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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares ofApplied Micro Circuits Corp. (NASDAQ: AMCC) are up more than 11% as of 2:18 p.m. EST today following the news that the microchip company is going to be acquired by the larger Macom Technology Solutions Holdings(NASDAQ: MTSI). This follows a similar <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/28/why-applied-micro-circuits-corp-shares-are-rising.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">jump in October Opens a New Window.</a> when Applied Micro reported better-than-expected Q3 sales growth.</p>
<p>Macom's offer of$770 million to acquire Applied Micro Circuits is a 15% premium over the price of shares at the time of the announcement. The deal as announced would provide Applied Micro Circuits shareholders with$8.36 per share made up by $3.25 of cash and 0.1089 Macom shares per AMCC share.</p>
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<p>Image source: Applied Micro Corp.</p>
<p>The reason for Macom's move seems to be that the large chipmaker is trying to consolidate power in an attempt to compete with its even bigger rivals in the space like Intel. A few different law firms have already filed today for increased scrutiny of the buyout deal, but so far the market's reaction seems to indicate that Wall Street expects the deal to go through.</p>
<p>Macom is not the only one in the industry looking to consolidate power and gain more market share of some of the high-growth areas these chipmakers are vying for, including autonomous driving cars, artificial intelligence, defense technology, and much more.Macom's purchase of Applied Micro seems to be a play specifically to gain in the data center segment of the market, but it could help the company to grow in various segments.</p>
<p>This highly competitive industry is one that benefits those companies with the best technology, the most resources for increased innovation, and the best brand name to land big partnerships, which is why a company like <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/10/this-could-be-the-best-tech-stock-to-buy-as-a-bet.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">NVIDIA is thriving in this space now Opens a New Window.</a>. For Macom, we will wait to see how well this acquisition can help it to gain ground in these new segments and compete with this much bigger rivals.</p>
<p>Forget the 2016 Election: 10 stocks we like better than Applied Micro Circuits Donald Trump was just elected president, and volatility is up. But here's why you should ignore the election:</p>
<p>Investing geniuses Tom and David Gardner have spent a long time beating the market no matter who's in the White House. In fact, 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%2Fecap-foolcom-bbn-election%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000468%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6454%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ffd3fd60-fc90-4cce-a236-300c16ff6429&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 Applied Micro Circuits 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%2Fecap-foolcom-bbn-election%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000468%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6454%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ffd3fd60-fc90-4cce-a236-300c16ff6429&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/BSMcNew/info.aspx" type="external">Seth McNew Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends NVIDIA. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Applied Micro Circuits Corp. Shares Are Up Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/21/why-applied-micro-circuits-corp-shares-are-up-today.html | 2016-11-21 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Dear Dave,</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Can you explain the “asset allocation” theory when it comes to investing?</p>
<p>Matthew</p>
<p>Dear Matthew,</p>
<p>The asset allocation theory is one touted by lots of people in the financial community. It’s also a theory with which I disagree.</p>
<p>In short, the asset allocation theory means that you <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/article/daves-investing-philosophy/lifeandmoney_investing/?atid=davesays" type="external">invest Opens a New Window.</a> aggressively while you’re young. Then as you get older, you move toward less aggressive funds. If you follow this theory to the letter, you’re left pretty much with money markets and bonds by the time you’re 65.</p>
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<p>The reason I don’t believe in this theory is simple. It doesn’t work. If you live to age 65 and are in <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/article/why-health-insurance/lifeandmoney_insurance/?atid=davesays" type="external">good health Opens a New Window.</a>, there’s a high statistical likelihood that you’ll make it to 95. The average age of death for males in this country is now 76, but that includes infant mortality and teenage deaths. So, a healthy 65-year-old man in America can look at having another quarter century on earth. If you move your money to bonds and money markets at age 65, inflation is going to kick your tail. Your money will grow slower than it will devalue, and you’ll have little purchasing power. That’s the problem with the asset allocation methodology.</p>
<p>I advise investing in good, growth stock <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/article/how-to-research-funds-on-your-own/lifeandmoney_investing/?atid=davesays" type="external">mutual funds Opens a New Window.</a> that have strong track records of at least five to ten years. Spread your money across four types of funds: growth, growth and income, aggressive growth and international. These groups provide diversification across risk, as well as a little splash overseas.</p>
<p>Great question, Matthew!</p>
<p>—Dave</p>
<p>Dear Dave,</p>
<p>My husband makes about $35,000 a year before taxes, and we have one child. We’ve also got a mortgage and $60,000 in student loan debt. About a year ago, my husband started work on a master’s degree, because he thinks he wants to teach when he retires. He quit school after the baby was born, because he didn’t think we could afford it any longer. I think he should finish the degree. Otherwise, he’s just throwing away the $10,000 we’ve already got invested in the program. What do you think?</p>
<p>Amanda</p>
<p>Dear Amanda,</p>
<p>You guys need to clean up the mess you’ve made before he goes after his master’s degree. You might be able to justify it if the degree immediately raised his income, but you two can’t afford to make investments in vague <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/article/10-things-you-wish-you-knew-in-college/lifeandmoney_college/?atid=davesays" type="external">educational goals Opens a New Window.</a> right now.</p>
<p>If you want to call it throwing the money away, then yeah, throw it away. But I’m not sure the money has been wasted. The classes he has already taken are complete and on record, so why can’t he finish the degree somewhere down the road? You guys have done a poor job of planning, and now you need to climb out of a big hole before you do anything else.</p>
<p>The point is not the $10,000, Amanda. The point is that you’re barely making ends meet. You’ve already got a house payment and $60,000 in student loan debt hanging over your heads, not to mention the added expense of a baby in the house. The last thing you need is to go even deeper into debt for something he won’t even use until retirement. That’s just silly.</p>
<p>I’m all for education, but you’ve got to plan things and get a better payback on your <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/article/dont-stick-to-student-loans/lifeandmoney_college/?atid=davesays" type="external">educational spending Opens a New Window.</a>. That’s when it becomes an investment. But he doesn’t need to even think about a master’s degree until you guys have first straightened out your finances!</p>
<p>—Dave</p> | Dave Says Clean Up the Debt Mess in Front of You | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/09/30/dave-says-clean-up-debt-mess-in-front.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prosecutors say a man accused of shooting a rookie Los Angeles police officer in the leg has been charged with multiple counts including attempted murder.</p>
<p>Officer Joy Park was struck by gunfire last week as she and another officer stopped a man walking in the Westlake district west of downtown.</p>
<p>Police say 27-year-old Ivan Castillo opened fire on the officers and ran away. He was caught a short time later. The second officer was not hurt.</p>
<p>City News Service reports Wednesday that Castillo also faces charges including assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm.</p>
<p>Mayor Eric Garcetti was among those visiting Park in the hospital over the weekend. She's expected to make a full recovery. Park graduated from the police academy in April of last year.</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prosecutors say a man accused of shooting a rookie Los Angeles police officer in the leg has been charged with multiple counts including attempted murder.</p>
<p>Officer Joy Park was struck by gunfire last week as she and another officer stopped a man walking in the Westlake district west of downtown.</p>
<p>Police say 27-year-old Ivan Castillo opened fire on the officers and ran away. He was caught a short time later. The second officer was not hurt.</p>
<p>City News Service reports Wednesday that Castillo also faces charges including assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm.</p>
<p>Mayor Eric Garcetti was among those visiting Park in the hospital over the weekend. She's expected to make a full recovery. Park graduated from the police academy in April of last year.</p> | Attempted murder charge in shooting of rookie LA officer | false | https://apnews.com/e3001e8dab7a4796b2354e0a64c046b1 | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
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<p>SAN FRANCISCO - A winery board member says Peter Mondavi, a wine country innovator who led his family's Charles Krug Winery through more than a half-century of change, has died. He was 101.</p>
<p>Mondavi died Saturday at his home in St. Helena, California, said Wendy Lane Stevens, a member of the C. Mondavi and Family Board of Directors.</p>
<p>Mondavi, who famously battled his more famous brother Robert Mondavi for control of Charles Krug, began his career at a time when the Napa Valley was known chiefly for cheap wine and witnessed it grow into one of the world's premiere wine regions.</p>
<p>He played a part in that rise, pioneering a number of improvements to California winemaking, including the use of cold fermentation for white wines and sterile filtration.</p>
<p>Charles Krug has been in the hands of the Mondavi family since 1943, when it was purchased by Mondavi's parents, Cesare and Rosa.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Peter Mondavi, Napa Valley wine pioneer, has died at 101 | false | https://abqjournal.com/728204/peter-mondavi-napa-valley-wine-pioneer-has-died-at-101.html | 2 |
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<p>In this segment from <a href="https://www.fool.com/podcasts/rule-breaker-investing/?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b621a6e2-7c2f-11e7-82ef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Rule Breaker Investing</a>, Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner is inspired by the annual letter he gets from Roger King of Tampa, Fla., a Foolish investor who writes in about the best-performing investments in the S&amp;P 500. Roger's 2017 letter has not yet arrived, but David wants to look back at the five best stocks as of last June, and talk about their places -- when applicable -- in Motley Fool portfolios. We're pretty sure you'll recognize a few of them.</p>
<p>A full transcript follows the video.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Priceline GroupWhen 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=c6601683-b457-4b4f-b00c-ca1ace63b61f&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b621a6e2-7c2f-11e7-82ef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks</a> for investors to buy right now... and Priceline Group 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=c6601683-b457-4b4f-b00c-ca1ace63b61f&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b621a6e2-7c2f-11e7-82ef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p>This video was recorded on June 14, 2017.</p>
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<p>David Gardner: About this time every year for the last couple of years, I've gotten a letter from Roger King of Tampa, Fla. Roger is a Motley Fool member. I've never met Roger, but I love his letters and I'm going to share with you the most recent one I got from him, which was in June of 2016. Roger, I'm hoping I'll get your 2017 version later this month. But I'm going to excerpt a little bit of Roger's letter to me in June of last year -- June 2016.</p>
<p>"Dear Motley Fool," he wrote. "This letter is an update of a letter that I wrote to you about this time last year." Attached: "The latest Fortune magazine, June 15, 2016, has 'The Best Investments for the Last 10 Years'" -- that would have, at the time, been from 2005 through 2015 -- "of the 500 largest stocks in the U.S., the S&amp;P 500."</p>
<p>I'm going to reveal those in a sec, but before I do this: The last time Roger sent me this note, the year before, triggered one of my favorite podcasts that I've gotten to do on Rule Breaker Investing. And what makes me sad is that you can't find that podcast readily these days, on either our own site or on something like iTunes. Take iTunes -- iTunes only retains the last 100 podcasts of each podcast that you want to look up on iTunes, so this one has now fallen below the fold. It was called "The Top 5 Stocks of the Past 10 Years." I did this one on July 29 of 2015. It was only 13 minutes long. It was a lot of fun, so I'm still going to plug it, and truly, if you want to just type in "Rule Breaker Investing Top 5 Stocks of the Past 10 Years" into Google, among the top three links you'll find this podcast, and I hope if you hadn't heard it before, that you'll listen to it. But I'm going to be channeling that same vibe with this week's podcast.</p>
<p>So what were the top five stocks of the past 10 years, through 2015, in last year's Fortune magazine edition?</p>
<p>Well, the No. 5 stock is XPO Logistics&#160;(NYSE: XPO), which rose 25.9% over the previous 10 years. That is not a company that I've ever recommended or owned. I do want to say two things briefly about XPO Logistics. One is that it had been added to our services in 2015. In the interest of full disclosure, my brother Tom in Stock Advisor recommended the stock in January of 2015, and I'm happy to say for Tom that it's up 60% since then, and it's about 33% ahead of the S&amp;P 500. So great call, Tom Gardner, in January of 2015. That's one of the two things I want to say about XPO Logistics.</p>
<p>The second thing I want to say is that I hate XPO Logistics, and here's why. I think I may have said this last Christmas, but one of my big gifts last year for my family was going to be basically a NordicTrack. I ordered it well ahead of time on Amazon&#160;(NASDAQ: AMZN). And XPO Logistics starts to inform me about a week before it's due -- which I had just a couple of days before Christmas -- that it has been lost somewhere in one of their warehouses and they can't tell me whether they'll find it or not. And they wouldn't find it, the record will show, for about two and a half more weeks. So I had to take what was going to be a big reveal and had to make it a little postcard to my family members that it's still on its way.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don't like XPO Logistics very much, but I'm delighted to know that they've returned value to shareholders, and apparently delivered frequently and well enough that it's the fifth best-performing stock on the S&amp;P 500 for the 10 years 2005-2015. So thus much for No. 5.</p>
<p>The No. 4 performing stock over those past 10 years was Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple returned 27.1% from 2005 to 2015 annualized, which rolls up to a pretty awesome number. A lot of us now know, a few years later, that Apple's basically the largest public company in the world, and so just think of the size that Apple started from 10-plus years ago to rack up those kinds of returns and become as large as it is today. So some good news for Stock Advisor members. You know that Apple is one of my stock picks. I'm sorry to say that I don't have it from 2005, but I am happy to tell you that I first recommended it in January of 2008. It is a seven-bagger since then, way ahead of the market -- hundreds and hundreds of percentage points ahead. So we had that one, No. 4.</p>
<p>The No. 3 best-performing stock of the last 10 years is Amazon. Amazon is up 30.6% annualized over that 10-year period. By the way, since Roger's letter of last June, I'm pretty sure Amazon's done well over the succeeding year, so we're talking about major ups for this stock over the last 11 years or so. Amazon is No. 3 among the S&amp;P 500 for its performance. I'm happy to say with this one -- if you're a Stock Advisor member, you know this -- we've held Amazon since September of 2002. It is a 63-bagger for Motley Fool Stock Advisor members who were around back when we started Stock Advisor and who've shown a lot of patience ever since. And that's way ahead of the market by about 6,000% or so. That's No. 3.</p>
<p>The No. 2 best-performing stock on the S&amp;P 500 over the last 10 years is Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). Netflix is up an annualized 40.3% as printed in that Fortune magazine issue dated June 15, 2016. Netflix has done pretty well over the succeeding year since, by the way. This is another company that Motley Fool Stock Advisor members will know well. My longest-standing Netflix recommendation was opened up on October of 2004. That stock is up about 65 times in value. I'm really happy to say that my brother Tom saw a good thing and recommended it, as well, to Stock Advisor members. In fact, I've had a lot of people come up to me over the years and say, "You know, Dave, I didn't buy it when you recommended it, but when Tom recommended it, that's when I finally bought -- because when the two brothers agree, that's a signal for me, and I'm OK with that." And I say it a little bit with a giggle. But Tom recommended it three years later, June of 2007: [it's] been a tremendous return for him, a 54-bagger for him as well. So I'm just here to say we had that one. We had No. 2.</p>
<p>The No. 1 performing stock on the S&amp;P 500 over the past 10 years is Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN). Priceline, over those 10 years, returned 49.9% annualized from 2005 to 2015. And there might be a theme developing. You might start seeing a thread here. I'm really happy to say that if you're a Stock Advisor member of long standing you know this, because I first recommended it on May 21st of 2004 at $23.71. So with Priceline, today, trading at $1,846 -- yeah, it's been an awesome investment. In fact, it's up 77 times in value: 7,690%. That's 7,497% ahead of the market, which maybe is up about 100% or so since 2004.</p>
<p>Just to throw a little bit more brother love out there, I'm happy to say that my brother Tom recognized Priceline's greatness in 2012 and so, once again, he's found another winner for members -- and I'm sure some of you waited not to buy on Dave's recommendation, but when Tom also recommended it, too. And if so, you're certainly happy, because you've made a three-bagger over these five years or so. So there are the facts. And the beautiful story is that we've had the top four performers on the S&amp;P 500 over the past 10 years, and in every case except the first one that I mentioned, which is the No. 4 performer, Apple, we've had that stock for well more than 10 years.</p>
<p>Longtime Rule Breaker Investing fans will remember a podcast where I talked about FANG, because people a lot of the time were talking about Facebook, and Amazon, and Netflix, and Google, and those are the Four Horsemen, the four big stocks you have to own. This was a popular acronym people were using. Well, there was a little bit of FANG but not that much FANG in those four, because they go PNAA -- so pin-aah -- PNAA, apparently, better than FANG.</p>
<p>My serious point about FANG, when I did that podcast a year or two ago, was not whether you had those stocks in your portfolio, but really: "What's your FANG score," I asked. Sum up the number of years in total that you've owned any of these stocks, and that's your score, and let's have that conversation.</p>
<p>If we were to do our score for these four -- and this is really the critical point to achieving returns like the ones I'm talking about -- we've held Apple for nine years, we've held Amazon for 15, we've held Netflix for 13, and Priceline for 15. And if my math is right, 9 + 15 + 13 + 15 comes to the grand total of 52. So that's my PNAA score.</p>
<p>I highly encourage you not necessarily to go out and chase FANG stocks, or PNAA stocks, but to ask yourself: Are you positioning yourself for these kinds of returns by being patient enough to be willing to hold companies for that long? Because the way that these big-time results are racked up, completely apart from whether you found these stocks or not in the first place, is: Did you hold them through what were some very hard times and ultimately some very great times?</p>
<p>So it's a point no doubt I've made many times before on Rule Breaker Investing, and I'll make it again. But in a week in which a lot of people maybe needed to hear "stocks always go down faster than they go up," I wanted to make sure you understand, and can see the benefits of holding through times when stocks go down faster than they go up.</p>
<p>I want to thank Roger King, again, for sending his letter. And Roger, if you're hearing me right now, I don't follow Fortune magazine. I'm assuming that issue comes out again sometime this month. So whether it's Roger, or any of my other friends on Twitter: If you want to send us the most recent results, we'll get to review them again and see if we're still nailing, consistently, the top three performers on the S&amp;P 500 over 10-year periods, and that we have them as actively covered stocks in Motley Fool Stock Advisor.</p>
<p>That's what it's all about in the end, isn't it? Performance and long-term performance. There are even more important things in life. But for Rule Breaker Investing, for our category of podcast, for the subject that we at The Motley Fool are focused on, I can't think of something that I could do much better than that for you, my listener -- for you, our members, here at The Motley Fool -- to find and give you the best stocks of our time.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSpiffyPop/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b621a6e2-7c2f-11e7-82ef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">David Gardner</a> owns shares of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, and Priceline Group. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Priceline Group, and Twitter. The Motley Fool recommends XPO Logistics. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b621a6e2-7c2f-11e7-82ef-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | How Fools Stack Up Picking the Long-Term Market Winners | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/12/how-fools-stack-up-picking-long-term-market-winners.html | 2017-08-12 | 0 |
<p>A black hole that dominates its own galaxy is the largest ever recorded by astronomers.</p>
<p>Astronomers at the Max Planck Astronomy Institute in Heidelberg, Germany found a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole" type="external">black hole</a> in the galaxy&#160;NGC 1277 that consumes more space than any previously seen.</p>
<p>Indeed, the super massive black hole takes up 59 percent of the galaxy and has the&#160;mass equivalent of 17 billions suns.</p>
<p>That is more than five times the previous record-holder, which took up only 11 percent.</p>
<p>The hole is said to be 11 times wider than Neptune's orbit around the Sun, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jw5tPM0iBoxRQDrwryguo_7D5Zsw?docId=CNG.612bfc0c438b5f19ca40304c1e012084.101" type="external">said AFP</a>.</p>
<p>Typically, black holes only make up about 0.1 percent of a galaxy making the finding remarkable.</p>
<p>"This is a really oddball galaxy," said study co-author Karl Gebhardt of the University of Texas at Austin, <a href="http://www.space.com/18668-biggest-black-hole-discovery.html" type="external">reported Space.com</a>.</p>
<p>"It's almost all black hole. This could be the first object in a new class of galaxy-black hole systems."</p>
<p>The researchers used a computer modeling system called&#160;Schwarzschild models to determine the black hole's mass, <a href="http://news.discovery.com/space/massive-black-hole-small-galaxy-121128.html" type="external">said Discovery News</a>.</p>
<p>They tried numerous possibilities and concluded that it was the largest black hole ever seen.</p>
<p>The new finding complicates the previous theory that galaxies and black holes grow together over time.</p>
<p>The finding was published in a letter in <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/small-galaxy-harbours-super-hefty-black-hole-1.11913" type="external">Nature</a>.</p> | Black hole that dominates its galaxy is the biggest ever seen | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-11-28/black-hole-dominates-its-galaxy-biggest-ever-seen | 2012-11-28 | 3 |
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin may be trying to escalate the conflict in Ukraine to reshape Russia's borders and cement his sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. But what is the endgame for Putin? And what will he do next?</p>
<p>Many who know him, like his biographer, Nataliya Gevorkyan, say that Putin has a specific mentality: When he’s in a corner, he will strike.</p>
<p>"He said that, 'I learned very good. I learned forever, don’t try to push somebody into the corner. They will jump. Because when you don’t have [anything] to lose, you just&#160;— you attack,'" says Gevorkyan. "I think it’s absolutely true about himself. When he’s in a corner, that’s why he’s dangerous. He can jump. He will not say, 'OK, let’s talk.' He will jump."</p>
<p>And with oil prices down 50 percent and the ruble losing more than half its value, Russia and Putin are feeling threatened, according to&#160;George Friedman, the CEO of global intelligence firm Stratfor and author, most recently, of " <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flashpoints-The-Emerging-Crisis-Europe/dp/0553399098" type="external">Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe</a>."</p>
<p>Those concerns aren't just economic, either.&#160;Though it’s never been successfully occupied for an extended period of time, Russia&#160;has been invaded and feels the need for geographic protection as well.</p>
<p>“Russia needs buffers &#160;— the traditional buffer is the line in the Baltics, Belarus, and Ukraine,”&#160;Friedman says. “Russia reads what happened in Kiev as the following: The legitimately elected president of Ukraine — no one doubts that Yanukovych won the election — refused to sign a treaty with the Europeans, which was his right. He came home to demonstrations.”</p>
<p>Friedman says that Russia saw the United States openly support the pro-European demonstrators, and even providing&#160;them with funding. In Russia’s view, a group of demonstrators nullified the results of a national election — something the United States actively supported.</p>
<p>“Now, the Americans have another story, which was that Yanukovych was corrupt and so on and he had to be disposed of,” Friedman says. “But from the Russian point of view, they’re wondering why the Americans did this.&#160;Why are the Americans so interested in Kiev?”</p>
<p>“The answer they come up with is the Americans are extending their power far to the east — nearly to Stalingrad — about 300 miles from Moscow. Why? Because they want the Russian Federation to fragment.”</p>
<p>Friedman says that while this narrative has both elements of truth and fable, it is the Russian view point. And the actions being taken by the United States isn’t doing anything to calm Russian fears: The US&#160;has sent top military officials to Kiev and is repositioning tanks&#160;and artillery in the Baltics, Poland&#160;and Romania. It may also send weapons to arm Ukrainian fighters.</p>
<p>“This is freaking the Russians out,” Friedman says. “They look at this as the United States making a strategic decision to undermine Russia by prepositioning forces. They’ve moved into the Ukraine, and the Russians have failed miserably — they’ve completely miscalculated everything that was happening Kiev.”</p>
<p>Combined with the economic crisis of "epic proportions," Friedman says&#160;“the Russians are now desperate. When Russia gets desperate, that’s when it becomes the most dangerous.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, Friedman says the Americans fear a strong Russian comeback. And he&#160;argues both fears are legitimate.</p>
<p>“For the Americans it’s a fear, not a hysteria,” he says. “For the Russians, it’s everything. The question is what does Putin do? Not because he’s Putin — any Russian leader would have to respond to the Ukraine. ”</p>
<p>Friedman says that the Russians have nothing but bad choices. It’s just a matter of time before they make one.</p>
<p>“My fear is not that they’re going to go to turn towards nuclear war, my fear is that so much pressure will be put on Russia that it actually fragments — that it’ll go the way of the Soviet Union and that Moscow can no longer control the provinces,” he says. “Then what happens to the nukes out in the provinces?”</p>
<p>This story is based on <a href="http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/perils-desperate-and-cornered-vladimir-putin/" type="external">an interview</a> from PRI's <a href="http://www.thetakeaway.org/" type="external">The Takeaway</a>, a public radio program that invites you to be part of the American conversation.</p> | The perils of a desperate and cornered Vladimir Putin | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-02-04/perils-desperate-and-cornered-vladimir-putin | 2015-02-04 | 3 |
<p>This town is typical Belarusian autumn scene. This 85 year old woman is collecting what remains of the potato harvest in the small plot of land behind her wooden hut. This is a small village outside of Minsk. She's being helped by her children and grandchildren. Most of the people in this village work in some form or another at the nearby state run farm. She thought the only change she could think of over the last 25 years is now she has gas and electricity in her home. On the surface, the country appears as if it's stuck in a time warp, and the capitol which was almost completely destroyed during World War II, is a sea of grey soviet blocks were people mind what they say to foreign journalists. This man told me things in his country are slowly changing. He's a plastic surgeon and he thinks his business shows that Belarusian society is changing, and that people can discuss the issues now, a positive development. Even on a Monday night in Minsk, you can go out and have a drink and listen to live music. I've come here to meet some local musicians who think discussing politics, even here, is still a tough thing to do. They think change will come though. Political change still comes slowly here.</p> | Belarus election | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-09-26/belarus-election | 2008-09-26 | 3 |
<p>LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — University of Wyoming officials say enrollment projections for the spring 2018 semester are trending upward.</p>
<p>The Laramie Boomerang <a href="http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/uw-spring-enrollment-projections-up-for/article_432f74b6-fffb-11e7-8fbd-37448053fb57.html" type="external">reports</a> University of Wyoming Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Kyle Moore said Friday that data suggests there would be 41 first-time spring 2018 enrollments compared to 39 in 2017.</p>
<p>First-time spring students are students who started at the university for the first time Monday, the first day of the spring semester.</p>
<p>This increase contributes to a freshman class of 1,891, which is 552 more students than the freshman class of January 2017.</p>
<p>Moore says preliminary fall estimates were up as well.</p>
<p>He also says the university has improved its retention rate — about a 1.2 percent increase overall first-time year-to-year retention for the fall.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Laramie Boomerang, <a href="http://www.laramieboomerang.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.laramieboomerang.com" type="external">http://www.laramieboomerang.com</a></p>
<p>LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — University of Wyoming officials say enrollment projections for the spring 2018 semester are trending upward.</p>
<p>The Laramie Boomerang <a href="http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/uw-spring-enrollment-projections-up-for/article_432f74b6-fffb-11e7-8fbd-37448053fb57.html" type="external">reports</a> University of Wyoming Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Kyle Moore said Friday that data suggests there would be 41 first-time spring 2018 enrollments compared to 39 in 2017.</p>
<p>First-time spring students are students who started at the university for the first time Monday, the first day of the spring semester.</p>
<p>This increase contributes to a freshman class of 1,891, which is 552 more students than the freshman class of January 2017.</p>
<p>Moore says preliminary fall estimates were up as well.</p>
<p>He also says the university has improved its retention rate — about a 1.2 percent increase overall first-time year-to-year retention for the fall.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Laramie Boomerang, <a href="http://www.laramieboomerang.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.laramieboomerang.com" type="external">http://www.laramieboomerang.com</a></p> | U of Wyoming’s spring enrollment projections up for 2018 | false | https://apnews.com/3c1fb8c2323d4de6b7bbe83457fbd7f6 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
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<p>It was the perfect story to share, if you’re inclined to believe that anti-Trump protesters must be getting paid to be there. Something to that effect has long been in the canon of largely unsubstantiated rumors circulating on the Trump Internet. A well-known fake news writer even fabricated an “interview” with a protester who said he was paid $3,500 to protest at a Trump rally – a story that was shared on Twitter by Trump’s then-campaign manager. And like that made-up story, it also appears that Demand Protest is a made-up group, one that fooled quite a few news sources before being dramatically debunked on-air by Tucker Carlson.</p>
<p>Here’s an incomplete look at how we got here: a few days ago, the Gateway Pundit wrote a piece titled “BREAKING: Far Left Group Is Paying Activists a Monthly Salary to Stop TRUMP,” and cited 4Chan in mentioning a possible link between Demand Protest and George Soros. InfoWars was a bit more skeptical, hedging their story on Demand Protest as a “report” and writing that “it’s unclear if the DemandProtest.com website is actually legitimate.” The Washington Times also credulously reported on the Backpage ads. Breitbart, meanwhile, used the ads as evidence in an article that suggested that fears of pro-Trump inauguration violence was “fake news.”</p>
<p>“The facts tell a different story,” the Breitbart article says. “The left is gearing up for war, and hiring mercenaries.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Other sites, like The Federalist Papers, helped to feed the story into the hyperpartisan Facebook ecosystem. It made it to the Drudge Report.</p>
<p>All this happened with no evidence to support claims that Demand Protest actually did anything it advertised on its website – the existence of a backpage ad, which pretty much anyone can create and place, was it.</p>
<p>The company has a San Francisco phone number, but Demand Protest LLC – the name, the website says, that is associated with a copyright – doesn’t exist in California’s public records. Calls to the group lead to a voice mail labyrinth with no way to speak to a real person. The Washington Post left a message on Tuesday afternoon, but it was not returned.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the claims on Demand Protests’s website, which was only registered last month, are extraordinary and evidence-free. The anonymous testimonials from some of Demand Protest’s supposed clients came from an unnamed U.S. presidential campaign (“It was astonishing to watch operatives go above and beyond, sometimes to their own detriment, to drive our story with the public” says a quote attributed to “Campaign Chair” of the unnamed campaign) and an unnamed public health nonprofit. It claimed to have more than 1,800 well-paid operatives working for them. In the Backpage ads, the group says it’s the “largest private grass-roots support organization in the United States,” which seems . . . implausible.</p>
<p>The Verge and Boing Boing, among others, were skeptical as the story circulated through the conservative press. And on a Fox News segment Tuesday night, someone claiming to represent the group more or less admitted that the whole thing was a hoax.</p>
<p>Tucker Carlson’s bizarre on-camera interview with a Demand Protest representative who gave his name as “Dom Tullipso” felt like a piece of performance art, something even Carlson himself said out loud in the middle of the interview.</p>
<p>“So, this is a sham, your company isn’t real, your website is fake, the claims you have made are lies, this is a hoax,” Carlson began, before saying that his team couldn’t find a record of a person by the name “Dom Tullipso.” The supposed-Tullipso responded by correcting Carlson’s pronunciation of Tullipso. (It seems the “L’s” are silent.”)</p>
<p>“Tullipso” also claimed, over the course of the interview, that a wave of hate mail from all the media coverage prompted the group to change its mind about a half-hour before the interview, so the group was now pro-Trump. He expressed passionate support for retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and claimed the group was working with a “client” who wanted it to help facilitate the release of the Roswell papers.</p>
<p>“It’s pretty darn easy these days to say whatever you want on national TV and have it passed off as truth,” he said. At the end of the interview, “Tullispso” told Carlson, “God bless you for fact checking, even if you did it while we were on the air.”</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>VIDEO:</p>
<p />
<p /> | How a hoax website about paid protesters came crumbling down live on TV | false | https://abqjournal.com/930670/how-a-hoax-website-about-paid-protesters-came-crumbling-down-live-on-tv.html | 2 |
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<p>Jose Olivas holds a drawing of a baby as he protests against Arizona’s Senate bill 1308 and 1309 outside Arizona’s Capitol building in Phoenix, Arizona, 7 February 2011. The two bills seek to overrule the 14th amendment of the US constitution by denying American citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.</p>
<p>This succinctly defines the human rights situation in Arizona. Arizona is a place where conservative state lawmakers do not appear to know the meaning of: “inalienable rights” – seemingly hellbent on revoking not just the 20th, but also, the 19th centuries. They seem to believe that if a majority of them agree to anything – including the taking away of peoples’ basic human rights – that their votes, along with their governor’s signature, constitutes a law.</p>
<p>Those opposed to their concocted laws have turned to US courts for relief. And now, as state legislators continue on their seeming path to secede from the Union, the opposition is now also examining international courts and forums for possible relief. Also being explored is the possible use of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in this dispute. This treaty ended the war between the United States and Mexico, with the Mexican nation ceding, under threat of force, half its territory. Ironically, it is also a treaty that purportedly safeguards the rights of Mexicans living in what is today the United States.</p>
<p>This path of examining the treaty and international law has been triggered by the states new racial profiling SB 1070 and the anti-ethnic studies HB 2281 “laws”. Same with new proposed laws: HB 2382/SB 1097 – which would, in effect, force children to identify the legal status of their parents; and HB 2561/SB 1308 and HB 2562/SB1309, which would deny birthright citizenship to children and that would nullify the 14th amendment to the US constitution.</p>
<p>The stagecoach has, apparently, yet to arrive in Phoenix with the memo that informs Arizonans that all human beings are born with rights, as opposed to being granted them by governments, and that no government (local, state or federal) can take them away. That’s the meaning of inalienable.</p>
<p>Actually, the stagecoach finally appears to have arrived this year because the state legislature, in a tragicomic manner, is now attempting to cover its behind. First, a proposed Arizona law, SCR 1010 (pdf), calls for Arizona to be exempt from international law. Now, Arizona legislators are proposing yet another law, SB 1443; it would enable the state legislature to ignore federal law – that is, to ignore the “supremacy clause” of the US constitution.</p>
<p>But Arizona politicians, beware. The community of nations anticipated such behaviour from rogue governments; through the years, the United Nations has created and developed treaties and conventions that protect the rights of all human beings. So has the Organisation of American States.</p>
<p>Aside from all the rogue gun laws, much of the hate legislation that has been advanced in the state legislature, with the governor’s signature, has focused on one particular group: Mexicans/migrants/indigenous peoples. Most of these pieces of legislation appear to be in clear violation of virtually all international human rights treaties and conventions. The operative word is “appear” – as legal research has now begun to examine the feasibility of bringing a court case or cases on this question before the OAS and/or the UN.</p>
<p>This could conceivably result in the opening-up of a second legal front. Both SB 1070 and HB 2281 have already been challenged in court, with good prospects of them eventually being ruled unconstitutional. The HB 2281 case involves a lawsuit by 11 educators against the state, charging that their ability to teach Mexican American studies, which was declared out of compliance on 3 January, has been hampered due to discriminatory treatment by the state. The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) has until 18 April to comply (with the order to eliminate Mexican American studies). The legal theory for a second legal front (with regard to HB 2281) would involve the fact that virtually all international human rights treaties and conventions protect the right of all peoples to their history, culture, language and education.</p>
<p>Amid these legislative assaults, in perhaps an ironic twist of history, the actual Treaty of Guadalupe is currently on display at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, offering a stark reminder that all treaties are alive, including this one. Without revealing legal strategy, perhaps at no time has the time been riper than now, to put forth a test case involving this treaty. One element of such a challenge (or related challenges) would involve whether in fact Mexican Americans continue to be protected by this treaty and whether, in fact, Mexican Americans also constitute indigenous peoples.</p>
<p>Tupak Enrique Acosta, a co-founder of Tonatierra in Phoenix, an organisation dedicated to fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples, said he welcomes such a development. To those who would challenge the indigeneity of Mexican Americans (Chicanas/Chicanos), he says: “Bring it on.”</p>
<p>Yet, whether this second legal front, in fact, includes the treaty or not, what the overall moral challenge involves is something even simpler: the right of all peoples to be treated as full human beings and the right to an uncensored education.</p>
<p>ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ, a professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | How Far Can Arizona Secede? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/02/08/how-far-can-arizona-secede/ | 2011-02-08 | 4 |
<p>I have been a political analyst and writer in Mexico for the past two decades. I’m also a mother faced with the challenge of raising children there. As a human rights advocate and a mother, today I speak to you, frankly, with a great sense of urgency.</p>
<p>Mexico is the United States’ closest Latin American neighbor and yet most U.S. citizens receive little reliable information about what is happening within the country. Instead, Mexico and Mexicans are often demonized in the U.S. press. The single biggest reason for this is the way that the entire binational relationship has been recast in terms of security over the past few years.</p>
<p>From a neighbor and a trade partner, Mexico has been portrayed as a threat to U.S. national security. Immigrants are no longer immigrants, but criminals, “removable aliens,” and even potential terrorists. Latinos, mostly Mexicans, are now the largest group of victims of hate crimes in the United States.</p>
<p>Although Mexico-bashing has been a favorite sport of the right for years, this terrible conversion of Mexico, from an ally to a “failed state” and narco-haven in the media and policy circles, began in earnest under the Bush administration and has only intensified since then. The Merida Initiative and the militarization of Mexico are the direct outgrowth of the national security framework imposed on bilateral relations.</p>
<p>There is a misconception that the Merida Initiative, named after a meeting between Presidents Calderon and Bush in the city of Merida, originated when Calderon requested assistance in the drug war from the U.S. government. The U.S. government, this story goes, agreed to comply. When the U.S. government cited its share of responsibility in the transnational drug trade as the world’s largest market, pundits heralded the admission as unprecedented and a new step in binational cooperation.</p>
<p>This is largely myth. In fact, Plan Mexico—as it was first called—has its roots in the Security and Prosperity Partnership that grew out of the North American Free Trade Agreement. When the regional trade agreement was expanded into a security agreement, the Bush administration sought a means to extend its national security doctrine to its regional trade partners. This meant that both Canada and Mexico were to assume counter-terrorism activities (despite the absence of international terrorism threats in those nations), border security (in Mexico’s case, to control Central American migrants), and protection of strategic resources and investments. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon called it “arming NAFTA.”</p>
<p>The Bush announcement of the three-year Merida Initiative in October of 2007 extended U.S. military intervention in Mexico from this base. The plan is dubbed a “counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, and border security initiative” although it’s the war on drugs that has received the most attention. Although U.S. troops cannot operate by law in Mexican territory, the plan significantly increases the presence of U.S. agents and intelligence services, now estimated at 1,400, and of U.S. private security companies throughout Mexico.</p>
<p>The terms of the Merida Initiative sends the full $1.3 billion appropriated so far to U.S. defense, security, information technology and other private-sector firms, and the U.S. government. One hundred percent of the money stays in the United States since the plan prohibits cash payments to Mexico.</p>
<p>In other words, what it does is ensure an expanding market for defense and security contracts, in an undeclared war that has no exit strategy in sight.</p>
<p>Does this sound familiar?</p>
<p>It’s important to note that despite obvious threats to Mexican sovereignty, the Calderon government lobbied actively for the Merida Initiative, balking only at certain human rights conditions. There is a reason for Calderon’s enthusiasm, which has to do with this particular moment in Mexico’s fragile democracy.</p>
<p>Recall that Felipe Calderon took office after courts proclaimed he had won the elections by half a percentage point. The courts blocked a demand for a full recount, despite evidence of irregularities and the narrow margin. The elections decision enraged an already divided populace and failed to resolve accusations of fraud.</p>
<p>The military had enabled Calderon to take office by physically escorting him into a Congress occupied by protestors and placing the presidential banner over his shoulder. The country was in the throes of massive protests involving at least half the populace.</p>
<p>Once in office, Calderon launched the war on drugs. This strategy allowed a weak president with little popular legitimacy to cement his power, based on building an alliance with the armed forces under a militarized counternarcotics model.</p>
<p>The war on drugs model created an external enemy to distract from the internal protests and division. With its focus on interdiction and supply-side enforcement, the model was originally developed by President Richard Nixon in the 70s to increase presidential power, by taking counternarcotics efforts out of the hands of communities, where it was treated largely as a community health issue, and placing it in the hands of the executive, where it was treated as a security issue.</p>
<p>Applied in Mexico, the immediate effect was to send more than 45,000 army troops into Mexican communities. The presence of the army in all aspects of public security is now the major cause of the grave increase in human rights violations and drug-related violence in Mexico.</p>
<p>The militarization of Mexico has led to a steep increase in homicides related to the drug war. It has led to rape and abuse of women by soldiers in communities throughout the country. Human rights complaints against the armed forces have increased six-fold.</p>
<p>Even these stark figures do not reflect the seriousness of what is happening in Mexican society. Many abuses are not reported at all for the simple reason that there is no assurance that justice will be done. The Mexican Armed Forces are not subject to civilian justice systems, but to their own military tribunals. These very rarely terminate in convictions. Of scores of reported torture cases, for example, not a single case has been prosecuted by the army in recent years.</p>
<p>The situation with the police and civilian court system is not much better. Corruption is rampant due to the immense economic power of the drug cartels. Local and state police, the political system, and the justice system are so highly infiltrated and controlled by the cartels that in most cases it is impossible to tell the good guys from the bad guys.</p>
<p>The militarization of Mexico has also led to what rights groups call “the criminalization of protest.” Peasant and indigenous leaders have been framed under drug charges and communities harassed by the military with the pretext of the drug war. In Operation Chihuahua, one of the first military operations to replace local police forces and occupy whole towns, among the first people picked up were grassroots leaders—not on drug charges but on three-year old warrants for leading anti-NAFTA protests. Recently, grassroots organizations opposing transnational mining operations in the Sierra Madre cited a sharp increase in militarization that they link to the Merida Initiative and the NAFTA-SPP aimed at opening up natural resources to transnational investment.</p>
<p>All this—the human rights abuses, impunity, corruption, criminalization of the opposition—would be grave cause for concern under any conditions. What is truly incomprehensible is that in addition to generating these costs to Mexican society, the war on drugs doesn’t work to achieve its own stated objectives.</p>
<p>We know this not only from the relatively recent Mexican experience, but from other places— especially Colombia and the Andean region. As Plan Colombia goes into its tenth year, the cost of drugs on U.S. streets has gone down and regional production has risen. In Mexico, interdictions dropped between 2007 and 2008. The number of arrests went up but seems to have little effect on the hydra-headed cartels. Actual indictment and prosecution rates following arrests are suspiciously not reported. Illegal drug flows to the U.S. market appear to be unaffected overall.</p>
<p>The U.S. Role</p>
<p>To understand the U.S. role in this mess, it’s necessary to step back a moment. There is no question that the power of organized crime in Mexico is real. There is also no question that the current approach to combating it is a disaster in its effects on human rights and democracy, and a quagmire in strategic terms.</p>
<p>In this context, the question is why, particularly now that George Bush is out of office, would the U.S. government continue to concentrate its aid to Mexico in a way that demonstrably empowers corrupt security forces, violates Mexican human rights, and leads to an increase in violence? This is a huge mistake with extremely high costs.</p>
<p>At a time when Mexico faces one of its worst economic crises in history, U.S. foreign policy toward our neighbor to the south reduces one of our most important and complex bilateral relations to miscast and failed security cooperation under a discredited war on drugs model. We know that there are powerful economic and political interests behind creating a war front in Mexico. But we also know that we too can have a powerful voice. The question is how?</p>
<p>Many U.S. citizen groups have been grappling with that issue. The effort to place human rights conditions on the military-police aid package to Mexico turned out to be counterproductive. The original conditions withheld 15% of some Merida Initiative aid pending progress on the prohibition against torture—a common practice by Mexican security forces to punish community leaders and extract confessions, consultation with human rights groups, transparency, and committing the army to civilian courts where permitted under law. None of that happened in a real way.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the State Department recently sent a human rights report to Congress showing that the Mexican government had not made significant progress on conditions, while asking Congress to release the funds on the basis of good intentions. Congress promptly complied.</p>
<p>For this reason, our organization and many other U.S. and Mexican groups are calling for a halt to Plan Mexico as the three-year cycle closes. The Obama administration has pledged to continue military funding to Mexico and Central America under the plan, but we believe that a thorough analysis of the results and consequences will demonstrate the need for a more integral and effective aid strategy and help us chart a binational relationship focused on peaceful cooperation and community-building.</p>
<p>We are not alone in demanding that the war on drugs model be replaced.</p>
<p>In Mexico, recent polls show that the majority of the population has lost faith in the drug war model. Last May, 52 Mexican human rights organizations called for an end to military aid to their government under the Merida Initiative. Their letter reads:</p>
<p>“We respectfully request that the U.S. Congress and Department of State, in both the Merida Initiative as in other programs to support public security in Mexico, does not allocate funds or direct programs to the armed forces …</p>
<p>“We urge the United States to consider ways to support a holistic response to security problems; based on tackling the root causes of violence and ensuring the full respect of human rights; not on the logic of combat.”</p>
<p>In the United States, the AFL-CIO has come out against the Merida Initiative, in part as a protest against the violation of labor rights particularly in the case of the mining union but also as a rejection of the drug war model. U.S. labor took this position even before Calderon used the army last week to wipe out Mexico’s oldest union and throw 45,000 unionized workers out of jobs overnight. The drug war facilitated the use of the army to take over the state-owned company’s installations.</p>
<p>The 1.7 million-person Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, non-governmental organizations including CIP Americas Program and Global Exchange, religious organizations including Witness for Peace, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, and Tikkun, and grassroots activist organizations like the Latin America Solidarity Coalition, Alliance for Democracy, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, and Friends of Brad Will have all called for U.S. citizens to oppose the plan and redirect aid to Mexico to health and development programs.</p>
<p>The immediate change needed is relatively simple, although the situation is not. The U.S. government should:</p>
<p>1) Understand shared responsibility in the transnational drug war not as intervention into Mexican security issues but as assuming its own responsibilities in reducing demand, increasing health services, and attacking corruption within its borders. Much public funding and political commitment is needed here, as well as a serious search for models to replace the failed drug war.</p>
<p>2) The U.S. government must rechannel harmful security aid to Mexico into development and anti-crisis aid that will address the root factors that have led to the expansion of drug consumption and trafficking in Mexico. Proposals for this type of aid have already been presented before Congress.</p>
<p>Militarization is not the way to deal with Mexico’s political crisis and infusing government money into industries based on blood is not the way to deal with the U.S. economic crisis.</p>
<p>Mexico should be a U.S. priority. But providing exclusively security-focused equipment and training to Mexico is like pouring gas on a fire.</p>
<p>Citizens in both countries stand to lose by viewing the complex binational relationship through the reductionist lens of national security. Critical issues have fallen from the agenda or receive merely lip service. Among them: trans-border livelihoods in the world’s most integrated borderlands, immigration, regional environmental threats, trade, and a sustainable energy future.</p>
<p>We must return the U.S.-Mexico relationship to the simple equation that a healthy neighbor equals better trade, security, and cultural relations.</p>
<p>A strong and mutually beneficial relationship must cover the full range of issues between the two nations. The Obama administration and Congress must reorient the militarized relationship with Mexico. A new approach must go to the roots of the illegal drug trade by addressing inequality, poverty, employment, and the high costs of prohibitionist policies. Instead of seeking to bolster the Calderon administration, and police and military forces characterized by corruption, we must stand by human rights, democratic institutions, and a strong role for civil society.</p>
<p>LAURA CARLSEN is director of the Americas Policy Program in Mexico City. She can be reached at: (lcarlsen(a)ciponline.org).</p>
<p>This text is a speech presented to the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Oct. 22, 2009.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Perils of Plan Mexico | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/11/24/the-perils-of-plan-mexico/ | 2009-11-24 | 4 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>Corbus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CRBP) is up 29% at 1:18 p.m. EDT after an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of the biotech with a buy rating.</p>
<p>Cantor Fitzgerald is only the fourth investment bank to follow the company, so it's not too surprising that a new initiation would spur interest in the company.</p>
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<p>And there's plenty to learn about Corbus Pharmaceuticals. The biotech only has one drug, resunab, but it's testing the anti-inflammatory drug in multiple indications: cystic fibrosis, systemic sclerosis, dermatomyositis, and lupus.</p>
<p>Corbus is currently running phase 2 clinical trials testing resunab in three of those indications with the first phase 2 clinical trials in cystic fibrosis and systemic sclerosis expected to read out this quarter, and the dermatomyositis clinical trial producing data in the first quarter of next year. A phase 2 trial in lupus is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year.</p>
<p>At a market cap around $400 million after today's move, Corbus still has plenty of room to run if the phase 2 clinical trials are successful.</p>
<p>But investors should keep in mind that, while having multiple shots on goal seems like it would reduce the risk, Corbus is still counting on the same mechanism of action to treat all of the diseases. If resunab can't reduce chronic inflammation and fibrosis in one of the diseases, it won't be a good sign for the other diseases.Of course, the reciprocal is also true, and shares of Corbus might shoot up on the first positive phase 2 trial more than is really deserved because investors are factoring in success in other indications.</p>
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<p>A seminar on “Palestine: 1967 and After” organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and the mission of the League of Arab States (LAS) in New Delhi on June 22 highlighted India’s still unwavering historical support for the Palestinian people, but failed to address the potential political effects of the growing Indian–Israeli ties on New Delhi’s more than ten–decade old policy on the Arab–Israeli conflict in Palestine.</p>
<p>Only the criticism of those ties by the participating Indian intellectuals, university professors and journalists made up for ignoring the factor of the Indian–Israeli ties by the major speakers like the Indian Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for West Asia and the Middle East Peace Process, Chinmaya R. Gharekhan, the Director General of the ICWA and the newly–appointed ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Talmiz Ahmad, and M.P. Sitaram Yechury as well as the Secretary General of the LAS, Amr Moussa, whose contribution was read by ambassador Ahmed Salem Saleh Al-Wahishi.</p>
<p>Similarly all attending Arab and non–Arab ambassadors and diplomats, except for the Palestinian ambassador Osama Mousa Al-Ali, also diplomatically avoided raising up the issue, which could not but affect positively or negatively India’s role in any Arab–Israeli peace process, which was the main concern of all speakers.</p>
<p>Diplomats of the Palestinian embassy in the Indian capital proudly showed this writer a four–dumum plot of land in the diplomatic corps neighborhood of New Delhi donated by the Indian government as a “present from the Indian people to the Palestinian people” to build a complex for the embassy of the “state of Palestine.”</p>
<p>It was part of a package of a $15 million grant donated to the Palestinian Authority during the visit of President Mahmoud Abbas to New Delhi in May 2005. $ 2.25 million of the grant was allocated for building the complex and the rest went to infrastructural projects in the Israeli–occupied Palestinian territories, Palestinian ambassador Al-Ali said.</p>
<p>In addition to political and diplomatic support, $20 million volume of bilateral trade and several shipments of medical supplies for Palestinian hospitals, India was careful to cement her Palestinian ties culturally and had completed two–Indian aided projects in the Gaza Strip, namely the Jawaharlal Nehru library at Al-Azhar University and the Mahatma Gandhi library at the Palestine Technical College in Deir Al-Albalah; a third project, a center of Indian studies, is also being planned at Al-Quds University.</p>
<p>Historically India’s Palestinian policy has been drawing on the ideological guidance set by the world’s spiritual leader of non-violence and the father of Indian independence, the Mahatma Gandhi, who consistently rejected Zionism over a period of nearly twenty years despite unrelenting Zionist lobbying, because according to Paul Power: “First, he was sensitive about the ideas of Muslim Indians who were anti-Zionists because of their sympathy for Middle Eastern Arabs opposed to the Jewish National Home; second, he objected to any Zionist methods inconsistent with his way of non-violence; third, he found Zionism contrary to his pluralistic nationalism, which excludes the establishment of any State based solely or mainly on one religion; and fourth, he apparently believed it imprudent to complicate his relations with the British, who held the mandate in Palestine.” (1)</p>
<p>Although his sympathies were all with the Jews, who as a people were subjected to inhuman treatment and persecution for a long time, Gandhi wrote, “My sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?” “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs… Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home,” he wrote in a widely circulated editorial in the Harijan of 11 November 1938, which was a major statement that has decided the Indian foreign policy on Palestine and the Jewish question to this day.</p>
<p>Accordingly, India was among 13 nations who voted against the UN General Assembly resolution 181 for the partition of Palestine in 1947. In the same year, as a member of the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), India proposed a minority plan which called for the establishment of a federal Palestine with internal autonomy for the Jewish illegal immigrants. She was also among the first non-Arab nations to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974 and the first non-Arab country to recognize Palestine as an independent state in 1988; in 1996 India opened a diplomatic representative office with the autonomous Palestinian Authority.</p>
<p>Talmiz Ahmad’s reference in his opening remarks of the New Delhi seminar to the “resurgence of imperialism” in West Asia would undoubtedly assure Arabs that India would continue Mahatma Gandhi’s heritage of dealing with the Palestinian–Israeli conflict within the context of the international national liberation movements against colonialism, but the pragmatism which marked the Indian foreign policy in dealing with Israel, particularly since 1992, would potentially compromise this approach sooner or later. Arab and Palestinian strategists should not underestimate this possible strategist shift in the foreign policy of the world’s largest democracy, which a CIA study in 2005 envisaged as the second rising world power after China during the next two decades.</p>
