text
stringlengths 0
127k
| title
stringlengths 0
777
| hyperpartisan
bool 2
classes | url
stringlengths 26
278
| published_at
stringlengths 0
10
| bias
int64 0
4
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Times Publisher and Chief Executive Ross Levinsohn was placed on an unpaid leave of absence amid allegations of past improper behavior, it was announced Friday.</p>
<p>The news followed word that Times journalists had voted to join a union — a first in the paper’s 136-year history.</p>
<p>Some Times employees had called for Levinsohn to be fired after National Public Radio reported Thursday on allegations that he had engaged in what has been termed “frat-boy” behavior while serving as an executive at two previous companies and was a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits before he joined the Times on Aug. 21.</p>
<p>“Levinsohn has lost credibility as the leader of one of the country’s top newspapers,” said a petition to Times parent company Tronc Inc. signed by more than 200 staff members.</p>
<p>Levinsohn will be replaced by President Mickie Rosen while Tronc investigates the allegations.</p>
<p>“We will not hesitate to take further action, if appropriate, once the review is complete,” Tronc CEO Justin Dearborn said in an email to employees, the Times reported. He didn’t say how long the investigation might last.</p>
<p>Levinsohn was the Times’ fifth publisher in as many years. That turnover has contributed to rising discontent in the newsroom, which also saw jobs slashed and benefits cut as the Times struggled with declining advertising revenues and circulation in the face of online competition.</p>
<p>Times daily circulation is now under 274,000, down from a high of more than 1 million in 1990.</p>
<p>Times union organizers also were incensed that while staff benefits were being cut, Tronc last month signed a $5 million-a-year contract with a consulting business owned by its chairman, Michael Ferro.</p>
<p>On Friday, a National Labor Relations Board tally found that newsroom workers voted 248 to 44 for representation by NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America. The vote was taken on Jan. 4.</p>
<p>The union must now negotiate for a collective bargaining agreement. The union said it will seek better pay and benefits as well as “pay equity for women and people of color, greater diversity and better working conditions” for reporters, copy editors, graphic artists and photographers.</p>
<p>“This was a long time coming, and we’re all thrilled that this has finally happened,” Kristina Bui, a Times copy editor and union organizer, told the newspaper. “The newsroom has put up with so much disruption and mismanagement, and this vote just underscores how much of a say we need to have in the decision-making process. The newsroom is demanding a seat at the bargaining table.”</p>
<p>“We respect the outcome of the election and look forward to productive conversations with union leadership as we move forward,” Tronc said in a statement. “We remain committed to ensuring that the Los Angeles Times is a leading source for news and information and to producing the award-winning journalism our readers rely on.”</p>
<p>Tronc fought Times organizing efforts. A day before the vote, the paper’s editor-in-chief and former interim executive editor sent employees an email arguing that “a union won’t solve most of the problems endemic to our industry.”</p>
<p>Most major news organizations in the United States, including The Associated Press, are unionized and digital media such as the Huffington Post also have seen successful organizing efforts.</p>
<p>The Times was owned for much of its history by the Chandler family and the paper was fervently anti-union. In 2000 it was sold to the Tribune Co., which went through a period of bankruptcy and turmoil. The company spun off its publishing arm as Tribune Publishing in 2014, which was later renamed Tronc, for Tribune Online Content.</p>
<p>Chicago-based Tronc is the nation’s third-largest newspaper publisher and its properties include many venerable papers, including the Chicago Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun.</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Times Publisher and Chief Executive Ross Levinsohn was placed on an unpaid leave of absence amid allegations of past improper behavior, it was announced Friday.</p>
<p>The news followed word that Times journalists had voted to join a union — a first in the paper’s 136-year history.</p>
<p>Some Times employees had called for Levinsohn to be fired after National Public Radio reported Thursday on allegations that he had engaged in what has been termed “frat-boy” behavior while serving as an executive at two previous companies and was a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits before he joined the Times on Aug. 21.</p>
<p>“Levinsohn has lost credibility as the leader of one of the country’s top newspapers,” said a petition to Times parent company Tronc Inc. signed by more than 200 staff members.</p>
<p>Levinsohn will be replaced by President Mickie Rosen while Tronc investigates the allegations.</p>
<p>“We will not hesitate to take further action, if appropriate, once the review is complete,” Tronc CEO Justin Dearborn said in an email to employees, the Times reported. He didn’t say how long the investigation might last.</p>
<p>Levinsohn was the Times’ fifth publisher in as many years. That turnover has contributed to rising discontent in the newsroom, which also saw jobs slashed and benefits cut as the Times struggled with declining advertising revenues and circulation in the face of online competition.</p>
<p>Times daily circulation is now under 274,000, down from a high of more than 1 million in 1990.</p>
<p>Times union organizers also were incensed that while staff benefits were being cut, Tronc last month signed a $5 million-a-year contract with a consulting business owned by its chairman, Michael Ferro.</p>
<p>On Friday, a National Labor Relations Board tally found that newsroom workers voted 248 to 44 for representation by NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America. The vote was taken on Jan. 4.</p>
<p>The union must now negotiate for a collective bargaining agreement. The union said it will seek better pay and benefits as well as “pay equity for women and people of color, greater diversity and better working conditions” for reporters, copy editors, graphic artists and photographers.</p>
<p>“This was a long time coming, and we’re all thrilled that this has finally happened,” Kristina Bui, a Times copy editor and union organizer, told the newspaper. “The newsroom has put up with so much disruption and mismanagement, and this vote just underscores how much of a say we need to have in the decision-making process. The newsroom is demanding a seat at the bargaining table.”</p>
<p>“We respect the outcome of the election and look forward to productive conversations with union leadership as we move forward,” Tronc said in a statement. “We remain committed to ensuring that the Los Angeles Times is a leading source for news and information and to producing the award-winning journalism our readers rely on.”</p>
<p>Tronc fought Times organizing efforts. A day before the vote, the paper’s editor-in-chief and former interim executive editor sent employees an email arguing that “a union won’t solve most of the problems endemic to our industry.”</p>
<p>Most major news organizations in the United States, including The Associated Press, are unionized and digital media such as the Huffington Post also have seen successful organizing efforts.</p>
<p>The Times was owned for much of its history by the Chandler family and the paper was fervently anti-union. In 2000 it was sold to the Tribune Co., which went through a period of bankruptcy and turmoil. The company spun off its publishing arm as Tribune Publishing in 2014, which was later renamed Tronc, for Tribune Online Content.</p>
<p>Chicago-based Tronc is the nation’s third-largest newspaper publisher and its properties include many venerable papers, including the Chicago Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun.</p> | Los Angeles Times loses publisher, gets union | false | https://apnews.com/35ad869510664c6c8423c6f744c76196 | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
<p>While the graying <a href="" type="internal">Hiroshima Generations</a> who survived the atomic bomb attack seven decades ago are struggling to pass their memories to the younger generations, much of the world has allowed that fateful morning on Aug 6, 1945 to slip from their minds.</p>
<p>About 66,000 people, mostly civilians, perished, according to <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/index.shtml" type="external">a report</a> prepared by the US Army one year after the attack. Another 69,000 were injured and tens of thousands more were affected by radiation disease.</p>
<p>But how to show the damage more clearly? We've developed an application that allows you to visualize the damage of the same atomic bomb on another location in today's world, such as your hometown. You may be surprised at the extent of the damage.</p>
<p>The estimated damage and fatalities were made based on several reports: <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/index.shtml" type="external">The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki</a> prepared by the Manhattan Engineer District, a part of the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb, <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS/AtomicEffects/AtomicEffects-2.html" type="external">The Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagaski</a> prepared by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, and <a href="http://www.hiroshima-remembered.com/maps/HiroshimaMap.html" type="external">computed data</a> in Medical Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan by A. W. Oughterson and S. Warren. The estimation does not take into account the differences in geography and weather.</p>
<p>If you prefer a more scientific estimation of the damage and the options to choose different atomic bombs, Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology, has created a simulator called <a href="http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/" type="external">Nukemap</a>.</p>
<p>If you wonder what was the&#160;damage done to Hiroshima then, the interactive image below shows the aerial photos&#160;of Hiroshima&#160;before and after the attack.&#160;Move the slider to see full images. The bottom image is a Google satellite image of&#160;today's Hiroshima.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Google Satellite image showing today's Hiroshima, 70 years after the atomic bomb attack.</p>
<p>UPDATE: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the images&#160;showing Hiroshima before and after the bombing are satellite images. We regret the error.</p>
<p>This story is part of the <a href="" type="internal">Hiroshima Generations</a> series supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.</p>
<p>A few other stories included in this series:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Marco Werman: The Bomb saved my mom</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">This Hiroshima survivor's family now includes American in-laws</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">After the A-bomb survivors die, who will be Hiroshima's memory keepers?</a></p> | What if your hometown were hit by the Hiroshima atomic bomb? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-08-04/what-if-your-hometown-were-hit-hiroshima-atomic-bomb | 2015-08-04 | 3 |
<p />
<p />
<p>It is interesting to note that the neighbor had dogs, and the bacon was covered with an oily substance. They couldn't identify if the substance was poisonous.</p>
<p>You have to wonder what sort of nefarious plan Cater had with the suspicious bacon. Cater's plan was foiled when the property owner, Bobby Wood, went to check on his dogs because they were barking. Cater was found hiding behind the dog pen. Mr. Wood called the sheriff's department, and Cater was charged with trespassing.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>We can only speculate on whether Cater had evil intentions, or was just going for a stroll with his gun and suspicious bacon. Whatever his intentions, no one was hurt. However, the mystery of the suspicious bacon continues.</p> | Virginia Man Charged With Trespassing Carrying 'Suspicious Bacon' | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2016/02/02/virginia-man-charged-with-trespassing-carrying-suspicious-bacon/ | 2016-02-02 | 4 |
<p>Deputy Police Chief John Barbieri drives through Springfield, Massachusett's North End neighborhood in his cruiser. Several years ago, a Puerto Rican gang had a violent stranglehold on this largely Latino community. In one week there were three murders, including a gun battle in a hospital parking lot. It was like something out of a movie.</p>
<p>And Barbeiri said he was desperate. In large part because he couldn't get people in the community to talk to him.</p>
<p>"I've worked in this neighborhood off and on in the heydays of community policing, as a gang intelligence officer, as a detective, in narcotics and I've never been able to foster any type of long term commitment in this neighborhood. I get one or two people that will talk to me but the majority of residents are afraid, inured or apathetic."</p>
<p>Army Major Kevin "Kit" Parker said getting rid of the bad guys isn't rocket science.</p>
<p>"The business model of insurgents in Afghanistan and the business model of gangs in the inner city in the United States is the same. It's the same business model and I know counter insurgency can work if properly applied," he said.</p>
<p>Parker, a Harvard professor and army reservist, served two tours in Afghanistan. About three years ago he joined forces with other vets, who also happen to be Massachusetts state troopers, and developed what they call "Counter Criminal Continuum" or C3 policing, a combination of aggressive arrests combined with equally aggressive community relations. They used the north end of Springfield as their test case.</p>
<p>What happens, he said, is that gangs seek out and set up shop in failed communities. And local residents are paralyzed by fear and afraid to speak to police.</p>
<p>Deputy Chief Barbieri said the officers' commitment and presence transformed the way residents saw the police.</p>
<p>"I used to drive down the street I used to get suspicious looks," he said. "The change in their attitude… I get people that wave to me want to talk to me say hello now. the joke is they wave at me with all their fingers not just one."</p>
<p>Key to C3 policing is getting locals to buy into it. To do that, the state troopers hold monthly meetings with community leaders modeled on the Shuras that military guys hold with village elders in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>As many as 25 local officials and activists show up. They discuss everything from ways to deter drag racing to dealing with kids who smoke pot in the hallways of housing developments. The leaders are people like Jose Claudio, the director of the New North Citizens Council is amazed at the relationship that's grown between the community and the cops.</p>
<p>"And thank God that we have the good relationship with them and that really I think that it's going to keep going," Claudio said. "Lately if you see our meetings it's more focused on the community and the Springfield police doing a lot of the work.</p>
<p>C3 may sound like "community policing," but Deputy Police Chief Barbeiri is adamant that C3 works far better. Community policing was based on grant-funded, specialized units. When the money dried up, often the community policing units went away too.</p>
<p>What C3 does is get the local beat cops involved, in both the arrests and community relations. So when the C3 guys go away, the program continues.</p>
<p>Kit Parker, ever the Harvard professor, wasn't content to accept anecdotal evidence that his program was working. So he brought in his students to measure what he calls "the efficacy of the work."</p>
<p>They looked at lots of things, big and small: murders, graffiti, teen pregnancy—anything that might be changed by getting gangs off the streets. Parker says one of the most hopeful discoveries was that North End students were doing better in school.</p>
<p>"If you have a kid who lives in a rough, violent neighborhood," Parker said, "they are the conduit to export this violent to other schools. And what we found is that kids in the North End were behaving better when they went to other schools.</p>
<p>The success of C3 policing in the North End has motivated local law enforcement to try it in other parts of the city. And the C3 creators have received dozens of requests from people across the country who want to start the program in their communities. Parker knows how hard it is to turn a community around, whether it's full of gangs or insurgents.</p>
<p>"I don't know what's going to happen in Afghanistan with that counter insurgency but I do want to win one war in my life. I didn't fight in Iraq I fought in Afghanistan. I want to win one counter insurgency it may be that the North End of Springfield is the closest I get to participating in a victory."</p>
<p>60 Minutes Counterinsurgency Cops: Military tactics fight street crime</p> | Military's Counter Insurgency Strategy — C3 Policing — a Success in Massachusett | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-07-11/militarys-counter-insurgency-strategy-c3-policing-success-massachusett | 2013-07-11 | 3 |
<p>Pink is heading to the Super Bowl to sing the national anthem.</p>
<p>The NFL announced Monday that the pop star will perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the game on Feb. 4 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>Justin Timberlake is set to headline the halftime show. The Super Bowl will air live on NBC.</p>
<p>Pink released her seventh studio album, "Beautiful Trauma," in October. Its lead single, "What About Us," is nominated for a Grammy this month.</p>
<p>The Grammy- and Emmy-winning singer's hits include "So What," ''Get the Party Started" and "Just Give Me a Reason."</p>
<p>Pink is heading to the Super Bowl to sing the national anthem.</p>
<p>The NFL announced Monday that the pop star will perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the game on Feb. 4 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>Justin Timberlake is set to headline the halftime show. The Super Bowl will air live on NBC.</p>
<p>Pink released her seventh studio album, "Beautiful Trauma," in October. Its lead single, "What About Us," is nominated for a Grammy this month.</p>
<p>The Grammy- and Emmy-winning singer's hits include "So What," ''Get the Party Started" and "Just Give Me a Reason."</p> | Pink to sing national anthem at Super Bowl | false | https://apnews.com/amp/9b4db02e91d4404ba4878e0263bb4d9e | 2018-01-08 | 2 |
<p>No state has done more in the post-Jim Crow era to restrict voting rights than North Carolina. Just weeks after the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, the state enacted a <a href="" type="internal">comprehensive voter suppression law</a> that pulled together many different provisions used to restrict voting in other states. Meanwhile, its congressional maps offer only the illusion of a democracy. During the last presidential election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_North_Carolina,_2012" type="external">received just over 50 percent of the popular vote</a> in North Carolina. Nevertheless, Republicans <a href="http://www.politico.com/2012-election/results/house/north-carolina/" type="external">won 9 of the state’s 13 seats</a> in the U.S. House under North Carolina’s gerrymandered maps.</p>
<p>If a decision handed down by a panel of three federal judges on Friday stands, however, the <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/North-Carolina-Decision.pdf" type="external">state will need to change its congressional maps</a> — and fast. Judge Roger Gregory’s opinion for a majority of the panel not only holds that two of the state’s congressional districts are the product of an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, it “require[s] that new districts be drawn within two weeks of the entry of this opinion to remedy the unconstitutional districts.” Thus, the state legislature is now looking at a February 19 deadline to fix its gerrymandered maps.</p>
<p>The Court’s opinion in Harris v. McCrory turns on North Carolina congressional districts 1 and 12. According to Judge Gregory’s opinion, the state’s mapmaker — a redistricting expert “who served as redistricting coordinator for the Republican National Committee for the 1990, 2000, and 2010 redistricting cycles” — intentionally packed black voters into these two districts, a decision that would have diminished the impact of the African-American vote in other parts of the state. The court concludes that North Carolina set a “racial quota” in each of these districts, and insisted that other considerations must subordinate themselves to this quota.</p>
<p>Indeed, the Court describes the 12th District as a “serpentine district [that] has been dubbed the least geographically compact district in the Nation” — though, admittedly, the district owes its odd shape at least as much to the legacy of partisan gerrymandering as it does to the more recent racial gerrymander. As Judge Max Cogburn describes this district in a concurring opinion:</p>
<p>It is a district so contorted and contrived that the United States Courthouse in Charlotte, where this concurrence was written, is five blocks within its boundary, and the United States Courthouse in Greensboro, where the trial was held, is five blocks outside the same district, despite being more than 90 miles apart and located in separate federal judicial districts. How a voter can know who their representative is or how a representative can meet with those pocketed voters is beyond comprehension.</p>
<p>At the very least, the court’s opinion would require the state to redraw the two offending districts, a process that will necessarily have ripple effects into other nearby districts. Moreover, because race often correlates with partisan affiliation, the new maps could give Democrats a better shot at winning some of the affected districts. Nevertheless, there are several reasons why opponents of gerrymandering should pause before they break out the champagne.</p>
<p>First, the North Carolina case resembles the Supreme Court’s recent decision in <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-895_o7jq.pdf" type="external">Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama</a> which expressed skepticism of a similar racial gerrymander. The Alabama case, however, involved a much more aggressive gerrymander — Alabama packed some districts so that over 70 percent of the population would be black, while the two North Carolina districts were only a little over 50 percent black. And the Supreme Court’s decision was only 5–4 in Alabama. It’s possible that conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, in particular, will see the North Carolina case differently than he saw Alabama’s.</p>
<p>Additionally, while the Supreme Court has drawn boundaries around states’ ability to engage in racial gerrymanders, a majority of the Court has left states <a href="" type="internal">free to draw politically gerrymandered maps</a>. The result, as Judge Cogburn laments in his concurring opinion, is that “the fundamental principle of the voters choosing their representative has nearly vanished. Instead, representatives choose their voters.”</p>
<p>Finally, it’s worth noting just how long it took for a court to strike down North Carolina’s maps, which were drawn in 2011. Since those maps were drawn, the state ran two entire congressional elections and sent four years worth of congressional delegations to Washington based on the gerrymandered maps. Even if the state complies with Judge Gregory’s February 19 deadline, the message to lawmakers is clear: go ahead and draw the most self-serving maps you can manage, because even if they are struck down it will take the courts years to do so.</p> | Federal Court Says North Carolina’s Gerrymandered Maps Are Unconstitutional | true | http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/08/3746987/federal-court-says-north-carolinas-gerrymandered-maps-are-unconstitutional/ | 2016-02-08 | 4 |
<p>Ronald Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. &lt;a href="https://reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/photographs/speeches.html"&gt;Ronald Reagan Presidential Library&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p />
<p>On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan took to the airwaves <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApTnYwh5KvE" type="external">to announce</a> the first steps toward building an ambitious defense system that would protect America from nuclear annihilation. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) called for an array of space-based lasers that could knock incoming Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) right out of the sky. The fanciful, technologically implausible concept was immediately lampooned as “Star Wars.” Yet over the next three-and-a-half decades, the federal government sank <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CP135s95DLoJ:https://www.mda.mil/global/documents/pdf/FY16_histfunds.pdf+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us" type="external">more than $239 billion</a> (in 2016 dollars) into making some version of this Cold War daydream into reality, without much success.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Now it’s Donald Trump’s turn. Under the banner of “ <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/making-our-military-strong-again" type="external">Making Our Military Strong Again,</a>” the president has pledged to “develop a state-of-the-art missile defense system to protect against missile-based attacks from states like Iran and North Korea.” Stopping a nuke from Pyongyang may sound more realistic than shooting down hundreds of Russian missiles, but there’s still a long way to go. The existing missile defense system, according to the <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/us-missile-defense#.WIZuX5J0ATU" type="external">Union of Concerned</a> <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/us-missile-defense#.WIZuX5J0ATU" type="external">Scientists</a>, “is hugely expensive, ineffective, and offers no proven capability to protect the United States.”</p>
<p>Here’s a brief history of Star Wars’ prequels and sequels.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Soviet Union tests its first ICBM. Four months later, the United States successfully launches its first ICBM and begins work on its first anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, which would use nuclear-tipped interceptors to destroy incoming enemy warheads in space.</p>
<p>The Soviet Union successfully intercepts a ballistic missile. It and the United States spend the next decade researching and testing ABM defense systems.</p>
<p>The United States and the USSR sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, limiting each country to two ABM sites and no more 100 ABMs. A later amendment to the treaty limits each country to just one missile site.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/offdocs/rrspch.htm" type="external">national television broadcast</a>, Reagan announces that the United States will develop a space-based missile defense program that would render nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.” The system is a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/07/us/reagan-is-warned-by-senator-nunn-over-abm-treaty.html" type="external">potential violation</a> of the ABM Treaty. Seen as technologically unachievable, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) becomes known as “Star Wars.”</p>
<p />
<p>President George H.W. Bush scales back the SDI program and announces the&#160;Global Protection Against Limited Strikes (GPALS) system, aimed at countering small or accidental attacks. The plan, which calls for putting thousands of small interceptor rockets into orbit around the earth, is quickly canceled.</p>
<p>Secretary of Defense Les Aspin declares “the end of the ‘Star Wars’ era” with the launch of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, which focuses on regional, rather than intercontinental, missile defense.</p>
<p>After nearly a decade of research and continued calls for a national missile defense system from Republican members of Congress, President Bill Clinton signs the National Missile Defense Act of 1999, committing the country to deploying a national missile defense system “as soon as technologically possible.” Clinton won’t say when that might actually be. North Korea <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/01/world/north-korea-fires-missile-over-japanese-territory.html" type="external">fires</a> a ballistic missile over Japan.</p>
<p>Following a series of failed tests, the director of the Pentagon’s Office of Test and Evaluation releases <a href="http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/nmdcoylerep.pdf" type="external">a devastating report</a> on how the tests for the proposed defense system had been set up to ensure the perception of success.</p>
<p>President George W. Bush outlines his vision for a renewed national missile defense program and announces his intention to withdraw from the ABM Treaty. Bush orders that missile defense capabilities are put into place within two years. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program is exempt from the Pentagon’s oversight and accountability standards in order to meet its deadline.</p>
<p>Construction of six missile interceptor silos begins at Fort Greely, Alaska. The United States withdraws from the ABM Treaty, leading to its termination.</p>
<p />
<p>By 2012, 30 interceptors are deployed—4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and the remaining 26 at Fort Greely. Tests of the new system <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-missile-defense-20140615-story.html" type="external">fail more often than not</a>, despite being carefully scripted for success.</p>
<p>In response to threats from North Korea, the Obama administration <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/us/missile-defense-interceptor-misses-target-in-test.html" type="external">commits $1 billion</a> to increase the total number of interceptors to 44 by the end of 2017. A failed interceptor test leads Philip E. Coyle III, who previously ran the Pentagon’s weapons-testing program, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/us/missile-defense-interceptor-misses-target-in-test.html" type="external">to state</a> that the system “is something the U.S. military, and the American people, cannot depend upon.”</p>
<p>The GMD is expected to add <a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-missile-defense-longevity/" type="external">a third interceptor site</a>—costing approximately $4 billion. President Trump says he will develop a state-of-the-art missile defense system.</p>
<p />
<p /> | A History of Missile Defense, From “Star Wars” to Trump | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/donald-trump-missile-defense-star-wars/ | 2017-01-27 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>GOODWIN: Board settled to avoid more costs</p>
<p>MALOTT: Says payment proves his integrity</p>
<p>Malott filed the lawsuit two years ago when the board refused to pay for his personal attorney fees based on an attorney general’s opinion and because he was also represented by lawyers hired by the state.</p>
<p>The ERB oversees an $11 billion pension fund for more than 90,000 teachers and retired teachers.</p>
<p>In his lawsuit, Malott claimed his personal interests were not always the same as the board’s. He said he required separate legal counsel and was entitled to it under state law.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The attorney general’s opinion stated clearly that I should not be reimbursed for my legal fees if I had done anything wrong, so this payment only demonstrates what I have said all along – that I have acted with integrity throughout my tenure at the ERB,” Malott said.</p>
<p>ERB Executive Director Jan Goodwin said in a statement, “Consistent with a ruling issued by U.S. District Court Judge Martha Vázquez earlier this year, the agency determined that a settlement was in the best interest of ERB members and beneficiaries. Continued litigation held the risk of escalating costs and an uncertain outcome.</p>
<p>“The settlement allows ERB to focus its attention on its mission of serving its members,” she said.</p>
<p>The ERB was represented by the Attorney General’s Office in the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Malott had also asked for reimbursement for hiring a public relations firm, but dropped that request before filing his lawsuit.</p>
<p>Malott was named as a defendant in five separate civil lawsuits that claimed investments by the State Investment Council and the Educational Retirement Board were steered to investment firms by placement agents with close ties to then-Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration. The main placement agent, Marc Correra, shared in more than $22 million in fees for steering state investments from the SIC and the ERB to firms that paid him.</p>
<p>Correra’s father, Anthony Correra, was part of Richardson’s inner circle, and raised money for his campaigns for governor and president.</p>
<p>While serving on the ERB, Malott received a $340,000 loan from the elder Correra through a trust.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Malott resigned as chairman of the ERB following an interview with the Journal about the loan, which had not been disclosed to the ERB, the public or to Richardson, who had appointed Malott to the ERB.</p>
<p>Malott eventually repaid the loan with interest and said he was unaware that Marc Correra was involved in representing firms getting investments from the ERB.</p>
<p>Malott later sued Anthony Correra and others, claiming he was “duped” by a man he considered a close personal friend.</p>
<p>Malott was interviewed as a witness by investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI in 2010, according to the lawsuit. Neither investigation led to any indictments or regulatory charges.</p>
<p>Most of the lawsuits involving the investment scandal, including Malott’s case against Correra, are on hold pending a state Supreme Court ruling on issues surrounding a Fraud Against Taxpayers lawsuit brought by former ERB Chief Investment Officer Frank Foy.</p>
<p>Any future legal billings by Malott’s private attorneys are not included in the settlement and the ERB agreed only that he is entitled to make a request for payment for personal legal representation in the future.</p>
<p>Foy filed the first lawsuit claiming fraud in state investment practices in 2008.</p>
<p>Legal action by the State Investment Council is ongoing and more than $28.5 million has been recovered from investment firms involved in the scandal.</p>
<p />
<p /> | ERB settles with former chairman for $125K | false | https://abqjournal.com/473338/erb-pays-former-chairman-125k.html | 2 |
|
<p>Images of war carry a force the facts alone hardly ever sponsor. When American soldiers went to Vietnam, they also stayed at home, on television, in battle reports that droned for a precise interval and then ceased for 24 hours, and these few feet of action-news, as it is now called, clipped and framed and grimly packaged, helped to form and indeed were for most Americans the experience of the Vietnamese war. The effect was curiously abstract. Its technical adeptness had perhaps something in common with American management of the war itself. Yet there are images of a different kind that operate more severely on their witnesses. I remember, for example, a boy from high school, the only one I knew who went to Vietnam, an awkward, nervous, and ironic student with a precocious sense of life's weight that made him seem always in retreat. A gifted musician, he shared my idiocies in chemistry. He was killed in the back of a lorry, among the odd and out, when a South Vietnamese unit mistakenly attacked some Americans: he had joined a band and gone over, at eighteen, to entertain. Would the war have been less murderous if the news we all saw had been filled with episodes like this, and not with the drained faces of anonymous soldiers? It is hard to know. We stubbornly and quite understandably go on believing that recognition, where matters of life and death are concerned, has at least the power to chasten.</p>
<p /> | Documentary in Search of a War | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/documentary-in-search-of-a-war | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>California may go big for Ted Cruz. On Monday, Cruz released a list of 50 prominent California Republicans who endorse his candidacy.</p>
<p>Board of Equalization member Diane Harkey, the state’s highest-ranking elected Republican, endorsed Cruz, as well as state Sen. Ted Gaines and Assembly members Marie Waldron, Travis Allen, Brian Jones, Don Wagner and Jay Obernolte. Cruz had already secured the endorsements of conservative icons congressmen <a href="https://www.tedcruz.org/news/congressman-tom-mcclintock-endorses-ted-cruz-for-president/" type="external">Tom McClintock</a> and <a href="https://www.tedcruz.org/news/u-s-congressman-dana-rohrabacher-endorses-ted-cruz-for-president/" type="external">Dana Rohrabacher</a>, along with assemblyman Matthew Harper and assemblywoman Shannon Grove. In February the California Republican Assembly <a href="https://www.tedcruz.org/news/california-republican-assembly-endorses-ted-cruz-for-president/" type="external">endorsed</a> Cruz at its statewide convention.</p>
<p>Cruz stated, “I’m honored to receive the support of Republican leaders who are working hard to put conservative ideas into action in California. Conservatives are continuing to unite behind our campaign to win the Republican nomination and defeat Hillary Clinton in November, and the people of California will be critical to our success.”</p>
<p>The full list released Monday, according to <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article71240132.html" type="external">The Sacramento Bee</a>, included:</p>
<p>Diane Harkey, Board of Equalization</p>
<p>Ted Gaines, state senator</p>
<p>Marie Waldron, assemblywoman</p>
<p>Travis Allen, assemblyman</p>
<p>Brian Jones, assemblyman</p>
<p>Don Wagner, assemblyman</p>
<p>Jay Obernolte, assemblyman</p>
<p>Jim Battin, former state senator</p>
<p>Dennis Hollingsworth, former state Senate Republican leader</p>
<p>Martin Garrick, former Assembly Republican leader</p>
<p>Scott Baugh, former Assembly Republican leader</p>
<p>Orange County officials:</p>
<p>Tony Beall, Rancho Santa Margarita mayor</p>
<p>Ryan Bent, Yorba Linda library commissioner</p>
<p>Alexandria Coronado, former school board member</p>
<p>Alexia Deligianni-Brydges, Orange Unified School Board</p>
<p>Robert Hammond, Orange County Board of Education president</p>
<p>Steven Knoblock, former San Clemente city councilman</p>
<p>Mark McCurdy, Fountain Valley city councilman</p>
<p>Mike Munzig, Aliso Viejo city council</p>
<p>Shawn Nelson, Orange County supervisor</p>
<p>Scott Peotter, Newport Beach City Council</p>
<p>Dwight Robinson, Lake Forest City Council</p>
<p>Michelle Steel, Orange County supervisor</p>
<p>Mike Vaughn, Rancho Santa Margarita City Council</p>
<p>San Diego County officials:</p>
<p>Kristine Alessio, La Mesa City Council</p>
<p>Bill Baber, La Mesa vice mayor</p>
<p>Richard Bailey, Coronado City Council</p>
<p>David Chong, La Mesa Spring Valley School Board</p>
<p>Gary Felien, former Oceanside city councilman</p>
<p>Ed Gallo, Escondido City Council</p>
<p>Robert “Camo” E. Gleisberg, Oceanside School Board</p>
<p>San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith</p>
<p>Kristal Jabara, San Marcos City Council</p>
<p>Rebecca Jones, San Marcos vice mayor</p>
<p>Jim Kelly, Grossmont Union High School District</p>
<p>Christi Knight, Escondido High School District</p>
<p>Ginger Marshall, Solana Beach City Council</p>
<p>John McCann, Chula Vista City Council</p>
<p>Bob McClellan, El Cajon City Council</p>
<p>Guy McWhirter, La Mesa City Council</p>
<p>Mike Morasco, Escondido vice mayor</p>
<p>Mark Muir, Encinitas City Council</p>
<p>Maureen “Mo” Muir, San Dieguito High School Board</p>
<p>Mark Packard, Carlsbad City Council</p>
<p>Amanda Rigby, Vista deputy mayor</p>
<p>Jean Roesch, former Southwestern Community College District board member</p>
<p>Mark Robak, Otay Water District</p>
<p>Robert Shield, Grossmont Union High School District</p>
<p>Randy Voepel, Santee mayor</p>
<p>Bill Wells, El Cajon mayor</p>
<p>Rick Winet, La Mesa School Board president</p> | California, Here He Comes: 50 California Republican Officials Endorse Cruz | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4884/california-here-he-comes-50-california-republican-hank-berrien | 2016-04-12 | 0 |
<p>Mitt Romney won the Republican <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-strawpoll12aug12,0,3771563.story?coll=la-home-nation" type="external">straw poll</a> in Iowa on Saturday by a wide margin, but his victory was tempered by the conspicuous absence of the other big names in the campaign: John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, turned heads with a surprising second-place finish. Tommy Thompson said previously he would drop out of the race if he didn’t get second or better. He placed sixth.</p>
<p>Los Angeles Times:</p>
<p>The contest drew 14,302 voters to the Iowa State University basketball arena. … It was a sharp drop from the 23,685 who cast ballots eight years ago in the Ames straw poll that affirmed George W. Bush’s lead in his first run for the presidency.</p>
<p>Romney led with 32% of the votes, followed by Huckabee, who won 18%. Finishing third was Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas with 15%. In fourth place was Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, who has made the fight against illegal immigration his campaign centerpiece. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was fifth.</p>
<p />
<p>The results appeared likely to end the campaign of former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin, who finished sixth. He had vowed to drop out of the race if he fell short of second place in Ames.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-strawpoll12aug12,0,3771563.story?coll=la-home-nation" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Romney Wins Iowa Straw Poll | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/romney-wins-iowa-straw-poll/ | 2007-08-13 | 4 |
<p>MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Republican Gov. Charlie Baker says President Donald Trump should apologize for <a href="" type="internal">vulgar language</a> attributed to him during an Oval Office meeting.</p>
<p>Baker on Friday called "appalling and disgraceful" the comments Trump made while questoning why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and Africa, rather than places like Norway.</p>
<p>Baker told reporters the president "owes an apology to all of the people who he broad-brushed with those statements."</p>
<p>The governor noted that he has supported an extension of Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Haitians living in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Democratic state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, whose parents emigrated from Haiti, called Trump's remarks "ignorant and repulsive."</p>
<p>Trump disputes accounts of the language he used during Thursday's meeting with U.S. senators, but hasn't denied the most controversial word attributed to him.</p>
<p>MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Republican Gov. Charlie Baker says President Donald Trump should apologize for <a href="" type="internal">vulgar language</a> attributed to him during an Oval Office meeting.</p>
<p>Baker on Friday called "appalling and disgraceful" the comments Trump made while questoning why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and Africa, rather than places like Norway.</p>
<p>Baker told reporters the president "owes an apology to all of the people who he broad-brushed with those statements."</p>
<p>The governor noted that he has supported an extension of Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Haitians living in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Democratic state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, whose parents emigrated from Haiti, called Trump's remarks "ignorant and repulsive."</p>
<p>Trump disputes accounts of the language he used during Thursday's meeting with U.S. senators, but hasn't denied the most controversial word attributed to him.</p> | Baker: Trump should apologize for 'appalling' remarks | false | https://apnews.com/amp/b0c51ef9abc94d939f2c92184e8aa30b | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>It's a story straight out of a movie scene.&#160;</p>
<p>The year is 1909, and&#160;New York City police detective Joe Petrosino goes to Sicily on a secret mission to investigate the mafia. In a park in the capital of Palermo,&#160;Petrosino waits for an informant — but it's a trap. He's shot and killed, presumably by a mob assassin.&#160;</p>
<p>One of the men hauled in for questioning by the Italian police is Paolo Palazzotto, but they release him due to lack of evidence.</p>
<p>Now, more than a century later, Italian police have new evidence to suggest that killer was Palazzotto all all along. His nephew, Domenico Palazzotto, was caught on tape boasting about his uncle murdering Petrosino. &#160;</p>
<p>The younger Palazzotto was being recorded by authorities for allegedly participating in other mafia business.</p>
<p>Because the older Palazzotto is dead, the case cannot be reopened. But,&#160;Umberto Bacci of the International Business Times says "it finally closes a page that had been left open for so long."</p>
<p>Despite the technicality, Bacci says Domenico still wasn't smart to be bragging about his uncle's killing of Petrosino. Even more than a century later, the mafia's "omerta" code of silence still applies.</p> | A casual boast solves a century-old mafia murder in Sicily | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-06-24/casual-boast-solves-century-old-mafia-murder-sicily | 2014-06-24 | 3 |
<p>Once you retire and the kids leave the nest, you may decide to <a href="https://www.fool.com/mortgages/shrink-your-home-and-save.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8d7af3c6-8eac-11e7-bd8a-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">downsize to a smaller home Opens a New Window.</a>. It may be to cut down on costs, or perhaps you just don't need all the extra space for just you or you and your spouse.</p>
<p>But would you ever consider moving into a house that's less than 500 square feet?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"Granny pods" are a relatively recent development in the world of retirement housing, and they're essentially tiny houses that are developed and built with seniors in mind. Like a typical tiny house, they're very small -- usually around 400 square feet.&#160;But unlike the typical tiny house, granny pods have special features that make them more suitable for older adults.</p>
<p>Although each pod is different and has varying features, many have extrawide doorways that can easily accommodate a wheelchair or scooter, handrails in the bathrooms to help with balance, and walk-in showers to prevent trip hazards. Most are set up in the style of a studio apartment, with one large living room that doubles as a bedroom, with a small bathroom and kitchen as well.</p>
<p>The most appealing part to many people is the price. Pricing varies widely based on the size of the home and the features you want, but the homes typically range from around $85,000 (for the smaller, basic houses) to up to $250,000 (for the larger, more luxurious homes). <a href="http://www.medcottage.com/plans-.html" type="external">MEDCottage Opens a New Window.</a>, one of the original granny pod manufacturers, also sells plans starting at $29 if you prefer to build your own and customize as you go.</p>
<p>Granny pods are great for people who want to spend most of their free time outside their home, whether that means traveling, spending time with family, or going on new adventures each day. Living in a smaller, less expensive home means you're not wasting money maintaining a house you rarely spend time in.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>They're also great for people who want to live near family -- either out of choice or necessity. About 43 million people in the U.S. are helping care for aging parents, and the average cost of living in a nursing home is over $50,000 per year,&#160;according to AARP. And while many older adults prefer to live with a family member as they age and need more help performing everyday tasks, that's not always an option.</p>
<p>Because these pods are so small, though, it's possible to build the homes in a family member's backyard. This solution benefits both parties because the retiree still gets to live on their own and <a href="https://www.fool.com/financial-advice/2014/06/22/5-ways-to-help-your-parents-retain-their-independe.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8d7af3c6-8eac-11e7-bd8a-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">retain their independence Opens a New Window.</a>, while the family members can still check in frequently without having to drive anywhere.</p>
<p>Granny pods are not without their challenges as well. For one, if your goal is to build a home to live near family, you'll have to make sure they have a big enough backyard to accommodate the new home.</p>
<p>Even if the lot is spacious enough, there are also zoning laws to adhere to, and it could be illegal to have a guest house or other residence on the property. It may also be considered an eyesore by the neighbors, so that's something to think about before deciding on a granny pod.</p>
<p>Whether this option is a good fit for you will also depend on your personality and individual preferences. Some people may be happy to have their own space where they can live independently, while others may start to feel isolated or that they're stuck living in a closet. These homes may also not be a good fit for anyone who needs around-the-clock care, because although family may be nearby to help, that may not be enough for someone who needs constant supervision.</p>
<p>Housing can be a <a href="https://www.fool.com/personal-finance/2017/05/25/so-awkward-so-necessary-important-discussions-to-h.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8d7af3c6-8eac-11e7-bd8a-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">complicated and emotional issue Opens a New Window.</a> for retirees, with many people wanting to live in a home for as long as possible to avoid nursing homes or assisted-living facilities. Granny pods aim to solve that problem, allowing retirees to downsize to a home they'll want to live in for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.&#160; <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8d7af3c6-8eac-11e7-bd8a-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8d7af3c6-8eac-11e7-bd8a-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Looking to Downsize During Retirement? Consider a 400-Square-Foot "Granny Pod" | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/07/looking-to-downsize-during-retirement-consider-400-square-foot-granny-pod.html | 2017-09-07 | 0 |
<p>Wealthy nations need to do more to fix health systems and help in the recovery process for Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, the three countries hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak, international development agency Oxfam said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>All three countries were showing strong economic growth before the sudden outbreak of the deadly virus that gripped the world in fear, and now that growth has vanished ever since the first cases of Ebola emerged in Guinea last March, according to an <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/oxfam-rich-countries-support-ebola-recovery-28508483" type="external">Associated Press report</a>.</p>
<p>Ebola appears to be subsiding in those nations, but Oxfam argued that there needs to be a plan to assist those nations, which are dealing with cash shortages and a lack of access to basic necessities like sanitation and education.</p>
<p>Oxfam GB Cief Executive Mark Goldring said the international community’s slow response to the early stages of the Ebola outbreak has resulted in families in those countries going “through hell,” according to the report. He said that the world cannot wipe its hands of the issue now that the disease rates are dropping, and that wealthy nations need to lend a hand in order to avoid a “double-disaster.”</p>
<p>About 73 percent of families in three counties in Liberia, for example, have lost an average of 39 percent of their income. This, combined with rising food prices, has meant that 60 percent of people have been starving for the last seven days, according to Oxfam.</p>
<p>A total of 8,600 people have died in the three nations from the disease, according to the World Health Organization. WHO member nations approved a resolution that allow the United Nations to better respond to emergencies such as this one, as a slow response may have resulted in the deaths of thousands.</p>
<p>Failure to continue to be vigilant in fighting Ebola now that cases are subsiding could result in a resurgence of the disease, according to Doctors Without Borders.</p>
<p /> | Wealthy nations need to pitch in on Ebola recovery, Oxfam says | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/27/wealthy-nations-need-to-pitch-in-on-ebola-recovery-oxfam-says/ | 2015-01-27 | 3 |
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="#time" type="external">Timeline</a> | <a href="#else" type="external">Elsewhere</a></p>
<p>| <a href="#short" type="external">In Short</a></p>
<p><a href="#askcat" type="external">Ask Catalyst</a> | <a href="#math" type="external">Math Class</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>TIMELINE <a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Feb. 23: Closing ‘option’</p>
<p>The School Board votes to close three low-performing schools this fall but says</p>
<p>it may not shut them if the community can develop plans for new schools in the</p>
<p>next four months. The board says its move provides options for communities,</p>
<p>but critics call it unrealistic. “How can we recreate a school in four</p>
<p>months when CPS has been unable to do it for years?” asks teachers union</p>
<p>President Marilyn Stewart. Previously, the district closed schools for a year</p>
<p>before re-opening them and accepting students.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Feb. 24: Parochials</p>
<p>The closings of 23 parochial schools could lead to an influx of hundreds of</p>
<p>students at CPS schools that are already overcrowded. Many of the schools that</p>
<p>will close are in Latino communities, where schools are already overcrowded.</p>
<p>Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of CPS enrollment. Principals are bracing</p>
<p>for more students but say they are worried about how to serve newcomers. Only</p>
<p>27 percent of children whose parochial schools close enroll at another Catholic</p>
<p>school, according to an Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>March 3: Desegregation</p>
<p>Federal attorneys take CPS back to court, saying the district is doing such</p>
