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<p>PHOENIX (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the Arizona Lottery's "The Pick" game were:</p>
<p>12-19-24-32-36-42</p>
<p>(twelve, nineteen, twenty-four, thirty-two, thirty-six, forty-two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $1.2 million</p>
<p>¶ Players need to match all of the six numbers drawn to win the first-place jackpot. If other players also match all six numbers, the prize pool will be shared in equal amounts. ¶ Players win smaller prizes if they have three, four or five of the first six numbers drawn.</p>
<p>PHOENIX (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the Arizona Lottery's "The Pick" game were:</p>
<p>12-19-24-32-36-42</p>
<p>(twelve, nineteen, twenty-four, thirty-two, thirty-six, forty-two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $1.2 million</p>
<p>¶ Players need to match all of the six numbers drawn to win the first-place jackpot. If other players also match all six numbers, the prize pool will be shared in equal amounts. ¶ Players win smaller prizes if they have three, four or five of the first six numbers drawn.</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'The Pick' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/cf33ddc7db3a4e649c816d074bab0fe8 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Mazda is recalling more than 60,000 midsize cars in the U.S. and Canada because a wiring problem can knock out power-assisted steering and the passenger air bag.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The recall covers Mazda 6 sedans from 2015 and 2016. The company says in documents posted by the U.S. government that wires under the front passenger seat can rub against welding debris, causing them to short. A loss of power-assisted steering can increase the risk of a crash, although none have been reported.</p>
<p>Owners should see multiple warning lights if the problem happens.</p>
<p>Dealers will inspect the cars and install insulating tape or a protective pad to shield the wires. The recall is expected to start on Sept. 29.</p> | Mazda 6 recalled; wiring short can knock out power steering | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/22/mazda-6-recalled-wiring-short-can-knock-out-power-steering.html | 2017-09-22 | 0 |
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<p>For countertenor David Daniels, playing Oscar Wilde slices deep into the marrow.</p>
<p>The singer the Chicago Tribune crowned “the gold standard among countertenors” has certainly tackled big roles before.</p>
<p>“I sang Julius Caesar,” the openly gay singer said between fittings for the Santa Fe Opera world premier of “Oscar” on Saturday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>WHERE: The Santa Fe Opera, seven miles north of Santa Fe west of U.S. 84/285</p>
<p>WHEN: July 27, 31; Aug. 9, 12, 17.</p>
<p>Performances begin at 8:30 p.m. through July 27; at 8 p.m. July 29-Aug. 24.</p>
<p>CONTACT: 800-280-4654; 505-986-5900 or visit www.Santa Fe Opera.org.</p>
<p />
<p>“I’ve always been in love with Cleopatra or Violetta,” he added. “‘Oscar’ has been the most emotional situation I’ve ever encountered in life, other than losing my parents.”</p>
<p>Daniels commissioned composer Theodore Morrison, who was his choral professor at the University of Michigan, and librettist John Cox (who happens to be a Wilde scholar) to create “something I could connect with.” His request was that vague, sans direction, much less personal.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The pair chose the catastrophic story of Oscar Wilde’s trial, conviction and imprisonment for “gross indecency.”</p>
<p>Known for his searing wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde penned both “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895) and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1890). He was at the height of his fame and powers when he fell in love with Lord Alfred Douglas (“Bosie”), the son of the Marquess of Queensberry. Prodded by Bosie, Wilde sued the Marquess for libel after Queensberry left a calling card at the writer’s club reading “For Oscar Wilde —— posing Sodomite.” The trial transformed into a cause célébre as salacious details of Wilde’s homosexual liaisons emerged.</p>
<p>Bosie was driven by the “total hatred” he felt for his father, who rejected him because of his sexuality, Daniels said. Wilde’s friends discouraged him from pursuing the lawsuit, which he lost.</p>
<p>Bosie haunts Wilde’s imagination throughout the opera, portrayed by dancer Reed Luplau.</p>
<p>“Bosie was the most famous blonde gay boy in the world,” Daniels said. “We’re portraying this as if it’s the love of (Oscar’s) life. I don’t think Bosie was all flowers and butterflies.”</p>
<p>Neither was Wilde. Daniels said he was surprised to learn exactly how debauched the writer’s life had been. He and Bosie frequented prostitutes, often together.</p>
<p>“I’m sure he had 8,000 boys and gave silver cigarette cases to every one he met,” Daniels said. “But we want to believe they were the loves of each other’s lives.”</p>
<p>The judge sentenced Wilde to two years’ hard labor in a Victorian prison.</p>
<p>Accustomed to a life of luxury, Wilde faced a brutal confinement. Victorian prisons were notorious for their daily meals of bread, cheese, gruel and suet. Wardens gave him a bucket for a toilet and a plank for a bed. No books or pens were allowed. Prisoners were forced to wear masks so they could not speak except in chapel. They turned a crank or ran a treadmill for six hours a day as punishment.</p>
<p>“And all of this for loving a same-sex person,” Daniels said.</p>
<p>Although Daniels’ parents were supportive of his own sexuality, he faced a violent demonstration of homophobia when he was in his 20s.</p>
<p>“I was beaten up horribly when I was in South Carolina when I was 22 years old,” he said. Hospitalized, he never knew if his attacker was caught or charged.</p>
<p>His family provided the grace note.</p>
<p>“My parents were the most unconditionally loving people on the planet,” he said.</p>
<p>Daniels is the son of two voice teachers who grew up in Spartanburg, S.C. His father was one of the premiere members of the performing faculty during summers at the Brevard Music Center.</p>
<p>My parents “encouraged and supported me, but they never pushed,” Daniels said. “I was 3 years old when I was in (Puccini’s) ‘Gianni Schicchi.’ I was a boy soprano. I never wanted to do anything else.”</p>
<p>Daniels plays Wilde as the literary genius’ health plummets in prison and he spends two months in the infirmary. He died penniless in Paris of cerebral meningitis at 46.</p>
<p>With the exception of a single 30-minute intermission, Daniels spends nearly three hours singing and performing on stage.</p>
<p>The music is difficult, he said.</p>
<p>“It’s great music, but it’s tough music,” he said. “It’s so tough because it’s got an edge and a bite to it that’s amazing. The orchestra loves it; that’s rare to see. Some of them wanted the libretto to read.”</p>
<p>The singer first approached SFO general director Charles MacKay about staging the piece in 2008.</p>
<p>“I gave him a demo tape we had made in Ann Arbor,” he said. “I knew (Santa Fe) had a history of being open to new works.”</p>
<p>Daniels made his critically acclaimed Santa Fe debut in the title role of Handel’s “Radamisto” in 2008, returning as Roberto in Vivaldi’s “Griselda” in 2010.</p>
<p>“Oscar” particularly resonates just weeks after the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of gay marriage, Daniels said.</p>
<p>“But think of all the hate that’s still out there,” he added.</p>
<p>Daniels recently visited Paris’ Pére Lachaise Cemetery to see Wilde’s tomb. Today he considers the writer a hero. The epitaph is a verse from the author’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”:</p>
<p>“And alien tears will fill for him</p>
<p>Pity’s long-broken urn,</p>
<p>For his mourners will be outcast men,</p>
<p>And outcasts always mourn.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | Oscar Wilde slices deep for performer | false | https://abqjournal.com/225785/oscar-wilde-slices-deep-for-performer.html | 2013-07-26 | 2 |
<p>The fraudulent President has frequently demonstrated his flexible approach to facts, especially those involving American history. This should come as no surprise because his reimagining of events has been taking place for years, as demonstrated by the <a href="http://www.golfdigest.com/story/details-details-donald-trump-has-plaque-at-his-golf-course-commemorating-civil-war-battle-that-never-happened" type="external">commemorative&#160;plaque</a> he had erected on his Northern Virginia Trump National Golf Club a number of years ago.</p>
<p />
<p>Honoring Civil War combatants, the plaque says:</p>
<p>“Many great American soldiers, both of the North and South, died at this spot. The casualties were so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as ‘The River of Blood.’ It is my great honor to have preserved this important section of the Potomac River!”</p>
<p>It is rounded off with Trumps name at the bottom and his made up family crest at the top.</p>
<p />
<p>Obviously, it was good of him to acknowledge both sides of the conflict, no favoritism or North/South bias, the only trouble is that it is all untrue.</p>
<p>Richard Gillespie is the executive director of the Mosby Heritage Area Association, an organization that studies and preserves history in the local area and when asked about “The River of Blood” he said:</p>
<p>“No. Uh-uh. No way. Nothing like that ever happened there,”</p>
<p>He confirmed that a battle did happen 11 miles up the river in 1861 but that it was nothing like that and no such change in river color or volume of casualties&#160;ever happened.</p>
<p>When asked about the information behind the memorial Trump said that staff had conferred&#160;with historians and the story was true but when pressed he was unable to recall either the staff members involved or the names of the historians.</p>
<p>The New York Times asked Trump about the comments of Richard Gillespie and fellow collaborating&#160;historians &#160;in 2015 he replied, “How would they know, Were they there?”</p>
<p />
<p>Featured Meme: <a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d5/31/15/d531153ba2fe18b2c60ab2954c381f6e.jpg" type="external">Democratic Underground</a></p>
<p>Featured Image: <a href="http://media.golfdigest.com/photos/5655b14e4af1bd486c5e2053/master/w_925/Trump-Golf-Course-Plaque.jpg" type="external">Golf Digest</a></p> | Trump Dimisses Historians Knowledge Because ‘They Weren’t There’ | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2017/05/06/trump-dimisses-historians-knowledge-because-they-werent-there/ | 2017-05-06 | 4 |
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<p>SANTA FE (AP) — Government officials are advising workers to stay out of part of a nearly 80-year-old state office building in Santa Fe to avoid exposure to radon.</p>
<p>Attorney General Gary King said Tuesday that workers in his agency temporarily will not use a section of the Villagra Building, which was built as a New Deal project during the Great Depression. The building is connected to a newer complex for the attorney general’s office.</p>
<p>General Services Department spokesman Tim Korte said elevated levels of radon were detected in the building’s basement and corrective measures are planned. Radon wasn’t a problem in other parts of the building.</p>
<p>Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas and enters buildings through basements and foundation cracks.</p>
<p>The Environmental Protection Agency says radon exposure can cause lung cancer.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Radon found in state’s Villagra Building | false | https://abqjournal.com/182626/radon-found-in-states-villagra-building.html | 2 |
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<p>The code word for black workers caught Rosa Ceja by surprise.</p>
<p>She was working for a temp agency in spring 2014, supervising workers at a big brick packaging plant northwest of Chicago. Crews of minimum-wage temp workers in hairnets boxed consumer products such as adult diapers and energy drinks in shifts around the clock.</p>
<p>She knew the company wanted only men for some jobs and only women for others. And she knew those codes: “heavies” for men, “lights” for women.</p>
<p>But when Ceja asked the recruiting office to send more heavies, she was told there were only “guapos” available. She was confused. “Guapo” means “good-looking” in Spanish. “I’m like, ‘Who cares if he’s cute?’ ” Ceja remembers saying.</p>
<p>Guapo, her fellow recruiters told her, meant a black worker. Black people didn’t want to work hard or get their hands dirty, they explained, so they were called the pretty ones. Latinos, the “feos” or ugly ones, were what the company wanted.</p>
<p>Ceja said she checked with a packing company supervisor to make sure.</p>
<p>“She said, ‘If you ever bring me a black guy, they’re automatically walking out,’ ” Ceja said.</p>
<p>Ceja had stumbled into the noxious muck of <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/when-companies-hire-temp-workers-by-race-black-applicants-lose-out/" type="external">systemic discrimination</a> in the rapidly growing temp industry. Around the country, temp agencies have used <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/blog/decoding-the-language-of-discrimination/" type="external">code words</a>, symbols and gestures to illegally hire workers by sex, race and age. Whether filling orders for only white workers or only Latino ones, the tactics often hit black workers the hardest.</p>
<p>As Ceja underwent a crash course in this hidden system, an advocacy group called the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative was devising a counteroffensive.</p>
<p>The group eventually developed legislation to make temp agencies keep track of the race and gender of all job applicants.</p>
<p>Illinois Senate Bill 47 would provide the proof, supporters said, that temp agencies were shutting out black workers in favor of Latinos they could more easily exploit. If it passed, it could mean a fair chance at a paycheck.</p>
<p>Although a modest reform, it was likely the first of its kind. It put Illinois at the forefront of tackling a national problem in an increasingly important part of the workforce.</p>
<p>This is the story of why SB 47 was born – and how it was killed.</p>
<p>♦ ♦ ♦</p>
<p>Inside Illinois’ silvery-domed Capitol building in May 2015, Democratic Rep. Ken Dunkin was trying to guide the bill through a Labor and Commerce Committee hearing. It already had cruised through the state Senate <a href="http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=47&amp;GAID=13&amp;GA=99&amp;DocTypeID=SB&amp;LegID=83441&amp;SessionID=88#actions" type="external">the month before</a>.</p>
<p>But a powerful Latino lawmaker pushed back, and not gently. Staffing agencies were doing a great job employing his mostly Latino constituents, he said. The exchange got heated.</p>
<p>“You’re hurting people in my community,” said Rep. Luis Arroyo, also a Democrat and a power player on Chicago’s Northwest Side. “You’re hurting the people that I’m putting to work in my community.”</p>
<p>Dunkin tried to say the bill, which would amend the <a href="https://www.illinois.gov/idol/Laws-Rules/FLS/Pages/changes-to-dtlsa.aspx" type="external">Day and Temporary Labor Services Act</a>, wasn’t just about boosting the job prospects of black workers. But Arroyo cut him off. If it wasn’t just about black workers, Arroyo argued, why weren’t any Latinos complaining about the situation?</p>
<p>“I don’t want folks to get this twisted,” Dunkin said.</p>
<p>“It’s twisted already,” Arroyo shot back.</p>
<p>Arroyo’s <a href="http://media.apps.chicagotribune.com/legdistricts/final.html#house-3" type="external">district</a> is 61 percent Latino and 4 percent black. The Chicago district Dunkin held – and <a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/03/15/juliana-stratton-defeats-ken-dunkin-in-high-spending-5th-district-state-house-race/" type="external">lost</a> in the March primary – is just about the <a href="http://media.apps.chicagotribune.com/legdistricts/final.html#house-5" type="external">opposite</a>, at 52 percent black and 4 percent Latino.</p>
<p>The debate echoed the tensions between black and Latino laborers competing for minimum-wage jobs on the streets of Chicago.</p>
<p />
<p>It’s a dynamic playing out in cities across the country, as some employers choose Latinos for jobs black workers once often had. The clash is particularly sharp in Illinois, with one of the highest <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/state-unemployment-rates-by-race-and-ethnicity-at-the-start-of-2016-show-a-plodding-recovery-with-some-states-continuing-to-lag-behind/" type="external">rates</a> of black unemployment, far surpassing Latino joblessness.</p>
<p>And that wasn’t the only problem.</p>
<p>Dan Shomon, a lobbyist for an alliance of temp agencies, said the proposed law would create a paperwork nightmare costing businesses millions of dollars. Shomon is also executive director of the Staffing Services Association of Illinois, which he said represents 25 agencies that provide 250,000 jobs a year.</p>
<p>“We oppose discrimination also,” said Shomon, a top <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0708/Former_Obama_aide_sought_to_benefit_from_change.html" type="external">aide</a> to Barack Obama during his state and U.S. Senate careers until 2006. He didn’t mention that, just one week before, a board member of his association had signed an $800,000 <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/5-11-15.cfm" type="external">settlement</a> to resolve government findings of widespread discrimination at his company. Other association members also have been hit with bias claims.</p>
<p>Shomon said the bill’s requirement to track the race and gender of job applicants wasn’t necessary: The federal government already collects that data, he told legislators. He had that wrong, but nobody caught the error. He repeated it a few times.</p>
<p>After the SB 47 hearing, Shomon took Arroyo and another bill opponent to Saputo’s, an Italian restaurant popular with politicos, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2711543-Shomon-Meal-May-14.html" type="external">spending $45</a> on each of them, according to lobbyist expenditure records. Asked about this, Arroyo said free meals don’t buy votes in Springfield.</p>
<p>“I would be a heavy, heavy individual if that was the case,” he said.</p>
<p>Following another hearing on the bill a few days later, the lobbyist treated Arroyo to a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2711544-Shomon-Meal-May-21.html" type="external">$50 meal</a> at Nick &amp; Nino’s, a “ <a href="http://www.nickandninosspringfield.com/" type="external">penthouse steakhouse</a>” with 30th-floor views of the Capitol dome. By then, the bill effectively was dead.</p>
<p>At the second hearing, Arroyo and another lawmaker had made Dunkin promise that he wouldn’t bring it up for a final vote unless the industry lobbyist approved it.</p>
<p>And with that, a lobbyist who spread inaccurate information, representing companies that have faced serious allegations of discrimination, squelched what could have been a trailblazing reform.</p>
<p>♦ ♦ ♦</p>
<p>SB 47 had grown out of a larger battle over hiring discrimination in the temp industry.</p>
<p>The Chicago Workers’ Collaborative has been raising a ruckus for years as one of the nation’s only labor groups running a grassroots campaign to reform temp agency hiring practices. The regional office of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is among the most active in the country in suing over temp industry job bias. And a Chicago union organizer-turned-workers rights attorney has unleashed multiple class-action lawsuits against temp agencies on behalf of black workers, recently clinching a $1.5 million <a href="http://www.wbez.org/news/maker-lemonheads-and-red-hots-settles-race-discrimination-lawsuit-114248" type="external">settlement</a>.</p>
<p>The temp agency tactics aren’t lost on job seekers who show up at stark storefront recruiting offices before dawn. Some take buses across Chicago as early as 4 a.m. – not for a job they can count on, but for a chance to snag a shift making as little as $8.25 per hour.</p>
<p>They sit next to each other with packed lunches, in rows of plastic chairs or wooden benches. They wait for hours to see whether they will get a spot on the vans that transport temp workers to various plastics manufacturers, food factories, printing plants and packaging facilities.</p>
<p>For Derell Pruitt, it was bad enough watching Latino workers board the vans while black workers like him were left behind. The worst, he said, was one time last year when he actually did get sent out for a job. It was for a temp agency called Most Valuable Personnel, or MVP.</p>
<p>As soon as the vanload of workers arrived at the job site, a packaging plant, Pruitt said a supervisor picked all the Latinos and sent back all the black workers. They weren’t needed, they were told.</p>
<p>“I could not believe that they would not pick one black, not one,” said Pruitt, talking in a McDonald’s near his Waukegan home. “It was very bold and humiliating, too.”</p>
<p>Rosa Ceja said the same thing happened on her watch. Back when she learned that black workers were “guapos” to be avoided, she was a dispatcher for MVP, working on-site at the same packaging plant.</p>
<p>“Right now, if I think about it, it’s really, really sad,” she said.</p>
<p>Another former dispatcher, Adriana Hernandez of Round Lake, has similar stories: “They would tell me, ‘Remember, the supervisor doesn’t want any older ladies, and she doesn’t want any black people.’ ” She provided a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2714177-Lights-and-Heavies.html" type="external">text message</a> that she claimed showed the codes for men and women, an order for “10 lights and 4 heavys.”</p>
<p>In response to the allegations, an attorney for MVP, Elliot Richardson, said, “We deny that we discriminate on any basis, including race or gender or for any other reasons whatsoever.”</p>
<p>He declined to address specifics.</p>
<p>“It’s not our desire to be litigating this in the media,” Richardson said. “We have directed our clients not to speak to the media about these pending matters.”</p>
<p>The packaging plant, called Metropolitan Graphic Arts, or MGA, doesn’t hire by race, said its president, Greg Szymanski. If any workers were sent back, he said, it was because they didn’t want to do the job.</p>
<p>“We’ll hire the United Nations, and we’ll look for good workers, period,” he said.</p>
<p>But Szymanski acknowledged requesting male workers for certain jobs and women for others.</p>
<p>“If it’s picking up very heavy things, men are stronger, sure,” he said. “We’ve been in this business, and we know that men do this job better and women do this job better.”</p>
<p>MGA’s clients include a long list of name-brand companies that once scrolled across its <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160110210005/http:/mgainnovation.net/" type="external">website</a>: Advil, Dove, Crest, Tide, Huggies, Tums, L’Oreal, Arm &amp; Hammer, Target, Starbucks, Walmart and Unilever.</p>
<p>Pruitt is part of class-action lawsuits claiming that MVP discriminated against black workers and didn’t pay him for his time. MVP responded in court filings that Pruitt never worked for the company.</p>
<p>Pruitt, 40, said he had to go to counseling for his rage – against Latinos.</p>
<p>“I was starting to hate them,” he said. “I knew that I shouldn’t be thinking the way that I was thinking, but I was frustrated and angry.”</p>
<p>Pruitt said he has gone from backing Obama to full-throated support for Donald Trump, citing the Republican presidential candidate’s combative stance on immigration.</p>
<p>“I want to help build that wall,” he said of Trump’s plan to seal off the U.S. border with Mexico. “I want to help get rid of some of these people.”</p>
<p>Racial preferences loom over recruiting offices around the country, lawsuits and interviews show.</p>
<p>A trio of temp agencies in Tennessee, for example, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1392424-ms-complaint.html" type="external">systematically</a> recruited Latinos at the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1392429-paramount-complaint.html" type="external">expense</a> of black workers, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1392423-koosharem-ammended-complaint.html" type="external">according</a> to government lawsuits.</p>
<p>“Whether it’s low-wage Hispanic workers or low-wage African American workers, each of them are trying to make a decent living, and they’re being pitted against each other,” said Faye Williams, regional attorney for the Memphis office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.</p>
<p>This dynamic goes back to the 1990s, when global economic competition drove employers to seek a cheaper, more flexible workforce, said Virginia Tech sociology professor Barbara Ellen Smith.</p>
<p>They found a solution in temp agencies, which allowed for quick and easy hiring and firing. And they found a willing workforce in a growing stream of Latino immigrants, desperate for work of any kind, she said.</p>
<p>“In effect, employers were replacing black workers with Latino immigrant workers,” said Smith, who <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2838301-Ghosts-in-the-Global-Machine.html" type="external">studied</a> the phenomenon among warehouse workers in Memphis. “You’ve got a population that’s really kind of exploitable.”</p>
<p>The ensuing conflict between black and Latino workers served employers’ interests, too: “It keeps people from organizing,” she said.</p>
<p>Overcoming that racial divide has been the ongoing struggle of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative. The group, formed in 2000, traditionally advocated for Latino workers, campaigning against problems such as wage theft and sexual harassment. But a few years ago, its leaders reached out to black workers and discovered a reservoir of frustration and resentment.</p>
<p>“Their view was those 10 Latinos … getting in that van are the reason I’m not going to work,” said Leone Bicchieri, the group’s executive director. “As opposed to, it’s the dispatcher following orders from someone higher up.”</p>
<p>Black workers, he said, are more likely to complain about wage theft or workplace injuries than Latino workers, who might be worried about their immigration status or unsure of other options.</p>
<p>Bicchieri’s wife emigrated from Mexico and worked for years as a temp. He’s trying to convince Latino workers it’s in their long-term interests to fight job discrimination that actually favors them.</p>
<p>The group’s pitch is this: Black workers are losing jobs, and Latinos are losing their rights. Only united can they hold temp agencies accountable.</p>
<p>♦ ♦ ♦</p>
<p>Photo by Stacey Rupolo</p>
<p>Most Valuable Personnel recently transferred its Illinois branches to Elite Staffing. This is their office on 55th Street in Gage Park on the Southwest Side.</p>
<p>Rejected black workers left sitting in temp agency lobbies may feel discrimination, but they can’t quantify it.</p>
<p>Despite lobbyist Dan Shomon’s repeated assurances that federal regulators already collect the data, it’s just not true. Officials with both the American Staffing Association and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission agree on that point.</p>
<p>The federal government compiles the demographics only of employees, not of job applicants. And the temp industry pushed for a federal <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2106668-american-staffing-association-issue-paper.html" type="external">exemption</a> to those reporting requirements in the 1960s.</p>
<p>There is a state law in Illinois requiring agencies to keep a record of the race and gender of each temp worker who is hired. But it appears that law <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2714176-EEOC-Source-One-Race-and-Gender-Tracking.html#document/p4/a290463" type="external">isn’t always followed</a> or enforced.</p>
<p>MVP lawyers <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2714175-Lucas-v-GSB-MVP-Transcript-of-Hearing.html#document/p67/a277950" type="external">told</a> a judge in 2014 that the company doesn’t record the race of its workers and doesn’t keep <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2719254-MVP-GSB-Transcript-Oct-8-2014.html#document/p21/a279552" type="external">any record</a> of job applicants.</p>
<p>The Illinois Department of Labor doesn’t inspect temp agency records unless it receives a complaint, and there haven’t been any related to race and gender recordkeeping, according to the department.</p>
<p>That raises the question: Even if the reform were enacted, would new rules also be ignored?</p>
<p>Shomon, the lobbyist, declined to answer questions from Reveal or provide information that backed up his assertions to lawmakers. Instead, he pointed to the long-standing federal law against hiring bias, writing by email, “This discrimination is already prohibited by the EEOC.”</p>
<p>The nonprofit trade group he represents came together, according to its <a href="http://www.ilssa.net/" type="external">website</a>, to “fight to keep our industry free of unnecessary regulations.”</p>
<p>Its leadership is quite familiar with the discrimination problem.</p>
<p>The secretary of the board of directors is Chuck Porcelli, CEO of Bensenville-based ASG Staffing, recent <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2703750-Staffing-Services-Association-of-Illinois-990.html" type="external">federal</a> and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2714117-SSAI-Annual-Report-2015.html" type="external">state</a> filings show. A former office manager sued the company in 2014, accusing it of catering to customer requests for workers of a certain race or sex. The company used a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1688489-mendez-v-asg-staffing.html" type="external">coding system</a>, the suit said, for “racial ‘earmarking.’ ” A “Code 3, heavy,” for example, meant a request for a Latino man.</p>
<p />
<p>The company denied the allegations and settled confidentially with the former employee. ASG’s attorney, Bethany Drucker, said it does not discriminate.</p>
<p>Another association board member, Scott Reedy, is president of the Chicago-area firm Source One Staffing. His company <a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/5-11-15.cfm" type="external">agreed to pay $800,000</a> last year to resolve two lawsuits by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The government accused Source One of discriminating against temp workers by race, gender and disability.</p>
<p>“That’s a significant case and significant relief with respect to serious systemic discrimination,” said commission regional attorney John Hendrickson.</p>
<p>It all started in 2007, when a few female temp workers complained that a supervisor at a West Chicago plastics plant had sexually harassed them.</p>
<p>The government <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704308-Source-One-Staffing-Consent-Decree.html" type="external">found</a> that Source One segregated jobs into “men’s work” and “women’s work” and sent women to inferior, lower-paying jobs. The company sometimes assigned women to hostile work environments and then retaliated against those who complained.</p>
<p>One client, according to email requests, repeatedly asked for “ <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704311-Source-One-Staffing.html" type="external">girls</a>.” Another, according to a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704910-EEOC-Source-One-Buzo-Depo.html#document/p13/a276001" type="external">deposition</a>, wanted only “ <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704910-EEOC-Source-One-Buzo-Depo.html#document/p26/a276004" type="external">pretty girls</a>.”</p>
<p>As for race, Source One also filled client requests for Latino workers, discriminating against white and black applicants, according to the commission.</p>
<p>Reedy, the company president and association board member, was personally swept up into the case. A former employee testified that he <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704910-EEOC-Source-One-Buzo-Depo.html#document/p9/a276000" type="external">instructed</a> her to fill gender-specific requests, but to <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704910-EEOC-Source-One-Buzo-Depo.html#document/p16/a276002" type="external">lie</a> to government investigators about what was happening.</p>
<p>The government called it <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704911-EEOC-v-Source-One-Witness-Tampering.html" type="external">witness tampering</a> and said it “raises serious questions about unethical or even criminal conduct by Source One’s owner and/or its attorney.”</p>
<p>Source One denied wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement and ongoing supervision by an independent monitor. Reedy had to personally guarantee $150,000 of the settlement, a requirement Hendrickson, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission attorney, called “extraordinarily rare.”</p>
<p>Reedy, reached by phone, said of the government allegations: “That’s done and gone, and I already spent eight years on it.” He declined to answer other questions, saying, “I don’t have any comments regarding anything,” and hung up the phone.</p>
<p>Companies run by other association board members face pending discrimination complaints with the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2838455-Elite-Staffing-EEOC-Charge.html" type="external">commission</a> and in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2838302-Murdock-Alexander-v-Temps-Now.html" type="external">court</a>.</p>
<p>At the Springfield hearings for SB 47, though, legislators seemed to doubt whether there was a problem to fix at all. Rep. Luis Arroyo, for one, didn’t believe it.</p>
<p>“They tried to say that the temp agencies only hire Latinos. I think that that’s wrong to say that,” Arroyo said in a January interview. “Did I do any investigations? Do I know that for a fact? No, I don’t.”</p>
<p>♦ ♦ ♦</p>
<p>Pamela Sanchez tried to tell them. She worked as a Most Valuable Personnel dispatcher in Cicero, a Chicago suburb, until February 2015. The workers collaborative invited her to Springfield to testify at a committee hearing in May 2015. She brought her daughter.</p>
<p>Rep. Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez, who represents Cicero, asked Sanchez whether temp workers are chosen on a first-come, first-served basis. She was surprised at the answer.</p>
<p>“No, ma’am,” Sanchez replied. “Most of the time, people will choose by race.”</p>
<p>Some wrote off the dispatcher’s firsthand account. The rumor going around, Arroyo said, was that Sanchez had been paid to say those things.</p>
<p>“That’s what they were saying in the halls and in the back,” he said.</p>
<p>After all, Arroyo said, “Why would a Latina say that they are only hiring Latinos?” It didn’t make sense that she would speak out against something that benefited Latinos.</p>
<p>“Latinos normally don’t do that,” he said.</p>
<p>Photo by Stacey Rupolo</p>
<p>Pamela Sanchez, a former dispatcher for Most Valuable Personnel, stands outside her home on the West Side of Chicago. She testified at a committee hearing in Springfield about discrimination against black workers.</p>
<p>Sanchez, a soft-spoken single mother of two from Chicago’s West Lawn neighborhood, said she went public because she used to be a temp worker herself.</p>
<p>“I know how hard it is when you need to be there and looking for a job and they don’t pick you,” she said. “I cannot be shutting my mouth no more.”</p>
<p>There was also an element of guilt, of making things right. She says she still feels bad about the time she confirmed a black worker for a temp job, telling him to come into the office the following day around 4 a.m. He waited for five hours, she said, but was passed over. She said her manager told her, “Oh, you know they don’t want no blacks.”</p>
<p>Sanchez said MVP fired her last year after she complained to upper management about problems at the Cicero office. Shortly afterward, she signed a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2630072-pamela-sanchez-declaration.html" type="external">court declaration</a> for lawyers suing MVP over discrimination. It makes it clear that Sanchez had much more to say, had legislators asked.</p>
<p>In it, she describes the multitude of ways the system is rigged against black workers:</p>
<p>MVP recently transferred its Illinois branches, including the Cicero one, to Elite Staffing, but maintains branches in other states. Elite Staffing is a founding member of the Staffing Services Association of Illinois, and an Elite executive currently serves as board president.</p>
<p>As for Arroyo’s rumor about her testimony, Sanchez said she wasn’t paid a penny. Arroyo, however, was.</p>
<p>Three months after the hearing at which Arroyo lambasted SB 47’s sponsor for “hurting my community,” several temp agencies gathered for a fundraising dinner Aug. 24. Six agencies pooled together $5,000 for Arroyo’s campaign account, according to <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2838321-Arroyo-Contributions.html" type="external">campaign finance records</a>.</p>
<p>One of the donors was Personnel Staffing Group, the parent company of MVP, where Sanchez worked.</p>
<p>Another was ASG Staffing, the company accused of coding workers by race and sex.</p>
<p>A third was ClearStaff, a Woodridge-based agency <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704416-Garner-v-Clear-Staff.html" type="external">sued</a> in 2014 by a former sales representative who complained about office talk involving racial slurs and sexual favors for clients. She <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704418-Garner-v-Clear-Staff-Ruling.html" type="external">lost</a> her suit but had prompted an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation.</p>
<p>The commission found <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2704415-ClearStaff-EEOC-Determination.html#document/p2/a275735" type="external">reasonable cause</a> that the company discriminated against black job applicants and paid Latino workers less than non-Latinos. The commission couldn’t come to a resolution with ClearStaff and decided not to file suit, according to court records. ClearStaff’s president, Richard Seeman, formerly served on the board of the industry association. He didn’t respond to phone calls.</p>
<p>This wasn’t a routine show of support for Arroyo. None of the agencies had donated to him before, campaign contribution records show. But Arroyo said the donations had nothing to do with his stance on SB 47.</p>
<p>“I’ve always supported the temp agencies, because it works in the Northwest Side, he said. “You got to support the people that support you.”</p>
<p>This story was published&#160;in partnership with <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/" type="external">Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting</a>, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. <a href="/whistleblowers-and-lawsuits-expose-racial-discrimination-by-temp-agencies/" type="external">Read part two of this story here</a>.&#160;</p> | Growing temp industry shuts out black workers, exploits Latinos | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/growing-temp-industry-shuts-out-black-workers-exploits-latinos/ | 2016-06-08 | 3 |
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<p>LAS VEGAS — The sister of a murder victim was hit by a car Monday on a sidewalk outside the Las Vegas courthouse where the man charged in the killing is standing trial and she is on a list of potential witnesses, authorities said.</p>
<p>It wasn’t clear if the crash was directly related to the injured woman’s possible testimony, or if she and the driver had a separate dispute, police Capt. Andrew Walsh said.</p>
<p>“She was here for a court proceeding when she was struck by that vehicle,” Walsh said. “We believe it was an intentional act.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Las Vegas police refused to immediately identify a suspect arrested several hours after the hit and run.</p>
<p>However, court officials said she is a relative of the man accused in the killing a year ago at a Las Vegas apartment complex.</p>
<p>The victim of the hit-and-run was identified in court as Queva Stafford.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Giancarlo Pesci said she was not expected to testify at the trial, even though her name was on the witness list.</p>
<p>Walsh had said the victim knows and described the driver of the cream-colored Cadillac sedan that hit her and drove away.</p>
<p>Stafford suffered a lower leg injury in the lunchtime crash outside the downtown Regional Justice Center and was treated at University Medical Center.</p>
<p>Both women had been in court for opening statements in the trial of Asa Javon Brown, 24, in the killing a year ago of 47-year-old Jessie Mann Bush.</p>
<p>The suspect could face felony charges including battery with a deadly weapon and leaving the scene of a crash causing bodily injury, officials said.</p>
<p>Walsh said the driver was apparently alone inside the Cadillac. Witnesses said it struck the woman on the sidewalk near a bus stop at the bottom of concrete stairs and drove away.</p>
<p>The police captain said investigators were collecting surveillance video from several locations outside the courthouse.</p>
<p>Before afternoon testimony began, Clark County District Court Judge Douglas Herndon questioned jurors about whether they had seen or heard anything about the crash.</p>
<p>No jurors were removed from the case.</p> | Sister of murder victim hit by car outside Vegas courthouse | false | https://abqjournal.com/1068950/police-car-hits-witness-in-murder-case-at-vegas-courthouse.html | 2017-09-25 | 2 |
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<p>TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s new telecommunications minister says Twitter is ready to talk about unblocking access to the microblogging site.</p>
<p>The state-owned IRAN newspaper quoted Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi on Tuesday as saying Twitter has “officially announced readiness to talk with Iran for resolving the problems.”</p>
<p>San Francisco-based Twitter declined to comment.</p>
<p>Iran blocked the site, along with Facebook and YouTube, after mass protests and violence over the 2009 re-election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.</p>
<p>Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, headed by current President Hassan Rouhani, officially is in charge of blocking websites. That council is overseen by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.</p>
<p>Ahmadinejad, Rouhani and Khamenei all have Twitter accounts administered on their behalf. Others in Iran use virtual private networks to subvert the ban.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Report: Iran says Twitter ready to talk on unblocking site | false | https://abqjournal.com/1051535/report-iran-says-twitter-ready-to-talk-on-unblocking-site.html | 2 |
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<p>TAIPEI, Taiwan - One could be forgiven for thinking everyone in Taipei was at this weekend's gay pride parade.</p>
<p>Fifty-thousand rainbow-colored revelers snaked their way through the center of the city on Saturday, waving flags and wearing costumes, together marking Asia's largest gay and transgender parade.</p>
<p>But there were some glaring absences - namely, the island's politicians, who didn't show despite the free TV time on offer during an election season.</p>
<p>Parade organizers claim that politicians have dragged their heels on same-sex marriage, adoption rights and allowed a small group of politically connected conservative Christian groups to stage public relations raids on their hard-won freedoms.</p>
<p>"Our politicians know it's the right thing to do, but they are slow to react and way too scared about losing votes," said Addy, who sported a flashy silk wedding gown during a symbolic marriage to his friend Andy at the parade.</p>
<p>"In Taiwan, it's the people who are progressive. Politicians are a dead weight to the idea of progress," he said.</p>
<p>More on gay rights: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100201/planet-rainbow-the-worldwide-struggle-gay-rights" type="external">Rainbow Planet, the worldwide struggle for gay rights</a></p>
<p>It was a pervasive message throughout the parade: Taiwan's burgeoning democracy - ushered in with the island's first direct elections in 1998 - has lost steam in protecting the rights of minorities, according to activists. In some cases, Taiwan is backsliding towards more conservative positions, they say.</p>
<p>While attempts to seek comment from the candidates were unsuccessful, the DPP's Tsai said in a speech last week that if elected she "would work towards protecting the rights of all, regardless of sexual orientation as long as certain social conditions were in place."</p>
<p>However, a lack of a concrete legislative road map to full or common partner rights have met with a tepid response from community leaders.</p>
<p>"We don't believe or trust the politicians. They've said they would support us before. We need to push them now," said JJ Lai, chairman of the parade's organizing committee and veteran rights activist.</p>
<p>"Taiwan is still a Chinese society and there is the whole Confucian ideal of passing on your family name through your heirs. So it takes time, but attitudes are changing," he added.</p>
<p>On the surface, Taiwan's gay community enjoys some of the most liberal conditions in Asia, and has been at the vanguard of the region's gay-consciousness movement.</p>
<p>TV programs have openly gay characters and themes and opinion polls show that about 80 percent of the public is accepting of homosexuality, up from about 60 percent a decade ago.</p>
<p>More on gay rights: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/spain/111026/spain?s-gays-proud-gains-fear-political-threat" type="external">Spain's gays fear backlash</a></p>
<p>In 2003, Taipei was the first Chinese-speaking city to hold a pride march, when about 1,000 people - most of whom wore masks to protect their identities - marched through the capital to protest a ban on gays in the military.</p>
<p>It worked. Later that year, the military repelled the ban, making it the first Asian country to do so.</p>
<p>Emboldened, former President Chen Shui-bien - who is now jailed on bribery charges - called for a draft bill on same-sex marriages. But many of the island's conservative lawmakers derided the bill and it has failed to gain any real political traction since.</p>
<p>Today, however, the masks are gone - in more ways than one.</p>
<p>The 30,000 who turned up for last year's event, ballooned to 50,000 this year. And the masked have been replaced with people wearing Mad Max leather, technicolor Cinderella and French maid outfits.</p>
<p>Elvis Chen, a Christian from the Tong-kwan Lighthouse Presbyterian Church, was more sedate. He just carried a sign. It read: "I'm Christian and gay. God loves me anyway."</p>
<p>"I grew up a Christian, and when I came out, my family wasn't supportive at all. But what hurt most was the church. There are only so many times you can get called a sinner. So I bounced around from church to church until I found this one," said the 25-year-old student from Taipei.</p>
<p>Chen was protesting attacks on the gay community by an umbrella group of Catholic, Methodist and evangelical churches which support the "curing" of gay teenagers.</p>
<p>More on gay rights: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/culture-lifestyle/111004/mounting-violence-haunts-south-africa?s-gays-and-mobilizes-ac" type="external">Violence haunts South Africa's gays</a></p>
<p>Operating as an association of concerned parents, the group put political pressure on lawmakers in May of this year to stall a planned Ministry of Education gender and sexuality curriculum for elementary and junior high school students by painting the course as a forerunner to prostitution, homosexuality, promiscuity and pedophilia.</p>
<p>The group has been largely discredited, but it nonetheless made a significant impact.</p>
<p>"They basically try and connect all the radical elements of a subculture into one group and paint us with the same brush," said Hiro Liu, spokesman for the parade.</p>
<p>"But we have to face the reality that although these groups are extremist in nature, they did highlight hidden fears in parents and conservative Taiwan that exposure to homosexual issues may turn their children gay."</p>
<p>Analysts say it is these ingrained fears of largely older voters that have stopped either nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) incumbent Ma Ying-jou or his rival, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, from embracing the gay community in a January election that is likely to be decided by a few percentage points.</p>
<p>"Within our community, it is split like the rest of society on who to vote for. The DPP or the KMT? To be honest, both parties don't do nearly enough," said Chen.</p>
<p>"The other problem is there are no openly gay lawmakers in Taiwan and we aren't politically mature enough to team up with other activist groups such as environmental, or women's and immigrant rights to form an umbrella pressure coalition."</p>
<p>But while all the talk of immediate political victories was good for some, Choki, who travelled from Kyoto with six friends to join the parade and sample some of Taipei's famed nightlife, couldn't care less.</p>
<p>"There is nothing like this in Kyoto or Japan. This is the biggest march I've been to in Asia," the portly 50-something said as he worked out his pectoral muscles with a set of pushups on the side of the road.</p>
<p>"Look around. There are people here from Korea, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Europe and the States. This is what it's all about."</p> | Taiwan gays prouder than ever | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-30/taiwan-gays-prouder-ever | 2011-10-30 | 3 |
<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the slaying of two Northern California sheriff's deputies (all times local):</p>
<p>4:15 p.m.</p>
<p>A defense attorney is admitting that his client killed two Northern California sheriff's deputies in a daylong rampage as he fights to spare him from the death penalty.</p>
<p>Defense lawyer Jeffrey Barbour told jurors Tuesday that Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes shot Sacramento sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver outside a Sacramento motel in October 2014. He later killed Placer County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Davis Jr.</p>
<p>The Sacramento Bee <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article194874024.html" type="external">reports</a> Barbour is asking jurors to consider evidence he'll present that Bracamontes was high on methamphetamine and tried to kill himself before surrendering.</p>
<p>Bracamontes had repeated outbursts during the opening day of the trial, at one point saying he "will kill more."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:09 p.m.</p>
<p>The suspect being tried in the slayings of two Northern California sheriff's deputies called one slain officer's partner a "coward" as his murder trial began.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Rod Norgaard was describing in his opening statement Tuesday how Deputy Scott Brown retreated under heavy fire that killed his partner, Sacramento sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver, outside a Sacramento motel in October 2014.</p>
<p>The Sacramento Bee reports that Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes grinned, then called Brown a "coward" before he was admonished by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White.</p>
<p>It's the latest in a series of outbursts by Bracamontes, who could face the death penalty if convicted.</p>
<p>His wife, Janelle Monroy, is also charged in the slayings of Oliver and Placer County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Davis Jr. during a daylong crime spree.</p>
<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the slaying of two Northern California sheriff's deputies (all times local):</p>
<p>4:15 p.m.</p>
<p>A defense attorney is admitting that his client killed two Northern California sheriff's deputies in a daylong rampage as he fights to spare him from the death penalty.</p>
<p>Defense lawyer Jeffrey Barbour told jurors Tuesday that Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes shot Sacramento sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver outside a Sacramento motel in October 2014. He later killed Placer County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Davis Jr.</p>
<p>The Sacramento Bee <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article194874024.html" type="external">reports</a> Barbour is asking jurors to consider evidence he'll present that Bracamontes was high on methamphetamine and tried to kill himself before surrendering.</p>
<p>Bracamontes had repeated outbursts during the opening day of the trial, at one point saying he "will kill more."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:09 p.m.</p>
<p>The suspect being tried in the slayings of two Northern California sheriff's deputies called one slain officer's partner a "coward" as his murder trial began.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Rod Norgaard was describing in his opening statement Tuesday how Deputy Scott Brown retreated under heavy fire that killed his partner, Sacramento sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver, outside a Sacramento motel in October 2014.</p>
<p>The Sacramento Bee reports that Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes grinned, then called Brown a "coward" before he was admonished by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White.</p>
<p>It's the latest in a series of outbursts by Bracamontes, who could face the death penalty if convicted.</p>
<p>His wife, Janelle Monroy, is also charged in the slayings of Oliver and Placer County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Davis Jr. during a daylong crime spree.</p> | The Latest: Defense attorney admits client killed deputies | false | https://apnews.com/amp/101356f038b2499da0e843035630b8d2 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>When Americans go to the polls come November, millions will be voting in languages other than English.</p>
<p>Voting jurisdictions are required by law to provide bilingual ballots and language assistance when 5 percent of the population does not "understand English adequately enough to participate in the electoral process."</p>
<p>That's been the law since 1975.</p>
<p>But many counties and states don't comply. And when the topic came up at a Republican presidential debate in January, Mitt Romney spoke against bilingual ballots.</p>
<p>Losing access to a bilingual ballot could harm people like Philip Van, a political refugee from Vietnam who moved to California in 1979. Van grew up speaking Chinese and Vietnamese. Six years after he arrived here, Van had to demonstrate some English proficiency to become an American citizen. But learning English as an adult, then voting in this new language wasn't so easy.</p>
<p>Sure, he could easily choose between two candidates, but deciphering propositions and bond measures, that was tough.</p>
<p>"I have to take a lot of time to read (the ballot). And then I check with people, where we need to understand more clearly, what is good and what is bad," he said.</p>
<p>Van says many new Americans are afraid to vote in English, afraid they'll make a mistake. Van lives in San Francisco, which now offers ballots in English, Chinese and Spanish. Van says its easier for him to vote now.</p>
<p>"A lot of people, even though they are well-educated, they are engineers, they are doctors, but for new immigrants, maybe they don't quite understand about the political stuff," he said.</p>
<p>When multilingual ballots are offered, more people vote. Eight years ago, San Diego County began providing voting assistance in Vietnamese.</p>
<p>The results were immediate and dramatic.</p>
<p>"Voter registration for the Vietnamese community increased by 30 percent," said Carlo De La Cruz with the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco.</p>
<p>De La Cruz said bilingual ballots are crucial today as the U.S. becomes more diverse. Nationwide, one-in-three Asian Americans struggles with English.</p>
<p>"That means that over 30 percent of our population needs some kind of assistance when it comes to being able to navigate our democracy and the political system," De La Cruz said.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Moral vs. The Legal</p>