<p>New Delhi is very well aware of her rising international status and that’s why she has been vying with Japan and Germany for a permanent seat at the Security Council of the United Nations. “The most important development of the 21st century will be the rise of Asia. India’s independence from colonial rule and the gradual evolution of a strong, stable, dynamic and democratic India has also contributed to Asia’s resurgence Our Government has re-activated the Indian Council of World Affairs and has offered support to other think tanks to invest in the study of Asia, Africa and our neighbourhood We have imparted new energy to our “Look East Policy”, launched in the early 1990s. This has contributed to a comprehensive re-engagement with Asia to our East,” said the incumbent Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, when his book, “The New Asian Power Dynamic,” was released recently.</p>
<p>An indicator of the new Indian strategic shift is the Indian focus on the Palestinian–Israeli peace process more than on the struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation, a development that was highlighted by the appointment of the veteran diplomat and former assistant to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, C. R. Gharekhan, as India’s Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process.</p>
<p>Accelerated Pace of Ties with Israel</p>
<p>Since Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao decided in January 1992 to establish full and normal diplomatic relations with Israel, Indian diplomats felt it necessary to “brief” Arab ambassadors in the Indian capital at regular intervals of India’s ties with Israel, but India is now Israel’s second largest trading partner in Asia after Hong Kong and Israel is now India’s second largest supplier of military equipment after Russia.</p>
<p>Official Israeli figures show that Israeli exports to India valued $1.270 billion in 2006 and imports $1.433 billion, to double the bilateral trade to more than tenfold since 1992. India’s Ambassador to Israel, Arun Kumar Singh, said recently that Israeli investments in India top $1b. Agricultural, water and IT technologies in addition to fertilizers and diamonds are major mutual trade concerns. The State Bank of India (SBI) became in June the first foreign bank to open a branch in Israel’s diamond exchange.</p>
<p>However both countries are careful to remain discreet about the defense component of their relations and trade. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Limited is looking for Indian partners to build two types of aircraft and jets in India and set up software and aeronautical engineering companies in Bangalore, according to The Hindu on July 2. The Times of India on June 14 reported that a top-level Israeli Army delegation, led by Israeli deputy chief of general staff Major-General Moshe Kaplinsky, was to visit Jammu &amp; Kashmir after wide-ranging discussions with the top Indian military brass.</p>
<p>In August 1994, Israeli Defense Ministry’s Director-General David Ivry visited New Delhi and Indian Defense Secretary T. K. Banerji visited Tel Aviv. In March the following year the Israeli Air Force chief visited India and his Indian counterpart was in Israel in July 1996, one month after a strategic visit by the leading defense scientist, Abdul Kalam. In April 1996 the first Indian defense attaché, an air force officer, arrived in Israel. Prolonged cooperation between India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and its Israeli counterpart, the Mossad, is also reported; the RAW reportedly arranged in the late 1970s a visit by former Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan to India.</p>
<p>Defense also figured high on the agenda of visits by President Ezer Weizman in December 1996 and the then Foreign Minister (now President) Shimon Peres in May 1993. Comatose Ariel Sharon became the first Israeli prime minister to visit New Delhi in 2003. However, late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat used for decades to visit New Delhi on a two-hour notice.</p>
<p>Several factors contributed to the Indian pragmatic shift in foreign policy. Internally India in the early 1990s started her “look Asia policy” towards West and East Asia. Internationally the collapse of the former Soviet Union, which led to the emergence of the United States as the unipolar world power and globalization were the most prominent factors. Regionally the nuclear and technological race with China and Pakistan made New Delhi more responsive to more opening to the US, Israel and Japan. The Indian–Pakistani conflict was another regional factor. Except for the Baath-led Iraq and Syria, most conservative Arab governments were leaning towards Pakistan; the historical visit to New Delhi of the Saudi monarch King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in 2005 had however balanced their imbalanced policy.</p>
<p>Diplomats of the ruling Congress party like to blame the Israeli shift policy on the former ruling conservative Janata (“people’s” in Hindi) party and the war with Pakistan in the Kargil district of Kashmir in 1999, when Israel reportedly promptly supplied the Indian army with much needed military equipment, including night vision devices, thus kicking off a growing defense cooperation ever since.</p>
<p>But in September 1950 Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-64), a founding father of the Congress, granted Israel de jure recognition. A few months later, Israel opened a trade office in Bombay which gradually became a consular mission, and the first Israeli consul took over in June 1953; in early 1952, Nehru expressed his willingness to establish diplomatic relations. Another Congress leader, Rajiv Gandhi (1984-89), initiated a few direct and indirect contacts with Israel. (2)</p>
<p>Arab ‘Green Light’</p>
<p>Arab and Palestinian diplomacy’s ambivalent refrain from publicly warning against the growing Indian–Israeli ties could be interpreted as a refrain from demanding from friendly countries what Palestinians and Arabs have “green-lighted” for themselves when they collectively chose the Arab Peace Initiative as their “strategic option” with Israel in an Arab summit meeting held in Beirut, Lebanon in 2002; non-Arab countries could not be more Arab and Palestinian than Arabs and Palestinians themselves. It is noteworthy that the Indian–Israeli relations accelerated pace in 1992, a year after the Arab–Israeli peace conference in Madrid, Spain.</p>
<p>However the presence of more than five million strong expatriate Indian labor force in Arab countries, three million of whom are to be found in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the more than $25 billion value of Arab–Indian trade, including 60 percent of Indian oil and gas imports worth $20 billion, are enough pragmatic reasons not to be politically compromised by the newly-found pragmatic approach of Indian foreign policy.</p>
<p>“When we recognized Israel and normalized relations with her we did that after taking the approval of the Palestinian leadership; we said, after you agree we’ll recognize (Israel) the Palestinian leadership told us: There are signed accords between us (and Israel) and we are now talking to the Israelis; your establishing relations with Israel helps us,” the Indian representative to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Zikrur Rahman told the London-based Al-Haqeq newspaper on May 12, 2007.</p>
<p>Zikrur Rahman is a grandson of the Indian Muslim Mujahed Muhammed Ali Al-Hindi who died in battle in defense of the Palestinian people against the British mandate-protected Zionist paratroops early in the twentieth century, before Israel was created. His burial place alongside the graves of other Arab and Palestinian prominent freedom fighters is still standing as a symbol of Indian solidarity and friendship in the backyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>NICOLA NASSER is a veteran Arab journalist in Kuwait, Jordan, UAE and Palestine. He is based in Birzeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.</p>
<p>Notes (1) Quoted by Professor A.K. Ramakrishnan, “Mahatma Gandhi Rejected Zionism”, Released August 15, 2001, The Wisdom Fund, Website: <a href="http://www.twf.org/" type="external">http://www.twf.org</a>.</p>
<p>(2) P.R. Kumaraswamy, “India and Israel Evolving Strategic Partnership,” Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, September 1998.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Will New Delhi’s Palestinian Policy be Neutralized? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/07/12/will-new-delhi-s-palestinian-policy-be-neutralized/ | 2007-07-12 | 4 |
<p>The US Constitution has few friends on the right or the left.</p>
<p>During the first eight years of the 21st century, the Republicans mercilessly assaulted civil liberties.&#160; The brownshirt Bush regime ignored the protections provided by habeas corpus.&#160; They spied on American citizens without warrants. They violated the First Amendment.&#160; They elevated decisions of the president above US statutory law and international law. They claimed the power to withhold information from the people’s representatives in Congress, and they asserted, and behaved as if, they were unaccountable to the people, Congress, and the federal courts.&#160; The executive branch claimed the power to ignore congressional subpoenas. Republicans regarded Bush as a Stuart king unaccountable to law.</p>
<p>The Bush brownshirt regime revealed itself as lawless, the worst criminal organization in American history.</p>
<p>Now we have the Democrats, and the assault on civil liberty continues. President Obama doesn’t want to hold Bush accountable for his crimes and violations of the Constitution, because Obama wants to retain the powers that Bush asserted.&#160; Even the practice of kidnapping people and transporting them to foreign countries to be tortured has been retained by President Obama.</p>
<p>The civil liberties that Bush stole from us are now in Obama’s pocket.</p>
<p>Will it turn out that we enjoyed more liberty under Bush than we will under Obama?&#160; At least the Republicans left us the Second Amendment.&#160; The Obama Democrats are not going to return our other purloined civil liberties, and they are already attacking the Second Amendment.</p>
<p>Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D, IL) has introduced the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009.&#160; As the British and Australians learned, once firearms are registered, the government knows where they are.&#160; The government’s next step is to confiscate the firearms.</p>
<p>Moreover, the Act would permit the government to negate Second Amendment rights by refusing to issue a license.&#160; Any parents who bequeathed family antique or historic firearms to heirs would be in violation of the act, as it bans any transfer of a firearm other than via a licensed dealer.</p>
<p>William Blackstone, the revered 18th century defender of liberty whose Commentaries on the Laws of England was a bestseller in colonial America, wrote that “the last auxiliary right” of free men is “having arms for their defense.”&#160; Blackstone, England’s greatest jurist, said that the right to bear arms enables the “natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.”</p>
<p>The Bush regime’s reversion to medieval methods of incarceration and torture are an indication that we now live in a time “when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.”&#160; Why do the Democrats desire&#160; Americans to be helpless in the face of oppression by the armed state.&#160; How can it be that Democrats want Americans to be free from the threat of being thrown into dungeons and locked away without a court ever hearing evidence, but are prepared to deny Americans the ability to resist such horrendous treatment should it come their way?</p>
<p>In response to my question, one progressive acquaintance said that he wanted to reduce “gun violence.”&#160; As guns are inanimate objects, I assume he meant violence committed by people who use guns instead of knives, fists or some other weapon.</p>
<p>“Gun violence” is not something committed by the vast majority of gun owners.&#160; “Gun violence” is the preserve of the criminal elements, such as gangs fighting over drug turf. Criminals are already prohibited from owning guns, but criminals pay no more attention to this law than they do to laws against robbery, rape, and murder.&#160; Why do Democrats think that disarming law-abiding citizens will disarm outlaws?&#160; For how many decades have drugs been banned?&#160; Does any Democrat think that the ban on drugs has succeeded?</p>
<p>All the ban on drugs has done is to make the drug trade profitable.&#160; Now people fight over it.&#160; How can guns be successfully banned when the war on drugs is a failure?&#160; All a gun ban would do is to create a new criminal activity.</p>
<p>England, in violation of its unwritten constitution, banned ownership of pistols and rifles.&#160; But now the police have to be heavily armed, because criminals are now armed, but not law-abiding citizens.&#160; When I lived in England, the police were not armed with firearms.&#160; I remember reading a few years after the passage of England’s gun ban that criminals were selling submachine guns on London street corners.&#160; The police discovered a warehouse in London filled to the brim with machine guns that were being sold to all comers.</p>
<p>So much for gun bans.&#160; They only disarm the law abiding and leave them defenseless.</p>
<p>Gun bans also greatly increase the crime rate.&#160; When households are armed, robbers prefer houses where no one is home.&#160; In England, criminals are no longer deterred from entering an occupied home.&#160; The more people at home the better.&#160; There might be someone to rape and someone to beat up.&#160; There is little to fear from a disarmed household.</p>
<p>When I lived in the metro area of Washington DC, I resided on the Virginia side of the Potomac.&#160; There was no problem with owning a gun in Virginia, but in DC, until the recent Supreme Court ruling, the only way a person could have a firearm was to keep it disassembled and unloaded.</p>
<p>The Washington “gun control” ordinance benefitted criminals.&#160; The crime rate in DC was much higher than across the river.&#160; Despite, or because of, the gun ban, DC was the murder capital of the US.</p>
<p>Police seldom, if ever, prevent a crime.&#160; Their job is to appear after a crime is committed and to investigate with a view to identifying the perpetrator.&#160; A large number of careful studies show that private gun ownership prevents far more crimes than police ever solve.&#160; Criminals are routinely deterred, apprehended, and sometimes killed, by armed private citizens.</p>
<p>In contrast, police, especially the notorious SWAT teams, accidentally kill more law abiding citizens than they do criminals.&#160; If anyone should be disarmed, it is the police. When police become militarized, as they increasingly are in the US, their attitude toward the public changes from protective to hostile. Militarized SWAT teams have established a record of showing up at the wrong address.</p>
<p>In Maryland recently, a SWAT team mistook the mayor and his wife for drug dealers.&#160; A large number of armed men in black, and not identified as police, broke into the mayor’s home, killed the family’s Labrador dogs, and held the mayor and his wife spread eagled on the floor with loaded automatic weapons a few inches from their heads.&#160; Fortunately for the mayor and his wife, a local policeman happened by and informed the paramilitary unit that it was the mayor and his wife whom the SWAT team was terrorizing.</p>
<p>Many progressives oppose gun ownership because they have sympathy for animals and oppose hunting.&#160; However, most gun owners are not hunters.&#160; Most members of gun clubs are content to shoot holes in paper targets or at clay pigeons.&#160; They enjoy hand-eye coordination, the study of ballistics, and reloading for antique rifles.&#160; An outing is really just a chance to get together, to talk about history and the load they are working up for their 1873 Winchester, and to enjoy each other’s company.</p>
<p>There is a vast number of small businesses that exist because of gun ownership.&#160; Repairs, customizing, parts, sights, brass, bullets, primers, and powders for reloading, reloading equipment, targets, cleaning, refinishing, engraving, it goes on and on.&#160; What would happen to these hundreds of thousands of people, to the family businesses and to the skills accumulated, if Americans are deprived of their Second Amendment rights? We would have another million people deprived of livelihood and on the streets.&#160; Would they turn to crime?</p>
<p>The progressive canard is that the Second Amendment, unlike the rest of the amendments to the Constitution, is not a constitutional right for citizens.&#160; Rather it is a right for a defunct organization known as the militia.&#160; Why in the world would the Founding Fathers, when laying out the rights of individuals, confound the point by sticking in among individual rights a right for a military organization?</p>
<p>But so what if they did.&#160; Americans have had squatter’ rights to firearms since 1776.&#160; In 1992 when the Supreme Court revisited Roe v. Wade, the justices acknowledged that the legal argument behind the 1973 decision legitimizing abortion was flawed.&#160; However, the justices ruled that women had exercised abortion rights for 19 years, and the passage of time had given women squatters’ rights to abortions.</p>
<p>Americans have exercised Second Amendment rights for 234 years.&#160; Regardless of the meaning of the Second Amendment, the right of adverse possession makes gun rights final. To assault such a well grounded right is an act of tyranny.</p>
<p>PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration.&#160; He is the author of numerous books, including with Lawrence Stratton The Tyranny of Good Intentions, an account of how Americans have lost the protection of law. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | Bill of Rights Under Fire | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/02/20/bill-of-rights-under-fire/ | 2009-02-20 | 4 |
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<p>NEW YORK – Motorola is making a cheaper smartphone aimed at emerging markets and budget-conscious consumers in the U.S.</p>
<p>The company, which is owned by Google Inc., says the new Moto G phone runs recent Android software and has processors, screens and other components approaching what’s found in many high-end phones. But it’s just a third of the price.</p>
<p>The phone starts at $179 without a contract requirement. Contract-free prices for leading phones typically exceed $600. The starting price is for a phone with 8 gigabytes of storage. Most phones have at least 16 gigabytes. Moto G costs $199 for a 16-gigabyte version.</p>
<p>Moto G will have a removable back to allow for customization. Motorola’s flagship Moto X also allows customization, but it must be ordered in advance and can’t be changed.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Motorola unveils budget smartphone, aimed at world | false | https://abqjournal.com/300166/motorola-unveils-budget-smartphone-aimed-at-world.html | 2013-11-13 | 2 |
<p>Fans and critics alike took to social media late Wednesday and early Thursday to celebrate, mourn, criticize and poke fun at Playboy founder Hugh Hefner after his death at age 91.</p>
<p>"Hugh Hefner" was the top trend on both Facebook and Twitter on Thursday morning, with "#RIP Hefner" not far behind on Twitter.</p>
<p>Many online celebrated the way Hefner lived his life.</p>
<p>Rest in Peace to the man, the myth, and the legend. May women adore you, and men strive to be you. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RIPHefner?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#RIPHefner</a> <a href="https://t.co/T7R3a2815R" type="external">pic.twitter.com/T7R3a2815R</a></p>
<p>Others thought Hefner did more harm than good.</p>
<p>Fans found solace in the belief that Hefner was moving on to a better place.</p>
<p>Others weren't so sure.</p>
<p>A man who literally lived the dream. I'd like to say he's going to a better place but I don't want to lie. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RIPHefner?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#RIPHefner</a> <a href="https://t.co/0PIj0K7vDf" type="external">pic.twitter.com/0PIj0K7vDf</a></p>
<p>Some were opportunistic.</p>
<p>In light of our most recent loss, I volunteer as tribute to take Hugh Hefner’s place. Someone’s gotta do it... <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RIPHefner?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#RIPHefner</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HughHefner?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#HughHefner</a></p>
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<p>And some, of course, made jokes.</p>
<p /> | Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's death stirred up social media | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/09/28/hollywood/hugh-hefner-dies-social-media-reacts | 2017-09-28 | 1 |
<p>Photo courtesy ABC</p>
<p />
<p>See more LOST chats <a href="../../../../../../../search/google?cx=013005430503707194591%3Aoii62lypam0&amp;cof=FORID%3A11&amp;query=%22lost+chat%22&amp;op=Search&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;form_build_id=form-fb98f4a14698964a15ef48c6962e967c&amp;form_token=fdbf34ca22c4c989ef9ce582716389bd&amp;form_id=google_cse_results_searchbox_form#1364" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Last night proved that, indeed, everybody loves Hugo, aka Hurley, aka our favorite voice of normalcy and humor in the wacked-out world of Lost. But is he really leading his fellow Losties down the right path? And what exactly is he trying to do?</p>
<p>Hey, it wouldn’t be Lost without a lot of questions, and we got plenty of them in last night’s action-packed, romantic episode. Two explosions! Two attempted murders! Love in an insane asylum! To make sense of it all, we invited Steve from the <a href="http://lostrecaps.com/" type="external">Lost Recaps website</a> to join us. Thanks, Steve. Read the chat below, and stay tuned for more surprise guests in the coming weeks.</p>
<p>Laurin Asdal, Director of Development: Hello all! Steve, Lost Recaps blogger: Hi. Nikki Gloudeman, New Media Fellow: Steve, thanks for joining us! Nikki: So, let’s get the ball rolling. General thoughts on last night’s Hurley episode? Laurin: Well there was a lot there. Steve: Love that guy! Laurin: I have to agree. I loved Hurley last night. Nikki: Yes, me too. His presence is needed in the bizarre, intense Lost-verse. I was really touched by the Jack/Sun solidarity with him. Even though I think he’s leading them to something really bad. Laurin: I don’t, I’m a believer. Steve: Yeah. I’m with Hurley/Hugo/Hurley. Nikki: But now MIB can get off the island and wreak his havoc. Laurin: I don’t think he can leave. I think he thinks he has a shot at leaving. Steve: I think Desmond is going to foil Smokey’s plans. Nikki: I would love it if Des did. And I wonder how/if the foiling ties in to running over Sideways Locke?</p>
<p>Steve: I’m obsessed with what’s going on in Desmond’s mind grapes. Laurin: Me too. Steve: How much does flash-sideways Des know about the island? Laurin: I think he’s the only one who has a real sense of a dual consciousness. Steve: He certainly ran Locke’s ass down with vim and vigor. Nikki: I think he knows everything. Laurin: He knows that he has to get the 815 passengers to remember their OT selves. Steve: Only on Lost does shooting teenage boys in the chest and running over a man in the wheelchair come across as sensible behavior. Nikki: And now he’s also playing Cupid. Steve: And tilting his sunglasses like Magnum P.I.! Laurin: Sharpe dressed man! Nikki: Super bad-ass. Loved it. Steve: Did anyone else get a little freaked out to see Smokey Locke looking a little afraid of Desmond? Nikki: Yes, because Des wasn’t afraid. That was a cool moment. Steve: We haven’t seen him look afraid much, if ever. Nikki: He knows Des knows. Steve: Yes, he knows Des knows, but he doesn’t know WHAT Des knows, which is interesting. And neither does Widmore, it seems.</p>
<p>Nikki: Seems like love is what makes people remember the island. So maybe Des is trying to reconnect people. Who’s next? Laurin: I think it’s love and near-death experiences that make you remember the island. Aka, why Desmond hit Locke with the car. Nikki: But it’s weird—Locke is with his love in the sideways world, right? He’s the only one… Laurin: But she wasn’t on the island. Steve: I think that’s a sign that the pairings aren’t necessarily about love. Nikki: Unless that’s (duh duh duh) sideways MIB!</p>
<p>Steve: I’m starting to think they’re about some sort of magnetic stuff. Nikki: Oh that’s interesting. What kind of magnetic stuff? Steve: We have Jacob touching people, most likely magnetizing them…I’m starting to think that’s how he finds everyone with his clever little Lighthouse. He done magnetized them. Then you got the magnetic-looking Smoke Monster business. I have no clear theory here, just the ramblings of a Lost-obsessed madman. Nikki: That’s what this chat is all about! Mad theories. Laurin: Magnetic energy, or energy itself, definitely plays a big role. I think that’s what is keeping Desmond immune to MIB. MIB has no power over him and he knows it.</p>
<p>Steve: Here’s another wacky half-baked idea. What if zapping Desmond is turning him into some sort of anti-Smoke Monster creature? He seemed to be deconstructing into particles last week. Laurin: I think you are right. Nikki: Like the force of good to Smokey’s evil? Samantha Schaberg, Administrative Assistant: What if it’s making him Jacob? Is he a candidate? Nikki: I dig that. Steve: I always thought Jacob came across more as a father/creator to the MIB as opposed to a polar opposite. Laurin: He could be, but I have thoughts that it might be Jack. Nikki: Yes, I get that sense too. Though I also still think they might be brothers. Laurin: That exchange with MIB and Jack last night was really telling. Maybe the true candidate is Jack. Nikki: That would be cool, because it would probably pit science against faith once again. Steve: Jack seemed to look at him a little like he would look at Christian. Laurin: Jack was scared, I think, realizing this is not Locke, and Locke realized something in Jack.</p>
<p>Steve: So I have a few questions for y’all. Laurin: Shoot. Steve: Hurley has Jacob’s ashes! What’s he gonna do with them? Samantha: Oh, is that what was in that bag? Nikki: Is that what that was? I was so confused about what was in that bag! Laurin: Toss them on MIB and he will MELT. Steve: Who the heck is that kid that freaked Smokey Locke out? Nikki: I think that kid might be young MIB. Like we saw young Jacob a while back. Samantha: Yeah, I dig that. Laurin: Could be. Could also be a young Jacob. Nikki: Don’t know why their young spirits are running around. Samantha: So does that mean it should be assumed they’ve both been there forever, since birth I guess? Or rather, mythical birth? Possibly the mama of humanity.</p>
<p>Nikki: Yeah, that makes sense, Sam. And soon, I hope, we’ll meet this crazy mother. Samantha: Gaia. Mother Earth, the ultimate myth creature, the huge dark rift out of which everything came. Steve: Which begs the question, when are we going to go back? WAY back? Back into time?! Back when people dug wells with their hands and what not. Nikki: I’ve heard there’s an ep down the line that includes zero of the regular cast members. Could be the ultimate flashback, to the beginning of the island. Laurin: Oh, wow. Samantha: I would LOVE to see that. Laurin: That episode is going to get me stoned. Steve: I avoid spoilers but someone dropped that tidbit on me as well.</p>
<p>Samantha: I have a question…how does everyone feel about the increase in special effects in the show. Nikki: Honestly, kinda meh. Samantha: Yeah me too. Nikki: Sometimes the FX is super lame. Laurin: It’s a non issue for me. Nikki: Like the underwater island. And the sub. But sometimes it adds to the show in a cool way. Steve: I thought electromagnetizing Des was pretty cool. Samantha: Oh yeah that was sweet. Steve: I feel like they need to hold a bake sale to pay for FX sometimes. Laurin: Yes. Nikki: Ha, yeah, seriously. Laurin: Clearly they have budgetary constraints. Steve: People of Oahu! We have Rice Krispie Treats and Duncan Hines Brownies! Smoke Monster ep coming up, please buy stuff!!! Nikki: I totally would!</p>
<p>Steve: Hey is anyone else psyched for this event Eloise Hawking-Widmore is throwing? Where everyone gets together? I think that’s the big shebang folks. Nikki: Yes, there has to be a moment where they all come together. Steve: I think that’s when Des is going to cross the two realities. That’s why she told Des he wasn’t ready to see the list yet, as opposed to just locking him up or something. It was more like, I don’t need you yet, Desmond, you’re not ready to do what you gotta do. Nikki: So does she want him to do that? Steve: What happens when all the constants get together? Laurin: I think Locke getting run over will connect him with Jack who will then fix his spine. Steve: I think about that sometimes when I should be looking both ways before I cross the street. Nikki: Ah, The Constant! Another shout-out to my favorite ep. Steve: Ooh good one Laurin. I didn’t even think of that. Nikki: Yeah, score one for Laurin! Laurin: (Bow). But I’m not clear how Jack is going to remember his island self. Nikki: Maybe he’ll see Kate?</p>
<p>Nikki: Favorite moment of last night? Laurin: When Hurley’s mom slapped him outside the gala event. Ha. Steve: My fave was when Locke asked Des, “Why aren’t you afraid?” Nikki: Jack and Sun following Hurley. Steve: Because in that moment, he appeared to be afraid of Desmond. And that. Blew. My. Tiny. Mind. Nikki: And Libby’s cracked out appearance at the restaurant, where she spoke cryptically. I love me some cryptic talk on Lost. Laurin: Yes, as a serious scene I have to agree with Steve. I loved that too.Steve: Yes cracked out Libby FTW! Girl, you so crazy. Laurin: It’s like they are surrendering to fate. And that is the MIB’s worst nightmare. Nikki: Ok, have meeting, gotta run. Steve: Gotta run to a meeting too, loved chatting with y’all! Let’s do it again! Nikki: Yes, thanks Steve! Laurin: Thanks and bye! Nikki: Namaste, fellow Lost nerds.</p>
<p /> | MoJo Lost Chat: Everybody Loves Hugo | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/04/lost-recap-everybody-loves-hurley/ | 2010-04-14 | 4 |
<p>Picture a rapper: he's Muslim, he's white, he's from Minnesota, he's an albino.&#160; Brother Ali is that rapper, and he still manages to find expectations to defy.&#160; Ali's new EP "The Truth is Here," like his previous work, is a raw document about family, faith, and seeking happiness in tough times.</p>
<p>Ali moved from town to town in the upper Midwest, from his birthplace of Madison, to small towns throughout Michigan before settling in Minneapolis about 15 years ago.&#160; As you might expect, the move from school to school was tough on him, as it would be for any child.&#160;</p>
<p>"Yep, I was the albino kid," says Ali.&#160; After some time, he made a discovery: "Until I was about 8 or 9 years old, I discovered that I didn't always have to be just the albino kid.&#160; I could be the albino kid that raps and b-boys, breakdance."</p>
<p>Seeing some other, older kids in the hip-hop scene gave Ali and his brother an aspiration.&#160; Soon he was doing graffiti, breakdancing, and memorizing other rappers' verses.&#160; "When I was 7 or 8 years old, I could say every Melle Mel rap there ever was.&#160; You know, Slick Rick, Run D.M.C.&#160; I knew all of these guys' rhymes and I could recite them verbatim and almost do their voice.</p>
<p>"It was kind of like a party trick; I would go to a new school and try to find the hip-hop kids, and I might just walk up and just start doing Run D.M.C. at the top of my lungs.&#160; I would make friends like that.</p>
<p>"As I became a teenager, I started wrtiting my own songs and it became about more of an identity thing for me, that this is how I relate to the world.&#160; Because you know, like you said, being albino really is different.&#160; You're not really a part of any thing, in terms of just normal identity."</p>
<p>Ali's albinism made him further isolated, feeling out of place in the Afican-American community as well as the white community.&#160; While he was raised in a Christian home, he had a realization when he was asked to be confirmed that he could not be a part of the church.&#160; Citing a non-belief in the clergy, original sin, and other things, he recalls, "I said, 'I'm not going to join this church.'&#160; I felt like I was going to be disrespectful to the people that really did believe in it, for me to just do it.</p>
<p>"Hip-hop introduced me to Malcolm X, and I read his biography, and I got really interested in 'What is this thing that made him who he was?'&#160; So I started studying Islam.</p>
<p>"I realized that when I actually started meeting Muslims, I had all of these pre-conceived notions of what I thought Islam was: I thought it was really strict and dogmatic, I thought it was really race-based.&#160; The more that I actually started talking to Muslims and reading the Koran for myself I realized that this is what I believe in."</p>
<p>Ali's ascent in the Minneapolis music world started in a place that really lacked a hip-hop scene. He performed shows in coffee houses and in the rock clubs, since there were no exclusive hip-hop venues.</p>
<p>"There was punk rock, indie rock with the white kids, and with the black kids there was this remants of the Prince/Morris Day and the Time scene."</p>
<p>Ali credits the birth of the hip-hop scene with a his current backing DJ on a radio show on the local university's radio station; it brought together elements from different parts of town that separate, were not creating enough momentum.&#160; After some shows with rappers from other parts of the city, Brother Ali was able to get away from some past efforts, true to his DIY roots: cleaning bathrooms in the clubs in order to get to perform there, and carrying gear and equipment for others also in exchange for the opportunity to perform.</p>
<p>Ali has since toured nationally and moved up in the ranks to perform on "The Late Show" David Letterman and on "Late Night," Conan O'Brien's show.&#160; His most recent full-length album reached #69 on the Billboard 200 chart.</p>
<p>The brainchild of host and producer Jesse Thorn, "The Sound of Young America" is an irreverent weekly arts and entertainment interview program, described by its creator as "a public radio show about things that are awesome."</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">More "Sound of Young America"</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Albino, white, Muslim, & rapper: Brother Ali | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-06-07/albino-white-muslim-rapper-brother-ali | 2009-06-08 | 3 |
<p>Don’t count Dr. Aaron Carroll among those who were stunned by a Sept. 13 New England Journal of Medicine survey that said American physicians overwhelmingly support national health insurance. A researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Carroll wasn’t surprised because the data confirm studies he published in 2003 and 2008 on the subject of physician attitudes toward reform, work that drew national media attention, including an appearance on The Colbert Report.</p>
<p>In the New England Journal study, 63 percent of the doctors want a mix of public and private insurance plans, and 10 percent want a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system. In the April 1, 2008, edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine, Carroll and Dr. Ronald T. Ackerman, also from IU Med, published a survey that showed “a total of 59 percent supported legislation to establish national health insurance.” Five years earlier, it was 49 percent.</p>
<p>“Those who tell you that doctors are against this or that doctors are really opposed to significant health care reform are not paying attention,” Carroll said from his Indianapolis office during a telephone interview. “The good, carefully gathered evidence on this topic show that doctors really recognize that reform is necessary and are willing to take pretty big steps toward getting a better system.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Carroll is a Philadelphia native, an associate professor of pediatrics and director of IU Med’s Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, where he has been the past six years. His interest in the subject of physician attitudes toward universal health care was piqued at a 2002 symposium during his residency at the University of Washington in Seattle. “I remember at the time listening to people talk about it and thinking, ‘There’s no way that doctors would ever support this,'” he said. “I believed the general things that had been said, that doctors would be very much against any kind of significant reform.”</p>
<p>Carroll and Ackerman, who also attended the symposium, were intrigued enough to test their hypothesis and were stunned when their survey showed 49 percent favored national health insurance. “Even back then, in 2002 or 2003, a plurality of physicians actually supported government legislation for national health insurance,” he said.</p>
<p>Dubious about their own results, the pair dove into the subject more deeply. And their follow-up study in 2008 showing the percentage had increased another 10 percent in five years was met with more media attention than the two researchers had anticipated. Carroll, for example, found himself in a New York City television studio not knowing what to expect after Stephen Colbert announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Aaron Carroll.”</p>
<p>“It’s exactly what it looks like on TV, in that it’s impossible to go in with any preconceived notion of what you’re going to say or how you’re going to do it,” he said. “I think if you watch it closely it might have been a minute or a minute-and-a-half before I was able to get a full sentence out.”</p>
<p>Carroll has made other media appearances, and there’s usually a pre-interview meeting, where guests are prepared for what’s to come, he said. “You get a general sense of what they may be asking, and they get a general sense of what you might be saying.” Not so with Stephen Colbert. The actual experience bore almost no resemblance to what had gone on before. “It really was just a roller coaster,” he said. “It’s not for the faint of heart.”</p>
<p>A proud member of the Colbert Nation, Carroll said he loved doing the show and felt it was an effective venue for his message.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The New England Journal of Medicine survey, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sampled 2,130 U.S. doctors, according to a Sept. 14 article from the Reuters news service. In addition to the support for national health insurance, it also found that, regardless of their medical specialty, 55 percent “would favor expanding Medicare so it covered people aged 55 and older.” Medicare is the single-payer, federal health insurance plan for Americans over 65 and some disabled citizens.</p>
<p>Consistent with Carroll’s read of the evidence, Dr. John Lumpkin, Johnson Foundation senior vice president, told Reuters, “The result shows that physicians see this system is broken and needs to be fixed.”</p>
<p>Acknowledging that physicians in general and the American Medical Association in particular have opposed health care reform efforts dating to the early 20th century, Carroll, who was a Robert Wood Johnson scholar, attributes the attitudinal sea change since the early 2000s to a combination of factors. Physicians recognize the significant amount of overhead that is included in health care costs, he said. They see patients every day who are uninsured or underinsured. And they understand a band-aid approach to system reformation will not work.</p>
<p>“It’s not as if this is the first time we’ve thought about this,” he said. “It’s been proposed again and again and again, and everything is getting worse. At some point you have to realize that the road we’re on is not the right road, and it might be time to take a different one.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>After watching Carroll on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report or on MSNBC’s Ed Show, or talking with him on the phone, one could easily be left with the impression he’s a proponent of a single-payer health care plan similar to the types found in Canada and Great Britain. But he said his role in this debate is that of a scientist. “I like to say that I’m not an advocate, in the sense that I believe that this is the best position and I’m promoting it,” he said. “I think there is a general consensus of evidence that shows that it’s one of the best and most cost-effective ways of going about providing health insurance to a group of people.”</p>
<p>A careful review of the literature at this time, he said, shows single-payer systems, as evidenced by their adoption around the world, are the most cost-effective means of providing insurance. “That’s what the evidence shows,” he said. “If good research were to come out in the future and show that I was wrong and other ways would be better, I would absolutely change my mind.”</p>
<p>In response to a comment Southern Indiana’s Blue Dog Democratic Congressman Baron Hill recently made in Bloomington that America eventually will embrace a single-payer system, Carroll said there are other systems around the world that aren’t single-payer but work reasonably well.</p>
<p>“I think if we were truthfully and actively talking about adopting one of those alternatives, then we might not get to a single-payer system,” he said. “But if we continue to wring our hands and do nothing, I do agree that it’s inevitable that the public part of our insurance will get larger and larger and larger, and we’ll reach a tipping point where we might as well bring everybody in.”</p>
<p>STEVEN HIGGS is a freelance writer in Bloomington, Ind., and editor of The Bloomington Alternatove, <a href="http://www.BloomingtonAlternative.com" type="external">www.BloomingtonAlternative.com</a>. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | Even in Indiana, Doctors Support National Health Insurance | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/09/24/even-in-indiana-doctors-support-national-health-insurance/ | 2009-09-24 | 4 |
<p>Within hours of the internet getting a load of this ad from Bloomingdale’s holiday catalogue, the company issued an apology for its “inappropriate” (read: rapey) copy. <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/bloomingdales-holiday-catalog-ad-2015-11" type="external">Via Tech Insider</a>:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />It’s incredible to me that, even after we’ve seen nearly identical controversies go down with&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Belvedere Vodka</a> and <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/05/04/john_oliver_lampoons_bud_lights_rapey_ad_campaign_its_like_a_liquid_john_mayer_song/" type="external">Bud Light</a>&#160;in the last few years, multiple people must have signed off on this ad. Apparently not only did none&#160;of them say, “Ugh, guys, do we really want to encourage men&#160;to be creepy sexual predators?”&#160;but none&#160;them even said, “Ya know, I think there might&#160;be some people on Twitter who get mad about this.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Bloomingdale’s is sorry for rapey ad encouraging you to spike your friend’s drink | true | http://feministing.com/2015/11/11/bloomingdales-is-sorry-for-rapey-ad-encouraging-you-to-spike-your-friends-drink/ | 4 |
|
<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former Philadelphia emergency management official has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison on child pornography charges.</p>
<p>Philly.com <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/grant-shea-sentencing-child-porn-20180124.html" type="external">reports</a> that 30-year-old Grant Shea was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty last year to six child porn charges.</p>
<p>Shea served as health and human services program manager at the city’s Office of Emergency Management for five months. He resigned in July 2016 after being charged.</p>
<p>He was first indicted on three counts, but more charges were added after the FBI said he tried to solicit child pornography while on house arrest awaiting trial.</p>
<p>At the sentencing hearing, Shea apologized and said he would commit himself to treatment.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Philly.com, <a href="http://www.philly.com/" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.philly.com/" type="external">http://www.philly.com/</a></p>
<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former Philadelphia emergency management official has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison on child pornography charges.</p>
<p>Philly.com <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/grant-shea-sentencing-child-porn-20180124.html" type="external">reports</a> that 30-year-old Grant Shea was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty last year to six child porn charges.</p>
<p>Shea served as health and human services program manager at the city’s Office of Emergency Management for five months. He resigned in July 2016 after being charged.</p>
<p>He was first indicted on three counts, but more charges were added after the FBI said he tried to solicit child pornography while on house arrest awaiting trial.</p>
<p>At the sentencing hearing, Shea apologized and said he would commit himself to treatment.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Philly.com, <a href="http://www.philly.com/" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.philly.com/" type="external">http://www.philly.com/</a></p> | Former city official sentenced on child porn charges | false | https://apnews.com/e3d8fc1ecd0f4aed8735d232130c7a93 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>The Daily Beast <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2017/03/08/gop-lawmaker-introduces-world-s-greatest-healthcare-plan-of-2017.html?via=desktop&amp;source=copyurl" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>A House Republican has reintroduced his own Obamacare repeal measure with the not-so-subtle title of the “World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.” Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, introduced the legislation last week, just days before GOP leadership unveiled their proposal to begin the process of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Sessions was reportedly hoping that his legislation would be the basis of House Republicans’ eventual repeal efforts. Instead, Speaker Paul Ryan and his team modeled their initial bill on legislation authored by former Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican who now leads President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services.</p>
<p>More from <a href="http://theweek.com/speedreads/684736/gop-health-care-proposal-titled-worlds-greatest-healthcare-plan-2017-yes-really" type="external">The Week</a>:</p>
<p>In case there was any confusion over whether Sessions, who introduced the bill, actually wanted such a braggadocious formal name, the bill’s text clarifies that yes, “this Act may be cited as the ‘World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.'” Sessions noted he’s been working on this plan with health care providers and business owners for the last 18 months, and promised on his website that it isn’t “full of onerous regulations, unnecessary mandates, or discriminatory policies,” and that it “empowers all Americans to make their own health care choices.”</p>
<p>See the full bill <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1275/text" type="external">here</a>.</p> | GOP Lawmaker Introduces Obamacare Replacement Bill Titled “World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan Of 2017” | true | http://joemygod.com/2017/03/08/gop-lawmaker-introduces-obamacare-replacement-bill-titled-worlds-greatest-healthcare-plan-2017/ | 2017-03-08 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Blue Marblish news from our other blogs, and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Smart Start:&#160;Obama admin announces <a href="" type="internal">billions</a> to create a smart grid.</p>
<p>Women’s Voices:&#160;Women make up half of the population, so <a href="" type="internal">why not</a> half of bloggers?</p>
<p>Reid’s Plan:&#160;Sen. Harry Reid’s <a href="" type="internal">announced support</a> for a public option. So what is it?</p>
<p>No Going Back:&#160;Pollution is <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1029-hance_pearlriver.html" type="external">so bad</a> in China’s Pearl River, it can’t be undone. [MongaBay]</p>
<p>Expensive Jokes:&#160;Yes Men pranksters <a href="" type="internal">get sued</a> by the Chamber of Commerce.</p>
<p>Belle of the Ball:&#160;Coal company <a href="" type="internal">pays for</a> basketball player’s dorm.</p>
<p>Driving DNA:&#160;Some people may be <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/genetically-bad-driving/" type="external">genetically predisposed</a> to be bad drivers. [WIRED]</p>
<p>Majority Rule: A majority of Americans support cap-and-trade, <a href="" type="internal">a new poll shows</a>.</p>
<p>Max Factor:&#160;Sen. Max Baucus <a href="" type="internal">threatens to hobble</a> healthcare legislation’s progress.</p>
<p>Tough Shot:&#160;Two HPV vaccines are on the market, <a href="http://www.livescience.com/health/091020-hpv-vaccine.html" type="external">re-igniting</a> controversies. [LiveScience]</p>
<p>Ready to Rumble:&#160;A <a href="" type="internal">look inside</a> the fake letters ACCCE sent to sway Congress members.</p>
<p>Scarlet Letters:&#160;ACCCE will have to <a href="" type="internal">answer to Congress</a> on forged letters scandal.</p>
<p>Testify: ACCCE CEO claims he <a href="" type="internal">never opposed</a> Waxman-Markey. But he’s wrong.</p>
<p>Denial-ism: A new breed of pundit is <a href="" type="internal">in denial</a> about denying global warming.</p>
<p /> | Eco-News Roundup: Friday October 30 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/10/eco-news-roundup-friday-october-30/ | 2009-10-30 | 4 |
<p>PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - France will lend Britain the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th century treasure that tells the tale of how William the Conqueror came to invade England in 1066, an official at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris said on Wednesday.</p> People stand in front of the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th century treasure that tells the tale of how William the Conqueror came to invade England in 1066, in this undated photo provided by the Bayeux Museum in France, on January 18, 2018. Bayeux Museum/Stephane Maurice/Handout via REUTERS
<p>The announcement, a day before French President Emmanuel Macron is due to visit Britain for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May, was greeted with enthusiasm in Britain where the tapestry has powerful historical resonance.</p>
<p>“This is huge. This is an extraordinary diplomatic outreach by the president of France and a fantastic gesture of goodwill from one of our nearest and closest allies,” said lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee.</p>
<p>“It’s a fantastic opportunity for the British people to see one of the seminal works in our national history,” he said during an interview on BBC radio.</p>
<p>The 70-metre long tapestry, whose precise origins are obscure and which has not left France in its nearly 950-year known history, is currently on display in the town of Bayeux, in the northwestern French region of Normandy.</p>
<p>The Elysee official said the loan was agreed in principle but would not take place for several years because work needed to be done on the tapestry to ensure it was safe to move it.</p>
<p>“It’s very symbolic for France and maybe even more for the UK,” he said.</p>
<p>The invasion of England by Duke William of Normandy, better known as William the Conqueror, and his victory over the Anglo-Saxon King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, changed the course of English history.</p>
<p>The Norman conquest transformed England’s language, laws, customs and architecture, and Queen Elizabeth is the 40th monarch in a royal line that traces its origin back to William the Conqueror.</p> View shows the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th century treasure that tells the tale of how William the Conqueror came to invade England in 1066, in this undated photo provide by the Bayeux Museum on January 18, 2018. Bayeux Museum/Stephane Maurice/Handout via REUTERS “EMMANUEL THE CONQUEROR”
<p>There is no consensus on where the tapestry was made. Some researchers believe it was made in Kent, southern England, but many others have pointed to locations in France.</p>
<p>May is likely to hail the loan as a sign of the strong friendship between Paris and London, which like Britain’s relations with other European nations is under strain because of the United Kingdom’s looming exit from the European Union.</p>
<p>The Elysee official said the loan fitted into Macron’s strategy for the revival of European sovereignty and democracy, detailed in a speech in Athens in September last year during which he spoke about the importance of cultural and historic ties between European nations.</p>
<p>“The president had insisted during his speech in Athens on a Europe of culture and the arts, and it’s important to put this in practice with our British neighbors to symbolize the strength of our historical relationship,” said the official.</p>
<p>The Times newspaper’s cartoonist Peter Brookes linked Bayeux and Brexit in his offering in Wednesday’s edition, which was drawn in the style of the tapestry.</p>
<p>It depicted Macron as “Emmanuel the Conqueror” riding forth with a confident smile as May, brandishing a Brexit banner, received an arrow in the eye — the fate that befell King Harold according to the tapestry.</p>
<p>Britain’s foreign minister Boris Johnson was depicted slumped forward on a horse with two arrows in his bottom.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey in Paris, writing by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Guy Faulconbridge</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Saturday against what organizers said was an unfair election system that gave Prime Minister Viktor Orban a landslide victory at the polls after a “hate campaign” against immigrants.</p> People attend a protest against the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, Hungary, April 14, 2018. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
<p>Orban won a third straight term in power in Sunday elections after his anti-immigration campaign message secured a strong majority for his ruling Fidesz party in parliament, giving him two-thirds of seats based on preliminary results.</p>
<p>In a Facebook post before the rally, organizers called for a recount of ballots, free media, a new election law, as well as more efficient cooperation among opposition parties instead of the bickering seen in the run-up to the vote.</p>
<p>The protest was among the biggest in Hungary in recent years, similar in size to a mass rally prompted by Orban’s plan to tax internet use four years ago and a pro-government demonstration called by Orban supporters shortly before the election.</p>
<p>Fidesz received 49 percent of national party list votes and its candidates won 91 of 106 single-member constituencies, most of them in rural areas. Leftist opposition candidates carried two-thirds of the voting districts in Budapest.</p>
<p>There was a similar split between ages, with support for Orban’s Fidesz at 37 percent among voters below 30, rising gradually to 46 percent among those older than 50, according to a survey by think tank Median published earlier this week.</p> People attend a protest against the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, Hungary, April 14, 2018. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
<p>The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has said the election did not offer opposition parties a level playing field amid a host of problems marring a vote that nonetheless generally respected fundamental rights.</p>
<p>In their Facebook post, the rally’s organizers said: “Fidesz’s election system and the government’s hate campaign have pushed the majority into a one-third (parliamentary) minority.”</p>
<p>Protesters marched from the Opera House, a 19th century Neo-Renaissance palace on a majestic downtown avenue, to Parliament by the Danube River, waving Hungary’s tricolor flag and the European Union flag, accompanied by whistles and horns blaring.</p>
<p>As demonstrators filled a large square outside Parliament, many were still walking on main roads leading there, chanting: “We are the majority.”</p>
<p>Organizers of the event estimated the size of the crowd at over 100,000 people, which briefly took on a festival-like atmosphere as a pop singer took the stage to perform an opening song blasting Orban’s “pseudocracy.”</p>
<p>“Viktor Orban has forgotten where he came from,” Ors Lanyi, one of the organizers told the crowd, which responded with loud boos upon hearing the prime minister’s name.</p> OPPOSITION ‘PATHETIC’
<p>In contrast to Orban’s closing rally last week in his native Szekesfehervar, where the overwhelming majority of supporters were middle-aged and elderly people, the Budapest protest attracted many people from younger generations.</p> Slideshow (7 Images)
<p>“We are disappointed and I think lots of us are disappointed with the election results, which, I think, were not clean,” said 26-year-old Palma, who declined to give her surname.</p>
<p>Palma, who came to the protest with a friend, said she believed the Hungarian election system gave an unfair advantage to Orban’s ruling Fidesz party. However, she was also displeased with opposition parties.</p>
<p>“They are pathetic,” she said. “It is terrible that they are so weak, unable to reach a compromise and they kill each other instead of joining forces for us.”</p>
<p>Nationalist Jobbik and the Socialists are the biggest opposition groups in parliament.</p>
<p>In the election campaign Orban projected himself as the defender of Hungary’s Christian culture against Muslim migration into Europe, an image which resonated with millions of voters, especially in rural areas.</p>
<p>But the opposition’s poor showing was at least partly of its own making as rival candidates split the anti-government vote in five districts in Budapest, where preliminary results showed a slim Fidesz victory.</p>
<p>“Zero, zero, zero,” 29-year-old Dia Szenasi said about the opposition, adding that all leftist parties should have joined forces to have a better chance of ousting Orban.</p>
<p>Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Toby Chopra</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council failed to adopted a Russian-drafted resolution on Saturday that would have condemned “the aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic by the U.S. and its allies in violation of international law and the U.N. Charter.”</p> United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks to members of the United Nations Security Council during an emergency meeting on Syria at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., April 14, 2018. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
<p>Only Russia, China and Bolivia voted in favor of the draft resolution. Eight countries voted against the draft, while four abstained. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States to pass.</p>
<p>Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Saturday called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council as Moscow said it would consider supplying S-300 missile systems to Syria following U.S.-led strikes.</p> Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a ceremony to receive credentials from foreign ambassadors at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia April 11, 2018. Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool via REUTERS
<p>“Russia convenes an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss aggressive actions of the U.S. and its allies,” President Vladimir Putin said in a statement published on the Kremlin website.</p>
<p>“The current escalation of the situation around Syria has a devastating impact on the whole system of international relations,” he added.</p>
<p>U.S., British and French forces pounded Syria with more than 100 missiles early on Saturday in response to a poison gas attack that killed dozens of people last week, in the biggest intervention by Western powers against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.</p>
<p>Putin said the U.S. actions in Syria made the humanitarian catastrophe worse and caused pain for civilians.</p>
<p>“Russia in the most serious way condemns the attack on Syria where Russian military servicemen help the legitimate government to fight terrorism,” Putin said.</p> MISSILES FOR SYRIA
<p>Moscow may consider supplying S-300 surface to-air missile systems to Syria and “other countries”, Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoi told a televised briefing on Saturday.</p>
<p>Russia had “refused” supplying those missiles to Syria a few years ago, he added, “taking into account the pressing request of some of our Western partners”.</p>
<p>Following the U.S.-led strikes, however, “we consider it possible to return to examination of this issue not only in regard to Syria but to other countries as well,” Rudskoi said.</p>
<p>Syria’s air defence system, which mostly consists of systems made in the Soviet Union, has intercepted 71 of the missiles fired on Saturday by the U.S., British and French forces, he added.</p>
<p>“In the past year and a half Russia has fully restored Syria’s air defence system and continues to further upgrade it,” Rudskoi said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Clelia Oziel</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Damascus residents were woken before dawn on Saturday by a series of explosions resounding across the city, very loud even for people used to the sound of heavy bombardment.</p>
<p>Ten hours after the missiles hit, smoke was still rising from the remains of a research facility in Damascus’s Barzeh district that Western countries say was part of a covert Syrian government chemical weapons program.</p>
<p>The United States, Britain and France attacked sites across Syria in response to a suspected poison gas attack a week ago, but the Syrian government, backed by Russia, denies using - or possessing - any such weapons.</p>
<p>The blasts left the Syrian Scientific Research Centre compound, standing hard against the steep, dry hills that hem in northeastern Damascus, little more than a ruin.</p>
<p>The center is not far from eastern Ghouta, the area of towns and farmland that was the biggest stronghold of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad. The last group of them surrendered hours after the suspected chemical weapons attack that prompted Saturday’s air strikes, at the end of a government offensive on the region that had lasted seven weeks.</p>
<p>Standing near the rubble, Saeid Saeid, head of the center’s polymers department, said that the buildings had been used to research and make medicine components that could not be imported, including ones for cancer treatment and anti-venom.</p>
<p>U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said in Washington that it had been a center for research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological weapons.</p> The destroyed Scientific Research Centre is seen in Damascus, Syria April 14, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki
<p>Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said that 76 missiles had been fired at the facility and “successfully destroyed three buildings&#160;in metropolitan Damascus, one of the most heavily defended aerospace areas in the world”.</p>
<p>The smell of fire and smoke wafted across the remains of five destroyed buildings during a media tour arranged by the government. Only the compound’s gateways and one heavily damaged building survived.</p>
<p>Other buildings were mostly flattened, some with a corner still upright, the slabs of concrete that had once been roofs or floors hanging at odd angles.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>A bus parked nearby was little more than a skeleton, its windows blown out. Palm trees looked ragged, as if they had lost some of their fronds.</p>
<p>Amid the rubble on the edge of the compound were the scattered remains of its contents: charred books, laboratory masks and gloves, files, tables, cardboard packets marked with the names of medicines, chairs and wind-blown sheets of paper.</p>
<p>Scraps of green and white lab coats hung from the branches of trees, blown there by the blast or later on by the wind.</p>
<p>Reporting By Kinda Makieh, writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Kevin Liffey</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | After 950 years, France to lend Bayeux Tapestry to Britain Tens of thousands of Hungarians protest against Orban landslide U.N. Security council fails to adopt Russian resolution on Syria Russia calls for UN meeting on Syria, mulls supplies of S-300 systems Syria strike reduces research center to smoking rubble | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-britain-france-tapestry/after-950-years-france-to-lend-bayeux-tapestry-to-britain-idUSKBN1F60T7 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Police are investigating how a 2-year old child suffered a serious head injury this weekend in south Santa Fe. Police received a call from the boy’s mother shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday. She said the boy was unresponsive at a home on Calle Andrew. The boy was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and later moved by helicopter to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The boy is in critical condition, Santa Fe Police Chief Ray Rael said Saturday afternoon. Rael said that the cause of the head injury is unknown and that, while police are investigating, at this point they “can’t tell what happened.” Rael declined to release the names of the child’s guardians.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Child’s Injuries Investigated | false | https://abqjournal.com/158108/childs-injuries-investigated.html | 2013-01-06 | 2 |
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<p>GREELEY, Colo. - A former Greeley teacher accused of having sex with a middle school student between 40 and 50 times over the course of a year has been sentenced to seven years in prison.</p>
<p>Prosecutors with the Weld County District Attorney's Office say 25-year-old Katerina Bardos was sentenced Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to felony child abuse and attempting to commit sexual assault on a child.</p>
<p>Bardos was a teacher when she formed a relationship with a then 12-year-old boy, then fostered a close relationship with his mother and sisters.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the teacher's actions turned criminal in 2014 when she initiated an intimate relationship under the guise of being the boy's mentor.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Former Colo. teacher gets 7 years for sex with boy | false | https://abqjournal.com/768005/former-colo-teacher-gets-7-years-for-sex-with-boy.html | 2 |
