the first time in my career of 30 years that I had seen such a case."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/miss-holocaust-survivor-nazis-neonazi-israel-beauty-pageant" type="external">Israel: Miss Holocaust Survivor, 79, crowned amid controversy</a></p>
<p>Doctors rushed Krishnamurthy to surgery, fearing serious damage, but were able to safely removed the creature as his horrified wife, Saraswati, watched, <a href="http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/15/201206282012062803484967533a64174/Doc-pulls-a-13cm-live-worm-out-of-75yearold%E2%80%99s-eye.html" type="external">the Mumbai Mirror reported</a>.</p>
<p>"It just kept moving and jumping," she told the Mirror. "It was scary for a bit."</p>
<p>The worm has been sent to the hospital's microbiologists for testing, AFP reported.</p>
<p>The case was "extremely unusual" and Krishnamurthy was lucky the worm did not end up in his brain, Dr. S Narayani, <a href="http://www.fortishealthcare.com/index.html#" type="external">the hospital's</a> medical director, told the BBC.</p>
<p>It's not clear how the worm got there, but such parasites often enter a person's body through their bloodstream, Narayani told the BBC.</p> | 5-inch live worm removed from man's eye in India | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-06-29/5-inch-live-worm-removed-mans-eye-india | 2012-06-29 | 3 |
<p>Especially in the political arena, or in the arena of ideas, it’s tempting to project what a famous dead person would stand were he or she still alive today–and especially if that person died tragically in the prime of life.</p>
<p>This conjecture often takes place with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.&#160; Even his relatives get in on the act on where Martin, or Daddy, would stand on affirmative action, world hunger, birth control, pollution, etc.</p>
<p>They figure he would embrace the ideas he embraced before taken from us, which means, of course, Dr. King, a renown champion of justice for the little people,&#160; would be a proponent of affirmative action, would cry foul at what’s going on in the welfare program, etc.</p>
<p>The truth is, however, we don’t really know where King would have stood on these issues today.&#160; Given his highly public work with uplifting the disenfranchised, we can assume his ideas would not have changed very much.&#160; I know I would.</p>
<p>But the truth of the matter is that people sometimes change. Take Eldridge Cleaver.</p>
<p>And I would say “please” here, but I couldn’t without feeling I’d be unwarrantedly picking on some troubled soul no longer with us. (He left us in 1998—they’re right; time does really get on up.)</p>
<p>But Cleaver was a volatile, card-carrying, police–make that “pig”–confronting&#160; Black Panther during the group’s heyday of the 1960s and 1970s.&#160; This guy had nary a problem recommending the torching of America, and replacing it with a more just society.</p>
<p>But, as anyone who follows these things knows, Cleaver ended up being a cheerleader for the very American way of life he once despised.&#160; Heavens, the man ended up being a Republican.</p>
<p>Malcolm, of course, was assassinated in the mid-1960s. I was in the eleventh-grade at the time, where I joined my fellow nationalist classmates—four of us in all–in wearing black armbands to show our collective sorrow.</p>
<p>But I thought of Malcolm recently when I was thinking just where he would stand in these discordant Trumpian times. Shit’s really getting tight out there, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Based on his history, Malcolm would have still been plugging away at this nation’s injustices, especially against people of color. So yes, keep the heat on the simpleton in chief. This is certainly no time to join the ranks of Omarosa, Herman Cain and that preacher with the trimmed beard and who’s always with Omorasa when she’s selling out. Malcolm would be reminding us that this, the black struggle in America, is simply one of many struggles that have taken place on this globe, and that if we are to get out of our predicament, we need to follow the examples of the successful strugglers.</p>
<p>I interviewed his brother once, for a newspaper during the nineteen-nineties, and he told me that, contrary to what he said were modern-day revisionist historians who try to place Malcolm as an integrationist just before his death, Malcolm remained a black nationalist.&#160; I would like to think he would be that now.</p>
<p>But, of course, I don’t really know.&#160; He could have begun hanging out with Cleaver and Clarence Thomas and those of that ilk; he could have become a Republican or a “minority spokesman” for Newt Gingrich.&#160; I don’t really know. Like I said, people change sometimes.</p>
<p>But I do know he contributed mightily to the black cause while he was around, and I believe those strategies are still effective today, even if he would have changed his mind about espousing them now. And I know his legacy lives.</p>
<p>Malcolm, more than any other U.S. black leader, placed our struggle in a human context.</p>
<p>Black leadership for the most part consists of urging the country to do the moral thing and treat its black citizenry right.</p>
<p>It recognizes people’s aversion to change, which means it recognizes that blacks are outnumbered and out-armed, and often directs its pace to accommodate these variables.&#160; This leadership also extols the resourcefulness of a people who have come through a living hell on Earth.&#160; They in fact delight in giving examples. The overall message is that blacks are special, special good, if you support their cause, and special bad, if you don’t.</p>
<p>hey put the struggle in some moral context, the end result hopefully the coming together of whites and blacks, with each group bearing equal responsibility to making this happen.</p>
<p>Even the special-good camp–white liberals, mainly, but often blacks themselves, albeit unwittingly sometimes–see blacks as being uncivilized (though they would not use that word), and that their freedom lay in their becoming less uncouth so as to make the greater white society accept them.&#160; (“I understand the frustration, but why do black men hang on corners when there are so many opportunities now?”)</p>
<p>Malcolm’s vocabulary destroyed this by calling it what it is–bullcrap.&#160; He said blacks are human beings like any other human beings, and should be accorded the same treatment other humans picked out for suffering have been accorded.</p>
<p>That’s what he meant when he said blacks should take their plight to the United Nations, since that is what every other oppressed group does.&#160; (It’s significant that no mainstream black U.S. leader has picked up this call.)&#160; Malcolm said blacks did not have to reinvent the wheel to gain a victory in their struggle. King’s struggle was based on an anomaly, Ghandi’s successful non-violent strategy to get the British out of their land.&#160; But most struggles—Malcolm called them “revolutions”–involved the oppressed taking their plight into their own hands, as opposed to forming an alliance with the very people you have a beef with.</p>
<p>Heck, to emphasize his point, and he was brilliant at illuminating points, Malcolm reminded his audiences that what he advocated was indeed practiced by the very country whose leadership demanded that blacks do less for their freedom.</p>
<p>And irony on top of ironies, it was the very same country that would send blacks to fight for them on foreign shores for people who suffered just as much as blacks did back home.</p>
<p>Malcolm also unveiled to blacks that they were Africans, and not–and this is very important–in some required-dashiki wearing way (though there is certainly not anything wrong in dressing African),&#160; but in a factual way.&#160; He said in effect that their struggles were tied in to the liberation of Africa, since the subjugation of the continent began all their woes.&#160; When black people heard him, they didn’t feel so much like they were in the minority anymore.</p>
<p>Malcolm, in short, told black people to come out of the box of alternatives offered them by American society in the civil rights movement.&#160; He said you do not have to accept any of those choices.&#160; You didn’t have to sit around and invent choices either, when you had so many successful examples of others who struggle like you.</p>
<p>I guess he was saying, You’re grown, and act like it.&#160; When you think about it, that’s about the best any political leader can tell you.</p> | What If Malcolm X Were Alive Today? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/02/13/what-if-malcolm-x-were-alive-today/ | 2017-02-13 | 4 |
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<p>The country’s biggest e-commerce brand, Alibaba Group, said sales by the thousands of retailers on its platforms passed 91.2 billion yuan ($13.4 billion) in the first 15 hours of the event. That is four times the $3 billion research firm comScore says Americans spent in total last year on Cyber Monday, the country’s biggest online shopping day.</p>
<p>Rivals including JD.com, VIP.com and Suning offered deep discounts on clothing, smartphones, travel packages and other goods to attract shoppers.</p>
<p>JD.com, the country’s biggest online direct retailer and Alibaba’s top rival, said it tested delivery by drone to customers in four rural areas in what the company believed to be the first commercial use of such service. The company said its sales passed last year’s Singles Day total at 1:33 p.m. but gave no financial amount.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Singles Day was begun by Chinese college students in the 1990s as a version of Valentine’s Day for people without romantic partners.</p>
<p>The Nov. 11 date was picked to be “11.11” — four singles. Young people would treat each other to dinner or give gifts to woo that special someone and end their single status.</p>
<p>The spending gives a boost to the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to nurture consumer-based economic growth and reduce reliance on trade and investment.</p>
<p>E-commerce sales in China rose by 26.1 percent in the first nine months of the year. Economic growth for that period held steady at 6.7 percent, but that was its lowest level since the 2008 global crisis.</p>
<p>Forecasters expect the economy to cool further next year as regulators try to rein in a boom in bank lending and real estate sales that is pushing up debt levels and housing costs.</p>
<p>China has the biggest population of Internet users at 710 million, according to government data. Some 410 million people shop online for goods ranging from clothing and groceries to manicures and plane tickets.</p>
<p>“Online shopping is getting more and more common,” said He Mei, an employee of a health products company in her 30s who had waited for Friday to buy an indoor air filtering machine at a discount.</p>
<p>“Young guys, especially those in their 20s, don’t really go out to buy things, and they buy pretty much everything online,” she said. “It’s so easy and it saves time and money.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The migration of Chinese consumers to online commerce and entertainment is squeezing traditional retailers, cinemas and other businesses, forcing them to improve service and add offerings.</p>
<p>E-commerce has risen from 3 percent of Chinese consumer spending in 2010 to 15 percent last year, according to Boston Consulting Group. It forecasts online spending will rise by 20 percent a year, hitting $1.6 trillion by 2020, compared with 6 percent growth for off-line retail.</p>
<p>Researchers attribute the rapid rise of Singles Day to demographics and timing.</p>
<p>University graduates who adopted the holiday earn more and shop online. Also, Singles Day comes as people receive monthly paychecks and need to buy winter clothes.</p>
<p>Unlike other events such as the Lunar New Year, China’s biggest family holiday, it involves few other expenses such as travel or banquets, leaving more money for gifts.</p>
<p>This year, Alibaba hired actress Scarlett Johansson, football star David Beckham, basketball legend Kobe Bryant and pop-rock band One Republic to for a pre-sale gala that was broadcast online to drum up attention.</p> | Chinese e-shoppers spend billions on Singles Day | false | https://abqjournal.com/887236/chinese-e-shoppers-spend-billions-on-singles-day.html | 2016-11-11 | 2 |
<p />
<p>The Indians of the Mascoutah High School football team in Mascoutah, Illinois decided to take the field Friday night hand-in-hand with cops, veterans, and first responders. A player carried the American flag to lead them. Even though plans were made before the latest round of protests before NFL games, the coach and players decided to continue on, to make a statement.</p>
<p>The team wanted to show civic unity and patriotism, as well as honor local first responders and veterans. The team’s actions are even more telling because of the school’s racial makeup, which is 1/3 non-Caucasian.</p>
<p>The event was conceived during the first week of the school year by Scott Battas, the school’s athletic director. Given the recent tensions between President Donald Trump and NFL players who have demonstrated against social injustice by kneeling during the national anthem, Battas consulted seniors members of the team to be sure they wanted to go forward with Friday’s plans.</p>
<p>The four — Nick Thurston, Darius Cooley, Dylan Ross and Treshaun Buckingham — polled other players in the Indians locker room. Cooley said the team decided to go forward as planned with no hesitation.</p>
<p>He insisted, however, that it was unrelated to the NFL player protests and demonstrations in the aftermath of the Jason Stockley verdict.</p>
<p>“That other stuff doesn’t matter. We came together collectively as a team, put whatever differences of opinion there may be aside, and decided we wanted to come together and do this for our homecoming game,” Cooley said.</p>
<p>If any message was to be derived by their decision, Thurston added, it was that a diverse group of individuals can unite under a common objective.</p>
<p>“In high school we play for each other. It’s not about the individuals or whose opinion is bigger,” he said. “We all respect each other and recognize that everyone comes from a different perspective and have different opinions. That’s all OK.</p>
<p>“At the end of the day, we have each others’ back, and we play for each other.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“That’s not some huge political stand and we’re not getting into people’s point of view. We make a point here with the kids about being a part of something bigger than themselves and this is a a good platform. They just want to shed a positive light on people who do positive things in our community.”</p>
<p>Here is video of the pre-game activities.</p>
<p />
<p /> | High School Football Team Defies NFL, Takes Field With Cops, Waving American Flag (VIDEO) | true | http://silenceisconsent.net/illinois-high-school-football-team-takes-field-police-carrying-american-flag-video/ | 2018-04-03 | 0 |
<p>U.S. soldiers arrived in Poland on Wednesday as part of an effort to reassure European allies worried about Russian troops posted on the Ukrainian border. What’s President Obama’s next move in the dance with Russian President Putin as the deal between Ukraine, Russia, the European Union, and the U.S. looks to be falling apart. David Gregory talks with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair about the President’s approach to foreign policy and how to tackle Islamic extremism, which Blair believes is the biggest threat facing the world.</p>
<p>Threats continue to grow on both sides of the Ukrainian crisis with President Obama warning of new sanctions against Russia. Is Ukraine on the brink of a civil war? And where does the White House stand on military intervention? David will talk with White House Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken Sunday.</p>
<p>How will the crisis in Ukraine end and how much should the U.S. be involved? Plus, what's the reaction to the Cliven Bundy controversy? Our roundtable weighs in: Mallory Factor, best-selling author and Professor at The Citadel; Jeffrey Goldberg, Correspondent for The Atlantic and Bloomberg View Columnist; Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress; Rich Lowry, Editor of National Review.</p> | Sunday on MTP: View from the White House, Tony Blair and more | false | http://nbcnews.com/feature/meet-the-press-24-7/sunday-mtp-view-white-house-tony-blair-more-n90076 | 2014-04-25 | 3 |
<p><a href="https://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/hillary-being-helped-up-stairs-2016.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>Monday, August 8, the <a href="http://halturnershow.com/index.php/news/world-news/198-hillary-clinton-medical-records-leaked-dementia-seizures-black-outs" type="external">Hal Turner Show</a> published what it claims to be Hillary Clinton’s medical records, from her personal physician, Dr. Lisa R. Bardack.</p>
<p>According to Dr. Bardack, Hillary has a form of dementia called Subcortical Vascular Dementia, as well as worsening and more frequent black-outs, uncontrollable twitching, memory loss and <a href="" type="internal">brain seizures</a> (Complex Partial Seizures) from a concussion sustained in early December of 2012 while she was secretary of state.</p>
<p>Neither the dementia nor the <a href="" type="internal">seizures</a> are curable, but will progressively worsen.</p>
<p><a href="https://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/hillarymedicalrecords-by-lisa-bardack-md.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="https://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/lisa-bardack-md.jpg" type="external" />I can confirm that there is a <a href="http://www.caremountmedical.com/directory/people/show/lisa-bardack/" type="external">Lisa R. Bardack, M.D.</a>, who is the Director of Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System at CareMount Medical. Her specialty is internal medicine. Her office address is 90 S Bedford Rd, Mt Kisco, NY 10549; phone number is 914-242-1370.</p>
<p>She is highly regarded and is the recipient of two awards:</p>
<p>According to a December 31, 2012 <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hillary-clinton-blood-clot-life-threatening-medical-experts/story?id=18101213" type="external">ABC News report</a>, Dr. Lisa Bardack was one of Hillary’s attending physicians when she was hospitalized after sustaining a concussion from hitting her head when she fainted because of dehydration from a stomach virus.</p>
<p>It was Dr. Bardack of the Mt. Kisco Medical Group and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University who discovered a clot during a routine follow-up MRI. The blood clot, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2398365/" type="external">cerebral venous thrombosis</a>, had formed in Hillary’s right transverse venous sinus, one of the major veins that drains the brain. A transverse sinus thrombosis is uncommon but potentially “life-threatening” in that the backup of blood flow could have caused a stroke or hemorrhage, even leading to death.</p>
<p>What is Subcortical Vascular Dementia?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/binswangers/binswangers.htm" type="external">According to the National institutes of Health (NIH)</a>:</p>
<p>Binswanger’s disease (BD), also called subcortical vascular dementia, is a type of dementia caused by widespread, microscopic areas of damage to the deep layers of white matter in the brain. The damage is the result of the thickening and narrowing (atherosclerosis) of arteries that feed the subcortical areas of the brain. Atherosclerosis (commonly known as “hardening of the arteries”) is a systemic process that affects blood vessels throughout the body. It begins late in the fourth decade of life and increases in severity with age. As the arteries become more and more narrowed, the blood supplied by those arteries decreases and brain tissue dies…. The symptoms associated with BD are related to the disruption of subcortical neural circuits that control what neuroscientists call executive cognitive functioning: short-term memory, organization, mood, the regulation of attention, the ability to act or make decisions, and appropriate behavior. The most characteristic feature of BD is psychomotor slowness – an increase in the length of time it takes, for example, for the fingers to turn the thought of a letter into the shape of a letter on a piece of paper. Other symptoms include forgetfulness (but not as severe as the forgetfulness of Alzheimer’s disease), changes in speech, an unsteady gait, clumsiness or frequent falls, changes in personality or mood (most likely in the form of apathy, irritability, and depression), and urinary symptoms that aren’t caused by urological disease….</p>
<p>The outlook is poor: Subcortical Vascular Dementia “is a progressive disease; there is no cure.”</p>
<p>There is no specific course of treatment for BD. Treatment is symptomatic. People with depression or anxiety may require antidepressant medications such as the serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) sertraline or citalopram. Atypical antipsychotic drugs, such as risperidone and olanzapine, can be useful in individuals with agitation and disruptive behavior. Recent drug trials with the drug memantine have shown improved cognition and stabilization of global functioning and behavior. The successful management of hypertension and diabetes can slow the progression of atherosclerosis, and subsequently slow the progress of BD. Because there is no cure, the best treatment is preventive, early in the adult years, by controlling risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and smoking.</p>
<p>Note: The Hal Turner Show is a radio show of a man named Harold Charles “Hal” Turner, 54, whom <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Turner" type="external">Wikipedia</a> describes as a “white nationalist, Holocaust denier, and blogger from North Bergen, New Jersey”. A paid FBI informant, in August 2010 Turner “was convicted for making threats against three federal judges with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”</p>
<p>Admittedly, the alleged medical records of Hillary look suspicious: for one, there is no letter-head. But if they are genuine, Hillary’s dementia and <a href="" type="internal">brain seizures</a> absolutely disqualify her from being President.</p>
<p>Interviewed on InfoWars, psychiatrist and former deputy assistant secretary of state <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Pieczenik" type="external">Dr. Steve Piecenik,</a>72, affirms the medical records:</p>
<p />
<p>See also:</p>
<p>H/t Barry Soetoro Esq.</p>
<p>~Eowyn</p>
<p>Dr. Eowyn’s post first appeared at <a href="https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2016/08/09/bombshell-hillary-clinton-has-dementia-according-to-leaked-medical-records/" type="external">Fellowship of the Minds</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Bombshell: Hillary Clinton has dementia according to leaked medical records | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2016/08/10/bombshell-hillary-clinton-has-dementia-according-to-leaked-medical-records/ | 2016-08-10 | 0 |
<p>Photo: Henry Leutwyler</p>
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<p>DR. DAVID GRAHAM IS LOSING WEIGHT AGAIN. His wife noticed first, then his colleagues at the Food and Drug Administration. Graham is a skinny man, and when he drops weight, his cheekbones seem to sit higher on his face. His striped cotton shirts, the frumpy uniform of a government scientist, hang more loosely on his narrow frame. But he isn’t eating, and no wonder: Graham, the scientist who brought the Vioxx scandal to the nation’s attention, feels like a marked man.</p>
<p>“I’m no longer welcome,” he says, sitting in a Rockville, Maryland, coffee shop in early February. He has just left another frustrating day at work, where his boss warned him not to disclose new safety findings about a popular class of painkillers called Cox-2 inhibitors. In a few minutes, he is due at his son’s Boy Scout meeting, but all he can talk about now is the exhaustion of working in a drug-safety system in turmoil. “I’m hoping things will calm down, but I don’t think the FDA will let that happen,” he says. “How do you get off the merry-go-round?”</p>
<p>In August 2004, Graham told his supervisors that, in light of his research, high-dose prescriptions of the painkiller Vioxx, which appeared to triple heart attack rates, should be banned. They told him to be quiet. Their reasoning was circular: That’s not the FDA’s position; you work here; it can’t be yours. Dr. John Jenkins, the FDA director of new drugs, argued that because Graham’s findings didn’t replicate the drug’s warning label, Graham shouldn’t be raising the warning. Another supervisor, Anne Trontrell, called Graham’s position “particularly problematic since FDA funded this study.” Days after Graham’s pronouncement, the agency approved Vioxx for use in children.</p>
<p>But Graham was right. The following month, Merck pulled Vioxx from the market after its own research found that the drug, even when taken at low dosages, doubled the risk of heart attack. The announcement provided Graham no vindication. With a scandal on the horizon, the FDA brass now saw him as a danger. They couldn’t silence the message, so they tried to take out the messenger.</p>
<p>Dr. Steven K. Galson, the acting director of the drug-evaluation division at the FDA, told reporters that Graham’s work “constitutes junk science.” Then he sent an email to an editor at the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, questioning the “integrity” of Graham’s data—a suspicion that proved baseless. The FDA’s acting commissioner, Dr. Lester Crawford, criticized Graham for evading the agency’s “long-established peer review and clearance process.” Another official made calls to at least one Senate staffer, disparaging Graham personally and professionally.</p>
<p>Eventually, he was heard. In November he went before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Vioxx. Gaunt (he’d lost 12 pounds over three months) but very lucid, Graham took his place before a bank of cameras, wearing his only sport coat, a 20-year-old blue blazer with brass buttons. He explained his conclusion that patients taking high doses of Vioxx were suffering heart attacks. “The estimates range from 88,000 to 139,000 Americans,” he said. “Of these, 30 to 40 percent probably died. For the survivors, their lives were changed forever.” According to the top end of those projections, the toll Vioxx had already taken was comparable to the number of Americans killed in Vietnam. “The FDA, as currently configured,” Graham told the committee, “is incapable of protecting America against another Vioxx. We are virtually defenseless.”</p>
<p>But three months later, as Graham sips iced tea in a Rockville cafe, the FDA is again trying to suppress his research, this time on the effects of pain medications similar to Vioxx. “I think we’ve already articulated our preference,” his supervisor, Dr. Paul Seligman, wrote him in a terse email. The agency doesn’t want Graham presenting his latest research to scientists who will be meeting in a few days to discuss the drugs.</p>
<p>David Graham is headstrong, but not insubordinate. He cannot afford to lose his job. His family has just moved to a new house. His wife, Nancy, stopped working as a lawyer so she could homeschool their six children. Really, though, he has no more time to sit here worrying. The Boy Scouts are competing for their merit badges this evening. He finishes his iced tea.</p>
<p>“I’ve made a commitment,” he says, before walking out the door. “I’ll weigh myself this evening.”</p>
<p />
<p>WE LIVE IN THE pharmaceutical era of medicine, a time of tablet-sized miracles and blockbuster serums. More than 70 new drugs are approved every year, adding to the thousands for which American doctors already write some 3 billion annual prescriptions. The medications prolong countless lives and cause millions of harmful side effects. For most patients, the benefits far outweigh the dangers. An aging man will risk diarrhea to restore his virility. A cancer patient will lose her hair in the hope that chemotherapy will save her life. FDA safety officers like Graham spend their lives searching out the other type of pills, the unexpected killers that harm patients after the FDA has approved them.</p>
<p>Since 1988, Graham has called for the removal of 12 drugs from pharmacy shelves, leading to 10 recalls that have likely saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Each recall is an embarrassment for Graham’s employer, the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which approved the drugs in the first place. The trouble is that the roughly 2,300 staffers who support the approval process, and the 109, like Graham, who study the safety of drugs after their release, all fall under the same leadership, and that leadership is highly responsive to industry. In recent years, nearly half of the center’s $400 million budget has been paid for by drug companies. This arrangement stems from a 1992 agreement, made partly at the urging of AIDS activists, that the FDA would speed up approvals in exchange for “user fees” from industry. “The focus at FDA is efficacy,” says Dr. Curt Furberg, a scientist at Wake Forest University who advises the agency. “Safety is a stepchild.”</p>
<p>For the pharmaceutical companies the system works just fine. “The drug-approval process [in the United States] is second to none,” says Jeff Trewhitt, a spokesman for PHRMA, the drug industry’s trade group. “This is an exhaustive process.”</p>
<p>Companies eventually recall about 3 percent of their drugs for safety reasons. Behind many of these recalls are scientists like Graham, who often find themselves pitted against their own supervisors. “If you say something negative about a drug, they try to shut you up,” says Dr. Sidney Wolfe, an FDA watchdog for the group Public Citizen, which has been exposing dangerous drugs for three decades. “David is not the only one, by any means, who has raised issues that later proved to be correct.”</p>
<p>In 1998, for instance, an FDA drug reviewer named Dr. Robert Misbin wrote a paper showing that the diabetes drug Rezulin had caused liver failure in a patient during a controlled study. When his bosses tried to prevent him from publishing, Misbin saw firsthand how the system encouraged the sacrifice of public health to the interests of the industry. “One of my supervisors said something to me that I have never forgotten,” Misbin says, “that we have to maintain good relations with the drug companies because they are our customers.” Misbin eventually went public with his concerns, and the drug was pulled a year later. But he has paid for sticking to his principles. “I am no longer given any good projects,” he says.</p>
<p>Dr. Andrew Mosholder, another FDA reviewer, faced similar pressures last year when he completed a study showing that antidepressants increased suicidal behavior in children. Further studies proved that Mosholder’s science was spot on. But his bosses told him not to report the findings. When someone with access to the study passed his results to the press, the FDA launched an investigation into the leak. According to Tom Devine at the Government Accountability Project, who later became Graham’s lawyer, several scientists were interrogated and threatened with possible jail time.</p>
<p>Such intimidation has worked. In 2002, about one in five FDA scientists told federal investigators that they felt pressure to approve drugs despite reservations about safety and efficacy. Two-thirds said they lacked confidence that the agency adequately monitors drug safety after approval.</p>
<p />
<p>DAVID GRAHAM IS A CHILD of the Bronx. One of six children, he spent his teenage years in a cramped home in northern New Jersey, sleeping three to a room. It wasn’t until he reached college, at Franklin &amp; Marshall, that he decided to become a doctor. Johns Hopkins Medical School offered him a chance at early admission, and he accepted. His plan was to become a general practitioner in Vermont, where he’d live with Nancy Peterson, a girl he had met in the freshman dormitory. He graduated from med school with the second-highest grades in his class–not the highest, he points out, owing to a single B in the medical history course he cut every other Friday, when he’d ride a bus 75 miles to spend the weekend with Nancy. She married him a year later. “It was worth it,” he says.</p>
<p>Hopkins, however, was geared toward academic research, not producing family doctors for the Green Mountain State. And Graham never took to working with patients anyway. “What I really enjoyed was problem solving,” he says. So after residencies in internal medicine at Yale and neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, Graham took a job at the FDA in epidemiology. His first major safety review, in 1988, focused on a pill called Accutane, intended for patients with severe, previously untreatable acne. The study proved to be a crash course in the ways of the FDA.</p>
<p>At the time, Accutane was seen as a miracle cure by people just like Graham, who still bears the scars of teenage acne. But the side effects could be horrible. One in four children born to women who got pregnant while using the medication suffered from birth defects. Many women didn’t bring their babies to term at all, losing them to miscarriage, and most pregnancies ended in abortion. Graham looked at the data and sounded an alarm. Attempts to educate young women about Accutane’s risks were failing. “Only the immediate withdrawal of Accutane from the market will work,” he wrote to his supervisors in 1990. “The delay only compounds the body count.”</p>
<p>That statement was both scientific and political. Graham is opposed to abortion, and the bodies he was referring to were those of the thousands of unborn children whose mothers had taken the drug. Devoutly Catholic, Graham keeps a postcard image of Jesus on his office wall and speaks easily about his calling to service as a Christian. He taught himself ancient Greek so he could read the New Testament as it was written. For him, the scientific process is an extension of his faith. “He really does believe that to know what is real is to know something about the Author of the truth,” says John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, a pro-life activist who met Graham at a prayer group.</p>
<p>But for his managers at the FDA, under pressure from dermatologists and Roche, the drug’s manufacturer, Graham’s religion was an irrational excuse for his unreasonable claims. “They’d call him the right-to-life nut,” says Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who recently introduced legislation to restrict patient access to Accutane. “But everything he said has pretty much been proven.”</p>
<p>The FDA sided with Roche, rejecting Graham’s calls to withdraw the drug and his later pleas to restrict its distribution. In the years that followed, the drug’s use among young women nearly tripled, and Roche’s annual Accutane revenues exceeded $1 billion. The company designed a voluntary program to encourage birth control among users, but the number of pregnancies continued to rise. Nonetheless, Roche described the program as a success, noting that occasional pregnancies were the inevitable result of birth-control failures. “You can’t control everything when you are dealing with human behavior,” explains Gail Safian, a Roche spokeswoman.</p>
<p>In 2002, when Roche’s patent expired, the FDA helped create a stricter program to ensure that women on the drug used birth control, requiring monthly proof of a negative pregnancy test. Two years later, a panel of scientists found the system was still failing. In November, as the FDA was attacking Graham for his work on Vioxx, the agency announced still stronger restrictions. These measures echo changes Graham asked for more than a decade ago.</p>
<p />
<p>SHORTLY AFTER Merck pulled Vioxx from the market last September, Graham began carrying an index card full of phone numbers in his breast pocket. The little scribbles of red and black ink were his lifelines, contacts to a dozen supportive congressional staffers and reporters who’d sought him out after he went public. It had become clear that he wouldn’t survive long in his job without help from some heavyweight defenders.</p>
