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<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Taj Gibson and his teammates knew the Minnesota Timberwolves’ four-game homestand was going to be tough.</p>
<p>After all, New Orleans, Cleveland, Oklahoma City and New York were coming to town. Well, three games in, Minnesota has answered the challenge and demonstrated how much it has grown this season.</p>
<p>Jimmy Butler scored 26 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had eight assists for the Timberwolves in a 104-88 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“We were shaking our heads and just hoping that we can do well,” Gibson said. “But the way we’ve been playing, we have a lot of confidence.”</p>
<p>Andrew Wiggins added 19 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 12 rebounds as Minnesota pulled away in the second half to win its third game in a row and 10th in its last 13 overall.</p>
<p>Taking the season series 3-1 from division foe Oklahoma City capped a stretch in which the Timberwolves beat New Orleans by 18 points and Cleveland by 28. Minnesota led by at least 34 in each of those games.</p>
<p>Wednesday proved to be a bit tougher against the physical Thunder, but the Wolves outscored Oklahoma City 29-19 in the third and led by as many as 16 in the fourth.</p>
<p>“Guess we’re, I don’t know, growing a little bit,” Butler said. “For us to go out there and guard the way we did, do what we talked about in shootaround and the day before in practice, it’s huge for us. We’re growing as a unit.”</p>
<p>Russell Westbrook had 38 points and 10 rebounds, but the rest of the Thunder had a tough time shooting. Westbrook was 15 of 23 from the field, while his teammates were 17 of 56 (30.3 percent).</p>
<p>Carmelo Anthony scored 15 points on 5-of-19 shooting, while Paul George finished 5 of 14 for 13 points for Oklahoma City, which has lost five of seven.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to lock in and get a win,” Westbrook said. “That’s all I can say.”</p>
<p>George scored just two points in the first half.</p>
<p>“We were getting good looks,” George said. “I thought we got shots that we’d been shooting all season. A lot of catch-and-shoot opportunities. It’s like that. I think personally, I should’ve tried to play around the basket a little more, just to get something early, see the ball go down and work my way up.”</p>
<p>The Thunder shot 28.6 percent in the third quarter (6 of 21). Meanwhile, the Wolves hit 62.5 percent (10 of 16) to take control.</p>
<p>NOT CLOSE THIS TIME</p>
<p>The first three games between the teams were decided by a combined nine-point margin. Minnesota won the first two games by a total of five points. Oklahoma City came back with a four-point win at home on Dec. 1 as George scored 36 points.</p>
<p>“I think both teams are probably a lot different today than when we faced all the way back in the beginning of December,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I think maybe early in the year, they were maybe not as great defensively and now they’re getting better. I thought tonight they played well.”</p>
<p>TIP-INS</p>
<p>Thunder: G Andre Roberson missed his sixth straight game with left patellar tendinitis and coach Billy Donovan said he would also miss Saturday’s game. ... Oklahoma City tied a season high with 20 turnovers. ... In the first three meetings, Thunder C Steven Adams was 27 of 33 from the field for a combined 64 points. He scored eight on 2-of-5 shooting on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Timberwolves: Minnesota held its opponent under 100 points for the seventh straight game. The last time the Wolves have held teams under 100 in seven consecutive games was Jan. 5-Feb. 8, 2007. ... Minnesota had its fifth consecutive sellout, the first time for the franchise since March 21-April 4, 2004. The Wolves won their sixth straight home game, the longest streak since the team won 14 in a row from Dec. 16, 2003-Feb. 6, 2004.</p>
<p>TEAGUE RETURNS</p>
<p>Minnesota point guard Jeff Teague returned after missing seven games with a sprained MCL in his left knee. Teague played 26 minutes and scored eight points with four rebounds and three assists.</p>
<p>Including a four-game absence for a sore right Achilles, Teague has missed 11 games this season. The Wolves are 6-5 without Teague and 20-11 with him in the lineup.</p>
<p>In his first season in Minnesota, Teague entered the night averaging 13.4 points and a team-high 7.3 assists per game.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Thunder: Play at Charlotte on Saturday.</p>
<p>Timberwolves: Host the New York Knicks on Friday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NBA coverage: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball</a></p>
<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Taj Gibson and his teammates knew the Minnesota Timberwolves’ four-game homestand was going to be tough.</p>
<p>After all, New Orleans, Cleveland, Oklahoma City and New York were coming to town. Well, three games in, Minnesota has answered the challenge and demonstrated how much it has grown this season.</p>
<p>Jimmy Butler scored 26 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had eight assists for the Timberwolves in a 104-88 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“We were shaking our heads and just hoping that we can do well,” Gibson said. “But the way we’ve been playing, we have a lot of confidence.”</p>
<p>Andrew Wiggins added 19 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 12 rebounds as Minnesota pulled away in the second half to win its third game in a row and 10th in its last 13 overall.</p>
<p>Taking the season series 3-1 from division foe Oklahoma City capped a stretch in which the Timberwolves beat New Orleans by 18 points and Cleveland by 28. Minnesota led by at least 34 in each of those games.</p>
<p>Wednesday proved to be a bit tougher against the physical Thunder, but the Wolves outscored Oklahoma City 29-19 in the third and led by as many as 16 in the fourth.</p>
<p>“Guess we’re, I don’t know, growing a little bit,” Butler said. “For us to go out there and guard the way we did, do what we talked about in shootaround and the day before in practice, it’s huge for us. We’re growing as a unit.”</p>
<p>Russell Westbrook had 38 points and 10 rebounds, but the rest of the Thunder had a tough time shooting. Westbrook was 15 of 23 from the field, while his teammates were 17 of 56 (30.3 percent).</p>
<p>Carmelo Anthony scored 15 points on 5-of-19 shooting, while Paul George finished 5 of 14 for 13 points for Oklahoma City, which has lost five of seven.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to lock in and get a win,” Westbrook said. “That’s all I can say.”</p>
<p>George scored just two points in the first half.</p>
<p>“We were getting good looks,” George said. “I thought we got shots that we’d been shooting all season. A lot of catch-and-shoot opportunities. It’s like that. I think personally, I should’ve tried to play around the basket a little more, just to get something early, see the ball go down and work my way up.”</p>
<p>The Thunder shot 28.6 percent in the third quarter (6 of 21). Meanwhile, the Wolves hit 62.5 percent (10 of 16) to take control.</p>
<p>NOT CLOSE THIS TIME</p>
<p>The first three games between the teams were decided by a combined nine-point margin. Minnesota won the first two games by a total of five points. Oklahoma City came back with a four-point win at home on Dec. 1 as George scored 36 points.</p>
<p>“I think both teams are probably a lot different today than when we faced all the way back in the beginning of December,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I think maybe early in the year, they were maybe not as great defensively and now they’re getting better. I thought tonight they played well.”</p>
<p>TIP-INS</p>
<p>Thunder: G Andre Roberson missed his sixth straight game with left patellar tendinitis and coach Billy Donovan said he would also miss Saturday’s game. ... Oklahoma City tied a season high with 20 turnovers. ... In the first three meetings, Thunder C Steven Adams was 27 of 33 from the field for a combined 64 points. He scored eight on 2-of-5 shooting on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Timberwolves: Minnesota held its opponent under 100 points for the seventh straight game. The last time the Wolves have held teams under 100 in seven consecutive games was Jan. 5-Feb. 8, 2007. ... Minnesota had its fifth consecutive sellout, the first time for the franchise since March 21-April 4, 2004. The Wolves won their sixth straight home game, the longest streak since the team won 14 in a row from Dec. 16, 2003-Feb. 6, 2004.</p>
<p>TEAGUE RETURNS</p>
<p>Minnesota point guard Jeff Teague returned after missing seven games with a sprained MCL in his left knee. Teague played 26 minutes and scored eight points with four rebounds and three assists.</p>
<p>Including a four-game absence for a sore right Achilles, Teague has missed 11 games this season. The Wolves are 6-5 without Teague and 20-11 with him in the lineup.</p>
<p>In his first season in Minnesota, Teague entered the night averaging 13.4 points and a team-high 7.3 assists per game.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Thunder: Play at Charlotte on Saturday.</p>
<p>Timberwolves: Host the New York Knicks on Friday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NBA coverage: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball</a></p> | Butler scores 26 to lead Timberwolves past Thunder 104-88 | false | https://apnews.com/5a20141c6812418199ae068fce733362 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>Families in Chicago’s public schools have experienced trying times recently. Last year, about 13,000 students were displaced after <a href="" type="internal">school officials closed nearly 50 campuses</a> and cut tens of millions of dollars in the face of a budget deficit.</p>
<p>Last month, officials announced that the jobs of more than <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-public-schools-to-lay-off-more-than-1000-20140626,0,2998699.story" type="external">1,100 employees of Chicago Public Schools</a> (CPS) would end. Many parents are still questioning the idea of charter schools, which are run by the public and exist in the city.</p>
<p>In the Belmont Cragin neighborhood, parents at Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy noticed in recent years that more students were filling the classrooms, sometimes at least 40 pupils per class, said Juan Cruz, education organizer with <a href="http://apncorganizing.org/" type="external">Albany Park Neighborhood Council</a> (APNC).</p>
<p>Cruz and APNC work with families on improving neighborhoods. He listened to Prieto parents, many of whom speak Spanish, so that their concerns could be heard and a solution found.</p>
<p>In one case of crowded conditions, he said, two classes – each led by one teacher – shared the same room. “The students had to take turns to sit at desks,” he said, recalling what he learned.</p>
<p>“There were eighth graders who were being taught in the hallway,” he said, referring to another example. “They had converted a hallway into a classroom.”</p>
<p>Belmont Cragin is a growing and more affordable neighborhood, sitting on the northwest side of Chicago. Higher housing costs, fueled by gentrification, in other parts of the city have prompted many working families to move to the area, Cruz said.</p>
<p>One issue in Belmont Cragin: Prieto, built to accommodate 810 students, only opened about five years ago to ease crowded classrooms at Hanson Park Elementary School.</p>
<p>During the most recent academic year, Preito enrollment jumped by nearly 31 percent, growing to 1,059 students, Cruz said, citing school information.</p>
<p>Concerned families took action. In September, parents banded together to campaign yet again for their kids – to make sure enough classroom space existed and hold CPS officials accountable to the idea of investing in neighborhood schools in need.</p>
<p>Two years earlier, parents tried to get more mobile units – which are portable classrooms – for the campus. CPS officials rebuffed the idea, saying that resources were unavailable.</p>
<p>This time, parents powered their efforts by holding rallies, attending school board meetings and talking with news media at press conferences.</p>
<p>Their focus: Families have a right to a quality public education and public school officials should be held accountable.</p>
<p>In May, they heard the news. Prieto would receive $3.4 million from school officials for two mobile units, which house classrooms. CPS leaders announced that a total of nearly $16 million would be spent citywide to ease crowded campuses.</p>
<p>The campus would gain a total of eight new classrooms or space for 240 students, Cruz said.</p>
<p>Parents were elated. Their efforts paid off.</p>
<p>“None of this would’ve been done without a fight, and we will continue to demand that our students get what they need to have a quality education,” Edilia Correa, whose two kids attend Prieto, said in a statement.</p>
<p>Correa, who speaks Spanish, worked with APNC as a parent leader on the campaign.</p>
<p>Parental concerns remain, though, especially about how officials are spending money on schools.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans to invest $60 million to build a selective high school that will be named after President Barack Obama, according to APNC.</p>
<p>“We need to continue to press on to ensure that CPS makes greater investment in our communities,” Correa said.</p>
<p>While Belmont Cragin families welcome the $3.4 million, many parents would like permanent classrooms in an annex building on the campus.</p>
<p>Their goal in the coming months: Continue voicing concerns with school and city leaders and making sure neighborhood accountability remains front and center.</p>
<p>“It’s a small victory but we want to continue fighting for the annex,” Cruz said.</p>
<p>___________</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Brad Wong</a>&#160;is assistant news editor for Equal Voice News.</p>
<p>2014 © Equal Voice for America’s Families Newspaper</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Albany Park Neighborhood Council</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Belmont Cragin Chicago</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Chicago public schools</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy</a>, <a href="" type="internal">education news</a>, <a href="" type="internal">school crowding</a>, <a href="" type="internal">working families</a></p> | Chicago Parents Stand Up for Loved Ones - Their Kids | true | http://equalvoiceforfamilies.org/chicago-parents-stand-up-for-loved-ones-their-kids/ | 4 |
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<p>Call it an act of true love. In world where romantic attachments are increasingly short-lived, one man has set out to prove he is willing to go the distance- literally.</p>
<p>Eric Hites had been having marital problems because of his excessive weight gain and the related health problems. Mr. Hites is 563 pounds. He wears a size 70 pants and a 10X T-shirt. He says that his weight often leaves him feeling moody and depressed.</p>
<p>Last year, his wife left him.</p>
<p>It was as if everything in his life was falling apart. He wanted to reunite with his wife. He wanted to be healthy. He wanted to lose weight.</p>
<p>“I hit 40 and I said, ‘I’ve got to change this,’” <a href="http://www.newportri.com/newportdailynews/news/page_one/fat-guy-on-a-mission/article_308366d9-4582-550d-8546-dcee6e2e0ef7.html" type="external">said</a> Hites.</p>
<p>He was considering the normal routes of diet and exercise when inspiration struck. It took the from of the Proclaimer’s hit song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”.</p>
<p>Hites had found a way to prove his dedication to his wedding vows as well as to lose some weight- he was going to ride his bike across the continental US.</p>
<p>Starting in Falmouth, Massachusetts, Hites set off two months ago with a 300-pound trailer attached behind his bike- think of it as added resistance.</p>
<p>“I thought it would take four months, but I’m almost two months into it and I’m only in Rhode Island,” <a href="http://www.newportri.com/newportdailynews/news/page_one/fat-guy-on-a-mission/article_308366d9-4582-550d-8546-dcee6e2e0ef7.html" type="external">said</a> Hites.</p>
<p>It was there that he hit is first snag. Hites’ bike broke under the constant strain caused by its rider’s weight.</p>
<p>Hites was devastated. However, thanks to all the media attention he’s been receiving (including around 1000 followers on Facebook), it wasn’t long before someone stepped in to help. Rob Purdy of Tiverton, Rhode Island owns a bike shop where he builds bikes for a living. He custom made a bike for Hites that could support his large frame for the rest of the trip.</p>
<p>“It’s definitely inspiring,” <a href="http://www.newportri.com/newportdailynews/news/page_one/fat-guy-on-a-mission/article_308366d9-4582-550d-8546-dcee6e2e0ef7.html" type="external">said</a> Purdy of Hites’ goal. “It seems like a really good cause.”</p>
<p>As Hites sets off again, he tracks his progress on Facebook and Instagram. He has also started a web exercise group to help people in situations like his.</p>
<p>Already, Hites has lost 60 pounds and is improving relations with his wife. Ultimatly, he hopes&#160;to come down to 300 pounds by the time he reaches California. Still overweight&#160;but far healthier. And happier.</p>
<p>“By completing this ride I hope to encourage others to get up and get moving no matter their weight,” <a href="http://www.newportri.com/newportdailynews/news/page_one/fat-guy-on-a-mission/article_308366d9-4582-550d-8546-dcee6e2e0ef7.html" type="external">said</a> Hites.</p>
<p>You can follow Hites’ journey on his website: <a href="http://www.fatguyacrossamerica.com/" type="external">www.FatGuyAcrossAmerica.com</a>.</p>
<p /> | Fat man to ride 3000 miles to prove his love- and lose weight | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/07/24/fat-man-to-ride-3000-miles-to-prove-his-love-and-lose-weight/ | 2015-07-24 | 3 |
<p>Jan 22 (Reuters) - Paxman Ab (Publ):</p>
<p>* PAXMAN RECEIVES A 10 MSEK LINE OF CREDIT AS A FINANCIAL BUFFER TO ENABLE INCREASED EXPANSION RATE IN THE US Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Gdynia Newsroom)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three firms that bought crude oil last year from U.S. emergency stockpiles raised concerns about dangerous levels of a poisonous chemical in the cargoes, according to internal Energy Department emails and shipping documents reviewed by Reuters.</p>
<p>Problems with crude quality would make the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) less useful in an emergency because refiners would need to spend time and money removing contamination before producing fuel. The reserve is the world’s largest government stockpile, currently holding 665 million barrels.</p>
<p>Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) occurs naturally in crude and natural gas, but oil producers typically decontaminate such products before delivery to buyers. High levels of H2S can corrode refinery parts and pipelines - and can be lethal to humans in gas form.</p>
<p>Authorities in all major consuming countries keep oil in reserve to ensure that they do not run out of crude to refine into fuels if a natural disaster or war disrupts global supplies. The U.S. government established its reserve in 1975 following the Arab oil embargo.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Energy oversees the reserve and periodically sells some of its oil at times when there are no emergencies, as it did with the sales that sparked contamination concerns.</p>
<p>Department Spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes declined to comment about the contamination complaints uncovered by Reuters.</p>
<p>The three firms that raised concerns about high H2S levels were Royal Dutch Shell Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RDSa.L" type="external">RDSa.L</a>), Australian bank Macquarie Group and PetroChina International America, the U.S. trading arm of state-owned energy firm PetroChina Co Ltd [601857.SS], according to the shipping documents, emails provided by the Energy Department in response to a public records request, and a department official who declined to be identified.</p>
<p>The department took responsibility for cleaning the shipment to PetroChina with an additive after it determined in May of last year that levels of H2S were too high, according to the department official. The department disputes tests showing levels were too high in the other two cargoes, the official said.</p>
<p>All three firms bought cargoes of SPR oil stored in an underground salt cavern in Bryan Mound, Texas last year. The oil was pumped from Bryan Mound through pipelines to the nearest oil terminal at Freeport, Texas before being loaded onto ships, according to records reviewed by Reuters and the department official.</p>
<p>The Freeport facility is owned by Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EPD.N" type="external">EPD.N</a>). Enterprise knew about higher levels of H2S in a small number of cargoes traded between private firms that passed through its terminal, Enterprise Senior Vice President Brent Secrest told Reuters in an interview.</p>
<p>“Of the hundreds of cargoes we’ve loaded across Freeport and other Enterprise terminals, we’ve only had a handful of customers give us feedback regarding high levels of H2S,” he said.</p> UNPLEASANT SURPRISE
<p>In March, Shell complained to the Energy Department after finding high levels of H2S in a cargo the company bought as part of a 6.2 million-barrel purchase from the U.S. government in January, according to emails provided by the department in response to the Reuters public records request.</p>
<p>The firm was “unpleasantly surprised” to find the high levels, Shell oil trader Steve Sellers wrote to the department, adding that the issue caused concern at Shell about the quality of SPR crude for future purchases.</p>
<p>Shell declined to comment on its complaint to the government.</p>
<p>The oil firm’s emails said an initial test sample detected H2S gas at levels of less than five parts per million (ppm). But a later test by Shell - after it shipped the crude by boat to another U.S. location - showed H2S levels of 600 parts per million, according to Shell’s emails to the department.</p>
<p>Exposure to vapors containing 500-700 ppm of H2S could cause a person to collapse in five minutes and die within an hour, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.</p> SAFETY CONCERNS
<p>In November, Australian bank Macquarie Group bought the third shipment from the SPR and sold it to PetroChina, according to the shipping documents reviewed by Reuters.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>The cargo was loaded at Freeport onto a ship called the Stena Sunrise, the documents show.</p>
<p>A testing company named Inspectorate tested a sample from the SPR cargo purchased by Macquarie, according to the documents, and found H2S levels of up to 9,000 ppm.</p>
<p>Inspectorate declined to comment and referred questions to the Energy Department. Macquarie declined to comment.</p>
<p>After the Inspectorate testing, the terminal operator refused to allow workers to perform additional tests out of concern about violating safety regulations, according to the shipping documents.</p>
<p>It is unclear if PetroChina or Macquarie decontaminated the cargo. PetroChina shipped the oil to China, where it arrived on Jan. 18, according to Thomson Reuters shipping data.</p> RARE INCIDENTS
<p>Reuters was not able to determine how often high levels of H2S are detected across the industry, but industry experts and chemical petroleum engineers said such incidents are rare.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RDSa.L" type="external">Royal Dutch Shell PLC</a> 2233.5 RDSa.L London Stock Exchange +2.00 (+0.09%) RDSa.L EPD.N
<p>Some crude grades can have H2S levels as high as 1000 ppm when produced, said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Houston. But producers remove most of that before transporting crude to customers.</p>
<p>Contamination could result from blending different crude grades, for example when one grade of crude is stored in a tank that previously contained a different grade, Krishnamoorti said.</p>
<p>“There has to be some concentrated source of it,” Krishnamoorti said. “It’s just very odd.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Catherine Ngai; Editing by David Gaffen, Simon Webb and Brian Thevenot</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Starbucks Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SBUX.O" type="external">SBUX.O</a>) and other coffee sellers must put a cancer warning on coffee sold in California, a Los Angeles judge has ruled, possibly exposing the companies to millions of dollars in fines.</p> FILE PHOTO - A woman holds a Frappuccino at a Starbucks store inside the Tom Bradley terminal at LAX airport in Los Angeles, California, United States, October 27, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
<p>A little-known not-for-profit group sued some 90 coffee retailers, including Starbucks, on grounds they were violating a California law requiring companies to warn consumers of chemicals in their products that could cause cancer.</p>
<p>One of those chemicals is acrylamide, a byproduct of roasting coffee beans that is present in high levels in brewed coffee.</p>
<p>Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said in a decision dated Wednesday that Starbucks and other companies had failed to show there was no significant risk from a carcinogen produced in the coffee roasting process, court documents showed.</p>
<p>Starbucks and other defendants have until April 10 to file objections to the decision.</p>
<p>Starbucks declined to comment, referring reporters to a statement by the National Coffee Association (NCA) that said the industry was considering an appeal and further legal actions.</p>
<p>“Cancer warning labels on coffee would be misleading. The U.S. government’s own Dietary Guidelines state that coffee can be part of a healthy lifestyle,” the NCA statement said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SBUX.O" type="external">Starbucks Corp</a> 57.89 SBUX.O Nasdaq -0.01 (-0.02%) SBUX.O DNKN.O MCD.N
<p>In his decision, Berle said: “Defendants failed to satisfy their burden of proving by a preponderance of evidence that consumption of coffee confers a benefit to human health.”</p>
<p>Officials from Dunkin’ Donuts ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DNKN.O" type="external">DNKN.O</a>), McDonald’s Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MCD.N" type="external">MCD.N</a>), Peet’s and other big coffee sellers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>The lawsuit was filed in 2010 by the Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT). It calls for fines as large as $2,500 per person for every exposure to the chemical since 2002 at the defendants’ shops in California. Any civil penalties, which will be decided in a third phase of the trial, could be huge in California, which has a population of nearly 40 million.</p>
<p>CERT’s lawyer Raphael Metzger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>Starbucks lost the first phase of the trial in which it failed to show the level of acrylamide in coffee was below that which would pose a significant risk of cancer. In the second phase of the trial, defendants failed to prove there was an acceptable “alternative” risk level for the carcinogen, court documents showed.</p>
<p>Several defendants in the case settled before Wednesday’s decision, agreeing to post signage about the cancer-linked chemical and pay millions in fines, according to published reports.</p>
<p>Reporting by Nate Raymond; Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein; Writing by Andrew Hay; Editing by Richard Chang and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Online retailing behemoth Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) has cut ties with Washington lobbying firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer &amp; Feld LLP and Squire Patton Boggs, Bloomberg reported on Friday.</p> FILE PHOTO: An Amazon.com Inc driver stands next to an Amazon delivery truck in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 21, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1447.34 AMZN.O Nasdaq +15.92 (+1.11%) AMZN.O ORCL.N
<p>The changes took place about a week before U.S. President Donald Trump accused Amazon in a tweet on Thursday of not paying enough tax, taking advantage of the U.S. postal system and putting small retailers out of business.</p>
<p>Amazon had cut ties from the lobbying firms last Friday and in their place hired Paul Brathwaite of Federal Street Strategies LLC and Josh Holly of Holly Strategies Inc, both of whom have previously worked as outside lobbyists for Airbnb Inc and Oracle Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ORCL.N" type="external">ORCL.N</a>), the report said, citing a source.</p>
<p>Neither of the parties were immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.</p>
<p>The e-commerce giant employs about 15 lobbyists, according to earlier disclosures submitted to the U.S. Senate, with another 15 outside lobbying firms who each assign more lobbyists to work on behalf of the company.</p>
<p>The retailer spent $15.4 million in 2017 on lobbying in Washington, up from $12 million a year earlier.</p>
<p>Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean trade officials braved snowstorms, ate instant noodles to save time and spent weeks hotel-hopping in Washington as they raced to overcome major trade hurdles with their U.S. ally ahead of high-stakes nuclear discussions with North Korea.</p> FILE PHOTO: Rolled steel are seen at a Hyundai Steel plant in Dangjin, about 130 km (81 miles) southwest of Seoul June 15, 2011. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won
<p>What was meant to be a week-long trip to Washington stretched into a four-week marathon, as dozens of Seoul officials sought to wrap up talks aimed at amending the six-year-old U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement known as KORUS, according to several South Korean officials with direct knowledge of the matter.</p>
<p>U.S. plans announced earlier this month to impose hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports added urgency to the trade negotiations. As the third-largest steel exporter to the United States, South Korea had a lot to lose from 25 percent tariffs.</p>
<p>Seoul also felt it couldn’t afford a protracted trade dispute with its most important ally at a time when the two need to work together to contain a nuclear-armed North Korea, the officials told Reuters.</p>
<p>“This had to work well,” a senior official at South Korea’s presidential Blue House told Reuters. “It was right to settle this as soon as possible because if this remains ahead of inter-Korean talks and U.S.-North Korea talks, it could unnecessarily complicate our relationship.”</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump initially welcomed the breakthrough as a “great deal for American and Korean workers”, a marked turnaround from a year ago when he told Reuters he would either renegotiate or scrap what he called a “horrible” trade deal.</p>
<p>But Trump said on Thursday he may hold up signing it until after an agreement is reached with North Korea on denuclearisation, saying such a deal was “a very strong card” to ensure fairness on the new trade pact.</p>
<p>Trump is expected to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in May after the two Koreas hold their first summit in more than a decade in late April. All parties are expected to discuss the denuclearisation of North Korea.</p> “FINALLY WITHIN REACH”
<p>Whenever South Korean President Moon Jae-in had a phone call with Trump to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue in recent months, Moon also raised the trade agenda, the Blue House official said.</p>
<p>In their latest call on March 16, while the two countries’ trade representatives were holding a third round of trade talks in Washington, Moon asked Trump to have a “keen interest” in the matter and work toward a speedy trade agreement before their respective summit meetings Kim, the Blue House said at the time.</p>
<p>Around that time, South Korean negotiators started to see a glimmer of hope they could save the trade pact, which has seen the U.S. goods trade deficit with South Korea double since 2012 when it took effect.</p>
<p>“The negotiations started to make progress around March 17, and that’s why our trade team decided to stay longer because they thought agreement was finally within reach,” said a South Korean senior trade ministry official.</p>
<p>The official and another trade official said nearly 30 South Korean negotiators had to move hotels repeatedly in Washington when their trip took longer than expected, at times finding themselves crammed into one hotel room to work on their negotiation strategy for the next day.</p>
<p>“We mostly lived off on instant noodles and quick seaweed rice wraps bought from Korean supermarkets to save time,” the official said.</p>
<p>The efforts culminated in a revised pact the two countries announced this week that gives U.S. automakers and pharmaceuticals more access to the South Korean market.</p>
<p>It also lifted the threat of a 25 percent U.S. tariff on South Korean steel in exchange for quotas that will cut imports of Korean steel by about 30 percent.</p>
<p>“We swiftly removed potential conflicts between the two countries at a time when close cooperation between South Korea and the United States is more important than ever,” a second senior Blue House official said.</p>
<p>All the South Korean officials interviewed by Reuters asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.</p> “AS COLD AS SIBERIA”
<p>The talks didn’t get off to a good start as the United States “kept asking us to make concessions unilaterally,” South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said in an interview broadcast live to the Blue House’s Facebook account on Thursday.</p>
<p>“When we first met to talk, the mood was as cold as Siberia and our meeting only lasted for 21 minutes,” Kim said, referring to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. “Later on, we got closer and our relations developed to something like a bromance.”</p>
<p>From the start, South Korea saw that for the deal to survive, concessions were inevitable in autos, which made up over 70 percent of its 2017 trade surplus with the United States.</p>
<p>“If the free trade deal got terminated and 8 percent tariffs revived on South Korean auto exports, that would have been an absolute nightmare. Problem was, how do we sell a deal that doesn’t do anything good for us?,” a senior South Korean government official said.</p>
<p>“The steel issue effectively provided an opening. We make concessions in autos that we saw as inevitable anyway, and in return become the first country to be exempt from steel tariffs. This suddenly became a win-win.”</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: Nuclear North Korea - <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2lE5yjF" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2lE5yjF</a>)</p>
<p>Reporting By Jane Chung and Christine Kim. Additional reporting by Cynthia Kim. Editing by Soyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Paxman Receives SEK 10 Mln Line Of Credit As Financial Buffer Exclusive: Firms complain of contaminated crude from U.S. reserve Starbucks coffee in California must have cancer warning, judge says Amazon cuts ties with top Washington lobbying firms: Bloomberg How Seoul raced to conclude U.S. trade deal ahead of North Korea talks | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-paxman-receives-sek-10-mln-line-of/brief-paxman-receives-sek-10-mln-line-of-credit-as-financial-buffer-idUSFWN1PH10M | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
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<p>In this Oct. 30, 2014 photo, Arx Pax engineer Garrett Foshay stands over a Hendo Hoverboard in Los Gatos, Calif. Skateboarding is going airborne this fall with the launch of the first real commercially marketed hoverboard which uses magnetics to float about an inch off the ground. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)</p>
<p>LOS GATOS, Calif. — The more your knees quiver, the more the 90 pound board you’re perched on, floating above a pillow of air, seems about to shoot out from under your feet. A high-pitched engine scream bounces from the sheet of copper as you swivel and glide your way a few feet forward.</p>
<p>This is hoverboarding.</p>
<p>Skateboarding is going airborne this fall with the launch of the first real commercially marketed hoverboard which uses magnetics to float about an inch off the ground. The creators believe their technology will someday be used to transport large containers or hold buildings above earthquakes as the ground shakes below. But for now, it’s all about fun, as demonstrated in a recent practice session.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“You can very much tell that it’s frictionless so you just smoothly move along, and it’s odd because you can move in all directions,” said engineer Kyle O’Neil, seated on a copper ramp where they test their products wearing helmets and safety lenses.</p>
<p>But there are some catches. The Hendo currently only works for about 15 minutes before it needs recharging and can only operate over metal surfaces. And that price tag: $10,000.</p>
<p>Greg and Jill Henderson, co-founders of the firm Arx Pax which developed the Hendo Hoverboard, envision much more.</p>
<p>Sketches of hoverboard parks where people could rent boards and ride up and down ramps, much like skateboard parks, are already pinned to the walls.</p>
<p>“This is not the end, this is just the beginning of where this technology can go,” said Greg Henderson, sitting on a retro sofa in their makeshift labs in the Silicon Valley enclave of Los Gatos. He’s definitely thinking big.</p>
<p>“The wheel has served us very, very well, and we’re not taking the wheel head on, but there are certain places where this may be more appropriate than the wheel,” he says.</p>
<p>Here’s how it works: four dinner plate-sized hover engines on the bottom of the board create a magnetic field that induces a secondary magnetic field in a conductive surface, in this case copper, although aluminum — even under concrete — works as well. Magnetic levitation trains, currently operating in Asia, work on similar principles.</p>
<p>Henderson said the board is the most efficient way of communicating what the technology can do.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“When you discover that you can levitate a dynamic load in a stationary position, can you think of anything more exciting than a hoverboard?”</p>
<p>Hoverboards captured public interest in the “Back to the Future” trilogy when character Marty McFly hopped on one to escape attackers, banking against bushes and petering out over a lake in one scene. There have been some real attempts, and some hoaxes, since then.</p>
<p>The current prototype, designed in part by surfboard shaper Bob Pearson, is broader and wider than a typical skateboard, and fairly slow.</p>
<p>But Henderson is delighted with what they’ve done so far.</p>
<p>“Last month the Wikipedia entry for Hoverboard said this was a fictional device. It doesn’t say that anymore,” he said.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Follow Martha Mendoza at https://twitter.com/mendozamartha</p> | Startup working to turn hoverboards into reality | false | https://abqjournal.com/495145/startup-working-to-turn-hoverboards-into-reality.html | 2 |
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<p>Washington Post C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully says teaching a University of Denver <a href="http://soc.du.edu/faculty_details.asp?agora_name=sscully" type="external">distance learning course</a> has been "an amazing experience." He tells Lloyd Grove: "For the kids, it is really an unbelievable chance to sit down and talk to people who have great stories to tell." In recent weeks Scully's guest lecturers have included Gerald Ford, Walter Mondale, Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, and Rosalynn Carter.</p> | C-SPAN's Scully really loves teaching political journalism | false | https://poynter.org/news/c-spans-scully-really-loves-teaching-political-journalism | 2003-05-02 | 2 |
<p>Two great volcanoes comprise most of the Big Island of Hawai’i. Mauna Loa, measured by volume, is the largest mountain in the world, and Mauna Kea, if measured from the sea floor, would rank as the tallest. Both peaks are considered sacred, the realm of the gods (wao akua), not just for Hawai’ians, but throughout all of Polynesia.</p>
<p>In October of 2002, the first of a series of protests against the imminent U.S. attack against Iraq took place at the Mo’oheau Bandstand on the Hilo Bayfront. As I drove down to Hilo, I was struck by the majestic and stunning presence of Mauna Kea rising 13,792 ft. above Hilo-so unusually clear on a rare cloudless morning. It was a day that was startling in its beauty even for Hawai’i, and as I listened to the various speakers call our attention to the horrors of what seemed about to take place in Iraq, my gaze often drifted to the tranquil bay and the waves softly rolling down on the sands below. The contrast couldn’t have been sharper between the peaceful setting of Hilo Bay and the looming war in Iraq. If it weren’t for the voices of the Hawai’ian rights activists-reminding us of the illegal overthrow of the Hawai’ian nation-I might have thought only of the profound difference between these beautiful islands and the war-torn country of Iraq. In fact, what was taking place a world away in Iraq was really not that far away at all and is, indeed, deeply connected to what happened and was still taking place in Hawai’i. I was reminded of the “infinite extent of our relations” as Thoreau once put it, and from this perspective, the connections between the war in Iraq, the overthrow of the Hawai’ian nation, and the continuing controversy surrounding the military’s presence in Hawai’i become more and more clear.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Stryker in Hawai’i</p>
<p>Hawai’i senior Senator Daniel Inouye apparently doesn’t see these connections as is evident in a recent editorial in the Honolulu Advertiser in support of the Army’s plan to transform the 2nd Brigade in Hawai’i into a Stryker Combat Brigade.[1] The Army’s plan would involve basing about 300 Stryker vehicles at Schofield Barracks on Oahu and also expanding the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island which the brigade will use for training. The Army’s project to bring a Stryker brigade to Hawai’i has met strong resistance for the last several years from native Hawai’ian groups as well as environmental and peace activists. In October of 2006 a federal appellate court, in response to a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit environmental group Earthjustice acting on behalf of three native Hawai’ian groups, found that the Army had violated environmental laws in not adequately considering alternatives to locating the brigade in Hawai’i.[2]</p>
<p>The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed an April 2005 decision by U.S. District Judge David Ezra allowing the Army to proceed with its plans to bring the Stryker brigade to Hawai’i. The Army must now complete a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement assessing the feasability of alternative locations for the brigade. The appellate court decision ultimately sent the case back to Honolulu and U.S. District Judge Ezra in order to determine what an injunction must cover. On the eve of Judge Ezra’s decision Senator Inouye’s editorial appeared in which he argued that for the safety of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan “we must allow the training to resume while the Army completes the supplemental environmental study.” Not surprisingly, Judge Ezra’s decision allows for the Army’s plans to go forward while the SEIS is conducted.[3] Live fire training of the Stryker brigade is expected to commence at Pohakuloa on the Big Island in February.</p>
<p>The Pohakuloa Training Area is already the largest live-fire military training area in the Pacific. It consists of approximately 109,000 acres of land that have been used for the last 60 years as a live-fire area and bombing range for an assortment of military weapons. The Strykers will come to the Big Island on the new Hawai’ian Superferry, offloading at Kawaiihae Harbor and then traveling up to Pohakuloa via a newly constructed military road. It is partly for the construction of this access road, and also to increase the training area for the Strykers, that the military’s plans include the expansion of the Pohakuloa Training Area by approximately 23,000 acres of land recently purchased from the Parker Ranch.</p>
<p>Pohakuloa sits between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Even the Army acknowledges, in its Environmental Impact Statement, that “the entirety of Mauna Kea, whose southwestern slopes form part of PTA’s base, is considered holy.” Mauna Kea (The White Mountain) is associated with Poli’ahu, the snow goddess of the summit, while Mauna Loa (The Long Mountain), last erupting as recently as 1984, is associated with Pele, the goddess of volcanic fires. The area between the two sacred mountains, considered to be a site of conflict between Poli’ahu and Pele, is called “Pohakuloa” (The Veil that Covers the Spiritual Realm). Within the Pohakuloa Training Area there are seven stone shrines and a reported 291 archeological sites.</p>
<p>By the Army’s own admission in the EIS, Pohakuloa is “spiritually and historically one of the most important places in Hawai’ian tradition and history…It is difficult to describe the emotional and spiritual link that exists between Native Hawai’ians and the natural setting. Hawai’ians generally believe that all things in nature have mana, or a certain spiritual power and life force. A custodial responsibility to preserve the natural setting is passed from generation to generation, and personal strength and spiritual well being are derived from this relationship. Because of this belief, Mauna Kea may be the most powerful and sacred natural formation in all Hawai’i.” [4] The EIS acknowledges that there will be “significant unavoidable adverse biological impacts” upon the environment at Pohakuloa. The PTA is said, by former area commander Lt. Col. Dennis Owen, to have “the highest concentration of endangered species of any Army installation in the world.” The negative impacts will come from fires that result from live-fire training, as well as from off-road maneuvers by the Stryker vehicles that will adversely affect sensitive species and habitat. The Army also acknowledges significant negative impacts on air quality (caused by wind erosion by the off-road maneuvers of the Strykers), soil loss and soil contamination from training activities, lead and asbestos contamination caused by the construction and demolition of buildings, and destructive impacts on such cultural, historic, and archeological resources such as the Ke’amuku Village and sacred sites such as the Pu’ukohola Heiau.</p>
<p>The Army also proposes an increase in live-fire training. This poses a significant risk, according to the EIS, to workers and army personnel from unexploded ordnance. Environmentalists have drawn attention to the danger from unexploded ordnance that litters many former military sites in Hawai’i, as well as the military’s poor record of cleaning up these sites. The EIS states that “only simulated biological agents” will be used and that hazardous materials do not pose a significant impact. There is also some concern about the potential toxic contamination from depleted uranium since the primary armament on Stryker vehicles is the Stryker Mobile Gun System which uses ammunition made from depleted uranium. The Army has claimed that depleted uranium weapons will not be used in training at Pohakuloa, but this has hardly eased the concerns of local residents.</p>
<p>While the military promises to do what it can to limit the adverse impacts from the training at Pohakuloa, it states that there is a practical limit to mitigation measures. The bottom line is that these adverse impacts and potential dangers are considered acceptable by the military.</p>
<p>The issue that always looms large in the background of this controversy is the very presence of the U.S. military in Hawai’i. For Hawai’ian sovereignty activists, the proposed expansion of the Pohakuloa Training Area is only the latest issue in a long history of U.S. military acquisitions of Hawai’ian lands-going back most notably to the 1875 “Treaty of Reciprocity” that ceded control of Pearl Harbor to the U.S. Navy. The military now controls 5 percent of land in Hawai’i, 22 percent of O’ahu (85,000 acres), and 4 percent of the Big Island (110,000 acres). Moreover, the proposed 23,000 acre expansion of the Pohakuloa Training Area is only about a quarter of the projected acquisition for the further development of the PTA.[5]</p>
<p>It’s a sad irony that this latest land acquisition is almost the size of Kaho’olawe (28,766 acres), the “Target Isle” used for bombing practice for nearly 50 years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Navy finally officially ceded control of Kaho’olawe on November 11, 2003, after over two decades of protests by peace and Hawai’ian sovereignty activists. That campaign cost the lives of two Hawai’ian leaders, George Helm and Kimo Mitchell, who were lost at sea in 1977 in an effort to reach the island to protest the Navy’s occupation and bombing of the island. Their deaths became an emotional turning point in the struggle for Hawai’ian rights. Now, just as the Navy finally cedes control of Kaho’olawe, the Army takes control of a similar-sized piece of land on the sacred slopes of Mauna Kea. It would be the largest military acquisition in Hawai’i since WWII.</p>
<p>For Hawai’ian sovereignty activists, Hawai’i is an occupied country, and the lands in question are “stolen lands.” Though most Americans are either blissfully unaware or couldn’t care less, the sovereignty activists appear to have international law on their side. For its part, the United States government has already admitted to the illegal overthrow of the Hawai’ian nation, by issuing a formal apology by joint resolution of Congress in November of 1993 in acknowledgment of the 100th anniversary of the coup that dethroned Queen Lili’uokalani. Although the United States was the first nation to formally recognize the sovereignty of the Hawai’ian nation in 1842, it was the U.S. Navy that provided the force that enabled American business interests to dethrone the Queen in January of 1893. In recent years, experts in international law have called into question the legitimacy of “statehood” and American military occupation of Hawai’ian lands by pointing out that there is no known record of the Hawai’ian Kingdom ever relinquishing its sovereignty.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Lessons from the war in Iraq</p>
<p>Since that cloudless Hilo day in October of 2002, the war in Iraq has unfolded in its all-too-easily predictable catastrophe. As the violence spirals out of control and any remaining vestige of a fraudulent justification of the invasion evaporate-that Iraq is better off from having been ‘liberated’ from a despotic dictator or that the world is safer from the threat of global terrorism-the American people have slowly come to the realization that it was all a terrible mistake. It reminds me of a story I read in the paper a number of years ago when I was living in San Francisco about a jumper who had somehow managed to survive his plunge from the Golden Gate. As I remember it the hapless one said his first thought after his ill-conceived leap was “Oops, that was a mistake.” That’s about where we are today as a nation after failing to heed the warnings of so many experts and hundreds of thousands of protestors around the world and instead following the Fox News and New York Times propaganda that cheered on the Bush Administration’s leap into the abyss that is now the war in Iraq. All the head-scratching about what to do now, including the proposals of the Iraq Study Group, are nothing but the desparate flailings of one grasping at thin air after the ground has fallen away. The Bush Administration, of course, can only ‘stay the course’ and thus, with their sights now firmly set on ‘surging’ in Iraq and even more insanely on expanding the war into Iran, seems hell-bent on plunging the nation only further into the abyss.We’ve come to our “Oops” moment as a nation but we are still far from realizing just how devastating a mistake it was to launch this war.</p>
<p>Senator Inouye’s editorial in support of the Stryker brigade in Hawai’i illustrates this point. The Senator writes: “Our country is at war. With the pace of operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, our Army is stretched thin. We simply cannot afford to stand down any of our forces right now.” After reminding us that he voted against the Iraq war, the Senator concludes that the “issue on the Stryker brigade should not be a referendum on the Iraq war.” Perhaps it’s the other way around, however, and that the Iraq war should be a referendum on the Stryker brigade.</p>
<p>Our country is at war-but it is a war that was completely unnecessary. The United States has the most powerful military force in the world, spending more on the military than all the other nations of the world combined; and yet the United States has demonstrated a propensity to use that great military force irresponsibly and that is one of the underlying causes and certainly not the solution to the problem of terrorism. We cannot defeat the problem of terrorism by participating in terrorism and that is certainly what we are doing when we engage in unnecessary wars of aggression. Perhaps the lesson that should be drawn from the war in Iraq is that it is time to stand down all of our forces right now. The best hope for a peaceful world is for the United States to pull out of Iraq, stand down its military force, and recommit itself to the rule of law among nations.</p>
<p>The United States needs to overcome its addiction to war and a good place to start would be to pull out of Iraq and to shut down the Army’s plan to base a Stryker brigade in Hawai’i. As Kyle Kajihiro, program director of the American Friends Service Committee, puts it: “The Stryker Brigade in Hawai’i is an illegal and catastrophic project meant for use in an illegal and catastrophic war. The bitter history of the U.S. military in Hawai’i has demonstrated that if the military gets an inch, it will take a mile, or in this case, 25,000 acres of land. We refuse to allow our sacred ‘aina to be used to perpetuate wars of aggression against other countries and peoples, or to let politicians send our loved ones to kill or be killed in such immoral and illegal wars.”[6]</p>
<p>Perhaps a concern for the safety of our troops is not the primary reason behind Inouye’s support for the Stryker brigade. Obviously any training that needs to be done before the troops are withdrawn can be done at existing facilities elsewhere. Kajihiro continues: “The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that the Army failed to answer the question ‘Why Hawai’i?’ and ordered the Army to complete a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) that considered alternatives. But it is unlikely that another EIS will be able to honestly answer such a question that is essentially political. Stryker Brigades are in Hawai’i and Alaska because of the power of Hawai’i’s and Alaska’s Senators to secure ‘military pork’. Politicians cannot claim to be against the war while promoting the military expansion that drives wars.”[7]</p>
<p>Perhaps the war in Iraq should be a referendum on the Stryker brigade in Hawai’i for there is a deep connection after all between the war in Iraq and the U.S. military’s presence in Hawai’i-the war in Iraq is really only the latest symptom of the same problem that led to the overthrow of the Nation of Hawai’i in 1893. Time and again U.S. military power has been used not really for the defense of ‘freedom’ but for the expansion of corporate global interests.</p>
<p>War, if ever justified, should be an absolutely last resort. All peaceful means of resolving a conflict should be exhausted before resorting to war. There is every indication that the Bush Administration, acting to extend those corporate global interests, did everything they could to avoid any peaceful solution and manufacture a reason for war.</p>
<p>Perhaps the problem is that it is far too easy for the United States with its overpowering military force to go to war. There obviously needs to be some greater force of restraint that would make it much harder for the nation to engage in war. Part of the problem is that too few Americans really feel the cost of war. I imagine that if professional sports were banned while the nation was at war, our leaders would make every effort to find a peaceful solution. It might seem a ridiculous suggestion to make, but obviously if it is important enough to go to war then sacrificing professional sports should be no big deal. Conversely, if it is not worth sacrificing professional sports, then it is obviously not worth going to war. Can one imagine just how long the Vietnam War would have lasted if there could be no World Series while the nation is at war? Would the nation so easily have accepted the fraudulant arguments for war and leapt off the cliff into the hell that is Iraq if there could be no Super Bowls while the nation is at war?</p>
<p>The Watada Case</p>
<p>Unfortunately, as Americans love their bread and circuses so much, the only hope for any restraint on the reckless militarism of the United States might be in the example set by the rare courage of the soldier from Hawai’i, Lt. Ehren Watada, who faces court martial for refusing deployment to Iraq. The military judge presiding over the court martial has, however, denied the attempt by Lt. Watada’s defense to ‘put the war on trial.’ The ruling by military circuit judge Lt. Col. John M. Head on January 16 denied the defense motion for a hearing on the “Nuremburg defense” thus preventing Watada’s defense from presenting evidence on the legality of the war. The highest ranking soldier to refuse deployment to Iraq, Lt. Watada has argued in his defense that according to the Nuremberg Principles and U.S. military regulations he was under oath to follow only “lawful orders” and that the war on Iraq is illegal under international treaties and under Article Six of the U.S. Constitution. Lt. Watada’s trial at Fort Lewis, Washington is set to begin on February 5. [8]</p>