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<p>DF argued that his client's case should be dismissed because MJ was subjected to sleep deprivation, a form of torture. DF says when the Pentagon called on military lawyers to defend prisoners, he volunteered: I felt strongly that the detainees deserved the best defense available and these hearings needed to have legitimacy. (Were a lot of people responding to the Pentagon's request for lawyers?) Yes, probably more who wanted to join prosecution than defense but the chief defense council has pulled together a solid group. (Tell us more about your client, MJ.) He was 16 or 17 at the time he was arrested in December 2002. He spent much of his youth in a refugee camp in Pakistan. For most of the time he has been in solitary confinement. Despite that he's a polite young man and he's always worried about the repercussions this will have on my own career. (Can you tell us what the status of the case is right now?) I've filed a number of motions to dismiss, based on the torture, MJ's status as a juvenile, one based on lack of jurisdiction. I suspect the lawyer will rule on that in t he next two or three weeks. (A lot of questions have been raised about what to do with these detainees, are military commissions the way to go?) I think military commissions could be good, but the current procedures don't guarantee a fair trial for the detainees. I think the Uniform Code of Military Justice would've been much better off for this situation. (What was the thrust of your closing argument?) It was that the US has acted in a lawless manner, we've abandoned our traditional role and reliance on the rule of law. (What do you make of the argument that these are special times so special accommodations can be made for justice?) I don't buy that these are special times. There are obligations that the US has, based on treaties and such. My arguments talk about defending not the US, but the US Constitution when at times of war. Tragically, under the pressure to defend Americans from terrorist attack, we've lost sight of our obligation to defend the constitution. The constitution says all men should be treated equally and with respect. The detainees at Guantanamo are all human beings and all worthy of humane treatment. We've lost our right as a champion of human rights. We should restore a bit of America's moral luster and dismiss these charges. (What was the reaction to your words?) There were some tears and a lot of silence. Beyond that, I have only received positive feedback from around the world, I have not received any negative attention. I am confident the administration is determined to have fair trials and no one will interfere with that.</p> | Defending a Guantanamo detainee | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-07-04/defending-guantanamo-detainee | 2008-07-04 | 3 |
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<p>DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government has come up with window labels that show the gas mileage and pollution of used cars.</p>
<p>The Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency say the labels can be downloaded or viewed on the website www.fueleconomy.gov.</p>
<p>Labels are available for all vehicles sold in the U.S. since 1984. They show mileage and carbon dioxide emissions estimates.</p>
<p>The government says the stickers are valid for used cars because mileage changes little over a vehicle’s 15-year life if it’s maintained properly.</p>
<p>Used car sellers and dealers can post the stickers on car windows to advertise mileage. Buyers can search the site for the models they want to buy.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Feds offer gas mileage labels for used cars | false | https://abqjournal.com/261708/feds-offer-gas-mileage-labels-for-used-cars.html | 2013-09-12 | 2 |
<p>Memoir is a tricky form.&#160; It is all too easy to omit that which may offend one’s fellows or place the writer in a inglorious light.&#160; Yet, it is also just as easy to end up with an exercise in vanity.&#160; Achieving the perfect balance between these two potentials is the challenge of any writer attempting this form.&#160; In addition, sharing one’s personal life and thoughts with those they will never meet requires an ability to attach some significance to that life.&#160; Despite the dangers involved, some of the best writing out there is that of the memoir.&#160; When an author achieves the precise tone for their work and evokes a nod of recognition from the reader is when memoir is its most effective.&#160; There doesn’t need to be any life lessons shared or pearls of wisdom handed down, just a sense by the reader that the life they are reading is a life that is appreciated by the person writing it down.</p>
<p>Kendall Hale’s newly published memoir <a href="" type="internal">Radical Passions</a> is such a life.&#160; The story she tells is that of a North American woman energized by a combination of liberal middle-class US values, her situation as a woman in the US, and a certain naiveté. &#160;The course of the book takes the reader on a journey shared in various ways by many of Hale’s peers.&#160; She goes from 1960s antiwar militancy to Marxism-Leninism and playing in a women’s band to building a house in Boston’s slums to helping the Sandinista revolution and then back to a middle class life accentuated by experimentation with various New Age modalities and genuine massage and healing techniques.&#160; Neither vainglorious or self-deprecating, Hale’s story is told with a precision for historical and physical detail and a remarkable sense of description.&#160; Her loves and fears and her children and her family are all part of the story, but not the story itself.</p>
<p>Hale does not gloss over disappointments or victories.&#160; Her recounting of the years she spent working in a Massachusetts shipyard as part of the 1970s new communist movement to organize the US working class includes not only the tribulations of being one of the few women in a yard full of men, but also the shortcomings of the communist cell she was part of.&#160; The same can be said for her impressions of Cuba and China—where she hoped to find the socialist society she still believes in.&#160; If there is a shortcoming to the book, it is in her failure to address what she believes to be the reasons these countries did not measure up to their revolutionary ideals.&#160; Then again, that failure in itself is part of Hale’s story. She is, after all, like so many of her peers, a seeker.&#160; The word brings to mind the Pete Townshend song “The Seeker:” “I’ve looked under chairs/I’ve looked under tables/I’ve tried to find the key/To fifty million fables.”&#160; Those who search do not often have the time to reflect as deeply as those who stop looking.</p>
<p>When she comes to the part of the book describing her interaction with healers and other New Age practitioners, Hale’s skepticism comes to the fore.&#160; She notes her attraction to some of the ideas involved and the often genuine changes the practices bring, but retains a questioning approach that is tinged with humor and a healthy dose of disbelief.&#160; As a person whose overwhelming skepticism never allowed me to go for what is known as New Age beliefs, the episodes describing Hale’s involvement left me a bit disinterested.&#160; That does not detract from their importance to the narrative, however.&#160; Let me put it this way, if someone hands me a crystal or offers to give me a reading, I don’t say no, but neither do I attach any special attributes to the stone or the exercise.&#160; The parts of Radical Passions dealing with New Age healing are like those crystals and exercises.</p>
<p>While one might find fault with some of Hale’s decisions or conclusions because of a difference in perspective or experience, it is almost impossible to find fault with her writing.&#160; It is flawless, emotive, captivating and descriptive beyond compare. Radical Passions is an exemplary account of a life fully lived.&#160; Hale’s telling insures that it transcends the ordinary confessional of a “Sixties vet” or a second-wave feminist.&#160; In so doing, it becomes both of these and a whole lot more.</p>
<p>RON JACOBS is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s collection on music, art and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel, <a href="" type="internal">Short Order Frame Up,</a> is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | They Call Me the Seeker | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/07/12/they-call-me-the-seeker/ | 2008-07-12 | 4 |
<p>(Reuters) – Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt’s claim on the National League’s MVP Award received a boost on Tuesday when he was announced as one of baseball’s NL Gold Glove winners, given to the best defensive player at each position.</p>
<p>Goldschmidt, 30, captured his third Gold Glove distinction to cap a stellar season that puts him firmly in the MVP conversation. He has twice finished runner-up.</p>
<p>Goldschmidt joins other NL winners in Colorado second baseman DJ LeMahieu, San Francisco shortstop Brandon Crawford, Colorado third baseman Nolan Arenado, Chicago right fielder Jason Heyward, Atlanta center fielder Ender Inciarte, Cincinnati catcher Tucker Barnhart, Miami left fielder Marcell Ozuna and Arizona pitcher Zack Greinke. Arenado is also a candidate to snag the MVP this award’s season, and now has five Gold Gloves.</p>
<p>American League winners included Los Angeles Angels catcher Martin Maldonado, Kansas City first baseman Eric Hosmer, Kansas City left fielder Alex Gordon, Minnesota second baseman Brian Dozier, Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria, Los Angeles Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons, Minnesota center fielder Byron Buxton, Boston right fielder Mookie Betts and Torontopitcher Marcus Stroman.</p>
<p>No members of the World Series, the Houston Astros or Los Angeles Dodgers, made the squad this year.</p>
<p>Baseball’s awards will come to a conclusion next week when it announces Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year along with Cy Young and MVP awards.</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> | MVP Hopefuls Goldschmidt, Arenado among Gold Glove Winners | false | https://newsline.com/mvp-hopefuls-goldschmidt-arenado-among-gold-glove-winners/ | 2017-11-08 | 1 |
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<p>The Federal Reserve is leaving interest rates unchanged just days before Americans choose a new president, but hints again that it will likely raise rates at an upcoming meeting.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Fed says that the case for rate hike has "continued to strengthen" but that the panel decided to wait "for the time being" for further evidence of progress toward its objectives.</p>
<p>Analysts and financial markets anticipate a rate hike in December. The Fed had been expected to leave rates alone Wednesday, in part to avoid any perception of affecting next week's vote.</p>
<p>The statement the Fed issued closely tracked its September statement, noting that the labor market has continued to strengthen and economic activity has picked up.</p> | Fed leaves key rate unchanged but hints at upcoming hike | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/02/fed-leaves-key-rate-unchanged-but-hints-at-upcoming-hike.html | 2016-11-02 | 0 |
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<p>UNM on Friday announced a partnership with IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions, which will provide the school's athletic department with manpower focusing on improving season-ticket renewal, single-game ticket revenue and group-ticketing sales.</p>
<p>So what, specifically, will the new partnership mean to Lobo fans?</p>
<p>"Hopefully they'll see more fans to the left of them and to the right of them at games," said Brad Hutchins, associate athletic director for marketing and revenue generation.</p>
<p>More specifically, the extra manpower, which will actually be a part of the department's marketing revenue staff based in Albuquerque, will assist in customer service, pound the pavement soliciting group ticket sales to local businesses and work the phones encouraging fans to purchase new or renewed season tickets.</p>
<p>UNM is already in partnership with Learfield for multimedia rights and trademark licensing, and now will have a staff working at UNM led by Joe Gehling, who has in the past managed ticketing business development for the Pittsburgh Pirates. While the specific cut Learfield will get from ticket sales they are responsible for in the future was not known by Hutchins on Friday afternoon, he made it clear the university expects to see revenue growth from the arrangement.</p>
<p>"We still receive 100 percent of the Lobo Club donations (required for season ticket purchases) for all the season tickets sold," Hutchins said. "It's a benefit for everyone here."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>While men's basketball generated more than $4.5 million in ticket revenue this past season, football was at about $1.6 million and women's basketball was at $378,369.</p>
<p>Men's basketball has sold tickets in the Pit at about 98 or 99 percent capacity in recent years. While Hutchins says UNM won't ignore its current season-ticket base there, "right now there are other areas we see as having more room for growth potential."</p>
<p>He added: "One thing that made our attendance really good in the heyday of Lobo football was group ticket sales."</p>
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<p /> | UNM partners with Learfield | false | https://abqjournal.com/393776/unm-partners-with-learfield.html | 2 |
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<p>AQUINNAH, Mass. - An iconic lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard is set to begin a multi-day trek to a new home farther inland.</p>
<p>The $3 million effort to move the Gay Head Lighthouse, among the most endangered historic landmarks in the U.S., would prevent the 160-year-old structure from tumbling down the rapidly-eroding cliffside.</p>
<p>The beacon was a critical waypoint for mariners navigating the sometimes foggy coastline during the heyday of the whaling trade, which was centered around southeastern Massachusetts communities like Martha's Vineyard during the 19th century.</p>
<p>Today, it's a popular tourist destination on the sparsely populated western edge of the famous resort island, which also is home to the federally-recognized Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe.</p>
<p>The lighthouse move had been slated to start June 10 but was pushed up to Thursday because of favorable weather and faster-than-expected site preparation work.</p>
<p>Crews already have hoisted the 400-ton brick-and-mortar lighthouse about six feet off the ground and placed it on a wood-and-steel frame ready for the move. Over the next few days, the 52-foot-high structure will be nudged along a network of steel beams and rollers by hydraulic jacks.</p>
<p>If all goes as planned, it will arrive at its final destination - a concrete pad about 129 feet due southeast - on Saturday.</p> | Gay Head Lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard Is Being Moved | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gay-head-lighthouse-marthas-vineyard-being-moved-n365801 | 2015-05-28 | 3 |
<p>Anil Agarwal began his career as a metals dealer in India nearly 50 years ago. Today, he is a billionaire making one of the biggest bets on the global mining industry's recovery.</p>
<p>The chairman of India's Vedanta Resources PLC has used a family trust to invest almost $4.5 billion in Anglo American PLC this year, taking control of about 20% of the U.K. mining giant. Along with his controlling ownership of about $2.1 billion in his own company, the stake vaults Mr. Agarwal into a rarefied group of mining investors.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Among individuals, Mr. Agarwal's bet rivals that of Glencore PLC Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg, whose shares in his own company are worth about $5.9 billion -- one of the largest personal stakes in a mining company. Big institutional investors like BlackRock Inc. also have significant stakes in a range of companies, including BHP Billiton PLC and Rio Tinto PLC.</p>
<p>"As an individual, this is a huge position in mining," said Paul Gait, a mining analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. Mr. Agarwal and a spokesman for Anglo American declined to comment.</p>
<p>Mr. Agarwal's roughly $6.6 billion position in two large mining companies comes amid a broad turnaround in the sector, fueled by demand in China, which consumes about half of most of the world's major commodities. Prices for copper, iron ore, coal and other materials have clocked double-digit increases, luring back many investors who fled mining stocks in 2015. BlackRock's world mining trust has more than doubled in size since January 2016.</p>
<p>Mr. Agarwal, 65 years old, got his start in commodities in the late 1960s, dropping out of school to work as a metals investor in Mumbai, which was then known as Bombay. Seven years later, he founded copper maker Sterlite Industries. In 2003, Vedanta Resources, majority-owner of Sterlite, became the first Indian company to list on the London Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>But until now, Mr. Agarwal hadn't been seen as a major player outside of India, where he is perhaps best known for pledging to give away 75% of his family's wealth to charity. But even there, Mr. Agarwal tends to keep a low profile. He spends much of his time in London.</p>
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<p>That relative anonymity has left investors and analysts wondering what Mr. Agarwal plans to do with his stake in Anglo American, a mining icon founded by diamond and gold magnate Ernest Oppenheimer a century ago.</p>
<p>"At this point, I don't think anybody knows," said RBC capital analyst Tyler Broda.</p>
<p>Some say the billionaire could simply be looking for more exposure to the commodity industry's recovery.</p>
<p>Anglo American returned to profit in 2017 after years of losses and surprised investors by reinstating a dividend it had slashed in 2015 during a gut-wrenching commodity-price slump. Last Thursday, the company's share price hit a three-year high, closing up 17% since March, when Mr. Agarwal announced his first series of Anglo investments. On Tuesday, its stock closed at GBP1,442 in London.</p>
<p>Mr. Agarwal has said in the past he isn't interested in taking over Anglo or forcing a merger with Vedanta.</p>
<p>Analysts have pointed to Anglo American's South African coal, iron ore and platinum assets as one potential motivation for Mr. Agarwal's investment.</p>
<p>Most of Vedanta's business is located in India, where its companies mine coal and iron ore, among other things. But it also has assets in South Africa, as well as Zambia, Namibia, Australia and Ireland. Any sale of Anglo's assets could be attractive for Mr. Agarwal, said Mr. Broda, of RBC.</p>
<p>"If you were to see Anglo with South Africa broken out, perhaps this is a way of getting a foothold in that conversation," he said.</p>
<p>Adding to the speculation: In 2015, Vedanta hired former Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll to work on long-term strategy.</p>
<p>Behind some of the confusion over Mr. Agarwal's intentions lies the complex structure of his investment, which was arranged by J.P. Morgan Chase.</p>
<p>Mr. Agarwal's family trust, Volcan Investments Ltd., will issue bonds to investors that can later be converted into shares with a yield of about 4%. Volcan will use the cash from the investment to purchase shares in Anglo, which bond investors can collect in about three years.</p>
<p>The deal's structure puts a three-year limit on Mr. Agarwal's shareholdings. It also caps how much Volcan can win or lose from its holdings.</p>
<p>Mr. Agarwal is "clearly trying to buy himself a seat at the table" at Anglo, said Mr. Gait, of Bernstein. "But can he force something here? That is a much harder proposition given the structure."</p>
<p>Some investors are hoping Mr. Agarwal will shake things up.</p>
<p>"A large shareholder of this type to rock the boat and put more pressure on Anglo's management can't be a bad thing," said Anthony Sedgwick, fund manager at Anglo investor Abax Investments in South Africa.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 12, 2017 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)</p> | Meet the Mining Industry's Newest Mogul: Anil Agarwal | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/12/meet-mining-industrys-newest-mogul-anil-agarwal0.html | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
<p>WAR WATCH <a href="#one" type="external">The Peace Movement Springs Forward</a> <a href="#two" type="external">Meet the Movement</a> <a href="#three" type="external">Signs of the Times</a> <a href="#four" type="external">War Cries</a>DAILY BRIEFING <a href="#five" type="external">Bush, King of Campaign Cash</a> <a href="#six" type="external">Corporate Lesson Plans</a></p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /> <a type="external" href="">The Peace Movement Springs Forward</a></p>
<p>Leave it to San Francisco. On a crisp, fogless Saturday afternoon, city residents — joined by others from as far as Colorado — transformed a noisy peace rally into an antiwar Carnival by the Bay. Not that anyone in the crowd was taking the business of war with Iraq lightly. Not by a long shot. But, buoyed by the presence of nearly 50,000 like-minded demonstrators, the beats of danceable drums, and the occasional strains of Dixieland, there was a heady taste of optimism in the air, not to mention the cathartic buzz that comes from whooping exactly how you feel about the Bush administration.</p>
<p>A gagged Lady Liberty, an oily-mouthed commander-in-chief, and a number of Halloween-worthy costumes peppered the crowd. And then there were the signs, running the gamut from the deadly earnest to the tastelessly ironic. Marchers created such a forest of pickets and banners that the pre-march speakers at Justin Herman Plaza were hidden from the view of all but the most committed members of the choir they were preaching to.</p>
<p>And that’s for the best, because this wasn’t a day for the radical Left. They were out in force, to be sure, but the crowd was more Patagonia than patchouli. Izods were giving dreadlocks a run for their money. Up and down Market Street, soccer moms, bike messengers, and webmasters marched alongside the Quakers, massage therapists, and megaphoning socialists. Palestinian, Filipino, and vegan activists stood shoulder to shoulder with garbage men, World War II veterans, and white Giants fans from the suburbs.</p>
<p>A wry, heavyset woman of perhaps 40, having claimed a spot near Fifth Street, seemed to best capture the day’s spirit: Costumed in a pink granny nightgown, avocado-hued facial cream, and curlers with patriotic ribbons, she said nothing, but held up a sign that yelled: “Wake Up America! Don’t Sleepwalk Into War!”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">Meet the Movement</a></p>
<p>For anyone seeking signs of a broad and burgeoning movement, the most heartening part of Saturday’s march was never knowing whom you might bump into next. Tape-recorder in hand, War Watch set out to meet the movement, and came back with this quick cross-section:</p>
<p>• Philip Miller, a loquacious 78-year-old WWII veteran who traveled from Telluride, Colorado, just to participate in the march. Looking trim in his remarkably preserved olive dress uniform, Miller described his experience as a young soldier in the Pacific, witnessing bodies strewn in the streets of Manila, and occupying a bombed-out Tokyo at the close of the war. “If Bush could experience what I did,” he says softly, “I just don’t believe he would be clamoring for war.”</p>
<p>• Sophie O’Shaughnessy, 39, a nurse practitioner wearing a baseball cap and clutching a copy of Thomas Friedman’s book, Longitudes and Attitudes. “There’s a lot of blaming this decision to go to war on oil,” she says. “But I think it’s a lot bigger than oil. The Bush administration are trying to be ‘pre-cogs’ — looking at a crime before it happens. And that’s just morally bankrupt. I’m here to protest the hypocrisy and duplicity of it all.”</p>
<p>• Carwil James, an African American human rights researcher who helped form a “radical cheerleading” troupe that performs on the Bay Area protest circuit. He wears a red miniskirt, and when he jumps, his shoulder-length hair bounces with his pom-pom.</p>
<p>• Becky Johnson, another cheerleader, 23, from Cincinnati, Ohio. “I love radical cheerleading!” says the bob-haired brunette, flashing a blue tongue stud. “I’m just a little bit perky and that’s what I do.” When asked what she does when she’s not cheerleading, she replies, “This is what I do; I’m sort of a freelance activist.”</p>
<p>• John Holden, 42, a garbage man for San Francisco, carrying his 2 year old son Julian, and walking with his father, Ed. John marched with his father on Market Street 30 years ago to protest the Vietnam war, but hasn’t been to many protests since then. “This one seemed really important to me.”</p>
<p>• Stephen Hunt, a lab-coated 25-year-old M.D./PhD student at Stanford, marching with a group from Physicians for Social Responsibility. “As Doctors,” he says, “we don’t think that war is the answer.”</p>
<p>• Sasha Peterson, a shaggy-haired 6-year-old from Oakland wearing a yellow and green soccer uniform. He holds a sign reading: “Another Giants Fan for Peace.”</p>
<p>• A mustachioed 42-year-old restaurateur who would only give the name ‘Mano.’ “I supported the Gulf War,” he says. “This one is different. Can you imagine if North Korea had the world’s second largest oil reserves, how we’d be treating them?”</p>
<p>• Monty Sher, 64, a kindly clinical psychologist. “I think this is stunning — a grand turnout. I’m particularly impressed by how many home-made signs there are. It shows that people are taking this issue seriously and thinking about it individually. There’s probably an inclination to discount Californians,” he adds, “but with this turnout, I don’t think it can be overlooked.”</p>
<p>• A 25-year-old poet with dark skin and braids entwined with pink sparkly ribbon, holding a sign that reads: “Fuck Apathy.” When asked what the sign means to her, she seems unsure, telling me to ask her friend:</p>
<p>• Lisa Burke, a bandana-ed 19-year-old student at UC Santa Cruz, sporting no fewer than 10 earrings and a black “Vegan Action Wear” T-shirt. Sweet-faced and energized, she says the sign is a message to students on campus who are backlashing against the peace movement. “Fuck that,” she says, “get into the streets and do something.”</p>
<p>• Albert Wiebe, 36, an unemployed webmaster, carrying his one-year-old daughter, Anika, on his back. “The most important part it just being out here,” he says. “Every body counts.”</p>
<p>• Paul Nixon, a retired 65-year-old with gray hair and bifocals. He is holding a banner that reads, “No War Without UN.”</p>
<p>• Marko Greenfield, 51, a curly-haired tax accountant who says he’s from the “independent commonwealth of Santa Cruz.” He flashes a sign that says: “Wellstone Wanted Peace.”</p>
<p>• His female companion, who tells Greenfield not to trust the media. She holds a sign reading “Thou Shall Not Kill! –God”.</p>
<p>• Jack Lundin, 76, a Lutheran Pastor from Sonoma, with his wife Marty, 69. “We’ve been through the Vietnam War,” says Marty. “This is the first time since that crisis that we’ve protested like this.”</p>
<p>“This is very, very serious,” says Jack, “much more serious than Vietnam. This has got to get thinking people starting to think.”</p>
<p>• Alexandra Hyde, 43, who “does music and art with higher consciousness.” “It’s time to give peace a chance,” she says, “since it’s the one option we haven’t tried yet.”</p>
<p>• Judy Grever, a 63-year-old writer wearing a polar-fleece from the Pacific Stock Exchange. The sweatshirt came from her husband — the ex CEO of the Exchange, who Grever says, “wanted to be here today.”</p>
<p>And last, but not least:</p>
<p>• Stan Sluas, 67, a retired farmer with a straw-like beard, holding a five-foot-tall American flag. It hangs upside down from a 12-foot pole he supports with his belt. “I’m trying to let the world know that the country is in serious trouble,” he says. “That’s why I’m flying this flag upside down.” Hardly a serial protester, Slaus says he drove 150 miles from his home in Laytonville. “I’ve voted all my life — but I don’t think my voice is being heard. I don’t think our representatives in Congress are representing the people any more. I wrote my letters, wrote my emails. But now it’s time to be a little more emphatic about it.”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">Signs of the Times</a></p>
<p>The protest signs, really, tell you everything you need to know about the day– the passionate pleas, the ironic touches, the too-frequent refusal to stay on message, and above all, the rambunctious exercise of First Amendment rights:</p>
<p>WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?</p>
<p>REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME — VOTE</p>
<p>UNITED WE STAND: AGAINST BOMBING CIVILIANS</p>
<p>BUSH’S POLICIES: ENDANGERING AMERICA, ENRAGING THE WORLD</p>
<p>TRANSEXUAL VEGAN LESBIAN EPIDEMIOLOGIST PUNK FOR PEACE</p>
<p>FREE PALESTINE!</p>
<p>BUSH: SEND INSPECTORS NOT BOMBS</p>
<p>FEED THE POOR, NOT THE WAR</p>
<p>NO BLOOD FOR OIL</p>
<p>DICK+BUSH=FUCKED</p>
<p>MICHAEL MOORE FOR PRESIDENT</p>
<p>I WANT YOU — TO DIE FOR ISRAEL</p>
<p>FREE MUMIA</p>
<p>U.S. OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES</p>
<p>REAL MEN WORK FOR PEACE</p>
<p>QUESTION THE CORPORATE MEDIA</p>
<p>LAKE MERRITT NEIGHBORS ORGANIZED FOR PEACE</p>
<p>BICHONS AGAINST BUSH</p>
<p>SOCIALIST REVOLUTION WILL END IMPERIALIST WAR AND EXPLOITATION</p>
<p>HAVE SOME MORE PRETZELS (FUCKER)</p>
<p>WAR WON’T MAKE US SAFER</p>
<p>CONSTITUTION? WE DON’T NEED NO STEENKING CONSTITUTION</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">War Cries</a></p>
<p>Aside from a sonic version of that stadium favorite ‘The Wave’ — which would start as a roar at the base of Market Street and sweep uproariously through the crowd up toward City Hall — there was little that united the chants, cheers, and jeers of the day. But amid the cacophony on Market Street, a few sound-nuggets stood out: “If The GDP Is Hurting, Bomb Iraq… If Noelle Gets Caught With Crack, Bomb Iraq…”; “Bush Is A Moron, Don’t Let Him Get His War On”; “We Refuse To Kill For You…We Refuse To Die For You…”; “Drop Bush Not Bombs”; and, War Watch will never forget the lonely, only-in-San-Francisco cry: “Defend North Korea Against Capitalist Counterrevolution!”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">POLITICS</a> <a type="external" href="">Bush, King of Campaign Cash</a></p>
<p>The White House may be obsessed with invading Iraq, but that hasn’t stopped President Bush from crisscrossing the country recently, stumping for favored candidates and raising money for Republican causes. In fact, reports Linda Feldmann in The Christian Science Monitor, the president has <a type="external" href="">broken all previous fundraising records</a>, raking in an astonishing $140 million this year alone.</p>
<p />
<p>“It is a feat of political derring-do unprecedented in America, even by President Clinton, who was pummeled by critics — including Mr. Bush — for being too political. What makes Bush’s achievement more extraordinary is that it comes largely below the public radar and apparently at no cost to his approval rating, which remains above 60 percent.”</p>
<p>USA Today‘s editorial board, meanwhile, noting that <a type="external" href="">most of Bush’s fundraising orgy is being carried out on the taxpayer’s dime</a>, reprises the now-familiar call for public financing of election campaigns:</p>
<p />
<p>“While the hypocrisy isn’t new, it exposes a broader contradiction. Lawmakers of both parties frequently ridicule calls for publicly financing election campaigns to curb the clout of special-interest money in politics. But as incumbents, much of their political activity is already subsidized by taxpayers.</p>
<p>Public funding of campaigns can break candidates’ addiction to big-bucks donors, the reason why five states have gone that route. Just as important, the approach fully discloses taxpayer costs, instead of hiding subsidies for incumbents who decry campaigns paid for by the public.”</p>
<p />
<p>GLOBAL ECONOMY <a type="external" href="">Corporate Lesson Plans</a></p>
<p>We’ve all heard about corporate advertising in public schools, and soda companies paying to become exclusive vendors within a particular school district. But Alternet‘s John Borowski argues that the greatest threat to public education is <a type="external" href="">the rise of corporate-sponsored curricula</a>.</p>
<p>Large industries are spending millions on national campaigns to indoctrinate students against the lessons of environmentalism, and organized opposition is largely absent, Borowski writes. Financially-strapped public schools have become the feeding ground for industries that are “trying to justify everything from deforestation to extinction of species,” suggests Borowski, and these efforts are made in concert with “a well-funded attack on genuine environmental education” carried out by “some of the most prominent conservative think-tanks in America.”</p>
<p />
<p>“[M]ultinational corporations now view our children’s schools as convenient locations for the dissemination of propaganda debunking environmental concerns, and as the tip of an unbelievably profitable marketing iceberg.”</p>
<p />
<p>WAR WATCH <a href="#one" type="external">Protesters on Parade</a> <a href="#two" type="external">Anti-War Brownout?</a> <a href="#three" type="external">Dangerously Unprepared</a> <a href="#four" type="external">All About Israel?</a> <a href="#eight" type="external">No Fox in the White House</a>DAILY BRIEFING <a href="#five" type="external">Paul Wellstone’s Legacy</a> <a href="#six" type="external">A Softer, Gentler Hezbollah?</a> <a href="#seven" type="external">Zimbabwe’s Press Under Siege</a></p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /> <a type="external" href="">Protesters on Parade</a></p>
<p>Opposing war in Iraq is serious business. But, as this <a href="/news/dbriefing/2002/10/we_185_01.html" type="external">exclusive War Watch photo essay</a> shows, for those attending this weekend’s demonstration in San Francisco, there was no rule against mixing business with pleasure.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">Anti-War Brownout?</a></p>
<p>Last weekend’s massive anti-war demonstrations “ <a type="external" href="">proved that opposition to the war on Iraq is broad and deep in America</a>,” writes Michelle Goldberg of Salon.com. But Goldberg seems to be one of the few national journalists paying much attention to the protests. In the same article, she takes the daily papers and the nightly news to task for their meager coverage of the rallies:</p>
<p />
<p>“The mainstream media did a shamefully inadequate job of reporting on [the protests]. A small New York Times article merely said there were ‘thousands’ of demonstrators, adding, ‘Fewer people attended than organizers had hoped for.’ That’s misleading — while the group that called the rally, the ANSWER coalition, probably exaggerated by saying that 200,000 people turned out, the crowd was indeed massive, at least in the tens of thousands. Add that to the estimated 42,000 people who marched in San Francisco, the 2,000 who converged on Donald Rumsfeld’s house in New Mexico, and the thousands of other people who protested nationwide, in Europe, Mexico and Japan, and it’s clear that the new peace movement has a demonstrable momentum.”</p>
<p>Goldberg doesn’t mention another anti-war protest that did catch the eye of the Times editors. The nation’s paper of record devoted exactly 476 words to Saturday’s domestic protests — on page 8 (!) — but carved out 782 words for the story of 12 American protesters who staged an anti-Bush rally in Baghdad. Now, War Watch willingly grants that it’s a great story. But that it should receive nearly twice the coverage of the largest anti-war protests on American soil since the 1960s strikes this columnist as an outrage.</p>
<p>Admirably filling New York City’s protest-coverage vacuum is Esther Kaplan of The Village Voice, who succinctly captures both the <a type="external" href="">slipperiness and spontaneity of the emerging anti-war movement</a>, as evidenced by the demonstration in Washington:</p>
<p />
<p>“Saturday’s D.C. march against war on Iraq…was not really an assembly of unions and community groups, of mosques, churches, and campuses – it was not a march of contingents at all. Rather, it was a sprawling mass of 100,000 individuals, families, and batches of friends who, to paraphrase Spike Lee, just got on the bus.”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Dangerously Unprepared</a></p>
<p>Amid the wall-to-wall coverage of the sniper endgame, you may have missed the Council on Foreign Relations’ report card for America’s terrorism preparedness. Although no actual grade was given, the report’s title alone leaves no doubt that we’re failing: “ <a type="external" href="">America Still Unprepared–America Still in Danger</a>.” The council’s investigation, led by former Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, concluded:</p>
<p />
<p>“A year after September 11, 2001, America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil. In all likelihood, the next attack will result in even greater casualties and widespread disruption to American lives and the economy. The need for immediate action is made more urgent by the prospect of the United States going to war with Iraq and the possibility that Saddam Hussein might threaten the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in America.”</p>
<p>In his New York Times <a type="external" href="">column</a>, Frank Rich deftly weaves last week’s major media obsession together with the week’s most important story. Justifying the blanket coverage of the sniper hunt, Rich writes:</p>
<p />
<p>“What made the story both scary and substantial was the mercilessness with which it exposed our permeability to a terrorist attack at home more than a year after 9/11 ‘changed everything.’ Whether this Muhammad was an Atta sympathizer or not, the fact remains that one or two gunmen were able to paralyze the capital of the most powerful nation in the world for three weeks….</p>
<p>The Council on Foreign Relations…found that the nation’s 650,000 local and state police still have no access to federal terrorist watch lists. They found minimal surveillance of the potentially explosive cargo containers transported to and within the U.S. by ship, truck and train…. Though President Bush told the nation this month that a single ‘Iraqi intelligence operative’ could with one ‘small container’ wreak havoc with chemical and biological weapons, we are largely defenseless against such an attack.”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">All About Israel?</a></p>
<p>Michael Kinsley is at his clear-eyed best in his most recent Slate offering about <a type="external" href="">oil, Israel, and Iraq.</a> In his Emperor-Has-No-Clothes commentary, Kinsley has the temerity to question whether the Bush obsession with Iraq really does boil down to Israel and oil.</p>
<p />
<p>“The idea that oil is a factor in official thinking about Iraq shouldn’t even be controversial. Protecting oil supplies from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait was an explicit — though disingenuously underemphasized — reason for Bush War I. After all, we couldn’t claim to be fighting to restore democracy to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, let alone Iraq…. Even a sensible opponent of [this] war ought to register a steady oil supply as one of the better reasons for it.</p>
<p>The lack of public discussion about the role of Israel in the thinking of President Bush is easier to understand, but weird nevertheless. It is the proverbial elephant in the room: Everybody sees it, no one mentions it. The reason is obvious and admirable: Neither supporters nor opponents of a war against Iraq wish to evoke the classic anti-Semitic image of the king’s Jewish advisers whispering poison into his ear and betraying the country to foreign interests. But the consequence of this massive ‘Shhhhhhhhh!’ is to make a perfectly valid American concern for a democratic ally in a region of nutty theocracies, rotting monarchies, and worse, seem furtive and suspicious.”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">No Fox in the White House</a></p>
<p>One of the most unlikely casualties of the Bush administration’s born-again unilateralism is the <a type="external" href="">president’s once-fraternal bond with Vicente Fox of Mexico</a>. Reporting from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Los Cabos, Mexico, the Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung serves up great color of the two former compadres butting heads over immigration and Iraq:</p>
<p />
<p>“Mexicans privately described the meeting as a virtual dialogue of the deaf. Fox talked about immigration and trade. Bush talked about Iraq, and his desire — still unfulfilled — to secure Mexico’s vote on the U.N. Security Council for a U.S.-sponsored resolution against Baghdad.</p>
<p>Mexico believes Bush has broken virtually every promise he made during those early days. Far from regularizing Mexican immigration to the north, Bush has tightened the borders. There has been no guest-worker program, no adjustment in the status of any of the estimated 3 million Mexicans living illegally in the United States, no regularization in transport rules. Instead of making it easier for Mexican agricultural exports to cross the border, the Bush administration has made it harder.”</p>
<p>How Not to Write a One-Line Eulogy</p>
<p>In contrast to the many heartfelt goodbyes to Senator Paul Wellstone (see below) comes this faint-praise offering from The Wall Street Journal: “ <a type="external" href="">Paul Wellstone: Not a Faker, Just Plain Honest</a>.”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">POLITICS</a> <a type="external" href="">Paul Wellstone’s Legacy</a></p>
<p>As news of Senator Paul Wellstone’s untimely death settles into the national consciousness, voices from across the political spectrum are mourning the Minnesota Democrat and evaluating his legacy as a principled, progressive lawmaker who was respected by friends and enemies alike.</p>
<p>In a thorough and elegant eulogy, The Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s Dane Smith and Patricia Lopez note that <a type="external" href="">Wellstone, more than any other politician, fought for the “little fellers, not the Rockefellers”</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“From the moment he arrived in the Senate, Wellstone was a crusader for the poor, the disadvantaged, workers, struggling family farmers, the environment and human rights causes. Wellstone’s was the voice of the true left.”</p>
<p>In a similar vein, Elizabeth Sherman, writing in Tom Paine.com, praises Wellstone for his commitment to progressive causes — whether fighting for health care reform or his lonely opposition to making war on Iraq. Now, <a type="external" href="">Sherman wonders who might replace Wellstone’s singular voice</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“Wellstone could be counted on to ‘be there.’ Now one wonders how much we took his idealism, his convictions, his tireless dedication for granted.</p>
<p>With his passing, we mourn not just the man, but what he represented — unapologetic advocacy for democratic principle and genuine compassion — in a political world all too tainted by cynicism and self-interest.”</p>
<p>Even Fred Barnes, executive editor of the arch-conservative Weekly Standard, has <a type="external" href="">kind words for Wellstone</a> — not for his politics, of course, but for his unswerving dedication to principle:</p>
<p />
<p>“But why would conservatives express admiration? The answer is he was an honest liberal, a rare breed in Washington. He occasionally called himself a “progressive” but never a “new Democrat” or “moderate.” Nor did he insist, as many liberals do, that political labels mean nothing. He was not a faker.”</p>
<p>Finally, in an attempt to sum up Wellstone’s legacy, The Washington Post‘s E.J. Dionne Jr. <a type="external" href="">lionizes the late senator for being not just a politician, but an activist as well</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“The Wellstone promise was of a new politics, or perhaps a new-old politics. I couldn’t say this of any other public official, but I think I know what Wellstone would say about what’s happened: ‘Don’t mourn, organize.’ That’s what he did, that’s who he was, and that’s why he’ll be so hard to replace.”</p>
<p />
<p>FOREIGN NEWS <a type="external" href="">A Softer, Gentler Hezbollah?</a></p>
<p>As relations with the West have significantly shifted over the past few years, Lebanon’s Hezbollah party, the Iranian-financed terrorist organization, is preparing to <a type="external" href="">update their manifesto</a>, which has remained unchanged since 1985. Nicholas Blanford reports in Beirut’s Daily Star that the group’s new Open Letter will outline a “less antagonistic relations with the West, in particular France,” as well as closer ties to Lebanon’s dominant right-wing Christian party, the Phalange. Still, Hezbollah leaders stress that the party’s “core belief” has not changed: “[T]he struggle against Israel remains the central rationale of Hizbullah’s existence,” says Sheikh Naim Qassem, the party’s deputy secretary-general. Qassem also says that the struggle to drive Israel from Lebanon remains “a prelude to its final obliteration from existence and the liberation of the venerable Jerusalem from the talons of occupation.”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">Zimbabwe’s Press Under Siege</a></p>
<p>Under the supposed aegis of strict new media and security laws, police in Zimbabwe have filed <a type="external" href="">new charges</a> against the editor of the country’s only independent newspaper. Geoff Nyarota, editor of the Daily News, was charged with “undermining confidence” in the police after his paper published testimony from an activist who claimed to have been tortured by police.</p>
<p>Nyarota is <a href="/news/hellraiser/2002/03/hellraiser.html" type="external">a favorite target for the regime of President Robert Mugabe</a>, as William Orme told Mother Jones readers last spring, and the editor’s latest arrest comes as the government launches a new assault on opposition media in Zimbabwe, which was <a href="http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=4116" type="external">recently ranked 122d out of 140 nations</a> surveyed by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. Perhaps most troubling is the government’s demand that all journalists apply to the new Media and Information Commission to be accredited. As Nyarota’s Daily News reports, the commission is <a href="http://www.dailynews.co.zw/daily/2002/October/October28/8240.html" type="external">demanding that applicants provide extensive personal information</a> while remaining vague about what qualifications journalists must exhibit. When asked about the qualifications, Dr Nathan Shamuyarira, the country’s minister of information, is of little help. “You only need to be honest, truthful, objective and able to express yourself and be patriotic,” Shamuyarira says. Based on Nyarota’s arrest, authorities in Zimbabwe seem inclined to a rather subjective interpretation of that final quality on Shamuyarira’s list.</p>
<p>WAR WATCH <a href="#one" type="external">Hussein Is No Hitler</a> <a href="#two" type="external">Policy Putin-esca</a> <a href="#three" type="external">What You Want to See is What You Get</a> <a href="#four" type="external">Guantanamo Diaries</a> <a href="#eight" type="external">Reality Check</a>DAILY BRIEFING <a href="#seven" type="external">Snoring to the Polls</a> <a href="#five" type="external">Handicapping Lula</a> <a href="#six" type="external">Bear Farms and Bile Poaching</a></p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /> <a type="external" href="">Hussein Is No Hitler</a></p>
<p>If history repeats itself, so, it seems, do flawed historical analogies. The Inter Press Service’s Jim Lobe <a type="external" href="">digs up a juicy quote</a> from J. William Fulbright’s apt 1966 book, The Arrogance of Power, that reads:</p>
<p />
<p>“We Americans are severely, if not uniquely, afflicted with a habit of policy-making by analogy: North Vietnam’s involvement in South Vietnam, for example, is equated with Hitler’s invasion of Poland and a parley with the Viet Cong would represent ‘another Munich’.</p>
<p>The treatment of slight and superficial resemblances as if they were full-blooded analogies –as instances, as it were, of history ‘repeating itself’–is a substitute for thinking and a misuse of history.”</p>
<p>Returning to the present day, Lobe then ruthlessly quotes a passel of present-day hawks making comparisons between Saddam Hussein and Hitler and arguing that “anything less than destroying the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein now will amount to ‘appeasement.'”</p>
<p>Now, in a sign that our politics really have been turned on their head, Lobe finds a voice of reason in the unlikely personage of Pat Buchanan:</p>
<p />
<p>” ‘Hitler conquered all of Europe from the Arctic to the Aegean and from the Atlantic to Stalingrad,’ [Buchanan] wrote recently. ‘And Saddam? He invaded Kuwait, a sandbox half the size of Denmark, and got tossed out after a 100-hour ground war. His country has been over-flown 40,000 times by US and British planes and he has not been able to shoot a single plane down. He has no navy, a fourth-rate air force, a shrunken, demoralized army. His economy is not one percent of ours.’ ”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Policy Putin-esca</a></p>
<p>The tragedy the Russians made of their bid to rescue hostages held in a Moscow theater this weekend is earning Vladimir Putin unfavorable comparisons to his Soviet forefathers. Amy Knight of the Toronto Globe and Mail, <a type="external" href="">in just one such rebuke,</a> writes:</p>
<p />
<p>“Russian President Vladimir Putin is looking less like a decisive democratic hero and more like one of his hard-line, yet ineffectual, Soviet predecessors….It was like the 2000 Kursk submarine disaster (or better still, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident) all over again: confusion, chaos and cover-up, reflecting the traditional Kremlin obsession with secrecy and disregard for individual lives.”</p>
<p>Yet much of this anti-Putin buzz strikes War Watch as knee-jerk — many members of the press seem positively pleased to have their worst fears about the former KGB man confirmed by this deadly debacle. But lack of transparency surrounding a deadly government goof is hardly unique to the Russians. And just imagine if the gas attack had been uniformly successful — Putin would have been a global anti-terrorist hero.</p>
<p>Weighing in with a more insightful historical parallel, the St. Louis Post Dispatch sees similarities between Moscow’s standoff with the Chechen hostage-takers and <a type="external" href="">another well-intentioned law enforcement disaster</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“There is no doubt at all that Mr. Putin’s Spetsnaz special forces were guilty of poor judgment, shoddy preparation and gross negligence in invading the theater. This is…a Russian version of the FBI’s attack on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, a domestic terrorist siege met with overwhelming force and huge casualties among the innocent.”</p>
<p>The St. Louis paper’s editorial also soberly puts Putin’s declaration of a Russian war on terror in a global context:</p>
<p />
<p>“Mr. Putin, who came to power on a get-tough-with-Chechnya platform, is a former KGB spymaster who knows how the game is played…. Like his friend, President George W. Bush, Mr. Putin would be wise to prepare well and explore the limits of diplomacy before loosing the dogs of war. Not all terrorists are international terrorists. Not all weapons are weapons of mass destruction. Not all wars that can be won are worth the fighting.”</p>
<p>In a similar vein, David Satter, writing in the National Review, notes the dangers inherent in <a type="external" href="">pushing the Chechen conflict from a localized, political conflict into a more nebulous, and potentially more deadly, terror war</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“In the Moscow theater crisis, Putin demonstrated his oft stated intention to ‘wipe out the terrorists in their outhouses.’ The consequences of the theater crisis for Russia and the world, however, may become increasingly serious. The crisis was an example of the frightening potential of modern terrorism. But it was also perhaps the last chance for a resolution of the Chechen crisis. The Chechens have taken hostages in the past but they have done so in order to press demands that were essentially political. Now, having lost hope of a political solution and with a ready supply of money from the Middle East, the next step may well be an abandonment of political objectives in favor of a campaign of indiscriminate terror.”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">What You Want to See is What You Get</a></p>
<p>Drawing what to War Watch’s eye is a sound historical comparison, Slate’s Fred Kaplan likens the Pentagon’s turf war with the CIA over intelligence gathering to <a type="external" href="">similar intelligence squabbles over Soviet nukes during the Cold War</a>. The centrality of Paul Wolfowitz to both cases is eye-brow raising, to say the least:</p>
<p />
<p>“In the mid-1970s, a group of well-known hawks…started clamoring that the Soviets were acquiring a first-strike capability and that the CIA was gravely underestimating their prowess and might. President Gerald Ford…succumbed to what seemed a modest demand — to let a team of their analysts examine the same data that the CIA had been examining and come up with alternative findings. It was sold as an ‘exercise’ in intelligence analysis, an interesting competition — Team A (the CIA) versus Team B (the critics)…. Paul Wolfowitz was one of the 10 senior staff members on Team B….</p>
<p>The Team B report read like one long air-raid siren: The Soviets were spending practically all their GNP on the military; they were perfecting charged-particle beams that could knock our warheads out of the sky; their express policy and practical goal was to fight and win a nuclear war…</p>
<p>Almost everything in the Team B report turned out to be false…. None of this history is meant to suggest that hawks are always wrong or doves always right…. But when the members of Team Rumsfeld tie together their loose strands…keep in mind that they are not ‘just trying to get another angle on this'”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Guantanamo Diaries</a></p>
<p>The Associated Press carries several <a type="external" href="">quick comments</a> from the prisoners repatriated to Afghanistan from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay:</p>
<p />
<p>” ‘They kept us in cages like animals,’ one of the men, 35-year-old Jan Mohammed, said of the chain-link open-air cell he says he spent months in at Guantanamo. ‘We were only allowed out twice per week, for half an hour.'”</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>“‘My family has no idea where I am, and I’ve not had any word from them,; [Mohammed Hagi] Fiz said. ‘I don’t even know if they’re still alive. All they know is that I went to a doctor for treatment, and disappeared.'”</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>“‘There are still many of us left in that prison,’ Mohammed said. ‘They think they’ll die there.'”</p>
<p>The Israeli paper Ha’aretz, meanwhile, <a type="external" href="">runs the story of a detainee named Jan Muhammad</a>, who “told the newspaper that he was completely cut off from the outside world for 11 months and did not receive a letter from his family, stamped in June, until three days before his release.”</p>
<p />
<p>” ‘I wrote a letter to my family that said, ‘I’m half an animal now’,’ he reportedly said. ‘After a month I’ll be a full animal and then I’ll come back’.'”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">Reality Check</a></p>
<p>Howard Kurtz reports in the Washington Post that a senior executive of Fox News, with the blessing of network owner Rupert Murdoch, has proposed to Kofi Annan that the cable channel <a type="external" href="">make any UN weapons inspections in Iraq an international television event</a>..</p>
<p>We inspect, you decide?…</p>
<p />
<p>” ‘This is a serious proposal,’ Senior Vice President John Moody told U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in a letter sent Friday. Having broadcast crews along ‘would make it easier for U.N. inspectors to do their work and would underscore the credibility of the U.N. mission in Iraq. . . . Viewers could decide for themselves if the inspectors are being allowed to do their jobs.’…</p>
<p>[A spokesperson for the network] insists there could even be benefits for Hussein: ‘If he is serious that they don’t have weapons of mass destruction and want to cooperate with the U.N., there’s no better way to demonstrate that than to open it up to cameras.'”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">POLITICS</a> <a type="external" href="">Snoring to the Polls</a></p>
<p>Democrats have worked hard to make the nation’s economy the dominant issue in next week’s midterm elections. Republicans have countered by encouraging the nation to keep its collective eye on national security concerns.</p>
<p>Depending on whom you listen to, both are failing.</p>
<p>Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times reports that Democrats “ <a type="external" href="">are despairing of their chances of winning control of the House of Representatives this fall</a>.”</p>
<p />
<p>“As of now, the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan publication that scrutinizes every congressional contest, counts 217 House seats as likely or certain to go Republican, and 202 likely or certain to go Democrat. That leaves 16 as tossups. And that means Democrats would have to win every tossup race to eke out the 218 seats needed to claim the majority.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the National Review‘s Quin Hillyer suggests that <a type="external" href="">Republicans are “drifting” through campaigns final weeks</a>, and could lose control of the House as a result.</p>
<p />
<p>“As recently as October 10, the GOP looked poised to regain control of the Senate and at least maintain its six-seat edge in the House. Now, though, the Senate contest looks like an even battle, and the House majority itself may yet slip away.</p>
<p>The problems are the same ones that plagued Republicans in 1998, when the consensus of pundits predicted a 15-to-20 seat GOP House gain but I correctly forecast a five-seat loss: Heavy-handedness, tin ears, and a lack of backbone.”</p>
<p>So, who’s right? Both. Or so David Corn suggests on Working for Change. Despite the stakes — control of the House, control of the Senate, control of the entire congressional agenda for the second half of President Bush’s first term — Corn suggests that <a type="external" href="">both parties have allowed the campaign to completely slip off the national radar screen</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“So the nation is politically divided on a razor’s edge, essentially 50-50 in the House and Senate, with the Republicans needing one seat in the Senate to return to power there, and the Democrats requiring seven seats to reclaim the House, and as we hit the home stretch in a neck-and-neck race, the campaign is… pretty boring.”</p>
<p>Corn says Democrats are most to blame for the bland campaign — if only because they have the most to gain. Even on their chosen issue — the economy — Democrats have been unwilling to take the fight to the Bush administration, Corn says.</p>
<p />
<p>“They whack Bush for turning surpluses into deficits, but they, by and large, refuse to address a primary cause — Bush’s millionaire-friendly tax cuts. They are too scared to call for suspending Bush’s tax cuts, believing that would provide the GOPers an opening to assail them as tax-hikers. That is, they self-emasculate to prevent an Orwellian counter-attack. (Another problem: a fair number of Senate Democrats voted for Bush’s tax cuts.) House minority leader Richard Gephardt did get around to offering somewhat of an economic plan after the war-resolution vote, but the Democrats mostly have been relying on a lousy economy to do their work — waiting for the kind of bad economic news that motivates Americans to vote Democrat.”</p>
<p>Finally, in the absence of any national momentum, with candidates in tight races increasingly focusing on local issues, Liz Marlantes of The Christian Science Monitor reports that <a type="external" href="">some campaigns are changing advertising strategies</a> in an effort to boost voter turnout.</p>
<p />
<p>“The focus on grass-roots efforts, in fact, indicates a shift in campaign strategy, driven in part by a consensus that television ads are not necessarily an effective means of motivating voters. And while turnout has always been a key factor in elections, it’s taking on heightened significance in today’s evenly divided political landscape, in which more and more contests are decided by a few thousand or even a few hundred votes.”</p>
<p />
<p>FOREIGN NEWS <a type="external" href="">Handicapping Lula</a></p>
<p>Proving the naysayers wrong, leftist candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — “Lula” to admirers and detractors alike — scored a landslide victory in Brazil’s presidential elections. With his country on the brink of economic collapse, however, the President-elect must convince suspicious financiers that he is a leader they can trust, not a fire-breathing radical as his opponents claimed.</p>
<p>Lula has already signaled his intentions to stay the course for Brazil set by the International Monetary Fund, and continues to soften his socialist rhetoric as he makes the transition from populist hero to politic statesman. As The Economist notes, however, the financial world remains wary of Lula, and he <a type="external" href="">must act quickly and consistently if he is to pull Brazil out of its economic tailspin</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>” … Although the election victor will not take office straightaway — the outgoing president remains in office until the end of the year — how Mr da Silva handles the transition will be of critical importance in determining whether Brazil is heading for a full-blown economic crisis.”</p>
<p>In truth, James Flanigan writes in The Los Angeles Times, Brazil’s economic woes are such that <a type="external" href="">Lula wouldn’t be able to make radical changes even if he wanted to</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“Regardless of his past rhetoric, Lula has no choice but to work with the international financial community to reform the country’s massively distorted economy.</p>
<p>During other eras, perhaps, a labor leader like Lula — a man who rose from poverty by working in the metal trades — might have made the usual socialist promises of pay raises for the lower class, higher taxes on the rich and a heavy government hand in industry. But the basic structure of Brazil’s economy simply won’t allow for such old-fashioned policies anymore.”</p>
<p>As a result, The Guardian‘s editorial board observes, Lula could <a type="external" href="">quickly find himself in a “Catch-22” situation</a>, stuck between his promises to poor constituents and his obligations to the money markets:</p>
<p />
<p>“Now that the victory has happened, the vital need to maintain market confidence in an economy handicapped by a $260bn debt, interest rates above 20% and high unemployment and crime is plain. How that can be squared with Mr da Silva’s principal promise to reduce social inequalities and the poverty affecting up to half of Brazil’s 175 million people is a question that finds no ready answer.”</p>
<p>Of course, these facts aren’t dissuading those on the right eager to predict disaster for Lula and Brazil. Myriam Marquez, writing in the Orlando Sentinel, argues that Lula, like populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, <a type="external" href="">threatens to lead Brazil down the path taken by that eternal boogeyman of the right, Fidel Castro</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“Lula and Chavez worship Cuba’s Fidel Castro, the strongman who has run the communist island’s economy into the ground in 43 years by resisting sensible free-market reforms and blaming the U.S. trade embargo for his failed Marxist experiment. Castro, of course, didn’t need a popular vote to impose his way of thinking. Firing squads in the early years took care of that.”</p>
<p>Finally, sounding a familiar alarmist note, Marquez argues that Lula lacks the “vision” to embrace global capitalism and free trade — which she argues represent the key to unlocking Brazil’s stagnant economy.</p>
<p />
<p>“Lula needs to open his eyes to this new world of global partnerships. The European Union is getting richer, not poorer. Lula has said he wants to follow Spain’s model of liberal policies and a market economy, and if that’s so, there’s hope. Because the alternative — the intransigent, hard-left policies offered by Cuba and Venezuela — offer nothing but more poverty and hopelessness.”</p>
<p />
<p>ENVIRONMENT <a type="external" href="">Bear Farms and Bile Poaching</a></p>
<p>Despite United Nations regulations protecting endangered species, <a type="external" href="">the international trade in bear bile continues to grow</a>. Michael McCarthy of The Independent reports that the product, long used in traditional Chinese medicine, is fueling a £70 million industry in China alone. Now, the World Society for the Protection of Animals has launched a campaign to tighten trade restrictions and outlaw the bile, demand for which is leading to increased poaching. Additionally, hundreds of bear farms have been set up in China, holding thousands of the animals for bile extraction. Using a method first engineered in North Koreans in the 1980s, a tube is inserted into the bile ducts or gall bladders of live bears, McCarthy explains.</p>
<p />
<p>“The daily bile extractions can lead to abscesses, septicaemia and inflammation of the gall bladder, which can be fatal. The bears receive a poor diet and veterinary care and suffer severe mental distress from being in such cramped surroundings. They are unable to stand up and some chew their paws to relieve the pain.”</p>
<p>The WSPA offers <a type="external" href="">an extensive report on the bear bile trade</a> and information on the movement against it.</p>
<p>WAR WATCH <a href="#one" type="external">Do As We Say…</a> <a href="#two" type="external">Iraqthrax?</a> <a href="#three" type="external">All In the (Hussein) Family</a> <a href="#four" type="external">Conservatives and the Sniper</a>DAILY BRIEFING <a href="#five" type="external">Minnesota’s Memorial Flap</a> <a href="#six" type="external">More Harken Hijinks</a> <a href="#seven" type="external">Will Chafee Pull a Jeffords?</a></p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /> <a type="external" href="">Do As We Say…</a></p>