<p>a poor job of complying with the desegregation decree that an outside monitor</p>
<p>is needed. CPS contends a monitor isn’t necessary. Federal lawyers say</p>
<p>CPS has not offered sufficient bus transportation to minority students to attend</p>
<p>largely white schools, and has not reallocated enough desegregation money to</p>
<p>racially isolated schools. Court documents also cite other concerns, including</p>
<p>the racial makeup of faculty. ( <a href="" type="internal">See</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">related story</a>)</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="#top" type="external">(Back to top)</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>ELSEWHERE <a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>San Diego: Reform rollback</p>
<p>The School Board has angered school leaders and the teachers union by eliminating</p>
<p>the jobs of about 170 master teachers, who acted as coaches for classroom teachers</p>
<p>and helped with lesson planning, according to the Feb. 10 San Diego Union-Tribune.</p>
<p>The board also voted to scrap the positions of content administrators, who organized</p>
<p>training and supervised teachers. Both positions were a key component of reforms</p>
<p>championed by outgoing Supt. Alan Bersin, who sought to focus on improving teacher</p>
<p>training and called the board’s decision a mistake. Teachers and principals</p>
<p>said master teachers had helped to raise achievement, and some schools plan</p>
<p>to continue paying for the positions with discretionary funds. The board created</p>
<p>positions for “academic support teachers” who will work only in</p>
<p>low-income schools, primarily teaching small groups of low-achieving youngsters.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>New York: Billions for schools</p>
<p>A judge has put a multi-billion-dollar price tag on improving education in the</p>
<p>city’s schools, ordering that $5.6 billion be spent every year to insure</p>
<p>that children receive the ‘sound education’ guaranteed by the state</p>
<p>constitution, according to the Feb. 15 New York Times. The judge, who</p>
<p>has been overseeing a long-running lawsuit over school funding in the city,</p>
<p>also ruled that an additional $9.2 billion be spent over the next five years</p>
<p>to reduce class sizes, relieve overcrowding, update laboratories and libraries</p>
<p>and other improve schools. The legislature will decide how the state and the</p>
<p>city should share the burden of the costs.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="#top" type="external">(Back to top)</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>IN SHORT <a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>“Englewood is like a home to me. You’re trying to</p>
<p>shut down my home. I have teachers who care about me and give me a reason for</p>
<p>coming to school everyday.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Englewood High School student Latoyia Kimbrough at the Feb.</p>
<p>23 School Board meeting, where the board voted to phase out the school and stop</p>
<p>accepting freshmen.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="#top" type="external">(Back to top)</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>ASK CATALYST <a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Can a 15- or 16-year-old student who left school but never graduated</p>
<p>from 8th grade return to school in the middle of the school year?</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Sally Polasek, Illinois Dept. of Human Services</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Depending on their age, they should be able to return mid-year</p>
<p>to achievement academies, neighborhood elementary schools or high schools. Achievement</p>
<p>academies are meant to transition overage kids (those turning 15 or older by</p>
<p>Dec. 1st but who have not graduated from 8th grade) to regular high schools.</p>
<p>Kids who turn 15 after Dec. 1st must return to their neighborhood elementary</p>
<p>school to finish 8th grade. Returning students who are 16 must take the Iowa</p>
<p>Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), and score in the 25th percentile to pass 8th grade</p>
<p>and go on to high school. If they do not pass, they should be sent to their</p>
<p>nearest achievement academy. These guidelines apply even to students returning</p>
<p>mid-year, says Ed Klunk of the Office of High School Programs. According to</p>
<p>Grace DeShazer, manager of achievement academies, students can be denied admission</p>
<p>to the academies under certain circumstances. In that case, it rests on the</p>
<p>neighborhood elementary school to accept them, regardless of their age, which</p>
<p>Klunk admits is “not a good situation either way.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>E-mail your question to <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external" /></p>
<p>or send it to Ask Catalyst, 332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500, Chicago,</p>
<p>IL 60604.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="#top" type="external">(Back to top)</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>MATH CLASS <a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>African-American students, long the majority in Chicago Public</p>
<p>Schools, are now just less than half of CPS enrollment—49.7%,</p>
<p>according to the 2004 state report card. But that percentage</p>
<p>is the highest of any of the 5 largest districts in the country.</p>
<p>(Chicago is the 3rd largest.) Meanwhile, Hispanic enrollment</p>
<p>in CPS continues to rise and now stands at 38%. Black and Latino</p>
<p>enrollment in the 4 other largest districts is: New York, 35%</p>
<p>and 35%; Los Angeles, 11% and 72%;</p>
<p>Miami-Dade County, Fla. 29% and 58%; and Broward</p>
<p>County, Fla., 37% and 24%.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="#top" type="external">(Back to top)</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Notebook | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/notebook-6/ | 2005-09-14 | 3 |
<p>The University of Southern Maine will cut 50 faculty positions and two academic programs as it tries to close a $16 million budget gap, the school announced Monday.</p>
<p>The moves, which are expected to cut $6 million off the deficit, are the first of a three-step plan to downsize the public Portland university that has seen enrollment drop almost 30 percent in the last five years, the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1EkN7Vi ) reports.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Provost Joseph McDonnell said in an email to faculty that the "current crisis is too deep to merely trim the sails."</p>
<p>"It will require a fundamental change in academic programs, in our culture, and in expectations of faculty inside and outside of the classroom."</p>
<p>Monday's round of cuts are intended to close the budget gap for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2015.</p>
<p>The university's administration wants to eliminate the master's program in applied medical sciences and the undergraduate French program. The University of Maine System Board of Trustees voted last month to cut the American and New England studies graduate program, the geosciences major and arts and humanities major at the Lewiston-Auburn campus.</p>
<p>Fifteen of the 50 faculty cuts are professors who have or will be eliminated. The rest of the positions will be cut through retirements or layoffs. The university said it will announce specific layoffs by Oct. 31.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com</p> | University of Southern Maine to cut 50 faculty and 2 programs to save $6M of budget gap | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/10/06/university-southern-maine-to-cut-50-faculty-and-2-programs-to-save-6m-budget.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Mother Jones‘ DC bureau chief David Corn joined&#160; <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/47605139#47605139" type="external">Martin Bashir on MSNBC</a>&#160;on Tuesday to discuss a Romney surrogate’s suggestion that President Obama isn’t a “real”&#160;American, and to fact-check Mitt Romney’s misquote of an Obama speech:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>David Corn is&#160;Mother Jones’&#160;Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">click here</a>. He’s also on&#160; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/davidcorndc" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p /> | Corn on MSNBC: Fact-Checking Romney on Obama | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/corn-msnbc-obama-fact-check-romney/ | 2012-07-18 | 4 |
<p>Snoop Dogg pitches his marijuana company.TechCrunch</p>
<p />
<p>At San Francisco’s annual TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Monday, rapper Snoop Dogg unveiled a media company that will provide users with “all they need to know” about pot. “It gives me proud honor to say that Merry Jane will be the door to bring people out of the closet, because there’s so many people in the closet right now,” he told a standing-room-only crowd. “Just admit it. I’m a smoker. My name is Snoop Dogg and I’m a stoner.”</p>
<p>TechCrunch reporter Jordan Crook, Snoop’s interviewer, turned to the sea of attendees: “Who enjoys smoking, uh, marijuana?”</p>
<p>A few hands shot up.</p>
<p>“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Snoop said. “We gonna figure out a way to get you out of that closet.”</p>
<p>The geek gathering <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx3wDTzqDTs" type="external">famously lampooned</a> in Mike Judge’s <a href="" type="internal">Silicon Valley</a> might seem like a weird place for a rapper to unveil a pot business, especially one that isn’t doing much of anything that’s technologically innovative. But for pot and tech entrepreneurs alike, the relationship makes perfect sense. “Disrupt is really mostly for investors, and I think they can no longer ignore investors and their interest in cannabis,” Brandon Davis, the host of the interview program Investing in Cannabis, told me when I ran into him on the conference floor.</p>
<p>In January, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, best known for its early investments in Facebook and Airbnb, invested $75 million in Privateer Holdings, a holding company for pot businesses. The following month, Justin Tan, the founder of the $1 billion tech startup Twitch.TV, enthused about the cannabis sector during <a href="" type="internal">a marijuana investment conference</a> at San Francisco’s posh Fairmont Hotel. Tan’s Y-Combinator fund has <a href="http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/meadow-cannabis-delivery-app-y-combinator.html" type="external">invested in</a>Meadow, the Uber of medical cannabis delivery.</p>
<p>The allure of pot for tech investors is as much financial as cultural. As Stanford communications professor Fred Turner points out in his book, From Counterculture to Cyberculture, the Bay Area’s techie and hippie cultures have a long history of cross-fertilization—just consider geodesic domes, the Whole Earth Catalog, and Apple’s countercultural marketing campaigns. Though marijuana isn’t a tech product, pot-related businesses jibe with the Valley’s love for outsiders and outlaws like Airbnb and Uber, both of which have succeeded by violating existing regulations. “The motto is: Don’t ask for permission; ask for forgiveness,” Davis points out. “That is going to be no different with cannabis.”</p>
<p>And then there’s the money factor. Investing in the pot sector helps angel investors hedge against a tech bust. And by positioning themselves as tech companies that provide services to pot growers without touching the plant, cannabis businesses can court investors who might be reluctant to invest more directly in a product that remains illegal in most of the United States.</p>
<p>Not to say it’s an easy relationship. At the Disrupt NY conference in May, TechCruch interviewed Privateer’s Brendan Kennedy onstage and featured the online “cannabis community” MassRoots in the exhibitor space known as Startup Alley. Businesses in the alley compete through votes from conference watchers for the right to become a “wild card” entry in the Startup Battlefield, where they can jockey for prize money and attention from brand-name investors. Although MassRoots, which is basically Facebook for stoners, won enough votes to put it in the running for the Battlefield, TechCruch’s top editor, Matthew Panzarino, selected a different company. According to MassRoots CEO Isaac Dietrich, Panzarino told him that his company, which has 500,000 users, was “not significant.” “I think they wanted to present a certain image of the cannabis community, a very scripted and polished image,” Dietrich says, “whereas we’re the true cannabis community.”</p>
<p>Panzarino declined to comment on the incident but pointed out that, at this week’s Disrupt event, two cannabis companies had already been selected to compete in the Startup Battlefield. “We do our best to include companies that represent nascent trends every year,” he says. “This year just seemed like a tipping point of sorts for marijuana companies, especially with regulation and legalization deadlocks showing signs of thawing.”</p>
<p>One of the two pot companies in the Battlefield, Leaf, manufactures a sleek, self-contained hydroponics system that looks like something from the Apple store. An accompanying smartphone app can select optimum light, water, and nutrient levels for particular pot strains at the touch of the button, streams live or time-lapse video of the grow from a built-in camera, and can even download and sync growing conditions employed by other users. Leaf CEO and cofounder Yoni Ofir envisions making money on the $1,500 device the same way Hewlett-Packard makes money on printers: by selling refill cartridges—but for plant nutrients instead of printer ink.</p>
<p>Ofir, who is based in Colorado and has a background in software and hardware, believes the interest in Leaf from people at the conference is more than merely professional. “I believe that at least 80 percent of the creative or technical people in this room consume cannabis,” he told me as dorky-looking guys with oversized name tags milled past his booth. “But, you know, this is not a cannabis conference.”</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | At TechCrunch Shindig, Pot Startups Aim to Disrupt Silicon Valley | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/marijuana-techcrunch-disrupt-snoop-dogg-silicon-valley/ | 2015-09-23 | 4 |
<p>According to a new survey conducted by the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE), 70% of Jews in Europe, frightened of terrorist acts directed at Jews, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/70-percent-of-European-Jews-wont-go-to-shul-on-High-Holy-Days-despite-heightened-security-468210" type="external">will avoid</a> going to synagogue on the holiest days of the year.</p>
<p>Rosh HaShanah, which marks the beginning of the Jewish new year and the beginning of the ten days of repentance that precede Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, will find a paucity of Jews in synagogues.</p>
<p>The survey sampled 700 capital cities and 78 respondents from Great Britain all the way east to Ukraine in the east.</p>
<p>The respondents were asked if the number of registered individuals in their Jewish communities had increased or decreased since last year; Participants in the online survey were asked if there was an increase or decrease in the number of registered individuals in their Jewish communities in comparison with last year; whether the number of Jews expected to attend synagogue on the High Holy Days would increase or decrease, if the increasing European anti-Semitism worried them, and whether Jewish institutes in their communities had hired more security.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4699567,00.html" type="external">recent survey</a>from the same groups found that 70% of European Jews hide their identity as Jews. That number had soared in the last year; last year's findings found only 40 percent of Europe's Jews refused to express their Jewish identity in any way; 75 percent of their children don't go to Jewish schools.</p>
<p>EJA General Director Rabbi Menachem Margolin said, "We are dealing now with a pincer movement. On the one hand, repeated waves of anti-Israel harassment, which is really anti-Semitic expression, and on the other hand - especially in light of what already seems like the Islamization of many cities throughout the continent, a murky wave of nationalism and xenophobia."</p> | 7 In 10 European Jews Avoid Synagogues During The Holidays Out Of Fear | true | https://dailywire.com/news/9301/7-10-european-jews-avoid-synagogues-during-hank-berrien | 2016-09-20 | 0 |
<p>Prominent Latinos who have transformed the artistic and literary world will be recognized by the White House for their cultural contributions.</p>
<p>President Obama will be awarding the <a href="https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals" type="external">National Medal of Art and Humanities</a> to five Latino artists who have impacted society through their body of work. The awards ceremony will take place Thursday, Sept. 22, which falls during Hispanic Heritage Month.</p>
<p>Four will receive the <a href="https://www.arts.gov/news/2016/president-obama-award-national-medals-arts" type="external">National Medal of Arts</a>: Author <a href="http://www.sandracisneros.com/" type="external">Sandra Cisneros</a>, musician Santiago Jimenez Jr., film director <a href="http://elteatrocampesino.com/" type="external">Luis Valdez</a> and playwright Moisés Kaufman.</p>
<p>The two recipients of the <a href="http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2016-09-14" type="external">National Humanities Medal</a>are Rudolfo Anaya, known for his pioneering stories of the American southwest and acclaimed chef Jose Andrés.</p>
<p>Sandra Cisneros, the award-winning author of several books such as "The House on Mango Street" has tackled issues of race, gender and class "through the lives of ordinary people straddling multiple cultures," according to the awards' announcement.</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="http://nbclatino.com/2012/10/01/chicana-author-sandra-cisneros-reveals-pain-and-suffering-was-the-inspiration-for-her-latest-book/" type="external">Chicana author Sandra Cisneros reveals pain and suffering were inspiration for latest book</a></p>
<p>The San Antonio, Texas-based writer has also founded organizations to help other writers and artists.</p>
<p>Musician Santiago Jiménez Jr. is one of the best-known "conjunto" artists, blending the sounds of the American southwest and Mexico, a genre also made famous by his father, Santiago Jiménez. In 2000, the young Jiménez won a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Heritage_Fellowship" type="external">National Heritage Fellowship</a> for his lifetime achievement. Apart from his father, his brother is accordionist Flaco Jiménez, who has won six Grammy Awards including a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award and a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts.</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="" type="internal">Flaco Jiménez on the State of Conjunto, the True Heart of Tejano Music</a></p>
<p>Director, playwright, actor and writer Luis Valdez will be honored for "bringing Chicano culture to American drama." He wrote the acclaimed play "Zoot Suit" and the award-winning movie "La Bamba." Valdez's long trajectory in the arts includes the founding of "Teatro Campesino" in 1965, which "created and performed “actos” or short skits on flatbed trucks and in union halls," as its website explains, for farm workers during the grape boycotts organized by Cesar Chávez and Dolores Huerta.</p>
<p>Award-winning playwright and director Moisés Kaufman will be recognized for his contributions to American theater. "His work sensitively probes questions of culture and sexuality," says the press release. Kaufman, who is from Venezuela, has been nominated for an Emmy and a Tony. One of his best-known plays, which he also made into a movie, is "The Laramie Project," based on the real-life death of Matthew Shephard, a young gay college student who was tortured, beaten and left to die. His death galvanized proponents of hate crime legislation.</p>
<p>Author Rudolfo Anaya will receive the National Humanities Medal for his portrayal of the American southwest and the depiction of the Chicano experience. He is well known for his 1972 novel <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bless-Me-Ultima-Rudolfo-Anaya/dp/0446600253" type="external">"Bless Me, Ultima"</a> as well as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Aztlan-Novel-Rudolfo-Anaya/dp/0826310540" type="external">"Heart of Aztlán"</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tortuga-Novel-Rudolfo-Anaya/dp/0826336248" type="external">"Tortuga.</a>" Anaya received the National Medal of Arts in 2003.</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="http://nbclatino.com/2012/09/10/rudolfo-anayas-bless-me-ultima-to-premiere-on-the-big-screen-in-el-paso/" type="external">Rudolfo Anaya’s “Bless Me Ultima” to premiere on the big screen in El Paso</a></p>
<p>Spanish <a href="http://www.jaleo.com/jose" type="external">chef</a>Jose Andréswill receive the National Humanities medal for his innovative food techniques as well as his emphasis on addressing issues of hunger and food insecurity. He was named one of Time 100's most influential people and has received the James Beard Award.</p>
<p>In an NBC <a href="" type="internal">Cafecito</a> interview Jose Andrés stated, "make sure that you never use an excuse for why you are not achieving something. Remember that you find a way to learn and to improve who you are."</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="" type="internal">Jose Andrés Dumps Planned Restaurant at Trump Hotel</a></p>
<p>Jose Andrés <a href="" type="internal">made headlines</a> in 2015 when he withdrew plans to open one of his restaurants at Donald Trump's new hotel in Washington, D.C. following Trump's comments about Mexico sending "criminals" and "rapists" to the U.S.</p>
<p>Follow NBC Latino on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NBCLatino" type="external">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCLatino" type="external">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://instagram.com/nbclatino/" type="external">Instagram</a>.</p> | These Latinos Will Be Honored with National Medals for Art, Humanities | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/hispanic-heritage-month-2016/these-latinos-will-be-honored-national-medals-art-humanities-n649061 | 2016-09-16 | 3 |
<p>The collapse of the Palestinian Authority, the result of Israel’s 42-year refusal to implement a two-state solution, leaves the Palestinians no option but to unilaterally declare an independent state. Israel acted unilaterally when it announced independence in 1948. It is the Palestinians’ turn. It worked in Kosovo. It worked in Georgia. And it will work in Palestine. There are 192 member states in the United Nations and as many as 150 would recognize the state of Palestine, creating a diplomatic nightmare for Israel and its lonely ally the United States. Israel will face worldwide censure if it attempts to crush the independent state by force and very likely be subjected to the kind of divestment campaigns and boycotts that brought down the apartheid government of South Africa.</p>
<p>The two-state solution, long held up as the way out of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, flickered and died with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. No Israeli leader since, including Ehud Barack, has shown any interest in its implementation. Israeli governments have instead cynically used the promise of negotiations as a cover to steadily expand settlements, evict Palestinians from their homes, carry out egregious acts of violence and repression against Palestinians and steal huge swathes of the West Bank, including most of the aquifers.</p>
<p>The death of the two-state solution is not news to those of us who have spent years in the Middle East. What is news is the public acknowledgement by the Palestinian leadership. Mahmoud Abbas, the compliant and discredited president of the Palestinian Authority, who has announced he will not run for another term, has uncharacteristically blasted Israel for deceiving the Palestinians. The chief Palestinian negotiator, <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-11-15-voa9.cfm%20" type="external">Saeb Erekat</a>, who says that the effort to negotiate a solution to the conflict with Israel is dead, has called on Palestinians to declare statehood.</p>
<p>The disarray within the Palestinian Authority has led to the cancellation of the Palestinian elections in January, although the elections were already in jeopardy. The militant group Hamas, which took over Gaza in 2007 after thwarting a coup attempt led by Abbas’ Fatah party, said it would not allow the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza to vote.</p>
<p />
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is counting on the Obama administration to thwart a declaration of Palestinian independence, will have difficulty finding a Palestinian stooge as complaint as Abbas. Abbas’ time in office has been marked by repeated and humiliating concessions to Israel, including deferring, at Israel’s request, the vote at the United Nations on the <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32057&amp;Cr=palestin&amp;Cr1%20" type="external">Goldstone report</a>, which documented human rights abuses during Israel’s offensive in Gaza last December and January. Israel has shown its appreciation by ignoring Abbas’ protests for a halt on settlements and dismissing his calls for negotiations. It is hard to imagine any Palestinian leader, at least one with a shred of credibility, agreeing to take Abbas’ place. The only alternative left to most Palestinians, unless an independent state is declared, will be endless war and an embrace of Islamic extremism.</p>
<p>A declaration of independence, based on the 1967 demarcation lines between Israel and Palestinian territory, should cover East Jerusalem among other areas and the several hundred thousand Jewish settlers living in settlements in the West Bank. These Israeli settlers would instantly become citizens in the new country, replicating the experience of many Palestinians who suddenly found themselves counted as Israelis in 1948.</p>
<p>“When he declares independence, Abbas should call upon the Jews living in the state of Palestine to preserve the peace and to do their part in building up the new country as full and equal citizens, enjoying fair representation in all of its institutions,” <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1127920.html%20" type="external">Yossi Sarid</a>, who supports the independence movement, wrote in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “David Ben-Gurion would not have been upset by such a pretty act of plagiarism from his Declaration of Independence.”</p>
<p>The Israelis have orchestrated acute misery and poverty in the Palestinian territories over the past two decades in an effort to subdue and ethnically cleanse the captive population. They have reduced Palestinians, many of whom now live on less than $2 a day, to a subsistence level. They have created squalid, lawless and impoverished ghettos in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli soldiers, who ring these ghettos, have the ability to instantly shut off food, medicine and goods to perpetuate the misery. Israel, when the Palestinians grow restive, drops 1,000-pound iron fragmentation bombs and artillery shells — as they did a year ago in Gaza — on the concrete hovels that pack neighborhoods. The Israeli objective is to turn the Palestinian territories into a hell on earth. This policy has, however, swollen the ranks of radical Islamists in the occupied territories and throughout the Middle East.</p>
<p>The refusal by the Obama administration and nearly every member of the U.S. Congress to defend the rule of law and basic human rights for the Palestinians exposes our hypocrisy. It also perpetuates the absurd pretence that it is Israel, not the Palestinians, whose security and dignity are being threatened. The F-16 jet fighters, the Apache attack helicopters, the 250-pound “smart” GBU-39 bombs used on Palestinian civilians are part of the annual $2.4 billion in military aid the United States gives to Israel. Palestinians are slaughtered with American-made weapons provided to Israel with taxpayer dollars. Israel, an international pariah, would be unable to carry out these atrocities without our financial and moral support. Mix this toxic brew with the illegal wars we wage in Iraq and Afghanistan and the United States becomes a satanic force in the eyes of many Muslims. Abbas, <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1127449.html%20" type="external">in a speech</a> delivered a few days ago on the fifth anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, announced that the Palestinians would not return to negotiations with Israel without a full halt to settlement building, “including the natural growth” — a term Israel uses to justify construction on the basis of natural population growth in settlements.</p>
<p>“They are putting obstacles in its way,” he said of promised negotiation. “They are trying to remove this concept. What do they want?”</p>
<p>The anniversary of Arafat’s death is a bitter reminder to many Palestinians that Israel can never be trusted. It is widely believed among Palestinians, as well as Israeli peace activists such as <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jan/31/israel.comment" type="external">Uri Avnery</a>, that Arafat was poisoned by the Israelis, something Israeli officials deny. Arafat became gravely ill in 2004 as Israeli forces besieged his Ramallah headquarters. He was eventually flown to France for treatment and died at Percy military hospital outside of Paris on Nov. 11, 2004. The French, abiding by an agreement with the Israelis, did not release Arafat’s medical records.</p>
<p>“Each expert we consulted explained that even a simple poison produced by an average scientist would be difficult to identify by the most experienced scientists,” said Arafat’s nephew Nasser al-Kidwa. “I can’t tell for sure that he was murdered by the Israelis. I can’t refute that hypothesis because doctors couldn’t refute it.”</p>
<p>The suspicions around the death of Arafat replicate the feelings of most Palestinians around the death of the two-state solution. Each, in the eyes of Palestinians, was deliberately murdered. The Israelis have ensured that from now on the Palestinians will fall or rise on their own.</p>
<p>Chris Hedges, whose column is published on Truthdig every Monday, spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He has written nine books, including “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” (2009) and “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” (2003).</p> | The New State Solution | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-new-state-solution/ | 2009-11-16 | 4 |
<p>After 30 years of marriage, Celal decided it was time for a second wife.</p>
<p>In 2013, the Turkish merchant from the town of Kilis married Kinda, a 29-year-old widow who had fled from Aleppo to Turkey with her son Bashir, now 11. The couple has since had two more children, Ahmet, 2, and Nur Jahan, five months. Celal, 65, says his first wife doesn’t object to his second marriage, but he doesn’t allow her to speak with reporters. He keeps his two wives in different homes.</p>
<p>Polygamy was outlawed in Turkey in 1926 and carries a two-year jail sentence for violators. But with the recent influx of refugees into Turkey, most of them Syrian, activists say the practice is on the rise. And they accuse the government of turning a blind eye, failing to prosecute men who break the law by taking second and third wives, some as young as 10.</p>
<p>Just in Kilis, with its population of 230,000, at least 5,000 religious ceremonies have been performed outside the courts between 2011 and 2014, wedding already married Turkish and Syrian men to Syrian women, according to the&#160; <a href="http://www.syrianobserver.com/EN/Features/27501/Syrian+Girls+for+Sale+in+Tu%20%20rkey+as+SoCalled+Second+Wives" type="external">Syrian Observatory for Human Rights</a>.</p>
<p>“We hear different stories, but it’s hard to determine who’s doing what,” said Muammer Fazliagaoglu, head of the Kilis lawyers’ association. “We haven’t heard of a man being prosecuted because he has a second wife.”</p>
<p>Because their marriages aren’t recognized by law, second wives have few rights to divorce, inheritance or child support. And the children of polygamous marriages are legally considered the kids of single, unwed mothers unless their Turkish fathers claim paternity.</p>
<p>Aid workers say Syrian women are driven into polygamous marriages by poverty, displacement and cultural attitudes. Before Kinda married Turkish merchant Celal, she had already been a second wife to a man in Syria. “He showed off his wealth and was a womanizer,” she said. When gangsters kidnapped and killed her husband, and then started threatening her son, her family paid smugglers to bring them to Kilis. They struggled financially, and marriage was a way for Kinda to ensure her and her son’s security.</p>
<p>According to Nur Burhan, a Syrian gender researcher with the Center for Civil Society and Democracy, the majority of second wives are child brides sold to Turkish and Syrian men by their own families.</p>
<p>“These families don’t want the responsibility of their daughters anymore. They’re just thinking of putting food on the table,” Burhan said in her office in Gaziantep, another southeastern Turkish city grappling with the issue.</p>
<p>Under the Ottoman Empire, Muslims could legally marry up to four wives, according to Islamic law. Some Turks are calling for a return to those days, including a few public figures. Recently on Kanal A TV, conservative commentator Hasan Acikalin complained that Turkish Muslims are being forced to choose between their religious values and their home country. Muslims “can’t get married according to Islamic rules,” he said. “There is monogamy. Second or third spouses don’t have legal rights.”</p>
<p>Critics say the practice is part of the increasing tensions between Turks and Syrians who, at 3 million, make up the largest population of refugees in the country. Some people, like Fazliagaoglu, blame polygamy for exacerbating the already rising divorce rate, as Turkish women leave their husbands when they take on a Syrian wife.</p>
<p />
<p>Celal with his second wife Kinda and their son Ahmet, now 2 years old, in a photo taken a year ago. Celal would only permit his second wife to be photographed from the back.</p>
<p>Ozge Sebzeci/Women &amp; Girls Hub</p>
<p>Even when the authorities can identify people engaged in polygamy, they say their hands are tied because marriage is seen as a private issue despite the law. One prosecutor said one of the main problems is that, until last year, clerics were not allowed to perform religious marriages before a civil marriage had taken place but that law has been repealed, making it legal for imams to conduct “nikahs” without punishment.</p>
<p>“I haven’t heard of any prosecution after the law on imam marriages has changed,” said the prosecutor, who requested anonymity due to him only recently taking on the role.</p>
<p>After the July 15 failed coup in Turkey, which has been followed by a purging of 50,000 accused dissidents, pro-government Islamist conservatives have been galvanized to preach their version of Islam in the media and on the country’s streets. Women’s rights activists worry that their efforts to fight practices like polygamy will be jeopardized by a stronger Islamist government. “We women are the most vulnerable population right now,” said Pinar, an activist who didn’t want to give her last name, on Thursday.</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="" type="internal">Women's groups say women have been silenced after coup attempt</a></p>
<p>Frustrated by what they see as the government’s failure to protect the victims of polygamy, aid organizations are focusing on increasing awareness about the issue. Letting people know, for example, that if an underage girl can prove her family forced her into marrying an already married man, she has the right to get the union annulled.</p>
<p>Educating Syrian refugee women about their rights could stop them from entering polygamous relationships in the first place, said Zehra Saglam, a private attorney who works with NGOs partnering with the Turkish government. Saglam offers free sessions in refugee centers in Gaziantep, meeting with refugees to tell them about Turkish laws and their rights.</p>
<p>“If Syrian women know they can stand on their own, why would they need to marry as second and third wives?” Saglam said.</p>
<p>In Kilis, Celal says he would like polygamy legalized because he sees it as his Islamic right. “We would love for the government to make a second marriage legal … because a lot of people can benefit from that. It can be helpful for both sides,” he said.</p>
<p>Kinda would like the same. Rocking Nur Jahan to sleep, she speaks in Arabic, which Celal doesn’t understand. “I’m most afraid of my future because in both of my marriages, I was the second wife,” she said. “I’m worried about the legal status I don’t have.”</p>
<p>A version of <a href="https://www.newsdeeply.com/womenandgirls/activists-condemn-turkey-over-polygamy-upsurge/" type="external">this story</a> first appeared in <a href="https://www.newsdeeply.com/womenandgirls/activists-condemn-turkey-over-polygamy-upsurge/" type="external">Women &amp; Girls Hub</a>.</p> | Syrian influx in Turkey prompts upsurge in polygamy | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-07-25/syrian-influx-turkey-prompts-upsurge-polygamy | 2016-07-25 | 3 |
<p>Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio was recently challenged by an atheist questioner on the campaign trail. The Florida senator met the challenge with an articulate, thoughtful, and earnest answer that earned well-deserved applause from his audience.</p>
<p>The self-described atheist accused Rubio of “pandering” to the religious and expressed concern that the senator’s faith influenced him too much by pinpointing a Rubio ad “that mentioned nothing about policy,” but only his faith. The audience member followed up by asking Rubio if he was going to, if elected, rule as a “pastor-in-chief.”</p>
<p>Rubio started off strong with unapologetic remarks about his personal expression of faith and stated with conviction that his faith does indeed “influence every aspect” of his life. The Republican candidate added, “No one’s going to force you to believe in God, but no one’s going to force me to stop talking about God.”</p>
<p>Delving into America's founding, Rubio said that Judeo-Christian values were the most integral part of our democracy.</p>
<p>Rubio explained, “You can’t really understand America” if you don’t understand Judeo-Christian values. “If there’s no creator, then where did your rights come from?” asked the senator.</p>
<p>In a round-about way the candidate pointed out that the initial question on its face was flawed, stating that people should “hope” that his faith influences him, since his faith directs him to be compassionate, serve others, to “care for the less fortunate” and to “love his neighbor.”</p>
<p>In typical smooth and likeable Rubio-fashion, the senator was sure to thank the self-described atheist for his “willingness” to ask such a question in a place where he was, no doubt, in the minority.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/430036/marco-rubio-responds-atheist-civility-and-truth" type="external">H/T</a> National Review</p> | WATCH: Marco Rubio Gives Phenomenal Answer When Challenged On God | true | https://dailywire.com/news/2757/watch-marco-rubio-gives-phenomenal-answer-when-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-01-20 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The tried-and-true technique is to soften the blow with euphemisms by renaming the true meaning of what you are doing and the true effect on public health with vague, impersonal terminology. You start off with “control burns” but, because they sometimes get out of control, you don’t want to limit yourself. Then, switch to “prescribed burns,” like a doctor prescribing a necessary and authoritative treatment. And we all know that prescriptions often have side effects that we must endure in order to get better. “Managed wildfires” sounds less scary than just a wildfire when, in fact, it’s a wildfire that we are not trying to put out. “Managed wildfires” are wildfires that we actually grow by setting more fires nearby.</p>
<p>The problem is that we just spent 40 years educating the public about how smoking, including second-hand smoke, sickens, disables and shortens the lives of human beings. Therefore, it helps to rename human beings “smoke receptors” and particularly vulnerable human beings, such as infants, children, elderly and the infirm, “smoke-sensitive receptors.” People are no longer human beings, but “receptors” and the life-giving air they breathe is referred to as an “airshed.”</p>
<p>Despite all these euphemisms, there is still that nasty problem of the smoke. Aha! Just switch the responsibility for the harm caused from breathing smoke pollution to the individual by convincing him that if he just practices proper “averting behavior,” all will be well. “Averting behavior” sounds quite harmless and easy to do, like a sparrow darting around in the underbrush. Actually, it represents staying indoors 24 hours per day, never opening window or doors, purchasing and running expensive air cleaners, air conditioning and even taking multiple month-long vacations upwind during unplanned times of the year.</p>
<p>Don’t explain to the public how a person would do this and still go to school, play sports, work outside, drive to work, shop, go to the doctor or church.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>To top your strategy off, if the public shows up to a Forest Service meeting in order to ask questions about this ill-advised assault on public health and to suggest alternatives like changing our outdated log export laws, just prohibit any open questioning of the Forest Service in front of the public and force the participants to sit in tiny talking circles with Forest Service prepared outlines and a Forest Service moderator at each table, similar to kindergarten class. Any open discussion of smoke-free, proven and effective forest management techniques must be suppressed. And, for God’s sake, never produce a nationwide USFS public smoke complaint form in case you might be expected to document the harm you are causing to public health.</p>
<p>Joe smoke receptor passed away suddenly from a massive heart attack at age 52 following several weeks of prescribed burns and managed wildfires in his airshed, leaving behind his smoke receptor wife, Mary, and two minor smoke-sensitive receptor children. Mary worked alongside her husband in their family landscaping business and, therefore, they were not able to practice proper averting behavior. The children were notified of their father’s death at soccer practice, a non-averting behavior sport. Even though Joe’s family is third generation, they must move to cleaner air because of Mary’s recently diagnosed COPD and the children’s asthma. Joe and Mary loved the outdoors, were avid hikers and lifelong non-smokers.</p>
<p>Every successful large-scale assault on public health has been accomplished with the cooperation and blessing of lots of good people who were convinced that the harm that they were causing their fellow citizens was acceptable in the pursuit of a “higher goal.”</p>
<p /> | U.S. Forest Service to offer death by euphemism | false | https://abqjournal.com/1028041/us-forest-service-to-offer-death-by-euphemism.html | 2 |
|
<p>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Singer Tom Petty was reported to been found unconscious after suffering a cardiac arrest at his Malibu home, celebrity news website TMZ.com said on Monday.</p>
<p>Representatives at Petty’s management company and record label did not return requests by Reuters for confirmation.</p>
<p>TMZ cited law enforcement sources as saying Petty was rushed to a southern California hospital on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Petty, 66, the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, performed three shows in Los Angeles in September with the band.</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Tom Petty reported found unconscious after cardiac arrest in California | false | https://newsline.com/tom-petty-reported-found-unconscious-after-cardiac-arrest-in-california/ | 2017-10-02 | 1 |
<p />
<p />
<p>Bill Maher says it’s “ridiculous … for people to think that the Second Amendment protects them from tyranny,” a point the NRA, Tea Party, and Republican often claim. On his HBO “real Time” show on Friday, Maher and MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell discussed the fallacy:</p>
<p>Watch: <a href="" type="internal">Santorum Tells NRA Members Their ‘Dignity’ And Second Amendment Rights ‘Come From God’</a></p>
<p>“Can we get to, first of all, how ridiculous it is for people to think that the Second Amendment protects them from tyranny?,” Maher asked. “Didn’t Waco solve that? We just had the anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Remember Waco? You know what they had in Waco? They had like 1.9 million rounds of ammunition; they had .50 caliber machine guns; they had grenades… What did the government have? Everything else. The winner and still champion: the United States government. Thinking the Second Amendment protects you from tyranny is like thinking the First Amendment protects you from Thor. It’s quaint. It’s ridiculous. It’s nonsensical. And they never get called at it.”</p>
<p>READ:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">44 Percent Of Republicans Think Armed Revolution May Be Necessary To Protect Liberties</a></p>
<p>Maher also discussed a recent poll that found 44 percent of Republicans believe an “an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.”</p>
<p>“These&#160;​nuts​ are not talking about Syria, noted O’Donnell. 44% of the Republican&#160;lunatic&#160;party believes they might have to rise in arms… They’re not talking about Syria.”</p>
<p>“Gun ownership is a minority activity,” added the MSNBC anchor. “The rate of gun ownership is declining significantly, that’s why the NRA is pushing this so hard. And what you have in terms of gun sales is simply fanatic collectors. People have 48 guns where they used to have four. And that’s how you get gun sales in this country, not by getting new buyers.”</p>
<p>The clip ends with O’Donnell talking about the tragic shooting of a two-year old girl buy her five-year old brother with a Crickett <a href="" type="internal">My First Rifle</a>.</p>
<p>&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>Hat tip: <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/04/bill-maher-its-ridiculous-quaint-nonsensical-to-think-2nd-amendment-can-prevent-tyranny/" type="external">The Blaze</a></p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">background checks</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Bill Maher</a>, <a href="" type="internal">gun control</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Lawrence O'Donnell</a>, <a href="" type="internal">NRA</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Second Amendment</a>, <a href="" type="internal">tyranny</a></p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | Bill Maher: ‘Ridiculous To Think Second Amendment Protects People From Tyranny’ | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/bill-maher-ridiculous-to-think-second-amendment-protects-people-from-tyranny/politics/2013/05/06/66474 | 2013-05-06 | 4 |
<p>Regardless of one's views on whether or not the socialist left should support Bernie Sanders in his race for the White House, the momentum behind the self-described “democratic socialist” has been impressive. Beginning at 2% in April, his popularity grew to 14% in May and at last check was 32% <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/grassroots-movement-working-bernie-sanders-gains-clinton-machine" type="external">in New Hampshire</a>. The swelling crowds he draws in primary states are noteworthy, and his ability to connect with Americans despite his identification as a socialist is inspiring. However Bernie falls woefully short on issues of foreign policy, issues that I believe (contrary to many) will be significant factors in the Democratic primary and the General Election. If Bernie can speak truth to power on the economy, he must speak truthfully about the U.S. government's foreign policy catastrophe.</p>
<p>It appears that the strategy of the Sanders campaign is to focus strongly on domestic issues. A quick visit to the “issues” section of the Sanders website <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/" type="external">shows no mention of foreign policy</a>; tackling climate change is the closest reference to a problem of global scope. This is not surprising. Sanders has tended to focus on domestic issues like getting tough with banks, transnational corporations and big money, and has rarely discussed foreign policy.</p>
<p>His public statements present us with either (a) an opportunity for him to jab Hillary Clinton on her voting record in favor of the Iraq war, which arguably was a successful tactic that Obama used against her to secure the nomination in 2008, or (b) a narrow isolationism akin to that of a left wing Ron Paul. On the first point, I think this strategy is inadequate; it won't work twice. On the second, I think it's unrealistic. Pulling out of the Middle East and leaving the “Muslim nations,” as Sanders calls them, to go through their own version of the European Reformation is as irresponsible as it is inaccurate. Even if the United States were to completely withdraw from the Muslim world, US support for sub-imperialist powers in the Muslim world is enough to make us responsible for what happens there in the future. In other words, one cannot plan to withdraw from the region while continuing support for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, and hold the belief that the support of these nations does not amount to interference.</p>
<p>But why does this matter? On the primary level, Clinton is known as the foreign policy hawk. Her foreign policy experience was used against Obama in 2007 to strike fear into the hearts of voters with the infamous “3 a.m. phone call” advertisement. These types of attacks matter; we should not dismiss them regardless of how inaccurate or propagandistic they are. In the case of a Sanders primary victory, the Republicans already know that they will lose if they do not at least pay lip service to income inequality. Their response has been to either (a) disavow the economic policy of the Republican establishment and become populists, like Rand Paul or Rick Santorum or (b) assert their foreign policy credentials in a world that looks increasingly threatening to the average American, to highlight other supposed strengths. Another terrorist attack, a major victory by ISIS (say, by capturing Baghdad or Damascus), and/or a buildup of military forces along the Russian border will be all it takes to rally the American people behind a candidate who they believe to be a strong commander-in-chief. While I believe these scenarios to be unlikely, I do not dismiss the propagandistic trumpeting of the mainstream media. This has been a neoliberal tactic since Thatcher and the Falklands War: ignore domestic issues by focusing on perceived foreign threats.</p>
<p>This comes at a time when Democrats are already feeling the sting of watching their old foreign policy guard go into retirement. As Erin McPike <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/13/democrats-foreign-policy-leaders_n_7555224.html" type="external">recently reported for the Huffington Post</a>, John Kerry and Joe Biden will be moving into “some form of retirement” after the Obama administration. She also points out how other Democrats who focused on foreign policy have retired: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Carl Levin of Michigan, and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. For the record, I do not agree with any of the above mentioned senators on foreign policy (or much else).</p>
<p>But I do see an opportunity for the left to push a progressive foreign policy that does not mistakenly focus on the illusion of isolationism and the false hope of “letting them deal with it themselves.” This does not mean a reoccupation of Iraq, Syria, or any country. It does mean a complete revolutionizing in how the U.S. government should conduct foreign policy along principles such as those stated by the Campaign for Peace and Democracy, whose <a href="http://www.cpdweb.org/purpo.shtml" type="external">statement of purpose</a> reads, “The Campaign for Peace and Democracy works to advance a new, progressive and non-militaristic U.S. foreign policy -- one that encourages democracy and social justice by promoting solidarity with activists and progressive movements throughout the world. We stand in opposition to existing U.S. foreign policy, which is based on domination, militarism, fear of popular struggles, enforcement of an inequitable and cruel global economy, and -- despite the democratic rhetoric -- persistent support for authoritarian regimes.”</p>
<p>If Bernie does not have a strong grasp on foreign policy, while Clinton and the Republicans appear to have that grasp (however wrong I believe they are), and the political calculus changes to include foreign policy issues in the primary or general election, the chance that Sanders has to raise public consciousness about an alternative to US foreign policy in the Middle East (or, in the best of all possible worlds, to win an election) will be completely extinguished.</p>
<p>So what should Sanders say when it comes to foreign policy in the Middle East? I believe that just as Sanders speaks truth to power on the economy, so should he make public how the U.S. government's alliances with certain countries in the Middle East have failed them and created the conditions the U.S. sees itself entangled in today. These alliances exist to cement U.S. imperial power and to assuage the accumulation of greenhouse gas emitting natural resources that have become the bedrock of the capitalist global economy. I have four particular cases in mind:</p>
<p>Leftists should not believe that sectarianism and fundamentalist Islamic extremism is the way that the Middle East naturally “is”. The line of “well, they've been fighting each other for 1000 years” is as ignorant as it is stale. Rather, these phenomena <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/19040-the-isis-paradox" type="external">should be regarded as modern creations</a>, and almost entirely <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/occupation-sectarian-politics.html" type="external">the fault of the United States</a> and the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/304/fundamentalist-islam-at-large-the-drive-for-power" type="external">colonial Western European</a> powers that preceded the U.S. presence in the region. U.S. imperialism actively empowers sub-imperialist actors in the region to shape the chaos in their benefit, using, funding, and empowering proto-fascist jihadist groups as their means. Retraction from the Muslim world without a critique and reevaluation of these relationships and alliances is useless.</p>