<p>The ruling by Judge Head conflicts with the statement by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal, that the United States must be bound by the same rule of law used to prosecute the Germans: “If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.”[9] The Nuremberg trials established that soldiers are not immune from prosecution for war crimes just because they were following orders. The judgement at Nuremberg means that the common view held by Judge Head and apparently many Americans that “soldiers like Lt. Watada can’t pick and choose when to fight” is just flat out wrong. In denying the “Nuremberg defense” the military is simply setting aside the judgement at Nuremberg and ignoring Justice Jackson’s explicit statement.</p>
<p>Lt. Watada’s refusal to deploy to Iraq should call to mind Thoreau’s startling words about the three ways one can serve one’s country:</p>
<p>“The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, &amp;c. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw of a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, -as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and officer-holders; -serve the state chiefly with their heads; and as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the Devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.” (Henry David Thoreau, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”, 1848.)</p>
<p>Thoreau is clearly right that it is plainly wrong to think that the highest service one can give to one’s country is to serve blindly with one’s body, even if it means giving one’s life. To serve without conscience, as a mere weapon of war, is really to forsake what is highest and most human within us. To force our soldiers to surrender their conscience is not only to ignore the judgement at Nuremberg, it is also treating our soldiers like horses and dogs. Sending our troops into an unnecessary and immoral war is in fact treating them far worse than horses and dogs.</p>
<p>The nation would be stronger not weaker if it recognized Lt. Watada’s right to refuse deployment to an illegal war. If Lt. Watada’s action is recognized as right, the nation would be far less prone to engage in unnecessary and immoral wars. In refusing deployment to Iraq Lt. Watada is serving the country with his conscience, and in so doing, is giving the highest service. If Lt. Watada goes to prison, as seems now very likely, he will be a powerful symbol of the injustice of the nation and its shame in ignoring the judgement at Nuremberg and refusing to remember Justice Jackson’s counsel.</p>
<p>TIMOTHY J. FREEMAN teaches philosophy at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Notes</p>
<p>1. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, “ <a href="" type="internal">Don’t fence them in</a>,” Commentary, The Honolulu Advertiser, Sunday, December 17, 2006.</p>
<p>2. ” <a href="" type="internal">Stryker base here is found illegal</a>,” The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Friday, October 6, 2006.</p>
<p>3. “ <a href="" type="internal">Judge Allows Stryker training to resume</a>,” The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Saturday, December 30, 2006.</p>
<p>4. <a href="" type="internal">Army Transformation Environmental Impact Statement</a>, Section 8:11 Cultural Resources, p.4.</p>
<p>5. See Haunani-Kay Trask, “ <a href="" type="internal">Stealing Hawai’i: The war machine at work</a>,” The Honolulu Weekly, July 17, 2002.</p>
<p>6. Kyle Kajihiro, “ <a href="http://dmzhawaii.org/" type="external">Aloha ‘Aina Statement on Proposed Stryker Training</a>,” DMZ-Hawai’i, December 18, 2006.</p>
<p>7. See also Jeffrey St. Clair, “ <a href="" type="internal">The General, GM, and the Stryker</a>,” Counterpunch, April 22/23, 2006.</p>
<p>8. David Krieger, “ <a href="http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=13856" type="external">The Iraq War Goes on Trial</a>,” Peace Journalism, January 17, 2007.</p>
<p>9. Robert Jackson, <a href="http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/jackson/jack44.htm" type="external">Minutes of Conference Session of July 23, 1945, International Conference on Military Trials</a> : London, 1945.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Iraq War Hits Hawai’i | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/02/03/the-iraq-war-hits-hawai-i/ | 2007-02-03 | 4 |
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<p>Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer asks, “Why did reasonable folks who vote Republican” vote for Donald Trump? ( <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/" type="external">Gage Skidmore</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>)</p>
<p>In an hour-long discussion about the presidential race and U.S. politics with Philip Maldari, host of KPFA’s “The Sunday Show,” Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer begs liberals not to let the idea of Donald Trump getting his hands on nuclear weapons scare them out of thinking critically about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>Listen to the program <a href="https://kpfa.org/episode/sunday-show-july-17-2016/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
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<p>“Donald Trump is a bait-and-switch kind of guy,” Scheer tells Maldari, who is focused on the threat Trump poses to country. “He’s embraced neofascist thinking, scapegoating the most vulnerable, blaming undocumented workers, somehow dragging Muslims into the equation as a group. Yeah, he’s a demagogue of the Mussolini variety, no question of it. I don’t underestimate the danger of Donald Trump.</p>
<p>“But then you have to ask yourself the question: Why did reasonable folks who vote Republican, from Maine down to Alabama, vote for the guy? And this is an age-old question. How do we get madness in a society? Why do people turn to irrational, jingoistic, race-baiting solutions? And they do it out of enormous unhappiness. And you can’t ignore those problems. How did the most civilized, well-educated, orderly country in the world—Germany—embrace the scapegoating of Jews, Gypsies and gay people? Where did that come from? And so the issue is not whether Trump represents an extremely negative force. The issue is: How did we get to this place?”</p>
<p>Indeed, how did we get here?</p>
<p>“We’ve had false leadership on the Democratic side saying, ‘Trust us, and everything’s gonna be wonderful for all workers.’ And it isn’t. …</p>
<p>“Democrats have had a lot of power in this country over the last 24 years. Two-thirds of that time Democrats have been president. Where’s the great progress? Where is the great effort to help ordinary people? So is a Hillary Clinton presidency going to bring about progress in these areas? Or is it going to be more of the same? And then the right-wing, the irrational forces that are scapegoated, will be stronger four years later.”</p>
<p>“What is your prescription?” Scheer asks Maldari. “We fall into step uncritically, rally around Hillary Clinton, ignore the responsibility of the Democratic establishment of much of our problems and so forth? And their connivance with Wall Street—we just forget about that?”</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | Robert Scheer to KPFA Host Philip Maldari: Trump Is a Symptom; Establishment Sellout Is the Disease | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/robert-scheer-to-kpfa-host-philip-maldari-trump-is-a-symptom-establishment-sellout-is-the-disease/ | 2016-07-18 | 4 |
<p>Police respond at the scene at the U.S. Army base in Fort Hood Texas where a member of the military opened fire killing 13 people and wounding 31, before being slain himself.</p>
<p>Army Lt. General Robert Cone talks to the media about the shooting on base at Fort Hood.</p>
<p>Sgt. Fanuaee Vea embraces Pvt. Savannah Green outside Fort Hood after the shooting.</p>
<p>Emergency personnel take a wounded person on a stretcher to an awaiting ambulance at the scene at Fort Hood.</p>
<p>Monica Cain tries to call her husband, a soldier at Fort Hood, with her daughter by her side, outside the Army base's main gate.</p>
<p>Daniel Clark and Rachel Clark embrace after a press conference at the post.</p>
<p>Spc. Ryan Howard, right, and Spc. David Straub wait for news of fellow soldiers while waiting at the gate of the Army base.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama speaks about the shooting at Fort Hood during an event at the Interior Department in Washington. The president called the mass shooting at the Texas base "a horrific outburst of violence."</p>
<p>Sgt. Anthony Sills, right, comforts his wife as they wait outside the Fort Hood Army Base. The Sills' 3-year old son was still in daycare on the base, which was in lock-down following a mass shooting earlier in the day.</p>
<p>An entrance to Fort Hood Army Base in Fort Hood, Texas, near Killeen.</p> | Fort Hood Shooting | true | https://thedailybeast.com/fort-hood-shooting | 2018-10-05 | 4 |
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<p>USA Today, the largest U.S. newspaper by circulation and Gannett Co.’s flagship publication, announced this week its plan to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSWEN263120071115?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=businessNews" type="external">cut 45 newsroom jobs</a>, or about 9 percent of the editorial staff, because of declining revenue.</p>
<p>And, there’s more bad news. The Denver-based MediaNews Group, which operates Detroit’s two daily newspapers, <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2007/10/08/daily42.html" type="external">announced last month</a> that it would offer buyout packages to employees with a goal of cutting 110 positions. Houston Chronicle honchos announced at the end of October plans to <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5237505.html" type="external">cut about 5 percent</a> of the paper’s work force through layoffs and the elimination of open positions. Check <a href="/news/feature/2007/03/breaking_the_news.html" type="external">here</a> for a Mother Jones report that explains what’s really breaking America’s newspapers.</p>
<p /> | More Newspaper Woes | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/11/more-newspaper-woes/ | 2007-11-17 | 4 |
<p>As sad as it may seem, there are still some folks out there that can’t wrap their head around the fact that LGBT individuals do, in fact, exist. Not only that, that they should be treated equally under the law, and better yet, as human beings.</p>
<p>One person who just can’t wrap his around these facts is ultra-conservative radio host Bryan Fischer. Who, ordinarily, I wouldn’t waste time writing about, but this was just too goddamn funny.</p>
<p>It’s an apparent meltdown over, of all things, rainbows, Fischer can’t seem to handle the LGBT community using the rainbow flag as it’s symbol. He believes it only belongs to God and he wants the gay community to “give it back.”</p>
<p>Fischer wrote:</p>
<p>“Worst example of cultural appropriation ever: LGBTs stole the rainbow from God. It’s his. He invented it. Gen. 9:11-17. Give it back.”</p>
<p />
<p>Needless to say, this is absolutely hilarious on so many levels, and the internet subsequently and appropriately responded:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/BryanJFischer" type="external">@BryanJFischer</a> oh no, the loathsome gays, they're hoarding all the light refracted through water vapor in the entire world!!!</p>
<p>— Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) <a href="https://twitter.com/inthesedeserts/status/848597248615251972" type="external">April 2, 2017</a></p>
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<p>In all seriousness, aren’t there bigger things to worry about in the world right now than people supposedly stealing rainbows from a deity? One would think.</p>
<p>Featured Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images</p> | Ultra-Conservative Radio Host MELTS DOWN; BEGS Gay People To Give Rainbow Flag Back (TWEET) | true | http://bluetribune.com/2017/04/03/ultra-conservative-radio-host-melts-down-begs-gay-people-to-give-rainbow-flag-back-tweet/ | 2017-04-03 | 4 |
<p>MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - The United States government has designated the deputy leader of the Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group a "global terrorist."</p>
<p>A State Department statement says the designation of Abukar Ali Adan blocks any assets of his that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. citizens from making any transactions with him.</p>
<p>The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa. It has been blamed for the October truck bombing in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, that killed 512 people.</p>
<p>Little is publicly known about the reclusive Ali Adan. The U.S. has designated al-Shabab as a foreign terrorist organization, and the Trump administration early last year approved expanded military efforts against the group. More than 30 U.S. drone strikes were carried out against al-Shabab last year.</p>
<p>MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - The United States government has designated the deputy leader of the Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group a "global terrorist."</p>
<p>A State Department statement says the designation of Abukar Ali Adan blocks any assets of his that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. citizens from making any transactions with him.</p>
<p>The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa. It has been blamed for the October truck bombing in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, that killed 512 people.</p>
<p>Little is publicly known about the reclusive Ali Adan. The U.S. has designated al-Shabab as a foreign terrorist organization, and the Trump administration early last year approved expanded military efforts against the group. More than 30 U.S. drone strikes were carried out against al-Shabab last year.</p> | US designates al-Shabab deputy leader as 'global terrorist' | false | https://apnews.com/ee37b4a26192484e916a7788144cd25c | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>Visiting Beijing after an ecology conference on Hainan Island, we stayed at an unassuming back street hotel we found on Lonely Planet. Rooms were arrayed around two inner courtyards and we booked a recommended three room suite tucked in the corner of the back courtyard.</p>
<p>The suite was filled antique furniture and a quiet elegance. It was neither garish nor fancy, but suffused with a carefully considered simplicity of bedroom, meeting hall and office. I felt at the time that I could be living like a Chinese emperor. A turtle, symbol of long life, lived in a stone earn in the courtyard.</p>
<p>Soon after, I discovered that Huo Guofeng, who succeeded Mao as Chairman of the Central Committee, lived modestly in these rooms. They were rooms fit for a king, but only on the basis of restrained and careful beauty, not on the basis of golden trinkets. Huo Guofeng ousted the Gang of Four. He was succeeded by leadership exercised by Deng Xiaoping and the subsequent rise to global economic and political power of China in the 21st&#160;century.</p>
<p>Much has been made of the recent announcement that the mandated two term limit for President Xi Jinping will be suspended. There are, of course, always risks from unrestrained power, of unintended consequences from even good intentions. But I will take a different tact given the rapidly emerging and deepening global ecological climate crisis. President Xi is uniquely positioned to exert global leadership for the common global good to help us accelerate our actions and save ourselves before it is too late.</p>
<p>At a time when the United States under Donald Trump has adopted climate change denial as national policy, and embraced a pro-fossil fuel agenda, it is China that can help exert a healing response to excess.China is already global leader in solar PV, wind, solar hot water, reforestation.</p>
<p>Recent reports from the Arctic are dire.Warm air and warm water are flowing northward and melting the ice and permafrost even in the Arctic winter night. It has sometimes been warmer at the North Pole in February than in Europe or Western U.S. If the Arctic ocean becomes ice free in the summer, global climate change and consequences will almost certainly accelerate. Sunlight, instead of reflecting back into space by ice, will rapidly warm the oceans, releasing enormous amounts of methane from the seabed and melting permafrost, accelerating the melting of Greenland’s vast ice mass, and likely radically disrupting global climate patterns.</p>
<p>This is why global leadership by an empowered President Xi will matter very much to all of us around the world.The United States has sidelined itself as global leader and partner. The initiative for dynamic global action must come from Beijing.</p>
<p>Wild fires and mud slides in California are the new normal, as are class four and five hurricanes devastating costal cities. This summer in Newton, MA for the first time I listened to the evening roar of hurricane force winds outside for several hours, not from a named tropical storm but as a consequences of the new normal of strange weather.</p>
<p>Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to power in the United States at a time of global depression and global war and served four terms as President and helped transform the world and defeat fascism and the armies of Germany and Japan and ushered in a period of global American leadership. Now it is Presidents Xi’s moment to respond to the crisis and seize the opportunity.</p>
<p>President Xi can exert his leadership to accelerate, nationally and globally, on an emergency basis, the rapid transformation from fossil fuels to efficient renewables, and similarly transform agriculture and forestry and aquaculture to sequester carbon and remove it from the atmosphere to exert global cooling.</p>
<p>Globally, the challenge, writ large, is to make economic growth mean ecological improvement and a tool, not just for ecological survival and carbon removal, but for sustainable economic growth for all and an end to global poverty. This can be China’s existing Belt and Road initiative write large in global partnership and with a particular focus on energy and climate. It means trillions of dollars of investment and global poverty reduction and partnerships to create sustainable jobs and build wealth and assets for the poor. This means an ecological global economic growth agenda and partnership in sustainability and prosperity. This is a lifeline both for the planet and for the global poor. Responding successfully to the climate emergency to succeed cannot be an agenda to serve and expand the privileges of the rich at the expense of the poor.</p>
<p>The climate emergency means much more than voluntary pledges in Paris with modest goals. Climate emergency requires both concrete plans and immediate actions that will reduce over the next twenty years global carbon and methane emissions to a sustainable 3 tons per persons per year, 21gigatons globally, and remove and sequester many gigatons of carbon yearly. In 2018, the Climate Emergency in practical terms requires Chinese leadership focused and coordinated by President Xi. The People’s Political Consultative Congress has given him the tools. Now is the time for him to use them to lead the world toward development of an ecological civilization.</p>
<p>The alternative is the ever increasing likelihood of global ecological crisis and collapse. All fall down.</p>
<p>For my part, I suggest a 2018 global conference in China with leading global experts, financiers,industrialists and doers to help plan the kind of global and national strategies for the emergency global response to the clear and present climate danger.</p>
<p>People like Amory Lovins, Hans Josef Fell, Elon Musk, Gregor Czisch, Mark Jacobson, Daniel Kammen and many others who have a global perspective and the ability to conceive and execute plans that can help bring us from here,an endangered present, to there, a sustainable ecological civilization.</p>
<p>Fulfillment of the Chinese dream in the 21st&#160;century must be done in harmony with diverse global visions that offers a sustainable and just ecological future for us all.</p> | China and Global Climate Leadership | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/03/07/china-and-global-climate-leadership/ | 2018-03-07 | 4 |
<p>RadioShack says it has inked deals with a group of investors to restructure part of its debt and access funds, moves aimed at giving the struggling consumer electronics retailer more financial breathing room.</p>
<p>The Fort Worth, Texas-based chain said Friday that Standard General LP and other investors have acquired a credit line that GE Capital had extended to RadioShack.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The retailer expects it will be able to draw on that credit to buy inventory ahead of the holiday shopping season.</p>
<p>RadioShack says that Standard General, Litespeed Management and other investors are providing $120 million in an investment that the chain expects will be converted into equity securities.</p>
<p>RadioShack warned last month that it may need to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it struggles to compete with online retailers.</p> | Struggling retailer RadioShack inks deals to restructure some of its debt, access funds | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/10/03/struggling-retailer-radioshack-inks-deals-to-restructure-some-its-debt-access.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>“We will never forget that day or the victims of this senseless act of violence. We strive to move forward and search for the good that is in us all,” said Lavinia Johnson, the center’s executive director.</p>
<p>During the ceremony outside the center, employees of nearby businesses who sheltered people during the chaos were also thanked by Keith Nelson, the center’s chairman.</p>
<p>In all, 14 people were killed and 22 wounded.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Among those attending the ceremony was Zen Martinsen, 56, a clerical supervisor for San Bernardino County. While she didn’t know the victims who had gathered at the center for a county event that day, she said all county employees are like family.</p>
<p>“This affects everybody and I think it’s just really important that terrorism doesn’t win,” she said. “We can’t let it win.”</p>
<p>The ceremony was just one of a series of events scheduled in the hardscrabble city of 216,000 people east of Los Angeles to mark the anniversary of the Dec. 2, 2015, attack by husband-and-wife assailants on a holiday luncheon for county health employees. Investigators say the attackers were inspired by the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>Earlier, cyclists conducted a 14-mile bike ride — one mile for each person who was killed.</p>
<p>Friday evening some 500 people gathered at California State University, San Bernardino’s, Caussoulis Arena for a somber memorial for the victims.</p>
<p>Among the numerous speakers, which included the city’s police chief and mayor, was Julie Swann-Paez, who was gravely wounded by the shooters.</p>
<p>Swann-Paez, whose pelvis was shattered by a bullet, spoke warmly, and sometimes humorously of each of those killed. Still, she choked up from time to time, while some in the audience wept.</p>
<p>Most of those killed in the attack by county health inspector Syed Rizwan Farook, and Farook’s Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik, were Farook’s colleagues.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>While the city of San Bernardino has been grappling with a spike in homicides this year, community residents have worked hard to prevent a hate-filled backlash to the terror attack. Clergy have formed an interfaith alliance, victims’ families have encouraged tolerance and Muslim residents undertook a campaign to educate neighbors about Islam.</p>
<p>Since the attack, San Bernardino police Sgt. Emil Kokesh said he has also been reminded of the need to stay fit. Kokesh arrived at the scene of the onslaught minutes after the shooting and was there for more than a day. He said he was sore for two weeks, which prompted him to take up cycling to get in shape with some fellow officers.</p>
<p>That led to the memorial bike ride.</p>
<p>“On that day, it pushed a lot of us to our limits — physically, mentally, and emotionally,” he said. Now, Kokesh said he often reminds his fellow officers: “You may work in an office, you may do investigations, and not do much field work anymore, but you are going to be the ones who respond to something like this, so stay fit, stay prepared.”</p>
<p>The Inland Regional Center provides case management services for people with developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism. The building where the attack occurred is still closed and is undergoing remodeling. It is expected to reopen in early 2017, and a memorial to the victims is planned, Kevin Urtz, the center’s associate executive director said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press reporters Alicia Chang and John Antczak and AP photographer Mark Terrill contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to spell the center chairman’s last name Nelson.</p> | San Bernardino recalls terror attack with silence, speakers | false | https://abqjournal.com/900670/san-bernardino-recalls-terror-attack-with-silence-speakers.html | 2016-12-02 | 2 |
<p>Malaysia Airlines confirmed that the registration number of the missing aircraft is 9M-MRO, indicating the plane is 11 years and eight months old, according to Reuters.</p>
<p>Photographer <a href="http://www.airplane-pictures.net/member-profile.php?p=4643" type="external">Pascal Maillot</a> captured this image of the that aircraft landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on May 23, 2009.</p>
<p>Website <a href="http://www.airliners.net/" type="external">airliners.net</a> also features <a href="http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=9M-MRO" type="external">other photos of the jet</a>.</p>
<p /> | Captured on Camera: Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet in 2009 | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/captured-camera-missing-malaysia-airlines-jet-2009-n47696 | 2014-03-08 | 3 |
<p>Steven Paddock, the Las Vegas shooter who murdered 58 people and wounded hundreds of others with bursts of gunfire from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, was so precise in his preparation for the massacre that he <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/las-vegas-gunmans-nightstand-note-contained-figures-wind/story?id=50357529" type="external">had with him a note</a> containing handwritten numbers for wind, trajectory, and distance in his hotel room.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/details-on-las-vegas-shooter-stephen-paddocks-note/" type="external">Interviewed</a> on 60 Minutes, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer David Newton from the K9 unit stated that when he entered Paddock’s hotel room, he saw the note. Newton told Bill Whitaker of CBS:</p>
<p>I did notice — a note on the nightstand near — his shooting platform. I could see on it he had written the distance, the elevation he was on, the drop of what his bullet was going to be for the crowd. So he had that written down and figured out so he would know where to shoot to hit his targets from there.</p>
<p>Whitaker asked, “What were the numbers? I am just trying to understand, were they calculations?"</p>
<p>Newton replied:</p>
<p>Yeah, he had written, he must have done the calculations online or something to figure out what his altitude was going to be on how high up he was — how far out the crowd was going to be and what at that distance and what the drop of his bullet was going to be. He hadn't written out the calculations; all he had was written out the final numbers that were on the sheet.</p>
<p>Asked what he saw when he entered Paddock’s room, Newton said:</p>
<p>An armory. So many guns, so many magazines, stacks and stacks of magazines everywhere. In suitcases, all neatly stacked against pillars that were in the room, all stacked up, rifles placed all throughout, all kinds of monitors and electrical equipment he had in there. It just looked almost like a gun store. … I saw a few phones, laptops, couple laptops he had in there, a lot of drills and drill bits, all kinds of tools … the dust from the explosive breach, and you’ve got the flashing lights. I mean, it looked straight up from out of a movie.</p> | Las Vegas Shooter Had Note With Wind, Trajectory, And Distance Numbers In His Room | true | https://dailywire.com/news/22051/las-vegas-shooter-had-note-wind-trajectory-and-hank-berrien | 2017-10-08 | 0 |
<p>MSNBC host Joy Reid reported on Sunday that Bernie Sanders’s “record on environmental justice has drawn increased scrutiny to his progressive credentials” because of his <a href="" type="internal">strong support</a> for a bill in the late 1990s that would have sent radioactive waste to a low-income Latino&#160;community in&#160;Sierra Blanca, Texas.</p>
<p>“What’s more,” Reid added, is that “Sanders opposed an attempt by the late Senator Paul Wellstone to add a provision that would restore legal rights to the people of Sierra Blanca and allow them to oppose the waste dump.”</p>
<p>CNN’s Jake Tapper previously <a href="" type="internal">asked</a>&#160;Bernie’s top aide Tad Devine about Sierra Blanca. Devine laughed off the story as an “oppo dump.”</p>
<p>As BNR has <a href="" type="internal">pointed out</a> in <a href="" type="internal">previous</a> <a href="" type="internal">reporting</a>, Texas authorities later denied permits to dump the waste there, but as Texas Observer editor-in-chief Forrest Wilder told Reid, “It took a weird turn and actually today now there’s a for-profit radioactive waste dump in a different part of West Texas that was started and owned by the late <a href="" type="external">Harold Simmons</a>, the Dallas billionaire who funded Swift Boat ads and was a major Republican funder in Texas for years, for Rick Perry and for others. So it kind of mutated into a strange new form.”</p>
<p>The Sanders campaign issued a statement to MSNBC:</p>
<p>The Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact was an idea initiated by the governor of Texas with the support of the governors of Vermont and Maine and approved by the state legislatures of all three states. The only reason Congress even considered the compact is because the Congress has to ratify agreements between states.</p>
<p>Hardly an explanation for Bernie’s actions.</p>
<p>Watch the MSNBC segment here:</p>
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<p /> | MSNBC: #SierraBlanca has ‘Drawn Increased Scrutiny’ to Bernie’s Progressive Credentials | true | http://bluenationreview.com/msnbc-sierra-blanca-bernie-sanders/ | 2016-02-28 | 4 |
<p>NEW YORK—PBS has suspended radio and TV host Tavis Smiley after finding what it called “troubling allegations” of sexual misconduct, making him the second high-profile star to be ousted from a network known for its high-brow, genteel programming.</p>
<p>The Public Broadcasting Service said Wednesday an independent investigation by a law firm uncovered “multiple, credible allegations of conduct that is inconsistent with the values and standards of PBS.” His show’s page at PBS was scrubbed on Thursday.</p>
<p>Smiley shot back on Facebook, saying PBS “overreacted” and calling it “a rush to judgment.” He said he has never harassed anyone and claimed one relationship the network uncovered was consensual.</p>
<p>“If having a consensual relationship with a colleague years ago is the stuff that leads to this kind of public humiliation and personal destruction, heaven help us,” he said. “This has gone too far. And, I, for one, intend to fight back.”</p>
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<p>PBS responded to Smiley’s accusations by saying it stands by the integrity of the investigation. “The totality of the investigation, which included Mr. Smiley, revealed a pattern of multiple relationships with subordinates over many years,” a PBS spokesperson said.</p>
<p>The ouster comes weeks after PBS cut ties with anchor and talk show host Charlie Rose, citing “extremely disturbing and intolerable behavior” by him toward women at his PBS talk show.</p>
<p>Smiley brought rare diversity to late-night TV and has drawn the ire of conservatives and liberals alike for some of his views. He has worked for six networks over a 30-year career and his radio program “The Tavis Smiley Show” was distributed by Public Radio International from 2005 to 2013. He has been with PBS for 14 seasons and some 3,000 episodes.</p>
<p>Smiley also has a development deal with Warner Bros. Television and was working with J.J. Abrams to turn his new book about Michael Jackson’s last days and death into a limited TV series. He also has a podcast via PodcastOne.</p>
<p>Smiley next month is expected to launch a nationwide 40-city tour of a theatrical production focusing on the last year of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life. “Death of a King: A Live Theatrical Experience” is based on Smiley’s 2014 book of the same title and was to start Jan. 15, King’s birthday.</p>
<p>“Death of a King” is being produced by Mills Entertainment and has sponsorship from Walmart. Neither Walmart nor Mills immediately responded Thursday to requests for comment. Several of the venues slated to host the show did not respond to queries about whether the show would play as scheduled.</p>
<p>Smiley also oversees the publishing imprint Smiley Books and has written or more than a dozen books, including his memoir “What I Know for Sure” and “The Covenant With Black America.” Next fall, he plans to release “Leading by Listening: Connecting through Conversation to Transform Your Relationships and Your Business.” Hay House, which distributes Smiley Books, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on whether “Leading by Listening” would be published as scheduled.</p>
<p>The dismissals of Smiley and Rose at PBS follow dozens of firings and suspensions of prominent men who have been acsused of sexual misconduct or harassment. The wave began this fall with allegations lodged against Harvey Weinstein and has impacted numerous high-profile TV and media figures, with Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor, journalist Mark Halperin, NPR news chief Michael Oreskes, reporter Glenn Thrush and New Republic editor Leon Wieseltier all felled, among others.</p>
<p>According to Variety, the investigation into Smiley found that he had engaged in sexual relationships with multiple subordinates and “creating a verbally abusive and threatening environment.”</p>
<p>Smiley in his Facebook post claims PBS “refused to provide me the names of any accusers, refused to speak to my current staff, and refused to provide me any semblance of due process to defend myself against allegations from unknown sources.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits</p> | PBS Suspends Tavis Smiley Over 'Troubling Allegations' of Misconduct | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/pbs-suspends-tavis-smiley-troubling-allegations-misconduct/ | 2017-12-14 | 4 |
<p>For Palestinians, the Camp David Peace Treaty, signed between Egypt and Israel in March 26, 1979, under American sponsorship, equaled a catastrophe.</p>
<p>Israel’s aim was to keep Egypt away from the focal conflict in the Middle East, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. It did so successfully. Not only was Egypt out of the picture, but also the seemingly united Arab front collapsed thereafter. Egypt received harsh flak from its Arab neighbors and lost its leading role among Arab nations.</p>
<p>Israel was the ultimate beneficiary. Then Prime Minister Menachim Begin, refused any proposition of a realistic negotiation framework that could resolve the Palestinian conflict. On the other hand, the United States signed a separate agreement with Israel: the Israel-US Memorandum. The agreement provided American guarantees to Israel, lest Egypt violated the peace treaty. It also designated a generous annual military and economic aid package, to help Israel cope with the cost of peace.</p>
<p>The question of Palestine was then put on the back burner, but not completely. Instead, Israel had an awesome chance to concentrate on suppressing the rebellious Palestinians, while trying to create an alternative leadership to negotiate peace based on Israeli terms. As Israel managed to breath easier, since the war of attrition in Egypt was officially over, a bloody campaign was waged against Lebanon, with the aim of altering the political structure of the tiny country, while driving Syria out of Lebanon, but foremost, annihilating the Palestinian resistance.</p>
<p>Israel’s gamble led to the invasion of Lebanon, in the summer of 1982, which culminated to the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla. The estimates on Lebanese and Palestinian casualties in Israel’s war varied. But there is an agreement that tens of thousands were killed or wounded. The masterminds of the invasion were the same man who signed the peace treaty with Egypt; Begin, and the rising star of Israel’s politics; Ariel Sharon.</p>
<p>Israel has of course achieved little from its invasion of Lebanon, a lesson that cost Israel hundreds of its finest soldiers. Two decades of senseless occupation reaped nothing but a humiliating withdrawal. Former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak, had the courage to admit that the Israeli presence in Lebanon was costly and futile. In an unforgettable night in May 2000, Israeli troops scrambled to escape back to the Israeli northern border as their leadership vowed never to return.</p>
<p>Once again, Israel was allowed to focus on its problem with the Palestinians. Less than two months following the withdrawal from South Lebanon, Israel attempted to force its own conditions on the Palestinian leadership, this time back in Camp David. Despite the intense pressure, practiced by the “honest broker”, a role played by former US President Bill Clinton, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held his ground. History, written by the US media, often refers to that phase as “Barak’s generous offer”, claiming that Barak offered Palestinians everything they wished for, but they arrogantly refused. Leading Palestinian intellectual, Hanan Ashrawi, repeatedly stated that no written proposal was ever made available to the Palestinians. Even if there was such a proposal, Arafat’s rejection of the division of the West Bank into three cantons, separated by Israeli military zones and bypass roads, the continuous presence of the illegal settlements and the Israeli illegal control of the occupied city of Jerusalem, is nothing less than a sound choice.</p>
<p>Nearly three years have passed since the failure of Camp David II, and nearly as long since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising. Israel continues to wave two options in the face of Palestinians, either peace on Israel’s turf, or a deadly war that uses every weapon available. Sharon’s painful honesty often helped outline the Israeli peace agenda. He declared the essence of his strategy to the world on March 4, 2002 when he stated: Before peace talks with the Palestinians could resume, “they must first be hit hard.”</p>
<p>On July 02, 2003, Israeli tanks reportedly rolled out of the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, opening the stage for a new Israeli maneuver. Considering Israeli official statements that joined the withdrawal, Israel seems to be playing the same old game of marginalizing one enemy to crack down on another. Unlike the Egypt Camp David scenario however, Israel expects the Palestinian Authority (PA) to play the role that Israel has itself played in the bloody crackdown on the Palestinian resistance in Lebanon in 1982.</p>
<p>Of course, Israel is not serious about peace, for if it were, Sharon would have at least agreed to release the aging Palestinian leader Arafat from his battered Ramallah headquarters. Sharon flatly denied such a request just as his Palestinian counterpart, Abu Mazen was enthusiastically engaged in outlining his peace agenda, vowing security and peace for both nations.</p>
<p>Peace for Israel is always a maneuver of some sort. For example, following the 1993 Oslo peace accords, Israel used that temporary calm to double the size of illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories. Yet, ironically, Israel downplayed the Palestinian groups agreement for truce late June 2003, saying that these groups only wish to gain more time to recuperate. A quick look at Israel’s peacemaking strategies, from Camp David I all the way back to Camp David II, Israel is the one who uses peace to intensify its aggressions.</p>
<p>Israel is yet to provide a serious sign that it seeks real peace with the Palestinians. In fact, it has so far provided all the wrong reasons of why peace is the favored choice at this time. It’s a chance to expand the settlements, annihilate the resistance (with the help of the willing segment of the PA) and end the popular Intifada (the single most costly reason behind the Israeli government’s budget deficit.)</p>
<p>Palestinians should therefore be wary of the Israeli motives for peace, not because they have good reasons to mistrust Sharon and his extremist government, but because history is apt to repeat itself, and perhaps even more painfully and costly that ever before.</p>
<p>RAMZY BAROUD is the editor-in-chief of <a href="http://www.PalestineChronicle.com/" type="external">PalestineChronicle.com</a> and the editor of the anthology “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1885942338/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion 2002</a>.” 50 percent of the editor’s royalties will go directly to assist in the relief efforts in Jenin. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Peace for All the Wrong Reasons | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/07/07/peace-for-all-the-wrong-reasons/ | 2003-07-07 | 4 |
<p>John Braithwaite is back.</p>
<p>The famed Australian corporate criminologist is teaming up with a former European pharmaceutical executive – Graham Dukes – and together they are completing a new book on corporate crime in the pharmaceutical industry.</p>
<p>The working title –&#160;Corporations, Crime and Medicines.</p>
<p>It’s due out early next year.</p>
<p>Thirty years ago, Braithwaite finished his magnum opus –&#160;Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry&#160;(Routledge Kegan &amp; Paul).</p>
<p>The book documented widespread fraud and corruption worldwide.</p>
<p>“In the latter part of the 1980s, I thought that the pharmaceutical industry was actually improving in its standards,” Braithwaite told&#160;Corporate Crime Reporter&#160;in an interview. “Ciba Geigy was one company that had come under particularly aggressive attack from the consumer movement. And Ciba Geigy was responding and setting up corporate social responsibility policies with a new risk management initiative that it was trying to get other companies to join up with.”</p>
<p>“Pfizer became the number one company in the industry. It was sending senior executives to Australia to talk to me. They were really interested in what kind of internal procedures they could be putting in place to make sure that folks like Graham and I would not be making the kinds of critiques that were in&#160;Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry.”</p>
<p>“I was encouraged by that. I think actually I wasn’t conned. In the course of the 1980s, there was progress.”</p>
<p>“I actually finished the research for Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry in 1980. But the book was held up for concerns about libel.”</p>
<p>“But 30 years on, the situation has in fact become worse in most respects. Perhaps there has been some improvement in terms of safety and manufacturing processes among the majors. But on the other hand, the largest pharmaceutical corporations in the world have done a major disservice in the way they have approached the generic industry and, in a sense, stigmatized the generic industry.”</p>
<p>“In&#160;Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry,&#160;we concluded that 19 of the 20 largest U.S. pharmaceutical companies had engaged in serious corrupt activities in the course of the 1970s. And there was really no other industry in the United States that had such a consistent pattern. There were other industries – like the defense industry – that were doing terribly corrupt things. But in terms of top to bottom corruption, the pharmaceutical industry was the worst in the United States.”</p>
<p>“And in some ways, we are inclined to conclude that today it is even worse.”</p>
<p>In the area of research fraud, things are again worse 30 years later.</p>
<p>“A big part of the 1984 book was fraud in safety and testing of drugs,” Braithwaite said. “Remember the GD Searle company, of which Donald Rumsfeld was a CEO? They had the scandal of reincarnated rats. The rats would die when a drug was tested on them. And they would be replaced with living rats. That kind of blatant fraud is not dead in the pharmaceutical industry. There is a lot more sophisticated fraud in the form of suppression of negative safety and efficacy studies. And the boosting of positive studies.”</p>
<p>“But still, there is quite a lot of plain old fashion losing of negative data. And that is the same as the throwing away of the dead rat and replacing the dead rat with the reincarnated rat.”</p>
<p>“You generate data that a drug does not work. And you just suppress that data. It’s as if the study were never conducted and you start again and do another study until you get one that shows you what you want to find. Go to another university professor who will tell you what you want to hear.”</p>
<p>“That situation is, if anything. worse rather than better.”</p>
<p>On the Wall Street meltdown, Braithwaite says the situation could have easily been prevented.</p>
<p>“There was a lot of evidence that there was systemic mortgage fraud – liar loans, false representation of income and employment status of people on loans,” Braithwaite said. “And that had to do with a shift of the nature of capitalism. Banks issuing loans were no longer as interested as they should have been in assessing the capacity of the borrower to repay. Why? Because it was a move from a risk management financial sector to a risk shifting financial sector. You just slice and dice the loans and spread the risk around to a lot of other banks.”</p>
<p>“But it seems to me that there was a ready regulatory response to that. It was knowable that there was a problem. You had the FBI reporting as early as 2004 and 2005 that there was an epidemic of mortgage fraud in the United States. You had this huge trend up in housing loan defaults starting in the mid 2000s. These were very clear red flags.”</p>
<p>“The simple regulatory strategy was for prudential regulators to go to mortgage brokers and banks and say – look, your portfolio of loans has twice the default rate of the average in our state. We want to sit down with you and look into why that is. And if that very simple regulatory inspection measure had been taken, it would have quickly become apparent that there was a pattern of fraud in the loans that they were issuing. And that would have been the early preventive step.”</p>
<p>“And you wouldn’t have necessarily had to prosecute those banks. You would have wanted to go around the country and stop the problem. That would be the most important thing. You would prosecute the ones with the worst patterns of conduct. But the more important thing would be return to integrity in the way loans are issued. Banks return to being interested in ensuring that these were levels of repayment that could be made.”</p>
<p>Russell Mokhiber edits the Corporate Crime Reporter.</p>
<p>[For the complete transcript of the Interview with&#160;John Braithwaite, see 26&#160;Corporate Crime Reporter&#160;1(12), January 2, 2012,&#160; <a href="http://corporatecrimereporter.com/aboutccr.html" type="external">print edition only</a>.]</p>
<p /> | Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/01/03/corporate-crime-in-the-pharmaceutical-industry/ | 2012-01-03 | 4 |
<p>On Sunday evening, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, a near-relentless cheerleader for then-candidate Donald Trump during the primaries, explained his recent decision to leave the Republican Party: Donald Trump. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-killing-the-republican-party/2017/07/16/048056dc-68c4-11e7-a1d7-9a32c91c6f40_story.html?utm_term=.c736b22a12e9" type="external">He writes</a>:</p>
<p>I did not leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left its senses. The political movement that once stood athwart history resisting bloated government and military adventurism has been reduced to an amalgam of talk-radio resentments.</p>
<p>This, in and of itself, is a remarkable statement. It’s remarkable because Trump is the first Republican president since Dwight Eisenhower to embrace some form of quasi-isolationism; his entire campaign was run against the Iraq War. It’s also remarkable because perhaps Trump’s only major accomplishment aside from the nomination of Justice Gorsuch has been paring back the regulatory state. But what’s really irking Scarborough isn’t policy. It’s personality.</p>
<p>Scarborough didn’t leave the party when George W. Bush was president. He’s leaving now because Trump “questioned America’s constitutional system of checks and balances … echoed Stalin and Mao by calling the free press ‘the enemy of the people’ … insulted allies while embracing autocratic thug. ... It is a dying party that I can no longer defend.”</p>
<p>But Scarborough stood by Trump long into the primaries, while Trump was doing many of these things. He wrote columns defending Trumpism as a necessary backlash to Bush-era compassionate conservatism. His switch-in-time seems little more than an act of political convenience. Scarborough should know now that the takeover of the Republican Party isn’t all that difficult a proposition, given his own newfound scorn for Trump — but he isn’t sticking around to seek a corrective. Instead, he’s bolting.</p>
<p>The real reason? Because Scarborough may have ambitions of his own. He says that Trump will “lead to the election of independent thinkers no longer tethered to the tired dogmas of the polarized past.” This is what all politicians say — it’s what Barack Obama said repeatedly. So look for Scarborough to use his own irritation with Trump as a springboard for his future ambitions. But don’t assume it’s truly sincere. If it were, it would have driven him to oppose Trump long before Trump achieved political liftoff.</p> | MSNBC's Scarborough: Trump 'Killing The Republican Party.' There's Just One Problem. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/18647/msnbcs-scarborough-trump-killing-republican-party-ben-shapiro | 2017-07-17 | 0 |
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<p>With consumers increasingly shunning cumbersome PCs for sleek tablets and smartphones, it’s clear tech dinosaur Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is in need of a serious makeover, one that may not be possible under the harsh scrutiny of Wall Street.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>That explains why Michael Dell is seriously considering allowing a pair of private-equity firms take his $22 billion company private in what would easily be the largest leveraged buyout since before the global economy tanked in 2008.</p>
<p>While a private-equity takeover would saddle the company with some $10 billion in debt, observers believe the move is justified by ridiculously low interest rates and the freedom to complete Dell's renovation from aging PC maker to modern IT company.</p>
<p>“If they can get out from underneath the massive amount of reporting and scrutiny a public company is under, it would make them much more agile and able to take the kind of risks Michael Dell would like to take to transform the company,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.</p>
<p>Enderle said it would be like trying to repair a race car that is still running rather than one that is resting quietly in the shop.</p>
<p>“The end goal would be to eventually take it public again. By that time it’s ready to race again,” he said.</p>
<p>Stumbling Dell Could Be Cheap</p>
<p>Despite some skepticism that a deal of this magnitude can be pulled off, since Friday’s close Dell’s shares have spiked as much as 21% to $13.20 on numerous reports indicating the company is in serious talks over a buyout with private-equity firms TPG Capital and Silver Lake.</p>
<p>Even with those gains, Dell’s stock has tumbled 28% since topping out at $18.36 in February 2012.</p>
<p>“Getting Dell out from under the microscope is a good idea."</p>
<p>Once known for its made-to-order PCs, Dell has been pounded by Wall Street as it struggles to adapt to a new world where consumers prefer more portable devices like tablets and smartphones.</p>
<p>In November the company revealed a deeper-than-expected 47% slide in third-quarter profits, sending its stock plummeting as low as $8.69 -- their lowest level since March 2009.</p>
<p>At those depths, Dell was worth just three times projected 2013 EPS, a valuation Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White called “absurd” given the company’s net cash of $5.15 billion and steady free cash flow generation.</p>
<p>“Dell’s valuation has been and remains an insult,” White wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Given this valuation, White believes “going private makes sense for Dell and its shareholders.”</p>
<p>Dell’s Declaration of Independence?</p>
<p>By selling to private-equity firms, Dell would escape the close scrutiny of analysts on Wall Street, potentially freeing the company to take the drastic steps that may eat into revenue.</p>
<p>Public-company status forces executives to focus “heavily on tactical quarterly returns and makes it almost impossible for them to make a major strategic change to the company,” said Enderle.</p>
<p>Regulations also make it difficult to explain to the markets the logic behind key decisions without simultaneously tipping off competitors.</p>
<p>Sometimes these distractions can backfire on management and shareholders alike.</p>
<p>Take Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), which has seen its stock plummet some 70% since April 2010.</p>
<p>H-P is “largely the story of a company that was trying too aggressively to please the traders. [Former CEO] Mark Hurd did a heck of a job of pleasing the stock analysts but ended up bleeding the company dry,” said Enderle.</p>
<p>Avoiding the ‘Microscope’</p>
<p>White said by going private, Dell can focus on completing its enterprise build out, which has been carried out to this point by aggressive acquisitions and organic growth. Dell’s sales from the PC market have tumbled to 48% as of last quarter, down from 67% in 2005.</p>
<p>“Getting Dell out from under the microscope is a good idea,” said White, who sees a price tag on a potential buyout of about $15 to $18 a share.</p>
<p>There are also heavy costs public companies must incur tied to regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley. Enderle estimates up to 20% of a company’s bottom line can be sapped by regulatory reporting requirements.</p>
<p>“Being a public company is expensive these days,” said David Becher, a professor at Drexel University.</p>
<p>But becoming a private company wouldn’t be cost free either.</p>
<p>Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) analyst Peter Misek, who raised his price target on Dell to $13 from $10, told clients in a note on Tuesday that Dell would need to take on about $10 billion in debt in a leveraged buyout.</p>
<p>Can Dell Handle $10B of Debt?</p>
<p>The challenge for Dell would be to pay down that debt while simultaneously investing in the future.</p>
<p>While the company has a solid $14 billion in total cash, 90% of it is sitting overseas, making repatriation tricky from a tax perspective.</p>
<p>According to Thomson Reuters, Dell has a total debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, which is far better than the S&amp;P 500’s 1.58 ratio but above its industry group’s 0.78.</p>
<p>“They’re going to have to find cost savings elsewhere to offset this,” said Becher. Becoming a private company “could give them more flexibility and options but I don’t know that automatically improves their long term,” he said.</p>
<p>Still, Enderle said Dell “clearly” can handle $10 billion worth of debt, pointing to easy borrowing rates.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to believe [rates] could get any lower. If you were going to do it, now would be the time to make it happen,” he said.</p>
<p>‘Nosebleed Territory’</p>
<p>All of this doesn’t mean a leveraged buyout of Dell is a done deal.</p>
<p>The biggest challenge will be finding enough capital to absorb the estimated $10 billion in financing and $5 billion in equity required for a deal of this size.</p>
<p>According to FOX Business’s Charlie Gasparino, Silver Lake has tapped Credit Suisse, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC), Barclays (NYSE:BCS) and RBC (NYSE:RBC) to finance a potential deal.</p>
<p>Jefferies said its leveraged finance desk sees $10 billion as the “upper bound due to the market’s ability to absorb that size rather than Dell’s leverage.”</p>
<p>“Doing an LBO at this scale for a healthy company is difficult because it’s just so expensive,” said Enderle. “This is nosebleed territory but with interest rates where they are, it’s at least possible.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Dell Seeks to Complete Rehab Out of Wall Street's Glare | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/01/15/dell-seeks-to-complete-rehab-out-wall-street-glare.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
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<p>The Video Recording Act states that any videos not exempt have to be classified. It is illegal to to supply any recording that hasn't received a BBFC certification, according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classification" type="external">Wikipedia</a>. So when Mr. Lyne made a ten-hour film of paint drying, two members of the BBFC had to watch it and give it a rating. After sitting through ten hours of paint drying, the BBFC rated it "U" or suitable for everyone with no material likely to harm or offend.</p>
<p>Lyne started a crowd-funding campaign to raise the money to send the film for classification, "in a protest against censorship and mandatory classification." An average film costs 1,000 pounds or 1,400 dollars to be classified.</p>
<p>Mr. Lyne said that the film had done what he had hoped it would, because it sparked a conversation and debate about the BBFC and the role it plays in the British Film industry. Fans of Paint Dry are now anxiously waiting for the rumored sequel Grass Growing.</p> | In Unique Protest, Man Punks The BBC Into Watching A 10-Hour Film Of Paint Drying | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2016/02/02/in-unique-protest-man-punks-the-bbc-into-watching-a-10-hour-film-of-paint-drying/ | 2016-02-02 | 4 |
<p>Donald Trump has decided to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, US media reported Wednesday, as the president kept the world guessing -- saying an announcement will come in the "next few days."</p>