<p>But not everybody thinks American voters should get assistance. At a Republican primary debate this past January in Florida, Newt Gingrich said ballots should only be in English.</p>
<p>Romney agreed.</p>
<p>"I think Speaker Gingrich is right," he said. "Look, English is the language of this nation. People need to learn English to be able to be successful, to get great jobs. We don`t want to have people limited in their capacity to achieve the American dream because they don`t speak English."</p>
<p>Six years ago, Congress reauthorized the language provision of the Voting Rights Act. A group of conservative Republicans mounted a campaign to stop it from happening. But the measure easily passed the Republican-led Congress and was signed into law by President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Bruce Adelson - a former senior attorney with the Justice Department and now CEO of the company, Federal Compliance Consulting - said the ship has sailed.</p>
<p>"Whether you agree with it or not, whether you think every American citizen should speak English or not, those are very valid points," Adelson said. "The law is the law. This law has been tested, evaluated, challenged. It's withstood all of them."</p>
<p>The law might be the law, but that doesn't mean all jurisdictions comply. In the past decade, the Justice Department has filed complaints against 35 cities and counties for violating election language provisions.</p>
<p>"These cases can be very expensive to litigate and to deal with," Adelson said. "And I always advise election officials, it's much better to comply voluntarily, then to get the dreaded call, letter or email from the Department of Justice, from my old friends, saying essentially, 'we're going to come to visit you because we think you're violating federal law.'"</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Problems with Compliance</p>
<p>Just across the bay from San Francisco, Alameda County violated the language provision of the Voting Rights Act last year. The county, which is home to the city of Oakland, has a large immigrant population and is required to provide language assistance in four languages: Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Tagalog, the major language spoken in the Philippines.</p>
<p>County officials say they weren't thumbing their noses at the law. Cynthia Cornejo, the Deputy Registrar for Alameda County, said the county was required to provide about 1,000 bilingual poll workers - again, in four languages - for the June primary.</p>
<p>"We assessed probably close to maybe 2,200 people, just to see if they could read, speak, write the language," she said. Then we had to do an enormous outreach effort, all the way almost until the week before the election, and try and hit our numbers. And then train them also."</p>
<p>In June, Alameda County again failed to meet their legal obligations for Chinese and Tagalog poll workers. Cornejo said they're scrambling to cover 785 polling stations, and that's not just for federal elections.</p>
<p>"Odd number years are no longer a lull, we could have anywhere from two to six elections on any given year," she said.</p>
<p>Groups like the Asian Law Caucus recognize the strains on Alameda County. But they're not letting election officials off the hook just for trying.</p>
<p>"Potentially, it means the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of voters within Alameda County," De La Cruz said.</p>
<p>Across the nation, more than 240 jurisdictions in 25 states will also be required to provide voting assistance this November.</p>
<p>That covers 19 million Americans who could use help voting in a language other than English.</p> | Despite law, some new Americans may not get voting support they need | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-08-30/despite-law-some-new-americans-may-not-get-voting-support-they-need | 2012-08-30 | 3 |
<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>A 71-year-old Southern Baptist pastor in northern Mississippi is in jail on $1 million bond on charges of sexual battery of a child.</p>
<p>Larry Singleton, pastor of Bay Springs Baptist Church in Abbeville, Miss., was arrested by the Tate County Sheriff’s Office Monday, Dec. 3. His church, located in neighboring Lafayette County, is affiliated with the <a href="http://sbc.net/churchsearch/church.asp?ID=37%2D38655" type="external">Southern Baptist Convention</a>, <a href="http://www.mbcb.org/church_details.aspx?ID=734" type="external">Mississippi Baptist Convention</a> and <a href="http://www.lmbaptists.com/tp42/page.asp?ID=281293" type="external">Lafayette Baptist Association</a>, based in Oxford, Miss.</p>
<p>Local media reports <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/dec/05/top-of-the-news/" type="external">say</a> investigators received a complaint from a man, now 18, who accused Singleton of forcing him to have sex beginning when he was 11 and continuing for several years.</p>
<p>Police said Singleton volunteered at an extension campus of <a href="http://www.gatewaychristianschools.com/" type="external">Gateway Christian Schools</a>, sponsored by the independent <a href="http://www.helpinthegate.org/Home_Page.html" type="external">Gateway Baptist Church</a> in Memphis, Tenn., but did not have any contact with students.</p>
<p>Authorities said Singleton could appear before a grand jury as early as the upcoming mid-January term, but it might be at the following term in March. Sheriff Brad Lance <a href="http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1867&amp;dept_id=124334&amp;newsid=20473593&amp;PAG=461&amp;rfi=9" type="external">told</a> the Tate County Democrat the investigation is in its early stages, but he anticipates that additional charges will be filed.</p>
<p>Anyone with information is asked to call the <a href="http://www.tatecountysheriff.com/" type="external">Tate County Sheriff’s Department</a> in Senatobia, Miss.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Pastor charged with sexual battery | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/pastor-charged-with-sexual-battery/ | 3 |
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<p>It might be time to bust out that ancient Sega Genesis currently collecting dust in your attic. GameStop announced this week that it would once again accept the Genesis, along with the Nintendo 64 and other classic&#160;gaming consoles, at its stores.</p>
<p>According to a report in <a href="http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/04/15/gamestop-to-offer-classic-consoles-and-games?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ign%2Fall+%28IGN+All%29" type="external">IGN</a>, the company is launching a&#160;pilot sales and trade-in program for retro consoles, games, and accessories in two of its markets beginning April 25. GameStops in the New York City and Birmingham markets, which comprise about 250 stores, will host the program.</p>
<p>As part of the program, participating GameStop locations will begin accepting “games, systems and select accessories” for “most” classic gaming platforms, reportedly going all the back the Nintendo Entertainment System. If proven successful, GameStop hopes to start a national roll out&#160;“later this year,” IGN reports.</p>
<p>But those hoping to walk into their NYC GameStop on April 25 for an NES game-buying spree will be disappointed. The program will start by accepting trade-ins, which will then have to be processed through GameStop’s Refurbishment Operations Center for inspection, testing and repair. Consequently, there will be about a two month&#160;lead time between when the company begins accepting trades and when the products will be offered for sale.</p>
<p>GameStop tells IGN that this buffer period will give the company “time to build up a good assortment for retro games fans to select from when shopping.”</p>
<p>Even once the program is fully up and running, customers still won’t be able to browse retro games and consoles at their local stores. Purchases will have to be made through GameStop’s website, or through its web-in-store system.</p>
<p /> | GameStop to sell classic game consoles once again | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/04/16/gamestop-to-sell-classic-game-consoles-once-again/ | 2015-04-16 | 3 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Everyone should familiarize themselves with the telltale signs of an economy in a bubble. It’s a valuable skill to have in a world where the average person has&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/oligarchy.html" type="external">little influence</a>&#160;on government policy, and the booms and busts of the economy are managed by a handful of elites at <a href="" type="internal">the Fed</a>. You’re at the whims of forces outside of your control, so you have to know “when to hold em’ and when to fold em’” as it were. If you want to preserve your wealth in this world, you’ve got to know when an asset is stable and when it’s so inflated that a stiff breeze would be enough to send the whole thing toppling down.</p>
<p>It should come as no surprise to anyone who studies this subject, that the American economy is bursting at the seams. It’s really not much of a mystery anymore. The signs are all around us, and anyone who says otherwise is either uninformed, or&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/paul-krugman_0_n_3118069.html" type="external">a shill</a>&#160;for those inflating the bubble.</p>
<p>When the stock market is soaring to new highs while unemployment&#160; <a href="http://freebeacon.com/issues/economy-not-keeping-up-with-population-growth/" type="external">remains stagnant</a>, that’s a pretty solid indicator. When the housing market continues to gain ground while the number of people actually owning a home&#160; <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101624168" type="external">continues to drop</a>, there’s a good chance that speculation is at play. When the wealthiest players in the stock market decide to&#160; <a href="http://www.moneynews.com/MKTNews/billionaires-dump-economist-stock/2012/08/29/id/450265/?PROMO_CODE=110D8-1&amp;utm_source=taboola" type="external">quietly sell</a>&#160;their assets, it’s safe to assume that they know something you don’t.</p>
<p>Then there’s the subtle signs. The indicators that are all around you, but would never make the news. This might be different for everyone, depending on where you live and work, and what you do throughout the day. For me, it was when I noticed a suspicious growth of new businesses in my community. Store fronts that had been empty since the housing market crash, were suddenly open for business again, seemingly overnight.</p>
<p>On the surface this appears to be on the up and up. After all, isn’t this what we wanted? New growth and better employment opportunities? It doesn’t feel right to me. It doesn’t feel real. By all indications, the economy is being held together with duct tape and string (i.e. quantitative easing). So why did a dollar store pop up down the street from me, in a storefront that had been empty for four years? To give you and idea of the absurdity of this, I live in one of the top 20 wealthiest cities in California. It’s practically an 18 square mile gated community. A dollar store? Really? Who’s putting down the capital for these new businesses all of a sudden?</p>
<p>Make of that what you will. I know my community, and I know what doesn’t “feel” right. If you look around your community you’re bound to find similar indicators. The evidence can be found on television as well. Do you remember those cheesy Lending Tree commercials? “When banks compete, you win”. Sound familiar? Remember this frighteningly prophetic commercial that was made at the height of the housing bubble?</p>
<p />
<p>Eerie.</p>
<p>For the first time in years I’m beginning to see a slew of&#160; <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/bank_notes/2013/05/meet-lendingtrees-new-mascot-lenny.html" type="external">new commercials</a>&#160;for Lendingtree pop up. Only in a bubble economy, does a&#160; <a href="http://www.dreamhomefunding.com/whenbankscompete" type="external">predatory and overpriced</a>&#160;middleman like Lendingtree stand to make a profit. And don’t get me started on the ads for those “flip this house” reality shows, that are starting to show their faces again. That was a genre I assumed died with the last housing bust. Apparently not.</p>
<p>All in all, the signs of our bubble economy can be seen high and low. Being aware of them might just save your&#160;ahem…savings. If you open your eyes, you won’t have to look far.</p>
<p>Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at&#160; <a href="http://thedailysheeple.com/" type="external">The Daily Sheeple</a>. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Daily-Sheeple/114637491995485" type="external">Facebook</a>&#160;or on his personal&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/vagabondjosh" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Subtle Signs: The Bubble Is About To Burst | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2014/05/14/subtle-signs-bubble-burst/ | 2014-05-14 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>A woman has such an unbelievable extreme fear of vomiting that made her too scared to eat. As a result, she only weighs just about as light as four stone.</p>
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<p>Cheryl Longman, 30, says that her life-long fear of throwing up has become so severe that it has become her vicious habit to limit her meals. Curiously, she even tried to convince her doctor that she is not anorexic. Thing is she would only eat two mouthfuls each meal due to her extreme fear that if she eats too much, she would vomit.</p>
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<p>Alarmingly, her weight in 15 months dropped from 10st 7lbs to a dangerous 4st 11lbs. Longman, a former support worker, had to be admitted to a hospital and fed through a tube until she is fine enough to go home.</p>
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<p>She has improved a bit and now weighs 8st 6lbs but still finds eating meals a perennial battle. She said: "It was horrible watching the weight just drop off me. I was so used to being healthy and being curvy and then all of a sudden I was wasting away."</p>
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<p>Longman elaborated on how tough the struggle had been in losing so much weight by restricting her food intake due to an irrational fear of vomiting. She added: "I lost so much weight that I was just skin and bone and my skin went grey and so dry from being malnourished- I looked so much older."</p>
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<p>She also admitted trying to get professional help before "condition took over her life" but was "bounced back and forth" between mental health and eating disorder specialists.</p>
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<p>Longman admitted she endured having to face the constant battle of trying to convince everyone that she was not anorexic.</p>
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<p>Longman developed her fear of being sick called emetophobia when she was just 12. Emetophobia is a fear if vomiting. People with the condition are not exactly put off by the sight of other people vomiting, but their fear of themselves throwing up can reach crippling levels. It can also cause panic attacks, breathing difficulties, choking sensation, dizziness, sweating and a rapid heartbeat.</p>
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<p>Longman reached the point where she lost more than half of her body weight over three years of seeking help. When her weight dropped to 5st, Longman became housebound for two years, too weak to even walk. She was admitted to the hospital in February and she stayed there for three weeks. Thankfully, she is now on her way to recovery and gaining back the weight she lost. She is also embarking on raising awareness on her condition.</p>
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<p>Source:</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/3800323/woman-weighing-just-4st-had-to-convince-docs-she-wasnt-anorexic-but-terrified-of-getting-so-full-she-would-be-sick/" type="external">thesun.co.uk/living/3800323/woman-weighing-just-4st-had-to-convince-docs-she-wasnt-anorexic-but-terrified-of-getting-so-full-she-would-be-sick</a></p> | Woman with Vomiting Phobia Now Weighs 56 Pounds | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/3715-Woman-with-Vomiting-Phobia-Now-Weighs-56-Pounds | 2017-06-15 | 0 |
<p>President Donald Trump on Wednesday complained of "so many Fake News stories today," amid reports about&#160;his children's management of a Manhattan property and his own&#160;relationship with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.</p>
<p>"Wow, so many Fake News stories today," Trump tweeted in one of his characteristic early-morning complaints. "No matter what I do or say, they will not write or speak truth."</p>
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<p>Trump specifically singled out&#160;NBC News?&#160; <a href="" type="internal">report</a>&#160;from&#160;early Wednesday morning that Tillerson was so frustrated&#160;with Trump's policies and his own clashes with White House staff about his own department that he threatened to resign.</p>
<p>According to NBC News, Tillerson openly <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/tillerson-s-fury-trump-required-intervention-pence-n806451" type="external">disparaged</a> the President as a "moron."</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence, Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis managed to talk Tillerson down and "beg him to stay," according to the report.</p>
<p>A collaboration between ProPublica, the New Yorker and WNYC&#160;seemed like another potential target for the President's ire. The outlets on Wednesday&#160; <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/ivanka-donald-trump-jr-close-to-being-charged-felony-fraud" type="external">reported</a>&#160;that&#160;Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the President's eldest children,&#160;were investigated&#160;for felony fraud in 2012 for giving&#160;false information to&#160;prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a project in lower Manhattan.</p>
<p>The case against them was dropped, according to the report, after Trump's longtime personal lawyer&#160;Marc Kasowitz asked&#160;Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to do so.</p>
<p>Kasowitz later donated money and helped fundraise for Vance Jr.?s reelection campaign to the tune of&#160;more than $50,000, according to the report, a sum Vance&#160;now says he plans to return, more than four years later.</p>
<p>This post has been updated.</p> | Amid Bombshells, Trump Complains: 'So Many Fake News Stories Today' | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-complains-fake-news-stories-amid-bombshells | 4 |
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<p>Louisville quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Lamar-Jackson/" type="external">Lamar Jackson</a>, the 2016 <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Heisman_Trophy/" type="external">Heisman Trophy</a> winner, announced Friday that he will enter the 2018 NFL draft.</p>
<p>Jackson completed 59.1 percent of his passes with 27 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last season as the Cardinals finished 8-5, 4-4 in the ACC. He rushed for 1,601 yards and 18 TDs — 30 more yards and three touchdowns fewer than he amassed during his Heisman season. Jackson tossed 30 TD passes and nine interceptions in 2016.</p>
<p>He finishes his three-year career at Louisville with 9,043 yards, 69 touchdowns and 27 interceptions passing, and 4,132 yards and 50 TDs rushing.</p>
<p>“My time in Louisville has produced some of the best memories of my life,” Jackson said in a statement on Twitter. “I have had the pleasure of being in the presence of some of the best professors, coaches, advisers, training staff, athletes and fans in the nation. With their help, I have been able to grow not only as a quarterback, but as a teammate, student, and most of all, as a man.</p>
<p>“After much discussion with my family and coaches, I have made the decision to take the next step in my career and enter the 2018 NFL draft.”</p>
<p>Jackson enters a draft deep at quarterback as five could be selected in the first round. Many believe USC’s Sam Darnold and UCLA’s Josh Rosen will be the top two signal-callers taken April 26 at AT&amp;T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Jackson joins Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, the 2017 Heisman winner with Jackson a finalist, and Wyoming’s Josh Allen as the next three top candidates.</p>
<p>NFLDraftScout.com senior analyst Rob Rang, in a mock draft this week, projected Jackson to go 24th overall in the first round.</p>
<p>NFLDraftScout.com wrote: “Given their exceptional combination of raw athleticism and arm strength, it is easy to see why Jackson is so often compared to former No. 1 overall pick and 13-year NFL veteran <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Michael_Vick/" type="external">Michael Vick</a>. Like Vick, Jackson possesses the accuracy to deliver strikes from the pocket, albeit not necessarily with the consistency which coaches would prefer. What makes Jackson special, however, is his ability to extend the play — a factor all the more important in today’s wide-open NFL.”</p>
<p>Jackson showed signs of brilliance during his freshman season, which was capped by a 27-21 victory over <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Texas_A&amp;M/" type="external">Texas A&amp;M</a> in the Music City Bowl when he threw for two touchdowns while rushing for 226 yards on 22 carries and two scores.</p>
<p>He gained at least 119 yards rushing in eight of 12 games in 2016, winning the Heisman before LSU kept him out of the end zone and held him to 33 rushing and 153 passing yards in a 29-9 Citrus Bowl loss.</p> | Louisville’s Lamar Jackson to enter NFL draft | false | https://newsline.com/louisvilles-lamar-jackson-to-enter-nfl-draft/ | 2018-01-05 | 1 |
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<p>Our criminal justice system is based on the assumption that people make choices to commit crimes, that they must be punished for making those bad choices and that it’s fair to apply standard punishments to all.</p>
<p>But what if we’re really not in charge of what we do? What if our brains are?</p>
<p>Neuroscientists, using ever more sophisticated imaging technology, are finding out that our brains aren’t created equal, and that our personalities and actions have a lot more to do with genetics, environment and a complicated network of neurons than any notion of free will.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The other night in Santa Fe, Albuquerque native David Eagleman, a neuroscientist, was making the case that a justice system that holds individual responsibility and blame at its core is going to have to adapt as science challenges the concept that we drive our brains — and actually shows that we’re much more often controlled by them.</p>
<p>“Modern neuroscience,” he said, “changes everything going forward.”</p>
<p>Eagleman, lecturing to a packed house as part of a Santa Fe Institute lecture series, paused three times, by my count, to make sure everyone understood he wasn’t arguing that criminals with problems in their brains should be let off the hook.</p>
<p>Kent Kiehl of the Mind Research Network with his mobile MRI lab at Western New Mexico Correctional Facility. Kiehl has scanned thousands of inmates’ brains to better understand the neurological components of crime. (Courtesy Kent Kiehl)</p>
<p>“It’s not to say that people who are dangerous should not be taken off the streets,” Eagleman said. “If they cross that line, we have to take them off the street, but the question is, is there a way that we can do it in a more rational way than imagining that the same sentence, the same incarceration is appropriate for everyone?”</p>
<p>That he felt compelled to stress that only argues his point: Our justice system is biblical, moral and retributive. We all think we’re in control of our actions, and we don’t want anyone making excuses for others’ bad behavior.</p>
<p>I became acquainted with Eagleman through a profile in the New Yorker in 2011 that began with a description of him plunging through the roof of an unfinished home in the Sandia foothills when he was 8. The experience, a freefall that ended with him landing on his nose on a brick floor, provided the seed for the core of his academic work: Time perception.</p>
<p>Eagleman is a puckish wunderkind. He graduated from Albuquerque Academy in 1989, majored in literature at Rice University and got his Ph.D. in neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. He’s a best-selling author in addition to directing Baylor’s Laboratory for Perception and Action, and the Initiative on Neuroscience and the Law.</p>
<p>Under his direction, researchers at Baylor are tackling a host of experiments and launching discussions aimed at the intersection of the brain and the law:</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>What factors predict whether a sex offender commits the crime again? Can cocaine addicts retrain their brains through repetition to avoid cravings?</p>
<p>Might it be possible to prevent the next mass shooting by better diagnosis and treatment of mental illness?</p>
<p>And what’s going on in the brains of jurors?</p>
<p>I was interested in Eagleman’s presentation, oddly, because of the work of another prominent neuroscientist practicing in New Mexico. Kent Kiehl has been making news lately because of his recent study that looked at the brains of some New Mexico prison inmates during decision-making exercises and then tracked them after release to see which ones were arrested again.</p>
<p>Inmates who had less activity in the portions of their brains that govern motor control and executive functioning reoffended at a much higher rate than those with the highest activity.</p>
<p>Kiehl, who has been employed as a professor at the University of New Mexico and a fellow at the Mind Research Institute since 2007, did his best to tamp down the excited Minority Report-type speculation about whether these findings could lead to people being arrested for crimes we think they will commit in the future.</p>
<p>The data represent only a small sample of inmates, he cautioned, and he hopes his work will lead instead to better therapies for repeat offenders.</p>
<p>Kiehl was the subject of a New Yorker profile in 2008; the anecdote I remember from that piece had Kiehl arriving at Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants, eager to begin running felons through a sophisticated functional MRI machine he kept parked at the prison in a tractor-trailer.</p>
<p>The brains of criminals, especially psychopaths, has been a focus of Keihl’s neuroscience career. Kiehl has found that the brains of psychopaths, people who lack empathy, guilt and remorse, and are heavily represented in prisons, operate differently from others. When psychopaths are shown words pertaining to emotion or images of morally objectionable activities, Kiehl has found, their brains show much less activity in areas associated with attention, emotion and memory than inmates who are not diagnosed with psychopathy.</p>
<p>If psychopaths’ brains prevent them from making correct moral choices, should judges and jurors have access to that information as they consider guilt and punishment?</p>
<p>If we can tell from an inmate’s brain whether he is more or less likely to reoffend, should that information be considered in decisions about his release on probation and parole?</p>
<p>Should we shift our thinking from making moral judgments and meting out punishments toward recognizing disease and administering treatment?</p>
<p>Kiehl and Eagleman are only two neuroscientists exploring the intersection of brain research and the law. It’s a burgeoning new field, and lawyers and the courts are listening. They both were invited speakers last week at the Judicial Conclave, a three-day summer camp for the state’s judiciary.</p>
<p>The judges there might also be interested in another bit of research challenging the concept of free will that Eagleman dropped into his Santa Fe lecture: Judges are much more likely to deny probation requests that come before them just before lunch and more likely to grant them just after lunch.</p>
<p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Leslie at 823-3914 or <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">www.abqjournal.com/letters/new</a> to submit a letter to the editor.</p>
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<p /> | New thinking on brains and crime | false | https://abqjournal.com/208521/new-thinking-on-brains-and-crime.html | 2013-06-09 | 2 |
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<p>Photo by Stefan Krasowski | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
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<p>Warring toddlers, fanatical children, one-eyed adolescents who confuse noise with constructive contribution – this is the state of the world, with the recent, and ongoing spat chapter of Washington and Pyongyang.</p>
<p>However you wish to describe the stout, proud and foolishly dangerous Kim Jong-un, murderous leader of North Korea, comparisons must diminish somewhat before the trigger happy CEO of United States Inc, known as The Donald. Both are in a tussle of theatre and force, and the audience is hoping that this remains such.&#160; Between the two countries, after all, only one has ever used the atomic weapon on civilian populations.</p>
<p>The face off between the two resembles a popgun holder against an overly endowed tank, though the popgun holder has threatened to up the quality of his ordnance through ceremonial self-praise and image. There are promised missile launches, promised nuclear tests.</p>
<p>From Washington’s side, the response was quirkily mad ahead of the weapons test scheduled by the regime in Pyongyang to commemorate the “Day of the Sun” – the 105th anniversary of the birth of the DPRK’s founder, Kim Il-sung.&#160; Last Thursday, Trump insisted that Pyongyang was a problem that “will be taken care of”, dumping China’s President Xi Jinping in the mess of working “very hard” to clean up the mess.</p>
<p>As the US flotilla, led by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, powered towards the peninsula, the North’s KCNA agency made the emphatic point that the US had introduced “into the Korean peninsula, the world’s biggest hotspot, huge nuclear strategic assets, seriously threatening peace and security of the peninsula and pushing the situation there to the brink of war.” <a href="#_ftn1" type="external">[1]</a></p>
<p>Even before a single shot had been fired, Trump had suggested the possibility of a strike against targets in the north. Misbehave, Pyongyang, at your peril.&#160; The NBC news report outlining the claims of such a pre-emptive conventional weapons strike on North Korean targets were subsequently dismissed as “flat wrong” by an unnamed “senior Trump administration”. <a href="#_ftn2" type="external">[2]</a></p>
<p>Not to be outdone, US Vice President Mike Pence has insisted during a visit to the Demilitarised Zone at Camp Bonifas that all policy options, like a vast and limitless smorgasbord, should be on the table. Yes, the US and its allies would seek to attain objectives through “peaceable means” though he was clear that “ultimately by whatever means are necessary” should also figure.</p>
<p>The “era of strategic patience,” Pence insisted, was over.&#160; “We want to see North Korea abandon its reckless path of the development of nuclear weapons, and also its continual use and testing of ballistic missiles is unacceptable.”&#160; Such a view was actually expressed at a failed missile test, keeping the world in suspense as to what would happen if the next round of North Korean tests prove to be hunky dory.</p>
<p>As with everything with the Trump administration, qualified voices can also be found amidst the loudness.&#160; National Security advisor, HR McMaster, insisted, despite noting the “tough decisions” Trump had made on the use of force against Syria, that it was “time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully.”&#160; Less in terms of choice, it would seem, on that smorgasbord.</p>
<p>Where there is muscle, there is credibility, though where that muscle is applied remains the true test of statesmanship. In the not so wise context of Trumpist behaviour, muscle is detached from sentience and cognition, to be applied only in the context of making a deal, ploughing in and hoping for the best. Unfortunately for Trump and much of his ilk, it is hard to imagine receivership and bankruptcy in a nuclear obliterated landscape.</p>
<p>For Kim Jong-un, credibility, like a mythical figure of enormous sexual prowess, has to be faked. &#160;He must claim to have weapons he does not have, means he can never possess.&#160; The ability to give an orgasm is paraded as being stupendous.&#160; Much of this theatrical posturing has to be put down to an emperor who has long ago feared that the clothes have fallen off, if, indeed, they were ever there in even slightly tattered form. This is an impoverished state made more, rather than less dangerous, in the rhetorical sniping that is now taking place.</p>
<p>Little thought is openly given to the very fact that the US remains the greatest enemy, and alibi, of North Korean conduct.&#160; In a peninsula still technically at war, there never having been a formal peace treaty signed, the conduct of Washington post-September 11, 2001 remains an object lesson for the state.</p>
<p>The invasion of Iraq for not having weapons of mass destruction, or the destruction of Qaddafi’s Libya in 2011, provide the colourful background to Pyongyang’s wishes to have a functioning nuclear capability.</p>
<p>Whether it is a totalitarian entity redolent with images of false achievement and actual desperation, or a Republic which has decided to abandon any pretext for orthodox diplomacy, both are perversely well matched in the word stakes, but dangerously poised to take it to a logical conclusion.</p>
<p>It is such behaviour that has made such veterans as former Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson dribble with fear that something exceptional will take place. “I’ve been through the Cuban missile crisis, I’ve been through the Bay of Pigs before that, Vietnam War, the two Iraq wars and so forth. And I’ve got to tell you, though, I’ve never been so concerned, as I am now, for the state of this country and world relations.” <a href="#_ftn3" type="external">[3]</a>&#160; (The previous imperial bashes were evidently tolerable for US Inc.)</p>
<p>It is with some relief that the little tub of misguided emotions managed to see his project explode in mid-experiment, possibly with US cyber intervention, but it would have also given much dark amusement to have seen the US military misfire in its imperial presumption.&#160; The cult of war continues to enchant those who know little of it.</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" type="external">[1]</a> http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Senior-Trump-Official-Reports-of-preemptive-North-Korea-strike-flat-wrong-487000</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref2" type="external">[2]</a> http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Senior-Trump-Official-Reports-of-preemptive-North-Korea-strike-flat-wrong-487000</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref3" type="external">[3]</a> http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/328973-former-army-colonel-ive-never-been-so-concerned-about-us-world</p> | Nuclear Brinkmanship: Trump’s Belligerent Policy on North Korea | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/04/18/nuclear-brinkmanship-trumps-belligerent-policy-on-north-korea/ | 2017-04-18 | 4 |
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State has reeled off seven consecutive victories over Miami, but the roles are reversed this season.</p>
<p>The 13th-ranked Hurricanes, who have largely been mired in mediocrity over the past decade while the Seminoles have flourished, enter the game unbeaten against an unranked Florida State team that finally got into the win column last Saturday with a 26-19 victory at Wake Forest.</p>
<p>Seminoles coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jimbo-Fisher/" type="external">Jimbo Fisher</a> has never lost to Miami since taking over in 2010.</p>
<p>“You always want to keep that going. I mean, because you understand the importance of the rivalry,” Fisher said Monday. “It’s one of the reasons you play at Florida State. It’s one of the great rivalries in college <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Walker/" type="external">football</a>.”</p>
<p>Not even a natural disaster could keep these rivals from facing off this year.</p>
<p>The in-state foes will meet for the 62nd time Saturday in Tallahassee after their early-season meeting was postponed because of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Irma/" type="external">Hurricane Irma</a>‘s landfall in Florida. Luckily, both schools had the same week off, so the game was moved from Sept. 16 to the first week in October — the time of year in which the rivalry has traditionally been played.</p>
<p>Miami (3-0, 1-0 ACC) enters as about a field-goal favorite over Florida State (1-2, 1-1).</p>
<p>“It’s bragging rights,” said Florida State star safety Derwin James, who missed last year’s game after sustaining a season-ending injury in Week 2. “I know a lot of those guys on (Miami’s team); you know, I’m friends with a lot of those guys. So it’s always good when you can say you’ve beaten them a few years in a row.”</p>
<p>The streak was nearly snapped last year in Miami when the Hurricanes came back late in the game and scored what appeared to be the game-tying touchdown with 1:38 remaining. But the Hurricanes’ extra point was blocked and Florida State held on 20-19.</p>
<p>The Hurricanes hope to have the services of leading running back Mark Walton on Saturday after it appeared Walton injured his ankle in last week’s victory against Duke. Walton is the sixth-leading rusher in the ACC with 403 yards and three touchdowns. Miami is also getting contributions from sophomore running back Travis Homer, who has rushed for 178 yards, averaging 8.1 per carry.</p>
<p>“He’s going to play,” Miami coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mark_Richt/" type="external">Mark Richt</a> said confidently of Walton on Tuesday. “Like last week, unless there’s a setback, we believe he’ll play. He’s practiced.”</p>
<p>Miami enters the game protecting the ball as well as anyone in the nation as the Hurricanes rank second nationally with only two turnovers in three games. Both turnovers came on interceptions thrown by quarterback Malik Rosier, a first-year starter as a junior.</p>
<p>He is averaging 273 passing yards per game, with eight touchdowns and only two interceptions. Rosier now has receiver Ahmmon Richards at his disposal. Richards missed the first three games because of a hamstring injury, but the 2016 Freshman All-American caught three passes for 106 yards and a touchdown last week against Duke.</p>
<p>Florida State counters at quarterback with James Blackman.</p>
<p>Blackman has yet to throw a pick in two starts. Richt is well aware of Blackman’s talent, despite his inexperience.</p>
<p>“As we all know, he’s a true freshman, but I think he’s done nothing but gain experience and gain confidence,” Richt said. “He’s had no interceptions, he threw a game-winner last week, which I’m sure helped him.”</p>
<p>Blackman led the Seminoles to their first win of the season last Saturday when he hit receiver Auden Tate for a 40-yard touchdown with less than a minute remaining against Wake Forest. Fisher said that play may very well be the catalyst for Blackman to shed any nerves he had after taking over following the season-ending injury to starter Deondre Francois.</p>
<p>“Here’s the quarterback’s job: Put your team in position to win the game,” Fisher said. “And sometimes that means — maybe it’s not making plays all over the field. It’s making good decisions, making smart, intelligent decisions with the ball. I thought he had great patience — showed great patience in the game for a young guy.”</p>
<p>Florida State’s seven-game winning streak against Miami is tied for the longest for either team in the rivalry. The Seminoles also won seven in a row against the Hurricanes from 1963-72.</p> | No. 13 Miami Hurricanes, Florida State Seminoles preview, game time, outlook | false | https://newsline.com/no-13-miami-hurricanes-florida-state-seminoles-preview-game-time-outlook/ | 2017-10-04 | 1 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — Some Americans could see a lot more drones flying around their communities as the result of a Trump administration test program to increase government and commercial use of the unmanned aircraft.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead Wednesday, signing a directive intended to increase the number and complexity of drone flights.</p>
<p>The presidential memo would allow exemptions from current safety rules so communities could move ahead with testing of drone operations.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>States, communities and tribes selected to participate would devise their own trial programs in partnership with government and industry drone users. The administration anticipates approving at least five applications, but there is no limit on the number of communities that can join.</p>
<p>The Federal Aviation Administration would review each program. The agency would grant waivers, if necessary, to rules that now restrict drone operations. Examples include prohibitions on flights over people, nighttime flights and flights beyond the line of sight of the drone operator.</p>
<p>Among the things that could be tested are package deliveries; the reliability and security of data links between pilot and aircraft; and technology to prevent collisions between drones and other aircraft and to detect and counter drones flying in restricted areas.</p>
<p>The trial program will collect data on drone operations that will aid the government’s effort to develop a separate air traffic control system for low-flying unmanned aircraft, Michael Kratsios of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy told reporters in a conference call. Ultimately, the information is intended to be used to more generally expand drone flights around the country.</p>
<p>The test zones are expected to start going into place in about a year. The program would continue for three years after that.</p>
<p>The program is intended “to foster technological innovation that will be a catalyst for ideas that have the potential to change our day-to-day lives,” said Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. She noted that drones have proven to be an especially valuable tool in emergency situations, including assessing damage from natural disasters such as the recent hurricanes and the wildfires in California.</p>
<p>Drone-makers and businesses that want to fly drones have pushed for looser restrictions. Trump discussed the issue with industry leaders at a White House meeting in June.</p>
<p>In the past two years, the FAA has registered over 1 million drones. The majority of them belong to hobbyists. There are now more registered drones than registered manned aircraft in the U.S.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Safety restrictions on drone flights have limited drone use, and U.S. technology companies seeking to test and deploy commercial drones have often done so overseas. For example, Google’s Project Wing is testing drones in Australia, and Amazon is testing drone deliveries in the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>“In order to maintain American leadership in this emerging industry here at home, our country needs a regulatory framework that encourages innovation while ensuring airspace safety,” Kratsios said.</p>
<p>Safety concerns over drones have risen recently after the collision of a civilian drone and an Army helicopter over Staten Island, New York, and the first verified collision in North America between a drone and a commercial aircraft, in Quebec City, Canada.</p>
<p>The test program doesn’t address complaints by local governments that low-flying drones present safety, privacy and nuisance risks. The FAA says it has the sole authority to regulate the national airspace, but some communities have passed their own restrictions.</p>
<p>The test program “doesn’t go far enough in protecting local control and the rights to privacy and property,” said Rep. Jason Lewis, R-Minn. He has introduced a bill to give local governments more control over drones flying under 200 feet.</p>
<p>But Doug Johnson, vice president of technology policy at the Consumer Technology Association, said the test program recognizes that “the federal government cannot manage policymaking and enforcement by itself” and must work with local governments.</p>
<p>“Public-private partnerships like those that would be created by the program are critical to realizing the economic benefits of drones,” he said.</p>
<p>The association, whose members include drone-makers, has estimated 3.4 million drones will be sold in the U.S. this year, 40 percent more than last year. Revenue from those sales is estimated at about $1.1 billion.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy</a></p> | Trump OKs test program to expand domestic drone flights | false | https://abqjournal.com/1082959/trump-to-ok-test-program-to-expand-domestic-drone-flights.html | 2017-10-25 | 2 |
<p>As I write this, Israeli occupation forces have just finished killing 14 and injuring 80 Palestinians in a five hour “sweep” in Gaza. Four of those killed and 26 of those injured were children (ages 10-16). In one week, Israeli occupation forces thus murdered 59 Palestinians (most were civilians). Little of this is reported in US mainstream media which is focusing on Martha Stewart and the explosions in Baghdad.</p>
<p>While everyone hears about Israeli victims, little is reported of the far larger number of Palestinian victims. The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the Intifada (Palestinian uprising against the illegal Israeli occupation) is now 2463 including 477 children. Reports by human rights organizations and <a href="http://al-awda.org/civiliandeathsandinjuries/" type="external">UN investigators confirm that Israeli forces willfully target civilians</a>. Further, in the past three years alone, over 3000 Palestinian homes were demolished rendering over 11,000 people homeless (Amnesty International).</p>
<p>Over 1100 Palestinians were killed in the large open-air prison called the Gaza strip. Here, over one million Palestinians live in a desert area with the highest population density anywhere in the world. Thus, 1 in 1000 Gazans was killed by Israeli occupation forces in just three years. Proportionally, this would be like having nearly 300,000 Americans killed in three years. But numbers do not tell the whole story as each victim (Palestinian as well as Israeli) is an equally precious human being. This is something forgotten as we defend Israeli apartheid.</p>
<p>Further, of the occupied Palestinians, 70% are refugees denied their inalienable right of return to their homes and lands from which they were ethnically cleansed. The majority are unemployed and live below the poverty line.</p>
<p>The building of the apartheid wall, the removal of Palestinians from their lands, and the continued violence are all supported: a) using our tax money to the tune of $5 billion this year and b) using our US governmental support (e.g. recent veto of UN security council resolutions).</p>
<p>I urge those interested in facts to read Israeli authors such as Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe, Jeff Halper, Tanya Reinhardt and Tom Segev. Alternatively, skip watching Fox and CNN and run a WWW search on Palestine to get some varied perspectives. I urge all to think of why there are Israeli refuseniks in Israeli jails, why Israel is building an apartheid wall, why there is a growing divestment and boycott movement, and why do we continue to suffer as tax-payers for our government’s support of racist apartheid.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t we say enough is enough? If we insist on coexistence and separation of religion and state here in the US, why do we support a system that says any Jew (including converts) can get automatic citizenship and land in Israel while Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to their homes and lands simply because they are Christian or Muslim.</p>
<p>If apartheid was considered the problem in South Africa, why is it being touted as a solution in Israel/Palestine? And finally, why do some confuse symptoms (violence which kills far more Palestinian civilians than Israeli) with underlying diseases (colonial violent occupation and ethnic cleansing over the past 56 years)?</p>
<p>MAZIN QUMSIYEH, is an Associate Professor at Yale and <a href="http://Al-Awda.org/" type="external">Cofounder Palestine Right to Return Coalition</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Why is Apartheid Touted as a Solution? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/03/08/why-is-apartheid-touted-as-a-solution/ | 2004-03-08 | 4 |
<p>BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana has hired Kane Wommack to coach the linebackers next season.</p>
<p>He spent the past two seasons as South Alabama's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Wommack also spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss when Hoosiers coach Tom Allen was in charge of the linebackers.</p>
<p>Allen calls Wommack one of the "bright, young" coaches in the profession and says last year's linebackers coach, William Inge, will now focus on special teams duties next season.</p>
<p>Wommack fills the recently created 10th spot on Indiana's coaching staff.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: <a href="http://collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana has hired Kane Wommack to coach the linebackers next season.</p>
<p>He spent the past two seasons as South Alabama's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Wommack also spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss when Hoosiers coach Tom Allen was in charge of the linebackers.</p>
<p>Allen calls Wommack one of the "bright, young" coaches in the profession and says last year's linebackers coach, William Inge, will now focus on special teams duties next season.</p>
<p>Wommack fills the recently created 10th spot on Indiana's coaching staff.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: <a href="http://collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Hoosiers add Kane Wommack as new linebackers coach | false | https://apnews.com/amp/2e33e14caa734453950b9584cf91183e | 2018-01-08 | 2 |
<p>While discussing Paul Ryan's plan for Medicare on Monday, Hardball host Chris Matthews smeared the Republican congressman, trashing his idea as something that is "going to kill half the people who watch this show." [MP3 audio <a href="http://media.eyeblast.org/newsbusters/static/2011/04/2011-04-11-MSNBC-Matthews2.mp3" type="external">here</a>.]Matthews, along with liberal guests Howard Fineman and Richard Wolffe of Newsweek, dismissed Ryan's reform goals. Fineman hyperventilated, "The good thing for the President is the Paul Ryan Medicare plan, because it makes people angry. And, first of all, it scares seniors." Matthews lobbied, "Yes. Well, it should." Fineman defined scaring seniors as a "valid reason" for such talk from the White House. The panel then discussed the plan, which puts caps on what the government will pay, while exempting those 55 and older. A giddy Matthews cheered, "So, the plan is the President says, look, let them offer a big slash in Medicare,' which is going to kill half the people who watch this show." A transcript of the April 11 segment, which aired at, follows:</p>
<p>HOWARD FINEMAN: The good thing for the president is the Paul Ryan Medicare plan, because it makes people angry. And, first of all, it scares seniors.</p>
<p />
<p>MATTHEWS: Yes. Well, it should.</p>
<p>FINEMAN: Yes, and it should. But, at the same time, it exempts 55 and over, so it's going to really annoy younger people who are going to at some point get - supposed to get the Medicare benefits- 40 to 55-</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Howard, you know- you're close to me in age. Let me just point this out.</p>
<p>FINEMAN: Yes. Right.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Most people who follow the news and watch the newspapers every day and watch television shows like this on FOX or this network, MSNBC, or anywhere, on CNN, they- those most attuned to this debate over the budget are either retired or close to it.</p>
<p>FINEMAN: Yes.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: They are very sensitive to the fact that they have planned in their retirement that their medical costs will be covered by their Medicare plan. They don't have to save $20 million so they can pay for their medical expenses when they get older, right, which are going to get more costly as they get older. Right? Which is going to get more costly as they get older. The federal government promised that back in the '60s, that they would take care of people who have worked their whole life for their medical costs. Now the Republicans are saying, no, no, we're not going to do that anymore.</p>
<p>FINEMAN: I totally agree. My only point was, in addition to scaring everybody for those very valid reasons..</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Right.</p>
<p>FINEMAN: It's not going to win points among younger people below 55 either.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Why not?</p>
<p>FINEMAN: Because they're going to turn it into the plan where you only get a certain amount of money.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Yes.</p>
<p>FINEMAN: In other words, all the changes are going to be for those younger people. So they're the ones who ultimately will get screwed.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Yes. Here's your Borders book $10 gift certificate that's going to pay for your million dollar health care costs. It's a joke.</p>
<p>WOLFFE: Right. But here's the perverse thing. For a start, the age exemption didn't work for Bush when it came to Social Security.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: It went nowhere.</p>
<p>WOLFFE: So they know that's political-</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Why? Because people don't hear this?</p>
<p>FINEMAN: They don't hear it. They don't hear it.</p>
<p>WOLFFE: They don't hear it. But that's a political opportunity that, perversely, this White House is not going to leap on right now. There may be lots of people in the Senate on the Democrats' side who say, let's use it as a political football, but this president...</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Well, they're saving it for November.</p>
<p>WOLFFE: This President - no, no. The president is going to say, if there's a deal out there, let's do it, but the deal has to be reasonable; the deal has to include taxes. What's unreasonable...</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: This is smart. In other words, don't- Don't let it be dead on arrival.</p>
<p>WOLFFE: No.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Let the Republican sit out there, sit out there, as the basis for a compromise. They're that smart? They're that smart?</p>
<p>WOLFFE: Yes.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: They're that smart?</p>
<p>WOLFFE: They are smart enough to play that game, but they're going to say, if you are serious about deficits, you cannot leave taxes off the table.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Okay. Will that ever sell with the country? Will the Congress ever adopt a combination of some modification or cost-cutting, which we know has to come into place, somehow squeeze the costs of Medicare- medical costs, and a tax increase for people who can afford it, as a- as a more democratic, a more fair way to deal with this problem? Will they get that through and signed by the president, or is that just a posture?</p>
<p>HOWARD FINEMAN: Well, I think it's a possibility but they'll be glad to talk about it for the next few months. The one thing the president doesn't want to do is talk about tax increases in isolation.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Fair enough. I'm with you.</p>
<p>FINEMAN: As Richard was saying, you've got - you can't - that won't work for Democrats, even if you're just going to tax rich people. You have to put it in the context of a plan.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: Okay. You guys are so smart. I'm with the smart people here.</p>