<p>Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Finance Committee, became his primary protector. “It’s people like this who give us the opportunity to know that something is wrong, helping me do my job,” Grassley says. He believes the industry has far too much influence on FDA deliberations over safety. “There should only be one chair at the table,” he says, “and that is for the American people.”</p>
<p>The only way to resolve the FDA’s dangerous conflict of interest, according to Graham, is to create an independent center for drug safety, situated on one side of a fire wall; those who study efficacy and recommend approvals would be on the other side. Researchers would report their findings to scientists with no stake in the performance of the drug. But this is a more drastic change than the agency is likely to implement of its own accord. The FDA has made other gestures: It has announced a new committee to monitor safety issues, asked for an investigation of its procedures by the Institute of Medicine, and proposed reassigning about 20 scientists to work on drug safety.</p>
<p>Jeff Trewhitt, the spokesman for PHRMA, rejects Graham’s solution out of hand. “He seems to start from the premise that the drug-safety program is broken, and we don’t accept that premise at all,” Trewhitt says, adding that any new regulation “could mean slower delivery of new medicines to patients.” That view has also been embraced by the White House, which maintains close ties to the drug industry and its more than 600 lobbyists. During a television interview, Andy Card, chief of staff to President Bush, said that the administration’s handling of the Vioxx recall was “a testament to the FDA and how they do their job.”</p>
<p>This leaves the prospect of real systemic change at the FDA in the hands of Congress. Indeed, throughout history, safety scandals have regularly sparked congressional action. The agency itself was established by Congress in 1906 after a wave of adulterated or dangerous drugs was exposed in the press, including a “headache powder” containing acetanilide that caused heart attacks. In 1962, Congress began forcing pharmaceutical companies to test drugs after doctors distributed doses of a pill called thalidomide to pregnant mothers, a sedative later shown to cause birth defects.</p>
<p>But the scale of the Vioxx scandal appears, in sheer numbers, far greater than any other in the nation’s history, and Congress has yet to respond. Not only has the drug been widely used—peaking in 2001 at 25 million prescriptions—but it has increased by two- or threefold the risk of one of the most common causes of death, heart attack.</p>
<p />
<p>IN FEBRUARY, six months after the Vioxx scandal broke, Graham still finds himself struggling to get the word out. His latest research, based on the records of 651,000 California Medicaid patients, raises safety concerns about other drugs in the same class as Vioxx. Mobic, a popular painkiller still viewed as safe, appears to be increasing heart attack rates by about 37 percent. Celebrex, a blockbuster pain medication from Pfizer, increases rates by about 25 percent in high doses. Although the findings are not statistically conclusive, the study adds key data to the medical literature. But Graham’s superiors aren’t interested. The email Graham receives before heading to his son’s Boy Scout meeting asks him to focus only on “the key studies in the published literature.” According to Graham, he can present only one unpublished study, a report paid for by Merck.</p>
<p>Graham’s most powerful defender comes to his aid: Senator Grassley sends a terse letter to the acting FDA commissioner, Lester Crawford, demanding an explanation of why Graham can’t present his data. Grassley gives Crawford a deadline for responding: February 16, opening day of the three-day FDA advisory committee meeting. The gathering is held in an overstuffed Hilton conference room in Gaithersburg, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., covered with rolling parking lots and B-rated shopping malls. Broadcast trucks ring the hotel, and the hallways are crowded with cameras. Just hours before Steven Galson, Graham’s supervisor, is to welcome the 32 scientists assembled from around the country, Crawford intervenes. The backtracking is brazen. “It goes without saying,” Galson says in his opening remarks, “that all FDA staff are free to make any presentation without fear of any retaliation.” Graham, who is scheduled to speak the next day, leaves the meeting to hastily redesign his presentation.</p>
<p>When he returns the following day, he’s wearing the same coat and the same tie. In the previous three weeks, he has lost two more pounds. “I’d like to take this moment to thank Dr. Crawford for his leadership, for making it possible for me to present our preliminary data from a study from California Medicaid,” he tells the gathered scientists. He presents his findings on the dangers of Mobic and Celebrex in high doses. About Vioxx, he says the risks associated with taking high doses are “probably more significant than smoking or diabetes or hypertension.” Then he challenges the FDA to begin shifting its assumptions when it considers a new drug. “Let’s start out at the beginning assuming the drug isn’t safe.”</p>
<p>On the third day of the conference, Graham dips outside the meeting room for a break and is immediately surrounded by a scrum of reporters. The committee of 32 scientists was nearly unanimous in acknowledging the dangers Graham presented to the FDA six months earlier. But they voted by a narrow margin to keep the two most troublesome painkillers, Vioxx and Bextra, on the market, calling instead for tighter restrictions on distribution. Ten of the scientists were consultants for the manufacturers of the drugs in question. Had they not been allowed to vote, according to an analysis by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, both Vioxx and Bextra would have been recalled.</p>
<p>The reporters ask Graham for his reaction. “The fact is, debate is happening,” he says. It may be one of the last times he finds himself in the public spotlight as a federal researcher. If the experience of others is repeated, he’ll be sidelined within the agency and denied any meaningful projects over the coming year. Despite Grassley’s backing, he expects to be pushed out of his job. Standing outside the conference, however, Graham still has the power to speak out—and infuriate his government employer. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he tells the surrounding crowd. “This is more sunlight on the problem.”</p>
<p /> | The Side Effects of Truth | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/side-effects-truth/ | 2018-05-01 | 4 |
<p>Providence, RI — A&#160;Rhode Island State Trooper&#160;was driving Donald Morgan, 35, to a court appearance on obstruction and possession of a stolen motor vehicle charges Thursday morning when the trooper left the man alone inside the cruiser at a crash on Route 146. Morgan then jumped into the driver’s seat of the cruiser and sped off. Hours later, as police were looking for Morgan, they came across a random couple in a white pickup truck, thinking it was Morgan. Multiple cops opened fire into the truck killing the driver and wounding the passenger—it was not Morgan.</p>
<p>“We are actively investigating all the circumstances. There are multiple officers involved in the shooting, and we have one person that is deceased,” Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said in a press conference on Thursday, adding, “no officers have been hurt.”</p>
<p>Initially, police told the public that the cruiser theft and the deadly and insanely dangerous shooting that took place on I-95 were related. However, Thursday afternoon police announced that Morgan was still at large and the person killed by police was not wanted for the theft of the police cruiser.</p>
<p>According to police, they were on the lookout for a white pickup truck which they believed Morgan was driving. When an officer saw a white truck he pulled it over.</p>
<p>A Cranston officer saw a white Ford F150 driving “erratically” in the city shortly afterward, and attempted to pull the driver over. The truck stopped, but when the Cranston officer got out of his car, the driver “took off at a decent clip,” Cranston Police Col. Michael Winquist said. The truck swerved, made illegal turns, and sped past stop signs evading the police, the Providence Journal <a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20171109/man-killed-woman-wounded-when-police-fire-into-truck-on-route-95--videos-photos" type="external">reported.</a></p>
<p>Police have no idea why the driver of the white truck took off. However, it cost him his life and put countless other citizens in danger as dozens of cops initiated pursuit driving at dangerously high speeds down the interstate.</p>
<p>They were going so fast that “they were almost endangering their lives,” Michael Perry, 42, a Cranston building contractor, who filmed the shooting said. “I knew something was going on.”</p>
<p>Perry then described hearing a loud “pop”—likely the pickup truck crashing into the car in front of him—as more than a dozen cops swarmed the truck. “I pulled the camera out and held it through the sunroof to capture whatever was happening,” Perry said.</p>
<p>The shocking video captures at least a half-dozen officers open fire on the pickup truck at close range. After the volley of gunfire, it appears as if the dead driver’s foot slips onto the accelerator&#160;and the truck’s back tires begin spinning so fast that a massive cloud of smoke forms around the area.</p>
<p>Had so many lives not been in danger from this response, it would’ve been comical.&#160;As the cloud of smoke began to form, police scattered from the scene, abandoning a&#160;situation they likely caused as the innocent motorists are left to fend for themselves.</p>
<p>“It happened so fast,” Perry said. “All of the discharge from gunfire appeared to come from outside the truck,” Perry said.</p>
<p>Luckily, none of the innocent citizens close to the scene were hit by one of the many stray bullets.</p>
<p>“We’re investigating … why this individual did not stop and why police officers had to use deadly force,” Paré said Thursday.</p>
<p>Whether or not the couple inside the truck was armed is unknown at the moment. However, as Perry noted, all the gunfire appeared to come from cops. When looking at the video, it was entirely clear that this white truck was trapped and was unable to go anywhere. Even when the driver’s foot slammed the gas down after he was killed, the truck still didn’t move.</p>
<p>The use of deadly force in this instance appears to have been a danger to the public and largely unnecessary. Yes, police have to make quick decisions, however, when watching the video below, their quick and deadly decisions endangered innocent lives, ended one, and possibly will end another life.</p>
<p>Below is a video compilation of the shooting from multiple angles. When watching the first one, take note that the passenger’s door opens, indicating that the woman in the truck was likely complying with police orders to exit the vehicle, however, she was trapped by the car next to her.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Cops Searching for Stolen Police Cruiser Open Fire on Wrong Man—Killing Him | false | https://studionewsnetwork.com/police-videos/cops-searching-stolen-police-cruiser-open-fire-wrong-man-killing/ | 2017-11-11 | 3 |
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175092" type="external">story</a>first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>It was a blast. I’m talking about my daughter’s wedding. You don’t often see a child of yours quite that happy. I’m no party animal, but I danced my 64-year-old legs off. And I can’t claim that, as I walked my daughter to the ceremony, or ate, or talked with friends, or simply sat back and watched the young and energetic enjoy themselves, I thought about those Afghan wedding celebrations where the “blast” isn’t metaphorical, where the bride, the groom, the partygoers in the midst of revelry die.</p>
<p>In the two weeks since, however, that’s been on my mind — or rather the lack of interest our world shows in dead civilians from a distant imperial war — and all because of a passage I stumbled upon in a striking article by journalist Anand Gopal. In “Uprooting an Afghan Village” in the June issue of the Progressive magazine, he writes about Garloch, an Afghan village he visited in the eastern province of Laghman. After destructive American raids, Gopal tells us, many of its desperate inhabitants simply packed up and left for exile in Afghan or Pakistani refugee camps.</p>
<p>One early dawn in August 2008, writes Gopal, American helicopters first descended on Garloch for a six-hour raid:</p>
<p>“The Americans claim there were gunshots as they left. The villagers deny it. Regardless, American bombers swooped by the village just after the soldiers left and dropped a payload on one house. It belonged to Haiji Qadir, a pole-thin, wizened old man who was hosting more than forty relatives for a wedding party. The bomb split the house in two, killing sixteen, including twelve from Qadir’s family, and wounding scores more… The malek [chief] went to the province’s governor and delivered a stern warning: protect our villagers or we will turn against the Americans.”</p>
<p>That passage caught my eye because, to the best of my knowledge, I’m the only person in the U.S. who has <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174954" type="external">tried to keep track</a> of the wedding parties wiped out, in whole or part, by American military action since the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan in November 2001. With Gopal’s report from Garloch, that number, by my count, has reached five (only three of which are well documented in print).</p>
<p>The first occurred in December of that invasion year when a B-52 and two B-1B bombers, wielding precision-guided weapons, managed, <a href="http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020311/civilian.html" type="external">according to reports</a>, to wipe out 110 out of 112 revelers in another small Afghan village. At least one Iraqi wedding party near the Syrian border was also <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/may/21/iraq.rorymccarthy/print" type="external">eviscerated</a> — by U.S. planes back in 2004. Soon after that slaughter, responding to media inquiries, an American general asked: “How many people go to the middle of the desert… to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilization?” Later, in what passed for an acknowledgment of the incident, another American general <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/22/world/struggle-for-iraq-civilians-dispute-rages-over-attack-that-killed-40-iraq.html" type="external">said</a>: “Could there have been a celebration of some type going on?… Certainly. Bad guys have celebrations.” Case closed.</p>
<p>Perhaps over the course of an almost eight-year war in Afghanistan, the toll in wedding parties may seem modest: not even one a year! But before we settle for that figure, evidently so low it’s not worth a headline in this country, let’s keep in mind that there’s no reason to believe:</p>
<p>* I’ve seen every article in English that, in passing, happens to mention an Afghan wedding slaughter — the one Gopal notes, for instance, seems to have gotten no other coverage; or</p>
<p>* that other wedding slaughters haven’t been recorded in languages I can’t read; or</p>
<p>* that, in the rural Pashtun backlands, some U.S. attacks on wedding celebrants might not have made it into news reports anywhere.</p>
<p>In fact, no one knows how many weddings — rare celebratory moments in an Afghan world that, for three decades, has had little to celebrate — have been taken out by U.S. planes or raids, or a combination of the two.</p>
<p>Turning the Page on the Past</p>
<p>After the Obama administration took office and the new president <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175074" type="external">doubled down</a> the American bet on the Afghan War, there was a certain amount of anxious chatter in the punditocracy (and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175040" type="external">even in the military</a>) about Afghanistan being “the graveyard of empires.” Of course, no one in Washington was going to admit that the U.S. is just such an empire, only that we may suffer the fate of empires past.</p>
<p>When it comes to wedding parties, though, there turn out to be some similarities to the empire under the last Afghan gravestone. The Soviet Union was, of course, defeated in Afghanistan by some of the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175010" type="external">very jihadists</a> the U.S. is now fighting, thanks to generous support from the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1984/chalmers_johnson_on_the_cia_and_a_blowback_world" type="external">CIA</a>, the Saudis, and Pakistan’s intelligence services. It withdrew from that country in defeat in 1989, and went over its own cliff in 1991. As it happens, the Russians, too, evidently made it a habit to <a href="http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/2316" type="external">knock off</a> Afghan wedding parties, though we have no tally of how many or how regularly.</p>
<p>Reviewing a book on the Soviet-Afghan War for the Washington Monthly, Christian Caryl <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2009/0903.caryl.html" type="external">wrote recently</a>:</p>
<p>“One Soviet soldier recalls an instance in 1987 when his unit opened fire on what they took to be a ‘mujaheddin caravan.’ The Russians soon discovered that they had slaughtered a roving wedding party on its way from one village to another — a blunder that soon, all too predictably, inspired a series of revenge attacks on the Red Army troops in the area. This undoubtedly sounds wearily familiar to U.S. and NATO planners (and Afghan government officials) struggling to contain the effects from the ‘collateral damage’ that is often cited today as one of the major sources of the West’s political problems in the country.”</p>
<p>And, by the way, don’t get me started on that gloomy companion rite to the wedding celebration: the funeral. Even I haven’t been counting those, but that doesn’t mean the U.S. and its allies haven’t been <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6279616.stm" type="external">knocking off</a> funeral parties in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7584464.stm" type="external">Afghanistan</a> (and recently, via a CIA drone aircraft, in <a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/24/at-least-35-civilians-killed-in-us-drone-strike-on-funeral/" type="external">Pakistan</a> as well).</p>
<p>Following almost two weeks in which the U.S. (and global) media went berserk over the death of one man, in which NBC, for instance, devoted all but about five minutes of one of its prime-time half-hour news broadcasts to nothing — and I mean nothing — but the death of Michael Jackson, in which the President of the United States <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0609/Obama_sends_condolence_letter_to_Jackson_family.html?showall" type="external">sent a condolence letter</a> to the Jackson family (and was faulted for not having moved more quickly), in which 1.6 million people <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jackson-tickets5-2009jul05,0,1632842.story" type="external">registered</a> for a chance to get one of 17,500 free tickets to his memorial service… well, why go on? Unless you’ve been competing in isolation in the next round of Survivor, or are somehow without a TV, or possibly any modern means of communication, you simply can’t avoid knowing the rest.</p>
<p>You’d have to make a desperate effort not to know that Michael Jackson (until recently excoriated by the media) had died, and you’d have to make a similarly desperate effort to know that we’ve knocked off one wedding party after another these last years in Afghanistan. One of these deaths — Jackson’s — really has little to do with us; the others are, or should be, our responsibility, part of an endless war the American people have either supported or not stopped from continuing. And yet one is a screaming global headline; the others go unnoticed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />You’d think there might, in fact, be room for a small headline somewhere. Didn’t those <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4281078.ece" type="external">brides</a>, grooms, relatives, and revelers deserve at least one modest, collective corner of some front-page or a story on some prime-time news show in return for their needless suffering? You’d think that some president or high official in Washington might have sent a note of condolence to someone, that there might have been a rising tide of criticism about the slow response here in expressing regrets to the families of Afghans who died under our bombs and missiles.</p>
<p>Here’s the truth of it, though: When it comes to Afghan lives — especially if we think, correctly or not, that our safety is involved — it doesn’t matter whether five wedding parties or 50 go down, two funerals or 25. Our media isn’t about to focus real attention on the particular form of barbarity involved — the American air war over Afghanistan which has been a war of and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174917" type="external">for</a>, not on, terror.</p>
<p>Now, we’re embarked on a new moment — the Obama moment — in Afghanistan. More than seven-and-a-half years into the war, in a truly American fashion, we’re ready to turn the page on the past, to pretend that none of it really happened, to do it “right” this time around. We’re finally going to bring the Afghans over to our side.</p>
<p>We’re ready to light out for the territories and start all over again. American troops are now moving south in force, deep into the Pashtun (and Taliban) areas of Afghanistan, and their commanders — a passel of new generals — are speaking as one from a new script. It’s all about conducting a “holistic counterinsurgency campaign,” as new Afghan commander <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175083/the_ir_af_pak_war" type="external">General Stanley A. McChrystal</a> put it <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/06/wont_measure_afghan_success_by.html" type="external">in Congressional testimony</a> recently. It’s all about “hearts and minds”(though that old Vietnam-era phrase has yet to be resuscitated). It’s all about, they say, “protecting civilians” rather than killing Taliban guerrillas; it’s all about <a href="http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/06/03/22022-afghan-strategy-requires-holistic-approach-general-tells-senate/" type="external">shaping</a>, clearing, holding, building, not just landing, kicking in doors, and taking off again; it’s all about new “rules of engagement” in which the air war will be limited, and <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/71134.html?story_link=email_msg" type="external">attacks</a> on the Taliban curbed or called off if it appears that they might endanger civilians (even if that means the guerrillas get away); it’s all about reversing the tide of the war so far, about the fact that civilian casualties caused by air attacks and raids have <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/asia/03helmand.html" type="external">turned large numbers</a> of Afghans against American and NATO troops.</p>
<p>The commander of the Marines just now heading south, Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, typically <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106185167" type="external">said this</a>:</p>
<p>“We need to make sure we understand that the reason we’re here is not necessarily the enemy. The reason we’re here is the people. What won the war in al-Anbar province [Iraq] and what changed the war in al-Anbar was not that the enemy eventually got tired of fighting. It’s that the people chose a side, and they chose us… We’ll surround that house and we’ll wait. And here’s the reason: If you drop that house and there’s one woman, one child, one family in that house — you may have killed 20 Taliban, but by killing that woman or that child in that house, you have lost that community. You are dead to them. You are done.”</p>
<p>The Value of a Life</p>
<p>As it happens, however, the past matters — and keep this in mind (it’s what the wedding-party-obliteration record tells us): To Americans, an Afghan life isn’t worth a red cent, not when the chips are down.</p>
<p>Back in the Vietnam era, General William Westmoreland, interviewed by movie director Peter Davis for his Oscar-winning film Hearts and Minds, <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0720-26.htm" type="external">famously said</a>: “The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient.”</p>
<p>In those years, there were many in the U.S., including Davis, who insisted very publicly that a Vietnamese life had the same value as an American one. In the years of the Afghan War, Americans — our media and, by its relative silence, the public as well — turned Westmoreland’s statement into a way of life as well as a way of war. As one perk of that way of life, most Americans have been able to pretend that our war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with us — and Michael Jackson’s death, everything.</p>
<p>So he dies and our world goes mad. An Afghan wedding party, or five of them, are wiped off the face of the Earth and even a shrug is too much effort.</p>
<p>Here’s a question then: Will what we don’t know (or don’t care to know) hurt us? I’m unsure whether the more depressing answer is yes or no. As it happens, I have no answer to that question anyway, only a bit of advice — not for us, but for Afghans: If, as General McChrystal and other top military figures expect, the Afghan War and its cross-border sibling in Pakistan go on for another three or four or five years or more, no matter what script we’re going by, no matter what we say, believe me, we’ll call in the planes. So if I were you, I wouldn’t celebrate another marriage, not in a group, not in public, and I’d bury my dead very, very privately.</p>
<p>If you gather, after all, we will come.</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">the American Empire Project</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com. He is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>, a history of the Cold War and beyond, as well as of a novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1558495061/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20" type="external">The Last Days of Publishing</a>.</p> | Are Afghan Lives Worth Anything? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/are-afghan-lives-worth-anything/ | 2009-07-07 | 4 |
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<p>The Elkettes’ Gaby Gonzales, shown playing against Hope Christian last season, won’t be playing in this week’s tournament because of an ankle injury. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Sixteen boys and girls teams through three classifications.</p>
<p>Three full days of basketball at Pojoaque Valley High.</p>
<p>It’s time for the 14th annual boys and the 22nd girls Ben Lujan tournaments, beginning today at the Ben Lujan Gymnasium.</p>
<p>Action begins when Class 4A Grants (3-1) girls takes on 3A Taos (0-4) at 10 a.m., and concludes with the 8:30 p.m. matchup between 2A Mesa Vista and the host Pojoaque Valley Elkettes, who are hungry for a title in their hometown event.</p>
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<p>“It’s not districts, but it’s important – everybody likes to win,” Pojoaque Valley coach Ron Drake said, “and you always want to have a good showing in front of your home crowd.</p>
<p>“… But it’s not going to be easy. (Pojoaque Valley athletic director) Matt Martinez did a good job putting this field together. We won’t be looking past anyone.”</p>
<p>The girls field includes two of the top teams in 2A – the 5-1 Tularosa Wildcats and the undefeated Lady Trojans (5-0) – as well as the St. Michael’s Lady Horsemen (5-3) and tourney defending champion, Santa Fe Indian School Lady Braves (5-3).</p>
<p>On the boys side, it’ll be Pojoaque Valley looking to defend its Ben Lujan Tournament title.</p>
<p>The Elks defeated last season’s 2A state champion Laguna Acoma, 78-69, in the title game. The Hawks enter the tournament undefeated, at 5-0, and will face Peñasco (3-1) in opening-round action.</p>
<p>Pojoaque Valley’s Matthew Herrera, one of the Elks’ leading scorers, will join his teammates in the Ben Lujan Tournament this week, where they hope to defend their title. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Pojoaque Valley (3-2) is coming off back-to-back wins over Bosque School and Robertson. The Elks face 2A Monte del Sol (4-1) in opening-round action.</p>
<p>Also in the field is Santa Fe Indian School (5-3), Mesa Vista (1-2), Socorro (1-5), and Raton (4-2).</p>
<p>ELKETTES PLAYING THROUGH ADVERSITY: The Elkettes, who have already been dealing with the departure of senior center Cheyenne Law, will be without their other post, senior Gaby Gonzales. Drake said Gonzales is out indefinitely with a ankle injury. “She won’t be at the tournament at all. She’ll go to the doctor this week so we’ll see,” he added.</p>
<p>Law played the first game of the season and then decided to leave the team.</p>
<p>“She just decided not to play anymore,” Drake said. “Gabby took over for Law and now she’s hurt. Tough times.”</p>
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<p /> | Ben Lujan tournament important to teams | false | https://abqjournal.com/323037/ben-lujan-tournament-important-to-teams.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>The lack of notification is hurting parents with the decision on whether they should hold students back and stalling efforts to get students proficient under key early years, Public Education Secretary Christopher Ruszkowski said in an interview with The Associated Press.</p>
<p>According to data released by the education department, 15,344 notification letters were sent last school year for the 27,143 students deemed not proficient in reading in first to third grade. State law requires school districts to send notification letters midyear to parents of students in those grades struggling with reading proficiency.</p>
<p>State data show that of those 27,143 students, more than 21,000 advanced to the next grade.</p>
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<p>At Albuquerque Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, around 9,500 students first to third grade were deemed as not proficient in reading last year, the state agency said. But only about 1,000 of those students received the required letters, Ruszkowski said.</p>
<p>By the end of the year, only 103 of those students were retained a grade, according to state numbers.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Alamogordo Public Schools – a school district that is about 15 times smaller than Albuquerque’s – retained 117 students from first to third grade, state numbers show. Most of the Alamogordo Public Schools struggling students in those grades received the required letters, state officials said.</p>
<p>APS spokeswoman Johanna King said administrators were unavailable Friday to respond to the PED’s numbers.</p>
<p>Ruszkowski said when districts fail to inform parents about the literacy levels of their children, they aren’t giving parents the needed tools to decide if parents should hold a student back a grade. “The district isn’t even giving the parents’ the option,” Ruszkowski said.</p>
<p>The state literacy numbers come as Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, has urged lawmakers to halt “social promotions” for the state’s third-graders who aren’t proficient in reading. Democrats and teachers unions have resisted the proposal over concerns that retentions don’t solve student underachievement.</p>
<p>Betty Patterson, president of the National Education Association-New New Mexico, said many students were not able to be placed in kindergarten through third-grade reading programs this summer because of budget cuts. Students should not be forced to be retained when the state isn’t fully funding programs to help them, she said.</p>
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<p /> | Most New Mexico parents don’t get literacy notices | false | https://abqjournal.com/1091028/state-most-new-mexico-parents-dont-get-literacy-notices.html | 2017-11-10 | 2 |
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<p>Solid growth in southeast New Mexico oil, gas and mining jobs is contributing to an improved economic outlook. The mining sector is expected to add 7,000 jobs by 2016.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2013 Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p>Both the New Mexico and Albuquerque economies finally are delivering what appears to be sustainable job growth, but don’t uncork the champagne just yet.</p>
<p>Economists with the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research and with Moody’s Analytics agree the conditions that have been dragging the economies down are improving, but the engine required to drive economic growth has yet to engage.</p>
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<p>“One of the biggest things we’ve seen, and one of the reasons the Albuquerque economy is growing so much better, is construction payrolls are finally coming back,” said Dan White of Moody’s in a telephone interview Wednesday from his West Chester, Pa., office. White is a former economist with the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee.</p>
<p>The decline in housing construction has “worked its way out,” but the revival “is only offsetting some pretty persistent declines in manufacturing.”</p>
<p>“Leisure and hospitality (employment) are probably the only real driver we can see now, at least in terms of employment growth,” White said. “An important caveat is leisure and hospitality jobs tend to be low-wage jobs.”</p>
<p>Improving construction and tourism activity have helped boost Albuquerque from the worst-performing area of the state last year to the best-performing metropolitan area in the state this year, he said.</p>
<p>Also helping is that federal job cuts haven’t been as bad in the Albuquerque area as had been feared, White said.</p>
<p>“I don’t expect Albuquerque to remain the fastest-growing area in New Mexico for a significant period of time,” he said. “Most of that is because federal belt-tightening will persist through the fiscal year.”</p>
<p>D.R. Horton workers build homes in Montecito Estates on the West Side last month. Construction payrolls are coming back, according to a Moody’s representative.</p>
<p>BBER Director Lee Reynis told a meeting of the State Treasurer’s Office Local Government Investment Pool Shareholders on Wednesday that she expects employment to grow 1.4 percent in New Mexico this year, 1.7 percent for the next three years after that, and 1.5 percent in 2017. New Mexico’s economy grew 3.6 percent in 2006.</p>
<p>The pool, managed by the State Treasurer’s Office, invests funds on behalf of local governments, which are the shareholders. They meet regularly to review the pool’s performance and receive updates about the economy and regulation.</p>
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<p>New Mexico lost 52,000 jobs between early 2008 and late 2010, and employment growth since then has been minimal, Reynis said.</p>
<p>But there has been “sustained growth in the number of jobs” in the past few months, she said, primarily because “the things that were pulling us down are less important than they were before,” including construction and government employment.</p>
<p>The mining sector – which includes oil and gas production, copper and potash mining, and other extraction industries – is expected to add 7,000 jobs by 2016, Reynis said.</p>