<p>An American pullout would deal a devastating blow to global efforts to combat climate change less than 18 months after the historic 196-nation pact was signed in Paris, fruit of a hard-fought agreement between Beijing and Washington under Barack Obama's leadership.</p>
<p>Trump said early Wednesday an announcement was imminent on whether the United States will remain part of the landmark deal on cutting carbon emissions.</p>
<p>"I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" the president tweeted, as several US media reported he had made up his mind to quit the accord.</p>
<p>The Axios website was first to report Trump's decision was made, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter, while other media including CNN, CBS, ABC and Politico reported the White House was expected to announce a withdrawal once details of the process have been worked out.</p>
<p>The United States is the world's second biggest carbon emitter, after China.</p>
<p>Under Obama, Washington had pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.</p>
<p>Under Trump, who once called climate change a "hoax," the country has resisted intense pressure from its partners to commit to respecting the global accord.</p>
<p>Since taking office on January 20, however, Trump has sent contradictory signals on the Paris deal -- reflecting the different currents within his administration, on climate change but also on the wider issue of the United States' role in the world and their relation to multilateralism.</p>
<p>White House spokesman Sean Spicer, asked on Tuesday whether Trump believes human activity is contributing to climate change, told reporters, "Honestly, I haven't asked him that. I can get back to you."</p>
<p>The head of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt, who met with Trump on Tuesday, has overtly advocated quitting a deal he judges "bad" for America.</p>
<p>Other top Trump advisers, including daughter Ivanka and Gary Cohn, the head of the president's National Economic Council, are said to favor staying in the treaty. &#160;</p>
<p>And the corporate world has by and large come out in favor of the US keeping its seat at the table. A dozen large groups including oil major BP, agrochemical giant DuPont, Google, Intel and Microsoft, have urged Trump to remain part of the deal.</p>
<p>Trump's position on the Paris accord was a focal point of last week's G7 summit in Sicily in which leaders of the world's six other largest industrial democracies pressed him to renew the US commitment to the deal.</p>
<p>A frustrated German Chancellor Angela Merkel later warned that Europe "must take its fate into its own hands," citing the differences with Washington on climate change as evidence of their divergent paths.</p>
<p>She described the discussion as "very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory."</p>
<p>US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis responded in a television interview Sunday, assuring that Trump was "wide open on this issue as he takes in the pros and cons of that accord."</p>
<p>Cohn, the Trump economic adviser, also said last week that the president's views "are evolving."</p>
<p>UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has weighed in, arguing on Tuesday that the United States should not leave the Paris Agreement.</p>
<p>"But even if the government decides to leave the Paris agreement, it's very important for US society as a whole -- the cities, the states, the companies, the businesses --&#160;to remain engaged," he said.</p> | Signs point to US backing out of Paris climate agreement, but Trump stays mum | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-05-31/signs-point-us-backing-out-paris-climate-agreement-trump-stays-mum | 2017-05-31 | 3 |
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<p>SAN FRANCISCO — Giants left-hander Ty Blach finally got his first win of the season and was quick to spread the credit around.</p>
<p>There was the defense, particularly rookie Christian Arroyo, who made a pair of stellar plays in his first start at second base. A timely home run by Brandon Belt and an even more clutch tiebreaking hit from Brandon Crawford helped, too.</p>
<p>Most importantly, Blach pointed to catcher Buster Posey’s game plan, which worked out nicely in stretching San Francisco’s winning streak to five.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Buster does a great job behind the plate against these guys,” Blach said after the Giants’ 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday. “He knows these hitters so well, so just being able to know that you’ve got confidence in him, that makes it a lot easier for you.”</p>
<p>Blach (1-2) pitched seven innings, spoiling Dodgers starter Rich Hill’s return from the disabled list. Blach allowed one run, five hits and two walks with four strikeouts.</p>
<p>“He’s one of those guys that’s unflappable, he just keeps coming at you,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “He was on top of his game. He’s just a good pitcher that knows what he’s doing and he’s got a little more stuff than he gets credit for.”</p>
<p>Belt homered for the fourth time in six games and scored the deciding run on Crawford’s single in the sixth, while Posey added two hits.</p>
<p>San Francisco improved to 5-1 on its homestand after a sluggish nine-game road trip when Bochy’s ballclub won only three games.</p>
<p>“We’ve been playing really good team ball right now,” Blach said. “It’s fun to be able to keep that going.”</p>
<p>Belt, who hit his eighth home run of the season leading off the fourth, singled against the shift to open the sixth. After Belt advanced on a wild pitch, Crawford followed with a single off Luis Avilan (0-1) to short right-center to give the Giants a 2-1 lead.</p>
<p>Hunter Strickland retired three batters and Derek Law pitched the ninth for his fourth save.</p>
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<p>Chris Taylor hit his fourth home run of the season for Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Activated off the disabled list before the game after missing more than four weeks due to a blister on his finger, Hill got off to a shaky start in his first appearance since April 16.</p>
<p>The lefty hit leadoff man Denard Span in the batting helmet with a 73 mph curve on his fifth pitch of the first inning, then was called for a balk moments later. Hill settled down to get through five innings while allowing one run and six hits with six strikeouts.</p>
<p>“He pitched himself out of some traffic,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “To give us 80-plus pitches, give us five innings, give up one run … I thought that was a success.”</p>
<p>BLACH-OUT THE DODGERS</p>
<p>Blach has been dominant in four career appearances against the Dodgers, giving up just three runs in 23 innings — a 1.17 ERA. Blach has a 4.71 ERA against everyone else. “There’s certain teams where certain styles work better,” Blach said.</p>
<p>FLASHY ROOKIE</p>
<p>Arroyo has played primarily at third base since being called up from the minors on April 24 but made his first start at second base Tuesday and looked good there. Arroyo threw out Justin Turner at home in the fourth inning, then made a diving stop on Joc Pederson’s grounder in the seventh and threw to first for the out.</p>
<p>TRAINER’S ROOM</p>
<p>Dodgers: LHP Grant Dayton was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma to make room for Hill.</p>
<p>Giants: Span was checked by head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner and remained in the game. … Closer Mark Melancon is expected to come off the disabled list Friday when San Francisco opens a three-game series in St. Louis. Melancon did some light throwing before Tuesday’s game after a 22-pitch bullpen a day earlier. … 2B Joe Panik was not in the starting lineup.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Left-hander Clayton Kershaw (6-2), who has a career 1.66 ERA in 38 appearances against San Francisco, starts for the Dodgers in the afternoon finale on Wednesday while the Giants counter with right-hander Johnny Cueto (4-2). Cueto outdueled Kershaw and got the win when the two teams played May 1.</p>
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<p>More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</p> | Belt homers again as Giants stay hot, beat Dodgers 2-1 | false | https://abqjournal.com/1004510/belt-homers-again-as-giants-stay-hot-beat-dodgers-2-1.html | 2017-05-16 | 2 |
<p>I still vividly remember my father’s face – wrinkled, apprehensive, warm – as he last wished me farewell fourteen years ago. He stood outside the rusty door of my family’s home in a Gaza refugee camp wearing old yellow pyjamas and a seemingly ancient robe. As I hauled my one small suitcase into a taxi that would take me to an Israeli airport an hour away, my father stood still. I wished he would go back inside; it was cold and the soldiers could pop up at any moment. As my car moved on, my father eventually faded into the distance, along with the graveyard, the water tower and the camp. It never occurred to me that I would never see him again.</p>
<p>I think of my father now as he was that day. His tears and his frantic last words: “Do you have your money? Your passport? A jacket? Call me the moment you get there. Are you sure you have your passport? Just check, one last time”</p>
<p>My father was a man who always defied the notion that one can only be the outcome of his circumstance. Expelled from his village at the age of 10, running barefoot behind his parents, he was instantly transferred from the son of a landowning farmer to a penniless refugee in a blue tent provided by the United Nations in Gaza. Thus, his life of hunger, pain, homelessness, freedom-fighting, love, marriage and loss commenced.</p>
<p>The fact that he was the one chosen to quit school to help his father provide for his now tent-dwelling family was a huge source of stress for him. In a strange, unfamiliar land, his new role was going into neighboring villages and refugee camps to sell gum, aspirin and other small items. His legs were a testament to the many dog bites he obtained during these daily journeys. Later scars were from the shrapnel he acquired through war.</p>
<p>As a young man and soldier in the Palestinian unit of the Egyptian army, he spent years of his life marching through the Sinai desert. When the Israeli army took over Gaza following the Arab defeat in 1967, the Israeli commander met with those who served as police officers under Egyptian rule and offered them the chance to continue their services under Israeli rule. Proudly and willingly, my young father chose abject poverty over working under the occupier’s flag. And for that, predictably, he paid a heavy price. His two-year-old son died soon after.</p>
<p>My oldest brother is buried in the same graveyard that bordered my father’s house in the camp. My father, who couldn’t cope with the thought that his only son died because he couldn’t afford to buy medicine or food, would be found asleep near the tiny grave all night, or placing coins and candy in and around it.</p>
<p>My father’s reputation as an intellectual, his passion for Russian literature, and his endless support of fellow refugees brought him untold trouble with the Israeli authorities, who retaliated by denying him the right to leave Gaza.</p>
<p>His severe asthma, which he developed as a teenager was compounded by lack of adequate medical facilities. Yet, despite daily coughing streaks and constantly gasping for breath, he relentlessly negotiated his way through life for the sake of his family. On one hand, he refused to work as a cheap laborer in Israel. “Life itself is not worth a shred of one’s dignity,” he insisted. On the other, with all borders sealed except that with Israel, he still needed a way to bring in an income. He would buy cheap clothes, shoes, used TVs, and other miscellaneous goods, and find a way to transport and sell them in the camp. He invested everything he made to ensure that his sons and daughter could receive a good education, an arduous mission in a place like Gaza.</p>
<p>But when the Palestinian uprising of 1987 exploded, and our camp became a battleground between stone-throwers and the Israeli army, mere survival became Dad’s over-riding concern. Our house was the closest to the Red Square, arbitrarily named for the blood spilled there, and also bordered the ‘Martyrs’ Graveyard’. How can a father adequately protect his family in such surroundings? Israeli soldiers stormed our house hundreds of times; it was always him who somehow held them back, begging for his children’s safety, as we huddled in a dark room awaiting our fate. “You will understand when you have your own children,” he told my older brothers as they protested his allowing the soldiers to slap his face. Our ‘freedom-fighting’ dad struggled to explain how love for his children could surpass his own pride. He grew in my eyes that day.</p>
<p>It’s been fourteen years since I last saw my father. As none of his children had access to isolated Gaza, he was left alone to fend for himself. We tried to help as much as we could, but what use is money without access to medicine? In our last talk he said he feared he would die before seeing my children, but I promised that I would find a way. I failed.</p>
<p>Since the siege on Gaza, my father’s life became impossible. His ailments were not ‘serious’ enough for hospitals crowded with limbless youth. During the most recent Israeli onslaught, most hospital spaces were converted to surgery wards, and there was no place for an old man like my dad. All attempts to transfer him to the better equipped West Bank hospitals failed as Israeli authorities repeatedly denied him the required permit.</p>
<p>“I am sick, son, I am sick,” my father cried when I spoke to him two days before his death. He died alone on March 18, waiting to be reunited with my brothers in the West Bank. He died a refugee, but a proud man nonetheless.</p>
<p>My father’s struggle began 60 years ago, and it ended a few days ago. Thousands of people descended to his funeral from throughout Gaza, oppressed people that shared his plight, hopes and struggles, accompanying him to the graveyard where he was laid to rest. Even a resilient fighter deserves a moment of peace.</p>
<p>RAMZY BAROUD teaches mass communication at Curtin University of Technology and is the author of <a href="" type="internal">The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle</a>. He is also the editor-in-chief of PalestineChronicle.com. He can be contacted at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | There are No Checkpoints in Heaven | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/04/05/there-are-no-checkpoints-in-heaven/ | 2008-04-05 | 4 |
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<p>Interest rates on home mortgages rose last week to hit their highest level in over a year, sapping demand from potential homeowners, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Rates climbed 2 basis points to average 4.17 in the week ended June 14, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It was the highest level since March of last year.</p>
<p>After hovering around record lows, rates have surged for six weeks in a row, pushed higher by worries that the Federal Reserve could slow its stimulus program sooner than had been expected. Rates have accelerated by 58 basis points since the start of May.</p>
<p>The Fed's bond purchases have kept borrowing rates, including mortgages, low. Though mortgage rates remain low by historical standards, the ultra-cheap mortgages have helped lure buyers back into the market and worries have crept in that higher rates could disrupt the still-young housing recovery.</p>
<p>The rise in rates appeared to hold back homebuyers as MBA's seasonally adjusted index of loan requests for home purchases - a leading indicator of home sales - fell 3 percent.</p>
<p>The gauge of refinancing applications slipped 3.4 percent, though the refinance share of total mortgage activity held steady at 69 percent of applications.</p>
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<p>The overall index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, declined 3.3 percent.</p>
<p>The survey covers over 75 percent of retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bankrate.com/partners/funnel/mortgage-rates.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Compare mortgage rates in your area. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Diane Craft)</p> | Mortgage Applications Skid as Interest Rates Jump | true | http://foxbusiness.com/news/2013/06/19/mortgage-applications-tumble-as-rates-rise-further-mba.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>MarketWatch That's what Jon Friedman says. David Remnick, who has edited The New Yorker for nearly seven years, tells Friedman life is easier than it was when he was learning how to do the editor's job and the magazine was having trying times, financially. "Six or seven years ago, it was nerve racking," he says. "It's very different now." REMNICK'S DREAM READ: A non-fiction Vanity Fair of Washington, D.C.</p> | Remnick has reinvented NYer while respecting mag's past | false | https://poynter.org/news/remnick-has-reinvented-nyer-while-respecting-mags-past | 2005-02-11 | 2 |
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<p>The Holly Holm camp has filed an appeal with the New York State Athletic Commission, asking that the NYSAC change or set aside the result of the Albuquerque MMA fighter’s controversial loss to Germaine de Randamie on Saturday in Brooklyn, N.Y.</p>
<p>Twice during the fight, after rounds two and three, de Randamie threw and landed punches after the horn that signified the end of the round. The Dutch fighter was not penalized a point on either occasion. De Randamie won by unanimous decision, the five-round fight scored 48-47 on all three official scorecards, thus becoming the first-ever UFC women’s featherweight champion.</p>
<p>In a letter written to the commission by Paul Bardacke, general counsel to Fresquez Productions — Lenny Fresquez is Holm’s manager and agent — the applicable NYSAC regulations are cited.</p>
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<p>“Had Referee (Todd) Anderson complied with NYSAC Regulations and deducted points from de Randamie in accordance with Section 212.10 through 212.11,” the letter states, “the UFC 208 Featherweight title fight would have resulted in a draw, if not a win, for Ms. Holm.</p>
<p>“We respectfully request the Commission review Referee Anderson’s failure to assess a foul and render a decision regarding a point deduction following round 2, and failure to assess a foul and a point deduction following round 3, and determine an appropriate result.”</p>
<p>In a statement made to mmafighting.com, a NYSAC spokesman said via email: “As of this time, the Commission has not yet received an appeal from the Holm camp. It will be properly considered when, and if, received.”</p>
<p>Based on the cited regulations, it is unclear what the athletic commission could do. It appears it is solely left to the referee’s discretion as to whether points will be deducted.</p>
<p>It the commission were to determine that Anderson was at fault by not taking a point (or two) from de Randamie, it can’t be concluded that the fight would have ended in a draw or that Holm would have won had the point(s) been taken. If de Ramandie were aware she’d lost a point, she might have fought differently the rest of the way, with Holm responding.</p>
<p>Perhaps the NYSAC could declare the fight no contest or, leaving the result as it stands, order a rematch. But it’s not clear that such an order would be binding on the UFC.</p>
<p>HOLM’S FUTURE: Fresquez said Wednesday that he intends Holm’s next fight to be for a title — whether a rematch with de Ramandie at 145 pounds or at 135, where Holm (10-3) is a former UFC champion.</p>
<p>A rematch at featherweight, he said, is “the fight we want. We want that rematch.”</p>
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<p>More likely, it appears, de Ramandie’s first defense will be made against Brazil’s Cristine “Cyborg” Justino.</p>
<p>Cyborg is under temporary suspension after testing positive for a banned diuretic. But she’s seeking a therapeutic use exemption, claiming the diuretic was used on a doctor’s advice to combat extreme dehydration resulting from a drastic weight cut in preparation for her last fight.</p>
<p>She and UFC President Dana White have expressed confidence that the exemption will be granted.</p>
<p>That likely would send Holm back to bantamweight. Fresquez believes that, despite three losses in a row, Holm —as a former&#160; champion — would be a viable challenger to current champion Amanda Nunes.</p>
<p>Valentina Shevchenko, who defeated Holm by unanimous decision in July, is the No. 1 challenger. But Shevchenko lost to Nunes by unanimous decision last March.</p>
<p>In new ratings released Monday, Holm is ranked fourth among bantamweights behind Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey and Julianna Peña. Rousey recently lost to Nunes — her MMA future in grave doubt. Peña recently lost to Shevchenko.</p>
<p>In any case, Fresquez said, “Holly’s next fight will be a title fight. … That’s what I spoke to Dana about, that’s what I conveyed to him.</p>
<p>“She won (the de Ramandie fight). She should be the champion right now. We’re not going to fight anybody but a champion.”</p> | MMA: Holm files appeal of UFC 208 defeat | false | https://abqjournal.com/950639/mma-holm-files-appeal.html | 2 |
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<p>An outbreak of shootings across New York City over Labor Day weekend - including three at the annual West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn - has left more than 40 people injured and five dead.</p>
<p>The first shooting took place at 6 a.m. Saturday, when a 35-year-old woman was shot and wounded on the corner of Saratoga Ave. and Newport St. in Brooklyn. During the next <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/09/05/2011-09-05_bloody_weekend_24_shot_in_24_hours_prompting_mayor_bloomberg_to_call_for_tougher.html" type="external">24 hours</a>, 23 more people were shot in 13 separate incidents, according to the New York Daily News.</p>
<p>Eight people were shot at a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/nyregion/8-are-wounded-in-shooting-at-party-in-the-bronx.html" type="external">backyard party</a> in the Bronx neighborhood of Williamsbridge on Sunday around 3:30 a.m, the New York Times reports. The wounded included an 11-year-old boy and two girls, ages 13 and 14. Police suspected a 17-year-old was the shooter, and they were looking for him.</p>
<p>Four men were shot at a barbecue in Brooklyn's East Flatbush neighborhood early Monday morning, NBC News reports. One of the victims, 17-year-old <a href="http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Labor-Day-Violence-New-York-City-shootings-129268118.html" type="external">Tyrief Gary</a>, died.</p>
<p>Another fatal shooting occurred at a home in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, where a 30-year-old man was found just after 2 a.m. on Sunday.</p>
<p>At Monday's West Indian Day celebration in Brooklyn, two men were shot - one in the leg and one in the stomach - in broad daylight along the parade route, police told NBC News. The shooter fled on foot. A third person was shot in the leg at the parade later in the afternoon.</p>
<p>Finally, just after 9 p.m., 32-year-old <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/nyregion/brooklyn-shooting-kills-2-and-wounds-officer.html?hp" type="external">Leroy Webster</a> shot and killed 29-year-old Eusi Johnson, a man he had reportedly argued with earlier that evening, on Franklin Ave. in Brooklyn, about four blocks from the West Indian Day parade route. He also killed Denise Gay, a woman sitting on a nearby stoop with her adult daughter, and fired at police officers who were in the neighborhood following the parade, the New York Times reports. Webster wounded two officers. Police then killed Webster.</p>
<p>Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a longtime anti-gun activist, reminded New Yorkers that, despite the weekend's violence, the city's crime rate is the lowest in the country.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, we're going to have to keep fighting," he said, according to NY1 News. "We just shouldn't be fighting it alone. We really do need the <a href="http://bronx.ny1.com/content/top_stories/146408/bloody-weekend-spills-into-west-indian-day-parade" type="external">federal government</a> to help in terms of getting guns off the streets."</p>
<p>Gun violence in the city had been down slightly from last year, according to the New York Police Department statistics. As of Aug. 28, 1,123 people had been shot in New York in 2011, the New York Daily News reports.</p> | More than 40 shot in New York City over holiday weekend (UPDATES) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-09-06/more-40-shot-new-york-city-over-holiday-weekend-updates | 2011-09-06 | 3 |
<p>I recently attended a presentation by Tony Porter, founder of <a href="http://www.acalltomen.org/" type="external">A Call to Men</a>.</p>
<p>After watching his <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/tony_porter_a_call_to_men?language=en" type="external">TED Talk</a>, I was incredibly excited to see him speak because of how he demands of men that we consider the ways that all of us can act in abusive and violent ways.</p>
<p>Seeing him in person, though, was disappointing.</p>
<p>Early in the presentation, he held out his arms, asking us to imagine that his arms represented all men. He then gestured to the distance from his fingertips to his elbow on one arm and said, “These guys right here are the bad guys, the ones who are abusive and who commit sexual assault. Violence against women and girls can’t end until the rest of us, the good guys, call these men out and demand that they change!”</p>
<p>When he said this, my heart sank. After all, setting aside the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/a-same-sex-domestic-violence-epidemic-is-silent/281131/" type="external">heterosexist</a> <a href="http://www.nclrights.org/sexual-assault-in-the-lgbt-community/" type="external">implications</a> of his statement, framing abuse in this way lets most men, including me, off the hook.</p>
<p>If we, as men, can think of ourselves as “the good guys” and construct a boogey man abuser in our head, then we never have to turn the lens inward. We never have to consider the ways we’ve been socialized to be abusive.</p>
<p>Not long before attending Porter’s presentation, my partner and I got into a heated argument. We were both quite frustrated with a communication pattern in our relationship that hurt each of us in different ways.</p>
<p>After we’d rehashed the same point for what felt to me like the millionth time, I slammed my hands on our dining table as I emphasized my anger, hurt, and frustration.</p>
<p>After doing so, it took me a minute to realize that my partner’s entire demeanor had shifted. She had retreated physically and was speaking in a softer tone. We sat quietly for a second, and then she said something I hope I never forget.</p>
<p>“Jamie, you scared me. That was really scary.”</p>
<p>My initial reaction was callous. “You must be kidding me! I can only express my emotions in ways that are easy for you to hear?”</p>
<p>Before long, though, her words got through, and I could see that I had done something completely out of alignment with the type of man I want to be.</p>
<p>As the realization sunk in, my partner asked me to consider what the impact on our relationship might be if that’s how I chose to communicate whenever we argue. “Jamie, that was violent. I want you to be able to express your hurt or anger, but I need you not to physically explode like that.”</p>
<p>My partner was right. To slam my hands on the table was physically intimidating, and in the context of a society where every single one of us knows someone who’s been abused by a man, my actions aren’t simply mine.</p>
<p>My actions exist in the context of how I was taught to be a man. My actions exist in the context of patriarchy.&#160;And patriarchy is violent. Full stop.</p>
<p>Simply put, <a href="" type="internal">patriarchy is a system of domination and control</a> that privileges cisgender men at the expense of everyone else (though notably to <a href="http://gawker.com/the-truth-about-black-gay-privilege-1698549063" type="external">varying degrees and in different ways</a>, since the benefits of patriarchy exist at intersections of other forms of domination and oppression).</p>
<p>Patriarchy, as is the case with other related systems of oppression like White supremacy, relies on violence (both <a href="http://www.ncadv.org/learn/statistics" type="external">literal</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539506000641" type="external">symbolic</a>) deployed against cisgender women, transgender people, and gender non-conforming people in order to maintain supremacy.</p>
<p>Considering that cisgender men like myself are socialized in the context of the violence of patriarchy, we need to own the fact that cis-masculinity is fundamentally oppressive and violent.</p>
<p>But this is not to say that all cisgender men are the same or that all cis men are necessarily violent. Our masculinity is crafted in the context of other aspects of our identity (our religious or spiritual upbringing, our racial identity and community, our ability/disability, and our sexual identity, for instance).</p>
<p>With this in mind, it’s important that I situate myself within my positionality. As a White cisgender man, the following is based not only on my perspective as a person with many privileges, and as such, my comments are limited to ways that cisgender men are taught to be abusive. Inevitably, then, this article is limited and is meant as a call for reflection and action from cisgender men.</p>
<p>And here’s what cisgender men such as myself need to consider: if patriarchy is fundamentally violent and oppressive, then we have a responsibility to consider the ways that we might be complicit in that violence – simply by living out the patterns of how we were taught to be men.</p>
<p>When men and women in my life first called on me to consider how my actions might be abusive or violent, I was incredulous: “I have never laid my hands on anyone, let alone a woman!”</p>
<p>But we do ourselves a disservice to think of violence only as actions that cause physical harm, as <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ893571" type="external">violence can take myriad forms</a>.</p>
<p>For the purposes of this article, then, <a href="http://www.thehotline.org/is-this-abuse/abuse-defined/" type="external">abuse constitutes</a> behaviors that assert power and control over those with whom we are in intimate relationship – like partners, family members, and friends. Abusive behaviors exist on <a href="http://www.loveisrespect.org/dating-basics/relationship-spectrum/" type="external">a spectrum</a> from more <a href="http://www.abuseandrelationships.org/Content/Behaviors/subtle_control.html" type="external">subtle and controlling</a> or <a href="" type="internal">manipulative</a> to more <a href="http://www.gov.nl.ca/VPI/types/" type="external">overt in their violence</a>.</p>
<p>To be clear, this spectrum doesn’t imply that abuse on one end of the spectrum is somehow “worse” or “more severe” than other abuse – it’s all terrible, but abuse looks quite different depending on where it falls on the spectrum.</p>
<p>All of these behaviors, though, are harmful – and when they’re committed by men in the context of patriarchy, they need to be understood as connected to how we, as cisgender men, are socialized within patriarchy to be abusive.</p>
<p>The following, then, are common abusive behaviors that I’ve seen in myself, behaviors that are all too common among cisgender men.</p>
<p>By highlighting them here and offering some alternatives, my hope is that more of us as men can take up the work of cultivating different, less abusive ways of being men.</p>
<p>When I was in 9th grade, a senior on my soccer team took me under his wing in the world of dating and girls. Among many fucked up lessons taught me, he explained that with girls, I always need the upper hand.</p>
<p>“Never be too nice to her – if she knows you’re wrapped around her finger, she will take advantage of it. Keep her guessing. Maybe break up with her and get back together.”</p>
<p>As men, we receive all sorts of messages that tell us to manipulate others in order to get what we want, but this is particularly pronounced in intimate relationships.</p>
<p>One of the more pronounced ways that this shows up is in <a href="" type="internal">gaslighting</a>, <a href="http://www.thehotline.org/2014/05/what-is-gaslighting/" type="external">defined as</a> “an extremely effective form of&#160; <a href="http://www.thehotline.org/is-this-abuse/abuse-defined/#tab-id-2" type="external">emotional abuse</a>&#160;that causes a [survivor] to question their own feelings, instincts, and sanity, which gives the abusive partner a lot of power (and we know that abuse is about&#160; <a href="http://www.thehotline.org/is-this-abuse/abuse-defined/" type="external">power and control</a>).”</p>
<p>I’ve seen this in myself and in the relationships of men in my life in many ways.</p>
<p>Sometimes it shows up in using name calling (often using oppressive language like b*tch or f*ggot) in ways that degrade self-esteem over time. Other times, we might use a person’s love for us (“If you loved me, you would _____”) in order to manipulate partners or other loved ones. Other times, we lie perpetually in order to justify our hurtful behavior, claiming, “It’s not what you think!”</p>
<p>Whatever it looks like, emotional manipulation, like other abuse, exists on a spectrum – and we have to be vigilant about how it’s entering our relationships.</p>
<p>Compared to some of the men in my life, I think I have a fairly healthy relationship with anger. But this wasn’t always this way. I used to blow up at people I loved and act in ways that, if not actually violent, seemed to imply violence.</p>
<p>And when I think back to why that was, it had a lot to do with the models of masculinity I had around me. From the media icons I had as a kid – action heroes and athletes – to some of the men in my life, I had models that showed that “being tough” was the same thing as “being a man.”</p>
<p>And that toughness translated to aggressiveness and dominance.</p>
<p>As I realized when my partner called on me to consider the impact of my anger on our relationship, even those of us who strive for a more inclusive and less violent masculinity fall into abusive patterns when angry or frustrated.</p>
<p>Considering that many of the messages we receive as boys about conflict teach us to respond with aggression or violence, is it any wonder that abusive anger is common in so many of our intimate relationships?</p>
<p />
<p>For some cis men, this aggression shows up in physical violence, but for others of us, we teach partners or children that they need to manage our anger (rather than that our anger is something we can control and manage).</p>
<p>I grew up in a family of ticklers, and I think tickling is tremendous fun. My partner isn’t so much a fan. She humors me sometimes, and we laugh together with playful tickling, but I honestly have a hard time respecting the boundary when she asks me to stop.</p>
<p>While this might seem like a trivial example, it’s reflective of a problematic pattern – I was socialized to see something as positive that my partner doesn’t much like, and I’m not always great at listening.</p>
<p>Taken to its destructive ends, this can look like a million different violations of consent.</p>
<p>There are millions of ways that boys are taught not to listen. All of the following are phrases I’ve had men say to me at different times in my life:</p>
<p>“If she says ‘no,’ that simply means ‘convince me.’”</p>
<p>“If she’s mean to you, that means she likes you. Keep trying.”</p>
<p>“You don’t know what you want. You’re too young to know. So you’re going to do as we say. Because we say so.”</p>
<p>So whether we’re pretending that we know what our partners want or refusing to <a href="" type="internal">listen to our children</a> when they express their needs and desires, the fact that cis men are socialized to value our own intuition and voice above that of others can play out in abusive ways.</p>
<p>So we have to be careful – and we have to cultivate an ethic of listening.</p>
<p>I learned early on that I could control people around me to get my way. With friends, I would simply dictate to them which “dress up” game we would play – action heroes or soldiers or cowboys. With my sisters, I knew that I could use my status as the youngest – the baby – to make them do the things I wanted.</p>
<p>And I got this message because many of the adults in my life rewarded me for being assertive and controlling. They called it “leadership,” yet so often it’s called “bossiness” in girls.</p>
<p>One of the more insidious messages that we get as boys and young men is that we need to always be in control, whether we’re talking <a href="http://elitedaily.com/dating/12-traits-emotionally-abusive-relationships-get/984358/" type="external">emotionally</a>, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2015/03/19/ill-take-care-of-the-bills-the-slippery-slope-into-financial-abuse/#418dcf1b61b8" type="external">financially</a>, <a href="http://www.campbell.edu/pdf/student-services/counseling/red-flag-abusive-personality.pdf" type="external">sexually</a>, or even in <a href="" type="internal">simple social situations</a> – all of which can lead to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3161889/" type="external">other forms of abuse, like physical violence</a>.</p>
<p>In myself, I’ve found that I so very often manage to get my way, even when I claim that I’m trying to be accommodating to my loved ones. In listening to women, I realize that this is a common trend in straight relationships, one that I seriously need to work on.</p>
<p>So whether we’re falling into more traditional abusive patterns or are simply finding that we magically are always in control or getting our way, we have to be careful of the ways that our socialization as men can quickly bleed into abusive behaviors.</p>
<p>If there is any message I received from media – the music I listened to and the movies I watched – it was that jealousy was how we were supposed to show partners that they are wanted, that they are loved.</p>
<p>I got this message in such a messed up way that I remember seeing the movie Fear about a violent stalker in middle school, and I couldn’t help but think about how cool the murderous Mark Wahlberg character was.</p>
<p>Looking back, that terrifies me. His jealousy escalated to murder, and I thought he seemed cool.</p>
<p>And the thing that’s hard to address about jealous is that we all seem to feel it at one time or another. It’s totally natural in many ways.</p>
<p>However, while it may be natural to feel jealous, for many of us as men, <a href="http://www.loveisrespect.org/content/breaking-down-jealousy-myths/" type="external">jealousy quickly translates into harmful behaviors</a>.</p>
<p>From violating privacy of a partner (say, by going through their phone) or pressuring them not to go out and spend time with friends or telling them that they can’t have friends of a particular gender or sexual orientation, there are myriad ways that jealousy can show up in abusive and controlling ways.</p>
<p>And while everyone may feel jealous at one time or another, the entitlement to the bodies and attentions of others that is inherent in misogynistic patriarchy makes jealousy particularly toxic when it comes from us as cisgender men.</p>
<p>As cisgender men, we need to realize that even though our identities are bound up in patriarchy, we are not patriarchy. As such, we have a relationship to patriarchy’s violence, which means we have agency to choose what that relationship looks like.</p>
<p>Part of unlearning the violence and abuse of patriarchy that is so deeply engrained into mainstream masculinities in the US means cultivating different ways of being, supplanting the unhealthy and destructive patterns with masculinities that can more closely align with feminist and non-violent values.</p>
<p>So now that we’ve looked at some of the unhealthy patterns, here are just a few ways that men can commit ourselves to cultivating healthier selves. Like the list above, by no means is this list exhaustive. Rather, it’s meant to provide a place to start as we work to build different masculinities.</p>
<p>No – this isn’t about being “ <a href="" type="internal">PC</a>” – it’s about empathizing with those who are telling us that our language is hurtful and abusive. More than just a simple act of changing the words we use, eliminating words like the “ <a href="https://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/feminism-friday-on-bitch-and-other-misogynist-language/" type="external">b word</a>,” “ <a href="http://www.shakesville.com/2007/11/on-bitch-and-other-misogynist-language.html" type="external">c word</a>,” and “ <a href="http://www.queerty.com/when-is-it-ok-to-say-faggot-thirty-gay-men-respond-to-the-word-20150716" type="external">f word</a>” demonstrates a willingness to work on ourselves.</p>
<p>It means that we recognize that we’re willing to attempt to change patterns that have told us throughout our lives that we can do and say whatever we want without consequence.</p>
<p>And it means that we are willing to consider that words have tremendous power and that <a href="" type="internal">inclusive language matters</a>.</p>
<p>One of the ways that patriarchy truly wounds us as men is that it demands we divorce ourselves from that which makes us human – from our emotions and capacity for empathy and accountable love.</p>
<p>Thus, though it may seem cheesy, one of the most powerful things we can do to challenge our patriarchal socialization is to carve out time in our lives to reflect upon our emotions and to consider what it would mean for us to express them in ways that are healthier and more accountable to those we love.</p>
<p>The thing <a href="" type="internal">about privilege</a> is that those of us who have it can go through our lives never really listening to those who don’t share our identity – we don’t have to.</p>
<p>But those who try to listen across difference know it isn’t something everyone knows how to do well; it’s a learned skill. For those of us with many privileges, it’s even harder to listen because we’ve been given subtle and overt messages about the value of our voice.</p>
<p>Thus, we need to work actively on cultivating an ethic of empathetic listening, and we need to pay particular and careful attention to how this listening is vital to healthy relationships.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, we need to learn to listen when we’re called out and called in about the ways our behavior is abusive. We need to practice pushing through the defensiveness to truly hear those who are calling on us to be better men.</p>
<p>One of the things I love most about my friend Timo’s work to challenge patriarchal violence is how he binds that work up in building loving and transformative relationships with other men. Frankly, the ways he cultivates what he calls “bruv love” with men in his life is an inspiration to me.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, though, so often “brotherhood” (as expressed in media, in narratives from fraternity or sports culture, in “bro code”) is far from transgressive. It reifies patriarchy.</p>
<p>But what would it look like for all men to cultivate relationships with other men that are built on care, love, affection, accountability, and feminist values? Think of how liberating that would be – not only for us as men, but for people of all genders in our lives!</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>As cisgender men who know that we need to be different, who realize that our liberation is bound up in the liberation of all people, we need to remember that living into our values doesn’t necessitate paternalistic “protection” of women, Trans men, or non-binary folks.</p>
<p>Living into our values means transforming ourselves and the culture of masculinity around us so that our behavior and our very identities challenge the violence of patriarchy.</p>
<p>And for each of us that might look different, as each of our masculinities exist at intersections with other parts of who we are.</p>
<p>But when more of us as men commit to this self work, think of how much less violence and abuse there will be in our lives and in the lives of those we love.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Jamie Utt is the Founder and Director of Education at <a href="http://civilschools.com/" type="external">CivilSchools</a>, a comprehensive bullying prevention program, a diversity and inclusion consultant, and sexual violence prevention educator based in Tucson, AZ. He is currently working toward his PhD in Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Arizona with research interests in the role that White teacher’s racial identity plays in their teaching practice. Learn more about his work at his <a href="http://www.jamieutt.com/" type="external">website here</a> and follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/utt_jamie" type="external">@utt_jamie</a>. Read his <a href="" type="internal">articles here</a> and book him for&#160; <a href="" type="internal">speaking engagements</a>.</p> | 5 Common Behaviors Cis Men May Not Realize Are Abusive (And How to Stop Them) | true | http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/07/cis-men-socialized-to-be-abusive/ | 2016-07-19 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>Lobos fans are eager to see it happen, too.</p>
<p>“It’s been I think over 500 days since he’s been in a game, he’s told me,” UNM coach Steve Alford said.</p>
<p>Actually, it’s been 594 days, to be exact, since Kirk scored two points and grabbed three rebounds in eight minutes of action in the Lobos NIT game loss to Alabama on March 21, 2011.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Kirk, the 7-foot center who sat out the 2011-12 season after back surgery, garnered some preseason hype when UNM head coach Steve Alford told ESPN.com in September that Kirk could be one of the best collegiate centers in the West this season.</p>
<p>Since then, Kirk had a solid, though hardly spectacular Lobo Howl scrimmage in front of fans on Oct. 12 and played less than a half of basketball in an Oct. 27 open scrimmage in the Pit before severely spraining that ankle, leaving him unable to play in last week’s exhibition blowout win over Victory University.</p>
<p>That will likely change today with New Mexico Highlands paying a visit to the Pit at 7 p.m. for the Lobos’ second exhibition game.</p>
<p>“He probably could have played (in Wednesday’s game), but we didn’t want to risk anything,” Alford said after the Victory exhibition, though the coach stopped short of guaranteeing Kirk would play against the Cowboys.</p>
<p>With Kirk hurt in the past nine days while, his projected back up in the Lobos’ four-guard/one post player starting lineup, 6-9 forward Cameron Bairstow, has made the most of his opportunity.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I think Cam has shown tremendous strides,” Alford said. “He had 32 (points) and 16 (rebounds) in our intrasquad scrimmage (Oct. 27). … In our exhibition game he had 22 (points) and eight (rebounds) so he’s shown the ability that he continues to get better and we’re going to need those two guys up front to help us.”</p>
<p>But has what Bairstow, a junior, showed in late October enough to supplant the injured Kirk as the starter for the Lobos?</p>
<p>Alford is in no hurry to make such a decision. Frankly, the coach doesn’t seem to care who starts as he knows both, along with 6-9 freshman reserve Nick Banyard, will each need to give quality minutes for the team’s inside-out offense to work efficiently in the Lobos’ Nov. 12 regular season opener against Davidson in the Pit.</p>
<p>“We’ve never put a huge emphasis on the starting thing,” Alford said. “I think that’s stuff that, to be honest with you, fans, media spend a lot of time on. And that’s fine. It’s just never been a huge deal with us. … The last thing we want to do with Alex is throw him to the fire and he gets down on himself. We’re going to be patient with him. We know Alex has a chance to be an outstanding center, but he has not played for a long time.”</p>
<p>Bairstow, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to mind making the decision a tough one by his continued improvement. But even he knows the Lobos’ success this season comes with he and Kirk both playing solid minutes, staying out of foul trouble and grabbing rebounds.</p>
<p>“When you start there’s always going to be a bit of extra confidence, but it doesn’t really make a difference as long as I can contribute,” Bairstow said after the Victory win.</p>
<p>As for the potential return tonight of Kirk to the lineup?</p>
<p>“Rotations are a bit messed up with him being out,” Bairstow said. “Him being such a big body and a big presence, it’s going to be huge for us to have him.” — This article appeared on page B1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Lobo Kirk Anxious To Play | false | https://abqjournal.com/238117/lobo-kirk-anxious-to-play.html | 2 |
|
<p>Pro-Russian separatists released 56 hostages held in a government building in eastern Ukraine early on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sbu.gov.ua/sbu/control/en/publish/article;jsessionid=B6A27CF1F651B54FEB582EF8525CDD5B.app1?art_id=123865&amp;cat_id=35317" type="external">Ukraine's security service said</a> the separatists in the city of Luhansk had rigged the offices with explosives and detained around 60 people inside after seizing the building on Sunday. It was not clear if the 56 who left were among the 60, or how many were still being held inside.</p>
<p>The protesters denied that they had used explosives or taken hostages, although they did concede they had seized an armory full of automatic rifles.</p>
<p>"We do not need hostages to get what we want," a protester identifying himself only as "Anton" told Reuters.</p>
<p>Ukraine's security service office in Luhansk was just one of several public buildings in cities across eastern Ukraine that were taken over pro-Russian demonstrators over the weekend. The demonstrators are opposed to the new government in Kiev and demand a referendum to join Russia, such as the one held in <a href="" type="internal">Crimea</a>last month.</p>
<p>A protest in Kharkiv, a city to the northwest of Luhansk, came to an end after Ukrainian police launched an "anti-terrorist" operation Monday night during which some 70 people were arrested. Demonstrators still held some buildings in the city of Donetsk, to the south.</p>
<p>Eastern Ukraine has a significant proportion of people who speak Russian and identify themselves as ethnic Russians. Nevertheless, Secretary of <a href="" type="internal">State John Kerry said Wednesday</a> the tension in the east had been stirred up by "Russian provocateurs and agents" who had "been sent there determined to create chaos."</p>
<p>The Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told Reuters on Wednesday that the unrest in the eastern cities would be resolved within 48 hours.</p>
<p>Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</p>
<p /> | Pro-Russians Release 56 ‘Hostages’ in Eastern Ukraine: Officials | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/pro-russians-release-56-hostages-eastern-ukraine-officials-n75471 | 2014-04-09 | 3 |
<p>Talent agencies, investors, and even banks now view the Weinstein Company as "toxic," and are preparing to sever ties with the production firm, according to insiders.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://deadline.com/2017/10/the-weinstein-co-nears-the-brink-as-agencies-cut-off-talent-supply-1202187269/" type="external">new report</a>&#160;details the turmoil rocking the entertainment industry as a result of the unfolding Weinstein scandal, which could radically alter the landscape in Hollywood and beyond.</p>
<p>One anonymous media executive likened the crisis to "a run on the banks," explaining, "Banks aren't going to continue to lend to them. You have agencies saying they will not allow talent to appear in their movies even if they re-brand. The equity is likely to get wiped out."</p>
<p>There is speculation that the Weinstein Company (TWC) will likely change its name and purge Harvey's name from credits on its many projects in an effort to cleanse the brand, but the damage could run so deep that the titanic firm valued as highly as $700 million just last year may never recover.</p>
<p>"Agents did not want to be on record, but reactions ranged from not wanting to risk the wrath of clients in the event of more fallout by putting them into TWC projects, and others said that if there was evidence of Weinstein benefiting directly or indirectly in projects, the agencies wanted no part of it," reports Deadline. "We have heard that some financiers are already poring over the list of plum projects they might pry loose. And agents are looking for outs for their clients on projects that are percolating."</p>
<p>"One would have to harken back to Fatty Arbuckle to find as sudden and precipitous a fall in Hollywood as what is happening to Weinstein, and numerous agents and executives at studios believe it will be next to impossible to detoxify the remnants of a company that hasn't even weathered the litigation that is expected to follow Weinstein's exit from the company he formed with his brother and used as his platform for decades."</p>
<p>A collapse of TWC could prove disastrous for Hollywood, as it would directly impact projects already in development, a variety of major investments, and even real estate, as TWC is an anchor tenant at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Center.</p>
<p>In an interesting twist, De Niro would not be the only virulently anti-Donald-Trumper directly affected, as TWC has been gearing up for the release of Farenheit 11/9 - a new film/leftist propaganda fest from Michael Moore about President Trump's devastating election win.</p>
<p>Moore once called Harvey Weinstein "one of the best people to work with" in a 2015 Tweet that has aged very poorly.</p>
<p />
<p>"When the primary asset of a company is one individual, they now have to prove they are a going concern," said one investor. "That primary asset is now their primary liability."</p>
<p>Dan Lyman: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/citizenanalyst" type="external">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/CitizenAnalyst" type="external">Twitter</a></p>
<p /> | Weinstein Company Imploding As Talent Agencies, Financiers Prepare to Abandon Ship | true | https://infowars.com/weinstein-company-imploding-as-talent-agencies-financiers-prepare-to-abandon-ship/ | 2017-10-13 | 0 |
<p>TIDMINVP TIDMTSCO</p>
<p>FORM 8.5 (EPT/RI)</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY AN EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER WITH RECOGNISED</p>
<p>INTERMEDIARY STATUS DEALING IN A CLIENT-SERVING CAPACITY</p>
<p>1. KEY INFORMATION</p>
<p>(a) Name of exempt principal trader:</p>
<p>Investec Bank plc</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>(b) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant</p>
<p>securities this form relates: Tesco plc</p>
<p>Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree</p>
<p>(c) Name of the party to the offer with which exempt</p>
<p>principal trader is connected: Investec are Broker to Booker Group plc</p>
<p>d) Date dealing undertaken:</p>
<p>30(th) January 2018</p>
<p>(e) Has the EPT previously disclosed, or is it today Yes</p>
<p>disclosing, in respect of any other party to this</p>
<p>offer?</p>
<p>2. DEALINGS BY THE EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER</p>
<p>(a) Purchases and sales</p>
<p>Class of Purchases/ sales Total Highest price per unit paid/received Lowest price per unit paid/received</p>
<p>relevant number of (pence) (pence)</p>
<p>security securities</p>
<p>Ordinary Purchases 521,926 211.2 207.7</p>
<p>Shares</p>
<p>Ordinary Sales 519,065 211.7 207.8</p>
<p>Shares</p>
<p>(b) Derivatives transactions (other than options)</p>
<p>Class of Product description Nature of dealing Number of Price</p>
<p>relevant e.g. CFD e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing reference per</p>
<p>security a long/short position securities unit</p>
<p>(c) Options transactions in respect of existing securities</p>
<p>(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying</p>
<p>Class of Product Writing, Number of Exercise Type Expiry Option</p>
<p>relevant description purchasing, securities price e.g. American, European etc. date money</p>
<p>security e.g. call selling, to which per paid/</p>
<p>option varying option unit received</p>
<p>etc. relates per</p>
<p>unit</p>
<p>(ii) Exercising</p>
<p>Class of relevant Product description Number of Exercise price per</p>
<p>security e.g. call option securities unit</p>
<p>(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)</p>
<p>Class of relevant Nature of dealing Details Price per unit</p>
<p>security e.g. subscription, conversion (if applicable)</p>
<p>The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.</p>
<p>Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant</p>
<p>securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(b), copy table 2(a), (b),</p>
<p>(c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant</p>
<p>security dealt in.</p>
<p>3. OTHER INFORMATION</p>
<p>(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements</p>
<p>Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or</p>
<p>any agreement or understanding, formal or informal,</p>
<p>relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement</p>
<p>to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the</p>
<p>exempt principal trader making the disclosure and</p>
<p>any party to the offer or any person acting in concert</p>
<p>with a party to the offer:</p>
<p>If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings,</p>
<p>state "none"</p>
<p>None</p>
<p>(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to</p>
<p>options or derivatives</p>
<p>Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding,</p>
<p>formal or informal, between the exempt principal trader</p>
<p>making the disclosure and any other person relating</p>
<p>to:</p>
<p>(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under</p>
<p>any option; or</p>
<p>(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal</p>
<p>of any relevant securities to which any derivative</p>
<p>is referenced:</p>
<p>If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings,</p>
<p>state "none"</p>
<p>None</p>
<p>Date of disclosure:</p>
<p>31(st) January 2018</p>
<p>Contact name:</p>
<p>Robert Letson</p>
<p>Telephone number:</p>
<p>0207 597 5690</p>
<p>This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf</p>
<p>of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.</p>
<p>The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely</p>
<p>responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information</p>
<p>contained therein.</p>