<p>The US is “ <a type="external" href="">developing a new generation of weapons that undermine and possibly violate international treaties on biological and chemical warfare</a>,” writes Julian Borger of the London Guardian’s, citing the authors of an upcoming report in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.</p>
<p />
<p>“The scientists, specialists in bio-warfare and chemical weapons, say the Pentagon…is also working on ‘non-lethal’ weapons similar to the narcotic gas used by Russian forces to end last week’s siege in Moscow. They point to the paradox of the US developing such weapons at a time when it is proposing military action against Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein is breaking international treaties….</p>
<p>‘There can be disagreement over whether what the United States is doing represents violations of treaties,’ [Mark Wheelis, a lecturer in microbiology at the University of California] told the Guardian. ‘But what is happening is at least so close to the borderline as to be destabilising.'”</p>
<p>Among the U.S. bioweapons projects described in the upcoming report:</p>
<p>• CIA efforts to copy a Soviet cluster bomb designed to disperse biological weapons • A project by the Pentagon to build a bio-weapon plant from commercially available materials to prove that terrorists could do the same thing • Research by the Defense Intelligence Agency into the possibility of genetically engineering a new strain of antibiotic-resistant anthrax • A program to produce dried and weaponised anthrax spores, officially for testing US bio-defenses, but far more spores were allegedly produced than necessary for such purposes and it is unclear whether they have been destroyed or simply stored.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">Iraqthrax?</a></p>
<p>Speaking of Anthrax, Washington Post reporters Guy Gugliotta and Gary Matsumoto published an exhaustive investigation this week, detailing just how hard it would be to produce the fine-grain anthrax powder used in the postal attacks last year. According to their sources, the FBI’s theory about a lone bio-terrorist working out of his basement is <a type="external" href="">fundamentally flawed.</a></p>
<p />
<p>Biological warfare experts “say that making a weaponized aerosol of such sophistication and virulence would require scientific knowledge, technical competence, access to expensive equipment and safety know-how that are probably beyond the capabilities of a lone individual.”</p>
<p>One scientist contacted by the Post team speculates that you’d “need half a dozen, I think, really smart people” to carry off such an attack.</p>
<p>The high level of sophistication involved — whoever did this really pushed the envelope of aeresol weapons technology, the Post reports — increases the possibility that a foreign government might have been involved in the attack. The reporters seem inclined to finger Iraq — though if that were a real possibility, you’d think Donald Rumsfeld’s intelligence lackeys would have told us by now. “That Iraq had the wherewithal to make the anthrax letters does not mean it is the guilty party,” write Matsumoto and Gugliotta. “Still, the FBI’s early dismissal of the possibility may have prematurely closed a legitimate line of inquiry.”</p>
<p>The Associated Press, meanwhile, revisits the nation’s short-lived Cipro craze. The drug’s popularity waned quickly — especially among those for whom it was prescribed. The AP reports that of the some 10,000 folks put on the antibiotic in the wake of the anthrax attacks, <a href="http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/303/nation/56_missed_full_anthrax_treatment+.shtml" type="external">only 44 percent actually finished treatment</a>. Thankfully, failing to follow doctors’ orders didn’t kill anyone.</p>
<p />
<p>“‘I’m gratified by how effective the [treatment] seemed to be,’ said Dr. Stephen Ostroff, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for Infectious Diseases. ‘No one put on it developed anthrax.'”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">All In the (Hussein) Family</a></p>
<p>In an intriguing pair of articles, the Wall Street Journal reports that, despite UN sanctions, <a type="external" href="">US cigarettes are still reaching Iraq</a>, where they are actually <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB103593732930159431,00.html?mod=article-outset-box" type="external">making Saddam’s eldest son, Uday, a wealthy man</a>.</p>
<p>Covering the possibility of illicit cigarette sales by RJ Reynolds, the paper reports:</p>
<p />
<p>“The European Union is considering filing a civil lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., that would accuse the former RJR unit and related companies…of sanctions-busting by shipping huge quantities of American cigarettes to Iraq via Cyprus and Turkey from 1990 through this year. Separately, federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan recently opened an investigation into possible cigarette smuggling into Iraq by American companies in violation of federal laws.”</p>
<p>On Uday Hussein’s riches, the paper adds:</p>
<p />
<p>“In the late 1990s, Uday Hussein’s annual take from imported cigarettes averaged about $10 million a year…. ‘The truth is,’ [says a former assistant] ‘he keeps all of it for himself. He never shares anything.'”</p>
<p>Of course, not sharing can stir up sibling rivalry:</p>
<p />
<p>“One Middle East exporter…says Saddam Hussein’s younger son, Qusai, who controls Iraq’s…security service, lately also has been collecting cigarette taxes, causing confusion among exporters about whom they’re supposed to pay.”</p>
<p>The Orlando Sentinel, meanwhile, runs a <a type="external" href="">wild profile of the two brothers</a>, describing Qusai as a stuttering recluse, and Uday as a flamboyant, Porsche-driving sadist who “allegedly has maintained a private torture chamber, known as the Red Room” where he supposedly tortures under-performing Iraqi athletes.</p>
<p>The paper goes on to quote former CIA chief James Woolsey as saying that the two sons “differ only in that Uday kills people for fun, and Qusai kills people in a very businesslike fashion.”</p>
<p>In another odd (and seemingly too-good-to-be-true) Hussein story, Wired News <a type="external" href="">claims to have hacked Saddam’s government email account</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“Among the hundreds of messages marked as unread in Saddam’s inbox … were several junk e-mails and messages infected with computer viruses. Numerous e-mails — including some from Americans — offered advice and assistance to Saddam.”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Conservatives Learn From the Sniper</a></p>
<p>The Weekly Standard, sniffing a liberal bias, wants to know why “ <a type="external" href="">journalists focus more on the military background of John Allen Muhammad than on his conversion to Islam?</a>”</p>
<p />
<p>“On Thursday afternoon, websites for each of the major news networks prominently reported Muhammad’s status as an Army veteran while ignoring or burying his conversion to radical Islam. MSNBC was typical: ‘A former soldier and a teenager arrested in connection with the sniper hunt were expected to be arraigned Thursday…’</p>
<p>Is the ‘former soldier’ part of Muhammad’s personal history relevant? Possibly. More relevant than his conversion to Islam, his reported defense of the September 11 attacks, and his sympathies with al Qaeda? Please.”</p>
<p>The National Review’s Frank Gaffney seems just as convinced that Muhammad’s religion was a key factor in his alleged killing spree. In an if-yer-not-with-us-yer-with-the-terrorists commentary, Gaffney calls on law enforcement to start playing tough <a type="external" href="">and stop worry about ruffling the feathers of pro-tolerance groups</a> like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.</p>
<p />
<p>“Law-enforcement officials will…have to get inside the mosques and Islamic centers where the murder suspect lived, and conduct a thorough investigation of the imam and others who mentored his conversion. In short, the investigators will have to stand up to CAIR and the other apologists for terrorist organizations and their operatives who claim to represent Muslims in the United States–even as they work to impede law enforcement efforts to protect all Americans.”</p>
<p>Lastly, in a screed at the conservative news site Town Hall.com, Cal Thomas <a href="http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20021029.shtml" type="external">simply goes beyond the pale</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“It is past time to stop worrying about political correctness and the names we might be called–such as intolerant bigoted Islamophobes–and start telling the truth. America’s enemies are among us. They are here to kill us. The two men arrested in Maryland are the first wave following the 9/11 airplane hijackings. Surely others will follow, because their religion and history commission them to kill all infidels. Anyone who is a Christian or a Jew, or insufficiently fundamentalist, is fair game. They intend to hunt us down like deer in their scope sights.”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">POLITICS</a> <a type="external" href="">Minnesota’s Memorial Flap</a></p>
<p>In addition to the taped tributes and tearful farewells, Tuesday night’s memorial for Minnesota’s late progressive Senator Paul Wellstone featured a parade of Democratic bigwigs, a bit of Republican bashing, and a spirited get-out-the-vote appeal in advance of next week’s elections.</p>
<p>In the eyes of some — including Slate columnist William Saletan, it was less a memorial than a campaign rally — <a type="external" href="">and an inappropriate one, at that</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>” … As the evening’s speakers proceed, it becomes clear that to them, honoring Wellstone’s legacy is all about winning the election. Repeating the words of Wellstone’s son, the assembly shouts, ‘We will win! We will win!’ Rick Kahn, a friend of Wellstone’s, urges everyone to ‘set aside the partisan bickering,’ but in the next breath he challenges several Republican senators in attendance to ‘honor your friend’ by helping to ‘win this election for Paul Wellstone.’ What can he be thinking?”</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, conservative commentators such as Jonah Goldberg of The National Review, are even more critical, <a type="external" href="">accusing Democrats of trying to play the Wellstone tragedy for political gain</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“…the Democrats on display at Paul Wellstone’s memorial service represented everything I personally find distasteful, disagreeable, and downright disgusting about the Democratic party …</p>
<p>That is what was so offensive about that rally: It shamelessly used Wellstone’s death for partisan advantage while its organizers cynically accused their opponents of doing precisely that.”</p>
<p>The voters in Minnesota may not be as inclined to vitriol, but the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that <a type="external" href="">even some Wellstone supporters were put off by the evening’s partisan flavor</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“Carol Pegelow of Forest Lake, who watched the service on TV, said she sells funeral urns for a living and knows a little bit about grieving and what memorials are supposed to look like. And she didn’t like what she saw.</p>
<p>‘It was just too dragged out. It should have been for Paul’s death, not for these people to get votes. This wasn’t a memorial,’ Pegelow said.”</p>
<p>The Nation‘s John Nichols, however, sees nothing wrong with using the memorial to rally the Democratic faithful, and <a type="external" href="">writes approvingly of the same speeches that others are condemning</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“‘We will carry on the fight. We will carry on the struggle,’ was the booming promise of Mark Wellstone, the senator’s son, who recalled a note his mother had given his father shortly before they died that concluded with the line: ‘We will win!’ ‘I’ll tell you what, mom, you’re right,’ shouted Mark Wellstone, as raucous cheers filled the cavernous auditorium. ‘We will win! We will win! We will win!'”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">More Harken Hijinks</a></p>
<p>Administration officials have been steadfast in their defense of President Bush’s controversial 1990 sale of Harken Energy stock, insisting the president did nothing to violate insider trading rules. But now Michael Kranish and Beth Healy of The Boston Globe report that, one week before the president sold shares worth $848,000, Harken was notified by its lawyers that Bush and other company directors “ <a type="external" href="">faced possible insider trading risks if they unloaded their shares</a>.”</p>
<p />
<p>“The warning from Harken’s lawyers came in a legal memorandum whose existence has been little noted until now, despite the many years of scrutiny of the Bush transaction. The memo was not received by the Securities and Exchange Commission until the day after the agency decided not to bring insider-trading charges against Bush, documents show.”</p>
<p>While the memo does not mention Bush or his planned sale of stock, Kranish and Healy suggest that its existence “raises questions about how thoroughly the SEC investigated” Bush’s sale of stock.</p>
<p />
<p>“The SEC cleared Bush after looking into whether he had insider knowledge of an upcoming quarterly loss at Harken. But the SEC investigation apparently never examined a key issue raised in the memo: whether Bush’s insider knowledge of a plan to rescue the company from financial collapse by spinning off two troubled units was a factor in his decision to sell.”</p>
<p>The Center for Public Integrity has released minutes of Harken board meetings from just before and after Bush’s sale, <a type="external" href="">which indicate the president definitely knew of the plan</a> — and in fact chaired a committee reviewing the scheme.</p>
<p />
<p>“May 17, 1990. The special committee, chaired by Bush, discussed the terms of the rights offering. Michael Eisenson, one of two representatives of Harvard Management Company on Harken’s board of directors, offered the major shareholders’ plan for a rights offering. The special committee decides that elements of the plan need to be further evaluated to determine whether they are fair to the company’s other investors.”</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>“July 13, 1990. Letter to the Board of Directors from [Harken President] Faulkner. Updates the board on recent developments. ‘The Special Committee, Chaired by George Bush has received positive response from [rights offering manager] Smith Barney with regard to the fairness of the ‘major Shareholder’ transactions.'”</p>
<p>Molly Ivins is less shocked by Bush’s shameless decade-old bail out, however, than <a type="external" href="">his unabashed current duplicity in claiming to champion corporate reform</a>, only to eviscerate the legislation.</p>
<p />
<p>“So intense did the pressure for corporate reform grow last summer that the Congress actually passed the Sarbanes bill, including a new board to oversee the accounting industry and $776 million for the SEC, a 77 percent increase. Bush signed the bill amidst great fanfare and later took credit for solving the corporate corruption problems (even though he had opposed the bill almost until the moment he signed it). And everyone agreed, ‘What a good first step.’</p>
<p>Oops. Bush and his man Harvey Pitt at the SEC have already gutted the new accounting oversight board, and the other day he urged Congress to appropriate 27 percent less, $568 million, than the agreed-upon increase for the SEC.”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Will Chafee Pull a Jeffords?</a></p>
<p>The battle for control of the Senate remains painfully close, with some pundits even suggesting next week’s election may result in an even partisan split. If that happens, some are now predicting that Rhode Island Republican Lincoln Chafee could jump the party ship, giving control of the Senate back to the Democrats.</p>
<p>Stephen Dinan suggests in The Washington Times that <a type="external" href="">Republicans are already preparing for the eventuality of another Jim Jeffords-like defection</a>. “Republicans will be waking up the day after the election on Chafee watch,” says one unnamed Republican strategist.</p>
<p>Noting that Chafee is more politically attuned to Democratic values, Mary Lynn F. Jones writes in The American Prospect that he has <a type="external" href="">frequently opposed the administration</a> on issues such as “President Bush’s tax cut, campaign finance reform, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and, most recently, authorizing military action against Iraq.” In 2000, Jones reports, Chafee voted against his own party 63 percent of the time.</p>
<p>Jones cites one political analyst who believes that Chafee’s allegiance to the GOP is too strong for him to switch — and that he’s simply not liberal enough for the Democratic Party. But, she suggests the tide may be turning:</p>
<p />
<p>“Many Republicans at local levels of government are now leaving the GOP because they feel its philosophy no longer fits their own, especially on social issues; Jeffords made that clear last year.”</p>
<p />
<p>WAR WATCH <a href="#one" type="external">Terror War or Dirty War?</a> <a href="#two" type="external">The Quotable Khatami</a> <a href="#three" type="external">The Arab Sheets</a>DAILY BRIEFING <a href="#five" type="external">Pitt’s Poor Accounting</a> <a href="#six" type="external">Electoral Eyes on Florida</a> <a href="#seven" type="external">Who Needs Fuel Economy? Not Us.</a></p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Terror War or Dirty War?</a></p>
<p>By advocating an international crackdown on terror suspects, <a type="external" href="">the US has become complicit in a global “dirty war” carried out by thuggish partners in crime-fighting</a> — most notably Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf — writes Peter Maass in The New Republic:</p>
<p />
<p>“Due process is a rarity in most Muslim nations; police and courts are rotten with ineptness, corruption, torture, and meddling by political and religious authorities. When the White House urges a crackdown, as it frequently does in public statements and private meetings, it knows–and does not mind–that terrorism suspects are far more likely to face summary executions than fair trials.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, in a report titled ‘Rights at Risk,’ Amnesty International warned that ‘the `war on terror’ may be degenerating into a global `dirty war’ of torture, detentions, and executions.’…”</p>
<p>Maass suggests that the official repression, “carried out by unloved governments at the bidding of the unloved United States,” can breed instability, with unpopular regimes being replaced by ones that support terrorists instead.</p>
<p />
<p>“The election in Pakistan in early October was a warning sign: A coalition of religious parties, which had never before fared well at the voting box, won a shocking 45 out of 272 available seats, making them the third-largest group in the National Assembly.”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">The Quotable Khatami</a></p>
<p>In Spain to promote better understanding (and trade) between his country and the European Union, Iranian president Mohammad Khatami spoke out clearly about the dangers of extremism — as it applies to both Islam and the West. The reformist leader cautioned against American militarism and said that the Bush administration’s foreign policy is undermining efforts at democratization in the Islamic world.</p>
<p>In a speech to the Spanish Senate (quoted by Middle East Online,) <a type="external" href="">Khatami declared:</a></p>
<p />
<p>“One cannot and one should not resort to violence in the name of religion, just as one cannot deploy military forces throughout the world in the name of human rights and democracy.”</p>
<p>The Tehran Times quotes Khatami calling for a united approach “ <a type="external" href="">toward all state and non-state manifestations of terrorism all over the world</a>.”</p>
<p />
<p>“Any approach that advocates extremism, animosity, revenge, unilateralism, disregarding morals and international protocols, and resorting to war and violence,” he added “would merely expand the danger of terrorism.”</p>
<p>During a <a type="external" href="">news conference</a> with Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar, Khatami described what he saw as an increasingly polarized world:</p>
<p />
<p>“I hear one discourse from two opposing poles … one is the voice which comes from bin Laden in Afghanistan, saying ‘who is not with us is an infidel and must be eliminated’. The other voice rises from America which says ‘whoever is not with us is against us’ and ‘since we have power, we have the right to repress him’. This is a logic which could lead to the most violent and horrible form of terror as well as the worst war under the pretext of opposing terrorism.”</p>
<p>The Iranian leader also expressed frustration at Washington’s refusal to recognize Iranian overtures of goodwill:</p>
<p />
<p>“Iran’s last goodwill was indicated during the Afghan crisis, and if there was no Iranian cooperation, the problem would not have been resolved with a low cost … Unfortunately in recent years, Iran’s every goodwill step has been met with unhelpful response of the American side.”</p>
<p>In a Q&amp;A with Spain’s El Pais, Khatami explained why he believes <a type="external" href="">his country was included in President Bush’s axis of evil:</a></p>
<p />
<p>“You would have to ask Mr. Bush that question…. In order to wage a war it is necessary to have a concrete enemy and, when there isn’t one, it is necessary to create one…to justify an intervention. The ‘axis of evil’ is being used to justify a militaristic atmosphere in the world… The opposition of all the countries of the world to the inclusion of Iran in that axis demonstrates that it has been a mistake.”</p>
<p>The editors of Spain’s paper of record, <a type="external" href="">apparently agree</a>. In an editorial that, among other things calls for European support of Iranian reforms, they write that Khatami is mistaken to suggest any equivalency between Bush and Bin Laden, but add: “Equally, the president of the United States is mistaken in including [Iran] in his phantasmagoric Axis of Evil.”</p>
<p>The Christian Science Monitor’s Michael Theodoulou, reporting from Tehran, provides a <a type="external" href="">timely snapshot of an Iranian society making steady strides toward real democracy</a>. While young, reform-minded Iranian masses are growing impatient with the pace of reforms, he reports that Khatami has finally put forth legislation that may force the country’s hardline clerics to share more power, and allow the president to pursue his democratic goals.</p>
<p />
<p>“Five years after Mohammad Khatami was propelled to a landslide victory on a platform of liberalizing Iran’s Islamic system, the charismatic president is losing his sheen. There is widespread frustration over the pace of his reforms. Few doubt his decency or sincerity or blame him personally. They know his efforts have been thwarted by an unelected hard-line minority that still controls key institutions such as the courts, the armed forces, and the broadcast media…</p>
<p>The president has finally thrown down the gauntlet: Last month Khatami presented two bills to the Iranian parliament that would end his opponents’ stranglehold on power….If the bills are passed undiluted, Khatami would emerge enhanced to forge his vision of an Islamic democracy. Abroad, he would have the power to pursue détente with the United States. A recent poll showed most Iranians favored talks with the US. But for the hard-line establishment, even suggesting that dialogue with the ‘global arrogance’ should be resumed after a 22-year break is a serious offense.”</p>
<p>Weighing in with a nice quote on the pace of reform, Sadegh Zibakalam, a professor of political science at Tehran University, tells the Monitor: “It is too much to expect that just 23 years after the revolution Iran could become a France or United Kingdom… Democratization is a long, tedious process.”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">The Arab Sheets</a></p>
<p>The Beirut paper, Daily Star, carries some thoughtful self-criticism of the Arab world and its <a type="external" href="">failure to show its true colors.</a></p>
<p />
<p>“Political and religious leaders in the Islamic world have spent decades building a reputation for poor judgment, but never has this tendency been nearly as damaging as it has since the terrorist attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. With an epic debate raging all around them as to the reasons for the phenomenon of political violence, a process that threatens to shape events and perceptions for years to come, the people who need most to speak up have retreated into their shells. The stage has therefore been left open for others to define Muslims, periodically punctuated by outrageous words and actions committed by extremists that serve only to further the agendas of those who wish us no good.</p>
<p>Arguments cannot be won by people who refuse to speak. The vast majority of Muslims are moderates who deplore murder as a political tactic, regardless of the faith and/or nationality of the victim. Outsiders who remain ignorant of that fact cannot be blamed for knowing so little: Responsibility for that lies with Muslim clerics and politicians who have not only failed but in many cases actually refused to make their case before the court of world opinion.”</p>
<p>Addressing the wrangling at the United Nations, the Gulf News of Bahrain argues that the only reason to have a new UN resolution is to <a href="http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/opinion.asp?ArticleID=66766" type="external">greenlight an American war in Iraq</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“Truth to tell, if a resolution is moved which does not contain the automatic use of force for non-compliance, then there is little point in presenting any resolution to the Security Council at this time. For Russia is correct — there is sufficient authority in the resolutions still standing on Iraq, to enable the weapons inspectors to return. So all the argument that will take place during the coming week in the UN will be geared to trying to answer just one question: How ready is the world to go to war against Iraq? For once America’s resolution is passed, it is merely a matter of time before war breaks out.”</p>
<p>An editorial in the Arab News of Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, commends the French for “ <a type="external" href="">driving the Bush White House to distraction</a>” with its UN posturing. But noting that “altruism is rarely the basis on which nations formulate their foreign policy” the paper explores the question of “why Paris is taking such an uncompromising line on Iraq.”</p>
<p />
<p>“If Washington is dissuaded from its dangerous unilateral aggression against Iraq, it will be the French who will be seen to have successfully championed common sense and the legitimacy of the UN…. [But] it is likely that Chirac is thinking several moves ahead, to the point where the Bush regime has flown in the face of all friendly advice and launched its military into Iraq. Give or take the odd chemical counterattack or heroic last-ditch stand by the Republican Guard, Saddam’s defeat will probably be a walkover….</p>
<p>Americans are psychologically ill-equipped to be an army of occupation in an Arab world for which they have demonstrated a complete lack of understanding…. The French government, at the head of European Union mediators [will then step forward] to sort out the mess created by Washington and London and thus earn extensive regional gratitude and standing. Indeed, French diplomacy at the moment approaches the immaculate.”</p>
<p />
<p>POLITICS <a type="external" href="">Pitt’s Poor Accounting</a></p>
<p>Harvey Pitt is back in the scandal spotlight, and the issue is painfully familiar. The Securities and Exchange Commission, of which Pitt is the chairman, has announced that it will investigate Pitt’s handling of the appointment of William Webster to head a new accounting industry oversight board. The inquiry comes after The New York Times reported that Pitt failed to tell other commissioners that <a type="external" href="">Webster had led the auditing committee of a company facing fraud accusations</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“The small publicly traded company, U.S. Technologies, is now all but insolvent and it and its chief executive, C. Gregory Earls, are facing suits by investors who say they were defrauded of millions of dollars. The suits contend the misconduct occurred in late 2001 and this year. That was after the three-person audit committee, headed by Mr. Webster, had voted to dismiss the outside auditors in the summer of 2001 after those auditors raised concerns about internal financial controls.”</p>
<p>As The Economist reports, <a type="external" href="">Pitt’s handling of the Webster nomination had been the source of controversy</a> even before the Times disclosure. Webster was approved in a party-line vote last week, with both Democratic commissioners voting no.</p>
<p />
<p>“After the vote, the SEC’s two Democratic commissioners, Harvey Goldschmid and Roel Campos, said that if Mr Pitt was not actually under the thumb of the accounting industry, he certainly gave the impression of being so, bringing discredit not only to the SEC but to the new board as well.”</p>
<p>Already, the new scandal is reviving calls for Pitt to be replaced. Sebastian Mallaby of The Washington Post notes that even Sen. Paul Sarbanes, the Democrat whose oft-criticized reform bill authorized the new accounting oversight board, is calling for Pitt’s head. And Mallaby says <a type="external" href="">Sarbanes has good reason for doing so</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“In his bungled effort to implement the post-Enron accounting reform, Pitt has not merely been incompetent. He has not merely bowed to the accounting lobbyists whom he is meant to regulate. He has been very nearly dishonest.”</p>
<p>Tom Jacobs argues on The Motley Fool that both Pitt and Webster must be dumped, citing the latest scandal as <a type="external" href="">reason enough to be rid of the embattled chairman</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“Pitt lacks the ethical standards and judgment to serve as the leader of the governmental body charged by law to ‘protect investors and maintain the integrity of the securities markets’ (taken from the SEC’s web site, by the way). He is either incompetent or evil. This is far, far beyond politics.</p>
<p>He must go. Immediately. Sooner would be better.”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Electoral Eyes on Florida</a></p>
<p>Russia and Albania may not be known for electoral efficiency or democratic protections, but both countries apparently have something to offer Florida. In an unprecedented step, <a type="external" href="">next week’s election in the Sunshine State will be monitored by a team of 10 international observers</a>, including representatives from the two former east bloc states, reports Andrew Gumbel of The Independent.</p>
<p />
<p>“Certainly, the Russians and Albanians know a thing or two about flawed, rigged or fraudulent elections. After receiving a decade of lectures from Western democracies about overhauling their own systems, they also have a good idea how to overcome them. It remains to be seen whether Florida isn’t too tough a nut to crack, even for them.”</p>
<p>The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is sponsoring the team, which will observe and analyze how electoral laws are applied in the state, but won’t be present at individual polling stations.</p>
<p>The European group will not be the only team taking a hard look at Florida’s polling. Armies of monitors from the US Department of Justice, independent watchdog groups, and legal teams working for the candidates themselves <a type="external" href="">will be widely deployed at polling sites across the state</a>, ready to catch every inefficacy and electoral ambiguity, writes Steve Ellman in the Miami Daily Business Review. And both Gov. Jeb Bush and Democratic challenger Bill McBride have vowed to send “squads of lawyer-observers and litigators who will be prepared to fight for every vote,” Ellman writes. Given the unprecedented number of observers to be dispatched across the state, Ellman suggests that “Election Day in Florida may seem more like an election in Haiti or Bosnia or some other international trouble spot.”</p>
<p>ENVIRONMENT <a type="external" href="">Who Needs Fuel Economy? Not Us.</a></p>
<p>Never mind the environment, never mind America’s dependence on foreign oil; a new EPA report suggests that America’s love affair with the gas guzzler remains strong. In fact, average fuel economy ratings for new car models and trucks <a type="external" href="">is at a 15-year low</a>, the study finds.</p>
<p>The news is prompting some observers to again question America’s driving habits. The editors of The San Jose Mercury News, while noting that some of the blame rests with the automakers, point out that <a type="external" href="">no one is forcing Americans to buy gas-hogging SUVs</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>” … The cars Americans drive are not simply a function of the cars Americans are offered. Carmakers didn’t decide, a decade ago, that Americans were going to drive gas-guzzling SUVs whether they liked them or not. Carmakers found out that Americans seemed to like SUVs, and that they didn’t really worry much about how much gas they needed to put into them and what that meant for the environment.”</p>
<p>For further proof — if any was needed — of this “What, Me Worry” phenomenon, Jason Carr of Mid-Michigan’s WJRT-TV <a type="external" href="">set out to ask SUV owners if they’d trade their behemoths for a smaller car</a>. The answer? An almost unanimous “No”:</p>
<p>“People can buy the kind of car that they can afford the gas for. I choose this,” answered one SUV driver. When asked if she felt guilty for driving an SUV, another said: “No, not at all, because I like it. It’s convenient. It’s practical.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Mother Jones Daily | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2002/10/mother-jones-daily-3/ | 2002-10-28 | 4 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=524487&amp;g2_imageViewsIndex=1"&gt;US Coast Guard&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p />
<p>So much for the <a href="http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/dispersants/directive-addendum3.pdf" type="external">May 26 directive</a> from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard calling for BP&#160;to slash dispersant use in the Gulf. According to records recenty released by the Coast Guard, BP has exceeded the limits on an almost daily basis since the directive took effect—with the express approval of the federal government.</p>
<p>BP was supposed to limit subsea use to 15,000 gallons per day and “eliminate the surface application of dispersants” except in “rare cases when there may have to be an exemption.” But as we <a href="" type="internal">reported several weeks ago</a>, the company is still regularly exceeding both those limits.&#160;BP also hasn’t reduced its average use much at all—just 9 percent from the pre-directive average.</p>
<p>In order to surpass the limits imposed by the EPA and the Coast Guard, BP needs to request an exemption from the government’s on-scene coordinator (currently Coast Guard Admiral James Watson, who took over on June 1). Based on exemption requests, which the Coast Guard <a href="http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doctype/2931/57851/" type="external">posted online,</a> the Coast Guard has granted BP permission to surpass those limits routinely—and with few questions, <a href="http://blogs.edf.org/nanotechnology/2010/07/07/exceptions-swallow-the-rule-rare-cases-turn-into-daily-approvals-for-dispersant-use/" type="external">notes</a> Richard Denison, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund. In the majority of cases, he writes, the federal on-scene coordinator has “accepted without modification the exemption request submitted by BP” and “has simply approved the exemption request by signing and dating it at the bottom.”</p>
<p>A look at the requests and approvals makes that clear. <a href="http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/2931/733591/" type="external">On May 29</a>, the company requested permission to spray up to 19,000 gallons of disperstants over a period of 12 hours, arguing that it had spotted some “dispersible oil” approximately 20 to 30 miles from the spill site; burning or skimming the oil, BP said, wouldn’t be sufficient. The plan was approved without any suggested modification. <a href="http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/posted/2931/060210a.733767.PDF" type="external">On June 2</a>, BP asked for an exemption to use up to 6,000 gallons per day on the surface for a whole week, noting that “BP also respectfully requests to exceed these volumes as required.” That, too, was greenlighted.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/2931/734091/" type="external">On June 25</a>, the Coast Guard actually raised the amount approved from BP’s request. BP&#160;asked to use 30,000 gallons, and Watson authorized 43,000 gallons. <a href="http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/2931/734099/" type="external">On June 26</a>, BP upped the request again—this time to 50,600 gallons. (The Coast Guard only granted the company permission to use 10,880 gallons that day, but that was still 10,880 gallons more than the directive a month earlier indicated should be allowed.)</p>
<p>The pattern continues through June.&#160;The repeated exemptions of course beg the question: What’s the point in setting limits on dispersant use—an acknowledgment that these chemicals themselves present serious environmental concerns—if they’re going to be ignored almost every day?</p>
<p>UPDATE: The EPA sent along this statement regarding the dispersant use: “The goal of this directive was to rampdown dispersant use from peak usage, and dispersant use has dropped by nearly 70 percent. EPA and the Coast Guard took these steps to ensure that BP prioritized skimming and burning and relied on surface application only as a last resort. That prioritization has happened.”</p>
<p /> | BP Ignoring Dispersant Limits With Coast Guard’s Consent | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/bp-ignoring-dispersant-directives-coast-guards-consent/ | 2010-07-09 | 4 |
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<p>These are just some of the pointed questions federal employees are asking in the era of Trump, when just about everything seems politicized and civil servants on both sides of the partisan divide want to know just how far they can take their opinions – both for and against the president – in what is not just any ordinary workplace, but the president’s own back yard.</p>
<p>Federal offices are supposed to be politically neutral places, removed from partisanship because the government serves the public. But a month into the new administration, civil servants are more politicized than ever. And they’reseeking guidance in record numbers about what they can and cannot do to express themselves without risking their jobs.</p>
<p>At agencies from the Army to the Environmental Protection Agency, office politics are becoming heated referendums on the new administration, spilling into meetings, hallways, email exchanges and social media.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Their questions are flooding the phone lines and email inbox of the Office of Special Counsel, an obscure, independent federal agency that acts as a watchdog for civil service protections and monitors political activity in the federal workforce.</p>
<p>“Our inbox has exploded,” said Ana Galindo-Marrone, an attorney at the office who’s in charge of monitoring compliance with the Hatch Act, the 1939 law that prohibits civil servants from directly supporting candidates or political parties.</p>
<p>Galindo-Marrone says she’s receiving as many as two dozen queries a day from employees and their managers about what they can say, email and tweet about the new president – both for and against Trump and his policies.</p>
<p>“People are still very emotional about the results of the election,” she saidin an interview.”They want to know what’s permissible. I’m hearing from rank-and-file employees asking whether they can wear a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat at the office.” Some managers have told their employees – wrongly – that a hat bearing Trump’s campaign logo is not allowed, she said.</p>
<p>Here’s how the law works: Civil servants are free to opine on the president, his travel ban and other policies. What they can’t do is engage in political activity that works for or against a candidate or a party.</p>
<p>“Every single day, people are talking about it,” said a California-based scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “People are wondering, ‘Can we talk to people? What can we say to the public?’ There’s so much more political activity in government now.”</p>
<p>The conversation at NOAA has ranged from whether the staff can send emails about the “March for Science” planned for April from their government accounts to how they should discuss climate change with members of the public they encounter on the job. The consensus for now, the scientist said: Don’t say you think the administration has lost its way with its skepticism of global warming. Say instead, “The science is telling us this.”</p>
<p>With hiring frozen and the bureaucracy already in Republicans’ crosshairs for being too big, some employees worry about the consequences of overstepping the line.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Not all are asking whether they can criticize Trump, though. At many agencies, they want to express support.</p>
<p>“People are so polarized right now on both sides,” said Brandon Coleman, an addiction therapist at the VA Medical Center in Phoenix who voted for Trump. Coleman saidthe Department of Veterans Affairs is split down the middle politically right now, with employees either “absolutely ecstatic about Trump or crushed” by Hillary Clinton’s defeat.</p>
<p>A Clinton doll in the shape of a nutcracker with an American flag backdrop sits prominently on Coleman’s desk with the logo, “Is America Ready for This Nutcracker?” He plans to keep it there.</p>
<p>“If we just talked more about our views on political issues, I think it would help,” Coleman said. “The culture here is people are afraid to say their views. But that’s exactly what we should be doing.”</p>
<p>The special counsel’s office is used to reminding government employees in the heat of election season that they should not politick at work. But for the first time she can remember, Galindo-Marrone’s staff is responding to numerous questions from employees at the start of an administration.</p>
<p>Back in 2009 and 2010 when Barack Obama was president, Hatch Act experts got a flurry of questions from employees who wanted to opine on the Affordable Care Act and the tea party. Butinterest in political expression is much higher now, officials said.</p>
<p>A few high-profile cases have gone public, including that of a Secret Service agent in Denver under investigation for posting numerous anti-Trump comments on Facebook,the most explosive that she would rather go to jail than risk her life for Trump.</p>
<p>Scientists want to know whether they’ll be fired for protesting the new administration’s climate-change policies when they march on the Mall in Washington and in cities across the country on Earth Day. The answer: They won’t, as long as they protest on their own time.</p>
<p>The Navy is also investigating an apparent misstep by a SEAL unit that was seen flying a blue Trump flag from a military convoy of Humvees around Louisville on Jan. 31. The flag was not authorized under a military policy that prohibits active-duty service members from declaring political preferences on duty.</p>
<p>At many agencies, employees are confused about what is appropriate behavior and whether, almost four years from the next presidential election, this is campaign season or not.</p>
<p>Trump inadvertently set off a wave of anxiety on Inauguration Day when he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to declare his candidacy for reelection in 2020. Officially this means that he is running for office again, in theory a warning to employees to hold their tongues.</p>
<p>But the special counsel’s office weighed in early this month with a ruling that the president, for purposes of the Hatch Act, will not be considered a candidate for office until he publicly declares that he is running for a second term.</p>
<p>When that happens -likely sometime in 2019- the rules will be stricter. Employees won’t be able to “engage in communications that are directed at the success or failure of his candidacy,” the guidance said.</p>
<p>For now, government employees are free to express opinions at work about government policies and current events, the special counsel’s office said. They can, for example, express support or opposition in the workplace to a Trump policy. But they can’t say Trump should either win reelection or be defeated in 2020.</p>
<p>Federal workers can donate to a political campaign (on their own time), but they can’t solicit money or bundle campaign contributions for a candidate.</p>
<p>They can tweet or post about politics or policy on the clock – as long as Trump is not a candidate and the comments are not made in their official capacity representing the government. A violation of the law can result in a warning letter or disciplinary action from the Office of Special Counsel.</p>
<p>Hatch Act experts and others say that in many cases, overzealous civilian bosses are being too restrictive.</p>
<p>“They can always bring things up at work in a water-cooler-type situation,” said John O’Grady, a career EPA employee who heads a national council of EPA unions based in Chicago, where about 100 employees marched at lunch hour this month to protest the Senate’s confirmation of Scott Pruitt to head the agency.</p>
<p>O’Grady says his colleagues “are being overly cautious about sharing information.” He frequently emails news stories on critiques of the EPA – and pledges from the Trump team to abolish the agency – but says some employees resist sharing them on government servers. “I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, that’s a news story, that’s not a Hatch Act violation.’ “</p>
<p>Nor does the Hatch Act prevent civil servants from signing a petition while on the government clock calling on the White House to remove a presidential adviser such as Stephen Bannon, a question posted to the special counsel’s office by an employee in the Transportation Department.</p>
<p>Today employees are allowed to put a “Make America Great Again” logo at the top of their government email address (another question that landed in Galindo-Marrone’s inbox). But once Trump is officially deemed a candidate for reelection, they would be advised to remove the logo, because it would be seen as endorsing Trump for a second term.</p>
<p>So those eager to show their love for Trump with a bobblehead or a “Make America Great Again” hat? Who want to keep promoting Bernie Sanders on a bumper sticker?</p>
<p>Go ahead, that’s all OK, say officials. The biggest consequences, for now, might be a heated debate at the office.</p> | Federal workers grapple with the era of Trump | false | https://abqjournal.com/953791/federal-workers-grapple-with-the-era-of-trump.html | 2017-02-20 | 2 |
<p>Candidates say campaigns are about articulating programs, issues and priorities. But people vote for candidates based on how that person makes them feel. Consciously or unconsciously, elections are about giving voice to values.</p>
<p>Voters are moral proxies who want to know that a candidate or elected official truly cares about them — that they are authentic — more than they care about what they know.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump and his administration are expressing moral values that have no market value. The Golden Rule has both moral and market value. Trump wouldn’t want done to him what he’s doing to the majority of the American people.</p>
<p>Trump’s values express reverse gratification. The powerful are suppressing the weak; the rich are exploiting the poor; the elephant is crushing the gnat.</p>
<p>Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions disavows the Voting Rights Act. He has a history of politicizing it by frivolously charging blacks with voter fraud, and has withdrawn Justice Department support from a voting rights case involving racial discrimination. That’s an expression of this administration’s values.</p>
<p>Trump has established a voter fraud commission despite having no evidence of voter fraud. He appointed Kris Kobach, secretary of state of Kansas and the “King of Voter Suppression” as its head, apparently for the purpose of finding 3 million to 5 million examples in order to “prove” to he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because of voter fraud. That’s an expression of twisted moral values.</p>
<p>Candidate Trump promised a universal health care system better and cheaper than the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed 13 men (no women) who came up with a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">plan to repeal and replace the ACA</a>&#160;that would take away affordable health insurance from over 20 million Americans. It would deny money to Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides health services for women; remove billions of dollars from a Medicaid program that serves over 70 million poor people, including children and the disabled; threaten to bankrupt nursing homes for the old and financial security for their families; threaten the existence of rural community hospitals and urban public hospitals; drive up costs and drive down health benefits for the middle class; take away millions of jobs from the people who provide these services; and do all these things in order to give massive tax cuts to the greedy. If Sen. John McCain was poor or middle class and had the Republican plan — i.e., old and infirm — he would be in trouble, and that’s a moral disgrace! The Constitution, like the ACA, was imperfect and had shameful flaws, but we chose to amend it not end it.</p>
<p>Trump wants to close public schools and build private jails. He appointed a secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, who has dedicated her entire life and lots of money undercutting public education and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">advocating for for-profit private schools</a>. He is weakening civil rights protections that include racial and sexual minorities.</p>
<p>He appointed Scott Pruitt as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a person who was joined at the hip with the fossil fuel industry as Oklahoma’s attorney general and who many times sued the organization he now heads. Pruitt is gutting the strong environmental achievements of Obama and led the charge for Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, relinquishing America’s environment leadership on an issue that will literally cost Americans millions of jobs and economic growth, threaten the Earth’s equilibrium and the existence of the human race.</p>
<p>In foreign policy Trump has weakened our international leadership role established over the last three-quarters of a century through the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) that has successfully maintained peace in Europe. He has cozied up to authoritarian leaders, shown little interest in advancing human rights or a free press, and has turned our wars over to the generals, shunning civilian leadership. Trump’s “eye for an eye” and “fight fire with fire” policy would leave many blind and burned.</p>
<p>Trump’s most fervent supporters are the same people who sanctimoniously attend annual prayer breakfasts, cite scripture and pray in public. Trump and Republicans see ending health care for millions and giving tax cuts to the rich as victorious. Jesus warned about “religious” people who walk over the sick and past the poor.</p>
<p>Republicans are struggling to keep promises they made — ones they shouldn’t have made because they lack a moral foundation. Their values are unhealthy and dangerous — and will lead to calamity and downfall. They can’t be exported to the rest of the world by our diplomats, and polls show Americans don’t agree with them. It’s an immoral agenda with no market value at all.</p> | Trump’s Cold-Hearted Agenda is Immoral | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/07/19/trumps-cold-hearted-agenda-is-immoral/ | 2017-07-19 | 4 |
<p>Community Health Systems Inc. shares dropped in the extended session Tuesday after the hospital operator's earnings fell well below Wall Street estimates. Community Health Systems shares dropped 13% to $10.60 after hours. The company reported adjusted second-quarter earnings of 9 cents on revenue of $4.59 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated earnings of 56 cents a share on revenue of $4.54 billion.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Community Health Systems Shares Drop On Earnings Miss | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/02/community-health-systems-shares-drop-on-earnings-miss.html | 2016-08-02 | 0 |
<p>Jan 22 (Reuters) - Haynes International Inc:</p>
<p>* HAYNES INTERNATIONAL, INC. REPORTS ON TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT</p>
<p>* HAYNES INTERNATIONAL INC - AS A RESULT OF REDUCTION IN CORPORATE INCOME TAX RATE, CO IS REQUIRED TO REVALUE ITS NET DEFERRED TAX ASSET</p>
<p>* HAYNES INTERNATIONAL INC - CO EXPECTS TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT WILL POSITIVELY IMPACT FUTURE EFFECTIVE TAX RATE AND AFTER-TAX EARNINGS IN UNITED STATES​</p>
<p>* HAYNES INTERNATIONAL INC - REQUIRED TO REVALUE NET DEFERRED TAX ASSET TO ACCOUNT FOR FUTURE IMPACT OF LOWER CORPORATE TAX RATES ON DEFERRED AMOUNT</p>
<p>* HAYNES INTERNATIONAL INC - ‍PRELIMINARILY DETERMINED AMOUNT OF EXPENSE DUE TO ACT TO BE ABOUT $19.0-$20.0 MILLION, WHICH WILL REDUCE CO’S Q1 2018 RESULTS​</p>
<p>* HAYNES INTERNATIONAL INC - CO IS REQUIRED TO RECORD ANY CHANGE IN VALUE OF TAX ASSET AS A ONE-TIME NON-CASH CHARGE ON ITS INCOME STATEMENT Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares fell sharply again on Wednesday, reeling from a credit downgrade of the electric car maker by Moody’s Investors Service, federal probes of a fatal crash and concerns about Model 3 production.</p>
<p>Shares tumbled 9 percent before ending down 7.7 percent at $257.78. On Tuesday, Tesla tumbled 8.2 percent to its lowest close in almost a year after the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened a field investigation into a fatal crash and vehicle fire in California on March 23.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, a second federal regulator, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), said it was sending a team to California to investigate the crash.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-tesla-stock-options/extreme-bearish-options-on-tesla-making-money-as-stock-dives-idUSKBN1H434B" type="external">Extreme bearish options on Tesla making money as stock dives</a>
<a href="/article/us-tesla-crash/u-s-auto-safety-agency-to-probe-fatal-tesla-california-crash-idUSKBN1H42X1" type="external">U.S. auto safety agency to probe fatal Tesla California crash</a>
<p>Late on Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Tesla’s credit rating to B3 from B2, citing “the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3 electric vehicle.” It also noted “liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds.”</p>
<p>Tesla has $230 million in convertible bonds maturing in November 2018 and $920 million in March 2019.</p>
<p>Moody’s said its negative outlook “reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”</p>
<p>It said Tesla’s weekly production target is now 2,500 Model 3 vehicles by the end of March, down sharply from its year-earlier target of 5,000 per week by the end of 2017. Tesla’s weekly target for the end of June is 5,000.</p>
<p>Tesla declined to comment on the downgrade. The company plans to provide an update on Model 3 production next week.</p>
<p>Tesla shares have experienced big swings in the past, as worries about losses have vied with enthusiasm for Chief Executive Elon Musk’s ambitious plans.</p>
<p>The sell-off has left Tesla’s stock market value at $44 billion, below General Motors Co’s $49 billion. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla has at times had a larger market value than GM, the largest U.S. automaker by vehicle sales.</p> A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton, just outside London, Britain, February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
<p>Since the end of February, the median analyst price target for Tesla has dipped by $10 to $356, about 37 percent higher than Wednesday’s price, according to Thomson Reuters data. Nomura Securities analyst Romit Shah has the highest Tesla price target, $500, or nearly double the current price. All the targets were set before the March 23 crash.</p>
<p>In last week’s accident in which the Tesla struck a highway median, it was unclear if the vehicle’s automated control system called Autopilot was driving, the NTSB and police said.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old driver of the Tesla died at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash.</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, Tesla said in a blog post it does “not yet know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash,” but added that data shows Tesla owners have driven the same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged “roughly 85,000 times ... and there has never been an accident that we know of.” The statement did not say if the crashed vehicle was in Autopilot mode.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Alexandria Sage and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(This version of the March 27 story corrects to “Minneapolis” from “Helena, Montana” in paragraph 3)</p>
<p>By Sruthi Shankar and Sweta Singh</p>
<p>(Reuters) - The S&amp;P 500 and the Dow rose on Tuesday, led by gains in industrial and consumer staple shares, while weakness in technology stocks dragged down the Nasdaq.</p>
<p>Stocks have been volatile in the session after the main U.S. indexes notched their best day in 2-1/2 years on Monday on waning concerns of a trade war between the United States and China.</p>
<p>“Right now, the biggest driver in the market seems to be around the trade news and it is looking more like some of these tariff discussions are negotiations rather than strong protectionist measures,” said Lisa Erickson, head of traditional investments at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>“But there’s going to be continued volatility in the short term and a lot of it will depend on how the fundamental news flow comes out.”</p>
<p>U.S. stocks suffered their worst declines of the year last week after President Donald Trump moved to impose tariffs on Chinese imports of up to $60 billion.</p>
<p>But the sentiment has improved after reports that the countries were willing to renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances.</p>
<p>At 13:00 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> was up 0.67 percent at 24,365.61 and the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> rose 0.29 percent to 2,666.16.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> fell 0.33 percent at 7,196.70.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) dropped 2.3 percent as it continued to be weighed down by data privacy issues. The company faces an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to explain how it allowed data of 50 million users get into the hands of a political consultancy.</p>
<p>“Tech and FANG are still trying to figure out what the way forward is, and the market is dealing with the aftermath of a massive rally. It’s hard to maintain that kind of momentum,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director, institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.</p>
<p>Another weak spot in the tech space was Nvidia ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NVDA.O" type="external">NVDA.O</a>), which fell 2.8 percent after the company temporarily suspended self-driving tests across the globe.</p>
<p>Tesla ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) shares dropped nearly 4 percent after the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board opened a field investigation of a fatal Tesla crash and major vehicle fire near Mountain View, California, last week.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">Dow Jones &amp; Company Inc</a> 23848.42 .DJI Dow Jones Indexes -9.29 (-0.04%) .DJI .SPX .IXIC FB.O NVDA.O
<p>Twitter ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TWTR.N" type="external">TWTR.N</a>) fell more than 7 percent after short-seller Citron Research said it was short on the stock, adding that the company was “most vulnerable” to privacy regulations.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 1.38-to-1 ratio and for a 1.20-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell about 1 percent on Wednesday after data showed U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly rose 1.6 million barrels last week, weighing on market sentiment.</p> FILE PHOTO: An oil well pump jack is seen at an oil field supply yard near Denver, Colorado, U.S., February 2, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo
<p>Brent June crude futures LCOc2 settled 70 cents lower at $68.76 per barrel, while the front month May contract LCOc1, which expires on Thursday, fell 58 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at $69.53 a barrel.</p>
<p>West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures for May delivery fell 87 cents to $64.38 a barrel, a 1.3-percent loss.</p>
<p>U.S. crude stockpiles USOILC=ECI rose as net imports USOICI=ECI soared by 1.1 million barrels per day, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.</p>
<p>Stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for U.S crude futures USOICC=ECI also rose 1.8 million barrels, EIA said.</p>
<p>“Oil supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma are starting to replenish, which is bearish for prices, but they have a long way to go to near normal levels of supply,” said John Kilduff, partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital LLC in New York.</p>
<p>U.S. crude production also inched up last week to fresh record high at 10.433 million bpd. Output has risen by nearly 25 percent in the last two years to over 10 million bpd C-OUT-T-EIA, taking it past top exporter Saudi Arabia and within reach of the biggest producer, Russia, which pumps around 11 million bpd.</p>
<p>U.S. crude’s discount to Brent WTCLc1-LCOc1 widened to as much as $5.22, the biggest since Jan. 24.</p>
<p>“Costs in the U.S. are getting to be a little bit less expensive to drill and that’s one of the aspects that is potentially driving the spread between Brent and WTI,” Mark Watkins, a regional investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management said from Salt Lake City, Utah.</p>
<p>Average breakeven prices to drill a new well in the U.S. range from $47 to $55 per barrel depending on the region, according to a Wednesday survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.</p>
<p>Brent prices have risen in seven out of the last nine months and have increased by more than 4 percent so far this year. Prices have also had three consecutive quarters of gains, the longest stretch since late 2010 and early 2011, after production curbs led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries since last year.</p>
<p>Wednesday’s price falls came despite Saudi Arabia saying it was working with Russia on a long-term pact that could extend controls over world crude supplies by major exporters for many years.</p>
<p>Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Reuters on Tuesday that Riyadh and Moscow were considering greatly extending the short-term alliance on oil curbs that began in January 2017 after a crash in crude prices, with a partnership to manage supplies potentially growing “to a 10-to-20-year agreement.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; editing by Marguerita Choy</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fund managers have begun to ditch so-called FANG stocks that powered the U.S. stock market to record highs in January and are slowly rotating into commodity-related shares and other value stocks which typically outperform in late-cycle recoveries.</p>
<p>Portfolio managers holding shares of Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Netflix Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>), and Google-parent Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) say they are increasingly concerned that the data scandal that has sent shares of Facebook down nearly 15 percent year-to-date will spill over into all of the FANG stocks, imperiling the broad market’s momentum at a time when there are no clear companies or sectors to take their place.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, an index which tracks the FANG stocks along with six other mega-cap technology stocks tumbled 6.3 percent, the biggest decline since September 2014.</p>
<p>Facebook rose as much as 1.5 percent in early trading Wednesday before falling into the red, one day after sources told Reuters that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before Congress. Amazon.com dropped 4 percent, while Netflix fell 5 percent. Google-parent Alphabet was slightly positive.</p>
<p>“There are legitimate concerns over the business models of these companies, and I expect that they will be ironed out in legislation” that will likely eat into their profit margins, said Michael Cuggino, a portfolio manager of the $17-billion Permanent Portfolio funds.</p>
<p>Cuggino, who would not say whether he was selling any of his shares in Facebook, said that commodity and industrial stocks look more attractive now given rising inflation and continued global economic growth.</p>
<p>Each FANG company rose more than 33 percent last year, helping power the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> to a nearly 20-percent gain. Yet those gains have left the broad S&amp;P 500 trading at a high trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 21.7, leaving it overpriced despite a boost to margins from the Republican-led corporate tax cut at the end of 2017.</p>
<p>“Rising volatility and changing market leadership are now pointing towards the possible conclusion that the stock market peaked in late January 2018,” said Douglas Kass, president of Seabreeze Capital Management.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 is now down 2.2 percent for the year, and down nearly 10 percent below the high of 2872.87 it reached on Jan. 26.</p> Slideshow (2 Images) UNFRIENDED
<p>Fund managers say that the high valuation of FANG stocks and the likelihood of regulation are pushing them into traditional value stocks like energy and defense companies.</p>
