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<p>Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian Studies and Politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at&#160; <a href="https://www.thenation.com/authors/stephen-f-cohen/" type="external">TheNation.com</a>.)</p>
<p>Cohen first raised the question of “Intelgate,” perhaps coining the word, in the first half of 2017. He returns to it here.</p>
<p />
<p>Referring to the memo whose preparation was overseen by Republican Congressman Devin Nunes and whose release was authorized by President Trump, and to similar reports likely to come, Cohen, having for years researched Soviet-era archive materials (once highly classified), understands the difficulties involved in summarizing such secret documents, especially when they have been generated by intelligence agencies. They must be put in the larger political context of the time, which can be fully understood only by using other sources as well, including open ones; and they may be contradicted by other classified materials not yet available.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the “Republican memo,” as it has become known while we await its Democratic counterpart, indicates that some kind of operation against presidential candidate and then President Trump, an “investigation,” has been under way among top officials of US intelligence agencies for a long time. The memo focuses on questionable methods used by Obama’s FBI and Justice Department to obtain a warrant permitting them to surveil Carter Page, a peripheral and short-tenured Trump foreign-policy adviser, and the role played in this by the anti-Trump “dossier” complied by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer whose career specialization was Russia. But the memo’s implications are even larger.</p>
<p>Steele’s dossier, which alleged that Trump had been compromised by the Kremlin in various ways for several years even preceding his presidential candidacy, was the foundational document of the Russiagate narrative, at least from the time its installments began to be leaked to the American media in the summer of 2016, to the US “Intelligence Community Assessment” of January 2017 (when&#160;BuzzFeed&#160;also published the dossier), the same month that FBI Director James Comey “briefed” President-elect Trump on the dossier—apparently in an effort to intimidate him—and on to today’s Mueller investigation.</p>
<p>Even though both have been substantially challenged for their lack of verifiable evidence, the dossier and subsequent ICA report remain the underlying sources for proponents of the Russiagate narrative of “Trump-Putin collision.” The memo and dossier are now being subjected to close (if partisan) scrutiny, much of it focused on the Clinton campaign’s having financed Steele’s work through his employer, Fusion GPS. But two crucial and ramifying question are not, Cohen argues, being explored: Exactly when, and by whom, was this Intel operation against Trump started? And exactly where did Steele get the “information” that he was filing in periodic installments and that grew into the dossier? In order to defend itself against the memo’s charge that it used Steele’s unverified dossier to open its investigation into Trump’s associates, the FBI claims it was prompted instead by a May 2016 report of remarks made earlier by another lowly Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, to an Australian ambassador in a London bar. Even leaving aside the ludicrous nature of this episode, the public record shows it is not true. In testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in May 2017, John Brennan, formerly Obama’s head of the CIA, strongly suggested that he and his agency were the first,&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-director-warned-russian-security-service-chief-about-interference-in-election/2017/05/23/ebff2a7e-3fbb-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_term=.06c2fbe95956" type="external">as&#160;The&#160;Washington Post&#160;put it at the time</a>, “in triggering an FBI probe.” Certainly both the&#160;Post&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/politics/russia-trump-manafort-flynn.html" type="external">and&#160;The New York Times</a>&#160;interpreted his remarks in this way. Equally certain, Brennan played a central role in promoting the Russiagate narrative thereafter,&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/obama-putin-election-hacking/?utm_term=.4aac550d4728" type="external">briefing members of Congress privately and giving President Obama himself a top-secret envelope</a>&#160;in early August 2016 that almost certainly contained Steele’s dossier. Early on, Brennan presumably would have shared his “suspicions” and initiatives with James Clapper, director of national intelligence. FBI Director Comey, distracted by his mangling of the Clinton private-server affair during the presidential campaign, may have joined them actively somewhat later. But when he did so publicly, in his March 2017 testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, it was as J. Edgar Hoover reincarnate—as the nation’s number-one expert on Russia and its profound threat to America (though, when asked, he said he had never heard of Gazprom, the giant Russian-state energy company often said to be a major pillar of President Putin’s power).</p>
<p>The question therefore becomes: When did Brennan begin his “investigation” of Trump? His House testimony leaves this somewhat unclear, but,&#160; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-spot-trump-team-links-russia" type="external">according to a subsequent Guardian&#160;article</a>, by late 2015 or early 2016 he was receiving, or soliciting, reports from foreign intelligence agencies regarding “suspicious ‘interactions’ between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents.”</p>
<p>In short, if these reports and Brennan’s own testimony are to be believed, he, not the FBI, was the instigator and godfather of Russiagate. Certainly, his subsequent frequent and vociferous public retelling of the Russiagate allegations against Trump suggest that he played a (and probably&#160;the) instigating role. And, it seems, a role in the Steele dossier as well.</p>
<p>Where, then, Cohen asks, did Steele get his information? According to Steele and his many stenographers—which include his American employers, Democratic Party Russiagaters, the mainstream media, and even progressive publications—it came from his “deep connections in Russia,”&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/us/politics/christopher-steele-dossier-judiciary-committee.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fnicholas-fandos&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement" type="external">specifically from retired and current Russian intelligence officials in or near the Kremlin</a>. From the moment the dossier began to be leaked to the American media, this seemed highly implausible (as reporters who took his bait should have known) for several reasons:</p>
<p>● Steele has not returned to Russia after leaving his post there in the early 1990s. Since then, the main Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, has undergone many personnel and other changes, especially after 2000, and especially in or near Putin’s Kremlin. Did Steele really have such “connections” so many years later?</p>
<p>● Even if he did, would these purported Russian insiders really have collaborated with this “former” British intelligence agent under what is so widely said to be the ever-vigilant eye of the ruthless “former KGB agent” Vladimir Putin, thereby risking their positions, income, perhaps freedom, as well as the well-being of their families?</p>
<p>● Originally it was said that his Russian sources were highly paid by Steele. Arguably, this might have warranted the risk. But subsequently Steele’s employer and head of Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson,&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html" type="external">wrote in&#160;The New York Times</a>&#160;that “Steele’s sources in Russia…were not paid.” If the Putin Kremlin’s purpose was to put Trump in the White House, why then would these “Kremlin-connected” sources have contributed to Steele’s anti-Trump project without financial or political gain—only with considerable risk?</p>
<p>● There is the also the telling matter of factual mistakes in the dossier that Kremlin “insiders” were unlikely to have made, but this is the subject for a separate analysis.</p>
<p>And indeed we now know that Steele had at least three other “sources” for the dossier, ones not previously mentioned by him or his employer. There was the information from foreign intelligence agencies provided by Brennan to Steele or to the FBI, which we also now know was collaborating with Steele. There was the contents of a “ <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/30/trump-russia-collusion-fbi-cody-shearer-memo" type="external">second Trump-Russia dossier</a>” prepared by people personally close to Hillary Clinton and who shared their “findings” with Steele. And most intriguingly, there was the “research” provided by Nellie Ohr, wife of a top Department of Justice official, Bruce Ohr, who, according to the Republican memo, “was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research.” Most likely, it found its way into Steele’s dossier. (Mrs. Ohr was a trained Russian Studies scholar with a PhD from Stanford and a onetime assistant professor at Vassar, and thus, it must have seemed, an ideal collaborator for Steele.)</p>
<p>We are left, then, with a vital, ramifying question: How much of the “intelligence information” in Steele’s dossier actually came from Russian insiders, if any? (This uncertainly alone should stop Fox News’s Sean Hannity and others from declaring that the Kremlin used Steele—and Hillary Clinton—to pump its “propaganda and disinformation” into America. Such pro-Trump allegations, like those of Russiagate itself, only fuel the new Cold War, which risks becoming actual war any day, from Syria to Ukraine.)</p>
<p>And so, Cohen concludes, we are left with even more ramifying questions:</p>
<p>● Was Russiagate produced by the primary leaders of the US intelligence community, not just the FBI? If so, it is the most perilous political scandal in modern American history, and the most detrimental to American democracy. And if so, it does indeed, as zealous promoters of Russiagate assert, make Watergate pale in significance. (To understand more, we will need to learn more, including whether Trump associates other than Carter Page and Paul Manafort were officially surveilled by any of the agencies involved. And whether they were surveilled in order to monitor Trump himself, on the assumption they were or would be in close proximity to him, as the president once suggested in a tweet.)</p>
<p>● If Russiagate involved collusion among US intelligence agencies, as now seems likely, why was it undertaken? There are various possibilities. Out of loathing for Trump? Out of institutional opposition to his promise of better relations—“cooperation”—with Russia? Or out of personal ambition? Did Brennan, for example, aspire to remaining head of the CIA, or to a higher position, in a Hillary Clinton administration?</p>
<p>● What was President Obama’s role in any of this? Or to resort to the Watergate question: What did he know and when did he know it? And what did he do? The same questions would need to be asked about his White House aides and other appointees. Whatever the full answers, there is no doubt that Obama acted on the Russiagate allegations. He cited them for the sanctions he imposed on Russia in December 2016, which led directly to the case of General Michael Flynn (not for doing anything wrong with Russia but for “lying to the FBI”); to the worsening of the new US-Russian Cold War; and thus to the perilous relationship inherited by President Trump, who has in turn been thwarted by Russiagate in his attempts to improve relations through “cooperation” with Putin.</p>
<p>● With all of this in mind, and assuming Trump knew most of it, did he really have any choice in firing FBI Director Comey, for which he is now unfairly being investigated by Mueller? We might also ask, given Comey’s role during Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign (for which she and her team loudly condemned him), whether as president she would have had to fire him.</p>
<p>Listening almost daily to the legion of former US intel officers condemn Russiagate skeptics ever more loudly and persistently in the media, we may wonder if they are increasingly fearful it will become known that Russiagate was mostly Intelgate. For that we will need a new bipartisan Senate Church Committee of the 1970s, which investigated and exposed misdeeds by US intelligence agencies and which led to important reforms that are no longer the preventive measures against abuses of power they were intended to be. (Ideally, everyone involved would be granted amnesty for recent misdeeds, ending all talk of “jail time,” on the condition they now testify truthfully.) But such an inclusive investigation of Intelgate would require the support of Democratic members of Congress, which no longer seems possible.</p>
<p>Stephen F. Cohen is a professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University and a contributing editor of The Nation.</p> | Russiagate or Intelgate? (Audio) | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/russiagate-intelgate-audio/ | 2018-02-12 | 4 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />People do want to pay some Social Security taxes because it brings them into the Social Security system. But they would be very pleased to pay a lot less than they do.</p>
<p>We have had several acts that "saved" Social Security by raising the tax burden on workers. There is a real risk of more Social Security tax increases for those in the upper-middle income category and above. Right now, the 6.2 percent OASDI tax is capped at $118,500 of wages. The 1.45 percent Medicare tax is assessed on all covered wages.</p>
<p>Proposals have been floated for years to either eliminate the OASDI wage cap or to create a "doughnut" cap, where the 6.2 percent goes away for some range and then comes back, say at $250,000 of wages.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>People who have their own business can try to control the Social Security tax liability by limiting their compensation. This works best when they own an S corporation, so that they are entitled to all corporate earnings, and the only issue is how much is classified as wages and how much as distributions.</p>
<p>The IRS has been on to S corporation owners for some time. If you remember, in the 2001 vice-presidential debate, Dick Cheney accused John Edwards of using an S corporation to avoid Social Security taxes.</p>
<p>What is less clear is self-employed people who operate a business through a partnership. The self-employed pay as much as 15.3 percent tax because they have to pay both halves of the Social Security tax.</p>
<p>Partners are self-employed and cannot play the salary-distribution game that an S corporation owner plays. Under normal partnership tax principles, a partner is considered to be in the same business as the partnership.</p>
<p>This means that, if the partnership has business income, the partner must pay self-employment (SE) tax on his share at rates as high as 15.3 percent. It doesn't even matter if the partner works in the business - the partnership activities are imputed to the partner.</p>
<p>The Tax Court reached this conclusion in April in a case called Methvin. The taxpayer was a minority partner, with limited rights to participate, with a working interest in an oil and gas deal. His net income was $6,760.</p>
<p>The question was, did he owe SE tax? He said no because he had a minority interest, or because the entity elected out of partnership treatment, or because IRS had approved no SE tax in prior years.</p>
<p>The Tax Court was not persuaded by any of his arguments. And they were his arguments, as he represented himself. I would argue he did not make the best arguments, but he might have lost in any event.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>One of Methvin's problems was that, while he was passive, he was not a limited partner. Limited partners do not pay SE tax on partnership earnings unless they are paid for services rendered.</p>
<p>What remains unclear, and is the focus of most of my problems in this area, is what happens when the business is a limited liability company (LLC). LLC members are not general partners, but they are not limited partners. So how does the SE tax apply to them?</p>
<p>If Methvin had been a member of an LLC, he might have won his case, particularly if the right arguments were made. Or he could have lost anyway.</p>
<p>There are two reasons for this confusion.</p>
<p>First, the IRS has largely avoided the issue of SE tax for LLC members. So has Congress. Second, what is likely the "right" answer depends on exactly what the LLC member does and what the operating agreement allows him to do.</p>
<p>LLCs are popular business entities and are even growing in popularity. SE taxes are high and very likely going higher. The pieces are in place for a battle.</p>
<p>Some members will claim limited partner SE treatment. Others will not, but will try to limit SE tax by paying a fixed amount for services and pay SE tax only on the fixed amount. The stakes are huge and the answers are few. But the game is on.</p>
<p>James R. Hamill is the director of Tax Practice at Reynolds, Hix &amp; Co. in Albuquerque. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Game on for self-employment tax debate | false | https://abqjournal.com/608279/game-on-for-selfemployment-tax-debate.html | 2 |
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<p>Derivatives marketplace CME Group Inc. said Wednesday that it will close its London-based derivatives exchange, CME Europe, and its clearing house, CME Clearing Europe, by the end of 2017. While Europe had average daily volumes of more than 2.6 million contracts from European clients in 2016, CME customers prefer to access the U.S. infrastructure, said William Knottenbelt, CME Group's international senior managing director, in a statement. The organization will maintain operations in London once the two groups shutter. CME Group shares are inactive in premarket trading and up 30% for the past year. The S&amp;P 500 index is up 14.2% for the last 12 months.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | CME Group To Close CME Europe And CME Clearing Europe | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/12/cme-group-to-close-cme-europe-and-cme-clearing-europe.html | 2017-04-12 | 0 |
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<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Derrick Mason, a wide receiver who played 15 seasons in the NFL, has been charged with felony aggravated domestic assault and misdemeanor vandalism.</p>
<p>Metro Nashville Police say in a news release that the 43-year-old Mason turned himself in Monday night. It wasn’t known if he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.</p>
<p>Police say a 43-year-old woman told detectives Monday morning that Mason grabbed her by the neck and hit her in the stomach when she told him that she no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him. Detectives noted bruising on her right upper arm, a red mark on her neck and a scratch on top of her hand, along with a hole in a door.</p>
<p>Mason started with Tennessee before six seasons in Baltimore, and he split 12 games between the Jets and Texans in his final season in 2011.</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>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Former NFL receiver charged with felony domestic assault | false | https://abqjournal.com/1085817/former-nfl-receiver-charged-with-felony-domestic-assault.html | 2017-10-31 | 2 |
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<p>Stefan Karl as The Grinch. Karl has played the character for seven years and more than 400 shows. (Courtesy of <a href="http://PaparazziByAppointment.com" type="external">PaparazziByAppointment.com</a>)</p>
<p>He wrapped it up in a cinch.</p>
<p>That mean ole’ Grinch.</p>
<p>But as the story goes, his heart grows and he can’t remain a foe to the people of Whoville.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The rhyming style of Dr. Seuss has entertained generations for decades.</p>
<p>On Tuesday night, The Grinch took center stage during opening night of “Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” at Popejoy Hall.</p>
<p>If you’re familiar with the 1966 animated classic narrated by Boris Karloff, you’ll see that the musical doesn’t disappoint.</p>
<p>Narrated by Max the Dog — performed by Bob Lauder — as he looks back and being a young pup with The Grinch and the plot to steal Christmas.</p>
<p>Lauder weaves together the past and present without a hitch. Often appearing with his younger self, played by Andreas Wyder, Lauder interacts with the audience throughout the show and is a great host.</p>
<p>In the musical, The Grinch discovers there’s more to Christmas then he bargained for and it’s life changing for The Grinch whose heart is “two sizes to small.”</p>
<p>Playing The Grinch is Stefan Karl who is no stranger to the role. With more than 400 shows — and seven years — under his belt as The Grinch, Karl transforms into the devious character as if it were a second skin.</p>
<p>From the wiggle of his fingers to the facial expressions and yelps — which are a throwback to the 1962 classic — Karl embodies what audiences love about the character.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Karl has said he studied the animated classic as well as the 2000 film.</p>
<p>“I’ve developed a way of playing The Grinch that I think Dr. Seuss would be proud of,” he says. “It’s the way he was drawn. Ultimately, The Grinch is just misunderstood and the Who’s take a change on him. It pays off every night to perform in the show.”</p>
<p>Then there’s the comedy that Karl brings into the musical. Just when you think a scene is clear and ready to move forward, Karl jumps out and steals another scene with a sound or a grimace. (Karl seemed to be a favorite of young and old.)</p>
<p>The musical features the songs “This Time of Year,” “Welcome, Christmas,” “I Hate Christmas,” “One of a Kind” and of course “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”</p>
<p>The set design was a throwback to the hand-drawn animated movie, which brought back a lot of nostalgia.</p>
<p>The 90-minute show doesn’t have an intermission and moves rather quickly.</p>
<p>As we all know by the classic story, Christmas is saved as The Grinch’s heart changes thanks in part to Cindy-Lou Who.</p>
<p>This is definitely a musical the entire family will enjoy and The Grinch and crew are definitely “one of a kind.”</p>
<p /> | ‘The Grinch’ steals Christmas, then gives it back | false | https://abqjournal.com/495031/the-grinch-steals-christmas-then-gives-it-back.html | 2 |
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<p>Jeb Bush wants workers to work longer and harder—but what about wage-stealing corporations and outdated federal overtime regulations? (DonkeyHotey / Flickr) &#160;</p>
<p>Jeb! Bush, a boy born to wealth and privilege, whose family owns not a home but&#160; <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2015/05/24/jeb-bushs-summer-cottage-raising-eyebrows-but-not-in-kennebunkport/" type="external">a compound</a>&#160;of dwellings in Kennebunkport, Maine, and whose wife plunked down&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/documents-show-the-expensive-tastes-of-jeb-bushs-low-key-wife/2015/02/22/5bb480da-b9f4-11e4-9423-f3d0a1ec335c_story.html" type="external">$25,600 for one pair of earrings</a>, lectured last week that Americans should&#160; <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/sfl-jeb-bush-working-americans-minimum-wage-20150709-story.html" type="external">work longer hours</a>. &#160;</p>
<p>If Americans would just work harder, every one of them could own a&#160; <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2015/05/24/jeb-bushs-summer-cottage-raising-eyebrows-but-not-in-kennebunkport/" type="external">$600,000 getaway cottage</a>, like the one Jeb! is building on a $1.4 million site in exclusive Kennebunkport.</p>
<p>And it’s not just longer hours. Jeb! believes Americans should work longer in life too. The rich boy wants to&#160; <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/243556-bush-retirement-age-should-be-68-or-70" type="external">raise the retirement age to 70</a>. But raising the federal minimum wage to help millions of struggling workers survive to age 70? No,&#160; <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jeb-bush-makes-the-case-against-the-federal-minimum-wage" type="external">Jeb! doesn’t see any need</a>&#160;for that. His advice: Let working poor great-grandmas eat ramen!</p>
<p>As a result of Bush’s “work harder” scolding, Americans know exactly what that symbol is at the end of the name Jeb! on all of his presidential campaign literature. It’s a whip handle and blood splotch. As President, he’d crack Americans into shape!&#160; Under a Jeb! administration, he’d demand they work more, get less and through it all gaze adoringly at another clueless, pampered Bush in the White House.</p>
<p>The wealthy like Jeb! made out like bandits over the past 40 years —&#160; <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/heres-much-money-jeb-bush-made-last-30-years/" type="external">Jeb! amassed $29 million</a>&#160;in the eight years since he left the Florida governor’s mansion. But working Americans have not prospered. Their productivity rose, but not their wages. Part of the reason for that productivity increase is that Americans worked longer hours and corporations paid them nothing for it.</p>
<p>American workers put in more hours than those in any other large industrialized country,&#160; <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jeb-bush-people-work-longer-hours/story?id=32313997" type="external">according to</a>&#160;the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In a Gallup poll late last year, full-time employees reported work weeks&#160; <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-hours.aspx" type="external">averaging 47 hours</a>. That is nearly a full day beyond what is supposed to be a 40-hour work week. Forty percent said they work at least&#160; <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-hours.aspx" type="external">50 hours</a>.</p>
<p>Most of these workers don’t see an extra dime for all that extra work because the federal overtime regulation is so outdated, and many corporations won’t pay time and a half for hours worked beyond 40 unless forced. As it is now, the regulation requires corporations to pay time and a half only to workers earning salaries less than $23,660 a year. That is so low that only 8 percent of salaried workers qualify for overtime. It means corporations can take every cent of gain from 92 percent of salaried workers when they put in more than 40 hours a week.</p>
<p>Late last month, President Obama proposed increasing the overtime threshold to $50,440. Then 40 percent of salaried workers would qualify.</p>
<p>Jeb! opposes that. After he was ridiculed on Wednesday for saying, “people need to work longer hours,” he tried to backpedal by contending that what he really meant was that the proposed new overtime rule would push workers into part-time jobs when they needed to work longer hours.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wmur.com/politics/jeb-bush-makes-unannounced-stop-at-dover-bakery/34057942" type="external">Here’s what he said on Thursday</a>: "I think people want to work harder, to be able to have more money in their own pockets – not to be dependent upon government. You can take it out of context all you want, but high, sustained growth means people work 40 hours rather than 30 hours, and that by our success they have money – disposable income for their families to decide how they want to spend it rather than getting in [a welfare] line.”</p>
<p>Silver-spoon Jeb! is just wrong. People don’t want to work harder. They’re working almost an extra day a week. What they want is to be paid fairly for the work they’re already doing. They want the minimum wage increased so that they can use their own paychecks for groceries instead of food stamps. They want the money that they’ve earned to be in their pockets – not in the pockets of 1 percenters like Jeb!</p>
<p>For decades after World War II, income rose in tandem with productivity. Then, in the mid 1970s, that stopped. Workers received less and less, and the top 1 percent took more and more. The result was wage stagnation for workers and income inflation for CEOs.</p>
<p>The comments Jeb! made last week illustrate his complete misunderstanding of that.&#160; <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/sfl-jeb-bush-working-americans-minimum-wage-20150709-story.html" type="external">He said:</a>&#160;“My aspirations for the country, and I believe we can achieve it, is for 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see .&#160; .&#160; . Which means we have to be a lot more productive. Workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and through their productivity gain more income for their families. That’s the only way we are going to get out of this rut that we’re in.”</p>
<p>Jeb! suffers from the Republican blame-the-worker syndrome. He says, “Workforce participation has to rise,” as if unemployed workers chose to be laid off and languish in a life of insecurity without regular paychecks.</p>
<p>Jeb! and his GOP buddies should blame those actually at fault: the&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/business/economy/corporate-profits-grow-ever-larger-as-slice-of-economy-as-wages-slide.html?_r=0" type="external">nation’s highly profitable corporations</a>&#160;that cheat America’s highly productive workers. Corporations need to rise to the occasion and&#160; <a href="http://www.epi.org/pay/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&amp;utm_campaign=75655bb39d-EPI_News_07_10_157_10_2015&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-75655bb39d-55900601" type="external">hire workers at decent wages</a>. Corporations must reward workers for their increased productivity by paying them time and a half when they work longer hours.</p>
<p>It’s the GOP that’s in a rut. It’s a mental ditch from which they fling mud on workers endlessly while shielding corporations and the rich, like Jeb!, from responsibility. Jeb! can go ahead and crack his whip. But he should make sure wage-stealing corporations and the idle rich are at the other end.&#160;</p> | Jeb Bush Wants to Whip Workers Into Shape, But Not Corporations and the Idle Rich | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18190/jeb-bush-corporations-workers | 2015-07-14 | 4 |
<p><a href="/content/dailybeast/features/2016/donald-trump.html" type="external">Donald Trump</a> has to deal with his <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2016/10/20/donald-trump-hits-nasty-hillary-clinton-democracy.html" type="external">much-criticized</a> debate performance. His <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/upshot/presidential-polls-forecast.html?_r=0" type="external">poor poll numbers</a>. A <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/trump-national-political-director-steps-back-from-campaign-230120" type="external">national political director</a> who has all but disappeared less than three weeks before the election.</p>
<p>But behind the scenes there are ominous signs of even deeper problems.</p>
<p>The candidate’s expenditures on legal fees have <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2016/10/03/the-trump-campaign-s-legal-bills-are-yuge.html?via=desktop&amp;source=twitter" type="external">already caught the eye of campaign watchdogs</a>, who say such unprecedented rates of spending suggest there are as-yet-unknown controversies bubbling beneath the surface of the businessman’s organization.</p>
<p>The campaign financial disclosures for September, released Thursday night, seem only to reinforce those worries: The Trump campaign spent more than half a million dollars on lawyers in just one month.</p>
<p>By way of comparison, Mitt Romney’s campaign spent just $1.15 million over the course of his entire 2012 presidential campaign. Trump’s spending on lawyers now tops $3 million.</p>
<p>“Hard to say if any of these legal representations represents a serious problem for the campaign, since we don’t know the subject matter of each one,” campaign-finance lawyer Brett Kappel told The Daily Beast. “The overall level of spending on legal fees, however, remains extraordinarily high, indicating that there must be a great deal going on behind the scenes we don’t know about.”</p>
<p>Trump’s legal fees would be astronomical for any conventional political candidate, but of course the Republican nominee has a knack for drawing controversy, and all the lawyers that entails.</p>
<p>His charity has come into question after being improperly used for political purposes; and the campaign has experienced unprecedented turnover among senior staff, including the departures of managers <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/politics/corey-lewandowski-donald-trump.html" type="external">Corey Lewandowski</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/us/politics/paul-manafort-resigns-donald-trump.html" type="external">Paul Manafort</a>, former Trump delegate manager <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/trump-aide-brookover-fired-226541" type="external">Ed Brookover</a>, and communications aide <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/20/politics/michael-caputo-corey-lewandowski-donald-trump/" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/20/politics/michael-caputo-corey-lewandowski-donald-trump/" type="external">Michael Caputo</a>.</p>
<p>But the legal nightmare may just be beginning. It was not until early October that a recording of Trump bragging about sexual assault was released, prompting a wave of accusers to step forward and allege sexual misconduct by the Republican nominee.</p>
<p>Trump’s spending on lawyers has been distributed over a number of law firms.</p>
<p>The fourth highest expenditure for legal spending, more than $55,000, went to an organization called Parliamentary Strategies LLC, which shares an office address with Harvey &amp; Binnall PLLC. Jesse Binnall, a partner at the firm, is a parliamentarian who <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2016/09/21/ron-paul-aide-dimitri-kesari-sentencing-kent-sorenson-michele-bachmann/90774842/" type="external">previously represented Dimitri Kesari</a>, a former aide to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. Kesari was sentenced to three months of house arrest and paid a $10,000 fine for a plot to pay for an endorsement ahead of that cycle’s Iowa caucuses.</p>
<p>Over the course of September, Trump spent about $320,000 on his primary law firm, Jones Day. The campaign spent $34,000 more on New York law firm Larocca Hornik Rosen Greenberg &amp; Blaha. It also paid more than $70,000 to Chicago’s Locke Lord LLP and $3,000 to Michael A. France Trust in Sarasota, Florida.</p>
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<p>The Trump campaign also spent more than $21,000 on “research consulting” with O’Melveny and Myers, a prestigious law firm headquartered in California; and thousands more for lawyers at Belkin Burden Wenig &amp; Goldman, as well as Bell, McAndrews &amp; Hiltachk.</p>
<p>With just a few weeks left until Election Day, the Trump campaign’s spending on lawyers portends a long road ahead for the Republican nominee—even as the campaign season winds down, his legal troubles may not.</p> | Why Has the Trump Campaign Spent Over $3 Million on Lawyers? | true | https://thedailybeast.com/why-has-the-trump-campaign-spent-over-dollar3-million-on-lawyers | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>More evidence has emerged showing the UCLA Communication Department chair's bias against a conservative professor on campus.</p>
<p>The department chair, Kerri Johnson, has been <a href="" type="internal">accused</a> of blocking students from enrolling in continuing lecturer Keith Fink's classes in which he taught students about their rights on campus. Johnson has maintained that the cap limit of 200 students for Fink's classes has remained at that threshold "for several years" and it's not subject to change.</p>
<p>However, UCLA student Jennifer Gittess provided evidence at <a href="http://ucla.therival.news/a/590795b72490f706849d9b26/academic-integrity-for-students-only" type="external">The Rival</a> showing that Johnson's defense is false. Gittess revealed an email exchange between Fink and then-Communications Department chair Tim Groeling in January 2016 showing Fink requesting his class size to be at 250 students. Groeling responded that as long Fink's teacher's aide, Andrew Litt, was able to handle the workload of that many students, then "I'm ok with the larger class."</p>
<p>Gittess also noted that data of previous cap sizes "have mysteriously gone missing."</p>
<p>"If the data had truly vanished, UCLA’s enrollment management system is surely robust enough to maintain logs documenting each change made to a course," wrote Gittess. "The Department regularly relies on this feature to evaluate student claims that they were previously enrolled in a class that was subsequently dropped. Whether this data was deliberately erased or accidentally deleted by mere happenstance is an open question for readers to decide."</p>
<p>She also pointed out that the Communication Studies 150 class currently has enrolled 10 students beyond its limit, which makes it odd that Johnson isn't honoring permission-to-enroll (PTE) requests for students to take part in Fink's class.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Johnson told Gittess in an email that "with only one teaching assistant in a class of 200 students, expanding class size was not possible." But Gittess didn't buy it.</p>
<p>"How was it possible to have 250 students with one TA last year but only 200 students this year?" Gittess wrote.</p>
<p><a href="http://ucla.therival.news/a/590795b72490f706849d9b26/academic-integrity-for-students-only" type="external">Read the full story here.</a></p>
<p>The Daily Wire previously <a href="" type="internal">reported</a> that UCLA may be attempting to relieve Fink from his duties as a continuing lecturer through the Excellence Review process in which faculty members vote on whether Fink "meets the necessary excellence standards to continue teaching at the university." Here is an important update:</p>
<p>A source close to the situation told The Daily Wire that Keith Fink's Excellence Review vote will take place on Thursday. It is believed that the panel will consist of eight or nine faculty members, two of whom — Greg Bryant and Kerri Johnson — were on Fink's bias list, meaning that there are already two probable votes against Fink keeping his position as continuing lecturer. All it takes is a majority vote against Fink for him to be relieved of his duties.</p>
<p>Given this new evidence of Johnson's bias against Fink, it's hard to believe that Johnson would vote in favor of Fink keeping his position as continuing lecturer.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter" type="external">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a></p> | MORE Evidence Emerges Of UCLA Communication Chair's Bias Against Conservative Professor | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15983/more-evidence-emerges-ucla-communication-chairs-aaron-bandler | 2017-05-02 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 18 Jul, 2017 13:10</p>
<p>Ukrainian tourists planning seaside vacations in Crimea are having to endure kilometer-long lines on the Ukraine side of the border, Crimean authorities said. Photos on social media show queues of cars with holidaymakers waiting to pass the checkpoint.</p>
<p>“For unknown reasons travelers have to languish for hours under the scorching sun,” the Crimean Border Guard Service said in a statement on Monday, as distributed by Russian news agencies.</p>
<p>People had to wait some 13 hours on average before passing the Ukrainian checkpoint at Chongar, the statement added, citing comments from holidaymakers.&#160;</p>
<p>The Russian Border Guard Service said it was working normally and there were no queues of cars in front of the Russian checkpoints. Some 24,500 tourists crossed the border, it added.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Ukrainians eager to spend their vacations in Crimea have been uploading photos of the long queues of cars on the Ukrainian border since mid-June.</p>
<p>“We queued for 13 hours,” one person wrote on Instagram, adding a video of rows of cars. One of her followers said that she was in a similar situation, while another added:</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t want any sea [after such delays].”</p>
<p>Another person wrote that she had spent hours in the queue and was barely closer to reaching the Ukrainian border.</p>
<p>Some people, however, managed to hold on to their sense of humor. “Chongar. Queue. Happiness,” one person wrote sarcastically.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/politics/373850-crimean-authorities-accuse-ukraine-regime/" type="external">READ MORE: Crimean authorities accuse Ukraine regime of human rights violations in new resolution</a></p>
<p>Ukrainian authorities haven’t released any official statement on the situation. However, Zaur Smirnov, the head of the Crimean State Committee for Inter-Ethnic relations, suggested that the delays were created “artificially” by the Kiev government.</p>
<p>“Kiev has attempted to introduce a blockade of the [Crimean] peninsula, this time a tourist one,” Smirnov said, as cited by RIA Novosti. The Ukrainian border service allegedly got instructions from Kiev to create artificial obstacles for Ukrainian tourists who travel to Crimea, he said.&#160;</p>
<p>“Kiev’s attempts to block its citizens [from entering Crimea] don’t scare us, as Crimea doesn’t depend on Ukrainian tourists.”</p>
<p>Crimea became a part of Russia in March 2014, when over 96 percent of the peninsula’s population voted in favor of the move in a referendum. The decision was prompted by the ouster of the Ukrainian president in a violent coup in Kiev.</p> | Tourist blockade? Ukrainians bound for Crimea have to spend hours at own border checkpoints (PHOTOS) | false | https://newsline.com/tourist-blockade-ukrainians-bound-for-crimea-have-to-spend-hours-at-own-border-checkpoints-photos/ | 2017-07-18 | 1 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Power has been restored to the area of Coors and Paseo after a power outage left 1,000 people without power and police directing traffic into Thursday evening, according to PNM.</p>
<p>Spokeswoman Shannon Jackson said the outage began, around 4:30 a.m., when a power pole “went up in flames” at a nearby substation.</p>
<p>She said PNM hasn’t figured out the cause of the outage.</p>
<p />
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Traffic lights, power, back on at Paseo and Coors | false | https://abqjournal.com/1112158/traffic-lights-out-at-paseo-and-coors.html | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>President Donald Trump is expected to pick Kirstjen Nielsen, above, to lead the Department of Homeland Security. <a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump/8fb24ec119e0411cb95ae8a8d8759a5a/1/0" type="external">Alex Brandon/AP</a></p>
<p>President Donald Trump is expected to pick Kirstjen Nielsen, a no-nonsense cybersecurity expert, to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Politico <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/11/kirstjen-nielsen-dhs-department-of-homeland-security-secretary-243672" type="external">reports</a>. Nielsen works as the deputy to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and served as Kelly’s deputy at DHS before he left for the White House in July.</p>
<p>Nielsen, an attorney, previously worked at the White House Homeland Security Council and the Transportation Security Administration under President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Unlike many of Trump’s picks, Nielsen already knows the department she is likely to run. “She would be the first person to run the department who has actually worked there,” a source close to the administration <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/11/kirstjen-nielsen-dhs-department-of-homeland-security-secretary-243672" type="external">told</a> Politico. “She has a deep familiarity.” Nielsen’s current role as Kelly’s deputy, and chief enforcer, has caused tension in the White House. Her tough tone was seen as “dismissive and lacking in collegiality,” according to more than 10 administration officials <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/08/kirstjen-nielsen-annoys-trump-aides-242491" type="external">interviewed</a> by Politico in September. But that approach has been credited with bringing a semblance of order to Trump’s White House.</p>
<p>At DHS, Nielsen was accused of boxing out Trump loyalists. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidante, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/08/kirstjen-nielsen-annoys-trump-aides-242491" type="external">said</a> in September that “she actively ensured that no Trump supporters were appointed or hired.” Stone went to say, “Like [national security adviser H.R.] McMaster and Kelly, she is a neocon who likely did not vote for Donald Trump and certainly does not support his non-interventionist worldview. If the president fails, it will be because of appointments like this.”</p>
<p>Before Trump entered the presidential race, Nielsen donated $2,500 to a super-PAC that supported Jeb Bush, according to Federal Election Commission records.</p> | Trump’s Pick for Homeland Security Chief Is a No-Nonsense Enforcer—and Jeb Bush Donor | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/trumps-pick-for-homeland-security-chief-is-a-no-nonsense-enforcer-and-jeb-bush-donor/ | 2017-10-11 | 4 |
<p>The family of an American mother and daughter killed when a pilot deliberately flew an airliner into a mountainside on Monday sued the German airline, its parent company and the U.S. airline that sold them their tickets.</p>
<p>The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia on behalf of the husband and son of Yvonne Selke, who was killed along with her daughter, Emily. Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, locked the captain out of the cockpit and crashed the plane in a remote area of the French Alps nearly two years ago. The two Virginia women were the only Americans on board the plane.</p>
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<p>The lawsuit was filed against Germanwings; its parent company, Lufthansa Airlines; and United Airlines, which is headquartered in Chicago. The Selkes bought their tickets for a trip to England and Spain from United and departed on a United flight from Dulles International Airport in Virginia. United, Lufthansa and Germanwings are part of a global airline alliance that allows the companies to book flights on each other's planes. The Selkes were traveling from Spain to Germany, where they planned to transfer to a flight to England, when the crash occurred.</p>
<p>The suit alleged Lufthansa and Germanwings are negligent because they didn't have a policy requiring at least two flight crew members in the cockpit at all times. U.S. airlines have been required to have two crew members in the cockpit since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.</p>
<p>"Whether it be sudden pilot incapacitation, a rogue pilot, or a pilot allowed to fly with known mental conditions, like we have here, the airline industry has long been aware of the dangers associated with just one person in the cockpit," said Los Angeles attorney A. Ilyas Akbari, who represents the Selke family.</p>
<p>Yvonne Selke, a former Army officer, worked at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Emily Selke was a graduate of Drexel University who aspired to be an event planner.</p>
<p>Officials for Lufthansa didn't immediately reply to a request for comment.</p>
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<p>United said in a statement that the lawsuit had no merit and "we will defend ourselves."</p>
<p>An international aviation treaty known as the Montreal Convention permits lawsuits to be filed in the home country of the persons harmed, according to a statement by Akbari's law firm, Baum, Hedlund, Aristei &amp; Goldman.</p> | Family of US passengers on Germanwings plane file lawsuit | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/30/family-us-passengers-on-germanwings-plane-file-lawsuit.html | 2017-01-30 | 0 |
<p>Most Virginia Baptists don't know about Washington Baptist University, but they should. Located in Annandale, it does not have a lawn or quadrangle or football stadium. But what it lacks in campus sprawl it more than makes up for in appropriate pride.</p>
<p>Founded in 1982 as the Washington Baptist College and Seminary, its mission from the outset was to provide training in Christian service primarily to laypersons within Virginia's Korean community. Korean pastors in the Washington, D.C., area also saw the need for a seminary to train new pastors.</p>
<p>It wasn't long, however, before the college responded to a recognized need within the Korean community and moved beyond training laypersons and clergy to offering a business degree.</p>
<p>“To understand why we instituted the business program one must first understand the nature of Korean immigration. Many who moved here were over 50 and were never able to complete their education in Korea,” explained Jacob Suk Tae Shin, the university president.</p>
<p>“Add to their lack of education the difficulties presented by the language barrier, and you can see why so many had a hard time finding employment. For some, the only way they could survive was to open a small business which was risky. So many lost their life savings that the school saw a need to teach how to operate a business in America,” Shin observed.</p>
<p>In this way, the business program began as a ministry and became, along with the seminary and religious emphasis, the third school of the university. WBU also provides English as a second language classes for students eager to learn English. But learning the language and speaking the language in a way to be easily understood are sometimes two different disciplines. WBU employs a pronunciation specialist to help students be understood by their American-born neighbors.</p>
<p>The university is housed in a three-story brick classroom building which is also the location of the admissions office. Next door a condominium building houses the impressive and expanding library along with faculty and administrative offices. Of the building's eight condos, the seminary owns seven.</p>
<p>The university purchased the buildings in 2003 when it grew out of space it had leased from Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church.</p>
<p>That same year the school began the process of becoming accredited through the Association of Theological Schools which is the standard accrediting agency for seminaries in North America. It has also begun the process of accreditation at the baccalaureate level through the Association for Biblical Higher Education.</p>
<p>“All the signs are very good and we are encouraged that we will soon be fully accredited,” said Peter Chang, vice president for academic affairs.</p>
<p>Recently, the school received accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. The ECFA provides accreditation to Christian non-profit organizations that comply with established standards for financial accountability, fundraising and board governance.</p>
<p>Once academic accreditation is gained, Shin, Chang and David S. Kim, vice president for business affairs and dean of the school of religion, see finances as their greatest challenge. Despite owning its buildings, the university staff and secretaries “sacrifice and depend on the Lord,” says Shin. The school “receives a small amount from friends and family members who support WBU financially,” he adds.</p>
<p>According to Kim, the school depends on the tuition of its students to operate. Although the Baptist General Association of Virginia does not contribute directly to WBU, it provides scholarships for minority students. And for this WBU, which considers itself a loyal BGAV institution, is grateful.</p>
<p>Support has also been provided through Virginia Baptist Mission Board personnel. “Craig Wilson assisted them in the beginning as they were getting started,” remembers John Upton, executive director of the BGAV. “And Sang Yun Shin [church planting missionary for the VBMB] is one of their adjunct professors.”</p>
<p>To emphasize the importance the BGAV places on partnering with WBU, Upton attends major university functions as his schedule permits.</p>
<p>Although the student enrollment is well balanced between the three schools and the ESL program, it is clear in speaking with Shin that preparing young pastors for church ministry is his passion. He comes by this naturally.</p>
<p>His father and mother's father both were pastors in Korea. His grandfather was the first president of the Korean Baptist Churches and his father served four terms in that position.</p>
<p>When Shin was 15, communist soldiers came to his grandfather's city. They had heard of the pastor who would not leave his flock.</p>
<p>Twice they offered to spare his life if he would deny Christ. And twice he refused saying that he could not deny his Savior. With a deacon present as a witness, the soldiers shot and killed his grandfather because he would not renounce his faith.</p>
<p>Although the shock of his grandfather's death was great, it did not deter Shin in answering God's call to become a pastor also. “God is blessing me so much in my life” he reflects. “I tell students — please be a servant in your churches. Do not be controlling.”</p>
<p>The seminary also expects students to be engaged in mission work while they are students. Shin notes, “With 150 languages spoken in the vicinity of the seminary, every student is a missionary!”</p> | Washington Baptist University continues its mission to Koreans | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/washingtonbaptistuniversitycontinuesitsmissiontokoreans/ | 3 |
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<p>My subject is Franklin Graham, one of President Bush’s very-public religious confidants. Franklin’s father, Billy, served President Nixon in a similar capacity. Billy’s efforts were crowned with a kind of earthly immortality: he’s on those White House tapes in the National Archives sharing anti-Semitic remarks with Nixon and never flinching or clearing his throat over the idea of using atomic bombs in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Franklin has pretty well replaced his ailing father in leading the huge Billy Graham organization. You may wonder about religious ministries being handed down like fifteenth-century dukedoms, but the practice is fairly common in America, and several of the nation’s big ministries – the type of outfits that might be characterized as Las Vegas Showstoppers for Jesus – have been handed down in this fashion. This happens in American politics, too. After all, a hand-me-down evangelist serves a hand-me-down President who ran against (and lost the popular vote to) a hand-me-down politician from Tennessee.</p>
<p>It’s not that Americans accept aristocracy, but in a nation of insanely-frenzied consumers, an established brand name always still has some juice worth squeezing.</p>
<p>The youthful Franklin seems to have been a bit of a trial for his mom and dad, reportedly exhibiting more interest in sowing oats than saving souls. He had an obsession with guns one could interpret as slightly at odds with the message of the Prince of Peace. He may just have been reflecting the quaint traditions of America’s Appalachian subculture – his home is the mountains of North Carolina – when he once cut down a tree by blasting away at it with an automatic weapon (I did not make this up). Apparently, he used to be fond of giving automatic pistols as gifts.</p>
<p>Well, at some point, I guess the lad realized he was burning out and going nowhere, and automatic weapons are expensive when you like to give the very best, so Franklin had something like the President’s road-to-Damascus experience. I doubt he recalled Henry the Fourth’s saying Paris was worth a mass (Henry of Navarre became King of France by adopting Catholicism). It would have weighed heavily that dad’s ready-made, super-slick organization offered a handsome, steady income, all expenses paid, especially if Franklin had come to recognize that his next-best career option might be itinerant bingo caller.</p>
<p>Redemption is one of America’s great ongoing themes. It’s the spiritual extension of all the plastic surgery, injections, drugs, youth-inducing potions, diets, and tales of lives changed by lotteries or get-rich-quick schemes, but it does have to be the right kind of redemption. None of your consolations of philosophy, peace of the Buddha, wisdom of the Great Spirit, or following the Prophet will do. Lives lived decently and peacefully from beginning to end are not admired because they don’t make juicy entertainment.</p>
<p>The approved American redemption-story template includes years of inflicting hell on others, often by abusing whisky or drugs, finally being overcome by frightful (drug-induced or otherwise) visions of going to hell yourself, and then spending the rest of your life annoying every person who crosses your path with the opinion that he or she does not know the truth. About 85% of the nation’s country-and Western singers and about 95% of its evangelists spend their declining years sharing such tales in magazines, tapes, interviews, and sermons. It’s a major industry.</p>
<p>This is all by way of background to Franklin’s words about his new mission. I suppose it’s possible Franklin thinks Nazareth is a trailer park somewhere in North Carolina or Texas which would account for his thinking that the people in the Middle East haven’t heard about Jesus, but, in any event, Franklin is now going to tell them about Jesus, at least his gun-totting Appalachian version. Well, almost, but Franklin has probably been advised that proselytizing for conversion from Judaism is against the law in modern Israel. With a Bush-appointed Proconsul, that kind of law shouldn’t get in the way of bringing the good word to Iraqis, although he’ll be a bit late to save the souls of those smashed and broken by American bombs.</p>
<p>Franklin’s organization, Samaritan’s Purse, claims that it intends only to bring relief services and not evangelism to Iraq, but how valid can this claim be? The Billy Graham organization for decades has worked only to convert people to its narrow notion of Christianity. It has been criticized even by other Christians for the nature of its work – cranking out converts like sausages in a vast Midwestern meat-packing plant. Perhaps when Franklin created his offshoot relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse, it was in part a response to this kind of criticism.</p>
<p>Franklin’s own words on Islam over the last year hardly resemble a second Albert Schweitzer yearning to help fellow beings. His tone is militaristic and has the same nasty, parochial feel as the President’s “us and them.” One looks in vain for any generosity of spirit associated with the words of Jesus.</p>