<p>Source: Investec Bank plc via Globenewswire</p>
<p>https://www.investec.co.uk/</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>January 31, 2018 05:26 ET (10:26 GMT)</p> | Investec Bank plc Investec Bank Plc : Form 8.5 (EPT/RI) - Tesco Plc | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/13/investec-bank-plc-investec-bank-plc-form-8-5-eptri-tesco-plc.html | 2018-01-31 | 0 |
<p>TROY, Ala. (AP) — Troy is about to get an economic shot in the arm with 366 jobs expected after a leading firearms maker announced it will soon build a facility in the city.</p>
<p>WSFA-TV <a href="http://www.wsfa.com/story/37229802/firearms-maker-kimber-to-open-manufacturing-facility-in-troy" type="external">reports</a> Gov. Kay Ivey's office confirmed Tuesday that Kimber Manufacturing, based in Yonkers, New York, will invest $38 million over the next five years. The facility should be up and running by early 2019.</p>
<p>Ivey says Kimber's investment in Troy will create a significant number of high-paying design engineering and manufacturing jobs.</p>
<p>Kimber's chief operating officer, Greg Grogan, says the company will build a large, automated, state-of-the-art design engineering and manufacturing facility in Troy to support Kimber's strategic growth plans.</p>
<p>Mayor Jason Reeves says the city has a strong manufacturing base and Kimber will substantially add to that foundation.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: WSFA-TV, <a href="http://www.wsfa.com/" type="external">http://www.wsfa.com/</a></p>
<p>TROY, Ala. (AP) — Troy is about to get an economic shot in the arm with 366 jobs expected after a leading firearms maker announced it will soon build a facility in the city.</p>
<p>WSFA-TV <a href="http://www.wsfa.com/story/37229802/firearms-maker-kimber-to-open-manufacturing-facility-in-troy" type="external">reports</a> Gov. Kay Ivey's office confirmed Tuesday that Kimber Manufacturing, based in Yonkers, New York, will invest $38 million over the next five years. The facility should be up and running by early 2019.</p>
<p>Ivey says Kimber's investment in Troy will create a significant number of high-paying design engineering and manufacturing jobs.</p>
<p>Kimber's chief operating officer, Greg Grogan, says the company will build a large, automated, state-of-the-art design engineering and manufacturing facility in Troy to support Kimber's strategic growth plans.</p>
<p>Mayor Jason Reeves says the city has a strong manufacturing base and Kimber will substantially add to that foundation.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: WSFA-TV, <a href="http://www.wsfa.com/" type="external">http://www.wsfa.com/</a></p> | Firearms maker to open manufacturing plant in Alabama | false | https://apnews.com/amp/96ae8f4eca9744a2b9f13b4155b7becb | 2018-01-10 | 2 |
<p>The reporter who broke the story of the two hostages slain in a botched US counterterrorism operation wonders if&#160;President Barack Obama's public apology will lead to change.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal's Adam Entous&#160;reported the strike in January on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border came only after hundreds of hours of surveillance. Intelligence sources told Entous there was no sign of hostages at the location.&#160;Obama repeated that assertion&#160;in a news conference confirming the deaths of American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto, who had been held by Al Qaeda.</p>
<p>"The key question going forward," Entous says, "is how is this going to change how the CIA operates?" The strike was based on what's called a 'pattern of life' intelligence, which indicated that there was a legitimate target present, without knowing specifically who.&#160;"Will that continue down the road," Entous asks, "or will that be curtailed?"</p>
<p>Obama did not touch on that question, but said details of the operation would be declassified as soon as possible.</p>
<p>"As a husband and as a father, I cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the Weinstein and Lo Porto families are enduring today,'' Obama said. "I realize that there are no words that can ever equal their loss.&#160;I know that there is nothing that I can ever say or do to ease their heartache.&#160;And today, I simply want to say this: as President and as Commander-in-Chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni.&#160;I profoundly regret what happened.&#160;On behalf of the United States government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families." (Full statement <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/23/statement-president-deaths-warren-weinstein-and-giovanni-lo-porto" type="external">here</a>.)</p>
<p>Weinstein had been held hostage by al-Qaeda for more than three and a half&#160;years before his accidental death in the&#160;drone strike in January.&#160;He was kidnapped in 2011&#160;at his home in Lahore, Pakistan.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, the assistance we received from other elements of the US&#160;Government was inconsistent and disappointing over the course of three and a half years," said Weinstein's widow,&#160;Elaine, in a statement. "We hope that my husband's death and the others who have faced similar tragedies in recent months will finally prompt the US&#160;Government to take its responsibilities seriously and establish a coordinated and consistent approach to supporting hostages and their families."</p>
<p>She's not the only one who's disappointed. "It was pretty obvious to everybody that the US government never took Warren’s situation that seriously," says Bill Piatt, who knew Weinstein for much of his long career in international humanitarian work.</p>
<p>Piatt and others briefly held out hope after the US traded Taliban members for the release of US&#160;Army Sgt.&#160;Bowe Bergdahl. "We all had a lot of hope that the government might decide to do something" he says. "If they were willing to swap captives for an army deserter, they should be willing to do something to bring home a patriot who has dedicated his life to helping others and to helping the United States.”</p>
<p>Weinstein's death had another&#160;sad and ironic twist, Piatt says. "He constantly pushed the Peace Corps volunteers to work as hard as they could to understand the people from the people’s perspective,"&#160;he says. "I think it's an incredible tragic irony that it is probably this very cultural sensitivity that kept him alive with al Qaeda all these years&#160;and that&#160;at end of the day it was United States government that killed him.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Family and friends of Warren Weinstein demand change from the US government as they mourn | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-04-23/reporter-who-broke-story-wonders-if-botched-us-operation-will-lead-change | 2015-04-23 | 3 |
<p>In his <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-plan-to-win-conservative-support-1460501876" type="external">op-ed in the Wall Street Journal</a>, Fred Barnes reports that Donald Trump “plans a series of formal speeches on policy issues, set pieces drafted by speechwriters and delivered from prepared texts… Mr. Trump wants to use the policy speeches to persuade conservatives, among other skeptics, that he is more in sync with their thinking than they imagine.”</p>
<p>Good luck with that.</p>
<p>For reasons Barnes touches on, Trump is widely distrusted by conservatives. A few speeches by him, made at the suggestion of Newt Gingrich — who admits Trump is no conservative! — isn’t going to undo that. For one thing, it is a transparently cynical ploy.</p>
<p>It isn’t simply that Trump isn’t a conservative in the spirit of Goldwater or Reagan; it is that he has been an active opponent of conservatism long ago, recently and to this very day. He has given large sums of money to liberal Democrats. He supported President Obama’s stimulus package. He called for the impeachment of George W. Bush. He is a critic of Paul Ryan and others who want to reform entitlements. He has praised Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and, during the Republican presidential debates, spoke favorably about a &#160;single payer health care system. He’s a fierce protectionist. The list goes on and on.</p>
<p>But that’s hardly all. Mr. Trump has shown no familiarity with conservatism as a philosophy. As his answers on abortion, health care, the Obamacare mandates, mass deportation of illegal immigrants, how to cut the size of government, the nuclear triad, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Quds Force/Kurds, NATO, seizing Iraqi oil, targeting the families of terrorists and so many other issues show, he hasn’t even thought about most policies. He has no intellectual curiosity, no interest in mastering issues, no ability even to carry on a coherent conversation on most topics. He just wings it, and he does is quite poorly.</p>
<p>But the main objection to Mr. Trump is his temperament. He&#160;specializes in stoking resentments and grievances and ugly passions. He condones political violence.&#160;Conservatives — those who are paying attention, anyway&#160;— know this. A few set speeches he won’t write and will soon forget won’t change any of the basic realities. Donald Trump is a threat to conservatism. Only the foolish will think otherwise.</p>
<p>Peter Wehner is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.</p> | Trump Remains a Threat to Conservatism | false | https://eppc.org/publications/trump-remains-a-threat-to-conservatism/ | 1 |
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<p>The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1PM948i)" type="external">http://bit.ly/1PM948i)</a> that Emanuel Olivas was arrested Friday on charges of shooting from a motor vehicle resulting in great bodily harm and shooting at a dwelling or occupied building.</p>
<p>Authorities say Robert England was sitting with a woman in his truck outside a home around 4:20 a.m. on Dec. 24 when someone sprayed bullets from a car.</p>
<p>One bullet struck England and is lodged near his brain stem. He is currently in stable but critical condition.</p>
<p>A criminal complaint says bullet casings came from a gun owned by Olivas.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It alleges the shooting was retaliation for a fight that did not involve England.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Carlsbad Current-Argus, <a href="http://www.currentargus.com/" type="external">http://www.currentargus.com/</a></p> | Man arrested for Carlsbad Christmas Eve shooting | false | https://abqjournal.com/715911/man-arrested-for-carlsbad-christmas-eve-shooting.html | 2 |
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<p>Can’t wait till ISIS is completely wiped out!</p>
<p>Kurdish forces took full control of the Syrian town of Kobani near the Turkish border on Monday, driving out the last group of Islamic State fighters after nearly four months of battles, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group has said.</p>
<p>The Syrian Kurdish forces have been backed by near daily US-led air strikes around the town, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, and supported by Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces.</p>
<p>Read more: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/26/kurdish-forces-take-control-kobani-syria" type="external">The Guardian</a></p> | BEAT IT: Kurdish Forces Kick Out ISIS in Kobani | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/beat-kurdish-forces-kick-isis-kobani/ | 0 |
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<p>DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening’s drawing of the Michigan Lottery’s “Keno” game were:</p>
<p>03-07-18-20-22-23-28-34-36-38-39-49-56-57-58-59-62-74-76-77-78-80</p>
<p>(three, seven, eighteen, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-eight, thirty-four, thirty-six, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty-nine, fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty-two, seventy-four, seventy-six, seventy-seven, seventy-eight, eighty)</p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening’s drawing of the Michigan Lottery’s “Keno” game were:</p>
<p>03-07-18-20-22-23-28-34-36-38-39-49-56-57-58-59-62-74-76-77-78-80</p>
<p>(three, seven, eighteen, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-eight, thirty-four, thirty-six, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty-nine, fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty-two, seventy-four, seventy-six, seventy-seven, seventy-eight, eighty)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Keno’ game | false | https://apnews.com/16c96d302f384d6fa5be89bdedcf0eed | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>Xtra Insight: <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2009/07/15/daniel-radcliffe-dirty-harry.html" type="external">Read The Daily Beast's exclusive interview with Daniel Radcliffe</a></p>
<p>New York based photographer Tim Hailand is set to release the first in an ongoing series of A Day in the Life of books, each focusing on creative people and the way they spend their days.</p>
<p>His first book details A Day in the Life of Daniel Radcliffe captured on January 13th 2009 during the actor's Broadway run of Equus. The book comprises 50 black and white and color images of Dan including a black and white portrait of him as he awakes through to the nighttime color image of Dan in Times Square which also features on the cover of the book.</p>
<p>Hailand is giving The Daily Beast first glimpse at these images which will not appear anywhere else until <a href="http://adayinthelifeof.biz" type="external">adayinthelifeof.biz</a> is launched later this year.</p>
<p>Hailand will donate a portion of all book sales to Broadway Cares/Equity fights AIDS, in recognition of this great organization.</p> | Exclusive Daniel Radcliffe Photos | true | https://thedailybeast.com/exclusive-daniel-radcliffe-photos | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Malik Marquetti scored 21 points, JaKeenan Grant scored 16 and Bryce Washington grabbed 16 rebounds and Louisiana pulled away in the second half to beat South Alabama 76-57 Thursday night.</p>
<p>Louisiana led 34-29 at halftime and used a 17-2 run in an almost eight-minute span for a 66-45 lead with 5:42 left. Louisiana shot 6 of 14 from the field while South Alabama went 1 of 7 during that stretch.</p>
<p>Marquetti hit five 3-pointers and Frank Bartley IV added 11 points. The Ragin' Cajuns made half their 24 3-point attempts and finished 25-of-52 shooting. Louisiana also owned a 41-25 rebounding advantage.</p>
<p>Trhae Mitchell lead the Jaguars with 16 points, shooting 7 of 10, grabbed eight rebounds and Josh Ajayi scored 13.</p>
<p>Louisiana (18-3, 8-0 Sun Belt) has won eight straight and 14 of its last 15 contests. The Ragin' Cajuns haven't lost consecutive games this season. South Alabama (11-10, 4-4) saw its two-game win streak come to an end.</p>
<p>LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Malik Marquetti scored 21 points, JaKeenan Grant scored 16 and Bryce Washington grabbed 16 rebounds and Louisiana pulled away in the second half to beat South Alabama 76-57 Thursday night.</p>
<p>Louisiana led 34-29 at halftime and used a 17-2 run in an almost eight-minute span for a 66-45 lead with 5:42 left. Louisiana shot 6 of 14 from the field while South Alabama went 1 of 7 during that stretch.</p>
<p>Marquetti hit five 3-pointers and Frank Bartley IV added 11 points. The Ragin' Cajuns made half their 24 3-point attempts and finished 25-of-52 shooting. Louisiana also owned a 41-25 rebounding advantage.</p>
<p>Trhae Mitchell lead the Jaguars with 16 points, shooting 7 of 10, grabbed eight rebounds and Josh Ajayi scored 13.</p>
<p>Louisiana (18-3, 8-0 Sun Belt) has won eight straight and 14 of its last 15 contests. The Ragin' Cajuns haven't lost consecutive games this season. South Alabama (11-10, 4-4) saw its two-game win streak come to an end.</p> | Louisiana stays hot, beats S. Alabama 76-57 behind Marquetti | false | https://apnews.com/amp/719719022e8f438ea2506911c7b14452 | 2018-01-26 | 2 |
<p>Alexander Hamilton, who has been featured on the $10 bill since 1929, is making way for a woman.</p>
<p>Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is to officially announce Thursday that a redesign of the $10 will feature the first woman on the nation's paper money in more than a century. The plan is to decide which woman sometime this summer.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The bill will have new security features to make it harder to counterfeit and will go into circulation in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.</p>
<p>Lew is asking the public for suggestions on who should be chosen for the bill, as well as what symbols of democracy it should feature. Ideas can be submitted by visiting thenew10.treasury.gov website.</p>
<p>Various groups have been campaigning to get a woman honored on the nation's paper currency, which has been an all-male domain for more than a century. The last woman featured on U.S. paper money was Martha Washington, who was on a dollar silver certificate from 1891 to 1896. The only other woman ever featured on U.S. paper money was Pocahontas, from 1865 to 1869. Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea are on dollar coins.</p>
<p>Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, who is sponsoring legislation to put a woman on the $20 bill, praised Lew for moving forward with a decision to use the $10 bill, which is the next denomination of currency scheduled to be redesigned.</p>
<p>"While it may not be the twenty dollar bill, make no mistake, this is a historic announcement," Shaheen said in a statement. "Young girls across this country will soon be able to see an inspiring woman on the ten dollar bill."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>A grass roots group, Women on 20s, had been pushing to get a woman's portrait on the $20, which currently features Andrew Jackson. They had conducted an online poll that gathered over 600,000 votes. African-American abolitionist Harriett Tubman was the top choice in that poll.</p>
<p>Lew said that Hamilton, the nation's first Treasury secretary, would still be honored in some way. He said one possibility being considered would keep Hamilton's portrait on some of the redesigned $10 bills. Lew said no final decision had been made yet.</p> | Make way Alexander Hamilton: A woman to be on $10 bill, first on paper money in a century | true | http://foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2015/06/17/make-way-alexander-hamilton-woman-to-be-on-10-bill-first-on-paper-money-in.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
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<p>DALLAS - Tony Romo is ready for another attempt at a fantasy football event that the NFL nixed last year because of plans to hold the fan-centric activities in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>A company partly owned by the Dallas quarterback announced plans Thursday to hold the National Fantasy Football Convention in the Los Angeles area in July. Romo's top receiver, Dez Bryant, is among the players scheduled to participate.</p>
<p>The inaugural event was supposed to be last summer in Las Vegas, but was called off after organizers accused the NFL of threatening players with fines or suspensions if they participated because of the venue's ties to gambling.</p>
<p>The dispute sparked a lawsuit, a major element of which was thrown by a Dallas judge in February.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP NFL website: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Romo fantasy event that was nixed in Vegas now set for LA | false | https://abqjournal.com/757229/romo-fantasy-event-that-was-nixed-in-vegas-now-set-for-la.html | 2 |
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<p>Former CIA political analysts</p>
<p>[Editors’ Note: This is a slightly revised version of essay that originally appeared in CounterPunch in December 2002. The piece also appeared in <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">The Politics of Anti-Semitism.</a>]</p>
<p>Since the long-forgotten days when the State Department’s Middle East policy was run by a group of so-called Arabists, U.S. policy on Israel and the Arab world has increasingly become the purview of officials well known for tilting toward Israel. From the 1920s roughly to 1990, Arabists, who had a personal history and an educational background in the Arab world and were accused by supporters of Israel of being totally biased toward Arab interests, held sway at the State Department and, despite having limited power in the policymaking circles of any administration, helped maintain some semblance of U.S. balance by keeping policy from tipping over totally toward Israel. But Arabists have been steadily replaced by their exact opposites, what some observers are calling Israelists, and policymaking circles throughout government now no longer even make a pretense of exhibiting balance between Israeli and Arab, particularly Palestinian, interests.</p>
<p>In the Clinton administration, the three most senior State Department officials dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli peace process were all partisans of Israel to one degree or another. All had lived at least for brief periods in Israel and maintained ties with Israel while in office, occasionally vacationing there. One of these officials had worked both as a pro-Israel lobbyist and as director of a pro-Israel think tank in Washington before taking a position in the Clinton administration from which he helped make policy on Palestinian-Israeli issues. Another has headed the pro-Israel think tank since leaving government.</p>
<p>The link between active promoters of Israeli interests and policymaking circles is stronger by several orders of magnitude in the Bush administration, which is peppered with people who have long records of activism on behalf of Israel in the United States, of policy advocacy in Israel, and of promoting an agenda for Israel often at odds with existing U.S. policy. These people, who can fairly be called Israeli loyalists, are now at all levels of government, from desk officers at the Defense Department to the deputy secretary level at both State and Defense, as well as on the National Security Council staff and in the vice president’s office.</p>
<p>We still tiptoe around putting a name to this phenomenon. We write articles about the neo-conservatives’ agenda on U.S.-Israeli relations and imply that in the neo-con universe there is little light between the two countries. We talk openly about the Israeli bias in the U.S. media. We make wry jokes about Congress being “Israeli-occupied territory.” Jason Vest in The Nation magazine reported forthrightly that some of the think tanks that hold sway over Bush administration thinking see no difference between U.S. and Israeli national security interests. But we never pronounce the particular words that best describe the real meaning of those observations and wry remarks. It’s time, however, that we say the words out loud and deal with what they really signify.</p>
<p>Dual loyalties. The issue we are dealing with in the Bush administration is dual loyalties — the double allegiance of those myriad officials at high and middle levels who cannot distinguish U.S. interests from Israeli interests, who baldly promote the supposed identity of interests between the United States and Israel, who spent their early careers giving policy advice to right-wing Israeli governments and now give the identical advice to a right-wing U.S. government, and who, one suspects, are so wrapped up in their concern for the fate of Israel that they honestly do not know whether their own passion about advancing the U.S. imperium is motivated primarily by America-first patriotism or is governed first and foremost by a desire to secure Israel’s safety and predominance in the Middle East through the advancement of the U.S. imperium.</p>
<p>“Dual loyalties” has always been one of those red flags posted around the subject of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, something that induces horrified gasps and rapid heartbeats because of its implication of Jewish disloyalty to the United States and the common assumption that anyone who would speak such a canard is ipso facto an anti-Semite. (We have a Jewish friend who is not bothered by the term in the least, who believes that U.S. and Israeli interests should be identical and sees it as perfectly natural for American Jews to feel as much loyalty to Israel as they do to the United States. But this is clearly not the usual reaction when the subject of dual loyalties arises.)</p>
<p>Although much has been written about the neo-cons who dot the Bush administration, the treatment of the their ties to Israel has generally been very gingerly. Although much has come to light recently about the fact that ridding Iraq both of its leader and of its weapons inventory has been on the neo-con agenda since long before there was a Bush administration, little has been said about the link between this goal and the neo-cons’ overriding desire to provide greater security for Israel. But an examination of the cast of characters in Bush administration policymaking circles reveals a startlingly pervasive network of pro-Israel activists, and an examination of the neo-cons’ voluminous written record shows that Israel comes up constantly as a neo-con reference point, always mentioned with the United States as the beneficiary of a recommended policy, always linked with the United States when national interests are at issue.</p>
<p>The Begats</p>
<p>First to the cast of characters. Beneath cabinet level, the list of pro-Israel neo-cons who are either policy functionaries themselves or advise policymakers from perches just on the edges of government reads like the old biblical “begats.” Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz leads the pack. He was a protégé of Richard Perle, who heads the prominent Pentagon advisory body, the Defense Policy Board. Many of today’s neo-cons, including Perle, are the intellectual progeny of the late Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson, a strong defense hawk and one of Israel’s most strident congressional supporters in the 1970s.</p>
<p>Wolfowitz in turn is the mentor of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, now Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff who was first a student of Wolfowitz and later a subordinate during the 1980s in both the State and the Defense Departments. Another Perle protégé is Douglas Feith, who is currently undersecretary of defense for policy, the department’s number-three man, and has worked closely with Perle both as a lobbyist for Turkey and in co-authoring strategy papers for right-wing Israeli governments. Assistant Secretaries Peter Rodman and Dov Zackheim, old hands from the Reagan administration when the neo-cons first flourished, fill out the subcabinet ranks at Defense. At lower levels, the Israel and the Syria/Lebanon desk officers at Defense are imports from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank spun off from the pro-Israel lobby organization, AIPAC.</p>
<p>Neo-cons have not made many inroads at the State Department, except for John Bolton, an American Enterprise Institute hawk and Israeli proponent who is said to have been forced on a reluctant Colin Powell as undersecretary for arms control. Bolton’s special assistant is David Wurmser, who wrote and/or co-authored with Perle and Feith at least two strategy papers for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in 1996. Wurmser’s wife, Meyrav Wurmser, is a co-founder of the media-watch website MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), which is run by retired Israeli military and intelligence officers and specializes in translating and widely circulating Arab media and statements by Arab leaders. A recent investigation by the Guardian of London found that MEMRI’s translations are skewed by being highly selective. Although it inevitably translates and circulates the most extreme of Arab statements, it ignores moderate Arab commentary and extremist Hebrew statements.</p>
<p>In the vice president’s office, Cheney has established his own personal national security staff, run by aides known to be very pro-Israel. The deputy director of the staff, John Hannah, is a former fellow of the Israeli-oriented Washington Institute. On the National Security Council staff, the newly appointed director of Middle East affairs is Elliott Abrams, who came to prominence after pleading guilty to withholding information from Congress during the Iran-contra scandal (and was pardoned by President Bush the elder) and who has long been a vocal proponent of right-wing Israeli positions. Putting him in a key policymaking position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is like entrusting the henhouse to a fox.</p>
<p>Pro-Israel activists with close links to the administration are also busy in the information arena inside and outside government. The head of Radio Liberty, a Cold War propaganda holdover now converted to service in the “war on terror,” is Thomas Dine, who was the very active head of AIPAC throughout most of the Reagan and the Bush-41 administrations. Elsewhere on the periphery, William Kristol, son of neo-con originals Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb, is closely linked to the administration’s pro-Israel coterie and serves as its cheerleader through the Rupert Murdoch-owned magazine that he edits, The Weekly Standard. Some of Bush’s speechwriters — including David Frum, who coined the term “axis of evil” for Bush’s state-of-the-union address but was forced to resign when his wife publicly bragged about his linguistic prowess — have come from The Weekly Standard. Frank Gaffney, another Jackson and Perle protégé and Reagan administration defense official, puts his pro-Israel oar in from his think tank, the Center for Security Policy, and through frequent media appearances and regular columns in the Washington Times.</p>
<p>The incestuous nature of the proliferating boards and think tanks, whose membership lists are more or less identical and totally interchangeable, is frighteningly insidious. Several scholars at the American Enterprise Institute, including former Reagan UN ambassador and long-time supporter of the Israeli right wing Jeane Kirkpatrick, make their pro-Israel views known vocally from the sidelines and occupy positions on other boards. Probably the most important organization, in terms of its influence on Bush administration policy formulation, is the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). Formed after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war specifically to bring Israel’s security concerns to the attention of U.S. policymakers and concentrating also on broad defense issues, the extremely hawkish, right-wing JINSA has always had a high-powered board able to place its members inside conservative U.S. administrations. Cheney, Bolton, and Feith were members until they entered the Bush administration. Several lower level JINSA functionaries are now working in the Defense Department. Perle is still a member, as are Kirkpatrick, former CIA director and leading Iraq-war hawk James Woolsey, and old-time rabid pro-Israel types like Eugene Rostow and Michael Ledeen. Both JINSA and Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy are heavily underwritten by Irving Moskowitz, a right-wing American Zionist, California business magnate (his money comes from bingo parlors), and JINSA board member who has lavishly financed the establishment of several religious settlements in Arab East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>By Their Own Testimony</p>
<p>Most of the neo-cons now in government have left a long paper trail giving clear evidence of their fervently right-wing pro-Israel, and fervently anti-Palestinian, sentiments. Whether being pro-Israel, even pro right-wing Israel, constitutes having dual loyalties — that is, a desire to further Israel’s interests that equals or exceeds the desire to further U.S. interests — is obviously not easy to determine, but the record gives some clues.</p>
<p>Wolfowitz himself has been circumspect in public, writing primarily about broader strategic issues rather than about Israel specifically or even the Middle East, but it is clear that at bottom Israel is a major interest and may be the principal reason for his near obsession with the effort, of which he is the primary spearhead, to dump Saddam Hussein, remake the Iraqi government in an American image, and then further redraw the Middle East map by accomplishing the same goals in Syria, Iran, and perhaps other countries. Profiles of Wolfowitz paint him as having two distinct aspects: one obessively bent on advancing U.S. dominance throughout the world, ruthless and uncompromising, seriously prepared to “end states,” as he once put it, that support terrorism in any way, a velociraptor in the words of one former colleague cited in the Economist; the other a softer aspect, which shows him to be a soft-spoken political moralist, an ardent democrat, even a bleeding heart on social issues, and desirous for purely moral and humanitarian reasons of modernizing and democratizing the Islamic world.</p>
<p>But his interest in Israel always crops up. Even profiles that downplay his attachment to Israel nonetheless always mention the influence the Holocaust, in which several of his family perished, has had on his thinking. One source inside the administration has described him frankly as “over-the-top crazy when it comes to Israel.” Although this probably accurately describes most of the rest of the neo-con coterie, and Wolfowitz is guilty at least by association, he is actually more complex and nuanced than this. A recent New York Times Magazine profile by the Times’ Bill Keller cites critics who say that “Israel exercises a powerful gravitational pull on the man” and notes that as a teenager Wolfowitz lived in Israel during his mathematician father’s sabbatical semester there. His sister is married to an Israeli. Keller even somewhat reluctantly acknowledges the accuracy of one characterization of Wolfowitz as “Israel-centric.” But Keller goes through considerable contortions to shun what he calls “the offensive suggestion of dual loyalty” and in the process makes one wonder if he is protesting too much. Keller concludes that Wolfowitz is less animated by the security of Israel than by the promise of a more moderate Islam. He cites as evidence Wolfowitz’s admiration for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for making peace with Israel and also draws on a former Wolfowitz subordinate who says that “as a moral man, he might have found Israel the heart of the Middle East story. But as a policy maker, Turkey and the gulf and Egypt didn’t loom any less large for him.”</p>
<p>These remarks are revealing. Anyone not so fearful of broaching the issue of dual loyalties might at least have raised the suggestion that Wolfowitz’s real concern may indeed be to ensure Israel’s security. Otherwise, why do his overriding interests seem to be reinventing Anwar Sadats throughout the Middle East by transforming the Arab and Muslim worlds and thereby making life safer for Israel, and a passion for fighting a pre-emptive war against Iraq — when there are critical areas totally apart from the Middle East and myriad other broad strategic issues that any deputy secretary of defense should be thinking about just as much? His current interest in Turkey, which is shared by the other neo-cons, some of whom have served as lobbyists for Turkey, seems also to be directed at securing Israel’s place in the region; there seems little reason for particular interest in this moderate Islamic, non-Arab country, other than that it is a moderate Islamic but non-Arab neighbor of Israel. Furthermore, the notion suggested by the Wolfowitz subordinate that any moral man would obviously look to Israel as the “heart of the Middle East story” is itself an Israel-centered idea: the assumption that Israel is a moral state, always pursuing moral policies, and that any moral person would naturally attach himself to Israel automatically presumes that there is an identity of interests between the United States and Israel; only those who assume such a complete coincidence of interests accept the notion that Israel is, across the board, a moral state.</p>
<p>Others among the neo-con policymakers have been more direct and open in expressing their pro-Israel views. Douglas Feith has been the most prolific of the group, with a two-decade-long record of policy papers, many co-authored with Perle, propounding a strongly anti-Palestinian, pro-Likud view. He views the Palestinians as not constituting a legitimate national group, believes that the West Bank and Gaza belong to Israel by right, and has long advocated that the U.S. abandon any mediating effort altogether and particularly foreswear the land-for-peace formula.</p>
<p>In 1996, Feith, Perle, and both David and Meyrav Wurmser were among the authors of a policy paper issued by an Israeli think tank and written for newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that urged Israel to make a “clean break” from pursuit of the peace process, particularly its land-for-peace aspects, which the authors regarded as a prescription for Israel’s annihilation. Arabs must rather accept a “peace-for-peace” formula through unconditional acceptance of Israel’s rights, including its territorial rights in the occupied territories. The paper advocated that Israel “engage every possible energy on rebuilding Zionism” by disengaging from economic and political dependence on the U.S. while maintaining a more “mature,” self-reliant partnership with the U.S. not focused “narrowly on territorial disputes.” Greater self-reliance would, these freelance policymakers told Netanyahu, give Israel “greater freedom of action and remove a significant lever of pressure [i.e., U.S. pressure] used against it in the past.”</p>
<p>The paper advocated, even as far back as 1996, containment of the threat against Israel by working closely with — guess who? — Turkey, as well as with Jordan, apparently regarded as the only reliably moderate Arab regime. Jordan had become attractive for these strategists because it was at the time working with opposition elements in Iraq to reestablish a Hashemite monarchy there that would have been allied by blood lines and political leanings to the Hashemite throne in Jordan. The paper’s authors saw the principal threat to Israel coming, we should not be surprised to discover now, from Iraq and Syria and advised that focusing on the removal of Saddam Hussein would kill two birds with one stone by also thwarting Syria’s regional ambitions. In what amounts to a prelude to the neo-cons’ principal policy thrust in the Bush administration, the paper spoke frankly of Israel’s interest in overturning the Iraqi leadership and replacing it with a malleable monarchy. Referring to Saddam Hussein’s ouster as “an important Israeli strategic objective,” the paper observed that “Iraq’s future could affect the strategic balance in the Middle East profoundly” — meaning give Israel unquestioned predominance in the region. The authors urged therefore that Israel support the Hashemites in their “efforts to redefine Iraq.”</p>
<p>In a much longer policy document written at about the same time for the same Israeli think tank, David Wurmser repeatedly linked the U.S. and Israel when talking about national interests in the Middle East. The “battle to dominate and define Iraq,” he wrote “is, by extension, the battle to dominate the balance of power in the Levant over the long run,” and “the United States and Israel” can fight this battle together. Repeated references to U.S. and Israeli strategic policy, pitted against a “Saudi-Iraqi-Syrian-Iranian-PLO axis,” and to strategic moves that establish a balance of power in which the United States and Israel are ascendant, in alliance with Turkey and Jordan, betray a thought process that cannot separate U.S. from Israeli interests.</p>
<p>Perle gave further impetus to this thrust when six years later, in September 2002, he gave a briefing for Pentagon officials that included a slide depicting a recommended strategic goal for the U.S. in the Middle East: all of Palestine as Israel, Jordan as Palestine, and Iraq as the Hashemite kingdom. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld seems to have taken this aboard, since he spoke at about the same time of the West Bank and Gaza as the “so-called occupied territories” — effectively turning all of Palestine into Israel.</p>
<p>Elliott Abrams is another unabashed supporter of the Israeli right, now bringing his links with Israel into the service of U.S. policymaking on Palestinian-Israeli issues. The neo-con community is crowing about Abrams’ appointment as Middle East director on the NSC staff (where this Iran-contra criminal has already been working since mid-2001, badly miscast as the director for, of all things, democracy and human rights). The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes has hailed his appointment as a decisive move that neatly cocks a snook at the pro-Palestinian wimps at the State Department. Accurately characterizing Abrams as “more pro-Israel, less solicitous of Palestinians” than the State Department and strongly opposed to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, Barnes gloats that the Abrams triumph signals that the White House will not cede control of Middle East policy to Colin Powell and the “foreign service bureaucrats.” Abrams comes to the post after a year in which it had effectively been left vacant. His predecessor, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been serving concurrently as Bush’s personal representative to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban and has devoted little time to the NSC job, but several attempts to appoint a successor early this year were vetoed by neo-con hawks who felt the appointees were not devoted enough to Israel.</p>
<p>Although Abrams has no particular Middle East expertise, he has managed to insert himself in the Middle East debate repeatedly over the years. He has a family interest in propounding a pro-Israel view; he is the son-in-law of Norman Podhoretz, one of the original neo-cons and a long-time strident supporter of right-wing Israeli causes as editor of Commentary magazine, and Midge Decter, a frequent right-wing commentator. Abrams has written a good deal on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, opposing U.S. mediation and any effort to press for Israeli concessions. In an article published in advance of the 2000 elections, he propounded a rationale for a U.S. missile defense system, and a foreign policy agenda in general, geared almost entirely toward ensuring Israel’s security. “It is a simple fact,” he wrote, that the possession of missiles and weapons of mass destruction by Iraq and Iran vastly increases Israel’s vulnerability, and this threat would be greatly diminished if the U.S. provided a missile shield and brought about the demise of Saddam Hussein. He concluded with a wholehearted assertion of the identity of U.S. and Israeli interests: “The next decade will present enormous opportunities to advance American interests in the Middle East [by] boldly asserting our support of our friends” — that is, of course, Israel. Many of the fundamental negotiating issues critical to Israel, he said, are also critical to U.S. policy in the region and “require the United States to defend its interests and allies” rather than giving in to Palestinian demands.</p>
<p>Neo-cons in the Henhouse</p>
<p>The neo-con strategy papers half a dozen years ago were dotted with concepts like “redefining Iraq,” “redrawing the map of the Middle East,” “nurturing alternatives to Arafat,” all of which have in recent months become familiar parts of the Bush administration’s diplomatic lingo. Objectives laid out in these papers as important strategic goals for Israel — including the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the strategic transformation of the entire Middle East, the death of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, regime change wherever the U.S. and Israel don’t happen to like the existing government, the abandonment of any effort to forge a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace or even a narrower Palestinian-Israeli peace — have now become, under the guidance of this group of pro-Israel neo-cons, important strategic goals for the United States. The enthusiasm with which senior administration officials like Bush himself, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have adopted strategic themes originally defined for Israel’s guidance — and did so in many cases well before September 11 and the so-called war on terror — testifies to the persuasiveness of a neo-con philosophy focused narrowly on Israel and the pervasiveness of the network throughout policymaking councils.</p>
<p>Does all this add up to dual loyalties to Israel and the United States? Many would still contend indignantly that it does not, and that it is anti-Semitic to suggest such a thing. In fact, zealous advocacy of Israel’s causes may be just that — zealotry, an emotional connection to Israel that still leaves room for primary loyalty to the United States — and affection for Israel is not in any case a sentiment limited to Jews. But passion and emotion — and, as George Washington wisely advised, a passionate attachment to any country — have no place in foreign policy formulation, and it is mere hair-splitting to suggest that a passionate attachment to another country is not loyalty to that country. Zealotry clouds judgment, and emotion should never be the basis for policymaking.</p>
<p>Zealotry can lead to extreme actions to sustain policies, as is apparently occurring in the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz-Feith Defense Department. People knowledgeable of the intelligence community have said, according to a recent article in The American Prospect, that the CIA is under tremendous pressure to produce intelligence more supportive of war with Iraq — as one former CIA official put it, “to support policies that have already been adopted.” Key Defense Department officials, including Feith, are said to be attempting to make the case for pre-emptive war by producing their own unverified intelligence. Wolfowitz betrayed his lack of concern for real evidence when, in answer to a recent question about where the evidence is for Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, he replied, “It’s like the judge said about pornography. I can’t define it, but I will know it when I see it.”</p>
<p>Zealotry can also lead to a myopic focus on the wrong issues in a conflict or crisis, as is occurring among all Bush policymakers with regard to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The administration’s obsessive focus on deposing Yasir Arafat, a policy suggested by the neo-cons years before Bush came to office, is a dodge and a diversion that merely perpetuates the conflict by failing to address its real roots. Advocates of this policy fail or refuse to see that, however unappealing the Palestinian leadership, it is not the cause of the conflict, and “regime change” among the Palestinians will do nothing to end the violence. The administration’s utter refusal to engage in any mediation process that might produce a stable, equitable peace, also a neo-con strategy based on the paranoid belief that any peace involving territorial compromise will spell the annihilation of Israel, will also merely prolong the violence. Zealotry produces blindness: the zealous effort to pursue Israel’s right-wing agenda has blinded the dual loyalists in the administration to the true face of Israel as occupier, to any concern for justice or equity and any consideration that interests other than Israel’s are involved, and indeed to any pragmatic consideration that continued unquestioning accommodation of Israel, far from bringing an end to violence, will actually lead to its tragic escalation and to increased terrorism against both the United States and Israel.</p>
<p>What does it matter, in the end, if these men split their loyalties between the United States and Israel? Apart from the evidence of the policy distortions that arise from zealotry, one need only ask whether it can be mere coincidence that those in the Bush administration who most strongly promote “regime change” in Iraq are also those who most strongly support the policies of the Israeli right wing. And would it bother most Americans to know that the United States is planning a war against Iraq for the benefit of Israel? Can it be mere coincidence, for example, that Vice President Cheney, now the leading senior-level proponent of war with Iraq, repudiated just this option for all the right reasons in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War in 1991? He was defense secretary at the time, and in an interview with the New York Times on April 13, 1991, he said:</p>
<p>“If you’re going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein, you have to go to Baghdad. Once you’ve got Baghdad, it’s not clear what you will do with it. It’s not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that’s currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Ba’athists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists. How much credibility is that government going to have if it’s set up by the United States military when it’s there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for the government, and what happens to it once we leave?”</p>
<p>Since Cheney clearly changed his mind between 1991 and today, is it not legitimate to ask why, and whether Israel might have a greater influence over U.S. foreign policy now than it had in 1991? After all, notwithstanding his wisdom in rejecting an expansion of the war on Iraq a decade ago, Cheney was just as interested in promoting U.S. imperialism and was at that same moment in the early 1990s outlining a plan for world domination by the United States, one that did not include conquering Iraq at any point along the way. The only new ingredient in the mix today that is inducing Cheney to begin the march to U.S. world domination by conquering Iraq is the presence in the Bush-Cheney administration of a bevy of aggressive right-wing neo-con hawks who have long backed the Jewish fundamentalists of Israel’s own right wing and who have been advocating some move on Iraq for at least the last half dozen years.</p>
<p>The suggestion that the war with Iraq is being planned at Israel’s behest, or at the instigation of policymakers whose main motivation is trying to create a secure environment for Israel, is strong. Many Israeli analysts believe this. The Israeli commentator Akiva Eldar recently observed frankly in a Ha’aretz column that Perle, Feith, and their fellow strategists “are walking a fine line between their loyalty to American governments and Israeli interests.” The suggestion of dual loyalties is not a verboten subject in the Israeli press, as it is in the United States. Peace activist Uri Avnery, who knows Israeli Prime Minister Sharon well, has written that Sharon has long planned grandiose schemes for restructuring the Middle East and that “the winds blowing now in Washington remind me of Sharon. I have absolutely no proof that the Bushies got their ideas from him . But the style is the same.”</p>
<p>The dual loyalists in the Bush administration have given added impetus to the growth of a messianic strain of Christian fundamentalism that has allied itself with Israel in preparation for the so-called End of Days. These crazed fundamentalists see Israel’s domination over all of Palestine as a necessary step toward fulfillment of the biblical Millennium, consider any Israeli relinquishment of territory in Palestine as a sacrilege, and view warfare between Jews and Arabs as a divinely ordained prelude to Armageddon. These right-wing Christian extremists have a profound influence on Bush and his administration, with the result that the Jewish fundamentalists working for the perpetuation of Israel’s domination in Palestine and the Christian fundamentalists working for the Millennium strengthen and reinforce each other’s policies in administration councils. The Armageddon that Christian Zionists seem to be actively promoting and that Israeli loyalists inside the administration have tactically allied themselves with raises the horrifying but very real prospect of an apocalyptic Christian-Islamic war. The neo-cons seem unconcerned, and Bush’s occasional pro forma remonstrations against blaming all Islam for the sins of Islamic extremists do nothing to make this prospect less likely.</p>
<p>These two strains of Jewish and Christian fundamentalism have dovetailed into an agenda for a vast imperial project to restructure the Middle East, all further reinforced by the happy coincidence of great oil resources up for grabs and a president and vice president heavily invested in oil. All of these factors — the dual loyalties of an extensive network of policymakers allied with Israel, the influence of a fanatical wing of Christian fundamentalists, and oil — probably factor in more or less equally to the administration’s calculations on the Palestinian-Israeli situation and on war with Iraq. But the most critical factor directing U.S. policymaking is the group of Israeli loyalists: neither Christian fundamentalist support for Israel nor oil calculations would carry the weight in administration councils that they do without the pivotal input of those loyalists, who clearly know how to play to the Christian fanatics and undoubtedly also know that their own and Israel’s bread is buttered by the oil interests of people like Bush and Cheney. This is where loyalty to Israel by government officials colors and influences U.S. policymaking in ways that are extremely dangerous.</p>
<p>Bill Christison was a senior official of the CIA. He served as a National Intelligence Officer and as Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis. He is a contributor to <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Imperial Crusades</a>, CounterPunch’s new history of the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Kathleen Christison, a former CIA political analyst, is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Wound of Dispossession: Telling the Palestinian Story</a>.</p>
<p>They can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Bush Neocons and Israel | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/09/06/the-bush-neocons-and-israel/ | 2004-09-06 | 4 |
<p>On Wednesday, after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last Saturday, former CNN host Piers Morgan weighed in as to whether Nazis had the right of free speech in America:</p>
<p>Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro, who had a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIQtxLCgrM" type="external">well-known debate</a> with Morgan in January 2013 over the right to bear arms in America in which Shapiro handed him a copy of the U.S. Constitution, had a ready response:</p>
<p>That elicited a host of responses on Twitter:</p> | Piers Morgan Wants Nazis' Free Speech Banned. Shapiro Flattens Him. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/19805/piers-morgan-wants-nazis-free-speech-banned-daily-wire | 2017-08-16 | 0 |
<p>Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to act like an ungrateful bully. It is time for Israel to drop him or America should stop providing the billions in welfare to them until they reciprocate our due respect.</p>
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<p>Yesterday <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/us/politics/john-kerry-israel-palestine-peace.html?_r=0" type="external">Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech</a> an American Secretary of State should have given years ago whether Republican or Democrat. Kerry took the veil off of the charade Benjamin Netanyahu has been playing for years, claiming he supports a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli state yet building settlement that make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible. It does not give any confidence especially given that&#160;Right Wingers who believe in&#160;only&#160;one&#160;state constitute the majority of his&#160;government.</p>
<p>Kerry was right when he said that Israel could either be democratic state alongside a Palestinian state, or it could be a Jewish state. Kerry could have been even more honest. Absent a Palestinian state, Israel is by definition an apartheid state.&#160; <a href="http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/328404/palestinian-population-to-pass-jews-by-2017-in-israel-and-territories/" type="external">Palestinians will outnumber Jews</a> by 2017 in Israel and occupied territories.</p>
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<p>How do you get a continuously&#160;connected country based on all the settlements that are sanctioned by Israel in occupied territory?</p>
<p>Netanyahu's response was rude, confrontational, and disrespectful.</p>
<p>"Israeli's do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders," he rudely said.</p>
<p>He then accused the Americans of plotting against Israel with the U.N. resolution. In effect, he is admitting to spying on America, his supposed ally.</p>
<p>Kerry did the right thing. Netanyahu is flirting with chaos and it is our American soldiers and money that will be held accountable to clean up his mess. No one is excusing terrorism on either side. But when the number of dead is one sided as it is in that region, one wonders. Americans need to engage here as well.</p> | No American President given billions to Israel should tolerate this from Netanyahu (VIDEO) | true | https://egbertowillies.com/2016/12/29/president-netanyahu-israel/ | 2016-12-29 | 4 |
<p>If you haven't played with desktop widgets, now is as good a time as any to dig in. You may have heard that&#160; <a href="http://www.konfabulator.com/" type="external">Konfabulator</a> was recently bought by Yahoo! (their emphasis, not mine!) The biggest benefit of this is that the program is now free. Konfabulator widgets are small, usually highly graphical desktop applications that perform useful tasks. In this screenshot you can see a few that I use including an analog clock, weather outlook, and real time tracking of Hurricane Rita from NOAA imagery.</p>
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<p>Surprisingly, there are many widgets that could be nice tools for journalists. There are widgets that work like post-it pads, widgets that serve as RSS readers - keeping you up to date on your favorite news site, there are widgets that show gas prices for areas, alarm clock widgets, dictionary widgets, calendars, webcam widgets, NOAA storm RSS feeds (text as opposed to the NOAA imagery mentioned above), and thousands of others to choose from. There is even a virtual iPod. Those who are handy with code can even create their own widgets, perhaps to create a company-themed RSS widget for your own site.</p> | Konfabulous | false | https://poynter.org/news/konfabulous | 2005-09-22 | 2 |
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<p>DALLAS — A 16-year-old boy accused of shooting a classmate at a Texas high school on Monday had a history of aggressive actions at school, a fellow student said.</p>
