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<p>It was unlikely that Donald Trump would abruptly change tones in the immediate aftermath of the election. It is true that the his statements don’t feel as poisonous as before (on the surface), due to the expectations as POTUS and the absence of a direct adversary.</p>
<p>However, the mass that elected him is very much alive, and he’s still willing to galvanise it. The most glaring example is his post from November 27th:</p>
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<p>To debunk this, the media countered with facts, which seems the natural thing to do. Fact checking website <a href="http://www.snopes.com/three-million-votes-in-presidential-election-cast-by-illegal-aliens/" type="external">Snopes.com deemed the number completely unsubstantiated</a>, and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-votes-idUSKBN13M0XZ" type="external">Reuters made sure to include the words “with zero evidence” in its headline</a>.</p>
<p>However, this is seems to be missing the point, at least in part.</p>
<p>The people re-tweeting the made-up statistic are not concerned with its accuracy. They are not the ones who will pause to fact-check, as Sweden’s Metro group is encouraging web users to do:</p>
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<p>What resonates with Trump’s audience (and a like-minded public overseas) is merely the idea that illegal residents could turn up at a voting booth and “rig the election”.</p>
<p>Same goes for another of Trump’s recent tweets, right after <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38136658" type="external">the stabbing attack at Ohio University</a>:</p>
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<p>It does not matter that <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/13/12901950/terrorism-immigrants-clothes" type="external">no trend correlating refugees and terrorism can be inferred from numbers</a>. In the eyes of Trump voters, it’s still a fact that one of them nearly perpetrated a massacre. It is the fear (and anger) of being the one-in-a-billion victim that such messages, unsubstantiated they may be, succesfully exploit.</p>
<p>When we come across statistics that resonate and support our suppositions about reality, we are likely to give them less scrutiny than otherwise. The reason they’re called post-truth politics is because they’re not concerned with how reality is, but how well one group of people (read: voters) can impose their narration of reality on the political agenda.</p>
<p>Trump’s statements resonate with his voters not because they’re descriptions of reality, but because they express fears and anger about possible scenarios. A terrorist attack by a Somalian refugee is not statistically significant, but concretises the ominous prophecies that Trump repeatedly made regarding “compromised” countries.</p>
<p>Inflating the truth is fine as long as it makes particular, local interests legitimate. As with most things in life, people are concerned with what happens in their garden. It doesn’t matter how many refugees are in the US in total, the Trump voter wants the one in his neighbourhood gone. It’s not about coming to a conciliation of truths, it’s about imposing the one that best suits one’s beliefs.</p>
<p>Statistics are a matter of percentages, fractions and ratio. But the war on false news is also a war on unacceptably mystifying ideas.</p>
<p>And more often than not, ideas are a matter of all-or-nothing.</p>
<p /> | Tackling “fake news” is about concepts, not just numbers | false | http://natmonitor.com/2016/12/02/tackling-false-news-is-about-concepts-not-numbers/ | 2016-12-02 | 3 |
<p>“Ride With Norman Reedus” has been renewed for Season 3 two months before its Season 2 premiere, AMC announced Tuesday.</p>
<p>The third season will air in 2018.&#160;Season 2 of “Ride with Norman Reedus” premieres as a special two-night television event starting on Sunday, Nov. 5 at 11 p.m. ET/PT, followed by a second episode the next night on Monday, Nov. 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, in its regular time slot.</p>
<p>“Ride with Norman Reedus” follows “The Walking Dead” star and motorcycle enthusiast as he hits the open road to explore local biker culture and celebrate the best and brightest collectors, mechanics and craftsmen around the country. Each episode features Reedus and a riding companion as they journey across an unknown terrain and experience the culture surrounding them.Reedus begins Season 2 in Spain alongside “The Walking Dead” castmate Jeffrey Dean Morgan and a few hundred thousand fans. Additional episodes this season follow Reedus hitting the Low Country of Savannah, Georgia with comedian Dave Chappelle, taking on his home turf of New York City with famed chef Mario Batali, and much more.</p>
<p>“There’s not much I love more than riding my bike on an open road with good friends,” said Reedus. “The fact that I get to do that as my job is a dream come true. I’m super stoked for people to watch the upcoming season and can’t wait to start shooting three soon.”</p>
<p>“Ride with Norman Reedus” is produced by Left/Right, with Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver, and Anneka Jones serving as executive producers. Reedus also serves as executive producer.</p> | ‘Ride With Norman Reedus’ Scores Early Season 3 Renewal at AMC | false | https://newsline.com/ride-with-norman-reedus-scores-early-season-3-renewal-at-amc/ | 2017-09-12 | 1 |
<p>A day after giving up Russia’s presidency (as required by that pesky constitution), Vladimir Putin assumed the role of prime minister. Anyone want to bet that doesn’t suddenly become the most powerful job in Russia?</p>
<p>AP via the International Herald Tribune:</p>
<p>Loyal lawmakers were set to confirm Vladimir Putin as prime minister Thursday, capping a carefully engineered recast of Russia’s leadership a day after he handed the presidency to his protege Dmitry Medvedev.</p>
<p>Putin’s unprecedented move from the Kremlin to the No. 2 post will keep him politically prominent for the foreseeable future and could serve as a springboard back to the presidency. It has Russians wondering who will really hold the country’s reins.</p>
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<p>The switch comes after months of political maneuvering by the popular Putin to maintain a role in ruling Russia after stepping down. Barred by term limits from running in the March presidential vote, he anointed Medvedev as his favored successor in December and pledged to serve as his prime minister.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/08/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Putin.php" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Putin Sticks Around | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/putin-sticks-around/ | 2008-05-08 | 4 |
<p>Euro falls after report says ECB is worried about the currency's rally</p>
<p>The dollar on Thursday stepped higher against most major rivals, remaining on course for a small gain for August -- its first monthly advance since February.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Analysts are attributing the buck's rally to upbeat U.S. economic data this week, and they're predicting more strength as other economic releases arrive.</p>
<p>The ICE U.S. Dollar Index -- which measures the currency against a half-dozen rivals -- rose to 93.1350, up from 92.8860 late Wednesday in New York.</p>
<p>"The greenback continues its recovery from oversold levels, and it's clear that the market is only looking at U.S. data now to boost the case for further short covering," said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, in a note Thursday.</p>
<p>With one trading day left in August, ICE's dollar gauge is up 0.3% for the month. It remains down for the year, with a loss of about 9%, but it has stabilized as analysts have suggested the buck's 2017 retreat has become overdone (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-the-beat-up-dollar-is-poised-for-a-rip-your-face-off-rally-2017-08-04).</p>
<p>The euro fell to $1.1860, down from $1.1884 late Wednesday. Analysts blamed the slide on a Reuters report (http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy-idUKKCN1BB15J) saying a growing number of European Central Bank policymakers are worried about the shared currency's advance against the dollar, raising the chance the ECB's asset purchases will be phased out only slowly. That report, which cited anonymous sources, appeared to outweigh a higher-than-expected reading on inflation in the eurozone (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/eurozone-inflation-beats-forecasts-2017-08-31-54854654).</p>
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<p>The euro still is up a lot for the year, with a gain of 13% against the dollar.</p>
<p>American data dump: Traders on Thursday are waiting for a report covering U.S. personal income, consumer spending and core inflation, as well as fresh data on jobless claims, the housing market and the Chicago area's business conditions.</p>
<p>"If today's econ data dump provides further evidence of steady-to-improving U.S. fundamentals, then the dollar rally should continue into the North American close," Schlossberg said.</p>
<p>The July report on personal income, consumer spending and core inflation is due to hit at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, with economists polled by MarketWatch forecasting growth of 0.4% for both income and outlays, plus a 0.1% rise for inflation.</p>
<p>At that same time, a release on weekly jobless claims is expected to show 235,000 claims.</p>
<p>At 9:45 a.m. Eastern, investors are slated to get an August reading on business conditions in the Chicago area, then July pending home sales are set to arrive at 10 a.m.</p>
<p>Friday's monthly U.S. jobs report also looks set to be a big catalyst for the buck.</p>
<p>See:August jobs data is crucial test for U.S. dollar (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/august-jobs-data-marks-crucial-test-for-us-dollar-2017-08-30)</p>
<p>Other key FX pairs: In other currencies trading on Thursday, the dollar rose to Yen110.58 against the Japanese yen , up from Yen110.24 late Wednesday, while the British pound changed hands at $1.2873, down from Wednesday's 1.2925.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 31, 2017 07:05 ET (11:05 GMT)</p> | CURRENCIES: Dollar Rises, Aims For Its First Monthly Gain Since February | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/31/currencies-dollar-rises-aims-for-its-first-monthly-gain-since-february.html | 2017-08-31 | 0 |
<p>Hillary Clinton campaign leaders are losing their patience with questions about pay-to-play schemes and favors for donors by the Clinton Foundation.</p>
<p>Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon snapped at MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday over repeated questions about the dealings of the foundation.</p>
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<p>“Is it time to disband it?” Mitchell wondered.</p>
<p>“More than half the people in the world receiving AIDS drugs received them from the Clinton Foundation,” Fallon responded, “so, no, the Clinton Foundation will not be completely shuttering its work even if Clinton wins the presidency.</p>
<p>“And for good reason. They want to continue this work. And you know what? If any American voter is troubled by the idea that the Clintons want to continue working to solve the AIDS crisis on the side while Hillary Clinton is president, then don’t vote for her,” Fallon said.</p>
<p>“But I think most voters are pretty reasonable on that point.”</p> | HILLARY SPOX SNAPS: Troubled by foundation work? ‘Don’t vote for her’ | true | http://theamericanmirror.com/hillary-spox-snaps-troubled-foundation-work-dont-vote/ | 2016-08-24 | 0 |
<p>In a brief press conference with Romania’s president, President Donald Trump let loose with some shocking responses regarding the testimony of former FBI director James Comey.</p>
<p>First, Trump was asked whether he had tapes of his conversations with Comey, as he implied via tweet — a tweet that Comey says led him to release news of his memos, prompting the appointment of a special counsel. Trump’s response: “I’ll tell you about that maybe some time in the very near future. ... You’re going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer, don’t worry.” Trump refused to say he did not have such tapes.</p>
<p>It is worthwhile noting that Trump has repeatedly said he would provide certain items in the “very near future” and failed to do so (see evidence regarding President Obama’s birth certificate, evidence of three million fraudulent voters, and his tax returns, among others).</p>
<p>Second, Trump said that Comey lied about their Oval Office meeting, at which Comey says Trump implied he wanted him to drop the investigation into just-fired National Security Advisor Mike Flynn. Trump then added, when asked whether he would testify under oath to that effect, “100% ... I would be glad to tell him exactly what I just told you.”</p>
<p>Trump’s lawyers must be smiting themselves in the foreheads over this one. No lawyer on earth would urge a client to sit down for a deposition under oath if there were any way to avoid it. That’s because even if Trump is telling the truth, there’s a decent shot he slips up somewhere and creates the predicate for a perjury charge.</p>
<p>As always, President Trump’s worst enemy is President Trump. He could easily absorb Comey’s charges and still be fine — <a href="" type="internal">I laid out precisely this strategy yesterday</a>. Instead, Trump is putting his own credibility in opposition to Comey’s — a horrible tactic, given that 45% of voters, even according to <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/june_2017/comey_edges_trump_in_voter_trust" type="external">Trump-friendly Rasmussen</a>, trust Comey over Trump, with just 37% trusting Trump over Comey. And Comey has testified under oath now, whereas Trump has not.</p>
<p>This is just unwise. It keeps the scandal alive for another day. Comey himself couldn’t have asked for anything better than this from Trump.</p> | TRUMP DROPS BOMBSHELLS: I'll '100%' Testify Under Oath To Deny Comey's Story | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17376/trump-drops-bombshells-ill-100-testify-under-oath-ben-shapiro | 2017-06-09 | 0 |
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<p>In a story that no doubt has the mouth breathers of the gun control zealot crowd fuming, a restaurant owner has bucked the pressure from gun control groups to ban firearms from his establishment and in fact has offered discounts to those who come in packing heat.</p>
<p>Keven Cox, owner of Bergeron’s Restaurant in Port Allen Louisiana, decided that his establishment would not cave to the pressures of groups like Mom’s Demand Action and become a place of bigotry and denials of civil rights. &#160;Unlike businesses like Target and Starbucks, Cox has made a stand for freedom and was not cowed by the bleating of the gun controllers.</p>
<p>In fact, not only has Cox continued to allow people to patron his restaurant while carrying a firearm, he has even incentivised doing so by offering a 10% discount to anyone who is carrying a firearm.</p>
<p>The discount went into effect two weeks ago and the response has been overwhelming. &#160;Bergeron’s has seen a profit of over 15% since the discount started. &#160;About the response Cox had this to say:</p>
<p>“Today will be the busiest Tuesday I’ve ever had; and Saturday was the day I felt the real impact. &#160;It has just been crazy good. And most of them don’t even carry guns. They’re just happy I support the Second Amendment and they’re supporting the policy.”</p>
<p>There’s a gem of knowledge in there for business owners. &#160;Unlike the hysterics of gun controllers who vow never to enter a place that allows guns, whose&#160;histrionics are just for show and chances are they never patroned the&#160;establishment in the first place or won’t back up their hollow threats;&#160; gun owners take bigotry very personally and will support places they feel accepted.</p>
<p>Cox speaks on this too stating:</p>
<p>“ ‘Somebody needs to stand up and say something’ — that’s what I’m hearing from folks. It feels great,”</p>
<p>Not surprisingly there has been no surge of support or revenue for places that have banned guns (or copped out and have a new policy “asking” that guns not be brought in) such as Jack in the Box, Starbucks, or Chipolte. &#160;Color me not surprised.</p>
<p>But this isn’t all just a coincidence. &#160;The patrons of Bergeron’s Restaurant have categorically stated that they are more inclined to eat there now that this policy is known. &#160;Not just for the discount, which is nice, but because Kevin Cox has now publicly stated that they (and their rights) are welcome in the front door.</p>
<p>Baton Rouge couple Doug Brown and Mary Smith disagree, saying Bergeron’s new discount policy convinced them on Tuesday it was time to patronize a restaurant they had only passed by during their commutes on the west side of the Mississippi River.</p>
<p>Brown states:&#160;“I’m a gun advocate. If there’s a place that&#160;doesn’t&#160;allow guns, I’m not going to patronize that business.”</p>
<p>Dee Ross, a retiree from Baton Rouge followed up on that sentiment when describing his recent surging patronage of Bergeron’s (three visits since the discount came into play):&#160;“I don’t know of any other place on either side of the river that encourages this, and I’m certainly not going to just walk into a place with my gun to find out.”</p>
<p>Cox wondered if the discount would spread among other businesses, especially based on his success and increased profits.</p>
<p>I would wager that when businesses begin to look past the hysterical shrieking of gun control banshees and their astro turf “movements” they will realize which side their bread is buttered on and be more welcoming to gun owners. &#160;Unlike the great lie that gun controllers spew forth, they won’t actually stop their patronage of a business if it allows guns. &#160;They will just bluster and threaten because they think that is usually all it will take, regrettably, too often they are right.</p>
<p>But gun owners will NOT stand for bigotry and the denial of their God given civil rights and will actually stop going to a business that discriminates them. &#160;So places that deny gun owners their rights are in a losing proposition. &#160;They will not gain gun controllers, but will lose gun owners.</p>
<p>I see the actions and results that Kevin Cox is experiencing to begin to beat back the narrow minded idiocy and terroristic threats of the gun control crowd. &#160;Perhaps slowly at first, but once it gets going, pro gun businesses will start raking in money, hand over fist and leave so called “gun free zone” businesses flapping in the wind.</p>
<p>On a side note, Bergeron’s Restaurant is probably the safest place to eat dinner in all of Port Allen!</p>
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<p>We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.</p> | Business Thrives As Owner Offers Discount to Gun Owners | true | http://bulletsfirst.net/2014/11/07/business-thrives-owner-offers-discount-gun-owners/ | 0 |
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<p>By Seth Borenstein</p>
<p>WASHINGTON – As the world gets warmer, people are more likely to get hot under the collar, scientists say. A massive new study finds that aggressive acts like committing violent crimes and waging war become more likely with each added degree.</p>
<p>Researchers analyzed 60 studies on historic empire collapses, recent wars, violent crime rates in the United States, lab simulations that tested police decisions on when to shoot and even cases where pitchers threw deliberately at batters in baseball. They found a common thread over centuries: Extreme weather – very hot or dry – means more violence.</p>
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<p>The authors say the results show strong evidence that climate can promote conflict.</p>
<p>“When the weather gets bad we tend to be more willing to hurt other people,” said economist Solomon Hsiang of the University of California, Berkeley.</p>
<p>He is the lead author of the study, published online Thursday by the journal Science. Experts in the causes of war gave it a mixed reception.</p>
<p>The team of economists even came up with a formula that predicts how much the risk of different types of violence should increase with extreme weather. In war-torn parts of equatorial Africa, it says, every added degree Fahrenheit or so increases the chance of conflict between groups – rebellion, war, civil unrest – by 11 percent to 14 percent. For the United States, the formula says that for every increase of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the likelihood of violent crime goes up 2 percent to 4 percent.</p>
<p>Temperatures in much of North America and Eurasia are likely to go up by that 5.4 degrees by about 2065 because of increases in carbon dioxide pollution, according to a separate paper published in Science on Thursday.</p>
<p>The same paper sees global averages increasing by about 3.6 degrees in the next half-century. So that implies essentially about 40 percent to 50 percent more chance for African wars than it would be without global warming, said Edward Miguel, another Berkeley economist and study co-author.</p>
<p>When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change updates its report next year on the impacts of global warming, it will address the issue of impacts on war for the first time, said Carnegie Institution scientist Chris Field, who heads that worldwide study group. The new study is likely to play a big role, he said.</p>
<p>Hsiang said that whenever the analyzed studies looked at temperature and conflict, the link was clear, no matter where or when. His analysis examines about a dozen studies on collapses of empires or dynasties, about 15 studies on crime and aggression and more than 30 studies on wars, civil strife or intergroup conflicts.</p>
<p>In one study, police officers in a psychology experiment were more likely to choose to shoot someone in a lab simulation when the room temperature was hotter, Hsiang said. In another study, baseball pitchers were more likely to retaliate against their opponents when a teammate was hit by a pitch on hotter days. Hsiang pointed to the collapse of the Mayan civilization that coincided with periods of historic drought about 1,200 years ago.</p>
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<p /> | With temperatures increasing, people are growing angrier | false | https://abqjournal.com/240692/with-temperatures-increasing-people-are-growing-angrier.html | 2013-08-02 | 2 |
<p>Jason Kidd, who signed with the New York Knicks on Thursday, has been charged with driving under the influence after crashing his Cadillac into a telephone pole in the Hamptons.</p>
<p>The 39-year-old point guard, was treated for minor injuries after driving his 2010 Escalade into a telephone pole in Water Mill, NY, around 2 a.m., <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/jason-kidd-ny-knicks-point-guard-arrested-dwi-southampton-report-article-1.1114897" type="external">the New York Daily News reported</a>.</p>
<p>He had reportedly attended a benefit honoring filmmaker George Lucas in East Hampton earlier in the evening.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/jason-kidd-charged-with-dwi-in-southampton-crash-1.3839372" type="external">Newsday cited</a>&#160;Southampton Police as saying Kidd, a California native who has a summer home in the Hamptons, was the vehicle's only occupant.</p>
<p>He was arrested after he refused to take a breath test, said Bob Clifford, spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.</p>
<p>Kidd's attorney Edward Burke Jr. of Sag Harbor, told Newsday: "I entered a not-guilty plea and await further court proceedings. That's all I am indicating to press at this time."</p>
<p>After being released from Southampton Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries, Kidd was arraigned on the misdemeanor DUI charge and released.</p>
<p>An 18-year veteran of the NBA, he signed a three-year, $9.5 million deal with the Knicks this past week, leaving the Dallas Mavericks.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/07/15/ny-knicks-kidd-arrested-on-dwi-charge-in-hamptons/" type="external">The Associated Press wrote</a> that Kidd, whose children lived in New York City area, has been in trouble with the law before - in Phoenix in 2001, when he was arrested on a domestic violence charge.</p>
<p>He admitted striking his former wife.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/wall-street-greed-good-rich-wealthy-unethical-bernie-madoff-cheat-steal-lie" type="external">Rich People have a dirty little secret...</a> &#160;</p> | Jason Kidd of the New York Knicks Charged with DUI | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-07-15/jason-kidd-new-york-knicks-charged-dui | 2012-07-15 | 3 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=angry+couple&amp;search_group=&amp;orient=&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;color=&amp;show_color_wheel=1#id=7030831&amp;src=c0920f8e8adf39262482c9c5bab38ccf-1-47"&gt;Diego Cervo&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock.com</p>
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<p>With congressional Republicans beating the drum about profligate and wasteful <a href="" type="internal">government spending</a>, they may want to take a hard look at a federal program pushed by a host of top GOPers during the Bush-era and reauthorized in late 2010, as the Republican deficit craze took hold. Originally championed by Republican lawmakers including Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and current Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a <a href="" type="internal">federal initiative to promote marriage</a> as a cure for poverty dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into programs that either had no impact or a negative effect on the relationships of the couples who took part, according to recent research by the <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/" type="external">Department of Health and Human Services</a> (HHS).&#160;</p>
<p>Launched during the Bush administration at the behest of evangelical Christian activists and with the aid of congressional Republicans, <a href="" type="internal">the federal Healthy Marriage Initiative</a> was designed to help low-income couples put a little sizzle in their marriages and urge poor unmarried parents to tie the knot, in the hopes that marriage would enhance their finances and get them off the federal dole. Starting in 2006, millions of dollars were hastily distributed to grantees to further this poverty reduction strategy. The money went to such enterprises as <a href="http://www.laughyourway.com/" type="external">“Laugh Your Way America,”</a> a program run by a non-Spanish speaking Wisconsin minister who used federal dollars to offer&#160;“Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage” seminars to Latinos. It funded Rabbi Stephen Baars, a British rabbi who’d been giving his trademarked <a href="http://www.getbliss.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=1&amp;Itemid=2" type="external">“Bliss” marriage seminars</a> to upper-middle-class Jews in Montgomery County, Maryland, for years. With the help of the federal government, he brought his program to inner-city DC for the benefit of African American single moms.</p>
<p>The marriage money was diverted from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (formerly known as welfare), and much of it went to religious groups that went to work trying to combat the divorce rate in their communities by sponsoring date nights and romance workshops. In some cities, the local grantees used their federal funds to recruit professional athletes to make public service announcements touting the benefits of marriage. Women’s groups were especially critical of the marriage initiative, largely because it was the baby of <a href="http://www.publiceye.org/pushedtothealtar/index.html" type="external">Wade Horn</a>, a controversial figure who Bush installed at HHS as the head of the Administration for Children and Families and the administration’s official “marriage czar.”</p>
<p>Before joining the Bush administration, Horn, a conservative psychologist, had helmed the <a href="http://www.fatherhood.org/" type="external">National Fatherhood Initiative</a>, where he attacked what he called the “we hate marriage” elites and infuriated women’s groups by defending the Southern Baptist Convention’s proclamation that women should “submit” to their husbands’ “servant leadership.” Horn believed that federal poverty programs should be vehicles for marriage promotion, once proposing that the federal government <a href="http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030510&amp;slug=marry10" type="external">exclude unmarried people</a> from anti-poverty programs like Head Start and from public housing. Horn’s deputy was Chris Gersten (husband of former Bush Labor Secretary Linda Chavez), who implemented the program and who is a strong believer in the value of “relationship education” in combating the social scourge of the disintegrating traditional family.</p>
<p>“A middle class couple with $100,000 a year that’s having trouble in their marriage, they can go out and spend $200 or $300 or $400 to get some classes that help them,” he explains. “But a poor couple isn’t going to spend the rent money on relationship classes.”</p>
<p>Studies show that relationship classes can be helpful for white, middle-class couples, but when the federal government started dumping million of poverty dollars into marriage education, there was virtually no research on how such programs would&#160;fare with poor, inner-city single moms. Now, though, the data is in, and it doesn’t look good for proponents of taxpayer funded marriage education. This month,&#160;HHS released the results of several years of research about the performance of the marriage programs, and it indicates that the Bush-era effort to encourage Americans (straight ones, at least) to walk down the aisle has been a serious flop.</p>
<p>At a recent conference sponsored by the HHS Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, researchers looking at various aspects of the marriage initiative presented their findings. They had nothing but bad news.</p>
<p>Take the Building Healthy Families program, which targeted unmarried but romantically involved couples who were either new parents or expecting a baby. The program, tested in Baltimore and seven other cities, offered participants many weeks of marriage education classes that focused on improving their relationships with the hopes that this would also help their children. Three years later, researchers reported that the program had produced precisely zero impact on the quality of the couples’ relationships, rates of domestic violence, or the involvement of fathers with their children. In fact, couples in the eight pilot programs around the country actually broke up more frequently than those in a control group who didn’t get the relationship program. The program also prompted a drop in the involvement of fathers and the percentage who provided financial support.</p>
<p>In a few bright spots, married couples who participated in a government-funded relationship class reported being somewhat happier and having slightly warmer relationships with their partners. But the cost of this slight bump in happiness in the Supporting Healthy Marriage program was a whopping $7,000 to $11,500 per couple. Imagine how much happier the couples would have been if they’d just been handed with cash. Indeed, feeling flush might have helped them stay married. After all, the only social program ever to show documented success in impacting the marriage rates of poor people came in 1994, when the state of Minnesota accidentally reduced the divorce rate among poor black women by allowing them to <a href="http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&amp;dDocName=id_004112&amp;RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased" type="external">keep some of their welfare benefits</a> when they went to work rather than cutting them off. During the three-year experiment and for a few years afterward, the divorce rate for black women in the state fell 70 percent. The positive effects on kids also continued for several years.</p>
<p>Gersten isn’t persuaded by the research on the federal marriage initiative—at least not yet. He thinks the programs just need more time to work out the kinks. “I think in the long run you can’t justify funding programs that don’t show results, but I don’t think a couple years is adequate,” he says, acknowledging that the original marriage grantees often had trouble finding participants to offer their services to.</p>
<p>“There’s no demand,” he laments. “The culture isn’t saying, ‘You just had a baby, you need to figure out how to form a bond with the father.’ The culture did say that until the ’60s.” Gersten says that the culture of liberation, birth control, the sexual revolution, and, of course, the rise of the welfare state has “led to an out of wedlock birth rate in the black community of 60 to 70 percent. It’s devastating.” So he thinks the government needs to keep pushing marriage.</p>
<p>Given the underwhelming track record of the federal marriage program, it would seem a ripe target for GOP budget hawks, especially given that many of the original proponents of the program are no longer in Congress to defend it. Instead, in November 2010, Congress allocated another $150 million for healthy marriage and fatherhood related programs, with another $150 million budgeted for 2013. And this fall HHS doled out <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/news/press/2011/Grant_Announce2011.html" type="external">$120 million worth of grants</a>.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, the program might have faded away without an unlikely supporter: President Obama. According to Gersten, the administration initially wanted to retool the marriage programs to focus them more on job training. But in a deal brokered by Grassley, one of the original sponsors of the program, and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the marriage initiative remained mostly intact, though more of the money originally earmarked for it was shifted to programs promoting responsible fatherhood. Gersten says the administration approved the deal.</p>
<p>In its current form, the marriage program looks a little different under Obama than it did under Bush. Many of the more dubious marriage programs, including “Laugh Your Way America,” did not receive further funding, for instance. While faith-based groups continue to receive federal money, the ones in the program tend to be more established service providers that combine their marriage offerings with other social services for low-income people, such as employment help. When the administration issued the grant requirements, it insisted on the programs having a strong employment component along with the Oprah-style relationship classes.</p>
<p>Ron Haskins, a <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2009/11/05-marriage-haskins" type="external">marriage program supporter</a> who is a former adviser to Bush on welfare issues and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, thinks Obama did the right thing. He points out that research on poverty programs beloved by liberals, such as Head Start, doesn’t look so good either, but that doesn’t mean the government should simply get rid of it. “When there’s tremendous pressure on the budget, there is a reason for reducing the spending,” he says. “The exception is, if it’s a new program you ought to try to figure out if you can improve it.” Haskins notes that in the grand scheme of the federal budget, the marriage program is but a blip. “We don’t spend a lot of money on these programs. [We spend] $7 billion on Head Start, but not even a $100 million on these [marriage] programs.”</p>
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<p /> | The GOP’s Dead-End Marriage Program | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/gops-dead-end-marriage-program/ | 2012-06-25 | 4 |
<p>In the spring of 2013, in advance of opening day at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, city Police Chief&#160;Sam Dotson issued a statement telling fans to leave their guns at home.</p>
<p>“Don’t even bring your gun down and leave it locked in your car,” he <a href="http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/04/08/police-chief-tells-fans-to-leave-their-guns-at-home/" type="external">warned</a>. “Unfortunately, there is a portion of the segment of the population that looks for people who leave their concealed carry in the car and then, in the second or third inning when people are enjoying the game, they go and break the window in the car and perhaps steal the gun.”</p>
<p>Two years later, the&#160;problem has only worsened, engulfing St. Louis&#160;County. In May, the <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/in-st-louis-a-lot-more-guns-are-being-stolen/article_a4c24120-cbfd-51f2-8c0f-e7c911797c28.html" type="external">St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported</a> that in the first four months of 2015, almost 200 guns&#160;had been stolen from residents in the county — a 65 percent increase from the same period last year. Dotson reemphasized that the firearms were pilfered from parked cars more than anywhere else. “Criminals have figured this out,” he said.</p>
<p>This issue isn’t unique to St. Louis. On June 10, two local news outlets (one in Benton, Arkansas, and the other in Escambia County, Florida) reported that gun thefts were up in their respective areas.</p>
<p>In Benton, <a href="http://www.thv11.com/story/news/local/benton-bryant/2015/06/10/multiple-gun-thefts-alarm-benton-police/71048036/" type="external">29 guns had been taken from cars</a> in the previous&#160;18 months. A police officer in the area noted that half of the cars were unlocked and that “a number of those others were unable to be determined and could have possibly been unlocked.” Meanwhile, in Escambia County, <a href="http://www.pnj.com/story/news/crime/2015/06/09/criminals-capitalize-unlocked-cars-easy-guns/28768503/" type="external">a gun has been stolen every day, on average, since the start of 2015</a>. A third of those firearms were taken from cars. According to the news source, “in almost all of those instances” the vehicles had been left&#160;unlocked.</p>
<p>In April, in Cleveland, Tennessee, the local police department said it was&#160;struggling with a similar problem:&#160;Over a two-month period, burglars had broken into 13 automobiles and&#160; <a href="http://www.wdef.com/news/story/16-Guns-Stolen-From-Cleveland-Cars-Two-Suspects/U4ghRRzVrk6zseQUnC8QjA.cspx" type="external">stolen&#160;a total of 16 guns</a>. In Pinellas County, Florida, a <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/gun-police-say-was-used-to-kill-tarpon-springs-officer-stolen-from/2211436" type="external">firearm that was taken from an unlocked Honda Accord</a>&#160;in August 2014 was used to kill a police officer four months later.</p>
<p>“We have seen an increase in guns being taken from unlocked vehicles,” Cpl.&#160;Spencer Gross, of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, tells The Trace. “People leave them in their consoles, their glove boxes, or underneath their seats. It’s a crime of opportunity.”</p>
<p>[Photo: Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgold/10920277215/in/photolist-hCZgXD-xx9Cb-ijNXtn-8CKsop-4QjvzU-otncJx-ag4sk9-61hhCt-62Jz4S-6CYVDv-rvvoND-dVy1Uf-dV8gxw-9vFWpc-5ZQbjf-ehK2HN-c52qAG-pEJjn5-8iVv4z-4Xsfqk-aNZQJi-8H2CWW-9Ur8wz-6f4F9z-9q5Cz2-9vK1zy-ajFVYd-bobZGJ-oNeUXk-6BRaLf-iJwpta-cZhy2J-5EsMfS-dzAkPC-ao2YKj-4EkUuJ-d7ay4A-aHNJGn-9ZwKu6-8xpf7J-8iVvwV-85iyj3-78Zt4k-c7bY7s-oZ3Ynj-9K9yoS-7DPgkr-7DPfFg-ehJWe2-bx3ZbB" type="external">Chris Goldberg</a>]</p> | Thieves Target Stadiums, Unlocked Cars in Rising Wave of Gun Thefts | false | https://thetrace.org/2015/06/thieves-target-stadiums-unlocked-cars-in-rising-wave-of-gun-thefts/ | 2015-06-18 | 3 |
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<p>What 13-year-old Jason did was not merely misbehaving. It was an attempt at sexual molestation and a huge red flag. Chances are he has tried this behavior before, and likely succeeded. There is also the possibility that Jason himself has been a victim or has been exposed to sexually arousing material. In any case, he needs help. An investigation should occur to locate other possible victims. The appropriate reaction to something like this is to contact the local authorities and child protective services. –</p>
<p>CONCERNED READER IN UTAH</p>
<p>DEAR READER: Thank you for raising this issue. Other readers were also concerned that my advice did not go far enough. Read on:</p>
<p>DEAR ABBY: In many states, if there is a four-year age gap between children who engage in “sex play,” it may constitute a crime. In many counties, children’s services will step in to investigate whether Jason has also been abused or, more likely, is watching pornography. Jason needs to be reported. Reporting this would be a good thing for him to ensure that he won’t eventually become part of the juvenile justice system. – A LITTLE SHOCKED IN DAYTON, OHIO</p>
<p>DEAR ABBY: That 13-year-old boy attempted to sexually abuse Jessie, which is a crime. He may also have done other things to her that, at her age, she may not be able to understand were wrong. Her mom should have her examined by a physician and get a referral for counseling. The police should also be notified to investigate. Don’t forget – Jason has a younger sister who could be a victim, too.</p>
<p>He’s old enough to know his behavior is wrong, and without intervention he could repeat it. He may even make another attempt on Jessie, since she lives close by. She may be at risk for being abused again and remain silent because she lost her friend when she told her mother what happened in the first place. Mom: Please don’t overlook this. – NANCY IN NEW ENGLAND</p>
<p>DEAR ABBY: When I watch videos on my laptop or phone, I usually use headphones so the noise doesn’t disturb others. If the video is funny, I laugh. Like most people, I love comedy and I love to laugh.</p>
<p>In recent months, however, my father has frequently made a point of telling me that my laughing is disturbing, especially when no one else can hear what I’m laughing at. He says the sound can be startling, and that I sound maniacal or hysterical. Naturally, I feel guilty, and it tends to ruin the enjoyment of whatever I’m watching.</p>
<p>What do I do to resolve this source of conflict? Try not to laugh when he’s around? – LAUGHING OUT LOUD</p>
<p>DEAR L.O.L.: Try this: Because you know your sudden bursts of laughter startle your dad, view your videos in another room so you won’t disturb him.</p>
<p>Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.</p>
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<p /> | DEAR ABBY: Teen’s behavior draws strong words from concerned readers | false | https://abqjournal.com/1011747/headline-here.html | 2 |
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<p>BOYS: District 1-6A produced the most eye-catching result last week, as Volcano Vista’s boys handed Cibola its first loss, 2-0, in a league opener. The Hawks added a 1-0 victory over Rio Rancho and have the early 1-6A lead.</p>
<p>Volcano Vista is at Cleveland at 6 tonight; the Storm (1-0) is in second place in district. Cibola is at Rio Rancho, also at 6 p.m. today.</p>
<p>GIRLS: Rio Rancho (12-2) has won five straight overall after recording 1-6A wins over Santa Fe and, more importantly, Volcano Vista. Cleveland (1-0 in league and 7-1-3 overall) has key games today at Volcano Vista (3 p.m.) and at home Saturday versus Cibola at noon.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Prep soccer week in review | false | https://abqjournal.com/471340/prep-soccer-week-in-review.html | 2 |
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<p>Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is reportedly prepared to ship a new video-streaming device in early April, as the online retail giant takes another step to increase its presence in the market for media content.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Amazon plans to sell the new television device through its website and retailers including Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS), according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>The long-expected device would connect directly to TVs and allow users to watch content from Amazon’s on-demand video service, which competes with Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Hulu.</p>
<p>An earlier report from TechCrunch said Amazon’s device will resemble Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Chromecast dongle, which looks like a thumb drive.</p>
<p>Pricing for Amazon’s device remains unclear. Roku’s streaming devices go for $50 or more, while Chromecast costs $35.</p>
<p>An Amazon spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p>
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<p>Amazon has been increasing its portfolio of movies and TV shows, including original content. The Seattle-based company has also expanded the number of videos that Prime members can stream for free.</p>
<p>Amazon recently said it’s <a href="" type="internal">raising the annual subscription price for Prime to $99 from $79</a>. The move was seen as a response to higher media acquisition costs, among other expenses.</p>
<p>Amazon’s TV device will compete with Chromecast, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) TV and several devices from Roku. Those set-top boxes already offer apps for Amazon’s video service, but the company doesn’t receive any proceeds from ads or data about viewing habits.</p>
<p>Videos on Amazon are also available using the company’s own Kindle tablets or an app for Apple devices. The Journal reported that Amazon’s new device will carry the Fire name used for its tablets.</p>
<p>The report also said Amazon already sent a pre-production version of the device to developers. It will run on a modified version of Google’s Android operating system and offer apps for other video sites.</p>
<p>Shares of Amazon were trading 67 cents higher at $375.71 late Tuesday morning.</p> | Report: Amazon to Launch TV Device in April | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/03/18/report-amazon-to-launch-tv-device-in-april.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>Jill Stein is running for president of the United States for the second time. She was the Green Party nominee in 2012 and finished with less than 1 percent of the vote, the most successful run of any female presidential candidate in U.S. history. (Joel Peissig)</p>
<p>This is a crucial time for Dr. Jill Stein. It’s a test of whether she can move her presidential campaign from the fringes into the mainstream of an election that she says “has tossed out the rule book.”</p>
<p>“We are here to keep the revolution going,” Stein, the prospective Green Party presidential candidate, told me in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Bernie [Sanders] supporters are grieving over the loss of the campaign, of their hard work, their vision, but they are remobilizing. Our events are absolutely mobbed with Bernie supporters.”</p>
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<p>We spoke in the morning, before FBI Director James Comey threw yet another twist into the presidential race by announcing that while the <a href="" type="internal">bureau would not recommend criminal charges</a> in the Hillary Clinton email affair, she had been “extremely careless” with her use of a personal email address and a private server for sensitive communications.</p>
<p>Comey’s recommendation against criminal charges is good news for Clinton. But <a href="" type="internal">his comment about carelessness is not</a>. It is one more factor injecting volatility into her contest with Donald Trump, the presumed Republican presidential nominee. With Sanders’ presidential campaign falling short in the primaries and Clinton battling for her good name, I thought I’d call Stein, the progressive alternative, a pediatrician-turned-presidential candidate.</p>
<p>She and the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, are far behind. According to a <a href="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2016/images/06/21/rel7b.-.2016.general.pdf" type="external">CNN/ORC poll</a> in June, Clinton had 42 percent of the vote, Trump had 38 percent, Johnson had 9 percent and Stein had 7 percent. When Sanders was put in the poll against Clinton, 43 percent said they backed him.</p>
<p>The Johnson and Stein programs are very different from one another. Johnson, while favoring a laissez-faire approach on personal and social issues, embraces a balanced budget limiting federal action, opposes tax increases and favors a consumption (or sales) tax, which hurts the poor. All of this has a Paul Ryan sound to it and is far removed from Stein’s progressivism.</p>
<p>I asked Stein how her administration would create jobs for working people who have seen manufacturing plants and other businesses close because of foreign competition, automation and corporate financial machinations.</p>
<p>EXPERIENCE: <a href="" type="internal">She’s No Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump—Behind the Scenes With Jill Stein (Multimedia)</a></p>
<p>She likes the idea of a Green New Deal, a combination of ideas that basically revolve around the notion that the government would help to finance the conversion of old industry into new industry—solar energy devices and wind farm materials instead of internal combustion engines and oil drilling equipment. Doing this would require a considerable government investment—certainly not a Gary Johnson idea—plus investment from a banking industry converted from giant banks to smaller state and community banks.</p>
<p>There’s much more to the Green New Deal. Eliminating carbon-based fuels would improve health and reduce — if not eliminate — global warming, saving big amounts of money for health care. It includes Medicare for all.</p>
<p>I wondered about the practicalities of converting the old auto plant into something else. Who would decide on the new products? Stein said the unemployed workers or members of the community would pick a product. I reminded her of something I had seen when you try to get community consensus. “You know,” I said, “it’s hard to get people to agree on the location of a stop sign or what should go in a community garden.”</p>
<p>Stein has a more optimistic view of human nature than I do. She believes that ordinary people can get together to make decisions on financing, manufacturing, marketing and all the other facets of a big, complex business. Now, Stein said, businesses, big and small, make decision-making by communities or local governments impossible because of their narrow interests and campaign contributions.</p>
<p>“The Green New Deal operates in a far different process, not subject to money and backroom deals,” she said. “People can get together, make compromises. You can’t make compromises when there are predators. This is a society poisoned by distrust.”</p>
<p>Another big issue for her is student loans, which she wants canceled.</p>
<p>“This has to be the most mobilizing issue,” Stein said. “It started happening in Carbondale, Ill. Suddenly, our events were mobbed. This became the norm, and we did an event in San Francisco before the primary. We thought it would be a quiet visit to California. We had to turn hundreds of people away.</p>
<p>“There is a rebellion, and it is being led by millennials. There are 43 million young people locked into predatory debt. They just have to know they can cancel their debt by voting Green. Just by organizing on social media, young people can take over this election. We have full houses at millennial events. Debt is the sleeper issue in the campaign. It is the elephant in the room.”</p>
<p>Stein said this kind of support is why she has moved up in the polls without “any major-league coverage” by the television networks and the cable news channels.</p>
<p>But both she and Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, face a big obstacle. The <a href="http://www.debates.org/" type="external">Commission on Presidential Debates</a> requires that candidates get at least 15 percent on five national polls before they are admitted to the debate club. Formed by Republican and Democratic Party officials several years ago, the commission looks as though it’s another establishment ploy to exclude outsiders.</p>
<p>Stein has got good, progressive ideas and deserves to be heard by a wide audience. This is especially true since the election is coming down to a contest between Clinton and Donald Trump, who are battling each other for first place in the unpopularity category. In that kind of election, nothing is impossible.</p> | Jill Stein’s Green New Deal Deserves to Be Heard by Widest Audience Possible | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/jill-steins-green-new-deal-deserves-to-be-heard-by-widest-audience-possible-2/ | 2016-07-07 | 4 |
<p>NEWPORT CITY, Vt. (AP) - The trial of a Vermont man accused of killing his ex-wife's husband is set to begin later this month.</p>
<p>The Caledonian-Record <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/jeffrey-ray-murder-case-heads-to-trial/article_8db66b0a-e9c6-55e0-b133-ed6c4f5f09fc.html" type="external">reports</a> the trial of 55-year-old Jeffrey Ray, of Brownington, will start Jan. 23 in Orleans Superior Court. Ray faces a first-degree murder charge in the Memorial Day 2015 killing of Rick Vreeland.</p>
<p>An attorney representing Ray says his client wants to include information about his blood-alcohol level at the time of the shooting. A judge had previously denied a defense request to suppress a confession Ray made to police.</p>
<p>Judge Robert Bent says he hopes the attorneys can find an agreement concerning Ray's blood-alcohol test results. He has also advised the attorneys to discuss possible plea agreements in the case.</p>
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<p>Information from: The Caledonian-Record, <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external">http://www.caledonianrecord.com</a></p>
<p>NEWPORT CITY, Vt. (AP) - The trial of a Vermont man accused of killing his ex-wife's husband is set to begin later this month.</p>
<p>The Caledonian-Record <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/jeffrey-ray-murder-case-heads-to-trial/article_8db66b0a-e9c6-55e0-b133-ed6c4f5f09fc.html" type="external">reports</a> the trial of 55-year-old Jeffrey Ray, of Brownington, will start Jan. 23 in Orleans Superior Court. Ray faces a first-degree murder charge in the Memorial Day 2015 killing of Rick Vreeland.</p>
<p>An attorney representing Ray says his client wants to include information about his blood-alcohol level at the time of the shooting. A judge had previously denied a defense request to suppress a confession Ray made to police.</p>
<p>Judge Robert Bent says he hopes the attorneys can find an agreement concerning Ray's blood-alcohol test results. He has also advised the attorneys to discuss possible plea agreements in the case.</p>