<p>“We’re not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He’s not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It’s a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.”</p>
<p>Franklin here makes no distinction between the nineteen individuals responsible for 9/11 and the world’s hundreds of millions of Muslims, yet he seems never to have made the same kind of connections between criminals of other religious backgrounds and the religions themselves. Did the IRA’s outrages elicit such comments about Catholicism?</p>
<p>“the persecution or elimination of non-Muslims has been a cornerstone of Islam conquests and rule for centuries.”</p>
<p>I suppose it would be foolish to expect any sensible perspective on history from a man of Franklin’s limited learning. The work of people calling themselves Christians in countless wars, religious persecutions, and exterminations just since the Renaissance dwarfs the volume of spilled blood in all the rest of human history. The Holocaust, the African slave trade, and the extermination of many aboriginal peoples were the work of people calling themselves Christians.</p>
<p>“I believe it is my responsibility to speak out against the terrible deeds that are committed as a result of Islamic teaching.”</p>
<p>Why should it be his responsibility to speak against these particular deeds and no others? Franklin certainly is not known as an advocate for the world’s abused and downtrodden. One does not find him shouldering this responsibility over other terrible deeds, a number of them the dirty work of his own government. No, his time goes to “crusades,” the word used for decades by the Billy Graham organization to describe its assembly-line salvation gatherings.</p>
<p>The denomination with which the Graham family generally has been associated, the Southern Baptists, has an ugly history in the United States. Extreme segregationists founded this denomination to keep blacks out of their churches and a century later, through the Civil Rights revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, Southern Baptists were better known for opposing Dr. King’s work than supporting it. The denomination’s official view on a woman’s role in marriage is among the most parochial in the United States. Incidentally, the Southern Baptists’ Mission Board also aims at providing aid in Iraq. Jerry Vines, former president of the Southern Baptists, described the Prophet Muhammad not very long ago as a “demon-possessed pedophile.”</p>
<p>“There is no escaping the unfortunate fact that Muslim government employees in law enforcement, the military and the diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to terrorism.”</p>
<p>These are the words of a man teaching suspicion and fear rather than understanding and brotherhood. One has to ask what such comments have to do with evangelism or Christianity, but American fundamentalists often ignore Jesus’ clear teaching on the matter and put their visions of government and secular affairs at the heart of sermons and pronouncements. This suggests that politics, and a particularly nasty kind of politics, is at least as much a driving force here as religion.</p>
<p>Franklin recently gave a Good Friday service at the Pentagon. Reading that, I had the absurd image of an early Christian preacher praying for Rome’s Tenth Legion. True, there were probably no Christian legionaries at the time, but the fact remains that the purpose of the Pentagon is exactly the same as that of the legions, professional killing for the state and its policies, a purpose totally incompatible with any words of Jesus.</p>
<p>But of course, the more apt comparison would be a few centuries later when the legions did their bloody work for a so-called Christian empire.</p>
<p>JOHN CHUCKMAN can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | In Jesus’s Name | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/04/23/in-jesus-s-name/ | 2003-04-23 | 4 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The story 74 million years in the making continues.</p>
<p>Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently conducted a neutron imaging scan to expose the inner structures of the skull from the tyrannosaur dinosaur nicknamed Bisti Beast.</p>
<p>The dinosaur is one of the meat-eating tyrannosaurs unique to the state, which was found in the Bisti Badlands of northwest New Mexico in 1996.</p>
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<p>The results are in and were released at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“One of the things we could do is peer into the skull,” said Thomas Williamson, curator of Paleontology at NMMHS. “The scan enabled us to do it without causing physical damage. This is the first of its kind and it’s exciting to see the results.”</p>
<p>The fossil skull of the Bisti Beast at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History &amp; Science recently was imaged by Los Alamos National Laboratory.</p>
<p>Williamson said the results helped the team determine the skull’s sinus and cranial structure.</p>
<p>Initial viewing of the CT slices showed preservation of un-erupted teeth, the brain cavity, internal structure in some bones.</p>
<p>“We can look at what the brain would have been like,” Williamson says. “And with the data, we can see how the brains of this dinosaur have changed over time. We’re tracking the evolution of this species.”</p>
<p>In November, the Bisti Beast skull was sent to Los Alamos and the project began.</p>
<p>“Normally, we look at a variety of thick, dense objects at Los Alamos for defense programs, but the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science was interested in imaging a very large fossil to learn about what’s inside,” said Ron Nelson, of the laboratory’s Experimental Physical Sciences Division. “It turns out that high energy neutrons are an interesting and unique way to image something of this size.”</p>
<p>The difference between a regular X-ray and a neutron imaging is vast.</p>
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<p>Williamson says with a traditional X-ray, it only shows the surface.</p>
<p>“Neutrons interact with matter differently than X-rays,” he said. “We’re able to see the internal anatomy of the skull. This has been done with the highest resolution and gives us a different perspective.”</p>
<p>The team’s study illuminates the Bisti Beast’s place in the evolutionary tree that culminates in the Tyrannosaurus rex.</p>
<p>“The CT scans help us figure out how the different species with the T. rex family related to each other and how they evolved,” Williamson said. “It (Bisti Beast) was living alongside species more closely related to T. rex, the biggest and most derived tyrannosaur of all, which lived about 66 million years ago. (Bisti Beast) lived almost 10 million years before T. rex, but it also was a surviving member of a lineage that retained many of the primitive features from even farther back closer to when tyrannosaurs underwent their transition to bone-crushing.”</p>
<p>The Bisti Beast skull is on display permanently at the museum.</p>
<p>We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to [email protected].</p>
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<p /> | ‘Bisti Beast’ gets his head examined | false | https://abqjournal.com/1048677/bisti-beast-gets-hishead-examined.html | 2 |
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<p>New York Observer Just after retracting its Koran abuse item, Newsweek editors considered a cover package pegged to the controversy, described as an overview about "What’s Wrong With the Media?" Gabriel Sherman reports the newsroom had been dreading the prospect of giving the media story more prominent play. A staffer tells him: "There was a thought that if we put us on the cover, it would blow up again." The idea was shelved.</p> | Newsweek rejected "What's Wrong With the Media?" cover | false | https://poynter.org/news/newsweek-rejected-whats-wrong-media-cover | 2005-05-25 | 2 |
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<p>Margaret Cho, the comedian, recently brought her stand-up act to Dallas. She struck a chord with me when she riffed on stereotyped roles for Asians on TV and in the movies. She spewed out a litany of “types” that she refuses to portray.She doesn’t want to “be” a manicurist, she said. She doesn’t want to “be” a geisha, or a liquor-store owner, or a good student, or a violin prodigy, or a news anchor, or a camera-toting tourist, or a villager carrying a chicken under her arm, or a martial-arts fighter who can magically run up walls.It was a hilarious, if somewhat painful, rant that rang true — especially if you grew up, as I did, wondering why your people always ended up playing Hop Sing instead of Ben Cartwright, or Kato instead of the Green Hornet, or Arnold instead of the Fonz, or Mr. Sulu instead of Captain Kirk.Her riff had me thinking about the portrayal of Asians not just on the screen, but in the media. Most of us can probably agree that it’s a good thing, whenever possible, to “mainstream” Asians and other ethnic minorities into all kinds of stories we write — especially stories that have nothing to do with race.What’s missing in our coverage are the everyday acts and opinions, quirks and foibles, that make Asians individuals, that make them human. For example, if you’re producing a Father’s Day package, think about including a Latino dad. If you’re covering the latest trend in dating, consider quoting that Asian guy sitting in the corner of the bar. (I might just give you my phone number, too.)We still have a long way to go, though.********As a totally unscientific experiment, I searched the past year’s archives for people named Huang (a pretty common Chinese surname) who were quoted or mentioned in my newspaper, the Dallas Morning News.The Huangs were an impressive group: a doctor, an economist, an advertising executive, a visual artist, a violinist, an opera singer, a Broadway performer, a high school swimmer, a high school tennis player who was also an orchestra member, a science fair winner, a NASA scientist, a bridge player, a "Survivor" contestant, and a Chinese herb called Ma Huang. (I almost called home: “Mama, you’re famous!”)At first glance, the list of Huangs seems a far cry from Margaret Cho’s litany of liquor-store owners and geishas. Except for the Chinese herb, which can’t help its own inertia, the Huangs are all over-achievers in business, science, medicine and the arts, with a dash of high school athleticism sprinkled in for good measure. (Just for the record, Shii Ann Huang, the seventh evictee from "Survivor," is a New York executive recruiter.)And yet, as a group, they make Cho’s point. Without more information, a Martian studying the Huangs might make certain assumptions about them, and perhaps all Asians: They are a model minority. They are smart, driven and focused. They excel in certain fields — business and science, in particular. And their offspring are good swimmers, tennis players and orchestra musicians, and they enjoy competing in science fairs.“What’s wrong with that?” one might ask. “It’s not like you’re being stereotyped as a criminal or welfare recipient. Who wouldn’t want to be associated with such high achievement?”Sure, it’s great to be associated with such high achievement. But there are dangers in creating such an Asian monolith.We as journalists risk “creating” a group that others feel threatened by. We risk preventing low-achieving Asians from getting the resources they need. And we risk setting up Asians who don’t fit the “mold” to be perceived as defective in some way.What’s missing in our coverage are the everyday acts and opinions, quirks and foibles, that make Asians individuals, that make them human.Do Asians date? Do they shop? Do they pray? Do they fail their classes? Do they go to movies? Do they watch the NHL? Do they have nightmares about war and terrorism? Do they try fad diets? Do they have pets? Do they go salsa dancing? Do they have opinions about the separation of church and state? Do they prefer Pinot Noir to Merlot? Do they have a favorite bed and breakfast? Do they argue about whether "The Two Towers" was better than "The Fellowship of the Ring"?I don’t know. The media has covered all of these stories, and yet I really couldn’t tell you what the Asians are up to.&#160;*********By and large, there are only a few ways Asians and other ethnic minorities end up getting covered in the media. If they haven’t been involved in a crime or an accident, they’ve probably accomplished something noteworthy, or they’ve achieved such high status or expertise that their opinion carries weight.Of course, white folks get covered for their achievements and expertise. But for whatever&#160;reason, they also get covered in the everyday mainstream — the ordinary people who end up in stories about local reactions to national events, in stories about festivals, holidays, the hot weather, the cold weather, the workplace.What happens when people — say, the Huangs — are primarily viewed through the prism of achievement, and not as average men and women on the street, as well? Their achievement becomes their identity, and Mr. and Ms. Huang risk becoming one-dimensional.The challenge for the media, then, is to see Asians and other ethnic minorities as multi-dimensional people, and to cover them that way. I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers. But (and I’ll focus on Asians for the sake of argument) here are a few first steps:* Include an Asian person in your next state fair story. Go ahead. You’re bound to find one or two by the cotton candy stand or in the petting zoo, trust me. They might have something interesting to say about the llamas.* Include an Asian person in a trend story that gives a sense of his or her personal taste. Pinot Noir or Merlot? Paris or Rome? "Star Wars" or "Star Trek"?* Write an in-depth profile of an interesting Asian person. But instead of a doctor, scientist or business owner, spotlight someone who breaks out of the usual stereotypes. Find a rock musician, a cop, a professional athlete, a politician, a surfer, a public school teacher, a journalist, a skateboard rat, or a comedian.* Hang out with young Asians in their teens and 20s. You’ll probably find some interesting stories in the fragments of popular American culture and traditional Asian culture that they’ve pieced together for themselves.* Find diversity among Asians. Go beyond the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans and find someone who is Indian, Pakistani, Singaporean, Indonesian, Burmese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai or Hmong. Chances are that this will help you find a diversity of experiences, and a diversity of good human-interest stories.* And, finally, don’t forget the Asian guy sitting in the corner of the bar. He might just buy you a drink.</p> | Making Minorities Multi-Dimensional | false | https://poynter.org/news/making-minorities-multi-dimensional | 2003-04-21 | 2 |
<p>Members of Congress get to use pre-tax dollars when buying health insurance on the new state exchanges, while all other taxpayers must use after-tax dollars, government reports show.</p>
<p>Using pre-tax dollars lowers Congress’s costs even further, and adds to the growing controversy over the federal subsidies Congress won for their own health insurance under the new law.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>This is what happens when legislators whoop a bill through Congress without reading it first.</p>
<p>Initially, the new health-reform law forced Congress and their staffers to buy coverage in the new state exchanges, but without the new tax credits meant for the uninsured and without the generous 75% taxpayer-funded subsidy they already get for current coverage. The average salary House staffers get comes to around $58,000 a year, government data show. But no ordinary taxpayer at that income level would be allowed to get any tax credits on the new health exchanges.</p>
<p>Senators, including GOP Senator Chuck Grassley, wanted Congressmen enrolled in the state exchanges to eat their own cooking, and to feel the effects of the laws they pass. That push, though, ran counter to President Barack Obama’s statement that under the new law, individuals will be able to keep their health insurance. The new law does not mandate other taxpayers must join the exchanges.</p>
<p>As we reported to you last month, the Administration quietly reinstated Congress’s 75% federal subsidy for their plans in the new exchanges, which now will insulate Capitol Hill from the degree to which health reform drives up the cost of insurance for everyone else. The federal subsidies for Congress are worth an estimated $5,000 for an individual Congressional staffer or $10,000 for a family, GOP analysts estimate.</p>
<p>But also, Congress and staffers enrolled in the exchanges will get not just the 75% subsidy, but they also get to use pre-tax dollars to pay for their health-insurance premiums on the exchanges, according to the Office of Personnel Management.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, regular individuals and families who buy their own plans on the public exchanges cannot pay for their premiums with pre-tax dollars, nor will they be reimbursed tax-free from a cafeteria plan.</p>
<p>Separate from all that, the law says that small businesses with fewer than 100 employees can buy group health insurance through what’s called the “SHOP plan exchange,” which lets their workers pay their share of the SHOP plan premium with pre-tax dollars through the cafeteria plan.</p>
<p>Last April, the federal government announced that parts of the SHOP program would be delayed until 2015. SHOP was supposed to provide small employers with an insurance marketplace, or exchange, that offers multiple plan options starting in 2014. In most states employers will instead be limited to a single plan in 2014.</p> | Another Congressional Controversy Over ObamaCare | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2013/09/17/another-congressional-controversy-over-obamacare.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
<p>Mike Allen, for those who don’t know, is Washington’s insiders’ insider. Every morning, sometimes as early as 4 a.m., the Politico.com editor sends out, via e-mail, a newsletter called the Political Playbook, a heads-up for the capital’s political junkies.</p>
<p>The Playbook summarizes what Allen considers the top-of-the-morning news and analysis from inside and outside the Beltway, original interviews, and a schedule of what’s happening around town during the day. It is required reading in a city where taxi drivers are listening to National Public Radio or C-SPAN radio, even if they can’t speak much English. They know that their passengers do.</p>
<p>Allen outdid himself last Wednesday morning with five pages under this segmented headline:</p>
<p>“OBAMA II: ‘You voted for action’ — REPUBLICANS IN FREE FALL: Knives are out; Senate, White House wipeout worse than GOP’s worst case scenario …”</p>
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<p>The lead then is a Rembrandt of compression:</p>
<p>“WINNERS: President Obama … October surprises … the auto bailout … the polls … early advertising … Nate Silver … defining your opponent … Bill Clinton … Hispanics … women … Rob Portman … ‘Saturday Night Live’ … Chris Christie … Twitter … takeaways … Michelle Obama … Marco Rubio … the DSCC … David Axelrod’s mustache … the Mormon church (no one cared) … David Plouffe … data mining … Jim Messina … Stephanie Cutter … early voting … Priorities USA … Paul Ryan.</p>
<p>“LOSERS: Mitt Romney … super PACs … millionaires and billionaires … the Bush map … male Republican candidates musing about rape … Michael Barone … the NRSC … poll deniers … Gallup … Clint Eastwood … the Bain brand … Tim Pawlenty … Rasmussen … Donald Trump … the Des Moines Register endorsement … quote approval … Paul Ryan.”</p>
<p>I know a couple of those references are obscure or even impenetrable to outsiders and other civilians, but they do speak volumes in Washington. And Allen has asked his readers and ordinary Americans, too, to send him their one- or two-word descriptions of who’s in and who’s out. His e-mail is [email protected].</p>
<p>I would add Elizabeth Warren, the new senator from Massachusetts, to the Winners list. Whether or not she can do anything about it, she is going to have a great deal to say about what Charlie Peters, founding editor of Washington Monthly magazine, used to call “the screwing of the average American.” And I would double-down on the auto bailout. Exit polling in Ohio indicated that almost 60 percent of voters there approved of the bailout. I assume that numbers in other Midwestern manufacturing states were similar. The Loser list would include whoever on Romney’s staff (or Romney himself) decided to push that issue in the final days of the campaign.</p>
<p>Another Winner would be “legitimacy.” For four years, Republicans, led by the shrewd Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and fools like Donald Trump, have tried to pretend that Barack Hussein Obama — “the other,” “the African,” the “Indonesian,” “the Muslim” — was some kind of Manchurian Candidate. Well, after four years in the White House, enough voters thought he was the real American they wanted to run the country. In fact, he did a terrific job, considering that McConnell and company said the principal goal of their party was to prevent him from winning a second term. Put McConnell in the Loser column. We have only one president at a time. McConnell was pushing for none, a kind of political treason. It is no exaggeration to say that he was ready to take down the country because he hated Obama.</p>
<p>“Takeaway,” it seems, doesn’t just mean Chinese food anymore. Politico has been a leader in expanding the definition of the word to include what the military calls “lessons learned” after major operations. This time, Politico had 12 takeaways after the votes were counted.</p>
<p>That list included “2008 was not a drill,” meaning Obama was able to put together and refine the same coalition he built in 2008; “Romney did the best he could”; “Labor ain’t dead”; “Paul Ryan was not a game-changer”; “The big donor model is flawed”; “The gay marriage movement won”; “Abortion is a tough issue for Republicans”; “The Senate is for women.”</p>
<p>So, let’s do it again in 2016. Hillary Clinton, anyone? Jeb Bush?</p>
<p>© 2012 Universal Uclick</p> | The Election -- In a Word | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-election-in-a-word/ | 2012-11-09 | 4 |
<p>When Sen. Bill Frist calls it “workable” to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, <a href="http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/01.html#a7747" type="external">Stewart replies</a>, “It’s absolutely workable! Just think about Elian Gonzalez. How easy that was!” (video)</p>
<p>Crooks and Liars:</p>
<p>Jon Stewart goes through talking head TV and finds some gems over the immigration debate. Bill Frist telling us that deporting 11 million people is “workable” was priceless in itself, but Lou Dobbs takes the cake.</p>
<p>I think in the heat of the battle some of the talking heads say the most ridiculous things to make themselves right.</p>
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<p>Stewart: Lou, do you understand that N.Y. is a parade-based economy?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/01.html#a7747" type="external">Link</a></p> | Stewart Serves up Steaming Satire on Immigration | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/stewart-serves-up-steaming-satire-on-immigration/ | 2006-04-03 | 4 |
<p>Whether it’s financial projections or a nondisclosure form, finding document templates online can be an arduous task. One Web site, <a href="http://www.docstoc.com/" type="external">Docstoc.com Opens a New Window.</a>, hopes to make it easier for businesses via its marketplace of documents.</p>
<p>“We’ve built the largest repository of publicly available professional documents,” said Jason Nazar, the chief executive of Santa Monica, California-based Docstoc.com. “It’s like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/" type="external">YouTube Opens a New Window.</a> or <a href="http://www.flickr.com/" type="external">Flickr Opens a New Window.</a> for documents.”</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Visitors to Docstoc.com can download for free any of the more than 13 million documents, which vary from legal contracts, to financial projections to even teachers plans.&#160;The site is divided into different categories such as legal, business, personal finance, education, jobs, taxes, technology and real estate.&#160;Users can also upload their own documents to share with the rest of the Docstoc community.</p>
<p>“The biggest benefit is it helps save a lot of time and a lot of money when looking to find content,” said Nazar. “Let’s say for example you’ve got a small five-person shop and are not really in the position to hire a lawyer to help out with a nondisclosure agreement or an employee handbook. You can find all the material … much more easily than anywhere else on the Web.” Plus, you’ll avoid any consultant fees.</p>
<p>According to Nazar, business owners and other professionals can also use it as a promotional tool. Take an attorney that posts his LLC operating agreement on Docstoc.&#160;Anyone who goes to view the document or download it will also see a picture of the attorney and a link to his web site.</p>
<p>Docstoc boasts traffic of 20 million unique visitors a month. Nazar said the company targets the small business market because those are the people that most often are creating and looking for professional documents.</p>
<p>Docstoc is of course not the only game in town.&#160; <a href="http://www.megadox.com/" type="external">MegaDox.com Opens a New Window.</a> also sells a slew of business documents and legal contracts on its Web site.&#160;The company has an online library of legal forms, business documents, leisure &amp; lifestyle guides and health &amp; wellness information. Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.infordesk.com/" type="external">InforDesk Opens a New Window.</a> sells its All-Business-Documents downloadable program that consists of more than 6,000 documents. The software includes a spell checker, grammar check and communications and sharing tools.&#160;A single user licenses costs $85, while a three-user license costs $185.</p>
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<p>Recently, Docstoc launched a marketplace on its site where small businesses can purchase documents. Why would someone want to pay for the documents when they can get them free? Well, according to Nazar, the documents for purchase are of a higher quality than the ones you can download for free.</p>
<p>“It’s the difference between going to Ross or going to <a href="" type="internal">Nordstrom</a>,” said Nazar. The free content is user generated, while the pay-for content is from professionals who see their services on the site. Docstoc’s DocStore started with around 15 partners, but the company has since opened it up to any professional that wants to sell content. Sellers are provided with a custom reporting and analytics tool so they can track all the stats and purchases on their documents in real time. In addition to documents and templates, the DocStore sells business books and research reports.</p>
<p>To protect buyers all of the content has a 100% money back guarantee. That means if you purchase, let’s say an employee non-compete document, and it doesn’t meet your needs, you’ll get your money back. Prices for documents cost between $10 and $25. Nazar noted that the refund rate is currently around 2%.&#160;</p> | A ‘YouTube or Flickr for Documents’ | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2010/03/08/youtube-flickr-documents.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
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<p>Love <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/02/huckabee-likely-to-have-to-cross-picket-line-to-appear-on-len/" type="external">this</a>:</p>
<p>Republican Mike Huckabee, a presidential candidate sounding a populist theme, appeared on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno on Wednesday despite the strike and picketing by the show’s writers.</p>
<p>Earlier Wednesday, Huckabee said he supports the writers and did not think he would be crossing a picket line, because he believed the writers had made an agreement to allow late night shows back on the air.</p>
<p>“My understanding is that there was a special arrangement made for the late-night shows, and the writers have made this agreement to let the late night shows to come back on, so I don’t anticipate that it’s crossing a picket line,” Huckabee told reporters traveling with him Wednesday from Fort Dodge to Mason City.</p>
<p>In fact, that is true only of David Letterman, who has a separate agreement with writers for his “Late Show.”</p>
<p>Told he was mistaken and that writers had cleared only Letterman’s show, Huckabee protested:</p>
<p>“But my understanding is there’s a sort of dispensation given to the late-night shows, is that right?”</p>
<p>Told again that he was wrong, Huckabee murmured, “Hmmm,” and, “Oh,” before answering another question.</p>
<p>New <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2007/12/6649_huckabee_the_se.html" type="external">nickname ideas</a> for Huckabee: Mr.-Not-Ready-For-Primetime or Mr.-Worst-Staff-Ever.</p>
<p /> | Huckabee on the Writers’ Strike: Sharp as a Tack, as Usual | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/01/huckabee-writers-strike-sharp-tack-usual/ | 2008-01-03 | 4 |
<p>WAHPETON, N.D. (AP) — A fresh pepperoni pizza should be sauced, topped and oven ready in 60 seconds.</p>
<p>That's the goal of Sierra Rettig, assistant manager of Domino's Pizza in Wahpeton. Rettig, 28, has been with Domino's for the past eight years. Her job is secure, but it's also flexible.</p>
<p>"I'm a 'whatever you need me to be,'" she said.</p>
<p>The Wahpeton Daily News visited Rettig and Store Manager Michael Mueller on an average late morning. Both arrived to work around 10 a.m. and until 12:30 p.m., they were the only ones working.</p>
<p>"I usually work a 10-hour day," Rettig continued. "Sometimes it's until 7 p.m., sometimes 5 p.m. We're currently short-staffed, so we're all working longer days."</p>
<p>The short-staffing is a seasonal consequence. Many of Domino's' staff are college students who are now out of the area for Christmas vacation. The students' vacation also reduces the amount of pizza orders.</p>
<p>"We do slow down a little bit. It happens in the summer too, for longer," Rettig said.</p>
<p>Mueller, 25, has been a manager for nearly three years. He's been with the Domino's Pizza in Wahpeton for just over a year after previously managing in Moorhead and Fergus Falls, Minnesota. The Wahpeton location is the only Domino's Rettig has worked for.</p>
<p>"I'm required to train all the new employees," Mueller explained. "I make food just like all my employees do. I more or less supervise everybody in the store and make sure they're doing their job at the proper level. I'm here to enforce that we're providing the best customer service we possibly can."</p>
<p>Confidentiality prevents Mueller from saying how many employees he supervises. He also couldn't let the Daily News ride along on a delivery. However, he was able to speak openly about recipes, since Dominos lists their ingredients for nutritional reasons.</p>
<p>"Our most popular pizza would be the simple pepperoni. A lot of the college students order the wings," he said.</p>
<p>Preparation is the name of the game in the morning. Mueller and Rettig were getting ready for a busy evening. Wahpeton High School had ordered 30 pizzas for the choir to eat in between performances of "The Glory of Christmas."</p>
<p>Other orders were coming in at a rapid pace as well. Mueller and Rettig took phone calls, typing in the relevant information. Their computer is hooked up to the printer that creates each individual pizza label. The printer is also in sync with online orders, allowing labels to be printed without Mueller and Rettig inputting the information.</p>
<p>"It takes about seven minutes to come out of our oven," Rettig said. "It seems longer if you watch. The second oven is for things that need to be cooked a little bit longer, like pizzas with extra toppings. When you go to our website, it has the 'Domino's Tracker.' It's synced to our ovens, so it's giving you an accurate reading of when the food will be ready."</p>
<p>On average, Rettig delivers 15-30 orders every day. There are, of course, variances by season and by day. The average delivery is completed in about 15 minutes, Mueller said.</p>
<p>Time is one important factor for the people who make and deliver pizza. Another important factor is preparation. The secret to making a good pizza is getting the portions right, Rettig explained.</p>
<p>"A lot of people think where you lose time is (putting on the toppings). It's actually with saucing and cheesing. You want to get an even consistency. That's the most important part. Our goal is that if you order something here, it should be the same every time. Quality control and portion control are important. It should be the same thing you can order in Michigan, so people will come back and order it again," she said.</p>
<p>Domino's Inc. is based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The parent company was responsible for the Wahpeton store's renovation, which occurred in November 2016, <a href="http://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news/a-slice-of-life-at-domino-s-pizza/article_7e9aea30-e5d9-11e7-8032-df3eb8220895.html" type="external">the Wahpeton Daily News reported</a> .</p>
<p>"It was a companywide decision," Rettig continued. "People come in and you can tell they haven't been in here for a while, because they'll say, 'Oh, it's changed in here.'"</p>
<p>The renovation included adding a chalkboard wall for guests of all ages to write on.</p>
<p>"People will come in and ask for a ladder. I tell them, 'No, you don't need one.' Everybody wants to write on the wall. I didn't know how it was going to go when we put this in. It's a positive thing, as long as the messages are clean. College kids are, well, college kids," Rettig said.</p>
<p>Domino's renovation in town also included changing a solid wall in front of the pizza creation space to one of clear plastic.</p>
<p>"Kids can step up and watch the dough going around. Plus, having the clear wall brings more sun in," Rettig continued.</p>
<p>After years of being told not to toss the pizza dough, Rettig is now encouraged to do so. Domino's motto is that frozen pizza dough is the root of all evil, so the dough is kept in a cooler on site.</p>
<p>"We do not make the dough, but we do stretch it out," Mueller explained as he made an order of Bread Twists.</p>
<p>"During the remodel, we did not shut down," Rettig said as she tossed dough. "Domino's has a group of construction workers that travel around. When we'd close, they'd start working. When I'd come back the next day, they'd just be finishing. It was crazy. I'd come in and be, 'Oh my gosh, you guys did all this.' Then there'd be mornings where I'd think, 'What did you do all night?' because the changes weren't as easy to see. They got everything done and it looks amazing. Two weeks and it was business as usual the whole time."</p>
<p>According to Mueller and Rettig, there are currently no plans to expand Domino's in Wahpeton further to include seating. Domino's has been located at 102 Fourth St. S. in Wahpeton for at least 15 years.</p>
<p>"I started here when I was 20," Rettig remembered. "My dad worked at a pizza place a long time ago. It had one of those brick ovens, so you had to turn the pizza every five minutes. That's so cool. I wish I could use one of those."</p>
<p>Both Mueller and Rettig have their reasons for making and delivering pizza.</p>
<p>"I love when we get phone calls from people who tell us they were satisfied. I'd like to see it happen more often," he said.</p>
<p>It's all in a late morning's work for Michael Mueller and Sierra Rettig, there during the calm before the storm.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Wahpeton Daily News, <a href="http://www.wahpetondailynews.com" type="external">http://www.wahpetondailynews.com</a></p>
<p>WAHPETON, N.D. (AP) — A fresh pepperoni pizza should be sauced, topped and oven ready in 60 seconds.</p>
<p>That's the goal of Sierra Rettig, assistant manager of Domino's Pizza in Wahpeton. Rettig, 28, has been with Domino's for the past eight years. Her job is secure, but it's also flexible.</p>
<p>"I'm a 'whatever you need me to be,'" she said.</p>
<p>The Wahpeton Daily News visited Rettig and Store Manager Michael Mueller on an average late morning. Both arrived to work around 10 a.m. and until 12:30 p.m., they were the only ones working.</p>
<p>"I usually work a 10-hour day," Rettig continued. "Sometimes it's until 7 p.m., sometimes 5 p.m. We're currently short-staffed, so we're all working longer days."</p>
<p>The short-staffing is a seasonal consequence. Many of Domino's' staff are college students who are now out of the area for Christmas vacation. The students' vacation also reduces the amount of pizza orders.</p>
<p>"We do slow down a little bit. It happens in the summer too, for longer," Rettig said.</p>
<p>Mueller, 25, has been a manager for nearly three years. He's been with the Domino's Pizza in Wahpeton for just over a year after previously managing in Moorhead and Fergus Falls, Minnesota. The Wahpeton location is the only Domino's Rettig has worked for.</p>
<p>"I'm required to train all the new employees," Mueller explained. "I make food just like all my employees do. I more or less supervise everybody in the store and make sure they're doing their job at the proper level. I'm here to enforce that we're providing the best customer service we possibly can."</p>
<p>Confidentiality prevents Mueller from saying how many employees he supervises. He also couldn't let the Daily News ride along on a delivery. However, he was able to speak openly about recipes, since Dominos lists their ingredients for nutritional reasons.</p>
<p>"Our most popular pizza would be the simple pepperoni. A lot of the college students order the wings," he said.</p>
<p>Preparation is the name of the game in the morning. Mueller and Rettig were getting ready for a busy evening. Wahpeton High School had ordered 30 pizzas for the choir to eat in between performances of "The Glory of Christmas."</p>
<p>Other orders were coming in at a rapid pace as well. Mueller and Rettig took phone calls, typing in the relevant information. Their computer is hooked up to the printer that creates each individual pizza label. The printer is also in sync with online orders, allowing labels to be printed without Mueller and Rettig inputting the information.</p>
<p>"It takes about seven minutes to come out of our oven," Rettig said. "It seems longer if you watch. The second oven is for things that need to be cooked a little bit longer, like pizzas with extra toppings. When you go to our website, it has the 'Domino's Tracker.' It's synced to our ovens, so it's giving you an accurate reading of when the food will be ready."</p>
<p>On average, Rettig delivers 15-30 orders every day. There are, of course, variances by season and by day. The average delivery is completed in about 15 minutes, Mueller said.</p>
<p>Time is one important factor for the people who make and deliver pizza. Another important factor is preparation. The secret to making a good pizza is getting the portions right, Rettig explained.</p>
<p>"A lot of people think where you lose time is (putting on the toppings). It's actually with saucing and cheesing. You want to get an even consistency. That's the most important part. Our goal is that if you order something here, it should be the same every time. Quality control and portion control are important. It should be the same thing you can order in Michigan, so people will come back and order it again," she said.</p>
<p>Domino's Inc. is based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The parent company was responsible for the Wahpeton store's renovation, which occurred in November 2016, <a href="http://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news/a-slice-of-life-at-domino-s-pizza/article_7e9aea30-e5d9-11e7-8032-df3eb8220895.html" type="external">the Wahpeton Daily News reported</a> .</p>
<p>"It was a companywide decision," Rettig continued. "People come in and you can tell they haven't been in here for a while, because they'll say, 'Oh, it's changed in here.'"</p>
<p>The renovation included adding a chalkboard wall for guests of all ages to write on.</p>
<p>"People will come in and ask for a ladder. I tell them, 'No, you don't need one.' Everybody wants to write on the wall. I didn't know how it was going to go when we put this in. It's a positive thing, as long as the messages are clean. College kids are, well, college kids," Rettig said.</p>
<p>Domino's renovation in town also included changing a solid wall in front of the pizza creation space to one of clear plastic.</p>
<p>"Kids can step up and watch the dough going around. Plus, having the clear wall brings more sun in," Rettig continued.</p>
<p>After years of being told not to toss the pizza dough, Rettig is now encouraged to do so. Domino's motto is that frozen pizza dough is the root of all evil, so the dough is kept in a cooler on site.</p>
<p>"We do not make the dough, but we do stretch it out," Mueller explained as he made an order of Bread Twists.</p>
<p>"During the remodel, we did not shut down," Rettig said as she tossed dough. "Domino's has a group of construction workers that travel around. When we'd close, they'd start working. When I'd come back the next day, they'd just be finishing. It was crazy. I'd come in and be, 'Oh my gosh, you guys did all this.' Then there'd be mornings where I'd think, 'What did you do all night?' because the changes weren't as easy to see. They got everything done and it looks amazing. Two weeks and it was business as usual the whole time."</p>
<p>According to Mueller and Rettig, there are currently no plans to expand Domino's in Wahpeton further to include seating. Domino's has been located at 102 Fourth St. S. in Wahpeton for at least 15 years.</p>
<p>"I started here when I was 20," Rettig remembered. "My dad worked at a pizza place a long time ago. It had one of those brick ovens, so you had to turn the pizza every five minutes. That's so cool. I wish I could use one of those."</p>
<p>Both Mueller and Rettig have their reasons for making and delivering pizza.</p>
<p>"I love when we get phone calls from people who tell us they were satisfied. I'd like to see it happen more often," he said.</p>
<p>It's all in a late morning's work for Michael Mueller and Sierra Rettig, there during the calm before the storm.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Wahpeton Daily News, <a href="http://www.wahpetondailynews.com" type="external">http://www.wahpetondailynews.com</a></p> | Domino's Pizza serves North Dakota city for about 15 years | false | https://apnews.com/amp/4d1a5e2bb1854c478df46dc1b5ba63de | 2018-01-01 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Shanea Shamburger of Valley looks to get to the basket Tuesday night against Cleveland. She led the Vikings with 23 points in the win. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>The eighth-seeded Vikings – who opened the tournament Tuesday night at Cibola with a 54-46 victory over No. 9 Cleveland – already beat the 7 seed, Rio Rancho, by double figures.</p>
<p>Valley also routed the 6 seed, Eldorado, by 25 points, although that win came post-bracket announcement.</p>
<p>“I was disappointed,” Harbin said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And while the 7-3 Vikings did advance to tonight’s second round, their placement puts them in the unenviable position of having to face No. 1 Cibola in the quarterfinals.</p>
<p>Only four Valley players reached the scoring column Tuesday, but that was enough.</p>
<p>Junior post Shanea Shamburger led Valley with 23 points.</p>
<p>“We played good offense, good defense. We got some turnovers and we won,” Shamburger said.</p>
<p>Valley whipped Cleveland by 22 points just a couple of weeks ago, but the Storm’s athleticism and defense kept it within shouting distance most of the way.</p>
<p>The Vikings had a comfortable margin most of the night, leading by 11 at halftime and extending out to a 13-point lead on Brianna Roybal’s 3-pointer from the top of the key early in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Cleveland – the No. 9 seed despite its 3-7 mark coming into the tournament – steadily worked its way back into the game, largely by turning over Valley’s sloppy offense repeatedly in the second half.</p>
<p>A 10-footer by Liz Davis and a put-back of a free throw by Jade Hill, one right on top of the other, left the Storm trailing by just four, 47-43, with 3:04 to go.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But Alexis Reyes’ 3-pointer on Valley’s next possession was crucial in helping the Vikings hold off Cleveland (3-8).</p>
<p>“We lean heavily on about four girls,” Harbin said. “But some of the other girls did a good job in the unsung parts of the game.”</p>
<p>Reyes had 13 points, Roybal 12 for Valley.</p>
<p>Esperanza Crespin had 11 points, Hill 10 for Cleveland.</p>
<p>Valley takes on Cibola at 7:15 p.m. today in the quarterfinals.</p>
<p>– James Yodice</p>
<p>No. 1 CIBOLA 77, No. 16 HIGHLAND 12: At Cibola, the Cougars (9-1) had four players in double figures.</p>
<p>No. 2 LA CUEVA 81, No. 15 RIO GRANDE 8: At La Cueva, the Bears (7-2) led 47-1 at halftime and cruised to the win.</p>
<p>No. 3 VOLCANO VISTA 61, No. 14 WEST MESA 26: At West Mesa, Raven Herrera had a team-best 14 points for the 8-2 Hawks.</p>
<p>No. 4 ALBUQUERQUE HIGH 59, No. 13 MANZANO 28: At Del Norte, Jada Douglas led the Bulldogs (6-3) with 14 points.</p>
<p>No. 5 HOPE CHRISTIAN 44, No. 12 DEL NORTE 32: At Del Norte, Alivia Lewis’ 14 points sparked the Huskies (5-4).</p>
<p>No. 6 ELDORADO 56, No. 11 ATRISCO HERITAGE 33: At West Mesa, Sydney Candelaria had 15 points to lead the Eagles (5-5).</p>
<p>No. 7 RIO RANCHO 52, No. 10 SANDIA 48: There was no information on the Rams’ victory over the Matadors at La Cueva.</p>
<p /> | Vikings make their case, beat Storm | false | https://abqjournal.com/522389/vikings-make-their-case-defeat-storm.html | 2 |
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<p>The Federal Reserve has cut the federal funds rate and its short-term lending rate to banks to near zero, but those moves have done little to unlock credit markets. Conventional mortgage money and business loans remain too scarce, as regional banks, which are the arteries and capillaries of our credit system, remain short of loanable funds.</p>
<p>Near-zero short-term lending rates for banks does little to help, because the regional banks do not lack for short-term access to funds—the Fed is providing all the near-term liquidity they want through the discount window. Rather, banks lack longer-term sources of funds to back up mortgages and commitments for medium-term lines of credit to businesses.</p>
<p>Since the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s, regional banks have relied on both deposits and the sale of mortgages and other loans to money center banks in New York to finance home and business loans. Loans sold to money center banks, for many years, were securitized—that is bundled into bonds for sale to insurance companies, pension funds and other fixed-income investors. Those investors have very predicable cash flow requirements, as defined by actuarial tables, and are ideal investors for bonds backed by mortgages and other loans.</p>
<p>In recent years, fixed-income investors were burned by the sharp practices of New York bankers and investment houses. The latter packaged shoddy subprime mortgages into bonds, insured those bonds through the sale of questionable derivatives, and then pawned off shoddy bonds as high-quality investments. The bankers got big bonuses from the wide spreads on subprime loans and derivatives fees.</p>
<p>These schemes were the central to subprime crisis, housing bubble and collapse, and now the crisis of confidence on Wall Street that has poisoned credit markets globally.</p>
<p>Now, fixed-income investors have lots of cash to invest, but are reluctant to buy mortgage and other loaned-backed bonds. The large New York banks are not much interested in creating bonds from loans made by regional banks, because securitizing high quality loans into bonds don’t create the opportunities to write fancy derivatives that pay bankers huge bonuses.</p>
<p>Instead, the New York Banks have taken the massive amounts of loans and capital provided by the Federal Reserve and Treasury to go hunting for new high profit businesses and acquisitions. The presence of federal regulators in their offices keeps them from getting involved in many new schemes but does not solve the shortage of funds regional banks have to lend.</p>
<p>The Fed has other options. It can go out on the yield curve and buy 10-year Treasuries to pull down long rates, such as conventional mortgage rates. That would lower the rates banks pay for deposits but would not increase their deposits; hence, it would not increase the amount of money they have to make loans.</p>
<p>The Fed is buying mortgage-backed Fannie and Freddie Mac bonds, pulling down their rates. However, lowering rates on Fannie and Freddie securities does not make them more attractive to investors.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Ben Bernanke should gather the CEOs of the large money center banks, which have received direct infusions of capital from the Treasury and huge loans from the Fed, together with the biggest fixed-income investors to define the parameters of acceptable mortgage-backed securities. Then, it should require its wards on Wall Street to buy loans from regional banks and bundle those loans into bonds for sale to fixed-income investors.</p>
<p>The Fed could also buy bonds backed by conventional mortgages, just as it has Fannie and Freddie securities. In the end, though, the Fed may have to start lending to the regional banks against solid, prime conventional mortgages and hold the mortgages or securitize those for sale to fixed-income investors directly or through primary securities dealers. The latter are among the banks now receiving Treasury injections of capital and generous Fed loans.</p>
<p>This is all well outside the limits of what the Fed has done since World War II and perhaps ever done, but these are dangerous times.</p>
<p>Simply, the Fed is running out of conventional monetary policy and bond market options.</p>
<p>In the end, if the New York banks won’t do their job, the Fed may have to do it for them.</p>
<p>PETER MORICI is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | What’s Next for the Fed? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/12/18/what-s-next-for-the-fed/ | 2008-12-18 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. health officials said on Friday they were revoking legal guidance issued by the Obama administration that had sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services, such as Planned Parenthood.</p> FILE PHOTO: The sign of the Planned Parenthood centre is pictured in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., February 11, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Mostoller
<p>The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials also said the department was issuing a new regulation aimed at protecting healthcare workers’ civil rights based on religious and conscience objections.</p>
<p>The regulation protects the rights of healthcare workers from providing abortion, euthanasia, and sterilization, the officials said during a media call with reporters.</p>
<p>On Thursday, HHS said it was creating a new division that would focus on conscience and religious objections, a move it said was necessary after years of the federal government forcing healthcare workers to provide such services.</p>
<p>HHS will issue a letter on Friday to state Medicaid offices rescinding 2016 guidance that the Obama administration gave after states including Indiana had tried to defund abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>The guidance “restricted states’ ability to take certain actions against family-planning providers that offer abortion services,” HHS said in a statement.</p>
<p>The Medicaid program, jointly funded by states and the federal government, provides healthcare services to the poor and disabled. Federal law prohibits Medicaid or any other federal funding for abortion services.</p>
<p>The move is the Trump administration’s latest effort to roll back policies developed under former President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>“You are watching a struggle over abortion politics,” said Robin Wilson, a professor at University of Illinois College of Law. “In a sense you’re allowing state Medicaid regulators, through regulation, to reopen a whole can of worms around women’s health.”</p>
<p>Wilson said the impact could be immediate in states which, before the Obama-era guidance, had been working to effectively defund or limit funding to providers such as Planned Parenthood, which provide abortions but bill them separately so that they are not paid for by Medicaid.</p>
<p>Dawn Laguens, executive vice president for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said the move encourages states to block access to care at Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>“The law is clear: it is illegal to bar women from seeking care at Planned Parenthood. Longstanding protections within Medicaid safeguard every person’s right to access care at their qualified provider of choice,” Laguens said in a statement.</p> NEW RULE
<p>The rule will enforce statutes that guarantee these civil rights. Roger Severino, director of the Office of Civil Rights at HHS, said the office had received 34 complaints since Trump took office last January.</p>
<p>Experts on Thursday said the move to protect workers on religious grounds raised the possibility it could provide legal cover for otherwise unlawful discrimination, and encourage a broader range of religious objections.</p>
<p>Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Yasmeen Abutaleb in Washington; Editing by Paul Simao and Richard Chang</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States voiced willingness on Wednesday to negotiate a resolution to an escalating trade fight with China after Beijing retaliated against proposed U.S. tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods by targeting key American imports, but the Chinese ambassador to Washington said it “takes two to tango.”</p>
<p>(Graphic: U.S. trade in goods with China - <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2GcOZIH" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2GcOZIH</a>)</p>
<p>Just 11 hours after President Donald Trump’s administration proposed 25 percent tariffs on some 1,300 Chinese industrial, technology, transport and medical products, China shot back with a list of similar duties on major American imports including soybeans, planes, cars, beef and chemicals.</p>
<p>Beijing’s swift and forceful response raised the prospect of a quickly spiraling dispute between the world’s two economic superpowers that could harm the global economy.</p>
<p>(Graphic: U.S. imports from China - <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2FMsz1Q" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2FMsz1Q</a>)</p>
<p>While Trump posted defiant messages on Twitter, his administration signaled possible wiggle room.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-trade-winnersandlosers-factbox/factbox-u-s-winners-and-losers-from-trade-tit-for-tat-idUSKCN1HB2K0" type="external">Factbox: U.S. winners and losers from trade tit-for-tat</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-china-stocks/china-trade-retaliation-puts-stocks-of-u-s-exporters-in-spin-idUSKCN1HB1WL" type="external">China trade retaliation puts stocks of U.S. exporters in spin</a>
<a href="/article/us-southkorea-trade/south-korea-watching-u-s-china-trade-issue-closely-measures-prepared-idUSKCN1HC093" type="external">South Korea watching U.S.-China trade issue closely, measures prepared</a>
<p>Asked whether the U.S. tariffs announced on Tuesday may never go into effect and may be a negotiating tactic, Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, told reporters: “Yes, it’s possible. It’s part of the process.” He called the announcements by the two countries mere opening proposals.</p>
<p>Kudlow later told Fox News Channel: “I don’t think it’s a trade war. I think there is going to be intense negotiations on both sides.”</p>
<p>“I think we’re going to come to agreements,” he said, adding that “I believe that the Chinese will back down and will play ball.”</p>
<p>Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the United States, held an hour-long meeting at the U.S. State Department in Washington with acting Secretary of State John Sullivan.</p>
<p>“Negotiation would still be our preference, but it takes two to tango. We will see what the U.S. will do,” the ambassador said afterward.</p>
<p>The trade actions will not be carried out immediately, so there may be room for maneuver. Publication of Washington’s list on Tuesday started a period of public comment and consultation expected to last around two months. The effective date of China’s moves depends on when the U.S. action takes effect.</p>
<p>If the two countries are unable to settle the dispute, a full-scale trade war could destabilize U.S.-Chinese commercial ties, an important component of the global economy.</p>
<p>China’s action rattled U.S. farmers, while shares in U.S. exporters of everything from planes to tractors were volatile.</p>
<p>After dropping at the outset of trading, Wall Street’s three major indexes staged a comeback to close about 1 percent higher as investors turned their focus to earnings and away from the trade fight.</p>
<p>White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said U.S. implementation of the tariffs would depend on China’s behavior.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be a couple months before tariffs on either side would go into effect and be implemented and we’re hopeful that China will do the right thing,” she told reporters.</p>
<p>“I would anticipate that if there are no changes to the behavior of China and they don’t stop the unfair trade practices, then we would move forward,” Sanders said.</p>
<p>Trump, who contends his predecessors served the United States badly in trade matters, wrote on Twitter: “We are not in a trade war with China that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S.”</p> POLITICAL DAMAGE
<p>While Washington targeted products that benefit from Chinese industrial policy - including its “Made in China 2025” initiative to replace advanced technology imports with domestic products in strategic industries such as advanced IT and robotics - Beijing appeared to offer a response intended to inflict political damage.</p>
<p>Washington’s list was filled with many obscure industrial items, but China’s struck at signature U.S. exports, including soybeans, frozen beef, cotton and other agricultural commodities produced in states from Iowa to Texas that voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.</p> Shipping containers at Pier J at the Port of Long Beach wait for processing in Long Beach, California, U.S., April 4, 2018. REUTERS/Bob Riha Jr.
