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<p>U.S. officials have repeatedly said that the nation is at war with Islamic extremists, not with Islam itself. But that statement conflicts with a course for military officers that taught that the U.S. might have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Medina and Mecca, regardless of civilian casualties.</p>
<p>The Pentagon suspended the course after receiving a student complaint and ordered its branches to review training material to ensure that anti-Islamic lessons are not being taught elsewhere.</p>
<p>A copy of the course presentation can be seen <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/total-war-islam/" type="external">here</a>. –ARK</p>
<p>The Guardian:</p>
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<p>“They hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit,” the instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley, said in a presentation last July for the course at Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. The college, for professional military members, teaches mid-level officers and government civilians on subjects related to planning and executing war.</p>
<p>Dooley also presumed, for the purposes of his theoretical war plan, that the Geneva conventions that set standards of armed conflict, are “no longer relevant”.</p>
<p>He adds: “This would leave open the option once again of taking war to a civilian population wherever necessary (the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki being applicable to the Mecca and Medina destruction decision point).”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/11/us-military-course-islam-enemy" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Military Course Taught That 'Islam Is the Enemy' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/military-course-taught-that-islam-is-the-enemy/ | 2012-05-11 | 4 |
<p>BMW is recalling nearly 49,000 motorcycles in the U.S. and Canada because flanges that hold the rear wheel can crack if bolts are too tight.</p>
<p>The recall covers multiple models including certain 2005-2010 R1200GS and R1200RT motorcycles, as well as the 2006-2010 R1200GS Adventure and the 2007-2010 R1200R, 2007 R1200S and K1200R Sport. Also included are the 2005-2007 R1200ST, the 2008-2009 HP2 Megamoto, the 2006 HP2 Enduro, the 2008-2010 HP2 Sport, and the 2005-2008 K1200S, 2006-2008 K1200R and K1200GT. The recall also covers the 2009-2011 K1300S, 2010-2011 K1300R, and the 2009-2010 K1300GT.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>BMW says if bolts that hold the rear wheels to a flange are over-tightened, the flange can crack. If that happens, the bolts can loosen and the wheel may not stay secured to the bike.</p>
<p>The problem was discovered after a 2004 motorcycle crashed in Spain last August. BMW says the rider and passenger were bruised and scraped.</p>
<p>The recall is expected to begin April 21. Dealers will replace the aluminum flange with a steel one at no cost to owners.</p> | BMW recalls nearly 49,000 motorcycles; rear wheel flange can crack and wheels can come loose | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/03/27/bmw-recalls-nearly-4000-motorcycles-rear-wheel-flange-can-crack-and-wheels-can.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>LEESBURG, Va. — Police say a 35-year-old man may have roamed comic book conventions around the country to lure teenage girls into sex.</p>
<p>The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that Derrick Jones of Catonsville, Maryland, was arrested in Utah on a charge of soliciting sexual contact with a teenage girl in Virginia through social media.</p>
<p>Police say Jones provided transportation for the girl to travel from her Ashburn home to meet him in the Baltimore area.</p>
<p>They want to know about girls Jones contacted in other states. Since March, police say, Jones has been to conventions in Orlando; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona; Los Angeles and Sacramento, California, and Salt Lake City.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Cops probe whether man used comic conventions to lure teens | false | https://abqjournal.com/997685/cops-probe-whether-man-used-comic-conventions-to-lure-teens.html | 2017-05-03 | 2 |
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<p>The unpredictability of this journey is part of the reason it’s so stimulating to start and build a business, but maintaining that level of excitement and drive can be challenging when the business’s evolution doesn’t unfold according to plan.</p>
<p>When initial funding from family or an investor runs out before benchmarks are met, startup owners can worry about their ability to repay investors and stay on track. Even businesses that reach the second stage of maturity can stumble — say, when a large account goes to a competitor or a product doesn’t find traction.</p>
<p>No matter where a business is in its life cycle, owners have a lot at stake, as do their investors and employees. To keep their heads clear, business owners have to be motivated by something other than fear of failure.</p>
<p>Dangerous doldrums</p>
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<p>Business owners who lose their passion for what they do will have trouble putting in the time and energy to start or sustain a company — especially when it’s just getting off the ground and 16-hour days are typical.</p>
<p>Boredom is one peril when entrepreneurs are immersed in the monotonous details of launching or running a business and not engaged in the fulfilling tasks that stir creativity. Stress, too, can be more of a drain than owners expected, especially when revenue is lower than expected or goals seem surprisingly distant.</p>
<p>When business owners have lost motivation and begin to disengage or operate on autopilot, they needs to recalibrate the internal compass.</p>
<p>(Finance New Mexico is a public service initiative to assist individuals and businesses with obtaining skills and funding resources for their business or idea. To learn more, go to <a href="http://FinanceNewMexico.org" type="external">FinanceNewMexico.org</a>.)</p> | FINANCE NEW MEXICO: Maintaining new biz excitement a challenge | false | https://abqjournal.com/457725/sustaining-excitement-for-new-business-can-be-challenge-for-owner.html | 2 |
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<p>How prepared are you for retirement? This is National Save for Retirement Week and a good time to examine personal retirement planning.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A while back, TD Ameritrade surveyed baby boomers on retirement readiness, and its conclusions shed some light on what it really takes to retire comfortably. The survey found that among the 71% of boomers who believe they are prepared to retire -- or are already retired comfortably -- 74% are married and 75% no longer have children who live at home. About 84% started saving for retirement by the time they were age 30. Overall, they describe themselves as self-motivated, optimistic, decisive overachievers who are inclined to handle their money conservatively, even when times are good.</p>
<p>Of these boomers who consider themselves well prepared for retirement, 18% say they require a retirement income of more than $100,000 a year. The majority of those not yet retired say they could live comfortably on less than $100,000 (the median income requirement is $82,500). For many people, achieving this level of retirement income demands hefty savings, with 16% saying they'll need $1 million and 4% saying they'll require more than $3 million. Most of the rest say they don't know how much they'll need.</p>
<p>While Social Security plays a role in almost everyone's retirement, among boomers who are already retired and feeling well prepared, 53% say they could lose Social Security and still live comfortably.</p>
<p>How did those who feel secure reach that comfortable spot? There is no magic in their answers:</p>
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<p>Managed their money using little or no credit - 67%. &#160;&#160;&#160;Saved early and often - 58%. &#160;&#160;&#160;Spent sparingly on luxuries - 58%. &#160;&#160;&#160;Landed a job with a good salary - 56%. &#160;&#160;&#160;Invested savings in a well-balanced portfolio - 51%.</p>
<p>Preparing for a secure retirement isn't easy, but this survey suggests you don't have to be Warren Buffett to do it. You do have to be smart enough to manage your money well.</p> | Secrets to a Prepared Retirement | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/10/22/secrets-to-prepared-retirement.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>The city of Albuquerque flipped a switch Friday evening, transforming — through colorful lighting — the new pedestrian bridge over Interstate 25 near San Mateo into a piece of art.</p>
<p>The blue lights are intended to be a celebration of water running through the Bear Canyon Arroyo in the Northeast Heights. But pedestrians and cyclists inside the bridge may get a more futuristic feel.</p>
<p>“There’s definitely a fun, science-fiction sort of experience that comes with walking in this very long tube with rows of this watery blue light,” said Brueggemann of the city Public Art Program.</p>
<p>The pedestrian bridge opened in December and connects the Osuna bike lanes on the east side of I-25 to the Bear Arroyo Trail on the west.</p>
<p>Friday was the first night the lights went on, other than for a few tests, and will be on from dusk to dawn. They are low-wattage LEDs, Brueggemann said, and will turn on automatically based on how dark it is outside, thanks to a photo cell.</p>
<p>Artist Linnaea Tillett was commissioned to provide the lighting, and about $327,000 from the city’s</p>
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<p>“1 percent for Art” program paid for the lights. Tillett has worked on national projects, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park in New York.</p>
<p>The I-25 bridge project is called “Dream of Water and Memory of Sky.”</p>
<p>“We are so thrilled with it,” Brueggemann said. “The ultimate effect looks just like the artist’s proposal.”</p>
<p>More than 450 handmade lighting fixtures are part of the project.</p>
<p>Local architect and University of New Mexico professor Geoffrey Adams, who designed the bridge, worked with Tillett on the project.</p> | Bridge over I-25 has sci-fi feel | false | https://abqjournal.com/203206/bridge-over-i-25-has-sci-fi-feel.html | 2013-05-25 | 2 |
<p>Jan. 23 (UPI) — Indian Prime Minister <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Narendra_Modi/" type="external">Narendra Modi</a> opened the World Economic Forum in Switzerland Tuesday with a speech that identified climate change, terrorism and protectionism as three top challenges facing human civilization.</p>
<p>Modi is the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/davos-is-lot-ahead-of-its-time-pm-modi-says-at-wef-plenary-session/articleshow/62618455.cms" type="external">first Indian prime minister</a> in two decades to join the world’s top business leaders at the forum in Davos.</p>
<p>“The world is facing challenges in maintaining peace, stability and security,” Modi said during his opening remarks, which were in line with this year’s theme, “Creating A Shared Future In A Fractured World.”</p>
<p>“This Summit seems to find solutions to the various problems the world faces,” Modi added. “New powers are changing the balance between economic and political strength. This is indicating a change in future of the world.”</p>
<p>Expressing concern over the melting of Arctic glaciers, Modi emphasized the need for solutions to mitigate climate change.</p>
<p>The prime minister <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/zoGD1tD80dF755GW9xZkyJ/Narendra-Modi-in-Davos-LIVE-PM-to-address-World-Economic-Fo.html" type="external">also spoke of</a> the evils of terrorism, saying how painful it is to see the radicalization of young people.</p>
<p>He also shared his belief that protectionism — restraining trade via tariffs and other regulations — has taken over globalization, which affects cross-border commerce.</p>
<p>Modi said India is open for business and welcomes everyone, and emphasized the pride the country takes in democracy and diversity.</p>
<p>“We in India are proud of our democracy and diversity. For a society with diverse religions, cultures, languages, attires and cuisines, democracy is not just a political system but a way of living,” Modi said.</p>
<p>President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a> is expected attend the Davos summit at the end of the week. He and Modi are said to have a warm relationship, as the India prime minister has visited the White House multiple times. Recent developments, though, could cause some tension — Trump’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/01/11/Reports-Trump-slams-protections-for-immigrants-from-shithole-countries/4911515711531/" type="external">“shithole” comments</a> about Haiti and African nations that send migrants to the United States, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-narendra-modi-accent-india-visit-white-house-us-president-a8172891.html" type="external">and a new report</a> that said the U.S. president often attempts to speak in an Indian accent when repeating remarks from Modi.</p> | India PM: Climate change, terrorism, protectionism top global threats | false | https://newsline.com/india-pm-climate-change-terrorism-protectionism-top-global-threats/ | 2018-01-23 | 1 |
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<p>After making several false statements over the weekend about the size of the crowd at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, White House press secretary Sean Spicer promised to the media on Monday that he would never intentionally lie to them. Then he made more questionable claims.</p>
<p>“I believe that we have to be honest with the American people,” Spicer told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, adding, “Sometimes we can disagree with the facts. There are certain things that we may not fully understand when we come out, but our intention is never to lie to you.” But the promise came as part of a combative exchange, during which Spicer introduced dubious claims about Trump’s speech to the CIA on Saturday. And in response to questions about his own integrity, Spicer repeatedly blamed the press for being overly negative toward Trump.</p>
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<p>Spicer brought up a mistake Time reporter Zeke Miller made on Friday, when he inaccurately reported that a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. had been removed from the Oval Office. Spicer complained that Miller, who shortly after the mistaken report tweeted “my apologies” and “apologies to my colleagues,” had not sufficiently apologized.</p>
<p>“Where was the apology to the president?” Spicer asked. “Where was the apology to millions of people who read that thought how racially insensitive that was?” Earlier, however, Spicer appeared to accept Miller’s multiple apologies:</p>
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<p>Next, Spicer repeated his claim that there was intense excitement among CIA employees during Trump’s highly political speech at CIA headquarters. Spicer claimed that the crowd of CIA officers had loudly cheered Trump, contradicting CBS News’ <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sources-say-theres-a-sense-of-unease-in-intel-community-after-trump-cia-visit/" type="external">report</a> that the cheering came largely from an entourage of about 40 people that Trump’s team brought to the address, not from CIA personnel. Spicer said Trump had only arrived at CIA with a very small group of people—he guessed 10 people—and that the cheers had come from CIA employees.</p>
<p>Spicer headed into Monday’s press briefing with his integrity in question, thanks to several demonstrably false statements he made to the press on Saturday evening (which were not the first time Spicer was <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sean-spicer-lied-about-characterization-trump-recording-sexual-assault" type="external">caught in a lie</a>.) Chief among them, Spicer wrongly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/21/sean-spicer-held-a-press-conference-he-didnt-take-questions-or-tell-the-whole-truth/?utm_term=.8f494d6a3aa1" type="external">asserted</a> that the crowd at Trump’s inauguration was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration—period—both in person and around the globe.”</p>
<p>Toward the end of Monday’s lengthy press conference, Spicer conceded that the crowd in Washington was not the biggest ever and argued that he had never made such a claim. Instead, he said that by “both in person and around the globe,” he meant “total largest audience.” That’s not how his words were broadly interpreted at the time, and it’s not what Trump claimed in his speech at the CIA, where he <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/21/14347298/trump-inauguration-crowd-size" type="external">stated</a>, “It looked like a million, million and a half people.” (Experts in crowd estimation put the crowd size at a fraction of those numbers.)</p>
<p>Spicer also conceded that he had been wrong when he claimed Saturday that ridership on Washington’s Metro system was higher than for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration four years ago. “At the time, the information I was provided by the inaugural committee came from an outside agency that we reported on,” he said. “And I think, knowing what we know now, we can tell that [Metro’s] numbers are different.”</p>
<p>When asked about crowd size and his decision to deliver Saturday’s incorrect statement about it, Spicer repeatedly he returned to the idea that the administration is under attack by the media. “It’s about this constant, you know, ‘He’s not going to run,'” Spicer said. “Then if he runs, ‘He’s going to drop out.’ There is this constant theme to undercut the enormous support that he has. I think it’s unbelievably frustrating when you’re continually told it’s not big enough, it’s not good enough, you can’t win.”</p>
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<p /> | White House Press Secretary Defends False Statements About Inauguration Crowds | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/white-house-press-secretary-defends-his-false-statements-about-inauguration-crowds/ | 2017-01-23 | 4 |
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<p>ReelzChannel’s “Bomb Girls” will air a second season in 2013.</p>
<p>The 12-episode season will air in the first quarter.</p>
<p>“Bomb Girls,” stars Oscar-nominee and Golden Globe winner Meg Tilly and takes place during World War II and captures a period when society was experiencing fundamental changes in the workplace and at home.</p>
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<p>At the heart of “Bomb Girls” are the stories of women who risk their lives in a munitions factory in support of the European front. Liberated from social and cultural restrictions, they embrace their newfound freedom, changing their lives — and the world around them — forever. The second season will being just after the attack on Pearl Harbor.</p>
<p>“Based on the enthusiastic response to ‘Bomb Girls’ from our viewers, we’re thrilled to partner with Global TV, Muse Entertainment and Back Alley Film Productions for a second season with 12 new episodes,” said Stan E. Hubbard, ReelzChannel CEO. “The second season is full of surprises, including one episode with guest star Rosie O’Donnell.”</p>
<p>O’Donnell will guest star as Dottie and returns to TV after a two-year hiatus.</p>
<p>Viewers can gear up for the second season of Bomb Girls when Reelz airs all six episodes of the first season back to back on Sunday, Dec. 30. While the first season aired on the Albuquerque-based network, the cast was in the middle of filming season two.</p>
<p>Tilly said she didn’t expect for the series to take off but is happy with its success.</p>
<p>“I originally signed on for a short miniseries,” she says. “It’s grown into this great series and I get to play a role in a part of history that we don’t really hear about.”</p>
<p>“Bomb Girls” also stars Jodi Balfour, Charlotte Hegele, Ali Liebert, Antonio Cupo, Anastasia Phillips, Michael Seater and Peter Outerbridge.</p>
<p>It is produced by Muse Entertainment Enterprises and Back Alley Film Productions.</p> | ‘Bomb Girls’ gets second season; O’Donnell guests | false | https://abqjournal.com/144007/reelzs-bomb-girls-gets-second-season-odonnell-to-guest-star.html | 2012-11-05 | 2 |
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<p>Citing “market and business pressures,” Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) said it expects to cut another 5,000 positions on top of the 29,000 it announced in May.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The 15% increase in layoffs – bringing the total to 34,000 people, or 11% of its workforce – is expected to cost $4.1 billion in severance and other expenses, incurred through its 2014 fiscal year, the PC maker said in regulatory filings.</p>
<p>As of Oct. 31, H-P had eliminated 24,600 of the positions, a portion of which were made through the company’s voluntary early-retirement plan.</p>
<p>The move is part of a May 2012 multi-year restructuring plan designed to simplify the business and accelerate innovation. H-P had warned that the 29,000 figure could swing by 15% depending on market conditions.</p>
<p>Shares of H-P were trading up about 0.70% to $28.27 in recent trade. They’ve risen more than 98% in 2013.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Citing Business Pressures, H-P to Slash 5K More Jobs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/12/31/h-p-to-slash-additional-5k-jobs.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
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<p>SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A man who was fined $190 for allowing his pet snake to slither freely in a South Dakota park says he's disturbed by an animal control officer's suggestion that he restrain the reptile on a leash while in public.</p>
<p>The Argus Leader ( <a href="http://argusne.ws/2oMstxK" type="external">http://argusne.ws/2oMstxK</a> ) reports that Jerry Kimball was ticketed for “animals running at large” last week after a woman complained that his Fire Bee Ball Python was roaming freely at Falls Park in Sioux Falls.</p>
<p>Kimball says he was “dumbfounded” by the leash recommendation.</p>
<p>Animal Control Supervisor Julie DeJong says a city ordinance requires all pets to be leashed or restrained in public and that pet snakes can be held or kept in a container to comply.</p>
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<p>Kimball says he plans to fight the ticket in court.</p>
<p>Information from: Argus Leader, <a href="http://www.argusleader.com" type="external">http://www.argusleader.com</a></p>
<p><a href="#112ee5bd-3e12-4890-8a1a-641db3879add" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p> | South Dakota man gets $190 fine for snake without leash | false | https://abqjournal.com/984606/south-dakota-man-gets-190-fine-for-snake-without-leash.html | 2017-04-07 | 2 |
<p>While Election Day 2016 is still two months away, voting began Friday in North Carolina. The rise of early and absentee voting nationwide has changed the way American elections are conducted. This type of voting occurred in small numbers a couple of decades ago, but it has risen dramatically over the past decade.</p>
<p>In the 2012 election, more than a third of the overall vote was cast before Election Day and that percentage was considerably higher in key battleground states like Florida and North Carolina. But does early voting matter?</p>
<p>In terms of who wins, early voting makes a difference. In the past couple of presidential elections, the Democratic Party has benefited the most from early and absentee voting.</p>
<p>Below is the percentage of early/absentee voting in states in 2012 where it is available. The data was provided by TargetSmart and independently analyzed by the NBC News Data Analytics Lab.</p>
<p>President Obama and the Democratic Party built a formidable get-out-the-vote operation in the 2008 election and continued perfecting this into 2012. According to NBC News Exit Polls from 2012, Obama beat Mitt Romney by 7 points among voters who cast ballots before Election Day. Among Election Day voters, he beat Romney by just a single percentage point—49 percent to 48 percent. Obama secured a 2012 victory in part due to the early lead he banked before Election Day.</p>
<p>This year, mail-in absentee voting begins in North Carolina on September 9. Morethan six in 10 voters who cast ballots in the 2008 and 2012 presidential election in North Carolina did so before Election Day either via in-person early voting or absentee voting, according to our analysis.</p>
<p>In 2008, NBC Exit Polls showed that Obama lost the Election Day vote but still managed to beat Republican candidate John McCain in North Carolina.</p>
<p>In 2012 in North Carolina -- where Obama lost to Romney by 2 points -- 61 percent of voters cast ballots before Election Day. Obama was slightly more competitive with Romney among these early voters. According to NBC News Exit Polls, Romney beat Obama by 2 points among early voters but expanded his margin to 3 points among Election Day voters. Though close, this data suggest that slight changes in the number of early voters could meaningfully affect whether North Carolina swings red or blue.</p>
<p>Though majorities of white, Black and Hispanic voters cast early ballots, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of African American voters cast ballots before Election Day in 2012. A much smaller majority of white voters cast ballots early (57 percent). Among Hispanic voters—who have been increasing as a voting bloc in North Carolina in the last two presidential races—52 percent voted early.</p>
<p>On August 31, the Supreme Court deadlocked on a decision to reinstate a strict new voter ID law in the state. The law—introduced by Republicans in 2013— attempted to <a href="" type="internal">reduce the period of early voting from 17 days to 10 and eliminate a popular pre-registration program for high-school students</a>. The appeals court that initially struck down the law found that it targeted African-Americans “with surgical precision.” The analysis above supports the court’s finding.</p>
<p>Aside from racial differences between early voters and Election Day voters, there is also a gender bias in early voting. In 2012, 62 percent of women who voted did so before Election Day. Among men, 59 percent voted early.</p>
<p>Though early voting calendars and eligibility laws differ by state, recent efforts to promote voter turnout have seen early voting windows expanding in several states as well as an increase in no-excuse absentee voting.</p>
<p>It is unsurprising, then, that Clinton will work to adopt a similar strategy by striving to capture the support of early voters in North Carolina and other key battleground states this year—especially when she leads the Republican candidate by a sizable margin in recent national polls. If the pro-Democrat pattern seen in 2012 holds this year, Clinton hopes to secure a sizable cushion in early votes that will allow her to win the general election after same-day votes are cast.</p>
<p>The analysis was conducted by the NBC News Data Analytics Lab. For full details on analysis and methodology, please click <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/323467071/Early-Voter-Methodology" type="external">here</a>.</p> | And So It Begins: Absentee Voting Starts in North Carolina | false | http://nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/so-it-begins-early-voting-starts-north-carolina-n645701 | 2016-09-09 | 3 |
<p>Editor's update: Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, accused by the government of inciting violence, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/140218/fourth-person-dies-venezuelan-political-unrest" type="external">turned</a> himself in Tuesday and Wednesday appeared in another pre-recorded video <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/140219/jailed-venezuela-protest-leader-urges-maduros-exit" type="external">calling</a> for the government's "exit." Reports also emerged Tuesday of a fourth fatal victim in the protests.&#160;</p>
<p>LIMA, Peru — Tensions in Venezuela look close to boiling over after an opposition leader wanted for supposedly inciting anti-government violence said he would lead a protest march in downtown Caracas on Tuesday.</p>
<p>After several days in hiding, Leopoldo Lopez published a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCmoGxEnEJc&amp;feature=youtu.be" type="external">YouTube video</a> defiantly blaming President Nicolas Maduro for the bloodletting during protests last week, effectively daring the government to arrest him at the march on the ministry of justice and the interior.</p>
<p>Lopez described the ministry as the “symbol of the repression, persecution, torture and lies” carried out by the government against the Venezuelan people.</p>
<p>“I will be there showing my face. I have nothing to fear,” Lopez said in the grainy, three-minute video of the murder and terrorism charges leveled against him.</p>
<p>“If there is any illegal decision to jail me, then I will accept that decision and this infamous persecution by the state.”</p>
<p>The opposition leader's plan sets him on a collision course with the government, which is rallying supporters to launch a rival march along the same route.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/opvenezuela-global-hacker-coalition-hits-venezuelan-government-servers-fall" type="external">Hackers around the world send Venezuelan government sites "falling like dominoes"</a></p>
<p>Three people were shot dead and dozens injured in clashes in Caracas last week as students took to the streets calling on Maduro, a left-wing populist and the political heir to late President Hugo Chavez, to quit.</p>
<p>They are enraged over a series of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/140213/venezuela-protest-explainer" type="external">deep national crises</a>, including widespread food shortages, skyrocketing inflation, one of the world’s worst violent crime waves and the government’s increasingly authoritarian direction.</p>
<p>The protesters were confronted by riot police and “colectivos,” armed Chavista neighborhood militias. Two of the dead were student demonstrators and the third was a colectivo leader.</p>
<p>Maduro has responded by blaming everyone but his government for the turmoil — despite his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) having held power for the last 15 years.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, he expelled three US diplomats, faulting them for encouraging the demonstrations.</p>
<p>The government also <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-14/twitter-says-venezuela-blocks-its-images-amid-protest-crackdown.html" type="external">blocked</a> Twitter users’ access to images of the protests shaking the country. A Colombian cable news station, NTN24, was also taken off air in Venezuela after reporting on the disturbances.</p>
<p>Venezuelans are largely reliant on social media and foreign TV news to track the turmoil in the streets across their nation after all critical local news networks have been squeezed off the air since the late Chavez first took power in 1999.</p>
<p>President Maduro, a 51-year-old former bus driver and union leader who rose to the top of the Chavez administration, has also accused Lopez of launching an attempted coup — though the latter insists that all protests should be peaceful and constitutional.</p>
<p>On his English-language <a href="http://twitter.com/maduro_en" type="external">Twitter feed</a>, Maduro described Lopez, whose small center-left party is a <a href="http://www.socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm?ArticleID=2253&amp;ArticleImageID=4949&amp;ModuleID=18" type="external">member</a> of the Socialiast International movement, as a “coward” and “fascist,” adding: “Surrender we are looking for you.”</p>
<p>But Lopez, whose home was raided along with that of his parents by security forces over the weekend, appears unintimidated.</p>
<p>In his video, released Sunday, he demanded an impartial investigation of the government’s role in the deaths last week, an end to official repression of dissent, and the disarmament of the colectivos, who speed around Caracas on motorbikes wielding guns.</p>
<p>They were first armed by Chavez in response to the 2002 attempted coup — apparently backed by the George W. Bush White House — as “el Comandante” vowed never to permit a US invasion. Critics now accuse the colectivos of being thuggish government enforcers who are routinely used to bully opposition demonstrators.</p>
<p>Lopez makes an unlikely rabble-rouser. A Harvard-educated economist, the 42-year-old is a former mayor of the wealthy Caracas district of Chacao and one of the opposition’s most telegenic and articulate figures.</p>
<p>This isn’t his first run-in with the Chavistas.</p>
<p>In 2008, government officials barred Lopez from seeking public office over alleged corruption — even though he was never convicted by a court. The region’s top human rights court ruled in 2011 that that was a breach of his rights.</p>
<p>After last week’s violence, Human Rights Watch called for a full investigation and <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/13/venezuela-investigate-violence-during-protests" type="external">said</a> the probe “should not be used as a pretext for prosecuting political opponents or limiting free speech.”</p>
<p>Both the European Union and the United Nations have called for calm and for the government to respect human rights and the rule of law.</p>
<p>The State Department had not received official notification of the expulsion of its three Caracas staff members, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/02/221720.htm" type="external">statement</a> Monday.</p>
<p>“The allegations that the United States is helping to organize protesters in Venezuela is baseless and false,” she added.</p>
<p>The US government has responded to several previous expulsions of its diplomats from Venezuela by booting out staff from the South American nation’s embassy in Washington.</p>
<p>Venezuela and the US have not had ambassadors in each others’ capitals since a 2010 falling out.</p>
<p>But, according to Maduro, US officials this weekend called on him to negotiate with the opposition, free jailed protesters and drop the charges against Lopez.</p>
<p>“I replied that I don't accept threats from anyone in this world,” Maduro told Venezuelans during a Sunday night TV address.</p>
<p>But a massive turnout for Lopez’s march would ramp up the pressure on the besieged president.</p>
<p>And even small numbers might not do Maduro much good. Modest crowds could vindicate the more cautious power-seizing strategy of former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, until now the unofficial but undisputed leader of the Venezuelan opposition.</p>
<p>But the authorities’ response will also be in the spotlight. Arresting Lopez for any longer than a few hours could backfire, ramping up the domestic and international pressure on a desperate president whose political credit appears to have run out.</p>
<p>All eyes will be on Caracas on Tuesday.</p> | Venezuela is veering toward a nasty showdown | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-02-18/venezuela-veering-toward-nasty-showdown | 2014-02-18 | 3 |
<p>Shortly before the Senate approved its version of health care reform legislation, I quiped that I was re-reading Margaret Atwood’s <a href="" type="internal">The Handmaid’s Tale</a> in order to get psyched for the vote. Truthfully, it was only partly said in jest.</p>
<p>The hijacking of abortion rights as a bargaining chip for the provision of health care is morally reprehensible and if it stands will result in significant harms to women’s health. As women’s health advocates are working full tilt to try to stop this from happening, there is an uncomfortable sense of having been here before. How is it possible that we have to fight for the right to choose to have an abortion all over again?</p>
<p>Blasphemous as it might sound, I think that part of the problem is the word choice, which sounds ever so frivolous compared to the right to life. We’re not deciding which pair of shoes to buy. We are fighting for the human right to make decisions about our own lives. Full stop. As M. Gabriela Alcalde, Director of the Kentucky Health Justice Network told me in an e-mail correspondance,</p>
<p>We should stop talking about the morality of individuals and think about the morality of not providing necessary health care to individuals and communities. Government’s job is to worry about systems working, government’s moral obligation is to assure that groups or classes of people are not excluded from society’s benefits or carry disproportionately society’s burdens. Abortion is necessary when seen from a public health perspective. In countries where it is illegal, maternal mortality is higher, infants are abandoned at higher rates (look at Romania), and overall maternal and child health is compromised.</p>
<p>Just as critically, we need to not lose sight of the fact that abortion is only one aspect of reproductive rights. There are many other aspects to women’s health care in addition to abortion that need to be assured. According to Alcalde,</p>
<p>Abortion should not be thought of separately from prenatal care, birthing, and other reproductive and maternal health services and experiences. separating it from the experience of pregnancy in general is a huge mistake.</p>
<p>As I’ve noted before, according to the National Women’s Law Center,</p>
<p>Maternity coverage continues to be largely unavailable in the individual health insurance market, with virtually no improvement in access to this essential health coverage from 2008 to 2009. NWLC examined over 3,600 individual health insurance policies offered to 30-year-old women living in capital cities across the country for 2009, and found that only 468 of those plans-or 13%-include any coverage for maternity care.</p>
<p>NWLC also notes that only the current House bill prohibits the treatment of domestic violence as a pre-existing condition and that there are still very significant concerns about the affordability of health care which is more likely to impact women, who earn less than men and are less likely to be covered through an employer.</p>
<p>While these are the primary issues that are on the table in regard to the current legislation, the reality is that there are other significant women’s reproductive health issues that need to be addressed.</p>
<p>In, “Sowing The Seeds Of Reproductive Justice In Kentucky” (Collective Voices, Fall, 2009), Alcalde points for instance to problems faced by Latina women,</p>
<p>Some reproductive health challenges that Latinas face once in the U.S. include a high uninsured rate, low prenatal care rate, high and rising HIV/AIDS rates, high maternal mortality rate, high cervical cancer rate, and a high unintended pregnancy rate. Additionally, Latinas have a lower contraceptive use rate and have a higher contraceptive failure rate than other groups of women in the U.S..</p>
<p>Other issues that come to mind include the high c-section rate in the U.S., affordable contraception on campuses and access to rape crisis and abortion services in the military, and the insistence in many parts of the country on the use of doctors (inevitably in high cost hospital settings) instead of midwives to deliver babies.</p>
<p>One of the critical mis-steps in the health care debate was the reduction of the issue to one of insurance coverage rather than health care provision. In regards to women’s health, additional damage has been done by allowing abortion to be addressed separate from the overall issue of reproductive health.</p>
<p>In “How To Talk About Reproductive Justice” (Collective Voices, Fall, 2009), Loretta Ross provides a useful framework for a more comprehensive solution when she defines reproductive justice as, “the right of every human being to have a child, not have a child, and parent a child.”</p>
<p>We need to insist that abortion not be held hostage, nor can we allow it to be split apart from the right to full reproductive health rights for all women at a fair and equitable price. That abortion is being used as a bargaining chip for these basic human rights is a bald effort to control women’s lives and is unacceptable.</p>
<p>To fully understand this patriarchal power play, it is useful to look at the current health care reform debate from a global context. These are but a few examples:</p>
<p>1. While the population control drumbeat gets louder as we become more aware of the implications of climate change, it bears recognition that we are very callously already practicing exactly that by the denial of the relatively small amounts of money that it would take to eradicate maternal mortality which claims the lives of more than half a million women every year throughout the world.</p>
<p>“Every hour of every day in DRC, four women die from complications of pregnancy and labour, and for every woman who dies, between 20 and 30 have serious complications, such as obstetric fistula, which is very common in DRC,” said Richard Dackam Ngacthou, country representative of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). For every 100,000 live births 1,100 women die, he said.</p>
<p>But to meet a national target of reducing the number of women who die in childbirth by 75 percent and to provide all Congolese with access to contraception – in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals – new funding targets must be achieved.</p>
<p>The funding gap is severe: in 2008 some US$5 million went towards the fight against maternal mortality, whereas in 2009 less than $2 million was allocated. Congo’s 2010 budgetary situation is no less dire, with only around $6 million planned to finance the entire health sector, where some $60 million would be warranted, according to a member of parliament.</p>
<p>2. In South Korea a new policy is effectively coercing women into having children:</p>
<p>On Dec. 9, Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul organised an event titled, ‘Happy Childbirth – Rich and Strong Future’, aimed at trying to raise awareness about the country’s very low birth rate. It sparked controversy when the organisers requested women students in the audience to submit a sworn statement that they would have children.</p>
<p>A fourth year student who prefers to remain anonymous, told IPS “the organisers almost forced female participants to write a sworn statement for childbirth despite many participants asserting that the low birth issue is a social problem rather than mere individual choice.”</p>
<p>South Korea’s birth rate – 1.19 in 2008, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service, is the lowest among OECD countries – has been in the news recently.</p>
<p>In November, the government’s Presidential Council for Future &amp; Vision announced “comprehensive plans for low birth rate.”</p>
<p>The plans include a crackdown on abortion.</p>
<p>3. And in countries such as China and India, there has been a systemic campaign of favoring the births of male children over females:</p>
<p>There are about 100 million women less on this earth than there should be. Women who are “missing” since they are aborted, burnt, starved and neglected to death by families who prefer sons to daughters. This column had also identified the countries of South Asia, East Asia, West Asia and Saharan Africa as the main regions which were missing most of these women. The estimated number of women who are missing are 44 million in China, 39 million in India, 6 million in Pakistan and 3 billion in Bangladesh. This is the single largest genocide in human history. Ever. Some researchers have coined a word for this phenomenon: Femicide, or the killing of the human female because she is female. (Note: see also here and here.)</p>
<p>Until we insist that it cannot be considered separate of the overall issue of reproductive health, abortion rights will continue to be in jeopardy. Health care, including full reproductive health care, is a human right, not a commodity to be controlled or bartered away by the governments we elect to represent us. Yet clearly that is exactly what is happening not only here but in many parts of the world. Our current reality is not so far from Atwood’s dystopia as we might like to think.</p>
<p>LUCINDA MARSHALL is the Founder and Director of the <a href="http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org" type="external">Feminist Peace Network</a>. She is the author of the FPN blog as well as <a href="http://www.lucindamarshall.com" type="external">Reclaiming Medusa</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Handmaid’s Tale Comes to Life | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/01/04/the-handmaid-s-tale-comes-to-life/ | 2010-01-04 | 4 |
<p>On a humid Saturday afternoon in a suburb south of Chicago, a group of about 10 girls are jumping rope. But they aren’t doing the simple single-rope tricks typically seen on area playgrounds. While navigating two long jump ropes, they are performing handstands and cartwheels.</p>
<p>The Pink Panthers Double Dutch team has competed across the nation and around the globe. They’ve appeared on TV’s Steve Harvey Show and Windy City Live and in multiple commercials. Based in south suburban Hazel Crest, the team features about two dozen girls and young women from across the state.</p>
<p>Coach Joyce Dickerson formed the Pink Panthers with two other parents over a decade ago and the team has grown in number ever since.</p>
<p>“It’s my passion,” she says. “I just feel so privileged.”</p>
<p>The Reporter recently met with Dickerson at one of the team’s practices to talk jump rope and what jumpers learn from being a Pink Panther.</p>
<p>Tell me a little about the Pink Panthers. How did it begin and how did you get involved?</p>
<p>To be honest with you, my inspiration came from my daughter. You need three people to jump Double Dutch or even to teach Double Dutch, so I got with a couple of her friends, got them a rope and started jumping Double Dutch—and really the rest was almost history. We actually started almost 15 years ago with just a couple of girls and it grew very fast thereafter. It’s been a wonderful experience with the team. I’ve been exposed to people and places I would not have normally been exposed to. They’ve had the opportunity to do commercials. They’ve also been able to have several appearances on television and they’ve also been in several parades. We’ve been to over half the United States. We’ve competed with teams from Switzerland, New Mexico, Africa, Italy, Paris. The list goes on and on.</p>
<p>What are the requirements to be a Pink Panther?</p>
<p>You can start as early as five, and to be honest, you can jump when you’re 50. I was actually walking on a trail and I saw a group of women take out a rope — I wanted to say they were about 40 or 50. I was on the telephone and I was like, “Let me call you back.” (laughs) I went over there and turned for them and we all jumped. It is one of the fastest ways to get your heart rate up, because you’re using all of your limbs. Everything has to move at the same time.</p>
<p>There is no audition required. I’m very passionate about the sport and there are many reasons why people want to jump. It could be that I want to lose weight, it could be for camaraderie, it could be to be a part of a sport. That’s one thing I love about jump rope — you can be thin, you can be big, you can be small, you can be short, you can be tall. Anybody can join. There are no criteria as far as learning how to jump.</p>
<p>Tell me a little about yourself.</p>
<p>Before the Pink Panthers, I worked at Harris Bank for 25 years in downtown Chicago. When they were going through the different massive layoffs, I was probably in the third cut. I was sitting at home going, “What am I going to do?” and then that’s how the idea birthed. Whereas you would think being let go of your job could be a horrible experience, sometimes God has another thing that he wants you to do. I really think this was a gift. I got in it and I’ve loved it ever since.</p>
<p>What skills do the girls gain from being on the team?</p>
<p>One young lady who is at the University of Illinois in the engineering program, she called me and she said, “Thank you, Coach. Because of being a part of the jump rope team, I didn’t let any obstacles stop me.” She said “can’t” just did not come to her mind, because “can’t” is not used in our practice. Just constantly inspiring them and building them up, it’s a good feeling to know that they come back and they say thank you. The skills could be public speaking — we work with the girls on how to speak to interviewers or just speak in general. Sometimes we get a lot of shy girls and parents put them in so that they can learn how to speak to other people. They get a lot of skills that are not taught in school. In the school setting, it’s sit still and be quiet, but here you can just be yourself. It’s like putting a seed in a pot and just watching a flower bloom. We’re the water. We just kind of watch it grow up and watch it bloom.</p>
<p>Can you share a favorite memory from your years coaching the Pink Panthers?</p>
<p>That’s a really difficult question, because it’s so many memories. I’m going to go with one. When [team member] Carissa Townsend first came to the organization, we would have interviews, and at that particular time we had the demonstration team. We had them interviewed just to find out if they were mentally ready to be a part of the demonstration team. She had the skill set, but she was not mentally ready. Competition requires so much more dedication, and she wasn’t ready. Carissa — she’s always been a 3.8, 4.0 student — came in and said, “I’ve chosen to be around the wrong crowd. I’m very good in school, but I’m just not choosing the right people to be around, and since being a part of the team, I have developed new relationships and new friends and I’m going in a new direction.” She was in like the sixth or seventh grade! I came up from the table and I gave her a big hug, and now, she just graduated from the U of I so she’s going to Loyola University Chicago for law school.</p>
<p>That was the best ever — to actually watch the kids, to give them the opportunity to be a part of something so positive and then watch them change as a result of that.</p>
<p>It really takes a village to raise a child. It’s the mother, it’s the father, it’s the grandparents, it’s your aunts, it’s your uncles, it’s your community, and now I can say it’s the Pink Panthers. We’re there whenever they need us. Parents have come to me and said, “My child is going through this, can you talk to them?” I encourage them. It’s an extension of family.</p>
<p>This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.</p>
<p /> | Jumping at the chance for success in Double Dutch, and in life | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/jumping-at-the-chance-for-success-in-double-dutch-and-in-life/ | 2015-07-29 | 3 |
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<p>More than a year ago, the University of New Mexico announced it was hitting the “reset” button on its training of school teachers, a revamping that would involve major changes, including the hiring of a new dean for the College of Education.</p>
<p>On Monday, Dean Salvador Hector Ochoa takes over amid new ideas, high hopes and big challenges.</p>
<p>Provost Chaouki Abdallah has led the charge for bringing change to the college, and it was he who announced the selection of Ochoa, who for the past seven years has been a professor and dean at the College of Education at the University of Texas Pan American near McAllen.</p>
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<p>“The more I discussed our institutional goals and challenges with him,” Abdallah said, “the more confident I became that he is the right person at the right time to lead our college as we redouble our efforts to become a national leader in education and research.”</p>
<p>OCHOA: New dean plans to work closely with the PED</p>
<p>Ochoa, a lifelong Texan, told the Journal in an interview last month, “I think we can become a national model for the rest of the United States.”</p>
<p>The college, Ochoa promised, will be different. In addition to “a lot of internal review,” he plans to work closely with the state Public Education Department and other stakeholders to make sure the college provides the quality teachers New Mexico expects. “I have no problem being held accountable,” he said.</p>
<p>The college – the second largest at UNM – has an enrollment approaching 2,000. Ochoa will be paid $200,000 per year as dean. He is tenured and under a one-year contract, renewable for five years.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez announced recently that the state will begin issuing report cards for its six colleges of education next year in an effort to train – and graduate – better teachers. The report cards will be based, in part, on how well each college’s graduates perform on teacher evaluations.</p>
<p>More than a year ago, a study by the National Center for Teacher Quality found that none of New Mexico’s teacher colleges does a particularly good job of training teachers. The same was true for many colleges nationwide.</p>
<p>The study, criticized by many deans, was based mainly on analysis of syllabi and textbooks. It also considered admission criteria and the quality of student-teaching programs.</p>
<p>While UNM received the highest overall scores in the state, all of New Mexico’s teaching programs “entirely fail to ensure a high quality student teaching experience,” the report said.</p>
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<p>UNM regent and retired Air Force Gen. Bradley Hosmer said a flaw of the study is that it didn’t look at output – “How well do teachers produce student learning?” This flaw, while not uncommon, is still “terribly unfortunate in the educational world,” particularly during a teacher’s first few years. Law schools and medical schools consider feedback critical, he said. So should colleges of education.</p>