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<p>Information from: The Caledonian-Record, <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external">http://www.caledonianrecord.com</a></p> | Trial set for man accused of killing ex-wife's husband | false | https://apnews.com/ec23451b247b4f9ca61550762e8b065d | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
<p>July 19 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday said residential construction increased 8.3 percent to a 1.2 million annualized rate, which outperformed estimations.</p>
<p>U.S. home building declined for three straight months before June, the Commerce Department’s U.S. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Census_Bureau/" type="external">Census Bureau</a> and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly <a href="https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst.pdf" type="external">said in a statement</a>.</p>
<p>For June, there were 1.254 million building permits issued — an increase of 7.4 percent in comparison to May. Construction remained restrained due to rising prices for labor and lumber, as well as land shortages, as construction began for 1.2 million homes — and roughly the same number were completed, an increase of 5.2 percent.</p>
<p>“Demand for new housing continues to outpace supply,” NatWest Markets economists, led by Chief U.S. Economist Michelle Girard, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-19/housing-starts-in-u-s-increase-at-fastest-pace-in-four-months?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&amp;utm_content=business&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social" type="external">said ahead of the report</a>. “Builders remain confident about the industry’s ability to continue expanding gradually, with the greatest challenge being the lack of both buildable lots and skilled labor.”</p> | U.S. housing starts increased 8.3% to 1.2M in June | false | https://newsline.com/u-s-housing-starts-increased-8-3-to-1-2m-in-june/ | 2017-07-19 | 1 |
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<p>NEW YORK — Terry Collins stood at the podium, explaining in rapid-fire patter how the New York Mets can win it all next year.</p>
<p>It was as if he were a carnival barker trying to convince a skeptical crowd that what it was about to see was indeed real. His energy and enthusiasm were clear.</p>
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<p>“I forgot to mention optimist is another quality,” new general manager Sandy Alderson said.</p>
<p>Alderson introduced Collins at Citi Field on Tuesday as the 20th manager in Mets history. Alderson said New York’s minor league field coordinator last year was the right man to help rejuvenate a club that languished at the bottom of the NL East the past two seasons and has not been to the playoffs since 2006. Collins signed a two-year contract with a club option for 2013.</p>
<p>“I love this job,” said Collins, after putting on a No. 10 jersey in honor of friend and Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland. “I will do whatever it takes to bring success for the New York Mets and win more ballgames, and we want to be the last team standing next October.”</p>
<p>He happily believes it could happen.</p>
<p>“The personalities are there. The energy is there,” he said, “What we have to do now is execute.”</p>
<p>It’s been 11 years since Collins last managed in the big leagues, yet the Mets still preferred his experience and a host of other factors in choosing him over fellow Mets employees Bob Melvin, Chip Hale and Wally Backman. The 61-year-old Collins succeeds Jerry Manuel, who was fired along with general manager Omar Minaya in October.</p>
<p>Hale will return to his role as the Mets’ third base coach, and Backman will manage in the minor league system again. Alderson also said pitching coach Dan Warthen will return. Hitting coach Howard Johnson and bullpen coach Randy Niemann will be reassigned. Collins said he and Alderson began discussing possibilities for bench coach — it will not be someone as tightly wound as he is.</p>
<p>“A lot has been said about his intensity,” Alderson said. “Certainly that was a factor, an attractive quality for us. His major league managing experience also came into play. But also I have to emphasize that his time spent in player development was also a significant factor. This job is all about leadership, but it’s also about teaching.”</p>
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<p>Collins managed the Houston Astros from 1994-96 and the Anaheim Angels from 1997-99. He has a 444-434 record overall, leading teams to second-place finishes in each of his five full seasons. He also was skipper of Orix in Japan from 2007-08 and led China to its first win in the World Baseball Classic in 2009.</p>
<p>Experienced, yes. But he also has a reputation for alienating players with his hard-charging style. In Anaheim, he resigned with 29 games to go in the 1999 season after a near player revolt. He also quit as manager of Orix.</p>
<p>“I’m not the evil devil that a lot of people made me out to be,” Collins said, “I learned to mellow a little bit.”</p>
<p>Collins took responsibility for allowing problems to fester in the Angels’ clubhouse.</p>
<p>“I will guarantee you that will not happen here,” he said.</p>
<p>A baseball lifer who spent 10 years in the minors as a player but never made it to the big leagues, Collins has deep respect for the sport and attributes his intensity partly to his expectations for how the game should be played.</p>
<p>He also refused to make excuses for managerial style.</p>
<p>“I have been around Tom Lasorda, Lou Piniella, Jim Leyland. And excuse me if they’re not intense,” Collins said. “But I believe to manage this game, you’ve got to have some intensity and some desire.”</p>
<p>Collins inherits a team that faces many of the same problems that led to a 79-83 record last season, including the loss of ace Johan Sanatana for the early part of the season. Yet he sees a team loaded with talent.</p>
<p>He spoke to All-Star David Wright on Monday and said he was “excited — probably not as excited as I am — but he’s very excited.”</p>
<p>One thing the feisty Collins will have that Manuel lacked is the support of a more focused front office headed by Alderson and his personally chosen top aides, Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi, both former GMs.</p>
<p>If the Mets are going to win, Collins will have to help them overcome a number of issues:</p>
<p>n Ace Johan Santana will miss the start of the season recovering from shoulder surgery.</p>
<p>n Jason Bay provided little power in his first season as the left fielder before a season-ending concussion in late July.</p>
<p>n Center fielder Carlos Beltran has been slowed the past two seasons by a knee injury. Collins might have to ask the five-time All-Star to switch to a corner outfield spot depending on his health.</p>
<p>n Closer Francisco Rodriguez is coming off thumb surgery for an injury suffered in an August fight with his girlfriend’s father outside the family lounge at Citi Field.</p>
<p>n Oliver Perez ($12 million) and Luis Castillo ($6 million) both have one year left on unwieldy deals. Beltran is owed $18.5 million in the final season of a seven-year deal.</p>
<p>The issues also extend beyond the roster. Popular equipment manager Charlie Samuels was fired after it was learned he was a subject in an investigation into illegal gambling.</p>
<p>NOTES: The Mets will offer LHP Pedro Feliciano arbitration. … Alderson said he will talk to Minaya about staying with the organization.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A Fired-Up Hire | false | https://abqjournal.com/233172/a-fired-up-hire.html | 2 |
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<p>Michael “Red” Wagener of Taos avoided a 45-minute hike by using the new lift to reach Kachina Peak last Friday. Journal writer Andy Stiny also made a few runs that day and says many Taos skiers are writers. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>It had been a while – maybe the early 2000s – since I had hiked and skied Kachina Peak, a part of Taos Ski Valley that looms over the back side of the ski area, and provides long expert runs and unparalleled views from the top. Back then, hiking was your only option.</p>
<p>On Friday the 13th, you could feel and hear the buzz around the valley as ski lifts cranked up at 9 a.m. for a journey locals call “around-the-world,” a circuitous route on several lifts to the back of the mountain for the opening of the new Kachina Peak Ski Lift.</p>
<p>The lift, put in last summer by helicopter, reaches far above the treeline where it unloads its riders at 12,450 feet. And now, if you don’t want to, and “I don’t” as the David Putty character from Seinfeld says in the National Car Rental commercial, you can bypass the 45-minute hike to the top of Kachina, made more challenging hiking in ski boots and carrying skis or snowboards.</p>
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<p>My last hike to the top was a spontaneous excursion that by happenstance involved old friends who, like me, are all involved in writing. I ran into Taos writers Allen Ferguson and Robert Westbrook on the deck of the Bavarian restaurant and we decided, why not?</p>
<p>Like me, these two like to travel to exotic places, are decent skiers and like to write. Westbrook has the genetic literary muse embedded in his DNA.</p>
<p>His mother was the late Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, who was F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s last paramour before he died on her Hollywood apartment floor of a heart attack – age 44 – reportedly with a Hershey’s candy bar in his hand.</p>
<p>Westbrook wrote “Intimate Lies,” partly spun from his mother’s written archives, which added to the iconic history of his famous mother and her equally famous alcoholic writer lover. Westbrook is well-known for his “The Torch Singer” trilogy thrillers.</p>
<p>Ferguson, the former Taos town attorney, is working on his novel “God’s Still Waiting at the Altar,” detailing the conflict between love and war during the Vietnam War era. In a very Hemingwayesque maneuver, the first thing Ferguson did upon retirement in 2011 was to climb Africa’s highest mountain, the 19,341-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro. He said he did not see any dead hyenas on his five-day trek to the top.</p>
<p>Skiing and writing seem to coalesce in northern New Mexico, where I spent two decades coming and going. Scratch a skier and find a writer. When I return, there are old friends to reconnect with and new ones to be found.</p>
<p>Long-time Taoseño, University of New Mexico professor and former “Horsefly (La Mosca)” owner, Bill Whaley has just published “Gringo Lessons: Twenty Years of Terror in Taos.” One chapter deals with Whaley’s adventures skiing and working with the Blakes and the Mayers in Taos Ski Valley in the late 1960s and ’70s. It belongs on the bedside table of anyone serious about knowing the back stories of the area.</p>
<p>Another UNM prof and “Horsefly” alumni, Steve Fox, has penned his memoir of his anxious years in Greece in the late 1960s. It’s titled “Odyssey: Love and Terror in Greece, 1969” and details his time there while serving in the U.S. Air Force, when he joins the resistance against the Greek military and then ends up back in Santa Fe on the night of Zozobra “to stumble into a new life.” Both authors are published by Nighthawk Press of Taos. Look for book-signings and readings around northern New Mexico.</p>
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<p>Then there’s the Old Masters of the Taos muse: Taylor Streit and John Nichols. Streit is the piscatorial master of state’s waters. He penned “Fly Fishing New Mexico” and “Man vs. Fish (aka The Old Man and the Trout),” among several others. Nichols is famous for “The Sterile Cuckoo” and “The Milagro Beanfield War” (aka Farewell to Farms).</p>
<p>But getting back to hiking Kachina, the thing I remember of our day’s camaraderie was it was fun; we all skied well and it was a fine day as we took in the view from the summit amid the Tibetan prayer flags others had planted. Going down, our skis caressed the mountain as if she were a woman and we dodged exposed rock outcroppings as Manolete would dance away from the horns of the bull. Back at the Bavarian, we toasted one another with beers in a clean, well-lighted (outdoor) place.</p>
<p>Returning to Taos after some 20-odd years – sandwiched between stays in South America – allows for renewing old acquaintances. On a chair lift on the way to Kachina on the 13th, sitting next to me I recognized whom I consider a Taos skiing legend, Bob Cooley, who had turned 88 years old the day before. The former graphics artist from Chicago has done fine art in Taos for 22 years when he is not skiing three or four days a week or playing a respectable game of tennis. Cooley said he would tackle Kachina on a less crowded day.</p>
<p>As the dozens unloaded at the top of the Kachina lift that Friday, one of those helping was Taos Ski Patroller Dave Hahn, who has summitted Mt. Everest many times and leads expeditions in Antarctica. We said “hellos” as the last time I saw him was in 2009 at the airport in Buenos Aires.</p>
<p>That night, after skiing and writing a story on the lift opening for this paper, my thighs ached. I hoofed it from where I was staying in town to the Taos Inn for some liquid medication. At the newspaper racks out back, I struck up a conversation with well-known Taos musician Brent Berry and made a new friend.</p>
<p>Inside, long-time Inn bartender and friend Doug MacLennan, who has rented out winter and summer yurts through the Southwest Nordic Center for decades, poured me a couple of good ones. The thighs started to have feeling again. Then Berry came up to me and presented me with a copy of his new CD of Americana music “Firefly.”</p>
<p>Taos: Scratch a local, find a new friend.</p>
<p /> | Taos: Where skiing and writing seem to coalesce | false | https://abqjournal.com/543918/taos-where-skiing-and-writing-seem-to-coalesce.html | 2 |
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<p>LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — John Calipari warned the growing pains would be ugly for his youngest Kentucky squad.</p>
<p>It’s been an annual caution from the coach, but this time he may not have been exaggerating. Kentucky has two losses in its last three Southeastern road contests.</p>
<p>But all is not lost.</p>
<p>The No. 18 Wildcats (14-4, 4-2) return home to face first-place Florida (13-5, 5-1) Saturday night with a chance to erase a one-game deficit to the Gators. And after playing four of its first six SEC games on the road, Kentucky gets to close January with three of its next four at Rupp Arena.</p>
<p>The immediate goal is correcting mistakes in a loss to South Carolina, a setback that Calipari said revealed how green his freshman really are.</p>
<p>“My issue right now is we’re playing a really good team and we needed some time to focus on them, but at this point we can’t,” Calipari said Friday. “If we get this right and it’s not good enough, then we move on to the next game.</p>
<p>“But if we get it right, then I’m going to feel good. If I don’t get it right, it doesn’t matter. At some point this has got to change and we’ve got to focus.”</p>
<p>Though Calipari is accustomed to annually guiding a new group of talented yet inexperienced teenagers through high expectations, this particular group is his youngest with no upperclassmen among his regulars. The communication and unselfish play he has stressed was absent as Kentucky blew a 14-point, second-half lead in Tuesday’s <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/silva-leads-gamecocks-76-68-win-over-no-18-wildcats" type="external">76-68 loss at South Carolina</a> .</p>
<p>Already short handed with point guard Quade Green sidelined for a third straight game because of a back issue, the Wildcats had three players foul out in the contest. Kentucky was also outrebounded 40-35 and recorded a season-low seven assists — with none from Hamidou Diallo or fellow guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.</p>
<p>Calipari said the performance was the first time the Wildcats truly resembled freshmen but isn’t using youth as an excuse. If anything, he’s pushing players shake their youthful bad habits along with the memory of that defeat.</p>
<p>Calipari “just wants us to play harder the whole 40 minutes,” forward PJ Washington said. “We’ve been scrimmaging a lot more to get us in game-like situations. ... You can never really try too hard. You just have to keep that mindset and just move on to the next opponent.”</p>
<p>One bright spot for Kentucky’s rotation was the debut of 6-foot-9 forward Jarred Vanderbilt after being sidelined with a left foot injury. The freshman had six points, five rebounds and a team-high three assists in 14 minutes against the Gamecocks, an encouraging start that has allowed the Wildcats to scrimmage more with him.</p>
<p>“He plays with a lot of energy,” freshman forward Nick Richards said of Vanderbilt. “We see it in practice a lot. He plays hard every possession. That could be one thing that could help us.”</p>
<p>Green’s availability meanwhile remains a game-time decision. If nothing else, Calipari would like him back to have another shooter, not to mention with someone who communicates with teammates. On the other hand, Green’s absence has allowed Gilgeous-Alexander to play the point alongside Diallo.</p>
<p>But after fouls and shaky play forced Kentucky to use a number of combinations at South Carolina, the mission this weekend is ensuring whatever lineup is out there plays more consistently to slow down a Florida squad seeking its eighth win in nine games.</p>
<p>“It just comes with your mental” approach, Washington said. “You just gotta be prepared every day in and every day out and just fight on a consistent basis, just get shots up in the gym and just continue to focus on you and getting better.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a>For more AP college basketball coverage: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and</p>
<p>LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — John Calipari warned the growing pains would be ugly for his youngest Kentucky squad.</p>
<p>It’s been an annual caution from the coach, but this time he may not have been exaggerating. Kentucky has two losses in its last three Southeastern road contests.</p>
<p>But all is not lost.</p>
<p>The No. 18 Wildcats (14-4, 4-2) return home to face first-place Florida (13-5, 5-1) Saturday night with a chance to erase a one-game deficit to the Gators. And after playing four of its first six SEC games on the road, Kentucky gets to close January with three of its next four at Rupp Arena.</p>
<p>The immediate goal is correcting mistakes in a loss to South Carolina, a setback that Calipari said revealed how green his freshman really are.</p>
<p>“My issue right now is we’re playing a really good team and we needed some time to focus on them, but at this point we can’t,” Calipari said Friday. “If we get this right and it’s not good enough, then we move on to the next game.</p>
<p>“But if we get it right, then I’m going to feel good. If I don’t get it right, it doesn’t matter. At some point this has got to change and we’ve got to focus.”</p>
<p>Though Calipari is accustomed to annually guiding a new group of talented yet inexperienced teenagers through high expectations, this particular group is his youngest with no upperclassmen among his regulars. The communication and unselfish play he has stressed was absent as Kentucky blew a 14-point, second-half lead in Tuesday’s <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/silva-leads-gamecocks-76-68-win-over-no-18-wildcats" type="external">76-68 loss at South Carolina</a> .</p>
<p>Already short handed with point guard Quade Green sidelined for a third straight game because of a back issue, the Wildcats had three players foul out in the contest. Kentucky was also outrebounded 40-35 and recorded a season-low seven assists — with none from Hamidou Diallo or fellow guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.</p>
<p>Calipari said the performance was the first time the Wildcats truly resembled freshmen but isn’t using youth as an excuse. If anything, he’s pushing players shake their youthful bad habits along with the memory of that defeat.</p>
<p>Calipari “just wants us to play harder the whole 40 minutes,” forward PJ Washington said. “We’ve been scrimmaging a lot more to get us in game-like situations. ... You can never really try too hard. You just have to keep that mindset and just move on to the next opponent.”</p>
<p>One bright spot for Kentucky’s rotation was the debut of 6-foot-9 forward Jarred Vanderbilt after being sidelined with a left foot injury. The freshman had six points, five rebounds and a team-high three assists in 14 minutes against the Gamecocks, an encouraging start that has allowed the Wildcats to scrimmage more with him.</p>
<p>“He plays with a lot of energy,” freshman forward Nick Richards said of Vanderbilt. “We see it in practice a lot. He plays hard every possession. That could be one thing that could help us.”</p>
<p>Green’s availability meanwhile remains a game-time decision. If nothing else, Calipari would like him back to have another shooter, not to mention with someone who communicates with teammates. On the other hand, Green’s absence has allowed Gilgeous-Alexander to play the point alongside Diallo.</p>
<p>But after fouls and shaky play forced Kentucky to use a number of combinations at South Carolina, the mission this weekend is ensuring whatever lineup is out there plays more consistently to slow down a Florida squad seeking its eighth win in nine games.</p>
<p>“It just comes with your mental” approach, Washington said. “You just gotta be prepared every day in and every day out and just fight on a consistent basis, just get shots up in the gym and just continue to focus on you and getting better.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a>For more AP college basketball coverage: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and</p> | Ugly growing pains: No. 18 Kentucky needs to fix mistakes | false | https://apnews.com/087507defbbf4f47af2b224d565656be | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Calvin Freiburger writes</a> that for a while now, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has been departing his alleged area of expertise, comedy, to lecture the country about our moral obligation to adopt whatever policies he wants us to on issues such as <a href="" type="internal">socialized medicine</a> and <a href="" type="internal">gun control</a>. He shed tears to convey that he’s Super Serious, You Guys, and even <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/21321/watch-kimmel-attacks-gop-senator-over-health-care-hank-berrien#" type="external">became the namesake for a test</a> of whether a healthcare reform proposal is compassionate or cruel.</p>
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<p>So one might reasonably expect that when a moral issue arises on which Kimmel might have some actual standing, authority, or influence — an issue such as, oh, just off the top of my head, widely-known sexual harassment, assault, and exploitation of women by powerful film executives that nearly the entire entertainment industry chose to keep silent about for years despite uniformly claiming to be feminists — Kimmel might muster the same compassion and moral indignation to condemn injustice and help those in need.</p>
<p>Yet oddly enough, it hasn’t exactly worked out that way. As Conor Beck at the Washington Free Beacon <a href="http://freebeacon.com/culture/late-night-comedy-shows-ignore-weinstein-allegations/" type="external">pointed out</a> last week, Kimmel (and almost every other liberal primetime comedian, for that matter) declined to reference the bombshell sex-assault revelations that emerged surrounding Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein last week. As TFPP <a href="" type="internal">covered</a>, it took a direct, public challenge from presidential son Donald Trump Jr. for Kimmel to bother with so much as a tweet on the subject, and even then his impulse was to change the subject:</p>
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<p>Does Kimmel’s silence mean that, to paraphrase Kimmel himself on guns, he “knows he bears some responsibility” for Weinstein getting away with it for so long?</p>
<p>Well, Jimmy has finally attempted to his double standard in an interview with “Good Morning America.” The Daily Beast <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jimmy-kimmel-defends-lack-of-harvey-weinstein-jokes-im-not-the-moral-conscience-of-america?via=twitter_page" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
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<p>“First of all, the Harvey Weinstein thing, people like this false equivalence of that’s somehow equivalent to what happened in Las Vegas,” Kimmel added, arguing that the alleged assault of dozens of women does not deserve the same reaction as the killing of nearly 60 people. He said that Weinstein is “not a friend of mine,” adding, “I’m not in the movie business.” As a once and future Oscar host who is friends with many of the movie stars in Weinstein’s orbit, that claim is a hard one to buy.</p>
<p>“And I’ll add that that story came out like I think moments before we went to tape on Thursday and we didn’t have a show on Friday,” Kimmel continued […]</p>
<p>But even when Kimmel did finally talk about Weinstein on Monday, he used the story more as a tool to go after Trump Jr. than anything else. “Next time you’re defending your father and you think it’s a good idea to draw a comparison between him and a freshly accused sexual predator, don’t. It doesn’t help,” Kimmel told him, before delivering one joke about Weinstein just to prove that he could […]</p>
<p>“They’re saying that I’m calling myself the moral conscience of America, which I most certainly never did and most certainly never would,” he declared.</p>
<p>Hoo boy, where to begin?</p>
<p>First, in the interest of being fairer and more honest toward Kimmel than he would ever be toward any conservative, let’s agree that the point about the impracticality of altering a prerecorded show on short notice is reasonable. However, that’s the only part of Kimmel’s defense that holds up.</p>
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<p>Second, Kimmel knows full well that nobody has suggested that Weinstein and Paddock’s crimes are equivalent; the issue is that he and his field rush to their high horse on stories they think reflect poorly on their political foes — regardless of whether they have anything accurate, intelligent, or productive to say on the subject — while ignoring and downplaying moral outrages that reflect poorly on their political allies. Kimmel’s own response quoted above — maybe Harvey raped women, but let’s talk about Trump’s crude discussion of consensual activity instead — proves that better than I ever could.</p>
<p>Third, of course Kimmel presented himself as a national conscience on guns and healthcare. Celebrities have been employing this dodge for a long time, lecturing the public on whatever political issue they want then turing around and hiding behind “hey, I’m just an entertainer” whenever they’re challenged to put up or shut up.</p>
<p>Pathetic. Simply pathetic.</p>
<p>What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</p> | Cartoon Exposes Moral PHONINESS of Jimmy Kimmel | true | http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/cartoon-exposes-moral-phoniness-jimmy-kimmel | 0 |
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<p>Given recent controversy over the <a href="" type="internal">Obama Administration’s proposal</a> to absorb an additional 10,000 refugees - mostly Muslims - from Syria in light of <a href="" type="internal">last week’s Islamic terrorist attacks</a> in Paris, CNN sought to do its part to assist the President’s agenda.</p>
<p>Chris Cuomo and Tom Foreman did a fact-check of sorts, seemingly debunking concerns expressed by Republicans of national security threats related to the intake of Muslim refugees and migrants. Foreman took on a claim made by Richard Bentley, the Republican Governor of Alabama. On Tuesday, Bentley told Cuomo all “major threats” to national security that had been stopped after 9/11 came from refugee programs. Foreman claimed the only major terrorist threat in the country post-9/11 involving refugees was the Boston Marathon bombing; the two brothers Dzokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to the United States as refugees.</p>
<p>Cuomo and Foreman both neglected to identify the religious and ideological foundations that compose the common denominator of Islamic terrorism. They also both ignored the <a href="" type="internal">national security implications</a> of admitting tens of thousands of Muslim immigrants in an era of widespread Islamic terrorism, and how Islamist groups like ISIS/ISIL have <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2958517/The-Mediterranean-sea-chaos-Gaddafi-s-chilling-prophecy-interview-ISIS-threatens-send-500-000-migrants-Europe-psychological-weapon-bombed.html" type="external">openly declared</a> their intentions to infiltrate the West via refugee programs. These omissions lead the audience to believe that there is no overlap between Islamic terrorism and the Muslims proposed to be brought into the U.S. via Syria as refugees. They also chose not to examine the difficulty in vetting for such risks. Screening for terrorist intentions is not akin to blood tests to identify various communicable diseases.</p>
<p>In the next segment, Cuomo described national security concerns pertaining to Muslim refugees as “xenophobia." In the next breath, however, he described these concerns as having a “rational basis,” given last week’s Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris. A phobia is, <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobia" type="external">by definition</a>, an irrational fear.</p>
<p>David Gergen said the overwhelming sentiment he is hearing across the country is one of worry over Democrat proposals to bring in thousands of Muslim refugees from Syria. He said “even liberals” are expressing such concerns, given that at least one of Islamic terrorists in Paris - one of the suicide bombers - had a <a href="" type="internal">Syrian passport</a> on his person. Gergen also noted the near-impossibility of implementing an <a href="" type="internal">effective vetting process</a> for the refugees from Syria.</p>
<p>Gergen closed with, “I’m sympathetic with those who say, ‘Let’s hold off on this, let’s suspend ‘til we get a system in place that can reassure the American people that this is gonna be safe’.”</p> | CNN: Not Yet Enough Dead Americans to Justify GOP's Refugee Worries | true | https://dailywire.com/news/1209/cnn-not-yet-enough-dead-americans-justify-gops-robert-kraychik | 2015-11-18 | 0 |
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<p>Obama is finally fulfilling one of his main campaign promises, by announcing his plans for the closing of Guantanamo Bay. The 60 inmates, all of who are ranking leaders of terroristic groups, will be transferred to military bases in three US states. Sometimes it seems like Obama is intent on doing everything possible to hurt the country before he leaves. He's trying to destroy one of our greatest resources in the war on terror. The incoming president in January needs to immediately rescind this if Obama get's away with it?.</p>
<p>From&#160; <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/23/pentagon-to-unveil-plan-to-close-gitmo-transfer-detainees-to-us.html" type="external">Fox News</a>:</p>
<p>The Pentagon has recently tried to convince lawmakers to close the detention center with a draft plan to move nearly 60 detainees to a facility on the U.S. mainland that would cost as much as $475 million to build but could save roughly $180 million in annual operating costs.</p>
<p>The U.S. officials say the plan to be announced Tuesday considers 13 U.S. locations - seven prison facilities in&#160;Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas&#160;already proposed and six other locations on military bases.</p>
<p>They also say the plan doesn't recommend a preferred site and that cost estimates are just a starting point for negotiations with Congress.</p>
<p>It's unclear whether the plan addresses what to do with any top-members of the Islamic State terror groups if they have been captured on the battlefield.</p>
<p>According to the officials, the U.S. facilities would cost $265 million to $305 million to operate each year. The annual operating cost for Guantanamo is $445 million, but the officials said the Cuba detention center will need about $225 million in repairs and construction costs for continued use.</p>
<p>0 comments</p> | BREAKING: Obama to close Guantanamo Bay, transfer inmates to mainland US | true | http://freedomsfinalstand.com/breaking-obama-to-close-guantanamo-bay-transfer-inmates-to-mainland-us/ | 0 |
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<p>FRESNO, California — The formerly tiny band of journalists and academics who specialize in North Korea has expanded dramatically in numbers over the past several years. Watching this has been a cause for rejoicing.</p>
<p>The pendulum may have swung a bit too far, though, judging from the current mad rush by what has become a veritable horde of Pyongyang watchers to put forth theories about the meaning of Kim Jong Un’s mysterious month-long absence from the public eye.</p>
<p>On the basis of scanty evidence we’re hearing theories that:</p>
<p>Obvously what the waiting world really needs is another theory explaining why Kim — even as state media continued to report such activities as sending or receiving greetings or <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/09/us-northkorea-kim-idUSKCN0HY09T20141009?utm_source=AM+Nukes+Roundup&amp;utm_campaign=e8e89dba44-AM_Nukes_Roundup_October_9&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_547ee518ec-e8e89dba44-391730489" type="external">tribute</a> — halted his usual schedule of public appearances. After all, as the wheelchair-bound US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a polio victim, proved, even an indisposed leader may be able to prop himself up behind a desk for a reassuring photo.</p>
<p>Here's a theory to try on: Kim and his colleagues are playing a mind game with us, similar to a macabre hoax perpetrated in his grandfather's time.</p>
<p>In 1986 North Korean loudspeakers at the Demilitarized Zone, the border with South Korea, <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KOR-01-250913.html" type="external">broadcast</a> that President Kim Il Sung had been killed. North Korean students in China removed the lapel portrait pins with which they had demonstrated loyalty to the Great Leader.</p>
<p>One theory on that incident is that it was a head fake done for the purpose of gauging how neighboring countries and the United States would respond to the eventual death of Kim Il Sung.</p>
<p>South Korea publicly announced Kim’s reported death and placed its military on alert. The loudspeaker announcements ceased, the students put their pins back on and Kim, who was 74 at the time and very much alive, made a public <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1986-11-22/news/mn-15271_1_intelligence-report" type="external">appearance</a> — hugely embarrassing the South’s government.</p>
<p>Kim lived for eight more years. No explanation ever came from the regime.</p>
<p>A similar reason might be behind encouraging the world to wonder this time what, if anything, has happened to the 31-year-old Kim Jong Un — especially if the “ <a href="" type="external">discomfort</a>” that the country’s official news media mentioned he’d been suffering was an illness serious enough to decrease life expectancy.</p>
<p>If so, the regime no doubt wanted to know whether China on the one hand, and the US and maybe South Korea on the other, would get together to plan a coordinated response to a regime change or collapse.</p>
<p>There’s no report that they’ve done so. Although American strategic thinkers have argued for some time that such joint planning is urgently needed, the Chinese haven’t cared to go that far in distancing themselves from their delinquent ward.</p>
<p>But there could have been another reason for the North Koreans — perhaps taking their cue from a real (if not life-threatening) illness <a href="" type="external">or minor injury</a> that took Kim out of commission for a while — to play up the drama.</p>
<p>World events, most notably in Ukraine and the Middle East, had taken the news focus away from perennial bad boy North Korea. That couldn’t be permitted to continue, or the regime would be hard pressed to stick with its M.O. of extorting concessions from enemies.</p>
<p>But what could Pyongyang do to regain the spotlight?</p>
<p>After all, the North’s rulers knew that the timing in terms of relations with protector China was by no means propitious for, say, a fourth nuclear test, what with Beijing still steaming over the third one.</p>
<p>Circumstantial evidence seems consistent with the idea that the North’s vagueness about Kim’s absence could amount largely to a publicity stunt, in the category of confusing the enemy with inconsistency.</p>
<p>Yes, a surprise trip by Kim’s chief deputies to South Korea for the closing ceremony of the Asian Games had a domestic political function. It was a means of further associating the regime, in the eyes of the public back home, with the <a href="http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?num=12378&amp;cataId=nk01500" type="external">remarkable achievements</a> of the North Korean athletes.</p>
<p>But in the context of the North’s relations with the South, the trip was also an opportunity to launch a new round of confusing diplomatic and military behavior. A pleasant luncheon meeting with South Korean officials that resulted in an announcement that more formal talks would be held later was followed by — what else? — military <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/141008/n-korea-lodges-complaint-s-korea-over-firefight-yellow" type="external">confrontations</a>, along the disputed sea border.</p>
<p>Long-time Asia correspondent Bradley K. Martin, the author of “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Under-Loving-Care-Fatherly-Leader/dp/0312323220/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1389308635&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=under+the+loving+care+of+the+fatherly+leader" type="external">Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty</a>,” currently holds the Roger Tatarian Lecturership in Journalism at Fresno State University.</p> | Kim Jong Un’s disappearance may be a trick | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-10-10/kim-jong-un-s-disappearance-may-be-trick | 2014-10-10 | 3 |
<p>The Senate rejected a liberal-led move Monday to increase aid for workers who lose their jobs to imports, pushing for passage by week's end of major trade legislation sought by President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>The 45-41 vote was well short of the 60 needed, and reflected the unusual political forces at work on a bill to strengthen Obama's hand in negotiating global trade deals.</p>
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<p>In remarks on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the trade legislation and two other bills - one to renew the Patriot Act, the other to keep federal highway funds flowing - would receive final votes by week's end or senators would have to delay a scheduled Memorial Day recess.</p>
<p>"I know we became used to hearing these types of statements in the past, but senators should know I'm quite serious," he said. He referred to frequent threats from Nevada's Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, the former majority leader, who frequently threatened to cancel vacations if bills weren't passed, but rarely if ever followed through.</p>
<p>The anti-terrorism Patriot Act and the highway measure are both controversial in their own right. But the trade measure has dominated the Senate's agenda for several days, with Republicans nearly unanimous in working to give a Democratic president new authority and union-backed Democrats opposed.</p>
<p>Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who opposes the legislation, led the effort to increase the amount of retraining assistance in the bill from $450 million a year to $575 million. He said Congress had agreed to the higher figure the last time it voted on the program, and added it was the level contained in Obama's budget. A large majority of workers who receive retraining are able to find and keep new jobs, he said, helping them "compete in the global economy."</p>
<p>But Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said increasing the amount of money could make it harder to pass the overall trade bill because it could increase Republican resistance.</p>
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<p>All Democrats supported the move except Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, and all Republicans except for Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Susan Collins opposed it.</p>
<p>Separately, a proposal by Sen. Jim Lankford, R-Okla., requiring U.S. negotiators to take religious freedom laws into account in any country taking part in trade talks, cleared on a unanimous 92-0 vote. "Let's start exporting the values that we hold dear," he said.</p>
<p>The trade bill would permit the administration to negotiate trade deals that Congress could approve or reject, but not change. Previous presidents have wielded the same authority, and supporters of the bill say it is it is essential if other countries are to negotiate seriously with American officials. The White House wants the legislation as it tries to wrap up a proposed 12-nation deal among countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. A separate agreement with European Union nations is also a possibility.</p>
<p>While the bill appears to have the 60 votes needed to assure passage in the Senate, combined opposition from union-backed Democrats and Republicans distrustful of Obama make its path more perilous in the House.</p>
<p>In an evident bid to reassure rank-and-file Democrats, Republican congressional leaders and Wyden issued a statement during the day pledging to send Obama separate legislation to enforce trade deals by the end of June.</p>
<p>The president has campaigned energetically for the measure, and Secretary of State John Kerry arranged to dip into domestic politics Tuesday with a pro-trade speech at a Boeing Corp. factory in Washington state. As a senator from Massachusetts, he supported trade measures.</p> | Senate rejects more aid for workers who lose jobs to imports as trade bill vote approaches | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/05/18/senate-rejects-more-aid-for-workers-who-lose-jobs-to-imports-as-trade-bill-vote.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>On National Dog Day, we tip our collars to one service industry making serious bones.</p>
<p>In the United States alone, there are 77.8 million pooches gnawing on raw hides and taking naps on your couch, according to a 2015-2016 APPA National Pet Owners Survey. Ruffly (had to do it) 37%-47% of households own dogs. On average, owners spend a yearly $269 for food, $235 on routine vet visits, $61 on treats and $47 on toys, according to APPA’s survey. But that’s doesn’t even scratch the financial surface.</p>
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<p>Today on National Dog Day, we tip our collars to these pups and dig into one of the most lucrative and necessary businesses to keeping our puppies fit and feeling great; dog walking.</p>
<p>There are nearly 30,000 dog walkers employed in the U.S., and, according to IBIS World, it is estimated to be a $901 million a year business.</p>
<p>“The thing that makes us unique is our geographic diversity, we are in ten thousand cities across the US, we have 175,000 different services being offered and we have a lot of choice,” Aaron Easterly, CEO of Rover, tells FOXBusiness.com.</p>
<p>Rover is a service website and app that allows you to contact dog walkers, pet sitters and schedule pop-in doggy day care and boarding for your pooch. Since its launch in 2011, Rover has grown to over a million and a half members, 65,000 sitters/walkers and close to a million walks.</p>
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<p>Other apps as well, like Swift (which only operates in New York City) and Wag! offer similar services.</p>
<p>“Wag! is all about transparency and accountability. Wag! launched in January of 2015 and from day one has provided a GPS tracking system that allows users to watch their dog’s walk in real time,” Josh Viner co-founder and CEO, Wag! tells FOXBuisness.com.</p>
<p>As long as dogs continue to be man's best friend, there will be a need for dog walkers.</p>
<p>Wag! says it can eliminate all the stress of boarding, and can be booked at the very last minute for as short as one day, or as long as two weeks.</p>
<p>Background checks, interviews, a strict walker vetting process, owner meet and greets as well as photos, videos and post-pup walk reports are essential to keeping owners, and Fido happy.</p>
<p>“As long as dogs continue to be man's best friend, there will be a need for dog walkers. Our dogs are members of our family and deserve the same amounts of love and care, even if that means hiring a little extra help to give it to them,” says Viner.</p>
<p>Be sure to watch our full interview with Rover’s CEO above.</p> | Sit. Stay. The Barking Business of Dog Walking | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/08/26/sit-stay-barking-business-dog-walking.html | 2016-08-26 | 0 |
<p>Abraham Lincoln, as president, chose to reply to an “Address” from the&#160;London-based International Workingmen’s Association. The “Address,” drafted by Karl Marx, congratulated Lincoln on his reelection for a second term. In some resonant&#160;and complex paragraphs, the “Address” heralded the world-historical significance of what had become a war against slavery. The “Address” declared that victory for the North would be a turning point for nineteenth-century politics, an affirmation of free labor, and a defeat for the most reactionary capitalists who depended on slavery and racial oppression.</p>
<p>Lincoln saw only a tiny selection of the avalanche of mail he was sent, employing several secretaries to deal with it. But the US Ambassador in London, Charles Francis Adams, decided to forward the “Address” to Washington. Encouraging every sign of support for the Union was central to Adams’s mission. The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 had made this task much easier, but there were still many sections of the British elite who sympathized with the Confederacy and some who favored awarding it diplomatic recognition if only public opinion could be brought to accept this.</p>
<p>The “Address” carried, beside that of Marx, the signatures of several prominent British trade unionists as well as&#160;French socialists and German social democrats. The Ambassador wrote to the IWA, explaining that the president had asked him to convey his response to their “Address.” He thanked them for their support and expressed his conviction that the defeat of the rebellion would indeed be a victory for the cause of humanity everywhere. He declared that his country would abstain from&#160;“unlawful intervention” but observed that “The United States regarded their&#160;cause in the present conflict with slavery-maintaining insurgents as the cause of human nature, and they derived new encouragement to persevere from the testimony of the working men of Europe.”</p>
<p>Lincoln would have wished to thank British workers, especially those who supported the North despite the distress caused by the Northern blockade and the resulting “cotton famine.” The appearance of the names of several&#160;German revolutionaries would not have surprised him; the defeat of the 1848 revolutions in Europe had swelled the flood of German migrants arriving in North America. At an earlier date — in 1843 — Marx himself had thought of immigrating to Texas, going so far as to apply to the mayor of Trier, his birthplace, for an immigration permit.</p>
<p>What path would world history have taken if Marx had become a Texan? We will never know. What we do know is that Marx remained in touch with many of the exiles. His famous essay on “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon” was first published in New York in German. Not all German émigrés were radicals, but many were. With their beer halls, patriotic songs, and kindergartens, they helped to broaden the distinctly Puritan culture of Republicanism. They had been educated to despise slaveholding, and eventually nearly two hundred thousand German Americans volunteered for the Union army.</p>
<p>There was an affinity between the German democratic nationalism of 1848 and the free labor doctrine of the newly-established US Republican Party, so it is not surprising that a number of Marx’s friends and comrades not only became staunch supporters of the Northern cause but received senior commissions. Joseph Weydemeyer and August Willich, both former members of the Communist League, were promoted first to the ranks of Colonel and then to General.</p>
<p>Lincoln may have recognized the name Karl Marx when he read the IWA “Address,” since Marx had been a prolific contributor to the&#160;New York Daily&#160;Tribune, the most influential Republican newspaper of the 1850s. Charles A. Dana, publisher of the Tribune, first met Marx in Cologne in 1848 at a time when he edited the widely read&#160;Neue Rheinische Zeitung. In 1852, Dana invited Marx to become a correspondent for the&#160;Tribune. Over the next decade he wrote — with some help from his&#160;friend Engels — over five hundred articles for the&#160;Tribune. Hundreds of these pieces were published under Marx’s name, but eighty-four appeared as unsigned editorials. He wrote on a global range of topics, sometimes occupying two or three pages of a sixteen-page newspaper.</p>
<p>Once the Civil War began, US newspapers lost interest in foreign coverage unless it directly related to the war. Marx wrote several pieces for European papers explaining what was at stake in the conflict and contesting the claim, widely heard in European capitals, that slavery had nothing to do with the conflict. Important sections of the British and French elites had strong commercial ties to the US South, buying huge quantities of slave-grown cotton. But some European liberals with no direct link to the slave economy argued that secession by the Southern states had to be accepted because of the principle of self-determination. They attacked the North’s option for war and its failure to repudiate slavery.</p>
<p>In Marx’s eyes, British observers who claimed to deplore slavery yet backed the Confederacy were simply humbugs. He attacked the visceral hostility to the North evident in the&#160;Economist&#160;and the&#160;Times&#160;(of London). These papers claimed that the real cause of the conflict was Northern protectionism against the free trade favored by the South. Marx rebutted their arguments in a series of brilliant articles for&#160;Die Presse, a Viennese publication, which caustically demolished their economic determinism, and instead sketched out an alternative account — subtle, structural, and political — of the origins of the war.</p>
<p>Marx insisted that secession had been prompted by the Southern elite’s political fears. They knew that power within the Union was shifting against them. The South was losing its tight grip on federal institutions because of the dynamism of the Northwest, a destination for many new immigrants. As the Northwest Territory matured&#160;into free states, the South found itself outnumbered; the North was loath to recognize any new slave states. The slaveholders had alienated Northerners by requiring them to arrest and return fugitive slaves, yet they knew they needed the wholehearted support of their fellow citizens if they were to defend their “peculiar institution.” Lincoln’s election was seen as a deadly threat because he owed Southerners nothing and had promised to oppose any expansion of slavery.</p>
<p>Marx gave full support to the Union cause, even though Lincoln initially refused to make emancipation a war goal. Marx was confident that the clash of rival social regimes, based on opposing systems of labor, would sooner or later surface as the real issue. While consistently supporting the North, he wrote that the Union would only triumph if it adopted the revolutionary anti-slavery measures advocated by Wendell Phillips and other radical abolitionists. He was particularly impressed by Phillips’s speeches in 1862 calling to strike down all compromises with slavery. He approvingly quoted Phillips’s dictum that “God had placed the thunderbolt of emancipation” in Northern hands and they should use it.</p>
<p>Marx continued to correspond with Dana and sent him his articles (Dana was fluent in German). By this time Dana had left the world of journalism to become Lincoln’s “eyes and ears” as a special commissioner in the War Department, touring the fronts and reporting to the White House that Ulysses Grant was the man to back. Marx argued in&#160;Die Presse&#160;in March 1862 that the Union armies should abandon their encirclement strategy and seek to cut the Confederacy in two. Dana may have noticed that Grant had reached the same conclusion by instinct and experience. In 1863, Dana became Assistant Secretary of the War Department.</p>
<p>Marx was delighted when Lincoln — emboldened by the abolitionist campaign and a radicalization of Northern&#160;opinion — announced his intention to issue an Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. The Proclamation would make it difficult for the British or French governments to award diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy. It also allowed for the enrollment of freedmen in the Union army.</p>
<p>Marx and Lincoln had very divergent opinions on business corporations and wage labor, but from today’s perspective they shared something important: they both loathed exploitation and regarded labor as the ultimate source of value. In his first message to Congress in December 1861, Lincoln criticized the “effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of government.” Instead, he insisted, “labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor .&#160;.&#160;. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”</p>
<p>Lincoln believed that in America the wage laborer was free to rise by his own efforts and could become a&#160;professional, or even an employer. Marx held that this picture of social mobility was a mirage, and that only a handful could succeed in acquiring economic independence.</p>
<p>For Marx, the wage worker was only partly free since he had to sell his labor to another so that he and his family might live. But, since he was not a slave, the free worker could organize and agitate for, say, a shorter working day and free education. Weydemeyer had launched an American Labor Federation in 1853 which backed these objectives and which declared its ranks open to all “regardless of occupation, language, color, or sex.” These themes became central to the politics of Marx’s followers in America.</p>