<p>The list extends to tobacco and whiskey, both produced in states including Kentucky, home of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, like Trump a Republican.</p>
<p>Trump said last month that “trade wars are good, and easy to win,” but key fellow Republicans expressed unease over the latest developments.</p>
<p>McConnell said he was nervous about the “growing trend in the administration to levy tariffs” that could become a “slippery slope,” while Senator Chuck Grassley, whose home state of Iowa is a major agricultural producer, said: “Farmers and ranchers shouldn’t be expected to bear the brunt of retaliation for the entire country.”</p>
<p>The possibility of an escalating U.S.-China trade war will result in “a bumpy ride” for the U.S. economy, said James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.</p>
<p>China said its list of 25 percent additional tariffs on U.S. goods covered 106 items with a trade value matching the $50 billion targeted on Washington’s list.</p>
<p>U.S.-made goods that appear to face added tariffs in China include Tesla Inc electric cars, Ford Motor Co’s Lincoln auto models, Gulfstream jets made by General Dynamics Corp and Brown-Forman Corp’s Jack Daniel’s whiskey.</p> Slideshow (9 Images)
<p>Information technology products, from cellphones to personal computers, largely escaped the latest salvo of U.S.-China trade measures despite accounting for a significant portion of bilateral trade.</p>
<p>China ran a $375 billion goods trade surplus with the United States in 2017. Trump has demanded that the China cut the trade gap by $100 billion.</p>
<p>The U.S. move was aimed at forcing Beijing to address what Washington says is deeply entrenched theft of U.S. intellectual property and forced technology transfer from U.S. companies to Chinese competitors, charges Chinese officials deny.</p>
<p>The U.S. tariff list followed China’s imposition of tariffs on $3 billion worth of U.S. fruits, nuts, pork and wine to protest U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs imposed last month by Trump.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Michael Martina in Beijing; Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton, David Brunnstrom, Jason Lange, Ginger Gibson, Steve Holland, Jeff Mason, Makini Brice, Susan Heavey, David Chance and Lindsay Dunsmuir in Washington; Michael Martina, Cheng Fang, Ryan Woo, Ben Blanchard, Tony Munroe, Cate Cadell, Philip Wen, Dominique Patton, Josephine Mason and Stella Qiu in Beijing, Engen Tham in Shanghai and Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Tom Miles in Geneva and Michael Hogan in; Hamburg; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Peter Cooney</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - An affluent Chicago suburb has banned the possession, sale and manufacture of “assault weapons” and “large-capacity magazines” in response to the massacre at a Florida high school and other recent mass shootings in the United States.</p> FILE PHOTO: A woman wears stickers in protest of gun violence before the "March for Our Lives", an organized demonstration to end gun violence, in downtown Houston, Texas, U.S., March 24, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
<p>Residents of Democratic-leaning Deerfield, located about 25 miles north of Chicago, have until June 13 to remove any firearms and magazines that fall outside the new restrictions or face a fine of between $250 and $1,000 per day, according to the ordinance passed by the town board on Monday night.</p>
<p>The ban quickly drew a legal challenge from gun-rights group Guns Save Life, with support from the National Rifle Association, on grounds it violated Americans’ Constitutional rights to own firearms.</p>
<p>The Deerfield ordinance said the ban was a direct response to the Feb. 14 killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the student-led campaign for tighter restrictions on guns inspired by the mass shooting.</p>
<p>“We hope that our local decision helps spur state and national leaders to take steps to make our communities safer,” Deerfield Mayor Harriet Rosenthal said in a statement.</p>
<p>The ban follows a similar 2013 measure enacted by the nearby suburb of Highland Park, located on Chicago’s North Shore, which withstood a challenge that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Opponents were quick to take issue with the ban.</p>
<p>“Every law-abiding villager of Deerfield has the right to protect themselves, their homes, and their loved ones with the firearm that best suits their needs,” Chris Cox, head of the NRA’s lobbying arm, said in a statement.</p>
<p>Opponents of the ban said they fear Deerfield will try to outlaw other firearms.</p>
<p>“First it’s going to be assault rifles. There will be new bans in the future. It’s just a matter of time,” Deerfield resident Larry Nordal told the Chicago Tribune. Nordal did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.</p>
<p>The ban defines assault weapons as a range of firearms such as semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15, a gun similar to the one used in the Florida massacre. High-capacity magazines are defined as those holding more than 10 rounds.</p>
<p>Deerfield High School senior Ariella Kharasch, who supported the legislation, wants more action on local and national levels.</p>
<p>“This is our generation’s fight. We’re going to keep fighting and this is part of it,” Kharasch told the Chicago Tribune. “Change happens gradually step by step.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>GRAPEVINE, Texas (Reuters) - After years of poor pay, supply shortages and overcrowded classes, former Oklahoma teacher Chelsea Price decided the best way to pursue the profession she loves was to leave her home state and head south to Texas.</p>
<p>The harsh economic realities of teaching in Oklahoma, where school salaries are some of the lowest in the United States, have created an exodus to neighboring states where wages are higher.</p>
<p>As a consequence, Oklahoma is grappling with a teacher shortage that has forced school districts to cut curricula and deploy nearly 2,000 emergency-certified instructors as a stop-gap measure.</p>
<p>“It just got to the point where it was really defeating,” said Price, 34, who last year moved to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine with her husband and 10-year-old daughter to start a job as a second-grade teacher.</p>
<p>Crossing the Red River that separates Oklahoma and Texas meant a salary increase of about 40 percent for Price, who has a master’s degree. She saw few prospects of improving the lot of her family by staying put.</p>
<p>Price earned around $30,000 a year when she began teaching in Oklahoma. When she left 11 years later, she was earning just under $40,000. At her new position, Price earns about $55,000.</p>
<p>The benefits transcend salary. There is a cap on class sizes and every student has an iPad, which Price said makes her job easier.</p>
<p>In Oklahoma, where educators statewide walked off the job this week to protest years of low pay and budget cuts to the school system, teacher complaints range from decaying infrastructure, students’ having to share worn-out textbooks and teachers’ having to dip into their own pockets to buy supplies for underfunded classes.</p>
<p>In contrast, the northern Dallas suburbs, an hour or less south of the Oklahoma border, enjoy increased spending on schools as population growth in recent years, which has outpaced nearly every area of the United States, has driven up local tax revenues.</p>
<p>Grapevine, with about 50,000 people, has a refurbished main street, a major resort hotel and easy commutes to major employers in Dallas and Fort Worth. Like many of the northern Dallas-area suburbs, new parks, schools and businesses are springing up in a region seen as a place of relatively low crime, good employment prospects and affordable housing.</p>
<p>Oklahoma City and Tulsa also have relatively low unemployment rates and spectacularly refurbished urban areas, but median household income and wages are far lower than in the northern Dallas suburbs.</p>
<p>Price and other teachers from Oklahoma have followed the money.</p>
<p>“If I can find a better situation for all of us, then why wouldn’t I?” she said.</p>
<p>Since 2010, Texas has seen about 3,500 teachers from Oklahoma apply for teaching certificates, the most of any state, according to the Texas Education Agency.</p>
<p>From our archives: <a href="" type="internal">As oil boom goes bust, Oklahoma protects drillers and squeezes schools</a></p>
<p>&#160;”LOSING OUR BEST, BRIGHTEST”</p>
<p>About 11 percent of Oklahoma teachers overall leave the state or profession every year, according to data from the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, an umbrella group.</p>
<p>More than 80 percent leave over low pay, according to the data. In constant dollar terms, the pay for Oklahoma teachers has dropped by about 15 percent over the last 25 years, federal data showed.</p> Former Oklahoma teacher Chelsea Price, 34, is pictured in her elementary school 2nd grade classroom in Grapevine, Texas, U.S., April 4, 2018. Courtesy Chelsea Price/Handout via REUTERS
<p>“Oklahoma’s teacher shortage has been devastating for children. When schools can’t find qualified teachers, they either must increase class sizes or hire under-qualified, under-prepared teachers,” said Shawn Hime, executive director of the association.</p>
<p>Every state bordering Oklahoma offers higher wages for teachers, with mean wages in the neighboring states about $8,600 to $16,000 higher, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
<p>Striking teachers in Oklahoma are seeking a $10,000 raise.</p>
<p>Those leaving are often teachers who have several years of experience and generally hold a master’s degree or higher, according to a survey from Theresa Cullen, an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Oklahoma. The average salary increase for those who fled to other states was about $19,000, the survey showed.</p>
<p>“We are losing our best, brightest and most prepared,” Cullen said.</p>
<p>Of neighboring states, Texas offers the highest mean wages. Ginny Duncan, 24, decided to relocate there two years after starting her teaching career at an elementary school in Tulsa.</p>
<p>“I’m moving to Texas this summer because I can’t afford to live here,” she said in a telephone interview.</p> Former Oklahoma teacher Chelsea Price, 34, helps a 2nd grade student with an assignment on an iPad in her classroom in Grapevine, Texas, U.S., April 4, 2018. Courtesy Chelsea Price/Handout via REUTERS
<p>Duncan, who holds degrees in both special education and regular education, earns about $32,000 a year as a teacher and needs to work three summer jobs to make ends meet. If she can land a similar teaching job in the Dallas area, she could earn about $20,000 a year more.</p>
<p>“I love teaching so much,” Duncan said. “I wanted to be a teacher my entire life. I have a special passion for special needs kids.” But her Oklahoma salary “makes it so hard to actually do it.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, and Barbara Goldberg in New York; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Frank McGurty and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York attorney general’s office is investigating the fatal shooting by police of an unarmed black man who pointed a metal pipe at officers in Brooklyn in the latest such killing to prompt street protests.</p>
<p>The death of Saheed Vassell on Wednesday was one of a string of fatal shootings of unarmed black men by police that has fueled a renewed debate about racial bias in law enforcement and the U.S. criminal justice system.</p>
<p>“We’re committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive and fair investigation,” Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, said in a statement on Thursday.</p>
<p>Police said Vassell was killed by officers responding to reports of a man aiming a gun at pedestrians. When the officers arrived, police said, Vassell took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at them.</p> Saheed Vassell points a metal pipe at a pedestrian in Brooklyn April 4, 2018, in a still image from surveillance video released by the New York Police Department in New York City, New York, U.S. on April 5, 2018. NYPD/Handout via REUTERS
<p>The officers believed the suspect was holding a firearm, a senior police official told a news conference on Wednesday, and three plainclothes officers and one uniformed officer fired 10 shots. Vassell later died in a hospital.</p>
<p>Police on Thursday released security camera footage that showed Vassell approaching people in the street and pointing the pipe at them like a pistol, as well as partial transcripts of three 911 calls.</p> Slideshow (5 Images)
<p>“There’s a guy walking around the street, he looks like he’s crazy but he’s pointing something at people that looks like a gun and he’s pulling the trigger,” one of the callers said.</p>
<p>Local media reported Vassell was 34-years-old, suffered from mental illness, and was well known in parts of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood.</p>
<p>By mid-afternoon Thursday, more than 1,000 people had indicated on Facebook that they would attend a rally later in the day to demand justice for Vassell.</p>
<p>His killing followed the fatal shooting by police of an unarmed black man, Stephon Clark, 22, in Sacramento, California, that has sparked more than two weeks of demonstrations. Officers responding to a report of someone breaking windows killed Clark on March 18 in his grandmother’s yard. The officers feared he had a gun, but it turned out he was holding a cellphone, Sacramento police said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Bill Trott and Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | U.S. health agency revokes Obama-era Planned Parenthood protection U.S. expects talks with China as trade fight escalates Chicago suburb bans 'assault weapons' after Florida massacre Some Oklahoma teachers find the grass really is greener in Texas NY attorney general probing Brooklyn police shooting death | false | https://reuters.com/article/usa-healthcare-religion/update-3-us-health-agency-revokes-obama-era-planned-parenthood-protection-idUSL1N1PE0YN | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Corey-Kluber/" type="external">Corey Kluber</a> is a good bet to win the American League <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cy_Young/" type="external">Cy Young</a> Award this season, but he won’t be the starter in the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cleveland-Indians/" type="external">Cleveland Indians</a>‘ first playoff game.</p>
<p>In a somewhat surprising decision, Indians manager <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Terry_Francona/" type="external">Terry Francona</a> announced Tuesday that <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Trevor-Bauer/" type="external">Trevor Bauer</a> will start for the Indians in Thursday’s Game 1 of the American League Division Series against either the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Yankees/" type="external">New York Yankees</a> or <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Minnesota-Twins/" type="external">Minnesota Twins</a>.</p>
<p>Kluber will pitch Game 2.</p>
<p>“I think on a number of reasons it makes good sense,” Francona said. “Not that you go into a game thinking you’re going to lose, but if you do, you have your ace coming back. The biggest thing was keeping him on his five-day (schedule). That was really important to Kluber. That was really the only way we could do it.</p>
<p>“Again, you don’t want to put the cart ahead of the horse, but if you’re fortunate enough to win in four, you have your ace ready for the next series.”</p>
<p>Bauer is generally considered the third best starter in the Indians’ rotation, even though he is 17-9 with a 4.19 ERA for the season, and is 10-1 with 2.60 ERA in his last 14 starts.</p>
<p>“He’s been one of the better pitchers in the league,” Francona said. “He’s durable. He bounces back really well. That’s another thing. We can use him, whether it’s a second start, or in the bullpen, probably easier than anybody on our roster.”</p>
<p>Kluber is 18-4 with a 2.25 ERA for the season, and he was 5-0 with an 0.84 ERA in six September starts.</p>
<p>Carlos Carassco, who is scheduled to start Game 3 for Cleveland, is 18-6 with a 3.29 ERA, and he is 6-0 in his last seven starts, giving up more than one run just once in that span.</p> | Trevor Bauer to start for Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of ALDS, Corey Kluber will pitch Game 2 | false | https://newsline.com/trevor-bauer-to-start-for-cleveland-indians-in-game-1-of-alds-corey-kluber-will-pitch-game-2/ | 2017-10-03 | 1 |
<p>Shares of Teekay Corporation (NYSE: TK), Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: TNK), Noble Corporation (NYSE: NE), and Ensco PLC (NYSE: ESV) finished last month down between 8.6% and 9.7% from where they started. Furthermore, they were all down between 9.6% and 13.5% from their peaks in October. In other words, if you bought shares of any of these stocks near their highs in October, you've probably lost money so far.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So what gives? The interesting thing is that there really wasn't any material news about any of these four companies reported in October.</p>
<p>All four of these companies are heavily tied to oil markets. Teekay and its master limited partnership Teekay Tankers operate vessels that transport and store oil and natural gas and related products, while Noble Corp. and Ensco provide offshore drilling services to oil producers.</p>
<p>Since oil prices started falling in mid-2016, it's been increasingly more difficult for companies that operate in the offshore oil and gas patch. For drillers Ensco and Noble Corp. and their competitors, it's been especially hard. When the downturn really kicked in during 2015, offshore-oilfield owners began slashing spending for development of new wells.</p>
<p>This has caused a massive amount of disruption in the driller segment, with several major companies filing bankruptcy, almost every other company idling its off-contract vessels to lower expenses, and a huge swath of the oldest drilling vessels being scrapped over the past two years. It has also led to consolidation, such as <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/20/why-enscos-management-thinks-its-the-right-time-to.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=deeb22e8-c599-11e7-b8f2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Ensco's acquisition of Atwood Oceanics Opens a New Window.</a>, which closed in early October.</p>
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<p>For Teekay and Teekay Tankers, the impact has been a little different. The Teekay organization does offer services specific to offshore oil and gas production -- which could be a growth opportunity, as more and more offshore development will be in areas without easy pipeline access. But it also operates a large tanker fleet that transports hydrocarbons from where they are produced or refined to end markets, and this is a low-growth industry that has suffered from overcapacity in recent years.</p>
<p>For offshore drillers Noble Corp. and Ensco, there is evidence that the worst of the downturn may be over. As Ensco reported in its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/27/enscos-earnings-decline-again-but-its-winning-cont.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=deeb22e8-c599-11e7-b8f2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">most recent earnings Opens a New Window.</a>, the number of new contract awards has increased for each of the past five quarters, and Ensco has won more of those contracts than any other offshore driller.</p>
<p>Noble Corp. added $800 million to its backlog in the third quarter, which it announced in early November. The company has managed to keep its backlog of $3.2 billion essentially flat this year, a notable achievement as many other drillers' backlogs have gotten smaller over the course of the year. The company has also managed to generate positive cash flows this year, while its competitors have had to dip into cash reserves and debt to fund operations.</p>
<p>With their stock prices still trading for 21% and 33% of book value, respectively, Noble Corp. and Ensco look like attractive risk-reward investments. Both companies have strong backlogs, have proved attractive partners for producers based on their recent contract awards, and have solid liquidity to help them continue riding out the downturn. Offshore investments are starting to flow again. That should pay off in bigger profits for Noble and Ensco, and huge returns for investors.</p>
<p>Teekay and Teekay Tankers are driven by slightly different dynamics, since their business is more about total demand for the transportation and storage of hydrocarbons around the globe. While there are some potential growth drivers, part of the challenge will be the industry working through an oversupply of vessels in certain segments. Another will be Teekay's ability to take advantage of growth in others, such as vessels that can offtake, process, and transport oil and natural gas produced in remote offshore locations.</p>
<p>Between the two segments, I think there's more potential upside to be unlocked in offshore drilling. It remains one of the most beaten-down segments of the energy industry, and it's possible that it won't fully recover for another year or more. And the advent of low-cost, fast-turnaround onshore shale has decreased the need for offshore spending over the past two years.</p>
<p>But looking at the bigger picture, offshore oil remains one of the biggest and most important sources of oil and gas, and even though offshore projects are very expensive and can take many years to complete, they are hugely profitable when they come online. That should bring money back to the offshore patch eventually, and when that happens, Ensco and Noble Corp. could make for incredibly profitable investments.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NobleWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=7b09e47a-d2fd-4d09-ace4-7fdf7f8db845&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=deeb22e8-c599-11e7-b8f2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Noble wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=7b09e47a-d2fd-4d09-ace4-7fdf7f8db845&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=deeb22e8-c599-11e7-b8f2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of November 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFVelvetHammer/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=deeb22e8-c599-11e7-b8f2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Jason Hall Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Ensco and Noble. The Motley Fool owns shares of Ensco. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=deeb22e8-c599-11e7-b8f2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 4 Offshore Oil Stocks That Fell 10% Last Month: 2 Look Like Buys Now | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/10/4-offshore-oil-stocks-that-fell-10-last-month-2-look-like-buys-now.html | 2017-11-10 | 0 |
<p>Hugo Chavez can remain Venezuela’s president until he dies, gets bored or loses the job in an election, now that a referendum dropping term limits has succeeded. Chavez was facing mandatory retirement in 2012. An earlier attempt to extend his time in office failed. International election observers pronounced the process free and fair.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>With 94% of votes counted, 54% backed an end to term limits, a National Electoral Council official said.</p>
<p>Mr Chavez has said he needs to stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2012 so he can secure what he calls Venezuela’s socialist revolution.</p>
<p />
<p>Critics say that would concentrate too much power in the presidency.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7891856.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | No More Term Limits for Venezuela's Chavez | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/no-more-term-limits-for-venezuelas-chavez/ | 2009-02-16 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Photo: Mark Schuller.</p>
<p>Thursday, July 28, when Hillary Rodham Clinton took to the stage to accept the Democratic nomination to be the first female candidate of a major political party for president, was also the 101st&#160;anniversary of the U.S. military occupation of Haiti that lasted nineteen years.</p>
<p>Hundreds of people took to the streets and filled a gym named after&#160;president&#160;Stenio&#160;Vincent, who negotiated the departure of the U.S. Marines in 1934, to launch the People’s Tribunal on U.S. Occupation/Domination. The march began at Fort National, of historic significance. Equally significant was the rapprochement of various segments of Haiti’s progressive movements, often fragmented along political lines.</p>
<p>As the U.S. is gearing towards what will almost certainly be an expensive, combative, and highly charged general election, Haitian authorities have rescheduled elections for&#160; <a href="" type="internal">October 9</a>. While some praised interim President&#160;Jocelerme&#160;Privert&#160;for declaring financial independence from the U.S.,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">vowing to hold the elections without U.S. funding</a>, this assertion of sovereignty was eroded as much of the $ <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article85862377.html" type="external">55 million budgeted</a>&#160;for the elections will go to&#160; <a href="http://www.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com/nouvelles/haiti/bulletin_de_vote_les_imprimeurs_ha_tiens_voquent_leur_limination.html" type="external">foreign firms to print the ballots</a>.&#160;Privert’s&#160;tightening of the state’s belts has asphyxiated the already fragile public sector, notably education and health care. The State University of Haiti is in a prolonged crisis deepened Friday by the arrests of protestors occupying the administrative building, and doctors at the State Hospital have&#160; <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/global-development/la-fg-global-haiti-hospital-crisis-snap-story.html" type="external">been on strike</a>&#160;for months.</p>
<p>These contemporary struggles underscore the stakes in the efforts to re-unify the Haitian left. And they also underscore the need for a historical analysis and reparations. Without naming them all, here are six contemporary legacies of the first 1915-1934 U.S. Occupation:</p>
<p>1/ Creating a new constitution that gave foreigners the rights to land in Haiti. Today, land rights – intimately linked with food sovereignty – remains one of the biggest struggles. International projects – free trade zones, export-oriented agriculture like&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Agritrans</a>, high-end tourist development such as that at&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Île-à-Vache</a>, or&#160; <a href="http://chrgj.org/documents/haiti-mining/" type="external">mining</a>– threatens this right.</p>
<p>2/ Creating an army – which had devastating consequences of human rights violations and&#160;massacres, not to mention setting the stage for the Duvalier dictatorship.</p>
<p>3/ Appropriating wealth – the U.S. stole $500,000 in gold reserves on&#160; <a href="" type="internal">December 17, 1914</a>, right before the Occupation. During the occupation,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">National City Bank</a>took control of Haiti’s central bank. Since this time, Haiti’s financial management remains under international agencies’ rule.</p>
<p>4/ Centralizing political and economic power in Port-au-Prince. Regional economies were undermined as nearly all wealth and all industries were developed in the capital. Political power was also centralized. These factors contributed to the&#160;hyperurbanization, and certainly after the killing of the Haitian pig population in the early 1980s. The 2010 earthquake exposed the consequences of this centralization in the “Republic of Port-au-Prince.”</p>
<p>5/ Fanning the conflict with other neighboring countries, certainly the Dominican Republic – it is not coincidence that the Dominican state chose the date of 1929, wherein if someone was born after this date their citizenship status was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">revoked in 2013</a>. The U.S. occupied&#160; <a href="" type="internal">both sides of the island</a>for several years, triggering a migration of Haitian laborers to cut Dominican sugar cane. Since June 18 of last year – where tens of thousands were either expelled or left ‘voluntary’ fearing mob violence – this situation has become a crisis and&#160; <a href="http://fpif.org/really-happening-dominican-republic-deporting-haitian-residents/" type="external">massive human rights violation</a>.</p>
<p>6/ Submitting the country under international agencies’ tutelage – many in Haiti argue that the Occupation that began 101 years ago has never stopped. The 1915 military occupation prepared the ground for foreign control of development and fiscal policies. Haitian sovereignty has been eroded ever since. The debt claimed by international agencies was the opening for what used to be called “Structural Adjustment” programs, where international agencies forced the country to be open to foreign products, especially&#160; <a href="" type="internal">U.S. rice</a>. In effect, Haiti was turned into a dumping ground for the U.S. and neighboring countries. In addition to this direct control, the 1915 Occupation prepared the country for what&#160;SauveurPierre Etienne called an “ <a href="http://www.haitianbookcentre.com/bookbag/details.php?bookid=562&amp;CategoryID=4" type="external">invasion of NGOs</a>.” After the earthquake Haiti was often called a “republic of NGOs” undermining state capacity and authority. This “humanitarian occupation” is accompanied by a U.N. invasion. These troops, who have brought&#160; <a href="" type="internal">cholera</a>&#160;to the country with several documented cases of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">rape and sexual assault</a>, have immunity.</p>
<p>The march, several hundred people strong, gained strength as it wound its way through low-income neighborhoods where several onlookers, handed a cartoon depicting an emaciated Haitian man feeding an already bloated Uncle Sam, joined. David&#160;Oxygène, of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">MOLEGHAF</a>, spoke to the press across from the site of the demolished National Palace and barracks.</p>
<p>In the gym, at least six hundred attended the formal launch of the People’s Tribunal. An initiative of the People’s Democratic Patriotic Movement,&#160; <a href="http://www.saks-haiti.org/spip.php?article561%23.V57B8qIzF5M" type="external">MPDP</a>&#160;in the original Haitian Creole, and other agencies, the People’s Tribunal’s principal objective is “To reinforce the people’s foundations of consciousness-raising and mobilization to accomplish a political de-occupation, economic de-occupation, and a cultural and ideological de-occupation of the country.”</p>
<p>These may seem like lofty goals, raising questions of why now? And why would this be a priority given so many other urgent realities in the country, and indeed the region and world.</p>
<p>In his presentation at the launch of the People’s Tribunal, Camille Chalmers pointed out the historical amnesia, as a result of the lack of investment in education. “When people hear about this process, they are thirsty for more information.” Chalmers recounted the impact of the&#160; <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3479579?seq=1%23page_scan_tab_contents" type="external">1967-1968 International War Crimes Tribunal</a>, organized in by philosophers Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre, which turned the tide of public opinion, mobilizing support for the eventual U.S. withdrawal.</p>
<p>Specifically answering why now, history professor Jean Eddy Lucien pointed out the continuities and historical roots of many contemporary social problems in Haiti. In addition to several noted above, Lucien pointed out the roots of poverty and Haiti’s role as provider of cheap labor that began with the U.S. Marines occupation. Lucien noted how 82% of Haitian college educated professionals live outside the country, a result of these processes of migration and underdevelopment.</p>
<p>Longtime refugee rights activist Collette Lespinasse emceed the event, which began with women’s rights activist Danielle&#160;Magloire’s&#160;presentation honoring Haitian resistance to the occupation, specifically noting Haitian women’s participation in the struggle.&#160;Mirebalais&#160;high school teacher&#160;Fégues&#160;Germain testified about the U.S. Marines’ massacre of peasants in the Central Plateau. French solidarity activist Claude&#160;Quémar&#160;of&#160; <a href="http://www.cadtm.org/English" type="external">CATDM</a>&#160;outlined the calls for reparations from France, especially the 1825 debt. Engineer-agronomist David Nicolas offered testimony of the destruction of the Haitian pig. Mario Joseph of Bureau des&#160;Avocats&#160;Internationaux&#160;(BAI) spoke of the impact of cholera and&#160; <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/cholera/cholera-litigation/" type="external">BAI’s lawsuit against MINUSTAH</a>, also detailed in a recently published book,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Deadly River</a>&#160;by epidemiologist Ralph&#160;Frerichs.</p>
<p>MPDP coordinator Ernst Mathurin unveiled the list of the committee to investigate and bring forth the lawsuit, as well as the jury, available on the People’s Tribunal&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tribinal.popile.5" type="external">Facebook page</a>. Both teams include leaders of public opinion, seasoned NGO professionals, social movement participants, and university professors. Music of many styles and poetry also spoke to the importance of this encounter with history.</p>
<p>The People’s Tribunal is moving ahead: the investigative committee is gathering facts to prepare its case. And it’s already begun building bridges.</p>
<p>Especially in this volatile electoral season – in Haiti as in the U.S. – it is easy to lose sight of history and structural causes of today’s social ills. The People’s Tribunal allows for an imagination and articulation of solutions.</p> | “People’s Tribunal” Launched in Haiti to Commemorate 101 Years of U.S. Occupation | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/08/02/peoples-tribunal-launched-in-haiti-to-commemorate-101-years-of-u-s-occupation/ | 2016-08-02 | 4 |
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<p>When oil services giant Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) issued results on Jan. 20th, it showed a company that is still trying to right size the business to today's oil market. While the company's $0.15 per share loss may not sound too inspiring for investors, it did show some signs that things are going to get better in 2017.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What was really surprising, though, was how management foresees the oil and gas recovery playing out. For anyone looking at investing in an American shale recovery, the words from CEO Paal Kibsgaard might throw a little caution to the wind. Let's take a quick glance at the company's results for 2016's final quarter and why Schlumberger's pointed words are worth considering when making an investment in this industry.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>*in millions, except per share data. Source: Schlumberger earnings release.</p>
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<p>We have started to see a modest recovery in drilling activity across the shale basins of the United States, but that isn't the case internationally. Declines in drilling activity are still happening in places like Latin America and Europe. The reason this matters more to Schlumberger than the other major oil services companies is that Schlumberger is much more exposed to the international market. As a result, Schlumberger's earnings were more or less flat on a sequential basis and saw an 8% decline from this time last year.</p>
<p>You can also see the signs of a recovery in the company's segment income. Its drilling and production segments saw modest sequential gains as rig counts and frack stage counts in the U.S. and in the Middle East pick back up, but spending on big ticker items like exploration and offshore development are still a ways off, as evidenced by declining revenue in its reservoir description and Cameron segments.</p>
<p>Source: Schlumberger earnings release, author's chart</p>
<p>Backing out the lens a little bit, the big theme of 2016 was continued cost cutting to offset declining revenue. Revenue in 2016 was $27.8 billion, a 22% decline from the prior year. At the same time, though, cost of goods sold, research &amp; engineering, and SG&amp;A costs declined 15% compared to 2015. In fact, if we take out the $3.8 billion in impairment charges and the costs for the Cameron merger, then 2016 net income would have been $1.91 billion versus $1.90 billion loss it posted in the year. This lower cost base should really reap rewards in the coming year as capital spending picks back up.</p>
<p>Source: Schlumberger earnings release, author's chart.</p>
<p>Also, it's worth noting that all of those large asset impairment charges and other non-cash charges didn't impact Schlumberger's cash flow situation. Free cash flow for the year was $2.54 billion. Not quite enough to cover its dividend payments for the whole year -- something worth watching in 2017 -- but close enough that it shouldn't raise too much concern. After all, 2016 was possibly one of the worst years in decades for oil services companies.</p>
<p>As part of the company's press release, Kibsgaard's statement pretty much confirmed what we have been seeing in the oil market for the past several months: Increased drilling activity and spending in the oil patch is almost exclusively happening in North American shale. From an investors standpoint, that sounds like a great thing. There was one small point he made, though, that might give investors caution.</p>
<p>He goes on to discuss that international E&amp;P investments have yet to see a similar uptick because those operators are "more focused on full-cycle returns" and "governed by the operators free cash flow generation."</p>
<p>There is a lot to unpack in these statements for investors. On the one hand, it suggests that we could see a quick recovery for any company that has exposure to shale drilling in the U.S., both from the operators that produce oil and the service companies contracted for the work.</p>
<p>On the other hand, though, the idea that these shale operators are not constrained by their negative free cash flows should be a concern for investors looking longer term. One thing that made this recent decline so difficult for exploration and production companies is that too many were focused on growth rather than generating returns on their invested capital. As a result, companies headed into the downturn with bloated balance sheets. If those same companies haven't learned their lessons about the need to generate returns and operate within their cash flows, investors really need to question whether these kinds of companies are the kind of businesses worth owning over the long term.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, though, that Schlumberger's business is much less reliant on shale development than its largest competitor Halliburton. So in some ways it's in the company's interest to throw some shade on the long term viability of shale and why international operators are better positioned to generate sustaining revenue and cash flows for oil services companies.</p>
<p>Schlumberger got through this tough year, but it took its fair share of hits from the market. Compared to other oil services players, Schlumberger's recovery may be a little slower simply because of its higher exposure to international and offshore markets. So don't be surprised if 2017's results show very modest gains while other shale-focused oil services companies show a much stronger performance throughout the year. Based on Kibsgaard's statements on North American shale, though, investors will want to be very selective when making investments. If companies continue to rely on external funding for growth, then we could be set up for more headaches down the road.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Schlumberger When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d32d00db-8b7f-4eb2-8798-fa526ef66c06&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Schlumberger wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d32d00db-8b7f-4eb2-8798-fa526ef66c06&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDirtyBird/info.aspx" type="external">Tyler Crowe Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Halliburton. 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> | Schlumberger's Outlook for a 2017 Oil Recovery Has Some Real Mixed Signals | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/23/schlumberger-outlook-for-2017-oil-recovery-has-some-real-mixed-signals.html | 2017-01-23 | 0 |
<p>PepsiCo Inc. said its second-quarter sales and earnings rose as the beverage and snack maker continued to offset weak demand in North America with higher prices.</p>
<p>The company also lifted its adjusted earnings-per-share outlook for the year to $5.13 from $5.09 after selling its minority stake in Britvic PLC, the company that produces and sells Pepsi in the U.K.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Purchase, N.Y., maker of Frito Lay snacks, Gatorade and its namesake cola has been hurt has consumers spend more time at the perimeter of the store browsing through produce and fresh meats and less time in the center aisles where the company's signature snacks and drinks are found. PepsiCo has been emphasizing its "guilt free" products like diet sodas and low-sodium snacks that fit current consumer trends but has still struggled to lure more shoppers to the center of the store.</p>
<p>PepsiCo's beverage volumes declined 2% in the latest quarter while Frito Lay and Quaker Foods volumes were flat. However, companywide, organic revenue rose 3.1 % from the year-ago quarter.</p>
<p>In all for the quarter ended in June, PepsiCo posted earnings of $2.11 billion, compared with $2.01 billion a year ago. Adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.50 handily topped the consensus estimate of $1.40. Revenue also beat views, jumping 2% to $15.71 billion compared with estimates of $15.6 billion.</p>
<p>Shares, which have climbed more than 9% so far this year, edged up 0.5% to $114.79 during premarket trading Tuesday.</p>
<p>Write to Imani Moise at [email protected]</p>
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<p>PepsiCo Inc. said its second-quarter sales and earnings rose as the beverage and snack maker continued to offset weak demand in North America with higher prices.</p>
<p>The company also lifted its adjusted earnings-per-share outlook for the year to $5.13 from $5.09, as it anticipates lighter headwinds from foreign-exchange effects.</p>
<p>The Purchase, N.Y., maker of Frito-Lay snacks, Gatorade and its namesake cola has been hurt has consumers spend more time at the perimeter of the store browsing through produce and fresh meats and less time in the center aisles where the company's signature snacks and drinks are found.</p>
<p>Still, the company has been able to achieve sales growth by raising the prices for its products. Sales in its Frito-Lay and North American beverage units increased 3% and 2%, respectively, on flat volume growth. Sales slipped 1% in its Quaker Foods business, but volume held steady.</p>
<p>PepsiCo's beverage volumes declined 2% in the latest quarter while total food and snacks volume grew 2%, driven by gains in foreign markets.</p>
<p>In all for the quarter ended in June, PepsiCo posted earnings of $2.11 billion, compared with $2.01 billion a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.50 handily topped the consensus estimate of $1.40 as the sale of PepsiCo's minority stake in Britvic PLC, the company that produces and sells Pepsi in the U.K., added 6 cents to its bottom line.</p>
<p>Revenue also beat views, jumping 2% to $15.71 billion compared with estimates of $15.6 billion.</p>
<p>Shares, which have climbed more than 9% so far this year, edged up 0.5% to $114.79 during premarket trading Tuesday.</p>
<p>Write to Imani Moise at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 11, 2017 08:42 ET (12:42 GMT)</p> | PepsiCo Earnings Top Views -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/11/pepsico-earnings-top-views-update.html | 2017-07-11 | 0 |
<p>Jamaica has signed a new wage deal with some trade unions that will see salaries boosted by 4 percent during the agreement's first year.</p>
<p>The pact was signed Tuesday after weeks of negotiations with several syndicates belonging to a union umbrella group. It covers April 2015 to March 2017. The government says benefits will include tuition refunds, child grants and training.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Public sector workers have been laboring under a wage freeze in Jamaica, which is in the third year of a four-year $930 million loan package with the International Monetary Fund.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller says public workers "continue to make great sacrifices" in support of Jamaica's economic program.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research said Jamaica was running the world's "most austere budget."</p> | Gov't signs wage deal in Jamaica, where public workers have been laboring under wage freeze | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/08/11/govt-signs-wage-deal-in-jamaica-where-public-workers-have-been-laboring-under.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>I don’t want to hear that it’s not guns that are the problem, people are.</p>
<p>I don’t want to listen to speculation that if one person inside that Connecticut elementary school had a concealed carry permit, everything would have turned out differently.</p>
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<p>Everybody can stop talking about our rights under the Constitution, too.</p>
<p>All of the tired arguments against gun control are dead.</p>
<p>They died Friday under a pile of bloody kids.</p>
<p>Year after year, month after month and, lately, week after week, someone in this country goes on a killing rampage. Many times the killer is consumed by anger and takes out people he knows. Just as often, the killer is mentally ill and targets strangers. Sometimes, who knows the motive? People’s brains are bundles of electrical impulses and, on occasion, they just go off.</p>
<p>Rage, mental illness, impulsivity – we can’t control any of that. They’re all part and parcel of the human condition. They’ve walked among us forever, and they will continue to.</p>
<p>The other factor in every one of the tragedies that finds us drawn to the TV in a sick stupor is one we can control.</p>
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<p>Almost without exception, our movie theater massacres, our bloody workplace revenges, our mall killings and our school slaughters are carried out by people with guns.</p>
<p>We can control guns.</p>
<p>We just don’t want to.</p>
<p>Instead, we worry about our safety and put security systems around our homes and businesses and schools and we buy more guns. As Friday morning’s horror at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., reminds us, fear and security protocols don’t keep guns away when they’re in the hands of our friends, neighbors and families.</p>
<p>Adam Lanza, 20, walked in to the school at around 9:30 in the morning and began spraying bullets. Six adults and 20 children were killed.</p>
<p>Lanza was reported to have been equipped with Glock and Sig-Sauer handguns and a .223 Bushmaster, a semi-automatic rifle capable of carrying high-capacity ammunition magazines.</p>
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<p>The .223 Bushmaster is one of the “long guns” that become the focus of debate any time the issue is raised that maybe it’s time to change our laws and culture regarding firearms.</p>
<p>What is the purpose of possessing three guns like that? I’ll cover my ears now as you answer: Hunting. Sport shooting. “It’s my right.”</p>
<p>If we’re a people of conscience, we won’t look at the bewildered, terrified faces of 5-year-olds who have just witnessed a mass murder and continue to argue that our “rights” to have free and easy access to semi-automatic weapons, high-capacity magazines and guns in large quantities outweigh the hurt.</p>
<p>It’s time to put all approaches to stopping our massacre culture on the table. For starters, let’s look at requiring background checks on all gun sales, making those background checks stronger, flat-out banning the guns and ammunition clips that are capable of killing a couple dozen people in a few terrifying seconds.</p>
<p>In the United States, civilians own some 270 million guns, and between 9,000 and 10,000 people die here every year in firearm homicides.</p>
<p>We own guns here at the highest rate in the world. And we bury people who were just grabbing a bite at a food court at the mall. Or people who were just taking in a movie.</p>
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<p>And now we bury kids who were just at school practicing their ABCs.</p>
<p>It’s time for Congress to refuse the calls of the gun lobbyists and get to work. It’s time for the president to really lead on the issue, regardless of the political push back.</p>
<p>And it’s time for Americans to stop talking about our individual rights and start accepting our collective responsibilities.</p>
<p>If we don’t, who are we?</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. — This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Gun Arguments Die in Latest Massacre | false | https://abqjournal.com/153780/gun-arguments-die-in-latest-massacre.html | 2012-12-16 | 2 |
<p>This week the United Nations said that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the ongoing crackdown by Syrian security forces. President Bashar Al-Assad has denied any orders were issued to kill demonstrators and says gunmen have killed more than one thousand of his forces. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Jihad Makdissi, spokesperson for the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</p> | Syrian Spokesman Defends Crackdown | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-12-15/syrian-spokesman-defends-crackdown | 2011-12-15 | 3 |
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<p>But first, here’s the lay of the land. The leading candidate up until now has been Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison, who has garnered endorsements from key Democratic politicians like Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren, and important liberal groups like the AFL-CIO. Nevertheless, the race – which will be decided by the 447 committee members when they meet in late February – is still wide open .</p>
<p>The other announced candidates are Raymond Buckley, the chair of the New Hampshire party, and Jaime Harrison, chair of the South Carolina party. Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, is also considering a run. Perez’s entry into the race is causing a lot of people to frame it as a replay of the 2016 primary fight, since Ellison was an early Bernie Sanders supporter and Perez is a Cabinet member in the Obama administration. Which is kind of ridiculous, and I doubt either one of them would want to think of their respective candidacies that way.</p>
<p>In case you’re curious, I haven’t yet come to a conclusion about which one of them would be better. Ellison is extremely smart and capable, and as he points out, he’s had great success in his congressional district building a grassroots network. Perez is not just universally admired among Democrats, but among those who have worked with him directly gets the kind of almost worshipful praise that you rarely hear, in Washington or anywhere else.</p>
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<p>So we’ll have to see what their plans and vision for the party are as they continue to make their case. And don’t count out Buckley or Harrison just yet (as Andrew Prokop reminds us, most of the voting members are from state parties, not from DC), or Hogue, who has obviously done some serious thinking about the job. But here are some things that most definitely don’t matter in choosing the next DNC chair: What state or region of the country they come from. How emphatic their statements of support for Israel have been. Which politicians they might be a proxy for. Whether they can personally “connect” with some group of voters you think Democrats would do well to appeal to. That stuff is completely irrelevant.</p>
<p>So what kinds of questions should Democrats be asking? Here are some suggestions:</p>
<p>– Can this person assemble, coordinate, and manage an effective opposition to Donald Trump? Democrats are notoriously fractious and disorganized, and without a single leader able to deliver marching orders, they’re in desperate need of unity. A strong party chair could produce that, if he or she can set out a plan for opposition that is clear about both its ends and its means. But it’s going to require a skilled cat-herder.</p>
<p>– What is this person’s plan to revive the Democratic Party at the state level? Next year, Republicans will control the governorship and the entire legislature in 25 states; Democrats will have that total control in only five. The party has steadily lost ground at the state level over the Obama years, and that has ramifications not only for policy but for the critical redistricting that will happen after the 2020 election. So what’s the plan to help Democrats at the state level?</p>
<p>– Can this person create a permanent grassroots infrastructure? Everyone acknowledges that the party has to be active in as many places as possible. But you can’t just rebuild that grassroots effort every two or four years and expect it to be effective. What kind of ideas do they have about building an infrastructure that’s persistent and can be effectively activated when election day comes?</p>
<p>– Does this person have a plan to combat vote suppression? Republicans have been extremely effective at the state level in suppressing the votes of people likely to choose Democrats, particularly African-Americans. And with total control of the federal government, they’re likely to take that effort national. What is the next DNC chair going to do about that?</p>
<p>– Can this person be an effective spokesperson for Democrats? This isn’t the most important item on the list, but it does matter. It helps to have a charismatic, articulate advocate who can push Democratic ideas as widely as possible.</p>
<p>– Who does this person think Democrats ought to be and what should they stand for? The term “identity politics” is almost always used derisively, but the truth is that all politics is identity politics. Donald Trump is going to be president because he effectively wielded white identity politics in the 2016 election. There are people right now saying that Democrats have to stop talking about the rights and interests of people who aren’t white men if they want to win again. One way or another, the party has to decide who it is and how to communicate that identity to the public.</p>
<p>I asked political scientist Daniel Galvin of Northwestern University, a specialist in parties, what Democrats should be looking for, and he said that some of the most effective party chairs have been the ones who served when the other party had the White House, which is where Democrats are now. Here’s part of what he told me:</p>
<p>” The main things these out-party chairmen did…was to focus on building the party’s organizational capacity without respect to ideology and policy positioning, and without privileging any particular factions in the party. They invested in human capital (training for campaign managers, for example, or teaching activists how to GOTV), in informational assets ([Howard] Dean’s voter file; microtargeting capacities), and worked to strengthen state parties…They worked to recruit good candidates wherever they may be (conservative Democrats in North Carolina, liberal Democrats in California). They don’t try to build consensus within the party or hammer out a platform on which all factions can agree. They work to equip the party organization to help run strong campaigns, win elections, and recapture the majority. That’s their primary and overarching focus.”</p>
<p>Something for Democrats to consider, as they face one of the most important decisions they make in the next few years.</p>