<p>Can Sanders act on these critiques? Maybe, maybe not, but they must at least be recognized so that his foreign policy is cohesive and not solely a defensive isolationism. Will he be committing political suicide? Probably, but has he not already by taking a stand against Wall Street, the financial industry, and big money? It doesn't seem like he has much to lose. If he adopts these critiques into his foreign policy platform, he gives himself something to stand on when it comes time for Clinton and the Republicans to attack him on issues of foreign policy, and his perceived lack of interest in it. Part of what makes Sanders such an exciting candidate is his willingness to lay a systemic critique on the economic system, rather than blame the problems away on individuals and bad actors. He should translate this critique into his foreign policy.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Riad Azar is a member of the New Politics editorial board.</p>
<p><a href="/filter/tips" type="external">More information about formatting options</a></p> | Sanders and the Middle East | true | http://newpol.org/content/sanders-and-middle-east | 2015-07-03 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) — A father determined to help his 3-year-old daughter enjoy Halloween even though they were on a Boston-to-San Francisco flight decided to take her trick-or-treating on the plane.</p>
<p>Stephanie Kahan told The Boston Globe ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2f6acGH" type="external">http://bit.ly/2f6acGH</a> ) via email that she was on the flight with the man and his daughter on Monday when he passed out notes and candy to passengers. The note explained that Molly, dressed as a doughnut, was “bummed that she wouldn't be able to go trick-or-treating” and asked for help from fellow passengers.</p>
<p>The girl then walked up and down the aisle collecting the candy.</p>
<p>Kahan called it a “heart-warming moment” and said every passenger was excited to participate.</p>
<p>Kahan said the father wanted to remain anonymous. Her tweet had been shared nearly 70,000 times Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>Information from: The Boston Globe, <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com" type="external">http://www.bostonglobe.com</a></p>
<p><a href="#74acef27-8826-4a4f-beb5-721dba1e1358" type="external">© 2016 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>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Dad takes daughter trick-or-treating on cross-country flight | false | https://abqjournal.com/879584/dad-takes-daughter-trick-or-treating-on-cross-country-flight.html | 2016-11-01 | 2 |
<p />
<p>President Donald Trump has always been vocal how special U.K. is to the U.S. and to Americans. The two world leader-countries, after all, have a long shared history together and continue their great cooperation on today's most pressing global concerns. No wonder then that the first world leader to have a state visit to the White House shortly after Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States was no less than U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May. In reciprocity and logical measure, Trump's first official state visit as President could potentially be to the U.K., too.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump's London visit is officially in the works, in fact, and we are all just waiting for the final date to be confirmed. There are some uncalled for noises being made by liberals and those from the opposition in the U.K. objecting to Trump's visit due to supposed controversies being associated with him including his executive order on a temporary travel ban for refugees and people from seven predominantly Muslim countries while the vetting system is being reviewed and improved by the Trump administration.</p>
<p />
<p>One of the most boisterous but unenlightened voices protesting the visit is Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, the very same opposition guy who campaigned hard for the country to stay in the European Union but was widely rejected by voters with the upset victory of Brexit. The EU-loving, if not apologist, Corbyn, just said today that Trump's visit to the U.K. should all together be scrapped. He minced no words in claiming that Trump should not be welcome in the U.K. because of his controversial policies and pronouncements. Corbyn said that his country in spite of being the closest of allies with the U.S. should be challenging Trump on international issues instead of rolling out the red carpet for him.</p>
<p />
<p>Corbyn also previously protested to Trump speaking to Parliament during his state visit to the U.K. Corbyn's hostile comments on Trump came as a Metropolitan Police Commissioner seemed to have wittingly or unwittingly confirmed Trump's visit by saying security is being beefed up for the planned visit in June. A June state visit, of course, would also rule out any chance for Trump to give a speech before the Parliament as it will be in recess at that time.</p>
<p />
<p>Nothing should, of course, come in the way for Trump's state visit to a good friend and close ally, a country and people he even glowingly describes as "special" to him and the U.S. And just as May was warmly received in the White House, so should Trump's reception be in 10 Downing Street. In all likelihood, it won't be a problem between Trump and May, or between Trump and majority of the American-friendly British people.</p>
<p />
<p>It is only a problem for losers like Corbyn whose Brexit loss was further magnified last night as Members of the House of Commons overwhelmingly voted to move a step closer to making Brexit a reality. May has earlier declared she wants nothing but a hard Brexit. Corbyn was heavily criticized for failing to put up a good fight, or even just a token fight at all, to last night's historic vote, highlighting all the more his humiliating additional defeat.</p>
<p />
<p>Commenting harshly on Trump's visit may be Corbyn's "smart" move to try to divert the issue from his sorry loss and focus the public's attention to a bigger issue like Trump. Unfortunately for him, both the British and American people are much smarter than he ever recognized, and as such won't fall for his pathetic ploy.</p> | Former UK PM Whines About Donald Trump Visiting London | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/1315-Former-UK-PM-Whines-About-Donald-Trump-Visiting-London | 2017-02-09 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-146683p1.html?cr=00&amp;pl=edit-00" type="external">mistydawnphoto</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&amp;pl=edit-00" type="external">Shutterstock</a></p>
<p>This post originally ran on <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2014/11/seeking-congressional-approval.html" type="external">Juan Cole’s Web page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/us-syria-crisis-obama-idUSKBN0IP2L820141105%20" type="external">President Obama said Wednesday</a> that he would seek Congressional authorization for his war on ISIL or the “Islamic State” Group in Iraq and Syria. This statement comes after months of his administration maintaining that the AUMF of 2001 was still sufficient to underpin this effort. (In fact, it referred to war on those who planned and carried out 9/11, who are getting long in the tooth; it probably doesn’t actually cover radicals in al-Raqqah, Syria, today).</p>
<p>Why the about-face? Well of course we don’t know for sure or in detail. But here are some lively possibilities:</p>
<p />
<p>1. Obama may be trying to mollify Republicans so that they’ll cooperate with an extension of the aid program to train Syrian rebels, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-05/obama-congress-will-pass-some-bills-i-cannot-sign%20" type="external">which runs out in December.</a></p>
<p>2. Obama is taking ISIL off the table as an issue during his last two years (and into the next presidential campaign) by this step. If the GOP Congress gives him the authorization, they will bear the blame if anything goes wrong. If they refuse, then everything that goes wrong will be their fault.</p>
<p>3. If they vote for an authorization for the use of military force, the GOP Congress won’t easily be able to blackmail Obama by threatening to withhold funding for the military effort against ISIL unless he gives in on some issue.</p>
<p>4. The GOP is internally deeply divided between establishment Republicans such as John McCain and libertarians or tea-partiers. The latter are often opposed to big US interventions abroad. Obama is throwing a pigeon among the cats by making the GOP debate the intervention among themselves, with all the internal rancor that might produce.</p>
<p>5. The way some potential GOP presidential candidates vote on the war on ISIL will become part of their record. If they vote for, they can’t run against a Democratic Party initiative in Iraq and Syria. If they vote against, they risk going against widespread public opinion in the US that Something Had to be Done.</p>
<p>Expect to see the Obama team put up a lot of laws and initiatives in hopes they can force the Republicans to take a stand on them one way or another, as a way of creating a narrative about them in the public mind leading up to 2016.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Related video:</p>
<p><a href="http://youtu.be/TfJlgTuFWxA%20" type="external">Wochit: “Obama Plans New Authorization for Military Force Against Islamic State”</a></p>
<p /> | Why Is Obama Finally Seeking Congressional Approval for the War on Islamic State? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/why-is-obama-finally-seeking-congressional-approval-for-the-war-on-islamic-state/ | 2014-11-06 | 4 |
<p />
<p>In the late 1960s-early 70s, when the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Patriots_Organization" type="external">Young Patriots</a> organized against Mayor Daley’s efforts to use urban renewal programs in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, they were fighting new versions of older programs. Slum clearance was not new to Chicago. It had been used to clear the poor from neighborhoods around the Loop in the 1940s and Hyde Park in the 1950s. In the 1960s Urban Renewal programs included building massive public housing high rises like Robert Taylor and Cabrini Greene. Although renewal displacement had impacted poor whites alongside poor blacks, the public &#160;housing projects increasingly housed only black families. Poor whites displaced from neighborhoods like Harrison-Halsted and Uptown were pushed into the suburbs, either dissipating or hyper-segregating their communities.</p>
<p>When residents of Uptown were battling unemployment, slum living conditions, absentee landlords, police violence, lack of health care, malnutrition, high infant mortality rates, and disease, the city responded with urban renewal plans. Uptown was slated to be a site for a new community college, and the poor white residents were slated for displacement. A committee of landowners and business owners were selected by Mayor Richard Daley to oversee the process. A coalition of neighborhood leaders, including the Young Patriots, came together to propose an alternative: the Hank Williams Village. This community-envisioned development would include affordable housing, health services, community space, parks and a hotel for displaced southern migrants looking for work. But the city commission pushed through their own development plans and local forces began the displacement process, which included arson by property owners (murdering children and people with disabilities) and increasingly-repressive policing.</p>
<p>The Young Patriots interrupted urban renewal planning meetings and set up community services like health care and welfare application support to meet needs that the city had intentionally neglected. These were the same organizing tactics that were being used in poor black and brown communities across the city. Leaders from those kindred communities, like Bobby Lee of the Illinois Black Panther Party, recognized that being divided along racial lines was preventing people from seeing how the same forces were moving against them with the same tactics. The original Rainbow Coalition between the Black Panthers, Young Lords and Young Patriots was a threat to the controlling interests in the city, including those who were using urban renewal programs to grow rich. And so their attempt to come together across racial lines around class demands was swiftly and violently repressed.</p>
<p>Urban renewal and gentrification are never about meeting the needs of the poor or eradicating poverty. They are plans for stabilizing the economy of the city: maintaining a tax base of middle and upper-income residents and making the city conducive to business interests. While in earlier periods when the economy was expanding, urban renewal was able to include plans for public housing, low-cost community colleges, and other public services. In today’s contracting economy, where homelessness can increase even as the stock market climbs, gentrification consolidates a shrinking middle class in urban centers, pushing the existing residents out of the city or into homelessness. Vacant buildings held for speculation are part of the gentrification process, as the organization Picture the Homeless&#160;has well <a href="http://picturethehomeless.org/project/banking-on-vacancy-homelessness-real-estate-speculation/" type="external">documented</a>.</p>
<p>Gentrification not only impacts the poor in urban areas but is deeply connected to suburban and rural poverty and homelessness. These are the areas where poor people go when they are pushed out of cities. Poverty rates are highest in large urban centers, but most poor people live in suburban and rural areas. And&#160; <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/the-changing-geography-of-us-poverty/" type="external">poverty has been growing fastest</a>&#160;in those areas. Half of the growth of poverty after 2000 has been in the suburbs, where poverty as grown by 57 percent. These non-metro areas are even less able than large metro areas to meet people’s needs with public transportation and health care clinics.</p>
<p>Gentrification today pushes rents to unprecedented levels, forcing half of all renters in the US—not just those below the poverty line—to pay rents that are unaffordable. ( <a href="" type="internal">49% of us had unaffordable rents</a>&#160;in 2015. Rent is considered affordable if it is less than 30% of your household income.)&#160;One in four renters&#160; <a href="" type="internal">spent more than half their income</a>&#160;on housing in 2013.&#160;In&#160; <a href="" type="internal">2016 rent</a>&#160;in Miami consumed 72% of the typical income; in Los Angeles it was 51%; even in Hattiesburg, Mississippi it was 35.8%. Yet&#160; <a href="" type="internal">only one in four families</a>&#160;who are income-eligible for federal housing assistance receive it.</p>
<p>Today we are experiencing a crisis of homelessness tied to the unaffordability of housing in a society where housing is not a right. Even a job does not guarantee that you will have a place to live. This is despite the contradiction that there are far more vacant homes than there are homeless people.&#160; <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EVACANTUSQ176N" type="external">One in eight homes in the US are empty</a>, 17.2 million units.</p>
<p>Yet homelessness&#160; <a href="" type="internal">rose in 2016</a>&#160;for the first time since the Great Recession.&#160;This “point in time” count doesn’t include those of us who are living in double-ups, insecure housing, or are moving in and out of homelessness. It only counts who is on the streets on one particular night. School records show that&#160; <a href="http://profiles.nche.seiservices.com/ConsolidatedStateProfile.aspx" type="external">1.3 million school children were homeless</a>&#160;during the 2015-2016 year.</p>
<p>Across the country the poor are living in tent city encampments,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">including in Uptown</a>&#160;where the Young Patriots first learned that being white does not guarantee the right to housing. And across the country tent encampments are facing eviction and harassment. This harassment is part of the gentrification process, pushing people further out and down.</p>
<p>But people who are forced into homelessness have been and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">continue to fight back</a>.&#160;When homelessness first started to take on a more permanent and widespread character in the 1980s, leaders from among the homeless formed the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">National Union of the Homeless</a>&#160;in 20 states across the country.</p>
<p>After ten years of organizing, Picture the Homeless recently succeeded in passing the&#160; <a href="http://picturethehomeless.org/victory-ten-years-making-passed-housing-not-warehousing-act/" type="external">Housing Not Warehousing Act</a>&#160;in New York City.&#160;Every year Young Patriot Marc Steiner hosts a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">remembrance day podcast</a>&#160;to name those who died while homeless in Baltimore City. And&#160; <a href="https://chaplainsontheharbor.org/" type="external">Chaplains on the Harbor</a>&#160;is organizing in rural Grays Harbor County in Washington. Calling themselves the “Freedom Church of the Poor,” they are coming together through survival projects, a School of Hard Knocks and jail ministry.&#160; <a href="https://aaronheartsjesus.wordpress.com/" type="external">Aaron Scott</a>&#160;is their organizer and street chaplain, and he recently became chairman of the Grays Harbor Chapter of the Young Patriots.</p>
<p>Homelessness crosses race, gender and geography, impacting us in cities and in rural areas. And those of us who are not homeless tonight are but one job crisis or health care crises away from it. Those who are homeless tonight are the front lines of a crisis that is expanding. Without the right to housing, none of our housing is secure. The fight against Urban Renewal among the Young Patriots of yesterday inspires us to organize today against the manifestations of dispossession today, and the stakes are even higher.</p>
<p>Colleen Wessel-McCoy is the <a href="http://www.youngpatriots-rainbowcoalition.org/" type="external">National Secretary of the Young Patriots Organization.</a></p> | What Will Happen to the People? Urban Renewal Yesterday and Gentrification Today | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/03/09/what-will-happen-to-the-people-urban-renewal-yesterday-and-gentrification-today/ | 2018-03-09 | 4 |
<p>MERS, or the Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, is unlikely to cause an SARS-like death toll, scientists said on Friday.</p>
<p>Although the two diseases are related, MERS isn’t spreading as quickly and is having trouble passing between humans, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/us-saudi-mers-idUSBRE96P01420130726" type="external">Reuters reported</a>.</p>
<p>“It is very unlikely any epidemic will ensue. The public needs to be reassured,” said Prof. Ali Zumla of University College London. “MERS is unlikely to spread as rapidly, and therefore also unlikely to kill as many people (as SARS).”</p>
<p>New findings were published on Friday in <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/onlinefirst" type="external">The Lancet</a>.</p>
<p>MERS has killed 45 people of the 90 confirmed cases since last year, mostly in Saudi Arabia. While that is an extremely significant mortality rate – and it has spread to Europe and Africa – the disease isn’t spreading nearly as fast as SARS did.</p>
<p>Those who have died experience fever, cough, and shortness of breath, the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/" type="external">Center for Disease Control</a> said. There have been no cases reported in North America.</p>
<p>SARS – or severe acute respiratory syndrome – infected thousands and killed an estimated 800 people worldwide after emerging from China a decade ago.</p>
<p>While scientists suggest that MERS might just die out, there is still reason for concern.</p>
<p>The disease can cause kidney failure and attacks patients quicker; there is still no word on the source of the disease, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for public health said.</p>
<p>“Reducing the rate of introduction of MERS coronavirus into human beings is unpredictable because the source of the virus is not yet known,” Prof. Ziad Memish, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23447687" type="external">told BBC News</a>.&#160;“We are searching vigorously for the source.”</p>
<p>There had been some concern MERS would spread quickly, then get redistributed worldwide, as millions of pilgrims arrived in Mecca for the hajj this October.</p>
<p>Yet, the World Health Organization said the risk of infection was “very low,” <a href="http://www.theprovince.com/health/MERS+virus+sicken+patients+faster+than+SARS+isnt+international/8709324/story.html" type="external">the Associated Press</a> reported.&#160;</p> | MERS 'unlikely' to create SARS-like death toll, health officials say | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-07-26/mers-unlikely-create-sars-death-toll-health-officials-say | 2013-07-26 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The federal government is providing $4.4 million in emergency funding for repairs to the Catwalk Trail, a scenic streamside walkway in the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico.</p>
<p>Democratic Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich say the funding is coming from the Federal Highway Administration.</p>
<p>The trail was damaged by flooding along Whitewater Creek in September.</p>
<p>The senators say the federal funding will reimburse the Forest Service for emergency repairs and debris removal already done and pay for repairs and other work to trails, a bridge and viewing platforms. The work is expected to be completed by the summer of 2015.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Feds OK $4.4M to repair flooded trail | false | https://abqjournal.com/393145/feds-ok-4-4m-to-repair-flooded-trail.html | 2014-05-02 | 2 |
<p>I’ve been ill the past couple of day with a bad stomach flu, so I had a chance to vegitate in front of the TV.</p>
<p>At least on Fox News in Scottsdale, where I am now, it’s been nearly non-stop Jeb attack ads on Trump.</p>
<p>Not technically Jeb, but the SuperPAC supporting Jeb:</p>
<p />
<p>This ad epitomizes the inability of Jeb or his supporters to deal with Trump. The overwhelming image in my mind from the ad is of Trump mocking Jeb. See the featured image.</p>
<p />
<p>Jeb never wins these fights, visually or emotionally. As I have pointed out before, the encounters <a href="" type="internal">make Jeb look small</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>Jeb’s SuperPAC also is attacking Marco Rubio.</p>
<p />
<p>Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post lists several reasons <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/12/29/3-reasons-why-the-new-jeb-bush-super-pac-ad-savaging-marco-rubio-wont-work/?postshare=4221451415151850&amp;tid=ss_tw" type="external">why the anti-Rubio ad fails</a>:</p>
<p>My strong sense is that the ad won’t accomplish its goal: to peel establishment/business conservatives off of Rubio and push them to Bush. Here’s why:</p>
<p>1. It looks a lot like every other political ad you have ever seen. Ominous music. Unflattering picture of Rubio. Allegations that he isn’t doing his job backed up by cherry-picked facts. (The briefing on the Paris attacks that Rubio missed came a day after he took part in a very similar briefing.)…</p>
<p>2. There’s almost no evidence that the “[fill in the blank senator] misses lots and lots of votes” attack actually works….</p>
<p>3. The mood of the Republican electorate — up to and including the party establishment — is anger at Washington and all that goes on there. The idea that missing a briefing in Washington, which translates to average people as a bunch of windbag politicians opining while doing nothing to solve the problem is some sort of disqualifying offense seems off to me….</p>
<p>Cillizza also points out how easy the comeback is to Jeb’s jabs at Rubio:</p>
<p />
<p>I haven’t seen an ad by Jeb’s SuperPAC attacking Cruz. Perhaps Jeb lumps Cruz in with Trump as a wacko-bird, and Jeb’s strategy is to be the last establishment candidate standing. And feels his SuperPACs have the money to keep things <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/run-2016/articles/2015-12-29/tommy-thompson-jeb-bush-doesnt-need-a-win-until-nevada" type="external">going to Nevada and beyond</a>:</p>
<p>Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson says Jeb Bush doesn’t need to notch a win until the Feb. 23 Nevada caucuses in order to remain in the 2016 fight for the Republican presidential nomination.</p>
<p>Thompson, who endorsed Bush in early October shortly after his home state governor Scott Walker ended his campaign, argued to U.S. News in an interview that Bush has the organizational muster to sustain losses in the first three nominating states and soldier on.</p>
<p>“He doesn’t have to win until he gets to Nevada and Super Tuesday. He’s the one person with the ties to the establishment and the organization in every state. There are Bush people in every state, whether it be for the father Bush, the younger Bush or Jeb,” Thompson says. “Other candidates have to start showing victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. Bush doesn’t have to have that. He’s got the luxury he’s got enough money to continue advertising. Jeb doesn’t have to win the first three states.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Jeb is not generating any excitement, any momentum, any anything. Every move he makes seems not to see beyond the present.</p>
<p>Trump turns everything upside down. Cruz is patiently waiting while building support. Even Rubio, though stuck in the 10% range, makes a more credible case as the non-Trump, non-Cruz establishment candidate than Jeb.</p>
<p>I think it’s fair to say Jeb plays checkers, Trump, Cruz, and Rubio play chess.</p> | Jeb plays checkers, Trump, Cruz, and Rubio play chess | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/12/jeb-plays-checkers-trump-cruz-and-rubio-play-chess/ | 2015-12-30 | 0 |
<p />
<p>A new study from Parks Associates found that two-thirds of U.S. consumers are unwilling to spend more than $50 per month on mobile data plans, while almost half of smartphone users were unsure how much data they consumed each month. &#160;The report highlights the risks carriers face as they try to shift consumers from unlimited data plans to usage-based ones.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“Moving mobile users to usage-based plans will be difficult and painful, but changes are necessary for operators to maintain revenues,” said Harry Wang, Director of Mobile Research at Parks Associates. “Operators would benefit by recasting mobile data services as experience-driven in order to reduce price sensitivity, fend off competition, and keep their mobile data revenue engine humming.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">See more tech stories on the FOX Business Technology homepage.</a></p>
<p>The firm believes that in order for carriers to maximize their revenues, they should tie in their offerings to popular apps and services, including TV, music, books, newspapers, games, location-based services, and social activities, rather than charging consumers per megabyte</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/2012/04/26/two-thirds-of-americans-unwilling-to-spend-over-50-on-mobile-data/" type="external">This content was originally published on BGR.com Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a>More news from BGR:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Two-Thirds of Americans Unwilling to Spend More Than $50/Month on Mobile Data | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/04/27/two-thirds-americans-unwilling-to-spend-more-than-50month-on-mobile-data.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s ruling National Party won 44.4 percent of the votes in the country’s inconclusive Sept. 23 election, according to the final tally released on Saturday, while the opposition Labour Party took 36.9 percent.</p>
<p>The nationalist New Zealand First Party won 7.2 percent of the votes, leaving it with the balance of power in the formation of the next government. The Green Party, which has a working agreement with Labour, took 6.3 percent of the ballot.</p>
<p>The results show that the National Party has 56 seats in the 120-seat parliament, Labour 46, New Zealand First nine and the Greens eight.</p>
<p>New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has said he will make a decision which party to back to form a coalition government by Oct. 12. Peters has in past elections formed coalition governments with both the National Party and Labour.</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | NZ election final tally leaves small nationalist party with balance of power | false | https://newsline.com/nz-election-final-tally-leaves-small-nationalist-party-with-balance-of-power/ | 2017-10-06 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>“I like that fact that he’s young – that job takes a lot of energy – and that he’s coming from a much more complex situation,” parent Kim Straus said of Boyd, who comes to Santa Fe after serving as assistant superintendent of schools in Philadelphia. “I also like that he seems open-minded and has a willingness to listen.”</p>
<p>Boyd, who started his new job Aug. 1, has already laid out what he calls his “Entry and Learning Plan,” which outlines the approach he’ll take while transitioning into the position. Listening is Phase 1 of the 100-day plan, copies of which were handed out as people entered the gym.</p>
<p>“I was anxious to hear what plans he has and what he has in mind to get us all working together,” said Pat Burke, whose granddaughter is entering kindergarten at Nava Elementary School this year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And while Boyd only spoke for a few minutes at the reception, held at Santa Fe High School’s gym, “we can go home with this,” Burke said, holding up a copy of Boyd’s plan.</p>
<p>After being introduced by school board Secretary Barbara Gudwin, Boyd thanked everyone for coming out to meet him.</p>
<p>“I’m so impressed with the outpouring of warmth and hospitality I’ve received. I quickly learned that Santa Fe’s a lot different from Philadelphia,” he said.</p>
<p>Boyd then reiterated some of the things he’s said publicly before. While students in Santa Fe have shown some educational growth in recent years, Boyd said that based on the rate of growth reflected in StandardS-Based Assessment scores, it’ll take 156 years for them to reach proficiency levels in reading and math.</p>
<p>“It’s going to take everyone in our community to get our schools to where we want them to be,” he said. “I’m incapable of doing anything without all of you.”</p>
<p>That statement struck a chord with Caroline Whitehill, who volunteers at Salazar Elementary, along with her husband Ben.</p>
<p>“I thought he was humble, and I liked what he said about it taking involvement from the community to improve the schools,” she said.</p>
<p>Ben Whitehill said he appreciated that Boyd was making himself accessible to people – and that Boyd is Harvard-educated.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“He’s got a doctorate from Harvard, and I’m a Harvard graduate, so I let him know,” he said.</p>
<p>There were at least three Harvard men in the room. Straus also has a degree from the university.</p>
<p>“I have a lot of respect for the fact that most cutting-edge thinking about education is happening at Harvard. And I think we can benefit from the kind of connections he has there and the knowledge he brings,” he said.</p>
<p>Straus, whose son is attending Chaparral Elementary School, said one reason he came was to hear Boyd speak and see how he presented himself.</p>
<p>“I think that’s important in a high-profile position,” he said.</p>
<p>And how did Boyd do?</p>
<p>“I was positively impressed,” Straus said. “I get the sense he’s coming in with his eyes wide open. I think he understands this isn’t going to be easy and that he has a lot of constituents, or stakeholders if you will, he has to answer to. His job is very political in nature.”</p>
<p>Jennifer Schiffmacher came to the reception, she said, because she has a vested interest in seeing collaboration between the public schools and Santa Fe Community College. She is associate director of development in the grants office at SFCC and previously spent two years as a grant writer for Santa Fe Public Schools. She had an opportunity to talk with Boyd after he addressed the audience.</p>
<p>“We talked about working together on dual credits,” she said. “He’s already spoken with Dr. Guzmán about that, and we’re looking forward to working with him on that.”</p>
<p>Dr. Ana Margarita “Cha” Guzmán was hired last month as the new president at SFCC. While she won’t officially start her job until Sept. 4, Guzmán was in town this week to meet with administrators and other community members.</p>
<p>Schiffmacher was more than just jazzed about the new leadership at both the college and public schools.</p>
<p>“I think education will rock ‘n’ roll in Santa Fe,” she said. “People are enthused. I think education in Santa Fe is entering a new era. We’re building on the past, but moving forward.”</p> | School Boss Impresses Reception | false | https://abqjournal.com/125103/school-boss-impresses-reception.html | 2012-08-18 | 2 |
<p>Mr. Hernández and his allies control the much-protested ballot-counting process, the election oversight commission, the army — which under Honduran law moves the ballots — and all appeals processes.</p>
<p>– U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, (D) Illinois</p>
<p>Poor Honduras.</p>
<p>The word&#160;honduras&#160;means&#160;depth&#160;or&#160;profundity&#160;in Spanish. It’s also the name of one of the most abused nations in the Western Hemisphere. Its citizens are largely poor and overwhelmed by a state of corruption historically linked with the much more sophisticated and wealthy network of corruption that overwhelms the citizenry of the United States. The November 26 election for president of Honduras was the latest chapter in this sad historic reality.</p>
<p>Honduras is now embroiled in street protests following an election count that stinks like three-day old fish in the sun. President Juan Orlando Hernandez was running for a second term, despite an apparently un-amendable Constitutional provision that precludes a second term. Former sportscaster and TV game-show host Salvador Nasralla ran against Hernandez, who was favored to win. The Organization of American States says the election count was seriously flawed and it’s pushing for a new vote. Here’s how the count went: The day after the election, it was announced Nasralla led the vote count by five percentage points, which suggested a real upset. A third candidate for president conceded Nasralla was the winner. At that point, the election tribunal suddenly stopped communicating with the public. After a hiatus, the next communication was to declare Hernandez the winner by one-and-a-half percentage points. Immediately, the nation erupted in protests that led to fatalities. Knowing how important the United States is to Honduras, Nasralla flew to the US to consult with friends and the OAS. The OAS publicly called for a new election.</p>
<p>The Rex Tillerson State Department responded this way: “The United States notes that Honduras’ Supreme Election Tribunal has declared incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez the winner.”&#160;The United States notes . . .&#160; Such tentative language suggests the Trump administration can’t deny the smell of rotten fish in Honduras, so it’s being coy in its support for Hernandez’s spurious re-election count. Based on past actions, Hernandez is said to harbor a strong authoritarian ambition. Many members of the police and army, however, are reportedly reluctant to be harsh with protesters; they seem to know what’s going down. How far they’re willing to go is a looming question. If Hernandez can’t put down the rioting and make the citizens of Honduras accept his corrupt election, then the US will have no choice but to assume another posture. The State Department said if Mr. Nasralla is unhappy with the count, well, he should submit an appeal. Of course, they know, as Rep. Schakowsky points out above, Hernandez controls the appeal process.</p>
<p>Cut to Gringolandia and our current gender struggle, which is a very 21st century story that may relate to the Honduras story. I look at the Trump ascendancy as a masculinist backlash rooted the white, male heartland of God, guns and big macho trucks. In the same sense, the current wildfire raging against sexual misconduct can be seen as a feminist backlash against the Trump masculinist backlash. As a grotesquely polarized nation of self-indulgent people full of ourselves, we’ve painted ourselves into a struggle of gender identity backlashes. Sexual misconduct is a vague term that includes the abuse of minors and outright rape, as well as cases of unwelcome bumptious kissing. It ranges from the dead serious to the comical. Every day now, from the mainstream media we get new accounts — usually from women, but not always — reporting on incidents of sexual misconduct by powerful, celebrity males. (There’s Kevin Spacey’s male accuser and a case in Kansas that involves a male charging a woman executive running for Congress with firing him after he refused to have sex with her; she quit the race.) Sexual misconduct is hardly new. What is new, however, is the credibility these accounts are suddenly receiving. So far, the accusatory cycle has not moved very far down the class scale into the working and poor classes, where arguably the most abuse occurs. At that point, it could run head-on into the working class, masculinist backlash among men who see what feminists call “sexual misconduct” as an honorable manly thing, as in: Hey, males are designed to be assertive; sometimes that assertiveness can be awkward. The Times recently did a large, front-page story on the sexual harassment and abuse received by women over decades at two Ford plants in Chicago. It remains an open question whether the newfound credibility will get traction at the bottom of our free-market, union-busting, money-focused culture.</p>
<p>On a deeper level, there’s a question whether, in the highly structured, industrialized, social-media saturated culture we live in, masculinity is more and more becoming superfluous; that is, has the masculinity that once made sense in a rugged survival mode evolved into a narcissistic, self-congratulatory posture conducive to bullying, greed and crime — not 21st century civilization. We know real tough guys don’t recognize or discuss gender issues. As “race” is an issue only for minority African Americans, “gender” is a woman’s issue. Men don’t talk about it; they just act on it. And they never apologize. (Though sometimes they pay lots of money.) Of course, such a view is controversial; but it may have something to do with the current gender struggles.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton is the nexus between these two stories — the abuse of Honduras and the raging backlash against celebrity sexual misconduct. Ms. Clinton is deeply implicated in both. Besides her loss being a significant impetus for the current sexual misconduct movement, as US secretary of state, she was the lead voice in the Obama administration that endorsed the 2009 coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, the point of origin for the current electoral debacle. Zelaya, a left-leaning businessman before he was elected president, was awoken at 6AM in his pajamas by armed men who had broken into his Presidential Palace, and he was flown out of the country. The reason given for the coup was that Zelaya was maneuvering to change the Constitution so he could run for re-election. Boogie man fears were raised of Honduras becoming like Sandinista Nicaragua or Chavez Venezuela. Clinton and her boss Barack Obama made a clear choice not to employ the power of the United States in opposition to the coup; they made no demand that it be overturned. Instead, with Clinton in the lead, they worked to finesse the aftermath. They acted as if nothing significant had happened; it was treated as a snag to be worked out. They seemed confident no one but successfully marginalized leftists gave a damn. Honduran democracy was not worth pissing away any of the administration’s political capital. They knew very well the history: That during Ronald Reagan’s Contra War against Nicaragua, Honduras was overseen by US Ambassador John Negroponte, who acted as an imperial proconsul ruling Honduras. The poor nation was known sarcastically then as “Aircraft Carrier Honduras,” from which lethal Contra attacks were launched into Nicaragua. Following the 2009 coup, violence and murder rose significantly in Honduras. Since President Zelaya had been wary of US strongarm tactics, thanks to the coup, the US was granted a host of new basing rights for its military under the auspices of the Drug War. All this spawned the rotten dead fish now in the news.</p>
<p>There’s a metaphor lurking in all this. If a heretofore unheard of critical mass has materialized and women who feel abused in the US are suddenly given credence and listened to, what would it take for poor citizens in a place like Honduras to obtain the same kind of credibility for the many decades of flagrant human rights and democratic abuse they’ve suffered at the hands of a male-dominated corrupt system in Honduras that’s in bed with a serial imperial abuser?</p>
<p>How and when such critical masses form is a great question. When does out of sight, out of mind turn into empathy and political action? Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have refused to give credence to poor Hondurans by ignoring their charges of anti-democratic corruption and violence. Those in Honduras abused by this disrespect include people like the high-profile environmental activist Berta Cáceres who was murdered last year for her activism, one of the many murders in Honduras ghat began to grow in numbers following the 2009 coup.</p>
<p>The point is, when it comes to the corrupt governments of tiny Honduras and the massive United States, the granting of credence to charges of human rights violations and sexual abuse, respectively, seems to depend significantly on the class of the accuser and the experience of those granting the credibility. It boils down to this: Is your tale of oppression and abuse deemed culturally worthy? And does giving your narrative credibility entail some kind of diminishment of my power?</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, is a classic liberal Democrat. What makes him interesting in this context is that he spent nearly a year of his young, pre-politico life back in the 1980s working in Honduras with Jesuits steeped in Liberation Theology, the spiritual discipline among the poor that follows the human teachings of Jesus Christ, that is, the antithesis of right-wing Christian fundamentalism. Kaine has publicly spoken out in favor of the OAS call for a new election in Honduras. I see this as a matter of the human heart. Thanks to his personal experiences on the ground there, Kaine intimately knows something about the suffering of the Honduran people. I share this kind of empathy-inducing experience. In my case, in 1984 I was deported from Honduras with five other Americans for speaking publicly in Tegucigalpa against the Contra War. Our arrest was overseen by Proconsul Negroponte and his staff, and to this day, I’m a persona-non-grata in Honduras. Why? Because, like Kaine, I was a young witness and learned something important about abusive power that gives me great sympathy for the Honduran people. Given his political status, Kaine (who emphasizes his facility with Spanish) may not wish to emphasize the reported fact that as a young man he met with Father James Carney, a radical American priest who worked with the poor who was presumably killed by Honduran forces, possibly with US complicity. His body was never found. I met brave people like this as well, so I know enough to discount the standard, glib label of “communist” that so effectively intimidates many Americans from a true understanding of the Honduran reality. One thing I learned in Honduras is that Hondurans who live in Central America are just as much “Americans” as any citizen of the United States. Our great, self-congratulatory myth of American Exceptionalism functions as a blinder for too many North Americans. My experiences in the 1980s in Honduras and Central America were insignificant but personally profound, which, of course, is the English meaning of the word&#160;honduras. These experiences led me to a commitment to what is a perennial, complex human struggle for peace and justice that will end for me only when I pass into oblivion.</p>
<p>The Trump administration works the other side, the side that sees war as profitable and peace as domination, the side Dick Cheyney referred to as “the dark side.” I don’t believe in absolutes or anything permanent; but I do believe in good and evil as forces in contention within us all, which means they’re also contending inside nation states and inside all institutions, including religion institutions. In a move that reeks of this kind of mundane evil, President Trump publicly threatened every nation in the UN General Assembly that if you vote against us (in this case, against moving our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem) we’ll retaliate by withdrawing any aid we’ve promised you. The vote was so lopsided, it read like the world giving the Trump administration the finger. Noteworthy, the lapdog government of President Hernandez in Honduras was one of nine tiny nations voting with the United States.</p>
<p>More North Americans need to wake up and get mad. But we need to do it smartly, without relinquishing an open mind that’s eager to listen to many voices and perspectives, because the awareness and respect for a plurality of voices is where truth resides — not with&#160;my way or the highway. Arrogance can never see its own fall, because that’s what arrogance is, the inability to see oneself as powerless or unimportant. It’s the fertile soil for classic tragedy where protagonists are blind to the inevitable downfall they’ve guaranteed by their own actions.</p>
<p>As for Honduras, everyone with a conscience should join Senator Tim Kaine and the OAS in calling for a new, adequately observed presidential election. As for Gringolandia, a serious, respectful dialogue on how gender works in our dangerous, hi-tech world would seem in order. Sex is too important — too potentially joyful — to let arguments rooted in Fantasy and Power further turn us into a nation at war with itself.</p>
<p>Ain’t no greatness in that.</p>
<p>CODA: While we’re on the subject of backlashing, here’s the great&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVNmvhX-aOQ" type="external">Nina Simone singing “Backlash Blues.”</a></p> | Poor, Abused Honduras; Groped Again | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/12/22/poor-abused-honduras-groped-again-2/ | 2017-12-22 | 4 |
<p>A Cuban doctor treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the disease and was being sent to Geneva for treatment, officials said, the first Cuban known to have contracted the potentially deadly hemorrhagic fever.</p>
<p>The doctor, identified by Cuba's official website Cubadebate on Tuesday as Felix Baez, is one of 165 Cuban doctors and nurses treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. They have been there since early October.</p>
<p>They are part of a Cuban team of 256 medical professionals sent to West Africa to treat patients in the worst Ebola outbreak on record that has killed more than 5,000 people.</p>
<p>Baez, a specialist in internal medicine, had a fever on Sunday and tested positive on Monday after being taken to the capital Freetown, Cubadebate reported, citing a Health Ministry statement. He has not shown complications and is "hemodynamically stable," the statement said.</p>
<p>"Our collaborator is being tended to by a team of British professionals with experience in treating patients who have displayed the disease and they have maintained constant communication with our brigade," the statement said.</p>
<p>At the urging of the World Health Organization (WHO) it was decided to send him to a university hospital in Geneva, where he would be treated by experts in infectious diseases, the ministry statement said. His whereabouts in Sierra Leone early on Wednesday were unclear.</p>
<p>The Cuban commitment to treating Ebola patients in West Africa has won international praise as more substantial than contributions from many wealthy countries. Among those recognizing Cuba has been the United States, its political adversary for the past 55 years.</p>
<p>Some Cuban 165 doctors and nurses have gone to Sierra Leone for a six-month mission, with another 53 in Liberia and 38 in Guinea.</p>
<p>Another 205 have undergone three weeks of training, with extensive practice in using protective full-body suits, and are ready to receive an Ebola assignment.</p>
<p>The Communist-run island has practiced medical diplomacy since Fidel Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution.</p>
<p>While Cuba provides disaster relief around the world free of charge, it also exchanges doctors for cash or goods on more routine missions. The island receives an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil per day from Venezuela, where some 30,000 Cuban medical professionals are posted.</p>
<p>In all, there are more than 50,000 health workers in 67 countries.</p>
<p>The latest WHO tally on Nov. 14 reported 5,177 Ebola deaths out of 14,133 cases, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Paul Tait)</p> | Cuban doctor in Sierra Leone tests positive for Ebola | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-11-19/cuban-doctor-sierra-leone-tests-positive-ebola | 2014-11-19 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — A conservative-backed organization called Concerned Veterans for America is pushing back against proposed disclosure rules in New Mexico for political spending by groups that operate independently of candidates and affiliated committees.</p>
<p>The Virginia-based group issued a public letter Tuesday criticizing rules that would make information available about unlimited independent political donations from corporations, unions and other groups that don’t operate primarily for political purposes.</p>
<p>Concerned Veterans for America Policy Director Dan Caldwell says the requirements would stifle anonymous free speech by forcing it and similar groups to reveal the names of donors.</p>
<p>The draft rules proposed by Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver follow in the footsteps of legislation vetoed in April by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.</p>
<p>Public hearings on the proposed rules are scheduled this week and next.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Political spending rules criticized in New Mexico | false | https://abqjournal.com/1031531/political-spending-rules-criticized-in-new-mexico.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>On Tuesday, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), who <a href="http://alexander.house.gov/biography1/" type="external">was elected</a> to Congress as a Democrat in 2002 and then <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/national/08switch.html" type="external">switched</a> to the GOP in 2004, announced he wouldn’t run again. In an interview with the Norman News Star, Alexander said he’d done all he could do in Congress, and he looked forward to life beyond the gilded halls of Capitol Hill.</p>
<p>The most interesting part of Alexander’s interview, though, was his description of how&#160;fundraising dominates the life of a member of Congress. Here’s what he said:</p>
<p>But the time has come for someone else to advance that cause now. I made that decision when one stops aggressively raising money, well then people start to ask questions. And that’s an unfortunate part of the business that we’re in. But it’s the main business, and it’s 24 hours a day raising money. It’s not fair. It’s not fair for the member, not fair for constituency to have to be approached every day or two or week ore two about campaign contributions. So it’s just a grueling business and I’m ready for another part of my life.</p>
<p>“Twenty-four hours a day” is hyperbole, of course, but it’s nonetheless a eye-opening statement. In making these comments he joins a list of outgoing lawmakers who, freed from the burdens of fundraising, have <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/05/16/obama-bulworth-new-york-times-story/2165589/" type="external">embraced their inner Bulworth</a>&#160;and vented about the exhausting fundraising hamster wheel. In January, after announcing his forthcoming retirement, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said that Congress barely functions because members spend too much time buckraking. “The time is so consumed with raising money now, these campaigns, that you don’t have the time for the kind of personal relationships that so many of us built up over time,” he <a href="" type="internal">said</a>. “So in that way, fun, I don’t know, there needs to be more time for senators to establish personal relationships than what we are able to do at this point in time.”</p>
<p>Why is Congress fundraising so much? Because the cost of elections keeps rising. In 1986, <a href="http://www.cfinst.org/pdf/vital/VitalStats_t1.pdf" type="external">according to the Campaign Finance Institute</a>, it cost $753,274 to win a House race and $6.4 million to win a Senate race (in 2012 dollars). Last year, those figures were, respectively, $1.6&#160;million and $10.3 million. And the cost to win is only climbing.</p>
<p>It takes a whole lot of phone calls, breakfasts at the Capitol Hill Club, <a href="http://www.kypost.com/dpps/news/political/lawmakers-raise-campaign-funds-at-skeet-shooting-range_8241958" type="external">skeet shootings</a>, <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/06/11/12795/bob-casey-bucks-fundraising-trend-beer-bash" type="external">beer bashes</a>, <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/house-finance-chair-goes-on-ski-vacation-with-wall-street" type="external">ski trips</a>, and <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/05/04/12618/need-political-cash-use-force" type="external">Star Wars-themed fundraisers</a>&#160;to raise that much money. For Rep. Alexander, it was all too much.</p>
<p /> | Retiring GOP Congressman: Fundraising Is “The Main Business” of Congress | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/retiring-rodney-alexander-congressman-fundraising-congress/ | 2013-08-08 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Per the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, it is legal for corporations and unions and nonprofits to donate as much as they see fit for “electioneering communications” to help or hurt political candidates, as long as they do so independently of the candidates.</p>
<p>An equally important part of the ruling — eight justices save for Clarence Thomas supported it — upholds disclosure requirements, saying “transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.”</p>