<p>Addressing that issue, Ochoa asked, “How do we follow our teachers, not just through the licensing and certification phases, but also the next step, after they leave?”</p>
<p>Ochoa holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from St. Edward’s University, a master’s of education in guidance and counseling from Pan American University, and a Ph.D. in school psychology from Texas A&amp;M. He is married to an educator and is the father of a college junior and a high school senior.</p>
<p>Asked if education colleges should place more emphasis on teaching methods than on specific subject matter, his response was that both are necessary. “There is a need to know content, but also a need to know how to deliver,” he said. Teaching is “an art and a science, and both are equally important.”</p>
<p>He also noted the importance of teachers and parents working collaboratively (a word he uses often) to develop a clear understanding of classroom standards. It’s critical that teachers and parents do not view one another as adversaries, he said. “We have to be on the same page.”</p>
<p>At the same time, teachers must have a realistic picture of the schools, classrooms and students they will be working with, he said.</p>
<p>The College of Education faculty members seem pleased by the selection of Ochoa. Teaching assistant Robert Hall said the faculty “feels pretty good, but every time there’s change, there’s some trepidation.”</p>
<p>A general reaction to the selection: “They’ve chosen the right person to make the change.”</p>
<p>The accolades go both ways. “The talent pool in this college is unbelievable,” Ochoa said.</p>
<p>Last year, when Abdallah announced UNM would be seeking a new dean, he stressed the importance of looking outside the state for new ideas. At about that same time, former dean Richard Howell stepped down. Viola Florez has been interim dean for the past year.</p>
<p>In no way, Hosmer said, should the call to look outside New Mexico be viewed as criticism of the current leadership. “This is an opportunity to do things differently, to go outside and seek performance information,” he said. “It’s an opportunity that hasn’t really been explored.”</p>
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<p /> | UNM College of Education gets a new dean | false | https://abqjournal.com/428145/new-dean-promises-internal-reviews-quality-teachers.html | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Albuquerque Police Department evidence room scandal made an appearance Tuesday in closing arguments at the trial of accused “arroyo molester” Genaro Sandoval.</p>
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<p>Defense attorney Joseph Riggs told jurors, who began deliberating late in the day, that the problem for prosecutors in the case wasn’t the DNA evidence itself, but sloppiness in the way potential DNA evidence was gathered, handled and stored in 2003, when the then-11-year-old victim in the case was attacked in the Embudito Arroyo by an unknown assailant.</p>
<p>The boy, now a college student, was walking home from Hoover Middle School near Comanche and Juan Tabo NE when a man approached him to enlist assistance with a “prank” — writing “Matt sucks” on the concrete wall of the arroyo — that quickly turned violent.</p>
<p>He showed a gun and a video camera to the boy.</p>
<p>The attacker, described as being 5-foot-4 with brown hair and a goatee, forced the boy to pull down his pants, get on all fours and pull his Broncos jersey up over his eyes. He used a lubricant and hurriedly had the boy pull his pants back up when someone approached in the tunnel, then threw down $30 and left, telling the boy to count to 300.</p>
<p>Deputy District Attorney Lisa Trabaudo walked jurors through evidence that she said supports the DNA evidence discovered years later that allegedly linked Sandoval to the crime, including a sexual assault nurse examiner’s discovery of sand in his underwear and a DNA match to semen.</p>
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<p>An APD examiner in 2005 detected semen that hadn’t been seen before on the victim’s shorts, and a sample was sent to an out-of-state lab for testing. It was matched with Sandoval in 2007.</p>
<p>Human error cannot damage the DNA profile, Trabaudo said.</p>
<p>“Not only does the DNA match, but all those (other) pieces of evidence match,” she said, asking jurors to return a verdict of guilty on rape, kidnapping, sexual exploitation, aggravated assault and bribing or threatening an attorney.</p>
<p>Riggs noted that DNA tests by the Texas lab showed the presence of female DNA on the victim’s shorts but showed none of the boy’s DNA, and he criticized the lack of a photo array or analysis of shoe prints in the sandy arroyo. None of the five photos gathered by an APD detective of Sandoval shows the defendant with a goatee, he pointed out, and Sandoval’s hair is jet-black, not brown.</p>
<p>Prosecutors noted testimony by Sandoval’s former employer of 20 years about the frequency with which Sandoval changed his appearance.</p>
<p>Riggs, though, said APD had substituted investigation with blasting his client’s photo all over the media.</p>
<p>He insisted that the victim’s courtroom identification of Sandoval was meaningless.</p>
<p>“The evidence is incontrovertible,” he said. “APD did a lousy job.” — This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Jury Weighs ’03 Rape Case | false | https://abqjournal.com/162584/jury-weighs-03-rape-case.html | 2013-01-23 | 2 |
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<p>LOS ANGELES (CA)National Catholic ReporterBy ARTHUR JONES Los Angeles</p>
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<p>In what the Los Angeles Times called “the latest and potentially most important dispute in the yearlong investigation of the Catholic church [Los Angeles archdiocese] by prosecutors,” in the past five weeks four archdiocesan priest-officials have testified before a grand jury.</p>
<p>Each priest has served as archdiocesan vicar of the clergy during Cardinal Roger Mahony’s 17 years as Los Angeles archbishop.</p>
<p>In Ventura County, one of three counties covered by the archdiocese, the grand jury investigating clerical sexual abuse is the instrument through which the Los Angeles County district attorney is seeking access to all archdiocesan files relating to abuse.</p>
<p>According to the Feb. 21 Times, the archdiocese is asserting its constitutional right to withhold files containing privileged information between a bishop and a priest. Some files were handed over Feb. 22.</p> | L.A. district attorney seeks access to all abuse files | false | https://poynter.org/news/la-district-attorney-seeks-access-all-abuse-files-0 | 2003-03-08 | 2 |
<p>Wendell Carter Jr.’s 23 points led another strong offensive showing for No. 4 Duke in an 84-70 victory against Wake Forest on Tuesday night at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C.</p>
<p>Gary Trent Jr. provided 19 points, Grayson Allen scored 17 points and Marvin Bagley III supplied 16 points for Duke, which has won five consecutive games.</p>
<p>Carter had 12 rebounds and Bagley grabbed 11 boards.</p>
<p>The Blue Devils (18-2, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) can now prepare for a Saturday home showdown against No. 2 Virginia.</p>
<p>Center Doral Moore scored 18 points on 9-for-9 shooting and added 12 rebounds for Wake Forest (8-12, 1-7). Brandon Childress also had 18 points, Chaundee Brown added 16 points and Bryant Crawford posted 10 points for the Demon Deacons, who lost their sixth game in a row and committed 21 turnovers.</p>
<p>Duke scored eight of the game’s first 10 points, but Wake Forest caught up at 13-13. However, the Demon Deacons never led.</p>
<p>Duke built a 20-point lead early in the second half before the Demon Deacons closed to within 58-50 before the 10-minute mark. It would have been closer, but Olivier Sarr missed on a transition dunk.</p>
<p>The Blue Devils were on top 41-30 at halftime, with Wake Forest charged with 15 turnovers by the break. The Demon Deacons shot 1-for-10 on 3-pointers in the opening half.</p>
<p>Wake Forest committed 10 turnovers in the first 11 minutes but stayed within five points at that juncture.</p>
<p>Allen had 10 points in the first 12 minutes, while Moore countered with eight points by that stage.</p>
<p>Wake Forest played without guard Keyshawn Woods, who is still trying to recover from a knee injury, though he played in the previous four games.</p>
<p>Duke won for the eighth time in a row in the series. That string includes an 89-71 victory Jan. 13 in Durham, N.C.</p>
<p>Unlike the first meeting of the season, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was on the bench. He stayed away because of a virus in the first game. He missed last year’s visit to Winston-Salem following back surgery.</p>
<p>This was Wake Forest’s second game against a top-four team in three nights. Virginia defeated the Demon Deacons 59-49 on Sunday.</p>
<p>—Field Level Media</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Federal investigators on Thursday scoured the home of the 23-year-old man they say was behind this month’s deadly Texas bombing spree, seeking clues about what motivated Mark Conditt and whether anyone helped him build or plant his bombs.</p> Law enforcement personnel investigate the home where Austin serial bomber Mark Anthony Conditt lived in Pflugerville, Texas, U.S., March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
<p>Police say Conditt, an unemployed man from the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, confessed to a three-week string of bombings in a 25-minute video made on his cellphone hours before he blew himself up as police closed in on him Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Even though the bomber’s dead, our focus is to ensure that he wasn’t working with anyone else,” said Michelle Lee, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s San Antonio office. “We’re really working to make sure that that wasn’t the case.”</p>
<p>The bombs, which killed two people and wounded five others, primarily targeted Austin, the Texas capital and a fast-growing city of 1 million people. Three were left as parcels outside victims’ homes, one by a sidewalk with a trip-wire mechanism attached and two shipped as FedEx parcels, which helped investigators unmask the bomber’s identity.</p>
<p>The attacks drew national attention when the second and third bombs went off while the city was hosting its annual South by Southwest music, movies and tech festival, which draws about half a million people.</p>
<p>The confession video showed a troubled young man, police said, but did not outline a clear motive for the attacks that began March 2.</p> Pictured is the home where Austin serial bomber Mark Anthony Conditt lived in Pflugerville, Texas, U.S., March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
<p>“We may never get a clear picture of what motivated the Austin bomber,” Fred Burton, chief security officer for security consultancy Stratfor and a former counterterrorism agent with the U.S. State Department, said in a phone interview.</p>
<p>Austin’s police department was unlikely to make the video public while the investigation continued, said spokeswoman Destiny Wilson.</p> Slideshow (7 Images)
<p>Investigators sought further clues from the home Conditt shared with two roommates in Pflugerville, within walking distance of his parents’ house.</p>
<p>Conditt and his three siblings had been home-schooled through high school, his mother wrote on Facebook. He attended classes at Austin Community College between 2010 and 2012, but did not graduate.</p>
<p>“No form of education, public or private, can ensure a tragedy like this will never happen,” Texas Home School Association President Tim Lambert said in a late Wednesday statement.</p>
<p>The Austin Stone Community Church, responding to reports that Conditt had attended, said in a statement late on Wednesday that it had no records of him being actively engaged with the church.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Jonathan Allen in New York; editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Thursday that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China, although his action was far removed from threats that could have ignited a global trade war.</p>
<p>Under the terms of the memorandum, Trump will target the Chinese imports only after a consultation period, a measure that will give industry lobbyists and legislators a chance to water down a proposed target list which runs to 1,300 products.</p>
<p>China will also have space to respond to Trump’s actions, reducing the risk of immediate dramatic retaliation from Beijing, and Trump struck an emollient tone as he started speaking. “I view them as a friend,” he said.</p>
<p>“We have spoken to China and we are in the middle of negotiations,” Trump said, adding that the loss of American jobs from unfair trade was one of the main reasons he had been elected in 2016.</p>
<p>The threatened tariffs as well as possible investment restrictions on China stem from the U.S. Trade Representative’s investigation of alleged misappropriation of U.S. intellectual property by Beijing.</p>
<p>U.S. officials say that probe, undertaken through Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, has found that China engages in unfair trade practices by forcing American investors to turn over key technologies to Chinese firms.</p>
<p>Washington will also pursue alleged breaches of intellectual property law by China through the World Trade Organization, a body that has repeatedly drawn the ire of the administration but which could provide a resolution that avoids a trade war.</p>
<p>Trump, who earlier this month announced steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the United States, also wants the Chinese to take action that would lower the $375 billion goods trade deficit that the United States is running with China.</p>
<p>Global stocks sold off earlier on Thursday on the expectation of tough action from Trump and fears of a global trade war. They recovered somewhat after his announcement but fell again in late afternoon trading.</p> WILL CHINA ROCK THE BOAT?
<p>The U.S. Trade Representative’s office will now present a list of Chinese products that could be targeted, primarily from the high-tech sector. There will then be a 60-day consultation period before definitive action is taken.</p>
<p>White House officials told a briefing ahead of the trade announcement that the administration was eyeing tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods. They said the figure was based on a calculation of the impact on the profits of U.S. companies that had been forced to hand over intellectual property as the price of doing business in China.</p> U.S. President Donald Trump holds his signed memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
<p>There was no explanation of the difference between that figure and Trump’s $60 billion.</p>
<p>“Many of these areas are those where China has sought to acquire advantage through the unfair acquisition and forced technology transfer from U.S. companies,” said Everett Eissenstat, deputy director of the National Economic Council.</p>
<p>In addition, Trump will also direct the U.S. Treasury to propose measures that could restrict Chinese investments in the United States, Eissenstat said.</p>
<p>China has threatened to target U.S. exports of agricultural commodities, in particular the $14 billion in exports of soybeans. Aircraft maker Boeing Co and machinery company Caterpillar Inc could also be in Beijing’s sights.</p> Slideshow (12 Images)
<p>“We urge the Trump administration to consider the impact these escalating tariff actions will have on farm country,” Farmers for Free Trade, an industry lobby group, said in a statement after the tariffs were announced.</p>
<p>Farm incomes were at their second-lowest levels since 2003 in inflation-adjusted terms in 2017, according to the Congressional Research Service. Many farming districts favored Trump in the presidential election.</p>
<p>Despite threats of retaliation, China has been keen to portray itself as a defender of globalization, a message that was reinforced in a call between President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron.</p>
<p>That said, there is a risk of a mounting cycle of retaliation. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer warned on Wednesday that Washington would take “counter measures” if Beijing targeted U.S. agriculture.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-china-embassy/china-would-fight-to-the-end-in-any-u-s-launched-trade-war-embassy-idUSKBN1GY30U" type="external">China 'would fight to the end' in any U.S.-launched trade war: embassy</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-eu/eu-leaders-receive-positive-news-on-trump-tariffs-idUSKBN1GY02V" type="external">EU leaders receive positive news on Trump tariffs</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-china/trump-administration-eyes-tariffs-on-50-billion-in-chinese-goods-idUSKBN1GY2DM" type="external">Trump administration eyes tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods</a>
<p>The biggest risk to world trade over the longer term may not be a tit-for-tat trade war, but the breakdown of global supply chains that feed companies such as U.S. auto giant General Motors Co and Apple Inc.</p>
<p>“Tensions are likely to escalate further, even without a full-scale trade war. This could disrupt global supply chains and damage investor sentiment,” said Dario Perkins, head of global macroeconomics research at TS Lombard, a London-based economic consultancy.</p>
<p>Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, which are tied to Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, go into effect on Friday. Canada and Mexico have been given initial exemptions from the 25 percent steel and 10 percent aluminum tariffs.</p>
<p>Lighthizer told U.S. lawmakers on Thursday that the European Union, along with Argentina, Australia, Brazil and South Korea, would also be exempted.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Steve Holland, David Chance, David Lawder and Susan Heavey; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Paul Simao</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department squared off on Thursday with AT&amp;T Inc in a long anticipated trial, as the two sides disputed whether AT&amp;T’s $85 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc would be good for consumers or an expensive drag on innovation.</p>
<p>During opening statements, Justice Department lawyer Craig Conrath asked for the deal to be blocked, saying it would hike prices for consumers by more than $400 million annually, or an average of $0.45 a month for pay TV subscribers, by making rival pay TV companies pay more for Time Warner content.</p>
<p>“Time Warner would be a weapon for AT&amp;T because AT&amp;T’s competitors need Time Warner,” Conrath told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who will decide the case after a trial expected to last six to eight weeks.</p>
<p>Conrath also said AT&amp;T would be able to use content from movie and TV show maker Time Warner, including its Turner unit, to slow innovation in online video.</p>
<p>In opening remarks, Daniel Petrocelli, speaking for AT&amp;T and Time Warner, ridiculed the Justice Department’s case and suggested the government was “fundamentally stuck in the past” with arguments that were “divorced from reality.”</p>
<p>Petrocelli said the deal would actually lead to a 50-cent decrease in prices for pay TV subscribers, citing what he said were errors in a government expert’s model of how the transaction would impact future prices.</p>
<p>The Justice Department, Petrocelli said, “cannot meet their burden of proof. They cannot prove that this would lessen competition.”</p>
<p>The merger is about the companies trying to better compete with technology businesses like Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com Inc, Petrocelli said.</p>
<p>The internet companies, including Netflix Inc, pose two challenges to pay TV. They either compete with cable and satellite television for ad dollars or provide cheaper online video that has hurt pricey pay-TV. Some do both.</p>
<p>Petrocelli added that the combined company would be better at using customer data to target advertising. Companies like General Motors Co and Mastercard In will pay more for higher quality advertising and consumers will pay less, he said.</p>
<p>The Justice Department filed suit in November to stop AT&amp;T, which has some 25 million pay-TV subscribers, from closing the deal. AT&amp;T says a merger would benefit consumers by creating efficiencies. AT&amp;T is the biggest pay-TV provider via subsidiary DirecTV.</p> Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes arrives ahead of arguments in the trial to determine if AT&amp;T's merger with Time Warner is legal under antitrust law at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>Conrath suggested that AT&amp;T would be able to hike fees that Turner charges for its content by about 10 percent if the merger were approved and that the company could withhold content from rival distributors. He referenced an internal email from Turner executives that Dish Network Corp’s Sling service would be “crap” without Turner content, as he paraphrased the stronger language in the email.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump publicly criticized the deal as a candidate and as president, and the Republican president often has excoriated Time Warner’s CNN news network.</p>
<p>For its first witness, the Justice Department called Cox Communications content buyer Suzanne Fenwick, who described Time Warner’s movies, television shows and sports programming as “must-have content” for the cable TV provider.</p>
<p>If the merger went through, she said, she feared the next negotiation. “We’re very concerned that we’re going to be presented with a horribly ugly deal,” she said.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>Petrocelli, in response, pressed her in vain to show any analytics to prove that Cox needed Time Warner to prevent customers from moving to DirecTV. “You’ve never done a single bit of quantitative analysis,” he concluded.</p> GOVERNMENT LOSS MEANS MORE DEALS
<p>If the government loses, that could open up the field for more tie-ups between distributors and content providers. But a win could strengthen the hand of antitrust regulators looking at other, similarly structured mergers.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T and Time Warner are not direct competitors, making the deal a so-called vertical merger between companies on the same supply chain. The vast majority of challenged mergers involve one rival buying another.</p>
<p>The merger would hand AT&amp;T, if it becomes the new owner of Time Warner, the motive and opportunity to refuse to license March Madness NCAA basketball tournament games, along with premium cable channel HBO and other content, to pay-TV rivals and online distributors, the Justice Department has said.</p>
<p>Petrocelli had asked for access to communications between the White House and Justice Department about the deal, but the judge denied the request. Trump’s opposition to the merger did not come up during opening statements.</p>
<p>If the government loses, Verizon Communications Inc and Charter Communications Inc could strike deals to buy movie or television makers and squeeze smaller pay-TV providers.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T has said the merger would result in more than $2.5 billion in annual cost savings by 2020.</p>
<p>Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slumped on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s move to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports drove fears about the impact on the global economy, fueling the biggest percentage declines in Wall Street’s three major indexes since they entered correction territory six weeks ago.</p>
<p>Trump signed a presidential memorandum that will target the Chinese imports only after a consultation period. China will have space to respond, reducing the risk of immediate retaliation from Beijing.</p>
<p>But after equities recovered somewhat from earlier lows, selling pressure resumed on Wall Street heading into the close as investors fretted over the potential scale of U.S tariffs and possible impact on global trade.</p>
<p>“There’s too much negative sentiment right now,” said John Carey, portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management in Boston. “It’s possible that it will be rough sledding for a while. I don’t see anything on the horizon that will reassure people that things are just great.”</p>
<p>Major industrials slumped. Plane maker Boeing Co lost 5.2 percent, Caterpillar Inc dropped 5.7 and 3M Co lost 4.7. The three were among the biggest drags on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The S&amp;P industrials sector plunged 3.28 percent.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 724.42 points, or 2.93 percent, to 23,957.89, the S&amp;P 500 lost 68.24 points, or 2.52 percent, to 2,643.69, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 178.61 points, or 2.43 percent, to 7,166.68.</p>
<p>The losses marked the biggest daily percentage drop for each of the major indexes since Feb. 8, when the Dow and S&amp;P confirmed a market correction from their Jan. 26 highs.</p>
<p>Selling was broad, with only the defensive utilities 0.44on the plus side, up 0.44 percent, out of 11 major S&amp;P sectors.</p> Specialist trader Meric Greenbaum works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>The CBOE Volatility Index, the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term volatility in the S&amp;P 500, finished up 5.48 points at 23.34, its highest close since Feb. 13.23.34</p>
<p>U.S. treasury prices gained as investors sought out safe havens. Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 23/32 in price to yield 2.8244 percent, from 2.907 percent late on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The drop in yields weighed on financial stocks, which were down 3.70 percent, making them the worst performing of the major sectors.</p> Slideshow (7 Images)
<p>Another decline in shares of Facebook Inc, down 2.7 percent, continued to weigh on the broader market and the tech sector, the best performing S&amp;P group for this year. The S&amp;P technology index fell 2.69 percent on fears of greater regulation in the wake of the Facebook data leak.</p>
<p>Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he was open to additional government regulation and happy to testify before the U.S. Congress.</p>
<p>AbbVie Inc tumbled 12.8 percent after the drugmaker said it would not seek accelerated approval for its experimental lung cancer treatment based on results from a mid-stage study.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-stocks-analysts-instantview/instant-view-u-s-stocks-tumble-on-trade-worries-idUSKBN1GY2E9" type="external">Instant View: U.S. stocks tumble on trade worries</a>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 4.51-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 4.09-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and 19 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 36 new highs and 59 new lows.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.77 billion shares, compared to the 7.17 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by April Joyner; Editing by Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | No. 4 Duke shoots past Wake Forest Investigators probe whether Texas bomber had help Trump edges closer to China tariffs, appears to avert trade war U.S. Justice Department urges judge to block AT&T-Time Warner merger Stocks tumble to worst day in six weeks after Trump tariff action | false | https://reuters.com/article/basketball-ncaa-wfo-duk-recap/no-4-duke-shoots-past-wake-forest-idUSMTZEE1O1LE3FA | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>ANALYSIS/OPINION:</p>
<p>Well, finally and at last, and about freaking time.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton came out on CNN on Wednesday to say she was "sick" and "shocked" and "appalled" over the whole Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment-slash-rape allegations floating about the media.&#160;</p>
<p>Floating about the media for days, one might add.</p>
<p>Guess Hillary had to think about it awhile. While others in the Democratic Party and in Hollywood were rushing to denounce Weinstein, distance themselves from Weinstein, express disgust with Weinstein and yes, even return political donations from Weinstein, Hillary was busy - thinking.</p>
<p>Thinking, thinking, thinking.</p>
<p>Now she's done. And she's made a Decision. And apparently, she's decided Weinstein doesn't deserve her silent defense any longer.</p>
<p>"I was appalled," she <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/11/politics/hillary-clinton-harvey-weinstein-fareed-zakaria-cnntv/index.html" type="external">said</a> on CNN. "It was something that was just intolerable in every way. And, you know, like so many people who've come forward and spoken out, this was a different side of a person who I and many others had known in the past."</p>
<p>She also said she was going to give Weinstein's political donations to charity.</p>
<p>"What other people are saying," she said, "what my former colleagues are saying, is they're going to donate [their Weinstein contributions] to charity, and of course, I will do that. I give 10 percent of my income to charity every year, this will be part of that. There's no - there's no doubt about it."</p>
<p>At first blush, one might think - is she running for office again?</p>
<p>Is she campaigning to make clear that she's a good Christian tither?</p>
<p>But reread the statement and it's this that's of larger note: Instead of just taking the Weinstein donations and refusing them on principle - sending them to charity as an act of rejection for Weinstein - Clinton, by her own words, appears to be actually rolling the Weinstein donations into her normal and usual tithe.</p>
<p>"This will be part of that," she said.</p>
<p>So she's taking Weinstein's money and giving it to God - as part and parcel of what she claims is her normal 10 percent tithe. That's not an outright return of funds. That's a sliding of one fund into another.</p>
<p>Sigh. Even when Clinton's making a stand on principle, she can't stand on principle.</p>
<p>A principled stand against Weinstein would go like this: I'm getting rid of all the money he's given me over the years.</p>
<p>An unprincipled stand - the one Clinton chose - goes like this: I'm returning the Weinstein donations and labeling that money as part of my usual 10 percent charitable giving.</p>
<p>Perhaps she misspoke. Perhaps Clinton just meant to say that she was returning Weinstein's money, in whole, and oh yeah, by the way, I also give 10 percent of all my income to charity each year.</p>
<p>But perhaps not.</p>
<p>And the smart money's on the perhaps not.</p>
<p>Copyright - 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2017/oct/12/hillary-clinton-finally-appalled-harvey-weinstein/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
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<p>Click to Hide</p> | Hillary Clinton, 'appalled' by Harvey Weinstein, still hedges on money | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/12/hillary-clinton-finally-appalled-harvey-weinstein/ | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
<p>Note: This feature is part of a series that looks at the impact of state budget cuts on social services in Illinois. Today’s edition features: CeaseFire Illinois.</p>
<p>Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2016, which starts July 1, calls for cuts in a wide range of programs and services from early-childhood education and public&#160;transportation to those that help people who are homeless or living with mental illness or physical disabilities.</p>
<p>Some organizations and agencies have received letters from the state immediately suspending their fiscal-year 2015 funding. One of those programs is the anti-violence initiative CeaseFire Illinois, which says it is losing about 85-90 percent of its funding. CeaseFire is based at the University of Illinois at Chicago.</p>
<p>For a glimpse into the budget cuts and what they mean in the real world of social service agencies, read <a href="" type="internal">CeaseFire’s response</a> to the governor.</p>
<p>Below is the letter CeaseFire received from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority earlier this month:</p>
<p /> | Letter to CeaseFire | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/letter-to-ceasefire/ | 2015-03-24 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) speaks at the ‘We Are Here To Stay’ immigrant rights rally at Metropolitan AME Church on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p />
<p>He told the thousands of people who attended the pro-immigrant “We Are Here to Stay” rally at the Metropolitan AME Church in Northwest D.C. on Saturday that his mother worked as a housekeeper after she arrived in this country, even though she had graduated from a university in Guatemala. Cifuentes, who is now a U.S. citizen, said he only understood why she brought him and his brother to the U.S. when he came out to her in 2002.</p>
<p>“At an early age my mother realized that I was queer,” he said as the crowd that was gathered a few blocks north of the White House began to applaud. “Fearing for my safety and knowing that the opportunities that I would have here would be less limited by my identity than they would be at home, my mother gave up her own dreams so I could live an authentic live.”</p>
<p>Cifuentes is among those who spoke at the rally that CASA de Maryland, United We Dream and other groups organized. It is one of dozens of pro-immigrant events that took place around the country ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration.</p>
<p>“We are not going to allow Donald Trump or anybody else turn back the clock on social justice in the United States of America,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) as he spoke at the Metropolitan AME Church. “We are going to continue to move forward to build a more perfect union in this country.”</p>
<p>Van Hollen pointed to a new Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/united-states" type="external">report</a> that notes Trump’s election “capped a campaign marked by misogynistic, xenophobic and racist rhetoric” and the president-elect’s “embrace of policies that would cause tremendous harm to vulnerable communities contravene the United States’ core human rights obligations or both.” Van Hollen also said “we are not going to allow Donald Trump to bury the Statue of Liberty.”</p>
<p>“We are a nation of all peoples, regardless of religion, regardless of background, regardless of who you love,” said Van Hollen.</p>
<p>Illinois Congressman Luis Gutiérrez, who announced earlier this week that he would boycott Trump’s inauguration, told the crowd in Spanish the president-elect’s comments towards women are “not normal” and “not acceptable.” The Illinois Democrat who is of Puerto Rican descent cited his vote against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 and his support of immigrants, which includes the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Obama signed in 2012.</p>
<p>Trump <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/immigration" type="external">wrote on his campaign website</a> that “anyone who enters the U.S. illegally is subject to deportation.” He has also spoken in support of banning Muslims from entering the country.</p>
<p>Trump in 2015 described Mexicans as “rapists” when he announced his campaign. He has also called for the construction of a wall along the Mexican border to stop undocumented immigrants from entering the country.</p>
<p>“We are here because the immigrants in this country sacrificed everything,” said Gutiérrez, speaking at the rally in Spanish.</p>
<p>Martin Batalla Vidal, an undocumented immigrant with Make the Road New York who identifies as “queer,” said the incoming administration “should preserve DACA.”</p>
<p>“It works and I’m living proof of it,” he said.</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito are among those who also spoke at rally.</p>
<p>Attendees held signs and posters that read, “We will resist Trump’s hate,” among other things. A young boy who was attending the rally with his mother was wearing a hoodie that said, “Don’t deport my mom.”</p>
<p>The Metropolitan AME Church can accommodate 3,000 people. Rally organizers said more than 300 people were marching outside during the event because it had reached capacity.</p>
<p>“Nobody should live in fear of deportation,” said United We Dream Executive Director Cristina Jiménez. “Nobody should live in fear or in the shadows because of our immigration status and nobody should live in the closet with fear.”</p>
<p>Cifuentes told the Washington Blade after the rally that his mother is “terrified” about the incoming administration. Bryan Ellicott, a transgender rights advocate from Staten Island, N.Y., who traveled to D.C. with <a href="http://www.atlasdiy.org/" type="external">Atlas: DIY,</a> a group that advocates on behalf of immigrants, said it was important for him to show his solidarity.</p>
<p>“As a member of the LGBT — specifically bi and trans community from Staten Island — it’s extremely important to me to show support to the immigrant/undocumented community,” Ellicott told the Blade.</p>
<p>The “We Are Here to Stay” rally at Metropolitan AME Church coincided with the “We Shall Not Be Moved” march from the Washington Monument to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial that Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network organized.</p>
<p>Media reports <a href="http://www.amny.com/news/al-sharpton-s-we-shall-not-be-moved-march-in-washington-draws-civil-rights-advocates-1.12956099" type="external">indicate</a> thousands of people participated in the march. Rev. MacArthur Flournoy, director of faith partnerships and mobilization at HRC, is among those who spoke.</p>
<p>“With fierce urgency and courageous solidarity we must forge new partnerships and coalitions to protect civil freedoms and equal protection under the law for everyone — particularly, for those whose voices are seldom heard in the halls of power,” said Flournoy.</p>
<p>Georgia Congressman John Lewis on Friday told Chuck Todd of <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/john-lewis-trump-won-t-be-legitimate-president-n706676" type="external">NBC’s “Meet the Press”</a> that he does not consider Trump a “legitimate president” because of Russia’s efforts to interfere with the election.</p>
<p>Trump on Saturday criticized the civil rights icon in a series of tweets.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>HRC President Chad Griffin is among the advocates and lawmakers who quickly rebuked Trump.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Al Sharpton</a> <a href="" type="internal">bisexual</a> <a href="" type="internal">Bryan Elliott</a> <a href="" type="internal">CASA de Maryland</a> <a href="" type="internal">Cecile Richards</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chad Griffin</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chris Van Hollen</a> <a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump</a> <a href="" type="internal">gay</a> <a href="" type="internal">Guatemala</a> <a href="" type="internal">Human Rights Campaign</a> <a href="" type="internal">immigration</a> <a href="" type="internal">Javier Cifuentes</a> <a href="" type="internal">John Lewis</a> <a href="" type="internal">lesbian</a> <a href="" type="internal">Luis Gutierrez</a> <a href="" type="internal">MacArthur Flournoy</a> <a href="" type="internal">Make the Road New York</a> <a href="" type="internal">Martin Batalla Vidal</a> <a href="" type="internal">Mary Kay Henry</a> <a href="" type="internal">Melissa Mark-Viverito</a> <a href="" type="internal">Metropolitan AME Church</a> <a href="" type="internal">National Action Network</a> <a href="" type="internal">Planned Parenthood</a> <a href="" type="internal">queer</a> <a href="" type="internal">SEIU</a> <a href="" type="internal">transgender</a> <a href="" type="internal">United We Dream</a></p> | Immigrant advocates rally against Trump | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/01/14/immigrant-advocates-rally-trump/ | 3 |
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<p>NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The slide in bitcoin's price in recent weeks has favored bearish bets on the cryptocurrency, and with January futures expiring on Wednesday, speculators who had loaded up on bearish positions in front-month contracts will reap big gains.</p>
<p>Bitcoin futures started trading on Cboe Global Markets? Cboe Futures Exchange on Dec. 10, and since then the cryptocurrency has lost about 27 percent of its value on the Gemini Exchange.</p>
<p>January contracts, which started trading at $15,000, have fallen about 36 percent since then to $9,650. The futures are based on the auction price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars on the Gemini Exchange, which is owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs and brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.</p>
<p>So far, speculative positioning on the Cboe bitcoin contracts has leaned to the short side. To be short a futures contract means traders believe the underlying security will fall in value.</p>
<p>Speculators' net short position on bitcoin Cboe futures rose to 1,907 contracts in the week to Jan. 9, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday.</p>
<p>The bulk of volume and open interest had been centered in the front month, suggesting much of that short position is likewise concentrated in January.</p>
<p>To be sure, some front-month positions may have since been closed out or rolled forward into future months.</p>
<p>"Someone who shorted bitcoin futures last week would potentially be very happy this week," said Steve Sosnick, chief options strategist at Interactive Brokers Group Inc in Greenwich, Connecticut.</p>
<p>The approaching settlement could add an extra dose of volatility to the cryptocurrency's already wild gyrations.</p>
<p>"Large equity indices can often show volatility around expirations and those are highly liquid instruments traded on highly regulated exchanges," said Sosnick.</p>
<p>"While bitcoin futures are traded on highly regulated exchanges the underlying product is not. Considering the volatility we have seen over the past couple of days it makes me wonder what we are going to see going into the settlement," he said. (Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia would be prepared to send troops into Syria as part of the U.S.-led coalition if a decision was taken to widen it, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>"We are in discussion with the U.S. and have been since the beginning of the Syrian crisis about sending forces into Syria," Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.</p>
<p>He said Riyadh had expressed its readiness while Barack Obama was U.S. President to send ground forces into Syria if the United States were to add an on-the-ground component to the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State insurgents.</p>
<p>Jubeir was responding to a question about a Wall Street Journal report that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to assemble an Arab force to replace the U.S. military contingent in Syria.</p>
<p>"There are discussions regarding ... what kind of force needs to remain in eastern Syria and where that force would come from, and those discussions are ongoing," Jubeir said.</p>
<p>Trump wants to bring U.S. troops home from Syria but has not set a timeline, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday, two days after Western allies bombed Syrian targets over a suspected chemical weapons attack.</p>
<p>One U.S. official told Reuters the United States is looking at what forces might be able to follow on in areas of Syria formerly under Islamic State control, should the United States leave or reduce its force dramatically. But no decisions have been made to do this.</p>
<p>Before the Western military strikes took place, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had said that the kingdom, a key U.S. ally, could take part in military action in Syria.</p>
<p>While some commentators have assumed that Saudi Arabia is fully preoccupied with a three-year-old war in Yemen, Riyadh has suggested it could help counter-terrorism operations in some other theatres of conflict as part of a wider Muslim alliance.</p>
<p>For example, a Saudi-backed Islamic military coalition will provide logistical, intelligence and training to a new West African counter-terrorism force, Jubeir said in December.</p>
<p>About 40 Muslim-majority nations met in Riyadh at the end of November to flesh out details of an alliance first conceived two years ago by Prince Mohammed that is widely seen as a vehicle for countering the growing influence of Riyadh's rival Iran.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sarah Dadouch in Riyadh and Aziz el Yaakoubi in Dubai; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Catherine Evans/William Maclean</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIRUT (Reuters) - Global chemical weapons inspectors finally reached the Syrian town on Tuesday where a suspected poison gas attack took place, days after the United States, Britain and France launched missile strikes to punish Damascus for it.</p> Members of Syrian police sit at a damaged building at the city of Douma, Damascus, Syria April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
<p>Syrian state television reported that the experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had entered Douma, where Western countries say scores of civilians sheltering from bombs were gassed to death on April 7.</p>
<p>France said it was very likely that evidence of the poison gas attack was disappearing before the inspectors could reach the site. Syria and its ally Russia deny that any chemical attack took place.</p>
<p>Douma is now in the hands of government forces after the last rebels withdrew just hours after U.S., French and British forces fired more than 100 missiles to hit three suspected chemical weapons development or storage sites.</p>
<p>Saturday's air strikes were the first coordinated Western strikes against Assad's government in a seven-year war that has killed more than 500,000 people and drawn in global powers and neighbouring states.</p>
<p>The intervention threatened to escalate confrontation between the West and Russia but has had no significant impact on the ground, where President Bashar al-Assad is now in his strongest position since the war's early days and shows no sign of slowing down his campaign to crush the rebellion.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-congress/speaker-ryan-trump-did-right-thing-on-syria-strikes-idUSKBN1HO27M" type="external">Speaker Ryan: Trump did 'right thing' on Syria strikes</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-iran/irans-rouhani-turkeys-erdogan-discuss-syria-on-phone-irna-idUSKBN1HO2EB" type="external">Iran's Rouhani, Turkey's Erdogan discuss Syria on phone: IRNA</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-britain/uk-parliament-clearly-backs-decision-on-syria-strikes-mays-spokesman-idUSKBN1HO2BV" type="external">UK parliament clearly backs decision on Syria strikes: May's spokesman</a>
<p>Graphic: Air strikes on suspected Syrian chemical weapons sites, click <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2JRHHJz" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2JRHHJz</a></p> YARMOUK
<p>The Syrian army began preparatory shelling on Tuesday for an assault on the last area outside its control near Damascus, a commander in the pro-government alliance said.</p>
<p>Recovering the Yarmouk camp and neighbouring areas south of the city would give Assad complete control over Syria's capital. Yarmouk, Syria's biggest camp for Palestinian refugees, has been under the control of Islamic State fighters for years. Although most residents have fled, the United Nations says several thousand remain.</p>
<p>Assad has benefited from Russian air power since 2015 to regain large swathes of Syria. The suspected poison gas attack creates a conundrum for Western powers, who are determined to punish Assad for using chemical weapons but have no strategy for the sort of sustained intervention that might damage him.</p>
<p>Damascus and Moscow have broadcast statements from hospital workers in Douma - which medical aid groups operating in rebel areas have dismissed as propaganda - saying that no chemical attack took place.</p>
<p>Syrian state media reported that missiles had again targeted an airbase overnight, but the commander in the regional military alliance backing the government, speaking on condition of anonymity, later told Reuters it was a false alarm.</p>
<p>The commander said the new offensive would target Islamic State and Nusra Front militants in Yarmouk camp and al-Hajar al-Aswad district. Rebels in the adjoining Beit Sahm area had agreed to withdraw on buses, he said.</p> EASTERN GHOUTA
<p>A government media tour on Monday of Douma, the biggest town in the former rebel enclave of eastern Ghouta just outside Damascus, revealed severe destruction and the plight of residents who had survived years of siege.</p>
<p>The assault on eastern Ghouta began in February and ended in government victory on Saturday when rebels withdrew from the town. All the rebel groups controlling areas of eastern Ghouta eventually agreed surrender deals that involved withdrawal to opposition-held areas of northwestern Syria.</p>
<p>After the recapture of eastern Ghouta, Assad still has several smaller pockets of ground to recover from rebels, as well as two major areas they hold in the northwest and southwest.</p>
<p>Besides the pocket south of Damascus, rebels still hold besieged enclaves in the town of Dumayr northeast of Damascus, in the Eastern Qalamoun mountains nearby, and around Rastan north of Homs.</p>
<p>The pro-government commander said the army had prepared for military action in the Eastern Qalamoun, but that Russia was working on securing the rebels' withdrawal without a battle. State television said on Tuesday that rebels in Dumayr had also agreed to withdraw.</p>
<p>In Idlib in northwest Syria, the largest area still held by rebels, a government assault could bring Damascus into confrontation with Turkey, which has set up a string of military observation posts in the area.</p>
<p>Ali Akbar Velayati, a top Iranian official, said during a visit to Damascus last week that he hoped the army would soon regain Idlib and areas of eastern Syria now held by an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by Washington.</p>
<p>Chemical attacks interactive graphic, click <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2pKDWOY" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2pKDWOY</a></p>
<p>Reporting by Laila Bassam, additional reporting by Dahlia Nehme; Editing by Kevin Liffey; Writing by Angus McDowall and Peter Graff; Editing by Kevin Liffey</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>) will close 8,000 company-owned U.S. cafes for the afternoon on May 29 to train nearly 175,000 on how to prevent racial discrimination in its stores.</p> FILE PHOTO: Women peer inside the closed Center City Starbucks, where two black men were arrested, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S. April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Mark Makela
<p>The announcement from world's biggest coffee company comes as it tries to cool tensions after the arrest of two black men at one of its Philadelphia cafes last week sparked accusations of racial profiling at the chain.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SBUX.O" type="external">Starbucks Corp</a> 59.8733 SBUX.O Nasdaq +0.44 (+0.75%) SBUX.O
<p>Protesters have called for a boycott of the company.</p>
<p>"While this is not limited to Starbucks, we're committed to being a part of the solution," said Starbucks Chief Executive Kevin Johnson, who has apologized for the "reprehensible" arrests of the two men and taken responsibility for the incident.</p>
<p>Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON - A provision in U.S. law requiring the deportation of immigrants convicted of crimes of violence is unconstitutionally vague, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a decision that could hinder the Trump administration's ability to step up the removal of immigrants with criminal records.</p> FILE PHOTO: Police officers stand in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC, U.S., January 19, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Thayer/File Photo
<p>The court, in a 5-4 ruling in which President Donald Trump's conservative appointee Neil Gorsuch joined the four liberal justices, invalidated the provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act and sided with convicted California burglar James Garcia Dimaya, a legal immigrant from the Philippines.</p>
<p>The ruling, written by liberal Justice Elena Kagan, was a setback for the administration, which had defended the provision during arguments in the case in October.</p>
<p>Federal authorities ordered Dimaya deported after he was convicted in two California home burglaries, in 2007 and 2009, though neither crime involved violence.</p>
<p>Kagan said the disputed provision's ambiguity had created confusion in lower courts. "Does car burglary qualify as a violent felony?" Kagan wrote. "Some courts say yes, another says no." Kagan mentioned other examples including rape, evading arrest and trespassing in which courts have also been divided.</p>
<p>Gorsuch, in a concurring opinion, write that the American colonies in the 18th century cited vague English law like the crime of treason as among the reasons for the American revolution.</p>
<p>"Today's vague laws may not be as invidious, but they can invite the exercise of arbitrary power all the same - by leaving the people in the dark about what the law demands and allowing prosecutors and courts to make it up," Gorsuch added.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court upheld a 2015 lower court ruling that the provision requiring Dimaya's deportation created uncertainty over which crimes may be considered violent, risking arbitrary enforcement in violation of the U.S. Constitution.</p> ?REASONABLE PEOPLE?