<p>FINEMAN: Right.</p>
<p>MATTHEWS: So, the plan is the President says, look, let them offer a big slash in Medicare,' which is going to kill half the people who watch this show.</p>
<p>- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click <a href="http://twitter.com/scottjw" type="external">here</a> to follow him on Twitter.</p> | MSNBC's Matthews Rants: Paul Ryan's Plan Will 'Kill Half the People Who Watch This Show' | true | http://mrc.org/biasalert/2011/20110412110017.aspx | 2011-04-12 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>The sorrel filly, ridden by Jose Alvarez for trainer James Padgett II, won the 440-yard sprint by 1½ lengths, earning the $1.5 million first-place prize.</p>
<p>“The filly always has trouble with the break and it takes a little while to start her running,” Alvarez said. “But today she put everything together. We knew she could run 440 and she proved it today. She got the lead, probably, at about 250 yards and then just pulled away.”</p>
<p>Bigg Daddy, a New Mexico-bred and the 8-5 favorite, ran second. Hotstepper was a neck behind in third. Uptown Dynasty, the morning line favorite, ran sixth.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Padgett had an incredible weekend. He was a winner in Sunday’s $1,365,908 All American Derby with Hold Air Hostage and the $200,000 All American Gold Cup with reigning world champion Jessies First Down.</p>
<p>Fly Baby Fly was a $180,000 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale purchase and her half-brother, sired by Corona Cartel, topped this year’s Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale on a bid of $320,000.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>2017 All American Futurity</p>
<p>6 Fly Baby Fly 24.60 10.80 6.00</p>
<p>7 Bigg Daddy 3.80 3.00</p>
<p>9 Hotstepper 4.20</p>
<p>Time: 21.49</p>
<p>$2 Exacta (6-7): $80.80</p>
<p>$2 Trifecta (6-7-9): $456.00</p> | Fly Baby Fly captures All American Futurity | false | https://abqjournal.com/1058433/fly-baby-fly-captures-all-american-futurity.html | 2 |
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<p>After Air Force scored a run in the bottom of the first, the Lobos tacked on two more in the fourth on a bases-loaded single to center by Andre Vigil.</p>
<p />
<p>Victor Sanchez earn his second save of the season.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - Josh Walker (4-1) earned his 23rd career win by pitching into the eighth inning and leading New Mexico (19-9-1) to a 5-3 win over Air Force (5-21, 2-10).</p>
<p>Lobo Alex Real slammed a two-run home run in the first inning, his first homer of the season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Lobo baseball stops Air Force | false | https://abqjournal.com/376546/lobo-baseball-stops-air-force.html | 2 |
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<p>C. Homavandi/Zumapress.com</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175259/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>Iran’s Green Movement is one year old this Sunday, the anniversary of its first massive demonstrations in the streets of Tehran. Greeted with great hope in much of the world, a year later it’s weaker, the country is more repressive, and its hardliners are in a far stronger position—and some of their success can be credited to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sanctions hawks in the Obama administration.</p>
<p>If, in the past year, those hardliners successfully faced down major challenges within Iranian society and abroad, it was only in part thanks to the regime’s skill at repression and sidestepping international pressure. Above all, the ayatollahs benefited from Israeli intransigence and American hypocrisy on nuclear disarmament in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Iran’s case against Israel was bolstered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued enthusiasm for the Gaza blockade, and by Tel Aviv’s recent arrogant dismissal of a conference of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signatories, which called on Israel to join a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Nor has President Obama’s push for stronger sanctions on Iran at the United Nations Security Council hurt them.</p>
<p>And then, on Memorial Day in the United States, Israel’s Likud government handed Tehran its greatest recent propaganda victory by sending its commandos against a peace flotilla in international waters and so landing its men, guns blazing, on the deck of the USS Sanctions. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fg-iran-sanctions-20100610,0,4451961.story" type="external">Yesterday’s vote</a> at the U.N. Security Council on punishing Iran produced a weak, much watered-down resolution targeting 40 companies, which lacked the all-important imprimatur of unanimity, insofar as Turkey and Brazil voted “no” and Lebanon abstained. There was no mention of an oil or gasoline boycott, and the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703302604575294720991557294.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth" type="external">language of the resolution</a> did not even seem to make the new sanctions obligatory. It was at best a pyrrhic victory for those hawks who had pressed for “crippling” sanctions, and likely to be <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/iran-sanctions-not-just-useless-counterproductive" type="external">counterproductive</a> rather than effective in ending Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. How we got here is a long, winding, sordid tale of the triumph of macho posturing over patient and effective policymaking.</p>
<p>Suppressing the Green Movement</p>
<p>From last summer through last winter, the hardliners of the Islamic Republic of Iran were powerfully challenged by reformists, who charged that the June 12, 2009, presidential election had been marked by extensive fraud. Street protests were so large, crowds so enthusiastic, and the opposition so steadfast that it seemed as if Iran were on the brink of a significant change in its way of doing business, possibly even internationally. The opposition—the most massive since the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79—was dubbed the Green Movement, because green is the color of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, among whom losing presidential candidate Mirhossein Moussavi is counted. Although some movement supporters were secularists, many were religious, and so disarmingly capable of deploying the religious slogans and symbols of the Islamic Republic against the regime itself.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0230607543/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />Where the regime put emphasis on the distant Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Levant, Green Movement activists <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shirin-sadeghi/qods-day-protesters-trans_b_291220.html" type="external">chanted</a> (during “Jerusalem Day” last September), “Not Gaza, not Lebanon. I die only for Iran.” They took their cue from candidate Moussavi, who <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/26167/being-green/" type="external">said</a> he “liked” Palestine but thought waving its flag in Iran excessive. Moussavi likewise rejected Obama administration insinuations that his movement’s stance on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was indistinguishable from that of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/09/iran-green-movement-understands-worlds-concerns-over-nuclear-iran-reaches-out-to-us.html" type="external">emphasized</a> instead that he not only did not want a nuclear weapon for Iran, but understood international concerns about such a prospect. He seemed to suggest that, were he to come to power, he would be far more cooperative with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).</p>
<p>The Israeli government liked what it was hearing; Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu even went on “Meet the Press” last summer to <a href="http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/21/just_what_they_wanted_netanyahu_praises_iran_demon/" type="external">praise the Green Movement</a> fulsomely. “I think something very deep, very fundamental is going on,” he said, “and there’s an expression of a deep desire amid the people of Iran for freedom, certainly for greater freedom.”</p>
<p>Popular unrest only became possible thanks to a split at the top among the civilian ruling elite of clerics and fundamentalists. When presidential candidates Moussavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and their clerical backers, <a href="http://www.petroleumworld.com/sunopf10011701.htm" type="external">including</a> Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanaei and wily former president and billionaire entrepreneur Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, began to challenge the country’s authoritarian methods of governance, its repression of personal liberties, and the quixotic foreign policy of President Ahmadinejad (whom Moussavi accused of making Iran a global laughingstock), it opened space below.</p>
<p>The reformers would be opposed by Iran’s supreme theocrat, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who defended the presidential election results as valid, even as he admitted to his preference for Ahmadinejad’s views. He was, in turn, supported by most senior clerics and politicians, the great merchants of the bazaar, and most significantly, the officer corps of the police, the basij (civilian militia), the regular army, and the Revolutionary Guards. Because there would be no significant splits among those armed to defend the regime, it retained an almost unbounded ability to crackdown relentlessly. In the process, the Revolutionary Guards, generally Ahmadinejad partisans, only grew in power.</p>
<p>A year later, it’s clear that the hardliners have won decisively through massive repression, deploying basij armed with clubs on motorcycles to curb crowds, jailing thousands of protesters, and torturing and executing some of them. The main arrow in the opposition’s quiver was flashmobs, relatively spontaneous mass urban demonstrations orchestrated through Twitter, cell phones, and Facebook. The regime gradually learned how to repress this tactic through the careful jamming of electronic media and domestic surveillance. (Apparently the Revolutionary Guards now even have a Facebook Espionage Division.) While the opposition can hope to keep itself alive as an underground civil rights movement, for the moment its chances for overt political change appear slim.</p>
<p>Nuclear Hypocrisy</p>
<p>Though few have noted this, the Green Movement actually threw a monkey wrench into President Obama’s hopes to jump-start direct negotiations with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program. His team could hardly sit down with representatives of Ayatollah Khamenei while the latter was summarily tossing protesters in filthy prisons to be mistreated and even killed. On October 1, 2009, however, with the masses no longer regularly in the streets, representatives of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany met directly with a representative of Khamenei in Geneva.</p>
<p>A potentially pathbreaking nuclear agreement was hammered out whereby Iran would ship the bulk of its already-produced low-enriched uranium (LEU) to another country. In return, it would receive enriched rods with which it could run its single small medical reactor, producing isotopes for treating cancer. That reactor had been given to the Shah’s Iran in 1969, and the last consignment of nuclear fuel purchased for it, from Argentina, was running out. The agreement appealed to the West, because it would deprive Iran of a couple of tons of LEU that, at some point, could theoretically be cycled back through its centrifuges and enriched from 3.5% to over 90%, or weapons grade, for the possible construction of nuclear warheads. There is no evidence that Iran has such a capability or intention, but the Security Council members agreed that safe was better than sorry.</p>
<p>With Khamenei’s representative back in Iran on October 2, the Iranians suddenly announced that they would take a timeout to study it. That timeout never ended, assumedly because Khamenei had gotten a case of cold feet. Though we can only speculate, perhaps nuclear hardliners argued that holding onto the country’s stock of LEU seemed to the hardliners like a crucial form of deterrence in itself, a signal to the world that Iran could turn to bomb-making activities if a war atmosphere built.</p>
<p>Given that nuclear latency—the ability to launch a successful bomb-making program—has geopolitical consequences nearly as important as the actual possession of a bomb, Washington, Tel Aviv, and the major Western European powers remain eager to forestall Iran from reaching that status. As the Geneva fiasco left the impression that the Iranian regime was not ready to negotiate in good faith, the Obama team evidently decided to respond by ratcheting up sanctions on Iran at the Security Council, evidently in hopes of forcing its nuclear negotiators back to the bargaining table. Meanwhile, Netanyahu was loudly demanding the imposition of “crippling” international sanctions on Tehran.</p>
<p>Washington, however, faced a problem: Russian Prime Minister and éminence grise Vladimir Putin initially opposed such sanctions, as did China’s leaders. As Putin observed, “Direct dialogue… is always more productive… than a policy of threats, sanctions, and all the more so a resolution to use force.” Moreover, the non-permanent members of the Council included Turkey and Brazil, rising powers and potential leaders of the non-permanent bloc at the Council. Neither country was eager to see Iran put under international boycott for, from their point of view, simply having a civilian nuclear enrichment program. (Since such a program is permitted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, any such Security Council sanctions on Iran represent, at best, arbitrary acts.)</p>
<p>By mid-May, Obama nonetheless appeared to have his ducks in a row for a vote in which Russia and China would support at least modest further financial restrictions on investments connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Many observers believed that such a move, guaranteed to fall far short of “crippling,” would in fact prove wholly ineffectual.</p>
<p>Only Turkey and Brazil, lacking veto power in the Council, were proving problematic for Washington. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey leads the Justice and Development Party, which is mildly tinged with Muslim politics (unlike most previous strongly secular governments in Ankara). Viewing himself as a bridge between the Christian West and the Muslim world, he strongly opposes new sanctions on neighboring Iran. In part, he <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100519/opinion-uranium-swap-declaration-improved-turkeys-hand" type="external">fears</a> they might harm the Turkish economy; in part, he has pursued a policy of developing good relations with all his country’s direct neighbors.</p>
<p>Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva <a href="http://www.brazzil.com/articles/221-june-2010/10396-for-brazil-to-engage-iran-is-not-as-foolish-as-it-seems.html" type="external">has led</a> a similar charge against any strengthened punishment of Iran. He has been motivated by a desire to alter the prevailing North-dominated system of international relations and trade. Popularly known as “Lula,” the president has put more emphasis on encouraging South-South relations. His country gave up its nuclear weapons aspirations in 1980, but continued a civilian nuclear energy program and has recently committed to building a nuclear-powered submarine. Having the Security Council declare even peaceful nuclear enrichment illegal could be extremely inconvenient for Brasilia.</p>
<p>On May 15th, Erdogan and Lula met with Ahmadinejad in Tehran and announced a nuclear deal that much resembled the one to which Iran had briefly agreed in October. Turkey would now hold a majority of Iran’s LEU in escrow in return for which Iran would receive fuel rods enriched to 19.75% for its medical reactor. Critics pointed out that Iran had, by now, produced even more LEU, which meant that the proportion of fuel being sent abroad would be less damaging to any Iranian hopes for nuclear latency and therefore far less attractive to Washington and Tel Aviv. Washington promptly dismissed the agreement, irking the Turkish and Brazilian leaders.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, throughout May, a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-hartung/progress-on-nukes-at-the_b_599309.html" type="external">conference of signatories</a> to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was being held in New York to hammer out a consensus document that would, in the end, declare the Middle East a “nuclear free zone.” &#160;Unexpectedly, they announced success. Since Israel is the only country in the Middle East with an actual nuclear arsenal (estimated at about 200 warheads, or similar to what the British possess), and not an NPT signatory, Tel Aviv <a href="http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/May/middleeast_May527.xml&amp;section=middleeast" type="external">thundered</a>: “This resolution is deeply flawed and hypocritical… It singles out Israel, the Middle East’s only true democracy and the only country threatened with annihilation… Given the distorted nature of this resolution, Israel will not be able to take part in its implementation.”&#160;</p>
<p>The hypocrisy in all this was visibly Washington’s and Israel’s. After all, both were demanding that a country without nuclear weapons “disarm” and the only country in the region to actually possess them be excused from the disarmament process entirely. This was, of course, their gift to Tehran. Like others involved in the process, Iran’s representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency immediately noted this and riposted, “The US… is obliged to go along with the world’s request, which is that Israel must join the NPT and open its installations to IAEA inspectors.”</p>
<p>A Windfall for the Hardliners: The Flotilla Assault</p>
<p>With the Tehran Agreement brokered by Turkey and Brazil—and signed by Ahmadinejad—and Israel’s rejection of the NPT conference document now public news, Obama’s sanctions program faced a new round of pushback from China. Then, on May 31st, Israeli commandos rappelled from helicopters onto the deck of the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish aid ship heading for Gaza. They <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/eyewitnesses-say-israelis-came-in-with-guns-blazing.html" type="external">threw stun grenades</a> and fired rubber-jacketed metal bullets even before landing, enraging passengers, and leading to a fatal confrontation that left at least nine dead and some 30 wounded. An <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/historic-unsc-condemnation-of-israel-and-of-gaza-blockade-world-body-demands-release-of-aid-activists-ships.html" type="external">international uproar</a> ensued, putting Israel’s relations with Turkey under special strain.</p>
<p>The Mavi Marmara assault was more splendid news for Iran’s hardliners at the very moment when the Green movement was gearing up for demonstrations to mark the one-year anniversary of the contested presidential election. Around the Israeli assault on the aid flotilla and that country’s blockade of Gaza they were able to rally the public in solidarity with the theocratic government, long a trenchant critic of Israeli oppression of the stateless Palestinians. Green leaders, in turn, were <a href="http://khordaad88.com/?p=1664" type="external">forced to put out</a> a statement condemning Israel, and Khamenei was then able to fill the streets of the capital with two million demonstrators commemorating the death of Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.</p>
<p>The flotilla attack also gave the hardliners a foreign policy issue on which they could stand in solidarity with Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and the Arab world generally, reinforcing their cachet as champions of the Palestinians and bolstering the country’s regional influence. There was even talk of sending a new Gaza aid flotilla guarded by Iranian ships. Because Turkey, the aggrieved party, is at present a member of the Security Council, this fortuitous fillip for Iran has denied Obama the unanimity he sought on sanctions. Finally, the incident had the potential to push international concern over Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program and that country’s new assertiveness in the Middle East into the background, while foregrounding Israel’s brutality in Gaza, intransigence toward the peace process, and status as a nuclear outlaw.</p>
<p>In the end, President Obama got his watered-down, non-unanimous sanctions resolution. There is no doubt that Netanyahu’s reluctance to make a just peace with the Palestinians and his cowboy military tactics have enormously complicated Obama’s attempt to pressure Iran and deeply alienated Turkey, one of yesterday’s holdouts.</p>
<p>His election as prime minister in February 2009 turns out to have been the best gift the Israeli electorate could have given Iran. The Likud-led government continues its colonization of the West Bank and its blockade of the civilian population of Gaza, making the Iranian hawks who harp on injustices done to Palestinians look prescient. It refuses to join the NPT or allow U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities, making Iran, by comparison, look like a model IAEA member state.</p>
<p>Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan and director of its Center for South Asian Studies. He maintains the blog <a href="http://www.juancole.com/" type="external">Informed Comment</a>. His most recent book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0230607543/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Engaging the Muslim World</a> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).</p> | Iran’s Green Movement: One Year Later | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/iran-protests-one-year-later/ | 2010-06-11 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://1648o73kablq2rveyn64glm1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Minton_Eric_bw-e1488380367176.jpg" type="external" />Whether or not I care to admit it, growing up Caucasian, middle class and Baptist in East Tennessee has shaped the way I see and understand the world.</p>
<p>Much of my extended family at one time or another identified as “tee-totalers,” or folks who abstain from alcohol consumption of any kind for religious (read: Baptist) reasons.&#160;So, it was rather surprising when I happened across an almost empty handle of gin under the kitchen sink while cleaning out my tee-totaling great-aunt’s rancher following her death. By comparison, this seemed like a rather tame discovery compared to the eulogy delivered a day earlier by her Baptist pastor (and friend) who spun a few yarns about driving his own mother and my great-aunt to the casino one state over on the weekends when they were younger.</p>
<p>The shocking thing here wasn’t necessarily my great-aunt’s wild side, but that everyone handled it so well, like they had known for years. As I later came to find out, they had, and it floored me. It wasn’t that my thoroughly modern sensibilities were especially unnerved by the drinking and slot playing (I grew up watching “The Real World”), but because I had actually believed her when she talked to me about God’s judgment and the dangers of alcohol. I came to realize that the reason everyone seemed totally fine about this sort of hidden inconsistency in the life of my saintly great-aunt, was because they had all grown up Baptist in East Tennessee:</p>
<p>where disavowed dichotomy between one’s life and faith is our religious mother tongue.</p>
<p>Perhaps you’re familiar with the more serious examples of this whole “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” sort of logic in my Baptist upbringing:</p>
<p>Where our left hands are going on domestic and foreign mission trips, feeding homeless folks, ordaining women in our church, collecting money for any and every ill besieging our global and local community, praying for the souls and lives of people in crisis, and (in the case of my home church) starting an inter-denominational food and clothing distribution center for struggling families in our area.</p>
<p>While our right hands vociferously support legislation removing necessary infrastructure and financial support from the families we serve, refuse (politely) to actually hire any of the women we ordain, slander those seeking crisis services, pull our kids out of public schools in the wake of community transition, silence questions about race and inequality, and shake in anger at anyone identifying as a Christian who calls into question these incongruent postures towards the universe.</p>
<p>Growing up Caucasian, middle class and Baptist in East Tennessee was (and is) an effort in constantly splitting oneself in two over, and over, and over again in the name of the Lord.&#160;</p>
<p>With each passing year it becomes more and more obvious that not naming reality as it’s actually happening is a deeply-held spiritual practice in the Baptist tradition. No matter the cultural winds and waves besieging their boat, Baptists possess this stalwart, unwavering commitment to interpreting and reading the Bible with great conviction in the midst of any and every cultural and actual storm.</p>
<p>They should be commended for their steely-eyed faithfulness.</p>
<p>However, this stalwart, unwavering commitment oftentimes means eliminating from view any of the ways the biblical text might challenge how our right hands are voting, spending, speaking and living. Which means, if you’re Baptist in the Southeast you probably haven’t heard your pastor speak glowingly of January’s Women’s March, or mention that Black Lives Matter, or question the current administration’s posture towards an increasingly diverse world, or point out that Jesus of Nazareth grew up the son of Middle Eastern refugees fleeing political unrest and genocide following his birth that we celebrated just a few months ago.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that all of these beliefs are ardently held by people of deep Christian conviction, many of whom are paid by your church to pray and deliver sermons.</p>
<p>Pastors and church leaders across the country seem continually flabbergasted by their (almost entirely Caucasian and Evangelical) congregations who, as recently as this week, gave the current administration a 75 percent approval rating. This is especially confusing when compared to a letter signed by 500 major Evangelical leaders (i.e., pastors) from all 50 states critical of the Trump administration’s executive order on immigration.</p>
<p>For those of us who grew up Baptist in the Southeast, this disavowed dichotomy between our faith and our political life isn’t a recent aberration brought starkly into view by Donald Trump. Instead, it’s the manifestation of a longstanding unwillingness to unite these two parts of our souls out of both the practice of let’s-all-get-along Caucasian Southern politeness, and the misguided application of the inherently Baptist belief in the separation of church and state. Which is why, in times like these, Baptist pastors remain warmly vague and intentionally circumspect in their sermons, while fuming indignantly about their congregations’ politics behind closed doors.</p>
<p>As a Baptist kid in East Tennessee, one of the passages I grew up hearing often&#160;was the 48th verse from Matthew, chapter 5:</p>
<p>“Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”&#160;</p>
<p>This verse encapsulates the whole of what it means to be a practicing Baptist Christian in America:&#160;that being — the pursuit of socially acceptable moral perfection at all costs (including, but not limited to the binding and gagging of all the unsavory parts of your life in the trunk of your soul).</p>
<p>Enter my big-hearted, faithful, slot-playing, gin-drinking, Bible-thumping, teal-sweatsuit-wearing, tee-totaling great-aunt. A woman who worked at the local health department for over 30 years tirelessly delivering medical services for indigent clients, while also bemoaning the “welfare state” that allowed her to retire at 65 with a pension and access to healthcare, because “God helps those who help themselves, Eric.”</p>
<p>While growing up Caucasian, middle class and Baptist in East Tennessee instilled in me a love for the biblical text, faithfully serving my community, the nuances of St. Paul’s missionary journeys, and the Welch’s Grape Juice flowing through the veins of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ once a quarter, one thing it never taught me was how to be OK with my own and the world’s rather profound inconsistencies.</p>
<p>Luckily, a few years ago a friend of mine reminded me that thankfully the Bible wasn’t originally written in the King’s English. Which means, in Matthew 5:48, the word “perfect,” is actually the Greek word “teleios,” and generally translated means “the end of something” or carries with it the idea of “completion or finishing.” A better translation (put forth by both Greek philosophers and early Christians) might read: “Be complete, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is complete.” The word for “perfect” in Hebrew, Jesus’ religious mother tongue, is the word “shalom,” which loosely translated connotes this same sense of peace, completeness, rocking-chair-on-the-porch-with-a-glass-of-sweet-tea sorts of at-home-ness with the world.</p>
<p>Be complete, be at home, be at peace with a complicated world, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is complete, at home, and at peace with a complicated world.&#160;</p>
<p>Which makes sense in light of this verse’s location in a much larger passage about making space for our enemies at our own tables, welcoming and loving people who can’t actually pay us back for that love, and continuing to live in solidarity with a complex and sometimes violent world even if it kills us in the process.</p>
<p>As one verse from earlier in Matthew 5 reminds us:</p>
<p>“[God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”&#160;</p>
<p>When I remember my great-aunt, it isn’t the schizophrenic religiosity, or the fact that she stubbornly called wasps “waspers” that dominates my memories; it’s that she possessed this tee-totaling faith in me, a cynical, acne-prone, and sullen adolescent boy from a divorced family trying (often unsuccessfully) to find his groove in the world.&#160;She never let me believe that my limping imperfections, near-constant self-doubt, and exhausting cynicism were anything but a gift and a welcome friend to the divine (even though she would never have said something weird like “the divine”).</p>
<p>Despite what she may have believed about God’s preferences for how people spend their food stamps, or how the world began, or how it will end, or to which political party God always sends tax-deductible donations, none of that mattered when she picked me up from school, and listened to me complain about how alone I often felt. She was simply there, idling in her green Buick regal, always on time, always fully present, sweat-suit and all.</p>
<p>In the face of inconsistency (both theological and existential), her love made her perfect, complete, congruent, and I hope one day love will do the same to me. As St. Paul and John Lennon sort of put it, in the end all we have (or need) is love, not right beliefs, not moral perfection, not political power, nor even the rhetorical high-ground — nothing but love makes it out of this thing alive.</p>
<p>As Ash Wednesday reminds us, everything else is just dust and air.</p> | Ash Wednesday (or how (not) to be Baptist in Trump’s America) | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/ash-wednesday-or-how-not-to-be-baptist-in-trumps-america/ | 3 |
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<p>The union representing striking professors at 14 Pennsylvania state universities reached a tentative contract agreement Friday and immediately ended a walkout that was in its third day.</p>
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<p>Both sides thanked Gov. Tom Wolf for helping to end the impasse, which had disrupted classes for over 100,000 students.</p>
<p>"We are relieved to have an agreement that preserves quality public higher education in Pennsylvania and allows our members to get back into the classroom where they belong," said union president Kenneth Mash.</p>
<p>The new contract provides raises for all employees but also requires them to pick up a greater share of their health care costs. It must now go to the full union membership for ratification.</p>
<p>"Today is an opportunity for a fresh start," said Chancellor Frank T. Brogan. "Throughout this process, our students have been remarkably patient, and they should be applauded. Now, we look forward to making sure the rest of the year ends strong for them and for our talented faculty."</p>
<p>Professors walked off the job Wednesday morning after the union turned down what the university said was its last contract offer.</p>
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<p>Union spokeswoman Kathryn Morton said faculty had made concessions on salary and benefits in return for the university system withdrawing proposed contract changes that faculty had opposed. It said it would provide details at a later time.</p>
<p>The union represents more than 5,000 faculty and coaches at the state-run universities: Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester.</p>
<p>Penn State, Temple University, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University — schools that receive large state appropriations and offer in-state tuition — were not affected.</p>
<p>Striking instructors said they did not strike solely for health benefits or salary, but also to preserve the quality of education for students by supporting faculty at every level of pay and experience. One provision withdrawn by the university system would have required temporary faculty to teach an additional class each semester.</p>
<p>The Pennsylvania state system is one of the nation's largest public university systems. State funding, $444 million this year, is about the same as it was 17 years ago, even as full-time enrollment has risen more than 10 percent.</p>
<p>It was the first strike in the system's 34-year history.</p> | Pennsylvania professors agree to contract, end strike | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/21/pennsylvania-professors-agree-to-contract-end-strike.html | 2016-10-21 | 0 |
<p>MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Officials across southern New Hampshire are warning that heavy rains expected for this weekend could bring flood waters.</p>
<p>The Manchester Department of Public Works has been working long hours to remove snow before the rains due Friday. WMUR-TV <a href="http://www.wmur.com/article/flood-watch-in-effect-for-southern-new-hampshire-on-friday-and-saturday/15066675" type="external">reports</a> the heaviest snow is being shipped to a "snow graveyard" via dump trucks.</p>
<p>Emergency officials are urging residents to remove heavy snow from key areas of their homes before it is soaked by heavy rain.</p>
<p>Manchester officials say that even with the rain moving in Friday, workers will be out removing even more snow and tending to any trouble spots due to the water.</p>
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<p>Information from: WMUR-TV, <a href="http://wmur.com" type="external">http://wmur.com</a></p>
<p>MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Officials across southern New Hampshire are warning that heavy rains expected for this weekend could bring flood waters.</p>
<p>The Manchester Department of Public Works has been working long hours to remove snow before the rains due Friday. WMUR-TV <a href="http://www.wmur.com/article/flood-watch-in-effect-for-southern-new-hampshire-on-friday-and-saturday/15066675" type="external">reports</a> the heaviest snow is being shipped to a "snow graveyard" via dump trucks.</p>
<p>Emergency officials are urging residents to remove heavy snow from key areas of their homes before it is soaked by heavy rain.</p>
<p>Manchester officials say that even with the rain moving in Friday, workers will be out removing even more snow and tending to any trouble spots due to the water.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: WMUR-TV, <a href="http://wmur.com" type="external">http://wmur.com</a></p> | State officials warn of flood conditions across southern NH | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e6cd6fa3269942f69af58376f3646554 | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
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<p>UNITED NATIONS — Stepping up pressure on China, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned Beijing on Wednesday that it risks its massive trade with the United States if its business dealings with North Korea violate U.N. sanctions.</p>
<p>In a hard-hitting speech at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council following Pyongyang’s successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, she said that “the world has become a more dangerous place” and China has a key role in promoting peace.</p>
<p>“If we act together we can still prevent a catastrophe,” Haley said. “We can rid the world of a great threat. If we fail to act in a serious way there will be a different response.”</p>
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<p>Haley said the United States doesn’t seek conflict — “in fact we seek to avoid it.” But she said the launch of an ICBM “is a clear and sharp military escalation” and the U.S. is prepared to use its “considerable military forces” to defend itself and its allies “if we must.”</p>
<p>But she said the Trump administration prefers “not to go in that direction” but to use its “great capabilities in the area of trade” to address “those who threaten us and … those who supply the threats.”</p>
<p>China is responsible for 90 percent of trade with North Korea, and Haley said she had a long conversation Wednesday morning with President Donald Trump about U.S. clout when it comes to trade.</p>
<p>Until recently, American officials had been describing China as a partner in their strategy to prevent North Korea from developing the ability to strike the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons. But Trump has expressed growing irritation at Beijing’s reluctance to tighten the screw on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.</p>
<p>“There are countries that are allowing, even encouraging trade with North Korea, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Haley said.</p>
<p>“Such countries would also like to continue their trade arrangements with the United States,” she said. “That’s not going to happen. Our attitude on trade changes when countries do not take international security threats seriously.”</p>
<p>Haley said the seven U.N. sanctions resolutions haven’t gotten North Korea to change its “destructive course,” and she stressed that much of the burden of enforcing the resolutions rests with China because of its overwhelming trade with its neighbor.</p>
<p>Declaring that it’s time to do more, Haley announced that the U.S. will put forward a new Security Council resolution in the coming days “that raises the international response in a way that is proportionate to North Korea’s escalation.”</p>
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<p>She gave no details but said that if the council is united the international community can cut off major sources of hard currency to North Korea, restrict oil to their military and weapons programs, increase air and maritime restrictions, and hold senior officials accountable.</p>
<p>China and Russia, whose presidents met in Moscow on Tuesday, and will be attending the G20 summit with Trump in Hamburg, Germany, later this week where North Korea is certain to be a key issue, proposed a plan for defusing tensions over North Korea that their ambassadors reiterated to the council.</p>
<p>The China-Russia plan includes a suspension-for-suspension — a North Korea moratorium on nuclear and missile tests while the United States and South Korea refrain from large-scale military exercises — and a roadmap to peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.</p>
<p>China’s U.N. ambassador, Liu Jieyi, did not respond to Haley and made no mention of U.S.-China trade.</p>
<p>Instead, he strongly urged North Korea to stop “any rhetoric and action that might further exacerbate the tension of the Korean Peninsula.”</p>
<p>“We call on all parties concerned to exercise restraint, avoid provocative actions and belligerent rhetoric, demonstrate the will for unconditional dialogue and work actively together to defuse the tension,” Liu said. “China is firmly opposed to chaos and confrontation on the peninsula. Military means must not be an option in this regard.”</p>
<p>Russian Deputy Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov echoed the call for “restraint rather than provocation and war mongering.” He stressed that “any attempts to justify a military solution are inadmissible” and will lead “to unpredictable consequences for the region.”</p>
<p>“Attempts to economically strangle North Korea are equally unacceptable as millions of people are in great humanitarian need,” Safronkov said.</p>
<p>He also signaled that the United States will likely have a tough time getting Security Council approval for a new sanctions resolution.</p>
<p>“All must acknowledge that sanctions will not resolve the issue,” Safronkov said. “In that manner, we simply rush towards a stalemate.”</p>
<p>“Just as any attempts to resolve the situation through force are inadmissible,” he said the international community needs to take into account North Korea’s concerns for security.</p>
<p>Haley asked for the floor at the end of the debate and retorted: “If you are happy with North Korea’s actions, veto it.”</p>
<p>“If you see this for what it is which is North Korea showing its muscle, then you need to stand strong and vote with the international community to strengthen sanctions,” she said.</p>
<p>“If you choose not to we will go our own path,” Haley said. “But it makes no sense to not join together on this threat (from) North Korea. They have not had any care for Russia or China in this. …They’re not going to listen to anything that you say.”</p>
<p>In her speech, Haley stressed that the United States “will not have patience for stalling or talking our way down to a watered-down resolution”</p>
<p>“We will work with China,” she said. “We will work with every country that wants peace, but we will not repeat the inadequate approaches of the past that have brought us to this dark day.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show there are seven U.N. sanctions resolutions, not six.</p> | US warns China on trade with NKorea if it wants US trade | false | https://abqjournal.com/1028471/us-warns-china-on-trade-with-nkorea-if-it-wants-us-trade.html | 2017-07-05 | 2 |
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<p>NEW YORK - U.S. stocks are closing with small losses, as a big drop in energy stocks offsets gains in other parts of the market.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 fell four points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,103 on Friday.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 55 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,690. The Nasdaq was little changed 5,128.</p>
<p>Shares of Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two largest publicly traded energy companies, fell roughly 5 percent each after both companies reported slumping profits.</p>
<p>Bond prices rose after a report showed that U.S. wages and benefits grew in the spring at the slowest pace in 33 years.</p>
<p>The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.19 percent from 2.26 percent on Thursday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | US stocks end lower as energy stocks slump on earnings | false | https://abqjournal.com/621071/us-stocks-little-changed-as-investors-react-to-earnings.html | 2015-07-31 | 2 |
<p />
<p>The Coast Guard <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-top-kill-works-20100528,0,4282960.story" type="external">reports this morning</a> that the “top-kill” of the Gulf gusher has succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas. When pressure stabilizes, they can begin cementing the well to permanently close it, now five weeks after the spill began.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, things are looking worse for BP, the operator of the rig and owner of the well. The government team assembled to evaluate the flow rate <a href="" type="internal">said today</a> that preliminary findings indicate the spill is two to five times the size of previous estimates.</p>
<p>The investigations into the spill have also yielded a lot of bad press for BP. In Louisiana, one of the company’s officials on the Deepwater Horizon at the point of the explosion, Robert Kaluza, invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than testifying at a Coast Guard hearing. He was expected to appear today, but has backed out to avoid self-incrimination.</p>
<p>And according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/us/27rig.html" type="external">documents released by a Congressional investigator</a>, several days before the blast BP officials decided to use a type of casing for the well known to be the riskier option in order to cut costs. The exploration at this well was six weeks behind schedule; the Deepwater Horizon was supposed to move to a new site on March 8–about six weeks before the blast. The New York Times reports that, at an estimated cost of $500,000 per day, a 43-day-delay had added up to more than $21 million for BP by that point, possibly increasing the desire to cut corners.</p>
<p>Even if BP has succeeded in stopping the well, there’s still no end in site for the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf. Wildlife officials <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64N5L020100525" type="external">report that</a> more than 300 sea birds, nearly 200 turtles and 19 dolphins have been found dead along the Gulf Coast.</p>
<p>But will Americans actually see this still-unfolding Gulf disaster? <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/26/the-missing-oil-spill-photos.html" type="external">Newsweek reports today</a> that, like <a href="" type="internal">our own Mac McClelland</a>, photographers in the Gulf have been barred from access to spill sites where the impacts of the disaster are most apparent.</p>
<p>BP might have finally controlled the well, but efforts to control the story appear to be ongoing.</p>
<p>(If you appreciate our <a href="" type="internal">BP spill coverage</a>, please consider making a <a href="https://secure3.convio.net/mojo/site/Donation2?df_id=1940&amp;1940.donation=form%201&amp;set.custom.Donation_Source_Code=7P10B2" type="external">tax-deductible donation</a> in support.)</p>
<p /> | As BP Stops the Well, Other Problems Mount | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/05/bp-stops-well-other-problems-mount/ | 2010-05-27 | 4 |
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<p>U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis visited Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) campus in Mountain View, California on Friday, during a trip to promote the Pentagon’s commitment to high-tech defense innovations.</p>
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<p>Mattis was touring the West Coast, touting the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Experimental Unit (DIUx), a government group that works as a bridge between commercial companies and the U.S. military in order to solve the country’s most challenging national defense problems.</p>
<p>Some areas of the defense sector that DIUx has sought investments in, and continues to look for innovations in, include artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, information technology and space advancements, according to the agency’s website.</p>
<p>In the second quarter of 2017, the Defense Innovation Experimental Unit awarded 25 contracts worth a total of $48.4 million. Since June of 2016, DIUx has awarded $100 million in contracts for 45 different pilot projects, according to Reuters. The private sector has invested more than $1.5 billion in DIUx’s portfolio companies.</p>
<p>DIUx was created by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter in 2015. Mattis’ most recent trip indicates the Trump administration’s defense team is intent on pushing the innovations forward.</p>
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<p>Mattis’ Google visit follows a stop at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters on Thursday. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tweeted a picture of the pair after meeting.</p>
<p>A pleasure to host <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SecDef?src=hash" type="external">#SecDef</a> James Mattis at Amazon HQ in Seattle today <a href="https://t.co/JnQZoSOnFN" type="external">pic.twitter.com/JnQZoSOnFN</a></p>
<p>Google and Amazon did not immediately return FOX Business’ requests for comment.</p>
<p>President Trump has not shied away from technological advancements throughout his presidency, hosting an entire “Technology Week” at the White House earlier this year. From modernizing the government’s technological infrastructure to seeking innovative improvements within the labor force through high-tech solutions, many CEOs, including Bezos and Google’s Eric Schmidt, have participated in roundtables.</p> | Mattis taps Silicon Valley talent for innovative defense solutions | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/08/11/mattis-taps-silicon-valley-talent-for-innovative-defense-solutions.html | 2017-08-11 | 0 |
<p>SHELBURNE, Vt. (AP) - Officials in a Vermont town have voted to appeal a federal court judge's decision concerning road-salt shipments and storage at a Vermont Railway facility.</p>
<p>The Burlington Free Press <a href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2018/01/03/shelburne-accepts-outside-funding-appeal-ruling-vermont-railway-case/999460001/" type="external">reports</a> the Shelburne Selectboard voted earlier this week to appeal U.S. District Judge William Sessions' ruling after receiving a $20,000 donation from the nonprofit Vermont Natural Resources Council. The case has cost the town over $450,000.</p>
<p>Council Executive Director Brian Shupe says the advocacy group will support the town's appeal as a "fiscal agent."</p>
<p>Shelburne officials had argued that the road-salt operations threaten sensitive LaPlatte River wetlands adjacent to the property. Sessions ruled the town had unfairly targeted the railroad, writing that stockpiling a critical winter commodity "outweighs the town's inconclusive and overstated public health and safety concerns."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Burlington Free Press, <a href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com" type="external">http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com</a></p>
<p>SHELBURNE, Vt. (AP) - Officials in a Vermont town have voted to appeal a federal court judge's decision concerning road-salt shipments and storage at a Vermont Railway facility.</p>
<p>The Burlington Free Press <a href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2018/01/03/shelburne-accepts-outside-funding-appeal-ruling-vermont-railway-case/999460001/" type="external">reports</a> the Shelburne Selectboard voted earlier this week to appeal U.S. District Judge William Sessions' ruling after receiving a $20,000 donation from the nonprofit Vermont Natural Resources Council. The case has cost the town over $450,000.</p>
<p>Council Executive Director Brian Shupe says the advocacy group will support the town's appeal as a "fiscal agent."</p>
<p>Shelburne officials had argued that the road-salt operations threaten sensitive LaPlatte River wetlands adjacent to the property. Sessions ruled the town had unfairly targeted the railroad, writing that stockpiling a critical winter commodity "outweighs the town's inconclusive and overstated public health and safety concerns."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Burlington Free Press, <a href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com" type="external">http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com</a></p> | Shelburne to appeal salt shed ruling with nonprofit funding | false | https://apnews.com/amp/d1deb120e49d4fbdb5a606b12d68f86e | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — State Farm is closing its two call centers in Tacoma this year, putting as many as 800 people out of work as it moves some jobs to Phoenix and to its headquarters in Illinois.</p>
<p>The News Tribune <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article194255974.html" type="external">reports</a> that the insurer made the announcement Thursday, citing reasons of efficiency.</p>
<p>About 1,400 people in total work at the two Tacoma sites. Of those, 600 jobs will be relocated to State Farm's office in nearby DuPont, where about 1,000 people already work. Another 250 jobs will be moved to the company's headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois, and about 150 jobs will go to Phoenix.</p>
<p>That means 400 workers won't have jobs and another 400 might lose them if they're not picked for transfers.</p>
<p>Denise Dyer, director for the Pierce County office of Economic Development, says it's going to be "a huge blow" to the local economy, even though she's pleased that 600 jobs will go to DuPont.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The News Tribune, <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com" type="external">http://www.thenewstribune.com</a></p>
<p>TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — State Farm is closing its two call centers in Tacoma this year, putting as many as 800 people out of work as it moves some jobs to Phoenix and to its headquarters in Illinois.</p>
<p>The News Tribune <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article194255974.html" type="external">reports</a> that the insurer made the announcement Thursday, citing reasons of efficiency.</p>
<p>About 1,400 people in total work at the two Tacoma sites. Of those, 600 jobs will be relocated to State Farm's office in nearby DuPont, where about 1,000 people already work. Another 250 jobs will be moved to the company's headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois, and about 150 jobs will go to Phoenix.</p>
<p>That means 400 workers won't have jobs and another 400 might lose them if they're not picked for transfers.</p>
<p>Denise Dyer, director for the Pierce County office of Economic Development, says it's going to be "a huge blow" to the local economy, even though she's pleased that 600 jobs will go to DuPont.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The News Tribune, <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com" type="external">http://www.thenewstribune.com</a></p> | State Farm shuttering 2 Washington state call centers | false | https://apnews.com/amp/b2e8c031ddab48ceafd49f28c47b9235 | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>What do you do when your political career is flailing and the election is only weeks away? For Texas's Lieutanant Governor <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/05/07/the_strangest_attack_ad_of_the_year_in_which_a_candidate_sings_that_song.html" type="external">David Dewhurst,</a> you have your campaign release <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPzz60a7As8" type="external">a parody of the song</a> "Let It Go" from the movie Frozen with your opponent looking like a 10-year-old JibJab animation.</p>
<p>David Dewhurst is in his third term as Lieutenant Governor of Texas but is considered a significant underdog in his re-election bid against Dan Patrick, a Texas state senator who previously made his name in Houston talk radio. Patrick has been hammering conservative Dewhurst from the right as a Tea Party candidate and finished well ahead in the initial Republican primary election in March. However, Patrick didn't win the majority necessary to avoid a runoff and the tough race between the two has lingered on for the past two months with Patrick heavily favored. With little to lose, Dewhurst has gone increasingly negative and waged a scorched earth campaign.</p>
<p>In his newest ad, he has Patrick singing a parody of "Let It Go" that focuses the state senator's change of his last name from Goeb to Patrick. Dewhurst's campaign has claimed that the name change was an effort to cover up a bankruptcy. However, it <a href="http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2014/apr/18/david-dewhurst/david-dewhurst-lofts-ridiculous-unsupported-claim-/" type="external">really occured</a> because Patrick needed a stage name when he entered broadcasting as his first boss found Goeb to be unsuitable.</p>