<p>And the federal Affordable Care Act will inject significant new money into the health care employment sector, which should lead to a 15,000-job increase in the health care and social assistance sector in that period.</p>
<p>Manufacturing, which employed more than 40,000 people in the mid-1990s, employs about 30,000 today. Reynis expects 31,000 manufacturing jobs in 2016.</p>
<p>Nationally, the economy is clearly improving, but “the question is why?” JPMorgan Chase economist James E. Glassman told the shareholders meeting. “We have every reason to believe the economy is going to gain speed.”</p>
<p>One reason is that the United States, alone among the world’s largest economies, confronted its economic problems as soon as they appeared, he said.</p>
<p>American homeowners owed from $2 trillion to $3 trillion more on their homes than they were worth after the 2008 financial panic, Glassman said, a level that could have destroyed the economy.</p>
<p>But markets quickly discounted the value of securities backed by subprime mortgages. The economy took a severe hit, he said, but unlike the European and Japanese economies, the hit came quickly so the recovery process could begin.</p>
<p>“The nightmare is over in the real estate market,” he said.</p>
<p>The market needs 1.5 million new homes this year, which should create 1 million jobs, Glassman said.</p>
<p />
<p /> | State, ABQ on job growth path | false | https://abqjournal.com/244019/state-abq-on-job-growth-path.html | 2013-08-08 | 2 |
<p>The media are over the moon about a new poll from Pew Research Center. The new poll surveyed some 40,000 people across 37 countries — and it turns out that foreigners don’t like President Trump as much as they liked President Obama.</p>
<p>There’s a shocker.</p>
<p>While 64% of such foreigners had confidence in President Obama at the end of his term, just 22% had confidence in Trump; favorability toward the United States dropped from 64% to 49% as well. Confidence in President Trump to do the right thing vs. Obama dropped in every single country except for two: Israel, where President Obama was widely (and correctly) perceived as anti-Israel (49% of Israelis trusted Obama to do the right thing, vs. 56% for Trump); and Russia, where Trump’s consistently sycophantic rhetoric toward the Russian government did not go unnoticed (11% trusted Obama, versus 53% for Trump). The countries that saw the biggest drops are generally “sophisticated” democratic socialist countries like Sweden (83% drop), the Netherlands (75% drop), and Germany (75% drop).</p>
<p />
<p>The differential views of Obama and Trump on the world stage reflect a basic truth: foreigners prefer a reticent America.</p>
<p>First, it’s unfair to Trump to pretend that his unpopularity globally is some sort of outlier. By the time George W. Bush left office, his ratings were almost identical in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain. That’s no shock: the world loves an America that pays their bills without attempting to promote any of its interests. In fact, the Pew poll also shows that Trump is more unpopular than Vladimir Putin, a murderous thug dictator who has invaded foreign countries with regularity.</p>
<p>Foreigners prefer an American policy that favors Iran’s nuclear weapons development (49% vs. 34%), more Muslim immigration (62% to 32%), support for climate change strictures (71% to 19%), and lack of a border wall (76% to 16%). They see Trump as arrogant (75%), intolerant (65%), and dangerous (62%) — but 55% also see Trump as a strong leader.</p>
<p>Again, not a shock — 46% of foreigners dislike “American ideas about democracy,” against just 43% who approve; 54% complain about “American ideas and customs … spreading here.”</p>
<p>And herein lies the truth about Trump: all of the foibles to which commentators are apt to attribute his unpopularity with foreigners are mere cover for the real issue — that Trump isn’t a left-winger who wants to minimize American power on the world stage while turning over our moral leadership to the United Nations.</p>
<p>All of which suggests that Trump is right: “America first” policymaking, which is a radical shift away from the multipolarity sought by the Obama administration, is what’s truly annoying people around the globe.</p>
<p>Which is a good thing, if the alternative is the moral cowardice of the last eight years.</p> | Poll: Foreigners Trusted Obama WAY MORE Than Trump. That's A Good Thing. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17997/poll-foreigners-trusted-obama-way-more-trump-thats-ben-shapiro | 2017-06-27 | 0 |
<p>Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a strong warning to the Iraqi government Saturday, claiming that he and his supporters will “declare a war until liberation” if a crackdown against his Mahdi Army continues.</p>
<p>Al-Jazeera English:</p>
<p>Al-Sadr also accused the Iraqi government of being too close to the US military.</p>
<p>“The occupation has made us target of its planes, tanks, air strikes and snipers. Without our support this government would not have been formed,” he said.</p>
<p />
<p>“But with its alliance with the occupier [the Iraqi government] is not independent and sovereign as we would like it to be.”</p>
<p>Iraqi security forces moved against Shia militia groups in Basra on March 25, on the order of Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, himself a Shia.</p>
<p><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A09AFB89-4D59-4B6C-B548-50C0777A00F5.htm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Sadr Warns of 'Open War' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/sadr-warns-of-open-war/ | 2008-04-20 | 4 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — IBM reported its first quarter of revenue growth in more than five years as the company ramps up its cloud computing business and looks for new opportunities from its investments in artificial intelligence.</p>
<p>“Over the past several years we have invested aggressively in technology and our people to reposition IBM,” James Kavanaugh, IBM’s new chief financial officer, said in a statement Thursday after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings.</p>
<p>The company still reported a quarterly loss of $1.05 billion, reflecting a $5.5 billion charge associated with recent tax legislation. IBM reported a $4.5 billion profit in the same period a year earlier.</p>
<p>The technology and consulting company posted revenue of $22.54 billion in the period, which topped Wall Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $21.96 billion.</p>
<p>For the year, the company reported profit of $5.75 billion, or $6.14 per share, down from $11.87 billion, or $12.38 a share, in 2016. Annual revenue for 2017 was $79.14 billion.</p>
<p>On a per-share basis, the Armonk, New York-based company said it had a quarterly loss of $1.14. Adjusted for pretax expenses and non-recurring costs, IBM reported a quarterly profit of $5.18 per share.</p>
<p>The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for an adjusted profit of $5.17 per share.</p>
<p>IBM shares have risen 10 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index has increased roughly 5 percent. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $169.15, a climb of slightly more than 1 percent in the last 12 months.</p>
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<p>Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights ( <a href="http://automatedinsights.com/ap)" type="external">http://automatedinsights.com/ap)</a> using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on IBM at <a href="https://www.zacks.com/ap/IBM" type="external">https://www.zacks.com/ap/IBM</a></p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — IBM reported its first quarter of revenue growth in more than five years as the company ramps up its cloud computing business and looks for new opportunities from its investments in artificial intelligence.</p>
<p>“Over the past several years we have invested aggressively in technology and our people to reposition IBM,” James Kavanaugh, IBM’s new chief financial officer, said in a statement Thursday after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings.</p>
<p>The company still reported a quarterly loss of $1.05 billion, reflecting a $5.5 billion charge associated with recent tax legislation. IBM reported a $4.5 billion profit in the same period a year earlier.</p>
<p>The technology and consulting company posted revenue of $22.54 billion in the period, which topped Wall Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $21.96 billion.</p>
<p>For the year, the company reported profit of $5.75 billion, or $6.14 per share, down from $11.87 billion, or $12.38 a share, in 2016. Annual revenue for 2017 was $79.14 billion.</p>
<p>On a per-share basis, the Armonk, New York-based company said it had a quarterly loss of $1.14. Adjusted for pretax expenses and non-recurring costs, IBM reported a quarterly profit of $5.18 per share.</p>
<p>The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for an adjusted profit of $5.17 per share.</p>
<p>IBM shares have risen 10 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index has increased roughly 5 percent. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $169.15, a climb of slightly more than 1 percent in the last 12 months.</p>
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<p>Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights ( <a href="http://automatedinsights.com/ap)" type="external">http://automatedinsights.com/ap)</a> using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on IBM at <a href="https://www.zacks.com/ap/IBM" type="external">https://www.zacks.com/ap/IBM</a></p> | IBM reports first revenue growth since 2012 | false | https://apnews.com/d450e1f8b7bcba3c84aa071eddec8dec | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Patrick Semansky/Associated Press</p>
<p>As&#160;a person&#160;living&#160;in the 21st century,&#160;it’s&#160;almost inevitable that you’ve had the&#160;seamless, fast, and hassle-free experience of shopping online: a few clicks and you’re done without ever needing to interact with anyone, and then your items can show up at your door in as&#160;little as a day.&#160;</p>
<p>But as the holiday season ramps up, it’s a good time to remember that there’s actually a whole lot of human labor behind that fast and easy click. While we at Mother Jones recently&#160;reported on how <a href="" type="internal">robots will one day take&#160;these&#160;jobs</a>,&#160;they&#160;haven’t taken over just&#160;yet.&#160;</p>
<p>Just consider a great story last week from&#160;Gizmodo‘s&#160;Bryan Menegus <a href="https://gizmodo.com/amazons-last-mile-1820451224" type="external">shedding light</a> on a mysterious program known as&#160;Amazon Flex: a “nearly invisible workforce” of independent contractors charged with delivering the “last mile” of Amazon orders from&#160;a&#160;local storage facility to the customer’s door. As Menegus explains,&#160;“It’s a network of supposedly self-employed, utterly expendable couriers enrolled in an app-based program which some believe may violate labor laws.” For all of Amazon’s supposed cutting-edge technology, Flex’s system seems so messy and disorganized that workers end up competing against one another to game the system. When their shifts, or “blocks,”&#160;go over or under time,&#160;drivers aren’t always paid for them. They receive the bare minimum of support from Amazon, and arbitration agreements in their terms of service prevent them from filing class-action lawsuits.&#160;Workers, Menegus writes,&#160;are terminated “frequently and with little explanation”:&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Boilerplate emails reprimanding drivers for supposedly missed packages contain little information: only the date of the infraction, but not the package or address. Whether the package was stolen or an unscrupulous customer merely took advantage of Amazon’s willingness to offer refunds, it’s the courier who takes the fall. “It’s frustrating because Amazon will always believe the customer,” a driver claimed, echoing the sentiments of many others. “Even with photo or bodycam evidence. We have no support. And one customer too many and we’ll get that termination email.”</p>
<p>In response to&#160;Gizmodo, Amazon said&#160;it&#160;“received overwhelmingly positive response[s] from drivers participating in the program.”</p>
<p>According to a lawyer who spoke to&#160;Gizmodo, Amazon could be breaking the law due to labor misclassification. Even though Amazon is paying drivers to do the work of employees, they “treat them as independent contractors, denying them basic amenities like health care, benefits, and workers’ compensation in the event of an on-the-job injury.” “Flex is indicative,” Menengus writes, “of two alarming trends: the unwillingness of legislators to curb harmful practices of tech behemoths run amok, and a shift towards less protected, more precarious opportunities in a stagnant job market. Under the current administration, it’s unlikely either will receive the attention it deserves.”&#160;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in a September&#160; <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/meet-camperforce-amazons-nomadic-retiree-army/" type="external">Wired</a> story, Jessica Bruder profiled the “CamperForce,” a group of retiree-age workers living in RVs who have become Amazon’s “dream labor force,”&#160;staffing its warehouses for seasonal stretches with similarly few benefits or protections.&#160;Amazon recruits people for CamperForce aggressively because they‘re willing to work during the busiest months of the year and because they need the pay,&#160;often without asking for more. The workers themselves are part of a burgeoning community of nomadic workers called “workampers,” though, as Bruder notes, many people become part of the community out of necessity rather than choice. She follows the Stouts, a couple now in their 70s&#160;who turned to workamping after losing almost everything during the financial crisis:</p>
<p>The Stouts reported to the warehouse on October 1 for orientation, training, and a period of half-days called “work hardening,” meant to help newcomers adapt to the physical stress of the job. Then the 10-hour shifts began.</p>
<p>Chuck was a picker. His job was to take items down from warehouse shelves as customers ordered them, scanning each product with a handheld barcode reader. The warehouse was so immense that he and his fellow workers used the names of states to navigate its vast interior. …Chuck ended up walking about 13 miles a day. He told himself it was good exercise. Besides, he’d met another picker who was 80 years old—if that guy could do it, surely he could.</p>
<p>On days off, many of Barb and Chuck’s coworkers were too exhausted to do anything but sleep, eat, and catch up on laundry. …As the season wore on, people complained of plantar fasciitis, tendinitis, and repetitive stress injuries, including a condition called trigger finger, which came from using a handheld scanner gun over and over.</p>
<p>Looking a bit further back,&#160;there’s also a classic&#160;Mother Jones&#160; <a href="" type="internal">feature</a> from 2012, when&#160;Mac McClelland took a job inside a warehouse that helps fulfill orders for some of America’s biggest retailers. She describes a&#160;culture of backbreaking work and&#160;unrealistic expectations,&#160;where workers are expected to hit near-impossible performance quotas and their movements are timed to the second:</p>
<p>With an hour left in the day, I’ve already picked 800 items. Despite moving fast enough to get sloppy, my scanner tells me that means I’m fulfilling only 52 percent of my goal. A supervisor who is a genuinely nice person comes by with a clipboard listing my numbers. Like the rest of the supervisors, she tries to create a friendly work environment and doesn’t want to enforce the policies that make this job so unpleasant. But her hands are tied. She needs this job, too, so she has no choice but to tell me something I have never been told in 19 years of school or at any of some dozen workplaces.”You’re doing really bad,” she says.</p>
<p>… At today’s pickers’ meeting, we are reminded that customers are waiting. We&#160;cannot move at a “comfortable pace,” because if we are comfortable, we will never make our numbers, and customers are not willing to wait. And it’s Christmastime. We got 2.7 million orders this week. People need—need—these items and they need them right now.</p>
<p>McClelland doesn’t stay for too long.&#160;Read the full story <a href="" type="internal">here</a>&#160;and take a minute before you hit “place order.”</p> | A Lot of “Ethical Consumers” Are Going to Make Really Unethical Shopping Choices | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/a-lot-of-ethical-consumers-are-going-to-make-really-unethical-shopping-choices/ | 2017-11-24 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Shares of Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) got a boost on Wednesday after an analyst from Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) upgraded the consumer electronics giant and expressed confidence in its ability to cut costs and stabilize the business.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Jefferies analyst Daniel Binder raised Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy to “buy” from “hold” and its price target to $24 from $11. He also lifted his fiscal 2014 and 2015 EPS estimates.</p>
<p>“Ultimately this is a bet that new management will cut costs, bring better processes, discipline and measurement to the business, essentially fix what it has and stabilize the business,” Binder said.</p>
<p>While observers may not have all the information about Best Buy’s turnaround they would prefer, Binder said it is nevertheless clear that the company has reached an inflection point.</p>
<p>Best Buy last week said same-store sales, a measurement of sales at stores open longer than a year, climbed 0.9%, their biggest improvement in nearly three years.</p>
<p>Shares of Best Buy climbed nearly 3.5% on Wednesday afternoon to $19.05.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Best Buy Shares Climb on Upgrade to "Buy" From Jefferies | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2013/03/06/best-buy-shares-climb-on-upgrade-to-buy-from-jefferies.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
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<p>An aerial view of the Hollister Underground Mine Project in the Tosawihi Quarries in Elko County, Nevada. Recently acquired by Waterton Global Mining Company/Carlin Resources, the site has long been regarded as sacred by Native people. &#160; (Bureau of Land Management, Elko District Office, Tuscarora Field Office, Nevada)</p>
<p>This isn’t the “new” world for the Western Shoshone. And their West was never “wild.” It is a place of deep cultural connections to a homeland that at one time extended across portions of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and California. For more than 10,000 years, they have met in what is today called the Tosawihi Quarries, a stretch of Elko County, Nevada, to gather a type of white flint and to practice their sacred rituals.</p>
<p>“That stone is very sacred to us,” says Joe Holley, chairman of the Battle Mountain Band of the Te-Moak Western Shoshone, one of several federally recognized, related tribes. “We use it every day and have done so for millennia, for tools, ceremonies and healing. The stone, the water, the entire place is sacred.” The word Tosawihi means White Knives, an ancestral Shoshone tribal name that ties the land and its features to their culture and identity. The Tosawihi Quarries has been deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and part of it was declared an Archaeological District in 2010.</p>
<p>However, gold lies under the flint, also called chert, and a multinational mining group wants it.</p>
<p>In 2013, Nevada-based <a href="http://www.watertonglobal.com" type="external">Waterton Global Mining Company</a>, owned by a firm registered in the Cayman Islands, bought a bankrupt gold-mining operation that had been exploring for and extracting gold in the Tosawihi Quarries. In March 2014, an official at a related Canadian private-equity firm, Waterton Global Resource Management, told <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/09/mining-pdac-privateequity-idUSL1N0M41EE20140309" type="external">Reuters</a> it had been snapping up struggling U.S. mining concerns hurt by the several-year downturn in gold prices. Reuters quoted the firm’s chief investment officer as saying, “This year I think [acquisitions] will pick up dramatically.”</p>
<p>By 2014, mining operations had resumed on the Shoshone's ancestral lands, and Waterton Global Mining Company had changed its name to <a href="http://thediggings.com/owners/2348055" type="external">Carlin Resources</a>. The new work began in previously disturbed ground and moved out from there. “A drilling pad was built in a once-pristine area,” says Holley, “and several rock shelters were demolished when they pushed through a road.” On a recent trip to the area, he saw that several ancient stone hunting blinds, from which concealed hunters observed their prey, were gone. Tribal members report that workers have videotaped them when they visit.</p>
<p>The band has also expressed concern to federal authorities that the mining company does not have the required groundwater monitoring well in place. “This is critical,” says Holley. “At the center of all our ceremonies is water. It is the lifeblood of the universe.”</p>
<p>Mining was already engulfing the sacred landscape, says the Battle Mountain Band’s attorney Rollie Wilson, who works in the Washington, D.C. office of the Omaha law firm <a href="http://www.ndnlaw.com" type="external">Fredericks Peebles &amp; Morgan</a>. “Now matters are getting worse. With important sites damaged or destroyed, tribal members are being pushed into an ever-smaller area.” Wilson has filed an emergency appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA), an Interior Department administrative court. It asks the court to suspend mining until a plan can be devised that safeguards the site.</p>
<p>In 1992 (on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ first visit), protection of Native American cultural resources was added to the <a href="http://www.achp.gov/nhpa.html" type="external">National Historic Preservation Act</a>. Since then, federal agencies have been required to consult with tribes when mining, constructing dams, road building and other projects on federal land that could affect their traditional cultural properties (TCPs). These may include locations where culturally important practices occur, or occurred in the past, as well as structures.</p>
<p>This process is a part of the federal government’s trust relationship with the tribes, which requires the United States to protect Native treaty rights, land and other assets. In practice, tribes and their representatives regularly report that they aren’t notified early enough in the process to make a difference and when they do speak up federal officials don’t pay attention.</p>
<p>Holley says working with the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) can be like “talking to a wall.” As the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office puts it: The BLM can operate “unilaterally.”</p>
<p>Some officials may have a hard time understanding a complex Native cultural landscape like the Tosawihi Quarries, which has been subtly shaped for many centuries by a range of activities including ceremonies, tool making, medicine-plant gathering and hunting. “The concept of ‘cultural landscape’ emerged in the late 1980s, which really isn’t that long ago,” says Paul Loether, Chief of the National Register of Historic Places, a National Park Service program. As a result, Loether says, most evaluators are better at assessing an historic house than a tract of land, no matter what culture, Native or non-Native, shaped it.</p>
<p>Carlin Resources has less patience for the process than the Battle Mountain Band would wish. In Carlin’s legal response to the band’s attempt to temporarily halt drilling, the mining company said their IBLA appeal was based on “erroneous and sensationalistic assertions” that “the entire Tosawihi Quarries constitutes a TCP.” Carlin, in its brief, told the court that it had complied with all obligations and that the band’s ongoing objections had already caused it to run up substantial additional costs.</p>
<p>Because the Tosawihi Quarries are on federal land administered by the BLM, that agency handled the area’s TCP evaluation. Earlier mining had already taken a big chunk out of the Shoshone landscape, but Holley’s band hoped it could work with the BLM to prevent further destruction. “We were hoping to keep the mining out of what’s left of our most important areas,” Holley says.</p>
<p>To study and protect a landscape, archaeology is often the discipline of choice. At Tosawihi Quarries, the BLM focused on items of archaeological interest that might be saved—including what it termed “loci,” with a certain number of artifacts, such as stone tools, per square meter. The agency marked the items on maps, drew lines around them and told the mining company to stay at least 250 feet away.</p>
<p>“Archaeology is a great field,” says Loether. “But unfortunately, used that way, the result is like seeing the Mona Lisa’s smile, but not the rest of the painting. You can’t understand its beauty and meaning without considering the entire thing.”</p>
<p>“Mainstream science looks at sites differently from Indian people, who see the spiritual significance,” says Ted Howard, cultural resources director and member of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes.</p>
<p>With about 500 enrolled members and a 683-acre reservation that has “little economic activity,” according to its <a href="http://www.temoaktribe.com/battlemtn.shtml" type="external">website</a>, the tiny Battle Mountain Band has set itself a gargantuan task. “I grew up in this fight,” says Holley. “My grandfather, father and uncle all fought mining in the Tosawihi Quarries. I’ve lived my whole life hearing them talk about this.”</p>
<p>“Chairman Holley and the Battle Mountain Band have taken the lead in this struggle,” says Howard. “However, many of the Shoshone people came from or used that area. Now we are separated on different reservations, but that is not how we lived before the reservation era. Our shared oral history goes way back. And the Tosawihi Quarries are the center of our spiritual being.”</p>
<p />
<p>The sun rises over the Tosawihi Quarries. &#160;(Photo courtesy of Joe Holley, Chairman of the Battle Mountian Band of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone)</p>
<p>Sometimes, lack of understanding isn’t the only problem at a federal agency. Other interests can weigh heavily. In spring 2014, the BLM’s analysis of the mine project was still under review. It had yet to issue its final approval, or Record of Decision (ROD).</p>
<p>But then the mining company needed the gold—and fast.</p>
<p>According to public documents obtained by Rural America In These Times, Waterton contacted the BLM on Friday, March 28, 2014. It wanted the agency to issue the Record of Decision by the following Monday, March 31. A BLM official,&#160;Steph Connolly, the acting-senior special assistant to the director, notified colleagues of this request with an email headed “URGENT.”</p>
<p>Thomas Schmidt, a&#160;BLM&#160;geologist in a Nevada field office, replied, “I do not believe we have completely satisfied Tribe concerns.”</p>
<p>Another BLM geologist, Janice Stadelman, chimed in, warning against delay. “I received a call from Waterton’s legal counsel,” she emailed. “They are requesting that the ROD and approval be signed or dated no later than March 31 [2014]. March 31 is the end (last day) of the first quarter. ... Waterton’s concern is with the first quarter auditing and financial reporting to there [sic] investors and the ramifications that they will encounter.”</p>
<p>By March 31, the ROD was signed, sealed and delivered. Thanks to the BLM rushing it through, the mining group had its gold and the window-dressing for its quarterly report. In May, Waterton issued a press release announcing a “ <a href="http://www.watertonglobal.com/waterton-global-mining-company-announces-significant-permitting-milestone-for-the-hollister-mine/" type="external">significant permitting milestone</a>” for the mine.</p>
<p>In response to a query from Rural America In These Times, BLM spokesperson Jeff Krauss described the permitting process as “robust” and “not hurried,” with full consideration under the law for the Battle&#160;Mountain Band's concerns. He added the agency would continue to work with the band going forward. Further, according to Krauss, the BLM would require the mine's operator to “implement sufficient monitoring and mitigation strategies in order to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation&#160;of the lands” and its sacred sites.</p>
<p>Educating officials, legislators and the public about responsible protection of our nation’s shared legacy is an “uphill battle,” says Rebecca Knuffke, public lands project manager for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit chartered by Congress to safeguard our shared heritage places. Building awareness for a given site can help protect it, she says, pointing to the Trust’s <a href="http://www.savingplaces.org" type="external">National Treasures</a> program, which describes campaigns to save places that are important to varied and sometimes multiple cultures.</p>
<p>In the case of a Native landscape, public awareness is handled very carefully, adds Denise Ryan, public lands policy director at the Trust. Such places may include vision sites, sacred springs, medicine-gathering areas and other geographic features that tribes consider private or secret. Like the Tosawihi hunting blinds and rock shelters, these fragile features can also be destroyed by vandals or inadvertently trampled by hikers. “In a protection plan, tribes don’t have to give us details. They just tell us what’s significant and what they require,” says Ryan.</p>
<p>Holley wants a complete review of the Tosawihi Quarries that accounts for subtleties that aren’t apparent to outsiders. “We Shoshone are the only ones who can say where these important things are,” Holley says. “Tosawihi is not a ‘prehistoric’ place, used only by long-ago people. We Shoshone have used all of it continuously for cultural and spiritual purposes since time immemorial.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, gold mining operations continue.</p>
<p>Holley laments, “All those years of struggle, and we’re still losing ground.”</p>
<p>Editor's note: &#160;</p>
<p>Since publication of&#160;Eve of Destruction,&#160;the Battle Mountain Band of the Te-Moak Western Shoshone has continued to try and protect its sacred site from destruction by gold mining. In September 2015, an Interior Department administrative court turned down the Band’s request to suspend mining until a way could be found to safeguard traditional cultural properties more effectively.</p>
<p>The Band then turned to the influential Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), which is named as the final arbiter of disputes under the so-called <a href="http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/CRM/blm_preservation_board/prog_agreement.html" type="external">Programmatic Agreement</a> issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to govern mining activities. In December, ACHP issued a cautious decision that encouraged BLM to “clarify” the agreement.</p>
<p>“The&#160;Programmatic Agreement doesn’t need to be clarified, it needs to be implemented,” said Band attorney Rollie Wilson, of Fredericks Peebles &amp; Morgan.&#160;“The document, signed by ACHP, requires ongoing evaluation of specific areas as mining exploration is considered. BLM is not doing that. It is relying on old and generalized surveys of the entire area, which makes no sense. The document and the law require current evaluations for project-specific proposals.”</p>
<p>BLM spokesperson Jeff Krauss has disagreed, saying that consultation with the Band is ongoing.</p>
<p>Like what you’ve read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_RAITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_RAITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p> | Eve of Destruction: Bureau of Land Management Sacrifices Native Site to Mining Group | true | http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/18461/eve-of-destruction-bureau-of-land-management-sacrifices-native-site-to-mini | 2015-09-30 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill, center, was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award on Wednesday for “Better Call Saul.” (AMC/Sony Pictures Television)</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />On the Golden Globes side, Bob Odenkirk was nominated for best performance by an actor in a television series, drama. It was for his work as Jimmy McGill in “Better Call Saul.”</p>
<p>It was also the lone Golden Globes nomination for a&#160; production filmed in New Mexico.</p>
<p>Odenkirk picked up his third nomination for this awards season. His other nominations include a Critic’s Choice nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series.</p>
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<p>The latest nod comes from the SAG Awards, which has once again nominated Odenkirk for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for “Better Call Saul.”</p>
<p>Production on the fourth season is gearing up to begin in January in New Mexico.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Netflix’s “Godless” scored an acting nomination for Jeff Daniels, who plays the outlaw Frank Griffin.</p>
<p>Jeff Daniels in a scene from “Godless.” The actor picked up a SAG nomination for the series, which was filmed in New Mexico. (Source: Netflix)</p>
<p>Production for “Godless” began in September 2016 and was housed at Santa Fe Studios, though most of the film was shot on location throughout northern New Mexico. It is executive produced by Casey Silver and Steven Soderbergh.</p>
<p />
<p>Daniels tweeted on Wednesday, “Genuine gratitude and sincere thanks to SAG. Scott Frank’s triumph. Thrilled to be a part of it. Plus I got to ride a horse.”</p>
<p>And then there is former Albuquerque resident Marc Maron.</p>
<p>Maron grew up in Albuquerque and graduated from Highland High School.</p>
<p>Former Albuquerque resident Marc Maron in a scene from “GLOW” on Netflix. Maron was nominated for best actor in a comedy from the Screen Actors Guild. (Netflix)</p>
<p>The comedian picked up a nomination for a male actor in a comedy series for his role as Sam Sylvia, a washed up B-movie director.</p>
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<p>He develops the beginning of the “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.”</p>
<p>The series is loosely based on the 1980s hit show of the same name.</p>
<p>The Netflix show also picked up nods for comedy ensemble, a nomination for Alison Brie and a stunt ensemble nomination.</p>
<p>Maron tweeted, “Proud to be part of the @SAGawards nominated ensemble of GLOW! All of them are unique and amazing performers! Thanks!”</p>
<p>Then the SAG Awards tweeted at Maron:</p>
<p>“Congrats to you, the @GlowNetflix cast and your fellow nominees! We can’t wait to see you at the show, Marc!”</p>
<p>Maron replied: “I guess I should buy a suit or a tux or something. Maybe I could rent one — baby blue with ruffles.”</p>
<p>SAG Award winners will be announced on Jan. 21, 2018.</p>
<p>“Better Call Saul” has also been recognized with three nominations from The Writers Guild of America, including recognition of all of the show’s writers and two nominations in the Episodic Drama category for”Chicanery,” written by Gordon Smith, and “Slip,” written by Heather Marion.</p>
<p>Plus, Odenkirk’s co-star Michael McKean also received a Critics’ Choice Awards for his performance as Chuck McGill.</p> | Series filmed in NM pick up Golden Globe, SAG nominations | false | https://abqjournal.com/1106296/odenkirk-daniels-and-maron-pick-up-sag-noms.html | 2017-12-13 | 2 |