<p>Connor Browne, a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, said that he sold his shares of Netflix and Amazon.com last year after both companies blew through his price targets. He used those gains instead to increase positions in energy stocks such as pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners LP ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EPD.N" type="external">EPD.N</a>) and crude oil shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=OSG.N" type="external">OSG.N</a>) that stand to benefit from the recovery in the price of oil.</p>
<p>“We noticed that in all of this excitement over the FANGs taking over the world, there are parts of the economy that seem really out of favor and offer more compelling opportunities,” he said.</p>
<p>Even after the selloff, FANG stocks continue to trade at higher valuations than the broad market. Netflix trades at a P/E of 210 and Amazon.com trades at a P/E of 327. Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet, both of which have been directly linked with privacy concerns, now trade at valuations near 52-week lows.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 153.03 FB.O Nasdaq +0.81 (+0.53%) FB.O AMZN.O NFLX.O GOOGL.O .SPX
<p>The overhang of increased government oversight has sunk the fortunes of large technology companies in the past. Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) reached a settlement in an antitrust case with the Department of Justice in 2002 that lasted until 2011, contributing to a long period of underperformance that kept the stock below the high it reached in 1999 until 2016. Since then, the stock is up nearly 60 percent on the strength of its cloud-based services.</p>
<p>Margaret Patel, a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds, said that she has been adding to defense stocks like Raytheon Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RTN.N" type="external">RTN.N</a>) that should benefit from increasing military spending in both the U.S. and overseas. At the same time, she is increasing her exposure of non-FANG technology stocks like Adobe Systems Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ADBE.O" type="external">ADBE.O</a>) and Microsoft that have been hurt by the recent sell-off in the sector.</p>
<p>“It’s very hard to see another sector that still has all the fundamental drivers for growing much faster than any other sector,” she said.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Haynes International Reports On Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Tesla shares dive again, stung by fatal crash, credit downgrade Wall Street wavers after strong rally, tech stocks struggle Oil falls about 1 percent after surprise U.S. crude build FANG stocks' bite has U.S. fund managers looking for alternatives | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-haynes-international-reports-on-ta/brief-haynes-international-reports-on-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-idUSFWN1PH13G | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Turkey's president vowed Sunday to purge the "virus" within state bodies after a failed attempt to end his 13-year rule. Some 6,000 people already have been detained.</p>
<p>"We will continue to clean the virus from all state bodies because this virus has spread. Unfortunately like a cancer, this virus has enveloped the state," Recep Tayyip Erdogan&#160;warned thousands of mourners at a funeral for victims killed during the coup attempt.</p>
<p>World leaders, including President Barack Obama, have strongly condemned the attempted coup&#160;but also urged Turkey to respect the rule of law in its aftermath, especially after pictures emerged showing the rough treatment of some coup plotters when arrested.</p>
<p>Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Sunday that around 6,000 people had been detained and the number would rise.&#160;"The clean-up operations are continuing," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.</p>
<p>According to the government, 161 civilians and regular troops lost their lives when a group within the army sought to overthrow the authorities by seizing key strategic points in Istanbul and Ankara late Friday.</p>
<p>Over 100 coup plotters were also killed, the military has said.</p>
<p>The botched coup bid was the biggest challenge to Erdogan's rule&#160;as prime minister and now president. But he successfully mobilized supporters into the streets to face down the plotters.</p>
<p>Thousands responded late Saturday to a new call by the president to pour into the squares to celebrate the "victory of democracy" with mass rallies of flag-waving Turks reported in cities, including Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.</p>
<p>Europe Minister Omer Celik urged people to stay on the streets, writing on Twitter that the "vigil for democracy" continues.</p>
<p>'Respect rule of law'</p>
<p>The Turkish authorities have made clear they will show no mercy in the wake of the coup, accusing the plotters of acting on behalf of Erdogan's arch enemy, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.</p>
<p>Turkish television has shown images of captured suspects forced to lie face down on the tarmac after their arrest while AFP photographers have seen suspects roughly led away pursued by angry mobs.</p>
<p>NTV television said 34 generals of various grades had been detained so far. They include senior figures like Erdal Ozturk, commander of the third army and the commander of the Malatya-based second army, Adem Huduti.</p>
<p>In an operation early Sunday, authorities detained the commander of the garrison in the western town of Denizli, Ozhan Ozbakir, along with 51 other soldiers.</p>
<p>Turkey also detained a senior air force general and other officers accused of backing the failed coup at a key air base used by US forces for raids in Syria.</p>
<p>Brigadier air force general Bekir Ercan Van was detained along with over a dozen lower ranking officers on Saturday at the Incirlik air force base in southern Turkey.</p>
<p>Former chief of staff Ilker Basbug told Dogan news agency that Turkey should make a distinction between the coup planners and young soldiers "of 20 years old who may have been mistaken".</p>
<p>The crackdown is however not restricted to the military and Anadolu said prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for a total of 2,745 judges and prosecutors across Turkey.</p>
<p>The entire investigation is being led by Ankara prosecutors and those arrested are suspected of belonging to Gulen's group, which Turkey calls a terror organization.&#160;Gulen's supporters say their group is entirely peaceful.</p>
<p>Obama has warned Turkey there is a "vital need" for all parties to "act within the rule of law" in the aftermath of the coup.</p>
<p>French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned Erdogan against using the failed putsch to silence his opponents.</p>
<p>However there was no such concern from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called Erdogan to wish for a "speedy restoration of strong constitutional order."</p>
<p>Erdogan and Putin, who were feuding over the shootdown of a Russian jet, will meet in the first week of August, Anadolu said.</p>
<p>'Extradite Gulen'</p>
<p>Friday's putsch bid began with rebel F-16 jets screaming low over rooftops in Ankara, soldiers and tanks taking to the streets. Rebel troops also moved to block the two bridges across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul.</p>
<p>Turks have not seen such scenes since 1980, when the military led by general Kenan Evren ousted the government, and many had no desire to revive these memories.</p>
<p>Erdogan has pinned the blame on Gulen, an erstwhile ally he accuses of running a "parallel state,"&#160;and called on Obama to extradite the reclusive preacher to face justice.</p>
<p>"Mr President, I told you myself, either deport or hand over to us this person who lives in 400 acres of land in Pennsylvania," he told a triumphant rally in Istanbul late Saturday, carefully not referring to Gulen by name.</p>
<p>In an interview with Haberturk television, Labor Minister Suleyman Soylu went even further, saying: "The United States is behind the coup" and adding it had now to handover Gulen.</p>
<p>But Gulen has categorically denied any involvement in the plot and suggested it could have been staged by Erdogan himself. Secretary of State John Kerry called such claims about US support for a coup "utterly false."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Turkey has demanded the extradition of eight people thought to have been involved in the coup&#160;who landed in a Black Hawk military helicopter in Greece.</p>
<p>The suspects are still in Greece, but the chopper itself is now been flown back to Turkey, a Turkish official said.</p>
<p>Istanbul authorities have sought to get life back to normal, but Washington on Saturday warned citizens against travel to the country due to uncertainty after the coup bid.</p> | Turkey detains 6,000 after coup attempt; president vows to purge 'virus' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-07-17/turkey-detains-6000-after-coup-attempt-authorities-say-number-will-rise | 2016-07-17 | 3 |
<p>The Florida pastor tapped to lead the Christian Coalition <a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061124/1069655.asp" type="external">has resigned because he was not able</a> to get the organization to focus on anything aside from abortion and gay marriage.</p>
<p>Buffalo News:</p>
<p>ORLANDO, Fla. - The Florida pastor recently tapped to lead the Christian Coalition of America resigned his position in a dispute about conservative philosophy - more than a month before he was to fully assume his post, he said this week.</p>
<p>The Rev. Joel Hunter, of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Fla., said he quit as president-elect of the group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson because he realized he would be unable to broaden the organization's agenda beyond opposing abortion and same-sex marriage.</p>
<p />
<p>He hoped to include issues such as easing poverty and saving the environment.</p>
<p>"These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about," Hunter said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061124/1069655.asp" type="external">Link</a></p> | Christian Coalition Leader Quits in Doctrine Row | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/christian-coalition-leader-quits-in-doctrine-row/ | 2006-11-24 | 4 |
<p>Stocks ended the day mixed, with comments from the ECB President Mario Draghi somewhat offsetting the recession shocker out of Japan. A small gain on the S&amp;P 500 was enough to send the index into its forty-second record close of the year.</p>
<p>And breaking news on the AIG bailout lawsuit: <a href="" type="internal">FOX Business has learned exclusively</a> why the government attorneys pulled former AIG Chief Hank Greenberg from the witness list. Head to FOXBusiness.com to find out why. Plus, if you're wondering who is likely to win the case, check out what Columbia Law professor John Coffee and Former Federal prosecutor Doug Burns told FBN -- and remember, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were involved in the financial crisis bailout.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It's <a href="" type="internal">all about innovation at SolarCity</a> -- the nation's number one residential social service provider will now offer solar bonds to the every day investor. <a href="" type="internal">SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive joined FBN</a>, making his case for solar bonds.</p>
<p>Here's what you need to watch for tomorrow: We'll get a reading on the housing market with the National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index out at 10 a.m. ET. Plus, temperatures are dropping all across the country -- how are Americans preparing for the harsh winter and possible outages? Don't miss Generac CEO and President Aaron Jagdfeld on FOX Business.</p>
<p>Be sure to check out all of today's interview on <a href="" type="internal">FOXBusiness.com/OnCall</a> and be sure to tune into Countdown to the Closing Bell every week day at 3 p.m. ET.</p> | Claman on Call: Japan Recession Shocker | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/11/17/claman-on-call-japan-recession-shocker.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>Finian Cunningham <a href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/320356-syria-us-troops-shields/" type="external">RT</a></p>
<p>Obama’s decision to send Special Forces into Syria is being widely viewed as a US military escalation in the country. The troop dispatch also signals that the US trying to forestall Russian successes in wiping out Washington’s regime-change assets in Syria.</p>
<p>In short, the US Special Forces are being used as “human shields” to curb Russian air strikes against anti-government mercenaries, many of whom are instrumental in Washington’s regime-change objective in Syria.</p>
<p>First of all, we need to view a host of developments, including the hastily convened “peace talks” in Vienna, as a response by the US and its allies to the game-changing military intervention by Russia. That intervention, beginning on September 30, has not only dealt massive blows to militants, it has completely changed the balance of forces to give the Assad government the upper hand in the war against foreign-backed extremists. That, in turn, has sent the US-led powers trying to topple Damascus into disarray.</p>
<p>Recall the scattered reactions from Washington and its allies, including Britain, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. At first, Washington tried to rubbish Vladimir Putin’s order to aid his Syrian ally with airstrikes as “doomed to fail”.</p>
<p>Then there were overblown, unverified, claims of civilian casualties from Russian strikes, plus there were American claims that Russian cruise missiles had gone wildly astray, hitting Iran. There was also much angst over Russia striking “moderate rebels” instead of the Islamic State terror network. All such accusations, encouraged with Western media amplification, were designed to undermine Russia’s military operation.</p>
<p>Then there were threats from Saudi Arabia and Qatar that they would launch <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/04/russia-bombing-syria-affects-ousting-of-assad#img-2" type="external">direct military action</a> in Syria to “protect” the populace from the joint firepower of Assad and Putin. That idea was quickly shelved (one wonders by whom?).</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Another seeming knee-jerk response came from Turkey and rightwing politicians and pundits in the US which revived talks about the creation of “safe havens” in northern Syria, ostensibly to protect civilian refugees, but also tacitly and more importantly, to give cover to “rebel” groups from Russian air strikes and Syrian government ground troops.</p>
<p>None of these reactions have gained credibility despite Western media hype. On the contrary, it soon became clear that Russia’s military intervention in Syria was a masterstroke by Putin, wiping out large swathes of the anti-government mercenaries, stabilizing the Assad government, and winning much popular support both within Syria and across the Middle East, and indeed around the world.</p>
<p>Last week, America’s top military official, General Joseph F Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-russia-syria-support-20151028-story.html" type="external">told a Senate committee</a> that Russia’s air support had changed everything. “The balance of forces right now are in Assad’s advantage,” he said.</p>
<p>This is the context in which to interpret the latest, surprise move by Obama to send Special Forces into Syria. It is more about inhibiting Russian success in destroying the sundry anti-regime forces on the ground than about either “helping the fight against Islamic State” as claimed, or about misgivings of a large-scale American invasion.</p>
<p>The troop contingent that Obama <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/world/obama-will-send-forces-to-syria-to-help-fight-the-islamic-state.html?emc=edit_th_20151031&amp;nl=todaysheadlines&amp;nlid=65464666" type="external">has ordered</a> amounts to 50 Special Forces personnel. That is hardly going to be a decisive blow to Islamic State militants, even if we believe the official rationale for their deployment.</p>
<p>The White House, in its announcement, was at pains to emphasize that the troops would not be in a combat role and would only be acting to “advise and train” Kurdish fighters and others belonging to the little-known Syrian Arab Coalition.</p>
<p>But here is perhaps the significant part of the story. “The move could potentially put the American troops in the cross hairs of Russia,” reports one outlet. Significantly, too, the Pentagon will not be informing the Russian military of the exact whereabouts of its ground personnel.</p>
<p>That suggests that the real purpose for Obama sending in the troops is to restrict Russian offensive operations by introducing the risk of bombing American forces. In effect, the US Special Forces are being used as human shields to protect American regime-change assets on the ground.</p>
<p>These assets include an array of jihadist mercenary brigades, which the US and its allies have invested billions of dollars in for the objective of regime change in Syria. The misnomer of “moderate rebels” belies abundant evidence that the mercenaries include Al Qaeda-linked terror groups, including Islamic State. CIA supplies of anti-tank TOW missiles as well as Toyota jeeps are just a glimpse of the foreign covert-sponsorship.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Russia’s devastating air campaign over the past month – over 1,600 targets destroyed according to Moscow – has no doubt caused apoplexy in Washington, London, Paris, Ankara, Riyadh and Doha. An urgent stop to their “losses” had to be invoked. But the foreign sponsors can’t say it openly otherwise that gives the game away about their criminal involvement in Syria’s war.</p>
<p>This perspective most likely explains the hastily convened “peace conference” in Vienna. US Secretary of State John Kerry’s <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34663093?ocid=global_bbccom_email_28102015_top+news+stories" type="external">apparent concern</a> to “stop the bloodshed” does not seem credible as the primary motive. Why the concern now after nearly five years of bloodshed?</p>
<p>It is not about a “quest for peace” as <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34673535" type="external">the BBC</a> reported. The move is more credibly about Washington and its allies maneuvering to give their regime-change assets in Syria a reprieve from Russia’s firepower. One of the main points agreed in Vienna this weekend is the implementation of a “nation-wide ceasefire”.</p>
<p>Another indicator of what is really going on are <a href="http://tass.ru/en/world/832207" type="external">reports this week</a> of the large-scale airlifting of jihadist mercenary groups out of Syria. According to senior Syrian army intelligence, up to 500 mercenaries were flown to Yemen onboard Turkish, Qatari and Emirati planes. The fighters were brought to Yemen’s southern city of Aden from where they were dispatched to battle zones inside Yemen by the American-coordinated Saudi coalition. The US-Saudi coalition is waging war in Yemen to reinstall the regime of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi ousted by Houthi rebels earlier this year.</p>
<p>Aden is <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/145e180c-3d04-11e5-8613-07d16aad2152.html#axzz3jXg4lCdQ" type="external">under the military control</a> of Saudi and Emirati forces and Yemen’s airspace has been closed off by the coalition coordinated by US and British military planners based in Saudi capital Riyadh. It is inconceivable that plane loads of jihadists could be flown into southern Yemen without the knowledge of Washington.</p>
<p>So what we are seeing here is a concerted effort by Washington and its allies to stem their covert military losses in Syria. Sending in American Special Forces – a seemingly dramatic U-turn by Obama to put boots on the ground in Syria – is just one part of a wider effort to forestall Russian success in stabilizing Syria. These US forces are not about a “deepening of American involvement in a war [Obama] has tried to avoid”, as the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/world/obama-will-send-forces-to-syria-to-help-fight-the-islamic-state.html?emc=edit_th_20151031&amp;nl=todaysheadlines&amp;nlid=65464666" type="external">some</a>&#160;would have us believe. They are being sent in to act as human shields against Russian airstrikes.</p>
<p>The putative ceasefire under a so-called peace process is another element of the US-led salvage operation. The real agenda is about giving Western, Turk and Arab-sponsored jihadists a space to regroup, and if needs be flown out of the Syrian theatre to resume their imperialist function in Yemen and, no doubt, elsewhere when required.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/320356-syria-us-troops-shields/" type="external">The article originally appeared on RT.com</a></p>
<p>READ MORE ON THE SYRIAN CRISIS: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Syria Files</a></p> | US Special Forces Deployed as ‘Human Shields’ to Salvage Terror Assets in Syria | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/11/05/us-special-forces-deployed-as-human-shields-to-salvage-terror-assets-in-syria/ | 2015-11-05 | 4 |
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<p>The Grants High School student told KOAT-TV that she miscarried outside a band class last week and was unable to get any help since she was tardy to class and a teacher ignored her. The teen told the station that after the teacher refused to let her into the class, she made her way to a bathroom and passed out.</p>
<p>However, Grants-Cibola County School Superintendent Kilino Marquez told The Associated Press that school officials believe that the student didn’t have a miscarriage on campus last week and instead was experiencing medical problems related to a miscarriage a week before.</p>
<p>“She also was given permission to see a nurse before the band class but then disappeared for 20 minutes and didn’t go to the nurse’s office,” Marquez told the AP. “So there are 20 minutes that are unaccounted. That’s disturbing.”</p>
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<p>The teen, who was reportedly three months pregnant, said she sent a text message to a friend in the band class who came to her aid.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t sure of what was going to happen, and I didn’t know when somebody would get me because we have a no-cellphone policy,” the student told the station.</p>
<p>The teacher ordered students not to let the student in the classroom and said she could go to in-school suspension, said student Ronnie Martin, who was in the class at the time. “(The teacher) goes, ‘No, she’s late. She can go to in-school suspension. She’ll get the point.'”</p>
<p>The student acknowledged she passed her placenta that day but said she also miscarried.</p>
<p>Marquez said school officials are investigating. The student refused the ambulance they called for her when they realized she needed medical attention, he said.</p>
<p>“Our concern was her safety,” Marquez said. “In the 10 years that I’ve been superintendent, this is the first concern that I’ve had regarding our band teacher at Grants High School.”</p>
<p>The student said she hadn’t been at school since Monday because she felt uncomfortable about questions from staff.</p>
<p>Officials at the western New Mexico school district said the band teacher is still teaching while the investigation is ongoing.</p>
<p>The band teacher didn’t know about the medical issues but probably should have unlocked the door for her, Marquez said. — This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Teen claims she had miscarriage, teacher ignored her | false | https://abqjournal.com/192707/teen-claims-she-had-miscarriage-teacher-ignored-her.html | 2013-04-26 | 2 |
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<p>It’s hard to improve on <a href="http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2006/01/patience.html" type="external">this point</a> about the Jack Abramoff scandals by Jeanne of Body and Soul:</p>
<p>Yesterday <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/04/1524256" type="external">Amy Goodman interviewed Brian Ross</a> about his 1998 story on Tom Delay’s fight to continue horrible labor conditions and forced abortions on U.S. soil in Saipan. The current news hook, of course, is that Delay got interested in Saipan when Jack Abramoff arranged a nice trip there for him.</p>
<p>I’m glad the corporate media is covering the corruption, but I wish there was more emphasis on what these inducements were in support of. But then that’s why we call it corporate media, isn’t it? A little scandal here and there can be fun to cover, but look into the effect of all this on people’s lives? Not powerful people’s careers and ambitions, but ordinary people’s lives? That Ross covered the story in ’98 proves it can be done. But it’s never part of the big juicy stories.</p>
<p>Right, right. The corruption and the process gets all the coverage, but ultimately the end result matters most. It’s not like DeLay was taking a bit of money to do something that was good for the world—calling attention to the plight of the ongoing mess in the Congo at the behest of Congolese lobbyists, say. (Or whatever; it’s just an example.) He was blocking legislation in Congress that would have prevented corporations from contracting with sweatshops in Saipan. He was trying to preserve what were essentially forced labor camps. All for a few bucks and a nice little trip abroad.</p> | What Abramoff Bought | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/01/what-abramoff-bought/ | 2006-01-06 | 4 |
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<p>Beijing’s new outreach comes as the U.S. turns inward under President Donald Trump, who has set aside traditional U.S. advocacy of democracy and human rights in favor of an “America first” approach that has seen Washington withdraw from key forums from the Paris climate agreement to negotiations on a U.N. migration compact.</p>
<p>The “South-South Human Rights Forum,” drawing some 300 participants from over 50 mostly developing countries, follows a conference of political parties last weekend in Beijing also attended by hundreds of delegates, some of whom sung the praises of Communist Party rule. The gathering also comes on the heels of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress in October, at which Xi declared that China now stood “tall and firm in the east” and had entered a new era seeing China “moving closer to center stage and making greater contributions to mankind.”</p>
<p>Addressing Thursday’s opening session, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the party congress had “identified the goal of forging a new field in international relations and building a community of shared future for mankind.”</p>
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<p>“This is China’s answer to the question of where human society is heading, and it has also presented opportunities for the development of the human rights cause,” Wang said.</p>
<p>China’s growing confidence on issues like human rights is related to broader global trends, said William Nee, an Amnesty International researcher on China. “Obviously we’ve seen the Trump administration deprioritize human rights, we’ve seen issues like Brexit, and China is kind of stepping in the field and void,” he said.</p>
<p>“The Western liberal bastion is crumbling and China sees this an ideal moment to strengthen its own normative power,” said Jonathan Holslag, a professor of international politics at the Free University of Brussels.</p>
<p>Participants at the Beijing forum were mostly government officials, diplomats and academics from developing nations, along with representatives from the United Nations, the Arab League, the African Union, the World Bank and the World Health Organization. Absent were representatives of NGOs working in the field of civil and political rights such as Amnesty, Human Rights Watch or Reporters Without Borders.</p>
<p>China has long rejected traditional notions of human rights as defined by the Universal Declaration and Western constitutions, redefining the concept along the more prosaic lines of the right to development, health, nutrition and housing.</p>
<p>Speakers at the forum kept their comments strictly within those parameters.</p>
<p>Citing falling poverty rates and rising life expectancy, Tom Zwart of Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit told participants China had “entered a new era of human rights.”</p>
<p>“China has started to play a bigger role in building a just and harmonious international order that also includes the international human rights system,” Zwart said.</p>
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<p>Saad Alfaragi, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to development, noted that 800 million people globally still live in abject poverty.</p>
<p>“South-South cooperation has multiplied opportunities for development cooperation … on different terms from traditional development cooperation,” Alfaragi said in his address.</p>
<p>The forum’s use of the “South-South” designation is a throwback to the Cold War-era concept of developing nations cooperating among themselves, independent of either the U.S.-led West or the Soviet bloc.</p>
<p>Yet, while it still calls itself the world’s largest developing nation, China is increasingly casting itself in the role of rising superpower, retiring its past strategy of “hiding and biding” until it was ready.</p>
<p>Analysts and Western diplomats remain divided on whether China is actively seeking to upend the international order or merely making the best use of the circumstances to advance its own interests.</p>
<p>In his address to last weekend’s political party forum, Xi offered China’s experience as an alternative for others to study or emulate, while taking care to avoid the appearance of coercion. “We don’t import models from other countries, neither do we export the Chinese model. We will never place demands on other countries to copy the way China does things,” said Xi, who sent a congratulatory letter but did not address Thursday’s opening ceremony.</p>
<p>The renewed international outreach comes at a time when Chinese authorities are overseeing the most severe crackdown on activists and dissidents in decades, drawing criticism from Western governments.</p>
<p>“Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, these are things that have come under severe constraints in China recent years,” Nee said.</p>
<p>The city of Beijing has also been criticized domestically over the evictions of tens of thousands of Chinese migrant workers over recent weeks. Officials say they’re addressing safety hazards after a fire killed 19 people, but the efforts have drawn attention to unfairness in a system that controls where people may live and denies rural Chinese migrants access to education, housing and medical subsidies granted to residents of the wealthier cities.</p>
<p>Recent years have also seen the party advocate a wholesale rejection of “universal values” as merely a weapon to undermine China’s socialist system. Universities have been told to drive such concepts from the classrooms and writers and scholars who argue otherwise can find themselves shunned and unemployed.</p>
<p>The ideological push dovetails with China’s economic strategy of outward expansion, spearheaded by Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative that seeks to bind China to the rest of Asia, Europe and Africa through a trillion-dollar development of ports, roads, railways, power stations and other massive projects funded by Chinese loans.</p>
<p>Levels of development figure prominently in how countries prioritize human rights, said Brantly Womack, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Virginia. Although China is the world’s second largest economy, living standards remain low for the majority and millions remain mired in poverty.</p>
<p>Along with many developing nations, China puts heavy stress on the unfairness of global inequality and the right of the majority to sustain and improve itself materially, Womack said.</p>
<p>“Regardless of China’s active promotion of itself as a model, its success would attract the attention of countries facing similar problems. And China’s willingness to provide funding for infrastructural transformation certainly provides an additional incentive,” Womack said.</p> | China hosts global forum featuring own take on human rights | false | https://abqjournal.com/1103263/china-hosts-global-forum-featuring-own-take-on-human-rights.html | 2017-12-06 | 2 |
<p>Nathaniel Hoffman never set out to write a love story. But his new book <a href="http://amorandexile.com/" type="external">“Amor &amp; Exile”</a>is just that. It chronicles married couples who share a trait — one spouse is American, the other is an undocumented immigrant.&#160;</p>
<p>One couple in the book is Juan and Veronica. Hoffman met Veronica, a nurses’ aide, at a rally in Idaho.</p>
<p>“And she stood up with a sonogram picture that she’d gotten that day and said that her fiancé was behind bars, and she didn’t know if she’d see him again,” says Hoffman.</p>
<p>The next day, the couple got married. “She was able to visit, and they had a pastor come and do a ceremony through the bars of the Ada county jail,” says Hoffman.</p>
<p>Veronica’s husband was then deported to Mexico. She stayed in Idaho with their two daughters. &#160;</p>
<p>Couples like Veronica and Juan have the right to get married. And US citizens have the right to sponsor undocumented spouses to live in the US.</p>
<p>“But in order for that to be carried through, they have to leave the country, which triggers some kind of ban from coming back,” says Hoffman.</p>
<p>It can happen like this: If undocumented immigrants marrying US citizens want to legalize their status here, they typically have to go back to their home countries to start the process. It means they must come clean to US officials that they entered America illegally. And that can trigger the bad news: a 1996 law that bans immigrants — who’ve crossed over illegally — from re-entering the US for 5, 10, 20 years, or even permanently. It depends on the number of offenses.</p>
<p>The law was designed to discourage people from entering the US illegally.</p>
<p>It can even separate newly-married couples. And, for some of them, the only alternative to living apart is to leave the US entirely.</p>
<p>“We had a going away party at a friend’s house, it was very sad,” said Nicole Salgado, a US citizen who left California for Mexico seven years ago. &#160;She now lives in Querétaro, a state in central Mexico. &#160;</p>
<p>Salgado is an Ivy League grad, from a working class suburb of Syracuse, New York. Her husband, Margo Reséndiz, is Mexican. He moved to California without papers to work in construction. The couple found it tough to build a life together in California. &#160;</p>
<p>“We were just really concerned that Margo could get pulled over and [detained] at any time. We were really sort of playing a risky game staying there,” says Salgado. "Margo really wanted to build a house. It wasn’t looking very realistic for us to buy a home either, because he had to co-sign and he didn’t have papers.”</p>
<p>The couple is now in year 7 of a 10-year exile. Nicole and their daughter can travel to the US freely — just not Margo. He’s serving his punishment for crossing the border illegally when he was a young man, hidden in the trunk of a car.&#160; Immigration officers told Margo he’d face a 10-year ban if he tried again. He did anyway.</p>
<p>Some undocumented immigrants can get the ban waived. But not Margo, because he entered illegally more than once.</p>
<p>Salgado co-wrote the book “Amor &amp; Exile” from Querétaro. The chapters flip between Nathaniel Hoffman’s reporting from Idaho and Salgado’s first-person story of her self-imposed exile.&#160;</p>
<p>“I think I was sort of socially isolated for a while, maybe the first year, couple of years,” says Salgado, who also says the adjustment got easier over time.&#160;</p>
<p>I asked Salgado if they’d apply to return to the US in three years when the 10-year ban against Margo expires.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s a really hard choice and I get asked it all the time,” she says.</p>
<p>“The thing I think of constantly is I just would love the choice. Obviously, we have our home here now that we’ve built, we have friends, we have a social circle. But the economic situation is very tenuous, because [we’re] just not making it on a Mexico income.”</p>
<p>Salgado realizes that her husband broke the law when he crossed the border twice, illegally. But she doesn’t think the current law is a just one.</p>
<p>“I have to say I think it’s draconian,” says Salgado. “I mean I understand the need for rule of law, order, an orderly immigration system. But I also do feel like it’s quite a bit of time to serve for a civil infraction. It seems like the punishment should fit the crime.”</p>
<p>The plight of married couples like Salgado has flown under the radar during the immigration debate. Recently, Salgado and her co-author Nathanial Hoffman went to Washington. They rolled a dolly stacked with their new book through the halls of the US Capitol handing out copies to lawmakers. &#160;</p>
<p>Salgado hopes Congress will consider the case of exiled Americans like her. If not, she’s got a date circled on her calendar — in September of 2016. That’s when her husband can apply to come back to the US with her.*</p>
<p>*Updated: A previous version of this story stated that Nicole Salgado marked September of 2016 as when her husband could return to the US with her. In September of 2016, Salgado's husband can apply to return to the US. We regret the error.</p> | American citizens, in love and in exile, are waiting for immigration reform | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-22/american-citizens-love-and-exile-are-waiting-immigration-reform | 2013-10-22 | 3 |
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<p>Rarely is that path set in stone, as shorter or better paths may present themselves. But you do have to have a plan.</p>
<p>The Santolina Level A Master Plan is one such plan. Like all plans, the Santolina Level A plan will require further refinement in order to meet changing conditions and future concerns.</p>
<p>Common concerns raised at the 13 public meetings held on the Santolina plan are: water use, sprawl/traffic congestion, public financing and jobs-to-housing ratio. While each is legitimate, it's important to remember that the Level A plan is but the first step on a journey, not the end of the line.</p>
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<p>Approval would not grant the developer permission to begin building. It would simply define where commercial, retail, residential, open space, schools, roads and other infrastructure would be placed should market demand meet projected growth.</p>
<p>Prior to any development and the issuance of permits, the landowner would need additional approval and the further refinement in a Level B or C plan. Each would have to go through the same public process and answer many of the same questions.</p>
<p>There's been a lot said about public financing or TIDDs (tax increment development districts). The truth is the Level A plan under consideration does not include any form of public financing or TIDD. Further, approval of the Level A plan does not make it any more or less likely that the developers would receive a TIDD, nor does rejection guarantee that the developers couldn't receive a TIDD sometime in the future.</p>
<p>The specter of a TIDD is primarily a distraction used to whip up opposition to the project and is not a meaningful part of what is a land use discussion.</p>
<p>Lack of jobs on the West Side has been a chronic problem. Unlike previous developments that focused primarily on housing, Santolina dedicates land for large-scale businesses - not just homes - and sets a goal of two jobs for every home. Granted, the goal of two jobs per home may never be reached, but even if half of the goal is achieved, Santolina will have almost twice the current jobs-to-housing ratio that currently exists on the West Side.</p>
<p>The first step in creating jobs is having the space for them. Santolina has that space.</p>
<p>There are those who believe that the only kind of "good development" is in-fill development. While there is a place for in-fill and parts of the city and county would benefit, in-fill development is not the only kind of beneficial development.</p>
<p>As currently zoned, the land that comprises Santolina can be developed. Simply put, there could be almost 14,000 homes - each with its own well and septic system.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If you're concerned about water and sprawl, the Santolina Master Plan provides a more attractive alternative to piecemeal development.</p>
<p>The plan describes necessary infrastructure for a traffic system that minimizes congestion and for a water/wastewater system that the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority maintains it can support.</p>
<p>And if metro area growth meets projections, the question will be where water is consumed not if it will be consumed.</p>
<p>It's said when you have the facts argue the facts. When you have the law argue the law. If you don't have either, argue the process.</p>
<p>The county's review process has been extensive. While the process could have been less confusing, there have been 13 public meetings with at least one to go and countless hours of staff work over almost two years.</p>
<p>To say that we are proceeding without ample public input is simply not accurate. And those councilors and board members who would weigh in on a county land-use decision are and would be doing so without the benefit of hearing all sides.</p>
<p>The county commission must decide whether or not to allow a landowner to put their property to what they believe is its highest and best use. Thus far, opponents have not provided an alternative - they've just said no.</p>
<p>Passion and an intense desire to stop new development in Bernalillo County simply aren't enough for the commission to deny a property owner his or her property rights regardless of who that owner might be.</p>
<p /> | Santolina proposal has shown merit | false | https://abqjournal.com/598384/santolina-proposal-has-shown-merit.html | 2 |
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<p>Santa Fe Prep’s William Lenfestey, left, charges into St. Michael’s Kenny Tapia (33) during Capital City Invitational. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>In opening-round action of the Capital City Invitational, Hobbs proves to be the team to beat, St. Michael’s fends of Santa Fe Prep, and Capital and Gadsden each cruise to the semifinals of the 53rd annual event at Santa Fe High. Meanwhile, on the girls side, Santa Fe and Centennial will meet in today’s semis, along with St. Michael’s and Belen on the other side of the bracket.</p>
<p>ST. MICHAEL’S 47, SANTA FE PREP 37: The Class 2A Blue Griffins have been wreaking havoc against opposing schools big and small this season. And while SFP (6-3) led by as many as seven points in the opening period, it was no match for perennial 3A powerhouse St. Mike’s (2-0).</p>
<p>Bradley Vaughan led the way with 13 points and Chris Lovato followed with 10 as St. Mike’s caught SFP in the second period and didn’t let up en route to a double-digit win.</p>
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<p>“We started off good – we were even good finishing out the half – focusing on their big guys (Isaiah) Dominguez and (Justin) Flores, but their outside guards hurt us with the 3-point shooting,” SFP coach Dennis Casados said.</p>
<p>While Flores, who was in foul trouble for much of the contest, and Flores combined for just four points, the Horsemen’s supporting cast racked up eight 3-pointers in all, including three in the second half by Lovato.</p>
<p>“Justin had a career game the other night – 25 points and nine or 10 rebounds – and tonight … things just didn’t bounce his way scoring-wise,” St. Mike’s coach Ron Geyer said. “But a mark of a good team is other guys stepping up.”</p>
<p>St. Michael’s Kenny Tapia, left, moves to the basket while being defended by Sante Fe Prep’s Tenzin Dorjee (25) and Ben Perillo. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>And another mark of a good team, Geyer added, is a short memory. “The other night we were 3-for-14 from the 3-point line, so tonight was much better,” he said.</p>
<p>Lovato’s consecutive 3-pointers with 3:33 left in the contest gave the Horsemen their largest lead of the game at 46-34. Meanwhile, the Blue Griffins struggled from the field, hitting just 15 of 45, including going 7-for-22 in the second half. SFP was led in scoring by Ian Andersson with 12 points.</p>
<p>GADSDEN 39, SANTA FE 29: Rafa Martinez dropped 14 points on the Demonettes to help the undefeated Panthers improve to 10-0 on the season.</p>
<p>Gadsden also spoiled the return of Demons post Hayden Hargrove, who received stitches last week during a tournament at Capital High. Gadsden’s big men kept the 6-4 junior in check, limiting him to just one point on the night. Meanwhile, Keanyn Evans picked up the offensive slack for Santa Fe with 11 points. He was the only Demon to score in double figures.</p>
<p>“We’re not the only team they held under 30 (points) – they got some good size all around and good quickness,” Santa Fe coach David Rodriguez. “… We struggled putting the ball in the hoop, and I give them credit.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Santa Fe closed to within four points near the end of the third period, at 25-21, but that would be as close as it could get.</p>
<p>The Demons (0-6) continue on their quest for their first win of the season when they face the Blue Griffins in the opening consolation round today, at 12:30 p.m. The game is a rematch of last week’s contest at Capital High. SFP leads the series 1-0 after the 69-59 win.</p>
<p>St. Michael’s Bradley Vaughan (24) looks for help as he drives by Santa Fe Prep’s Francis Castillo Mulert (3). (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>HOBBS 100, DEMING 85: In a matchup fit for a tournament championship game, the Eagles and Wildcats went shot-for-shot in the highest-scoring contest in opening-round action. And when the dust settled, Hobbs – behind five scorers in double figures – advanced to the championship round.</p>
<p>Hobbs rallied from a 47-45 halftime deficit, outscoring Deming 53-40 in the second half to improve to 7-0 on the season. Gabriel Jurado led the way with 20 points. Jordan Chavarria had 17, Cayson Meredith 15, Devante Brown 14 and Trey Nelson 13 in the winning effort.</p>
<p>The Wildcats also finished with five scorers in double figures, led by Dominic Saenz with 23. Carlos Wilson finished with 16 points, Victor Garcia had 13, Andres Villa 12 and Alec Parra 10. Deming (4-2) drops into the consolation round where it will face the Santa Fe junior varsity, at 9:30 a.m.</p>
<p>CAPITAL 68, SANTA FE JV 21: Sergio Baray scored nine of his 21 points in the opening period, as the Jaguars cruised into the tourney semis after the rout of the Demons’ JV. The Santa Fe JV stayed within 30-19 of Capital at halftime but was outscored 38-12 the rest of the way. With the win, the Jaguars improve to 3-3 on the season.</p>
<p>Vito Coppola led the baby Demons with nine points.</p>
<p>Santa Fe High’s Kayla Herrera lines up a free throw during a tournament game against Robertson on Thursday. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>GIRLS</p>
<p>SANTA FE 77, ROBERTSON 44: Elmer Chavez may have three of the best players in 4A in Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage , Jackie Martinez and Kayla Herrera . But the Demonette coach knows that he’ll need more than his big three if he wants to improve upon last season’s state semifinal appearance.</p>
<p>Enter: Andrea Gonzales.</p>
<p>The 5-foot-11 senior came off the bench to lead Santa Fe (6-1) in scoring with 17 points, and Chavez is hoping that this is just the beginning.</p>
<p>“It’s Andrea Gonzales’ birthday today and she went off,” Chavez said. “… We also had a chance to play everyone tonight, so things are looking good – we’re starting to get into shape and we’re starting to get in our groove.”</p>
<p>The Demonettes led 49-17 at the half, giving Gonzales and the entire Santa Fe bench ample opportunities to shine. And along with Gonzales’ 17 points, Santa Fe’s bench contributed 24 points, while Herrera had 15 and Lozada-Cabbage 14. For the Cardinals (0-1), Abbey Bradley and Amber Yara were the team’s high scorers with 13 points apiece.</p>
<p>ST. MICHAEL’S 52, SANTA FE JV 21: As expected, the Lady Horsemen jumped on the baby Demonettes early and only let up when the game was firmly in hand.</p>
<p>Alexandra Groenewold led the way with 14 points and Briona Vigil had 10 during a contest in which St. Mike’s (3-2) led 14-0 after the opening period and 24-4 at the half. The Lady Horsemen have some stiff competition today when they take on the undefeated Class 4A Belen Eagles.</p>
<p>Santa Fe High’s Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage, center, attempts to shoot over Robertson’s Abbey Bradley, left, and Alice Arguello. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>BELEN 54, WEST LAS VEGAS 37: The Lady Dons simply had no answers for Eagles Mariah Forde. The Belen junior dropped nine points on WLV (3-2) in the opening period to finish with 26 points. The Eagles (4-0) led 17-10 after the opening period and built on their lead after each period, en route to the 14-point win.</p>
<p>The Lady Dons will face the Santa Fe junior varsity in the opening consolation round, at 8 a.m.</p>
<p>CENTENNIAL 62, CAPITAL 35: The Jaguars (0-6) were simply overwhelmed by a balanced Hawk attack, which featured 10 of 13 players recording a basket.</p>
<p>Rylee Meloy was the game’s lone scorer in double figures. The Centennial freshman finished with 13 points.</p>
<p>The Jaguars will face Robertson in the opening consolation round, 11 a.m.</p>
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<p /> | Action galore in annual Capital City Invite | false | https://abqjournal.com/319318/action-galore-in-annual-capital-city-invite.html | 2 |
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<p>James Woods didn’t fail to spot the hypocrisy in the reported increase of security at Jimmy Kimmel‘s shows.</p>
<p>The late night television host has apparently beefed up security at tapings of his show since his recent political rants have reaped some consequences.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/02/jimmy-kimmel-increases-security-at-show-due-to-trump-supporters/?utm_term=Autofeed&amp;utm_campaign=Echobox&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1506962420" type="external">According</a> to the Mercury News, “Ever since the late-night show host began crusading against the effort by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there have been “incidents with Trump supporters” that have forced him to increase security at his show tapings.”</p>
<p>This prompted just one question from conservative actor James Woods.</p>
<p>Sources close “Jimmy Kimmel Live” <a href="https://theblast.com/jimmy-kimmel-security/" type="external">told</a> the website The Blast that the show has increased personnel consisting of&#160;highly-trained, off-duty police officers at both the front and back entrances of the studio.</p>
<p>And while many wouldn’t question security personnel carrying weapons in order to perform their duties, the fact that Kimmel unloaded a tear-filled lecture Monday following the Las Vegas massacre highlighted the double standard regularly used by liberals.</p>
<p>Following the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history that left 58 concert goers dead and over 500 injured, Kimmel&#160;said Republican lawmakers, “should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Leaked graphic photos from inside killer’s hotel room show cache of weapons, body on floor, possible note</a></p>
<p>His remarks sparked backlash as the late-night host used his television platform to pontificate about gun rights while conveniently not revealing his own increased security measures. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro condemned Kimmel’s comments and said he “should not be cheered for what he did.”</p>
<p>Kimmel’s <a href="" type="internal">push to save Obamacare</a> and blast the Senate’s attempt at a repeal with the&#160;Republican Graham-Cassidy bill may have ended up alienating some of the show’s more conservative viewers, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/10/01/jimmy-kimmel-ratings-trumpcare/" type="external">according</a> to Salon which noted that Kimmel fans were split with&#160;34 percent Democrat and 33 percent Republican viewers.</p>
<p>According to Salon:</p>
<p>In this, Kimmel may have also alienated some of his conservative viewers in the process. President Trump’s supporters enjoy mocking liberal safe spaces, but when a public person ridicules or critiques the current commander in chief, they often cry foul and boycott the messenger. Their flight may have already begun. “Jimmy Kimmel Live” had 2.04 million viewers last week during the heart of his health care fight, a 5 percent drop from his average. For the show’s future, it’s more than appreciable.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>When it comes to gun rights, Kimmel apparently follows a “do as I say, not do as I do” approach which Woods drew attention to in his tweet.</p>
<p>Others on Twitter seem to agree.</p>
<p>Wake up right! Receive our free morning news blast&#160; <a href="" type="internal">HERE</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Mystery hero who shielded woman in Las Vegas revealed, went back to save more strangers as bullets flew</a></p> | James Woods has one stinging question for Jimmy Kimmel after report of ramped up security | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2017/10/05/james-woods-one-stinging-question-jimmy-kimmel-report-ramped-security-544668 | 2017-10-05 | 0 |
<p>It’s mid-October, and the Wall Street bailout that was supposed to save the economy from collapse is a flop.</p>
<p>Only two weeks ago, the media hype behind the $700 billion bailout was so intense that it sometimes verged on hysteria. More recent events should not be allowed to obscure the reality that the news media played a pivotal role in stampeding the country into a bailout that was unwise and unjust.</p>
<p>Exceptions in the news coverage underscore the fact that other perspectives were readily available when the Bush administration began pushing its bailout proposal in late September. “Many of the nation’s brightest economic minds are warning that if the Wall Street bailout passes, it would be a dangerous rush job,” McClatchy Newspapers reported on Sept. 26. For instance, economist James K. Galbraith called the warnings of economic disaster in the absence of a swift bailout “more hype than real risk.” He added: “A nasty recession is possible, but the bailout will not cure that.”</p>
<p>When the House of Representatives rejected the bailout on Sept. 29, all media hell broke loose. During the next few days, journalists and selected sources took turns decrying the failure of House naysayers to recognize the urgency of the moment. The nation’s economy was at stake, and craven ideologues on Capitol Hill were dithering around!</p>
<p>Countless editorials and pundits castigated the House members who had voted no. The condemners spanned the mainline media spectrum; liberals, moderates and conservatives excoriated the House and called for a swift reversal.</p>
<p>Senate passage came on Thursday, Oct. 2, and the next day a chastened House approved a revised version. That Friday afternoon, President Bush signed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout into law.</p>
<p>Despite all the media hype about how the bailout measure would quickly steady the stock market, it fell and kept falling. Over the next week, ending Oct. 10, the Dow made history as stocks plunged by 18 percent in five trading days.</p>
<p>And what about the ostensible main reason for the humongous bailout in the first place — unfreezing the credit markets? Well, in spite of the enormous media outcry for the bailout to get credit flowing, it didn’t. And the key economic factor in the recession — housing — remained just as stuck as before.</p>
<p>At the Center for Economic and Policy Research, on Oct. 1 — two days before the House caved — economist Dean Baker addressed a pivotal flaw in the spin. “It would be foolish to issue a mortgage loan without a very substantial down payment, since the expected decline in house prices will quickly destroy much or all of the equity held by the homeowner,” he wrote. “In other words, it is the drop in house prices that is causing banks to demand 20 percent down payments in many markets, not their lack of capital. This situation will only be changed by a government house-price support program. Improving the financial conditions of banks will make little difference.”</p>
<p>But the media storyline required — in fact, demanded — that committing many billions of dollars to the “rescue” was the essential step to be taken from Capitol Hill.</p>
<p>After the House initially balked at approving the Wall Street bailout on Sept. 29, the range of New York Times op-ed columnists took turns with the denunciation chores. None was more bitterly caustic than David Brooks. On Sept. 30, under the headline “Revolt of the Nihilists,” he denounced the noncompliant House members for failing to heed “the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed.”</p>
<p>A week later, on Oct. 7, when Brooks wrote a follow-up column, the bailout had been law for several days. But the stock market was plunging faster than ever, and the credit crunch was unabated. “At these moments, central bankers and Treasury officials leap in to try to make the traders feel better,” Brooks wrote. “Officials pretend they’re coming up with policy responses, but much of what they do is political theater.”</p>
<p>Now he tells us.</p>
<p>Before the bailout gained approval on Capitol Hill, the media narrative was dangling the prospects of immediate results. But afterwards, there were none.</p>
<p>“Global markets have so far given thumbs down to the giant $700 billion bailout plan,” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said in an Oct. 8 public-radio commentary, five days after the bailout had become law. “The easy answer to why the bailout hasn’t worked is it hasn’t been implemented yet. But its purpose was largely psychological — to boost confidence that the government is doing something big to clear out bad debts that have been clogging the system. That psychological boost should have happened as soon as the bailout was enacted. Yet no one seems to believe that $700 billion will make much difference.”</p>
<p>On Oct. 12, the lead story on the New York Times front page wondered aloud “whether the administration squandered valuable time in trying to sell Congress on a plan that officials had failed to think through in advance.”</p>
<p>The Times now tells us that the much-hyped bailout plans to “buy distressed assets” will be diminished in favor of a “capital infusion program for banks.” But what hasn’t changed with the $700 billion planning is a basic approach for trickle-down instead of trickle-up.</p>
<p>As the Institute for Policy Studies pointed out on Oct. 1, “A real ‘bailout’ would target the troubled households of working American families. A $200 billion ‘Main Street Stimulus Package’ could bolster the real economy and those left vulnerable by the subprime mortgage meltdown.”</p>
<p>Components of such a stimulus package could include “a $130 billion annual investment in renewable energy to stimulate good jobs anchored in local economies and reduce our dependency on oil” — and “a $50 billion outlay to help keep people in foreclosed homes through refinancing and creating new homeownership and housing opportunities” — and “a $20 billion aid package to states to address the squeeze on state and local government services that declining tax revenues are now forcing.” But that kind of discourse for grassroots economic stimulus hasn’t gotten into the media storyline this fall.</p>
<p>It’s now being revised with quite a bit of backspin. But the media storyline for justifying the Wall Street bailout was great while it lasted. And it lasted long enough to stampede Congress into approving a massive jolt of taxpayer money to redistribute wealth upwards in the United States.</p>
<p>NORMAN SOLOMON is the author of “War Made Easy.”</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Requiem for the Bailout | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/10/13/requiem-for-the-bailout/ | 2008-10-13 | 4 |
<p>Former World War II gunner Howard Banks has had enough of punks messing with his American flag.</p>
<p>The 92-year-old was prepared to take matters into his own hands recently when he heard someone outside his Kaufman, Texas home taking down his flag on July 10, the day before his birthday, <a href="http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/07/22/blind-veteran-injured-protecting-american-flag/" type="external">CBS DFW</a> reports.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the first time vandals have terrorized the old man. About a year ago, someone shredded his American flag and ripped up his U.S. Marine Corps flag and threw it in a ditch.</p>
<p>“I walked out, hanging onto the railing and stepped down,” Banks said of the most recent incident. “That must’ve startled them.”</p>
<p>Banks is legally blind, so he couldn’t see who was messing with the flagpole in his front yard, but whoever it was ambushed the veteran and shoved him to the ground, <a href="http://www.fox4news.com/news/269373919-story" type="external">Fox 4</a> reports.</p>
<p>“They could see me. I couldn’t see them,” Banks said. “I turned and looked in the other direction, and about then – ‘wham!’ they knocked me down.”</p>
<p>The vandals left Banks to fend for himself and he laid on the ground with minor injuries until neighbors found him and helped him up. Banks said the culprits didn’t get to the flags, but they did trash a “God Bless All Police” sign in his yard.</p>
<p>Banks told police he heard more than one person running away, but could not provide a description.</p>
<p>“We are doing everything in our power to find the suspects that committed this cowardly assault and bring them to justice,” Kaufman Police officials said in a statement. This gentleman is a hero to our officer and they city’s residents should be extremely proud to have him as part of our community.”</p>
<p>Banks told Fox 4 he’d prefer to punish the punks himself.</p>
<p>“If there’s any way to catch them and was able to do so, I’d like to whoop them good with my crutch,” he said.</p>
<p>Banks said he sustained minor injuries, but it was nothing compared to the Battle of Iwo Jima.</p>
<p>“My knee is a little twisted. On this forearm, it’s kind of sore and rough,” he said, according to <a href="http://abc13.com/news/92-year-old-veteran-attacked-trying-to-protect-flags/2245475/" type="external">KTRK</a>.</p>
<p>“I’ve still got soreness here, but I’m durable,” Banks said. “I can take it.”</p>
<p>The incident, he said, certainly won’t deter him from honoring the veterans and police who keep Americans safe.</p>
<p>“It’s the one thing I can cling to,” Banks told Fox 4. “Yet at my capacity, there’s not much I can do. But I can honor our flag.”</p>
<p>Banks said it’s an honor he takes very seriously.</p>
<p>“I try to salute my flag every morning,” he said. “I come out, hold on to my railing and salute my flag.”</p> | Blind 92-year-old WWII vet attacked while defending American flag outside home | true | http://theamericanmirror.com/blind-92-year-old-wwii-vet-attacked-defending-american-flag-outside-home/ | 2017-07-24 | 0 |
<p>Boston Herald | Boston Globe | Media Nation The Boston Herald has asked a judge to throw out a libel verdict that Judge Ernest B. Murphy won last February, claiming Murphy subsequently tried to "bully the Herald" into abandoning its rights to appeal. Herald lawyers say Murphy sent threatening letters to Herald publisher Patrick J. Purcell after the verdict. One letter said: "So here’s the deal. I’d like to meet with you at the Union Club on Monday, March 7. ...You will bring to that meeting a cashier’s check, payable to me, in the sum of $3,260,000. No check, no meeting." (Related Globe <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/21/herald_fights_2m_libel_verdict/" type="external">story</a> and Dan Kennedy <a href="http://medianation.blogspot.com/2005/12/parsing-murphy-letters.html" type="external">comment</a>.)</p> | Boston Herald asks judge to toss $2M verdict, cites bullying | false | https://poynter.org/news/boston-herald-asks-judge-toss-2m-verdict-cites-bullying | 2005-12-21 | 2 |
<p>In San Francisco, a bus project over a decade in the making finally receives its massive environmental impact report. In Los Angeles, the mayor announces his first executive directive, launching a “Great Streets” program. It’s a tale of two cities — and two visions of the future of urban planning.</p>
<p>In both San Francisco and L.A., the political leadership harbors a strong interest in moving away from car-first living and working. The similarities and differences between the two cities, however, have set up an important contrast between the policies officeholders wish to use to get there.</p>
<p>Public transportation is already central for many&#160;San Franciscans; Angelenos typically rely far more on automobiles. San Francisco is notoriously dense; L.A., famously <a href="http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/04/los_angeles_is_the_biggest_antisprawl_success_story_in_the_us.php" type="external">sprawling</a>. Partly because of those different growth patterns, and partly because of tradition, although San Francisco neighborhoods have their own distinct identity, L.A.’s neighborhoods are bigger, more autonomous, and more self-contained. Residents often choose&#160;to spend much&#160;of their time near their homes, not&#160;shuttling from one side of town to the other unless their work requires it.</p>
<p>Los Angeles, in other words, is relatively distinct among America’s largest cities. Rather than an industrial-age city planned out block by block, constrained by geography, contemporary L.A. is a&#160;post-modern patchwork — a veritable&#160;network of <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2014/24_1_los-angeles.html" type="external">villages</a> that lacks a single core where residents routinely cluster on foot.</p>
<p>That’s why many have taken notice of&#160;Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “Great Streets” initiative, which is billed specifically as a natural outgrowth of L.A.’s special urban geography and culture. In a speech debuting the program, Garcetti took pains to <a href="http://movela.org/sp/mayor-garcettis-great-streets-speech/" type="external">include</a> “car, bike, foot and transit” among the forms of transportation he hoped to encourage in focusing on revitalizing key L.A. boulevards.</p>
<p>Garcetti has framed the initiative as a showcase of some of his biggest goals as mayor: beefing up both L.A.’s mass transit and its city streets. In describing his would-be legacy, Garcetti <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/07/11/a-look-back-at-l-a-mayor-eric-garcettis-first-year-in-office/" type="external">told</a> The Washington Post he envisioned&#160;Los Angeles as “a place that has a great public transportation system, a world-class airport, that has made a huge dent and is on the way to ending homelessness, that paved its streets and that built up great neighborhoods.”</p>