<p>The injured student, a 15-year-old girl, was airlifted to a hospital in Dallas following the shooting inside the cafeteria at Italy High School, which is in the small town of Italy about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Dallas. The boy fled after being confronted by a school district official but was later arrested.</p>
<p>Cassie Shook, a 17-year-old junior at the school, told The Associated Press that she was driving up to the building when she saw “the doors fly open and everyone screaming and running out of the building.” She said she was angry when she learned who the suspect was because she’d complained about the boy at least twice to school officials, including to a vice principal.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“This could have been avoidable,” she said. “There were so many signs.”</p>
<p>Shook said she first went to school officials after the boy allegedly made a “hit list” in eighth grade and her name was on it. Then last year, the boy got angry during a class and threw a pair of scissors at her friend and later threw a computer against a wall, she said.</p>
<p>“I ran out of the classroom screaming, telling everyone to hide because I was scared,” Shook said.</p>
<p>Shook said police came to talk to the class after the incident. She said the boy was removed from the school but eventually was allowed back.</p>
<p>Italy Independent School District Superintendent Lee Joffre said the district couldn’t comment on disciplinary actions involving students. Police have not released the boy’s name and didn’t return a message seeking comment about his past.</p>
<p>Shook said the girl who was shot Monday had moved to the school district a few months earlier. Police said the girl was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where a spokeswoman said she couldn’t release any information about the girl’s condition.</p>
<p>The school district of about 600 students is located near the center of Italy, a town of about 2,000 people that dubs itself “The Biggest Little Town In Texas.” Joffre said that about 45 to 55 students are typically in the high school’s cafeteria in the morning for breakfast. He noted that school would be in session Tuesday and that counselors would be available.</p>
<p>“In a small town, the school district is the center of what goes on for our kids, and this morning’s tragedy hits the heart of this community,” Joffre said.</p>
<p>Ellis County Sheriff Chuck Edge said during a news conference that the suspect “engaged the victim” and fired several shots from a semi-automatic .380 handgun just before 8 a.m. Edge did not say how many times the victim was shot.</p>
<p>Investigators have said they don’t know the relationship between the victim and shooter, or what may have been the shooter’s motive.</p>
<p>Edge said the suspect fled when confronted by a school district official but was later arrested by law enforcement on school grounds. Edge said the handgun was recovered at the scene and is in evidence.</p>
<p>Edge said it’s unclear where the boy may have gotten the weapon. He also didn’t know what charges the boy might face.</p>
<p>On Monday night, about 300 people packed an Italy church to pray for the wounded girl and their shocked community.</p> | Student: Boy arrested in school shooting has violent past | false | https://abqjournal.com/1122722/sheriff-shooting-at-texas-high-school-suspect-in-custody.html | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Inmates at several prisons in Kyrgyzstan have gone on a hunger strike over new restrictions that effectively deny them visits by prostitutes, a <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iWAtDEMDRXnTB56GPRCt1koPxcKw?docId=CNG.5651702fc5701d8575e8ecb5da384176.791" type="external">state official told Agence France-Presse</a>on Tuesday.</p>
<p>"Prisoners at seven prisons have refused to take their meals," Joldochbek Bouzourmankoulov, spokesman for the country's prison sentencing agency, told the news service.</p>
<p>Bouzourmankoulo said the hunger strike was tied to new limits on prisoner visits. In the past inmates had the right to visits from their families and others, he said.</p>
<p>"But under the label for 'others,' they were bringing prostitutes to the prison," he told AFP.</p>
<p>From now on, only relatives with identity cards can visit, AFP reported.</p> | Kyrgyz inmates strike over ban on prostitutes | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-12-13/kyrgyz-inmates-strike-over-ban-prostitutes | 2011-12-13 | 3 |
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<p>Marine Sergeant <a href="https://www.facebook.com/bmeusmc/about" type="external">Brian Eberly</a>&#160;posted this picture on Reddit last week with the caption:&#160;“Today’s my unofficial last day as a Marine. This is what my unit gave me to say goodbye.”</p>
<p>Brian, who was stationed in Albuquerque New Mexico, has completed eight years service, including a tour in Iraq, and is separating from the Marine Corps. He has another two weeks until his official EOS (end of service) date, but the Marines allow their members to use up any paid leave time before their separation. So before he left his unit for his last leave, Brian’s buddies surprised him with a custom made, hand stitched pride flag with the Marine Corps symbol, as their way of saying goodbye.</p>
<p>In response to questioning on Reddit, Brian had some <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1036hi/its_been_a_year_since_the_end_of_dadt_iama_gay/" type="external">interesting observations</a> about being gay in the Marine Corps after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell:</p>
<p>My unit has been completely supportive of my family. I was even heavily encouraged to bring my husband to last year’s birthday ball. I was thinking about doing it, was hesitant because the repeal had just happened, but my Marines all urged me to do it. It’s been a great experience. I feel very loved and supported.</p>
<p>Based on my observations of the Marine Corps, I can only say that the Corps is very much just a “print screen” of America. You have many Marines who are happy about repeal, many who are indifferent and there are of course many who still think it’s terrible and will destroy our Corps. To my knowledge, I haven’t heard of any violent reactions to the repeal.</p>
<p>I can tell you that we in the recruiting command make it a point to address the issue with enlisted applicants and officer candidates before they even go to basic training, and strongly urge that our personal feelings never get in the way of our mission: winning battles and taking care of each other.</p>
<p>Someone should let congress know it turned out alright.</p>
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<p>Photo Brian Eberly’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/bmeusmc" type="external">Facebook</a></p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">Brian Eberly</a>, <a href="" type="internal">DADT</a>, <a href="" type="internal">marine corps</a>, <a href="" type="internal">marines</a>, <a href="" type="internal">pride flag</a></p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | Marine Buddies Give Gay Marine A Memorable Going Away Gift | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/marine-buddies-give-gay-marine-a-memorable-going-away-gift/news/2013/09/12/74961 | 2013-09-12 | 4 |
<p>Darrell Henry, senior pastor of Oakwood Baptist Church (www.oakwoodbc.org) in Chickamauga, Ga., will be one of the featured breakout session presenters for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's upcoming Pastor-Deacon-Church Leadership Retreat at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center, May 11-12. Recently, Jim Vaught, church minister matching specialist for the Mission Board, interviewed him about the growth experience of his church in a small town.</p>
<p>Vaught: What was your church like when you became its pastor?</p>
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<p>Henry: Chickamauga is a small town of less than 2,500 residents. When I came to Oakwood Baptist in 1991, the Sunday worship attendance was just over 200. The church was deacon-led with positive pastoral relations and people loved their pastor.</p>
<p>Vaught: What is Oakwood Baptist like now?</p>
<p>Henry: In January of this year we averaged 2,200 each Sunday in our five weekend worship services. The great news is that 1,200 members of our church have been baptized since 1991. Last Easter we had 7,000 persons attend our outdoor service in the park. This year we are praying to have 10,000 persons present.</p>
<p>Vaught: How did you get to this level of growth?</p>
<p>Henry: I realized we could not change overnight. I continued to nurture our deacons. Gradually after about two years, we began to change the culture and the vocabulary of the church. Growth began to happen immediately. As our attendance grew, we then faced the challenge of starting a new service or building a new sanctuary. We started a new service, which God blessed, and in 1998 we built a new 1,200-seat worship center. Prior to the new building, we were averaging 550 in worship. “Forty Days of Purpose” and remaining focused on our purpose were the catalysts for growth.</p>
<p>Vaught: What were the greatest challenges?</p>
<p>Henry: There have been two challenges: change and keeping up with the growth. Change is challenging for everyone, including the pastor. Ministers don't like change. I have had to change my style of leadership and the way I present sermons. Our message remains the same, but our methods must change. Also, it is a tremendous challenge finding new ways to keep up with the growth and creating new worship services.</p>
<p>Vaught: What is in the future for Oakwood Baptist?</p>
<p>Henry: Despite the number we are reaching, 70 percent of our community is unchurched. On May 6 we will launch our second multi-site worship center in an outlet mall. We are praying for 500 in attendance at the first service. We also will continue to develop our “life groups” in the homes of worshippers. These groups will grow as their members invite their lost neighbors to them. In 10 years we want 10,000 persons to attend our weekend services.</p>
<p>At the Pastor-Deacon-Church Leadership Retreat, Henry will share more of Oakwood's story in a breakout session entitled “Reaching Today's World in and around Small Towns.” All who are interested are invited to contact the Virginia Baptist Mission Board at 800.ALL.BGAV (255.2428) for more information or go to www.VBMB.org website to register for the retreat.</p> | Growth in a small town | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/growthinasmalltown/ | 3 |
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<p>It’s a reminder that the future of peace will require a different kind of engineering.</p>
<p>I am referring to the first peace treaty signed by Israel and an Arab state, Egypt, and the only other one, establishing peace between Israel and Jordan.</p>
<p>Each of these treaties, and the ensuing relationship between Israel and the only two Arab states with which it was at peace, depended on relationships with one man, the man in charge. Peace never included the population at large. There has never existed peace between the Israeli and the Egyptian people, but between Israel and the Egyptian dictator – just one man, whose rule always looked as if it would end in disaster.</p>
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<p>By necessity, the treaties were signed on the Arab side by unelected rulers. Egypt’s Anwar Sadat blazed the trail of peace in the 1970s, and Jordan’s King Hussein followed in 1994. The treaties held up well in the sense that no fighting war erupted. But animosity against Israel never let up.</p>
<p>There was peace above ground. But bubbling under the surface, in the streets, the people of Jordan and Egypt – particularly Egypt – held nothing but bitter contempt for Israeli Jews.</p>
<p>The Egyptian writer Mona Eltahawy explained it best when she said Israel had become “the opium of the Arabs,” a way for failed Arab leaders to intoxicate their own people, making them blame Israel for all their problems.</p>
<p>The opium has stopped working, and throughout the region Arabs blame their unelected dictators for the mismanagement, poverty and corruption that plagues their countries. But the hatred of Israel remains.</p>
<p>That simmering anger, that distorted image forged in the intoxicating cloud could eventually destroy the superficial peace that has survived until now.</p>
<p>The presidential campaign in Egypt brought repeated instances of candidates seeking to connect with voters by showing them how deeply they share their hatred of Israel.</p>
<p>The two finalists who will face off on June 16 and 17 have given vague pledges to stand by the peace treaty. But the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Mursi, has talked about putting the treaty to a referendum. And a referendum, polls show, does not bode well for the treaty.</p>
<p>Polls show profound animosity towards Israel more than three decades after the two neighbors made “peace.” Anti-Israel sentiment extends across all political and age groups.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Mursi is on record calling the Israelis “vampires.” As the top vote-getter in the first round, he has been careful not to antagonize Washington and its generous aid package by engaging in new anti-Israel rants. But his surrogates have had no such compunction.</p>
<p>During a campaign rally, Mursi watched and assented while the Islamist preacher Safwat Higazi told the crowd in a soccer stadium that Egypt under Mursi will usher in a new Islamic caliphate whose capital will be in Jerusalem, where Israel’s capital now stands. As Higazi cried out, “Our capital shall not be in Cairo, Mecca or Medina,” thousands chanted in unison, “Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.”</p>
<p>Over the loudspeaker Mursi supporters heard the call to “Banish the sleep from the eyes of the Jews.” The runner-up, who will face against Mursi in the runoff, is Gen. Ahmed Shafiq, former President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister. Shafiq has warned that the Muslim Brotherhood and Mursi would start a new war with Israel. But when voters have doubted Shafiq’s worthiness, his favorite achievement to cite is that he shot down two Israeli fighter jets. There could hardly be anything more heroic in the eyes of Egyptians.</p>
<p>In Jordan, King Abdullah remains in power, and peace with Israel is not up for discussion at the moment. But just a few days ago, a small group of Israeli tourists came under attack in Jordan because, well, because they were Israeli. A local newspaper, al-Arab al-Yawm quoted a Jordanian explaining, “Those who talk about peace between Israelis and Jordanians are delusional. The signed agreements are …meaningless.”</p>
<p>The message is clear. Peace requires bringing people, not just rulers, together. Real, lasting peace requires a willingness of two peoples to live side by side. It’s not enough to have a dictator sign a piece of paper, or even put his fighter jets under lock and key. Without popular support, in the long run peace cannot survive.</p>
<p>Frida Ghitis writes about global affairs for The Miami Herald. Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Distributed by MCT Information Services</p> | Mideast Peace Lacks Popular Support | false | https://abqjournal.com/112194/mideast-peace-lacks-popular-support.html | 2012-06-12 | 2 |
<p>The nation is clearly divided when it comes to current political issues, but it seems the divide may extend into even the White House.</p>
<p>President Trump has been a firm advocate against one major foreign contract, and some of his staff have voiced their opinion against his decision.</p>
<p>But in an act of betrayal, a few of his trusted colleagues may try to revive the deal—and do it behind the President’s back.</p>
<p>President Trump has been promising for months to decertify the Iran nuclear deal.</p>
<p>But his trusted advisor, H.R. McMaster, has reportedly been meeting with Democrats in secret to plan a counter against the president’s decision.</p>
<p>Sources confirm that McMaster is planning to undermine Trump in order to revive the nuclear deal.</p>
<p>The Daily Beast reported:</p>
<p>In a meeting with Senate Democrats last week, President Donald Trump’s top national security aide had a message for those worried that the administration may scuttle the Iran nuclear deal: If Trump doesn’t have to see it, he won’t be able to kill it.</p>
<p>The point National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster conveyed, according to a congressional Democratic aide, was that “[Trump] wants this out of sight and out of mind.”</p>
<p>McMaster was more subtle and careful in his words when he hosted a group of roughly 12 lawmakers at the White House, conspicuously timed with the president out of town. But that was the impression he left, three sources familiar with the briefing tell The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>The Iran nuclear deal provides a somewhat complicated scenario for the president.</p>
<p>Though Iran is technically following to the letter of the sanction, Iran continued to build weapons and s</p>
<p>President Trump is met with a deadline every 90 days to indicate whether or not Iran has kept their end of the bargain— but so desperately wishes to end the support of the terrorist-laden country.</p>
<p>Some in the White House, like H.R. McMaster, wish to continue the sanctions regardless of the unknown terrorist activity.</p>
<p>The Daily Beast continued:</p>
<p>Under the terms of legislation passed around the negotiation of the Iran nuclear deal, the president is required every 90 days to determine whether Tehran is in compliance. The measure was designed to put President Barack Obama (and anticipated successor Hillary Clinton) in a bind—forcing politically-uncomfortable declarations in support of an unpopular nuclear accord on the regular. But in the age of Trump, the 90-day-deadline has presented an unanticipated problem. “Trump doesn’t want to have to be embarrassed every 90 days,” a Senate aide told The Daily Beast. Trump, aides say, has desperately wanted to announce that Iran is in violation of the deal, which puts caps on the country’s ability to produce fissile material and opens it up to stringent inspections in exchange for relief from international sanctions geared to impede the nuclear program. But the facts just won’t support it. Iran is living by the accord even as it’s moving forward with its ballistic-missile program and shows no signs of backing off its support for terrorist groups and regional destabilization. Even Gen. Joseph Dunford—the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, in theory, Trump’s top military adviser—recently admitted that “Iran is adhering to its [nuclear deal] obligations.”</p>
<p>While foreign policy teams fret the fallout from the deal ending, President Trump concedes that terrorism can no longer be supported, and is expected to announce the end of the deal shortly.</p>
<p>Do you believe the Iran nuclear deal should end?</p>
<p>Leave us your thoughts in the comments section below.</p> | Trump’s Trusted Colleagues May Be Planning to Betray Him | true | http://conservativerevival.com/latest-news/trumps-trusted-colleagues-may-be-planning-to-betray-him/ | 0 |
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<p>When it comes to liberty, California is one of the most restrictive&#160;states on its citizens,&#160;according to a <a href="http://www.freedominthe50states.org/overall/california" type="external">new study</a>.</p>
<p>The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, in its “Freedom in the 50 States” report divided liberty into three categories: personal, fiscal and regulatory. And while the Golden State ranked high (16th) in personal liberty, it was near the bottom in fiscal (46th) and regulatory (48th).</p>
<p>Overall, New Hampshire ranked the highest. New York was the only state with a lower overall liberty score than California.</p>
<p>For context, Cato defines libertarianism, in part, as “the belief that each person has the right to live his life as he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others.” And while the data used to compile the score gives a good snapshot of life in the state, many of the metrics used are sure to be viewed differently from person to person.</p>
<p>For example, gun “rights” account for more than 3 percent of the total score — and while the study sees gun-control measures as a threat to liberty, many Californians view restrictions on firearm usage and access as a necessity. But the study’s guiding principal is based on how governmental policies and regulations affect an individual’s ability to make his or her own decisions.</p>
<p>“In the American system, even ‘benefit to others’ cannot justify trampling on certain freedoms,” wrote the study’s authors. “Books may not be banned simply because the ideas and arguments they present offend some readers. Racial segregation would be unjustified even in the unlikely event it were somehow considered efficient. Likewise, state and local governments ought to respect basic rights and liberties, such as the right to practice an honest trade or the right to make lifetime partnership contracts, whether or not respecting these rights ‘maximizes utility.'”</p>
<p>The most heavily weighted category in personal liberty is incarceration, where California ranks 12th — a steady improvement since 2010 as incarceration and drug arrest rates have fallen.&#160;</p>
<p>California was tied for first with many states for marriage equality and ranked high in cannabis and alcohol liberty, but middle of the road in tobacco restrictions. The state ranked low in terms of school choice under the belief that taxpayers paying for public schools should have some freedom to choose where their children go.</p>
<p>As for fiscal freedom,&#160;California has relatively high state taxes and average local taxes, which, when combined, account for 10.8 percent of personal income. California ranks near the bottom (40th) for&#160;government debt, which comes to 22.8 percent of personal income.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, government employment in the state is actually well below the national average.</p>
<p>Regulatory freedom is where California scores the worst of the three categories. Land use is the highest-weighted category in regulatory policy, and it includes eminent domain rules and renewable portfolio standards for power companies, as well as smaller factors.</p>
<p>Labor law&#160;was also weighted heavily&#160;in regulatory policy, like right-to-work laws, minimum wage, mandated paid family leave and&#160;worker’s compensation as it relates to federal law. California ranks 50th in this category.</p>
<p>The study makes several suggestions on how to improve the state’s freedom score, which are included here:</p> | New analysis ranks California nearly last in liberty | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2016/08/16/new-analysis-ranks-california-one-worst-states-terms-liberty/ | 2018-08-20 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>HOUSTON - United Airlines says it has fired a flight attendant who deployed an emergency evacuation slide at an airport in Houston.</p>
<p>A United spokesman said Wednesday that the flight attendant no longer works for the carrier. Charlie Hobart declined to release the flight attendant's name or details of her employment history with the Chicago-based airline.</p>
<p>United has said the attendant deliberately deployed the emergency evacuation slide Monday after a flight from Sacramento, California, landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. She exited the aircraft by sliding down the inflatable slide.</p>
<p>No one was hurt. Officials have not released a possible motive for the incident.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | United fires attendant who deployed emergency slide in Texas | false | https://abqjournal.com/752258/united-fires-attendant-who-deployed-emergency-slide-in-texas.html | 2 |
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<p>A South Carolina high school did an about-face on its flag ban on Thursday after the local community rallied on behalf of students.</p>
<p>York Comprehensive High School told student Peyton Robinson, 18, that he couldn’t display the American flag on the bed of his truck on Wednesday. Mr. Robinson said that someone had allegedly found the flag offensive, a local station <a href="https://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/york-county-teen-upset-over-school-policy-flying-f/nmGJF/" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>“[An administrator] was like, ‘We’re having people say stuff about your flag, and I just wanted to ask you to take it down.’ It just kind of upset me and aggravated me,” Mr. Robinson said. Students were informed at the end of the day that flags on vehicles were deemed a safety issue and barred from school grounds.</p>
<p><a href="/news/2015/may/1/eric-sheppard-challenge-american-flag-stomped-want/" type="external">SEE ALSO: ‘Eric Sheppard challenge’: U.S. flag stomped on for wanted college student</a></p>
<p>Mr. Robinson then used social media to spread the word about the American flag ban. Dozens of citizens from the local community showed up in support of the students on Thursday morning, waving American flags and honking horns. The ban was lifted by the end of the day.</p>
<p>“School officials have reviewed the standing policy regarding flags and have decided that an exception will be made for the American flag, as long as the size of the flag(s) does not create a driving hazard,” the school said in statement, the local station reported.</p>
<p>The local station spoke to the South Carolina Highway Patrol about the size of the flags for its report. Officials confirmed that the flags flown by the students are legal and deemed safe for use on roadways.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2015/may/15/american-flag-ban-lifted-high-school-after-sc-comm/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | American flag ban lifted by high school after S.C. community backs students | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/15/american-flag-ban-lifted-high-school-after-sc-comm/ | 2015-05-15 | 0 |
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 4 Evening" game were:</p>
<p>6-0-7-8, Wild: 4</p>
<p>(six, zero, seven, eight; Wild: four)</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 4 Evening" game were:</p>
<p>6-0-7-8, Wild: 4</p>
<p>(six, zero, seven, eight; Wild: four)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 4 Evening' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/769212774b9b44f39b473a719dd09876 | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>Chicago Sun-Times "I don't believe it's deliberate," adds Fox News business anchor Neil Cavuto. In business reporting, this bias takes the form of focusing on negative stories, he says. "With Enron, one bad company quickly became 'all companies are bad.' There's a default thinking that says capitalism is evil," he tells Debra Pickett. Re Iraq: "I'm not saying it's a bed of roses. But would it kill you to report the positive?"</p> | Cavuto: "I do believe there is a liberal bias in the media" | false | https://poynter.org/news/cavuto-i-do-believe-there-liberal-bias-media | 2005-12-12 | 2 |
<p>NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — There seems to be no stopping the surprising New Jersey Devils these days, especially on home ice.</p>
<p>Top overall draft pick Nico Hischier scored two goals in the first period and the Devils extended their season-high winning streak to five games with a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“We’re not too worried about the streak,” said goaltender Cory Schneider, who made 31 saves. “I think we’re just worried about protecting home ice. We have the longest home stand of the year, and I think we’ve done a great job getting points while we are here. We’ve got to bank the points while we can.”</p>
<p>All five of the Devils’ win have been at the Prudential Center, where they will wrap up their season-high six-game stand Friday against Buffalo.</p>
<p>This game was New Jersey’s first since beating Chicago on Saturday before the NHL’s Christmas break. The other three wins were against Dallas, Anaheim and the Rangers.</p>
<p>“After a break like that, it’s a tough game to play for both teams,” said Taylor Hall, who assists on Hischier’s goals. “The fact that we were able to get a good start shows we were prepared as a team, we were checked in mentally. It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was nice to get a good start like that.”</p>
<p>New Jersey sealed the game by killing off all five Red Wings’ power plays in extending Detroit’s losing streak to three games. Sami Vatanen provided the clincher, scoring into an empty net with 23 seconds to play for the final margin.</p>
<p>“Everyone knew what they had to do, it was a big game for us, and everyone was prepared,” Hischier said after his second two-goal game. “Great win in the end.”</p>
<p>Justin Abdelkader scored for Detroit, which outshot New Jersey 25-19 in the final two periods. Jimmy Howard made 29 saves for the Red Wings, who are 3-8-5 since Nov. 19.</p>
<p>“We can’t feel bad for ourselves,” Abdeldaker said. “We play again in two days so we have to find a way. We are doing good things but we have to do them for 60 minutes. We have to find some ways to roll wins over here to get back in the mix. We can’t dwell too long or else you are really going to find yourself out.”</p>
<p>Both of Hischier’ goals came in the final five minutes of the period. Hall skated the puck into the offensive zone and found defenseman Steve Santini at the left point. Hischier deflected his shot past Howard with 4:44 left in the period.</p>
<p>The second goal came when Detroit forward Darren Helm lost the puck skating out of his zone. Jesper Bratt collected the puck, passed it to Hall who found Hischier in the right circle for a one-timer that beat Howard.</p>
<p>“To score feels good,” the 18-year-old Hischier said after collecting his sixth and seventh goals. “Two points in the end feels better.”</p>
<p>Abdelkader scored from the right circle at 8:09 of the second period after the Red Wings had sustained pressure in the New Jersey zone.</p>
<p>Schneider preserved the lead in the third period with an outstanding glove save on a short-handed opportunity by Abdelkader with 7:16 to play.</p>
<p>NOTES: Tyler Bertuzzi, whose uncle Todd played for the Red Wings, picked up his first NHL point on the Abdelkader goal. It was his third game. ... John Hynes coached his 200th game with New Jersey. ... Pavel Zacha played in his 100th game for New Jersey.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Red Wings: Host Rangers on Friday night.</p>
<p>Devils: Host Buffalo.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>More NHL hockey: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p>
<p>NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — There seems to be no stopping the surprising New Jersey Devils these days, especially on home ice.</p>
<p>Top overall draft pick Nico Hischier scored two goals in the first period and the Devils extended their season-high winning streak to five games with a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“We’re not too worried about the streak,” said goaltender Cory Schneider, who made 31 saves. “I think we’re just worried about protecting home ice. We have the longest home stand of the year, and I think we’ve done a great job getting points while we are here. We’ve got to bank the points while we can.”</p>
<p>All five of the Devils’ win have been at the Prudential Center, where they will wrap up their season-high six-game stand Friday against Buffalo.</p>
<p>This game was New Jersey’s first since beating Chicago on Saturday before the NHL’s Christmas break. The other three wins were against Dallas, Anaheim and the Rangers.</p>
<p>“After a break like that, it’s a tough game to play for both teams,” said Taylor Hall, who assists on Hischier’s goals. “The fact that we were able to get a good start shows we were prepared as a team, we were checked in mentally. It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was nice to get a good start like that.”</p>
<p>New Jersey sealed the game by killing off all five Red Wings’ power plays in extending Detroit’s losing streak to three games. Sami Vatanen provided the clincher, scoring into an empty net with 23 seconds to play for the final margin.</p>
<p>“Everyone knew what they had to do, it was a big game for us, and everyone was prepared,” Hischier said after his second two-goal game. “Great win in the end.”</p>
<p>Justin Abdelkader scored for Detroit, which outshot New Jersey 25-19 in the final two periods. Jimmy Howard made 29 saves for the Red Wings, who are 3-8-5 since Nov. 19.</p>
<p>“We can’t feel bad for ourselves,” Abdeldaker said. “We play again in two days so we have to find a way. We are doing good things but we have to do them for 60 minutes. We have to find some ways to roll wins over here to get back in the mix. We can’t dwell too long or else you are really going to find yourself out.”</p>
<p>Both of Hischier’ goals came in the final five minutes of the period. Hall skated the puck into the offensive zone and found defenseman Steve Santini at the left point. Hischier deflected his shot past Howard with 4:44 left in the period.</p>
<p>The second goal came when Detroit forward Darren Helm lost the puck skating out of his zone. Jesper Bratt collected the puck, passed it to Hall who found Hischier in the right circle for a one-timer that beat Howard.</p>
<p>“To score feels good,” the 18-year-old Hischier said after collecting his sixth and seventh goals. “Two points in the end feels better.”</p>
<p>Abdelkader scored from the right circle at 8:09 of the second period after the Red Wings had sustained pressure in the New Jersey zone.</p>
<p>Schneider preserved the lead in the third period with an outstanding glove save on a short-handed opportunity by Abdelkader with 7:16 to play.</p>
<p>NOTES: Tyler Bertuzzi, whose uncle Todd played for the Red Wings, picked up his first NHL point on the Abdelkader goal. It was his third game. ... John Hynes coached his 200th game with New Jersey. ... Pavel Zacha played in his 100th game for New Jersey.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Red Wings: Host Rangers on Friday night.</p>
<p>Devils: Host Buffalo.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>More NHL hockey: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p> | Nico Hischier scores twice as Devils win fifth straight | false | https://apnews.com/a532eee158ab40d99f53586e097be3f3 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>A deadly plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday has claimed the lives of all 153 people on board.</p>
<p>The Dana Air flight, en route to Lagos from the capital Abuja, crashed into a building before it exploded into flames.</p>
<p>Mohammed Sani Sidi, director general of Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/03/world/africa/nigeria-plane-crash/index.html" type="external">described the scene to CNN</a> as "devastation."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/120604/dana-air-nigeria-mourns-lagos-plane-crash-dead" type="external">Nigeria mourns plane crash dead in Dana Air disaster</a></p>
<p>The crash triggered three house fires, rescue officer Labaran Ahmed told CNN. The state-run <a href="http://www.voiceofnigeria.org" type="external">Voice of Nigeria news organization reported</a> that a manufacturing company, a block of six apartments and a church were affected.</p>
<p>Pieces of the plane were scattered around the crash site, said <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-06-03/nigeria-plane-crash/55360074/1" type="external">the Associated Press</a>, with at least one body pulled from the wreckage.</p>
<p>Thousands of people looked on as firefighters battled the flames.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rt.com/news/passenger-plane-crash-lagos-881/" type="external">Russia Today</a> said that onlookers reported seeing burning bodies near the crash site.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/120603/nigeria-suicide-bombing-bauchi-church" type="external">Bombing at church in Bauchi, Nigeria kills at least 15</a></p>
<p>Dana Air flight 997 was using a MD-83 aircraft, which typically seats between 155 to 175 people depending on the seating layout.</p>
<p>The aircraft has not been manufactured since 1999 and has been involved in at least 60 fatal or near-fatal incidents killing over 1100 people, according <a href="http://aviation-safety.net/database/dblist.php?Type=351-8" type="external">to the Aviation Safety Network</a>.</p>
<p>Air incidents are not uncommon in Nigeria where power problems have sometimes left radar screens blank.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/03/passenger-plane-crashes-in-nigeria-largest-city/" type="external">Fox News reported</a> that just the day before, a cargo plane from Lagos killed 10 people in a crash in Ghana.</p> | Plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria kills all 153 on board (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-06-03/plane-crash-lagos-nigeria-kills-all-153-board-video | 2012-06-03 | 3 |
<p>In one of many surreal details that emerged in the investigation, the 13 children who were held captive in their home took part of their parents wedding renewal in a Las Vegas chapel with an Elvis Presley impersonator. (Jan. 17)</p>
<p>In one of many surreal details that emerged in the investigation, the 13 children who were held captive in their home took part of their parents wedding renewal in a Las Vegas chapel with an Elvis Presley impersonator. (Jan. 17)</p> | Parent’s of Shackled Children in Elvis Chapel | false | https://apnews.com/381e88dee1c848139cd1e303d56b1874 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>Global stocks extended their selloff as investors continued to pare back risk positions, walking away with their profits from a strong year as geopolitical tensions rise.</p>
<p>European stocks widely fell 1% Thursday, helping pressure U.S. equities-- which then sold off further in the last 90 minutes of trading after President Donald Trump said his Tuesday threat to unleash "fire and fury" on North Korea "maybe wasn't tough enough." U.S. indexes ultimately logged their biggest declines since May 17.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>China raised the stakes with an editorial in the state-run Global Times late Thursday saying Beijing would intervene if there is a first strike against North Korea.</p>
<p>"This situation is beginning to develop into this generation's Cuban missile crisis," wrote ING's Robert Carnell in a morning note to clients.</p>
<p>Before their decline in recent days, Asian markets had logged some of the world's biggest gains this year. For some investors, the rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea--and the typical late-summer slowdown in trading--are an opportunity to pull back and await developments.</p>
<p>"Market conditions were right for profit-taking" in stocks this week, said Alexander Ho Wan Lee, chief investment officer at Nimbus Capital Group.</p>
<p>Stock benchmarks in South Korea, Hong Kong and Shanghai were all down more than 1.5% by midday, with Australia not far behind. Benchmarks in smaller markets elsewhere fell a bit less than 1%, while Japan's markets were closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Korea's Kospi, which came into Friday on its first three-session losing streak since April--down 1.6% for that stretch--is poised to end the week at its lowest level since late May. Still, it started the day still up 16% for the year, which speaks to how strong Korean stocks, and many Asian markets, have been. Index giant Samsung Electronics is a major factor in the reversal, down 2.9% Friday and 6.5% for the week--its worst week since October.</p>
<p>Even hotter in 2017 has been Hong Kong. When trading ended Tuesday, the Hang Seng Index had risen in 19 of the past 22 sessions and was up more than 25% for the year. But it fell Wednesday and Thursday--its first consecutive down days in a month--and ended morning trading Friday down 1.9%. If that holds, it will be the market's biggest one-day drop since November.</p>
<p>Chinese messaging and social-gaming company Tencent, whose surge of about 70% this year was key to the Hang Seng's gains, is off 4% Friday.</p>
<p>Given the lack of sustained stock selling this year in much of the world--let alone large declines--concern that a market correction is at hand isn't a surprise, analysts say. Many pullbacks have quickly reversed before they reached the 10% mark that commonly denotes a correction.</p>
<p>But the current geopolitical situation could keep potential buyers on the sidelines for now, said Mr. Lee--in fact, he added, it is already keeping some out of Asian markets, despite robust recent quarterly results from companies in the region.</p>
<p>In China, selling deepened as Friday morning progressed. Beijing warned of irrational trading in metals after steel-rebar and aluminum futures in China hit five-year highs this week.</p>
<p>And when Japanese traders get back to their desks on Monday, stocks will need to catch up with not just Friday's regional weakness but fresh yen gains. The currency strengthened steadily during Thursday's European trading and gained further in Asia. The dollar fell below Yen109 for the first time since June.</p>
<p>Early signs are the selling isn't set to worsen at the start of U.S. trading.</p>
<p>Write to Kenan Machado at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 11, 2017 01:14 ET (05:14 GMT)</p> | Trump Rhetoric Sinks Global Stocks -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/11/trump-rhetoric-sinks-global-stocks-update.html | 2017-08-11 | 0 |
<p>Purvi Patel, the Indiana woman currently serving 20 years for having an illegal abortion, finally had the opportunity to appeal her case in front of the Indiana State Court of Appeals on Monday. Patel is the first woman in the U.S. to be convicted for having an illegal abortion and, if her conviction is upheld, it could present a tremendous uphill battle for reproductive justice advocates.</p>
<p />
<p>We’ve covered Purvi Patel’s <a href="" type="internal">story</a> <a href="" type="internal">several</a>&#160; <a href="" type="internal">times</a>, and with every post the news seems to get worse. Despite her conflicting charges — one for delivering a live fetus and abandoning it, and another for intentionally terminating her pregnancy — Patel was found guilty&#160;in March of 2015 and is currently serving 20 years behind bars.</p>
<p>On Monday, Patel’s case was finally heard before the Indiana State Court of Appeals. As with many legal proceedings, the court&#160;may not reach a ruling for several months, and Patel remains incarcerated while we all wait to hear if her case will be overturned: In addition to Patel’s freedom being on the line, this ruling in particular has the potential to create&#160;a precedent that could set the reproductive justice movement back decades.</p>
<p>Half&#160;of the state’s case revolves around Patel’s intention to terminate her pregnancy, claiming that Patel’s abortion amounts to feticide. Many pro-choice activists, reproductive justice advocates, and Patel’s own lawyers have argued that the feticide statute in question was intended to protect pregnant women from external acts of violence — abusers, attackers, and others. In this case, however, the State is attempting to use the feticide statute — a law&#160;that other states already have in place or are currently considering — to ultimately&#160;criminalize women themselves for having an abortion. Plus, under this usage of the feticide statute, you <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/05/25/abortion_rights_at_stake_purvi_patel_and_the_fate_of_pregnant_women_in_indiana/" type="external">could essentially charge pregnant women for any and every act deemed harmful</a> to the fetus in instances where a pregnancy wasn’t successfully carried to term. Attorney Katherine Jack, who defended another woman charged with feticide in 2011, argues&#160;this very issue to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/02/purvi-patel-case-alter-reproductive-rights-indiana" type="external">The Guardian</a>, explaining that upholding Patel’s conviction could lead to&#160;“a precedent that anything a pregnant woman does that could be interpreted as an attempt to terminate her pregnancy could result in criminal liability.”</p>
<p>With so many politicians so bent on peeling back layers of progress in regard to women’s rights, this newest attempt to criminalize choice and autonomy comes at no surprise. Anti-choice advocates, politicians and lobbyists have been ramping up their efforts especially in the last few years. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/02/purvi-patel-case-alter-reproductive-rights-indiana" type="external">According to MSNBC</a>, between 2001 and 2010, 189 new laws were enacted to restrict abortion access. Between 2011 and 2013? A whopping 205. That’s 205 laws in roughly three years. And with clinics still <a href="" type="internal">rapidly under attacked</a> <a href="" type="internal">by legislatures</a>&#160;—&#160;prompting the closures of clinics all over the country — it’s safe to say the campaign against women’s rights and bodily autonomy is going full speed ahead.</p>
<p>Header image <a href="https://napawf.org/" type="external">via</a>.</p> | Woman Sentenced to 20 Years for Having an Abortion Appeals Her Ruling | true | http://feministing.com/2016/05/26/woman-sentenced-to-20-years-for-having-an-abortion-appeals-her-ruling/ | 4 |
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<p>CVS is my pharmacy of choice. I am in their store a couple of times per month. I have always been aware they sell tobacco products. Yet I hardly notice them since I have no interest.</p>
<p>Recently they announced that by October 2014 they would no longer sell tobacco products in their 7600 pharmacy stores. That works for me. They further announced that they will launch this spring a smoking cessation campaign. Sounds good to me.</p>
<p>They claim it is because of their commitment to health care and they are positioning themselves as a part of the health care provider team. If you want to see their public announcement and a couple of short videos, go to <a href="http://info.cvscaremark.com/cvs-insights/cvs-quits" type="external">http://info.cvscaremark.com/cvs-insights/cvs-quits</a>.</p>
<p>Reports are that selling tobacco products is a $2 billion income stream for CVS. Yet they believe they will more than make it up through new partnerships they are negotiating with hospitals to be part of an integrative health care provider system. In fact, hospitals are challenging them on their sale of tobacco products and it might be suggested that their failure to cease selling tobacco products could be a deal breaker.</p>
<p>Later reports from other news sources have indicated that several cities–Boston and San Francisco to name two–are starting to ban the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies. Perhaps CVS is just getting ahead of the inevitable. The American Medical Association and the American Cancer Society have been lobbying pharmacies on this for years.</p>
<p>Is the move by CVS a altruistic move or a business and public relationships move. The answer is “yes”. At the same time it ought to be praised for what it is–a step in the right direction regardless of motive or pressure from potential partners and various advocacy groups. They have contributed in a small way to reverse the trend of 500,000 deaths in the USA each years from tobacco-related causes.</p>
<p>Granted, it might be appropriate to ask why they just stopped at tobacco as a health risk line of products. Why not candy, junk food, processed food, and alcohol? Good question. But not the question for today. Today let’s praise CVS. Let’s wait at least until tomorrow to confront them.</p>
<p>As I think about having less places where people are standing in line to buy tobacco products, I am glad I can pay for my fuel purchase at the pump at gas stations and convenience stores and I do not have to go in to standing in the forthcoming longer lines as people are buying tobacco products. I suspect these stores will be among the last hold outs on selling tobacco products.</p> | Should CVS Caremark be praised or confronted? | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/should-cvs-caremark-be-praised-or-confronted/ | 3 |
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<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it is investigating the actions of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after a winter snowstorm caused major disruptions at Kennedy Airport earlier this month.</p>
<p>Its probe is focusing on a requirement regarding "prompt and timely removal of snow from all aircraft movement areas."</p>
<p>The snowstorm created days of cancellations and delays at the airport on Jan. 4 and several days after. A burst pipe at the primary terminal for international flights on Jan. 7 also caused major headaches for air travelers.</p>
<p>Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said last week the primary problem appears to have been international airlines arriving without available gates at the international terminals.</p>
<p>Cotton has said what happened was "completely unacceptable."</p>
<p>Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico said the agency "will completely cooperate with the FAA's inquiry."</p>
<p>Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is conducting an investigation at the Port Authority's request, focusing on coordination between international airlines and privately operated terminals.</p>
<p>Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday he wants federal transportation officials to urge foreign airlines to work better with the operators of the airport. The Senate Democratic leader from New York wrote a letter to the Transportation Department, saying the department issues documents allowing foreign airlines to operate in the U.S.</p>
<p>He suggested that it "utilize that leverage" to encourage them to "develop more meaningful communication systems and contingency plans" with Kennedy's governmental and private operators.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it is investigating the actions of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after a winter snowstorm caused major disruptions at Kennedy Airport earlier this month.</p>
<p>Its probe is focusing on a requirement regarding "prompt and timely removal of snow from all aircraft movement areas."</p>
<p>The snowstorm created days of cancellations and delays at the airport on Jan. 4 and several days after. A burst pipe at the primary terminal for international flights on Jan. 7 also caused major headaches for air travelers.</p>
<p>Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said last week the primary problem appears to have been international airlines arriving without available gates at the international terminals.</p>
<p>Cotton has said what happened was "completely unacceptable."</p>
<p>Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico said the agency "will completely cooperate with the FAA's inquiry."</p>
<p>Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is conducting an investigation at the Port Authority's request, focusing on coordination between international airlines and privately operated terminals.</p>
<p>Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday he wants federal transportation officials to urge foreign airlines to work better with the operators of the airport. The Senate Democratic leader from New York wrote a letter to the Transportation Department, saying the department issues documents allowing foreign airlines to operate in the U.S.</p>
<p>He suggested that it "utilize that leverage" to encourage them to "develop more meaningful communication systems and contingency plans" with Kennedy's governmental and private operators.</p> | FAA investigates after storm snarled flights at NYC's JFK | false | https://apnews.com/amp/73d96971a1f5429c92670bc8a46411fe | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Bernalillo County commissioners approved a series of tax breaks and incentives requested by the developer of the old Silver Moon Lodge.</p>
<p>It came over the objection of Commissioner Debbie O’Malley and nearby residents, who argued that the project was too dense and lacked enough parking. In the end, O’Malley was the lone “no” vote.</p>
<p>My colleague <a href="" type="internal">Richard Metcalf took a look at the 150-unit proposal</a> a few months ago.</p>
<p>I’ll explain the tax breaks and more about the commission’s debate in tomorrow’s paper.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | County OK’s tax breaks for Silver Moon Lodge | false | https://abqjournal.com/168286/county-oks-tax-breaks-for-silver-moon-lodge.html | 2 |
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<p>Toby Talbot/Associated Press</p>
<p />
<p>After he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981, Bernie Sanders took his message straight to the people via a cable access show called Bernie Speaks. It was a low-budget production. The credits were written in marker by hand; the intro music was a recording of “We Shall Overcome”; there was no script. Now, the station has posted dozens of episodes of Sanders’ show, along with poorly lit footage of various mayoral functions and campaign events. The collection captures Sanders at his most unfiltered—and, at times, eccentric. Here’s a sampling. (All clips courtesy of the <a href="http://www.cctv.org" type="external">CCTV&#160; Center for Media &amp; Democracy</a> in Burlington, Vermont.)</p>
<p>Bernie Goes to the Dump</p>
<p>Featuring a big pile of wood chips, a flock of sea gulls, a really strong sweater, and some cows. This episode is what it sounds like.</p>
<p />
<p>Bernie Plays Tennis</p>
<p>This video has no narration. It’s just an hour of people playing sports around Burlington, with ambient crowd noise and grunting in the background. At around the 37:50 mark, the cameraman pans away from a soccer game to show the mayor holding court behind him. Why? Why not.</p>
<p />
<p>Bernie Performs “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”</p>
<p>Most candidates don’t televise their own fundraisers. Then again, most candidates don’t raise money at poetry slams.</p>
<p>At this 1985 event, hosted for Sanders by a group of writers and poets, Sanders spoke briefly about the coming election and city hall life. But mostly, he was there to talk about emotional energy. People had become “emotionally constipated,” he said, and, <a href="" type="internal">channeling his earlier writings</a> on Sigmund Freud, Sanders argued that it was driving mankind into a death spiral—”Maybe there is a strong feeling to see the world blown up because the suffering in some ways is too intense.”</p>
<p>And then, he announced, he was going to read a poem—”Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” by Dylan Thomas. His older brother had bought A Child’s Christmas in Wales on vinyl years earlier, and it had stuck with the mayor ever since. “It’s very moving,” Sanders said. “It’s human beings rebelling, in a sense. Standing up. Fighting death. Fighting the elements whatever it may be.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Bernie Returns From Nicaragua</p>
<p>Sanders considered US involvement in Nicaragua a potentially greater catastrophe than the Vietnam war. In 1985, midway through his eight-year stint as mayor, he traveled to Central America to meet with members of the Sandinista-controlled government. He was greeted, on his return, by a crowd of supporters at the airport, and he delivered brief remarks on what he saw during his one-man diplomatic mission. “Their leadership are intelligent people—they’re not, to quote Ronald Reagan, ‘loony-tune characters,'” he said.</p>
<p>“This is the first time I’ve been to Central America, but Central America is America,” he concluded. “They are Americans. They play baseball. They play basketball, they watch the same stupid American television programs that we watch—you feel a real kinship for these people,” he said. (He spoke at <a href="https://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/sanders-press-conference-nicaraguan-issues" type="external">greater length</a> the next day.)</p>
<p />
<p>Bernie on Ice</p>
<p>Sanders, you may have heard, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/us/politics/bernie-sanders-doesnt-kiss-babies-that-a-problem.html?_r=0" type="external">does not enjoy the personal aspects of retail politics</a>, such as shaking hands and kissing babies. But he does his best. As mayor, he often took his television show on the road to meet with constituents and sell them on his plans for the city. Ahead of a major vote on a new bond initiative in 1987, he decided to mingle among the ice-skaters on Burlington’s lakefront, making forced small talk and then giving them the hard sell. During lulls in the action, he sighs loudly, as if he is getting cold.</p>
<p>Although Sanders is not wearing ice skates, we do briefly see him playing hockey. When the puck comes toward him, he kicks wildly at it. Afterwards, he appears to talk trash.</p>
<p>He uses a few canned lines over and over to cozy up to interview subjects. “Now let me play roving reporter here”; or “I’m playing roving reporter here”; or “Hey, do you want to be on Not Candid Camera?”; or&#160;“Hi, I’m Dan Rather, This is 60 Minutes, we’re here in Burlington, Vermont, just talking to folks!”</p>
<p>One woman refers to Sanders as “the King Friday of Burlington,” a reference to <a href="http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/mrn/characters/king_friday/index.html" type="external">this character</a> from Mr. Rogers.</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Bernie Records an Album</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>I’ll let this description of his 1987 recording session stand on its own:</p>
<p>Sanders Records 2 Songs, and Talks with 30 Vt. Musicians at Todd Lockwoods’ White Crow Audio studio. Only “Oh Freedom” was edited. “We Shall Overcome” was not edited, as video. Lots of awful scratches from bad machine.</p>
<p />
<p>Bernie Talks About Almost Throwing Up During a Presidential Debate</p>
<p>Throughout his career, Sanders has mostly avoided talking about one subject—himself. But in 1986, he accepted an invitation to speak to a political science class at the University of Vermont. The topic was the 1960s, and Sanders, <a href="" type="internal">who had effectively majored in activism</a> at the University of Chicago, spoke at length about his formative years as a civil rights activist and anti-war demonstrator.</p>
<p>Early on, he zeroed in on the moment when he realized his own political views had no place in the two-party system:</p>