<p>"No one should be surprised that the Constitution looks unkindly on any law so vague that reasonable people cannot understand its terms and judges do not know where to begin in applying it," Gorsuch wrote.</p>
<p>The court issued the ruling at a time of intense focus on immigration issues in the United States as Trump seeks to increase deportations of immigrants who have committed crimes, though it was former President Barack Obama's administration that sought to deport Dimaya.</p>
<p>Dimaya's attorney, Joshua Rosenkranz, said the decision strikes down a law that has over decades led to the deportation of thousands of immigrants. "The Supreme Court delivered a resounding message today: You can't banish a person from his home and family without clear lines, announced up front," Rosenkranz said.</p>
<p>Dimaya came to the United States from the Philippines as a legal permanent resident in 1992 at age 13. He lived in the San Francisco Bay area.</p>
<p>In 2010, the government sought to deport Dimaya. The Justice Department's Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative body that applies immigration laws, refused to cancel his expulsion because the relevant law defined burglary as a "crime of violence."</p>
<p>In the federal criminal code, a "crime of violence" includes offenses in which force either was used or carried a "substantial risk" that it would be used.</p>
<p>The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2015 that the definition as applied to legal immigrants was so vague that it violated their rights to due process of law under the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>The appeals court relied on a decision that same year by the U.S. Supreme Court, which found that a similar provision in a federal criminal sentencing law was overly broad.</p>
<p>In a dissenting opinion on Tuesday, conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said the immigration law provision at issue should have been upheld. Roberts said the ruling will have significant ramifications because the same "crime of violence" definition is used in numerous other laws, including using or carrying firearms during a violent crime, and could call into question convictions under them.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on Oct. 2, the first day of its current nine-month term. The court initially heard arguments in January 2017 when it was one justice short, but decided last June after Gorsuch brought the court to full strength to have the case re-argued, putting the new justice in a position to cast the deciding vote.</p>
<p>Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Shorts on top as January CBOE bitcoin futures near settlement Saudi Arabia says open to sending troops to Syria under wider coalition Chemical weapons experts enter site of attack in Syrian town Starbucks to close 8,000 U.S. stores for one afternoon for racial-bias training U.S. Supreme Court restricts deportations of immigrant felons | false | https://reuters.com/article/bitcoin-futures-cboe/shorts-on-top-as-january-cboe-bitcoin-futures-near-settlement-idUSL1N1PC15F | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>UK electro duo Simian Mobile Disco are pretty darn good, and their now-oldish track “Hustler” is one of the best songs on their new album, Attack Decay Sustain Release. Its dark breakbeat backing is combined with a repetitive, stream-of-consciousness rap about being too broke to buy records and stealing them instead. It already had a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Bf6YGbc1c" type="external">pretty good (if eyebrow-raising) video</a> featuring a circle of hipster girls whose game of “secret” turns into a makeout session, but for some reason the band (or their label) decided that wasn’t exploitative enough. Now we get a new video featuring dancing models who, er, binge and purge, in Technicolor:</p>
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<p>Send-up of cheesecake videos, blistering indictment of the modeling industry, or crap? It brings to mind a couple other electronic artists whose tracks apparently needed attention-grabbing and ultimately exploitative clips: first, The Prodigy’s already-controversial “Smack My Bitch Up” featured a typical laddish night out of booze, fighting and sex (along with similar amounts of vomiting), until the perspective switcheroo at the end. (NSFW).</p>
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<p>While nobody saw the Shyamalan-style twist coming, it’s still dumb, and feels like a tacked-on way to make the other 99% of the video acceptable.</p>
<p>Don’t forget the clip for UNKLE’s “Rabbit in Your Headlights,” a dull ballad with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on vocals. The video uses special effects to create what’s basically an ultraviolent snuff film where a mentally disturbed man is repeatedly run over by cars until, again, a kind of surprise ending, I guess:</p>
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<p>That one ends up on lots of “best video ever” lists, but it just makes me feel kind of ill. Perhaps the lesson with these clips that it’s a slippery slope between ironic, winking exploitation and actual, grody exploitation?</p>
<p /> | (Not So) Neato Viddys on the Intertubes | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/10/not-so-neato-viddys-intertubes/ | 2007-10-30 | 4 |
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<p>Shawn McQueen-Ruggeiro landed the position after a six-month search, market co-founder/creative director Judith Espinar said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The San Diego resident was one of about a dozen finalists, Espinar said. Market co-founder and former executive director Charlene Cerny retired in September.</p>
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<p>“She (McQueen-Ruggeiro) stood out because she’s an excellent communicator,” Espinar said. “We were extremely impressed with her international, on-the-ground experience all over the world.</p>
<p>“Shawn has a very deep appreciation for what Charlene and the market board have put into place,” she continued. “We see her as a builder.”</p>
<p>For McQueen-Ruggeiro, the job is the culmination of a dream.</p>
<p>She is the former director of institutional development for Project Concern International, a nonprofit she worked with for eight years. McQueen-Ruggeiro led the launch of a PIC initiative called Women Empowered, a savings-based program for women in developing countries. Instead of awarding them micro-loans, the nonprofit taught the women how to save. They compiled the money to give loans back to themselves, she said.</p>
<p>“It’s been extremely successful in Africa,” McQueen-Ruggeiro said in a telephone interview from San Diego, where she was driving home to pack her clothes to start work on Monday in Santa Fe.</p>
<p>“There’s a different response when they are doing this as a group,” she added. “There’s a real ownership. I see a lot of similar qualities in the (Folk Art) market.”</p>
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<p>The new director had visited Santa Fe frequently and attended her first Folk Art Market last summer. She always bought a piece of folk art to take home on her travels across the globe. But Santa Fe was different.</p>
<p>“I can’t tell you how much money I spent,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t want my husband to know. When you travel, there’s such a mix in quality. These were museum-quality works. It’s like this massive shopping opportunity with a cause. And you have the maker right there.”</p>
<p>Among other responsibilities, McQueen-Ruggeiro involved some high-profile people in her former organization’s work, including Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, the first democratically elected president of Zambia (Kenneth Kaunda), Kenyan activist Wahu Kaara, Zimbabwean international recording star Oliver Mtukudzi, and singer/songwriter/guitarist Bonnie Raitt.</p>
<p>Raitt came via her friendship with Mtukudzi, McQueen-Ruggeiro said.</p>
<p>“I invited Bonnie to come to one event and give him an award,” she explained. “She was amazing. She’s an incredibly bright woman. Not only did she speak</p>
<p>eloquently and present, she got up and played (music) with him.”</p>
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<p>McQueen-Ruggeiro is already thinking of inviting Raitt to the Folk Art Market.</p>
<p>“I’m sure she would love it,” she said. “She’s for sure on my radar.”</p>
<p>Last summer, the director-to-be was overwhelmed by the sight of the Santa Fe market’s army of 1,600 volunteers.</p>
<p>“I’ve never seen an event like that where 1,600 people give their time and talent,” she said.</p>
<p>She had thought of organizing a similar event in San Diego, but she didn’t think the city could handle it.</p>
<p>McQueen-Ruggeiro discovered the Santa Fe job opening when she returned home.</p>
<p>The job dovetails nicely with her two greatest passions: developing countries and art.</p>
<p>“It’s like a miracle,” she said. “My whole life, I feel like I’ve been leading up to this.”</p>
<p>Starting Monday, McQueen-Ruggeiro plans to immerse herself in the market for the next few months.</p>
<p>“Before I even start, I really want to understand what their priorities are,” she said. The 10th Annual Santa Fe International Folk Art Market will take place July 12, 13 and 14.</p> | Folk Art Market Names New Boss | false | https://abqjournal.com/159350/folk-art-market-names-new-boss.html | 2013-01-11 | 2 |
<p>Christie Brinkley is known as a supermodel who’s face has been featured on hundreds of fashion magazines for four decades. Now in a new book, the beauty icon is sharing her secrets for looking good, starting with healthier eating. Brinkley talked about her new book, Timeless Beauty, in a recent interview with <a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2015/11/17/christie-brinkley-on-gmos-were-guinea-pigs/?cmpid=edpick&amp;google_editors_picks=true" type="external">Fox News</a>. At age 61, Brinkley says she wrote the book to help motivate people to lead healthier lives, especially by focusing on safer, healthier food choices.</p>
<p>Brinkley says she is upset with what she calls the food industry’s practices that are “blatantly disrespectful to our planet and us as individuals.” She is particularly concerned about the advent of genetically modified (GMO) foods, which have become prevalent over the last two decades. She says she is concerned about the health risks from GMOs and their potential impact on insects.</p>
<p>Brinkley is unhappy that GMOs are not safety tested, nor are they labeled. She feels that this makes Americans who eat them guinea pigs in a mass food experiment. Sixty-four other countries already require GMO labeling, but in the U.S., major corporations are lobbying to stop mandatory labeling.</p>
<p>She also notes that some scientists are concerned about the impact of GMOs on honeybees. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the number of honey-producing colonies has dropped by more than half since 1950. Scientists say that a recent phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder is responsible for the bee declines, and some point to GMOs and their associated pesticides as a potential cause.</p>
<p>Monsanto, the world leader in selling GMO seeds, also sells the world’s most widely used herbicide known as Roundup. Farmers who use Monsanto’s GMO seeds can spray their crops directly with Roundup, which has led to massive use of the farm poison.</p>
<p>A 2014 study found that Roundup can disrupt honeybees’ learning behaviors, potentially threatening the viability of bee colonies.</p>
<p>In a statement to Fox News, Monsanto denied that its products had any impact on bee health.</p>
<p /> | Christie Brinkley takes on GMOs in new book | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/11/19/christie-brinkley-takes-on-gmos-in-new-book/ | 2015-11-19 | 3 |
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<p>Malice — the evidence required for a murder conviction — had to be in officer Michael Slager’s mind the instant he fired at Walter Scott, who at that point was running away and posed no threat to him, she argued. Five of the bullets struck Scott in the back, felling him at a distance of dozens of feet.</p>
<p>Manslaughter — a lesser charge the judge agreed to include Wednesday at the prosecution’s request — requires proof the killing was done in the heat of passion, after being provoked, Solicitor Scarlett Wilson told jurors in her closing arguments.</p>
<p>But even if Slager felt provoked because Scott resisted arrest despite being repeatedly stunned by a Taser, that’s no justification for killing the man, she argued.</p>
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<p>“Just because someone is provoked, it does not give someone the right to do whatever they want when they want,” she said.</p>
<p>Scott ran from his car into a vacant lot after Slager pulled him over for a broken taillight in April 2015. Slager chased him down, but Scott refused to be subdued and tried to run away again. A bystander recorded the final moments of the encounter, in a video that shocked the nation.</p>
<p>Slager was fired from the North Charleston police force shortly after the video began spreading on social media. But the images don’t show the whole story, defense attorney Andy Savage said in his closings.</p>
<p>It doesn’t show Slager ordering Scott to stop before shooting him with his Taser. It shows only the very end of their struggle over the stun gun. And Slager had no way to know Scott wasn’t armed, Savage said.</p>
<p>“This is about the felonious conduct Mr. Scott engaged in,” Savage argued. “Who attacks a policeman for a brake light? Who does that?”</p>
<p>The 55 witnesses included a toxicologist who said cocaine was found in Scott’s body.</p>
<p>“Whether he was on cocaine, alcohol or whatever it was, he chose to attack a police officer,” Savage told the jurors. Slager, he said, didn’t shoot Scott “because of a brake light. He shot him in fear for his life.”</p>
<p>The jury — 11 white people and one black man — watched the cellphone video repeatedly during the trial. Wednesday, they were able to see the crime scene directly. Court officials and one representative each from the defense and prosecution went along; the media was kept out.</p>
<p>As the jury visited the vacant lot, Judge Clifton Newman granted the prosecution’s request to consider manslaughter as well as murder, and Savage did not object.</p>
<p>Since prosecutors are not alleging aggravating circumstances that could bring a death sentence, Slager could face 30 years to life if convicted of murder. Manslaughter is punishable by two to 30 years in prison.</p>
<p>After assuring the judge that he understood the risk of testifying in his own defense, Slager, 36, took the stand Tuesday. He said he was in “total fear” as Scott resisted arrest and grabbed his Taser.</p>
<p>The bystander began recording about then. The video shows Scott breaking away from Slager and trying to run.</p>
<p>“At that point, I pulled my firearm and pulled the trigger,” Slager testified. “I fired until the threat was stopped, as I was trained to do.”</p> | Prosecutor: Murder or manslaughter, fired officer is guilty | false | https://abqjournal.com/898882/prosecutor-murder-or-manslaughter-fired-officer-is-guilty.html | 2016-11-30 | 2 |
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<p>For a different view of the battle over media deregulation, take a read of this <a href="http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&amp;c=StoryFT&amp;cid=1051389608522&amp;p=1012571727088" type="external">Financial Times' story</a> on the FT.com Web site:</p>
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<p>Free-to-air TV is under threat, warns FCC chief By Peter Thal Larsen in New York and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Published: April 29 2003 21:42 | Last Updated: April 29 2003 21:42&#160;&#160;The head of the Federal Communications Commission has warned that free-to-air broadcast television in the US is under threat unless regulators ease ownership restrictions to allow further consolidation.Michael Powell, the FCC chairman, said the growth of cable and satellite television had "dramatically" changed the economics of free-to-air broadcasting.The FCC will vote on June 2 on new rules to ease media ownership restrictions in the US in what could be a crucial test for Mr Powell.Powell under pressure: as the US prepares to relax its laws on media ownership, a political battle brewsThe authority of the 40-year old former antitrust lawyer suffered a serious setback in February when Kevin Martin, another Republican commissioner, forged an alliance with the FCC's two Democrat commissioners to defeat part of Mr Powell's deregulatory agenda for telecoms policy.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Is free TV in danger? | false | https://poynter.org/news/free-tv-danger | 2003-04-30 | 2 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>Shares of Achillion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACHN), a developmental-stage developer of small-molecule drugs to treat autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases such as hepatitis C, plummeted 34% in November, according to data from <a href="https://www.spcapitaliq.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>. The culprit behind the collapse can be traced to the company's Nov. 3 third-quarter earnings release.</p>
<p>The source of Achillion's woes had little to do with the company's actual Q3 financials, which included a net loss that shrank to $20.7 million, or $0.15 per share, from $26.3 million, or $0.19 per share, in the prior-year period. Instead, an update on its leading non-hepatitis C compound, ACH-4471, an oral Factor D inhibitor being targeted at a host of rare autoimmune disorders, presented with unfavorable early phase 1 results.</p>
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<p>Enrollment of healthy volunteers began in June for an ongoing phase 1 multiple ascending dose study, and while strong complement inhibition was shown in the lab, "plasma trough concentrations of ACH-4471 exceeded the range the Company anticipates for potential treatment in patients."</p>
<p>In simpler English, it appears there may be difficulty in metabolizing ACH-4471, since plasma trough concentrations are ideally measured prior to administering the next dosage. If trough concentrations are too high, then either Achillion began with too high a dosage among its three cohorts, or the drug isn't metabolizing as it should. While throttling back on dosage is an option that could remove this concern, scaling back the dosage could also translate into a decline in efficacy. Achillion has suggested that it plans to continue looking at various dosing options and that its study of ACH-4471 is continuing. However, considering that this is really Achillion's only foray outside of hepatitis C virus (HCV), it's a bumpy beginning, and investors clearly aren't happy.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Though ACH-4471 certainly did not get a great start, Achillion's bread and butter is still its hepatitis portfolio, which was licensed to healthcare juggernaut Johnson &amp; Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) in May of last year for what could add up to $1.1 billion (including $225 million via an equity investment). On top of $905 million in possible milestone payments, Achillion stands to receive a royalty in the mid-teens to low-20s percentage on the net sale of any approved HCV drug. Even with Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) still dominating in terms of HCV market share, there are tens of millions of untreated patients around the world, leaving a large enough pool for J&amp;J and Achillion to aggressively continue their research.</p>
<p>Just a few days ago Johnson &amp; Johnson and Achillion announced that they had initiated a phase 2b open-label study, known as OMEGA-1, of JNJ-4178, which is a three-component direct-acting antiviral containing Olysio (also known as simeprevir), odalasvir, and AL-335. The study will examine all HCV genotypes (save genotype 3) with six-week and eight-week dosing. Sustained virologic response at the 12-week mark will establish whether the triplet met its primary efficacy endpoint. A shorter treatment time frame is probably the best pathway to dethroning Gilead Sciences' therapies, which often work in eight or 12 weeks, so the release of this study data in 2017 is what Achillion shareholders should really be watching closely.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a>has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/tmfultralong.aspx" type="external">TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TMFUltraLong" type="external">@TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Gilead Sciences. It also recommends Johnson and Johnson. 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> | The Main Reason Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Collapsed 34% in November | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/05/main-reason-achillion-pharmaceuticals-inc-collapsed-34-in-november.html | 2016-12-05 | 0 |
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<p>Rand Paul’s <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/1679154504001/" type="external">endorsement</a> of Mitt Romney is understandable, predictable, and pragmatic– for Rand Paul.</p>
<p>On the one hand, this move looks like an unconscionable sell-out. How could the son of Ron Paul, the most independent and intellectually consistent candidate for president, actually endorse the most philosophically empty and opportunistic candidate? But on the other hand, Paul is merely fulfilling a vow he made at the beginning of the presidential campaign: to support the eventual nominee.</p>
<p>It was but a few months ago that <a href="http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/03/mark-levin-challenges-ron-rand" type="external">Republican talking heads</a> were demanding to know if Ron Paul would endorse the eventual nominee and concretely rule out a third party run. If Ron Paul didn’t agree to these ad hoc terms it was implicated that son Rand would be marked by his own party for <a href="http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2012/01/gop-goes-mobster.html" type="external">political extinction</a>. The same issue is in play with Rand Paul’s endorsement.</p>
<p>Rand Paul’s actual endorsement is itself rather weak. The younger Paul blathers about Romney’s intention to audit the Federal Reserve and preserve internet freedom but his explanation seems contorted and forced. Even when talking about the personal reasons to support Romney it sounds like Rand Paul is <a href="https://reason.com/blog/2012/06/08/rand-paul-endorses-mitt-romney-now-that" type="external">bluffing his way through an oral exam</a>:</p>
<p>“Governor Romney and I actually have quite a few similarities. Governor Romney’s dad ran for president, was unsuccessful, Governor Romney then went on to support the nominee the same way his dad did. Governor Romney comes from a big family, I don’t even know them that well but I think it’s a big loving family, so do I, I come from a family with five kids, Governor Romney has five kids. He’s had a long and happy marriage, so have my parents. I think we have a lot of the same family values.” [emphasis mine – CW]</p>
<p>This endorsement is disappointing for the more passionate and independent of Ron Paul’s supporters but he isn’t the first member of his wing of the GOP to choose party unity and pragmatism over principle.</p>
<p>Except in 2000 when he ran third party, Pat Buchanan always supported the nominee, including <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/coming-home/" type="external">George W. Bush in 2004</a>. And although he’s still highly regarded in Old Right circles, “Mr. Republican” Robert Taft rallied his supporters around Tom Dewey and Dwight Eisenhower. The results have been mixed, so there is no guarantee for Rand Paul, but the reasons were the same: staying loyal to the party in order to have a place to fight for their ideas another day. From the perspective of a young senator it may be a small gamble to support an undesirable nominee today in exchange for goodwill down the road should he decide to wage his own campaign for the White House.</p>
<p>As Daniel McCarthy, editor of The American Conservative <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-rand-paul-endorsed/" type="external">notes</a>:</p>
<p>“The . . . strategy which Buchanan adopted now and Rand seems to be testing, is to be loyal to the party while establishing yourself as one of its philosophical poles: Buchanan was the party’s social conservative pole in the 1990s, and Rand has a strong claim to being the constitutionalist pole today. The advantage here is that regular Republicans are open to your message – hence Buchanan could win the 1996 New Hampshire primary – but part of the price to [sic] paid is support for the party’s nominee.”</p>
<p>Rand Paul is young and has chosen to play the long game. As Otto von Bismarck said, “Politics is the art of the possible” and that means maintaining a balance between principles and pragmatism. The trouble is realizing where the balance lies, where it is wise to bend and when it is time to make a Spartan Stand. Rand Paul’s record in the senate has not been perfect but it’s not terribly objectionable.</p>
<p>If a freshman senator from a reliably red state filibustered the extension of the Patriot Act, opposed the National Defense Authorization Act, opposed SOPA and its variations, and publicly defended innocent citizens from sexual harassment at the airport, most liberty activists would doubtlessly be pleased with such an independent record. As Ron Paul’s son there may be expectations among some for Rand Paul in his second year in the senate to be on the same footing as the mature Ron Paul.</p>
<p>But Rand Paul is not in the senate to be the crown prince of the Ron Paul movement. He’s a Republican senator from Kentucky and by the standards of what is expected from a truly principled and independent Republican senator he’s satisfied more than he’s disappointed.</p>
<p>By officially signing on with the Romney candidacy, Rand Paul has something he wouldn’t have if he cantankerously opposed Romney as a RINO, socialist, and Obama-lite: political cover.</p>
<p>The real test will come when a President Romney wants to aerial bomb Syria or Iran without a declaration of war. A Senator Paul who stood with his party for the election may not only be in a position to oppose the action, but actually influence people on his own side to do the same.</p> | Rand Paul’s Endorsement of Mitt Romney Highlights Principles and Pragmatism | false | https://ivn.us/2012/06/09/rand-pauls-endorsement-of-mitt-romney-highlights-principles-and-pragmatism/ | 2012-06-09 | 2 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-171946826/stock-photo-sad-businessman-sitting-in-office-and-looking-in-city.html?src=lOFMhqvOr7EigyJ0Z2ZsyA-1-2"&gt;Peshkova&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock</p>
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<p>Soon, you will be able to see just how bad income inequality is within major US companies.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized a long delayed rule that will force all publicly traded companies to publish a ratio between the amount it pays its CEO and the median salary at the company. The rule was finalized by a 3-2 vote. Companies will need to start revealing this information starting in 2017. “After too much delay, the Securities and Exchange Commission did the right thing today,” Jim Lardner, a spokesperson for the liberal Americans for Financial Reform, said in a statement Wednesday.</p>
<p>The rule comes from the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a law signed by President Obama in 2010 to address the Wall Street crash. Democrats slipped in this provision as a means to try to publicly shame companies that reward CEOs with overly lavish compensation, but liberals and consumer advocates had grown increasingly frustrated with the delays in getting this rule in place. Democratic senators had urged the SEC to hurry up, and earlier this summer Elizabeth Warren attacked SEC Chair Mary Jo White for being unclear about the timing on the rule (she also had other complaints against the SEC). “You have now been SEC Chair for over two years, and to date, your leadership of the Commission has been extremely disappointing,” Warren wrote in a letter to White.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton joined the cause right before the SEC finally acted. In a speech two weeks ago, the Democratic front-runner <a href="" type="internal">specifically called out</a> the agency for dragging its feet on this proposal. “There is no excuse for taking five years to get this done,” she said during one of her first economic speeches of the 2016 campaign. “Workers have a right to know whether executive pay at their company has gotten out of balance—and so does the public.”</p>
<p /> | The Obama Administration Will Force Companies to Show How Out of Touch CEO Pay Really Is | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/sec-ceo-median-pay-rule/ | 2015-08-05 | 4 |
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<p>“All of these folks are tremendous hires, and we have held out in our searches for the very best people we could find,” said UNM Cancer Center CEO Cheryl L. Willman.</p>
<p>“Their expertise will not only greatly benefit New Mexicans in their fight against cancer, but their success in the discovery of new cancer drugs and the development of new biotechnology companies will spur New Mexico’s economic development,” Willman said.</p>
<p>Joining UNM are:</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Wadih Arap, to be the cancer center deputy director and chief of the hematology/oncology division at the UNM School of Medicine. He is currently a professor and a deputy department chairman at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center division of cancer medicine in Houston.</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Renata Pasqualini, who will be associate director for translational research, a co-leader of the cancer center’s program in experimental therapeutics and drug discovery, and a professor of medicine and experimental diagnostic imaging. Pasqualini is a professor of medicine and experimental diagnostic imaging at M.D. Anderson.</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Martin J. Edelman, who will be a UNM professor of hematology/oncology, the cancer center’s associate director for clinical research, and co-leader of the center’s program in lung cancer and aerodigestive malignancies. Edelman will also lead the New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance, a statewide collaborative clinical trials network. He is professor and director of thoracic oncology at the University of Maryland Greenbaum Cancer Center.</p>
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<p>⋄&#160; Anita Kinney, to be associate director for cancer control and population studies. Kinney will help develop a new College of Public Health at UNM and will be a professor of internal medicine. She is a professor and leader of the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program at the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Center.</p>
<p>Willman said that Arap and Pasqualini “are international experts in cancer drug development, hold over 100 patents and licenses, and have started five new biotechnology companies. We believe their expertise will really catapult the growing biotech community here in New Mexico and promote economic development” while providing new cancer drugs.</p>
<p>Edelman “has won international recognition for his clinic and scientific contributions in lung and thoracic cancers,” Willman said. He will oversee what Willman called “pioneering programs” to improve clinical trials.</p>
<p>She said that Kinney is “a world-renowned population scientist” who has won “international recognition for work in cancer prevention and control, behavioral and clinical cancer genetics, and behavioral epidemiology.”</p>
<p>“She is particularly interested in developing effective interventions to improve decision-making and health outcomes among socially and geographically underserved populations,” Willman said.</p> | Cancer center announces ‘tremendous hires’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/198429/cancer-center-announces-tremendous-hires.html | 2013-05-13 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="external">The Daily Telegraph in the UK talked to a senior congressional figure</a> late Tuesday or very early Wednesday ET, who said that Gen. Stanley McChrystal had submitted his resignation in advance of Wednesday’s meeting at the White House between him and President Barack Obama. The step was prompted by a revealing profile in <a href="" type="external">Rolling Stone magazine, now available on the web</a>, in which McChrystal and members of his circle displayed open contempt for other Obama administration officials, including the vice president.</p>
<p>The Capitol Hill source also said that possible successors to McChrystal were already being discussed along with ways to get a quick Senate confirmation, though a final decision had not been made. Among names being considered are Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who has been heading up the NATO effort to train Afghanistan troops, and Gen. James Mattis, the retiring head of the US Joint Forces Command. ( <a href="" type="external">Spencer Ackerman asked Mattis about the rumors and his office replied</a> that he serves at the pleasure of the president, which I take it to mean he is interested.)</p>
<p>Adding to the sense of McChrystal’s career possibly crashing and burning is the <a href="" type="external">report from Matthew Green of the Financial Times in Marjah [scroll down] that</a> US special envoy Richard Holbrooke and Ambassador in Kabul Karl Eikenberry visited Marjah on Monday and met with local elders to the sound of small arms fire in the background. (H/t to Michael Pollack for the link and his comments). Then as Holbrooke and Eikenberry were leaving the meeting site, a bomb went off, which apparently had been intended for them on the part of three suicide bombers but detonated prematurely at a local shop. The purpose of the visit was for Holbrooke to assess how well McChrystal’s counter-insurgency doctrine was going in Marjah. The local elders said that the Marines had improved security in some areas but not others. One said he had had to travel to the meeting secretly for fear of Taliban reprisals.</p>
<p>When the US special envoy and ambassador can’t visit a place in a country without hearing small arms fire or risking being a bombing target, I’d say security is not good there.</p>
<p>On Monday and Tuesday, <a href="" type="external">14 NATO troops were killed</a>, ten of them on Monday alone. Two of those killed Tuesday <a href="" type="external">were American troops.</a> So far in June, 69 NATO troops have been killed, 43 of them American.</p>
<p>The French have taken killed and wounded in June, and have lost over 40 troops in the Afghanistan War since 2001. One of the reasons McChrystal should go is that the Rolling Stone article shows him being distinctly ungracious to the French, whom he is attempting to convince to remain in force in Afghanistan against their better instincts. One of his circle made a comment about his going to dinner with a French minister in Paris, saying it was effing “gay.” Tell that to the French families who lost loved ones or whose sons suffered injuries fighting a war in support of the United States (the French and other NATO powers are in Afghanistan because they invoked article 5 of the NATO treaty, “an attack on one is an attack on all,” after September 11).</p>
<p>Obama cannot expect NATO allies to go on making these sacrifices in a distant, obscure country without obvious strategic importance for Europe and the United States. A Dutch government has already fallen over the issue, and the Canadians have announced an intention to depart.</p>
<p>Obama needs to define an attainable goal in Afghanistan and then execute it swiftly. As it is, when he is pressed about what in the world we are doing there, <a href="" type="external">he retreats into Bushisms</a>: “So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That’s the goal that must be achieved.”</p>
<p>Well that isn’t a good enough reason to be in Afghanistan. There is no al-Qaeda to speak of in Afghanistan. And although insurgents and Taliban probably control about 20 percent of the country, they have not let al-Qaeda set up shop in their territory. If they don’t now, when they obviously need all the help they can get, why would they in the future? One major guerrilla leader, Gulbadin Hikmatyar, went from expressing willingness to fight under the banner of al-Qaeda to <a href="" type="external">roundly condemning the radical Arab group for having gotten the Taliban overthrown</a>.</p>
<p>As for Pakistan, the US presence in Afghanistan is not necessary to partnering with Islamabad in rooting out al-Qaeda Arabs in the Pashtun tribal belt.</p>
<p>In other speeches, Obama has spoken about “defeating” the Taliban. But the Taliban are by now a long-standing social formation among the Pashtun ethnic group, and are a little unlikely to be wiped out by mere military means, especially the means available to a foreign military.</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">A congressional investigation has even thrown up good evidence that the US itself is indirectly funding the Taliban</a>, insofar as the USG is paying warlords to provide convoy security on roads and they are using the money to bribe Taliban not to attack on their watch.</p>
<p>In short, we have no idea why US troops are being sent to Afghanistan at such an accelerating rate. It isn’t to fight al-Qaeda. And if it is mainly a matter of fighting the Taliban, why should we do that? They are not going to go away, and their brand of Muslim fundamentalism is by now woven deeply into the fabric of rural Pashtun life, such that for foreign Christian troops to argue the Pashtuns out of it at the point of a gun is a fool’s errand.</p>
<p>In fact, the <a href="" type="external">Afghan parliament insisted that some 26 accused Taliban being held in Afghan prisons</a> without sufficient evidence of wrong-doing be released instead.</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Karzai is attempting to convince the United Nations to remove from the terrorism watch list</a> many Taliban or insurgent figures, including Mulla Omar, as well as Gulbadin Hikmatyar.</p>
<p>In short, Karzai appears to be attempting to strike a deal with the very Taliban and insurgents that Obama says he is pledged to uproot and destroy.</p>
<p>How can that make sense?</p>
<p>No wonder McChrystal was so frustrated that he went around his line of command to the press. The real reason for this contretemps is that Obama does not have a realistic, sharply defined set of goals in Afghanistan, and he has not been good about cracking the whip and getting everyone in his administration on the same page on AfPak.</p> | McChrystal Drama is Sideshow; Can Obama define a realistic Goal? | true | http://juancole.com/2010/06/mcchrystal-drama-is-sideshow-can-obama-define-a-realistic-goal.html | 2010-06-23 | 4 |
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Seattle-Seahawks/" type="external">Seattle Seahawks</a> strong safety Kam Chancellor is optimistic about signing a contract extension before the start of the 2017 season.</p>
<p>Chancellor is entering the final year of his current deal.</p>
<p>“I think it’s been positive on both ends,” Chancellor said Monday. “Hopefully, it’ll get done any time now. Both sides have been very productive working together and just waiting to see what’s happening.”</p>
<p>Seahawks coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Pete_Carroll/" type="external">Pete Carroll</a> is also entertaining positive thoughts on Chancellor’s contract situation.</p>
<p>“We have looked long and hard at that,” Carroll said Sunday. “There is a lot of real positive stuff coming. We aren’t quite there yet, but I think it’s nothing but positive stuff. Hopefully, we will be able to get stuff done soon.”</p>
<p>Chancellor held out for all of training camp and the first two games of the 2015 season as he hoped to get his contract renegotiated at that point. However, the Seahawks held firm with their stance of not wanting to set a precedent of ripping up contracts with three years remaining on the books.</p>
<p>The 29-year-old Chancellor returned to the team and has played out the remainder of his current deal since.</p>
<p>Chancellor had 85 tackles and two interceptions in 12 games last season.</p>
<p>As for how long he’d continue to play, Chancellor kept an open mind.</p>
<p>“As long as the wheels let me,” Chancellor said. “Until the wheels fall off. I can’t really put a time frame on how long I want to play. However long my body holds up. However long the Lord allows me to. It’s never up to me.</p>
<p>“I love this team. They gave me the first opportunity, the only opportunity. And I would love to retire here.”</p> | Kam Chancellor, Seattle Seahawks continue to work on contract extension | false | https://newsline.com/kam-chancellor-seattle-seahawks-continue-to-work-on-contract-extension/ | 2017-07-31 | 1 |
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<p>Valencia County Detention Center Warden Joe Chavez said Matthew Chavez was found in his cell just after 6 a.m. on Friday.</p>
<p>The warden said that after officers removed the makeshift noose, they performed CPR until paramedics arrived.</p>
<p>“He still had a pulse when he left (the jail),” Joe Chavez said. “When they arrived at the hospital, he was put on life support.”</p>
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<p>The warden said Matthew Chavez’s family was notified and allowed to visit him in the hospital.</p>
<p>“The family signed a (do not resuscitate) order and took him off life support,” Joe Chavez said.</p>
<p>The warden said the man was declared dead around 7:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Matthew Chavez was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Stephanie Gonzales, 24, and her mother, Angela Romero, 48, in January 2012.</p>
<p>Belen Police Chief Dan Robb said Chavez shot and killed the two women after an argument between Gonzales and Chavez escalated. Chavez and Gonzales had been dating, he said.</p>
<p>While she was in the home, Chavez shot Gonzales in the head, and then he went outside, chased Romero on foot down 11th Street, where she was also shot in the head area.</p>
<p>Gonzales died at the scene. Romero was transported to an Albuquerque hospital, but was declared dead soon after arrival.</p>
<p>Chavez was taken into custody the day after the shooting after he fled from police officers.</p>
<p>An internal investigation has been launched at the jail, and the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an investigation, Joe Chavez said.</p>
<p>The warden said Matthew Chavez was in voluntary protective custody because of his charges.</p>
<p>“It’s what he wanted. He has been here since Jan. 27, 2012, and there was never any indication of suicide,” the warden said. “He never tried to hurt himself, there was no warning.”</p>
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<p /> | Valencia County inmate kills himself | false | https://abqjournal.com/327069/valencia-county-inmate-kills-himself.html | 2013-12-27 | 2 |
<p>So who is Barack Obama?</p>
<p>Not only do we still not know, but in a very real sense, I don’t think he knows either.&#160; Presidencies have a nasty habit of being shaped by external events and pressures that can sometimes be completely unanticipated.</p>
<p>I think the greatest parallels to this moment and this president are not so much to JFK or Lincoln in their times, but to 1932 and the Roosevelt presidency.&#160; FDR turned out to be one of America’s greatest presidents (he’s actually at the very top of my own list) and a very liberal “traitor to his class”, but neither of those seminal attributes of his presidency were much anticipated by many.</p>
<p>Similarly, Barack Obama strikes me as something of an ideological chameleon, coming into office in a moment very similar to 1932, though obviously not (yet, anyhow) as dire.&#160; Like FDR, he enters the presidency inheriting a massive economic crisis, the proportions of which we still don’t know, other than that it is already very, very big.&#160; Like FDR, he inherits this from a discredited Republican Party which has effectively ruled the country for decades.&#160; Like FDR, enormous hopes are riding on this rather unknown quantity about to be sworn in as president of the United States.</p>
<p>And, like FDR, I expect that this combination of conditions will give Obama wide latitude to govern, and even to fail to produce quick results, provided he is at least seen to be trying.&#160; I mean, think about it.&#160; If you wanted to follow any president in American history, who would it be?&#160; Look at what happened to John Adams, Andrew Johnson and Harry Truman, each of whom followed the most renowned and most revered of American presidents.&#160; Adams, one of the great patriots of the Revolution, one of the top handful of members in the Founders pantheon, couldn’t win a second term.&#160; Johnson got impeached, in part for not being Lincoln.&#160; And Truman was run from office in 1952 with job approval ratings that matched those of a certain chimp-like character with whom we’re all too familiar today.</p>
<p>On the other hand, look at who the great presidents followed.&#160; Washington came after George III and the Articles of Confederation.&#160; If you were Washington’s chief political strategist, you couldn’t write a script that good.&#160; Lincoln succeeded James Buchanan, the guy who was, until 2001, widely considered the worst president in American history.&#160; FDR followed Herbert Hoover, a president who refused to do anything while the country melted into poverty.&#160; People began naming the cardboard shanties in which they were forced to live after that guy.&#160; In short, Obama’s going to have a lot of good will and latitude by virtue alone of having the good fortune to follow the most disastrous cock-up of a president in American history.&#160; Anything will be a relief after Bush.&#160; It’s the Beatles coming on stage after the local beer hall cover band with the wasted drummer and out-of-tune guitarist, not the other way around.</p>
<p>For this reason and others, then, Obama is going to have a solid and likely long honeymoon, I suspect.&#160; And if he gets through the first two years looking good, he’ll also likely keep and possibly even increase his Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate.&#160; That is traditionally not so easy.&#160; With rare exception over the last century, the party controlling the White House loses seats in midterm elections (particularly the sixth year of a presidency).&#160; But I’d bet money right now, a month before Obama is even sworn-in, that Democrats do well in 2010.&#160; Not because they’re so brilliant, of course.&#160; They’re not.&#160; But because of the conditions described above, because of certain characteristics I see in Obama discussed below, and because the Republican Party has dug itself into a massive pair of holes.</p>
<p>The first of these holes is one of form.&#160; The GOP has run ugly campaign after ugly campaign since the days of Joe McCarthy, and as recently as the McCain-Palin attempt to turn Obama into a socialist who pals around with terrorists.&#160; I don’t think the public is much in the mood right now for another round of insanely-divorced-from-reality carping, brought to them by the very folks who created these ugly disasters, while their president is making reasonable and centrist efforts to rescue them from sinking out of the middle class.&#160; Personally, I hope the Republicans continue to make this most egregious of mistakes, as they have been doing lately by running hysterical ads concerning the non-existent Obama-Blagojevich scandal.&#160; When even Newt Gingrich criticizes the stupidity of the party’s move, you know you’re hurtin’, eh?&#160; But I say, bring it on, fellas!&#160; Please, please, go ahead and self-destruct.&#160; Er, self-destruct more, that is.</p>
<p>Of course, their other problem – a substantive one – is even more intransigent.&#160; This is the party and the ideology that delivered the country into the perfect storm of multiple simultaneous crises.&#160; Hey, would you buy a used government from the same people who brought you 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, global warming, skyrocketing national debt, torture, isolation from our allies, hatred of the world, and now what is – at the very least – the biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression?&#160; If you think I’m just being cute here, ask yourself this question:&#160; Which prominent Republicans have you heard calling for a wholesale restructuring of their party’s ideological commitments?&#160; Or even partial reform?&#160; Better yet, have you heard even one of them take a significant shot at George W. Bush, the very personification of regressive politics?&#160; No, we haven’t heard that.&#160; Indeed, pretty much all we’ve heard is some mumblings about how the GOP needs to become more ‘conservative’.</p>
<p>Not only do these guys not intend to change, but they fundamentally cannot.&#160; The party has become nothing more than a vehicle for plutocratic kleptocracy, run on the backs of an army of scary-monster, sex-obsessed, religious freaks who act as shock troops for the money boys.&#160; My guess is that the latter group has long ago now left the sinking ship and is already fast cozying up to the new bosses&#160; in town, the ones with D’s after their names on the ballots.&#160; These thieves couldn’t possibly care less about which party they buy – they’re happy to do business with anyone.&#160; Heck, they’re probably relieved not to have to attend those stinking prayer breakfasts anymore in order to keep their marionettes convinced that they give a shit.</p>
<p>But, of course, with the kleptocrats out the door, that leaves the religious right in full ownership of the GOP, and they ain’t letting go, brother.&#160; This crowd would rather lose elections than their principles, and so they will.&#160; And, indeed, so they have been.&#160; Yes, it’s true, ladies and gentlemen – Republicans will no doubt continue to be a force to be reckoned with in Utah and Mississippi for the foreseeable future.&#160; Meanwhile, though, the rest of the country appears to have come to its senses.&#160; As a side note, that creates some interesting new political dynamics with potentially far-reaching consequences.&#160; I can’t recall during my lifetime a moment more ripe for the development of semi-viable third and even fourth parties in America, but that will only happen, if it does, a few years out.&#160; Meanwhile, one senses that the national GOP leadership needs at least one or two more solid electoral drubbings to disabuse them of their sorry ways, by which time it will probably be too late.</p>