<p>That’s an important piece of the democratic election process — knowing who is paying how much to have someone say what. And to date at least nine lower courts have embraced the ruling, using Citizens United to reject challenges to disclosure laws.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., wants that disclosure to be ever faster and more meaningful — and he’s right.</p>
<p>So why do nonprofits that parse their language get a pass?</p>
<p>In New Mexico, Southwest Organizing Project and the Center for Civic Policy can send out what for all intents and purposes are political attack mailers under the guise of voter education as long as they are careful with the verbiage and timing. And they can thus forgo registering as political committees and disclosing anything about where their funding comes from. All a corporation or union has to do is give its money to a nonprofit that can pass as educational to beat the disclosure system.</p>
<p>SWOP and CCP did it in 2008, targeting nine state legislative districts and getting five lawmakers out of office. State district and appellate court decisions supported those actions, so it’s no surprise the pair is back this election cycle. So far Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, has been targeted on his voting record on a corporate income tax bill ultimately vetoed by the governor. More hit pieces on other candidates are apparently in the mail.</p>
<p>The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, which fought to have the groups register as political committees, says “We fully expected this would happen.”</p>
<p>And voters are right to expect Congress to add teeth to the ruling’s intent, ensuring political donations are classified as such and transparent and accounted for.</p>
<p>Udall is supporting legislation introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., that would strengthen the disclosure laws and force so-called super PACS and other groups spending more than $10,000 in a 24-hour period to disclose expenditures and donors. The bill would also prevent third-party groups from obscuring funding sources.</p>
<p>That’s good. And it would be good to level the playing field so political speech is recognized for what it says instead of who is saying it, and to ensure that those who weigh in on campaigns disclose to voters just who is trying to influence whom.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p> | Editorial: Make Political Speech Transparent for All | false | https://abqjournal.com/98435/make-political-speech-transparent-for-all.html | 2012-04-05 | 2 |
<p>A Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate has a new theory about the root cause of inequality; more Mexican immigrants have gone back to their native country since the 2008 economic crash than have moved to the U.S.; and a professor of linguistics explains why English is an extremely weird language. These discoveries and more below.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/the-ferenstein-wire/a-26-year-old-mit-graduate-is-turning-heads-over-his-theory-that-income-inequality-is-actually-2a3b423e0c#.s6dqqd369" type="external">A 26-Year-Old MIT Graduate Is Turning Heads Over His Theory About Income Inequality</a> Wealthy tech founders and the automation of middle-class jobs are often blamed for increasing concentrations of wealth in fewer hands. But, a 26-year-old MIT graduate student, Matthew Rognlie, is making waves for an alternative theory of inequality: the problem is housing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/18/1451617/-BBC-asks-Anonymous-about-its-threat-against-ISIS-What-are-the-aims-of-your-operations?detail=email" type="external">BBC Asks Anonymous About Its Threat Against Islamic State—the Answers May Surprise You</a> The idea/entity called Anonymous has been making international headlines over the last 30 days.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/11/colistin-last-report-antibiotic-drug-resistance/?mbid=nl_111915" type="external">A Once Powerful Antibiotic Goes the Way of All Flesh</a> Colistin, a toxic antibiotic used to treat only the worst drug-resistant infections, died on XX at age XX.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/11/18/global-support-for-principle-of-free-expression-but-opposition-to-some-forms-of-speech/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&amp;utm_campaign=834ce9f890-11_19_2015&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-834ce9f890-399350061" type="external">Global Support for Principle of Free Expression, but Opposition to Some Forms of Speech</a> Although many observers have documented a global decline in democratic rights in recent years, people around the world nonetheless embrace fundamental democratic values, including free expression.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/2015/11/18/advances-in-telephone-survey-sampling/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&amp;utm_campaign=834ce9f890-11_19_2015&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-834ce9f890-399350061" type="external">Advances in Telephone Survey Sampling</a> Telephone surveys face numerous challenges, but some positive developments have emerged, principally with respect to sampling.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/11/19/more-mexicans-leaving-than-coming-to-the-u-s/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&amp;utm_campaign=834ce9f890-11_19_2015&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-834ce9f890-399350061" type="external">More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to the U.S.</a> More Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the U.S. than have migrated here since the end of the Great Recession, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from both countries.</p>
<p><a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/smith-college-protesters-bar-journalists-from-covering-sit-in-unless-they-support-the-cause/106834?cid=pm&amp;utm_source=pm&amp;utm_medium=en&amp;elq=ccdaf1eec88544bbbfd775ef0a9e3c32&amp;elqCampaignId=1895&amp;elqaid=6961&amp;elqat=1&amp;elqTrackId=7fa0d2b83ce44b808c086f56efe657fc" type="external">Smith College Protesters Bar Journalists From Covering Sit-In Unless They Support the Cause</a> Student protesters at Smith College barred journalists from a sit-in on Wednesday that drew a crowd of hundreds unless they agreed to support the cause, reports The Republican, a newspaper in Springfield, Mass.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/11/why-the-wealthy-have-been-returning-to-the-city-center/416397/?utm_source=nl__link3_111815" type="external">Why the Wealthy Have Been Returning to City Centers</a> There’s no single reason, of course, but a hatred of long commutes might be a big one.</p>
<p><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-english-so-weirdly-different-from-other-languages" type="external">English Is Not Normal</a> No, English isn’t uniquely vibrant or mighty or adaptable. But it really is weirder than pretty much every other language.</p> | Is Income Inequality Actually About Housing? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/is-income-inequality-actually-about-housing/ | 2015-11-23 | 4 |
<p>A New Jersey man was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for a brutal home invasion beating of a mother in front of her 3-year-old daughter while her 10-month-old son was asleep upstairs.</p>
<p>A jury found Shawn Custis, 45, of Newark, guilty on June 1st of second-degree aggravated assault for the June 21, 2013 attack, which was recorded on a home security nanny-cam.</p>
<p>The clip show's Custis barging into the victim's house as her young daughter calmly watches TV. The thug punches the mother in the face several times as she screams, kicks her, and throws her down a flight of stairs.</p>
<p>Police released the video and tips from more than 20 people helped catch the criminal in New York a week later.</p>
<p>Thankfully the mother survived the beating and testified against her attacker in court. She was reportedly weeping as she heard the jury foreman say that Custis was also guilty of endangering the welfare of a child, robbery, burglary, criminal restraint and theft. Her husband sat beside her.</p>
<p>Custis the coward tried to hide his face from cameras behind a folder during the verdict reading. He later waived his right to be at the sentencing and was not in court to hear it.</p>
<p />
<p>The judge told the court, "We in a civilized society take comfort in our own home. That's the one place that we should all feel safe. And Mr. Custis has taken that away." He added that, "The community, society, the public, must be protected from this vicious, depraved, and evil person."</p>
<p>Jury foreman, Jerome Branham, <a href="http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2016/06/nanny_cam_suspect_guilty_of_aggravated_asssault_cl.html" type="external">told reporters</a> outside the courthouse that the four women who identified Custis from the "nanny cam" video were vital. Branham said the case, "was sealed for me when the four women testified."</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/29/sentencing-day-for-man-convicted-in-nanny-cam-beating.html" type="external">FoxNews</a>, "Custis's attorney argued during the trial the police investigation was biased because a white officer responding to the crime scene was heard on the video camera using a racial slur."</p>
<p>Custis was ordered to serve 85% of his sentence, 63 years, before being eligible for parole.</p>
<p>News footage of the attack and the sentencing below:</p>
<p>For the full video of the attack click below: (warning: graphic)</p> | Man Sentenced To Life For Brutal Home Invasion Beating Caught On Nanny Cam | true | https://dailywire.com/news/7126/man-sentenced-life-brutal-home-invasion-beating-chase-stephens | 2016-07-01 | 0 |
<p>(Please note: profanity in sixth paragraph)</p>
<p>By Isla Binnie</p>
<p>ROME (Reuters) – A bloody attack on a journalist has prompted outrage in Italy and put the spotlight on suspected links between extreme right-wing politicians and organized crime in a notoriously unruly seaside suburb of Rome.</p>
<p>A local vote last Sunday in Ostia sent the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and a center-right coalition to the second-round runoff, but also showed a sharp increase in support for neo-fascist group CasaPound.</p>
<p>The vote is being closely watched as it is the first since the local government was dissolved two years ago by police, who said city hall – responsible for assigning lucrative beach concessions – had fallen under the influence of organized crime.</p>
<p>Ahead of the Nov. 19 run-off, reporters from state TV RAI went to interview Roberto Spada, the brother of an imprisoned mobster, who had expressed support for CasaPound on Facebook (NASDAQ:) and had been photographed with the local candidate.</p>
<p>RAI broadcast video showing reporter Daniele Piervincenzi repeatedly asking Spada, on the doorstep of his gym, whether his family had supported CasaPound and if he thought it could change the down-at-heel neighborhood.</p>
<p>“I don’t give a shit,” Spada eventually replies, before headbutting Piervincenzi in the face and chasing the bloodied journalist with a baton.</p>
<p>CasaPound’s prime ministerial candidate Simone Di Stefano told a news conference the attack was “deplorable” but said the party would not answer for Spada’s behavior as he was not a member. The local candidate said the photo taken of him with Spada had happened to be snapped at a neighborhood event.</p>
<p>RAI said the blow broke Piervincenzi’s nose and doctors had told him he would need 30 days to recover.</p>
<p>Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi tweeted the video, and wrote: “Unacceptable Spada clan violence … we will stop crime and extremism in Rome.”</p>
<p>Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni offered Piervincenzi his “solidarity for the brutal aggression suffered in Ostia”, and national police chief Franco Gabrieli said the incident showed the area “still needs substantial work”.</p>
<p>A small player on the national stage, CasaPound won 9 percent of the vote in Ostia, where it hands out food to poor and homeless Italians, compared with 1.8 percent last time.</p>
<p>CasaPound’s Di Stefano challenged the judiciary to investigate whether there had been any arrangements by which votes were exchanged for money or favors in Ostia, adding his group had won between 5 and 8 percent of the vote in three cities since early last year.</p>
<p>“If we had been in some way favored in Ostia by a mafia clan, we would have had a boom there and in the rest of Italy we would have got 0.4. That’s not how it is,” he said.</p>
<p>Spada was detained by police on Thursday and a judge is due to decide on Friday whether to formally arrest him.</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Battle for Rome's beachfront turns bloody with assault on journalist | false | https://newsline.com/battle-for-rome039s-beachfront-turns-bloody-with-assault-on-journalist/ | 2017-11-09 | 1 |
<p>Japanese F-15 fighter jets on Saturday conducted an air exercise with U.S. B1-B bombers in the skies above the East China Sea, Japan’s Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) said.</p>
<p>The joint drill comes as South Korea braces for a possible further missile test by North Korea as it marked its founding anniversary, just days after its sixth and largest nuclear test rattled global financial markets and further escalated tensions in the region.</p>
<p>The exercise involved two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flying from Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam, which were joined by two Japanese F-15 jet fighters.</p>
<p>On Aug. 31, Japanese F-15 fighter jets also conducted an air exercise with U.S. B1-B bombers and F-35 stealth fighters in skies south of the Korean peninsula, two days after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over northern Japan.</p> | Japan: Jet Fighters Conducted Drills With US Aircaft Over East China Sea | false | https://newsline.com/japan-jet-fighters-conducted-drills-with-us-aircaft-over-east-china-sea/ | 2017-09-09 | 1 |
<p>Albuquerque Journal/ ZUMA</p>
<p />
<p>Since 2015, California has issued about 800,000 licenses to drivers who lack proof of legal residence. In Illinois, more than 212,000 people have received what are known as temporary visitor driver’s licenses. Connecticut has approved around 26,000 drive-only licenses for undocumented immigrants, and nine more states plus the District of Columbia have similar programs.</p>
<p>To date, these initiatives have been widely hailed as a reasonable way to try to improve public safety, by helping make sure that everyone behind the wheel was a competent driver. But now, with the incoming Trump administration seemingly committed to deporting undocumented individuals, there is worry among immigration advocates that the identifying data collected as part of these programs—names, addresses, copies of foreign passports—could be used by federal authorities looking to send people back to their home countries.</p>
<p>Last month, Trump <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-elect-trump-says-how-many-immigrants-hell-deport/" type="external">said</a> he would deport or incarcerate as many as 3 million undocumented immigrants who have criminal records. A 10-point immigration plan on Trump’s transition <a href="https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/immigration.html" type="external">website</a> lists “zero tolerance for criminal aliens,” along with a promise to “ensure that other countries take their people back when we order them deported.” The plan also calls for blocking funding for so-called “ <a href="" type="internal">sanctuary cities</a>” that historically have limited their cooperation with federal immigration agents.</p>
<p>“The discussion up to this point has been hypothetical or theoretical, and now it’s feeling very real,” said Jonathan Blazer, advocacy and policy counsel for the ACLU. “People start to think, ‘Are things going to look completely different than they’ve ever looked before, in terms of what the federal government might try to do?'”</p>
<p>Nothing in federal law specifically entitles immigration agents access to state data on drivers who may be in the country illegally, according to Blazer. To get states to produce a list of these drivers, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement—which includes the federal government’s deportation arm—might have to rely on its administrative subpoena power. Even then, states could refuse to provide the information, thereby forcing the federal government to sue for the driver data or narrow its request, Blazer and other legal experts said. &#160;&#160; &#160; “If ICE just came and said, ‘Hey, give me all your driving privilege card holders, ‘I would say, ‘No,’ and they would have to take some sort of different legal action that is beyond my control,” said Scott Vien, the director of Delaware’s Division of Motor Vehicles, which has so far issued about 3,500 driving credentials to undocumented immigrants. Some of the records they maintain include copies of birth certificates, foreign passports and consular identification cards.</p>
<p>Uncertainty already surrounds the fate of more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants who first arrived in the United States as children, and who obtained temporary reprieves from deportation through a 2012 executive action of President Barack Obama. In applying to the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca" type="external">program</a>, these individuals submitted all sorts of personal information to the federal government, including home addresses and the names of family members. Immigrants and their advocates now fear that this information could be turned over to federal immigration officials after Obama leaves office, for use in tracking down undocumented individuals.</p>
<p>Driving records, it is now clear, constitute another vast store of data on US residents who may not be residing in the country legally. In all, more than 1 million licenses meant for people without proof of legal immigration status have been issued across the country.</p>
<p>There have already been some instances of ICE seeking to get and use driver’s license information in bulk from states that do not have the special programs for the undocumented—New Jersey among them. In 2012, ICE’s Newark field office obtained from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission a list of people who had applied for restricted licenses using valid but temporary immigration documents. An initial review “resulted in the identification of numerous foreign-born individuals who fall under ICE priorities,” according to an April 2012 letter from the field office director, who also requested that New Jersey continue to supply updated lists. &#160;</p>
<p>That same year, the Atlanta field office proposed gaining access to the names of foreign-born residents with temporary driver’s licenses, as well as lists of rejected license applications, as part of its efforts to achieve that year’s “ <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/603861-ice-documents.html" type="external">criminal-alien removal target</a>.” That DMV project was not implemented, according to an ICE official’s email from 2014, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act <a href="https://www.nilc.org/issues/drivers-licenses/ice-dmvs-share-information/" type="external">request</a> by the National Immigration Law Center.</p>
<p>The Illinois secretary of state’s office has said it cannot guarantee the safety of temporary license applicants’ information from federal immigration authorities. If the office receives a “legally valid request” for information on license applicants who lack proof of legal residence, it will comply, according to an <a href="http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/publications/pdf_publications/dsd_tvdl4.pdf" type="external">FAQ</a> published by the state earlier this year.</p>
<p>“If ICE did come to us with a subpoena, we’d probably have to go and get a legal opinion, from the attorney general,” said Dave Druker, a spokesman for the Illinois secretary of state’s office. “It hasn’t happened yet.”</p>
<p>The state has had a problem with protecting applicant information before. About three years ago, an employee of the secretary of state’s office alerted ICE about an undocumented immigrant who had applied for a temporary license. The applicant was then apprehended upon showing up at a state office for an appointment in February 2014. Due in part to outcry from immigrant rights advocates following the incident, the state has said it will no longer proactively volunteer information to ICE about temporary license seekers, as long as they do not have any records of felony criminal activity or appear on any terrorism watch list.</p>
<p>“In order to find out the legality, someone needs to be willing to sue, and because of data sharing and how it operates, a lot of times it’s going to require a political actor to do that—a state, a locality,” said Mark Fleming, the national litigation coordinator for the National Immigrant Justice Center. “That’s often a political decision for a lot of elected officials.”</p>
<p>ICE already enjoys limited access to basic state driver’s license information through a law enforcement data exchange network called <a href="http://www.nlets.org/" type="external">Nlets</a>. However, the information ICE can see wouldn’t necessarily give away someone’s immigration status.</p>
<p>In California, any driver’s license information that the state makes available to law enforcement agencies through data-sharing systems does not indicate whether the driver provided evidence of legal immigration status, according to Artemio Armenta, a spokesman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles.</p>
<p>In the Illinois system, however, there’s a potential giveaway: Driver data for a regular license includes a Social Security number, whereas temporary license records will list a consular card or foreign passport number instead.</p>
<p>Other states that offer driving privileges to undocumented individuals include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Vermont. In Washington state, no resident has to provide evidence of legal presence or citizenship to obtain a standard license. Even so, many immigrants who lack proof of legal residence face a dilemma in deciding whether or not to take advantage of these programs and apply for driving credentials. &#160;</p>
<p>“People can’t be afraid to get the license that would enable them to learn the rules of the road and hold them accountable for driving,” said Tanya Broder, a senior staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center. At the same time, “we’ve told people that if they’re at high risk, if they don’t want to be seen or found, that the DMV database makes them easier to find.”</p>
<p /> | How One Plan to Bring Undocumented Immigrants out of the Shadows Could Get Them Deported | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/programs-help-undocumented-immigrants-gain-drivers-licenses-trump/ | 2016-12-08 | 4 |
<p>Jan 23 (Reuters) - Firm Capital Property Trust:</p>
<p>* FIRM CAPITAL PROPERTY TRUST ANNOUNCES OVERNIGHT MARKETED EQUITY OFFERING</p>
<p>* FIRM CAPITAL PROPERTY TRUST - OFFERED UNITS ARE BEING ISSUED AT A PRICE OF $6.25 PER OFFERED UNIT</p>
<p>* FIRM CAPITAL PROPERTY TRUST - TO USE PROCEEDS TO REPAY AMOUNTS DRAWN ON CREDIT FACILITY, TO FUND POTENTIAL FUTURE PROPERTY ACQUISITIONS Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">BAC.N</a>) will pay a $42 million fine and admitted wrongdoing to settle claims by New York’s attorney general that it fraudulently routed clients’ stock trades to outside firms, including one run by swindler Bernard Madoff.</p> FILE PHOTO: A customer leaves a Bank of America ATM kiosk in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
<p>New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the settlement on Friday, and called the fine the largest collected by the state to resolve an electronic trading probe.</p>
<p>The attorney general said Bank of America Merrill Lynch had undisclosed agreements with several electronic trading firms from March 2008 to May 2013 to handle client trades.</p>
<p>He said the bank told clients it was processing the trades in-house, even going so far as to alter trade confirmations, as part of an effort to make its electronic trading services appear safer and more sophisticated than they were.</p>
<p>Schneiderman said the “masking” scheme affected more than 16 million trade orders and 4 billion shares, benefiting such firms as Madoff Securities, Citadel Securities, D.E. Shaw, Knight Capital and Two Sigma Securities.</p>
<p>The bank also admitted to having told traders in its “dark pool,” a private venue where they expected protection from high-speed traders, that up to 30 percent of orders came from retail traders, when the percentage was closer to 5 percent.</p>
<p>“Bank of America Merrill Lynch went to astonishing lengths to defraud its own institutional clients about who was seeing and filling their orders, who was trading in its dark pool, and the capabilities of its electronic trading services,” Schneiderman said in a statement.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">Bank of America Corp</a> 29.17 BAC.N New York Stock Exchange -1.38 (-4.52%) BAC.N BARC.L CSGN.S DBKGn.DE
<p>Bill Halldin, a bank spokesman, said in an email: “At all times we met our obligation to deliver the best prices to clients. About five years ago, we addressed the issues concerning communicating to clients about where their trades were executed.”</p>
<p>The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank also admitted that its masking activity violated New York’s powerful securities fraud law, the Martin Act.</p>
<p>In 2016, Barclays Plc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BARC.L" type="external">BARC.L</a>), Credit Suisse Group AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CSGN.S" type="external">CSGN.S</a>) and Deutsche Bank AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>) settled separate electronic and high-speed trading probes by Schneiderman’s office for a respective $35 million, $30 million and $18.5 million. They also reached related settlements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.</p>
<p>Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term for running a huge Ponzi scheme involving his investment advisory business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Phil Berlowitz</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>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump lit a slow-burning fuse on Thursday to launch long-promised anti-China tariffs, but his actions appeared to be more of a warning shot than the start of a full-blown trade war with Beijing.</p>
<p>A presidential memorandum signed by Trump will target up to $60 billion in Chinese goods with tariffs over what his administration says is misappropriation of U.S. intellectual property, but only after a 30-day consultation period that starts once a list is published.</p>
<p>Trump gave the Treasury Department 60 days to develop investment restrictions aimed at preventing Chinese-controlled companies and funds from acquiring U.S. firms with sensitive technologies.</p>
<p>The waiting periods will give industry lobbyists and U.S. lawmakers a chance to water down a proposed target list that runs to 1,300 products, many in technology sectors.</p>
<p>It also will create space for potential negotiations for Beijing to address Trump’s allegations on intellectual property and delay the start of immediate retaliation against U.S. products from aircraft to soybeans.</p>
<p>“I view them as a friend” Trump said of the Chinese as he started his announcement. “We have spoken to China and we are in the middle of negotiations.”</p> ‘FIGHT TO THE END’
<p>But his actions provoked a belligerent response from China’s embassy in Washington, which vowed Beijing would “fight to the end” in any trade war with the United States.</p>
<p>“We will retaliate. If people want to play tough, we will play tough with them and see who will last longer,” Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai said in a video posted to the embassy’s Facebook page.</p>
<p>Stocks fell sharply on Trump's announcement, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> falling nearly 3 percent. Major industrials that could become targets of Chinese trade retaliation slumped further, with aircraft maker Boeing ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">BA.N</a>) down 5.2 percent and earthmoving equipment maker Caterpillar ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CAT.N" type="external">CAT.N</a>) falling 5.7 percent.</p>
<p>In addition to punitive tariffs, Trump’s memo also directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to challenge China’s technology licensing programs at the World Trade Organization. The WTO has repeatedly drawn the ire of the administration but it could provide a resolution that avoids a trade war.</p>
<p>The steps are based on the results of USTR’s eight-month investigation of suspected misappropriation of American technology by China.</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>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> Slideshow (18 Images)
<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>
<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>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">Boeing Co</a> 321.0 BA.N New York Stock Exchange +1.39 (+0.43%) BA.N CAT.N GM.N AAPL.O
<p>China has threatened to target U.S. exports of agricultural commodities, in particular the $14 billion in exports of soybeans.</p>
<p>Reaction from U.S. industry groups sought to strike a balance, applauding the president for tackling the persistent drain of U.S. technology to Chinese competitors, but urging negotiations instead of tariffs.</p>
<p>“American business wants to see solutions to these problems, not just sanctions such as unilateral tariffs that may do more harm than good,” said John Frisbie, president of the US-China Business Council.</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 Lighthizer warned on Wednesday that Washington would take “counter measures” if Beijing targeted U.S. agriculture.</p>
<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 ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) and Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>).</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>(This version of the story corrects consultation period for tariffs to 30 days from 60 days, paragraph 2)</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Steve Holland, David Chance, David Lawder, David Brunnstrom and Susan Heavey; Writing by David Lawder; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Paul Simao and Grant McCool</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders called on U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday to make permanent an EU exemption from U.S. metal import duties, saying they reserved the right to respond “in a proportionate manner” to protect the bloc’s interests.</p>
<p>The 40-day reprieve granted by Washington was like U.S. President Donald Trump pointing a gun at Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a summit in Brussels.</p>
<p>“We will talk about anything in principle with a country that respects WTO rules. We will not talk about anything when it is with a gun to our head,” he told a news conference.</p>
<p>The EU’s trade chief demanded that the United States drop “artificial deadlines” and her boss, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said it was impossible to reach agreement by May 1.</p>
<p>Trump said on Thursday he would suspend tariffs for the EU, the United States’ biggest trading partner, as well as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. The tariffs are suspended until May 1 as discussions continue.</p>
<p>EU heads of state and government said in a joint statement that the measures were regrettable, could not be justified on national security grounds which was the basis cited by Washington and the exemption should be permanent.</p>
<p>“Sector-wide protection in the U.S. is an inappropriate remedy for the real problems of overcapacity,” they said.</p>
<p>The leaders also said they supported steps taken by the European Commission to respond to the U.S. measures “as appropriate and in a proportionate manner”.</p>
<p>Cecilia Malmstrom, the trade commissioner who negotiates on behalf of the 28 nations, said Europeans did not want to be penalised by actions prompted largely by accusations of Chinese dumping and said Washington and Brussels should be cooperating.</p>
<p>She told Reuters it was still unclear what Trump wanted in return for granting a permanent waiver and said the EU could bring up a list of its own “trade irritants” if he insisted that EU car import duties be cut. [L8N1R55IY]</p>
<p>Allies should not be subject to “artificial deadlines”, she said.</p> Slideshow (5 Images) TEMPORARY EXEMPTION
<p>German industry, aware that Trump has warned he could raise duties on EU cars, welcomed the reprieve but said the threat of a trade war had not disappeared.</p>
<p>“We still have the threat of escalating global trade conflict. And U.S. President Donald Trump will demand a price for the tariff exclusion,” Thilo Brodtman, head of Germany’s VDMA engineering federation said in a statement.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HOG.N" type="external">Harley-Davidson Inc</a> 41.44 HOG.N New York Stock Exchange -0.69 (-1.64%) HOG.N
<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe was trying to avoid a trade war in which everyone would lose.</p>
<p>European steelmakers group Eurofer said the danger to the EU market had not disappeared, with the exemption only temporary, and the EU needed its own quotas or tariffs to stop steel otherwise bound for the United States from flooding into Europe.</p>
<p>Europe says it wants to avert a trade war but the European Commission has proposed a series of measures if the White House hits EU producers.</p>
<p>It would launch a challenge at the World Trade Organization, consider measures to prevent a surge of metal imports into Europe and impose import duties on U.S. products to “rebalance” EU-U.S. trade. Malmstrom said the EU was keeping its options open.</p>
<p>The counter-measures would include EU tariffs on U.S. orange juice, tobacco, bourbon and Harley-Davidson Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HOG.N" type="external">HOG.N</a>) motorbikes.</p>
<p>Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel underlined the irritation among some EU leaders at Trump’s negotiating tactics.</p>
<p>“I have the impression that the U.S. leader wants to negotiate with the European Union by putting a gun to our head,” Michel said, in an expression that was later echoed by Macron.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-eu-malmstrom/still-unclear-what-trump-wants-from-europe-eu-trade-chief-says-idUSKBN1GZ2GZ" type="external">Still unclear what Trump wants from Europe, EU trade chief says</a>
<p>“That’s a strange way to negotiate with an ally.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt and Paul Carrel in Berlin; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Noah Barkin and Edmund Blair</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Firm Capital Property Trust Announces Overnight Marketed Equity Offering Bank of America pays $42 million fine in New York 'masking' probe U.S. Justice Department urges judge to block AT&T-Time Warner merger Trump moves toward China tariffs in warning shot on technology transfer EU complains of Trump's 'gun to our head' over tariffs | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-firm-capital-property-trust-announ/brief-firm-capital-property-trust-announces-overnight-marketed-equity-offering-idUSASB0C1Y5 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>VARNER, Ark. — After going nearly 12 years without executing an inmate, Arkansas now has executed three in a few days — including two in one night.</p>
<p>Jack Jones and Marcel Williams received lethal injections on the same gurney Monday night, just about three hours apart. It was the first double execution in the United States since 2000.</p>
<p>While Jones, 52, was executed on schedule, shortly after 7 p.m., attorneys for Williams, 46, convinced a federal judge minutes later to briefly delay his execution over concerns about how the earlier one was carried out. They claimed Jones “was moving his lips and gulping for air,” an account the state’s attorney general denied, but the judge lifted her stay about an hour later and Williams was pronounced dead at 10:33 p.m.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In the emergency filing, Williams’ attorneys wrote that officials spent 45 minutes trying to place an IV line in Jones’ neck before placing it elsewhere. It argued that Williams, who weighs 400 pounds, could have faced a “torturous” death because of his weight.</p>
<p>Intravenous lines are placed before witnesses are allowed access to the death chamber.</p>
<p>An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution said Jones moved his lips briefly after the midazolam was administered, and officials put a tongue depressor in his mouth intermittently for the first few minutes. His chest stopped moving two minutes after they checked for consciousness, and he was pronounced dead at 7:20 p.m.</p>
<p>Asked why Jones’ lips moved, Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Solomon Graves said he understood that the inmate was apologizing to the department director, Wendy Kelley, and thanking her for the way she treated him.</p>
<p>Williams was already in the death chamber when the temporary stay was issued. He was escorted out of the chamber and used the restroom, then was brought back in after the stay was lifted.</p>
<p>Initially, Gov. Asa Hutchinson scheduled four double executions over an 11-day period in April. The eight executions would have been the most by a state in such a compressed period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The state said the executions needed to be carried out before its supply of one lethal injection drug expires on April 30.</p>
<p>Besides the two executions Monday, Arkansas put to death one other inmate last week and has a final one scheduled for Thursday. Four others have been blocked.</p>
<p>Before last week, Arkansas hadn’t had an execution since 2005 or a double execution since 1999.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Jones, who’d argued that his health conditions could lead to a painful death, gave a lengthy last statement. His final words were: “I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>“I hope over time you can learn who I really am and I am not a monster,” he said in the roughly 2-minute statement.</p>
<p>Williams declined to make a final statement.</p>
<p>Jones was sent to death row for the 1995 rape and killing of Mary Phillips. He strangled her with the cord to a coffee pot.</p>
<p>He was also convicted of attempting to kill Phillips’ 11-year-old daughter and was convicted in another rape and killing in Florida.</p>
<p>Jones said earlier this month that he was ready for execution. He used a wheelchair and he’d had a leg amputated in prison because of diabetes.</p>
<p>Williams’ “morbid obesity makes it likely that either the IV line cannot be placed or that it will be placed in error, thus causing substantial damage (like a collapsed lung),” his attorneys wrote in an earlier court filing asking justices to block the execution.</p>
<p>Both men were served last meals on Monday afternoon, according to Graves, the corrections department spokesman. Jones had fried chicken, potato logs with tartar sauce, beef jerky bites, three candy bars, a chocolate milkshake and fruit punch. Williams had fried chicken, banana pudding, nachos, two sodas and potato logs with ketchup, Graves said.</p>
<p>In recent pleadings before state and federal courts, the inmates said the three drugs Arkansas uses to execute prisoners — midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride — could be ineffective because of their poor health.</p>
<p>Williams weighed 400 pounds, was diabetic and had concerns that the execution team might not be able to find a suitable vein to support an intravenous line.</p>
<p>The poor health of both men, their lawyers claimed, could make it difficult for them to respond during a consciousness check following a megadose of midazolam. The state shouldn’t risk giving them drugs to stop their lungs and hearts if they aren’t unconscious, they have told courts.</p>
<p>The last state to put more than one inmate to death on the same day was Texas, which executed two killers in August 2000. Oklahoma planned a double execution in 2014 but scrapped plans for the second one after the execution of Clayton Lockett went awry.</p>
<p>Arkansas executed four men in an eight-day period in 1960. The only quicker pace included quadruple executions in 1926 and 1930.</p>
<p>Williams was sent to death row for the 1994 rape and killing of 22-year-old Stacy Errickson, whom he kidnapped from a gas station in central Arkansas.</p>
<p>Authorities said Williams abducted and raped two other women in the days before he was arrested in Errickson’s death. Williams admitted responsibility to the state Parole Board last month.</p>
<p>“I wish I could take it back, but I can’t,” Williams told the board.</p>
<p>In a letter earlier this month, Jones said he was ready to be killed by the state. The letter, which his attorney read aloud at his clemency hearing, went on to say: “I shall not ask to be forgiven, for I haven’t the right.”</p>
<p>Including Jones and Williams, nine people have been executed in the United States this year, four in Texas, three in Arkansas and one each in Missouri and Virginia. Last year, 20 people were executed, down from 98 in 1999 and the lowest number since 14 in 1991, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Jill Bleed contributed to this report from Little Rock.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Andrew DeMillo at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ademillo" type="external">www.twitter.com/ademillo</a> and Kelly P. Kissel at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kisselap" type="external">www.twitter.com/kisselap</a></p> | Arkansas conducts nation’s 1st double execution since 2000 | false | https://abqjournal.com/992888/arkansas-executes-2-inmates-on-the-same-gurney-hours-apart.html | 2017-04-24 | 2 |
<p />
<p>By Dennis Harvey</p>
<p>An eccentric mix of veteran actors, Southern Gothicism and neo-noir lends “ <a href="http://variety.com/tag/cold-moon/" type="external">Cold Moon</a>” a certain charm as a ghostly revenge thriller. This handsome-looking potboiler is well-crafted on various planes, even if telepic and direct-to-video helmer <a href="http://variety.com/tag/griff-furst/" type="external">Griff Furst</a>’s mostly game-upping latest feature is also occasionally at tonal odds with the screenplay’s campier “Creepshow”-type horror aspects. Nonetheless, as guilty pleasures go, this one rates a solid B.</p>
<p>Orphaned Jerry Larkin ( <a href="http://variety.com/tag/chester-rushing/" type="external">Chester Rushing</a>) is a sober-minded youth attentive to the financial plight of grandmother Evelyn ( <a href="http://variety.com/tag/candy-clark/" type="external">Candy Clark</a>) and their family’s Florida blueberry farm — in contrast to high-spirited sister Margaret ( <a href="http://variety.com/tag/sara-catherine-bellamy/" type="external">Sara Catherine Bellamy</a>). Galavanting around on her bicycle long past when she’s due home, Margaret is attacked by a mysterious, hearse-driving figure on her belated return. He throws her over a bridge, then leaps over himself to ensure she drowns. Afterward, a coroner discovers the 16-year-old was four months pregnant.</p>
<p>This merely kickstarts a lurid narrative in which some of the folks we expect to be our main protagonists barely survive past the first act. Local child-of-privilege sociopath Nathan Redfield ( <a href="http://variety.com/tag/josh-stewart/" type="external">Josh Stewart</a>) turns out to be the main menace here, and he’s well-deserving of the supernatural payback he gets.</p>
<p>That last element renders “Cold Moon” increasingly silly, but no less entertaining. Dead Margaret appears to become empowered by a vengeful snake-spirit. Other primary characters include Nathan’s awful bankster father ( <a href="http://variety.com/tag/christopher-lloyd/" type="external">Christopher Lloyd</a>), his naive teenage brother (Robbie A. Kay), and the African-American schoolteacher (Marcus Lyle Brown) Nathan tries to frame for his crimes. There’s also a well-intentioned local sheriff (Frank Whaley) and his sexy daughter (Rachele Brooke Smith), who also has dangerous ties to Nathan.</p>
<p>Ultimately at least as much a portrait of noir psychopathy a la “The Killer Inside Me” as it is a supernatural thriller, “Cold Moon” is goofy, but juicy. It looks fine in Thomas L. Callaway’s widescreen photography, with Louisiana standing in for the Babylon, Fla., setting of co-scenarist Michael McDowell’s source novel. All other design contributions are nicely turned, beyond some iffy CGI. (And why include yet another familiar clip from Romero’s original “Night of the Living Dead”? That movie’s public-domain status has been milked to death already.)</p>
<p>The performers are impressively committed, though they run a gamut: The principals are fine while some older, name actors occasionally go over-the-top. “The Room’s” <a href="http://variety.com/tag/tommy-wiseau/" type="external">Tommy Wiseau</a> barely figures in a nonetheless-distracting early cameo as a rodeo snake-charmer. Do rodeos have snake-charmers? Probably not, but then exceptions must always be made for the strikingly inexplicable Mr. Wiseau, who seems like a UFO no matter what context he’s dropped into.</p>
<p /> | Film Review: ‘Cold Moon’ | false | https://newsline.com/film-review-cold-moon/ | 2017-10-04 | 1 |
<p>Washington Post A U.S. appeals court ruled today that New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time's Matt Cooper must comply with a subpoena from a grand jury investigating whether the Bush administration illegally leaked Valerie Plame's name to the news media. "We agree with the District Court that there is no First Amendment privilege protecting the information sought," Judge David B. Sentelle said in the <a href="http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200502/04-3138a.pdf" type="external">ruling</a>, which was unanimous. (Related New York Times <a href="http://nytimes.com/2005/02/15/national/15cnd-leak.html" type="external">story</a>.) &gt; <a href="" type="internal">NYT's Sulzberger: "We will challenge today's decision" (Romenesko Misc.)</a></p> | Court says Time, NYT journos must testify before grand jury | false | https://poynter.org/news/court-says-time-nyt-journos-must-testify-grand-jury | 2005-02-15 | 2 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom announced on Sunday that Israel has no formal plans to assassinate Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.</p>
<p>This came shortly after Ehud Olmert, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister <a href="http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/340017.html" type="external">told Israeli radio</a> that “killing [Arafat] is definitely one of the options” his government is considering. Which came on the heels of last week’s Israeli government decision in principle to “remove” Arafat. Bottom line: it’s unclear what Israel intends to do.</p>
<p>Olmert followed up his mafia-style threat with an <a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004014" type="external">op-ed</a> in the Wall Street Journal:</p>
<p>“The latest round of failed diplomacy has shown that an enduring peace agreement cannot be built on the rotten foundation that is the current regime. Palestinian leaders will neither dismantle the terrorist infrastructure nor allow anyone else to do it. The alleged line that separated the Fatah forces from Hamas and Islamic Jihad can no longer be claimed to exist. Arafat is the CEO of a full-fledged terrorist organization and no less a danger than the Islamic extremist leaders whom Israel has finally targeted.”</p>
<p>(As always, it’s worth bearing in mind that the Palestinian Authority, even if it wanted to, might not have the power to knock out Hamas and Islamic Jihad.)</p>
<p>There’s no shortage of reasons why going after Arafat is a very bad idea. Luckily, it’s doubtful Ariel Sharon’s government would go ahead without first clearing it with the White House, and Colin Powell was quick to warn Israel to <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/nm/20030914/ts_nm/mideast_usa_powell_dc_5" type="external">lay off Arafat</a>. Speaking from Baghdad, the Secretary of State told Fox News Sunday that “[t]he consequences [of killing Arafat] would not be good ones. I think you can anticipate that there would be rage throughout the Arab world, the Muslim world and in many other parts of the world.”</p>
<p>But perhaps the most chilling predictions of mayhem came from within Israel. The leading Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz, came out against targeting Arafat. And former Knesset member and longtime peace activist, Uri Avnery, considered the consequences of assassinating Arafat so great that he volunteered to act as <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1924.shtml" type="external">Arafat’s bodyguard</a>. In a recent <a href="http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/" type="external">editorial,</a> Avnery warns of what Arafat’s murder could bring to the region.</p>
<p>“Anyone familiar with Ariel Sharon can see how things will develop from now on. He will wait for his opportunity. It may come any minute, or after a week, a month, a year. He is patient. When he decides to do something, he is ready to wait, but he won’t deviate from his goal.</p>
<p>So when will the planned assassination be carried out? When some big suicide attack will take place in Israel, one so big that an extreme reaction will be understood by the Americans, too. Or when something happens somewhere to divert world attention from our country. Or when some dramatic event, something comparable to the destruction of the Twin Towers, makes Bush furious.</p>
<p>The murder of Arafat will bring about an historic change in the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian people. Since the 1973 war, both peoples have been accepting the idea of a compromise between the two great national movements. In the Oslo agreement, after a process initiated by Yasser Arafat practically alone, the Palestinians gave up 78 percent of the country that was called Palestine before 1948. They agreed to set up their state in the remaining 22 percent. Only Arafat had the moral and political standing necessary to carry the people with him, much as Ben-Gurion was able to convince our people to accept the partition plan.</p>
<p>The assassination of Arafat will put an end to this, perhaps forever. We shall return to the stage of “all or nothing”: Greater Israel or Greater Palestine, throwing the Jews into the sea or pushing the Palestinians out into the desert.”</p>
<p>Ten years more or less to the day since the signing of the Oslo Accords, Avnery’s view is hardly unusual. Lebanon’s Daily Star says if Arafat were expelled or killed there’d be no going back to the peace process. The Star notes that while the Bush administration might not always make the smartest moves in mediating between the Palestinian and Israeli governments, Colin Powell does seem to grasp the <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/15_09_03_a.asp" type="external">larger (read: catastrophic) significance</a> of killing or exiling Arafat.</p>
<p>“Powell seems to understand what is at stake. The Oslo process may be dead, but its effect was to alter profoundly the manner in which Arabs and Israelis view the possibilities for a negotiated solution to their long and costly struggle. Considerations of mutual recognition, visions of burgeoning economic opportunities, dreams of an end to needless bloodshed: All these would go out the window if Arafat – dead or alive – were muscled out of the West Bank. No one would speak of the “road map” anymore, only of a dead-end from which few would escape unscathed.”</p>
<p>Palestinians, to put it mildly, oppose the “removal” of their <a href="http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/1994a.html" type="external">Nobel-prize winning</a>, democratically-elected leader. Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian Minister of Labor, writes in Bitterlemons, a joint Palestinian and Israeli online publication, that Israel’s recent attempts to <a href="http://www.bitterlemons.org/issue/pal1.php" type="external">alter the face of the Palestinian leadership</a>, comes after years of similar failed efforts.</p>
<p>“This seems a good time to remind Israel of the many strategic mistakes it has made during the decades that it has occupied the Palestinian people and their land.</p>
<p>The attempt to deport or otherwise ‘remove’ President Arafat, the latest unabashed Israeli interference in the composition of the Palestinian leadership, is set to become Israel’s next strategic mistake. The political position held by Arafat is the political position held by all Palestinian politicians and groups of significance today. In a sense, all components of the Palestinian political leadership are Arafat.</p>
<p>Ariel Sharon’s administration is clearly not making any friends in this latest flap. On Friday, a group of Arab states asked the United Nations Security Council to <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/afp/20030912/wl_mideast_afp/un_mideast_israel_arafat_030912194437" type="external">protect Arafat</a>. With no assurance by Monday, Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian representative to the U.N. <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/ap/20030915/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_israel_palestinians_8" type="external">stormed out</a> of an Security Council debate on a proposed resolution condemning Israel (which the United States would likely <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/340585.html" type="external">veto</a>).</p>
<p>Yossi Alpher, a former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak says assassination is a typical sign that the Israeli government has run out of <a href="http://www.bitterlemons.org/issue/isr1.php" type="external">policy options</a>, and is desperate to show the public that in fact they are doing something. But with last week’s rash of bloody suicide bombings in Israel, the question remains whether the Israeli public will support action against Arafat. With no hard poll numbers, it’s hard to gauge Israeli public opinion, but some Israelis argue that targeting militants — let alone the symbolic father-figure of the Palestinian people — will only bring <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/339476.html" type="external">more terrorism to Israeli cities</a>.</p>
<p>But while the recent death threat may have the analysts agreeing that Arafat’s murder would be a political nightmare, Ha’aretz argues that the threats might just be another of <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/340169.html" type="external">Sharon’s slick political manuevers</a>.</p>
<p>“Ministers and senior officials are competing with each other over who can issue more unbridled comments about the need to “liquidate” Arafat, and not merely “remove” him. Even if it is only arrogant boasting, the resulting damage is considerable. And if the talk is genuine, the results could be much worse.</p>