<p>I remember, for some reason or another, being very excited when Fidel Castro made the revolution in Cuba. I was a kid and I remember reading that and it just seemed right and appropriate that poor people were rising up against rather ugly rich people. And I remember again very distinctly, again a very distinct feeling, I was watching the debates you remember the famous Nixon–Kennedy debates. That was the first time the presidential candidates actually debated. And I was becoming increasingly interested in politics, didn’t know much, but I was interested. I remember sitting in the student lounge in our dormitory watching the debate.</p>
<p>And at that time, I was very excited and impressed by the Cuban revolution, and there was Kennedy and Nixon talking about which particular method they should use about destroying revolution. I remember the irony as we learned the history later on, Kennedy was saying Nixon was too soft on communism…in Cuba. We should deal firmly with Fidel Castro! And Nixon was playing the role of hey, you’ve got to be patient you’ve got to negotiate, but of course what he was upset about was they were planning the Bay of Pigs Invasion right then. But for security reasons he couldn’t come out and say we are already planning the destruction of the Cuban revolution don’t worry about it. So he was the liberal and Kennedy was playing the conservative. Actually, when you read novels people say there’s a sick feeling in your stomach. Usually I’m sufficiently unemotional not to be sick but I actually left the room because I was about to puke.</p>
<p />
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Bernie Finds a Giant Fish</p>
<p>In this episode of Bernie Speaks, Mayor Sanders travels to the Burlington pier and encounters a man holding a large fish. The man explains that he’s involved a contest—whoever catches the largest fish in Lake Champlain will win a $100,000 savings bond. Sanders appears to briefly reconsider a career change. Fade to black. Next, we open on Bernie at a Burlington hotspot known as Battery Park.</p>
<p>The camera slowly zooms out to reveal that Bernie is standing on top of a slide.</p>
<p>Why is he on a slide? What is he doing up there??</p>
<p>Unfortunately, despite Sanders’ success at cleaning the park up for the use of all citizens of Burlington, there is only one other adult at the park, and he is pushing his young daughter on a swing set. The mayor, undeterred, proceeds to interview him:</p>
<p>Sanders’ interviewing style is to constantly look around as if he’s expecting the cops to arrive and haul him away. Later, he meets a group of children painting a map of Vermont on the pavement outside an elementary school.</p>
<p />
<p>Bernie Discusses $3 Wines</p>
<p>In keeping with his theme of stereotypically leftist fundraisers, Sanders invited the local access channel to film a fundraiser at a Burlington wine tasting. Sanders asks just one question at the event—do they have any wines that would appeal to people, like himself, who only drink $3 bottles? This is a tough one to watch, because there’s virtually no audio, and the cameraman appears to be standing on an active fault line.</p>
<p />
<p>Bernie Ruins His Son’s Winter Vacation</p>
<p>Normally Bernie held his own microphone. But in December 1987 he was in luck—his oldest son, Levi, was home from college. So Levi held his microphone. For 40 minutes. In addition to looking tired, Levi also looks really cold.</p>
<p>They start outside the offices of the Burlington Free-Press, which Sanders offers up as a more benign but still unseemly example of corporate media. He appears surprised by just how expensive it is. “Oh God, it’s a dolluh and a quarter, he says.”</p>
<p>Every scene ends with Bernie saying “okay!”</p>
<p>Downtown:</p>
<p>At city hall:</p>
<p>At the University of Vermont:</p>
<p>At the hospital:</p>
<p>By the lake:</p>
<p>At a house:</p>
<p>Okay!</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | I Can’t Stop Watching These Old Clips of Bernie Sanders’ Cable-Access Show | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/bernie-sanders-cable-access-show-clips/ | 2015-11-10 | 4 |
<p>This has been such an unpredictable political year that it’s hard to have confidence in any of the forecasts for November. How unpredictable? Well, I’d like to meet the pundit or prognosticator who imagined that a major-party candidate for the U.S. Senate would begin a campaign ad by declaring, “I’m not a witch.”</p>
<p>Christine O’Donnell’s sorcery problem aside, there’s one thing I can say with confidence about next month’s midterm election: African-Americans will vote overwhelmingly for Democratic Party candidates at every level. This is perfectly rational political behavior — but in many ways it’s a shame.</p>
<p>Don’t misunderstand. I’m firmly convinced that the progressive agenda championed by the Democrats is much better for African-Americans, and for the nation as a whole, than the conservative agenda favored by Republicans. But I also believe that in politics, as in business, competition is good. Monopolies inevitably take their customers for granted.</p>
<p>And this, frankly, is what Democrats have been doing with black voters for decades. As far as African-Americans are concerned, the only issue is whether they’ll turn out in substantial numbers for the midterm balloting. No one wonders how they’ll cast their votes.</p>
<p />
<p>African-American support for the Democratic Party hovers around 90 percent. This qualifies as monolithic, even though black Americans are increasingly diverse — economically, socially, culturally and geographically. There are millions of affluent black suburban households who fit the demographic profile of independents or Republicans. There has been an unprecedented influx of black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean who view the political landscape with fresh eyes. Polls show that on some hot-button social issues, such as gay marriage, many African-Americans are quite conservative. You’d think that somewhere, somehow, the GOP would have managed to get a foothold.</p>
<p>The problem is that the Republicans haven’t tried — not seriously, at least. And it will take a lot more than appointing a figurehead like party chief Michael Steele, or nominating a surprising congressional candidate like Tim Scott in South Carolina, to overcome decades of indifference and antipathy.</p>
<p>The history of the Republican Party’s estrangement from African-Americans is well known. In 1960, Richard Nixon won 32 percent of the black vote. In 1964, Barry Goldwater — who had opposed the landmark Civil Rights Act — received just 6 percent of the black vote. This dramatic shift made possible Nixon’s “Southern strategy,” which political strategist Kevin Phillips explained to The New York Times in 1970, using some archaic terminology:</p>
<p>“From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don’t need any more than that,” Phillips said, “but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.”</p>
<p>In other words, the idea was to capitalize on the racial fears and grievances of Southern whites — by letting black voters drift away from the GOP, and even encouraging them to stay away.</p>
<p>Ours is a different era, and I’m not suggesting that the old Southern strategy persists in unreconstructed form. The Republican Party’s dominance among white Southerners is not based on the kind of raw, unambiguous race-baiting that we saw decades ago.</p>
<p>What I am saying is that the Republicans have made no serious effort to appeal to black voters. Such an initiative would begin with an acknowledgment of the specific problems that African-Americans face — including the legacy of centuries of oppression and discrimination — and a proffer of policies to address those problems. But this would contradict the GOP’s dogmatic stance that government should be severely limited in its ambition.</p>
<p>Democrats, at least, are much better at talking the talk. But is the Democratic Party offering any new ideas — or even the promise of meaningful resources — to eliminate the stubborn, multigenerational poverty and dysfunction in which far too many African-Americans are trapped? Are Democrats addressing the vast gap in wealth between middle-class blacks and their white counterparts?</p>
<p>Given the stakes, I see no real choice for African-Americans but to go to the polls in November and stick with the Democratic Party, which at least asks for our votes. The Republicans haven’t offered an alternative. I wish someday they would.</p>
<p>Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2010, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | Needed: Competition for Black Votes | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/needed-competition-for-black-votes/ | 2010-10-08 | 4 |
<p>Uruguay's House of Representatives will hold a vote to legalize marijuana late on Wednesday.</p>
<p>If the bill passes both the House and Senate, it would pave the way for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23516966" type="external">Uruguay to be the first country</a> to legally regulate production and distribution of the drug.&#160;</p>
<p>Of the 99 members of the House voting, 50 will have to say "yes" in order for the bill to be signed into law.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/120621/uruguay-marijuana-legalization-government-pot-dealer-drug-war" type="external">Uruguay's government, new pot dealer on the block</a></p>
<p>Growers, sellers and consumers, all aged 18 and above,&#160; <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/31/4379995/uruguay-lawmakers-debate-licensing.html" type="external">would be licensed by a confidential registry</a> to keep people from buying more than 40 grams a month.</p>
<p>Anyone carrying, growing or selling without a license would face stiff punishments, including long prison terms.</p>
<p>The law has been <a href="http://www.latintimes.com/articles/6912/20130731/legalization-marijuana-uruguay-law-make-pot-legal.htm#.UflTvz7wLrY" type="external">backed by President José Mujica</a>, despite polls showing two-thirds of Uruguayans are opposed to it.</p>
<p>"I have never tried it in my life and I don't know what it is," Mujica told a local radio station. "[I am aware] a lot of young people have tried it."</p>
<p>The purpose of the bill would be to give the government legal control of the marijuana market, creating enough quality product to drive out illegal dealers and draw a line between pot smokers and those who use harder drugs.</p> | Uruguay to vote on marijuana legislation bill | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-07-31/uruguay-vote-marijuana-legislation-bill | 2013-07-31 | 3 |
<p>Russia's state-owned Rosneft is in talks with Petroleos de Venezuela SA to swap Rosneft's collateral stake in U.S.-based Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan oil and gas firm, for a fuel-supply deal and stakes in Venezuela-based oil and natural-gas fields, <a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL1N1KA1EM" type="external">Reuters reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the negotiations Opens a New Window.</a>. Rosneft received 49.9% of the equity in PDVSA subsidiary Citgo Petroleum Corp. late last year as collateral for a $1.5 billion loan to PDVSA. Reuters reported that two sources with knowledge of the negotiations said the move would avoid complications from U.S. sanctions.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Rosneft In Talks With PDVSA To Swap Citgo Stake For Fuel Supply: Reuters | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/20/rosneft-in-talks-with-pdvsa-to-swap-citgo-stake-for-fuel-supply-reuters.html | 2017-07-21 | 0 |
<p />
<p>White House Economic Adviser Gary Cohn is remaining in his post, a White House official told Reuters on Thursday after earlier rumors of his departure rattled Wall Street and hit U.S. stocks and the dollar.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“Gary intends to remain in his position as NEC (National Economic Council) director at the White House. Nothing’s changed,” a White House official said.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writig by Susan Heavey)</p> | Top Trump economic adviser Cohn not leaving: White House official | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/08/17/top-trump-economic-adviser-cohn-not-leaving-white-house-official.html | 2017-08-17 | 0 |
<p>Republican National Convention delegates met at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on July 18, 2016. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>CLEVELAND, Ohio — Delegates at the Republican National Convention ratified Monday afternoon with little opposition a party platform&#160;considered to contain&#160;the most anti-LGBT language in history.</p>
<p>As Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chair of the platform committee, presided over the convention, delegates approved <a href="https://prod-static-ngop-pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL%5b1%5d-ben_1468872234.pdf?mid=76323&amp;rid=16150088" type="external">the 66-page document&#160;</a>by voice vote at 4:42 pm. The number of “ayes” among the 2,470 delegates seemed overwhelming compared to the barely audible “nays.”</p>
<p>Despite efforts from pro-LGBT Republicans to remove opposition to same-sex marriage from the 2016 platform, the document&#160;seeks to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of marriage equality through either judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning the issue to the states.</p>
<p>Virgil Goode, a Virginia delegate and former six-term member of the U.S. House, told the Washington Blade at the Republican convention&#160;he backs the platform language&#160;in opposition to the ruling.</p>
<p>“I think the Supreme Court legislated,” Goode said. “The Supreme Court is not the decider of what marriage is. It should be the individual states have that right. They way overstepped their bounds on that.”</p>
<p>Goode said allowing same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses and have those relationships recognized should “be up to the states.”</p>
<p>“You have in the United States, including California, the people voted for a definition of marriage, and I think that vote should stand, that the Supreme Court shouldn’t be overriding,” Goode said.</p>
<p>In addition to opposition to same-sex marriage, the platform also objects to use of federal law to ensure transgender people can use the restroom consistent with their gender identity, indicates support for widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy and endorses the First Amendment Defense Act, a “religious freedom” bill that would enable anti-LGBT discrimination.</p>
<p>Joseph Knox, a 20-year-old alternate delegate from Washington, N.C., said he agrees with&#160;language in the platform on transgender restroom use — which is consistent with&#160;a law in his state signed by Gov. Pat McCrory requiring&#160;transgender people to use public restroom according to&#160;their birth certificates, not their gender identity.</p>
<p>“I support that because I believe it’s the duty of our government in order to protect people for the cases where it may abused,” Knox said. “I understand where the argument is made for people and their rights, and they feel they need to use the bathroom of their choice. However, in public schools, or taxpayer buildings, or stuff like that, then it should be up to your birth certificate, and that’s where you should have to go.”</p>
<p>Knox said he also “absolutely”&#160;backs&#160;language in the platform in opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>“I believe as a conservative, as a Republican, that the federal government has taken leaps and bounds that are involving themselves within states’ rights way too much,” Knox said. “It wasn’t mentioned in the Constitution. Our Founding Fathers were not worried about that along with a lot other things.”</p>
<p>Knox added he believes the establishment of the Department of Education is also unconstitutional. “Things like that should be left up to the individual states,” he said.</p>
<p>Delegates at the convention who spoke about the language in the platform against&#160;LGBT rights were largely in support of those planks. Many of the delegates and alternate delegates at the Quicken Loans Arena refused to speak with the Washington Blade on the subject of gay rights in the party platform.</p>
<p>Dwayne Collins, a delegate from the Dallas area, said he agrees with the platform’s opposition to same-sex marriage on the basis that “marriage between a man and a man, and a woman and a woman, is just not biblical.”</p>
<p>In response to the platform’s endorsement&#160;of “ex-gay” conversion therapy, Collins indicated support for that language as well.</p>
<p>“There should not be anything to force anybody to do such therapy, but if it’s out there and available, then, yes,” Collins&#160;said. “But to force somebody into therapy, no, no, not at all.”</p>
<p>Collins, who identified himself as a small business owner, also voiced concerns about non-discrimination laws threatening the livelihoods of those offering&#160;wedding-related services.</p>
<p>“I feel intimidated by what the gay movement is doing to my business,”&#160;Collins said. “I own a wedding venue, OK? It’s privately owned. I rent it to people for weddings, but it’s got to be a man and a woman. Now in the state of Texas, I have a little bit of protection, but in other states, if you don’t do that, you get sued. And that’s my business, they are infringing on my rights. That’s why we got to come to a consensus here and say, ‘Hey, enough’s enough. You got your rights; we got our rights.'”</p>
<p>A North Dakota&#160;delegate, who refused to offer&#160;his name, said in response to the language, “I’m a live-and-let-live guy.” Asked if he supports the platform calling for reversal of the Supreme Court decision and returning the issue of same-sex marriage to the states, he replied, “I prefer that when states can make their own decisions.”</p>
<p>Joel Craig, an 18-year-old delegate from Colorado Springs, Colo.,&#160;and pledged to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said he supports platform language in opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage because “states should be allowed to choose what their definition of marriage is.”</p>
<p>“I think that this is a deal for the states,” Craig said. “The states are in charge of issuing marriage licenses, why then are they not in charge of how the marriage licenses are issued?”</p>
<p>But Craig contested the notion the platform endorses conversion therapy, saying the platform mentions it, but doesn’t endorse it. The language says, “We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children. ”</p>
<p>“I believe that the current language, the way it is set, does not endorse conversion therapy, as you’ve suggested, however it is mentioned,” Craig said. “I didn’t exactly read how it was mentioned, but I do believe the platform as a whole represents the Republican electorate very well.”</p>
<p>Not&#160;every delegate at the convention was behind the anti-LGBT planks&#160;in the Republican Party platform.</p>
<p>Sharon Jackson, a 52-year-old delegate from the Anchorage area of Alaska and pledged to Trump, said she’s against the platform language and thinks same-sex couples should be able to wed.</p>
<p>“I feel that everyone should have the freedom to feel and do what they choose, and that’s what America is all about,” Jackson said.</p>
<p>Asked if that applies to gay couples seeking to marry, Jackson replied, “If that’s what the want to do, they should be able to do that.”</p>
<p>Jackson also said she’s&#160;against&#160;platform language opposing&#160;transgender people using the restroom consistent with their gender identity.</p>
<p>“I don’t think that should be politicized,” Jackson said. “It happens already, right? No one says anything, so to make it a political issue, I think, it opens the doors for perpetuators, and that’s not fair, that’s not fair. So, if it was just left alone, everything would be fine just as it is today.”</p>
<p>LGBT advocates blasted the platform upon its ratification by delegates. The Log Cabin Republicans, which had previously dubbed the platform the most anti-LGBT in the party’s 162-year history,&#160;placed a full-page ad Monday in&#160;USA Today with a&#160;message denouncing&#160;the document.</p>
<p>“LOSERS! MORONS!&#160;SAD! No, these aren’t tweets from Donald Trump,” the ad says. “This is what common-sense conservatives are saying about the most anti-LGBT platform the Republican Party has ever had. Out of touch, out of line, and out of step with&#160;61% of young Republicans who favor same-sex marriage.””</p>
<p>Matt McTighe, executive director of Freedom for All Americans, also condemned the platform, saying it doesn’t represent the views of many Americans.</p>
<p>“It’s disappointing that the far right wing of the Republican Party has successfully pushed for a platform that discriminates against LGBT Americans and their families,” McTighe said.&#160;“This platform just does not reflect the direction that many Republicans – nor the majority of&#160;Americans – want to see the party move.”</p>
<p>For a time, efforts among pro-LGBT Republicans were underway for&#160;a motion&#160;on the convention floor to strip the platform of its anti-LGBT language.</p>
<p>A minority report signed by 37 delegates of&#160;the platform committee petitioned the Republican National Committee to replace the platform&#160;with a 1,200-word statement of 17 core principles of the Republican Party with neutral language on LGBT issues.</p>
<p>Although only 28 delegates are needed for a successful petition, the efforts failed when the delegates who initiated the report —&#160;Boyd Matheson of Utah and&#160;David Barton of Texas — disavowed it.</p>
<p>Giovanni Cicione, a&#160;Rhode Island delegate who circulated the petition to replace the platform, said afterwards the initiative failed amid disagreement among&#160;those behind it and queasiness in Republican leadership over a floor fight.</p>
<p>“To have contentious floor votes on anything, content aside is very disruptive to the process that they’re trying to lay out this week,”&#160;Cicione said. “In my opinion, that didn’t matter. This was more important than us running a convention where each speaker gets their five minutes. I think we needed to try to make a point here, but they were able to pull back.”</p>
<p>Annie Dickerson, a New York member of the platform committee&#160;and adviser to GOP philanthropist and LGBT rights supporter Paul Singer, said the goal now is to advance LGBT non-discrimination legislation regardless of the platform.</p>
<p>“Polling on non-discrimination is going off the charts on the Republican side,”&#160;Dickerson said. “But those are just not the people that were those delegates, which is why Gio and I are here, to give rise to that voice, so we can be a bigger tent because this is not the ‘Big Tent’ document.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Dwayne Collins</a> <a href="" type="internal">Freedom for All Americans</a> <a href="" type="internal">Joel Craig</a> <a href="" type="internal">Joseph Knox</a> <a href="" type="internal">Log Cabin Republicans</a> <a href="" type="internal">Matt McTighe</a> <a href="" type="internal">platform</a> <a href="" type="internal">Republican Party</a> <a href="" type="internal">same-sex marriage</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sharon Jackson</a> <a href="" type="internal">Virgil Goode</a></p> | GOP delegates ratify anti-LGBT platform | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/07/18/gop-delegates-ratify-platform-support-anti-lgbt-language/ | 3 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The state Public Regulation Commission tabled a decision Wednesday on whether to grant Public Service Co. of New Mexico an extension to early August to file final coal-supply and ownership restructuring agreements for the San Juan Generating Station. The commission will address the issue again next Wednesday.</p>
<p>Two of the five commissioners were only available by phone Wednesday morning, and the San Juan issue was considered too important not to have all five members present for discussion, said PRC spokesman Carlos Padilla. Other pending agenda items were also tabled until next week.</p>
<p>PNM is seeking an extension of time to file the agreements to be included in the PRC consideration of the company's plan to shut down half of the coal-fired power plant to comply with federal haze regulations.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | PNM extension put off for another week | false | https://abqjournal.com/600028/pnm-extension-put-off-for-another-week.html | 2 |
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<p>Deutsche Bank is studying a possible change of its strategy in the United States, where it is fighting a $14 billion fine the Department of Justice (DoJ) is requiring over the sale of toxic mortgage bonds before the financial crisis, two sources close to the company said on Saturday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>They said that while abandoning the United States, its most important market, altogether was very likely out of the question for the bank, it could consider scaling down its activities, so as to focus more on the needs of German corporate clients overseas.</p>
<p>German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in an abstract of a story due to be published on Sunday said earlier that a change of business strategy might be part of a settlement with the DoJ, in addition to paying the fine, possibly by giving up its investment banking in the United States, but the two sources did not confirm this connection.</p>
<p>A Deutsche Bank spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. The bank has been engulfed in crisis since news of the DoJ fine demand emerged last month.</p>
<p>It is fighting the fine but could have to turn to investors for more money if it is imposed in full.</p>
<p>Progress is also slow on steps to cut staff, overheads and the sell off of non-core businesses that chief executive John Cryan announced when he took on his job last year.</p>
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<p>A source with direct knowledge of matters said on Friday that the bank's CFO last month told staff representative that job cuts could be double those planned, in a step possibly removing a further 10,000 employees.</p>
<p>A second source familiar with the discussions said on Friday the management was examining the countries where it is present so as to decide where it was worth staying. Generally, the bank is looking hard where to generate future profits and whether to curb trading activities in its investment banking division.</p>
<p>Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Saturday said the supervisory board had been discussing how to proceed in the United States, including a complete withdrawal, although given that market's importance, this might be too radical a move.</p>
<p>A partial exodus from the U.S. could, on the other hand help save capital costs and expenditure, the newspaper said.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Kathrin Jones and Alexander Huebner, writing by Vera Eckert, editing by Jeremy Gaunt)</p> | Deutsche Bank Considering Changes to U.S. Strategy: Sources | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/15/deutsche-bank-considering-changes-to-u-s-strategy-sources.html | 2016-10-15 | 0 |
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<p>American husbands and wives both have reputations for overspending. He can't resist the latest high-tech gadget. She can't walk by a department store window without caressing her credit card. But stereotypes aside, who is the real saver in a typical relationship?</p>
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<p>A new survey conducted for MoneyRates.com by Op4G asked men and women whether they prefer to save more or less than their spouses. Not surprisingly, neither men or women generally perceive themselves as the spending problem in their household -- and that's just one of the disconnects in this data that might explain <a href="http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/infographics/shrinking-savings-rate-infographic.htm?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-172523110" type="external">why American savings rates are so low Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>He spent, she spent</p>
<p>There is no question that somebody is spending the money in American households. Americans in this century have been saving money at less than half the rate they did over the latter half of the 20th century.</p>
<p>Failure to save is bad enough, but Americans are also building up massive amounts of debt. According to the Federal Reserve, consumer credit balances outstanding recently hit an all-time high of $2.82 trillion.</p>
<p>So who do husbands and wives think is more to blame for this problem? The survey results point to some things that suggest that Americans are not acknowledging their savings problems and not communicating well on <a href="http://www.money-rates.com/calculators/savings/savingsgoal.htm?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-172523110" type="external">savings goals Opens a New Window.</a>. Here are some ways husbands' and wives' perceptions about saving money don't add up:</p>
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<p>There are always caveats to surveys based on self-reporting, but these answers are revealing when contrasted with hard data about debt and saving in America. Neither husbands nor wives see their savings habits as a problem, but the facts show that saving money is an issue in most households.</p>
<p>Saving money as a couple can be very different from saving money as an individual. Here are some keys to being able to <a href="http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/infographics/avoiding-money-problems-in-relationships-infographic.htm?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-172523110" type="external">save money while in a relationship Opens a New Window.</a>:</p>
<p>The survey suggests that neither husbands nor wives tend to see themselves as the primary problem when it comes to saving money, but statistics on debt and savings rates make it clear that Americans do have a serious problem. Like most things in a relationship, responsibility for solving that problem will be handled best if it is shared.</p>
<p>The original article can be found at Money-Rates.com: <a href="http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/do-husbands-or-wives-save-more.htm?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-172523110" type="external">Who saves more: husbands or wives? Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Who Saves More: Husbands or Wives? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/08/who-saves-more-husbands-or-wives.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Usually, Lloyd Allen, the dynamic singer and guitar slinger for the Cannonballs, CounterPunch’s favorite Northwest blues band, is, among his many other talents, a walking fashion statement.</p>
<p>But on this Independence Day evening at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Allen wisely choose to tone down (for him any way) his attire. Even the flamboyant Allen knew there was no way he could compete with the splendor of the Cannonballs’ guest singer for the night, the Jimmy T99 Nelson, the greatest living blues shouter and one of the true progenitors of rock and roll.</p>
<p>Midway through the Cannonballs’ rollicking set Nelson strolled onto the stage in a cerulean-colored suit that shimmered so brightly it looked as if it had just been painted by Raphael. Adorned with a captain’s cap and fighter pilot shades, T99 looked like he was ready to rock all night. And damned if he didn’t! Indeed, the 83-year old blues shouter dominated the stage not only with the Cannonballs, but with a host of other top-notch acts, including guitarist <a href="" type="internal">Duke Robillard</a>, piano player <a href="" type="internal">Marcia Ball</a> and harp master <a href="" type="internal">Paul DeLay</a>, stealing the show at what has become one of the nation’s biggest blues festivals.</p>
<p>Nelson grabbed the microphone, waved one of his big paws at the crowd, then turned and chided the band. “Slow it down, boys, I’m gettin’ too old to sing it that fast. Heh, heh.” The little chuckle told the whole story. There was nobody on that stage who was going to outpace Nelson on this night. “The older a blues singer gets, the better he sounds!” Nelson told me later. “It’s all those life experiences, man.”</p>
<p>With David Vest on piano, you could almost imagine you were hearing <a href="" type="internal">Big Joe Turner</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Pete Johnson</a> in their prime, back when the R&amp;B sound was being invented and ripped apart at the same time. Vest can do almost anything with a keyboard. But he’d met his match with Nelson. Nothing he did with those keys on this night could detour much attention from the magic and power of Nelson’s voice. Vest knew it too. You could see him smiling as Nelson ripped through Shake, Rattle and Roll, manhandling the band and hypnotizing the audience. This was no surprise to Vest. The two were old friends from Houston, where Vest had played piano in Nelson’s band in the 1990s, as T-99 resurrected a career that had lain dormant for nearly 30 years.</p>
<p>Nelson is known as a blues shouter. But it’s a misnomer. Shouter gives the impression of a singer who attracts attention by uncontrolled screaming. Like, say, Janis Joplin. That’s not T99. Nelson brings the whole package. He can be as smooth as <a href="" type="internal">Jackie Wilson</a>, as nuanced as his friend <a href="" type="internal">Percy Mayfield</a> and urgent as <a href="" type="internal">Wynonie Harris</a>. Nelson earned his stripes singing a variety of styles, from straight blues and jump blues to big band and swing to R&amp;B and soul crooner. “It all depended on the audience, man,” Nelson told me. “Back then some of those white cats couldn’t really understand the blues. You had to sing them something they could relate to.”</p>
<p>On this Independence Day night, the largely white audience would have adored anything Nelson chose to sing for them. By the time Nelson finished Flip, Flop and Fly and Roll ‘Em Pete, the crowd was in a frenzy, begging Nelson for more. But he just smiled, waved and strolled off the stage. “You got to know when to walk off,” Nelson said later. “You’ve got to leave them wanting more. That’s one of the great secrets of life in the music business.”</p>
<p>Jimmy Nelson has a lifetime of those secrets and on Saturday afternoon he shared a few with me and Kimberly, along with David Vest and Teresa McMahill. We spent a couple of hours together at Pete’s Coffee House in downtown Portland.</p>
<p>The first thing you notice about Jimmy, when he removes his ubiquitous shades, are his extraordinary eyes: light hazel in color, clear as crystal, lively, intelligent and impish. He was in Portlandas an emergency replacement for <a href="" type="internal">Ruth Brown</a>, who’d been taken ill. He flew into Portland expected to stay a day. Instead, after his blow out opening night performance with Duke Robillard, the promoters had demanded that he stay around for the entire five days of the festival. He’d brought one set of day clothes and his blue suit. He’d left his razor in Houston. He stayed five days and tore the place up each afternoon and evening.</p>
<p>“Man, I only have that one suit,” Nelson joked. “If I don’t change it soon, people are going to think I’m poor.”</p>
<p>That wasn’t going to be a possibility. Jimmy Nelson could look sharp in coveralls.</p>
<p>These days Nelson is marketed as “the Texas blues singer.” But he’s really an all-American musician, who was able to absorb the gospel sound, west coast blues and New Orleans R&amp;B and transform it into his own unique, vibrant style. He was born in Philly, in 1918. It was a musical family, but a divided one. His father, Big Boy Nelson, was a featured sax player in Doc Hodges’ band for many years. But Jimmy’s father wasn’t around very much. “He met my mother at a dance where he was playing sax,” Nelson recalled. “And they got together hot-and-heavy right away, you know, and he dropped his seed and that was about it. When I was young, he didn’t even come around to buy us milk. But, man, he always fascinated me. Leading the life of a musician.”</p>
<p>His mother, Florence, was a singer and a very good one by his account. But she was religious and stuck to gospel songs and church settings. “She didn’t play no clubs,” says Nelson. “She didn’t go for that. And she didn’t like my father and didn’t want me to be a musician. She wanted something better for me, I guess, and she got me in one of those ‘Holy Roly’ churches in Chester, Pennsylvania. She told me if I ever got in show business she’d whup me.”</p>
<p>But the blues had captured Nelson’s heart and soul and, at the same time, he was growing more and more curious about his father’s life. “One day I hopped a street car in south Philly to a sale at a music store,” Nelson said. “I bought a clarinet for $4.50 and then on the way home I bought this kitten. My mother came home from work. She saw the clarinet and the kitten, grabbed them, went up to the second story window and threw them out on to the sidewalk. That like to broke my heart, man. And I decided to leave right then. Everybody was always kicking my dad down to me. But I wanted to find out what show biz was like.”</p>
<p>Most people think that the blues traveled north, from the Mississippi Delta up through Memphis and St. Louis to Chicago. Much of it did, of course. But not all of it. Jimmy Nelson was one of those who went West. Many of the R&amp;B greats, such as Big Joe Turner and <a href="" type="internal">Nat King Cole</a>, headed to California. So too did many of the Texas blues musicians, such as <a href="" type="internal">T-Bone Walker</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Pee Wee Crayton</a>. That blend of Texas jump blues and swing and urban R&amp;B melded to form a West Coast sound that was not only distinct from what was being produced by <a href="" type="internal">Muddy Waters</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Howlin’ Wolf</a> in Chicago at roughly the same period but rivaled it in quality.</p>
<p>So at the age of 17, Jimmy hopped a train and headed for the Pacific Coast. “I went with my friend Head, who knew everything about riding trains,” Nelson said. “But he didn’t tell me how dangerous it was, especially on a passenger train. We was hiding between cars and you know if one of those guards, one the bulls, found a black man crouched down there they’d just shoot them and leave them lying by the rails.”</p>
<p>Jimmy eventually made it all the way to Seattle. He was headed for Port Orchard, a small town on the Olympic Peninsula to see his Uncle Jimmy Luck. He took the Ferry from Bremerton across Puget Sound. “I didn’t have his address,” Nelson said. “But he was the only black man in that town, so he was easy to find.”</p>
<p>Jimmy stayed with his uncle only a couple of weeks before he headed south. “I roomed with him and his girlfriend until she got frisky, started looking for some fresh meat, you know?” Nelson said. “So I decided I need to get out of there before any trouble started.”</p>
<p>“How old were you then Jimmy, you must’ve been very young,” Kimberly asked.</p>
<p>Nelson’s face expanded into a devilish grin. “Oh, I was old enough for that honey, believe me, I sure was.”</p>
<p>He landed in Sacramento, where he soon got a job in the fields, toiling as a farmworker picking tomatoes, cotton, strawberries and hops. “Oh mercy it was hot down there in those fields,” Nelson said. “But I didn’t mind the work. I was glad to be on my own and have some money.”</p>
<p>One night he ventured into an Oakland club and heard Big Joe Turner, fronting the Kansas City Rockers. “It turned my life around” Nelson said. “We were listening to this band and they were pretty good, but then the biggest man I’d ever seen in my life stepped out on stage. He opened his arms wide and started to sing the blues and man I said that’s for me. That man stood flat-footed and delivered the blues, man! He didn’t need a microphone, he didn’t need nothing. I said to myself, this guy’s got something I need to have. That was Big Joe Turner. He was my inspiration to be a singer.”</p>
<p>Eventually, Jimmy and Turner would become fast friends. They would perform together, travel together and drink together. “Booze, that was Big Joe’s sickness,” Nelson said. “He would drink and drink. Anything and everything. But he had a magic trick. He’d eat a lot. Oh, he’d eat mountains of food. And it kept him from passing out from the booze, you know. We were working in Mississippi once. There was this great smell coming up the steps of the hotel. We went down to see what was cooking. It was a big pot of chitlins. Joe bought the whole pot. And we ate all those chitlins with mustard. Oh, they was good, and we used to laugh about that day for years. Chitlins and hot mustard, Oh yeah.”</p>
<p>Sometimes the food didn’t do the trick and Turner would get so drunk that he couldn’t perform. On a few occasions, Nelson would go on stage for Joe. Sometimes, usually in rural outpost, Nelson would actually go on stage as Joe Turner. “In a lot of towns in California people think I’m Joe Turner,” Nelson said. “Clubs would hire me because I sounded like Joe, and Joe would be too juiced to make the gig. I did all of Joe’s numbers.”</p>
<p>“Do you think the music business treated Joe right?” Vest asked.</p>
<p>“Hell no,” Jimmy said, slapping the table. “Joe Turner never did get his royalties. Look at all those hits: ‘Lucille,’ ‘Piney Town Blues,’ ‘Wee Baby Blues,’ ‘Shake Rattle and Roll’. And he didn’t see hardly nothing. You know Joe couldn’t even write his name. That’s why he always had his valet with him. But they robbed him because of that. All those guys was robbed.”</p>
<p>In the mid-1940s, Nelson began entering singing competitions, going up against the likes of that Bay Area great, Jimmy Witherspoon. At that point his talent may have been raw, but it was also evident to anyone with a feel for the new urban blues sound. He recorded a few songs for the small Oliet label, but back then Jimmy was more interested in performing than recording. He soon landed a gig at a Richmond club called the Tapper’s Inn, where he both sang and served as emcee. “I remember the night T-Bone Walker first came there to play,” Nelson said. “He’d let it be known that he thought I talked too much when I gave the introductions. So when it came time to time to introduce him later that night all I said was ‘T-Bone Walker.’ Oh was he ever mad. He thought he deserved more fanfare than that. But we worked it out. We never had no problems after that. And T-Bone could play some guitar, man. People thought he was half-crazy, wailing away with a guitar that’s got electricity flowing through it, and then plucking those strings with his tongue. It looked like he’d kill himself.”</p>
<p>Many of the West Coast scene’s best blues artists passed through Tapper’s Inn, including Pee Wee Crayton, Percy Mayfield, <a href="" type="internal">Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">Lowell Fulson</a>. “Those were the tender days of the blues,” Nelson said. “Those old-timers could lay on the blues. Make you cry, if they wanted. I remember <a href="" type="internal">Ivory Joe Hunter</a>. That man had the biggest feet in the world. When he sat on the bandstand, he didn’t need no drummer. He’d just slap his foot and everybody’d start dancing to that stomping. And some night poor Lowell Fulson would come down with his guitar. They wouldn’t let him sit in, because he was never in key and couldn’t sing hardly at all. Finally, this guy from LA got Lowell, gave him this chic-a-boom beat, and he put that in Everyday I’ve Got the Blues and went flying to the top. I’m so proud of Lowell. These white cats who play the blues today think they doin’ blues. But a lot of them just don’t have the feel, you know? It’s a shame they didn’t get to see people like Big Joe or Pee Wee.”</p>
<p>Jimmy’s best friend in Oakland was Percy Mayfield, the brilliant songwriter and singer. “Oh Percy was great, but you know a lot people couldn’t stand to be around him because he talked so much,” Nelson said. “I mean he just couldn’t stay quiet. Percy and I were in the Masonic Lodge together. But I didn’t get to see him much because he was in the higher orders, in the inner sanctum. But Percy could be cheap too. One time I had to borrow his bus to take my band down to San Diego. He wasn’t using it. But he still charged me $100. Oh, I loved Percy Mayfield like a brother, though.”</p>
<p>Later Jimmy moved across the bay to the Long Bar Showboat Club on Fillmore Avenue in San Francisco, a fully integrated club with Chinese bartenders. “That was one wildest places, man,” said Nelson. “And they worked you hard. The music would start at 9 PM and continue straight through until 10 in the morning. They demanded three new songs a week from the singers, four new songs from the band and even new songs from the shakedancers.”</p>
<p>It was here that Nelson became friends with <a href="" type="internal">Louis Armstrong</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Billie Holiday</a>. By all accounts, Holiday was treated roughly by the management. “Billie, oh she would cry and cry,” Nelson recalled. “Finally the owner got mad at her and paid her off in one dollar bills…700 one dollar bills. And he made her sit there and count them. That was cold, man.”</p>
<p>Louis Armstrong was one of the original vitamin freaks and had something of a mean streak, particularly with women. “I never seen anyone pop as many pills as Louis Armstrong,” Nelson said, shaking his head. “A big plate filled with all these different kinds of vitamins and stuff. Whew. You know Louis could be kind of rough on the ladies. But Louis’ wife Lucille didn’t stand for that. She carried a knife and told Louis if he hit her she’d cut him.”</p>
<p>There were legendary singing contests at the Long Bar. “We was into cutting heads back then,” Nelson said. “You know what cutting heads is? It was like a heavyweight fight on stage. You wanted to take on the top singer and cut his head on stage, man. I mean crack his skull open, upstage him, take his spot. Me and PeeWee Crayton and Percy Mayfield used to go at it with cats like Wynonie Harris. O-boy, nobody dressed like Wynonie Harris. And his songs, they had some crude, cussin’ stuff in there. But he was a mean man. Really mean to people. You know I was always thought you had to be nice. You can’t go around stepping on peoples’ heads when you climb to the top cause there won’t be no one around when you hit bottom. When Wynonie hit bottom there wasn’t nobody there.”</p>
<p>One day in 1951, Jimmy got a call from the Bihari Brothers, owners of Modern Records, asking him to perform at the at club in Oakland with the Peter Rabbit Trio. That night they recorded four songs. Six weeks later “T-99 Blues” (named after an old highway running out of Ft. Worth) hit the airwaves and Nelson was the hottest property in R&amp;B. The emphasis here is on property. It’s the old story of the relentless exploitation of black musicians and songwriters. His record was a big hit, but Nelson was pinned down at the Long Bar for another year. “I wanted to go on tour and take advantage of my record” Nelson recalls. “So I told the owner of the Long Bar that I needed to leave. He said, ‘Son, come here, I want to show you something. This is a contract. You can’t leave now.’ That was an early lesson in how the music business owns you.”</p>
<p>Like other blues artists of his time, Nelson also didn’t see much profit from the brisk sales of his record, which climbed to the top of the charts. “We just wanted to make records to advertise ourselves and our club dates,” Nelson recalled. “We didn’t know these records were going all over the country. And, of course, it wasn’t in the Bihari Brothers’ interest to tell us. Eventually, I learned from that, man, about the copyright laws. But only after everything died down.”</p>
<p>When Nelson was finally free to hit the road, he got signed up with Los Angeles promoter Ben Waller. One of the first thing’s Waller did was to take Nelson to a tailor. “I go out to the tailor’s shop,” Nelson said. “My eyes got big. I saw all this material. I want that blue one, that gold one, that white one. Back in those days, black cats dressed sharp and sing your ass off. So I got to DC with all of these suits and then I got my first paycheck. And it wasn’t much. And I called Ben Waller said, where’s the rest of my money? And he says, in those suits. And then there was his 15 percent off the top. Early lessons in the music biz, man. Lots of tickets being sold, lots of money being made, but not by the singer.”</p>
<p>Things haven’t changed much. These days recording artists are routinely socked with the bills for overpriced videos deemed necessary to sell their records.</p>
<p>For the next two years, Nelson toured the country at a grueling pace, playing the Apollo in Harlem and the Howard Theater in Washington, DC. The constant touring meant that Nelson didn’t have time to record any new songs and left him too tired to write new music.</p>
<p>Nelson’s voice has been a touchstone for some of the great singers who’ve followed him, perhaps none more so than <a href="" type="internal">B.B. King</a>. Indeed, the success of T-99 Blues prompted the Bihari Brothers to summon the young BB King from Memphis to Los Angeles for a recording session. Those cuts have <a href="" type="internal">recently been reissued</a> and if you listen to them, along with T-99 Blues, you’ll hear how deftly King incorporated Nelson’s stylings into his own vocal approach, creating one of the signature sounds of Post-WW II blues. Many years later King told Nelson: “If it hadn’t been for singers like you, I would not have gotten in the business.”</p>
<p>When the Bihari Brothers latched on to BB, they ended up letting Jimmy go. “The Bihari Brothers said they wanted to record this kid from Memphis,” Nelson says. “And that was BB King. Those sessions turned out one, two, three, four, five hit records in a row. “it was three-o’clock in the morning…” Oh, yeah, BB was on his way. And it wasn’t long before I got my ‘Dear John’ letter from them. They didn’t have that much money and decided to put it all in promoting BB. But I’m not bitter about it. I see BB from time to time and we chuckle about those days. He says, he wouldn’t have made it without singers like me, without the money the Biharis made off of T99 Blues. But I look back and say, it all works out in the end. BB became one big star and we’ve all been able to enjoy that great music.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, but the Bihari Brothers blew it, Jimmy,” Vest said. “They could have signed you and BB and had you recording great songs for them for the next fifty years.”</p>
<p>I asked him what he thought about the advent of rock and roll and whether he felt ripped off that the white bands were making so much money off of black music. “Oh, man, that was nothing,” he said. “We’d been doing rock ‘n roll forever before those guys came along, Wynonie Harris, Big Joe, even <a href="" type="internal">Fats Waller</a>. They rocked long before Elvis. I did like that <a href="" type="internal">Little Richard</a>, though. I met him in a club in Atlanta. This was before I knew he was that way, if you know what I mean. He took us upstairs and said, ‘Have some of this.’ I drank it, thinking it was water, you know, but that stuff was the sweetest white lightning I’d ever tasted. And I just kept drinking it. Here’s a secret for you: put a little grape juice in there with that stuff and you could go all night.” Nelson playfully flicks his index finger up and down. “Heh, heh. But, you know, Richard got to the point where he stopped writing and doing new material. He’s spent years and years performing the same old stuff and it shows. I can’t do that.”</p>
<p>In 1955, Nelson settled in Houston, where he became, along with <a href="" type="internal">Lightnin’ Hopkins</a>, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson and T-Bone Walker, one of the giants of the Texas blues scene. While in Texas, he continued to record, including the remarkable “Free and Easy Mind” for Chess. He also fell in love with the woman who would become his wife, Nettie. But with the advent of rock and roll, blues wasn’t attracting as much attention or money. Records and club dates didn’t pay the bills, so Nelson got a fulltime job at Hartney Construction Company, where he worked for the next 20 years as a bricklayer and mason. He’s very proud of pouring the concrete for the Astrodome and not very impressed with the Astro’s new digs, Enron/Minute Maid Field.</p>
<p>“There came a time when working construction paid more money than playing music and when you’re married you’ve got to think about those things,” Nelson said.</p>
<p>Over the next couple of decades, Nelson’s chops weren’t idle. He played local clubs in the Houston area and he continued to perfect his songwriting skills. Jimmy Nelson isn’t just one of the greatest blues singers of his time. He’s also one of the great songwriters in the history of the genre, including such standouts as “Meet Me with Your Black Dress On”, “House of Blues” and “Free and Easy Mind.” His songs can be ironic, funny, chilling, heartbreaking, raunchy and just flat out rocking. “I don’t look back,” Nelson said. “I don’t have any interest in redoing T-99 Blues. I’m writing new kinds of music. My new songs are 7 chorus long. Now songs that long can get boring. So you have to work in some channels and utilize the band. Put some solos in there. The older I got the more I knew how to write. When I was young, I just put a bunch of silly things together. And if nothing comes to you, you get a block, just take another drink and shout the blues, man. It’ll be alright.”</p>
<p>In 1998, Jimmy Nelson made an audacious return to the recording studio, producing <a href="" type="internal">Rockin’ and Shoutin’ the Blues</a> released by Rounder. This 9-song CD featured five new songs by Nelson and extensively rearranged covers of <a href="" type="internal">Leroy Carr’s</a> seminal How Long Blues, <a href="" type="internal">Doc Pomus’</a> Boogie Woogie Country Girl and his old friend Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson’s, Sweet Mr. Cleanhead. Jimmy was backed by a first-rate band of Texas musicians, led by the great guitarist <a href="" type="internal">Clarence Hollimon</a> along with two horn players from <a href="" type="internal">Roomful of Blues</a>, Rich Lataille and Doug James. The music sounds new and fresh, the band finds deep grooves and stays in them. Even so, Nelson dominates the record with a voice that is both polished and thunderous, sly and playful.</p>
<p>The record was nominated for five W.C. Handy Awards, the Grammies of the blues. Nelson was invited to Memphis for the awards show. “I can’t brag on Memphis,” Nelson said. “My trip to Memphis was miserable. I paid my airfare, cabfare, and hotel at $190 a night. They didn’t pay the entertainers. I wish they wouldn’t nominate me anymore. I’ll go broke. I wondered why the Bobby Blue Bland and Etta James were reluctant to go down. Now I know.”</p>
<p>Nelson also says that Rounder didn’t do much to promote the CD. “Yeah, they didn’t treat me right,” Nelson said. “They sent out thousands of copies of the cover with my picture on it, but the CD inside was religious music. Can you imagine that?”</p>
<p>This summer Nelson will release a new CD titled <a href="http://www.jimmyt99nelson.com/" type="external">Take Your Pick</a>, featuring Duke Robillard on guitar. “After all these years, I finally found out the secret of life,” Nelson said. “Own your own record label. My session cost $10,000. If I find a penny on the ground, it goes to my sessions. I pay the fees and the musicians and I can do what I like.”</p>
<p>On the closing night of the blues festival the skies above Portland opened and the rains came pouring down. The crowd of 10,000 or so huddled together, grooving to Marcia Ball and her scorching band. Midway through her set, she brought out Nelson, looking splendid in that same blue suit. Jimmy ripped through two smoking blues and then waved good-bye. But the crowd wouldn’t let him go. They demanded more and he gave it to them.</p>
<p>There were many there who’d probably never heard of Jimmy T-99 Nelson before thatstormy night. And that’s a damn shame, a sign of how quickly the living history of the blues can evaporate even among connoisseurs. But it only took a few moments for that sound to be resurrected and taken to heart. Those rain-soaked blues fans left in amazement, with no doubt that they’d just seduced by a legend.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Return of Jimmy T99 Nelson | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/07/14/the-return-of-jimmy-t99-nelson/ | 2002-07-14 | 4 |
<p>Full confession: Sometime over ten years ago, I used to actually watch Houston televangelist Joel Osteen on television. In fact, I might even have a copy of one of his books,&#160;Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential,&#160;tucked away in a box somewhere. While I wouldn’t say I was ever a “follower” of his, I did enjoy his positive messages of preaching hope even if things aren’t going well in your life.</p>
<p>However, the more I listened to him, the more I realized something wasn’t quite right. Eventually I started to see stories about how much money he was worth and how he lived in this massive, $10 million mansion.</p>
<p>For those of you wondering, currently Osteen’s net worth is <a href="https://coed.com/2017/08/30/joel-osteen-net-worth-lakewood-church-pastor-how-much-money-dollars-value-worth-contract-salary-endorsements/" type="external">estimated</a> at around $60 million.</p>
<p>To be fair, he doesn’t take a salary from the church. Most of his money comes from book sales and other things he does outside of the church. Though it’s indisputable that he uses his church to promote himself to a position where he’s able to make that sort of money without drawing any sort of a salary directly from Lakewood Church.</p>
<p>I’m not going to sit here and begrudge anyone for making a nice living for themselves, but there’s something wrong with a preacher supposedly teaching the values of Jesus Christ, a religious figure who often spoke out against greed, sitting on top of a $60 million fortune while living in a $10 million mansion.</p>
<p>How do you say you’ve devoted your life to helping the poor, needy, and less fortunate while you hoard tens of millions of dollars that could provide countless benefits to the poor, needy, and less fortunate?</p>
<p>I’m not saying his church doesn’t do a lot of good — I’m sure it does. Through the generous donations from people who send money to the church, I’m sure Lakewood helps a lot of people. That doesn’t mean there’s not something really wrong about a man who claims to have devoted his life to Jesus Christ sitting on a mountain of money while millions of children go to bed starving.</p>
<p>Could Osteen and his family not be very well off and comfortable with a $5 million fortune and a much smaller, yet still very extravagant, house? I’m not saying he has to give away all of his money or live an extremely modest life. Sure, that would be more “Jesus-like,” but I’m not going to advocate being&#160;that petty.</p>
