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<p>The Colombian city of Medellín was once the murder capital of the world and ground zero for Pablo Escobar's cocaine cartel. But Medellín has lately emerged as a hotspot for urban planning and innovative mass transit. The projects are part of a long-term plan to fight poverty and remake the fortunes of the city.</p>
<p>The upper reaches of a mountainside slum called Comuna Trece are too steep for cars or buses. Streets give way to staircases. To get home, many here used to climb the equivalent of a 28-story building.</p>
<p>But last year, Medellín officials installed an outdoor escalator. A former mayor came up with the idea after riding an escalator for tourists in Barcelona.</p>
<p>With its stylish orange roof, the Comuna Trece escalator seems a little out of place. It runs past one-room shacks with laundry hanging from clotheslines. At first, some residents were baffled.</p>
<p>City hall worker Claudia Arizmendi says that many people had never ridden an escalator before. So, the city sponsored field trips to shopping malls so residents could practice.</p>
<p>"Now we've gotten the hang of it," says Jose Ivan Taborda, who is 69. "The escalator is comfortable and necessary for older people. It's a relief because we don't have to climb all those steps."</p>
<p>The escalator is part of a broader plan to reduce crime and instill pride in gang-infested slums. Police work is important. But the thrust of the strategy is to install public transportation linked to newly built parks and libraries that encourage people to reclaim their communities from the bad guys.</p>
<p>It's a radical departure from past policies.</p>
<p>Comuna Trece and other slums were founded by people displaced by Colombia's guerrilla war. The slums sprang up far from downtown, and residents felt isolated and ignored.</p>
<p>"This displaced population didn't feel like they were part of the city," says Laura Isaza, a Medellín city hall consultant. "They used to say: 'I live in this neighborhood and I don't live in Medellín.' And that was one of our first steps: To gain their confidence and to make them feel that they are part of our city."</p>
<p>One of the main projects to integrate Medellín is a network of cable cars that opened in 2004. They carry people from the mountaintop slums to the subway system.</p>
<p>Now getting downtown takes 45 minutes instead of two-and-a-half hours. The gondolas move 20,000 people a day. They're so popular they've inspired similar cable car networks in the mountainside ghettos of Rio de Janeiro and Caracas.</p>
<p>While the view is impressive, some cable car passengers opt to read during the ride.</p>
<p>They check out books from a handsome new library and community center right next to one of the cable car stations. Several subway stations house smaller libraries as well.</p>
<p>Many of these experiments were cited last month when a survey sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, Citibank, and the Washington-based Urban Land Institute named Medellín one of the world's most innovative cities.</p>
<p>But not everyone is convinced.</p>
<p>Comuna Trece resident John Hernandez says the flashy new projects have distracted people's attention from lingering issues, like high crime, and the government is sweeping those problems under the rug.</p>
<p>Yet, the murder rate has dropped by half in the past decade. Tourists now come to slums to ride the escalator and cable cars. And property values are on the rise. What's more, investors are moving in.</p>
<p>Over the past five years, Hewlett Packard, Kimberly Clark, and Unisys have all opened production and research centers in Medellín. Consultant Laura Isaza concedes that the city still struggles with violence, but things are changing.</p>
<p>"We don't have this huge war we had before," Isaza says. "This is a conflict that could only be ended through real opportunities for the people."</p>
<p>These advances, she says, have helped Medellín turned a corner.</p> | Medellín's Outdoor Escalator Part of Plan to Remake City | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-01-01/medell-ns-outdoor-escalator-part-plan-remake-city | 2013-01-01 | 3 |
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<p>Heavy snow, freezing rain and wind gusts will make holiday travel treacherous in swaths of the northern United States.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A storm is expected to bring rain and then snow to the Pacific Northwest as temperatures hover around freezing on Friday night.</p>
<p>The same system will also dump heavy snow in the Rockies and High Plains late into Saturday, the National Weather Service said in its forecast.</p>
<p>Snow and freezing rain are also in the forecast for much of the Midwest and Northeast late on Friday and through Saturday as temperatures are to dip around freezing, the weather service said.</p>
<p>The deteriorating weather may derail travel plans for some of the 94 million Americans who the American Automobile Association say will hit the roads during the holidays.</p>
<p>"Christmas, for travelers, is going to be a little dicey in some portions of the country," meteorologist Justin Povick said during his forecast on Accuweather.com.</p>
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<p>Accuweather warns that blizzard conditions in the northern Plains over the weekend could cause treacherous white-outs along major interstate highways, power outages and airline delays.</p>
<p>"People from the central Plains and middle Mississippi Valley to the central Plains will need to keep an eye out for rapidly changing weather conditions," Meteorologist Brett Rossio said on AccuWeather.com.</p>
<p>Signs of how bad weather may cause disruptions for holiday travelers were seen as early as Thursday morning as nearly 250 flights were delayed or canceled in and out Los Angeles International Airport due to high winds and high volume.</p>
<p>A blizzard watch is in effect for the area around Bismarck, North Dakota, where as much as a foot (30 cm) of snow fall and heavy winds will lead to "dangerous Christmas travel conditions", the National Weather Service said.</p>
<p>To the east, in northern Wisconsin and Michigan, motorists are told to "exercise caution" as snow and freezing drizzle are expected to limit visibility and make roads slick, the National Weather Service said.</p>
<p>Tornadoes, thunderstorms and hail are also in the forecast in the southern U.S. Plains, Accuweather said.</p>
<p>As their neighbors to the north deal with winter weather, people in southern Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee will enjoy unseasonably warm weather on Christmas Day as temperatures are likely to soar into the 60s, according to the National Weather Service.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Alison Williams)</p> | Winter Weather to Make a Mess of Holiday Travel | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/23/winter-weather-to-make-mess-holiday-travel.html | 2016-12-23 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The New Mexico True message might be doing more for the state than just attracting travelers, according to research the state Tourism Department announced Thursday.</p>
<p>A survey of 6,000 consumers performed by Longwoods International found that those who'd seen New Mexico True advertising were more likely to perceive the state as a desirable place "to live, start a career, attend college or retire," according to a news release. New Mexico's campaign bolstered the state's image in consumers' eyes more than ads from seven other states Longwoods studied.</p>
<p>Respondents who'd seen New Mexico's ads were 154 percent more likely to consider New Mexico a good place to start a career and 151 percent more likely to agree it's a good place to attend college, Longwoods found.</p>
<p>The research also found that people who had recently visited New Mexico were 168 percent more likely to consider the state a good place to start a business than those who had not.</p>
<p>The figures come from a 2015 study to measure the effectiveness of the New Mexico True campaign. The research indicated that the campaign delivered $7 for every $1 spent on ads in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Denver and Phoenix when considering incremental travel to and spending in New Mexico and incremental taxes "influenced by awareness of the campaign during a 20-month time frame," the release said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | NM True ads might be good for more than tourism | false | https://abqjournal.com/617247/nm-true-ads-might-be-good-for-more-than-tourism.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Image source: Integrated Device Technology Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Integrated Device Technology Inc.(NASDAQ: IDTI) were up 10.1% as of 2:00 p.m. EDT Tuesday after the mixed-signal solutions specialist announced mixed fiscal second-quarter 2017 results, and followed with encouraging guidance.</p>
<p>Quarterly revenue climbed 8.6% year over year, to $184.1 million, and translated to a 12.1% decline inadjusted net income, to $47.4 million. Adjusted net income per share fell 2.9% year over year, to $0.34.</p>
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<p>To be fair, IDT's bottom-line declines might not sound encouraging. But analysts, on average, were expecting the company to report adjusted earnings of only $0.33 per share, albeit on slightly higher revenue of $185.1 million.</p>
<p>For the current quarter, IDT expects revenue of $176 million, plus or minus $5 million. Curiously, that's below analysts' consensus estimates, which called for fiscal Q3 revenue of roughly $185.9 million.</p>
<p>But management also elaborated that two items, in particular, caused revenue guidance to be roughly $9 million lower than it would have been otherwise. The first, comprising around $6 million of that reduction, is the well-known cancellation of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 program. IDT has no custom devices designed into the Note 7, removing any concerns over inventory writedowns. And most encouraging along this vein is that IDT anticipates the majority of its impact will occur in this quarter, with minimal negative consequences in future quarters and the affected wireless power business expected to return to growth in the March quarter.</p>
<p>The second, comprising the remaining $3 million of the reduction, was IDT's divestment of a small commodity crystal oscillator business during the quarter. According to IDT CEO Gregory Waters, "Sales from that business are in decline at very low margins, and not contributing to earnings per share."</p>
<p>That's fair enough, as it makes little sense to chase a small, declining source of incremental revenue if it comes at the expense of profitability. So in the end, despite IDT's revenue shortfalls, it's no surprise to see the market breathing a sigh of relief and bidding shares up today.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Integrated Device Technology Inc. Stock Soared Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/01/why-integrated-device-technology-inc-stock-soared-today.html | 2016-11-01 | 0 |
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Bill McMorris</a> November 29, 2012 5:00 am</p>
<p>General Motors (GM) last week started buying out Ally Bank's auto lending operations in an effort to reverse months of lagging growth.</p>
<p>Ally Financial Inc., formerly known as GMAC, is GM's former auto-lending arm. Although it split from the automaker in 2006, it still garnered $17 billion in taxpayer money during the auto bailout.</p>
<p>GM announced on November 21 its repurchase the bank's lending operations in Europe and Latin America at a cost of $4.2 billion. Taxpayers own about 75 percent of Ally, which has only repaid <a href="" type="internal">$2.5 billion</a> of its bailout. GM still owes U.S. taxpayers nearly half of its $50 billion bailout.</p>
<p>Industry insiders criticized the Treasury Department for not placing Ally in bankruptcy or selling it off before the election, which would have forced the administration to acknowledge the impossibility of fully recovering bailout money.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rcwhalen.com/" type="external">Christopher Whalen</a>, cofounder of Institutional Risk Analytics, told the Washington Free Beacon in April that the Obama administration was motivated by politics rather than the responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.</p>
<p>"Geithner and the rest of Treasury doesn't want to admit that it is a mess and they've been lying to us for three years," Whalen <a href="" type="internal">said in April</a>. "They're waiting until after the election [to sell the bank]."</p>
<p>GM <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/22/us-allyfinancial-gm-idUSBRE8AK1GO20121122" type="external">announced</a> the successful buyout two weeks after the Nov. 6 election. The deal has helped boost confidence in the company on Wall Street. Fitch Ratings <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/idUSWNA017820121128" type="external">upgraded</a> GM's BB issuer default rating to a positive outlook on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Ally's spinoff from GM had taken a financial toll on the automaker. While every other car company was able to use in-house lending, GM was forced to split its loan profits with Ally.</p>
<p>The profit splitting along with a sluggish European market has sent GM's stock tumbling by more than <a href="" type="internal">35 percent</a> since January 2011. Its stock price, which closed at $25.28 on Wednesday, would have to more than double in value to fully <a href="" type="internal">pay back taxpayers</a>.</p>
<p>The Ally buyout is part of GM's push to stabilize its overseas operations. GM has tried to increase its presence on European soil in recent months. The company signed a <a href="" type="internal">$600 million endorsement deal</a> in July with English soccer team Manchester United, the most expensive sponsorship in history.</p>
<p>Ally has been the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444318104577587091449969690.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories" type="external">worst performing bailout recipient</a> in the wake of the global financial crisis. The firm has failed multiple stress tests administered by the Treasury Department.</p>
<p>The government hoped to spin off the distressed bank, but transitioned toward bankruptcy after the auto-lender's books revealed that it was recovering from its massive subprime home loan losses by issuing numerous <a href="" type="internal">subprime auto loans</a>.</p>
<p>The bank's mortgage unit <a href="http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2012/05/15/ally-bank-mortgage-unit-files-for-bankruptcy" type="external">entered bankruptcy</a> in May.</p> | A European Ally | true | http://freebeacon.com/a-european-ally/ | 2012-11-29 | 0 |
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<p>Chicago Catapult, a nonprofit collaborative community for startup companies that is equal parts incubator and accelerator, has selected its first class of resident companies.&#160; The collaborative, a new venture itself, selects candidates that have demonstrated business traction through a peer-selection process by the founders of existing companies. The inaugural class of seven was chosen from more than 100 candidates.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Resident companies are provided office and common space at nominal rentals, a <a href="http://www.space.com/4425-thinking-spaceflight-technology-50-years.html" type="external">collaborative environment Opens a New Window.</a> for the sharing of advice and in-kind resources from corporate sponsors, including equipment, Web hosting and public relations. The companies are awarded a six-month tenancy, with the option for renewal, Chicago Catapult president and co-founder Ryan Leavitt told BusinessNewsDaily.</p>
<p>The freshman class, which includes graduates of Excelerate Labs in Chicago, TechStars Cloud in San Antonio and Blueprint Health in New York City, ranges from Dabble, a marketplace for $20 in-person classes, and Buzz Referrals, a marketing promotion platform developer, to BucketFeet, an artist-designed footwear company, and Kula, a peer-to-peer <a href="http://news.techmedianetwork.com/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.Outlook/71ITH71B/5%20Things%20to%20Consider%20Before%20Taking%20Your%20Company%20Mobile" type="external">mobile marketplace app Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/1012-innovation-incubator-contest-urban-suburban-city.html" type="external">City Tries to Ignite Innovation with Startup Contest Opens a New Window.</a>]</p>
<p>Other members of the class are Shiftgig, a professional <a href="http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/" type="external">networking site Opens a New Window.</a> for the service industry; Tempo, a database service built to store and analyze massive streams of time-series data; and Procured Health, a Web-based application that helps hospitals discover and evaluate medical devices.</p>
<p>The selection of companies with disparate backgrounds and industries is intentional, Leavitt said.</p>
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<p>"A lot of companies are facing the same problems, regardless of the vertical they're in," he said.</p>
<p>The new residents of the tech startup incubator were tapped for admission by the five founding members: VLinks Media, MentorMob, StyleSeek, Tech.Li and 5Degress. Chicago Catapult occupies 12,000 square feet of Class A office space in the city's River North area, the de facto hub of Chicago's startup scene.</p>
<p>"We interviewed over 100 companies and the caliber of the new startups speaks well of our peer- selection model," Leavitt said. "These companies will add to the spirit at Catapult which, in many ways, acts as one collective startup with 12 different business lines."</p>
<p>Reach BusinessNewsDaily senior writer Ned Smith at&#160; <a href="http://mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected] Opens a New Window.</a>. Follow him on Twitter @nedbsmith.</p>
<p>Copyright 2012 <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/" type="external">BusinessNewsDaily Opens a New Window.</a>, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p> | Chicago Catapult Launches 7 New Startups | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/05/29/chicago-catapult-launches-7-new-startups.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>Flickr/Old Shoe Woman (Creative Commons)</p>
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<p>The Atlantic has <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001/good-teaching" type="external">a story in its January/February issue</a> promisingly titled “What Makes a Great Teacher?” What indeed? As someone who follows education reform closely and occasionally writes about it, I clicked through to the article, eager to see what the writer, Amanda Ripley, had to say on one of the most puzzling, beguiling, confounding questions in all of education. What I found was far from inspiring or groundbreaking, and to be honest felt less like journalism and honest inquiry into teacher performance and more like, well, a Teach for America press release.</p>
<p>I guess the story’s subhead should’ve clued me in:</p>
<p>For years, the secrets to great teaching have seemed more like alchemy than science, a mix of motivational mumbo jumbo and misty-eyed tales of inspiration and dedication. But for more than a decade, one organization has been tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and looking at why some teachers can move them three grade levels ahead in a year and others can’t. Now, as the Obama administration offers states more than $4 billion to identify and cultivate effective teachers, Teach for America is ready to release its data.</p>
<p>What follows is nearly 6,000 words that mainly focus on the Teach for America’s long-term data collecting on the performances of its teachers and their students, all in hopes of answering, as the story’s title suggests, a crucial question: What distinguishes good and great teachers, the ones whose students excel in the classroom and are eager to learn everyday, from the rest of the pack? ( <a href="http://www.teachforamerica.org/" type="external">Teach for America</a>, or TFA, for the few stragglers still unfamiliar with the program, is a nonprofit organization that takes a class of smart, talented college graduates each year; puts them through TFA’s <a href="http://www.teachforamerica.org/corps/training.htm" type="external">five-week summer training program</a>; then places them in low-income schools throughout the country where they teach on a two-year contract.) The promise of The Atlantic story is it will reveal the results of TFA’s exhaustive, long-term teacher data and offer rigorously tested, refined, definitive predictors on what makes a good teacher.</p>
<p>Excitedly I read on—through the author’s formulaic framing of the good-teacher-versus-bad-teacher-and-why, the story of the man behind TFA’s data-collecting, Steven Farr, her own observations of potential TFA teachers’ test lessons—until I arrived at the part where Ripley finally answers her title question. Those answers, unfortunately, arrived with a whopping thud.</p>
<p>After all that wind-up, great teachers, Ripley wrote, have these things in common: They set big goals; try to improve; engage with their students and parents; plan well; and persevere in the face of budgetary cuts, pesky bureaucrats, or student issues outside of the classroom like poverty. Sad to say, that’s hardly a revelation. And based on all that data and analysis, she reports, TFA recruiters have identified very specific traits to look for in future TFA teachers. Those include: grit, “life satisfaction,” past success, GPA, leadership skills.</p>
<p>That’s it?! 6,000 words to tell us that great teachers are good planners with big ambitions, that perseverance and good grades and a glittering resume equate to future success in the classroom? Correct me if I’m wrong, but that describes predictors of success in just about every profession out there. As the son of two teachers with 30-plus years of experience between them, I know how complex and nuanced and at times maddeningly frustrating the teaching profession is; how difficult it is to really reach students and engage them and help them excel in their work. On reading Ripley’s conclusions, though, I felt shortchanged.</p>
<p>What’s most irksome here, however, is that the author devotes no space at all to alternative solutions to the story’s animating question, even though any discussion of what makes a great teacher cannot begin and end with TFA and its data. Far from it. And on matters of balance here, she also fails to mention any of TFA’s downsides, quote any of its detractors. About as close as she comes is mentioning while TFA’s students outperformed their peers in math in the only independent results-based study on the organization, its students scored no better on reading. But as a recent college graduate well acquainted with TFA, I can tell you that not all applicants enter with the noblest of intentions: Some enter with no interest in teaching but to pad their resumes before grad school; some do it to get a job closer to girlfriends and boyfriends; others have quit the program midway through.</p>
<p>To be sure, TFA is a promising program that’s invested a lot of time and money in the future of our students. But they’re not the only solution, their data no panacea for identifying and training successful teachers. I presume that because Ripley got unprecedented access to and the scoop on TFA’s data, a narrow focus on TFA ensued. (“I had a lot of help” and “access to a treasure trove of data from Teach for America,” <a href="http://www.amandaripley.com/blog/what_makes_a_teacher_great/" type="external">she writes</a> on her blog.) But undergraduate and especially graduate programs in education around the country are doing fantastic work on both the theoretical and classroom sides of the equation trying to answer Ripley’s question—yet they get no play at all here.</p>
<p>That The Atlantic is committing column inches and bandwidth to the subject of education reform and teaching is encouraging, especially as fewer media outlets cover education in such depth anymore. But with so much space, why take such a narrow take on such a pressing and important question?</p>
<p /> | Hail, Teach for America? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/hail-teach-america/ | 2010-01-08 | 4 |
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<p>Japan's Nikkei share average hit a 14-month peak on Thursday as the yen weakened against the dollar on heightened expectations for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this month and after Wall Street soared to record highs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Nikkei closed 0.9 percent higher at 19,564.80 after brushing 19,668.01, its highest since December 2015.</p>
<p>Of Tokyo's 33 subsectors, 28 gained, with financial stocks lifted by a rise in U.S. Treasury yields and exporters supported by the yen's depreciation.</p>
<p>The broader Topix gained 0.75 percent to 1,564.69 and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 rose 0.76 percent to 14,023.74.</p>
<p>(Reporting by the Tokyo markets team; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)</p> | Nikkei Hits 14-Month High as Wall Street Soars | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/02/nikkei-hits-14-month-high-as-wall-street-soars.html | 2017-03-02 | 0 |
<p>In this <a href="https://www.fool.com/podcasts/marketfoolery/?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=05b0a898-b439-11e7-ae15-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Market Foolery Opens a New Window.</a> podcast,&#160;Chris Hill and Seth Jayson from Motley Fool Hidden Gems discuss the earnings reports for a pair of beloved companies: Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX)&#160;and Harley-Davidson&#160;(NYSE: HOG). But while the streaming media leader's shares got a brief bounce for signing up significantly more net new subscribers than was forecast, investors eventually took those gains away. And while the motorcycle maker's shares suffered after it revealed falling sales and profits, they wound up heading higher. What's going on here? The guys try to explain. And, as a bonus for fans of Chris' sidetracks and digressions, he's about to take part in the Marine Corps Marathon, which makes it a perfect time to pick Seth's brains, since he's a longtime distance runner. (Spoiler alert: Way too many of us are over-hydrating.)</p>
<p>A full transcript follows the video.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than&#160;Wal-MartWhen investing geniuses David and Tom&#160;Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they&#160;have run for over a decade, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom&#160;just revealed what they believe are the&#160; <a href="https://www.fool.com/mms/mark/e-sa-bbn-eg?aid=8867&amp;source=isaeditxt0000476&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6627&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=05b0a898-b439-11e7-ae15-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ten best stocks Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;for investors to buy right now... and Wal-Mart wasn't one of them! That's right -- they&#160;think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/mms/mark/e-sa-bbn-eg?aid=8867&amp;source=isaeditxt0000476&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6627&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=05b0a898-b439-11e7-ae15-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of&#160;October 9, 2017The author(s) may have a position in any stocks mentioned.</p>
<p>This video was recorded on Oct. 17, 2017.</p>
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<p>Chris Hill: It's&#160;Tuesday, Oct. 17. Welcome to Market Foolery. I'm Chris Hill. Joining me in studio today, from&#160;Hidden Gems, Seth Jayson. Thanks for being here!</p>
<p>Seth Jayson: I used to live here.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;[laughs] You're welcome back any time.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Any time.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;For those unfamiliar -- longtime listeners know Seth Jayson. For those who are relatively new, Seth not only is one of the advisors of The Motley Fool's small-cap service, Hidden Gems, he's also probably&#160;the most experienced marathon runner at the company. You've done north of 80 marathons?</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;82, 83.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Somewhere like that. And this coming Sunday, Oct. 22, is the Marine Corps Marathon, and I'm running it and I need all the help I can get.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Is this your second?</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;This is my second, yes.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Second time around.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;And I need all the help I can get.</p>
<p>Jayson: I've made all the mistakes. I know stuff not to do.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;[laughs] We'll get into that, but we have to start with some earnings news. We'll start with&#160;Netflix. Third-quarter report featured 5.3 million new subscribers. That was higher than the expected 4.5 million.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;And there was much rejoicing.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Well, we'll&#160;get to the rejoicing in a second. Most of the growth was in international. In terms of the stock reaction, after hours and early today, the stock hit a new high and then it sort of fell back to Earth a little bit. It didn't come crashing down, but --</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;This is Netflix. A down day for Netflix is down 1% nowadays. It's not like the old days.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Yes, exactly. Again, this is against the backdrop of, over the past year, the stock has doubled.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Yeah. And since 2012 or something, it's a 20-bagger or a 10-bagger or something. Let's put it this way: The number is at the bottom of the graph for so small that I couldn't tell if the price was $10 or $20 at the bottom.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;So, what did you think of the quarter?</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;I thought it was interesting, and I don't follow Netflix that closely all the time, since I missed my opportunity years ago, literally just because I just&#160;forgot to buy the shares. I went, "Oh, Netflix finally looks cheap," at one of those points, and then forgot. It was a bad move.</p>
<p>But Netflix is in the state of still hypergrowth and can almost do no wrong as far as investors are concerned, so long as they keep adding&#160;subscribers. I find the conference call interesting because it's all just talking about the shows that are coming up. The question for investors is, are they going to be able to consistently produce these amazing shows that people love so much? And I thought House of Cards absolutely sucked. It drove me nuts. But&#160;Stranger Things and Narcos and some of the others, I absolutely loved. House of Cards established Netflix as a creator of content, but&#160;a lot of other shows since then have proved that they have a decent formula, or have been very lucky a bunch of times. Which it is, we'll never know, I suppose.</p>
<p>This is important, because they're spending $6 [billion]-$8 billion a year on this stuff. None of that really&#160;shows up in the profit and loss statements. This stuff is amortized. It's expensed over time. So the cash flow here is negative because they spend so much every year getting this new content.</p>
<p>And&#160;no longer are they going to be getting those big movies from outfits like Disney&#160;and&#160;others. They have said the writing is on the wall, that stuff is going to go away. All those entities are going to go have their own streaming services, or they're working with Hulu because they're more involved with Hulu, and we're going our own way. And that's a question you can't attach numbers to, so the stock is&#160;going to trade on sentiment until such time as it doesn't.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;[laughs] So you mentioned that the amount of money they're spending on content, and that's certainly one of the big headlines from Netflix when you look at the coverage from this quarter, the possibility that, in 2018, they could spend $8 billion on content. I look at that, and one of my thoughts is, yeah, but they also just announced they're raising prices.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;A buck or so, yeah. And you're growing your revenue at 30% or something. That doesn't seem to matter. But you're kind of on a treadmill. Can you ever get off that treadmill is the question. Do you ever reach the scale where it doesn't matter? And obviously, the folks inside Netflix must believe that&#160;they do reach that point. But I can't get the lines on the graph to cross myself, but maybe I'm just too stupid.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;I look at it, and I look at the way that Reed Hastings, particularly on this call, one of the things from this conference call was, he and others were&#160;wearing branded Netflix gear, which, I've been saying for years --</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;That ugly Stranger Things sweater?</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Yeah. But I've been saying for years, why doesn't Netflix have a store? Why aren't they making a couple of extra bucks off merchandise related to these shows that they own?</p>
<p>Jayson: Pablo Escobar anchor nautical themes sweatshirts from Narcos?</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Sure,&#160;why not? You'd buy one of those. You're a fan.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Oh, yeah.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;But I don't know. I look at this and think, I don't really see any speed bumps for the next couple of years, anyway. But to your point about the treadmill, that's where I think it gets sort of murky. And&#160;maybe if you're trying to see more than a year or two into the future of any particular company, you're making a mistake. But over the next couple of years, I don't know.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;We're in the kind of market right now where nobody is looking at the bad potential problems. No one is looking at this and saying, what happens if they pay a bunch of money to create this content and they have a string of flops? Right now it's only, well, everything can only be good. And the market in general is trading that way,&#160;but Netflix in particular. What are they, a couple of hundred times earnings?</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Something like that, yeah. And also, you see people throwing out scenarios like, what if&#160;Amazon&#160;(NASDAQ: AMZN) decides they're going to offer up their own standalone streaming service? What if they take Amazon Prime streaming, they're going to spin it off, it's going to be a separate thing, and it's just $7 a month? And it's like, OK, yeah, they could do that, but until they do that, don't think that's necessarily a concern.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;And they haven't had as many hits. Maybe they do have a better content-creation engine at Netflix than anywhere else. But when I hear people talking about "We just get these folks on board and we let them be very creative," I tend to think that's probably happening at other places as well. I don't think anyone is like, you know how we're going to get great content? We're going to tell those directors exactly how to make their shows.</p>
<p>Hill: I think that's basically true at traditional broadcast television. I don't think that's necessarily true at places like --</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Amazon, Hulu.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;-- Amazon,&#160;Fox, AMC,&#160;that sort of thing.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Yeah, exactly.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Let's move on to Harley-Davidson. Their third-quarter profits and revenue came in lower than a year ago. And in terms of the stock, this is the mirror opposite of Netflix. As Netflix opened this morning at a brand-new all-time high&#160;and then dropped back down a little bit, Harley-Davidson opened this morning at a 52-week low and then has gone back up to the point where it's up about 3%-4%.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Yeah.</p>
<p>Hill: I'm not trying to hate on Harley-Davidson, but what has happened in the last two hours to make people think, oh, no, it's actually much better than we thought?</p>
<p>Jayson: I don't know. Harley has a problem, which is,&#160;the folks who want to get on a big, huge motorcycle, that's a dwindling supply. And they acknowledge this in their call, talking about how they need to get new riders, and they have a lot of plans and programs to&#160;painstakingly create new riders. They've&#160;tried to reach out to younger generations with motorcycles that are less expensive, and the margins aren't as great.&#160;I think motorcycle sales were down 14%.</p>
<p>When a company like Harley is talking about inventory management, and they're talking about social-media hits and signups in Europe, you know&#160;things aren't going so well. They're trying to find new ways to market, and they're having trouble with their core consumer. And I'm one of those people. I always wondered why everybody was excited about Harleys for 10 or 15 years, because before that, it was kind of a niche thing. My uncle Charlie was always a Harley-type dude -- a big, hairy dude who rode Harleys. And then, all of a sudden, every middle-aged yuppie dude was growing a beard and buying one of those helmets and riding a Harley. And now that's fading. Some of them are just getting too old to hold those giant motorcycles up anymore.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;A year or two ago on this podcast, I think it was because we were talking about Harley, I think it was Bill Barker who made the point in, talking about the brand appeal, he made the point, what other brand out there is so beloved that people are literally tattooing the brand on their bodies?</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Bieber.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;[laughs] Well,&#160;we were trying to stick to publicly traded companies, but yeah, if you want to go Justin Bieber, you can do that. I think one of the things with Harley Davidson, and this is the opposite of something we've talked about most recently with airlines, if part of the bull case right now for airline stocks is the price of fuel is not as expensive as it used to be, for a pretty decent amount of time, part of, not the main, but part of the bull case for motorcycles in general and Harley-Davidson in particular, was the price of gas going up. And it's one less compelling argument to buy a motorcycle, if&#160;all of a sudden gas is under $3 a gallon in perpetuity.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Yeah. I'm not sure. Maybe there are coincidences that prove otherwise, or people might say they do. I'm not sure the price of gas matters all that much for some of these leisure vehicles. I have watched the RV industry pretty closely, expect high gas prices to put a major crimp on RV sales. And they don't generally do that, and even the folks&#160;inside the RV industry said it's not so much high prices; it's volatility that spooks people. But right now, RV shipments are near all-time highs, and motorcycles aren't. So that tells you people are spending their leisure-vehicle money in a different place right now.</p>
<p>Hill: I would be far more interested in a motorcycle if I lived somewhere outside the city. I think if I lived somewhere in the country, I would be more likely to.</p>
<p>Jayson: I got over them a long time ago. I used to ride every day. It was my commuting vehicle.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Really?</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;After&#160;nearly being killed enough times I said no more of this.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Wait a minute. Was this when you were in Minnesota?</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Yeah, between college and grad school.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Even in the winter?</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;No. In&#160;the winter I did not commute on the motorcycle. Little bit tough.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;[laughs] OK, probably just as well. As I mentioned at the top, this Sunday is the 42nd Marine Corps Marathon. It will be my second time running.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;It's making my stomach hurt that I'm not going.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;But you're&#160;being smart. We talked about this before. You have a little bit of a knee injury, and you're not going to push it.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Yeah. I've been injured for, like, two years, and I'm finally getting over the last one. Rolling injuries. I deferred -- a few weeks ago, I told you I deferred because my knee was feeling pretty good, but I decided I didn't want to be working up to a marathon on a knee that felt 80%.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;That's&#160;a good move. Last year, it was pretty darn hot today at the marathon.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;When you finished, what was it, about 70?</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Oh, no. When I finished it was about 80.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;That's actually pretty warm.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Yeah,&#160;it is actually pretty warm. [laughs]</p>
<p>Jayson: I've run many marathons in that kind of temperature, but I'm fairly advanced.</p>
<p>Hill: I was going to say, this was my first time ever running a marathon, and I crossed the finish line, and 10 minutes later I was on a stretcher on my way to a medical tent. So I looked at the forecast. At the moment it's not forecast to be quite that warm.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;No. Four-hour finish. It would be somewhere around 70 degrees, it's said.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Yeah,&#160;let's assume, for the sake of this conversation, that I'm going to be over four hours.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;The average time at Marine Corps is usually about 4:20. I'm going to go out on a limb and say -- I actually wrote an app that can predict this pretty well&#160;for most people. If you throw in the temperature and a recent race performance, it can predict your marathon time according to the temperature. I'm going to guess that most people are, in the four-hour range, they're going to have to add about 10 minutes. In my experience, as a three-hour-type marathoner, if it was going to be 80 degrees, I was probably going to run more like a 3:08 or something.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;So I was curious about hydration, because that's obviously&#160;the big tip that you hear.</p>
<p>Jayson: I wish weathermen would quit telling people to hydrate.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;[laughs] In investing, we talk about conventional wisdom all the time. It seems like, when it comes to running, conventional wisdom is, if it's hot,&#160;make sure that you hydrate out there.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Well, when it gets warm here in the summer, people say that, and it's actually a really dangerous piece of advice. Tim Noakes sort of wrote the book on running, the book The Lore of Running, which is this giant, thick book that I have, referenced really exquisitely on all these kinds of issues. And he was one of the first guys to raise the alarm on overhydration or hyponatremia, which results from&#160;people drinking too much, and a lot of it is because they're being told "Just keep drinking, keep drinking, keep drinking." And you can only sweat so much.</p>
<p>What happened, years ago, Noakes found that a huge percentage of Ironman finishers were overhydrated at the end. And hyponatremia is actually a very serious condition that kills people every year, whereas so-called "dehydration" -- I'll make the scare quotes for all of you out there -- the Army did tests on soldiers years ago and found that you couldn't actually dehydrate people and then march them in the desert. You couldn't even kill them, really. They generally would collapse and quit doing the work and become irritable, but it never turned into this life-threatening situation.</p>
<p>So the simple thing to remember is, when you're in a race like this and it's warm, drink when you're thirsty and that's it. Don't try to drink&#160;ahead of your thirst. Don't drink because your legs are cramping, because there's no connection between leg cramps and any sort of state of hydration, and it has nothing to do with loss of salt or anything like that. It's because you ran too fast. You drink when you're thirsty. And if you feel really lousy on a warm day, you need to take walk breaks. And if you feel really lousy, you need to sit in the shade for a while.</p>
<p>Now we were talking about your experience last year. I thought you just had -- Chris had explained what happened -- I thought he just had postural hypotension, which is, right when you stop running, your blood vessels are all dilated on a hot day, and all of a sudden you don't have the pumping action of your leg muscles helping constrict your vessels and move your blood around, and you feel faint. And if this happens, get your head down, get your feet elevated, and usually it fixes the problem pretty quickly. But then, you told me they actually tested&#160;your blood last year.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Yeah. And, actually, the last episode of Market&#160;Foolery last year, I talked about this in an episode that I think is titled "Scenes From a Medical Tent." It was&#160;basically, they put me on a stretcher, they get me over to a heat tent where they start packing my body in ice, and then they took some blood just to test it, and they found my sodium levels were quite low. And they said, "Oh, we have to get an IV in this guy."</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;And to be clear, that's not because you lost too much sodium. It's because you put in too much liquid. Your body is actually really good at regulating your sodium loss through sweat, and if it senses that you're getting down on sodium, your sodium level in your sweat will vary. All of this is in Noakes' book, and his book Waterlogged is on this very issue.</p>
<p>Then,&#160;we talked -- I didn't realize this had happened --&#160;they did all the right things by testing you. What often happens in the end of these races is, they just assume that if you feel crummy, you're dehydrated. This is why people say, "Hydrate, hydrate!" Well, if they started sticking more water in you at this point, they can actually kill you, so&#160;it's really good that they're on the ball at the end of Marine Corps.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Marines know what they're doing, generally.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Yeah. We talked, and you said&#160;you were drinking too much, because you felt crummy, your legs were hurting, and you kept drinking.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;And I kept sweating and I thought, God, I'm losing so much fluid. So at water stops, and there are water stops at the marathon every two miles or so, they hand out water and they&#160;hand of Gatorade. And for the second half of the race, I was double-fisting. I was taking one of each, and I just thought, I have to get more fluids in me.</p>
<p>Jayson: Gatorade itself won't stave this off. Even the sports drinks with salt in them, that won't help. You can make yourself sick with&#160;too much water even by drinking those.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Pepsi&#160;shareholders don't want to hear you say that.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;Yeah, well, that's actually part of the issue. The sport-drink companies had the research that showed this years ago, and they chose to ignore it&#160;because it wasn't convenient to selling their product to races. But the short of it is, drink when you're thirsty. You'll know if you're dehydrated because you'll be really, really thirsty. Now, last year, you finished, was it five hours-ish?</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Just under five hours.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;What are you shooting for this year?</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;If I can come in under 4:30, that'd be great.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;I would pad that out a little, and do not be afraid to take some walk breaks if you feel lousy. That's the most important thing. I've been there. I've drunk too much water and liquids when I felt lousy. Luckily for me, and&#160;I'll say lucky -- I start to feel uncomfortable. My stomach starts to slosh and I feel bloated, and I have to pee. So I get a very early signal from my own body as to when I need to quit. But some people don't get that.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Last thing when it comes to liquids. Last year during the race, there's a part in Washington, D.C., of this course that goes over Hains Point. And&#160;is the Blue Mile, which we've talked before about -- one of the truly great things about the Marine Corps marathon is how inspiring it is. Not just the crowds that are there cheering you on, but the other people who are running. There are always people who are running with a sign on their back in honor of someone, and there are often runners who are in the military, and they've got prosthetic legs or limbs or that sort of thing. So it was this odd occurrence where the first part of Hains Point is the Blue Mile, in honor of fallen soldiers.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;And it's just sign after sign after sign of people we've lost in wars.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Yes. And last year, I couldn't help but notice that every single one of them was younger than me, which is incredibly sobering. That's&#160;the first half of Hains Point. On the way back, the&#160;opposite experience, in that somehow, out on Hains Point, which is somewhat remote, there were these two women who had set up a card table and taken it upon themselves to hand out Dunkin'&#160;Munchkins and mimosas.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;I never pass those up.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;Really? Because these two women looked like they had imbibed a few on their own. They were having a great time at 10 in the morning when I was going by them. So don't overhydrate, but maybe, if I have the chance at a mimosa again?</p>
<p>Jayson: I think you can't skip the stuff that makes the race fun, even if you're shooting for a [personal record]. My first Boston, I was unfamiliar with the "kiss a Wellesley woman" situation in the Wellesley Scream Tunnel, which is that there's all these college women out, and they're screaming like crazy. It's so loud that your hair stands on end. That's amazing. And lots and lots of them have these signs that say, kiss me, I'm from wherever, kiss a college woman. And I was running by and I thought, oh, that's kind of demeaning. And then I thought, well, these are women at Wellesley College. If they're holding the sign, this is a thing they want to do because it's funny or tradition or whatever. And I decided I was going too fast, and I decided, you have to do this, or your race isn't going to count.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;It's part of the experience? Really? Is that how it works? [laughs]</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;In my mind, I think you shouldn't be allowed to win the Boston Marathon unless you've gone ahead and&#160;kissed a Wellesley woman on the way through. Men and women, either side, I think you should have to do that, like you should have to stop for your mimosas, or whatever.</p>
<p>Hill: I was going to say, because the Boston Marathon course also goes by my alma mater, Boston College, and there are frequently students handing out beers.</p>
<p>Jayson:&#160;And I take every one of those. [laughs] You have to have fun. To me, the race doesn't count unless you also had fun.</p>
<p>Hill:&#160;All right. Seth Jayson,&#160;thanks for being here. As always, people on the program may have interests in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. That's&#160;going to do it for this edition of Market Foolery. The show is mixed by Dan Boyd. I'm Chris Hill. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFWizard/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=05b0a898-b439-11e7-ae15-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Chris Hill Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Amazon and Walt Disney. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBent/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=05b0a898-b439-11e7-ae15-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Seth Jayson Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon, AMC Networks, Netflix, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Dunkin' Brands Group and PepsiCo. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=05b0a898-b439-11e7-ae15-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Netflix Rises, Then Falls; Harley-Davidson Falls, Then Rises | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/22/netflix-rises-then-falls-harley-davidson-falls-then-rises.html | 2017-10-22 | 0 |