<p>Lincoln’s assassination led Marx to write a new “Address” from the IWA to his successor, with a fulsome tribute to the slain president. In this text, Marx described Lincoln as “a man neither to be browbeaten by adversity, nor intoxicated by success, inflexibly pressing on to his great goal, never compromising&#160;it by blind haste, slowly maturing his steps, never retracing them .&#160;.&#160;. doing his titanic work as humbly and homely as heaven-born rulers do little things with the grandiloquence of pomp and state. Such, indeed, was the modesty of this great and good man that the world only discovered him a hero after he had fallen a martyr.” However, the tragic loss could not prevent Northern victory opening the way to a “new era of the emancipation of labor.”</p>
<p>Marx and Engels were both soon troubled by the actions of Andrew Johnson, the new president. On 15 July 1865, Engels wrote to his friend attacking Johnson: “His hatred of Negroes comes out more and more violently .&#160;.&#160;. If things go on like this, in six months all the old villains of secession will be sitting in Congress at Washington. Without colored suffrage, nothing whatever can be done there.” Radical Republicans soon came to the same conclusion.</p>
<p>In the immediate aftermath of the war, and thanks in part to the publication of the IWA addresses, the&#160;International attracted much interest and support in the United States.</p>
<p>Marx was putting the finishing touches on&#160;Capital: Volume I&#160;in 1866–67, and included a new section at this late stage on the determinants of the length of the working day. The call for an eight-hour day had emerged as a key demand in several US states. In 1867, the IWA welcomed the appearance of a National Labor Union in the US, formed to spread the demand as a unifying goal.</p>
<p>At its first conference the NLU declared: “The National Labor Union knows no&#160;north, no south, no east, no west, neither color nor sex, on the question of the rights of labor.” Within the space of a year, eight different Northern states adopted the eight-hour day for public employees.</p>
<p>The regions of the United States offered very different possibilities for political action. Only the presence of Union troops in the South prevented white vigilantes, many of them Confederate veterans, from terrorizing the freedmen. In Tennessee, South Carolina, and Louisiana, there were black congresses that drew up a “Declaration of Rights and Wrongs,” insisting that freedom would be a mockery if it did not entail equal access to buses, trains, and hotels, schools and universities.</p>
<p>In the North and West, the boldest radicals organized sections of the International; by the late 1860s there were about fifty sections and a membership of perhaps five thousand. In December 1871 the IWA in New York organized a seventy-thousand-strong demonstration of sympathy with the victims slaughtered in the suppression of the Paris Commune. The throng prominently featured a black militia called the Skidmore Guards; many trade unionists with their banners; Victoria Woodhull and the feminist leaders of Section 12; an Irish band; and a contingent marching behind the Cuban flag. Many of the unions founded at this time included the word “International” in their name.</p>
<p>But by the early 1870s Northern support for Reconstruction, with its expensive occupation of the South and its bold affronts to racial prejudice, was beginning to ebb. A wave of corruption scandals sapped Republican morale. The real problem, however, was that the Republican program had come apart at the seams. Lincoln had hoped to build a strong and authoritative federal government in Washington, and thus obtain respect for the rule of law throughout the restored Union. In Marx’s eyes, Lincoln would have built the sort of “bourgeois democratic republic” that would have allowed for the emergence of a labor party dedicated to free education, progressive taxation, and an eight-hour work day.</p>
<p>These hopes were dashed. Lincoln’s assassination, the chaos and reaction of the Johnson presidency, and the failure of Ulysses Grant, his successor, to impose moral leadership all undermined or compromised the promise of an authoritative, undivided federal government. Marx was not surprised by the emergence of “robber baron” capitalists, nor by the bitter class strife they unleashed. He had expected — indeed predicted — as much.</p>
<p>But the failure of the federal state to impose its authority on the South was another matter, as was the Northern bosses’ ability to crush strikes by deploying thousands of special constables and Pinkerton men.</p>
<p>The end of slavery certainly validated the momentary alignment of Lincoln and Marx. During Reconstruction (roughly 1868–1876), freedmen could vote, their children could go to school, and there were many black elected officials. In the North, there were gains for the eight-hour movement and the first attempts to regulate the railroad corporations.</p>
<p>But something of the conservative spirit of the antebellum republic, with its aversion to federal taxation, lingered on in the weakness of the federal power. In an ominous development, the Supreme Court declared that the&#160;progressive income tax, introduced by the Lincoln administration in 1862, was unconstitutional. Without the income tax, paying for the war would be much harder and future redistribution impossible.</p>
<p>Another retrograde step was a Supreme Court ruling that construed the promise of equal treatment of “all persons” in the Fourteenth Amendment of 1868 — a measure introduced to protect the freedmen — as offering protection to the new corporations, since they were also deemed to enjoy the status of “persons.” The direct result of this decision was to make it far more difficult for federal or local authorities to regulate corporations (the ruling is still in force).</p>
<p>Reconstruction ended with a deal between Republicans and Democrats that resolved the deadlocked Electoral College of 1876 by confirming the fractured authority of the state. This deal allowed the candidate with fewer votes to enter the White House while requiring the withdrawal of all federal troops from the South. This gave free reign to the lynch mobs.</p>
<p>Within a few months, Grant himself complained, the federal troops that had been prevented from tackling the Ku Klux Klan were sent against the railworkers during the Great Strike of 1877, suppressing it at the cost of a hundred lives. American workers fought back tenaciously, but often on a regional or state-by-state basis.</p>
<p>To many, syndicalism made more sense than the labor party that Marx and Engels advocated, though Marx’s penetrating analysis of capitalism still had an impact on people as diverse as Samuel Gompers (founder of the AFL), Lucy Parsons (syndicalist, feminist, founder of the IWW), and Eugene Debs (Socialist).</p>
<p>The defeat of Lincoln’s vision of a unified, democratic, and authoritative republic was a defeat for the socialists too. Not for the last time, the genius of the US Constitution, with its multiple checks and balances, was to frustrate the plans of progressives.</p> | Lincoln and Marx | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2012/08/lincoln-and-marx/ | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
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<p>Unless it starts actually reusing them soon, SpaceX is going to need to build bunk beds to house its growing supply of reusable but un-reused rockets. Image source: <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX" type="external">SpaceX</a>.</p>
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<p>SpaceX, the space exploration start-up established by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, has successfully landed <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/14/spacex-stuns-the-cynics.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">four of the last six rockets</a> it launched.</p>
<p>To recap, SpaceX's last six missions included:</p>
<p>These weren't mere test flights to prove the concept of rocket reusability. These rockets delivered actual payloads to Earth orbit, and their subsequent landings were secondary objectives.</p>
<p>Be that as it may, it's the landings that are <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/12/22/spacex-lands-rocket-makes-history.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">making all the headlines</a>, and rightly so. As of today, you can just about round up SpaceX's successful landing percentage and say that Elon Musk has hit his goal of relanding <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/27/spacex-rocket-landings-already-approaching-target.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">seven out of every 10 rockets it launches</a>.</p>
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<p>But what about relaunching them?</p>
<p>In theory, every Falcon 9 first-stage rocket that SpaceX launches these days is supposed to be reusable. After delivering its payload, the company tries to reland it either on land or at sea, on a remote-controlled drone barge.</p>
<p>Landing on land is hard enough, and SpaceX spent years perfecting the process on its <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/07/08/spacex-grasshopper-makes-a-giant-leap.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Grasshopper test-bed</a> before ever trying it with Falcon. Landing at sea is even harder, and cost SpaceX four rocketships before it finally got it right -- and SpaceX is the first company toever get it right. Once landed, though, SpaceX says it should be able to recondition a rocket, refuel it, and send it right back up to space again. In practice, however, SpaceX has yet to reuse any of its recovered rockets.</p>
<p>But someone else has.</p>
<p>Musk originally planned to relaunch one of his Falcon 9s "around May or June" of this year, a prediction he made <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/16/spacex-does-the-impossible-again.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">after the first successful sea landing, CRS-8</a>. This week, however, he tweeted a postponement to that target. The first Falcon relaunch is now expected no sooner than "Sept/Oct" 2016.Thus, reflight might not take place until July or August.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Musk's new space nemesis,rival billionaire Jeff Bezos, is already planning his fourth straight flight with a single rocket launcher, <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/30/battle-of-the-billionaires-how-jeff-bezos-and-blue.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Blue Origin's New Shephard</a>. (Boeing and Lockheed Martin are so 20th century),</p>
<p>So far, New Shephard -- the suborbital launch rocket that Blue Origin is testing for use in "space tourism" -- has already launched to the edge of space three times and returned to land safely on Earth each time. Last week, Blue Origin announced that it will launch New Shephard again "before the end of the month," to test the vessel's ability to land successfully despite a pre-planned catastrophic failure.</p>
<p>Blue Origin intends to intentionally sabotage one of New Shephard's main parachutes, used to decelerate the craft before its final retro rocket landing, so that it will fail to open. This could result in a hard landing of the craft, permitting Blue Origin to assess any damage the craft incurs to its "two-stage crushable structure that absorbs landing loads," as well as to the "seats that use a passive energy absorbing mechanism to reduce peak loads" on future passengers.</p>
<p>Incidentally, a successful mission will mean Blue Origin notches four trips to space and back.</p>
<p>Critics may charge -- <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/30/battle-of-the-billionaires-how-jeff-bezos-and-blue.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">correctly</a> -- that Blue Origin still hasn't landed a rocket after reaching orbital speeds, while Musk and SpaceX have. But give credit where credit is due: <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/23/is-this-how-boeing-and-lockheed-martin-beat-spacex.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Boeing and Lockheed Martin</a>, the twin titans of spaceflight, can't reland their orbital-speed rockets, either.</p>
<p>Fun as it is to paint these companies' efforts as a horse race, the truth is that each of them is expanding our space frontiers in its own way. Boeing and Lockheed continue to do the heavy lifting of putting government satellites in orbit, even as they assist NASA with its planned <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/20/boeing-explains-how-to-go-from-earth-to-mars-in-6.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">first manned mission to Mars</a>. SpaceX is <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/01/with-or-without-nasa-spacex-is-going-to-mars.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">moving Mars-ward</a> too, while working to relentlessly lower the cost of spaceflight here on Earth. And Blue Origin is demonstrating to the world that yes, Virginia, it is really is possible to reuse reusable space rockets -- to launch them, relaunch them, and rerelaunch them, and land them safely every time.</p>
<p>So whether you're an Elon Musk fan or a Bezos backer, let's all cheer along when, later this month, Blue Origin attempts to set a new record in spaceflight -- four straight space flights with just one spaceship.</p>
<p>And then, sure, let's see if SpaceX can reuse its Falcon 9 at least once, before Blue Origin gets to No. 5.</p>
<p>Blue Origin's New Shephard -- the world's first reused reusable rocket. Image source: <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/gallery" type="external">Blue Origin</a>.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/11/when-will-spacex-catch-up-to-blue-origin-in-rocket.aspx" type="external">When Will SpaceX Catch Up to Blue Origin in Rocket Reusability?</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Fool contributor <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDitty/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Rich Smith</a>does not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him on <a href="http://caps.fool.com/?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Motley Fool CAPS</a>, publicly pontificating under the handle <a href="http://caps.fool.com/ViewPlayer.aspx?t=01002844399633209838&amp;source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFDitty</a>, where he's currently ranked No. 309 out of more than 75,000 rated members.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | When Will SpaceX Catch Up to Blue Origin in Rocket Reusability? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/11/when-will-spacex-catch-up-to-blue-origin-in-rocket-reusability.html | 2016-06-11 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Microbloging site <a href="" type="internal">Twitter</a> on January 23 announced the acquisition of Dasient, a Sunnyvale (US)-based spam and malware service provider.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>However the San Francisco-based site did not give any details about the price it paid for acquiring Dasient.</p>
<p>A Dasient <a href="http://blog.dasient.com/2012/01/dasient-has-been-acquired-by-twitter.html" type="external">blog Opens a New Window.</a> said that the integration would be implemented immediately. The blog also said: "Effective immediately, we will be bringing our technology, tools, and team to the revenue engineering team at Twitter".</p>
<p>Twitter has been on a buying spree. With the acquisition of Dasient, the micro-blogging site has acquired two web security systems in three months. Earlier in November last year, the site bought Whisper Systems.</p>
<p>A twitter spokesperson announced that Dasient will help in understanding security issues with Twitter's advertising platform, reports <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/12/01/twitter-self-serve-ads/" type="external">Mashable Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>In November 2011, Twitter announced that the site could be used for advertisement, only for a limited purpose.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Revenues of Twitter, which has now about 10 million users, are likely to soar to $139.5 million in 2012 (in 2010 it was $45 million), according to <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/PressRelease.aspx?R=1008617" type="external">eMarketer.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Twitter Buys Dasient, Second Malware Protection Company in Three Months | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/01/24/twitter-buys-dasient-second-malware-protection-company-in-three-months.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>Health nuts, take heed: A sweeping review of almost 70 scientific studies of the health benefits of vitamins and, in particular, those trendy antioxidants, has found “no convincing evidence” of increased lifespan. In fact, vitamins A, E and beta-carotene could even increase a person’s chances of dying prematurely, according to scientists at Copenhagen University.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>A review of 67 studies found “no convincing evidence” that antioxidant supplements cut the risk of dying.</p>
<p>Scientists at Copenhagen University said vitamins A and E could interfere with the body’s natural defences.</p>
<p />
<p>“Even more, beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E seem to increase mortality,” according to the review by the respected Cochrane Collaboration.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7349980.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Study: Beware of Vitamins | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/study-beware-of-vitamins/ | 2008-04-16 | 4 |
<p>DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s auto safety agency acknowledged Friday that a deadly defect in General Motors ignition switches went unresolved for a decade because agency staffers didn’t understand air bag technology and failed to challenge the information it received from the automaker.</p>
<p>The mea culpa came Friday as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration outlined actions designed to make itself more aggressive in finding and solving safety problems among the 240 million cars on U.S. roadways.</p>
<p>It’s the first time the agency has admitted fault in failing to link the switches it to a series of fatal accidents, although regulators still lay most of the blame on GM for hiding the defect.</p>
<p>The GM switches, used in older-model small cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion, can slip out of the run position and abruptly cut off the engine and disable the air bags. They’re responsible for at least 109 deaths and more than 200 injuries. The company recalled 2.6 million cars with the switches last year.</p>
<p>Staffers lacked the technical know-how to connect the changing position of the switches to the non-deployment of the air bags, NHTSA said in two reports issued Friday. They also failed to press GM when the automaker provided insufficient information about some of the fatal crashes.</p>
<p>NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said the case changed the agency’s culture. Previously, it was too trusting of data and safety theories offered by automakers, but now investigators are asking the tough questions, Rosekind said.</p>
<p>“We need to challenge the assumptions of what we are pursuing,” he said.</p>
<p>While a culture change is needed, the agency concedes it will be difficult to keep up with emerging technologies without more people and money. Staying abreast of technology is important as more and more car functions become computerized. Experts say the average car now has about 100 computers on board, and that will double in a few years.</p>
<p>The reports make a number of recommendations: holding automakers accountable if they don’t produce requested information; gaining better understanding of new technology; and having the whole agency examine safety problems. The changes are in place or are under way, Rosekind said. The agency also appointed a three-person outside team to monitor safety processes.</p>
<p>The review found no agency employees at fault for failing to find the GM problem. No one at NHTSA intentionally acted to hide it, Rosekind said. “That’s different than finding somebody with all good intentions made a human error,” he said.</p>
<p>Rosekind said the agency could do even more, such as going to more crash sites and with better data examination — improvements that also depend on more funding in upcoming federal budgets.</p>
<p>In the GM case, the agency missed repeated clues linking the ignition switches to the lack of air bag deployment. In a 2006 Wisconsin crash that killed two young women, a state trooper blamed the switches in his report. Yet no one at NHTSA noticed. This was because investigators inaccurately believed that newer air bag systems found in cars such as the Cobalt operated like older systems — continuing to run on reserve power, regardless of whether the engine was running, the report said.</p>
<p>“NHTSA unfortunately did not fully consider this alternate theory,” the report states.</p>
<p>NHTSA’s staffing is so low that it can only react to safety issues after problems surface, unlike the Federal Aviation Administration, which has more investigators, the reports stated. The FAA, for example, has 6,408 people working on safety enforcement, while NHTSA has only 90. In 2012, 447 people died in aviation crashes compared with 32,719 automobile deaths, the report said.</p>
<p>The agency says it currently follows up on only 10 percent of the 6,000 auto-related death and injury reports it gets each year. And consumer complaints to the agency, among the best warnings of safety problems, used to run about 45,000 per year. But they nearly doubled last year after the GM case surfaced. At a hearing Tuesday, Rosekind said there are only 8 staffers looking into all those complaints.</p>
<p>In its 2016 budget request now before Congress, NHTSA has asked for 92 more investigators and data analysts at a cost of $23.6 million. To shift to a “new paradigm” where NHTSA would uncover safety problems faster, it would need 380 more people at a cost of $89 million per year. The extra staff would respond to crash sites, inspect auto factories and force automakers to give the agency lists of all pending safety problems.</p>
<p>“If we get more resources we will deliver more safety,” Rosekind said.</p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s auto safety agency acknowledged Friday that a deadly defect in General Motors ignition switches went unresolved for a decade because agency staffers didn’t understand air bag technology and failed to challenge the information it received from the automaker.</p>
<p>The mea culpa came Friday as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration outlined actions designed to make itself more aggressive in finding and solving safety problems among the 240 million cars on U.S. roadways.</p>
<p>It’s the first time the agency has admitted fault in failing to link the switches it to a series of fatal accidents, although regulators still lay most of the blame on GM for hiding the defect.</p>
<p>The GM switches, used in older-model small cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion, can slip out of the run position and abruptly cut off the engine and disable the air bags. They’re responsible for at least 109 deaths and more than 200 injuries. The company recalled 2.6 million cars with the switches last year.</p>
<p>Staffers lacked the technical know-how to connect the changing position of the switches to the non-deployment of the air bags, NHTSA said in two reports issued Friday. They also failed to press GM when the automaker provided insufficient information about some of the fatal crashes.</p>
<p>NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said the case changed the agency’s culture. Previously, it was too trusting of data and safety theories offered by automakers, but now investigators are asking the tough questions, Rosekind said.</p>
<p>“We need to challenge the assumptions of what we are pursuing,” he said.</p>
<p>While a culture change is needed, the agency concedes it will be difficult to keep up with emerging technologies without more people and money. Staying abreast of technology is important as more and more car functions become computerized. Experts say the average car now has about 100 computers on board, and that will double in a few years.</p>
<p>The reports make a number of recommendations: holding automakers accountable if they don’t produce requested information; gaining better understanding of new technology; and having the whole agency examine safety problems. The changes are in place or are under way, Rosekind said. The agency also appointed a three-person outside team to monitor safety processes.</p>
<p>The review found no agency employees at fault for failing to find the GM problem. No one at NHTSA intentionally acted to hide it, Rosekind said. “That’s different than finding somebody with all good intentions made a human error,” he said.</p>
<p>Rosekind said the agency could do even more, such as going to more crash sites and with better data examination — improvements that also depend on more funding in upcoming federal budgets.</p>
<p>In the GM case, the agency missed repeated clues linking the ignition switches to the lack of air bag deployment. In a 2006 Wisconsin crash that killed two young women, a state trooper blamed the switches in his report. Yet no one at NHTSA noticed. This was because investigators inaccurately believed that newer air bag systems found in cars such as the Cobalt operated like older systems — continuing to run on reserve power, regardless of whether the engine was running, the report said.</p>
<p>“NHTSA unfortunately did not fully consider this alternate theory,” the report states.</p>
<p>NHTSA’s staffing is so low that it can only react to safety issues after problems surface, unlike the Federal Aviation Administration, which has more investigators, the reports stated. The FAA, for example, has 6,408 people working on safety enforcement, while NHTSA has only 90. In 2012, 447 people died in aviation crashes compared with 32,719 automobile deaths, the report said.</p>
<p>The agency says it currently follows up on only 10 percent of the 6,000 auto-related death and injury reports it gets each year. And consumer complaints to the agency, among the best warnings of safety problems, used to run about 45,000 per year. But they nearly doubled last year after the GM case surfaced. At a hearing Tuesday, Rosekind said there are only 8 staffers looking into all those complaints.</p>
<p>In its 2016 budget request now before Congress, NHTSA has asked for 92 more investigators and data analysts at a cost of $23.6 million. To shift to a “new paradigm” where NHTSA would uncover safety problems faster, it would need 380 more people at a cost of $89 million per year. The extra staff would respond to crash sites, inspect auto factories and force automakers to give the agency lists of all pending safety problems.</p>
<p>“If we get more resources we will deliver more safety,” Rosekind said.</p> | Safety agency admits flaws, starts reforms after GM case | false | https://apnews.com/809b520035db497ea2f745c2fada7d7b | 2015-06-05 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Two more former employees of Sony Pictures Entertainment are suing the company over the massive data breach in which their personal and financial information was stolen and posted online.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday seeks class-action status for current and former Sony employees who information was hacked from the company's servers. The breach, which a U.S. official has said is linked to North Korea, resulted in the release of Social Security numbers, financial, medical and other personal info of about 50,000 Sony workers.</p>
<p>It is the third lawsuit filed this week by ex-employees over the breach.</p>
<p>Ella Carline Archibeque, accuses Sony of holding on to her medical info long after she left the company in 2009. Joshua Forster, a Denver resident, worked for the company in various roles from 2006 until February.</p>
<p>An email message seeking comment from a Sony representative was not immediately returned.</p> | Two More Former Sony Workers Sue Over Data Breach | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/12/18/sony-faces-third-lawsuit-from-ex-employees-over-breach-that-released-personal.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>More than 2 million Hello Kitty whistles distributed with McDonald's meals have been recalled because they pose a choking hazard to young children. Other recalled consumer products this week include misting fans with bad wiring and water heaters that can cause a fire.</p>
<p>Here's a more detailed look:</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>WHISTLES</p>
<p>DETAILS: Hello Kitty Birthday Lollipop Whistles distributed exclusively at McDonald's restaurants nationwide from October 2014 through the first week of November 2014 with Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals. A picture of Hello Kitty appears on both sides of the whistle. The text "(copyright)1976, 2014 SANRIO CO., LTD." appears above Hello Kitty's face on the whistle, and "Made for McDonald's China CCW Chine" appears below Hello Kitty's face on the whistle. The bag in which the toy is packaged includes the text "Hello Kitty Birthday Lollipop" and the number "6'' in the upper right corner.</p>
<p>WHY: Components inside of the whistle can detach, posing choking and aspiration hazards to young children.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: McDonald's has received two reports of children who coughed out pieces of the whistle that they had sucked into their mouths, including one child who received medical attention.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 2.3 million in the U.S. In addition, about 200,000 were distributed in Canada.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call McDonald's at 800-244-6227 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Central Time or visit www.mcdonalds.com.</p>
<p>BUOYANCY COMPENSATORS</p>
<p>DETAILS: Aqua Lung buoyancy compensators with SureLock II weight pocket handles, including those with SureLock II handles that were replaced in the previous recall. SureLock II handles were installed in most Aqua Lung and one model of Apeks buoyancy compensators including: all discontinued Black Diamond, Pro QD and Pro QDi3 models with serial numbers lower than BB408620. The recall also includes all Apeks Black Ice, Axiom, Axiom i3, Balance, Dimension, Libra, Lotus, Pearl, Pearl i3, ProLT and Zuma models with serial numbers lower than BB408620. The buoyancy compensator's model name is embroidered on the inside back pad or on the right lobe. "Sure Lock" is molded into the back of the weight pocket. The serial numbers are located on a tag under the back pad of the buoyance compensator or inside the pocket. Earlier models could have the number printed on a tag behind the hook and loop inflator hold down on the left shoulder. They were sold at sporting goods and scuba diving stores nationwide from September 2008 through October 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: The rubber handles can detach as divers are trying to remove the weight pockets to rise to the surface in an emergency. This poses a drowning hazard.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: Aqua Lung is aware of an additional 50 reports of the handles detaching from the weight pockets. No injuries have been reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 30,000 in the U.S. and 11,300 in Canada. An additional 110,000 were previously recalled in the U.S. in March 2013.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Aqua Lung at 855-355-7170 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday or visit www.aqualung.com and click on Recall Notice for more information.</p>
<p>MISTING FANS</p>
<p>DETAILS: Cool Draft misting mid pressure and high pressure misting fans. The misting fans fit on top of 15 gallon yellow or orange round Igloo coolers or on top of gray 40 gallon water tanks. Cool Draft by Ventamatic is printed on a sticker on the fan's water tank and www.cooldraft.com is printed on a sticker in the center of all of fans. They were sold at hardware, home improvement, fire and home security retailers, buying cooperatives and online at AdvancedSystems.com, BigFogg.com, Collinssports.com, Cooldraft.com, MistNGo.com and Propack.com from November 2013 through August 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: The fan's wiring is not properly grounded, posing electric shock and fire hazards.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: Two incidents with the misting fans, including one electric shock injury to a consumer.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 450.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Ventamatic at 800-433-1626 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday or visit www.bvc.com and click on "Cool Draft Recall" for more information.</p>
<p>TANKLESS WATER HEATERS</p>
<p>DETAILS: All models of single- and dual-purpose Coaire and Quietside brand tankless gas water heaters. The recalled water heaters heat either 4 or 7.2 gallons of water per minute. The words "S-Line Condensing" are on the top front and brand names "Coaire" or "Quietside" are on the bottom front of the recalled water heaters. They were sold at independent dealers nationwide and on various websites including Amazon.com from July 2008 through August 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: The water heaters can overheat, posing a fire hazard.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: 40 reports of the units overheating, including four involving burns on the wall where the heater was mounted and two involving fires and property damage. No injuries have been reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 29,000 in the U.S and 2,200 in Canada</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Challenger Supply Holdings at 800-729-6118 between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. CT Monday through Friday or visit www.challengersupply.com and click on "Product Recall" for more information.</p>
<p>AIR EXCHANGERS</p>
<p>DETAILS: Air exchangers with and without heat recovery sold under different brands that are used to circulate air in and out of the home. Details on the brands and model numbers involved can be found at http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2015/Venmar-Ventilation-Expands-Recall-of-Air-Exchangers/ The metal air exchangers are painted blue or grey. Air exchangers with heat recovery included in this recall were made from January 2002 through May 2008 and have brand and model information written on a silver or black label on the outside panel. Air exchangers without heat recovery included in this recall were made from January 2002 through July 2009 and have brand and model information printed on the unit's rating plate or imprinted on the side of the unit. Air exchangers with heat recovery were sold at heating, plumbing and building supply distributors nationwide from January 2002 through May 2008. Air exchangers without heat recovery were sold at heating, plumbing, and building supply distributors nationwide from January 2002 through July 2009.</p>
<p>WHY: The motor in the air exchangers can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: Venmar Ventilation has received four new reports in relation to this recall expansion. In the previous recalls, Venmar Ventilation reported 26 incidents, for a total of 30. Out of these 30 incidents, five took place in the U.S. and 25 took place in Canada. All incidents resulted in fires and more than $1.1 million in property damages. No injuries have been reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 108,000 in the U.S., with an additional 77,500 previously recalled in March 2007, December 2007 and June 2011. About 207,000 in Canada.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Venmar Ventilation at 866-441-4645 anytime or visit www.venmar.ca and click on the Safety Upgrade Program link for more information.</p> | Recalls this week include Hello Kitty whistles, water heaters, misting fans, air exchangers | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/11/14/recalls-this-week-include-hello-kitty-whistles-water-heaters-misting-fans-air.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>– President John Adams (1735-1826)</p>
<p>A Nevada physician’s call for reform of medical malpractice laws appeared here recently.</p>
<p>Citing a maelstrom of evils, mostly laid at the feet of lawyers, the good doctor concludes, “We all win if meaningful malpractice reform can become the law of the land.” He’s passionate, but let’s examine the evidence.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>First, it is important to note that malpractice is an area of negligence law; negligence is the failure to use ordinary care under the circumstances.</p>
<p>Determining the appropriate means of compensating negligence victims, whether injured by automobile collisions or physician errors, is determined by individual state law. There is no single “law of the land,” nor should there be a “one size fits all” approach to personal responsibility and reasonable compensation.</p>
<p>Since the 1970s, many states have enacted laws limiting medical malpractice claims and the size of jury awards. New Mexico is one of them.</p>
<p>The N.M. Medical Malpractice Act was first established in 1976, when availability of malpractice insurance for physicians became a national issue. The specific purpose of the act was to make certain New Mexico physicians could obtain reasonable insurance coverage.</p>
<p>Our law provides a pre-litigation screening system, limits damage awards to $600,000 except for demonstrated future medical care costs, and establishes a statewide pool to cover those future medical care costs, all while limiting the insurance coverage a physician has to purchase to $200,000.</p>
<p>The evidence is that New Mexico has already enacted significant reforms in the medical malpractice area. Although we have employed the litigation screening procedures and damage award limits so popular amongst proponents of malpractice “reform” for decades, there is no credible evidence that New Mexico’s physicians have benefitted by better insurance rates.</p>
<p>Our concerned physician also asserts malpractice laws adversely effect the availability of medical care, literally driving doctors out of our communities. The evidence does not support that contention.</p>
<p>Common sense indicates that issues like personal income tax, school quality and miserly Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements just might have more effect on a physician’s choice of community than the distant possibility of a lawsuit, especially where potential recovery is capped by law.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Beyond mere intuition, the research belies claims of “white coat flight.” A 2005 study published in the “Forum for Health Economics and Policy” concluded malpractice liability issues had little to do with the decision to become a physician.</p>
<p>A 2008 study in the “Journal of Empirical Legal Studies” reported: “Our results suggest that (physicians) do not respond to liability risk by relocating … or discontinuing their practice and that tort reforms such as (damage limits) do not help states attract and retain (doctors).”</p>
<p>A 2006 report from the American College of Emergency Physicians concluded that states without damage limits enjoy an overall better quality of care than those that artificially limit victims’ recovery.</p>
<p>And the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen examined the federal government’s National Practitioner Data Base, a mandated clearinghouse of medical malpractice data, for litigation trends between 1991-2004 and reported: both the number of malpractice suits and the size of jury verdicts has declined since 2001; and adjusted for inflation, the average size of jury verdicts has increased only minimally since 1991, and the frequency of multimillion-dollar verdicts so bemoaned by reformers has actually dropped by more than half over the past decade.</p>
<p>A 1999 study by the Institute of Medicine determined that upward of 100,000 citizens die each year from “preventable medical errors.”</p>
<p>The NPDB also shows that physicians with multiple malpractice claims rarely face consequences from state licensing authorities. Only one in 10 physicians with three or more claims faced sanctions and only one in three of those with 10 or more claims received disciplinary action.</p>
<p>Public Citizen concluded: “The medical liability system is not one of ‘jackpot’ justice, in which patients … score big awards based on flimsy claims. … The real medical malpractice crisis today is inadequate patient safety, not lawsuits or the legal system.”</p>
<p>With 35 years’ experience, I would be the last one to argue that civil litigation is often too slow and too expensive. I don’t think anyone would argue that access to adequate medical care is an important, and often emotional, social issue of our times.</p>
<p>You can ” Judge for Yourself” how we should improve both the quality and availability of medical care, but the evidence does not support further limitations on the rights of the patient as our neighbor from The Silver State would have you believe; the sky, Dr. Chicken Little, is simply not falling.</p>
<p>Alan M. Malott is a judge of the 2nd Judicial District Court. If you have questions, contact Judge Malott at PO Box 8305 Albuquerque, NM 87198 or email <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Opinions expressed are solely those of Judge Alan M. Malott individually and not those of the court.</p>
<p /> | We don’t need more limits on malpractice lawsuits | false | https://abqjournal.com/446228/we-dont-need-more-limits-on-malpractice-lawsuits.html | 2 |
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<p>WARRI, Nigeria (AP) — Itohen used to sell secondhand clothes in Nigeria's Edo state before she was lured at age 24 into a trip abroad. A woman told her and others they could be nannies in France. Itohen said she traveled through Niger and Libya with 150 others who hoped to make it to Europe. At least 20 died along the way from dehydration, hunger and illness.</p>
<p>"Many girls were raped in the course of our journey, even in the camps where the traffickers kept us" before being handed over to Libya militiamen, she said, giving only her partial name for fear of retaliation. "I was lucky because I disguised as a boy before we left Nigeria."</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, she disembarked from a plane and came home. She is among the thousands of West African migrants being repatriated by their governments amid outrage over recent video footage in Libya showing a migrant slave auction.</p>
<p>As many as 700,000 migrants are stranded in dozens of camps across Libya, and a new emergency task force with the backing of the European Union, African Union and United Nations aims to send 15,000 of them home by February.</p>
<p>Exhausted and regretful, many migrants speak of dreams lost and trust broken.</p>
<p>Now the returnees are posing a challenge. Back home, they face the same conditions that led them to leave: high unemployment, often weak economies, an increasingly harsh climate.</p>
<p>Governments across Africa are under pressure to give their citizens a reason to stay.</p>
<p>The EU launched a 140 million euro ($166 million) project last year with the International Organization for Migration to assist migrants repatriating to some 14 countries. It has helped in the voluntary return of over 15,000 migrants. In Nigeria, the project says it has created 300 jobs. It is not clear how many jobs have been created overall.</p>
<p>Local governments are launching their own efforts. Nigeria's Edo state, the source of about 80 percent of the country's migrants, is creating farming projects to help returnees. Governor Godwin Obaseki this month approved 150 hectares (370 acres) of land and more than $326,000 for 150 people who returned from Libya a year ago and completed agribusiness training.</p>
<p>Itohen said she would prefer government assistance so she can return to selling clothes.</p>
<p>An earlier returnee, Solomon Okodugha, is helping others readjust. After being deported from Libya four years ago he became the president of the nonprofit Initiative for Youth Awareness on Migration, Immigration, Development and Reintegration and runs a cassava farm in Edo state.</p>
<p>"Nigerians usually have the orientation that you can only find greener pastures in Europe or America, but since my ill-fateful journey years ago I have discovered that I can still make it here," he said.</p>
<p>Nigerians are inspired by older generations who went to Europe legally in the 1980s, he said. "Our young girls and boys are too easily lured into the trip by cartels."</p>
<p>Now governments, aid groups and others must "join hands" to tackle what comes next as thousands return, Okodugha said.</p>
<p>Nigeria, which has the highest number of illegal and legal immigrants in Libya, has taken the lead in bringing people home even as the lure of Europe remains.</p>
<p>"Until the government takes drastic action in the arrest and prosecution of the cabals involved in the trafficking, the threat will not stop," said Edward Oforomeh, who works in Edo state and leads a campaign against human trafficking.</p>
<p>More than 6,600 Nigerians have been repatriated so far this year.</p>
<p>Patrick Osayomore was one of them. He left Nigeria last year after the collapse of his phone repair business. He said he was detained in Libya by militiamen in January and held until November, when he was rescued.</p>
<p>Now he wants to remain at home and invest in rice farming. It's an expensive endeavor, he said, and if the government comes to his aid, he will be grateful.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed.</p>
<p>WARRI, Nigeria (AP) — Itohen used to sell secondhand clothes in Nigeria's Edo state before she was lured at age 24 into a trip abroad. A woman told her and others they could be nannies in France. Itohen said she traveled through Niger and Libya with 150 others who hoped to make it to Europe. At least 20 died along the way from dehydration, hunger and illness.</p>
<p>"Many girls were raped in the course of our journey, even in the camps where the traffickers kept us" before being handed over to Libya militiamen, she said, giving only her partial name for fear of retaliation. "I was lucky because I disguised as a boy before we left Nigeria."</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, she disembarked from a plane and came home. She is among the thousands of West African migrants being repatriated by their governments amid outrage over recent video footage in Libya showing a migrant slave auction.</p>
<p>As many as 700,000 migrants are stranded in dozens of camps across Libya, and a new emergency task force with the backing of the European Union, African Union and United Nations aims to send 15,000 of them home by February.</p>
<p>Exhausted and regretful, many migrants speak of dreams lost and trust broken.</p>
<p>Now the returnees are posing a challenge. Back home, they face the same conditions that led them to leave: high unemployment, often weak economies, an increasingly harsh climate.</p>
<p>Governments across Africa are under pressure to give their citizens a reason to stay.</p>
<p>The EU launched a 140 million euro ($166 million) project last year with the International Organization for Migration to assist migrants repatriating to some 14 countries. It has helped in the voluntary return of over 15,000 migrants. In Nigeria, the project says it has created 300 jobs. It is not clear how many jobs have been created overall.</p>
<p>Local governments are launching their own efforts. Nigeria's Edo state, the source of about 80 percent of the country's migrants, is creating farming projects to help returnees. Governor Godwin Obaseki this month approved 150 hectares (370 acres) of land and more than $326,000 for 150 people who returned from Libya a year ago and completed agribusiness training.</p>
<p>Itohen said she would prefer government assistance so she can return to selling clothes.</p>
<p>An earlier returnee, Solomon Okodugha, is helping others readjust. After being deported from Libya four years ago he became the president of the nonprofit Initiative for Youth Awareness on Migration, Immigration, Development and Reintegration and runs a cassava farm in Edo state.</p>
<p>"Nigerians usually have the orientation that you can only find greener pastures in Europe or America, but since my ill-fateful journey years ago I have discovered that I can still make it here," he said.</p>
<p>Nigerians are inspired by older generations who went to Europe legally in the 1980s, he said. "Our young girls and boys are too easily lured into the trip by cartels."</p>
<p>Now governments, aid groups and others must "join hands" to tackle what comes next as thousands return, Okodugha said.</p>
<p>Nigeria, which has the highest number of illegal and legal immigrants in Libya, has taken the lead in bringing people home even as the lure of Europe remains.</p>
<p>"Until the government takes drastic action in the arrest and prosecution of the cabals involved in the trafficking, the threat will not stop," said Edward Oforomeh, who works in Edo state and leads a campaign against human trafficking.</p>
<p>More than 6,600 Nigerians have been repatriated so far this year.</p>
<p>Patrick Osayomore was one of them. He left Nigeria last year after the collapse of his phone repair business. He said he was detained in Libya by militiamen in January and held until November, when he was rescued.</p>
<p>Now he wants to remain at home and invest in rice farming. It's an expensive endeavor, he said, and if the government comes to his aid, he will be grateful.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed.</p> | Africa's returning migrants say they need assistance, hope | false | https://apnews.com/amp/b9cd01167b164d6993489ce45ff87e5c | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
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<p>The U.S. tax code is notoriously complex. But in general, federal income tax is progressive — those who earn less face lower taxes and those who earn more face higher taxes. There are many ways to legally reduce or even eliminate that tax burden.</p>
<p>A 2011 study from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found about 46 percent of Americans paid no federal income tax (it estimates 44 percent will not pay any this year). About half of those not paying federal income tax had no taxable income, while the other half took advantage of measures in the law that allow them to wipe out their tax liabilities.</p>
<p>The latter primarily benefit lower- and middle-income groups, thanks to things such as the earned income tax credit, child credits or education tax credits. However, many high-income individuals are also able to benefit from tax policy.</p>
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<p>Tax experts say the code is full of loopholes that may be available to everyone, but tend to benefit the rich.</p>
<p>That is part of what has made The New York Times’ recent revelation, raised again at the most recent debate, so intriguing. According to tax documents leaked to the newspaper, Trump claimed more than $900 million in losses in 1995, enough to potentially and legally reduce his tax bill to zero for as many as 18 years.</p>
<p>Trump has yet to release his taxes, although he said he will when his audit is complete.</p>
<p>But it appears to have been done through one of many elements in the tax code favoring real estate developers. But there are many other legal paths for anyone of significant means to lower their tax payments.</p>
<p>The Republican presidential candidate and his supporters call his tax moves smart, others say they’re unfair.</p>
<p>“It’s emblematic of the way most people feel about the tax system,” said Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization. “It favors those who have the resources.”</p>
<p>The public sees the nation’s tax system as deeply flawed. A 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 59 percent of Americans say there is so much wrong with the system that Congress should completely change it. It also found that 61 percent feel that some wealthy people don’t pay their fair share.</p>
<p>The Associated Press spoke to a few experts about some of the ways that the wealthy can work within the law to lower their federal income tax. Here are a few:</p>
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<p>NET OPERATING LOSS</p>
<p>Trump has brought this common accounting practice into the spotlight.</p>
<p>It allows businesses to count losses, including real estate depreciation, against other income to lower their taxes. This could potentially wipe out their tax payment completely for the year. And if losses exceed income, they can carry that balance forward to future years to reduce their tax burden.</p>
<p>It is designed to smooth the ups and downs in a company’s profitability over the years to help them stay afloat. But the loophole exists when you can burst outside of the business loss and apply it against any kind of income, Gardner said.</p>
<p>Tax code changed in the ’80s to disallow people from exploiting this opportunity and generating losses to count against personal income. But the provision remained in place for professional real estate developers, such as Trump.</p>
<p>“If ever there was a gig that was rigged against regular folks, this is it,” said Neil Buchanan, an economist and tax law professor at George Washington University.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>DEDUCTIONS</p>
<p>A more common way for higher-income people to lower their personal taxes is through deductions, such as donations to charity, unreimbursed business expenses and even mortgage interest deductions on second homes.</p>
<p>The IRS publishes data annually on the individual tax returns of people who report income of $200,000 or more. It showed high-income people found many ways to reduce their tax burden, the most common of which in 2013 — the most recent year available — was total miscellaneous deductions.</p>
<p>It’s still not common for high-income individuals to face zero tax though.</p>
<p>That same IRS report showed that of the 5.6 million income tax returns with an adjustable gross income of $200,000 or more in 2013, only 12,517 faced no U.S. income tax liability that year. That is roughly 0.2 percent of high-income returns filed that year. By comparison, nearly 18.6 million taxpayers with incomes under $50,000 faced zero U.S. income taxes that year– roughly 20 percent of that income group.</p>
<p>There are limits on deductions though, even for the rich.</p>
<p>Warren Buffett, the famed billionaire investor who was called out by Trump in the last debate for over deductions, said he could only claim about $3.5 million of his nearly $2.9 billion in charitable deductions because of caps in place per tax law.</p>