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<p>Either way, that’s all a topic for another day.</p>
<p>Without a doubt though, Osteen’s name was thrust into the news since Hurricane Harvey struck Texas after stories circulated that he wasn’t opening the doors of his mega church (a former NBA basketball arena), claiming it wasn’t accessible due to flooding. Some people have claimed that wasn’t true, but the Lakewood Church did post pictures where parts of the building were flooded.</p>
<p>Whether or not Lakewood Church was a safe venue for evacuees seeking shelter to use is beside the point. When the church decided to turn people away, the optics became “mega church housed in 16,000-seat arena turned people away.” From my perspective, instead of being a proactive beacon of hope at a time when Houstonians desperately needed help, even if the church, itself, wasn’t safe to house evacuees, the church became reactive. They appeared to only want to do the bare minimum, when it was more convenient for them to do so, instead of being proactive (such as Houston Texans superstar J.J. Watt) and choosing to lead in providing help to those who desperately needed it. Considering the size of the church that they are, yes, they should bear a bigger responsibility to help people.</p>
<p>They have the infrastructure, finances, and resources many other organizations simply don’t have.</p>
<p>The way I looked at the whole scandal was it didn’t matter the condition of the building, it was the fact that the church seemed reluctant to go out of their way to provide help. Though, of course, that’s entirely subjective.</p>
<p>However, then came comments Osteen made Sunday that absolutely set me off.</p>
<p>During a sermon, he <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/joel-osteen-says-hurricanes-are-gods-way-of-showing-you-can-handle-it-take-it-as-a-compliment/" type="external">said</a> the following:</p>
<p>The reason it may seem like God is not waking up is not because he’s ignoring you, not because he’s uninterested, it’s because he knows you can handle it.</p>
<p>Take it as a compliment.</p>
<p>Excuse my language, but f*ck you Joel Osteen, you sanctimonious prick.</p>
<p>Yes, if you’re a Christian (a <a href="" type="internal">real one, anyway</a>), part if your faith is believing that God will test your resolve. But to say that the millions of people who are suffering, with several people losing their lives, while others lost everything, are going through this because God “knows they can handle it” is appalling.</p>
<p>So is Osteen saying that Hurricane Harvey was sent by God to test the people of Texas? That the only way God could send a message was through a devastating storm that killed people, ripped apart families, destroyed homes, and ruined lives forever?</p>
<p>Those are the words of someone who’s clearly either never had to go without anything, or has forgotten what it’s like to have nothing.</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s easy when you’re sitting on a massive fortune, living in a huge mansion, to tell people whose lives have been up-ended or destroyed that “this is a test from God.” How out-of-touch with basic humanity do you have to be to say something like that to people while you’re sitting on $60 million in the bank?</p>
<p>It’s unconscionable for me to even think of how warped your mind must be to tell millions of people, “No need to be upset at your current life-altering despair, this is just a test from God because he knows you can take it.”</p>
<p>Sure, maybe Osteen was just trying to make people feel better — but you don’t say stupid nonsense like that. Especially when you’re sitting on a mountain of money you certainly aren’t about to dish out in large amounts to the people of your city.</p>
<p>Here’s a thought for Mr. Osteen: Maybe the real test here was for you, the greedy bastard who’s used supposedly teaching the values of Jesus Christ to make yourself $60 million. Maybe this is the moment God’s testing you to see if you’ll put your money where your mouth is, so to speak. To see what you would do when faced with the decision of helping the needy, poor, and less fortunate — or turning them away, while holding on to your massive fortune. To see if you’re truly a man of God, who’s willing to prove that your actions support the words of Jesus Christ — or if you’re just another greedy, hypocritical prick, drunk on his own power and influence, who’s made himself a very rich man by using religion to manipulate people gullible enough to trust and follow you.</p>
<p>And if that was the test, Mr. Osteen, trust me, you damn sure failed.</p>
<p>Feel free to <a href="https://www.twitter.com/allen_clifton" type="external">follow me on Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/allencliftonroc" type="external">Facebook</a> to let me know what you thought of his comments.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Joel Osteen's Missing $600,000 and Pat Robertson's Questionable Friends</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christianity, Evolution, Homosexuality and the "Missing Link"</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Pastor Pillow Descends to Hell, Has High Tea with Pope Francis &amp; Joel Osteen</a></p>
<p>72 Facebook comments</p> | After His Appalling Comments on Sunday, I Have a Message for Sanctimonious Prick Joel Osteen | true | https://forwardprogressives.com/after-his-appalling-comments-on-sunday-i-have-a-message-for-sanctimonious-prick-joel-osteen/ | 2017-09-03 | 4 |
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<p>CalAmp (NASDAQ: CAMP) didn't have a great 2016, with the company's stock price <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/11/why-calamp-fell-27-in-2016.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">falling 27% last year Opens a New Window.</a>. But since the beginning of this year, CalAmp's share price has started to rise again and is now up about about 14% year to date.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So is the current rise just a momentary blip, or is CalAmp poised for more growth? To help answer that, we need to take a look at what CalAmp's doing right and what opportunities the company might capitalize on.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>CalAmp's stock price began to tick up slowly after the company reported its fiscal Q3 2017 earnings at the end of December. The quarter wasn't especially strong for CalAmp, with net income falling 33.3% on an adjusted basis, thoughrevenue did rise by11.6% year over year. But CalAmp's management was bullish on the company's future. CEO Michael Burdiek said in a press release:"We are optimistic about our near-term growth as visibility has improved markedly from earlier in the year, when macro factors negatively impacted demand for fleet telematics products in the U.S. As we look ahead, we see a number of catalysts on the horizon to drive near- and long-term growth for our novel portfolio of connected vehicle telematics solutions."</p>
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<p>CalAmp also forecast solid growth for the fourth quarter. The company expects revenue between $84 million and $89 million, which would be a 15.7% increase year over yearat the midpoint.</p>
<p>The optimism from management and projections for more revenue growth are making investors happy. Additionally, investors are likely pleased with <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/09/3-things-calamp-does-right.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">CalAmp's growth opportunities Opens a New Window.</a>with some of its currentcustomers, likeCaterpillar. CalAmp said the industrial equipment company contributed $6 million in revenue in Q3 and that that amount will increase to $7 million to $8 million in Q4, and into the next fiscal year. As one of CalAmp's largest customers in its machine-to-machine (M2M) business, this is a good sign of the company's growth.</p>
<p>And then there's the prospect of more telematics software growth from the company. CalAmp's mobile resource management (MRM) telematics sales hit their highest level in a yearin Q3 2017. And the company expects new requirements for connected fleets to bring incremental demand for this business over the next two to three years. <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/09/3-things-calamp-does-right.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>It's impossible to predict if CalAmp's stock price will continue growing, but the company's latest moves are certainly putting the company in a stronger position. CalAmp is betting that its M2M offerings and growing telematics saleswill help it capture a portion of the $1.29 trillion worth of global spending on Internet of Things over the coming years.</p>
<p>If there'ssomething that investors should be cautious about, it would be that the IoT market is still just getting started. This could be a good thing, of course, but it also means that there's a fair amount of risk for CalAmp because its hardware, software, and services are an early bet on this growing IoT market. Other players in the space, like Sierra Wireless, are fighting for more M2M market share as well.</p>
<p>But if CalAmp can continue its strong position with customers like Caterpillar (and add more like it), and continue improving its telematics software sales, then investors may see the company's stock price continue moving in the right direction.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than CalAmpWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=06d9ed65-f5d1-4fac-8bad-e94ac69067c8&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and CalAmp wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=06d9ed65-f5d1-4fac-8bad-e94ac69067c8&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewsie/info.aspx" type="external">Chris Neiger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Sierra Wireless. The Motley Fool recommends CalAmp. 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> | Has CalAmp's Growth Just Begun? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/31/has-calamp-growth-just-begun.html | 2017-03-31 | 0 |
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<p>Enchantment Pet Resort is looking for naughty dogs, the kind that pull on leashes, jump all over people, lunge and bark at other dogs. The resort at 580 Quantum Road in Rio Rancho is running a “Naughty Dog Contest” with a prize of a free customized training program at their facility.</p>
<p>Entries will be accepted through midnight on Nov. 26 and winners will be picked on Dec. 1 Training will be conducted from Dec. 3 to Dec. 20.</p>
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<p>Rescue groups that have a dog that is not adoptable because of these types of behavior problems may enter that dog into the contest.</p>
<p>Visit <a href="http://www.enchantmentpetresort.com" type="external">www.enchantmentpetresort.com</a>to enter.</p>
<p>Rio Rancho Veterans Monument Organization and the city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department are coordinating a ceremony in honor of Veterans Day at 11 a.m. Monday at the Rio Rancho Veterans Monument Park.</p>
<p>The Veterans Monument Park is located off of Southern Boulevard on Pinetree Road, and is adjacent to the Esther Bone Memorial Library.</p>
<p>The Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort is offering fall foliage hayrides for local residents and guests throughout November.</p>
<p>The hayrides, which take place between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturdays, offer an opportunity to learn about the natural surroundings and indigenous plants on Santa Ana Pueblo bosque land. Tours cost $20 for non-guests and $10 for guests. Reservations can be made at 771-6060.</p>
<p>America Recycles Day will be celebrated on Thursday, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Esther Bone Memorial Library, according to a city news release.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>At the free event, attendees can learn about how a landfill works, the effects of pollution on the watershed, current community recycling programs and obtain conservation tips. Master composters will also be available, there will be hands-on kids activities, an all-ages story time at 6:30 p.m. with children’s librarians is scheduled and a live music performance by Kevin “The Recycle Man” Kinane is at 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Esther Bone Memorial Library is at 950 Pintree Road, which can be accessed from Southern Boulevard.</p>
<p>For more information, call 891-5015 or 891-5012. Visit the city online at <a href="http://www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us" type="external">www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us</a>.</p>
<p>The November meeting of the city of Rio Rancho’s Utilities Commission has been moved to 6 p.m. Nov. 27 at Rio Rancho City Hall, 3200 Civic Center Circle, to allow for broadcasting and online streaming of the meeting, according to the city.</p>
<p>Meetings are streamed on the city’s website, <a href="http://www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us" type="external">www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us</a>and broadcast on the city’s RioVision cable channel, which is available to Rio Rancho Cable One subscribers.</p>
<p>The case against Leonard Tidwell, accused in the Halloween night killing of Greg Stender in Rio Rancho, is now expected to be presented to a Sandoval County grand jury on Nov. 15.</p>
<p>Tidwell, 20, had been scheduled to appear before the grand jury on Thursday, but his appearance was canceled when Tidwell’s defense attorney asked for an extension, saying he had not had time to meet with his client, said Assistant Trial Prosecutor Kevin Graham.</p>
<p>The District Attorney’s Office agreed to the delay. Tidwell remains in jail. — This article appeared on page 10 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Rio Rancho News in Brief | false | https://abqjournal.com/145331/rio-rancho-news-in-brief-3.html | 2012-11-10 | 2 |
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<p>A bed bug is injected with dye at New Mexico State University. Researchers at the school say in a new study that certain chemical compounds interfere with bed bugs’ sense of smell, offering a potential new weapon in our battle with the insects. (Courtesy of Immo Hansen)</p>
<p>Researchers at New Mexico State University said in a new study that certain chemical compounds interfere with bed bugs’ sense of smell, offering a potential new weapon for protecting ourselves from the bloodsuckers.</p>
<p>The same compounds also appear to have the added benefit of making it harder for bed bugs to reproduce by hindering the movement of sperm, said Immo Hansen, an associate professor of biology at NMSU.</p>
<p>“Most bloodsucking insects find their host by using their sense of smell,” said Hansen, the study’s lead author. “If you can block that, or if you have repellents that cause (bed bugs) to actively avoid a certain area, then you can treat these areas and prevent getting bitten.”</p>
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<p>The study was published Nov. 20 on PLOS One, a peer-reviewed online publication.</p>
<p>Bed bugs have re-emerged in recent years as “a serious and growing problem” in the U.S. and around the world, the study said. The insects have also developed resistance to a wide variety of insecticides, calling for new strategies to fight infestations.</p>
<p>HANSEN: Research may help manage bugs</p>
<p>The NMSU scientists performed laboratory experiments with bed bugs using a pair of chemical compounds developed in studies with mosquitoes. They found that the compounds were effective in blocking bed bugs’ sense of smell, preventing them from congregating around odors they normally find attractive, the study said.</p>
<p>Hansen warned that getting federal approval for a new insecticide requires years of research. But the early results show promise for a new strategy for controlling bed bugs, he said.</p>
<p>The study also used genetic research techniques to analyze the RNA of bed bug antenna, the insects’ sensory organ.</p>
<p>The work found that each of the insect’s odor receptors sense a unique set of smells, Hansen said. But each receptor relies on a co-receptor that is identical in each of the approximately 40 receptors, he said.</p>
<p>“Targeting the co-receptor is very smart because if you can inhibit this, then you basically block every receptor and the complete sense of smell,” he said.</p>
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<p /> | NMSU work may aid bed bug fight | false | https://abqjournal.com/507213/nmsu-work-may-aid-bed-bug-fight.html | 2 |
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<p>Shares of online car-buying service TrueCar (NASDAQ: TRUE) surged on Friday morning. As of 11:45 a.m. EDT, TrueCar's stock was trading up over 18% from Thursday's close.</p>
<p>TrueCar reported its <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/04/truecars-losses-narrow-as-revenue-grows-4.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">third-quarter earnings Opens a New Window.</a> after the market closed on Thursday, and investors liked what they saw.The company's adjusted loss of $0.01 per share was well ahead of the average $0.06-per-share loss expected by Wall Street analysts.</p>
<p>Image source: TrueCar.</p>
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<p>Looking a little deeper, there were several signs that CEO Chip Perry, who joined the company after a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/24/truecar-shares-jump-as-new-ceo-reaches-out-to-deal.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">management upheaval late last year Opens a New Window.</a>, has TrueCar's business headed in a good direction.</p>
<p>TrueCar guided to a strong finish to 2016. It expects fourth-quarter revenue, vehicles bought via the service, and adjusted EBITA all to come in well ahead of year-ago results.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFMarlowe/info.aspx" type="external">John Rosevear Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends TrueCar. 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 Shares of TrueCar Jumped 18% on Friday Morning | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/04/why-shares-truecar-jumped-18-on-friday-morning.html | 2016-11-04 | 0 |
<p>Dungeons and Dragons has been part of the pop culture canon for decades. But when it gained popularity in the 1980s, several Christian organizations <a href="http://www.retroreport.org/video/dd-lessons-from-a-media-panic/" type="external">accused</a> the game of leading children to Satanism, says Bonnie Bertram, a producer with the Retro Report documentary team.</p>
<p>“We forget, but the TV and broadcasting landscape in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s was really dominated by people who were taking on a crusade,” Bertram says. “Dungeons and Dragons fell right in line with the sort of values and worries that they had.”</p>
<p>Sci-fi writer and blogger Cory Doctorow experienced this panic first hand. He told Retro Report that some adults told him that the game was an “existentialist threat” to his soul.</p>
<p>“At the time, there really was this concern that kids were being drawn into this fantasy world and they were confusing their imagination with reality,” Bertram says.</p>
<p>She later adds: “I don’t want to diminish the scare aspect, because there was a string of murder-suicides that did have this one thing in common. But it’s a classic example that correlation does not imply causation.”</p>
<p>Though many saw the game as a threat to wholesome values and an avenue towards Satanism, it helped more than a few creative kids, including award-winning author Junot Diaz.</p>
<p>“This was a revolution. Being a bunch of kids of color in a society that tells us we are nothing, being permitted under our own power to be heroic; to have agency; to do the hero stuff; to take and be on adventurers — there was nothing like it for us,” Diaz says. “It was very, very, very impactful.”</p>
<p>Diaz is not alone. Fellow author Ta-Nehisi Coates and TV show host Stephen Colbert were both D&amp;D players.</p>
<p>“It really empowered them and sort of unleashed their imagination in ways that other activities just didn’t do,” Bertram says.</p>
<p>Nowadays, several schools have established afterschool programs and clubs for kids that incorporate Dungeons and Dragons;&#160;tweens and teens still gather on their own to play the game.</p>
<p>“Some people play online, but really it’s mostly played with kids sitting around a table, talking through the various aspects of what [adventures] the Dungeon Master is going to take them on,” says Bertram. “It’s really sort of a wonderful thing —&#160;live action role playing. It’s great for kids.”</p>
<p>In the oversaturated world of the digital age, the game has done a complete 180-degree turn in the eyes of many parents.</p>
<p>“You’d be thrilled now to come home and see your kids sitting around a table rolling dice and playing games, as opposed to each one with callouses on their thumbs playing their little video games,” says Bertram.</p>
<p>Check out Retro Report’s full examination of the Dungeons and Dragons media panic:</p>
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<p>This <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/retro-report-undeserved-notoriety-dungeons-and-dragons/" type="external">story</a> first aired as an interview on PRI's <a href="http://thetakeaway.org" type="external">The Takeaway</a>, a public radio program that invites you to be part of the American conversation.</p> | Looking back on the panic caused by 'Dungeons and Dragons' in the '80s and '90s | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-04-19/looking-back-panic-caused-dungeons-and-dragons-80s-and-90s | 2016-04-19 | 3 |
<p>In this rotten business of freelance magazine writing there’s almost no assignment in which the issue of objectivity fails to rise up like the miasma it is. Any writer who puts his mind on the matter knows that no human being is objective, which is the reason writers sit down at the page in the first place. The writer, an inherently subjective force, will not be divorced from the writing, though God knows there are quacks in the news business who are trying. Computers might achieve this end. Also, certain types of house cats are objective: They know exactly what the truth is, and it is them.</p>
<p>So whence the delusional obsession with “objectivity” in the journalism schools and the pages of the Gray Lady et al.? The pretense and veneer of objectivity is the goal. This renders idiot mistakes and outright falsities so much easier to sell to the public. After all, the marketer of the junk is presented as the all-seeing eye, an authority no less unerring than the babblers at Delphi, no less the product of superstition. Whether we like it or not — whether we recognize it or not — the culture credits “objectivity” in the journalistic establishment as the product of powers greater than known. The news-clown jabbers on screen, says this or that is so … and, lo, it is so. More likely it’s “All the News That’s Shit to Print.”</p>
<p>Let’s not forget that this sleight of hand gets innocent people killed and maimed — see The New York Times’ “objective coverage” of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. If there’s a lesson here, it’s that whenever you hear of governments and organizations fomenting, preparing for or making war, be prejudiced on the side of peace; this is un-American, I know. Whenever you hear a government spokesman speak, your objective assessment should be that he’s lying — this is only logical consistency. Be prejudiced, in fact, against persons associated with organizations large or small, be they members of government, private industry or a block association. Be biased in favor of the lone man against whatever or whoever colludes against men acting alone. For my part, I’ll take the word of the skankiest street hustler over the police commissioner, the buzzing of the gnat over the scream of the 10 gorillas.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most poisonous delusion that today blinds the magazine business in particular is the notion of the so-called news peg, which is the Trojan horse for beating out the competitors and selling ads while attempting to inform the public (this last not a necessity, perhaps even an afterthought). <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Rosenbaum%20" type="external">Ron Rosenbaum</a>, in his collection of magazine work “The Secret Parts of Fortune,” sums up the problem. “The peg — for those blessedly unfamiliar with this innocent looking but insidious little magazine-jargon word — is shorthand for the topical rationale for assigning or running a piece,” writes Rosenbaum. “Most often, lately anyway, shorthand for what about-to-be released movie does this story tie into, and can we get the piece before the movie’s release date because we won’t care about it afterward. The peg is, I believe, the bane, the self-destruction of magazine journalism.” Why? Because magazine articles, like good books, are supposed to make news, bring out into the open the unheard of, the strange, the new. Rosenbaum continues: “I’m just against the doctrine [that] defines topical in the most obvious way — the way most attached to the timetables of the publicity-industrial complex. I prefer things that become topical because some obsessed writer cares about it enough to compel attention to it.”</p>
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<p>Not possible these days, Ron. More than ever, the marketplace is skewed against, conspires against, crushes and spits out this sort of creativity and seriousness in aspiration for the new. The glossy-magazine industry, with few exceptions, is designed to run as a front for the tired old travesties of the admen, they who determine the page count and the “feature well” and thus the space that can be dedicated to things of substance (or things mostly inane but pretending toward substance — the glossies are especially adept at this).</p>
<p>In this regard, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Swinton_(journalist)%20" type="external">John Swinton</a>, who worked at The New York Times and The New York Sun and in various writing gigs from the 1860s to the eve of the 20th century, reminds us that it’s always been about selling copies, that this business of news is just that. Swinton, on a night of drinking with his colleagues in 1880, was asked to make a toast to the “independent press.” He stood up and famously answered: “There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”</p>
<p>Christopher Ketcham, a freelance journalist in New York City, writes for Harper’s, Vanity Fair, GQ and many other magazines. Find more of his work at www.christopherketcham.com or contact him at [email protected].</p> | Intellectual Prostitution and the Myth of Objectivity | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/intellectual-prostitution-and-the-myth-of-objectivity/ | 2011-04-04 | 4 |
<p>Shares in General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV rallied Tuesday even as conditions in the core U.S. auto industry soften, the latest sign Wall Street is willing to give Detroit credit for using a string of record profits to reduce debt and sharpen focus on future technology.</p>
<p>The two auto makers reported dramatically different bottom-line performances in the third-quarter, with GM posting a nearly $3 billion net loss related to the sale of its money-losing European business and production declines in North America. Fiat Chrysler earned $1 billion over the same period on a net basis, up 50% from the third quarter in 2016.</p>
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<p>Investor attention, however, has been trained on the companies' futures.</p>
<p>GM has been pouring money into moonshot technologies, including autonomous vehicles, while retreating from poor-performing markets. The auto maker's revenue fell sharply to $33.6 billion during the quarter, a testament to the company's exit from Europe, India and Russia, and pullback from low-margin businesses in the U.S., including passenger cars and sales to rental companies.</p>
<p>Fiat Chrysler, meanwhile, has been chipping away at debt amid continued interest in finding a partner to merge with. Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne has been late to self-driving car development and electric vehicles, but argues Fiat Chrysler needs to find more scale through a merger before it can effectively compete in those areas.</p>
<p>Shares of GM traded up 2.49% at $46.27 Tuesday morning near their postbankruptcy high point, while Fiat Chrysler traded up 3.96% at $17.22. The continued momentum represents a shot in the arm for at least two of the domestic auto makers that spent several years with market valuations stuck in neutral despite record sales in the U.S. market.</p>
<p>Ford Motor Co. reports third-quarter earnings Thursday. Shares of the No.2 U.S. auto maker, however, haven't budged much even after the company changed CEOs in May.</p>
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<p>Delphi Automotive PLC said Tuesday that it has agreed to buy a self-driving startup for $450 million, boosting the automotive supplier's drive to bring autonomous vehicles to market by the end of the decade.</p>
<p>Delphi's purchase of nuTonomy Inc., a Boston-based software firm focused on automated driving technology firm, positions the combined company as one of the leading players globally in a rapidly developing future market for partially or fully self-driving cars. It comes as part of Delphi's plan to transition from a hardware-dependent component maker to a software-focused service supplier.</p>
<p>GM's bottom line included a $2.3 billion expense from a tax allowance that went away following the August sale of GM's Opel European unit to French car maker Peugeot. GM said net profit was $115 million on continuing operations, minus the year-ago results from the business in Europe.</p>
<p>Operating profit from continuing operations dropped 31% to $2.5 billion, hurt by production cuts in North America. Several factories were idled during the quarter to prepare for new-model launches. GM also has moved aggressively to cut passenger-car production in the face of weak demand, and it continues to trim less-profitable car sales to rental agencies.</p>
<p>The production pullback is a hangover effect from the first half of the year, when GM overbuilt at several factories in anticipation of plant downtime in the third and fourth quarters. But auto makers also have suffered from a severe downturn in demand for passenger cars, which forced GM to cut about 3,000 workers across several U.S. car plants this year.</p>
<p>GM's third-quarter production in North America fell 25%, according to WardsAuto.com, contributing to an 8.3% decline in operating profit. Finance Chief Chuck Stevens said the result "demonstrates resilience" in the North American business given the lower output, and credited GM's recent efforts to cut costs.</p>
<p>GM shares have rallied over the last two months amid analyst focus on advancements in the auto maker's driverless-car program and other advanced technology. Barclays analyst Brian Johnson said in a research note Monday that a better-than-expected quarter from GM even amid the production cuts could help sustain investor momentum.</p>
<p>"We think this quarter could provide yet another data point that the investor perception of GM is shifting," Mr. Johnson said.</p>
<p>Fiat Chrysler shipments in North America -- its largest region -- fell 6% to 592,000, and overall revenue fell 2% to $31 billion.</p>
<p>Fiat Chrysler reported lower-than-expected net debt in the most recent quarter, Evercore ISI said Tuesday, helping lower the auto maker's financing expenses and lifted adjusted operating profit to a record.</p>
<p>Allison Prang contributed to this article</p>
<p>Write to Mike Colias at [email protected] and Chester Dawson at [email protected]</p>
<p>Wall Street is finally rewarding Detroit's old guard auto companies for the direction they are taking, leading them to garner strong stock gains even as the car market is softening.</p>
<p>The industry developments Tuesday highlight a strategy shift that is well under way in the Motor City. Caught off guard by rapid developments and sizable investments in driverless cars and other innovative transportation ideas coming from Silicon Valley tech giants, including Alphabet Inc., Tesla Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc., domestic auto companies have fought back by slimming down or dumping old lines of business and focusing on efforts to reshape the way people get from Point A to B.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, General Motors Co. recorded one of its worst quarterly net-incomes since filing for bankruptcy in 2009, spilling nearly $3 billion in red ink during the July through September period. GM's performance is primarily due to decisions to dump its unprofitable European operations and pare back on low-margin businesses, such as passenger-car production and sales to rental companies. A strong balance sheet, allows the company to plow resources into autonomous driving and electric vehicles.</p>
<p>Delphi Automotive PLC, meanwhile, purchased a popular driverless-car developer, the latest attempt to supercharge the American auto-supply sector's role in reinventing personal transportation.</p>
<p>Ahead of Ford Motor Co.'s third-quarter results Thursday. Chief Executive Jim Hackett unveiled a management shake-up after five months at the helm. Mr. Hackett has said he wants to speed decision making and "attack" costs at Ford, targeting $14 billion in annual savings within five years, aimed at streamlining the core business so it can steer more investment toward driverless cars and electric vehicles.</p>
<p>Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, meanwhile, reported a 50% increase in net earnings, but sales and North American profit growth flatlined over the summer. Still, the company maintained an ambitious outlook and higher-than-expected cash inflows helped chip away a debt load that is seen as a hurdle to the Italian-American auto maker's pursuit of a merger partner.</p>
<p>Citi analyst Itay Michaeli said GM's ability to post an 8.3% margin in North America amid a 26% production cut and "downturn-like conditions," demonstrates the type of resiliency that cyclical domestic car companies once lacked.</p>
<p>Revenue took hit, falling 12% to $33.6 billion. The shrinking top line reflects GM Chief Executive Mary Barra's strategy to pursue profits and game-changing tech over market share.</p>
<p>GM shares touched $46.76 Tuesday, with a $67.5 billion market capitalization representing the highest value since its 2010 initial public offering and an $11 billion lead over Tesla, which is under pressure to launch a mass-market electric car. GM Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said he was "pleased" investors are rewarding progress on the core business and future technology bets.</p>
<p>Mr. Stevens says he believes investors are rewarding "actions we've been taking over the last number of years to build a stronger, more resilient core business."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Fiat Chrysler has benefited by doubling down on production of popular SUVs and trucks. Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne says the company will remain disciplined once it climbs back to positive net cash.</p>
<p>"I don't want to chase rainbows," Mr. Marchionne told financial analysts on a conference call, saying memories of being starved of capital a decade ago after Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy are still fresh. "The scars that this last crisis caused I still have," he said.</p>
<p>Shares in Fiat Chrysler closed $17.45 Tuesday, a 5.45% increase, one of the highest points since the company's formation earlier in the decade.</p>
<p>Ford's market value, which is roughly 25% lower than GM, has barely budged during the short tenure of its new CEO. The shake-up on Tuesday led to the surprise departure of John Casesa, a former investment banker and star auto analyst who was charged with running strategy in 2015 under ex-CEO Mark Fields. The heads of marketing, quality and human resources all elected to leave the company as well.</p>
<p>Ford's board installed Mr. Hackett in May after ousting Mr. Fields amid questions about Ford's direction and culture. Earlier this month, Mr. Hackett briefed investors on broad plans to accelerate Ford's development of autonomous vehicles and electric cars, though his outline left some wanting more specifics.</p>
<p>Delphi's $450 million acquisition of Boston-based NuTonomy Inc. could help the Michigan-headquartered company bring autonomous vehicles to market by the turn of the decade. This is a boost for Detroit's car companies, which have deep ties with Delphi dating back to the days when it was a subsidiary of GM.</p>
<p>Delphi acquired other startups in recent years, including its 2015 purchase of Carnegie Mellon University spinoff Ottomatika Inc., another company that provides software for self-driving cars. This further changes Delphi's profile in the industry from a company that many analysts saw ripe for acquisition into a potential power player.</p>
<p>The deal for NuTonomy -- a spinoff of MIT that attracted attention with its public driverless-car tests in Singapore -- adds top robotic talent to Delphi's growing stable of acquisitions and partnerships as it looks to create an entire autonomous vehicle system that it can sell to auto makers. For NuTonomy, Delphi's scale provides leverage to hasten the industrialization of self-driving technology, allowing it to put its stamp on software installed in millions of future vehicles.</p>
<p>This is a win for the domestic auto-supply chain following the recent acquisition of Harman International Industries by Korea's Samsung Electronics, and the acquisition of Mobileye NV by Intel Corp. earlier this year. Harman and Mobileye are considered pioneers in the development of connected cars that can drive themselves. Delphi wants to join with auto makers on speeding up autonomous-car research and offer its own off-the-shelf solution for car companies that don't have deep pockets.</p>
<p>--Tim Higgins contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Mike Colias at [email protected] and Chester Dawson at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 24, 2017 17:26 ET (21:26 GMT)</p> | GM, Fiat Chrysler Shares Climb As Investors Focus on Companies' Futures | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/24/gm-fiat-chrysler-shares-climb-as-investors-focus-on-companies-futures.html | 2017-10-24 | 0 |
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>GREAT MILLS, Md. (Reuters) - A 17-year-old student shot and critically wounded two fellow students at a Maryland high school on Tuesday morning before dying after exchanging gunfire with a campus security officer, the county sheriff said.</p>
<p>The shooting, which came amid a renewed national debate over gun violence following a school massacre in Florida last month, occurred just before 8 a.m. (1200 GMT) at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County, county Sheriff Timothy Cameron said.</p>
<p>A 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were wounded and taken to hospitals. The girl was in intensive care with life-threatening critical injuries, the sheriff said, while the boy was in good condition.</p>
<p>The gunman was identified as Austin Wyatt Rollins, and Cameron said there was “an indication” of a prior relationship between him and the female student, though he said that was still under investigation.</p>
<p>The latest in a long string of deadly shootings at U.S. schools and colleges took place a little more than a month after 17 students and educators were shot dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.</p>
<p>That massacre sparked a new student movement against gun violence, including a national school walkout last week that Great Mills students participated in. It occurred just days before a planned Saturday march in Washington calling for new restrictions on guns.</p>
<p>Rollins pulled out a Glock semiautomatic handgun around 7:55 a.m. in a hallway and shot the students, the sheriff said.</p>
<p>The attack, which lasted less than a minute, ended after the school resource officer, Deputy 1st Class Sheriff Blaine Gaskill, ran inside the building and engaged with Rollins, with both firing a single round almost simultaneously.</p> Frank Lanham (2nd R), a teacher at Great Mills High School leaves Leonardtown High School in Leonardtown, Maryland, U.S., March 20, 2018. Great Mills students and parents reunited at Lenoardtown after the shooting at their school. REUTERS/Sait Serkan Gurbuz
<p>The officer was not harmed, Cameron sheriff said. Rollins was confirmed deceased at 10:41 a.m. ET after being taken to a hospital.</p>
<p>Parkland students and Great Mills students exchanged supportive messages on Twitter following Tuesday’s shooting.</p> Slideshow (12 Images)
<p>“We are here for you, students of Great Mills, together we can stop this from ever happening again,” Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High School who survived last month’s rampage, wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p>Cameron said investigators would determine whether the shooter died of a wound from the school resource officer’s gun or in some other way.</p>
<p>An armed school resource officer had also been on the campus of Stoneman Douglas at the time of the shooting there, and came under criticism for failing to stop the gunman, who was armed with an AR-15 assault-style rifle. The officer, who resigned, said he had not been sure where the gunfire was coming from.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-maryland-shooting-students/maryland-lockdown-pulls-florida-students-into-twitter-storm-be-strong-idUSKBN1GW2OY" type="external">Maryland lockdown pulls Florida students into Twitter storm: 'Be strong'</a>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association have proposed arming teachers to combat the threat of school shootings, while gun safety advocates have demanded a ban on semiautomatic rifles, among other laws.</p>
<p>The Maryland school is in Great Mills, a community about 70 miles south of Washington.</p>
<p>“You never think it’ll be your school and then it is,” Mollie Davis, who identified herself as a student at the school, wrote on Twitter. “Great Mills is a wonderful school and somewhere I am proud to go. Why us?”</p>
<p>Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Gina Cherelus in New York; writing by Joseph Ax; editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California law that requires Christian-based facilities that steer pregnant women away from abortion to post notices about the availability of state-subsidized abortions ran into trouble at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, with justices on the right and left indicating it may violate free speech rights.</p> Opponents of a California law, requiring anti-abortion pregnancy centers to post signs notifying women of the availability of state-funded contraception and abortion, hold a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Chung
<p>Various justices voiced concern that the Democratic-backed 2015 law was crafted to take aim at a specific viewpoint — opposition to abortion — held by these non-profit facilities called crisis pregnancy centers.</p>
<p>Conservative justices sharply questioned the lawyer representing California, and even two liberal justices expressed unease with parts of the law during an hour-long argument in an appeal by these facilities of a lower court ruling upholding the statute. The court has a 5-4 conservative majority.</p>
<p>The crisis pregnancy centers accuse California of compelling them to advertise for abortion even though it violates their beliefs, running afoul of the guarantee of freedom of speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.</p>
<p>Conservative Justice Samuel Alito said that even if the law looks neutral on its face, it contains so many exemptions that it appears to target only those holding anti-abortion views.</p>
<p>“Do you think it’s possible to infer intentional discrimination?” Alito asked Joshua Klein, California’s deputy solicitor general.</p>
<p>Liberal Justice Elena Kagan pressed Klein on the same concerns, wondering whether the law was applied only to “speakers whose speech we don’t much like.” Klein said the law was applied to be useful to pregnant women.</p>
<p>California’s Reproductive FACT Act, passed by a Democratic-led legislature and signed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, requires centers licensed as family planning facilities to post or distribute notices that the state has programs offering free or low-cost birth control and abortion services. It also requires unlicensed facilities that may have no medical provider on staff to disclose that fact.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, and the wider issue of abortion rights is not at issue in the case.</p>
<p>Crisis pregnancy centers say they offer legitimate health services but that it is their mission to steer women with unplanned pregnancies away from abortion. California says some crisis pregnancy centers mislead women by presenting themselves as full-service reproductive healthcare facilities and the law helps ensure clients are made aware of abortion services available elsewhere.</p>
<p>The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law in 2016, finding it did not discriminate based on viewpoint.</p> Anti-abortion rights demonstrators stand by a pile of discarded protest signs as they rally outside as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the abortion case National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra, in Washington, U.S. March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst ‘CHOOSE LIFE’
<p>Conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy suggested that if the statute required unlicensed centers to add the disclosure about having no medical provider to a billboard that simply stated “Choose Life” - a slogan for people who oppose abortion - it would violate the Constitution.</p>
<p>Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed that such an advertising requirement would be wrong.</p>
<p>Some of the questions from liberal justices suggested they had one eye on future cases in which conservative states pass laws imposing restrictions on abortion clinics.</p>
<p>Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer expressed concern over setting a legal standard that would be seen to favor one side of the abortion debate over the other. Any sort of disclosure law should apply equally whether passed in a state that supports abortion rights or in one that tries to limit them, Breyer said.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>If a “pro-life state can tell a doctor you have to tell people about adoption, why can’t a pro-choice state tell a doctor, a facility ... you have to tell people about abortion?” Breyer asked Michael Farris, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom conservative legal group representing the crisis pregnancy centers.</p>
<p>“What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,” Breyer said.</p>
<p>Farris said while doctors performing medical interventions like abortion can be legally required to discuss the benefits or risks of the procedures, those who merely talk about abortion need not be held to same standard.</p>
<p>“We should not politicize the practice of medicine in that way,” Farris said.</p>
<p>Abortion rights advocates say the roughly 2,700 U.S. anti-abortion pregnancy centers, including around 200 in California, far outnumber facilities providing abortions.</p>
<p>The California challengers are the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, an umbrella group for crisis pregnancy centers, and two such facilities in San Diego County.</p>
<p>California told the justices in legal papers that some centers use incomplete or false medical advice to try to prevent women from having an abortion. Some resemble medical clinics, down to lab coats worn by staff, to try to confuse women into thinking they are at a facility offering all options, the state added. The facilities deny using deceptive tactics.</p>
<p>A ruling is due by the end of June.</p>
<p>Reporting by Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The world’s financial leaders on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to fighting protectionism but called for “further dialogue and actions” on trade, just days before U.S. metals tariffs take effect and U.S. President Donald Trump readies sanctions on China.</p> Finance ministers and Central Bank presidents pose for the official photo at the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
<p>Finance ministers and central bankers of the world’s 20 biggest economies, the G20, issued the change to their communique as a two-day meeting in Buenos Aires drew to a close amid worries about the potential for a global trade war.</p>
<p>The statement added a phrase that was not in their initial draft, which stresses the need for further talks on trade issues.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-g20-argentina-trade/g20-talks-on-trade-constructive-no-concern-of-trade-war-argentina-idUSKBN1GW2PU" type="external">G20 talks on trade 'constructive,' no concern of trade war: Argentina</a>
<a href="/article/us-g20-argentina-imf/imfs-lagarde-urges-g20-to-avoid-exceptional-trade-measures-idUSKBN1GW2NZ" type="external">IMF's Lagarde urges G20 to avoid 'exceptional' trade measures</a>
<a href="/article/us-g20-argentina-communique/g20-financial-leaders-say-need-more-dialogue-on-trade-as-u-s-tariffs-loom-idUSKBN1GW2JG" type="external">G20 financial leaders say need more dialogue on trade as U.S tariffs loom</a>
<p>“International trade and investment are important engines of growth, productivity, innovation, job creation and development,” the G20 said. “We reaffirm the conclusions of our leaders on trade at the Hamburg Summit and recognize the need for further dialogue and actions. We are working to strengthen contribution of trade to our economies.”</p>
<p>Many G20 officials fought hard at the meeting to preserve language from the Hamburg Summit, which was signed by Trump in July 2017, which said that G20 countries would “continue to fight protectionism including all unfair trade practices.”</p>
<p>The Hamburg statement also said that G20 leaders “recognize the role of legitimate trade defense instruments”, an ambiguity which provides the U.S. with a way to argue its cause on the tariffs. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs are based on a Cold War-era national security trade law.</p> Argentina's Central Bank President Federico Sturzenegger speaks during a news conference at the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
<p>The new G20 language on the need for trade dialogue comes as Trump is readying plans to punish China with tariffs over its intellectual property practices.</p>
<p>Two officials briefed on the matter said Trump is expected to unveil tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese technology and telecoms products by Friday, the same day when a tariff of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum are to apply.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>In the final communique, the G20 ministers repeated their traditional pledges to refrain from competitive devaluations and avoid targeting their foreign exchange rates for export advantage.</p>
<p>But they also added some new language on exchange rates, emphasizing stability and flexibility:</p>
<p>“Strong fundamentals, sound policies, and a resilient international monetary system are essential to the stability of exchange rates, contributing to strong and sustainable growth and investment. Flexible exchange rates, where feasible, can serve as a shock absorber,” the communique said.</p>
<p>The G20 also called for continued international monitoring of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and their risks. It said these assets raised issues with consumer and investor protections, market integrity, money laundering and terrorist financing.</p>
<p>“Crypto-assets lack the key attributes of sovereign currencies. At some point they could have financial stability implications,” the G20 ministers said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Luc Cohen, Francesco Canepa and Leika Kihara; Editing by Paul Simao and Rosalba O'Brien</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Discussions on international trade between the financial leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies gathered in Buenos Aires this week had a “constructive spirit,” Argentine central bank Governor Federico Sturzenegger said on Tuesday.</p> Argentina's Central Bank President Federico Sturzenegger speaks during a news conference at the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
<p>At a press conference closing the two-day G20 meeting, Argentine Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne said delegates spoke in general terms on trade, and did not give the sense the world was heading toward a trade war. Planned U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports were not directly addressed, he said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Luc Cohen and Mitra Taj; Editing by Andrea Ricci</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Australia shares set to open lower; NZ flat Maryland high school shooter dies after gunfight with officer: sheriff U.S. high court skeptical toward California law on anti-abortion centers G20 ministers call for 'further dialogue and actions' on trade G20 talks on trade 'constructive,' no concern of trade war: Argentina | false | https://reuters.com/article/australia-stocks-morning/australia-shares-set-to-open-lower-nz-flat-idUSL4N1PJ5IO | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>DreamWorks Animation (NASDAQ:DWA) reported mixed fourth-quarter results, announcing earnings-per-share that missed the Street’s view but posting better-than-expected revenue for the quarter.</p>
<p>The animated film company reported a fourth-quarter profit of $24.3 million, or 29 cents a share, compared with year-ago earnings of $85.2 million, or $1.01 a share.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Revenue fell to $219 million, down from $276 million in the fourth quarter of last year.</p>
<p>Analyst consensus was for 32 cents a share on revenue of $207.47 million, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.</p>
<p>The company touted the performance of its two feature films in 2011, boasting that Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots brought in $1.2 billion at the box office, globally. Both films were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.</p>
<p>"After its initial weekend, Puss In Boots is off to an excellent start in its domestic home video release and we are now looking ahead to the next big event for the Company: the theatrical release of Madagascar 3 on June 8, 2012,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, in a statement.</p>
<p>The company went on to say that fiscal 2012 results will be mostly driven by the performance of Madagascar 3, while first-quarter results will be mostly dependant on the international box office performance of Puss in Boots and its home video release.</p>
<p>Shares of DreamWorks rose 2% in Tuesday’s session, finishing the day at $19.65 a share. The stock was off as much as 66 cents, or 3.4%, following the release of results. Year-to-date, shares of DreamWorks are up 18.5%.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Dreamworks Shares Slide on Mixed 4Q | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/02/28/dreamworks-shares-slide-on-mixed-4q.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>BUIES CREEK, N.C. (AP) - Chris Clemons scored 33 points and Campbell beat Winthrop 88-77 on Saturday in the teams' first meeting since last season's Big South title game.</p>
<p>The Eagles (7-7, 1-2) won the 2017 league championship game 76-59 but Saturday the Camels (7-8, 1-2) shot 58 percent and made 31 of 37 at the line to snap a four-game losing streak to Winthrop.</p>
<p>Clemons, the Big South scoring leader, made 9 of 12 shots and 13 of 15 free throws in extending his nation-leading double-figure scoring streak to 63 games and rising to third on Campbell's all-time scoring list with 1,745 points, passing Johnny Marshbanks (1,723 points from 1965-69).</p>
<p>Winthrop came in averaging a league-leading 10.3 3-pointers per game but was just 7 of 28 Saturday. The Eagles did make 20 of 26 free throws in a game with 49 fouls and 63 free throws.</p>
<p>Campbell led by 12 at halftime. Winthrop cut the lead to four a couple times in the second half, but Campbell rebuilt a 14-point advantage with five minutes left and the Eagles got only as close as nine after that.</p>
<p>Marcus Burk added 17 points and Mogga Lado a career-high 14 for Campbell.</p>
<p>Xavier Cooks scored 24 points with 12 rebounds to lead Winthrop with his 25th career double-double.</p>
<p>BUIES CREEK, N.C. (AP) - Chris Clemons scored 33 points and Campbell beat Winthrop 88-77 on Saturday in the teams' first meeting since last season's Big South title game.</p>
<p>The Eagles (7-7, 1-2) won the 2017 league championship game 76-59 but Saturday the Camels (7-8, 1-2) shot 58 percent and made 31 of 37 at the line to snap a four-game losing streak to Winthrop.</p>
<p>Clemons, the Big South scoring leader, made 9 of 12 shots and 13 of 15 free throws in extending his nation-leading double-figure scoring streak to 63 games and rising to third on Campbell's all-time scoring list with 1,745 points, passing Johnny Marshbanks (1,723 points from 1965-69).</p>
<p>Winthrop came in averaging a league-leading 10.3 3-pointers per game but was just 7 of 28 Saturday. The Eagles did make 20 of 26 free throws in a game with 49 fouls and 63 free throws.</p>
<p>Campbell led by 12 at halftime. Winthrop cut the lead to four a couple times in the second half, but Campbell rebuilt a 14-point advantage with five minutes left and the Eagles got only as close as nine after that.</p>
<p>Marcus Burk added 17 points and Mogga Lado a career-high 14 for Campbell.</p>
<p>Xavier Cooks scored 24 points with 12 rebounds to lead Winthrop with his 25th career double-double.</p> | Clemons scores 33 as Campbell tops Winthrop 88-77 | false | https://apnews.com/b7af752c190747608bcde763532c9a6c | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p>The Washington Post's Greg Sargent has a scary look at the plans of two GOP presidential contenders regarding Iran. My God, these Republicans are a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/07/20/scott-walker-we-might-have-to-take-military-action-against-iran-on-day-one/" type="external">bloodthirsty bunch:</a></p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/bush-vs-walker-catches-fire-over-iran-nuclear-deal_994073.html?page=1" type="external">dispute has erupted between Scott Walker and Jeb Bush over how to handle the task of undoing Obama’s Iran deal as president</a>, with Bush hinting that Walker is approaching the issue with a lack of maturity, and Walker suggesting that Bush is not zealous enough about confronting the enemy.</p>