<p>I have to confess, I absolutely loathe talking about racism. Not because it’s not a topic that needs to be discussed, but because most people really don’t want to have an honest conversation about it. What most people want to do nowadays is simply prove that the other side is wrong. It’s not really about reaching an amicable solution to a problem, it’s about “winning the argument.”</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is, neither liberals or conservatives get it right. The real root of why we don’t get over these racial hurdles lies, at least in my opinion, in how we approach these discussions. A&#160;lot of the racism I see isn’t based off skin color, but cultural differences. And&#160;we&#160;create these cultural differences between ourselves.</p>
<p>Though I’ve never really understood people who talk about their “race’s culture.” When you define yourself specifically by your race, you’re instantly making race the primary factor leading all discussions. When someone says to me, “You’re white, you don’t get black culture” I really have no idea what that means. Aren’t we all humans? Am I not supposed “to get” another human being because they have a different skin color than I do? Isn’t the moment we began to separate ourselves “by our culture” the very moment we begin to separate ourselves into different groups? And the truth is, once we begin to separate ourselves, then there’s no hope for true unity.</p>
<p>I have African-American family members. We all share common interests in music, movies, sports, jokes and television shows. We agree on some issues and disagree on others. Am I not supposed to “get them” just because they’re a different skin color than me? Or what about the African-Americans I know who don’t get the so-called “black culture” either? Some of the African-Americans I know have indeed faced racism – from other African-Americans who have bashed them for “acting too white” or for being “sellouts.” What the hell does that even mean?</p>
<p>I define my culture as an American human – that’s it. I judge people by their actions, not the color of their skin. Good people and bad people alike come in all colors. No behavior, either good or bad, is mutually exclusive to just one race.</p>
<p>Besides, who defines this “culture”? Aren’t black people from Nigeria and Liberia coming from a different culture than a black person born in Mississippi or New York? Isn’t a white person born in Ireland going to have a different culture than one born in Texas? So how is “culture” based on race?</p>
<p>How can we ever even begin to think about coming together as human beings if we’re starting the conversation off by saying “you don’t get&#160;my&#160;culture” or “your culture is the problem”? Those kinds of statements establish an instant foundation of “we are not all the same.” But isn’t treating each other equally about feeling as if we’re all a part of the same culture? And if so, how can we ever get to that point if we continue dividing ourselves by this supposed “culture”?</p>
<p>Oh, I know, I’m saying this because I suffer from “white privilege.” Yes, liberals, I just love that new catchy phrase you folks are using. I’m white so that instantly dismisses anything I have to say about racism. Because nothing says “let’s have an honest discussion about race so that we can try to bring people together” quite like telling an entire race to sit down and shut up.</p>
<p>But when it comes right down to it, we need to be talking about how to come together as human beings. Not black human beings or white human beings, but just human beings. Though we’ll never do that as long as we continue to segregate ourselves by our own race. The&#160;reality is, race is a human-made concoction. If you took a blind person who had never seen colors and asked them to define race, they couldn’t do it. Race is completely based on our own labels we’ve placed upon ourselves and other people.</p>
<p>And as long as we continue to define ourselves by our skin color, we’ll never be able to come together as what we really are – just human beings.</p>
<p>Am I right? Wrong? <a href="https://www.twitter.com/allen_clifton" type="external">Hit me up on Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/allencliftonROC" type="external">Facebook</a> and let me know, because&#160;this&#160;is the conversation I think we need to be having as opposed to the petty bickering I usually see play out in these debates.</p>
<p />
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<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | When It Comes to the Debate on Racism, Both Liberals and Conservatives Get it Wrong | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/comes-debate-racism-liberals-conservatives-get-wrong/ | 2014-12-11 | 4 |
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<p>FILE - This April 7, 2014 file photo shows the Alcoa logo in the lobby of Alcoa\?s headquarters in Pittsburgh. Alcoa Inc.s second-quarter 2015 profit was smaller than analysts expected, although its revenue topped estimates. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar, File)</p>
<p>NEW YORK - For U.S. investors, low expectations are paying off.</p>
<p>Over the last week, 38 companies in the Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index have reported quarterly results, and financial information company S&amp;P Capital IQ says most have posted bigger-than-expected profits. Companies, however, tend to talk down expectations so they can surprise markets with higher results, and that appears to be happening again.</p>
<p>The market has responded, with the S&amp;P 500 up 3.8 percent since last Wednesday's close, when Alcoa's results kicked off earnings season. It rose another 16.89 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,124.29 Thursday after strong earnings from an array of companies.</p>
<p>The index closed at an all-time high on May 21 but slumped recently, weighed down by concerns about a potential default by Greece and plunging Chinese stocks. Chinese markets have now steadied and Greece and its creditors have agreed to start talking about a new bailout package that would help the country avoid default and departure from the euro.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>This week, investors have turned their attention back to earnings, which are supposed to decline overall. But big banks like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup all reported gains, and distanced themselves from onerous legal costs tied to the financial crisis. Intel surpassed estimates and Netflix posted strong growth in streaming video subscribers.</p>
<p>S&amp;P Capital IQ analyst Lindsay Bell thinks second-quarter profits might grow slightly compared to last year, but she says investors and analysts may ultimately look at other figures, like revenue growth, because companies have taken so many steps to boost their profits.</p>
<p>"A lot of the earnings growth that we are getting, as modest as it is, is coming from financial engineering" like stock repurchases, she said.</p>
<p>Overall, S&amp;P Capital IQ expects revenue for companies in the S&amp;P 500 to decline 3.6 percent for the second quarter.</p> | Earnings beat low expectations so far, helping lift stocks | false | https://abqjournal.com/613526/earnings-overdrive-us-companies-putting-up-strong-quarter.html | 2015-07-16 | 2 |
<p>The California drought just keeps getting worse — and that may not change anytime soon because of climate change.</p>
<p>A new study that was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is the first to quantify just how much of the drought that is currently ravaging the Sunshine State is being caused by Global Warming, and it’s come to a rather alarming conclusion: between 8 and 27 percent of the severity can be blamed on climate change, with the most likely figure in the 15 to 20 percent range,&#160;according to a <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0820/How-climate-change-robs-California-of-scant-water-supplies" type="external">Christian Science Monitor report</a>.</p>
<p>The scientific community has long linked climate change to a growing incidence of droughts, but no one had actually quantified the effects of increasing greenhouse gas emissions on the overall moisture level. This study is the first to put real numbers on the phenomenon, as researchers at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory combed through data over the past 100-plus years to spot trends.</p>
<p>The reality is that it’s not just the lack of rainfall that’s causing the drought, it’s also the higher temperatures, which cause the water to evaporate and reduce the baseline amount of available water, a double whammy that is packing quite a punch in California, said Park Williams, the bioclimatologist who led the study, according to the report.</p>
<p>But what does that mean for the future of California? Not good things, Williams said. The study examined the consequences of climate change over the next few decades as temperatures continue to rise, drawing moisture out of the Earth and leaving dry ground behind. If anything, Californians may see more of this in the future: more wildfires, more dry riverbeds, and less groundwater. The East Coast has been spared from the worst of Global Warming, but California has been hit hard and will continue to be hit hard by these problems, the study found.</p>
<p>The research team examined data between 1901 and 2014 to track precipitation and temperature levels month to month. They found an average temperature rise of 2.5 degrees in the past 114 years, about on par with fossil fuel emissions over that period. Last year was the worst drought season on record, a consequence of dropping rainfall levels in 2012 and moisture evaporation.</p>
<p /> | The worst is ahead for California’s drought thanks to Global Warming: study | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/08/22/the-worst-is-ahead-for-californias-drought-thanks-to-global-warming-study/ | 2015-08-22 | 3 |
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<p>The devices won’t be allowed aboard passenger or cargo aircraft even if they’ve been shut off, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday. Flight restrictions will be extended to each of the 1.9 million Note 7s sold in the U.S. starting at noon New York time on Saturday.</p>
<p>“We recognize that banning these phones from airlines will inconvenience some passengers, but the safety of all those aboard an aircraft must take priority,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “We are taking this additional step because even one fire incident in flight poses a high risk of severe personal injury and puts many lives at risk.”</p>
<p>Samsung on Tuesday said it was halting production and sales of the device following the latest spate of smoke, overheating and fire incidents in what was supposed to be a version that replaced a faulty lithium-ion battery with a safe one. The company estimates the crisis will cost it $5.3 billion in profits.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The government urged passengers not to side-step the order. “Passengers who attempt to evade the ban by packing their phone in checked luggage are increasing the risk of a catastrophic incident,” the DOT said in a release. “Anyone violating the ban may be subject to criminal prosecution in addition to fines.”</p>
<p>People in the midst of travel who have the phones were urged by the government to contact Samsung or their wireless carrier “immediately” to arrange for a replacement phone.</p>
<p>The government now considers the Note 7s “forbidden hazardous material” under U.S. law. Anyone observed with one of the phones will be prohibited from boarding an aircraft, the release said.</p>
<p>Airlines and an industry trade group were notified of the impending ban by the FAA on Friday.</p>
<p>Samsung is working with U.S. officials and airlines to notify owners of the phone about the emergency order, SungIn Cho, a spokeswoman for Samsung Electronics America, said in an e-mail.</p>
<p>“We have encouraged airlines to issue similar communications directly to their passengers,” Cho said. “We realize this is an inconvenience but your safety has to remain our top priority.”</p>
<p>The action by aviation regulators follows the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s announcement on Thursday it was almost doubling the number of Note 7 phones covered under a U.S. government-sanctioned recall. The consumer agency has received 96 reports of overheating batteries in the U.S., including 23 since the first recall was announced on Sept. 15.</p>
<p>At least 13 people reported being burned by the devices and in 47 cases there was damage to property, according to the consumer agency.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Consumer agency Chairman Elliot Kaye on Friday also renewed calls to consumers to take advantage of the recall.</p>
<p>“The fire hazard with the original Note 7 and with the replacement Note 7 is simply too great for anyone to risk it and not respond to this official recall,” Kaye said in the Transportation Department statement. “I would like to remind consumers once again to take advantage of the remedies offered, including a full refund. It’s the right thing to do and the safest thing to do.”</p>
<p>For passengers who arrive at the airport with a Note 7, and can’t return it to their car or hand it to someone not flying, American Airlines will place the device in an area for storage of hazardous materials. The person can reclaim it after the trip, said Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the carrier.</p>
<p>The airline also is updating announcements for passengers checking baggage, before clearing security, at airport gates and on board planes about the ban, he said.</p>
<p>Aviation regulators in September ordered passengers and airline crews to power off any recalled Note 7s that were carried aboard flights and forbid the devices from being charged. The Note 7s were also prohibited from checked bags.</p>
<p>The expanded action completely bans the devices from all airline flights and applies to all smartphones covered by the latest recall.</p>
<p>FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc., two major delivery services in the U.S., had already said they wouldn’t ship the phones via planes, restricting them to ground vehicles. The devices also have to be packed in special boxes designed to safely house recalled batteries.</p>
<p>Delta Air Lines Inc. is adding special containment bags for phones or other electronic devices that overheat or catch fire to at least some of its aircraft, the carrier said on a conference call Thursday. Southwest Airlines Co. is in the process of selecting a vendor for similar bags and hopes to have them on its planes in early 2017, spokeswoman Lori Crabtree said Friday.</p>
<p>A number of foreign-based airlines adopted the U.S. ban on Saturday, including Sydney-based Qantas Airways Ltd., Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Rome-based Alitalia.</p>
<p>Lithium-based batteries power millions of devices, from smartphones and laptops to power tools. They hold enough energy to create heat and sparks if they fail, which can ignite the highly flammable chemicals inside.</p>
<p>The initial wave of Note 7 failures were linked to batteries made by one of two suppliers to Samsung. The cells had been squeezed into a container pouch so tightly that when they were installed in the phones they became pinched, damaging the interior. That led to short circuits that triggered the failures, Kaye said in September.</p>
<p>More recent incidents involving replacement phones containing batteries built by a second manufacturer appear to result from a different flaw, a person familiar with discussions between government agencies and Samsung told Bloomberg.</p>
<p>–With assistance from Ian King Janet Ong and James Thornhill</p> | Air passengers with Samsung Note 7 phones face fines in U.S. | false | https://abqjournal.com/868577/air-passengers-with-samsung-note-7-phones-face-fines-in-u-s.html | 2 |
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<p>SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Chip Kelly is the offensive-minded, experienced head coach the San Francisco 49ers have long sought, and now he needs to win — right away.</p>
<p>The 49ers hired the former Eagles coach on Thursday, finding the leader CEO Jed York is counting on to turn things around for his once-proud franchise.</p>
<p>Kelly faces the daunting challenge of transforming the Niners into an immediate contender again.</p>
<p>“We are thrilled to announce Chip Kelly as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers,” York said in a statement.</p>
<p>“Chip has a proven track record at both the college and NFL levels that speaks for itself. We believe strongly that he is the right man to get this team back to competing for championships. I look forward to watching Trent (Baalke) and Chip work closely to build a team that will make us all proud.”</p>
<p>Kelly, who had personnel control with the Eagles and frustrated some of his players, won’t be introduced in a news conference until next week at Levi’s Stadium based on scheduling conflicts and Kelly working to immediately build his staff.</p>
<p>“As one of the most historic franchises in the National Football League, I realize the high standards and expectations that this position demands and I embrace the challenges ahead,” Kelly said in a statement.</p>
<p>“My immediate focus is to build the best coaching staff possible, one that will maximize the abilities of each of our players and put us in the best position to win football games.”</p>
<p>Kelly replaces fired coach Jim Tomsula, promoted from his defensive line duties last January to succeed Jim Harbaugh before going 5-11 — a move Baalke has said earlier this month wound up to be the wrong one, in hindsight.</p>
<p>With his 26 years of coaching experience, Kelly emerged as the favorite among several candidates, including former Raiders, Broncos and Redskins coach Mike Shanahan, ex-Giants coach Tom Coughlin and former Raiders coach Hue Jackson, who was hired Wednesday to coach the Cleveland Browns.</p>
<p>The 52-year-old Kelly was fired by Philadelphia after Week 16 with one game left in his third season as coach. The former University of Oregon coach was 6-9 in 2015 following two 10-6 seasons, prompting Eagles CEO Jeffrey Lurie to make a change.</p>
<p>The 49ers jumped right into the mix last week to talk to him.</p>
<p>“Chip possesses all the qualities we were looking for in our next head coach,” Baalke said. “He has demonstrated the ability to be innovative everywhere he has coached and has had great success throughout his career.</p>
<p>“Chip’s passion for the game and vision for the future of this team clearly stood out to us during the search process. He is an extremely driven individual that I look forward to working with.”</p>
<p>Kelly becomes just the second coach the franchise has ever hired with previous regular NFL head coaching experience along with Dennis Erickson ahead of the 2003 season — excluding Tomsula’s single game as interim coach to end the 2010 season after Mike Singletary was fired.</p>
<p>Hiring the offensive-minded Kelly could give the 49ers a reason to keep quarterback Colin Kaepernick to work his way back into the dominant, dynamic quarterback he was a few years back with his legs and strong arm.</p>
<p>There has been thought that Kaepernick could be the kind of mobile quarterback Kelly likes running his fast-paced offense and a good fit.</p>
<p>“Guess I might have to start running right now to get in shape,” wide receiver Torrey Smith posted on Twitter shortly after the announcement.</p>
<p>San Francisco has missed the playoffs the past two seasons, going 8-8 in 2014 in now-Michigan coach Harbaugh’s final season before what the team called a “mutual decision” to part ways with one year remaining on his contract.</p>
<p>The 49ers reached three straight NFC championship games and a Super Bowl under Harbaugh, losing by three points to his older brother, John, and the Baltimore Ravens in the championship after the 2012 season to miss the franchise’s sixth Lombardi Trophy.</p>
<p>On Jan. 4, a day after firing Tomsula shortly after the season-finale overtime win against St. Louis, York vowed to bring the 49ers back to prominence.</p>
<p>“Even looking over the last few seasons, I think it’s important to learn and to grow from your mistakes. I think I understand what the fans want,” he said.</p>
<p>“They want a team that they can be proud of on Sundays. They want a championship team. I want that too and I’m fighting for that. You can trust me that we are going to do everything that we can to get this team back where it belongs.”</p>
<p>Deciding on the quarterback will be a major decision for Kelly in the coming months.</p>
<p>Former first-round pick Blaine Gabbert took over in November for the benched Kaepernick, who has since undergone shoulder and thumb surgeries.</p>
<p>Kaepernick’s $11.9 million salary for 2016 becomes fully guaranteed for injury come April 1, and there had been belief the team might try to trade him or release him.</p>
<p>After Kelly was fired by Philadelphia, former Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho tweeted, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”</p>
<p>Baalke interviewed Coughlin on Monday on the East Coast and Jackson on Sunday in Cincinnati. Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter also interviewed, last Thursday in Tampa, Florida.</p>
<p>The coaching staff under Tomsula hadn’t been dismissed, though York said the new coach would make those decisions upon his hiring.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online: <a href="http://pro32.ap.org/poll" type="external" /> <a href="http://pro32.ap.org/poll" type="external">http://pro32.ap.org/poll</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p>
<p>SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Chip Kelly is the offensive-minded, experienced head coach the San Francisco 49ers have long sought, and now he needs to win — right away.</p>
<p>The 49ers hired the former Eagles coach on Thursday, finding the leader CEO Jed York is counting on to turn things around for his once-proud franchise.</p>
<p>Kelly faces the daunting challenge of transforming the Niners into an immediate contender again.</p>
<p>“We are thrilled to announce Chip Kelly as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers,” York said in a statement.</p>
<p>“Chip has a proven track record at both the college and NFL levels that speaks for itself. We believe strongly that he is the right man to get this team back to competing for championships. I look forward to watching Trent (Baalke) and Chip work closely to build a team that will make us all proud.”</p>
<p>Kelly, who had personnel control with the Eagles and frustrated some of his players, won’t be introduced in a news conference until next week at Levi’s Stadium based on scheduling conflicts and Kelly working to immediately build his staff.</p>
<p>“As one of the most historic franchises in the National Football League, I realize the high standards and expectations that this position demands and I embrace the challenges ahead,” Kelly said in a statement.</p>
<p>“My immediate focus is to build the best coaching staff possible, one that will maximize the abilities of each of our players and put us in the best position to win football games.”</p>
<p>Kelly replaces fired coach Jim Tomsula, promoted from his defensive line duties last January to succeed Jim Harbaugh before going 5-11 — a move Baalke has said earlier this month wound up to be the wrong one, in hindsight.</p>
<p>With his 26 years of coaching experience, Kelly emerged as the favorite among several candidates, including former Raiders, Broncos and Redskins coach Mike Shanahan, ex-Giants coach Tom Coughlin and former Raiders coach Hue Jackson, who was hired Wednesday to coach the Cleveland Browns.</p>
<p>The 52-year-old Kelly was fired by Philadelphia after Week 16 with one game left in his third season as coach. The former University of Oregon coach was 6-9 in 2015 following two 10-6 seasons, prompting Eagles CEO Jeffrey Lurie to make a change.</p>
<p>The 49ers jumped right into the mix last week to talk to him.</p>
<p>“Chip possesses all the qualities we were looking for in our next head coach,” Baalke said. “He has demonstrated the ability to be innovative everywhere he has coached and has had great success throughout his career.</p>
<p>“Chip’s passion for the game and vision for the future of this team clearly stood out to us during the search process. He is an extremely driven individual that I look forward to working with.”</p>
<p>Kelly becomes just the second coach the franchise has ever hired with previous regular NFL head coaching experience along with Dennis Erickson ahead of the 2003 season — excluding Tomsula’s single game as interim coach to end the 2010 season after Mike Singletary was fired.</p>
<p>Hiring the offensive-minded Kelly could give the 49ers a reason to keep quarterback Colin Kaepernick to work his way back into the dominant, dynamic quarterback he was a few years back with his legs and strong arm.</p>
<p>There has been thought that Kaepernick could be the kind of mobile quarterback Kelly likes running his fast-paced offense and a good fit.</p>
<p>“Guess I might have to start running right now to get in shape,” wide receiver Torrey Smith posted on Twitter shortly after the announcement.</p>
<p>San Francisco has missed the playoffs the past two seasons, going 8-8 in 2014 in now-Michigan coach Harbaugh’s final season before what the team called a “mutual decision” to part ways with one year remaining on his contract.</p>
<p>The 49ers reached three straight NFC championship games and a Super Bowl under Harbaugh, losing by three points to his older brother, John, and the Baltimore Ravens in the championship after the 2012 season to miss the franchise’s sixth Lombardi Trophy.</p>
<p>On Jan. 4, a day after firing Tomsula shortly after the season-finale overtime win against St. Louis, York vowed to bring the 49ers back to prominence.</p>
<p>“Even looking over the last few seasons, I think it’s important to learn and to grow from your mistakes. I think I understand what the fans want,” he said.</p>
<p>“They want a team that they can be proud of on Sundays. They want a championship team. I want that too and I’m fighting for that. You can trust me that we are going to do everything that we can to get this team back where it belongs.”</p>
<p>Deciding on the quarterback will be a major decision for Kelly in the coming months.</p>
<p>Former first-round pick Blaine Gabbert took over in November for the benched Kaepernick, who has since undergone shoulder and thumb surgeries.</p>
<p>Kaepernick’s $11.9 million salary for 2016 becomes fully guaranteed for injury come April 1, and there had been belief the team might try to trade him or release him.</p>
<p>After Kelly was fired by Philadelphia, former Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho tweeted, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”</p>
<p>Baalke interviewed Coughlin on Monday on the East Coast and Jackson on Sunday in Cincinnati. Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter also interviewed, last Thursday in Tampa, Florida.</p>
<p>The coaching staff under Tomsula hadn’t been dismissed, though York said the new coach would make those decisions upon his hiring.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online: <a href="http://pro32.ap.org/poll" type="external" /> <a href="http://pro32.ap.org/poll" type="external">http://pro32.ap.org/poll</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p> | 49ers hire Chip Kelly as new coach | false | https://apnews.com/94a2564316714e45a14956560dd68b21 | 2016-01-14 | 2 |
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<p>U.S. Magistrate Judge A. David Copperthite agreed with prosecutors that Harold T. Martin III of Glen Burnie, Maryland, represented a flight risk if released and said there was no doubt that the top secret information he was accused of stealing over two decades is something “this country’s enemies would love to explore.”</p>
<p>Martin’s lawyers foreshadowed their upcoming defense, describing him as a “compulsive hoarder” and saying there was no evidence he ever shared the information with a foreign country or even intended to do so.</p>
<p>“He’s not Edward Snowden,” said James Wyda, the federal defender representing Martin, referring to the former NSA contractor who three years ago disclosed to journalists secret information about government surveillance programs.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Wyda said Martin, a former U.S. Navy lieutenant, never intended to harm his country and was instead a “voracious” learner who got carried away over the years as he took home documents in a perhaps misguided effort to be as skilled at his job as he could be. He suggested Martin grappled with mental health issues.</p>
<p>“This was not spycraft behavior,” Wyda said. “This is not how a Russian spy or something like that would ever conduct himself.”</p>
<p>“This,” he added, “was the behavior of a compulsive hoarder.”</p>
<p>The Justice Department presented a vastly different portrait.</p>
<p>Prosecutors have said FBI agents who searched Martin’s home and car in August found evidence of a “breathtaking” theft of top secret government information. Investigators found records dated from 1996 to 2016, seized dozens of computers and digital storage devices and, all told, recovered some 50 terabytes of information — or enough to fill roughly 200 laptops. A substantial amount of that information, prosecutors said, was highly classified.</p>
<p>“There is no reason to believe that the defendant would have ever stopped but for the intervention of law enforcement,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Myers said.</p>
<p>Myers said Martin’s knowledge of secret government programs could make him a “high-value recruitment target from foreign intelligence services.” Prosecutors have said he has been communicating online in foreign languages, including Russian.</p>
<p>A complaint unsealed earlier this month charged Martin with theft of government property and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials, which together carry a combined maximum of 11 years in prison. But Myers said in court Friday that the Justice Department has evidence to bring additional charges under the Espionage Act, which would expose Martin to far more severe penalties if convicted.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Though authorities are still reviewing the records to determine the appropriate classification level, they say they already have found many that are clearly marked as classified — including one top secret email chain that appeared to have been printed off Martin’s government account.</p>
<p>The document contained handwritten notes on the back regarding the NSA’s classified computer infrastructure and descriptions of classified technical operations. The notes include basic concepts of classified operations, as if written for an “audience outside of the Intelligence Community unfamiliar with the details of its operations,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.</p>
<p>Another classified document marked as “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information” concerned “specific operational plans against a known enemy of the United States and its allies,” the Justice Department alleged.</p>
<p>Martin was arrested around the same time federal officials acknowledged an investigation into a cyberleak of purported hacking tools used by the NSA. Those documents were leaked by a group calling itself the “Shadow Brokers,” but there is nothing in court filings — and nothing said in court Friday — that connects Martin to that group.</p>
<p>Wyda, his lawyer, said the government had presented no evidence that ties Martin to any foreign power. And he said it was unfair to keep Martin in custody on a speculative concern that he might somehow come in contact with another nation.</p>
<p>“This sounds like something I would have heard in a presidential debate,” he said. “This is beneath us.”</p>
<p>He said after court that he and Martin’s family were disappointed in the judge’s ruling and would appeal.</p>
<p>Martin, like Snowden, worked as a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton. The company has said he’s since been fired.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP</a></p> | Ex-NSA worker accused of stealing secrets to stay in custody | false | https://abqjournal.com/872687/ex-nsa-worker-accused-of-stealing-secrets-to-stay-in-custody.html | 2016-10-21 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />JUNE 1, 2011</p>
<p>By JOSEPH PERKINS</p>
<p>It’s been 22 years since Rancho Seco nuclear power plant generated its last megawatt. The facility, 25 miles southeast of downtown Sacramento, was the casualty of a public referendum in which a majority of voters in the state’s capital city decided the plant should be shut down.</p>
<p>Ben Davis Jr., an anti-nuke activist, is credited with first suggesting the idea of idling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Seco_Nuclear_Generating_Station" type="external">Rancho Seco’s two reactors</a>. Now, two decades later, the Santa Cruz resident has come out of retirement to gather signatures for a state ballot measure that would shutter California’s two remaining nuclear power plants — San Onofre in San Diego County and Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo County.</p>
<p>Rancho Seco’s closure cost its owner, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, some $660 million, a portion of which almost certainly was passed along to its ratepayers. It also permanently removed the nuclear plant’s 913 megawatts from the grid — capacity that, if fully utilized, was enough to serve most of SMUD’s business and residential customers.</p>
<p>The fallout from decommissioning both San Onofre and Diablo Canyon would be exponentially greater than Rancho Seco’s shut down. The two nuclear power plants generate 15 percent of California’s electricity. Removing that output from the state grid would have an impact on the state comparable to the electricity crisis of the early 2000s.</p>
<p>Most California residents remember those bad old days.</p>
<p>Because state utilities could not generate enough electricity to meet growing customer demand, the utilities had to purchase megawatts from out-of-state providers at markups of us much as 2,000 percent.</p>
<p>Yes, there was evidence of market manipulation by out-of-state electricity providers. But those providers would not have been able to get away with their alleged price gouging if California was not so reliant on imported electricity; if the state’s utilities had been generating enough megawatts to meet homegrown demand.</p>
<p>Davis, described as “eccentric, stubborn” by one of his friends in California’s anti-nuke community, has obviously ignored the lesson of the early 2000s. His ballot measure is predicated on the dubious notion that California can readily replace the electricity generated by San Onofre and Diablo Canyon by erecting more solar arrays and building more wind farms.</p>
<p>California’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office disagrees. In <a href="http://www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/2011/110306.aspx" type="external">a recent report</a>, it notes that nuclear power supplies “base load” energy to the state’s electricity grid. What that means is that, unlike solar and wind, which are intermittent sources of megawatts, nuclear provides a reliable, uninterrupted power source.</p>
<p>If Davis somehow succeeds in removing San Onofre’s 2,350 megawatts and Diablo Canyon’s 2,240 megawatts from the grid, residents throughout the state can look forward to regular rolling blackouts, the LAO warns.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, decommissioning California’s two remaining nuclear power plants will drive up electricity rates from Sacramento to San Diego.</p>
<p>Part of that is simply a matter of supply and demand. If the state eliminates 15 percent of its electricity output, prices are certain to climb. The other part is that the anti-nuke community will insist that the lost 15 percent be replaced by solar and wind. Those renewable energy sources cost more than twice as much per kilowatt hour as nuclear.</p>
<p>Then there’s the very real possibility that Southern California Edison and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Gas_%26_Electric" type="external">San Diego Gas &amp; Electric</a>, owners of San Onofre, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Gas_%26_Electric" type="external">Pacific Gas &amp; Electric</a>, owner of Diablo Canyon, could seek compensation from the state of California for the losses incurred by the involuntary shut down of their plants. The LAO’s Office estimates that the losses could total more than $4 billion.</p>
<p>None of the costly scenarios laid out by the LAO, or by pointy headed opinion writers like yours truly, matters to Davis and California’s anti-nuke zealots. If they can shut down the state’s last two nuclear power plants, they are quite willing to subject California residents to the nation’s highest electricity rates.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Banning Nukes: $4 Billion CA Budget Hit | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2011/06/01/banning-nukes-4-billion-ca-budget-hit/ | 2018-06-20 | 3 |
<p>Despite evidence to the contrary, CNN anchors and reporters repeatedly <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200611030004" type="external">insisted</a> the controversy surrounding John Kerry's "botched joke" will play a major role in the upcoming election.</p>
<p>Media Matters:</p>
<p>In the wake of Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) October 30 remarks, which Republicans and some in the media have misrepresented in asserting that Kerry denigrated U.S. soldiers in Iraq, CNN anchors and reporters on The Situation Room, CNN Newsroom, and American Morning stated or suggested without evidence that the controversy over Kerry's remarks will have an impact on the midterm elections, despite the fact that Kerry is not up for re-election nor running for any other elected position.</p>
<p>In a November 2 analysis of a Democracy Corps poll conducted October 29 through November 1, the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner stated that the responses during the final day in which the poll was in the field, which came "after two news cycles of Kerry stories," showed that the stories produced no difference in respondent opinions from the previous two days, and that the controversy over Kerry's remarks "has not helped Republicans," and that "independents show no interest in it." The poll, conducted in the 50 most competitive congressional districts currently held by Republicans, found that respondents favored named Democratic candidates/incumbents over named Republican candidates/incumbents 51 percent to 44 percent.</p>
<p />
<p>Even before any poll was released, however, CNN was promoting the Kerry remarks as a major factor in the election?</p>
<p><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200611030004" type="external">Video &amp; Transcript</a></p> | CNN Hypes Kerry Impact | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/cnn-hypes-kerry-impact/ | 2006-11-03 | 4 |
<p>Donald Trump is now President of the United States. He vowed to repeal Obamacare. Repeal will hurt millions of people both on Obamacare directly and indirectly. But there is much that we can do.</p>
<p>While perusing the many feeds I follow, a <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/ex-christian-lambasts-evangelicals-for-cheering-repeal-of-obamacare-in-devastating-facebook-post/" type="external">RawStory piece</a> grabbed me pretty quickly. The article was about a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/brucehorst/posts/10154974575607878?__mref=message_bubble" type="external">Facebook post</a>by Bruce Horst about Christianity and Obamacare. Interestingly, Bruce is a friend that I had not spoken to in years. We were both members of <a href="http://coffeepartyusa.com" type="external">Coffee Party USA</a> and always tried to make a difference in the body politic.</p>
<p>A few years ago Bruce and I went out to lunch, some pho at V Bistro. I remember him telling me about his disillusionment with evangelical Christians. So his Facebook post was not a surprise. Bruce explains why he had to make the break.</p>
<p>In 2010 I had been a Conservative Evangelical Christian for all of my adult life. I began to realize that others around me despised the thought of allowing people like me the benefit of affordable health insurance. For some reason, all of the Christians that I knew thought that offering health insurance to people like me would put them at some kind of a disadvantage that they were not willing to accept. Frankly, they had been lied to so they believed those ‘others’ were going to get healthcare and make their own health care inadequate.</p>
<p>As a Christian, I believed that I would be judged on the Final Judgment Day on how I took care of the ‘least of these’ as described in the Bible book of Matthew, chapter 25. I came to the sober realization that Christians around me had no such convictions. If they didn’t believe Jesus’ words as recorded in the Bible, why should I? Then one day I discovered I could no longer believe any of it.</p>
<p>He then had an admonishment for Evangelical Christians.</p>
<p>That was six and a half years ago. Today I’m more comfortable in my position in life than I’ve ever been. I still have a lot of Evangelical friends, but I can say with confidence that the vast majority of them are not followers of Jesus. Not the Jesus that the Bible speaks of, anyway.</p>
<p>I have friends who are alive today because of Obamacare. Probably all of us do. To me, this proves my Christian friends are not pro-life, but instead they've been told they are as a matter of manipulation, probably to keep them putting money in the offering plate, or voting for the 'right' candidate. One thing is clear to me, they are not really pro-life.</p>
<p>If my Christian friends insist that healthcare only be given to people based on their ability to pay for such care, I would have to believe that the Jesus of the Bible would say to them, “depart from me, I never knew you.” Just like He did in Matthew 25.</p>
<p>I called up Bruce after seeing the piece to catch up. He said since leaving his church his sanity improved. Trying to conform to an ideology that does not conform to his innate beliefs affected his health, it gave his headaches.</p>
<p>"I can now live a congruent lifestyle," he said.</p>
<p>Bruce was self-employed in 2010. As an overweight person with some medical predispositions, &#160;he could not purchase health insurance at any price in the individual market. Bruce taught Bible Study in his church twice a week and would have good things to say about Obamacare, the benevolence of the law. A senior pastor approached him and told him that maybe he would be happier elsewhere.</p>
<p>Bruce joined a free thinking group in Houston. He said <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ray.hill.9083" type="external">Ray Hill</a>,&#160;another friend of mine who is a well-known activist in Houston, Texas, gave an inspiring address that became a catalyst for his article and likely more to come.</p>
<p>"We must encourage people to write their personal stories," Bruce said. "Memes are great, but it is now&#160;time that we tell real stories to make a difference."</p>
<p>Bruce said he listened to a recent Obama speech writers podcast that pointed out that it is silly for Democrats to concentrate on Trump's evil acts. His offensive nature does not influence people.</p>
<p>"Talking about real people is what matters," Bruce said. "Talk about things that are hurting real people."</p>
<p>Progressives' demand for an unattainable purity is one of our biggest problems. We invest too many resources in idealism than on things we can accomplish today with compromises until&#160;we've built up our mass movement appropriately.</p>
<p>Bruce ended our conversation with this.</p>
<p>"I am not offended by one's beliefs but what they do," he said. "I won't judge you on what you believe but what you do."</p> | Evangelical Christian quits over Obamacare: I discovered I could no longer believe any of it. | true | https://egbertowillies.com/2017/01/19/evangelical-christian-quits-obamacare/ | 2017-01-19 | 4 |
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ These Wisconsin lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>5 Card Cash</p>
<p>5D-6D-8D-10D-6H</p>
<p>(5D, 6D, 8D, 10D, 6H)</p>
<p>Megabucks</p>
<p>06-10-37-39-40-46</p>
<p>(six, ten, thirty-seven, thirty-nine, forty, forty-six)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $1 million</p>
<p>SuperCash</p>
<p>01-15-18-28-33-37, Doubler: Y</p>
<p>(one, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-eight, thirty-three, thirty-seven; Doubler: Y)</p>
<p>Badger 5</p>
<p>02-04-05-27-29</p>
<p>(two, four, five, twenty-seven, twenty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $10,000</p>
<p>Daily Pick 3</p>
<p>0-9-5</p>
<p>(zero, nine, five)</p>
<p>Daily Pick 4</p>
<p>5-8-5-9</p>
<p>(five, eight, five, nine)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $306 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>03-09-16-56-60, Powerball: 3, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(three, nine, sixteen, fifty-six, sixty; Powerball: three; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $337 million</p>
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ These Wisconsin lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>5 Card Cash</p>
<p>5D-6D-8D-10D-6H</p>
<p>(5D, 6D, 8D, 10D, 6H)</p>
<p>Megabucks</p>
<p>06-10-37-39-40-46</p>
<p>(six, ten, thirty-seven, thirty-nine, forty, forty-six)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $1 million</p>
<p>SuperCash</p>
<p>01-15-18-28-33-37, Doubler: Y</p>
<p>(one, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-eight, thirty-three, thirty-seven; Doubler: Y)</p>
<p>Badger 5</p>
<p>02-04-05-27-29</p>
<p>(two, four, five, twenty-seven, twenty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $10,000</p>
<p>Daily Pick 3</p>
<p>0-9-5</p>
<p>(zero, nine, five)</p>
<p>Daily Pick 4</p>
<p>5-8-5-9</p>
<p>(five, eight, five, nine)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $306 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>03-09-16-56-60, Powerball: 3, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(three, nine, sixteen, fifty-six, sixty; Powerball: three; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $337 million</p> | WI Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/2ff7274c534a4a2ea4724c364701261e | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>Allergan PLC has taken a novel step to protect top-selling drug Restasis from generic competition: the company has sold the drug's patents to an Indian tribe in upstate New York to block rivals from challenging the patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.</p>
<p>The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which operates a casino on its reservation near the Canadian border, asked the patent office on Friday to drop patent challenges filed by Akorn Inc., Mylan NV and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. due to the tribe's special legal status as a sovereign government, which the tribe says gives it immunity from patent-office review.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If its moves succeed, Allergan will be able to avoid a pending hearing before a patent-office panel on the patents for its Restasis dry-eye drug, a key product for the company. A separate review of the Restasis patents, by a federal court in Texas, will continue.</p>
<p>"We are completely open to having these patents adjudicated in the federal courts. But we don't think, going through that, we should be subject to a second review" at the patent office, Allergan CEO Brent Saunders said in an interview.</p>
<p>Teva said it would keep pursuing its patent challenges, while criticizing Allergan's tactic as "new and unusual way for a company to try to delay access to high quality and affordable generic alternatives."</p>
<p>Akorn and Mylan didn't respond immediately to requests for comment.</p>
<p>The agreement entitles the tribe to a $13.75 million initial payment and $15 million in annual royalties, starting next year, until the Restasis patents expire or are no longer valid. Allergan retains the rest of the revenue from Restasis, Allergan's second-biggest seller after Botox with $1.4 billion in sales last year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Dale White, general counsel for the 13,000-member tribe, said it would use the proceeds to diversify revenue beyond its casino and address "unmet needs" in areas such as housing, health care and education.</p>
<p>"Even though the casino has been good for us, we can't rely on it long term. We have to diversify," he said.</p>
<p>The legal maneuvering is a new twist on drug companies' longtime fight to protect their lucrative products from lower-priced generics, whose introduction usually cuts into and then largely eliminates sales of the brand-name drug within months.</p>
<p>Allergan has been trying to shield the drug from competition on many fronts, including from a new dry-eye drug, called Xiidra, from rival Shire PLC. Allergan also is fending off lower-price generics, suing potential manufacturers in the federal court in Texas for patent infringement.</p>
<p>The federal court in Texas held a trial on the claims last week, and Allergan expects a decision within the next few months, according to Bob Bailey, the company's chief legal officer.</p>
<p>Allergan took out the Restasis patents in 2013 as the company began facing generic threats. The company says the Restasis patents don't expire until 2024, while generic rivals argue the patents shouldn't have been granted in the first place and should be ruled invalid.</p>
<p>To invalidate the patents, Akorn, Mylan and Teva asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under a process known as inter partes review.</p>
<p>The process was established six years ago to reduce the burden of challenging patents in federal courts, but critics, including drug companies, say it has been exploited by so-called patent trolls, hedge funds and others.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court is weighing the constitutionality of the patent-office challenge process.</p>
<p>Patent-law experts say Allergan, while still facing a potential loss in federal court, seems to have found a way under a web of court and patent-office decisions insulating Indian tribes from intellectual-property challenges to avoid the risk of setback at the patent office.</p>
<p>Write to Jonathan D. Rockoff at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 08, 2017 15:34 ET (19:34 GMT)</p> | Allergan Partners With Indian Tribe to Protect Drug Patents -- 2nd Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/08/allergan-partners-with-indian-tribe-to-protect-drug-patents-2nd-update.html | 2017-09-08 | 0 |
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<p>Mayor Phil Gasteyer said the move will not only make the village more energy efficient, but save taxpayers between $8,000 and $10,000 a year — or more if electric rates increase. Gasteyer said the village spends on average $60,000 a year for electricity.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the village will hold a ribbon cutting to celebrate installation of the solar panels at Village Hall, the senior center, Corrales Village Council Chambers, the community center, the maintenance building, the Corrales Community Library, both fire stations and the recreation center. The event will take place at 5 p.m. in the Corrales Community Center, 4324 Corrales Road.</p>
<p>Gasteyer said the village wanted to take advantage of New Mexico’s year-round sunshine.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“If we had six weeks of darkness, this might not work,” he said. “But that is not going to happen in New Mexico.”</p>
<p>Councilor John Alsobrook said the best thing about the project is that the village did not have to put up any capital for it. Instead, it entered into a 20-year agreement with 310 Solar Energy of Albuquerque. The company designed, installed and owns the solar panels. It will also be responsible for the maintenance. The company will pay the village electric bills, and the village will reimburse it. The company earns money when it sells the electricity generated by the solar panels back to the Public Service Company of New Mexico. As part of the deal, the company had to guarantee that the village would see an annual savings.</p>
<p>“It’s a very good thing for a village of our size to be able to capitalize on solar technology and to save on our utility bill,” he said. “This is a very good win-win situation all around.”</p>
<p>Gasteyer added that the private company is eligible for tax incentives that municipalities do not qualify for.</p>
<p>The village has been working on the project since 2010. Tuesday’s event will celebrate its completion. — This article appeared on page A6 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Corrales celebrates village’s solar setup | false | https://abqjournal.com/167831/corrales-celebrates-villages-solar-setup.html | 2013-02-11 | 2 |
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<p>Employees of Golan's Moving and Storage, who are in their third week of striking, pose with 'Scabby the Rat' in their picket line. ( <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203077331153049&amp;set=t.1589955012&amp;type=3&amp;theater" type="external">Arise Chicago</a> &#160;</p>
<p>Every morning, workers at <a href="http://www.golansmoving.com/" type="external">Golan’s Moving &amp; Storage</a> in the Chicago suburb of Skokie are ordered to arrive at work by 6 a.m. to prepare trucks for the day. If they are late, they can be suspended for several days or otherwise disciplined. Yet they typically don’t even start getting paid until about 8 a.m.—when they board a truck bound for their assignment.</p>