<p>Buffett also pointed out that he has paid federal income tax every year since he was 13.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>CAPITAL GAINS</p>
<p>Capital gains are the profit from the sale of an investment. And while there is one set of tax rates for wages, there is another for capital gains, running from zero to 20 percent.</p>
<p>Buffett, for example, has previously noted that he is taxed at a lower rate than his secretary, another issue that raised its head at the debate. This is due in part to capital gains taxes. He and his peers “make money with money” as he once wrote in a New York Times op-ed, so their income is primarily subject to capital gains tax rate. Meanwhile, middle and lower-income Americans are paying taxes based on wages, which face a different and sometimes higher rate.</p>
<p>In fact, tax experts are quick to point out that any review of federal income tax does not reflect the full amount that Americans pay in taxes. We face taxes every day — gas tax, property tax, local and state taxes — and they often weigh heavy on the lower and middle class.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>CARRIED INTEREST</p>
<p>Popular with hedge-fund and private-equity managers, this allows some of their pay to grow and only face taxes when they cash out.</p>
<p>These partners and managers’ compensation often comes from gains on the money they manage. They are paid a fee on the assets under management, plus a cut of the profits, known as carried interest. The fees are taxed as ordinary income but carried interest is taxed at capital gains rate.</p>
<p>It has often come under scrutiny and the U.S. Treasury has estimated that taxing carried interest at ordinary income rates would raise about $18 billion over 10 years.</p>
<p>“It’s become the poster child of things that are unfair,” said Kyle Pomerleau of the Tax Foundation. But he argues it’s not a significant loophole in terms of total dollars that could be recovered if it were closed.</p>
<p>“These sorts of exemptions or deductions or credits are throughout the tax code,” he said.</p> | Trump is not alone: How some tax policy favors the rich | false | https://abqjournal.com/865791/trump-is-not-alone-how-some-tax-policy-favors-the-rich-2.html | 2016-10-12 | 2 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/scaredykat/528955986/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;Scaredy_cat&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
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<p>If you’ve been a strip mall anywhere in America lately, you’ve probably seen a Curves gym—the ladies-only fitness centers with the 30-minute <a href="http://thehairpin.com/2011/10/oh-curves-youre-so-weird-bless-your-heart" type="external">circuit workout system</a>. It’s well known that the franchise’s founder and CEO, Gary Heavin, has given to anti-abortion causes. So when the <a href="www.womenshealth.gov/" type="external">Office on Women’s Heath</a>, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that it was teaming up with the ubiquitous chain to promote National Women’s Health Week this May, some in the reproductive rights community were none too pleased.</p>
<p>Curves, whose nearly 10,000 clubs around the globe make it the largest fitness franchise in the world, is <a href="http://womenshealth.gov/whw/partners/" type="external">listed as an official partner</a> for the National Women’s Health Week, which runs May 13 (Mother’s Day) through 19. The partnership includes events to “educate and inform women on a variety of health and wellness topics” at Curves locations that HHS will promote on its website and its Facebook and Twitter feeds.&#160;Curves is also providing coupons for free one-month memberships to anyone who attends a NWHW events, and providing free publicity for the week in the franchise’s in-house magazine, Diane. The agreement also designates May 17 as “National Curves Day,” which HHS will promote in its materials. &#160;(More details on the partnership are included in a <a href="" type="internal">memorandum of understanding</a> between HHS and Curves International obtained by Mother Jones.)&#160;</p>
<p>Heavin, a born-again Christian, has been outspoken about his opposition to abortion over the years, and has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations that support so-called crisis pregnancy centers that aim to discourage women from seeking abortions. “There’s nothing healthy about abortion,” he <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070317025734/http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2004/001/3.30.html" type="external">told Today’s Christian</a> in a 2004 interview. “I’m not afraid to tell the truth.” He was also critical of abortion in an <a href="http://womensenews.org/story/health/040524/curves-work-out-may-reduce-womens-options" type="external">interview with Women’s eNews in 2004</a>&#160;that also noted Curves was one of the first companies to pull support from Susan G. Komen for the Cure over the grants it provides to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings—an issue that’s been in the news quite a bit of late:</p>
<p>In 2002, however, Heavin flexed his financial muscle by pulling support for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s fundraising events, such as Race for the Cure, because he opposed the foundation’s support of Planned Parenthood. Heavin said he opposes abortion and groups that facilitate it because he believes abortion is unhealthy for women. He declined to discuss the potential ramifications for women’s health if abortion was not an option.</p>
<p>Curves also <a href="http://www.franchisepublicity.com/curves-for-women-is-anti-gay-anti-choice-afa-a-healthy-promo-partner/" type="external">drew some attention</a> in 2009 for partnering with the American Family Association’s radio programs, a pro-life and anti-gay group. (You can still buy the Curves Fitness CD <a href="https://afastore.afa.net/c/34/curves-fitness-cds" type="external">via the AFA website</a>.)&#160;Heavin&#160; <a href="http://www.cbn.com/700club/guests/interviews/gary_heavin_080403.aspx" type="external">lives next door to</a> former President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas, and he and his wife,&#160;Diane,&#160;are big supporters of Republican candidates. They gave a combined $50,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in January 2012. Heavin also donated $30,800 to the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee in December 2011, according to the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/usearch/index.php?q=heavin&amp;sa=Search&amp;cx=010677907462955562473%3Anlldkv0jvam&amp;cof=FORID%3A11" type="external">Center for Responsive Politics</a>. They’ve donated lavishly over the years as Curves grew from a Texas-based chain to <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2004/nov/26/business/fi-curves26" type="external">“the McDonald’s of fitness centers,”</a> as Gary has described it. The motto <a href="http://www.curves.com/about-curves/history.php" type="external">“No makeup, no men, and no mirrors”</a> and ubiquity have made the chain popular in suburban America, though business has <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303365804576432062058517684.html" type="external">taken a hit</a> in the recession.</p>
<p>“As women’s health and economic security is increasingly politicized, news of this HHS partnership with Curves, which is run by the anti-women’s health business leader, is extremely discouraging,” said Sara Finger, executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health. She argued that the Obama administration should “look critically at the important partnerships that construct women’s health systems of care and information in the nation.”</p>
<p>A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment at press time.</p>
<p /> | Obama Administration Partners With Anti-Abortion Magnate’s Gym | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/curves-anti-abortion-hhs/ | 2012-03-14 | 4 |
<p>The Stonewall Inn will host it’s first ever celebrity auction. (Photo by Daniel Case; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)</p>
<p><a href="http://thestonewallinnnyc.com/StonewallInnNYC/Welcome.html" type="external">The Stonewall Inn</a> (53 Christopher St. New York, N.Y.) will host it’s first celebrity auction on Monday, Oct. 24 from 6-9 p.m.</p>
<p>Many celebrities have donated items to the auction including Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Cher, Demi Lovato, Dustin Lance Black, Ellen DeGeneres, George Clooney, Jonathan Adler, Jussie Smollett, Madonna, Neil Patrick Harris, Taylor Swift, Troye&#160;Sivan and others.</p>
<p>Proceeds will go towards maintaining the Stonewall National Park and other LGBT causes. The auction will continue on for two weeks starting on Oct. 25 on <a href="https://www.charitybuzz.com" type="external">CharityBuzz.</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Anderson Cooper</a> <a href="" type="internal">Andy Cohen</a> <a href="" type="internal">CharityBuzz</a> <a href="" type="internal">Cher</a> <a href="" type="internal">Dustin Lance Black</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ellen DeGeneres</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jonathan Adler</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jussie Smollett</a> <a href="" type="internal">Madonna</a> <a href="" type="internal">Neil Patrick Harris</a> <a href="" type="internal">Stonewall Inn</a></p> | The Stonewall Inn hosts first celebrity auction | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/10/20/stonewall-inn-hosts-first-celebrity-auction/ | 3 |
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<p>TWIN ARROWS, Ariz. (AP) — New sets of twin arrows are beckoning travelers on Interstate 40 in northern Arizona.</p>
<p>A grand opening for the Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort is set for Friday. It’s the Navajo Nation’s first casino in Arizona, about 20 miles east of Flagstaff.</p>
<p>The 267,000 square-foot building sits across the interstate from an old trading post and rest stop known for the giant twin arrows that point toward the ground.</p>
<p>The resort’s design offers a glimpse into Navajo culture and traditions. Those include the basket weave on the building’s exterior, and the glittering chandelier in the entryway that depicts the Navajos’ rise into a fourth world.</p>
<p>Tribal gaming chief Derrick Watchman says the resort could spur economic development in the area.</p>
<p>The tribe has three other casinos in New Mexico.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Navajo Nation opens flagship casino in Arizona | false | https://abqjournal.com/201246/navajo-nation-opens-flagship-casino-in-arizona.html | 2013-05-20 | 2 |
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<p>Three Americans won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for their sometimes-contradictory insights into the complexities of investing.</p>
<p>FAMA: His research revealed efficiency of markets</p>
<p>Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller of Yale University were honored for shedding light on the forces that move stock, bond and home prices – findings that have transformed how people invest.</p>
<p>Fama’s research revealed the efficiency of financial markets: They absorb information so fast that individual investors can’t outperform the markets as a whole. His work helped popularize index funds, which reflect an entire market of assets, such as the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 stock index.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Fama’s work was incredibly fundamental in the ’60s and ’70s,” said David</p>
<p>HANSEN: He created ways to test competing theories</p>
<p>Warsh, who follows economists at his Economic Principals blog. “It led to enormous practical change in terms of people not buying particular stocks but buying index funds.”</p>
<p>Shiller’s research examined asset prices from a contrasting angle. He showed that in the long run, stock and bond markets can behave irrationally, reaching prices that are out of whack with economic fundamentals.</p>
<p>Shiller, 67, predicted the dot-com crash of the early 2000s and the implosion of home prices in 2007. He has also been a pioneer in the field of behavioral economics, or how human emotions, biases and preferences can collectively influence financial markets.</p>
<p>SHILLER: He believes markets can behave irrationally</p>
<p>Using mathematical tools like the well-known Case-Shiller index of home prices, Shiller has expanded the available information on asset prices.</p>
<p>Meb Faber, chief investment officer at Cambria Investment Management, said his firm uses a model developed by Shiller to seek stock bargains around the world.</p>
<p>Hansen has focused on statistical models, creating ways to test competing theories of why asset prices move as they do.</p>
<p>Fama and Shiller “provide the ends of the spectrum” between those who believe financial markets are efficient and those who think them deeply flawed, with Hansen “in the middle doing the math,” said Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago lecturer in economics.</p>
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<p>The three economists share the $1.2 million prize, the last of this year’s Nobels to be announced.</p>
<p>“Their methods have shaped subsequent research in the field, and their findings have been highly influential both academically and practically,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in Stockholm.</p>
<p>Fama, 74, and Hansen, 60, became the 11th and 12th professors from the University of Chicago to win a Nobel in economics, the most for any university. Harvard is second, with six laureates.</p>
<p>Hansen said he received the phone call from Sweden while on his way to the gym Monday morning. He said he was “still working on taking a deep breath.”</p>
<p>Fama was preparing to teach his first class as a Nobel laureate Monday. Asked whether his students would get a break, he said: “We’ll see, but they’re going to get an exam tomorrow, anyway. They paid their money; they’re going to get the full pill.”</p>
<p>The Nobel prizes in medicine, chemistry, physics, literature and peace were created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in 1895. Sweden’s central bank added the economics prize in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel.</p>
<p>Americans have dominated the Nobel in economics in recent years. The last time there was no American among the winners was 1999.</p>
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<p /> | Three American professors win Nobel prize in economics | false | https://abqjournal.com/281922/three-american-professors-win-nobel-prize-in-economics.html | 2013-10-15 | 2 |
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<p>Six eastern European envoys, including the Ukrainian foreign minister, testified before the Senate Tuesday to urge stronger U.S. leadership in the region to hedge against Russia. While lauding U.S. military assistance and recent troop deployments to the Baltic region under the NATO flag, they also warned cutting funding to non-military assistance measures could strengthen Russia’s so-called hybrid warfare tactics.</p>
<p>“We will not feel safer when the budget for such projects will be essentially cut,” Polish Ambassador Piotr Wilczek told a panel of Senate Appropriations Committee members.</p>
<p>“We hope that it’s just a kind of deliberation – a kind of tweeting, not really a decision. Because this sounds very dangerous,” he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Wilczek, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and the ambassadors of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Georgia all joined the panel urging the Senate to keep the flow of military and nonmilitary aid flowing to eastern Europe.</p>
<p>They pointed to the importance of U.S. foreign military assistance, but also smaller government-funded efforts, from Voice of America to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, that play an outsized role in bolstering post-Soviet democracies and countering Russian aggression. All are potentially on Trump’s budget chopping block. State and foreign aid could see their budgets slashed 37 percent, if the White House’s opening salvo in the federal budget process sticks. His proposed cuts showcase “a troubling disregard for the important role [the State Department] plays in U.S. national security, especially in regards to the transatlantic relationship” wrote Rachel Rizzo, research associate with the Center for New American Security.</p>
<p>But it’s not just his budget proposals that are rattling allies. During the campaign, Trump brushed off U.S. commitments to NATO allies and openly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. Top White House officials misled Congress on meetings with Russian diplomats during the presidential campaign season, which toppled Trump’s first national security advisor, Michael Flynn, and hamstrung Attorney General Jeff Sessions as Congress poises to investigate Russia’s interference in the U.S. election.</p>
<p>Since his election, Trump has walked back his NATO skepticism. But allies are fearful he could neglect or even spurn European allies to forge more cooperation with Moscow. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Defense James Mattis visited Brussels last month to soothe allies unnerved by Trump. Both administration officials offered reassuring noises, but with a “tinge of conditionality,” former NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow told Foreign Policy, making clear Washington expects NATO allies to shoulder a bigger part of the defense burden.</p>
<p>The stakes are especially high for Ukraine and Georgia, both grappling with Moscow’s illegal annexation of swaths of their countries. Klimkin, Ukraine’s foreign minister, detailed for Congress the size of Russia’s military footprint. In eastern Ukraine, he said the Kremlin has poured in 4,200 regular troops and 40,000 militants, more than 400 tanks, and 1,000 artillery platforms. Some 23,000 Russian troops are in occupied Crimea, he said.</p>
<p>He told the senate panel he received strong signals of support from his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday.</p>
<p>The Baltic States, unlike Ukraine or Georgia, are under NATO’s protective umbrella as full members. But they’re also staring down the barrel of Moscow’s military might. Russia bulked up its military hardware on NATO’s borders in the Baltic States and regularly conducts massive snap military exercises to showcase its force.</p>
<p>Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland has become the “most militarized region in Europe,” Wilczek warned. In October last year, Russia deployed nuclear-capable missiles to the region. Some defense experts now doubt NATO could reinforce the Baltic states quickly enough in the unlikely event Russia invaded. NATO is funneling troops led by U.S., Canadian, German, and British contingents to the Baltic states to deter that scenario. The deployment “makes a very substantial difference in terms of credibility of NATO’s deterrence,” Vershbow said.</p>
<p>Vershbow, also former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, said a conventional Russian invasion was highly unlikely, but what’s more troubling is Russia’s hybrid warfare – prodding U.S. allies with subversive economic or political maneuvers to undermine their strength. That’s where U.S. foreign aid matters, helping fortify democratic institutions and counter Russian propaganda.</p>
<p>Eerik Marmei, Estonia’s ambassador in Washington, told the Senate Tuesday Russia’s hybrid antics weren’t limited to the former Soviet Union. “We, as neighbors to Russia, are just a bit more used to witnessing such behavior,” he said. “Upcoming elections in the Netherlands, France, and Germany are a perfect theater for the Russian disinformation warriors,” he added. Those concerns have already borne fruit.</p>
<p>The Lithuanian ambassador Rolandas Kriščiūnas said Russian spies tried to “aggressively” meddle in his country’s domestic politics, adding Moscow was bankrolling Russian-speaking groups in the Baltic states to “incite ethnic tensions.”</p>
<p>The European envoys largely sidestepped the elephant in the room: Trump’s possible ties to Russia. But lawmakers did not.</p>
<p>“We understand the interference you’ve had. We now count ourselves among those who are facing the same kind of interference,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the European diplomats.”If we forgive and forget regarding our own election we’ll invite future aggression by other countries,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.</p> | European diplomats to Congress: For our sake, don’t cut foreign aid funding | false | https://abqjournal.com/964622/european-diplomats-to-congress-for-our-sake-dont-cut-foreign-aid-funding.html | 2 |
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<p>New York City’s mayor is raising his profile with major speeches and a spot on Sunday's Meet the Press to boost a new centrist political initiative. But the endless speculation that he’s running for president is bunk.</p>
<p>New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning. As predicted, he was asked, once again, was he considering an independent run at the presidency. As predicted, he answered, once again, that this was not going to happen. He told NBC “ <a href="" type="external">No way, no how..I’m not going to run for president</a>,” just as earlier in the week, he told CBS News “ <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20025076-503544.html" type="external">nothing</a>” could make him run for president. (ABC and Fox are sure to follow.) The fact that this keeps happening is a function of a number of factors, but few of them figure into more than just plain silliness. Bloomberg pointed out quite accurately and succinctly America does not elect either independent candidates or “short, Jewish, divorced billionaire(s)” to be its president. And it will happen despite the fact that Ralph Nader, apparently <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2010/12/09/ralph-nader-21-reasons-michael-bloomberg-can-be-elected-president-in-2012.html" type="external">thinks it is a good idea</a> (Think about it. Aside from the George Bush accidentally becoming president in 2000, what actually happens in this world that Ralph Nader thinks is a good idea?)</p>
<p>The Bloomberg fantasy candidacy is the product of the confluence of a few, not-entirely independent factors. First, there is <a href="http://www.cityhallnews.com/newyork/article-1692-winners-losers-dec-10-edition.html" type="external">his aide Kevin Sheekey</a>, who insists on stroking the story with the single-minded intensity of an undead zombie that continues to crave hot flesh. The fact that Bloomberg cannot be unaware of this, and yet continues to keep Sheekey on his payroll, suggests that Bloomberg wants it done, despite his protestations.</p>
<p>While you might not have noticed, Michael Bloomberg enjoys attention. And so long as reporters can fill space and time with pointless speculation about his intention, the faux presidential candidacy buys it for him without his having to dip into his multi-billion dollar fortune. In a media system desperate for celebrity-driven content that it can pretend to treat as serious news, this phony/baloney story hits all the right buttons and costs nobody anything… except time.</p>
<p>Face it, it’s as if the country is clamoring for a Bloomberg presidency. A waste-of-time Marist College poll that finds in a three-way race against Sarah Palin and Michael Bloomberg, Barack Obama would collect 45 percent, Palin would collect 31 percent, and Bloomberg just 15 percent. And this is before most people in America figure out that Bloomberg is really just a pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-Islam, pro-immigration liberal Democrat who happened to buy himself the Republican nomination for the mayoralty a few years ago when it was onsale, cheap. In the meantime, the charade continues.</p>
<p>Watch New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Meet the Press.</p>
<p>Why? Bloomberg/Sheekey has figured out the way to milk his mayoralty for national attention is to stroke another of the media’s most sensitive g-spots: independence combined with bipartisanship? Sound contradictory? That’s because it is. You can’t spell “bipartisan” without the “partisan” part. That’s how our system works. The two sides compromise to produce legislation that neither one loves but both can live with—at least when it does work. If you don’t have a side, you don’t get to play when it comes time to make the deal. (How many troops did the Pope control again?) Tomorrow, and for a few days afterward, Bloomberg will get to bask in stories that read like the following: “New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, will join several leading Democratic, Republican and other independent political leaders in the launch of a new group that hopes to find non-partisan solutions to some of the nation's problems and to impact the next Congressional session. The organization, known as No Labels, kicks off Monday in New York with a series of panels discussing some key political problems in America and how it can help find common ground.”</p>
<p>If you don’t have a side, you don’t get to play when it comes time to make the deal.</p>
<p>Reporters will <a href="" type="external">write stories</a> filled with speculations, like <a href="" type="external">this one</a>.</p>
<p>More newspapers and websites will <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/poll/2010/dec/09/michaelbloomberg-new-york" type="external">take polls on the subject</a> and so long as he can get away with it, Bloomberg will continue to give <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1210/Bloomberg_in_major_speech_offers_a_middle_way.html" type="external">high-minded speeches</a> denouncing “ what ideologues on the left believe,” and “what ideologues on the right believe” as if that were itself not an ideology in and of itself.</p>
<p>And the result? No harm, no foul, I suppose. Sheekey will get to show his boss that this nonsense really can go on indefinitely, and perhaps demand a raise. Bloomberg make like a wise man before the cameras, and be treated as a genuine national figure—even leaving aside the billions-- without having to pay for them himself. And reporters and pundits will engage in yet another round of pointless speculation leading exactly nowhere. We went to this movie four years ago and as with another New York export, “ <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1261945/" type="external">Sex in the City 2</a>,” the second time around is even less compelling.</p>
<p>Next up. Will a liberal Democrat <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/12/a-primary-challenge-to-obama/67750/" type="external">mount a challenge to Barack Obama</a> for the party’s primary nomination? Sure thing, that will happen, right after <a href="" type="external">Sarah Palin</a> agrees to be the new head of the Republican National Commitee.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>Just ask Ralph Nader....</p>
<p>Eric Alterman is a Distinguished Professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College, a senior fellow of the Center for American Progress and media columnist for The Nation. His newest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568586590/the-bea20" type="external">Kabuki Democracy: The System vs. Barack Obama</a>, is available for preorder.</p> | Why New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg Won’t Run for President in 2012 | true | https://thedailybeast.com/why-new-york-mayor-michael-bloomberg-wont-run-for-president-in-2012 | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s push onto Main Street has taken it to small personal loans, even smaller deposit balances and a partnership with Fidelity Investments' retail brokerage customers.</p>
<p>The latest frontier for the Wall Street titan: house flippers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Goldman is acquiring Genesis Capital, a private Los Angeles firm that backs investors seeking to buy, renovate and quickly sell single-family homes, according to people familiar with the matter. Genesis, founded in 2007, has been growing rapidly as the housing market continues to recover. Last year, the firm lent $1 billion, up from $50 million in 2013.</p>
<p>The acquisition, which could be announced as soon as this week, reflects both the buoyancy of the housing market about a decade after it last peaked and the growing interest Goldman Sachs has in diversifying its businesses as its core trading engines remain stuck in a postcrisis slump.</p>
<p>Wall Street firms' appetite for "fix-and-flip" loans has been growing. Volumes last year were at their highest level in a decade. In recent months, affiliates of private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP and asset manager Fortress Investment Group LLC have each acquired companies that specialize in making these credits.</p>
<p>Rising home prices in many large metropolitan areas combined with anemic growth in the number of new houses under construction have made house-flipping more attractive. Total housing inventory at the end of August fell 6.5% from the same month a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.</p>
<p>Write to Liz Hoffman at [email protected] and Peter Rudegeair at [email protected]</p>
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<p>Goldman Sachs is acquiring Genesis Capital, a private Los Angeles firm that backs investors seeking to buy, renovate and quickly sell single-family homes, according to people familiar with the matter. Genesis, founded in 2007, has been growing rapidly as the housing market continues to recover. Last year, the firm lent $1 billion, up from $50 million in 2013.</p>
<p>The acquisition, which could be announced as soon as this week, reflects both the buoyancy of the housing market about a decade after it last peaked and the growing interest Goldman Sachs has in diversifying its businesses as its core trading engines remain stuck in a postcrisis slump.</p>
<p>Goldman's push onto Main Street has already taken it to small personal loans, even smaller deposit balances and a partnership with Fidelity Investments' retail brokerage customers.</p>
<p>Wall Street firms' appetite for "fix-and-flip" loans has been growing. Volumes last year were at their highest level in a decade. In recent months, affiliates of private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP and asset manager Fortress Investment Group LLC have each acquired companies that specialize in making these credits.</p>
<p>Rising home prices in many large metropolitan areas combined with anemic growth in the number of new houses under construction have made house-flipping more attractive. Total housing inventory at the end of August fell 6.5% from the same month a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.</p>
<p>Taking on a firm specializing in semiprofessional house-flippers inches Goldman closer to residential mortgages -- an area executives have eyed warily, mindful of the public-relations and regulatory drubbing the firm took during the financial crisis for its subprime trading activities.</p>
<p>The deal though does give Goldman another place to put its growing deposit base to work. In the last two years, house flipping, once a symbol of the real-estate market's excess, has becoming hot again, fueled by a combination of resurgent home prices, venture-backed startups and Wall Street cash.</p>
<p>Genesis' loans, which average about $1 million, carry rates of up to 12% and run for about a year. Since 2014, they have been funded by Oaktree Capital Management, the alternative-asset giant.</p>
<p>Genesis will swap Oaktree's financial backing for deeper pockets at Goldman, which in recent years has launched an online-lending business named after its co-founder and bought a deposit base from GE Capital. Terms of the Goldman's deal with Genesis couldn't be determined.</p>
<p>Goldman has been pushing new businesses as its traditional engines of trading and banking either sputter or mature. The firm has also noted the rapid growth of financial technology and data as factors that make it easier to compete nimbly against the giant commercial banks who dominate consumer lending.</p>
<p>In its foray into lending, Goldman has chosen its spots carefully, avoiding areas that would put it in direct competition with the large commercial-banking rivals and focusing on niche products where there is room to grow.</p>
<p>Home-flipping finance, while a niche of the giant residential-mortgage market, has become a bigger business again, after falling sharply after the crisis. Investors spent $40 billion on houses with the intention of quickly reselling them last year, according to ATTOM Data Solutions, which tracks home sales.</p>
<p>That is the most since 2006, though about half the 2005 peak. About 35% of house-flippers today use borrowed money, a nine-year high, according to ATTOM.</p>
<p>It is uncommon for a bank to lend directly to house flippers, but other Wall Street firms have dabbled in business from behind the scenes. Wells Fargo &amp; Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase &amp; Co. have extended credit lines to fix-and-flip lenders. Last year, Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings Inc. securitized $126 million in loans from online real-estate lender LendingHome Corp.</p>
<p>Genesis' loans will be booked through Goldman's regulated banking entity, where the firm recently began offering savings accounts and small personal loans. But because Genesis' borrowers don't intend to live in the properties they buy, their loans are generally classified as commercial credits.</p>
<p>That exempts lenders from postcrisis rules for traditional home loans, such as collecting multiple years of borrowers' tax returns and ensuring they can afford the loan payments. Instead, lenders more heavily weight the features of the property and how much it could fetch after renovations.</p>
<p>Last year Goldman launched Marcus, an online personal-lending platform that offers a lower-cost alternative to those in credit-card debt holes. It is also teaming up with Fidelity's retail brokerage to offer loans backed by individuals' portfolios of stocks and bonds.</p>
<p>Write to Liz Hoffman at [email protected] and Peter Rudegeair at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 12, 2017 13:06 ET (17:06 GMT)</p> | Goldman Sachs to Buy House-Flipping Lender Genesis Capital, Sources Say -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/12/goldman-sachs-to-buy-house-flipping-lender-genesis-capital-sources-say-update.html | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
<p>The number of Australian home-loan approvals rose by a seasonally adjusted 2.9% in July from June, the Bureau of Statistics said Friday.</p>
<p>Economists surveyed ahead of the announcement had expected a rise of 1.0% for the month. The value of loans for investment housing fell by 3.9% from June, the ABS said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Finance approvals to build new houses rose by 3.1% in July from June. Approvals to buy newly built dwellings rose by 1.9%, while lending for the purchase of established homes rose by 2.9% in the month.</p>
<p>The data comes amid increasing evidence that Australia's housing market has cooled after mortgage lending rules were tightened in March to make riskier lending harder, especially to investors.</p>
<p>House prices were unchanged nationally in August, raising expectations that a boom in recent years may finally be fizzling out as well as cooling fears around one of the biggest risks to the economy, according to property research group Corelogic.</p>
<p>Housing's rise to record levels has strained affordability and lifted household debt to among the highest globally.</p>
<p>While more time is needed, the curbs on mortgage lending appear to be taking hold, with only Melbourne showing some signs of resistance, posting a 0.5% rise in house prices over August.</p>
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<p>Australia's central bank is increasingly convinced that the country's home-price surge is levelling off.</p>
<p>While "rising briskly in some markets...there are signs that conditions are easing, especially in Sydney," noted Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe this week.</p>
<p>-Write to James Glynn at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 07, 2017 21:47 ET (01:47 GMT)</p> | Australian Housing Finance Rises in July | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/07/australian-housing-finance-rises-in-july.html | 2017-09-07 | 0 |
<p>In today’s film news roundup, strip club saga “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/topless-prophet/" type="external">Topless Prophet</a>” gets set up as a movie, Westwood’s Crest Theatre gets sold, and <a href="http://variety.com/t/bidslate/" type="external">BidSlate</a> partners with Filmhub.</p>
<p>MOVIE RIGHTS</p>
<p>Producer Ron Senkowski and his production company Symply Entertainment have bought feature film rights to the book “Topless Prophet: The True Story of America’s Most Successful Gentleman’s Club Entrepreneur.”</p>
<p>The deal was made with author <a href="http://variety.com/t/alan-markovitz/" type="external">Alan Markovitz</a>, a pioneer operator of gentleman’s clubs based in Detroit. The book, published in 2010, includes a murder-for-hire plot hatched by his business partner at the time, testifying against the mob, winning First Amendment court battles, creating the first-ever topless airline, and surviving two separate gunshot incidents. He made international headlines in 2013 after purchasing the home next to that of his ex-wife, whom he had caught cheating, and erecting on his property a 12-foot-tall statue of a middle finger.</p>
<p>The Symply Entertainment acquisition includes the “Topless Prophet” book, Markovitz’s life rights, and a screenplay adaptation written by Kenneth Droz, who was accepted as a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellow in 2015 in the institute’s Screenwriting Intensive held in Detroit.</p>
<p>Senkowski’s producing credits include the animated “Khalil Gibran’s ‘The Prophet’” with Salma Hayek and the indie feature “Decoding Annie Parker” starring Samantha Morton and Helen Hunt. He is about to start production on survival thriller “Ports of Call.”</p>
<p>Markovitz starred in the Cinemax reality show “Topless Prophet” for one season in 2014, then declined to participate further.</p>
<p>THEATER PURCHASE</p>
<p>The <a href="http://variety.com/t/actors-hall-of-fame/" type="external">Actors Hall of Fame</a> will buy the Crest Movie Theatre in Westwood, Calif., and plans to re-open the facility next year, Variety has learned exclusively.</p>
<p>Rusty Citron, president of the <a href="http://variety.com/2016/film/news/actors-hall-of-fame-american-cousin-miniseries-laura-keene-movie-1201752565/" type="external">Actors Hall of Fame</a> Foundation, said the foundation plans to operate the facility by showing first-run films and staging special events including world premiere re-enactments of major titles such as “Gone With the Wind”; Actors Hall of Fame tributes to Marilyn Monroe, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier, Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, and Spencer Tracy; big-screen showings of award-winning TV series such as “Game of Thrones” and “The Sopranos”; and film festivals including Shakespeare, documentary, and student films.</p>
<p>It was founded as the Westwood Theatre in 1940 and has been known as UCLAN Theatre, Crest Theatre, and Metro Theatre. The 500-seat art deco style facility was designed by Arthur W. Hawes.</p>
<p>PARTNERSHIP</p>
<p>Content rights marketplace <a href="http://variety.com/2016/film/news/mipcom-bidslate-global-rights-transaction-1201890711/" type="external">Bidslate</a> has announced a partnership with&#160;Filmhub&#160;(formerly Kinonation), the online film distribution marketplace.</p>
<p>The alliance will grant BidSlate the rights to represent Filmhub’s users for on-demand and broadcast in international territories/markets not covered by Filmhub, as well as for DVD and airline/transportation rights internationally.</p>
<p>Titles covered in the deal include “Life in the Hole,” directed by Tony Mendoza; and the documentaries “Bending the Light,” directed by Michael Apted, and “Sons of Perdition,” a Tribeca Film Festival nominee for best documentary.</p> | Film News Roundup: ‘Topless Prophet’ Strip Club Movie in Development | false | https://newsline.com/film-news-roundup-topless-prophet-strip-club-movie-in-development/ | 2017-11-13 | 1 |
<p>Editor’s note: Julia Whitty is on a three-week-long journey aboard the the US Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, following a team of scientists who are investigating how a changing climate might be affecting the chemistry of ocean and atmosphere in the Arctic.</p>
<p>Sea ice in the Western Arctic on 03 October 2012. Steve Roberts / <a href="http://ncar.ucar.edu/" type="external">National Center for Atmospheric Research</a>(NCAR)</p>
<p>The big story of this cruise is sea ice. As in, there isn’t any. At least not in our part of the Arctic Ocean. This year set a new record for lowest Arctic sea ice extant. So our odds of seeing any at this time of year weren’t good to begin with.</p>
<p>Still, almost everyone who set foot on the icebreaker Healy was hoping to encounter some. Sadly we haven’t seen any ice aside from what’s frozen on the decks and windows of the ship.</p>
<p>But the sea ice is growing fast now. The top map shows sea ice extent in this part of the Arctic on 03 October, the day I arrived in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. This analysis comes from the <a href="http://www.natice.noaa.gov/" type="external">National Ice Center</a> (NIC). Pink areas suggest ice cover of 80 percent or greater. Yellow marks marginal ice formation.</p>
<p>If you measure from due north of Point Barrow, Alaska, the ice front was roughly 440 nautical miles (506 miles / 815 kilometers) from land on 03 October.</p>
<p>Sea ice extent in the western Arctic as of 20 October 2012. Steve Roberts / <a href="http://ncar.ucar.edu/" type="external">National Center for Atmospheric Research</a> (NCAR)</p>
<p>This next map shows the sea ice extent as of yesterday, 20 Oct 2012. On that day, according to the NIC analysis, the ice front reached to within ~133 nautical miles (153 miles / 246 kilometers) of Point Barrow.</p>
<p>Averaged out, that out a growth rate of 18 nautical miles (20 miles / 33 kilometers) a day. Though in reality the sea ice advanced more slowly in the early part of the month and is galloping faster now.</p>
<p>The red track line marks Healy’s meandering for the past two-plus weeks as we visit mooring stations and CTD lines across the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.</p> | Where’s the Ice?: Arctic Ocean Diaries No. 9 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/arctic-ice-dispatch-9/ | 2012-10-22 | 4 |
<p>No. 1 did his thing today. <a href="https://t.co/MCz3ppSIFd" type="external">pic.twitter.com/MCz3ppSIFd</a></p>
<p>— Canes Football (@CanesFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/CanesFootball/status/904075103507505152" type="external">September 2, 2017</a></p>
<p>MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Junior quarterback Malik Rosier passed for 217 yards and three touchdowns and junior running back Mark Walton rushed for 148 yards and two scores to lead No. 18 Miami to a 41-13 opening victory over Bethune-Cookman on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.</p>
<p>Making his second career start, Rosier was 17 of 28 passing and had completions of 46 yards to Darrell Langham, 33 to Lawrence Cager, and 22 to Braxton Berrios (for a touchdown) and also rushed four times for 41 yards, including a run of 23 yards on his opening play from scrimmage. Langham and Cager had five-yard touchdown receptions.</p>
<p>Rosier was lifted midway through the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>The Hurricanes outgained the visitors 555-350 in total offense, amassing a 322-121 advantage in rushing.</p>
<p>The Wildcats scored first on Uriel Hernandez’s 36-yard field goal on the first series of the game. But the Hurricanes scored on each of their first four possessions (field goal and three touchdowns) before running out of time on their fifth after fumbling at Bethune-Cookman’s 21-yard line. They went to the locker room up 24-6 at halftime.</p>
<p>They Hurricanes scored on their first series of the second half and added another touchdown late in the third period on Rosier’s strike to Berrios to go up 38-6.</p>
<p>Bethune-Cookman got its only touchdown in the final period, cashing in on a 75-yard touchdown drive that was kept alive by a delay of game penalty that nullified a Miami interception.</p>
<p>NOTES: After expectations earlier in the week of having temperatures near 90 or above, the temperature at game time was only 78 degrees under partly cloudy skies and only a slight wind. Humidity was 88 percent, and the sun broke through in the second quarter. … The Hurricanes had three penalties for illegal blocks (one in the back) their first two drives, overcoming two to convert their first touchdown drive in the second quarter. … Miami’s 92-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter actually covered 96 yards because it started with a penalty for a false start on the first play. … Bethune-Cookman quarterback Larry Brihm completed his first nine pass attempts on his way to a 22-of-35 (212 yards) day. … Junior Miami running back Mark Walton had recorded his seventh career 100-yard rushing game by late in the second quarter. He had 124 yards on 12 carries in the first half.</p> | Miami Hurricanes: Malik Rosier, Mark Walton key in rout of Bethune-Cookman | false | https://newsline.com/miami-hurricanes-malik-rosier-mark-walton-key-in-rout-of-bethune-cookman/ | 2017-09-02 | 1 |
<p>By Chris Michaud</p>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) – The last privately owned Leonardo da Vinci painting and one of fewer than 20 by the Renaissance artist known to still exist is hitting the auction block, Christie’s announced on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“Salvator Mundi,” an ethereal portrait of Jesus Christ which dates to about 1500, is expected to sell for about $100 million at Christie’s in November, making it among the most highly-valued works ever to be sold at auction.</p>
<p>“This is truly the Holy Grail of art rediscoveries,” said Alan Wintermute, Christie’s senior specialist for Old Master paintings, explaining that the portrait sometimes called the male Mona Lisa had long been thought to have been lost or destroyed.</p>
<p>The portrait depicts Christ in vivid blue and crimson robes holding a crystal orb.</p>
<p>First recorded in the private collection of King Charles I, the work was auctioned in 1763 before vanishing until 1900, by which time Christ’s face and hair had been painted over, which Wintermute said was “quite common” practice.</p>
<p>Sold at Sotheby’s to an American collector in 1958 for 45 pounds, it again sold in 2005 as an overpainted copy of the masterwork, he said.</p>
<p>The new owner started the restoration process, and after some six years of research it was authenticated as da Vinci’s more-than 500-year-old masterpiece, which culminated in a high-profile exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2011.</p>
<p>The auction house did not identify the seller, a European private collector who acquired the work after its rediscovery in 2005 and lengthy restoration. The painting stands as the first discovery of a da Vinci painting since 1909.</p>
<p>“Salvator Mundi” will be sold at Christie’s in New York at its Nov. 15 sale of post-war and contemporary art following public exhibitions in Hong Kong, London and San Francisco.</p>
<p>“We felt that offering this painting within that context is a testament to the enduring relevance of this picture,” said Loic Gouzer, chairman of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art.</p>
<p>Speaking to its $100 million estimate, Wintermute reflected “There has never been anything like it sold, and so the market will decide.”</p>
<p>The same sale at Christie’s will feature Andy Warhol’s monumental “Sixty Last Suppers,” a piece from one of the pop artist’s final series before his death in 1987.</p>
<p>The 32-foot, multiple-image work is estimated to fetch $50 million.</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> | Da Vinci portrait of Christ expected to fetch $100 million at auction | false | https://newsline.com/da-vinci-portrait-of-christ-expected-to-fetch-100-million-at-auction/ | 2017-10-10 | 1 |
<p>Rerun rights to the Netflix animated comedy “BoJack Horseman” are being shopped to cable buyers by distributor Debmar-Mercury, an unusual example of a Netflix original series hitting the syndication market. “BoJack” producer Tornante Co. was among the first production companies to work with Netflix on original programming. “BoJack” premiered in 2014, when Netflix was still […]</p> | ‘BoJack Horseman’ Rerun Rights Shopped to Cable Buyers, a Rarity for Netflix Series | false | https://newsline.com/bojack-horseman-rerun-rights-shopped-to-cable-buyers-a-rarity-for-netflix-series/ | 2018-01-09 | 1 |
<p>Infoblox Inc. warned investors Monday that revenue would come in well below expectations, and shares in the networking-software company dove more than 12% in late trading. Infoblox said it expects revenue for the first quarter to be $81 million to $82 million, after previously providing a forecast of $91 million to $93 million, and expects adjusted profit of 5 cents to 6 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected the company to report adjusted earnings of 6 cents a share on sales of $92 million. Infoblox also dropped its full-year revenue guidance to $354 million to $358 million, compared with a previous estimate of $370 to $380 million. Chief Executive Jesper Andersen, a former Cisco Systems Inc. executive who was <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/60-second-business-break/ci_27011926/biz-break-infoblox-names-former-cisco-exec-ceo" type="external">brought in to stem a decline at Infoblox Opens a New Window.</a>, said weakness in enterprise IT spending, especially in North America, was to blame for the shortfall. "We are actively addressing these near-term challenges by continuing to focus on improvements in sales execution and operational efficiency," the CEO said in <a href="http://ir.infoblox.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=251270&amp;p=irol-newsArticle&amp;ID=2166589" type="external">Monday's announcement Opens a New Window.</a>. Infoblox shares fell lower than $14 in late trading after closing with a 0.5% decline at $15.52. The company expects to fully report earnings and hold a conference call on May 25.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Infoblox Plummets After Revenue Warning | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/09/infoblox-plummets-after-revenue-warning.html | 2016-05-09 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>The position is now held by Democrat Pedro Rael, appointed in July by the governor to succeed Judge Violet Otero, who retired. But the Democratic Party selected Mercer to be its nominee for the general election.</p>
<p>The Observer’s newspaper partner, the Valencia County News-Bulletin, asked each candidate to submit biographical information and to respond to these questions:</p>
<p>1. What are your qualifications for being a judge?</p>
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<p>2. What is your philosophy in rendering justice?</p>
<p>3. Judges should have integrity, be impartial, have legal ability and proper judicial temperament. Critique yourself in these areas as to how you personally would approach your job as a judge.</p>
<p>4. Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a DWI or a felony?</p>
<p>5. Have you or your business ever filed for bankruptcy?</p>
<p>Cindy M. Mercer.</p>
<p>Cindy M. Mercer</p>
<p>Age: 45</p>
<p>Position: 13th Judicial District Court, Division 6</p>
<p>Party: Democrat</p>
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<p>Occupation: Attorney</p>
<p>Education: Los Lunas High School, 1983-87, diploma; New Mexico State University, 1987-91, bachelor of arts in psychology; bachelor of criminal justice; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, School of Law 1994-97, juris doctor degree.</p>
<p>Previous elected political offices: None</p>
<p>Questionnaire responses:</p>
<p>1. I bring to the judge position 17 years of experience as an attorney. During my career, I have handled over 10,000 criminal cases as a defense attorney as well as numerous domestic relations, neglect/abuse, guardianship and other civil cases. I have extensive litigation experience including both bench and jury trials.</p>
<p>2. Justice is rendered when a judge makes a good decision. The heart and soul of a good decision is applying the law in an honest and impartial manner without regard for economic, social or political status. I believe in and will protect these principles as a judge.</p>
<p>3. My varied experiences as a lawyer have instilled in me the importance of impartiality and patience in the courtroom. I have worked very hard in my career to earn and maintain a reputation of conducting myself with integrity and honesty. I will bring these values to this judge position.</p>
<p>4. No.</p>
<p>5. No.</p>
<p>R. Lar Thomas.</p>
<p>R. Lar Thomas</p>
<p>Age: 56</p>
<p>Position (Division/District): 13th Judicial District Court, Division 6</p>
<p>Party: Republican</p>
<p>Education: Weber State College, Ogden, Utah, 1982; Utah State University, 1983-1986, bachelor of science in animal science and international agriculture (dual degree); Mississippi State College, Starkville, Miss., 1986; Mississippi College School of Law, Jackson, Miss., 1986-1989, juris doctorate.</p>
<p>Previous elected political offices: Middle Rio Grande Conservancy Director, 1992; municipal judge, Village of Bosque Farms, 2013-present.</p>
<p>Questionnaire responses:</p>
<p>1. I have over 25 years as a practicing trial lawyer in all state and federal courts in New Mexico with 7-plus years of this time as a municipal judge. In addition, I served for 14 1/2 years in the military and have raised eight children with my wife, Roxanne Baca Thomas.</p>
<p>2. Apply the law to the facts, no legislating from the bench. Treat people equally and with respect. Defining justice depends entirely upon where one is sitting at the time. My decisions impact the community and I must take opportunities to encourage those who appear before me to make better decisions.</p>
<p>3. Christian principles define my integrity. Legal ability comes from a formal education, life’s experiences and good work ethics. These traits require constant updating. My judicial temperament comes from many years on the bench, raising children, teaching grandchildren and is something I am always improving on.</p>
<p>4. No.</p>
<p>5. No.</p> | Dist. Court, Div. 6 candidates | false | https://abqjournal.com/485830/50-27-20-24.html | 2 |