<p>It is possible Sharon’s considerations were only domestic. He wanted to appear as eager as the most extreme of his ministers to expel Arafat, while at the same time appear unwillingly forced to refrain from it because of American opposition, making sure of that opposition with inaccurate leaks abut Bush’s agreement to an Arafat expulsion.</p>
<p>If so, Sharon is still the skilled political manipulator, a characteristic required of anyone who reaches the Prime Minister’s Office, and his ministers fell into his trap. But it is worrisome to think of the high price the state of Israel has to pay for the political survival of one man, who heads a failure of a government that insists on hunkering down in its own stupidity.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Once Removed? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/09/once-removed/ | 2003-09-16 | 4 |
<p>At a presidential news conference Friday, President Obama suggests changes to the National Security Agency surveillance policy. With four major categories of reform, he attempts to ease skepticism with an “amend it, don’t end it” approach. How did it go over?</p>
<p>Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com, announced this week that he will buy The Washington Post. Is this the beginning of the end for print journalism, or a breath of fresh air?</p>
<p>It’s the 68th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Should Obama have used it as an opportunity to talk about Iran or China’s nuclear capabilities?</p>
<p>Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer and host Matt Miller are <a href="http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/lr/lr130809nsa_reform_and_bezos" type="external">joined</a> on this week’s “Left, Right &amp; Center” by Matthew Continetti, opinion editor of The Weekly Standard, who offers the conservative view.</p>
<p />
<p>— Adapted from KCRW by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p>KCRW:</p>
<p /> | 'Left, Right & Center': NSA Reform and Bezos Buys the Post | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/left-right-center-nsa-reform-and-bezos-buys-the-post/ | 2013-08-10 | 4 |
<p>The Constitution suddenly seems to have bestirred itself and declared itself, through its many Washington spokespeople, to be in crisis.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, interjects the world, but what the hell took you so long?</p>
<p>We laid out the clear Constitutional violations of Trump’s financial and business interests on the day he became president (in the real sense, not the media event months later when “He finally became president” by bombing enough people) at <a href="" type="internal">ImpeachDonaldTrumpNow.org</a>.</p>
<p>Since the later hours of Day 1 back in January through the present instant, the clear and documented (when not openly bragged about) Constitutional offenses have been piling up.</p>
<p>As of a 2015 disclosure to the Federal Elections Commission, Trump owns stock in the maker of the missiles he sent into Syria, Raytheon, as well as numerous other weapons makers, Canadian tar sands, etc. Trump has continued, escalated, and threatened numerous illegal and immoral wars. That he may be personally profiting from them just adds to the supreme international crime, which of course already violates the U.N. Charter and the Kellogg-Briand Pact, supreme laws of the U.S. under the Constitution.</p>
<p>Trump has unconstitutionally discriminated against refugees, been stopped by the judiciary, and immediately done it again.</p>
<p>Trump has pushed policies that will aggravate climate change, a crime against humanity that can be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court even against a non-member. On December 6, 2009, Trump signed a public letter to President Barack Obama urging action to protect the earth from climate change. “If we fail to act now,” the letter read, “it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.” Trump is knowingly endangering all human (and many non-human) residents of the United States, right along with the other 96% of humanity.</p>
<p>Trump openly sought to intimidate voters prior to his election, and fought the counting of ballots where they existed, was elected with a minority of votes, was elected with numerous votes uncounted and numerous voters blocked from voting by the partisan stripping of the rolls and by ID laws, following a nomination principally decided by dramatically biased media coverage. If none of that put the Constitution into crisis, why keep the rotting document around at all?</p>
<p>Pre-presidency but still available grounds for impeachment, Trump violated, according to the list in Alan Lichtman’s book on Trump impeachment, the Fair Housing Act, New York charity law, tax laws, the Cuban embargo, casino regulations, the RICO statute, laws against employing undocumented immigrants, and of course laws against sexual assault. You don’t have to have never been in Congress to spot a pattern of criminality here.</p>
<p>Of course there is one charge against Trump that has not been proven, risks confrontation with a nuclear armed government, and needlessly adds a xenophobic excuse to the dozens of solid reasons that last year’s U.S. election was illegitimate. So of course this is the one everybody wants to focus on: blaming Russia for exposing the Democratic Party’s slanting of its own primary against its strongest candidate. Let’s remember that the people who have most vigorously pursued this approach are the same people who nominated possibly the only candidate who could have lost to Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Now we come to a charge of possible, conceivable, or an appearance of possible or conceivable obstruction of justice — and perhaps something or other at the base of the story around which justice was being sought. If we can remove Trump this way, by all means, proceed. And proceed with impeachment, not with a 2020 election campaign by some otherwise repulsive candidate who plans to win by virtue of not being Trump and somehow surviving four years of Trumpism.</p>
<p>But here are my concerns:</p>
<p>The coverup is not worse than the crime. Serious crimes are available as impeachment charges, and overlooking them effectively permits them going forward, along with any other crimes, as long as there’s no coverup.</p>
<p>We have yet to see any actual evidence of any actual Russian influence on the U.S. election. Toying with hostility toward a nuclear government is more reckless than anything (else) Trump has done. Can you impeach and try Trump for obstructing an investigation into what all the corporate media refer to as if it were established fact, without actually focusing on whether there is any evidence, and without demonizing Russia?</p>
<p>If some lesser crimes are proven that involve Russia in some way, can you try them without advancing the notion that the fundamental crime is friendship with Russians?</p>
<p>Can you keep in perspective the hypocrisy that all of this telegraphs to the earth? Barack Obama recorded a campaign ad for a French candidate in last week’s election, while Samantha Power was busy accusing Vladimir Putin of trying to influence the French election. The U.S. has openly sought to influence dozens of elections, including Yeltsin’s (the Trump of Russia?), not to mention overthrowing dozens of governments — still being pursued in Syria. How does this look? Wouldn’t it look better to at least add in a few articles of impeachment for the highest of crimes even if Russia isn’t involved in them?</p>
<p>And, yes, I mean even crimes committed by Obama and Bush and others before them. I’m not expecting consistency. While I supported impeachment for Bush and Obama as well as Trump, one cannot expect all Democrats to have gone that far in supporting the rule of law when Obama was drone master — although they may now ask Republicans to reach that higher standard of integrity. I understand that partisanship is strong poison. I just ask for at least the appearance of seriousness — even if only because going into a trial in the U.S. Senate with charges that are already proven makes a conviction far more likely.</p>
<p>The bigger concern, of tamping down the warmongering, of lowering the risk of nuclear conflict should be made to appeal to as many as can hear it.</p>
<p>Impeachment certainly should be pursued, and certainly cannot wait. But it will only establish the proper threat of impeachment for the next person to hold the office if it is done for the right reasons in the right way. The right way includes being led by the public. We, not Congress, must decide when there is a crisis.</p> | Impeach Trump for Right Reasons | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/05/11/impeach-trump-for-right-reasons/ | 2017-05-11 | 4 |
<p>With over 120 million ballots cast, voters changed the face of the US Congress. As a byproduct of electing new Representatives, Americans elected the first Hindu, non-theist, and Unitarian Universalists members of Congress, and the first Buddhist Senator. The 113th Congress will also see <a href="" type="internal">78 women representatives</a>, the first bisexual Congresswoman, 4 more African-American members, 10 new Latinos, and 5 new Asian-Americans.</p>
<p>The election of a religiously diverse 113th Congress can partially be attributed to shifting religious attitudes in America. According to an October Pew Research Center study, one-in-five adults now have no religious affiliations. Furthermore, one third of adults under 30 are religiously unaffiliated. Pew <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2377/unaffiliated-one-in-five-twenty-percent-americans-no-religion-spiritual-religious-prayer-religious-organizations" type="external">reports</a>,</p>
<p>“In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).”</p>
<p>Reflecting the increasingly diverse population in the United States is the most diverse Congress in history, including&#160;Tulsi Gabbard,&#160;Mazie Hirono,&#160;Kyrsten Sinema, and Ami Bera. These four representatives mark multiple “firsts” for Congress, and America as a society.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Tulsi Gabbard was elected to represent Hawaii’s second Congressional district, making history as the first Hindu-American to be elected into the US House of Representatives. Taking into account her religion, Gabbard will be taking her oath to office over the Bhagavad Giva instead of the Bible, as she practices the Vaishnava branch of Hinduism. Hopeful of her influence in Congress, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/267049-gabbard-first-hindu-congreswoman-to-take-oath-over-the-bhagavad-giva" type="external">she said</a>:</p>
<p>“Hopefully, the presence in Congress of an American who happens to be Hindu will increase America’s understanding of India as well as India’s understanding of America.”</p>
<p>Gabbard is not only the first Hindu Member of Congress, but she is one of the first female combat veterans in Congress.</p>
<p>Also from Hawaii, Hirono beat her opponent with nearly 62 percent of votes, winning her race for U.S. Senate. Hirono was born in Fukushima, Japan and after winning her election Tuesday, became the first Buddhist senator. After her victory, she told the <a href="https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h2Ykc10J810NMNPF_BZMHVppfYDw?docId=6f51a633c7d941139aaed6ac0817d304" type="external">Associated Press</a>,&#160;“What it reflects is that we need a lot more diversity in the United States Senate.”</p>
<p>Elected in Arizona’s 9th district, Sinema is the only non-theist elected to Congress, meaning she does not believe in a personal god or gods. The former Democratic State Senator is also the first openly bi-sexual Member of Congress, showing the increasingly accepting attitudes of voters in Arizona’s 9th district.</p>
<p>As the only Unitarian Universalist in Congress, Ami Bera beat veteran Republican Dan Lungren in one of the most costly Congressional races nationwide. Winning one of the ten highly sought after races by California Democrats, Bera will represent California’s 7th Congressional District. His religious association,&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism" type="external">characterized as</a>&#160;“free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” was not the focal point of his campaign. Rather his commitment to the middle class and plan to “move America forward” is likely what won him the race.</p>
<p>As with gender and race, the principles of religious freedom are among those on which America was founded. It’s long overdue that our country breaks down the barriers in place for religiously diverse candidates and starts electing candidates outside of the Christian faith. And while the 113th Congress is still dominated by white males, the advancements made in 2012 bring us one step closer to a more representative government.</p> | Religious Diversity in Congress, A Year of “Firsts” | false | https://ivn.us/2012/11/16/religious-diversity-in-congress-a-year-of-firsts/ | 2012-11-16 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A sea-change in the weather expected on Thanksgiving Day.</p>
<p>It’s still clear sailing today for those thousands of New Mexicans expected to venture out on this busiest travel day of the year — 50s, 60s and 70s forecast as highs throughout the state.</p>
<p>But the National Weather Service says rain is possible in southwestern New Mexico late Thanksgiving Day, thanks to a low-pressure system rolling in from the Pacific, according to The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Late Thursday’s rain across the southwest is expected to move into the southeastern part of the state on Friday, and chances of precipitation should increase Saturday night through Sunday because of another weather system sweeping in from the northwest, the AP reports.</p>
<p>What that means, according to the National Weather Service, is that all of New Mexico could see rain and snow showers late this weekend, with significant snow accumulations across northern New Mexico and high ground in the south, according to the AP. And snow could be a problem on Interstate 25 north of Albuquerque and across the length of Interstate 40, the AP reports.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 6:45am — Rain Possible Tomorrow | false | https://abqjournal.com/21920/645am-rain-possible-tomorrow.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>The Dems are <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2007/04/4280_ahh_now_for_the.html" type="external">getting serious</a>. Get this: They may <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/washington/25cnd-subpoena.html?_r=1&amp;hp&amp;oref=slogin" type="external">subpoena</a> Condi to get her to testify about her role in pumping the whole Niger uranium myth. The House Judiciary Committee also voted to grant former senior Justice aide Monica Goodling immunity in exchange for her testimony on the U.S. Attorney firings. A subpoena for Bush’s Monica was approved but not issued (yet). My personal favorite—just because the Condi affair seems pretty stale at this point—is that Patrick Leahy wrote a note to Alberto Gonzales telling him to refresh his memory and report back in a week. (There was much the Attorney General <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=188110" type="external">couldn’t recall</a> in his testimony last week.) Subpoenas were also approved for members of the Republican National Committee, who the House hopes will shed some light on the <a href="/washington_dispatch/2007/03/white_house_emails.html" type="external">slew of missing emails</a> from Attorney-gate.</p>
<p /> | SNAP! A Spate of Subpoenas | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/04/snap-spate-subpoenas/ | 2007-04-25 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The significance of Hazell’s firing was this: He was one of eight African-American head coaches among the 65 teams in college football’s so-called “Power Five” conferences. His departure means the number is down to seven, about 11 percent. There are no statistics on what percentage of players at Power Five schools are African-American, but the most recent figures for the entire Bowl Subdivision are close to 60 percent.</p>
<p>This issue is not unique to college football. The National Football League’s “Rooney Rule” has been in effect since 2003, yet in a league in which 68 percent of the players are African-American, five of the 32 head coaches – about 16 percent – are African-Americans.</p>
<p>The numbers in college basketball are marginally better: 10 African-American coaches among the 65, with about 60 percent of all Division I players being African-American.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Actually the basketball numbers were starting to get decent a few years ago,” said Maryland Athletic Director Kevin Anderson, one of only a handful of African-American athletic directors at power schools. “In basketball, we’ve gone in the wrong direction recently.”</p>
<p>As recently as 2010, five of the ACC’s 12 men’s basketball coaches were African-Americans; now, two of 15 are. None of the 14 Big Ten schools has an African-American head coach.</p>
<p>That may explain why NCAA President Mark Emmert formed an ad hoc committee last February to work on the issue.</p>
<p>“We had a meeting during the week of the football championship game among the minority athletic directors,” Anderson explained. “Mark [Emmert] was part of the meeting, too. We looked at all the various numbers, and it was a no-brainer that something had to be done. That was when the ad hoc committee was formed.”</p>
<p>The committee consists of representatives from all three NCAA divisions, with Ohio State President Michael V. Drake the co-chair representing Division I.</p>
<p>“The data we had was so compelling it was clear we needed to try to do something,” Emmert said in a phone interview Wednesday. “When you look at the students who are playing games and then you look at the staffs, they look very different.</p>
<p>“This is also an issue in women’s sports, where the number of women coaching women’s teams has actually gone down a little in recent years.”</p>
<p>When Emmert was its president, the University of Washington was the only school in the country with an African-American coaching football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. “I didn’t even realize it until someone pointed it out to me,” he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>His concern now isn’t just about the present numbers but about future numbers.</p>
<p>“A lot of our current minority athletes might like to become coaches or athletic administrators after college,” he said. “But when they look around, they don’t see a lot of people that look like them. That’s a problem.”</p>
<p>The committee put together a “pledge” that asks schools to be more conscious about giving minorities opportunities in athletics. In part, the pledge reads, “Our institution . . . pledges to specfically commit to establishing initiatives for achieving ethnic and racial diversity, gender equity and inclusion with a focus and emphasis on hiring practices in intercollegiate athletics to reflect the diversity of our membership and our nation. . . .</p>
<p>“We will strive to identify, recruit and interview individuals from diverse backgrounds in an effort to increase their representation and retention as commissioners, coaches and athletic directors.”</p>
<p>The NCAA can’t compel schools to follow specific rules on hiring practices the way a professional sports league can, but it can strongly suggest ideas such as this.</p>
<p>The pledge was sent to all member schools Sept. 21. As of Wednesday, 42 of the 65 Power Five schools had signed it. “I think in some cases they just haven’t gotten around to it yet,” Emmert said. “In other cases, they might simply disagree with it.”</p>
<p>Or, they might sign it to be politically correct and then continue to do nothing tangible. Emmert understands that.</p>
<p>“This is a short-term and a long-term project,” he said. “We need to identify young people – for example, those at the graduate-assistant level – who have the potential to move up and help them, mentor them, so they get the opportunities that maybe have not been available in the past.”</p>
<p>Another problem is that many minority coaches – such as Hazell – get opportunities only at schools that haven’t had much success. Purdue has represented the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl twice. Only one of the Boilermakers’ six coaches since 1982 has left with a winning record.</p>
<p>Derek Mason at Vanderbilt, Lovie Smith at Illinois and Dino Babers at Syracuse are at schools that have struggled mightily over the past decade or more. James Franklin inherited a great tradition at Penn State – and also the lingering effects of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. Only David Shaw at Stanford, Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&amp;M and Charlie Strong at Texas took over programs that have enjoyed recent success. Shaw, in his sixth season, is the longest-serving African American head coach.</p>
<p>“I think there are some schools where the leash is very short, regardless of race,” Emmert said, when asked whether he had any theories on why there weren’t any African American coaches who have had lengthy tenures.</p>
<p>But he recognized the viscious circle nature to the hirings.</p>
<p>“A lot of schools just want the biggest possible name,” he said. “You see and hear it in the media every time there’s an opening. If you’re trying to hire only someone with a really top track record, that can eliminate a lot of people.”</p>
<p>The other problem, according to the NCAA data, is a lack of minority coordinators.</p>
<p>“There are plenty of minority assistant coaches but not nearly as many coordinators,” Emmert said. “That tends to be where people look when they’re giving someone a first-time head-coaching opportunity.”</p>
<p>In all, the numbers are depressing. The ad hoc committee and the pledge are, at least, a recognition that there’s a problem. It has been 37 years since Willie Jeffries became the first African American to coach a (then-) Division I program when Wichita State hired him in 1979.</p>
<p>Slow progress has been made since. It’s long past time for more.</p>
<p>fbc-feinstein</p> | At top level of college sports, diversity exists on field only | false | https://abqjournal.com/870890/at-top-level-of-college-sports-diversity-exists-on-field-only.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Orders increased 2.1 percent following seven monthly declines, the Commerce Department reported Monday. And in further good news, orders in a key category that tracks business investment plans eked out a 0.1 percent rise. It was the first advance in this category since last August.</p>
<p>Economists are hoping that U.S. manufacturing is beginning to emerge from a long soft patch, bolstered by stronger domestic demand that will offset ongoing weakness in exports.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Orders for durable goods, which are items expected to last at least three years, rose 4.4 percent in March. Demand for nondurable goods such as chemicals and paper dropped 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>U.S. factories have been struggling with export sales, which have taken a hit from the rise in the value of the dollar in recent months. A stronger dollar makes U.S. exports more expensive and less competitive on overseas markets. It also lowers the cost of imported goods, making them more attractive to U.S. consumers.</p>
<p>The overall increase was the first positive number since a 10.5 percent increase last July. The strength in March was led by a surge in demand for computers and the volatile category of commercial aircraft.</p>
<p>The key category of non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, which is viewed as a proxy for business investment plans, edged up 0.1 percent in March. It was the first advance in this area since last August.</p>
<p>The government reported last week that the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, expanded by a meager 0.2 percent in the January-March quarter as a harsh winter, a rising trade deficit and weaker business investment all held back growth.</p>
<p>Economists believe growth will rebound in the April-June quarter, helped by stronger job growth that is expected to spur consumer spending. Auto sales rose in April, led by strong demand for small and midsize SUVs.</p>
<p>Economists at Macroeconomic Advisors are looking for the GDP, the country's total output of goods and services, to grow at a 1.9 percent rate in the second quarter, a significant rebound from the first three months.</p>
<p>Other analysts are more optimistic.</p>
<p>"As the weather returns to more seasonal norms, we anticipate a big rebound in consumption growth," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. He is forecasting 3.5 percent GDP growth in the second quarter.</p> | US factory orders rise in March for first time in 8 months | false | https://abqjournal.com/579155/us-factory-orders-rise-in-march-for-first-time-in-8-months.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>Conveniently coinciding with Veteran’s Day, the book “I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story,” Lynch’s own authorized version of her much publicized and politicized rescue from capture in Iraq, hit the shelves Tuesday, opening a new round of debates about war reporting, military propaganda, and the meaning of heroism.</p>
<p>Lynch’s was taken captive after an ambush on March 23 that killed 11 of her fellow soldiers. Lynch has no recollection of what happened between the time of her unit’s ambush and when she awoke at a nearby hospital, something the Pentagon would use to some effect, plugging the gap with a narrative of courage, virtue, and good old U.S. grit.</p>
<p>The official telling had her fighting back bravely, then spending nine days as a prisoner of war before being spectacularly rescued by U.S. Special Forces. Lynch’s version is that she didn’t fight back, not least because her rifle jammed; that the the doctors of the hospital were she was “held” treated her pretty well (the AP <a href="http://www.salon.com/books/wire/2003/11/11/lynch/index.html" type="external">reports</a> that in Lynch’s account the Iraqi doctors are “gentle caretakers who worked at their own risk to keep her alive.”); and that the rescue, when it came, was pretty workaday.</p>
<p>The Pentagon, abetted by a supine media, touted that rescue as a heroic high-point of the Iraq war, a simple narrative of good triumphing over evil by means of American valor that even critics of the war would grow misty about, a badly needed diversion for the administration in the early days when “shock and awe” was starting to sound like wishful thinking. Hence Lynch became the public face of the Iraq war: idealistic, brave, sympathetic.</p>
<p>No longer. Now Lynch is chafing at her Joan of Arc role, and she’s criticizing the military for hyping her story. Briefly the embodiment of American virture, she’s fast become a symbol of Pentagon propaganda and schlocky media credulity. Where the “real” Jessica Lynch fits in all this is unclear. And, really, who cares? More interesting is the view this whole episode offers of the “real” Pentagon.</p>
<p>Lynch told ABC‘s Diane Sawyer that <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Primetime/US/Jessica_Lynch_031111-1.html" type="external">the Pentagon’s airbrush-job bothered her</a>.</p>
<p>“Yeah, it does [bother me]. It does that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff,” Lynch said, “I mean, yeah, it’s wrong … I don’t know what they had … or why they filmed it.”</p>
<p>The alternative news portal Electronic Iraq thinks there are in fact <a href="http://electroniciraq.net/news/1194.shtml" type="external">two Jessica Lynches</a>:</p>
<p>“The first Jessica Lynch is the one we met last April — the Pentagon-created Jessica Lynch whose smiling, petite face, partially shadowed by her military uniform cap, has been on countless magazines and whose story was ‘recreated’ in a made for T.V. movie that aired last night in the U.S. But more recently emerged is Jessica Lynch the army supply clerk whose gun jammed during the ambush she and several other members of her convoy endured on the outskirts of Nasariya, Iraq. This second Jessica Lynch, whose interview with Diane Sawyer will air tomorrow night, is upset with the Pentagon for manufacturing the first Jessica Lynch, the Jessica Lynch who distracted Americans, for a little while at least, from the mounting American casualties that have stacked up during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.</p>
<p>Just like there seem to be two Jessica Lynches, there seem to be two American wars on Iraq that are simultaneously being represented by the news media and the Pentagon. The first war is the one of heroic U.S. troops descending upon downtrodden Iraq to liberate its people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, as illustrated by staged pictures of U.S. soldiers and a handful of Iraqis toppling down a statue of Saddam earlier this year. But the second war on Iraq is the one that I would bet that the real Jessica Lynch would identify with, along with more and more Americans, the war that took the life of her friend and convoy comrade Lori Ann Piestewa, and the same war in which her boyfriend and brother are currently risking their lives.”</p>
<p>From the beginning, when the story of her rescue first broke, the media focus in the U.S. was on Lynch, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3260473.stm" type="external">obscuring a day of heavy U.S. losses</a> (29 were dead by end of day, the worst of the Iraq war) in line with the White House’s desperate attempt to focus on the “good news.”</p>
<p>When the Washington Post broke the original story of Lynch’s rescue, the account included an alleged gun battle with Iraqi ambushers, in which she reportedly killed several attackers and sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Later the Post was forced to run a lengthy correction and provide a competing version of the rescue. The Baltimore Sun provides an <a href="http://www.sunspot.net/features/bal-to.lynch11nov11,0,102375.story?coll=bal-features-headlines" type="external">excellent timeline of how the media made Jessica Lynch a star</a>.</p>
<p>Writing in the New York Times, Frank Rich says that the NBC’s docudrama “Saving Jessica Lynch”, which aired Sunday, actually proved to be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/arts/09RICH.html" type="external">a more accurate depiction of reality</a>than the Post’s initial news account.</p>
<p>“When American forces were bogged down in the war’s early days, she was the happy harbinger of an imminent military turnaround: a 19-year-old female Rambo who tried to blast her way out of the enemy’s clutches, taking out any man who got in her way. When those accounts turned out to be largely fiction, she became a symbol of Bush administration propaganda and the press’s war-time credulity in buying it. Then came her months of muffled recuperation: a metaphor for the low-grade fever of inertia and unease that has set in at home in the months since that Saddam statue fell.</p>
<p>… The movie [“Saving Jessica Lynch”] begins with the inevitable disclaimer that ‘some characters, scenes and events in whole or in part have been created for dramatic purposes.’ Even so, given the facts as we know them to date, it is startling in its relative accuracy — more than earlier reportage by The Washington Post (which attributed its initial Rambo version to ‘U.S. officials’) and The New York Times (whose reporter Jayson Blair fictionalized some of the paper’s Lynch coverage).</p>
<p>The Lynch of this film has not been pumped up with steroids. She’s a supply clerk gravely injured in a Humvee collision, not G.I. Jessica spraying bullets in a shootout. (She has only a sprinkling of lines in the entire movie, many of them in flashbacks to prewar West Virginia.) The American forces that rescue her encounter no ‘blaze of gunfire,’ as was described in an early Los Angeles Times account attributed to ‘defense officials and reports from the battlefield,’ but instead confront only compliant doctors and nurses. The White House is portrayed as being disproportionately focused on the urgency of this single mission, for no apparent purpose other than p.r.”</p>
<p>The conflicting versions of her rescue aren’t the only controversy in the story of Jessica Lynch. Rick Bragg, the writer of her authorized biography asserts that it was likely Lynch was sexually assaulted, something Lynch has neither confirmed nor denied since the assault presumably happened while she was unconscious. In her interview with ABC, Lynch said she had no recollection of the attack. “Even just the thinking about that, that’s too painful,” she said. Meanwhile, her Iraqi doctors have <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=461951" type="external">firmly rejected the claim</a>.</p>
<p>The media doesn’t come well out of this, with its obsessive focus on Lynch, the pretty, teenage soldier whose daring rescue in Iraq “gave America hope.” Some claim that the focus on her might be rooted in racism as Channel News Asia <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/56679/1/.html" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>“‘One of the things that we have seen in wars … is that news media try to personalize the complexities of wars into a handful of people,’ said Steven Livingston, a professor at George Washington University in Washington who has studied news media coverage of the Iraq war. ‘This is a case where Hollywood and the Pentagon have worked very closely to produce this cultural icon.’</p>
<p>… The spotlight on Lynch meanwhile has obscured the fact that 11 members of her 507th Maintenance Company died in the fighting and five others spent two more weeks in captivity, enduring the humiliation of being paraded for the news media by their Iraqi captors. Critics have focused on Specialist Shoshana Johnson, 30, a former prisoner of war whom they say was ignored because she is black and a Panamanian immigrant while Lynch, a petite blond from the rural state of West Virginia, is more ‘all-American.’ ‘You’ve got some very interesting cultural, almost racial overtones here,” Livingston said of the Lynch story.'”</p>
<p>In yet another instance of reality biting back at the myth-makers, Hustler publisher Larry Flint’s announcement that he was in possession of nude pictures of Lynch. Contrary to the image of the wholesome girl next door, the Pentagon tried to ascribe to Lynch, the pictures apparently show her frolicking topless with male soldiers before she went off to war. Lynch’s publisher was outraged and called Flint’s plan to publish the pictures “unspeakable”. Flint has since backed down from his initial plan. On Tuesday, he told the AP that he had changed his mind about printing the pictures, because Lynch is a “good kid” who became “a pawn of the government.”</p>
<p /> | Heroine Abuse | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/11/heroine-abuse/ | 2003-11-12 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>It was a night for the La Cueva defense.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Bears intercepted Carlsbad standout quarterback Rodney Holcomb five times on Friday night, returning two of them for touchdowns on either side of halftime as La Cueva celebrated homecoming with a 41-21 rout of the Cavemen at Wilson Stadium.</p>
<p>“It was unexpected,” La Cueva coach Ed Lucero said of the five turnovers. “Totally unexpected.”</p>
<p>Marcial Garcia and Chris Loidolt both had pick-6s for the Bears (6-1). The first of Garcia’s two interceptions defined the night for both teams.</p>
<p>Carlsbad was down 21-0 when the Cavemen finally scored with 61 seconds before halftime. And Carlsbad (4-4) was due to get the ball to start the third quarter.</p>
<p>Then, a gift dropped into the Cavemen’s lap when La Cueva quarterback Zach Silva threw an interception. That set Carlsbad up in great field position at the Bears’ 29 with plenty of time to get a few plays off and maybe shave the margin to 21-14.</p>
<p>But Holcomb, on a first down, made a crucial error. He was backpedaling as he lofted a screen pass. There was so much air under the ball, that Garcia was able to race up, intercept it and go the other way 70 yards for a touchdown and a 28-7 lead.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I was going for the running back at first,” Garcia said. “But I got there in time.”</p>
<p>The Cavemen’s best chance to get back in the game was gone in seconds.</p>
<p>“We have a chance to get back in the ballgame there,” Carlsbad coach Ron Arrington said. “We’ll have to see what we’re made of now.”</p>
<p>On the first play of the second half, Loidolt picked Holcomb off and went 11 yards for another score and the rout was on at 35-7.</p>
<p>“They were beating us on those little short routes, and we were talking about how we needed to get into the passing lanes,” Loidolt said.</p>
<p>After another Holcomb pick moments later — this time, it was Clint Silver grabbing a deflected pass for La Cueva — the Bears went 42 yards in six plays for another score.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Cliff Kindred’s 7-yard run made it 41-7 early in the third.</p>
<p>While those scores padded the lead, La Cueva got out in front big early.</p>
<p>The Bears took the opening kickoff and went 67 yards in nine plays. Michael Rose capped the drive with a 7-yard touchdown catch from Silva.</p>
<p>That was emblematic of the first half when Carlsbad’s defense could not get off the field, mostly due to La Cueva’s third-down efficiency.</p>
<p>The Bears converted seven out of eight third-down tries in the opening half. The play that most aptly illustrated the Cavemen’s frustrations occurred with La Cueva leading 7-0 early in the first quarter.</p>
<p>On a third-and-26 from midfield, La Cueva’s Silva threw 28 yards to Jarrick Sharp to keep the drive going. Mitchell Cantwell rumbled in from 16 yards out two plays later for a 14-0 lead.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>That drive covered 90 yards, and was singularly unique in this way: La Cueva was penalized six times along the way and overcame every flag. Because of that, La Cueva actually traveled 136 yards total on that one drive.</p>
<p>On the next possession, Silva threw 70 yards to Sharp, who did some nice running after the catch for a 21-0 bulge.</p>
<p>Silva, except for that pick, was very effective, going 12-of-16 for 216 yards.</p>
<p>Holcomb finished 26-of-52 for 315 yards and three touchdowns, but much of that damage was done after the game was in hand.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t so sure they’d throw as much as they did,” Lucero said. “I thought they’d run a little more.”</p>
<p>Carlsbad had minus-8 yards rushing.</p>
<p>LA CUEVA 41, CARLSBAD 21</p> | Defense Carries Bears | false | https://abqjournal.com/140154/defense-carries-bears.html | 2 |
|
<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>America honors Martin Luther King 46 years after his assassination with statues and a federal holiday but has done little to challenge “the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism” that King struggled to oppose, according to Baptist pastor and district court <a href="https://courts.arkansas.gov/directories/circuit-judges/hon-wendell-griffen" type="external">judge</a> Wendell Griffen.</p>
<p>Bestowing platitudes on King’s life and ministry while disregarding his warn­ings “amounts to a re-assassination of Dr. King,” Griffen, pastor of <a href="http://www.newmillenniumchurch.us/" type="external">New Millennium Baptist Church</a> in Little Rock, Ark., <a href="http://christianethicstoday.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/winter2014.pdf" type="external">wrote</a>&#160;in the Winter 2014 edition of Christian Ethics Today.</p>
<p>A year to the day before his death on April 4, 1968, King preached a controversial <a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm" type="external">message</a> at Riverside Church in New York City linking the civil rights movement to opposition to the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>While President Obama took the oath of office for his second term with his hand on a Bible that belonged to Dr. King, Griffen observed, the “same spirit of militarism that produced the tragedy that King denounced concerning Vietnam” remains evident in policies like the president’s failed attempt to invade Syria and “wholesale spying on American citizens and others throughout the world.”</p>
<p>Five years after President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder became the first black persons to hold their respective offices, Griffen said, “racial profiling is as much a reality as it was when Dr. King was assassinated.”</p>
<p>“Trayvon Martin, <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/21004-tragic-slaying-by-bay-area-police-remembered-five-years-later" type="external">Oscar Grant</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/05/nyregion/officers-in-bronx-fire-41-shots-and-an-unarmed-man-is-killed.html" type="external">Amadou Diallo</a>, like Martin Luther King Jr., were black men shot to death by people who claimed the moral and legal right to take their lives,” Griffen said. “These and other less-notorious examples show that Americans clearly have not become more informed or responsive to racial injustice since Dr. King died.”</p>
<p>Griffen said the “law and order” and “war on drugs” mantra used by every U.S. president since Lyndon Johnson has given rise to the mass incarceration of millions of Americans who are dis­proportionately persons of color. “The oppressive law enforcement policies that gave rise to civil unrest during Dr. King’s lifetime still operate against people who are black and brown,” he observed.</p>
<p>Griffen said King’s words, “a true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth,” are as true today as when he spoke them in 1967.</p>
<p>“Martin Luther King Jr. is being re-murdered by drone warfare, NSA surveillance and the half-truths and outright falsehoods uttered by policymakers who defend those actions,” Griffen wrote. “Dr. King is re-murdered by fiscal policies that promote the corporate interests of investment bankers over the lives and fortunes of workers, homeowners, retirees and needy people.</p>
<p>“King’s dedication to attack and eliminate the causes of systemic poverty is currently being re-assassinated by policies that widen the glaring income inequality between the super-wealthy and the poor.</p>
<p>“And King’s righteous indigna­tion against injustice is murdered by proponents of the so-called ‘prosper­ity gospel’ and those who use reli­gion as a weapon against people who are homosexuals, poor, immigrants, women or otherwise vulnerable.”</p> | Pastor terms U.S. policies ‘a re-assassination’ of Martin Luther King | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/pastor-terms-u-s-policies-a-re-assassination-of-martin-luther-king/ | 3 |
|
<p>As Interdependence Day approaches, the United States humbly admitted error in bombing a wedding party in Afghanistan, killing around 40 people and injuring more than 60. Bombs and rockets in our country symbolize a celebration of freedom, but in other parts of the world, these explosions are all too real, bringing carnage, death and grueling efforts to survive destruction of homes and livelihood.</p>
<p>This error, undoubtedly labeled ‘collateral damage’, stands next to a smattering of misguided bombs which have inadvertently and regrettably killed hundreds of civilians in numerous countries over the past few years. As reported by the BBC, during the current Bush administration’s war on terror in Afghanistan, U.S. planes accidentally killed four Canadians in April, bombed the town of Hazar Qadam in January, fired at a caravan of tribal elders en route to the inauguration ceremony for Hamid Karzai and last October hit a residential area in Kabul rather than the intended helicopter at the airport. Oops.</p>
<p>For the pilots and American citizens, these mistakes are akin to losses while playing a video game. From afar, with targets merely illuminated points on a screen, the people who die are unreal, just numbers and statistics. When we kill by remote control, our hands are theoretically clean. The computer won’t show blood and won’t cry; it’s a machine, an abstraction.</p>
<p>The people affected by our ubiquitous blunders, however, are terribly real, as is their pain. In February of 199, during the Gulf War, U.S. planes bombed a women’s and children’s shelter in Baghdad called al-Amiriya. Hundreds of civilians died as a result of the two bombs hitting this supposed-safe haven. The U.S. apologized after realizing what happened, but still continues to bomb the country, even in the past week.</p>
<p>The rhetoric about a “new war” with Iraq is a farce. We are already at war informally with them. Friday June 28th we dropped bombs in the South of Iraq. Wednesday the 26th of June as well. On Thursday the 20th of June four people in Iraq were killed when U.S. planes bombed them. Eighteen people were wounded when bombs fell on Iraq on the 25th of May. And another four were killed when we bombed Iraq on February 6th. I’d imagine that Iraqis feel attacked and besieged as bombs continue to fall in an undeclared, ongoing, indefinite war that inevitably targets civilians.</p>
<p>When I tell people this, they invariably say, “Where’d you hear this? Why didn’t I know about it?” It’s in the news, alright, but it’s just hard to find. These statistics get buried in the middle of stories about deposing Saddam Hussein and vilifying his evil acts.</p>
<p>“But Saddam kills his own people!” He did this in the 1980’s as well when he was our friend. We just turned a blind eye then. Besides, we kill our own people, executing hundreds of people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The crime of a state murdering its own civilians looks different when it’s on our own soil.</p>
<p>Incidentally, these bombs that rain down on Iraq are illegal under international law. They were not approved by Congress nor by the United Nations. The United States justifies dropping bombs as we unlawfully patrol Iraqi borders enforcing the bogus “no fly zones.” Iraqis have become sadly accustomed to the noisy air raid sirens.</p>
<p>You cannot achieve peace through war. The United States cannot continue to be proud guardians of weapons of mass destruction and deify their usage, apologize for their errors and claim that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. Do these mistakes which take innocent lives make us safer or prove our strength or our liberty? Is it righteous or noble to kill unarmed guests at a wedding? Moreover, to what end are we still bombing Afghanistan – has it brought us closer to capturing Osama bin Laden? Has enough justice not been rendered on the citizens of Afghanistan to make up for the loss of lives on September 11th?</p>
<p>We are not alone on this small planet, a fact that ought to be in the hearts and minds of all Americans as the nationally celebrated holiday approaches. We drive automobiles made in Japan, drink coffee from South America, wear clothes made in Southeast Asia, buy oil from the Middle East and Africa and import furniture from Sweden. Even our fireworks are made in China!</p>
<p>On July 4th, millions of American children will be lighting sparklers and tracing their names in the night sky. They should also trace the names of any of the thousands of displaced Afghani children, due to the bombings, who are still refugees on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They should trace the names of the Iraqi children who are their same-age counterparts, held captive under the sanctions and threatened almost daily by U.S. bombs. On Interdependence Day, each and every one of us is affected by an errant bomb.</p>
<p>Leah C. Wells serves as Peace Education Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. She may be contacted at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>Today’s Feature</p>
<p>Dave Marsh <a href="" type="internal">John Entwistle’s Heaven and Hell</a></p>
<p>Norman Madarasz <a href="" type="internal">Brazil’s Triumph</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org" type="external">home</a> / <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Subscriptions.html" type="external">subscribe</a> / <a href="aboutus.html" type="external">about us</a> / <a href="books.html" type="external">books</a> / <a href="archive.html" type="external">archives</a> / <a href="search.html" type="external">search</a> / <a href="links.html" type="external">links</a> /</p> | Real Fireworks or Just Bombs Again? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/07/01/real-fireworks-or-just-bombs-again/ | 2002-07-01 | 4 |
<p>CAIRO, Egypt — There was a terrible sense of deja vu for Egypt when at least 22 people were killed during clashes with security forces outside a soccer stadium on Sunday.</p>
<p>Witnesses said that most died from suffocation or were crushed in the stampede that followed when security forces fired tear gas to disperse spectators who were trying to force their way into the match between local teams Zamalek and Enppi.</p>
<p>Videos of the incident show fans wedged between large coils of barbed wire reinforced with metal to form a kind of cage and police firing tear gas at them.</p>
<p>Egypt has been here before. Sunday’s violence brought the death toll for soccer fans killed at games to nearly a hundred in three years. The worst instance came on Feb. 1, 2012, when 74 fans were killed at a match in the canal city of Port Said.</p>
<p>The league was suspended for a year after those deaths. When it resumed, games were played in empty stadiums. Again this week, the Egyptian domestic soccer league was suspended until further notice following the deaths on Sunday.</p>
<p>Egypt’s Ultras have a long history of confrontations with the police. Like their counterparts in Europe, where the rowdy soccer fan culture originates, they often use fireworks, are loud and at times get unruly.</p>
<p>Since they emerged in Egypt in 2007 they have often clashed with police. They say their experience confronting security forces and Egypt’s notorious police brutality led to their prominent role in the 2011 revolution.</p>
<p>In response to Sunday’s violence, the Ministry of the Interior spokesman Hani Abdel Latif said he “refused to hold the Interior Ministry responsible” for the killings. The Ministry said in its official statement that “large numbers of ticketless fans tried to storm the stadium, which caused security forces to prevent them from damaging the stadium facilities.”</p>
<p>Not all of those killed during the clashes were Ultras. The youngest victim was a 14-year-old girl, according to the Forensic Medical Authority.</p>
<p>The White Knights, a prominent group of Zamalek Ultras, called it a “premeditated massacre.”</p>
<p>Political clashes</p>
<p>But clashes between the police and the Ultras are not simply a matter of containing rowdy soccer fans.</p>
<p>“Most of the incidents that have involved the Ultras, and there have been numerous, have really been the equivalent of clashes between demonstrators and security forces,” says James Dorsey, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture at the University of Wuerzburg and editor of the blog “The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.”</p>
<p>“In a country, whether under the Mubarak regime or the Sisi regime, that tolerates no uncontrolled public space,” he says, the claiming of public space is “inherently political.”</p>
<p>He adds that the relationship between the Ultras and the police has long been tense.</p>
<p>“Animosity between the security forces and the Ultras is mutual and whether it’s Ultras or others, intervention by security forces produces victims in ways that it shouldn’t and that has to do with the failure to restructure or reform the security forces,” says Dorsey.</p>
<p>Egypt's 2011 revolution and the associated violence left hundreds dead in clashes with Egypt’s security forces.&#160;</p>
<p>“[I]n the last four years police violence and crimes by the security apparatus, committed with full impunity, have reached levels unknown in Egypt’s modern history,” Egypt’s leading rights groups said in a joint statement on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Poor training</p>
<p>Some say that poor training for police, many of them conscripts, is partly to blame — but that’s not the whole story.</p>
<p>"Training has always been really bad, it’s not necessarily getting any worse, but it’s not improving and there is a normalization of higher levels of violence and loss of life," says Karim Ennarah, security sector researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.</p>
<p>When fired at close range, in large quantities or in a confined space, tear gas can be lethal.</p>
<p>"The key thing is you shouldn't fire it directly into a crowd or into a closed space,” says Ennarah. “It's supposedly a dispersal weapon and if it's fired and there's nowhere to get out there's a high probability of asphyxiation, and it's not like the police has no experience with that."</p>
<p>Thirty-seven prisoners were killed in August of 2013 when officers fired tear gas into a police van outside of Abu Zaabal prison. The case resulted in one of few convictions of police for their role in the deaths of protesters over the last four years, but the sentences were overturned and a retrial is now ongoing.</p> | Why do so many Egyptian soccer fans die in confrontations with police? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-02-11/why-do-so-many-egyptian-soccer-fans-die-confrontations-police | 2015-02-11 | 3 |
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia--Macquarie Group Ltd. said it aimed to buy back up to 1 billion Australian dollars (US$766.1 million) of its shares following a 19% jump in first-half net profit, driven by growth in its annuity-style businesses.</p>
<p>Net profit rose to A$1.25 billion in the six months through September from US$1.05 billion the year before, the Sydney-based company said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Operating income increased 3.4% to A$5.4 billion from A$5.22 billion.</p>
<p>The investment bank and asset manager last month said stronger performance fees were expected to lift its half-year profit, although it continued to expected its profit for the full year would be broadly in line with the prior year's record A$2.22 billion.</p>
<p>Macquarie plans to pay an interim dividend of A$2.05 a share, up from the A$1.90 paid last year.</p>
<p>With the release of its results, Macquarie said it former Reserve Bank of Australia Gov. Glenn Stevens would join its board at the start of November. Mr. Stevens led the central bank between 2006 and 2016, a period covering the global financial crisis and the boom in mining investment in Australia.</p>
<p>The bank also said Alex Harvey, currently head of principal transactions at Macquarie Capital, would take over as chief financial officer and replace Patrick Upfold, who will succeed Stephen Allen as chief risk officer when he steps down at the end of the year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Write to Robb M. Stewart at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 26, 2017 18:04 ET (22:04 GMT)</p> | Macquarie Plans Share Buyback After Jump in 1st Half Profit | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/26/macquarie-plans-share-buyback-after-jump-in-1st-half-profit.html | 2017-10-26 | 0 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> JAISAL NOOR, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore.