<p>This situation is among the many injustices that spurred Golan’s workers to organize with the faith-based workers rights group <a href="file://localhost/C/%5CUsers%5Ckari%20lydersen%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%5CTemporary%20Internet%20Files%5CContent.IE5%5CG3MQYVTH%5Carisechicago.org" type="external">Arise Chicago</a> last year before unionizing with <a href="http://teamster.org/locals/local-705" type="external">Teamsters Local 705</a>. Since December 2013, the first contract negotiations have dragged on, with management canceling planned sessions 12 times in six months, according to the Teamsters.</p>
<p>So on July 28, about four-fifths of Golan’s workers walked out on strike. Negotiations are theoretically continuing, but Teamsters Local 705 business agent Richard De Vries says that the company officials walked out of their most recent session, on August 14, after just 41 minutes.&#160;</p>
<p>The union has filed various Unfair Labor Practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board, and a federal mediator was brought in to oversee the negotiations. Still, De Vries tells In These Times that these measures have so far not prevented Golan’s from essentially refusing to bargain. He thinks that the company is trying to delay signing a contract until December, at which point under labor law they can call for an election to decertify the union—because a year will have passed with no contract signed.</p>
<p>“This is our remedy: going on strike,” says De Vries. He reports that more than 80 workers out of a total of about 100 are on strike, including members of the company’s two separate sections, which do local and long-distance moves.</p>
<p>On Saturday, August 16, more than 100 supporters, including Teamsters members from other companies, joined the workers on the picket line. Leaders of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths spoke to the crowd and asked the owners to recognize the concepts of workers’ rights and human dignity enshrined in all three world religions.</p>
<p>Onesimo Peña was one of the workers who contacted Arise last summer, frustrated with what he told In These Times was “so many abuses” suffered by his co-workers. He also notes that in more than a decade working for the company, his wages have only risen from $12 to $12.50 an hour, even though he has often been called on in emergencies or for important jobs.</p>
<p>“We’ve tried too many times to get the owners to listen to us but they wouldn’t,” says Peña. “So we went to Arise Chicago.”</p>
<p>In turn, Arise connected the workers with Teamsters Local 705. And marshaling support for unionizing was easy, Peña remembers.</p>
<p>“Everyone was tired of this situation,” he says.</p>
<p>Shortly after the workers voted to unionize, Peña says his wages increased to $14 an hour. The company also started paying overtime and made a few other concessions, including with regard to safety. De Vries says he can only speculate as to why, though Golan's may have been trying to dissuade workers from going on strike or trying to weaken the union in bargaining.</p>
<p>Golan’s workers don’t have insurance, paid sick days or vacation days or any other benefits. According to organizers, such as Arise Chicago’s Jorge Mujica, “There is wage theft all over the place,” including the aforementioned unpaid preparation work time, and logged hours that go missing from paychecks until workers complain.</p>
<p>Plus, workers’ wages are often further reduced by fines for a wide range of infractions. Jose Reyes, a Golan’s employee for 10 years, says he was once fined $700 because one of the other movers in the crew he oversaw had a small tear in his pants. Reyes tells In These Times that workers could also be charged for forgetting to leave the keys to their personal car with management before they head off to a job, or for failing to call the customer to say they are running late.</p>
<p>“There’s no warning, you get back from the job and they are waiting for you with a fine,” he says.</p>
<p>He and Peña also say managers have offered them incentives for reporting other workers for violations.</p>
<p>“They approached me and said, ‘If you turn people in, you will have your job forever, you can have a raise,’” says Reyes, who is on the union negotiating committee. “They were trying to buy me off.”</p>
<p>Worker Miguel Flores tells In These Times that under the terms worked by long-distance drivers who move customers to other states, he has earned only $40 for spending 10 hours unloading boxes at a home. (Mujica explains that this is likely technically legal under labor provisions for interstate commerce.) &#160;</p>
<p>Movers in the long-distance unit are particularly upset that they are not compensated for waiting time of up to a day or more if customers are not ready when they arrive. These employees are paid based on factors such as miles driven and the volume of the move. So when a customer isn’t ready, they’re forced to spend time on the road unpaid, sleeping and waiting in their truck when they otherwise could be earning money.</p>
<p>De Vries says payment for such “detention time” is a major demand in negotiations. So far, though, management has offered only token concessions during the negotiation sessions that have occurred. “They have agreed to pay for showers at a truck stop,” which cost a few dollars, he says. And in response to union demands for paid days off, Golan’s offered a total of $10 a day for up to 10 vacation days, De Vries continues.</p>
<p>Golan’s also employs workers under the <a href="http://j1visa.state.gov/" type="external">J-1 visa</a> “work and study-based exchange” program, drawing students from around the world for 90-day stays in the United States. Silviu Radu joined the program while studying for his Masters in business administration at a university in his home country of Romania. After starting work at Golan’s in June and got to know many of his co-workers. He hadn’t been present for many of the complications surrounding organizing and negotiating, so the strike came as a bit of a surprise to him.</p>
<p>“I rode my bike to work and everyone was outside,” he tells In These Times. “I was like ‘Hey guys, what’s going on?’”</p>
<p>Once he learned about the walkout, though, he promptly joined it, as did several other J-1 workers, according to Radu and De Vries. The visa does not allow companies involved in walkouts to staff J-1 employees, so Radu is looking for another job while spending time on the picket lines.</p>
<p>“You get to bond with your colleagues,” Radu says. “These are good people, hard-working people who help each other.”</p>
<p>The J-1 visa—which has drawn controversy in the past over its reported abuse by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/us/18immig.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">employers including Hershey’s</a>—cost Radu about $2,000, he says, including other fees connected to the program. Even so, he notes, laughing, that he “was making $10.50 an hour on the truck.”</p>
<p>For its part, Golan’s has largely responded to the actions with denial. Two large green signs outside the company, dated August 12 and addressed to workers from company secretary Yehuda Bitton, read: “The many reckless and dishonest statements about Golan’s and me are fabrications by the union and its representatives. Those of you who have worked for Golan’s for many years know these statements are not true.”</p>
<p>A Golan’s official inside the company during the rally declined to talk, and the spokesperson he referred In These Times to did not return a call for comment.</p>
<p>The company has also attempted to play on the fears on many of its workers regarding deportation. The signs, which are written in English and Spanish, go on to read that the union has threatened to call immigration authorities. De Vries says the U.S. State Department found out about the strike through the J-1 students, likely spurring the company to make that statement. The union has not contacted immigration authorities and would not do so, he argues.</p>
<p>Various workers tell In These Times they are confident the strike will force the company into meaningful negotiations for a contract with significant improvements. They say they’ve heard customers have canceled jobs because of the strike, and that little or no work has been happening at Golan’s. During the Saturday rally a moving truck entered the facility, but because it was manned by only one employee, De Vries said it was likely just a “show.” “You can’t move furniture with one person,” he says.</p>
<p>“We’ve seen trucks leaving and then find them parked 20 blocks away; they’re not working,” Mujica adds.</p>
<p>De Vries says that very few moving companies are organized, and most non-unionized workplaces do not offer their largely immigrant workforce insurance or benefits. Hence, the Golan’s workers’ unionization and strike could be seen as a precedent-setting development for the industry.</p>
<p>Both Reyes and Peña says they take pride in their work and want to continue at Golan’s, only under better conditions. Still, Reyes says he tells his three kids, only half joking, “When you see a Golan’s truck, run and hide, so you don’t end up like me.”&#160;</p> | Chicago Movers Stage Groundbreaking Strike | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17100/chicago_movers_stage_groundbreaking_strike | 2014-08-19 | 4 |
<p>CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities on Monday released a Reuters journalist and an Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter who were detained while covering protests in Khartoum on Wednesday last week.</p>
<p>Reuters regained contact with its Sudanese reporter, Khalid Abdelaziz, on Monday evening for the first time since before his arrest. He said he had not been mistreated, and was released alongside the AFP reporter and another local journalist.</p>
<p>No charges were filed against the reporters, who were detained in Khartoum’s Kobar prison.</p>
<p>“We are extremely relieved that Reuters reporter Khalid Abdelaziz has been released from detention in Khartoum,” a Reuters spokesperson said.</p>
<p>“He has been reunited with his family and will return to the important work of reporting on events in Sudan in due course.”</p>
<p>AFP published a news story confirming the release of its reporter.</p>
<p>The journalists were detained while covering protests and clashes with security forces which broke out across Sudan early this month after Khartoum imposed tough economic measures in line with recommendations by the International Monetary Fund.</p>
<p>Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Matthew Mpoke Bigg</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>YANGON (Reuters) - Prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has joined the legal team representing two Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar, who are accused of possessing secret government papers, her office said on Thursday.</p>
<p>A court in Yangon has been holding preliminary hearings since January to decide whether Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, will be charged under the colonial-era Officials Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.</p>
<p>The journalists had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state during an army crackdown that began in August, which has sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.</p>
<p>Lawyers for the two reporters on Wednesday asked the court to throw out the case, saying there was insufficient evidence to support charges against the pair.</p>
<p>“Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are being prosecuted simply because they reported the news. I have reviewed the case file and it is clear beyond doubt that the two journalists are innocent and should be released immediately,” Amal Clooney was quoted as saying in a statement released by her office.</p>
<p>“The outcome of this case will tell us a lot about Myanmar’s commitment to the rule of law and freedom of speech,” said Clooney, who is married to actor George Clooney.</p>
<p>Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar’s civilian government, declined to comment.</p> FILE PHOTO: Amal Clooney attends a security council meeting at U.N. headquarters during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, U.S. September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith
<p>Government officials have previously denied the arrests represent an attack on press freedom, which rights advocates say is under growing threat in the Southeast Asian country.</p>
<p>Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Hau Do Suan, said last month that the Reuters journalists were not arrested for reporting a story, but were accused of “illegally possessing confidential government documents”.</p>
<p>Gail Gove, chief counsel of Reuters, said retaining Clooney would strengthen the company’s international legal expertise and broaden efforts to secure the release of the reporters.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in custody since their arrest on Dec. 12.</p>
<p>The pair have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some rolled up papers at a restaurant in northern Yangon by two policemen they had not met before, having been invited to meet the officers for dinner.</p>
<p>The district court in northern Yangon will hear arguments from prosecutors and defense lawyers on the motion to dismiss the case on April 4.</p>
<p>Reporting By Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Shoon Naing; Editing by Alex Richardson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - For a regime obsessed with secrecy, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s decision to travel to Beijing on a distinctive green armored train was an all-but-dead giveaway that he was making his first journey abroad since assuming power in 2011.</p> FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from a train, as he paid an unofficial visit to China, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang March 28, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters/File Photo
<p>The historic visit sent officials scrambling to obscure the identity of the 21-car train and its occupants as it meandered across roughly 1,100 km (680 miles) of track through northeast China, causing rare delays along the way and triggering a growing frenzy of speculation as it neared the Chinese capital.</p>
<p>The train arrived at Beijing Station on Monday afternoon and left the following afternoon, with the identity of its occupants only announced on Wednesday morning - after it had crossed back into North Korea at the city of Sinuiju.</p>
<p>Clues that something unusual was afoot emerged in the border city of Dandong, just across the Yalu River from North Korea and linked to the isolated country by the Sino-Korea Friendship Bridge. That bridge bears a single rail track which, it turned out, carried Kim’s train into China late on Sunday.</p>
<p>The Daily NK, a Seoul-based website staffed by North Korean defectors, reported that boards supported by scaffolding had been set up on the platform at Dandong’s train station, blocking what is ordinarily an open view, before two trains passed through the station between 10:20 and 10:40 p.m. on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Yao Jun, who sells car parts in Dandong, said the station was locked down again on Tuesday night, an unusual occurrence. Kim returned to North Korea in the early hours of Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Now we know for next time - if the train station is in lockdown then that means Kim Jong Un has come to China,” Yao told Reuters.</p>
<p>At least one Dandong hotel was told by Chinese authorities not to book rooms facing the bridge, while tours from China into the North were canceled on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. A local resident said that a wedding party along the river on Sunday had been told not to set off firecrackers.</p>
<p>By Monday morning sighting rumors and pictures were making the rounds on Chinese social media, before being blocked or deleted by censors, while railway bureaus began warning travelers to expect delays or cancellations on Monday and Tuesday.</p>
<p>The disruptions were noteworthy in a country with a vast rail network that prides itself on its efficiency, with 98.8 percent of trains departing on time in 2016 and 95.4 percent arriving on schedule, and prompted complaints online.</p>
<p>Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University who researches the country’s railway system, said Kim’s train traveled on the regular track network, rather than on the tracks used by the country’s high-speed trains.</p>
<p>“Passenger and freight traffic would have been affected,” he said.</p>
<p>A person answering the official phone line at Dandong station on Thursday stressed that everything had been “normal” this week, and asked, “who told you the station was closed?”</p>
<p>An official in the international cooperation department of the China Railway Corporation declined immediate comment on Kim’s visit.</p> MANCHURIA AND THE GREAT WALL&#160;&#160;&#160;
<p>China has not disclosed the route taken by Kim in the train - green with a yellow stripe resembling one used by his late father, Kim Jong Il, on his last visit to China in 2011.</p> FILE PHOTO: A train believed to be carrying a senior North Korean delegation leaves the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
<p>Based on photos from the elder Kim’s visit, the only visible difference between the two trains was a license plate. The younger Kim’s license plate showed DF0002; the plate on the train used by his father displayed DF0001.</p>
<p>North Korean state media showed Kim and his entourage, including his wife Ri Sol Ju, seated on stuffed pink sofas inside the train carriage with Song Tao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international affairs department, during their inbound stop in Dandong.</p>
<p>There are at least two likely rail routes between Dandong and Beijing, and an ordinary service takes at least 14 hours, according to Chinese railway timetables. The route is also covered by China’s high-speed trains, which travel on separate tracks, in just over six hours.</p>
<p>But social media posts made by local railway bureaus and ordinary users on social media suggest a surge in delays around the route from Dandong that heads north to Shenyang, in the region previously known as Manchuria. The route then snakes west along the Hebei province coast towards Beijing.</p>
<p>On Monday morning, Weibo users at rail stations in Tangshan and Tianjin began complaining of unexpected cancellations to regular services bound for Beijing, which they said were made without explanation.</p>
<p>In a Weibo post published at 5:14 p.m. on Monday and since deleted, the Beijing Railway Bureau told travelers waiting at stations in Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang to expect delays of up to two hours for trains from Shenyang and Qinhuangdao.</p>
<p>On Tuesday evening, a Twitter user with the handle “2018you333” posted a grainy video of a train with a single horizontal stripe hurtling across an empty car underpass, which the user said was taken at the Shanhai Pass area, 300 km east of Beijing and a major pass in the Great Wall of China.</p>
<p>“Let’s guess where this distinguished guest is coming from!”, the post said.</p>
<p>Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the video.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Philip Wen and the Shanghai and Beijing newsrooms; Editing by Tony Munroe and Alex Richardson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>VALENCIA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Rioting and a fire in the cells of a Venezuelan police station in the central city of Valencia killed 68 people on Wednesday, according to the government and witnesses.</p>
<p>Families hoping for news outside the police station were dispersed with tear gas and authorities did not give information until late into the evening.</p>
<p>“The State Prosecutor’s Office guarantees to deepen investigations to immediately clarify what happened in these painful events that have left dozens of Venezuelan families in mourning,” said Chief Prosecutor Tarek William Saab on Twitter.</p>
<p>Venezuelan prisons are notoriously overcrowded and filled with weapons and drugs. Riots leaving dozens dead are not uncommon.</p>
<p>State official Jesus Santander said the state of Carabobo was in mourning after the incident in the city of Valencia.</p>
<p>“Forensic doctors are determining the number of fatalities,” Santander said. A policeman was shot in the leg and was in a stable condition and firefighters had extinguished the flames, he said.</p>
<p>Many Venezuelan prisons are lawless and have been for decades. Prisoners often openly wield machine guns and grenades, use drugs and leave guards powerless.</p> Slideshow (14 Images)
<p>“There are people who are inside those dungeons (...) and the authorities do not know they exist because they do not dare to enter,” said Humberto Prado, a local prisons rights activist.</p>
<p>Aditional reporting by Vivian SequeraWriting by Girish Gupta and Vivian Sequera; Editing by Paul Tait and Michael Perry</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea will hold their first summit in more than a decade on April 27, South Korean officials said on Thursday, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearization as tensions ease between the old foes.</p>
<p>South Korean officials, who announced the date after high-level talks with North Korean counterparts, said the agenda would largely be denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and improving inter-Korean relations.</p>
<p>The two Koreas had agreed to hold the summit at the border truce village of Panmunjom when South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent a delegation to Pyongyang this month to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.</p>
<p>Thursday’s meeting was the first high-level dialogue between the two Koreas since the delegation returned from the North.</p>
<p>The two sides said in a joint statement they would hold a working-level meeting on April 4 to discuss details of the summit, such as staffing support, security and news releases.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-china-southkorea/beijing-envoy-says-kim-jong-uns-china-visit-will-help-toward-denuclearization-idUSKBN1H50YM" type="external">Beijing envoy says Kim Jong Un's China visit will help toward denuclearization</a>
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-ioc/ioc-chief-bach-arrives-to-north-korea-to-stay-until-saturday-idUSKBN1H50VC" type="external">IOC chief Bach arrives to North Korea, to stay until Saturday</a>
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-russia-meeting/russia-foreign-ministry-working-on-north-korea-meetings-in-moscow-idUSKBN1H51T5" type="external">Russia foreign ministry working on North Korea meetings in Moscow</a>
<p>“We still have a fair number of issues to resolve on a working level for preparations over the next month,” said Ri Son Gwon, the chairman of North Korea’s committee for the peaceful reunification of the country in closing remarks to the South Korean delegation.</p>
<p>“But if the two sides deeply understand the historic significance and meaning of this summit and give their all, we will be able to solve all problems swiftly and amicably,” Ri added.</p>
<p>Tension over North Korea’s tests of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile surged last year and raised fears of U.S. military action in response to North Korea’s threat to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States.</p>
<p>But tension has eased significantly since North Korea decided to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February. The neighbours are technically still at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended with a ceasefire, not a truce.</p>
<p>China commended both sides for their efforts to improve ties.</p>
<p>“We hope the momentum of dialogue can continue and that the peaceful situation also can last,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a briefing.</p>
<p>United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was encouraged by the recent developments with North Korea.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;“I believe that in this world where unfortunately so many problems seem not to have a solution, I think there is here an opportunity for a peaceful solution to something that a few months ago was haunting us as the biggest danger we were facing,” Guterres told reporters on Thursday.</p> ‘RESOLVE PROBLEMS’
<p>Kim is scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in May to discuss denuclearization, although a time and place have not been set.</p>
<p>Kim met Chinese President Xi Jinping in a surprise visit to Beijing this week, his first trip outside the isolated North since he came to power in 2011.</p>
<p>Even more surprising was Kim’s pledge to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. That commitment was reported by Chinese state media, although North Korea’s official media made no mention of it, or Kim’s anticipated meeting with Trump.</p>
<p>A senior Chinese official visiting Seoul on Thursday to brief South Korea on Kim’s visit to Beijing said it should help ease tension and lead to the denuclearization of the peninsula.</p> South Korean delegation led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon cross the concrete border as they leave after their meeting at the truce village of Panmunjom, North Korea March 29, 2018. Korea Pool/Yonhap via REUTERS
<p>“We believe his visit will help the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, ensure peace and security of the Korean peninsula and resolve problems regarding the peninsula through political negotiations and discussions,” Yang Jiechi said in opening remarks during a meeting with South Korea’s National Security Office head, Chung Eui-yong.</p>
<p>Yang, a top Chinese diplomat, is scheduled to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday.</p>
<p>South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon told reporters Kim’s visit to China was not discussed with North Korean officials in their Thursday talks.</p>
<p>Trump and Kim had exchanged insults and veiled threats of war in recent months but the U.S. leader made the surprising announcement this month that he was prepared to meet Kim to discuss the crisis over the North’s development of weapons.</p>
<p>The North Korean leader’s engagement with the international community has sparked speculation that he may try to meet other leaders. Japan’s Asahi newspaper said Japan had sounded out the North Korean government about a summit.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono left open the possibility that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might meet Kim at some point. Kono said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that Japan was closely watching preparations for the North-South Korean summit and the Trump-Kim meeting.</p>
<p>Xi promised that Beijing would uphold its friendship with North Korea after his meeting with Kim.</p>
<p>Trump wrote on Twitter he had received a message from Xi late on Tuesday that his meeting with Kim “went very well” and that Kim looked forward to meeting the U.S. president.</p>
<p>Reporting by Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING and Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Sudanese authorities release Reuters, AFP journalists Rights lawyer Amal Clooney to represent Reuters reporters held in Myanmar Secrecy, delays surrounded North Korea leader's slow train to China Sixty eight killed in Venezuelan police station riot and fire North, South Korea fix April date for first summit in years | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-sudan-media-arrests/sudanese-authorities-release-reuters-afp-journalists-idUSKBN1FB2HN | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian figure skater Ksenia Stolbova and ice dancer Ivan Bukin will not be allowed to take part in next month’s Olympic Games, the Russian Figure Skating Federation said on Tuesday, citing a directive from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).</p> Figure Skating - ISU Grand Prix Rostelecom Cup 2017 - Pairs’ Short Program - Moscow, Russia - October 20, 2017 - Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia compete. REUTERS/Alexander Fedorov
<p>“The unfounded and absurd decision once again demonstrates the IOC’s inability to eschew external influences on its decision-making,” the federation said in a statement.</p>
<p>The federation is poised to “immediately start fighting to restore a fair attitude toward Russian figure skaters and defend the honor and dignity of our athletes in all possible ways”.</p>
<p>Stolbova and partner Fedor Klimov, who won silver in the pairs and gold in the team event in Sochi, took silver at the European championships in Moscow last week.</p>
<p>Stolbova could not immediately be reached for comment.</p>
<p>Bukin, who competes in ice dance with partner Alexandra Stepanova, won a European bronze medal this month.</p> Figure Skating - ISU European Championships 2018 - Ice Dance Short Dance - Moscow, Russia - January 19, 2018 - Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia compete. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor
<p>The news came hours after the Russian Olympic Committee announced that short-track speed skater Viktor Ahn, biathlete Anton Shipulin and cross-country skier Sergei Ustyugov were not in the pool of Russian athletes eligible to compete at the Pyeongchang Olympics.</p>
<p>Five members of the Russian men’s national hockey team, Anton Belov, Alexei Bereglazov, Mikhail Naumenkov, Valery Nichushkin and Sergei Plotnikov, were also deemed ineligible for Pyeongchang by the IOC, the Russian hockey federation said in a statement later on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Belov, a defenceman who played one season with the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL), served a three-month doping suspension in 2012.</p>
<p>The Russian hockey federation said it would seek explanations from the IOC about the players’ exclusion.</p>
<p>The Olympic body said on Tuesday that the exclusion of certain athletes from the list of eligible Russians did not mean they had doped.</p>
<p>“Not being included on the invitation list does not necessarily mean that an athlete has been doped – it should not automatically cast doubt on their integrity,” Valerie Fourneyron, chair of the panel overseeing the invitation process, said in an IOC statement.</p>
<p>The IOC banned Russia last month from Pyeongchang over “systematic manipulation” of the anti-doping system at the 2014 Sochi Games, but left the door open to athletes with no history of doping to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia”.</p>
<p>Writing by Polina Ivanova and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, additional reporting by Karolos Grohmann in Berlin; Editing by Ed Osmond and Christian Radnedge</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BELGRADE (Reuters) - Preparations for a historic handball match between political adversaries Serbia and Kosovo ended in chaos on Friday with the expulsion of the host nation after it canceled the fixture over security concerns.</p> Police guard the road to the Kovilovo sport centre hosting the handball match between Serbia and Kosovo, in Belgrade, Serbia March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Nemanja Pancic
<p>The women’s Under-20 World Championship qualifier would have been the first documented sporting encounter between Serbia and its former province, which declared independence in 2008 and which Belgrade does not recognize as a nation state.</p>
<p>But Serbia’s Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic ordered the match to be scrapped over security concerns, a day after dozens of chanting youths carrying flares and national flags gathered outside the match venue.</p>
<p>The European Handball Federation (EHF) had arranged the game, part of a four-team event, in consultation with Serbian authorities.</p>
<p>In light of Friday’s cancellation - which Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister Enver Hoxhaj called “unthinkable” - it was expelling the Serbian team from the tournament, the EHF said in a statement.</p>
<p>It said it expected the other matches to go ahead as scheduled.</p>
<p>But late on Friday the interior ministry said it had also canceled matches between Kosovo and Norway and Kosovo and Slovakia.</p>
<p>Stefanovic earlier suggested, in comments to news web site B92, that the government had been an unwilling participant.</p>
<p>Could we have organized for this match to go ahead? Certainly. But at what cost?,” he was quoted as saying. “We are not ready to have the police beat up people for the sake of a match which contradicts all our positions.”</p>
<p>He later told Belgrade Pink TV: “Kosovo is an integral part of our country. It would have been impossible to let this fixture go ahead without clashes and chaos.”</p>
<p>The European Union has made Serbia committing to stable relations with Kosovo a prerequisite for membership of the bloc, and the country’s presidents, Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci, met in Brussels on Thursday for a fresh round of EU-sponsored talks.</p>
<p>But Belgrade continues to refuse to recognize Pristina institutions and has attempted to prevent Kosovo from joining international organizations, including sports associations.</p>
<p>Kosovo declared independence almost a decade after a NATO bombing campaign ended a crackdown by Serbian authorities against secessionists among its majority ethic Albanian population.</p>
<p>The handball match was scheduled for 1500 GMT at Kovilovo, an isolated sports complex on the outskirts of the capital where it had been moved from the central city of Kragujevac for safety reasons.</p>
<p>The Serbian Handball Federation (RSS) had ordered the whole tournament to be played behind closed doors, with no fans or media present, saying it acted in line with instructions from the EHF.</p>
<p>The winner of the tournament - should it end up being played - will qualify for the July 1-15 World Championship in Hungary.</p>
<p>Reporting by Zoran Milosavljevic; Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina; Editing by Ivana Sekularac and John Stonestreet</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - A 31-year-old man has been arrested and two men remain at large for burglarizing the Massachusetts home of New England Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski following the team’s Super Bowl loss, police said.</p> FILE PHOTO: NFL Football - Philadelphia Eagles v New England Patriots - Super Bowl LII - U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. - February 4, 2018. New England Patriots' Rob Gronkowski celebrates scoring a touchdown. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
<p>Anthony Almeida, 31, of Randolph was arraigned in Wrentham District Court on Friday for breaking and entering, receiving stolen property and malicious destruction of property, the Foxborough Police Department said on Facebook.</p>
<p>Police are still searching for Eric Tyrrell, 28, and Shayne Denn, 26, in connection with the burglary on Feb. 5, the day after Gronkowski’s team’s upset loss in the Super Bowl to the Eagles.</p>
<p>Gronkowski’s chauffeur and security guard Robert Goon posted on Friday a photo of the two men on Twitter and wrote “You better hide I’m coming” after police announced the arrest.</p>
<p>An Apple Watch, a Rolex Watch and two rare coins from the 1800s have been recovered. Firearms owned by Goon have not yet been recovered, police said.</p>
<p>Like many of his teammates, Gronkowski has a home in Foxborough, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Boston that is home to Gillette Stadium, where the team practices and plays.</p>
<p>The 28-year-old athlete now in his eighth NFL season is one of the better known faces on the Patriots, cheered on by fans both for his catches as well as off-season antics that have included serving as the celebrity host of a Caribbean cruise following the team’s 2016 Super Bowl victory.</p>
<p>(This story has been refiled to remove dateline and change the reporting credit)</p>
<p>Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Mark Potter</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton roared to a record seventh pole at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Saturday, blitzing the field in his Mercedes with a blazing lap at Albert Park.</p> Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia - March 24, 2018 Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in action during qualifying REUTERS/Brandon Malone
<p>The Briton flew around the lakeside circuit in a record one minute, 21.164 seconds, with his final effort leaving a yawning gap of 0.664 seconds to Ferrari’s second fastest Kimi Raikkonen.</p>
<p>Sebastian Vettel was third fastest for Ferrari but Hamilton was in a class of his own and the Silver Arrows appear as dominant as ever as they bid to sweep the driver and constructors’ titles for a fifth year running.</p>
<p>“That was intense. My heart’s racing. I wish you could feel it right now,” the 33-year-old Hamilton said after clambering onto his car at the finish and pumping his fists.</p>
<p>“I’m so happy with that lap.”</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-motor-f1-australia-hamilton-vettel/beaming-hamilton-burns-vettel-with-smile-jibe-idUSKBN1H00BW" type="external">Beaming Hamilton burns Vettel with 'smile' jibe</a>
<a href="/article/us-motor-f1-australia-hamilton-rosberg/hamilton-pole-lap-unbelievably-special-rosberg-idUSKBN1H009O" type="external">Hamilton pole lap 'unbelievably special': Rosberg</a>
<a href="/article/us-motor-f1-australia-haas/motor-racing-haas-enjoy-best-ever-qualifying-despite-replica-barbs-idUSKBN1H00J9" type="external">Motor racing: Haas enjoy best-ever qualifying despite 'replica' barbs</a>
<p>Hamilton moved past the six poles his idol Ayrton Senna claimed in the Australian race with a furious pace that will leave the Ferrari and Red Bull teams scratching their heads.</p>
<p>“Obviously the gap’s bigger than we want it to be,” a subdued Vettel told reporters, looking ahead to Sunday’s race.</p>
<p>“It depends how we get off the (start) line.”</p>
<p>Red Bull wunderkind Max Verstappen will line up alongside Vettel on the second row, with his fifth-fastest team mate Daniel Ricciardo set to start eighth after the home hope was handed a three-place grid penalty for an infringement during Friday practice.</p>
<p>Still pumped at the post-qualifying news conference, Hamilton made a cheeky dig at fellow four-times champion Vettel when the German asked him what he was up to before Q3.</p> Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia - March 24, 2018 Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton celebrates pole position after qualifying REUTERS/Brandon Malone
<p>“I was waiting to put a good lap in and wipe the smile off your face,” Hamilton said with a smirk.</p> IMPROVED HAAS
<p>The Briton’s brilliance was not matched by team mate Valtteri Bottas, who crashed early in the final shootout.</p>
<p>The Finn, who had complained of balance problems during Q1, spun out at turn two and smashed hard into a barrier, leaving his wrecked car and debris scattered all over the track.</p> Slideshow (5 Images)
<p>The red flag was waved as the television broadcast showed Mercedes boss Toto Wolff bowing his head in disappointment back in the team garage.</p>
<p>Bottas, who will start in 10th, passed a medical check but it remains unclear how much of his car is salvageable.</p>
<p>Haas confirmed themselves as the big improvers after positive winter testing, with drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean locking down the third row.</p>
<p>Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg took a spin into the gravel in Q2 but scraped through to the final session and will start seventh, his team mate Carlos Sainz two places behind.</p>
<p>McLaren’s hopes of a quick return to the top four with their new Renault engines proved overly ambitious, with twice champion Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne shut out of the final session.</p>
<p>Force India, fourth in the constructors’ championship for the last two years, also have work to do after being knocked out during Q2.</p>
<p>The championship’s debutant drivers had an underwhelming session, with Sauber’s Charles Leclerc and Williams’ driver Sergey Sirotkin eliminated early.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by John O'Brien</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Monica Puig shrugged off an opening set bagel to rally for a 0-6 6-4 6-4 victory over world number two Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the Miami Open on Friday.</p> Mar 23, 2018; Key Biscayne, FL, USA; Monica Puig of Puerto Rico hits a forehand against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark (not pictured) on day four of the Miami Open at Tennis Center at Crandon Park. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
<p>Australian Open champion Wozniacki breezed through the opener in just 25 minutes before world number 82 Puig started the comeback.</p>
<p>Puig broke Wozniacki’s serve in the second set to take a 4-2 lead and closed it out to even the match, and the 24-year-old Puerto Rican then earned an early break in the decisive set to go ahead 2-0 and held on for the victory.</p>
<p>Ukrainian fourth seed Elina Svitolina ended Naomi Osaka’s remarkable recent run with a 6-4 6-2 triumph over the Indian Wells champion.</p>
<p>The 20-year-old Japanese, who followed her Indian Wells title run with a first-round victory over Serena Williams this week, had no answer to Svitolina during their 83-minute clash.</p>
<p>Svitolina, who last month claimed the sixth title of her career with her triumph at the Dubai Open, said she was prepared for the test of Osaka.</p>
<p>“I was like, ‘OK, this is going to be challenging,’” Svitolina said.</p> Mar 23, 2018; Key Biscayne, FL, USA; Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark hits a backhand against Monica Puig of Puerto Rico (not pictured) on day four of the Miami Open at Tennis Center at Crandon Park. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
<p>“For a second round, normally you don’t get those kind of matches. It was actually quite exciting. I like to go into the tournaments with little bit of stress. Then you’re straight into the matches. I’m very happy the way handled this match today.”</p>
<p>The Ukrainian will next face Australian 26th seed Daria</p>
<p>Gavrilova, who defeated German Andrea Petkovic 7-6(3) 6-4.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>Venus Williams was unhappy with her shaky performance against qualifier Natalia Vikhlyantseva but advanced 7-5 6-4.</p>
<p>Williams, a semi-finalist at the BNP Paribas Open last week, committed five double faults and had her service broken four times in the match.</p>
<p>Sixth seed Jelena Ostapenko defeated Timea Babos 6-4 6-4 while ninth-ranked Petra Kvitova outlasted Aryna Sabalenka 7-5 3-6 6-3.</p>
<p>Sofia Kenin, a 19-year-old qualifier, upset 19th-seed</p>
<p>Daria Kasatkina, a finalist last week at Indian Wells, 3-6 6-2 6-2. Australian 21st seed Ashleigh Barty also reached the third round with a 6-0 7-6(0) win over American wild card Claire Liu.</p>
<p>Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; additional reporting by Jahmal Corner; Editing by Christian Radnedge/Peter Rutherford</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Figure skating: Two Russians barred from Olympics, hockey players also excluded Serbia expelled from handball event for cancelling Kosovo match Man arrested for burglarizing Patriots Gronkowski's home Motor racing: Brilliant Hamilton blazes to Melbourne pole Tennis: Puig stuns Wozniacki in Miami, Osaka's run over | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2018-russia-doping-skaters/figure-skating-two-russians-barred-from-olympics-hockey-players-also-excluded-idUSKBN1FC1BJ | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-muslims-world-islam-set-overtake-christianity-most-popular-religion-while-us-2498931" type="external">Due to Islamists rapid reproduction rate,</a> their religion is set to be the most popular world wide. Is this a good or bad thing for the world?</p>
<p>Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and will overtake Christianity as the most popular before the end of this century, according to an&#160; <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/27/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/" type="external">analysis of religious surveys</a>&#160;published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.</p>
<p>With 1.6 billion, Muslims made up 23 percent of the world’s population, according to a 2010 Pew estimate. That figure was still some way short of the 2.2 billion Christians which comprised 31 percent of the population.</p>
<p>However, by 2050 there could be near parity between the numbers of adherents of the two religions for the first time in history. The reasons for this rapid growth are thought to be the greater number of children Muslims have compared to other religious groups and the comparatively young age of Muslims.</p>
<p>The largest percentage of Muslims are currently in the Asia-Pacific region, rather than the Middle East and North Africa. Indonesia currently has the largest number of Muslims of any country, but that title could be taken by India by 2050. By that point, it is also projected that Muslims will also make up 10 percent of Europe’s population.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | NEW STUDY: Islam is to be ‘MOST POPULAR’ Religion — Out Breeding Christians… | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/new-study-islam-is-to-be-most-popular-religion-out-breeding-christians/ | 0 |
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<p>Dear Dave,</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>I’m retired, and I have $400,000 in an IRA that’s earning 10 to 12%. The only debt I have is $20,000 on a home equity line of credit, and my home is worth $500,000. Should I pay off the home equity loan using funds from my IRA?</p>
<p>-Janet</p>
<p>Dear Janet,</p>
<p>Wow, you have a half-million dollar home on the line for only $20,000? There’s no way I’m going to have a $500,000 asset pledged for that kind of money. No way! If I were in your shoes, I’d pay off the loan today.</p>
<p>You’re obviously a smart lady. You’ve got an IRA that’s busting it, and this little loan is the only thing standing between you and complete financial freedom. But that loan represents risk you don’t need in your life. I know you probably haven’t been lying awake at night worrying over it, but you’re going to have a wonderfully weird experience when you knock this thing out. A wave of peace is going to wash over you, and you’re going to feel lighter and more liberated than ever before.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Your retirement isn’t at risk, and it won’t cost you much money. Pay it off today, Janet, and discover the true meaning of financial peace!</p>
<p>-Dave</p>
<p>Dear Dave,</p>
<p>How do you feel about an exchange-traded fund (ETF) as an investment device?</p>
<p>-Charles</p>
<p>Dear Charles,</p>
<p>The main reason to do an ETF is it allows you to trade your stocks or mutual funds easily and often. I can’t recommend them because I don’t advise buying and selling all the time where your investments are concerned.</p>
<p>In most cases, getting into this kind of thing implies that you’re trying to time the market. It means you’re trying to buy at the low point and ride them up to the high point. Based on my understanding of the market, I’m a buy-and-hold kind of guy. So, I have no need for ETFs whatsoever.</p>
<p>-Dave</p>
<p>Dear Dave,</p>
<p>I have $2,400 in transmission repair work that needs to be made on my old truck, and I don’t have the money to pay for it. I tried to get a loan, but was turned down. I’m single and make $26,000 a year. Do you have any ideas?</p>
<p>-Eric</p>
<p>Dear Eric,</p>
<p>As you probably know, I teach people not to borrow money. So, I’m glad you were turned down for the loan. That’s the last thing you need in your life right now, plus the terms of the loan would’ve been a rip-off.</p>
<p>My advice is to sell the truck as-is. You probably could still get between $500 and $1,000 for it. Combine that with as much money as you can save in the meantime. This could put you in a little beater that would last a while, then save up some more and get a nicer beater a few months down the road.</p>
<p>Sell the truck, save money and work your way up through some better vehicles. That’s what I had to do years ago in a very similar situation!</p>
<p>-Dave</p>
<p>* Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He’s authored four New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover and EntreLeadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.</p> | When to Pull the Trigger and Dip Into Savings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/06/04/when-to-pull-trigger-and-dip-into-savings.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>The polls have closed in Zimbabwe after the public voted in elections that will decide who leads the country for the next five years.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ReutersWorld/status/362625802942160896" type="external">The African Union's election observer chief said</a> initial reports suggested the elections were peaceful, orderly, free and fair. No <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23526355" type="external">Western observers</a> were allowed to monitor the voting.</p>
<p>Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is running against Robert Mugabe for the presidency in what is expected to be the most serious challenge the long-time ruler has yet faced in all his 33 years in power. The election will also determine the next parliament.</p>
<p>Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time, with a long queues reported outside. By 2 p.m., African Union observers said that voting was "proceeding in <a href="https://twitter.com/AFPAfrica/status/362542277807190016" type="external">an orderly and peaceful manner</a>."</p>
<p>Polling stations were due to close at 7 p.m. local time, but because of high voter turnout, election officials said those <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23526355" type="external">waiting in line</a> would be allowed to vote until midnight.</p>
<p>BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding tweeted about alleged vote rigging and the discovery of a fake polling station.</p>
<p>Mugabe, 89, has promised not to cling to power if he loses the election. Yet his opponents claim that he and his Zanu-PF party are taking steps to ensure that doesn't happen.&#160;</p>
<p>"He does not believe in the right of the people to choose," Tsvangirai, who serves as Mugabe's prime minister under a 2009 power-sharing agreement, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23512279" type="external">told the BBC</a>. "He does not believe he can be voted out of office."</p>
<p>Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has accused Zanu-PF of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/zimbabwe/130730/mugabe-i-will-step-down-if-i-lose-zimbabwe-election" type="external">adding thousands of invalid names</a> to the electoral roll, which was released just a day before voting began.&#160;</p>
<p>The MDC was also advising its supporters to <a href="https://twitter.com/mdczimbabwe/status/362270701853478912" type="external">use their own pens</a> to fill out voting slips.&#160;</p>
<p>Mugabe refutes all allegations of irregularities, and said as he cast his vote:&#160;"I am sure <a href="https://twitter.com/AFPAfrica/status/362524267558076416" type="external">people will vote freely and fairly</a>, there is no pressure being exerted on anyone."</p>
<p>Despite the controversy, Tsvangirai predicted that his party would win " <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hU6Hk1BZwfffP3GQALEm43lwMXXQ?docId=CNG.13946a59178cd800d6b623abf0310d27.151" type="external">quite resoundingly</a>."</p>
<p>"This is a very historic moment for all of us," Tsvangirai told reporters as he voted in the capital, Harare. "Finally Zimbabwe will be able to move on again."</p>
<p>Results are expected to be announced by Aug. 5. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the presidential contest will go to a run-off in September.</p>
<p>The AP posted video of the main two candidates posting their ballots:</p>
<p />
<p /> | Zimbabwe votes: Tsvangirai challenges Mugabe in critical election (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-07-31/zimbabwe-votes-tsvangirai-challenges-mugabe-critical-election-video | 2013-07-31 | 3 |
<p>Photo: Klasse Gegen Klasse</p>
<p>Our first printed issue, <a href="" type="internal">A New Generation Rises Up</a> is out. Order it online <a href="" type="internal">here</a>. For shipping outside the US, write us at [email protected].</p>
<p>Munich, Germany/At Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), the university chair is reviewing whether the university group of the AfD should have access to the institution's facilities. With around 40 anti-racist activists present, the AfD's request had already been declined by the "Konvent der Fachschaften," a student assembly with very limited powers.</p>
<p>LMU places great emphasis on the remembrance of Hans and Sophie Scholl, who lost their lives in the resistance against German fascism. It would be particularly intolerable if the AfD were allowed to spread its inhumane propaganda at the university. LMU should be a place without racism, sexism, homo-, and transphobia; this means it should also be a place without the AfD.</p>