<p>Relative to San Francisco, augmenting&#160;L.A.’s transit system is low-hanging fruit. Garcetti’s most substantial rail project would include improvements to LAX, in particular a new metro line extension. Those plans were recently <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-metro-train-to-lax-20140626-story.html" type="external">approved</a> by the board of directors of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which expects to fund the work with over $300 million raised through sales taxes voted in five years ago under&#160; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Sales_Tax,_Measure_R_(2008)" type="external">Measure R</a>.</p>
<p>Garcetti has found himself in an unusual political position. In taking over from Antonio Villaraigosa’s largely disappointing tenure, he&#160;has been able to focus on smaller, more practical measures than his predecessor. Critics have <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-newton-column-mayor-garcetti-20140428-column.html" type="external">expressed</a> boredom over his approach, but Garcetti has shown an understanding of its advantages. Having run on a “back to basics” pledge, Garcetti now has the ability to advance projects favored by Democrats, like mass transit, on a scale modest enough to avoid the kind of widespread backlash that Gov. Jerry Brown’s cherished high-speed rail project has attracted statewide.</p>
<p>New transportation projects face a different fate in San Francisco. There, a planned bus system upgrade spanning just two miles has racked up an expected cost of $126 million, including associated street modifications. The so-called Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit plan was approved back in 2003 through the city’s Proposition K. The scheme anticipated a 2009 build date. But San Francisco’s bureaucratic hurdles wound up consuming six years and over $7 million; only now has the project&#160; <a href="http://www.sfcta.org/van-ness-avenue-bus-rapid-transit-planning-and-environmental-studies#DOW" type="external">received</a> its required environmental impact report, which exceeds several thousand pages in volumes and supplements.</p>
<p>Ironically, the Van Ness project triggered the city’s most demanding&#160;level of reportage&#160;because arcane rules factor a project’s impact on drive times into the definition of environmental impact. That has environmentalists frustrated — but an upcoming change to&#160;California regulations will substitute the drive-time criterion with a so-called “vehicle miles traveled” metric. Environmentalists <a href="http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/07/transit-projects-are-about-to-get-much-much-easier-in-california/374049/" type="external">believe</a> the change will shift the regulatory agenda away from reducing drive delays and toward reducing driving altogether.</p>
<p>It’s a development that could embolden the kinds of urban planners who embrace the currently fashionable vision&#160;of cities as centralized, high-density places&#160;dependent on mass transit. That, in turn, would likely bring Los Angeles to the fore as proof that cities need not conform to top-down, idea-driven planning in order to update and expand their infrastructure.</p> | LA and SF dogfight over transport visions | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2014/07/15/la-and-sf-dogfight-over-transport-visions/ | 2018-07-20 | 3 |
<p />
<p>U.S. employers likely stepped up hiring a touch in December as retailers and other businesses took on more staff for the holidays, but the gain will probably not be enough to make inroads in the country's still high unemployment rate.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Payrolls outside the farming sector are expected to have grown by 150,000 last month, a modest increase from November's 146,000 job gain, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.</p>
<p>The employment reading, due to be released by the Labor Department on Friday at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT), is likely to point to modest economic growth despite uncertainty in late 2012 over a fiscal crisis that continues to threaten the economy.</p>
<p>The forecast increase in payrolls would be the most in five months, but would probably not make the U.S. Federal Reserve rethink its easy-money policies that have been propping up the economic recovery.</p>
<p>The jobless rate is seen holding steady at 7.7% in December, down nearly a percentage point from a year earlier but still well above the average rate over the last 60 years of about 6%.</p>
<p>"It's not a booming economy, but it is growing," said Jim O'Sullivan, an economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.</p>
<p>December's likely pace of hiring suggests the jobless rate will come down at a painfully slow rate in 2013, dropping to around 7.4% in the last few months of the year, he said.</p>
<p>Most economists expect the U.S. economy will only grow about 2% this year, held back by tax hikes as well as weak spending by households and businesses that are still trying to reduce their debt burdens.</p>
<p>A mammoth storm that hit the East Coast in late October will once again make it difficult to use the employment report as a gauge of the underlying strength of the economy.</p>
<p>The storm led to a spike in new jobless claims, but the government said in its employment report last month that the storm had no substantial impact on hiring in November.</p>
<p>Some economists found that conclusion hard to believe because a separate survey of households, which is used to calculate the jobless rate, showed a jump in the number of workers not reporting to work because of bad weather in November.</p>
<p>That suggests December's payroll figures could get a one-off boost, said Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics in London. He expects 175,000 new jobs were created last month.</p>
<p>At the same time, consumer spending has shown signs of accelerating in recent months, and retailers added 140,000 jobs in the three months through November.</p>
<p>"There is some evidence that underlying jobs growth has improved," Dales said.</p>
<p>Also pointing to strength in hiring, payrolls processor ADP said on Thursday the private sector added 215,000 jobs in December. ADP has a mixed track record for predicting the government's more comprehensive jobs report, but the data helped prompt Goldman Sachs to raise its forecast for jobs growth in December to 200,000.</p>
<p>Average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.2% in December, while the length of the average work week is seen holding steady at 34.4 hours, the Reuters poll showed.</p>
<p>AUSTERITY'S BITE</p>
<p>Despite the signs of some momentum in hiring, a wave of government spending cuts due to begin around March loom over the economy.</p>
<p>Many economic forecasts assume the cuts - which would hit the military, education and other areas - will ultimately be pushed into next year as part of a deal sought by lawmakers to reduce gradually the government's debt burden.</p>
<p>Initially, the cuts were planned to have begun this month as part of a $600 billion austerity package that also included tax hikes. Hiring in December may have been slowed by uncertainty over the timing of the austerity, economists say.</p>
<p>Congress this week passed legislation to avoid most of the tax hikes and postpone the spending cuts.</p>
<p>Even with the last-minute deal to avoid much of the "fiscal cliff," most workers will see their take-home pay reduced this month as a two-year cut in payroll taxes expires.</p>
<p>That leaves the Fed's efforts to lower borrowing costs as the main program for stimulating the economy.</p>
<p>The Fed has kept interest rates near zero since 2008, and in September promised open-ended bond purchases to support lending further. On Thursday, however, minutes from the Fed's December policy review pointed to rising concerns over how the asset purchases will affect financial markets.</p>
<p>Analysts think some of the expected strength in job creation in December was due to the Fed's policies.</p>
<p>"Despite the end-of-year angst over the 'fiscal cliff,' financial conditions remained supportive of job growth in December," economists at Nomura said in a note to clients.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Jobs Report: What to Expect | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2013/01/04/jobs-report-what-to-expect.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Emma Watson and Amy Poehler were among eight actresses bringing gender and racial justice activists as their guests to Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards in an effort to shift the focus back on survivors and solutions, and away from those accused of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>Streep walked the red carpet with Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.</p>
<p>“I think that people are aware now of a power imbalance and it’s something that leads to abuse,” Streep told E! News. “It’s led to abuse in our own industry, and it’s led to abuse across domestic workers’ field of work. It’s in the military, it’s in Congress, it’s everywhere. And we want to fix that. And we feel sort of emboldened in this particular moment to stand together in a thick black line dividing then from now.”</p>
<p>Williams brought Tarana Burke, the founder of the “me too” movement, and Watson brought Marai Larasi, the executive director of Imkaan, a black feminist organization.</p>
<p>“You know why we’re here? We’re here because of Tarana,” Williams told Ryan Seacrest on the carpet. “We’re here because Tarana started a movement and she planted a seed years ago and it’s grown and caught fire. She started the #MeToo movement.”</p>
<p>Poehler’s guest was Saru Jayaraman, president of Restaurant Opportunities Centers, Shailene Woodley was being accompanied by Suquamish Tribe member Calina Lawrence, and Laura Dern walked alongside Monica Ramirez, a supporter of worker-led movements. Susan Sarandon brought Rosa Clemente, a political commentator. Nominee Emma Stone took tennis champ and advocate Billie Jean King, whom the actress portrayed in the film “Battle of the Sexes.”</p>
<p>Dern said she had reached out to Ramirez “to say that she stood with all the 700,000 women farm workers in solidarity for the women in our industry who were brave enough to speak out about sexual harassment and assault.”</p>
<p>Ramirez said that farmworker women “pick, pack and plant the food that we eat and have a long history of combating workplace sexual violence. When we learned about what was happening in Hollywood, our members felt very strongly that they wanted to send a message to the women in this industry and all women who are experiencing sexual violence in the workplace that they are not alone.”</p>
<p>In a statement Sunday, the advocates said they were inspired by the Time’s Up initiative, which launched Monday with the backing of hundreds of Hollywood women, like Streep, Reese Witherspoon and Shonda Rhimes. The initiative vowed support for women in the entertainment business and beyond, from janitors to health care workers.</p>
<p>“Each of us will be highlighting legislative, community-level and interpersonal solutions that contribute to ending violence against women in all our communities,” the advocates’ statement said Sunday. “It is our hope that in doing so, we will also help to broaden conversations about the connection to power, privilege and other systemic inequalities.”</p>
<p>The statement says that women of color should be at the center of the solutions.</p>
<p>“We want to encourage all women — from those who live in the shadows to those who live in the spotlight, from all walks of life, and across generations — to continue to step forward and know that they will be supported when they do,” the statement continued.</p>
<p>Many attending the Golden Globes were wearing black to protest sexual harassment. Mark Ruffalo tweeted Sunday that he wore black “in solidarity with the men and women asking for respect and equality.”</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Emma Watson and Amy Poehler were among eight actresses bringing gender and racial justice activists as their guests to Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards in an effort to shift the focus back on survivors and solutions, and away from those accused of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>Streep walked the red carpet with Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.</p>
<p>“I think that people are aware now of a power imbalance and it’s something that leads to abuse,” Streep told E! News. “It’s led to abuse in our own industry, and it’s led to abuse across domestic workers’ field of work. It’s in the military, it’s in Congress, it’s everywhere. And we want to fix that. And we feel sort of emboldened in this particular moment to stand together in a thick black line dividing then from now.”</p>
<p>Williams brought Tarana Burke, the founder of the “me too” movement, and Watson brought Marai Larasi, the executive director of Imkaan, a black feminist organization.</p>
<p>“You know why we’re here? We’re here because of Tarana,” Williams told Ryan Seacrest on the carpet. “We’re here because Tarana started a movement and she planted a seed years ago and it’s grown and caught fire. She started the #MeToo movement.”</p>
<p>Poehler’s guest was Saru Jayaraman, president of Restaurant Opportunities Centers, Shailene Woodley was being accompanied by Suquamish Tribe member Calina Lawrence, and Laura Dern walked alongside Monica Ramirez, a supporter of worker-led movements. Susan Sarandon brought Rosa Clemente, a political commentator. Nominee Emma Stone took tennis champ and advocate Billie Jean King, whom the actress portrayed in the film “Battle of the Sexes.”</p>
<p>Dern said she had reached out to Ramirez “to say that she stood with all the 700,000 women farm workers in solidarity for the women in our industry who were brave enough to speak out about sexual harassment and assault.”</p>
<p>Ramirez said that farmworker women “pick, pack and plant the food that we eat and have a long history of combating workplace sexual violence. When we learned about what was happening in Hollywood, our members felt very strongly that they wanted to send a message to the women in this industry and all women who are experiencing sexual violence in the workplace that they are not alone.”</p>
<p>In a statement Sunday, the advocates said they were inspired by the Time’s Up initiative, which launched Monday with the backing of hundreds of Hollywood women, like Streep, Reese Witherspoon and Shonda Rhimes. The initiative vowed support for women in the entertainment business and beyond, from janitors to health care workers.</p>
<p>“Each of us will be highlighting legislative, community-level and interpersonal solutions that contribute to ending violence against women in all our communities,” the advocates’ statement said Sunday. “It is our hope that in doing so, we will also help to broaden conversations about the connection to power, privilege and other systemic inequalities.”</p>
<p>The statement says that women of color should be at the center of the solutions.</p>
<p>“We want to encourage all women — from those who live in the shadows to those who live in the spotlight, from all walks of life, and across generations — to continue to step forward and know that they will be supported when they do,” the statement continued.</p>
<p>Many attending the Golden Globes were wearing black to protest sexual harassment. Mark Ruffalo tweeted Sunday that he wore black “in solidarity with the men and women asking for respect and equality.”</p> | Streep, Williams bring activists as Golden Globe guests | false | https://apnews.com/449f506f7d7144028e5ca35a66f2e589 | 2018-01-08 | 2 |
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<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Nearly four decades after Elvis sang his last tune, his legacy got a $45 million boost with the Thursday opening of a major new attraction at his Graceland estate — an entertainment complex that Priscilla Presley says gives “the full gamut” of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.</p>
<p>About 200 people streamed into “Elvis Presley’s Memphis” after the late singer’s wife cut a ribbon and allowed fans to see the $45 million complex for the first time.</p>
<p>Resembling an outdoor mall, the 200,000-square-foot campus sits across the street from Graceland, Presley’s longtime home-turned-museum. The complex features a comprehensive Presley exhibit with clothing he wore on stage and guitars he played; a showcase of the cars he owned and used; a soundstage; a theater; two restaurants and retail stores.</p>
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<p>“You’re getting the full gamut of who Elvis Presley was,” Priscilla Presley said during an interview after the grand opening. “You’re getting to see and participate a bit in his life and what he enjoyed and what he loved to collect.”</p>
<p>It’s part of a $140 million expansion, which also includes a $90 million, 450-room hotel that opened last year. The complex replaces the aging buildings that have housed Presley-related exhibits for years. An old, gray, strip-mall style visitor center will be torn down to make room for a greenspace along Elvis Presley Boulevard, the street that runs in front of the house.</p>
<p>Graceland has been updating its tourist experience. Visitors now use iPads for self-guided tours of the house. The new Guest House at Graceland, with modern amenities like glass-encased showers with wall-mounted body sprays and Keurig coffee makers in room, has replaced the crumbling Heartbreak Hotel, which is scheduled for demolition.</p>
<p>“We want to keep updating … If you don’t keep up with what’s going on in the times, you get left out,” Priscilla Presley said. She was joined at the ribbon-cutting by Elvis Presley Enterprises CEO Jack Soden and Joel Weinshanker, managing partner of Graceland Holdings.</p>
<p>The opening comes just before the 40th anniversary of Presley’s death on Aug. 16, 1977, at age 42.</p>
<p>Adults pay $57.50 for a standard tour of the house and access to the complex. Visitors can also choose to tour just the house for a lower price. Discounts are offered for seniors and children. A self-guided tour of two airplanes owned by Presley is $5 more.</p>
<p>From the ticketing area, people line up to wait for buses that take visitors to the museum, or they can move through the entertainment complex’s large, high-ceilinged buildings.</p>
<p>Gladys’ Diner — named after the singer’s mother — has the feel of a 1950s eatery, complete with pictures of Presley, aqua-colored chairs and stations where patrons can order hot dogs, burgers and ice cream.</p>
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<p>There’s also Presley’s favorite: Gladys’ World Famous Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich, fried in bacon grease. Another PB&amp;B sandwich is cooked in butter.</p>
<p>Across a wide walkway lies the automobile museum, filled with some of Presley’s favorite toys. Among them is a pink 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood — a custom painted model that he gave to his mother — and a sleek, black 1973 Stutz Blackhawk that he drove the day he died.</p>
<p>The walkway leads to the 20,000-square foot museum called “Elvis: The Entertainer,” which features white and purple jumpsuits he wore during concerts and gold-colored guitars he played on stage.</p>
<p>Several retail stores line the complex. A second restaurant, a barbecue joint called Vernon’s Smokehouse — named after Presley’s father — will also open. So will an exhibition focused on Sam Phillips, the Sun Records producer and rock ‘n’ roll pioneer who recorded Presley for the first time.</p>
<p>The complex is still being finished. Priscilla Presley said there’s a warehouse full of artifacts, ready for display.</p>
<p>During the interview with The Associated Press, Priscilla Presley declined to comment about a court battle in Los Angeles between Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter she had with Elvis, and Lisa Marie’s estranged husband.</p>
<p>Among the fans eager to get a glimpse at the new exhibits Thursday was Carol Carey, a retiree who made the short trip across the state line from Southaven, Mississippi, with her son.</p>
<p>Wearing a pink shirt with the words “Wild About Graceland” on it, Carey beamed a wide smile as she talked about the complex.</p>
<p>“We couldn’t wait to see it,” she said. “We’ve been here every other day, checking it out. Getting used to saying goodbye to the old, and seeing friends who are all taking pictures of everything.”</p> | Elvis Presley’s Graceland opens a new $45 million complex | false | https://abqjournal.com/960915/elvis-presleys-graceland-opens-a-new-45-million-complex.html | 2017-03-02 | 2 |
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Netflix Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>) quarterly results on Monday may offer an advanced preview of whether Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) and other heavyweights behind much of the U.S. stock market’s record-breaking rally can keep delivering.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., January 8, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Wall Street on Friday shrugged off a looming U.S. government shutdown and propelled the S&amp;P 500 to a record high as investors focused on upcoming quarterly reports.</p>
<p>Republicans and Democrats appeared to harden their positions on Sunday as both sides hunkered down for what could be a prolonged fight, with the shutdown in its second day. There appeared to be no clear path for a quick end to the crisis.</p>
<p>Many of the largest companies - Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Amazon.com - have outperformed the broader market in the first 13 trading days of 2018, with investors betting strong earnings growth will justify tech valuations at their highest levels in a decade.</p>
<p>Netflix, which is due to report its quarterly results on Monday after the stock market closes, has jumped nearly 15 percent this year, outpacing the S&amp;P 500’s 5 percent increase.</p>
<p>Netflix’s 53 percent surge in 2017, along with rallies by Amazon.com and Silicon Valley’s largest tech companies, helped propel the stock market to new highs.</p>
<p>“Netflix is going to be a great early indicator of risk appetite for these high-volatility growth names,” said Wedbush trader Joel Kulina. “Netflix’s drivers are very company-specific, but if this stock can deliver, there’s no reason this whole market can’t keep going higher.”</p>
<p>The Los Gatos, California-based company faces increasing competition from streaming services including Amazon.com’s Prime Video and moves by traditional media companies. But investors remain optimistic about its ability to beat expectations.</p>
<p>Its stock recently traded at 95 times expected earnings for the next 12 months, versus AMC Entertainment ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMC.N" type="external">AMC.N</a>) at 44 times earnings and Time Warner Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TWX.N" type="external">TWX.N</a>) at 14 times earnings, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>Underscoring investors’ willingness to pay premium prices for fast-growing stocks, Phil Blancato, head of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in New York, recently helped a client buy $1.5 million worth of shares in Facebook, Amazon.com, Apple, Netflix and Google parent company Alphabet as investments for his grandchildren.</p>
<p>“I said, ‘You’re crazy,’ but he was very direct, he wanted the FAANG stocks,” Blancato said, using a widely used Wall Street acronym for those companies.</p>
<p>Analysts on average expect S&amp;P 500 technology companies to deliver a 15.9 percent increase in earnings for the December quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Earnings for the entire S&amp;P 500 are seen rising 12.2 percent, bolstered by lower unemployment and fatter wages.</p>
<p>Technology investors during the reporting season just under way are also eager to hear company executives explain how their bottom lines will be affected by corporate tax cuts passed by Congress in December, and whether they plan to repatriate overseas profits.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">Netflix Inc</a> 280.29 NFLX.O Nasdaq -15.06 (-5.10%) NFLX.O FB.O AMZN.O MSFT.O AAPL.O
<p>Apple said on Wednesday it would make about $38 billion in one-time tax payments on its overseas cash, and investors want to know how much of the $252 billion held abroad Apple will bring home and potentially spend on dividends, share buybacks or acquisitions.</p>
<p>In its third-quarter earnings released on Oct. 16, Netflix reported it had added more global subscribers than analysts expected. In response, its stock hit a record high in after-hours trade before dipping the following day.</p>
<p>In October, Netflix hiked U.S. prices for the first time since 2015, potentially providing more cash to produce original content but also increasing the risk of losing customers.</p>
<p>Netflix has forecast adding 6.3 million subscribers worldwide in the December quarter, which would bring its global customer base to nearly 115.6 million.</p>
<p>Analysts on average expect a 32.5 percent jump in revenue to $3.28 billion, and net income of $186.3 million, up 179 percent. Analysts expect earnings per share of 41 cents.</p>
<p>After the market closed on Friday, the U.S. Senate was racing to avert a government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline on a stopgap spending measure amid lingering disagreements between Democrats and Republicans. Investors have said they are not worried about a major pullback in shares, even if lawmakers fail to strike a deal.</p>
<p>Up 42 percent in the past 12 months, the S&amp;P 500 information technology index is trading more than 19 times expected earnings, its highest since 2008, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>Facebook will post quarterly results on Jan. 31, followed by Amazon.com, Apple and Alphabet on Feb 1. Nvidia ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NVDA.O" type="external">NVDA.O</a>), which surged 81 percent in 2017 and replaced Qualcomm ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QCOM.O" type="external">QCOM.O</a>) as the most valuable U.S. chipmaker after Intel Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), reports on Feb 7.</p>
<p>Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Richard Chang and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street shares plunged on Monday as investors fled technology stocks amid resurgent trade war worries, with key indexes trading below their 200-day moving averages and the S&amp;P 500 closing below that pivotal technical level for the first time since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in June 2016.</p>
<p>The first trading day of the second quarter began with a broad selloff concentrated in the technology and consumer discretionary sectors, as losses by Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Tesla ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) and Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), among others, took center stage from retaliatory trade measures China unveiled on Sunday.</p>
<p>With the S&amp;P 500 in a 10 percent correction from its record high in late January, investors were increasingly concerned a nine-year bull market might be in danger of ending.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-stocks-instant/instant-view-stocks-tumble-led-by-tech-pullback-and-trade-fears-idUSKCN1H91HA" type="external">Instant View: Stocks tumble, led by tech pullback and trade fears</a>
<p>“It’s more complicated than just a tech selloff. What’s hurting everything is that the S&amp;P went through its 200-day moving average,” said Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago. “That attracts momentum sellers and they don’t care what the fundamentals are.”</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 458.92 points, or 1.9 percent, to end at 23,644.19 after dipping below its 200-day moving average. The S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> fell 58.99 points, or 2.23 percent, to 2,581.88 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 193.33 points, or 2.74 percent, to 6,870.12.</p>
<p>Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) was the biggest drag on the S&amp;P 500, down 5.2 percent, as President Donald Trump continued his twitter attacks on the online retailer.</p>
<p>All 11 major sectors of the S&amp;P 500 closed lower, with the biggest losses seen by the consumer discretionary .SPLRCD and technology .SPLRCT indexes, which were down 2.8 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.</p>
<p>The tech-heavy Nasdaq was dragged lower by Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Intel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>).</p>
<p>Shares of Tesla Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) ended the day down 5.1 percent after the company was reported to be making 2,000 Model 3s per week, missing its 2,500 target.</p>
<p>The electric automaker’s losses extend last week’s near 14-percent decline as investigations of a fatal California crash and a Moody’s credit downgrade weighed on the stock.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Health insurer Humana Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HUM.N" type="external">HUM.N</a>) shares closed up 4.4 percent on news it was in talks with Walmart ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) to expand their partnership or possibly be acquired by the retailer. Walmart stock fell 3.8 percent.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR fell to two-month lows as investors fled sliding stocks for safety ahead of Friday’s closely watched jobs report.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 4.17-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 4.14-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1371.99 AMZN.O Nasdaq -75.35 (-5.21%) AMZN.O TSLA.O MSFT.O .DJI .SPX
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.71 billion shares, compared to the 7.29 billion average over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - General Electric Co’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">GE.N</a>) healthcare unit said on Monday it would sell its information technology business to private equity firm Veritas Capital for $1.05 billion in cash as it sharpens its focus on smart diagnostics and connected devices.</p> FILE PHOTO - The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. on June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
<p>The information technology business houses its financial management, ambulatory care and workforce management software assets, GE said in a statement.</p>
<p>The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2018.</p>
<p>GE said in February it had a “line of sight” on the first $4 billion in asset sales under its plans for $20 billion in disposals, as it tries to shore up its financial performance.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">General Electric Co</a> 13.12 GE.N New York Stock Exchange -0.36 (-2.67%) GE.N .DJI
<p>As part of the plan, the company is looking to sell its transportation unit, which makes railway locomotives and the iconic lighting division that makes bulbs for consumers.</p>
<p>Morgan Stanley and Keval Health are GE’s financial advisers, while Goldman Sachs &amp; Co. and William Blair &amp; Co advised Veritas Capital.</p>
<p>Shares of the U.S. industrial conglomerate were down 2.6 percent at $13.14 in line with the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> which fell 2 percent on Monday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Shares of Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) fell 6 percent on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump again attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes.</p> FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
<p>“Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon,” Trump tweeted.</p>
<p>“They lose a fortune, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country...not a level playing field!”</p>
<p>Shares of the company were down 5.9 percent at $1,362.48, wiping out nearly $45 billion from its market value.</p>
<p>Trump has been vocal about his opposition to Amazon’s use of the postal service and Monday’s tweet adds to investor worries that the company could see more regulation.</p>
<p>Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Trump tweeted that if the post office “increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 billion.”</p>
<p>The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in November reported a decline in annual revenue, hurt by a drop in first-class and marketing mail, offset partly by an increase in package delivery.</p>
<p>The postal service has also been posting losses mainly because of payments, more than $5 billion a year as mandated by Congress to prefund the service’s future retirees’ healthcare.</p>
<p>The passage of postal reform legislation could alleviate USPS’s pension obligations, give it more pricing power and allow the agency to be more competitive, analysts said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1371.99 AMZN.O Nasdaq -75.35 (-5.21%) AMZN.O UPS.N FDX.N
<p>“We believe the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has gained share from Amazon which is helping the USPS stay afloat,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.</p>
<p>Details of Amazon’s payments to the USPS are not publicly known, but some Wall Street analysts have estimated it pays the postal service roughly half what it would to United Parcel Service Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=UPS.N" type="external">UPS.N</a>) or FedEx Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FDX.N" type="external">FDX.N</a>) to deliver a package.</p>
<p>“President Trump’s comments are consistent with industry sources we have spoken to in the shipping industry, who often label Amazon’s deal with the USPS as a sweetheart deal,” DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte wrote in a note.</p>
<p>“An argument, however, could be made that the USPS was losing billions before it expanded its service offerings for Amazon and would, still, likely lose billions if Amazon discontinued its use of the USPS tomorrow,” Forte said.</p>
<p>Trump last Thursday accused Amazon of not paying enough tax, making the postal system lose money and putting small retailers out of business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Bernard Orr</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares slipped on Tuesday amid escalating trade tensions and worries over the fading outlook for global tech giants, but investors held their nerves to focus instead on prospects for stronger world growth.</p> FILE PHOTO: A visitor is seen as market prices are reflected in a glass window at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo, Japan, February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
<p>MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4 percent on Tuesday, compared with losses of more than 2 percent on each of the three Wall Street indices overnight.</p>
<p>The U.S. dollar steadied against the safe haven yen after declining for three straight days and gold, which is often seen as a store of value during times of financial or political uncertainty, inched lower.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasuries saw a bit of selling too with yields on 10-year notes off two-month lows.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, E-Mini futures for the S&amp;P 500 climbed 0.4 percent and Dow futures were also up 0.2 percent.</p>
<p>“Markets are being supported by global growth, most indicators that have come out recently are pretty solid,” said Shane Oliver, Sydney-based chief investment strategist at AMP Capital.</p>
<p>“Asian investors have looked at the noise recently and said ‘well there is nothing really new in all this’,” Oliver added. “Cool heads are prevailing.”</p>
<p>Asian shares were mostly in the red, albeit off early lows.</p>
<p>Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.9 percent, having gone as deep as 1.6 percent at the open. China’s Shanghai Composite index eased 0.4 percent and the blue-chip CSI300 was off 0.7 percent.</p>
<p>Technology shares were hit hard on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump attacked Amazon.com over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes.</p>
<p>The selling added to what has been a rough patch for technology shares this year. Facebook, Apple and some of their peers had a woeful last quarter as investors reassessed high U.S. stock valuations in light of a cocktail of negative factors.</p>
<p>So called FANG stocks - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google - have been largely responsible for a multi-year bull run in world shares, although the threat of government regulation has raised worries about their outlook.</p>
<p>Investors were also on the backfoot as China imposed extra tariffs on 128 U.S. products, deepening a dispute between the world’s two biggest economies and stoking concerns about the impact on global growth.</p>
<p>China’s tit-for-tat tariffs hurt the U.S. dollar, although it saw some buying during early Asian trading on Tuesday to last trade at 105.88 yen, from a three-week peak of 107.01.</p>
<p>The dollar index was still a shade softer against a basket of currencies.</p>
<p>Oil prices ticked higher after falling more than 3.7 percent on Monday although rising Russian output and the escalating U.S.-China trade dispute still weighed. [O/R]</p>
<p>Brent crude inched 16 cents higher to $67.80 a barrel. U.S. crude rose 13 cents to $63.14.</p>
<p>Spot gold ticked lower to $1,338.91.</p>
<p>Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Wall Street Week Ahead: Where Netflix goes, Big Tech may follow Wall Street tumbles on tech sector, trade war worries GE Healthcare to sell IT unit to Veritas for $1.05 billion Amazon shares fall 6 percent as Trump renews attack Asian investors stay calm amid Wall Street sell-off | false | https://reuters.com/article/usa-stocks-weekahead/update-1-wall-st-week-ahead-where-netflix-goes-big-tech-may-follow-idUSL1N1PG049 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aresauburnphotos/2678453389/"&gt;aresauburn&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href="http://www.creativecommons.org"&gt;Creative Commons&lt;/a&gt;).</p>
<p />
<p>Earlier this week, the National Rifle Association scored a <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20100615/pl_cq_politics/politics3682429" type="external">major victory</a> when the gun rights lobby persuaded House Democrats to exempt it from legislation intended to reign in the campaign finance free-for-all ushered in by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. The move has sent other groups scrambling to create their own carve-outs, ramping up their lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. Among those seeking a deal of their own are a handful of labor unions, which have largely criticized the Citizens United ruling while also taking advantage of its loosened restrictions.</p>
<p>On Tuesday afternoon, representatives from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) met with top Democratic leaders who are involved with the bill, known as the DISCLOSE Act, to push for additional changes that would blunt the legislation’s impact on unions. “I think there’s just overreach in this bill,” said Chuck Loveless, director of AFSCME’s legislative department, who attended the meeting and said that “key people” were involved, though he declined to name them.</p>
<p>While many have warned that Citizens United would unleash a flood of corporate spending in elections by relaxing campaign finance rules, labor unions have been some of the <a href="" type="internal">first groups</a> to try out tactics that would have previously been forbidden. AFSCME, along with the AFL-CIO and SEIU, has yet to take a formal position on the bill. Their support, like the NRA’s, could be critical to its passage, particularly since a host of conservative groups have <a href="http://www.nrlc.org/FreeSpeech/NRLCLetterDISCLOSEActJune152010.html" type="external">come out against</a> the legislation in the wake of the NRA’s deal. (And 45 liberal organizations have <a href="http://www.afj.org/about-afj/press/061610forty-five-groups-send-letter.html" type="external">threatened</a> to pull their support from the bill if the NRA exemption isn’t taken out.)</p>
<p>But while the SEIU has <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/94217-unions-wait-and-see-on-citizens-united-fix" type="external">suggested</a> that the bill doesn’t go far enough, groups like the AFL-CIO and AFSCME are seeking to roll back some of the DISCLOSE Act’s restrictions and regulations, arguing that unions should be treated differently than corporations. And a flurry of last-minute lobbying over the bill has erupted since news of the NRA’s deal broke on Monday. “Currently we are discussing our concerns with members of Congress,” said AFL-CIO press secretary Amaya Tune. According to Loveless, AFSCME is pushing for two major changes to the bill, which will require campaign ads to disclose all the names of the corporations, unions, and other groups that fund them.</p>
<p>AFSCME is trying to exempt state and local political organizations that accept soft money—that is, unrestricted contributions from individuals or groups—from being regulated under the bill. Under the DISCLOSE Act, such groups, which often receive union backing, would have to disclose their donors if their campaign ads reference a federal candidate. AFSCME opposes having to out itself as the backer of these state and local campaign efforts. “The problem is that we have local union affiliates—we have 4000 of them—that could make a contribution to one of these entities…which could trigger these very detailed disclosure requirements,” said Loveless. He said that AFSCME was “trying to protect these local affiliates” from having to make such disclosures.&#160;</p>
<p>Asked whether the new rules might curb union donors’ willingness or ability to influence state and local candidates, Loveless responded that such efforts “have nothing to do with federal elections” and thus shouldn’t be subject to the same rules. (Under the legislation, unions—and any donors that contributed to them—would have to be disclosed if they backed campaign ads in federal elections.)</p>
<p>AFSCME is also pushing back against the bill’s 35 percent tax on soft-money-backed campaign ads—known as “independent expenditures”—sponsored by labor unions and other nonprofit groups that explicitly advocate for or against a candidate. “It’s not just for labor organizations…We have major concerns about this,” said Loveless. The tax would certainly put a damper on the big money that unions have begun pouring into campaign ad buys since the Citizens United ruling came down in January, such as an ultimately unsuccessful $10 million campaing to defeat Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas’ Democratic primary.&#160;</p>
<p>In its current lobbying effort, however, AFSCME is playing down the ways that it and other labor unions have benefitted from Citizens United, insisting that it’s still committed to curbing the excesses of the Court’s decision. Though AFSCME had previously <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/article/5692/timeout_for_labor_in_florida" type="external">welcomed</a>&#160;the ruling—and publicly vowed to avail themselves of the new campaign finance landscape it opened up—Loveless insists that the group never fully supported decision. “We’ve had major concerns with this ruling—it’s not something that we’ve supported,” he said. “Corporations have outspent unions 8-to-1, 10-to-1. We’ve been very critical of the Supreme Court ruling.” Unions like AFSCME argue that they simply want to level the playing field. And that’s why they’re trying to position themselves to take fullest advantage of a post-Citizens United world.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Labor, Guns, and Money | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/citizens-united-disclose-act-nra-unions-afscme/ | 2010-06-17 | 4 |
<p>Thomas M. Hodgson, the sheriff of Bristol County, Massachusetts, likes telling people about his father.</p>
<p>"My father immigrated from England, and he raised 13 children here," he&#160;says. "My father didn't walk around the streets hiding every time a police car came by, put his head down or what have you. My father came the right way. And it’s important to do it the right way."</p>
<p>That's why Hodgson, who has white hair, a mustache, and a little bit of a cowboy swagger, emphatically supports President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.</p>
<p>"There’s nothing wrong with any country insisting that their laws be followed," he explains.&#160;</p>
<p>The first time I met Hodgson was several weeks ago, when there was a protest outside of his jail.</p>
<p>People were upset because he had offered to send his county inmates to help build the&#160;wall on the US-Mexico border. For free.</p>
<p>He’s billed the idea as a good works project his inmates could do, as part of this new initiative he’s starting, based on the Peace Corps.</p>
<p>“These inmates will be able to learn a trade,” Hodgson told me, and “[and] accomplish something that is really good for America.”</p>
<p>It’s unclear if this plan, which has generated a lot of <a href="http://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20170216/state-dems-looking-to-block-hodgson-wall-plan" type="external">controversy,</a> will go through.</p>
<p>But either way, the Trump administration is empowering Hodgson to crack down on illegal immigration with a new vigor.</p>
<p>Starting this spring, about a dozen of his corrections officers will get deputized to work as immigration enforcers.</p>
<p>They will be trained on how to interview everyone who gets booked into the county jail about their immigration status and to report&#160;that information to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.</p>
<p>Immigrant rights activists say that this program, known as the 287(g), often leads to racial profiling and breaks down trust between police and communities.</p>
<p>It was scaled back during the Obama administration.</p>
<p>But in the immigration <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/17_0220_S1_Enforcement-of-the-Immigration-Laws-to-Serve-the-National-Interest.pdf" type="external">guidelines</a> issued earlier this week, the Trump administration calls it a “a highly successful force multiplier” and vows to expand it “to the greatest extent practicable.”</p>
<p />
<p>If you drink 100 beers they give you&#160;your own mug at&#160;Pour Farm Tavern.</p>
<p>Lidia Jean Kott&#160;</p>
<p>At Pour Farm Tavern, a dimly lit bar with endless varieties of craft beer, Sheriff Hodgson has the reputation of being&#160;tough and a little bombastic, but effective.</p>
<p>“Hasn't he been the sheriff for a while now?” asks Elizabeth Oliver, the bartender. “He must be doing a good job then.”</p>
<p>Elizabeth’s mom, Michelle, thinks Hodgson’s partnership with federal immigration authorities sounds reasonable.</p>
<p>“I don't think it's the worst thing,” she chimes in. “If you're illegal, don't break the law, you won't get arrested, and then you won't get turned in.”</p>
<p>But that might be easier said than done.</p>
<p>Under Trump’s guidelines, unauthorized immigrants who have committed even minor offenses are prioritized for deportation.</p>
<p>There are four immigration detention facilities in Massachusetts, one of them in Bristol County. The people here are not serving sentences. They're in detention, waiting for court dates or deportations.</p>
<p />
<p>The Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention room for women in Bristol County, Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Bristol County Sheriff's Office&#160;</p>
<p>Kathryn Correia, a corrections officer who looks to be in her mid-20s, oversees a cellblock of 16 female detainees.</p>
<p>They are not allowed to talk to reporters.</p>
<p>One woman asks Correia if she can take a shower. Correia tells her to go ahead. Another lies on the bottom bunk, reading a crime novel about life on the streets of Harlem.</p>
<p>Some have been here for almost two years.</p>
<p>Correia says she doesn’t really hear the women talk about politics a lot. Instead, they talk about their lives, discussing the kids they have waiting for them at home, and whether they will be able to go back to them or if they will have to leave the country.</p>
<p>Hodgson refutes the idea that tough immigration policies separate families.</p>
<p>“When people make bad decisions they separate themselves from their families,” he says. “It’s not the system that’s a problem. It's the fact that the people made the decision to begin with.”</p>
<p>At a time when many in this country are feeling anxious about the future, Hodgson seems to be looking forward&#160;to it.</p>
<p>This is his time.</p>
<p>Hear more from our conversations with Hodgson here:</p> | The county sheriff who can’t wait to help enforce Trump’s immigration policies | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-02-24/county-sheriff-who-can-t-wait-help-enforce-trump-s-immigration-policies | 2017-02-24 | 3 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Media are showing keen interest in stories about problems with individual insurance policies. But are they getting the story right? And did CBS ask tough questions of the former deputy director of the CIA–or did they throw softballs? Plus NBC and ABC offer examples of corporate synergy at work, using their news divisions to promote the corporate parent.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Watch:</p>
<p />
<p /> | FAIR TV: Obamacare Context, CBS’s CIA PR, TV Networks Shilling | true | http://fair.org/blog/2013/11/01/fair-tv-obamacare-context-cbss-cia-pr-tv-networks-shilling/ | 2013-11-01 | 4 |
<p>The ink wasn't dry on the on the <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2013/12/10/house-senate-strikes-budget-deal.html" type="external">bipartisan budget deal reached Tuesday</a> between Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) before the conservative backlash began.</p>
<p>The two-year deal would eliminate $65 billion in cuts from sequestration while saving $25 billion by cutting Medicare spending in 2022 and 2023. The deal would raise revenue by instituting additional fees on airline tickets and slowing the rate of growth via cost-of-living increases for military pensions. However, many conservatives were outraged that the deal would increase the federal budget to more than $1 trillion, well above $967 billion at which the budget is currently capped under sequestration.</p>
<p>Conservative darling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was quick to announce his opposition to the deal, saying, "This budget continues Washington's irresponsible budgeting decisions by spending more money than the government takes in and placing additional financial burdens on everyday Americans." Rubio was echoed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), <a href="https://twitter.com/SenRandPaul/status/410568121024774145" type="external">who tweeted</a>: "There is a recurring theme in Washington budget negotiations. It's I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."</p>
<p>The two senators, often mentioned as <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2013/12/06/rand-paul-wants-to-run-for-president.html" type="external">potential 2016 presidential hopefuls</a>, were joined in their early opposition to the deal by a number of Tea Party conservatives in the House, including Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS). A number of conservative activist groups also have voiced skepticism about the deal. On Monday, <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/freedomworks-key-votes-against-emerging-ryan-murray-budget-deal" type="external">Freedom Works</a>, Heritage Action, and Americans for Prosperity preemptively criticized any Ryan-Murray bipartisan deal.</p>
<p>By contrast, President Obama said he supported the agreement, as did members of the House GOP leadership. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy have already come out in support of the deal.</p>
<p>If passed, the final deal would set budgets for 2014 and 2015, avoiding the fiscal brinkmanship that led to the past year's <a href="" type="internal">government shutdown</a> and fiscal cliff. But some drama in the House, particularly if Boehner decides to invoke the informal - <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2013/10/03/denny-hastert-disses-the-hastert-rule-it-never-really-existed.html" type="external">Hastert rule</a>,? which prevents a bill from coming to the floor unless a majority of Republicans support it.</p> | The Conservative Budget Backlash | true | https://thedailybeast.com/the-conservative-budget-backlash | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
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<p>More specifically, 30 residents called for emergency help from the Las Cruces Fire Department more than 10 times apiece in 2016, according to city numbers. And, while emergency personnel don’t discourage people from calling 911 when it’s necessary, they say the high rate of 911 use by a small percentage of the city’s population is a symptom of bigger problems: gaps in the health care system and gaps in residents’ knowledge about how to access care or related resources, such as transportation.</p>
<p>“They’re calling 911 to receive a ride to the hospital, by ambulance, so they can see a doctor,” said Las Cruces firefighter and paramedic Paul Ford. “And they use this method as their primary way to access the health care system. And that’s not how this is supposed to work.”</p>
<p>Project launched</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A pilot project launched in September of last year by the Las Cruces Fire Department aims to reduce 911 calls to the city by helping residents solve the larger, underlying problems in their lives — such as mental illness, substance abuse or home hazards that cause frequent falls — that are behind their calls to emergency responders. Dubbed “mobile integrated health care,” the model is a growing trend among fire departments across the country, LCFD officials said. The hope is that the project will reduce the number of 911 calls — and the related expense — to the city.</p>
<p>The pilot project in Las Cruces consists of one staff member — Ford — who’s assigned to follow up with people who are possible clients in need of help.</p>
<p>“We ID people calling 911 frequently,” Ford said. “We go to their location to investigate and offer services. We identify gaps in their health care and assist in directing them to resources. We perform home safety checks, where applicable, which is very important, especially for the disabled. And we follow up to ensure they have received the resources that they need.”</p>
<p>The Las Cruces Fire Department is calling its pilot program the Community Assessment and Navigation, or CAN, project.</p>
<p>Saving a life</p>
<p>The fire department highlighted to city councilors one of its biggest successes since launching the pilot program. A senior identified by LCFD only as “Mr. R” called 911 a total of 20 times between September and October of last year because he’d fallen and needed help getting off the ground.</p>
<p>Ford said fire personnel were concerned about the man’s overall health, Ford said. The CAN unit followed up with him and connected him to Dial-a-Ride, the city’s transit service for people with a disability. Within three days, he saw his primary care doctor. And several days after that, he was admitted into the hospital. There, he was diagnosed with a broken neck from an earlier fall that had caused near-paralysis.</p>
<p>“He couldn’t get around because of what we found out later was a broken neck,” said LCFD Deputy Chief Steve Mims. “He hadn’t been to his doctor because he couldn’t move around. He had a broken neck, and nobody knew about it.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The man was moved to El Paso, where he had family. Family members didn’t realize the man had been having such severe health problems because he hadn’t told them, LCFD officials said.</p>
<p>“The family calls and thanks the Las Cruces Fire Department for the help, because they feel that we saved his life,” Ford recounted to city councilors last week.</p>
<p>High-volume 911 callers</p>
<p>The bulk of calls for help to the Las Cruces Fire Department are not for fires, but rather people in need of medical and physical aid. In 2016, the department received 16,302 calls for help, and about 65 percent of them were EMS calls, according to city numbers.</p>
<p>Among the EMS calls, 30 people generated 462 calls for help in 2016. A total of 236 people called 911 four or more times.</p>
<p>Both groups — less than 1 percent of the city’s population — generated about 1,600 calls altogether, amounting to roughly 15 percent of the EMS incidents to which LCFD was dispatched, according to LCFD.</p>
<p>If the number of calls by frequent 911 callers could be reduced, “that’s a lot of savings for the organization, the city and the community,” Mims said.</p>
<p>Mental health strides</p>
<p>Residents with a mental health condition are also likely to benefit from LCDF’s pilot program, fire officials said. A model for mobile integrated health care in Colorado Springs concluded that three out of four clients had a mental illness, Ford said.</p>
<p>Ford said he didn’t have data specifically on clients in Las Cruces’ pilot program, but he estimated about half the people he’s visited have had a mental health condition.</p>
<p>Officials said LCDF doesn’t respond to behavioral incidents — something left to the police and ambulance service — but a mental health condition can be an underlying factor in other types of 911 calls.</p>
<p>Micah Pearson, vice president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Doña Ana County, said he learned about the fire department’s new pilot program recently. He’s optimistic it will fit hand-in-hand with another new effort, called Assisted Outpatient Treatment, aimed at helping residents who have serious mental illness. That project, which will start ramping up at the end of March, allows a judge to mandate outpatient mental health treatment for people who have frequent encounters with involuntary hospitalization or the criminal justice system because of their conditions.</p>
<p>“These are exactly the situations our potential client base would be a part of,” he said of the fire department’s EMS responses. “Why are they calling 911 a lot? Is it because they’re having an issue with their mental health condition, and they have no other access to services?”</p>
<p>Pearson said other communities carrying out assisted outpatient treatment rely heavily on law enforcement to make referrals to their programs. And it makes sense the fire department and its new program would be another source of referrals, he said.</p>
<p>“We are going to reach out and work on this because I see an opportunity here to develop relationships,” he said. “They’re identifying people who need services. We have a pool of services.”</p>
<p>A pilot-project for now</p>
<p>The LCFD program is a pilot project for now. Ford said the department would like to hire a social worker.</p>
<p>Mims said it would take authorization by City Manager Stuart Ed to become a permanent program. And any budget increases needed to go along with program expansions would have be authorized by the Las Cruces City Council.</p>
<p>“Obviously, we’d like to make it a full-time program,” Mims said.</p>
<p>Fire officials said the program stands to benefit medical providers, such as hospitals, if residents are healthier overall. In some other communities, those entities have helped to fund a city’s mobile integrated health unit.</p>
<p>Several Las Cruces city councilors expressed support for the project.</p>
<p>“This is another example of you all being proactive, and I appreciate it,” Mayor Pro Tem Greg Smith told firefighters.</p>
<p>Diana Alba Soular may be reached at 575-541-5443, [email protected] or @AlbaSoular on Twitter.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2017 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)</p>
<p>Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at <a href="http://www.lcsun-news.com" type="external">www.lcsun-news.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
<p>_____</p> | New project aims to reduce 911 calls | false | https://abqjournal.com/968445/new-project-aims-to-reduce-911-calls.html | 2 |
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<p>Sixth-generation dairy farmer Orville Haney of Akron, Ind., considers himself lucky. In an industry that has withstood unpredictable weather, and more price dips and spikes than he’d like to recall, he can control one thing—his feed.</p>
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<p>“Farmers can make their own feed, or they are totally at the mercy of the market,” Haney said. “I buy only what I can’t make myself, so we get along fine.</p>
<p>But we’re an outlier.”</p>
<p>Thanks to a contentious Congress, dairy farmers unlike Haney are finding themselves without a safety net they once relied on. The Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) that, among other things, provided farmers with funding monthly as price margins fell on dairy products expired Sept. 30. And Washington insiders say it’s unlikely farmers will see a new bill passed until after the presidential election. MILC funding kicks in when milk prices fall below $16.94, and caps out at 2.9 million pounds of milk annually.</p>
<p>Haney said smaller farms, like his, have had an advantage. With only four workers and 140 cows to milk a day, he qualified for any and all aid. He said keeping his costs low with feed allowed him to survive 2009’s dip and this year’s drought.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, West Coast farmers say the combination of skyrocketing feed prices and no safety net hits them harder than most. Cornell Kasbergen, owner of Rancho Teresita Dairy in Tulare, Calif., estimates 60 bankruptcies of fellow dairy farmers in his area in this quarter alone, and more than 100 producers in the region giving up on the business altogether this year.</p>
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<p>“Financially, it’s as bad or worse than it was in 2009, which was our worst year in 30 years,” Kasbergen said. “We lost a fair amount of equity in the past four months due to feed prices, which went up 30%-40%. The drought was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”</p>
<p>Kasbergen is in support of the National Milk Producers Federation’s push for the Dairy Security Act, which supporters say would aim to help moderate the volatility of milk prices by establishing a voluntary insurance program. Under the legislation, farmers can choose to insure against low margins, which according to the NMPF are defined by the difference between milk prices and feed costs.&#160; When conditions are poor, farmers would get compensated, and also have an option for higher insurance with an out-of-pocket cost attached. In an unpredictable industry, proponents say it would give farmers business-saving leverage to hedge their bets.</p>
<p>As a larger producer, with about 3,000 cows being milked per day, Kasbergen said he reached his MILC cap of 2.9 million pounds of milk in 15 days this year.</p>
<p>“The Dairy Security Act is a big step forward, and takes dairy into the 21st century,” he said. “MILC wasn’t a safety net for all producers.”</p>
<p>Brad Scott, co-owner of Scott Brothers Dairy Farms, said the new bill would give more stability to the industry. The farm, which is in its fourth generation and milks more than 1,000 cows twice daily, struggles to control variables such as feed prices.</p>
<p>During this year’s drought, he said feed prices were anywhere from $100 to $180 more per ton than they were several years earlier.</p>
<p>“When prices get low, you can get paid back and it’s not government-funded or tax-based,” he said, therefore the farmers themselves have more incentive to pay into the program to sustain it. “It’s sad to see that so many producers can’t hold on.”</p>
<p>LuAnn Troxel said the MILC aid she and her husband would receive fluctuated from several hundred to several thousand dollars each month. Their northwest Indiana-based farm produces milk and corn for their own feeds, with just over 100 cows.&#160; While current milk pricing wouldn’t trigger MILC aid, she said not having a safety net isn’t ok either, considering the volatility of the industry. Just a few months ago, milk prices were lower at $15 or $16 per 100 pounds, she said.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t enough to cover our costs of production,” Troxel said of the aid. “Whenever you have a highly-perishable program like MILC, there has to be some kind of a safety net in place.”</p>
<p>No matter what happens with the bill, Troxel said one thing is for sure.</p>
<p>“We will get up in the morning and milk our cows,” she said. “We have been through zigzags in the market. We had a drought and horrible prices in 2009. We are kind of a tough crew—it’s what we love, and we will find a way to survive in this business.”</p> | Farmers in Limbo Waiting on Congress | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/10/25/farm-bill-expires-no-safety-net.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<a href="http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1264533/minuteman-iii-launches-from-vandenberg/" type="external">test</a> of its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system Wednesday morning. The unarmed missile was launched 4,200 miles from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to a test range near the Marshall Islands. Vandenberg Air Force Base said in a
<a href="http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1263114/minuteman-iii-scheduled-to-launch/" type="external">statement</a>: Air Force public affairs specialist Joe Thomas told The Whim in an email: Thomas added that “test launches are planned 3-5 years in advance, and we schedule four test launches per fiscal year. Preparation for each mission begins more than a year in advance.” The Air Force
<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/02/us-plans-icbm-test-launch-in-california.html" type="external">told</a> Fox News that this test had been “long planned” and was “not a response to recent North Korean action.” North Korea conducted its
<a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1261313/statement-by-pentagon-spokesman-capt-jeff-davis-on-north-korea-icbm-launch/" type="external">second ICBM test</a>on 28 July. Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) spoke on Monday with the TODAY Show about North Korea. Graham said: As
<a href="" type="internal">The Whim previously reported</a>, North Korea
<a href="https://kcnawatch.co/newstream/1500975059-918379248/dprk-fm-spokesman-slams-u-s-cia-directors-remarks/" type="external">threatened</a> to “preemptively annihilate” any country that tries to overthrow the Kim Jong-un regime. Vandenberg Air Force Base last conducted an ICBM test on
<a href="http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1170719/minuteman-iii-launches-from-vandenberg/" type="external">3 May</a> 2017.