<p>This is likely to be Dewhurst's second go-around losing a GOP primary in the past two years. In 2012, he was annointed to be Kay Bailey Hutchison's successor in the U.S. Senate with only obstacle in his way, a relatively unknown conservative lawyer named <a href="" type="internal">Ted Cruz.</a> While Dewhurst ran ahead of Cruz in the first round of the primary, he ended up losing handily to Cruz in a runoff.</p>
<p>While Dewhurst does have other potential lines of attack, he's likely to be far better candidate in a competitive general election against state senator Leticia Van De Putte than Patrick, who <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/lists/worst-senator-dan-patrick" type="external">has been ranked</a> one of the worst lawmakers in the state by Texas Monthly (according to that publication, Patrick is both a "bully and an ideologue"), those aren't likely to fly in a Texas Republican primary runoff where the voters who turn out tend to be the most ideologically conservative. Instead, Dewhurst simply has to hope channeling Idina Menzel somehow leads him to victory.</p> | The Strange Texas Political Ad That Parodies Frozen | true | https://thedailybeast.com/the-strange-texas-political-ad-that-parodies-frozen | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>&#160;The McCain camp has put out a <a href="http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Multimedia/Player.aspx?guid=410e4d05-c615-4366-b5ae-09784dd9b169" type="external">Web ad</a> painting Obama as “ready to smear.”</p>
<p>&lt;iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/v/U32G5_bqFvA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>
<p>McCain ad, “Lipstick”</p>
<p>[Title: Sarah Palin on: Sarah Palin]</p>
<p>Palin: Do you know they say, the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.</p>
<p>[Title: Barack Obama on: Sarah Palin]</p>
<p>Obama: But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.</p>
<p>[Title: Katie Couric on: This election]</p>
<p>Couric: One of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life.</p>
<p>[Title: Ready to lead? No. Ready to smear? Yes.]</p>
<p>Let’s start with what the ad gets right. It does seem to be true that Republican v.p. candidate Sarah Palin wears lipstick. And it’s true that she mentioned this particular cosmetic choice at the convention, when she joked that lipstick is the only difference between a hockey mom and pit bull, as the ad shows before it goes completely off the rails. If this were a CoverGirl commercial, we’d be all set.</p>
<p>But it’s not; it’s a political ad. And it goes on to imply that Obama made a personal dig at Palin, calling her a “pig,” and that commentators decried his sexism for derailing the campaign. This is bunk. Let’s look at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPd4yk0x-eg" type="external">what Obama actually said</a> at a campaign rally in Virginia:</p>
<p>Obama, Sept. 9: John McCain says he’s about change too. And so I guess his whole angle is, watch out, George Bush — except for economic policy, healthcare policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics, we’re really going to shake things up in Washington. That’s not change. That’s just calling some, the same thing something different. You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.</p>
<p>Here’s what the McCain campaign heard, according to ABC News’ <a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/a-piggish-debat.html" type="external">Jake Tapper</a>:</p>
<p>Tapper, Sept. 10: Asked why she was so confident Obama was “comparing” Palin to a pig, [former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, on behalf of the McCain campaign,] said Palin was the only one of the four candidates on both parties’ tickets who wears lipstick.</p>
<p>“She is the only one of the four candidates for president or the only vice presidential candidate who wears lipstick,” Swift said. “I mean it seemed to me a very gendered comment.”</p>
<p>But, Swift added, if “as part of his apology Senator Obama wants to say no he was calling Senator McCain — who is a true hero in our country a pig — then I suppose we could wait en masse for an apology to that as well.”</p>
<p>For starters, Swift is ignoring the fact that “putting lipstick on a pig” is a hoary old expression of the same caliber as “building a better mousetrap” or “letting the cat out of the bag.” We did a quick Nexis search on uses of the expression before Tuesday, and found 2,290 instances dating back to 1985 (which is as far back as most Nexis news goes). Its meaning is precisely what Obama was talking about in his speech: calling the same thing something different. Context for the phrase in the last two decades ranged from health care to taxes to fashion to business to, uh, pig racing. It has tumbled from the lips of sports commissioners, librarians and company spokesmen, but it’s particularly popular with politicians. (Congressional newspaper The Hill even <a href="http://thehill.com/todays-stories/congress-speak-making-up-the-pig-2008-06-18.html" type="external">featured the phrase</a> in its “Congress Speak” column.) It’s been spotted as far away as New Zealand. It’s even <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lipstick-Pig-Winning-No-Spin-Someone/dp/0743271165/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1221065535&amp;sr=8-1" type="external">the title of a book</a> by former McCain press aide Torie Clarke.</p>
<p>As several people (including Tapper, <a href="http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/obama_did_not_call_sarah_palin.php" type="external">Marc Ambinder</a> at The Atlantic, <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Obama_Lipstick_on_a_pig.html" type="external">Ben Smith</a> at Politico, the Obama campaign and some of our readers) have pointed out, John McCain employed the phrase in 2007, in talking about Hillary Clinton’s health care plan: “I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” Oh, and he also said it about Iraq war strategy – if it’s really a personal smear, it’s not clear who’s wearing the lipstick in that example. Obama has used the expression before, too (also in referring to Iraq strategy). But before either McCain or Obama speculated on porcine cosmetics, members of Congress from Rick Santorum to Ted Kennedy had been talking pig lips for years.</p>
<p>If the McCain campaign wants to get literal, ignoring the expression’s long political pedigree, they could go whole hog (as it were) and look at what Obama actually said. He is talking about John McCain’s policies, not about his running mate. “Barack Obama on Sarah Palin”? Not at all.</p>
<p>And “Katie Couric on this election”? Well, it depends on what your definition of “this” is. Couric was <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E6D71F3EF930A25755C0A96E9C8B63&amp;fta=y" type="external">referring</a> to the Hillary Clinton campaign, long before Palin was tapped for v.p. Hey, remember when McCain called Clinton’s health plan “lipstick on a pig”?</p> | Pigs and Pit Bulls | false | https://factcheck.org/2008/09/pigs-and-pit-bulls/ | 2008-09-10 | 2 |
<p />
<p>CVS Health Corporation (CVS) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.71 billion.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based company said it had profit of $1.59 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $1.71 per share.</p>
<p>The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.67 per share.</p>
<p>The drugstore chain and pharmacy benefits manager posted revenue of $45.97 billion in the period, which fell short of Street forecasts. Nineteen analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $46.48 billion.</p>
<p>For the current quarter ending in April, CVS Health expects its per-share earnings to range from $1.07 to $1.13. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had forecast adjusted earnings per share of $1.11.</p>
<p>The company expects full-year earnings in the range of $5.77 to $5.93 per share.</p>
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<p>CVS Health shares have decreased slightly more than 2 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index has climbed 2.5 percent. The stock has dropped 14 percent in the last 12 months.</p>
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<p>This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CVS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CVS</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Keywords: CVS Health, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings</p> | CVS Health beats 4Q profit forecasts | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/09/cvs-health-beats-4q-profit-forecasts.html | 2017-02-09 | 0 |
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<p>It would seem the Lobos basketball team needs its star guard Elijah Brown and coach Craig Neal to get on the same page if they are to make a run at a league title as Mountain West Conference play starts tonight in the Pit against Fresno State.</p>
<p>A tweet posted Sunday night by Brown seemed to finally put out in the open proof of the strained relationship between he and the embattled fourth-year head coach. Brown, the preseason MWC Player of the Year, lost his starting role earlier this month after a game in which Neal called into question the effort and defense of his team.</p>
<p>Brown’s Christmas night tweet, which came after a team practice, read: “I will never give another man the power to take away my passion for the game. I ain’t the one. I got a lot of hoop left in me!!!! #STILL”</p>
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<p>Tuesday, Neal was asked about the tweet and whether he felt it was directed at him or the relationship between him and Brown.</p>
<p>“I don’t know what you mean by relationship,” Neal said. “I’m his coach, so I have to make decisions what’s best for the team and what’s best for him. I’ve made some decisions. I think everything is fine. I’m not looking back like anything’s wrong.”</p>
<p>He added he wasn’t going to try and interpret what was meant by the tweet.</p>
<p>“I don’t really worry about that stuff,” Neal said. “I’m just trying to coach my team and do the best I can, have a relationship with my guys — meet with them. I met with all my guys the last two days individually. You’d have to ask Elijah that. … You’d have to ask him, and you’re more than welcome to ask him.”</p>
<p>After that news conference and before the team’s Tuesday practice, in which Brown was still working with the second unit, the junior guard declined an interview request, according to a team spokesperson.</p>
<p>Neal added that the recent starting lineup changes — Brown didn’t start in a Dec. 17 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff or in the 31-point loss at Arizona on Dec. 20 — aren’t necessarily a sign of anything permanent. He expressed confidence after their closed door meeting on Monday that big things are ahead for the player who enters league play averaging 16.1 points per game and led the team in scoring in seven of UNM’s 12 non-conference games.</p>
<p>“You say lost his starting job, but I don’t think that’s a long term thing,” Neal said. “… I think he’ll be comfortable in conference. I’m pretty certain he’ll be comfortable. I think he’ll give everything he has for our team. I think he’ll do whatever he has to do to help us win.”</p>
<p>FRESNO STATE: There is still basketball to play, and the defending Mountain West tournament champion Fresno State (8-4) visits the Pit today at 7 p.m.</p>
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<p>UNM has won its past five league openers and is 7-0 when opening MWC play at home.</p>
<p>At the start of Tuesday’s practice, the team gathered at the center of Bob King Court, held hands in a circle and Neal addressed the players:</p>
<p>“It’s 0-0 and we’ve got enough talent in this circle right here to win this thing,” Neal said. “I hope you guys know you’ve got a hell of an opportunity.”</p>
<p>The clean slate approach for UNM isn’t new. They had the same high hopes after December closed with a whimper last year and started 3-0 in league play.</p>
<p>“I think they’re ready,” Neal said. “I think they’re energized for it. Anytime you can compete for a regular season championship, it’s always something you look forward to. And I think our guys are ready for it.”</p>
<p>RECRUIT: Quinn Clinton, a 6-foot-3 combo guard from New Zealand, and his parents were seen at the Lobos’ practice on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The Class of 2017 recruit known for his shooting is on an official recruiting visit to Albuquerque for two days, including tonight’s game.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, Clinton hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final minute and a half for the New Zealand junior national team — the second to give the Junior Tall Blacks the lead for good — in a 57-51 upset win over Australia at the FIBA Under 18 Oceania Championships in Fiji.</p>
<p>He scored a team-high 14 points in the win, which was the first time a New Zealand junior squad had qualified for a FIBA World Championship event.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p> | Lobo coach Neal says everything is fine with Elijah Brown | false | https://abqjournal.com/916553/lobo-coach-neal-says-everything-is-fine-with-elijah-brown.html | 2 |
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<p>The growth of credit to China's property sector moderated in the first quarter, as Beijing imposed new measures to cool the housing market, according to data released by the country's central bank Friday.</p>
<p>The People's Bank of China said total outstanding loans to the property sector rose 26.1% from a year ago to 28.39 trillion yuan ($4.13 trillion) at the end of March.</p>
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<p>However, the growth rate was 0.9 percentage point lower than in the previous quarter, it said.</p>
<p>In the January-March period, a total of 1.7 trillion yuan of new loans were extended to the real-estate sector, which accounted for 40.4% of the total new lending. The share was 4.5 percentage points lower than that at the end of 2016, the PBOC said.</p>
<p>Chinese local governments have recently implemented tighter controls on home purchases in a bid to rein in soaring prices. Banks have also raised down-payment requirements for buyers after a rapid increase in mortgage lending in the past year.</p>
<p>Mortgage loans to individuals declined to 19.05 trillion yuan at the end of March, compared with 19.14 trillion yuan at the end of December, according to data from the central bank. Though the outstanding mortgage loans were higher than a year earlier, growth year over year slowed.</p>
<p>Lending to property development rose to 6.13 trillion yuan at the end of first quarter, up 17.3% from a year earlier and also higher than the level recorded at the end of 2016.</p>
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<p>--Grace Zhu</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 21, 2017 05:31 ET (09:31 GMT)</p> | China Property Loan Growth Moderated in 1st Quarter, Central Bank Says -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/21/china-property-loan-growth-moderated-in-1st-quarter-central-bank-says-update.html | 2017-04-21 | 0 |
<p>The U.S. is now more than six years removed from the worst of the economic recession that followed the Financial Crisis in 2008-2009. The Federal Reserve finally deemed the economy strong enough for its first modest interest rate hike back In December. However, global economic jitters, particularly in China, have now clouded the outlook for future rate hikes.</p>
<p>Is there any real reason to doubt the strength of the U.S. economic recovery? As it turns out, there is.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>According to data from the St. Louis Fed, post-downturn GDP growth this cycle has significantly lagged the recoveries seen following the Great Depression and the economic downturn in the early 1980s. The Federal Reserve may have finally met its targets for a rate hike in terms of metrics like unemployment rate, but the graph below illustrates just how lackluster the U.S. economic recovery has been up to this point.</p>
<p>Related Link: <a href="http://www.benzinga.com/general/education/16/03/6862606/mit-researchers-heres-where-to-look-for-the-next-amazon-or-facebook#ixzz42EzcMUPP" type="external">MIT Researchers: Here's Where To Look For The Next Amazon Or Facebook Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>As the graph clearly shows, GDP bounced back with gusto after the Great Depression and also ramped up moderately after the early 80s recession, the Fed wrote on <a href="https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2016/03/gdp-recovery-after-1933-1982-and-2009/" type="external">its blog Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>GDP growth would have to undergo quite a spike in the next couple of years to put it on par with previous recoveries.</p>
<p>So far this year, economic fears have manifested themselves in the U.S. equity markets. The SPDR S&amp;P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) is down 1.5 percent in 2016, while the flight-to-safety trade SPDR Gold Trust (ETF)(NYSE:GLD) is up 19.3 percent.</p>
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<p>Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.</p>
<p>2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p> | This Recovery's GDP Bounce-Back Is Much Lower Than In 1982 And 1933 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/07/this-recovery-gdp-bounce-back-is-much-lower-than-in-182-and-133.html | 2016-03-07 | 0 |
<p>I'm in a waiting room in a large courthouse in San Francisco. Immigration court. Sitting next to me is Magdalena Martinez. She's here for her mom: Bertha Mejia, from El Salvador. Bertha's undocumented.</p>
<p>In 2011, immigration officers came to Mejia's home in Oakland. There was raid in the neighborhood. Martinez remembers that morning.</p>
<p>"I got a phone call from my sister, Vanessa, saying that immigration had come and picked my mom up. So I rushed to my mom's home and, yeah, she wasn't here," says Martinez.</p>
<p>Here's her sister, Vanessa Madrigal, was there when officers approached her mother's home.</p>
<p>"They came and knocked on the door, so they asked for identification and as my mom gave them the identification she stepped out, and as soon as she stepped out, they grabbed here and arrested her and said, 'Call immigration.'"</p>
<p>Mejia was one of several people arrested that day. That was nearly two years ago. Ever since, she's fought to remain in the US, from a jail used for immigrant detainees that's hours away.</p>
<p>Madrigal says they hope the judge will let Mejia fight deportation from outside a cell and rejoin the family.</p>
<p>"She's the caretaker for Pablo, my sister's son, and for my daughter, Jasmine," says Madrigal. "So, they spent a lot of time with her."</p>
<p>We see Mejia walk into the courtroom, ushered by a guard. She is 54 years old, petite, with curly hair. She wears an orange uniform and has shackles on her ankles and wrists.</p>
<p>There is a lot at stake. Mejia left El Salvador over 30 years ago. All of her family is here in the US: siblings, her daughters, her mom, grandkids.</p>
<p>Her case also is not rare. America's population of detained immigrants has ballooned to more than 400,000 as enforcement tightens. Most detainees are like Mejia: undocumented–but not violent criminals. Critics say there are cheaper, more humane ways to treat these immigrants while their cases are pending.</p>
<p>Rosy Cho is Mejia's lawyer. She says, "I think if the American public knew really what was going on and how their taxpayer dollars were spent–and also that we are spending our energy detaining women with no history of violent crimes, I think a lot of minds would be changed and I think reform what happened more quickly."</p>
<p>In court, Mejia tells her story in Spanish. Judge Anthony Murry listens through an interpreter. She tells how she left El Salvador because of war, poverty and sexual abuse. In California, she has worked as a cook and housecleaner.</p>
<p>Then, in 2005, she was raped by a man whose house she cleaned. It added to Mejia's history of abuse. After the rape, she got a DUI and got caught several times shoplifting food. A psychologist testifies at the hearing that Mejia's crimes stem from post-traumatic stress disorder, arising out of a childhood of sexual abuse and which the 2005 rape exacerbated.</p>
<p>Then, the family waits for several hours in a hallway outside of the courtroom, hoping for a ruling to be issued the same day. Turns out, the ruling comes in a few days later.</p>
<p>The judge rules that Mejia must remain in detention. He rules that she poses a danger to society because of her history of petty theft and driving under the influence—and that she is a flight risk despite her close family ties in California and the persistence she has shown to continue her case.</p>
<p>Mejia's lawyer, Rosy Cho, is also fighting back with appeals. She says Mejia is eager to improve herself. "This a woman who has suffered a lot in the past and hasn't always made the right decisions," says Cho. "Does that mean that we throw her away and separate her permanently from all her family in the United States?"</p>
<p>I talk to Mejia in the courthouse, behind Plexiglass. I ask her about the judge's position, that she'd disappear if let out of detention.</p>
<p>"Where would I go?" she says. "I have children, grandchildren here. I'll try to win my case."</p>
<p>And what if she's deported to El Salvador, after 30 years away? Mejia says she's afraid. She only has distant, ugly memories of the place. Then, Mejia is bused back to detention. The latest news is she'll be transferred to another facility, farther away.</p> | A Grandmother Fights Deportation After 30 Years in the United States | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-08-01/grandmother-fights-deportation-after-30-years-united-states | 2013-08-01 | 3 |
<p>Delta Air Lines said it expects to return to normal operations on Wednesday after a power outage hit its computer systems on Monday, causing the cancellation of more than 1,600 flights over two days.</p>
<p>The company also said about 90 cancellations were expected at the beginning of Wednesday, and normal operations would resume later.</p>
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<p>"We ... are working hard to achieve a normal operation by mid-day tomorrow," Delta's senior vice president for operations and customer center, Dave Holtz, said in an update posted on its website late Tuesday night.</p>
<p>The company said it would extend its travel waiver and its offer of compensation to travelers affected by the cancellations on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Delta, the No.2 U.S. airline by passenger traffic, had said that as of 5:15 p.m. EDT (2115 GMT) Tuesday it canceled about 680 flights, while about 2,400 had departed. That's on top of about 1,000 flights it canceled on Monday, stranding passengers at airports around the globe.</p>
<p>Delta's problems arose after a switchgear, which helps control and switch power flows like a circuit breaker in a home, malfunctioned for reasons that were not immediately clear, according to Georgia Power, a Southern Co unit that provides electricity to most counties in Georgia.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)</p> | Delta Announces When Normal Operations Will Resume | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/09/delta-announces-when-normal-operations-will-resume.html | 2016-08-10 | 0 |
<p>Severe flooding in Japan has forced the evacuation of some 400,000 people today, <a href="http://www.news24.com/World/News/Japan-deluge-400-000-told-to-leave-20120714" type="external">Agence-France Press cited</a> local officials as saying.&#160;</p>
<p>The country's meteorological agency <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/400-000-told-to-evacuate-japan-rain-1.1341323" type="external">today warned</a> that more landslides and flooding is expected to hit the deluged island of Kyushu, where severe weather has killed up to 20 people in the last several days, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18840329" type="external">said BBC News</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/japan-tokyo-ueno-zoo-baby-panda-dead" type="external">Japan: Tokyo zoo's long-awaited baby panda dies of pneumonia</a></p>
<p>Rain pounded the southern island today, with over four inches of water coming down per hour, according to the weather unit, <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/400-000-told-to-evacuate-japan-rain-1.1341323" type="external">said SAPA news agency</a>. At least nine people have gone missing, <a href="http://www.news24.com/World/News/Japan-deluge-400-000-told-to-leave-20120714" type="external">according to AFP</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Weather officials <a href="http://www.news24.com/World/News/Japan-deluge-400-000-told-to-leave-20120714" type="external">told AFP</a> that over 30 inches of rain hit the southern city of Aso in the last three days.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of people on the island and the surrounding southern provinces have been advised to leave the region or go to storm shelters, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18840329" type="external">said BBC</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>The nation has deployed self-defense units to the area to assist with recovery efforts.&#160;</p> | Japan floods: 400,000 forced to evacuate | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-07-14/japan-floods-400000-forced-evacuate | 2012-07-14 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Labor markets tightened across much of the U.S. during the past two months but the growing demand for workers didn't have much of an impact on wage growth, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Fed's 12 regional districts, meanwhile, continued to see "modest expansion" in economic activity, according to the Beige Book, the central bank's regular regional update on current economic conditions.</p>
<p>"Labor markets generally tightened since the previous report," the Fed revealed. In most major cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas, employment rose "modestly to moderately." In fact, a number of districts reported that employers were finding it difficult to find skilled workers, and in some cases unskilled workers.</p>
<p>However, wage growth "remained subdued" in most districts since the previous Beige Book report was released in late summer, the Fed said.</p>
<p>"To the extent that more significant wage increases were observed, they were largely concentrated among highly skilled workers in information technology, health care professionals, professional services, and some of the skilled trades," the report states.</p>
<p>The lack of wage growth points to a problem that's been vexing Fed policy makers for months. While job creation for the most part has been strong throughout 2015, and the headline unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1%, its lowest level since before the 2008 financial crisis, wages have not risen in keeping with labor market gains.</p>
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<p>Economists blame labor market "slack," which they describe as a surplus of temporary and part-time workers who would prefer a full-time job. That surplus of workers allows employers to continue hiring without raising wages significantly.</p>
<p>Weak wage growth has, in turn, helped keep inflation well below the Fed's 2% target range, an issue that has made the Fed extremely reluctant to raise interest rates from their near-zero level.</p>
<p>The strong dollar was cited once again as holding back manufacturing activity and tourism in several districts, while consumer spending grew "moderately" fueled by vehicle sales.</p>
<p>Housing and commercial real estate saw improvement during the reporting period. "Residential real estate activity has generally improved since the last report, with almost all Districts reporting rising prices and sales volume," the Beige Book stated.</p>
<p>Manufacturing, on the other hand, was "generally sluggish." Manufacturing activity in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Kansas City declined in the past two months. Falling demand for manufactured goods from the energy sector was cited as a primary reason for the softness in manufacturing.</p>
<p>The Fed is at a major crossroads as it mulls the timing and trajectory of the first interest rate hike in nearly a decade. Fed policy makers have said the decision will be "data dependent," meaning it will be based on the latest economic reports available to members of the policy-setting Federal Open Markets Committee.</p>
<p>The Beige Book report released Wednesday probably won't reveal any direct clues as to which way the Fed will be leaning when it meets again later this month. The report merely confirmed a number of broader themes, notably the stubbornly weak wage growth that won't go away despite a strengthening jobs market.</p> | Beige Book Offers Few Clues in Rate Hike Debate | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2015/10/14/beige-book-offers-few-clues-in-rate-hike-debate.html | 2016-03-10 | 0 |
<p>American and Russian personnel conducted disaster-relief drills just 150 miles apart in Europe's southeastern Balkan region Thursday — a geopolitical face-off over a country the size of Connecticut.</p>
<p>The tiny nation of Montenegro has this week played host to NATO exercises aimed at preparing for flooding, chemical spills and unexploded bombs. The country — which has a smaller population than Boston — is currently in the process of joining NATO, something Russia sees as an unacceptable symbol of encroaching Westernization on its doorstep.</p>
<p>The exercises have included an American contingent of medics and a mobile laboratory that analyzes chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contamination.</p>
<p>Just 150 miles to the northeast — around the distance from New York to Baltimore — hundreds of paratroopers from Russia and Belarus deployed into neighboring Serbia on Tuesday for a separate two-week exercise entitled "Slavic Brotherhood."</p>
<p>The proximity was likely no coincidence, according to analysts, who said the dueling drills were an attempt by both sides to mark their territory amid <a href="" type="internal">frosty relations between Russia and the West</a>.</p>
<p>"Russia wants to show that it can intimidate NATO ... and NATO is saying to Russia, 'If you show up, we'll be there as well,'" according to Igor Sutyagin, an expert at the <a href="https://rusi.org/" type="external">Royal United Services Institute</a> (RUSI), a London-based think tank.</p>
<p>This was the latest incident in what has become a timeline of rapidly deteriorating relations. Over the past two years Washington and Moscow have exchanged tough words and a series of proactive near misses between their aircraft and ships.</p>
<p>This week's stage — Serbia and Montenegro — were once part of Yugoslavia, a communist state briefly allied with the Soviet Union after World War II. Yugoslavia split after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but Serbia and Montenegro remained the same country until they divided following a referendum in 2006.</p>
<p>Serbia is not a member of NATO but has also held drills with the alliance. However, it has maintained some ties with Moscow, and some Serbs also share the Kremlin's bitterness toward the West after a NATO bombing campaign to end the Kosovo War in 1999.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">U.S.-Led NATO in Spotlight as Europe Pushes Joint Army, Defenses</a></p>
<p>Meanwhile, Montenegro has moved toward the West and is well on its way to joining the military alliance.</p>
<p>The drills this week were not the first held by Russia and Serbia, nor were they the largest by the former Soviet powerhouse. In September, Moscow said that <a href="" type="internal">a staggering 120,000 military personnel</a>took part in a month of drills across its southern frontiers.</p>
<p>But seen through the prism of Montenegro's so-called Westernization, the location of the exercises was likely key.</p>
<p>"I would be very surprised if it was coincidence," according to Tate Nurkin, a defense analyst at global consulting firm IHS. "This is the frontline of the ongoing confrontation."</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Election Cyberattacks: Pro-Russia Hackers Have Been Accused in Past</a></p>
<p>For its part, a NATO official claimed that the decision to stage its disaster-relief exercise so close to the Russians was "in no way a provocative exercise." Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told NBC News that it was only about "allies helping allies in a natural disaster."</p>
<p>Sutyagin, the Russian expert at RUSI, disagreed.</p>
<p>"To say it's a disaster-relief exercise is half true," he said. "There are military and non-military elements involved." NATO said the proportion was around 90 percent non-military.</p>
<p>"This sends a message and I think that's the reason for having these drills so close," he added.</p>
<p>Nurkin said that NATO leaders would be all-too conscious of the ramifications of their choice of venue.</p>
<p>"Any time NATO does something in Montenegro, they will know that Russia will be very aware of it," he said. "Moscow is very resentful toward the U.S. for not just allowing the expansion of NATO but encouraging it right up to the Russian border."</p> | Russia and NATO Hold Dual Drills 150 Miles Apart in Balkans | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-u-s-hold-dual-drills-150-miles-apart-balkans-n677351 | 2016-11-03 | 3 |
<p>An Arkansas judge on Wednesday fined Johnson &amp; Johnson and a subsidiary more than $1.1 billion after a jury found that the companies downplayed and hid risks associated with taking the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.</p>
<p>Judge Tim Fox determined that Johnson &amp; Johnson and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., committed nearly 240,000 violations of the state's Medicaid fraud law or one for each Risperdal prescription issued to state Medicaid patients over a 3?-year period, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/04/11/150425958/judge-fines-j-j-1-1-billion-over-antipsychotic-drug?ft=1&amp;f=1001&amp;sc=tw&amp;utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter" type="external">The Associated Press reported</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120221/william-weldon-johnson-johnson-ceo-retire" type="external">William Weldon, Johnson &amp; Johnson CEO, to retire</a></p>
<p>Each violation came with a $5,000 fine, setting the total penalty at more than $1.1 billion, according to the AP.</p>
<p>Fox issued an additional $11 million fine for more than 4,500 violations under the state's deceptive practices act, the AP reported.</p>
<p>Arkansas sued Johnson &amp; Johnson and the subsidiary in 2007 over the drug, <a href="http://www.4029tv.com/news/30873674/detail.html" type="external">Fort Smith, Ark., TV station KHBS reported</a>.</p>
<p>Previous Risperdal verdicts against Johnson &amp; Johnson include a $327 million civil penalty in South Carolina.&#160;Texas reached a $158 million settlement with Janssen in January, KHBS reported.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/120131/bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-big-pharma-drugs-tropical-diseases" type="external">Big pharma donates drugs, know-how for neglected diseases</a></p>
<p>Attorneys for the state declined to immediately comment about the huge award after the hearing.</p>
<p>Janssen issued a statement to the AP that read, "We are disappointed with the judge's decision on penalties. If our motion for a new trial is denied, we will appeal."</p> | Johnson & Johnson fined more than $1 billion in Risperdal case | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-11/johnson-johnson-fined-more-1-billion-risperdal-case | 2012-04-11 | 3 |
<p>(RNS) — Bob Gersztyn owned a fine collection of 300 rock ‘n’ roll albums in 1971, the year he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Among them were some choice 1960s vinyl from Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Mothers of Invention.</p>
<p>But all of a sudden, this was the devil’s music.</p>
<p>“I destroyed some of them with a hammer and took the rest to a used record store,” he recalled with a laugh. “I think I kept 10 classical music albums that I decided were not anti-Christian.”</p>
<p>Gersztyn retained his love of rock ‘n’ roll, but limited his listening to Christian rock, a genre that was just getting going in the era of the hippie-inspired “Jesus freaks” and the hit Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar.</p>
<p />
<p>He joined a Four Square Gospel Church in Los Angeles, enrolled in Bible college, and became a Pentecostal preacher. He also started emceeing and booking concerts for such Christian artists as Keith Green to 2nd Chapter of Acts.</p>
<p>Today, at age 65, Gersztyn’s religious fervor has mellowed; he rarely attends church and calls himself “an allegorical Christian.” But he has put together his love of pop music and photography to publish an illustrated, two-volume work titled Jesus Rocks the World — The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music.</p>
<p>The book, totaling some 600 pages, traces the history of Jesus music from Negro spirituals, gospel, and blues to its modern-day roots in Southern California with the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard church movements in the 1970s.</p>
<p>It also tells the story of rock and folk stars who had “born-again” conversions, such as Bob Dylan; Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul, and Mary); and John Michael Talbot (of Mason Proffit).</p>
<p>Gersztyn, who grew up in a Catholic family in suburban Detroit, decided Jesus was the answer when he heard a radio account of how guitarist Jeremy Spencer had suddenly quit Fleetwood Mac during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl. It was soon learned that Spencer ran off with an infamous evangelical Christian sect called the Children of God.</p>
<p>Gersztyn, his mind altered by an estimated 100 LSD trips in the 1960s, convinced his girlfriend to head out to Southern California with him to join the Children of God.</p>
<p>“I was smoking pot one day when Jesus appeared to me in a vision,” he recalled. “He told me he was the source of all love, then said, ‘Come follow me.’”</p>
<p>Gersztyn, who wound up joining the Four Square Church rather than the Children of God, became part of an army of young people who went off seeking spiritual bliss after drug-induced mystical experiences in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of them found a home among the counterculture “Jesus movement,” also known as “the Jesus people.”</p>
<p>Today, the music born out of that movement has grown into a huge industry. Estimates of its annual revenue range from $500 million to $2 billion — depending on who does the calculating and what bands are included as “contemporary Christian.”</p>
<p>Take, for example, the mega-band U2. “They came out of the Jesus movement in Ireland,” Gersztyn said. “People think of them as Catholic, but their first albums were sold through Christian bookstores.”</p>
<p>Ubiquitous bands</p>
<p>Today, Christian music includes popular bands like Third Day and MercyMe, and it’s hard to imagine a pop music genre that does not have a “Christian” band.</p>
<p>“There are Christian death metal festivals in Norway,” Gersztyn said. “You have bands that sound like Rage Against the Machine, but they’re singing about Jesus.”</p>
<p>Gersztyn considers Christian country/rock musician Larry Norman, who died in 2008 at age 60, to be the single most important figure in the history of contemporary Christian music. He is remembered for his 1969 Capitol Records album Upon this Rock, and his song Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music, which features the verse, “Jesus is the rock and he rolled my blues away.”</p>
<p>Gersztyn, who now lives in Salem, Ore., said his musical horizons widened in 1987, when he went to see a Bob Dylan concert in Eugene. Dylan, then in his evangelical Christian phase, was opening for the Grateful Dead.</p>
<p>“Most of the people were there to see the Dead, not Dylan,” Gersztyn recalled. “I was still really into the Christian thing, and being a minister, and didn’t want to get too close to the Deadheads because I thought God wouldn’t be happy about it.”</p>
<p>In his book, however, Gersztyn writes that the emotionalism and improvisational spirit that inspires a great Grateful Dead concert is not that much different than the Holy Spirit that drives parishioners to gospel music ecstasy in many African-American churches.</p>
<p>“In both instances,” he writes, “the experience is communal, with the audience or congregation being as much a part of the show as the performers.”</p>
<p>Don Lattin is the author of five books. This article was distributed by Religion News Service</p> | Former ‘Jesus freak’ traces evolution of Christian rock | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/formerjesusfreaktracesevolutionofchristianrock/ | 3 |
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<p>In episode 9 of FactCheck Radio, we debunk false tweets from the political parties on Twitter, and we look at dueling ads in a special election to fill a House seat in Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>(Click the play button below to listen to the podcast. Or <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=363195655" type="external">subscribe to the podcast on iTunes</a>.)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>For more on the stories discussed in this episode, see:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Mis-Tweets on Twitter</a>&#160; April 28</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">A False Hit on Critz</a> April 22</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Another False Tax Attack (And One That’s Just Deceptive)</a> April 21</p> | Twitter, and the Pennsylvania 12th | false | https://factcheck.org/2010/04/twitter-and-the-pennsylvania-12th/ | 2010-04-30 | 2 |
<p>Published time: 5 Sep, 2017 11:31</p>
<p>A teenage law student was found dead in an Ibiza hotel room after five bags filled with ecstasy tablets exploded inside her stomach, an inquest heard, with her mother claiming she may have been forced to swallow them.</p>
<p>Rebecca Brock, 18, was discovered with a pool of blood next to her head in a hotel room after travelling to the island for a friend’s birthday, Nottingham Coroner’s Court was told on Monday.</p>
<p>Spanish police began an investigation after finding that the amount of the class-A drug in her system was “double the level” of a normal fatal dose. When her body was found, the circumstances were suspicious enough for a major crime squad to investigate.</p>
<p>Her mother, Margarita Brock, told the inquest she believes her daughter may have been forced to swallow the drugs. She said her daughter would not have knowingly taken the pills because she was unable to swallow tablets.</p>
<p>“The medical examiner said there had been a bag exploded. The major crime squad were investigating rather than the police because of how she was found.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/239829-legal-highs-policy-shift/" type="external" /></p>
<p>“She wouldn’t take pills easily – I can’t imagine that getting into her body at all. If she did take a pill she wouldn’t do it because she couldn’t swallow it.</p>
<p>“I can’t see any other way than someone making that happen.”</p>
<p>She said her daughter had experimented with cocaine in the past, but did not think she would have taken so much ecstasy at once, according to the Daily Mail.</p>
<p>“She tried cocaine with people she knew and people around her she knew. She said to her sister afterwards that she didn’t like it. So she didn’t have to worry. She was very clear about what she let into her body and what she didn’t.”</p>
<p>Toxicologist Dr Stephen Morley said Spanish authorities had found Brock had died around 48 hours before she was found in her room.</p>
<p>He said traces of alcohol and a ‘potentially fatal concentration’ of ecstasy were found in her body.</p>
<p>“She would have died around half an hour from when [ecstasy] entered her bloodstream […] working on the assumption that she has never taken it before.</p>
<p>“She would probably begin to feel very unwell. There was evidence of an acute MDMA dosage – a potentially fatal concentration. The most likely cause of death is ecstasy toxicity. The level of MDMA was double the reported fatal level.”</p>
<p /> | ‘Five bags of ecstasy exploded’ in stomach of law student found dead in Ibiza | false | https://newsline.com/five-bags-of-ecstasy-exploded-in-stomach-of-law-student-found-dead-in-ibiza/ | 2017-09-05 | 1 |
<p>Pity Chris Wallace.</p>
<p>The Fox News anchor will be the moderator for the final Presidential debate on Wednesday in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>He’s now being inundated by friends, relatives, colleagues, people he doesn’t even know saying — ask the Hillary this, ask the Trump that.</p>
<p>And of course, Chris Wallace will ask what he deems newsworthy.</p>
<p>But if he asks about street crime, he should also ask about corporate crime, which has been widely ignored during the Presidential campaign.</p>
<p>This despite the fact that corporate crime and violence inflicts far more damage on society that all street crime combined.</p>
<p>And guessing that his staff at Fox News does not have a deep file on corporate crime, as a public service, Corporate Crime Reporter presents here some possible questions Chris Wallace might consider asking Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Even corporate crime defense attorneys admit that corporate crime prosecutors at the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission are being starved for funds and that increasing their budgets is the quickest way to deter corporate crime. Would you substantially increase the budgets of the corporate crime police and prosecutors?</p>
<p>Every year, the FBI puts out a Crime in the United States report. Unfortunately, this report for the most part ignores corporate and white collar crime and focuses almost exclusively on street crime. Would you require the Justice Department to put out a companion Corporate Crime in the United States report?</p>
<p>The prosecution of corporate crime in America often ends up with no fault settlements. These include deferred and non prosecution agreements brought by the Justice Department and neither admit nor deny consent decrees brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.</p>
<p>If elected President, would you encourage your prosecutors to require either guilty pleas by the Justice Department or admissions by the Securities and Exchange Commission in cases of serious wrongdoing that involve law violations?</p>
<p>Even in cases of serious wrongdoing that involve law violation, top executives of major American corporate criminals are rarely prosecuted. No top executive from a major bank went to prison in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. No top BP executive in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Would you demand such prosecutions in these types of cases?</p>
<p>More than 4,500 workers die every year from preventable workplace incidents, with 50,000 more succumbing to work-related illnesses. That means that on an average day in America, 13 workers die on the job, thousands are injured and 150 succumb to diseases they obtained from exposure to carcinogens and other toxic and hazardous substances while they worked.</p>
<p>The maximum period of incarceration upon conviction for a violation that costs a worker’s life is six months in jail, making these crimes a misdemeanor. Criminal penalties under federal occupational safety law are inadequate for deterring the most egregious employer wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Do you agree that serious violations of the worker health and safety laws that result in death or serious bodily injury should be felonies like insider trading, tax crimes, customs violations and antitrust violations?</p>
<p>In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky wrote that what man feared most was “taking a new step, uttering a new word.”</p>
<p>Overcome your fears, Chris Wallace.</p>
<p>Utter the words — corporate crime and violence.</p>
<p>Name names — HSBC. Wal-Mart. General Motors. Volkswagen. Wells Fargo. BP. JP Morgan Chase. UBS. Massey Energy. Halliburton.</p>
<p>Be strong.</p>
<p>Will be watching on Wednesday.</p> | If Chris Wallace Asks About Street Crime He Should Also Ask About Corporate Crime | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/10/18/if-chris-wallace-asks-about-street-crime-he-should-also-ask-about-corporate-crime-2/ | 2016-10-18 | 4 |
<p>Two U.S. journalists have been sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp in North Korea for an unnamed “grave crime” and illegal entry into the country. The women were investigating the trafficking of women on the China-North Korea border for a story for Al Gore’s Current TV network when they were arrested in March.</p>
<p>AP:</p>
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<p /> | North Korea Sentences 2 U.S Journalists to 12 Years | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/north-korea-sentences-2-u-s-journalists-to-12-years/ | 2009-06-08 | 4 |
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<p>In the brief holiday rest between the last night of Hanukkah and Christmas Day, America lost one of its greatest spiritual leaders. He was a champion of human rights, a friend to civil rights leaders and a humble sage who managed to work weddings and bar mitzvahs in between fiery sermons.</p>
<p>Word is beginning to spread among the community of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/steve.wasserman.393?fref=ts" type="external">those who knew him</a> that Rabbi Leonard Beerman died Wednesday morning at the age of 93.</p>
<p>He came to Los Angeles in 1949 as the first rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple, which eventually found a home in posh Bel-Air. It was at the temple, at his late age, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, that he told his gathered worshipers, “Our world needs troubled people. … Jews even. Men and women who care. Who are not ashamed to be sensitive and tender. … Who can resist all those, friends and enemies, who seek to prevent us from seeing the utter uniqueness and irreplaceability of our own and others’ souls.”</p>
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<p>Although the rabbi carried grenades through Jerusalem in his youth, he quickly became a pacifist and carried that message through his teachings with unrivaled consistency. That same sermon began, “Another Yom Kippur. … Another 500 children of Gaza killed by the Israel Defense Forces, with callous disregard for their lives.” Some in the crowd were alarmed, but in the end, the rabbi won a standing ovation. It was his first in 65 years.</p>
<p>Those quotes come from a wonderful profile in the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-c1-rabbi-beerman-20141126-story.html#page=1" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a>. The paper reported that Beerman was often in terrible pain, but his mind remained sharp, his spirit humble, his words uncompromising.</p>
<p>The word for “hello” and “goodbye” in Hebrew is shalom. It also means “peace.” As we say goodbye to our favorite rabbi, we honor him by saying there was no greater champion of peace who walked this earth.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Peter Z. Scheer</a></p> | Rabbi Leonard Beerman Fought for Peace and Justice Until the Very End | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/rabbi-leonard-beerman-fought-for-peace-and-justice-until-the-very-end/ | 2014-12-25 | 4 |
<p>Nov. 9 (UPI) — Corporations would have to wait until 2019 to get a 15 percent drop in tax rates under the tax bill the Senate Committee on Finance released Thursday.</p>
<p>Under the Senate version of the legislation, the corporate tax rate would drop from 35 percent to 20 percent in a little more than a year. The House version immediately starts the 20 percent rate in 2018, which <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/09/5-big-changes-in-the-senate-tax-bill-and-what-they-mean-for-you/?utm_term=.aa361b270a88" type="external">the White House backs</a>.</p>
<p>The tax-reform bill also does not repeal the individual insurance mandate under the Affordable Care Act, though <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/359650-initial-senate-tax-bill-does-not-repeal-obamacare-mandate" type="external">that could change</a>.</p>
<p>“There’s been a lot of discussion on that and we’re looking at it very seriously,” Sen. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Hoeven/" type="external">John Hoeven</a>, R-N.D., said, adding that he would like to see the mandate eliminated.</p>
<p>The proposed Senate bill also eliminates taxpayer deductions for state and local taxes, a move that mostly affects people earning more than $100,000 a year.</p>
<p>The Senate bill includes an increase in the mortgage interest deduction, to $1 million. The House version caps the deduction at the first $500,000 of a mortgage. Businesses with large capital expenses will see lower tax rates than the House bill.</p>
<p>The Senate bill also preserves the estate tax and the seven-bracket system; the House reduces the tax code to four brackets.</p>
<p>The House version offers a <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/359529-senate-set-for-clash-with-house-on-tax-bill" type="external">deduction for property taxes</a> up to $10,000, a demand from about two dozen House Republicans from high-tax states.</p>
<p>President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a>, in Asia, phoned in to a meeting of Senate Democrats on Wednesday, telling them the Senate version will be more accommodating to Democratic demands.</p>
<p>“You’re going to like it a whole lot more,” Trump said, two people present at the meeting told the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-democrats-will-like-senate-tax-plan-more-than-house-version-1510177692" type="external">Wall Street Journal</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s comments complicate the GOP effort to present a united front while keeping both versions of the bill on track, with eventual reconciliation. He has praised the House version, so it is unclear if he prefers the Senate bill. Some Republican legislators in competitive election districts have concerns that they will be forced to vote in favor of a bill — and show constituents they approve of their loss of favorite tax deductions — only to have the bill fail.</p>
<p>Gary Cohn, National Economic Council director, said, “Don’t get too hung up on the House bill,” suggesting the White House is more invested in the Senate version.</p>
<p>The unveiling of the Senate bill comes after Democratic candidates won numerous state and local races in Tuesday’s off-year election. The Democratic successes are regarded by some <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/11/08/Democrats-post-big-wins-in-first-nationwide-elections-under-Trump/6181510142797/" type="external">as a repudiation</a> of the Trump administration’s policies. Republicans in Congress, which has not passed any meaningful legislation in 2017, are <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/senate-republicans-poised-to-unveil-tax-plan-republicans-anxiety-rises-over-midterm-elections-2017-11-09" type="external">eager for a success</a> on the tax overhaul issue to impress 2018 voters.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of pressure to do something now,” Sen. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tim-Scott/" type="external">Tim Scott</a>, R-S.C., said.</p> | Senate tax bill delays corporate cut until 2019 | false | https://newsline.com/senate-tax-bill-delays-corporate-cut-until-2019/ | 2017-11-09 | 1 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>Sony's (NYSE: SNE) upcomingSpider-Man: Homecominghas the chance to revitalize the webslinger's big-screen presence, but the company still needs other hit properties to bolster its film wing. With soggy performance for itsGhostbustersreboot likely to thwart aspirations for an extended franchise, attention turns to what might be the company's next hit series.</p>
<p>The Dark Tower, a film adaptation based on a book series by Stephen King, is set for a Feb. 17 release and has some key ingredients working in its favor that could make it one of the most important films in Sony's upcoming slate. If the film comes together and is backed by strong marketing, it could launch the company's next billion-dollar film property.</p>