<p>The university chair is now not only considering to give space to the right, but also to take away this privilege from left activists. In place of the antiracists who stood against the AfD, a leftist university group ("Waffen der Kritik") that also took part in the protest is now under pressure, facing possible expulsion. Such a decision would normally be made by the students through the "Konvent," but the LMU chair now seeks to assume the authority to decide. Doing so would strip one of the last democratic rights of the only existing student committee in the university.</p>
<p>Instead of reviewing left groups for expulsion, the university chair should clearly denounce right-wing populist ideas and reject the AfD.</p>
<p>The supporters of this <a href="https://www.change.org/p/hochschulleitung-der-lmu-keine-afd-an-der-lmu" type="external">petition</a> want a more democratic university. Therefore, they demand a university parliament in which all political decisions concerning the institution are made. Students should decide for themselves whether they will allow these reactionary organizations at their university.</p>
<p>We demand: - An immediate end to the "review" of leftist university groups &#160;A clear distancing of the university chair from the AfD and all associated organizations &#160;A university parliament with a political mandate</p>
<p>Sign the petition <a href="https://www.change.org/p/hochschulleitung-der-lmu-keine-afd-an-der-lmu" type="external">here!</a></p>
<p>This is a translation of an article that originally appeared in <a href="https://www.klassegegenklasse.org/" type="external">Klasse Gegen Klasse</a>.</p>
<p>Related</p>
<p><a href="Alternative-for-Germany-AfD" type="external">Alternative for Germany (AfD)</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="Germany" type="external">Germany</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="Europe" type="external">Europe</a></p> | Reactionaries OUT of the University of Munich! | true | https://leftvoice.org/Reactionaries-OUT-of-the-University-of-Munich | 2016-06-02 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>– Mo not an attorney</p>
<p>Nice story on the Colorado Rockies visit,,,,but I was hoping to read they were playing a couple of exhibition games here in Albuquerque. Any chance of that happening?</p>
<p>– RM</p>
<p>Not this year, but ‘Topes GM John Traub said it’s “on the front burner” for 2018.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>– Mark, Journal</p>
<p>Wow! Now I know why several recent Lobo games have had a 9:00 PM (or later) start. The Journal is unable to publish a real story on these game/failures due to deadlines. That way, the Lobo public doesn’t get the chance to relive their fury the next morning over a rough loss. The brief article didn’t even mention additional game problems such as missing those 7 out of 8 free throws in the last seconds of the Nevada game. There was no mention of the double technical caused by a hard foul on Jefferson, questionable foul calls by the officials, the Nevada coach living on the floor and him not receiving technicals that should have been called. Waiting until the next day afterwards delays and defuses some of the pain and anger. Looking after the welfare of fans, I presume?</p>
<p>– Bill (Still in shock) Burch</p>
<p>To “bad tempered Lobo fan”: every year same thing : the Pit is out because the RODEO is booked there (rather than Tingley which was built for the rodeo). Go figure.</p>
<p>– MHD</p>
<p>It’s actually the PBR’s Ty Murray Invitational, which draws huge crowds, not a rodeo, that’s held in the Pit the first week of the NCAA Tournament. There is no conflict between events. As the Journal has reported, if UNM wins a bid to host the NCAA Tournament, it would move the PBR to another date.</p>
<p>– Mark, Journal</p>
<p />
<p /> | Sports Speak Up! | false | https://abqjournal.com/932810/sports-speak-up-324.html | 2 |
|
<p>Published time: 24 Sep, 2017 16:18</p>
<p>Up to 35,000 people have fled a looming volcanic eruption on the island of Bali after some 300 tremors, increasing in both frequency and intensity, registered between midnight and 6am Sunday.</p>
<p>The Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency has set up temporary shelters for evacuees and provided 14 tons of aid including food, water, tents, blankets and mattresses.</p>
<p>“Four days after we raised the alert level to level three, there were extraordinary tremors … the biggest since 1963. So, we raised the alert level to level four,” the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG), Kasbani, told <a href="http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/indonesia-raises-bali-volcano-alert-to-highest-level/news-story/ae34df4ac7a770560722e3cac8563d05" type="external">News.com.au</a>.</p>
<p>“We could not predict when the mountain will erupt,” he added. “However, we don’t know whether the eruption now will be bigger or smaller. If we see the eruption in 1963, it could take one year.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>The eruption alert was raised to the highest level on Friday following a “tremendous increase” in seismic activity. For context, from midnight to noon on Friday, a total of 198 tremors were recorded compared with the 300 that took place in the six-hour period overnight Sunday.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404176-bali-earthquake-volcano-evacuation/" type="external">READ MORE: Thousands evacuated as Bali volcano spews ominous smoke 3,000 meters high</a></p>
<p>There is no immediate threat to residents outside the 12km radius of the safety cordon around Mount Agung, but if it were to erupt, it would be the volcano’s first eruption in half a century.</p>
<p>The 1963 eruption killed 1,100 people with the ash cloud reaching an altitude of 20km (12 miles) and the lava flow extending 7.5km (4.7 miles) from the volcano, reports <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/34000-flee-bali-volcano-amid-eruption-fears-50054619" type="external">ABC News</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/viral/398466-mount-sinabung-volcano-eruption/" type="external">READ MORE: Volcanic ash cloud sparks ‘doomsday’ scenes on Indonesian island (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)</a></p>
<p>The current exclusion zone was extended from 6km to 12km based on lava flows from the 1963 eruption.</p>
<p>“We have prepared 500,000 masks to anticipate volcanic ash which is very important, because the ash is very dangerous,” the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head, Willem Rampangilei, told News.com.au.</p>
<p>“This is a very complex work. We should work hard to minimize victims. We keep hoping that the eruption will not happen. However, we should be ready for the best scenario if the eruption does happen,” he added.&#160;“We have declared that we are in emergency response period for next one month. I hope the eruption will not happen.”</p>
<p>The BNPB has also warned about a series of hoaxes which spread on social media and exacerbated an already stressful situation for worried Indonesians.</p>
<p />
<p>Hoax. Ini letusan G.Sinabung tahun 2015 yang disebarkan oknum dan mengatakan letusan Gunung Agung. Sampai saat ini G.Agung belum meletus. <a href="https://t.co/YLcZFdoQqr" type="external">pic.twitter.com/YLcZFdoQqr</a></p>
<p>— Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_BNPB) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sutopo_BNPB/status/911886139950166016" type="external">September 24, 2017</a></p>
<p /> | Up to 35,000 evacuated as Bali on high alert for volcanic eruption (VIDEO, PHOTOS) | false | https://newsline.com/up-to-35000-evacuated-as-bali-on-high-alert-for-volcanic-eruption-video-photos/ | 2017-09-24 | 1 |
<p>No scientific evidence backs Rep. Michele Bachmann's second-hand story of HPV vaccine causing mental retardation. Our research reveals that 35 million doses of the vaccine have been administered, without a single reported case of mental retardation. A total of four cases of a disorder involving inflammation of the brain have been reported, but a panel of scientists found there was insufficient evidence to establish that the vaccine caused those.</p>
<p>The Republican presidential candidate has repeatedly related an anecdote about a post-debate encounter with a woman who told her a vaccine promoted by Texas Gov. Rick Perry has left her daughter mentally retarded. In fact, federal health officials say they've received no reports of mental retardation following an injection of the vaccine. Based on experience from tens of&#160; millions of doses already administered, they find the vaccine to be safe and effective as a deterrent against a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer, which takes 4,000 lives a year. And that's backed up by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has denounced Bachmann's statements.</p>
<p>Bachmann first raised the issue about the vaccine at a <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1109/12/se.06.html" type="external">Republican debate</a> sponsored by CNN and the Tea Party Express on Sept. 12. She attacked Perry for issuing an executive order in 2007 requiring 11- and 12-year-old girls to get a vaccine designed to protect against cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV).</p>
<p>Bachmann criticized the executive order as a "violation of a liberty interest" and questioned the motivation for Perry's decision, noting that Perry's former chief of staff was a lobbyist for Merck, the maker of the vaccine Gardasil, and that Merck donated thousands to Perry's campaign.</p>
<p>Bachmann was right about the former staffer-turned-lobbyist and the political donations from Merck. But Bachmann drew rebuke from many health officials for her claim that Gardasil was a "potentially dangerous drug." The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both have <a href="http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/ucm179549.htm" type="external">concluded</a> that Gardasil is "a safe and effective vaccine." We discussed some of the extensive studies that underpin the FDA and CDC's decision in <a href="" type="internal">our coverage</a> of the debate.</p>
<p>However, in the hours after the debate, Bachmann doubled down on her assertions about the supposed dangers of the vaccine. Several times on national TV she related an anecdote about a post-debate encounter with a weeping woman who told her the vaccine caused her daughter to suffer mental retardation.</p>
<p>Bachmann first relayed the anecdote in a post-debate <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/1156812920001/bachmann-people-dont-want-crony-capitalism/" type="external">interview</a> with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News:</p>
<p>Bachmann, Sept. 12: The problem is, it comes with some very significant consequences. There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result of that vaccine. There are very dangerous consequences. It’s not good enough to take, quote, “a mulligan” where you want a do-over, not when you have little children’s lives at risk.</p>
<p>The following morning, Bachmann repeated the story in <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/44499076#44499076" type="external">an interview</a> with Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today" show.</p>
<p>Bachmann, Sept. 13: Well, I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. It can have very dangerous side effects.</p>
<p>The mother was crying when she came up to me last night. I didn’t know who she was before the debate.</p>
<p>This is the very real concern and people have to draw their own conclusions.</p>
<p>After an extensive review, the FDA approved Gardasil in 2006 for use in females age 9 to 26. But since then, the FDA and CDC have kept tabs on any side effects reported for Gardasil — as it does with all vaccines —&#160; through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Since coming on the market, Merck has distributed more than 35 million doses of the vaccine in the U.S. There have been no reports of anyone suffering mental retardation as a result of receiving the Gardasil vaccine.</p>
<p>In August, a committee of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine, after extensive review of published scientific research on vaccine safety, released a <a href="http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/Adverse-Effects-of-Vaccines-Evidence-and-Causality/Report-Brief.aspx" type="external">report</a> that took a comprehensive look at the adverse events for a number of vaccines, including HPV.</p>
<p>The IOM panel concluded "the evidence is strong and generally suggestive" of a causal relationship between the HPV vaccine and <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000844.htm" type="external">anaphylaxis</a>. Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that can cause cramping, difficulty breathing or swallowing, hives, nausea or fainting. (Doctors are advised to observe patients for a short period after injection, in case one of these rare allergic reactions takes place.) There was no evidence proving a causal relationship between the HPV vaccine and any other adverse event.</p>
<p>We spoke to Dr. Joseph Bocchini, <a href="http://www.lsuhscshreveport.edu/InfectiousDiseases/JosephBocchini.aspx" type="external">chairman</a> of the Department of Pediatrics at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center – Shreveport. He's also a member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and chairs the ACIP's HPV working group.</p>
<p>Of the 35 million doses of HPV that have been distributed, Bocchini said there have been 19,000 reports of adverse events — most of them described as "non-serious." But that doesn't mean the vaccine caused any of them. To determine a causal relationship requires a large and thorough database study to determine whether the events are happening more frequently than one would expect to see without the vaccine.</p>
<p>"The evidence is that there is no serious risk to the use of this vaccine," Bocchini said. "Its safety record is very strong."</p>
<p>The IOM did note there were four published reports of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM). That is a neurological event that could potentially lead to a decrease in mental capabilities, Bocchini said. It's possible, he said, that the unidentified woman who spoke to Bachmann — if she was someone who didn't have the correct medical terms at her disposal — might have been referring to ADEM, although that it not the same thing as mental retardation.</p>
<p>Even still, the <a href="http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13164&amp;page=441" type="external">IOM concluded</a> there was insufficient evidence, based on the small number of reports, to establish any kind of causal relationship between the HPV vaccine and ADEM. It said: " <a href="http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13164&amp;page=443" type="external">The evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship</a> between HPV vaccine and ADEM."</p>
<p>"There is no vaccine that I'm aware of that's been associated with a significant likelihood of damage being done to the neurological systems that would affect brain function," Bocchini said.</p>
<p>The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, O. Marion Burton, also released a <a href="http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/hpv2011.pdf" type="external">statement</a> to "correct false statements" made by Bachmann.</p>
<p>Burton, Sept. 13: The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record.</p>
<p>The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive HPV vaccine around age 11 or 12. That’s because this is the age at which the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body, and because it’s important to protect girls well before the onset of sexual activity. In the U.S., about 6 million people, including teens, become infected with HPV each year, and 4,000 women die from cervical cancer. This is a life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer.</p>
<p>Bachmann's comments were also condemned by the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership in a statement to <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0911/Bachmanns_vaccine_doubts_dangerous_and_irresponsible.html" type="external">Politico</a>.</p>
<p>GRASP spokesman Evan Siegfried, Sept. 13: Congresswoman Bachmann's decision to spread fear of vaccines is dangerous and irresponsible. There is zero credible scientific evidence that vaccines cause mental retardation or autism. She should cease trying to foment fear in order to advance her political agenda.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.hannity.com/videos?uri=channels/400391/1484677" type="external">interview</a> on Sept. 13, Sean Hannity of Fox News played a clip of Bachmann relaying the anecdote about Gardasil causing the woman's daughter to suffer mental retardation, and he asked her directly about it.</p>
<p>"Is that one of the side effects of this? Because I've not heard that," Hannity said.</p>
<p>"I have no idea," Bachmann said, before relaying the anecdote yet again.</p>
<p>"I am not a doctor, I'm not a scientist, I'm not a physician," Bachmann said. "All I was doing is reporting what this woman told me last night at the debate."</p>
<p>However, Bachmann has repeatedly cited the anecdote in the context of her assertion that the vaccine is potentially dangerous. And there is no scientific evidence to back that up.</p>
<p>— Robert Farley</p> | An Antidote for Bachmann’s Anecdote | false | https://factcheck.org/2011/09/an-antidote-for-bachmanns-anecdote/ | 2011-09-14 | 2 |
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<p>Dude wanted to make a “Godzilla” movie. Married to a “Tranformers” picture. With a little “Starship Troopers” and “Independence Day” and “Hellboy” mixed in.</p>
<p>It’s the future of cinema – or the present: a movie cunningly calculated to lure Hollywood’s biggest growth market with just its title – “Pacific Rim.” That’s where this sci-fi war is fought and that’s where the audience lies – American fanboys and Asian and Australian ones, too.</p>
<p>In the very near future, enormous alien beasts are sneaking into the ocean through a dimensional crack in the ocean floor along the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire.” The Japanese named them “kaiju,” because “Godzilla” already was taken. And after realizing battling these monsters is a toxic disaster, the world’s governments teamed up to build gigantic, human-controlled robots called jaegers, after the German word for “hunter.”</p>
<p />
<p>The pairs of rangers who drive them wear armor that lets them maneuver them – one ranger controls the left side and left brain, the other the right side – through a neural mind-meld process called “drifting.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In a prologue, we meet a pair of mind-melded brothers (Charlie Hunnam, Diego Klattenhoff) who drive the jaeger Gipsy Danger into harm’s way. But things go wrong and one sibling is killed. That heralds the end of this jaeger program.</p>
<p>The world will wall off the coast along the Pacific Rim, with the rich and powerful getting the primo interior real estate and the rest of the populace stuck building the walls and living on the coasts.</p>
<p>Cut to years later and the jaeger program is winding down, the wall is being completed but “our best scientists” (shrieking Charlie Day of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” daft-Brit Burn Gorman of “Game of Thrones”) don’t think the wall will work. The monsters keep coming.</p>
<p>Rebellious returning ranger Raleigh (Hunnam of TV’s “Sons of Anarchy) angles to get martial arts mama Mako (Rinko Kikuchi of “Babel”) as his partner. And program director Stacker Pentecost (Elba) says, “That’s not going to happen.”</p>
<p>Any movie that recycles the line, “Don’t get cocky, kid,” for starters and progresses to “Fortune favors the brave, dude,” isn’t meant to be taken seriously.</p>
<p>The leads are bland, and the cast doesn’t so much perform as show up and give us tastes of patented shtick that we expect – Elba has his “Henry V” speech, the Bobcat-voiced Day kvetches, the grumpy Ron (“Hellboy”) Perlman (as an underworld purveyor of kaiju body parts) growls.</p>
<p>Dumb movies like this don’t invite much analysis. What’s the point of the “mind melding” if the teams are still yelling commands and punching buttons as they fight? Mind-melding should mean they think and act on reflex, turning on the robot’s “elbow rockets” to give power to the punches in an instant.</p>
<p>None of which subtracts anything from the stupid, over-the-top, popcorn-picture fun of it all.</p>
<p>Del Toro’s robots have weight and mass, and their epic, Hong Kong-smashing fights with the four- and six-legged, clawed and horned monsters are visually coherent, unlike the messy blur of the “Transformers” movies.</p>
<p>There’s a light, humorous feel to “Pacific Rim” because the science is silly and logic takes a flying leap.</p>
<p>In a cinema season where the laws of physics take a vacation (“Fast &amp; Furious 6”), where everyone’s mad for the apocalypse – from the Biblical to the zombie-induced – “Pacific Rim” is the maddest of all.</p> | Smashing fights with monsters, robots | false | https://abqjournal.com/220032/smashing-fights-with-monsters-robots.html | 2013-07-12 | 2 |
<p>Shutting down a whole city to search for one man arguably sends the message that the terrorists have won: they have succeeded in closing a major metropolis. I don't know how much this will cost in lost productivity, but millions and millions would be a conservative guess.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it also sends another message: if you set off bombs in a public space, we will shut down the city and hunt you like vermin until we find you.</p>
<p>I doubt it's necessary to shut the city down in order to catch Tsarnaev. Unless he's got a plastic surgeon stashed in his back pocket, the next time he goes out in public, someone will recognize him, and he'll be caught.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the brothers seem to have had a lot of explosives with them. How many more people are we willing to see blown up in order to keep normal life flowing in the city? The incentives for the police and the government are pretty clear, and I'm not willing to second-guess them. Boston lost one Friday. But no one else lost their lives.</p> | Should the Police Have Shut Boston Down? | true | https://thedailybeast.com/should-the-police-have-shut-boston-down | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A different kind of tree-trimming took place at the White House on Wednesday when part of a historic magnolia on the south grounds was shorn off because it had become a safety risk, a spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump said.</p>
<p>The nearly 200-year-old tree was cut back while President Donald Trump and his family are in Florida for the holidays.</p>
<p>Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said earlier in the week that Mrs. Trump had given her OK for a large portion of the tree to be removed after she reviewed reports about the magnolia’s condition prepared by government experts and explored options with White House staff.</p>
<p>Mrs. Trump was concerned for the safety of visitors and journalists who often stand in front of the tree during certain events, Grisham said. The first lady has asked that wood from the tree be preserved, and that seedlings be available if an opportunity arises to plant a new tree.</p>
<p>President Andrew Jackson added the magnolia to the south grounds in 1835, according to the White House Historical Association. It stands on the west side of the South Portico, rising almost as tall as the White House itself, and is one of two magnolias flanking the south entrance.</p>
<p>The White House did not inform news organizations ahead of time that the tree would be trimmed on Wednesday. Despite the White House saying a large portion of tree would be removed, before and after photos showed that not much of the tree had been cut away after all.</p>
<p>Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who grew up in the White House during Bill Clinton’s two terms in office, tweeted her thanks late Tuesday to the horticulturists and National Park Service attendants who take care of the White House grounds. The White House is part of a national park.</p>
<p>“Thank you @FLOTUS for preserving part of a tree I &amp; so many have treasured,” Clinton tweeted to Mrs. Trump, using an acronym for “first lady of the United States.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap</a></p>
<p>WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A different kind of tree-trimming took place at the White House on Wednesday when part of a historic magnolia on the south grounds was shorn off because it had become a safety risk, a spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump said.</p>
<p>The nearly 200-year-old tree was cut back while President Donald Trump and his family are in Florida for the holidays.</p>
<p>Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said earlier in the week that Mrs. Trump had given her OK for a large portion of the tree to be removed after she reviewed reports about the magnolia’s condition prepared by government experts and explored options with White House staff.</p>
<p>Mrs. Trump was concerned for the safety of visitors and journalists who often stand in front of the tree during certain events, Grisham said. The first lady has asked that wood from the tree be preserved, and that seedlings be available if an opportunity arises to plant a new tree.</p>
<p>President Andrew Jackson added the magnolia to the south grounds in 1835, according to the White House Historical Association. It stands on the west side of the South Portico, rising almost as tall as the White House itself, and is one of two magnolias flanking the south entrance.</p>
<p>The White House did not inform news organizations ahead of time that the tree would be trimmed on Wednesday. Despite the White House saying a large portion of tree would be removed, before and after photos showed that not much of the tree had been cut away after all.</p>
<p>Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who grew up in the White House during Bill Clinton’s two terms in office, tweeted her thanks late Tuesday to the horticulturists and National Park Service attendants who take care of the White House grounds. The White House is part of a national park.</p>
<p>“Thank you @FLOTUS for preserving part of a tree I &amp; so many have treasured,” Clinton tweeted to Mrs. Trump, using an acronym for “first lady of the United States.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap</a></p> | Historic White House magnolia cut back for safety reasons | false | https://apnews.com/83be516a65cb417eb400f87cfc9b14b4 | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
<p>SlateJack Shafer asks: For whose benefit was the off-the-record Justice Antonin Scalia interview conducted? "Obviously not for reporters, who were barred from divulging its contents. ...Lost in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/28/business/28grove.html" type="external">dust-up</a> was a discussion about why [Time Warner chairman Richard] Parsons would impose any conditions, well-conceived or otherwise, on the invited audience." Parsons made sourcing demands that exceed those placed on Washington reporters by the government, says Shafer. (Related Wonkette <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/wonkette/20051128/en_wonkette/scaliasappearanceofridiculousness;_ylt=A86.I1QVI4tDrhYBShL9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--" type="external">post</a>.)</p> | What possessed Time Warner to stage its Scalia farce? | false | https://poynter.org/news/what-possessed-time-warner-stage-its-scalia-farce | 2005-11-29 | 2 |
<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the California Lottery's "SuperLotto Plus" game were:</p>
<p>04-15-21-24-39, Mega Ball: 6</p>
<p>(four, fifteen, twenty-one, twenty-four, thirty-nine; Mega Ball: six)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $12 million</p>
<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the California Lottery's "SuperLotto Plus" game were:</p>
<p>04-15-21-24-39, Mega Ball: 6</p>
<p>(four, fifteen, twenty-one, twenty-four, thirty-nine; Mega Ball: six)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $12 million</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'SuperLotto Plus' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/90740e9c24754144bcbf43ef52465c95 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>According to Israeli government documents, the former leader of South Africa was trained by Israel’s intelligence agency in the 1960s; there are many parallels to be drawn between the Sochi and Berlin Olympics; meanwhile, a White House review panel member expresses his “surprise” in finding that the NSA’s data collection has not stopped a single act of terrorism. These discoveries and more below.</p>
<p>On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jta.org/2013/12/20/news-opinion/world/report-mandela-received-mossad-training#ixzz2o39Jfbr5" type="external">Mandela Received Mossad Training</a> Nelson Mandela received training from Israel’s Mossad in the 1960s, an Israeli government document has revealed.</p>
<p><a href="http://anticap.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/hes-just-a-old-white-man/" type="external">Langston Hughes on Santa: ‘He’s Just a Old White Man’</a> Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s comments about Santa (who, in her view, “just is white”) is a reminder of Langston Hughes’s short story, “One Christmas Eve.”</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/in-sochi-olympic-games-shades-of-1936/" type="external">In Sochi Olympic Games, Shades Of 1936</a> So who will be the Jesse Owens of the Sochi Winter Olympics?</p>
<p><a href="http://my.firedoglake.com/scottmclarty/2013/12/16/big-government-for-dummies-food-stamp-cuts-bloated-military-budgets-and-state-cartel-capitalism/" type="external">Big Government for Dummies: Food-Stamp Cuts, Bloated Military Budgets, and State-Cartel Capitalism</a> It’s hardly a surprise that the coalition of social-justice groups that held a press conference in Washington, DC, on December 10 had no influence on the latest lurch into austerity.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/time-to-make-the-federal-reserve-a-public-utility/" type="external">Time to Make the Federal Reserve a Public Utility</a> The Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913 in response to a wave of bank crises, which had hit on average every six years over a period of 80 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/522476/thinking-in-silicon/page/4/?utm_campaign=newsletters&amp;utm_source=newsletter-weekly-communications&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=20131223" type="external">Thinking in Silicon</a> Picture a person reading these words on a laptop in a coffee shop.</p>
<p><a href="http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/19/21975158-nsa-program-stopped-no-terror-attacks-says-white-house-panel-member?lite" type="external">NSA Program Stopped No Terror Attacks, Says White House Panel Member</a> A member of the White House review panel on NSA surveillance said he was “absolutely” surprised when he discovered the agency’s lack of evidence that the bulk collection of telephone call records had thwarted any terrorist attacks.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115995/asas-boycott-israel-not-troubling-it-seems?utm_campaign=tnr-daily-newsletter&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=11474534" type="external">The ASA’s Boycott of Israel Is Not as Troubling As It Seems</a> The American Studies Association’s decision to boycott Israel has made front-page news.</p> | Mandela and Mossad | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/mandela-and-mossad/ | 2013-12-24 | 4 |
<p />
<p>The Democratic Party experienced a historically unprecedented loss in the first mid-term elections since the Supreme Court installed President George W. Bush in the White House. In response, one might think that party leaders would be engaged in a bit of public soul-searching.</p>
<p>Instead, the party’s national chairman, Terry McAuliffe, and his counterparts on the House and Senate campaign committees offered nothing but spin, while the skirmish to replace outgoing House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt ended barely before it began, so well-greased was the stealth campaign run by its winner, Nancy Pelosi.</p>
<p>Citing the Democrats’ net gain of four governorships, McAuliffe crowed during a press conference the day after the election that 52% of all Americans now lived under a Democratic state administration, actually claiming that “Democrats are in good shape.”</p>
<p>Sure, the Dems gained control of the executive mansions in the big industrial states of Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan, but they failed to dent the Bush hold on Florida and Texas, lost crushingly in New York, and were held to under 50% in California by the worst Republican candidate in history (with a little help from the Greens). They gained in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Arizona, the latter three putting some blue in the midst of red America, but they lost hold of South Carolina and Georgia and failed to pick up predominantly Democratic states like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maryland. (And it’s going to be a mixed blessing at best to be a governor facing record state budget gaps and forced to either cut programs or raise taxes.)</p>
<p>Far more importantly, Democrats lost ground in the House and lost control in the Senate. While McAuliffe celebrates a handful of gubernatorial victories, President Bush has a free hand to pursue his agenda to its ideological extreme. Despite McAuliffe’s silver-lining spin, the Democrats lost in just about every close race decided on national issues. Democrats are decidedly not “in good shape.”</p>
<p>Within hours of the polls closing, Democrats were being told they only had themselves to blame. They were told that they lacked a clear national message, that they lacked a clear plan of action. Faced with such charges, party leaders responded with yet more spin. Congresswoman Nita Lowey of New York, chair of the House Campaign Committee, insisted that all the House Democratic campaigns she and her counterparts raised money for emphasized issues like prescription drugs, education and Social Security. True, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt did issue a big economy policy statement in the weeks before the election in an effort to draw voters’ attention from the Bush administration’s war talk back to the economy. But his biggest proposal was for an economic summit. You call that a program? Besides, the Republicans did a very good job of blurring the partisan differences on those domestic issues, while voicing muscular support for Bush’s war plans.</p>
<p>As pollster Stanley Greenberg reported on the Friday after Election Day, while there wasn’t a genuine shift to the right among the active electorate — compared to 2000, only one percent of voters shifted from the D column to the R column — voters had far less of an idea what Democrats stood for compared to Republicans. Forty-five percent said Republicans had clear plans for the future, while only 20% said the same of Democrats. And while a stunning 70% of those who voted said the economy was in fair or poor shape, two-thirds thought the candidates had no clear position on how to fix the problem. The non-partisan Voter News Service failed to deliver its highly touted exit polls last Tuesday, so we don’t know for sure how this lack of clarity affected partisan turnout, but Republican pollster Bill Mcinturff claimed that an internal poll his company conducted election night showed Republican voters coming out at a significantly greater rate than Democrats, and comparisons of vote turnouts in selected urban and suburban counties tracked by analysts John Judis and Ruy Teixiera confirm that claim. Republicans came out in force, while Democratic base voters were more likely to stay home.</p>
<p>The Right Risks</p>
<p>The question now is what lessons will national Democrats take from the loss? What will the party learn from the defeat of incumbent Senators Max Cleland of Georgia and Jean Carnahan of Missouri? What will Democrats make of their inability to win the close Senate races in Colorado and New Hampshire? All of this matters because it will frame Democratic thinking as they approach the newly empowered Bush Administration.</p>
<p>Will Democrats continue to play the now-familiar game of me-too politics, so exemplified by House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt’s embrace of Bush’s Iraq resolution? Certainly, the Democratic Leadership Council wing of the party will argue that Democrats have to tack further right in search of the elusive political center. They will claim that the party must appear less obstructionist on issues ranging from judicial nominations to prescription drug reform, less beholden to labor, and less querulous about the president’s foreign policy.</p>
<p>The alternative requires a level of risk-taking that many incumbents fear. To challenge the GOP on its weakest flank — its subservience to its big corporate paymasters — requires some courage, because in the short run it may mean more time in the political and financial wilderness. Democrats are already at a fundraising disadvantage, and the new campaign finance provision doubling the limit on contributions from individuals to $2000 will only widen that partisan gap. As a result, many incumbent Democrats may counsel caution, not so much for ideological reasons, but simply because they don’t want to offend big sources of campaign cash.</p>
<p>Still, some Democrats have already shown you can fight on these issues and win. Progressives like Senator Russ Feingold and Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. are already comfortable railing at the corruption inside the temple of democracy. There’s good evidence that ads attacking incumbent Senator Tim Hutchinson — the sole Republican to lose his seat last week — on his ties to corporate campaign contributors and his opposition to campaign finance reform played a significant role in his defeat. Certainly Paul Wellstone, God bless him, proved in two elections that such tactics were not only good principle, but good politics. Wellstone won by mobilizing a huge grass-roots base and taking on the corporate bad guys by name. He was on his way to proving this strategy again when he was tragically killed two weeks ago in a plain crash. These same Democrats have also been the most outspoken critics of the Bush administration, attacking the president’s bungling of domestic issues and his blind focus on war against Iraq.</p>
<p>The Good Fight</p>
<p>The fight to redefine the Democratic future had its first skirmish last week, when California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi handily won the contest to replace Richard Gephardt as House Minority leader. It’s about time that the Democrats elevated a woman into a national leadership position, a mere three-quarters of a century after women won the right to vote. But while Pelosi is a California liberal, with strong positions in favor of choice, AIDS funding and human rights in China, she’s scarcely the kind of prairie-fire populist the party needs to alter its bi-coastal elitist identity. Many liberals (and plenty of conservatives) are celebrating Pelosi’s victory, suggesting it means the party has finally decided to move leftwards.</p>
<p>But, as Doug Ireland notes in <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/52/news-ireland.php" type="external">his essential dissection</a> of Pelosi in the current LA Weekly; “Pelosi got her new job as minority leader the old-fashioned way – she bought it, raising some $8 million for House Democrats in the last election cycle and crisscrossing the country handing out the checks.” True, most of her campaign funds come from organized labor, along with significant sums from the American Medical Association, liberal Wall Street types and Democratic-tilting real estate interests — a set of backers less conservative than the big business groups clustered behind Rep. Martin Frost, Pelosi’s chief rival for the post. But will this new Queen of the Democrats, wife of a multimillionaire, lead a new charge against the money-changers in the temples of democracy? It’s doubtful.</p>
<p>For an alternative to Pelosi’s big money politics, one had only to consider longtime Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, a late entry into the leadership battle. In a ringing statement that got little press coverage, Kaptur declared:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>To win, our party must adopt a reform paradigm. We will never raise more money than the Republicans-never. We must elevate the non-money wing of the Democratic Party and create populist symbols to convey our message. We should hold up key Republican fundraisers, such as Jack Welch and Kenneth Lay, as the ‘poster boys’ for the failed GOP economic strategy. We should hold the Republicans’ feet to the fire on rising bank fees, skyrocketing insurance rates, tax breaks skewed to the richest Americans, and a failed deregulation strategy. … We should stand up not only for the steel industry, but also the textile workers in the Southeast, the auto parts industry in the Midwest, and the small businesses such as tool and die shop owner and the family farmer all around the country. They’re all in trouble, and nobody’s standing up for them because they’re not giant multinational corporations pumping money into the political system.”</p>
<p>Kaptur barely got a hearing for these sentiments, as Pelosi had clearly been preparing her ascension for months and the Democrats fell in line behind her with scarcely a dribble of debate. Of course, the contest for the Minority Leader’s office is only a reflection of the larger battle, one for what’s left of the Democratic Party’s soul. The odds in that fight are long. But, if the Democrats walk away without a clear party identity — and without a plan to attack the Republicans’ big money foibles, then we’ll just see more of the same every Election Day for the foreseeable future: right-wing victories and Democratic spin about what could have been.</p>
<p /> | Course Correction Required | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2002/11/course-correction-required/ | 2002-11-18 | 4 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Susan Hoey-Lees filed suit in Sacramento Superior Court Thursday against the diocese and the Rev. Vincent Brady, accusing the priest and diocesan officials of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.</p>
<p />
<p>Hoey-Lees claims that the defendants "negligently and carelessly ... called her, by name, as a liar and someone who falsely claimed to be a victim of clergy sexual abuse."</p>
<p>Diocesan officials say they are surprised by the lawsuit.</p> | Woman sues priest, diocese for abuse denial | false | https://poynter.org/news/woman-sues-priest-diocese-abuse-denial | 2003-04-01 | 2 |
<p>Bush seized upon the report of David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group, to assert that Kay’s interim conclusions showed that Saddam had been in hot pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, as demonstrated in particular by the “deadly vial”.</p>
<p>Kay made a cautious bid to help Bush and Blair out, but it’s a case of trying to bake bricks without straw. The best dissection of the Kay report came in The Independent from Dr Glen Rangwala of Cambridge (UK).</p>
<p>Kay stated flatly that his team had found</p>
<p>*no evidence of orders or plans to continue an active nuclear program after 1991. The aluminum tubes were not for the purposes of uranium enrichment.</p>
<p>*At the seven sites stigmatized in the September 2002 dossier of Blair’s government, there was no evidence of suspicious activities or residues.</p>
<p>*There was no sign of imported uranium.</p>
<p>There were no C/B “battlefield munitions” ready to be launched in 45 minutes.</p>
<p>There was no trace of “the chemical weapons, biological weapons, viruses, bacilli and10,000 liters of anthrax” invoked by UK foreign secretary Jack Straw.</p>
<p>Kay alleged that an Iraqi biologist had “a collection of reference strains” at his home, including “a vial of live C botulinum Okra B from which a biological agent can be produced.” Straw leaped on this, claiming that this agent is 15,000 times stronger than the nerve agent VX. Wrong, says Rangwala. The vial held not the super deadly type A but the less lethal type B and there was no evidence found by Kay’s group of any preparations for the extensive process required for weaponization. Botulinum type B can be used as an antidote for common botulinum poisoning. The UK does so and calls them “seed banks”.</p>
<p>Kay asserts that Iraq had been acquiring designs and undertaking “research” for missiles with a range of more than the UN limit of 150km. Rongwala says emphatically that Iraq was prohibited from actually having such missiles, and that Kay’s team had discovered no evidence of such possession or facilities, “just the knowledge to produce them in future”.</p>
<p>Let me quote in full Rongwala’s final points, made in The Independent for October 5: “One sentence within the [Kay] report has been much quoted: Iraq had ‘a clandestine network of laboratories and safe houses within the Iraqi intelligence service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research’. Note what that sentence does not say: these facilities were suitable for chemical and biological weapons research (as almost any modern lab would be), not that they had engaged in such research. The reference to UN monitoring is also spurious: under the terms of UN resolutions, all of Iraq’s chemical and biological facilities are subject to monitoring. So all this tells us is that Iraq had modern laboratories.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>White House, Downing Street, CIA and British Secret Service in Plot to Murder Leading Syrians</p>
<p>Maybe they are now, but the evidence is incontrovertible that just such a plot was being hatched back in 1957. Plus ca change.</p>
<p>On September 27 the London Guardian ran a long piece by Ben Fenton describing private papers excavated by a British historian from Royal Holloway University, Matthew Jones, from the archive of Duncan Sandys, British secretary of defense in the Conservative government of the late 1950s headed by Harold MacMillan.</p>
<p>Sandys’ papers contain a document drawn up by secret high level working group that met in Washington DC in September 1957.</p>
<p>This document is remarkable for the frankness with which it outlines plans for assassination (“eliminate”)and subversion by Western intelligence services.</p>
<p>The “preferred plan” reads, in part, as follows: “In order to facilitate the action of liberative [sic] forces, reduce the capacity of the Syrian regime to organize and direct its military forces, to hold losses and destruction to a minimum, and to bring about desired results in the shortest possible time, a special effort should be made to eliminate certain key individuals. Their removal should be accomplished early in the course of the uprising”</p>
<p>The three individuals scheduled for assassination were named in the document approved by the Eisenhower administration and by MacMillan. They were Abd al-Hamid Sarraj, head of Syrian military intelligence; Afif al-Bizri, head of the Syrian general staff; and Khalid Bakdash, leader of the Syrian Communist Party.</p>
<p>MacMillan described the action plan as a “most formidable report” in his diary and ordered it be held secret from British chiefs of staff, because of their propensity “to chatter”. The background of the report was the overthrow in 1954 of the conservative military regime of Col. Adib Shishakli by an alliance of the Syrian Ba’ath Party, Communist Party politicians and their allies in the Syrian army.</p>
<p>Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA’s Middle Eastern chief hot from a successful coup against Iran’s legitimately elected Mossadegh government, strongly urged a coup in Syria. The plan was for CIA and British SIS operatives to initiate “sabotage, national conspiracies and various strong-arm activities” in Iraq and Jordan which would then be blamed on Damascus. It emphasized that “in mounting “minor sabotage and coup de main incidents within Syria. Care should be taken to avoid causing key leaders of the Syrian regime to take additional personal protection measures.”</p>
<p>In the end the plan was abandoned because Jordan and Iraq wouldn’t come aboard. The interest of the MacMillan government was of course to curry favor with the US, and patch things up after the US had spiked the UK attack on Nasser in 1956.</p>
<p>Dershowitz: The Case of the Plagiarist Prof (continued)</p>
<p>For those who care to follow such things, here is Prof Alan Dershowitz’s effort at rebuttal of my recent excavation of his plagiarisms in his awful book The Case for Israel. Dershowitz’s bluster is followed by my closing speech for the prosecution.</p>
<p>First Dershowitz:</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN’s politically motivated claim that I “plagiarized” from Joan Peters is total nonsense Let’s begin with what is undisputed: Every word written by others appears with quotation marks, is cited to their original or secondary sources and is quoted accurately. This means that they are not plagiarized. James Freedman, the former president of Dartmouth and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has concluded, after reviewing the relevant material, that what I did was “simply not plagiarism, under any reasonable definition of that word.”</p>
<p>Cockburn’s claim is that some of the quotes should not have been cited to their original sources but rather to a secondary source, where he believes I stumbled upon them. Even if he were correct that I found all these quotations in Peters’s book, the preferred method of citation is to the original source, as the Chicago Manual of Style emphasizes: “With all reuse of others’ materials, it is important to identify the original as the source. This … helps avoid any accusation of plagiarism…To cite a source from a secondary source (‘quoted in …’) is generally to be discouraged…”</p>
<p>It is especially cynical that Cockburn would have me cite the quotes to Peters, since Norman Finkelstein-his source-has alleged that Peters herself originally found these and other quotes in earlier books. Should I have cited those books? That is why citing the original source is preferred. I came across the quoted material in several secondary sources. They appear frequently in discussions of nineteenth-century Palestine. The Mark Twain quote, highlighted by Cockburn, appears in many books about the subject. I came across it in 1970 while preparing a debate about Israel for The Advocates. Cockburn also points out that I quote some of the same material from the Peel Report that Peters quotes, but he fails to mention that I also use many quotes from the report that do not appear in Peters’s book. I read the entire report and decided which parts to quote. I rely heavily on the Peel Report, devoting an entire chapter (six) to its findings. They are quoted directly, with proper attribution.</p>
<p>Cockburn refers to Finkelstein’s “devastating chart,” which compares several quotes from my books with quotes from Peters’s book. By juxtaposing these quotes, he makes it appear that I am borrowing words from her. But these are all quotes-properly cited in my book-from third parties. Of course they are similar, or the same. One does not change a quote. And since I did find some of the quotes in Peters’s book, as she found them in others, it should come as no surprise that the ellipses are sometimes similar or the same.</p>
<p>It is important to recall that my book is a brief for Israel. It does not purport to be a work of original demographic research, as Peters’s does. A few pages are devoted to summarizing the demographic history, and these pages rely heavily on quotes from others to make my points. I found most of my quotes in secondary sources. When I was able to locate the primary source, I quoted it. When I was unable, I cited the secondary source. Contrary to Cockburn’s implication that I cited Peters once, I cited her eight times in the first eighty-nine pages (Ch. 2, fn 31, 35; Ch. 5, fn 8; Ch. 12, fn 34, 37, 38, 44, 47). Of my more than 500 references, fewer than a dozen were found in Peters and cited to original sources. Although we use a few of the same sources-and we each use many sources not used by the other-I come to different conclusions from Peters about important issues. As I made clear in my book, “I do not in any way rely on” Peters’s conclusions or demographic data for my arguments. Peters’s basic conclusion is that only a small number of Palestinians lived in what later became Israel. She provides specific figures, which have been disputed. My very different conclusion is that:</p>
<p>“There have been two competing mythologies about Palestine circa 1880. The extremist Jewish mythology, long since abandoned, was that Palestine was “a land without people, for a people without a land.” The extremist Palestinian mythology, which has become more embedded with time, is that in 1880 there was a Palestinian people; some even say a Palestinian nation that was displaced by the Zionist invasion.</p>
<p>The reality, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Palestine was certainly not a land empty of all people. It is impossible to reconstruct the demographics of the area with any degree of precision, since census data for that time period are not reliable, and most attempts at reconstruction-by both Palestinian and Israeli sources-seem to have a political agenda.</p>
<p>I offer very different and rougher estimates, which Cockburn and Finkelstein do not challenge, as they do Peters’s. How then can I be accused of plagiarizing ideas or conclusions with which I disagree, from a book that I cite eight times, using the preferred form of citation?</p>