<a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1261313/statement-by-pentagon-spokesman-capt-jeff-davis-on-north-korea-icbm-launch/" type="external">North Korea tested</a> its first two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. The first test took place on 4 July and the second on 28 July. On 29 July, US bombers, along with Japanese and South Korean allies, conducted a
<a href="http://www.pacaf.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1261987/us-bombers-conduct-bilateral-mission-with-allies-in-response-to-north-korea-icb/" type="external">test mission in response</a>to North Korea’s second missile test. The US also responded to the North Korean launches with successful tests of its
<a href="" type="internal">THAAD missile</a> defense technology in July. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, told the
<a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-icbm-missile-launch-vandenberg-20170731-story.html" type="external">LA Times</a> that the Vandenberg test launch “must be viewed as a direct response to the North Korean launch.” On 22 July, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the
<a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1255219/us-doesnt-have-luxury-of-choosing-challenges-dunford-tells-aspen-crowd/" type="external">Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,</a> spoke about potential military conflict with North Korea at the
<a href="http://aspensecurityforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Tank-Talk.pdf" type="external">Aspen Security Forum</a> in Aspen, Colorado. Dunford later addressed preparing for potential conflict with North Korea: Regarding North Korea, Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy,
<a href="http://www.pacaf.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1261987/us-bombers-conduct-bilateral-mission-with-allies-in-response-to-north-korea-icb/" type="external">Pacific Air Forces commander</a>, said: Sen.&#160;
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-senator-dianne-feinstein-on-face-the-nation-july-30-2017/" type="external">Dianne Feinstein</a>&#160;(California) addressed the threat of a North Korean attack, telling CBS’s Face the Nation in an interview: Share on
<a href="" type="internal">Facebook</a>
<a href="" type="internal">Twitter</a>
<a href="" type="internal">Email</a> | Air Force Tests Intercontinental Ballistic Missile | false | http://thewhim.com/air-force-tests-intercontinental-ballistic-missile-icbm/ | 2017-08-02 | 2 |
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<p>A memorial service will be held this afternoon in Albuquerque for Patricia “Pat” Clark Smith, who taught English at the University of New Mexico from 1971 to 2003.</p>
<p>She died July 11 of successive organ failure four days after being admitted to Women’s Hospital in Albuquerque, according to information released by her family. She was 67.</p>
<p>The memorial service today will be held at the University of New Mexico chapel at 5 p.m. The public is invited to attend.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Memorial Service Today for Patricia “Pat” Clark Smith | false | https://abqjournal.com/8488/memorial-service-today-for-patricia-pat-clark-smith.html | 2 |
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<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is skipping his senior season to enter the NFL draft.</p>
<p>Rosen made the expected announcement Wednesday with a post on Twitter. He is expected to be a high first-round pick in April.</p>
<p>After arriving in Westwood as the top quarterback recruit in the nation, Rosen was the Bruins' starter for the past three seasons, playing in 30 total games while missing half of his sophomore year with injuries.</p>
<p>He passed for 9,301 yards with 59 touchdowns and 26 interceptions, showing off the tantalizing talent that never translated into a Pac-12 title.</p>
<p>Rosen wrote that attending UCLA was "the best decision of my life."</p>
<p>"Over the last three years, UCLA has helped me grow as an athlete, a scholar and a member of the community," Rosen added. "I have made some mistakes along the way; however, I am grateful that I made those mistakes backed by such a supportive and positive university, so that I could learn from them and better myself."</p>
<p>Rosen played for three offensive coordinators in three seasons with the Bruins, but still developed the arm strength and polish that could make him the first overall pick.</p>
<p>He was close to fired UCLA coach Jim Mora, but also discussed his decision with new Bruins coach Chip Kelly. Rosen thanked his teammates during three seasons in which the Bruins went 18-20 and lost their two bowl games.</p>
<p>"I wish we had won more games, but friendships were forged and memories were made that will last a lifetime," he wrote. "It pains me to leave these guys, but I know they wouldn't let me come back and pass up this opportunity to chase my dreams."</p>
<p>He also promises his mother that he'll return to Westwood to finish his degree.</p>
<p>About 25 minutes after Rosen declared his intentions, Southern California quarterback Sam Darnold also announced he will give up his final two years of collegiate eligibility to head to the NFL.</p>
<p>Darnold's Trojans beat Rosen's Bruins 28-23 for the Victory Bell on Nov. 18 in the local products' only collegiate game against each other. Darnold redshirted the 2015 season, and Rosen was injured for the crosstown showdown in 2016.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is skipping his senior season to enter the NFL draft.</p>
<p>Rosen made the expected announcement Wednesday with a post on Twitter. He is expected to be a high first-round pick in April.</p>
<p>After arriving in Westwood as the top quarterback recruit in the nation, Rosen was the Bruins' starter for the past three seasons, playing in 30 total games while missing half of his sophomore year with injuries.</p>
<p>He passed for 9,301 yards with 59 touchdowns and 26 interceptions, showing off the tantalizing talent that never translated into a Pac-12 title.</p>
<p>Rosen wrote that attending UCLA was "the best decision of my life."</p>
<p>"Over the last three years, UCLA has helped me grow as an athlete, a scholar and a member of the community," Rosen added. "I have made some mistakes along the way; however, I am grateful that I made those mistakes backed by such a supportive and positive university, so that I could learn from them and better myself."</p>
<p>Rosen played for three offensive coordinators in three seasons with the Bruins, but still developed the arm strength and polish that could make him the first overall pick.</p>
<p>He was close to fired UCLA coach Jim Mora, but also discussed his decision with new Bruins coach Chip Kelly. Rosen thanked his teammates during three seasons in which the Bruins went 18-20 and lost their two bowl games.</p>
<p>"I wish we had won more games, but friendships were forged and memories were made that will last a lifetime," he wrote. "It pains me to leave these guys, but I know they wouldn't let me come back and pass up this opportunity to chase my dreams."</p>
<p>He also promises his mother that he'll return to Westwood to finish his degree.</p>
<p>About 25 minutes after Rosen declared his intentions, Southern California quarterback Sam Darnold also announced he will give up his final two years of collegiate eligibility to head to the NFL.</p>
<p>Darnold's Trojans beat Rosen's Bruins 28-23 for the Victory Bell on Nov. 18 in the local products' only collegiate game against each other. Darnold redshirted the 2015 season, and Rosen was injured for the crosstown showdown in 2016.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is entering the NFL draft | false | https://apnews.com/70cee9e7a38f43d496be2108ced5c88b | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>With Detroit filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, everybody knows major root-canal cutbacks are coming. Cutbacks of out-of-control government spending, pensions and health benefits. Major cutbacks. We know that.</p>
<p>We also know that the downfall of Detroit is again&#160;proof positive that the public-union collective-bargaining model has utterly failed. Unions just loot the benefit lockbox at taxpayer expense. That was the message of Gov. Scott Walker's victorious crusade in Wisconsin. If any good comes out of the Detroit debacle, it will be the spread of that message across the country.</p>
<p>But there's another important point here. If Detroit is to truly recover, a growth program of tax-free investment incentives must be part of the process. Specifically, Detroit should be made a tax-free enterprise zone, along lines proposed years ago by the late Jack Kemp.</p>
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<p>The capital-gains tax should be suspended for new ventures. Investment spending and profitability should be made tax-free. Some kind of income-tax break should be put into place for the new employees of new companies. And property taxes should be waved.</p>
<p>Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute tells me that Michigan suffers from a huge business-property tax that's levied on machinery and equipment. He also points out that Detroit has the country's highest property taxes on homes, the top commercial property tax and the second-highest industrial property taxes. Get rid of all that. And then let's hope Gov. Rick Snyder keeps lowering Michigan's corporate tax rate.</p>
<p>But the point is this: A Kemp-like enterprise solution would be vital to Detroit's comeback. Especially&#160;a capital-gains tax cut, along with other direct-investment tax cuts. It can be done.</p>
<p>Not forever. Perhaps for three to five years. Something like that. But states and cities compete with each other on a tax basis. And you can bet the ranch that a tax-free Detroit will see investors pouring in, making for a rapid economic recovery.</p>
<p>Land and labor are pretty cheap right now in Detroit. Combine those low costs with a low-tax regime, and the city could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.</p>
<p>The biggest additional problem is the crime wave. The Detroit homicide rate is high. According to National Review Online's Jim Geraghty, the city has been named among America's most dangerous for years. Detroiters wait an average of 58 minutes for police to respond, compared to a national average of 11 minutes.</p>
<p>Years ago, when crime was a huge issue in New York City, Rudy Giuliani instituted new policing methods to make the city safe again. He accomplished that, and&#160;he lowered taxes too. Gotham had a huge comeback.</p>
<p>Now, I'm not suggesting that the outrageous public-union benefits shouldn't be slashed. That's the root-canal side of the reform equation. And it is crucial.</p>
<p>Steve Malanga tells me that 15,000 city workers currently pay lifetime retirement health care costs for 22,000 retirees. It's like financing a separate government. That one piece alone is about $5.5 billion.</p>
<p>And pension-fund accounting is as phony as a three-dollar bill. With a highly unrealistic 8 percent long-run return rate, the city government didn't have to make any more contributions to the retirement fund. And apparently the 40 or so municipal unions persuaded the city government to actually float new pension-obligation bonds just to fund their own bloated pensions. (Many municipalities use this fiscal gimmick.)</p>
<p>All in, Detroit is running a $350 million deficit with a near $20 billion total-debt position. They pay themselves a living wage and then spend way more on schools per pupil than the national average. The result is one of the lowest student-performance rates in the country.</p>
<p>I'm not going to go into the economic wreckage that the United Auto Workers created at Ford, GM and Chrysler. But the focus now should be on curbing the power and money of Detroit's municipal public unions, who have lined their own pockets at taxpayer expense. Taking a cue from Wisconsin's Walker, collective bargaining should be sharply cut if not eliminated. And hopefully a bankruptcy court will settle all the obligations at 5 to 10 cents on the dollar, as Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr tried to do but failed.</p>
<p>But again, creative economic-growth policies must accompany fiscal downsizing if Detroit wants to turn the streetlights back on, rebuild at least 78,000 abandoned homes and structures, and attract businesses and workers to erect a new Detroit.</p>
<p>It won't be about manufacturing this time. But like other recovering cities in the U.S., Detroit could morph itself into a technology/education/medical-research complex that makes use of all the firepower at its fine colleges, universities, hospitals and medical centers.</p>
<p>It can be done. But if ever there was a time and a place to put Jack Kemp's tax-free-enterprise-zone model into practice, now is the time, and Detroit is the place.</p>
<p>Don't forget the growth solution.</p>
<p /> | A Kemp growth plan for Detroit | true | http://humanevents.com/2013/07/22/a-kemp-growth-plan-for-detroit/ | 2013-07-22 | 0 |
<p>Every time I hear the words, “We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws”, I am reminded of just how far along the road to idiocy we have traveled. That statement is as asinine a truism as ever left a politician’s lips, almost akin to telling someone that just because they are wearing their shirt doesn’t mean they should forget their pants. But, given our recent proclivity in tolerating official pap, this fresh accretion to the daily public discourse should occasion no surprise. In any case, enough emotion and vested interest are seeped into the immigration debate that one needs to make an effort to rescue the basic issues, which are, in fact, quite straightforward.</p>
<p>That the US is a nation of immigrants is largely true, but not in the sense the argument is usually deployed. After all, the US is hardly unique for being peopled by men and women from other lands: the Sri Lankan Tamils came from South India, the majority Sinhalese themselves came from northern India. England was settled by people from what are now Germany and France. In America itself, the native Americans came from Asia. South East Asia is full of people of Chinese descent. Arabs, Afghans, Persians, Greeks, all settled in India over the centuries.</p>
<p>This simplistic formula, wielded often as a clinching argument for not worrying overly about immigration, ignores the difference between immigration and migration. We have to remember that ‘Immigration’, as different from ‘migration’, presupposes a process, and a set of laws. The days when you could migrate anywhere as you pleased are long gone. Once there are international boundaries, you can only migrate within your own borders.</p>
<p>This difference is what nation states are all about. It is the law that prescribes procedures according to which people may enter, stay, gain citizenship, etc. So, to say it correctly, we are a nation of immigrants because we are a nation of laws. The laws under gird, and are thus more basic than, immigration. We can have a country without immigration, but not one without laws. And while it does happen that a person or two might unintentionally stray across a border every now and then, no one seriously argues that 12 million people were vagrants who absentmindedly found themselves on the other side of the border one morning.</p>
<p>There are three ways in which one can be inside a country legally — as a guest, as an immigrant, or as a citizen. In all these cases the country (supposedly) knows you are there. Anyone who is in the country by some other means is by definition illegal (technically, at least). Whether the person is hard-working or lazy, thrifty or profligate, has family values or not, none of this is germane (Graham Greene was not allowed into this country, for heaven’s sake, forbidden by some law!).</p>
<p>When the law is weak, argue the facts, when the facts are weak, argue the law, as every young attorney is told. The law being unambiguous (you cannot work in the USA without an authorization), the opponents of immigration reform seek refuge in that oldest of American pablum’s — pragmatism. We have to recognize the fact that 12 million people are here illegally, they say in awe. And they contribute to the economy, they are vital to so many industries, they add, reverently. This is like telling a traffic cop that he should ignore your driving without a license because you are on your way to an important meeting. America was known for its uniform respect for the law, but this is one more casualty of our decline.</p>
<p>But all of us are complicit, my friend protests, confessing frankly that he had never asked the guy who painted his home if his two helpers were, er, legal. Let us say we are. Well? I was once told that the pizza business in some states was controlled entirely by the mafia. Since I like pizza, should I now oppose the FBI going after the mafia? How far does this ridiculous line of argument go?</p>
<p>It is a tedious task. So was tackling the depression, or fighting the cold war, all daunting enterprises. So are activities like elections, courtroom trials and preserving the rights of the accused. Do we jettison these too? If the number of 12 million seems staggering, do remember that we have over 100 million automobile drivers in this country, all of whom are issued driving licenses, and conform to a traffic system whose logistical sophistication is the envy of the world. Let us not underestimate ourselves, nor overstate the problem. What is needed is political awareness, and a will to sovereignty.</p>
<p>For, have no doubt, a country that cannot enforce its borders is a country no longer. A blind acquiescence of the concept of immigration anytime, anywhere, without suitable forethought, is a far more pernicious threat than the downing of the World Trade Center. Illegal migration is a direct challenge to a nation’s sovereignty, pure and simple. To throw epithets like racist, fascist, heartless, etc. at all those who hold this view, is no different than President Bush (representing the mother of all illegal squatting — the vagrant in the White House) condemning those who protest his warrant less wiretapping felony as soft on terrorism. One cannot in good faith support the enforcement of some laws and not others, especially if one is doing so in the noble cause of reducing the cost of one’s consumer instincts.</p>
<p>These basic premises should be form the basis upon which other considerations of pragmatism, personal stories, and compassion, may apply. To confuse the main issues of sovereignty and the rule of law with any subsidiary logic would be an act of imbecility as monumental as the many others we’ve committed in the past quarter century.</p>
<p>NIRANJAN RAMAKRISHNAN can be reached at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>His blog is at <a href="http://njn-blogogram.blogspot.com/" type="external">http://njn-blogogram.blogspot.com</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Immigrants, Migrants and Vagrants | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/04/06/immigrants-migrants-and-vagrants/ | 2006-04-06 | 4 |
<p>A San Francisco Bay Area billionaire needs to open an access road to a beloved beach, upholding a lower court ruling against a co-founder of a giant tech company, a California appeals court ruled.</p>
<p>The First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 3-0 that Vinod Khosla violated state law when he bought a $32.5 million beachfront property surrounding Martins Beach, south of Half Moon Bay, and blocked the public from accessing it.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The appeals court judges ordered Khosla to open the gates immediately in a ruling released Thursday.</p>
<p>The State Lands Commission has been negotiating with Khosla, a venture capitalist who co-founded the tech company Sun Microsystems, to purchase a public right of way.</p>
<p>California's Coastal Commission executive director, Jack Ainsworth, said he is encouraged by the ruling.</p>
<p>"We are hopeful that the day will come when the locks are cut off the gates and public can once again walk across the sand at Martins Beach and go for a swim at the beach," he said.</p>
<p>Khosla's attorney, Dori Yob, did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.</p> | California court orders billionaire to reopen beloved beach | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/10/appeals-court-orders-billionaire-to-open-beach-access.html | 2017-08-10 | 0 |
<p>And so it has begun. Trump is going after the free press in an obviously authoritarian way.</p>
<p>Trump is very unhappy that NBC News is doing its job of reporting the news to the people and tweeted out that the time is now to take away their broadcast license.</p>
<p>Earlier today, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/trump-wanted-dramatic-increase-nuclear-arsenal-meeting-military-leaders-n809701" type="external">NBC News reports that in a July meeting</a> Trump told his people he wanted to increase our nuclear arsenal tenfold after viewing a slideshow on how we've reduced our stockpile over the years. This is the incident where "supposedly" Rex Tillerson called Trump a moron.</p>
<p>Apart from watching 'Patton" a dozen times, Trump obviously has no knowledge of our military history or the problems and issues they've dealt with for decades. Since he has no patience or mental capacity to learn anything, this is the type of behavior he exhibits and what the world has to deal with.</p>
<p>Two officials present said that at multiple points in the discussion, the president expressed a desire not just for more nuclear weapons, but for additional U.S. troops and military equipment.</p>
<p>Any increase in America’s nuclear arsenal would not only break with decades of U.S. nuclear doctrine but also violate international disarmament treaties signed by every president since Ronald Reagan. Nonproliferation experts warned that such a move could set off a global arms race.</p>
<p>The article also reports that his lack of focus throughout is detrimental to our foreign policy as well as the safety of the nation.</p>
<p>At a meeting in the Situation Room the president was so non-present his advisers wanted, "a smaller setting where the president could perhaps be more focused. “It wasn’t just the number of people. It was the idea of focus,” according to one person familiar with the discussion. The thinking was: “Maybe we need to slow down a little and explain the whole world” from a big-picture perspective, this person said."</p>
<p>Anyway, Donald was not happy with this reports as he is unhappy about any negative press coverage so he then threatened to try and revoke NBC's broadcasting license.</p>
<p>Trump doesn't have the actual power to do so by <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/11/trump-nbc-broadcast-license-243667" type="external">himself and neither does the FCC</a>, but he would if he could.</p>
<p>The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues broadcast licenses to stations and oversees license holders. It does not license networks. NBC is owned by Comcast, which holds broadcast licenses for several stations. NBC also airs on affiliate stations owned by other companies.</p>
<p>MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle responded.</p>
<p>What Trumps' constant attacks on the national media do is inflame his die-hard supporters, like he's doing with the NFL so that they react with anger.</p>
<p>That type of anger makes people turn away from "mainstream news" and embrace conspiracy theories from black helicopter groups and the Fox and Friends state-sponsored propaganda have been peddling.</p>
<p>This is detrimental to a free society, but by his reactions to the press, free is something Trump would love to do without.</p> | Trump Threatens The NBC News Broadcasting License | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2017/10/trump-threatens-nbc-news-broadcasting | 2017-10-11 | 4 |
<p>The University of Mississippi has taken down the state flag.</p>
<p>Breaking: JACKSON, Miss. ( <a href="https://twitter.com/AP" type="external">@AP</a>) -- Ole Miss removes Mississippi flag from campus because it includes Confederate battle emblem.</p>
<p>The PC crowd got their wish, after years of one push after another targeting any connection the school had with images of the Confederacy. After a summer chock-full of one institution after another discarding Confederate flags, following the <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/dylan-roof-charleston-church-shooting-suspect-face-death-penalty-prosecutors-n421172" type="external">Charleston massacre</a>, the University of Mississippi decided to add one more elision of the Confederacy from its history, following their 1997 <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/11/06/3589793/mississippi-ballot-initiative-aims-to-bring-back-ole-miss-confederate-mascot/" type="external">ban</a> on Confederate flags from football games and its subsequent rubbing out of its Colonel Reb macot in 2003.</p>
<p>The university waited until the school senate voted on October 20 to take the flag down, a decision triggering the faculty senate, the graduate student council, and the staff council to agree only days later.</p>
<p>Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks enthused, “The University of Mississippi community came to the realization years ago that the Confederate battle flag did not represent many of our core values, such as civility and respect for others. Since that time, we have become a stronger and better university. We join other leaders in our state who are calling for a change in the state flag.”</p>
<p>“The University of Mississippi community came to the realization years ago that the Confederate battle flag did not represent many of our core values, such as civility and respect for others."</p>
<p>Ole Miss Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks</p>
<p>Stocks wasn’t finished, continuing with the PC line:</p>
<p>As Mississippi’s flagship university, we have a deep love and respect for our state. Because the flag remains Mississippi’s official banner, this was a hard decision. I understand the flag represents tradition and honor to some. But to others, the flag means that some members of the Ole Miss family are not welcomed or valued. That is why the university faculty, staff and leadership have united behind this student-led initiative. Mississippi and its people are known far and wide for hospitality and a warm and welcoming culture. But our state flag does not communicate those values. Our state needs a flag that speaks to who we are. It should represent the wonderful attributes about our state that unite us, not those that still divide us.</p> | Ole Miss Drops Mississippi State Flag From Campus | true | https://dailywire.com/news/691/ole-miss-drops-mississippi-state-flag-campus-hank-berrien | 2015-10-26 | 0 |
<p>SYDNEY (Reuters) – Several lawmakers filed family history documents in Australia’s parliament to meet a government deadline on Tuesday to try to prove their citizenship and stem a crisis that has so far claimed nine MPs and cost the government its majority.</p>
<p>Australia’s 116-year-old constitution bans dual citizens from holding national office and the High Court adopted a strict interpretation of it in October in a country where half the population were either born overseas or have a parent who was.</p>
<p>The crisis may yet plunge Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal-National coalition into minority rule, should it lose another lawmaker, or a crucial by-election set for Dec. 19.</p>
<p>The ruling center-right pairing lost its one-seat lower-house majority when the&#160;High Court&#160;found Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to be a New Zealander and therefore ineligible for office.&#160;He has since rescinded his New Zealand citizenship and regained his seat in parliament. &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>But another member has since quit his place&#160;and now as many as a dozen more now face referral to the&#160;court after the deadline to disclose the birthplace of parents and grandparents passed on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The disclosures show that nearly every lawmaker has at least one foreign parent or grandparent. While some provide citizenship records dating back to the 19th century, others give few details or documents, prompting calls for the High Court to consider their cases.</p>
<p>“There are a few grey areas, there’s no doubt about that,” MP Christopher Pyne said on Perth radio station 6PR, adding that parliament would decide on Thursday which cases to send to the court.</p>
<p>One opposition Labor Party member has already told parliament it “remains unclear” whether he is British, after the Home Office could not find the paperwork to prove he renounced his citizenship a decade ago.</p>
<p>Labor argues that seven government lawmakers filed “unconvincing” or “incomplete” disclosures, while the government raised doubts over four opposition MPs, and there is a cloud over another independent lawmaker.</p>
<p>Although Joyce easily regained his seat at a by-election on Saturday, the crisis still has the government precariously clinging to power and has already dented its ability to pursue its political agenda.</p>
<p>If it loses a by-election in Sydney on Dec. 19, or the court ousts another lower-house MP, it would be forced to depend on a handful of independent lawmakers to retain power and pass laws.</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> | Australia MPs rush to disclose parentage amid citizenship crisis | false | https://newsline.com/australia-mps-rush-to-disclose-parentage-amid-citizenship-crisis/ | 2017-12-05 | 1 |
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<p>The number of drilling rigs operating in the state has dropped from 85 last spring to 60, department Secretary David Martin told participants at the annual San Juan Basin Energy Conference in Farmington on Tuesday. The rig count dropped in both the Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico and the San Juan Basin in the Four Corners area as producers slashed planned production to compensate for plummeting oil prices, which fell from more than $100 per barrel last summer to less than $45 in early January.</p>
<p>With 50 employees working directly on each drilling rig, and another 50 to 70 people employed in support jobs, Martin said his estimate of 2,000 layoffs is conservative.</p>
<p>“So far we haven’t seen a decrease in oil production in New Mexico, but we expect it to begin leveling off, and that means lost revenue and jobs in the coming months,” Martin said.</p>
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<p>Jason Sandel, executive vice president at Aztec Well Servicing in Farmington, said it usually takes about six months for the full impact of drilling rig shutdowns to kick in. Direct employees are affected first, followed by layoffs in support positions.</p>
<p>“We had about 10 rigs running in the San Juan Basin on average last year, but that’s now down to just three rigs,” Sandel told the Journal . “Drilling activity is the forbearer of good and bad news, with a six-month lag in between changes in rig counts and impact on communities. Prices collapsed in the fall, and rigs started coming back to the yards in December, so we’ll see the full impact in the San Juan area by about May or June.”</p>
<p>Before the plunge in prices, the oil and gas industry had been one of the few bright spots in the state’s economy.</p>
<p>In addition to the lost jobs, lower oil prices also have taken their toll on state spending, which is heavily dependent on taxes and royalties from oil and gas activity. Those revenues account for about 19 percent of the state’s annual general fund budget of around $6.2 billion.</p>
<p>Last summer, state officials expected they’d have $285 million in new tax revenue for the coming fiscal year. By the time the recently concluded legislative session rolled around, that was down to $83 million, meaning virtually no raises for state workers and very tight budgeting elsewhere.</p>
<p>Nationally, an estimated 100,000 people in the oil and gas industry are expected to lose their jobs, said Rick Muncrief, president and CEO of WPX Energy Inc.</p>
<p>“The rig count has dropped by nearly half nationwide since Thanksgiving, falling from almost 2,000 before to about 1,000 now,” Muncrief told conference participants. “With 100 to 120 direct and indirect jobs associated with every rig, that means about 100,000 jobs have been lost since November.”</p>
<p>And the pain is expected to last well into 2016, if not beyond, because of an estimated 2 million barrels per day of over-supply in worldwide oil production.</p>
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<p>“We expect prices for oil and natural gas to stay low for a significant amount of time,” said Dave Lawler, CEO of BP America’s Lower 48 States onshore business. “There’s nothing to move the needle in the short term. I don’t believe there will be a significant rise in prices anytime soon.”</p>
<p>A price war by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, will prolong the industry’s troubles as production declines significantly in the U.S., said Daniel Fine, associate director at the New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology’s Center for Energy Policy.</p>
<p>OPEC and the Saudis refuse to cut back on their production to boost prices as they’ve done in the past to instead force U.S. producers to curtail the shale oil-and-gas boom that has driven production to record levels over the past seven years.</p>
<p>That represents an “historic” change in Saudi and OPEC policy aimed at shoring up their market share, said Fine, who was recently appointed project leader for state energy policy.</p>
<p>“This is a war we’re in,” Fine told conference participants. “People are saying that next year things will be better. Nonsense! Saudi Arabia has made a historic decision to no longer support oil prices. It’s now survival of the fittest.”</p>
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<p /> | Price decline hits oil patch | false | https://abqjournal.com/559739/price-decline-hits-oil-patch-in-nm.html | 2015-03-25 | 2 |
<p>Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama gave a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-barack-obama-prague-delivered" type="external">speech in Prague</a> outlining an ambitious plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The vision helped win him a Nobel Peace Prize.</p>
<p>But it clearly hasn't succeeded. So, how much has the president actually accomplished in containing these weapons of mass destruction?</p>
<p>Matthew Bunn has some answers. He’s with the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University's Belfer Center.</p>
<p>“President Obama has made some major progress on controlling nuclear dangers,” says Bunn. He highlights a new nuclear arms agreement with Russia, and the "breakthrough" agreement with Iran.</p>
<p>There are, in fact, fewer nuclear weapons in the world today than there were in January 2009.</p>
<p>“Both the United States and Russia, who have more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, have continued to reduce their stocks of nuclear weapons, though slowly.”</p>
<p>Bunn also highlights Obama’s drive to secure and track nuclear materials to prevent them from getting into the hands of terrorists. Obama sponsored a regular series of <a href="" type="internal">international summits</a> on the issue, and Bunn says that’s led to "great improvements" in the security of nuclear materials.</p>
<p>But there are failures too.</p>
<p>“Almost all of the rest of what he hoped for in the Prague speech in 2009 remains unaccomplished,” says Bunn. “So we have no progress on a comprehensive test ban; we have a nuclear arms race in South Asia between India and Pakistan that is very dangerous. We have North Korea expanding its nuclear arsenal in a very dangerous way.”</p>
<p>Bunn also points out that tensions have resurfaced with Russia.</p>
<p>“The successes are real and important,” says Bunn, “but the world has proven to be more resistant to change in nuclear postures than Obama expected when he came to office.”</p>
<p>“So there’s a lot of work for the next president still to do,” he adds.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the United States is maintaining its nuclear strength.</p>
<p>“What President Obama said is that we will seek the safety of a world free of nuclear weapons, but will maintain a safe, secure and reliable deterrent in the meantime,” says Bunn. “And unfortunately most of the effort since then has been focused on the safe, secure and reliable deterrent.</p>
<p>“It’s an amazing irony of history that the president who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his soaring disarmament rhetoric is also the president who has laid out literally a trillion dollar program over the next 30 years to modernize every aspect of the US nuclear arsenal to last, essentially, forever.”</p>
<p>All that said, Bunn remains optimistic that there could one day be a world without nuclear weapons, with enough common sense safeguards for international security.</p>
<p>“I don’t expect it’s going to be here tomorrow, but I can at least imagine that world… To say never can these conflicts be resolved represents a failure of imagination.”&#160;</p> | Obama’s mixed record on fighting nuclear weapons | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-05-26/obama-s-mixed-record-fighting-nuclear-weapons | 2016-05-26 | 3 |
<p>Fifty-eight years after the universal declaration of human rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, the debate continues as to whether the document is truly universal.</p>
<p>Upon its adoption on Dec. 10, 1948, former U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, chair of the commission on human rights, expressed her hope it would become “the Magna Carta of all mankind.” Ironically, as was the fate with the “great charter” of 1215, the declaration has not fully lived up to its name.</p>
<p>The declaration was challenged from its very inception. The commission’s first draft attracted 168 amendments from various countries. However, the final document was almost unchanged from the initial draft tabled by the commission. Forty-eight countries voted in favour, while eight countries — Poland, Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia, the Ukraine, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union — abstained and expressed reservations.</p>
<p>The conflicting views on the declaration have become more pronounced recently as human rights take a more central role in international and domestic forums. The critics of the current international human rights standards range from cultural relativists and Islamists to proponents of Asian values. They contend the existing international human rights regime is deeply influenced by the western experience. The spotlight on the individual, the focus on rights divorced from duties, the emphasis on legalism to secure these rights and the greater priority given to civil and political rights are all hallmarks of the western bias. In contrast, the Asian (including Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, Hindu, etc.) and Islamic conceptions would emphasize community, duties to one another and society and some even place greater emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights.</p>
<p>The philosophical and ideological underpinnings defining human relationship with each other and society in many non-western societies are at variance with our fixation with individualism or what some would call radical individualism.</p>
<p>The focus on individual rights — in some cases to the detriment of the family and community — is not consistent with many non-western outlooks on human rights.</p>
<p>Confucian scholar Tu Weiming writes: “Confucian humanism offers an account of the reasons for supporting basic human rights that does not depend on a liberal conception of persons.”</p>
<p>However, this in no way implies that such views are totally devoid of consideration for the individual. The substructures of human rights in some non-western conceptions attempt to establish equilibrium between individualism and collectivism in ways that are different from ours. Far from being a contradiction, as documented by collectivists theorists such as Harry Triandis, individualism and collectivism can coexist and in fact can thrive together.</p>
<p>From the Confucian perspective, for instance, Weiming notes: “Human rights are inseparable from human responsibilities.”</p>
<p>Although in the Confucian tradition, duty-consciousness is more pronounced than rights-consciousness — to the extent that the Confucian tradition underscores self-cultivation, family cohesiveness, economic well-being, social order, political justice and cultural flourishing — it is a valuable spring of wisdom for an understanding of human rights broadly conceived.”</p>
<p>The natural law origin of the declaration also conflicts with the religious view that rights are derived from divine authority. Brazil’s suggestion the declaration ought to have referred to a transcendent entity was rejected outright during the debate leading to the declaration’s adoption. One argument says the denial of divine authority is essential to make the philosophy underlying rights protection universal. How can something be universal when it rejects the view of a significant component of the world’s population — not only eastern religions but also adherents of Christianity and Judaism — who believe in some form of divine authority? Why should the assumption of secular elite be imposed on everyone?</p>
<p>The extensive list of fundamental human rights is subject to certain general limitations, set out in articles 29 and 30 of the declaration. Article 29 (2), for instance, provides for “limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.” The different philosophies and views undoubtedly will produce equally valid interpretations of such restrictive articles and human rights standards in general.</p>
<p>A strong argument can be made that the current formulation of international human rights constitutes a cultural structure in which western society finds itself easily at home. This has led some western human-rights scholars to arrogantly conclude that most non-western societies lack not only the practice of human rights but also the very concept. This clearly overlooks the fact that we can only claim to be better than others because we use our own values and standards to measure them.</p>
<p>Dominance cannot be equated with the truth, though it is easy to get caught up in the old confusion between might and right.</p>
<p>It is important to acknowledge and appreciate that other societies may have equally valid alternative conceptions of human rights. Exiled Tunisian Islamist leader Rachid Ghannouchi once told a reporter: “I think a universal concept of human rights must come from the philosophical vision of all peoples.”</p>
<p>The call for a more inclusive conception is laudable, particularly given that even proponents of the other views acknowledge that there are certain universal values. For instance, the jailed former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, a proponent of both Asian values and Islam, writes in his book, The Asian Renaissance, “To say that freedom is western . . . is to offend our own traditions as well as our forefathers, who gave their lives in the struggle against tyranny and injustice.”</p>
<p>Claims of universality do not ensure universal acceptance. Accommodating the various conceptions within the international framework may or may not be plausible. The difficulty of the task should not prevent us from grappling with this issue. At least from this exercise we may in fact learn that there are indeed certain truly universal ideals and principles shared by us all.</p>
<p>Indeed, the belief that the current international human rights regime is derived exclusively from the ideological framework of the west is a major obstacle in its acceptance as a truly universal vision. As suggested by a number of human rights scholars, the United Nations must initiate a project to rethink and reformulate the conception of human rights, taking into account the different philosophies that share this planet.</p>
<p>The only way to ensure universal acceptance of and compliance with international human rights law is by removing the crutch used for so long by human rights violators — that human rights as we know it today is a western construct.</p>
<p>FAISAL KUTTY is a Toronto lawyer, writer and doctoral candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. His articles are archived at <a href="http://www.faisalkutty.com/" type="external">www.faisalkutty.com</a> and he can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Legacy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/12/09/the-legacy-of-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights/ | 2006-12-09 | 4 |
<p>Sen. Lindsey Graham called on Judge Sonia Sotomayor to apologize for remarks she made in a 2001 speech about her ethnic heritage, though he said he does not believe her to be racist.</p>
<p>Judge Sotomayor told an audience she "would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."</p>
<p>Conservative leaders Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich called the comment racist, but Republican lawmakers have hesitated to label her a racist for the remark.</p>
<p>"It's getting from her life experiences a superiority based on those experiences versus somebody else in society," Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, said on "Fox News Sunday." "And I don't want that kind of person being a judge in my case. But I don't think she's a racist."</p>
<p>President Barack Obama told NBC News Friday he believed Judge Sotomayor "would have restated" that sentence, noting that the rest of the speech she delivered was about how her upbringing as a Latina gave her the experience to be a good judge.</p>
<p>Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said critics are taking Judge Sotomayor's remarks out of context.</p>
<p>"I think the first thing she'll say is read the whole speech, which was then published in a law review article," Mr. Schumer said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "And she makes it clear that while, of course, people's personal experiences guide them, rule of law comes first."</p>
<p>Judge Sotomayor has not commented on her remark or the speech, although White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs has said he believed she used a "poor" choice of words.</p>
<p>Copyright - 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2009/may/31/graham-calls-sotomayor-apology/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
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<p>During World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to Seattle, Wash., to meet with 18,000 aircraft workers at Boeing Corporation.FDR brought with him a young airplane pilot named Hewitt Wheless from Texas.</p>
<p>The pilot had escaped death, thanks to the resilience of the bullet-riddled B-17 plane he flew out of harm’s way. His plane had been built at that very Boeing plant.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Do you think seeing and hearing that young pilot thank them for saving his life connected them to a common cause? You bet it did.</p>
<p>Although the work required for America to catch up to the output of the Nazi military-industrial complex was daunting, Americans rose to the challenge by persevering through long, hard hours of menial factory work.</p>
<p>FDR’s visits helped transform welders and riveters into freedom fighters. From 1941 until 1945 American aircraft companies out-produced the Nazis three to one and built nearly 300,000 airplanes.</p>
<p>People remember stories. Effective leaders like FDR identify and communicate stories to inspire people. Here are three key points to consider when using stories to enthuse, engage and energize people.</p>
<p>1. Connect People with Your Vision</p>
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<p>Identify and tell stories about the people your organization serves. This keeps people focused on the importance of your vision. Many healthcare organizations do this by sharing the stories of how their work helped former patients and their families. To see examples, check out the videos of patient stories on New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s website at <a href="http://nyp.org/amazingthings/index.html" type="external">http://nyp.org/amazingthings/index.html Opens a New Window.</a>. The stories you’ll see don't always have happy endings but they are very effective at communicating the importance of their work.</p>
<p>2. Connect People with Your Leadership Values</p>
<p>Leaders should be open about telling their own stories to connect people with their leadership values.</p>
<p>Once when I was teaching a leadership workshop in Manhattan, a dozen or so leaders from New York-Presbyterian Hospital were present. I learned that New York-Presbyterian employees knew a story about the hospital’s longtime CEO Dr. Herb Pardes (now retired) that explained why he was passionate about valuing people and being intentional about connecting with patients and their families.</p>
<p>As a seven-year old boy, Pardes was hospitalized for several months with Perthes disease. During this time he underwent medical procedures administered by aloof healthcare professionals. Hospital policies during those years restricted the time young Herb could spend with his family, time that would have reduced the stress, anxiety and sadness he felt. The trauma he experienced from a period of hospitalization that isolated him from warm, supportive and loving relationships transformed Pardes’ life and instilled in him a drive to reform the delivery of healthcare.</p>
<p>The people at New York-Presbyterian knew Dr. Pardes’ story. His passion inspired them and it reinforced why valuing and being intentional about connecting with people is so important.</p>
<p>3. Live Your Leadership Values</p>
<p>Make sure you live your leadership values to reinforce them. Think of it this way: With words and deeds you are adding to or diminishing the narrative of the story that supports your mission and values.</p>
<p>Through his words and deeds, Dr. Pardes sent an unambiguous message about a paramount value at New York-Presbyterian. He was regularly seen making bedside visits to patients and their families. Although many CEOs of huge organizations would see this as inefficient, Dr. Pardes understood that walking the talk sent a powerful message.</p>
<p>In addition to taking time to connect with patients and their families, Dr. Pardes said in interviews with publications and in presentations that he wanted to be sure that the doctors and nurses at New York-Presbyterian are caring individuals and that they are happy at work. He advocated that everyone should have personal and professional mentors and he strived to help his employees balance their personal lives and professional growth. To extend the feeling of connection outward, he encouraged staff members to memorize the names of not only patients but the patients’ family members as well.</p>
<p>Led by Dr. Pardes from 2000 until 2011, the inspired people of New York-Presbyterian propelled their hospital to be recognized as one of the top hospitals in America for patient care, management and consistent profitability.</p>
<p>When you: 1. Connect people with your vision, 2. Connect people with your leadership values, and 3. Live your leadership values, it engages, enthuses and energizes employees so they give their best efforts and do the long and hard work necessary to achieve sustainable superior performance.</p> | How Leaders Use Stories to Help Achieve Superior Performance | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/11/25/how-leaders-use-stories-to-help-achieve-superior-performance.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>As the intense heat of the midday sun beats down, Gladys Nekesa is often found standing in line to receive food at a refugee shelter in northern Uganda.</p>
<p>Nekesa, though, is not one of the nearly 285,000 South Sudanese refugees living <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/129_Uganda%20Flash%20Update%20on%20the%20South%20Sudan%20Emergency%20Response%2019%20September.pdf" type="external">in the Bidi Bidi refugee camp</a>. She is a Ugandan from Gulu, a district about 100 miles away from the shelter site.</p>
<p>“I’m very hungry so I am pretending to be a refugee to get food for my family,” said the 28-year-old mother of five. “The hunger is biting all of us in this region, and the government is only concentrating on refugees. We have no option other than to pretend to be refugees.”</p>
<p>More than <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/stories/2017/8/59915f604/south-sudanese-refugees-uganda-exceed-1-million.html" type="external">1 million South Sudanese refugees</a> are sheltering in 14 camps in northern Uganda, according to the United Nations. But nowadays Ugandans in the drought-stricken north who have lost their crops and livestock have resorted to disguising themselves as South Sudanese refugees to gain access to grain, flour and high-energy biscuits that the government, UN and humanitarian organizations distribute to refugees in the shelters.</p>
<p>Related:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Turning the world's largest refugee camp into a 'big city'</a></p>
<p>“I’m not the only person from Acholi tribe here disguising myself as a refugee,” said Nekesa, referring to her ethnic group, as she carried a sack of grain away from a camp warehouse. “We are very many people who have become refugees to survive the biting hunger. The advantage is that officials cannot differentiate between Acholi from Uganda and [those from] South Sudan.”</p>
<p>There are approximately 2 million Acholi living in northern Uganda along the border of South Sudan. Tens of thousands also live in South Sudan.</p>
<p>Many South Sudanese Acholi have fled south to Uganda since civil war enveloped their young country in 2013. After gaining independence from Sudan, disputes between the country’s two major tribes eventually turned violent. President Salva Kiir is a Dinka, the largest South Sudanese ethnic group, while former vice president and rebel commander Riek Machar is a Nuer, the second largest.</p>
<p>Related:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">South Sudanese refugees struggle to overcome ethnic divisions as they pray for peace (photos)</a></p>
<p>Parts of East Africa are struggling with&#160;the worst drought in more than half a century. More than 11 million people in Uganda were facing&#160;food shortages and 1.6 million were on the verge of&#160;famine, according to a <a href="http://www.necoc-opm.go.ug/assessments/1.%20National%20Food%20Security%20Assessement%20Report%20Janauary%202017.pdf" type="external">January report</a> by the Ugandan government.&#160;Officials added&#160;that a total of 17 million people in the region, including Ethiopians and Kenyans, face similar dangers.</p>
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<p>A South Sudanese woman collects a meal in Omugo refugee settlement camp in northern Uganda on Aug. 23, 2017.</p>
<p>Goran Tomasevic/Reuters</p>
<p>“Most regions in northern Uganda are facing severe food crisis and the government has been trying to send food to these regions,” said Christopher Kibazanga, Uganda’s agriculture minister. “But there is fear if individuals and families do not manage the available food stocks at household levels well, the situation can quickly deteriorate to the emergency and famine stages of food insecurity.”</p>
<p>The hunger that the people of Acholi and other tribes in the north have suffered this year is not a one-off occurrence. It has happened repeatedly for the last several years, with Ugandans complaining of insufficient government interventions to end the problem.</p>
<p>Related:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Uganda's other refugee crisis</a></p>
<p>Entering the camp at Bidi Bidi recently was Sarah Akumu, 33, struggling to hold her two remaining children with one hand as she held a suitcase in the other. She lost her 3-year-old son to hunger in February.</p>
<p>“I’m very tired and hungry,” she lamented. “Life is not easy outside here. I have decided to save my life and those of my children by going to the camp. I will tell the officials that I came from South Sudan.”</p>
<p>Homes in the region are deserted, said Akumu and others. Children have dropped out of school due to hunger. Internally displaced Ugandans trek along main roads, carrying bundles of luggage as they head to the refugee camps.</p>
<p>“Life is not easy outside here. I have decided to save my life and those of my children by going to the camp. I will tell the officials that I came from South Sudan.”</p>
<p>The issue of Ugandans seeking food aid has given South Sudanese leaders cover for the massacres and human rights abuses that have allegedly occurred on their watch.</p>