<p>dems-comment</p> | What Democrats should really be looking for in the next DNC chair | false | https://abqjournal.com/908985/what-democrats-should-really-be-looking-for-in-the-next-dnc-chair.html | 2016-12-14 | 2 |
<p>SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s commercial rocket-plane, logged its 54th test flight Tuesday at Mojave Air and Space Port, the <a href="" type="external">Bakersfield Californian</a> reports. &#160;This most recent run follows the 10th anniversary of SpaceShipOne’s historical flight into suborbital space, which was celebrated this past weekend in Mojave.</p>
<p>The methods behind commercial spaceflight vary greatly from those followed by NASA. For one, SpaceShipTwo uses a carrier aircraft, <a href="http://www.virgingalactic.com/overview/spaceships/" type="external">WhiteKightTwo</a>, to reach initial altitudes of over 50,000 feet.</p>
<p>WhiteKnightTwo, christened VMS (Virgin Mobile Spacecraft) Eve in honor of Sir Richard Branson’s mother, is no ordinary cargo plane. The launching aircraft uses a twin-fuselage design with two sets of dihedral wings forming a giant flying “W” made of all carbon composite.</p>
<p>SpaceShipTwo, using similar carbon composite construction, detaches from the center of SMS Eve carrying two pilots and six passengers. The aircraft uses a hybrid rocket motor to reach space, which unlike traditional rocket engines, can be shut off at any point by the pilots allowing the aircraft to safely return to the runway.</p>
<p>Despite the technological progress achieved via these two aircraft, many problems still hinder the first commercial spaceflight. Recent rumors suggest that the company is still having issues with the rocket engine, which Tuesday’s test flight by design did not involve.</p>
<p>“The delay in SpaceShipTwo has not been the development of either of the vehicles. But the rocket motor has just been problematic from the get-go,” said former pilot of SpaceShipOne Brian Binnie, who set a record for commercial flight in 2004 for traveling to suborbital space at an altitude of 112km. Binnie told Popular Mechanics in their Oct.6 issue that the fuel and fuel tank remain an issue.</p>
<p>Flights on the aircraft can be reserved for $250,000 although Sir Branson stated Saturday that he is no longer making predictions as to when the first flight will take place.</p>
<p /> | Virgin Galactic inching towards commercial human spaceflight | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/10/08/virgin-galactic-inching-towards-commercial-human-spaceflight/ | 2014-10-08 | 3 |
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<p>The bill, which pays for land, water and Native American programs in New Mexico and across the country, cleared the Appropriations Committee on a straight party-line vote, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed. Udall said he was "deeply disappointed" by the bill, which now goes to the full Senate.</p>
<p>Udall pointed out that the allocation offered for Interior by the Republican-led committee is $2 billion less than President Obama's request.</p>
<p>"This bill doesn't provide enough funding to support our nation's trust responsibility for Indian tribes or to protect our treasured public lands," he said. "Priorities like the Park Service Centennial and the Land and Water Conservation Fund are shortchanged. And the bill slashes funding for the EPA State Revolving Funds by 23 percent - resources that our states desperately need to upgrade aging sewer and drinking water infrastructure."</p>
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<p>Udall also objected to several amendments tacked onto the appropriation bill, that he said would weaken the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act. Udall offered an amendment to strip the riders, but it failed.</p>
<p>POTASH PROTEST: Udall and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Rep. Steve Pearce, a New Mexico Republican, have all asked the U.S. Treasury Department to look into the possibility that a state-owned potash mining company in Belarus is intentionally evading U.S. trade sanctions by reorganizing the business.</p>
<p>Udall and Heinrich wrote Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in January, according to a Wall Street Journal report this week. Pearce wrote a similar letter the same month, also asking the department to investigate Belarus's state-owned JSC Belaruskali, the world's largest potash mining company, to ensure that U.S. trade sanctions are being enforced. The letters raised concern about reports that JSC Belaruski had been reorganized to skirt official sanctions.</p>
<p>"The evasion of sanctions threatens law-abiding U.S. potash companies who will be forced to compete with foreign companies who may be illicitly entering the U.S. market," the senators wrote.</p>
<p>The lawmakers are concerned that New Mexico's potash industry, among the largest in the U.S., could be adversely affected.</p>
<p>"If this corporate restructuring was an attempt to evade U.S. sanctions against the Belarus government due to human rights violations and nonproliferation issues, then not only does the move undercut U.S. foreign policy, but U.S. companies, including miners in New Mexico, would be negatively impacted by a foreign state-supported company potentially violating the law," Udall said in a statement provided to the Albuquerque Journal. "As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I believe the circumstances are suspect enough that it merits an investigation."</p>
<p>Michael Coleman: <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Washington Notebook: Udall slams Interior Dept. funding bill | false | https://abqjournal.com/600962/udall-slams-interior-dept-funding-bill.html | 2 |
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<p>"A society that puts equality - in the sense of equality of outcome - ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests." Milton Friedman</p> | Yep! | true | https://powderedwigsociety.com/yep/ | 2013-07-24 | 0 |
<p>For people in a poor neighborhood of Santiago, Chile, money can be so tight that it’s a hardship to buy something as basic as a box of laundry detergent.</p>
<p>They often wind up buying laundry soap in small packets, which ultimately costs them more.</p>
<p>Veronica Baez, who lives in Huechuraba with her husband and three teenagers, says it’s a constant struggle. Families in this shabby neighborhood often live off $400 a month — less than half of Santiago’s average salary.</p>
<p>See photos from Chile <a href="http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/algramo-chile/" type="external">at TheWorld.org</a>.</p>
<p>“Sometimes, we just can’t afford the prices,” Baez said.</p>
<p>In the past, she says, you could buy a half stick of butter if you didn’t have enough money, and just pay half-price.</p>
<p>“Why can’t we go back to the old times?” she said.</p>
<p>José Moller took that question seriously. The Chilean student protester turned social entrepreneur decided to build a simple vending machine made out of wood that sells small amounts of powdered detergent at a 40 percent discount.</p>
<p>Moller says he’s able to keep costs down because he buys in bulk and there’s no marketing. There’s no packaging, either.</p>
<p>To demonstrate, Moller drops three coins (each worth about 25 cents) into the “Algramo” machine. It pours 200 grams of detergent into a reusable cup – enough for four loads of laundry.</p>
<p>Moller says this kind of machine wouldn’t mean much for a family living on a middle-class income.</p>
<p>“But for the poorest families in the country, the ones we’re trying to help, it can have a significant impact," he said.</p>
<p>The vending machine is set up outside a local mini-market called Berosh in Huechuraba. The owner, Patricia Sagredo, who lives in the back, gets a cut of the sales. She says the machine has doubled her profit margin on detergent.</p>
<p>Sagredo says she’s pleased that the machine helps out the neighbourhood. She remembers what it was like to scramble to buy basics.</p>
<p>“Now, thank God, I have my store here, but I feel for the families that really are in need," she said.</p>
<p>Moller is considering bringing more discounted products like rice, lentils and sugar to Huerchuraba. But not every product lends itself to vending machine sales, Moller points out. There has to be a steep gap between the shelf and factory price; otherwise, you can’t sell for much less than the name brand.</p>
<p>“We’re looking at making a machine that sells oil and liquid soap,” he said.</p>
<p>Moller is building on the original idea with the help of a $60,000 grant from a social entrepreneurship competition called Desafio Clave. He hopes to have 100 machines in Huechuraba’s mini-markets by November. Ultimately he’d like to expand into other countries.</p>
<p>During a two-week trial period in November, the three machines in Huechuraba got a lot of action. Baez says it sold out of detergent in a week, so she’s pleased to see the machines coming back.</p>
<p>“It lets you save a few pesos for the bus or to buy a few things,” she said.</p>
<p>Saving about 15 cents a load won’t pull Baez out of poverty, but it could help a neighborhood where every peso counts.</p>
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<p /> | Chilean social entrepreneur saves families money by taking detergent out of its packaging | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-05-08/chilean-social-entrepreneur-saves-families-money-taking-detergent-out-its | 2013-05-08 | 3 |
<p>For 200 years, Nepalis have been fighting for the United Kingdom. Now Britain has sent a contingent of these Gurkha&#160;soldiers back to Nepal to assist with relief efforts, after the devastating earthquake of April 25, 2015.</p>
<p>But how did this come to be?</p>
<p>It goes back to colonial times, when Britain dominated the Indian sub-continent. In 1814, (the same year that British troops were burning the White House), the forces of the British Empire went to war with Nepal.</p>
<p>The Brits were astonished at the ferocity and resilience of their opponents. The Brits won the war and took a full one-third of the territory of the King of Nepal. But Nepal kept its independence, unlike most of the other states beaten by the Brits.</p>
<p>One condition of the Treaty was that Britain would be allowed to recruit soldiers in Nepal.</p>
<p>In one sense, they were purely mercenaries. Men willing to leave their homes and fight for a foreign prince simply for money. But time and again, the Gurkhas proved their courage&#160;and, something even more important to an Empire, their loyalty.</p>
<p>The Gurkhas can only be described as badass. They win a disproportionate number of medals for gallantry. For example, Dip Prasad Pun was awarded the UK’s second highest medal for his actions in Afghanistan in 2010.&#160; He alone defended his outpost against a force of up to 30 Taliban fighters&#160;after his three comrades&#160;were wounded at the start of the attack. He fired all his ammunition, threw 17 grenades&#160;and detonated a Claymore mine. With nothing else left, he went on the attack using the tripod from his machine gun&#160;and succeeded in driving away the last attacker.&#160;</p>
<p>Sgt.Dip Prasad Pun at Buckingham Palace in London after receiving his Conspicuous Gallantry Medal from the Queen</p>
<p>John Stillwell/Reuters/POOL&#160;</p>
<p>The Gurkhas also have a distinctive weapon: An 18-inch curved blade called a "kukri."&#160;Outsiders are told the kukri must draw blood if it's drawn.</p>
<p>The term Gurkha is a somewhat confusing one. It is not a unique ethnic group. Gurkhas come from a variety of ethnic groups and speak a variety of languages at home. Like most Nepalis, they are a mix of Hindus and Buddhists. Neither are they all from the region of Gorkha, which happens to be the epicenter&#160;of the April 25&#160;earthquake.</p>
<p>According to legend, a Gurkha is in fact a disciple of the Eighth&#160;Century Hindu warrior saint, Guru Gorkhanath (or Gorakhnath), who allegedly helped turn back one of the first Muslim invasions of India. The region of Gorkha was named after the Gurkhas conquered the region a few hundred years ago. And Gorkha was where the prince was born who would go on to unify Nepal for the first time, in 1768.&#160;His warriors were called Gurkhas.</p>
<p>But why would so many leave their homes and go abroad to serve a foreign power? What’s in it for the Gurkhas?</p>
<p>First, there's tradition. Many families have sent their sons to be Gurkha soldiers for generations. Pun, for example, is the grandson of a Gurkha soldier who won the Victoria Cross&#160;(the British equivalent of the Medal of Honor)&#160;in World War II.</p>
<p>But perhaps more important is the stark economic reality of life in Nepal. Millions of its citizens work abroad, for example, as laborers on construction sites in the Persian Gulf. Military service can provide a better way to get ahead in life. Currently, about 100,000 Gurkhas are in military service of one kind or another around the world.</p>
<p>The biggest contingent does not serve Britain, though, but rather serves India.&#160;Britain left India in 1947. Of 10 Gurkha Regiments, six entered the service of the new Indian republic, while four remaining&#160;in the service of Great Britain.</p>
<p>Over the years, the Gurkha contingent in Indian service has grown enormously. It now comprises 40 frontline infantry battalions. With auxiliary units, that’s about 50,000 to 60,000 men, with another 40,000 or so in the reserves.</p>
<p>Britain’s Gurkha forces meanwhile have shrunk to about 3500 men and women, and are set to fall further, to 2600 under new reforms. Elsewhere, about 2000 Gurkhas serve in the Singapore police, and 2000 serve as the bodyguard of the Sultan of Brunei.</p>
<p>But it’s Britain’s contingent that gets the most applicants: about 20,000 apply each year for about 200 posts. The British Gurkhas have the highest pay, the best pensions&#160;and now they get the right to settle in the UK.&#160;</p> | Who are these 'Gurkhas' Britain is sending to help Nepal's earthquake victims? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-05-04/who-are-these-gurkhas-britain-sending-help-nepals-earthquake-victims | 2015-05-04 | 3 |
<p>Cuff ’em! <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18123948@N00/281857282/sizes/m/" type="external">Flash200</a>/Flickr</p>
<p>“I draws what I like and I like what I drew!” sings Bert, the affable sidewalk artist in Disney’s Mary Poppins. He doesn’t know how easy he’s got it. If Bert lived in one of a dozen American cities, his colorful chalk drawings of boats and circus animals could very well land him in jail.</p>
<p>Take the recent example of Susan Mortensen, 29-year-old mom in Richmond, Virginia. In March, Mortensen was arrested for allowing her four-year-old daughter to draw on rocks at a local park with sidewalk chalk. This month a judge sentenced her to 50 hours of community service helping to strip and repaint 200 boundary posts on a bridge. Mortensen <a href="http://wtvr.com/2012/07/05/trial-date-set-for-belle-isle-chalk-mom/" type="external">told</a> a local TV station that her daughter is now “very nervous around cops” and “very scared of chalk.”</p>
<p>That’s not all. One week ago in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, police cited two teenagers for decorating a street with chalk renditions of a whale and a sea turtle. The kids must now appear in court and pay a fine to be determined by a district judge. James Donnelly, Doylestown’s police chief, <a href="http://www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/doylestown/teens-cited-for-drawing-on-the-street-with-chalk/article_b1526f52-7140-5369-938f-a6b6d612a40c.html#.UCU19y2JKXU.twitter" type="external">told</a> a local newspaper that the chalking was “an attempt at vandalism” that could lead to the use of more permanent materials.</p>
<p>Chalk. The gateway art supply.</p>
<p>These are not isolated incidents. Over the past five years, at least 50 people in 17 American cities have run afoul of authorities for coloring things with chalk. The vast majority were arrested in connection with drawing designs or messages on public streets or sidewalks. Those accused of chalk vandalism range from the “ <a href="http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110605/NEWS03/706059981" type="external">Chalking 8</a>“—who were asking for trouble when they drew anti-cop slogans on the wall of the police station in Manchester, New Hampshire—to <a href="http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/40/30_40graffitigirl.html" type="external">six-year-old Natalie Shea</a>, who received a New York City graffiti warning that carries a possible $300 fine for marring her stoop in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood with a blue chalk scribble. (A spokesperson for Crayola, the leading maker of sidewalk chalk, did not return a phone call seeking comment.)</p>
<p>This map includes details of chalk-related arrests in the United States since 1991—all those we could track down, in any case. (New York, SF&#160;Bay, Los Angeles, and Denver have multiple entries, so you’ll need to zoom in to see everything.) The article continues below.</p>
<p />
<p>The war on chalk’s most active front as of late has been Los Angeles, where police <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/13/local/la-me-0714-artwalk-20120714" type="external">have arrested</a> numerous chalk-wielding Occupy LA members on vandalism charges. Last month, the occupiers fought back during the city’s popular Art Walk by staging their own Chalk Walk, decorating walls and sidewalks with slogans such as <a href="http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/07/occupy_la_lapd_downtown_art_walk.php" type="external">“Arrest corrupt bankers, not chalkers”</a> and “ <a href="http://storify.com/bendoernberg/los-angeles-art-walk-ends-in-lapd-standoff-rubber" type="external">When chalking is a crime, only criminals will play hopscotch</a>.”&#160;</p>
<p>Here’s a taste:</p>
<p>After the Chalk Walk in Los Angeles. <a href="https://twitter.com/nevitate/status/223651664379383809" type="external">Jason Neville</a>/Twitter</p>
<p>Things took an ugly turn around 8:40 p.m. when the first chalker was arrested, and occupiers <a href="https://twitter.com/nancycasanova/status/223639982848475136" type="external">began throwing bottles at the police</a>; some 140 riot cops moved in to make arrests. Four officers and several protesters were injured.</p>
<p>Two weeks later, art teacher Alexander Schaefer, best known for his <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/29/los-angeles-artist-alex-s_n_940823.html" type="external">oil paintings of burning banks</a>, decided to stage a chalk protest of his own. On the sidewalk outside of a Chase branch in downtown LA, he chalked the word “Crooks” next to a rendering of the Chase logo. Watch what happens:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Schaefer’s arrest was the 15th arrest this summer on chalk-related charges in LA, although the City Attorney’s Office has pressed charges in only a couple of instances. A spokesman for the office, Frank Mateljan, pointed me to a 2000 California Court of Appeals ruling that found that vandalism by graffiti “does not require an element of permanence.” I asked if this meant that children could be arrested for making hopscotch courses. “The children in your scenario would not be committing a misdemeanor because they have no malicious intent,” Mateljan replied. “Therefore, they would not be arrested.”</p>
<p>Schaefer’s attorney, Tom Tosdal, argues that it’s no more reasonable to arrest political chalkers. “In California, vandalism is maliciously defacing a property,” he says, “and when you express a political or social idea, it’s not malicious.” In the event that Schaefer’s case goes to trial, Tosdal wants to introduce this scene from the musical, Mary Poppins:</p>
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<p />
<p>Occupy LA declared last Thursday <a href="http://chalkitout.tumblr.com/" type="external">Chalkupy The World Day</a>, giving rise to chalk art protests in a dozen locations including <a href="https://twitter.com/critmasspanic/status/234410146414080000/photo/1" type="external">New York</a>, <a href="http://chalkitout.tumblr.com/image/29156518674" type="external">New Orleans</a>, and <a href="http://my.firedoglake.com/kitoconnell/2012/08/13/the-crackdown-on-chalk-chalkupy-austin/" type="external">Austin</a>, where two people were arrested and two children reportedly burst into tears as their mom confronted the police.</p>
<p>A duck and a teddy bear lion <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlU7xr4Oza8&amp;feature=youtu.be" type="external">stand up for freedom</a> chalkitout.tumblr.comThe recent chalk arrests might just be a warm-up for a chalk-pocalypse at the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions, which in past years have been targeted by a wide range of chalk terrorists. At the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, cops tackled and cuffed two teenage protesters who were chalking anti-abortion slogans on a sidewalk. And just before the 2004 Republican convention in New York City, Josh Kinberg, the founder of Bikes Against Bush, was hauled off to jail for riding a bike that automatically sprayed anti-Bush slogans with powdered street chalk.</p>
<p>In cases where chalking arrests have gone to court, however, some judges have sided with the chalkers. In 1992, Christopher Mackinney was arrested in Berkeley, Calif., <a href="#correction" type="external">*</a> for using chalk to write: “A police state is more expensive than a welfare state—we guarantee it!” He sued the department for false arrest, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Way-Cleared-for-Suit-Against-Berkeley-Police-3021067.php" type="external">ruled</a> that his case could move forward because no reasonable officer could have assumed that Mackinney violated the state’s vandalism law.</p>
<p>More recently, in Florida, Occupy Orlando protester Timothy Osmar, who spent 18 days in jail for chalking, won a free speech case against the city and received $6,000 in damages. The case ended up costing the city $190,000 in legal fees—validation, perhaps, for Mackinney’s claim that maintaining a police state can be rather expensive.&#160;</p>
<p>UPDATE 1: Map updated to include a chalk arrest in Oakland, Calif.UPDATE 2: Map updated to include a chalk arrest in Madison, Wis.UPDATE 3: Map updated to include a chalk arrest in Minneapolis, Minn., and resulting first amendment lawsuitUPDATE 4: Map updated with chalk arrest in San Diego and details of chalk lawsuits in New York City</p>
<p>Correction: The original version of this article stated that Mackinney was arrested in St. Louis. He was arrested in Berkeley. Mother Jones regrets the error.</p> | Chalk a Sidewalk, Go to Jail | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/war-chalk-arrests/ | 2012-08-14 | 4 |
<p>The situation has changed significantly since President Obama took office last winter and fixed his focus on Afghanistan, and these changes — including a disputed Afghan presidential election and deadly spikes in insurgent violence — may spell trouble for Obama’s initial strategy in that country, according to an assessment issued by Gen. Stanley McChrystal.</p>
<p>Update: Read the Washington Post’s report about McChrystal’s warning of “mission failure” <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002920.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>The Washington Post:</p>
<p>From his headquarters in Kabul, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal sees one clear path to achieve President Obama’s core goal of preventing al-Qaeda from reestablishing havens in Afghanistan: “Success,” he writes in his assessment, “demands a comprehensive counterinsurgency campaign.”</p>
<p />
<p>Inside the White House, the way forward in Afghanistan is no longer so clear.</p>
<p>Although Obama endorsed a strategy document in March that called for “executing and resourcing an integrated civilian-military counterinsurgency strategy,” there have been significant changes in Afghanistan and Washington since then. A disputed presidential election, an erosion in support for the war effort among Democrats in Congress and the American public, and a sharp increase in U.S. casualties have prompted the president and his top advisers to reexamine their assumptions about the U.S. role in defeating the Taliban insurgency.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002878.html?hpid=topnews" type="external">Read more</a></p> | McChrystal's Report Could Change Obama's Afghanistan Plan | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/mcchrystals-report-could-change-obamas-afghanistan-plan/ | 2009-09-21 | 4 |
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<p>A tour of the ruins of Ernest Thompson Seton’s castle just south of Santa Fe will be held 10 a.m.-noon Saturday.</p>
<p>Visitors also will be able to learn about the Academy for the Love of Learning, whose new center on the grounds is nearing completion.</p>
<p>The tour includes discussions with David L. Witt, curator and manager of the Seton Legacy Project; and Christie Green, principal of Down to Earth LLC, a Santa Fe firm that specializes in the design and installation of native and edible landscape projects.</p>
<p>The event is free, but reservations are required: 995-1860.</p>
<p>For more information about the Academy for the Love of Learning, visit <a href="http://www.aloveoflearning.org/" type="external">www.aloveoflearning.org</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Tour of Seton Castle South of SF at 10 a.m. Saturday | false | https://abqjournal.com/9634/tour-of-seton-castle-south-of-sf-at-10-a-m-saturday.html | 2 |
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<p>Finally, there’s an adult in the room. Tennessee’s <a href="" type="internal">Governor Bill Haslam</a>, who is actually a Republican, has told state lawmakers to drop the now infamous “ <a href="" type="internal">Don’t Say Gay</a>” bill that has made nationwide headlines for the past few years. The bill would make any discussion or acknowledgment of homosexuality illegal in <a href="" type="internal">Tennessee</a> schools. But the Governor has not stated outright that he would veto the bill, and there are changes to it that might make it a bit more palatable to him.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://wpln.org/?p=34303" type="external">Nashville Public Radio</a>:</p>
<p>Yesterday a committee of state lawmakers put off dealing with so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation. That’s after hearing in private from an official with Governor Bill Haslam’s office.</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/107/Amend/SA0622.pdf" type="external">amendment (pdf) that passed the state senate last year</a>&#160;would limit all sexual instruction up through eighth grade to quote “natural human reproduction science.” Now some House lawmakers want to add some exceptions, or keep it from interfering with an anti-bullying law passed last year.</p>
<p>Asked about his administration’s reported intervention yesterday, Haslam told reporters he thinks there are simply better things for lawmakers to spend their time on.</p>
<p>“I’ve said before I don’t think that should be a priority of the legislature. I think there’s other things that we can and should be focused on right now, and I’ve been up front about that from the very beginning.”</p>
<p>It’s important to note that Tennessee’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average, is ranked <a href="http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/pdfs/TN.pdf" type="external">39th out of 50 states</a> (“1″ being in the best shape) for child homelessness, including being ranked 45th out of 50 states for state planning and policy. In other words, what the hell are lawmakers wasting time on this bill for, I ask you, Senator Campfield?</p>
<p>You all remember Tennessee <a href="" type="internal">Senator Stacey Campfield</a>, right? The sponsor of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill who also claims that it’s “ <a href="" type="internal">virtually impossible</a>” to contract HIV/AIDS from heterosexual sex?</p>
<p>Care for more facts about the Senator from Tennessee?</p>
<p>READ:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Top 10 Most-Offensive Things About Anti-Gay Tennessee Senator Campfield (That You Didn’t Already Know)</a></p>
<p><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bill-haslam-highlands-debate-tn1.jpg" type="external">Image</a>: Gov. Haslam by&#160; <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bms4880" type="external">Brian Stansberry</a></p>
<p>Via: <a href="http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=11029&amp;MediaType=1&amp;Category=26#" type="external">On Top</a> and <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/02/22/430317/tennessees-republican-governor-to-lawmakers-drop-the-dont-say-gay-bill/" type="external">Think Progress</a></p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">bill</a>, <a href="" type="internal">bill haslam</a>, <a href="" type="internal">bills</a>, <a href="" type="internal">drop</a>, <a href="" type="internal">drops</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Gay</a>, <a href="" type="internal">gay bill</a>, <a href="" type="internal">governors</a>, <a href="" type="internal">haslam</a>, <a href="" type="internal">homophobia</a>, <a href="" type="internal">infamous</a>, <a href="" type="internal">lawmakers</a>, <a href="" type="internal">say</a>, <a href="" type="internal">says</a>, <a href="" type="internal">social issues</a>, <a href="" type="internal">tennessee</a>, <a href="" type="internal">tennessee governor</a></p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
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<p>"Where are we now in the cycle?" Walt Arnold of Sperry Van Ness/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage said.</p>
<p>"Even though we've had some job growth this year, we haven't replaced all the jobs lost during the recession. Outside of retail, we're not seeing significant private-sector development," he said. "Until both those things move in the right direction, the office and industrial markets aren't going far."</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Based on statistics in fourth-quarter market reports from commercial real estate services company Colliers International, the office, industrial and retail property types were on a very gradual trajectory of improvement in 2015.</p>
<p>"Lack of new construction with speculative space, not build-to-suits or owner-developed projects, is behind the improvement," said Ken Schaefer Colliers International. "It's not so much the economy."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The office market, which registered historically high vacancy rates for the fifth year in a row, showed some marginal improvement. The industrial market's vacancy rate dropped to the lowest level since early 2008, but has yet to inspire the kind of new construction typical in a low-vacancy environment.</p>
<p>"Flat had become the new normal," said Jim Chynoweth of commercial real estate services company CBRE. "I think we got beyond that last year. There was positive movement. The real differentiator was we saw fewer companies downsizing or leaving the market altogether."</p>
<p>The office vacancy rate dropped to 19.9 percent in the fourth quarter from 20.2 percent in the third quarter and 20.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to Colliers. The last time the rate was below the 20 percent threshold was the first quarter of 2014.</p>
<p>For perspective, the vacancy rate averaged 13.2 percent in 2004-09. The office market crashed the next year, when the vacancy rate shot up from 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 17.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010. The rate peaked at 21.5 percent in the third quarter of 2014.</p>
<p>"The trend or theme of our market right now is flight to quality," said Scott Throckmorton of Argus Investment Realty. "The higher-quality buildings are absorbing. The amount of space you can get in those buildings is getting fairly limited."</p>
<p>Vacant space is gradually becoming more concentrated in lower-grade buildings with lower rents, which serves to drive down the average asking lease rate for the overall office market.</p>
<p>The average asking lease rate for Class B office space was $15.82 a square foot in the fourth quarter, the lowest it's been since the third quarter of 2006. Class B office buildings make up more than two-thirds of the metro's inventory of rentable office space.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The office market is heavily dependent on employment in the services-providing part of the metro economy, where employment has returned to 2007 levels. However, the services economy saw a shift in its makeup during the recession.</p>
<p>The education and health services sector, which is mostly health care jobs, overtook the professional and business services sector about five years ago as the metro's biggest. Most health care workers work in medical facilities, not office buildings.</p>
<p>Encompassing a wide range of employees from Sandia National Laboratories to call centers, professional and business services is the biggest private-sector user of office space.</p>
<p>The employment sector was hammered by the recession, hemorrhaging 11,400 jobs from its peak of 66,100 in August 2008 to 54,700 in February 2011, according to state data. Professional and business services jobs were largely stagnant until 2015, when growth returned. As of November, the sector had 61,400 jobs in the metro.</p>
<p>The late recovery in professional and business services employment has, in turn, helped to delay the recovery in the office market.</p>
<p>The industrial vacancy rate dropped to 6.4 percent from 6.7 percent in the third quarter and 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. The rate's most recent high-water mark was 10.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. The vacancy rate averaged 8.5 percent in 2004-09. Most of the activity in the industrial real estate market is in warehousing and distribution, not in plants and research buildings.</p>
<p>Employment in the goods-producing job sectors, mostly manufacturing and construction, is still running at a little better than two-thirds of what it was in the mid-2000s.</p>
<p>The retail vacancy rate nudged up to 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter from 6 percent in the third quarter, but was well down from 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.</p>
<p /> | Commercial real estate takes economy's pulse | false | https://abqjournal.com/715538/commercial-real-estate-takes-economys-pulse.html | 2 |
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<p>Measure C, which would have raised $1.15 billion from increased hotel occupancy taxes to help pay for a $1.8 billion stadium and convention center annex downtown, was defeated 57 percent to 43 percent. It needed 66.7 percent yes to pass.</p>
<p>The 110-page plan was written by the Chargers without input from City Hall, the powerful tourism industry, their would-be neighbors the Padres or other stakeholders.</p>
<p>Team chairman Dean Spanos, who angered fans last year with a failed attempt to join with the rival Oakland Raiders to build a stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, conceded defeat early Wednesday morning with half of the votes still to be counted. He released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying he wanted “to give the stadium debate a rest and enjoy some Chargers football.</p>
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<p>“So I’m going to put aside any discussion of our possible next steps until after the season, to allow everyone to focus on football and to give my family and me time to think carefully about what is best for the future of our franchise,” Spanos said. “Over the coming weeks you may hear news about steps that we must take to preserve all of our options. But please know that I don’t intend to make any decisions until after the regular season ends.”</p>
<p>That means fans could be put in the same position as they were last year, when they thought that the last game of the season might be the Chargers’ final game in San Diego. The Chargers (4-5) have four home games left, including the finale on Jan. 1 against Kansas City.</p>
<p>Spanos has until mid-January to exercise his option to move to L.A. and join the Rams in a stadium in Inglewood set to open in 2019. If the Chargers moved, they’d have to find a temporary home.</p>
<p>Or Spanos could negotiate with Mayor Kevin Faulconer and other stakeholders on a new plan in San Diego. The Chargers have been trying since 2000 to replace aging Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley.</p>
<p>While Spanos has said he’d like to make it work in San Diego, his surrogates have repeatedly reminded people that the team could move to L.A.</p>
<p>Faulconer said that while the vote showed there wasn’t support for this particular plan, that a coalition was built during the campaign.</p>
<p>“San Diegans love the Bolts. They want them to stay,” Faulconer said. “There’s a foundation that I’m confident can be built up.”</p>
<p>Faulconer, who endorsed the project only a month ago, said he planned to speak by phone with Spanos later Wednesday or on Thursday.</p>
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<p>The mayor declined to say whether he prefers a new stadium at the Qualcomm site, which he pushed last year, or downtown.</p>
<p>Figuring out how to pay for a new stadium “will be one of the significant topics of collaboration,” he said. “You saw that achieving two-thirds is extremely difficult.”</p>
<p>City Councilman Chris Cate, who was called out by the Chargers because he opposed the measure, said he hopes Spanos comes to the table sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>“I understand the value of the Chargers. I was born and raised here,” Cate said. “I don’t want them to leave. But it can’t be a one sided affair. People have to be at the table to hammer out a deal that works.”</p>
<p>County Supervisor Ron Roberts agreed, saying there needs to be “a lot of soul-searching” in coming up with a stadium solution that benefits everyone, not just the team.</p>
<p>“I think this was doomed to failure from Day One and it’s unfortunate because if we had been developing a solution everyone agreed on in Mission Valley, we’d likely be under construction by now.”</p>
<p>After rebuffing Spanos’ Carson project, his fellow owners offered him an extra $100 million to be coupled with a $200 million NFL loan to try to get something done in San Diego.</p>
<p>There’s been speculation that Spanos, who long has said he needs a major public subsidy for a new stadium in San Diego, could ask the NFL for more money, or that he could try to negotiate down the L.A. relocation fee.</p>
<p>An NFL spokesman said the league had no comment.</p>
<p>Quarterback Philip Rivers said he’s trying to stay optimistic.</p>
<p>“I can’t see us not here,” Rivers said after practice Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Maybe I’m naive, I don’t know that the actual vote is a direct reflection of what the city thinks of the Chargers,” Rivers said. “I think it’s more about all the ins and outs and exactly what the measure exactly meant and how people felt like it affected them. I didn’t see it as, ‘Hey, here’s a vote; would you like the Chargers in San Diego or not?’ I didn’t see it as that simple. I would like to think if that’s the case, we could have gotten two-thirds or more.”</p>
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<p>Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/berniewilson" type="external">http://twitter.com/berniewilson</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>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> | Voters overwhelmingly reject Chargers’ plan for new stadium | false | https://abqjournal.com/885363/chargers-stadium-measure-appears-headed-for-sound-defeat.html | 2016-11-09 | 2 |
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<p>The Food and Drug Administration action follows nearly a decade of scrutiny into the neurological effects of the smoking-cessation pill, which received the agency’s most stringent warning in 2009 after reports of suicidal tendencies, hostility and depression among some patients.</p>
<p>The FDA decision stems from an 8,000-patient study of smokers that found no elevated risk of psychiatric problems among Chantix users who had no prior history of mental illness. European regulators previously removed their own warning from the drug based on the same data.</p>
<p>The study was jointly funded by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which markets a competing smoking-cessation drug, Zyban. The FDA also removed similar warning language about psychiatric events from Zyban’s label, according to an agency statement.</p>
<p>Chantix and Zyban will still list reports of psychosis, paranoia, anxiety and other problems on their labels. But those problems will not be highlighted in a so-called black box warning, a prominent warning displayed at the top of FDA drug labels.</p>
<p>“The risk of these mental health side effects is still present, especially in those currently being treated for mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders, or schizophrenia, or who have been treated for mental illnesses in the past,” the FDA stated in an online post.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Quitting smoking, with or without medication, can cause significant withdrawal symptoms, including irritability, mood swings and depression. In addition, psychiatric conditions are more common in smokers than nonsmokers.</p>
<p>Many doctors and smokers trying to quit were scared off by warnings on Chantix and Zyban, about “changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, and suicidal thoughts or actions” in some patients.</p>
<p>Pfizer’s drug works by binding to the same spots in the brain that are activated by nicotine when people smoke. The drug, known generically as varenicline, blocks nicotine from binding to those spots and prevents the release of “feel-good” brain chemicals that make smoking so addictive.</p>
<p>Zyban is known generically as bupropion, an antidepressant drug long available in lower-cost versions.</p>
<p>Shares of New York-based Pfizer Inc. rose 9 cents to close at $32.84.</p> | US drops bold warning from anti-smoking pills Chantix, Zyban | false | https://abqjournal.com/910783/us-drops-bold-warning-from-anti-smoking-pills-chantix-zyban.html | 2 |
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<p>(Washington Times) – Saying the rising costs of college are punishing students who’ve played by the rules, President Obama on Thursday said he’ll ask the federal government to take a broader role in lowering tuition costs by rating schools based on their educational value, and trying to tie future taxpayer aid to how well schools do.</p>
<p>Mr. Obama, speaking at the State University of New York-Buffalo, said he’ll cap student loan repayments at 10 percent of their future paychecks, but will also take steps to punish students who are attending school on federal grants by doling out the money in chunks to make sure they stay in school.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">FAX BLAST SPECIAL: Impeach Obama NOW!</a></p>
<p>The announcements came as part of a two-day bus tour the president is taking through New York and Pennsylvania as he tries to breathe life back into his domestic agenda, which has stalled amid budget and partisan battles on Capitol Hill.</p>
<p>To counter that, Mr. Obama returned to the rich vs. poor theme he struck on the campaign trail last year, saying his efforts to control education costs are in line with his other moves, such as raising taxes on the wealthy, signing his health care law, and bailing out automobile manufacturers.</p>
<p>“We can’t price the middle class and everybody working to get into the middle class out of a college education,” Mr. Obama said. “We can’t go about business as usual.”</p>
<p>Mr. Obama has been promising action on rising college costs since he took office, and Republicans’ reaction to his announcement was a yawn.</p>
<p>“Lame speech, lame duck,” was the headline on the response from the Republican National Committee.</p>
<p>Mr. Obama said the government and colleges have been in a type of arms race in recent years, with the government boosting its contributions and schools raising their prices.</p>
<p>“So some point, the government will run out of money, which means more and more costs are being loaded on to students and their families,” the president said.</p>
<p>Beginning in 2015, Mr. Obama said he’ll have the Education Department release a scorecard of colleges that provide the best value. The formula would look at affordability, measured by tuition costs compared to how many students are taking loans or are on scholarship; productivity, measured by graduation rates and the earnings of graduates; and “access,” measured by the percentage of students who receive federal aid.</p>
<p>The White House said that by 2018, after the scorecard has been refined, federal funding would reward those schools who take low-income students and do well on the rest of the formula.</p>
<p>The new plan also would push colleges and universities to try new avenues of education, such as online courses or awarding students degrees based on demonstrating how much they’ve learned, not on how many classes they’ve sat through.</p>
<p>Congress will have to approve the president’s plan to dock schools’ federal funds for doing poorly on the scorecard, and lawmakers would also have to pass legislation capping student loan repayments at 10 percent of their post-graduate incomes.</p>
<p>Lawmakers are already scheduled to debate and reauthorize the Higher Education Act, which is due to expire at the end of this year.</p>
<p>House Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline, Minnesota Republican, said he agrees with promoting innovation among colleges, but he said the president’s ranking system is “arbitrary” and could actually stifle the innovation the president wants to see.</p>
<p>Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said he sees areas where the GOP can work with Mr. Obama to control costs — but urged the president to also call on colleges to limit salaries for highly-paid executives.</p>
<p>Mr. Grassley also said the key to controlling costs is to help the consumer side of the equation.</p>
<p>“The more students and parents become savvy shoppers, the more colleges would be forced to rein in rising costs to compete for students,” Mr. Grassley said.</p>
<p>http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/22/obama-proposes-deeper-federal-role-college-funding/</p> | OBAMA WARNS: ‘Some point, the government will run out of money’… | true | http://teaparty.org/obama-warns-some-point-the-government-will-run-out-of-money-27674/ | 0 |
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<p>Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.</p>
<p>At the close in Brussels, the rose 0.09%.</p>
<p>The best performers of the session on the were Engie SA (PA:), which rose 2.70% or 0.38 points to trade at 14.44 at the close. Meanwhile, UCB (BR:) added 0.98% or 0.59 points to end at 60.75 and Aperam SA (AS:) was up 0.50% or 0.23 points to 45.08 in late trade.</p>
<p>The worst performers of the session were NV Bekaert SA (BR:), which fell 1.31% or 0.52 points to trade at 38.85 at the close. bpost NV (BR:) declined 0.95% or 0.23 points to end at 23.99 and Sofina (BR:) was down 0.50% or 0.65 points to 130.60.</p>
<p>Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 62 to 51 and 10 ended unchanged.</p>
<p>Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.35% or 4.49 to $1289.31 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.06% or 0.03 to hit $50.95 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.32% or 0.18 to trade at $56.43 a barrel.</p>
<p>EUR/USD was up 0.30% to 1.1844, while EUR/GBP rose 0.28% to 0.8968.</p>
<p>The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.19% at 92.91.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Belgium stocks higher at close of trade; BEL 20 up 0.09% | false | https://newsline.com/belgium-stocks-higher-at-close-of-trade-bel-20-up-0-09/ | 2017-10-11 | 1 |
<p>Robert F. Bukaty/AP Images</p>
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<p>President Donald Trump unveiled his 2018 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/omb/budget/fy2018/msar.pdf" type="external">budget</a> today, with more than $1 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years to government programs such as Medicaid, farm subsidies, affordable housing, and other anti-poverty programs.&#160;</p>
<p>The budget includes $193 billion in cuts over a decade to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps—25 percent of the program’s budget. About 44 million people benefit from food stamps in the United States, especially poorer states in the Southeast. For example, 1 out of every 5 people in Louisiana receive food stamps in a given month, according to a <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/research/a-closer-look-at-who-benefits-from-snap-state-by-state-fact-sheets" type="external">report</a> by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.</p>
<p>Trump’s proposed cuts to food stamps will by and large hit the states that voted for him the hardest. Louisiana voted overwhelmingly for Trump, as did its Southeast counterparts Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, and Georgia. Out of the 10 states with the highest food stamp use by population, seven voted Republican in last year’s presidential election. (See more details in the list below.)</p>
<p>Other supplemental nutrition programs such as Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) will receive cuts, according to a budget leaked by centrist think tank <a href="http://www.thirdway.org/newsroom/press-releases/third-way-statement-on-the-leaked-may-8-trump-budget" type="external">Third Way</a>. The program <a href="https://www.nwica.org/blog/weekly-wic-policy-update-75#.WSNmExMrLOQ" type="external">received</a> $6.35 billion in 2017 and will receive $5.15 billion in 2018.</p>
<p>These maps show state populations that were enrolled in SNAP in a given month in 2016 and which states voted for Trump.</p>
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<p>Seven of the 10 states that used food stamps the most in 2016 also favored Trump in the election:</p>
<p>This article has been updated.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Trump Takes a Big Bite out of His Voters’ Food Stamps | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/trump-snap-budget-2018-cuts-food-stamps/ | 2017-05-23 | 4 |
<p>The Israeli Defense Forces is reportedly readjusting focus to Lebanon and its militant Hezbollah group amid fears that Iran and Hezbollah are gaining access to weapons in Syria.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-turns-attention-to-lebanon-as-syrian-army-falls-apart-1.511719" type="external">According to Haaretz</a>, the tactical shift comes as Israeli intelligence shows that Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have lost about 13,000 men in the country's civil war, while another 40,000 soldiers have deserted.</p>
<p>Haaretz cites Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi as saying recently:</p>
<p>"They are trying and in some cases succeeding to obtain air defense capabilities, shore-to-sea missiles, surface-to-surface missiles and other capabilities. Hezbollah and Iran understand that Assad's fate is sealed, and they're preparing for the day after."</p>
<p>The paper cites as evidence that the Israeli Defense Forces recently changed the assignments of several northern divisions to focus on Lebanon, practicing maneuvers for operating in Lebanon where once they trained for Syria.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israel said it did fire into Syria on Sunday after shots were fired at Israeli soldiers from a machine gun position in the Golan Heights.</p>
<p>The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired a Tamuz anti-tank guided missile into Syrian territory after Syrian troops opened fire for the second time in twelve hours, <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4360321,00.html" type="external">according to YNet News</a>.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the prime minister's Office, Ofir Gendelman, tweeted:</p>
<p>IDF forces destroyed a Syrian machine gun nest that fired twice in the last 24 hours on Israeli patrols operating to safeguard the border. — Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) March 24, 2013</p>
<p>And Israel's new Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon released a statement saying that the Israeli Defense Forces would "immediately"respond to Syrian gunfire on the border of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hpyw8pchHfSPFmIqp2pPoKgVUHtA?docId=CNG.965e7836f670061a5b4e5db4524b81f0.91" type="external">Agence France-Presse quoted</a> him as saying:</p>
<p>"Every violation of Israeli sovereignty and shooting from the Syrian side will immediately be answered by silencing the source of fire."</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Israeli Defense Forces fears Hezbollah and Iran gaining access to Syrian weapons: report | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-03-24/israeli-defense-forces-fears-hezbollah-and-iran-gaining-access-syrian-weapons | 2013-03-24 | 3 |
<p>Find law's Legal Commentary&#160;</p>
<p>While the country's attention is fixated on the war in Iraq, Act Three of the Catholic Church scandal is now in progress. It is far more complicated than the scandal's prior phases, but for the victims it is the most important.</p>
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<p>Sadly, it is marked by the Church's resistance to the reforms initiated in Act Two. The resistance is cloaked in various theories of the First Amendment.</p>
<p>The Church Scandal: Act One</p>
<p>Before analyzing Act Three, it's important to put it in the context of what has occurred so far.</p>
<p>Act One of the Catholic Church's clergy abuse scandal was dominated by the theme of shock. Enterprising Boston Globe reporters revealed an institution steeped in sin. Their articles - for which they recently won the Pulitzer Prize - revealed that priests had sexually abused children for decades.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, higher-ups, after learning of the abuse, merely shuffled those known pedophiles around to be put in contact with other children. Their cover-up made the Watergate players look like rank amateurs. And when the scandal was first revealed, it seemed there was not a remorseful bishop or Pope to be found.</p>
<p /> | The Catholic Church and the Clergy Abuse Scandal: Act Three | false | https://poynter.org/news/catholic-church-and-clergy-abuse-scandal-act-three | 2003-04-21 | 2 |
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<p>A wave of anti-police&#160;protests&#160;since the 2014 killing of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri, is creating strains at law enforcement agencies across the United States, forcing out some police chiefs and top prosecutors.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A driving force behind the change has been Black Lives Matter, a national organization whose name is a potent symbol for demonstrators railing against police violence, according to law enforcement officials and academics.</p>
<p>"What Black Lives Matter has been able to do is to maintain a focus on this issue and a persistence that has lasted for over two years now," said Jody Armour, a professor at University of Southern California's Gould School of Law.</p>
<p>Armour, who has expertise in police and racial profiling, called the movement "the power of democracy unleashed."</p>
<p>"Black Lives Matter" has again been used as a rallying cry in the cases of two unarmed black men shot dead by police this week in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, and organizers have begun mobilizing.</p>
<p>Formed in 2012 after the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida, Black Lives Matter's national profile exploded in mid-2014 after white police officer Darren Wilson shot dead unarmed black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson.</p>
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<p>Angry&#160;protests&#160;have roiled the country since, and police chiefs and top prosecutors in big and small cities have been ousted.</p>
<p>In San Francisco, the police killing of 26-year-old Mario Woods in December sparked months ofprotests&#160;and demands for the ouster of police chief Greg Suhr. In May, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee asked him to step down, saying tensions between police and people of color had "come into full view."</p>