<p>Being an intellectual at the end of the twentieth century means you won't get rich, and your ideas, if you have ideas of your own, will be generally ignored. But you will get lots of chances to travel. On one hand, it's hard to find a government anywhere that, when it makes its big policy decisions, will give intellectuals more than the time of day; on the other hand, governments everywhere are will- ing to subsidize international conferences, symposia, festivals, exhibitions, and all forms of intellectual exchange. Today's ruling classes understand not only that the promotion of culture can be good for business, but that it can provide a government with an aura of legiti- macy. And in an age when tourism has become the number one worldwide industry, cultural promotions are wonderfully easy to arrange. Good business, good politics: nice work if you can get it!</p>
<p>Our ruling classes also know that enlisting intellectuals in the process of cultural exchange is a good way to keep us content. Carnivals are supposed to be dead, but intellectuals have found a moral equivalent in international cultural events. For those who are going to be in one of the big parades, it's tempting to spend the whole year working on our raps and our masks and our floats. And why not? For a little while we'll have a chance to think and feel more intensely, to be smarter and sexier, more like the selves we want to be. We'll find people like ourselves in unlikely places, we'll open up dialogues that transcend frontiers, we'll feel we belong to what Kant called the "world society of citizens."</p>
<p /> | ?Don't Kidnap Me, I'm a Professor?: Looking at Brazil | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/dont-kidnap-me-im-a-professor-looking-at-brazil | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>At a time when the corporate leaders of America have demonstrated an incurable proclivity to blaze a trail of scorched earth and looting across the banking, trading, housing, and mortgage industries, the public is now catching the whiff of a new smoldering stench just over the horizon.</p>
<p>If corporate America has its way, everything from our parking meters, zoos, airports, toll roads and drinking water will be privatized in the biggest fire sale in the history of the industrialized world.&#160; In other words, let’s send a powerful message to our children that the reward for corporate greed, incompetence and criminal behavior is to hand over what’s left of the country’s assets.</p>
<p>The fire sale is being stoked by unprecedented state and local revenue shortfalls. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), “the worst recession since the 1930s has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record…48 states have addressed or still face such shortfalls in their budgets for fiscal year 2010, totaling $178 billion…the largest gaps on record…Fiscal year 2011 gaps – both those still open and those already addressed — total $80 billion or 14 percent of budgets for the 35 states that have estimated the size of these gaps. These totals are likely to grow as revenues continue to deteriorate, and may well exceed $180 billion…These numbers suggest that when all is said and done, states will have dealt with a total budget shortfall of at least $350 billion for 2010 and 2011.”</p>
<p>Ironically, $350 billion is exactly half the amount the Federal government doled out to the Wall Street gang that proceeded to pay million dollar bonuses, fly staff to lush resorts, or slap logos on sports stadiums.</p>
<p>Here’s a rundown of what’s up for corporate grabs around the country:</p>
<p>Here in beautiful Southern New Hampshire, there’s a recommendation to privatize the 143 year old historic Cheshire County Farm which holds some of the most cherished open space and farm land in the state. &#160;City kids can currently pet a cow or see an osprey or bald eagle soar with no admission fee.</p>
<p>Out in Green Bay, Wisconsin this week, officials tried to hold a closed door meeting to discuss privatizing the Brown County planning department. (Isn’t a key function of a planning department to police corporate interests? This sounds like the U.S. Treasury model, also known as regulatory capture.)</p>
<p>In Grand Rapids, Kent County commissioners are weighing a recommendation from the Sheriff, Larry Stelma, to privatize the food service at the county jail.</p>
<p>Following a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study at the end of October, finding it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars, the Army is backing off a plan (at least for now) to privatize carpentry, plumbing, grounds maintenance and other staff positions at West Point.</p>
<p>Blaine Mogil, writing on November 3, 2009 in The Pride, the independent student newspaper of California State University at San Marcos, sums up the palpable mood &#160;there: “If the idea of a professor bidding you ‘Good morning and welcome to McUniversity, may I take your order?’ seems far-fetched, then the silent battle waged in Sacramento has not reached your mind space. It is time to awaken from political slumber and join the battle. Under attack are not only your educational opportunities, but also the future of educational opportunity for a wide swath of our friends and family on the lower levels of the socio-economic strata. This is a battle to save the California State University system from privatization…Everyone among us, struggling financially to attend this great institution, must be among the first wave to participate in preventing privatization, for if this battle is lost, we will be the first to wash away when the corporate yacht docks in our port.”</p>
<p>From sea to shining sea, it’s all up for corporate grabs: &#160;the prisons of Arizona; the libraries of Nevada County, California; the Milwaukee County Zoo; the tree cutters of Detroit; the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans; a youth shelter in Cape May, New Jersey; a sewage treatment plant in Marin County, California. &#160;The parking meters in Chicago have already been privatized.</p>
<p>If the ongoing hard lessons of our country’s blind trust in corporations to balance greed and profit against the greater public good cannot dissuade officials to sack these goofball plans to turn over essential government programs to the corporate profit motive, perhaps the recent example in Indiana might serve up an epiphany.</p>
<p>In 2006, Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana privatized the state’s welfare services, handing a $1.34 billion contract to IBM.&#160; A computer company, engaged in gigabits and memory chips, was entrusted with getting food stamps and Medicaid and welfare payments into the hands of the hungry and the poor.&#160; The previous Indiana system of face to face meetings with case workers was sacked for automation and call centers.&#160; After legislators heard endless stories of life-saving prescriptions not being filled, people with less than $100 in assets not receiving food stamps in the legally mandated response time, call centers not picking up the phone or losing the calls, paperwork disappearing, together with a class action lawsuit being filed, Governor Daniels finally sacked IBM last month.</p>
<p>But what about the people who may have died or been injured from this abhorrent judgment call.&#160; Should Governor Daniels be able to simply make the same sheepish admission, “I got it wrong,” like Alan Greenspan and walk away.&#160; Hopefully, the voters will provide some accountability.</p>
<p>PAM MARTENS worked on Wall Street for 21 years; she has no security position, long or short, in any company mentioned in this article other than that which the U.S. Treasury has thrust upon her and fellow Americans involuntarily through TARP. She writes on public interest issues from New Hampshire. She can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p /> | The Fire Sale of America | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/11/05/the-fire-sale-of-america/ | 2009-11-05 | 4 |
<p>Shares of Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE) slipped 8% premarket Wednesday after the company reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings and lowered its full-year profit view for the second time.</p>
<p>The Bermuda-based maker of consumer, healthcare and household products posted net income of $23 million, or 72 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier $23.59 million, or 74 cents.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The results were below average analyst estimates of 85 cents in a Thomson Reuters poll.</p>
<p>The maker of Revlon and Vidal Sassoon-branded hair products lowered fiscal 2013 sales expectations to $3.50 to $3.60, from an earlier view of $3.70 to $3.80. That’s below the Street’s view of $3.76 and marks the second time Helen of Troy has narrowed its fiscal 2013 outlook.</p>
<p>“Similar to other global consumer products companies, we faced many challenges in light of continuing consumer uncertainty and global economic problems,” Helen of Troy CEO Gerald Rubin said in a statement.</p>
<p>In the latest quarter, revenue for the three-months ended Aug. 31 climbed 3.6% to $287.4 million, up from $277.4 million a year ago, missing the Street’s view of $310 million.</p>
<p>Helen of Troy sees fiscal 2013 sales in the range of $1.3 billion to $1.325 billion, which is above the consensus of $1.31 billion.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Helen of Troy Again Lowers Fiscal 2013 Profit View, Shares Fall | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/10/10/helen-troy-again-lowers-fiscal-2013-profit-view-shares-fall.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
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<p>MARRAKECH, Morocco — Countries fishing the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean agreed Tuesday to expand the annual quota for prized Bluefin tuna to reflect an improvement in their stocks. Environmentalists insisted the increase was excessive and premature.</p>
<p>The 50-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas agreed to hike the quota from 24,000 tons this year to 28,000 next year, with a further 4,000 tons added in each of the following two years.</p>
<p>The decision means the quota has more than doubled from five years ago, when once depleted stocks of Bluefin tuna, a delicacy in sushi and sashimi dishes the world over, first started showing the potential of a recovery.</p>
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<p>“We have been able to decide a gradual increase of captures, by staying careful. And we are staying within the scientific advice,” Stefaan Depypere, the head of the European Union delegation said in an interview.</p>
<p>Environmentalists insisted the advice was more ambivalent and were bitterly disappointed since they maintain that the recovery of the Bluefin is still too fragile to permit such major increases in fishing quotas.</p>
<p>“This year was an enormous step backwards for sustainable tuna fisheries,” said Paulus Tak of the Pew Charitable Trusts.</p>
<p>Considering how many species have been overfished to near commercial extinction in the past few decades, from cod off eastern Canada to Mediterranean Bluefin, the challenge of increasing catch quotas and still safeguarding stocks is daunting and fraught with risk.</p>
<p>“The status of the stocks was ignored,” said Tak. “Instead states decided to catch more fish, faster than ever.” Environmentalists had called for a slight increase in catch quotas at best.</p>
<p>Some environmental groups are troubled by the ICCAT’s scientific findings and think they might be overly optimistic.</p>
<p>But influential partners like the 28-nation European Union and Japan believe the scientific advice has underpinned a rise in the annual catch quota to 36,000 tons by 2020. The EU said it is moving from Bluefin recovery to management of the stocks and will close off some loopholes in the system to improve efficiency.</p>
<p>Bluefin tuna’s annual market value stands around $200 million at the dock and four times more at the final point of sale.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Casert wrote from Brussels</p> | Nations decide to increase quota for Atlantic Bluefin tuna | false | https://abqjournal.com/1096049/nations-decide-to-increase-quota-for-atlantic-bluefin-tuna.html | 2017-11-21 | 2 |
<p>There are a few points worth making on the President's claim about former President Obama wiretapping him.</p>
<p />
<p>First, regardless of whether any of this sounds true and regardless of whether such a tap would require a judicial finding of probable cause against the target, there's a much bigger problem: Congressional investigations such as these are almost entirely a matter of Congress ferreting out and examining things that happened within the executive branch. To use a clumsy but helpful analogy, this kind investigation means having the folks in Congress's house find out what's in the President's house. But the President is in the President's house. He doesn't need to investigate. He knows. He's in the house! He owns the house!</p>
<p>Now, one might speculate that the executive branch is so vast and sprawling that the President somehow needs Congress to come in and figure out what's going on. But here the President has already kneecapped himself. Here's why.</p>
<p>The President says this happened. He says he has the evidence. He knows it happened. If he knows it happened, there's nothing to investigate. The President has plenary power to declassify and publicize anything he wants. Anything. He can do it by the book or he can do it basically by fiat with no one involved at all.</p>
<p>My best guess is that is a typically Trumpian development in that it involves both abject lying and a big splat of ignorance, laziness and ridiculousness of simply having no idea of how the different branches connect with each other. He hasn't realized that demanding a congressional investigation is different when you're President rather than some old guy getting angry watching Fox News in the living room. The President is in essence demanding Congress investigate him. Yes, he thinks it's Obama. But he inherited Obama's house. Whatever Obama did, Trump owns it.</p> | This Is Ridiculous | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-is-ridiculous | 4 |
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<p>Today is Day 1,134 of the Syria conflict.</p>
<p>It appears that earlier today, the Syrian government <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Apr-24/254245-activists-government-airstrikes-on-vegetable-market-in-northern-syria-kill-at-least-18-people.ashx#axzz2zoJOZKS8" type="external">conducted an airstrike</a> on a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/24/world/meast/syria-unrest/" type="external">vegetable market</a> in Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts the death count at at least 25, adding to the what is thought to be a toll of hundreds in the Aleppo governorate due to this most recent aerial campaign. The videos and photos from the attack, which as usual are something less than officially confirmed, are not pretty.</p>
<p>Some fodder for that&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/meanwhile-syria/day-1132-maybe-the-us-really-mulling-sending-manpads-syr" type="external">grimmest of ongoing parlor games</a>: "Is the US About to Step Up Military Aid?" A Syrian opposition member <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/04/23/306233248/cia-is-quietly-ramping-up-aid-to-syrian-rebels-sources-say" type="external">has told</a> NPR that those American-made missiles seen in recent rebel videos are indeed a "test" by the US government. (Recall that an analyst the New York Times talked to earlier this week said the same thing — what the rebels really want are the missiles a notch above, the ones that can shoot down government planes.) NPR also reports that "fighters are encouraged to post videos on YouTube to prove they are using the missiles for the intended purpose."</p>
<p>If the idea of YouTube being the center of the US's arms accountability plan has you nervous, don't worry: There are other methods, too. "One fighter reached via Skype," the NPR story reads, "said that they were required to return the casings of the missiles to 'a foreign intelligence agency' to prove they had used them." If all goes well, apparently the Defense Department may start sending over US military trainers, while the rebels' first request is likely to be those surface-to-air missiles (which could shoot down, for example, aircraft like the ones that dropped barrel bombs on the vegetable market in Aleppo this morning).</p>
<p>This morning, the UK government has announced what the BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27131707" type="external">calls</a> an "unprecedented appeal to Muslim women to persuade their relatives not to go to Syria to fight." This initiative also involves procedures for those with concerns to call the police without the information being passed on to MI5 (the British equivalent of the FBI), and to be contacted by "engagement officers" who will offer "support." Not everyone's sold on the program, though the need to address possible radicalization, particularly among Britsh youth, is widely acknowledged. The announcement of this latest push comes only a day after France <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/meanwhile-syria/france-going-unveil-policies-prevent-its-citizens-joinin" type="external">unveiled</a> a more comprehensive package of policies to fight this threat. France's approach, inaddition to asking parents to report suspicious activity, also involves making it more difficult for minors to leave the country without parental consent, and includes a number of initiatives targeting online recruiting.</p>
<p>In other news, President Obama <a href="http://time.com/75043/obama-syria-chemical-weapons-removed/" type="external">announced</a> from Tokyo this morning that "eighty-seven percent of Syria's chemical weapons have already been removed." This count <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/04/bashar-al-assads-deadly-loophole-in-syria-deal/" type="external">does not include</a> chlorine gas, which the regime allegedly dropped on Kafr Zita this past month.</p>
<p>The conflict continues.</p> | Day 1,134: Is the US government communicating with Syrian rebels via YouTube? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-04-24/day-1134-us-government-communicating-syrian-rebels-youtube | 2014-04-24 | 3 |
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<p>Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan Gibson speaks to the media during a visit to the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center, on Friday, in San Antonio. (Eric Gay/The Associated Press)</p>
<p>SAN ANTONIO – Investigators said they are examining allegations that supervisors in the veterans’ health system retaliated against 37 employees who complained about practices such as falsified records used to cover up months-long delays in scheduling appointments. The acting VA chief said such reprisals would not be tolerated.</p>
<p>“I think that is wrong. It is absolutely unacceptable,” Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson said Friday.</p>
<p>“There have been questions raised about intimidation or even retaliation. There is a law that forbids that, and we’ll follow the law,” Gibson said at a news conference Friday after a visit to a San Antonio VA facility.</p>
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<p>His comments came after the Office of Special Counsel said it was looking into possible retaliation against 37 employees of the VA who filed “whistleblower” complaints. The office is an independent watchdog separate from the VA which looks into whistleblower complaints from across the federal government.</p>
<p>But one of the 37 who complained of reprisals, Brian Turner, said he is not reassured by Gibson’s vow to discipline those who retaliated. Turner, who works at North Central Federal Clinic in San Antonio, said he was intimidated by his supervisors for complaining that scheduling clerks in Austin, San Antonio and Waco were regularly told to enter false information to make it appear that waiting times for appointments were far shorter than they really were.</p>
<p>“I don’t care about what (Gibson) said. I want to see action,” Turner told the Associated Press in an interview Friday.</p>
<p>The Office of Special Counsel said it had blocked disciplinary actions against three VA employees who had complained, including one who was suspended for seven days after complaining to the VA’s inspector general about improper scheduling.</p>
<p>The agency also blocked a 30-day suspension without pay for another VA employee who reported inappropriate use of patient restraints and blocked demotion of a third employee who reported mishandling of patient care funds.</p>
<p>The complaints about retaliation against whistleblowers came from 28 VA facilities in 18 states and Puerto Rico, the special counsel’s office said Friday. About half the 37 complaints have come in the last two months, or after allegations about treatment delays of up to three months for veterans and secret waiting lists first surfaced. The disclosures have set off a furor in Washington, forcing the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki last week, and prompting Congress to consider legislation to make it easier for treatment of veterans outside the VA.</p>
<p>Gibson, who has stepped in as acting secretary, apologized on Friday for the VA’s failures and said he is doing everything he can to fix the system. “We have lost an awful lot of trust, and we’ve got work to do to earn it back,” Gibson said. “With veterans, we’ll do that one veteran at a time by reaching out to veterans that have been waiting too long (for care) and saying, ‘You’ve been waiting, I want to get you in the clinic. When can you come in?'”</p>
<p>Some veterans whose names were kept off the official electronic appointment list have died, and Gibson said on Thursday that he would ask the inspector general to look into 18 more cases of deaths to see if there is any indication they were related to long waiting times. The 18 are in addition to 17 deaths reported last month.</p>
<p>The 18 veterans who died were among 1,700 veterans identified in a report last week by the VA’s inspector general as being “at risk of being lost or forgotten.” The investigation also found broad and deep-seated problems with delays in patient care and manipulation of waiting lists throughout the VA health care system, which provides medical care to about 9 million veterans and their family members.</p>
<p>Gibson said in San Antonio that he has been in daily contact with Richard Griffin, the VA’s acting inspector general, and he expressed confidence that Griffin and his investigators will be able to ferret out the truth, regardless of any attempts to squelch potential whistleblowers.</p>
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<p /> | VA acting chief: Retaliation won’t be tolerated | false | https://abqjournal.com/411971/va-acting-chief-retaliation-wont-be-tolerated.html | 2 |
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<p>Prosecutors have dropped the case against a longtime Southern Baptist minister accused of murdering his wife in 2013.</p>
<p>Richard Shahan, former children and families’ pastor and facilities director at First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., was arrested New Year’s Day 2014 and charged with fatally stabbing his wife, 52-year-old Karen Shahan, at the church-owned home they rented in July 2013.</p>
<p><a href="http://1648o73kablq2rveyn64glm1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Shahans-300x169.jpg" type="external" />Shahan pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to stand trial next month, but on April 10 the Alabama attorney general’s office <a href="http://www.ago.alabama.gov/News-1027" type="external">filed</a> a motion announcing the state doesn’t have enough evidence to prosecute at this time. The case could be revived in the future if new evidence emerges because there is no statute of limitations for murder.</p>
<p>Police questioned Shahan shortly after his wife was found dead after not showing up for work on the morning of July 23, 2013, but did not charge him at that time. Months later Shahan was arrested trying to board an international flight out of Nashville, Tenn.</p>
<p>Police said he was trying to flee prosecution, but Shahan’s lawyers said he was leaving the country to work as a missionary in Eastern Europe.</p>
<p>Court documents alleged the minister lived a secret double life and was involved in multiple relationships with men both at home and abroad. Shahan said he was out of town visiting family when his wife was apparently killed by a burglar.</p>
<p>A 1985 graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, Shahan served in ministry over the years at churches including First Baptist Church in Bryan, Texas; Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.; and Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C.</p>
<p>Since 2014 he has been out of jail on a $100,000 bond but confined to house arrest with electronic monitoring.</p>
<p>Shahan’s attorney John Lentine, <a href="http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/04/homewood_minister_charged_with.html" type="external">told</a> local media that after viewing the evidence the attorney general’s office reached “the same conclusion we knew from the beginning” and that Shahan can now begin to “put together” his life after nearly a four-year legal ordeal.</p> | Case dropped against Baptist minister charged with murder | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/case-dropped-baptist-minister-charged-murder/ | 3 |
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<p>As hundreds of names scrolled up the screen after 2012's "The Avengers," moviegoers who remained glued to their seats for a taste of the next treat in Marvel's superhero universe didn't know one name was missing — that of John Suttles, a truck driver who died helping bring the $1.5 billion blockbuster to theaters.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Every year, workers on both sides of the camera are maimed, burned, break bones and even die striving to deliver entertainment that packs multiplexes and commands top TV ratings. Injuries come not just from obvious risks such as stunts and explosives, but from falls off ladders, toppled equipment and machines without safety guards.</p>
<p>Yet in an industry where virtually everything is tallied and every success is touted, set accidents remain largely hidden and the consequences usually amount to mere thousands of dollars in fines paid out of multimillion-dollar budgets.</p>
<p>The Associated Press determined that, since 1990, at least 43 people have died on sets in the U.S. and more than 150 have been left with life-altering injuries, numbers derived by combing through data from workplace and aviation safety investigations, court records and news accounts. And those figures almost certainly don't tell the entire story: The AP found several instances in which major accidents either weren't reflected in investigation records or did not appear in an Occupational Safety and Health Administration database of the most serious set accidents.</p>
<p>Several fatal accidents in the U.S. — all outside of the traditional production centers of California and New York — were missing from the database, the most glaring being the 1993 shooting death of actor Brandon Lee during the filming of the movie "The Crow." That omission came despite OSHA officials in North Carolina amassing a 1,500-page investigative file on Lee's death. An agency spokesman blamed a clerical error.</p>
<p>Internationally, at least 37 people have died in filming accidents since 2000, including a worker killed Aug. 26 on the Budapest set of the "Blade Runner" sequel and two stuntmen who drowned in India this November. Many more have been seriously injured. No entity compiles data on international filming accidents, so the AP's tally relied on news accounts and lawsuits.</p>
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<p>Injuries to actors, such as the concussion and facial injuries Dylan O'Brien sustained in April in Canada while shooting a sequel in the "Maze Runner" film series, do gain the public's attention. And some, like Harrison Ford's broken leg suffered on the London set of the seventh "Star Wars" film in 2014, are even discussed openly during the film's marketing campaign.</p>
<p>That's not the case, however, when workers behind the camera are hurt.</p>
<p>"I think it's always been something that's been swept under the rug," said Stephen Farber, a film critic and journalist who chronicled the aftermath of the 1982 "Twilight Zone" helicopter crash that killed actor Vic Morrow and two child actors.</p>
<p>As with most workplace accidents — whether they take place on a movie set, a factory or a farm — OSHA is the investigating body.</p>
<p>The death of Brandon Lee, who was martial arts superstar Bruce Lee's son, garnered worldwide attention and prompted changes on how firearms are treated on sets. Yet it also illustrates the paltry sums companies face after serious accidents. OSHA fined the company making the "The Crow" $84,000 — the highest fine levied since 1990 — but later reduced the penalty to $55,000. "The Crow" grossed more than $50 million.</p>
<p>OSHA assessed Paramount Pictures $21,000 after the 2011 death of a worker killed while operating an aerial platform in Louisiana during production of the film "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." Almost five years later, that penalty is still being contested. Meanwhile, "G.I. Joe" has grossed more than $122 million in North America alone.</p>
<p>The agency's fines often are fiercely contested by studios and production companies, and prosecutions are rarely pursued. Most workers are legally barred from suing, and those that do encounter the reluctance of witnesses to come forward for fear of being rendered unemployable in the ultra-competitive entertainment industry.</p>
<p>The AP's review found that in nearly half the instances where OSHA fined studios or production companies after a serious accident, the penalty was reduced. The agency assessed roughly $404,000 in fines for 15 fatal accidents, with those penalties eventually knocked down to $236,000.</p>
<p>As with other big companies, OSHA's fines levied on the film industry amount to "not even a footnote in their financial reports," said Charles Jeffress, a former top administrator for the agency.</p>
<p>Hassan Adan, a regional manager for Cal/OSHA, California's workplace safety agency, said settlements are determined on a case-by-case basis and are intended to correct dangerous situations. "We try to err on the side of safety," he said.</p>
<p>Some within the industry say that, along with concerns about workers' well-being, heftier cost-related factors are a greater incentive for safety on the set.</p>
<p>"Producers never want to have any accident during the filming of a motion picture. It can be expensive," said Richard Charnley, a veteran entertainment attorney who has handled several injury cases. "They're valuable people. Sometimes you're paying hundreds of thousands a day to film."</p>
<p>J.J. Abrams, who has produced and directed major blockbuster movies — including entries in the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" franchises — said nothing is more important than crew safety, "whether you're on a spaceship or a movie set."</p>
<p>"Accidents happen and so there's that category. And then there are accidents waiting to happen," he said. "I think that film crews have done extraordinary job preventing the accidents waiting to happen."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>On May 6, 2011, John Suttles had climbed onto the back of a truck at Universal Studios in Los Angeles to check a load destined for an "Avengers" set in New Mexico. He fell backward onto the pavement, fracturing his skull, and died the following day.</p>
<p>Suttles had just a few hours of sleep before he was called back to the studio lot to pick up the Marvel load, his daughter Lanette Leon said. He'd been working on the film for weeks, even ducking out early from his 65th birthday party a month earlier to make a delivery for the then-secretive film that would cement Marvel's dominance at the summer box office.</p>
<p>"I would make a wish, but all my wishes have come true," he told friends and family before blowing out the candles on his cake.</p>
<p>After Suttles' death, family members struggled to get answers, including unsuccessfully attempting to obtain security footage of the accident.</p>
<p>The Cal/OSHA investigation ultimately found two safety violations — not having proper hand-holds on the back of the truck and not supplying drivers with first-aid kits. The film company, affiliated with the Walt Disney Company, paid a $745 fine.</p>
<p>Disney would not respond to specific questions, but issued a statement saying, "The safety of our cast and crew is always a top priority and we expect the highest standards of compliance from our production teams to ensure it." Marvel offered no comment.</p>
<p>Leon said her only interaction with the companies was going through the arduous process of securing enough workers compensation money to cover her son's schooling, which Suttles had been paying for. The production didn't give crew members time off to attend Suttles' funeral, although many workers provided donations to cover the costs, Leon said, and no contribution was made by Marvel or Disney.</p>
<p>"It was very disheartening to see that in the end, that they treated him like a number," she said.</p>
<p>"The Lone Ranger" was another Disney film with blockbuster ambitions. But instead of breaking box-office records, it notched the distinction of paying the highest fine related to a set accident in the AP's count — a $61,445 penalty for the death of diver Michael Bridger, who drowned during production. Despite the film's anemic ticket sales, the studio made that much money from its share of opening-night receipts from fewer than 50 theaters out of the thousands where it played.</p>
<p>The 24-foot tank that Bridger was called to clean on Sept. 12, 2012, should have posed little challenge for the Redondo Beach, California, native, who had been diving since he was 15. Yet it was in that tank where Bridger, alone and away from the view of co-workers, died.</p>
<p>Cal/OSHA investigators later determined that the film's production company, Silver Bullet, violated numerous safety protocols, including not offering adequate training and documentation of dives, allowing a backup diver to leave the tank Bridger was cleaning for up to 10 minutes, failing to have a person adequately trained in CPR, and not requiring Bridger and other divers to submit a recent medical examination.</p>
<p>Investigators concluded some of the violations were significant, resulting in "a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm could result from the actual hazard created by the violation."</p>
<p>After his death, Bridger was returned to the sea, with his family spreading his ashes at an ocean-side memorial service. The studio didn't send a card or flowers, his brother Tim Bridger said, and the diver's name didn't appear in the film's credits.</p>
<p>"My sense was they ran for cover," Tim Bridger said.</p>
<p>As with the "Avengers" accident, Disney did not respond to questions about the fatality.</p>
<p>Bridger said he contemplated filing a lawsuit over his brother's death, but was told there was no case because he and his mother were not dependents and workers' compensation rules mandated they could not sue. Workers' compensation rules make it the "exclusive remedy" for employees who are injured or killed. While some exceptions apply, including if the injury was caused by serious or willful misconduct by an employer, workers and their families are barred from suing in most cases.</p>
<p>Death benefits in California are capped at $320,000 for families of workers killed on the job, but only families with three or more dependents qualify for consideration for that amount.</p>
<p>The family of Julio Villamariona, a security guard killed near Los Angeles on a shoot for the hit TV series "NCIS," was able to sue CBS because he worked for a private firm, not the studio — and they won a $10.45 million verdict. The studio also paid for his funeral, and included a mention of his death in the show's credits.</p>