<p>But what of the Democrats and Obama?&#160; I suspect that one of the primary reasons that the Democrats have been so disappointing to progressives these last two years is that their years in the wilderness have made them ‘smart’.&#160; Of course, another explanation is that they’re also nearly as bought-off as the GOP, but what I mean by this is that they have learned from their past experience and have therefore resisted doing anything remotely courageous with their majority powers – like basic oversight, investigation, impeachment, ending the war in Iraq or national healthcare, for instance.&#160; From the perspective of a political party seeking only to aggrandize power, one might see why.&#160; The old adage applies well here:&#160; when your opponent is busy self-destructing, get out of the way.&#160; From the perspective of the country’s needs, however, this has been something less than a powerful agenda for progress.</p>
<p>But, more than anything, I think Democrats have learned lessons from three unhappy experiences ranging from the Carter to the Lil’ Bush years:&#160; what happens when you go off on your own without your president, what happens when your president goes off on his own without you, and what happens when you not only don’t have a president, but are additionally stuck in the minority in Congress.&#160; Because they will be anxious, above all, not to repeat the latter experience, because the Harry Reids and Nancy Pelosis of this world are nothing like a Sam Rayburn or a Henry Clay, and because they seemed to easily be able to stomach rolling over for George Bush, I doubt seriously we’re going to be seeing much in the way of strained relations between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.&#160; Congress, and especially Democrats, have gotten good at deference, and they’ll be happy to defer to Barack Obama as he helps them cement a generation-long realignment of American politics these next two, four and eight years.</p>
<p>And what of Obama himself?&#160; There are many laudatory words that come to mind when thinking about this supernova who has burst over the American landscape.&#160; Smart, articulate, inspiring, eloquent, balanced, grounded and thoughtful are just some of them.&#160; But what think most people have not yet fully appreciated is quite how wise he is.&#160; Wisdom is a bit like being smart, but definitely not the same.&#160; Both Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were the smartest guys around.&#160; Both had mediocre presidencies, at best.&#160; Wisdom is perhaps best understood as applied smarts.&#160; In any case, it surely involves having a keen understanding of what works, what motivates people, what the public wants, and how to make decisions effectively.&#160; Look at Obama.&#160; He’s been doing some enormously difficult things for two years now, under the most powerful competition and scrutiny there is.&#160; And, not only has he succeeded in ways that nobody imagined he could, he has made nary a significant mistake.&#160; That’s a record unmatched in our time.</p>
<p>Yep, when it comes to political wisdom, this guy turns it up to eleven.&#160; That’s why I think he’s going to have a very successful presidency, and in doing so, he is going to cement in place a center-left, solid Democratic majority in Congress and out in the country.&#160; There will be mistakes, to be sure, and there will be ugly bummers far removed from the administration’s control exploding in their faces.&#160; But what I don’t think we’ll see is pitched battles among the top staff, as in Carter’s White House.&#160; I don’t think we’ll see a focus on trivial issues or personal immaturity, as in the Clinton White House.&#160; And I don’t think we’ll see the president trying to solve every problem all at once, as in both these precedents.</p>
<p>I don’t know Obama’s politics well enough to say for sure at this point, but I suspect he’s going to be too centrist for my taste (most any president who could be president in today’s America probably would).&#160; But, at the same time, I feel very confident in his competence and wisdom.&#160; That, coupled with all the other favorable conditions for him (which include many unfavorable ones for the country, chiefly Bush and his legacy) will probably make this the most successful presidency since Roosevelt.&#160; Maybe we’ll even amend the Constitution to give him a third term!</p>
<p>Talk about getting ahead of yourself…!&#160; I know, I know.&#160; Sorry about that.&#160; Meanwhile, back on terra firma, of particular concern to progressives is the shape of the administration as it has now come together over the weeks since the election.&#160; Not only are there few progressives on Obama’s team, but there are no name progressives at all.&#160; You won’t find Maxine Waters there, or Bernie Sanders or Dennis Kucinich or Mario Cuomo, or even Russ Feingold.&#160; Indeed, it’s actually worse than that.&#160; It is no exaggeration to say that Republicans are better represented on this team than are progressive Democrats.&#160; And we are the ones who made Obama president, while they, of course, had a slightly different plan.&#160; And then, with the Rick Warren fiasco, it manages to get even worse still.</p>
<p>There is, in short, good reason for suspicion and even anger on the left.&#160; I’m not there yet, and hope not to be.&#160; Not because I’m a Barack groupie.&#160; Far from it.&#160; My attitude toward him and anyone else is to wait and see before judging.&#160; In any case, I remain still rather hopeful for two reasons.&#160; One is that conditions are already pushing the new administration and the country inexorably to the left.&#160; And the other is that, within some minor limitations, I really don’t care who is secretary of this or secretary of that.&#160; What I care about is policy, and the broad strokes of policy are typically made by the guy sitting behind the sign that notes where the buck stops.&#160; So if Obama ends the Iraq war but has Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates staff it out, I’m happy.&#160; If he makes major efforts to rebalance the distribution of wealth in this country but Timothy Geithner is Secretary of the Treasury, I don’t much care, to be honest.</p>
<p>Indeed, there is every possibility that his cabinet picks and other decisions are yet another demonstration of the wisdom that is Barack Obama, in a sort of ‘keep your enemies even closer’ kind of way.&#160; How soon, and how ardently, do you think Rick Warren is going to be out there criticizing the new administration?&#160; And if Obama does more such coopting of the center and even center-right, as he has in fact already been doing quite effectively, how much more ridiculous will the loonies of the GOP and the freaks on the radio look, off by themselves, trying to tear him down?</p>
<p>So I’m hopeful.&#160; All the conditions are there.&#160; A country demanding change, if not rescue.&#160; A thoroughly repudiated opposition.&#160; A public and in fact an entire world strongly committed to the success of the Obama presidency.&#160; And a skilled and wise occupant of the Oval Office about to be handed the keys to government.</p>
<p>Of course, I remain wary and gimlet-eyed for the moment.&#160; Everyone should.&#160; This is, after all, government we’re talking about, and these are, after all, politicians.&#160; Moreover, Obama has already given us some minor reasons to be concerned.</p>
<p>At the same time, this is the most hopeful political moment of my life.</p>
<p>DAVID MICHAEL GREEN is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York.&#160; He is delighted to receive readers’ reactions to his articles ( <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>), but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to respond.&#160; More of his work can be found at his website, <a href="www.regressiveantidote.net" type="external">www.regressiveantidote.net</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | What to Expect While We’re Expecting | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/01/01/what-to-expect-while-we-re-expecting/ | 2009-01-01 | 4 |
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<p>SEATTLE - Tens of thousands across the country peacefully chanted, picketed and protested Monday against President Donald Trump's immigration and labor policies on May Day, despite a small pocket of violent unrest in the Pacific Northwest.</p>
<p>Peaceful protesters flocked to the streets in Chicago. At the White House gates, they demanded "Donald Trump has got to go!"</p>
<p>But police shut down a protest in Portland, Oregon, that they said had become a riot, after marchers began throwing smoke bombs and other items at officers. Police said they made more than two dozen arrests as a group of anarchists wearing black bandanas and ski masks grew unruly, reportedly breaking windows at businesses, setting fires on downtown streets and damaging a police car.</p>
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<p>Five people in Seattle were arrested, one for hurling a rock as pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators faced off.</p>
<p>In the Washington state capital of Olympia, police ordered protesters to disperse, calling them "members of a mob" as some threw bottles, used pepper spray and fired marbles from slingshots at officers. Objects struck nine officers and nine people were arrested, according to Olympia Police Chief Ronnie Roberts.</p>
<p>In Oakland, California, at least four were arrested after creating a human chain to block a county building where demonstrators demanded that county law enforcement refuse to collaborate with federal immigration agents.</p>
<p>Despite the West Coast clashes, most nationwide protests were peaceful as immigrants, union members and their allies staged a series of strikes, boycotts and marches to highlight the contributions of immigrants in the United States.</p>
<p>"It is sad to see that now being an immigrant is equivalent to almost being a criminal," said Mary Quezada, a 58-year-old North Carolina woman who joined those marching on Washington.</p>
<p>She offered a pointed message to Trump: "Stop bullying immigrants."</p>
<p>May 1 is International Workers? Day and protesters from the Philippines to Paris celebrated by demanding better working conditions. But the widespread protests in the United States were aimed directly at the new president.</p>
<p>Trump, in his first 100 days, has intensified immigration enforcement, including executive orders for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and a ban on travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries.</p>
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<p>In Chicago, 28-year-old Brenda Burciaga was among thousands of people who marched through the streets to push back against the new administration.</p>
<p>"Everyone deserves dignity," said Burciaga, whose mother is set to be deported after living in the U.S. for about 20 years. "I hope at least they listen. We are hardworking people."</p>
<p>In cities large and small, the protests intensified throughout the day.</p>
<p>Teachers working without contracts opened the day by picketing outside schools in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Activists in Phoenix petitioned state legislators to support immigrant families.</p>
<p>Thousands of union members and activists marched in the shadow of some of the biggest resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, including a hotel that bears the president's name.</p>
<p>In a Los Angeles park, several thousand people waved American flags and signs reading "love not hate."</p>
<p>Selvin Martinez, an immigrant from Honduras with an American flag draped around his shoulders, took the day off from his job waxing casino floors to protest. "We hope to get to be respected as people, because we are not animals, we are human beings," said Martinez, who moved to Los Angeles 14 years ago fleeing violence in his country.</p>
<p>The White House did not respond to requests for a response to the May Day demonstrations.</p>
<p>Several protesters, like 39-year-old Mario Quintero, outed themselves as being in the country illegally to help make their point.</p>
<p>"I'm an undocumented imigrant, so I suffer in my own experience with my family," said Quintero at a Lansing, Michigan, rally. "That's why I am here, to support not only myself but my entire community."</p>
<p>In Miami, Alberto and Maribel Resendiz closed their juice bar, losing an estimated revenue of $3,000, to join a rally.</p>
<p>"This is the day where people can see how much we contribute," said Alberto Resendiz, who previously worked as a migrant worker in fields as far away as Michigan. "This country will crumble down without us."</p>
<p>He added, "We deserve a better treatment."</p>
<p>In Providence, Rhode Island, about the same number of people gathered at Burnside Park before a two-hour protest that touched on deportation, profiling and wage theft.</p>
<p>In Oakland at a later march, more than 1,000 people marched peacefully representing labor groups along with Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino and other immigrants.</p>
<p>While union members traditionally march on May 1 for workers' rights around the world, the day has become a rallying point for immigrants in the U.S. since massive demonstrations were held on the date in 2006 against a proposed immigration enforcement bill.</p>
<p>In recent years, immigrant rights protests shrank as groups diverged and shifted their focus on voter registration and lobbying. Larger crowds returned this year, prompted by Trump's ascension to the presidency.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Peoples reported from New York. AP writers Amy Taxin in Los Angeles, Jessica Gresko in Washington, D.C., Kristen De Groot in Philadelphia, Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami, Sophia Tareen in Chicago, Deepti Hajela in New York, Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, Lisa Adams in Charlotte, North Carolina, Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon and Crystal Hill in Boston contributed to this report.</p> | Arrests made as thousands rally in US for and against Trump | false | https://abqjournal.com/996005/immigrants-unions-march-in-us-for-rights-against-trump.html | 2017-04-30 | 2 |
<p />
<p>What: Shares of Century Aluminum Co. jumped 25% today after reporting fourth-quarter 2015 results.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So what: Revenue dropped 30% to $383.9 million and the company swung from a $75.8 million profit to a $43.1 million loss, or $0.50 per share. Adjusted net loss, which pulls out one-time items, was a bit worse at $0.53 per share, but came in a penny ahead of estimates. That's what had investors so excited today.</p>
<p>Now what: Despite the decline in results, investors are betting that we're seeing a bottom in the metals market. Management at Century Aluminum and its competitors continue to push for sanctions on what they feel is Chinese dumping of aluminum products.</p>
<p>Betting on a recovery is risky given the large losses being reported. I'd like to see a financial turnaround before jumping in because we really don't know how bad the metals market will get.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/19/why-century-aluminum-cos-shares-popped-25-today.aspx" type="external">Why Century Aluminum Co.'s Shares Popped 25% Today Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFlushDraw/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Travis Hoium Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Century Aluminum Co.'s Shares Popped 25% Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/19/why-century-aluminum-co-shares-popped-25-today.html | 2016-03-27 | 0 |
<p>Here we have former US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill disclosing that George Bush came into office planning to overthrow Saddam Hussein, and MSNBC polls its audience with the question, Did O’Neill Betray Bush?</p>
<p>Is that really the big question? The White House had a sharper nose for the real meat of Leslie Stahl’s 60 Minutes interview with O’Neill and Ron Suskind, the reporter who based much of his expose of the Bush White House, <a href="" type="internal">The Price of Loyalty</a>, on 19,000 government documents O’Neill provided him.</p>
<p>What bothers the White House is one particular National Security Council document shown in the 60 Minutes interview, clearly drafted in the early weeks of the new administration, which showed plans for the post-invasion dispersal of Iraq’s oil assets among the world’s great powers, starting with the major oil companies.</p>
<p>For the brief moment it was on the tv screen one could see that this bit of paper, stamped Secret, was undoubtedly one of the most explosive documents in the history of imperial conspiracy. Here, dead center in the camera’s lense, was the refutation of every single rationalization for the attack on Iraq ever offered by George W. Bush and his co-conspirators, including Tony Blair</p>
<p>That NSC document told 60 Minutes’ vast audience the attack on Iraq was not about national security in the wake of 9/ll. It was not about weapons of mass destruction. It was not about Saddam Hussein’s possible ties to Osama bin Laden. It was about stealing Iraq’s oil, same way the British stole it three quarter of a century earlier. The major oil companies drew up the map, handed it to their man George, helped him (through such trusties as James Baker) steal the 2000 election and then told him to get on with the attack.</p>
<p>O’Neill says that the Treasury Department’s lawyers okayed release of the document to him. The White House, which took 78 days to launch an investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA officer, clearly regards the disclosure of what Big Oil wanted as truly reprehensible, as opposed to endangering the life of Ms Plame. It’s going after O’Neill for this supposed security breach.</p>
<p>Forget about O’Neill “betraying” Bush. How about Bush lying to the American people? It’s obvious from that document that Bush, on the campaign trail in 2000, was as intent on regime change in Iraq as was Clinton in his second term and as Gore was publicly declaring himself to be.</p>
<p>Here’s Bush in debate with Gore, October 3, 2000:</p>
<p>“If we don’t stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we’re going to have a serious problem coming down the road. I’m going to prevent that.”</p>
<p>The second quote is from a joint press conference with Tony Blair on January 31, 2003. Bush rationalizes:</p>
<p>“Actually, prior to September 11, we were discussing smart sanctions. We were trying to fashion a sanction regime that would make it more likely to be able to contain somebody like Saddam Hussein. After September 11, the doctrine of containment just doesn’t hold any water. The strategic vision of our country shifted dramatically because we now recognize that oceans no longer protect us, that we’re vulnerable to attack. And the worst form of attack could come from somebody acquiring weapons of mass destruction and using them on the American people. I now realize the stakes. I realize the world has changed. My most important obligation is to protect the American people from further harm, and I will do that.”</p>
<p>In his cabinet meetings before 9/11 Bush may, in O’Neill’s words, have been like a blind man in a room full of deaf people. But, as O’Neill also says, in those early strategy meetings Bush did say the plan from the start was to attack Iraq, using any pretext. Bush’s language about “smart sanctions” from the press conference at the start of last year was as brazen and far more momentous a lie as any of those that earned Bill Clinton the Republicans’ impeachment charges.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Bush, Oil & Iraq: Some Truth at Last | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/01/14/bush-oil-amp-iraq-some-truth-at-last/ | 2004-01-14 | 4 |
<p>Donald Trump is teetering on the brink of a momentous decision on Iran, and Theresa May could be set to follow him off the proverbial cliff edge.</p>
<p>Downing Street confirmed on Monday that May has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of a planned announcement from Washington on Iran – and how the Trump administration plans to deal with the country.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/406115-iran-nuclear-deal-trump/" type="external" /></p>
<p>In an ambiguous message, a spokesperson for the prime minister said Britain and Israel agree on the need to be “clear-eyed” about the threat Iran poses.</p>
<p>However, it gave no detail on how Britain – once labelled “Little Satan” by Iran – will react.</p>
<p>The US president is preparing to announce “new” US responses to Iran’s alleged support for terrorism, cyber-operations and its nuclear weapons program.</p>
<p>Trump’s new Iran strategy is likely to be met with fury in Tehran. Experts suggest scrapping Barack Obama’s Iran deal could prompt a flurry of nuclear activity in the country.</p>
<p>“On the one hand it’s a bad deal. Israel and the United States must say that all the time,” said Yoaz Hendel, Netanyahu’s former director of communications.</p>
<p>“It’s a bad deal.”</p>
<p>“On the other hand, canceling the deal will mean that Iran will harden its position. It wants to be the regional hegemon, and it will want to prove itself.</p>
<p>“And I mean that in the Middle Eastern sense — militarily — not using the graces of European diplomacy.”</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>In the UK, May is communicating with allies in the Middle East, in the hope of formulating a response to the US move.</p>
<p>“They agreed that the international community needed to be clear-eyed about the threat that Iran poses to the Gulf and the wider Middle East, and that the international community should continue working together to push back against Iran’s destabilizing regional activity,” a spokesman said after the Netanyahu call.</p>
<p>Diplomatic ties between Iran and Britain have been shaky for decades.</p>
<p>In the 1979 Iranian Revolution Britain was accused both of propping up the shah and of plotting his downfall.</p>
<p>Later, Britain backed Iraq when Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980.</p>
<p>The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members in 2015 could be entirely derailed by Trump.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/406079-trump-corkcer-world-war-reality-show/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China co-signed the deal and Iran promised to dismantle its advancing nuclear program.</p>
<p>The deal was signed to ensure Iran uses its nuclear program exclusively for civilian purposes, in return for sanctions being lifted and billions of dollars in frozen assets released.</p>
<p>Britain and Iran restored full diplomatic relations in 2016, after the British embassy was raided and looted in Tehran in 2011.</p>
<p>However, the nations are supporting different sides in the Syrian civil war, with Iran backing President Bashar Assad.</p>
<p>President Hassan Rouhani was supported by William Hague, then-foreign secretary, who called for the embassy to be re-opened.</p>
<p>It is now completely unclear which way May will swing.</p>
<p>Now, as Trump is set to rock the status quo, Iran has come out fighting.</p>
<p>Suggestions that Trump could list the nation’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group has enraged Iran.</p>
<p>“As we’ve announced in the past, if America’s new law for sanctions is passed, this country will have to move their regional bases outside the 2,000km range of Iran’s missiles,” Guards’ commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said, according to state media.</p>
<p>Jafari also said additional sanctions would end the chances for dialogue with the US and issued a warning to American troops.</p>
<p>“If the news is correct about the stupidity of the American government in considering the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group, then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] all around the world, particularly in the Middle East,” Jafari said.</p>
<p>The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) is Iran’s most powerful internal and external security force.</p> | May has ‘clear-eyed’ approach to Iran, but will she back Trump? | false | https://newsline.com/may-has-clear-eyed-approach-to-iran-but-will-she-back-trump/ | 2017-10-09 | 1 |
<p>ACCRA, Ghana — Nigerian street vendor Ike Egbon complains that Ghanaians often treat him as if he’s one of his country's notorious internet fraudsters.</p>
<p>He says some Ghanaians here in their capital city refuse to sell him lunch because he doesn’t speak the local language and taxi drivers sound off when they hear his accent.</p>
<p>"They say 'You are Nigerian. Nigerians are no good, no good. Why don’t you go to your country?' " says Egbon, who sells African hand drums. "They don’t help me. Ghanaian people are in Nigeria. We are treating them fine."</p>
<p>The tension between Nigerians and Ghanaians was highlighted when Nigeria’s high commissioner to Ghana charged recently that the news media in Accra overplays crime stories involving Nigerians.</p>
<p>It’s the latest chapter of a Hatfield and McCoy-type relationship between these West African states. Hostility in the past escalated to mass deportations. Ghana expelled 100,000 foreigners — mostly Nigerians — in 1969 and Nigeria banished 1.2 million Ghanaians in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Right now more than 1 million Nigerians live in Ghana, which has a total population of 23 million,&#160; according to the Nigerian High Commission here in Accra.</p>
<p>The current aggravation with Nigerians in Ghana is the result of a regional power shift, say some observers. Ghana's fortunes are on this rise as its democracy appears stable and the economy is on the verge of receiving a boost in oil revenue. Nigeria, on the other hand, has become synonymous with internet scams, corruption and violence.</p>
<p>Further, Ghana in July will host U.S. President Barack Obama. It’s his first official stop in sub-Saharan Africa, giving Ghana continental bragging rights. Meanwhile, Nigeria has launched another public relations campaign to reshape its image. Despite huge oil reserves, Africa’s most populous state remains stuck in poverty and corruption.</p>
<p>“Every country has its weak points,” said Ken Aigbovo, president of the Ghana chapter of the Edo State Association. “You can’t say everyone who is Nigerian is bad. I’m proud to be Nigerian.”</p>
<p>Aigbovo co-founded the association three years ago to help fellow Edo State Nigerians acclimate to Ghana and establish businesses, often by co-signing for loans. The organization has 50 members and holds cultural events and collects clothes for orphans.</p>
<p>“We are paying tax to the government,” Aigbovo, a clothes designer, said in response to the criticisms of Nigerians in Ghana. “They are forgetting that we contribute to Ghana.”</p>
<p>Nigerian banks have a strong foothold in Ghana, home to more than 1 million Nigerians, many of whom were attracted to Ghana’s growing economy and safe living conditions. Nigerian investments in Ghana’s economy total $1 billion, according to Nigeria’s High Commission in Accra.</p>
<p>“They are making very positive contributions to the Ghanaian economy,” said University of Ghana sociology professor Thomas Antwi Bosiakoh, who has published papers on Nigerian migration. “Ghanaians generally have a good relationship with Nigerians. It is only sometimes when these things are coming up.”</p>
<p>Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, encouraged Africans to live and work in Ghana — a young Robert Mugabe worked as a teacher — but when Ghana's economy failed Nkrumah was ousted in 1966. Foreigners, especially Nigerians who controlled the markets, were blamed for Ghana's economic problems and three years later many were expelled.</p>
<p>Nigeria in the early '80s deported an estimated 1.2 million Ghanaians who had come in to take advantage of the Nigerian oil boom. Ghanaians were blamed for Nigeria's economic and social problems, including rising crime rates, said Bosiakoh.</p>
<p>Their shared colonial heritage — both were British colonies and English is their official language — facilitates business and tourism. Several Nigerian airlines fly daily into Accra and just 220 miles separates Lagos and Accra, as do French-speaking Benin and Togo.</p>
<p>Trade disputes frequently arise. Ghanaian officials complain that Nigeria maintains unreasonable restrictions on Ghanaian goods. Nigerian banks in Ghana are being forced to recapitalize ($60 million minimum) by the end of this year, while Ghanaian banks have an extra year.</p>
<p>Culturally, Nigerian — or “Nollywood” — films that flood the Ghanaian market are blamed for corrupting young Ghanaians because of their risqué themes. Ghanaian filmmakers, meanwhile, lose business because they abide by Ghana’s censorship laws.</p>
<p>“They are not going by the rules of the game,” said filmmaker Socrate Safo.</p>
<p>Nigerians who operate internet fraud schemes have branched out to Ghana and elsewhere because an address outside Nigeria gives them more credibility in the eyes of the victim.</p>
<p>The manager of an internet café in Accra said he suspects Nigerians use his shop for the scams, but that Ghanaians are involved as well.</p>
<p>“It’s a problem,” he said, asking that neither his name nor business be published. He suggested an identification rule for clients because right now enforcement is impossible: “You can’t sit beside them and watch what their doing.”</p>
<p>But both sides say new initiatives ultimately will strengthen the relationship. Safo is spearheading an effort among Ghanaian and Nigerian film producers to fight piracy, for example. And both governments have agreed to establish a joint Chamber of Commerce.</p>
<p>Aigbovo, the civic organization president, is confident neither state would consider citizenship initiatives that resulted in mass deportations in the past.</p>
<p>“Such a thing would not happen again,” he said. “West Africa is coming together as one.”</p>
<p>Philip Eze, a 33-year-old Nigerian who sells cell phone cards near Makola Market in Accra, says locals sometimes hassle him if he sets up shop in a good location.</p>
<p>“Sometimes I get upset. Sometimes I laugh,” he said. “The wise ones know that Ghanaians and Nigerians are the same.”</p>
<p>More GlobalPost dispatches on Ghana:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/090527/will-america%E2%80%99s-first-lady-wow-ghana" type="external">Will Michelle Obama wow Ghana?</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/090527/africa-looks-cell-phone-banking" type="external">Ghana banks on cell phones</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/090430/ghanas-gold-rush" type="external">Ghana weighs boosting gold taxes</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Nigerians fight bad reps in Ghana | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-06-07/nigerians-fight-bad-reps-ghana | 2009-06-07 | 3 |
<p>Photo by Timothy Krause | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>It isn’t easy being a millionaire these days, especially if you’ve got less than $20 million. Fortunately, Congress is watching out for you.</p>
<p>Yes, the Republican tax cut bonanza targets lower end millionaires for special relief. Now those struggling to scrape by with $15 million or $20 million can breathe more easily. And even lowly billionaires will be able to keep more of their wealth.</p>
<p>Why? Because Congress just increased the amount of wealth exempted by the estate tax, our nation’s only levy on inherited wealth.</p>
<p>In the bad old days, a family had to have $11 million in wealth before they were subject to the tax. This exempted the 99.8 percent of undisciplined taxpayers who, in the words of Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, had squandered their wealth on “ <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/grassley-blasts-working-class-spending-booze-women-and-movies" type="external">booze, women, and movies</a>.”</p>
<p>Now no family with less than $22 million will pay it (or individuals with less than $10.9 million). This gift to “grateful heirs” will cost $83 billion over the next decade.</p>
<p>Gutting the estate tax is a bad idea — it raises substantial revenue from those with the greatest capacity to pay. Even in a weakened state, it would have raised over $260 billion over the next decade.</p>
<p>The estate tax was established a century ago during the first Gilded Age, a period of grotesque inequality. Champions of establishing a tax on inherited wealth included President Theodore Roosevelt and industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who viewed it as a brake on the concentration of wealth and power.</p>
<p>Modern Republicans, however, paint the tyrannical “death tax” as an unfair penalty on small businesses and family farmers. But that’s a myth.</p>
<p>The most vocal champion of estate tax repeal is Rep. Kristi Noem, a South Dakota Republican who became the GOP poster child for farmers touched by the estate tax. House Speaker Paul Ryan appointed her on the tax conference committee to advocate for estate tax repeal because of her compelling story.</p>
<p>Noem says her family was subject to the tax after her father died in a farm accident in 1994, a story she repeats constantly.</p>
<p>The only problem, as journalists recently discovered, is that her family paid the tax only because of a fluke in South Dakota law that was changed in 1995. Her experience has little to do with the federal estate tax, which has been substantially scaled down in recent decades.</p>
<p>And while Noem was complaining about government taxes, the family ranch has collected over $3.7 million in taxpayer funded farm subsidies since 1995.</p>
<p>Noem attacked the reporting as “fake news,” even though it was based on legal documents she filed herself.</p>
<p>The reality is that the small number of estate tax beneficiaries aren’t farmers at all. They’re mostly wealthy city dwellers.</p>
<p>Still, the fact that the estate tax lives on creates an opportunity to make it better.</p>
<p>Lawmakers should institute a graduated rate structure, so that billionaires pay a higher estate tax rate than families with a “mere” $22 million. And loopholes should be closed so they can’t pay wealth managers to hide their wealth in complicated trusts and offshore tax havens.</p>
<p>Estate tax revenue could be dedicated to something that clearly expands opportunity for everyone else.</p>
<p>Bill Gates Sr. argues that the estate tax should fund “a GI bill for the next generation.” In exchange for military and community service, young adults should be able to get substantial tuition assistance for higher education or vocational training, paid for by a progressive estate tax.</p>
<p>If Congress were concerned about the middle class, that’s the kind of proposal that would become the law of the land.</p> | Help for Struggling Millionaires is on the Way | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/12/29/help-for-struggling-millionaires-is-on-the-way/ | 2017-12-29 | 4 |
<p>Katy Grimes: The fur was flying today in the Assembly as partisan politics trumped time-honored political decency.</p>
<p>Just as the controversial health care bill (AB 52) was about to be introduced, Assembly Republicans’ made a formal request to caucus. But the request was denied by Democratic Assembly Speaker John Perez (Los Angeles).</p>
<p>Republicans immediately walked off the Assembly floor, and met in private for nearly 45 minutes.&#160;Capitol staff members were stunned, and several said that they had not seen such a denial in several decades of Capitol employment.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Democrats used the opportunity to pass another batch of really bad bills, including another anti-bullying bill.</p>
<p>“My own party was just bullied,” said Assemblyman Chris Norby, R-Fullerton, referring to the Speaker’s denial to caucus. &#160;“Before we pass another bullying bill, we should address the bullying in our own house,”&#160;Norby said as he voiced opposition to AB 1156.</p>
<p>And during this time, Capitol staff members were denied entrance to the Assembly chambers, leaving many speculating whether the Speaker made the order.&#160;However, while the timing might have been bad, access to the Assembly was denied because a celebrity guest was en route.&#160;Chico native, Green Bay Packers quarterback, and Super Bowl XLV MVP, Aaron Rogers was honored by Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Linda) and the Assembly.</p>
<p>Apparently, the last time a Super Bowl champ was at the Capitol, too many Capitol staff took advantage of the celebrity meeting and rushed the chambers, causing a human traffic jam. Apparently Perez wanted to avoid another such incident, as well as prevent a call to the Fire Marshall.</p>
<p>But this does not diminish the biting partisanship and politicizing of just about every political process at the Capitol under Democratic control. From stories of denials of Republican’s gallery pass requests, to limits on Republican legislator’s family member passes during swearing in ceremonies, complaints abound surrounding the Democratic partisanship on policies that have historically been bipartisan.</p>
<p>Even CalWatchdog has experience with the petty partisanship, when approval of our Capitol press passes last year took more than seven months – first at the hands of former Democratic Speaker Karen Bass, and then by Democratic Speaker John Perez.</p>
<p>Bullying takes on many forms and is not limited to school kids – and we know that kids learn bullying from adults.</p>
<p>But the most ridiculous comment during the bullying debate came from Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-Gardena: “If your child hasn’t been bullied, then perhaps your child is the bully.” It appears that those who were bullied as kids are getting even as powerful legislators, legislating controls and restrictions on those they subjectively deem bullies.</p>
<p>With one-party rule in the state, bullying opportunities are abundant… and Democrats do not seem to shy away from offending Republicans, nor appear to care much about standing on ceremony.</p>
<p>JUNE 2, 2011</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Bullying Hits Close To Home | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2011/06/02/bullying-hits-close-to-home/ | 2018-06-20 | 3 |
<p>Tom Hanks&#160;seems to be perfectly cool with a GOP front-runner Donald Trump becoming president.</p>
<p>Despite two CBS News hosts doing their very best to put words in his mouth against Trump, the Oscar-winning actor told the panel that if Trump were president, the country would “be fine,” reiterating that “we’re the greatest” country in the world.</p>
<p>“Look, America’s going to be fine,” Hanks told CBS News when asked about a Trump presidency. “We’re the greatest, most resilient nation in the history of, of civilized, in all of civilization. We’ve worked ourselves out of holes many, many times over and over again.”</p>
<p>“I have no powers of clairvoyants like you geniuses in the news media,” Hanks&#160;said. “I’m not saying he’s going to be President of the United States.”</p>
<p>“What I’m saying is we are going to have the most hilarious September, October and first week of November in a very long time,” he said.&#160;“And you people are going to be exhausted.”</p>
<p>Catch Hanks’ interview here:</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Actor Tom Hanks says ‘America’s going to be fine’ if Trump becomes president | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2016/04/21/actor-tom-hanks-says-americas-going-to-be-fine-if-trump-becomes-president-331598 | 2016-04-21 | 0 |
<p>Like most addictions, compulsive gambling usually has more than one victim. Take the example of a 16-year-old named Jerry. The picture he painted of his own experience as he began treatment is common among young people who struggle with problem gambling.</p>
<p>Jerry started betting on games in almost every sport and made good money in the beginning. He secured a bookie; then he discovered Internet gambling. He began staying up all night gambling and had problems getting to school.</p>
<p>When Jerry started losing big, he gambled more in an attempt to recover his losses. At first, he borrowed from his parents to pay his own credit cards. Then, without their knowledge, he began using their credit-card information and charging his debts to their accounts.</p>
<p>For awhile, he was able to intercept their escalating credit card statements in the mail.</p>
<p>“When the credit card companies started calling the house, I was done,” he told his counselor. “I couldn't always get to the phone first even if I tried. When the truth came out, the family was thousands of dollars in debt.</p>
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<p>“That night, I tried to kill myself. I couldn't stand hurting my parents like that.”</p>
<p>That's when this teenage gambling addict wound up in counseling to try to reclaim his young life.</p>
<p>Professionals who try to help young people and adults who have fallen victim to gambling differentiate between pathological, or compulsive, gamblers and other problem gamblers.</p>
<p>The National Council on Problem Gambling website — www.ncpgambling. org — offers a prime online resource for information on problem gambling. The council website describes the difference this way:</p>
<p>“Problem gambling is gambling behavior which causes disruptions in any major area of life: psychological, physical, social or vocational. The term ‘problem gambling' includes, but is not limited to, the condition known as ‘pathological,' or ‘compulsive' gambling, a progressive addiction characterized by increasing preoccupation with gambling, a need to bet more money more frequently, restlessness or irritability when attempting to stop, ‘chasing' losses, and loss of control manifested by continuation of the gambling behavior in spite of mounting, serious, negative consequences.”</p>
<p>Resources are readily available for adult and adolescent problem gamblers, and the national council's website is a good place to start.</p>
<p>Increasingly, colleges and universities are acknowledging the risks of problem gambling on their campuses. They make students aware of the dangers of gambling, no less than they do about the dangers of alcohol and drug use. Colleges encourage students to avoid gambling and direct problem gamblers toward resources for assistance.</p>
<p>Case in point, the University of Missouri operates a website — gambling. missouri.edu — called “Keep-ing the Score” with gambling-related resources for students, parents and educators, including a self-assessment survey. The survey asks 10 pointed questions to help a person of any age quickly determine whether he is — or is in danger of becoming — a problem gambler.</p>
<p>The University of Missouri site draws on resources available from the National Council on Problem Gambling, including frequently asked questions that describe dangers of gambling, motivations and reasons for gambling, and negative consequences associated with adolescent problem gambling.</p>
<p>The council site prominently lists a toll-free 24-hour confidential national hotline — (800) 522-4700 — and links to additional resources available in each of the states, including counselor and facility directories.</p>
<p>Hospitals around the country have added programs intended to help problem gamblers through outpatient and inpatient treatments. For instance, Rhode Island Hospital's gambling treatment program has worked with 1,000 individuals addicted to gambling in the past seven years, according to director and licensed clinical psychologist Bob Breen.</p>
<p>“Each success story is extremely gratifying, but at the same time, we have only scratched the surface,” he notes on the hospital website, www.lifespan.org.</p>
<p>Breen works alongside Henry Lesieur, an internationally recognized re-searcher, clinical psychologist and certified gambling instructor. Lesieur developed the standard screening tool used on six continents in 35 languages — the South Oaks Gambling Screen — and is the founding editor of the Journal of Gambling Studies.</p>
<p>The University of Missouri site suggests 61 percent of teens who gamble do so with their parents' permission.</p>
<p>Practical steps suggested to help parents protect and educate their children and their communities include:</p>
<p>• Examine your own attitudes and behaviors concerning gambling.</p>
<p>• Learn the facts about gambling — age restrictions, types of gambling and gambling terminology.</p>
<p>• Educate yourself on the warning signs of problem gambling and be cognizant of changes in behavior that might indicate a problem.</p>
<p>• Talk to your children about the risks associated with gambling.</p>
<p>• Be responsible role models; practice what you preach.</p>
<p>• Help form a collaborative network among parents, teachers, youth workers, coaches and other role models in the community to raise awareness and support healthy gambling behaviors.</p>
<p>• Request that schools provide education about gambling and problem gambling, just as they do for substance abuse.</p>
<p>Many students may be accomplished gamblers be the time they reach college, so the university site also suggests a course of action for high schools:</p>
<p>• Establish and enforce policies regarding gambling in school for students and staff.</p>
<p>• Evaluate those who break school polices for potential gambling problems.</p>
<p>• Eliminate Las Vegas Night-type activities on prom and graduation nights, gambling-related fundraisers, and sports pools associated with staff, parent and student activities.</p>
<p>• Incorporate a module on gambling and problem gambling into the health and education curriculum.</p>
<p>• Run stories on problem gambling and/or recovering gamblers in the school newspaper.</p>
<p>• Use school-based drama groups to teach in an entertaining way about the dangers of gambling.</p>
<p>• Create or include information resources for a student health fair.</p>
<p>• Conduct a poster/video contest to create a positive message about gambling and problem gambling prevention.</p> | Resources available to help problem gamblers | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/resourcesavailabletohelpproblemgamblers/ | 3 |
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<p>Twenty years after Exxon Valdez and we’re still shipping it, pumping it, burning it. Twenty years since James Hansen published a <a href="http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abstracts/1989/Hansen_etal_2.html" type="external">prophetic paper</a> foreseeing what we’re now experiencing. A commenter from my earlier <a href="" type="internal">Exxon Valdez post</a> lives on a 30,000 acre XOM oil lease in South Texas and made this film, which I like. This is what he/she had to say:</p>
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<p>They dump all the time and don’t care. It’s horrible. Our ground water is full of BTEX and lots of clusters of leukemia around their old leases. The Railroad Commission turns a blind eye. I made a webpage: http://www.RanchoLosMalulos.com. I go around the lease and post stuff so you can all enjoy the soap opera of watching XOM dump. We sample stuff and put the lab results, have professional ground water monitoring wells done, it’s so filthy. Exxon Mobil seems to get away with a lot in this world. Their commercials make me cringe.</p>
<p /> | Twenty Years Ago Today | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/03/twenty-years-ago-today/ | 2009-03-25 | 4 |
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<p>Baghdad.</p>
<p>Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour? When the storm has ended shall we find How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power By the favour and contrivance of their kind? Their lives cannot repay us – their death could not undo – The shame that they have laid upon our race. But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew, Shall we leave it unabated in its place?</p>
<p>Rudyard Kipling, “Mesopotamia”</p>
<p>Rudyard Kipling’s poem Mesopotamia denouncing those responsible for Britain’s disastrous expedition in the First World War to what became Iraq, was written in 1917. By the time the war ended at least 31,000 British and Indians were buried somewhere in the country.</p>
<p>The difference between Britain’s disastrous foray into Iraq then and the results of the invasion 88 years later is that those responsible have no need “to sidle back to power”. They never lost it either in Britain or the US. It is nevertheless extraordinary to see Donald Rumsfeld, author of so many American failures here in Iraq, still holding his job as Secretary of Defence.</p>
<p>But there is a price to be paid in blood for keeping in power those responsible for past disastrous decisions in Iraq. It makes it much more difficult to seek a way out of the savage war that is now engulfing that country.</p>
<p>This is because past policies have to be portrayed as successful when they were dismal failures. The true terrible state of Iraq is glossed over. Just before the presidential election last year the White House imported Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, to stand beside President Bush and say that only three or four out of 18 Iraqi provinces were dangerous. I ran this comforting thought past a group of Iraqi lorry drivers, none of them shrinking violets, who laughed sourly and said that the real figures were the exact opposite. Only the three Kurdish provinces in the far north were safe.</p>
<p>A current slogan of the powers-that-be in Washington and London is that we should “stay the course in Iraq”. Perhaps one needs to live in Baghdad to know that there is no course. “The Americans are making it up from day to day,” a senior Iraqi official told me. “They make a mistake and then try to correct it by making a bigger mistake.”</p>
<p>The only real continuity in US policy in Iraq over the past two years has been the need to present what is happening here as a success to the American voter. After the invasion in 2003 there was an attempt at full occupation under the Coalition Provisional Authority. This imperial takeover provoked armed resistance by the five million Sunni Arabs. At this time the US did not want elections as demanded by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shia religious leader. It was only when it became clear that the US could not withstand a Shia uprising that elections turned out to have been an immediate American goal all along.</p>