<p>In Chicago, two-term Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez lost her Democratic primary bid by a landslide in March, after activists dogged her campaign over her handling of the 2014 police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.</p>
<p>Her loss came just months after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel ousted then-police superintendent Garry McCarthy, saying it was an "undeniable fact" that public trust in police had eroded. As evidence, he cited Black Lives Matter&#160;protests&#160;organized after a video of the killing was released.</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE AND MINNEAPOLIS</p>
<p>The group has used demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience to pressure police chiefs and elected officials. At times their lead has been followed by more established groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and local clergy, as was the case in Chicago.</p>
<p>Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said local politicians were much more responsible for the string of departures and firings than protesters.</p>
<p>"I know from being involved in this work for around 50 years, that (since Ferguson) we've seen more of these political terminations than we've seen in years past," he said.</p>
<p>Hundreds of demonstrators converged on a convenience store in Baton Rouge on Wednesday where two police officers fatally shot 37-year-old Alton Sterling, an unarmed black man who was selling CDs, early on Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>Protesters on Thursday also gathered at the mansion of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton in St. Paul, about 10 miles (15 km) southeast of where 32-year-old Philando Castile was shot by a police officer after a traffic stop on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Both of the killings were captured on video.</p>
<p>Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said heightened media attention and the ubiquity of cell phones have fueled recent firings and resignations.</p>
<p>"There's a far greater public awareness that's going on and it's increased (protesters') ability to affect the process," Pasco said.</p>
<p>He said the attention has made police chiefs an easy scapegoat for politicians aiming to quell unrest.</p>
<p>"Whenever there is a problem, is Rahm Emanuel going to resign or is he going to fire the police chief?" Pasco said, referring to the Chicago mayor. "Is the mayor of San Francisco going to resign, or is he going to fire the police chief? That's the question."</p>
<p>Melina Abdullah, professor and chair of pan-African studies at California State University Los Angeles, said keeping the heat on elected officials has been critical to the movement's success.</p>
<p>"With sustained pressure there, we can make sure there is a response," said Abdullah, an organizer of the local Black Lives Matter chapter. "We know another murder is going to happen."</p>
<p>(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Jason Szep and Richard Chang)</p> | Wave of Anti-Police Protests Strains U.S. Law Enforcement | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/08/wave-anti-police-protests-strains-u-s-law-enforcement.html | 2016-07-08 | 0 |
<p>On Saturday, I spoke to nearly 700&#160;Massachusetts Tea Party members at a Tax Day rally in&#160;Boston, Mass.</p>
<p>Why, you might ask, is a guy who&#160;runs restaurants&#160;for a living talking to the Tea Party?&#160;And why am I sharing a stage with Grover Norquist when I don’t agree with much of what Grover Norquist says.</p>
<p>It’s simple really.&#160; I care about America’s future and want something better from my government,&#160;for my generation and my children’s generation,&#160;and I know that belief is shared by the thousands of Tea Partyers who turned out. That’s all I needed to know to say yes to their invitation.</p>
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<p>See…&#160;The only way American democracy can work again is for&#160;conservatives, liberals and everyone in between to start working with one another towards solving our nation’s problems.&#160; This attitude has been missing in Washington for too long, which is why headlines are once again dominated by tales of gridlock and dysfunction in our nation’s capital.</p>
<p>But an under-the-radar development is offering a glimmer of hope.&#160; A growing alliance of Senators and House members is organizing under the banner of a organization I co- founded …No Labels …and we are &#160;poised to change the way Washington does business.</p>
<p>These members are part of a group called No Labels’ Problem Solvers — which now features 59 congressional Democrats and Republicans who are meeting regularly to build trust across the aisle.&#160; No Labels aims to grow the Problem Solvers’ ranks to 70 by year end, and the legislators are currently working on policy solutions that will be announced this summer.</p>
<p>This is an unprecedented development.&#160; The Problem Solvers is the only forum that exists in Washington for rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans to get together to discuss solutions.</p>
<p>People would be shocked if they knew how little real interaction our leaders have with one another.&#160; Many on Capitol Hill are strangers with people who work down the hall because they have given up on the idea that Democrats and Republicans could actually have anything useful to talk about.</p>
<p>Sure, you will hear about the odd Republican and Democrat pairing up on a single issue.&#160; A “Gang of Six” might come together to break a logjam every so often.</p>
<p>But it’s not enough.</p>
<p>Not with the problems America is facing.</p>
<p>Democrats and Republicans need to be meeting all the time searching for common ground, and that is No Labels’ hope for the Problem Solvers.</p>
<p>As someone who serves food for a living, here’s how I think about what No Labels is doing:</p>
<p>We are telling Democrats and Republicans in Congress to come to the table.&#160; We are saying: “You don’t have to like everything that’s on the table.&#160; You don’t have to eat everything that’s on the table.&#160; But come to the table and at least see what’s on the menu.”</p>
<p>No Labels and the Problem Solvers are not advocating squishy centrism or mushy moderation. We&#160;do not expect anyone to shed their principles or their political beliefs when they join our movement and we are not naïve about the real philosophical differences between Democrats and Republicans.</p>
<p>But we do expect and demand solutions from our leaders.&#160;Pragmatism and realism is required to do so.&#160;Democrats control the Senate.&#160; Republicans control the House.&#160; No one can get everything they want.&#160; So our leaders have two options.&#160; They can either stick with the status quo: fighting endlessly while they leave a crushing debt burden, broken tax and immigration systems and a persistent unemployment crisis for someone else to fix.&#160; Or they can choose option two: the No Labels way.&#160; That is exactly what 59 members of Congress have done by joining the Problem Solvers.&#160; This group alone cannot solve America problems but by joining together in committing to solving problems they &#160;represents a big step in the right direction.</p>
<p>I sometimes think of how impossible it would be to&#160;run a business like Panera with 75,000 employees&#160;if our people had the same attitude as some in Washington. Our team does not agree on everything. We have different ideas about where to open stores, what to put on the menu, what ads to run and what people to hire. But we do not have the luxury of walking away from the table if we do not get everything we want.&#160;In fact if we did… We would and should be fired. See…&#160;We have customers, employees and investors counting on us to keep at it until we get things right.</p>
<p>Well, we’re all counting on Washington. &#160;It’s time for more of our leaders to come to the table.&#160; It’s time for them to commit to a new politics of problem solving.</p>
<p>By: Ron&#160;Shaich</p>
<p>Ron&#160;Shaich&#160;is&#160;founder,&#160;Chairman and co-CEO of Panera Bread and a Co-Founder of No Labels</p> | Sandwiches With a Side of Politics | false | https://nolabels.org/blog/sandwiches-with-a-side-of-politics/ | 2013-04-18 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Bear Lincoln, who lives on the Round Valley Indian reservation, has reason to fear the cops. Lincoln was the subject of a massive manhunt in 1995 after a gunfight he was involved in ended with a cop and Lincoln’s best friend dead. He spent two years in jail awaiting trial, only to be freed in 1997 after his acquittal. Now he’s back in jail, and his allies say he might be the victim of a law-enforcement vendetta, because local cops in Covelo, Calif. believe Lincoln, despite the acquittal, is a cop killer who got away with it.</p>
<p>Lincoln was arrested March 21 on suspicion of shooting into another house on the reservation and recklessly endangering a child inside. Shootings like this have happened with regularity on the reservation — where inter-clan feuds are common and long-standing — without any police investigations. No one was hurt in the incident, but still about 20 officers, some decked out in SWAT-team regalia, converged on Round Valley when they heard Lincoln was the suspect.</p>
<p /> | Overkill on the rez | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2000/04/overkill-rez/ | 2000-04-17 | 4 |
<p>Jan 17 (Reuters) - Bioinvent:</p>
<p>* EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE INTENDS TO GRANT BIOINVENT PATENT RELEVANT TO ITS F.I.R.S.T.TM PLATFORM Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Reporting by Stockholm Newsroom)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>DHAKA (Reuters) - U.S. envoy Sam Brownback called on Thursday for the release of journalists jailed in Myanmar while covering the plight of ethnic Rohingya Muslims forced to flee a military crackdown.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone gestures to the media as he is escorted by police after a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang
<p>Brownback spoke in Bangladesh, where he was on a mission to see at first hand the plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya crammed into refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar region bordering Myanmar.</p>
<p>"The journalists should be released who are in jail in Myanmar," Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, told a news conference in Dhaka, without naming any individuals or their employers.</p>
<p>The United States is among several governments pressing for the release of two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been held in Myanmar since December.</p>
<p>A court is deliberating over whether they will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act for possessing secret government papers - an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.</p>
<p>Aside from the U.S. administration, Canada, Britain and several other European countries, as well as top United Nations and EU officials have called for the journalists' release.</p>
<p>On April 11, a Myanmar judge rejected a defense request to dismiss the case against the two reporters for lack of evidence. The judge said he wanted to hear eight remaining prosecution witnesses out of the 25 listed, according to defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw.</p>
<p>Brownback praised the media's work covering events since the Rohingya crisis began in August, and said journalists should be allowed to move freely in Myanmar and the region to report on developments.</p>
<p>Brownback described the campaign against the Rohingya as "ethnic cleansing against a Muslim minority".</p>
<p>Myanmar rejects that description, saying its action was a legitimate counter-insurgency operation in response to a series of militant attacks on security posts and an army camp in its northwestern Rakhine state.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo is escorted by police before a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang
<p>Earlier this month, however, seven Myanmar soldiers were sentenced to 10 years "with hard labor in a remote area" for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in Rakhine last September, the army said.</p>
<p>According to U.N. officials, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh from Rakhine.</p>
<p>Asked about possible U.S. measures against Myanmar over the crisis, Brownback told the news conference: "We will continue to investigate to get a clear picture."</p>
<p>He added that several members of the U.S. Congress and Vice President Mike Pence had expressed deep concern to him.</p>
<p>Myanmar reported on Saturday the first return to Rakhine state of a refugee Rohingya family from Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government and the United Nations refugee agency said they had no knowledge of any such repatriation.</p>
<p>Reporting by Serajul Quadir; editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Andrew Roche</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SEVASTOPOL, Crimea (Reuters) - News that Russia hosted the teenage children of Bashar al-Assad at a lavishly-rebuilt Black Sea summer camp in Crimea last year has given a rare glimpse into the personal lives of the Syrian president's family and his close relationship to Moscow.</p> A general view of the Morskoi camp, part of the Artek International Children's Centre, located near the city of Yalta, Crimea May 11, 2017. Picture taken May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
<p>Nestled on the Crimean coast since 1925, the Artek Seaside camp served for decades as an elite summer holiday resort for children of those favored by the Soviet Communist Party and foreign delegations invited from its satellite states.</p>
<p>Russia has given the camp a $180 million renovation since seizing the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Guests stay in newly-built dormitories by the sea.</p> A general view of the Morskoi camp, part of the Artek International Children's Centre, located near the city of Yalta, Crimea May 11, 2017. Picture taken May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
<p>That Assad's sons Hafez and Karim and daughter Zein had stayed there last year with a group of other Syrian children was made public only this week, when a Russian lawmaker on a delegation to Damascus said Assad had mentioned it.</p>
<p>Alexei Kasprzhak, the resort's director, told Reuters he learned of the children's identities only after they arrived last year. The three children were given no special treatment, joining the regular programme with the other Syrian children in their group, he said.</p>
<p>If any of the other Syrian children had any issues with being at camp with the president's kids, "it passed quickly and didn't create any problems for us and therefore we didn't have to resolve them, thank God," Kasprzhak told Reuters.</p> A general view of the Morskoi camp, part of the Artek International Children's Centre, located near the city of Yalta, Crimea May 11, 2017. Picture taken May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
<p>A source close to the camp's management who spoke on condition of anonymity said the president's children "didn't stick out at all" during their three-week stay.</p>
<p>"They also attended all the events organized in the camp, they went to the evening campfire like everyone else, so it is not the case that they lived in some kind of special premises or slept on special pillows."</p>
<p>The choice of destination shows how close Assad's personal ties with Russia have become since Moscow entered the Syrian conflict in September 2015, turning the tide in his favor. Now in its eighth year, the war has killed more than 500,000 people.</p>
<p>The Seaside camp, 12 km (7.5 miles) from the Crimean city of Yalta, is the oldest of a network of 10 Artek camps run by the Education Ministry. During the Soviet era, winning a place there for a summer was a valued prize both for Soviet children and for visitors from countries in Moscow's orbit.</p>
<p>In 2015, a year after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, the Russian government launched a five-year programme to revamp it. As of last June over 11 billion roubles ($180.71 million) had been spent on renovations, the RIA news agency reported.</p>
<p>Records published on the state procurement site show that 9.2 billion roubles worth of tenders to develop the resort were awarded to Stroygazmontazh, a construction firm on U.S. and European sanctions blacklists, owned by Arkady Rotenberg, a former judo sparring partner of president Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Peter Graff</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian government stepped up its efforts on Thursday to retake the opposition's last besieged enclaves, as rebels prepared to withdraw from one and a newspaper reported an ultimatum against another.</p> FILE PHOTO: A Syrian soldier loyal to President Bashar al Assad is seen outside eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria February 28, 2018. To match Special Report RUSSIA-FLIGHTS/ REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki/File Photo
<p>President Bashar al-Assad scored a major victory this month by retaking eastern Ghouta, the biggest rebel stronghold near Damascus, putting his forces in by far their strongest position since the early months of the seven-year-old civil war.</p>
<p>The United States, Britain and France launched a volley of air strikes on Saturday against three Syrian targets in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons strike during the Ghouta assault.</p>
<p>But the limited Western intervention, far from any contested battlefront, has shown no sign of having any impact on the ground, where Assad's forces have pressed on with his offensive.</p>
<p>The last rebels withdrew from eastern Ghouta hours after the Western bombing. Since then, the government has focused on regaining four less populous encircled enclaves.</p>
<p>Their capture would leave the opposition holding only its two main strongholds, located in the northwest and southwest along Syria's international borders.</p> Related Coverage
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<p>Diplomacy this week has focussed on the accusations of poison gas use in Douma, the last town to hold out against the government advance in eastern Ghouta.</p>
<p>Western countries say scores of people were gassed to death in the April 7 chemical attack. Syria and its ally Russia deny it. Now that the rebels have surrendered, the area is under government control, and a team of international inspectors has so far been unable to reach it.</p>
<p>The inspectors have delayed their visit to Douma after their security team were shot at during a reconnaissance trip on Tuesday, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said.</p>
<p>The Western countries say Moscow and Damascus are preventing the inspectors from reaching the site and may be destroying evidence. Russia and Assad's government deny this.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Western intervention has had no measurable impact on the wider war, with rebels continuing to surrender under deals that allow them to withdraw to the opposition pocket in the northwest in return for abandoning territory.</p> SURRENDER
<p>State television showed live footage of buses entering the town of Dumayr, northeast of Damascus, to bring out fighters and their families, while soldiers stood by the roadside.</p>
<p>Twenty buses would be used to transfer about 5,000 people, including 1,500 rebels, to north Syria after they surrendered their heavy weapons, Syrian state TV said.</p>
<p>Dumayr has been covered by an informal ceasefire for years, but its recovery is important for the government because it makes it possible to guarantee the safety of vehicles travelling on the Damascus-Baghdad highway.</p>
<p>Said Saif, a senior official with one of the rebel groups in the area, said his group had no choice but to go along with a Russian-backed deal to leave the town, because there were no other outside forces that could guarantee their safety.</p>
<p>"We hope the Russians keep their promises, even though we have no trust in them," he said.</p>
<p>In the nearby enclave of Eastern Qalamoun, which consists of several towns and an area of hills and has also been covered by an informal ceasefire, rebels said they were also negotiating a withdrawal deal with Russia.</p>
<p>The army has put military pressure on rebels in Eastern Qalamoun to start negotiations to withdraw, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitoring group said.</p>
<p>A military news service run by the government's Lebanese ally Hezbollah reported on Thursday that the army had moved into positions inside the enclave to entirely encircle one of its towns, al-Ruhayba.</p>
<p>The Observatory said there were also talks under way between Russia and rebels over the fate of an enclave in central Syria around the town of Rastan.</p>
<p>Separately, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday that Islamic State militants had been given 48 hours to agree to withdraw from an enclave centred around the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugee south of Damascus.</p>
<p>"If they refuse, the army and supporting forces are ready to launch a military operation to end the presence of the organisation in the area," al-Watan said.</p>
<p>Most residents have fled the camp, once Syria's largest for Palestinian refugees, but thousands of civilians are still inside. Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which looks after Palestinian refugees said it was deeply concerned for their safety.</p>
<p>A commander in the regional military alliance that backs the Syrian government said the Syrian army had begun shelling the jihadist enclave on Tuesday in preparation for an assault.</p>
<p>Islamic State lost most of its territory last year, but it still holds small areas of desert in eastern Syria on either side of the Euphrates river. On Thursday neighbouring Iraq carried out air strikes against the jihadist group in Syria in coordination with Damascus, the Iraqi military said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Tom Perry and Dahlia Nehme in Beirut, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Raya Jalabi in Baghdad; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Peter Graff</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A long-awaited U.S. Justice Department internal watchdog report on former FBI chief James Comey's public disclosures on Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state and whether FBI employees leaked information to try to hurt her 2016 presidential bid is expected to be issued next month.</p> Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the annual Hillary Rodham Clinton awards ceremony at Georgetown University in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>The report from Michael Horowitz, the department's inspector general, arises from an investigation he launched about a week before Republican President Donald Trump, who defeated Democrat Clinton in the election, took office in January 2017.</p>
<p>In a letter last week to Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Horowitz said his office was "working diligently" to complete the report and expected to release it in May.</p>
<p>Horowitz's letter did not offer details of what will be in the report. In a Jan. 12, 2017 letter to five congressional committees, he enumerated 2016 election-related issues his office would look into.</p>
<p>Clinton has called the FBI investigation into her emails and Comey's public disclosures about it significant factors in her loss to Trump, who fired Comey as FBI director in May 2017.</p>
<p>The investigation will examine Comey's statements in August 2016 that no charges would be brought against Clinton and in October about the re-opening of the FBI investigation into her use of a private email server rather than a government server, potentially jeopardizing classified information.</p>
<p>The report also is expected to address whether active and retired FBI agents in New York leaked information about investigations of the Clinton Foundation charitable organization and the discovery of a trove of Clinton-related emails.</p>
<p>Law enforcement officials previously told Reuters the information was leaked to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an adviser to the Trump campaign who subsequently discussed the contents on Fox News.</p>
<p>Horowitz's office also has sought to determine whether such leaks influenced Comey's decision 11 days before the election to announce the reopening of the Clinton email investigation. Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at the time a fear of leaks from within his own agency helped prompt Comey to make that public disclosure.</p>
<p>Comey did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>Trump and Comey have exchanged harsh criticism in the past week. Trump called Comey a "slime ball." Comey called Trump an unethical liar who is morally unfit to be president.</p>
<p>Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by John Walcott and Will Dunham</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-EPO to grant Bioinvent patent relevant to its F.I.R.S.T.TM platform U.S. official calls on Myanmar to free journalists Rare glimpse of Assad family ties to Russia in kids' stay at seaside camp Assad steps up efforts to crush last besieged enclaves Justice Dept. watchdog to report on Clinton-related FBI leaks | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-epo-to-grant-bioinvent-patent-rele/brief-epo-to-grant-bioinvent-patent-relevant-to-its-firsttm-platform-idUSFWN1PC0MN | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>“Yezzi Fock!” This slogan has become the theme of the nationwide protests in Tunisia which continue unabated. `Enough’ refers to the high levels of unemployment in the country, the pervasive corruption, especially of the two ruling families and the decades of seething repression which has kept Zine Ben Ali in power now for 23 years.</p>
<p>And with that, protestors in different parts of the country are tearing down President Zine Ben Ali’s portrait, a harbinger of things to come perhaps.</p>
<p>Triggered originally on December 17, 2010 by the suicide of a 26-year old university graduate who had had his unauthorized fruit and vegetable stand confiscated in Sidi Bouzid - and who soaked himself with gasoline and lit a match - the protests have only intensified, despite government attempts to suppress them continue.</p>
<p>If anything, the situation is deteriorating as the opposition is only intensifying in the face of growing, if not massive repression. As `Kerym’, my unknown but insightful Tunisian correspondent, comments: The demonstrations will continue because:</p>
<p>“The people know very well that he’s (Ben Ali) trying to cool things down, and once the situation returns to normal, he will betray them again?.just like he did before . In other words , this people happen to distrust this weird man and his mobster gangs. Therefore quitting the protests now, means more repression and more arrests to be expected, and unemployment will remain an unsolved issue in Tunisian society .?So far, the situation is snafu, but not without hope . “</p>
<p>Among the confirmed reports:</p>
<p>Joining Tunisia’s lawyers, the country’s artists have taken to the streets and joined the calls for an end to repression, corruption along with calls for the government to deal with the unemployment crisis. A number of the country’s leading cultural figures - artists, rappers, and leading intellectuals have been arrested.</p>
<p>The trade union confederation in Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city after Tunis, have joined the protests, calling for a strike in the city.</p>
<p>The Tunisian government has closed all the high schools and universities in the country `until further notice’ in an attempt cool what started as a `youth rebellion’, but which has long extended to broad sectors of the population.</p>
<p>At least some of the weapons being used against demonstrators are `made in the USA’, including tear gas</p>
<p>Unconfirmed but worrisome</p>
<p>In Kasserine where a number of people were killed by security forces over the weekend, the government employed snipers on building tops who shot into the demonstrations, killing people at random. There are reports that the snipers are not from the Tunisian military who are actually trying to protect the demonstrators but from a special unit of Ben Ali’s security police called the Brigaude de l”Ordre Publique (BOP). Formed in the 1980s, the B.O.P. is based upon a French model.</p>
<p>Demonstrations have now erupted in the interior agricultural center of Beja, in Djendouba and the northern coastal city of Bizerte. According to one source, in Beja, the police station, the local offices of the ruling party (Rassemblement Constitutionnel Democratique) and a bank in which the Ben Ali/Trabelsi families are part owners were burnt to the ground today.</p>
<p>Some members of the Ben Ali/Trabelsi familes are leaving the country, in one case for Canada.</p>
<p>Tunisians living outside the country, all over the world, including in the United States are mobilizing, overwhelming in opposition to the current government.</p>
<p>Economic Considerations</p>
<p>Although the protests in Tunisia began in opposition to the country’s economic policy, they have more become political in nature, with growing calls for Zine Ben Ali, the country’s dictator-president, to step down. To date, Ben Ali refuses, hoping to crush the opposition with the country’s 180,000 strong security police. He combines fierce repression with promises of economic reform and a government jobs program.</p>
<p>Tunisians have heard these promises before. Three years ago, when a six-month long protest over unemployment and social decay in the country’s mining district around Gafsa erupted, Ben Ali pursued a similar approach - repression and the promise of jobs. Virtually no economic development followed.</p>
<p>The country’s official unemployment rate stands at 14 per cent. However youth unemployment for people between the ages of 15-24 is at least double that, and in some parts of the interior, as high as 50 per cent. Furthermore the main areas of job creation - the tourism industry, textile manufacturing targeting the European market in `free trade zones’ and what is left of Tunisia’s agricultural sector - are producing low wage jobs. And as in response to IMF/World Bank pressures, government subsidies continue to be reduced or eliminated from food and gasoline; even those with jobs find themselves having difficulty making ends meet.</p>
<p>None of the current economic problems weighing on Tunisia are new.,High unemployment (plus low wage jobs and growing unemployment for the country’s university graduates) has been plaguing the country for some time as has Ben Ali’s long standing policies of repressing dissent of any kind, in the name of course, of countering Islamic radicalism; this despite the fact that Islamic radicalism, while it exists, has less of a base in Tunisia than virtually any other Arab state.</p>
<p>The economic rut in which Tunisia finds itself is a result what has long been its strategic role in the global economy as primarily a peripheral or semi-peripheral country whose mission has been to provide cheap manufactured products - and now cheap vacations - to core countries, especially in Europe. Can the Tunisian economy evolve, break the role that it has played in the global economy since its reality was reshaped by French colonialism to meet the needs of Europeans for cheap Thibar wine? I think it can. It has the human capital to do so.</p>
<p>Other countries - among them China, S. Korea, even the Nordic countries if we spread the historical time line a little, have reconstructed themselves. Perhaps out of the ashes and pain of the current moment, fresh ideas, directions for the country’s future will emerge and the suffering the country is now enduring will not be in vein. Indeed, if Tunisians at present are appalled and saddened by the repression, people would be missing the point not to realize that this is also a moment of great hope, of transition, of the possibility of the success of reform.</p>
<p>This combination - an authoritarian political system that `supposedly’ delivers economic growth — is often referred to as `the Korean Model,’ based on the dramatic development of the South Korean economy since the 1950s from an economic backward to one of the most dynamic economies of modern times - albeit not a miracle either, but still very impressive.</p>
<p>At the heart of the Korean model is the need to keep wages low and labor union activity in check through a repressive government in order that the accumulation of capital thus resulted can be re-invested into modernizing the economy. The logic continues that once the economy is modernized, authoritarianism can be eased and democratic processes encouraged. I would argue that it `sort of’ happened in South Korea.</p>
<p>But the Tunisian economic comparison with South Korea fails on a number of key counts.</p>
<p>In Korea, there was something of a transition to democracy after 3 decades of repressive rule.</p>
<p>The South Korean economy was a highly protectionist economy that did not open itself up to foreign capital until very late in the game and even then, not that much. Its industries were protected as was its currency. Foreign investment had to follow strict criteria. Perhaps most importantly, the role of the state in the S. Korean economy, as in Japan, has always been central to the country’s economic development.</p>
<p>South Korea benefitted from its status as a front-line state in the Cold War. As with the competition between East and West Germany, there was always a political dimension to the economic competition between North and South Korea, with the former being something of a basket case, the latter one of the `Asian Tigers’. The point here is that South Korea could break the IMF-World Bank structural adjustment rules and get away with it in a way that Tunisia couldn’t and didn’t. And a large measure of its economic success comes from the fact that S. Korea did not have to follow the rules that were imposed upon Argentina, Mexico or Russia.</p>
<p>Tunisia on the other hand began opening up its economy, privatizing elements of it, opening the country to foreign investment with fewer and fewer strings already in the early 1980s and has, as a result, paid the price. The economic sectors which were modernized - textiles, mining did not produce enough domestic capital to invest in new technologies and take the country in new directions, despite its highly educated work force. Foreign investment, let loose with fewer and fewer regulations, as in Thailand, concentrated in real estate, the financial sector and tourism, none of which help development that much.</p>
<p>So Tunisia has gotten `the authoritarian’ aspect of the S. Korean model without producing the development revolution.</p>
<p>If one looks closely at Tunisian society on the eve of independence in 1956, it is rather striking. There was most definitely what is referred to today as a highly developed `civil society’ with participation of most sectors of society in the political movement that led to independence. But that civil society was first seriously weakened by the country’s first president, Habib Bourguiba who saw it as a threat to his personal power. Then it was smothered by Ben Ali - or more accurately, Ben Ali tried to snuff it out. And yet despite everything, under the surface it has continued - until it erupted once again full force after the death of Mohammed Bouazizi.</p>
<p>So why is it now that the country as a whole has been pushed over the edge if these trends have been in play for so long?</p>
<p>In the end one never knows why it is that objective social conditions erupt into revolt. More often than not they do not. But still, there are a number of factors which might explain the current unprecedented protests.</p>
<p>Income distribution has sharply polarized in the past few years. As Basel Saleh points out, the top 10 per cent of Tunisia’s economic ladder control 32 per cent of the national income. The top 20 per cent control nearly half. Tunisia’s income inequality is so severe that the bottom 60 per cent of the population control only 30 per cent of the country’s wealth, again with 40 per cent of the population taking home 70 per cent of the national income. At the same time, two families at the top, the Ben Ali’s and Trabelsi’s have come to dominate the country’s economy. One WikiLeaks cable from the U.S. embassy in Tunis suggests that the two families have their hands in and on 50 per cent of the country’s economy. As the disparity between wealth and poverty increases, the corruption of the two ruling families has come more into focus.</p>
<p>There are regional disparities too, well known in the economic literature, with the northern and coastal cities benefitting much more from Ben Ali’s economic policies than the interior and the south which have long suffered. It should not be surprising to anyone who has followed Tunisian events over the past 30 years that social unrest, protest and rebellion tend to originate in the interior and the south.</p>
<p>2009 was not a good year and Tunisia’s economy suffered despite World Bank/IMF claims that the country has weathered the global financial crises better than many places. Tourism was down as were textile exports to Europe only aggravating the already existing socio-economic crisis</p>
<p>But the straw that broke the camel’s back in this case is the growing distrust and distaste among the broader population for president Ben Ali’s wife, Leila Trabelsi and her siblings who have been scrambling to dominate whatever sectors of Tunisia’s economy they could, dominating the IMF pressured privatizations which have marked the country’s economic transition. It appears rather likely that Ben Ali was positioning his wife to ‘take over’ the country in four years when he supposedly would retire. The thought that Zine Ben Ali would turn over power to Leila Trabelsi - and that the corruption at the top would thus be blessed and institutionalized that much more only added to the seething anger about to explode.</p>
<p>However else the situation in Tunisia plays out, the likelihood that the Trabelsi family will replace Ben Ali has all but gone up in smoke. Mohammed Bouazizi, the young unemployed man whose suicide by fire started this protest movement, has inadvertently taken one of Tunisia’s richest families, the Trabelsis along with him. The first result of the Tunisian intifada is to de-legitimize that clan so that politically speaking they are dead. It was not just Mohammed Bouazizi that went up in a ball of flames but the Trabelsi family’s political future in Tunisia. Let us see what other lessons unfold.</p>
<p>Afternote: the Tunisian army has now taken control of the city of Tunis. It is not clear at this time, whether or not this is a military coup. That said, strange as it might seem, there is the sense that at the least, the army is there not only to restore order, but to protect the populace, much of which is protesting, from the security police. As for the developments in Tunisia, it seems right now that the president is being cornered, it’s do or die . Desperate “counter attacks” , although expected, won’t do him no good .?He’s tried every possible way to divert the situation, calling the uprising the work of external parties and calling the protesters a bunch of masked thugs . Then shuffled and reshuffled for no comprehensible reasons, delivers another speech with the same repressive tone and with no single word whatsoever on the heart of the matter, which is concrete plans to tackle the huge social and economical problems that had made Tunisian youth revolt against it . Rightly so, when corruption becomes a generally accepted social phenomenon, whereby two families are in control of fifty percent of the country’s wealth .</p>
<p>However, the army seems to have chosen the People’s side. Yet, the regime will not give up finding all means to buy time and to grab for dear life, because the rope is loosening up and is about to snap.</p>
<p>ROB PRINCE lectures in International Studies at the University of Denver. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p /> | The Tunisian Intifada | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/01/13/the-tunisian-intifada/ | 2011-01-13 | 4 |
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<p>The New Mexico Guardianship Association is dedicated to its mission to ensure the highest standards of ethics and practice to serve and protect the best interest of those to whom they provide service. In furtherance of its mission, NMGA has initiated programs to assist family and professional guardians, including the annual guardianship symposium, family guardian round table, sponsoring the guardianship lunch discussion group, writing and updating the Alternatives to Guardianship &amp; Conservatorship, and Handbook for Guardians and Conservators, producing the guardianship and conservatorship training video that is employed widely by the district courts, supporting certification for professional guardians and conservators, and involvement in the guardianship task force. Also in furtherance of our mission, we advocate and contribute to the development of effective regulation and legislation for the benefit of those receiving services.</p>
<p>Our association’s long history of involvement and commitment to the improvement of guardianship in New Mexico makes clear that our support for certain proposals is not in reaction to your stories, which we believe to be slanted, biased and inaccurate. We always work on ideas to improve the guardianship and have a constant dialogue about ways to improve. With this in mind, we have been working on some provisions for years, not because of your inaccurate stories, but because it ensures good practices going forward.</p>
<p>We have, for example, supported licensure and certification for professional guardians and conservators. However, licensure would require a significant investment by the state in a new commission and layers of bureaucracy that New Mexico cannot afford.</p>
<p>The National Guardianship Association has a certification process that 11 states already use and which would not require any outlay of state funds. While many professional guardians are certified, we support having all professional guardians be certified to ensure ethical and practice standards are being met.</p>
<p>NMGA without question supports accountability and monitoring of guardians and conservators. NMGA advocated for the funding of a pilot project designed to lay the groundwork for a monitoring program in the Second Judicial District Court. This project was struck by a line-item veto due to its cost.</p>
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<p>We closely monitor the development of legislation. One aspect of the profession that Diane Dimond refused to acknowledge, however, is that the Uniform Law Commission has been working for two years on sweeping revisions to the Uniform Probate Code. We have reviewed the proposed legislation and submitted comments to the Uniform Law Commission. The proposed legislation will likely be finalized in summer 2017.</p>
<p>Consequently, we have been waiting on the commission to make its national recommendations for all states before pushing for any changes to the system here to avoid inconsistency, and the waste of legislative and judicial resources.</p>
<p>All of us have actively promoted increased protection for elders for many years to the collective tune of thousands of volunteer hours. Guardians, conservators, lawyers and others work very hard and know that every system can be improved. And, like most professional associations, we all work hard to make sure that the systems in place can be as good as they can.</p>
<p>It should be noted that family guardians are entitled to compensation for their services, also. We are entirely in support of disclosure of fees and the manner in which they are arrived at.</p>
<p /> | New Mexico Guardianship Association committed to improving the system in New Mexico | false | https://abqjournal.com/911298/improving-guardians-is-the-goal.html | 2 |
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<p>BANGKOK (Reuters) – Roadside bombs planted by suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand killed one soldier on Thursday and wounded 20 other people, most of them soldiers and police, security forces said.</p>
<p>The blasts occurred in Yala, one of the predominantly ethnic, Malay Muslim provinces in the deep south where a separatist insurgency has dragged on for decades, with more than 6,500 people killed since 2004 alone.</p>
<p>The first bomb did not result in any casualties, but the other two killed one soldier and wounded 18 soldiers and police and two villagers.</p>
<p>“It is believed to be the work of violent groups already creating incidents in the area,” Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for regional security forces, told Reuters.</p>
<p>As with most violence in Thailand’s deep south, there was no claim of responsibility.</p>
<p>The insurgents are fighting for secession from mostly Buddhist Thailand. Until they were annexed in 1909, Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat were part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Roadside bombs wound 20, kill soldier in Thailand's troubled south | false | https://newsline.com/roadside-bombs-wound-20-kill-soldier-in-thailand039s-troubled-south/ | 2017-09-14 | 1 |
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<p>DHF Technical Products is buying the 20,900-square-foot building at 545 Vortex, near Northern and N.M. 528, formerly occupied by Xynatech and will start up operations "as soon as possible," company President Dan Castilleja told officials gathered at a news conference in Rio Rancho on Thursday.</p>
<p>Castilleja, who has had a home in New Mexico for many years, said California's high taxes and extensive regulations persuaded him to move the business elsewhere.</p>
<p>The company will receive $200,000 in Local Economic Development Act funding from the state Economic Development Department toward the cost of building improvements, and $173,412 in Job Training Incentive Program funds for on-the-job training, Gov. Susana Martinez told elected officials and staffers from Rio Rancho and Sandoval County, and board members of the Rio Rancho Economic Development Corp.</p>
<p>DHF melts and processes precious metals for the jewelry, medical device, semiconductor and automotive industries, selling to customers worldwide including 3M.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Martinez said the company will create 35 jobs immediately expanding to 50 within three to five years. Jobs include manufacturing, inventory control, laboratory technicians and quality control, that pay annual salaries of up to $50,000.</p>
<p>"This company has tremendous expansion capacity," Mayor Tom Swisstack told the Journal.</p>
<p>RREDC President Noreen Scott said she and state Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela have been working with Castilleja for nearly two years, with help from Sandoval County and Rio Rancho.</p> | Calif. manufacturer relocates to Rio Rancho | false | https://abqjournal.com/352477/calif-manufacturer-relocates-to-rio-rancho.html | 2014-02-13 | 2 |
<p>The private collection of famous artworks at Zurich's E.G. Buehrle Collection was downsized over the weekend, and not at the proprietors' behest. On Sunday, three disguised and armed robbers stole over $160 million worth of artwork by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and other masters from the Swiss museum.</p>
<p>AP via Breitbart.com:</p>
<p>Zurich police said the robbery took place Sunday. Also among the works stolen were oil paintings by Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas.</p>
<p>Police called the heist a "spectacular art robbery," but did not identify the museum, saying only that it is in the city's eighth district.</p>
<p />
<p>The prosperous and peaceful outer district on the eastern shore of Lake Zurich is home to several notable art collections.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UO512G0&amp;show_article=1" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Art Thieves Pull Off Major Heist in Zurich | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/art-thieves-pull-off-major-heist-in-zurich/ | 2008-02-12 | 4 |
<p>In the name “Peoples’ Democratic Party” (HDP), the word “peoples” (halklar) is plural, insisting on ethnic pluralism. The party just won 13 percent of the votes in Turkey’s parliamentary election, thereby denying an absolute majority to the <a href="" type="internal">ruling center-right Justice and Development Party</a> (AKP). It made waves in socially conservative Turkey by championing gay rights, women’s rights, leftist causes like labor and a “normalization” of the Turkish majority’s relationship with the 20 percent of the population that is Kurdish. The party has female and male co-leaders, Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas. Among its primary goals, now achieved, was ensuring that President Tayyip Erdogan’s party, the AKP, could not change the Constitution and impose a presidential system on the country.</p>
<p>Demirtas <a href="http://www.turkishweekly.net/2015/06/11/news/hdp-opposition-to-erdogan-presidency-plan-not-personal/" type="external">insisted</a> that his opposition to a presidential system was a matter of principle (parliamentary systems are typically more pluralist) and did not derive from any grudge match with Erdogan. But his disdain for the latter’s politics of the religious right comes across in an <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hdp-not-to-return-ethnic-politics-after-polls-demirtas-.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=83252&amp;NewsCatID=338" type="external">interview</a> at the beginning of this month with Hurriyet (its English outlet is the Hurriyet Daily News). He slammed Erdogan for his criticism of the HDP for putting up an openly LGBT candidate, Baris Sulu, as a candidate. The president, Demirtas complained, “speaks this way because he wants to humiliate them. Homosexuals would pass the 10 percent threshold even more comfortably than us if they would form a political party. His humiliation of people for their sexual orientation was very ugly.” He also went after Erdogan for his increasingly theocratic diction, saying he appeared to want to revive the Ottoman Empire, with himself as a latter-day “caliph.”</p>
<p>READ: <a href="" type="internal">Iraq’s Horrors by the Numbers: Has Islamic State Killed 50,000 People in One Year?</a></p>
<p>Even more vehement about Erdogan has been HDP co-chair Yuksekdag, who took strong exception to Erdogan’s pronouncement last November that “You cannot bring women and men into equal positions; that is against nature because their nature is different.” She <a href="http://www.turkishweekly.net/2014/11/26/news/erdogan-s-remarks-on-gender-equality-stir-fury/" type="external">observed acidly</a>, “In the 21st century, one mentality says, ‘Women and men are not equal, this is against their nature.’ The other sells women at slave bazaars.” She was implicitly (and somewhat unfairly) comparing the president with Islamic State. But the HDP women’s platform stands not just for middle-class feminists but for women in the workforce, <a href="http://www.diclehaber.com/en/news/content/view/454051?from=2955837028" type="external">advocating new rights to organize labor unions</a>. Turkey’s workers have long been repressed, and union membership has plummeted in the years of center-right Justice and Development dominance. HDP wants to turn that situation around, for both male and female workers.</p>
<p />
<p>Late in the campaign for the June 7 elections, HDP women at an Erdogan rally literally turned their backs on him. He addressed them from his dais, saying, “It is very interesting that a group here … I beg your pardon but my decency does not permit me to put it another way … turned their backs on me while making the victory sign.” His critics accused him of appearing to resort to a sexual innuendo implying that they liked it from behind. Secular and leftist women, including Yuksekdag, launched a campaign on social media in which hundreds of thousands of women put up <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2015/06/election-leftist-campaign.html" type="external">pictures of themselves with their backs turned.</a></p>
<p>HDP appears to have attracted some voters from the secular Republican People’s Party, representing the old urban elite that ran the country in the 20th century. But it also benefited from its pro-Kurdish stance among conservative, religious Kurds, who used to vote for Erdogan’s AKP. This ability to pull together a varied coalition, including women and youth, caused its campaign to be compared with that of Barack Obama in 2008. Many youths had been alienated from Erdogan by his party’s harsh crackdown on protesters attempting to save Gezi Park from development in the summer of 2013.</p>
<p>The HDP has its origins in left-wing Kurdish politics, but co-chair Demirtas made the astute move to have the party also represent ethnic Turks, both women and men, of a secular or leftist mindset who were upset with Erdogan’s increasingly strident Muslim nationalism. In an <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hdp-not-to-return-ethnic-politics-after-polls-demirtas-.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=83252&amp;NewsCatID=338" type="external">interview</a>, Demirtas pledged that his party would not turn to ethnic-based politics if it won but intead would continue with its pluralist politics of inclusion. “If we give up of this rhetoric after the elections,” he said, “it’s the HDP who will be the main loser. We will not fall behind the bar we raised.” More and more ethnic Turks were coming to HDP rallies in the months before the elections, waving Turkish flags. Demirtas is proud of this accomplishment, observing, “We have created a basis for Kurds and Turks to communalize the Kurdish issue and to resolve it through democratic means.”</p>
<p>About 20 percent of Turkish citizens are ethnic Kurds, and they predominate in the poor, hardscrabble southeast of the country. Millions, however, have migrated as laborers to work in light textile and other industries in the prosperous cities of Turkey’s west. Turkish is a Central Asian language, whereas Kurdish is Indo-European; but all Turkish Kurds have had their education in Turkish and are fluent in it. Opinion polling suggests that most Turkish Kurds favor <a href="http://www.aciktoplumvakfi.org.tr/pdf/reconciliation_process_perception_survey_summary.pdf" type="external">a peace process</a> integrating them into Turkey. In the 1980s and until about 2003, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waged a guerrilla struggle against the Turkish state, to which the military replied with a dirty war. Some 30,000 are thought to have died in this violent confrontation. The PKK says it has moved away from its initial Marxism and separatism, proposing a left-libertarian confederalism; and its leaders, based in Qandil in Iraq, <a href="http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/dunya/289617/Kandil_den_korkutan_iddia__Erdogan_savasa_surukluyor.html#" type="external">say they approve</a> of the HDP’s attempt to enter ordinary Turkish politics.</p>
<p>The rise of the HDP heralds a revival of the Turkish left, which fell on hard times after the 1980 military coup that went after activists and unions, after 30 years. About 17 percent of the new parliament will be women, an unprecedentedly high proportion, and Armenians and a member of the small Yazidi religious minority were elected on the HDP ticket. The party’s explicitly pluralist message and its championing of disadvantaged groups open a space in public discourse in which issues that had long been swept under the rug can be discussed in public. Even Turkey’s press, which had in recent years been intimidated by Erdogan’s authoritarianism, is openly publishing on HDP issues.</p> | The Rise of a New Left in Turkey? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-rise-of-a-new-left-in-turkey/ | 2015-06-13 | 4 |
<p>I'll put the photo below the "read more" because of its graphic nature, but you might remember the discovery of bodies in a Syrian canal back in January. The Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/mar/11/syria-bodies-river-aleppo-massacre?CMP=twt_gu" type="external">attempts</a> to piece together how this massacre came to fruition:</p>
<p>There are no women on the grisly slideshow of dead men that is replayed in melancholy slow motion every time a relative arrives. Nor are there more than a handful of males aged over 30. Most of the dead dragged from Aleppo's Queiq River were men of working age.</p>