<p>Villamariona was killed when a production van driven by a man with a history of medical episodes behind the wheel ran over him in February 2011.</p>
<p>Like many immigrants, Villamariona had come to the United States to escape danger, leaving behind his career in the financial sector and several businesses in El Salvador to pack boxes and eventually help safeguard "NCIS" shoots. Shortly before his death, he had gained permanent residency and just been hired by a bank.</p>
<p>Family members said Villamariona's death should prompt increased safety on sets.</p>
<p>"I just hope that this accident helps these companies to be more responsible about their employees," said one of his three daughters, Yasmara Garcia.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Hollywood used to be a well-defined place, with much of the filming industry centered in and around Los Angeles at various studios, movie ranches and the city's most picturesque streets. Now, Hollywood is seemingly everywhere, with 37 states offering some level of film incentives.</p>
<p>The state of California requires productions to keep logs of worker injuries. Away from California, however, OSHA considers filming a safe industry and exempts productions from certain record-keeping requirements.</p>
<p>The investigation into a 2010 accident that critically injured an extra during shooting of the third film in Paramount's "Transformers" series offers an example of the disparity.</p>
<p>Gabriela Cedillo was driving her own car down an Indiana highway when a cable towing a stunt car snapped loose, striking her in the head and causing massive trauma. An Indiana OSHA investigator arrived at the scene three days later and was met by a studio safety officer and an attorney, OSHA's records show. Relying on witness statements collected by police and assurances that a new tow device would be designed to prevent a similar accident, the investigator closed the case three weeks later without interviewing any witnesses, writing that it would "be a waste of time."</p>
<p>Indiana OSHA officials said they could not answer questions about the handling of the case, since the inspector and his supervisor have since left the agency. And Paramount did not respond to questions about whether the towing apparatus was indeed re-designed.</p>
<p>Cedillo's family received an $18 million settlement from Paramount, but she requires a lifetime of assistance for balance and judgment issues, family attorney Todd A. Smith said.</p>
<p>"She was a lovely 24 year old, engaged and with a bright future," Smith said. "Her life changed dramatically. Her career and marriage never occurred."</p>
<p>The AP's review also found cases in which serious accidents during productions outside California were not properly catalogued. For instance, OSHA's database of fatal accidents still does not include Bryce Dion, who was killed in Omaha, Nebraska, in August 2014 while filming an attempted armed robbery at a fast-food restaurant for the "Cops" reality TV series. A stray bullet from a police officer slipped past his bulletproof vest. An OSHA spokesman attributed the omission to a delay in adding Dion's death to the database.</p>
<p>Also omitted was the 2012 death of Terry Flannell, who died while filming the opening of a reality TV series pilot for the Discovery Channel at her family's gun range in Colorado. An OSHA spokesman said the agency didn't find an employee-employer relationship between Flannell and Discovery. Although Flannell's death occurred while cameras were rolling, OSHA classified her death as an "amusement and recreation industry" fatality.</p>
<p>Government investigations are key, since they often provide the only detailed account of a set accident that is publicly available.</p>
<p>Kevin Boyle, an attorney who has handled several injury cases, said accidents within the film and TV industry are different from most workplace incidents.</p>
<p>"Usually in a severe injury or death case, there are numerous witnesses who want to come forward to help out the victim," Boyle said. "When the entertainment industry is involved, witnesses are very reluctant to come forward. People who work for the entertainment industry are very afraid of retribution and they're always looking out for that next job, so a lot of times these on-set injuries and deaths go under the radar."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Within the industry, a broad coalition — including the major Hollywood studios and labor unions — has created its own training programs and conducts monthly meetings to discuss safety practices. Many say the efforts have led to improved safety, though several on-set accidents still occur most years.</p>
<p>Stunt performers, like the one seriously hurt July 6 north of Los Angeles while filming the upcoming TV series "Shooter," are among the most likely to be injured. But just as likely are carpenters, with a number of them suffering partial or complete amputations of fingers, records show.</p>
<p>The AP found 25 instances of amputations occurring during productions since 1990, with the most recent taking place in 2013, when a worker on the TV show "The New Girl" lost part of his ring finger when he was cut by a saw that had an anti-kick safety device removed for unspecified reasons. Twentieth Century Fox was fined $18,000.</p>
<p>Warner Bros. was fined $18,560 after a worker breaking down a set on the movie "Jersey Boys" fell 37 feet from a studio catwalk where a rail had been removed, again for unknown reasons. The worker suffered bruised ribs and required facial reconstruction, OSHA records show, but likely escaped more serious injuries or death because she grabbed a rope on the way down. OSHA reduced the fine to $1,310 after determining it could not prove Warner Bros. knew the rail was missing.</p>
<p>A new 40,000-square-foot training facility in Burbank, California, represents the next major effort to improve filming safety. The site is the home of the Safety Pass program, which since 2003 has trained more than 50,000 workers in many areas, including the proper use of forklifts and heavy machinery in rough terrain, erecting scaffolds, and using gear to prevent serious falls, according to its administrator, the Contract Services Administration Trust Fund.</p>
<p>This year, it will begin an ambitious program to have tens of thousands of set workers take refresher courses. The curriculum covers dozens of topics, although some guilds want even more courses added, including safety on productions involving water.</p>
<p>"The challenge you have with water accidents is that when they go bad, it's very, very serious," said Thom Davis, business manager for IATSE Local 80, which represents a variety of motion picture laborers, including grips, medics, craft service and water workers. "Nobody gets a splinter in the water."</p>
<p>Richard Jones and his wife, Elizabeth, have become set safety evangelists since the death of their daughter while she was working as a camera assistant on the Gregg Allman biopic "Midnight Rider" in Jessup, Georgia, in February 2014.</p>
<p>A few times a year, Jones visits sets to describe the last frightening moments of Sarah Jones' life: A location shoot turned deadly when a train unexpectedly came roaring down the tracks, with the blaring of its horn the only warning of danger. In the space of mere moments, his 27-year-old daughter was struck and killed. The production did not have permission to shoot on the tracks, leading director Randall Miller to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with Jones' death. He served half of a two-year sentence in the only domestic prosecution involving a set accident since "The Twilight Zone."</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the Joneses' evangelism brought them to a crowded room near downtown Los Angeles where the actresses Shirley MacLaine and Amanda Seyfried prepared to shoot a scene for the upcoming film "The Last Word."</p>
<p>"Please look out for each other," he told the group as he ended his remarks.</p>
<p>MacLaine stepped forward. "Thanks for reminding all of us we've got to protect each other," she said, before telling Sarah's parents that she believed their efforts would lead to better practices.</p>
<p>Through their Sarah Jones Foundation, the Joneses also are planning a documentary about their daughter and safety efforts, and they're trying to get a "Safety for Sarah" logo included in the end credits of TV shows and films certifying the productions put safety first. Several productions — including TV's "The Vampire Diaries," which Sarah Jones worked on — have included the logo.</p>
<p>"She loved the industry," Richard Jones said. "We don't want to tear it down. We want to make it better and make it safer."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP</p> | AP: Too quiet on the set; filming accidents often go untold | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/20/ap-too-quiet-on-set-filming-accidents-often-go-untold.html | 2016-11-21 | 0 |
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<p>The Hawks (12-4, 1-0) scored a run in their first at-bats, added three runs in the third and closed out the scoring with two more in the fourth.</p>
<p>"They just came out and hit the ball against us and we didn't do a good job today," CHS coach Shane Shallenberger lamented.</p>
<p>"We took a lot of pitches - we weren't aggressive at the plate (against VVHS pitcher Cody Trujillo, who went the distance and scattered just four hits). I don't think Royce (Cleveland, Storm starter) pitched badly today; he gave up some hits," Shallenberger added. "He kept us in it. Six runs? We average more runs than that per game."</p>
<p>Half of the Storm's hits came in the seventh, when Brandon Larson doubled and Mikal Rojas singled, although Larson was stopped at third.</p>
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<p>Kyler Petty then hit into a game-ending double play.</p>
<p>It was the first time the Storm (12-6, 0-1) had been shut out this season.</p>
<p>Cleveland faced Cibola in a twinbill Saturday; the Rams visit Tuesday at 6.</p> | Storm stopped in their 1-5A opener by Hawks | false | https://abqjournal.com/386285/11-19-21-18.html | 2 |
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<p>Last weekend, central Florida newspaper The Daily Commercial admitted to their heavy anti-Trump bias this election cycle, telling their readers that they “deserve a more balanced approach to the coverage" of Republican nominee Donald Trump.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/20161023/media-election-and-bias" type="external">open letter</a>, described as “part explanation, part reflection and part mea culpa," The Daily Commercial acknowledges that they have not "done enough to mitigate the anti-Trump wave" in their paper. Although the publication is apologetic, The Daily Commercial also pushes partial blame on Trump's outlandish statements and their small size, which apparently leaves them unable to cover all of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's shortcomings.</p>
<p>“The Daily Commercial hasn’t done enough to mitigate the anti-Trump wave in the pages of this paper,” states the open letter, titled "The media, the election and bias."</p>
<p>The publication explains that the open letter comes in light of the recent avalanche of complaints about their anti-Trump bias from an "uncomfortably sizable number of our readers." The apology reads:</p>
<p>Frankly, an uncomfortably sizable number of our readers have been writing and calling to express their dissatisfaction with what they believe is the media’s bias toward Donald Trump, and they are pointed in their criticism of the Daily Commercial, which they believe has gotten swept up in the anti-Trump wave. We felt we owed you a response.</p>
<p>While the paper notes that Trump is his own worst enemy, prompting media to "fact fact" him continuously via his "penchant for exaggeration and duplicity," The Daily Commercial acknowledges the lack of coverage on Hillary and her "strained relationship with the truth."</p>
<p>Has the media been biased against Trump? Yes, we believe so, especially lately. Trump’s every utterance, no matter how innocuous, is now parsed, analyzed and criticized by a litany of political pundits. The wire services that the Daily Commercial subscribes to churn out stories almost daily that fact check Trump, which is warranted given his penchant for exaggeration and duplicity. Yet those same services turn out so few stories that fact check Clinton, who also has a strained relationship with the truth.</p>
<p>And while hundreds of stories have attempted to shed light on Trump’s feelings about women, minorities, his business dealings, his taxes and more, so little has been written about some of Clinton’s questionable decisions as secretary of state, her emails and the fact that she and Bill have somehow amassed incredible wealth during their political careers. That certainly deserves scrutiny.</p>
<p>Making it clear that this is not an endorsement of Trump, the paper explains that they are trying to do better when it comes to Trump coverage, "[bu]ut in retrospect, we haven’t gone far enough."</p>
<p>Here’s the mea culpa: The Daily Commercial hasn’t done enough to mitigate the anti-Trump wave in the pages of this paper. We’ve tried to be circumspect about the stories we run, the headlines we put on them, the political cartoons we publish (we recently abandoned our usual cartoonists in favor of a service that is not so unrelentingly anti-Trump). Our editors have even re-edited some wire stories that we thought used loaded language to describe Trump. But in retrospect, we haven’t gone far enough.</p>
<p>The voter "deserve[s] better than we in the media have given you," confesses The Daily Commercial.</p>
<p>"You deserve a more balanced approach to the coverage of elections and other weighty issues," concludes the open letter.</p>
<p>Now we just need an admission of anti-Trump bias from <a href="" type="internal">CNN</a>, <a href="http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2016/10/31/study-big-three-networks-attack-comey-over-clinton-3-1" type="external">ABC, CBS, NBC,</a> etc. But don't hold your breath.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/10/30/fla-paper-makes-unprecidented-apology-readers-anti-trump-coverage-deserve-balance-406267#ixzz4OjqiY3p8" type="external">H/T</a>Bizpac Review</p> | Florida Newspaper Admits: ‘You Deserve More Balance’ on Trump | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10404/florida-newspaper-admits-you-deserve-more-balance-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-11-01 | 0 |
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<p>Spurring economic growth to keep America competitive emerged as a central theme in the main event Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee sponsored by the FOX Business Network and the Wall Street Journal.</p>
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<p>The debate is focusing on economic themes.</p>
<p>Each of the top eight GOP candidates as determined by a series of national polls called for tax reforms that would lower the corporate tax rate for U.S. companies, currently the highest in the industrialized world.</p>
<p>In addition, the candidates all agreed that too much regulation, in their view, is strangling U.S. businesses, especially small businesses that can't afford to adhere to all of the new rules imposed by sweeping legislation such as Obamacare, the president's signature health care reform bill, and the Dodd-Frank banking reform legislation.</p>
<p>Texas Senator Ted Cruz said the hyper-regulatory environment under the Democratic administration has "descended like locusts on small businesses." He also called for a "bold and simple flat tax" that will create "a booming" U.S. economy.</p>
<p>"The Obama economy is a disaster," Cruz said.</p>
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<p>Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called for tax reform that allows U.S. companies to better compete with China, for instance. He also called for repealing an array of Obama-era regulations, many of them tied to the environment, whose "economic costs far exceed the benefits."</p>
<p>Both Donald Trump and Ben Carson, two non-career politicians who have traded places for months alternating as the GOP front-runner, said they would not raise the minimum wage to $15, as many have called for. Both candidates said raising costs for employers by forcing them to pay employees higher wages would make the businesses less competitive against overseas competitors.</p>
<p>"How do we allow people to ascend the ladder of opportunity?" Carson asked, summing up his philosophy of keeping America competitive.</p>
<p>Florida Senator Marco Rubio called for an array of reforms all designed to increase U.S. competitiveness, including lowering taxes, cutting regulations and improving the American higher education system to better prepare Americans for the high-tech jobs that have replaced low-skilled jobs that have moved overseas. "Our higher education system is completely outdated," Rubio asserted.</p>
<p>Rubio also opposes raising the minimum wage: "If you raise the minimum wage, you're going to make people more expensive than a machine."</p>
<p>Ohio Gov. John Kasich also called for improvements to higher education, lower taxes and cutting government spending.</p>
<p>Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina said the ever-expanding federal government and costs associated with that growth are "crushing the engine of economic growth." She has called for a three-page tax code to simplify the tax burden on businesses and American citizens.</p>
<p>"Obamacare is crushing small businesses," Fiorina added. "The secret sauce of America is innovation and entrepreneurship.&#160; It's crushed by the crushing load of a 73 page tax code.&#160; Crushed by bureaucrats who don't do their job well."</p>
<p>Tennessee Sen. Rand Paul said the "easy money" policies of the Federal Reserve are contributing to increasing income disparities in the U.S.</p> | GOP Candidates: Keep America Competitive | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2015/11/10/gop-candidates-keep-america-competitive.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
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<p>China has set its economic growth projection range at 6.5 to 7 percent, an official from the country's top economic planner said at a briefing on Wednesday.</p>
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<p>Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said downward pressure on the world's second largest economy will remain in 2016.</p>
<p>He added that China's investment is now focused on fixing weak points and structural adjustments, including infrastructure in the central and western regions, education and healthcare sectors.</p>
<p>Xu also said that China's basic infrastructure investment growth increased 15 percent last year.</p>
<p>(Reporting By Sue-lin Wong; Editing by Sam Holmes)</p> | China Sets '16 Growth Range at 6.5 to 7% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/03/china-sets-16-growth-range-at-6-5-to-7.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Two more deaths were confirmed in North Carolina from damage and flooding caused by Hurricane Matthew, the governor said Thursday, bringing the total storm-related deaths there to at least 22.</p>
<p>Authorities were also investigating a third possible death in North Carolina, Gov. Pat McCrory said.</p>
<p>One person in Lenoir County drowned after a vehicle went around a barricade and ending up on a flooded road, and a man walking in Robeson County died after falling into a hole left by an uprooted tree and couldn’t escape, he said.</p>
<p>"We’ve stressed again, to please be safe," McCrory said. "Stay off the roads, stay out of water... Our prayers are with the families being impacted by these tragedies."</p>
<p>More than 43,700 customers remained without power Thursday, five days after the Category 1 hurricane pummeled the state with heavy rain after lashing South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.</p>
<p>Princeville, a town of 2,000 around 73 miles east of Raleigh, was “basically under water,” McCrory said, with some areas under 10 to 12 feet of water.</p>
<p>The historic community of Princeville is the oldest town chartered by Africa-Americans in the nation. It was settled by freed slaves after the Civil War and incorporated in 1885. The town was devastated by flooding caused by rains from Hurricane Floyd in 1999.</p>
<p>McCrory raised Princeville’s mayor and local authorities for ensuring that the entire town was evacuated ahead of the storm, which has a history of floods. "We have not had a loss of life in a town that is totally under water," McCrory said.</p>
<p>McCrory flew over the town and saw water up to and over the roofs of houses and mobile homes, he said. He plans to visit Friday. Lumberton, around 140 miles away, was also inundated and rescuers used boats and helicopters to save residents.</p>
<p>"We're going to have a lot of work to do in Princeville, a lot of work, a lot of recovery," McCrory said. "We're going to have to rebuild a town."</p>
<p>An additional death was also reported in Dillon County, South Carolina, that state's governor said at a press conference, bringing the number of deaths in that state to four.</p>
<p>At least 42 people in all were killed either by the Hurricane Matthew or died due to complications caused by it in Florida, Georgia, and South and North Carolina, authorities said.</p>
<p>In Haiti, more than 1,000 people were reported killed by the hurricane. The U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, said Thursday it would provide more than $12 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Haiti, the Bahamas and Jamaica.</p> | Death Toll Rises to 22 in North Carolina From Hurricane Matthew | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-matthew/death-toll-rises-22-north-carolina-hurricane-matthew-n666031 | 2016-10-14 | 3 |
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<p>In case you haven't noticed, Mark Zuckerberg is really bullish on video. Live video, professional video, amateur video, short-form, long-form -- any and all of it, Zuck wants to see it on Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). In the company's most recent earnings call, he described video as a "megatrend on the same order as mobile."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But the growth of video on Facebook presents a serious problem for the company. Granted, it's a good problem to have.</p>
<p>As more people spend their time watching videos on Facebook, they're spending less time looking at ads. Facebook still doesn't monetize videos directly. Although the growth of video may have led to an increase in the number of video ads Facebook shows, advertisers aren't paying any more for those ads than they paid for static display ads.</p>
<p>Image source: Facebook.</p>
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<p>By far the biggest driver of ad revenue growth has been an increasing number of ad impressions. Total ad impressions increased around 50% year over year in each quarter of 2016.</p>
<p>Ad impression growth is driven by three factors.</p>
<p>The last of those factors will slow meaningfully in the latter half of 2017. CFO Dave Wehner warned analysts last year that Facebook is nearing ad load saturation on its flagship platform.</p>
<p>While the first factor continues to improve with no signs of a slowdown, the second factor is being driven by video content. "Video's one of the big drivers of engagement growth on Facebook. It's also helpful on Instagram," Wehner told analysts on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.</p>
<p>The problem is if users are watching videos, they're not looking at ads. (At least, not yet.) If videos start cutting into time users would have otherwise spent browsing their news feed -- which is stuffed with ads -- it's going to start negatively impacting Facebook's ad impressions.</p>
<p>Facebook's ad prices went up slightly in each quarter of 2016, but contributed much less significantly to revenue growth. Importantly, ad price growth is slowing.</p>
<p>Data sources: Facebook quarterly earnings calls.</p>
<p>Wehner says the biggest factor affecting average ad price is the shift of more users to mobile devices, where there are no right-hand column ads. Those ads don't fetch the same prices as native news feed advertisements, so as they represent a smaller portion of total ad impressions the average ad price increases.</p>
<p>However, Facebook says it's also seen an increase in video advertisements, which are supposed to provide better value to advertisers than static ads. "As consumer video has grown in news feed, it's given us the opportunity for video ads because the format of the ads fits the format of what consumers are doing," COO Sheryl Sandberg said on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. Despite the increase in video ads, it's having very little impact on average ad prices.</p>
<p>That may be due to supply-side factors. With the supply of ads increasing 50% last year, there was no need for advertisers to pay more to place their video ads in the News Feed. Video ads use the same bidding system as all the other Facebook news feed ads, so a video ad can simply replace a static ad at the same price if supply and demand grow at a roughly equal rate. As supply growth comes down in 2017, we may see the value of video ads come through in Facebook's price per ad as they compete for more limited ad space.</p>
<p>There's a lot riding on Facebook's management being able to monetize its video ads directly or otherwise increase the prices brands pay for video ads. While investors expect a slowdown in revenue growth after a hugely successful 2016, Wall Street analysts still see the social network producing a strong 36% increase in sales this year.</p>
<p>With ad load growth no longer a significant factor for Facebook and videos taking up more of the time users spend on the app and website, video monetization presents the biggest problem for Facebook to solve over the next year or so. If it can't figure it out and ad prices don't increase meaningfully, it risks falling short of high expectations.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/adamlevy/info.aspx" type="external">Adam Levy Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Video Became One of Facebook's Biggest Risks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/09/how-video-became-one-facebook-biggest-risks.html | 2017-02-09 | 0 |
<p>Ten years after the US invaded Afghanistan, the anti-war movement in America looks remarkably similar to what it was in 1972 – ten years after the US invaded South Vietnam. In each case, more than two-thirds of the American public oppose the war, but the press and ‘educated opinion’ – hence the ideological institutions, notably the universities – support it. Our rulers’ task, in cases 40 years apart, is therefore to make sure that democracy is ineffective.</p>
<p>There are other differences. The wars are very different: Vietnam was not important to the US except as a demonstration war – an illustration that countries are not to be allowed to develop independently, without coordinating their economies with US control. (And the US established the point by killing four million Asians, despite those who claim the US lost in Vietnam: its complete war aims were not achieved, but the important point was made clear to all – look at the SE Asian economies today.)</p>
<p>Afghanistan (“Pipelinistan,” as Pepe Escobar says) is much more important to the US elite than Vietnam ever was. It’s the keystone of the region that the US State Department in 1945 said contained “the world’s greatest material prize” – Mideast oil. Today the US government is threatening, invading, and occupying countries from North Africa to the Indian subcontinent, and from Central Asia to the Horn of Africa – a vast circle with a 2,000-mile radius – the Greater Middle East. (The US military calls it “Central Command.”) Control and not just access to those energy resources is what the US government demands: the US in fact imports very little oil from the Mideast, but control gives the US government an unparalleled advantage over its oil-hungry rivals in Europe and Asia. We’re killing people in the Mideast and North Africa because China needs oil, and our government wants to control where they get it. Our government says that we’re conducting these vastly expensive wars to stop terrorism and protect civilians; but it’s obvious that, instead, we’re killing civilians and creating terrorists.</p>
<p>Finally, the US is a very different country today. In 1972 it was a wealthy and prosperous society, with a self-confident middle class. Forty years of Neoliberal counter-attack to “the Sixties” have seen wages and standards of living stagnate or decline, even before the crisis of 2007/8 – out of which the rich 1% prospered and the 99% declined even further.</p>
<p>And in these circumstances, the US population is subject to the greatest propaganda manipulation in history, because of the failure of US propaganda in the 1970s, when 70% of Americans saw the Vietnam war as “fundamentally wrong and immoral,” not “a mistake.” In his&#160;My Struggle&#160;(1925/6), “Adolph Hitler suggested that the Germans lost the First World War because they could not match Anglo-American propaganda achievements, and he vowed that next time Germany would be ready. It had a big impact on future developments” [Noam Chomsky].</p>
<p>Barack Obama wrote in&#160;The Audacity of Hope&#160;that “the greatest casualty of that [Vietnam] war was the bond of trust between the American people and their government.” (Paul Street, who quotes the remark, comments, “as if the deaths of millions of Indochinese and 58,000 U.S. GIs were secondary and as if popular American skepticism towards the designs of the U.S. foreign policy establishment isn’t a sign of democratic health.”) Obama sees his job accurately as to restore that “trust between the American people and their government” in regard to his war-making as well as his exploitative economic policy – although his account of the war is a lie.</p>
<p>The first task of the anti-war movement in 2011 is to overcome its co-option by the Democrats in the elections of 2006 and 2008, and dispel the propaganda fog of the Obama administration. Obama’s killing in the Mideast and Africa is more widespread, efficient, and brutal than Bush’s ever was, but the policy remains what it has been for more than a generation. &#160;The anti-war movement must make that clear to the American people – and that it’s being done in our name.</p>
<p>C. G. Estabrook retired as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana;he conducts “News from Neptune,” a weekly hour of political commentary on Urbana Public (IL) Television – and can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | The State of the Anti-War Movement | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/09/28/the-state-of-the-anti-war-movement/ | 2011-09-28 | 4 |
<a href="" type="internal">Trump’s executive order</a>, which restricts&#160;travel for 90 days from seven countries: Yemen, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, and Libya. US District Court Judge James Robart granted the attorneys general of Washington State and Minnesota a temporary retraining order, which prohibits&#160;federal employees from enforcing Trump’s executive order. Robart’s ruling applies nationwide. Hours before Robart’s ruling, US District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton issued a ruling refusing to extend an&#160;order that temporarily&#160;blocked&#160;the enforcement of Trump’s executive order. Robart was appointed by President George W. Bush; Gorton was appointed by President George H.W. Bush. Friday night, the&#160;White House said the Justice Department will challenge Robart’s ruling. Judge Robart wrote in his seven-page ruling: Citing
<a href="http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions%5Cpub%5C15/15-40238-CV0.pdf" type="external">Texas v. United States (5th Cir. 2015)</a>, Robart declared&#160;that the temporary restraining order (TRO) applies&#160;nationwide. Judge Gorton wrote: Response to Count I: Equal Protection Response to Count II: Establishment Clause Response to Count III: Due Process Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson
<a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-judge-temporarily-blocks-trump-immigration-order-nationwide-n716706" type="external">told reporters</a>: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the Justice Department will file a counter motion “at the earliest possible time.” 30 January —&#160;
<a href="http://2dmibv10v2ssjm7g015dm681.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/TRO-Request-Ferguson-v-Trump.pdf" type="external">Washington State’s request</a> for a temporary restraining order 3 February — The Trump
<a href="http://2dmibv10v2ssjm7g015dm681.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Admin-Response-to-Ferguson-TRO.pdf" type="external">Administration’s response brief</a> 3 February —
<a href="http://2dmibv10v2ssjm7g015dm681.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/gorton-ruling.pdf" type="external">Gorton’s ruling</a> 3 February —
<a href="http://2dmibv10v2ssjm7g015dm681.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2017_2003_robart_tro_ruling.pdf" type="external">Robart’s ruling</a> Share on
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<a href="" type="internal">Email</a> | Judge Temporarily Halts Trump’s Immigration Order | false | http://thewhim.com/judge-temporarily-halts-trumps-immigration-order/ | 2017-02-04 | 2 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal">With this Arch Hosting deal</a>, You'll receive 2GB of SSD storage space and 500GB of bandwidth for one domain, with free SSL certificates for all domains and subdomains. Technical improvements include increased PHP memory limit for improved script performance, and SSD-powered for blazing fast I/O. Plus, you'll get a domain free for a year. Usually, this Arch Hosting deal is $540, but <a href="" type="internal">you can get it now for $24.99</a>.</p>
<p>Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts we may collect a share of sales. &#160;&#160;&#160;</p> | Get a Lifetime of Web Hosting For Just $25 | true | https://thedailybeast.com/get-a-lifetime-of-web-hosting-for-just-dollar25 | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>NBC News defended itself Wednesday after questions were raised about whether it had fumbled an explosive story about Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual assaults that network contributor Ronan Farrow broke instead in The New Yorker magazine.</p>
<p>It was the same day NBC came under withering attack from President Donald Trump for a story the network DID report, about whether the president sought in a summer meeting to greatly increase the nation's nuclear stockpile.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Farrow's story, released by the magazine Tuesday, offered new details about Weinstein's alleged behavior with women that followed an investigation published last week in The New York Times. The Times' story led to Weinstein's firing from the film company that bears his name.</p>
<p>Farrow, who had a short-lived daytime show on MSNBC, had been working on the Weinstein story for NBC News. He told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that earlier this year, he had a woman who granted an on-camera interview about Weinstein's behavior. NBC News President Noah Oppenheim said Wednesday that the network reached a point this summer where it didn't feel all the elements were in place to air a story and didn't stand in Farrow's way when he wanted to take his reporting elsewhere.</p>
<p>Farrow said on MSNBC that he "walked into The New Yorker with an explosively publishable piece that should have been reported earlier and immediately The New Yorker recognized that." He said there were "multiple determinations" at NBC News that he had a story ready to report.</p>