<p />
<p />Chicago Public Schools has announced the firing of nearly 2,300 teachers and support staff in the country's third-largest school district, in what's being described as one of the largest round of teacher layoffs in the city's recent memory. This latest round of cuts comes on top of the 855 teachers and staff laid off when the city approved plans to close 50 schools last month. The city says the layoffs are necessary due to a drop in enrollment and a massive budget deficit.
<p />
<p />Now joining us is Xian Barrett, one of the teachers just laid off by Chicago Public Schools. He taught law and Chicago history at Gage Park High School. He's the recipient of a number of teaching awards, including being selected as a 2009-2010 U.S. Department of Education classroom teaching ambassador fellow. He's also a founding member of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators and former political director of the Chicago Teachers Union.
<p />
<p />Thank you so much for joining us, Xian.
<p />
<p />XIAN BARRETT, EDUCATIONAL ACTIVIST: Thanks for having me, Jaisal.
<p />
<p />NOOR: So, Xian, start by describing how you found out that you were getting laid off.
<p />
<p />BARRETT: Well, it was Friday morning, and I got a phone call from my mother, who said that my principal had called my parents' house, which I haven't lived in in 20 years, and said that there was important news and that I needed to call back to the school. And so then my mother, you know, she had called and relayed this. And then I called the school, got an answering machine message. The principal called back within about five minutes at 9:11&#160;a.m., and she read me a script that thanked me for my service to the district and informed me that I would no longer be employed with the Chicago Public School.
<p />
<p />NOOR: And so, Xian, you are one of the 3,000 Chicago teachers and support staff that have been laid off this year alone. This comes on top of the 50 schools that Chicago voted to close down. What is the feeling in Chicago right now? 'Cause as viewers of The Real News know, there is massive opposition, civil disobedience, hundreds of people got arrested, marches across the city that ended up being futile, ended up failing at stopping these cuts.
<p />
<p />BARRETT: I think what we're coming to realize here in Chicago is that the people running our city, and especially the school district, which is unelected--it's exclusively appointed by the mayor--is not really interested in the voices of parents, students, or educators. And until we escalate to a point that we can force them to stop what they're doing, no reasoning or pleading is going to stop their push to undermine the public schools.
<p />
<p />NOOR: And, Xian, it's not just the schools being closed and teachers being laid off. School budgets are being slashed across the city. What kind of impact is this going to have on public education in Chicago, which is a majority African-American, Latino, low-income school district?
<p />
<p />BARRETT: I mean, it's going to be devastating. Just to put it in perspective, a lot of times in these moments, people focus on the jobs lost, which, I mean, each job represents a person, their livelihood, the career that they're passionate about, and their ability to feed and provide for their own family.
<p />
<p />But at the same time, with these massive cuts, we're talking about an extreme impact on the youth of Chicago, who already attended a school system that much of the funding was being diverted away from the neighborhood schools, to the point that even prior to this round of what we estimate to be between 50 and 20--excuse me--15 and 20&#160;percent budget cuts, a lot of our neighborhood schools, the facilities were falling apart. There was no availability of soap or toilet paper. The textbooks were very old. The classrooms were, you know, in the summer up to the 90s and in the winter on Monday morning would start out in the 40s. So the conditions are already horrendous for learning. And a lot of people were wondering where these cuts would even come from. And, you know, what we found out is that they're going for the last piece, which is the actual human being there to teach the students each morning.
<p />
<p />The other thing I'd just like to add to that is when I looked at out at my classes last August, my rosters ran between 30 and 40 students each. So when we're talking about a 15 to 20&#160;percent cut of staff, we're talking about that in the context of already classroom sizes in the high 30s. And so a student can't learn in an environment beyond that, especially when we're talking about Chicago students that--many of whom are coming from relatively transient and difficult conditions beyond the school.
<p />
<p />NOOR: And, Xian, let's talk more about who runs Chicago, who runs Chicago Public Schools. Your mayor, Rahm Emanuel, was President Obama's former chief of staff. And at the same time he's been cutting city budgets, including in education, he's been giving tax breaks to private institutions, to corporations. We did a story about how the same time they're closing 50 schools, they're giving DePaul University a free stadium to the tune of $50&#160;million. Now, Illinois Representative Mary Flowers has proposed a bill to tax financial transactions at the Chicago Mercantile exchange at 0.01&#160;percent, which would raise up to $80&#160;billion annually, enough to fund the entire Federal Department of Education, let alone Chicago Public Schools. What are activists, what are people on the ground calling for? What kind of changes are people calling for in Chicago right now?
<p />
<p />BARRETT: I mean, what the big thing we're asking for--I mean, the financial transaction tax fits into this, but we would just like to see an entire priority shift, in that currently, under this non-democratically elected school board and this mayor who was elected with a small portion of the total registered voting populace voting for him on the tune of $9&#160;million coming from outside the city to support him, under this group of people, we're seeing again and again that they're choosing private stadiums over schools. We're seeing again and again that they're raising taxes and fees on working people and lowering them on the very richest residents of both the city and the state of Illinois. So we want to see a complete priority shift. And if we need to remove the current people in power in order to get that, then we're ready to take all action necessary to do that.
<p />
<p />NOOR: And finally, Xian, you were aware one of the founding members of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, a group of educators that got together and started reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and then a few years later took over the leadership of the third-biggest teachers union in the country. Now, a lot of people kind of view these latest round of cuts as payback by Rahm Emanuel against the leadership of the teachers union and the teachers who went on strike in 2012 against budget cuts and against school closings. What is the future of this fight for public education going to look like in Chicago?
<p />
<p />BARRETT: I think the first thing we have to do is understand the fact that what we're talking about in terms of this being retaliation for teachers stepping up, unionists stepping up and pushing for our rights amounts to victim blaming in a lot of ways. This push to destroy the public school system in Chicago is not something that happened because the union got more militant. It's part of a three-decade-long push in Chicago, but not just in Chicago, all over the country. The playbook that was used for this round of cuts and school closings is literally a playbook that was printed by the [incompr.] Foundation, which is active in cities all over the country.
<p />
<p />So we're certainly going to continue to organize and increase our fight-back in Chicago, because we feel like this isn't a case that our fight-back caused these problems; it's that things would be even worse if we were not mobilizing our members, if we were not working with our parents and students and our community.
<p />
<p />That doesn't mean that through that mobilization we're going to win tomorrow or next week or even this year, but the Chicago public schools won't be truly the schools that our students deserve until we as a city take back the school system and mold it in an image of what the community wants rather than the image of what these very wealthy profiteers who send their own kids to nonpublic schools want.
<p />
<p />We also look forward to learning as we ally and collaborate with educators and those interested in the public schools from all around the country in the world, because if the other side is organizing internationally, we need to do that as well.
<p />
<p />At the end of the day, though, they're very rich, but there's many, many more people who are directly invested in the public schools than there are this small group of people who are investing for profit in the public schools. So through that organizing we believe we will win.
<p />
<p />NOOR: Xian Barrett, thank you so much for joining us.
<p />
<p />BARRETT: Thank you, Jaisal.
<p />
<p />NOOR: Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Chicago Fires More than 2,000 School Staff as Crippling Cuts Deepen | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10473 | 2013-07-22 | 4 |
<p>The Mountain gorilla is one of the endangered species protected in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. But what about the Batwa people native to that protected land? In his new book Conservation Refugees, journalist Mark Dowie explores how land conservation affects the lives of the people on and near the preserves.</p> | Conservation Refugees: An interview with Mark Dowie | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-10-09/conservation-refugees-interview-mark-dowie | 2009-10-09 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>REDINGTON SHORES, Fla. — Carl Roberts has a stash of Chinese food, a case of water and a million-dollar view in his 17th floor Gulf front condo.</p>
<p>And that, he says, is all he needs to hunker down through a massive storm coming straight at him.</p>
<p>Authorities have beseeched more than 6 million people in Florida and Georgia to evacuate before Hurricane Irma’s storm surge and fierce winds make leaving — or rescuing — impossible. But some around Florida are choosing to stay, a rite of passage for many in the state who boast about the storms they weathered: Camille, Andrew, Katrina and others.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“No. 1, I don’t have anywhere to go,” said Roberts, an attorney. “Hurricane damage is primarily water rising. And I’m on the 17th floor. I have security shutters, so I should be quite safe here.”</p>
<p>All residents of Pinellas County’s barrier islands, like where Roberts lives in Reddington Shores, are under a mandatory evacuation order. But Roberts thinks he’ll only lose power for a day or two.</p>
<p>And he’s clearly not alone in not heeding the call: In the elevator, another resident of the condo tower was toting a 12-pack, saying he wasn’t leaving, either.</p>
<p>“Where ya gonna go?” the man asked, then got out on the 15th floor.</p>
<p>Others riding out the storm said they waited too long, and now can’t leave.</p>
<p>At first, Carol Walterson Stroud figured Irma would turn elsewhere before hitting Key West. When it became clear that the Florida Keys would be slammed, she didn’t evacuate because she’s a nervous wreck while driving, and didn’t want to leave her husband — “a hard-headed conch.” Getting back would be as difficult as getting out, she said, since U.S. 1 is the island chain’s only link to the mainland.</p>
<p>“I can’t go and not get back,” she said. “I don’t have money for that. We live paycheck to paycheck, pretty much.”</p>
<p>So as Irma’s winds and rain began to lash Florida’s southernmost city, she hunkered in an apartment at the senior center where her husband, Tim Stroud, works, with their 12-year-old granddaughter Sierra Costello, and dog Rocky. Her daughter, Breanna Vaughn, was a few blocks away in her own home, which she refused to leave because she’s staying with her animals. Both their houses were boarded up, and the senior center was built to withstand hurricanes.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I’m afraid,” Stroud acknowledged. “Tonight, I’m sweating. Tonight, I’m scared to death.”</p>
<p>Many of the state’s poor had little choice but to stay put at home or head to a shelter. Others with more resources didn’t want to risk driving hundreds of miles north without assurances of gasoline and accommodations.</p>
<p>“I have two choices, stay or run north, a bad idea” said Michel Polette, 31, who lives a couple blocks from the Atlantic Ocean in South Beach. “If you drive to Atlanta or Tallahassee, you’re risking running out of gas and being in your car in a Category 4 hurricane.”</p>
<p>Mobile home parks are particularly vulnerable, and were subject to mandatory evacuation orders, be they inland or near water. Firefighters went door-to-door, warning people to find more solid homes or shelters before violent winds threaten to rip their fragile homes apart.</p>
<p>Many refused.</p>
<p>“I’m not going anywhere,” said Laurie Mastropaolo, 56, at the Treasure Village Mobile Home Park in St. Petersburg. Her T-shirt, with a photo of “Grumpy Cat,” said, “This is my happy face.”</p>
<p>Mastropaolo’s neighbor, 79-year-old William Castor, was shirtless in the 95-degree heat. He said he hadn’t heard about the mandatory order.</p>
<p>“The storm’s 1,000 miles away,” he shrugged. “It could go to Kalamazoo.”</p>
<p>Castor was raised in Miami, and Mastropaolo said she weathered Sandy and other storms on Long Island. Both were new to the park, and neither was convinced they had to leave — yet.</p>
<p>“If I lived in Miami, I’d be outta there,” said Mastropaolo. “But here, I’ll wait till the last minute. I’m not going to get on the road with the crazy people.”</p>
<p>Roger Schwartz, 75, is the former president of the homeowners association at Gulfstream Harbor, where mostly retired residents live in some 800 mobile homes. He figures several hundred are staying put despite the city’s pleas to get out</p>
<p>“We may be sorry, I hope we’re not,” said Schwartz, who was staying inside with his wife; his 50-year-old son, Jeff; and their cat, Mr. Murphy.</p>
<p>“I’ll say my prayers at night, and thank the good Lord for letting me wake up in the morning,” he said.</p>
<p>If the house starts shaking and they fear the wind is ripping off the roof, there’s a crawl space under the home as a last resort.</p>
<p>“I’d rather take the chance and be here, maybe get out and help other people around here,” he said. “People in their neighborhood are pretty good darn good here.”</p>
<p>People often decide to stay if they feel they have a strong social support system to help them through hardship, according to a study published by the American Meteorological Society this year, based on surveys during 2016’s Hurricane Matthew. That storm flooded northeast Florida, destroying homes in St. Augustine and the surrounding area.</p>
<p>“We got the opposite results from what I expected because those who stayed and who were under mandatory evacuation, they had more dependable social networks than those who evacuated,” said Jennifer Collins, one of the University of South Florida researchers. “Their neighborhoods and local communities — they felt very comfortable to hunker down with them.”</p>
<p>That would include the regulars at the most infamous South Beach dive bar, who tossed back drinks, shot pool and played the jukebox — loud — as Irma approached.</p>
<p>Clouds of cigarette smoke floated in the air at Mac’s Club Deuce, where Miami Beach resident Kathleen Paca, 56, was perched on a stool. She’d just finished spray painting “We’re Open Irma” on the plywood covering the bar’s windows. She wrote “Irma” over “Wilma,” the 2005 hurricane when the plywood last was used.</p>
<p>Paca and other Deuce regulars had no qualms about riding this one out, even though it was projected to be one the strongest to hit Florida.</p>
<p>“Where am I going to go?” Paca said. “It’s not going to be that bad. I’m on the second floor and have impact windows. I’ve thrown coconuts at my windows and they don’t break.”</p>
<p>Others were staying put due to special circumstances, like pregnancy.</p>
<p>Stefani Travieso, 22, lives in a Miami neighborhood badly damaged by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 — several years before she was born. Now she’s eight months pregnant and her doctor told her to stay in a comfortable place where she felt safe. Because the roof was replaced after Andrew and storm windows installed along with a backup generator, that’s home.</p>
<p>“If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be in the car headed north with my dog and my husband,” she said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Lush reported from St. Petersburg, Frisaro from Miami. Contributors include Jason Dearen in Miami Beach, Claire Garafolo in Orlando and Jay Reeves in Ormond by the Sea.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected. The dateline is Redington Shores, not Reddington Shores.</p> | They’ve been warned: Some insist on riding out Irma at home | false | https://abqjournal.com/1061234/theyve-been-warned-some-insist-on-riding-out-irma-at-home.html | 2017-09-09 | 2 |
<p>Before 9/11 happened President George W. Bush vowed to give more attention to Latin America. After 9/11, Latin America went to the back burner. Around that time, Gerry Hadden moved to Mexico City in 2000 to take a job as NPR's correspondent for Mexico, Latin America and Haiti. He has a new book out called "Never The Hope Itself: Love and Ghosts in Latin America and Haiti". Anchor Marco Werman speaks with him about trying to report in what had become a forgotten part of the world.</p> | Reporting from Forgotten Latin America | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-09-09/reporting-forgotten-latin-america | 2011-09-09 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Estate planning, although complicated , protects your loved ones when you die or if you become incapacitated.&#160; During a time when family relationships and emotions run high, an estate plan settles your affairs and ensures the future happiness of the people you care most about.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Peter L. Lese, a Partner at the law firm of <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.wbcsk.com_&amp;d=CwMFaQ&amp;c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&amp;r=GRqff5l5MHpejHoKHot8Gp2SY_ZPxrunht950uhDnYCPYyIIU0YyzTG5vMXJEgC6&amp;m=Dax4w6KuDtro8cHkF47s54q2hzNd5CnVaerANkusd4E&amp;s=sNc3Yr8rPDawjRN2yx-I_v7kqBd_UApUHNNLeifHBVI&amp;e=" type="external">Warshaw Burstein, LLP Opens a New Window.</a> in New York offered his advice on how to protect your family with an estate plan.&#160; Here is what you need to know.</p>
<p>Boomer:&#160; What is the importance of a living will vs. a Health Care Proxy?</p>
<p>Lese:&#160; A living will is an important part of the estate planning documents.&#160; It is an expression of a person’s wishes regarding the medical procedures that should be followed when faced with an incurable or irreversible condition, such as terminal cancer, or in a persistent vegetative state, such as a coma.&#160; A living will can be of critical importance to make sure that one’s wishes regarding the dying process are carried out.</p>
<p>Typically, a living will includes a request to not have one’s life prolonged by life-sustaining measures, such as a respirator, and to be allowed to die naturally and to be given all care necessary to be comfortable and relieve pain.&#160; In some states the living will has been substantially supplanted by the health care proxy which not only memorializes an individual’s wishes, as with a living will, but also, names a health care agent to make health-related decisions in the event that a person is unable to speak on his or her own behalf.&#160; Nevertheless, because not all states have health care proxy laws, and it is possible to end up in a hospital outside of the home state, most people should have both documents to cover all the possibilities.</p>
<p>Boomer:&#160; To avoid future family squabbles, how should you choose the executor to your will?</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Lese:&#160; The choice of an executor is extremely important and deciding who to appoint is not always straightforward.&#160; If one is married, in many cases, one will choose the spouse. If there is no surviving spouse, but there are adult children who are financially responsible, in many cases, a parent will choose all the children to act together as co-executors.&#160; But there are many cases where one may choose to deviate from this approach.&#160; For example, a person might want to appoint a co-executor to act with the spouse so that the spouse will not be making important decisions alone.&#160; Also, if there is no surviving spouse, while appointing all the children as co-executors works if the children get along, and avoids hurting any feelings which might occur if one child is named as sole executor, it is not always practical.&#160; For example, requiring the children to act together as co-executors may lead to a stalemate or worse.&#160; In such cases, it is common to choose a family friend, a professional advisor, such as a lawyer, accountant or financial planner, or a corporate trustee as co- or sole executor.&#160; This way, there will be a third-party who can make decisions or who can work with the children to assist them and break any ties.&#160; However, cost is also a factor.&#160; By law, executors are entitled to compensation, usually based on the value of the assets passing under the Will.&#160; Since family members may be willing to act as executors without compensation, that is obviously a benefit, but cost alone should not be the sole criteria when making such an important decision.</p>
<p>Boomer:&#160; How can boomers best manage assets to leave to their surviving children and reduce estate costs?</p>
<p>Lese:&#160; The federal estate tax exemption is now $5,430,000 and will increase each year for an inflation adjustment.&#160; With this increased exemption, fewer people are affected by estate taxes.&#160; As a result, the focus of estate planning for the majority of people is now on making sure that their wills and/or revocable trust agreements accurately reflect their wishes.&#160; Issues such as the choice of executors, trustees and the terms of any trusts for the spouse and/or children are still important.&#160; For example, it may be desirable to create a trust to hold the assets that are bequeathed to a child to protect such assets in the event the child gets divorced.&#160; Also, many or all people will want to sign a power of attorney, health care proxy and living will.&#160; These documents can be extremely important, as they provide the only means to give a person authority over one’s personal affairs without going to court to have a guardian appointed.</p>
<p>For high net worth people for whom estate planning to reduce estate taxes is still relevant, there are numerous techniques available such as grantor retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts and sales to grantor trusts, to name a few.&#160;&#160; However, before implementing these techniques, it is important to consider the possible downside that could arise if, for example, a highly appreciated asset is given away during lifetime. Such a gift may result in a reduced estate tax, but may cause a substantially increased income tax liability which may mitigate or outweigh the estate tax savings.</p>
<p>Boomer:&#160; Are there any recent developments in tax laws that have an impact on estate planning?</p>
<p>Lese:&#160; The most recent developments in the tax law relating to estate planning are relatively minor.&#160; For example, Congress passed a highway bill that included a provision which requires executors of estates to provide beneficiaries with a statement that will report their (stepped-up) tax basis in property that they receive from the estate.</p>
<p>Lese also added there is a general misunderstanding about the desirability of giving assets away to reduce the size of one’s taxable estate.&#160; Our analysis has shown that in many cases, giving assets away actually works against the client and his or her family.</p>
<p>*This conversation was edited for length and clarity.</p> | Are Your Affairs in Order?…Read On | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/11/05/are-your-affairs-in-orderread-on.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Facebook Inc. founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan said they plan to give about 99% of their Facebook shares to philanthropic efforts through a newly created vehicle called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The news comes as Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, welcomed their daughter, Max.</p>
<p>Mr. Zuckerberg plans to gift up to $1 billion in Facebook stock annually for the next three years, according to a regulatory filing. He plans to keep his majority voting position in Facebook for the forseaable future.</p>
<p>In a post on Facebook, Mr. Zuckerberg said the current value of the shares he plans to contribute is about $45 billion.</p>
<p>In the lengthy Facebook post, Mr. Zuckerberg said "Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today."</p>
<p>By Chelsey Dulaney</p> | Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan to Give 99% of Facebook Stock to Philanthropy | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/12/01/mark-zuckerberg-priscilla-chan-to-give-facebook-stock-to-philanthropy.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>This week, the U.S. <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2012/07/18/fda-approves-new-diet-drug.html" type="external">Food and Drug Administration approved</a> Qsymia, a new drug for the treatment of obesity that contains two active ingredients, phentermine and topiramate. It joins Belviq (lorcaserin), approved just last month, as the first anti-obesity pills green-lighted by the agency (which may be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/us/fda-surveillance-of-scientists-spread-to-outside-critics.html?_r=2&amp;pagewanted=all" type="external">too busy spying on itself</a> to worry about such things) in more than a decade.</p>
<p>And not a moment too soon. According to the <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2012/03/30/why-new-cdc-numbers-on-autism-may-not-add-up.html" type="external">Centers of Disease Control and Prevention</a>, more than one-third of the adult U.S. population is obese, a proportion that has risen dramatically in the last two decades. The associated medical costs for the condition are about $147 billion annually, and about 300,000 people die each year die of obesity-related complications. The public has reacted as usual to the alarming scope of the problem—with avoidance of the facts, finger-pointing, claims of misinterpretation. More productively, though, the obesity epidemic has drawn the interest of pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, and now we now finally have some usable products.</p>
<p>The new pills bring us back to a grand moment in weight control only 20 years ago when the now discredited drug, fen-phen, ruled the roost. The pill actually worked, but quickly went up in a cloud of lawsuits once the substantial risk of heart-valve problems was identified. Like Qsymia, fen-phen ( <a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance/course/Syllabi/97Dartmouth/day-2/fen-phen-1.pdf" type="external">PDF</a>) contained two drugs; one, phenteramine is present in Qsymia, while the other, fenfluramine, was the trouble-maker. Fenfluramine acts by increasing the levels of serotonin around a nerve’s synapse, not unlike today’s SSRI (selective serotonin release inhibitors) antidepressants such as Prozac, and conferred a sense of satiety. Phentermine, which is a chemical variation on amphetamine, was deemed safe but was not effective in weight control without its partner.</p>
<p>Enter Qsymia, which has added to the mix an odd-ball drug, topiramate, previously FDA-approved for epilepsy. Topiramate is unrelated to any other drug, and has been kicking around for years. Prior to now, it is has had only one infamous moment in the spotlight–its maker, Ortho-McNeil, was <a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/CriminalInvestigations/ucm213163" type="external">fined a cool $6.14 million</a> for promoting its use (as Topamax) to psychiatrists for off-label indications such as treatment of bipolar disease. No one really knows how topiramate works on the brain, exactly, but it seems to influence a wide range of neuropsychiatric symptoms.</p>
<p>The other new kid on the block, lorcaserin (Belviq), contains just a single active drug that works along the same general serotonin pathway as the SSRIs and topiramate; lorcaserin does its stuff by increasing the density of specific serotonin receptors along the synapse. Indeed, for all the drugs that work the serotonin beat, the mechanism to increase serotonin varies substantially—which is logical since weight gain, not weight loss, is common with the Prozac-family of SSRIs.</p>
<p>The benefit of Qsymia and Belviq is modest but durable: <a href="http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm312468.htm" type="external">For Qsymia</a>, two trials that went a full year showed that patients had an average weight loss of about 8% (16 pounds for 200 pound person) compared to placebo. Not bad. Plus people who were destined to benefit showed response early—within 12 weeks. <a href="http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm309993.htm" type="external">For Belviq</a>, the weight loss was about 4 percent but also was durable to a year. In all studies, the pills are given in a combination with a careful diet and more exercise.</p>
<p>In addition to the pills, <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2010/01/02/weight-loss-surgery-hits-the-massesnbsp.html" type="external">bariatric surgery</a>—the high-end word of stomach stapling—is proving its value. With this approach, a person’s stomach capacity is physically shrunk and, with Clockwork Orange vividness, the patient learns to stay away from the big meal. Or else. The bariatric approach was shown effective in two New England Journal of Medicine articles earlier this year ( <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1200225" type="external">here</a> and <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1200111" type="external">here</a>). In these studies, a surgeon’s scalpel proved superior to will power, lifestyle changes, self-esteem, and the rest of the self-help world’s greatest hits. In fact it wasn’t even close: the people who received <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2010/09/30/should-teens-get-weight-loss-surgery.html" type="external">surgery</a> lost about 20 kilograms (44 pounds) more than those who gave it the old college try.</p>
<p>These advances are important for several reasons. First, the drugs should improve the health of countless people (assuming there isn’t a curveball side effect waiting to emerge). Second, treating obesity is likely to save the health-care system money. But most important, the work performs a critical task: it serves to pull obesity out of the realm of moral failing and into the arid, less dramatic, but thankfully more reality-based, world of medical disease. To control this particular epidemic, it is essential to leave the Sunday school view of obesity behind. Whatever mix of genetic, environmental, societal, economic, and psychological factors one sees as contributory, the facts are these: obesity is a serious and lethal medical condition.</p>
<p>Consigning obesity to the medical world places it on equal footing with other major American killers such as AIDS, cancer, and heart disease, and re-balances risk and benefit. In the world of science, numbers and tests and clinical trials are the coin of the realm, not tips on how to resist that extra slice of cake. Obesity isn’t sketchy, it’s a disease. Only here, free from sermons and bromides, can real progress to control obesity be made.</p> | Why New Diet Drugs, Belviq and Qsymia, Are Just in Time | true | https://thedailybeast.com/why-new-diet-drugs-belviq-and-qsymia-are-just-in-time | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p />
<p />
<p>A Chicago man made the not-so-smart decision to snip a pimple with a dirty woodworking blade resulting in a rare fungal lesion on his lower lip. A case report was published in The Journal of Emergency Medicine regarding the infection.</p>
<p><a href="http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0736467917308910" type="external">linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0736467917308910</a></p>
<p>The 23-year-old was treated by doctors at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County who performed a biopsy on the lesion. The man is an otherwise healthy construction worker but the lesion on his lower lip is a blood-crusted, warty plague with a hardened border.</p>
<p />
<p>Credit: <a href="http://arstechnica.com" type="external">arstechnica.com</a></p>
<p>The infection is an ominous reminder of the age-old saying "cleanliness is next to godliness" and don't snip pimples with dirty objects. The skin biopsy revealed a rare, budding yeast from growing in the lesion called Blastomyces conidia which tend to live in wet soil, decaying wood and other areas around waterways.</p>
<p>The yeast form is known for causing lung infections, mostly from people kicking up and inhaling spores, but the construction worker's chest x-rays were clear. There have been less than 50 such cases of Blastomyces conidia resulting from direct contact in medical literature.</p>
<p>Dermatologists warn against popping zits since usually you only make them more inflamed and painful which causes more scars.</p>
<p>On Twitter:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ErvinProduction" type="external">@ErvinProduction</a></p>
<p>Tips? Info? Send me a message!</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/life-pro-tip-to-avoid-festering-fungal-sores-dont-hack-zits-with-wood-blades/" type="external">arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/life-pro-tip-to-avoid-festering-fungal-sores-dont-hack-zits-with-wood-blades</a></p> | Man Gets Gnarly Fungal Infection After Snipping Pimple With Dirty Wood Tools | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/13461-Man-Gets-Gnarly-Fungal-Infection-After-Snipping-Pimple-With-Dirty-Wood-Tools | 2017-12-07 | 0 |
<p>Police say a social worker in Vermont was killed by a mother upset that she had lost custody of her 9-year-old daughter. The killing of Lara Sobel is the latest in a roster of violent acts directed at social workers. Here’s a look at some key facts about violence aimed at social workers:</p>
<p>A DANGEROUS JOB</p>
<p>There have been several high profile attacks against social workers. They include:</p>
<p>— In 2012 in Dade City, Florida, 25-year-old health care case worker Stephanie Ross was stabbed to death by a 53-year-old client.</p>
<p>— A veteran child protective services worker was shot to death in 2005 in Washington state.</p>
<p>— In 2004, Kansas social worker Teri Zenner was fatally attacked with a knife and a chain saw when visiting a client to make sure he was taking his medication.</p>
<p>— In Ohio in 2003, a man was charged with raping a children’s service worker.</p>
<p>— In 2001, another Ohio social worker was stabbed to death by a father who had just been told he was going to lose custody of his children.</p>
<p>STATISTICS ON VIOLENCE</p>
<p>The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2013, nearly 1,100 social workers — including private and governmental — were injured as a result of violence. Among the 490 state government social workers injured by violence that year, nearly a third worked with children and families.</p>
<p>A 2005 study that interviewed more than 1,000 social workers found 15 percent had been assaulted by a client within the past year, while nearly a third had been assaulted at some point during their career. The National Association of Social Workers said that was the last time a survey like that had been done.</p>
<p>SECURITY</p>
<p>Sobel was killed as she left a state office building. Vermont officials said they are reviewing security at state buildings. They declined to provide specifics but said state workers may see an increased law enforcement and security presence in the coming days.</p>
<p>BEST PRACTICES</p>
<p>Social workers have some ways to reduce the chance of violence in their offices and when making home visits. Besides physical things like never working alone in the office and keeping buildings and grounds well lit, they include:</p>
<p>— Training to recognize when someone is becoming agitated and what do at the first sign that a client is becoming upset.</p>
<p>— Making sure a client’s history of violence is known, continually assessing the level of dangerousness and sharing the information with all staff.</p>
<p>— Knowing when and how to try to calm a situation.</p>
<p>— Training in when and how to use non-violent self-defense or to physically escape.</p>
<p>— Leaving a worker’s itinerary with office staff, phoning the office frequently when in the field and providing options for staff or police escorts.</p>
<p>Police say a social worker in Vermont was killed by a mother upset that she had lost custody of her 9-year-old daughter. The killing of Lara Sobel is the latest in a roster of violent acts directed at social workers. Here’s a look at some key facts about violence aimed at social workers:</p>
<p>A DANGEROUS JOB</p>
<p>There have been several high profile attacks against social workers. They include:</p>
<p>— In 2012 in Dade City, Florida, 25-year-old health care case worker Stephanie Ross was stabbed to death by a 53-year-old client.</p>
<p>— A veteran child protective services worker was shot to death in 2005 in Washington state.</p>
<p>— In 2004, Kansas social worker Teri Zenner was fatally attacked with a knife and a chain saw when visiting a client to make sure he was taking his medication.</p>
<p>— In Ohio in 2003, a man was charged with raping a children’s service worker.</p>
<p>— In 2001, another Ohio social worker was stabbed to death by a father who had just been told he was going to lose custody of his children.</p>
<p>STATISTICS ON VIOLENCE</p>
<p>The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2013, nearly 1,100 social workers — including private and governmental — were injured as a result of violence. Among the 490 state government social workers injured by violence that year, nearly a third worked with children and families.</p>
<p>A 2005 study that interviewed more than 1,000 social workers found 15 percent had been assaulted by a client within the past year, while nearly a third had been assaulted at some point during their career. The National Association of Social Workers said that was the last time a survey like that had been done.</p>
<p>SECURITY</p>
<p>Sobel was killed as she left a state office building. Vermont officials said they are reviewing security at state buildings. They declined to provide specifics but said state workers may see an increased law enforcement and security presence in the coming days.</p>
<p>BEST PRACTICES</p>
<p>Social workers have some ways to reduce the chance of violence in their offices and when making home visits. Besides physical things like never working alone in the office and keeping buildings and grounds well lit, they include:</p>
<p>— Training to recognize when someone is becoming agitated and what do at the first sign that a client is becoming upset.</p>
<p>— Making sure a client’s history of violence is known, continually assessing the level of dangerousness and sharing the information with all staff.</p>
<p>— Knowing when and how to try to calm a situation.</p>
<p>— Training in when and how to use non-violent self-defense or to physically escape.</p>
<p>— Leaving a worker’s itinerary with office staff, phoning the office frequently when in the field and providing options for staff or police escorts.</p> | Vermont killing highlights dangers of social work | false | https://apnews.com/cda9ea0cb0d7433fa89a5388197ef017 | 2015-08-10 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Strange. And it gets stranger still.</p>
<p>That “strike Syria, maybe” speech begins with a heart-rending account of children consigned to a terrible death by a monster dropping poison gas. It proceeds to explain why such behavior must be punished. It culminates with the argument that the proper response – the most effective way to uphold fundamental norms, indeed human decency – is a flea bite: something “limited,” “targeted” or, as so memorably described by Secretary of State John Kerry, “unbelievably small.”</p>
<p>The mind reels, but there’s more.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>We must respond – but not yet. This “Munich moment” (Kerry again) demands first a pause to find accommodation with that very same toxin-wielding monster, by way of negotiations with his equally cynical, often shirtless, Kremlin patron bearing promises.</p>
<p>The promise is to rid Syria of its chemical weapons. The negotiations are open-ended. Not a word from President Obama about any deadline or ultimatum. And utter passivity: Kerry said hours earlier that he awaited the Russian proposal.</p>
<p>Why? The administration claims (preposterously, but no matter) that Obama has been working on this idea with Putin at previous meetings.</p>
<p>Take at face value Obama’s claim of authorship. Then why isn’t he taking ownership? Why isn’t he calling it the “U.S. proposal” and defining it? Why not issue a U.S. plan containing the precise demands, detailed timeline and threat of action should these conditions fail to be met?</p>
<p>Putin doesn’t care one way or the other about chemical weapons. Nor about dead Syrian children. Nor about international norms, parchment treaties and the other niceties of the liberal imagination.</p>
<p>He cares about power and he cares about keeping Bashar al-Assad in power. Assad is the key link in the anti-Western Shiite crescent stretching from Tehran through Damascus and Beirut to the Mediterranean – on which sits Tartus, Russia’s only military base outside the former Soviet Union.</p>
<p>This axis frontally challenges the pro-American Sunni Arab Middle East (Jordan, Yemen, the Gulf Arabs, even the North African states), already terrified at the imminent emergence of a nuclear Iran.</p>
<p>At which point the Iran axis and its Russian patron would achieve dominance over the moderate Arab states, allowing Russia to supplant America as regional hegemon for the first time since Egypt switched to our side in the Cold War in 1972.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The hinge of the entire Russian strategy is saving the Assad regime. That’s the very purpose of the “Russian proposal.”</p>
<p>Imagine that some supposed arms control protocol is worked out. The inspectors have to be vetted by Assad, protected by Assad, convoyed by Assad, directed by Assad to every destination. Negotiation, inspection, identification, accounting, transport and safety would require constant cooperation with the regime, and thus acknowledgment of its sovereignty and legitimacy.</p>
<p>So much for Obama’s repeated insistence that Assad must go.</p>
<p>Indeed, Putin has openly demanded that any negotiation be conditioned on a U.S. commitment to forswear the use of force against Assad. On Thursday, Assad repeated that demand, warning that without an American pledge not to attack and not to arm the rebels, his government would agree to nothing.</p>
<p>This would abolish the very possibility of America tilting the order of battle in a Syrian war that Assad is now winning thanks to Russian arms, Iranian advisers and Lebanese Hezbollah shock troops. Putin thus assures the survival of his Syrian client and the continued ascendancy of the anti-Western Iranian bloc.</p>
<p>And what does America get? Obama saves face.</p>
<p>Some deal.</p>
<p>As for the peace process, it has about zero chance of disarming Damascus. We’ve spent nine years disarming an infinitely smaller arsenal in Libya – in conditions of peace – and we’re still finding stockpiles.</p>
<p>Yet consider what’s happened over the last month. Assad uses poison gas on civilians and is branded, by the U.S. above all, a war criminal. Putin, covering for the war criminal, is exposed, isolated, courting pariah status.</p>
<p>And now? Assad, far from receiving punishment of any kind, goes from monster to peace partner. Putin bestrides the world stage, playing dealmaker. He’s welcomed by America as a constructive partner. Now a world statesman, he takes to The New York Times to blame American interventionist arrogance – aka “American exceptionalism” – for inducing small states to acquire WMDs in the first place.</p>
<p>And Obama gets to slink away from a Syrian debacle of his own making. Such are the fruits of a diplomacy of epic incompetence.</p>
<p>Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail to <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | Diplomacy of epic incompetence | false | https://abqjournal.com/262837/diplomacy-of-epic-incompetence.html | 2013-09-14 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Other emails referred to the rally in the subject line, but didn’t express a position for or against the event, which PED says it is investigating as a possible misuse of public funds for politics.</p>
<p>Garcia closed schools at midday on March 16 so teachers, staff, parents and students could attend the rally. The school district said the rally was to call “attention to the dire financial crisis of public education” and “encourage compromise between branches of government.”</p>
<p>Garcia says the event was nonpartisan. It came as Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has promised to not raise taxes as proposed in a state budget with more money for public schools sent to the governor by the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Garcia was PED secretary under Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson.</p>
<p>Current Secretary Hanna Skandera’s letter a week after the rally states that PED had launched an investigation into the rally. The Journal asked PED for records of complaints regarding the rally through March 20, including letters, emails and documented phone calls.</p>
<p>Of records provided by PED Tuesday, one is a direct complaint about use of public resources for the rally. “I am unhappy that my tax dollars are being used to pay teachers and staff of schools to lobby in order to increase my taxes. The money was taxed for the purpose of education. This is a misuse of funds,” said an email. “… I cannot take a half day off of work to come and advocate for my position – but the entire school district can.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Another message sent by a Santa Fe teacher with the subject line “This SFPS Rally at the Roundhouse Does Not Speak for Me” supports the governor’s plan not to raise taxes but doesn’t discuss the rally.</p>
<p>Another email with the subject line “URGENT – Plans for Tomorrow” from a teacher includes a memo from an SFPS principal urging staff to attend the rally. But the writer notes only that, under the union’s collective bargaining agreement, employees are to be dismissed the same time as students on snow days. In an email under the subject line “Education Cuts,” another writer says he supports budget cuts to public education, cites Garcia’s $180,000 salary and talks about gun control without mentioning the rally.</p>