<p>Another thread strongly unites the fate of the river massacre victims; each of them had either been in the west of the city, or had been trying to get there. They had to pass though checkpoints run by the Syrian army, or their proxy militia, the Shabiha. The process involved handing over identification papers that detailed in which area of the city the holder of the papers lived.</p>
<p>In mid-February, the Guardian interviewed 11 family members of massacre victims in the Bustan al-Qasr area, who all confirmed that their dead relatives had vanished in regime areas, or had been trying to reach them. Two other men who had been arrested at regime checkpoints and later freed were also interviewed. Both alleged that mass killings had taken place in the security prisons in which they had been held. They identified the prisons as Air Force intelligence and Military Security - two of the most infamous state security facilities in Syria.</p>
<p>"If they took you to the park, you were finished," said one of the men, who had been freed in mid-January. "We all knew that. It is a miracle that I am standing here talking to you."</p> | The Story Behind this Graphic Syrian Photo | true | https://thedailybeast.com/the-story-behind-this-graphic-syrian-photo | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
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<p>Yesterday I was cruising the grocery store aisles for sugar for my morning coffee-fix. From about 20 feet away, I immediately noticed something – the packaging on my familiar brand had undergone a major overhaul. It was bolder, clearer and also included some laughable verbiage regarding 15 calories per serving (come on, we’re talking about sugar here).The point is, the fundamental virtues of the product had not changed at all.&#160; The only thing that had, however, was the presentation.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In the world of small business marketing and advertising, entrepreneurs are in a constant fight for visibility. If you are one of them, you may feel compelled to triple your marketing budget or maybe do something drastic like revamp your entire product line to attach more customers. Before you go through such measures to heighten your visibility you may want to take a candid look at the presentation of your existing product and/or services.</p>
<p>I recently heard about a published book that sat on bookstore shelves with virtually no movement. Despite the herculean effort to write the book, the author inevitably began to feel as though the book was a dud and began to second guess the book’s premise. Before the book was abandoned, it fell into the hands of a dynamic marketer. This creative thinker implored the author to re-release an unrevised version of the book. The marketing strategist did, however, demand that the title and the cover be changed. As a result, this piece of literature skyrocketed to success on account of, your guessed it – presentation.</p>
<p>With that story as our backdrop, take a moment to see if the following points can inspire new ideas for your presentation:</p>
<p>Name ChangeKnow that a descriptive, colorful name change has the ability to shift how consumers think about things. Imagine walking into a bakery to order a pie. Which of the two would sound more appealing: Apple Pie or something like, Orchard Fresh Apple Pie? A name augmentation alone has the ability to raise your product’s standing in the mind of the consumer.Highlighting Features and BenefitsI recall buying allergy medication for my son.&#160; His doctor clearly stated that the store brands were just as effective as the name brands.&#160; However, when I picked up both packages, it appeared that the name brands were better. Why? Their packaging used phrases such as “maximum relief” whereas the store brand did not. In reality, the ingredients and the potency were identical. Hence the name brand wasn’t better; they simply had a superior way of detailing their benefits. Be just as shrewd. Though you should never overstate things; don’t be found guilty of doing the opposite.</p>
<p>AestheticsAbout a year ago I began to hear the word, “optics” in political discourse.&#160; Translation: how does a certain thing look or appear? This is a key question that you must answer as a small business owner.&#160; How does your website look? Is your product packaging uninspired and listless? Are your employees and store’s appearance unkempt and disheveled? Aesthetics are the very first step in either repelling or attracting customers.</p>
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<p>Walter Dailey is a proven creative strategist. He’s the lead consultant and executive producer for <a href="http://www.dsvmedia.com" type="external">Dailey Sound Vector Opens a New Window.</a>, a creative services organization that specializes in <a href="http://www.dsvmedia.com/jingles/" type="external">jingles Opens a New Window.</a>, <a href="http://www.dsvmedia.com/radio-ads/" type="external">radio ads Opens a New Window.</a> and <a href="http://www.dsvmedia.com/music-licensing" type="external">music licensing Opens a New Window.</a> for small and mid-sized businesses.&#160; Walter is finally on Twitter. Follow him here: <a href="https://twitter.com/wrdailey" type="external">@wrdailey Opens a New Window.</a></p> | The Art of Presentation | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/11/01/art-presentation.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>In different circumstances, it would have been funny to see the police outnumbering the direct action protesters, or the comically attired “undercover” agents who were a bit too well built to credibly seem part of the ranks of the slight direct action protesters — many of whom are vegans.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t funny.</p>
<p>Not when the police — responding to the smallest provocations, such as a couple small fires lit in trashcans — went berserk and attacked large crowds of protesters. Not when credible reports say some of those undercover agents may have been provocateurs, and when several of them emerged as some of the most brutal in attacking protesters.</p>
<p>There is immediate need now to support those who were jailed and mistreated, and force the city to drop trumped up charges against protesters.</p>
<p>You can help by sending a fax to Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz protesting the violation of constitutional rights. Public Citizen has established a free fax site at:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=245&amp;source=19" type="external">http://www.citizen.org/</a></p>
<p>Those who are facing charges will need legal help. You can donate to support them by going to:</p>
<p><a href="http://stopftaa.org/article.php?list=type&amp;type=42" type="external">http://stopftaa.org/</a></p>
<p>or to</p>
<p><a href="http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ftaadonate" type="external">http://www.unitedforpeace.org</a></p>
<p>Activists, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil liberties standard bearers must do all they can and will do to oppose the rising repression evidenced in Miami. But that’s not enough.</p>
<p>There will, undoubtedly, be civil lawsuits down the road, and, if there is any justice, they will succeed. But that’s not enough, either. As important as such litigation is, it is clear from recent crackdown on protests around the United States that police forces are willing to absorb the costs of these suits.</p>
<p>The present cycle is that the media and political establishment applaud the police for running scare campaigns, militarizing cities, directing violence against protesters and blatantly violating civil liberties. Often, as details emerge, criticism emerges from those same pillars of society.</p>
<p>This must change. The establishment must speak out now, immediately after the abuses occurred. They are apparent to anyone who cares to know about them.</p>
<p>In the future, the establishment — we mean newspaper editors, political leaders of all parties, lawyers, even corporate executives — must insist on appropriate police tactics in advance of large-scale protests, and they must make clear that regular police and top officers alike will be held personally accountable for abuses. If they fail to pursue this course, the consequences for the right to protest will be grim indeed.</p>
<p>Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based <a href="http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/" type="external">Corporate Crime Reporter</a>. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based <a href="http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/" type="external">Multinational Monitor</a>, and co-director of Essential Action, a corporate accountability group. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; <a href="http://www.corporatepredators.org/" type="external">http://www.corporatepredators.org</a>).</p>
<p>(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Militarization in Miami | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/11/26/militarization-in-miami/ | 2003-11-26 | 4 |
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<p>You won't catch me joining the dirge for desktops; I think desktop PCs (and sleek all-in-one models, in particular) are still solid choices for any home office where portability isn't an issue. Chances are, however, that sometimes you need a powerful notebook to work on-the-go.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Maybe you need to work on-site at a client's office, or want to get out of the house for a few hours and work in a coffee shop. Maybe you work at home only part time, shuttling between a home office and headquarters. Or maybe you'd simply like to tuck your PC in a drawer, clearing desk space in the spare bedroom. In other words, you're a prime candidate for a laptop. And today, you've never had so many bargains from which&#160;to choose—or so much homework to do before you buy.</p>
<p>I've written about big <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article/343386/finding-a-home-office-desktop-replacement" type="external">desktop replacement</a> notebooks—systems with 15.6- or 17.3-inch screens measured diagonally. So this article will briefly recap some of that buying information while also looking at other sizes and types. We'll go over a host of buying factors you should consider when buying a laptop for your home office. But the three key considerations are:</p>
<p>1. Your Budget</p>
<p>2. Tablet Functionality</p>
<p>3. Screen Size</p>
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<p>Workhorse Portables,&#160;Detachables, and ConvertiblesAs far as your&#160;budget is concerned, you can divide laptops roughly into classes on either side of the $500 line. Below the $500&#160;line, you'll find <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/49520/portable" type="external">workhorse portables</a>, typically with 15.6-inch screens, Intel Pentium or Celeron processors, and adequate memory and storage (say, 4 GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive). Not as thin and light as more upscale notebooks, they're nonetheless fine for doing school homework, or for&#160;workplace productivity and office apps. Above the $500 line, you can get some of the premium features discussed below.</p>
<p>As for tablet functionality, I'm <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article/343561/home-office-face-off-mac-vs-pc" type="external">on record</a> stating that a tablet is not essential home office hardware. So I won't dwell too long on so-called 2-in-1s or laptops that can convert into tablets except to note that they fall into two groups: <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/66961/detachable" type="external">detachables</a> and convertibles. Detachables jettison their keyboards so you can use their touch screens as tablets; they range from inexpensive compacts such as the 10-inch <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495295,00.asp" type="external">Asus Transformer Book T100HA</a> <a type="external" href="" /> to deluxe slates such as the 13.5-inch <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2493459,00.asp" type="external">Microsoft Surface Book</a> <a type="external" href="" />.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/63844/convertible-laptop" type="external">Convertible laptops</a>, by contrast, have pivoting keyboards that&#160;allow&#160;them to&#160;flip and fold between laptop, tablet, and easel-style stand or presentation modes. Pioneered by Lenovo's Yoga series (the <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2493381,00.asp" type="external">Yoga 900</a> <a type="external" href="" /> is a high-class favorite), the design's been copied by almost every laptop manufacturer except Apple, usually in screen sizes between 13.3 and 15.6 inches (the latter of which is way too heavy to consider using as a tablet anywhere except on your lap).</p>
<p>That brings us to your third consideration: screen size. Generally speaking, 15.6 inches is the smallest size that you can use without being tempted to allocate desk space for an external monitor (and, at 17.3 inches, you won't miss a plug-in monitor at all).</p>
<p>Smaller sizes start at approximately&#160;10 inches and climb from there. A diagonal measurement of 11.6 inches, made popular by the smaller of Apple's two <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2458148,00.asp" type="external">MacBook Air</a> <a type="external" href="" /> models, gets you a handy notetaker and traveling companion. Lenovo's <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2488290,00.asp" type="external">ThinkPad X250</a> <a type="external" href="" /> and new X260 come from a long line of successful 12.5-inch business <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/60775/ultraportable" type="external">ultraportable notebook computers</a>.</p>
<p>At 13.3 and 14 inches, respectively, you're looking at many shoppers' sweet spot: laptops small and light enough for easy travel yet large enough to use without eyestrain for hours at a time (until you can get back to your home office and connect a monitor). Of course, eyestrain is a matter of both screen size and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/50470/resolution" type="external">resolution</a>; the 11.6-inch MacBook Air is legible because it stops at 1,366 by 768 pixels, while the <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/review/343823/dell-xps-13-touch-2016-gold-edition" type="external">Dell XPS 13</a> <a type="external" href="" /> gives you a choice of readable 1,920 by 1,080 or slightly-squinty-but-dazzlingly-sharp 3,200 by 1,800 resolution.</p>
<p>For over-$500 laptops, you should do your eyes a favor and look for an <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/63296/ips-panel" type="external">in-plane switching</a>&#160;(IPS) screen. The technology offers higher contrast and wider viewing angles than ordinary <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/45973/lcd" type="external">LCD</a> screens.</p>
<p>Don't Sleep on SpecsThe fourth item on your shopping checklist is hard to evaluate when buying online rather than in an electronics store: the laptop's <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/45785/keyboard" type="external">keyboard</a> feel and layout. Sure, you can plug in a full-size USB or wireless keyboard when at home, but you also want to be comfortable typing at Starbucks, or a client's or colleague's place.</p>
<p>Look to see whether important keys&#160;such as&#160;Esc, Backspace, and Right Shift are sufficiently large or relatively tiny. Is the Delete key in the top right-hand corner where you expect to find it? Give out bonus points for desktop-style, inverted-T cursor arrows (I have a grudge against HP laptops for sandwiching half-sized Up and Down arrows between full-size Left and Right), and dedicated Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys as opposed to combinations of cursor arrows and an Fn key.</p>
<p>Next comes something you might have thought would rate higher: <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/40436/cpu" type="external">CPUs</a>. There really aren't many horribly slow CPUs these days. Intel Atom processors are alright for 10-inch detachables; Pentium and Celeron and AMD chips are fine for everyday productivity work, as is Intel's battery-sipping Core M.</p>
<p>Intel's Core i3 and Core i5 processors hold the sweet spot for office apps plus some multimedia work, while the Core i7 appeals to speed-hungry image and video editors (not to mention gamers). Speaking of <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2020688,00.asp" type="external">gaming laptops</a>, the integrated graphics built into a majority of modern CPUs are perfectly adequate for home office apps, but after-5pm, gamers will want to pursue faster <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/62530/dedicated-graphics-card" type="external">dedicated graphics</a>.</p>
<p>As for <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/46756/memory" type="external">memory</a>, look for at least 4 GB and preferably 8 GB or 16 GB; <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2488631,00.asp" type="external">Microsoft Windows</a> will thank you. Over-$500 laptops should offer speedy flash or <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/56084/solid-state-drive" type="external">solid-state drive</a> (SSD) storage instead of (or in addition to) a hard drive. Even if it's a&#160;smaller amount (say, a 256GB SSD versus a 500GB hard drive), the extra performance will make it worthwhile.</p>
<p>Finally, look for a suitable array of <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/49502/port" type="external">ports</a> including two or three <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/58695/usb-3-0" type="external">USB 3.0</a> ones for storage and other peripherals, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/44161/hdmi" type="external">HDMI</a> and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/59795/displayport" type="external">DisplayPort</a> for plugging in a monitor, and an <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/50962/sd-card" type="external">SD card</a> slot. Extra points for a <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/63175/thunderbolt" type="external">Thunderbolt 3</a>/ <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/67537/usb-type-c" type="external">USB-C</a> port, with its sky-high bandwidth and convenient, reversible mini-connector. Extra points, too, for a feature that's rapidly disappearing: a user-removable or swappable <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/38470/battery" type="external">battery</a> that lets you snap in a spare when one runs out of juice on the road.</p>
<p>Today's laptops make more sense and fewer compromises than ever. I hope these shopping tips help you find a notebook that will satisfy your home office computing needs for years to come.</p>
<p>Is your laptop merely a docking station for your desktop monitor, keyboard, and mouse? Have you gone the 2-in-1 route with a flexible convertible laptop? Know any good battery-saving tricks? Let me know in the comments or at [email protected].</p>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article/344469/the-home-office-laptop-buying-guide" type="external">originally appeared</a> on <a href="http://www.pcmag.com" type="external">PCMag.com</a>.</p> | The Home Office Laptop Buying Guide | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/05/19/home-office-laptop-buying-guide.html | 2016-05-19 | 0 |
<p>New Australian research has found that exercise could help us remember information, adding to the growing body of evidence that working out could be a useful tool for learning.</p>
<p>Carried out by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), the team recruited 265 participants across four experiments and asked them to perform either five minutes of low-impact step aerobics after learning or no exercise after learning.</p>
<p>In three out of four of the experiments, the participants learned which male names paired with male faces. The participants were then tested on what they had been shown and were asked to try and remember which name paired with which face.</p>
<p>Although the strength of the effect of exercise varied between experiments, the team found that the women who did step exercise after learning remembered the material better than those who did no exercise.</p>
<p>However, the study’s first author Dr. Steven Most was surprised to find that the exercise only affected the learning of the female participants.</p>
<p>“Mysteriously, this effect did not emerge among men in any of the experiments,” commented Dr. Most, “It’s unclear whether this is a true sex difference or whether there was something about the experiment conditions that allowed the effect to emerge among women and not men.”</p>
<p>Dr Most added that results might have been different if more of the faces shown to the participants were women’s.</p>
<p>The findings suggest that schools, and potentially even nursing homes for seniors, could use exercise to boost memory and recalling information, with Dr Most commenting that, “The effect came into play only after participants had studied the material, meaning that it retroactively boosted learning of the material.”</p>
<p>“Some schools are under pressure to cut back on recess in order to increase time in the classroom, but it may be that encouraging&#160;physical activity&#160;breaks at several points during the day can actually help with the retention of classroom learning.”</p>
<p>However as the mean age of the&#160;participants&#160;was 20 years Dr. Most says at the moment the results cannot be generalized to other populations such as school students or the elderly, adding that, “More research needs to be conducted to conclude that with certainty. There is also scope for further study to understand how much&#160;exercise&#160;is optimal, how long before or after learning is most effective, and who benefits most.”</p>
<p>The findings can be found published online in the journal&#160;Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications.</p> | Can a Workout Help Boost Learning? | false | https://newsline.com/can-a-workout-help-boost-learning/ | 2017-08-28 | 1 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Sonus Networks (NASDAQ: SONS) fell 25.6% in October 2016, <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/CIQDotNet/Login.aspx" type="external">according to data from S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>. One glance at the chart below will clue you in on what happened: The cloud-based voice networking specialist paired a solid third-quarter report with downright depressing guidance for the next reporting period.</p>
<p>In the third quarter, Sonus' sales declined 4.3% year over year to $65 million. Adjusted earnings per share increased from $0.11 to $0.12. These figures were at or above Wall Street's average estimates.</p>
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<p>But management's earnings guidance for the fourth quarter stopped at roughly $0.10 per share, far below the Street's then-prevailing $0.16 forecast. Analyst firms have since adjusted their expectations, and now predict that Sonus will underperform its own guidance targets, with fourth-quarter earnings near $0.06 per share.</p>
<p>And when it comes to revenue guidance, management's former full-year targets had implied something like $76 million in fourth-quarter sales. Instead, Sonus now expects just $66 million in top-line collections for the next quarter.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/SONS" type="external">SONS Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The timid revenue targets rested on several customers delaying their expected voice system upgrades while other installations are running behind schedule. Sure, sales can be lumpy for a small-cap company with just $261 million in trailing sales, but a sudden 13% guidance reduction takes lumpiness to the next level.</p>
<p>Following that beat-and-lower performance, Sonus shares plunged 24.6% lower over the next three trading days. All told, the stock has taken a 17% haircut over the last 52 weeks. Mr. Market is not showing much confidence in this company's ability to execute on its promises these days.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Sonus Networks When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=c5b7c4f6-6932-4af1-8ab5-0e8f86158015&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ten best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Sonus Networks wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=c5b7c4f6-6932-4af1-8ab5-0e8f86158015&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFZahrim/info.aspx" type="external">Anders Bylund Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Sonus Networks, Inc. Fell 25.6% in October | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/09/how-sonus-networks-inc-fell-256-in-october.html | 2016-11-09 | 0 |
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<p>John McCain railed against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the campaign trail today, saying that the CEOs that led the lenders to ruin <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2008/09/john-mccain-tod.html" type="external">“deserve nothing”</a> and should have to pay back their severance packages. In an <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB122091995349512749.html" type="external">Wall Street Journal op-ed</a> co-bylined by his vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, McCain suggested bold reforms for Fannie and Freddie that would “terminate future lobbying, which was one of the primary contributors to this great debacle.”</p>
<p>If that’s the case, McCain should look first to his campaign staffers as the cause of that debacle. One of them was Fannie Mae’s head of lobbying, and spread tens of millions of dollars around Washington in the form of lobbying contracts. A number of McCain staffers were on the receiving end of those contracts, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each from the lenders to rep their interests. And McCain’s campaign manager served as president of a lobbying association that fought to protect Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from the sort of regulation that McCain is now proposing.</p>
<p>In McCain’s op-ed in the Journal, he and Palin wrote:</p>
<p>For years, Congress failed to act and it is deeply troubling that what we are seeing is an exercise in crisis management rather than sound planning, and at great cost to taxpayers.</p>
<p>We promise the American people that our administration will be different. We have long records of standing up to special interests…</p>
<p>But McCain’s own campaign staffers are those special interests, a fact that casts doubt on both McCain’s hiring judgment and his ability to pursue tough reforms of Fannie and Freddie.</p>
<p>Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a <a href="http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:aNG0U0R_2wsJ:www.vote-john-mccain-2008.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/268a0478-50ce-4cb2-8a27-9c74c8fcc8a4.htm+aquiles+suarez+economic+advisoer+john+mccain&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;cd=7&amp;gl=us&amp;client=firefox-a" type="external">July 2007 McCain press release</a>, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant’s $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.</p>
<p>And other current McCain campaign staffers were the lobbyists receiving shares of that money. According to the <a href="http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=choosefields" type="external">Senate Lobbying Database</a>, the lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain’s top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004. The McCain campaign’s vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac. Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O’Melveny &amp; Myers LLP. In addition, <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11781.html" type="external">Politico</a> reports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years.</p>
<p>For years McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was head of the Homeownership Alliance, a lobbying association that included Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, real estate agents, homebuilders, and non-profits. According to Politico, the organization opposed congressional attempts at regulation of Fannie and Freddie, along the lines of what John McCain is currently proposing. In his capacity of president of the group, Davis went on record in 2003 and insisted that no further reform of the lenders was necessary, in contradiction to his current boss’s sentiments. “[Fannie and Freddie] are subject to an innovative and stringent risk-based capital stress test,” Davis wrote. “The toughest in the financial services industry.”</p>
<p>At a campaign rally Wednesday morning in Fairfax, Virginia, John McCain said that the heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ought to give back the millions of dollars they’ve earned. What about the lobbyists who helped Fannie and Freddie game the system? Maybe McCain can ask them — at the next campaign strategy meeting.</p>
<p>Photo by flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soggydan/2252112316/" type="external">soggydan</a> used under a <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org" type="external">Creative Commons</a> license.</p>
<p /> | McCain’s Fannie and Freddie Connections | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/mccains-fannie-and-freddie-connections/ | 2008-09-10 | 4 |
<p>We all love to support our local mom and pop businesses. After all, Mom and Pop have dedicated their lives to work, customers, and employees. But did you ever stop to think about how they let down their hair?</p>
<p>Say no more. Small business <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2458748,00.asp" type="external">accounting software Opens a New Window.</a> firm <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2484160,00.asp" type="external">Xero Opens a New Window.</a> surveyed 551 business owners at companies with 20 employees or fewer to find out when, how, and why they party, and whether or not technology plays a role in how they vacation.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Fortunately, for the sake of the survey's integrity and the sanity of those surveyed by Xero <a type="external" href="" />, only 2 percent of respondents said vacationing has no benefit at all. That's likely because only 58 percent of respondents claim to work more than 40 hours per week, compared to the slacker segment of respondents (38 percent) who work fewer than 40 hours per week. God bless 'em.</p>
<p>This is in line with the average American worker who works about 45 hours per week, according to data from <a href="https://www.bls.gov/charts/american-time-use/emp-by-ftpt-job-edu-h.htm" type="external">The Bureau of Labor Statistics Opens a New Window.</a>. However, among the small business owner segment, 4 percent went so far as to claim that they work so many hours per week that no tangible schedule exists. Just remember, Small Business Martyrs, working 55 hours or more per week increases your risk of a stroke by 33 percent, according to data released by medical journal, <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwip18bql__VAhXJzIMKHSNzCoIQFggmMAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelancet.com%2F&amp;usg=AFQjCNHv6pD1aWfao2mIX5K-9M-qtwzg3w" type="external">The Lancet Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Even with pretty standard schedules of around 40 hours per week, 77 percent of small business owners feel burned out by work, at least sometimes, compared to only 23 percent who say they never feel burned out by work (there's probably some overlap between the "less than 40 hours per week" crowd and the "never feel burned out crowd," I bet). Survey respondents feel burnout in different ways: 72 percent report a lack of energy, 61 percent said they don't get enough time with friends and family, and 51 percent said they are disillusioned and losing motivation.</p>
<p>Of course, burnout is a symptom of the beholder. Ninety-three percent of millennials (people aged 18 to 34), 84 percent of generation X members (people aged 35-50), and 59 percent of baby boomers (people older than 50) report feeling burned out by work in the last 12 months. This is yet another totally valid reason to clobber millennials on Twitter (according to this almost 35-year-old).</p>
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<p>For respondents who feel burnout, I recommend reading the following section, hitting up a local wine shop, and bookmarking Expedia on your web browser.</p>
<p>Despite the constant fatigue and disillusionment felt by their peers, 12 percent of respondents took no vacation at all over the past 12 months (there are Mom and Pop Legionnaires, apparently). Luckily for Señor Frog's, Sandals, and whichever company makes those snuggly little neck pillows, 32 percent of respondents took at least three weeks of vacation during the past year.</p>
<p>However, becoming a small business owner hampers one's social life to at least some degree; 51 percent take less vacation than they did prior to becoming a small business owner.</p>
<p>This runs contrary to the general population of American workers, who use 16.8 vacation days per year, a trend that has climbed in recent years (although still a long ways off from 1976-2000 when the average American took about 20 vacation days per year, according to <a href="https://www.projecttimeoff.com/sites/default/files/StateofAmericanVacation2017.pdf" type="external">Project Time Off Opens a New Window.</a>).</p>
<p>Despite an increasing number of days used, Americans still leave about 54 percent of vacation days unused (probably, like 99.999 percent of which can be attributed to small business owners); 206 million of those days were forfeited in 2016 to the tune of $66 billion in lost benefits. Give me like 0.00001 percent of that unused time, and I'll be motivated and "illusioned" until Christmas.</p>
<p>Image via: <a href="https://www.projecttimeoff.com/sites/default/files/StateofAmericanVacation2017.pdf" type="external">Project Time Off Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Even when they're away from work, small business owners have trouble shutting down, thanks in large part to the beloved technology that we cover here at PCMag. Ninety-five percent of respondents take technology with them on vacation so they can work while they're gone. Only 5 percent say they do not take any technology on vacation (you can find us down by the swim-up pool cocktail lounge).</p>
<p>Among those suckers dedicated workers who bring tech with them on vacation, 83 percent experience work-related stress while on vacation (no duh), compared to 17 percent who do not, according to the survey. Almost half (45 percent) haven't disconnected from work for more than two days in the past two years (Are they literally plugged in at work?), compared to 33 percent who have disconnected for 3-5 days, and 22 percent who have been able to disconnect for a week or more.</p>
<p>Eighty-five percent of respondents claim they've worked on vacation, compared to only 15 percent who do not. For those who work while on vacation, 41 percent have had a friend or family member complain that they worked too much on the trip.</p>
<p>Why are these small business owners killing themselves, even when they've made an effort to disconnect from the job? This is likely due to the fact that only 38 percent of respondents have someone they can trust to take over their responsibilities while on vacation. Oddly enough, the same percentage of general Americans believes no one can do their job when they leave on their vacations, Project Time Off reports.</p>
<p>Either we're all highly specialized operatives or we have really big egos. Either way, we could all probably use some more time off away from our devices.</p>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/news/355894/has-technology-ruined-vacations-for-small-business-owners" type="external">originally appeared Opens a New Window.</a> on <a href="http://www.pcmag.com" type="external">PCMag.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Has Technology Ruined Vacations for Small Business Owners? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/technology/technology/2017/08/31/has-technology-ruined-vacations-for-small-business-owners.html | 2017-08-31 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A house fire sparked in a southwest Albuquerque home Monday afternoon, displacing a family until repairs to the home can be made.</p>
<p>Melissa Romero, a spokeswoman for the Albuquerque Fire Department, said when firefighters arrived at the house at 8220 Camino San Martin SW they saw heavy smoke billowing from the home. She said they were able to extinguish the blaze within 15 minutes. Three occupants of the house self-evacuated without any injuries, she said.</p>
<p>The family will be displaced until repairs to the home, which sustained smoke and water damage, are made, Romero said.</p>
<p>A man grabs two dogs after a house fire in southwest Albuquerque displaced the residents. (Roberto E. Rosales/ Journal)</p>
<p>Firefighters on the scene of a house fire in southwest Albuquerque. (Roberto E. Rosales/ Journal)</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Fire sparks in a southwest Albuquerque home | false | https://abqjournal.com/592882/fire-sparks-in-a-southwest-albuquerque-home.html | 2 |
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<p>The referendum scheduled for Saturday 19th March 2011 is intended by Egypt’s Supreme Military Council to be seen as a defining moment in the country’s democratic transition. With the cold, wet sensation of ink drying on their index fingers, millions of Egyptians will confirm their approval or rejection of eleven proposed amendments to the flawed constitution that has served them so poorly. In contrast to the sham elections of the Mubarak era, where vote rigging, bribery, and intimidation masqueraded as democracy, this referendum is intended to be a free expression of the people’s will – a ground-breaking occasion not only in Egypt’s new Revolution, but in its modern history.</p>
<p>Yet, this optimistic picture is belied by the numerous problems lying just beneath the surface; problems that go to the very core of Egypt’s supposed break from the autocratic past. Prominent among these are the wholly inadequate measures taken to redress the numerous defects in the constitution. Operating under the blanket of public joy that heralded the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Military Council has overseen a process of constitutional amendment so rushed and incomplete that it has barely begun to touch on the central faults within the constitution, particularly the overwhelming power of the President, and the tremendous scope for corruption and abuse by the government.</p>
<p>There are some welcome elements of the proposed amendments:</p>
<p>The President’s six year term in office is to be reduced to four years, and no person will be permitted to serve more than two terms (Article 77);</p>
<p>The President will be required to appoint a Vice President within 60 days of taking office (Article 139);</p>
<p>The judiciary will have ultimate responsibility for supervising elections (Article 88), and deciding on any legal challenges to election results (Article 93); and</p>
<p>The article in the constitution permitting the suspension of human rights in cases deemed by the government to involve ‘terrorism’ will be deleted (Article 179).</p>
<p>Though these proposals are certainly positive, they do not constitute even the minimum measures necessary for amending a constitution that inhibits genuine, functioning democracy. If ratified by the public, this abridged exercise in constitutional amendment will have done almost nothing to alter the hazardous imbalance between the power of the President on one hand, and that of the parliament and judiciary on the other. The President will still retain the bulk of his sweeping powers (far in excess of those granted to the presidents and prime ministers of democratic states), the Shura Council will continue to exist as little more than an advisory body lacking a true legislative capacity (with one third of its members appointed by the President), and the basic political structure so exploited by the previous regime to the cost of the people will be largely unchanged.</p>
<p>This dire situation is exacerbated by the strikingly negative elements of the other proposed amendments:</p>
<p>If allowed to lapse for merely a single day, a six month state of emergency declared by the President, and approved by the parliament, could be declared again for another six months without the need for a public referendum (Article 148). As such, the government would still have the power to suspend the basic rights and liberties of the people for an extended period of time, in a similar fashion to the previous regime.</p>
<p>In addition, any Egyptian citizen who has ever had dual citizenship, or whose spouse or parents (whether Egyptian or not) has ever been a citizen of another state, shall be barred permanently from being a candidate in a presidential election (Article 75). With a single stroke, this measure would ban millions of Egyptians at home, and abroad from standing for the highest office in the country. Not only would this disqualify such celebrated Egyptians as Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail (an Egyptian and US Citizen), it would also disqualify an Egyptian such as the country’s first President, the late Mohammed Naguib (whose mother was Sudanese, and today would be considered a foreign citizen).</p>
<p>Finally, a comprehensive constitutional amendment process shall only be instituted at the request and option of the President (with Cabinet approval), or at least half of the members of both the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council, whose members themselves will select who will draft a new constitution (Article 189). As such, there is no guarantee of further constitutional changes beyond the present 11 proposed amendments, and in the event of a new constitution being drafted, the people’s involvement will be limited to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote at the very end of the process.</p>
<p>While such measures are clearly retrograde, they have been presented to the public as positive steps towards democracy. Such an inaccurate presentation is extremely worrying, as demonstrated in the case of the declaration of a state of emergency, where the loophole mentioned above permitting the extension of emergency law beyond six months has been largely concealed. One of the central demands of the millions whose struggles and sacrifices made the 25th January Revolution a reality was that a new constitution should be written to eliminate the abuses of the past, and secure liberty and prosperity in the future. The 11 proposed amendments do not offer this.</p>
<p>The clarion call of 2011 has been: “The people demand the removal of the regime”. In the past five weeks, a stubbornly resistant President has been forced from office, former ministers and members of the former ruling party have been arrested, and a pro-revolution Prime Minister has been sworn in. Yet, the legal instrument that provided cover for the manifest abuse and corruption of the Mubarak era remains. Without genuine constitutional reform, the power of the President – and the enfeebling of the parliament, the judiciary, and the people – will continue. In these circumstances, it is instructive to consider why the most enthusiastic supporters of the current amendment process are the National Democratic Party, and the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Whether by design or unintended consequence, the manner in which this referendum has been organised is in direct opposition to the goals of the Revolution. For those who believe in the sacred value of the purple stained ballots that they will cast, Saturday will be a day of crucial significance, not merely for themselves, but for the future of their country.</p>
<p>Tamer O. Bahgat is a transnational lawyer with a predominant International Law Firm in London, with experience in corporate and international law, and a focus in economic and constitutional reform in emerging markets.</p>
<p>Khalid El-Sherif is a legal and policy professional with experience in regulatory reform, public and private international law, with a focus on development in the Arab World.</p>
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<p /> | Egypt Votes | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/03/18/egypt-votes/ | 2011-03-18 | 4 |
<p>On Monday night, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will face off on foreign policy. Some pundits <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/in-last-presidential-debate-foreign-policy-skills-likely-to-prove-pivotal/2012/10/21/a2352a3e-1b93-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_story.html" type="external">say</a> that the election is so close, the outcome could very well pivot on this debate, where the candidates will grapple over issues like the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya</a>. But according to&#160;Mother Jones Washington Bureau Chief David Corn, Obama’s strong advantage on foreign policy probably won’t move voters one way or the other:&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Here’s an excerpt:</p>
<p>As we get closer to the election there are a lot fewer undecided voters. So there’s less room to move [and] fewer people to persuade. This is now the third debate. In some ways you could see it as the rubber match. Mitt Romney did quite well in the first one, Barack Obama did better than Romney in the second one. But I don’t think people are looking at this like a play-off series, 2 out of 3 wins the day. &#160;I think each candidate has given their supporters what they needed to give them in the first two debates, and [because] the third one is about foreign policy, supposedly exclusively, [it’s] going to be something that may not move a lot of voters who have yet to be moved.</p> | 2 Minutes With David Corn: The Foreign Policy Debate | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/2-minutes-david-corn-foreign-policy-debate/ | 2012-10-22 | 4 |
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<p>PUEBLO, Colo. - Authorities say the latest suspected illegal marijuana grow in Pueblo County was discovered after its heavy power use started a grass fire.</p>
<p>The sheriff's office says the grow at a home in Pueblo West, which was raided Wednesday, is to blame for starting a 2-acre fire on April 14. Investigators found that a transformer blew because the home was drawing about five times the normal amount of electricity for an average single-family home. They say the home's garage was set up with a commercial heating and ventilation system along with extensive lighting and irrigation systems.</p>
<p>This is the tenth suspected illegal grow discovered in the county in three weeks.</p>
<p>The sheriff's office says the man living in the home is also suspected of having an illegal grow in Denver.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Grass fire leads to discovery of illegal pot grow in Colo. | false | https://abqjournal.com/761111/grass-fire-leads-to-discovery-of-illegal-pot-grow-in-colo.html | 2 |
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<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — More than 60 years after an ornate building in Colorado was torn down, pieces of the structure have been incorporated into a landscaping project.</p>
<p>The intricately carved slabs were unearthed during recent roadwork in Colorado Springs.</p>
<p>The stones from the First National Bank building had been buried since the 1950s. That's when the bank building was torn down and the rubble used as road fill.</p>
<p>The Colorado Springs Gazette <a href="http://gazette.com/chunks-of-history-surface-in-massive-interchange-project-in-colorado-springs/article/1618089" type="external">reports</a> the bank building stood on a prominent street corner for decades.</p>
<p>Workers have installed 36 of the rediscovered stones in the landscaping near a $115 million highway project. Another stone went to a museum.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Gazette, <a href="http://www.gazette.com" type="external">http://www.gazette.com</a></p>
<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — More than 60 years after an ornate building in Colorado was torn down, pieces of the structure have been incorporated into a landscaping project.</p>
<p>The intricately carved slabs were unearthed during recent roadwork in Colorado Springs.</p>
<p>The stones from the First National Bank building had been buried since the 1950s. That's when the bank building was torn down and the rubble used as road fill.</p>
<p>The Colorado Springs Gazette <a href="http://gazette.com/chunks-of-history-surface-in-massive-interchange-project-in-colorado-springs/article/1618089" type="external">reports</a> the bank building stood on a prominent street corner for decades.</p>
<p>Workers have installed 36 of the rediscovered stones in the landscaping near a $115 million highway project. Another stone went to a museum.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Gazette, <a href="http://www.gazette.com" type="external">http://www.gazette.com</a></p> | New life in landscaping for old Colorado Springs building | false | https://apnews.com/amp/3c3d5bddce0e41a08e4f8933c50d8fec | 2017-12-30 | 2 |
<p>Retired Bishop V. Gene Robinson wrote a report that examines the way that Jewish and Christian traditions have become more inclusive of trans people. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — The Center for American Progress on Jan. 19 released a report about the inclusion of transgender people in religious denominations.</p>
<p>Retired New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson wrote the report that examines the way that Jewish and Christian traditions have become more inclusive of trans people. The gay Episcopalian also details his personal experience with the issue.</p>
<p>“I have been personally affected by many transgender faithful,” said Robinson in a Center for American Progress press release.</p>
<p>“It is up to members of those faiths to build transgender-inclusive churches and synagogues,” he added. “Without a better understanding of gender identity and religion, people of faith&#160;cannot hope to build the houses of worship and community it is clear our faiths require.”</p>
<p>Robinson in 2003 became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.</p>
<p>The Center for American Progress released the report less than a week after Anglican leaders <a href="" type="internal">voted to sanction</a> the Episcopal Church over its support of marriage rights for same-sex couples.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Anglican Communion</a> <a href="" type="internal">CAP</a> <a href="" type="internal">Center for American Progress</a> <a href="" type="internal">Episcopal Church</a> <a href="" type="internal">Gene Robinson</a> <a href="" type="internal">transgender</a> <a href="" type="internal">V. Gene Robinson</a></p> | Documenting trans acceptance in religion | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/01/20/documenting-trans-acceptance-in-religion/ | 3 |
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<p>The New York Post <a href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/02192009/postopinion/editorials/that_cartoon_155984.htm" type="external">has posted an apology</a> for the <a href="" type="internal">Sean Delonas cartoon</a> picturing a chimpanzee being shot for writing a sloppy economic stimulus bill. The Post‘s editorial said that the cartoon was meant to “mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill,” but that it seemed to have unintended consequences:</p>
<p>[The cartoon] has been taken as something else – as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.</p>
<p>However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past – and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.</p>
<p>To them, no apology is due.</p>
<p>Cute—anyone who’s ever disagreed with the Post doesn’t get to accept the apology! Dammit!</p>
<p>The cartoon generated significant controversy, and here on the Riff, <a href="" type="internal">Daniel Luzer’s defense of it</a> as “just a joke about monkeys” was picked up by <a href="http://gawker.com/5156304/lefty-magazine-writer-monkey-cartoon-not-racist" type="external">Gawker</a>, who pointed out that even “lefty magazine writers” didn’t think it was racist. Well, in this humble MoJo contributor with a terrible DJ name’s opinion, the cartoon probably wasn’t intentionally racist, but it sure turned out that way: using a singular chimp to represent plural stimulus bill authors was sloppy symbolism, at best, and with the president taking ownership of the bill, it’s only natural readers took it as a knock on Obama. Gawker, bless their hearts, also <a href="http://gawker.com/5155855/ten-masterpieces-from-sean-delonas" type="external">pointed out</a> that Delonas has a long tradition of terrible, unfunny, and offensive drawings: a “rich history” of “hate,” in fact, including such hilarious pieces as the good old <a href="http://www.nypost.com/delonas/2006/10/10272006.jpg" type="external">“gay marriage leads to sheep marriage”</a> classic, and the <a href="http://gawker.com/213891/sean-delonas-mixing-up-his-semitic-stereotypes" type="external">brilliant observation</a> that big-nosed Muslim terrorists were really stoked about Democratic wins in the 2006 elections. Comic genius!</p>
<p>More than anything, what strikes me about Delonas’ cartoons is their profound ugliness: they’re scratchy, jerky, and overworked; people are spotty, leering and malformed; and his all-caps lettering leans and swerves like a ’60s Fillmore poster. Even The Onion‘s <a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/cartoon/feb-16-2009?utm_source=featureband" type="external">great editorial cartoon parodies</a>, with their layers of hilariously inconsistent visual metaphors, are straightforward in comparison. It’s clear Delonas is sick enough to revel in the attention his pathetic scribblings have inspired; let’s hope the Post is able to see the controversy for what it is: an outcry at awful work.</p>
<p /> | New York Post Apologizes for Monkey Cartoon | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/02/new-york-post-apologizes-monkey-cartoon/ | 2009-02-20 | 4 |
<p>As American made projectiles rip through Iraqi tissue, fracture bone, severe heads and scatter what was once a human body onto fields, floors and walls, the Bush fascists in business and government are salivating for a bite of the carcass that is Iraq. European and Arab leaders want their share too and, as of late, are distancing themselves from the anti-Bush, anti-war stance they held not so long ago when the US bypassed the United Nations to grab Iraq for itself in clear violation of international law. The world over, corporations and governments, hardly distinguishable anymore, are playing the same dreadful game.</p>
<p>Even as the US daily mocks the Geneva Convention, impugns the Law of Armed Conflict and Rules of Engagement through the use of cluster bombs and indiscriminant murder of Iraqi men, women, children and livestock, it has accelerated the pace of the conquest to arrive more swiftly to its end-game. The finish will see US corporations–along with an assortment of dubious support organizations–making “liberated” Iraqi’s market-friendly. They will control the price of oil decimating the one bargaining tool that remained for the Arab world, that being OPEC. Already, as widely reported, the US House of Representatives is trying to ensure that wireless carrier Qualcomm of California be allowed exclusive rights to the “Iraq market”. In Basra, with the encouragement of the US, bottled water is being sold rather than given freely to the needy.</p>
<p>US weapons makers see a great new market in the forthcoming remake of Iraq’s military forces. Their products are field tested and ready for the big defense trade exhibitions like the 4th LAD, the International Exhibition and Conference on Defense Technology to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil in April, and the Paris Air Show to be held in June. With America under Bush no longer bound by arms agreements, every country will want to stock up. US oil companies like ExxonMobil are already hard at work in Southern Iraq getting product on line. McDonalds and other fast food chains are eager to open up shop in Iraq.</p>