<p>Oppenheim, in remarks he made at a town hall meeting Wednesday that the network released publicly, said that Farrow had greatly expanded the scope of his reporting after taking it to The New Yorker.</p>
<p>"The stunning story, the incredible story that we all read yesterday, was not the story that we were looking at when we made our judgment several months ago," he said.</p>
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<p>Farrow said that he had personally been threatened with a lawsuit by Weinstein. Many news organizations that cover Hollywood have faced questions about why it took so long to report on conduct that had allegedly been occurring over many years. Yet it was a difficult story that took bravery for women to come forward with details against one of the most powerful men in their industry.</p>
<p>Oppenheim said "the notion that we would try to cover for a powerful person is deeply offensive to all of us," noting other news organizations that had tried but failed to get the story.</p>
<p>The NBC News leader said NBC had nothing to be ashamed of its decision. Still, questions will remain about why it essentially gave up on the story at that point instead of urging Farrow forward.</p>
<p>"We are going to keep digging," Oppenheim said. "We are going to keep pursuing these stories. We are not always going to be the ones that get it to the finish line, but I think more often than not, we will be."</p>
<p>For NBC News, the questions came a year after another news organization broke the story of then-candidate Trump making lewd comments during a taping of "Access Hollywood," remarks that had been in the archives of the NBC-owned entertainment show for years.</p>
<p>Trump, meanwhile, was furious with NBC on Wednesday for its story about the president's nuclear ambitions as reportedly stated in a national security meeting this summer. NBC last week broke the story about Secretary of State reportedly calling Trump a "moron" this summer.</p>
<p>Trump disputed the truth of Wednesday's story in a tweet, wondering, "at what point is it appropriate to challenge their license?" The Federal Communications Commission regulates what television stations have access to the nation's airwaves.</p> | NBC News president defends losing Weinstein story | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/11/nbc-news-president-defends-losing-weinstein-story.html | 2017-10-11 | 0 |
<p>Kristin Callahan/ZUMA</p>
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<p>On Wednesday, at the end of a day dominated by reports that his aides had gleefully shut down a bridge as payback to a political rival, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie <a href="" type="internal">took a moment to apologize</a>. Sort of. "What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable," Christie said in a statement. "I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge." The political apology (or non-apology, as the case may be), is an art form. But as with other art forms, its intricacies are often lost on the general public.</p>
<p>Below are excerpts from some of the more infamous apologies made by American politicians and Rob Ford. Can you match the apology to the offender?</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | QUIZ: Match the Political Scandal to the Apology | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/quiz-match-political-scandal-apology/ | 2014-01-09 | 4 |
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<p>Barnes &amp; Noble (NYSE:BKS) will begin offering on Sunday a free Nook Simple Touch e-reader with each purchase of a Nook HD+ tablet, the bookseller said Friday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The one-week offer for a free Nook e-reader, normally priced at $79, will be available at Barnes &amp; Noble stores, the company’s retailer partners and online.</p>
<p>In addition to generating interest in the $269 Nook tablet, Barnes &amp; Noble’s promotion could also boost sales of digital content, which rose 13% last quarter.</p>
<p>According to research firm IHS iSuppli, overall e-book reader shipments are projected to total just 7.1 million units worldwide by 2016. That would reflect a decline of two-thirds from volume recorded in 2011.</p>
<p>“We have a highly acclaimed line of NOOK products and from time to time offer promotional opportunities that are well received by our customers,” Barnes &amp; Noble spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating said when asked about the decision to offer a free e-reader. “This is an incredible deal—probably the deepest value we've ever offered since launching our award-winning line of products.”</p>
<p>Barnes &amp; Noble also offered a one-time deal last year, when it gave away its e-reader, priced at $99 at the time, to customers who bought a one-year Nook subscription to The New York Times for $19.99 a month.</p>
<p>Barnes &amp; Noble shares were down 27 cents, or 1.6%, at Friday’s close.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Barnes & Noble Offers Free E-Reader With Nook Tablet | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/03/22/barnes-noble-offers-free-e-reader-with-nook-tablet.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
<p>DAVOS, Switzerland — Thomas Mann's 1924 classic novel, "Der Zauberberg" ("The Magic Mountain"), begins with a young man traveling by rail to Davos, in the Grisons. The "thrilling part of the journey" is the "steep and steady climb" though the passes and the crisp mountain air of the Swiss Alps. His destination: "The International Sanatorium Berghoff."</p>
<p>The rail journey today is just as thrilling, but the business of Davos back then was tuberculosis. Today it's alpine sports and conventions.</p>
<p>For one week every year at the end of January, the town is transformed to host the World Economic Forum which, with its unrivalled convening powers, gathers the great and the wannabees from the world of business, with a smattering of kings, queens, government ministers, politicians, religious leaders, NGOs, journalists, entertainers, academics, Nobel laureates, a few novelists and a musician or two.</p>
<p>This year no less than 44 chiefs of state and heads of governments will be in residence, and, as the forum's founder, the Swiss-German economist Professor Klaus Schwab, says: "It is a time of crisis and unprecedented uncertainty, even fear, but also a time of opportunity."</p>
<p>The behind-the-scenes security of the efficient Swiss will be formidable. Helicopters will be shuttling VIPs from and to Zurich's international airport, and the usual fleets of sleek limousines are at the ready. For businessmen this is not an inexpensive gathering. The tab is about $40,000 give or take a few grand. Lesser mortals, such as journalists, don't have to pay to participate. Forum sources say that the fall-off, given the desperate state of the economy, is not as great as might be feared, and the total number of participants will number about 2,500. But there are far fewer American bankers coming this year.</p>
<p>This is not a ski holiday for CEOs, however. The forum puts you to work with seminars, lectures and panels that start early in the morning and go on into the night. It is a chance for businessmen to meet their colleagues and be exposed to other points of view than normally come up in boardrooms. It is a chance to meet and talk to world leaders and colleagues from other countries in an informal setting. This year I already have an invitation to attend a breakfast with Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani and&#160;lunch with Mongolia's president Nambaryn Enkhbayar. Vladimir Putin is expected to attend,&#160;Jordan's King Abdullah often does, as&#160;well as&#160;Palestine's Mahmoud Abbas. Israel's Shimon Peres is a regular, as were U.S. Sens. Joe Biden and John McCain, but they won't make it this year with so much work to be done at home. The forum had hoped for a video hook up with President Obama, but that is looking very unlikely.</p>
<p>Former President Bill Clinton loves Davos so much that he started up his own rival forum, and there is a ski run here called "Hillary," just because she once skied here. "We Europeans like Hillary very much", said Ute Koller, whose hotel will soon be taken over by the forum participants. She, like so many Europeans, is enthusiastic about Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Former President George W. Bush never came, but he did send former Vice President Dick Cheney one year and his secretary of state Condoleezza Rice another. This year most of the Americans who have jobs with the new administration are not coming. National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and National Security Advisor James Jones cancelled at the last minute.</p>
<p>The ethos is ski-resort informality with ties discouraged during working sessions. I used to find it odd to see falcon-faced Saudi princes dressed in apres-ski sweaters. Because there are no big-city distractions, participants are thrown together, "committed to improving the state of the world, " which is the forum's motto. The theme this year will be "shaping the post-crisis world."</p>
<p>The financial meltdown is destined to dominate discussions here, for if Davos is the beating heart of capitalism, there will be symptoms of arrhythmia felt in this valley.</p>
<p>Much of what goes on here goes on in out-of-view meetings over late night drinks. There was a time when Palestinians and Israelis could move the ball a bit forward at the forum. A few years back Iranians started coming to test the waters. When the Soviet Union collapsed, inheritor states, "the stans" as the countries of Central Asia are sometimes called, came here to learn how the capitalist world worked.</p>
<p>Harvard and Yale always have an evening reception, and this year Oxford is having one too. In recent years the Chinese and the Indians have been prominent as their economies grew, and last year there was very much a sense of the torch being passed from West to East with the rising economies of Asia. This year's recession is sinking all boats, however.</p>
<p>The forum, now in its 39th year, is Schwab's brain child. He perceived the power of business to change the world for the better, if it could be harnessed. There are regional satellite forums now around the world, and although Schwab's concept has been much copied it has never been bettered as a forum of ideas for those who do much of the world's work.</p> | Inside Davos | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-01-26/inside-davos | 2009-01-26 | 3 |
<p>Harvard Medical School has <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/8/10/daley-medical-school-dean/" type="external">a new dean this year</a> and some students view this as an opportunity to promote a new agenda at the revered institution.</p>
<p>According to these students, the study of medicine is severely lacking in social justice.</p>
<p>The Harvard Crimson <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/9/1/HMS-agenda-new-dean/" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>Students Draft ‘Social Justice Agenda’ for New Medical Dean</p>
<p>More than a hundred gathered at the Medical School Wednesday to develop a list of priorities for the new dean to help make the school more diverse, convening after a semester of campus activism aimed at selecting a leader dedicated to the issue.</p>
<p />
<p>The event was organized by students at the Medical and Dental School and included discussion groups in which students generated items for a “social justice agenda” they plan to deliver to the new dean George Q. Daley ’82, who was in attendance. They requested more representation of students on faculty search committees and increased diversity within the student body.</p>
<p>The discussion among students, faculty, and staff comes months after student activists amplified efforts to influence the Medical School dean search, and after a year of heightened campus activism surrounding issues of diversity. In January, members of the Racial Justice Coalition, comprised of Medical and Dental School students, delivered a petition to University President Drew G. Faust calling on administrators to select a dean dedicated to increasing diversity. About 300 students signed the petition…</p>
<p>At the event, Medical School professor and renowned humanitarian Paul Farmer gave an address highlighting the importance of student voices in decision-making.</p>
<p>“The students drive a lot of the agenda here, and a lot of the dean’s agenda,” he said.</p>
<p>Farmer spoke directly to Daley in response to a question about what a new dean can do to make widespread changes at the school.</p>
<p>“We need a more diverse faculty—senior faculty,” Farmer said, calling the issue of faculty diversity among the “obvious” challenges for Daley.</p>
<p>Daley, who will take over as dean in January 2017, spoke to the audience, his remarks unplanned.</p>
<p>“I will listen. I will listen to every one of you,” he said. “And I will commit myself, on behalf of Paul [Farmer], on behalf of all of you, to aspire to do better.”</p>
<p>This is yet another example of the effort of the left to inject their politics into everything, even the science of medicine. Don’t be surprised twenty years from now if your doctor tells you he’s concerned about your blood pressure, then recommends you avoid microaggressions and spend more time in safe spaces.</p>
<p>Current tuition at Harvard Medical School? <a href="http://medstudenthandbook.hms.harvard.edu/601-tuition-and-fees" type="external">$58,000 per year</a>.</p>
<p>Dr. Daley is a highly respected scientist with a background in stem cell research making him a natural fit to take over as Dean of HMS. He also seems to understand the environment he’s stepping into.</p>
<p>STAT News <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2016/08/09/george-daley-harvard-medical-school-dean/" type="external">reported</a>:</p>
<p>Daley’s appointment comes at a time when student groups have been calling on Harvard to pick a dean who will make social justice and racial diversity a priority.</p>
<p>As a white man, “I don’t myself represent that diversity,” Daley said. But he said he wants Harvard Med’s faculty, students, and staff to reflect the global community the school aims to serve. Daley said he has tried to promote diversity in hiring for his 30-person lab, though he didn’t have a racial breakdown available.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t medical science be above this sort of thing? If there’s one area where absolutely everything should be merit based, it’s the business of saving lives.</p>
<p>Featured image is a <a href="http://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/assets/Multimedia/Wallpapers/Gordon-Hall.jpg" type="external">screen cap</a>.</p> | Students Push Social Justice Agenda at Harvard Medical School | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/09/students-push-social-justice-agenda-at-harvard-medical-school/ | 2016-09-08 | 0 |
<p>Egyptian authorities said Sunday night that protesters encamped in two locations in support of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi had 24 hours to clear out.</p>
<p>Officials speaking anonymously told The Associated Press they are preparing for possible clashes, the news service reported. The government warned last week that the decision to clear the sit-ins was “irreversible.” Morsi’s supporters said they wouldn’t quit the demonstrations until he was reinstated as president.</p>
<p>Observers fear a repeat of the late July slaughter, when at least 120 people were shot dead and thousands injured in a predawn raid on backers of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>The Associated Press via The Guardian:</p>
<p>Earlier, Egyptian helicopters fired on a meeting of suspected militants in the country’s Sinai Peninsula, officials said on Sunday, killing at least 12 people as authorities stepped up their attacks following an Israeli drone strike in the region.</p>
<p>The helicopter attack came as Egyptian and Israeli officials tried to downplay the drone strike on Friday in the largely lawless Sinai, fearing popular criticism in a country already roiled by last month’s military coup.</p>
<p>The Egyptian officials told the Associated Press that three helicopters targeted militants in the desert town of Sheik Zuweyid late on Saturday. The officials said another dozen were wounded in the attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to reporters.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/11/mohamed-morsi-protest-camps-gypt" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Morsi Protest Camps Face Closure by Security Forces | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/morsi-protest-camps-face-closure-by-security-forces/ | 2013-08-12 | 4 |
<p>Jan 23 (Reuters) - Firm Capital Property Trust:</p>
<p>* FIRM CAPITAL PROPERTY TRUST ANNOUNCES OVERNIGHT MARKETED EQUITY OFFERING</p>
<p>* FIRM CAPITAL PROPERTY TRUST - OFFERED UNITS ARE BEING ISSUED AT A PRICE OF $6.25 PER OFFERED UNIT</p>
<p>* FIRM CAPITAL PROPERTY TRUST - TO USE PROCEEDS TO REPAY AMOUNTS DRAWN ON CREDIT FACILITY, TO FUND POTENTIAL FUTURE PROPERTY ACQUISITIONS Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">BAC.N</a>) will pay a $42 million fine and admitted wrongdoing to settle claims by New York’s attorney general that it fraudulently routed clients’ stock trades to outside firms, including one run by swindler Bernard Madoff.</p> FILE PHOTO: A customer leaves a Bank of America ATM kiosk in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
<p>New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the settlement on Friday, and called the fine the largest collected by the state to resolve an electronic trading probe.</p>
<p>The attorney general said Bank of America Merrill Lynch had undisclosed agreements with several electronic trading firms from March 2008 to May 2013 to handle client trades.</p>
<p>He said the bank told clients it was processing the trades in-house, even going so far as to alter trade confirmations, as part of an effort to make its electronic trading services appear safer and more sophisticated than they were.</p>
<p>Schneiderman said the “masking” scheme affected more than 16 million trade orders and 4 billion shares, benefiting such firms as Madoff Securities, Citadel Securities, D.E. Shaw, Knight Capital and Two Sigma Securities.</p>
<p>The bank also admitted to having told traders in its “dark pool,” a private venue where they expected protection from high-speed traders, that up to 30 percent of orders came from retail traders, when the percentage was closer to 5 percent.</p>
<p>“Bank of America Merrill Lynch went to astonishing lengths to defraud its own institutional clients about who was seeing and filling their orders, who was trading in its dark pool, and the capabilities of its electronic trading services,” Schneiderman said in a statement.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">Bank of America Corp</a> 29.17 BAC.N New York Stock Exchange -1.38 (-4.52%) BAC.N BARC.L CSGN.S DBKGn.DE
<p>Bill Halldin, a bank spokesman, said in an email: “At all times we met our obligation to deliver the best prices to clients. About five years ago, we addressed the issues concerning communicating to clients about where their trades were executed.”</p>
<p>The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank also admitted that its masking activity violated New York’s powerful securities fraud law, the Martin Act.</p>
<p>In 2016, Barclays Plc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BARC.L" type="external">BARC.L</a>), Credit Suisse Group AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CSGN.S" type="external">CSGN.S</a>) and Deutsche Bank AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>) settled separate electronic and high-speed trading probes by Schneiderman’s office for a respective $35 million, $30 million and $18.5 million. They also reached related settlements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.</p>
<p>Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term for running a huge Ponzi scheme involving his investment advisory business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Phil Berlowitz</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department squared off on Thursday with AT&amp;T Inc in a long anticipated trial, as the two sides disputed whether AT&amp;T’s $85 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc would be good for consumers or an expensive drag on innovation.</p>
<p>During opening statements, Justice Department lawyer Craig Conrath asked for the deal to be blocked, saying it would hike prices for consumers by more than $400 million annually, or an average of $0.45 a month for pay TV subscribers, by making rival pay TV companies pay more for Time Warner content.</p>
<p>“Time Warner would be a weapon for AT&amp;T because AT&amp;T’s competitors need Time Warner,” Conrath told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who will decide the case after a trial expected to last six to eight weeks.</p>
<p>Conrath also said AT&amp;T would be able to use content from movie and TV show maker Time Warner, including its Turner unit, to slow innovation in online video.</p>
<p>In opening remarks, Daniel Petrocelli, speaking for AT&amp;T and Time Warner, ridiculed the Justice Department’s case and suggested the government was “fundamentally stuck in the past” with arguments that were “divorced from reality.”</p>
<p>Petrocelli said the deal would actually lead to a 50-cent decrease in prices for pay TV subscribers, citing what he said were errors in a government expert’s model of how the transaction would impact future prices.</p>
<p>The Justice Department, Petrocelli said, “cannot meet their burden of proof. They cannot prove that this would lessen competition.”</p>
<p>The merger is about the companies trying to better compete with technology businesses like Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com Inc, Petrocelli said.</p>
<p>The internet companies, including Netflix Inc, pose two challenges to pay TV. They either compete with cable and satellite television for ad dollars or provide cheaper online video that has hurt pricey pay-TV. Some do both.</p>
<p>Petrocelli added that the combined company would be better at using customer data to target advertising. Companies like General Motors Co and Mastercard In will pay more for higher quality advertising and consumers will pay less, he said.</p>
<p>The Justice Department filed suit in November to stop AT&amp;T, which has some 25 million pay-TV subscribers, from closing the deal. AT&amp;T says a merger would benefit consumers by creating efficiencies. AT&amp;T is the biggest pay-TV provider via subsidiary DirecTV.</p> Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes arrives ahead of arguments in the trial to determine if AT&amp;T's merger with Time Warner is legal under antitrust law at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>Conrath suggested that AT&amp;T would be able to hike fees that Turner charges for its content by about 10 percent if the merger were approved and that the company could withhold content from rival distributors. He referenced an internal email from Turner executives that Dish Network Corp’s Sling service would be “crap” without Turner content, as he paraphrased the stronger language in the email.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump publicly criticized the deal as a candidate and as president, and the Republican president often has excoriated Time Warner’s CNN news network.</p>
<p>For its first witness, the Justice Department called Cox Communications content buyer Suzanne Fenwick, who described Time Warner’s movies, television shows and sports programming as “must-have content” for the cable TV provider.</p>
<p>If the merger went through, she said, she feared the next negotiation. “We’re very concerned that we’re going to be presented with a horribly ugly deal,” she said.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>Petrocelli, in response, pressed her in vain to show any analytics to prove that Cox needed Time Warner to prevent customers from moving to DirecTV. “You’ve never done a single bit of quantitative analysis,” he concluded.</p> GOVERNMENT LOSS MEANS MORE DEALS
<p>If the government loses, that could open up the field for more tie-ups between distributors and content providers. But a win could strengthen the hand of antitrust regulators looking at other, similarly structured mergers.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T and Time Warner are not direct competitors, making the deal a so-called vertical merger between companies on the same supply chain. The vast majority of challenged mergers involve one rival buying another.</p>
<p>The merger would hand AT&amp;T, if it becomes the new owner of Time Warner, the motive and opportunity to refuse to license March Madness NCAA basketball tournament games, along with premium cable channel HBO and other content, to pay-TV rivals and online distributors, the Justice Department has said.</p>
<p>Petrocelli had asked for access to communications between the White House and Justice Department about the deal, but the judge denied the request. Trump’s opposition to the merger did not come up during opening statements.</p>
<p>If the government loses, Verizon Communications Inc and Charter Communications Inc could strike deals to buy movie or television makers and squeeze smaller pay-TV providers.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T has said the merger would result in more than $2.5 billion in annual cost savings by 2020.</p>
<p>Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump lit a slow-burning fuse on Thursday to launch long-promised anti-China tariffs, but his actions appeared to be more of a warning shot than the start of a full-blown trade war with Beijing.</p>
<p>A presidential memorandum signed by Trump will target up to $60 billion in Chinese goods with tariffs over what his administration says is misappropriation of U.S. intellectual property, but only after a 30-day consultation period that starts once a list is published.</p>
<p>Trump gave the Treasury Department 60 days to develop investment restrictions aimed at preventing Chinese-controlled companies and funds from acquiring U.S. firms with sensitive technologies.</p>
<p>The waiting periods will give industry lobbyists and U.S. lawmakers a chance to water down a proposed target list that runs to 1,300 products, many in technology sectors.</p>
<p>It also will create space for potential negotiations for Beijing to address Trump’s allegations on intellectual property and delay the start of immediate retaliation against U.S. products from aircraft to soybeans.</p>
<p>“I view them as a friend” Trump said of the Chinese as he started his announcement. “We have spoken to China and we are in the middle of negotiations.”</p> ‘FIGHT TO THE END’
<p>But his actions provoked a belligerent response from China’s embassy in Washington, which vowed Beijing would “fight to the end” in any trade war with the United States.</p>
<p>“We will retaliate. If people want to play tough, we will play tough with them and see who will last longer,” Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai said in a video posted to the embassy’s Facebook page.</p>
<p>Stocks fell sharply on Trump's announcement, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> falling nearly 3 percent. Major industrials that could become targets of Chinese trade retaliation slumped further, with aircraft maker Boeing ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">BA.N</a>) down 5.2 percent and earthmoving equipment maker Caterpillar ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CAT.N" type="external">CAT.N</a>) falling 5.7 percent.</p>
<p>In addition to punitive tariffs, Trump’s memo also directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to challenge China’s technology licensing programs at the World Trade Organization. The WTO has repeatedly drawn the ire of the administration but it could provide a resolution that avoids a trade war.</p>
<p>The steps are based on the results of USTR’s eight-month investigation of suspected misappropriation of American technology by China.</p>
<p>U.S. officials say that probe, undertaken through Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, has found that China engages in unfair trade practices by forcing American investors to turn over key technologies to Chinese firms.</p>
<p>Trump, who earlier this month announced steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the United States, also wants the Chinese to take action that would lower the $375 billion goods trade deficit that the United States is running with China.</p> Slideshow (18 Images)
<p>White House officials told a briefing ahead of the trade announcement that the administration was eyeing tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods. They said the figure was based on a calculation of the impact on the profits of U.S. companies that had been forced to hand over intellectual property as the price of doing business in China.</p>
<p>There was no explanation of the difference between that figure and Trump’s $60 billion.</p>
<p>“Many of these areas are those where China has sought to acquire advantage through the unfair acquisition and forced technology transfer from U.S. companies,” said Everett Eissenstat, deputy director of the National Economic Council.</p>
<p>In addition, Trump will also direct the U.S. Treasury to propose measures that could restrict Chinese investments in the United States, Eissenstat said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">Boeing Co</a> 321.0 BA.N New York Stock Exchange +1.39 (+0.43%) BA.N CAT.N GM.N AAPL.O
<p>China has threatened to target U.S. exports of agricultural commodities, in particular the $14 billion in exports of soybeans.</p>
<p>Reaction from U.S. industry groups sought to strike a balance, applauding the president for tackling the persistent drain of U.S. technology to Chinese competitors, but urging negotiations instead of tariffs.</p>
<p>“American business wants to see solutions to these problems, not just sanctions such as unilateral tariffs that may do more harm than good,” said John Frisbie, president of the US-China Business Council.</p>
<p>Despite threats of retaliation, China has been keen to portray itself as a defender of globalization, a message that was reinforced in a call between President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron.</p>
<p>That said, there is a risk of a mounting cycle of retaliation. U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer warned on Wednesday that Washington would take “counter measures” if Beijing targeted U.S. agriculture.</p>
<p>The biggest risk to world trade over the longer term may not be a tit-for-tat trade war, but the breakdown of global supply chains that feed companies such as U.S. auto giant General Motors Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) and Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>).</p>
<p>“Tensions are likely to escalate further, even without a full-scale trade war. This could disrupt global supply chains and damage investor sentiment,” said Dario Perkins, head of global macroeconomics research at TS Lombard, a London-based economic consultancy.</p>
<p>Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, which are tied to Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, go into effect on Friday. Canada and Mexico have been given initial exemptions from the 25 percent steel and 10 percent aluminum tariffs.</p>
<p>Lighthizer told U.S. lawmakers on Thursday that the European Union, along with Argentina, Australia, Brazil and South Korea, would also be exempted.</p>
<p>(This version of the story corrects consultation period for tariffs to 30 days from 60 days, paragraph 2)</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Steve Holland, David Chance, David Lawder, David Brunnstrom and Susan Heavey; Writing by David Lawder; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Paul Simao and Grant McCool</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders called on U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday to make permanent an EU exemption from U.S. metal import duties, saying they reserved the right to respond “in a proportionate manner” to protect the bloc’s interests.</p>
<p>The 40-day reprieve granted by Washington was like U.S. President Donald Trump pointing a gun at Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a summit in Brussels.</p>
<p>“We will talk about anything in principle with a country that respects WTO rules. We will not talk about anything when it is with a gun to our head,” he told a news conference.</p>
<p>The EU’s trade chief demanded that the United States drop “artificial deadlines” and her boss, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said it was impossible to reach agreement by May 1.</p>
<p>Trump said on Thursday he would suspend tariffs for the EU, the United States’ biggest trading partner, as well as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. The tariffs are suspended until May 1 as discussions continue.</p>
<p>EU heads of state and government said in a joint statement that the measures were regrettable, could not be justified on national security grounds which was the basis cited by Washington and the exemption should be permanent.</p>
<p>“Sector-wide protection in the U.S. is an inappropriate remedy for the real problems of overcapacity,” they said.</p>
<p>The leaders also said they supported steps taken by the European Commission to respond to the U.S. measures “as appropriate and in a proportionate manner”.</p>
<p>Cecilia Malmstrom, the trade commissioner who negotiates on behalf of the 28 nations, said Europeans did not want to be penalised by actions prompted largely by accusations of Chinese dumping and said Washington and Brussels should be cooperating.</p>
<p>She told Reuters it was still unclear what Trump wanted in return for granting a permanent waiver and said the EU could bring up a list of its own “trade irritants” if he insisted that EU car import duties be cut. [L8N1R55IY]</p>
<p>Allies should not be subject to “artificial deadlines”, she said.</p> Slideshow (5 Images) TEMPORARY EXEMPTION
<p>German industry, aware that Trump has warned he could raise duties on EU cars, welcomed the reprieve but said the threat of a trade war had not disappeared.</p>
<p>“We still have the threat of escalating global trade conflict. And U.S. President Donald Trump will demand a price for the tariff exclusion,” Thilo Brodtman, head of Germany’s VDMA engineering federation said in a statement.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HOG.N" type="external">Harley-Davidson Inc</a> 41.44 HOG.N New York Stock Exchange -0.69 (-1.64%) HOG.N
<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe was trying to avoid a trade war in which everyone would lose.</p>
<p>European steelmakers group Eurofer said the danger to the EU market had not disappeared, with the exemption only temporary, and the EU needed its own quotas or tariffs to stop steel otherwise bound for the United States from flooding into Europe.</p>
<p>Europe says it wants to avert a trade war but the European Commission has proposed a series of measures if the White House hits EU producers.</p>
<p>It would launch a challenge at the World Trade Organization, consider measures to prevent a surge of metal imports into Europe and impose import duties on U.S. products to “rebalance” EU-U.S. trade. Malmstrom said the EU was keeping its options open.</p>
<p>The counter-measures would include EU tariffs on U.S. orange juice, tobacco, bourbon and Harley-Davidson Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HOG.N" type="external">HOG.N</a>) motorbikes.</p>
<p>Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel underlined the irritation among some EU leaders at Trump’s negotiating tactics.</p>
<p>“I have the impression that the U.S. leader wants to negotiate with the European Union by putting a gun to our head,” Michel said, in an expression that was later echoed by Macron.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-eu-malmstrom/still-unclear-what-trump-wants-from-europe-eu-trade-chief-says-idUSKBN1GZ2GZ" type="external">Still unclear what Trump wants from Europe, EU trade chief says</a>