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<p>Ahead of a historic trip to the Arctic, President Barack Obama erased a former Republican president's name from North America's tallest peak in a move applauded in Alaska and derided more than 3,000 miles away in Ohio. More contentious matters concerning climate change and Arctic drilling awaited.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Obama departed Monday morning to Anchorage for the start of a three-day visit, bringing the American leader up close to shrinking glaciers, Arctic temperatures and a mix of messy energy politics. His tour of the nation's largest state is closely choreographed to call attention to the ways Obama says climate change is already damaging Alaska's stunning scenery.</p>
<p>Showing solidarity with Alaska Natives, Obama announced Sunday that his administration would rename Mount McKinley as Denali, its traditional Athabascan name. Alaska's governor and congressional delegation praised the long-sought change. But stripping the mountain of its name honoring former President William McKinley, a son of Ohio, drew loud condemnations from Ohio lawmakers.</p>
<p>"This political stunt is insulting to all Ohioans, and I will be working with the House Committee on Natural Resources to determine what can be done to prevent this action," added Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio.</p>
<p>Added House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, "I'm deeply disappointed in this decision."</p>
<p>In renaming 20,320-foot mountain, Obama was recognizing the moniker Alaskans have informally used for centuries. The name means "the high one" in Athabascan.</p>
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<p>The peak, which is growing at about a millimeter a year, was named Mount McKinley in 1896 by a prospector exploring mountains in central Alaska, the White House said. Upon hearing the news that McKinley was the Republican presidential nominee, the prospector named it after him. The name was then formally recognized.</p>
<p>Obama's excursion north of the Arctic Circle will make him the first sitting president to step foot in the Alaska Arctic, home to Alaska Natives. They've received less attention than others amid Obama's recent efforts to improve conditions for Native Americans.</p>
<p>Yet the primary focus on the trip is global warming.</p>
<p>By showcasing thawing permafrost, melting sea ice and eroding shorelines, Obama hopes the trip will underscore the urgency to combat climate change in the U.S. and overseas. But in Alaska, that message has been met with skepticism by leaders of a state that is heavily dependent on oil revenues that have fallen precipitously.</p>
<p>At the same time, environmental groups argued in the lead-up to Obama's trip that he hadn't done enough to protect Alaska and the climate. They took particular offense at his administration's decision just a few weeks ago to give Royal Dutch Shell a final permit for expanded drilling off Alaska's northwest coast.</p>
<p>"I share people's concerns about offshore drilling. I remember the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico all too well," Obama said in his weekly address. But the economy, he said, still relies on oil and gas while it transitions to cleaner renewable fuels. He said his administration was minimizing the risks.</p>
<p>Obama will touch down in Anchorage in the afternoon. He'll then hear from Alaska Natives before speaking at the climate-focused Arctic summit, which involves leaders from Arctic and non-Arctic nations. Setting the stage on Sunday night, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Alaska that climate change skeptics won't be remembered kindly.</p>
<p>Obama and Kerry are seeking a global climate treaty this December, bolstering the president's environmental legacy before leaving office. Obama has pledged a U.S. cut in greenhouse gas emissions of up to 28 percent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, and planned to use the Alaska visit to press other nations to commit to similarly ambitious measures.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Obama will embark on a camera-friendly boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park and hike to Exit Glacier. The sprawling expanse of ice is retreating, and environmentalists cite it as a dramatic sign of warming temperatures. He'll then trek through wilderness while being taped for an episode of the NBC show "Running Wild with Bear Grylls," which tests celebrities on their survival skills.</p>
<p>The visit continues Wednesday in Dillingham, in southwest Alaska, where Obama will meet with fishermen locked in an ongoing conflict with miners over plans to build a massive gold and copper mine in Bristol Bay, home to the world's largest salmon fishery. Then he will fly north to Kotzebue, a regional hub in the Alaska Arctic, to focus on the plight of rural, native villages threatened by encroaching climate change.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP</p> | Alaska-bound, Obama renames Mount McKinley as Denali; messy politics of climate, energy await | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/08/31/alaska-bound-obama-renames-mount-mckinley-as-denali-messy-politics-climate.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>Since 2001, Congress has given the Pentagon more than $1 trillion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the same period, Congress and the Pentagon have added a second trillion dollars to the nonwar (base) part of the Pentagon budget.</p>
<p>You’d think all that added money would give us larger forces, a newer hardware inventory and better trained people. Instead, the windfall made our forces smaller, older and less ready to fight.</p>
<p>A rare few in Congress have begun to notice that more money has bought less defense.</p>
<p>They portend a major shift in the consensus on defense spending. The coming change is a byproduct of the realization that the Pentagon is an integral part of a federal government with spending that is out of control. The Pentagon and the majority of champions of higher defense budgets in conservative think tanks and Congress are trying to head off the coming cuts with seemingly dramatic, but substantively feeble, initiatives.</p>
<p>Here are the facts underlying the need for real reforms.</p>
<p>At $707 billion, the defense budget is today higher than it has ever been since the end of World War II. That statement has been true since 2007; under the Gates plan, it will remain so out to the year 2020 if war spending stays constant.</p>
<p>This spending level is unrelated to the military threat. During the Cold War, from 1948 to 1990, when we faced the sizeable forces of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, annual Pentagon spending averaged $440 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars. Today, big spending advocates point to China as the future threat we must prepare for, but if we add the defense budgets of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba together, and then double that sum, the Pentagon still spends substantially more.</p>
<p>As to the current threat (terrorism), we almost certainly spend more in one day than the terrorists spend in an entire year.</p>
<p>The size of our defense budget today is not the product of the external threat. It is the result of internal Pentagon dynamics, none of them healthy.</p>
<p>Since 2000, Congress and presidents have funded the Pentagon with $7 trillion out to the year 2011. Of that amount, $1.3 trillion has been for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Thus, the nonwar parts of the Pentagon budget will have received $5.7 trillion.</p>
<p>We can calculate what the Pentagon would have received for the same period in the absence of the wars and of any spending above inflation: $4.7 trillion. That means the Pentagon’s “base” budget received a plus-up of almost $1 trillion for 2000-2011.</p>
<p>What did the Pentagon and Congress do with this trillion-dollar windfall? The Navy budget received an additional $293 billion, 2011 funding increased over 2000 by 44 percent. Yet the size of the Navy’s combat fleet dropped from 318 ships and submarines to 287, a decline of 10 percent.</p>
<p>This is not a smaller, newer fleet; it is a smaller, older fleet – about four years older, on average, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Is it more ready to fight? Almost certainly not; for the past year, the press has repeatedly reported on severe maintenance problems throughout the fleet, and Navy combat pilot training in the air has remained at historic lows.</p>
<p>The situation in the Air Force is worse. It received a windfall of $320 billion, an increase of 43 percent. During the same 2000-2011 period, the number of active and reserve fighter and bomber squadrons went from 146 to 72, a decline of 51 percent. Like the Navy, it’s also older on average: According to CBO, it is now about nine years older and at a historic high of about 23 years.</p>
<p>(Our aircraft are older than our ships.)</p>
<p>Air Force budget data tell us that fighter pilot air training hours today are only one-half to one-third of what they were in the 1970s, an era not touted for high readiness.</p>
<p>The so-called good news is from the Army. It received a plus up of $297 billion, a 53 percent increase. The number of brigade combat teams grew from 44 to 46, an increase of 5 percent. A 53 percent increase in money bought a 5 percent increase in combat forces.</p>
<p>But still, CBO tells us that major Army equipment inventories are mostly older. More ready to fight? In 2006, the House Armed Services Committee held hearings and leaked a memo documenting historic lows in the readiness of active Army units. The analysis has not been publicly updated; we should worry that it has gotten worse, not better.</p>
<p>In sum, an extra trillion dollars for the Pentagon has been processed into forces that are, with minor exceptions, smaller, older and less ready to fight.</p>
<p>The defense management leadership in the Pentagon and Congress has squandered a trillion dollars.</p>
<p>Those who recently have become politically active out of disgust with the mess in Washington should be particularly incensed over the Pentagon’s horrific performance.</p>
<p>WINSLOW T. WHEELER spent 31 years working on Capitol Hill with senators from both political parties and the Government Accountability Office, specializing in national security affairs. Currently, he directs the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information in Washington. He is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/159114938X/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Wastrels of Defense</a> and the editor of a new anthology: ‘ <a href="" type="internal">America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress</a></p> | Where is the Payoff for Huge Pentagon Budget Hikes? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/10/13/where-is-the-payoff-for-huge-pentagon-budget-hikes/ | 2010-10-13 | 4 |
<p>COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&amp;M, once ranked No. 5 nationally to start Southeastern Conference play, believes it's finally back on track following its second consecutive league victory.</p>
<p>"It's good to get back to the way we're capable of playing on the defensive end and taking care of the ball offensively," A&amp;M coach Billy Kennedy said following the Aggies' 60-49 victory over Missouri on Saturday.</p>
<p>Tonny Trocha-Morelos scored a season-high 14 points and the Aggies (13-6, 2-5) continued a tedious recovery from an 0-5 start in SEC play in which they dropped out of the rankings along the way.</p>
<p>"We lost five straight and to come back with two straight wins shows we really care, and that we really want to prove to everybody that we want to win this," Trocha-Morelos said.</p>
<p>On Saturday both teams shot poorly from the field, as A&amp;M converted 39.1 percent (25 of 64) of its shots and Missouri made 27.8 percent (15 of 54) of its attempts.</p>
<p>Missouri was held to season lows in points and shooting percentage, in the Tigers' seventh straight loss to A&amp;M. The Aggies led 29-20 at halftime and were aided in the second half by two rare swishes from the right baseline by the senior center Trocha-Morelos, along with his 15-foot jumper from the free-throw line that put the game out of reach at 58-46 with 1:38 remaining.</p>
<p>"It was the tough, physical game that we expected," said Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin, pointing out A&amp;M's early SEC troubles were primarily because of injuries. "They have a very talented team."</p>
<p>No one from the Tigers (13-6, 3-3) scored in double digits, as Jordan Geist, Jeremiah Tilmon and Jordan Barnett scored nine points each. Both teams struggled from the 3-point line, with A&amp;M making 3 of 17 (17.6 percent) and Missouri 4 of 18 (22.2 percent).</p>
<p>A&amp;M center Tyler Davis was the only player with double-digit rebounds with 14 and he also collected a game-high three blocks.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies continue to try and work their way back into the NCAA Tournament mix with their second consecutive win in SEC play, following the 0-5 start that included one-point losses at home to LSU and on the road at Kentucky. The talented Aggies are as healthy as they've been all season, and their confidence continues to grow early in SEC action.</p>
<p>Missouri: The Tigers defeated South Carolina by double-digits in their SEC opener, so they've proven they can win on the road in league play. They only held a brief lead early in the second half on Saturday, however, as the surging Aggies kept them at arm's length for most of the final 20 minutes. The outcome never seemed in doubt, and Missouri often appeared overmatched against A&amp;M big men Robert Williams and Davis.</p>
<p>STAT OF THE NIGHT</p>
<p>The Aggies committed a season-low four turnovers, with their next lowest total this season 10. Forward Robert Williams committed two of the miscues, with no other A&amp;M player having more than one.</p>
<p>ON THE BENCH</p>
<p>A&amp;M point guard J.J. Caldwell didn't log any minutes, as Kennedy said it was coach's decision to go with fellow freshman T.J. Starks to try and provide some offense. The move worked, with Starks scoring 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: Following consecutive home games, the Aggies play at LSU on Tuesday night. LSU beat A&amp;M on a last-second 3-pointer by Tremont Waters in College Station on Jan. 6.</p>
<p>Missouri: The Tigers play host to Auburn on Wednesday before going back on the road for their next two games at Mississippi State and Alabama.</p>
<p>COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&amp;M, once ranked No. 5 nationally to start Southeastern Conference play, believes it's finally back on track following its second consecutive league victory.</p>
<p>"It's good to get back to the way we're capable of playing on the defensive end and taking care of the ball offensively," A&amp;M coach Billy Kennedy said following the Aggies' 60-49 victory over Missouri on Saturday.</p>
<p>Tonny Trocha-Morelos scored a season-high 14 points and the Aggies (13-6, 2-5) continued a tedious recovery from an 0-5 start in SEC play in which they dropped out of the rankings along the way.</p>
<p>"We lost five straight and to come back with two straight wins shows we really care, and that we really want to prove to everybody that we want to win this," Trocha-Morelos said.</p>
<p>On Saturday both teams shot poorly from the field, as A&amp;M converted 39.1 percent (25 of 64) of its shots and Missouri made 27.8 percent (15 of 54) of its attempts.</p>
<p>Missouri was held to season lows in points and shooting percentage, in the Tigers' seventh straight loss to A&amp;M. The Aggies led 29-20 at halftime and were aided in the second half by two rare swishes from the right baseline by the senior center Trocha-Morelos, along with his 15-foot jumper from the free-throw line that put the game out of reach at 58-46 with 1:38 remaining.</p>
<p>"It was the tough, physical game that we expected," said Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin, pointing out A&amp;M's early SEC troubles were primarily because of injuries. "They have a very talented team."</p>
<p>No one from the Tigers (13-6, 3-3) scored in double digits, as Jordan Geist, Jeremiah Tilmon and Jordan Barnett scored nine points each. Both teams struggled from the 3-point line, with A&amp;M making 3 of 17 (17.6 percent) and Missouri 4 of 18 (22.2 percent).</p>
<p>A&amp;M center Tyler Davis was the only player with double-digit rebounds with 14 and he also collected a game-high three blocks.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies continue to try and work their way back into the NCAA Tournament mix with their second consecutive win in SEC play, following the 0-5 start that included one-point losses at home to LSU and on the road at Kentucky. The talented Aggies are as healthy as they've been all season, and their confidence continues to grow early in SEC action.</p>
<p>Missouri: The Tigers defeated South Carolina by double-digits in their SEC opener, so they've proven they can win on the road in league play. They only held a brief lead early in the second half on Saturday, however, as the surging Aggies kept them at arm's length for most of the final 20 minutes. The outcome never seemed in doubt, and Missouri often appeared overmatched against A&amp;M big men Robert Williams and Davis.</p>
<p>STAT OF THE NIGHT</p>
<p>The Aggies committed a season-low four turnovers, with their next lowest total this season 10. Forward Robert Williams committed two of the miscues, with no other A&amp;M player having more than one.</p>
<p>ON THE BENCH</p>
<p>A&amp;M point guard J.J. Caldwell didn't log any minutes, as Kennedy said it was coach's decision to go with fellow freshman T.J. Starks to try and provide some offense. The move worked, with Starks scoring 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: Following consecutive home games, the Aggies play at LSU on Tuesday night. LSU beat A&amp;M on a last-second 3-pointer by Tremont Waters in College Station on Jan. 6.</p>
<p>Missouri: The Tigers play host to Auburn on Wednesday before going back on the road for their next two games at Mississippi State and Alabama.</p> | Cold-shooting Texas A&M downs Missouri 60-49 | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1047022cd0a24ef2a7d299b2b3dbf58d | 2018-01-21 | 2 |
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<p>This is usually Onnesha’s territory, but nevertheless, it seems the Justice Department is once again doing wacky things with definitions. Steven Aftergood <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2005/04/041405.html" type="external">notices</a> that the DoJ recently indicted three British nationals for conspiring to detonate, quote, a “weapon of mass destruction.” Weapon of mass destruction! Sounds dangerous! Well, was it chemical, biological, or maybe even nuclear? Um, well, no, none of those. But no matter: Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey <a href="http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/04/doj041205.html" type="external">said</a>, “a weapon of mass destruction in our world goes beyond that and includes improvised explosive devices.” Oh, okay then.</p>
<p>It’s funny, one moment we’re told that you <a href="http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20031103.html" type="external">have to parse</a> the president’s exact words very, very carefully to discover that he didn’t actually say that Iraq was an “imminent threat” back in early 2003. And the next, words are allowed to mean anything the administration damn well wants them to mean.</p>
<p /> | Iraq’s WMDs… found! | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/04/iraqs-wmds-found/ | 2005-04-14 | 4 |
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<p>JetBlue planned to resume some flights in the Northeast on Tuesday morning and return to full operation at four affected airports by mid-afternoon. It said the time-out would let crews rest and give mechanics a chance to service planes.</p>
<p>With freezing weather stretching from the Midwest to the East Coast, airlines canceled more than 3,700 flights within the U.S. by late afternoon, pushing the three-day total to more than 8,700 U.S. flights wiped out, according to the tracking service FlightAware.com.</p>
<p>JetBlue, which has major operations in Boston and New York, was among the hardest-hit. By late afternoon Monday, it had scrubbed 425 flights, or nearly half its schedule for the day. Some passengers at Boston’s Logan Airport had been stuck for two days, sleeping on cots and chairs.</p>
<p>Southwest Airlines Co. suspended flights at Chicago’s Midway Airport around midday and canceled more than 100 of its planned 230 daily departures there. Spokesman Brad Hawkins said that the extreme cold made tasks such as refueling so much longer and more difficult that it the airline couldn’t keep its usual schedule. Southwest hoped to reopen at Midway by Monday evening, he said.</p>
<p>JetBlue spokeswoman Tamara Young said the airline decided to suspend operations at Logan and the three big New York-area airports — Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J. — because of forecasts that called for temperatures around zero and possible flash freezing.</p>
<p>Young said rules on pilot rest that took effect Saturday contributed to the airline’s problems Monday. She said that crews of some delayed planes had to go home because they wouldn’t be able to complete their flights within the time allowed by Federal Aviation Administration rules intended to prevent pilots from become overly tired. Young could not put a number on such incidents.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>JetBlue hoped to avoid a repeat of the customer-relations disaster that occurred on Valentine’s Day 2007, when several of its planes full of passengers were stranded within sight of the Kennedy Airport terminal for up to 10 1/2 hours during a snow storm. That incident led to a federal rule requiring that airlines give passengers a chance to return to the gate within three hours if planes are stuck on the tarmac.</p>
<p>On Monday, JetBlue began shutting down operations in Boston and New York around 1 p.m. EST. The airline said it planned to resume limited service at 10 a.m. Tuesday and full operations by 3 p.m.</p>
<p>JetBlue Airways Corp. shares dropped 39 cents to close at $8.66. The 4.3 percent decline was the steepest among large U.S. airlines in percentage terms. Southwest fell 27 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $19.15.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Follow David Koenig at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/airlinewriter" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/airlinewriter</a></p> | JetBlue, Southwest halt some flights amid freeze | false | https://abqjournal.com/332052/jetblue-southwest-halt-some-flights-amid-freeze.html | 2 |
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<p>REP. John Murtha, in a speech that said nothing about his own responsibility in voting to authorize the invasion of Iraq, calls for the immediate redeployment of U.S. forces, on the ground that the war is not going “as advertised.”</p>
<p>Ungrateful for small favors, the White House promptly accuses Sen. Murtha, the first Vietnam combat vet to serve in the senate, of advocating “surrender to the terrorists.”</p>
<p>Such a charge goes well beyond the ordinary rough-and-tumble of politics, even as played by Cheney, Rove and Bush. The significant thing to me is not the sheer routine dirtiness of the attack on Murtha. It is the fact that the administration chose this moment to introduce the word surrender into the debate.</p>
<p>It is as though the urgent question were no longer, did the White House lie the country into war, but rather, should the United States surrender the battlefield, or continue to bear unacceptable losses in a war it clearly cannot win.</p>
<p>It would not be the first time an American administration has accused an opponent of advocating precisely what it would dearly love to do, if it only dared. By many accounts, the Bush White House would like nothing better than to surrender Iraq, assuming it could find anyone to surrender it to.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the plausibility of arguing that the U.S. effectively surrendered in Afghanistan, when it allowed Osama bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora, let us agree to think about the unthinkable — an American surrender — for a moment or two.</p>
<p>Surrender is as American as Robert E. Lee. Defeat is as American as Custer, who underwent what the late Vine Deloria, Jr. called a “sensitivity-training session” at Little Big Horn.</p>
<p>A clear majority appear to believe that the country would have been better off had it never invaded Iraq. Would Iraq have been better off? Do we presume to know?</p>
<p>If we remain in Iraq long enough, the question will one day be, not should we get our troops out, but can we get them out.</p>
<p>The sad fact is that the real American surrender has already taken place, and many of us don’t even know it. We have surrendered our government to two political parties who both insist that we must “stay the course,” majority will be damned.</p>
<p>We have surrendered the White House to a cretin, the Congress to corporate corruption and cowardice, and control of our armed forces and intelligence services to people who commit torture in our name. Gore and Kerry surrendered elections to Bush, and to this day most leading Democrats shudder at the very thought of being linked to an anti-war movement. “Dupes ‘R Us” seems to be their current mantra.</p>
<p>Apart from Murtha, do you see any Democrats standing up in the well of the House or in the Senate and demanding, as Bobby Kennedy did, “Mr. President, stop this war”? No, they are pleading that they were “misled,” although millions of people in the streets evidently were able somehow to figure it all out before the invasion was launched.</p>
<p>I find nothing to suggest that Iraqis care a whit about weapons of mass destruction, Colin Powell humiliations, unread memos, forged documents, White house leaks, or bad reporting in the New York Times.</p>
<p>What they care about is the fact that our boots are on their soil.</p>
<p>Bob Dylan once said, “I see people who are supposed to know better, standing around like furniture.”</p>
<p>Even today, we seem to be willing to surrender the best interests of the country for the pleasures of a general sort of “get Bush” mentality, as though it matters to the people of Iraq whether Rove resigns, Woodward whines, Libby talks, or Cheney walks.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s a House of Cards. So what? The point is that, even if the House collapses, the deck is rigged!</p>
<p>If Bush resigns, Cheney becomes president. If Cheney resigns, it’s Hastert, if they all resign, who would it be? A Democrat who voted for the war and believes it would be “irresponsible” to “surrender to terrorism.”</p>
<p>This disastrous war has harmed the United States, perhaps irretrievably. It has harmed our standing in the world, and it has eaten at the social fabric at home. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the trouble we are in as a result. Were the war to end today, it might take a hundred years to repair the damage.</p>
<p>The sooner we can get started, the better.</p>
<p>If Bush were to announce a “surrender” tomorrow, calling it whatever he wished, if he were to cut a deal with the insurgents and order the troops home, would we not then at last see the people dancing in the streets, that we told to expect when coalition forces rolled into Baghdad?</p>
<p>The country might well break into civil war, but it would break into rejoicing first.</p>
<p>Perhaps that is the one image, of Iraqis both Shiite and Sunni, letting the hallelujahs roll, praising Allah for the sight of our backsides, that would cause our own country to be surrendered back into the hands of its rightful owners.</p>
<p>DAVID VEST writes the Rebel Angel column for CounterPunch. He and his band, The Willing Victims, have just released a scorching new CD, <a href="" type="internal">Serve Me Right to Shuffle</a>. His essay on Tammy Wynette is featured in CounterPunch’s new collection on art, music and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">davidvest AT springmail DOT com</a></p>
<p>Visit his website at <a href="http://www.rebelangel.com/" type="external">http://www.rebelangel.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Politics of Surrender | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/11/19/the-politics-of-surrender/ | 2005-11-19 | 4 |
<p>Head for the west coast of India now for this Geo Quiz. The Indian city on our radar is the capital of the state of Maharashtra. One notable thing about this city is its population of over 12.5 million people. That puts it among the world's top ten most populated cities. And while its hot economy ranks this city as the richest in India, it's not so easy to buy a drink. Local authorities just boosted the legal drinking age to 25 as part of an attempt to battle addiction to drugs and alcohol. The policy isn't going down so well with some young people. "I've never been asked for an ID, I have friends who have been, at times, but then you get away with it anyway. And purchasing alcohol has never been an issue, even a 10-year-old could buy alcohol. You give them money, they give you alcohol, that's the way it works." The city we're looking for is Mumbai. It happens to be home to many of India's vineyards and alcohol distilleries. So it came as a surprise when the government there raised the legal drinking age. Chhavi Sachdev reports.</p> | Raising the Drinking Age in India | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-06-14/raising-drinking-age-india | 2011-06-14 | 3 |
<p>A Tennessee high school student was <a href="" type="internal">allegedly assaulted by his principal</a>. Why? Because the kid, one Chris Sigler, had the temerity to continue pushing for the school to establish a gay-straight alliance.</p>
<p>If proven, the principal’s actions would be criminal. But there’s no reason Sigler has to wait and see whether the district attorney will pursue the case – a case which, in any event, won’t directly benefit Sigler. Instead, he might want to file a civil claim against Moser. He potentially has three distinct claims: battery; assault; and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Here’s a blueprint for his claims, based only on what I’ve read:</p>
<p>In tort law, a defendant commits a battery where he intends to make an unprivileged contact against someone, and contact results. No damages are needed for this tort claim to be successful, because this ancient tort also protects our personal dignity. If Sigler was indeed grabbed, shoved, and chest-bumped, he has a claim.</p>
<p>He also could sue for assault – confusingly, assault means two quite different things under criminal and tort law, and we usually think of assault in the criminal law sense: a physical attack against another person. Under civil (tort) law, though, that’s a battery. Assault, for tort purposes, means that the defendant intends to cause, and causes, the victim to apprehend (not quite the same as fear) imminent contact. Sigler’s mom says she walked in to see Moser “leaning over [her son] and shouting in his face.” That’s an assault – another tort that doesn’t require proof of actual damages, because, again, the law wants to protect people’s dignity against this sort of affront. Allowing such actions is also a deterrent against similar behavior in the future – by this defendant, and by like-minded miscreants.</p>
<p>Finally, Sigler might have a claim for the intentional infliction of emotional distress. This tort requires conduct that is extreme and outrageous, that is at least reckless in causing emotional distress, and that actually does cause severe emotional distress.</p>
<p>Although courts aren’t crazy about this tort (because it’s difficult to draw its boundaries), under certain circumstances it’s entirely appropriate. Recall Albert Snyder’s claim against Fred Phelps’s wackos – a jury awarded him millions for the actions of Westboro Baptist “Church” in disrupting his son’s funeral. (He didn’t end up collecting, thanks to the <a href="http://wordinedgewise.org/?p=1479" type="external">Supreme Court’s ill-advised ruling</a> that these cretins were protected by the First Amendment; there’s no such issue here.)</p>
<p>I think the emotional distress claim has some traction here. Isn’t a principal pushing and shoving a student, and screaming at him, extreme and outrageous? And why was he doing it, if not to cause fear and emotional distress? If Sigler can prove that severe distress resulted – because this tort does require harm – he can recover for this, as well. And this tort, unlike the others, would examine the whole course of conduct by Moser, not just the incident giving rise to the assault and battery claims.</p>
<p>There might also be a claim against the school district for its actions in allowing the kind of bullying that led students to push for a gay-straight alliance in the first place, and perhaps even for the actions of Moser if he was found to be acting within the scope of his employment.</p>
<p>What might Sigler get out of this, if his damages aren’t great?</p>
<p>Plenty. Courts and juries really disfavor defendants who commit intentional torts. Punitive damages are available to punish people like Moser and to send a message to others that this kind of crap will no longer be tolerated. The publicity that such a suit would generate would draw attention to the unconscionable way that an educator was treating a student, and might have the added benefit of forcing Moser out of his job. And he might end up having to pay Chris Sigler thousands of dollars in actual and (mostly) punitive damages. If the case were proved, such a result would be justice.</p>
<p>As I detailed in <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1738522" type="external">this on-line article</a>, I don’t generally favor civil suits as a way of dealing with the problem of bullying. They’re an incomplete, hit-and-miss approach that doesn’t necessarily lead to systemic change. But where a high school principal is himself the bully? By all means: Sue him. And get him out of there.</p>
<p>&#160; <a href="" type="internal" />Were he born 10,000 years ago, John Culhane would not have survived to adulthood; he has no useful, practical skills. He is a law professor who writes about various and sundry topics, including: disaster compensation; tort law; public health law; literature; science; sports; his own personal life (when he can bear the humanity); and, especially, LGBT rights and issues. He teaches at the Widener University School of Law and is a Senior Fellow at the Thomas Jefferson School of Population Health.</p>
<p>He is also a contributor to Slate Magazine, and writes <a href="http://wordinedgewise.org" type="external">his own eclectic blog</a>. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter if you’re blessed with lots of time.</p>
<p>John Culhane lives in the Powelton Village area of Philadelphia with his partner David and their twin daughters, Courtnee and Alexa. Each month, he awaits the third Saturday evening for the neighborhood Wine Club gathering. &#160;</p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">advocating</a>, <a href="" type="internal">assault</a>, <a href="" type="internal">assaulted</a>, <a href="" type="internal">battery</a>, <a href="" type="internal">cause of action</a>, <a href="" type="internal">chris sigler</a>, <a href="" type="internal">common law</a>, <a href="" type="internal">criminal law</a>, <a href="" type="internal">damages</a>, <a href="" type="internal">emotional distress</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Gay Rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">high school principal</a>, <a href="" type="internal">intentional infliction of emotional distress</a>, <a href="" type="internal">intentional tort</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Law</a>, <a href="" type="internal">punitive damages</a>, <a href="" type="internal">student</a>, <a href="" type="internal">sue</a>, <a href="" type="internal">tennessee student</a>, <a href="" type="internal">tort</a>, <a href="" type="internal">united states tort law</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> | Should Gay Rights Advocating Tennessee Student Assaulted By Principal Sue? | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/should-gay-rights-advocating-tennessee-student-assaulted-by-principal-sue/legal-issues/2011/10/09/28072 | 2011-10-09 | 4 |
<p>Air pollution is more than just unpleasant: it’s dangerous to your brain, a new study has found.</p>
<p>Breathing polluted air everyday ends up altering a person’s brain in ways that could lead to permanent damage, according to a <a href="http://www.livescience.com/50602-air-pollution-brain-volume.html" type="external">Live Science report</a>.</p>
<p>A total of 943 healthy adults older than 60 were examined for the study, which focused on the New England region. The researchers used an MRI to look at the brain structures of the participants and compare them with the air pollution levels where they lived to see if they could spot differences in people who lived in areas with higher pollution.</p>
<p>They found that an increase in pollution of 2 micrograms per cubic meters can lead to a 0.32 percent reduction in brain volume, which is about the same as aging one year.</p>
<p>The same increase in pollution was also linked to a significant increase — 46 percent — in the risk of “silent strokes,” which cause no symptoms but can result in lower cognitive function and even dementia.</p>
<p>People who lived in areas with high pollution had smaller brain volumes and were at a much greater risk of these silent strokes than those who did not, according to the study’s findings.</p>
<p>It is the first study that has dived into air pollution and brain volume to determine if there is a relationship. Previous studies look at that relationship in children, but not in the aging.</p>
<p>Why does air pollution do this? Scientists aren’t sure, but believe it could be from inflammation of the brain.</p>
<p>The study could lead to breakthroughs in understanding the link between pollution and brain damage. It was published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.</p>
<p /> | Air pollution damages the brains of the elderly, alarming new study finds | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/04/26/air-pollution-damages-the-brains-of-the-elderly-alarming-new-study-finds/ | 2015-04-26 | 3 |
<p>In recent days, the teachers, together with groups of workers, campesinos, the indigenous population and the people, were repressed on the highways and in the communities of Morelos state, by the cowardly action of the repressive forces, with helicopters, armored vehicles, clubs, and tear gas. Faced with this, the teachers and inhabitants of towns and communities bravely faced the police-military operation and showed that they are ready to fight to the end against the anti-education plans and against the Alianza por la Calidad de la Educaci??n [ACE].</p>
<p>Dozens of arrested people and several people who disappeared, as well as more police and military raids against communities, is the result of the savage represison that seeks to protect the plans of the state and federal governments. In spite of this, the spirited sit-in by the teachers continues in the main square of Cuernavaca, and together with the indigenous people, campesinos, students and workers, they declare they will not retreat a single step.</p>
<p>It is time to show and increase solidarity and support for the teachers and the people of Morelos.</p>
<p>The sections of the CNTE throughout the country must now call a national solidarity strike. The teachers in the whole country must wage a united struggle, repudiating the ACE and for the removal of Elba Esther from office. Halt the repression! Down with the Governor!</p>
<p>We must not abandon our comrades from Morelos. The UNT and the SME must also call for immediate mobilization actions and a national strike in support of this heroic struggle. It is time for these unions, that present themselves as opponents of the government, to join this great movement; if we postpone the task of unifying the struggle, it could be too late. We must now strengthen the only struggle that is intimidating the government. If Section 19's struggle is victorious, and they defeat the ACE in the state, it will more difficult for the government in its attempt to twist the arm of the other sections of the CNTE. In addition, that will strengthen the struggle against privatization of the energy industry, as well as defense of the contracts, and against the impoverishment of the working class, that will be intensified by the economic crisis. We will have a better chance of defeating the labor reform and reforms of the collective work contracts and of social security.</p>
<p>The broadest solidarity of all the workers?, social, human rights and political organizations is urgently needed, first of all, to demand the immediate and unconditional release of everyone who was arrested and the return, safe and sound, of everyone who disappeared.</p>
<p>Down with the ACE! Dismissal of the union boss Gordillo!</p>
<p>Down with the state of siege in Xoxocotla!</p>
<p>NATIONAL STRIKE of solidarity by the CNTE, the UNT and the SME!</p>
<p>FOR THE VICTORY OF THE MORELOS TEACHERS? STRUGGLE!</p> | Victory to Morelos teachers struggle! | true | https://leftvoice.org/Victory-to-Morelos-teachers-struggle | 2008-10-17 | 4 |
<p />
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Smurfs are feeling a little blue this weekend.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The third installment in Sony's animated series, "Smurfs: The Lost Village," made its box-office debut in third place, with $14 million — far behind family-friendly holdovers "The Boss Baby" and "Beauty and the Beast," according to studio estimates Sunday.</p>
<p>Featuring the voices of Demi Lovato and Joe Manganiello, "Smurfs," which reportedly cost $60 million to make, has not charmed critics either. Its earnings were worse than the 2013 opening of "Smurfs 2," which went on to gross $347.5 million worldwide despite a $17.5 million debut and a heftier $105 million price tag.</p>
<p>But the fate of the third "Smurfs" is not necessarily sealed, says ComScore's senior media analyst, Paul Dergarabedian.</p>
<p>"There are other revenue streams for films like this," Dergarabedian said, noting international profits and home video potential that could recoup production costs.</p>
<p>In first place, "The Boss Baby" added $26.3 million in its second weekend in theaters, bringing its North American total to $89.4 million. Sufficient buzz and the benefit of voice star Alec Baldwin's popular portrayal of President Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live" likely helped the film succeed, Dergarabedian said.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, "Beauty and the Beast" earned $25 million to take second place at the box office. In four weeks, Disney's live-action fairy tale has brought in $432.3 million domestically.</p>
<p>While the family films dominated, moviegoers had other options on a relatively quiet weekend. The tepidly reviewed buddy comedy "Going in Style," starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin, opened in fourth place, with $12.5 million.</p>
<p>The faith-based drama "The Case for Christ" also launched with $3.9 million from 1,174 theaters.</p>
<p>In limited release, the Chris Evans drama "Gifted" took in $476,000 from 56 theaters, while the World War II drama "Their Finest" grossed $77,000 from four screens in New York and Los Angeles.</p>
<p>The relative quiet at the box office is ending soon. "The Fate of the Furious," the eighth installment in "The Fast and the Furious" franchise, speeds into theaters next weekend, followed by "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" a few weeks later.</p>
<p>"There are a lot of box-office heavyweights looming on the horizon," Dergarabedian said.</p>
<p>Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.</p>
<p>1."The Boss Baby," $26.3 million.</p>
<p>2."Beauty and the Beast," $25 million.</p>
<p>3."Smurfs: The Lost Village," $14 million.</p>
<p>4."Going in Style," $12.5 million.</p>
<p>5."Ghost in the Shell," $7.4 million.</p>
<p>6."Power Rangers," $6.2 million.</p>
<p>7."Kong: Skull Island," $5.8 million.</p>
<p>8."Logan," $4.1 million.</p>
<p>9."Get Out," $4 million.</p>
<p>10."The Case for Christ," $3.9 million. ___ Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.</p> | 'Boss Baby,' 'Beauty' Outshine 'Smurfs 3' at Box Office | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/09/boss-baby-beauty-outshine-smurfs-3-at-box-office.html | 2017-04-09 | 0 |
<p>Various news media outlets are framing a special congressional election in Georgia as a referendum on President Donald Trump, coalescing around a narrative that a likely Democrat win in The Peach State signals broad national distaste for the president.</p>
<p>Georgia’s 6th Congressional District’s seat is vacant following its former holder’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/politics/tom-price-health-and-human-services.html" type="external">move to the executive branch</a>; Tom Price is now Secretary of Health and Human Services.</p>
<p>Consider the following news media outlets’ presentations of the aforementioned narrative:</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/democrats-vs-trump/trump-rips-top-democrat-jon-ossoff-georgia-special-election-n747361" type="external">NBC News</a> states, without evidence, that the race is “competitive” between Republicans and Democrats due to Trump’s national unpopularity:</p>
<p>Trump's unpopularity made this race competitive and he's loomed over it since picking Price to join his Cabinet late last year. Many are watching the race closely as a [sic] early indicator of potential anti-Trump Democratic wave in next year's midterm elections.</p>
<p>CNN’s lede paragraph in its <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/georgia-house-6th-special-election-jon-ossoff/index.html" type="external">Wednesday morning take</a> of the election focuses on Trump, casting the president as somehow politically vulnerable in this dimension and its focal point:</p>
<p>Republicans were served another reminder of President Donald Trump's unpopularity Tuesday as Democrat Jon Ossoff nearly captured a House seat in a region that for decades has been a conservative stronghold, with the Democrat ultimately falling just short of the percent needed to avoid a runoff.</p>
<p>CNN’s Chris Cillizza <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/19/politics/georgia-special-election-results-analysis/" type="external">described the election</a> as ”Republicans [dodging] a potential political cataclysm.”</p>
<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/democrat-ossoff-finishes-georgia-primary-falls-short-threshold/story?id=46876941" type="external">ABC News</a> hyped the election as a national referendum on Trump’s presidency, using the weasel words “widely viewed” to avoid ownership of its own narrative:</p>
<p>Democrat Jon Ossoff led all candidates in a 17-way race to succeed Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price in Georgia's sixth congressional district, but fell short of receiving the necessary 50 percent to avoid a runoff in the race widely viewed as a mandate on President <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/donald-trump.htm" type="external">Donald Trump</a>'s first months in office.</p>
<p>ABC News framed Trump as having inserted himself into the race, neglecting to note that Ossoff’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m9nvdo-25w" type="external">political campaign</a> is premised on criticisms of the president; Ossof inserted Trump into the election. Political and media observers will note that presidential political and partisan involvement in congressional races is standard fare across administrations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/georgia-special-election.html" type="external">The New York Times</a> described the election as a “referendum on President Trump.” It goes on to frame the election, thus far, as a victory for Democrats: “... the Georgia result will be an immediate boon to Democratic groups, lifting their fund-raising and bolstering candidate recruitment efforts, while sobering Republicans who are assessing whether to run in Mr. Trump’s first midterm election.”</p>
<p />
<p>ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 18: Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff speaks to his supporters as votes continue to be counted in a race that was too close to call for Georgia's 6th Congressional District in a special election to replace Tom Price, who is now the secretary of Health and Human Services on April 18, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. The winner of the race would fill a congressional seat that has been held by a Republican since the 1970s. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)</p>
<p>Democrats have placed their hopes for a win in 30-year-old Jon Ossoff, whose political campaign is funded to the tune of <a href="https://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/ossoff-pulls-record-donations-for-georgia-special-election/MqGzLMjrzVRR8jE5YGs3rL/" type="external">approximately $8.3 million</a>. Despite 95% of his fundraising having come from outside of Georgia, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/georgia-house-race-stokes-gop-identity-crisis--and-opportunity-for-democrats/2017/04/18/a2231a48-242f-11e7-b503-9d616bd5a305_story.html" type="external">The Washington Post</a> described Ossoff’s campaign as fueled by a “groundswell of grassroots activism.”</p>
<p>Ossoff's top competitor, Republican Karen Handel (Georgia's former secretary of state), <a href="http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/04/04/that-time-when-karen-handel-lobbied-for-obamacare-protections/" type="external">has raised under $500 thousand</a>. Complementarily, the National Republicans have spent over $4 million on negative advertising targeting Ossoff.</p>
<p>Despite Ossoff's eclipsing of his Republican opponents in fundraising, none of the above-mentioned news media outlets considered what broad political and partisan narratives could be inferred should Ossoff lose the election. No matter the outcome, Ossoff's political fortunes to this point are widely framed as a victory for Democrats and the broader left by the above-mentioned news media outlets.</p>
<p>Rush Limbaugh anticipated the the promotion of the aforementioned narratives from various news media outlets <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/04/17/georgia-gops-circular-firing-squad-in-special-election/" type="external">last week</a>:</p>
<p>"The Democrats have for some reason put a lot of emphasis on this. The Democrats are looking for a win anywhere so that they can then say that the tide has turned on Trump and that people realize they made a mistake. And whenever people have a chance to vote against Trump and support a Democrat, they do it. Now, they were all prepared to do that in Kansas, but it didn’t happen.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>So in the Democrat world, just because they hate Trump, they think everybody else is on the way to hating Trump too. And because they don’t respect Trump, ditto. And therefore people are beginning to regret voting for Trump. You can even see stories about this. The Drive-Bys are now out trying to find Trump voters admitting that they’re disappointed. And you know what? In a couple of weeks they found one, but they haven’t been able to find a huge number of Trump voters who regret it, so they’re just manufacturing that narrative in all of these special election votes."</p>
<p>NBC, ABC, CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post all present themselves as politically objective and non-partisan news media outlets</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Hysterical Media: GA's Special Election A 'Referendum' On Trump | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15501/hysterical-media-gas-special-election-referendum-robert-kraychik | 2017-04-19 | 0 |
<p>With the vote on Britain’s membership of the EU fast approaching, the question of workers’ rights – and how best they can be protected and extended – has been granted a level of scrutiny unusual in the capitalist press.</p>
<p>But welcome though it is, the debate has been posed in misleadingly stark terms. The remain campaigners tell us there will be a ‘bonfire of rights’ should we vote to come out; the leave campaign points to the increasingly totalitarian role of the EU, against which there can no resistance.</p>
<p>Both groups employee a zero-sum, all or nothing, logic, which has led to understandable fear and frustration amongst voters.</p>
<p>We each have our own opinions of the EU – I have made mine perfectly clear <a href="" type="internal">elsewhere</a> – and this article is not intended to challenge these views.</p>
<p>But what I do want to say is that if you are concerned about your rights, you need to join a trade union NOW!</p>
<p>As evidenced by the repressive labour laws currently being forced on France, Belgium, Greece, Britain, and elsewhere, neither the EU nor national governments can be trusted to ensure our rights.</p>
<p>The organised working class – as expressed in the trade union movement – is, as it has always been, the only guarantor of workers’ rights.</p>
<p>And with the prospect of yet another massive economic recession in the <a href="" type="internal">next year</a>, the need to become actively involved in the labour movement has never been more pressing.</p>
<p>Posted below is a short summary of some of the main trade unions below.</p>
<p>For most jobs you can join UNISON, Unite, or GMB. If you are a shop worker join USDAW, and if you work in the food industry join BFAWU. Students and unemployed people can join Unite Community.</p>
<p>If anyone is uncertain about which union to join, don’t hesitate to contact one of those mentioned above.</p>
<p>Although we cannot individually control the outcome of the referendum, we can control whether or not we are in an organisation which has a proven track record of defending and advancing our rights.</p>
<p>Join a union!</p>
<p>Join the fightback against austerity!</p>
<p>Resources</p>
<p>Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) <a href="http://www.bfawu.org/join" type="external">http://www.bfawu.org/join</a></p>
<p>Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) <a href="" type="internal">https://www.bectu.org.uk/get-involved/join-bectu</a></p>
<p>Communication Workers Union (CWU) <a href="http://www.cwu.org/departments-services/join-us/join-cwu-now/" type="external">http://www.cwu.org/departments-servic…/join-us/join-cwu-now/</a></p>
<p>Community and Youth Workers’ Union (CYWU) <a href="" type="internal">https://www.cywu.org.uk</a></p>
<p>General, Municipal, and Boilermakers (GMB). A general workers’ union, including the International Union of Sex Workers as a branch. <a href="" type="internal">https://www.gmb.org.uk/join/join-online</a></p>
<p>National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) <a href="https://www.napo.org.uk/content/join-us" type="external">https://www.napo.org.uk/content/join-us</a></p>