<p>Zigzags in policy have been interspersed with spurious “turning points” . In December 2003 there was the capture of Saddam Hussein. The guerrilla war continued to escalate. Six months later there was the much-trumpeted handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government. This had equally little effect. This January, there was the election, sold as the moment the tide would turn. Half a year later, Baghdad has turned into a slaughterhouse.</p>
<p>The need to produce a rosy and quite false picture of Iraq makes it difficult for the US – with Britain trotting along behind – to produce effective policies. Washington has never admitted to itself that since the summer of 2003 Sunni and Shia Iraqis have both loathed the US occupation. The much-resented presence of US troops in Iraq has helped fuel the insurgency and tainted Iraqi governments as puppets of the US. In the short term it should be a priority to get American soldiers out of the cities and towns in order to reduce daily friction.</p>
<p>The London bombings are already making it more difficult to have a sane discussion about what course to pursue in Iraq. President Bush is able to deflect criticism of his catastrophic misjudgements by suggesting his critics are soft on terrorism. Now the same thing is happening in Britain with Tony Blair and Jack Straw denouncing Chatham House for suggesting that events in Iraq boosted terrorism.</p>
<p>It obviously has. Immediately around my hotel, eight suicide bombers, probably non-Iraqis, have blown themselves up in the past 18 months. It always seemed to me horribly likely that some, at least, of these pious and fanatical young Muslims radicalised by events in Iraq would, instead of perpetrating atrocities here, turn their attention to Britain.</p>
<p>PATRICK COCKBURN was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting in recognition of his writing on Iraq over the past year. His new memoir, <a href="" type="internal">The Broken Boy</a>, has just been published in the UK.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The True, Terrible State of Iraq | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/07/21/the-true-terrible-state-of-iraq/ | 2005-07-21 | 4 |
<p>U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought to portray a united front on the issue of a political settlement with the Taliban in their joint press conference Wednesday. But their comments underlined the deep rift that divides Karzai and the United States over the issue.</p>
<p>Karzai obtained Obama’s approval for the peace jirga scheduled for later this month – an event the Obama administration had earlier regarded with grave doubt because of Karzai’s ostensible invitation to the Taliban to participate.</p>
<p>On the broader question of reconciliation, however, Obama was clearly warning Karzai not to pursue direct talks with the Taliban leadership, at least until well into 2011.</p>
<p>Karzai played down the Taliban role in a peace jirga, saying that it was the “thousands of Taliban who are not against Afghanistan, or against the Afghan people… who are not against America either…” who would be addressed at the conference.</p>
<p>But he also acknowledged that the jirga would discuss how to approach at least some in the Taliban leadership about peace talks.</p>
<p>Karzai said, “Those within the Taliban leadership structure who, again, are not part of al Qaeda or the terrorist networks, or ideologically against Afghanistan’s progress and rights and constitution, democracy, the place of women in the Afghan society, the progress that they’ve made… are welcome.”</p>
<p>The “peace consultative jirga”, he said, would be “consulting the Afghan people, taking their advice on how and through which means and which speed should the Afghan government proceed in the quest for peace”.</p>
<p>Karzai thus made it clear that he would be taking his cues on peace talks with the Taliban from popular sentiment rather than from Washington.</p>
<p>That could not have been a welcome message to the Obama administration, because of Karzai’s well-known pattern of catering to views of the Pashtun population, which are overwhelmingly favourable to peace talks with the Taliban.</p>
<p>Obama endorsed the peace jirga, but he limited U.S. support to “reintegration of those [Taliban] individuals into Afghan society”.</p>
<p>Obama pointedly referred to what had evidently been a contentious issue in their private meeting – his insistence that moves toward reconciliation with the Taliban should not go forward until after the U.S. military has carried out Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s counterinsurgency plan for southern Afghanistan.</p>
<p>“One of the things I emphasised to President Karzai,” said Obama, adding “however”, to indicate that it was a matter of disagreement, “is that the incentives for the Taliban to lay down arms, or at least portions of the Taliban to lay down arms, and make peace with the Afghan government in part depends on our effectiveness in breaking their momentum militarily.”</p>
<p>Obama asserted that “the timing” of the reconciliation process was linked to U.S. military success, because that success would determine when the Taliban “start making different calculations about what’s in their interests”.</p>
<p>Neither Obama nor Karzai gave any hint that the Afghan president had agreed with that point. Karzai openly sided with tribal elders in Kandahar who were vocally opposed to the U.S. military occupation of Kandahar City and surrounding districts at a large shura Apr. 4.</p>
<p>An administration official who is familiar with the Obama-Karzai meeting confirmed to IPS Thursday that the differences between the two over the issue of peace talks remained, but that the administration regards it as positive that Karzai was at least consulting with Obama on his thinking.</p>
<p>Before the Karzai-Obama meeting, the official said, “A lot of people were jumping to the conclusion that [Karzai and the Taliban] are talking about deals. Now he is talking to us before making any back room deals.”</p>
<p>The official indicated that the Obama administration is not open to the suggestion embraced by Karzai that reconciliation might be pursued with some of the Taliban leadership. “We’d have a lot of problems with someone saying ‘these Taliban are acceptable, but these people aren’t’,” the official told IPS.</p>
<p>Obama’s forceful opposition to any political approach to any Taliban leadership until after the counterinsurgency strategy has been tried appears to represent a policy that has been hammered out within the administration at the insistence of Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Gen. McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Obama had suggested in a White House meeting Mar. 12 that it might be time to initiate talks with the Taliban, the New York Times reported Mar. 13. But Gates and McChrystal apparently prevailed on him to abandon that suggestion and accept their position during the preparations for the Karzai visit.</p>
<p>McChrystal does not want any suggestion that either the United States or the Afghan government are contemplating negotiations with the Taliban while he is trying to get the population of Kandahar to believe that U.S. forces are not going to leave for a long time. Agreeing to negotiate with the Taliban would imply a readiness to agree to a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.</p>
<p>McChrystal has not explained, however, why the target population of Kandahar or Helmand province would conclude within only a few months at most that U.S. troops will remain indefinitely, or why the same population should assume that the Taliban can be eliminated from its longtime political base.</p>
<p>Even though Obama is now committed to postponing negotiations, moreover, the administration is not denying that negotiations with the Taliban will be necessary. There is no timetable for when such negotiations might begin, but the official did not rule out the possibility after U.S. military operations and a series of events over the next year, including the peace jirga and parliamentary elections, had “put pressure” on the Taliban.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the administration views Karzai’s peace jirga as useful in getting the process of reconciliation started.</p>
<p>“It’s a delicate balance,” the administration official admitted.</p>
<p>GARETH PORTER is an investigative historian and journalist with Inter-Press Service specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, “ <a href="" type="internal">Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam</a>“, was published in 2006.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | Afghanistan’s Great Divide | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/05/14/afghanistan-s-great-divide/ | 2010-05-14 | 4 |
<p>Repression by the military government against the massive mobilization leaves a toll of casualties, plus a thousand people who disappeared and thousands of people under arrest.</p>
<p>The military dictatorship (which seized power in 1962 after a coup perpetrated by General Ne Win, following the example of Maoist China, nationalizing land, industry and trade), reacted with a bloody repression to the massive mobilizations that have developed since last August 15, a result of the increases in fuel and the 500% rise in the price of gas, that brought on a generalized increase in prices of essential consumer goods. These mobilizations are the biggest since 1988, when the military regime also violently repressed the protest movement that was confronting the dictatorship that refused to recognize the victory of the opposition in the elections. These protests went as far as getting a million students, workers, Buddhist monks and poor people together. That big mobilization was massacred by the army, with a toll of more than 3,000 casualties and thousands of people imprisoned and tortured. At the same time that Ne Win again returned to power, by expelling the earlier military faction from the government, he changed the name of the Socialist Republic of Burma to Myanmar. In a way similar to the process of opening up China, which has a big impact and economic and political interests in the country (Burma is one of the main suppliers of oil and fuels to China), the army chiefs exerted pressure for the regime to open the economy, but without losing economic control; they are not opposed to privatization and dismantling the old planned economy of state property, but they indeed want to control the economy and themselves become direct owners of the means of production.</p>
<p>Big mobilizations against the regime and the increases</p>
<p>The first mobilizations, organized by the student movement, were small, but in view of the violent repression and arrests, they constantly became more massive, first in Rangoon (the former capital), and then they spread to the entire country, led by students and thousands of Buddhist monks, who took a leading position, given the cowardice of the party opposing the dictatorship, the National League for Democracy (NLD), supporters of International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies and of US imperialism. This party, to which the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (an opposition figure, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years as a prisoner, now under house arrest) belongs, tries to curb the protests and play a role of mediator with the dictatorship. A leader of the NLD explained it this way, to the Times of London newspaper, "There should not be agitation in the protests to bring down the military dictatorship," since, according to them, this would allegedly give arguments for a military response and make it more difficult to add people to the movement. The high clergy of the Buddhist monks, who are influential in the mobilizations, are raising a series of limited demands, among them, an apology for the abuses by the regime, reduction of the price increases in fuels, releasing the political prisoners, and negotiation with the military junta.</p>
<p>Both the leadership of the NLD and the high Buddhist clergy are trying to pacify the courageous people of Burma, who, in the face of troops patrolling the cities, continued with the mobilizations.</p>
<p>Military dictatorship and imperialist plunder</p>
<p>This former British colony, rich in reserves of gas and oil, has become a point of geopolitical interest, since China is its main partner. This Chinese influence constitutes a point of conflict with the US, and partially explains the "democratic" and "pro human rights" speech of Bush and other imperialist countries in the recent UN General Assembly. This sudden "concern" for democracy on the part of the US, is only real hypocrisy that, like the boost to the "revolutions of colors" in countries like Ukraine ["Orange Revolution" 2004-2005] or Georgia ["Rose Revolution" 2003], only seeks to install pro-US puppet governments. At the same time, the US does not say one word about the dictatorships in Pakistan and Thailand. Far from worrying about the terrible situation of the workers and people of Burma, the US sees in that country an enormous source of resources and cheap labor that it wishes to exploit. In Burma, which the press of the imperialist countries wants to depict as supposedly isolated, companies like the US petroleum firm UNOCAL and the French TOTAL, that have carried out the Yadana project (building a gas pipeline) in partnership with the state-owned "Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise," have been charged with forced labor, rape and torture, and have a trial pending in California. The gas pipeline has been the biggest investment made in Burma, employing 2,500 workers.</p>
<p>The ties between the dictatorship and the big imperialist enterprises are so strong that to carry out this undertaking, the Tatmawdaw (the Burmese army), began to build roads in the jungle, emptying the villages along the gas pipeline, forcing their inhabitants to work for the company, building places for soldiers, helicopters and a railroad; in 1994, a trade unionist managed to escape, and was able to report what was happening.</p>
<p>Even without taking the recent rise in prices into account, 90% of the population has fallen beneath the poverty line, with an income lower than $1 a day. There is a high rate of emigration, mainly to Thailand, where, according to Mahidol University in Bangkok, 2 million people have arrived, who have gone from the hell of the Burmese dictatorship to "Thai" exploitation and humiliation. Workers, the unemployed, young women and children, almost all of them undocumented, many fall into the snares of prostitution and child prostitution in the streets and brothels of Bangkok. According to a study by Mahidol University, there are 100,000 female domestic workers from Burma, who are exploited as cheap labor for the new "Thai" middle class. Many of these immigrants are from ethnic minorities (Shan, Kachin, Karen, among others), who live in outlying regions, where dozens of local guerrillas confront the central government.</p>
<p>While the imperialist countries are rending their garments, talking about democracy, they are guaranteeing the continuation of the regime and seeking a way out of the present conflict that does not burmacontemplate the immediate fall of the dictatorship hated by millions of workers and the people. A sign of this is the current presence of the UN delegate, Ibrahim Bambari, who met with General Than Shwe, chief of the military junta, in Naypyitaw, the new capital of the country.</p>
<p>It is not possible to trust the UN at all to end this bloody dictatorship, since the UN itself guarantees most of the imperialist interventions in the world, perpetrated by the countries that are keeping the suffering of the people of Burma quiet.</p>
<p>Only the independent mobilization of the workers, students, peasants and the poor can take Burma out of the situation of hunger, poverty, and oppression imposed by the dictatorship and the big imperialist transnational corporations, without leaving one stone on another, by imposing a government of workers and the people.</p>
<p>&#160;Keys</p>
<p>&#160;Burma is located in southeastern Asia and borders on China, Thailand and India.</p>
<p>&#160;It was a British colony until 1948 and was also under Japanese domination during the Second World War.</p>
<p>&#160;The majority of the population is Buddhist (89%); however, there are also Muslims and Christians.</p>
<p>&#160;90% of the people of Burma (more than 51 million) live under the poverty line, with $1 a day.</p>
<p>&#160;Natural resources: it has natural gas reserves calculated at 3 billion cubic meters and oil reserves of 3 billion barrels.</p>
<p>Translation by Yosef M.</p> | Burma: Rebellion and bloody repression | true | https://leftvoice.org/Burma-Rebellion-and-bloody-repression | 2007-10-12 | 4 |
<p>Dec. 15 (UPI) — China has tried and found guilty three associates of fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, a few days after Guo told Hong Kong media he <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/12/12/Fugitive-Chinese-billionaire-says-he-talks-to-Steve-Bannon/3411513094866/" type="external">had tapes</a> of conversations with corrupt Chinese officials.</p>
<p>Chinese state tabloid Global Times reported Friday the three associates, including Guo’s brother Guo Wencun, are guilty of destroying accounting records, and were tried by a court in China’s northeastern Liaoning Province.</p>
<p>Guo Wencun, along with Zhao Guangdong of Beijing Pangu Investment, was also found guilty of illegally imprisoning a businessman following a dispute.</p>
<p>Guo Wencun received a 3-year, 6-month prison sentence.</p>
<p>Zhao and one of the other two employees, Ma Cheng, were given 2-year, 6-month sentences.</p>
<p>Sheng Ruigang, the third Guo associate, received a 2-year, 4-month sentence.</p>
<p>According to Chinese state media, all four defendants agreed they would not appeal the verdict.</p>
<p>“All evidence indicates the crimes committed by the defendants were carried out under the direction of Guo Wengui,” the Chinese court said.</p>
<p>Guo is charged with obtaining $22.3 million worth of fraudulent loans as the chief owner of Henan Yuda Real Estate Company.</p>
<p>Two employees were sentenced at a court in Kaifeng for the fraud, and Guo left China in 2014 for the United States.</p>
<p>Guo has accused China’s anti-corruption chief <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wang_Qishan/" type="external">Wang Qishan</a> of graft, according <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-01/china-s-top-graft-buster-may-become-vice-president-post-says" type="external">to Bloomberg</a>.</p>
<p>Wang, 69, could be promoted to vice president, and has been a friend of Chinese President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Xi_Jinping/" type="external">Xi Jinping</a> since the Cultural Revolution.</p>
<p>Wang is also an influential figure in banking circles and is reportedly close with former U.S. Treasury Secretary <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hank_Paulson/" type="external">Hank Paulson</a>, according to Bloomberg.</p> | Fugitive billionaire Guo Wengui's brother sentenced to prison | false | https://newsline.com/fugitive-billionaire-guo-wenguis-brother-sentenced-to-prison/ | 2017-12-15 | 1 |
<p>In what has to be one of the biggest police <a href="http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/nevada-cop-turns-police-dog-loose-infant-video" type="external">screw-ups</a> ever (and there are many), officers in Henderson, Nevada knowingly set a police dog loose on a man’s vehicle after they already verified that he wasn’t the suspect they were after. It turns out that&#160;there was a 17-month-old girl in the car, and the K9 bit her causing the little girl to scream in horror over and over. &#160;The entire incident was all caught on video.</p>
<p>Just before the horrific action occurred you can hear one of the cops say on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5UXJMt5XDY" type="external">video</a>:</p>
<p>“You’re okay, just relax. They thought that you were involved in a robbery. You don’t look like the person so it’s okay now, okay?”</p>
<p>But, right after this, the video shows officers letting their dog loose on the man’s vehicle and little girl. It just doesn’t make any sense. A little girl in the car or not, why take any further action against this man?</p>
<p />
<p>It’s reasons like these that give cops a bad name. The incident occurred on Jan. 30 of last year, but the City of Henderson sat on the video for almost a year. They only just now released it after a Freedom of Information Act request from the Las Vegas Review-Journal; otherwise, it might have never been seen.</p>
<p>Aside from the fact that there was no reason to search the man’s car in the first place, it turns out that no robbery had even occurred that day. Police were responding to a call from a health food store owner who said that someone had “threatened” to rob him after they got upset over not being able to return some protein powder. The customer, in fact, left the scene without incident. All the cops needed to do was interview the store owner, but instead, this is the result. It’s a complete embarrassment, pure and simple.</p>
<p>Here’s a picture showing the girl’s right arm with nine small puncture wounds, courtesy of <a href="http://www.news3lv.com/content/news/local/story/baby-attacked-by-a-Henderson-Police-dog-made-publi/POiKvO1EeEGwp37pbbVcjg.cspx" type="external">KSNV News</a>:</p>
<p>Pic via <a href="http://www.news3lv.com/content/news/local/story/baby-attacked-by-a-Henderson-Police-dog-made-publi/POiKvO1EeEGwp37pbbVcjg.cspx" type="external">KSNV</a></p>
<p>Despite an obvious injustice occurring, Police Chief Patrick Moers parsed his <a href="http://www.news3lv.com/content/news/local/story/baby-attacked-by-a-Henderson-Police-dog-made-publi/POiKvO1EeEGwp37pbbVcjg.cspx" type="external">words</a> not to seem too harsh towards his officers:</p>
<p>“The dog may have been used too quickly and there could have been additional communication among officers prior use.”</p>
<p>May have? Could have? There’s something seriously wrong with the way this man is running his department.</p>
<p>Arturo Arenas received a $13,000 settlement from the city to go towards the child’s&#160;medical bills, but he still doesn’t have <a href="http://www.news3lv.com/content/news/local/story/baby-attacked-by-a-Henderson-Police-dog-made-publi/POiKvO1EeEGwp37pbbVcjg.cspx" type="external">closure</a> for why this was allowed to happen to him and his daughter.</p>
<p>“I don’t understand why it happened. I believe they are suppose to be trained for this situation. I practically didn’t see any trained officers. My daughter wakes up many times in the middle of the night scared. She occasionally wakes up crying.”</p>
<p>Pic via <a href="http://www.news3lv.com/content/news/local/story/baby-attacked-by-a-Henderson-Police-dog-made-publi/POiKvO1EeEGwp37pbbVcjg.cspx" type="external">KSNV</a></p>
<p>Featured image via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5UXJMt5XDY" type="external">screen capture</a>.</p> | Police Dog Attacks Infant Girl After Cops Detain The Wrong Guy (VIDEO) | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2015/12/30/police-dog-attacks-infant-girl-after-cops-detain-the-wrong-guy-video/ | 2015-12-30 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>LONDON — Glamour was shot through with grit at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday.</p>
<p>Frothy musical “La La Land” took five prizes including best picture, but major awards also went to tough welfare-state drama “I, Daniel Blake” and fractured-family stories “Lion” and “Manchester by the Sea.”</p>
<p>In keeping with an awards season that has coincided with a wrenching change of government in the United States, even “La La Land’s” prizes came with a political tinge.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Accepting the best-actress trophy for playing a barista who dreams of Hollywood stardom, Emma Stone said that “this country and the US, and the world seems to be going through a bit of a time.”</p>
<p>She said that in a divided world, it was vital to celebrate “the positive gift of creativity and how it can transcend borders and how it help people to feel a little less alone.”</p>
<p>The U.K. awards, known as BAFTAs, are often seen as an indicator of who will win at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held two weeks later. “La La Land” already is a dominant force at the Oscars, with 14 nominations. It also has won seven Golden Globes.</p>
<p>“La La Land” had 11 nominations for the British awards and won prizes for Stone, director Damien Chazelle, music and cinematography as well as best picture.</p>
<p>But while the luscious musical was an academy favorite, voters also rewarded less escapist fare.</p>
<p>Stone’s co-star, Ryan Gosling, lost out on the best-actor prize to Casey Affleck, who played a grieving handyman in “Manchester by the Sea.”</p>
<p>Affleck, who is also Oscar-nominated for the role, thanked writer-director Kenneth Lonergan for creating a film that “dignifies everyday lives and their struggles with great compassion.”</p>
<p>The wintry New England drama also won Lonergan the prize for best original screenplay.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>British actor Dev Patel pulled off an upset, beating favorite Mahershala Ali, from “Moonlight,” to the best supporting actor trophy for “Lion,” about a young man who goes searching for the Indian family from which he was separated as a child.</p>
<p>The London-born Patel expressed shock at being a winner at a ceremony he used to watch on TV with his family.</p>
<p>He said “Lion,” which co-stars Nicole Kidman is “a film, about family, about a love that transcends borders, race, color, anything.”</p>
<p>The “Slumdog Millionaire” star thanked his “amazing team, who had the insane task of trying to get this Indian dude, this noodle with wonky teeth and a lazy eye and floppy hair, work in this industry.”</p>
<p>“Lion” also took the BAFTA for best adapted screenplay.</p>
<p>Ken Loach’s “I, Daniel Blake” was named best British film. The 80-year-old director used his acceptance speech to lambast the country’s Conservative government.</p>
<p>Loach said his docudrama about a carpenter trying to get welfare after a heart attack shows that “the most vulnerable and the poorest people are treated by this government with a callous brutality that is disgraceful.”</p>
<p>Loach apologized for making a political speech, but told reporters backstage that “you can’t do a film like this and then talk showbiz.”</p>
<p>Loach was cheered by an audience at London’s Royal Albert Hall that included Prince William, his wife, Kate, and nominees including Meryl Streep, Affleck, Stone and Kidman.</p>
<p>Both William and Kate wore black and white — he a tuxedo, she an off-the-shoulder Alexander McQueen gown and glittering chandelier earrings.</p>
<p>Viola Davis won the supporting actress BAFTA for “Fences,” Denzel Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s stage drama about an African-American family.</p>
<p>A visibly moved Davis praised Wilson’s play for showing “that our lives mattered as African Americans.”</p>
<p>“The horse groomer, the sanitation worker, the people who grew up under the heavy boot of Jim Crow,” she said. “The people who did not make it into history books, but they have a story — and those stories deserve to be told.”</p>
<p>Ava DuVernay’s film about mass incarceration in America, “13th,” was named best documentary, and Laszlo Nemes’ unbearably powerful Holocaust drama “Son of Saul” took the trophy for best foreign-language film.</p>
<p>The stars brought a dose of glamour to gray, wintry London, as hundreds of fans lined the red carpet outside the domed concert hall beside London’s Hyde Park.</p>
<p>Many said they were unsurprised politics made a guest appearance at the ceremony, as it has so often this awards season. Streep is among the stars who have used the awards stage to criticize President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Master of ceremonies Stephen Fry joked about Trump’s dismissal of Streep as overrated, declaring from the stage: “I look down on row after row of the most overrated people on the planet.”</p>
<p>Prince William, who serves as president of Britain’s film academy, presented the academy’s lifetime-achievement honor to veteran comedian Mel Brooks at the end of Sunday’s ceremony.</p>
<p>The 90-year-old entertainer said he would treasure the trophy.</p>
<p>“This is one of the awards you will not see on eBay,” he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show DuVernay’s first name is Ava and her film is “13th.”</p> | ‘La La Land’ takes 5 prizes at British academy awards | false | https://abqjournal.com/948579/la-la-land-takes-5-prizes-at-british-academy-awards.html | 2017-02-12 | 2 |
<p>San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick spoke with left-wing celebrity tabloid <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/colin-kaepernick-details-childhood-racial-struggle-2015810" type="external">Us Weekly</a> in late 2015 to outline a “racial struggle” he associated with his childhood. The NFL star has <a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17401815/colin-kaepernick-san-francisco-49ers-sits-national-anthem-prior-preseason-game" type="external">generated headlines</a> today following his refusal to stand for the national anthem during the pregame ritual on Friday, citing his opposition to America's "[oppression] of black people and people of color."</p>
<p />
<p>San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick passes during warmups before a preseason NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)</p>
<p>Adopted by white parents in Wisconsin, Kaepernick is the biological child of a white woman and a black man. He was born in 1987.</p>
<p>Speaking in terms of race, Kaepernick told Us Weekly that “he knew he was different [from his parents]… even before he could speak."</p>
<p>"I knew I was different to my parents and my older brother and sister," said Kaepernick. "I never felt that I was supposed to be white. Or black, either. My parents just wanted to let me be who I needed to be."</p>
<p>Us Weekly indulged Kaepernick's grievance-mongering and self-victimization, describing him as being "judged" by “the world” because of "the color of his skin."</p>
<p>Kaepernick recalled his childhood struggles:</p>
<p>"We used to go on these summer driving vacations and stay at motels. And every year, in the lobby of every motel, the same thing always happened, and it only got worse as I got older and taller. It didn’t matter how close I stood to my family, somebody would walk up to me, a real nervous manager, and say: ‘Excuse me. Is there something I can help you with?'"</p>
<p />
<p>Somehow, Kaepernick developed a racial ethos over time:</p>
<p>"What do I represent?’ And you know what? My racial heritage is something I want people to be well aware of. I do want to be a representative of the African community, and I want to hold myself and dress myself in a way that reflects that. I want black kids to see me and think: ‘Okay, he’s carrying himself as a black man, and that’s how a black man should carry himself.’"</p>
<p>Kaepernick <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-protest-of-national-anthem" type="external">explained</a> his refusal to stand for the Star-Spangled Banner, expressing solidarity with the neo-Marxist racial narratives of Black Lives Matter:</p>
<p>"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."</p>
<p>Describing himself as a black man in a society that “oppresses black people,” Kaepernick signed a 6-year contract with the 49ers in 2015 for <a href="http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/colin-kaepernick-7751/" type="external">$114 million</a>. He has also been paid millions of additional dollars through <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2013/01/14/the-business-of-colin-kaepernick/#5c51545a5fcf" type="external">endorsement deals</a>.</p>
<p>San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick holds a tablet computer as he stands on the sideline during the first half of a preseason NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Cry More: Kaepernick's 'Racial Struggle' As A Child | true | https://dailywire.com/news/8709/cry-more-kaepernicks-racial-struggle-child-robert-kraychik | 2016-08-27 | 0 |
<p>ATLANTA (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday afternoon’s drawing of the Georgia Lottery’s “All or Nothing Evening” game were:</p>
<p>01-02-05-09-12-13-15-17-18-19-21-22</p>
<p>(one, two, five, nine, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-two)</p>
<p>ATLANTA (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday afternoon’s drawing of the Georgia Lottery’s “All or Nothing Evening” game were:</p>
<p>01-02-05-09-12-13-15-17-18-19-21-22</p>
<p>(one, two, five, nine, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-two)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘All or Nothing Evening’ game | false | https://apnews.com/eade819617f74b5e819775e058cfcde1 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>When the global economy takes a serious plunge (i.e., like right now), one would think that such frivolities as facial fillers and Botox would be the first to go from the regimens of even the most image-conscious among us.</p>
<p>As it turns out, that's not the case - at least not yet. Apparently, some <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gKosaVhsUWh8OZKUMiK9XAUpfckg" type="external">personal investments</a> are more resilient to stock market declines than others.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal:</p>
<p>Despite the dismal economic climate, most women - and men - who undergo appearance-enhancing treatments such as Botox injections are spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year to maintain the regimen, aesthetic physicians say. Meanwhile, some older patients who are putting off or forgoing expensive facelifts are instead opting for less-costly injections and laser treatments.</p>
<p />
<p>Maralyn Burr of Omaha, Neb., in June lost her job as a district sales manager for bookstore chain Borders Group Inc. Ms. Burr, who is $140,000 in debt from her 22-year-old daughter's musical education, says she has slashed spending and all but stopped eating out. But she hasn't given up her Restylane and Botox injections. "It's like comfort food," she says.</p>
<p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122999145997128503.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Botox Withstands Effects of Age, Recession | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/botox-withstands-effects-of-age-recession/ | 2008-12-24 | 4 |
<p>The Bush administration is very focused these days on Iran’s nuclear program. This focus has only sharpened in the aftermath of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent report that Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council demand.</p>
<p>“A nuclear-armed Iran is not a very pleasant prospect for anybody to think about,” Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl in Australia. “It clearly could do significant damage. And so I think we need to continue to do everything we can to make certain they don’t achieve that objective.” Asked if the administration would continue to pursue diplomacy, the vice president responded that while “we’ve been working with the EU and going through the United Nations with sanctions the President has also made it clear that we haven’t taken any options off the table.”</p>
<p>In the White House, “options on the table” is code for military action. There have been many media reports of U.S. preparations to attack Iran. But the primary rationale for such an attack–to prevent Iran from going nuclear–is deeply problematic. Not only is the United States beefing up its military in general, it is even planning a modernization of its nuclear arsenal. The nuclear hypocrisy of the Bush administration makes any resolution of the conflict with Iran all the more difficult. U.S. Military Spending</p>
<p>The new round of hand-wringing and saber-rattling about Iran’s nascent but worrisome nuclear program comes just a few weeks after the Bush administration announced its new budget, which included billions for nuclear weapons development. The Department of Energy’s “weapons activities” budget request totals $6.4 billion, a drop in the bucket compared to the Pentagon’s $481.4 billion proposed budget. But the budget for new nukes is large and growing — even in comparison to Cold War figures.</p>
<p>During the Cold War, spending on nuclear weapons averaged $4.2 billion a year (in current dollars). Almost two decades after the nuclear animosity between the two great superpowers ended, the United States is spending one-and-a-half times the Cold War average on nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>In 2001, the weapons-activities budget of the Department of Energy (DOE), which oversees the nuclear weapons complex through the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), totaled $5.19 billion. Since President Bush’s January 2002 “Nuclear Posture Review” asserted the urgent need for a “revitalized nuclear weapons complex” — “to design, develop, manufacture, and certify new warheads in response to new national requirements; and maintain readiness to resume underground testing” — there has been more than a billion-dollar jump in nuclear spending. Included in the $6.4 billion 2008 request is money for “design concept testing” of two new nuclear warhead designs that officials hope will be deployed on submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles– even as U.S. warships set their helms towards the Strait of Hormuz to menace Iran back from the nuclear brink. Costly, Illegal, and Dangerous</p>
<p>Key to revitalizing nuclear weapons is Complex 2030, the NNSA’a “infrastructure planning scenario for a nuclear weapons complex able to meet the threats of the 21st century.” It is a costly, illegal, and dangerous program aimed at rebuilding the 50-year-old nuclear facilities where the weapons are both assembled and disassembled.</p>
<p>How Costly? The DOE estimates that Complex 2030 would require a capital investment of $150 billion. But the Government Accountability Office says that is way too low to fund even the basic maintenance of the eight nuclear facilities currently operational throughout the country.</p>
<p>Why Illegal? Complex 2030 promises a return to the Cold War cycle of design, development, and production of nuclear weapons, runs the risk of a return to underground nuclear testing, and could require the annual manufacture of hundreds of new plutonium pits — the fissile “heart” of a nuclear weapon. These plans directly contradict U.S. treaty promises in 1968 “to negotiate toward general and complete disarmament.”</p>
<p>How Dangerous? Every step the United States takes away from the international consensus on the illegality and immorality of nuclear weapons is a new incentive and justification for other nations to pursue and brandish nuclear weapons. In a 2006 report, the independent “Weapons of Mass Destruction” Commission estimated the dark likelihood of ten new nuclear powers within a decade. At the end of January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the hand of its Doomsday clock to five minutes to nuclear midnight, in part as a result of “renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons.”</p>
<p>As the United States surges forward in its nuclear renaissance, the threat of nuclear terrorism and accidental nuclear strikes remains a grave yet under-funded priority. The administration occasionally raises the specter of nuclear-armed terrorists. In February 2004, for example, President Bush warned, “In the hands of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction would be a first resort.” Despite its rhetoric, however, the administration has done nothing to accelerate efforts to destroy and safeguard loose nuclear weapons and bomb-making materials, allocating about $1 billion a year to these crucial non-proliferation efforts (roughly the same amount that the Bush administration has been burning through each day in Iraq). At this rate, it will be 13 years before Russian nuclear material is secured.</p>
<p>The contradictions between what the administration is demanding of Tehran and other powers, and the capabilities it is pursuing for its own arsenal, are provocative and dangerous — a pernicious form of nuclear hypocrisy.</p>
<p>Dick Cheney is right — a nuclear-armed Iran is not a pleasant prospect, and we have to do something. But the most effective option is the hardest to swallow. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States agreed to an “unequivocal undertaking” to “eliminate” its nuclear weapons arsenal. Honoring that commitment — and encouraging other declared and undeclared nuclear states to do the same — would undercut Tehran’s arguments about why nuclear firepower is necessary. Oh, and by the way, it would also make the world feel a whole lot safer.</p>
<p>FRIDA BERRIGAN is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus and Senior Research Associate at the World Policy Institute’s Arms Trade Resource Center. Her primary research areas with the project include nuclear-weapons policy, war profiteering and corporate crimes, weapons sales to areas of conflict, and military-training programs. She is the author of a number of Institute reports, most recently Weapons at War 2005: Promoting Freedom or Fueling Conflict. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | US Nuclear Hypocrisy and Iran | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/03/05/us-nuclear-hypocrisy-and-iran/ | 2007-03-05 | 4 |
<p>Nuclear experts from the Oxford Research Group have some words of advice for world leaders about their future dealings with Iran. Scientist Frank Barnaby, who co-authored the think tank’s report, warned that pre-emptive military action “could speed Iran’s progress to a nuclear bomb.”</p>
<p>Al Jazeera:</p>
<p>The conclusions published by the British-based Oxford Research Group on Monday are supported by Hans Blix, the former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq.</p>
<p>Frank Barnaby, one of the report’s authors and a leading nuclear scientist, said an attack on Iran could stimulate the development of nuclear weapons.</p>
<p />
<p>“[An attack] would almost certainly lead to a fast-track programme to develop a small number of nuclear devices as quickly as possible,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3E3B3C55-C1E9-4548-8BF1-9630D364BC41.htm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Oxford Think Tank: A Strike on Iran Could Backfire | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/oxford-think-tank-a-strike-on-iran-could-backfire/ | 2007-03-06 | 4 |
<p>A long-planned initiative to create bigger jackpots by linking casino slot machines in New Jersey and Nevada is up and running.</p>
<p>The New Jersey Gaming Enforcement Division says the progressive slots system links 100 machines in Atlantic City with 600 in Nevada. The progressive jackpots grow in size as more gamblers play them.</p>
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<p>"The division is pleased to have been at the forefront of passing regulations and reaching out to other jurisdictions to enable this expanded gaming opportunity for Atlantic City," said director David Rebuck. "Much like multi-state lotteries, this new technology and cooperative regulatory agreements will allow combined progressive jackpots to grow, which should be very appealing to players looking for the opportunity to play for huge jackpots."</p>
<p>The system quietly went live Wednesday afternoon, and was announced by regulators Thursday morning.</p>
<p>Slot machines account for about two-thirds of the revenue won by Atlantic City's casinos.</p>
<p>It is the second multi-state system linking New Jersey slot machines with those in other states. Earlier this year, the state approved a compact with South Dakota. The two interstate slot systems are not connected with each other, though.</p>
<p>New Jersey casino regulators have been working on the plan for at least two years, and they are still looking for other states to participate in an expanded multi-state slots system.</p>
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<p>It is one of many things the state is trying as it tries to reverse Atlantic City's eight-year casino revenue decline, brought on by increased competition in neighboring states. New Jersey also legalized Internet gambling and tried unsuccessfully to overturn a federal ban on sports betting, among other initiatives.</p>
<p>The interstate concept is also a key to New Jersey's plans for Internet gambling. The state plans currently limits Internet gambling to people physically present in New Jersey, but the law allows it to enter into compacts with other states or countries where Internet gambling is legal.</p>
<p>Division spokeswoman Kerry Langan says all 11 Atlantic City casinos are participating, including the three that are shutting down within the next few weeks: Revel, Showboat and Trump Plaza.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC</p> | Progressive slot system links machines in New Jersey, Nevada for bigger jackpots | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/08/21/progressive-slot-system-links-machines-in-new-jersey-nevada-for-bigger-jackpots.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>TOKYO (AP) — Asian stocks were mostly higher in early Wednesday trading, cheered by diminished prospects that U.S. interest rates would be raised soon.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.1 percent in morning trading to 18,628.98. Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 inched up 0.3 percent to 5,944.70. Hong Kong Hang Seng was little changed, inching up 0.01 percent to 24,752.20, while South Korea’s Kospi added 0.8 percent to 1,990.92.</p>
<p>WALL STREET MILESTONES: The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index delivered new highs. The Dow ended up 92.35 points, or 0.5 percent, at 18,209.19. That’s up 0.4 percent from its most-recent high of 18,140.44 last Friday. The S&amp;P 500 gained 5.82 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,115.48. The index also reached its previous high of 2,110.30 on Friday. The Nasdaq gained 7.15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,968.12, finishing higher for the 10th day straight.</p>
<p>FED FACTOR: Global markets were cheered by comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who told Congress the central bank would be patient about raising interest rates because the job market is still healing and inflation is too low. Lower interest rates make borrowing easier and tend to be a plus for markets.</p>
<p>ANALYST TAKE: “Yellen painted an optimistic view of the U.S. economy overall, pointing to improvement in the labor market,” according to the daily market report by the Singapore branch of Mizuho Bank.</p>
<p>GREECE FACTOR: Progress in Greece’s efforts to secure an extension of its rescue program added to the optimism. Athens and its bailout creditors reached a tentative agreement last week to continue a rescue loan program by four months to avoid the risk of a Greek default. On Tuesday, European creditors approved a four-month extension to the nation’s financial bailout, sending stock indexes in Europe higher.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 2 cents to $49.26 after falling for the fifth day in a row on expectations of rising inventories in the U.S. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose 20 cents to $58.86 in London.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The U.S. dollar was trading at 118.69 yen, down from 118.75 yen. The euro cost $1.1346, almost unchanged from the previous day.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Yuri Kageyama: <a href="https://twitter.com/yurikageyama" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/yurikageyama" type="external">https://twitter.com/yurikageyama</a></p>
<p>TOKYO (AP) — Asian stocks were mostly higher in early Wednesday trading, cheered by diminished prospects that U.S. interest rates would be raised soon.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.1 percent in morning trading to 18,628.98. Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 inched up 0.3 percent to 5,944.70. Hong Kong Hang Seng was little changed, inching up 0.01 percent to 24,752.20, while South Korea’s Kospi added 0.8 percent to 1,990.92.</p>
<p>WALL STREET MILESTONES: The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index delivered new highs. The Dow ended up 92.35 points, or 0.5 percent, at 18,209.19. That’s up 0.4 percent from its most-recent high of 18,140.44 last Friday. The S&amp;P 500 gained 5.82 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,115.48. The index also reached its previous high of 2,110.30 on Friday. The Nasdaq gained 7.15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,968.12, finishing higher for the 10th day straight.</p>
<p>FED FACTOR: Global markets were cheered by comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who told Congress the central bank would be patient about raising interest rates because the job market is still healing and inflation is too low. Lower interest rates make borrowing easier and tend to be a plus for markets.</p>
<p>ANALYST TAKE: “Yellen painted an optimistic view of the U.S. economy overall, pointing to improvement in the labor market,” according to the daily market report by the Singapore branch of Mizuho Bank.</p>
<p>GREECE FACTOR: Progress in Greece’s efforts to secure an extension of its rescue program added to the optimism. Athens and its bailout creditors reached a tentative agreement last week to continue a rescue loan program by four months to avoid the risk of a Greek default. On Tuesday, European creditors approved a four-month extension to the nation’s financial bailout, sending stock indexes in Europe higher.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 2 cents to $49.26 after falling for the fifth day in a row on expectations of rising inventories in the U.S. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose 20 cents to $58.86 in London.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The U.S. dollar was trading at 118.69 yen, down from 118.75 yen. The euro cost $1.1346, almost unchanged from the previous day.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Yuri Kageyama: <a href="https://twitter.com/yurikageyama" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/yurikageyama" type="external">https://twitter.com/yurikageyama</a></p> | Asian stocks mostly up, cheered by US Fed chair remarks | false | https://apnews.com/1d438497e21a4253be8d3ae8f0e54e92 | 2015-02-25 | 2 |
<p>The battle to derail the government-run, pro-abortion ObamaCare is about to intensify in the courts and in Congress.</p>