<p>“That’s a strange way to negotiate with an ally.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt and Paul Carrel in Berlin; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Noah Barkin and Edmund Blair</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Firm Capital Property Trust Announces Overnight Marketed Equity Offering Bank of America pays $42 million fine in New York 'masking' probe U.S. Justice Department urges judge to block AT&T-Time Warner merger Trump moves toward China tariffs in warning shot on technology transfer EU complains of Trump's 'gun to our head' over tariffs | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-firm-capital-property-trust-announ/brief-firm-capital-property-trust-announces-overnight-marketed-equity-offering-idUSASB0C1Y5 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>Truthout, an online newsletter and website boasting 250,000 subscribers, wants to outflank the distortions of mainstream media by disseminating news of interest to left-liberals. But its commitment to truth-telling seemingly stops short when it comes to Palestine.</p>
<p>On May 7, the Truthout newsletter linked to an Associated Press story about the Rishon Letzion suicide bombing. The AP report correctly refrained from identifying a perpetrator. (The party responsible is still unknown, although Hamas looks like the most likely culprit and the PA has since arrested 15 Hamas members in response.)</p>
<p>But Truthout flagged the story with a headline spun out of thin air: “Palestinian Authority Strikes Killing 15 Israelis.”</p>
<p>Worse was soon to come.</p>
<p>Truthout ( <a href="http://www.truthout.org/" type="external">http://www.truthout.org</a>) is, or at any rate purports to be, one of the hip new breed of independent news sources providing alternatives to the biases of corporate media. (Of these, the Indymedia operation is probably the most celebrated; the libertarian Antiwar.com is possibly the most useful.)</p>
<p>Truthout’s editor, Marc Ash, claims the publication has no organizational affiliations and is entirely reader-supported — though five staffers, and the server power necessary to support a quarter-million users, don’t come cheap. Given its incessant showcasing of Beltway Democrats — even career hacks like Daschle and Gephardt get flattering headlines whenever they say anything remotely progressive — I’ve sometimes wondered whether it’s actually a James Carville-style undercover operation, aimed at cajoling Naderites back into the Democratic fold.</p>
<p>(Suggestively, of all the questions I asked Ash about Truthout’s history, purpose, and funding, the only one he was willing to answer was whether the publication is connected in some way with the Democratic Party. It is not, he said, and I’ll take him at his word — though I suspect a list of contributors might make interesting reading.)</p>
<p>At any rate, Truthout has frequently attacked the Bush administration for lying about its aggressive global agenda, and has criticized mainstream media for reporting those lies uncritically. Typically, however, an exception is made where Palestine is concerned.</p>
<p>After reading the May 7 number, I was one of many readers who emailed Ash asking for a correction. None was forthcoming. Instead, on the following day all 250,000 readers received an apologia via mass email — one containing a lie so easily detectable that not even the wildest pro-Sharon propagandists would touch it.</p>
<p>“Yes, Hamas has claimed direct responsibility for this latest act of insanity,” Ash wrote. “But do any of you honestly believe this could have happened while the IDF had Arafat under detention? It could not. Did you not notice that while Arafat was ‘besieged’ and exile was on the table the bombings stopped? Now he is once again a free man and the bombings have resumed.”</p>
<p>This, of course, is a very serious charge — if true, it would lend considerable moral weight to Sharon’s claim that the IDF’s recent invasion of the West Bank was a defensive operation. But it’s wholly false. In fact, at least six suicide bombings took place between March 29, when Israel confined Arafat to his Ramallah compound, and May 1, when he was granted partial liberty.</p>
<p>The truth was easy to check — it took me about 45 seconds on Yahoo. And it’s pretty hard to believe that the editor of a daily newsletter covering international affairs could have been ignorant of the bombings, all of which received banner headlines in the newspapers.</p>
<p>What we have here, in other words, is a prime specimen of The Big Lie. Does it matter? Hell, yes. A lie that remains unchallenged quickly acquires the status of a “fact” which can be cited in service of further slaughter. Moreover, this kind of open contempt for journalistic standards and ethics plays neatly into the hands of traditional media types, who are always looking for reasons to dismiss alternative news sources as rumormongers and conspiracy theorists.</p>
<p>To date, despite repeated requests, Truthout has declined to run a clarification, explanation, or retraction. Says Ash: “I spoke the truth and I am glad.”</p>
<p>After all, quoth jesting Pilate, what is truth?</p>
<p>Jacob Levich is an online editor living in Queens, NY. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | Leaving the Truth Out? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/05/13/leaving-the-truth-out/ | 2002-05-13 | 4 |
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Viktor Arvidsson and the Nashville Predators cruised into their bye week with another win against the Edmonton Oilers.</p>
<p>Connor McDavid and company are searching for answers.</p>
<p>Arvidsson had a goal and an assist, helping the Predators top the Oilers 2-1 on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Craig Smith also scored and Pekka Rinne made 25 saves in Nashville's 11th consecutive win against Edmonton. The Predators were coming off a 4-3 win at the Kings on Saturday night and don't play again until next Tuesday against Vegas.</p>
<p>"It puts everybody in the right frame of mind," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "It's a chance to get away — rest your mind, rest your body and do it on a winning note, which is positive, and come back and be ready to get going again."</p>
<p>The free-falling Oilers have lost seven of eight. McDavid scored, and Cam Talbot had 22 stops.</p>
<p>"I thought tonight we worked hard enough for a break," coach Todd McLellan said. "I'm not sure that we were in that situation in prior games. If we play like that, we'll have our opportunities to win games. It's a step in the right direction."</p>
<p>Edmonton appeared to tie the game with 5:04 left when Mark Letestu found a loose puck in front of Rinne and swatted it in through traffic. Nashville challenged the goal and a video review determined that the play was offside.</p>
<p>"Ultimately, I feel that they should just take the rule out," McDavid said. "I think the number of calls that are a millimeter offside 45 seconds before the play, it doesn't have very much of an effect on the goal itself. I think the fans want to see offense and if that's going to hold back offense, it's very frustrating. It's very hard to sit here and question the rule right now because it's obviously a little sensitive with it going against us, but I think it is something that I hope they take out."</p>
<p>Nashville's players were quick to credit the team's video staff, led by video coach Lawrence Feloney.</p>
<p>"Lawrence, that guy he must have a surgeon's eyes," Rinne said. "He sees when the skate blade is up. He doesn't get enough credit. He's the hardest-working guy in this organization."</p>
<p>The Predators went ahead to stay with two in the first.</p>
<p>With Nashville on a power play, Talbot stopped P.K. Subban's slap shot from the left point, but the rebound deflected off Arvidsson's skate before Smith poked the loose puck in for his 15th goal at 8:26.</p>
<p>"I thought we came out and got a good start, that's what we were looking for," Smith said.</p>
<p>Arvidsson got his 13th at 15:31. Roman Josi's slap shot from above the left circle hit Talbot in the left shoulder and then the face of Edmonton defenseman Adam Larsson on the right side. As the puck fell to the ice, Arvidsson tapped it by Talbot with a backhand.</p>
<p>Rinne denied McDavid on a breakaway with 2:14 remaining in the first. The reigning Hart Trophy winner tried to beat Rinne with a backhand, but the Finn was able to grab the shot with his glove.</p>
<p>McDavid then got a measure of revenge 55 seconds into the second.</p>
<p>With the puck on the right wall, McDavid drove around Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm before cutting toward the low slot, where he slipped a wrist shot between Rinne's pads.</p>
<p>NOTES: The Predators are 20-2-2 when leading after two periods this season. ... Subban has 17 points in 15 career games against Edmonton. ... The Oilers last defeated Nashville on March 18, 2014. ... Edmonton is 4-10-1 against the Central Division this season.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Oilers: Visit the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.</p>
<p>Predators: Host the Golden Knights on Tuesday.</p>
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Viktor Arvidsson and the Nashville Predators cruised into their bye week with another win against the Edmonton Oilers.</p>
<p>Connor McDavid and company are searching for answers.</p>
<p>Arvidsson had a goal and an assist, helping the Predators top the Oilers 2-1 on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Craig Smith also scored and Pekka Rinne made 25 saves in Nashville's 11th consecutive win against Edmonton. The Predators were coming off a 4-3 win at the Kings on Saturday night and don't play again until next Tuesday against Vegas.</p>
<p>"It puts everybody in the right frame of mind," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "It's a chance to get away — rest your mind, rest your body and do it on a winning note, which is positive, and come back and be ready to get going again."</p>
<p>The free-falling Oilers have lost seven of eight. McDavid scored, and Cam Talbot had 22 stops.</p>
<p>"I thought tonight we worked hard enough for a break," coach Todd McLellan said. "I'm not sure that we were in that situation in prior games. If we play like that, we'll have our opportunities to win games. It's a step in the right direction."</p>
<p>Edmonton appeared to tie the game with 5:04 left when Mark Letestu found a loose puck in front of Rinne and swatted it in through traffic. Nashville challenged the goal and a video review determined that the play was offside.</p>
<p>"Ultimately, I feel that they should just take the rule out," McDavid said. "I think the number of calls that are a millimeter offside 45 seconds before the play, it doesn't have very much of an effect on the goal itself. I think the fans want to see offense and if that's going to hold back offense, it's very frustrating. It's very hard to sit here and question the rule right now because it's obviously a little sensitive with it going against us, but I think it is something that I hope they take out."</p>
<p>Nashville's players were quick to credit the team's video staff, led by video coach Lawrence Feloney.</p>
<p>"Lawrence, that guy he must have a surgeon's eyes," Rinne said. "He sees when the skate blade is up. He doesn't get enough credit. He's the hardest-working guy in this organization."</p>
<p>The Predators went ahead to stay with two in the first.</p>
<p>With Nashville on a power play, Talbot stopped P.K. Subban's slap shot from the left point, but the rebound deflected off Arvidsson's skate before Smith poked the loose puck in for his 15th goal at 8:26.</p>
<p>"I thought we came out and got a good start, that's what we were looking for," Smith said.</p>
<p>Arvidsson got his 13th at 15:31. Roman Josi's slap shot from above the left circle hit Talbot in the left shoulder and then the face of Edmonton defenseman Adam Larsson on the right side. As the puck fell to the ice, Arvidsson tapped it by Talbot with a backhand.</p>
<p>Rinne denied McDavid on a breakaway with 2:14 remaining in the first. The reigning Hart Trophy winner tried to beat Rinne with a backhand, but the Finn was able to grab the shot with his glove.</p>
<p>McDavid then got a measure of revenge 55 seconds into the second.</p>
<p>With the puck on the right wall, McDavid drove around Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm before cutting toward the low slot, where he slipped a wrist shot between Rinne's pads.</p>
<p>NOTES: The Predators are 20-2-2 when leading after two periods this season. ... Subban has 17 points in 15 career games against Edmonton. ... The Oilers last defeated Nashville on March 18, 2014. ... Edmonton is 4-10-1 against the Central Division this season.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Oilers: Visit the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.</p>
<p>Predators: Host the Golden Knights on Tuesday.</p> | Arvidsson powers Predators past Oilers 2-1 | false | https://apnews.com/amp/065e5acb6b8b4958b4e16e874c857337 | 2018-01-10 | 2 |
<p>Donald Trump sent out several offensive tweets about San Juan, Puerto Rico's mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz. She responded to them on <a href="" type="internal">Joy-Ann Reid</a>'s AM Joy show. Her response made the president seem petty and out of his league.</p>
<p />
<p>Sometimes a response that does not even mention the perpetrator is more piercing, and that's what San Juan's Mayor&#160;Carmen Yulín Cruz did.</p>
<p>The president sent the following tweets.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/914087234869047296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2017%2F09%2F30%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-tweets-puerto-rico-mayor%2Findex.html" type="external">Tweet 1</a>: The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.y to Trump.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/914089003745468417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2017%2F09%2F30%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-tweets-puerto-rico-mayor%2Findex.html" type="external">Tweet 2</a>: ...Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They....</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/914089888596754434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2017%2F09%2F30%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-tweets-puerto-rico-mayor%2Findex.html" type="external">Tweet 3</a>: ...want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.</p>
<p>The president just could not suppress his most inner racist.</p>
<p>The mayor pointed out that she was asking for help. She was not saying anything nasty about the president. Moreover, she said that the three-star general Buchanan, in charge of helping the relief effort in Puerto Rico, agreed with her assessment.</p>
<p>"This is what we have," the mayor said. "Is to save lives. ... This is a time when everyone shows their true colors. I have no time for distractions. All I have is time for people to move forward and get help."</p>
<p>The mayor then asked what kind of a Puerto Rican or human she would be if she did not call out when other mayors are not being supported.</p>
<p>Joy-Ann Reid asked her to respond to Trump's racist attack on Puerto Ricans as he implied they are lazy.</p>
<p>"I am not going to be distracted by small comments, by&#160;politics, by petty issues," Carmen Yulin Cruz said. "This is one goal. And it is to save lives. That's all that matters. And whoever is here to help, whoever says things that can help, will be praised. Whoever doesn't will not."</p>
<p>Prescient.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Also published on <a href="https://medium.com/@egbertowillies/san-juan-puerto-ricos-mayor-respond-s-to-trump-s-offensive-tweets-video-af018f7f9704" type="external">Medium</a>.</p> | San Juan Puerto Rico’s Mayor respond’s to Trump’s offensive tweets (VIDEO) | true | https://egbertowillies.com/2017/09/30/san-juan-puerto-ricos-mayor-responds/ | 2017-09-30 | 4 |
<p>The Left has a checkered history when it comes to Palestine. For at least the first two decades of Israel’s existence, due in part to the attempted extermination of European Jewry, in part to the distorting effects of Soviet foreign policy, and in part to sympathy for a purportedly socialist movement, almost the entire Western left lived with illusions about Zionism.</p>
<p>Ideologically, Zionism was a broad and heterogeneous nationalist movement, with many competing currents of the Right and Left, each with different degrees of moral awareness vis-à-vis the non-Jewish world. But as it manifested itself concretely, Zionism meant the creation of a colonial sovereignty in historic Palestine, and all that went with it: the calamitous replacement of a complex Palestinian society with vibrant urban and agricultural communities, deeply embedded within the surrounding Arab world, with a European nation-state.</p>
<p>Building a European state outside of Europe meant the destruction, expulsion, or assimilation of indigenous people, what the historian Patrick Wolfe has called the “logic of elimination.” That logic was then rationalized as a reparation for the horrors inflicted on European Jews — even as it was brought to bear against Palestinians who were not responsible for those horrors.</p>
<p>That’s why the shotgun marriage of Zionism and the Left has been so troubled. Socialist Zionism, even in theory, meant socialism for Zionists. Ultimately, it meant socialism for no one: Israel today is the second most unequal developed economy in the world.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, some recurring tropes within the pro-Palestine community have also blurred the issue. What is essentially a classic struggle for national liberation has been obscured by a tendency to exceptionalize Israeli crimes, distracted by a barren fixation on international law, and lost in a hopelessly abstract analytical idealism. A corollary of these analytical faults has been the so-called Israel lobby thesis, which argues that were it not for a handful of pro-Israel lobbying institutions, America might not support the occupation or continue its “special relationship” with Israel.</p>
<p>This special section of Jacobin takes on these themes. It lays out materialist analyses of the links between Israel and the United States, and the role of the Israel lobby. It delineates the contemporary social bases of the two-state solution and the Palestinian Authority. It analyzes the waxing power of Palestinian capitalists in the West Bank, and also discusses the solidarity movement itself.</p>
<p>Why now? Because almost without anyone noticing, the movement in solidarity with Palestinian rights — with all its solipsisms and ultra-leftist foibles, its quarrels and magnetic attraction for eccentrics, opportunists, and, yes, the occasional antisemite — has grown to become one of the most important, inspiring, and fast-growing social movements in the country.</p>
<p>Palestine is no longer a dirty word on college campuses. The last Students for Justice in Palestine national conference attracted well over 300 delegates from more than 140 colleges and universities across the country, converging on Ann Arbor to discuss capitalist state formation in Israel, solidarity among prisoners, colonialism, the persistence of the occupation, refugee rights, and remarkably, with a minimum of rancor and sectarianism, the Syrian conflict.</p>
<p>Much of the energy that in the past would have found its home in student antiwar movements has migrated to the cause of Palestine. That is not without its problems: after all, children are gunned down by helicopter gunships in Afghanistan as surely as they are gunned down by snipers in the Gaza Strip. But the bloom of student interest in this old and bloody colonial conflict is something the Left ought to take interest in, because the Left is not just an idea but also the masses in motion, and scarcely anywhere — except for the environmental movement — are young people in motion with such a mix of revolutionary élan and disciplined militancy as they are in the case of Palestine.</p>
<p>But radical action has outpaced radical understanding. In part, that is because young people have gotten involved just at the moment when the Palestine question is in unprecedented political and ideological flux. Some activists are unaware, for example, that support for a two-state solution was not always the hollow alibi it now represents. It was the pragmatic position of the Palestinian capital­ist class and its cadres, along with a large portion of the Palestinian people, and many communists. That position therefore often became the default position of the American solidarity movement in the defeated days of Oslo and then the brutal destruction of the Second Intifada, even as it receded beyond the horizon of possibility. The number&#160;of settlers rose to surpass four hundred thousand, each settler a “fact on the ground,” in the argot&#160;of Israeli planners; each one making it more difficult for Palestinians to gain sovereignty over the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>In those days, simply telling the truth acquired a radical edge. To denounce Israeli war crimes and to call unambiguously for the end of the occupation was to expose oneself to death threats. All the more so when figures like Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, who defended Palestine in the American public sphere, still traced their ideas for resolution of the conflict to the old Matzpen position of the 1960s and 1970s: a regional revolution, the evaporation of state borders, and socialism in the Middle East.</p>
<p>But times changed sometime between the brutal Israeli assault on Lebanon in the summer of 2006, the siege of the Gaza Strip from 2007 to 2010, and the 2008–2009 Cast Lead massacre — when one of the world’s most powerful armies, desperate to destroy a subject people’s capacity to resist, laid waste to a tiny strip of land filled with refugee camps and children on live television.</p>
<p>In Europe, consistently ahead of the American left in mobilizational capacity, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protest. The US reaction was more subdued, but even here the shockwave of Israeli bombs broke the Zionist hegemony over the American psyche. Watching white phosphorus fall on children will do that.</p>
<p>And so the level of struggle in solidarity work took massive leaps — but not without problems and misunderstandings. The essays we present in this section aim to illuminate some of the critical issues with which the movement is grappling.</p>
<p>As Mezna Qato and Kareem Rabie, along with Sobhi Samour and Omar Jabary Salamanca, have pointed out, “scholarly production accurately mirrors the dynamics of incoherent contemporary Palestinian politics.” Indeed, it takes its cue from them. The result is that a rights-based campaign has fundamentally accommodated an often far too liberal Palestine solidarity discourse. As Qato and Rabie discuss in this section, such liberalism is manifest everywhere: a centering of the American state as the key leverage point for all American activists, Palestinian or otherwise; a palsied internationalism, repeating the same old slogans but without the links to struggling communities in Palestine and the Arab world which gave them meaning; and a focus on individuals as opposed to collective organizing, and in turn a diminished focus on substantive and self-critical political practice.</p>
<p>Using a different lens, Chris Toensing reviews Rashid Khalidi’s new book on the peace process and uses it as an occasion to analyze the basis of this liberal and lobby-centric turn, one which both miscasts the American structure that gives succor to Israeli colonialism and that also displaces the struggle from a global North-South arena to one between various varieties of American imperialism, some more melioristic and aggressive than others.</p>
<p>Finally, Adam Hanieh offers a class analysis of the turn to the “peace process.” Hanieh explains exactly who composes the peace-process bloc in Ramallah, and how that Palestinian elite has created a vested interest not in freedom but in endless wrangling about freedom. What he shows is that this elite has in effect dominated discussion of the “national” question, and that this domination has been bound to a deflection of the internal class question among Palestinians. The result is the division of struggles and the weakening and oppression of Palestinians on the planes of both class and nation. He argues that this must be reversed and in turn linked to a regional perspective, focused on freedom for all Arab peoples not merely from the dictators who oppress them but the economic shackles that those dictators play a crucial part in producing.</p>
<p>Finally, our own perspective. Taking our cue from the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement, we believe the fundamental demand that guides our action must be that Jews and Arabs live as equals, even though we know of no easy way to reach that goal. That is why we support Palestinian self-determination and decolonization without reservations, and believe the movement’s job is to support those goals, and not to impose its own standards on the means by which Palestinians free themselves. Thus, far more important than meaningless efforts to draw red lines about “one state” or “two states” — both now empty chimeras, so far from substantive realization as to make the entire debate unreal — is to recognize that the precondition for progressive social change is self-determination.</p>
<p>At the same time, we understand that Israeli Jews — especially those from North Africa and the Middle East — can also be an oppressed class in historical Palestine. We ignore them at our peril, for any change that doesn’t also pass through the prism of the minds of the Jewish working class would be a revolution from above: an imposed decolonization, which, along with continued economic stratification, would remain politically fragile and ripe for further injustice. But this gets very complicated in today’s Israel, where today only a tiny fragment of the Jewish population supports ending the occupation. Many prefer to deny this bleak fact, or to simply shrug and say that Israel has no constituency for peace — as though this settles the question of how exactly the colonization of Palestine will stop.</p>
<p>This does not leave us in a very clear place. The political force that can forge a clear national liberation strategy does not exist, and it is Palestinians and Palestinians alone who can forge such a force. Rather than issuing useless and inappropriate manifestos about how that project ought to progress, our touchstone should be clear solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.</p>
<p>But not as an idiosyncratic fetish divorced from the broader politics of the Left. Rather, we should return it to what it has always been: a focal point&#160;of anti-imperialist struggle, where peasants and slum-dwellers are now fighting&#160;a desperate struggle against tanks and F-16s, and where their best weapon at the moment may be to starve themselves to death in the hope of fracturing ideological support for Israeli militarism.</p>
<p>The question of Palestine is a question of justice. That is why we do not hesitate to take sides.</p> | Palestine and the Left | true | http://jacobinmag.com/2013/04/palestine-and-the-left/ | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>TIDMINVP TIDMTSCO</p>
<p>FORM 8.5 (EPT/RI)</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY AN EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER WITH RECOGNISED</p>
<p>INTERMEDIARY STATUS DEALING IN A CLIENT-SERVING CAPACITY</p>
<p>1. KEY INFORMATION</p>
<p>(a) Name of exempt principal trader:</p>
<p>Investec Bank plc</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>(b) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant</p>
<p>securities this form relates: Tesco plc</p>
<p>Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree</p>
<p>(c) Name of the party to the offer with which exempt</p>
<p>principal trader is connected: Investec are Broker to Booker Group plc</p>
<p>d) Date dealing undertaken:</p>
<p>30(th) January 2018</p>
<p>(e) Has the EPT previously disclosed, or is it today Yes</p>
<p>disclosing, in respect of any other party to this</p>
<p>offer?</p>
<p>2. DEALINGS BY THE EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER</p>
<p>(a) Purchases and sales</p>
<p>Class of Purchases/ sales Total Highest price per unit paid/received Lowest price per unit paid/received</p>
<p>relevant number of (pence) (pence)</p>
<p>security securities</p>
<p>Ordinary Purchases 521,926 211.2 207.7</p>
<p>Shares</p>
<p>Ordinary Sales 519,065 211.7 207.8</p>
<p>Shares</p>
<p>(b) Derivatives transactions (other than options)</p>
<p>Class of Product description Nature of dealing Number of Price</p>
<p>relevant e.g. CFD e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing reference per</p>
<p>security a long/short position securities unit</p>
<p>(c) Options transactions in respect of existing securities</p>
<p>(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying</p>
<p>Class of Product Writing, Number of Exercise Type Expiry Option</p>
<p>relevant description purchasing, securities price e.g. American, European etc. date money</p>
<p>security e.g. call selling, to which per paid/</p>
<p>option varying option unit received</p>
<p>etc. relates per</p>
<p>unit</p>
<p>(ii) Exercising</p>
<p>Class of relevant Product description Number of Exercise price per</p>
<p>security e.g. call option securities unit</p>
<p>(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)</p>
<p>Class of relevant Nature of dealing Details Price per unit</p>
<p>security e.g. subscription, conversion (if applicable)</p>
<p>The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.</p>
<p>Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant</p>
<p>securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(b), copy table 2(a), (b),</p>
<p>(c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant</p>
<p>security dealt in.</p>
<p>3. OTHER INFORMATION</p>
<p>(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements</p>
<p>Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or</p>
<p>any agreement or understanding, formal or informal,</p>
<p>relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement</p>
<p>to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the</p>
<p>exempt principal trader making the disclosure and</p>
<p>any party to the offer or any person acting in concert</p>
<p>with a party to the offer:</p>
<p>If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings,</p>
<p>state "none"</p>
<p>None</p>
<p>(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to</p>
<p>options or derivatives</p>
<p>Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding,</p>
<p>formal or informal, between the exempt principal trader</p>
<p>making the disclosure and any other person relating</p>
<p>to:</p>
<p>(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under</p>
<p>any option; or</p>
<p>(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal</p>
<p>of any relevant securities to which any derivative</p>
<p>is referenced:</p>
<p>If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings,</p>
<p>state "none"</p>
<p>None</p>
<p>Date of disclosure:</p>
<p>31(st) January 2018</p>
<p>Contact name:</p>
<p>Robert Letson</p>
<p>Telephone number:</p>
<p>0207 597 5690</p>
<p>This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf</p>
<p>of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.</p>
<p>The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely</p>
<p>responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information</p>
<p>contained therein.</p>
<p>Source: Investec Bank plc via Globenewswire</p>
<p>https://www.investec.co.uk/</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>January 31, 2018 05:26 ET (10:26 GMT)</p> | Investec Bank plc Investec Bank Plc : Form 8.5 (EPT/RI) - Tesco Plc | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/06/investec-bank-plc-investec-bank-plc-form-8-5-eptri-tesco-plc.html | 2018-01-31 | 0 |
<p />
<p />
<p>We’ve known for a while now that President Bush has <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/21/politics/main1425182.shtml" type="external">every intention</a> of leaving the Iraq mess for his successor to clean up, but today he made it official. At a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7606822.stm" type="external">speech this morning</a> at the National Defense University in Washington, Bush announced the <a href="http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ga_UPySMkVdRRempfXiLHFkgbkfg" type="external">withdrawal of 8,000 U.S. troops</a> from Iraq by January 2009, leaving 138,000 troops still in-country. Specifically, 3,400 combat support personnel will leave Iraq after their tours conclude over the next couple months; a Marine battalion will return to the States in November; and an Army brigade will come home in January. The reductions, says Bush, have been made possible by the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/09/08/080908fa_fact_coll" type="external">success of the “surge.”</a></p>
<p>The troop reduction in Iraq will occur amidst a build-up of forces in Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban has gained continued strength in recent years. According to Bush’s plan, an additional 4,500 troops will head for Afghanistan in the next few months, including some units that had been scheduled for Iraq deployments. The war in Afghanistan is more popular among Americans than the Iraq conflict, and Bush stands to gain from focusing more of his efforts there in the twilight of his presidency. But since U.S. commanders have said that a “surge” in Afghanistan would likely require <a href="http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/iraq/2008/08/19/pentagon-plans-to-send-more-than-12000-additional-troops-to-afghanistan.html" type="external">at least 12,000</a> more boots on the ground, Bush’s offering seems as slim as it does late.</p>
<p>So agrees the National Security Network, which observed today in a <a href="http://www.nsnetwork.org/node/968" type="external">press release</a> that “the redeployment is so modest and will take so long to arrive that, effectively, the President remains fixated on Iraq—regardless of the larger implications for U.S. national security.” Military expert Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress called Bush’s announcement “much ado about nothing,” adding that the Iraq surge that Bush hailed this morning “has produced an oil revenue-fueled, Shia-dominated central government with close ties to Iran, and these ruling parties in Iraq have shown few signs of seeking to compromise and share meaningful power with other Iraqis.”</p>
<p /> | Troop Shift From Iraq to Afghanistan: Just Window Dressing? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/troop-shift-iraq-afghanistan-just-window-dressing/ | 2008-09-09 | 4 |
<p>J. Scott Applewhite/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Speaking to a gathering of Democratic donors in late March, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) gamed out the perils of filibustering Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee to the US Supreme Court, whose confirmation is scheduled for a Senate vote on Thursday afternoon. McCaskill imagined a scenario—one that is barreling toward becoming reality—in which Republicans remove the 60-vote threshold necessary to confirm nominees to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>“They confirm either Gorsuch or they confirm the one after Gorsuch,” she explained, according to audio that was later <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article141651189.html" type="external">leaked</a> to the Kansas City Star “Then, God forbid, Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies, or [Anthony] Kennedy retires or [Stephen] Breyer has a stroke or is no longer able to serve. Then we’re not talking about Scalia for Scalia, which is what Gorsuch is, we’re talking about Scalia for somebody on the court who shares our values. And then all of a sudden the things I fought for with scars on my back to show for it in this state are in jeopardy.”</p>