<p>With marketable stars Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba attached in lead roles and a popular book series to draw inspiration and fanfare from,Dark Towerhas the potential to be a breakout hit for Sony and pave the way for a successful film franchise. Stephen King adaptations have generally not been huge box office successes, butThe Dark Towerseries stands out as especially ripe for presence on the big screen and packs the type of action set pieces, humor, and world building that have been features of the most successful superhero films in recent years. On the acting talent side of things, bothElba and McConaughey are in the midst of career upswings, and the film's diverse casting should play to its advantage -- as has been the case with recent franchise films includingFurious 7andSuicide Squad.</p>
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<p>The Dark Towermight also benefit from its release window.Mid-February isn't typically thought of as the ideal time to release a film that's intended to launch a high-profile franchise, but movies are increasingly finding success outside the summer and winter holiday release windows, and recent hits including50 Shades of GreyandDeadpoolhave shown that Valentine's Day weekend can be huge for movies. It's unclear what MPAA rating Sony has in mind forThe Dark Tower, butFox'sDeadpool released on Valentine's Day weekend andgrossed roughly $780 million despite an R-rating, so skewing a bit more mature with the content probably won't be a death sentence for the film, even if it would limit upper-range earnings potential.</p>
<p>The Dark Towerreportedly carries a $60 million production budget, which is relatively small in today's major theatrical release climate and points to better chances at achieving profitability and an opportunity for a robust marketing campaign without big risk of incurring sizable losses if the picture underperforms. Returning toDeadpoolas an example, the superhero picture's $58 million production budget made it possible forTwenty-First Century Foxto deliver a large ad campaign for a release that wasn't presumed to be a surefire winner, and Sony could enjoy a similar opportunity -- particularly if it's confident inDark Tower's quality and appeal.</p>
<p>To be clear, a very favorable confluence of factors will be needed forDark Towerto reach $1 billion in ticket sales, and that type of performance should not be counted on as a probable outcome or a necessary marker for counting the film as a success, but a strong debut on the big screen would pave the way for sales growth with subsequent installments, helping to transition the well-loved source material into a billion-dollar film franchise.</p>
<p>Outside of its 2017 reintroduction of Spider-Man within the same universe asDisney's Marvel movies, Sony appears to be relatively light on obvious blockbuster film properties -- even more so now that its distribution rights to theJames Bondfranchise have expired. Looking at its announced pictures for the near future, the company is reviving theBad Boysfranchise, with sequels planned to launch in 2017 and 2019, rebootingJumanjifor a summer 2017 release, and developing a Barbiemovie based on Mattel's iconic doll line.</p>
<p>The company was also aiming to revive its Men in Blackseries by way of crossover with the21 Jump Streetproperty, in a mash-up dubbedMIB 23. However, recent comments from prospective star Jonah Hill indicate that the project could be scrapped and the two series kept separate.Other big upcoming films for Sony include adaptations of video gamesUnchartedandThe Last of Us -- series that are very popular on PlayStation titles but video game movies have a troubled history at the box office.</p>
<p>Sony's continuing turnaround effort hinges on building its business around its three strongest pillars: PlayStation, filmed entertainment, and image sensors. While the PlayStation business is booming and has propelled the company's performance ahead ofschedule, progress on the movie front has been less evident, and the company must aim to avoid becoming overly dependent on the volatile video game business.</p>
<p>Unspectacular performance for its movie business in recent years evidences unrealized potential, and turningThe Dark Towerinto a successful franchise would be a significant step in strengthening one of the company's key pillars.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2667&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/keithnoonan/info.aspx" type="external">Keith Noonan Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Walt Disney. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | This Could Be Sony's Next Billion-Dollar Movie Franchise (Hint: It's Not Spider-Man) | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/06/this-could-be-sony-next-billion-dollar-movie-franchise-hint-it-not-spider-man.html | 2016-09-06 | 0 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />GALLUP — Authorities say a Thoreau man is dead after a rollover crash near Gallup.</p>
<p>New Mexico State Police say 20-year-old Tyran Brown was ejected and died at the scene of the Tuesday morning crash on Interstate 40.</p>
<p>Police say it appears the vehicle was traveling eastbound on I-40 when it drove off the roadway and onto the center median. That caused the vehicle to go into a side skid, ultimately rolling over.</p>
<p>Police say alcohol doesn’t appear to be a contributing factor in the crash but Brown was not using a seat belt.</p>
<p>They say an investigation into the crash continues.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Thoreau man dead after rollover crash near Gallup | false | https://abqjournal.com/494814/thoreau-man-dead-after-rollover-crash-near-gallup.html | 2 |
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<p>More than 500,000&#160;hoverboards&#160;are being recalled after reports that dozens of them have burst into flames.</p>
<p>The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday that it has received 99 reports that the battery packs in the two-wheel motorized scooters caught on fire or exploded, causing burns or property damage.</p>
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<p>The&#160;hoverboards&#160;were made by 10 companies, including Swagway and Keenford.</p>
<p>They were sold nationwide from June 2015 to May 2016 for between $350 and $900.</p> | More Than 500,000 Hoverboards Recalled After Fires | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/06/more-than-500000-hoverboards-recalled-after-fires.html | 2016-07-07 | 0 |
<p>A pair of high school football players in Texas were given the boot after <a href="" type="internal">kneeling</a> during the National Anthem prior to a game on Friday night.</p>
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<p>Cedric Ingram-Lewis and Larry McCullough from Victory &amp; Praise Christian Academy, a private school in Crosby, Texas, told their coach of their intent to protest.</p>
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<p>Coach Ronnie Ray Mitchem warned the players that their actions would have consequences.</p>
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<p>“There is a proper time to do something in a proper way,” Mitchem told an ABC affiliate in Crosby.</p>
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<p>Mitchem, according to news reports, is a military veteran.</p>
<p>After Ingram-Lewis and McCullough engaged in their Colin Kaepernick-inspired disrespect for the American flag and the National Anthem, the coach immediately walked over and asked them to go take their uniforms off.</p>
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<p>The players, in the meantime, seemed pleased that their protest drew national attention.</p>
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<p>So this should all be considered a wash, correct? The players felt so strongly about their cause that they were willing to pay the price regardless. And the coach adhered to the rules he had laid down for the players in respecting the National Anthem.</p>
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<p>It’s a tough situation, but everybody should be happy about sticking to their guns, no?</p>
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<p>No, of course not.</p>
<p>Liberals are now demanding that the school be sued, and you can sure as heck bet that they’ll be out for blood with the coach.</p>
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<p>And while one of the players seemed to get it, saying of their coach&#160;“That’s just how he feels,” his mother certainly does not.</p>
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<p>“He has a slave master mentality,” she said. “If you were to go back to that when they wanted to tell us this is what you are going to do and this is how you do it. And if we didn’t comply, we were beaten, whooped or even killed.”</p>
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<p>Beaten, whooped, or even killed? Your kid was kicked off a football team, a sport – a game – that is a privilege to play at a high school where your number one concern should be an education.</p>
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<p>If anything, you should be happy that he was taught a life lesson by his coach.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, Mitchem explained that he holds no ill will towards these players.</p>
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<p>“I want this put on here,” Mitchem said in the interview. “I have nothing against those young men. I love them.”</p>
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<p>Sadly, that isn’t going to change the fact that their parents, along with any race-baiter that can get in their heads, will most assuredly destroy his career. It’s just a matter of time.</p>
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<p>Do you think this coach did the right thing? Share your thoughts with us below!</p>
<p /> | Players Kicked Off High School Football Team After Kneeling During National Anthem | true | http://thepoliticalinsider.com/texas-high-school-protest-football/ | 2017-10-02 | 0 |
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<p>The fighter, with a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder and a Rambo-styled bandanna around his head, is 28-year-old Jordan Matson from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, a former U.S. Army soldier who joined the Kurds to fight the extremist group now holding a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria.</p>
<p>“I’m not going back until the fight is finished and ISIS is crippled,” Matson told The Associated Press, using an alternate acronym for the militant group. “I decided that if my government wasn’t going to do anything to help this country, especially Kurdish people who stood by us for 10 years and helped us out while we were in this country, then I was going to do something.”</p>
<p>Matson and dozens of other Westerners now fight with the Kurds, spurred on by Kurdish social media campaigners and a sense of duty rooted in the 2003-2011 U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq. And while the U.S. and its coalition allies bomb the extremists from the air, Kurds say they hope more Westerners will join them on the ground to fight.</p>
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<p>Foreigners joining other people’s wars is nothing new, from the French Foreign Legion to the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. The Kurds, however, have turned to the Internet to find warriors, creating a Facebook page called “The Lions of Rojava” with the stated aim being to send “terrorists to hell and save humanity.” The page also frequently features portraits of smiling, beautiful and heavily armed Kurdish female commanders and fighters.</p>
<p>Matson, three other Americans and an Australian national who spoke to the AP all said they arranged to join Kurdish forces through the Facebook page, run by the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria and Iraq.</p>
<p>They crossed from Turkey into Syria, now in its fourth year of civil war, before later joining a Kurdish offensive sweeping into Iraq last month. They now are based in Sinjar, where stone homes painted green, pink and yellow have been damaged in fighting and are surrounded by sandbags and piles of rubble. Thousands of Yazidi residents fled into the surrounding mountains last year during the Islamic State offensive.</p>
<p>Foreigners like Matson say they are drawn to helping Kurds, Yazidis and other minority ethnic groups caught up in the battle, facing possible destruction at the hand of extremists.</p>
<p>“How many people were sold into slavery or killed just for being part of a different ethnic group or religion?” Matson said. “That’s something I am willing to die to defend.”</p>
<p>The other Westerners who talked to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing the reaction of their families, who didn’t know where they were, or possible legal troubles if they make it back home.</p>
<p>So far, the U.S. hasn’t banned Americans from fighting with militias against the Islamic State group, though it considers the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers’ Party, commonly known as the PKK, a terrorist organization. The PKK has been fighting alongside the YPG in Sinjar and in the Syrian town of Kobani.</p>
<p>Australians are forbidden by law from fighting with any force outside of the Australian national army. Australia was also one of the first countries to criminalize travel to Syria’s al-Raqqa province, where the Islamic State group has established the de facto capital of its self-styled caliphate.</p>
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<p>The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had no immediate response to an AP query about Americans fighting with the Kurds.</p>
<p>It’s unclear how many foreigners total are fighting with the YPG and other Kurdish forces, though both foreigners and Kurds say there are “dozens.”</p>
<p>There’s a clear camaraderie among the foreign fighters in Sinjar, who mostly travel in pairs.</p>
<p>A number of YPG fighters, many of them as young as 17, joke and tease their new foreign friends, speaking to them in the local Kurdish dialect.</p>
<p>One fighter, 21-year-old Khalil Oysal from Syria, spends much of his time with the foreigners since he can speak English.</p>
<p>“We learn from them and they learn from us,” said Oysal, who American and Australian fighters have nicknamed Bucky. “They speak with us and they like to joke. They share with us many things.”</p>
<p>Western fighters in Sinjar say there is a major drive to recruit as many foreigners as possible, especially those with military training, as many of young Kurdish fighters have little or no experience. The young fighters often pick up weapons and ammunition from dead Islamic State militants. They also have no body armor.</p>
<p>Two of the foreign fighters said they had just returned from visiting an American fighter badly wounded in battle. They said another foreign fighter, a Dutch national, was severely wounded in battle in Syria last week.</p>
<p>“You need to know what you’re getting into,” Matson said. “A lot of times you’re going out, you’re in a mud hut. … You have bullets and a blanket, and sometimes you just have bread, but you need to hold the line.”</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Sydney and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.</p> | Westerners join Kurds fighting Islamic State group in Iraq | false | https://abqjournal.com/536519/westerners-join-kurds-fighting-islamic-state-group-in-iraq.html | 2 |
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<p>November is " <a href="http://www.alarm.org/pdf/alarmawareness/NBFAAAlarmAwarenessMonth_09262003.pdf" type="external">alarm awareness month.</a>" Here in Tampa Bay, a false alarm call may soon cost the owner $500.&#160;Four out of 10 houses in our community now have burglar alarms, add to that the thousands of businesses who have alarms.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.tbo.com/news/MGAOD8JWZLD.html" type="external">From The Tampa Tribune</a>, "Every day, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies respond to about 170 burglar alarms set off by a pet, a malfunction, or a simple human mistake. That adds up to more than 62,000 a year, a figure deputies say is too high."</p>
<p>Nationally, some security experts have guessed that 70 to 80 percent&#160;of all alarm calls end up as false alarms and frequently they are the same offenders week after week. In Honolulu, for example, <a href="http://www.honolulupd.org/community/falsealarms.htm" type="external">the police chief says 98 percent&#160;of all alarm calls are false.</a> <a href="http://news.tbo.com/news/MGAOD8JWZLD.html" type="external">TBO says</a>:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/states/georgia/counties/houston_peach/6505075.htm" type="external">The&#160;Macon (Ga.) Telegraph reports,</a> "The city answers about 20,000 false alarm calls a year, which Police Chief Rodney Monroe says adds up to roughly $2 million in wasted officer response."</p>
<p><a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/143585_calarm13.html" type="external">And the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says,</a> "The Seattle Police Department estimates that it spent $1.4 million responding to false alarms last year alone. The city charges people $125 for each miscue, but the fines don't cover police officers' lost time."Uncollected Alarm Fines</p>
<p>It is one thing to impose a fine for chronic alarm violators, it is another thing to actually collect the fines. Check and you will likely find that there are businesses and individuals who owe hundreds, even thousands of dollars in burglar alarm fines that they have not paid. Again, here in Tampa Bay, there are nearly $1.2 million in uncollected fees, <a href="http://news.tbo.com/news/MGAOD8JWZLD.html" type="external">according to TBO</a>.</p>
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<p>Here is a story from <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/031020drugs.shtml" type="external">the Portland (Maine) Press Herald:</a></p>
<p>Thousands of Mainers are buying cheaper prescription drugs from Canada over the Internet and by mail order, even while federal and state agencies across the country crack down on the practice, calling it illegal and unsafe. Bangor-based Affiliated Healthcare Systems estimates that just under 5,000 Mainers order Canadian drugs through its nearly three-year-old "Canada Rx" mail-order program, while an unknown number go through larger chains ...</p>
<p>With the rapid rise in drug costs, an estimated 1 million to 2 million Americans are buying Canadian drugs in person or through a third party. Canadian government regulations and a favorable exchange rate offer savings of up to 50 percent ...</p>
<p>State pharmaceutical boards have issued cease-and-desist orders to Rx Depot and similar operations in states such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-09-11-rxdepot_x.htm" type="external">In September, USA Today reported</a>, "Rx Depot President Carl Moore said he will fight":</p>
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<p>Ask your local crime labs and cops how many DNA kits they are still sitting on, waiting to be tested. What cases are involved?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_12837008.shtml" type="external">The AP said</a>, "The National Institute of Justice, the U.S. Justice Department's research arm, doesn't have firm figures on DNA backlogs nationwide, but estimates there are&#160;hundreds of thousands of rape and homicide cases waiting."</p>
<p>In Wisconsin alone, AP says, "Evidence in more than 500 cases sat on Wisconsin's crime lab shelves at the end of September waiting for DNA tests that could decide the fates of hundreds of people."</p>
<p>The federal government says it will spend a <a href="http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/492862.html" type="external">million dollars clearing cases in Kansas</a>, and <a href="http://www.krqe.com/expanded4.asp?RECORD_KEY%5BHeadlines%5D=ID&amp;ID%5BHeadlines%5D=1897" type="external">New Mexico has more than 200 backlogged cases</a> awaiting DNA tests right now.</p>
<p>There may be hope on the horizon. Last week, the House's Judiciary Committee approved the <a href="http://www.house.gov/judiciary/highlights100103.htm" type="external">"Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act of 2003,"</a> which contains, among other provisions, $775 million over five years to help crime labs speed up the testing of DNA evidence. It now awaits a vote on the House floor.</p>
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<p>Al's Morning Meeting reader Diette Courrégé, a reporter at the&#160;Bristol Herald Courier, sent an interesting story about how high school teachers are getting fed up with cell phones in class. <a href="http://www.bristolnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=TRI%2FMGArticle%2FTRI_BasicArticle&amp;c=MGArticle&amp;cid=1031771615359&amp;path=/news/l%20ocalnews&amp;s=1054327353277" type="external">The story says</a>:</p>
<p>Class disruption remains one of the biggest arguments against cell phones on school grounds. English teacher Carol Propst said cell phones have become a tremendous problem in the past several years.</p>
<p>She said she knew several teachers who have had students' phones ring during class.</p>
<p>"I think we need to leave the cell phones out of the students' possession (during school hours)," she said.</p>
<p>Virginia High students conceded that the phones can be disruptive during class, but they also said teachers' reactions to the interruption can be fairly harsh and a strong deterrent for those who would turn them on. As examples, they cited a girl who got suspended because her phone rang in class and the likely valedictorian who was prohibited from joining honor societies after he inadvertently touched his phone in class and made it beep.</p>
<p>There is also some concern that with text messaging, students will send test answers to each other.</p>
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<p>We are always looking for your great ideas. <a href="" type="internal">Send &lt;AL &lt;?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = STRONG"Al&lt;STRONG"AlAl</a> a few sentences and hot links.</p>
<p /> | Friday Edition: False Alarms Swarm Cops | false | https://poynter.org/news/friday-edition-false-alarms-swarm-cops | 2003-10-20 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
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<p>Staff members offer impeccable service, serving Champagne to guests waiting to check in and preparing rooms with turned-down covers and bedside chocolates. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., says he’s confident the Trump International Hotel fronting Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks from the White House will be a place for both Democrats and Republicans — no matter who wins.</p>
<p>“It’s not designed to be a partisan hotel,” Trump Jr. said. “It’s a luxury hotel for all of D.C.”</p>
<p>That remains to be seen. Hundreds of people protested outside the hotel during the ribbon-cutting Wednesday. The rally started as a protest demanding that Trump recognize union representation for workers at a Las Vegas hotel, but it broadened into a larger anti-Trump event.</p>
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<p>Trump attended the ribbon-cutting, calling it a “metaphor for what we can accomplish” and taking precious time away from an apparently sagging campaign.</p>
<p>He summed up the project with only a few words: “under budget and ahead of schedule.” And he noted the renovation and operation of the hotel had created hundreds of jobs.</p>
<p>The Trump Organization agreed to open the hotel by 2018 and invest $200 million in it in a deal with the federal government, which owns the site. A Trump website describes the project as costing $200 million, so it was unclear what the “under budget” statement referred to.</p>
<p>The hotel staff appears as diverse as any workforce in America — despite Trump’s divisive remarks about immigrants, Muslims and other ethnic groups. A note atop the Gideon Bible in every guest room states that Qurans and other holy books are available upon request, a standard amenity at luxury hotels.</p>
<p>Trump supporter Brenda Dunaway, at the 263-room hotel with friends for lunch Wednesday, stood in the lobby beneath chandeliers and a soaring glass roof and gave her approval. “It’s beautiful and tastefully done,” she said. “I hope it’s a big success.”</p>
<p>Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric led two celebrity chefs, Jose Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian, to back out of running restaurants in the hotel, but David Burke’s Prime BLT is open in the lobby. Burke was on hand Tuesday night to chat with diners. No second restaurant has been announced.</p>
<p>The five-star Trump International Hotel is located in an 1899 landmark, the Old Post Office, which was in disrepair when the Trump Organization won a bid from the federal government to turn it into a hotel in 2013.</p>
<p>Nina Gardner, a consultant who lives in the area, decided to attend the protest when she heard about it Wednesday morning. “I’m totally against Donald Trump and his candidacy,” she said.</p>
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<p>She has friends who are boycotting Ivanka Trump’s clothing and jewelry line, and she predicted his campaign would “end up hurting his business.”</p>
<p>Rates at Trump hotels have been falling and some residents of a Trump apartment building in New York are trying to have the name removed. But Ivanka Trump insisted all was well as she stood by her father’s side Wednesday: “Our business at Trump Hotels continues to thrive.”</p>
<p>Rates start around $400 most nights but cheapest rooms were over $600 for the night before Trump’s visit. Suites run into the thousands. Some five-star D.C. hotels charge much more.</p>
<p>The hotel’s renovation has been criticized for an excess of glitz and gold leaf — signature Trump decor — while covering up marble floors with carpets and walls with drapes. The Trumps defend the renovation as a mix of old and new.</p>
<p>John Cullinane, an architect who worked on the project early on but left, had been among its critics, but declined to comment when reached by phone, saying the Trumps had sent him a letter threatening legal action.</p>
<p>The hotel’s managing director, Mickael Damelincourt, said the hotel’s prime D.C. location and 300,000 square feet of meeting space, along with the city’s largest luxury ballroom, ensures its success. He said the hotel had already hosted two weddings and “board of director meetings from major corporations,” but declined to identify any of the groups.</p>
<p>A clock tower that’s part of the Old Post Office has traditionally been open to the public, offering views of the city from one of the highest points in Washington. It’s closed for renovations, but Donald Trump Jr. said it should be open by the end of the year and will be operated by the National Park Service.</p>
<p>Rick Tyler, former spokesman for Trump’s primary rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, said that “because it’s in D.C., there’s a layer of political consideration” among potential hotel guests. “But my guess is Donald Trump will lose and people will more or less forget about that,” he said. “Very few will make a decision about staying there based on Donald Trump’s candidacy.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press Television Writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this story.</p> | At Trump hotel in Washington, alternate reality: All is well | false | https://abqjournal.com/875774/at-trump-hotel-in-washington-alternate-reality-all-is-well.html | 2016-10-26 | 2 |
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday afternoon’s drawing of the South Carolina Lottery’s “Pick 4 Midday” game were:</p>
<p>3-9-1-4</p>
<p>(three, nine, one, four)</p>
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday afternoon’s drawing of the South Carolina Lottery’s “Pick 4 Midday” game were:</p>
<p>3-9-1-4</p>
<p>(three, nine, one, four)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Pick 4 Midday’ game | false | https://apnews.com/6c656d81ba5c47b3a0a1239a1f38bceb | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>A man in Thailand this week live-streamed himself murdering his baby daughter on Facebook, the latest example of the use of the social-media platform to broadcast disturbing, violent videos.</p>
<p>The incident highlights the global scale of Facebook's challenge in sifting through live video in different languages and countries largely from its offices in Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The footage of the killing on Monday was up for about 24 hours before Facebook took it down, according to media reports. Reuters reported that the man broadcast two videos, the first of which was viewed 112,000 times, and a second which garnered 258,000 views. The man later killed himself off-camera, the media reports said.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for Facebook Inc. confirmed the incident but declined to say whether users had flagged the videos to Facebook for removal.</p>
<p>"There is absolutely no place for acts of this kind on Facebook and the footage has now been removed," the spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>The Thai live stream is likely to put even more pressure on Facebook to do more to prevent or more quickly take down violent videos. The site has been used as a platform to display a series of violent events in the past year, including the shooting earlier this month of an elderly man in Cleveland.</p>
<p>Facebook came under fire for its failure last week to quickly remove the video, which showed the victim being shot in the head. After posting the video, 37-year-old Steve Stephens went on Facebook Live to talk about what he had done and other alleged crimes. He committed suicide two days later in Pennsylvania following a brief pursuit by police.</p>
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<p>Following the outcry over its handling of the Cleveland video, Facebook said last week that it would conduct a deeper review of how it handles objectionable content.</p>
<p>In a blog post last week, Justin Osofsky, Facebook's vice president of global operations, acknowledged its content-review process was flawed and that it wanted to improve how it allowed users to flag objectionable content to Facebook. Mr. Osofsky said Facebook was also looking into how the company managed and prioritized the reported content.</p>
<p>It is unclear if Facebook changed anything in its review process before the Thai killing.</p>
<p>Facebook didn't respond to a request for comment on the status of the view.</p>
<p>That content-review process could be even more complicated for videos outside the U.S. and Europe such as the Thai murder. The team of contract workers that Facebook has tasked with handling live video reports for now is located in the Bay Area. It works around the clock in eight-hour shifts. It is unclear how the team works.</p>
<p>According to a tally of local news reports by The Wall Street Journal, people have used Facebook Live to broadcast more than 60 sensitive or violent videos, including murder, suicide and rape. The episodes include the beating in January of a mentally disabled teenager in Chicago and a gang rape of a woman in Sweden in February.</p>
<p>Write to Deepa Seetharaman at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 25, 2017 18:58 ET (22:58 GMT)</p> | Thai Man Kills Baby Daughter in Video Posted Live to Facebook | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/25/thai-man-kills-baby-daughter-in-video-posted-live-to-facebook.html | 2017-04-25 | 0 |
<p>Kayleb Moon-Robinson was 11&#160;years&#160;old last fall when charges — criminal charges — began piling up at school.</p>
<p>Diagnosed as autistic, the sixth-grader&#160;was being scolded for misbehavior one day and kicked a trash can at Linkhorne Middle School in Lynchburg, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A police officer assigned to the school witnessed the tantrum, and filed a disorderly conduct charge against the sixth grader in juvenile court.</p>
<p>Just weeks later, in November, Kayleb, who is African-American, disobeyed a new rule — this one just for him — that he wait while other kids left class. The principal sent the same school officer to get him.</p>
<p>“He grabbed me and tried to take me to the office,” said Kayleb, a small, bespectacled boy who enjoys science. “I started pushing him away. He slammed me down, and then he handcuffed me.”</p>
<p>In an incident report, a teacher confirmed that the officer spoke to Kayleb, then grabbed him around the chest, and that Kayleb cursed and struggled. School officials won’t comment on this case, but say that police in schools are crucial to providing a safe atmosphere and protecting against outside threats.</p>
<p>Stacey Doss, Kayleb’s mother and the daughter of a police officer herself, was outraged.&#160;Educators stood by, she said, while the cop took her son in handcuffs to juvenile court. The officer filed a second misdemeanor disorderly conduct complaint. And he also submitted another charge, a very grown-up charge for a very small boy: felony assault on a police officer. That charge was filed, Doss said the officer told her, because Kayleb “fought back.”</p>
<p>“I thought in my mind — Kayleb is 11,” Doss said. “He is autistic. He doesn't fully understand how to differentiate the roles of certain people.”</p>
<p>To Doss’ shock, a Lynchburg juvenile court judge found Kayleb guilty of all those charges in early April, which could prove life-altering.</p>
<p>The young student’s swift trip into the criminal justice system, <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/09/03/17942/kayleb-returned-court-schools-alter-discipline-policies" type="external">which sparked nationwide concern and reform efforts</a>, might seem like a singular case of tough discipline. But he’s not alone.</p>
<p>In fact, US Department of Education data analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity show that Virginia schools in a single year referred students to law enforcement agencies at a rate nearly three times the national rate. Virginia’s referral rate: about 16 for every 1,000 students, compared to a national rate of six referrals for every 1,000 students. In Virginia, some of the individual schools with highest rates of referral — in one case 228 per 1,000 — were middle schools, whose students are usually from 11 to 14&#160;years&#160;old.</p>
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<p>The Education Department didn’t require that schools explain why, during the 2011-12 school year, they referred students to law enforcement. And a referral did not necessarily have to end in an arrest or charges filed, at least not immediately. But by definition, it did mean that students’ behavior was reported to police or courts.</p>
<p>The Center’s analysis found that in Delaware, special schools for troubled kids helped drive up that small state’s rate to second after Virginia. Florida ranked third.</p>
<p>The findings raise questions about what kind of incidents at school really merit police or court intervention, and provide fodder for a growing national debate over whether children, especially those in minority groups, are getting pushed into a so-called “school-to-prison pipeline” unnecessarily and unjustly. What’s happening in some schools seems almost directly at odds with guidance from the US Department of Education. Some of those questions <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/09/03/17942/kayleb-returned-court-schools-alter-discipline-policies" type="external">have been addressed</a> in recent months.</p>
<p>In Virginia, interviews and police records obtained by the Center confirm that referrals of students to law enforcement have eventually turned into thousands of complaints filed in courts, many of them against preteens. The most frequent complaints are for disorderly behavior — allegations similar to those against Kayleb.</p>
<p>Virginia isn’t reliably tracing how many charges in juvenile courts statewide originate with school police.&#160; But some public defenders report they’re handling multiple cases with surprisingly harsh allegations against young students.</p>
<p>In southeastern Virginia, for instance, a 12-year-old girl was charged earlier this year with four misdemeanors — including obstruction of justice for “clenching her fist” at a school cop who intervened in a school fight.</p>
<p>Across the country, a movement away from harsh, discipline is gaining influence, especially in convincing authorities that <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/01/31/14201/new-california-data-show-drop-overall-school-suspensions-expulsions" type="external">out-of-school suspensions</a> are counterproductive. But certain schools continue to allow police who patrol their hallways to serve as de facto disciplinarians, with arrest powers, for all manner of indiscretions that a generation ago would almost certainly have been handled by teachers or principals.</p>
<p>Every so often, headlines flare about school police injuring students <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/31/us/texas-taser-high-school-student-coma/" type="external">with Tasers</a>, or <a href="http://www.khou.com/story/news/local/neighborhood/2014/09/03/student-tackled-by-officers-over-cell-phone-tells-her-side-of-the-story/15040013/" type="external">wrestling with them</a> to take away cell phones. In Green County, Virginia, last October, a school cop <a href="http://wvtf.org/post/child-handcuffed-and-school-policies-questioned" type="external">handcuffed a 4-year-old</a> who was throwing blocks and kicking at teachers and drove him to a sheriff’s department.</p>
<p>What draws less scrutiny, though, is the quiet stream of young students into courts.</p>
<p>For some kids, the process creates delinquency records that stigmatize them at school, and stick with them for years. Judges can order students to perform, as penance, community service, and to check in frequently with probation officers. They can order students to wear electronic monitors, or put kids into detention before and after a hearing. A later slip-up at school, such as using profanity, public defenders say, has sent kids back to court and into detention.</p>
<p>Judge Steven Teske, who presides over juvenile court in Clayton County, Georgia, saw a steady rise in cases from schools when he took the bench in 1999 — with 90 percent involving misdemeanor charges, such as disorderly conduct, disrespect and fighting. He wanted to stop it.</p>
<p>“It should come to no one’s surprise that the more students we arrested, suspended, and expelled from our school system, the juvenile crime rate in the community significantly increased,” Teske said at a US Senate <a href="http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/12-12-12TeskeTestimony.pdf" type="external">subcommittee hearing on school discipline in 2012</a>. “These kids lost one of the greatest protective buffers against delinquency — school connectedness.”</p>
<p>Teske forged a “protocol” limiting arrests at schools, and he’s been urging other jurisdictions to do the same. Last October, he went to Richmond, Virginia, to spread the word with a group of local and state juvenile-justice officials.</p>
<p>That wasn’t long before Kayleb Moon-Robinson was arrested in Lynchburg.</p>
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<p>Lynchburg, Virginia resident Stacey Doss holds her toddler, B.J., while son Kayleb plays big brother. Doss, the daughter of a police officer, is outraged that a school resource officer arrested her son after he left a classroom without permission. The autistic 11-year-old, who is sensitive to touch, was charged with felony assault on a police officer because he struggled to get away.</p>
<p>Charlie Archambault/Center for Public Integrity</p>
<p>In March, Stacey Doss said, she turned down a “plea deal” prosecutors offered to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor assault, but require Kayleb do time in a detention center. Doss didn’t think Kayleb should be in court at all. But now, if she appeals and loses, she’s scared that state law will require that the felony remain in court files forever,&#160; even if public access is limited.</p>
<p>Kayleb is in an alternative school now and has to return to court in early June to hear what the judge wants to do with him. Doss said the judge had a deputy show him a cell, and told him if he gets into trouble again he could go straight to youth detention.</p>
<p>“He said that Kayleb had been handled with kid gloves. And that he understood that Kayleb had special needs, but that he needed to ‘man up,’ that he needed to behave better,” Doss said. “And that he needed to start controlling himself or that eventually they would start controlling him.”</p>
<p>A public defender argued that Kayleb wasn’t intentionally disruptive, but the prosecution argued, according to Doss, that Kayleb’s “mental issues” were insufficient to claim “diminished capacity.”</p>
<p>Kayleb can perform well on academic tests. But Doss had argued last year&#160; with Linkhorne Middle that it might not have appropriate services for him. He’s now in an alternative school the district is paying for that’s more equipped to deal with Kayleb’s difficulty with sudden changes in routine, Doss said. Kayleb said he left class the day he was arrested because he wanted to be with the other kids.Revealing stats</p>
<p>The data that pinpointed Virginia as a hot spot for referrals was collected by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, for the 2011-12 school year, the most recent available. The rights office has the power to withhold funding from a district if investigators find that practices violate students’ civil rights and districts fail to change.</p>
<p>Federal officials didn’t rank states’ rate of referrals. But the Center analysis did, and among the findings are these:</p>
<p>To find out why kids in Virginia were referred, the Center filed public-record requests for police data in communities where parents have complained publicly about harsh discipline. The data reveal startling details about the tender age of some of the children accused of crimes, and a disturbing racial divide.</p>
<p>In Chesterfield County, a Richmond suburb that’s increasingly racially diverse, police data show that officers filed 3,538 criminal complaints against students over the last three academic years, starting in fall 2011. That’s a staggering number for a district of about 60,000 students.</p>
<p>The volume of complaints Chesterfield police filed during the 2011-12 academic year alone — 1,499 — was more than half the 2,548 cases that New York City police filed against students that year. Civil-rights groups protested that New York’s charges were a sign of excess, and New York has about 16 times as many students.</p>
<p>More than half the 3,538 complaints police filed over three years in Chesterfield were for “simple assault” or disorderly conduct.</p>
<p>More than half the students sent to court were black, even though black students are only 26 percent of enrollment.</p>
<p>And almost half of the students issued criminal complaints were children 14 or younger.</p>
<p>Among the youngest were 27 kids under the age of 10 accused of assault, and five children under 10 accused of making bomb threats.</p>
<p>Falling Creek Middle School in northern Chesterfield County had a referral rate of 228 kids per 1,000 — 39 times the national rate.</p>
<p>Chesterfield’s records do show a two-year decline to 951 complaints filed last year compared to the 1,499 in 2011-12. But half of those charges last year were still for simple assault or disorderly conduct — compared to 18 charges related to weapons and 117 charges for narcotics.</p>
<p>District administrators declined to comment, deferring to Chesterfield County Police Department officials to respond. “Their sworn officers serve as school resource officers in our schools and are charged with upholding and enforcing the law,” Chesterfield schools’ communications director Timothy Bullis said in an email.</p>
<p>Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Caroon said not all complaints included an arrest, and not every complaint led to a hearing in court. In an email, she said that some students are “diverted” to counseling or other programs by juvenile court intake officials empowered to decide which go to court. School cops can recommend diversion, or that a complaint go to a hearing.&#160; On the police department’s school <a href="https://www.chesterfield.gov/police.aspx?id=2522" type="external">resource webpage</a>, a message says: “There will be no exception to the practice of reporting violations of the law.”</p>
<p>Chesterfield mother Lelia Grant argues that schools and police are prematurely treating kids like criminals.</p>
<p>In 2013, her daughter, 15, got into a fight with another girl who walked into a class and confronted her, Grant wrote to school officials. Grant’s daughter ended up being charged with assaulting a school staff member.</p>
<p>Grant pleaded with school officials to consider that her daughter was in shock and bleeding because a ring the other girl was wearing had deeply cut her forehead. If her daughter pushed a staff person, Grant wrote, it was not intended to be “a separate vindictive action.”</p>
<p>Grant also pleaded that her child was in college-prep classes and had never been in a fight before. But a week after the incident, the girl was summoned to court and arrested on the spot. “They told her to stand up, take off her sweater and put her hands behind her back,” Grant said. “They held her in a detention hall for a whole day.”</p>
<p>The school never tried to use mediation or counseling in response to the incident, Grant said. The court ordered 40 hours of community service in a church store, and her daughter’s grades slumped because she was removed from school for two months and forced to attend a “dumbed down” night school, Grant said.</p>
<p>“Some laws need to be enacted on behalf of these children,” Grant said. “They need to revisit this zero tolerance stuff.”&#160; In a letter to Grant, a school official justified suspending her daughter because the teen “defied repeated requests … to calm down.” Although officials declined to discuss policing at schools, Bullis said the local school board feels safety is “a responsibility that our parents expect us to fulfill.”</p>
<p>In Virginia’s Henrico County, another increasingly diverse suburban area of Richmond, police said they only began tracking student arrests this school year. In the district of about 50,000 students, records show that in five months, between last September and January, police had already filed 200 complaints against students they arrested.</p>
<p>Four charges were for weapons, one a firearm. The biggest single accusation against students — 78 charges — was disorderly conduct. One-third of the 200 charges were against kids 14 or younger. And even though black students represented 37 percent of enrollment, 77 percent of those arrested and charged were black. Lt. Christopher Eley, Henrico Police communications officer, said, “Our first goal [is] to divert the juvenile from the justice system to the extent possible, consistent with the protection of the public safety.”</p>
<p>Henrico mom Brenda Coles, who is African-American, said a police officer at her son’s school threatened to arrest the fifth-grader this year.</p>
<p>Her son Elijah was one of a minority of black fifth-graders at the Three Chopt Elementary School for academically gifted students. His mom has since transferred him.</p>
<p>Coles accuses a school cop of singling out 10-year-old Elijah last fall. She has asked, in multiple emails to school officials, why Elijah was put into a room at school with an officer interrogating him even though school officials said Elijah hadn’t done anything wrong.</p>
<p>At school, Coles found Elijah with the officer, who was demanding to know if Elijah understood “unwanted touching” and “assault.”</p>
<p>“My son was tormented. He had his head down on a table. He would not hold his head up,” Coles said.</p>
<p>Coles said a classmate grabbed Elijah’s shoulders in the cafeteria and Elijah jerked his arm back and it jabbed the boy. School officials agreed the boys had engaged in mutual “horseplay,” according to a school document.</p>
<p />
<p>Elijah Coles-Brown is a Henrico County, Virginia fifth grader with an eye on academic achievement. His mother said she is angry that a school resource officer questioned Elijah last fall about “unwanted touching,” and accused Elijah of committing “assault” even though school officials found he hadn’t done anything wrong.</p>
<p>Courtesy the family of Elijah Coles-Brown</p>
<p>“He said, ‘If it happens again I’m going to arrest him,’ Coles said. “He said, ‘I do arrest fifth graders.’”</p>
<p>A letter to Coles from Henrico Police internal affairs said it investigated the officer’s conduct and could not substantiate her complaint. Another letter from a school official to Coles said: “Henrico County Public Schools does not direct the decisions of Henrico law enforcement officials, including decisions regarding charges or potential charges.”</p>
<p>William Noel, Henrico’s director of student support and discipline told the Center much the same. School police “are part of the building, they’re part of the family,” he said, but they work for the police department.</p>
<p>“We don’t tell them what to do,” Noel said.</p>
<p>But that stance is in stark contrast to what Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary of education for civil rights, expects to happen at schools.</p>
<p>She’s the top federal education official responsible for ensuring all students’ civil rights are respected.</p>
<p>“If you have police on your campus,” she said, “you need to be clear what it is you’re asking them to do.”</p>
<p>Police should be handling criminal activity, she said, not behavior more appropriately handled by school personnel. There are effective discipline methods schools can use, Lhamon said, and her office is ready to provide guidance and assistance for schools to get funding to train staff.</p>
<p>Just last October, in fact, the department <a href="https://governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/newsarticle?articleId=6911" type="external">awarded Virginia $3.5 million in grants</a> to improve services for students with mental-health needs and to reduce disruptive behavior.</p>
<p />
<p>US Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon says that her office tries to be “very clear in our guidance that schools are responsible for the actions that their school police engage in.”</p>
<p>US Department of Education/Flickr</p>
<p>Lhamon said she understands calls for safety and for order in schools. Demand for school police mushroomed following the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, and has spread after each school shooting since. But she’s also concerned when she hears that school police are issuing a barrage of criminal accusations against students.</p>
<p>“A red flag for us, consistently,” Lhamon added, “is catchall terms, like ‘disorderly conduct,’ that leave too much discretion that is unfettered,” she said. If that term isn’t well defined, she said, then schools leave open the possibility of discrimination against certain students.</p>
<p>In Virginia, according to the national data the Center analyzed, about 30 percent of students schools referred to law enforcement two years ago were special-needs kids — who were only 14 percent of the state’s students. About 38 percent of students referred to law enforcement were black, even though black kids were only a quarter of Virginia’s enrollment.</p>
<p>Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton declined an interview request to discuss the Center’s findings. Instead, she sent a statement emphasizing that Virginia has received federal funds to help address “negative behaviors before students receive referrals.”</p>
<p>“We remain committed,” she said “to equity in the classroom.”</p>
<p>Last August, Lhamon’s office struck an agreement with the Lynchburg district that required its administrators take steps to reduce disproportionate suspensions of black students. Lhamon wasn’t happy to hear what happened to Kayleb after that agreement was reached.</p>
<p>“It certainly upsets me,” she said. “I wouldn't want that for my own daughters. I wouldn't want that for any child I love in school. I very much hope that we can make sure that all of our kids are treated appropriately in school.”</p>
<p>In eastern Virginia, public defender Linda McCausland is also concerned about students charged for behavior she thinks schools and counseling should handle.</p>
<p>Unlike other public defenders the Center contacted, McCausland was willing to speak publicly—as long the precise jurisdiction she was discussing wasn’t named.</p>
<p>One of McCausland’s clients is a 15-year-old charged with assault and sexual battery after she pushed a girl in the bathroom and kissed her. “Sexual abuse, that’s a pretty serious charge,” McCausland said. Another is an 11-year-old with mental-health problems who stole her teacher’s cell phone and was automatically charged with felony theft because the phone is worth at least $200.</p>
<p>“She can’t do long division, but she can get felony theft,” McCausland said.</p>
<p>McCausland believes the problem is compounded by police who she says “pile” charges on kids.</p>
<p>A 12-year-old client went to pick up her cousin at an elementary school, saw a fight and pulled her cousin out of it, McCausland said, and when a school cop grabbed her she swore. The cop charged her with obstruction of justice for clenching her fist, along with trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.</p>
<p><a href="http://law.richmond.edu/people/faculty/jm6hd/" type="external">Julie McConnell</a>, who teaches law at the University of Richmond, is a former juvenile prosecutor as well as a former public defender in Richmond. She said some prosecutors feel obligated to press forward with cases from schools, like it or not.</p>
<p>“Some offices have a no-plea-agreement policy,” she said. “You either go to trial or you plead guilty. I think that's a really unfortunate situation in a few jurisdictions.”</p>
<p>McConnell also said school police don’t necessarily see themselves as mediators at school because that’s not what most are trained to do.</p>
<p>Don Bridges, a school police officer in Maryland, argues that training can correct an overzealous approach to school policing. He is a vice president of the <a href="https://nasro.org/" type="external">National Association of School Resource Officers</a>, a professional group that offers classes to school resource officers.</p>
<p>“As I’m doing my training,” he said, “one of the phrases I always say is when you’re in the building as a police officer, you have to learn to stay in your lane. You have to know specifically what it is that you should be doing.</p>
<p>“As long as there’s nothing where there’s a weapon, something that’s going to cause immediate public harm,” he said, “charging a student within a school setting should be an absolute last resort.”</p>
<p>Lynchburg prosecutors handling Kayleb Moon-Robinson’s case said confidentiality laws prohibit them from commenting on juvenile cases. But before a case goes forward, they said, a juvenile court intake officer must be satisfied that there is “sufficient probable cause” based on an officer’s or another person’s sworn testimony.</p>
<p>Kayleb’s public defender and Lynchburg Juvenile Court Chief Judge Cary Payne wouldn’t comment either.</p>
<p>Lynchburg School Board President Regina Nolan-Sewell, the school district superintendent and the Lynchburg police chief also declined to talk. They sent a statement that school police are trained to work with kids, including autistic students, and get involved “in incidents that are criminal in nature, that have the potential to result in criminal charges, or that appear to place the safety of students and staff at risk.”</p>
<p>Virginia law requires schools to notify law enforcement about incidents that “may constitute a criminal offense.” An “offense code” chart advises that assaults must be referred to law enforcement, but disorderly conduct doesn’t. Charges aren’t required in either case.</p>
<p>In Lynchburg, Stacey Doss said she’s worried her special-needs son doesn’t grasp the judge’s warnings about his behavior, and that he already feels&#160; branded because classmates saw an officer subdue him. “There are people in our apartment complex that make rude comments about Kayleb,” she said. “They’ve talked about how he’s a criminal, how he's been arrested.”</p>