<p>Why then would Cockburn attack me so viciously? The answer is in his sentence bemoaning the fact that a pro-Israel book is “slithering into the upper tier of Amazon’s sales charts.” He disapproves of my message and of the fact that it is reaching a wide audience. Instead of debating me on the merits, he has tried to destroy my credibility with a false accusation. (This is not the first time he and Finkelstein have gotten together and employed this tactic against people with whom they disagree.)</p>
<p>Let people read The Case for Israel and judge it for themselves against Cockburn’s charges. I have sent his attack and my response to President Summers. I have nothing to fear from false charges.</p>
<p>Alan M. Dershowitz</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN replies</p>
<p>Every time he tries to leap to firmer ground,defending the rotten standards of scholarship in his rotten book Dershowitz simply sinks in deeper. Start with his defiant declaration from the dock that he did not commit plagiarism because “Every word written by others appears with quotation marks, is cited to their original or secondary sources and is quoted accurately.” This skates (rather clumsily, I have to say) round the question of what source Dershowitz actually did use for his citation and whether or not he acknowledged it. Often he used Peters and pretended he didn’t, which would get him into very hot water at Harvard if he was a student and not the Felix Frankfurter professor.</p>
<p>Here are Harvard’s own rules, as set forth in “Writing with Sources A Guide for Harvard Students Copyright 1995 The President and Fellows of Harvard University”:</p>
<p>“Plagiarism is passing off a source’s information, ideas, or words as your own by omitting to cite them.” And also: “When quoting or citing a passage you found quoted or cited by another scholar, and you haven’t actually read the original source, cite the passage as ‘quoted in’ or ‘cited in’ that scholar both to credit that person for finding the quoted passage or cited text, and to protect yourself in case he or she has misquoted or misrepresented”</p>
<p>I discussed only Dershowitz’s first two chapters, as dissected by Norman Finkelstein, Dershowitz’s nemesis in this whole affair, who points out that 22 of the 52 footnotes to these chapters are lifted from Peters without attribution. Finkelstein recently laid waste Dershowitz’s attempts at self-exculpation in the Harvard Crimson. As Finkelstein points out, One problem for the beleaguered prof comes in the form of ellipses. Dershowitz echoes Peters’ ellipses. Another problem identified by Finkelstein: When it comes to Twain, Dershowitz cites from one edition and Peters from another, but the page numbers he cites are from Peters’ edition, not his. So Peters’ text is where he got the quote from.</p>
<p>Yet another problem goes to the concluding sentence from the Harvard guidelines quoted above. Dershowitz echoes Peters’ mistakes. From Twain she cites as one continuous paragraph what are in fact two separate paragraphs separated by 87pp. Dershowitz follows suit. He’s handcuffed to Peters in a more serious breach of scholarship when he plagiarizes her erroneous citation of a British consular official’s supposedly first-person description to Lord Canning of an instance of anti-Semitism in Jerusalem. The description was not Young’s, but a memorandum by one A. Benisch, which Young was forwarding.</p>
<p>Another bloodied glove, as it were, comes with Dershowitz’s attribution of the admittedly unlovely neologism “turnspeak” to George Orwell. This was a coinage by Peters, who cited Orwell as having inspired it. Glazed with literary pillage, and ever eager to suppress the fact that he was relying heavily on one of the most notorious laughing stocks of Middle Eastern scholarship, Dershowitz seized on Orwell as the source, once again cutting out Peters out.</p>
<p>Quoting the Chicago Manual Dershowitz artfully implies that he followed the rules by citing “the original” as opposed to the secondary source, Peters. Of course we know he didn’t but, aside from that, he misrepresents the Manual here, where “the original” means merely the origin of the borrowed material which is, in this instance, Peters.</p>
<p>Now look at the second bit of the quote from the Manual, separated from the preceding sentence by a demure, 3-point ellipse. As my associate Kate Levin has discovered, this passage (“To cite a source from a secondary source…”) occurs on page 727 which is no less than 590 pages later than the material before the ellipse, in the section titled “Citations Taken from Secondary Sources.” Here’s the full quote, with what Dedrshowitz left out set in boldface: “‘Quoted in.’ To cite a source from a secondary source (“quoted in..”) is generally to be discouraged, since authors are expected to have examined the works they cite. If an original source is unavailable, however, both the original and the secondary source must be listed.”</p>
<p>So Chicago is clearly insisting that unless Dershowitz went to the originals, he was obliged to cite Peters. Finkelstein has conclusively demonstrated that he didn’t go to the originals. Plagiarism, Q.E.D., plus added time for willful distortion of the language of Chicago’s guidelines, cobbling together two separate discussions.</p>
<p>Some time ago three judges on a Florida appeals court overturned a $145 million landmark judgment against tobacco companies. In their decision the judges appropriated without acknowledgement extensive swaths of the brief put forward by the tobacco companies’ well-paid lawyers. The judges were sued for judicial plagiarism and as so often Dershowitz had a pithy quote: “If a student ever did what this judge did, he’d be tossed out on his rear end from Harvard Law School. We teach our students as a matter of ethics that when you borrow, you attribute.”</p>
<p>Professor Sayres Ruby of Amherst, who tells us his credentials are “from the ground up”, meaning they are drawn from practices actually used in colleges whose Honor Codes he either enforced (Davidson College) or in that position examined elsewhere (UVA, Citadel) has studied the Dershowitz/Peters case file and writes that “I can say unequivocally that under Davidson College’s and other schools’ honor codes Dershowitz’s quotations constitute plagiarism, with clear attempt to deceive as to (A) his research and (B) his findings. Thus his plagiarism is serious and unambiguous, and if it were a student in question, the debate would regard levels of punishment. Maximum punishments would be considered without any doubt, including at UVA expulsion, at Davidson two-term suspension, and at military schools such as West Point or the Citadel a discharge.”</p>
<p>But then, Dershowitz isn’t a student. He’s the Felix Frankfurter professor at Hasrvard Law School, meaning presumably that he’s beyond reform. Two-tier justice for all!</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Kay’s Misleading Report | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/10/11/kay-s-misleading-report/ | 2003-10-11 | 4 |
<p />
<p>In the summer of 2005, Mother Jones ran a <a href="/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html" type="external">huge investigative piece</a> by Chris Mooney (author of the Republican War on Science) about how ExxonMobil funds a vast array of think-tanks and special interest groups that promote climate change denial.</p>
<p>And now, according to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2612021&amp;page=1" type="external">ABC</a>, Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jay Rockefeller, (D-W.Va) have written to ExxonMobil demanding that the company “stop funding groups that have spread the idea that global warming is a myth and that try to influence policymakers to adopt that view.”</p>
<p>In their letter to ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., appealed to Exxon’s sense of corporate responsibility, asking the company to “come clean about its past denial activities.” The two senators called on ExxonMobil to “end any further financial assistance” to groups “whose public advocacy has contributed to the small but unfortunately effective climate change denial myth.”</p>
<p>Remember folks, you heard it here first.</p>
<p>The ABC story also notes that the “letter comes as dozens of major U.S. companies, including Wal-Mart, Citigroup and GE — get set to gather in New York next week for the Corporate Climate Response conference. The conference provides a forum for companies to discuss their efforts to address global warming, a topic getting increased attention in boardrooms across the United States.</p>
<p>And so the <a href="/toc/2006/11/index.html" type="external">cover package</a> we have in the current issue could not be better timed. One part is <a href="/news/feature/2006/11/13th_tipping_point.html" type="external">a story</a> by Julia Whitty that asks when humans will get past denial and deal with climate change, and lessons humanity can learn from other species about how cooperation is the key to survival. And the other is a multi-story package on corporate responsibility, which takes a hard look at what part of the movement is just spin and what part is substance. (For a taste, check out Bill McKibben’s “ <a href="/news/feature/2006/11/hype_vs_hope.html" type="external">Hype vs. Hope: Is Corporate Do-Goodery for Real?</a>“.)</p>
<p /> | Senators Tell ExxonMobil to Stop Funding Climate Change Deniers (A Story Mother Jones Broke) | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/10/senators-tell-exxonmobil-stop-funding-climate-change-deniers-story-mother-jones-broke/ | 2006-10-30 | 4 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — The Latest on Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States (all times EST):</p>
<p>12:15 a.m.</p>
<p>The nation’s 45th president, Donald Trump, has arrived back at the White House after attending three inaugural balls celebrating his election.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The president has used the balls to recount his victory and to let supporters know that “now the fun begins.”</p>
<p>One of the biggest cheers of the night came when he asked whether he should continue to use his Twitter account. The crowd gave the question a resounding yes.</p>
<p>The president took part in one dance at each ball after giving a short speech. The president chose to dance to the song “My Way” during the first two balls and “I Will Always Love You” for the third.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:55 p.m.</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence is paying tribute to veterans with a stop at another inaugural celebration.</p>
<p>Pence made an unannounced stop at the Veterans Inaugural Ball at a downtown Washington hotel late Friday.</p>
<p>Pence, who was introduced by the head of the American Legion, said the day was “the dawn of a new era.”</p>
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<p>He paid tribute to veterans who have been killed or injured in the line of duty and said they were “an inspiration to our new president,” Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Pence pledged that the Trump administration would take better care of the nation’s veterans and give the military “every tool” it needs.</p>
<p>Pence’s son is a Marine and his father was a veteran.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:15 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are taking part in a traditional dance and cake-cutting with members of the U.S. military.</p>
<p>The newly sworn-in president is dancing with U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Catherine Cartmell of Newport, Rhode Island.</p>
<p>Mrs. Trump is dancing with U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jose A. Medina of Ponce, Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, also are dancing with members of the military.</p>
<p>The Trumps and Pences are also participating in the military’s traditional cake cutting to honor the sacrifice and service of its members. The cake is cut with a saber.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:10</p>
<p>First lady Melania Trump thanked the members of the armed services at the third and final inaugural ball she and President Donald Trump attended Friday.</p>
<p>She said, “Thank you all for your service. I’m honored to be your first lady.”</p>
<p>The first couple then danced to “I Will Always Love You.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:10 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump asked the crowd at the second of three inaugural balls he’s attending whether he should “keep the Twitter going?”</p>
<p>The crowd roared in apparent approval.</p>
<p>Trump said his all-hours tweeting to his more than 20 million followers is “a way of bypassing dishonest media.”</p>
<p>He spoke with first lady Melania Trump by his side. She wore an ivory column gown.</p>
<p>“Now,” he added, “the fun begins.”</p>
<p>The first couple again danced to “My Way.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:40 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, are dancing at the first of three inaugural balls they’ll attend Friday night.</p>
<p>Trump says his first day as commander-in-chief was great.</p>
<p>Trump says, “People that weren’t so nice to me were saying that we did a really good job today.” He adds, “It’s like God was looking down on us.”</p>
<p>They are dancing to “My Way,” and they have been joined by Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Susan, as well as Trump family members.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:30 p.m.</p>
<p>After eight years, Barack Obama had to wait a little bit longer to start his post-presidential relaxation.</p>
<p>The plane taking the Obama family from Washington to the California desert Friday was delayed then diverted because of bad weather.</p>
<p>Officials say the Obamas hovered for about 40 minutes over Palm Springs International Airport, where gawkers and photographers had gathered to catch a glimpse of them. It was eventually diverted to March Air Reserve Base about 60 miles to the west, where it landed at about 5:45 p.m., about an hour after it was expected.</p>
<p>Obama left Washington after attending President Donald Trump’s morning inauguration.</p>
<p>The first family had sought a sunny vacation as they left cold capital, but Southern California is being doused by a series of storms.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:25 p.m.</p>
<p>Members of the military, veterans and first responders are awaiting President Donald Trump’s arrival at the “Salute to Our Armed Services” ball.</p>
<p>The invitation-only event is being held in Washington’s National Building Museum, which has hosted such events since the days of Grover Cleveland.</p>
<p>The evening began with a solemn prayer and a moment of silence in honor of soldiers killed in the line of duty.</p>
<p>The evening’s entertainment is being provided by singer Tony Orlando, who was introduced as “America’s most loved and enduring entertainer,” and Texas musician Josh Weathers.</p>
<p>Weathers at one point told the crowd, “I know that nobody in this room knows who I am.” He has been playing popular covers for guests gathered around a sprawling stage.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The White House is putting a freeze on any new regulations and halting ones that former President Barack Obama’s administration had started.</p>
<p>A memo from White House chief of staff Reince Priebus says federal agencies shouldn’t submit any completed regulations to be published in the Federal Register until President Donald Trump’s administration can review them.</p>
<p>The memo also freezes any regulations that were in the pipeline to be published. Regulations that have already been published but haven’t kicked in are to be postponed for 60 days to allow for a review.</p>
<p>Priebus says the White House budget director can grant exceptions to allow critical regulations to move forward.</p>
<p>The memo is similar to one that Obama’s chief of staff issued the same day Obama was inaugurated in 2009.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Protesters and an Associated Press photographer say police fired rubber projectiles at them during demonstrations against President Donald Trump in downtown Washington.</p>
<p>An AP photographer says he was hit three times by projectiles — once on his left shin and twice on his right — while covering demonstrations Friday.</p>
<p>A photo of a spent canister appears to show the bottom part of a “rubber sponge.” The foam-nosed projectile is launched at high-speed by police as a form of less lethal force.</p>
<p>District of Columbia police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck says police did not use rubber bullets but would not comment on whether they used rubber sponges. He says he will “gladly provide” a comprehensive after-action report once the demonstrations wrap up.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8:10 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump is already making some changes to the Oval Office.</p>
<p>A bust of Winston Churchill was visible as reporters were allowed in to watch Trump sign an executive order.</p>
<p>Former President Barack Obama had been criticized for removing the bust. But Obama had said the Churchill bust remained in a prominent White House location outside his private office where he could see it every day.</p>
<p>A rug Obama had in the Oval Office that had quotations along its border has been removed.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:50 p.m.</p>
<p>Defense Secretary James Mattis is telling military personnel and their families that his actions are aimed at making sure “our military is ready to fight today and in the future.”</p>
<p>Mattis said in a statement Friday evening that he recognizes that “no nation is secure without friends” and is pledging to “work with the State Department to strengthen” the nation’s alliances.</p>
<p>He says the Pentagon is “devoted to gaining full value from every taxpayer dollar spent on defense, thereby earning the trust of Congress and the American people.”</p>
<p>The statement was released just moments after Mattis was sworn in to the Cabinet post overseeing the Pentagon.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:35 p.m.</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence has sworn in President Donald Trump’s nominees to run the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department.</p>
<p>Retired Gen. James Mattis took the oath of office to be defense secretary. Retired Gen. John Kelly took the oath to be homeland security secretary.</p>
<p>They were sworn in Friday during a hastily arranged ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the vice president’s suite of offices is located. The building is part of the White House campus.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:30 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump has signed commissions for retired Gen. James Mattis to serve as defense secretary and retired Gen. John Kelly to serve as secretary of the Homeland Security Department.</p>
<p>Trump signed the commissions in the Oval Office on his first day in office as reporters watched.</p>
<p>Trump spokesman Sean Spicer says Vice President Mike Pence will soon deliver the oath of office to the two retired generals. The Senate confirmed their nominations earlier Friday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:25 p.m.</p>
<p>Police are clashing with protesters as a fire burns on K Street in Northwest Washington.</p>
<p>Authorities in riot gear standing side-by-side pushed protesters away from the fire, which was set in overturned newspaper bins in the middle of the street known for high-powered lobbying firms. Police hit at least 10 people with pepper spray as they advanced.</p>
<p>Several people ran from the scene yelling for medical attention while holding their eyes. Other protesters came to their aid and used bottled water to rinse their eyes.</p>
<p>With many people pushed into a nearby park, firefighters moved in and extinguished the fire.</p>
<p>_</p>
<p>7:20 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump has signed his first executive order as president, ordering federal agencies to ease the burden of President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care law.</p>
<p>Presidential spokesman Sean Spicer refused to offer details on the order.</p>
<p>Trump was joined in the Oval Office by Vice President Mike Pence, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and other top advisers as he signed the executive order on the so-called “Obamacare” law that he opposed throughout his campaign.</p>
<p>Trump also formally signed the commissions of incoming Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.</p>
<p>The White House says Priebus was also sending a memorandum to agencies and departments instituting an immediate freeze on regulations. No additional details were immediately available.</p>
<p>Asked about his first day as president, Trump says, “It was busy but good — a beautiful day.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:05 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump is using his first written statement as president to call on the Senate to confirm the rest of his nominees.</p>
<p>Trump says he is pleased that the Senate on Friday confirmed John Kelly to lead the Homeland Security Department and James Mattis at the head of the Defense Department. Trump is calling them “uniquely qualified leaders” who will start immediately to rebuild the military, defend the U.S. and secure its borders.</p>
<p>Trump says the Senate should fulfill its constitutional duty by swiftly confirming the rest of his nominees. He says they’re highly qualified. Trump says he needs them confirmed so “we can get to work on behalf of the American people.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:50 p.m.</p>
<p>The parade for newly sworn-in President Donald Trump is over, shifting the celebration to its third act — a trio of balls. Trump and first lady Melania are expected at all three.</p>
<p>Two balls will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The third, the “Salute to Our Armed Services Ball,” will take place at the National Building Museum.</p>
<p>The celebrations come after Trump was sworn in as the nation’s 45th president and the Senate confirmed his picks to lead the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The District of Columbia police chief says 217 people have been arrested and charged with rioting and six officers suffered minor injuries during demonstrations against President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Interim Police Chief Peter Newsham provided the update at a news conference Friday.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, protesters in downtown Washington linked arms, facing off from the police line and chanting, “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”</p>
<p>Metropolitan police have deployed streams of pepper spray against demonstrators marching along the streets of the nation’s capital — a disgruntled parallel to the ongoing inaugural parade.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:25 p.m.</p>
<p>Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington is tweeting a photo of flag-waving staffers welcoming the new president, and that’s not sitting well with a prominent government ethics lawyer.</p>
<p>The tweet reads: “We are waiting for you Mr. President! Thank you!”</p>
<p>Former chief White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen says the tweet “puts the lie” to Trump’s vow that his company would avoid even the appearance of using the presidency to promote his business.</p>
<p>Trump made the pledge in a six-page “White Paper” released last week to avoid conflicts of interest. He promised his company would not take “any actions that actually exploit, or even could be perceived as exploiting, the Office of the Presidency.”</p>
<p>The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:15 p.m.</p>
<p>The Senate has voted convincingly to put a tough-talking retired Marine general in charge of overseeing President Donald Trump’s pledge to crack down on illegal immigration.</p>
<p>Senators confirmed John Kelly’s nomination to lead the Homeland Security Department, 88-11.</p>
<p>Among Kelly’s likely first assignments will be executing Trump’s plans for the fate of a program that has protected more than 750,000 young immigrants from deportation.</p>
<p>If Trump keeps his campaign promises, Kelly’s agency will be responsible for strengthening the screening of immigrants permitted to enter the U.S. His department also will be charged with finding additional resources to locate and deport people living here illegally.</p>
<p>Kelly says he’s in favor of a wall at the Mexican border, but he says a physical barrier alone isn’t enough to secure the 2,000-mile frontier.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:40 p.m.</p>
<p>A video on social media shows District of Columbia police pepper-spraying a group of protesters — including an elderly woman and a man on crutches, as well as those trying to help them to move out of the way.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department declined to immediately provide comment. It was unclear what happened just before the video began.</p>
<p>The video shows a woman screaming “my child” as she runs with her crying son in her arms. Others are hunched over or coughing as plumes of pink spray waft over hundreds of people in the street. Toward the end of the video, protesters appear to be breaking up cement blocks and some people are seen throwing objects toward police.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:35 p.m.</p>
<p>The Republican-led Senate has voted to confirm James Mattis to be President Donald Trump’s defense secretary.</p>
<p>Senators cleared the retired Marine general’s nomination Friday.</p>
<p>New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who challenged the idea of a former military leader in a civilian job, voted “no.” Republicans pushed for fast approval to ensure the post wouldn’t be empty even for a brief amount of time after Trump’s swearing-in.</p>
<p>Mattis will replace Ash Carter, who has been former President Barack Obama’s defense secretary since February 2015.</p>
<p>Congress had to pave the way for Mattis to serve. Lawmakers last week passed legislation that Trump signed granting Mattis an exception from the law barring former service members who have been out of uniform for less than seven years from holding the job.</p>
<p>Mattis retired from the Marine Corps in 2013.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:30 p.m.</p>
<p>A group of protesters in downtown Washington jumped on the hood of a limousine, smashed its windows and then set it on fire, while hundreds of others waved signs and chanted slogans voicing their displeasure of their new president.</p>
<p>The protests came as President Donald Trump’s inaugural parade continued blocks away.</p>
<p>Pockets of demonstrators broke out into screaming matches with Trump supporters. Police deployed flash bang grenades. Helicopters circled above, taking in the scene.</p>
<p>A line of police officers wearing riot gear watched demonstrators marching. The officers moved in once the limo was set afire to allow fire officials to extinguish the blaze. A pile of overturned newspaper boxes, trash cans and a tire were also set alight.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:20 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and their wives are arriving at the reviewing stand near the White House to watch the inaugural parade.</p>
<p>Trump said the day was “unbelievable,” as he and wife Melania made their way along the North Lawn to the stand on Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump also flashed a thumbs-up.</p>
<p>The first couple are surrounded in the enclosed stand by their family members.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:15 p.m.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump twice got out of their vehicles to walk and wave to the crowd during their escorted trip from the Capitol to the White House.</p>
<p>They first walked for about a block before reaching the Trump International Hotel, where the crowds on both sides of the street were at their loudest. As the Trumps neared the hotel, agents urged the couple to get back into their sedan.</p>
<p>A large crowd of protesters had gathered on the opposite side of the street, while supporters and employees of the hotel cheered on the hotel side of the street.</p>
<p>Later, the Trumps exited their sedan with their children and grandchildren in tow. An announcer roared, “Welcome home, Mr. President.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:05 p.m.</p>
<p>A watchdog group is asking the General Services Administration to determine whether President Donald Trump has violated his lease for the government-owned building that houses his luxury hotel a few blocks from the White House.</p>
<p>Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington issued the letter Friday shortly after Trump took the oath of office.</p>
<p>The 2013 lease Trump signed for the Old Post Office building specifically bars any “elected official of the Government of the United States” from benefiting. Trump announced earlier this month that he would hand over day-to-day control of his multibillion-dollar business empire to two of his sons, but there is no indication he has relinquished his ownership stake in the $200 million project.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for the GSA declined to comment.</p> | Trump returns to White House after celebrations | false | https://abqjournal.com/932662/the-latest-trumps-step-out-of-cars-twice-on-parade-route.html | 2017-01-20 | 2 |
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<p>If you had a significant change in your finances this year, now is the time to make an appointment with your tax professional to review the impact on your taxes in order to determine if you will owe more or less on your 2013 tax return.&#160; After all, no one likes a big surprise next April 15.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A higher-than-expected tax liability that you cannot immediately pay is not just costly, it can also be stressful, so it would behoove you to visit a tax pro now, during the slow season when one can easily accommodate you and help you project and plan.</p>
<p>Starting now allows you to begin a savings program or adjust your payroll withholdings to prepare for the liability.</p>
<p>Here are some common tax-impacting situations that require the help of a professional and how to mitigate their potential liabilities:</p>
<p>Change in marital status. If you divorced this year or will be by Dec. 31, 2013, you will transition from the advantageous married filing joint tax status to single or head of household if you have dependents or others who will qualify you for that filling status.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, a new client asked me to prepare his 2012 income tax return and was shocked to find that he owed a huge amount in taxes. He had divorced and could no longer claim his nonworking spouse and he also lost the mortgage interest deduction because the family home was sold to settle the divorce issues. As a renter, he no longer qualified for itemized deductions.</p>
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<p>Because he had not planned accordingly, he was not prepared to meet his tax liability. However, if he had consulted a tax professional and projected the new liability, he could have adjusted his tax withholdings at work and been a happy camper on April 15. Now, he is on an installment agreement with the IRS paying an exorbitant amount in penalties and interest.</p>
<p>By the same token, another client with a lower income went through a divorce last year and became the sole support of her two children. Turns out she could have turned off withholding altogether and enjoyed a higher take-home pay because she became the recipient of the earned income tax credit netting a substantial refund.</p>
<p>If you got married this year, you will want to analyze the impact of joint finances on your tax liability. Combining both sets of numbers together to determine if there will be a liability or a refund is an important step to take to make sure your newlywed bliss doesn’t turn into a tax nightmare.</p>
<p>Buying or selling a home. The tax deductions regarding buying, selling and improving a home are complicated.&#160; If you go from being a renter to a home owner, you will enjoy a deduction for property taxes and mortgage interest. Also, if any part of the home is used as a bona fide home office, you will be able to deduct utilities, maintenance and repairs, among others—and this could bring considerable tax savings.</p>
<p>If you sell your home, part of your profit may be taxable, but it’s a good idea to consult with a tax professional to determine if you will end up owing Uncle Sam.</p>
<p>Job change. If you change jobs, you will be required to complete Form W4 to declare your exemptions. Depending upon whether there are other financial changes and if you are substantially increasing or decreasing your income, you may want to do some projections to see where you will stand next April 15. Your tax pro can help you determine how many exemptions to claim in order to align your withholdings to your liability.</p>
<p>Retirement. If you entered retirement this year, congratulations! But your &#160;tax picture just changed completely. Running the new numbers will help retirees determine how much should be saved toward taxes and whether or not to have withholdings on their retirement pay or Social Security benefits.</p> | End-of-Year Tax Planning Tips | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/10/24/end-year-tax-planning-tips.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>The Gazette reports city officials next month will speak with state Parks and Wildlife area wildlife manager Frank McGee to learn more about the problem and potential solutions.</p>
<p>McGee says regulated urban hunting involving bow and arrows and not firearm might be one of the most viable options.</p>
<p>Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Bill Vogrin says about 20 deer live in every square mile of southwest Colorado Springs.</p>
<p>Authorities say Colorado Springs’ dense deer population results in a high level of vehicle-vs.-deer crashes.</p>
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<p>The Colorado Department of Transportation says 169 such accidents occurred last year along local stretches of Interstate 25, U.S. 24 and Colorado 115.</p>
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<p>Information from: The Gazette, <a href="http://www.gazette.com" type="external">http://www.gazette.com</a></p> | Colorado Springs seeks solutions for deer overpopulation | false | https://abqjournal.com/1111151/colorado-springs-seeks-solutions-for-deer-overpopulation.html | 2 |
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<p>AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A rail line through the Texas Panhandle has been cleared following a three-train wreck that left four crew members hurt.</p>
<p>Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway said today that the line just east of Amarillo has reopened to traffic.</p>
<p>Spokesman Joe Faust says the line reopened just before 11 p.m. Wednesday. Faust also says the four workers injured in the wreck before dawn Wednesday have been treated and released from a hospital.</p>
<p>Investigators are trying to determine how an eastbound BNSF freight train rear-ended a stopped train, then moments later a westbound train crashed into the wreck. The accident derailed as many as 30 cars and left one locomotive on its side.</p>
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<p>The BNSF trains were hauling flatbed cars carrying truck trailers. No hazardous materials spilled.</p>
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<p>Online:</p>
<p>http://www.bnsf.com/</p> | Rail line reopens after 3-train wreck near Amarillo | false | https://abqjournal.com/269558/rail-line-reopens-after-3-train-wreck-near-amarillo.html | 2013-09-26 | 2 |
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<p>Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf in a scene from “American Honey.” (Courtesy of A24)</p>
<p>The Lost Boys and Lost Girls in Andrea Arnold’s electric “American Honey” depend so much on music to set the mood for their day, this film is almost a musical, even though it’s about as far from a traditional “musical” as a film can get.</p>
<p>The teens in “American Honey” feel like the spiritual offspring of the skateboarding, sexually voracious, hard-partying wanderers in Larry Clark’s 1995 indie teen shocker “Kids.”</p>
<p>But instead of the New York of “Kids,” we’re on the road in Middle America in “American Honey,” following a ragtag collection of runaways and misfits who have found an almost cultish bond working the road, selling magazine subscriptions.</p>
<p>That’s right, magazine subscriptions. For decades, adolescents and teens working as part of so-called “mag crews” have worked door to door in suburbs and small towns across the South and Midwest, selling magazine subscriptions and telling stories of how they’ll be able to move up the company ladder, or fund a college scholarship, or otherwise better themselves, if only they can accumulate so many points and earn so many dollars. (The companies behind these crews have attracted the attention of government agencies.)</p>
<p>Writer-director Arnold taps into that world as the launching point for “American Honey,” a brilliant and startling slap to the senses. At times, the symbolism grows repetitive, and the running time of 2 hours, 42 minutes admittedly tested my attention span on occasion, but this is an original, sometimes breathtaking depiction of a certain slice of American life.</p>
<p>Newcomer Sasha Lane is 18-year-old Star, whose days begin with dumpster diving and end with fending off the advances of her mother’s creepy, abusive ex-boyfriend. (Her mother, a meth addict, died some four years earlier.) Given that bleak existence, little wonder Star jumps at the chance to join Shia LaBeouf’s Jake and his band of misfit road warriors, who spend their nights partying and their days peddling those magazine subscriptions to anyone gullible enough to believe their fictional hard-luck stories.</p>
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<p>At first it seems as if Jake were in charge of the crew, but he’s really just the right-hand man to Riley Keough’s Krystal, who handles all the finances, sets up the trips, takes the lion’s share of the profits and decides who will stay with the group and who will be left on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere to fend for herself.</p>
<p>Whereas LeBeouf tries WAY too hard with the crazy hairdo and the wacky wardrobe and the mini-Sean Penn attempts at rage and charisma, Keough is much more effective because she does so much with so much less. Her deadpan, dead-eyed line readings, especially when she’s putting Star in her place, are chilling.</p>
<p>“American Honey” is filled with memorable set pieces, from the upper-middle-class Christian woman who invites Jake and Star into her home and berates them because they haven’t found God – even as her tween daughter and the daughter’s friends are twerking up a storm on the patio just behind her – to Star’s strange encounter with three 60-ish cowboys wearing white hats in a white Cadillac, to a scene where Star knocks on a door and meets a family clearly representing her own past.</p>
<p>This film is the real deal. It will bring you into a world that exists parallel to yours, right outside your car window as you run errands on Main Street.</p>
<p /> | ‘American Honey’ trails ‘mag crew’ of young runaways, misfits | false | https://abqjournal.com/866895/bittersweet-tale.html | 2 |
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<p>Photo by BOMBMAN | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>This has been quite a week for the United States at the United Nations. First, the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution that basically sought to nullify the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Fourteen ‘yes’ votes and one ‘no’, being cast by the U.S. Like the cheese in the old nursery rhyme, the U.S. stands alone.</p>
<p>Then on December 21, the General Assembly voted on what was, in essence, the same resolution. But in the General Assembly, the U.S. has no veto power.</p>
<p>The outcome of this vote, however, wasn’t surprising: 128 nations voting in favor of justice, human rights and international law, nine voting against, and 35 abstaining. Canada is in the latter group, doing a precarious balancing act in trying not to displease Trump (Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have now taken the role of the Yankee Poodle, which previously belonged to then British Prime Minister Tony Blair a decade ago), and also not alienating the heads of several Arab nations that could scuttle Canada’s quest to gain a seat on the Security Council. Unconditional support for Israel during the Stephen Harper years prevented Canada from gaining that coveted spot at that time.</p>
<p>But the lack of a veto didn’t mean that the mighty U.S. wouldn’t try everything in its power to prevent passage of the resolution. First, the embarrassing and incompetent U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, sent a letter to Assembly members, saying that the U.S. would be closely watching their vote, and any opposition would be taken personally by Trump.&#160; Then, to attempt to tighten the screws, Trump himself threatened to withhold financial assistance from any country that dared to oppose it at the U.N. Blackmail and intimidation are now the rule of the day in U.S. ‘diplomatic’ circles.</p>
<p>The vote doesn’t change anything on the ground, but it serves to highlight and emphasize the U.S.’s growing isolation from the global community, and the contempt that much of the world has for the U.S. and its extremely unpopular president. Only nine countries stood with the U.S., and these included such ‘powerhouses’ as Nauru (population 13, 049), Palau (population 21,503), and the Marshall Islands (population 53,066)</p>
<p>During her rant, Haley said that the U.S. is a major financial sponsor of the U.N. and expects a good return on its investment. She seems completely oblivious to such concepts as philanthropy, the giving to a good cause without any expectation of a return. The United Nations is such a cause. It’s website says this:</p>
<p>Due to the powers vested in its&#160; <a href="http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/" type="external">Charter</a>&#160;and its unique international character, the United Nations can take action on the issues confronting humanity in the 21st century, such as peace and security, climate change, sustainable development, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, humanitarian and health emergencies, gender equality, governance, food production, and more.</p>
<p>These are all issues that the global community should address, and the U.N., despite its many imperfections, is a means by which to do so. One nation doesn’t ‘invest’ in it, looking for a ‘return’, as if finding a promising stock, purchasing shares and hoping to make a handsome profit. It is more akin to contributing to the American Cancer Society, Heart Association or Diabetes Foundation. Individuals give money to those organizations, with the hope and expectation that by doing so, some suffering will be alleviated. This writer contributes to the Heart Association. He, himself, does not have heart problems; his parents lived long lives without ever experiencing such problems; his siblings and son don’t have them. Yet he is aware that many people die of heart disease, and he hopes that his small contributions will help to reduce those numbers. The money he gives does not benefit him directly.</p>
<p>Similarly, nations are part of, and financially sustain, the United Nations, with the hope that it will assist in alleviating suffering around the world. Even those nations that are criticized by the U.N. and its various component parts should realize that they are contributing funds for the greater good of humanity.</p>
<p>But not the U.S., and certainly not Trump. Haley, like an investment counselor watching to assure that her client’s stocks are in an upward trajectory, demands an adequate return. The U.N. cannot criticize the U.S. when it violates international law, and supports other nations in such violations. What about all the money the U.S. gives it? The U.N., in return, should grant the U.S. a pass on such things as human rights violations and defying international law.</p>
<p>Trump upped the ante by actually threatening to stop financial aid to countries that voted for this resolution. Afghanistan is a nation to which the U.S. gives billions, as it systematically works to destroy it. This is one of the 128 countries that defied the U.S. on Thursday at the U.N. It is unlikely that the U.S. will reduce the amount of aid it gives Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Egypt is another such country. Its leaders support Israel, and assist in the brutal oppression of the Palestinians, so Trump’s threat seems empty there, too.</p>
<p>Let Haley take her list to her Big Orange Boss; he will rant and rave, and ‘Tweet’ out endless threats and criticisms, all to the effect of further alienating the U.S.</p>
<p>But what is any of that? His rabid, right-wing, racist base is eating this all up; its members hate the U.N., believe the U.S. is the infallible judge, jury and executioner of the entire planet, believe that all Muslims are terrorists and that God is a real estate agent who is apparently getting a fine commission on his sale of Palestine to Jews from New York. Who needs the rest of the world?</p>
<p>The mighty U.S. will take on any problem, overthrow any democratically-elected government if it appears to lean too far to the left, support the most unspeakable human rights violations if the lobbyists from the countries committing them continue signing campaign checks, all the while proclaiming that it is a beacon of peace and freedom around the world.</p>
<p>Domestically, the U.S. police force will continue to murder unarmed Blacks, as the judiciary slaps the wrists of corporate criminals. The very people who still, incredibly, support Trump, will see their taxes increase as their medical care opportunities evaporate.</p>
<p>But their hero can proclaim that he is a Washington outsider, not attending to the political correctness of the D.C. establishment, defying international law, fomenting racial difficulties, and further making the U.S. a global pariah.</p>
<p>This is the U.S. and the world, as 2017, the first year of the Trump presidency, draws to a close. What the new year will bring is anyone’s guess.</p> | Fun and Games at the United Nations | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/12/22/fun-and-games-at-the-united-nations/ | 2017-12-22 | 4 |
<p>Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can be successfully prosecuted for war crimes. That’s the conclusion of a group of independent lawyers who have obtained top-secret documents from the highest levels of the Syrian government. All they need to put Assad behind bars, they say, is a court.</p>
<p>The work of the lawyers is detailed by Ben Taub in an article for the latest edition of the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/bashar-al-assads-war-crimes-exposed" type="external">New Yorker</a>.</p>
<p>In particular, the 600,000 pages of documentation show Assad has command responsibility for the extra-judicial detention, torture and killing of thousands of his own citizens.</p>
<p>Taub was allowed to see the lawyers at work and review their documentation. The lawyers make up an independent body called the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, or CIJA. The CIJA was set up in 2012 and has slowly been accumulating documents captured by rebels.</p>
<p>But Taub says the CIJA had a big break when a mole in Damascus began leaking documents “from within Assad’s highest level security committee, called the Central Crisis Management Cell.”</p>
<p>“This was a cell composed of about a dozen senior regime operatives whom Assad had personally appointed to handle the crisis in March 2011," Taub says.&#160;"They would draft proposals for each security issue, and send them by courier to Assad, who would then sign these directives and return them for implementation.”</p>
<p>Astonishingly, these documents are almost all original paper copies that were physically smuggled out of the country at immense personal risk to the operatives at the CIJA.</p>
<p>Stephen Rapp is the former US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, and is currently a fellow at the Hague Institute for Global Justice. As an adviser to CIJA, Rapp has had a chance to review the documents.</p>
<p>Rapp worked as a prosecutor in the war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and Sierra Leone.</p>
<p>He says the evidence available for Assad in Syria “is far stronger, in terms of that direct connection, than we had in those other trials [in which]&#160;we generally prevailed."</p>
<p>“If we have a court to take [the documents] to,” says Rapp, “we could charge and prove cases against the top level of the Syrian regime for murder, torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes.”</p>
<p>Rapp says there are signed orders going down the chain of command, and reports coming back up describing exactly what was being done. Rapp says the killings of at least 10,000 people can be documented to the highest levels.</p>
<p>“There’s these different parts of this maze of a state structure that are each communicating about these acts,” says Rapp. “So we’ve got it at both ends, and the middle of the linkage. So that’s why this is so impressive.”</p>
<p>However, evidence will not lead to a prosecution without political support. A case cannot be taken up by the International Criminal Court in The Hague without being referred by the United Nations.&#160;Russia and China blocked an attempt to set up a tribunal for Syria in 2012 and would likely do so again.</p>
<p>National courts might have jurisdiction if their nationals were affected, but no national court has power over a sitting head of state.</p>
<p>But Rapp and the CIJA are confident that circumstances will change and the evidence will be ready when that time comes. In the meantime, Rapp believes the weight of evidence will make it harder for the world to ignore Assad’s alleged crimes.</p> | Document leak in Syria ‘enough to convict Assad of war crimes’ | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-04-11/document-leak-syria-enough-convict-assad-war-crimes | 2016-04-11 | 3 |
<p>The US&#160;Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to President Donald Trump by allowing his latest travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries to go into full effect even as legal challenges continue in lower courts.</p>
<p>The nine-member court, with two liberal justices dissenting, granted his administration's request to lift two injunctions imposed by lower courts that had partially blocked the ban, which is the third version of a contentious policy that Trump first sought to implement a week after taking office in January.</p>
<p>The high court's action means that the ban will now go fully into effect for people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen seeking to enter the United States. The Republican president has said the travel ban is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Islamic militants.</p>
<p>In a statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the Supreme Court's action "a substantial victory for the safety and security of the American people." Sessions said the Trump administration was heartened that a clear majority of the justices "allowed the president's lawful proclamation protecting our country's national security to go into full effect."</p>
<p>The ban was challenged in separate lawsuits by the state of Hawaii and the American Civil Liberties Union. Both sets of challengers said the latest ban, like the earlier ones, discriminates against Muslims in violation of the US&#160;Constitution and is not permissible under immigration laws.</p>
<p>Trump had promised as a candidate to impose "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." Last week he shared on Twitter anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right British party leader.</p>
<p>"President Trump's anti-Muslim prejudice is no secret — he has repeatedly confirmed it, including just last week on Twitter," ACLU lawyer Omar Jadwat said.</p>
<p>"It's unfortunate that the full ban can move forward for now, but this order does not address the merits of our claims. We continue to stand for freedom, equality and for those who are unfairly being separated from their loved ones," Jadwat added.</p>
<p>Lower courts had previously limited the scope of the ban to people without either certain family connections to the United States or formal relationships with US-based entities such as universities and resettlement agencies.</p>
<p>Trump's ban also covers people from North Korea and certain government officials from Venezuela, but the lower courts had already allowed those provisions to go into effect.</p>
<p>The high court said in two similar one-page orders that lower court rulings that partly blocked the latest ban should be put on hold while federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Richmond, Virginia weigh the cases. Both courts are due to hear arguments in those cases this week.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court said the ban will remain in effect regardless of what the appeals courts rule, at least until the justices ultimately decide whether to take up the issue on the merits, which they are highly likely to do. The court's order said the appeals courts should decide the cases "with appropriate dispatch."</p>