<p>McCaskill’s warning echoes the case made by <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91762" type="external">several</a> <a href="http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/4/4/15168316/filibuster-gorsuch-senate-nuclear-mistake" type="external">academics</a> in the past few days: It’s better to save the filibuster for another day when, perhaps, moderate Republicans would help Democrats keep the arcane Senate rule that makes it possible for a minority party to prevent a vote from occurring if it doesn’t get the support of 60 members of the chamber, effectively killing a bill or a Supreme Court nomination. But last Friday, McCaskill, a vulnerable Democrat up for reelection next year in a state Trump won by double digits, announced she would join her Democratic colleagues in filibustering Gorsuch. Her decision, to join every Senate Democrat but three to oppose Gorsuch and dare Republicans to end the filibuster, raises a puzzling question: Given the possibly terrifying likelihood that awaits progressives if they lose the filibuster—not just with Trump’s Supreme Court nominee this time, but also with future fights—what’s the upside?</p>
<p>Some fear there is none, and that the&#160;Democratic Party is rushing toward a decision it will likely regret, at the behest of the party’s progressive and increasingly powerful base. A filibuster “prevents a revolt by the base—it’s the base here that’s not being smart,” said a political consultant who asked not to be named because of a client list that includes Democratic senators. The small donor base and activist core of the party “have boxed these folks in to a position that is not the wisest one.”</p>
<p>The pressure began in early March, when progressive groups issued a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/liberals-neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-235688" type="external">warning</a> to Senate Democrats for being what they saw as too soft on Gorsuch. “We need you to do better,” a coalition led by NARAL Pro-Choice America wrote in a letter. Indivisible, a new grassroots group that helps people organize locally and contact their representatives, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/neil-gorsuch-liberal-protesters-scotus-235659" type="external">drafted</a> a script for activists to use when calling members of Congress. And the Progressive Campaign Change Committee has been vigilant in going after senators who were slow to get on the filibuster train. An email sent out to the group’s listserv in Vermont, for example, attacked Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a stalwart liberal, for saying he’s “not inclined to filibuster.” The email urged constituents to call Leahy and get him to commit to filibustering. “Voting against the filibuster is the same as voting for Gorsuch,” the email said.</p>
<p>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who’s best known as a dealmaker rather than as a progressive stalwart, “is not really in a position to go to these people and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t really this important, this other one is,’ because that triggers the very response he’s trying to avoid,”&#160;the consultant explained. As with virtually every other Democrat, Schumer does not want to invite the anger of the base by stopping a filibuster. The decision to oppose Gorsuch, and to let Republicans put an end to the filibuster entirely, the consultant said, is more about survival today than long-term planning.</p>
<p>Tad Devine, who served as chief strategist on Bernie Sanders‘ insurgent presidential campaign, considers the base to be the major reason that Democrats should filibuster. To avoid it “would have been a signal that Democrats were willing to engage in business as usual and not willing to mount principled opposition to Trump” and his nominee, he explained.</p>
<p>Devine is looking forward to the midterm elections in 2018. In the past two midterm cycles, Democrats have struggled to turn out their voters and Republicans have won huge victories, taking over dozens of state capitals and governors’ mansions, even in blue states. If Democrats didn’t take up this fight, he said, they would demoralize their base and risk losing the momentum they have today. “We don’t want people who are now coming into the political process, engaging so strongly in support of the Democrats and their opposition to Trump, to be disheartened,” he said. “For Democrats not to do this would have been a potentially catastrophic mistake.”</p>
<p>Beyond the issue of the base, some progressives see more potential upsides in triggering the nuclear option. “This is an exercise of a raw political power grab, and the hope is that the American people see that for what it is in coming elections,” said Neil Sroka, communications director for Democracy for America, a progressive group that is supportive of Democrats’ current strategy of filibustering Gorsuch. This is a position echoed by Schumer himself. When asked at a press conference Tuesday what would happen if Republicans ended the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, he responded, “They will lose if they do it.” That’s because the voters will see that McConnell “will do anything to get his way,” and Republicans will not be seen as acting in a reasonable or bipartisan fashion. In the long term, Sroka believes progressives will be better off without the filibuster hindering their own nominees when, perhaps after the 2020 elections, Democrats are in a position to pick the next nominee.</p>
<p>All these potential upsides are worth the risk of losing the filibuster, because McCaskill’s hope that Republicans won’t remove the filibuster in a future Supreme Court battle is a fantasy. “There is a fiction that the filibuster isn’t already dead,” says Sroka. “Any vote that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans take is really just the icing on the cake—this thing has been cooked since Senate Republicans defied any sense of decorum in their treatment of Barack Obama.”</p>
<p /> | This Is What Democrats Have to Gain From Filibustering Gorsuch | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/democrats-mcconnell-filibustering-gorsuch/ | 2017-04-06 | 4 |
<p>NAIROBI, Kenya — “Dozens of animals are dying every day, there are carcasses everywhere,” said Cynthia Moss, a renowned conservationist who studies the elephants of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amboseli_National_Park" type="external">Kenya’s Amboseli National Park.</a></p>
<p>The drought has forced up to 4 million Kenyans to rely on donated food and water for survival as the crops wither and cattle die on the barren land. The international aid group Oxfam warns that close to 23 million people across East Africa face severe hunger after five years of little or no rain.</p>
<p>Roughly one in 10 Ethiopians and Kenyans, and half of all Somalis, need handouts to survive.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the World Food Program — responsible for feeding many of these people — is struggling to raise funds in the face of the worldwide economic downturn and faces a financial shortfall that means it simply does not have enough food to feed all the hungry.</p>
<p>As the East African savannah dries to a dustbowl, the wildlife with which Kenya is synonymous is also dying in droves threatening the country’s economy which is heavily reliant on tourism for foreign earnings.</p>
<p>The elephants of Amboseli in southern Kenya are one of the iconic images of Africa gracing coffee table books and glossy magazines. In the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, the continent’s highest peak, the herds lumber across the savannah watched by thousands of tourists every year who pay large sums for the privilege.</p>
<p>This year, however, visitors to the grassless plains are as likely to see the rotting vulture-picked carcasses as the live versions of the “big five” — buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino.</p>
<p>“This is the third year without rain so all the grass is gone. What we’re left with is a barren land of carcasses,” Moss told GlobalPost. “The tourists are appalled. They can’t drive a hundred meters without coming across a dead animal.”</p>
<p>Moss said this year’s drought is about as bad as she has known in 37 years of researching Amboseli’s elephants. “We had very bad droughts in '76, '84 and 2000 but this is the worst I’ve seen. The old Maasai — the wazee — say it hasn’t been this bad since the 1960s.”</p>
<p>Of 170 elephants born in Amboseli in 2008 and 45 more born this year about half have died, “and we’ll lose more before the rains come” said Moss.</p>
<p>Elsewhere the situation is scarcely better. The Maasai people’s traditional ranging lands in southern Kenya are turned to scorched dirt where the hot wind blows tall twisting dust devils across the landscape. And Kenya’s Rift Valley, usually a fertile breadbasket, is a parched dustbowl of withered crops and emaciated cattle.</p>
<p>Nestling in this great geological fissure that runs the length of the country is Lake Nakuru, famous for its flocks of pink flamingos but here the waters have receded as the four rivers that feed the lake are all dry.</p>
<p>In northern Kenya the situation is worse still. North of Mount Kenya is where the worst of the drought is biting for the local Samburu people, semi-nomadic pastoralists. These pastoralists rely on moving with their cattle in search of fresh grazing land, the problem is there’s little left.</p>
<p>Many have lost their entire herds, and therefore their livelihoods and lifestyles. In September there were horrific scenes just outside Nairobi where hundreds of cattle were buried in mass graves — they died of drought and starvation before reaching the slaughterhouse.</p>
<p>“North of Mount Kenya is the worst area, it is dry to the bone,” said Julius Kipngetich, director of Kenya Wildlife Service, the government agency responsible for the country’s many national parks and animals. “I was there last week and I have never seen it so dry, even the rivers have stopped flowing.”</p>
<p>On the edge of this now desolate landscape is <a href="http://www.lewa.org/" type="external">Lewa Wildlife Conservancy</a>, a 62,000-acre reserve. “As of yet we haven’t lost a single animal but all around Lewa everything is dying,” said Elodie Sampere, a spokesperson for Lewa.</p>
<p>The conservancy’s managers have started a supplementary feeding program for the rhino, buffalo, zebra and eland to help them survive the drought. This is something Lewa can afford to do as a privately run and funded company but as Sampere pointed out: “People are dying as well. It’s difficult to argue that animals should be fed when that is happening.”</p>
<p>Kenya’s cash-strapped government cannot even afford to feed its people, let alone its animals, but with the tourism industry bringing in a little under $500-million a year it cannot be ignored.</p>
<p>“This is the worst drought in recent history and the impact on Kenya’s wildlife has been very severe,” said Kipngetich. “We’ve lost a lot of hippos especially in Tsavo, many antelopes in Amboseli and a high number of elephants to the north of Mount Kenya.” However, it may not be all bad news for Kenya’s wildlife and its tourism industry.</p>
<p>In the Maasai Mara where hundreds of thousands of wildebeest make their annual migration and tens of thousands of tourists come to watch, some paying over $500 a night for luxury accommodation in swish camps, the drought is having less of an impact.</p>
<p>“Here on the western side of the Mara there hasn’t been a drought at all so as a consequence we’ve had one of the best migrations ever with more than half a million wildebeest,” said Brian Heath, chief executive of the privately run Mara Conservancy.</p>
<p>“We haven’t seen any animals die as a result of the drought [but] I think the Mara is better off than most of the rest of the country.”</p>
<p>And even in Amboseli it seems there may be room for optimism as longed-for rains are predicted in the coming weeks. “The drought is a temporary thing,” Moss said, “because what is so amazing about the savannah ecosystem is how quickly it recovers when the rain comes. I’ve been here for many years and it still amazes me.”</p> | Drought hits Kenya's wildlife | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-10-16/drought-hits-kenyas-wildlife | 2009-10-16 | 3 |
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<p>Paratroopers with the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/1bct82/map?activecategory=Photos&amp;session_id=1334416501" type="external">82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team</a> form an LGOP, or little group of paratroopers, on the drop zone before moving to a rally point following a jump Feb. 25, 2013, at Fort Bragg, N.C. U.S. Army <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/8526989776/in/photostream" type="external">photo</a> by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for March 4, 2013 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/were-still-war-photo-day-march-4-2013/ | 2013-03-04 | 4 |
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<p>ATLANTA — An 86-year-old jewel thief who has kept jewelry sellers on their toes since the 1970s has struck again, police say – this time by slipping a $2,000 diamond necklace into her pocket.</p>
<p>Doris Payne, who has been the subject of a documentary and casually said during an Associated Press interview earlier this year that “I was a thief,” was arrested Tuesday at a Von Maur department store outside Atlanta.</p>
<p>Payne was arrested after she put the necklace in her back pocket and tried to leave the store, Dunwoody police spokesman Mark Stevens said in an email. She faces a shoplifting charge.</p>
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<p>Online jail records did not show any bond information, and it wasn’t clear whether Payne had an attorney who could comment.</p>
<p>Attorney Shawn McCullers, who represented her last year when she was accused of pocketing a $690 pair of earrings from a Saks Fifth Avenue department store at a mall in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood, said in an email Wednesday that he was not currently representing her in the latest arrest.</p>
<p>Authorities have said Payne has lifted pricey baubles from countless jewelry stores around the world in an illicit career that has spanned six decades. The legend of Payne’s alleged thefts have long fascinated the public and media, with countless news stories and a 2013 documentary film, “The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne,” detailing her feats.</p>
<p>When asked about her exploits in the interview with The Associated Press earlier this year, she said simply: “I was a thief.”</p>
<p>Court papers in Atlanta reference six cases prior to the alleged theft last year, mostly in southern California, dating to 1999.</p>
<p>Payne was raised in West Virginia and moved with her family to Ohio when she was a teenager.</p>
<p>Authorities have said she has used at least 22 aliases over the years and probably got away more often than she was caught, though she has done several stints in prison. The Jewelers’ Security Alliance, an industry trade group, sent out bulletins as early as the 1970s warning about her.</p>
<p>Payne told the AP she realized a simple distraction could make it easy to slip out with a fancy trinket in hand after a friendly store owner let her try on watches as a child and then forgot she had the jewelry on. Her career was born in her 20s when she got the idea that she could support herself by lifting jewelry.</p>
<p>Payne, who appeared effortlessly elegant and spoke with calm deliberation during the interview with the AP, nevertheless grew cagey when asked about her methods.</p>
<p>“I don’t dictate what happens when I walk in the store. The people in charge dictate what happens with me when I walk in the store,” she said. “I don’t tell a person in the store I want to see something that costs $10,000. They make those decisions based on how I present myself and how I look.”</p>
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<p>Follow Kate Brumback on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/katebrumback" type="external">http://twitter.com/katebrumback</a></p> | Police: Notorious 86-year-old jewel thief strikes again | false | https://abqjournal.com/908571/police-notorious-86-year-old-jewel-thief-strikes-again-2.html | 2016-12-14 | 2 |
<p>From Capitol Weekly:</p>
<p>Because they can respond quickly to new trends and demands, and are often powered by the enthusiasm and focus of their owners, California’s small businesses are a job-creating machine. Responsible for 80 percent of all new jobs in the state, small businesses are our best hope to get the economy back on its feet.</p>
<p>However, an entrepreneur moving to take advantage of new niche markets often is working with little capital, slim financial resources and almost no margin for error.&#160; That makes it especially difficult to survive in the state’s battered economy along with a tax burden on businesses that ranks second highest in the nation and a regulatory environment that is the worst.</p>
<p>So, small businesses can be looked at for the earliest evidence of economic troubles. And small businesses can be seen as our best chance to reduce an unemployment rate that is also second highest in the country. Ironically, some of California’s most successful small businesses are providing new and dramatic evidence that the state needs to find a new way to nurture these companies and the jobs they provide.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=107bom2azeel7ax&amp;xid=106z819k5zidl23&amp;done=.107bom2azeev7ax" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p> | California tax burden forces jobs to grow in other states | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/california-tax-burden-forces-jobs-to-grow-in-other-states/ | 2011-12-13 | 1 |
<p />
<p>I <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2007/03/3954_optimistic_repo.html" type="external">blogged</a> last Friday about TIME‘s optimistic assessment of the surge-backed security crackdown in Baghdad (for which General Petraeus was a major source). I was skeptical. But one new tactic even I had to admit was a good idea—if a tad slow in coming—was Operation Safe Markets, where the military uses concrete barriers to prevent cars, and car bombs, from getting close to the crowds markets draw.</p>
<p>Today, a car bomb <a href="http://www.startribune.com/722/story/1086963.html" type="external">killed</a> 61 people at a market in the Shaab neighborhood of Baghdad, and 40 were injured. Simultaneously, a car bomb killed 43 and wounded 86 in the predominantly Shiite town of Khalis, north of Baghdad. The Shaab neighborhood is one of the crackdown’s key areas.</p>
<p>Convinced yet? Don’t just take my word for it. Those who have warned the surge won’t work <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2006/12/3153_who_will_stop_the_drunk_pilot_flying_solo_in_iraq.html" type="external">include</a> Colin Powell, the Iraq Study Group, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Petraeus’s sacked predecessor, General Abizaid.</p>
<p /> | Security Surge Fails in its Strong Suit | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/03/security-surge-fails-its-strong-suit/ | 2007-03-29 | 4 |
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<p>A young, unwed mother tries to wrest her child from her own mother’s possessiveness. A shy, lonely man lovingly peers through a small telescope into the apartment of a lovely artist. A young woman grapples with the question of whether the father who raised her truly is her biological sire.</p>
<p>Filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski shows everyday, middle-class people facing questions and situations that try their own morality and sense of who they are. And it happens within one housing block of residents within a country where the Catholic Church often holds dominion over such questions.</p>
<p>But that doesn’t stop individuals from wrestling with the gray that bleeds into the middle ground between black and white.</p>
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<p>Kieslowski’s “Dekalog,” first produced for Polish television and aired as a mini-series in 1989, recently has been restored, which is why the Center for Contemporary Arts Cinematheque is showing the series on late weekend mornings beginning today and ending with a massive 11-hour marathon on Jan. 14.</p>
<p>Artur Barcis, who acts as a silent witness in eight out of 10 of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Dekalog” series, is shown in “Dekalog: One. (Courtesy of Janus Films)</p>
<p>After its television debut, the 10-part “Dekalog” was released at some film festivals and in a few cities, including Santa Fe’s CCA, where current Cinematheque director Jason Silverman said he saw them around 1993-94. “It was a totally mind-blowing experience for me,” he said. “I was obsessed.”</p>
<p>Calling Kieslowski a “total god” among cinephiles, Silverman said the filmmaker flouted the rules of storytelling of the time and offered a narrative that was both emotionally forceful and full of unexpected twists.</p>
<p>“He explores the complexity of the human project. He doesn’t try to simplify things,” Silverman said, adding that viewers want to sit down and discuss his films after they see them. “He uses ambiguity.”</p>
<p>Annette Insdorf, professor in the Graduate Film Division at Columbia University and author of “Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski,” wrote in an email to the Journal, “In the 20 years since his death, Kieslowski ​has been recognized as one of the world’s greatest filmmakers. It’s partly for the poetic richness of his cinematic style, and partly for the depth of his philosophical and spiritual speculation.”</p>
<p>“I believe we’re just as much prisoners of our own passions, our own physiology, and certainly our own biology, as we were thousands of years ago … . We’re always trying to find a way out. But we’re constantly imprisoned by our passions and feelings.” – Kieslowski</p>
<p>When a woman is turned away as a Jewish child seeking protection during the days of World War II and later confronts the one who sent her back into the streets, she learns the reason for the rejection wasn’t as forthright as heartlessness or fear. A man whose medical impotence causes him to doubt his wife’s love takes an action that could have caused him to lose it forever. And a man’s faith in science is shattered as he faces the greatest loss of all.</p>
<p>The “Dekalog” actually has its roots in Kieslowski’s friend and collaborator, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, telling him he should do a film about the Ten Commandments. “A terrible idea, of course,” Kieslowski commented in writing about the project. Yet he proceeded, but not in a way that tied any one film, each of which lasts about one hour, to any one commandment.</p>
<p>Grazyna Szapolowska stands at the window of a postal office clerk who has peeped through her windows in “Dekalog: Six.” (Courtesy of Janus Films)</p>
<p>Kieslowski has said that he didn’t want to pretend to know any more than anyone else, but simply wanted to explore questions. So we have a film, for instance, that shows a random, horrific murder of a taxi driver – the longest murder scene ever portrayed on film up to that point – but also the grief of an attorney who tries to save the murderer from a death sentence.</p>
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<p>“While some consider his greatest achievement to be the Three Colors Trilogy, many believe his ‘Dekalog’ is the masterpiece of late 20th-century filmmaking,” Insdorf commented. “Even though made for Polish television, ​his 10 brilliant one-hour films … have inspired moviemakers to interweave multiple narrative strands. I see his influence in filmmakers as disparate as Tom Tykwer (“Run, Lola, Run”) and Alejandro Inarritu (“Babel”).”</p>
<p>These short films, made a few years before the decline of Soviet domination in Poland, presaged a mini-series that popped up on networks such as HBO, according to Silverman. They were made under the length restriction of television, the oppression of freedom of expression under the Soviets, and limited funding, he added.</p>
<p>“For me, that’s part of the beauty of them,” he said. “They’re like sonnets … . They work so inventively and beautifully in the context of these limitations.”</p>
<p>“Now, in my work, I’ve thrown aside this external world and, more and more frequently, deal with people who come home, lock the door on the inside and remain alone with themselves.” – Kieslowski on his work with the “Dekalog”</p>
<p /> | Kieslowski’s influential ‘Dekalog’ showing at CCA | false | https://abqjournal.com/910070/kieslowskis-influential-dekalog-showing-at-cca.html | 2 |
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<p>Former President Barack Obama recently gave his thoughts on President Trump residing in the White House and what he’s accomplished in his first 100 days.</p>
<p>In an interview with Politico, Obama claimed he was “sad and disgusted” President Trump was undoing the work he had done with the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>He also mentioned how he felt “stoic and fearful” for the American people.</p>
<p>The Daily Caller reported:</p>
<p>Former president Barack Obama is sad and frustrated over President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in the White House, according to a Thursday report from Politico.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>People who spoke with Obama told Politico the former president’s personal feelings about Trump range from stoicism, to fear, to frustration. And although his personal reaction to Trump’s wiretapping accusation was basically an “eye-roll,” sources told Politico he was directly involved in the response, and told his staff to send a clear message the accusation is false. One source described Obama’s feelings about Trump in the White House as “like watching a business he’d built for eight years being slowly ripped down.”</p>
<p>While President Trump is successfully undoing much of the harm the former president dealt to this nation, Obama is feeling personally victimized for having his “legacy” ruined.</p>
<p>The Daily Caller reported:</p>
<p>Trump ran against the Affordable Care Act, the administration’s approach to illegal immigration, and cutting back “harmful” government regulations during the 2016 presidential election, and is well on his way to reversing the key achievements of the Obama administration. The Republican replacement for the ACA is nearing a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, and Trump signed 43 executive orders that include reaffirming school choice, reducing the power of the Environmental Protection Agency, and allowing increased offshore drilling of oil and natural gas.</p>
<p>Obama also claimed that his new political interests are not aligned with what progressives are claiming is a “resistance” and that he isn’t looking to “pick a fight” with the current administration.</p>
<p>He even cancelled some personal events for fear of crossing paths with President Trump and has not had a conversation with him since he’s taken office.</p>
<p>The Daily Caller reported:</p>
<p>“It is not in anyone’s interest for President Obama to become the face of the resistance,” said Eric Schultz, a former White House aide who’s now a senior adviser. “When the former president speaks, he consumes a lot of the oxygen — and can suppress the next generation of leaders from rising.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The former president hopes to help fellow Democrats by speaking at fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee starting in the fall, during the height of the 2017 elections and before the 2018 midterms. Otherwise, the report claims, Obama prefers to finish his book over responding to anything Trump has to say.</p>
<p>While Obama claimed he is simply not interested in getting involved in the new political scene, it seems he is embarrassed and devastated the legacy he created is now in shambles.</p>
<p>Do you think former President Obama is concerned about his legacy falling apart?</p>
<p>Leave us your thoughts in the comments section below.</p> | Here’s How Obama Feels Knowing Trump Is President | true | http://conservativerevival.com/latest-news/heres-how-obama-feels-knowing-trump-is-president/ | 0 |
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<p>Uruguayans will be allowed to buy enough marijuana to roll about 20 joints a week at a price well below the black market rate, the government said this week as it detailed a new law legalizing the cannabis trade.</p>
<p>Congress in December approved a law allowing the cultivation and sale of marijuana, making Uruguay the first country to do so, with the aim of wresting the business from criminals.</p>
<p>Leftist President Jose Mujica signed a decree outlining the fine print of the new policy on Tuesday. It says Uruguayans will be able to buy up to 10 grams of marijuana a week at between $0.85 and $1 a gram, a low price designed to compete with black market cannabis that mostly comes from Paraguay.</p>
<p>Activists who have backed the measure said legalized marijuana would be high-grade and affordable.</p>
<p>"You can't compare a flower that is quality-controlled by the Public Health Ministry ... with Paraguayan (stuff) which is absolutely harmful because it has external substances," said Bruno Calleros of the Cannabis Liberation Movement.</p>
<p>He said legal marijuana would cost roughly 20 percent of the current market price for similar high-quality marijuana.</p>
<p>Each Uruguayan will also be allowed to grow up to six marijuana plants or the equivalent of 480 grams (about 17 ounces) for personal use and form smoking clubs of 15 to 45 members that can grow up to 99 plants per year.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/140319/uruguay-import-marijuana-canada-export-cannabis" type="external">Exclusive: Uruguay may import marijuana from Canada</a></p>
<p>A sleepy agricultural country of 3.3 million people, Uruguay has come under the spotlight for the marijuana law championed by Mujica, a 78-year-old former Marxist guerrilla whose modest lifestyle and philosophical musings have made him a leftist darling abroad.</p>
<p>Uruguay has gone further than countries that have decriminalized possession or, like the Netherlands, tolerate the sale of marijuana in "coffee shops." The US states of Washington and Colorado have legalized the sale of cannabis under license, but federal laws still prohibit it.</p>
<p>Uruguay's experiment is being keenly watched by Latin American peers at a time when the US-led war on drugs faces mounting criticism. Success in Uruguay could fuel momentum for legalization elsewhere.</p>
<p>While relatively prosperous Uruguay has low crime rates, a third of prisoners are behind bars on drug charges.</p>
<p>Advocates of legalization argue that criminalization fuels violence and corruption in developing countries where the drugs are produced or transported. But critics warn that Uruguay's law could pave the way for harder drugs and lure addicts to Montevideo.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/140418/uruguay-prisoners-medical-marijuana" type="external">Uruguay may treat drug-addicted prisoners with medical weed. Here's how that would work</a></p>
<p>In a bid to avoid becoming a drug hot spot, Uruguay will only allow marijuana to be available to Uruguayan residents who are registered in a confidential database. Still, Mujica has said the country could backpedal if the law fails to work out as planned.</p>
<p>"We're looking to hurt drug trafficking by snatching part of its market," Mujica said on Friday, stressing that the law does not seek to foment drug use. "No addiction is good ... The only one I recommend to young people is love."</p>
<p>Marijuana legalization underlines a profound shift in social policies in Uruguay, which was ruled by a military dictatorship from 1973 to 1985. It has since become one of Latin America's most liberal countries and has also legalized gay marriage and abortion.</p>
<p>(Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Kieran Murray, Tom Brown and Ken Wills)</p> | Uruguay says legal marijuana will be good and cheap | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-05-07/uruguay-says-legal-marijuana-will-be-good-and-cheap | 2014-05-07 | 3 |
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<p>The reports contains 12 major recommendations from the Classrooms First Initiative Council, starting with replacing the current K-12 school funding method with a single simplified formula for all public schools and allocating funds using a lump-sum formula. The council also recommends consolidating property tax rates and reducing reliance on property tax overrides.</p>
<p>Another key recommendation is an across-the-board teacher salary increase to address the shortage of classroom instructors, boosting pay differentials for teachers in rural schools, expanding teacher loan forgiveness programs and streamlining certification requirements.</p>
<p>Ducey told reporters that he will ask for additional money for schools in the budget proposal he releases next month, but he pushed back on questions about the council’s call for additional funding.</p>
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<p>“We are not going to measure our success by funding alone,” he said. “We’re going to measure it by results and outcomes in the classrooms. We’ve got some evidence that what we’re doing in Arizona is improving, especially in comparison to other states on reading and math and science.”</p>
<p>The report comes nearly 18 months after Ducey appointed the panel and charged its members with coming up with ways to overhaul the state’s complex K-12 public school financing laws.</p>
<p>Jim Swanson, a businessman who chaired the committee, said just bringing teacher salaries up to the national median could cost $500 million to $700 million a year and addressing funding needs for students with special needs could reach $450 million a year.</p>
<p>“I think it’s loud and clear that the sense of the council is that you probably can’t achieve certain things without increasing funding for schools,” Swanson said. “The council is concerned with the adequacy of funding overall. You heard the comments that I made about teacher pay, about the progress meter, the aid measure, which is where we stand against the national median. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”</p>
<p>The school financing proposals will need face tough scrutiny if Ducey formally adopts them as a legislative proposal, because each change is likely to affect schools in either positive or negative ways. The current system was developed in the early 1980s and has been repeatedly tweaked since then. In addition, tight state budgets mean there likely won’t be much extra money to address some of the key findings short of a proposal to create new tax revenue, something directly acknowledged in the report.</p>
<p>The state spends about $4 billion in general fund money a year on K-12 schools, a huge chunk of the current $9.6 billion spending plan. Local property taxes and federal funding boosting that total to nearly $10 billion. Still, Arizona schools are among the lowest-funded in the nation on a per-pupil basis.</p>
<p>The report also noted that it didn’t address three major school funding issues: The 2020 expiration of a voter-approved sales tax that provides about $450 million a year for schools; major cuts in funding for school construction and other capitol projects; and what happens when a boost in state trust land revenue outlays approved by voters this year expires in a decade.</p>
<p>Ducey said he plans to address the school construction in January, but the other two will wait.</p>
<p>“This is a huge amount of funding, and those are really big issues that need to be addressed. But we have time on two of those three issues,” he said. “On the first one we’re going to address a next step in the budget, and we’ll lay the groundwork on the next two as well.”</p> | Proposals for overhauling Arizona school funding unveiled | false | https://abqjournal.com/908992/proposals-for-overhauling-arizona-school-funding-unveiled.html | 2 |
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