<p>The Southern Baptists and other militant evangelical Christian organizations headed by the likes of Rev Franklin Graham who called Islam a “wicked religion” are on the border in Jordan waiting to setup new ministries in Iraq, as reported by Matt Engel in the Guardian. The starving will be enticed with food and water to “praise the Lord” and reject Islam, which these US based militant groups despise. No doubt they will sign a sheet saying they are praying for “President Bush” too.</p>
<p>Vomit Bag Please</p>
<p>This wanton slaughter of a people, its national identity and the ongoing crucifixion of Islam at the hands of the Bush Regime is a sickening chapter in humanity’s young history. Watching the nauseating spectacle in Iraq unfold is the same as watching television programming on the Nature Channel in which a slain water buffalo is ripped to shreds by hungry Hyena’s, Vultures, Lions, Cheetah’s and assorted other creatures. Absolutely nothing separates the mentality of those hungry creatures from the human species (except that we are wiping them out too).</p>
<p>And what of this vaunted precision military technology? Are the F/A18, the cruise missile submarines, the M1 Tanks, anything more than high-speed catapults tossing metal and flames at the enemy? The Tartars–who in 1349 catapulted plague infested bodies into the city of Caffa in the Ukraine–would appreciate these new means of destruction. The 21st Century is only inches removed from the days of the Tartars.</p>
<p>And to this day, most Americans still believe that Iraq is responsible for the rebel attack on New York City and Arlington, Virginia on September 11, 2001. The most vociferous American supporters of Bush indicate that much of this is about those “3,000 that died on 9-11” at the hands of the Iraqi leader and the hypothetical amount who would have died without this divinely inspired preemptive conquest. But wasn’t the Biblical “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” satisfied by the deaths of thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, the capture and detention of hundreds of “enemy combatants” dying in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the thousands rotting away in jails throughout the US because they had the misfortune to be from the many Arab and Persian cultures throughout the world.</p>
<p>Battle Plan for World War IV in Bible</p>
<p>There should be little doubt about what the Bush plan is for Iraq and the rest of the region. As CNN reported, one of Bush’s henchmen James Woolsey, former CIA Director under Bill Clinton and likely player in the new government of Iraq, stated recently of regimes in Iran, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, “We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred years, this country…is on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you — the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family — most fear: We’re on the side of your own people.” Woolsey is part of the militant, stridently pro-Israel group that advocated attacking Iraq back in 1998. The US government in Iraq may include another of this sect; Jay Garner, a defense contractor and retired military officer whom once applauded the Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians. In short, the new government of Iraq will be culled from Bush loyalists from the Project for a New American Century, Center for Security Policy, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and the omnipresent American Enterprise Institute. All of who advocate imperious global US rule and a greater Israel and who are on record on that score.</p>
<p>So it should come as no surprise to learn, again, that on April 4, 2003, Israel’s Haaretz’s Aluf Benn obtained a communiqué from Bush to Sharon indicating that “the American administration says the United States is operating with strong resolution to neutralize the Iraqi threat to Israel. After the war, the message continued, the United States will deal with other radical regimes in the region – not necessarily by military means – to moderate their activities and fight terrorism.” Woolsey is making millions of Americans and thousands in Israel–whom oppose this new adventurism–very nervous indeed.</p>
<p>There is good reason for them to be nervous. Yahweh and the Christian God, being warlike, outlined long ago how to treat the followers of “wayward” religions like Islam or those who dissent from the Bush’s WW IV campaign. In Numbers 31, “God” gives his followers their marching orders including how to divide the spoils.</p>
<p>“The Lord said to Moses, “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.” So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites and to carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them. They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.</p>
<p>The Lord said to Moses, “You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the community are to count all the people and animals that were captured. Divide the spoils between the soldiers who took part in the battle and the rest of the community. &gt;From the soldiers who fought in the battle, set apart as tribute for the Lord one out of every five hundred, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, sheep or goats. Take this tribute from their half share and give it to Eleazar the priest as the Lord’s part. From the Israelites’ half, select one out of every fifty, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats or other animals. Give them to the Levites, who are responsible for the care of the Lord’s tabernacle.”</p>
<p>So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses. The plunder remaining from the spoils that the soldiers took was 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 and 32,000 women who had never slept with a man. The half share of those who fought in the battle was: 337,500 sheep, of which the tribute for the LORD was 675; 36,000 cattle, of which the tribute for the Lord was 72; 30,500 donkeys, of which the tribute for the Lord was 61; 16,000 people, of which the tribute for the Lord was 32.”</p>
<p>Bush takes his orders from the Lord. So beware Islam. And beware all of you who do not believe in Bush’s divine mission.</p>
<p>JOHN STANTON is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security matters. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Today’s Features</p>
<p>Uri Avnery <a href="" type="internal">A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and the Theater of Operations</a></p>
<p>David Vest <a href="" type="internal">Can You Hear the Silence?</a></p>
<p>Anthony Gancarski <a href="" type="internal">Colin Powell Telemarketer</a></p>
<p>David Lindorff <a href="" type="internal">Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused to Fight</a></p>
<p>Michael Roberts <a href="" type="internal">War, Debts and Deficits</a></p>
<p>Ramzy Baroud <a href="" type="internal">Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?</a></p>
<p>Jo Wilding <a href="" type="internal">From Baghdad with Tears</a></p>
<p>Anton Antonowicz <a href="" type="internal">Cluster Bombs on Babylon</a></p>
<p>Alison Weir <a href="" type="internal">Israel, We Won’t Forget Rachel Corrie</a></p>
<p>Bruce Jackson <a href="" type="internal">Hating Wolf Blitzer’s Voice</a></p>
<p>Eliot Katz <a href="" type="internal">War’s First Week</a></p>
<p>Steve Perry <a href="" type="internal">War Web Log 04/03</a></p>
<p>Keep CounterPunch Alive: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/Donations.html" type="external">Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/" type="external">home</a> / <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Subscriptions.html" type="external">subscribe</a> / <a href="aboutus.html" type="external">about us</a> / <a href="books.html" type="external">books</a> / <a href="archive.html" type="external">archives</a> / <a href="search.html" type="external">search</a> / <a href="links.html" type="external">links</a> /</p> | Iraqis Slaughtered, Islam Slandered, Humanity Demeaned | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/04/05/iraqis-slaughtered-islam-slandered-humanity-demeaned/ | 2003-04-05 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories declined in September, dragged by falling demand in the volatile aircraft category.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department said Tuesday that orders retreated 0.6 percent in September, after having plunged 10 percent in August, also due largely to plummeting demand for aircraft.</p>
<p>There are usually dramatic monthly swings in demand for aircraft, which before falling in September and August had soared by 315.6 percent in July. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, factory orders have been flat for the past two months.</p>
<p>Orders at aluminum, iron and steel mills rose in September, as did demand for furniture and motor vehicles. But those gains were offset, in part, by declining orders for construction machinery, electronics products and consumer goods.</p>
<p>Despite the decrease in orders, other manufacturing indicators point toward strengthening factories.</p>
<p>The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, reported Monday that its manufacturing index climbed to 59 in October from 56.6 in September. Any reading above 50 signals expansion. The gains match a three-year high previously reached in August and marks a solid rebound from a September decline.</p>
<p>The survey behind the index showed that orders, productivity and hiring each improved at a faster clip in October than the prior month.</p>
<p>Separately, the Federal Reserve reported last month that U.S. manufacturing output rose in September. Factory production rose 0.5 percent in September after falling 0.5 percent in August.</p>
<p>Furniture-making increased 2.4 percent in September, while aerospace products climbed 1.7 percent. Production of clothing, chemicals and computers also improved.</p>
<p>Factories have added 161,000 jobs over the past 12 months. The job gains have helped a solid streak of hiring that has pushed the unemployment rate down to 5.9 percent from 7.2 percent a year ago.</p>
<p>Stronger domestic demand for manufactured goods has offset what appears to be less demand from China and Europe, where an economic slowdown has caused the dollar to rise and make American-made products more expensive for foreign buyers.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories declined in September, dragged by falling demand in the volatile aircraft category.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department said Tuesday that orders retreated 0.6 percent in September, after having plunged 10 percent in August, also due largely to plummeting demand for aircraft.</p>
<p>There are usually dramatic monthly swings in demand for aircraft, which before falling in September and August had soared by 315.6 percent in July. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, factory orders have been flat for the past two months.</p>
<p>Orders at aluminum, iron and steel mills rose in September, as did demand for furniture and motor vehicles. But those gains were offset, in part, by declining orders for construction machinery, electronics products and consumer goods.</p>
<p>Despite the decrease in orders, other manufacturing indicators point toward strengthening factories.</p>
<p>The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, reported Monday that its manufacturing index climbed to 59 in October from 56.6 in September. Any reading above 50 signals expansion. The gains match a three-year high previously reached in August and marks a solid rebound from a September decline.</p>
<p>The survey behind the index showed that orders, productivity and hiring each improved at a faster clip in October than the prior month.</p>
<p>Separately, the Federal Reserve reported last month that U.S. manufacturing output rose in September. Factory production rose 0.5 percent in September after falling 0.5 percent in August.</p>
<p>Furniture-making increased 2.4 percent in September, while aerospace products climbed 1.7 percent. Production of clothing, chemicals and computers also improved.</p>
<p>Factories have added 161,000 jobs over the past 12 months. The job gains have helped a solid streak of hiring that has pushed the unemployment rate down to 5.9 percent from 7.2 percent a year ago.</p>
<p>Stronger domestic demand for manufactured goods has offset what appears to be less demand from China and Europe, where an economic slowdown has caused the dollar to rise and make American-made products more expensive for foreign buyers.</p> | US factory orders slip in September | false | https://apnews.com/amp/453e3b4a25124485b642b32a1aed06b5 | 2014-11-04 | 2 |
<p>Published time: 15 Sep, 2017 07:51Edited time: 15 Sep, 2017 08:31</p>
<p>Emergency services have responded to an incident at Parsons Green tube station in London, with people reportedly hearing an explosion on Friday morning. It is understood that several people have been injured.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Officers were called the station at around 8:20am local time on Friday “following reports of an incident on a tube train,” the Metropolitan Police said.</p>
<p>Police were called at approx. 8:20am to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParsonsGreen?src=hash" type="external">#ParsonsGreen</a> following reports of an incident on a tube train</p>
<p>— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) <a href="https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/908606950157570048" type="external">September 15, 2017</a></p>
<p>Commuters have reported the explosion stemmed from a fire in a bucket, although the contents of the bucket are not known. Images circulating on social media show what appears to be a burning bucket inside a shopping bag on the floor of the train. RT.com has not been able to verify these reports.</p>
<p>Passengers were evacuated from the train after the back carriages reportedly filled with smoke.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/districtline" type="external">@districtline</a> what’s happening at Parsons Green, panic on the platform reports of fire or explosion in a bag. No announcements</p>
<p>— Peter Simpson (@simpson_peter) <a href="https://twitter.com/simpson_peter/status/908592566433697792" type="external">September 15, 2017</a></p>
<p>“We’re aware of an incident at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParsonsGreen?src=hash" type="external">#ParsonsGreen</a> station. Officers are at the scene,” the British Transport Police said on Twitter. “The station is closed.”</p>
<p>The District Line between Edgware Road and Wimbledon has also been suspended, TfL said.</p>
<p>We’re aware of an incident at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParsonsGreen?src=hash" type="external">#ParsonsGreen</a> station. Officers are at the scene. The station is closed. More information as we get it.</p>
<p>— BTP (@BTP) <a href="https://twitter.com/BTP/status/908600311123730432" type="external">September 15, 2017</a></p>
<p>The London Ambulance Service have released a statement. “We were called at 8:20 am to reports of an incident at Parsons Green Underground,” Natasha Wills, Assistant Director of Operations said.</p>
<p>“We have sent multiple resources to the scene including single responders in cars, ambulance crews, incident response officers and our hazardous area response team with the first of our medics arriving in under five minutes.”</p>
<p>“Our initial priority is to assess the level and nature of injuries. More information will follow when we have it.”</p> | Explosion at London’s Parsons Green Tube, injuries reported (LIVE) | false | https://newsline.com/explosion-at-londons-parsons-green-tube-injuries-reported-live/ | 2017-09-15 | 1 |
<p>On April 22, 1915, the world witnessed&#160;the first-ever&#160;deadly use of chemical weapons.</p>
<p>On that day, around 5:30 in the evening, German soldiers released 168 tons of chlorine gas in&#160;a sector of the Western Front, near the Belgian city of Ypres.</p>
<p>The goal was to break the stalemate that had gripped World War I's&#160;Western front of&#160;since the end of 1914, pitting the Germans against British, French and Belgian forces, all stationed in trenches stretching from the seacoast of Belgium all the way to the border with Switzerland.</p>
<p>The wind slowly blew the poisonous gas across no-man’s land. On the other side of the wire were two divisions of the French army.&#160;One, the 87th, was made up of&#160;reservists, older men who were mostly over the age of 35; the&#160;45th&#160;Division was composed of soldiers from French colonies, mostly Moroccans and Algerians.</p>
<p>Men quickly started choking. According to a modern <a href="http://dhl.dhhq.health.mil/Product/RetrieveFile?prodId=300" type="external">hand-out from the US Department of Defense</a>,&#160;these are the immediate effects of the chemical:</p>
<p>"Relatively low levels of chlorine gas can cause sore throat, coughing, and eye and skin irritation, while higher levels can cause burning of the eyes and skin, nausea, temporary blindness, difficulty breathing, and chest pain. At high enough levels, chlorine gas can cause immediate collapse and death.”</p>
<p>Six-thousand men quickly&#160;fell to the poison. Many more were cut down by artillery as they jumped out of the trenches to avoid the gas, which is heavier than air and settles to the bottom of trenches and dug-outs.</p>
<p>After that first attack, the Allies quickly&#160;prepared countermeasures. They sought&#160;the help of nuns at a nearby convent&#160;and ordinary women in Paris&#160;to stitch together pads of cloth that could be tied on to cover the nose and mouth. If soaked in water or urine, the pads could help reduce the amount of chlorine reaching the lungs.</p>
<p>And, despite their denunciations of the use of chlorine gas as a war crime,&#160;the Allies&#160;launched plans to retaliate. They did so just a few months later, and the&#160;use of increasingly deadly chemical weapons by both sides was a feature of every battle during&#160;the rest of the war in Europe. The clang of the metal gas alarm meant you had a few seconds to wake up and don your gas mask&#160;and protective clothing —&#160;or suffer horrible burns or death.</p>
<p>But as a weapon, poison gas became less and less effective. It was responsible for&#160;only an estimated 4 percent&#160;of combat deaths in the war.</p>
<p>The chief impact of chemical weapons&#160;was psychological. The terror they induced led to them being banned again after the war. They were not used on the battlefields of Europe in World War II, though the Japanese used them in China. They disappeared from war again until&#160;Saddam Hussein used chemicals&#160;during&#160;his war against Iran in the 1980 —&#160;and then against his own people when they rebelled.</p>
<p>Now chlorine gas and other chemical weapons have emerged again:&#160;Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people after the uprising which began in 2011. An attack in 2013 using sarin gas, a powerful nerve agent, was an international scandal&#160;that nearly prompted American airstrikes against Assad. But while international pressure forced Syria to surrender most of its chemical stockpile,&#160;reports persist that&#160;chlorine gas is used in barrel bombs&#160;dropped on rebel-held areas.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, ISIS has started using <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31847427" type="external">chlorine in improvised explosive devices</a>&#160;in Iraq and Syria. Millions of tons of chlorine are produced every year all over the world for legitimate purposes like&#160;disinfecting&#160;hospitals and purifying&#160;swimming pools. But groups like ISIS are able to&#160;modifying such cheap, commercially available chlorine for weapons.</p>
<p>Some terrorism and chemical weapons experts say that’s a problem for all of us. Because so many individuals have gone to join ISIS from Europe and the US, it’s likely that many are learning the mechanics of weaponizing chlorine.</p>
<p>One British expert, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, says <a href="http://2paragraphs.com/2014/10/credible-isis-chemical-biological-weapons-threat-outside-syria-iraq/" type="external">there’s a good chance</a> that if they’re allowed to return home, jihadis&#160;could make such a chemical weapon here. The good news is that while chlorine is easy to get,&#160;it would be very hard to make and deliver&#160;enough to create a serious problem.</p>
<p>"The chances of a spectacular [attack]&#160;in [the]&#160;UK or US are, in my opinion, pretty low,"&#160;de Bretton-Gordon says. "There is a good chance that nobody would notice — and there are likely to be few casualties.”</p> | A century after its first-ever use, the original chemical weapon has made a comeback | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-04-22/century-after-its-first-ever-use-original-chemical-weapon-has-made-comeback | 2015-04-22 | 3 |
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<p>The 6-foot-5 New Mexico State University forward (or as he says guard playing forward) got a stern reminder from head coach Paul Weir on Monday night in the Pan American Center that fashion statements and big heads aren’t what got the program off to its best start since 1993-94.</p>
<p>“He was on my tail about headbands, trying to look pretty and stuff,” said Jones, the 6-foot-5 junior forward for the Aggies. “So, I don’t know if I’m going to wear it again.”</p>
<p>The fashion advice, and a rather stern halftime talk, seemed to work for the Aggies and was more about reminding the team to focus on the game, not recent success.</p>
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<p>Jones had 23 points and 18 rebounds and Braxton Huggins added 24 points and hit five 3-pointers as NMSU beat visiting UC-Irvine 85-79 in overtime in front of an announced crowd of 3,794 on Monday night in the Pan American Center.</p>
<p>The duo combined to score 12 of NMSU’s 13 points in the extra frame to turn back the pesky Anteaters (5-8) and give the Aggies (11-2) the program’s ninth consecutive win since a Nov. 18 loss to the UNM Lobos in the Pit.</p>
<p>Weir acknowledged getting on his team at halftime when UCI led 39-38 powered by 5-10 senior point guard Jaron Martin, who scored 17 of his career-high 33 points in the first seven minutes of the game including hitting five of his career-high seven 3-pointers in that span. Weir said he was worried that the winning streak, and especially beating rivals UNM and UTEP last week then winning at Arizona State on Saturday, would lead to a let down eventually.</p>
<p>“It was a pretty spirited halftime,” said Weir, NMSU’s first year head coach. “I was pretty upset. I kind of saw it (coming). Inevitably, after the UNM game (Dec. 10 win in Las Cruces), when we went to UTEP, I was worried about the let down from UNM and what our energy would be. I thought our energy at UTEP was pretty good. To win on the road at Arizona State and everyone tell you how great you are and you come back and you play a team at home who’s a good team like Irvine is, inevitably in young kids, no matter how much you talk about it it, it crept in.”</p>
<p>But the Aggies defended down the stretch when they needed to and, thanks in large part to 26 second chance points on 27 NMSU offensive rebounds, were able to keep their winning streak alive despite not playing their best game (they shot just 36.1 percent overall and were 5-of-23 from 3-point range).</p>
<p>“Defend to win,” Jones said. “That’s all the game is, really. You defend, you win.”</p>
<p>Jones had nine of the team’s offensive rebounds and, despite being 6-5, often scored most of his points against UCI’s 7-2 center Ioannis Dimakopoulos.</p>
<p>“He’s won everywhere he’s been,” Weir said of the junior college transfer. “… The kid just performs. I don’t like the way he practices sometimes. I don’t like way some things go with him, but when that ball goes up, the kid just goes. That’s what we kind of pride ourselves on is just playing hard and really competitive and he epitomizes that as much as anybody.”</p>
<p>NOTES: Pistol Pete and Santa Claus read the Night Before Christmas to about 50 kids invited to sit on Lou Henson Court at halftime. They were given candy canes afterward. … Baker was honored before the game for being the 34th member of NMSU’s 1,000 point club, passing that mark in last week’s road win at UTEP.</p> | Jones powers Aggies to overtime win, 11-2 record | false | https://abqjournal.com/912451/jones-powers-aggies-to-overtime-win-11-2-record.html | 2 |
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<p>Consumers around the world are increasingly relying on online platforms and mobile apps to purchase all kinds of products and services. The travel industry is no exception, as new technologies are dramatically changing the way we search for information and make travel reservations. Let's look at two key players in this attractive business, Priceline Group and Expedia , to find out which one is a better purchase for investors right now.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The network effect is a major source of competitive advantage in the business. Airlines and hotel operators want to go with the platforms offering lots of potential customers, and travelers are naturally attracted to the companies offering more and better deals. A bigger platform provides a more valuable service to both travelers and companies in the industry, so size is a key factor to keep in mind.</p>
<p>Image Source: Priceline</p>
<p>Priceline is expected to make $10.66 billion in revenue during 2016, while Wall Street analysts are expecting $8.91 billion in sales from Expedia over the same period. As for the size of the platform, Priceline's main brand, Booking.com, ended the first quarter of 2016 with nearly 900,000 hotels and other accommodations in over 220 countries, up 31% versus the same quarter in 2015. By comparison, Expedia has 282,000 properties available on its websites as of the end of the first quarter, a 23% annual increase.</p>
<p>Priceline has an advantage versus Expedia in terms of size, and the company also offers a much larger international presence. Priceline made $2 billion in gross profit last quarter, and nearly 85% of that money came from international markets. As for Expedia, the international segment produced a much more modest 35% of gross bookings last quarter.</p>
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<p>Many international currencies are depreciating against the U.S. dollar, hurting Priceline's financial performance when translating revenue in different currencies to dollars. However, international markets are moreunder-penetrated compared to the U.S. in online travel services, so a wide global presence alsomeans superior growth opportunities for Priceline over the long term.</p>
<p>Image Source: Getty.</p>
<p>There are basically two kinds of business models for companies in this sector. Under the agency model, online travel agencies simply act as intermediaries between travelers and industry operators. Hotels and other operators list their own prices on the platform, and the online travel agency makes a commission on every transaction. In the merchant business model, online travel agencies purchase hotel inventory and then resell it to travelers on their own terms.</p>
<p>Priceline operates mostly under the agency model. The company made 93% of its gross bookings from this segment last quarter, so it doesn't need to worry about variables such as inventory risk, and the business model is spectacularly profitable. Priceline retains operating margins above 35% of revenue on an annual basis.</p>
<p>Expedia's business model is more balanced, with 56% and 44% of gross bookings coming from agency and merchant operations, respectively. This allows the company to have more control over prices and overall supply across its websites, but profit margins are also significantly lower. Trailing-12-month operating margin for Expedia is around 5% of revenue.</p>
<p>Both Priceline and Expedia have made big acquisitions over the past several years. That's a good thing for investors in the industry, as it provides scale and pricing power. Nevertheless, evaluating organic performance can be more complicated when companies are regularly buying other businesses. That said, both Priceline and Expedia have delivered impressive revenue growth over the last five years, while Priceline placed moderately ahead of its rival.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PCLN/revenues_ttm" type="external">PCLN Revenue (TTM) Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>As for valuation ratios, Priceline stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio in the area of 25.8, while Expedia comes in around 24.2. Considering Priceline has superior profitability and has delivered higher growth over the past several years, this modest premium for Priceline over Expedia doesn't look excessive at all.</p>
<p>If international currencies remain weak against the U.S dollar, then Expedia stock could deliver better performance than Priceline over the coming quarters. On the other hand, when considering international growth prospects and profitability, Priceline looks like the best pick for investors with an investment horizon of three years or more.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/20/better-buy-now-priceline-vs-expedia.aspx" type="external">Better Buy Now: Priceline vs. Expedia Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/acardenal/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Andrs Cardenal Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Priceline Group. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Priceline Group. 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> | Better Buy Now: Priceline vs. Expedia | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/20/better-buy-now-priceline-vs-expedia.html | 2016-06-20 | 0 |
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<p>Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) sales (and its share price!) are nose-diving because of stiff competition for its top-selling hepatitis C drugs, and that's got everyone wondering if management will uncork its cash flow and make some acquisitions to rekindle growth.It's anyone's guess what management might do with its financial firepower, but I think it ought to be kicking tires at NewLink Genetics (NASDAQ: NLNK).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It wasn't that long ago when Gilead Sciences could do no wrong.</p>
<p>IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.</p>
<p>The company launched Sovaldi in December 2013 and Harvoni in October 2014 -- two of the most remarkable drugs ever developed. Those two drugs reshaped hepatitis C treatment by delivering 90%-plus functional cure rates with fewer side effects and shorter treatment duration than prior therapies.The drugs were so effective and safe that doctors rushed to prescribe them, sending Gilead Sciences' sales and profit skyrocketing between 2014 and 2016.</p>
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<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/GILD/revenues_ttm" type="external">GILD Revenue (TTM)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Since then, however, Gilead Sciences has become a victim of its own success. Sovaldi and Harvoni were the only game in town when they launched, and they were priced accordingly. Now, however, AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) and Merck &amp; Co. (NYSE: MRK) market competing drugs offering similar cure rates and lower prices, and that's forced Gilead Sciences to cut its own prices to maintain its market share. Because of the pricing pressure, thecompany's worldwide sales and net earnings declined 7% and 18%, respectively, in 2016.</p>
<p>A few years ago, Gilead Sciences boasted an intriguing cancer drug pipeline that included Zydelig, a promising drug for treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia.</p>
<p>Management hoped Zydelig could serve as a foundation for a robust cancer drug franchise, but unfortunately, it hasn't panned out that way. Zydelig won FDA approval in 2014, but safety concerns made it less attractive than Imbruvica, a competing drug that launched around the same time.</p>
<p>Eventually, Zydelig's safety concerns led management to shutter development of it in other indications, and Zydelig's become a niche drug with only $168 million in sales last year.</p>
<p>Gilead Sciences says it hasn't given up on its ambition to become a top player in cancer treatment, but in my view, there's little in its internal pipeline that could be considered a needle mover.</p>
<p>Assuming Gilead Sciences' remains committed to cancer, I think they ought to focus on acquiring companies working on next-generation cancer fighting drugs, such as IDO inhibitors.</p>
<p>Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is a natural protein that suppresses the immune system, and sometimes cancer cells hijack it to survive. IDO-inhibitors disable the protein, thereby removing cancer cells' ability to evade detection. So far, trial results suggest that inhibiting IDO could be a very important weapon in the fight against different types of cancer.</p>
<p>Currently, the most advanced IDO-inhibitor in development isIncyte's (NASDAQ: INCY) epacadostat. However, NewLink Geneticsis developing two IDO-inhibitors: indoximod and GDC-0919; andits valuation is a fraction of Incyte's.</p>
<p>NewLink Genetics recently <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/13/the-ido-inhibitor-race-is-on-to-improve-cancer-tre.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">reported results Opens a New Window.</a> from a study evaluating indoximod alongside Merck &amp; Co.'s Keytruda, a checkpoint inhibitor, and that data showed that 73% of patients with advanced melanoma responded to the one-two combination. The result was impressive considering that Keytruda won approval as a monotherapy in this indication after delivering a 33% response rate.</p>
<p>Despite the solid showing, many industry watchers believe that epacadostat delivers a better blend of efficacy and safety because it targets IDO directly. Unlike epacadostat, indoximod disables IDO via cell signaling.</p>
<p>While it's true that indoximod might not be as robust of an IDO-inhibitor as epacadostat (no head-to-head studies are planned, nor are they likely to happen), NewLink's GDC-0919 does work similarly to epacadostat, and results are expected later this year from an early stage trial that's being conducted with collaboration partner Roche Holdings(NASDAQOTH: RHHBY) in patients with solid tumors.</p>
<p>Admittedly, epacadostat is further along in development, but Incyte's market cap is $24 billion, and historically, Gilead Sciences' has avoided paying premium valuations for acquisitions. Since NewLink Genetics market cap is only $537 million, and it has two IDO-inhibitors in the works, I feel like it's a bigger bargain.</p>
<p>If Gilead Sciences were to make this deal, it would take on the risk of trial failures. It would also have to share GDC-0919's success with Roche. Nevertheless, at this price, I'd be willing to accept those trade-offs.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NewLink GeneticsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/EBCapitalMarkets/info.aspx" type="external">Todd Campbell Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Gilead Sciences.His clients may have positions in the companies mentioned.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Gilead Sciences. The Motley Fool has the following options: short June 2017 $70 calls on Gilead Sciences. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Should Gilead Sciences Acquire NewLink Genetics? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/21/should-gilead-sciences-acquire-newlink-genetics.html | 2017-04-21 | 0 |
<p>Despite the threat of a veto, withdrawal legislation moved forward in the House Thursday. Meanwhile, in the Senate, a weaker measure was successfully <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/15/congress.iraq.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories" type="external">opposed</a> by all but one Republican, two Democrats and Joe Lieberman.</p>
<p>Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Barbara Lee voted against the House bill because, she said, the proposed withdrawal would not take place soon enough.</p>
<p>AP via CNN:</p>
<p>Democrats aggressively challenged President Bush’s Iraq policy at both ends of the Capitol on Thursday, gaining House committee approval for a troop withdrawal deadline of September 1, 2008, but suffering defeat in the Senate on a less sweeping plan to end U.S. participation in the war.</p>
<p />
<p>Anti-war Democrats prevailed on a near-party line vote of 36-28 in the House Appropriations Committee, brushing aside a week-old veto threat from the administration and overcoming unyielding opposition from Republicans.</p>
<p>“I want this war to end. I don’t want to go to any more funerals,” said New York Rep. Jose Serrano, one of several liberal Democrats who have pledged their support for the legislation despite preferring a faster end to the war.</p>
<p>“Nobody wants our troops out of Iraq more than I do,” countered Republican Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida, who sought to scuttle the timeline for a troop withdrawal. “But we can’t afford to turn over Iraq to al Qaeda.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/15/congress.iraq.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Withdrawal Timetable Defeated in the Senate | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/withdrawal-timetable-defeated-in-the-senate/ | 2007-03-16 | 4 |
<p>The sorrow and grief, these black evenings, Eyes full of tears and times full of sadness, These burnt hearts, the killing of youths, These unfulfilled expectations and unmet hopes of brides, With a hatred for war, I call time and again, I wait for peace for the grief-stricken Pashtuns</p>
<p>–Zarlasht Hafeez</p>
<p>On October 7, the Afghan sector of the Global War on Terror (since renamed) will open its ninth year. This conflict, or war, is now longer in duration than the U. S. presence in both world wars (only five years), and is coming onto the length of the formal Vietnam War (fifteen years if you discount the various operations in the Diem years). The loss of American life is not as great as it was in Vietnam or in the world wars, but the expense is greater (amounting to $4 billion per month, with a National Priorities Project study showing that the total cost by the end of 2009 will be almost $200 billion).</p>
<p>Afghan society is on life support, and it is here that there is no comparison with either Europe after its wars or Vietnam after its long bleed. An armistice was welcomed in each of the contests by the people who had the wherewithal and energy to pick up the pieces. Set aside the Afghan masses, whose well-being has not only been ignored but so too has their political development (the official literacy rate stands at 28%, and most areas of the country are outside formal political organization and institutions).</p>
<p>It is not clear that the Afghan elites lodged in Kabul would cheer at the departure of the NATO troops; it was thanks to the troops that the elites followed Hamid Karzai from Pakistan and India, as well as Europe and the United States to return to their homes and take charge. Exiled by the Communists (1978-1992), the long civil war amongst the mullahs (1992-1996) and then by the Taliban (1996-2001), the Afghan elite came aboard the NATO-US express, hoping against hope that the force of arms would turn back the tide of history. It has not been so.</p>
<p>There are many things about Hamid Karzai that resemble Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of the US-backed Republic of South Vietnam. Both can sing hymns to democracy as they set loose the dogs of repression; both, as well, are generous to their families, allowing them to circumvent the inconveniences of the law to enrich their Swiss coffers (Ahmed Wali Karzai mimics Ngo Dinh Nhu, and Kandahar is his Hué). One of the gravest political errors made by the CIA was to allow the 1963 coup against Diem (and his assassination). When Ho Chi Minh heard of this, he said, “I can scarcely believe the Americans would be so stupid.”</p>
<p>The Generals that took up residence in the Presidential Palace didn’t have Diem’s guile. It took an American escalation to allow them to extend their hold till 1975. General “Big” Minh lasted only three months; Nguyen Khanh followed, and ended his days in Westminster, California as the Chief of the State of the Government of Free Vietnam, more an exiled clan than a nation (it has been recognized by Homeland Security as a terrorist organization). Karzai has been in power since 2002, protected first by U. S. service bodyguards and then by DynCorp trained Afghan guards.</p>
<p>There can be no US-engineered assassination of him. The rigged Afghan election of 2009 is not going to bring anyone to the streets. Even Karzai’s rival, Abdullah Abdullah has been silenced. He has not worn green and taken to the streets. He will be silent on October 7.</p>
<p>Hidden in the Wazir Akbar Khan and Sirpur neighborhoods, amidst the splendor of the new Afghan “narco-tecture” (or warlord kitsch), the elite have bunkered down. Their man, Karzai, the mayor of Kabul, is their last defense against the hordes. Nothing in any NATO-US plan calls for his removal. That was idle chatter. He is indispensible.</p>
<p>Eight years ago, as the US air force prepared to strike targets in Afghanistan and prepare the ground for the advance of the Northern Alliance, the White House’s war aims seemed as unfocused as they are today. Retribution was in the air: revenge for 911 had to be extracted from the leadership of al-Qaeda, housed, at that time, in Kandahar and in the Safed Koh mountains. A bombardment of their caves and encampments would not have been enough, it seems. The Taliban, who offered them refuge, had to go as well (“any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime,” Bush, September 20, 2001). A week into the bombing, the Taliban government rather pathetically asked that the US government turn over “evidence” of Osama Bin Laden’s role in 911. “There no need to discuss innocence or guilt,” Bush said snottily, “We know he’s guilty.”</p>
<p>But there was Haji Abdul Kabir, totally outclassed by Bush, trying his best to find a way to extradite Bin Laden without the appearance of weakness. The fantasy of his political Islam blinded him to the realities of power. If Bush had been less a cowboy, Bin Laden might be taking his dialysis treatments at Guantanamo. But all that was mute. The dismissal of Abdul Kadir muddied the war aims. If Bin Laden was not the only target, then what was it: to overthrow the Taliban and bring in the Northern Alliance? (On October 14, 2001, I wrote in Counterpunch, “The Northern Alliance is not ‘at least better’ than the Taliban, as liberals want to believe; they are as bad for the people of Afghanistan.” That assessment stands proven).</p>
<p>It was a miserable deal. The Northern Alliance, or at least Karzai after his ascension in 2002 by the feeble loya jirga, has not been able to build Afghan state institutions, or even a political space from which to struggle against the Taliban. There is so little gap between the programs of the sanctified Jamaat-e-Islami and that of the banned Quetta Shura Taliban.</p>
<p>The two principle war aims, the destruction of al-Qaeda and the creation of a government in Kabul that would prevent al-Qaeda’s resurrection, remain unfulfilled. Al-Qaeda has certainly not struck the United States homeland, and its operations against U. S. forces in Iraq and elsewhere have also been compromised. Bin Laden’s franchises have been able to make hay in Indonesia, in the Philippines and in Europe, but these do not themselves advance al-Qaeda’s own agenda, viz. to push the “far enemy” (the United States) out of Arabia and, thereby, to weaken the “near enemy” (the pharaonic regime in Egypt and the royal families in the Gulf) whose fall would be inevitable without U. S. protection. The Salafi jihadis reserve their animus for the “near enemy,” who, a 1986 manifesto noted, is a “fifth column that gnaws the bones of Muslim society at the behest of foreign powers. They lost their will and sold their honor and dignity. They paved the way for colonialism and exploitation.”</p>
<p>But the fact is that the minions who comprise al-Qaeda are not in a hurry. The same eschatology that gives you the suicide bomber (who neglects his or her own life on earth) also gives you the patience of eons: the end times take much longer to make their appearance than the calendar of secular political power. The Taliban are not as patient, largely because they are not given over to the fantastic visions of Bin Laden. They recognized an impossible battle when they saw it, and fled as the B-1 and B-52 bombers delivered their awesome payload (in the last three months of 2001, the bombers dropped 72% of the total US ordinance expended on the war, which is to say, 4700 tons of firepower).</p>
<p>The Taliban troops won’t line up and march toward their Somme. They are cannier, waiting out the patience of the U. S., building up their own bases here and there. The fact is that if they do come to power, which is also not altogether likely in the event of a NATO withdrawal, it is thoroughly unlikely that they would allow Bin Laden to open up his camps again. That lesson must be learnt or else the Taliban leadership is thicker than one anticipates.</p>
<p>Papier-mâché armies</p>
<p>Unlearnt lessons are the modus operandi of the Pentagon’s intellectuals. Each week they seem to flood Washington with paper devoted to Afghanistan. The reports are devastatingly similar. At least they are consistent: the goal is to destroy or disrupt al-Qaeda and to prevent the formation of a government in Kabul that would allow terrorists to operate with abandon. They also admit that the latter goal cannot be accomplished unless a strong government is in power, and that the security situation in the country is improved (i. e., the Taliban has been defeated). The failure of the effort is apparent by the frequency of these reports and their repetition. General Stanley McChrystal’s recent sixty-six-page report to the Department of Defense is along the lines of everything that has come before (hereafter, Initial Assessment). It is filled with the RAND-Pentagon verbiage (“win the battle of perceptions,” and “redefining the fight”).</p>
<p>Most lawmakers probably stayed with Bob Woodward’s summary in the Washington Post (September 21). It had the advantage of brevity. The Initial Assessment draws from the White House’s own review and from the NATO review, both of which call for a change of strategy. Bruce Riedel, who chaired Obama’s review of Afghanistan-Pakistan, came to that job after a long career in the Clinton trenches and in the think tank workshops during the Bush exile. He authored a clear-eyed book (The Search for Al-Qaeda, Brookings, 2008) in which he called for a much more focused and forensic campaign against al-Qaeda, with a brief coda about the need for greater U. S. commitment toward the defeat of a resurgent Taliban. That last point appears at the book’s end, and it is cushioned by language of multilateralism, particularly regionalism (bringing in Afghanistan’s neighbors to clean up the mess, a policy that was ongoing in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation before it was mucked up by Bush). Riedel (along with Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institute) has now reduced whatever complexity he previously held to the siren of more boots on the ground (particularly those who can speak the languages of Afghanistan). The debate in Washington’s withered halls is about troop numbers. McChrystal tried to give them more. They weren’t listening.</p>
<p>The Initial Assessment opens with a remarkable concession, that the point is not to seize terrain or to destroy the insurgency. “Our objective must be the population.” Drawing, it seems, from the work of Carnegie scholar Giles Dorronsoro, McChrystal argues that his forces must first “focus on critical high-population areas that are contested or controlled by insurgents, not because the enemy is present, but because it is here that the population is threatened by the insurgency.”</p>
<p>Protect the cities, and build outwards toward the redoubts of the enemy. No sense in going on fishing expeditions with lightly armed detachments into areas where the Taliban are adept at setting up ambushes. But to do this, McChrystal wants to “change the operational culture” of the US-NATO forces, and to truly bring on board the Afghan National Army (“a foreign army alone cannot beat an insurgency; the insurgency in Afghanistan requires an Afghan solution”).</p>
<p>Benjamin Tupper’s Welcome to Afghanistan: Send More Ammo (Epigraph Books, 2009) is a window into both the frontline and to the ANA, the Afghan National Army. Tupper, who served as embedded trainer with the ANA, calls them the “flip flop army,” only because they came to battle in flip flops, and yet were capable of acts of bravery against remarkable odds. Tupper’s book bristles with stories that resemble the tales collected by Svetlana Aleksievich in her Zinky Boys (1992), where the Afgantsi, Soviet frontline veterans, tell her of their awful experiences (“Afghan was no adventure story,” said one private, “My image of it is a dead peasant, all skinny with big hands,” or another in conclusion, “that’s how I remember the war – as totally absurd”). Tupper evokes the sound of the 107mm guns, and the looks of bewilderment on the faces of his young comrades, the bravery in their own overheated hummers, and the fear as blood leaks from one life to the next. The ANA is brave, Tupper says, but because of the close air support and US firepower of other kinds, the ANA will never be able to assert itself. It has come to rely on the Mirages and the F-16s. Why leave the foxhole when the bombs from the sky will clear out the Taliban? The ANA has no reason to take confident strides as long as their American training wheels are doing all the work for them (or at least trying to). As Giles Dorronsoro put it in his Carnegie report (Focus and Exit, January 2009), “the ANA will progress only when it has more responsibilities in the field.”</p>
<p>Analysts like Dorronsoro have long called for the creation of “liberated areas” (such as Kabul) to become models of a proper Afghan state. They would then be a good comparison with the lawlessness elsewhere, the argument runs, which would give other Afghans the incentive to join with the Karzai-NATO-US alliance against the Taliban. But the matter is not so simple, as McChrystal quite openly states. The Karzai government has failed, despite the loving attentions of Washington and London. The state apparatus gave “preferential treatment to certain individuals, tribes, and groups or worse, abused their power at the expense of the people.” The elite has been pampered, which is why Karzai’s Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told McChrystal, “Unlike the Russians, who destroyed our country, you came to rebuild.” Or, to translate him into plain English, the Soviets came in to defend a government that was predisposed against the elite, whereas the Americans came to make possible the return of the Afghan elite, and to oversee its reestablishment of its various indulgences.</p>
<p>Unable or unwilling to provide basic services in Kabul (where the slums of Chaman-e-Hazoori or Khoshal Khan Mina house more than half the city’s burgeoning population), the Karzai regime is even more parsimonious in the countryside. As McChrystal’s Initial Assessment put it, there is “little connection between the central government and the local populations, particularly in rural areas. The top-down approach to developing government capacity has failed to provide services that reach local communities.” This criticism could be turned as much against the U. S. commanders as the Western Non-Governmental Organizations. Tupper tells stories of computer equipment ordered for local governments in relatively safe areas, and then not turned in because an American commander told him that the Afghans “would just break them, sell them or steal them.” Oxfam’s March 26 study, Smart Development in Practice: Field Report from Afghanistan points out that “Many [foreign] contractors are widely regarded as inefficient, absorbing a huge volume of funds in consultant costs and profits while providing work that is of variable quality, relevance and impact, and all done with very little transparency.” McChrystal points in this direction with some strong words, “Too often these projects enrich power-brokers, corrupt officials, or international contractors and serve only limited segments of the population” As one young Afghan man told former UN advisor Clare Lockhart, “we may be illiterate. But we are not stupid” (“The Failed State We’re In,” Prospect, June 2008). McChrystal relies on bromides (“Success requires a stronger Afghan government that is seen by the Afghan people as working in their interests”), but he has just poured chloral hydrate over the entire experiment.</p>
<p>If the Karzai regime has failed to go to the people, the treacherous Taliban somehow seem to hold their attention. Here the Initial Assessment provides the most honest appraisal coming from Washington. The Taliban has a loose alliance with the Haqqani network (possibly the closest in organizational terms to Bin Laden) and the CIA’s old chum Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami. The last has no base to speak of, although the Haqqani network has its own strength in Khost as well as in Pakistan’s Waziristan. The new Taliban base is in the prison system (the Taliban, as McChrysal puts it, “have gone from inaccessible mountain hideouts to recruiting and indoctrinating hiding in the open,” in the Afghan Correctional System). Its traditional base is in the South. “Afghanistan’s insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan,” McChrystal notes, but “the insurgency in Afghanistan is predominantly Afghan.” In other words, the drone attacks will disrupt the Taliban operations, but they are not going to provide the kind of alternative to the Taliban that the Afghan people would like. It is a workaday assumption in Islamabad and Lahore that the NATO-US withdrawal will bring the Taliban to power on both sides of the Durand Line; the Initial Assessment is dour on the military strategy that straddles Af-Pak.</p>
<p>The Taliban, meanwhile, runs a “shadow government” in Afghanistan, dispensing its version of justice and providing order where it can. As McChrytal’s Initial Assessment puts it, the Taliban has created an “establishment of ombudsmen to investigate abuses of power in its own cadres and remove those found guilty. [This] capitalizes on [the Karzai-run Afghan states’] weakness and attracts popular support for this shadow government.” The historian Sultan-i-Rome made the same argument to explain why the “Pakistani Taliban” found a foothold in the Swat Valley (they dispensed justice much faster than the Pakistani courts, where bribery often moves cases at the pace required by the largest transfer of cash) [“Swat: A Critical Analysis,” Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, January 2009]. It is to be noted that political Islam in Somalia is also carried on the wings of justice, with the Islamic Courts Union promising to settle disputes with more transparency than the previous regimes.</p>
<p>The Taliban’s harshness brought a kind of order that can allow those in chaos to feel nostalgic. As long as disorder prevails, the Taliban can count on their stock being high. When Hekmatyar and Ahmed Shah Massoud tried out their version of the Taliban ideology in the 1970s (as university students, when they threw acid in the faces of women students), they found only a few hardened takers. It took the arms and funds from the Saudis and the CIA to help people like them and the younger generation (in the Taliban) to win the argument against the more secular and generous current; what must have drawn European parliamentarian Nicole Fontaine to invite Massoud to speak to the European Parliament in April 2001. It might be worth mentioning that it was the Asia Foundation that sowed the seeds of political Islam’s rising in Afghanistan’s universities, funding departments of Islamic theology and the Naqshabandi Mojadidi family (as remembered by Asia Foundation employees Rose and John Bannigan). It is now an irony of history that the Taliban can appear as Order against chaos, despite their deep antipathy to women and to social freedoms of all kinds. At least McChrystal’s Initial Assessment is not blinded by its aversion to the Taliban to see that it might have an appeal among sections of the people.</p>