<p>"We agree a speedy resolution is needed for the sake of our universities, our businesses and most of all, for people marginalized by this unlawful order," Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said.</p>
<p>Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have denied the administration's request.</p>
<p>Monday's action sent a strong signal that the court is likely to uphold the ban on the merits when the case likely returns to the justices in the coming months.</p>
<p>There are some exceptions to the ban. Certain people from each targeted country can still apply for a visa for tourism, business or education purposes, and any applicant can ask for an individual waiver.</p>
<p>The San Francisco-based 9th US&#160;Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on the merits of Hawaii's challenge on Wednesday in Seattle. The 4th US&#160;Circuit Court of Appeals will arguments on the merits of case spearheaded by the ACLU on Friday in Richmond.</p>
<p>Trump issued his first travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries in January, then issued a revised one in March after the first was blocked by federal courts. The second one expired in September after a long court fight and was replaced with the present version.</p>
<p>The Trump administration said the president put the latest restrictions in place after a worldwide review of the ability of each country in the world to issue reliable passports and share data with the United States.</p>
<p>The administration argues that a president has broad authority to decide who can come into the United States, but detractors say the expanded ban violates a law forbidding the government from discriminating based on nationality when issuing immigrant visas.</p>
<p>The administration has said the ban is not discriminatory and pointed out that many Muslim-majority countries are unaffected by it.</p>
<p>For many impacted by the travel ban, it's a painful and deeply personal turn of events.&#160;</p>
<p>Afaf Nasher directs the New York chapter of the&#160;Council on American-Islamic Relations ( <a href="http://www.cair-ny.org/staff/" type="external">CAIR</a>). The new travel restrictions mean a central figure in her family, her&#160;father-in-law,&#160;won't be permitted to visit the US from Yemen.&#160;</p>
<p>"He really is the one that brings the entire family together, that takes care of others whenever there's a problem," said Nasher.&#160;</p>
<p>She's talking about her octagenarian father-in-law. His deteriorating health led him to flee Yemen a few weeks ago for Egypt.&#160;Nasher and her husband were discussing how to get him to the United States just hours before the latest version of the travel ban went into effect.&#160;</p>
<p>"We really just want to see him live out his final years with his family beside him," said Nasher. "We can't send him back to Yemen where bullets are flying and missiles may be overhead."</p>
<p>Nasher does not accept the rationale that the ban is necessary to ensure Americans' security.&#160;</p>
<p>"All it takes is a simple Google search and we see that the real threat is internal [to the US]. It has nothing to do with people coming in from Yemen. Yemen had nothing to do with 9/11, for example, and neither are the other countries that are on the list," she said. "This lie of trying to make things secure, it's nothing but deceit."</p>
<p>Nasher said&#160;she hasn't given up on the idea that in America her family will have all the rights they're entitled to under the constitution. But the travel ban has shaken her confidence in her homeland.&#160;&#160;"To be honest, it's emotional for me, because the belief that I've always had in this country is really being tested," she said, her voice shaking.&#160;</p>
<p>Reuters contributed to this report.</p> | Supreme Court lets Trump's latest travel ban go into full effect | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-12-05/supreme-court-lets-trumps-latest-travel-ban-go-full-effect | 2017-12-05 | 3 |
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<p>Reduced home values and low interest rates work in your favor when it comes to two strategies that could save your heirs a bundle on estate taxes.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>As part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act passed in January, Congress has permanently set the federal estate tax exclusion amount at $5 million, indexed each year for inflation. In 2013, the amount each individual can exclude from estate taxes is $5.25 million. In addition, "portability" became a permanent part of the estate tax, so when one spouse dies, the other can take the unused portion of the exemption and apply it to his or her own estate.</p>
<p>The high exclusion amount means only the very rich will need to worry about saving estate taxes. But among those with wealth primarily concentrated in their home or investment portfolio, there are two types of trusts designed to transfer wealth to heirs and save taxes by removing the assets from the estate. In effect, this reduces the amount of the decedent's taxable wealth.</p>
<p>One is a grantor retained annuity trust, or GRAT, typically used to shelter future appreciation of stocks. The other is a qualified personal residence trust, or QPRT, that will shelter current and future appreciation on the value of your home. Both are set up for a predetermined term of years, and in both cases, the creator of the trust must outlive the term, or the assets go back into the estate.</p>
<p>An important factor for both of these techniques is the interest that will be charged on the value of the assets transferred to the trust. The 7520 rate, also known as the hurdle rate, is set by the Internal Revenue Service every month and is based on recent sales of three- to nine-year Treasury notes. When it's low, as it is now, it's beneficial to set up a GRAT. If the trust can beat the hurdle rate, the remainder of the appreciation passes to heirs tax-free. Once the trust is set up, the hurdle rate won't change for the life of the trust. The rate has been hovering just above 1%: The June rate is 1.2%. Compare that with a double-digit rate in the late 1980s.</p>
<p>According to Thornton "Tim" Henry, tax attorney at Jones, Foster, Johnston &amp; Stubbs, P.A. in West Palm Beach, Fla., the low hurdle rate won't help the QPRT. But, reduced home values make it an attractive technique to consider right now.</p>
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<p>Following is a closer look at the two types of trusts.</p>
<p>Putting your home in a QPRT</p>
<p>This type of trust allows a person to still live in a home for the term of the trust, deduct mortgage interest and real estate taxes, and then when the term of the trust expires, the home passes to the heirs and out of the owner's estate. The owners can retain the right to live in the home for the rest of their lives by paying fair market rent to the heirs.</p>
<p>Henry says there are three factors to take into consideration when setting up a QPRT:</p>
<p>Life expectancy. The owner has to outlive the term of the trust, or it comes back into the estate as if the trust never existed. "In that case, you haven't lost anything, but you haven't won," says Henry. So it's a best-guess scenario. Typically for a healthy 70-year-old, 10 years would be a reasonable term.</p>
<p>The tax hurdle rate. The QPRT is one of the few trusts that does not benefit from a low hurdle rate. That's because the value of the gift is determined by the fair market value of the home, minus the "retained interest," or the owner's right to live in it for a term of years. The value of the retained interest is determined by the age of the grantor when the trust is set up, the term of years for use of the home and the hurdle rate. Ideally, a higher hurdle rate will mean the retained interest is higher, so the value of the gift is lower (fair market value of the home minus the retained interest equals the value of the gift). With a QPRT, the grantor is removing the home from his estate, thereby saving estate taxes and also saving gift taxes because the value of the gift is less if the hurdle rate is high.</p>
<p>The value of the home, based on appraisals. In the current housing market with low home prices, "clients are interested" despite the low hurdle rate, Henry says. For example, he adds, if a 70-year-old puts a home in a QPRT with a 10-year term, the value of the gift will be derived from the IRS calculations using the donor's age, the term of years and the current hurdle rate. If the home were to appreciate 4% per year, at the end of 10 years all appreciation above the value of the gift will pass tax-free to the heirs.</p>
<p>Obviously there's some guessing involved about where home prices are headed and when. For example, if someone had put home valued at $1 million home into a QPRT when home prices were soaring and the value of the home dropped to $450,000, it's not such a great deal, says Henry. "But if you think home values have bottomed out, now is the time to do it."</p>
<p>Capturing appreciation from stocks</p>
<p>A popular type of GRAT right now for stocks you think might appreciate, according to Henry, is called the short-term, zeroed-out GRAT. The term is only two years, and at the end of the first year, the trust pays back the grantor, or the creator of the trust, approximately 46% of the value of the assets that were put in the trust. At the end of the second year, it pays 54%. So, in effect, the grantor gets the assets back that he put in (in cash or original stock), and all appreciation above the hurdle rate goes to heirs tax-free. That's why it makes sense to put in a stock the owner thinks will rise rapidly, for instance, one on the verge of going public.</p>
<p>If the stock doesn't appreciate, "the worst-case scenario is that the owner gets the asset back and there was no gift," says Henry.</p>
<p>The current low-rate environment and depressed home prices are making GRATs and QPRTs particularly attractive estate tax techniques now, but Henry says clients always need to keep the larger question in mind when deciding to give away assets: "How much can you afford to give away -- or, said another way -- how much do you need to keep to feel comfortable?"</p> | Shielding Your Assets From Estate Taxes | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/26/shielding-your-assets-from-estate-taxes.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>ISIS is a visionary jihadist company with plans to take global terrorism to spectacular new heights, producing something akin to driverless cars equipped with explosive devices.</p>
<p>“Islamic State (IS) terror group has produced fully working remote controlled cars to act as mobile bombs,” <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1022819/islamic-state-working-on-driverless-car-bombs/" type="external">reports</a> The Express Tribune (UK). “A footage obtained by Sky News takes us inside a ‘Jihadi university’ in Syria where scientists and weapons experts train militants to carry out sophisticated attacks in Europe, while also modifying weapons systems capable of targeting passenger jets and military aircraft.”</p>
<p>“The videos show trainees from a range of countries, including Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, Egypt and Pakistan, being given training courses using science labs and facilities based around the former Equestrian Centre in Raqqa, Syria,” <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1022819/islamic-state-working-on-driverless-car-bombs/" type="external">adds</a> The Tribune.</p>
<p>ISIS is basically doing what prison inmates in maximum security penitentiaries do when they want to carry out a revenge attack on a rival with crude tools at their disposal. Rather than keistering makeshift knives, however, ISIS is combining junkyard materials to make something deadly. “The trainees are taught to adapt the electronic parts of scrap cars to make the remote controlled cars work using sophisticated un-jammable radio sets as well as lessons on how to assemble the mannequins to appear like human drivers.” <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1022819/islamic-state-working-on-driverless-car-bombs/" type="external">notes</a> The Tribune.</p>
<p />
<p>Unfortunately, the Islamic State’s weapons depot is actually quite expansive. It reserves its crude tools for minor attacks, while saving the more sophisticated tools for larger assaults. According to <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1022819/islamic-state-working-on-driverless-car-bombs/" type="external">The Tribune</a>, “ISIS is now capable of using heat-seeking warheads to attack passenger and military aircraft which are 99% accurate once locked on.”</p>
<p>Sorry President Obama, but this isn’t the jayvee team.</p> | Google’s Working On Driverless Cars. ISIS Is Working On Something Similar. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/2427/googles-working-driverless-cars-isis-working-michael-qazvini | 2016-01-07 | 0 |
<p>An elderly woman whose home was destroyed by the Oklahoma tornado found her missing dog in the rubble during a live TV interview.</p>
<p>The footage shows Barbara Garcia relaying her experience in the tornado <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50147264n" type="external">to a CBS News reporter</a>&#160;as she stands among the wreckage of her home.</p>
<p>"I was sitting on the stool holding my dog," <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1093711/tornado-survivor-finds-dog-during-tv-interview" type="external">she said</a>.</p>
<p>"This was the game plan all through the years, to go in that little bathroom (together). I rolled around a little bit and when it stopped I was right there (and) that stove cooker is what I saw.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130520/oklahoma-tornado-51-dead-120-injured" type="external">Tornado rips through Oklahoma, killing dozens (VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>"I never lost consciousness and I hollered for my little dog and he didn't answer, he didn't come, so I know he's in here somewhere."</p>
<p>As Garcia spoke, a member of the CBS crew <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-oklahoma-tornado-dog-found-20130521,0,481703.story" type="external">spotted the dog's face in the remains of her home</a>&#160;and said,&#160;"The dog! The dog! Hi, puppy!"</p>
<p>An emotional Garcia crouches down to help her dog climb out from under the rubble and asks for help to pull debris away from him as he slowly walks toward her.</p>
<p>"I thought God just answered one prayer to let me be OK," Garcia said, before walking away from her former home with her dog, "but he answered both of them."</p>
<p /> | Oklahoma tornado survivor finds missing dog during TV interview (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-05-21/oklahoma-tornado-survivor-finds-missing-dog-during-tv-interview-video | 2013-05-21 | 3 |
<p>Sean Spicer says his surprise Emmy Awards appearance was a chance to have some fun, and suggested Tuesday that people who were upset by it were taking things too seriously.</p>
<p>Clearly, not everyone was laughing, however. For Emmys host Stephen Colbert, there’s also a risk that a joke he engineered could wind up doing collateral damage.</p>
<p>The former White House press secretary’s cameo was Colbert’s idea, and they arranged to maximize the surprise factor through Chris Licht, the Colbert producer who knew Spicer from his background in news. Colbert set the joke up by saying there was no way of knowing how many people would be watching the Emmys, then Spicer wheeled out from behind a podium to say “this will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys period, both in person and around the world.”</p>
<p>The clear reference was to Spicer’s first appearance in the White House press room, arguing against photographic evidence about how large President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day audience was. (In an unfortunate parallel, Emmy viewership on Sunday essentially tied last year with the smallest ever for the television awards show).</p>
<p>Trump critics resented the apparent effort to “normalize” Spicer and make light of the idea of not telling the truth in the White House press room.</p>
<p>“The message of his presence was not only that we can all laugh at his service and sycophancy in the Trump administration, but that he’s willing to laugh with us,” wrote Frank Bruni in a column for The New York Times titled “The Shameful Embrace of Sean Spicer at the Emmys.”</p>
<p>On “The View,” Joy Behar said that if Spicer and other Trump surrogates apologize to the American people, “then I’ll have fun with you, Sean.”</p>
<p>Liberal commentator Keith Olbermann tweeted that the Emmys lost its credibility by lionizing Spicer. Even a Republican strategist, Kevin Madden, warned on CNN that Spicer should be wary of equating notoriety with respect.</p>
<p>To which Spicer, reached on an airplane on Tuesday, offered a suggestion: lighten up.</p>
<p>“People are reading too much into this,” he said. While he respects people’s opinions, he said people shouldn’t take the appearance that seriously.</p>
<p>Spicer made the rounds of Hollywood parties after the Emmys and was greeted with many people asking for selfies.</p>
<p>“I was surprised at how nice people were to me,” he said, “even the people who I know don’t agree with me politically.”</p>
<p>Some fans of Colbert were also bewildered by the appearance. The “Late Show” host has soared in the ratings this year with comedy that has been sharply critical of Trump and his team. He should know the dangers of appearing too chummy: late-night competitor Jimmy Fallon still hasn’t recovered from the bad feelings engendered when he tousled Trump’s hair when the then-candidate appeared on the “Tonight” show last year.</p>
<p>After Spicer’s appearance, Colbert got in a rip. He joked that Robert DeNiro, who appeared as Bernard Madoff in the HBO movie “Wizard of Lies,” had actually been the star of “The Sean Spicer Story.”</p>
<p>Emily Nussbaum, television critic at The New Yorker, tweeted after that one: “having cake, eating it too, then throwing it up again. There’s a lot going on.”</p>
<p>The web site Vox said it was “incredibly disappointing” to see Colbert joking with Spicer.</p>
<p>“It went against everything Colbert purports to do on his fiercely pointed ‘Late Show,’ and retroactively sucked the air out of any biting Trump jokes he tried to make in his opening monologue,” the site wrote.</p> | Spicer: Critics of Emmy Appearance Should Lighten Up | false | https://newsline.com/spicer-critics-of-emmy-appearance-should-lighten-up/ | 2017-09-19 | 1 |
<p>Writer and comedian <a href="https://twitter.com/AkilahObviously" type="external">Akilah Hughes</a> has created a brilliant explanation of intersectionality, using the ever timeless metaphor of pizza.&#160;That’s right. Pizza.</p>
<p />
<p>Using a creative key of burgers, deluxe pizzas, and cheese pizzas, Akilah breaks down Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgK3NFvGp58" type="external">easy to digest video</a>. (That pun was&#160;absolutely intended)</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>So today as you read up on Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for 2016 and her feminism, ask yourself: Can we have more than cheese, please?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Transcription below:</p>
<p>“Akilah Hughes: Hi Youtube, it’s @AkilahObviously! Today I wanted to talk about an issue that’s been neglected on Youtube and in pop-culture, specifically when we talk about Patty Arquette and her Oscar’s speech and Nellie Andreeva at Deadline who thinks that diversity is over-taking Hollywood and that there are no roles for white people anymore.</p>
<p>Today we are going to talk about intersectionality and feminism. What better way to talk about this issue this big than to talk about pizza! It’s a little cheesy.</p>
<p>Say you’re born a Cheese Pizza but the world is made for Burgers. You can go anywhere and get a Burger, Burgers are the go-to fast food pretty much anywhere in the world. So you are trying to say, “Hey! Pizza is just as good as Burgers, Pizza is just as satisfying as Burgers, Pizza deserves the same rights as Burgers.” And that’s all fine and good.</p>
<p>But then there are pizzas like me, Deluxe Pizzas, who happen to have different toppings and features than Cheese Pizzas and who have their own problems to face because they are pizzas and have different toppings. We’re like, “What about us?”</p>
<p>Cheese Pizzas are by far the most celebrated pizzas in society. If you go anywhere, there is going to be a Cheese Pizza. In any facet&#160;of society, where it’s art, media, education, finance, history, Cheese Pizzas are the only Pizzas that are mentioned. You know, Cheese Pizzas are so celebrated that there are snacks that celebrate that flavor like Combos and Pringles and even Bagel Bites! Cheese Pizza is highly visible.</p>
<p>Meanwhile this is not the case for Deluxe Pizza, alright? Our features are often seen by the untrained eye as extra weight and too much of a problem and we are left to crumble because the crust does not support us. It is much more difficult to be a Deluxe Pizza in a burger world.</p>
<p>So when Deluxe Pizzas found that Cheese Pizzas wanted to join forces and fight for their rights for all Pizzas, they were stoked! Until they found that all discussions about Pizzas would be about Cheese Pizzas exclusively. In fact, Cheese Pizzas were like, “We’re going to get to your rights but only after we achieve ours.” And so now there are tons of videos and articles that talk about how Cheese Pizza is tired of being told by Burgers to shave their crust and how Cheese Pizza is getting called all these slurs because of what they choose to put in their pie hold. Deluxe Pizzas would love the privilege to care about things so menial.</p>
<p>Historically when Deluxe Pizzas rise through the pop-culture ranks and use their platform to promote pizza rights, Cheese Pizzas will shame them and then turn around and say, “Look at this Cheese Pizza, she’s got the right idea,” [picture of Emma Watson's UN Speech] even when she saying the extra same thing that the Deluxe Pizzas has been saying all along [picture of Beyoncé's Feminist performance].</p>
<p>Deluxe Pizza’s unique features are often celebrated when they occur unnaturally on Cheese Pizzas. In fact, when they occur naturally on Cheese Pizza’s they are often shamed. “Look how big your sausages are, why is your pepper so curly?” [Cheese Pizza with sausage, labeled as Kendall Jenner]</p>
<p>And Deluxe Pizza’s are unfortunately a little jaded. They fall onto room temperature waiting for us to fight for their rights when they have been fighting for Cheese Pizza’s rights too strong for too long. So how do we solve this problem? You know, I think it’s called Intersectionality!</p>
<p>When we talk about Pizza rights, we need to be talking about all Pizzas, not just Cheese Pizzas that are deemed socially acceptable, worthy of saving, and worthy of having a place in popular culture. We need to be talking about Pizzas who are sexually atrracted to other Pizzas, Pizzas who aren’t sexually attracted to anything, Pizzas who identify as Burgers, and Pizzas who have different toppings. Because as great as it is to uplift Cheese Pizzas, the world could use a lot more flavor.</p>
<p>Thank you for watching and I’ll see you soon with another video.”</p> | Intersectional feminism, brought to you by pizza | true | http://feministing.com/2015/04/13/intersectional-feminism-brought-to-you-by-pizza/ | 4 |
|
<p>Some leftists still reeling from Hillary Clinton's stunning defeat on Tuesday are blaming her defeat on supposed sexism against a woman president. However, a new poll suggests that sexism did not play a role at all in Clinton's loss.</p>
<p>The poll, conducted by Conquest Communications Group and commissioned by <a href="http://www.justfactsdaily.com/poll-suggests-clintons-sex-not-responsible-for-her-loss/" type="external">Just Facts</a>, featured a question specifically geared toward gauging potential sexism: "If you were faced with a choice between a male and a female presidential candidate, who would you vote for?"</p>
<p>Here were the results (emphasis added):</p>
<p>Overall, 69% of voters said “It does not matter,” 15% preferred a female, 12% preferred a male, 3% were unsure, and 1% refused to answer.</p>
<p>Male voters and Trump voters were more likely than any other groups to say “It does not matter,” at 73% and 72% respectively. The other groups were not far behind and within the margins of error, with rates of:</p>
<p>Naturally, supporters of Trump were more likely to support a male president than a female president–25 percent to 2 percent, respectively–and Clinton supporters were more likely to support female president than a male president, 27 percent to 5 percent, respectively.</p>
<p>The survey was conducted from October 11-23, so it was taken a couple of weeks before the election. But it's hard to imagine a majority of voters all of a sudden turned into a bunch of sexists.</p>
<p>There is a little bias towards a male president among Trump voters and a little bias towards a female president among Clinton voters, but the results of the survey suggest that overall, the genitalia of a candidate is not a significant factor for most voters when it comes to choosing the next president of the United States.</p>
<p>Democrats will have to find a different strategy for identity politics since the gender card doesn't work. Speaking of identity politics, it looks like <a href="" type="internal">the race card seems to be in trouble as well</a>.</p>
<p>This article has been modified to clarify that the poll was commissioned by Just Facts.</p> | Poll: Sexism Was NOT A Factor In Hillary's Loss | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10703/poll-sexism-was-not-factor-hillarys-loss-aaron-bandler | 2016-11-11 | 0 |
<p>Colson Baker — aka <a href="http://variety.com/t/machine-gun-kelly/" type="external">Machine Gun Kelly</a> — has joined the ensemble of the Netflix thriller “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/bird-box/" type="external">Bird Box</a>,” starring <a href="http://variety.com/t/sandra-bullock/" type="external">Sandra Bullock</a>.</p>
<p>“Patti Cake$” breakout Danielle Macdonald, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Sarah Paulson, “Alita: Battle Angel” star Rosa Salazar, and Lil Rel Howery are also on board.</p>
<p>Susanne Bier is directing “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/bird-box-sandra-bullock-danielle-macdonald-trevante-rhodes-jackie-weaver-1202589620/" type="external">Bird Box</a>” from a script by “Arrival” writer Eric Heisserer.</p>
<p>The film follows a woman and a pair of children who are blindfolded then forced to walk through a post-apocalyptic setting along a river.&#160;Baker will play Felix in the pic.</p>
<p>Dylan Clark is producing “Bird Box” with Chris Morgan and Clayton Townsend. The movie was developed by Scott Stuber at Universal, before he moved to Netflix to head its feature film division.</p>
<p>Baker will appear opposite Vera Farmiga in Rupert Wyatt’s sci-fi film “Captive State.” His other acting credits include the independent features “Punks Dead,” “Nerve” starring Dave Franco and Emma Roberts, and “The Land” with Erykah Badu, in which he served as co-executive producer. He was also handpicked by Cameron Crowe for a regular role on the Showtime series “Roadies.”</p>
<p>Baker is represented by ICM Partners, EST 19XX, and Felker, Toczek and Levine.</p>
<p /> | Machine Gun Kelly Joins Sandra Bullock in Thriller ‘Bird Box’ | false | https://newsline.com/machine-gun-kelly-joins-sandra-bullock-in-thriller-bird-box/ | 2017-11-07 | 1 |
<p>A former U.S. Naval Academy football player laughed off his suspected sexual assault of a woman midshipman who had passed out at an alcohol-fueled party, a prosecutor said at the start of the man's trial on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Midshipman Joshua Tate from Nashville, Tenn., is the only one to be court-martialed among three Academy football players initially accused of assaulting the woman in April 2012.</p>
<p>Not until the day following that encounter did the woman realize she had been sexually assaulted, Navy prosecutor Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Stormer said.</p>
<p>When the woman confronted Tate about their alleged encounter, "everything to him was a big laughing matter," Stormer said.</p>
<p>"He laughingly told her yes, we did have sex."</p>
<p>Defense attorney Cmdr. Art Record argued the woman, now a senior at the elite service school in Annapolis, Md., initiated sexual contact with Tate, also a senior.</p>
<p>The woman testified at an Article 32 hearing, held to determine whether a trial was warranted, that she drank heavily at the party and remembered little of what took place.</p>
<p>Tate is accused of aggravated sexual assault and making false official statements. He has opted for trial by a judge rather than a jury.</p>
<p>The woman did not cooperate with an initial investigation into the charges and was disciplined for drinking. Charges against the other two men were dropped.</p> | Prosecutor Says Midshipman Laughed Off Sex Assault Accusation | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/military/prosecutor-says-midshipman-laughed-sex-assault-accusation-n56221 | 2014-03-19 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Sick as I get of the treacle that passes for heartwarming holiday stories this time of year, stories like this one make me see them in a new light. While we trim trees and open presents, 53 toddlers are growing up in a Mexico City prison with their incarcerated moms.</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/world/americas/31mexico.html?_r=1&amp;hp&amp;oref=slogin" type="external">New York Times</a>:</p>
<p>MEXICO CITY — Beyond the high concrete walls and menacing guard towers of the Santa Martha Acatitla prison, past the barbed wire, past the iron gates, past the armed guards in black commando garb, sits a nursery school with brightly painted walls, piles of toys and a jungle gym.</p>
<p>Fifty-three children under the age of 6 live inside the prison with their mothers, who are serving sentences for crimes from drug dealing to kidnapping to homicide. Mothers dressed in prison blue, many with tattoos, carry babies on their hips around the exercise yard. Others lead toddlers and kindergartners by the hand, play with them in the dust or bounce them on their knees on prison benches.</p>
<p>Karina Rendón, a 23-year-old serving time for drug dealing, said her 2-year-old daughter thought of the 144-square-foot cell she shared with two other mothers and their children as home. “She doesn’t know it is a prison,” she said, smiling sadly. “She thinks it’s her house.”</p>
<p>The kids ‘get’ to stay with their moms until they’re 6 at which point they go to relatives or whatever passes for foster care in Mexico (like ours is so great). We’re told, believably, that the kids have a calming presence on the other inmates and wander free from prison’s endemic violence. But, man, what a conundrum. What a world. Imagine what these mothers go through on the night before their child’s 6th birthday. And what the child goes through on the day after.</p>
<p>Maybe this is Mexico’s form of cruel and unusual punishment – ‘letting’ you keep the child you were carrying when arrested (of course, all the inmate Moms interviewed in the piece are innocent) so you can raise them in communal, drafty, illness-inducing cells surrounded by criminals, barbed wire and SWAT troops. How will these kids be affected later in life by growing up this way? Will they be able to blend in with the other children their moms’ had to leave behind?</p>
<p>Short answer: best decision among godawful choices, but man oh man. What a world.</p>
<p /> | In Prison, No One Can Hear Your Heart Breaking: Incarcerated Mothers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/12/prison-no-one-can-hear-your-heart-breaking-incarcerated-mothers/ | 2007-12-31 | 4 |
<p>BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) _ These Massachusetts lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>MassCash</p>
<p>02-03-16-18-34</p>
<p>(two, three, sixteen, eighteen, thirty-four)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Megabucks Doubler</p>
<p>15-18-25-36-38-39</p>
<p>(fifteen, eighteen, twenty-five, thirty-six, thirty-eight, thirty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $8.3 million</p>
<p>Numbers Evening</p>
<p>0-3-7-1</p>
<p>(zero, three, seven, one)</p>
<p>Numbers Midday</p>
<p>8-9-0-3</p>
<p>(eight, nine, zero, three)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>07-24-33-49-50, Powerball: 4, Power Play: 5</p>
<p>(seven, twenty-four, thirty-three, forty-nine, fifty; Powerball: four; Power Play: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) _ These Massachusetts lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>MassCash</p>
<p>02-03-16-18-34</p>
<p>(two, three, sixteen, eighteen, thirty-four)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Megabucks Doubler</p>
<p>15-18-25-36-38-39</p>
<p>(fifteen, eighteen, twenty-five, thirty-six, thirty-eight, thirty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $8.3 million</p>
<p>Numbers Evening</p>
<p>0-3-7-1</p>
<p>(zero, three, seven, one)</p>
<p>Numbers Midday</p>
<p>8-9-0-3</p>
<p>(eight, nine, zero, three)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>07-24-33-49-50, Powerball: 4, Power Play: 5</p>
<p>(seven, twenty-four, thirty-three, forty-nine, fifty; Powerball: four; Power Play: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p> | MA Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/9e2fd76227e94c529d1f7dc51d738024 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>CLEVELAND – Jacksonville running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Leonard-Fournette/" type="external">Leonard Fournette</a> slugged his way to 111 rushing yards and the Jaguars defense played tough as usual to beat the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cleveland-Browns/" type="external">Cleveland Browns</a> 19-7 on Sunday and take over sole possession of first place in the AFC South.</p>
<p>The weather and two strong defenses made the 60-minute tug-of-war before a sparse crowd predictable. The Browns harassed Jaguars quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Blake-Bortles/" type="external">Blake Bortles</a> throughout and the game, and the Jaguars (7-3) did the same to Browns quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/DeShone-Kizer/" type="external">DeShone Kizer</a>.</p>
<p>The Browns fell to 0-10.</p>
<p>Kizer’s second interception of the game, picked by Jacksonville cornerback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/AJ-Bouye/" type="external">A.J. Bouye</a>, led to Josh Lambo kicking a 39-yard field goal with 3:31 left in the fourth quarter to give Jacksonville a 13-7 lead.</p>
<p>Kizer lost a fumble on a strip-sack with 1:44 to play as the Browns were trying to mount a comeback. Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith recovered in the end zone for a touchdown with 53 seconds left. It was Kizer’s fourth turnover of the game.</p>
<p>Kizer had protected the ball well in consecutive starts against Minnesota and Detroit, but on the first play of the Browns’ second possession Sunday, his pass over the middle intended for <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Corey-Coleman/" type="external">Corey Coleman</a> was intercepted by Smith and returned 26 yards to the Browns 33.</p>
<p>From there, the Jaguars needed just four plays to take a 7-0 lead on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Bortles to tight end Marcedes Lewis. The score was set up by a 16-yard pass from Bortles to Marqise Lee.</p>
<p>Jacksonville took a 10-0 lead at 14:14 of the second quarter on a 38-yard field goal by Lambo. Lambo had a chance to push the Jaguars lead to 13-7, but his 41-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of the first half was wide right.</p>
<p>In between the field-goal tries by Lambo, the Browns cut the Jacksonville lead to 10-7 on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Kizer to running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Duke-Johnson/" type="external">Duke Johnson</a> to finish off a 66-yard drive in five plays.</p>
<p>The Browns had only three first downs in the first half, but they were able to keep the score close because the defense kept Fournette from breaking a long run. Fournette rushed for 54 yards in the first half.</p>
<p>The Browns’ defense continued to thwart the Jaguars in the third quarter. The Browns forced two Jacksonville punts, then, after Browns returner Jabrill Peppers muffed a punt, Jacksonville regained possession. But linebacker Christian Kirksey got a strip-sack of Bortles, and defensive end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Myles-Garrett/" type="external">Myles Garrett</a> recovered for the Browns to keep the deficit 10-7 at the end of the third quarter.</p>
<p>NOTES: The Jaguars surprised the Browns with an onside kick after their first touchdown. Jaguars K Josh Lambo recovered, but it didn’t count because rookie LB Donald Payne was offside. … Josh Wells started at right tackle for the Jaguars in place of Jermey Parnell. Parnell was inactive with a knee injury after being listed as questionable Friday. … Corey Coleman started at wide receiver for the Browns after missing seven games with a broken hand. … Shon Coleman started at right tackle for the Browns after getting knocked out with a concussion last week.</p> | Jacksonville Jaguars hold off Cleveland Browns in defensive struggle | false | https://newsline.com/jacksonville-jaguars-hold-off-cleveland-browns-in-defensive-struggle/ | 2017-11-19 | 1 |
<p>HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - A Zimbabwean court on Thursday freed "for now" an American woman charged with subversion for allegedly describing the former president on Twitter as a "sick man."</p>
<p>Martha O'Donovan, who grew up in New Jersey, had faced up to 20 years in prison. A magistrate removed her from remand after prosecutors failed to provide a trial date, freeing her from the charges but only temporarily.</p>
<p>O'Donovan's lawyer Obey Shava told The Associated Press she can still be summoned back to court if the prosecution feels it has more evidence against her. But she can get her passport back.</p>
<p>"It all depends on what they gather but for now the case has crumbled. She is free for now," said Shava with the organization Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.</p>
<p>In previous cases, the government has rarely followed up to summon people again.</p>
<p>A smiling O'Donovan, looking relieved, said she had no comment and left the courtroom to hugs from friends.</p>
<p>She has denied the allegations of insulting 93-year-old former leader Robert Mugabe, who resigned in November under pressure from the military and ruling party amid fears that his unpopular wife was positioning herself to succeed him.</p>
<p>New President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime Mugabe ally whose firing as vice president sparked the whirlwind events leading to Mugabe's departure, has declared that the southern African nation should let "bygones be bygones."</p>
<p>Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights says it has represented nearly 200 people charged under a law that criminalizes insulting or undermining the president.</p>
<p>On Sunday, the military rounded up eight activists for carrying placards denouncing Mnangagwa during a church service presided over by the president. A court on Tuesday released them after ruling that the military had no arresting powers.</p>
<p>HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - A Zimbabwean court on Thursday freed "for now" an American woman charged with subversion for allegedly describing the former president on Twitter as a "sick man."</p>
<p>Martha O'Donovan, who grew up in New Jersey, had faced up to 20 years in prison. A magistrate removed her from remand after prosecutors failed to provide a trial date, freeing her from the charges but only temporarily.</p>
<p>O'Donovan's lawyer Obey Shava told The Associated Press she can still be summoned back to court if the prosecution feels it has more evidence against her. But she can get her passport back.</p>
<p>"It all depends on what they gather but for now the case has crumbled. She is free for now," said Shava with the organization Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.</p>
<p>In previous cases, the government has rarely followed up to summon people again.</p>
<p>A smiling O'Donovan, looking relieved, said she had no comment and left the courtroom to hugs from friends.</p>
<p>She has denied the allegations of insulting 93-year-old former leader Robert Mugabe, who resigned in November under pressure from the military and ruling party amid fears that his unpopular wife was positioning herself to succeed him.</p>
<p>New President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime Mugabe ally whose firing as vice president sparked the whirlwind events leading to Mugabe's departure, has declared that the southern African nation should let "bygones be bygones."</p>
<p>Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights says it has represented nearly 200 people charged under a law that criminalizes insulting or undermining the president.</p>
<p>On Sunday, the military rounded up eight activists for carrying placards denouncing Mnangagwa during a church service presided over by the president. A court on Tuesday released them after ruling that the military had no arresting powers.</p> | American charged with subversion in Zimbabwe freed 'for now' | false | https://apnews.com/amp/11ca28df09394ba2873c980a73e40f2c | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A southern New Mexico school district is trying to entice students to ride the bus with free televisions, drones, and tablets.</p>
<p>KVIA-TV in El Paso, Texas reports (https://goo.gl/uWw4jS) the Las Cruces Public School District is offering prizes to students who ride the bus on two specific days to increase ridership.</p>
<p>The district is working with a school bus contractor to offer more than $3,000 worth of prizes to students who ride the bus on Thursday and February 8. Those are the only two days a year the state looks at ridership to determine funding.</p>
<p>District Transportation Director David Del Torro says the district needs the state funding to offset the decrease transportation dollars.</p>
<p>The raffle items were provided by STS of New Mexico, the school bus contractor.</p>
<p>District officials say they have overflow buses ready.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | New Mexico school district eyes prizes to grow bus ridership | false | https://abqjournal.com/897596/new-mexico-school-district-eyes-prizes-to-grow-bus-ridership.html | 2 |
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<p>Speculation of a potential cease fire in Gaza took a major blow with news of a terrorist bombing a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel. <a href="http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=292860" type="external">Even worse</a> was the response from Hamas:</p>
<p>Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the bombing, but stopped short of claiming responsibility. "Hamas blesses the attack in Tel Aviv and sees it as a natural response to the Israeli massacres... in Gaza," he told Reuters.</p>
<p>Endorsing terrorist strikes on civilian populations is not something civilized (or even vaguely modern) organizations do. Then again, this isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff for Hamas.</p>
<p>To make things even worse, Fatah's military wing <a href="http://english.al-akhbar.com/live-update/aqsa-martyr-brigades" type="external">has claimed</a> responsibility for the attack.</p> | Hamas Gleeful After Terrorist Bombs Bus in Tel Aviv | true | https://thedailybeast.com/hamas-gleeful-after-terrorist-bombs-bus-in-tel-aviv | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>TRANSCRIPT:</p>
<p>JON SCOTT: Does it go, you know, anywhere close to the climate change debate that's underway here on earth? I mean, you know, if the moon had --</p>
<p>BILL NYE: Well, it does for me.</p>
<p>SCOTT: -- had erupting volcanoes, a few years, well, a few million years ago, however you want to put it --</p>
<p>NYE: No, billion.</p>
<p>SCOTT: -- you know, it's not like we've been up there burning fossil fuels.</p>
<p>NYE: Uh, no, volcanoes are not connected to the burning of fossil fuels, it's connected to mining, but the big thing for us, on my side of this thing, is the science is true, and so when you discover -- the people who got really got involved in climate change, got involved in it often by studying Venus, the planet Venus. So the physics, the science that happens on Venus, is the same as the science that happens on the earth, the science that happens on the moon, in this case the geology the study of rocks, that happens on the moon, is the same science that happens on the earth. So when you say to yourself, well, I'm going to ignore all the evidence of climate change, you're saying, I'm going to ignore the best ideas anybody's ever had, that's science. And so this is quite troubling to those of us on our side of it.</p>
<p>SCOTT: Why aren't they erupting now?</p>
<p>NYE: Well the moon cooled off, that's a great question. That's a fabulous question. The moon is quite a bit smaller than the earth so it cools off faster.</p>
<p>Previously:</p>
<p><a href="/video/2010/11/28/fox-news-watchs-scott-maybe-its-time-for-the-gr/173792" type="external">Fox News Watch's Scott: "Maybe it's time for the granola-crunching press to change its doom-and-gloom message" on global warming</a></p>
<p><a href="/blog/2010/12/15/foxleaks-fox-boss-ordered-staff-to-cast-doubt-o/174317" type="external">FOXLEAKS: Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science</a></p> | Fox Anchor Wonders If Moon Volcanoes Mean Global Warming Isn't Happening | true | http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201107280007 | 2011-07-28 | 4 |
<p>Karl Rove.Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT/ZUMAPRESS.com</p>
<p />
<p>Karl Rove, the Republican political whiz, is still grappling with blowback from the unveiling of his latest venture, the Conservative Victory Fund. A combination super-PAC and dark-money nonprofit, the Fund will <a href="" type="internal">spend millions on advertising</a> in contests where Republicans believe&#160;they only have a shot at winning the November general election if the right candidate emerges from the GOP primary.&#160;In other words, Rove wants to prevent future <a href="" type="internal">Todd Akins</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Richard</a> <a href="" type="internal">Mourdocks</a>.</p>
<p>The latest Republican to join the Rove haters is Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who over the weekend said he’d ripped Rove and the Conservative Victory Fund in a recent phone call with the strategist. “I basically told Karl Rove that what he was doing is counter-productive and he needs to stay out of it,” Branstad <a href="http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268798/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=WY6cXpym" type="external">told the Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>Rove and his new venture have driven a&#160;wedge between establishment Republicans and the ascendant conservative wing of the GOP. Matt Kibbe, the president of the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/rove-vs-tea-party-for-gops-future-87296.html" type="external">recently described</a> the furor over the new Rove super-PAC as “a little bit like gang warfare.” One tea party leader, Jenny Beth Martin, <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/282407-tea-party-pac-girds-for-coming-primary-clashes-with-rove-group" type="external">told the Hill</a> she considered Rove’s new outfit a direct challenge to the tea party, adding that hard-line conservatives like herself are “ready to rise to the challenge.”</p>
<p>The 2014 primaries are more than a year away, but already the Conservative Victory Fund is eyeing races in Iowa, Georgia, and West Virginia. But Branstad, the Iowa governor, says Rove and his allies have their strategy all wrong. Branstad favors a more “diplomatic” approach (he declined to say&#160;what that entailed—a friendly game of Oujia, perhaps?) to ensuring that Republicans who win primary elections can also win in November. From the AP’s story:</p>
<p>But the targeted effort conflicts with a more diplomatic approach favored by Branstad and other mainstream Republicans wary of offending important officeholders and factions. Branstad, who is influential as the five-term governor of a political swing state that hosts the first nominating contest of each presidential campaign, was especially inflamed by indications the Rove organization would target Iowa arch-conservative Rep. Steve King if he tried to run for the state’s open Senate seat in 2014.</p>
<p>There is similar tension about Republican candidates in West Virginia, where the GOP hopes to pick up a seat long held by Democrats, and in Georgia, where Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ retirement has set off an internal fight between hard-right conservatives and the GOP establishment.</p>
<p>Branstad, in an interview with the Associated Press, said Rove’s plan to use fundraising and negative advertising against suspect Republicans was “a mistake.”</p>
<p>“If some outside group that has no connection to Iowa attacks somebody from Iowa, that is not smart,” Branstad said.</p>
<p>In the weeks after Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin announced his retirement, Branstad has used private breakfasts with King and his House colleague Tom Latham to discuss who would be the strongest contender for seat, which has been held by Democrats for more than 30 years.</p>
<p>The Rove v. Tea Party story, needless to say, has quite a ways to go.</p>
<p /> | GOP Governor to Karl Rove: Take a Hike | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/karl-rove-terry-branstad-super-pac-tea-party/ | 2013-02-19 | 4 |
<p>Former swimsuit model, Simone Farrow, was arrested last week after being accused of running a global drug ring and fleeing the United States after a $150 thousand bail.&#160;</p>
<p>The 37-year-old Farrow, a former Penthouse Pet and bikini model for Ed Hardy, was found in a hotel on the Gold Coast Highway in eastern Australia last week, <a href="http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/19/10761466-swimsuit-model-nabbed-after-allegedly-skipping-out-on-bail" type="external">said MSNBC</a>.</p>
<p>She was extradited back to New South Wales to face a judge.</p>
<p>"The only reason I've done this is because someone was trying to murder me. I've been in ... relationships with numerous underworld figures or whatever you want to call them and I feel that maybe they feel threatened by my situation," she <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/penthouse-pet-and-model-simone-farrow-aka-starr-arrested-in-raid-for-allegedly-being-drug-ring-boss/story-fn7x8me2-1226303032203" type="external">told The Sunday Telegraph</a>. "I wasn't trying to flee the country at all; I was trying to protect myself from being killed or harmed."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/03/19/ed-hardy-model-simone-farrow-arrested-in-drug-sting-after-month-on-lam/" type="external">According to Fox News</a>, court documents presented at the US bail hearing said the crime ring had been run from Farrow's Hollywood apartment, located off Sunset Boulevard.</p>
<p>Farrow had recently changed her name to 'Lawson' and, according <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/model-simone-farrow-accused-heading-international-drug-ring/story?id=15951546#.T2ekU2JST7A" type="external">to ABC News</a>, had gone by nearly 20 different aliases while escaping the law.</p>
<p>Farrow stood accused of shipping large quantities of&#160;methamphetamine, also known as 'crystal meth,' around the world through FedEx by hiding them in bath products.</p>
<p>Most of the product was being shipped to Australian addresses.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/penthouse-pet-seized-on-coast/story-e6freon6-1226302721286" type="external">According to AFP</a>, 39 other packages were sent to Australian recipients "under similar circumstances," than those ceased by US customs but were not detected.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/penthouse-pet-simone-farrow-arrested-in-dramatic-raid-for-allegedly-being-drug-ring-boss/story-e6freuy9-1226302733421" type="external">According to the Sunday Telegraph</a>, one of the seven members of the alleged crime ring, Xander Rian, committed suicide in a Hollywood motel after being contacted by US authorities.</p> | Swimsuit model accused of running drug ring captured in Australia | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-19/swimsuit-model-accused-running-drug-ring-captured-australia | 2012-03-19 | 3 |
<p>It was <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/07/18/omarosa-named-trump-s-director-of-african-american-outreach.html?via=desktop&amp;source=copyurl" type="external">announced</a> on Monday that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump named Omarosa Manigault as his campaign’s new African-American outreach director.</p>
<p>Upon confirming her new position, Omarosa, a former combative reality-TV star, said that she was “happy to take up that cause for Donald Trump.”</p>
<p>Omarosa, who has her work cut-out for her since Trump's polling numbers with blacks are <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/07/18/omarosa-named-trump-s-director-of-african-american-outreach.html?via=desktop&amp;source=copyurl" type="external">almost non-existent</a>, is oddly similar to her new boss.</p>
<p>Here are seven things you need to know about Omarosa.</p>
<p>1. Omarosa became a public figure by branding herself as a reality-TV villain.</p>
<p>Omarosa became a household name after appearing on her future boss’ reality-TV show The Apprentice. The unforgettable contestant appeared on the first season, and again on an all-star season.</p>