<p>She’s also incredulous that so many resources have gone into putting Kayleb into court. “As taxpayers we should say, ‘Look, I don’t want my money wasted on frivolous issues,’ ” Doss said. “Children are going to argue, children are going to push and shove. That should be handled by the school.”</p>
<p>UPDATE: On Aug. 18, Lynchburg city schools trustees announced an agreement with local police aimed at both preventing the arrest of students younger than 13, and&#160; <a href="http://www.wset.com/story/29836554/lynchburg-city-schools-updates-sro-policy" type="external">keeping school cops out of disciplinary</a>&#160;and behavior disputes at schools.</p>
<p>The law group handling Kayleb’s defense,&#160; <a href="http://vlas.org/" type="external">the Virginia Legal Aid Society</a>, issued a statement Wednesday saying that Kayleb’s family and the law group are “pleased” with the new agreement’s revisions, but believe it “should have gone further” by raising the age limit for arresting school children&#160; to 15 and requiring more specific training for police on disabilities and appropriate “de-escalation” techniques to deal with disruptions. &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>On Facebook, Kayleb’s mother&#160;told her acquaintances that she isn’t “free to go into detail about the judge’s decision as of yet.” But she also said: “I am deeply touched by the amount of continued support and I want to thank you all for showing us that we aren't alone.&#160;Kayleb is doing well and has been thriving through this adversity. I’m very proud of my son and strength he has shown during this time.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/" type="external">The Center for Public Integrity</a>’s Ben Wieder performed the analysis of US Department of Education data. For more investigations into juvenile justice and education issues, follow <a href="https://twitter.com/publici" type="external">@publici</a>on Twitter.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/10/17089/virginia-tops-nation-sending-students-cops-courts-where-does-your-state-rank" type="external">The story was adapted from this</a>&#160;and is&#160; <a href="http://www.revealnews.org/episodes/law-and-disorder-part-1/#segment-from-detention-to-detainment-in-virginia" type="external">featured on Reveal</a>, a&#160;public radio show from The Center for Investigative Reporting and <a href="http://prx.org" type="external">PRX</a>. Check out <a href="http://www.revealnews.org/" type="external">revealnews.org</a> for more or follow them on Twitter.</p> | UPDATE: How kicking a trash can became criminal for a 6th grader | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-04-10/how-kicking-trash-can-became-criminal-6th-grader | 2015-04-10 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Will a more focused GoPro Inc (NASDAQ: GPRO) be a better GoPro?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>That's what management and investors are hoping for after the company announced 200 job cuts, amounting to 15% of the workforce, and $24 million to $33 million in restructuring charges. The big move is eliminating the entertainment division, which never really got off the ground in the first place. Is GoPro now in a better position to succeed? That's the big question facing the company today.</p>
<p>Image source: GoPro.</p>
<p>GoPro has lauded itself as a budding media company since it went public. But it was never actually a media company because it didn't own the content that consumers filmed and put on video and social media platforms. Sure, GoPro was a big brand on those platforms, something management has reminded us of over and over again, but fundamentally, there wasn't a way to make money.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>GoPro, in turn, tried to build a media business, although it never really got off the ground. In doing so, though, it put itself at odds with other media platforms. Why go to a GoPro content ecosystem when other platforms are more widespread?</p>
<p>The GoPro VR app is an example of this. It was a way to house video within the GoPro ecosystem, but it kept GoPro from integrating more fully with better-established photo, video, and VR platforms that others are building. And that may be the opportunity going forward.</p>
<p>What GoPro does have is an industry-leading set of cameras from action cameras to its VR rig. And leveraging that hardware with the leading software platforms to share content is where GoPro should be heading.</p>
<p>The Capture app should be combined with Quik and Splice to make it seamless to offload and edit photos and videos from GoPro devices and upload them to sharing platforms. Quik's sharing feature doesn't even include Instagram or YouTube, a huge weakness for an app built for quick editing and sharing of content.</p>
<p>GoPro could also find ways to partner with emerging platforms in VR to be a preferred supplier. And not being in the media business itself could provide the right incentive to be a good partner with platform companies.</p>
<p>Time will tell if this ends up being the right move for GoPro, but given the company's challenges with the Session camera last year and the Karma drone this year, it may be better to focus on what the company is good at instead of moving into uncharted territory. GoPro needs to let someone else handle building the media empire and focus on figuring out a way to add enough value that media partners will find their devices desirable. This announcement was a step in that direction.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early, in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000138&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable&amp;ftm_pit=6450&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFlushDraw/info.aspx" type="external">Travis Hoium Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of GoPro. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends GoPro. The Motley Fool has the following options: short January 2019 $12 calls on GoPro and long January 2019 $12 puts on GoPro. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | GoPro Finally Giving Up on Entertainment Plans | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/01/gopro-finally-giving-up-on-entertainment-plans.html | 2016-12-01 | 0 |
<p>On April 27, Fox News' website The Fox Nation <a href="http://www.thefoxnation.com/president-obama/2009/04/27/one-group-gives-obamas-100-days-c" type="external">featured</a> a headline that falsely claimed: "One Group Gives Obama's 100 Days a C+." But the "group" mentioned in the NationalJournal.com <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20090424_3204.php" type="external">article</a> to which the headline linked did not assess <a href="#20090428" type="external">*</a> Obama's first 100 days in office. The article instead reported: "In a recent poll by NationalJournal.com, new media experts from across the political spectrum gave WhiteHouse.gov an average grade of C+."</p>
<p>As Media Matters for America has documented, The Fox Nation <a href="/research/2009/04/20/fox-nation-says-yes-again-to-biased-media-claim/149322" type="external">has</a> <a href="/research/2009/04/09/fox-nations-revolt-steeped-in-demagoguery/149058" type="external">repeatedly</a> <a href="/research/2009/04/16/fox-nation-drudge-report-cns-distortion-white-h/149251" type="external">featured</a> misleading headlines <a href="/research/2009/04/02/without-basis-the-fox-nation-wonders-is-obama-t/148854" type="external">not</a> <a href="/research/2009/03/31/fox-nation-says-yes-to-biased-media-calls-frank/148771" type="external">supported</a> by the articles to which they link.</p>
<p>From The Fox Nation:</p>
<p /> | Fox Nation gets an "F" for Obama rating falsehood | true | http://mediamatters.org/items/200904280003 | 2009-04-28 | 4 |
<p>More and more religious schools are failing to meet the government’s minimum requirements, according to the UK education watchdog. Some students are being taught sexist and solely religious texts in lieu of basic math and English.</p>
<p>The Ofsted Annual Report 2016/17 has shone a light on the dank, squalid conditions experienced at some of Britain’s independent religious schools. “There has been a sharp decline in inspection outcomes for other independent schools and in particular schools with a faith. Almost half of faith schools (49 percent) were judged less than good at their most recent inspection and over a quarter (26 percent) were inadequate,” the report states.</p>
<p>“The most basic checks, such as whether staff were suitable to work with children, were not in place,” it revealed. “Perhaps more significantly, in a handful of schools inspectors found instances of sexist and sectarian literature.”</p>
<p>The report also shows that a rising number of religious schools are actively undermining British values in their teachings. Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman told the Daily Mail that in some parts of the country “shared values and tolerance clash with community expectations.”</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/412687-nhs-trans-children-survey/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Of the 977 independent schools inspected, 315 do not meet government standards and nearly half of the below-average schools – 147 of them – are faith-based education facilities. &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Some 33 percent of the UK’s Christian schools, 54 percent of Jewish schools, and 58 percent of Muslim schools make up the 147 facilities that fail to meet minimum targets.</p>
<p>Spielman told the Evening Standard that, in some extreme cases, students are being taught oppressive and sexist values at the expense of a traditional education. “When I see books in schools entitled ‘Women Who Deserve To Go To Hell,’ children being educated in dank, squalid conditions, children being taught solely religious texts at the expense of learning basic English and mathematics, I cannot let it be ignored,” she said.</p>
<p>“We have a proud tradition in this country of respecting religious freedom. But there are occasions when multiculturalism can and does comes into tension with the expectation that students should be prepared for life in modern Britain.”</p>
<p>The annual report reveals that one of the schools deemed “unacceptable” is the Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham. “The recent case of Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham showed that an ethos that completely segregates children in school and that spreads discriminatory views about women is unacceptable. The fact that this reflects a cultural norm in that community does not mean that children can be disadvantaged in their education,” it states.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/412958-transgender-curriculum-books-uniform/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Not only is Ofsted targeting schools deviating from a traditional basic education or teaching repressive values, the education watchdog is taking on “illegal schools” – but Spielman says that greater legislative powers are needed to take on the issue.</p>
<p>“Current legislation is inadequate to tackle unregistered schools,” Spielman said. “It limits our powers to tackle them and allows institutions to exploit loopholes about definitions of education.”</p>
<p>Since January 2016, Ofsted has identified 291 potential facilities which may be unregistered. Approximately 125 inspections have taken place, 38 warning notices were issued, and 34 illegal schools have been closed or have stopped operating illegally. The report says that the remaining cases remain under investigation.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the Department for Education said laws have been changed to prevent extremism in schools, promoting mutual respect and tolerance of those with opposing beliefs.</p>
<p>“We changed the law and the requirements on schools so that they have to actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and the mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs,” they said.</p>
<p>“It is absolutely right that Ofsted reports on schools that fail to protect children or fail in any other way to meet the standards we expect, so that we can take action to ensure they adhere to the law. &#160;Any independent school that does not comply with the independent school standards must either improve or we will close it down.</p>
<p>“We always support Ofsted, local authorities and the police in tackling unregistered schools, which are illegal and unsafe.”</p> | Sexism, segregation, squalor: Religious schools are undermining British values, says regulator | false | https://newsline.com/sexism-segregation-squalor-religious-schools-are-undermining-british-values-says-regulator/ | 2017-12-14 | 1 |
<p>WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — SMU coach Tim Jankovich said his Mustangs would have to be “near perfect” to have a chance against No. 7 Wichita State.</p>
<p>Shake Milton gave Jankovich that and more.</p>
<p>“Might have been better than perfect,” Jankovich said.</p>
<p>Milton scored a career-high 33 points on 11-of-14 shooting to lead the Mustangs to an 83-78 victory, snapping the Shockers’ 27-game winning streak at Koch Arena on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“I don’t know how you play better than that,” Jankovich said. “Shake controlled the game, not just scoring in bunches. He had control of everything.”</p>
<p>SMU (13-6, 3-3 American Athletic Conference) had lost three straight, not winning since Dec. 31. It was the Mustangs’ first road win against a top-10 team since Jan. 16, s1982 at No. 10 Houston.</p>
<p>Wichita State (15-3, 5-1) had won 67 of 68 at Koch Arena.</p>
<p>“I think we need to be desperate every game right now,” said Milton, who was 5 of 6 from beyond the arc. “But knowing it would be an environment like this, that the fans would be crazy, was motivation.”</p>
<p>Jahmal McMurray scored 16 points for the Mustangs, who shot 63.8 percent. Ethan Chargois had 12 points, and Ben Emelogu added 10.</p>
<p>Landry Shamet led the Shockers with 20 points and 10 assists, and Shaquille Morris scored 17. Darral Willis scored 12 points off the bench, and Conner Frankamp added 11.</p>
<p>Wichita State rallied after trailing 70-57 with 4:33 remaining to make it a one-possession game twice in the final minute.</p>
<p>Like much of the game, the Mustangs made shots when it mattered.</p>
<p>“In the end, they really had tremendous playmakers that made great plays,” Shockers coach Gregg Marshall said. “They kept throwing dagger, dagger, dagger. We would get it down to four or three, and they would hit another big shot.”</p>
<p>The Mustangs rarely use a zone defense, but Jankovich had them employ one the entire game. They also had personnel issues to overcome. Jarrey Foster, the Mustangs’ second-leading scorer, did not return after getting injured less than six minutes into the game.</p>
<p>By the 10-minute mark of the second half, Emelogu and Chargois each had four fouls.</p>
<p>SMU found a way to hang on with some stellar individual plays. Each team had 30 field goals, but the Mustangs had just 10 assists — 14 fewer than Wichita State.</p>
<p>“I thought our execution was excellent,” Jankovich said.</p>
<p>Marshall gave credit to a “better game plan.”</p>
<p>“They tried to score early and, if not, they held the ball and ran clock,” Marshall said. “And with the zone, they wanted to shorten the game. And it worked.”</p>
<p>HOME STATE VIBES</p>
<p>McMurray had not scored in double figures in any of the three January games before reaching that mark by halftime Wednesday. He had 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting in the first half, hitting both of his 3-pointers.</p>
<p>McMurray is from Topeka and also attended Sunrise Christian Academy Prep School in Wichita before playing two seasons at South Florida.</p>
<p>BOUNCE, BOUNCE</p>
<p>In another way to shorten the game, the Mustangs would often let the ball bounce around after Wichita State made shots. That forced a Shocker or a referee to retrieve the ball as the clock ran.</p>
<p>“It felt like we lost two minutes just to that,” Marshall said.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>SMU: The Mustangs could turn their season on this victory, and it will go down as a signature performance for Milton.</p>
<p>Wichita State: The Shockers suffered their first conference loss with a rare lackluster show from their defense.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>SMU: Hosts Tulane on Saturday.</p>
<p>Wichita State: Plays at Houston on Saturday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — SMU coach Tim Jankovich said his Mustangs would have to be “near perfect” to have a chance against No. 7 Wichita State.</p>
<p>Shake Milton gave Jankovich that and more.</p>
<p>“Might have been better than perfect,” Jankovich said.</p>
<p>Milton scored a career-high 33 points on 11-of-14 shooting to lead the Mustangs to an 83-78 victory, snapping the Shockers’ 27-game winning streak at Koch Arena on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“I don’t know how you play better than that,” Jankovich said. “Shake controlled the game, not just scoring in bunches. He had control of everything.”</p>
<p>SMU (13-6, 3-3 American Athletic Conference) had lost three straight, not winning since Dec. 31. It was the Mustangs’ first road win against a top-10 team since Jan. 16, s1982 at No. 10 Houston.</p>
<p>Wichita State (15-3, 5-1) had won 67 of 68 at Koch Arena.</p>
<p>“I think we need to be desperate every game right now,” said Milton, who was 5 of 6 from beyond the arc. “But knowing it would be an environment like this, that the fans would be crazy, was motivation.”</p>
<p>Jahmal McMurray scored 16 points for the Mustangs, who shot 63.8 percent. Ethan Chargois had 12 points, and Ben Emelogu added 10.</p>
<p>Landry Shamet led the Shockers with 20 points and 10 assists, and Shaquille Morris scored 17. Darral Willis scored 12 points off the bench, and Conner Frankamp added 11.</p>
<p>Wichita State rallied after trailing 70-57 with 4:33 remaining to make it a one-possession game twice in the final minute.</p>
<p>Like much of the game, the Mustangs made shots when it mattered.</p>
<p>“In the end, they really had tremendous playmakers that made great plays,” Shockers coach Gregg Marshall said. “They kept throwing dagger, dagger, dagger. We would get it down to four or three, and they would hit another big shot.”</p>
<p>The Mustangs rarely use a zone defense, but Jankovich had them employ one the entire game. They also had personnel issues to overcome. Jarrey Foster, the Mustangs’ second-leading scorer, did not return after getting injured less than six minutes into the game.</p>
<p>By the 10-minute mark of the second half, Emelogu and Chargois each had four fouls.</p>
<p>SMU found a way to hang on with some stellar individual plays. Each team had 30 field goals, but the Mustangs had just 10 assists — 14 fewer than Wichita State.</p>
<p>“I thought our execution was excellent,” Jankovich said.</p>
<p>Marshall gave credit to a “better game plan.”</p>
<p>“They tried to score early and, if not, they held the ball and ran clock,” Marshall said. “And with the zone, they wanted to shorten the game. And it worked.”</p>
<p>HOME STATE VIBES</p>
<p>McMurray had not scored in double figures in any of the three January games before reaching that mark by halftime Wednesday. He had 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting in the first half, hitting both of his 3-pointers.</p>
<p>McMurray is from Topeka and also attended Sunrise Christian Academy Prep School in Wichita before playing two seasons at South Florida.</p>
<p>BOUNCE, BOUNCE</p>
<p>In another way to shorten the game, the Mustangs would often let the ball bounce around after Wichita State made shots. That forced a Shocker or a referee to retrieve the ball as the clock ran.</p>
<p>“It felt like we lost two minutes just to that,” Marshall said.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>SMU: The Mustangs could turn their season on this victory, and it will go down as a signature performance for Milton.</p>
<p>Wichita State: The Shockers suffered their first conference loss with a rare lackluster show from their defense.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>SMU: Hosts Tulane on Saturday.</p>
<p>Wichita State: Plays at Houston on Saturday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Milton scores 33, lifts SMU over No. 7 Wichita State 83-78 | false | https://apnews.com/607508401cba43a1a9eddd5d91ec42ba | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Serena Williams lost in her return to tennis after giving birth in September, beaten by French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in an exhibition Saturday and still unsure if she will defend her Australian Open title.</p>
<p>Williams called it a "wonderful" match despite the defeat — she took the second set in a score of 6-2, 3-6 and 10-5 in a super tiebreaker.</p>
<p>The Australian Open, the year's first Grand Slam tournament, begins Jan. 15.</p>
<p>"I don't know if I am totally ready to come back on the tour yet. I know that when I come back I definitely want to be competing for championships. I am definitely looking forward to getting back out there," Williams said.</p>
<p>"I am taking it one day at a time. I am going to assess everything with my team before deciding."</p>
<p>The 36-year-old Williams took time off after winning the Australian Open last January while pregnant. She gave birth to her first child, a girl named Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., on Sept. 1. She married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in November.</p>
<p>Williams struggled with her serve in the 67-minute match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. But, after nearly a year away from the game, she did win a set against the world's No. 7 player</p>
<p>"I don't think I am going to rate my performance," Williams said. "I have plenty of comebacks, from injuries, from surgeries, but I've never had a comeback after actually giving birth to a human being. So, in my eyes, I feel it was a wonderful, wonderful match for me."</p>
<p>Williams insisted she has a lot more tennis to play.</p>
<p>"Knowing that I have won 23 Grand Slam titles and several other titles, I don't think I have anything more left to prove," she said. "But I am not done yet."</p>
<p>Williams won her opening game, breaking Ostapenko. But she was nowhere near her best in the first set before fighting back and winning the second.</p>
<p>After the initial break, Ostapenko latched onto Williams' weak serves and capitalized on several unforced errors to go up 4-1 with two breaks.</p>
<p>Williams again struggled with her serve in the second set. But she went ahead 3-0 with a couple of early breaks and hit with more confidence, including several crowd-pleasing double-handed passing shots. Another break in the ninth game gave her the set.</p>
<p>"In the beginning, it felt a little tough. But as the match moved on, I was less afraid. I knew I was not going to fall over and break," she said. "The more I played, the more confident I felt that I would be able to go for shots that I was afraid to go for in the first set."</p>
<p>In the super tiebreaker, Ostapenko raced to an 8-2 lead before halting a brief recovery by Williams.</p>
<p>"For me, it is all about physical, how I am feeling physically. ... I am just proud being out here and playing in Abu Dhabi and to be able to just compete," Williams said. "I have had a tough few months and I am just excited to be able to play again."</p>
<p>It was the first time a women's match had been played in the traditionally men's only exhibition.</p>
<p>U.S. Open runner-up Kevin Anderson defeated Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 7-6 (0) in the men's final. The 14th-ranked Anderson immediately broke Bautista Agut and was never in danger of losing serve in the first set.</p>
<p>In the second set, Bautista Agut broke in the second game, but the South African broke back immediately. An aggressive Anderson swept the tiebreaker.</p>
<p>ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Serena Williams lost in her return to tennis after giving birth in September, beaten by French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in an exhibition Saturday and still unsure if she will defend her Australian Open title.</p>
<p>Williams called it a "wonderful" match despite the defeat — she took the second set in a score of 6-2, 3-6 and 10-5 in a super tiebreaker.</p>
<p>The Australian Open, the year's first Grand Slam tournament, begins Jan. 15.</p>
<p>"I don't know if I am totally ready to come back on the tour yet. I know that when I come back I definitely want to be competing for championships. I am definitely looking forward to getting back out there," Williams said.</p>
<p>"I am taking it one day at a time. I am going to assess everything with my team before deciding."</p>
<p>The 36-year-old Williams took time off after winning the Australian Open last January while pregnant. She gave birth to her first child, a girl named Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., on Sept. 1. She married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in November.</p>
<p>Williams struggled with her serve in the 67-minute match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. But, after nearly a year away from the game, she did win a set against the world's No. 7 player</p>
<p>"I don't think I am going to rate my performance," Williams said. "I have plenty of comebacks, from injuries, from surgeries, but I've never had a comeback after actually giving birth to a human being. So, in my eyes, I feel it was a wonderful, wonderful match for me."</p>
<p>Williams insisted she has a lot more tennis to play.</p>
<p>"Knowing that I have won 23 Grand Slam titles and several other titles, I don't think I have anything more left to prove," she said. "But I am not done yet."</p>
<p>Williams won her opening game, breaking Ostapenko. But she was nowhere near her best in the first set before fighting back and winning the second.</p>
<p>After the initial break, Ostapenko latched onto Williams' weak serves and capitalized on several unforced errors to go up 4-1 with two breaks.</p>
<p>Williams again struggled with her serve in the second set. But she went ahead 3-0 with a couple of early breaks and hit with more confidence, including several crowd-pleasing double-handed passing shots. Another break in the ninth game gave her the set.</p>
<p>"In the beginning, it felt a little tough. But as the match moved on, I was less afraid. I knew I was not going to fall over and break," she said. "The more I played, the more confident I felt that I would be able to go for shots that I was afraid to go for in the first set."</p>
<p>In the super tiebreaker, Ostapenko raced to an 8-2 lead before halting a brief recovery by Williams.</p>
<p>"For me, it is all about physical, how I am feeling physically. ... I am just proud being out here and playing in Abu Dhabi and to be able to just compete," Williams said. "I have had a tough few months and I am just excited to be able to play again."</p>
<p>It was the first time a women's match had been played in the traditionally men's only exhibition.</p>
<p>U.S. Open runner-up Kevin Anderson defeated Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 7-6 (0) in the men's final. The 14th-ranked Anderson immediately broke Bautista Agut and was never in danger of losing serve in the first set.</p>
<p>In the second set, Bautista Agut broke in the second game, but the South African broke back immediately. An aggressive Anderson swept the tiebreaker.</p> | Serena loses in exhibition comeback after giving birth | false | https://apnews.com/amp/6f6a1414b0f7458dafedab2067ab4c2a | 2017-12-30 | 2 |
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<p>FRESNO, Calif. – The New Mexico Lobos, as only they can, proved again Wednesday night that there is a very fine line between being a nationally ranked, first-place team in the Mountain West Conference and being the team sitting at the bottom.</p>
<p>Keyed by timely steals and hard-nosed defense down the stretch, the Lobos allowed only one basket in the final 10 minutes, 3 seconds of the game and beat the Fresno State Bulldogs 54-48 in front of a generously announced turnout of 8,241 in the Save Mart Center.</p>
<p>After erasing an 11-point halftime deficit, the Lobos (21-4, 8-2 in the Mountain West) remain alone in first place in the league standings despite Colorado State’s home win over San Diego State, improving the Rams to 20-4 and 7-2 in league games.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“They just find a way,” New Mexico head coach Steve Alford said, shaking his head trying to explain his team’s good fortune as he has after several close games this season.</p>
<p>“They shoot 37 percent and win a road game. … They just find ways to win and make big shots when they need to.”</p>
<p>It looked like it would be a laugher early on as Fresno State (8-15, 2-8) started slow.</p>
<p>A Demetrius Walker jumper with 8:12 remaining in the first half put UNM up 16-9, and everything seemed to be going the way of the first-place Lobos.</p>
<p>But that was the final basket of the half for UNM (the Lobos did hit four free throws) and Fresno State caught fire on offense, closing the half out on a 22-4 run. The Bulldogs held a 31-20 halftime lead.</p>
<p>“We had a really bad eight-minute stretch where we didn’t make any shots, and I thought we were soft defensively,” Alford said.</p>
<p>The Lobo’s offensive woes – they hit just 7-of-27 shots (25.9 percent) in the first half – brought back bad memories of losses at San Diego State and Saint Louis that featured long scoring droughts.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t really a basketball game,” UNM sophomore point guard Hugh Greenwood said. “I don’t know how to describe it. To be up seven, then come into the half down 11. It’s deflating.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But UNM, which was actually down by 13 in the first half, managed to erase a double-digit second-half deficit for the fourth time this season by getting back to a defense-first mindset.</p>
<p>“The guys, the players deserve the credit,” Alford said. “The players got the job done in the second half. You’re down 11 on the road at half, and you play the way we played in the second half, it was outstanding.”</p>
<p>A Tony Snell 3-pointer with 16:33 left capped a 7-0 run for UNM out of the break, cutting the Fresno State lead to 33-27. By the 14-minute mark, the Lobos had it down to 35-33.</p>
<p>They didn’t take their first lead of the second half until a Kendall Williams dunk, off a beautiful back-door pass from Snell, with 11:07 remaining to go up 41-40.</p>
<p>Then Fresno answered with a 5-0 run capped by an Aaron Anderson 3-pointer with 10:03 remaining to put the Bulldogs up 45-41.</p>
<p>“It’s the definition of chipping away,” Greenwood said. “We’d score five points, they’d score four points. We were slowly, slowly chipping away.”</p>
<p>After the Anderson 3-pointer, FSU hit only one more shot – a Kevin Olekaibe 3-pointer – in the final 10 minutes of the game.</p>
<p>A Cameron Bairstow dunk with 1:29 remaining put UNM up for good at 49-48, and the Lobos executed at every turn in the closing minute.</p>
<p>Sophomore center Alex Kirk had 10 points, nine rebounds and a career-high six blocked shots. Bairstow added 10 boards. Williams had a team-high 13 points and five assists. Greenwood had seven points, three assists, five rebounds and three steals, including two off inbounds plays, the last with 6.2 seconds left, as Fresno State trailed 52-48.</p>
<p>Instead, Greenwood stole the ball, passed up court to Williams for a dunk and an exclamation point.</p>
<p>Fresno State was held to 32.7 percent shooting (18-of-55). Olekaibe led all Bulldogs with 11 points, and Kevin Foster came off the bench with 10 points and 10 rebounds.</p>
<p>WALKER INJURED: UNM junior guard Demetrius Walker hurt his left knee late in the first half and did not return to the game. He had five points in seven minutes of play. Alford said he is still unsure the extent of the injury.</p>
<p>Walker walked out of the locker room on his own power, albeit with a noticeable limp.</p>
<p>LOBOS LINKS: <a href="" type="internal">Roster</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Schedule/Results</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Geoff Grammer’s blog</a></p>
<p>— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Lobos rally from down 13 to beat Fresno State | false | https://abqjournal.com/168807/unm-beats-fresno-state.html | 2 |
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<p>Menachem Kaiser grew up in Toronto, eating bagels. Lots of bagels.</p>
<p>“Breakfast, you eat a bagel.” His Orthodox Jewish high school served them for breakfast every morning. &#160;</p>
<p>After he graduated high school, he went to Columbia University in New York, where he ate more bagels. Life was good. Then he got a Fulbright scholarship and left the States for Vilnius, Lithuania, only to discover there weren't&#160;any bagels.</p>
<p>"There [was] a dearth of bagels. There [was] like a bagel famine," he says.</p>
<p>What was really shocking to him was that no one there knew anything about bagels.</p>
<p>“There was just nothing bagel anywhere,” he says.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Kaiser’s research took a carbo turn. He learned that while the bagel wasn’t born in Lithuania, it definitely grew up in the neighborhood. It was parboiled into life in Poland and spread throughout Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.</p>
<p>“You see photos from Poland, from Lithuania. The marketplaces would make a long string of bagels — they called it a ‘wreath of bagels,’" he says. "They’d just run a string right through the holes and dangle them in the marketplace.”</p>
<p>All that ended with World War II. Lithuania’s Jewish population was decimated. Before the war, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Jews" type="external">Vilnius was 45 percent Jewish</a>. Today, it’s <a href="http://www.indexmundi.com/lithuania/demographics_profile.html" type="external">less than 1 percent</a>. &#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Most of its Jewish culture was erased, which meant, among other things, no bagels.</p>
<p>That last bit gnawed at Menachem Kaiser. One night, after a few drinks with his American roommate, Jake Levine, and some Lithuanian friends, he had an epiphany — they should make their own bagels.</p>
<p>The Lithuanians took up the idea with a holy zeal, plastering the city with posters announcing the first bagel party. A local restaurant donated space for the night. It was on.</p>
<p>Just one problem, though: No one knew how to make bagels.</p>
<p />
<p>Jake Levine forming dough into bagel. Menachem and Jake’s apartment, October 14, 2010.</p>
<p>Andrew Miksys</p>
<p>“There was a lot of scary moments in the bagel making process,” Kaiser says.</p>
<p>And the bagels didn’t rise very well.</p>
<p>“They were kind of flat, a bit like a pancake with a hole,” says Elena Narbutaite, one of the Lithuanian friends who helped make it all happen.</p>
<p />
<p>Boiling bagels in Yalta Restaurant, October 15, 2010.</p>
<p>Andrew Miksys</p>
<p>The party itself was a big success. Hundreds of people came, including diplomats from the American Embassy and Lithuanian celebrities. The local press covered the event. The bagels were gone in minutes.</p>
<p>“We were filled with joy because finally bagels were brought back,” Narbutaite says.</p>
<p />
<p>Menachem Kaiser and Jake Levine, October 15, 2010, at the first Vilnius Bagel Project public event and presentation. Menachem and Jake explaining the history of bagels and how to prepare and eat a bagel.</p>
<p>Andrew Miksys</p>
<p>Menachem Kaiser and his friends continued to hold bagel events throughout the year. After he went home to the US, he wrote up the story of his Lithuanian bagel adventure for <a href="http://tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/47869/holey-mission" type="external">Tablet Magazine</a>.</p>
<p>“Very cute, very just like, ‘we came to Lithuania, we made bagels, and everyone loved our bagels.’ That was it,” Kaiser says.</p>
<p />
<p>When Menachem Kaiser and friends held their first bagel party in Vilnius, the bagels disappeared in minutes.</p>
<p>Andrew Miksys</p>
<p>What’s not to love, right? But that’s when things took a really dark turn.</p>
<p>“We got <a href="http://tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/47869/holey-mission#comments" type="external">a comment</a> from … Efriam Zuroff, who is the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel, who is by all accounts is the world’s most prominent Nazi hunter, and he was very upset,” Kaiser says.</p>
<p>In his comment, Zuroff wrote that given Lithuania’s “ongoing efforts” to hide or minimize their complicity in Holocaust crimes, “one would imagine that two obviously-intelligent Jewish Fulbright scholars in Lithuania there to study contemporary Jewish issues, would be able to come up with something more meaningful than reintroducing Lithuanians to bagels.”</p>
<p>Kaiser, who was upset by the comments, says he wrote Zuroff an open letter, and Zuroff responded.</p>
<p>“At the time I was very worked up and kind of panicky about it, but in retrospect I think it’s an interesting debate,” Kaiser says. “For me, I think this is a positive development: Let’s everyone eat bagels together. It’s kind of like a safe space to re-enter a lot of complicated, messed up history. But here’s the bagel.”</p>
<p>Kaiser has moved on to <a href="http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2013/5/13/c20kl7erctbwu78y8myjyiirt7nxga#.VXsC6eJS3l8" type="external">other projects</a>. But Elena Narbutaite kept perfecting her bagel-making skills in Vilnius.</p>
<p>“It just clicked in my mind that I could try to sell them,” she says. “It started really like black market bagel selling, like illegally, you know, popping out at courtyards or parties in the middle of the night.”</p>
<p>She’s since gone legit, selling her bagels on Sundays at Café de Paris.</p>
<p>Now, a bagel renaissance is under way. Last December, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HalesBistro" type="external">Hales Bistro</a>, a bagel café, opened in Vilnius’s Old Town. This year, they began supplying the Jewish Cultural Center with bagels for their own new café.</p>
<p />
<p>Hales Bristo Bagels, Vilnius, Lithuania.</p>
<p>Andrew Miksys</p>
<p>Another bagel joint, run by the owners of the Donut Lab, is scheduled to open this month.</p>
<p>“It’s amazing because now we have bagels in Vilnius for real,” Narbutaite says.</p>
<p>But does it all lead back to Kaiser’s bagel party? When I reached out to Nomeda Kuodiene, co-owner of Hale’s Bistro, she laughed and said, “Nope, I wasn’t invited to the party.”</p>
<p>Nomeda discovered bagels on a trip to New York while visiting relatives. But Narbutaite says she doesn’t think the current bagel revival is a coincidence.</p>
<p>“Because sometimes ideas have a tendency to be in the air, you know?”</p>
<p>The bagel’s time had simply come — again. Only this time, it’s non-Jewish Lithuanians like Narbutaite and Kuodiene doing all the parboiling.</p>
<p>Kaiser thinks that’s just fine, because from his point of view, bagels are for everyone.</p>
<p>And this summer, when he heads back to Lithuania for a visit, he’ll finally be able to realize his dream, and eat bagels every day in Vilnius.</p>
<p>But does he have any other plans? Maybe a bialy party?</p>
<p>“The bialy? No, I want the <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/restaurants/the-flagel-makes-an-unexpected-appearance-in-manhattan-6561637" type="external">flagel</a>.&#160;To me that’s the evolution. The flat bagel. Flagels are amazing,” he says.</p> | Bagels disappeared from Lithuania after WWII … but now they’re back | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-06-16/bagels-disappeared-lithuania-after-wwii-now-they-re-back | 2015-06-16 | 3 |
<p>Editor’s note: Shortly after the U.S. announced it was pulling out of UNESCO, Israel announced it would <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41598991" type="external">join the U.S.</a> in leaving the agency.</p>
<p>PARIS—The United States said Thursday it is pulling out of the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and need for “fundamental reform.”</p>
<p>While the Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal from UNESCO for months, the announcement by the State Department on Thursday rocked the agency’s Paris headquarters, where a heated election to choose a new chief is underway.</p>
<p>The outgoing UNESCO director-general expressed her “profound regret” at the decision and tried to defend the reputation of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, best known for its World Heritage program to protect cultural sites and traditions.</p>
<p />
<p>The U.S. stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011, but the State Department has maintained a UNESCO office and sought to weigh on policy behind the scenes. The U.S. now owes about $550 million in back payments.</p>
<p>In a statement, the State Department said the decision will take effect Dec. 31, 2018, and that the U.S. will seek a “permanent observer” status instead. It cited U.S. belief in “the need for fundamental reform in the organization.”</p>
<p>Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, praised Washington’s move as heralding “a new day at the U.N., where there is a price to pay for discrimination against Israel.”</p>
<p>“UNESCO has become a battlefield for Israel bashing and has disregarded its true role and purpose,” Danon said in a statement. The organization’s absurd and shameful resolutions against Israel have consequences.”</p>
<p>Several U.S. diplomats who were to have been posted to UNESCO this summer were told that their positions were on hold and advised to seek other jobs. In addition, the Trump administration’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year contains no provision for the possibility that UNESCO funding restrictions might be lifted.</p>
<p>The lack of staffing and funding plans for UNESCO by the U.S. have been accompanied by repeated denunciations of UNESCO by senior U.S. officials, including U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.</p>
<p>U.S. officials said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the decision and that it was not discussed with other countries but was the result of an internal U.S. government deliberation.</p>
<p>The officials, who were not authorized to be publicly named discussing the issue, said the U.S. is notably angry over UNESCO resolutions denying Jewish connections to holy sites and references to Israel as an occupying power.</p>
<p>Chris Hegadorn, the U.S. Charge d’Affaires and ranking U.S. representative to UNESCO, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that the decision to pull out was linked to “the unfortunate politicization of the mandate of UNESCO, where anti-Israel bias has been a major factor and something the US has been struggling to address.”</p>
<p>“The accrual of arrears since 2011 since the admission of Palestine as a member state had been mounting,” he added.</p>
<p>Many saw the 2011 UNESCO vote to include Palestine as evidence of long-running, ingrained anti-Israel bias within the United Nations, where Israel and its allies are far outnumbered by Arab countries and their supporters.</p>
<p>UNESCO’s outgoing director-general, Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, called the U.S. departure a loss for “the United Nations family” and for multilateralism. She said the U.S. and UNESCO matter to each other more than ever now to better fight “the rise of violent extremism and terrorism.”</p>
<p>She defended UNESCO’s reputation, noting its efforts to support Holocaust education and train teachers to fight anti-Semitism—and that that the Statue of Liberty is among the many World Heritage sites protected by the U.N. agency. UNESCO also works to improve education for girls in poor countries and in scientific fields and to defend media freedom, among other activities.</p>
<p>UNESCO’s executive board plans to select its choice to succeed Bokova by Friday in a secret ballot.</p>
<p>It’s not the first time the U.S. has pulled out of UNESCO: Washington did the same thing in the 1980s because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. The U.S. rejoined in 2003.</p>
<p>Hegadorn said the U.S. would remain a force at the cultural agency in the same way as it was from 1984 when the country withdrew under President Ronald Reagan.</p>
<p>The U.S. informed Bokova it intends to stay engaged as a non-member ‘observer state’ on “non-politicized” issues, including the protection of world heritage, advocating for press freedoms and promoting scientific collaboration and education.</p>
<p>“We will be carefully watching how the organization and the new director general steers the agency,” Hegadorn said. “Ideally, it steers it in way that U.S. interests and UNESCO’s mandate will converge.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Lee reported from Washington.</p> | U.S., Israel to Pull Out of U.N. Agency Over Alleged Bias | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/u-s-pull-u-n-agency-alleged-anti-israel-bias/ | 2017-10-12 | 4 |
<p>General Motors knew of ignition switch problems with 6.7 million midsize and large cars for 11 years, yet it failed to warn customers with a recall until last month, according to documents posted by federal safety regulators.</p>
<p>The documents, released Friday, show yet again that the Detroit auto giant was slow to correct safety problems on its older models. And it exposes an all-too-familiar pattern of ignition switch troubles in millions of vehicles, some dating to 1997. So far this year GM has issued 54 recalls covering 29 million vehicles, 17 million for ignition problems.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In most cases, the ignition switches can slip out of the "run" position, shutting down the engine and knocking out power steering and brakes. Drivers can lose control of their cars, and if they crash, the air bags won't work. The list of recalls includes 2.6 million older small cars with faulty switches that GM has blamed for at least 13 deaths.</p>
<p>GM recalled the midsize and large cars on June 26 as part of a top-to-bottom corporate review of safety issues. It includes the 2000-2005 Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, the 1997-2005 Chevy Malibu, the 1999-2004 Oldsmobile Alero, the 1998-2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue, the 1999-2005 Pontiac Grand Am and the 2004-2008 Pontiac Grand Prix. All have the same ignition switches.</p>
<p>The switches can unexpectedly shut off the car's engine if a driver has a lot of weight on the key ring and goes over a bump, the company says. GM says two fatal crashes that killed three people could be linked to the problem.</p>
<p>In a chronology filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, GM said a Michigan dealership reported a 2003 complaint from a customer about a Pontiac Grand Am stalling. The customer had about 50 keys and a set of brass knuckles on his ring. GM officials saw the customer demonstrate the engine stall by going over a speed bump, and it told dealers in a voice mail about the problem. GM also issued a service bulletin to dealers warning of the problem, but it didn't recall the cars at that time.</p>
<p>Later that year, GM changed the switch to make it harder to turn on the Malibu, Grand Am and Alero, but still did not issue a recall. Then, in 2004, it fixed the Grand Prix switches in 2004 without changing the part number.</p>
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<p>The changes and deaths possibly linked to the problem were discovered in GM's safety review earlier this year.</p>
<p>The way GM handled the midsize and large car recall is similar to its methods in the small-car recall. The small-car case touched off federal investigations and congressional hearings, and it brought a $35 million fine from NHTSA for delays in reporting safety problems to the government.</p> | Documents show General Motors delayed recall in another ignition switch case | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/07/18/documents-show-general-motors-delayed-recall-in-another-ignition-switch-case.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>Mother Jones</p>
<p />
<p>How is MoJo Washington Bureau Chief <a href="" type="internal">David Corn</a> like Edward R. Murrow, Carl Bernstein, David Halberstam, Gay Talese, Fred Friendly, I.F. Stone, and Walter Cronkite? So many ways really, but the most notable today is that they have all won a <a href="http://www.liu.edu/polk" type="external">George Polk Award</a>, one of the most prestigious honors in journalism. Corn is the winner in the political reporting category for the <a href="" type="internal">47 percent story</a>—his revelation of a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU9V6eOFO38&amp;list=PL7FWr6whNWmh8tZwNCvecfoEgHBiLxgoQ&amp;feature=player_embedded" type="external">video</a> documenting Mitt Romney’s remarks at a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans were “dependent upon the government” and would never “ <a href="" type="internal">take personal responsibility and care for their lives.</a>“</p>
<p>The Polk award, established in 1949 to honor a CBS correspondent murdered while covering the Greek Civil War, is given each year by Long Island University; this year’s announcement commends Corn for the “years of high-impact journalism that helped lead him to the source of the recording,” and for the “ <a href="" type="internal">persistent digging and careful negotiation</a>” that made the story possible. Other winners include the staff of <a href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/revolution-to-riches/" type="external">Bloomberg News</a> and the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/princelings.html?ref=global" type="external">New York Times</a>‘ David Barboza for uncovering corruption among China’s elite; a team of McClatchy correspondents (including former MoJo <a href="" type="internal">contributor</a> David Enders) covering the <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/Syria/" type="external">war in Syria</a>; Sarah Stillman for her New Yorker piece on <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/03/120903fa_fact_stillman" type="external">teen informants</a>; Ryan Gabrielson of California Watch for a story on <a href="http://californiawatch.org/broken-shield" type="external">abuses in state clinics for the disabled</a>; and the Frontline team behind the documentary “ <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/money-power-wall-street/" type="external">Money, Power, and Wall Street</a>.” For David and all of us at Mother Jones, it’s a capstone for an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er6-zNt-wHo&amp;sns=em" type="external">amazing year</a> and thrilling recognition for a project that has been widely credited with <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-17/today-mitt-romney-lost-the-election.html" type="external">changing</a> the <a href="" type="internal">course of the campaign</a>.</p>
<p /> | Mother Jones’ David Corn Wins George Polk Award | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/mother-jones-david-corn-george-polk-award/ | 2013-02-18 | 4 |
<p>Baptist News Global will honor a long-time board member and a veteran Baptist journalist at a dinner event in Liberty, Mo., on Sunday, April 23.</p>
<p><a href="http://1648o73kablq2rveyn64glm1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Nickell_Jimmy_2.jpg" type="external" />Missouri Baptist layman Jimmy Nickell will be presented the Founders Award, established in 1998 by the board of directors of Associated Baptist Press, the predecessor to Baptist News Global. The award recognizes individuals and organizations that have embodied BNG’s founding principles and have supported its mission through significant professional or financial contributions. Nickell was an influential leader and supporter for much of ABP’s first 25 years since its creation as an independent news service in 1990. An active Baptist lay leader while living in Lubbock, Texas, and the Kansas City, Mo., area, Nickell served on the ABP and then BNG board of directors from 1994 until his retirement from the board last year.</p>
<p>The Founders Award is BNG’s highest honor for service to the organization. Nickell will be the eleventh recipient and sixth individual to be honored.</p>
<p>“Jimmy Nickell has been a stalwart champion for an independent press for Baptists that is also trusted and respected by Christians in other faith traditions and by editors and reporters in the religious and secular news media,” said Kyle Reese, pastor of Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla., and chair of BNG’s board of directors. “His remarkable commitment to ABP, and now BNG, has been an inspiration to me, to our board, and to the donors who make BNG’s work possible.”</p>
<p><a href="http://1648o73kablq2rveyn64glm1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Webb_Bill.jpg" type="external" />Bill Webb, a Baptist journalist and state paper editor for more than 35 years, will be presented the Greg Warner Lifetime Achievement Award in Religious Journalism. The award, bearing the name of ABP’s longtime executive editor, was created by the board in 2009 to honor journalists whose body of work has contributed in significant ways to the understanding of religion in American society. It recognizes persons who with courage and integrity have addressed important issues related to matters of faith, whose writing and reporting have consistently reflected the highest standards of journalism, and whose work is consistent with BNG’s mission, vision and values.</p>
<p>Webb, who served as editor of the Missouri-based Word &amp; Way newsjournal for more than 20 years until his retirement last December, also served on the board of ABP/BNG for 10 years. He will be the fifth recipient of the award.</p>
<p>“Through his writing and reporting for more than four decades, Bill Webb has informed and inspired several generations of Baptist Christians,” said David Wilkinson, BNG’s executive director and publisher. “Bill has been a model of courage, integrity and faithfulness not only during good times for Baptist journalism but especially during the tumultuous years of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Bill is an unassuming, gentle spirit whose influence on Baptist life reflects a quiet but persistent approach grounded in a deep and abiding faith.”</p>
<p>The awards dinner also will include the announcement of a fundraising campaign for the <a href="" type="internal">Ardelle and Hardy Clemons Endowment Fund,</a> a cause supported by Nickell and Webb. The fund will be the beneficiary of tribute gifts from friends who wish to honor the two award recipients. The campaign’s goal is to generate funding to establish a residency program to help prepare future generations of talented women and men with a commitment to faith-based journalism.</p>
<p>Reservations are required for the dinner event. Tickets are $35 per person and may be purchased <a href="https://app.etapestry.com/onlineforms/AssociatedBaptistPress/awardstest.html" type="external">online</a> or by <a href="" type="internal">mail.</a> Additional information about the <a href="" type="internal">event</a> and about <a href="" type="internal">tribute gifts</a> to the Clemons Fund in honor of Nickell or Webb is available on BNG’s website or by contacting Tasha Gibson at (336) 717-1135 or <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p> | BNG honors Jimmy Nickell, Bill Webb | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/bng-honors-jimmy-nickell-bill-webb/ | 3 |
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<p>Formally announcing his bid for the 2016 Republican nomination with a speech to Liberty University, Senator Ted Cruz was quick to contrast himself to President Barack Obama on a key point of foreign policy - Israel.</p>
<p>"Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Netanyahu.....Imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel," Cruz said, receiving a standing ovation.</p>
<p>Cruz has always been a staunch supporter of Israel. As israelnationalnews.com <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/192992#.VRAzvCjPZRE" type="external">noted</a>, Cruz spoke before&#160;Prime Minister Benyamin&#160;Netanyahu's Congressional speech on the Iranian nuclear program, saying&#160;a U.S deal with&#160;Iran on its nuclear program “would be a historic mistake on the same order as Munich. To allow the theocratic extreme mullahs in Iran to have nuclear weapon capability increases dramatically the likelihood that those weapons of great destruction will be used to murder billions." He told israelnationalnews.com last June,&#160;"the friendship between Israel and America is and should be unbreakable," and called "the prospect of Iran gaining nuclear weapons capability" as "the gravest threat to both" countries. He alsao called the&#160;Palestinian Authority unity pact between Fatah and Hamas "highly, highly disturbing" and "a serious impediment to any lasting peace."&#160;</p>