<p>In The Quiet American (1955), Graham Greene wrote of the officials who went to Vietnam, that they were “impregnably armored by [their] good intentions and [their] ignorance.” McChrystal now wants the US to send along people who are “Afghan Hands,” or at least to train the soldiers about the complexity of Afghanistan. Tupper tells a funny story about his training, where the officer in charge at Camp Selby, Mississippi told them what to expect in Iraq, and when reminded that the troops were to go to Afghanistan, replied, “Well….I don’t know how they do it in Afghanistan, but this is how we do it in Iraq.” One haji or the other, it matters little if civilization is being brought by the barrel of an M240 Bravo. Robert McNamara said the same sort of thing. He quoted Diem, who told a visiting journalist, “The Americans are breaking Vietnamese psychology and they don’t even know they are doing it” (Argument Without End, p. 377). The wheel turns: enter a war zone with the expectation that the heavy armor will coerce the population into electing a favorable head of state; if this fails, then take refuge in your anthropologists, who will find a quick way to “nativize” the war and help you clamber onto the helicopters. The country you have left behind is now more of a humanitarian disaster than when you self-righteously flew in on the wings of humanitarian interventionism.</p>
<p>“We must never confuse the situation as it stands with the one we desire,” General McChrystal writes, “lest we risk our credibility.” As it stands, the call for more troops by itself is senseless. And to even retain NATO-US troops would provide little incentive for the ANA, who have come to rely upon the overwhelming air power of the NATO-US alliance (one that overwhelmingly kills civilians, once more distancing the Karzai government from the people). If you follow McChrystal’s logic to the end, there is no reason for the US-NATO occupation to continue. The only exit strategy is to exit.</p>
<p>Liberalism is enamored with its own ideals. It would like to proclaim its values, thrust them on the world even if this means it must come by force. In the 1960s and 1970s, the progressive dynamic in Afghanistan held the day. Mohammed Daoud’s regime moved a far-seeing agenda, and it won the support of upwardly mobile students and merchants, as well as the nationalists who wanted to revise the 1893 Durand line that separated the Pashtun speakers between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Daoud was canny (“I feel happy when I can light my American cigarette with a Russian match”). When his cousin Zahir Shah sat back on the throne in 1964, he could not go back on Daoud’s reforms, and nor would the country let him.</p>
<p>The Communists filled up the ranks of the military and the teachers’ unions, building their strength among the peasantry and the lower middle class who lived in the small towns, many now destroyed. Rather than support this dynamic, Cold War liberals and their hawkish allies in the American Right opened their hearts to political Islam and did all they could to break Afghanistan’s back. The Soviet invasion came in when the progressive dynamic had already been grievously damaged by the Holy War set in play from Washington and Riyadh (as well as Islamabad). The Soviet Central Committee spent three days in debate over intervention, with Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin pointing out, “Instead of sending our troops there, we should tell [the Afghan Communist leadership] to change their tactics.” KGB Director Yuri Andropov put the point sharply, “I do not think we can uphold the revolution in Afghanistan with the help of our bayonets. The idea is intolerable and we cannot risk it.” But they did, to their peril.</p>
<p>The Soviet hesitancy came in large part from being motivated not so much by the politics of proclamation, but by the politics of programs. A program must precisely assess the nature of politics on the ground, and make a judgment on how best to nudge history along. An honest, incontrovertible program today suggests that the NATO-US must set a timetable to withdraw. Afghanistan needs a political process, and even the hardened Taliban have made it clear that absent NATO and the U. S., they would come to the table, with regional partners taking their seats in the gallery, ready to offer assistance in a generous manner and not carrying forward their own problems into the room.</p>
<p>VIJAY PRASHAD is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His new book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565847857/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World,</a> New York: The New Press, 2007. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | McChrystal’s Afghan Desolation | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/09/30/mcchrystal-s-afghan-desolation/ | 2009-09-30 | 4 |
<p>BRYAN, Texas (AP) — Police have found the bodies of three people in a Central Texas apartment, each with gunshot wounds, after the three were reported as failing to show up for work.</p>
<p>Bryan police identified the three as 54-year-old Melvin Nathan Benefield, his 46-year-old wife Virginia Ann Winzenried Benefield and their 65-year-old neighbor Larry Darnell Davis.</p>
<p>A police statement says autopsies have been ordered to determine if the gunshot wounds were the cause of the three deaths. There is no word yet on motive or if any suspects are sought. However, investigators say they do not believe the public is in any danger.</p>
<p>Bryan is 90 miles (144 kilometers) northwest of Houston.</p>
<p>BRYAN, Texas (AP) — Police have found the bodies of three people in a Central Texas apartment, each with gunshot wounds, after the three were reported as failing to show up for work.</p>
<p>Bryan police identified the three as 54-year-old Melvin Nathan Benefield, his 46-year-old wife Virginia Ann Winzenried Benefield and their 65-year-old neighbor Larry Darnell Davis.</p>
<p>A police statement says autopsies have been ordered to determine if the gunshot wounds were the cause of the three deaths. There is no word yet on motive or if any suspects are sought. However, investigators say they do not believe the public is in any danger.</p>
<p>Bryan is 90 miles (144 kilometers) northwest of Houston.</p> | Police: 3 people discovered dead in Central Texas apartment | false | https://apnews.com/7cf2ab6a57ed43bb98ca8b444c2b42b8 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
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<p>When President Barack Obama signed a bill in September 2010 allowing conversions of 401(k) funds to a Roth 401(k), plan participants faced a decision: Should they convert their 401(k) or 403(b) plan to a Roth?</p>
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<p>If you're considering this move, it may or may not be available to you. In the first place, your employer plan must include a Roth 401(k) or Roth 403(b) option for all its workers. Many still do not. And separately, your plan must allow such a conversion.</p>
<p>Popularity of Roth 401(k)s</p>
<p>Roth 401(k)s have been growing in popularity since the Pension Protection Act of 2006 granted them permanent status. (Originally they were set to expire in December 2010). A law relaxing in-plan conversion requirements was passed in 2012.</p>
<p>Still, they're not offered by all companies. A study released in April 2014 by Aon Hewitt Associates, a human resources consultant, found that half of mid- to large-size companies offered Roth accounts to their employees.</p>
<p>Fewer companies allow a conversion. The Aon Hewitt survey found that only 27% of plan sponsors allowed in-plan Roth 401(k) conversions in 2013.</p>
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<p>That may be because many employees don't take advantage of a Roth 401(k) option even if their employer offers it, says Amy Reynolds, a partner at Mercer, a human resources consultant.</p>
<p>It's true. In the Aon Hewitt study, 11% of plan participants with access to a Roth elected to invest in it.</p>
<p>"If you have low numbers using the Roth option, do you want to go to the trouble of adding the Roth conversion?" Reynolds asks.</p>
<p>Besides getting employers on board with offering Roth 401(k) conversions, a few other hurdles stand between workers and what the IRS calls an in-plan Roth 401(k) rollover.</p>
<p>Requirements for conversion among participants</p>
<p>Conversions must be done directly from the regular 401(k) to the Roth. That means you cannot take out the money yourself and then put the amount into a Roth 401(k) within 60 days.</p>
<p>"The plan could permit you to convert that money once it's vested -- if it has been in the plan for 2 years or if you've been a participant for 5 years," says Judy Miller, chief of actuarial issues and director of retirement policy for the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries.</p>
<p>Remember that plan rules vary from employer to employer. The IRS guidelines may be more lenient than what is permitted by your plan.</p>
<p>A taxing decision</p>
<p>Once you're eligible for converting to a Roth 401(k), another hurdle emerges: paying <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/taxes.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">taxes Opens a New Window.</a> on the conversion.</p>
<p>Taxes must be paid because contributions to a 401(k) are made on a pretax basis. Contributions to a Roth 401(k) are made after taxes.</p>
<p>Therefore, moving money out of the regular 401(k) and into the Roth 401(k) is a taxable event. Tax is owed on the entire value of the conversion -- contributions and earnings -- in the tax year the conversion is done.</p>
<p>And there's the rub: Workers will need a bundle of cash to pay Uncle Sam to convert.</p>
<p>"You really need to have money from another source to pay the taxes. If, in fact, you take the money out of the plan to pay the taxes, you have taken a distribution, which is taxable to you," says Beth Gamel, CPA and managing director of Argent Wealth Management in Waltham, Massachusetts. Translation: You'll pay taxes on the money that you withdraw for the purpose of paying taxes.</p>
<p>Paying the tax with funds from the employer-sponsored plan lowers the amount you have saved for retirement and can diminish the benefit of converting to a Roth.</p>
<p>Other considerations</p>
<p>Participants under age 59 1/2 in plans offering the option of converting employer contributions would want to avoid paying taxes with funds from their 401(k), even if their plan would let them get the money out, as there would be a 10% penalty on the early distribution in addition to taxes owed.</p>
<p>Timing may be important when it comes to converting from a 401(k) to a Roth. If the market is soaring and your investments have increased in value, more taxes may be owed on the earnings.</p>
<p>Unlike a Roth IRA conversion, workers can't change their minds after pulling the trigger on the rollover. Participants in a 401(k) do not have the option of recharacterizing their 401(k) conversions.</p>
<p>"With the traditional IRA to Roth IRA conversion, if you see that the market goes down precipitously between now and when you have to file your tax return, you can recharacterize, or get out of it -- basically saying, 'Stop the clock! I didn't really do that conversion and I'm putting all my money back into my <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/boomer-dilemma-traditional-or-roth-ira-1.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">traditional IRA Opens a New Window.</a>,'" says Gamel.</p>
<p>No such option exists for 401(k) conversions; workers will have to divine the best time to do their conversion.</p>
<p>Despite the burden of paying a mint in taxes in one year, converting to a Roth 401(k) can be advantageous for some workers.</p>
<p>Aside from tax-free withdrawals in retirement, Roth 401(k)s have another advantage. Unlike Roth IRAs, which have no required minimum distributions, Roth 401(k)s do require that you take distributions by age 70 1/2. But you can get around this rule by directly rolling over your Roth 401(k) to a Roth IRA when you leave your employer. That way, retirement money that doesn't get used up in this lifetime can be passed on to heirs in the future.</p>
<p>Copyright 2015, Bankrate Inc.</p> | The 411 on Roth 401(k) Conversions | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/12/08/411-on-roth-401k-conversions.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>General Motors (NYSE:GM) said Monday it has agreed to sell European brands Opel and Vauxhall to the maker of France’s Peugeot, and CEO Mary Barra left the door open to future deals in car markets that are struggling to turn around.</p>
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<p>The Detroit-based automaker had been working on a deal with PSA Group to relinquish its money-losing European division, which last booked a profit in 1999. The companies expect to complete the $2.33 billion deal by the end of the year.</p>
<p>Barra, who has driven GM to focus on profitability over size, said the company must work on improving its businesses in other international markets. GM isn’t actively seeking out more deals like the sale of German brand Opel and the U.K.’s Vauxhall, Barra said. But executives are keeping their options open if underperforming regions show no signs of bouncing back.</p>
<p>“There are parts of the core business that we’re going to make sure are earning their way into the General Motors portfolio,” Barra said during a conference call with analysts.</p>
<p>In a separate call Monday morning, Barra clarified that GM continuously looks at every country and product line to ensure they provide a “great return.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t say we’d be looking for more deals,” Barra added.</p>
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<p>CFRA Research analyst Efraim Levy said GM seems to be evaluating some smaller international markets that contribute little to GM’s overall business.</p>
<p>“I don’t expect major transformative transactions,” Levy said in an email.</p>
<p>Europe, despite being the third-largest automobile market in the world, weighed on GM’s bottom line.</p>
<p>The region posted a loss of $300 million in 2016, although GM would have broken even there if not for a negative currency impact following the U.K.’s vote for Brexit.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, GM reported pre-tax profits in North America and its International segment, which includes China. International markets were softer last year, while results in China remained strong, GM said. The company logged a $400 million loss in South America.</p>
<p>GM toppled its previous record in North America, where pre-tax earnings jumped to $12 billion amid robust demand for lucrative SUVs and trucks.</p>
<p>The sale of Opel and Vauxhall marks GM’s effective withdrawal from Europe, where GM has sold vehicles for nearly a century. GM pulled Chevrolet out of the region last year, limiting sales to a limited number of high-performance models, such as the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette. The company’s near- to medium-term plans in Europe will remain the same, GM President Dan Ammann said. In the future, GM has the ability to re-enter Europe with new mobility services from Lyft or Maven, GM’s car-sharing service, according to Barra.</p>
<p>Under the agreement with PSA Group, GM included billions of euros to cover pension costs. Executives cited market conditions and regulatory hurdles as reasons behind the European exit. Brexit, which sparked a decline in the British pound, also contributed to the decision.</p> | GM Cuts Bait From Europe, Could Exit Other Markets | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/06/gm-cuts-bait-from-europe-could-exit-other-markets.html | 2017-03-06 | 0 |
<p>AMSTERDAM/BEIJING (Reuters) - A privately-owned Chinese auto maker has come to the rescue of <a href="" type="internal">Saab</a>, paving the way for the Swedish marque's new model to be made in <a href="" type="internal">China</a> by pumping cash into a company in danger of collapse.</p>
<p>The Chinese alliance comes only a year after tiny Dutch supercar maker Spyker bailed out the <a href="" type="internal">General Motors</a>' unit. GM retains an interest through redeemable preference shares.</p>
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<p>Loss-making Saab has veered toward collapse in recent weeks after running out of cash to pay its bills. Several suppliers stopped delivering parts, halting production at Saab's Trollhattan plant for most of last month.</p>
<p>Spyker Cars said on Tuesday Hawtai Motor Group would invest 150 million euros ($222 million) in return for shares, providing funds that will enable Saab to pay overdue bills and resume production.</p>
<p>The move marks the second time a Chinese company has invested in a top Swedish car maker, and paves the way for the new Saab 9-3 model to be produced in China, starting in 2013.</p>
<p>Zhejiang Geely, the parent of Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile Holdings &lt;0175.HK&gt;, bought Saab's Swedish rival Volvo Cars from <a href="" type="internal">Ford Motor</a> last year for $1.3 billion in cash and a $200 million note issued to Ford.</p>
<p>The Hawtai deal is one of several pulled together to stave off Saab's collapse, including share issues, the sale of Spyker's sportscar operations, proposals to borrow more, and to sell and lease back Saab's real estate.</p>
<p>"Saab is now well financed. It has secured its short and mid-term financing needs," Chief Executive Victor Muller said.</p>
<p>"That puts the credit crunch that the company went through in April to bed."</p>
<p>The Hawtai-Spyker deal still needs <a href="" type="internal">Chinese government</a> approvals, a hurdle that some Chinese overseas deals have failed to cross, for example, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery's bid for GM's <a href="" type="internal">Hummer</a> in 2010.</p>
<p>Muller said it would take six to 12 weeks to obtain local permits, and that Hawtai would pay the first installment of its investment within 10 days.</p>
<p>Patrick Beijersbergen of Dutch shareholders group VEB was sceptical.</p>
<p>"The deal is not sealed yet. We have seen this with other takeovers or participations," he said, adding it was too early to say if the deal would increase Saab's chances of survival.</p>
<p>GREAT LEAP FORWARD</p>
<p>China's Hawtai makes SUV and passenger cars, and has production capacity for 300,000 clean diesel engines, 450,000 transmissions and 350,000 vehicles, according to its website.</p>
<p>Founded in 2005, it is owned by entrepreneur Zhang Xiugen who was first listed on the <a href="" type="internal">Forbes</a> 400 Richest Chinese list in 2005, when at the age of 44 he ranked 368th with an estimated net worth of $62 million.</p>
<p>Initially, Saabs produced in Sweden will be imported and distributed in China. Muller said production of the new Saab 9-3, due to start in October 2012, will begin in China in 2013, for sale in the local Chinese market. Saabs produced in Sweden will be sold in Europe and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Hawtai vice president Richard Zhang said the companies would set up a joint venture with a sales target of 100,000 to 200,000 cars per year in China. Rival Volvo Cars has said it wants to sell up to 200,000 cars a year in China by 2015.</p>
<p>Spyker, which wants to boost sales and explore production in fast-growing <a href="" type="internal">emerging markets</a>, including China and Russia, as well as Brazil and India, said on Tuesday that Hawtai will pay 120 million euros for a 29.9 percent stake in the firm, short of the threshold that would trigger a takeover offer.</p>
<p>Spyker has struggled to turn Saab around, producing only 31,700 cars last year. It set a sales target of 80,000 vehicles for 2011, but last week said it would fail to meet that.</p>
<p>As Spyker faced a cash crisis, it scrambled to raise funds from shareholders -- who include Muller, a Middle Eastern fund, and Gemini Investment Fund Ltd which is controlled by a Lithuanian businessman -- and from new investors and banks.</p>
<p>Muller said it was unclear what the final shareholder structure would look like following the various proposed deals.</p>
<p>Spyker said on Monday it had agreed a 30 million euro convertible loan with Gemini and that it would draw 29.1 million euros on its loan from the <a href="" type="internal">European Investment Bank</a>.</p>
<p>Vladimir Antonov, a Russian businessman and former shareholder in Spyker who was forced by GM to relinquish his stake, also proposed buying a 29.9 percent stake in Spyker for up to 30 million euros, and agreed to buy Saab's real estate and plant and lease it back to release cash.</p>
<p>Those deals have been held up after the EIB imposed terms Saab did not agree with. The EIB is also still to decide whether Antonov can become a shareholder of Spyker-Saab again.</p>
<p>He has said he has cleared his name and Sweden's Debt Office, which has guaranteed the EIB loan, has approved Antonov's return.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block and Gilbert Kreijger in Amsterdam, Wan Xu in Beijing, and Lee Chyen Yee in Hong Kong; Writing by Sara Webb; Editing by Chris Wickham, Louise Heavens and Mike Nesbit)</p>
<p>($1=0.6753 euros)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Saab rescued by Chinese automaker | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/05/03/saab-rescued-by-chinese-automaker.html | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
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<p>&#160; &#160; “Day of Judgment,” by Laura Ford. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pahudson" type="external">(Paul Hudson /</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" type="external">CC BY 2.0)</a></p>
<p>Business Insider reported Tuesday that “mysterious, insulting statues of ‘rat bankers’ have appeared in the City of London,” with no indication as to who made them. The question, the publication pondered, is who exactly is being insulted: the bankers who robbed the world blind without qualms or the rodents?</p>
<p>The mystery was resolved Wednesday, when the publication claimed to have solved the puzzle.</p>
<p />
<p>From Business Insider:</p>
<p>Statues that appear to depict bankers as black rats in the City of London are actually statues of cats.</p>
<p>The installation is Laura Ford’s Days of Judgment and it’s part of the City of London’s Sculpture in the City event. … There wasn’t a placard from the artist claiming credit, or title, when we first saw them yesterday. Just a sign saying “Please do not climb.”</p>
<p>They’re right in the middle of a cluster of bank offices and branches on Bishopsgate, outside the Deutsche Bank office and across from branches of HSBC and Lloyds – and a two minute walk from the Bank of England.</p>
<p>Read <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rat-banker-statues-in-london-are-cats-2015-7" type="external">more</a>.</p>
<p>Be they rats or cats, the statues seem to serve more as a Rorschach test than an art installation.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p> | 'Rat Banker' Statues That Popped Up in London's Finance District Turn Out to Be Cats | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/rat-banker-statues-that-popped-up-in-londons-finance-district-turn-out-to-be-cats/ | 2015-07-29 | 4 |
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<p>If you have little kids, you probably see college expenses as some distant cloud hardly deserving attention. But as your kids age, that cloud gets closer, darker, and larger, until suddenly you realize it's a raging storm that threatens to wreck your personal finances. The sooner you start dealing with the likelihood of that storm, the better your finances will weather it.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Here are seven clever ways to get ahead of the college finance situation.</p>
<p>Have your kid apply for the small scholarships. When you're facing a college bill in the tens of thousands, applying for the $250 Lions Club scholarship might seem like a waste of time. It's not, and here's why&amp; First, obviously, it is some money. A few of those little scholarships can add up to serious money. Second, college financial aid officers like it when a student brings third-party money to the pot, and may sweeten the package in order to attract that student. For example, if two students with similar qualifications and financial needs apply, but one brings along a few small scholarships, the financial aid office may offer a more lucrative overall package to the student with the scholarships. Ironic? Yes, but it makes sense.</p>
<p>Put your kid to work looking for those scholarships. Tell your daughter to spend one hour per week during her junior year in high school seeking and applying for scholarships. Have her look for scholarships related to her ethnicity, your line of work, your geography, her interests, clubs, hobbies, etc. There are thousands of scholarships available in countless niches. If your child scores one decent scholarship, her effort could be worth way more than a summer's worth of flipping burgers.</p>
<p>Have your kid take a few Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Yes, these courses are hard, and not every kid can hack it. But having taken a few AP courses looks good on a college application (which can increase the financial aid package in itself), and most colleges provide bona fide college credit for successful AP tests. That can mean serious savings down the road. The catch is that colleges differ as to what scores on the AP test they accept; if a student gets a 5 on an AP test, he'll get credit at just about any college, but if he gets a 3, many colleges will not give credit. The subject plays a role, too - a 3 in chemistry is more likely to be accepted than a 3 in history.</p>
<p>Look for more money the second year. Once your son is accepted and working his way through freshman year, start looking for more money for his sophomore year. Students drop out during their freshman year in large numbers, so it stands to reason that many previously claimed scholarships become suddenly unclaimed. Your son should visit the school's financial aid office and ask for options about increasing his package.</p>
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<p>Consider junior college classes, even in high school. There's no question that junior colleges and community colleges cost less than four-year colleges, but many students want to get away from home and start a four-year college as soon as possible. That doesn't mean they can't take advantage of junior colleges. If they take one or two core classes each summer or in the evening during their senior year of high school, they will probably not have to take the same classes at their four-year school. Just make sure the credits all transfer.</p>
<p>Start saving early. Okay, this is obvious, but many parents assume that their incomes will rise proportionately with childcare and education costs&amp; And many of them realize how wrong they were when the first giant tuition bill arrives. Find a good college savings account and start dumping money into it the day the baby is born. You'll need it!</p>
<p>Finally, choose your college wisely. This is another obvious one, but you may not know the deal. Some state schools actively seek out-of-state students and give them good deals, which means forcing your kid to attend the local state college is not necessarily the most financially prudent move. And private colleges, many of which have giant tuitions, often give away more financial aid than state schools. And they don't care what state you live in, so the in-state issue is moot. If your kid wants to go far away to school, take the time to shop around. You may be surprised to find that you don't have to pay any more than if Johnny stayed close to home.</p>
<p>What other suggestions do you have for helping pay for your kids to go to college?</p>
<p>The original article can be found at FiveCentNickel.com: Seven Clever Ways to Pay for Your Kids' College</p> | Seven Clever Ways to Pay for Your Kids' College | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/08/30/seven-clever-ways-to-pay-for-your-kids-college.html | 2017-02-08 | 0 |
<p>MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Jose Mourinho appeared to be in the dark about the progress of Manchester United’s attempt to sign Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez in a potential swap for Henrikh Mkhitaryan.</p>
<p>Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola seemed to know more.</p>
<p>“I think he is going to go to United,” Guardiola said about Sanchez, “so congratulations for both of them.”</p>
<p>The transfer that has been the talk of English soccer this month still wasn’t completed Friday, with Sanchez remaining an Arsenal player heading into the latest round of Premier League matches this weekend.</p>
<p>United and Arsenal are in negotiations over a swap deal involving Sanchez and Mkhitaryan, with Mourinho saying he wasn’t sure what was behind the hold-up.</p>
<p>“When it goes to the table of negotiations, I like to be out,” Mourinho said. “I will just be calmly waiting for news, no more than that.</p>
<p>“Not done. Not done at all,” Mourinho added, when asked if he had an update. “So, in this moment, Mkhitaryan is our player, Sanchez an Arsenal player.”</p>
<p>Mkhitaryan trained with United on Friday but has been left out of the squad to play Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday. He was also omitted by United for its 3-0 win over Stoke on Monday.</p>
<p>The Armenia midfielder is key to the deal, with Arsenal potentially only allowing Sanchez to leave if the team gets a replacement.</p>
<p>Across town, at a Man City news conference held concurrently with United’s, Guardiola spoke like a man who was ready to move on from the Sanchez saga.</p>
<p>City was close to signing Sanchez last year, but a deal fell through on the final day of the transfer window. The Premier League leaders looked to be favorites to sign him when the transfer market reopened this month, yet ended their interest when Sanchez and his agent increased their financial demands.</p>
<p>“Players, when they have contenders (for their signature), decide where they want to play, even their managers (agents) decide where they want to play,” Guardiola said. “They’ve decided that. Good luck.”</p>
<p>Liverpool tried to sign Sanchez in 2014 — when the Chile forward chose instead to join Arsenal from Barcelona — and wasn’t prepared to make a new bid for him 3 1/2 years later.</p>
<p>Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said signing Sanchez “makes sense for pretty much each team in the world.”</p>
<p>“I have nothing to say about the numbers,” Klopp said, “but I cannot imagine that Manchester City leaves the race because of money.</p>
<p>“Maybe it’s because there are two opportunities in Manchester, and if you think you can go to one or the other, then maybe one club thinks I don’t want him anymore. It’s not about money, I’m sure.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Steve Douglas is at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/sdouglas80" type="external">www.twitter.com/sdouglas80</a></p>
<p>MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Jose Mourinho appeared to be in the dark about the progress of Manchester United’s attempt to sign Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez in a potential swap for Henrikh Mkhitaryan.</p>
<p>Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola seemed to know more.</p>
<p>“I think he is going to go to United,” Guardiola said about Sanchez, “so congratulations for both of them.”</p>
<p>The transfer that has been the talk of English soccer this month still wasn’t completed Friday, with Sanchez remaining an Arsenal player heading into the latest round of Premier League matches this weekend.</p>
<p>United and Arsenal are in negotiations over a swap deal involving Sanchez and Mkhitaryan, with Mourinho saying he wasn’t sure what was behind the hold-up.</p>
<p>“When it goes to the table of negotiations, I like to be out,” Mourinho said. “I will just be calmly waiting for news, no more than that.</p>
<p>“Not done. Not done at all,” Mourinho added, when asked if he had an update. “So, in this moment, Mkhitaryan is our player, Sanchez an Arsenal player.”</p>
<p>Mkhitaryan trained with United on Friday but has been left out of the squad to play Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday. He was also omitted by United for its 3-0 win over Stoke on Monday.</p>
<p>The Armenia midfielder is key to the deal, with Arsenal potentially only allowing Sanchez to leave if the team gets a replacement.</p>
<p>Across town, at a Man City news conference held concurrently with United’s, Guardiola spoke like a man who was ready to move on from the Sanchez saga.</p>
<p>City was close to signing Sanchez last year, but a deal fell through on the final day of the transfer window. The Premier League leaders looked to be favorites to sign him when the transfer market reopened this month, yet ended their interest when Sanchez and his agent increased their financial demands.</p>
<p>“Players, when they have contenders (for their signature), decide where they want to play, even their managers (agents) decide where they want to play,” Guardiola said. “They’ve decided that. Good luck.”</p>
<p>Liverpool tried to sign Sanchez in 2014 — when the Chile forward chose instead to join Arsenal from Barcelona — and wasn’t prepared to make a new bid for him 3 1/2 years later.</p>
<p>Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said signing Sanchez “makes sense for pretty much each team in the world.”</p>
<p>“I have nothing to say about the numbers,” Klopp said, “but I cannot imagine that Manchester City leaves the race because of money.</p>
<p>“Maybe it’s because there are two opportunities in Manchester, and if you think you can go to one or the other, then maybe one club thinks I don’t want him anymore. It’s not about money, I’m sure.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Steve Douglas is at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/sdouglas80" type="external">www.twitter.com/sdouglas80</a></p> | United waits on Sanchez-Mkhitaryan swap deal, City moves on | false | https://apnews.com/24f501e65698481ba94d797e47f7d1a7 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>As we watch the political debates and read all the press clippings, the word "hypocrisy" seems to be the word of the moment.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What exactly &#160;is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is someone pretending to be something he or she is not. I got to thinking about investors and how hypocritical they are today.</p>
<p>On one hand, we project &#160;that we are long-term investors who have many years before we either retire or need to live off of our investments. However, on the other hand, we invest as though we are schizophrenics who are fearful of every headline that hits, and as a result are buying and selling on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Researchers at Harvard conducted a study a number of years ago and found that people are 2.5 times more emotionally upset about losing 10% of their money than they are ecstatic about making 10%. This is probably the reason this emotional selling occurs.</p>
<p>Investors are often sold on long-term investment plans from their advisors, and are quoted historical returns over 3-, 7-, and 10-year historical time horizons. However, due to 24/7 access to information via television, radio, Internet and mobile devices, we constantly face emotional battles and second-guess our decisions.</p>
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<p>After 25 years of managing money for individuals, I have come to realize that my job has become more and more a job of psychologically analyzing the emotions of my clients and then overlaying a strategy that takes their mindset into consideration.</p>
<p>The two most powerful words in the world are “fear” and “faith” and they both cannot co-exist when it comes to investing. &#160;An investor can either have faith in the economic system and try to ignore the barrage of headlines hour-to-hour and day-to-day or they can succumb to the fear that the world is on the brink of collapse.</p>
<p>As advisors and investors we all have a responsibility to become educated and make rational decisions on which word we're going to live by. Will it be faith or fear? Here are some points to help you decide.</p>
<p>FAITH &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;• It is important to recognize that going back in the stock market for the past 200 years there have only been two 10-year rolling time periods where an investor lost money. From 1927 to 1937 an investor lost 1.23% per year and from 1928-1938 an investor lost 2.07%. Even a faithful investor during the Great Depression was not wiped-out. In fact, if they had remained invested for the following five years, they would have even made a substantial amount of money.</p>
<p>FEAR &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;• When investors succumb to fear, they tend to rush into government guaranteed investments. Unfortunately, today the largest percentage of an investor’s money is sitting in either short-term government bonds or money market funds. As <a href="" type="internal">Newt Gingrich</a> said, "I am sorry if the facts make you uncomfortable" but here they are:</p>
<p>Had you been an investor in short-term six month CDs or U.S. Treasury bills since 1970 and continued to roll back into that investment every time they matured, after taxes and inflation you would have eroded your purchasing power by 2.07% per year. As a result, $100,000 invested over the past 41 years would have lost a whopping 60% purchasing power. That’s right, after adding the income received for your CD then subtracting taxes paid and subtracting the Bureau of Labor Statistics rate for inflation, you would have lost 60 % purchasing power.</p>
<p>No one can predict with a high degree of confidence what will happen in the short run. However in the long run, if you allow fear to win you over then you will most likely guarantee yourself a substantial loss of purchasing power over the next five years.</p>
<p>I feel very strongly that a high inflation period is about to occur in the United States and worldwide. Learn how to build a constructive portfolio that has growth and income at its core, and focus on your performance versus your investment performance.</p>
<p>Ed Butowsky is an internationally recognized wealth manager. His upcoming book titled "Are You Committing Financial Suicide?" is expected to be released this spring.</p> | The Hypocrisy of Today's Investor | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/01/23/hypocrisy-todays-investor.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>Enrique S. Cavazos, 31, is facing a sentence of four to 10 years in prison for trafficking and money laundering. Lindsey A. Cavazos, 32, who pleaded guilty to money laundering, is facing a recommended sentence of five years’ probation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.</p>
<p>The couple were indicted after a two-year investigation by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation into a drug trafficking organization led by Enrique Cavazos that cultivated and purchased high-grade pot in California, and then distributed it throughout New Mexico and across the country, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.</p>
<p>The indictment also alleged that Lindsey Cavazos was responsible for keeping the books on businesses – including an Albuquerque restaurant and car dealership – she and her husband established with proceeds from their trafficking and to launder drug proceeds.</p>
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<p>A superseding indictment added money laundering charges against three defendants: Steven Becerra, 61, owner of the Becerra Group Tax and Accounting Firm in Albuquerque, who previously was employed by the Internal Revenue Service for 18 years; Deborah Gutierrez, 54, who operated Automated Financial Technologies; and Glen F. Lucero, 65, a retired schoolteacher.</p>
<p>As part of their plea agreements, the Cavazoses must forfeit the following:</p>
<p>• Their $468,000 Tijeras home;</p>
<p>• Five properties in Las Vegas, N.M., valued at just under $550,000;</p>
<p>• $104,513 in nine bank accounts in the names of companies owned and controlled by the couple;</p>
<p>• 18 vehicles with a total value of $177,500;</p>
<p>• Two Rolex watches valued at $35,600;</p>
<p>• $473,040 in cash; and</p>
<p>• The fixtures and equipment from Café Bien, a restaurant formerly located on Central Avenue SW in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Sentencing hearings for Enrique Cavazos, who is in custody, and Lindsey Cavazos, who is out on conditions of release, have not been scheduled.</p>
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<p /> | Tijeras couple plead guilty in marijuana trafficking case | false | https://abqjournal.com/1008137/tijeras-couple-plead-guilty-in-pot-trafficking-case.html | 2017-05-24 | 2 |
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<p>To see folks’ devotion for the ring-shaped confection, look no further than an early morning at Manny Randazzo King Cakes in suburban Metairie. Despite frigid weather and rain, the line began forming a half-hour before the 6:30 a.m. opening on Jan. 6.</p>
<p>“To me, it’s the best in the city,” said Drew Boston, 23. “It just depends on what you like. What kind of cake you want, what kind of icing you want, what kind of toppings you want.” Boston takes the cakes to his mother in Baton Rouge on the weekends — she’s loyal to the Randazzo brand.</p>
<p>Until Mardi Gras ends Feb. 28, king cakes are everywhere. People bring them to the office. Lawyers ship them to clients. Families eat them watching the parades. Neighborhood bars serve them — nothing goes better with beer than dough, cinnamon and frosting.</p>
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<p>Rules are a big part of the king cake tradition — but for every one, there’s probably an exception. Among the traditions: Jan. 6 kicks off the season because it commemorates the day the three kings visited baby Jesus, and it marks the start of Carnival season. The cakes usually disappear after Fat Tuesday. And inside, there’s a favor — most often a tiny plastic baby. The person who gets it is supposed to buy the next king cake. The cakes are generally colored with the New Orleans Mardi Gras tri-color of purple, green and gold.</p>
<p>King cakes can be found as “rosca de reyes” in many Spanish-speaking countries and “galette de rois” in France. Still, few places take the tradition as seriously as New Orleans, where everyone seems to be wiping the signature colored sugar from their mouths. Here, it’s not just eating king cake that’s important; it’s the kind of king cake you pick. Everyone has a favorite, from locals to natives who’ve long moved away. They wax poetically about Haydel’s frosting, McKenzie’s simplicity or Cake Cafe’s bold apple goat cheese.</p>
<p>Todd Duvio’s family moved away years ago but hand carried four king cakes on the return flight to California after Christmas. “My household is very split on king cakes,” he said. “One of my sons is strictly Manny Randazzo’s, and he will not eat anything else. … My wife likes Haydel’s.”</p>
<p>Many bakery preferences have been around for decades. Jackie-Sue Scelfo, a Gambino’s Bakery spokeswoman, says it’s often based on what people were brought up on, what Mom and Grandma ate.</p>
<p>“The people from here, I find they are very loyal — whether it’s their bakery or their bank,” she said.</p>
<p>McKenzie’s, a longtime New Orleans bakery chain, inspired that kind of loyalty with a fairly simple king cake with no fillings, brushed with simple syrup and sprinkled with colored sugar. The cake is so popular it sort of came back from the dead: McKenzie’s went out of business, but bakery chain Tastee Corp. bought the recipes. Tastee started selling the old-school McKenzie king cake around 2003 or 2004.</p>
<p>“People were coming from all over: ‘Is it true? Is it true?'” said David Simoneaux, president of Tastee. “I think it is just the simplicity of it. I think it just brings back a lot of memories.”</p>
<p>Still, new bakeries and king cakes gain devotees every day. And people who are new to New Orleans feel passionately, too. Maggie Scales, executive pastry chef for the Donald Link Restaurant Group, moved to the city six years ago, knowing nothing of king cakes or the rush surrounding them. Now she oversees a pastry empire that includes traditional French-style king cake (two layers of puff pastry with almond cream in the middle and none of that American colored sugar), a more New Orleans-style king cake in an oval shape, and the Elvis king cake which is as decadent as the king himself. She’s even experimented with a peanut butter and jelly king cake.</p>
<p>But for her and many others in New Orleans, you don’t experiment with one king tradition: timing.</p>
<p>“Jan. 6. That’s when you can officially have your first slice of king cake, and it’s a huge day,” she says. “People have been asking since the beginning of December, and I have held true to Jan. 6.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Rebecca Santana on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ruskygal .</p> | During Mardi Gras season, tradition takes the (king) cake | false | https://abqjournal.com/927487/during-mardi-gras-season-tradition-takes-the-king-cake.html | 2017-01-13 | 2 |
<p>For the third time since 2008, Nevada’s top water regulator will convene a hearing in Carson City that could decide the fate of the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s plans to siphon groundwater from four rural valleys in eastern Nevada.</p>
<p>Starting at 8:30 a.m. Monday, State Engineer Jason King is slated to hear two weeks of testimony for and against the controversial, multibillion-dollar project.</p>
<p>The hearing on 25 groundwater applications could decide how much the authority would be allowed to pump from Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys in Lincoln County and Spring Valley in White Pine County.</p>
<p>Water authority spokesman Bronson Mack called it “a significant stage in the permitting process.”</p>
<p>Simeon Herskovits, attorney for some opponents of the project, put it another way: “I guess you could say everything is at stake,” he said.</p>
<p>Just don’t expect a ruling anytime soon.</p>
<p>“It will be months,” said Susan Joseph-Taylor, deputy administrator for the Nevada Division of Water Resources. “These things take a while to put together. They’re complicated.”</p>
<p>Water not yet needed</p>
<p>Since 1989, Las Vegas water officials have been pushing plans to tap groundwater up to 300 miles away as a backup supply for a growing community that gets 90 percent of its drinking water from the overdrawn and drought-stricken Colorado River.</p>
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<p>The idea has drawn fierce opposition in Nevada and Utah from rural residents, ranchers, American Indian tribes, conservationists, outdoor enthusiasts and even the Mormon Church, which operates a large cattle ranch in Spring Valley. Critics argue the project will drain a large swath of arid eastern Nevada, destroying the landscape and the livelihoods of those who depend on it — all while producing too little water to justify the project’s roughly $15 billion price tag.</p>
<p>The authority is counting on the network of wells and pipelines to supply enough water for at least 170,000 homes, though the agency does not expect to need the water for at least 15 to 20 years.</p>
<p>Almost three-quarters of the groundwater for the project is expected to come from Spring Valley.</p>
<p>Authority officials have spent tens of millions of dollars on permitting and prep work for the pipeline. At the moment, they have little to show for it.</p>
<p>In 2012, King granted the authority permission to pump up to 84,000 acre-feet a year from the four valleys, but a district court ruling in 2013 struck down that decision, effectively stripping the SNWA of the water it needs to fill its pipeline.</p>
<p>More fighting to come</p>
<p>It wasn’t the first time, either.</p>
<p>A decade ago, the authority won permission to pump almost 79,000 acre-feet a year from Cave, Dry Lake, Delamar and Spring valleys, only to see the state engineer’s ruling overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court in 2010.</p>
<p>One acre-foot of water is enough to supply two average Las Vegas Valley homes for just over a year.</p>
<p>Joseph-Taylor, who will serve as hearing officer for the proceeding, said the water authority will present its case during the first week, followed by the project’s opponents during the second week.</p>
<p>As important as it is, Herskovits does not expect the hearing to settle the fight over the pipeline project.</p>
<p>“I think that no matter what happens, we’ll end up in court,” he said.</p>
<p>Contact Henry Brean at [email protected] or 702-383-0350. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/RefriedBrean" type="external">@RefriedBrean</a> on Twitter.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Southern Nevada water agency’s money-losing sideline — ranching, farming</a></p>
<p>How to watch, weigh in</p>
<p>All two weeks of the state hearing on the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s groundwater project will be heard each weekday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room 1214 of the Legislative Building in Carson City and broadcast live through the Nevada Legislature’s website.</p>
<p>The video stream will be available starting at 8:30 a.m. Monday under the meeting calendar tab at <a href="http://www.leg.state.nv.us" type="external">www.leg.state.nv.us</a>.</p>
<p>Friday afternoon has been set aside for public comment, though only from those who make the trip to Carson City.</p>
<p>During previous hearings on the water authority’s groundwater applications in rural Eastern Nevada, the state set up video links to Las Vegas and some rural sites so people could comment. This time around, those who can’t appear at the hearing in person are being asked to submit their input in writing before the 5 p.m. Oct. 20 deadline.</p>
<p>Written comments should be no more than five pages long and limited to the subjects covered in the hearing. They should be addressed to: Deputy Administrator Susan Joseph-Taylor at the Office of the State Engineer, 901 S. Stewart Street, Suite 2002, Carson City, NV 89701.</p>
<p /> | How much water will agency be allowed to pump out of rural Nevada? | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/how-much-water-will-agency-be-allowed-to-pump-out-of-rural-nevada/ | 2017-09-22 | 1 |
<p>Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump thanks crowd following Nevada victory and reiterates calls to make America great again.</p>
<p>GOP front runner Donald Trump celebrated his Nevada win with all walks of life. He thanked the highly-educated, the poorly-educated, Hispanics and Evangelists for their support. He also gave a specific shout-out to two of the world’s most influential and richest casino moguls: Phil Ruffin owner of Treasure Island and Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“Steve is always calling.&#160;He's always got advice.&#160;Right, Steve?” said Trump on Tuesday recalling to the crowd a conversation between the two that went like this, "Donald, I think you oughta do this and that. His advice I like to listen to.” said Trump.</p>
<p>“Mr. Wynn has not endorsed any candidate. He speaks regularly with nearly all of the candidates. His communication with Mr. Trump is similar to conversations with the other candidates.”</p>
<p>Despite the praise, Trump has not officially won Wynn’s official endorsement. A Wynn spokesperson tells <a href="" type="internal">FOXBusiness.com</a>, “Mr. Wynn has not endorsed any candidate. He speaks regularly with nearly all of the candidates. His communication with Mr. Trump is similar to conversations with the other candidates.”&#160; In September, FOX Business Network’s Charlie Gasparino reported Wynn was serving as an advisor to Trump.</p>
<p>Presidential candidates are chasing deep-pocketed moguls like Wynn and Ruffin who are both self-made and have a net worth of $2.7 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively, according to Forbes.</p>
<p>“Donald Trump is brilliant, strong and the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. He works 20 hours a day and needs no sleep. He will make a great president.”</p>
<p>As for Ruffin, he has endorsed Trump telling FOXBusiness.com, “Donald Trump is brilliant, strong and the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. He works 20 hours a day and needs no sleep.&#160;He will make a great president.”</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Trump showed his appreciation for Ruffin’s support “I want to just thank a couple of friends of mine that are here.&#160;The owner of this incredible hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Phil Ruffin,” said Trump recounting details from a conversation he had with Ruffin. “Donald, I want to put ten million dollars into your campaign."&#160;I said, "Phil, I don't want your money.&#160; I don't want it.&#160; I'm self-funding. Every time I see him it's hard for me to turn down money since that's not what I've done in my whole life,” he said.</p>
<p>With Ruffin committed and Wynn undecided, candidates are still on the hunt for big donor dollars. In December, FOX Business Network’s Charlie Gasparino reported Ohio Governor John Kasich failed to woo Wynn after a meeting in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>Kasich limped to fifth place in Nevada and with Super Tuesday less than a week away he is trailing Trump in his home state of Ohio 31 – 26 percent among the state’s likely Republican primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday.</p>
<p>For the Nevada GOP Caucus, Trump’s total vote exceeded the entire Nevada GOP vote in 2012.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Casino Moguls Wynn, Ruffin Gamble on Trump Differently | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/02/25/casino-moguls-wynn-ruffin-gamble-on-trump-differently.html | 2016-02-25 | 0 |
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<p>Shawn Speicher, charged with vehicular homicide after a 2008 crash that killed 68-year-old Darla Poulson, pleaded guilty Wednesday to reckless great bodily injury by vehicle and could face up to four years in prison.</p>
<p>Paulson’s husband, Robert, and Speicher’s passenger were injured in the crash.</p>
<p>Speicher, 21, is in custody because a judge found he had violated the conditions of his release earlier this year after receiving a number of traffic citations, including drag racing.</p>
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<p>Wednesday, September 23, 2009</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>An Albuquerque man has been indicted on homicide charges stemming from a 2008 crash in which he was allegedly testing a street racing car when he crashed into an elderly couple.</p>
<p>Shawn Speicher, who was 19 years old at the time of the crash, has been charged with homicide by vehicles and two counts of great bodily injury by vehicles. A warrant was issued late last week for his arrest. He remained at large Tuesday.</p>
<p>Darla Poulson, 68, who was riding in the passenger seat of her husband’s Mercury, was killed in the May 3, 2008 crash.</p>
<p>“It’s a tragic example of what happens when people try to race their cars in a public roadway,” said Pat Davis, spokesman for the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office. “It is unfortunate that these kids are going to ruin their lives over a bad decision.”</p>
<p>According to Albuquerque police reports, Speicher was driving a friend’s Subaru WRX that had been remodeled into a street racing car. The vehicle was equipped with a nitrous oxide tank to “boost” the car’s speed, police said.</p>
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<p>Speicher told police he was driving about 45 to 50 mph west on Comanche to see what RPM the car’s boost would kick in.</p>
<p>Speicher said he was looking at the boost gauge when his passenger said something, causing him to look up.</p>
<p>That’s when he saw a car in front of him, slammed on the brakes and tried to swerve. He then blacked out.</p>
<p>Speicher’s car struck Poulson’s vehicle, which was headed north on Camino Sacramento trying to cross Comanche. Speicher’s vehicle then sheered a fire hydrant and collided with a stone wall.</p>
<p>The passenger in Speicher’s car sustained a broken leg, and Poulson’s 70-year-old husband, Robert, was seriously injured. Darla Poulson died shortly after arriving at the University of New Mexico Hospital.</p>
<p>Witnesses told police Speicher was driving the car about 60 to 70 mph prior to the crash.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | UPDATED: Albuquerque Man Enters Plea in Fatal-Crash Case | false | https://abqjournal.com/9152/updated-albuquerque-man-enters-plea-in-fatal-crash-case.html | 2 |
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