<p>National Union of Journalists (NUJ) <a href="https://www.nuj.org.uk/join/" type="external">https://www.nuj.org.uk/join/</a></p>
<p>National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) <a href="" type="internal">http://www.rmt.org.uk/about/join-rmt/</a></p>
<p>National Union of Teachers (NUT) <a href="" type="internal">https://www.teachers.org.uk/join</a></p>
<p>Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) <a href="" type="internal">https://www.join.pcs.org.uk/en/join-pcs/join-pcs-online.cfm</a></p>
<p>Royal College of Nursing (RCN) <a href="" type="internal">https://www.rcn.org.uk/membership</a></p>
<p>Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) <a href="https://www.ucatt.org.uk/join-us" type="external">https://www.ucatt.org.uk/join-us</a></p>
<p>Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) <a href="https://www.usdaw.org.uk/Join-Us" type="external">https://www.usdaw.org.uk/Join-Us</a></p>
<p>UNISON <a href="https://www.unison.org.uk/join/" type="external">https://www.unison.org.uk/join/</a></p>
<p>Unite the Union <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/joinunite/" type="external">http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/joinunite/</a></p>
<p>Unite Community (includes unemployed and students) <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/joinunite/" type="external">http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/joinunite/</a></p>
<p>University and College Union (UCU) <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/join" type="external">https://www.ucu.org.uk/join</a></p> | Post-Referendum Britain: Concerned About Your Rights? Join a Union | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/06/16/post-referendum-britain-concerned-about-your-rights-join-a-union/ | 2016-06-16 | 4 |
<p>Economist and New York University professor Nouriel Roubini explains that globalization, reckless lending and borrowing, and the redirection of income and wealth from industries dependent upon human labor and well-being to those composed mainly of capital, such as the global derivatives market, are undermining the social structures that capitalism relies upon to function.</p>
<p>Left alone, markets cannot be expected to serve the general good, he says, and neither can indefinite spending driven primarily by deficits. A global shift to the social sensibilities of 1930s America, when the government created a basis for production and demand by prioritizing the welfare of the average citizen through investments in skills training and social safety nets — which he and other economists call “human capital” — is needed to save societies from capitalism’s drive to consume itself and virtually everything else. –ARK</p>
<p>Nouriel Roubini at Project Syndicate:</p>
<p>To enable market-oriented economies to operate as they should and can, we need to return to the right balance between markets and provision of public goods. That means moving away from both the Anglo-Saxon model of laissez-faire and voodoo economics and the continental European model of deficit-driven welfare states. Both are broken.</p>
<p />
<p>The right balance today requires creating jobs partly through additional fiscal stimulus aimed at productive infrastructure investment. It also requires more progressive taxation; more short-term fiscal stimulus with medium- and long-term fiscal discipline; lender-of-last-resort support by monetary authorities to prevent ruinous runs on banks; reduction of the debt burden for insolvent households and other distressed economic agents; and stricter supervision and regulation of a financial system run amok; breaking up too-big-to-fail banks and oligopolistic trusts.</p>
<p>Over time, advanced economies will need to invest in human capital, skills and social safety nets to increase productivity and enable workers to compete, be flexible and thrive in a globalized economy. The alternative is – like in the 1930s – unending stagnation, depression, currency and trade wars, capital controls, financial crisis, sovereign insolvencies, and massive social and political instability.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roubini41/English" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Nouriel Roubini: Capitalism Must Be Saved From Itself | true | http://truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/nouriel_roubini_capitalism_must_be_saved_from_itself_20110815/ | 2011-08-15 | 4 |
<p>According to a new report submitted by the Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Justice's lack of action under former President Barack Obama's administration led to the death of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata. As detailed in the report, the DOJ's anti-illegal gun trafficking program at that time failed to stop the suspects from murdering the agent.</p>
<p />
<p>Zapata was killed in 2011 as he and fellow ICE agent Victor Avila were traveling from Matehuala to Mexico City. Upon reaching the town of Santa Maria del Rio, the agents? SUV was blocked by two vehicles carrying about eight assailants.</p>
<p />
<p>Using a variety of assault weapons including AR-1Ss and AK-47s, the suspects on fired on the vehicle. Avila was severely wounded but managed to survive. Zapata, on the other hand, died from his multiple gunshot wounds.</p>
<p />
<p>After reviewing the investigation on the incident, the Office of the Inspector General (IG) identified a number of factors that led to the death of the ICE agent. This mainly includes the failed operation carried out by the DOJ.</p>
<p />
<p>As stated in the report, the main suspects Otilio Osorio and Robert Riendfliesh were able to purchase their firearms at the Dallas Fort Worth Gun Show and at a pawnshop in Texas in 2010. Analysis on the firearms revealed that these were the same ones used on the attack on Avila and Zapata.</p>
<p>Many of the firearms, particularly those obtained by Riendfliesh, were straw purchases. This means he used a straw purchaser, or another party, to buy the weapons on his behalf.</p>
<p />
<p>Despite already having information on Otilio and Riendfliesh, the DOJ along with the other agencies involved in the operation including the FBI, DEA and ATF, failed to prevent the suspects and the straw purchasers from bringing back the firearms they purchased to Mexico.</p>
<p />
<p>According to the IG, the lack of action from the DOJ and other agencies involved in the operation led to the tragic consequences involving Zapata.</p> | Report Proves Obama's DOJ Failed to Prevent Murder of ICE Agent Zapata | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/1571-Report-Proves-Obama-s-DOJ-Failed-to-Prevent-Murder-of-ICE-Agent-Zapata | 2017-03-02 | 0 |
<p>Jan Karski, proper name Jan Kozielewski, was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1914. He has lived in the United States since 1944, and is now a professor of government at Georgetown University. (Those who saw Claude Lanzmann's Shoah will remember that during his interview Karski was so overcome with emotion that he had to leave the room to compose himself before returning to continue.) Before the war he graduated from Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov and began his career in the Polish Foreign Service. In 1939 he was drafted into the army as a second lieutenant of mounted artillery. Taken prisoner of war by the Soviets, he managed to escape and, after many adventures, returned to Warsaw, where he joined the Polish underground.</p>
<p /> | The Mission That Failed: An Interview with Jan Karski | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/the-mission-that-failed-an-interview-with-jan-karski | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
<p>LIMA, Peru — Seeing the big cats at the circus used to be one of the biggest thrills of childhood.</p>
<p>Not anymore, as humans increasingly become aware of the misery that the spectacle inflicts on the lions, tigers, and other performing animals, not to mention the squalid conditions they are often kept in.</p>
<p>Peru has become the latest nation to crack down on wild circus animals, with authorities seizing six lions from the Monaco Circus, based in the Andean city of Cuzco, in two raids this month.</p>
<p>The rescue operation came just days after one of the cats, named “Smith,” attacked a visiting teacher in front of her students when a lion act went horrifically wrong. The teacher, mercifully, was able to walk away after Smith released her.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>“They’re not in great shape and weren’t being looked after properly,” said Jose Rafael Vilar, a consultant to Animal Defenders International (ADI), the nonprofit that coordinated the raid with Peruvian authorities.</p>
<p>“Their cages were tiny, they haven’t been fed properly or given the veterinary care they need, and there’s also obviously been an issue with safety.”</p>
<p>Several of the lions were seriously malnourished, while two were actually fat due to the lack of exercise in their cramped cages. One had no teeth and several had open wounds.</p>
<p>Looking after the animals is no joke. Male lions can weigh 600 pounds and need an average of around <a href="http://www.cbs.umn.edu/research/labs/lionresearch/faq" type="external">20 pounds of meat a day</a>.</p>
<p>The animals are now being assessed at a temporary refuge in the capital, Lima, along with another six lions seized previously.</p>
<p>The government is deciding what to do with them, but they are likely heading to Colorado’s <a href="http://www.wildanimalsanctuary.org/home1.html" type="external">Wild Animal Sanctuary</a>, the only place in the world equipped to allow rescued big cats to roam free in natural conditions over extensive terrain.</p>
<p>The sanctuary took 29 lions rescued by ADI from Bolivian circuses back in 2011. It now has 160 of its 720 acres set aside for the Peruvian cats, which are thought to have been bred in captivity in Latin America.</p>
<p>“We’ll need to keep them separated from the other animals at first, but as time goes by we should be able to merge them into the existing prides,” says sanctuary Executive Director Pat Craig.</p>
<p>“This is their best option. They can’t be released into the wild; they don’t know how to hunt and are too used to being around humans. And there’s no space for the ones already in the wild anyway [thanks to humans encroaching on their habitat].”</p>
<p>According to ADI, 29 countries around the world, from Taiwan to several Latin American nations, including Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru, now have blanket bans on performing wild animals.</p>
<p>Many more are now debating the issue, including the United States, where Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) has <a href="http://moran.house.gov/press-release/moran-bill-would-limit-use-exotic-circus-animals" type="external">introduced</a> the Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act, which would ban circus animals.</p>
<p>ADI estimates there are around 35 big cats still performing in Peruvian circuses, and plans to continue working with Peru’s Forest and Wildlife Service to rescue them.</p>
<p>As for parents wanting their kids to see these alpha predators in the flesh, that will still be possible, in Colorado. Visitors to the sanctuary can view the lions from the safety of walkways high overhead, as the animals roam across their new home.</p> | These Peruvian circus lions could be headed to a new life in Colorado | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-08-31/these-peruvian-circus-lions-could-be-headed-new-life-colorado | 2014-08-31 | 3 |
<p>The leak of the “initial assessment” of the war in Afghanistan by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander in the war, with its blunt warning that “[f]ailure to provide adequate resources” is likely to result in “mission failure”, was part of an obvious effort to force the hand of a reluctant President Barack Obama to agree to a significant increase in U.S. troops.</p>
<p>The version of the classified McChrystal assessment published on the Washington Post website Monday has many redactions, indicating that it had been prepared especially for the purpose of leaking it the press.</p>
<p>What may be even more important about McChrystal’s assessment, however, is that it presents a highly discouraging picture of the situation in Afghanistan – and that the Integrated Civilian-Military Campaign Plan for Afghanistan to which he had agreed just three weeks earlier was even more pessimistic than his “initial assessment”.</p>
<p>The integrated campaign plan, signed by McChrystal and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry on Aug. 10, said that popular rejection of the Afghan government in the Pashtun region of the country is already so pronounced that “key groups” are supporting the Taliban as the only available alternative to a government they regard as abusive.</p>
<p>The integrated campaign plan is marked “Sensitive but Unclassified”, and has not been released to the public, but a copy has been obtained by IPS.</p>
<p>Both documents acknowledge fundamental socio-political realities that raise serious questions about the feasibility of the counterinsurgency programme that McChrystal outlines in his assessment, but McChrystal’s assessment altered or softened some central conclusions of the integrated campaign plan.</p>
<p>The most important difference between the two documents is their conclusion about how much popular support the insurgents have already gained. The McChrystal assessment suggests that the insurgents have been unable to obtain uncoerced popular support.</p>
<p>“Major insurgent groups use violence, coercion and intimidation against civilians to control the population,” the assessment says. It concludes that “popular enthusiasm” for the Taliban and other insurgent groups “appears limited, as does their ability to spread beyond the Pashtun areas”.</p>
<p>Pashtuns are by far the largest ethnic group in the country, with 40 to 45 percent of the population, and predominate across most of Afghanistan’s territory, from the far west across the entire south to the east.</p>
<p>While denying popular support for the insurgency, however, McChrystal admits that some factors, such as “a natural aversion to foreign intervention” and tribal and ethnic identities that are reinforced by “historical grievances” have resulted in “elements of the population tolerating the insurgency and calling to push out foreigners”.</p>
<p>The integrated campaign plan goes further, suggesting that the Taliban have gotten support because they are seen as the only feasible alternative to an abusive government. It notes that most Afghans reject the “Taliban ideology”, but concludes, “Key groups have become nostalgic for the security and justice Taliban rule provided.”</p>
<p>The two documents use different terms to describe the political failure of the Afghan government and its consequences. The McChrystal assessment refers to a popular “crisis of confidence” in the government. But the integrated campaign plan calls it a “crisis of legitimacy” and says the insurgents have “derived some legitimacy by appealing to ideological affinities and fears of ‘foreign occupation’ as well as in quick provision of local justice.”</p>
<p>The two documents also differ on what progress can be expected in carrying out an ambitious agenda for change outlined in the integrated campaign plan.</p>
<p>McChrystal’s assessment simply presents the broad strategy and the objectives that must be achieved in regard to providing security, increasing Afghan government security forces and reform of governance. It does not consider the risks or likelihood of failure in regard to any these objective.</p>
<p>The integrated campaign plan, however, does consider risks and the possibility of failure. It makes the identification of corrupt local officials and punishing them or changing their behaviour a priority objective, for example.</p>
<p>But it also warns that the Afghan government and its warlord allies in the provinces, who have no real interest in changing the status quo, may well be able to frustrate such efforts at reform. The plan even suggests Karzai might “replace several effective government officials with ineffective or corrupt individuals”.</p>
<p>It raises the possibility that “dashed hopes” about reducing Afghan government corruption could create a “backlash” against the ISAF.</p>
<p>Another risk anticipated by the plan is that the Afghan elections of Aug. 20 would be “widely viewed as unfair” and would lead to “a political crisis and/or increased perception of GIRoA [Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan] illegitimacy”. Reporting during the month since the election suggests that such an expectation was quite realistic.</p>
<p>Although it clearly pulls its punches on some key issues, the McChrystal assessment nevertheless contains some remarkably candid language for an official document – let alone one clearly intended to justify the escalation of the war.</p>
<p>McChrystal acknowledges the problem of warlords – referring to them as “local and regional power brokers” – who have autonomy from the government and in some cases hold positions in the Afghan National Security Forces, particularly the Afghan National Police.</p>
<p>He also refers to the fact that ISAF has “relationships” with the warlords, these “individuals”, meaning that foreign military contingents have many contracts with them to provide security services and rely heavily on them for intelligence.</p>
<p>Those relationships, McChyrstal observes, “can be problematic”. For one thing, he observes, the Afghan public perceives the ISAF as “complicit” in official Afghan abuses of power.</p>
<p>This degree of realism about the fundamental socio-political conditions bearing on the success or failure of a counterinsurgency war found in both the McChrystal assessment and the integrated campaign plan is highly unusual, if not unparalleled, in U.S. military policymaking. In this case, it apparently helped precipitate a crisis in U.S. Afghan policy.</p>
<p>Along with the blatantly fraudulent election run by President Hamid Karzai’s regime and the sharp downturn in domestic U.S. political support for the war in Afghanistan, the fundamental obstacles to success discussed candidly in the two documents were part of the context of Obama’s scepticism about McChrystal’s troop request.</p>
<p>Thus they contributed to his decision to engage in what one senior administration official has called “a very, very serious review of all options”, according to the report by Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Karen DeYoung in the Washington Post Monday.</p>
<p>GARETH PORTER is an investigative historian and journalist with Inter-Press Service specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, “ <a href="" type="internal">Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam</a>“, was published in 2006.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Taliban Rising | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/09/23/taliban-rising/ | 2009-09-23 | 4 |
<p>Nintendo gamers and fans alike are getting ready as the Pokémon franchise gets ready to venture into augmented reality.</p>
<p>On Thursday the company announced that soon, people would be able to catch pics of Pokémon in the real world. Pokémon GO will function as an interactive game that lets players use their iPhones or Androids to catch Pokémon out and about in the world, according to the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pokemon-go-augmented-reality_55f19f04e4b03784e2783121?utm_hp_ref=technology&amp;ir=Technology&amp;section=technology" type="external">Huffington Post</a>.</p>
<p>“Pokémon GO&#160;will use real location information to encourage players to search far and wide,” a press release says. “Pokémon GO’s gameplay experience goes beyond what appears on screen, as players explore their neighborhoods, communities, and the world they live in to discover Pokémon alongside friends and other players.”</p>
<p>The new concept for Pokémon mirrors geocaching which is an interactive treasure-hunting game where players seek real treasures hidden in the real world.</p>
<p>The new adventure will have users wearing Apple Watch-like tech called the Pokémon GO Plus. With this, they can keep the Bluetooth-connected devise on when their phones are put away. The device will vibrate and flash if a virtual Pokémon is close by.</p>
<p>The device itself looks more like a toy and at this time, it is still unknown what it will cost users. The company is building on other attempts earlier this year that brought a version of Pokémon to smartphones called Pokémon Shuffle.</p>
<p>In the past the company solely focused on selling all original consoles and devices, shying away from the use the smartphones with their technology.</p>
<p>The new Pokémon GO will be available for free in the App Store as well as through Google Play and will permit in-app purchases which has proven to be a huge moneymaker for other apps.</p>
<p /> | Pokémon is meeting players in the real world | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/09/10/pokemon-is-meeting-players-in-the-real-world/ | 2015-09-10 | 3 |
<p>Turkey’s leading presidential candidate has Islamist roots, a cause for concern among the country’s many secularists. The Turkish military has even <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6602375.stm" type="external">weighed in</a> on the issue, saying the armed forces were troubled by the election and would display their “positions and attitudes” as “a staunch defender of secularism” at the appropriate time.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>The army said it was following the election process “with concern”.</p>
<p>“It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces are a side in this debate and are a staunch defender of secularism,” the statement said.</p>
<p />
<p>“The Turkish armed forces are against those debates… and will display their position and attitudes when it becomes necessary. No one should doubt that.”</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6602375.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Religious Tension Mounts in Turkish Politics | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/religious-tension-mounts-in-turkish-politics/ | 2007-04-28 | 4 |
<p>Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability in smart sex toys, including those made in the US, that allows hackers to easily take control of the devices from the street.</p>
<p>Walking through the streets of Berlin, Alex Lomas, a researcher from security group Pen Test Partners, said he was “genuinely surprised” to see an adult sex toy pop up on his phone.</p>
<p>Using a technique Lomas dubbed “screwdriving” – a play on “wardriving,” a term hackers use for locating Wi-Fi networks while driving – Lomas showed how hackers could “fairly accurately” locate a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-enabled sex toy using triangulation.</p>
<p>“We went hunting…and found some devices in an exploitable state…in people,” Lomas wrote in a <a href="https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/screwdriving-locating-and-exploiting-smart-adult-toys/" type="external">blog</a>.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/402405-dolphinattack-ultrasonic-researchers-zhejiang/" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="https://www.bluetooth.com/what-is-bluetooth-technology/how-it-works/le-p2p" type="external">BLE</a>, also known as Bluetooth Smart, is a wireless personal area network technology that was made to consume less power than Bluetooth, allowing devices to run on a smaller battery for longer. The technology has most commonly been used in fitness trackers, health monitors and computer accessories like keyboards and mouses. However, BLE is not known for having good security measures.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.lovense.com/vibrating-butt-plug" type="external">Lovense Hush</a> is a BLE-connected butt plug that allows users to control the speed of the vibrations through their smartphones. The device is advertised to be used by long-distance couples through a mobile application, or for “solo play” and “discreet public play” with BLE.</p>
<p>Lomas said that these BLE devices “advertise themselves for discovery” by using the same identifier across all devices. He found that all Hush devices are named LVS-Z001.</p>
<p>Researchers tested several other devices, including American-based sex toy Kiiroo Fleshlight, and Lelo, Lovense Nora and Max, and found that none of them used a PIN or password, or, if they did, it was generic and static.</p>
<p>“In fact, we’ve found this issue in every Bluetooth adult toy we’ve looked at!” Lomas said.</p>
<p>Lomas said it was understandable that sex toys do not include a user interface (UI), which would allow a user to connect their sex toy to another device with a pairing PIN.</p>
<p>“I accept that putting a keypad on a butt plug is a bit of a non-starter!” Lomas said. “Where do you put a UI on a butt plug, after all?”</p>
<p>Since the BLE signals between the phone and the sex toys are not encrypted, Lomas was able to intercept the transmissions between the phone and the sex toy using only a Bluetooth “dongle” and an antenna. He then showed how a few simple commands would allow a hacker to connect to the devices from the street and take control of them.</p>
<p>Additionally, since BLE devices use point-to-point (P2P) topology for one-to-one device communications, Lomas said that “as long as the attacker remains connected over BLE and not the victim, there is no way they can stop the vibrations.”</p>
<p>Lomas said that he was not trying to “kink-shame” anyone for using these devices, rather he hoped that the industry would learn to improve the security measures in their devices.</p>
<p />
<p>I really do hope IoT toy makers address security issues in their products.Another disclosure coming soon too…</p>
<p>— Alex Lomas (@alexlomas) <a href="https://twitter.com/alexlomas/status/913752435797233664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">September 29, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>“How comfortable do you feel knowing that if you wore such devices in public, that you might be discovered?” Lomas said. “Having an adult toy unexpectedly start vibrating could cause a great deal of embarrassment.”</p>
<p>Lomas suggested that sex toys should include a button that would need to be pushed before they could be paired to another device. He also suggested sex toys should be renamed so they could not be distinguished from a printer or a regular Bluetooth device.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p> | Bad vibrations: Smart sex toys vulnerable to hackers, researchers find | false | https://newsline.com/bad-vibrations-smart-sex-toys-vulnerable-to-hackers-researchers-find/ | 2017-10-03 | 1 |
<p>Lynn Stuart Parramore</p>
<p>Over the last week, Burger King has been getting slammed for a scheme to worm out of its U.S. tax obligations, but a new report shows that’s just business as usual for the company. (Burger King decided to move its tax base to Canada by acquiring the Ontario-based coffee and donut chain Tim Hortons, which will allow the firm to get out of paying billions in U.S. taxes.)</p>
<p>Reuters just took a look at the&#160;&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/02/us-burger-king-tax-insight-idUSKBN0GX0AI20140902?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=businessNews" type="external">fast-food giant’s regulatory filings</a>&#160;in the U.S. and overseas, and found that Burger King has a sordid history of scamming taxpayers through creative accounting tricks that make profits magically appear in low-tax areas overseas. The company has been so successful at artful dodging that its taxes are among the lowest in the industry (26 percent compared to 31 percent for McDonald’s, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts). In the U.S., the headline federal corporate tax rate is supposed to be 35 percent on profits.</p>
<p>According to Reuters:</p>
<p>“Burger King generated almost 60 percent of its revenues in the United States between 2011 and 2013, regulatory filings show, but the chain reported just 20 percent of its profits in the country over the period.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/revealed-burger-king-has-been-screwing-american-taxpayers-years" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Revealed: Burger King Has Been Screwing American Taxpayers for Years | true | http://rinf.com/alt-news/money/revealed-burger-king-screwing-american-taxpayers-years/ | 2014-09-03 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>Attorney Stephen Hofer wrote in a statement that the Federal Aviation Administration will not fine Ford and the actor will retain his pilot’s license without restriction.</p>
<p>“The FAA conducted a full investigation into the matter, including an interview with Mr. Ford, and determined that no administrative or enforcement action was warranted,” Hofer wrote.</p>
<p>Ford mistakenly landed on a taxiway at John Wayne Airport in Orange County on Feb. 13 after flying over an American Airlines jet that was waiting to take off.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I’m the schmuck who landed on the taxiway,” Ford told an air traffic controller shortly after the landing. Recordings of Ford’s conversations with air traffic controllers were released Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration, and video previously released by the airport showed the actor’s Aviat Husky plane from behind as it descends toward the airfield where the American Airlines Boeing 737 is slowly taxiing.</p>
<p>Ford told an air traffic controller after the incident that he “got distracted by the airliner” and also mentioned “big turbulence” from another plane that was landing.</p>
<p>The FAA confirmed it had concluded its investigation into the incident, but the agency said it does not comment on individual pilots.</p>
<p>Ford cooperated with investigators, has been a licensed pilot for more than 20 years with more 5,000 hours of flight experience, and has never been the subject of an FAA enforcement action, Hofer said.</p>
<p>Ford collects vintage planes and has had several close calls and a serious accident in March 2015 when he was injured in his World War II-era trainer after it crashed on a Los Angeles golf course when its engine failed.</p>
<p>Alan Diehl, an aviation safety consultant who once worked for the FAA, said in an email to The Associated Press that it is likely “the inspectors felt this was an understandable mistake and concluded no further administrative or punitive action was warranted.”</p>
<p>He also said quickly taking responsibility for the mistake — as Ford did — is looked upon kindly.</p>
<p>“His candor and long history of supporting aviation safety causes may have also been a factor in the decision to cut him some slack.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Anthony McCartney can be reached at <a href="http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP" type="external">http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP</a></p> | Harrison Ford won’t face any penalties over runway incident | false | https://abqjournal.com/981830/harrison-ford-wont-face-any-penalties-over-runway-incident.html | 2017-04-03 | 2 |
<p>Photo: "Race to Nowhere" film</p>
<p />
<p>After Jane Marvin’s 13-year-old daughter Devon committed suicide in 2008, Marvin reviewed every email, chat, and phone call for missed signs of a troubled mind. A high-achieving, highly popular student, Devon had shown no symptoms of depression, Marvin reflects in the new documentary&#160; <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com/" type="external">Race to Nowhere</a>. Eventually Marvin&#160;uncovered just one clue:&#160;an unexpected “F” on a math test—the first one for Devon, a straight ‘A’ student.</p>
<p>It was this death that compelled ex-Wall Street lawyer (and mother of three)&#160; <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com/film-team" type="external">Vicki Abeles</a> to make Race to Nowhere.&#160;Abeles—who interviewed psychiatrists, child development experts, teachers, parents, and&#160;teens in affluent and low-income communities for the film—claims that a silent epidemic of stress-related diseases among American children is leading to increased rates of suicide, depression, and anxiety.&#160;While I think the film at times oversimplifies the connections between&#160;No Child Left Behind testing and increased mental disorders,&#160;Race to Nowhere&#160;is still a must-see for any parent who wants to understand the daily pressures facing kids in schools.</p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com/screenings" type="external">this site to find or host a film screening</a> in your area, or get school&#160; <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com" type="external">survival tips</a>.</p>
<p /> | America’s “Race to Nowhere” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/no-child-left-behind-race-to-nowhere/ | 2011-02-23 | 4 |
<p>Obama lied. People died. According to an <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/exclusive-whistleblowers-warned-top-spy-about-skewed-isis-intel.html" type="external">exclusive report</a> by The Daily Beast, intelligence about the ISIS threat may have been intentionally distorted to fit President Obama’s political agenda.</p>
<p>The Daily Beast’s Shane Harris and Nancy Yousef <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/exclusive-whistleblowers-warned-top-spy-about-skewed-isis-intel.html" type="external">report</a>:</p>
<p>U.S. military analysts told the nation’s top intelligence official that their reports on ISIS were skewed and manipulated by their bosses, The Daily Beast has learned. The result: an overly optimistic account of the campaign against the terror group.</p>
<p>The damning report invokes the highest levels of government, including the Commander-in-Chief himself. President Obama’s myth of ISIS as the innocuous “JV Team” purportedly percolated through military and intelligence communities, severely comprising counter-terrorism efforts. The Daily Beast <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/exclusive-whistleblowers-warned-top-spy-about-skewed-isis-intel.html" type="external">explains</a> (emphasis added):</p>
<p>The complaints, lodged by analysts at U.S. Central Command in 2015, are separate from allegations that analysts <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2015/09/09/exclusive-50-spies-say-isis-intelligence-was-cooked.html" type="external">made to the Defense Department inspector general</a>, who is now investigating “whether there was any falsification, distortion, delay, suppression, or improper modification of intelligence information” by the senior officials that run CENTCOM’s intelligence group.</p>
<p>This second set of accusations, which have not been previously reported, were made to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). They show that the officials charged with overseeing all U.S. intelligence activities were aware, through their own channels, of potential problems with the integrity of information on <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/content/dailybeast/features/isis.html" type="external">ISIS</a>, some of which made its way to President Obama.</p>
<p>The analysts have said that they believe their reports were altered for political reasons, namely to adhere to Obama administration officials’ public statements that the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS is making progress and has put a dent in the group’s financing and operations.</p>
<p>These shocking allegations cast major doubts on the ability of the Obama administration to keep the country secure. Already, lone wolf terrorist attacks, from San Bernardino to Columbus, have crippled the country with fear. National security may have been gravely compromised for the sake of political expediency.</p>
<p>US Central Command, or CENTCOM, is principally responsible for US military engagements across the Middle East. If officials there have manipulated intelligence reports, then perhaps the Benghazi scandal was just the tip of the iceberg. For an administration riddled with scandals, this latest development is beyond the pale.</p>
<p>Defense officials may have actually erased and deleted files that realistically assessed the threat of ISIS, but failed to adhere to President Obama’s narrative of a weakened caliphate.</p>
<p>“Three sources who are familiar with the defense inspector general’s investigation told The Daily Beast that the watchdog had conducted interviews with analysts at CENTCOM’s headquarters in Tampa, and had reviewed documents allegedly showing that senior officials, including Maj. Gen. Steven Grove, the command’s intelligence director, and his civilian deputy, Gregory Ryckman, had <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2015/11/23/analysts-accuse-centcom-of-covering-up-cooked-isis-intelligence.html" type="external">deleted emails and files from computer systems</a> before the inspector general could examine them,” <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/exclusive-whistleblowers-warned-top-spy-about-skewed-isis-intel.html" type="external">notes</a> The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>Details are still emerging about the extent of the distortion, although Republican lawmakers have been pressing the Obama administration to provide more transparency. For months, members of Congress, perhaps rightfully so, have been alleging that the Obama administration is skewing intelligence data.</p>
<p>Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has pushed back against the allegations, downplaying recent reports of politicization across the intelligence community. “I think it’s best that we all await the outcome of the DOD I.G. investigation to determine whether and to what extent there was any politicization of intelligence at CENTCOM,” Clapper <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/exclusive-whistleblowers-warned-top-spy-about-skewed-isis-intel.html" type="external">stated</a>. He even so far as to suggest that the allegations are nothing than “media hyperbole.”</p>
<p>CENTCOM has stated that no emails were deleted, according to The Daily Beast report.</p>
<p>That’s not what whistleblowers are <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/exclusive-whistleblowers-warned-top-spy-about-skewed-isis-intel.html" type="external">saying</a>, however:</p>
<p>“The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command,” one defense official told The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>One person who knows the contents of the written complaint they sent to the defense inspector general said it used the word “Stalinist” to describe the tone set by officials overseeing CENTCOM’s analysis.</p>
<p>"U.S. military analysts told the nation’s top intelligence official that their reports on ISIS were skewed and manipulated by their bosses ..."</p>
<p>The Daily Beast</p>
<p>This comes as both Iraq and Afghanistan sit in utter disarray, reeling from an abrupt US troop withdrawal (again a political rather than tactical decision sponsored by the Obama administration). The Daily Beast’s report <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/exclusive-whistleblowers-warned-top-spy-about-skewed-isis-intel.html" type="external">concludes</a>by capturing exactly what’s at stake, given these latest allegations of malfeasance:</p>
<p>But the reliability of CENTCOM’s analysis has only become more important since the accusations first emerged. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is resurgent and both ISIS and al Qaeda are trying to expand their footprint. In Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi forces <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2015/12/28/ramadi-victory-don-t-screw-it-up.html" type="external">pushed ISIS out of Ramadi</a>, raising hopes that the two nations could launch a similar campaign in Iraq’s second-biggest city, Mosul, which serves as ISIS’s Iraqi capital.</p>
<p>In Yemen, ISIS is weaker but <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2016/02/08/america-s-isis-war-is-helping-al-qaeda.html" type="external">al Qaeda is stronger</a>. And in Syria, Russian strikes are helping forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reclaim territory in the city of Aleppo. Should that city fall squarely to the regime, Syria would devolve into a war largely between the regime and ISIS, leaving the Western world with no good outcomes for the fate of that state.</p>
<p>Were that to happen, unvarnished analysis on ISIS and the state of the war would be more important than ever.</p>
<p>As President Obama enters the last year of his presidency, the so-called lame duck period, the threat against US national security is growing at an exponentially rapid rate. Skewed intelligence and malfeasance may have made things much worse.</p> | Report: Obama's Senior Defense Officials Likely Lied About ISIS Intel For Political Purposes | true | https://dailywire.com/news/3423/report-obamas-senior-defense-officials-likely-lied-joshua-yasmeh | 2016-02-16 | 0 |
<p>On Tuesday, WKRG in Alabama <a href="v" type="external">reported</a> that a robocall seeking damaging information about Judge Roy Moore was made to Pastor Al Moore in Creola by a person purporting to be a reporter from The Washington Post.</p>
<p>The message stated:</p>
<p>Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I’m a reporter for the Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5000 and $7000 dollars. We will not be fully investigating these claims however we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at [email protected], thank you.</p>
<p>Pastor Moore said he had no idea where the call originated from; he attempted to respond to the email address provided but it came back undeliverable. WKRG had the same result when it tried.</p>
<p>Marty Baron, Executive Editor of The Washington Post, issued this statement:</p>
<p>The Post has just learned that at least one person in Alabama has received a call from someone falsely claiming to be from The Washington Post. The call’s description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism.</p> | SCAM: Fake Robocall Features Jewish-Named WaPo Reporter Seeking Dirt On Moore | true | https://dailywire.com/news/23582/scam-fake-robocall-features-jewish-named-wapo-hank-berrien | 2017-11-14 | 0 |
<p>The long-term plan for rehabilitating damaged resources has yet to be implemented a full quarter century after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spewing more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into the surrounding ecosystem.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/07/15/exxon-valdez-recovery-remains-stuck-in-limbo/" type="external">documents</a> released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the U.S. Justice Department and State of Alaska say they are still waiting for long overdue scientific studies before collecting a final $92 million claim to implement the recovery plan for unanticipated harm to fish, wildlife and habitat.</p>
<p>Cleaning up the Exxon Valdez disaster took four summers and cost approximately <a href="http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/noaa_documents/NOAA_related_docs/oil_spills/2009%20Status%20Report%20%28Low-Res%29.pdf" type="external">$2 billion</a>, according to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. In 1991, Exxon reached a <a href="http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/settlement.cfm" type="external">civil settlement</a> with the U.S. government and the state of Alaska in which it agreed to pay $900 million in payments, a $25 million criminal fine and $100 million in restitution.</p>
<p>The plea agreement also contained a “reopener” window, during which governments could claim up to $100 million in additional payments from Exxon to restore resources that suffered a substantial loss or decline as a result of the oil spill and which were not foreseen at the time of the initial settlement.</p>
<p>In 1996, the federal government and the state of Alaska notified Exxon that, pursuant to the reopener, additional restoration would be necessary to address long-term environmental damages and clean up lingering oil, at an estimated cost of $92 million.</p>
<p>Fast-forward seven years, and ExxonMobil, the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/gallery/magazines/fortune/2013/07/08/global-500-most-profitable.fortune/index.html" type="external">most profitable</a> publicly traded company in the world, has yet to pay up — in fact, they’ve been fighting the claims all along. Last year, Exxon <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-16/exxon-valdez-judge-refuses-to-rule-against-more-damage-claims.html" type="external">failed to persuade</a> a federal judge to bar the U.S. and Alaskan governments from pursuing further damage claims related to the 1989 spill. In his order, U.S. District Judge H. Russell Holland wrote, “Exxon presently suffers no particular harm. Its business is not in any fashion disrupted or impeded because of the uncertainty of a claim by the governments.”</p>
<p>According to PEER documents, “the U.S. Justice Department and Alaska cited ‘unforeseen contracting issues,’ delays in ‘sample analysis’ and stalled peer reviews as reasons why they have not begun implementing its ‘multi-phase restoration project’ outlined back in 2006.”</p>
<p>As Ivy Fredrickson of the Ocean Conservancy <a href="http://blog.oceanconservancy.org/2013/03/06/lessons-learned-from-exxon-valdez-the-devilish-details-of-why-we-must-keep-bp-on-the-hook/" type="external">explains</a>, a major difficulty in requiring Exxon to pay for the ongoing damage to the affected ecosystem is that the government has struggled to meet the conditions of the reopener. The Exxon Valdez reopener stated that in order for a claim to be valid, “injury to the affected population, habitat, or species could not reasonably have been known nor could it reasonably have been anticipated by any Trustee from any information in the possession of or reasonably available to any Trustee on the Effective Date.”</p>
<p>Therefore, “by rejecting anything that could have reasonably been anticipated, the clause denies a reopener claim for anything but an injury that was unprecedented or wholly new to science&#160;… The result of the Exxon Valdez reopener is that Trustees were left with no recourse for injuries from the spill that became evident after settlement.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, no one really knows what the long-term impacts of large-scale oil spills will be. Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, for instance, the region’s productive herring fishery suddenly <a href="http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Demise-of-herring-after-Valdez-spill-raises-1704999.php" type="external">collapsed</a> four years after the spill occurred, and it has <a href="http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/recovery/status_herring.cfm" type="external">yet to recover</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, oil has lingered in the ecosystem far longer than many predicted. A 2001 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration <a href="http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/Quarterly/jas2001/feature_jas01.htm" type="external">study</a> surveyed 96 sites along 8,000 miles of coastline and found that “a total area of approximately 20 acres of shoreline in Prince William Sound is still contaminated with oil. Oil was found at 58 percent of the 91 sites assessed and is estimated to have the linear equivalent of 5.8 km of contaminated shoreline.”</p>
<p>In 2010, the journal Nature <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100117/full/news.2010.16.html" type="external">explained</a> that some researchers initially calculated that Exxon Valdez’s oil would dissipate within years or even months or that it would quickly degrade or be washed away by high-pressure hoses. However, due to the natural geology of the environment, pockets of oil have remained, buried half a meter below the surface of some beaches.</p>
<p>Critics of the delay say the ongoing struggle to hold Exxon accountable for unanticipated environmental damages in Alaska offers clear lessons to be learned regarding the <a href="" type="internal">continuing process</a> of determining BP’s long-term liability for the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, a spill that was 20 times larger than Exxon Valdez.</p> | 25 Years After Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Company Still Hasn’t Paid For Long-Term Environmental Damages | true | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/07/15/2301451/25-years-after-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-company-still-hasnt-paid-for-long-term-environmental-damages/ | 2013-07-15 | 4 |
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<p>Wall Street maintained gains on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged, as expected, but signaled it still plans two rate increases this year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The U.S. central bank also lowered its economic growth forecasts for 2016 and 2017 and indicated it would be less aggressive in tightening monetary policy after the end of this year.</p>
<p>Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m.</p>
<p>"It's as dovish as the Fed can get without actually cutting rates," said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.</p>
<p>While traders had discounted a rate increase this month, they have been eager for clues about the health of the economy and the trajectory of future hikes.</p>
<p>Investors have become more nervous ahead of a vote in Britain next week on whether to leave the European Union, with recent opinion polls indicating growing support for such a move.</p>
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<p>At 2:04 pm (1804 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average &lt;.DJI&gt; was up 0.37 percent at 17,740.15 and the S&amp;P 500 &lt;.SPX&gt; had gained 0.36 percent to 2,082.83.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq Composite &lt;.IXIC&gt; added 0.36 percent to 4,861.23.</p>
<p>Eight of the 10 major S&amp;P sectors were higher, led by the materials index &lt;.SPLRCM&gt;, up 1 percent.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by James Dalgleish)</p> | Wall Street Keeps Momentum After Fed Leaves Rates Unchanged | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/15/wall-street-keeps-momentum-after-fed-leaves-rates-unchanged.html | 2016-06-15 | 0 |
<p>On a warm evening in early April, a rally on Washington, DC’s Capitol Hill took a turn for the dramatic when protestors surged into Constitution Avenue, blocking rush-hour traffic. U.S. Capitol police arrested 41 of the demonstrators, among them District of Columbia Mayor Vince Gray and six members of the DC Council.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Protests in Washington are a common sight, but one featuring the arrest of much of the city’s elected leadership is not. Their grievance: As part of the deal to prevent a shutdown of the federal government, Congress — with the acquiescence of President Obama — had just banned the District from using its own money to pay for abortions for low-income women, and had revived a private-school voucher program that many local officials and residents opposed. "John, I will give you DC abortion," Obama was quoted by the Washington Post as telling House Speaker John Boehner,[1] words that outraged DC residents, most of whom were — or had been until that moment — strong supporters of the President. Once again, DC residents were reminded of the extent to which they lack the rights of other U.S. citizens.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; It’s a sad fact, but too few Americans are aware that their nation’s capital is a colony within the mainland of our country — "the Canal Zone in the United States," in the words of the late Congressman Adam Clayton Powell.[2] Since the District of Columbia’s founding more than two centuries ago, the city’s residents have been denied the democratic rights that Americans living in the 50 states take for granted, including voting representation in Congress and control over their own legislation, budgets, courts, and prison system. Among all countries with elected national legislatures, only the United States denies voting representation to the citizens of its nation’s capital.[3] District residents could not even vote for President until 1964, after the ratification of the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution. However, DC residents — unlike those of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the other overseas U.S. colonies — pay their full share of federal income taxes, among the highest per-capita in the country.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; While the budget deal was the trigger for the April demonstrations, two centuries of disenfranchisement were the fuel. And for Mayor Gray and many of the other protestors, the demonstration was not only to register outrage but also to promote a solution: making DC the 51st state.</p>
<p>Origins of DC’s Disenfranchisement</p>
<p>The story of the District of Columbia’s struggle against disenfranchisement goes back nearly to the founding of the republic. Just after the end of the American Revolution, as Congress was gathered in Philadelphia debating, among other issues, where to locate the permanent seat of government, an incident occurred that influenced the future course of relations between the national government and the not-yet-embryonic capital city. In June 1783 a group of armed Continental Army soldiers marched on the State House, seat of both Congress and the Pennsylvania Executive Council, demanding back pay for their service in the Revolution. Congress, which had no armed force under its control, demanded that the Executive Council call out the state militia to confront the soldiers, but the Council refused, instead meeting with a delegation of the soldiers and defusing the tension.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; A number of members of Congress, notably Alexander Hamilton, cited the incident as evidence that the capital needed to be under the firm control of Congress, and this notion was soon the consensus among the early nation’s leadership. But was it justified? A number of historians have concluded that Hamilton and his allies had always wanted Congress to control the capital city, and manipulated the Philadelphia incident to build their case. By some accounts, Congress was under no real threat of harm, but Hamilton exaggerated the danger in order to gain control of the future capital for Congress.[4]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; As a result, at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 — at which Hamilton played a leading role — the delegates adopted the following clause, which became part of the U.S. Constitution when it was ratified the following year: "Congress shall have power . . .to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States. . ." The spot chosen was a 10-mile-square diamond of land on the Potomac River, just north of George Washington’s estate, with land ceded by Maryland and Virginia.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; This paragraph had the effect of consigning the residents of the future District of Columbia — only about 11,000 at its founding (including the existing cities of Alexandria on the Virginia side of the river and Georgetown, formerly part of Maryland)[5] but numbering more than 600,000 today — to more than two centuries of barely second-class citizenship. Yet while certain members of the Constitutional Convention were determined that the federal government have firm control over the capital, a number of founding fathers made clear that they did not envision the complete disenfranchisement of the capital’s residents. "The inhabitants [of the capital] will have their voice in the election of the government which is to exercise authority over them, as a municipal legislature for local purposes, derived from their own suffrages, will of course be allowed them," wrote James Madison in Federalist Paper No. 43. In Federalist Paper No. 85, Hamilton added that "[p]rovision shall be made by Congress for having District representation in that Body" when the population reached some unspecified number.[6]</p>