<p>As you know, there are numerous legal challenges to this health care law. We're involved in many of them - representing members of Congress in filing <a href="" type="internal">amicus briefs supporting efforts by Florida</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Virginia to challenge the law</a>. In one case, a <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/07/28/challenge-to-federal-health-care-law-reaches-supreme-court/?mod=WSJBlog" type="external">petition already has been filed urging the Supreme Court to take that case</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>In fact, there will be a well-worn path to the Supreme Court on this issue. All of these legal challenges are likely to end up there at some point. And, ultimately the high court will determine whether ObamaCare survives.</p>
<p>Our lawsuit directly challenging ObamaCare is headed for oral argument next month (September 23rd) before a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. In <a href="" type="internal">our latest court filing</a> we have made it clear that our position is "grounded in the Constitution" along with Supreme Court precedent. In arguments to reinstate our lawsuit, we contend that the arguments put forth by the Department of Justice "lack support in the text, history, or related Supreme Court jurisprudence of the Commerce or Necessary and Proper Clauses" of the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>Our challenge is clear: we believe the individual mandate, which forces Americans to purchase health insurance, is unconstitutional because it violates the Commerce Clause.</p>
<p>While the legal challenges move forward, the Republicans in Congress are now talking about refocusing on derailing ObamaCare. Consider this <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/09/republicans-prepare-for-next-phase-obamacare-battle/" type="external">excerpt taken from a FoxNews.com story</a>, which is posted here.&#160;</p>
<p>The legal and legislative challenges come at a time when new information is surfacing about the true cost of ObamaCare. What is now coming to light is very troubling, but not surprising. A new report &#160;indicates that <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/08/08/researchers-obamacare-cost-estimates-hide-up-to-50-billion-per-year/" type="external">federal payments required by ObamaCare have been significantly underestimated</a> to the tune of $50 Billion per year. That's right. It's going to cost HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS MORE than expected in the first ten years of the law's implementation. It seems budget forecasters didn't take into account the cost of insuring many employees' spouses and children.</p>
<p>If that's not enough, the state of <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/healthcare/brownback-kansas-to-return-31-5-million-health-exchange-grant-20110809" type="external">Kansas is now returning a $31 million grant</a> to the federal government for ObamaCare. Gov. Sam Brownback said the state would return the money because of doubts surrounding the federal government's ability to pay for the grant in the future. Kansas is the second state to return such funding. Oklahoma returned a similar grant in April.</p>
<p>No matter how you slice it, ObamaCare is in trouble. It faces significant legal challenges that we believe ultimately will render it unconstitutional and unenforceable. Legislative action challenging it is moving forward. And, it seems that with each passing day we learn that it will cost more.</p>
<p>America deserves a health care plan that is effective, affordable, and constitutional. ObamaCare doesn't fit the bill.</p> | ObamaCare: The Wrong Prescription for America | true | http://aclj.org/obamacare/obamacare-the-wrong-prescription-for-america | 2011-08-10 | 0 |
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<p>But thieves have recently stepped up their game - last week stealing entire mail bags from two trucks making their rounds in Bernalillo County.</p>
<p>And sheriff's deputies are investigating a spike in smash-and-grab thefts from individual and cluster mailboxes throughout the county. They believe those thieves are looking for tax forms.</p>
<p>Sgt. Aaron Williamson, a spokesman from the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, said the U.S. Postal Inspection Service reported thieves had threatened two mail carriers and taken mail from their trucks in the county last week.</p>
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<p>"When we were talking to the post office, they told us they had two mail carriers robbed of the mail from the back of their truck," Williamson said. "They took a whole big sack (of mail)."</p>
<p>Williamson said the U.S. Postal Inspection Service did not provide any further details about the robberies, including where and how they happened, so he can't speculate on what the thieves were looking for.</p>
<p>But he said W-2 forms have been reported missing in at least two of the thefts from individual and cluster mailboxes - structures containing several locked boxes.</p>
<p>He said deputies believe the theft of tax forms is a new tactic for identity theft.</p>
<p>"We've had mail thefts before and had other problems with that, but this is something new and recent," he said. "It seems like they're targeting W-2s for identity theft. It's basically got all your information on it."</p>
<p>In early January, residents living south of Tijeras found two of their cluster mailboxes had been broken into, affecting about 32 households. They still haven't been fixed and customers were told to pick up their mail at the post office.</p>
<p>On the other side of the mountains, Robert Trudo made a similar discovery about the cluster mailboxes in his neighborhood near Candelaria and Tramway NE. He said it appeared as though someone had pried off the back of the mailbox using a crowbar and taken the contents of several boxes in late December.</p>
<p>"Somebody pulled up in the dead of night and decided to break into two of the mailboxes that we call cluster boxes," he said. "They were able to get inside through the back access hatch and essentially stole everything in there."</p>
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<p>Trudo said the front of his mailbox had been tampered with but was not broken into.</p>
<p>Authorities did not answer questions about how many mailboxes have been broken into.</p>
<p>Officer Tanner Tixier, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said he didn't have any information about reports of thefts from mailboxes.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the law enforcement division of the U.S. Postal Service did not return phone calls.</p>
<p>Stealing mail is a federal offense punishable by fine or five years in prison, according to the federal legal code.</p>
<p>Williamson suggests residents check their boxes often to minimize the amount of time that sensitive material is left unattended.</p>
<p>"Obviously, if you're expecting anything like that, know when your mail is delivered and don't leave it in there any longer than you have to," Williamson said. "If you regularly have expensive items or documents delivered look into getting a P.O. box."</p>
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<p /> | Bernalillo County hit with rash of mail thefts | false | https://abqjournal.com/714411/bernalillo-county-hit-with-rash-of-mail-thefts-2.html | 2016-01-28 | 2 |
<p>Americans seem less willing than they used to be to eat good in the neighborhood or to pepper in some fun: Both Ruby Tuesday (NYSE: RT) and Brinker International's (NYSE: EAT) Chili's have been struggling to lure in customers. The same issue has plagued DineEquity's (NYSE: DIN) Applebee's brand, too.</p>
<p>All three plan to tackle the problem in the same way: They are going to pare down their menus and offer fewer choices. And while that might sound counter-intuitive, the chains could benefit from this "less is more" strategy.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>This market segment has taken a beating as it has lost customers to fast-casual chains and because people are no longer eating out as often. In its fiscal 2017, Ruby Tuesday saw same-store sales decline 3.1% while total revenue dropped 12.8%.</p>
<p>Through six months of its fiscal year, Applebee's saw same-store sales fall by 7% while earnings per share (EPS) for DineEquity (which also owns IHOP) dropped from $2.82 in the first half of 2016 to $1.98 through the first six months of 2017. Chili's saw company-owned comparable-store sales drop 2.3% for the year that ended in June while its parent company, which also owns Maggiano's, saw full-year EPS drop from $3.42 in fiscal 2016 to $2.94 in fiscal 2017.</p>
<p>All three chains have different business models based on the mixes of company-owned versus franchised stores, but for all three the picture is similar: Sales are falling and fewer customers are coming in.</p>
<p>Applebee's President John Cywinski has acknowledged that the chain had let its menu grow too far beyond its traditional offerings. He did not offer a percentage that its menu would be cut by, but admitted during DineEquity's Q2 earnings call that going after millennials was a mistake.</p>
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<p>He explained during the call that the chain had tried to reinvent itself as a modern bar and grill targeted at millennials. Those efforts, which came before he was hired as president, failed.</p>
<p>"From my perspective, this pursuit led to decisions that created confusion among core guests as Applebee's intentionally drifted from its, what I'll call its Middle America roots and its abundant value positioning," he said . "[While] we certainly hope to extend our reach, we can't alienate boomers or Gen Xers in the process. Much of what we are currently unwinding at the moment is related to this defensive repositioning."</p>
<p>Chili's has been even more specific about its plans, <a href="http://brinker.mediaroom.com/2017-09-08-Chilis-Growth-Means-Getting-Smaller" type="external">announcing</a> that it would be "going back to its roots," on Sept. 18 by cutting 40% of its menu. Favorites like baby back ribs and fajitas will stay, but newer, edgier offerings like the Crispy Asparagus appetizer and Mango Chili Tilapia entrée will not.</p>
<p>Ruby Tuesday has also cut its menu by about 30%, getting rid of non-core offerings and refocusing marketing attention on its unlimited salad bar. More cuts may be coming as the chain has a "Plan to Win" turnaround plan for the next 12 months that includes an effort to "implement menu simplification."</p>
<p>Just having fewer choices won't drive these chains to success, but paired with other changes, it could help. Chili's, for example, plans to increase portion size, offering "meatier burgers, ribs and fajitas." Both Applebee's and Ruby Tuesday have also acknowledged a mix of lower prices and bigger portions are part of their plans.</p>
<p>Increasing value this way and offering better versions of popular menu items should help. In addition, offering fewer choices should speed up service time, limit kitchen mistakes, and make it easier to train employees.</p>
<p>While offering broad menus in theory broadens a chain's audience, the reality is that many diners are skeptical when a chain goes too far outside its core competency. Ruby Tuesday, Chili's, or Applebee's might be great for chicken fingers, ribs, or a burger, but they are probably not the place for sushi, kale, or quinoa.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDankline/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bc082206-998b-11e7-96f7-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Daniel B. Kline</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bc082206-998b-11e7-96f7-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | Will Offering Less Save These Bar and Grill Chains? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/16/will-offering-less-save-these-bar-and-grill-chains.html | 2017-09-16 | 0 |
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<p>KEEPING SCORE: Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent to 6,944 and France’s CAC 40 was up 0.6 percent at 4,762. Germany’s DAX rose 0.3 percent to 11,209. U.S. shares looked set for more gains, with Dow futures up 0.2 percent and S&amp;P futures almost 0.1 percent higher.</p>
<p>EURO WATCH: The European Central on Thursday extended its bond-buying economic stimulus program, known as “quantitative easing,” as investors expected. It pushed out the earliest end date for its bond-buying program to the end of next year, from March previous. However, starting in March it will begin spending less on bonds per month. The extension adds $579 billion, seen as a hedge against political uncertainties such as Italy’s recent referendum and elections next year in France, Germany and the Netherlands. China’s slowdown, U.S. rate hikes and the impact of President-elect Donald Trump on growth and global trade also loom large.</p>
<p>ANALYST’S TAKE: “The ECB’s policy change looks like a typical compromise” between those in favor of extending the stimulus and those who wanted to start phasing it out, said CMC’s chief market strategist, Ric Spooner. “The bottom line for markets is that (the stimulus) will continue at a substantial rate for another 12 months with the possibility of being increased if conditions deteriorate.”</p>
<p>U.S. RATE HIKES: The Fed is expected to raise its key interest rate by 0.25 percent at its policy-setting meeting next week, a year after its last rate hike. Investors are watching for clues about whether the Fed will stick to “gradual rate hikes” and how significant fiscal stimulus will be under Donald Trump. U.S. data remains solid, with non-manufacturing business conditions index rising, job openings and hiring remaining strong and jobless claims low.</p>
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<p>SOUTH KOREAN IMPEACHMENT: South Korean lawmakers voted to impeach Park over a corruption scandal that drew millions of demonstrators into the streets demanding she step down. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will assume leadership until the country’s Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must go for good. Park has denied allegations she colluded with a confidante who extorted companies and manipulated state affairs. South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.3 percent to 2,024.69, closing as the vote was underway.</p>
<p>ASIA’S DAY: Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.2 percent to 18,996.37 as the yen weakened against the dollar. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 percent to 3,232.88. Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 advanced 0.3 percent to 5,560.60. Indexes in most Southeast Asian countries also rose but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.4 percent to 22,760.98 and India’s Sensex was up 0.3 percent at 26,778.58.</p>
<p>OIL: Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 40 cents to $51.24 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $1.07 in the previous session. Brent crude, the international standard, added 22 cents to $54.11 a barrel in London. It rose 89 cents on Thursday.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 115.09 yen from 114.20 yen. The euro fell to $1.0561 from $1.0603.</p> | Global stocks extend European stimulus-inspired rally | false | https://abqjournal.com/905551/asian-shares-mostly-higher-following-ecb-inspired-rally.html | 2016-12-08 | 2 |
<p />
<p>U.S. equity markets lost momentum in the final hour of trading on Wednesday as investors continued to parse three-hour testimony from the head of the Federal Reserve.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 99 points, or 0.62% to 15914. The S&amp;P 500 slipped a fraction of a point, or 0.02% to 1851, while the Nasdaq Composite added 14 points, or 0.35% to 4283.</p>
<p>Technology, health care, and consumer discretionary led most of the S&amp;P 500 sectors higher, while utilities dragged.</p>
<p>Today’s Markets</p>
<p>The broader averages extended a three day losing streak to four, despite a healthy early-morning rally, on the back of the comments from Fed Chief Janet Yellen.</p>
<p>The chairwoman began two days of testimony on Capitol Hill in front of the House Financial Services Committee talking about several hot button issues including the outlook for the U.S. economy, negative interest rate policy, and the risk of a global recession. It was the first time she spoke publicly about the central bank’s monetary policy and her view on the economy since the Fed opted to raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade in December.</p>
<p>In prepared remarks, Yellen said while the U.S. economy has continued to make progress, tighter financial conditions due to heightened market volatility, have become less supportive of growth, and if they continue, they could impact further growth. She spoke specifically about China’s economic outlook and its impact on world markets.</p>
<p>“As is always the case, the economic outlook is uncertain. Foreign economic developments in particular pose risks to the U.S. economic growth...This uncertainty led to increased volatility in global financial markets and, against the backdrop of persistent weakness abroad, exacerbated concerns about the outlook for global growth,” she explained.</p>
<p>Further, she said low commodity prices could “trigger financial stresses in commodity-exporting economics,” which could decrease demand for U.S. exports and tighten financial-market conditions even more.</p>
<p>In response to a question about the legality of possible negative interest rates, Yellen said that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) had considered lowering rates into negative territory during the financial crisis in 2010, but decided against it.</p>
<p>“I would say [the legality] remains a question. We would still need to investigate it more thoroughly,” Yellen said.</p>
<p>She added though that despite recent financial-market and economic headwinds, the central bank would be unlikely to drop rates into negative territory.</p>
<p>Kevin Kelly, managing partner at Recon Capital, said it would be “absurd” for the Fed to go negative on rates at this point.</p>
<p>“We’ve seen the dollar weaken against the euro, and just given where the market has been, especially the credit market and equities, there has already been some tightening, so the Fed doesn’t need to do that again. There’s no indication for the Fed to go negative on rates,” he explained.</p>
<p>Since December, a number of S&amp;P 500 sectors have dropped into bear-market territory, while the broader index is down more than 9% for the year. Recent data have also shown the manufacturing sector remains in contraction, while services slowed, and the labor market continues to make incremental gains.</p>
<p>Deutsche Bank economists, in a note following Yellen’s prepared remarks, said while the Fed chief remained dovish, she did not push back market expectation for a delay in rate-hike action until much later in the year.</p>
<p>“This is consistent with the Committee being data-dependent, and at the moment, they are acknowledging that the data at hand warrant a more gradual path of rate hikes than what the Committee had envisioned at the December meeting,” the note said.</p>
<p>Robin Anderson, senior economist at Principal Global Investors, which oversees $331 billion in assets under management, said she expects two more rate hikes this year starting in June.</p>
<p>“The decline in oil prices and the strength in the dollar, up until last week, point to continued lack in inflation pressure,” she said. “The recent jobs report suggests the U.S. labor market is absorbing slack – the unemployment rate fell below 5%, wage growth is trending upward, and unit labor costs are rising.”</p>
<p>Following Yellen’s remarks, Fed Funds futures showed little expectation for the Fed to move on rates again for the remainder of the year, pushing expectations out into 2017. Meanwhile, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond fell 0.017 percentage point to 1.712%. Yields move inversely to prices.</p>
<p>As Wall Street awaited Yellen’s comments, they took a cue from European markets, which rallied as bank shares there recovered from a recent route as investors took the opportunity to buy at discounted levels. The Euro Stoxx 50, which tracks large-cap companies in the eurozone, along with the German Dax, and French CAC 40, jumped more than 2%, while the UK’s FTSE 100 gained about 1%.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, oil prices continued to waver as they traded along the flat line. Inventory data from the Energy Information Administration showed U.S. stockpiles unexpectedly declined last week. Crude stocks declined by 754,000 barrels to 501.96 million barrels, compared to expectations for a 3.6 million barrel build.</p>
<p>Overnight, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries slashed its outlook for global oil-demand growth, saying the multi-year low prices were hurting nations like Russia and Brazil, while consumer demand remained weak.</p>
<p>West Texas Intermediate declined 1.75% to settle at $27.45 a barrel, while Brent, the international benchmark, gained 1.72% to $30.84.</p>
<p>Prices were limited by a lack of commitment from OPEC to seriously consider a production cut. That would help prices find more stability and help alleviate the global supply glut.</p>
<p>“Oil continues to keep its head just above the $30 a barrel level, but without an OPEC resolution and no real change in the supply and demand balance, it only looks a matter of time before gravity kicks in again,” IG market analyst Alastair McCaig said in a note.</p>
<p>Traders on Wednesday also kept an eye on fourth-quarter earnings season with several key reports after the bell including Cisco (NYSE:CISCO), Tesla (NYSE:TSLA), Whole Foods (NYSE:WFM), and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR). All eyes will be particularly focused on the social-media giant and its growth numbers have been less than stellar and users are worried about changes coming to the platform. On Tuesday, the company’s shares hit a new all-time low of $14.60.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Broader Averages Extend Three-Day Losing Streak to Four | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/10/broader-averages-extend-three-day-losing-streak-to-four.html | 2016-02-10 | 0 |
<p>The White House is expected to send the Pentagon a memo on how to implement a ban on transgender troops within the next few days, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-sets-rules-for-military-transgender-ban-1503534757?mod=mktw" type="external">the Wall Street Journal reported Opens a New Window.</a> late Wednesday. Officials told the Journal that the White House will order an end to new transgender recruits, a spending freeze on medical treatment for transgender troops currently serving, and will give Defense Secretary James Mattis the authority to consider a service member's ability to deploy when deciding whether to remove them from military service. Mattis will reportedly have six months to figure out how to implement the plan. President Donald Trump first announced the ban in a series of tweets on July 26, taking the Pentagon by surprise and drawing sharp criticism from Democrats and LGBT activists.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | White House To Detail Ban On Transgender Troops, Give Mattis 6 Months To Implement: Report | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/23/white-house-to-detail-ban-on-transgender-troops-give-mattis-6-months-to.html | 2017-08-23 | 0 |
<p>Aug. 16 (UPI) — A Japanese bar is attracting attention from tourists due to the fame of its most popular waiters — macaque monkeys.</p>
<p>A video filmed earlier in the summer at the Kayabuki bar in Utsunomiya shows the monkey, a 17-year-old macaque named Fuku-chan, fetching beverages and napkins for customers.</p>
<p>Kaoru Otsuka said his first pet monkey, Yacchan, was given to him by an acquaintance several years ago. He said he brought Yacchan into work with him and he realized the primate had untapped potential one day when he handed Yacchan a napkin and he carried it out to some customers.</p>
<p>Otsuka said Fuku-chan started emulating Yacchan at a young age and he soon had two monkey waiters.</p>
<p>The bar owner now has several baby monkeys that pose for photos with guests, but aren’t yet trained in the fine art of serving.</p>
<p>“They are closer than my family,” Otsuka said. “I hold them all day and sleep with them.”</p>
<p>“Once I started taking care of them, I couldn’t let go. They are just too cute,” he said.</p> | Japanese bar employs monkeys as waiters | false | https://newsline.com/japanese-bar-employs-monkeys-as-waiters/ | 2017-08-16 | 1 |
<p>At first they were welcomed.</p>
<p>That didn't last.</p>
<p>As President Barack Obama again seeks to close the Guantánamo&#160;Bay Detention Facility, it's worth asking: What's happened to the former detainees who are now living elsewhere?</p>
<p>The story in the South American nation of Uruguay is instructive — and&#160;not pretty.</p>
<p>Six former Guantánamo&#160;detainees were resettled there&#160;in 2014, with hopes of a smooth&#160;transition to a new language and&#160;new way of life.</p>
<p>I covered the ex-detainees'&#160;first weeks in Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital. Arriving in the middle of the night, still shackled and wearing their Guantanamo jumpsuits, they&#160;were thrust into both the media spotlight and a country that didn’t seem at all prepared for them.</p>
<p>The men had been invited by the genial&#160;then-President Jose “Pepe” Mujica, himself a former political prisoner for 14 years, who had transformed Uruguay into South America’s most progressive state during his years in office.</p>
<p>Mujica&#160;welcomed them with open arms. He&#160;had made clear that the acceptance of the detainees from Guantanamo was more about personal morality than currying favor with the United States.&#160;His passionate advocacy for the accused terrorists (none of the men were ever charged with a crime) helped shift public opinion in Uruguay in favor of the six men.</p>
<p>That soon changed.</p>
<p>A few weeks after the detainees arrived, Mujica met with them and announced to the media that these were not the strong, hard-working peasants he had envisaged. Rather, he said, he could tell by the men’s hands that they were soft and middle-class, and that they seemed to be reluctant to work. Little did it matter than the men had just spent 12 years in captivity, had been tortured&#160;and had spent months on hunger strike.</p>
<p>Quickly, public opinion soured, and worsened after the six men&#160;spent weeks protesting in tents in front of the US Embassy. Then, two of the men married local women who had converted to Islam. Within a year, both men had been arrested and charged with domestic violence. Both marriages have now failed.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://theislamicmonthly.com/guantanamo-detainees-in-a-progressives-paradise/" type="external">excellent story</a> in Islamic Monthly, journalist Taylor Barnes interviews the men and tracks their progress in Uruguay. It’s a sad tale of men being essentially dumped in a strange and unfamiliar corner of South America.</p>
<p>“America claims it’s fighting terrorism, but it’s producing terrorism with its policy,” one of the former detainees, Abu Wa’el Jihad Ahmed Mustafa Dhiab, told Barnes. “It wronged people for 13 years in the prison of Guantánamo for no reason and in the end, it just abandons them just like one would throw away bones after eating the meat.”</p> | What happened after Guantanamo for these ex-detainees? It wasn't pretty. | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-02-24/what-happened-after-guantanamo-these-ex-detainees-it-wasnt-pretty | 2016-02-24 | 3 |
<p>INOLA, Okla. (AP) - Authorities in Rogers County say a 31-year-old man suffered extensive burns after he allegedly set fire to his estranged wife's house.</p>
<p>Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton says the incident occurred about 2 p.m. Saturday after the woman returned home and found a man under her porch with a machete. Sgt. Logan Eller says the couple is in the process of getting a divorce and she had a protective order against the man. The names of the man and woman were not made public.</p>
<p>Deputies who were called to the scene instructed the man to leave the home and smoke began billowing from inside the house. Walton says authorities believe the man started the fire.</p>
<p>Walton says deputies managed to rescue the man, who was hospitalized with burns and smoke inhalation.</p>
<p>INOLA, Okla. (AP) - Authorities in Rogers County say a 31-year-old man suffered extensive burns after he allegedly set fire to his estranged wife's house.</p>
<p>Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton says the incident occurred about 2 p.m. Saturday after the woman returned home and found a man under her porch with a machete. Sgt. Logan Eller says the couple is in the process of getting a divorce and she had a protective order against the man. The names of the man and woman were not made public.</p>
<p>Deputies who were called to the scene instructed the man to leave the home and smoke began billowing from inside the house. Walton says authorities believe the man started the fire.</p>
<p>Walton says deputies managed to rescue the man, who was hospitalized with burns and smoke inhalation.</p> | Oklahoma man burned in fire set at estranged wife's house | false | https://apnews.com/cd6ed65cfb2747aabb98e3f287cf7249 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p><a href="https://www.imv-report.org/" type="external">A new study</a> from the&#160;Institute for&#160;Social&#160;Policy and Understanding, or ISPU,&#160;asserts that perpetrators of violent crimes are sentenced more harshly when they are perceived to be Muslim. The report also asserts that major American media outlets focus a disproportionate amount of attention on Muslims accused of plotting violence.</p>
<p>“The findings of this report build and expand on existing research, and [provide] quantitative backing to many people’s instinctual perceptions of what has been going on in the media and in our legal system,” Kumar Rao, a fellow at ISPU and a co-author of the report, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/04/05/muslims-violence-media-attention-prosecution/" type="external">told The Intercept</a>. “As it relates to acts of ideological violence, there is, frankly, a double standard in how perpetrators are described in the media, as well as how they are treated in the courts.”</p>
<p>The report states:</p>
<p>On average, prosecutors sought three times the sentence length for Muslim perpetrators as for perpetrators not identified as Muslim for similar plots of attempted ideologically driven violence (230 months vs. 76 months). Additionally, Muslim perpetrators received four times the average sentence as their non-Muslim counterparts for attempted plots of similar conduct (211 vs. 53).</p>
<p />
<p>Moreover, undercover law enforcement or an informant provided the means of the crime (such as a firearm or inert bomb) in a majority (two-thirds) of convictions in plots involving a perceived Muslim perpetrator, but in a small fraction (two out of twelve) of those involving a non-Muslim perpetrator.</p>
<p>In terms of print media coverage, Muslim-perceived perpetrators received twice the absolute quantity of media coverage as their non-Muslim counterparts in the cases of violent completed acts. For “foiled” plots, they received seven and half times the media coverage as their counterparts.</p>
<p>Differences also extended to media references to a perceived Muslim perpetrator’s religion as compared to ideologies of perceived non-Muslims, mentions of specific phrases such as “terrorist” or “terrorism,” and coverage of the ultimate prison sentences.</p>
<p>“What was really interesting is that in the majority of cases involving people perceived to be Muslim, the perpetrators were not acquiring weapons on their own, but were instead being provided with them by government agents—yet they were being charged more heavily,” said Carey Shenkman, a Truthdig contributor, fellow at ISPU, and co-author of the report. “Meanwhile, in cases involving non-Muslim perpetrators, you very often had people actually making explosives and stockpiling firearms. They didn’t need the FBI to go over and hand them weapons, because they already had them.”</p>
<p>Murtaza Hussein at The Intercept adds:</p>
<p>This disparity in media and legal attention to cases of ideologically motivated violence has grown more troubling with the increase of violence carried out by sympathizers of the “alt-right” movement over the past several years. More than 100 people have been killed or wounded in the U.S. since 2014 by people believed to have been supporters of the “alt-right,” according to a February report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. … Despite these acts of violence, however, the Department of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump has been working to strip funding from groups that work to mitigate far-right violence, while redirecting counter-extremism programming to focus exclusively on Muslim terrorism.</p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-extremists-program-exclusiv/exclusive-trump-to-focus-counter-extremism-program-solely-on-islam-sources-idUSKBN15G5VO" type="external">Reuters reported</a> in February 2017 that the Trump administration wanted to rename the program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” which focused on all violent ideologies, to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism.”</p>
<p>Dalia Mogahed, director of research at ISPU, told The Intercept, “At heart, there is a question here of what we as a society deem threatening, and what we as a society are afraid of. What you often find is that when a crime is committed by a member of the dominant, privileged group in any society, it’s excused as an aberration, while crimes committed by members of an out-group are pathologized toward that group as a whole. This implicit bias finds its way into all our institutions, including courtrooms and the media.”</p> | Muslims Accused of Violent Crimes Get More Media Attention, Harsher Sentences | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/muslims-accused-of-violent-crimes-get-more-media-attention-harsher-sentences/ | 2018-04-07 | 4 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Oprah Winfrey will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at January's Golden Globes.</p>
<p>Morgan Freeman made the announcement for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association during its broadcast of the "Golden Globe 75th Anniversary Special" Wednesday on NBC.</p>
<p>HFPA President Meher Tatna called Winfrey "one of the most respected and admired figures today" and "one of the most influential women of our time" in a statement Wednesday.</p>
<p>The DeMille Award is given annually to an "individual who has made an incredible impact on the world of entertainment." Past recipients include Freeman, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Barbra Streisand, Sidney Poitier and Lucille Ball.</p>
<p>Winfrey will receive the award during the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony on Jan. 7, 2018.</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Oprah Winfrey will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at January's Golden Globes.</p>
<p>Morgan Freeman made the announcement for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association during its broadcast of the "Golden Globe 75th Anniversary Special" Wednesday on NBC.</p>
<p>HFPA President Meher Tatna called Winfrey "one of the most respected and admired figures today" and "one of the most influential women of our time" in a statement Wednesday.</p>
<p>The DeMille Award is given annually to an "individual who has made an incredible impact on the world of entertainment." Past recipients include Freeman, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Barbra Streisand, Sidney Poitier and Lucille Ball.</p>
<p>Winfrey will receive the award during the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony on Jan. 7, 2018.</p> | Oprah Winfrey to receive Cecil B. DeMille Award at Globes | false | https://apnews.com/amp/766e8f38d7e842d7a78818f222b0eb45 | 2017-12-14 | 2 |
<p>On the left, to focus intently on economic growth has always carried a small taint of suspicion. Conservatives and libertarians pushed “growth, growth, growth” for so long that for progressives, who worried more about distribution and equality, the need for growth itself was questioned. If my ideological enemy is so in favor of it, it can’t be that great.</p>
<p>But the economic travails of the last decade ended most of those worries. The cold reality of stagnating wages, half-full factories, all the rest, made the idea of a “steady-state economy,” for instance, look naive. Towns, jobs, and economies need to be rebuilt on surer footing. So if we do want robust growth after all, what’s been preventing it?</p>
<p>With the support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, we gathered some of the best thinkers on topics ranging from the usual-but-vital, like health care and immigration, to less-trodden policy areas, like antitrust, financial technology, and labor mobility. Together, their proposals offer a way not only to get back to real growth, but to do so while honoring—indeed advancing—those goals of equality and sustainability.</p> | The Hidden Keys to Growth New Tools to Promote Competition Getting People Where the Jobs Are The Case for More Immigration Prosperity By Design Time to Fight Health-Care Monopolization The Coming “FinTech” Revolution Competitive Egalitarianism: How to Structure Markets | true | http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/42/the-hidden-keys-to-growth/ | 2016-09-22 | 4 |
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<p>A 6-year-old quarter horse in Magdalena was euthanized by its owner last month after the mare became ill in mid-August with what is believed to be equine West Nile Virus, <a href="http://www.dchieftain.com/dc/index.php/news/2047-magdalena-horse-clinically-diagnosed-with-west-nile-virus.html" type="external">El Defensor Chieftain</a> reported.</p>
<p>The horse had to be put down on Aug. 21, after Dr. Marvin Bowman, a Belen veterinarian, clinically diagnosed the mare with West Nile virus, El Defensor Chieftain said.</p>
<p>“There’s one symptom that’s very, very diagnostic (of West Nile virus),” Bowman told the paper in a phone interview. “They lose control of their rear quarters.”</p>
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<p>Bowman, who said he didn’t conduct any lab tests, said the mare couldn’t even get up by herself, El Defensor Chieftain said.</p>
<p>“It’s a bad disease,” Bowman told the paper. “I’ve seen it and been through it, but this is the first case I’ve seen in quite a while.”</p>
<p>State Public Health Veterinarian Paul Ettestad told El Defensor Chieftain that this is the time of year for West Nile virus, and that many veterinarians have seen the disease before but don’t confirm it with a lab test.</p>
<p>“There’s certain criteria we need to count it as a case,” said Ettestad, who said the case from Magdalena should be considered unconfirmed but clinically diagnosed, the paper reported.</p>
<p>“People should realize the potential is there,” Ettestad told the paper. “There are probably mosquitoes (that are) positive with West Nile virus all over the state.”</p>
<p>Two cases of human West Nile virus were reported late last month — a 67-year-old woman from San Juan County, who was hospitalized with neurological symptoms, the most severe clinical form of the virus, and a 47-year-old woman from Dona Ana County who tested positive for West Nile when she went to donate blood, according to a New Mexico Department of Health news release.</p>
<p>There were eight confirmed cases of equine West Nile virus in New Mexico from Aug. 18 to Nov. 4 in 2009, with cases reported in Chaves, Colfax, Curry, Grant, Lincoln, Mora, Quay and Roosevelt counties, according to El Defensor Chieftain.</p>
<p>In 2008, there were three confirmed cases of equine West Nile virus in Chaves, McKinley and Roosevelt counties, and in 2007 there were 16 confirmed cases, including one reported in Socorro County, the paper reported.</p>
<p>For more information on the virus, go to the <a href="http://www.nmhealth.org/ERD/HealthData/westnile.shtml" type="external">New Mexico Department of Health website</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | 6:30am — West Nile May Have Killed Magdalena Mare | false | https://abqjournal.com/9202/630am-west-nile-may-have-killed-magdalena-mare.html | 2 |
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<p>Just a few years ago, effective coordination and collaboration between a group of people required physical proximity, or regular e-mails, phone calls and meetings. Nowadays, however, it’s possible to work on a single project with people from all over the world without ever meeting or speaking to them. Indeed, the emergence of online collaboration tools has revolutionized the way individuals and business work together. Best of all, most online collaboration tools are simple, easy to use and inexpensive. If you haven’t already begun taking advantage of these powerful tools, here are four great ways to start.</p>
<p>Basecamp</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="http://basecamphq.com/" type="external">Basecamp Opens a New Window.</a>is an extremely powerful and useful online project collaboration system designed for entrepreneurs, small businesses, freelancers and business groups. The most used online project management application in the world, the company claims over 4 million users have used the program to collaborate all manner of projects. The application allows you to upload, store, edit and share documents and files online. The interface also provides users with a convenient overview of the project schedule, was well as an account of who is working on what. To-do lists and time tracking ensure that everything is kept in order and on-schedule, while an in-built messaging system allows for effective communication between team members.</p>
<p>Skype</p>
<p>Online video conferences have become widespread in the modern professional world, helping to cut down dramatically on travel costs and expensive long distance phone calls. Although scores of online video chat services have emerged over the past few years, <a href="http://www.skype.com/" type="external">Skype Opens a New Window.</a>remains the most widely used and convenient. Apart from the standard face-to-face video conference chat, Skype’s Screen Sharing feature allows users to show others whatever is on their screen, which is perfect for presenting slideshows or making visual presentations. A convenient app for portable devices means that Skype can be easily accessed on the go.</p>
<p>Trello</p>
<p>Although Basecamp reigns supreme in the online project management systems market, other contenders have emerged that cater to more specific project types. One such tool is <a href="https://trello.com/" type="external">Trello Opens a New Window.</a>– a simple and free online collaboration tool perfect for individual or smaller group projects. Trello’s friendly interface allows users to create a project by adding items and lists, and assigning people to specific tasks. The online tool then provides real time updates on all actions and progress to members of the project team.</p>
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<p>Sync.in</p>
<p><a href="http://sync.in/" type="external">Sync.in Opens a New Window.</a> is online collaboration in its simplest form. This web-based word processor enables users to view and co-edit the same notes and documents in real time from anywhere in the world. Numerous users can collectively plan projects, brainstorm and compose documents, while color coded text allows people to easily identify who made which edits. A handy time-slider also allows users to recount earlier versions and edits of the document and edit any changes made, while a chat box enables communication between the various collaborators. Sync.in is incredibly easy to use, the basic service is free, and it requires no logging in or signing up.</p> | The Four Best Web Collaboration Tools | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/02/06/four-best-web-collaboration-tools.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>The Arizona State Retirement System board has only four of nine seats filled. Because it lacks a quorum for meetings, it cannot formally sign off on major investment changes if managers believe they are warranted or other legally-required items like overseeing the system’s director or signing off on audits and operating budgets.</p>
<p>Board member Dennis Hoffman, an Arizona State University business school professor on the panel since 2010, said the vacancies mean the pension fund is unable to oversee strategic decisions.</p>
<p>“We did have a discussion at the last meeting and I went on record, I said it was imprudent, arguably irresponsible, that we’re left like this not being able to carefully vet investment decisions around $35 billion,” Hoffman said. “I don’t want to unsettle the teachers, I don’t want to send the message that in my opinion the agency is running (amok) or whatever.”</p>
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<p>Both Hoffman and former board member Kevin McCarthy said fund director Paul Matson is a trusted and highly capable fund manager. But an operating board is needed to oversee the direction of the fund. McCarthy was reappointed by Ducey in 2015 but left in November because he was never confirmed by the Senate.</p>
<p>Matson said in an interview Monday that much of the day-to-day operation of the fund is already delegated to him, and said he could even make changes to allocation goals requiring board approval if a consensus of the sitting members agreed. He said such a decision requiring board approval came up last month.</p>
<p>“A situation like that has occurred and we acted,” Matson said. “The four board members that were there listened to us, they individually said yes they believed that is prudent. I then walked out of that meeting and advised my staff to change the strategic asset allocation.”</p>
<p>Two new members were appointed in 2015, but never confirmed by the Senate and by law left after a year. McCarthy and two others were reappointed but also were not confirmed, and left by November. Ducey has not acted to replace them, although spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said Monday that appointments are likely soon.</p>
<p>The board oversees investments that fund pensions for nearly 575,000 current and former state and local employees, including teachers and university workers. It sets investment policy and allocation goals, approves audits and oversees Matson.</p>
<p>Police, corrections officers and elected officials have a separate plan.</p>
<p>Hoffman, McCarthy and Matson agreed that a long-term lack of a board authority is not good.</p>
<p>“Yeah, it becomes problematic,” said McCarthy, who noted he’s gotten no answers for the cause of the delay from the governor’s office. “I think everybody’s interested in what’s driving the delay.”</p>
<p>Scarpinato could not explain why the board was allowed to drop to four, but said the governor is not intentionally leaving the board short-handed.</p>
<p>“The governor takes the appointments to this board very, very seriously,” Scarpinato said. “Especially with his background as state treasurer, he very much believes that having the right people in place there is critical.”</p>
<p>Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, said Ducey has been speeding through other appointees, especially judges and members of judicial appointment panels, “because I guess his top priority is to partisanize the judicial process.</p>
<p>“You’d think he would use that same amount of speed to try to take care of the nest eggs of Arizona employees,” Farley said.</p> | Vacancies limit $34 billion retirement system board | false | https://abqjournal.com/968458/vacancies-limit-34-billion-retirement-system-board.html | 2 |
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<p>LAS CRUCES – As federal immigration authorities launched raids in at least half a dozen states this past week, the nation’s only Latina governor said enforcement policies should distinguish between the “various situations” of people living in the country illegally.</p>
<p>“I think the rhetoric isn’t helpful,” Republican Gov. Susana Martinez told the Journal Saturday in Las Cruces. “I have lived literally on the border for 50 years. It is a very different view from even northern New Mexico, much less from Washington, D.C., on what actually happens on that border.”</p>
<p>Underscoring that she has long opposed efforts to make New Mexico a “sanctuary” for undocumented immigrants, Martinez likewise warned against allowing harsh rhetoric to get ahead of policymaking that should treat “multiple problems” in immigration policy with “multiple answers.”</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez</p>
<p>“I would love to see our leadership come up with a solution,” she said. “It’s not just one answer for all problems. Definitely, those that commit crimes in this country do not belong in this country. They need to be removed. Someone who doesn’t have a home to go to (outside this country), who has worked and paid their taxes, and been involved in the community and has an American child … what is the solution for that? How different is that from someone who is dealing drugs? There could be various answers to the various situations.”</p>
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<p>The governor has often taken a more moderate tone on immigration at the national versus state level; she faced criticism from immigrants rights groups for her push to repeal the 2003 state driver’s licenses law.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s Jan. 25 executive order authorizing construction of a border “wall” also directed federal departments and agencies “to prevent further illegal immigration into the United States, and to repatriate illegal aliens swiftly, consistently and humanely.” The order did not restrict immigration enforcement to unauthorized immigrants convicted of violent crimes – as had been the policy for the past few years under the Obama administration.</p>
<p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounded up hundreds of unauthorized immigrants last week during enforcement operations in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, New York and elsewhere. There was no large-scale enforcement action in New Mexico last week.</p>