<p>Cruz announced his bid for the Oval Office <a href="" type="internal">just after midnight</a> as the clock moved from Sunday to Monday morning. His campaign confirmed that <a href="" type="internal">he announced on March 23rd</a> in an attempt to distinguish himself on Obama's domestic policy. March 23, 2010 was the day Obama signed his healthcare law.</p> | Cruz: A President That Stands With Israel | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/cruz-president-stands-israel | 2018-10-07 | 0 |
<p>President Putin has been recklessly escalating the crisis in eastern Ukraine since he was embarrassed and outmaneuvered by the Ukrainian president three weeks ago. Allowing a passenger jet to be shot down is the act of an increasingly desperate man.</p>
<p>The Kremlin ordered tanks, heavy weapons and Russian fighters to pour over the border stoking up the crisis until tragedy struck. We should have seen it coming; on Wednesday morning the front page of Foreign Policy magazine had a headline that should have sent shockwaves through the geopolitical landscape: <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/07/16/russia_is_firing_missiles_at_ukraine_grad_rockets_us_sanctions" type="external">Russia Is Firing Missiles At Ukraine</a>.</p>
<p>The story followed several Russian citizens posting videos to social media which they said show GRAD rockets being fired from Russian territory toward Ukraine. By <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-149-russian-tanks-and-artillery-reach-donetsk/#3372" type="external">triangulating the different camera angles</a>, my team at The Interpreter proved that the unguided rockets were indeed being fired into Ukraine from Russia. Thursday morning, there were reports that a group of <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-150-ukrainian-troops-describe-grad-rocket-attack-from-russia/#3373" type="external">Ukrainian soldiers had been hit by the rocket fire</a> and were actually receiving medical treatment <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-150-ukrainian-troops-describe-grad-rocket-attack-from-russia/#3374" type="external">on the other side of the border</a>, ironically enough in the same town from which the rockets had been launched in the first place.</p>
<p>This should have been huge news. How could things in Ukraine have deteriorated to the point where Putin was now engaged in such a reckless act of aggression? Of course, it was huge news... but for only a few hours. Quickly this headline was buried under the news that another Malaysian airlines flight was missing, and evidence is steadily growing that either Russian-backed separatists or Russia itself may have fired the missile that brought it down.</p>
<p>While much of the media is trying to figure out who shot this aircraft down, with what weapon and where it was obtained, it might be more instructive to focus instead on the 'whys' of this incident.</p>
<p>Why would Putin want to shoot down a commercial airliner? And if it was an accident, why would Putin allow the separatists to have a weapon this powerful without having full control over how it was used?</p>
<p>The answer to that question reveals that the situation in Ukraine, and in Moscow, is much, much worse than many had feared.</p>
<p>The first thing we have to understand is that the Kremlin spent a lot of time and money to bring down, either deliberately or accidentally, Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. The prime suspect is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buk_missile_system" type="external">Buk surface-to-air missile system</a>. This is not a shoulder-fired weapon easily smuggled across the border, a point-and-shoot heat-seeking weapon that could be used with little training by anyone who got their hands on it. This is an advanced and battle-proven series of highly sophisticated vehicles which coordinate to track targets with radar and fire missiles so advanced that they were designed to knock smart bombs and cruise missiles out of the sky. Whoever launched this weapon was highly trained and extremely well-equipped.</p>
<p>How, then, could such an advanced weapons system mistake a civilian airliner for a Ukrainian military aircraft? The short answer is that while the Buk system is able to work in isolation, it was never meant to. These types of advanced anti-aircraft systems would typically be used as part of a whole-military response to a threat, utilizing a nation-wide radar system, airborne radar systems, and a coordinated command and control structure that would identify targets and call the shots.</p>
<p>The firing of GRAD rockets and the shooting down of a civilian airplane are part of a pattern, a last-ditch desperate attempt to salvage a win in eastern Ukraine at any cost. In the last several weeks, Russia has pumped dozens of tanks, self-powered howitzers, armored vehicles and militants across the border to the Russian-backed insurgents.</p>
<p>Almost three weeks ago Ukraine’s government and the separatists had entered into at least a tentative ceasefire, and Russia believed the separatists could diplomatically outmaneuver Kiev. But Ukraine’s new president, Petro Poroshenko, did not extend the ceasefire, as even his European allies thought he would. Instead he launched a sudden strike on the separatists, retaking a series of key rebel strongholds.</p>
<p>Putin was the one who had been outmaneuvered, and the <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/provocations-proxies-and-plausible-deniability/" type="external">effort to covertly support the separatists</a> in eastern Ukraine was falling apart. Now the veil has fallen. Russia is almost overtly supplying the separatists with military support. But Putin’s urgency in Ukraine has turned to recklessness, and Thursday’s events are the recklessness of Putin epitomized.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
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<p>Why the urgency? Putin had been seeing surging popular support at home despite the flat-lined economy, the loss of a major ally in Ukraine’s ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, and the problematic Winter Olympics that popularized the Twitter hashtag #SochiProblems. The reason was the perception that Putin had won a decisive victory by annexing Crimea and standing up to the West.</p>
<p>But in recent weeks Moscow’s thinkers and pundits have written that they believe Putin’s support could collapse. A <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/having-failed-to-stage-short-victorious-war-in-ukraine-putin-faces-problems-at-home/" type="external">failure</a> to achieve further victory in Ukraine has <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-has-cost-putin-domestic-support-but-how-much-and-for-how-long/" type="external">led analysts to predict</a> that Putin’s support could drop significantly, and Russia’s leading pollsters already see evidence that <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/putins-failure-in-ukraine-will-cost-him-his-high-ratings-and-force-him-to-change-his-image-gudkov-says/" type="external">these predictions could be right</a>.</p>
<p>Since sanctions have had <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/what-strong-sanctions-against-russia-might-have-accomplished/" type="external">little effect</a> on the economy but have <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/sanctions-wont-change-putin-but-may-change-his-elites-support/" type="external">dinged Putin’s support among his elites</a>, he feels he needs the overwhelming support of the masses. Putin needs his war, and he needs to win, and without flooding eastern Ukraine with serious firepower and driving up civilian casualties it’s not clear if Putin can salvage a win at this point without openly invading, and doing so may carry significant costs that undercut the gains.</p>
<p>And Putin has actually helped create the engine of popular uproar that both empowers him and hangs like a Sword of Damocles over his head. In recent months, editorially-independent but state-owned news agencies have been turned into Kremlin-run propaganda machines, efforts have been undertaken to censor the Internet, and even independently-owned media companies have seen their editors thrown out and replaced with the Kremlin’s people.</p>
<p>The Russian media landscape is now a nearly unified voice of disinformation and hate, spreading the narrative that the world is locked in a great battle between East and West, a battle which will be lost unless Putin is allowed to win it. With every passing week Putin becomes more like the totalitarian dictators who helped divide the world along these lines just a few generations ago, and he is now a victim of his own mechanisms.</p>
<p>And there is no sign that this cycle will be broken any time soon. If Putin thinks his efforts to regain the upper hand in eastern Ukraine have gone too far, he’s certainly not reflecting that in his rhetorical answer to this tragedy. Instead, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/putin-ukraine-malaysia_n_5597094.html" type="external">Putin blamed Ukraine</a> for the downing of the aircraft, saying, “This tragedy would not have happened if there had been peace on that land, or in any case if military operations in southeastern Ukraine had not been renewed,” in televised comments.</p>
<p>“Without doubt the government of the territory on which it happened bears responsibility for this frightening tragedy,” he said, adding that he had urged the Russian authorities to do everything possible to help with the investigation into the incident.</p>
<p>“We will do everything that we can so that an objective pictured of what happened can be achieved,” Putin said.</p>
<p>“This is a completely unacceptable thing.”</p>
<p>But providing an objective picture is not what the Kremlin and its media apparatus is known for. Instead, the Russian media are already conducting a disinformation campaign about the facts, while the Western world lines up to (justifiably) blame Russia for this mess. While the unified rejection of Russia's actions are absolutely necessary, and while stronger sanctions need to be inflicted on Russia to change the economic calculus of such reckless hostility, such actions will only serve as evidence to the Kremlin's pundits and the people who listen to them that this is all just one giant conspiracy to isolate and weaken Russia.</p>
<p>The cycle will continue. Putin's recklessness in eastern Ukraine will only grow. Many more lives, often of civilians stuck in the crossfire, will be lost. In the warped cycle of disinformation and power that Putin has created, this senseless violence makes perfect sense, and hundreds or even thousands of civilian casualties are just collateral damage.</p> | Why Putin Let MH17 Get Shot Down | true | https://thedailybeast.com/why-putin-let-mh17-get-shot-down | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>UNM’s Tim Williams (32) is guarded by Abilene Christian’s Jalone Friday, left, and Diamante Langston during Wednesday night’s game. (Jim Thompson/Journal)</p>
<p>It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.</p>
<p>But the Lobos haven’t been thrilled with how they’ve started games this season, especially the past two games, so let’s begin there.</p>
<p>The Lobos, say players and coaches alike, haven’t started games with much energy, especially on defense.</p>
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<p>Through seven games, UNM opponents are outscoring the Lobos 58-56 in what coach Craig Neal calls “the first four-minute game,” referring to the opening tip-off until the first media timeout called at the first dead ball after the 16-minute mark.</p>
<p>The Lobo starters have come out flat on defense, largely setting the tone for the rest of each game. It is leading to the recent trend of needing reserve players such as Joe Furstinger and Xavier Adams to come into the game in the first half to insert some energy.</p>
<p>“Together, I think we have to figure out what gets us going,” junior forward Xavier Adams said after Wednesday’s win, in which he played a season-high 20 minutes, scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds. “We tend to have slow starts, which isn’t New Mexico basketball at all.”</p>
<p>In UNM’s past two games – Sunday’s loss to Dayton in Anaheim, Calif., and Wednesday night’s win over Abilene Christian in the Pit – the Lobos were outscored 16-7 (8-0 vs. Dayton and 8-7 vs. ACU) and allowed those two opponents to shoot 50 percent from the field (those same two teams averaged 41.6 percent the rest of those two games) in the first four-minute segment.</p>
<p>Opponents are shooting 46.5 percent before the first media timeout against UNM and just 41.6 percent the rest of the game.</p>
<p>“I think it has to do with how you approach the first four minutes,” said Neal, who acknowledged his starting five hasn’t always come out and played with the energy he’d like them to. It is among the reasons he’s contemplated changes to the starting five in the past week. “That group’s got to do a better job.”</p>
<p>INJURY UPDATE: Starting forwards Sam Logwood (injured right quad) and Tim Williams (head injury) were held out of practice Thursday. Neal cautioned reading into either decision that the two won’t play Saturday at Illinois State. Both players from the Midwest could have family and friends on hand.</p>
<p>Williams was hit in the head/neck area early in Wednesday’s game, later checked out and cleared to return to the game by a team trainer. Neal said he decided to not play Williams anyway.</p>
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<p>Logwood, meanwhile, was unable to jump in pregame warmups Wednesday, three days after suffering a contusion in the thigh during Sunday’s loss to Dayton.</p>
<p>Logwood was riding a stationary bike at Thursday’s practice.</p>
<p>EMERALD COAST CLASSIC: The Lobos spent this Thanksgiving in California and on Thursday it was confirmed, though previously reported, that they’ll take part in next Thanksgiving weekend’s Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Fla.</p>
<p>The format of the four-game tournament allows UNM to play two home games in the Pit against predetermined lower-seeded teams between Nov. 11 and Nov. 28 and then two games in a tournament-style setting in Niceville on the campus of Northwest Florida State College on Nov. 24-25.</p>
<p>“It gives us two home games, and scheduling has become very difficult for us,” Neal said of the tournament.</p>
<p>The tournament field also will include Maryland, TCU, St. Bonaventure, Jackson State, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Nebraska-Omaha and Tennessee Tech.</p>
<p>UNM’s trip last week concluded a four-year contract playing in ESPN-owned tournaments, something Neal has said he’s interested in renewing for 2018-2021.</p>
<p>The Emerald Coast Classic is run by Global Sports and is broadcast on CBS Sports Network.</p>
<p>GOOD HANDS: Williams, the Lobos’ leading scorer this season (19.0 points per game, 6.9 rebounds per game, 62.7 percent shooting), was nominated Wednesday for the 2017 Allstate NABC Good Works Team.</p>
<p>The award is for standout players who also have demonstrated a desire to impact their communities.</p>
<p>Williams has volunteered at the UNM Children’s Hospital, Heart Gallery Stocking Stuffing and at other team-based community events.</p>
<p>The final Good Works Team will be announced in February.</p>
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<p /> | Lobos struggle out of gate | false | https://abqjournal.com/900376/lobos-struggle-out-of-gate.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Image source: Disney.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It's the season of giving, andDisney(NYSE: DIS)is giving theme-park regulars in Florida an easier way into Disney World's four gated attractions. Disney is introducing entrances exclusively for annual passholders this morning at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.</p>
<p>Setting aside entrances for its passholders may not seem like a big deal, but it eliminates a layer of frustration for annual passholders who just want to scan their MagicBands and enter the park. It's typically holders of one- or multi-day passes that hold up the lines with ticketing issues or the lack of familiarity with the high-tech admission system.</p>
<p>It's fitting that the new perk should be introduced on the first day of winter. The next two weeks are peak season for Disney World's theme parks, and anything that it can do to get folks in and out of the parks will be appreciated by all guests. The new passholder lines may or may not be permanent. Disney is only saying that they will be up through at least next month.</p>
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<p>There's always a method to Disney's madness, and it's easy to speculate on the reasons Disney has taken this long to offer this perk. Many regional and some national theme parks give passholders expedited admission queues.</p>
<p>It's probably not a coincidence that Disney is offering this just as attendance at its domestic theme parks has been sluggish, posting year-over-year declines in two of the past three quarters. Disney also pushed out a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/05/did-disneyland-and-disney-world-go-too-far.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">double-digit increase Opens a New Window.</a> in prices for its annual passes late last year, and it's been trying to sweeten the pot by including on-ride digital photos and more recently expanded dining discounts coinciding with the Magic Kingdom's turning 45.</p>
<p>Disney seemed to be dissuading annual pass ownership late last year with a big hike at both Disney World and Disneyland. Disney also introduced more passes with blackout dates, a move to nudge regulars to visit during non-peak periods. It could have gone too far, judging by the rare dip in guest counts during the March and June quarters.</p>
<p>The world's largest theme-park operator has also been slow in rolling out new e-ticket attractions. Offering another incentive for annual passholders to renew when there may not be a lot of new experiences within the parks is smart.</p>
<p>Disney should also benefit from the visibility of the annual passholder lines at all four of its Florida attractions. Unlike regional amusement parks that don't have a problem coming at guests with billboards and hard sells on the way out to upgrade one-day tickets into seasonal passes, Disney is whisper-quiet about promoting the offering within the park. Folks with single- or multi-day tickets may not even know that paying for an entire year of access is possible. They will see that now, and it may encourage families to snap up annual passes and book repeat visits within the year to make the most of the new purchase.</p>
<p>Disney's throwing its passholders a bone, but it's also well positioned to gnaw away at it, too.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBreakerRick/info.aspx" type="external">Rick Munarriz Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Walt Disney. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Disney World Throws Passholders a Holiday Bone | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/21/disney-world-throws-passholders-holiday-bone.html | 2016-12-21 | 0 |
<p>Pope Benedict XVI donned a sombrero and blessed the Christ the King statue from a helicopter before conducting an open-air mass for 350,000 people today near Silao, Mexico.</p>
<p>The pope's 3-day trip continues to endear him to Mexicans, who connected deeply with his predecessor, John Paul II, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-03-25/pope-mexico-mass/53769016/1" type="external">The Associated Press</a>reported.</p>
<p>Benedict also made special reference to the Virgin Mary during mass, another important icon in Mexico, while speaking to pressing social issues such as drug violence and emigration.</p>
<p>"At this time, when so many families are separated or forced to emigrate, when so many are suffering due to poverty, corruption, domestic violence, drug trafficking, the crisis of values and increased crime, we come to Mary in search of consolation, strength and hope," the pope said as mass concluded at Bicentennial Park.</p>
<p>"She is the mother of the true God, who invites us to stay with faith and charity beneath her mantle, so as to overcome in this way all evil and to establish a more just and fraternal society."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/120323/pope-mexico-abortion-crime-guanajuato" type="external">Pope picks Mexican town where abortion means prison</a></p>
<p>The pope's words were specifically aimed at continuing drug violence in Mexico, where nearly 50,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon declared a crackdown in 2006, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/world/americas/at-mass-in-mexico-pope-urges-humility.html" type="external">The New York Times</a>reported.</p>
<p>Discussing emigration is also important to those in Guanajuato, a state with one of the highest rates in Mexico.</p>
<p>"We didn't have the faith like we did with John Paul II, but, once you get here, you are filled with that emotion," worshipper Corina Alonso told The Times.</p>
<p>On Monday, the 84-year-old Benedict leaves Mexico for Cuba, where he's expected to meet President Raul Castro.</p>
<p>He will also mark the 400th anniversary of the Virgin of Charity statue, Cuba's patron saint.</p>
<p>Earlier, Benedict also aimed criticism at Cuba's communist rule.</p>
<p>"It is evident that Marxist ideology in the way it was conceived no longer corresponds to reality," he said, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/25/pope-criticises-marxism-cuba-visit" type="external">The Guardian</a>reported.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/120302/china-new-auto-plant-bulgaria-great-wall-motors" type="external">Chinese cars, made in Bulgaria</a>&#160;</p> | PHOTOS: Pope delivers mass to 350,000 in Mexico | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-25/photos-pope-delivers-mass-350000-mexico | 2012-03-25 | 3 |
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<p>RUSH: I have to talk about this judge, folks, and what’s happening here, because remember the piece that I shared with you from <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266197/civil-war-here-daniel-greenfield" type="external">Daniel Greenfield, “The Civil War is Here”</a> about the <a href="" type="internal">left simply respecting no authority other than its own, no authority in the Constitution</a>, they do not respect the authority of election results. And this is now the third or fourth Trump executive order which has been stayed by Obama — well, one was a Bush 43 appointed judge. The others have been liberal Democrat judges mostly appointed by Obama.</p>
<p>And depending on where you go today and last night, you can find analysis of the judge’s decision, “You know, it’s a nothing burger, folks. I mean, the judge’s order is irrelevant because it doesn’t stop what the president wants to do, because what the president’s order is is not establishing any new law,” all of which is true. So from a legal standpoint, it may be a nothing burger, but it is far from a nothing burger politically. It is a huge deal politically, what these judges are doing.</p>
<p>It is beginning to look like there is a coordinated effort among some in the federal judiciary to simply, what’s the word, ignore President Trump’s authority as commander-in-chief under the belief that he is not fit for office, under the belief that he’s a maniac, under the belief that he’s insane because he had syphilis or whatever the hell fool notions these people believe. It appears now that there is a coordinated effort to thwart and oppose President Trump at every opportunity the judiciary has to do so.</p>
<p>We’ve obviously got judge shopping going on. I mean, these requests for stays and lawsuits happen in San Francisco or Seattle, where the appeal will go to the Ninth Circuit. This is not done haphazardly and randomly. And it is part and parcel of what we’ve been talking about, and that is the ongoing effort by the left to delegitimize the election, to simply say, “We don’t accept it. We refuse to accept the outcome of the election. Donald Trump is president, and we in the federal judiciary are gonna do everything we can when we have the chance to stop this president in his tracks from accomplishing anything he seeks to accomplish that we can stop.”</p>
<p>The actual ruling yesterday, which we’ll go through here in a second, may in fact be nothing legally, but politically I think this is huge, because that’s what this is. These judges are not ruling on the merits of the law. They are not ruling on anything judicial. They are ruling as pure political participants. And they are enforcing their own policy preferences in their efforts to use their power to thwart and stop the president of the United States.</p>
<p>By the way, greetings, and great to have you. Here’s the phone number if you want to be on the program: 800-282-2882. And the email address is [email protected].</p>
<p>Okay. So what was this executive order? In the strict sense of the executive order, there was nothing new in it. There was no new appropriation of money. There was no new law. There was no new executive action. All this executive order was, essentially, was a statement that existing federal law regarding the funding of sanctuary cities would be enforced. That is all this executive order was. Some people might say, “Well, then it’s a bogus executive order. Trump’s just grandstanding.” Maybe.</p>
<p>You might be able to get away with saying that this was simply a climb to the mountaintop and a shout that says, “Listen to me, we’re gonna start enforcing the law,” which is all that Trump has been doing when it comes to immigration. There is no new immigration law in this country. All there is and what’s all of all of this controversy and all of this roiling everybody is the decision by the Trump administration to enforce existing law, be it regarding the border, be it illegal entry and deportation, be it what to do about criminal illegals, be it what to do about sanctuary cities.</p>
<p>All this is is the enforcement of existing law. The reason why it looks so extreme to some people or outrageous is that we haven’t been enforcing immigration law. We have been behaving under the Obama administration as though there isn’t any immigration law and that whatever Obama wants to do is fine. And you will note that whenever Obama did create executive orders that did create new law, there wasn’t a judiciary mobilized to stop him.</p>
<p>There was one judge in Texas by the name of Hannon who did, but in every other case of Obama executive orders, the judiciary just rolled right over. But here with Trump, they are — it’s hard to say that it’s conspiratorially unified. It is what it is. Liberals are liberals and they do not need memos back and forth to be told what to do. They do not need instructions.</p>
<p>They are liberals, and, as such, they know that they exist to stop Trump. They believe, nobody has to tell ’em, Trump is illegitimate. They believe, nobody has to tell ’em, that Trump’s election was illegitimate. These are the kind of people that believe the Russians really did impact the election and therefore Trump and everything he’s doing is illegitimate. Whenever they have a chance to stop it, they’re gonna do it.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: So we have, I think, a dire circumstance. I don’t think this is a nothing burger. I don’t think that this is nothing to get all excited about. In the legal sense the judge did not stop the enforcement of existing law. “Well, Rush, the media –” the media is not telling the truth about it because I don’t think the media understands what happened here. All that the media sees is that another judge told Trump to go to hell, and they love it and that’s all that matters. Now they can report another judge told Trump he can’t do what he wants to do because Trump’s irresponsible, Trump’s illegitimate, thank God for the judge, and that’s the narrative.</p>
<p>But that’s not what the judge did. That’s not what his executive order was. His executive order was a pure, 100 percent political statement, and it contained what every other judge that has stopped Trump to date has contained. “Well, you know, he said during the campaign he was gonna ban all Muslims. And he said during the campaign that he was gonna kick people out of sanctuary cities.” So the judge cites that stuff as evidence and justification for doing what he’s done here to theoretically stop Trump.</p>
<p>But even in this order the judge admits that there’s nothing new here. In this order the judge admits that he’s not stopping anything. If you read the whole thing — reading the whole thing is a slog, which is why the Drive-Bys are not going to do so. The judge’s name is Orrick. You might have heard the name because he’s the guy that found against the people that created the videos, the secret videos exposing Planned Parenthood for chopping up babies and selling body parts. He found against the people who conducted those secret video tapings. He’s an Obama fundraiser, he’s an Obama donor, he’s a bundler, 200 grand. He worked in the Justice Department.</p>
<p>So he’s a full-fledged down-the-line, perfectly flaked and formed modern-day leftist extremist. But if you spend the time on the exact order — for example, the judge acknowledges that the construction of the Trump executive order, the way it’s written and what it proposes, he acknowledges that. He agrees with it. The executive order that Trump is ballyhooing here is simply a reinforcement of existing law. There’s nothing new in this executive order. It’s just Trump announcing that we’re gonna be enforcing the law.</p>
<p>And some leftists are saying that Trump’s simply trying to score political points with this, and it may be. It could be that Trump wants everybody to know that he’s a new sheriff, there’s a new sheriff in town, and this law that’s been ignored, we are gonna enforce it. But the judge acknowledges that. The judge in his ruling acknowledges that the Trump executive order does nothing more than call for the enforcement of already existing law. The judge admits this! This judge is trying to embarrass Trump. Thing was rolled out, this executive order was rolled out with, you know, a lot of pomp, a lot of circumstance.</p>
<p>And this judge makes it clear in the ruling that he wants Trump brought back down to earth. He wants it known that Trump is pretending, that Trump is trying to do something here that he’s not doing. He’s not doing anything new, and the judge wants to expose Trump here as effectively writing an executive order that doesn’t do anything, other than proclaim we’re gonna follow the law.</p>
<p>And as I said, he spends a lot of time quoting stump speeches made by Trump and his campaign aides. You know, this is the way Trump, when he campaigns, the way he sells policy and the way he makes promises, those things are now being considered to have been legal utterances by a man who was not president. Trump is being held legally to concepts he only stated as a candidate. Like a Muslim ban, there hasn’t been a Muslim ban, but the judge here says, “He wants to. He wants to do that, and he wants to kick all these sanctuary citizens out and he wants to take their money away, and so I’m gonna make sure he can’t do it.”</p>
<p>In one of the — <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447058/trump-administration-sanctuary-city-executive-order-activist-liberal-judge-william-h-orrick" type="external">my buddy Andy McCarthy calls it one of the most disingenuous passages</a>in the ruling — the judge asserts that the executive order directs the attorney general and the Homeland Security secretary to ensure that sanctuary jurisdictions are not eligible to receive federal grants. That is not true. In fact, that is an out-and-out lie. I don’t know purposefully or not, that’s a bit far, but it simply is not true. In quoting, the judge omitted the key passage in the executive order, which actually states the following: “The attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security, in their discretion and to the extent consistent with the law, shall ensure that jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply with the law are not eligible to receive federal grants.”</p>
<p>All that statement is is a statement of current law that is in the executive order, but what the judge left out in his ruling is the phrase “to the extent consistent with the law.” So in his ruling, the judge wants people at times to think Trump is trying a sneaky maneuver here and at other places in the order the judge is admitting that there’s nothing new here, no new ground being broken.</p>
<p>And even when this thing was being put together and argued, Justice Department lawyers emphasized that this executive order did nothing but reaffirm existing law. And it’s in the argument. But the judge refused to listen. He didn’t want that to be part of the evidence he would use for his ruling because what fun would be that be? What kind of excitement for a liberal judge could there be in stopping something that does nothing more than state we’re going to enforce federal law?</p>
<p>So the judge tries to make it look like that the Trump administration has much bigger plans that they’re not admitting to, and he goes back and cites campaign statements as evidence for what might really be going on here. This is so bogus. And it’s getting so tiresome. It has nothing to do with the law. This ruling was totally unnecessary. The executive order wasn’t really necessary, other than for Trump to make a statement about what their policy’s gonna be, because it differs from the previous administration, which was not enforcing immigration law. Trump wants everybody to know as often as he can say it that he is going to.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: To make this ruling suitable for the Drive-Bys to report it as a snub of Trump and an arrest, if you will, of Trump’s policy, the judge literally had to invent a violation. They had to invent, the judge had to invent a violation. In other words, the judge had to claim that the Trump administration was already in violation of law regarding sanctuary cities, which gave him the justification for shutting them down. If Trump is violating the law, then the judge is thoroughly entitled to stop Trump.</p>
<p>And I just happened to see in a panel discussion on CNN some completely uninformed woman talking about this, and she was referring to the part that I just shared with you, the judge’s opinion where he purposely leaves out the most important part of a paragraph in the executive order.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: Here, ladies and gentlemen, is what the media want you to believe about Trump’s executive order. They want you to believe that Trump decided on his own to take money away from cities that are sanctuary cities. They want you to think that Trump issued an executive order that will allow him and his emissaries to simply stop sending federal money to San Francisco, to New York, to Santa Clara. The media wants you to think that this is something brand-new.</p>
<p>They want you to think that Trump is behaving like a tyrannical dictator because he hates Mexicans and he hates immigrants and this is the way he’s gonna punish people who are only behaving in compassionate way and trying to help the downtrodden. And this mean-spirited SOB Trump, he’s just gonna go in there and he’s gonna take money away from these cities and everybody’s gonna starve and it’s gonna be horrible! And then they want you to believe that a brilliant federal judge spotted this and laid down the law and told this tyrant Trump, “You can’t do that!</p>
<p>“I, Judge William Orrick, am not gonna let you be a dictator. I’m not gonna let you be a tyrant. I’m not gonna let you take money from San Francisco. You can’t do it because I said so.” And they want to give the judge an award. None of that has happened. Not a shred of what that narrative is has happened. Trump created an executive order which explicitly says they are going to start enforcing existing law. There is already, ladies and gentlemen, existing law saying that under certain circumstances the federal government may withhold funds.</p>
<p>Under U.S. Code Title VIII, I think. It doesn’t matter what it is. But they can withhold federal funds to sanctuary cities if this cities violate certain aspects of federal law. And all the executive order did is just say (paraphrased), “Hey! We’re gonna start enforcing this.” That’s all that’s happened here. There has been no violation. The Trump administration has not written new law. The Trump administration has not taken a dime away from any sanctuary city. The Trump administration has not yet mobilized to do so. But the judge… Because the objective here is the resistance to Trump, the treatment of Trump as illegitimate and inauthentic.</p>
<p>“He has no authority. He’s an illegitimate president because we don’t like the election outcome. We don’t think it was legitimate, and Trump may be insane!” All of these are factors in these judges essentially saying that Trump cannot take the oath was office. “We can’t believe that he meant it because he lies so much, because he’s so extreme, because he’s so ridiculous. So, yeah, Trump took the oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution. But we Obama-appointed judges, simply don’t accept that.</p>
<p>“Because we think Trump’s a lunatic and doesn’t know what he’s swearing to.” This is, to a degree, what’s really happening here. So in order for the judge to be able to grandstand and make himself a great big hero to the left, he had to create a violation. I am not exaggerating. I am not playing with words. The judge had to invent a violation of the law in order to issue this executive order in such a way that docile, servitude media people could report that the tyrant has once again been stood up to and stopped.</p>
<p>And what is the violation? Well, it’s very simple. The judge theorizes, the judge imagines in his opinion in his ruling, that because San Francisco and Santa Clara — these are two cities mentioned in the suit. They’re in the jurisdiction. And Judge Orrick lives in San Francisco. So he theorizes that because San Francisco and Santa Clara get a lot of federal money, that Trump’s executive order is causing them “preenforcement anxiety.”</p>
<p>In other words, the violation that has occurred here is that Trump’s threat to walk into town and take money away from these cities is making them nervous, and it’s creating something called preenforcement anxiety. And by virtue of calling it preenforcement, the judge is admitting that nothing has happened! So now we’ve got a new disease. We have a new mental disorder: Preenforcement anxiety. Preenforcement anxiety is the nervousness and the fear that cities feel when they think that the federal government might deny them federal money.</p>
<p>And it makes anything they do to make themselves not feel fear and anxiety entirely justified. Trump is not allowed to make them feel feared and anxious. Trump is not permitted to do or say anything that might make them feel uncomfortable. That’s the violation. There isn’t a violation. The judge says — because Trump is proposing such Draconian measures in this executive order — that the people in these communities are feeling unnecessary anxiety and fear, preenforcement, and therefore Trump should be shut down.</p>
<p>The president doesn’t have the authority to make people in San Francisco and Santa Clara feel fearful, nor anxious, nor nervous. And I’m not inventing a single thing here. That is the violation. The violation is root in Trump’s comments on the campaign trail. He scared a lot of people, don’t you know! He scares the Muslims. He told everybody he wanted a nationwide Muslim ban. You didn’t want any refugees from any Muslim countries. And he doesn’t like Mexicans, and he’s gonna send them all home, and he doesn’t think they should be here.</p>
<p>All of these things constitute what’s really in the mind of the tyrant, and the tyrant must be stopped! So Judge William Orrick is the latest hero of the left. At the end of all of this — and here is another bit of gospel for you — the judge didn’t stop anything because nothing has happened. The judge can’t stop anything that Trump, in the executive order, says he’s going to do, because Trump and Sessions and the DOJ acknowledge in the executive order, that the steps they take will be consistent with the law.</p>
<p>It’s Title VIII U.S. Code 1373: Sanctuary Jurisdictions. They acknowledge and they reference that law, the administration does. Now, here is what, again, the judge did, in feeding a narrative to media that allowed them to report that Trump was behaving in a dictatorial, tyrannical fashion and that the heroic judge stopped him. Here’s what it says in the executive order. Quote, “The attorney general and the Secretary of Homeland Security in their discretion — and to the extent consistent with the law — shall ensure that jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply with Title VIII U.S. Code 1373 are not eligible to receive federal grants.”</p>
<p>All it did was recite the law!</p>
<p>In the judge’s opinion, he asserts that the executive order directs the attorney general and the Homeland Security secretary to ensure that sanctuary jurisdictions are not eligible to receive federal grants. That is not stated in the executive order. The judge is who is disingenuous here, not Trump. The judge is who is taking matters outside the law, not Trump. The judge is who is politicizing this, not Trump and not Sessions. When the judge writes that Trump’s executive order tells the attorney general to make sure that sanctuary cities are not eligible to receive federal money, he is lying.</p>
<p>Because that is not what the executive order says.</p>
<p>The executive order makes plain that the only way funds can be denied is to the extent consistent with the law, which is cited. That’s what’s happened here. At the end of the day, Trump can still enforce the law if he wants. He can still deny money to sanctuary cities consistent with the law, and the judge says so in the executive order, in his ruling. So nothing’s changed, other than the perception of what happened. And the perception of what happened is Trump’s a dictator, a tyrant. He’s illegitimate, he’s a fraud, and he just tried to steal all these sanctuary cities’ money.</p>
<p>And a heroic judge has stood up and said, “No, you can’t! Not on my watch.” And the judge is a hero, and Trump is being portrayed as what I just said.</p>
<p>That’s the politics of it.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: Mr. Snerdley, the Official Program Observer, just said, “You know, what you just said is totally opposite what I heard and saw last night.” I said, “That’s exactly right. Exactly right.” How many of you believed, starting last night when you first heard about this, all during the night, during the day today, how many of you believed that another heroic federal the judge stepped in to stop the tyrant and an executive order that is unconstitutional? (interruption) Oh, they didn’t convey to you that Trump was behaving unconstitutionally, that was not there?</p>
<p>Then what did they convey Trump was doing? What did you think, based on what you saw last night, what did you think Trump was doing? What illegal was Trump doing? They tried to say that Trump was unfairly focusing on sanctuary cities and taking money? They never said it was unconstitutional? I’m glad to hear it ’cause it’s not unconstitutional ’cause there’s nothing new here!</p>
<p>In fact, the bad actor in this whole scenario is the judge. The judge is the guy who makes things up and changes things in order to find a violation that has not occurred. (interruption) Well, okay, the judge killed Trump’s executive order. That’s a good example. That’s what they report. They didn’t kill executive order. The executive order is not necessary. The law was not changed. The executive order was not necessary. Trump didn’t need to do it in order to enable to him to do what he wants to do. The executive order — the judge referenced this — the executive order was, you know, a bunch of chest thumping, “Look at me, I’m Donald Trump, here’s what I’m gonna do,” but it wasn’t anything new. They just said they were gonna enforce existing law.</p>
<p>There’s no way to slap that down. If you’ve got an executive order that just says that the administration’s gonna enforce the law and you’ve got an Obamaite or liberal judge pledge to stop Trump, on what basis do you stop that? So you have to find a violation. The judge has to find, in all of this, a violation. And the judge did. The violation is preenactment anxiety. Because Trump might enforce the law, people in San Francisco and Santa Clara are anxious and nervous that they might lose money. So Trump has to be stopped.</p>
<p>Preenactment anxiety is what the judge cited as the violation. And, of course, leaving out in his review that all the administration is doing here is following existing law.</p>
<p>Here’s Jeff in Summit, New Jersey, as we head to the phones on this. Great to have you, sir. Glad you called. What’s happening?</p>
<p>CALLER: Great job, Rush, as always. Always enjoy listening to you. And I have to agree with Mr. Snerdley. You’re the first one to actually frame it this way. It was reported completely differently yesterday and last night, and thank you for clearing it up.</p>
<p>RUSH: Well, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447058/trump-administration-sanctuary-city-executive-order-activist-liberal-judge-william-h-orrick" type="external">I had a lot of help from Andy McCarthy.</a> I rely on him — and a couple of other people when it comes to matters of constitutional law and so forth. I’m lucky to have good friends who resource things for me. But it’s stunning to me how unique the truth is here and how out of bounds and how outrageous the narrative on this is.</p>
<p>CALLER: Well, you know what else is glaringly absent from all of the reporting, it wasn’t all that long ago, I think it was May or so of 2016, when Obama’s Justice Department, clearly guided by Obama, threatened to pull federal funding from school districts that didn’t comply with his idea of providing transgender bathrooms or allowing students who identified as an opposite gender from using the bedroom of their choice.</p>
<p>RUSH: Great example.</p>
<p>CALLER: In fact, I think when they issued that order or that letter or that directive to school districts, they gave them five or six days to comply, under the direct threat that they would cut hundreds of millions of dollars of federal education funds. And I don’t remember anybody back then claiming preenforcement or preenactment anxiety disorder. They just moved to try to comply with the law.</p>
<p>RUSH: Not only that, there wasn’t a single federal judge, there wasn’t a conservative Republican that sued Obama or tried to stop him in court. We just don’t do that. We just don’t behave that way. We leave it up to the American people to render judgments on these things at election time.</p>
<p>CALLER: Well, I think we also rely on the fact that when we see something that appears to be lawful on its face we assume that it’s going to stand and the person who has the apparent authority to engage in that activity is gonna be allowed to engage in that particular activity, such as the president’s authority here.</p>
<p>RUSH: Right. Well, but what authority did Obama have to threaten school funding if people didn’t recognize what bathroom some people wanted to use on Thursday at 5 p.m.?</p>
<p>CALLER: From my perspective, I’m not sure he had any authority to do that, but as you very correctly pointed out —</p>
<p>RUSH: Yes, he did. You know what grants him the authority? If nobody’s willing to stop him, he’s got the authority.</p>
<p>CALLER: You know, that’s a very interesting point. I remember when I first started working for a living I had a boss who one day came up to me and he said, “I just want you to know something. Authority is never given. It’s taken.”</p>
<p>RUSH: That’s mostly I think true.</p>
<p>CALLER: It is mostly true. You know, I tell you, I have to like this new defense that this judge came up with. Do you think it would be possible, for example, for American citizens when they get a letter from the IRS to invoke this preenactment or preenforcement anxiety disorder and rush to a judge and stop the IRS from any further action?</p>
<p>RUSH: Yeah, I don’t, see — (laughing) — try it! See what happens. Give me a call, let me know what happens. You can be the test case. “I’m sorry, I can’t file my taxes this year. I have preenactment anxiety waiting for the deadline, I can’t function, I can’t function. You’ve gotta stop pressuring me this way. The fact that I might lose my money to you, you can’t do it.” See how far you get with that.</p>
<p>Look, folks, this is a serious thing. It’s a serious thing in terms of what we have been discussing the last couple of weeks about what’s really happening in this country. This is not a political disagreement. This is not a political debate taking place within the confines of our arena of ideas where both sides respect an ultimate authority. We don’t have that. We have one side rejecting all authority except theirs, except themselves, and they are usurping and ignoring when necessary the Constitution in order to do so, the separation of powers, and nobody’s calling ’em on it. I mean, to go to the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court on this is to guarantee that they will prevail.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: By the way, folks, the law that allows defunding of sanctuary cities, Title 8 U.S. Code 1373 passed in 1996 under Bill Clinton. That’s how old the law is.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: See? You see? You see right there on CNN, there’s a banner: “Trump lashes out at another federal judge.” That’s how this works. It’s entirely bogus. Trump should be lashing out at the federal judge. Everybody should be lashing out at the federal judge. Everybody ought to be angry at what this federal judge has done.</p>
<p>Greetings, my friends, and welcome. It’s great to have you. Rush Limbaugh, executing assigned duties flawlessly, while serving humanity. The telephone number here if you want to be on the program is 800-282-2882.</p>
<p>I just want to remind you, I had to say this lickety-split in a brief amount of seconds as the previous hour closed. Title 8, United States code section 1373, which is the sanctuary city defunding provision, was signed into law on September 30th, 1996. Who was president then? That’s right. William Jefferson Blythe Clinton was president then. That’s how old the law is.</p>
<p>And look, just very briefly to rehash, Trump issued an executive order which did nothing but say that they were going to enforce Title 8 U.S. Code 1373. That’s all the executive order was. The judge had to invent a violation in order to issue a so-called stay. What the judge has done here is tried to get away with stopping a president from implementing existing federal law. And the judge, in his order, just conveniently happened to omit that the executive order mentions that they will only remove funding consistent to the extent of existing federal law.</p>
<p>The judge did not include that in his order of a stay, creating the illusion that Trump was behaving outside the Constitution, doing something nefarious, taking money away from cities that do wonderful things in social services for illegal immigrants and yada yada yada. It is truly outrageous what has happened here and what continues to happen with these liberal judges who are behaving purely and simply as though Trump is not legitimate, Trump has no authority, he in effect is not the president because of whatever. He’s insane, he’s crazy, he’s a maniac, he’s a bigot, the Russians stole the election, whatever.</p>
<p>And again, the judge had to invent a violation, and the violation the judge cites that the Trump executive order is guilty of is preenactment anxiety. San Francisco and Santa Clara are caused unnecessary and undue fear and anxiety simply based on the possibility that Trump might defund them under existing law. No money’s been taken away, no sanctuary city has been defunded, no move to defund has ever happened yet. All the executive order said was that we’re gonna start enforcing the law.</p>
<p>By the way, there has been a salutary effect here, and that is just the threat to enforce the law and the beginning of enforcing the law by ICE and the Border Patrol, there’s a rancher in Texas saying that border crossings — and he watches, he studies — they’re down 90% since Trump became president. Illegal immigration is down simply because Donald Trump has claimed, “If you violate the law and come here illegally, you’re going to be sent back.”</p>
<p>One more thing on this and I’m gonna move on. I just want to remind everybody again that the actions taken by the Trump administration on border enforcement, they do look, by comparison, really harsh. “Wow, ICE rounding up all these guys, sending ’em home. Holy smokes, the Border Patrol and ICE are really moving into gear.” The only thing that has changed in the last eight years is that existing law is being enforced.</p>
<p>The take-away here, my friends, is the reason all of this looks like it’s really over the top is because of how lax our enforcement of the law has been for eight years. There hasn’t been any, or very little. Obama has occasionally deported people and thumped his chest, “Look at me, I’m the deporter-in-chief, look at me, I’m enforcing,” but he hasn’t. He wasn’t doing a thing to stop illegal border crossings. The country was doing diddly-squat. Now that we are, it looks like, “Wow, massive new changes, and I know there hasn’t been a new law. What’s Trump doing?” They want you to think that Trump is a renegade behaving on his own without concern for the law.</p>
<p>Let me clarify one thing. When I said that the procedure here going to the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court is to guarantee that this judge wins, all I meant by that was that the Ninth Circuit is not gonna overturn the judge. If you pursue this legally, then you acknowledge the judge is legit. The judge is who is illegitimate here. The judge is the one playing the games with the law. The judge is one engaging in politics here, not Trump, not Jeff Sessions. The judge is.</p>
<p>And, by the way, this cockamamie stuff of trying to take statements made during a campaign by a candidate and then saying that those represent statements that can be legally considered and enforced before the guy was even president? Every one of these judges that stopped a Trump executive order has relied on that. For example, the first travel ban, there was no blanket ban of Muslims. But the judge in Seattle (imitating judge), “Well, Trump said, Trump said that he wanted to ban all Muslims, and I think as the judge that this is just the first step, so I’m shutting it down.”</p>
<p>But there is has never been presented an executive order or piece of legislation banning Muslims from the United States. Yet the judge, “Well, Trump wants to, he wants to.” And we’re making law out of this? We’re having legal decisions rendered based on these kinds of things?</p>
<p>They’re the ones, folks, that are way over the top here and way out of bounds. They are the ones who are behaving dictatorially and tyrannically, and they are the ones who are threatening the Constitution, not Donald Trump. It was Donald Trump portrayed as a tyrant, as a dictator, Trump was gonna do this or that. So far, it’s the people trying to stop Trump who are exhibiting that kind of extreme behavior.</p> | Sanctuary Cities Ruling Continues Troubling Trend | true | https://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/04/26/there-appears-to-be-a-coordinated-effort-by-the-judiciary-to-thwart-and-oppose-the-president-at-every-turn/ | 2017-04-26 | 0 |
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<p>NEW YORK - Shoppers spent more than $3 billion online this "Cyber Monday," making it the biggest online shopping day ever.</p>
<p>Research firm comScore said shopping by phone, tablet, laptop or tablet jumped 21 percent to $3.11 billion Monday.</p>
<p>The 10-year-old shopping holiday has lost some of its luster as retailers push sales forward on the calendar to Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Yet "Cyber Monday" has become engrained in the minds of enough shoppers and it endures as the top online spending day of the year.</p>