<p>Early History under Congressional Rule</p>
<p>Over the ensuing two centuries, the issue of DC’s disenfranchisement was periodically addressed by DC residents and federal officials alike. With the Revolutionary War slogan "No Taxation Without Representation" still a fresh memory, DC residents issued the same complaint immediately after their congressional voting rights in Maryland or Virginia were revoked in 1801.[7] These complaints resulted in no representation, but Congress did grant Washington an elected council in 1802 and an elected mayor in 1820, albeit with Congress still ultimately exercising legislative control. The Virginia side of DC was eager to become part of a state again, as much to prevent abolitionists in Congress from freeing their slaves as to regain full citizenship, and Congress granted its wish in 1846, returning the territory to slaveholding Virginia.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Nevertheless, there were reasons why demands for expanded local autonomy were fairly muted in those days. In the city’s early days, many of the residents were new arrivals (an even larger proportion than today), drawn by the opportunities opened by the presence of the government; these people had little interest in local issues. And then there was the matter of race.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Race has been a major factor in the District’s quest for equality, as it has in so many facets of American life. As early as 1800, the District had a substantial African-American population, both free and enslaved. After the Civil War, Congress granted local voting rights to African-Americans in the District. This provoked resistance among whites in DC, many of whom preferred disenfranchisement to being governed by blacks (and Radical Republicans, elected with substantial black support, controlled the local government from 1868 to 1870).[8] As a result, there was little objection from whites when Congress established a territorial government in 1871, with a federally appointed governor and upper house of the legislature, nor in 1874 when Congress ended all vestiges of local democracy and established a three-member, federally appointed commission to oversee the District. This was the way DC would be governed for the next century.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Even so, during these years there were numerous pleas from DC residents for home rule and congressional representation. But these requests largely fell on deaf ears in Congress. And as the African-American population swelled after World War II, Congress — with DC affairs overseen by largely Southern legislators such as John McMillan, a Jim Crow Democrat from South Carolina — had even less interest in helping the District. The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a longtime friend of expanded political rights for the District, cited the "four ‘toos’" as a reason that certain members of Congress opposed greater democratic rights, especially voting representation: they feared that members of Congress elected from DC "would be too liberal, too urban, too black, and too Democratic."[9]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The owners of large businesses in the District, represented by the Greater Washington Board of Trade, also stood in the way of home rule. They were comfortable with congressional oversight and fought any proposal to create a local government that might have the power to interfere with their ability to do as they pleased. "The white business community . . . held more political power than the three commissioners," wrote journalists Harry S. Jaffe and Tom Sherwood, longtime observers of DC politics. "The businessmen simply leapfrogged the commissioners and went straight to McMillan’s committee."[10]</p>
<p>Civil Rights Movement Comes to DC</p>
<p>During the 1950s and 1960s, many African-American civil-rights activists moved to DC to work with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and other organizations. Once they arrived and experienced the disenfranchisement that came with living in the District, many became involved in the campaign for local democracy. The experience and energy these activists brought with them infused new life into an old struggle.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; One of the new arrivals was Marion Barry, an activist from Tennessee who moved to DC in 1965 to open a branch office of SNCC. Barry quickly became involved in local issues, organizing a one-day boycott against the local bus operator over a fare hike in 1966. Shortly afterward he dove into the struggle for self-government for the District, launching the "Free DC" movement. Because the Board of Trade opposed home rule, Barry demanded that local businesses (which were mostly white-owned) display stickers in support of a local elected government, or face a customer boycott if they did not. This in-your-face activism and the wide publicity it generated established Barry as a political force in the District.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; By the late 1960s, a number of developments had turned in the District’s favor, most significantly the home-rule movement’s becoming linked to the nationwide civil rights movement, and a national government — with Lyndon Johnson in the White House and strong Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress — more supportive than ever before of the aspirations of African-Americans and, by extension, those of the District, with a population at the time that was more than 70 percent black.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Then, on April 4, 1968, came the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the ensuing riots. Washington was not the only city to experience rioting after the assassination, but the violence was especially severe in the nation’s capital, with 12 deaths and millions of dollars in property damage, most of it in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.[11]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Was it only coincidental that Congress, in the several years following the riots, approved more legislation to advance DC political rights than ever before or since? While the riots were not triggered by the lack of home rule, clearly there had been a simmering frustration in the majority African-American city with Congress’ heavy-handed control that contributed to the anger and intensity of the riots. The uprising served as a wake-up call to members of Congress, who realized that their own safety depended on calm and order in the city where they conducted their business and many of them lived — and that law enforcement alone might not be sufficient to keep the peace. "For once, someone in power was actually afraid of this city," journalist Sam Smith commented.[12]</p>
<p>Between 1968 and 1974, Congress approved legislation giving DC an elected school board, a delegate to the House of Representatives (who could serve on and vote in committees, but not on the House floor), and finally, with the Home Rule Act, a mayor and 13-member council to be elected by District voters. The first election for the new local government took place in 1974. Marion Barry, who had been one of the first elected school board members, was elected to the DC Council, while Walter Washington was elected mayor.</p>
<p>Beyond Home Rule</p>
<p>Most District residents welcomed these new avenues of civic participation, but many realized that the new rights still left them short of full citizenship. Instead of home rule, District residents had been handed "home fool," in the derisive words of Councilmember Julius Hobson.[13] DC’s representative to the House had no floor vote (the same arrangement made for the U.S. overseas colonies) and the District had no voice in the Senate at all. In addition, Congress still retained its constitutional "exclusive legislation" authority over the District; legislation and budgets adopted by the local Council were still subject to congressional review, and Congress, if it wished, could simply enact legislation and impose it on the District, whether local residents wanted it or not.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; And Congress made extensive use of its legislative control, often the work of Republicans eager to win points with their constituencies by imposing conservative social policies on the mostly liberal, Democratic District. Over the subsequent years it blocked numerous initiatives of the DC government, mostly through riders on the local DC appropriations bill (even though only a small percentage of the DC budget consists of federal funding, Congress must approve the entire budget — including funds raised through local taxes — through an annual appropriations bill). Many of these budget riders targeted policies adopted by the liberal-to-progressive District government that Congress, usually during periods of Republican control, found distasteful. These riders blocked such local initiatives as a medical marijuana program, city benefits for the unmarried domestic partners of DC employees, and needle exchange programs for intravenous drug users to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS. The latter prohibition, while satisfying the need of some members of Congress to pander to conservative constituencies in their home districts, has had especially deadly consequences for DC residents: 3 percent of District residents are infected with HIV or AIDS, the highest rate of any city in the nation.[14]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Yet even before the first Home Rule government had settled into its offices, a number of local leaders and activists had begun discussing how the District might advance beyond the unsatisfactory limitations of "home fool." By the early 1970s, three competing ideas each had gained a substantial number of adherents: (1) returning, or "retroceding," most of the District to Maryland; (2) a constitutional amendment for full voting representation in both the House and Senate; and (3) making the District the 51st U.S. state.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; There was a precedent for retrocession: the return of Virginia’s portion of the District in 1846. Return of the remainder to Maryland, with the carve-out of federal lands and properties to satisfy the constitutional requirement for a federal district, would provide voting representation in Congress through Maryland’s delegation. It also would end the federal government’s legislative control of the retroceded territory, although in its place the city would inherit the Maryland state government’s oversight. However, polls consistently have shown that the majority of District residents don’t want to be part of Maryland, and most Marylanders don’t want the District.[15] Given these feelings, somehow forcing a shotgun marriage between the two jurisdictions would be the most blatant offense against self-determination.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The idea of the constitutional amendment for voting representation had greater support, and advocates of DC voting representation — spearheaded by then-DC Delegate Walter Fauntroy — succeeded in lobbying Congress to approve a constitutional amendment in 1978 that would give the District two voting senators and one voting member of the House. However, the amendment was ratified by only 16 states, well short of the required 38, and died when the seven-year ratification window closed in 1985.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Yet even before the constitutional amendment was taken up by Congress, a number of DC citizens were hatching a different solution for their disenfranchisement: statehood.</p>
<p>Growth of DC Statehood Movement</p>
<p>Why apparently no one proposed DC statehood prior to the 1970s could be laid to a variety of factors: the District’s small size and population, and its economic dependence on the federal government, were certainly major considerations. But by the 1970s the District was a much different place than it had been during the Reconstruction era, or even prior to World War II. It had a population of over 700,000, larger than that of 10 states, with tax revenues sufficient to support a variety of local programs without depending on federal support.</p>
<p>The idea of seeking statehood for the District first appeared in print in 1970, advocated by Sam Smith in his newsletter DC Gazette.[16] But would it be legal or constitutional for the District of Columbia to become a state? Statehood supporters, as well as a number of constitutional lawyers, argued that it would be.[17] The Constitution sets a maximum limit on the size of the federal district (10 miles square, or 100 square miles) but no minimum size. The original 100-square-mile District already had been sliced to 68 square miles following the return of Virginia’s portion. Therefore, it should be possible to further reduce the constitutionally mandated "district" to the uninhabited areas of central Washington where federal buildings, museums and monuments were located (the same argument made by the retrocessionists) and to allow the populated portions of the District to become a separate state.</p>
<p>The statehood movement gained momentum through the 1970s — there was even a local political party, the Statehood Party, launched with the achievement of statehood as a principal goal. Julius Hobson, running as a Statehood Party candidate, was elected in 1974 as a member of the first DC Council under home rule; after his death in 1977, Statehood Party member Hilda H.M. Mason succeeded him and served another two decades. The election of Marion Barry, a Democrat, as mayor in 1978 was cause for further optimism among statehood supporters: the founder of the Free DC movement, a charismatic politician with deep support in the African-American community as well as substantial backing from the white establishment, was now the public face of the District.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The next step was to petition Congress for statehood. In 1980 statehood backers placed a referendum on the ballot to determine if voters supported statehood; 60 percent voted yes.[18] Two years later a convention of elected citizens drew up a constitution for the new state-in-the-making — to be called New Columbia.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Getting citizen approval for statehood was one thing; actually achieving statehood was another. Many District elected officials, still wedded to pursuing only voting representation in Congress, did not regard statehood as a priority (although there were exceptions, notably Mason). Also, the 1980s were a time of Republican control of the White House — first Ronald Reagan, then George H.W. Bush — making it likely that any statehood bill that survived Congress would die by veto.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; By 1993, however, the political balance in Washington had shifted. Bill Clinton, a Democrat who professed support for DC statehood, was in the White House, and both houses of Congress had strong Democratic majorities. Many DC statehood advocates saw this as a propitious time to move forward — Democrats in Congress should be eager to allow the heavily Democratic District to add members to their caucuses in the House and Senate.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; But, justified or not, many members of Congress, including some Democrats, concluded that the District was not ready for statehood. A fiscal crisis was unfolding in the District, one exacerbated by the inherent limitations of an enclave under control of the federal government. The District was prohibited by Congress from assessing a tax on the income of suburban commuters, costing the city more than $2 billion annually in potential revenue. A high proportion of the District’s land was occupied by entities that paid no property tax — principally the federal government, but also embassies, international institutions, and non-profit organizations. Moreover, as part of the 1974 home rule bill, the federal government had saddled the local government with unfunded liability for the pensions of DC government employees, a mounting bill that had grown to $4.8 billion by 1997.[19] These handicaps, along with the continued flight of the District’s tax base to the suburbs, had by the mid-1990s led to steep and growing budget deficits.[20]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; In addition, crime was rising steeply in the District — as it was across most of urban America — fueled by the rise of crack cocaine. The crack epidemic, which was sweeping cities across the United States, hit DC especially hard, bringing with a wave of violent crime that gave the District the unwanted nickname of the "Murder Capital" of America. And then, in 1990, Mayor Barry was arrested in an FBI sting for possession of crack. It was a dark moment for the District and its hopes of expanded self-rule.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Nevertheless, after several years of effort by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the statehood bill reached the floor of the House of Representatives in 1993. But with the reputation of the nation’s capital at an all-time low, many congressional Democrats felt the time was not ripe for DC statehood. The bill failed, 153 to 277, with 40 percent of House Democrats, along with nearly every Republican, voting no.[21]</p>
<p>DC Democracy Moves Backward</p>
<p>Over the next several years, the District’s reputation on Capitol Hill only grew worse. Barry had left office in 1991 — en route to trial for drug possession and six months in prison — but under new mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly crime continued to rise and the fiscal crisis snowballed. Public dissatisfaction with Kelly’s administration led to her defeat for re-election in 1994, to be replaced by — Marion Barry.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Barry’s comeback from his drug conviction to reclaim the mayor’s office is one of the remarkable political stories of recent decades. Clearly, many African-American voters saw their own experiences reflected in the FBI sting against Barry. They felt themselves frequently targeted for harassment by the police, and resented the harsh penalties and aggressive enforcement against crack possession — while users of cocaine powder, who were much more likely to be white and affluent, faced much more lenient potential penalties and relatively lax enforcement. While members of Congress and many white Washingtonians were appalled by Barry’s return to power, many African-Americans saw Barry’s rehabilitation as a story of justice and redemption.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The redemption narrative, however, found few sympathizers on Capitol Hill. And Congress retaliated against the District for making what it considered the "wrong" choice in the election. In 1995 it created a Control Board and endowed it with complete authority over the District’s finances — DC would need the board’s approval before spending any of its own money. In 1996 Congress transferred control over DC schools from the elected school board to a Board of Trustees, answerable not to voters but to the Control Board. And in 1997 Congress went further by effectively stripping the local government of nearly all its powers, making the Control Board not only the financial authority of the District but the legislative and executive arms as well. The mayor and council continued to show up for work, but they had virtually no power.</p>
<p>Assaults on DC Revive the Democracy Struggle</p>
<p>The DC government may have lost its powers, but the movement for greater local autonomy — which had gone into eclipse after the failed statehood vote — was energized by the congressional power grab. Immediately after the news broke, citizens began meeting to organize demonstrations and discuss strategy. The most visible and enduring organization to arise out of the 1997 activities was the Stand Up! for Democracy in DC Coalition, which was led initially by a number of prominent figures from the civil rights movement (including Jesse Jackson Sr., Walter Fauntroy, and National Council of Negro Women President Dorothy Height) and which borrowed its slogan — "Free DC!" — from Barry’s former organization. Indeed, many of Stand Up!s early members were Barry supporters angry at the federal government’s stripping away of his powers. Yet Stand Up! also attracted many longtime statehood and democracy activists who remained active in the movement longer after Barry, and many Barry supporters, had moved on.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; In August 1997, Stand Up! helped to organize a bus caravan to North Carolina. Their target: Republican Senator Lauch Faircloth, the architect of the bill that stripped the District government of its local powers. Some 600 DC activists brought the District’s concerns directly to Faircloth’s constituents, registering them to vote and educating them about how much of their Senator’s schedule was occupied by the affairs of a jurisdiction 300 hundred miles distant from those he was allegedly representing. (The trip no doubt played at least a small part in Faircloth’s defeat by John Edwards for re-election the following year). For much of the rest of that year, Stand Up! and its allies held almost-weekly demonstrations against Congress, many of them resulting in participants being arrested.[22]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; With the end of the 1990s came three developments that, along with the more vigorous pro-democracy activism, offered greater hope for expansion of DC’s right to govern itself: (1) improvements in the national economy that erased the red ink of past decades and yielded local budget surpluses, (2) a sharp drop in the crime rate; and (3) Marion Barry’s departure as mayor. Barry was replaced as mayor by Tony Williams, who rose to prominence as the Control Board-appointed chief financial officer and the reputed financial wizard who put the District’s tattered finances back in order. Congress approved of DC’s selection and restored the governing powers of the mayor, council, and school board — that is, to their pre-1997 state, still subject to intervention by Congress and the still-operating Control Board, but with much more room to maneuver than during Barry’s final term. Then in 2001, after several years of prosperity and four consecutive balanced DC budgets, the Control Board closed its doors.</p>
<p>Statehood vs. Congressional Representation</p>
<p>Yet for much of the following decade, the focus drifted away from full statehood and toward a plan to achieve only voting representation in Congress. The shift became apparent after 20 DC residents filed a federal lawsuit in 1998 asking for the courts to make it possible for DC residents to either choose statehood or to unite with another state. Hard on its heels came a competing lawsuit, filed by a different group of residents, asking only for congressional representation. The federal courts combined the two suits, where they were eventually rejected by the Supreme Court.[23]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The prospects of congressional representation received a boost when Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican and chairman of one of the House committees overseeing DC affairs, took up the cause. Davis was not a supporter of statehood, in part because his constituents would be subject to the commuter tax that the new state would be likely to adopt. But he was more sympathetic to the District’s plight than most Republicans, and he saw an opportunity to make voting representation for the District palatable to members of his party. Following the 2000 census, Utah fell just short of being able to add another congressional district. Creating an additional congressional district in predominantly Republican Utah while at the same time giving overwhelmingly Democratic DC a voting seat would, David hoped, allow for bipartisan support for DC voting representation.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; And so in 2005, Davis introduced a bill to expand the House from 435 to 437 members, with the added seats going to Utah and the District. The bill would provide no representation in the Senate and would not address other aspects of the District’s disenfranchisement, such as congressional control of the District’s legislation and budgets.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Many of DC’s statehood advocates were, at best, lukewarm about the Davis bill; many complained that it would leave them far short of — and divert attention from the struggle for — full citizenship. But the bill gained support from most DC elected officials, including the mayor and Delegate Norton, for whom a deal on the table was preferable to chasing a distant dream. But there was another factor, largely tied up in the politics of race and class. Affluent, well-connected Washingtonians — mostly white — had long resented their lack of a vote for Congress, but many were less than enthusiastic about the idea of giving the local government more authority. Just as whites in the post-Civil War District were opposed to opening the door even a crack to African-American political empowerment, so were many whites a century later mistrustful of African-American leadership. Many white DC residents who worked on Capitol Hill, in federal agencies or for the various lobbying firms and pressure groups had connections to members of Congress or their senior staffers — often they were neighbors. These Washingtonians who had connections and knowledge of how to work the system appreciated their ability to go over the heads of the local government if its actions displeased them. "One of the city’s deepest secrets is how many of its elites — both white and black — have never really liked the idea of self-government. They would rather use their Rolodexes than the ballot box," wrote Sam Smith in 1998.[24]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; In addition, Washington — more so than most large cities — features a large elite class of newly arrived political appointees, Congressional staffers, public-interest workers and others with a strong desire to have a voice on Capitol Hill but little interest in local government. "The city’s mandarin class is mainly interested in national politics. It is perfectly happy to have city services provided under a dictatorship but is frustrated by its lack of leverage in Congress," Smith wrote.[25] Among these elites were the large, Board-of-Trade connected corporations doing business in DC (many of them headquartered elsewhere) who, like in the days of Barry’s Free DC movement, opposed an empowered local government that could challenge their prerogatives. Mere voting representation posed no similar threat to their interests.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Also, Barry’s return to the mayor’s office after his drug conviction — in which he received heavy support from blacks but very little from whites — led many whites to believe (whether justified or not) that they would achieve better results being ruled from Congress than by their own locally elected government.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Despite elite support for the voting-rights bill, a number of constitutional scholars and other critics of the bill— many of whom were sympathetic to the District’s effort to end its disenfranchisement — pointed to its dubious constitutionality.[26] The language of the Constitution clearly referred to the right to vote for members of Congress as deriving from statehood (Article 1, Section 1 reads: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States"). If simple legislation was sufficient, why had the District previously taken the much harder (and ultimately unsuccessful) route of a constitutional amendment?</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Nevertheless, District leaders and a newly formed advocacy group, DC Vote (which was heavily funded by DC government grants), lobbied Congress for passage of the Davis bill. They argued that pairing a vote for DC with an additional House seat for Utah gave the bill a good chance to be enacted, a much better chance than a bill for full statehood — which, they argued, could be pursued at some unidentified time in the future. They also produced their own legal experts who vouched for the bill’s constitutionality. Delegate Norton argued that the District would not be ready for statehood until it regained control of state-type functions such as prisons and courts, which the federal government had taken over in 1997 as a measure to help balance the local budget. Statehood advocates countered by pointing out that statehood would open new streams of revenue to the District, especially a commuter tax, enabling the new state to re-assume and pay for these functions.\</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Voting-rights advocates were still trying to push the Davis bill through Congress when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. The accession of a Democratic, African-American, reputedly liberal president to the White House energized activists in the capital city whose residents shared so many of his characteristics. The District had favored Obama with 93 percent of its vote in the election, and had reason to expect Obama would reciprocate by making expanded rights for DC a priority. Indeed, on a number of occasions Obama stated his support for statehood, including in a brief exchange with Stand Up! President Anise Jenkins. But it was never more than passive support; the economic recession, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the new health-care initiative dominated the White House agenda during the early Obama years.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; However, the Davis voting-rights bill gained adherents, and in 2009 the Senate approved the legislation — with a catch. Members of Congress allied to the gun lobby had long attempted to repeal the District’s restrictions on ownership of handguns, among the strongest in the nation. Gun laws are the province of state governments, but given the District’s colonial status, Congress can impose measures on the District that they cannot in their own districts, or anywhere else in the country. A 2008 Supreme Court decision had struck down some of the more stringent provisions, but the District still required guns to be registered and kept in the home. So the pro-gun Senators, led by Republican John Ensign of Nevada (who later resigned after it was discovered that he had paid hush money to a former staffer to keep quiet about an affair the senator was having with his wife), tied an amendment to the voting rights bill, which would effectively eliminate all restrictions on guns in the District. If passed, all manner of unregistered guns, including assault weapons, could be concealed or carried in the open practically everywhere in the District, including into schools, playgrounds and DC government buildings (but not the U.S. Capitol; the members’ appreciation for the proliferation of guns didn’t extend that far).</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; This was too much for the District leadership to swallow, even in exchange for voting rights. Delegate Norton, after failing to strip the gun provision from the House version of the bill, in 2010 asked the House leadership to drop the legislation. Five years of lobbying, compromises and deal cutting to win voting representation in the House had come to naught. The death of the voting-rights bill was an illustration of its own limitations: while it would have given the District one vote out of 437 in the House, it still would have left DC subject to the legislative whims of Congress.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Hard on the heels of the defeat of the voting rights bill came the 2010 congressional elections, in which Republicans took control of the House — with many of the new members coming out of, or lending an ear to, the hard-right Tea Party movement. Any prospects for expanded DC rights through congressional legislation had evaporated — indeed; the District now would have to defend itself against a new round of onslaughts against its limited home rule.</p>
<p>2011 and Beyond — Statehood Takes Center Stage</p>
<p>Yet these setbacks may have pointed the way forward for the DC democracy movement. With the backroom dealing on Capitol Hill over the voting rights bill having come to naught, there is a growing realization that the District cannot rely on "friends" in Congress or the White House, and that more of the impetus for change will have to come from local residents themselves. A stronger, more assertive movement is needed, the kind that was displayed in the April arrests. Ultimately, the disenfranchised District of Columbia must make its voice heard throughout the country and the world, striking the consciences of all people who cherish democracy and human rights. If Americans could subject themselves to arrest for democracy in South Africa, or be willing to fight to remove a dictator in Iraq, surely they could join the movement for equal rights for 600,000 U.S. citizens in the nation’s capital.</p>
<p>Another lesson of the voting rights debacle is that settling for half-measures is a fool’s errand (perhaps a "home fool’s" errand, to paraphrase Julius Hobson). Under the Constitution, only statehood confers full citizenship in the United States. That is the path chosen by District citizens, and more residents and elected officials are coming to the realization that statehood, and nothing less, should be the goal.</p>
<p>After the defeat of the one-vote bill, Delegate Norton reintroduced legislation for voting representation — but along with it, a bill for DC statehood. "We accept no imposed limits on our equal rights as American citizens, and we will pursue them all until the day when there is no difference in citizenship between the residents of the District of Columbia and other American citizens," Norton said in introducing the legislation.[27] Although there was little immediate prospect of any of the bills passing, or even getting a hearing, her decision to revive the statehood effort in Congress was evidence of the growing voice of the local statehood movement.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; In his inaugural address last January, Mayor Gray signaled the DC leadership’s new outlook when he said, "Washington is the greatest symbol of our nation’s democracy. Yet, we as Washingtonians continue to be the only people in our nation that remain shut out of that democracy. . . That is why we cannot rest until we achieve true self-determination and become our nation’s 51st state."[28]</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Now that there is no near-term prospect of favorable action by Congress, DC activists and officials should turn their attention to organizing the citizens of DC, and reaching out to supporters of human rights everywhere, in order to build a powerful movement to achieve what the District wants and needs — statehood. The day will come when the makeup of Congress will lead it to be more sympathetic to the District’s appeal for statehood. But DC will win the day only if the local statehood movement is strong enough to force Congress to do the right thing.</p>
<p>Let's engage the children of DC in a statewide RENAMING CONTEST.&#160; What two words or names with the initials DC will replace "District of Columbia" once we are a State?&#160; Second, let's RENAME the Mayor's Office the Governor's Office, and our Council a Legislature or House of Delegates.&#160; These may seem small things ... but they will psychologically engergize the general public that is generally apathetic ... even unaware ... about these concerns ... as most corporate media outlets ... be they print, radio, TV, or Internet ... pretend that all that's been written about above so eloquently is suffused with ho-hum unimportance ...</p>
<p>What about "District County" for DC?</p>
<p>There are still major issues to be dealt with before statehood can happen.&#160; The residual District of Columbia in the statehood bill needs to be pared back to just the&#160;Congressional office buildings so that all potential are taxpayers are included in any non-resident income tax (not even the White House, Supreme Court and Library of Congress should be spared being part of New Columbia).&#160; The issue of that tax should also be dealt with first, along with a solution to the problem of DC felons in federal custody and federal mental patients in DC custody.&#160; The answer to these issues is the same - trade a non-resident tax for having it fund Maryland and Virginia housing our felons and assisting us with mental health and offender supervision.&#160; The final issue is calling the Republican bluff on retrocession by including a vote by the Maryland General Assembly on retrocession in the statehood bill.&#160; Since we are sure that they will vote no, it is a no-brainer to include it.&#160; The other thing DC needs to do is to insist that the President appoint an Administrator for the National Capital Service Area so that we can present the federal government with a bill for all the services DC provided to the NCSA which were meant to be reimburesed under Home Fool.</p>
<p><a href="/filter/tips" type="external">More information about formatting options</a></p> | The District of Columbia: From the Oldest Colony to the 51st State? | true | http://newpol.org/node/595 | 4 |
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<p>Geographically, there’s just a river, and not a very big one at that, separating Estonia and Russia.&#160;</p>
<p>Militarily, tiny Estonia’s strongest defense is the NATO guarantee to defend every inch of allied territory.</p>
<p>So as the Estonian government watched Russian troops mass in huge numbers along the border of another Russian neighbor, Ukraine, President Toomas Ilves told NATO he wanted “boots on the ground”—&#160; troops —to provide extra reassurance in light of Russia’s aggressive military actions. After all, Moscow annexed Estonia against its will once before, in 1941, so Tallinn has its reasons for sounding an alarm.&#160; NATO had already boosted its regular air-policing mission over the three Baltic countries, but Ilves argued for a stronger presence on the ground.</p>
<p>The president explained his reasoning publicly, as he warmly welcomed the arrival of the 173rd Airborne Brigade in late April.&#160;&#160; “American and Estonian soldiers exercising here together raise the visibility of the transatlantic alliance both for people living here and for those living elsewhere,”he said.&#160; “It makes NATO less an abstraction and reinforces the commitment we all share in the alliance.”&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>That “visibility”Ilves mentions is being achieved with just 150 U.S. troops.&#160; In an interview with America Abroad, Ilves says that’s enough to accomplish what it needs to do. “No one thinks that 150 troops in Estonia are going to fend off a massive invasion —no one has that idea,”he said, but what their presence demonstrates is that “if you’re going to do something to one member of NATO, all of NATO is against you and with their full resources.”</p>
<p>Estonian Air Force Commander, Colonel Jaak Tarien, says it’s the American presence in particular that’s reassuring.&#160; “(T)his is the greatest deterrent effect there is,”he said from his office at the Estonian Defense Forces headquarters in Tallinn.&#160; “(A)ny potential aggressor knows they will be in direct conflict with the United States and no one in the world at this point wants it.”</p>
<p>This is one reason the U.S. military drawdown has long worried many countries.&#160; And now, for Estonia, it becomes even more pertinent, as Russian President Vladimir Putin is calling the American troop deployments a “provocation”.</p>
<p>That’s not unexpected.&#160; The deployments to Estonia, along 150 troops each to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, mark the first time NATO has dispatched ground forces, beyond those participating in brief exercies, to allied territory near the Russian border.&#160; The decision reverses longstanding policy, enshrined in the 1997 founding act creating a relationship between NATO and Russia, in which one of the understandings is that neither side would build up conventional forces near the NATO-Russia border.&#160;&#160; But NATO says Russia’s military interventions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine have already broken not just these rules but a host of other international agreements pledging transparency and respect for sovereignty of other nations.</p>
<p>But Estonia has long been on Putin’s radar for other reasons too.&#160; The town of Narva, just 130 miles east of the Estonian capital, is separated from Russia geographically only by the modest Narva River.&#160; Linguistically and culturally, there’s virtually no separation at all.</p>
<p>More than 95 percent of Narva’s population speaks Russian, many have Russian passports and almost everyone I spoke to said they felt more Russian than Estonia —though they prefer the superior standard of living on the Estonian side.&#160; Local club owner and entertainer Vladimir Cherdyakov explains that the biggest problem here is that, 23 years after Estonia regained independence from the floundering Soviet Union, Cherdyakov says Estonia is still trying to make its ethnic Russian population feel bad about the Soviet takeover in World War II.</p>
<p>“Every day, everywhere, every newspaper, every radio, I listen [to] only this phrase: Russian people [are] occupants,”he says, adding that they’re made to feel by the Estonians that they are not “our people..our citizens.”</p>
<p>The danger is that Putin considers Narva’s Russians HIS people, suggesting they are being mistreated by their own government and warning he may need to step in and “protect”them.</p>
<p>That’s the same rationale he gave for invading and annexing Crimea and he’s raising it again with other areas in eastern Ukraine that have a high percentage of ethnic Russians.</p>
<p>Estonian Education Minister Jevgeni Ossinovski, himself a Russian speaker, agrees there are valid grievances, especially in integration and finding jobs, but he vigorously rejects any attempt to align him or Estonia’s other ethnic Russians with the Kremlin.&#160;&#160; “I don’t want any representative of myself as a Russian speaker in Moscow,”he says. “I’ve never been a citizen of Russia and I really don’t have anything in common with that country, so I really don’t like and I think majority of Russian speakers don’t like statements made by Moscow saying “we are standing for the interests of Russian speakers, blah blah blah. I don’t think anyone is interested in that kind of representation.</p>
<p>But NATO can’t afford to dismiss the Russian narrative as just “blah blah blah” ; the consequences of misjudgment are too high. At NATO headquarters in Brussels, Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, who’s also been the U.S. ambassador to Russia, considers a “Narva invasion” scenario “highly unlikely but not impossible.”</p>
<p>“We don’t necessarily believe [Russia is] poised to take any direct aggression against NATO; I think they take NATO’s defences quite seriously,”Vershbow says, but “the expansive doctrine that Putin has enunciated means that we can’t completely dismiss the notion that he might create some kind of provocations, try to intimidate some members of the alliance…They have tried to fan the flames of Russian nationalism in Latvia and Estonia.”</p>
<p>For his assessment of the “threat”, the alliance’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, says he examines both the “capability”and the “intent”of a potential aggressor.&#160; In this case, he says Crimea has shown what Russia’s intent could be elsewhere.&#160;</p>
<p>Breedlove says NATO is looking at a different Russia than it thought it was —and looking at itself differently too.&#160; “We have to sit back and reevaluate our force posture and our force readiness,”he says.&#160; “Are we prepared to meet the threat that is represented by a snap exercise which generates a huge capable force right on a NATO boundary?&#160; Are we ready to meet that threat?”</p>
<p>NATO officials acknowledge it’s a fine line they’re treading now, ramping up operations enough to deter Kremlin notions of threatening an ally, while not pushing it so far it could provoke a Russian military reaction.</p>
<p>In the nearest term, Breedlove is considering options such as changing the timing, scale or location of NATO exercises already on the books, or drawing exercises planned among several allies under the NATO mantle, to underscore that any threat will meet a 28-nation response.</p>
<p>This month (May) alone, thousands of NATO troops will be in Estonia for “Exercise Spring Storm”while Poland hosts “Exercise Orzel Alert”.</p>
<p>And Breedlove also will continue to push his case with Washington policymakers that the U.S. troop level in Europe must not be decreased at all. He says the American military presence was at its bare-bones minimum to do everything it needs to do even before Crimea.</p>
<p>Colonel Tarien in Tallinn also hopes Breedlove’s arguments convince American decision makers not to cut U.S. troops here in Europe.</p>
<p>“The trend of reducing US troops presence is very worrisome to countries like Estonia,”he explains. “We would hope that the current events in Ukraine would reverse this decision and U.S. presence will not be reduced and hopefully steadily grow not to Cold War levels but the level of 10 years ago.”</p>
<p>And even as his country receives ever-more-frequent threats coming from the Kremlin, Tarien remains convinced that keeping U.S.soldiers here “will prevent war from ever happening in Europe again.</p> | Russia's Moves Send Chill Through Estonia | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-05-08/russias-moves-send-chill-through-estonia | 2014-05-08 | 3 |
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<p>An international trade and&#160;development&#160;expert, Chakravarthi Raghavan, served as Chief Editor of South-North Development Monitor, SUNS, 1980-2005 and now as Editor Emeritus. He formerly served as Editor of Third World Economics &amp; Geneva Representative of Third World Network. Raghavan has authored numerous books including A Rollback for the Third World,&#160;Recolonization: GATT, Uruguay Round and Third World,&#160;and&#160;Developing Countries and Services Trade: Chasing a Black Cat in a Dark Room, Blindfolded.</p>
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<p /> LYNN FRIES, PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News. I'm Lynn Fries in Geneva.
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<p />Trade negotiators from around the world will be headed to Indonesia--Bali--for the ninth ministerial of the World Trade Organization, this from December&#160;3 to December&#160;6.
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<p />To take a look into the WTO agenda, we spoke with eminent trade and investment expert Chakravarthi Raghavan. Formerly editor-in-chief of the Press Trust of India, Chakravarthi Raghavan is now editor emeritus of the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS). He's been following GATT/WTO trade negotiations in Geneva since 1978, an author of numerous books. One especially relevant to this report is titled Recolonization: GATT, the Uruguay Round &amp; the Third World.
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<p />To begin our conversation, our guest explains his view on what trade ministers from developing countries are likely to encounter as they convene in Bali for the ninth WTO ministerial.
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<p />CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN, EDITOR EMERITUS, SOUTH-NORTH DEVELOPMENT MONITOR: In actual fact, the entire negotiations and the entire benefits of whatever is being agreed upon and enforced in the WTO goes to the benefit of what is now currently known in the United States as 1&#160;percent. That is, the very top bosses and the corporations and their very top bosses are the only beneficiaries. Neither the people of the United States nor the ordinary people of Europe, and certainly not the people in the developing world, have really gained anything out of this whole exercise that has been going on. And they are asked to do more and more of this kind of arrangement by which the corporations and their bosses get benefits at the cost of the people, ordinary, poor, starving people of the developing world, the workers in the developed world who are no longer even getting jobs and who are being told that they have to sacrifice more for this purpose. And this is the kind of topsy-turvy world we are asked to witness and come in and accept.
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<p />The ministers at Bali are being asked to agree to an agreement which will expand the rights of the corporations and do so by in effect indirectly amending the original agreements that are already there and without going through the amendment process, whereas the very livelihood of the poor, to get food, their right to food, which is enshrined now in the UN Human Rights charter, that is being--they're told they can't do it because they will be violating some rules.
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<p />FRIES: Mainstream media often reports the WTO's inability to function as a forum for multilateral trade negotiations as the fault of developing countries, representing the majority of members in the WTO. In the view of our guest, this is well off the mark. He explains that to see why one need only look to the WTO eigth round launched in Uruguay in 1986 and its agreement in Marrakesh in 1994, as well as the launch of current ninth round in Doha in 2001.
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<p />RAGHAVAN: In Marrakesh, at the end of the Uruguay Round, the developing countries gave, agreed to take on obligations--monopoly rights for worse corporations in intellectual property. Now--in return for some vague promises that the United States and Europe will do something down the line. Now, they have not carried it out. They met in Doha, and at Doha they agreed that the multilateral trading system of the WTO is iniquitous and the rules are weighed against the developing countries, and then they will change them.
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<p />What they want in Bali--actually, the Doha negotiations have reached a deadlock. They have reached a deadlock because the United States and Europe, etc., are not willing to keep--do what they promised to do in Doha for further agricultural trade reforms in their own countries, ending their massive subsidies that they gave to their farmers, and various other things that they have done--the vast deregulation of their financial markets, which was responsible for the crisis in 2008. They said they would change all these things, but they are not willing to do it.
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<p />Now the fact that they agreed to do it in Doha in 2001 and they have still not done is proving an embarrassment for them. So they would like to close this agenda, forget everything that they promised, hope the world will forget what they have to do. So they want to do what the corporations want now in current circumstances. This is the crux of the problem between the United States and developing countries
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<p />FRIES: Trade Ministers representing developing countries at the current ninth WTO ministerial are confronted with confusing negotiations and being asked to come to an agreement on a Bali deliverable. Our guest has a word of advice.
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<p />RAGHAVAN: So when Ministers meet in Bali, they must first--it is time for them to look back on all that has happened in the past and whether they are again and again committing the same mistakes as in the past.
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<p />FRIES: In a prior word of advice, our guest reached out to all nations with an accessible and comprehensive analysis critical of the trade negotiations at the time of the Uruguay Round. I ask our guest for his thoughts today on part of that critique, when in 1990 he wrote, "Cumulatively, Third World governments would not only be unable to act positively in the economic fields to advance the well being of their peoples, but would be obliged to protect the interests of the TNCs [transnational corporations] and foreign enterprises and foreign nationals against their own peoples. The only role left for governments would be maintaining law and order, and keeping labor under control. Governments of independent countries in the Third World would thus be left doing what the metropolitan powers did during colonial days."
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<p />RAGHAVAN: In a sense it has even become worse. It is not even what developing countries are forced to do in response to governments of the United States and Europe. Even corporations are now dictating terms to the developing countries, whether it be through these so called various rating companies, etc., etc. They are told that if you want to have XYZ, you carry out this kind of a thing. If I come and establish an enterprise in your country, you have to control your workers so that they don't demand rights. In fact there has been a major fight going on in this matter, for example, in India, in South Africa, etc. For South Africa, we recently saw the disasters relating to mines, in the mines [incompr.] the workers and shooting etc.
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<p />What exactly are the foreign corporations demanding? The foreign corporations are demanding that we have to make money and profit through our work, and your labor must be kept under check, they must carry out our orders, and you must force them to do exactly what we want to do--they shouldn't demand to go on strike for the purpose of higher wages, they shouldn't demand any particular benefits for themselves. This is what they are asked to do, they are being asked to do, and they are being forced to do it today. And they are now going to be asked to do more as a result of what they will agree to in Bali.