<p>In a statement to the Journal, ICE said that it “regularly conducts targeted enforcement operations.” An ICE spokesman told the Associated Press that the latest “enforcement surge” was in the planning phase before the current administration issued the executive order. But immigrant advocates say the enforcement actions were harsher than in the past.</p>
<p>“The president’s No. 1 priority is to keep Americans safe, to have a secure border to keep out people who want to cause us harm,” Martinez said. “I don’t think anybody disagrees with a secure border. Now, what that looks like, I think that’s still in discussion.”</p>
<p>“Does part of it become a wall?” she asked. “Does part of it become more boots on the ground? Does part of it become – because of the terrain – technology that you use because you can’t have boots on the ground necessarily right there?”</p>
<p>Martinez, a former state prosecutor, said that convicted criminals who are in the country illegally should be deported.</p>
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<p>But split a mother from her son, just because she is undocumented?</p>
<p>“I came out of a movie theater about two weeks ago,” Martinez said. “A little boy had been waiting for me on a bench. He was about 9 years old. And he comes up to me … and says, ‘Are you Gov. Martinez?’ I kneeled down with him. He says, ‘Can I ask you a question?’ I said of course. ‘I want to know if the president is going to send my mother back to Mexico.'”</p>
<p>Martinez said she asked him why he was worried.</p>
<p>“Because she came here when she was five and she doesn’t have a home in Mexico,” the boy told Martinez.</p>
<p>She said, “I said, ‘Look, why don’t you let us grownups worry about things like that? … She has been here a very, very long time and hopefully the grownups are going to come up with ideas that are going to make sure we’re never splitting up your mom from you.'”</p>
<p>Martinez said her message to the Trump administration would be to include governors, mayors, law enforcement, Border Patrol agents and people who live on the border, including border ranchers, in making border-related policies – “people who have actually been there for a period of time that have a whole lot of input, versus seeing this as a global picture (where) you don’t get the real flavor of what it’s like to live there.”</p>
<p>Martinez spoke to the Journal after an event at New Mexico State University that gave about 500 at-risk middle schoolers a taste of college life. The governor encouraged them to dream big and never let anyone tell them they can’t be what they want to be. At 17, Martinez told them, she dreamed of being president of the United States.</p>
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<p /> | Martinez on immigration: ‘The rhetoric isn’t helpful’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/948500/martine-zon-immigration-the-rhetoric-isnt-helpful.html | 2017-02-12 | 2 |
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<p>In fact, DNA testing on hundreds of bottles of store-brand herbal supplements sold as treatments for everything from memory loss to prostate trouble found that four out of five contained none of the herbs on the label. Instead, they were packed with cheap fillers such as wheat, rice, beans or houseplants.</p>
<p>Based on the testing commissioned by his office, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Tuesday he has sent letters to the four major store chains involved — GNC, Target, Walmart and Walgreens — demanding that they immediately stop selling adulterated or mislabeled dietary supplements.</p>
<p>Schneiderman said the supplements pose serious risks. People who have allergies or are taking certain medications can suffer dangerous reactions from herbal concoctions that contain substances not listed on the label, he said.</p>
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<p>“This investigation makes one thing abundantly clear: The old adage ‘buyer beware’ may be especially true for consumers of herbal supplements,” the attorney general said.</p>
<p>The herbal supplement industry criticized the method used to analyze the samples and raised questions about the reliability of the findings.</p>
<p>Walmart’s vice president of Health &amp; Wellness, Carmen Bauza, said testing by Walmart suppliers hasn’t revealed any issues with the relevant products, but the company will comply with the attorney general’s request to stop selling them in New York.</p>
<p>“We take this matter very seriously and will be conducting side-by-side analysis because we are 100 percent committed to providing our customers safe products,” Bauza said.</p>
<p>Walgreen pledged to cooperate with the attorney general, who asked the store chains for detailed information on production and quality control.</p>
<p>“We take these issues very seriously and as a precautionary measure, we are in the process of removing these products from our shelves as we review this matter further,” Walgreen spokesman James Graham said.</p>
<p>GNC said it, too, will cooperate, but spokeswoman Laura Brophy said: “We stand by the quality, purity and potency of all ingredients listed on the labels of our private-label products.”</p>
<p>Target said it can’t comment without reviewing the full report.</p>
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<p>Nutritionist David Schardt of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the tests show that the supplement industry is in urgent need of reform, and until that happens, consumers should stop wasting their money.</p>
<p>A 2013 Canadian government study estimated there are 65,000 dietary supplements on the market, consumed by more than 150 million Americans. The nonprofit American Botanical Council estimated 2013 sales of herbal supplements in the U.S. at $6 billion.</p>
<p>The Food and Drug Administration requires companies to verify their products are safe and properly labeled. But supplements are exempt from the FDA’s strict approval process for prescription drugs.</p>
<p>Schneiderman said tests found no echinacea or any other plant material in bottles of Walmart’s Spring Valley Echinacea. He said no ginseng was found in 20 tests of GNC’s Herbal Plus Ginseng, which is taken to boost energy.</p>
<p>Other supplements tested included garlic, which is said to boost immunity and prevent heart disease; ginkgo biloba, often touted as a memory-booster; and saw palmetto, promoted as a prostate treatment.</p>
<p>DNA tests found such substances as rice, beans, pine, citrus, asparagus, primrose, wheat, houseplant, wild carrot and unidentified non-plant material — none of which were mentioned on the label.</p>
<p>The store chain with the poorest showing was Walmart, where only 4 percent of the products tested showed DNA from the plants listed on the labels.</p>
<p>The investigation looked at six herbal supplements sold at stores across the state. Testing was performed by an expert in DNA technology, James Schulte II of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.</p>
<p>The DNA tests were done on three to four samples of each supplement purchased. Each sample was tested five times. Overall, 390 tests involving 78 samples were conducted.</p>
<p>Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a dietary supplement trade group, criticized the testing procedure and accused Schneiderman of engaging in a “self-serving publicity stunt under the guise of protecting public health.”</p>
<p>“Processing during manufacturing of botanical supplements can remove or damage DNA,” Mister said. As a result, he said, DNA analysis “may be the wrong test for these kinds of products.”</p>
<p>Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, said identification of an herb through DNA testing must be confirmed through other means, such as chromatography or microscopy.</p>
<p>But Arthur Grollman, a physician and pharmacology professor at Stony Brook University, called the study “a well-controlled, scientifically based documentation of the outrageous degree of adulteration in the herbal supplement industry.”</p> | Study: Many herbal supplements aren’t what the label says | false | https://abqjournal.com/535734/ny-attorney-general-targets-popular-herbal-supplements.html | 2 |
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<p>The president is worried.</p>
<p>He is prone to worry, seeing as he is addicted to power and prioritizes his public image above everything else. If even the slightest threat arises to Trump's ego, he flips.</p>
<p>Seriously though, this Monday morning on Twitter he's paranoid out of his mind.</p>
<p>He's now tweeted a message suggesting that the Hillary Clinton campaign ought to be investigated for supposed ties to Russia.</p>
<p>He wrote, "What about all of the contact with the Clinton campaign and the Russians? Also, is it true that the DNC would not let the FBI in to look?"</p>
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<p>The allegations that the Clinton campaign was in contact with the Russians during the recently concluded election cycle were first raised in recent weeks by the Russian president's spokesman,&#160;Dmitry Peskov. These allegations remain unsubstantiated, and come after Russia has lied time and time again about its activities designed to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.</p>
<p>Even if it's still up in the air whether or not the Trump campaign was in direct collusion with the Russians, it's a documented fact that Russia worked on Donald Trump's behalf throughout 2015 and 2016, and again, Russia has lied about that.</p>
<p>Thus, what reason does anyone have to believe that the allegations about the Clinton campaign are true just because Russia says they are?</p>
<p>There's another thing, too. A number of individuals close to Trump, including his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and sitting Attorney General Jeff Sessions, have gone on record lying about their documented meetings with the Russian Ambassador to the United States.</p>
<p>Nobody in Clinton's inner circle has gone on record and lied before Congress about issues of their connections to Russia.</p>
<p>Thus, what reason do we have to believe that the Trump administration is not hiding something? Flynn and Sessions have both been exposed to have lied. Who else is lying?</p>
<p>Either Trump has surrounded himself with idiots or he's surrounded himself with guilty people.</p>
<p>Soon - pending, among other things, what's exposed at a Congressional hearing set for this Monday - we will find out the answer.</p>
<p>Featured Image via&#160; <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/655357468" type="external">Pete Marovich-Pool/Getty Images</a></p> | Trump Goes 'Full Crazy' & Announces Clinton/Russia Scandal During Bizarre Early AM Meltdown | true | http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/03/20/trump-goes-full-crazy-announces-clintonrussia-scandal-during-bizarre-early-am-meltdown/ | 2017-03-20 | 4 |
<p>Katy Grimes: Sitting in the Capitol lunchroom Wednesday after the big Senate education hearing, I overheard some interesting comments from the teachers union activists.</p>
<p>Wearing matching blue t-shirts that read, “CTA – We Are One,” it was evident that these weren’t your father’s teachers.</p>
<p>And they weren’t like any of the wonderful elementary and middle school teachers that I had.</p>
<p>The bad attitude, and sense of entitlement has been in abundance at the Capitol this week coming from the teachers.</p>
<p>One teacher, when joined by another carrying a lunch tray, said,&#160;“Save your receipts – they’ll reimburse.” I am assuming that the California Teachers Association or California Teachers Federation will be reimbursing the expenses of traveling teachers… judging by the many private buses outside of the Capitol, it’s an all-expenses paid trip.</p>
<p>“I’ve been eating good all week – figured I’d just eat here today,” replied&#160;the fellow teacher who joined her.&#160;(Wonderful grammar from a teacher)</p>
<p>As others filed in, introductions were skipped and instead one asked,&#160;“Where do you work at?” Another asked, “Where you at?” when discussing&#160;the schools and districts in which they work.&#160;(More good grammar – I hope they aren’t English teachers)</p>
<p>When looking for a place to sit, one teacher said,&#160;“It’s just like your classroom – just shove a few more in and you’ll make it work.”</p>
<p>The reply was, “If they increase our classes to 35 or 40, that will get to me — that will be it.”</p>
<p>This was just the lunchroom – I heard many conversations just like these in the elevators, in the hallways, and in the hearing rooms.</p>
<p>Is this what the teaching profession has become? If they are represented the way that every other union represents employees, the poorest performing teachers are protected and promoted, while those who excel, languish.</p>
<p>And before anyone becomes too worked up about my critique of the teachers, my parents were public school teachers – for more than 30 years. We were required to speak grammatically correct English in my home, and by my teachers when I was a child.</p>
<p>Never end a sentence with a preposition…</p>
<p>MAY 12, 2011</p> | Griping Teachers & Bad Grammar | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2011/05/12/complaining-teachers-and-bad-grammar/ | 2018-05-20 | 3 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) - Edmonton Oilers forward Patrick Maroon was suspended for two games without pay by the NHL on Wednesday for interference against Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty.</p>
<p>Maroon was assessed a match penalty for illegal check to the head in the second period of the Oilers' 5-0 home loss to the Kings on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>The suspension will cost Maroon $21,505. He has nine goals and 12 assists in 40 games this season.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) - Edmonton Oilers forward Patrick Maroon was suspended for two games without pay by the NHL on Wednesday for interference against Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty.</p>
<p>Maroon was assessed a match penalty for illegal check to the head in the second period of the Oilers' 5-0 home loss to the Kings on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>The suspension will cost Maroon $21,505. He has nine goals and 12 assists in 40 games this season.</p> | Oilers forward Patrick Maroon suspended for 2 games | false | https://apnews.com/amp/2b113c2660a94fb294c1b8506a969685 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>Apple Inc.'s stock is shedding 3.4% in active premarket trade Friday, as the U.K. vote to leave the European Union put global markets in disarray. Only about 2.3% of Apple's revenue over the past 12 months came from the U.K., but overall exposure to Europe is 15.4%, according data provided by FactSet's proprietary algorithm. The U.K.'s benchmark FTSE 100 Index was tumbling 4.6%, and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index was plunging 7%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Apple's Stock Drops In Wake Of Brexit Vote | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/24/apple-stock-drops-in-wake-brexit-vote.html | 2016-06-24 | 0 |
<p>&#160;It’s officially here <a href="http://www.glyphweb.com/esky/concepts/autumnalequinox.html" type="external">today</a>. Or it was as of 15:43 GMT (that’s 11:43 a.m., if you’re on the East Coast). While you were (we hope) enjoying the last weekend of summer, we here at FactCheck.org were still on the case. On Friday over at our main site, we wrote all about Barack Obama and John McCain’s <a href="" type="internal">dueling Spanish ads</a>. Turns out they can mislead in two different languages.</p>
<p>And if you were working late on Friday, you might also have seen our article on the Obama-Biden camp’s <a href="" type="internal">misleading Social Security ad</a>.</p>
<p>Saturday brought a case of déjà vu with yet another FactCheck.org article debunking yet another <a href="" type="internal">Obama-Biden false claim about Social Security</a>.</p>
<p>If you haven’t done so already, go check ‘em out. Meanwhile, we’re going to go daydream about the time when we can have our weekends back.</p> | Happy Fall! | false | https://factcheck.org/2008/09/happy-fall/ | 2008-09-22 | 2 |
<p>More than three years after being pulled out of line by Homeland Security at Nashville International Airport while waiting to board a flight to Germany and being told he was wanted for murder, former Southern Baptist minister Richard Shahan can have his passport back.</p>
<p>Richard Shahan</p>
<p>Court records filed April 17 indicate the Jefferson County circuit clerk must return the passport taken as a condition of bond after the former children’s and family minister at First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., was arrested on New Year’s Day 2014 in connection with the stabbing death of his wife, Karen, at the couple’s home the previous July, <a href="http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/04/richard_shahan_to_get_passport.html" type="external">according</a> to the Birmingham News.</p>
<p>Shahan’s murder charge was dismissed April 10 after the Alabama Attorney General’s Office acknowledged there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute. Because there is no statute of limitation for murder, the case could be reopened if new evidence emerges.</p>
<p>Shahan resigned his position at First Baptist Church effective Dec. 31, 2013, saying he had decided to work three years overseas as a missionary, primarily in Kazakhstan. He had previously been detained and questioned about his wife’s murder but not charged with the crime. Police said Shahan was trying to skip the country ahead of prosecution and planned never to return.</p>
<p>Previous story:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Case dropped against Baptist minister charged with murder</a></p> | Former minister to get passport back after murder charge dropped | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/former-minister-get-passport-back-murder-charge-dropped/ | 3 |
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<p>Following Dylann Roof's arrest the day after the June 17 shootings, search warrants were executed on Roof's "known residences and vehicles," said a court motion filed by prosecutor Scarlett Wilson.</p>
<p>"Evidence was collected containing what the state believes to be the handwritten notes, lists, etc. of the defendant" and the state believes the notes "contain relative evidence of guilt and motive," the motion said.</p>
<p>It added the samples are needed to confirm whether Roof wrote the notes.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson on Friday directed 21-year-old Roof to provide the samples. The order did not say specifically when the samples would be provided.</p>
<p>Roof faces nine counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder, stemming from the shootings during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Authorities have said the killings were a racially motived attack.</p>
<p>During a hearing last week, the judge set a trial date for next July.</p>
<p>Nicholson has issued a gag order preventing attorneys from discussing the case and temporarily blocking the release of police records and 911 calls, worried that such a release could affect Roof's ability to get a fair trial.</p>
<p>The judge said during last week's hearing he is especially concerned if there are graphic photos of victims at the church or if screams might be heard on 911 recordings.</p>
<p>While usually a request to block release of information or seek a gag order comes from the prosecution or the defense, Nicholson issued the order on his own.</p>
<p>He is giving the defense, the prosecution and attorneys representing victims' families until Wednesday to file requests to be heard on the matter. If there are such requests, he will schedule a hearing.</p>
<p>Attorneys representing The Associated Press and other media organizations are seeking the release of the documents.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Charleston City Council takes up a resolution on Tuesday to honor the victims for nine days beginning on the anniversary of the shootings next June. The resolution calls for planting nine live oak trees at different locations around the city in honor of the victims.</p> | Charleston shooting defendant to provide handwriting samples | false | https://abqjournal.com/615484/charleston-shooting-defendant-to-provide-handwriting-samples.html | 2 |
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<p>Can lesbians be charged with a hate crime for beating up a gay man?</p>
<p>Why not?&#160;Once we make motive an element of a crime, it goes both ways, and all ways.</p>
<p>So&#160;a Jew can be guilty of an anti-Jewish hate crime, a black of an anti-black hate crime, and in this case in Boston, three lesbians of an anti-homosexual hate crime for calling a gay man names while beating him up.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1406104" type="external">The Boston Herald</a>:</p>
<p>Three women identified by their lawyers as lesbians were arraigned yesterday on a hate crime charge for allegedly beating a gay man at the Forest Hills T station in an unusual case that experts say exposes the law’s flawed logic.</p>
<p>“My guess is that no sane jury would convict them under those circumstances, but what this really demonstrates is the idiocy of the hate-crime legislation,” said civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate. “If you beat someone up, you’re guilty of assault and battery of a human being. Period. The idea of trying to break down human beings into categories is doomed to failure.”</p>
<p>Prosecutors and the ACLU of Massachusetts said no matter the defendants’ sexual orientation, they can still face the crime of assault and battery with intent to intimidate, which carries up to a 10-year prison sentence, by using hateful language.</p>
<p>“Someone who is Jewish can be anti-Semitic,” said ACLU staff attorney Sarah Wunsch. “The mere fact that someone is a member of the same class doesn’t mean they could not be motivated by hatred for their very own group.”</p>
<p>This is the definition of <a href="http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleII/Chapter22c/Section32" type="external">hate crime</a> in Massachusetts:</p>
<p>“Hate crime”, any criminal act coupled with overt actions motivated by bigotry and bias including, but not limited to, a threatened, attempted or completed overt act motivated at least in part by racial, religious, ethnic, handicap, gender or sexual orientation prejudice, or which otherwise deprives another person of his constitutional rights by threats, intimidation or coercion, or which seek to interfere with or disrupt a person’s exercise of constitutional rights through harassment or intimidation….</p>
<p>By the wording, it would seem that if a lesbian&#160;were prejudiced against gay men, and committed a crime against the person while acting on that prejudice, that would qualify.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.harveysilverglate.com/" type="external">Silvergate</a> is an interesting guy.&#160; He’s a <a href="http://www.cato.org/people/harvey-silverglate" type="external">co-founder</a> of <a href="http://thefire.org/" type="external">F.I.R.E.</a> and an adjunct scholar at the CATO Institute.&#160; He’s also right about how easy it is to end up with absurd results when the criminal law&#160;gets tangled in motives as opposed to acts.</p>
<p>It’s not an easy position to take because opposing hate crimes law opens one up to the false allegation of being in favor of the acts constituting the crimes.</p>
<p>But given two identical crimes, why should one victim be deemed more worthy of greater protection not based on the status of the victim (e.g. a child) but based on the motive of the perp?</p> | Hate crimes laws go both ways | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/02/hate-crimes-laws-go-both-ways/ | 2012-02-25 | 0 |
<p>I periodically hear from skeptics that readership of blogs is small, so perhaps they don't deserve all the hype they get. But new research from Forrester (as <a href="http://www.techweb.com/wire/ebiz/171201403;jsessionid=3SK4GIJGAKW5CQSNDBCSKHSCJUMEKJVN" type="external">reported at TechWebNews</a>) shows that readership is climbing quickly. Ten percent of consumers read blogs once a week or more, according to Forrester, up from half that in 2004. And use of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29" type="external">RSS</a>, the research company claims, tripled in the same period, from 2 percent to 6 percent. Part of that growth, I suspect, is because mainstream news organizations are developing more blogs. That's been going on for some time, but now it's mainstream. At The Times in the U.K., for instance, a new blogger has just been added to a growing line-up: <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/peterstothard" type="external">Sir Peter Stothard</a>, the former editor of the paper and now editor of The Times Literary Supplement. He's described on The Times website: "A renowned observer of politics and scholarship and a critic who ranges from poetry to the theatre, from Downing Street to the rites of Greece and Rome, Sir Peter will be writing about books, book people, Blair and Bush -- plus general observations on the way we are now." As the "old guard" of journalism joins the blogging revolution, it's no wonder that blogging's numbers are rising. As for RSS, with non-geeky RSS reading solutions made available by the likes of <a href="http://my.yahoo.com/" type="external">My Yahoo!</a>, more and more people are utilizing the technology without realizing it.</p> | Blog, RSS Usage Growing Quickly | false | https://poynter.org/news/blog-rss-usage-growing-quickly | 2005-09-30 | 2 |
<p>A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Sunday at 1:41 p.m. local time, and experts estimate it may have killed as many as 1,000 people, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/turkish-seismology-institute-says-66-magnitude-earthquake-shakes-eastern-turkey/2011/10/23/gIQAHpf58L_story.html" type="external">The Associated Press</a> reports.</p>
<p>"We are estimating a death toll between 500 and 1,000," Mustafa Erdik, head of the Kandilli observatory, Turkey's main seismography center, said at a televised press conference. After the initial quake, there were at least seven aftershocks the U.S. Geological Survey and Turkish monitoring agencies said, according to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/23/world/europe/turkey-earthquake/?hpt=wo_c2" type="external">CNN</a>.</p>
<p>The epicenter of the quake was in the village of Tabanli in Van province, 10 miles from the provincial capital of Van, near Turkey's border with Iran, the AP reports. Tremors also shook buildings in northwestern Iran and the Armenian capital of Yerevan, 100 miles from Ercis.</p>
<p>About 7 hours after the quake, local news agencies were reporting at least 85 deaths, according to the AP. Dozens of buildings had collapsed, including at least 25 apartment buildings, a student dormitory and part of a hospital, in the town of Ercis on the north shore of Lake Van, CNN reports. At least 10 buildings had collapsed in Van, the AP reports. Some highways also caved in, according to CNN-Turk television.</p>
<p>The quake destroyed buildings in the district of Celebibag, near Ercis, too. "There are many people under the rubble," Veysel Keser, mayor of Celebibag, told local television station NTV, <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2097579,00.html" type="external">Time</a> Magazine reports. "People are in agony, we can hear their screams for help. We need urgent help."</p>
<p>According to CNN:</p>
<p>The last quake of that magnitude in Turkey - a 7.2 tremor in Duzce in 1999 - killed 894 people, the USGS reported. A 7.6 earthquake in Izmit, Turkey, killed more than 17,000 people the same year, according to the USGS.</p>
<p>Throughout the afternoon and into the night, rescuers were searching the rubble of the collapsed buildings, shouting to trapped survivors to make themselves known, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/23/us-turkey-quake-rescuers-idUSTRE79M2EB20111023" type="external">Reuters</a> reports.</p> | 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocks Turkey | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-23/72-magnitude-earthquake-rocks-turkey | 2011-10-23 | 3 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California Board of Education suspended the state's school accountability system on Wednesday for one year to give teachers and students time to adjust to new standardized tests aligned with Common Core standards.</p>
<p>The board voted at a meeting in Sacramento not to produce an Academic Performance Index for the 2014-15 school year. The index uses student results on statewide tests to rank schools and to identify those that need improvement.</p>
<p>School board President Michael Kirst said the state wants to make sure it is measuring student growth, not just baseline performance, on the new Smarter Balanced tests.</p>
<p>The Common Core benchmarks adopted by a majority of states around the nation have come under fire in recent years, largely from conservatives who decry them as a federal infringement on school policy. The standards were approved for implementation by individual states, though the U.S. Department of Education encouraged their adoption through initiatives like Race to the Top.</p>
<p>The new tests have angered some parents and teachers across the nation who say the exams distract from real learning, put added stress on students and staff members, and waste resources, especially in poor districts.</p>
<p>In California, by contrast, the Common Core standards have been largely embraced by district leaders, parents and teacher unions.</p>
<p>Kirst said even if the new test results aren't used on the state index, they will still be reported at the school, district and state level.</p>
<p>"They'll be held accountable to the public," Kirst said.</p>
<p>Several districts, including Los Angeles Unified, the nation's second-largest, requested that this year's assessments not be used for accountability purposes, arguing that students have not had enough time to practice on testing devices and that the new tests could not be reliably compared to the old pencil-and-paper standardized tests that California children took to measure growth.</p>
<p>"We need that next year to look at this issue of growth," said Edgar Zarzueta, LAUSD chief of external affairs.</p>
<p>The Smarter Balanced tests are required to be taken on a computer or tablet. At LAUSD, there were numerous problems when a practice test was administered, including the website crashing and slow connectivity.</p>
<p>Those issues appear to be resolved: The tests are now being administered in 94 Los Angeles schools, and officials said Tuesday there were no major issues.</p>
<p>The tests evaluate students in grades three through eight and 11 in Common Core-aligned English-language arts and math.</p>
<p>Suspending the state's evaluation system means scores in the first year won't be used to take any corrective actions. Numerous parent, teacher and education organizations commented in favor of the delay at Wednesday's meeting.</p>
<p>"We feel that accountability is very important to the public, but it's sensible to delay because the information is not all going to be clear and solid and current and we need the transition time," said Celia Jaffe, education commissioner of the California State PTA.</p>
<p>The decision to suspend California's school accountability system is also part of a larger effort to develop a new framework using multiple measures to evaluate school performance, rather than a single number tied to a test.</p>
<p>The board voted in favor of moving forward on a Department of Education recommendation to develop a new framework that would replace the one suspended this year.</p>
<p>"I think it reflects the inherent need to take a pause ... as we look at the best way to evaluate a school," board member Kenton Shimozaki said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Christine Armario on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cearmario</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California Board of Education suspended the state's school accountability system on Wednesday for one year to give teachers and students time to adjust to new standardized tests aligned with Common Core standards.</p>
<p>The board voted at a meeting in Sacramento not to produce an Academic Performance Index for the 2014-15 school year. The index uses student results on statewide tests to rank schools and to identify those that need improvement.</p>
<p>School board President Michael Kirst said the state wants to make sure it is measuring student growth, not just baseline performance, on the new Smarter Balanced tests.</p>
<p>The Common Core benchmarks adopted by a majority of states around the nation have come under fire in recent years, largely from conservatives who decry them as a federal infringement on school policy. The standards were approved for implementation by individual states, though the U.S. Department of Education encouraged their adoption through initiatives like Race to the Top.</p>
<p>The new tests have angered some parents and teachers across the nation who say the exams distract from real learning, put added stress on students and staff members, and waste resources, especially in poor districts.</p>
<p>In California, by contrast, the Common Core standards have been largely embraced by district leaders, parents and teacher unions.</p>
<p>Kirst said even if the new test results aren't used on the state index, they will still be reported at the school, district and state level.</p>
<p>"They'll be held accountable to the public," Kirst said.</p>
<p>Several districts, including Los Angeles Unified, the nation's second-largest, requested that this year's assessments not be used for accountability purposes, arguing that students have not had enough time to practice on testing devices and that the new tests could not be reliably compared to the old pencil-and-paper standardized tests that California children took to measure growth.</p>
<p>"We need that next year to look at this issue of growth," said Edgar Zarzueta, LAUSD chief of external affairs.</p>
<p>The Smarter Balanced tests are required to be taken on a computer or tablet. At LAUSD, there were numerous problems when a practice test was administered, including the website crashing and slow connectivity.</p>
<p>Those issues appear to be resolved: The tests are now being administered in 94 Los Angeles schools, and officials said Tuesday there were no major issues.</p>
<p>The tests evaluate students in grades three through eight and 11 in Common Core-aligned English-language arts and math.</p>
<p>Suspending the state's evaluation system means scores in the first year won't be used to take any corrective actions. Numerous parent, teacher and education organizations commented in favor of the delay at Wednesday's meeting.</p>
<p>"We feel that accountability is very important to the public, but it's sensible to delay because the information is not all going to be clear and solid and current and we need the transition time," said Celia Jaffe, education commissioner of the California State PTA.</p>
<p>The decision to suspend California's school accountability system is also part of a larger effort to develop a new framework using multiple measures to evaluate school performance, rather than a single number tied to a test.</p>
<p>The board voted in favor of moving forward on a Department of Education recommendation to develop a new framework that would replace the one suspended this year.</p>
<p>"I think it reflects the inherent need to take a pause ... as we look at the best way to evaluate a school," board member Kenton Shimozaki said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Christine Armario on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cearmario</p> | State board suspends school accountability on Common Core | false | https://apnews.com/amp/52df77b144364d5ea43a499ccfcf2aea | 2015-03-12 | 2 |
<p>Oil prices edged down Wednesday morning, partly in response to rising U.S. product inventories.</p>
<p>Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down 0.62% at $62.47 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading down 0.71% at $57.21 a barrel.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, released data showing a 9.2 million-barrel rise in gasoline stocks and a 4.3 million-barrel increase in distillate inventories for the week ended Dec. 1, even as crude stocks came down by 5.5 million barrels.</p>
<p>"We were overdue a little bit of profit-taking and the build up in gasoline inventories was the perfect excuse to do just that," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at brokerage CMC Markets.</p>
<p>After last week's highly-anticipated meeting between Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, Mr. Hewson said, crude prices are "probably going to drift a little bit lower" as the market refocuses on the "age-old debate about supply and demand."</p>
<p>OPEC and 10 major producers outside the cartel, including Russia, agreed Thursday to extend a deal to hold down crude output by nearly 2% through the end of next year. An extension was largely priced in by the market and prices have reacted tepidly to the official decision.</p>
<p>The accord was first struck a year ago with the aim of draining the global oil glut and boosting prices. Initially the efforts had little impact, but prices began to rise in the second half of the year amid higher compliance with the production curbs and stronger global demand. Crude prices have risen more than 20% since September.</p>
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<p>Oil-market observers will be watching closely Wednesday for official weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.</p>
<p>"Attention will no doubt be focused not only on inventories but also on U.S. crude oil production," according to analysts at Commerzbank. U.S. output is "likely to have increased further, possibly reaching 9.7 million barrels per day for the time on a weekly data basis," the analysts wrote in a note Wednesday.</p>
<p>Among refined products, Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock--the benchmark gasoline contract--was down 0.95%, at $1.70 a gallon. ICE gasoil, a benchmark for diesel fuel, changed hands at $554.75 a metric ton, down 0.31% from the previous settlement.</p>
<p>Write to Christopher Alessi at [email protected]</p>
<p>Oil prices fell to a three-week low on Wednesday after government data showed a steep rise in U.S. fuel inventories.</p>
<p>Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $1.66, or 2.9%, to $55.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the largest one-day dollar drop since July. Brent, the global benchmark, lost $1.64, or 2.6%, to $61.22 a barrel, closing at a one-month low.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a build of 6.8 million barrels in gasoline inventories in the week ended Dec. 1, exceeding analyst expectations for a 1.7 million barrel increase.</p>
<p>While crude inventories dropped by 5.6 million barrels last week, the data raised concerns about gasoline demand in the U.S. and put pressure on energy markets across the board, analysts said.</p>
<p>"It does reinforce people's questions about how robust U.S. gasoline demand is," particularly around the holidays, said John Saucer, vice president of research and analysis at Mobius Risk Group. "From a seasonal point of view, it usually does pretty well."</p>
<p>Analysts noted that the oil market looked vulnerable following a build up of bullish bets ahead of a meeting between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producers last week.</p>
<p>On Thursday, OPEC and 10 countries outside the cartel including Russia agreed to extend production cuts through the end of 2018, largely meeting analyst expectations.</p>
<p>"We were overdue a little bit of profit-taking and the build up in gasoline inventories was the perfect excuse to do just that," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at brokerage CMC Markets.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the high level of stockpiles in the U.S. and increasing production from shale companies have threatened to undermine prices. According to the EIA, domestic production rose to a fresh weekly record last week, churning out more than 9.7 million barrels a day.</p>
<p>Weakness in gasoline and distillate markets could exacerbate selling in crude, said Mark Waggoner, president of Excel Futures.</p>
<p>"That has the potential to tip the balance of everything into a very bearish mode," Mr. Waggoner said. "It's too early to say this is the end of the longer-term bull trend, but it's getting very close."</p>
<p>Gasoline futures fell 3.3% to $1.6609 a gallon and diesel futures lost 2.7% to $1.8613 a gallon.</p>
<p>Christopher Alessi contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Stephanie Yang at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>December 06, 2017 15:42 ET (20:42 GMT)</p> | Oil Falls on Rising U.S. Gasoline Supplies | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/12/06/oil-falls-on-rising-u-s-gasoline-supplies.html | 2017-12-06 | 0 |
<p>Illinois – HomeownershipWhen the housing bubble burst in 2007, the damage spread quickly throughout metro areas across the nation.&#160; Seeing that they shared a critical challenge, urban and suburban municipalities in the Chicago area joined forces through the Metropolitan Mayors’ Caucus to help one another cope. The <a href="http://www.regionalhopi.org/" type="external">Regional Home Ownership Preservation Initiative</a> (RHOPI) empowers communities with information, access to public and private resources, and continuous opportunities to problem-solve together. The City of Chicago provides technical assistance to smaller munis facing housing-related issues they had not experienced before. &#160;</p>
<p>Minnesota – Job TrainingAlthough there are positive signs of new growth in manufacturing, the lack of skilled workers prevents many companies from filling job openings. In 2011, business and workforce development professionals from politically diverse backgrounds launched a joint initiative to address the manufacturing skills gap in Minnesota.&#160; The partners include the SBA, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Manufacturing Institute, ACT, the National Institute of Metalworking Skills, the President’s Job Council, and Minnesota companies.&#160; They created a fast-track program to prepare machinists to industry specs through 16-weeks in the classroom and 8-week apprenticeships.&#160;&#160; <a href="http://rightskillsnow.org/" type="external">Right Skills Now</a> serves as a prototype for future innovations.</p>
<p>New Jersey – K-12 EducationElected leaders in New Jersey have stepped up with a bold bipartisan effort to ensure that children can succeed in school and enter the 21st Century workforce prepared to excel.&#160; The Partnership for Education in Newark was formed in 2011 under the leadership of Democratic Mayor Cory Booker and Republican Governor Chris Christie.&#160; With Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Partnership established a private foundation, <a href="http://www.startupeducation.org/" type="external">Start-Up: Education</a>.&#160; Zuckerberg, who provided generous initial funding, credits the “willingness [of the two elected leaders] to cut through the politics and red tape to collaborate” with having convinced him to get involved. &#160; &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Utah – Immigration PolicyCity, county, and state officials in Utah are leading their state away from extreme positions that paralyze immigration reform with a set of shared principles to guide public policy.&#160; In 2010, political, business, and religious leaders adopted <a href="http://www.utahcompact.com/" type="external">The Utah Compact</a> to address “the complex challenges associated with a broken national immigration system.”&#160; The Compact represents “a more balanced approach” that affirms the importance of enforcing the law, keeping families together, maintaining a free society, and valuing the contribution immigrants make to the economy.&#160; More than 4,600 individuals have signed the compact, which provided the foundation for reforms passed in Utah this year and is being considered as a template by other states.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Click here to see examples from bipartisan cooperation at the local level in all 50 states.</a></p> | Green Shoots at the Grassroots | false | https://nolabels.org/blog/green-shoots-at-the-grassroots-10/ | 2012-04-18 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Maybe it happened after your 86-year-old father had a stroke.&#160; Or when your disabled cousin was nearly evicted for continually forgetting to pay her rent.&#160; Or perhaps you were appointed by the court because your brother and his wife were killed in a car accident, leaving their three minor children parent-less.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Most of us don’t plan on managing other people’s money, or OPM.&#160; But whether you have a “power-of-attorney” or are called a “guardian,” a “custodian” or a “trustee,” you are considered a “fiduciary.”&#160; As such, your primary responsibility is to manage and spend the assets of the individual in your care in their best interest.</p>
<p>And you’d better be prepared to prove it if anyone questions your motives.</p>
<p>“Millions of Americans can’t manage their property,” says Naomi Karp, senior policy analyst at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB).&#160; As a result, “millions of lay people- family caregivers- are thrust into this role.&#160; Most are well-intentioned, but they may not be good at managing their own money, so we wanted to give them a step-by-step guide” of what’s expected.&#160; The result: Managing Someone Else’s Money: Help for Guardians of Property and Conservators.</p>
<p>More Common Than You Think</p>
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<p>According to Karp, who is in the CFPB’s Office of Older Americans, a “conservative” estimate is that 20 million people in this country have legal authority to manage assets owned by another person.&#160;&#160; She cites a Federal Reserve study which found that about 22 million individuals age 60 or older have given someone else power-of-attorney. &#160;And a Social Security report that more than four million adult beneficiaries have “representative payees”- another person, an institution or an organization that their check is sent to because they are unable to manage their own finances. &#160;The National Center for State Courts estimated that as of 2008, there were more than 1.5 million adults whose affairs were being overseen by a court-appointed guardian.(1)</p>
<p>Mistakes Can Have Serious Consequences</p>
<p>While there are occasional horror stories about abuse and neglect on the part of fiduciaries, thankfully, this is generally the exception rather than the rule. Most mistakes are due to ignorance or poor judgment.</p>
<p>For instance, “People don’t understand what is a conflict of interest,” says Karp.&#160; In addition, it’s not always clear-cut whether a decision was truly in the best interest of the person in your care. “We’re trying to raise awareness.”</p>
<p>For instance, assume you are the guardian for your elderly mother.&#160; You want to withdraw money from her bank account to buy a car so you can drive mom to her doctor appointments.&#160; But the rest of the time, you’re going to use it for your own needs.</p>
<p>Conflict of interest?&#160; Hmmmm.</p>
<p>Or, let’s say grandpa’s home needs some repairs.&#160; You hire your son to do the work.&#160; Maybe you consider him the best handyman on the planet.&#160; Coincidentally, he is a little tight on cash these days.</p>
<p>Conflict of interest? &#160;Hmmmm.</p>
<p>”People have to figure it out.&#160; We’re trying to suggest that you don’t buy the car, or that you just use it for Mom.&#160; Or that you buy a less expensive car.”&#160; Or that you get written bids from other contractors in the event you have to justify hiring Junior.</p>
<p>Imagine you have power of attorney over your grandmother’s bank account.&#160; She always gave the grandkids a check at the holidays.&#160; Is it OK for you to continue doing this?&#160; “It depends on the state and whether this is specified in the documents,” says Karp.</p>
<p>Make It Easy to Follow the Money</p>
<p>Although “caring” about the individual is hopefully your motivation, what he law cares most about is how you manage, protect and disburse their assets.</p>
<p>At the very least, anyone acting in a fiduciary capacity needs to keep very good records about how much money was disbursed and why.&#160; And, make darn sure you can demonstrate that it was spent in the best interest of the individual in your charge.</p>
<p>Though it might not be as convenient, it’s critical that you do not co-mingle money or property.&#160; Maintain a separate checking account for the other person. Don’t take cash out of their account to cover bills.&#160; “Pay their bills out of their account.&#160; Don’t pay them out of your account and then reimburse yourself,” says Karp.</p>
<p>“If you’re a court-appointed guardian, don’t pay for things in cash,” advises Karp.&#160; Checks and credit card bills create “a paper trail to show you are not wasting the money” in the event a judge questions where it went.&#160; You should also be aware that you are required to take an inventory of the possessions and accounts owned by the person entrusted to your care- and that this needs to be filed with the court within a certain period of time.</p>
<p>What Kind of Fiduciary Are You?</p>
<p>The brochures created by the CFPB cover the most common types of fiduciary: court-appointed guardian, agent with a power of attorney, Social Security alternative payee and trustee of a living trust.&#160; Best of all, they are written in layman’s language, not legalese.&#160; They offer clear guidelines to those who may not be financially- oriented, but who suddenly find themselves in the position of being a caretaker for a loved one and suggest where to get help, if needed.</p>
<p>In addition, six state-specific brochures are being created in conjunction with authorities in Virginia, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Oregon.&#160; These states were chosen, says Karp, on the basis of having “a large number of older people or a higher percentage of their population that is older.”&#160; Guides for the state of Virginia just came out.&#160; The others are in development.</p>