<p>President Kiir has disputed the number of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, for example. Recently, the UN recorded close to 10,000 refugees following a recent attack by government troops on the town of Pajok and Yei in South Sudan. But South Sudan’s presidential spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, discounted that amount.</p>
<p>“I think the officials at the camps are exaggerating the number of people being displaced. There are fewer than 1,000 residents in the town of Pajok,” Ateny said. “The rest could be Ugandans of the same Acholi tribe trying to get free services and food.”</p>
<p>Related:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Uganda has been a welcoming place for South Sudan's refugees</a></p>
<p>George Okumu, a Ugandan local government official, acknowledged that locals were disguising themselves as refugees to receive food. But he discouraged it.</p>
<p>“I think there could be a possibility of locals trying to disguise as refugees to get free food simply because of the current hunger ravaging the country,” Okumu said. “But this is not allowed at all and anyone found will be arrested.”</p>
<p>Okumu couldn’t say if anyone had been arrested, however.</p>
<p>But Nekesa said she&#160;would continue to seek out food aid to feed her starving children.</p>
<p>“I can’t afford to leave my children to die,” she said. “I will continue to receive my share of food when they distribute it. South Sudanese are not more important than us. They are in our country.”</p>
<p>Tonny Onyulo reported from Kampala, Uganda.</p> | Ugandans pose as refugees for food because the drought is so bad | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-09-21/ugandans-pose-refugees-food-because-drought-so-bad | 2017-09-21 | 3 |
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:) Inc has sold another large piece of its stake in IBM Corp, backing further away from an investment that the billionaire has admitted was not one of his best.</p>
<p>Berkshire reduced its IBM stake 32 percent in the third quarter to about 37 million shares from 54.1 million shares, according to a quarterly regulatory filing on Tuesday detailing Berkshire’s U.S.-listed stock holdings.</p>
<p>It had by the end of September reduced its IBM stake by 54 percent since the end of 2016, when it owned roughly 81 million shares. IBM’s full name is International Business Machines (NYSE:) Corp.</p>
<p />
<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> | Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway slashes IBM stake | false | https://newsline.com/buffett039s-berkshire-hathaway-slashes-ibm-stake/ | 2017-11-14 | 1 |
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Billie Jean King thinks one of the main venues at the Australian Open should be renamed because of Margaret Court’s comments about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.</p>
<p>King, a trailblazer for equality and diversity in tennis, said she had initially been a proponent of having Margaret Court Arena named in 2003 in recognition of the 24-time Grand Slam singles winner’s contribution to the sport.</p>
<p>“I was fine until lately when she said so many derogatory things about my community — I’m a gay woman — about the LBGTIQ community,” King said at news conference Friday. “That really went deep in my heart and soul.</p>
<p>“I personally don’t think she should have (her name on the stadium) anymore.”</p>
<p>King is attending the Australian Open for the first time in eight years, marking the 50th anniversary of her win over Court for the Australian title.</p>
<p>King said if she was still competing, she wouldn’t play on Margaret Court Arena. King said she wouldn’t promote a boycott of the stadium, but encouraged players to “seek their own heart and mind” before making a decision.</p>
<p>Organizers have recognized the American tennis great as the Australian Open Woman of the Year and launched its “Open4All” initiative to promote equality, diversity and inclusion to coincide with King’s visit.</p>
<p>King, one of the original professionals in women’s tennis and winner of 12 major singles titles in the Open era, said she had regularly met with Court at tournaments in the years since they retired after “we grew up together playing each other.”</p>
<p>The 75-year-old Court, who holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles across the amateur and Open eras, is a Christian pastor who lives in Perth, Western Australia.</p>
<p>Court’s negative comments about gay people before Australia voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage were heavily criticized last year. Court also has called transgender children the work of “the devil.”</p>
<p>Martina Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam singles winner, wrote an open letter last year criticizing Court and recommended that tennis officials rename the arena after another Australian great, Evonne Goolagong Cawley.</p>
<p>King said she lobbied on Court’s behalf after Melbourne Park’s center court was named for Rod Laver in 2000. Her show court was recently upgraded to add a roof and bigger capacity.</p>
<p>Court is a regular at the event, but is not attending this year’s Australian Open, which starts Monday.</p>
<p>Tournament director Craig Tiley said Court had a standing invitation to the season-opening major, and would be welcome in the future as she had been in the past.</p>
<p>He said there had been “conversation” among stakeholders of Melbourne Park regarding the issue, but there was no process in place to change the name of the stadium. He said Tennis Australia — a tenant at the venue — would take the lead of the government on the issue.</p>
<p>In 2006, the U.S. Tennis Association named the site of the U.S. Open, located in a public park in New York, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.</p>
<p>King said she wished Court was in Melbourne so they could continue the conversation.</p>
<p>“You can have discussion around it. I would be very welcome to Margaret,” the 74-year-old King said. “It’s really important if you’re going to have your name on anything that you’re hospitable, you’re inclusive, you open your arms to everyone that comes. It’s a public facility.”</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Billie Jean King thinks one of the main venues at the Australian Open should be renamed because of Margaret Court’s comments about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.</p>
<p>King, a trailblazer for equality and diversity in tennis, said she had initially been a proponent of having Margaret Court Arena named in 2003 in recognition of the 24-time Grand Slam singles winner’s contribution to the sport.</p>
<p>“I was fine until lately when she said so many derogatory things about my community — I’m a gay woman — about the LBGTIQ community,” King said at news conference Friday. “That really went deep in my heart and soul.</p>
<p>“I personally don’t think she should have (her name on the stadium) anymore.”</p>
<p>King is attending the Australian Open for the first time in eight years, marking the 50th anniversary of her win over Court for the Australian title.</p>
<p>King said if she was still competing, she wouldn’t play on Margaret Court Arena. King said she wouldn’t promote a boycott of the stadium, but encouraged players to “seek their own heart and mind” before making a decision.</p>
<p>Organizers have recognized the American tennis great as the Australian Open Woman of the Year and launched its “Open4All” initiative to promote equality, diversity and inclusion to coincide with King’s visit.</p>
<p>King, one of the original professionals in women’s tennis and winner of 12 major singles titles in the Open era, said she had regularly met with Court at tournaments in the years since they retired after “we grew up together playing each other.”</p>
<p>The 75-year-old Court, who holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles across the amateur and Open eras, is a Christian pastor who lives in Perth, Western Australia.</p>
<p>Court’s negative comments about gay people before Australia voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage were heavily criticized last year. Court also has called transgender children the work of “the devil.”</p>
<p>Martina Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam singles winner, wrote an open letter last year criticizing Court and recommended that tennis officials rename the arena after another Australian great, Evonne Goolagong Cawley.</p>
<p>King said she lobbied on Court’s behalf after Melbourne Park’s center court was named for Rod Laver in 2000. Her show court was recently upgraded to add a roof and bigger capacity.</p>
<p>Court is a regular at the event, but is not attending this year’s Australian Open, which starts Monday.</p>
<p>Tournament director Craig Tiley said Court had a standing invitation to the season-opening major, and would be welcome in the future as she had been in the past.</p>
<p>He said there had been “conversation” among stakeholders of Melbourne Park regarding the issue, but there was no process in place to change the name of the stadium. He said Tennis Australia — a tenant at the venue — would take the lead of the government on the issue.</p>
<p>In 2006, the U.S. Tennis Association named the site of the U.S. Open, located in a public park in New York, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.</p>
<p>King said she wished Court was in Melbourne so they could continue the conversation.</p>
<p>“You can have discussion around it. I would be very welcome to Margaret,” the 74-year-old King said. “It’s really important if you’re going to have your name on anything that you’re hospitable, you’re inclusive, you open your arms to everyone that comes. It’s a public facility.”</p> | Billie Jean King backs calls to rename Margaret Court Arena | false | https://apnews.com/0e8d045092c04c28bba60b1265d6bc56 | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>Donald Trump has officially taken the first step in his promise to "build the wall." According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-border-trump-exclusive-idUSKBN14N0TY?il=0" type="external">Reuters</a>, the Trump transition team presented a "wide-ranging request for documents and analysis" to the Department of Homeland Security in early December "to assess all assets available for border wall and barrier construction."</p>
<p>Reuters learned about the requests via an internal agency memo regarding a Dec. 5 meeting between Trump's transition team and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. In the meeting, Trump's team asked for information about the department's capacity to expand immigrant detention and its aerial surveillance program that President Obama significantly "downsized." The team also asked for details about Obama's executive orders on immigration and "whether federal workers have altered biographic information kept by the department about immigrants out of concern for their civil liberties."</p>
<p>Reuters reports:</p>
<p>One program the transition team asked about, according to the email summary, was Operation Phalanx, an aerial surveillance program that authorizes 1,200 Army National Guard airmen to monitor the southern border for drug trafficking and illegal migration.</p>
<p>The program once deployed 6,000 airmen under President George W. Bush but was downsized by Barack Obama, a move blasted by some conservatives who argue the surveillance is vital to border security.</p>
<p>The transition team also asked for copies of every executive order and directive sent to immigration agents since Obama took office in 2009, according to the memo summarizing the meeting.</p>
<p>The memo provided some of the details of the department's response, including identifying "more than 400 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border, and about the same distance along the U.S.-Canada border, where new fencing could be erected."</p>
<p>Though Trump has only seriously discussed building a wall on the southern border, the agency provided a report showing specific locations and costs for building both southern and northern security fences. In the south, DHS identified 413 miles where a border fence could be built and estimated the total cost to be $11.37 billion. Along the Canadian border, the agency identified 452 miles, costing a total of $3.3 billion. The reason for the higher cost for the southern border, Reuters explains, is its focus on keeping out pedestrians rather than just vehicles.</p>
<p>Both the transition team and the department would not respond to Reuters' request for comment.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-border-trump-exclusive-idUSKBN14N0TY?il=0" type="external">Read the full report here</a>.</p> | Trump Takes First Step to 'Build the Wall' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12095/trump-takes-first-step-build-wall-james-barrett | 2017-01-03 | 0 |
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<p>They confirmed the contamination was well below levels that would affect the environment or workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.</p>
<p>“At no time were employees, the public or the environment at risk,” the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office said in a statement.</p>
<p>The fan, which is part of the underground ventilation and filtration system, was restarted in late October as part of the lengthy process of bringing the plant back online after a canister of waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory leaked inside a storage room.</p>
<p>That radiological release in February contaminated 22 workers and forced closure of the plant.</p>
<p>Officials had expected some residual contamination in the adjacent ductwork and interior workings of the fan since it was running for two months following the incident.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>As a precaution, workers took shelter inside buildings before restarting the fan last month and stayed in place for 30 minutes until it was determined to be safe.</p>
<p>Slightly elevated levels of airborne contamination were identified at an air sampler located at the end of the exhaust duct where filtered air exits the underground facility. Contamination was also detected by a second sampler about 60 yards away from the fan.</p>
<p>Officials said the results for the remaining samplers were either below the minimum detectible concentration or within the range normally observed at the site.</p>
<p>The Carlsbad Field Office said it would continue to monitor the air samplers to ensure there are no changes in the readings.</p> | Sampling detects contamination at nuke repository | false | https://abqjournal.com/492962/sampling-detects-contamination-at-nuke-repository.html | 2 |
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<p>Dale: First, we should point out that stagnation can happen at any age. Some people arrive in a state of career lethargy by their late 20s, many more by their 30s or 40s. Still, as you reignite your career, expect to encounter some issues with age. Tough. Ignore it. Even if half of the country’s hiring managers think you’re too old to reinvent yourself, that just means you have to work harder on the other half, all those who will welcome your maturity and life experience.</p>
<p>J.T.: Instead, focus on dealing with both the perception and the reality of your being stagnant. Currently, no one is looking to you for fresh ideas and energy; it’s up to you to put yourself in a position to jump-start your work. You can go for a new job, one with greater responsibilities, or you can work on improving yourself, perhaps getting new training.</p>
<p>Dale: What might work best is to retrain and reposition yourself as an innovator in your current job. Here’s how you start: Go to the people who use your work (internal or external) and chat about the work and its flow. For example, if part of your job is doing sales reports, you might learn that the marketing people feel they are slow in arriving. Then you say to your boss: “I was talking with the marketing people and I was wondering if it would help if I investigated ways to speed up the reports. What do you think?”</p>
<p>J.T.: I like the psychology of approaching management with a suggestion or question. That way you involve them, and that way they start to see you in a new light. Thus, you begin to change the perception and the reality of your role and your potential.</p>
<p>Dear J.T. &amp; Dale: I work for a company that is bringing me down. I am frequently put in situations where I have to stay late to “clean up” the work of others. I also keep getting problems I cannot solve by myself, but the people I must rely on for help don’t respond to my requests. My immediate boss says he is unable to rectify the situation. I took this job after being out of work for many months, and now I am overwhelmed and afraid of being fired. – Lydia</p>
<p>J.T.: Let me back up and remind you of this: If you are an hourly employee, the company doesn’t have the right to ask you to work overtime without paying you for those hours. That’s illegal. If you’re salaried, then they can expect you to work until the work is done.</p>
<p>Dale: Two things: In the New Economy, it’s better to have too much work than not enough; and, second, we live in a time where work is overwork. Everyone feels pressured and barely able to keep up.</p>
<p>J.T.: But that doesn’t mean Lydia must stay in a place where she feels ignored and under constant duress. So, Lydia, I’d suggest that you immediately start looking for a new job. I know you are already tired and stressed, but the sooner you can get out of there, the better. There are employers who prey upon people who have been out of work, banking on the fact that they will endure difficult working conditions. You can prove them wrong by standing up for yourself and finding a new job.</p>
<p>Dale: Agreed. But while you do, you also can work on bettering your current situation. Go to your colleagues who are failing to help you and see if you can find a solution together. Also, do a weekly status report for management of all of your projects. Include status items like “Waiting for info from Engineering” and thus make it clear to your managers where the bottlenecks lie. This will let them see the workflow and just maybe they’ll help improve it.</p>
<p>Jeanine “J.T.” Tanner O’Donnell is a professional development specialist and the founder of the consulting firm jtodonnell. Dale Dauten resolves employment and other business disputes as a mediator with <a href="http://AgreementHouse.com" type="external">AgreementHouse.com</a>. Please visit them at <a href="http://jtanddale.com" type="external">jtanddale.com</a>, where you can send questions via email, or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019.</p>
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<p /> | Jump-start your job to fight off lethargy | false | https://abqjournal.com/555985/jumpstart-your-job-to-fight-off-lethargy.html | 2 |
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<p>GALLOWAY, N.J. — A New Jersey restaurant worker who wrote insults on a police officer’s receipt has been fired.</p>
<p>The owner of Romanelli’s Garden Cafe in Galloway took the action after a photo of the receipt was posted online. The receipt from Sunday showed the words “cops,” “pigs” and the Spanish word for pigs scribbled on the receipt.</p>
<p>Owner Drew Huggard apologized in a Facebook post and said his business supports the police. He described the message on the receipt as “very gross and disrespectful.”</p>
<p>Huggard confirmed that the message was written by an employee, who then was fired.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Cafe worker fired over anti-police insults on cop’s receipt | false | https://abqjournal.com/1007019/cafe-worker-fired-over-anti-police-insults-on-cops-receipt.html | 2017-05-22 | 2 |
<p>Patrick Rodgers carded a 3-under-par 68 on Saturday to maintain his two-stroke lead through three rounds of the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Deere/" type="external">John Deere</a> Classic at Silvis, Ill.</p>
<p>Rodgers, who surged to the top of the leaderboard with a superb 64 in the second round, moved to 16-under 197 entering Sunday’s final round at TPC Deere Run.</p>
<p>Seeking his first victory on the PGA Tour, the 25-year-old Rodgers had five birdies and two bogeys in his round to stay two shots clear of fast-closing <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Daniel-Berger/" type="external">Daniel Berger</a> and Scott Stallings.</p>
<p>“This is a nice course to play with the lead to be honest with you because you have to keep the pedal down all day, 16 under is not going to win tomorrow so I need to go out and make a lot of birdies,” Rodgers said. “It was nice to be able to have that mindset today. You’re not ready holding on, you’re still trying to be aggressive and make birdies.”</p>
<p>Rodgers also held the 54-hole lead at the Farmers Insurance Open in February before finishing in a tie for fourth place.</p>
<p>Berger, who won at the FedEx St. Jude Classic last month, birdied seven of his first 11 holes en route to matching the best score of the day with an 8-under 63 as he pursues his third victory of the year.</p>
<p>Stallings, who opened with a 71, shot his second consecutive 64 to join Berger at 199. Stallings had just one birdie on the front side before shooting a blistering 30 on the back that including four birdies and an eagle at the par-5 17th.</p>
<p>Nicholas Lindheim is alone in fourth place after shooting a 66 while Jamie Lovemark (66), <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/J.J._Henry/" type="external">J.J. Henry</a> (68) and Bryson DeChambeau (70) are in a three-way tie for fifth at 12-under 201.</p>
<p>A cluster of 10 players, including local favorite <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Zach_Johnson/" type="external">Zach Johnson</a> (70), <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Charles_Howell_III/" type="external">Charles Howell III</a> (70) and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Rory_Sabbatini/" type="external">Rory Sabbatini</a> (67), are bunched five shots off the lead.</p> | PGA: Patrick Rodgers holds two-shot lead at John Deere Classic | false | https://newsline.com/pga-patrick-rodgers-holds-two-shot-lead-at-john-deere-classic/ | 2017-07-15 | 1 |
<p>LGBT content is gone from the Small Business Administration website.</p>
<p>The Small Business Administration is the latest government agency to delete LGBT-related content from its website in the aftermath of&#160;Donald Trump’s inauguration.</p>
<p>The LGBT content on the SBA website was formerly found at https://www.sba.gov/content/lgbt-outreach and https://www.sba.gov/about-sba-navigation-structure/lgbt-outreach. It wasn’t immediately clear when it was removed. The LGBT content is also missing from a cached version of the webpage dated Jan. 25 found using Google’s search engine.</p>
<p>The changes to the SBA site are consistent with similar changes to <a href="" type="internal">the White House website</a> as well as the website for the State Department, which deleted a recent apology from former Secretary of State John Kerry over the 1950s era “lavender scare” firings of gay people in the federal government. Initially, a report on LGBT workplace discrimination was removed from the Labor Department, but that has since been restored.</p>
<p>With regard to the White House website, a White House official said the Obama administration agreed to remove its content before handing over the website to the Trump administration. The official said the new material on the website is forthcoming, but didn’t respond to a follow-up inquiry on whether LGBT content would be restored.</p>
<p>Terry Sutherland, an SBA spokesperson, offered a similar explanation in response to a Washington Blade inquiry about the missing LGBT content on the SBA website under the Trump administration.</p>
<p>“As you would expect with any new administration coming in, websites throughout the federal government are currently under construction and review,” Sutherland said. “As more policies are developed the websites will be populated with more information.”</p>
<p>The webpage for LGBT outreach previously contained quotes and photos from Obama administration officials, which would be unusual for the Small Business Administration to maintain in the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Pressed on whether the LGBT content would return, Sutherland said “the entire website is under review and construction” and at this time he “cannot tell you what pages will be restored or not.”</p>
<p>Under the Obama administration, the SBA undertook significant efforts to engage with LGBT-owned businesses. In 2012, the SBA signed a memorandum of understanding to work with the the National Gay &amp; Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and in 2015, the SBA and NGLCC jointly launched an LGBT Business Builder campaign, which included day-long training sessions and networking to obtain federal contracts. That program won an award from Harvard University. Last year, the SBA named Brooke McDonnell and Helen Russell — two lesbians who own and operate Equator Coffees &amp; Teas in San Rafael, Calif. — as small business person of the year.</p>
<p>Justin Nelson, co-founder and president of the National Gay &amp; Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, said he expects restoration of the LGBT material and SBA’s partnerships with LGBT-owned businesses to continue.</p>
<p>“The NGLCC and SBA have a long history creating business opportunities for the LGBT community, starting with the multiyear Strategic Alliance Memorandum we signed in 2012, and we expect to continue being strong partners,” Nelson said. “We look forward to resources and information that benefit LGBT business owners returning to the SBA website after the traditional transition edits are made.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Justin Nelson</a> <a href="" type="internal">Small Business Administration</a></p> | SBA deletes LGBT content from website | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/01/27/lgbt-content-zapped-from-small-business-administration-website/ | 3 |
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<p>The <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060501/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_abramoff;_ylt=AhphW_u6DWdUxpBe4_40dWOyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--" type="external">logs will show</a> how often the convicted lobbyist met with Bush administration officials–and with whom he met.</p>
<p>AP:</p>
<p>The Secret Service has agreed to turn over White House visitor logs that will show how often convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff met with Bush administration officials - and with whom he met.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn last Tuesday approved an agreement between the Secret Service and Judicial Watch, a public interest group, that requires the agency to produce records of Abramoff’s visits from Jan. 1, 2001, to the present.</p>
<p />
<p>Judicial Watch filed suit in February after the Secret Service failed to respond to its request under the federal Freedom of Information Act.</p>
<p>Abramoff, who represented Indian tribes in their dealings with Washington politicians, once was one of the city’s most successful lobbyists.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/i/738;_ylt=AoXPjogmeNPxQpRIMR_U.PUGw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2NWJlcmlsBHNlYwN0bg--" type="external">Link</a></p> | Secret Service Will Turn Over Abramoff Visit Logs | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/secret-service-will-turn-over-abramoff-visit-logs/ | 2006-05-02 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://d1o2xrel38nv1n.cloudfront.net/files/2013/05/k-bigpic.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>…and it looks like <a href="http://jezebel.com/rihannas-masturbation-message-for-the-masses-507616900" type="external">Rihanna is celebrating</a> too! (Because she’s just the greatest.)</p>
<p>I’ve previously shared my thoughts about the <a href="" type="internal">importance of masturbation</a>–or, as I like call it, “the longest, most consistently satisfying sexual relationship of my life.” So I won’t bore you again with TMI details. Instead, I’ll just direct you to the awesome folks at the <a href="http://themblog.tumblr.com" type="external">M Blog</a>, who are masturbating every day this month and writing about it. Check out it!</p> | Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: It’s National Masturbation Month | true | http://feministing.com/2013/05/17/friday-feminist-fuck-yeah-its-national-masturbation-month/ | 4 |
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<p>This woman plays with her three young children in Iceland. But this life in Iceland can't be farther from their reality for the two years before that. They lived in a tent at a makeshift refugee camp in the desert on the Iraq-Syria border. After the U.S. invasion, thousands of Palestinian refugees lost the protection they had under Saddam Hussein and were caught up in Iraq's fierce civil war. this family was forced to move into the refugee camp, and her husband was eventually tortured and killed. Earlier this month, the woman and her children arrived in Iceland. She was one of 8 women who were selected by the UNHCR to resettle here. she said her expectations have been exceeded here. the Palestinian women have been partnered up with support families to help them transition to life in Iceland. This Icelandic woman says this is a cultural exchange that is benefiting everyone. The refugees have all been given furnished homes and receive financial and psychological support. The children have already started school and the women will soon begin language and cultural immersion classes. In a year the women are expected to find work. Not everyone is so optimistic about the new refugees in Iceland. This activist is concerned about the integration and is not convinced they can be completely integrated into society in one year. The idea of getting a job is a long way off for the Iraqi woman from earlier. First and foremost is adjusting to Iceland's weather and society. The Red Cross feels confident the Iraqi families will be able to resettle quickly, and they're optimistic other countries will soon adopt a similar approach.</p> | Iceland home to resettled Palestinians | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-09-30/iceland-home-resettled-palestinians | 2008-09-30 | 3 |
<p>Bread for the World chief honored. The president of a Christian anti-hunger lobbying group won the premier award for fighting world hunger. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton awarded the World Food Prize to <a href="http://www.bread.org/" type="external">Bread for the World</a> President David Beckmann at the State Department. Beckmann, an economist and ordained Lutheran minister, shared the $250,000 prize with Jo Luck, president of Heifer International. The <a href="http://www.worldfoodprize.org/" type="external">World Food Prize Foundation</a> recognizes individuals “who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world,” according to the foundation’s website. Bread for the World focuses its work on nutrition programs, development assistance and political advocacy. The organization works with Christian churches to advocate for hunger causes on Capitol Hill and within their congregations.</p>
<p>‘Hats off’ no courtesy to female bishop. Episcopal Presiding Bishop <a href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78694_ENG_HTM.htm" type="external">Katharine Jefferts Schori</a> was told not to wear her miter—a tall, triangular hat symbolizing her rank in church hierarchy—during church services in London recently. Lambeth Palace, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ London headquarters and home, issued instruction to Jefferts Schori not to wear her miter when she presided at a service at nearby Southwark Cathedral, Episcopal News Service reported. She also was pressured to provide evidence of her ordination—the “ecclesiastical equivalent of a background check,” quipped a church historian—before traveling to London, according to the denominational news service. Jefferts Schori is the first and only woman in the 500-year history of Anglicanism elected to lead a national church. A spokeswoman for the Episcopal Church said she had no comment on the matter. Williams has not commented publicly, either.</p>
<p>Muslims slam Supreme Court decision. Muslim and civil rights groups are criticizing a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upholds a federal law prohibiting “material support” for accused terrorist groups. The law, which the Supreme Court upheld in a 6-3 decision, prohibits not only providing cash and weapons to terrorist groups, but also training in how to hold elections and peacefully resolve conflict. Critics say the law—which exempts medicine and religious materials—is vague and has implications for Muslim charities and individual donors who want to fulfill their religious duty to aid the poor. Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, argued the law violated the First Amendment right of free speech. Government prosecutors say the law, adopted in 1996 and strengthened after 9/11 as part of the Patriot Act, has been vital in fighting terrorism, and has helped them convict more than 70 defendants for violating the “material support” provision. The case, <a href="http://ccrjustice.org/holder-v-humanitarian-law-project" type="external">Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project</a>, drew interest from several religious organizations. Former President Jimmy Carter and the Chicago-based Christian Peacemakers Teams joined a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the plaintiffs, while the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Institute for National Security joined briefs supporting the government.</p>
<p>Compiled from Religion News Service</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | FAITH DIGEST | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/faithdigest-16/ | 3 |
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<p>Mother Jones: Of all the things the Bush administration leaves behind, what will be the hardest one to fix?</p>
<p>Rep. Charles Rangel: The war the war the war the war the war, the tragic war, the loss of life, loss of limbs, the loss of hope, the breakup of families. The loss of credibility throughout the world. The fact that you can never put lives back together again. There’s no question that that’s the most despicable thing that has happened in this country, after lynchings and slavery.</p>
<p>MJ: How does the next president go about this fix?</p>
<p>CR: Admitting that there’s been a mistake, reaching out to the free world, our friends, our allies, and certainly putting more demands on our so-called Arab leaders that seem to be holding our coats as we fight a war that is based on religious and cultural differences. We haven’t the slightest clue on how to bring about a resolution.</p>
<p>MJ: The easiest thing to fix?</p>
<p>CR: Racial reconciliation. Which is a very serious problem in this country.</p>
<p>MJ: How to go about fixing it?</p>
<p>CR: Having a concentration on the problems and the solution, and not concentration on one’s complexion.</p>
<p>MJ: What is the most urgent fix?</p>
<p>CR: The war. The war. The war. The war. The war.</p>
<p>MJ: Given your experience in federal politics, what is a piece of advice you’d offer the next president?</p>
<p>CR: I don’t think Obama needs any advice from someone like me, but I am starting to reach across the aisle, talking with Republicans, and I would hope he would be doing the same thing. Recognizing that our economy is shattered, we have a health system bursting at the seams, we have no funds in the Social Security system, the economy in recession, the school system is in a failure. Most of all of these problems don’t lend themselves to a Democratic solution but rather a bipartisan approach to them. Especially reforming the tax system in a more equitable, a more economic and productive way. I would hope that he would encourage us in the Congress, as I am doing in the ways and means committee, to sit down and see whether we can work together and move forward together so that when he is sworn in he doesn’t have to set up any investigative committees but can hit the ground running with legislation.</p>
<p>MJ: What if it’s McCain?</p>
<p>CR: I won’t be here. I’ll be pulling out my passport preparing to go abroad. So I won’t have to deal with McCain. I am just out of here. I am 78 years old; I could not possibly take four more years of Bush/McCain.</p>
<p>MJ: Would you say there’s irreparable damage caused by any Bush policy?</p>
<p>CR: The torture of detainees and the manner in which we invaded Iraq, those things will never go away. As a country, no matter what we do, to have that light in the beacon of freedom and justice, it will forever be dimmed by the way we conducted this war and how we treated people.</p>
<p>MJ: What lasting legacy of the Bush administration will we still be feeling 50 years from now?</p>
<p>CR: Well, I hope it’s not the economy. We don’t know how long it’s gonna take to pull out of this deficit. We really don’t know, we really don’t know the negative impact of the squeezing of the middle class. You just don’t become middle class overnight. If your kids have to be pulled out of school, if you lost your house, if you lost your job, if you lost your dignity it takes years if you do recover. And sometimes the recovery has to be from the next generation. So, repairing social security and Medicare and getting out of this war, and getting and education that works, as well as the infrastructure. Those problems are going to be around for a while.</p>
<p>MJ: What lessons about leadership should the next president glean from the past eight years? What are the dos and don’ts?</p>
<p>CR: I couldn’t answer that question because it assumes that there is leadership in the White House. But if you read the books and listen to the interviews of those people that surrounded Bush when he made the decision to find reasons to invade Iraq, you don’t call that leadership. I would think honesty in government is what we’d be hoping to find in the next president. One of the biggest problems that Congress and history may have to face is why we didn’t take up the Kucinich motion to impeach. Even though I believe there are sound political reasons not to do this at this time, I don’t know how historians are going to treat us. So to me, it’s not what lessons do you learn from the Bush administration; they stole our country and held our Constitution hostage.</p>
<p>MJ: Have we lowered our standards, then, for the Oval Office?</p>
<p>CR: Of course we set our standards low. Anytime someone like McCain who’s a nice man gets the nomination, clearly you can see they are not looking for any damn Abe Lincoln. But on the Dem side we are indeed fortunate that we had at least two strong candidates. No matter who gets to the White House would raise the standards of what is perceived in terms of morality and justice and fair play and peace. The fact that we have had such low expectations and the president’s poll numbers are so low to me has nothing to do with how we have expectations in the Dem party. Even congressionally Republican members of the House are dropping out all over. In New York City we couldn’t find a Republican to run in one district. There are no standards; it’s just a sense of despair. But that doesn’t stop Democrats from looking for the best we can to run for office, and to run for president.</p>
<p>MJ: You’ve been in Congress for more than 35 years now, through several administrations, Republican and Democrat. Where does the Bush administration stand, relatively, in your book?</p>
<p>CR: Well I wish I had been here a lot longer but. In the 38 years I’ve been in Congress and in the history I’ve read the presidencies I really, I don’t think that Bush even reaches the radar screen in being compared to the worst presidents we’ve had. It is sad bc he is a very personable man. The past seven years have been a nightmare. People dying, being killed. We are losing most precious gift we have as a country and that is the spirit of the middle class. The hopes and dreams of so many who have come to this country and those who have strived to get into the middle class and now bc of food prices and oil and an inequitable tax system people are losing their home their hope their jobs, their kids tuition. When a country loses that, not withstanding its deficit, it loses its heart. And that is why Obama’s job is going to be the most difficult in recent years.</p>
<p>MJ: Despite all this you still have faith in the process?</p>
<p>CR: There is absolutely no one who comes near us in terms of resolving these types of problems and moving forward. No country comes closer to having the ability to adjust and move forward. We are just different kind of people. Even during better times we had racism and riots and discrimination, but there was still no question we could overcome, and now we have an African American who will probably be our next president. We can do anything, but it’s gonna be rough.</p>
<p /> | Q&A: Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y. | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/qa-rep-charles-b-rangel-d-ny/ | 2018-09-01 | 4 |
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<p>But now, after a year in an Ivy League school, I’m worried about whether to keep walking down that road.</p>
<p>The crisis in academia is well established: College students, especially those at top schools, have few incentives to go into K-12 teaching, a profession that direly needs our nation’s best and brightest. Much has been said about how teachers earn too little and need more respect. But what’s being done to change the situation?</p>
<p>Working at the alumni office this year, I spoke on the phone with hundreds of Columbia alumni, many of whom work in finance, health care, law or media. My elite, expensive school tells me in subtle ways that the “best” students pursue those sorts of fields. No matter how noble it may be to educate tomorrow’s leaders, or how accomplished an individual teacher may be, that person will never earn the social prestige or compensation that professionals do in many other fields.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Alumni who had gone into teaching asked whether I really want to teach or had considered the likely disrespect, insufficient pay, long hours and lack of autonomy that go with the job.</p>
<p>In short, I’m being scared out of teaching by teachers. And it seems reasonable to ask: Who wants to pursue a career in which they won’t be appropriately respected or compensated?</p>
<p>A friend of mine briefly considered becoming a teacher after two fantastic summers with Breakthrough, which works with high-potential, low- income students in urban areas. But as she weighed her options, she focused on her decision to attend – and pay for – an established St. Louis school, Washington University, instead of a cheaper state college. Now she is in law school with a corporate summer internship. She envisions working in education policy one day – after she establishes a prestigious, well-paid career.</p>
<p>Elite educations create opportunities but sometimes close them as well. For students conditioned to be ambitious, a teaching career simply isn’t.</p>
<p>As William Deresiewicz wrote in a 2008 essay titled “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education,” some are left wondering whether becoming a teacher would “be a waste of my expensive education? Wouldn’t I be squandering the opportunities my parents worked so hard to provide? What will my friends think? How will I face my classmates at our 20th reunion, when they’re all rich lawyers or important people in New York?” Becoming a teacher can feel like a failure to pursue something more impressive.</p>
<p>What about Teach for America? It’s popular among Ivy League grads, particularly at Columbia (drawing even more undergraduates than Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, according to 2011 data from our career education center).</p>
<p>But 80 percent of its teachers leave after three years, a 2010 analysis found, and many see Teach for America as a temporary stint – whether in social engagement or as a résumé-booster.</p>
<p>In some ways, Teach for America is as prestigious and selective as Goldman Sachs – another way to prove oneself, another hoop to jump through. It sounds great to friends and looks good on graduate school or job applications. But ultimately, that means it’s a stepping stone to more prestigious and profitable sectors.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Part of the problem is systemic, and part of it is cultural. It isn’t just about money: Teachers fall too low within our professional hierarchy. They ought to command more respect.</p>
<p>In China, where my parents grew up, teachers are addressed as laoshi, or “old master,” a reverent term of dignity and authority. Is it surprising that Asian and Scandinavian countries, where teachers are well-compensated and treated with dignity, show higher levels of student achievement than the United States?</p>
<p>I don’t have all the answers – or a definite sense of my career. But I do know that the change needs to start with us – the laypeople and academics – and the respect we show teachers. It’s also time to banish tired cliches like “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”</p>
<p>With simple steps, we can start a discussion on elitism and cultural prejudices and we can examine how to make teaching a more desirable profession.</p>
<p>The writer is a history major at Columbia College.</p>
<p /> | Make teaching a desirable career | false | https://abqjournal.com/202695/make-teaching-a-desirable-career.html | 2013-05-24 | 2 |
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<p>There were class II slots in some of the reservation bingo halls; those were considered legal — they replicated “real” slots. They were like pull-tabs set into a machine that looked like a slot.</p>
<p>Back then, among the 120 or so veterans and fraternal clubs, one could easily spot a sprinkling of class III video poker machines ensconced in the club’s game rooms. Of course these were considered illegal, yet more than a few clubs had six, seven or eight of these devices humming away, and believe it or not, several, not all, were paying gross-receipt taxes on their coin-in.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Governors, district attorneys and law enforcers, were aware of the machines, but, gee, who was going to barge into a veterans’ club and bust an old vet playing a slot?</p>
<p>When Judge Bob Schwartz, who recently passed away, was Bernalillo County district attorney, he was once asked why he didn’t go into a popular Albuquerque veterans club and yank out the slots and arrest those responsible.</p>
<p>Schwartz said, “Fuhget about it. I’m not going to bust a vet in a wheelchair playing a slot in his club. There are drug dealers, thieves and robbers out on the street — those are the ones I’m after; they are whom I was elected to collar. Not an honest-to-God G.I.”</p>
<p>Now remember the old saying about what the Indian tribe in any state can and cannot do as it relates to business and industry: “If the white can do it, so too can the Indian.” After just a few years of watching vets and fraternal clubs running their “real slots” our Native American neighbors sprung into action — class III gaming had arrived.</p>
<p>Of course it wasn’t legal, but as one vet testified before a House Committee on gaming, it wasn’t really against the law because no one had “seriously” been busted going back to the late 1970s.</p>
<p>Remember too, back then folks were clamoring for the lottery to be legalized, also classed as Class III gambling.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A note: Back, before all this became proper and sanctified, one of the biggest lottery ticket sellers for the Colorado lottery was a convenience store outside Farmington, right along the state line. One of the largest seller of Texas lottery tickets was another New Mexico convenience store, in Sunland Park.</p>
<p>There is no stronger law than one whose time has come. The lottery was at the door, and not going away. So, in 1997, Gov. Gary Johnson, after two years of ironing out kinks in the paper work, signed into law the legalization of gambling in our state.</p>
<p>That brings us to the point of the story: Today, when you hear of a casino celebrating an anniversary pre-dating the baptism date of legal gaming in our state how do you explain that?</p>
<p>Try to remember what Pojoaque Pueblo Gov. Jake Villareal said about that situation (with a wink of an eye and a wry smile): “We were all grandfathered in.” Works for me.</p>
<p>The actual birth of casino-type gaming in New Mexico began on the street in downtown Raton, the summer of 1938. The Raton High School marching band’s uniforms were a disgrace: shabby, shop worn, desperately needing to be replaced. The group also was short on instruments, including a glockenspiel.</p>
<p>When this sad story reached members of the Lions Club, it concocted a plan to raise cash “for our marching Tigers.” Its plan was to have a “49ers Night.” It would block off the busiest intersection in town, put up a craps table, some blackjack tables, a roulette wheel, a wheel of fortune, have beer and pretzels and hot dogs and live entertainment and make money for “the kids.”</p>
<p>Raton’s mayor bought in, a caravan was formed, a large contingent bounced into Santa Fe to see Gov. Johnny Miles. Back in the day, there was no liquor director, no gambling chairman — Gov. Miles sported all hats. Miles blessed the Raton Tiger fans — “Go with your 49ers Night.”</p>
<p>It was a rousing success. Through the years other schools jumped on the idea.</p>
<p>And that is how it all came to pass, a billion dollar industry in New Mexico was born all because some kids in Raton needed new cummerbunds.</p> | N.M. casino-type gaming born in Raton | false | https://abqjournal.com/147994/nm-casinotype-gaming-born-in-raton.html | 2012-11-23 | 2 |
<p>SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A senior Chinese researcher has urged central banks to adopt monetary policies that do not encourage markets to expect the indefinitely lower for longer interest rates that encourage excessive risk-taking by lenders, the Securities Times reported on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The paper reported Sun Guofeng, director general of the People’s Bank of China’s research institute, saying that if central banks kept interest rates low for very long periods then lenders, who have a natural tendency for risk-taking, would take on excessive leverage.</p>
<p>Sun, who made the comments at a financial conference in Beijing, said ultra-low interest rates were the root cause of asset bubbles and that was why China was establishing a double framework of monetary policy and macro-prudential assessment (MPA) to cope with cycles in the financial system, the paper reported.</p>
<p>Sun noted that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s move to shrink its balance sheet was aimed at raising long-term interest rates to prevent another financial crisis, the newspaper reported.</p>
<p />
<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> | PBOC expert cautions central banks against too low for too long interest rates | false | https://newsline.com/pboc-expert-cautions-central-banks-against-too-low-for-too-long-interest-rates/ | 2017-12-05 | 1 |
<p>The Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time the existence of program for investigating encounters with unidentified flying objects (UFOs), according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html?mtrref=news.url.google.com&amp;_r=0&amp;mtrref=undefined" type="external">The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>The Times on Saturday reported that the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program started in 2007.</p>
<p>The Department of Defense (DOD) has never previously admitted the program exists, and the agency now says the initiative shut down in 2012.</p>
<p>The program received $22 million of the DOD’s $600 billion annual budget starting in late 2008 through 2011, according to contracts seen by The Times.</p>
<p>“It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding, and it was in the best interest of the DOD to make a change,” Pentagon spokesman Thomas Crosson said in an email last Saturday, referencing the DOD.</p>
<p>DOD officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The Times showed that the program examined reports of UFOs for years.</p>
<p>Luis Elizondo, a military intelligence official, ran the initiative on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring.</p>
<p>Elizondo on Saturday told The Times that the only thing that had ended in relation to the program was its funding in 2012.</p>
<p>The official continued working from his Pentagon office until last October, when he resigned over what he described as excessive secrecy and internal opposition.</p>
<p>“Why aren’t we spending more time and effort on this issue?” Elizondo asked Defense Secretary James Mattis in his resignation letter.</p>
<p>Elizondo said that the effort continues under a successor, whom he declined to name to The Times.</p>
<p>The program collected audio and video recordings of reported UFO incidents, including some involving the unknown objects and U.S. military aircraft.</p>
<p>Parts of the effort remain classified, and it was initially funded at the request of then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).</p>
<p>“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going,” said Reid, who has long had an interest in space phenomena.</p>
<p>“I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service,” added Reid, who retired earlier this year. “I’ve done something that no one has ever done before.”</p> | The Pentagon acknowledged the existence of a program to investigate UFO encounters | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/12/18/nation/pentagon-acknowledges-ufo-program-for-the-first-time | 2017-12-18 | 1 |
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<p>FORSYTH, Ga. (AP) — A 12-year-old boy died and his 17-year-old brother had to be rescued after an accident at a Georgia waterfall.</p>
<p>Monroe County Emergency Management Director Matthew Perry says the 911 call came in about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday that the two boys had been swept over the falls and plummeted about 20 feet.</p>
<p>WXIA-TV <a href="http://www.11alive.com/news/boy-dies-at-high-falls-state-park-second-boy-stuck-on-rocks/482254913" type="external">reports</a> crews responding to High Falls State Park saw the older boy, James Burdette, alert in a shallow area on a rock. Perry says the teenager's younger brother, Christian Burdette, had died.</p>
<p>Perry says a crew from Kennesaw, Georgia, rescued the older boy by air. He was treated at an area hospital and released.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Perry says apparently the boys had strayed from the park's hiking trails before their fall.</p>
<p>The 1,050-acre (424 hectares) park northwest of Macon is known as one of the state's top fishing spots.</p>
<p>Information from: WXIA-TV, <a href="http://www.11alive.com/" type="external">http://www.11alive.com/</a></p>
<p><a href="#6b9b5b7a-37e2-49f6-b411-12947c5f3636" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p> | Boy dies, brother rescued after accident at Georgia park | false | https://abqjournal.com/1076100/boy-dies-brother-rescued-after-accident-at-georgia-park.html | 2017-10-10 | 2 |
<p>On Friday Chris Matthews said what few in the mainstream media have been willing to say when he admitted that the national media "leans a little to the left."</p>
<p>Matthews was discussing Romney's campaign strategy in Iowa and New Hampshire with John Heilemann of New York Magazine, as well as an MSNBC political analyst, when he made his revealing statement:</p>
<p>Heilemann: I think if he's raised the bar, he's going to raise the bar very high for himself. It's going to be very hard to lower expectations the way they think they can.</p>
<p>Matthews: And that's what we call a dynamic. He goes in there and says, "I'm running, I can win," and because we know he doesn't take chances, the national media, which leans a little to the left I could argue, could smash him.</p>
<p>Matthews' admission will probably startle many of his colleagues in the media, but actually it was understated as the mainstream media certainly lean more than a little to the left. MSNBC's primetime programming is just one example of the left-wing leanings of the media.</p>
<p>Now if we could only get others in the media to admit as much we might make some progress towards a more fair and balanced media landscape, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.</p>
<p>Matthews' admission starts just before the four minute mark.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Chris Matthews: 'National Media Leans a Little to the Left' | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/chris-matthews-national-media-leans-a-little-to-the-left/ | 2011-11-28 | 0 |
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