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<p />FRIES: On that concluding thought, special thanks to our guest, Chakravarthi Raghavan. And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<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. | Pope Denounces 'A New Tyranny' of Markets, But Will Trade Ministers at Bali? | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D11131 | 2013-12-03 | 4 |
<p>Did Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee, just have his “John Kerry moment” of the 2012 campaign? Kerry, you may recall, famously declared of his vote against an $87 billion military funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during his 2004 presidential campaign: “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” The quote became an instant classic and was one of the critical comments used to paint Kerry as a flip-flopper in a race he ultimately lost to George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Now comes a gem of a flubbed answer from Romney. During a news conference in Florida on Thursday, he was asked about remarks he made on Sean Hannity’s radio program back in February in which he criticized President Obama for listening to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Romney could not remember what it was that he had said to Hannity about Wright, but he stood by the comments nonetheless.</p>
<p>“I’m actually gonna — I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was,” he said. “I’ll go back and take a look at what was said there.”</p>
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<p>The exchange came after it was <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/mitt-romney-defends-his-wright-quote-i-stand-by-what-i-said-whatever-it-was/" type="external">reported</a> that a super PAC was proposing to produce ads about Wright, who is Obama’s former pastor.</p>
<p>For the record, Romney told Hannity: “I think again the president takes his philosophical leanings in this regard, not from ardent believers of various faiths, but instead from those who would like to see America more secular. And I’m not sure which is worse, him listening to Rev. Wright, or him saying that we must be a less Christian nation.” –TEB</p>
<p /> | Romney on Rev. Wright: 'I Stand by What I Said, Whatever It Was' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/romney-on-rev-wright-i-stand-by-what-i-said-whatever-it-was/ | 2012-05-18 | 4 |
<p>“A man, without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor a helpless man, although it can pity him; and even this it cannot do long, if the signs of power do not arise.”</p>
<p>–Frederick Douglass</p>
<p>The strong act. The weak react. Protest is a tool of the weak. The main aim of any protest is to draw attention to an injustice. It appeals, broadcasts and seeks to impress you with its number. So many of us are feeling this way. You are few, we are many, etc. After each mass protest, there is always a disagreement over the size of the crowd, with the estimate of the organizers usually doubling that of the authority, i.e., the target of the protest.</p>
<p>Even without number, even when the protest is made up of a few quixotic weirdos, or just one, it can still have meaning. The sight of a lonely protester on a city street, ignored by the crowd, is basically pathetic, if not comic, but if he happens to make some sense, then his very isolation can become an indictment of this crowd. <a href="" type="internal">Concepcion Picciotto</a>, born 1945, has been encamped across the White House for twenty-nine years, since 1981. She lives in a tent, surrounded by signs denouncing U.S. militarism and its support for Israel. When Picciotto began, Carter was the President who had gotten us involved in Afghanistan. In 2010, Obama is fighting the same mujahideen armed by Carter. As long as the guns sell, it’s all good. A lonely protester is not unlike Jonah ranting away in Nineveh, except Jonah got results. Folks actually heard him and changed their ways.</p>
<p>Recently, I ran into a young man named <a href="" type="internal">Turk</a> in Philadelphia. He wore a grinning mask while displaying two signs: “END THE FED” and “Paper is poverty. It is only the ghost of money, &amp;amp; not money itself–T. Jefferson.” The Fed is a private banking cartel that controls interest rates and the amount of money in circulation, i.e., how much inflation we’ll have to suffer. Inflation is basically white collar thievery. Like Concepcion, Turk made too much sense, so of course most passersby only saw him as a freak. After staring without comprehension, a man challenged Turk incoherently, threw up his hands and walked away. Turk’s protest wasn’t entirely futile, however, if just a single person became interested enough to investigate further. With success so incremental, however, Philadelphia will likely burn down many times over before the Fed is ever abolished. The good news is that there are many more Turks out there. The bad news, there aren’t nearly enough. Most Americans are too busy watching Bristol Palin cha-chaing and tangoing to care about why their cash is losing value, why poverty awaits them. Like the citizens of Nineveh, Americans can’t tell their right hand from their left hand. (Most of us don’t know we have two right hands.) Those who control the cash flow control everything. Playing God, the Fed will continue to bankrupt this country, Turks be damned!</p>
<p>A step up from the protest is the strike. Like most protests, strikes are generally peaceful, especially in recent decades, but there is one crucial difference: a strike is always disruptive. An archaic definition of “to strike” is to lower a sail, since disgruntled sailors formerly struck sails to disable a ship. Thus, to remove from production any tool, including one’s own body, is to go on strike. To change business as usual, one must start by disrupting business as usual. Gandhi did not rely on sign waving protests but strikes and boycotts, and these disruptive actions, supported by the masses, crippled the ruling apparatus. Threatened, it often reacted with violence.</p>
<p>The more widespread a strike, the more business it’s willing to disrupt, the more likely it is to achieve its goals. Rosa Park’s refusal to give up her seat would have yielded nothing if it wasn’t followed by the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted over a year. By withholding their money, black riders brought the city to its knees. Of course, this also entailed a sacrifice on their part, but every struggle has a price, with inconvenience the very least of it. Carpools were formed, black taxi drivers drove black patrons around at a steep discount, charging only a dime, the equivalence of a bus fare at the time.</p>
<p>If too few people joined in a strike or a boycott, it would be punchless, so unity is essential. In Montgomery or British-ruled India, people could readily unite because the wrongs they suffered were easily identifiable, as were the agents of these wrongs. It was, literally, black and white. In today’s America, we have no consensus on what or who are responsible for our dismal state of the union. With a constant lullaby about “recovery,” many Americans are even denying that we’re up the septic creek at all. Everywhere you look, muddy thinking abounds. Tea Partiers rail against big government and corruption, yet support the Pentagon, that bottomless cesspool of corruption. On the left, there are still those who are invested in Obama and the Democratic Party. Ignoring all evidences, they refuse to see that our Democratic politicians support endless war, endless corruption and endless, Israel-style apartheid no less than their Republican colleagues. Both parties are shills for the military industrial complex. Our troubles are not political, then, but systemic.</p>
<p>Our common enemy is the military industrial complex. The United States has, by far, the largest military budget in the world. It is also the world’s biggest arms dealer. Year in and year out, death is what we purvey, it’s what we’re really good at, but most Americans don’t object, because they think that selling guns, jets, tanks and bombs puts bacon on the table. (Many of us also like the idea of kicking ass, frankly.) Moral qualms aside, not every American can have a job assembling Hellfire missiles, yet we must all pay for a bunch of them, as many as the Pentagon cares to order. The economics don’t add up, but let’s not fuss over numbers.</p>
<p>Our common enemy is the military industrial complex. Visiting India for the first time last month, Obama visited Gandhi’s home, then promptly celebrated the signing of a mega arms deal. Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, our prez even had the chutzpah to declare, “I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak–nothing passive–nothing naïve–in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.” What he meant was, “You stay non-violent, while I kill. You stay non-violent, or I will kill you.”</p>
<p>LINH DINH is the author of two books of stories and five of poems, and the recently published novel, <a href="" type="internal">Love Like Hate</a>. He’s tracking our deteriorating socialscape through his frequently updated photo blog, <a href="http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/" type="external">State of the Union</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Helpless | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/12/03/helpless/ | 2010-12-03 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods rebounded in January, rising by the largest amount in six months, although much of the strength came from a big jump in airplane orders. A key category that signals business investment plans did manage a small gain.</p>
<p>Orders for durable goods increased 2.8 percent in January, the biggest increase since July. Orders were down 3.7 percent in December and 2.2 percent in November, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.</p>
<p>Demand in a category that serves as a proxy for business investment increased 0.6 percent in January. It was a small gain but it came after four consecutive declines including decreases of 0.7 percent in December and 0.5 percent in November.</p>
<p>The 2.8 percent rebound in total orders was larger than had been expected but it was heavily influenced by a surge in demand in the volatile category of commercial aircraft, which soared 128.5 percent in January after having fallen 58.3 percent in December.</p>
<p>Excluding transportation, orders showed a more modest gain of 0.3 percent in January after declines in December and November.</p>
<p>The stronger U.S. dollar and global weakness have hurt exports but economists are still optimistic that surging domestic demand will result in a sustained rebound in orders this year.</p>
<p>Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said that orders should begin to increase as the supply backlogs caused by the West Coast port dispute start to clear.</p>
<p>For January, demand for machinery showed an increase of 1.9 percent while demand for computers was up 7.4 percent.</p>
<p>The government is scheduled to revise its estimate for economic growth for the October-December quarter on Friday. Analysts are expecting that the initial 2.6 percent estimated growth rate for the fourth quarter will be revised down to 2.1 percent.</p>
<p>However, they are looking for a rebound in the first quarter to around 2.5 percent.</p>
<p>Delivering the Fed’s twice-a-year report on the economy to Congress this week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen struck an upbeat note, saying that the Fed is looking for strong employment gains to help lift economic activity in 2015.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods rebounded in January, rising by the largest amount in six months, although much of the strength came from a big jump in airplane orders. A key category that signals business investment plans did manage a small gain.</p>
<p>Orders for durable goods increased 2.8 percent in January, the biggest increase since July. Orders were down 3.7 percent in December and 2.2 percent in November, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.</p>
<p>Demand in a category that serves as a proxy for business investment increased 0.6 percent in January. It was a small gain but it came after four consecutive declines including decreases of 0.7 percent in December and 0.5 percent in November.</p>
<p>The 2.8 percent rebound in total orders was larger than had been expected but it was heavily influenced by a surge in demand in the volatile category of commercial aircraft, which soared 128.5 percent in January after having fallen 58.3 percent in December.</p>
<p>Excluding transportation, orders showed a more modest gain of 0.3 percent in January after declines in December and November.</p>
<p>The stronger U.S. dollar and global weakness have hurt exports but economists are still optimistic that surging domestic demand will result in a sustained rebound in orders this year.</p>
<p>Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said that orders should begin to increase as the supply backlogs caused by the West Coast port dispute start to clear.</p>
<p>For January, demand for machinery showed an increase of 1.9 percent while demand for computers was up 7.4 percent.</p>
<p>The government is scheduled to revise its estimate for economic growth for the October-December quarter on Friday. Analysts are expecting that the initial 2.6 percent estimated growth rate for the fourth quarter will be revised down to 2.1 percent.</p>
<p>However, they are looking for a rebound in the first quarter to around 2.5 percent.</p>
<p>Delivering the Fed’s twice-a-year report on the economy to Congress this week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen struck an upbeat note, saying that the Fed is looking for strong employment gains to help lift economic activity in 2015.</p> | Orders for US durable goods up 2.8 percent in January | false | https://apnews.com/511b1958a4e9461cbeda1d6e858facd0 | 2015-02-26 | 2 |
<p>March 30, 2013</p>
<p>By Chris Reed</p>
<p>The Sacramento Bee’s Jon Ortiz had a <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/27/5297975/the-state-worker-moonlighting.html#mi_rss=Latest%20News" type="external">piece</a> Thursday about the grotesque mess that is California state government that had lots of interesting details about the extent of the dysfunction:</p>
<p>“Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown christened an overhaul of the state’s personnel system, aiming to correct the wandering course of a government beset with arcane, conflicting rules that confound even the most experienced human resources managers.</p>
<p>“Now that overhaul faces a very public test with the state’s probe into ‘additional appointments.’</p>
<p>“Several agencies have cited the obscure 34-year-old policy as justification for giving salaried managers and supervisors secondary jobs that pay an hourly wage. The policy is so old that it exists only on paper. It’s confusing, imprecise and desperately needs updating.</p>
<p>“There are probably dozens — maybe hundreds — of similar personnel rules and regulations that departments — those that know about them, anyway — read and apply differently.”</p>
<p>But Ortiz’s column, like so many other stories and analyses over the years, doesn’t acknowledge one reason why the chaos exists and has been tolerated. Indeed, he even asserts that it’s in everyone’s interest to fix the mess, because ….</p>
<p>” … an archaic, dysfunctional state government personnel system hurts everyone.</p>
<p>“‘Calcified personnel practices that were intended to measure “merit” discourage highly qualified people from applying for and landing state jobs, the independent, bipartisan Little Hoover Commission concluded eight years ago.”</p>
<p>Oh, what a load of hooey. An “archaic, dysfunctional state government” is one in which employee performance can’t be measured, employee efficiency can’t be improved and employee positions can’t be reduced.</p>
<p>Connect the dots. If the information-technology revolution had been allowed to transform the public sector as it has the private sector, we’d see government doing as much as it used to with far fewer workers. Instead, the IT revolution never made it to the public sector, including and especially in the state that’s home to Silicon Valley. Instead of doing more with less, we have chaos and overlap and confusion.</p>
<p>And, no, it’s not true that the public and private sectors are so different that the IT revolution couldn’t make a difference in government efficiency. Here’s what the respected McKinsey consulting group said nearly a decade ago:&#160;“the opportunity to improve government productivity is huge … [with] three classic management tools . . . organizational redesign, strategic procurement and operational redesign.”</p>
<p>More on the topic from a <a href="http://www.calwhine.com/todays-luddites-those-blocking-i-t-revolution-from-shrinking-schools-government/2383/" type="external">column</a> I did last year to mark the 200th anniversary of the peak of the Luddite movement in England:</p>
<p>“The key to [government] redesign is to stop building off the presumption that we need to have workers gather in the same building to handle routine tasks, and to require that consumers of government services go to these buildings, too.</p>
<p>“I once had to go to the Poway DMV to get a copy of a vehicle registration that I had lost because it was the only local DMV that had an appointment slot available within two weeks. Why? Why? Why? For God’s sake, in an era in which you can design your next car and do a zillion other things on the Internet, why do you ever have to drive to a government office anywhere to fill out a permit or pick up a form?</p>
<p>“Where are the virtual offices? Where are the MBA consultants who come in and spot ineffeciences and outline changes that seem obvious in retrospect? Why don’t we see the IT revolution depopulate government bureaucracies the same way it wiped out travel agencies?</p>
<p>“Because of 21st-century Luddites who hide behind claims of defending the middle class. The reality is that we’re seeing what is in essence immense featherbedding across all levels of government.”</p>
<p>This is why California’s state government is dysfunctional and chaotic: Because if it were run rationally and like a competent large corporation, we probably could get by just fine with half the state workers we now have.</p>
<p>This is what’s at stake in the fight over making state government more functional. Jon Ortiz may not have figured it out, but you can bet the unions have. And if the <a href="" type="internal">lunatics</a> running the state Public Employment Relation Board have their say, the Brown administration will end its reform push after having been told that reform is only OK if it’s been collectively bargained.</p> | Why is state gov so inefficient? Duh. Job preservation. | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/03/30/why-is-state-gov-so-inefficient-duh-job-preservation/ | 2018-03-20 | 3 |
<p>Published time: 4 Aug, 2017 17:54</p>
<p>UEFA has charged Legia Warsaw after its fans produced a banner of a Nazi holding a gun to a child’s head at a Champions League qualifier on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Fans of the Polish champions hoisted a tifo the length of an entire stand at the Polish Army Stadium with an image of a Nazi-uniformed figure holding a gun to a crying child’s head on a background of a Polish flag bearing the year 1944.</p>
<p>Underneath were the words: “During the Warsaw Uprising Germans killed 160,000 people. Thousands of them were children.”</p>
<p>The banner commemorated the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, an unsuccessful operation by the Polish resistance Home Army to liberate Warsaw from German occupation during World War II.</p>
<p>It comes after it was <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/398434-poland-wwii-reparations-germany/" type="external">reported</a>&#160;Thursday that&#160;Poland will consider a claim demanding reparations from Germany for the destruction it brought during the Nazi occupation.</p>
<p>UEFA often punishes clubs for political symbols at games and said Legia faces a disciplinary charge relating to the “illicit banner” and another because stairways at its stadium were blocked, AP <a href="https://www.apnews.com/6f3c905b769b41c79d366eea86e5f01a/UEFA-charges-Polish-club-over-banner-honoring-Nazi-victims?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_medium=AP_Sports" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>It is not the first time a banner at a Legia game has landed the club in hot water. In 2014, the club was fined $82,166 after fans unfurled a banner depicting UEFA as a pig and insinuating the organization was corrupt.</p>
<p>The club has also been fined in the past for fan violence at games.</p>
<p>Despite winning the game against Astana 1-0, Legia was knocked out 3-2 on aggregate and will now play in the Europa League.</p> | UEFA charges Polish club over Nazi banner at Champions League game | false | https://newsline.com/uefa-charges-polish-club-over-nazi-banner-at-champions-league-game/ | 2017-08-04 | 1 |
<p>Bayer AG (BAYN.XE) said Thursday that third-quarter net profit increased significantly, citing the divestment of Covestro AG (1COV.XE).</p>
<p>The German pharmaceuticals and chemicals company reported third-quarter net profit of 3.88 billion euros ($4.57 billion) compared with EUR1.19 billion in the same period a year earlier. The third-quarter net-profit figure includes a EUR2.8 billion gain from the divestment of Covestro.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Sales for the quarter decreased 2.8% to EUR8.03 billion.</p>
<p>According to Vara Research's consensus forecast, the company was expected to report net profit of about EUR1.18 billion and post sales of EUR8.39 billion.</p>
<p>Bayer said that the closing of the Monsanto (MON) merger deal is expected in early 2018.</p>
<p>It confirmed its 2017 outlook based on the change in structure resulting from the divestment of Covestro. The company says it expects 2017 sales of EUR35 billion to EUR36 billion, corresponding to a low-single-digit percentage increase on a currency and portfolio-adjusted basis.</p>
<p>Write to Sonia Amaral Rohter at [email protected]</p>
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<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 26, 2017 02:50 ET (06:50 GMT)</p> | Bayer 3Q Net Profit Increases Following Covestro Divestment | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/26/bayer-3q-net-profit-increases-following-covestro-divestment.html | 2017-10-26 | 0 |
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<p>In today’s roundup, we’ve got eight online marketing campaigns worth checking out. Plus, an expert who says in order to make your customer service a success, you need to treat your staffers like customers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>8 online marketing campaigns that stand out: How do you use online marketing to attract new audiences? Inc.com has <a href="http://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/8-killer-online-marketing-campaigns.html" type="external">8 killer campaigns to learn from Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Treat your employees like customers? One New York Times columnist says in order to get your staff to treat customers well, you need to <a href="http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/yes-you-treat-customers-well-but-how-do-you-treat-employees/?ref=smallbusiness" type="external">treat employees like you would customers Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Do you outsource taxes? Find out what can happen to small businesses <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324743704578442901672516758.html?mod=WSJ_SmallBusiness_LEADNewsCollection" type="external">when payroll firms go under. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Google’s upstart competitor: Google Glass may be at the forefront of <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226488" type="external">wearable technology Opens a New Window.</a>– but this startup says it has some serious competition.</p> | How to Get the Most from Your Employees | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/04/25/how-to-get-most-from-your-employees.html | 2016-03-22 | 0 |
<p>The Trump administration has come out against a set of new regulations that would allow consumers to band together to sue their bank or credit card company.</p>
<p>A Treasury Department report released Monday takes aim at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's so-called forced arbitration rules, which the agency finalized this summer. In the report, the department questions whether the rules are in consumers' interests and says the agency failed to consider alternatives.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The report comes as Congressional Republicans are trying to rally support to pass a bill to override the CFPB's new regulations. But the November deadline for passing an override under what's known as the Congressional Review Act is approaching. The House has passed the bill but the Senate's version has stalled.</p>
<p>"Based on (the CFPB's) own data, it is far more likely that the rule will generate massive economic costs — borne by businesses and consumers alike — that dwarf the speculative benefits," the Treasury report says.</p>
<p>While the report criticizes the CFPB's new rules, it does not call for them to be repealed. But it is likely to be ammunition for Republicans who want to get the rules overturned before the deadline expires.</p>
<p>The CFPB is an independent agency whose director was appointed by President Barack Obama. The agency has long been a target of congressional Republicans, who believe the bureau was given too much executive authority and not enough oversight when it was created after the financial crisis.</p>
<p>The banking industry and its lobbyists have been pushing hard to overturn the CFPB's new regulations. If allowed to go into effect in 2019, they could expose banks to large class-action lawsuits, a possibility that has taken gotten more attention following the sales practices scandal at Wells Fargo and the security breach at credit company Equifax.</p>
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<p>Democrats and liberal-leaning consumer advocates were quick to denounce the Treasury Department report. The CFPB itself took the unusual step of criticizing a fellow federal government office for its report.</p>
<p>"This report and similar industry analyses fail to make the case for allowing companies to continue using these clauses to deny consumers their day in court," said CFPB spokesman Sam Gilford.</p> | Treasury opposes arbitration rules for consumers suing banks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/23/treasury-opposes-arbitration-rules-for-consumers-suing-banks.html | 2017-10-23 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Over the past five years, net income at cloud software provider Workday has decreased from negative-$80 million to negative-$290 million. Yet, since its IPO in October 2012, the stock price has increased 175%.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Many value-oriented investors will often grow frustrated with this type of performance from an unprofitable business. Words like "bubble," "frothy," and "overvalued" are popular adjectives used to describe Silicon Valley-based technology companies. These same words have been used to describe Salesforce.com .</p>
<p>The year before it launched on the Nasdaq in 2004, Salesforce incurred losses of $10 million. Since then, the company has fluctuated between losses and meager profitability. However, net income in 2015 came in at negative-$263 million. The company's stock price since becoming public is up an incredible 1,680%.</p>
<p>So what gives?</p>
<p>Growth potentialA mistake many value investors make is that they look at how a company has performed in the past and how it's performing now. For example, since 2000, net income at Wal-Mart has tripled. Its stock price since then is up 2.9%. One of the reasons is what the market is forecasting going forward. Wal-Mart has done a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/07/wal-mart-stores-incs-biggest-weakness-in-one-chart.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">poor job Opens a New Window.</a> gaining traction in e-commerce, and the market is pricing its expectations accordingly.</p>
<p>Workday, on the other hand, has grown revenue 54% annually over the past five years, from $134 million in 2011 to nearly $1.2 billion in its latest fiscal year. Naturally, as the base grows higher, it becomes harder to grow the top line at such a strong pace. Growth slowed to 43% in its latest quarter, but there's still a long runway ahead.</p>
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<p>According to Grand View Research, the HR software market size is projected to reach $10 billion in 2022. The global enterprise resource planning market is expected to reach $41.69 billion by 2020. Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri sees higher potential, as he pegged Workday's market opportunity at $60 billion, with an opportunity in financial solutions being larger than human capital management (HCM).</p>
<p>For comparison purposes, Gartner estimates the customer relationship market (CRM) that Salesforce competes in to be just under $25 billion in size. Salesforce does control a much larger share of its respective market than Workday does for HCM and financials. However, the opportunity is there for Workday to become at least as large as Salesforce. In terms of market capitalization, Salesforce is a $52 billion company, while Workday is worth $15 billion.</p>
<p>ProfitabilityLooking at the income statement of Workday, it's understandable why investors would quickly move on to the next idea.</p>
<p>All numbers in thousands of U.S. dollars. Source: company filings.</p>
<p>However, a closer look at the cash flow statement tells a better story.</p>
<p>All numbers in thousands of U.S. dollars. Source: company filings.</p>
<p>Free cash flow is often a better measure of profitability, since it's not beholden to accounting rules and management estimates in the income statement. You can see with Workday that free cash flow is painting a much brighter picture than the income statement. In fact, Workday became free cash flow-positive this past year, generating nearly $125 million in cash. That's important, since that cash can be invested right back into the business, lessening the need to dilute shareholders by raising more equity.</p>
<p>There are two main reasons for the large gap in free cash flow and net income.</p>
<p>The first is that share-based compensation of $250 million is included as an expense in the income statement but it is not actually a cash outlay for Workday. However, I'm not a fan of giving companies credit for issuing stock to employees and management. There's nothing wrong with giving team members incentive, but it does come out of shareholders' pockets. It may not hit the cash flow statement, but it does dilute the equity.</p>
<p>The more important metric in measuring Workday's success is its increase in deferred revenue. Workday typically offers customers access to their applications with a three-year agreement. The customer will pay for one year at a time until the three-year subscription expires. Because of accounting rules, although the customer is obligated to pay for three years and pays one of those three years upfront, revenue isn't recognized immediately. It's spread out over the term of the agreement. In its latest fiscal year, Workday's deferred revenue increased over $260 million to $900 million, nearly the same amount in actual revenue.</p>
<p>As my Fool colleague Tim Green noted in <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/16/free-cash-flow-isnt-always-free.aspx?mrr=0.50&amp;source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">this Opens a New Window.</a> article, free cash flow isn't always free. If Workday were to all of a sudden stop growing like gangbusters yet maintain the same cost structure, the company would burn through cash really quickly. However, if it can maintain growth, the free cash flow can be a great source of funds to grow its business while it leverages its operating costs over time. A quick look at Workday's cost structure compared with its peers shows that the company can become very profitable when it no longer needs to invest in its business at the rate it does today.</p>
<p>Source: latest annual company filings.</p>
<p>Workday is already on pace to catch up to Salesforce in terms of gross margins. Workday was able to achieve 76% gross margins in its latest quarter, surpassing Salesforce's 2015 margin. The bulk expense weighing down Workday's profitability is its development costs. Workday spends 40% of its revenue on product development compared with its peers, which are spending a mid-teens percentage of their budget on the same category. This expense should come down as Workday's product matures and as the company grows the top line. Reducing development costs in half will lead operating margins close to breakeven.</p>
<p>Workday is still a long way from achieving profitability. Like many fast-growing technology companies, its focus right now is investing in its sales team and product. If the company can continue to grow at a rapid pace and improve margins down the road, investors may be rewarded accordingly. However, buyer beware: With the company priced at 13 times sales, any hiccups can lead to a volatile ride.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/28/dont-be-deceived-by-workdays-lack-of-profitability.aspx" type="external">Don't Be Deceived by Workday Inc.'s Lack of Profitability Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/CashRulez/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Palbir Nijjar Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Workday. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Salesforce.com and Workday. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Don't Be Deceived by Workday Inc.'s Lack of Profitability | true | http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/04/28/dont-be-deceived-by-workday-inc-lack-profitability.html | 2016-04-28 | 0 |
<p>The Supreme Court’s June 8 decision in Caperton v. Massey established that there is such a thing as too much money, at least when it comes to campaign support for a judge who is hearing a case involving the supporter. And $3 million is definitely over the line, according to the majority opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy in the landmark 5-4 decision. Excessive campaign contributions to or in support of a judicial candidate can subvert the due process clause of the Constitution,</p>
<p /> | false | https://factcheck.org/tag/massey/ | 2 |
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<p>If you build it, will they come? The old new-economy question seems to be asked again by European newspapers seeing their traditional classified model threatened. This week saw the launch of two new free-ad classified sites owned by German publishing houses: <a href="http://www.kalaydo.de" type="external">Kalaydo.de</a> and <a href="http://www.heisetreff.de" type="external">heisetreff.de</a>. Meanwhile <a href="http://www.markt.de" type="external">markt.de</a> (launched in September 2005 by a group of other German newspaper publishers) announced a partnership with <a href="http://www.lycos.de" type="external">lycos.de</a> in order to expand its traffic; <a href="http://www.wikibuy.de" type="external">wikibay.de</a> (launched in November 2005 by another group of newspaper publishers) got in trouble with eBay and therefore changed its name to wikibuy.de; and <a href="http://www.willhaben.at" type="external">willhaben.at</a> was launched in Austria by Styria Medien AG in cooperation with the Norwegian media company Schibsted. ... A real free-ad marketplace mania.</p> | Free-Ad Marketplace Mania | false | https://poynter.org/news/free-ad-marketplace-mania | 2006-02-24 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Iowa’s gay&#160;community is in an uproar after Chick-fil-A sponsored a local festival designed to promote diversity.</p>
<p>The fast-food chain, which drew national attention in 2012 when its CEO spoke out in opposition to gay marriage, is among about a dozen sponsors of the Iowa City Summer of the Arts’ Iowa Soul Festival, presented by a nonprofit that promotes cultural awareness and inclusion, according to the&#160; <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/2014/09/16/chick-fil-sponsorship-iowa-city-festival-raises-eyebrows/15738169/" type="external">De Moines Register</a>.</p>
<p>Some in the&#160;lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community say Chick-fil-A’s involvement makes them feel unwelcome at the event,&#160;the Register reported.</p>
<p>“When they’re a sponsor in a city that prides itself in celebrating diversity, I think we do have to question that,” Janelle Rettig, a Johnson County supervisor who has been in a same-sex marriage for nearly 26 years, told the Register. “It’s eyebrow raising, and it makes me wonder if I should even go to Soul Fest because I’m uncomfortable with it.”</p>
<p>The Chick-fil-A eatery in Coralville is sponsoring the festival’s&#160;“Culinary Row,”&#160;saying its participation is a way&#160;to show support for the local arts, diversity and the LGBT community.</p>
<p>“Our goal is to treat all people with honor, dignity and respect,” Coralville Chick-fil-A owner Adam Donius told the Register.</p>
<p>Summer of the Arts organizers said Chick-fil-A’s sponsorship may be controversial, but everyone is welcome to attend.</p>
<p>“Summer of the Arts welcomes all people to attend and participate in our festivals and events regardless of race, national origin, color, creed, religion, sex, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or associational preference,” the group said in a statement released Tuesday, describing the Soul Festival as a way to “celebrate and increase awareness of diversity and the positive impact it has on our community.”</p> | Another attempt to bully Chick-fil-A; LGBT ‘uncomfortable’ with its existence | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2014/09/18/another-attempt-to-bully-chick-fil-a-lgbt-uncomfortable-with-its-existence-146465 | 2014-09-18 | 0 |
<p>One institution of higher education that charges tuition based on parents’ immigration/citizenship status</p>
<p>U.S. citizens who are dependent&#160; children of illegal immigrants are suing school officials in South Carolina (SC) for denying them in-state tuition.</p>
<p>South Carolina students are required to pay tuition based on their parents’ immigration status. Dependent children who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are undocumented are not prevented by state law from receiving in-state tuition or state-administered scholarships; however, dependent children are classified based on their parents’ residency. Consequently, such students are defined as “non-residents” by public colleges and the Commission on Higher Education, which establishes rules of eligibility for in-state tuition and state-administered scholarships.</p>
<p>Tuition rates for non-residents can be triple the cost of in-state tuition. Not only are non-residents subjected to higher tuition, they are also ineligible for state merit academic scholarships, need-based grants or education assistance grant programs.</p>
<p>The Southern Poverty Law Center together with SC’s Appleseed Legal Justice Center filed a class action law suit charging that policies that classify &#160;U.S. citizens who reside in SC as “non-residents” for purposes of tuition, scholarships, and need-based grants “solely because their parents lack proof of citizenship or immigration status” are discriminatory. The lawsuit reads in part, “those policies invidiously discriminate against Plaintiffs and other students who are U.S. citizens, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”</p>
<p>According to the lawsuit, approximately 170 SC students who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are illegal immigrants are expected to pursue higher education in the state each year. Approximately 140 of those students are expected to enroll in the state’s public colleges and universities.</p>
<p /> | Children of Undocumented Parents Charged Punitive Tuition | true | http://politicalblindspot.com/children-of-undocumented-parents-charged-punitive-tuition/ | 2015-07-21 | 4 |
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<p>ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — Federal land managers are drafting a plan that will guide the management of resources and potential energy development in the Otero Mesa, an area of southern New Mexico where environmentalists have sought protections for decades.</p>
<p>The Bureau of Land Management is expected to have a resource management plan for the Otero Mesa area ready for public comment next spring, the Alamogordo Daily News reported .</p>
<p>Oil and gas development on the mesa would potentially lead to the construction of 350 new miles of road over the next 20 years, according to BLM officials. The agency believes development will also bring jobs and income within those industries to Otero County.</p>
<p>Southwest Environmental Center director Kevin Bixby said he worries the mesa would be irrevocably spoiled if industrial uses such as oil and gas drilling or mining were allowed.</p>
<p>“The Otero Mesa is a remote grassland that’s been used thousands of years by ranchers for grazing, hunting and other uses. If it’s changed to an industrial landscape with roads, it can be completely ruined. That’s the big threat,” Bixby said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Otero Mesa has long been seen by residents as a hidden treasure. Nicknamed the “holy grail of rock art sites,” the area contains an estimated 5,000 petroglyphs. The area includes about 600,000 acres (242,811 hectares) of Chihuahuan Desert grassland. It also is on top of the state’s largest untapped freshwater aquifer.</p>
<p>“There are pretty rare habitats, and we’re lucky to have this treasure in southern New Mexico,” Bixby said.</p>
<p>Efforts over the years to secure wilderness or national monument status for the area have been unsuccessful.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Alamogordo Daily News, <a href="http://www.alamogordonews.com" type="external">http://www.alamogordonews.com</a></p> | Land managers drafting plan for New Mexico’s Otero Mesa | false | https://abqjournal.com/1090821/land-managers-drafting-plan-for-new-mexicos-otero-mesa.html | 2017-11-10 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Dear Bankruptcy Adviser,</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>I filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I was hoping to get a modification from my lender, but they are just stringing me along. Can my wife file Chapter 13 to save our house using my income?&#160;</p>
<p>- Michael</p>
<p>Dear Michael,</p>
<p>Let me first try to explain your situation a little. You had some unsecured debt and likely were behind on your mortgage when you filed for Chapter 7. The lender won't modify your loan, but you still need a way to get caught up on those unpaid mortgage payments.</p>
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<p>You are allowed to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy after filing a Chapter 7. The only difference is you cannot receive a "discharge" of debts inside the new Chapter 13 case. Generally speaking, a discharge means your debts have been eliminated. Luckily, you don't need a discharge anymore since you eliminated your debts in the Chapter 7. You just need time to pay back the delinquent mortgage payments.</p>
<p>Chapter 13 allows you to catch up on delinquent mortgage payments over a three- to five-year repayment period. During that time, you'll make a payment to the trustee assigned to your case and your current mortgage payment to the lender. The trustee takes your plan payment and distributes it to the lender for the delinquent mortgage. In some bankruptcy districts, you pay the mortgage payment and delinquent payments directly to the trustee. The lender cannot sell your home as long as you are making your monthly mortgage payment as well as your monthly plan payment.</p>
<p>The problem now is whether you can afford your current mortgage and the Chapter 13 payment. That will be your biggest hurdle. Since you wanted a loan modification, you've been having trouble making your mortgage payment already. Now, you would have to make your normal mortgage payment as well as the Chapter 13 plan payment. That may be impossible.</p>
<p>There is one bright side to this approach. I see lenders more willing to work on a loan modification when a client is making monthly payments inside the Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Lenders don't like it when you are inside an active bankruptcy case. While you might be hard-pressed to make payments until a modification is approved, the lender may reconsider the loan modification to get you out of the bankruptcy.</p>
<p>I would suggest taking the approach of filing another case under your name only and protect your wife's credit as much as possible. Since she did not file the Chapter 7, she does not have the bankruptcy on her credit. Adding another bankruptcy to your credit will not hurt your credit much more than the Chapter 7 already did. While I don't have any concrete evidence that this increases your chance for a loan modification, I have seen this approach work for my clients. Let's hope you have the same result.</p>
<p>Ask the adviser</p>
<p>To ask a question of the Bankruptcy Adviser, go to the " <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/ask.asp" type="external">Ask the Experts Opens a New Window.</a>" page and select "Bankruptcy" as the topic. Read more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/advisers/bankruptcy-adviser.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Bankruptcy Adviser Opens a New Window.</a> columns and more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/debt-management.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">stories Opens a New Window.</a> about debt management.</p>
<p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2013, Bankrate Inc.</p> | Will Bankruptcy Help Mortgage Modification? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/06/11/will-bankruptcy-help-mortgage-modification.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>On Tuesday, the University of California at Berkeley announced that they “stand with our undocumented students,” shortly after President Trump announced that he would end President Obama’s executive amnesty — or at least would stop handing out legal work documents to so-called DREAMers, illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children by their parents.</p>
<p>Three UC Berkeley leaders — Chancellor Carol Christ, Vice Chancellor For Equity and Inclusion Oscar Dubon, and Undocumented Student Program Director (yes, that’s a real position) Meng So, wrote a letter blasting President Trump for his decision to end DACA. The administrators stated:</p>
<p>We are heartbroken for our undocumented immigrant communities. These communities include many of our students and families, who made the difficult decision to migrate here in pursuit of economic and educational opportunity; or to escape poverty, persecution, human rights violation or armed conflict. This is a devastating step backward and a measure that undermines the spirit of our highest values as a <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-releases-principles-support-uc-community-members" type="external">university</a> and as a nation. … We encourage all of you to contact your <a href="https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials" type="external">local representatives</a>to ask that they do whatever they can to protect young undocumented immigrants and the family and community members who help them thrive. At a time when our campus and community values are being challenged by the prevailing national rhetoric and policy making, we must deepen our resolve and commitment to our principles and to each other.</p>
<p>There is a certain irony to Berkeley dedicating so much space to defending the supposed rights of illegal immigrants while at the same time throwing as many obstacles in the way of free speech as humanly possible. On Tuesday, Berkeley announced that it would cut the size of the auditorium promised for my September 14 speech in half, from 2,000 to 1,000, supposedly for security reasons. This came after the university originally denied they had any space at all, then charged Young America’s Foundation an additional $15,000 fee for security. The university still refuses to release tickets for the event, despite a YAF waiting list over 2,500 long. I’m a citizen and a taxpayer in California; so are the vast majority of people who want to attend my lecture. But at least Berkeley has its priorities in order.</p> | Berkeley BLASTS Trump, Offers Counseling: 'We Are Heartbroken For Our Undocumented Immigrant Communities' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/20649/berkeley-blasts-trump-offers-counseling-we-are-ben-shapiro | 2017-09-05 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 3 Aug, 2017 11:27</p>
<p>The tightening in Canada’s booming housing market, which has long been the leading driver for employment and growth, could wipe out economic gains, experts warn.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/business/359977-canada-household-debt-gdp/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The real estate boom has attracted thousands of workers into the sector, from realtors and home stagers to construction workers.</p>
<p>According to analysts, a drop in home sales has already started to weigh on the economy, and if prices start to decline, consumer spending and jobs will suffer. Canada’s home construction jobs accounted for the bulk of the economic growth last year.</p>
<p>Recent data showed nationwide home resales fell 6.7 percent in June, the largest monthly drop since 2010 and the third straight monthly decline. That was a result of tumbling sales in Canada’s hottest housing market, Toronto.</p>
<p>Realtors’ ranks in Toronto have surged 77 percent since 2008 to more than 48,000 which is nearly ten times the pace of Canadian job growth. Nationwide, the number has risen almost 27 percent.</p>
<p>“To a lot of people, it is a get-rich-quick scheme,” Toronto realtor David Fleming told Reuters about the real estate market. “But history shows when the market turns, half of the agents leave.”</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/business/357516-canada-economy-oil-property/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The Bank of Canada has forecast the contribution of housing to economic growth will fall from 0.3 percentage points this year to zero in 2018 and a 0.1 percentage point subtraction in 2019.</p>
<p>Economists say the housing slowdown may turn into a long correction. The country’s last major housing downturn resulted in real estate employment plunging 18 percent between 1989 and 1992. It took until 1997 to recover.</p>
<p>“The jobs slowdown will not occur in a single month, but over a six-month to one-year period,”&#160;said Frances Donald, senior economist at Manulife Asset Management. He added&#160;“the hit to consumption may take up to two years to really be felt.”</p>
<p>“We’ve had a multiple-year expansion driven by housing, and we’re probably going to have a multi-year headwind to growth driven by a decline in housing,”&#160;said the economist.</p> | Canada’s housing boom may soon go bust along with economy | false | https://newsline.com/canadas-housing-boom-may-soon-go-bust-along-with-economy/ | 2017-08-03 | 1 |
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<p>ANAYA: Coach went 5-5 in 1st season</p>
<p>Small but tough.</p>
<p>That, in a nutshell, is the Moriarty Pintos. Actually, maybe Moriarty is the football equivalent of a nutshell.</p>
<p>Still, coach Joe Anaya would be grateful if this team kept the proverbial shell from cracking.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>An undersized Moriarty roster sets out this year to improve on last year's 5-5 record, and there are old (and yet familiar) faces along for the ride.</p>
<p>Consider that running backs Allen Michel and Seth Castillo played three games between them last year. The 170-pound Michel had a knee injury last summer that kept him out the entire season, and a bum ankle sent the 160-pound Castillo to the sidelines in the third game.</p>
<p>Both are back in the fold.</p>
<p>Ironically, the linemen in front of the Pintos' runners are barely as big as the backs they're blocking for.</p>
<p>"But," Anaya said, "the offense we run is conducive to the type of kids we have."</p>
<p>That Wing-T, the classic misdirection attack, will have to be sharp for this small - but experienced, with 16 starting positions returning - team to challenge St. Pius in District 5-5A.</p>
<p>"It's a tough bunch of kids," said Anaya. "You gotta coach with what you've got and you have to make it work."</p>
<p>As Moriarty has a bunch of two-way starters, Anaya worries about keeping his team healthy. The Pintos have depth issues, too.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The good news on offense is that besides Michel and Santiago, Moriarty has developed some other options in the backfield.</p>
<p>"If we stay healthy and take care of business," Anaya said, "we should be pretty good."</p>
<p>MORIARTY AT A GLANCE</p>
<p>Coach: Joe Anaya (2nd year; 5-5)</p>
<p>Last season: 5-5</p>
<p>Returning starters: 8 offense, 8 defense</p>
<p>Key players: Allen Michel, sr. (5-10, 170, FB/LB); Seth Castillo, sr. (6-0, 160, RB/DB); Nicholas Young, sr. (5-8, 150, QB/S); Keno Anaya, sr. (5-11, 165, OT/DE); Elijah Tapia, jr. (5-8, 165, RB/LB); Santiago Mora, jr. (5-10, 170, G/MLB); Jonathan Ipiotis, sr. (5-10, 170, G/MLB); Matt Smith, soph. (5-10, 160, MLB/FB); Konner Bond, sr. (5-11, 145, TE/CB); Jake Flaming, sr. (6-6, 210, TE/DB); Chris Rodriguez, sr. (5-9, 150, CB); Devin Christian, jr. (5-11, 170, C).</p>
<p>Outlook: Michel and Castillo both return to the lineup after missing all, or almost all, of 2014. Smith picked up a lot of time in the backfield last year because of injuries to others, and both he and Tapia will carry the ball as well. The Pintos will feature quite a few two-way starters, which could become an issue late in the season with such a small group of kids. Linebacking should be a strength on defense in a 3-5-3 scheme. Keno Anaya was an All-Metro end last year, with three defensive touchdowns.</p>
<p>2015 Moriarty schedule</p>
<p>(x-District 5-5A)</p>
<p>Aug. 28, at Miyamura, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Sept. 4, at Belen, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Sept. 11, at Los Alamos, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Sept. 18, Piedra Vista, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Sept. 25, Valencia, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Oct. 2, Gallup, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Oct. 9, at Roswell, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Oct. 16, IDLE</p>
<p>x-Oct. 23, St. Pius, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>x-Oct. 30, at Grants, 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Nov. 6, IDLE</p>
<p>Circle the date: Moriarty's chances for reaching the playoffs could hinge on the St. Pius game, especially if, as was the case last year, only one team from that district goes to the postseason.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Lack of size, depth shouldn't crack Moriarty bunch | false | https://abqjournal.com/628125/lack-of-size-depth-shouldnt-crack-this-bunch.html | 2 |
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