<p>The Apprentice is also where Mr. Trump, a successful business man in his own right, became a household name.</p>
<p>Branding herself as a villain, Omarosa quickly became one of the most despised people on American television. In 2008, Omarosa <a href="http://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/Omarosa-Greatest-Reality-TV-Villain-All-Time-1714185" type="external">topped</a>TV Guide's list greatest reality-TV villains.</p>
<p>Her villain persona also appeared on other reality shows, such as <a href="http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/omarosa-net-worth/" type="external">VH1's The Surreal Life, NBC's Fear Factor and Oxygen's Girls Behaving Badly</a>.</p>
<p>2. Before The Apprentice, Omarosa was a political consultant for the Clinton Administration--where she was transferred from four different positions in two years.</p>
<p>Omarosa reportedly worked as a political consultant for then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton Administration. She was first named Deputy Associate Director of Presidential Personnel before <a href="" type="external">reportedly</a>being transferred a whopping four times in just two years due in part to her disruptive behavior.</p>
<p>3. Omarosa has a Ph.D in communications.</p>
<p>Omarosa, originally from Youngstown, Ohio, <a href="http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/omarosa-net-worth/" type="external">earned</a> a broadcast journalism degree from Central State University in 1996. She then attended Howard University where she earned a Ph.D. at Howard University in communications.</p>
<p>4. Much like her boss, Omarosa lacks a filter.</p>
<p>When the former reality star began stumping for Trump in 2016, The Apprentice version of the filter-free Omarosa showed up on the political airwaves.</p>
<p>It's no secret that Trump is also known for his filter-free ways.</p>
<p>Omarosa once attacked a Fox News panelist over her “big boobs” on live television while stumping for Trump.</p>
<p>During an appearance on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, the reality star ripped into Fox panelist Tamara Holder for her large beasts.</p>
<p>After Omarosa, rather rudely, corrected Bartiromo’s mispronunciation of her name, Holder corrected Omarosa for mispronouncing her first name, Tamara.</p>
<p>Apparently, this was Omarosa’s cue to attack Holder for having “big boobs.”</p>
<p>"It's Tamara," said Holder.</p>
<p>“It’s the same difference boo, you want to come on with big boobs, then you deal with the pronunciation of your name," replied Omarosa.</p>
<p>After CNN’s Don Lemon <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/25/cnn-host-abruptly-cuts-omarosas-mic-in-segment-about-trump-video/" type="external">cut Omarosa’s mic</a> during a segment, Omarosa told TMZ reporters that Lemon should “stop being such a queen.” Some in the media pounced on Omarosa for using a “ <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2016/03/29/omarosa-don-lemon-cnn/" type="external">homophobic slur</a>.”</p>
<p>In 2013, Omarosa also told business woman and former reality star Bethenny Frankel that white women can be "mediocre" and succeed, whereas black women have to be "exceptional."</p>
<p>"It's different for you and I," Omarosa told Frankel. "I'm and African American woman, you get to walk around and be mediocre and you still are rewarded for things. We have to be exceptional to get anything in this businsess."</p>
<p>5. Within six months, Omarosa lost her fiancé and her brother.</p>
<p>In July of 2012, Omarosa’s then-fiancé, The Green Mile actor Michael Clarke Duncan, suffered from a heart attack in Los Angeles. Two months later, he tragically <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/michael-clarke-duncan-remains-unmarked-tomb-year-death-article-1.1549554" type="external">passed away</a>.</p>
<p>Omarosa lost her own brother just six months prior to Duncan’s death. Jack Manigault was murdered in a “ <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/omarosas-brother-murdered-in-lovers-quarrel/" type="external">lover’s quarrel</a>.”</p>
<p>6. Omarosa was named assistant pastor of her church.</p>
<p>This one is pretty shocking, especially after noting how aggressive, and downright nasty Omarosa has been publicly: In 2011, Omarosa received her preacher’s license and was named assistant pastor at Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>“Sunday was a very special day for me in terms of my ministry and spiritual growth,” she <a href="http://blogs.blackvoices.com/bloggers/jawn-murray/" type="external">told</a> Black Voices. “God is in control and I’m moving in divine direction!”</p>
<p>7. Omarosa branded her name and cashed in on it.</p>
<p>After making a brand out of her name, Omarosa cashed in: a <a href="http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/omarosa-net-worth/" type="external">ccording</a> to Celerity Net Worth, the former reality-TV star is worth $3.5 million.</p>
<p>Again, this is not entirely dissimilar to Trump, who branded his name and then cashed-in through various business adventures all boasting his iconic name.</p> | 7 Things You Need To Know About Omarosa, Trump's New Black Outreach Director | true | https://dailywire.com/news/7562/7-things-you-need-know-about-omarosa-trumps-new-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-07-18 | 0 |
<p>Bragger alert.</p>
<p>My husband and I were successful. The genius children, J and H, are, well, geniuses, and so much more. The genius children are kind, compassionate, and empathetic.</p>
<p>Allow me to shift into reverse, backing into the past—the time the genius children met their mom and dad, took that first big gulp of air outside the womb. When I held blob-like son J in my arms the first time, I was a novice. Lamaze classes had prepared me somewhat for labor and delivery…………….. but then what? My first thought, prior to wondering what to do with this crying THING I was desperately trying to placate with a nipple, was directed at the gods, “Please don’t ever let him go to war.” With H was born, eleven years later, I was calmer.</p>
<p>Anyway, when our son J was about seven, I made him watch Amityville Horror with me. What was I thinking? We’d moved to Baltimore from Lexington, KY. My husband Charles had finished his residency at the University of Kentucky and we were repaying thousands of dollars in medical school debt. We rented an apartment and decided to buy J a television for his room. It was a 13 inch black and white. One day, J said, “I’ve seen An Officer and a Gentleman 17 times. I think he was 9. When H was about six, I made him watch Chucky with me. What was I thinking?</p>
<p>When J was a teenager, he’d ask plaintively why I wasn’t more like Che. He wanted his mum to be a revolutionary. I’d say, “Because I’m your mother.” Emphasizing mother. Later, years later, when I’d been arrested for activism and was writing political opinion pieces, J suggested I had become too extreme. Charles was dead and J was worried about me. I’d mentioned I might self-immolate in front of the White House.</p>
<p>Back to the success, the genius children’s kindness, compassion, and empathy. This year for Christmas, John and his wife L gifted me with Kate Evans’ graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg, Red Rosa. Even though Rosa Luxemburg opposed violence, her life, her death, and today’s war lust and police state here in America make me want to blow up some stuff, but then I’ve just watched V For Vendetta again this week. Still, that’s not the point of my telling you about this particular present. It’s the genius child I’m focusing on here, his kindness, compassion, empathy, and the gift he chose for me—the story of a woman devoted to justice.</p>
<p>And the other one, H, younger by 11 years. H and his wife V were shopping for Christmas gifts two weeks ago. Among the crowds, H said he felt disgusted. He had an image in his head. A Syrian mother, holding her children. He said she was dazed, appeared to be in shock. One of her children was injured, bloody. He said to V, “I can’t do this.” They fled Consumerism, USA, sat and talked, accessed the Internet, and selected charities. These genius children—yes, V is also a genius child, as is J’s wife, based their decisions on the very personal. For me, they donated to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. For my guy, the Innocence Project. For Laura and Erma, Paws4ever Animal Sanctuary, for J and L, New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. For V’s family members, Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matter, and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Against DAPL.</p>
<p>Kindness, compassion, and empathy. The genius children have it. Despite or perhaps because (heh heh) I made them watch those movies with me, while also providing love, listening to them, believing them, believing in them, teaching them the Golden Rule. They were/are loved and have been nurtured well not only by me but also by their father, their grandparents, their friends, nurtured by heartbreak experiences as well as the joyous.</p>
<p>Today is Thursday. I must submit this little piece soon, but I’m not finished. Just need to add to each of you a hope for kindnesses, good health, good humor, love, and justice. Plus this advice: Live as if there’s no tomorrow, because there may not be, and prepare to step into 2017 frightened yet willing to throw your body on the gears.</p> | Step Into 2017 | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/12/30/step-into-2017/ | 2016-12-30 | 4 |
<p>Now that the Republican presidential candidate field is rounding out its top contenders, it’s time to take a look at how they feel and what they think about the issues. One of those issues that they all seemingly love to share their opinion on to appease their ridiculously conservative ultra-right-wing base, is marriage equality.</p>
<p>As Democrats rally around equality for all, Republicans, even though they scream “freedom” at any free moment they get, haven’t quite grasped the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv" type="external">Equal Protection Clause</a> of the Constitution and the freedom to marry.</p>
<p>To catch a glimpse of what we have to look forward to at the upcoming Republican presidential debates, here are the opinions of marriage equality from the seven top contenders in the Republican field of candidates.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marco_Rubio_water_bottle.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p>“I appreciate that many Americans’ attitude towards same-sex marriage have changed in recent years. I respect the rights of states to allow same-sex marriages, even though I disagree with them. But I also expect that the decisions made by states like Florida to define marriage as between one man and one woman will also be respected.”</p>
<p>So he believes in individual states ignoring the 14th Amendment and the Supremacy Clause that hold the 14th Amendment to each and every state. Got it.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Rand_Paul_%285584558924%29.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p>“I think this is the conundrum and gets back to what you were saying in the opening – whether or not churches should decide this. But it is difficult because if we have no laws on this people take it to one extension further. Does it have to be humans?”</p>
<p>Rand Paul apparently wants to marry his pet goat, because why else would he ask that? And no, Paul, two consenting adults who have equal protection under the law are not the same thing as someone wanting to marry an animal.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeb_Bush_by_Gage_Skidmore_4.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p>“I hope that we can show respect for the good people on all sides of the gay and lesbian marriage issue — including couples making lifetime commitments to each other who are seeking greater legal protections and those of us who believe marriage is a sacrament and want to safeguard religious liberty.”</p>
<p>In the closest any of them have come to actually acknowledging gay people deserve equal rights, Bush craftily tries to dodge any and all questioning surrounding the topic. Basically saying, gay people deserve equal protections, but if religious people want to pretend they are following their religious text and prohibit them from those protections, well, that’s cool too. It’s the classic non-answer. Which, can be worse than just being a flat out bigot sometimes, because at least we know where the bigot stands on the issue.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mike_Huckabee_in_2007_in_Washington,_DC_at_the_Values_Voters_conference.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p>“In today’s world, what real love means is interpreted as hate and if you tell someone what the truth is, you’ll be accused of hate speech.”</p>
<p>So, what is “real love” and “the truth,” Huckabee? Please enlighten us. Something tells me those who are accusing you of “hate speech” are spot on.</p>
<p>He also <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/huckabee-gay-marriage-will-lead-criminalization-christianity" type="external">said</a>:</p>
<p>“Christian convictions are under attack as never before.&#160;Not just in our lifetime, but ever before in the history of this great republic. We are moving rapidly toward the criminalization of Christianity.”</p>
<p>No. Just…. no.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ben_Carson_2013.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p>“Because a lot of people who go into prison, go into prison straight and when they come out they are gay.”</p>
<p>Is he speaking from experience? No, Carson. Being gay doesn’t work that way, just like we can assume you didn’t choose one day to be straight… or maybe you did.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carly_Fiorina_(13045502775).jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p>“We are having now a clarifying debate about what is really at stake here for gay couples…what’s really at stake here for gay couples is how government bestows benefits. What’s really at stake here for people of religious conviction is their conviction that marriage is a religious institution because only a man and a woman can create life, which is a gift that comes from God. And I think both of those points of view are valid, and I really hope that we come to a place in this country where we are prepared to have respectful differences and tolerate those two views.”</p>
<p>You, in your personal life, can believe marriage is a religious institution. However, in a secular nation of many religions and ways of thinking, and under the Equal Protection Clause, all citizens are to be treated equally under the law regardless of religious affiliation. Marriage is a state contract, with over 1000 <a href="http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/an-overview-of-federal-rights-and-protections-granted-to-married-couples" type="external">rights and benefits</a> attached.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ted_Cruz_(7004284762).jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p>“If you look at other nations that have gone down the road towards gay marriage, that’s the next step of where it gets enforced. It gets enforced against Christian pastors who decline to perform gay marriages, who speak out and preach biblical truths on marriage, that has been defined elsewhere as hate speech, as inconsistent with the enlightened view of government. I think there is no doubt that the advocates who are driving this effort in the United States want to see us end up in that same place.”</p>
<p>In a place where everyone is treated equally regardless of religious affiliation? Sure, Ted! We’re on the same page! Oh wait, no. You think Christians are being persecuted because they’ll be required to follow the Constitution. Oh, and speaking out against a specific subset of citizens and saying they’re not worth of equality because of who they are… hate to break it to you, Ted, but that is hate speech.</p>
<p>Needless to say, the pandering is over the top because the people who they are trying to garner votes from hate gay people and cheer discrimination. So, even if some of them may actually err to the side of freedom, actual freedom, they’re not about to show it.</p>
<p>Featured image via <a href="http://www.newnownext.com/67-of-republicans-would-vote-for-a-gay-candidate-today-in-gay/08/2014/" type="external">NewNowNext</a></p> | Find Out What Each Of The GOP Candidates Has Pathetically Said About Marriage Equality | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2015/05/14/find-out-what-each-of-the-gop-candidates-has-pathetically-said-about-marriage-equality/ | 2015-05-14 | 4 |
<p>VIENNA (AP) — Austria will send 105 athletes to the Pyeongchang Olympics, 25 fewer than four years ago when its hockey team qualified for the Sochi Games.</p>
<p>The Austrian Olympic Committee nominated 65 men and 40 women on Monday. It's the third time Austria will have a Winter Olympics team of more than 100 athletes after Nagano in 1998 (105) and Sochi in 2014 (130).</p>
<p>The AOC named Alpine skier Anna Veith as the country's flagbearer for the Feb. 9 opening ceremony. Competing under her maiden name Fenninger, she won gold in super-G and silver in giant slalom four years ago.</p>
<p>Since then, Veith won two overall World Cup titles and two world championship titles but also missed more than a full year because of knee injuries.</p>
<p>AOC president Karl Stoss said he had "no expectations" regarding the number of medals Austria could win in South Korea.</p>
<p>"Obviously we would be very glad if we can come close to our achievement from Sochi," Stoss said, referring to the 17 medals, including four golds, Austria won four years ago.</p>
<p>Not all 105 team members are known. Six Alpine skiers and one Nordic combined athlete will be nominated after World Cup events this week.</p>
<p>VIENNA (AP) — Austria will send 105 athletes to the Pyeongchang Olympics, 25 fewer than four years ago when its hockey team qualified for the Sochi Games.</p>
<p>The Austrian Olympic Committee nominated 65 men and 40 women on Monday. It's the third time Austria will have a Winter Olympics team of more than 100 athletes after Nagano in 1998 (105) and Sochi in 2014 (130).</p>
<p>The AOC named Alpine skier Anna Veith as the country's flagbearer for the Feb. 9 opening ceremony. Competing under her maiden name Fenninger, she won gold in super-G and silver in giant slalom four years ago.</p>
<p>Since then, Veith won two overall World Cup titles and two world championship titles but also missed more than a full year because of knee injuries.</p>
<p>AOC president Karl Stoss said he had "no expectations" regarding the number of medals Austria could win in South Korea.</p>
<p>"Obviously we would be very glad if we can come close to our achievement from Sochi," Stoss said, referring to the 17 medals, including four golds, Austria won four years ago.</p>
<p>Not all 105 team members are known. Six Alpine skiers and one Nordic combined athlete will be nominated after World Cup events this week.</p> | Austria to send 105 athletes to Pyeongchang Olympics | false | https://apnews.com/amp/ed5e6dcd564f4e3d8c245fa656a9ad60 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Snap, owner of popular messaging app Snapchat, will price its initial public offering after the U.S. stock market closes on Wednesday in the most eagerly awaited technology IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba went public in 2014.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The pricing will be the first test of investor appetite for a social-media app beloved by teenagers and 20-somethings but which has yet to turn a profit. The company's losses widened last year, and it is experiencing decelerating user growth in the face of intense competition from larger rivals such as Facebook.</p>
<p>Despite the challenges in converting "cool" into cash, Snap is targeting a valuation of between $19.5 billion and $22.3 billion from listing on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, the richest valuation in a U.S. tech IPO since Facebook in 2012.</p>
<p>Snap is looking to price 200 million shares on Wednesday night at a range of $14 to $16 dollars a share.</p>
<p>The sale, which aims to raise around $3 billion, has the advantage of favorable timing. The market for technology IPOs hit the brakes in 2016, the slowest year for such launches since 2008, and investors are keen for fresh opportunities.</p>
<p>A successful launch could encourage debuts by other unicorns, the moniker given to tech start-ups with private valuations of $1 billion or more.</p>
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<p>Early indications for selling shareholders and the company have been positive. The IPO book is said to be over-subscribed with orders coming in at the high end of the range or higher. At least one new investor indicated it was willing to buy a large chunk of the IPO and not sell it for a year, a rare commitment to make.</p>
<p>The company cut its price range last month from an original target of between $19.5 billion and $22.3 billion after investor concern over its unproven business model. It had been valued at up to $20 billion in nine separate private funding rounds over the past five years.</p>
<p>HAVE FAITH IN SPIEGEL</p>
<p>Although Los Angeles-based Snap is going public at a much earlier stage in its development than social media giants Twitter Inc or Facebook Inc, the five-year-old company is valuing itself at roughly 49 times revenues at the top of its suggested range, nearly double the 27 times revenue Facebook fetched when it went public in 2012.</p>
<p>To justify its suggested valuation and fend off concerns about slowing user growth, Snap has highlighted how much time its users spend on the app and the revenue potential of the emerging trend for young people to communicate with video rather than text.</p>
<p>The company has been vague on its specific plans to lead and monetize image-driven conversations, but it has suggested investors have faith in the vision of its co-founder Evan Spiegel, whom it introduced in its investor roadshow as a "once in a generation founder."</p>
<p>The 26-year-old will walk away with a roughly 17 percent stake valued at as much as $3.8 billion.</p>
<p>Spiegel and co-founder Bobby Murphy will each be selling 16 million shares in the IPO that could earn them $256 million apiece. Spiegel will also receive a bonus equivalent to 3 percent of its market capitalization or up to $669 million.</p>
<p>Dozens of other Snap investors could become overnight millionaires.</p>
<p>Spiegel and Murphy will maintain tight control over Snap's stock through a unique three-share class structure. The structure will give Spiegel and Murphy the right of 10 votes for every share. Existing investors will have one vote for each of their shares, while new investors will have no voting rights.</p>
<p>(Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Cynthia Osterman)</p> | Snap to Price Long-Awaited IPO Amid Signs of Brisk Demand | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/01/snap-to-price-long-awaited-ipo-amid-signs-brisk-demand.html | 2017-03-01 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>According to city documents, the single largest payout was to resident Janie Chodosh, who got $142,843 in April after a water main leak flooded her home and caused extensive damage.</p>
<p>Chodosh’s claim was one of 14 settled by the city for problems linked to the Water Division. Most often, the issue was a water main break or leak. Altogether, the 14 claims totaled $176,817.</p>
<p>Santa Fe City Councilor Rebecca Wurzburger got $162 when a surge in her water line caused a sink faucet to blow off.</p>
<p>However, nearly half the settlement money dispersed by the city between mid-November 2012 to late October 2013 was compensation for damages caused by sewer line backups, an ongoing problem in Santa Fe.</p>
<p>The city made 15 payments totaling $267,161 for sewer-related damages. The amounts ranged from $411 to $67,872, with the average payment coming in at $17,811.</p>
<p>The most frequent reason for a city payout, encompassing nearly half the claims, involved automobile accidents. This year, city-owned vehicles hit objects ranging from other cars – both parked and moving – to walls, electrical lines, fences, mail boxes and a dumpster corral. A handful of claims involved city gates smacking into cars.</p>
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<p>The largest auto-involved payout was $13,950 to Alyssa Maestas, whose car was hit by a Parks Division vehicle.</p>
<p>Santa Fe officials have said that insurance covers most claims against city government, though the city’s deductible varies depending on the type of grievance.</p>
<p>Other payments include:</p>
<p />
<p /> | Leaks, mishaps cost city $578K in payouts | false | https://abqjournal.com/323048/leaks-mishaps-cost-city-578k-in-payouts.html | 2 |
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<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and his assistants annually brace for announcements about elite and not-so-elite players leaving the program early for the NFL draft.</p>
<p>But Monday’s deadline to declare came and went, and the damage wasn’t so bad for the Buckeyes.</p>
<p>There were some predictable early departures in cornerback Denzel Ward, linebacker Jerome Baker and defensive end Sam Hubbard. They were obvious NFL prospects.</p>
<p>But other names mentioned in the NFL conversation — defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones, running back Mike Weber and the top four receivers from last season, Parris Campbell, K.J. Hill, Terry McLaurin and Johnnie Dixon — will return.</p>
<p>The receivers, a unit known by the nickname “Zone 6,” are especially close. They said the prospect of playing together factored into their decisions to stay around for another year.</p>
<p>“There’s still a lot of things we left on the field last year,” McLaurin said on the first day of winter workouts Friday.</p>
<p>“I didn’t think we would all be back, but it’s definitely exciting,” said Campbell, the team’s leading receiver last season with 40 receptions for 584 yards.</p>
<p>“Sometimes it’s bigger than the money,” said Dixon, who led the team with eight touchdown catches. “Passing up a brotherhood like this (for another year) would be crazy.”</p>
<p>The return of the receivers and Weber, who shared time in the backfield with true freshman J.K. Dobbins last season, is especially good news for an offense directed by a new starting quarterback following the graduation of four-year starter J.T. Barrett.</p>
<p>The front-runner is last season’s backup, Dwayne Haskins, a drop-back passer with a rifle arm who sparked the Buckeyes to a win over Michigan after Barrett went out with a knee injury.</p>
<p>Weber, a rising redshirt junior who was displaced as the starter by Dobbins, said one of the reasons he decided to return is the prospect of more available carries next season. Barrett was a key part of the run game, carrying the ball 165 times for 798 yards on designed keepers and run-pass option plays. Meyer isn’t expected to rely on Haskins to tuck and run nearly as often.</p>
<p>The Buckeyes also will be without six other five-year players who were key contributors last season, including defensive ends Tyquan Lewis and Jalyn Holmes. That’s expected to create more snaps for defensive end Nick Bosa, who is on the verge of becoming the same magnitude of star his brother Joey was at Ohio State.</p>
<p>It also creates opportunities for defensive tackle Jones, who thought about leaving for the NFL but decided to come back. Not having to share so much time with other players, he has a chance for more exposure — and more sacks.</p>
<p>“He’s not just going to a first- and second-down guy anymore,” Bosa said. “The three other ends are gone. He’s going to be in the nickel package for sure. The whole country is going to get to see what he can do pass rushing, which should be fun because nobody really knows that.”</p>
<p>Jones said he’ll make the most of another year of seasoning, but being an NFL player is always in the background.</p>
<p>“I think it about it almost every day, and it’s hard not to,” he acknowledged. “It is what it is.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football at www.collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25." type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25.</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Mitch Stacy at <a href="http://twitter.com/mitchstacy" type="external">http://twitter.com/mitchstacy</a></p>
<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and his assistants annually brace for announcements about elite and not-so-elite players leaving the program early for the NFL draft.</p>
<p>But Monday’s deadline to declare came and went, and the damage wasn’t so bad for the Buckeyes.</p>
<p>There were some predictable early departures in cornerback Denzel Ward, linebacker Jerome Baker and defensive end Sam Hubbard. They were obvious NFL prospects.</p>
<p>But other names mentioned in the NFL conversation — defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones, running back Mike Weber and the top four receivers from last season, Parris Campbell, K.J. Hill, Terry McLaurin and Johnnie Dixon — will return.</p>
<p>The receivers, a unit known by the nickname “Zone 6,” are especially close. They said the prospect of playing together factored into their decisions to stay around for another year.</p>
<p>“There’s still a lot of things we left on the field last year,” McLaurin said on the first day of winter workouts Friday.</p>
<p>“I didn’t think we would all be back, but it’s definitely exciting,” said Campbell, the team’s leading receiver last season with 40 receptions for 584 yards.</p>
<p>“Sometimes it’s bigger than the money,” said Dixon, who led the team with eight touchdown catches. “Passing up a brotherhood like this (for another year) would be crazy.”</p>
<p>The return of the receivers and Weber, who shared time in the backfield with true freshman J.K. Dobbins last season, is especially good news for an offense directed by a new starting quarterback following the graduation of four-year starter J.T. Barrett.</p>
<p>The front-runner is last season’s backup, Dwayne Haskins, a drop-back passer with a rifle arm who sparked the Buckeyes to a win over Michigan after Barrett went out with a knee injury.</p>
<p>Weber, a rising redshirt junior who was displaced as the starter by Dobbins, said one of the reasons he decided to return is the prospect of more available carries next season. Barrett was a key part of the run game, carrying the ball 165 times for 798 yards on designed keepers and run-pass option plays. Meyer isn’t expected to rely on Haskins to tuck and run nearly as often.</p>
<p>The Buckeyes also will be without six other five-year players who were key contributors last season, including defensive ends Tyquan Lewis and Jalyn Holmes. That’s expected to create more snaps for defensive end Nick Bosa, who is on the verge of becoming the same magnitude of star his brother Joey was at Ohio State.</p>
<p>It also creates opportunities for defensive tackle Jones, who thought about leaving for the NFL but decided to come back. Not having to share so much time with other players, he has a chance for more exposure — and more sacks.</p>
<p>“He’s not just going to a first- and second-down guy anymore,” Bosa said. “The three other ends are gone. He’s going to be in the nickel package for sure. The whole country is going to get to see what he can do pass rushing, which should be fun because nobody really knows that.”</p>
<p>Jones said he’ll make the most of another year of seasoning, but being an NFL player is always in the background.</p>
<p>“I think it about it almost every day, and it’s hard not to,” he acknowledged. “It is what it is.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football at www.collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25." type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25.</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Mitch Stacy at <a href="http://twitter.com/mitchstacy" type="external">http://twitter.com/mitchstacy</a></p> | Buckeyes still loaded as most NFL-eligible players stay put | false | https://apnews.com/426f2ab1f58c4189884593d1ba9855f9 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago criminal defense attorney is offering a $1,000 reward for the safe return of five stolen handmade Polish folk costumes.</p>
<p>Lawyer Donna Makowski tells the <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/wicker-park-reward-stolen-polish-folk-outfits/" type="external">Chicago Sun-Times</a> she felt compelled to help and will be offering the reward on behalf of the National Advocates Society, a group of American lawyers of Polish descent.</p>
<p>The hand-sewn and hard-to-replace garments were stolen last weekend from singer Marlena Dzis' car in Chicago. Dzis said her car window was smashed and the garment bag taken. She says she's "overwhelmed with gratitude" to learn about the reward offer.</p>
<p>The outfits were on loan from The Lira Ensemble, a professional performing arts company specializes in Polish music, song and dance. Dzis expected to wear the costumes in two upcoming performances.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/" type="external">http://chicago.suntimes.com/</a></p>
<p>CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago criminal defense attorney is offering a $1,000 reward for the safe return of five stolen handmade Polish folk costumes.</p>
<p>Lawyer Donna Makowski tells the <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/wicker-park-reward-stolen-polish-folk-outfits/" type="external">Chicago Sun-Times</a> she felt compelled to help and will be offering the reward on behalf of the National Advocates Society, a group of American lawyers of Polish descent.</p>
<p>The hand-sewn and hard-to-replace garments were stolen last weekend from singer Marlena Dzis' car in Chicago. Dzis said her car window was smashed and the garment bag taken. She says she's "overwhelmed with gratitude" to learn about the reward offer.</p>
<p>The outfits were on loan from The Lira Ensemble, a professional performing arts company specializes in Polish music, song and dance. Dzis expected to wear the costumes in two upcoming performances.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/" type="external">http://chicago.suntimes.com/</a></p> | $1,000 reward offered for return of Polish folk costumes | false | https://apnews.com/amp/6505dcb57ad34b66a3bd5cb1616a103f | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>On the west bank of the Mississippi River, across from New Orleans, 29-year-old Marlon Favorite hustles from a parking lot towards the local barbecue restaurant where he broadcasts his sports radio show every week. The 6-foot, 300-pound NFL journeyman slides on his headphones, and instructs the engineer to start his program a little differently than usual. Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s In Need of Love Today,” fills the speakers as Favorite silently taps out the melody on an imaginary piano.</p>
<p>For Favorite, the shooting death of Saints Super Bowl champion Will Smith last week landed hard. He was mentored by Smith as a young professional in the NFL. He also knows Smith’s alleged killer. Cardell Hayes, who shot Smith eight times on April 9, was a former teammate on a second-tier professional team in the area.</p>
<p>“This really hit close to home,” Favorite tells The Trace.</p>
<p />
<p>Powerful statements made by New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton might mark a pivotal point in a discussion about the league's complicated history with guns.</p>
<p>by <a href="/index.php?s=Will%20Leitch" type="external">Will Leitch</a></p>
<p />
<p>Today’s guest on the radio show is Frederick Washington, the coach of the Crescent City Kings, the semi-pro football team for which Hayes played most recently. Both men struggle to reconcile the sudden, violent death of a man they knew and admired at the hands of someone else that they knew, and liked. Washington remembers Hayes as “a good father.” Favorite searches for the appropriate response. “My heart goes out to both families.”</p>
<p>Washington reverts to sports metaphor to make it through the interview: “There’s no winner in this situation.”</p>
<p>Favorite says that a song written by Louisiana State University classmate and local rapper, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq8sGwk0ydI" type="external">Dee-1</a>, best explains how he feels. The lyrics go, “I know the killer, I know the victim / I’m so confused my head hurt / Funerals ain’t fun, loved him and him like a son / Now they both gon’ miss Christmas.” Favorite finishes the rap, “both sides of the gun.”</p>
<p>As of Tuesday, <a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/page/new_orleans_murders.html" type="external">35 people</a> had been murdered inside city limits since the start of the year, nearly all of them gunshot victims. The conversation unfolding in the New Orleans restaurant is common in this smallish city with a high rate of gun violence. People often know both the shooter and the victim.</p>
<p>“When you’ve experienced something this long you become numb to it,” says Favorite, who says he has lost several friends to gun violence. “That’s not a good feeling.”</p>
<p>Back across the Mississippi River, in the Lower Garden District, is the intersection of <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Felicity+St+%2526+Sophie+Wright+Pl,+New+Orleans,+LA+70130/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x8620a67f518a66ef:0x6045350ceb85fe75?sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi-vob6_5DMAhWHuoMKHXJ5Ab0Q8gEIHDAA" type="external">Sophie Wright Place and Felicity Street</a>, where Smith and Hayes’s vehicles collided, and the deadly incident began. An older man in a black and gold Saints jersey reads from a tiny, green copy of the New Testament.</p>
<p />
<p>Subscribe to receive The Trace’s newsletters on important gun news and analysis.</p>
<p />
<p>A nearby fence has become a shrine to Smith, with flowers, balloons, a “Who Dat” hat, and a construction helmet with the Saints fleur-de-lis logo. Somebody spray-painted “RIP # 91,” Smith’s number, on the sidewalk.</p>
<p>Allen Cazabon, 32, stops by to pay his respects. A rabid Saints fan, he grew up not far from the spot where Smith died. His 7-year old daughter writes a note to the slain player’s&#160;family. “I’m sorry,” she scribbles in pencil.</p>
<p>“When I grew up, you have a little fight, you were best friends after,” says Cazabon. “Now, when you get in a fight with somebody, they want to kill you. For nothing.”</p>
<p>[Photo:&#160;AP Photo/Gerald Herbert]</p> | In New Orleans, Former Football Players Grapple With Knowing ‘Both Sides of the Gun’ | false | https://thetrace.org/2016/04/new-orleans-former-football-players-grapple-will-smith-death/ | 2016-04-19 | 3 |
<p>Late Wednesday night, Democrats Sen. Schumer and White House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced they’d <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/politics/chuck-schumer-nancy-pelosi-donald-trump/index.html" type="external">reached a deal</a> with Trump on DACA and that funding for Trump’s campaign cornerstone, the border wall, was not part of the agreement, though they’d agreed to include some form of beefed up border security.</p>
<p>Trump and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders both denied any deal was made.</p>
<p />
<p>On Fox News Wednesday night, Huckabee Sanders <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/14/sarah-huckabee-sanders-donald-trump-is-committed-t/" type="external">said</a>:</p>
<p>White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that President Trump is committed to building the border wall.</p>
<p>“The wall is already going through extensive renovations. They’re already building sample walls. That part is already moving forward. The president is 100 committed to the wall,” Mrs. Sanders said on Fox News. “These efforts are going to continue.”</p>
<p>Early Thursday morning Trump tweeted no deal was made:</p>
<p />
<p>Then an hour later, followed up saying the border wall already exists in the form of a renovated fence that already exists along parts of the southern border, that no one wants to kick out DREAMers, and something about “BIG border security”.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>But then later:</p>
<p />
<p>And bonus:</p>
<p />
<p>So what’s going on?</p>
<p>Trump and his comms team claim no deal was made. Fine. But where is the funding for the border wall? And why is the wall now a fence repair project? And why do Trump’s tweets sound exactly like the deal Democrats claimed they reached? Sure sounds an awful lot like Republican border security plans circa 2014 and a lot less like the campaign promises of 2016.</p>
<p>But this may all have been much ado about nothing. In the statement released by Pelosi Wednesday night, Pelosi described the meeting with Trump as resulting in an agreement “to a plan to work out an agreement”.</p>
<p />
<p>The bipartisan efforts are refreshing, but that’s the only bright spot here, politically speaking.</p>
<p>The Dream Act has bipartisan support, but Republicans are going to be far less willing to sign on to such a bill without something major in return, like funding for a border wall. But who knows, the Republican caucus is such a cluster these days, we can be sure of one thing — if there’s a way to botch this further, they’ll find it, double down, and then go full <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hooKVstzbz0" type="external">Leeroy Jenkins</a>.</p>
<p>Follow Kemberlee on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/KemberleeKaye" type="external">@kemberleekaye</a></p> | What in the world is happening with Trump, DACA, and the border wall? | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/09/what-in-the-world-is-happening-with-trump-daca-and-the-border-wall/ | 2017-09-14 | 0 |
<p>By Paul Brown, Climate News Network</p>
<p />
<p>&#160; &#160; Switching from open fires to modern cooking stoves in India would vastly increase energy efficiency. (Yogendra Joshi via Flickr)</p>
<p>This Creative Commons-licensed piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/efficiency-drive-can-cut-a-quarter-off-energy-demand/" type="external">Climate News Network</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>LONDON - The more renewables a country deploys, the more efficient its energy use, according to a study of the eight countries that consume half of the world's electricity.</p>
<p>The researchers estimate that by combining investments in renewables and in energy efficiency, the world's total <a href="http://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloads/Publications/IRENA_C2E2_Synergies_RE_EE_paper_2015.pdf" type="external">energy demand can be reduced by 25% by 2030</a>.</p>
<p>In practical terms, it cannot happen all at once, but the adoption of modern technology such as efficient cooking stoves instead of open fires in India, and the use by all countries of renewable energy to power energy-efficient lightbulbs, refrigerators and factories, would prevent the world from dangerously overheating.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.irena.org/home/index.aspx?PriMenuID=12&amp;mnu=Pri" type="external">International Renewable Energy Agency</a>&#160;and the <a href="http://www.energyefficiencycentre.org/" type="external">Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency</a>,&#160;which combined to produce the study, this is the first time that anyone has tried to link the benefits of investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency.</p>
<p>Although widely different in their economies and state of development, all the countries studied - China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, the UK and the US - would make substantial reductions in emissions by 2030 as fossil fuel use would drop dramatically.</p>
<p>The aim of the study was to work out how best to achieve the <a href="http://www.se4all.org/" type="external">United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative</a>, which seeks to achieve three linked global objectives: ensuring universal access to electricity; doubling the rate of improvement of energy efficiency; doubling the share of renewables in global energy supply by 2030.</p>
<p>The report points out that familiar appliances such as gas condensing boilers are far more efficient than traditional boilers, and a solar water heater is 100% efficient, compared with a coal-fired boiler at 85%.</p>
<p>Transport using electric bicycles or cars also uses far less fossil fuel - and none if the electricity comes from renewable sources. It is also a way of storing surplus electricity in batteries.</p>
<p>On the industrial level, one of the ways cited to save huge quantities of energy is using scrap steel to make new steel, rather than beginning with iron ore.</p>
<p>Using heat pumps provides efficiency gains of 80% for the same power input, and if these are driven by renewable sources there are no carbon emissions.</p>
<p>The report makes a distinction between what it calls new renewables - wind, solar, geothermal, hydro - and traditional biomass (open fires for cooking or heating), which can be very inefficient. However, if biomass is burnt in new, efficient cooking stoves it dramatically reduces fuel use and increases heat output. The efficiency gain is up to 80%.</p>
<p>The study says: "Increasing renewables from 18% in 2010 to 36% by 2030 will create jobs, reduce pollution, and provide half of the emission cuts needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Following such a path is not only technically feasible, but more affordable than current energy policies."</p>
<p>One of the other issues covered is "energy intensity" - the amount of energy used for each unit of gross domestic product. In the past, the use of fossil fuels increased in direct ratio to the amount of production, but this link has now been broken.</p>
<p>A key target of China and other major economies has been to reduce their energy intensity in order to cut carbon emissions and fuel imports.</p>
<p>This latest study says the combination of renewables and energy efficiency that it envisages would reduce energy intensity by 5%-10% by 2030 above improvements that are already being made.</p>
<p /> | Efficiency Drive Can Cut a Quarter Off Energy Demand | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/efficiency-drive-can-cut-a-quarter-off-energy-demand/ | 2015-09-11 | 4 |
<p>Teens who spend too much time in front of a screen may be at risk of poor bone health, including low bone density. A new study from Norway has shown that teens who sit in front of a screen for an extended period of time can develop osteoporosis.</p>
<p>The study involved 484 boys and 463 girls, ages 15 to 18.&#160; The participants underwent bone mineral density tests. During the study, they were asked about their lifestyle habits, such as the amount of time they spent watching TV or on the computer on weekends. Participants were also asked about their levels of physical activity.</p>
<p>Study results indicated that boys spent more time in front of screens than girls did. As the amount of time the boys spent in front of a screen increased, so did their risk of suffering from lower bone mineral density throughout their body.</p>
<p>The study found that girls who spent four to six hours in front of a screen had higher bone mineral density than boys who had just 1.5 hours of screen time a day or less. The difference in bone mineral density between the girls and boys in the study, despite the lower hours the boys spent in front of a screen, could not be explained by other lifestyle factors, which were factored out for the study.</p>
<p>Results from the study were presented at the World Congress of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, and Musculoskeletal Diseases on April 4, 2014.</p>
<p>Participants were involved in a ‘Fit Futures’ study from 2010 to 2011, which assessed over 90 percent of first year high school students within the TromsØ region of Norway.</p>
<p>For the assessment, bone mineral density, or BMD, for every participant was measured at the hip and femoral neck. Additionally, the total body mass index, or BMI, was also measured. For both boys and girls, more sedentary time equaled a lower BMD and higher BMI.</p>
<p>The study results are crucial for younger individuals, whose skeleton fully matures during the teen years, with peak bone mass, or a person’s maximum strength and size, reached by early adulthood.</p>
<p /> | More screen time leads to lower bone density among teens, new study shows | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/04/07/more-screen-time-leads-to-lower-bone-density-among-teens-new-study-shows/ | 2014-04-07 | 3 |
<p>Turkey is increasingly drifting into a civil war. Led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) provisional government, the politics of violence have escalated since&#160;the <a href="" type="internal">June 7 general elections</a>.</p>
<p>Today, the peace process between the&#160;Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish state has come to a halt and war has started again.</p>
<p>Just within the last month, severe clashes have taken place in many Kurdish cities such&#160;as Silopi, Lice, Şemdinli, Silvan, Yüksekova, and Cizre, where the civilian population has been&#160;targeted by state forces. Tens of civilians, guerillas, and members of state security forces have&#160;died in the ensuing clashes. Since July 24, the AKP interim government has not been <a href="" type="internal">attacking&#160;ISIS</a>, as it claims to be doing, but the Qandil Mountains in the territory of the Kurdistan&#160;Regional Government instead, as well as Kurds, democratic forces, democratic politics, civilians, women, and the <a href="" type="internal">opposition as a whole</a> in Turkey.</p>
<p>The Turkish state and the provisional AKP government are implementing all sorts of&#160;oppressive measures, such as forbidding entry into and departure from Kurdish cities against&#160;which it launches military operations, cutting off all communication including phone and&#160;internet lines, and blocking off press and observers to prevent the truth about what is happening on&#160;the ground from reaching national and international public attention.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://national.bgnnews.com/hdp-delegation-stopped-by-police-on-way-to-cizre-over-curfew-haberi/9279" type="external">curfew</a> has been in&#160;place in the province of Cizre for the past week, where twenty-one&#160;civilians have been killed. The&#160;province of Cizre has&#160;been under siege for days, where there is serious shortage of food, water,&#160;access to basic health services, preventative treatment of the wounded, and burial of those who&#160;have been killed by state security forces. Serious concerns regarding fears of civilian massacre&#160;in Cizre have been voiced by the elected members of the parliament and civil society&#160;organizations.</p>
<p>In this very violent situation, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has also been <a href="" type="internal">targeted</a> by AKP spokespersons and&#160;pro-AKP mass media. Almost everyday, our party officials and especially our co-chairs are&#160;being targeted by&#160;those “nationalist and patriotic” people. Many statements&#160;of AKP officials have been signaling a call for war against the HDP.</p>
<p>As a result of the AKP’s&#160;violent&#160;discourse, many of our buildings in several cities have been attacked by groups of&#160;people associated with racist and fascist groups. On September 8, they <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34193733" type="external">attacked our headquarters</a> in&#160;Ankara, setting fire to the building. Our party archives and records were targeted specifically.&#160;No one was injured in the attack, but the building&#160;is now heavily damaged and unavailable for use.</p>
<p>Until now, over 128 party buildings all over the country have been attacked. Moreover, the&#160;police and other security forces of the state did not do their job to prevent the attacks.</p>
<p>We once again want to emphasize that HDP is not a part of these <a href="" type="internal">violence-based</a>, war-oriented policies. As HDP, we did not take part in any decision-making process of the war. On&#160;the contrary, we are trying to push both PKK and the Turkish state to end this armed conflict. It&#160;should be known that it is the AKP who is insisting on war politics and implementing anti-democratic practices all over the country.</p>
<p>In spite of these adverse developments, we call on all international communities, civil&#160;society organizations, and the international media for solidarity and support to bring about an&#160;immediate ceasefire and the commencement of peace talks. Our call is also one for urgent&#160;action against increasing state violence, the violation of human rights, and anti-democratic&#160;practices and measures in Kurdish cities, as well as the cities in the western regions of the&#160;country.</p>
<p>We now need the support of the international public more than ever in order to achieve&#160;the realization of a lasting peace in the Middle East, Turkey, and Kurdistan. In this context we&#160;invite all of our friends, political parties, associations, networks, civil society organizations, and&#160;all peace-loving forces to act in solidarity with us.</p>
<p>We call on all democratic international&#160;institutions and forces to take concrete steps against the Turkish state’s violent, anti-democratic&#160;actions against its own people and citizens.</p> | The War Erdoğan Wants | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2015/09/erdogan-turkey-hdp-akp-pkk-kurdistan-statement/ | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>&#160;Victimizing, androphobic, totalitarian and puritanical.</p>
<p>This is how a number of prominent women in France see American feminism.</p>