<p>To order or download a copy of Managing Someone Else's Money: Help for Guardians of Property and Conservators visit <a href="http://publications.usa.gov/USAPubs.php?NavCode=K&amp;searchText=CFPB" type="external">CFPB publications at Publications.USA.gov Opens a New Window.</a>.&#160;&#160;Enter the title in the search box. Virginia residents will want the specific guide for their state.</p> | How to Stay Out of Trouble if You are Managing Someone Else’s Finances | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/08/24/how-to-stay-out-trouble-if-are-managing-someone-elses-finances.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>R&amp;B singer Maxwell is readying a new album and another EP, which will feature Alicia Keys.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Maxwell is always one to do things his way. And he makes sure of it.</p>
<p>The R&amp;B crooner recently wrapped up his new album, all while secluding himself from the world.</p>
<p>“I try to stay away from listening to anything so I’m not totally influenced,” he says during a recent phone interview. “I’m ready and it’s been enough time.”</p>
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<p>Maxwell’s last album, “BLACKsummers’night,” was released in 2009 after a nearly eight-year hiatus from music. His new album will be out this fall.</p>
<p>“It’s about time there’s something new out from me,” he says. “I’ve been inspired and felt like everything came together on this one.”</p>
<p>Just because Maxwell hasn’t released new music for about five years doesn’t mean he’s been sitting at home in New York City. He’s been on tour getting rave reviews. He also worked with Alicia Keys on the song “Fire We Make.”</p>
<p>“I’ve known Alicia since she was a kid,” he says. “Working with her is amazing because we come from the same place musically.”</p>
<p>Maxwell burst onto the music scene in 2001 with a slew of other neo-soul artists. Since then, many of them have slowed down with making music, including Maxwell. He says it was his choice because he didn’t want to oversaturate himself in the industry.</p>
<p>“I figured if I put out a solid album that I was proud of each time, then there wasn’t a problem,” he says. “The only pressure that I put on myself was for my music to feel right to me.”</p>
<p>Even after numerous hiatuses, Maxwell is surprised that he has so much support many years later.</p>
<p>“The fans have been really great to me,” he says. “I’ve been blessed with a career that has lasted this long. They wait for me to put out music and then they embrace it. It’s a wonderful feeling.”</p>
<p>Maxwell says that in addition to his solo record, he will have an EP with Keys released sometime before the year is over.</p>
<p>“We’re ready to put that one out, too,” he says. “The duets are pure magic and I’m proud to be able to work with Alicia again on a new project. Who knows, we may get out on tour at some point.”</p>
<p /> | Maxwell is set to release an album | false | https://abqjournal.com/446107/albuquerque-neo-soul.html | 2 |
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<p>President Obama is apparently on a mission to retroactively declare America’s defeat and/or moral culpability in every global conflict of the 20th century. Beginning with his repugnant apology tour of the Muslim world and Europe upon winning the president, Obama has dedicated his foreign policy to the proposition that America is always in the wrong – or at least to the proposition that we must accept the alleged sins of our pockmarked past in order to push Obama’s priorities now. That means re-losing the Cold War by turning over Crimea and Syria to the tender mercies of ex-KGB honcho Vladimir Putin and turning over control of the South China Sea to China, re-losing the Gulf War by precipitously pulling out of Iraq and handing control over it to Iran, and now, declaring mea culpa for defeating Japan in World War II with the use of an atom bomb.</p>
<p>This week, Obama will head to Hiroshima, where he will become the first sitting American president to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Ben Rhodes, the Obama administration official fabulist, says that Obama isn’t visiting to apologize for using the A-bomb – a ridiculous contention to anyone with a functional pre-frontal cortex. “He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II,” Rhodes wrote, presumably between drafts of his new short story, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html?_r=0" type="external">The Chicken Poops, You Deconstruct Its Meaning</a>. “Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future.”</p>
<p>But presumably the only reason to visit a park for those who died in the A-bomb blast is to lament the horrors of the atomic bomb, not to praise the decision to use it. Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, admitted as much: “The president certainly does understand the United States bears a special responsibility. The United States continues to be the only country to have used nuclear weapons, and it means that our country bears a special responsibility to lead the world in an effort to eliminate them.” Then, presumably aware that he had let the cat out of the bag, Earnest backtracked, “If people do interpret that way, they’ll be interpreting it wrongly.”</p>
<p>Which is sort of like saying that it shouldn't have been controversial for Ronald Reagan to visit the Bitburg cemetary holding the remains of SS criminals in Germany as president. After all, he wasn't apologizing or anything.</p>
<p>Everyone understands the branding opportunity here for Obama. And if it means tacitly endorsing the idea that the United States committed a grave sin in saving a million lives, both American and Japanese, by dropping the atomic bomb, Obama will do it. Obama’s glory comes before everything else. The man has to bulk up his resume if he wants to be United Nations Secretary General.</p> | Obama Visits Hiroshima To Apologize For Winning World War II | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5612/obama-visits-hiroshima-apologize-winning-world-war-ben-shapiro | 2016-05-10 | 0 |
<p>Michael Ignatieff, now a Canadian MP and contender for a top leadership position in the Liberal Party, was slow in responding to the Israeli war on Lebanon. He told the Canadian media on August 1st that “I’ve been following it minutely from the beginning and watching it unfold and figuring out when was the time when a statement would be important and relevant.” (Linda Diebel, “Rae criticizes liberal rival for delay,” Toronto Star, August 2, 2006). He considered it necessary to give Israel enough time “to send Hezbollah a very clear message” that kidnapping soldiers and firing rockets on Israel will not be tolerated. Of course, Israel was killing mainly civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure while sending this message, and there was the question of whether the world shouldn’t be sending Israel the message that aggression and the commission of war crimes under the pretense of “self defense” is not permissible, but like George Bush and Condoleezza Rice, for Ignatieff the Israeli message was crucial, not any Lebanese civilian casualties or Israeli law violations.</p>
<p>Michael Ignatieff is a skilled trimmer, who has adjusted his principles and thoughts to the demands of the U.S. and Canadian power elite, and advanced accordingly—from academia to preferred commentator on human rights and other political issues in the U.S. mainstream media, and on to becoming a member of the Canadian parliament. He was for some years Carr Professor of Human Rights at Harvard University, and for several years was a regular contributor to the New York Times Magazine. He has always found that what the United States has been doing in the international arena is good—well-intentioned, necessary for international well-being, and inevitable, though occasionally flawed in execution. He was a strong supporter of the U.S. wars in Yugoslavia, objecting mainly to the sluggishness in the application of force. He approved the invasion-occupation of Iraq and has supported the use of torture in the abstract as well as specifically in the Bush administration’s so-called “war on terror,” and as noted he has recently been very understanding of Israel’s need to defend itself against the threats of Hezbollah and its other enemies.</p>
<p>One would have thought it might be problematical for a professor of human rights to vigorously support two wars (Kosovo, Iraq) carried out in violation of the UN Charter and hence “supreme crimes” in the view of the judges at Nuremberg. These two wars of aggression also resulted in serial war crimes, such as the regular bombing of civilian sites and the use of illegal weapons such as cluster bombs, napalm, phosphorus and depleted uranium, that should have been anathema to a devotee of human rights. But these matters didn’t bother Ignatieff, who was troubled only by the lag in initiation of NATO violence in the Balkans and the ineffectiveness and mismanagement of the occupation of Iraq. Similarly, Israel’s long-term ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the occupied territories, and massive human rights violations in the process, have not troubled him in the least, although he is bothered by the failure to bring “stability” and the absence of a quiet occupation and dispossession process.</p>
<p>He gets away with this support for supreme crimes and systematic violations of human rights because he does this only as regards crimes and abuses carried out by the United States and its allies and clients. He is quite passionate about the crimes or alleged crimes of target states such as Yugoslavia and Saddam’s Iraq. As this bias parallels and therefore supports official positions, he is treated well by the Western elite and their instruments such as Harvard University and the New York Times. He can make egregious errors and unverifiable and dubious claims, accept official claims as unquestionably true, and apply double standards across the board, without cost. Treating him well means not only giving him support and access, it also means letting him get away with intellectual murder.</p>
<p>Ignatieff came into prominence during the Balkan wars, where he joined forces with a number of other liberal intellectuals and journalists who took on the cause of Alija Izetbegovic–author of the Islamic Declaration and close ally of Osama bin Laden–and the Bosnian Muslims, and pressed strongly for military intervention on their behalf.1 Ignatieff’s position also aligned him with the Clinton administration, and he established “close relations” with Richard Holbrooke, General Wesley Clark and former Yugoslav Tribunal chief prosecutor Louise Arbour.2 These close links with officials with an axe to grind might be thought to compromise a journalist and human rights activist, but it doesn’t work that way in the United States—as with “embedded” journalists, such links enhance a reporter’s authority. It is only in enemy states that official connections and embedding compromise journalistic integrity, as by assumption our officials don’t lie and manipulate, and/or the linkages do not cause journalists to lose their critical capacity, whereas elsewhere governments lie and embedded journalists become propaganda agents of the state.3</p>
<p>One revealing illustration of Ignatieff’s integration into the propaganda apparatus of the war-making establishment was his November 2, 1999 op-ed column in the New York Times on “Counting Bodies in Kosovo.” By the time Ignatieff wrote this piece, the wilder claims of the State Department that 100,000 or even 500,000 Kosovo Albanians had been killed by the Serbs had collapsed in the wake of the very modest results of the intense forensic searches that followed the NATO takeover of Kosovo after June 10, 1999. The new claim made by Carla Del Ponte, the Yugoslav Tribunal’s prosecutor (who had succeeded Louise Arbour), was that 11,334 Kosovo Albanians had been killed. According to Ignatieff, whether all the 11,334 bodies will be found “depends on whether the Serb military and police removed them.” Possible error or inflation by the Tribunal and its sources was ruled out for no reason but deep bias.</p>
<p>Del Ponte had been vetted by Madeleine Albright before taking her position, the Tribunal had been organized and largely staffed and funded by the NATO powers, and it consistently served as a PR-judicial arm of NATO.4 The Tribunal’s investigator, who recommended dismissing any charges of war crimes against NATO without a formal investigation, stated that he had been satisfied with NATO press releases as an information source on the motivations and results of NATO actions.5 Del Ponte followed his recommendation, implicitly accepting this use of evidence, and expressing satisfation that there was “no deliberate targeting of civilians or unlawful military targets by NATO” (presumably the targeting of the Chinese Embassy and the Serb broadcasting facility, among hundreds of other non-military targets, was lawful). Only an unscholarly partisan would take her number as definitive (and only a partisan newspaper would invite Ignatieff to write on the subject and subsequently bring him on board as a regular). Eventually only some 4,000 bodies were recovered in Kosovo after the NATO takeover, by no means all or even a majority Bosnian Muslim civilians, and 2,398 remain listed by the Red Cross as missing, yielding a total—6,398—substantially below the 11,334, a difference never commented on by Ignatieff or the New York Times.6</p>
<p>During the Kosovo conflict Ignatieff offered a stream of claims and interpretations that make an enlightening contrast with his apologetics for Israeli aggression, ethnic cleansing and structured racism. Commenting on an incident in which the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) murdered six Serb teenagers, Ignatieff wrote that this was “doubtless a KLA provocation, intended to goad the Serbs into overreaction and then to trigger international intervention. Yet it is worth asking why the KLA strategists could be absolutely certain the Serbs would react as they did [he is referring to the “Racak massacre” of January 15, 1999]. The reason is simple…only in Serbia is racial contempt an official ideology.”7</p>
<p>We may note first that for Ignatieff the KLA killings were only a “provocation,” not a murderous act to be severely condemned. Note also that although there is compelling evidence that the Racak incident was arranged into a “massacre” following a furious battle, and is therefore of extremely dubious authenticity, Ignatieff takes it as unquestionably valid.8 On the certainty of the Serb reaction, killings such as those carried out by the KLA produce similar responses in civil conflicts everywhere, so that Ignatieff’s blaming it on Serb racism is nonsensical for that reason alone. But it also flies in the face of Serb tolerance of Albanians in Belgrade, along with Roma–in contrast with Kosovo Albanian intolerance of both in NATO-occupied Kosovo.</p>
<p>The contrast with Ignatieff’s treatment of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon is also dramatic and revealing. With the June 25 capture of an Israeli soldier in Gaza and at least two other Israeli soldiers in still-disputed circumstances around the Israel-Lebanon border on July 12, minimal consistency with his treatment of the Serbs should cause him to regard these as “provocations” that induced an Israeli “overreaction,” and he should condemn this overreaction, which in Gaza and Lebanon has been far more deadly and murderous than the Serbs’ alleged overreaction at Racak. He might explain this overreaction and this willingness to kill large numbers of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians on the “simple” ground that “only in Israel is racial contempt an official ideology.” Of course he does not do this, although the case that can be made for racial contempt as an official ideology in Israel is vastly greater than the evidence for Serbian racism.9</p>
<p>For Ignatieff, Israel’s legitimate “security needs” justify the Lebanon response (and he evades discussing the reinvasion and attack on civilians and humanitarian crisis in Gaza). Didn’t Yugoslavia’s legitimate security needs justify Racak and other actions of the Serbs, with NATO threatening an attack–that soon materialized–and working in coordination with the KLA? There is of course no hint at this in Ignatieff—his frame of reference is always that of his side (NATO), and the enemy is always wrong and has no right of self defense.</p>
<p>Ignatieff was enraged at the Serb expulsions in Kosovo during the bombing war, claiming that “Milosevic decided to solve an ‘internal problem’ by exporting an entire nation to his impoverished neighbors,” and he also described it as a “most meticulous deportation of a civilian population” and “a final solution of the Kosovo problem.”10 One would hardly realize from these effusions that Yugoslavia was under military attack by NATO, forced to defend itself in a situation where the KLA and NATO were working in close coordination; that proportionately more [ethnic] Serbs fled the bombing war in Kosovo than [ethnic] Albanians; that there was nothing “meticulous” about the flight, induced by the KLA and bombing as well as Serb actions, and that there is no reason whatever to think that Milosevic viewed this as a “final solution,” another dishonest piece of rhetoric that conflates Nazi industrial murder with a war-induced flight of civilians.</p>
<p>Again, the contrast with Ignatieff’s treatment of the forced exit of a million Lebanese by the Israelis is dramatic. Here Israel is justified in “sending a message” to Hezbollah reflecting Israel’s right to defend itself. Yugoslavia had no right to send a message to the KLA and NATO powers in the process of defending itself, although NATO’s war threatened its survival, whereas Israel had only suffered minor losses in a border skirmish with a force that did not threaten its existence. Ignatieff has not even expressed sympathy with the million Lebanese displaced to “send a message” to Hezbollah; and he will clearly not speak of this as a “meticulous” ethnic cleansing and “final solution” via an “export” of Lebanese civilians. Human Rights Watch and the Red Cross (among others) have repeatedly declared the Israeli attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure to be war crimes,11 but Ignatieff has not said a word about anything wrong with Israel’s attacks on civilians or the use of illegal and anti-civilian weaponry like cluster bombs and depleted uranium, and he has never hinted that these frequent and ruthless attacks on Arab civilians could be because of Israel’s racist ideology, although the evidence for such attitudes in Israel is massive (which it is not in Belgrade).</p>
<p>In short, we are dealing here with gross political bias and gross apologetics for aggression, ethnic cleansing and war crimes. Add to this the fact that Ignatieff has swallowed Bush’s claim to be striving to “bring freedom everywhere,” an ideological premise that allows him to rationalize anything the Bush administration does externally because it is in a noble cause—based solely on the fact that Bush says that that is his aim (see his “Who Are Americans To Think That Freedom Is Theirs To Spread?,” New York Times Magazine, June 26, 2005; and my analysis of this apologetics landmark: Herman, “Michael Ignatieff’s Pseudo-Hegelian Apologetics for Imperialism,” October, 2005).</p>
<p>Facts no longer matter for Ignatieff; they are trumped by proclaimed aims and values, but only for the side he favors and that produce benefits—to Ignatieff and some of the elites that underwrite his work. Clearly this is a man worthy of a human rights chair at Harvard, a special place in the Paper of Record, and a bright political future in our close and reliable ally Canada.</p>
<p>EDWARD S. HERMAN is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and has written extensively on economics, political economy and the media. Among his books are The Real Terror Network, Triumph of the Market, and Manufacturing Consent (with Noam Chomsky).</p>
<p>Endnotes:</p>
<p>1. For a general account, EDWARD S. HERMAN and David Peterson, “Morality’s Avenging Angels: The New Humanitarian Crusaders,” in David Chandler, Ed., Rethinking Human Rights: Critical Approaches to International Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), pp. 196-216 (as posted to <a href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=8613" type="external">ZNet</a>, August 30, 2005). The New Humanitarians have been members of a network of like-minded people, often friends, who have worked in coordination with government officials and government-linked thinktanks, bonding and hobnobbing among themselves in Sarajevo or at international conferences and being fed information by U.S. and, in the 1990s, Bosnian Muslim officials. Sometimes, they worked together in establishment operations such as the Independent International Commission on Kosovo (Richard Falk, Richard Goldstone, Michael Ignatieff, Mary Kaldor, Martha Minow), the International Crisis Group (William Shawcross), the American Academy in Berlin (Paul Hockenos), George Soros’ Open Society Institute (Aryeh Neier), and offshoots of these and similar institutions. The first three groups have been heavily funded by NATO governments, and have had on their boards numerous NATO government officials, past and present. In a nice illustration of what C. Wright Mills might have called the “social composition of the higher circles” of New Humanitarianism, Timothy Garton Ash wrote back in 1999: “When I arrive in the late evening…[at Hotel Tuzla,]…I step into the lift, press the button for the second floor, and at once subside, powerless, into the cellar. The reception committee in the bar consists of Christopher Hitchens, Susan Sontag, and David Rieff. When I join them, Sontag is just saying to Michael Ignatieff, ‘I can’t believe that this is your first time here.” And he adds that on the very next day, after arriving at an event hosted by the Bosnian Muslim leadership of Tuzla, Mary Kaldor welcomed the group, and the British actress Julie Christie read a poem in homage to Sarajevo, “glowing white…as a translucent china cup.” Ash, History of the Present: Essays, Sketches, and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s (New York: Random House, 1999), p.147.</p>
<p>2. The quoted words were used by David Rieff to describe and laud his ally Ignatieff’s connections with the West’s political and military leadership, in “Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 2000.</p>
<p>3. Back at the time of the controversy that followed the May 1981 shooting of Pope Paul II by a Turkish fascist, the mainstream U.S. media relied heavily on the expert Paul Henze, rarely pointing out–and never suggesting any problem based on–lhis 30-year employment as a CIA propaganda specialist and his having been head of the CIA station in Turkey.</p>
<p>4. For a compelling analysis, see Michael Mandel, How America Gets Away With Murder (London: Pluto, 2004), pp. 132-46.</p>
<p>5. Ibid., pp. 188-191.</p>
<p>6. “Statement to the Press by Carla del Ponte” (FH/P.I.S./550-e), Carla del Ponte, ICTY, December 20, 2000, par. 16; “Kosovo: ICRC deplores slow progress of working group on missing persons,” ICRC News, March 9, 2006.</p>
<p>7. Michael Ignatieff, “Only in truth can Serbia find peace: There is racism everywhere in Europe, but only in Serbia is racial contempt an official ideology,” Calgary Herald, June 26, 1999.</p>
<p>8. On questions about Racak, see Mandel, pp. 72-80, 170-73; see also the devastating testimonies of Judge Danica Marenkovic, forensic expert Professor Slavisa Dobricain, Col. Bogoljub Janicevic, and Col. Milan Kotur, during the Milosevic defense period, March 23-24, April 8, 13, and 26, and January 27, 2006. None of this testimony was reported on in the New York Times.</p>
<p>9. Under the subheading “Root Causes,” Israeli analyst Reuven Kaminer says “It is impossible to oppress an entire people for 40 years and not to succumb to the ultimate rationalization for such action. Anti-Arab racism is endemic to Israeli society. This racism is so pervasive that it covers the political landscape like a cloud and infects all the thinking and the attitudes of the overwhelming majority of Israelis.” (“Who Won and Who Lost and Why,” Portside, August 17, 2006). See also EDWARD S. HERMAN, “Ethnic Cleansing: Constructive, Benign, and Nefarious,” ZNet, August 9, 2006.</p>
<p>10. Michael Ignatieff, Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000), pp. 86-87, 78-79, 84.</p>
<p>11. See, e.g., Peter Bouckaert and Nadim Houry, Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon (Human Rights Watch, August 3, 2006; and Peter Bouckaert, “For Israel, innocent civilians are fair game,” International Herald Tribune, August 4, 2006.</p>
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<p /> | Faith-Based Analysis | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/08/22/faith-based-analysis/ | 2006-08-22 | 4 |
<p>A new poll has come out about Trumpcare and it's ... not good.</p>
<p>The poll, conducted by <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ahca-health-care-poll_us_59109a87e4b0e7021e99b049?64h" type="external">Huffington Post/YouGov</a>, shows that a plurality of Americans oppose the new iteration of Trumpcare at 44 percent, while 31 percent of Americans support it. Another 25 percent didn't know what they thought of the bill.</p>
<p>The Huffington Post also noted:</p>
<p>Americans say, 39 percent to 26 percent, that the AHCA would likely be worse, not better, than the current health care law. Just 14 percent believe the AHCA would make things better for them personally, while 27 percent say it would make things worse. A near-majority, 49 percent, say they don’t expect the bill to affect them very much, or that they aren’t sure what effect it would have.</p>
<p>And yet, this version of Trumpcare polls better than the March version of Trumpcare, which Americans opposed by a margin of 52 percent to 21 percent in the same poll. A Quinnipiac poll at the time also showed that the March version of Trumpcare had an abysmal approval rating of 17 percent.</p>
<p>The increase in support seems to come from those who voted for Donald Trump in November, as <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/poll-ahcas-numbers-improve-as-trump-voters-rally-to-the-bill/article/2622478" type="external">The Washington Examiner's David Freddoso points out</a> that only 45 percent of Trump voters supported Trumpcare in March, but now 75 percent of Trump voters support Trumpcare.</p>
<p>"If you assume a very sophisticated understanding of Congress among Trump voters, you might say that the Freedom Caucus' seal of approval meant a lot," writes Freddoso. "But it seems far more likely that, with the bill having passed and Trump claiming it as a victory, it has finally become the subject of the same partisan tribalism that has driven the opposition all along."</p>
<p>Additionally, Allahpundit notes at <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/08/poll-support-gop-health-care-bill-surges-among-trump-voters/" type="external">Hot Air</a> that the Democrats' vehement opposition to the bill guarantees that it will receive less than stellar poll numbers.</p>
<p>"The Republican reply: 'Damn right! Although … let me take a minute to compare this to my current plan,'" writes Allahpundint. "The Democratic reply: 'HELL NO. OBAMA’S LEGACY.' You're going to have net-negative polling when you’ve got a dynamic like that. Although hopefully not so net-negative that you’re topping out at 31 percent support overall. Yeesh."</p>
<p>All eyes are now on the Senate to see what kind of bill they will produce and how popular it will be among the public. Trump and the Republicans better hope that it receives better support than 31 percent.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter" type="external">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a></p> | What Do The Polls Show About Trumpcare's Popularity? | true | https://dailywire.com/news/16247/what-do-polls-show-about-trumpcares-popularity-aaron-bandler | 2017-05-09 | 0 |
<p>On Tuesday, the House will vote on legislation that would ban abortion after 20 weeks. The bill, called&#160; “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” was sponsored by Sen. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and would make it a crime to perform or attempt an abortion after 20 weeks. Abortion providers could be fined or spend five years in prison or both, <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/352454-house-to-vote-on-20-week-abortion-ban" type="external">according to</a> The Hill.</p>
<p>Similar bills passed the House in 2013 and 2015, but were blocked by Senate Democrats both times.&#160;The latest bill is unlikely to make it through the Senate this year, but its revival still represents a real threat to reproductive rights.&#160;President Donald Trump said he would sign the legislation if it were to pass, and 21 states have already enacted this ban, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights (bans in two states, <a href="" type="internal">Arizona</a> and <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/243446-court-nixes-idahos-20-week-abortion-ban" type="external">Idaho</a>, have been permanently blocked by a court order and are not in effect).</p>
<p>“It is a priority of the anti-choice movement to see these types of abortion bans,” said Amy Friedrich-Karnik, senior federal policy adviser at the Center for Reproductive Rights.&#160;“It has been a trend in states for many years now but it popped up on federal level around 2013. What we noticed is that it popped up often at times when the-anti choice majority in Congress feels like they need to give something to their base.”</p>
<p>It’s not clear why the House is trying to push this latest ban, given court rulings in Arizona and Idaho. In 2014, the Supreme Court&#160; <a href="" type="internal">declined to hear</a> the case on Arizona’s 20-week ban. The Court deferred to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling, which struck down Arizona’s law on the grounds that it violated multiple U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including Roe v. Wade&#160;defines the point of viability around 24 weeks of pregnancy.</p>
<p>“It’s blatantly unconstitutional but it doubles down and goes further than banning the type of care that women really need and might face at a certain point in their pregnancy,”&#160;Friedrich-Karnik said. “Providers who are in these situations where they need to provide a constitutional right that they have to help people access this care, are being threatened with jail, so it is cruel upon cruel to women seeking care and providers trying to provide it.”</p>
<p>Friedrich-Karnik said she definitely does not expect the Senate to take up the issue.</p>
<p>Elizabeth Nash, senior state issues manager at the Guttmacher Institute, said the states began passing 20 week bans in 2010, when a number of very conservative lawmakers were elected to state legislatures.</p>
<p>“We had this, for lack of a better term, a movement type of election and the legislature shifted pretty dramatically to the right. As a result, the abortion restrictions flied through state legislatures so in 2011 we started to see states pass it and then it almost seemed to be as soon as it passed in one state, you saw it in another state,” Nash said. “There’s a real connection between how conservative the legislature is and the kind of abortion restrictions we were seeing.”</p>
<p>Nash said the effort to pass a 20-week ban may be part of a wider effort to set up another U.S. Supreme Court fight on abortion. But even if it were to pass and the issue made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Nash said the court’s decision not to hear the Arizona case in 2014 and its 2016 decision in <a href="" type="internal">Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt</a>&#160;suggests that arguments for the ban would not be successful. In the latter case, the court struck down two&#160;provisions of Texas’&#160;HB 2, a sweeping abortion law which put burdensome requirements on abortion providers and threatened to&#160;greatly reduce the number of the&#160;state’s abortion clinics. In the majority opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer said there was no <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2016/06/27/us-supreme-court-rules-texas-abortion-case/" type="external">evidence</a> to support the idea that the restriction benefited patients in any way.</p>
<p>“With the U.S. Court decision [on Hellerstedt]&#160;they said evidence is incredibly important when weighing abortion restrictions,” Nash added. “Looking at the evidence around the burden on women and factual basis for these restrictions, it does nothing to help the safety and health of women who need an abortion and it based on unproven claims.”</p>
<p>“[Twenty week bans] challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s standards on abortion in three fundamental ways: by challenging the viability standard, by using a specific week standard, and by using extremely limited exceptions,” Nash said.&#160;“While it looks like Congress is clearly interested in banning abortion, it’s also interested in setting up challenge to Roe.”</p>
<p>There are a lot of concerns about the 20 week ban, including&#160;what the <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/02/the-supreme-courts-blockbuster-term-215666" type="external">makeup</a> of the U.S. Supreme Court would be if such a case made it to the highest court in the near future. Already, the Supreme Court has upheld a ban on a second trimester abortion procedure called <a href="http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/partial+birth+abortion" type="external">Intact Dilation &amp; Extraction</a> (D&amp;X).</p>
<p>In addition, one of the biggest reasons why this type of ban is so dangerous is that it is layered on top of all of the other abortion restrictions passed by conservative legislatures that make it difficult for women to access abortion earlier in their pregnancy. Several&#160; <a href="" type="internal">states are targeting</a> a safe second trimester procedure called <a href="https://www.webmd.com/women/dilation-and-evacuation-de-for-abortion" type="external">Dilation &amp; Evacuation</a> (“D&amp;E”).&#160;A few states only have one abortion clinic. Many states require waiting periods before getting an abortion and parental consent and put onerous <a href="" type="internal">requirements</a> on clinics that provide abortions that make it more difficult for those clinics to operate. Often, people have to go to other states to access care, which puts an extra <a href="" type="internal">financial burden</a> on them and may <a href="" type="internal">further</a> <a href="" type="internal">delay</a> their abortions.</p>
<p>“There are restrictions and bans and all kinds of challenges to accessing abortions earlier on in many states and there are laws that make it difficult to access a clinic, and so it may be difficult for someone to access an abortion early in their pregnancy,” Friedrich-Karnik said.&#160;“Then a little later you have these kinds of bans that make it difficult for women to access care later.&#160;It’s really a maze we’ve created for women to access care.”</p> | Why is the House planning to vote on a 20-week abortion ban? | true | https://thinkprogress.org/20-week-abortion-ban-99ec47852bbd/ | 2017-10-02 | 4 |
<p>Pakistan is in a state of turmoil following a suicide attack that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and at least 20 others in Rawalpindi on Thursday. Bhutto had appeared at a rally to drum up support for Pakistan's upcoming elections on Jan. 8 when a gunman shot her and blew himself up, sparking protests and more deadly clashes around the country.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>It was the second suicide attack against her in recent months and came amid a wave of bombings targeting security and government officials.</p>
<p>Nawaz Sharif, also a former prime minister and a political rival, announced his Muslim League party would boycott the elections.</p>
<p />
<p>He called on President Musharraf to resign, saying free and fair elections were not possible under his rule.</p>
<p>The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session and later said it "unanimously condemned" the assassination.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Benazir Bhutto Assassinated | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/benazir-bhutto-assassinated/ | 2007-12-28 | 4 |
<p>Washington PostBy Anthony ShadidBAGHDAD, March 23 -- The melancholy wail sailed across the city and pierced the walls of the middle-class Baghdad home. The sleepless family listened in silence until the mother, her face lined with fear and pain, shook her head."Siren," she whispered.At that, her daughter jumped up and threw open the door. She ran to open the windows next, fearful the blast would shatter them. The son sprinted outside, hoping to spot a low-flying cruise missile that would send the family huddling, yet again, in a hallway.And they waited for the bombs....The family met privately with a journalist today, without the presence of a requisite government escort and with a promise that their identities would not be published. Over a lunch of Iraqi dishes -- pickled mango, kibbe, kufta and chicken cooked with rice, peanuts and raisins -- they spoke with unusual candor about politics and war. At times brashly, they discussed subjects that are usually hinted at, as if Baghdad were already in limbo between its past and its future.</p> | 'We're in a Dark, Dark Tunnel' | false | https://poynter.org/news/were-dark-dark-tunnel | 2003-03-24 | 2 |
<p>No matter how one feels about the issue of transgender people serving in the military, <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/trump-transgenger-military/2017/07/26/id/803851/" type="external">President Donald Trump’s sudden announcement</a> — via Twitter — on Wednesday that he was banning them from serving was “bizarre,” said conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer.</p>
<p>“The rollout and the timing is simply bizarre,” Krauthammer said Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report-bret-baier/index.html" type="external">“Special Report.”</a></p>
<p>Trump likely <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/trump-surprise-transgender-order/2017/07/26/id/804008/" type="external">wanted to change the subject from the heat</a> he is facing over his public criticism of his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, Krauthammer said, as well as the failure of the Senate to pass multiple Obamacare repeal efforts.</p>
<p>If so, Trump is succeeding, he said, but added it still was odd that the order “came out of nowhere” when Defense Secretary James Mattis had requested six months to review the issue.</p>
<p>“Was there a crisis that all of a sudden it had to be withdrawn?” Krauthammer said, noting that the administration wasn’t even able to answer questions about whether it affected members of the military currently deployed.</p>
<p>“It’s like the release of the executive order on immigration, where they had no answer on what do you do with the person with the green card, and caused that chaos at the airports, when the first version of the travel ban was issued,” he said.</p>
<p>“This is not how you run a railroad, no matter how you feel about the underlying issue,” Krauthammer said. “This is really bizarre.”</p> | Krauthammer: Trump's Transgender Ban 'Bizarre' | false | https://newsline.com/krauthammer-trumps-transgender-ban-bizarre/ | 2017-07-26 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Being on the hook is not going to be pretty when interest rates are raised back up, and debts come due. At a personal level, it will mean more stress and juggling to make ends meet. For the larger economy, it will mean cities and states unable to meet obligations or balance their budgets – ending in bankruptcy, and bailouts. Meanwhile, millions of people are relying on that money to keep coming in order to survive. Something is going to go very wrong.</p>
<p>Relying upon government to function and send you money is not a secure plan.</p>
<p>The mathematics are terrifying and dismal, and so is being caught up in these collapsing states.</p>
<p>In the next phase of the financial crisis, the debt supercycle will become the most defining feature of the big hurt that will fall on nearly everyone.</p>
<p>That’s the <a href="http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/5-urgent-warnings-from-big-banks-that-the-economy-has-gone-suicidal_10142016" type="external">dire warning that Goldman Sachs issued</a> about what they termed the Third Wave of the global collapse. But it hasn’t come, at least not yet:</p>
<p>This wave is characterised by rock-bottom commodities prices, stalling growth in China and other emerging-markets economies, and low global inflation, Goldman Sachs analysts led by Peter Oppenheimer said in a big-picture note.</p>
<p>This triple whammy has its roots in the response to the first two waves of crisis — the banking collapse and European sovereign-debt crisis — and it is all part of the so-called debt supercycle of the past few decades.</p>
<p>Unfunded liabilities for pensions and other state benefits are threatening the security and future of an entire generation of retiring, hardworking Americans.</p>
<p>The debt will be shifted for as long as possible… but eventually, someone will have to come to terms with it. The black hole totals up to huge sums of money; no one can pay; and the system is bankrupted, or services rendered become inadequate and farcical.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2015/12/22/which-are-death-spiral-states/#586d7371b9da" type="external">Forbes contributor William Baldwin</a> describes the acute problem of “death spiral states,” which could actually be as bad as it sounds. It affects dozens of cities and municipalities as well.</p>
<p>Does your state have more takers than makers? Check it out.</p>
<p>California has a powerful economy, with 14 million private-sector jobs. It also has burdens: welfare recipients (12.6 million), generously paid government employees (2.1 million) and people collecting government pensions (1.3 million).</p>
<p>Add up the numbers. There are 114 clients drawing from the government for every 100 people chipping in by working outside the government and paying taxes. We’re calling this the Feedme Ratio. Six states have a number over 100.</p>
<p>These states are at risk of going into a downward spiral in the next recession. The burdens will remain but too many of the providers—employers in the private sector—might shrink or decamp.</p>
<p>Right now, the biggest risks for a bankruptcy or collapse is in the these states, based upon the ratio between what Baldwin terms “makers” and “takers.” Basically, the socialist state is enveloping all prosperity:</p>
<p>• New Mexico – 148 dependents per private sector worker</p>
<p>• West Virginia – 116 dependents per private sector worker</p>
<p>• California – 114 dependents per private sector worker</p>
<p>• Mississippi – 111 dependents per private sector worker</p>
<p>• New York – 108 dependents per private sector worker</p>
<p>• Arkansas – 103 dependents per private sector worker</p>
<p>Detroit and Chicago top the lists of cities who wouldn’t be healthy in the ratio of makers/takers either, and would crumble in a debt crunch.</p>
<p>You can check on your state via this interactive map, though it is dated slightly to 2015.</p>
<p />
<p>A score under 100 means that the state has a net number of providers, and is theoretically on more solid ground. However, the pressures are endemic n the system, and no state is immune. For instance, Texas has a healthy score of 66.7; yet, the city of <a href="http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/screwed-over-retirees-dallas-suspends-withdrawals-from-insolvent-pension-system_12092016" type="external">Dallas just announced that it is suspending pensions payments to city rescue workers</a> and employees. There’s a serious disconnect.</p>
<p>Once things go downhill, violence, crime, looting, riots and the like become chronic problems. The police state presence is also an issue, and society goes on edge.</p>
<p>Everyone can feel the sinking depths, and order is about to implode. When things go primal, you do not want to be around to get caught up in it.</p>
<p>Being inside a major city on the day that the ATMs stop spitting out cash, or EBT cards don’t work will be an incredibly dangerous day. Relying upon government bureaucracy and functioning technology to meet your vital needs is a good position to be in during an emergency situation – be it economic crisis, hurricane, power grid failure or something else.</p>
<p>Joel Skousen <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1568612621?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&amp;tag=-&amp;creativeASIN=1568612621" type="external">described in great detail how to avoid</a> the urban areas that will become completely dysfunctional nightmares at the first sign of a major emergency.</p>
<p>Your retreat should be strategically chosen to lay outside of certain regions, military targets and fragile climates. Knowledge of the back roads is essential to planning a route that won’t leave you stranded on the highway in endless gridlock.</p>
<p>Above all, it is advisable to avoid mass populated areas, especially big cities on the East and West Coast. People are prone to panic, and will be easily cut off from essential services become desperate. There are far too many bad apples in that ratio for any good to result.</p>
<p>Avoidance is key – and that is why living in a “death spiral” state like California or New York could be a major liability during a crisis, or alternately a prolonged collapse.</p>
<p>CalPers pension… a massive black hole that is merely carving a path for many failed states to come.</p>
<p>The future is austere if this equation isn’t balanced out:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/debt-super-cycle-will-destroy-u-s-standard-of-living-overnight-leave-society-gasping-and-stupefied_06162016" type="external">Tom Chatham</a> warns about the abrupt change that is coming home to roost in America. Things can get really bad, really quick.</p>
<p>But really, most of us don’t know how bad it will get:</p>
<p>Americans that have only known the post WWII prosperity are ill equipped and educated to deal with depression level living. Easy credit and instant gratification have created a nation of whining, self absorbed, entitlement minded people with no moral or mental toughness.</p>
<p>Doug Casey believes we are headed for what he calls a super depression created by the ending of a debt super cycle. The bigger the debt cycle the bigger the depression that follows. That’s how reality works and most people are not prepared for reality.</p>
<p>When this depression, which has already started, gets momentum, it will overwhelm the plans of a society that is expecting to get things like social security, pensions and payouts from retirement plans they have paid into for many years. All of those things will disappear almost overnight and leave society gasping and stupefied over what to do.</p>
<p>The big reveal is coming: inside that great big old lock box… is just another I.O.U.</p>
<p>Are you prepared for the future, and all the economic uncertainty it could bring?</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.shtfplan.com/conspiracy-fact-and-theory/are-you-living-in-a-death-spiral-these-6-states-will-collapse-during-the-next-recession_12132016" type="external">SHTFplan.com</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Are You “Living In a Death Spiral”? These 6 States Will Collapse During the Next Recession | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2016/12/14/are-you-living-in-a-death-spiral-these-6-states-will-collapse-during-the-next-recession/ | 2016-12-14 | 0 |
<p>The Earth is approaching a dangerous threshold where it may longer be a “safe operating space” for human beings in the coming decades, according to a new study published in the journal Science by 18 researchers who try to estimate at what point the natural world reaches its breaking point.</p>
<p>The paper says we have crossed four of the nine “planetary boundaries”: extinction rate, deforestation, the flow of nitrogen and phosphorous into the ocean, and the level of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/scientists-human-activity-has-pushed-earth-beyond-four-of-nine-planetary-boundaries/2015/01/15/f52b61b6-9b5e-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html" type="external">Washington Post report</a>.</p>
<p>Human activities are destabilizing the global environment, according to Will Steffen, the scientist who is the lead author of the paper. He holds appointments at the Australian National University and Stockholm Resilience Center, according to the Post report.</p>
<p>Steffen called them urgent matters, not future problems, noting that the economic boom since 1950 and a globalized economy have accelerated the pace at which humans are encroaching on these planetary boundaries. Although it’s impossible to say when the tipping point will be, the destabilization of Earth could occur in less than a century, he said.</p>
<p>His team focused on nine planetary boundaries that were first identified in a 2009 paper, which sets limits on changes to the environment. Beyond the boundary is a “zone of uncertainty” that shows that not much is known about what happenes when the boundaries are crossed, and gives people some time to make changes. But they represent unknown planetary conditions.</p>
<p>One scientist described the boundaries as an avalanche warning on a ski slope, or a high-temperature gauge on one’s car.</p>
<p>Human civilization has existed for 10,000 years during relatively stable environmental conditions, and no one knows exactly what will happen if these boundaries continue to be crossed, but scientists believe it is likely to at least make the planet much less hospitable to the development of humankind.</p>
<p>The paper did not provide solutions, but simply explained the problem.</p>
<p>The paper represents exploration of a new field of science known as Earth Systems Science, which draws on ecology, geology, chemistry, atmospheric science, economics, and marine biology, according to the report.</p>
<p>One boundary humans have exceeded if the safe-operating-zone boundary for CO2, which was estimated at 350 parts per million, a limit humans have already succeeded at 400 ppm. The zone of uncertainty for CO2 is considered to be 350 to 450 ppm. With CO2 continuing to rise at 2 ppm per year, we could surpass even that in just a couple of decades.</p>
<p /> | Alarming study: Human activity has pushed Earth past four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’ | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/17/alarming-study-human-activity-has-pushed-earth-past-four-of-nine-planetary-boundaries/ | 2015-01-17 | 3 |
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