<p>PED on Tuesday provided a comment from Skandera: “As we have said previously, we received letters and calls of concern from parents regarding the half day. We are considering the response from Superintendent Garcia and will continue to investigate. Taxpayer dollars must be used appropriately and in this case they must be used to help our kids learn.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | PED can show few complaints about disputed SFPS rally | false | https://abqjournal.com/982586/ped-can-show-few-complaints-about-disputed-sfps-rally.html | 2017-04-04 | 2 |
<p>Senator John McCain is clearly frustrated by the lack of transparency of the healthcare proposal that few have seen and expressed his concerns in comedic fashion during an interview with reporters.</p>
<p>Although most Senate <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-20/senate-republicans-haven-t-seen-their-secret-health-bill-either" type="external">Republicans have not even seen the healthcare bill</a> and others are divided on whether or not they can support the bill at all, representatives prepare to vote on the bill as early as next week. Republican John McCain was asked whether or not he had seen it, to which he responded truthfully, yet sarcastically saying,&#160;“No, nor have I met any American that has. I’m sure the Russians have been able to hack in and gotten most of it.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a hand full of Republicans&#160; <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-13/senate-republicans-writing-obamacare-repeal-behind-closed-doors" type="external">drafted the proposal in what can only be described as “secret negotiations</a> while planning to blindside the public with the bill just before the vote. McConnell was questioned by the press on his use of this tactic that’s typically deployed by his counterparts.</p>
<p>“Everyone will have adequate time to take a look at it,” said McConnell, despite the fact that the measure wont be scrutinized through any committee hearings. Republicans to utilize an&#160; <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/338566-no-2-senate-republican-were-going-to-have-50-votes-on-obamacare" type="external">expedited process to pass the proposal with only 50 votes</a> in combination with a tie-breaker by Vice President Mike Pence which would bypass the 60 vote barrier used by Democrats to block the bill.</p>
<p>Steven E. Johnson is a Mississippi-based author who covers social injustice and political issues for the Resistance Report. You can contact him at stevejlive at gmail dot com.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | This Is The Hilarious Shit McCain Just Said About The Secret Trumpcare Bill | true | http://resistancereport.com/politics/hilarious-shit-mccain-just-said-secret-trumpcare-bill/ | 2017-06-20 | 4 |
<p />
<p />
<p>This is not from The Onion.</p>
<p>Via Times of Israel: <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israelis-sue-over-artificial-dye-in-orange-mms/" type="external">Israelis sue over artificial dye in orange M&amp;Ms</a></p>
<p>A class-action suit was filed in Israel this week alleging that orange M&amp;Ms imported from the US contain artificial food dye far above permitted levels, Israeli television reported Thursday.</p>
<p>The suit was filed against Mars, which makes the candy, and the official Israeli importer, Sides, Channel 2 News said.</p>
<p>The artificial dye, Sunset Yellow — a synthetic yellow dye — was found at up to five times Israeli permitted levels in tests carried out in Israel on the orange M&amp;Ms, lawyer Nissan Yezerski said….</p>
<p>Dr. Ilana Dariel, a clinical dietician, said the elevated levels could cause hyperactivity.</p>
<p>M&amp;Ms manufactured in Europe do not breach the Israeli limits, but Israel stopped importing the candy from Europe in 2008 and switched to US-produced M&amp;Ms, the TV report said….</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Here’s a suggestion for John Kerry, who seems to harbor a grandiose fantasy that he will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing peace to the Middle East.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>He needs to stop threatening Israel with more B.D.S. (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) and a new wave of terrorism if they don’t agree to “Palestinian” demands.</p>
<p>Instead, maybe he needs to do something of real value:</p>
<p>Like speaking out against orange M&amp;M’s in the region.</p>
<p>Or maybe he could bring Heinz ketchup to Israel.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Or something…</p>
<p>Related:</p>
<p>The Age: <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/world/benjamin-netanyahu-lashes-john-kerry-over-boycott-remarks-20140203-hvay5.html" type="external">Benjamin Netanyahu lashes John Kerry over boycott remarks</a></p>
<p>Fox News: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/02/16/syria-foreign-minister-says-us-tried-to-create-very-negative-climate-for-geneva/" type="external">Syria blames US for creating ‘negative climate’ at Geneva talks</a></p>
<p>CNS News: <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/kerry-welcomes-new-lebanese-gov-t-which-includes-hezbollah" type="external">Kerry Welcomes New Lebanese Gov’t, Which Includes Hezbollah</a></p> | true | http://tammybruce.com/2014/02/new-middle-east-crisis-israel-sues-mars-candy-co-over-orange-mms.html | 0 |
||
<p>Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister who was known as the “Iron Lady” of British politics, has passed away at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke, her family announced on Monday.</p>
<p>Britain’s longest serving prime minister of the 20th century was also the only woman to hold the leadership post. Thatcher led the Conservative Party to three straight election victories, serving in office rom 1979 to 1990.</p>
<p>During her tenure as prime minister, Thatcher vastly reshaped Britain with her conservative economic policies, pulling it back from 35 years of socialism and ushering in an era of privatization.</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p />
<p>But by the time she left office, the principles known as Thatcherism — the belief that economic freedom and individual liberty are interdependent, that personal responsibility and hard work are the only ways to national prosperity, and that the free-market democracies must stand firm against aggression — had won many disciples. Even some of her strongest critics accorded her a grudging respect.</p>
<p>At home, Mrs. Thatcher’s political successes were decisive. She broke the power of the labor unions and forced the Labour Party to abandon its commitment to nationalized industry, redefine the role of the welfare state and accept the importance of the free market.</p>
<p>…To her enemies she was — as Denis Healey, chancellor of the Exchequer in Harold Wilson’s government, called her — “La Pasionaria of Privilege,” a woman who railed against the evils of poverty but who was callous and unsympathetic to the plight of the have-nots. Her policies, her opponents said, were cruel and shortsighted, widened the gap between rich and poor and worsened the plight of the poorest.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/world/europe/former-prime-minister-margaret-thatcher-of-britain-has-died.html?pagewanted=1&amp;_r=1&amp;hp" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Margaret Thatcher, Britain's 'Iron Lady,' Dies | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/margaret-thatcher-britains-iron-lady-dies/ | 2013-04-08 | 4 |
<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nepal Army Colonel Kumar Lama was arrested Jan. 3, after police raided his home in East Sussex south of London. The arrest was made for his alleged involvement in the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20914282" type="external">torture of two detainees in 2005</a>, during the Nepal government’s war against the Maoist insurgency.</p>
<p>Advocacy Forum Nepal, in coordination with a British law firm, filed the charges on behalf of the victims, whose stories have rarely been covered by mainstream media.</p>
<p>A special squad of the British Metropolitan Police arrested Lama, who was visiting family for Christmas break after working in South Sudan as a United Nations peacekeeper. He is charged with intentionally “inflicting severe pain or suffering” on the victims, while he was a chief officer at the Gorusinghe Army Barracks in Kapilvastu, Nepal.</p>
<p>Human rights activists from Himalayan Nepal and beyond, including Amnesty International, have hailed the incarceration as a potential harbinger of the end of impunity for those responsible for crimes during Nepal’s decade-long civil war that took thousands of lives.</p>
<p>Promises of a comprehensive process of justice never materialized in Nepal although the conflict ended in 2006. The government’s failure to hold accountable the accused Lama’s victims forced them to seek justice outside the country’s borders.</p>
<p>According to the British government, it has acted well within the principles of universal jurisdiction under its domestic law. And London’s response to Nepal’s request for Lama’s release — a blunt ‘no’ — suggests they intend to see the case through.</p>
<p>In Bhutan, where I was born, the government has neither acknowledged nor investigated incidences relating to torture carried out in the 1990s, when the regime forced an <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,WRITENET,,BTN,,3ae6a6c08,0.html" type="external">exodus of its Nepali-speaking and Sarchop citizens</a>from the country.</p>
<p>In 1991, my father was among those arrested. He dared to question his detention and was dragged out of the house by two army personnel, thrown to the ground in front of his family and repeatedly kicked in the face.</p>
<p>He was kept in prison for 31 days, where he claims to have been tortured mercilessly before being forced to sign a ‘”voluntary” migration form at gunpoint, agreeing to leave the country. He is only one of thousands of stories of torture in Bhutan.</p>
<p>I have interviewed victims of torture from Bhutan’s Dagana district that are now living in the United States. All of them claim to have been abused by the Bhutan army’s Major Chachu Drukpa. Major Drukpa, who died in the late 1990s, was never tried for his alleged involvement in torturing hundreds of detainees.</p>
<p>Today, hundreds of others like Drukpa walk free. Though Bhutan initiated <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/world/asia/25bhutan.html?_r=0" type="external">an experiment in democratic governance in 2008</a> through a national election, international human rights groups continue to report cases of torture. The judiciary in Bhutan is highly politicized, and international intervention under universal jurisdiction seems to be the only immediate solution to deliver justice to torture victims.</p>
<p>The situation in Nepal reflects an entrenched culture of political intrusions in the region’s judicial systems, with a long history of intervention from the highest levels of governments in the South Asia region. Most governments there have yet to accept that torturing detainees is a grave crime under international laws — to which they are signatories. Lama’s arrest is not without precedent in the region.</p>
<p>In Sri Lanka, for example, a UN report on the war between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government deemed that both sides had committed heinous crimes.</p>
<p>A report from a panel of experts on accountability in Sri Lanka stated that from February 2009 onward the LTTE began indiscriminately shooting civilians who attempted to escape the conflict zone. Sri Lanka’s only significant war crimes trial resulted in the sentencing of former Army Chief Sarnath Fonseka to three years in prison.</p>
<p>In Burma, torturing detainees was very common during the military regime. The new government has not yet signed the Convention Against Torture. In June last year, Human Rights Watch stated that the government failed to take action against those behind the sectarian violence between Arakan Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. The army was blamed for carrying out brutal abuses in Arakan state.</p>
<p>The government of Nepal, led by Maoists, decided to let Bal Krishna Dhungel — convicted of murder — walk free. This is yet another example of impunity in Nepal. Dhungel even continued to serve as a member of the Constituent Assembly after the Supreme Court reaffirmed a district court’s verdict for a life sentence in September 2010.</p>
<p>The cabinet, led by a former guerilla leader, is accused of having granted amnesty to hundreds of Civil War criminals. The end of Nepal’s civil conflict has not brought an end to the torture of detainees. Impunity has reached new heights and there is no effective deterrent to torture in Nepal, which now struggles to survive the transition to democracy.</p>
<p>The Lama case builds on the history of the 2005 sentencing by the British judiciary of Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad for a “ <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jul/18/afghanistan.world" type="external">heinous campaign</a>” of torture and kidnapping in his home country.</p>
<p>The British government’s role in delivering justice in Zardad’s case and its decision to arrest Lama may serve as a lesson to future perpetrators of human rights violations — as well as the respective governments who do not take action against them.</p>
<p>TP Mishra, a contributing editor at refugee-run Bhutan News Service, lives in North Carolina, where he is studying international studies with a concentration in human rights and conflict. He can be reached at: <a href="http://mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. &#160;</p> | Why Britain’s arrest of Nepali army colonel should serve as lesson for South Asia | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-02-28/why-britain-s-arrest-nepali-army-colonel-should-serve-lesson-south-asia | 2013-02-28 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>PED released schools’ 2014 letter grades today. It is the fourth year PED has assigned schools grades based on student standardized test scores in math and reading, and whether scores have improved over the past three years.</p>
<p>Compared to last year, 26 more New Mexico schools earned an “A” or “B” this year — 332 compared to 306.</p>
<p>And a “C” grade isn’t so average, as the number of schools earning that score dropped from 230 last year to 188 this year.</p>
<p>There were also 20 more schools that earned “D” or “F” grades this year — 323 compared to 303.</p>
<p>Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera said the school grading system, an initiative championed by Gov. Susana Martinez, better gauges whether students are making academic progress than the former accountability system under No Child Left Behind.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The old system looked at whether students were “proficient” in reading and math, but didn’t closely track student progress like the current grading system.</p>
<p>“We would have no idea if we were closing the achievement gap,” said Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera. “Now we can better show growth.”</p>
<p>The system hasn’t been without controversy. Some critics have said the scoring system behind the letter grades is overly complicated and have questioned its accuracy.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">To see the grades of NM schools click here</a></p>
<p>For more on this story see tomorrow’s paper.</p> | State releases school letter grades | false | https://abqjournal.com/434628/state-releases-school-letter-grades.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>In this image provided by the U.S. Marshals Service, fugitive John McCluskey is shown being taken into custody Thursday, Aug. 19 by U.S. Marshals in eastern Arizona. McCluskey and his fiancee Casslyn Welch have been on the lam since July 30th. Both were apprehended at an eastern Arizona campground on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Fores. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshals Office)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>In this image provided by the U.S. Marshals Service Casslyn Welch is shown being taken into custody Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010 by U.S. Marshals in eastern Arizona. Welch and John McCluskey have been on the lam since July 30th. Both were apprehended at an eastern Arizona campground on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Fores (AP Photo/U.S. Marshals Office)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>An old autographed photograph of Clyde Barrow posing with his car and guns is displayed at a preview of the Bonnie and Clyde auction Thursday April 10, 1997, in San Francisco. The photograph is one of many that will be sold to the highest bidder at the auction.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>An old photograph of the bullet-riddled 1934 Ford in which Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow met their death in a hail of bullets is shown at a preview of the Bonnie and Clyde auction Thursday April 10, 1997, in San Francisco.</p>
<p />
<p>A forest ranger who alertly spotted a pair of fugitives at a remote Arizona campsite was hailed Friday as “a true hero” after his tip allowed a heavily armed law enforcement contingent to capture the couple.</p>
<p>&#160;The efforts by the ranger came at great risk. Fugitive John McCluskey had a gun in his possession and told officers he wished he would have shot the forest ranger when he had the chance, authorities said.</p>
<p>&#160;“He is a true hero,” Apache County Sheriff Joseph Dedman said. “He made contact. He was out there doing his job when he saw these two fugitives.”</p>
<p>&#160;McCluskey and Casslyn Welch were captured after a three-week manhunt that made them two of the most wanted fugitives in America and drew hundreds of false sightings.</p>
<p>&#160;It’s not clear where the fugitives traveled while on the run. They are suspected in several crimes, including the killing of a couple in New Mexico.</p>
<p>&#160;McCluskey fled July 30 with two other inmates from a private prison in northwest Arizona and evaded authorities in at least six states before being caught Thursday evening just 300 miles east of the prison.</p>
<p>&#160;Authorities arrested McCluskey, 45, and his alleged accomplice Casslyn Welch, 44, at a campsite in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona.</p>
<p>&#160;Welch, who is McCluskey’s fiancee and cousin, reached for a weapon but dropped it when she realized she was outgunned by a swarming SWAT team, said David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Previous stories from the Journal:</p>
<p><a href="../north/08224940north08-08-10.htm" type="external">Fugitives Linked to Couple’s Deaths</a></p>
<p><a href="../news/state/0915426state08-09-10.htm" type="external">Campers Were on Annual Journey</a></p>
<p><a href="../news/state/102326117952newsstate08-10-10.htm" type="external">Escapee Caught</a></p>
<p><a href="../news/state/aparizfugitive608-10-10.htm" type="external">Search for Fugitives Focuses on Montana, Canada</a></p>
<p><a href="../news/state/1523128state08-15-10.htm" type="external">Family Keeps Vigil in NM</a></p>
<p><a href="../news/state/apazescapereport108-19-10.htm" type="external">Arizona Prisons Releases Report on Escapes</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Photos From Latest ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/8963/photos-from-latest-bonnie-clyde.html | 2 |
|
<p>Who would have thought that openly supporting an event commemorating the 45th anniversary of the killing of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, would be such problem for several jewish organizations in a very jewish South Florida city.</p>
<p>Believe it, because it is happening.</p>
<p>The non-profit organization The Truth About Israel, which was founded in 2013 by Ambassador Danny Ayalon to educate individuals on all that is Israel, is also being honored by for its work at the upcoming The Truth About Israel Gala being held at the Boca Raton Resort &amp; Club.</p>
<p>Boca Raton businessman Steve Alembik, who is putting on the event, recently told the Shark Tank that only 3 of the area Temples and Jewish Community Centers are helping to promote the event to their congregations and supporters because of the nature of the event.</p>
<p>Alembik adds that his team of volunteers has only faced opposition from the jewish community and not from churches, who have all showed support and agreed to share the details of the gala with their congregations.</p>
<p>As my team has been seeking support from the Jewish Community here in Boca Raton for the Truth About Israel Gala, they have been rebuked by every Temple JCC &amp; Federation Group as they have all but 3 refused to make their members aware of The Truth About Israel Gala. On the other hand – THE CHURCHES – have welcomed us with open arms.”-Steve Alembik</p>
<p>What is causing these jewish organizations to refuse supporting&#160; such a worthy effort?</p>
<p>Could this be politically motivated? You betcha!</p>
<p>Ambassador Ayalon, who is considered to be very conservative, joins Republican U.S. Representatives Brian Mast, Ron DeSantis, and Claudia Tenney.</p>
<p>The event’s key note speaker is Olympian Mark Spitz, who is also known to be Republican.</p>
<p>You still don’t believe this rebuke by jewish organizations is politically charged?</p>
<p>Why aren’t Democratic members of Congress like Reps. Lois Frankel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Ted Deutch attending the event?</p>
<p>I can understand Frankel and Wasserman Schultz, who represent districts north and south of Boca Raton, but why is Deutch not attending this important event in the very district he represents?</p>
<p>What many people need to understand is that within the jewish community of Boca Raton, a disconnect with the ongoing struggles in Israel exists.</p>
<p>The Truth About Israel Gala will take place on Aug. 30.</p>
<p>To learn more about the event by <a href="http://truthaboutisraelgala.org/product-category/tickets/" type="external">clicking here</a>.</p> | Several Palm Beach Temples Rebuke Pro-Israel Event | true | http://shark-tank.com/2017/08/04/several-palm-beach-temples-rebuke-pro-israel-event/ | 0 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Thursday rejected a mining company’s request to renew a lease on the southwest border of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, setting in motion a formal review to examine whether all mining activities in 234,000 acres abutting the wilderness should be barred for the next 20 years.</p>
<p>The joint decision by the Agriculture and Interior departments, which found that the region’s ecological richness and unusual hydrology merited special protection from a possible $3 billion copper-nickel mine, highlights the extent to which the president is determined to exercise his executive authority with just a month left in office. While the move by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service does not constitute a rule, it effectively halts construction of any mine in the region and triggers a detailed scientific and policy review of future operations there.</p>
<p>“The Boundary Waters is a natural treasure, special to the 150,000 who canoe, fish, and recreate there each year, and is the economic life blood to local business that depend on a pristine natural resource,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a joint statement with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. “I have asked Interior to take a time out, conduct a careful environmental analysis and engage the public on whether future mining should be authorized on any federal land next door to the Boundary Waters.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The wilderness area, which spans nearly 1.1 million acres along the Canadian border, is one of the most visited of its kind in the United States. It boasts lakes and streams dating from the Pleistocene Epoch, 100 species of migratory birds and an active fishery.</p>
<p>Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, holds two expired mineral leases dating to 1966. It applied for their renewal in 2012, and federal officials held two listening sessions in the state this summer and received more than 30,000 comments. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, came out against renewal, as did Minnesotan and former vice president Walter Mondale.</p>
<p>“Today’s best available science is helping us understand the value of the land and water and potential impacts of development in places like the Boundary Waters,” Jewell said. “This is the right action to take to avoid irrevocably damaging this watershed and its recreation-based economy, while also taking the time and space to review whether to further protect the area from all new mining.”</p>
<p>While Twin Metals is considering building the copper-nickel mine, it has not made any formal proposal and has not begun the federal or state permitting process. In a statement Thursday, the company said it was “greatly disappointed” in the administration’s actions.</p>
<p>“If allowed to stand, [they] will have a devastating impact on the future economy of the Iron Range and all of Minnesota, eliminating the promise of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions of dollars in investment in the region,” the statement said. “Further, this unprecedented decision is contrary to the overwhelming majority of local and regional citizens and communities who support mining and believe mining can be done responsibly in this region.”</p>
<p>Northern Minnesota has been home to iron mining for decades, but a sulfide-ore mine has never been built in this part of the state. Such mines can leach toxic metals, and because the water in the region flows south to north, activists and federal officials have expressed concern that any spill from the mine could contaminate more than 1,200 miles of streams.</p>
<p>A coalition of outdoors enthusiasts, veterans, local businesses and environmentalists has argued that the leases were issued before the federal government established the modern regulatory review standards that now apply to such activities. Both are in the Lake Superior National Forest adjacent to the wilderness area. The Forest Service oversees the surface land there, while the BLM controls the minerals underneath.</p>
<p>Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, said Thursday that his group strongly opposes the lease-renewal process as “arbitrary and unjustified” and supports evaluation of a mine proposal through the usual permitting process.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Interior will issue a notice in the Federal Register that it intends to “segregate” the lands, which puts them off limits to development for up to two years, subject to valid existing rights. Once the notice is published, there will be a 90-day public review for the proposed withdrawal and additional scientific environmental analysis. That will entail more public meetings.</p>
<p>The next administration would have the option of revisiting Thursday’s decision, though any unilateral termination of the review would likely prompt a backlash from activists.</p>
<p>The area is the only large lake-land wilderness in the National Wilderness Preservation System. When Congress established it, lawmakers directed the Forest Service to maintain its water quality, protect its fish and wildlife and minimize the environmental impacts associated with mineral development. A portion of it was designated in 1964, the year the Wilderness Act passed, and a much larger area was designated by Congress in 1978.</p>
<p>Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society, issued a statement saying his group applauded both the Forest Service’s recommendation against the leases’ renewal and Interior’s decision to study whether the region’s watershed “is the wrong place for sulfide-ore copper mining.” He said the area should be “protected for all time.”</p>
<p>“First conserved for its wilderness values 90 years ago, the Boundary Waters is one of the original treasures protected by the 1964 Wilderness Act,” Williams said. “It has been a favorite destination for millions of Americans who marvel at its unique waterways and forests and is a vital component of Minnesota’s economy”</p>
<p>Becky Rom, national chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, described the administration’s decision as “a strong first step, but there is still a lot of work to do to ensure we can protect the [wilderness area] for future generations.”</p>
<p>minnesota-mine-1stld-writethru</p> | Obama administration denies mining lease renewal near Minnesota wilderness | false | https://abqjournal.com/909594/obama-administration-denies-mining-lease-renewal-near-minnesota-wilderness.html | 2016-12-15 | 2 |
<p>The current state of American politics must make us question whether any of our leaders in the Beltway can be described as “grown-ups”, i.e., fully mature and sane individuals. Between the endless war crimes, corporate corruption, lobbyists who bribe congressmen and write legislation, and the ineptitude of federal entities who are supposed to protect our health such as the FDA, EPA, and CDC, it would appear that leaders in all three branches of government, as well as the leaders of the corporate world, are either insane, suffer from various psychological disorders, as well as suffering from a type of collective hallucination, the common denominator being an utter lack of empathy for others humans, or respect for the Earth.</p>
<p>Further, we must at least question whether collectively, we the citizenry, are as susceptible to mass delusions as our psychopathic leaders are. Our society can be effectively generalized as forming what Paulo Freire calls a culture of silence, many of whom see no problems with exploiting and despoiling other countries, looting wealth, and killing millions; and many more that are simply afraid to speak out against the indignity of the US empire, in fear of socio-cultural reprisals. This culture of silence, which we are taught at a young age, indoctrinates and effectively eliminates the ability of people to form critiques of our rotten political and economic systems. This is who Richard Nixon was really referring to, when he spoke of the “Silent Majority”: citizens too naïve, dumb, childlike, and afraid to confront the injustices inherent to our system were exactly who Tricky Dick was appealing to.</p>
<p>While many of us pretend that something as silly as “American exceptionalism” exists, and fall victim to the myth of rugged individualism that permeates all aspects of civic life and economics, the sad truth is that we’ve become a nation of petulant children. While we fantasize about Jeffersonian notions of small businesses and republicanism guiding our way of life, transnational conglomerates control our <a href="" type="internal">agricultural output</a> (killing us slowly with GMOs and pesticides) and our <a href="http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/democracyondeadline/mediaownership.html" type="external">media landscape</a> (brainwashing us with neoliberalism and black propaganda). <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Marx and Engels tuned us into the ideological war imposed by capitalism, which distorts and confuses workers’ belief systems, alienates workers from themselves and their work, and attempts by subterfuge to shift the blame of ruthless exploitation away from the ruling class. This was called false consciousness, and later, Sartre used the term mauvaise foi (“bad faith”). Gramsci defined the ideological control of capitalists over the socioeconomic system as cultural hegemony. Many readers are intimately familiar with these ideas. So why does this critique of the left from John Steinbeck still ring so true:</p>
<p>“I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”</p>
<p>As Paul Goodman explained so lucidly, we’ve all been <a href="" type="internal">Growing Up Absurd</a> for generations, trapping many in the chrysalis of adolescence for their entire lives. As he pointed out:</p>
<p>“The accumulation of the missed and compromised revolutions of modern times, with their consequent ambiguities and social imbalances, has fallen, and must fall, most heavily on the young, making it hard to grow up.”</p>
<p>There is no mystery why Goodman entitles his chapter on missed revolutions in the fields of the physical environment, the socioeconomic model, political and constitutional reform, morality, and reforms dealing with children and youth, “The Missing Community”. For youth today, just as in his day, have few responsible role models, a repressive and prison-like atmosphere in schools, with consumerism and technology determining every aspect of a child’s search for joy and wonder, and now, the artificial edifices of social media and “augmented reality” is replacing genuine interaction. Indoctrinated to fit into a system of war, corporate monopolies, vapid pop culture, and not encouraged to think critical about their country or world cultures, children become jaded as soon as they realize that the notions of freedom, equality, and sharing that their parents and teachers taught them were based on lies. We must reverse this tide, lest we forget Walter Benjamin’s saying that:&#160;“Behind every fascism, there is a failed revolution.”</p>
<p>As Derrick Jensen says, our society suffers from a form of complex PTSD:</p>
<p>“PTSD is an embodied response to extreme trauma, to extreme terror, to the loss of control, connection, and meaning…Faced with any emotionally threatening situation, these people may freeze, failing to resist even when resistance becomes feasible or necessary”. (1)</p>
<p>This condition permeates every aspect of society, and reinforces our deepest ideological confusions: the line between personal property and coercive private property is purposely blurred by the bourgeoisie, fulfillment is replaced by “fun”, civic duty is replaced by retreating into the shell of private life, and diplomacy is usurped by war. Brought up in such a totality of fear and violence, it is no surprise that many never progress psychically beyond the stage of the child, or to seek out fulfillment instead of base entertainment.</p>
<p>The wit of the novelist Trevanian is instructive when addressing the Western symptoms of ennui and anomie:</p>
<p>“It’s not Americans I find annoying, its Americanism: a social disease of the post-industrial world that must inevitably infect each of the mercantile nations in turn, and is called ‘American’ only because your nation is the most advanced case of the malady, much as one speaks of Spanish flu…Its symptoms are a loss of work ethic, a shrinking of inner resources, and a constant need for external stimulation, followed by spiritual decay and moral narcosis. You can recognize the victim by his constant efforts to get in touch with himself, to believe his spiritual feebleness is an interesting psychological warp, to construe his fleeing from responsibility as evidence that he and his life are uniquely open to new experience. In the latter stages, the sufferer is reduced to seeking that most trivial of activities: fun.” (2)</p>
<p>This is corroborated by Jean Liedloff, whose experiences with the Yequana and Sanema tribes of Venezuela allows her to contrast their indigenous traditions and child-rearing with the failure of civilized parents, and the resulting insipid, infantile behavior of Western adults and general culture:</p>
<p>“Novelty…is so much a part of the present phase in our culture that our natural resistance to change has been distorted…Nothing is ever allowed to be good enough, nothing ever satisfactory. Our underlying discontent is channeled into desire for the latest things…Among the things high on the list are those that save labor…When success as a passive baby has not been experienced, there is a penchant for button-pushing, for labor-saving, as an assurance that everything is being done for, and nothing expected of, the subject…The impulse to work, necessarily a strong one in a healthy continuum, is stunted…Work becomes what it is to most of us: a resented necessity. And the labor-saving gadget gleams with a promise of lost comfort. In the meantime, a solution to the discrepancy between the adult desire to utilize one’s abilities and the infantile desire to be useless is often found in something aptly called recreation.” (3)</p>
<p>The implications are clear: our culture does not allow us to grow up, because to do so would invoke a critical response and a revolution against the forces of tyranny. Recently, <a href="" type="internal">Henry Giroux asked</a>:</p>
<p>“Where are the agents of democracy and the public spaces that offer hope in such dark times? What role will progressives play at a time when the very ability of the public’s ability to translate private troubles into broader systemic issues is disappearing? How might politics itself be rethought in order to address the pedagogical and structural conditions that contribute to the growing intensification of violence in all spheres of American society? What role should intellectuals, cultural workers, artists, writers, journalists, and others play as part of a broader struggle to reclaim a democratic imaginary and exercise a collective sense of civic courage?”</p>
<p>First, we must accept the fact that each of us is an agent of democracy, and we must reclaim the public spaces, and smack down the harmful myth regarding “The Tragedy of the Commons”. The answers to Giroux’s plea lie in our ability to raise healthy, strong children who are not seduced by the siren calls of capitalism and patriotic-approved state violence. This should be supplemented by alternative education programs for children and adults, and basic life and practical lessons passed down from parents, grandparents, etc. &#160;This doesn’t mean each parent has to teach their kid trigonometry. It means each town has to model itself to promote a viable village atmosphere, and foster a sense of community, with renewable energy, grassroots arts and music, and small to medium scale organic agriculture. It will mean embracing the truth that industrial civilization is destroying the world, and rather than wallowing in self-pity at having our illusions destroyed, rising up and embracing a culture based on ecology, enlightenment, and virtuous edification of our youth.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p>1.) Jensen, Derrick. Endgame: The Problem of Civilization, Vol. 1. Seven Stories Press, 2006. p. 69-70.</p>
<p>2.) Trevanian. Shibumi. Three Rivers Press, 1979. p. 306</p>
<p>3.) Liedloff, Jean. The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost. Da Capo Press, 1975. p. 114-115.</p> | Growing Up Insane | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/08/19/growing-up-insane/ | 2016-08-19 | 4 |
<p>Dow jumps more than 200 points</p>
<p>U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday, with the Dow jumping by triple-digits in early trade and the Nasdaq hitting a milestone, as investors' optimism accelerated on upbeat earnings and the possibility of tax reform.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 229 points, or 1.1%, to 20,993, outperforming other benchmarks after five of its components reported quarterly results (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-getting-an-87-point-boost-from-earnings-led-by-caterpillar-and-3m-stock-rallies-2017-04-25), with four of them coming in ahead of forecasts.</p>
<p>Caterpillar Inc.(CAT) lifted its full-year revenue outlook (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/caterpillar-shares-soar-after-first-quarter-earnings-beat-2017-04-25) and reported better-than-expected results, sending shares up more than 6%. Fellow Dow component DuPont (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dupont-offers-downbeat-outlook-for-current-quarter-2017-04-25)(DD) rose nearly 3% after topping analyst forecasts.</p>
<p>Fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. (MCD) gained 4.9% after it served up first-quarter earnings (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mcdonalds-shares-rise-after-earnings-beat-estimates-2017-04-25) that beat expectations. Coca-Cola Co. (KO)reported a drop (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/coke-expands-cost-cuts-after-latam-weakness-2017-04-25) in its first-quarter earnings and sales, but shares were nearly flat.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the S&amp;P 500 was up 13 points, or 0.6%, to 2,387, with 10 of the main 11 sectors trading higher. Materials and financials were leading gains, up more than 1%. The index is less than 10 points below its record close.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 37 points, or 0.6%, to 6,021, trading in record territory, and surpassing a psychologically important milestone of 6,000.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Checkout: Nasdaq hits 6,000 for first time ever-marking historic milestone (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nasdaq-hits-6000-for-the-first-time-evermarking-historic-milestone-amid-stock-market-rally-2017-04-25)</p>
<p>Strong corporate quarterly results were seen as a sign that the market's recent move higher, which took major indexes to repeated records and raised concerns about valuation, may be justified by better-than-expected earnings.</p>
<p>See: Are planets aligned for a renewed stock market rally? (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/are-planets-aligned-for-a-renewed-stock-market-rally-2017-04-24)</p>
<p>"Today is one of the busiest days in terms of corporate earnings releases, with 36 companies reporting before and after the market and so far earnings have been strong," said Michael Antonelli, equity sales trader at Robert W. Baird &amp; Co.</p>
<p>"While earnings have been driving markets higher, tax cuts would drive multiple expansion and so far it looks like the market is very optimistic on tax cuts," Antonelli said.</p>
<p>(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dupont-offers-downbeat-outlook-for-current-quarter-2017-04-25)Read: Trump seeks corporate tax rate of 15% in plan (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-seeks-corporate-tax-rate-of-15-in-plan-2017-04-24)</p>
<p>In the back of investors' minds are worries about a potential government shutdown on Saturday. But those may have eased, after Trump backed off on a demand for border-wall funding (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-backs-off-demand-for-immediate-border-wall-funding-2017-04-24) seen as blocking a deal.</p>
<p>See:Should Wall Street fear a government shutdown? (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/should-wall-street-fear-a-government-shutdown-heres-how-stocks-fared-during-past-closures-2017-04-21)</p>
<p>Economic data:U.S. house prices continued to show no signs of slowing (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-house-prices-show-no-sign-of-slowing-2017-04-25), hitting their highest in nearly three years as demand remains hot. Meanwhile, sales of newly-constructed homes (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-home-sales-roar-to-an-8-month-high-as-spring-selling-season-starts-with-a-bang-2017-04-25)rose to the highest in nearly a year in March as the housing recovery picked up steam.</p>
<p>Consumer confidence in the U.S. dipped slightly in April, but Americans are still far more optimistic than they were before the 2016 election, a survey shows.</p>
<p>Check out:After 17 years, S&amp;P 500 tech sector finally regains lost ground (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/after-17-years-sp-500-tech-sector-finally-regains-lost-ground-2017-04-24)</p>
<p>Stock movers: An long list of companies are reporting on Tuesday. In addition to the Dow stocks, results from Biogen Inc (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dupont-offers-downbeat-outlook-for-current-quarter-2017-04-25).(BIIB) lifted the biotech firm by 5%. Rite Aid Corp.(RAD) jumped 6.2% on an earning beat (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rite-aid-shares-jump-after-earnings-beat-2017-04-25).</p>
<p>3M Co (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/3ms-stock-jumps-after-profit-and-sales-rise-above-expectations-2017-04-25). (MMM) shares were off 0.9% after earnings results.</p>
<p>Lockheed Martin Corp.(LMT) shares fell 2.2% after the company reported lower-than-expected revenues.</p>
<p>Eli Lilly &amp; Co (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/eli-lilly-swings-to-loss-on-higher-sales-cuts-2017-eps-view-2017-04-25).(LLY)swung to a first-quarter loss (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/eli-lilly-swings-to-loss-on-higher-sales-cuts-2017-eps-view-2017-04-25), stemming from the drugmaker's purchase of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals Inc. Shares fell 2.5%.</p>
<p>Straight Path Communications Inc.(STRP) rose nearly 10% after the telecommunications company said that AT&amp;T Inc. (T) has five days to match a "superior" buyout bid it has received. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/straight-path-says-att-has-5-days-to-match-a-superior-buyout-bid-it-received-2017-04-25)</p>
<p>Tyson Foods (TSN) agreed to acquire (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tyson-foods-to-acquire-advancepierre-foods-holdings-for-42-bln-2017-04-25-7914111)AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc.(APFH) in a deal valued at $4.2 billion. Shares of Tyson gained 2% while AdvancePierre surged nearly 10%.</p>
<p>Read:Three infrastructure stocks to buy -- regardless of Trump's spending plans (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/three-infrastructure-stocks-to-buy-regardless-of-trumps-spending-plans-2017-04-25)</p>
<p>Other markets: European stocks rose modestly (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-snag-modest-gains-after-french-election-rally-2017-04-25) after the prior day's French election rally, while in Asia equities rose across the board (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-stocks-build-on-gains-and-this-time-china-joins-in-2017-04-24).</p>
<p>Investors in Asia kept a close eye on tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea marked the anniversary of the founding of its military with a large live-fire exercise, as a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group docked in South Korea as planned, reported Reuters (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/north-korea-reportedly-conducts-live-fire-exercise-as-us-submarine-docks-in-the-south-2017-04-25). There had been concerns that North Korea could mark Tuesday's anniversary with another nuclear test of a long-range missile.</p>
<p>See:White House calls in all 100 senators for unusual briefing on North Korea (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/white-house-to-brief-full-senate-as-trump-calls-north-korea-real-threat-to-the-world-2017-04-24)</p>
<p>The dollar rose against the yen, but fell against the euro and British pound .</p>
<p>Oil prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-rises-as-bargain-hunters-snap-to-attention-2017-04-25) edged lower, while gold prices saw fresh losses, down $8.7 to $1,268.70 an ounce.</p>