<p>Walker is also saying that it’s “very possible” the next president will have to take military action on Day One of his presidency — though it’s unclear whether he means against Iran in particular, or more generally.</p>
<p>The argument says a lot about the two candidates’ differing calculations with regard to the level of nuance GOP primary voters are prepared to entertain about the Iran deal, and more broadly, about foreign policy in general.</p>
<p>But I think the dispute also underscores <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/07/17/david-axelrod-hillary-clinton-and-democrats-can-win-the-iran-debate/" type="external">the point made by David Axelrod last week</a>: That for all the professed GOP confidence about the domestic politics of the agreement, it could prove to be more of a political problem for the GOP presidential candidates than for Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/bush-vs-walker-catches-fire-over-iran-nuclear-deal_994073.html?page=1" type="external">Weekly Standard reports</a> that Bush said this to a voter in Nevada:</p>
<p>“One thing that I won’t do is just say, as a candidate, ‘I’m going to tear up the agreement on the first day.’ That’s great, that sounds great but maybe you ought to check in with your allies first, maybe you ought to appoint a secretary of state, maybe secretary of defense, you might want to have your team in place, before you take an act like that.”</p>
<p>That was a shot at Walker, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/02/scott-walker-ill-blow-up-any-iran-deal-no-matter-what-our-european-allies-think/" type="external">who has said he would undo an Iran deal</a> on Day One of his presidency, regardless of what our allies have to say about it. Bush subsequently stood by his remarks, noting that on Day One, he would not yet have had the intelligence briefings required to make an informed decision. Bush added: “If you’re running for president, you know, I think it’s important to be mature and thoughtful about this.”</p>
<p>Yes, mature and thoughtful -- before you do the same thing, only slower.</p> | Scott Walker: Military Action Possible 'On Day One' | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2015/07/scott-walker-military-action-possible-day | 2015-07-22 | 4 |
<p>A bill that would give large electric utilities an alternative way to comply with a state law requiring more energy from renewable sources passed the Washington Senate on Monday night after a protracted fight over whether climate change is real and if humans contribute to it.</p>
<p>Senate Bill 5735, sponsored by Republican Sen. Doug Ericksen, passed the chamber on a mostly party line 26-23 vote and now heads to the Democrat-controlled House, where it is likely to face resistance. The measure would allow utilities to meet their targets under Initiative 937 by investing in carbon reduction.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The current state law requires nearly a third of the state's utilities - those with at least 25,000 customers - to get 15 percent of their power from wind, solar, geothermal and certain woody biomass by 2020.</p>
<p>Under the bill that passed the Senate, anything that reduces carbon would qualify, such as the installation of electric vehicle chargers. Utilities could also spend 1 percent of their retail revenue on carbon reduction in order to meet the initiative's requirements.</p>
<p>Supporters say it gives utilities more flexibility and reduces energy costs while reducing carbon emissions.</p>
<p>"Conservation is important," said Sen. Linda Evans Parlette, a Republican from Wenatchee. "This bill allows a choice. If you want to continue to rely on windmills, you can do that. But there's a real incentive to improve conservation, to make choices, and that's what the free market is all about."</p>
<p>Critics say the bill is too broad and undermines the intent of the law.</p>
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<p>"We should listen to the voters' will," said Sen. Kevin Ranker, a Democrat from Orcas Island. "And companies who did the right thing and invested shouldn't get to see their colleagues step off an off ramp here."</p>
<p>Before lawmakers even voted on the bill, they first battled over wording of an amendment adding an intent section to the bill. Last week, Senate Democrats had tried to pass an amendment saying that climate change is real and humans contribute significantly to climate change. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen ruled Monday that the amendment, proposed by Democratic Sen. Cyrus Habib, was not outside the scope of Senate Bill 5735, following a challenge by Republicans on Friday.</p>
<p>But before senators voted on Habib's amendment, Ericksen succeeded in amending it to say that human activity "may contribute" to climate change, rather than that it "significantly contributes" to it.</p>
<p>That set off heated debate on the floor, with some Democrats arguing for unequivocal language.</p>
<p>"I appreciate the fact that reasonable people can disagree on Initiative 937. I appreciate the fact that reasonable people can disagree on the steps that we ought to take to reduce carbon emissions," said Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle. "But I think there can be no reasonable dispute that human activities contribute to climate change."</p>
<p>Ericksen responded that "we can spend all night going back and forth with regards to my study vs. your study."</p>
<p>"That's the problem with this particular issue," he said.</p>
<p>The Senate ultimately approved Ericksen's amendment on a 29-20 vote.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Phuong Le in Seattle contributed to this story.</p> | Senate approves bill giving large utilities options increasing renewable sources | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/03/09/senate-approves-bill-giving-large-utilities-options-increasing-renewable.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />PHILADELPHIA — Cable and Internet giant Comcast is apologizing after a tech-savvy California customer posted eight minutes of telephone conversation online in which he tried repeatedly to get a customer service representative to disconnect his service.</p>
<p>The customer, Ryan Block, succeeds in getting the unidentified Comcast rep to agree to disconnect his service, but only after the rep repeatedly asks Block for a reason. At one point, Block says, “I can guarantee right now that you are doing an incredibly good job of helping your company be worse.”</p>
<p>Philadelphia-based Comcast said Tuesday the employee’s behavior is unacceptable and the company is “embarrassed” by it. Comcast said it would contact Block to apologize.</p>
<p>Block, who says he is a vice president for AOL, said he expects to talk to Comcast personnel.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Comcast ’embarrassed’ by customer service rep | false | https://abqjournal.com/429570/comcast-embarrassed-by-customer-service-rep.html | 2 |
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<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday evening’s drawing of the Minnesota Lottery’s “Northstar Cash” game were:</p>
<p>04-19-28-29-30</p>
<p>(four, nineteen, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $27,000</p>
<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday evening’s drawing of the Minnesota Lottery’s “Northstar Cash” game were:</p>
<p>04-19-28-29-30</p>
<p>(four, nineteen, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $27,000</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Northstar Cash’ game | false | https://apnews.com/5cf74057fc8143ccac881e080727aa34 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the government shutdown (all times local):</p>
<p>10:50 p.m.</p>
<p>As the Senate appears to inch closer to an agreement to end a shutdown, the White House says President Donald Trump won't budge on his demand that Democrats vote to reopen the government before negotiating on immigration policy.</p>
<p>White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders accuses Democrats of trying to distract from Trump's first-year accomplishments and calls on them to drop opposition to spending legislation. She says only then can leaders work together for bipartisan solutions on immigration changes.</p>
<p>She emphasizes Trump won't "negotiate on the status of unlawful immigrants" while Democrats, as she put it, hold the "government and our military hostage."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The government shutdown will continue into Monday.</p>
<p>The Senate will vote at noon on Monday on whether to cut off a Democratic filibuster of legislation to end the government shutdown.</p>
<p>Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said there is still no agreement to pass the stopgap funding bill.</p>
<p>Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set the vote after Schumer blocked a bid for an immediate vote Sunday night. McConnell said he intends to bring up free-standing immigration legislation in February.</p>
<p>Democrats have blocked a House-passed temporary funding bill to reopen the government's doors through Feb. 16. The pending Senate measure would last through Feb. 8.</p>
<p>A host of the chamber's more pragmatic members are pressing to resolve the shutdown mess. Schumer said there have been talks throughout Sunday with McConnell.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The White House says President Donald Trump has spoken with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn on the second day of a government shutdown.</p>
<p>The White House put out a brief statement Sunday detailing the president's activities, saying the administration was hard at work. Trump has also received updates from staff and has spoken to aides about the impact of the shutdown.</p>
<p>Chief of Staff John Kelly has spoken with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. And the director of legislative affairs, Marc Short, has spoken to Republican and Democratic members and staffers.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing back against President Donald Trump's calls to end Senate filibusters.</p>
<p>When filibusters of legislation are underway, it takes 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to halt them.</p>
<p>Republicans now control the chamber 51-49. But strong Democratic opposition and some defecting GOP senators have kept Republicans from getting the votes needed to end the shutdown - now in its second day.</p>
<p>McConnell has long defended the filibuster. He says Republicans will welcome it whenever they are returned to the Senate minority.</p>
<p>As the Senate began a rare Sunday session, the Kentucky Republican said: "I support that right from an institutional point of view." But he also said, "The question is, when do you use it."</p>
<p>Trump has made repeated calls this year to end that rule, and did it again Sunday in a tweet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:30 a.m.</p>
<p>House Speaker Paul Ryan says that if Democrats want to protect young immigrants in the country illegally, they should vote for a short-term spending bill.</p>
<p>The Wisconsin Republican says, "Open the government back up and then we'll get back to negotiating."</p>
<p>The federal government entered the second day of a shutdown Sunday.</p>
<p>Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," Ryan says good-faith negotiations on an immigration deal are taking place, though Democrats take issue with that assessment.</p>
<p>As a citizen, Donald Trump criticized President Barack Obama during the 2013 government shutdown for failing to "lead" and getting everyone in the room.</p>
<p>Ryan says on the current shutdown, "you can't blame Donald Trump for the Senate Democrats shutting down the government."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:05 a.m.</p>
<p>Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling on Republicans to "sit down and talk" with Democrats on immigration in an effort to reopen the government.</p>
<p>The former Democratic presidential candidate said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the reality is that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to get anything done.</p>
<p>He says, "What we should be doing is negotiating."</p>
<p>Sanders maintains that government funding legislation must provide legal status for the roughly 700,000 young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.</p>
<p>The White House has said it won't negotiate on immigration until Democrats vote to reopen the government.</p>
<p>Sanders is unapologetic about his own criticism of Republicans for shutting down the government in 2013, saying President Barack Obama wasn't going to repeal his health care law.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:55 a.m.</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence is blasting Congress for playing politics with military pay by failing to keep the government open.</p>
<p>Pence told U.S. soldiers stationed near the Syrian border on Sunday: "You deserve better." He says the soldiers and their families "shouldn't have to worry about getting paid."</p>
<p>Pence spoke to troops in the Middle East as Democrats and Republicans in Congress show few signs of progress on negotiations to end the government shutdown.</p>
<p>The vice president says President Donald Trump's administration will not reopen negotiations "on illegal immigration" until Congress reopens the government and until soldiers and their families receive "the benefits and wages you've earned."</p>
<p>Uniformed service members and law enforcement officers are among the essential government employees who will be working without pay until the federal government reopens.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:50 a.m.</p>
<p>Republican Sen. Rand Paul is calling the shutdown blame game "ridiculous on both sides."</p>
<p>The senator from Kentucky said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union": "It's gamesmanship and it's partisanship."</p>
<p>Paul was among a handful of Republicans who voted with most Democrats against the House bill to keep the government open. He says he's opposed to short-term fiscal bills.</p>
<p>Paul called on Republican leadership in both chambers of Congress to commit to a week of debate and a vote on immigration legislation in the next month, to win over Democratic votes to reopen the government.</p>
<p>But Democrats are insisting that long-term funding legislation include protections for roughly 700,000 young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children - not just a vote on their status.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:40 a.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump says if the government shutdown drags on, Republicans should consider changing the rules in the Senate to make it easier to pass legislation without votes from Democrats.</p>
<p>But Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois says that would mean the end of the Senate as the Founding Fathers envisioned it.</p>
<p>The shutdown is now in its second day. Lawmakers are set to return to work on Capitol Hill later Sunday but there's no sign of a possible deal.</p>
<p>The Republican president is floating the idea of doing away with the 60-vote threshold to advance legislation and deny the minority party the chance to stall.</p>
<p>Senate Republicans now hold a 51-49 edge.</p>
<p>Durbin tells ABC's "This Week" that "we have to acknowledge a respect for the minority."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:20 a.m.</p>
<p>White House budget director Mick Mulvaney is defending himself from charges of hypocrisy in his attacks on Democrats over the government shutdown, given his own role at the center of the last fiscal clash in 2013.</p>
<p>Mulvaney said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union: "Everything that was in the bill Democrats support and have voted for previously." He says, "This is pure politics."</p>
<p>Mulvaney was a conservative member of the House in 2013 when a showdown over "Obamacare" funding led to the last shutdown.</p>
<p>Mulvaney reiterated Sunday that the administration won't negotiate with Democrats on immigration or a longer-term spending bill until they vote to reopen the government.</p>
<p>He says, "They need to open the government tonight or tomorrow and then we can start talking."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:45 a.m.</p>
<p>Feuding Democrats and Republicans in Congress are trying to dodge blame for a paralyzing standoff over immigration and showing few signs of progress on negotiations needed to end a government shutdown.</p>
<p>The finger-pointing played out in both the House and Senate, where lawmakers were eager to show voters they were actively working for a solution - or at least actively making the case the other party was at fault. The scene highlighted political stakes for both parties in an election-year shutdown.</p>
<p>Democrats refused to provide votes needed to reopen government until they strike a deal with President Donald Trump protecting young immigrants from deportation, providing disaster relief and boosting spending for opioid treatment and other domestic programs.</p>
<p>The Senate planned a vote by early Monday on a spending extension.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the government shutdown (all times local):</p>
<p>10:50 p.m.</p>
<p>As the Senate appears to inch closer to an agreement to end a shutdown, the White House says President Donald Trump won't budge on his demand that Democrats vote to reopen the government before negotiating on immigration policy.</p>
<p>White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders accuses Democrats of trying to distract from Trump's first-year accomplishments and calls on them to drop opposition to spending legislation. She says only then can leaders work together for bipartisan solutions on immigration changes.</p>
<p>She emphasizes Trump won't "negotiate on the status of unlawful immigrants" while Democrats, as she put it, hold the "government and our military hostage."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The government shutdown will continue into Monday.</p>
<p>The Senate will vote at noon on Monday on whether to cut off a Democratic filibuster of legislation to end the government shutdown.</p>
<p>Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said there is still no agreement to pass the stopgap funding bill.</p>
<p>Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set the vote after Schumer blocked a bid for an immediate vote Sunday night. McConnell said he intends to bring up free-standing immigration legislation in February.</p>
<p>Democrats have blocked a House-passed temporary funding bill to reopen the government's doors through Feb. 16. The pending Senate measure would last through Feb. 8.</p>
<p>A host of the chamber's more pragmatic members are pressing to resolve the shutdown mess. Schumer said there have been talks throughout Sunday with McConnell.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The White House says President Donald Trump has spoken with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn on the second day of a government shutdown.</p>
<p>The White House put out a brief statement Sunday detailing the president's activities, saying the administration was hard at work. Trump has also received updates from staff and has spoken to aides about the impact of the shutdown.</p>
<p>Chief of Staff John Kelly has spoken with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. And the director of legislative affairs, Marc Short, has spoken to Republican and Democratic members and staffers.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing back against President Donald Trump's calls to end Senate filibusters.</p>
<p>When filibusters of legislation are underway, it takes 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to halt them.</p>
<p>Republicans now control the chamber 51-49. But strong Democratic opposition and some defecting GOP senators have kept Republicans from getting the votes needed to end the shutdown - now in its second day.</p>
<p>McConnell has long defended the filibuster. He says Republicans will welcome it whenever they are returned to the Senate minority.</p>
<p>As the Senate began a rare Sunday session, the Kentucky Republican said: "I support that right from an institutional point of view." But he also said, "The question is, when do you use it."</p>
<p>Trump has made repeated calls this year to end that rule, and did it again Sunday in a tweet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:30 a.m.</p>
<p>House Speaker Paul Ryan says that if Democrats want to protect young immigrants in the country illegally, they should vote for a short-term spending bill.</p>
<p>The Wisconsin Republican says, "Open the government back up and then we'll get back to negotiating."</p>
<p>The federal government entered the second day of a shutdown Sunday.</p>
<p>Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," Ryan says good-faith negotiations on an immigration deal are taking place, though Democrats take issue with that assessment.</p>
<p>As a citizen, Donald Trump criticized President Barack Obama during the 2013 government shutdown for failing to "lead" and getting everyone in the room.</p>
<p>Ryan says on the current shutdown, "you can't blame Donald Trump for the Senate Democrats shutting down the government."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:05 a.m.</p>
<p>Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling on Republicans to "sit down and talk" with Democrats on immigration in an effort to reopen the government.</p>
<p>The former Democratic presidential candidate said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the reality is that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to get anything done.</p>
<p>He says, "What we should be doing is negotiating."</p>
<p>Sanders maintains that government funding legislation must provide legal status for the roughly 700,000 young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.</p>
<p>The White House has said it won't negotiate on immigration until Democrats vote to reopen the government.</p>
<p>Sanders is unapologetic about his own criticism of Republicans for shutting down the government in 2013, saying President Barack Obama wasn't going to repeal his health care law.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:55 a.m.</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence is blasting Congress for playing politics with military pay by failing to keep the government open.</p>
<p>Pence told U.S. soldiers stationed near the Syrian border on Sunday: "You deserve better." He says the soldiers and their families "shouldn't have to worry about getting paid."</p>
<p>Pence spoke to troops in the Middle East as Democrats and Republicans in Congress show few signs of progress on negotiations to end the government shutdown.</p>
<p>The vice president says President Donald Trump's administration will not reopen negotiations "on illegal immigration" until Congress reopens the government and until soldiers and their families receive "the benefits and wages you've earned."</p>
<p>Uniformed service members and law enforcement officers are among the essential government employees who will be working without pay until the federal government reopens.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:50 a.m.</p>
<p>Republican Sen. Rand Paul is calling the shutdown blame game "ridiculous on both sides."</p>
<p>The senator from Kentucky said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union": "It's gamesmanship and it's partisanship."</p>
<p>Paul was among a handful of Republicans who voted with most Democrats against the House bill to keep the government open. He says he's opposed to short-term fiscal bills.</p>
<p>Paul called on Republican leadership in both chambers of Congress to commit to a week of debate and a vote on immigration legislation in the next month, to win over Democratic votes to reopen the government.</p>
<p>But Democrats are insisting that long-term funding legislation include protections for roughly 700,000 young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children - not just a vote on their status.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:40 a.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump says if the government shutdown drags on, Republicans should consider changing the rules in the Senate to make it easier to pass legislation without votes from Democrats.</p>
<p>But Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois says that would mean the end of the Senate as the Founding Fathers envisioned it.</p>
<p>The shutdown is now in its second day. Lawmakers are set to return to work on Capitol Hill later Sunday but there's no sign of a possible deal.</p>
<p>The Republican president is floating the idea of doing away with the 60-vote threshold to advance legislation and deny the minority party the chance to stall.</p>
<p>Senate Republicans now hold a 51-49 edge.</p>
<p>Durbin tells ABC's "This Week" that "we have to acknowledge a respect for the minority."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:20 a.m.</p>
<p>White House budget director Mick Mulvaney is defending himself from charges of hypocrisy in his attacks on Democrats over the government shutdown, given his own role at the center of the last fiscal clash in 2013.</p>
<p>Mulvaney said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union: "Everything that was in the bill Democrats support and have voted for previously." He says, "This is pure politics."</p>
<p>Mulvaney was a conservative member of the House in 2013 when a showdown over "Obamacare" funding led to the last shutdown.</p>
<p>Mulvaney reiterated Sunday that the administration won't negotiate with Democrats on immigration or a longer-term spending bill until they vote to reopen the government.</p>
<p>He says, "They need to open the government tonight or tomorrow and then we can start talking."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:45 a.m.</p>
<p>Feuding Democrats and Republicans in Congress are trying to dodge blame for a paralyzing standoff over immigration and showing few signs of progress on negotiations needed to end a government shutdown.</p>
<p>The finger-pointing played out in both the House and Senate, where lawmakers were eager to show voters they were actively working for a solution - or at least actively making the case the other party was at fault. The scene highlighted political stakes for both parties in an election-year shutdown.</p>
<p>Democrats refused to provide votes needed to reopen government until they strike a deal with President Donald Trump protecting young immigrants from deportation, providing disaster relief and boosting spending for opioid treatment and other domestic programs.</p>
<p>The Senate planned a vote by early Monday on a spending extension.</p> | The Latest: Trump insists immigration talk comes later | false | https://apnews.com/amp/f828c64ce4ec45e0992454bd1e370a71 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Dec. 12 (UPI) — Oftentimes in fantasy <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Walker/" type="external">football</a>, your starting quarterback is your “ride or die.”</p>
<p>Stars like <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tom_Brady/" type="external">Tom Brady</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Drew_Brees/" type="external">Drew Brees</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Aaron_Rodgers/" type="external">Aaron Rodgers</a> should never be benched when healthy. But the emergence of great passing games around the league has made other passers more relevant than ever before.</p>
<p>There are also several quarterbacks capable of producing fantasy points for you due to their running ability.</p>
<p>This week, I have <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Pittsburgh_Steelers/" type="external">Pittsburgh Steelers</a> veteran <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ben_Roethlisberger/" type="external">Ben Roethlisberger</a> ranked as my No. 1 quarterback for Week 15. Behind Big Ben, I have Brady, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cam_Newton/" type="external">Cam Newton</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Russell_Wilson/" type="external">Russell Wilson</a> and Brees.</p>
<p>But there are also several other passers available if you are in a jam from losing superstar <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carson-Wentz/" type="external">Carson Wentz</a> or if you just need more from the position in the fantasy football playoffs.</p>
<p>You can read about some of my favorite options this week in the descriptions below. A full list of my top 20 rankings is underneath the descriptions.</p>
<p>Here are my Top 20 options at the position this week.</p>
<p>TOP 20 WEEK 15 RANKINGS BELOW</p>
<p>TOP SHELF</p>
<p>Pittsburgh Steelers star Ben Roethlisberger has thrown for a remarkable 1,446 yards in his last four games. He also has 14 passing scores against just three interceptions during that span. The Steelers are on an eight-game winning streak heading into a huge AFC matchup against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_England_Patriots/" type="external">New England Patriots</a> Sunday at Heinz Field. I’m expecting Roethlisberger to obliterate this defense, which just gave up three passing scores to <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jay_Cutler/" type="external">Jay Cutler</a>. Roethlisberger is my No. 1 fantasy football quarterback for Week 15 against a unit allowing the fifth-most fantasy points per game and third-most passing yards to opposing quarterbacks.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-Orleans-Saints/" type="external">New Orleans Saints</a> star Drew Brees is my No. 5 option for Week 15. Brees and the Saints are hosting the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Jets/" type="external">New York Jets</a>, a defense tied for allowing the third-most fantasy points per game to opposing passers. Brees’ touchdown total isn’t as high as it hs been in past years, but he still has 3,569 passing yards and is conducting one of the best attacks in the NFL. He remains a high-upside QB1.</p>
<p>SNEAKY PLAYS</p>
<p>Los Angeles Chargers quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Philip_Rivers/" type="external">Philip Rivers</a> is my No. 6 option for Week 15. Rivers and the Chargers are facing the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kansas-City-Chiefs/" type="external">Kansas City Chiefs</a> in an AFC West showdown. The Chiefs are allowing the sixth-most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks. Rivers has 1,097 yards in his last three starts. I expect another huge yardage total in this bout for the QB1.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dallas-Cowboys/" type="external">Dallas Cowboys</a> sophomore <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dak-Prescott/" type="external">Dak Prescott</a> gets a matchup this weekend against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Oakland-Raiders/" type="external">Oakland Raiders</a>. He is penciled in as my No. 8 option in Week 15 against a unit allowing the eighth-most fantasy points per game and sixth-most passing scores to opposing quarterbacks. Prescott is coming off of his best performance of the season. Last week against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_York_Giants/" type="external">New York Giants</a>, he threw for 332 yards and tossed three scores, while not throwing an interception. I expect a QB1 performance again against this struggling Raiders unit.</p>
<p>LONGSHOTS</p>
<p>You might not believe this, but <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Blake-Bortles/" type="external">Blake Bortles</a> is a solid starter at quarterback in your fantasy football playoffs. Well, at least this week. I have the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jacksonville-Jaguars/" type="external">Jacksonville Jaguars</a> gunslinger ranked as a low-end QB1 in deeper leagues as my No. 13 option for Week 15. The Jaguars are hosting the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Houston-Texans/" type="external">Houston Texans</a> Sunday, a unit allowing the third-most fantasy points per game and third-most passing scores to opposing quarterbacks. Bortles has thrown multiple touchdowns in back-to-back games for the first time all season and should do so again here.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Philadelphia-Eagles/" type="external">Philadelphia Eagles</a> might have lost NFL MVP candidate Carson Wentz for the season, but not many other teams have the luxury of turning to a Pro Bowl backup. While he wouldn’t be an exciting start, Nick Foles isn’t a terrible option for your fantasy football lineup. Foles comes in as a risky QB1 play against the New York Giants. The Giants have allowed more passing scores than any team in football. New York is also allowing the most fantasy points per game and second-most passing yards to opposing passers. Foles is my No. 18 option for Week 15 in this spot, but use him if you are desperate.</p> | Fantasy Football: Week 15 quarterback rankings | false | https://newsline.com/fantasy-football-week-15-quarterback-rankings/ | 2017-12-12 | 1 |
<p>your email</p>
<p>your name</p>
<p>recipient(s) email (comma separated)</p>
<p />
<p>message</p>
<p>captcha</p>
<p />
<p>Despite orders from state officials, labor contractors are not racing to inform farmworkers of their rights or wages. (Joseph Sorrentino) &#160;</p>
<p>It has taken almost a year of emails, letters and pressure, but at least some of New Mexico's contratistas (farm labor contractors) are finally paying farmworkers the minimum wage they're entitled to. Until this year, they'd been paying the federal minimum wage, which is lower than the state's. The difference is small, only about an extra $10 a week, but for workers who are among the lowest paid in the US, every cent is crucial. The difference for contratistas, however, is enormous; even those with small crews have saved hundreds of dollars a week by underpaying workers and many thousands since New Mexico's minimum wage was increased on January 1, 2009.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/immigrationandlabor/1902/stealing_pennies_from_chileros/" type="external">an Investigative Fund story for In These Times last year</a>, I uncovered how wage theft was rampant in New Mexico's chile fields. One of the most common ways that contratistas were stealing wages was by routinely paying workers the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour—but they should have been paying New Mexico's wage, which is 25 cents more. While there is an exemption for small farms, the exemption somehow became standard practice on virtually all farms across the state.</p>
<p>Last year, María Martínez Sánchez, an Albuquerque attorney who has worked tirelessly for farmworker rights for years, informed New Mexico's Department of Workforce Solutions (DWS) about this discrepancy. In response, Jason Dean, the Division Director of the Labor Relations Division, sent an email to DWS employees on October 4. "It has come to my attention that our agency is not applying the NM 'Minimum Wage Act' ... correctly as it relates to our Migrant Farm Workers," he wrote. "This communication is intended to correct that error immediately. ... As an agency we should not unilaterally be telling all farm workers they are only entitled to the federal minimum wage. " But even though Dean said he wanted the error corrected "immediately," that didn't happen.</p>
<p>Dean followed-up his email with a letter to New Mexico's registered contratistas in late February of this year informing them that "the majority of farmworker employees ... should be paid an average of at least $7.50 an hour." That didn't do much, either. In April I found that, except on one farm, workers were still getting paid $7.25 an hour, for hourly wage work like weeding.&#160;</p>
<p>During my investigation last year, I spoke briefly with Dino Cervantes, the president of the New Mexico Chile Association (NMCA, an industry group) and told him that workers weren't being paid the correct wage. "If they're getting paid $7.25 an hour, (contratistas) are assuming that's right," he said. "They're not trying to exploit workers. Probably just a phone call will solve the problem."&#160;</p>
<p>Hardly. The email and letter from Dean proved ineffective, and it was only after a DWS investigation, in late June of this year, of a contratista who routinely underpaid workers—an investigation instigated by Tess Wilkes, another attorney who has worked diligently for farmworker rights—that he, and other contratistas, began paying workers the legal minimum wage. &#160; &#160;</p>
<p>Most farmworkers appreciate the few extra dollars in their pockets. "It's a little more money for the family," said Raúl Cardona, a worker from Zacatecas. "I can buy a little more food, tortillas, maybe some fruit for my children." Gregorio Carreto, a 72-year-old worker from Mexico City, said he would buy some school supplies for his grandchildren.</p>
<p>Not all workers were happy with the increase, however. "You really can't do anything with it," said Eddie (he only wanted his first name used), a worker from Ciudad Juarez. "I can't even buy gum for my kids. Burritos are $1 and you eat six a day, plus sodas. What we need is a dollar more."</p>
<p>It's extremely unlikely that workers will get that dollar more per hour. But it turns out, they're actually entitled to a lot more money.</p>
<p>During harvest season, chileros (chile pickers) begin lining the streets of El Paso as early as 1:00 a.m., hoping to be hired for the day. Some contratistas provide buses or vans that take workers to the fields in New Mexico, a two- or three-hour ride away. There they'll wait an hour or more until it's light enough to begin work. According to federal law, workers should be paid from the moment they arrive in the fields—something Dean even stated in his email to DWS employees and in the letter to contratistas.&#160;</p>
<p>I asked many workers about unpaid wait time, including 53-year-old Jorge Matien, who, like most farmworkers in El Paso, is originally from Ciudad Juarez. "Sometimes we get [to the fields] about 5 but we need to wait so we can see," he said. "So we wait one hour, a couple hours." And the pay? "Nothing. We don't get nothing until we start to work."&#160;</p>
<p>Last year, I asked Jaye Hawkins, the Director of the NMCA, why workers were taken to the fields so early if they couldn't start picking because it was dark. In an email, she wrote, "Mostly the workers want to take advantage of the cool times of the day ... most of this is to accommodate workers ... [and it's] cultural. Early mornings and [agriculture] kind of have always gone hand in hand. What good would it do for a [f]armer to want employees to arrive before they are scheduled or before [there is] harvest equipment and supervision at the field?"</p>
<p>I've learned from my reporting trips, though, that farmers do have harvest equipment and supervision in the fields—but workers still can't pick until it's light enough to see.</p>
<p>Getting paid for that wait time would be huge for workers. Not only do they typically wait an hour or more in the morning, they also wait again to be paid at the end of the day. That's at least $15 a day or $90 a week more for hourly workers who typically gross between $300 and $360 a week. Joy Forehand, DWS's deputy cabinet secretary, didn't respond to emailed questions about whether the agency will enforce the law. She did note, however, that DWS had finally finished an English version of the state minimum wage poster, which lists that most workers are to be paid $7.50 an hour. Until recently, the DWS website only had the federal poster, showing the lower hourly wage. A Spanish version, she said, is in the works.&#160;</p>
<p>With so many contratistas in New Mexico, there's no guarantee they'll all pay the correct wage, and it's extremely unlikely any are paying for wait time. Getting contratistas to obey all of the wage laws will take enforcement by DWS, along with fines for non-compliance, vigilance by advocates and, especially, demands from workers themselves for their wages and rights.</p>
<p>Reprinted with permission from <a href="http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/blog/2028/partial_victory_for_new_mexico's_chileros/" type="external">The Investigative Fund</a>.</p> | The Uphill Battle Against Wage Theft in New Mexico’s Chile Fields | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17123/uphill_battle_against_wage_theft_in_fields_of_new_mexico | 2014-08-28 | 4 |
<p>“Bombardment, by whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended, is prohibited.”</p>
<p>(4th Hague Convention, 1907).</p>
<p>A new continent has emerged on our atlas: it is Droneland. The borders of Droneland run from Libya to Somalia to Yemen to Afghanistan to Pakistan. The Reaper and the Predator stalk the air, driven by young people in distant bases. A necklace of American power, these bases throttle the globe in a silent embrace. The New America Foundation estimates that the U. S. drone attacks in Pakistan alone have killed between 1,579 and 2,490 civilians since 2004. Last year, the UN investigator on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston noted that these attacks might very well be illegal. The UK-based Reprieve is seeking an international arrest warrant against John Rizzo, acting general counsel for the CIA, who told Newsweek in February that he approved at least one drone strike per month. This would be a minor earthquake on Droneland, if the accusation were not shelved somewhere in the topsy-turvy offices of Scotland Yard.</p>
<p>In 1922, the head of the British Empire’s Northwest Provinces (roughly Pakistan and southern Afghanistan), Sir John Maffrey wondered aloud about the bombings of the civilians, “What are the rules for this kind of cricket?” His betters in Delhi responded that international law did not apply “against savage tribes who do not conform to codes of civilized warfare.” It would be unwise to warn the assailants, and better to use maximum force. After all, it was the ferocity that would break the morale of the savages. Any solicitude toward women was also dismissed. Afghan women, the imperial headquarters noted, are treated as “a piece of property somewhere between a rifle and a cow.” The Air Officer Commanding, India, Philip Game wisely put it in another dispatch, “I expect that in a short time, if we use our Air Force wisely and humanely, such outcry as there is will cease and air action will be regarded as a normal and suitable weapon for enforcing the just demands of government” (October 18, 1923). Games’ hope has come to pass. Apart from Reprieve and the families of those killed by the strikes, few are upset by the creation of Droneland.</p>
<p>The National Priorities Project, in Northampton, MA, informs us that the total war spending by the U. S. government since 9/11 is now in the range of $7.6 trillion. The NPP has the decency to add the Pentagon’s base budget, the nuclear budget, the budget of Homeland Security, and the cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars (by themselves $1.26 trillion). It is a startling figure. It has been underscored by the otherwise irresolute U. S. Conference of Mayors. The mayors adopted the activists’ “war dollars” language and called upon the U. S. Congress to “bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy.” The economic arguments to end the war have now entered the mainstream - LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, head of the Conference and nothing of a progressive, intones the criticism of “war dollars.”</p>
<p>The mayors say nothing about Droneland, or of the pedagogical importance of aerial bombardment. They also say nothing about international law, and its subservience to the “international community,” a synonym for the G-7 states.</p>
<p>Silent for too long, the anti-war legions have begun to regroup. During the Bush years (eight, but they seemed eternal), it was easy for the radicals to draw in the liberals: Bush was the lodestone. It was easy to despise him. The anti-war grouping then was considerable (a million people protested across the United States on February 15, 2003). But it was unstable. One strand was hardened against militarism at least, if not fully against imperialism. Among them one finds the various left-of-center parties and the peace organizations, as well as the Quakers, the Bruderhofs, and the Buddhists. Then there were those who do not like irrational wars, or as State Senator Barack Obama put it in 2002, “dumb wars, rash wars.” This strand was furious with the “distraction” of Iraq, and wanted the President to focus attention on the War on Terror and on Afghanistan. The link between these two camps was their antipathy to Bush and to the Iraq War. That was the energy that produced the February 2003 wave.</p>
<p>With the election of Obama, the basis for unity (Bush) disappeared. The liberal tendency tied its hopes to Obama, and despite the consistent disappointments, remains firmly of the view that this presidency has been trying, despite the (Republican) odds to focus attention on Afghanistan and to drawdown from Iraq. The death of Bin Laden, for this strand, is proof positive that Obama is the better bureaucrat of warfare. It is unlikely that the liberal branch of the anti-Iraq war movement will assemble once more on the expansion of warfare under Obama throughout the Dronelands. This is perhaps why there has been such silence over the past years, as the U. S. has expanded its operations, and found itself wrong-footed in the Arab Spring (trying to block the Egyptian revolution, succeeding in blocking the Bahrain uprising, and moving the Libyan struggle hastily to warfare). The anti-Iraq war formations have been largely silent.</p>
<p>Fractions of that earlier coalition continue to assert themselves. We would appear a complicit nation if not for the splendid shenanigans of Code Pink, whether at the empty hearings in Congress or the streets of our cities, and of the newly created United National Anti-War Committee (UNAC). In July 2010, about eight hundred activists from dozens of organizations gathered in Albany, New York to inaugurate UNAC, and to release a portmanteau statement that opposed all that is bad about military policy (from spending on war to the incarceration of Bradley Manning). On April 9, 2011, UNAC hosted a very large demonstration in New York City against the warfare state and in defense of Muslims. The antiwar movement had returned from hibernation, and announced that this time it would gather around two intrinsically related principles: anti-imperialism and anti-Islamaphobia.</p>
<p>Anti-Imperialism: Warfare and war dollars by the United States is not irrational and accidental, as the Conference of Mayors suggested. A depleted industrial base and an elephantine financial sector squeeze the possibility of jobs and social services for the people. This combination of financial power and industrial decline is the signal that a civilization’s time of power has now come to a close. It is a “sign of autumn,” wrote the historian Ferdinand Braudel. These signs have come before, in Genoa, Holland and the United Kingdom (as Giovanni Arrighi documents in The Long Twentieth Century). When it became clear that the United Kingdom’s autumn was at hand by 1925, Winston Churchill proclaimed, “I would rather see finance less proud and industry more content.” The United States overtook the United Kingdom as the world’s largest and most important economy within months of this pronouncement. The IMF has now declared that China will overtake the U. S. by 2016. Braudel and Arrighi argue that in the time of autumn, the declining power resorts to force to try to prevent the inevitable. In addition to that cyclical possibility, the United States has developed a warped economy with military production as a centerpiece of industrial development, and with military power required to secure the primacy of the dollar. War is essential to the absurd dreams of another “American Century.” An antiwar movement has to see this, and argue for more than the end to this war or that war. Our historical task is to confront the basis of these wars, the imperialist war economy that threatens the planet to preserve the fortunes and pride of the few.</p>
<p>Anti-Islamaphobia: At the April 9 rally in New York City, leaders of the Muslim Peace Coalition and the 100 Imams for Peace provided a brisk anti-imperialist message, and pointed out that these wars in the Dronelands have increased the attacks on Muslims and those who resemble Muslims inside the United States. Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid (from Chicago) hoped for “an America that does not bomb the poorest of the poor for the service of the richest of the rich.” For him, war, terrorism and Islamaphobia “are all one evil triplet.” A new study from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice demonstrates that the United States government has systematically used paid and untrained informants to sow fear among American Muslims (“Targeted and Entrapped: Manufacturing the ‘Homegrown Threat’ in the United States,” 2011). In preparation for what will be a season of Islamaphobia, as the tenth anniversary of 911 approaches, the citizens of Teaneck, NJ., passed an anti-bias resolution as part of the “An America for All of US” campaign organized by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT). Other towns will follow. It is to the credit of UNAC that it does not see the issue of Islamaphobia as divisive, as irrelevant to what others claim is the principle issue, namely the war. As Imam Mujahid put it, we have to “unite against war at home and war abroad.”</p>
<p>The election season is upon us. Progressives will be asked the same old tired question: do you support Obama to hold the “Left” united or will you go for a third party and hand the election to the “Right”? It is of course the case that the “Right” is a party of lunacy. Obama’s posture as an anti-war figurehead is not as ridiculous as Mitt Romney’s populist fancy. The question of the election is a divisive issue, and it should not be the focus of our energy. What must guide the anti-war camp is to strengthen our organization and to build momentum in this country against a political class that is largely devoted to war. No point wasting energy on a tired debate. Better to put that time and those resources into building a formation such as UNAC, which would then be able to challenge a political class that is incapable of deciphering the entrails that say quite clearly that the American Century is now over.</p>
<p>Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His most recent book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565847857/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World,</a> won the Muzaffar Ahmad Book Prize for 2009. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>CounterPunchers in Philadelphia can hear Prashad speak on Palestine and the Arab Spring on July 23. <a href="http://phillyagainstwar.org/" type="external">Click here for details.</a></p>
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<p /> | Droneland | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/07/18/droneland/ | 2011-07-18 | 4 |
<p>TV commentator Glenn Beck addresses thousands of supporters at his Restoring Honor rally on the U.S. National Mall in Washington, August 28, 2010. Beck's rally, advertised as a "non-political event that pays tribute to America's service personnel and other upstanding citizens who embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor," has generated controversy for being held on the same day and location as Martin Luther King's 1963 'I Have a Dream' speech.</p>
<p>Former Alaskan Governor and Tea Party darling Sarah Palin speaks during the rally.</p>
<p>The crowd attending the "Restoring Honor" rally, as seen from the top of the Washington Monument.</p>
<p>Thousands of Americans gathered Saturday in the heart of the U.S. capital.</p>
<p>Reverend Al Sharpton and supporters hold a news conference outside City Hall, ahead of the march to commemorate the 47th anniversary of King's speech. Sharpton and supporters of the National Action Network will hold a 'Reclaim the Dream' rally at the same time as Beck's rally.</p>
<p>Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks during a television interview before the 'Restoring Honor' rally.</p>
<p>Two rally attendees are dressed for the occasion.</p>
<p>Beck shakes hands with supporters at the site of the Restoring Honor rally on Friday.</p>
<p>People start to gather at the site of the Restoring Honor rally by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, on Friday.</p> | Glenn Beck Rally | true | https://thedailybeast.com/glenn-beck-rally | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
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<p>I guess throwing temper tantrums and cuddling with radicals and commies wasn’t enough for Colin Kaepernick. He’s now filing an official grievance against the owners of the NFL. He’s accusing them of collusion… why? Because no one is stupid enough to sign the asshat. Aside from the fact that he sucks as a player, the guy has major baggage. And he’s started a protest that is threatening to bring down the entire league. I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want this unkempt jerk. For the first six weeks of the 2017 NFL season, he has gone unsigned. He came close once when the Ravens were looking him over. Unfortunately for Kaepernick, his Black Lives Matter squeeze just couldn’t shut it. She tweeted an extremely racist tweet comparing the owner of the team to a slave owner in Django Unchained. That tanked the deal. Imagine that.</p>
<p>And taking a line from Hillary Clinton, a fellow communist, Kaepernick is not taking any responsibility for all of this. He’s mostly blaming President Trump. His lawyer made that clear in a statement he released over the weekend. This bottom feeder is named Mark Geragos and he confirmed in a statement Sunday that they had filed a grievance over his social justice activism. Here comes the screeches of First Amendment violations… that Kaepernick’s free speech is being impinged. No, it’s not. The teams and the NFL do not have to let him do this crap. He has a right to kneel during the National Anthem, but they also have the right to not sign him.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>“We can confirm that this morning we filed a grievance under the CBA on behalf of Colin Kaepernick,” the statement read. “This was done only after pursuing every possible avenue with all NFL teams and their executives. If the NFL (as well as all professional sports leagues) is to remain a meritocracy,” the statement continued, “then principled and peaceful political protest — which the owners themselves made great theater imitating weeks ago — should not be punished and athletes should not be denied employment based on partisan political provocation by the Executive Branch of our goverment [sic].” The statement appears to be referring to the comments made by President Trump decrying Kaepernick as a “son of a b**ch” at a rally in September. The answer is very simple, play football, not politics. It would also help to have actual talent, which Kaepernick lacks.</p>
<p>Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio has a theory on what Kaepernick is looking to accomplish here. “Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Kaepernick wants to trigger termination of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. Article 69, Section 2 of the CBA allows for the agreement to be terminated prematurely in the event of proof of collusion. Under Article 17, Section 16(c) of the CBA, termination can arise from only one incident of collusion involving only one player if there is clear and convincing evidence of a violation.” That would be fine and dandy, except there is no collusion here.</p>
<p>John Hawkins's book 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is filled with lessons that newly minted adults need in order to get the most out of life. Gleaned from a lifetime of trial, error, and writing it down, Hawkins provides advice everyone can benefit from in short, digestible chapters.</p>
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<p>Here is a statement from lawyer Mark Garagos, who represents FA QB Colin Kaepernick, on his filing of grievance: <a href="https://t.co/WVtI0WuNvZ" type="external">pic.twitter.com/WVtI0WuNvZ</a></p>
<p>— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/919715549218852865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 16, 2017</a></p>
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<p>NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell steadfastly claims that there has been no black-balling of Kaepernick. As big a liberal as Goodell is, I believe him. If there were real collusion here, everyone who is kneeling would be looking for other work. But logic is lost on Kaepernick’s lawyer. Geragos went on: “Such a precedent threatens all patriotic Americans and harkens back to our darkest dyas [sic] as a nation,” the statement continued. “Protecting all athletes from such collusive conduct is what compelled Mr. Kaepernick to file his grievance.” The commie NFL players’ union is fully supporting Kaepernick on this. Why am I not surprised.</p>
<p>In the end it comes down to the brutal truth. Kaepernick is a mediocre player at best and that’s stretching it. He started a militant, racist, cop-hating protest trend in the NFL that has tanked their fan base and their profits. Who the hell would hire someone like that? He cares far more about race than his team. And that’s followed by cop hatred, communism, hatred of America, her military and her first responders. The guy is a stone cold liability… he’s certainly not worth the collateral damage here.</p>
<p>Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is an editor and writer for Right Wing News. She owns and blogs at <a href="http://www.noisyroom.net/blog/" type="external">NoisyRoom.net</a>. She is a Constitutional Conservative and NoisyRoom focuses on political and national issues of interest to the American public. Terresa is the editor at Trevor Loudon's site, New Zeal - <a href="http://www.trevorloudon.com/" type="external">trevorloudon.com</a>. She also does research at <a href="http://www.keywiki.org" type="external">KeyWiki.org</a>. You can <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">email Terresa here</a>. NoisyRoom can be found on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/noisyroom.net" type="external">Facebook</a> and on <a href="https://twitter.com/terresamonroe" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | JUST IN: Whiner Colin Kaepernick Files Grievance Against NFL – Publicly Blames Trump | true | http://rightwingnews.com/sports-2/just-whiner-colin-kaepernick-files-grievance-nfl-publicly-blames-trump/ | 2018-10-20 | 0 |
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