<p>Mobile spending, or sales via smartphones and tablets, jumped 53 percent to $838 million, making up 27 percent of total online spending. Top online shopping destinations included Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Target and Best Buy.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Record Cyber Monday spending tops $3 billion | false | https://abqjournal.com/684691/record-cyber-monday-spending-tops-3-billion.html | 2 |
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<p>This week, CNN’s Jake Tapper discusses Hillary Clinton’s false claim that FBI Director James Comey said her public statements about her handling of classified emails were “truthful.”</p>
<p>At a July 7 House Oversight Committee hearing, Comey <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?412315-1/fbi-director-james-comey-testifies-hillary-clinton-email-probe&amp;start=2037" type="external">told Congress</a>, “There was classified material emailed,” when he was specifically asked about Clinton’s statements. That contradicted Clinton’s statements that she, as secretary of state, did not send or receive classified email on her private server.</p>
<p>Comey did <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?412315-1/fbi-director-james-comey-testifies-hillary-clinton-email-probe&amp;start=1420" type="external">tell</a> committee members during the hearing that “we have no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI.” But when asked whether Clinton had been truthful with the American public, Comey responded, “That’s a question I’m not qualified to answer. I can speak about what she said to the FBI.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/08/04/fact-check-hillary-clinton-emails-jake-tapper-origwx-pk.cnn/video/playlists/jake-tapper-factcheck-org/" type="external">following video</a> is a collaboration between <a href="" type="internal">CNN’s “State of the Union” and FactCheck.org</a>, and is based on our Aug. 1 article “ <a href="" type="internal">Clinton’s Email Falsehood</a>.”</p> | Video: Clinton on Comey Comments | false | https://factcheck.org/2016/08/video-clinton-on-comey-comments/ | 2016-08-05 | 2 |
<p>BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ highest court has overturned an order granting a new trial to a man convicted of killing a 10-year-old Boston girl while shooting at rival gang members.</p>
<p>The Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in Joseph Cousin’s case on Thursday. The justices said a lower court was wrong when it ruled that an attorney for Cousin had an actual conflict of interest that warranted a new trial.</p>
<p>The SJC says the lower court must re-examine whether Cousin deserves a new trial, using a different standard.</p>
<p>Joseph Cousin was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2002 fatal shooting of Trina Persad as she and her siblings left a park in the Roxbury section of Boston.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said the girl was shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun Cousin fired.</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ highest court has overturned an order granting a new trial to a man convicted of killing a 10-year-old Boston girl while shooting at rival gang members.</p>
<p>The Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in Joseph Cousin’s case on Thursday. The justices said a lower court was wrong when it ruled that an attorney for Cousin had an actual conflict of interest that warranted a new trial.</p>
<p>The SJC says the lower court must re-examine whether Cousin deserves a new trial, using a different standard.</p>
<p>Joseph Cousin was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2002 fatal shooting of Trina Persad as she and her siblings left a park in the Roxbury section of Boston.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said the girl was shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun Cousin fired.</p> | Court nixes new trial for man convicted of girl’s killing | false | https://apnews.com/e4be0c4c961c45c29490e1ff1779d7bd | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
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<p>A federal judge lifted a protective order on the video of Cedrick Chatman's last seconds after the city - in a surprise about-face - dropped its longstanding opposition to making it public. Since the November release of video in a separate case showing a white officer shooting a black teenager 16 times in 2014, city leaders and the police department have come under intense scrutiny over cases of alleged misconduct amid calls for greater transparency.</p>
<p>In this image made from a surveillance video, a Chicago police officer, lower right corner of the frame, is seen aiming his gun at Cedrick Chatman, who is not pictured, during a foot chase on Jan. 7, 2013, in Chicago. (City of Chicago Law Department)</p>
<p>The video released Thursday was shot by several surveillance cameras and from various angles. It captured at least parts of the Jan. 7, 2013, incident in a South Shore neighborhood during daylight hours.</p>
<p>Overhead video from a blue-light police camera that city attorneys consider to be the primary footage shows Chatman bolt out of a car and across a street with Officer Lou Toth on his heels. Chatman scoots through parked cars and then toward a nearby intersection. Less than 10 seconds elapses from the time Chatman jumped out of the car to the fatal shots.</p>
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<p>Toth's partner, Officer Kevin Fry, can be seen trailing farther back, aiming his gun at Chatman from a crosswalk and firing as the teen began rounding the corner in front of a bodega. One video from a camera that pans back and forth is grainy and it doesn't show Chatman fall; another is clearer and shows Chatman fall, but it is taken from farther away and doesn't show definitively if Chatman ever turned.</p>
<p>Fry said in a 2014 deposition that he opened fire with his .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol out of fear for his own life and his partner's after Chatman "makes a slight turn" holding an object.</p>
<p>"It was a small black object, which I believed to be a handgun," Fry said.</p>
<p>Investigators said later the object was an iPhone box.</p>
<p>Chatman's mother filed a wrongful death suit against the city and the two police officers. Her attorney, Brian Coffman, says the teen never turned toward the officers and posed no threat.</p>
<p>Questions about the Chatman video follow the Nov. 24 release of another video showing white officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014. The city fought its release for more than a year, making it public only after a state court ordered it to do so. The video and the delay in releasing it led to protests, calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign and a federal civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department.</p>
<p>In his deposition, Toth said the officers had stopped the car Chatman was in after a radio report of a carjacking in progress, saying both officers drew their weapons immediately because they suspected the car of involvement in a serious crime.</p>
<p>Toth describes nearing the car before Chatman fled, shouting, "Police! Police! Put your hands up.'"</p>
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<p>Chatman's family had asked that the video be made public, arguing it would counter the city's narrative that Chatman posed a danger to police.</p>
<p>City attorneys, until Wednesday, fought to keep it under seal on grounds its release could taint any jury pool should the civil case go to trial. They said in a Wednesday court filing that the city was dropping its opposition in an effort to be more transparent while it waits for a recently created special task force to review policies regarding the release of videos showing disputed police shootings.</p>
<p>City attorney Jonathan Green told U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman Thursday that the legal basis for withholding videos remains sound. But he also said calculations about when to release footage has changed in the era of cellphone and security cameras.</p>
<p>"The city recognizes - that we are in a new world," he said. "We are making a policy change on behalf of the people of Chicago."</p>
<p>After Green spoke, Gettleman sharply criticized the city attorneys for suddenly changing their position on the video's release on policy, not legal grounds after spending weeks trying to prevent it.</p>
<p>"I went to a lot of trouble to decide this issue, and then I get this motion last night (Wednesday) saying that this is the Age of Enlightenment with the city and we're going to be transparent," Gettleman said. "I think it's irresponsible."</p>
<p>The Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police shootings, cleared the officer who shot Chatman of any wrongdoing. However, court filings allege that the agency cleared the officer only after an investigator who opposed that finding, Lorenzo Davis, was fired. Davis has filed a separate lawsuit about his dismissal. IPRA has declined to comment on Davis' case because the litigation is ongoing.</p>
<p>Coffman said Chatman's mother, whom he represents, wanted the public at large to see the video. But he said she wouldn't watch it: "She wants nothing to do with this video."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Don Babwin contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/mtarm" type="external">http://twitter.com/mtarm</a></p> | Video released of 2013 Chicago police shooting of black teen | false | https://abqjournal.com/706227/video-released-of-2013-chicago-police-shooting-of-black-teen.html | 2 |
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<p>Social Security taxes are one of only two itemized tax items that come out of Americans' paychecks, along with taxes for Medicare, and these are assessed differently than federal and state income taxes. Here's how much you'll pay in Social Security taxes in 2017, and how this may change in the coming years.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Here's the easy part. Social Security tax is assessed on earned income at a rate of 6.2%.</p>
<p>Technically speaking, the Social Security tax rate is 12.4%, but half of this amount is paid by the employee (you), and the other half is paid by your employer.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>Also, there is a maximum amount of income that can be subject to Social Security tax each year. As of this writing, this amount, also known as the Social Security wage base, is $127,200 for 2017. This amount is adjusted annually.</p>
<p>So, if you're a high earner, Social Security taxes might not be assessed on all of your income. Here are a couple of examples:</p>
<p>If you don't work for an employer, and have self-employment income, you are considered to be the employee and the employer for tax purposes. Therefore, you are responsible for paying both sides of the Social Security tax. Combined with the employee and employer portions of Medicare taxes, this is known as the self-employment tax.</p>
<p>For example, let's say that you run a consulting business and your IRS Schedule C shows business profit of $75,000. The employer and employee Social Security tax rates add up to 12.4%, as I mentioned, so you would pay $9,300 in Social Security tax for 2017.</p>
<p>It's also important to mention that the same $127,100 wage cap applies to the self-employed, which translates to a maximum Social Security tax of $15,772.80.</p>
<p>There are some potential ways around this. For instance, if a small business elects to be treated as an S-corp, some of the business income can be called a profit distribution, and Social Security tax is not assessed on this portion of the income. There are other considerations when choosing a business tax structure, and quite frankly, they are beyond the scope of this discussion. The point is that although self-employed individuals pay a total rate of 12.4% Social Security tax, not all self-employed people actually pay this rate on every single dollar of profit.</p>
<p>Finally, it's important to mention that the Social Security tax rate, or the maximum amount of taxable wages, can and probably will change in the future.</p>
<p>Simply put, Social Security will not be sustainable after 2034 without a major overhaul. In a nutshell, the program is expected to <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/07/18/social-security-myth-vs-reality.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">start paying out more than it's bringing in</a> over the next several years. And there are only two main ways to fix the problem -- benefit cuts or tax increases.</p>
<p>Benefit cuts are highly unpopular among the American public, and President Trump has vowed not to cut Social Security. On the other hand, the majority of Americans are actually willing to pay higher Social Security taxes if it means the program will be financially secure for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>Tax increases could take the form of an increase in the Social Security tax rate (say, to 7.2% or 8.2%, two popular proposals), or an increase or elimination of the taxable wage base. The exact reform package passed to fix Social Security, and when it will happen, is anyone's guess at this point. However, it's important to be aware that there's a real possibility that the Social Security tax rate or the taxable wage base -- or both -- could change in the coming years.</p>
<p>The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | How Much Will I Pay in Social Security Taxes? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/05/how-much-will-pay-in-social-security-taxes.html | 2017-03-17 | 0 |
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<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Senate will webcast all of its committee meetings and will archive the proceedings.</p>
<p>Democratic Senator Majority Leader Peter Wirth announced Tuesday that the legislative body will store recordings of the committee meetings online so citizens can watch them later.</p>
<p>The New Mexico Legislature has streamed committee meetings online but did not archive them.</p>
<p>State lawmakers are expected to hold a number of committee meetings on the state’s budget amid possible cuts.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | New Mexico Senate to archive webcast of committee meetings | false | https://abqjournal.com/930084/new-mexico-senate-to-archive-webcast-of-committee-meetings.html | 2 |
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<p>It was simply the next logical step, anticipated for nearly a week since President Obama made an <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2012/06/09/michael-tomasky-on-obama-s-gaffe-and-how-his-campaign-lost-its-groove.html" type="external">inartful gaffe</a> from the White House podium. The private sector, he said, was "doing fine," but the public sector could use some work.</p>
<p>Romney and the Republican party <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2012/06/08/romney-calls-obama-out-of-touch.html" type="external">quickly pounced</a>, putting the quote on an auto-loop and in campaign materials to portray the president as wholly <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2012/06/11/obama-romney-fight-over-who-s-more-clueless.html" type="external">out of touch</a>, and an untrustworthy steward of the economic recovery.</p>
<p>But campaigns are about contrasts and to the candidate who can draw the biggest contrast between sound thinking and utter foolishness usually go the spoils. Which is why Mitt Romney repackaged the Obama quote in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=8o8GSkkeXH0" type="external">new ad</a> released Thursday and appearing on TV in half a dozen swing states.</p>
<p>The ad showcases a series of negative employment statistics: <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2012/06/01/jobs-numbers-youch.html" type="external">23 million Americans don't have jobs</a>; unemployment has stubbornly stayed above 8 percent for more than three years; problems associated with underwater mortgages continue to mount.</p>
<p>Obama's response, the ad asks? You guessed it. "The private sector is doing fine."</p>
<p>The implicit message the Romney campaign wants to get across is that Obama simply can't govern with such a na've view. And Romney, by contrast, with his seasoned business experience running a successful company, can.</p>
<p>Considering Obama's poor choice of words in that moment - the private sector, by any objective measure, is not doing fine - the ad is a clean hit. Just as Romney has made statements that, taken as snippets, indict a recklessness or even foolishness (?I like being able to fire people,? or "corporations are people," to name two), Obama stepped in the cable news and Twitter trap. The damage may have been inadvertent, but it's also on the record and irreversible.</p>
<p>Yet as with anything, context matters, and Romney's ad doesn't go out of its way to parse Obama's actual intent. The president did, after all, clarify his statement about two hours later in the Oval Office during a bilateral meeting. "Listen," he said. "It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. That's the reason I had the press conference."</p>
<p>Aides, seeking to clean up the mess, argued to reporters that Obama didn't suggest the private sector, in its entirety, is just peachy and fully recovered. He was saying, officials claimed, that compared to unacceptable public sector job growth in local governments and municipalities that private sector upticks were continuing apace.</p>
<p>It isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last time during the campaign that a quote is ballooned to oversized importance to trap an opponent. But as Obama's aides scramble, some in the campaign's orbit privately admit that at least this ad was honest. In one ad last fall, Romney's campaign <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3a7FC0Jkv8" type="external">blatantly misattributed</a> a quote from Obama, effectively reversing his actual statement.</p>
<p>But politics is also about maintaining hold of the narrative. As Romney tries to drill Obama and raise money off of the president's six-word quote last week, the White House is more interested in changing the subject. Obama will travel to Ohio today, an obvious and central swing state, to reboot his campaign. The speech, aides say, won't be bashful about taking a swing at Romney.</p> | Romney Continues Assault on Obama's 'Doing Fine' Quote | true | https://thedailybeast.com/romney-continues-assault-on-obamas-doing-fine-quote | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>Sri Lanka opened a $292 million Chinese-funded airport highway on Sunday, amid Indian concern about Chinese influence as the island nation rebuilds after a nearly three-decade war.</p>
<p>Sri Lanka has invested heavily in infrastructure since the war ended in 2009 with defeat for separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.</p>
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<p>The new 25.6 km (16 mile) airport highway was built with a loan of $248.2 million from Exim Bank of China, with China Metallurgical Group Corporation as the contractor .</p>
<p>China provided weapons to Sri Lanka in the final phase of the civil war and President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has awarded more than $4 billion worth of infrastructure projects to China, mainly with Chinese loans.</p>
<p>India, Sri Lanka's giant neighbor, shared intelligence with Colombo late in the war, but has also asked Rajapaksa to seek a political solution to the conflict's root causes.</p>
<p>Rajapaksa's government has come under heavy pressure from the West and human rights groups for alleged war crimes.</p>
<p>The Sri Lankan president, responding to Indian concerns over Chinese commercial deals, has said the relationship with China is more commercial than political in nature.</p>
<p>Sri Lanka has planned over $6 billion worth of projects, including airports and sea ports, highways, coal and hydro power plants and railways, mainly to be funded by Chinese loans.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Alistair Lyon)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Sri Lanka opens $292 million Chinese-funded airport highway | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2013/10/27/sri-lanka-opens-22-million-chinese-funded-airport-highway.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
<p>Alphabet Inc. announced Monday that is has added Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai to its board. In a reorganization two years ago that created the Alphabet umbrella corporation, Google cofounder Larry Page became the CEO of Alphabet and Pichai rose to lead the most important Alphabet asset, Google. Since then, Pichai has become one of the most prominent Alphabet executives in public events and earnings calls, along with Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, and could be the highest paid CEO in the U.S. "Sundar has been doing a great job as Google's CEO, driving strong growth, partnerships, and tremendous product innovation," Page said in <a href="https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2017/0724.html" type="external">Monday's announcement Opens a New Window.</a>. "I really enjoy working with him and I'm excited that he is joining the Alphabet board." Alphabet is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings after the market closes Monday, and shares were bouncing between slight gains and losses in Monday trading.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Alphabet Adds Google CEO Sundar Pichai To Board | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/24/alphabet-adds-google-ceo-sundar-pichai-to-board.html | 2017-07-25 | 0 |
<p>JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville's locker room was abuzz late last season. Four guys played table tennis while others crowded around a small table for dominoes. Two 80-inch televisions were tuned to a sports highlight show, and music blared from one corner of the room.</p>
<p>Doug Marrone, the team's offensive line coach at the time, walked through and shook his head.</p>
<p>"Can you believe this?" Marrone whispered.</p>
<p>The Jaguars were in the middle of a nine-game losing streak that would ultimately cost coach Gus Bradley his job. Marrone had watched from afar for two years, witnessing an atmosphere he felt was too loose, too laid-back and too lenient amid losing.</p>
<p>So when Marrone was hired to replace Bradley last January, high on his to-do list was to change the culture in Jacksonville. His success is one reason the Jaguars (12-6) are in the <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/jaguars-jalen-ramsey-tells-fans-were-going-super-bowl" type="external">AFC championship game</a> against New England (14-3).</p>
<p>The ping pong table was the first to go. Dominoes followed. The locker room stalls were overhauled, too, with Marrone mixing and matching position groups and putting certain players next to veteran leaders and/or NFL role models.</p>
<p>"We definitely threw a tantrum," Pro Bowl defensive tackle Malik Jackson said. "Went in there and talked to him about it. Definitely wasn't happy. I learned just to be quiet, you know, and go with the flow. He's been at it longer than I have, and I'm just the football player. He says do this and I go do it. Just learn to follow him, and I'm glad I did."</p>
<p>Marrone saved the most significant changes for the practice fields.</p>
<p>Marrone, top executive Tom Coughlin and general manager Dave Caldwell wanted a much tougher and more physical team. They <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/jaguars-draft-fournette-put-ball-end-zone" type="external">drafted bruising running back Leonard Fournette</a> and fiery left tackle Cam Robinson to complement a defense that was <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/ap-source-jaguars-upgrade-defense-trio-free-agents" type="external">significantly beefed up</a> in free agency with the addition of All-Pro pass-rusher Calais Campbell, Pro Bowl cornerback A.J. Bouye and veteran safety Barry Church.</p>
<p>They also designed an offseason program that was more grueling than most players had experienced. Marrone's message was clear: Go hard or go home.</p>
<p>"You remember guys in camp talking about this took a few years off their lives," Jackson said. "It's pretty funny just to see us now. I guess he does know what he's doing."</p>
<p>The Jaguars were in full pads nearly every day during training camp, a tortuous stretch in draining heat and humidity that left rookies and veterans questioning the process and wondering if it would pay off. It was the NFL's version of boot camp. Break them down, then build them up.</p>
<p>It ultimately brought players closer, making them accountable to each other and causing them to care more for each other. Winning was the final piece, and thumping Houston 29-7 in the season opener was all the proof players needed.</p>
<p>"It was the toughest training camp I've ever been a part of," said linebacker Paul Posluszny, in his 11th season. "Coach Marrone would talk to us and say, 'Listen, I have a plan and you have to trust me.' With that, guys were able to say, 'OK, we haven't gotten what we wanted in years past doing things a certain way, so we have to buy in, trust the head man and know that that'll bring us success when it's time.'</p>
<p>"It was difficult just because of so many changes from what we were used to. I think the most important thing is we always said, 'Well, if it helps us win, then it's all good.'"</p>
<p>Jacksonville had lost 63 of 80 games over the previous five seasons — the worst record in the NFL during that span — and had been through two coaching changes.</p>
<p>Coughlin's return was a key part of the team's revival, and although the two-time Super Bowl-winning coach with the New York Giants <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/jaguars-owner-praises-tom-coughlin-backs-blake-bortles" type="external">gets much of the outside credit</a> for the team's turnaround, the reality is Marrone was the one pushing all the right buttons.</p>
<p>Marrone has been other places where players resisted, prompting personnel moves that would slow progress. That wasn't the case in Jacksonville, and he credited his players for being open to change.</p>
<p>"They gave our staff the opportunity to say, 'This is what we want to do. This is what we believe in as coaches or as an organization. This is how we want to handle ourselves,'" Marrone said. "We are still working toward that. It is not perfect by any means."</p>
<p>It's clearly working, though. The Jaguars are in the title game for the third time in franchise history, one victory away from their first Super Bowl appearance.</p>
<p>"They say (stuff) rolls downhill," Jackson said. "Well, the good stuff rolls downhill, too. ... It's all worth it when you win."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NFL coverage: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">http://www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p>
<p>JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville's locker room was abuzz late last season. Four guys played table tennis while others crowded around a small table for dominoes. Two 80-inch televisions were tuned to a sports highlight show, and music blared from one corner of the room.</p>
<p>Doug Marrone, the team's offensive line coach at the time, walked through and shook his head.</p>
<p>"Can you believe this?" Marrone whispered.</p>
<p>The Jaguars were in the middle of a nine-game losing streak that would ultimately cost coach Gus Bradley his job. Marrone had watched from afar for two years, witnessing an atmosphere he felt was too loose, too laid-back and too lenient amid losing.</p>
<p>So when Marrone was hired to replace Bradley last January, high on his to-do list was to change the culture in Jacksonville. His success is one reason the Jaguars (12-6) are in the <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/jaguars-jalen-ramsey-tells-fans-were-going-super-bowl" type="external">AFC championship game</a> against New England (14-3).</p>
<p>The ping pong table was the first to go. Dominoes followed. The locker room stalls were overhauled, too, with Marrone mixing and matching position groups and putting certain players next to veteran leaders and/or NFL role models.</p>
<p>"We definitely threw a tantrum," Pro Bowl defensive tackle Malik Jackson said. "Went in there and talked to him about it. Definitely wasn't happy. I learned just to be quiet, you know, and go with the flow. He's been at it longer than I have, and I'm just the football player. He says do this and I go do it. Just learn to follow him, and I'm glad I did."</p>
<p>Marrone saved the most significant changes for the practice fields.</p>
<p>Marrone, top executive Tom Coughlin and general manager Dave Caldwell wanted a much tougher and more physical team. They <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/jaguars-draft-fournette-put-ball-end-zone" type="external">drafted bruising running back Leonard Fournette</a> and fiery left tackle Cam Robinson to complement a defense that was <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/ap-source-jaguars-upgrade-defense-trio-free-agents" type="external">significantly beefed up</a> in free agency with the addition of All-Pro pass-rusher Calais Campbell, Pro Bowl cornerback A.J. Bouye and veteran safety Barry Church.</p>
<p>They also designed an offseason program that was more grueling than most players had experienced. Marrone's message was clear: Go hard or go home.</p>
<p>"You remember guys in camp talking about this took a few years off their lives," Jackson said. "It's pretty funny just to see us now. I guess he does know what he's doing."</p>
<p>The Jaguars were in full pads nearly every day during training camp, a tortuous stretch in draining heat and humidity that left rookies and veterans questioning the process and wondering if it would pay off. It was the NFL's version of boot camp. Break them down, then build them up.</p>
<p>It ultimately brought players closer, making them accountable to each other and causing them to care more for each other. Winning was the final piece, and thumping Houston 29-7 in the season opener was all the proof players needed.</p>
<p>"It was the toughest training camp I've ever been a part of," said linebacker Paul Posluszny, in his 11th season. "Coach Marrone would talk to us and say, 'Listen, I have a plan and you have to trust me.' With that, guys were able to say, 'OK, we haven't gotten what we wanted in years past doing things a certain way, so we have to buy in, trust the head man and know that that'll bring us success when it's time.'</p>
<p>"It was difficult just because of so many changes from what we were used to. I think the most important thing is we always said, 'Well, if it helps us win, then it's all good.'"</p>
<p>Jacksonville had lost 63 of 80 games over the previous five seasons — the worst record in the NFL during that span — and had been through two coaching changes.</p>
<p>Coughlin's return was a key part of the team's revival, and although the two-time Super Bowl-winning coach with the New York Giants <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/jaguars-owner-praises-tom-coughlin-backs-blake-bortles" type="external">gets much of the outside credit</a> for the team's turnaround, the reality is Marrone was the one pushing all the right buttons.</p>
<p>Marrone has been other places where players resisted, prompting personnel moves that would slow progress. That wasn't the case in Jacksonville, and he credited his players for being open to change.</p>
<p>"They gave our staff the opportunity to say, 'This is what we want to do. This is what we believe in as coaches or as an organization. This is how we want to handle ourselves,'" Marrone said. "We are still working toward that. It is not perfect by any means."</p>
<p>It's clearly working, though. The Jaguars are in the title game for the third time in franchise history, one victory away from their first Super Bowl appearance.</p>
<p>"They say (stuff) rolls downhill," Jackson said. "Well, the good stuff rolls downhill, too. ... It's all worth it when you win."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NFL coverage: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">http://www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p> | Jags 'threw a tantrum' when Marrone started making changes | false | https://apnews.com/amp/0bca4afd95784f91b31b93acb6b546a5 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p>By Alex Kirby, Climate News NetworkThis piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2014/01/parts-of-europe-5c-warmer-by-2100/" type="external">Climate News Network</a>.</p>
<p>LONDON — With exquisite timing, as parts of Europe endure the worst storms for decades, researchers have issued a highly topical warning.</p>
<p>By the end of this century, they say, summer temperatures in parts of southern Europe are expected to be up to 5°C higher than they were from 1961 to 1990, with droughts inevitably becoming more frequent and intense, because of both climate change and increased water use.</p>
<p>The researchers, from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the University of Kassel in Germany, have published their findings in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The scientific article is available online, free of charge.</p>
<p />
<p>“Our research shows that many river basins, especially in southern parts of Europe, are likely to become more prone to periods of reduced water supply due to climate change”, says Giovanni Forzieri, a researcher in climate risk management at the JRC and lead author of the study. In Europe the cost of drought over the last three decades has totalled over €100 billion (£83 bn).</p>
<p>The researchers wanted to find out if and where in Europe increasing temperatures and intensive water consumption could make future droughts more severe and long-lasting.</p>
<p>Marked regional differences</p>
<p>To do this they analysed climate and hydrological models under different scenarios up to 2100. They then used these projected conditions to drive a hydrological model that mimics the distribution and flow of water on Earth. By running this model until 2100 for all river basins in Europe, they could evaluate how drought conditions may change in magnitude and severity over the 21st century.</p>
<p>The research shows that southern Europe will be the most affected. Stream and river minimum flow levels may be up to 40% lower, with periods of water shortage up to 80% more frequent because of climate change alone in the Iberian Peninsula, the south of France, Italy and the Balkans.</p>
<p>Higher temperatures will result in more water evaporating from soil, trees and water and will also mean more frequent and prolonged dry spells. The emission scenario used in the study predicts that average global temperature will increase by up to 3.4°C by 2100 above the years 1961 to 1990.</p>
<p>But regional rises are liable to be significantly greater, as for example in the case of the Iberian Peninsula, says Luc Feyen, a hydrologist at JRC and co-author of the paper.</p>
<p>Spreading effects</p>
<p>Apart from climate warming, intensive water use will also worsen drought conditions by 10-30% in southern Europe, as well as in the west and centre of the continent, and in some parts of the UK.</p>
<p>In 2010 a study by the US National Center for Atmospheric Research projected serious drought impacts by the 2030s, and suggested those by the end of the century could surpass anything in the historical record.</p>
<p>In 2012 a report by the European Environment Agency, Vulnerability to Water Scarcity and Drought in Europe – ETC/ICM Technical Report 3/2012, said there had been an observable increase in the number of countries affected by drought each decade from 1971 to 2011.</p>
<p>The occurrence of drought had increased significantly in the decade from 2001, not only in southern and central parts of the European Union, but in the northern and eastern parts of the bloc as well.</p>
<p /> | Parts of Europe ‘5°C Warmer’ by 2100 | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/parts-of-europe-5c-warmer-by-2100/ | 2014-01-13 | 4 |
<p />
<p>In 2015, U.S. e-commerce sales clocked in at $342 billion, a 14.6% increase over 2014. That number continues to grow, and logistics companies like United Parcel Service and FedEx have already seen their business models called into question by this new trend. So how important is e-commerce to these two companies? Let's take a look.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: United Parcel Service</p>
<p>E-commerce wasn't just briefly mentioned in UPS' most recent quarterly report -- it was the primary reason the <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/05/3-things-united-parcel-service-management-wants-yo.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">company reported increased sales Opens a New Window.</a>. CEO and Director David Abney noted during the conference call that "consumer spending remains the primary catalyst for growth in the economy, and e-commerce sales have again exceeded the expectations." Not only is e-commerce increasing sales, but UPS also attributed its growing margins and increased U.S. profit directly to the trend. It's proven especially important for the company's B2C (business-to-consumer) shipments, but B2B (business-to-business) has also benefited.</p>
<p>But the news isn't all good. E-commerce customers demand low prices, and UPS CCO Alan Gershenhornalso noted during its latest earnings call Q&amp;A that "the real challenge is obviously low-cost e-commerce delivery." Same-day deliveries and peak holiday season shipping surges can boost costs for UPS, even if they increase sales at the same time. United Parcel Service is constantly reevaluating its business to accommodate for these shifts, and hopes that its suite of customer offerings will continue to provide a preferred channel for all its customers' e-commerce needs.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Image source: FedEx Corporation.</p>
<p>FedEx is <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/06/better-buy-fedex-corporation-vs-ups.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">more growth-focused Opens a New Window.</a> than United Parcel Service, its biggest competitor, which means it's been investing heavily to make the most of e-commerce growth. FedEx has been actively pouring billions into its ground network as it's benefited from fulfilling the orders of e-commerce companies like Amazon.com . In its latest earnings statement, FedEx noted that its average daily volume for its ground segment grew 11%, primarily as a result of B2C e-commerce demand.</p>
<p>However, some are worried that FedEx's e-commerce strategy is too focused on an uncertain future. Since Amazon.com announced in March that it would lease 20 cargo planes to help move its own merchandise, investors have questioned whether FedEx is preparing for demand it will never see.</p>
<p>But Amazon.com has noted that it's not trying to compete with FedEx or UPS, and FedEx noted that Amazon.com's jet leasing announcement was no surprise to the company. "We work closely with Amazon and have been aware for some time about their need for supplemental air capacity related to inventory management," said FedEx Senior Vice President Patrick Fitzgerald in a statement. "Amazon continues to be a valuable FedEx customer." And if Amazon.com did suddenly end all orders with FedEx, investors could sleep easy knowing that FedEx recently disclosed that its largest (unnamed) customer makes up less than 4% of its total sales.</p>
<p>In fact, FedEx Chairman Fred Smith had some choice words on his company's latest earnings call for those who believe Amazon.com will destroy UPS and FedEx:</p>
<p>FedEx estimates that more than 95% of all e-commerce orders in the U.S. are delivered by itself, United Parcel Service, and/or USPS. That's not just a majority -- it's essentially the entirety. Neither FedEx nor UPS is denying that e-commerce is an exciting new opportunity in the logistics business. But both companies also seem confident that e-commerce isn't the make-or-break business for their future profits. While companies like Amazon.com will continue to shape our retail habits, FedEx and UPS will likely serve as essential allies in ensuring those economic transactions ultimately end at our doorstep.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/15/how-important-is-e-commerce-to-ups-and-fedex.aspx" type="external">How Important Is E-Commerce to UPS and FedEx? Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFJLo/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Justin Loiseau Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Amazon.com and United Parcel Service and just ordered some incredibly comfortable socks online. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com and FedEx. The Motley Fool recommends United Parcel Service. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Important Is E-Commerce to UPS and FedEx? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/15/how-important-is-e-commerce-to-ups-and-fedex.html | 2016-05-15 | 0 |
<p>We’ve all caught the fever, every one of us who works to send boats to Gaza. From August 2006, when a handful of us started the Free Gaza Movement, every one who has joined us has been stricken with a bad case of the disease. It is chronic. It sometimes causes afflicted patients to insist that if just one more voyage can be planned to this small slice of the Mediterranean, we’ll all be in remission. There is no real cure in sight… yet.</p>
<p>Gaza Fever has now attacked thousands of us who have a passionate sense of justice.</p>
<p>The disease began shortly after Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, as a group of us were in despair that the Palestinians, once again, were the forgotten symptom of Israel’s grand designs. As the world watched the defeat of Israel by a small band of guerrilla fighters in Lebanon, Israel decided it would take its wrath out on the Palestinians, specifically the Palestinians of Gaza. We watched as Israel, in January 2009, deliberately bombed 1.5 million Palestinians into abject poverty, a man-made catastrophe bordering on genocide.</p>
<p>One man in Australia suggested we sail a boat from New York to Gaza in protest of the closures there. That small idea has grown into a flotilla that leaves at the end of May with 700 people on board nine ships.</p>
<p>We, who have traveled by boat to Gaza, come back changed, blisters of outrage forever marking us. Those who have supported us through donations, letters, outraged picketing in front of Israeli Embassies demanding Israel stop its war crimes against a civilian population are also changed, as they watched our small boats sail into Gaza five times, cheering us on our way. Then, when our last three missions were violently stopped by Israel, thousands stepped up and donated to help us buy new boats.</p>
<p>In July 2009, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_titles#Tun" type="external">Tun</a> Dr.Mahathir bin Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, and his wife, Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah bin Mohamad visited the Free Gaza Movement in Cyprus. They had heard about the voyages to Gaza and what Israel had done to the last three, ramming the Dignity, turning one back under threat of fire and hijacking the Spirit of Humanity, kidnapping the 21 human rights observers and throwing them into detention for a week.</p>
<p>He wanted to come and see for himself the small fishing boat that had been, in August 2008, Free Gaza’s first vessel to enter the port of Gaza in 41 years. When he and his wife stepped on this small vessel, he was shocked. “You went all the way to Gaza on this small boat? You braved the sea in a boat that was barely seaworthy?”</p>
<p>When we replied that, indeed, we had crossed the sea in not only this small boat, but one even smaller, 44 of us challenging Israel’s blockade on the 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza, he caught Gaza Fever.</p>
<p>“You need a proper boat,” he said. “I’m going back to my people in Malaysia and see how we can help you raise money to send more boats back to Gaza.”</p>
<p>And that’s exactly what he and his wife did.</p>
<p>They went back to their citizens and, through the Perdana Global Peace Organization, helped to raise over €300,000 for the Free Gaza to purchase a cargo ship and two passenger boats. These are the boats we are sailing to Gaza beginning mid-May.</p>
<p>And when the Irish cargo boat sailed out of Dundalk, it was because of the passion for justice that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_titles#Tun" type="external">Tun</a> Dr.Mahathir and his wife, Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah have for the occupied Palestinians and the determination of the members of the Free Gaza Movement.</p>
<p>Malaysia and Ireland and the people who represent this mission embody civil society at its best.</p>
<p>Now our four boats will rendezvous in the Mediterranean with boats from the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), Ship to Gaza Greece, Ship to Gaza Sweden, and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza.</p>
<p>We’re named the Freedom Flotilla and we sail to deliver reconstruction supplies, paper, medical equipment and toys for the children. The fever has spread to other organizations and other countries.</p>
<p>Will there be a cure?…only if their fishermen can fish without being shot and murdered, only if their farmers can harvest their crops without Israeli military vehicles burning down their wheat, only if Gaza has the same rights as every country on the Mediterranean… the right to free and open trade with the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Then and only then will our severe case of Gaza Fever be cured.</p>
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<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
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<p /> | Gaza Fever | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/05/18/gaza-fever/ | 2010-05-18 | 4 |
<p>Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, took notes about “donations” at the now-infamous Trump Tower&#160;meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign, NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/manafort-notes-russian-meet-contain-cryptic-reference-donations-n797816" type="external">reported</a> on Thursday.</p>
<p>Citing two unnamed sources briefed on “evidence,” NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/manafort-notes-russian-meet-contain-cryptic-reference-donations-n797816" type="external">reported</a>&#160;that Manafort <a href="" type="internal">took notes</a> on a smart phone during the&#160;meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer linked to the Kremlin, that Donald Trump, Jr. had arranged after being promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign.</p>
<p>Manafort’s notes included the word “donations” close to the abbreviation “RNC,” or Republican National Committee, according to the report, which didn’t provide further context.</p>
<p>Rinat Akhmetshin, a&#160;Russian-American lobbyist who also attended the meeting, <a href="" type="internal">told</a> the Associated Press in July that&#160;Veselnitskaya presented Trump Jr. and the other attendees at the meeting with documents detailing what she <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-lawyer-who-met-trump-jr-i-didn-t-have-n781631" type="external">claimed</a> was a flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee.</p>
<p>NBC News previously had reported that Veselnitskaya thinks&#160;she&#160;attracted&#160;the Trump campaign’s interest because she had&#160;“details about a company run by a former U.S. citizen” that she believes “didn’t pay taxes in either Russia or the U.S. and may also have made donations to the D.N.C.”</p>
<p>Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is <a href="" type="internal">looking</a> into Trump Jr.’s meeting with Veselnitskaya, which the President’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner also attended.</p>
<p>Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloni told TPM by email that Manafort gave his notes to the Senate Intelligence Committee.</p>
<p>“It is 100 percent false to suggest this meeting included any discussion of donations from Russian sources to either the Trump campaign or the Republican Party,” Maloni said. “This speculation and conjecture is pointless and wrong.”</p>
<p>This post has been updated.</p> | NBC: In Meeting With Russian Lawyer, Manafort Took Notes About ‘Donations’ | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nbc-news-reports-manafort-took-notes-on-donations-russian-lawyer | 4 |
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<p>An independent commission established by Congress has found that the Defense Department is not adequately equipping and funding the National Guard. Roughly 90 percent of U.S. National Guard units are designated "not ready." The commission determined that the Guard is <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070302/ts_nm/usa_guard_dc" type="external">ill-prepared</a> to meet its obligation to defend the homeland and respond rapidly and effectively in a crisis.</p>
<p>Reuters:</p>
<p>The report said the global war on terrorism had placed increased demands for the National Guard to provide forces for both overseas and domestic missions, but added that the Defense Department, or DOD, had been slow to adapt to the change.</p>
<p>"DOD's failure to appropriately consider National Guard needs and funding requirements has produced a National Guard that is not fully ready to meet current and emerging missions," the commission concluded.</p>
<p />
<p>Among its findings, the 13-member panel said the Defense Department was not adequately equipping the Guard for its domestic missions.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070302/ts_nm/usa_guard_dc" type="external">Read more</a></p> | 90 Percent of Guard Units 'Not Ready' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/90-percent-of-guard-units-not-ready/ | 2007-03-02 | 4 |
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<p>&#160;</p> | Friends Like These | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/11/03/friends-like-these/ | 2008-11-03 | 4 |
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<p>Deputies from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office found Jeffrey Darling at approximately 5:30 p.m. Thursday and transported him to the San Juan Regional Medical Center.</p>
<p>Roberta Rogers, a marketing manager at the San Juan Regional Medical Center, said Friday that Darling was in serious condition and unable to speak about the incident.</p>
<p>Darling used his cell phone to call emergency dispatch at approximately 1 a.m. Tuesday, reporting that he was in distress, but his exact location could not be ascertained. He remained in contact with dispatch until approximately 8:30 a.m., when it is assumed that his cell phone battery died.</p>
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<p>Deputy Chief Craig Daugherty of the San Juan County Fire Department said that local first responders searched large swaths of San Juan County and parts of the Navajo Nation on Tuesday, but to no avail.</p>
<p>“When we started the search, we didn’t have much to go on,” Daugherty said. “We were scattered all across the place trying to find him.”</p>
<p>Darling told dispatchers that he was near some cottonwood trees, a bridge and a building, Daugherty said. Darling’s phone was further traced to a location on the Navajo Nation.</p>
<p>“The information we had was real sketchy,” he said. “Late Tuesday evening, we finally halted the search because it got dark on us, and we determined that we were basically chasing a needle in a haystack.”</p>
<p>Sheriff’s Detective Lt. Cory Tanner said it was incredible that Darling managed to survive the three-day ordeal.</p>
<p>“He survived the coldest nights of winter we’ve had so far,” Tanner said.</p>
<p>Tanner said deputies believe that Darling, who had vision problems, stepped off a cliff located about 300 yards from where he was found and slid down a ravine.</p>
<p>Deputies found evidence that Darling actually managed to build a fire where he fell, Tanner said, and it was apparent to first responders that he had suffered extensive leg injuries.</p>
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<p>Tanner said that it did not appear that Darling had access to food or water where he fell, and he told medics he badly needed both when he was found.</p>
<p>Detective Sgt. Brandon Lane of the Farmington Police Department said his division is investigating the incident, but he believe Darling’s injuries were the result of an accidental fall.</p>
<p>Steve Garrison covers crime and courts for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4644 and [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @SteveGarrisonDT on Twitter.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2014 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>
<p>Topics: t000002458,t000027866,t000196710,g000362659,g000362661,g000215302,g000217873,g000066164</p> | Missing man crawls to safety after three-day ordeal | false | https://abqjournal.com/500939/missing-man-crawls-to-safety-after-three-day-ordeal.html | 2 |
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<p>“Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.”</p>
<p>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn</p>
<p>When Bush decided, prior to September 11, to attack Iraq, he committed himself to lies and deceit. As his British co-conspirators realized, only victory could save them from the consequences.</p>
<p>On June 27, General George Casey, US commander of the “multinational coalition” in Iraq, told morning TV audiences that the conflict in Iraq “will not be settled on the battlefield.” On June 26, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told TV audiences that “coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency.” The insurgency, Rumsfeld said, might “go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years.”</p>
<p>These admissions give the lie to Vice President Cheney’s claim that the insurgency is in “its last throes.”</p>
<p>Would Congress have let Bush invade Iraq if Congress had known that it would not be a 3-week war but a 12-year war?</p>
<p>What kind of fantastic lie or gross incompetence caused a 12-year war to be marketed as a 3-week war?</p>
<p>How can any people, no matter how deceived and deluded, support a government capable of such miscalculation or deceit?</p>
<p>Would the Washington Post and the New York Times have been such willing conduits of neoconservative propaganda against Iraq it anyone on either paper had enough education to realize the catastrophe that hubris was creating? What if either paper had possessed enough of a reporter’s skepticism to ask a question?</p>
<p>General Casey’s and Secretary Rumsfeld’s remarks make it clear that the Defense Department has given up the prospect of military victory: The situation in Iraq, Gen. Casey said, “will ultimately be settled by negotiation and inclusion in the political process.” Rumsfeld says the US troops are being killed and maimed in order to “create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win against that insurgency.”</p>
<p>After three years of fighting, Rumsfeld still doesn’t understand that the Iraqi people are the insurgency. Is Rumsfeld still clinging to the myth that the insurgency is an outside element injected into Iraq?</p>
<p>When will the moronic Bush administration realize that it is creating the environment in which the insurgency is prevailing?</p>
<p>Many readers write to me that Bush and his neocon crazies are Israel’s patsies. An equally good case can be made that Bush and his crazy neocons are Osama bin Laden’s agents. In a recent speech at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, Secretary of State Condi Rice repudiated America’s 60-year old policy of Middle East stability and declared: “Now, we are taking a different course.”</p>
<p>Rice, being completely ignorant of the Middle East, believes that the path to democracy is through instability. But, of course, instability is exactly what bin Laden wants. The instability that the Bush administration is creating will unseat our puppets in Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden intends to pick up the pieces.</p>
<p>The Bush administration has squandered America’s diplomatic, economic, and military power and is heading for defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the Middle East. Bush’s invasion of Iraq is fast becoming one of the greatest strategic blunders in history.</p>
<p>PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of <a href="" type="internal">The Tyranny of Good Intentions</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | A Defeat Bred in Deceit | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/06/28/a-defeat-bred-in-deceit/ | 2005-06-28 | 4 |
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