<p>Ryan Vlastelica contributed to this article.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 25, 2017 12:07 ET (16:07 GMT)</p> | MARKET SNAPSHOT: Nasdaq Hits Milestone As Stock Market Rallies On Upbeat Earnings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/25/market-snapshot-nasdaq-hits-milestone-as-stock-market-rallies-on-upbeat-earnings.html | 2017-04-25 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>For nearly a year, Gov. Robert Bentley, 74, has fended off calls from his Republican allies and his opponents to resign after a recording of him having a sexually explicit conversation with his then-chief adviser emerged in March 2016.</p>
<p>Allegations of an affair between the Republican and one of his top aides, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, had already been swirling for months, according to local reporters. The rumors reached a peak after the governor’s wife of 50 years abruptly filed for divorce in August 2015. Still, there was no proof Bentley had done anything inappropriate, and the governor declared rumors of an affair to be “ridiculous.”</p>
<p>The tipping point came last March when Bentley fired his former friend Spencer Collier as secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Collier then went to local media to state, on the record, that Bentley was in fact having an affair with his top aide – and that he could prove it.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Then came a bombshell audio recording, allegedly taped by Bentley’s family and then published by AL.com shortly after Collier was fired. In the recording, the governor can be heard having a sexually explicit conversation with a woman named “Rebekah,” professing his love for the woman and describing putting his hands on her breasts.</p>
<p>“You know, I just, I worry about sometimes I love so you much,” the governor could be heard saying on the recording. “I worry about loving you so much.”</p>
<p>Bentley could also be heard saying: “Baby, let me know what I am going to do when I start locking the door. If we are going to do what we did the other day, we are going to have to start locking the door.”</p>
<p>Mason resigned from her position immediately after news of the recordings broke.</p>
<p>In the hours that followed the tape’s release, Bentley “twisted himself into a pretzel to admit everything but the affair,” The Washington Post reported then. Yes, Bentley had said sexually explicit things to a staffer, the governor admitted. But the relationship was never physical, he said.</p>
<p>“At times in the past, have I said things that I should not have said?” he told reporters last March. “Absolutely. That’s what I’m saying today.”</p>
<p>When a reporter asked if the governor was in love with the adviser he’s rumored to have had an affair with, Bentley said: “I love many members of my staff, in fact, all the members of my staff. Do I love some more than others, absolutely.”</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for Bentley did not immediately return messages this week.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Within a month, Alabama lawmakers had taken the first steps to try to impeach Bentley.</p>
<p>“We’re looking at this governor who has essentially betrayed the trust of the people of Alabama,” state Rep. Ed Henry , a Republican, told NBC News. “This is about the actions and lies that have caused us some doubts about his leadership.”</p>
<p>Henry added: “If he truly loves the people of this state, he will step down.”</p>
<p>Bentley has continued to deny having a “sexual relationship” with Mason and maintained that he will not resign. He repeatedly has insisted none of his conduct would be grounds for impeachment.</p>
<p>Even Republican lawmakers have been calling for Bentley to resign. Some pursued creating a recall method for the governor, and still others asked the state’s attorney general to launch a legal investigation into whether Bentley conducted an affair using state resources.</p>
<p>Last April, the House Judiciary Committee launched an impeachment investigation of the governor but put it on hold in November at the request of then-Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, who said his office was in the process of completing “related work.”</p>
<p>“I respectfully request that the Committee cease active interviews and investigation until I am able to report to you that the necessary related work of my office has been completed,” Strange wrote then, according to AL.com.</p>
<p>In February, Bentley appointed Strange to fill the seat in the state Senate vacated by Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. attorney general. The timing of the appointment raised eyebrows among Alabama lawmakers; at least one said the arrangement “sure smells of quid pro quo.”</p>
<p>Current Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has since confirmed that his office is investigating Bentley. However, Marshall recused himself, naming a former Montgomery County district attorney to oversee it instead, AL.com reported.</p>
<p>Clay Redden, a spokesman for the State House of Representatives, said the scheduled meeting of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday involved a “procedural question.” He said he could not comment on a Senate subcommittee meeting scheduled for Wednesday.</p>
<p>Calls to the offices of the judiciary committee’s chair, state Rep. Mike Jones, a Republican, were referred back to Redden.</p>
<p>Jones has said that, as soon as the state attorney general’s office clears them to proceed, he anticipates the investigation will wrap up before the end of the current legislative session in late May, according to AL.com.</p>
<p>Under the Alabama Constitution, if the House does vote to send Bentley’s impeachment charges to the Senate for a trial, the governor would have to immediately step down from office. The lieutenant governor would take his place throughout the Senate trial, and Bentley would then only be allowed to return to office if he is acquitted by the Senate.</p>
<p>Before the scandal, Bentley was not known for generating salacious headlines. He is in the middle of his second four-year term as governor. In his 2014 reelection race, Bentley won the largest percentage of the vote (63 percent) of any modern-day Republican governor in Alabama. He also was a deacon and Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa, a reputation he leaned on heavily. The church pastor released a statement last March saying Bentley and Mason no longer were members.</p>
<p>“One thing he had going for him after he was elected is at least people thought he was a man of integrity,” Richard Fording, the chair of the University of Alabama’s political science department, told The Post last March. “That is all gone now.”</p> | Nearly a year later, Alabama governor still under pressure for sexually explicit conversation | false | https://abqjournal.com/963605/nearly-a-year-later-alabama-governor-still-under-pressure-for-sexually-explicit-conversation.html | 2 |
|
<p>Sorry, Sen. Rand Paul, <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/rand-paul-throws-cold-water-on-fast-moving-immigration-bill" type="external">but this is nonsensical:</a></p>
<p>In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Paul bluntly warned, "We should not proceed until we understand the specific failures of our immigration system. Why did the current system allow two individuals to immigrate to the United States from the Chechen Republic in Russia, an area known as a hotbed of Islamic extremism, who then committed acts of terrorism? Were there any safeguards? Could this have been prevented? Does the immigration reform before us address this?"</p>
<p>Two individuals didn't immigrate to the United States from the Chechen Republican in Russia. A family that included two sons immigrated. This, from CNN, is <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/21/us/tamerlan-tsarnaev-timeline/index.html" type="external">more accurate</a>:</p>
<p>2002: Parents Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva immigrate to the United States with their son, Dzhokhar. Their three other children -- Tamerlan Tsarnaev and two sisters -- stay behind in Kazakhstan with an uncle, his aunt told reporters in Canada this week.</p>
<p>July 2003: Tsarnaev, then 16, is in Turkey in July 2003 for 10 days on a Kyrgyz passport, a senior Turkish official says.</p>
<p>He comes to the United States that month, along with his two sisters, his aunt, Maret Tsarnaeva, told the Toronto Sun.</p>
<p>July 19, 2003: Tamerlan Tsarnaev first enters the United States through New York's JFK International Airport, a federal official says.</p>
<p>We know the FBI already had the older brother in their sights. Their failure to properly track and follow-up will require plenty of attention in months to come, but for the purposes of immigration, this isn't about individuals coming to America.</p>
<p>It's that a family moved from a war-torn region to the United States. Two of the sons would go on to become terrorists. But what's the method for prevention? Banning all boys and men from such regions from moving to America? Remember, the younger brother was born in 1993. He was less than ten years old when he arrived in America.</p>
<p>That's the awkward part for those who'll invoke Boston in the name of (or against) immigration reform. As such, probably best not to bother, right?</p> | Why Boston Tells Us Little About Our Immigration System | true | https://thedailybeast.com/why-boston-tells-us-little-about-our-immigration-system | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill on Monday night, almost certainly avoiding a government shutdown at the end of this week.</p>
<p>The bill passed in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/us/politics/senate-to-vote-on-spending-bill-with-support-uncertain.html" type="external">bipartisan vote</a> of 79 to 12, the New York Times reports.</p>
<p>The bill extends funding for <a href="" type="external">government agencies</a> that is due to run out at midnight on Friday for six weeks at a level of spending that represents a 1.5 percent cut from this year's levels, the Washington Post reports.</p>
<p>According to the New York Times:</p>
<p>The apparent breakthrough came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency indicated it had enough money to squeak through the end of the fiscal year Friday night, eliminating one of the main points of partisan contention: whether to offset a quick infusion of funds to the agency with cuts elsewhere as House Republicans had insisted. Democrats in both the House and Senate had resisted that approach.</p>
<p>"This compromise should satisfy Republicans...and it should satisfy Democrats," said Senate Majority leader <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/26/senate-passes-stopgap-spending-bill-to-avert-shutdown/" type="external">Harry Reid</a>, according to The Associated Press. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the latest legislation was a "reasonable way to keep the government operational," the AP reports.</p>
<p>The House is expected to ratify the agreement next week, when it returns from a recess for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. In the meantime, House members plan to approve a week-long extension of funding by a voice vote later this week, which does not require the attendance of all members, the Washington Post reports.</p>
<p>According to the Washington Post:</p>
<p>While the agreement lifts the imminent specter of government shutdown, it will not resolve the underlying fight over how much FEMA needs to help disaster victims and whether those dollars must be offset with spending cuts.</p>
<p>The White House has said FEMA will need $4.6 billion for the next fiscal year - a figure many Democrats believe still underestimates the agency's true needs.</p>
<p>Democrats will push to fully fund FEMA's request and perhaps broaden it during negotiations over spending for the rest of the year. &#160;</p> | Senate passes stopgap spending bill | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-09-27/senate-passes-stopgap-spending-bill | 2011-09-27 | 3 |
<p>ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Len Tiahlo vividly recalls a flight he took more than a decade ago that had to make an emergency landing on a dirt strip serving as a runway outside the tiny enclave of Jijiga in eastern Ethiopia.</p>
<p>A lone shack sat next to the runway amid the scrub; there was nowhere else to go. Tiahlo and his fellow passengers spent the night drinking Coca Cola, coffee and smoking cigarettes until the plane was able to depart.</p>
<p>Nowadays Tiahlo is a regular and more willing visitor to a very different and buzzing present-day Jijiga as director of London-based Horn Investment Development (HID), a British company which recently completed a trial run of the first inland trade of animal hides to Jijiga from neighbouring Somaliland.</p>
<p>“Animal hide startup” may not say instant wealth to Westerners raised on tales of Silicon Valley. Here, however, a simple cross-border trade of hides could mark the start of a boost to development and security in one of the poorest and most unstable regions of the world.</p>
<p>Ethiopia and Somalia, along with the self-declared state of Somaliland internationally recognized as an autonomous region within Somalia, lie on the infamous Horn of Africa. During the 1990s the Horn of Africa became synonymous with nightmarish uprisings and mass killings. The early and mid-2000s were dominated by piracy and hostage-taking in the waters off Somalia.</p>
<p>But increasingly, news is emerging of economic progress and tentative stability in the likes of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, and across previously perilous border regions with other countries, such as Ethiopia. HID is one of many groups now looking to invest in the region while kick-starting development efforts.</p>
<p>Jijiga’s infrastructure &#160;has improved since Tiahlo’s first visit, but its economy is still underpinned by traditional livestock rearing and is primarily subsistence-based, as is the case across the majority of the Horn region.</p>
<p>As a community interest company — a category set up by the British government in 2005 — HID is a private, for-profit enterprise but with a built-in focus on a social objective. HID says it wants to attract international investment to transform pastoral livestock raising into modern industrial farming. Trading skins is the first phase. Next would come a factory that can produce frozen meat products both for Ethiopia’s domestic market and to export around the world. Meat consumption—especially of the frozen variety—is expected to increase due to Ethiopia’s growing middle class with more disposable income and increasing ownership of refrigerators.</p>
<p>It’s an idea that has already received praise, as well as $160,000 from UK government’s Department for International Development due to potential strategic benefits for this oft-times troubled region. British leather manufacturer Pittards is consulting with HID on the leather aspect of the plan, and received the first trial run of 5,000 at its Ethiopian factory, while London Business School is partnering HID and developing a business prospectus that it’s hoped will attract investors.</p>
<p>The presence of a hide and meat factory in Jijiga could end years of erratic income for farmers in the Ogaden region surrounding the town, as well as in Somaliland. These farmers have depended on fluctuating meat demand in the Middle East for religious festivals that only total a few months each year. HID’s factory would provide demand all year round.</p>
<p>It could also give farmers better prices for their livestock than they are currently getting from middle men in the Somaliland cities of Hargeisa and Burao, or from Arab traders in Berbera’s port, Tiahlo said.</p>
<p>“This would be a revolution for the agricultural industry of the region which 10 years ago didn't even have electricity,” Tiahlo said.</p>
<p>Ethiopia’s government is interested in HID’s project, too, for several reasons.</p>
<p>Ethiopia is home to Africa’s largest livestock population, and is Africa’s top livestock exporter. Livestock exports constitute more than 5 percent of Ethiopia’s GDP — a figure that could be increased significantly if illegal trade were eliminated. The black market currently accounts for around 75% of the country’s overall foreign livestock trade, costing legitimate traders between $180m to $360m a year, according to Ethiopia’s agriculture ministry.</p>
<p>Tiahlo thinks the Jijiga factory would reduce illegal trade by providing an example of the benefits of legitimate business.</p>
<p>There could be a security payoff, as well.</p>
<p>Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden region shares a border with Somalia and Somaliland, the autonomous region that declares itself a state. The ethnically Somali Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has been fighting a long-running insurgency against the Ethiopian government, seeking more autonomy for the underdeveloped region. Improving economic situation on the ground has clear advantages.</p>
<p>“Regional integration is very important,” said Mebrahtu Meles, state minister for Ethiopia’s Ministry of Industry, at a mid-February meeting with HID to discuss the project.</p>
<p>Challenges</p>
<p>The question is: Will these efforts be successful?</p>
<p>Many commentators also say there is patchy evidence of private sector development actually helping the indigent, even though, according to a leather consultant who has travelled extensively in Africa during his four decades in the industry, development and the private sector should be well matched.</p>
<p>“In theory it should be ideal,” said the consultant, who wished to remain anonymous due to current work commitments with an intergovernmental organization. “But it rarely works as advertised—if a project produces the anticipated results then the owners want to cash in on the project and that means the workers get peanuts.”</p>
<p>Furthermore, transforming pastoral farming traditions to modern industrial farming methods while being able to make money is a very tall order and an inherently fraught enterprise in a part of the world where pastoralism is the predominant mode of production, deeply entwined with ancient cultures.</p>
<p>Getting down to specifics, the leather consultant wishing to remain anonymous cautioned that managing to produce meat that corresponds to the international market standards can take years to achieve. Currently South Africa, Botswana and Namibia are the only African countries currently licensed to sell meat to any European country, he said, and face huge competition from Brazil, the world’s number one exporter of frozen meats.</p>
<p>Tiahlo counters such concerns by pointing to the expected growth in Ethiopia’s domestic meat market, which could help the factory maintain demand until the international standards are met. HID’s leaders also emphasize, in response to concerns about getting profits back to farmers, that their business model mandates that between 3% to 7% of net income—after recovery of investments, operating costs and repayment of HID costs—is distributed to the local community hosting the business. About 200 people would be employed at the planned Jijiga factory, they say.</p>
<p>A move towards Western investment in Africa</p>
<p>UK Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham arrives in Jijiga in the Somali region of Ethiopia in July, 2011. (Foreign &amp; Commonwealth Office/Flickr Commons)</p>
<p>HID’s venture is a small one compared to others of its kind initiated in the past few years. Along with its grant to HID, the UK’s Department for International Development has promised up to $14.8 million to Novastar, an East Africa-based venture capital fund, to allow it to support more entrepreneurs and businesses in the region which provide low-cost schooling, healthcare, energy, housing and safe water.</p>
<p>Previously Western companies, unlike their Chinese counterparts, have remained nervous about participating in major projects in sub-Saharan Africa, said Manaye Ewunetu, managing director of London-based ME Consulting Engineers, which specialises in Africa and the Middle East.</p>
<p>They’ve been deterred by insufficient profits in the short term, along with high political risk due to rapidly changing governmental policies or even entire governments. Now, that appears to be changing.</p>
<p>Some big companies are coming and taking a bet on regions that previously would have been unimaginable for boards and directors.</p>
<p>Coca-Cola’s opening of a $17 million bottling plant outside the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, represents the biggest private investment in the country to date.</p>
<p>Larger projects such as this and the size of capital they bring clearly have advantages, but smaller companies appear coveted by regional authorities, also, as evidenced by the Ethiopian government’s enthusiastic response to HID’s livestock plan.</p>
<p>Western governments are increasingly eager to encourage such initiatives, and to tie aid to business opportunities. The US-Africa Leaders Summit this August is intended to “advance the administration’s focus on trade and investment in Africa,” <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/21/statement-press-secretary-announcing-us-africa-leaders-summit" type="external">according</a> to the White House. In January of 2014, British International Development Secretary Justine Greening <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/08d8f86c-8770-11e3-9c5c-00144feab7de,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F08d8f86c-8770-11e3-9c5c-00144feab7de.html%3Fsiteedition%3Dintl&amp;siteedition=intl&amp;_i_referer=#axzz2yVe0zwI5" type="external">announced</a> that the UK would be devoting £1.8 billion to growth-boosting investments in 2015-2016. &#160;“Economic development is, without question,” Greening said, “the only way countries can leave behind enduring and chronic poverty for good.”&#160;</p> | A plan to revolutionize the Horn of Africa — starting with 5,000 animal skins | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-04-14/plan-revolutionize-horn-africa-starting-5000-animal-skins | 2014-04-14 | 3 |
<p>Quasar blast is the largest ever recorded by astronomers says a new analysis.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.space.com/17262-quasar-definition.html" type="external">quasi-stellar radio source</a>, or "quasar," created a blast two trillion times more powerful and 400 times larger than the Sun.</p>
<p>The energy beam is apparently moving at 18 million miles per hour and has already fired nearly 1000 light years beyond its starting point.</p>
<p>Quasars were once believed to be similar to stars but in fact they are blasts of energy emanating from black holes in newly forming galaxies, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jcDRaUKvw-dLRLPetrEE-CY0p-Iw?docId=CNG.f23e0c768e35af8dc3d9cb8508ce954b.361" type="external">said AFP</a>.</p>
<p>"We discovered the most energetic quasar outflow ever seen, at least five times more powerful than any that have been observed to date," said study co-author Nahum Arav, of Virginia Tech, <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/11/121128-black-hole-blast-biggest-science-galaxies-space/" type="external">according to National Geographic</a>.</p>
<p>"We were hoping to see something like this, but the sheer power of this outflow still took us by surprise," he added.</p>
<p>Quasars tend to be so far away and take so long to reach Earth's telescopes that they are considered to be glimpses into the ancient history of the universe, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jcDRaUKvw-dLRLPetrEE-CY0p-Iw?docId=CNG.f23e0c768e35af8dc3d9cb8508ce954b.361" type="external">reported AFP</a>.</p>
<p>It is the first time that quasar energy output has been measured at levels that only existed in theory.</p>
<p>Quasars are the brightest and most distant objects ever found in the universe.</p>
<p>The latest quasar was detected by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, which is based in Chile.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49996731/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.ULaWh9NLGPc" type="external">Space.com said</a> that the discovery could answer the question as to why black holes in new galaxies are so bright.</p>
<p>The finding will be published in <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/" type="external">The Astrophysical Journal</a>.</p> | Quasar blast is the largest ever recorded by astronomers | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-11-28/quasar-blast-largest-ever-recorded-astronomers | 2012-11-28 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>CARLSBAD (AP) — New Mexico State Police have identified human remains found near Brantley Lake as those of a missing Roswell man.</p>
<p>The remains of Eric Ahlskog were found last week by hikers in an area known as Champion Bay.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>State police spokesman Lt. Robert McDonald says investigators are still trying to determine how Ahlskog died.</p>
<p>The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports that the remains consisted of a skull and several larger bones and that Ahlskog’s identification card was also found buried under the soil of the dry lake bed.</p>
<p>Ahlskog was last seen on July 3, 2011, while he was camping at Brantley Lake State Park north of Carlsbad. Searchers followed his tracks until they disappeared, and U.S. Border Patrol search dogs sniffed out his scent until they lost it near a campground.</p>
<p>6:52am 11/15/12 — Bones Found Near Carlsbad May Be Missing Roswell Man’s</p>
<p>By ABQnews Staff</p>
<p>Human remains found by hikers at Brantley Lake north of Carlsbad Monday afternoon may belong to Roswell resident Eric Ahlskog, who was reported missing last year, State Police told the <a href="http://www.currentargus.com/ci_21992031/human-bones-discovered-at-brantley-lake-north-carlsbad" type="external">Carlsbad Current-Argus</a>.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Ahlskog was 28 when he was last seen on July 3, 2011, camping at the state park, the Current-Argus said.</p>
<p>The remains consisted of a skull and several larger bones, according to State Police. Ahlskog’s identification card was found buried inches under the soil near the location of the remains.</p>
<p>The state Office of the Medical Investigator is performing an autopsy and running dental records in order to determine the identity and cause of death, the Current-Argus said.</p>
<p>According to the Current-Argus, Ahlskog had a history of depression and had been prescribed anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication by a psychiatrist just a few days before he went missing.</p>
<p>The State Police conducted a search for Ahlskog in early July 2011, the paper reported.</p>
<p>1:49pm 11/14/12 — Human Remains Found in Lake Bed North of Carlsbad</p>
<p>By Patrick Lohmann/Journal Staff Writer</p>
<p>Hikers found human remains Monday in a dry lake bed near Brantley Lake north of Carlsbad as they were walking in an area known as Champion Bay.</p>
<p>The Eddy County Sheriff’s Department as State Police to investigate the remains, which were found in a 30-foot-by-30-foot lake bed, according to a State Police release.</p>
<p>The remains were sent to the Office of the Medical Investigator to identify them and determine a cause of death.</p> | UPDATED: Brantley Lake Remains ID’d | false | https://abqjournal.com/147686/updated-brantley-lake-remains-idd.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The intersection of Montaño and 4th Street was closed Monday morning because of a crash that killed one driver, according to Albuquerque police.</p>
<p>The intersection was reopened by 11 a.m., according to Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Tanner Tixier.</p>
<p>Police say one of the people involved in the crash may have had a medical episode, causing the crash. It’s unclear how many people were injured.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Intersection of 4th and Montaño reopened after fatal crash | false | https://abqjournal.com/500905/intersection-of-4th-and-montano-closed-due-to-crash.html | 2014-11-24 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>The Pavilions at San Mateo shopping center is getting a new tenant. The Chello N Grill will open in the next 45-60 days. (Taylor Hood/Journal)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Chello N Grill, a new Mediterranean eatery, will open soon in the Pavilions at San Mateo shopping center, a move the company hopes will “breathe new life into the area” near San Mateo and Menaul.</p>
<p>It will occupy the space once leased to Boston Market, next to Einstein Bros. Bagels.</p>
<p>Chello N Grill, owned by the Pizza 9 Franchise Corp., will be the first in the nation, but the owners hope to expand to other New Mexico locations and other states. Pizza 9 is Albuquerque-based, with restaurants in Texas, Oklahoma and Nevada.</p>
<p>Construction is under way on Chello, and it is expected to open in 45 to 60 days, marketing director Sarah Ortiz said Monday.</p>
<p>“This is a truly unique restaurant for this part of town,” Ortiz says. “It is our hope that we can breathe new life into the area.”</p>
<p>The eatery will function in a line style, with customers ordering at the counter and served at their table. Dishes will start with rice (or “chello” in Farsi), and customers may choose from an array of meats and vegetables to go on top. Meals include fresh baked flat bread, and there will be a specialty tea bar.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Ortiz says the new restaurant hopes to employ 20 to 25 full-time workers.</p>
<p>Leasing is being handled by Phillips Edison and Company, which is also handling the leasing for several other properties in the Pavilions at San Mateo, including the Old Navy remodel.</p>
<p>That store is occupying a temporary space in the shopping center during the remodel, required after a suspected arson last year.&#160; Old Navy plans to reopen in its permanent spot soon.</p>
<p>As far as the rest of the shopping center, Phillips Edison and Company is “continuing to search for retailers who meet the needs of the community,” spokeswoman Sarah Bicknell said.</p>
<p>Two other boxes next to Chello N Grill are empty.</p> | Chello N Grill to open at Pavilions at San Mateo | false | https://abqjournal.com/977019/chello-n-grill-to-open-at-pavilions-at-san-mateo.html | 2 |
|
<p>As the rhetoric from President Trump against football players taking a knee during the National Anthem seeks to discredit them, a common theme utilized by Trump and his supporters directly questions the patriotism of protesting athletes and their respect for fallen soldiers.</p>
<p>But that notion is easily debunked when one learns the history of why NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick ultimately ended up kneeling during the National Anthem rather than taking a seat on the bench like he initially did.</p>
<p>Just before the San Francisco 49ers’ final pre-season game, former Seattle Seahawks team member and Green Beret Nate Boyer reached out to Kaepernick in a letter and shared with a few thoughts how to approach the Anthem. In an upcoming episode of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Boyer recounts the discussion he had with Kaepernick.</p>
<p>“We sorta came to a middle ground where he would take a knee alongside his teammates,” Boyer says. “Soldiers take a knee in front of a fallen brother’s grave, you know, to show respect. When we’re on a patrol, you know, and we go into a security halt, we take a knee, and we pull security.”</p>
<p>When asked if Kaepernick was “receptive” to his suggestions, Boyer replied that he was “very receptive,” adding that Kaepernick told him that kneeling would be “really powerful.”</p>
<p>“And … he asked me to do it with him,” Boyer said. “And I said, ‘Look, I’ll stand next to you. I gotta stand though. I gotta stand with my hand on my heart. That’s just– that’s just what I do and where I’m from.'”</p>
<p>Boyer took his share of abuse for choosing to stand next to Kaepernick.</p>
<p>“I got called a lot of things from both sides. I was told I was a disgrace to the green beret by a couple Green Berets, one of them I was friends with. And that hurts, you know? It really does. But then I also had a lot of people in the military and people in special forces that said, ‘Man, I hadn’t really thought about that before. And I think you’re onto something.'”</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/heres-how-nate-boyer-got-colin-kaepernick-to-go-from-sitting-to-kneeling/" type="external">CBS Sports</a>‘ Will Brinson points out, the two still had a slight difference in opinion, but it was the dialogue that matters:</p>
<p>There are always going to be people who don’t appreciate what Kap is doing, and there are always going to be people who don’t appreciate Boyer reaching out to him.</p>
<p>But the bottom line is that discussion, in a positive and peaceful fashion, is always better than screaming angrily about a subject matter.</p>
<p>Boyer and Kap might not see eye to eye, but bridging the gap by even speaking about the issues is a pretty good start.</p>
<p>Watch the trailer for Boyer’s interview below:</p>
<p />
<p>Featured image via CBS Sports</p> | There’s a reason why athletes kneel instead of sit during the National Anthem | true | http://deadstate.org/theres-a-reason-why-athletes-kneel-instead-of-sitting-down-during-the-national-anthem/ | 2017-09-26 | 4 |
<p>It has been announced Thursday, December 4th, the European Souther Observatory&#160;(ESO) approved plans for the largest telescope ever constructed, to be built in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The world’s largest telescope is scheduled to be completed by 2024, while costing $1.3 billion dollars to build. This massive instrument will be the essential tool scientists and astronomers need to find new planets, discover other solar systems and ultimately discover extraterrestrial life.</p>
<p>The ESO is a unique coalition of 15 nations of&#160;Europe and South America, working together as an astronomy organization that first proposed the massive telescope in 2006. The project had to be met with the condition that 90 percent of the projects funding be financed by the countries in the ESO. On Wednesday, the ESO council had announced their financial goals had been met, and construction of the telescope was authorized and would go into planning.</p>
<p>Upon its construction, the telescope will stand as the largest in the world, constructed by a 128-foot wide composite mirror, roughly four times larger than any telescope existing today. The mirrors larger surfacing is said to concentrate the light into the lens at a greater capacity, allowing astronomers to collect nearly 100 million times more light than the human eye. ESO chose Chile to place it on one of its larger mountains in the Chilean desert, to pierce the relatively thin air, providing optimal images of the sky.</p>
<p>It has been reported by <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/12/5/7339349/extremely-large-telescope" type="external">VOX</a> the telescope will have a primary function of helping astronomers search for planets in other solar systems. Hopefully to discover small Earth sized planets that possibly harbor alien life. In recent years scientists have found thousands of new exoplanets but only relatively few of them were non-gas giants that could actually harbor signs of life.</p>
<p>“We need big telescopes like this because Earth-like planets are smaller, and have relatively thin atmospheres — so we need to take in a lot of light to analyze them and search for potential signatures of life,” says Lisa Kaltenegger, Director of Cornell’s new Institute for Pale Blue Dots, an institute founded in the fundamental search for Earth-like planets.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | The world’s largest telescope is going to be built in Chile | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/12/06/the-worlds-largest-telescope-is-going-to-be-built-in-chile/ | 2014-12-06 | 3 |
<p>MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who has vacillated between calling Michele Bachmann a "Balloon Head" and "My Hero," came to her defense again last night over this week's Newsweek cover which features Bachmann staring into space.</p>
<p />
<p>Matthews discussed the photo with Lois Romano of Newsweek, who wrote the cover story on Bachmann, and Alex Wagner of the Huffington Post, who is a frequent guest on Hardball.</p>
<p />
<p>Visit msnbc.com for <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com" type="external">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" type="external">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" type="external">news about the economy</a></p>
<p>Matthews: Why is she looking straight up in the air rather than at the person taking her picture? That's all I'm asking. It's an odd photograph.</p>
<p>Romano: I wasn't there?</p>
<p>Matthews: But it's an odd picture. Let me go over to somebody who's not working for Newsweek to answer this question because I know it's a tough one.&#160; Alex you are completely independent here.&#160; You look at that picture of somebody.&#160; They had a contact sheet obviously of all kinds of picture to choose. They pick one where she is looking skyward. Now Tina Brown who I respect came out and said, this is what she had to say by the way about the cover, "Michele Bachmann's intensity is galvanizing voters in Iowa right now and Newsweek's cover captures that." Now does that picture of her looking skyward like she's Gaddafi or somebody answering to a different authority, does that picture look like intensity, rage or this woman's a little daffy?</p>
<p>Wagner: I think I'm going with daffy, Chris, and I think it also brings to mind her rejoinder to the President's State of the Union where she was not looking at the camera. Look there's a lot about Michele Bachmann that I think is probably worthy of&#160; further examination and criticism. This to me seemed a little unfair. It brought to mind, I don't know if you remember the Mark Warner cover of The New York Times magazine where they sort of&#160; photoshopped his clothes and made him&#160; him sort of look like a car salesman huckster?&#160; This to me, she looks sort of blank and confused and I did think it was unfair.</p>
<p>Romano did her best to toe the company line but Matthews, and to a lesser extent Wagner, actually sided with conservatives who have criticized the photo as yet another attack on a conservative by a liberal publication.</p>
<p>Matthews isn't completely innocent either, as until fairly recently the standard photo he used on his program of Bachmann was eerily similar to the Newsweek photo instead of the more complimentary one he uses today. But he seems to have conveniently forgotten that, as well as his previous mocking of Bachmann.</p>
<p>Beware of liberals bearing gifts.</p> | Chris Mathews: 'Newsweek Cover of Bachmann Made Her Look Like Gaddafi' | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/chris-mathews-newsweek-cover-of-bachmann-made-her-look-like-gaddafi/ | 2011-08-09 | 0 |
<p>DALLAS (AP) - The Latest on a small airplane that went missing over the Gulf of Mexico (all times local):</p>
<p>12:35 p.m.</p>
<p>A dog rescue group says the pilot of a small plane that disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico was flying to Central Texas to collect a disabled dog and deliver it to a foster home in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Coast Guard spokeswoman Lexie Preston on Thursday identified the pilot as Dr. Bill Kinsinger.</p>
<p>The executive director of the Oklahoma Medical Board, Lyle Kelsey, says Kinsinger serves on the board and lives in Edmond, Oklahoma. Kinsinger is an anesthesiologist.</p>
<p>Monica Marshall coordinates flights for the nonprofit group Pilots N Paws and says she was tracking Kinsinger's plane Wednesday when radar showed it veered off course by hundreds of miles.</p>
<p>Marshall says she has been unable to reach him by text and phone.</p>
<p>She says Kinsinger didn't collect the disabled dog in suburban Austin, Texas.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:05 a.m.</p>
<p>Officials say the pilot of a small plane that stopped responding to air traffic controllers and disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico was unresponsive and may have been suffering from a lack of oxygen.</p>
<p>The plane took off from Oklahoma City on Wednesday afternoon and was supposed to land in Georgetown, Texas, but kept going. A spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, says two F-16 fighters were launched from a base in Houston to make contact with the plane Wednesday.</p>
<p>NORAD says the fighters flew in front of the plane, dropped flares and performed other military maneuvers in an effort to gain the pilot's attention, but the pilot appeared to be unresponsive. NORAD says the pilot was the only person on board the plane.</p>
<p>The Eighth Coast Guard District, referencing the NORAD report, says the pilot appeared to be suffering from hypoxia, in which the brain is deprived of adequate oxygen. The condition can cause confusion, nausea, breathlessness and hallucinations.</p>
<p>The search for the aircraft is ongoing in the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7 a.m.</p>
<p>The U.S. Coast Guard is searching the Gulf of Mexico for a small plane that didn't land at its scheduled location in Central Texas and stopped responding to air traffic controllers.</p>
<p>The Cirrus SR-22 took off Wednesday afternoon from a small airport in Oklahoma City after filing a flight plan to land in Georgetown, Texas, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Austin.</p>
<p>Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the plane kept flying and was last observed on radar 219 miles (352 kilometers) northwest of Cancun flying at 15,000 feet (4,600 meters).</p>
<p>The plane is registered to Oklahoma-based Abide Aviation.</p>
<p>DALLAS (AP) - The Latest on a small airplane that went missing over the Gulf of Mexico (all times local):</p>
<p>12:35 p.m.</p>
<p>A dog rescue group says the pilot of a small plane that disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico was flying to Central Texas to collect a disabled dog and deliver it to a foster home in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Coast Guard spokeswoman Lexie Preston on Thursday identified the pilot as Dr. Bill Kinsinger.</p>
<p>The executive director of the Oklahoma Medical Board, Lyle Kelsey, says Kinsinger serves on the board and lives in Edmond, Oklahoma. Kinsinger is an anesthesiologist.</p>
<p>Monica Marshall coordinates flights for the nonprofit group Pilots N Paws and says she was tracking Kinsinger's plane Wednesday when radar showed it veered off course by hundreds of miles.</p>
<p>Marshall says she has been unable to reach him by text and phone.</p>
<p>She says Kinsinger didn't collect the disabled dog in suburban Austin, Texas.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:05 a.m.</p>
<p>Officials say the pilot of a small plane that stopped responding to air traffic controllers and disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico was unresponsive and may have been suffering from a lack of oxygen.</p>
<p>The plane took off from Oklahoma City on Wednesday afternoon and was supposed to land in Georgetown, Texas, but kept going. A spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, says two F-16 fighters were launched from a base in Houston to make contact with the plane Wednesday.</p>
<p>NORAD says the fighters flew in front of the plane, dropped flares and performed other military maneuvers in an effort to gain the pilot's attention, but the pilot appeared to be unresponsive. NORAD says the pilot was the only person on board the plane.</p>
<p>The Eighth Coast Guard District, referencing the NORAD report, says the pilot appeared to be suffering from hypoxia, in which the brain is deprived of adequate oxygen. The condition can cause confusion, nausea, breathlessness and hallucinations.</p>
<p>The search for the aircraft is ongoing in the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7 a.m.</p>
<p>The U.S. Coast Guard is searching the Gulf of Mexico for a small plane that didn't land at its scheduled location in Central Texas and stopped responding to air traffic controllers.</p>
<p>The Cirrus SR-22 took off Wednesday afternoon from a small airport in Oklahoma City after filing a flight plan to land in Georgetown, Texas, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Austin.</p>
<p>Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the plane kept flying and was last observed on radar 219 miles (352 kilometers) northwest of Cancun flying at 15,000 feet (4,600 meters).</p>
<p>The plane is registered to Oklahoma-based Abide Aviation.</p> | The Latest: Missing pilot was collecting a disabled dog | false | https://apnews.com/amp/8a4f2547cfcd408983c60fd176725cf4 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p />
<p />
<p>Sometimes reality is far scarier than the worst horror films. For one poor Romanian teen her life became a tortured hell when she was kidnapped at age 19. She was chained to a metal pole in a basement for a decade at the hands of 52-year-old Aloisio Francesco Rosario Giordano.</p>
<p />
<p>Credit: Carabinieri Di Gizzeria</p>
<p>Police rescued the 29-year-old Romanian woman from a basement under a shed in Gizzeria, Italy where she was raped and tortured without running water or electricity for ten years. Giordano impregnated her and she bore two children while chained to the basement pole. She was forced to use a plastic bucket under a wooden chair as a toilet.</p>
<p />
<p>Credit: Carabinieri Di Gizzeria</p>
<p>The two children born of the girl and her capture are a boy, now age 9, and a girl, age 3. Both children were forced to watch their father unleash his sick abuse on their mother who was found with wounds on her breasts and crotch. Giordano forced the boy to join in on the torture or be beaten himself.</p>
<p />
<p>Credit: Carabinieri Di Gizzeria</p>
<p>Giordano sometimes cut the woman so deep he would be forced to sew up the wounds with fishing wire. The woman was discovered by accident after police pulled Giordano over for a routine traffic stop and found a malnourished and filthy boy asleep in the backseat. Officers sensed something amiss and demanded to see the child's and mother.</p>
<p>When officers visited the man's home they discovered the disheveled woman and second child and the conditions they were kept in. The woman had no contact with the outside world for the last ten years. Giordano was arrested on charges of aggravated sexual assault and mistreatment.</p>
<p>The charges come 22 years after an unnervingly similar case where Giordano kidnapped a 23-year-old woman named Maria Rosa who was also held in similar conditions and impregnated by the animal twice.</p>
<p>Rosa lost her first baby when Giordano kicked her in the stomach and the second child he aborted with a scalpel and a spoon. Eventually, Maria Rosa escaped Giordano's house of horror and told the authorities of the abuse she suffered at his hands.</p>
<p>On Twitter:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ErvinProduction" type="external">@ErvinProduction</a></p>
<p>Tips? Info? Send me a message!</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5021422/italy-fritzl-man-kidnapped-woman-ten-years-aloisio-giordano-gizzeria/" type="external">thesun.co.uk/news/5021422/italy-fritzl-man-kidnapped-woman-ten-years-aloisio-giordano-gizzeria</a></p> | Italian Man Forced Young Son To Join In Sexual Torture Of Mother In Captivity For A Decade | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/12940-Italian-Man-Forced-Young-Son-To-Join-In-Sexual-Torture-Of-Mother-In-Captivity-For-A-Decade | 2017-11-29 | 0 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.