<p>While clamors of “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/01/08/oprah-for-president-in-2020-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/?utm_term=.6c1cf6d8a68e" type="external">Oprah 2020</a>” echo&#160;around the United States following Oprah Winfrey’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globe&#160;Awards last Sunday, some women in France are deriding what they describe as a new strand of American feminism.</p>
<p>In the French magazine, Causeur,&#160;author Vida Azimi mocks the fact that <a href="https://www.causeur.fr/golden-globes-oprah-winfrey-deneuve-149038" type="external">show-biz women wore black</a>&#160;at the ceremony. She questions what there is to mourn and contends that women are actually going through a regression. “We thought they were in charge of their lives,” she wrote, “and there they are, confessing they were cowardly&#160;and paid a high price for what one calls ‘success.’” Another author decries this brand of feminism as encouraging self-victimization and aiming to be “androphobic.”</p>
<p>Causeur founder and director Élisabeth Lévy&#160;speaks of the rise&#160;of “totalitarian feminism,” which she says will not tolerate a difference of opinion. She deplores the #BalanceTonPorc ("expose your pig")&#160;social media campaign&#160;as the result of what she calls&#160;“ <a href="https://www.causeur.fr/golden-globes-sandra-muller-feminisme-149008" type="external">2017, the year of the snitches</a>.”</p>
<p>Lévy is one of the 100 prominent women who signed (alongside revered actress Catherine Deneuve) the much-decried <a href="https://www.worldcrunch.com/opinion-analysis/full-translation-of-french-anti-metoo-manifesto-signed-by-catherine-deneuve" type="external">manifesto</a> criticizing the #MeToo movement in the daily, Le Monde, this week. On Friday, <a href="https://www.causeur.fr/elisabeth-levy-tribune-le-monde-femmes-149070" type="external">Lévy reacted to the manifesto’s critics</a>, saying, “For two months, we’ve had an earful about the liberation of women’s speech,” adding, “Except we forgot to read the small print stating this liberated speech must strictly follow the guidelines established by the guardians of feminism. All women are therefore required to proclaim freely that they are victims, at least potentially [...].”</p>
<p>Related:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Has the #MeToo movement gone too far or not enough?</a></p>
<p>For the women who penned the manifesto, the threat of "puritanism" in post-#MeToo feminism&#160;is a threat to sexual liberty.</p>
<p>They wrote: "it is the essence of puritanism to borrow, in the name of so-called greater good, arguments about the protection and liberation of women, only to better chain them to the status of eternal victims, like small, frail things, under the spell of phallocratic demons, as in the days of witch hunts."</p>
<p>Politician Clémentine Autain&#160;responded with a history and meaning of "puritanism." Among contemporary synonyms, she said, are “chaste, prude, moralistic, modest […]. How could a movement demanding the end of violent and dominating relations&#160;and reclaiming women’s emancipation be accused of being puritanical?”</p>
<p>As an aside, in France, "puritanical" is a word one throws around to imply, "We Latins will not fall for backward and repressive American nonsense; we're above it all." But it is clear the women behind Le Monde’s open letter fear a moralistic threat lurks ahead.</p>
<p>Related:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Cartoonists respond to the French open letter critical of the #MeToo movement</a>;</p>
<p>Journalist Anne-Élisabeth Moutet said in&#160;a Jan. 11 interview on&#160; <a href="" type="internal">PRI’s The World</a>&#160;that many of the signatories to the manifesto are old enough to remember a major turning point of the 1960s. “This was started by women who remember the sexual revolution,” she said, “and we thought that was a great deal of progress; we wouldn’t like to backtrack through that.”</p>
<p>Listen to Moutet below:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>But in spite of this clash of opinions, there may be a way to consensus in sight.</p>
<p>French-Moroccan author Leïla Slimani published an <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/france/2018/01/12/un-porc-tu-nais_1621913" type="external">op-ed</a> in the daily, Libération, on Friday, which seems to synthesize the points heard on all sides of the debate since the manifesto's publication.</p>
<p>In it, she said, “I am not a victim. But millions of women are. It’s a fact and not a moral judgment […].”</p>
<p>Slimani made a plea for a near future in which women could lead lives without worrying about the consequences of simple, independent choices.</p>
<p>"Walk around the streets. Ride the metro at night,” she said. “Wear a miniskirt and high heels, show cleavage. […] Flirt with a man, change my mind and move on […]. Nurse my child in public. Ask for a raise. In all these life’s moments, daily and banal, I am claiming the right to not be pestered. The right to not even think about it. I claim the freedom to not get comments on my behavior, my clothes, my way of walking, the shape of my buttocks, the size of my breasts. I claim my right to peacefulness, to solitude, the right to keep going without fear.”</p>
<p>And thinking of future generations of women, she added, “I hope someday, my daughter will walk around all night wearing a miniskirt and a décolletage,&#160;that she will travel the world on her own, that she will ride the metro at midnight without fear, without even thinking about it. The world in which she will live then will not be a puritanical one.”</p>
<p>Adeline Sire reported from France.</p> | Some French women say 'puritanism' in American feminism threatens sexual liberty | false | https://pri.org/stories/2018-01-12/some-french-women-say-puritanism-american-feminism-threatens-sexual-liberty | 2018-01-12 | 3 |
<p>Investing.com – Here are the top five things you need to know in financial markets on Tuesday, September 6:</p>
<p>1. Dollar drops, gold supported amid North Korea tension</p>
<p>against a basket of the other major currencies on Wednesday amid heightened tensions in the Korean peninsula.</p>
<p>Investors remained on edge after South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in warned Wednesday that the crisis on the Korean peninsula risks becoming , following Sunday’s nuclear test by North Korea.</p>
<p>Russia’s Vladmir Putin joined in the international condemnation of Pyongyang’s actions on Wednesday but maintained the stance that a solution can only be reached via diplomatic measures.</p>
<p>The , which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, dropped 0.11% at 92.18 by 5:54AM ET (9:54GMT).</p>
<p>The geopolitical tension has kept , with the tumbling more than 200 points on its first day of trading after the Labor Day holiday, as investors rotate into safe haven assets.</p>
<p>just below their r on Wednesday, drawing support from lingering tensions on the Korean peninsula.</p>
<p>for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange inched forward 50 cents, or 0.03%, to trade at $1,345.00 by 5:55AM ET (9:55GMT).</p>
<p>2. ISM non-manufacturing PMI and Beige Book ahead</p>
<p>After a slew of data in the prior session showed that service sector activity from China to Europe generally remained robust in August, the U.S. will step up to the plate with the release of the ISM non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) at 10:00AM ET (16:00GMT).</p>
<p>Economists forecast the expansion in the service sector to pick up with the reading rising to from the prior 53.9.</p>
<p>Also on the docket, the Federal Reserve will release its , that shows the state of economic conditions in each of the 12 Fed districts, at 2:00PM ET (18:00GMT).</p>
<p>3. Global stocks mostly lower as North Korea still weighs</p>
<p>on Wednesday as market nerves continued to rattle over geopolitical tensions.</p>
<p>U.S. futures pointed to a flat open on Wednesday as the stocks gathered breath after the prior session’s slide that wiped more than 200 points off the Dow. At 5:56AM ET (9:56GMT), the blue-chip inched up 9 points, or 0.04%, edged forward 1 point, or 0.02% while the traded up 11 points, or 0.18%.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, European bourses underwent a as weak German factory orders added to geopolitical tension and investors showed caution one day ahead of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy decision. At 5:57AM ET (9:57GMT), the European benchmark lost 0.15%, Germany’s slipped 0.03%, while London’s fell 0.54%.</p>
<p>Earlier, Asian shares closed mostly lower as Japan’s and South Korea’s remained on alert. China’s managed to pocket minimal gains.</p>
<p>4. Oil continues to move higher as attention shifts to inventories</p>
<p>Oil prices continued to drift higher on Wednesday, after rallying around 3% in the prior session, as investors looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products to weigh what the was on supply and demand.</p>
<p>Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its at 4:30PM ET (20:30GMT).</p>
<p>from the Energy Information Administration will be released Thursday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock jump of around 4.7 million barrels.</p>
<p>The reports come out one day later than usual due to the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Monday.</p>
<p>gained 0.47% to $48.89 at 5:58AM ET (9:58GMT), while traded up 0.86% to $53.84.</p>
<p>5. Bank of Canada rate decision</p>
<p>The Bank of Canada’s is due at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT) on Wednesday, with most experts expecting the central bank to hold its benchmark rate at 0.75%.</p>
<p>The BoC hiked rates for the first time in seven years at its previous meeting in July and left the door wide open to further moves.</p>
<p>Investors are fully pricing in at least one more rate increase by the end of this year, and at least one more in 2018.</p>
<p>The odds of a hike as early as this week jumped to 41% after data late last month showed Canada’s economy accelerated at a pace in the second quarter, tops among Group of Seven nations.</p>
<p>Most economists, however, still expect the next rate hike to come at the bank’s .</p>
<p>While waiting for the data, edged forward 0.07% to 1.2385 by 5:59AM ET (9:59GMT).</p> | Top 5 things to know in the market on Wednesday | false | https://newsline.com/top-5-things-to-know-in-the-market-on-wednesday/ | 2017-09-06 | 1 |
<p>BEIRUT&#160; — Every chair, sofa and stool was filled at a Sunday night screening of the banned Israeli film “Waltz With Bashir” at an art gallery in Beirut.</p>
<p>But the doorbell kept ringing.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the police. It was 50 or so latecomers, looking to find a seat. None could be had, as more than 100 people had already arrived to view the film on a screen hung on the former warehouse’s bare wall.&#160;</p>
<p>“I tried to warn the owner here to get more chairs,” said Ziad, the organizer of the screening. “He didn’t. He thought 15 people would come.”</p>
<p>Ziad didn’t want his full name used in this article because it is illegal to sell, show or promote any Israeli products, including films, in Lebanon. The two countries have technically been at war since 1948. &#160;</p>
<p>Despite the ban, "Waltz with Bashir" has attracted a lot of attention in Beirut. The animated documentary details the experience of the film’s writer and director, Ari Folman, as he tries to recall his experience as a young soldier who took part in Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Folman eventually remembers his role in the massacre of Palestinian civilians at Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camp in September 1982, in which an estimated 800 to 2,000 Palestinian civilians were killed at the hands of Christian militiamen allied with Israel.</p>
<p>For two days, the Israeli army watched from nearby, firing flares at night to light the militia’s way. The Israelis deny they ordered or had knowledge of the massacre. They say the Christians were supposed to go into the camp and root out Palestinian fighters.</p>
<p>But just days before, the Christian militia’s leader and Lebanon’s president-elect, Bashir Gemayel (the “Bashir” in the film’s title), had been assassinated. An Israeli investigation later found the Israeli military was “indirectly responsible” for the massacre. It was hardly surprising the Christians would have sought revenge on the Palestinians, who they had fought for the previous seven years of Lebanon’s civil war.</p>
<p>The subject matter is sensitive in Lebanon, where Gemayel’s brother, Amin Gemayel, runs the party&#160;whose militia was responsible for the massacre&#160;— the party is called&#160;the Kata’eb, or Phalange. The party headquarters sits just a few blocks away from the art gallery. And now, pirated DVD copies of "Waltz with Bashir" are available in the very camp where the massacre took place.</p>
<p>“It should be sold normally, like a normal movie,” said 21-year-old Palestinian Ramez Housari, who owns a pirate DVD shop on a Shatila camp street that was partially flooded with sewage on a recent rainy Monday morning.&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>Despite having lost three uncles in the massacre, Housari sells copies of "Waltz with Bashir" for about $1.30 each. He says the camp’s popular committee, kind of the camp’s city council, say they’re interested in screening the film.&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>"They said the at the next commemoration of the Shatila massacre they will put this film, for people to watch it, and compare the film to what happened in reality,” Housari said. &#160;</p>
<p>Housari's feelings about the film are twofold. He says it was beautiful, but didn’t show the full horror of the massacre. But he says even then, he understands why the Lebanese government would ban it. He says many Palestinians would probably having a “feeling of rage” if they saw it.</p>
<p>At the screening, some couldn’t agree with him more, though for different reasons. Lama Matta said reminding everyone in Lebanon that the Christians sided with the Israelis during Lebanon’s civil war is a part of history she’d just as soon forget.</p>
<p>“I’m against putting this movie in every store or in the cinema,” Matta said. “We have enough problems as it is in Lebanon already. By putting this film, we will cause people to hate each other again and again. And to open a door that is closing a bit. Why throw alcohol on the fire?”</p>
<p>Another viewer, Vanessa Dammous, said she didn’t think "Waltz with Bashir" should be outright banned, but didn’t think it should be shown in the commercial theaters. She thought it was important for Lebanese to see the film, due to their own problems dealing with their war-torn past.</p>
<p>“For us Lebanese we have this problem with memory, and with you know reconstituting all this history and putting everything together,” Dammous said. “And the way [Folman] deals with this story, and puts us in front and face-to-face with the issue of memory, this is the most interesting part for me.” &#160;</p>
<p>According to Ralph Nashawaty, "Waltz with Bashir" was great until the end.&#160; He says that at the end, the film became Israeli propaganda, because of what he perceives as Israel’s continued massacres against its neighbors in the 2006 Lebanon war and in Gaza this year. &#160;</p>
<p>“They introduced some slight words and thoughts that basically that Israelis want to avoid massacres, and in a way they feel bad about it, that they are against killing women and children and old people” he said. “But since they keep on (committing massacres) … they’re treating us like fools.”</p>
<p>Ziad, the organizer of the screening, says he chose to kick off his film festival with "Waltz with Bashir" because of the strong feelings the films elicits. Although he says no film should be “banned or banished” by the Lebanese authorities, screening it was less a challenge to the ban than a marketing decision. &#160;</p>
<p>“We wanted to do something really big for the opening of the cineclub,” Ziad said. “Since I know that a lot of people want to watch this movie, and have either a very positive or negative opinion about it, I thought this was a very good way to start.”</p>
<p>More GlobalPost dispatches by Ben Gilbert:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/home/lebanonhttp://www.globalpost.com/home/lebanon" type="external">Market unites Beirut farmers and foodies</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/lebanon/090205/lebanon-bankers-cool-crisis" type="external">Lebanon bankers cool in a crisis</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/lebanon/090104/lebanon-builds-its-ancient-past-literally" type="external">Beirut builds on its ancient past ... literally</a></p> | Banned Israeli film draws a crowd in Beirut | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-03-11/banned-israeli-film-draws-crowd-beirut | 2009-03-11 | 3 |
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<p />
<p>RADOSEVICH: Accused in Saturday night incident</p>
<p>Eric Radosevich, who was elected to a four-year term in 2012, was booked into the Santa Fe County jail late Wednesday. As of Thursday afternoon, Radosevich, who works at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was still in jail, with bail set at $25,000, cash only.</p>
<p>According to a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office report, the incident began at the Kicks 66 gas station about 8 p.m. Saturday when a man walked out after paying for gas to find another man “flirting” with his wife.</p>
<p>An argument ensued and, according to the deputy’s report, the husband – identified by the Sheriff’s Office as David Perez, 35, of Santa Fe – pulled a baseball bat out of his pickup truck to confront the man. Instead, Perez was chased back into his own truck by three or four men from another pickup, a white Chevrolet.</p>
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<p>Perez and his wife then drove to the nearby Roadrunner Café, where they were to meet a friend, but were followed by the men in the Chevrolet truck.</p>
<p>The driver of the Chevrolet pickup – now identified as Radosevich – “approached victim with black semiautomatic handgun and hit him with the butt of the gun on the back of his head two to three times, and fired two or three shots toward the victims (sic) vehicle,” the deputy’s report said.</p>
<p>The white pickup truck then left southbound on U.S. 84/285. Perez was apparently not seriously injured.</p>
<p>Two bullet holes were later discovered in Perez’s truck – one in the left rear tire well and another near the bottom of the passenger door.</p>
<p>“There was surveillance video from the filling station that showed the suspect’s vehicle,” Maj. Ken Johnson of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said. “Through our investigation we learned the vehicle could possibly be his (Radosevich’s).”</p>
<p>Johnson said detectives served an arrest warrant on Radosevich late Wednesday afternoon or early evening at a business in Española. He was booked into jail at about 11 p.m. that night.</p>
<p>Española Mayor Alice A. Lucero said she couldn’t say much about the matter and had just learned of Radosevich’s arrest Thursday morning.</p>
<p>Lucero said she didn’t think Radosevich’s arrest would immediately affect his status on the council. While councilors have a code of conduct they must follow, Radosevich hasn’t been convicted of anything, she said.</p>
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<p>“According to state law, if you’re convicted of a felony, you can’t serve in an elected position,” she said, adding that it will likely take some time for the case to be adjudicated.</p>
<p>Lucero mentioned that Radosevich was present at the City Council’s meeting on Tuesday – the day after police had issued a notice that they were looking for whoever committed the assault.</p>
<p>City Councilor Dennis Tim Salazar said he was surprised to hear of the charges against Radosevich. “But we can’t make any judgment. Anyone who goes through that is innocent until proven guilty,” he said.</p>
<p>Salazar said he’s been able to work well with Radosevich on the council. The two of them spearheaded the effort to build new softball diamonds.</p>
<p>“That’s a very popular thing here; sports are a big thing in Española,” he said. “I know that’s a big passion of his – to help with community development and working on finding positive activities for our youth.”</p>
<p>Radosevich serves as chairman of the Community Services and Development Committee, which addresses issues having to do with parks and recreation, libraries and arts.</p>
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<p /> | Assault charge for city official | false | https://abqjournal.com/421546/assault-charge-for-city-official.html | 2 |
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<p>STATES CONSIDERING PRO-SANCTUARY STATUS</p>
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<p>— California: Legislative Democrats on Tuesday advanced a bill that would provide statewide sanctuary for immigrants by restricting local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The measure marks their first formal effort to resist Trump’s immigration policies.</p>
<p>— Vermont: Republican Gov. Phil Scott said late Monday his state will not work with federal authorities to carry out border security and immigration enforcement orders. Scott also said he would ask the Legislature to pass laws that would prohibit local officials from carrying out such actions.</p>
<p>— New Mexico: A proposal from Democrats would prevent local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration laws and would turn the state with the largest percentage of Hispanic residents into a “sanctuary state.” GOP Gov. Susana Martinez is unlikely to endorse the measure. A month after taking office in 2011, Martinez signed an executive order that rescinded the “sanctuary status” for New Mexico.</p>
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<p>STATES CONSIDERING ANTI-SANCTUARY LAWS</p>
<p>— Texas: Gov. Greg Abbott instructed lawmakers to send him a bill by June that punishes local governments that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities. He wants to withhold taxpayer money to cities that don’t detain immigrants in the country illegally and have the power to remove elected officials who don’t comply.</p>
<p>— Idaho: Legislation introduced this week would keep taxpayer money from municipalities if they stop enforcing federal immigration laws. Officers would not be allowed to arrest or round up suspects solely for immigration violations, but if a suspect cannot provide proof of immigration status 48 hours after being detained, officials could check and it would be noted in the court record.</p>
<p>— Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania: Statehouses in those states have introduced legislation this year seeking to ban cities or schools from breaking with federal immigration laws.</p>
<p>— Georgia: Lawmakers are considering a bill prohibiting state funding to private schools that declare themselves “sanctuary campuses.”</p> | States differ in response to Trump immigration plans | false | https://abqjournal.com/941350/states-differ-in-response-to-trump-immigration-plans.html | 2017-02-02 | 2 |
<p>( <a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/" type="external">Natural News</a>) Here I was, strolling up to a cancer fundraising event for a relative I hardly knew. I heard the sounds of drunken chatter and eyed the Budweiser banner sponsoring the event. A crowd of faces overflowed out of the banquet hall like fizz bubbling over the brim of a red solo cup. I entered through the doorway, greeted by the smell of chemical perfume and barbeque. A raffle was being held to pay for the medical expenses that had overwhelmed yet another family. With blank stares, people were filling their plates with shredded hog meat, colored red and preserved with carcinogenic sodium nitrite. Kids were clamoring for ice cream and other pieces of refined sugar. Caramel color and corn syrup flowed. I overheard conversations, dominated by the talk of health problems and medical bills. (Related:&#160; <a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/054422_toxic_ingredients_cancer_avoid.html" type="external">Top 10 cancer causing food ingredients to avoid</a>.)</p>
<p>I followed a steady stream of people to the back bar. There he was, in a crowded room, surrounded by slot machines and cold drinks. His doctor said he had six months to live. He had been diagnosed with colon cancer just four years ago. The initial chemotherapy was declared a success, but not for long. As usual, the cancer was back, unresolved, rearing its head again. Now here he was, gambling the night away, hoping and praying for a miracle.</p>
<p>Today, 72 percent of early deaths are from non-communicable chronic diseases that are connected to dietary choices that lead to cardiovascular events, obesity, Type-2 diabetes and cancer. A large ongoing study being conducted by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington is seeking why people around the world are at risk of early death. Life expectancy seems to be increasing, but the way people are living these extra years equates to misery. Are people living longer or suffering and dying longer? What are the factors contributing to this misery?</p>
<p>Five papers have already been published in the&#160;Lancet&#160;medical journal, detailing the specific causes, most of which are related to the decisions people make throughout their lifetime. Tobacco use has always been to blame and it is responsible for roughly 12.5 percent of early deaths. Alcohol and drug use is to blame for six percent, but the most shocking statistic from the study is the effect of a poor diet on life expectancy. The study revealed that a diet consumed with junk food and toxic food ingredients alone&#160; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/14/poor-diet-is-a-factor-in-one-in-five-deaths-global-disease-study-reveals" type="external">cause 20 percent of early deaths worldwide</a>. This did not even factor in metabolic issues such as high body mass index (eight percent), high systolic blood pressure (20 percent), high fasting plasma glucose (10 percent), and high total cholesterol (7.5 percent), all of which can be traced back to poor diet in some way. Another five percent was attributed to low physical activity (two percent) and child and maternal malnutrition (five percent), two issues wildly underestimated.</p>
<p>In the face of challenges unconquered, the drunkenness at the cancer charity event that night&#160;seemed arrogant and undignified. I made a small donation to the family who was struggling with medical bills, but more importantly, I gave them a little bit of information about the causes and how the&#160; <a href="https://www.naturalhealth365.com/chemotherapy-cancer-patients-1796.html" type="external">chemotherapy fails to address the real issues</a>. I hated to see a cancer charity event serve all this toxic junk food to so many people. This habitual eating of junk food was a major cause, right under their noses.</p>
<p>I wondered why cancer charity events like this one didn’t have fresh juice bar instead. I wondered why kids were clamoring for candies and soda instead of reaching for polyphenol-rich green tea.&#160;I wondered why people weren’t celebrating real cellular health by serving organic fruits, vegetables, superfoods, herbs, and berries. I had met doctors who had healed patients with living foods. I had met&#160; <a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/045385_Chris_Wark_beating_cancer_natural_cures.html" type="external">cancer survivors who had turned away from chemotherapy</a>&#160;and chose nutrition and detoxification instead.</p>
<p>We must do more to reject the added sugars, antibiotics, colors, hydrogenated oils, heavy metals&#160;and preservatives that are tainting our blood and poisoning our livers, kidneys and brain. We should fight back against the food companies that inundate our lives with chemicals that weaken our cellular health.&#160; <a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/044443_healing_foods_cancer_immune_support.html" type="external">Plants, herbs, and superfoods&#160;</a>should replace thick saturated animal products that slow down our digestive system and constrict our blood flow. Hormonal, puss-filled dairy products should be replaced with&#160; <a href="https://www.naturalnewsblogs.com/5-super-berries-cause-cancer-cells-self-destruct/" type="external">nuts, seeds, berries</a>&#160;and the very nutritional essences of life. We don’t have to be a statistic. We can live with greater energy and not suffer from the sickness and immune suppression of&#160; <a href="http://ingredients.news/" type="external">toxic junk food</a>.</p>
<p>For more helpful information, visit&#160; <a href="https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/" type="external">The Truth About Cancer</a>.</p>
<p>Sources include:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/14/poor-diet-is-a-factor-in-one-in-five-deaths-global-disease-study-reveals" type="external">The Guardian.com</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/054422_toxic_ingredients_cancer_avoid.html" type="external">NaturalNews.com</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-03-16-shocking-data-reveal-bad-diets-are-responsible-for-45-of-heart-diabetes-related-deaths.html" type="external">NaturalNews.com</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.naturalhealth365.com/chemotherapy-cancer-patients-1796.html" type="external">NaturalHealth365.com</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/045385_Chris_Wark_beating_cancer_natural_cures.html" type="external">NaturalNews.com</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/044443_healing_foods_cancer_immune_support.html" type="external">NaturalNews.com</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.naturalnewsblogs.com/5-super-berries-cause-cancer-cells-self-destruct/" type="external">NaturalNewsBlogs.com</a></p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-09-28-groundbreaking-study-reveals-20-of-all-deaths-caused-by-junk-food-and-toxic-food-ingredients.html" type="external">Natural News</a></p>
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<p /> | Groundbreaking study reveals 20% of all deaths now caused by junk food and toxic food ingredients | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2017/10/01/groundbreaking-study-reveals-20-of-all-deaths-now-caused-by-junk-food-and-toxic-food-ingredients/ | 2017-10-01 | 0 |
<p>US President Donald Trump has signed into law $700 billion in funding to the Pentagon, which includes a pay raise for troops and funding for a number of pet projects. It also breaks the ceiling set by the 2011 law on budget caps.</p>
<p>Congress sent the final version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to Trump at the end of November, and he ceremonially signed the bill Tuesday. The White House noted that <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2810/text" type="external">the bill</a> envisioned the largest pay raise for US military personnel in eight years and the biggest military expansion since the 1980s.</p>
<p>The final markup allocates $634 billion to Pentagon operations and almost $66 billion for the overseas contingency operations (OCO) fund, intended for bankrolling wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. That’s about $32 billion more than what Trump initially requested.</p>
<p>“Brand new beautiful equipment is on its way, the best you’ve ever had by far,” Trump said on Tuesday. The bill authorizes the purchase of many weapons systems. In particular, the Congressional version authorizes the expenditure of $10.6 billion for 94 Joint Strike Fighter planes, which is $3.1 billion and 24 planes more than the White House asked for.</p>
<p>This translates into 60 F-35A models for the US Air Force, 24 F-35B models for the Marines, and 10 F-35C models for the US Navy. Another 24 F/A-18 Super Hornets – 10 more than the administration requested – have also been approved, to make up the shortfall of Navy planes.</p>
<p>The bill also approves $103 million more than the government requested to restart the production of A-10 ground attack aircraft, a 1970s workhorse which the F-35 was supposed to replace.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/394632-pentagon-budget-ndaa-senate/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Over $12 billion is allocated to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), along with orders for a rapid buildup of missile defense capabilities to counter the threat from what Trump called the&#160;“vile dictatorship in North Korea.”</p>
<p>Congress approved $705 million for missile defense programs the US is developing jointly with Israel, including &#160;$290 million for purchases and $268.5 million for research, development and testing – $558.5 million more than the administration requested.</p>
<p>Another&#160; <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/409299-inf-treaty-missile-system-budget/" type="external">$65 million</a>&#160;is allocated for research and development of a ground-launched intermediate-range missile, in order to close the&#160;“capability gap”&#160;with Russia without violating the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.</p>
<p>The bill declared that Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh ballistic missile is violating the INF Treaty. Trump took exception to that, saying he will “apply this provision consistent with the President’s constitutional authority to identify breaches of international agreements.”</p>
<p>Claiming that “Russian aggression” requires the US to consider permanently deploying troops in Eastern Europe, the NDAA allocates funds for “European Deterrence Initiative” to the base Pentagon budget. Such funding was previously part of the contingency operations fund.</p>
<p>The Russian threat was also invoked to prohibit the Pentagon from using software developed by Kaspersky Labs, and to approve $500 million in “defensive lethal assistance” to Ukraine. However, the disbursement of these funds will be conditional on “substantial” reforms of Ukraine’s military by the authorities in Kiev, which would need to be certified by the US Secretary of Defense.</p>
<p>Even though Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has been declared defeated in Syria and Iraq, the NDAA authorizes $1.8 billion in funding for counter-IS efforts via the “train and equip” program. Another $4.9 billion was allocated for the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund, of which $25 million will go towards “recruitment, training, and integration of women into the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.”</p>
<p>The 2018 NDAA also requires the Pentagon to certify its financial statements as ready for audit. Last week, the Department of Defense announced it would start the first-ever audit of some $4.2 trillion in assets.</p>
<p>Section 910 of the NDAA promotes the Chief Management Officer (CMO), to the third most senior position in the Pentagon. While Trump said he supports the policy behind it, the provision “raises constitutional concerns” related to the president’s appointment authority, he said in a signing statement.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/404082-rt-ban-america-mccain-graham/" type="external" /></p>
<p>In order for the NDAA to become law, Congress would need to repeal the 2011 sequester that imposes limits on federal spending, which has not happened yet. The law caps 2018 military spending at $549 billion.</p>
<p>Among the amendments to the NDAA,&#160; <a href="https://www.congress.gov/amendment/115th-congress/senate-amendment/1096" type="external">No 1096</a>&#160;aims to “prohibit multichannel video programming distributors from being required to carry certain video content that is owned or controlled by the Government of the Russian Federation.”</p>
<p>Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) submitted the amendment, proposed by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and co-sponsored by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island).</p> | Troops, toys & threats: Trump signs $700bn military funding bill | false | https://newsline.com/troops-toys-threats-trump-signs-700bn-military-funding-bill/ | 2017-12-12 | 1 |
<p>SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sioux Falls police are investigating the armed robbery of a business on New Year’s Eve.</p>
<p>Authorities say robbers armed with a gun entered the business about 7:30 a.m. Sunday and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.</p>
<p>No one was hurt. The name of the business wasn’t released due to Marsy’s Law, which protects the rights of crime victims.</p>
<p>SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sioux Falls police are investigating the armed robbery of a business on New Year’s Eve.</p>
<p>Authorities say robbers armed with a gun entered the business about 7:30 a.m. Sunday and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.</p>
<p>No one was hurt. The name of the business wasn’t released due to Marsy’s Law, which protects the rights of crime victims.</p> | Sioux Falls police investigate armed robbery of business | false | https://apnews.com/694715977c6a49f88597e93bc4f427d9 | 2018-01-01 | 2 |
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<p>Photo by P Bear | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
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<p>In 2008, the American people overwhelmingly voted for “change” in Washington. They never got it. Hence, Trump.&#160;To pretend that there’s not a straight line connecting the failed policies of Barack Obama and the subsequent rise of Donald John Trump, is to ignore the obvious and to shrug off responsibility for the situation the country is in today.</p>
<p>Obama created Trump,&#160;the man&#160;didn’t simply appear from the ether. Had Obama acted in good faith and kept his promises to shake up the status quo, end the foreign wars, restore civil liberties, hold Wall Street accountable or relieve the economic insecurity that working families across the country now feel, Hillary Clinton would have been a shoe-in on November 8th. As it happens, Obama made no effort to achieve any of these goals,&#160;which is why&#160;Hillary was&#160;defeated in the biggest political upset of the last century.</p>
<p>The point we need to&#160;underscore here, is that the Democratic leadership&#160;is responsible for Trump, not the working class people in the red states who merely did what they had to do to&#160;effect change.&#160;&#160;These people can’t be blamed for voting their own best interests. That’s what people do. Had Obama done anything to genuinely improve the economy, things might have turned out differently. But he didn’t, in fact– as popular as Obama was– a full two thirds of the American people thought the country was headed in the wrong direction. In other words, the election was a referendum on Obama’s performance as the primary steward of the US economy. Obama lost that referendum.</p>
<p>Even so, the DNC could have reloaded and taken a different approach to the economy under Hillary. They didn’t. They thought the “recovery” meme was effective enough to put them over the finish line. But it wasn’t effective enough, because too many people&#160;saw that the recovery was a fraud, that&#160;there was no recovery,&#160; it was all a slick Madison Avenue public relations campaign aimed at concealing the fact that Obama had restructured the US economy in a way that deliberately kept growth at-or-below 2 percent so the Fed could continue pumping cheap money to its constituents on Wall Street while everyone else saw their personal&#160;debtload grow, their retirement savings vanish, and their standards of living slip. &#160;Isn’t that what really happened? Obama’s grand restructuring project&#160;has resulted in&#160;perennial economic stagnation and widespread pessimism about the future.&#160;The former president &#160;oversaw the greatest transfer of wealth from working class people to parasitic plutocrats in the history of the nation. It wasn’t an accident. Obama was following a blueprint that was given to him by his handlers at the DNC.</p>
<p>So now the country is to be led by a brash billionaire reality TV celebrity who has no previous political experience and who seems unusually sensitive to any kind of personal criticism. Not surprisingly, there’s no sign that the&#160;Democratic leadership feels any responsibility for this extraordinary&#160;development.</p>
<p>Why is that?&#160;Why hasn’t anyone in the&#160;DNC&#160;admitted their failure, admitted that they didn’t accurately gage the mood of the country or the hunger for change? Why haven’t they acknowledged that&#160;putting the most untrustworthy candidate of all time –a thoroughly dislikable, warmongering harridan– on the ticket was a mistake? Why?</p>
<p>It’s because this vile collection of corporate Dems who run the party are incapable of self reflection, right? It’s because the Podesta throng — who still&#160;hold the party in their deathgrip –truly believe that bamboozling their base with Potemkin executives like Barack Obama, is a&#160;terrific model for running the government. They think Obama’s tenure as president was a success story, mainly because&#160;&#160;his grandiloquent&#160;bloviating and larking around on stage with sleeves rolled up like an overpaid athlete–&#160;diverted attention from the trillions of dollars&#160; that&#160;were being sluiced to the banking whores on Wall Street. Isn’t that why the Dems haven’t changed?</p>
<p>They actually think they’ve stumbled on the&#160;secret formula for winning elections and that the election of Trump&#160;in 2016 is just a “one off”, a temporary setback.</p>
<p>But it’s not a one off.&#160; The rise of&#160; Trump has been accompanied by the rise of rightwing parties and ideology across the planet.&#160;What we are seeing&#160;is a fundamental change in the&#160;zeitgeist, which is “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.”&#160; In&#160;&#160;this view, Obama represents the culmination of the values and ideas that emerged during the 1960s and&#160;persisted until just recently when they collapsed.&#160;The utter corruption of the progressive vision (due, in large part,&#160;to the cynical and reactionary policies of parties like the Democrats) has paved the way for a new era, the Trump era,&#160;in which&#160;state repression is&#160;bound to increase even while personal liberty and economic security are steadily&#160;eviscerated.</p>
<p>And what is the Dems response to this new phenom?</p>
<p>Why, nothing at all. The whole matter seems to be over their heads. They don’t seem to grasp the shifting public mood, the changing epoch&#160;&#160;or how it will impact their future plans. Instead, they are doing everything in their power to make themselves more irrelevant. It’s pathetic.</p>
<p>And keep in mind, that&#160;ever since the election, the Dems have made no effort at course correction, no effort to reconnect with the millions of working people in the red states who used to vote Democrat but switched because they wanted change.&#160;No. Instead,&#160;party leaders&#160;have embarked on a counterproductive&#160;character assassination campaign aimed at discrediting the new president by alleging Russian “hacking” of the election. And while they have produced absolutely zero hard evidence to substantiate their loony claims, the Dems, the media and the thoroughly unreliable Intel agencies have continued this scapegoating onslaught thinking that they are shaping public opinion in a way that undermines&#160; President Trump.</p>
<p>It would all be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. But it is serious. The rise of Trump poses some significant challenges to democratic government, but, regrettably, the opposition party is&#160;in the middle of a&#160;major nervous breakdown. How&#160;are they going to&#160;stop this autocratic juggernaut in their present state of collapse?</p>
<p>They won’t be able to. They’re going to get beat to a pulp unless they get it together and stop&#160;&#160;running around with their hair on fire yelling, “The Russians are coming”&#160;instead of rebuilding&#160;the party on a&#160;commitment to basic progressive values; civil liberties, non intervention, and economic fairness. The Democratic Party has to be more than a membership register attached to a donor’s list. It needs to reconnect with its base and try to understand why working people are either leaving the party altogether or so disenchanted they won’t even vote.</p>
<p>How about a little self-examination, eh? How about clearing out the deadwood starting with crooked Hillary and her sleazy handler, Podesta? &#160;How about committing to a vision for change that’s more than a public relations scam aimed at&#160;hoodwinking your base? How about ending the buck passing bullshit and pushing legislation that offers some relief for rampant economic insecurity, student debt, dwindling retirements, universal health care, and environmental devastation.</p>
<p>The Democratic party doesn’t have to be a place where progressive ideas go to die. But they’d better get it together fast or it’s going to be Game over.</p> | Game Over for Democrats? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/01/27/game-over-for-democrats/ | 2017-01-27 | 4 |
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<p>Democrats are preparing to <a href="http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/democrats-prepare-to-unveil-the-final-bill/" type="external">drop</a> the final health care reform bill—that is, the Senate’s legislation plus a package of fixes to be passed via reconciliation—and already everyone’s scrambling to sort out the winners and losers. One of the big questions hanging over the package of fixes was whether they would reduce the budget deficit by at least $1 billion, as reconciliation rules require. According to the latest analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, <a href="" type="internal">that’s no problem</a>: The legislation would cost $940 billion, and the CBO <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34627.html" type="external">estimates</a> that it will save the government $130 billion in the first ten years and $1.2 trillion in its second decade. If the legislation clears its last hurdle, Democrats will be touting these numbers for the rest of the year to counter the Republican line that health care reform is fiscal insanity.</p>
<p>So who benefits from the latest tweaks to the bill? According to Jonathan Cohn, who has a good <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/breaking-health-care-reforms-finished-draft" type="external">round-up</a>, the biggest beneficiaries will include: middle-income Americans, who will get more generous subsidies; senior citizens, who will gain stronger prescription drug coverage in Medicare; and non-unionized workers, whose obligation to pay the excise benefits tax on high-costs plans will be delayed for a few more years (union workers were already exempt). With the new fixes, the final legislation would provide insurance to 1 million more people than the original Senate bill—meaning that the legislation will now cover 95 percent of Americans. It also provides stronger consumer protections in insurance plans. And that’s on top of the market-changing <a href="http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/democrats-prepare-to-unveil-the-final-bill/" type="external">reforms</a> already contained in the Senate measure.</p>
<p>Who’s still unhappy? Union officials remain <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/Labor_loses_ground_on_excise_tax.html?showall" type="external">disgruntled</a> about the so-called “Cadillac” tax on high-costs plans, which will increase more quickly in the final bill than they had hoped. Originally, House Democrats and labor officials wanted to index the tax to inflation plus 1 percent. But the Democrats ultimately had to drop the 1 percent in order to conform to the CBO’s accounting rules and reach their deficit reduction targets required for reconciliation.</p>
<p>Labor’s concern over the tax was serious enough to prompt AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to go to the White House on Thursday. As I <a href="" type="internal">wrote</a> yesterday, the AFL-CIO still hasn’t officially endorsed the bill—they say they’ll reach a decision shortly—and their lingering objections could significantly undermine political support for the legislation. Already, some pro-union legislators are citing the excise tax as a dealbreaker. Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch–a former ironworkers’ union official from Massachusetts and one of Nancy Pelosi’s floor whips–has already <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0310/Lynch_mobbed.html" type="external">announced</a> that he was switching his earlier ‘yes’ vote to “a firm ‘no'” largely because of his objections to the tax.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>There are also ominous signs that the final bill could cause friction with Latinos, another major Democratic constituency, who are upset that the legislation doesn’t allow undocumented workers to buy coverage in the new health insurance exchanges. La Raza, the country’s largest Latino advocacy group, announced today that it <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/nations-largest-hispanic_n_503919.html" type="external">oppose</a>s the bill because of those prohibitions— and Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez is still threatening to vote against reform because of them.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Democrats will invariably make a push to bring both unions and Latinos on board with the bill—not only to secure its passage, but also because they’ll need strong allies in an election year. But, on the whole, the amendments are improvements on the Senate bill. Bottom line: they make coverage more affordable and accessible. And the CBO’s deficit reduction numbers could give Democrats the ammunition they need to convince wavering moderates to sign on.</p>
<p /> | The Final Health Care Bill: Winners and Losers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/whos-board-final-health-care-bill/ | 2010-03-18 | 4 |
<p>BERLIN (AP) — It's that time of the year to fulfill those ambitious New Year's resolutions again: More vegetables, less alcohol, sign up for the gym.</p>
<p>But not for Torben Bertram. Fed up with colleagues who kept pressuring him to join workout sessions during his lunch break, the 39-year-old Berliner founded Germany's first couch potato club.</p>
<p>Bertram says his Sofa Sports Association is proudly geared toward the non-vegan, non-overachieving, non-career-obsessed masses.</p>
<p>"I just didn't like this constant pressure to improve myself," Bertram said, adding that he is the antithesis of many young people in Berlin: Skinny, well-groomed but stressed.</p>
<p>Club activities include swaying back and forth, like in a beer hall; the "Tarzan yell" — beating your chest with your fists and yelling; and the potato chip competition, consisting of eating a plastic cup full of chips without using one's hands — a favorite among the club's child members.</p>
<p>The club has been meeting for about a year at bars and pubs in the German capital and now boasts 25 members from 8 to 64 years old. Men, women and children are all welcome. Bertram's wife initially thought sofa sports was "nonsense" — but she joined anyway, Bertram said with a smug smile.</p>
<p>The father of two, who works in political communications, sports a goatee and has a penchant for cycling shirts that are too tight around the belly. He speaks with eyes full of mischief, suggesting one shouldn't take everything he says at face value.</p>
<p>Lounging on a worn-out couch at one of his favorite bars in Berlin, Bertram said the club only meets in bars with sofas, where everyone is encouraged to participate in the club's unique fitness program.</p>
<p>The association's "sofa exercises" aren't just bar games, Bertram said with a deadpan expression. Some strengthen back and arm muscles, or burn calories. The beer-hall sway, for example, is said to combine popular German traditions with eastern-Asian forms of body awareness including elements from the Chinese Qigong system of body coordination.</p>
<p>"We are no regular couch potatoes because we're not idling away our time in front of the TV," he said. "We've put some serious thought into this."</p>
<p>It was the traditional beer-mug hoisting that convinced Patricia Bernreuther to join the club.</p>
<p>"It's really just a variety of what we've been doing in Bavaria for generations," the 28-year-old parliamentary aide said while holding a heavy glass of beer in her outstretched hand with ease. "It makes me feel like I'm back home."</p>
<p>Unlike southern Germans, who competitively carry more than 20 mugs at the same time, the Berliners are satisfied to exercise with one glass at a time, at a sloth-like speed. Most importantly, sessions are fun.</p>
<p>Norbert Buddendick, a 50-year-old lobbyist, said the couch potato meetings are much more fulfilling than his previous gym workouts.</p>
<p>"I like the whole-body approach," he said, tongue-in-cheek, as he ordered another glass of wheat beer. "And it's really great to mingle with like-minded people."</p>
<p>It's not just fun and games — the club wouldn't be German without some serious rules and order. Bertram has taken out accident insurance for the group, registered it with fiscal authorities and applied for membership in the regional sports association.</p>
<p>And the couch potatoes have their own ambitions, too.</p>
<p>"We are convinced that we will grow and expand across country borders," Bertram said. "For 2019, we envision a European championship in sofa sport exercises."</p>
<p>BERLIN (AP) — It's that time of the year to fulfill those ambitious New Year's resolutions again: More vegetables, less alcohol, sign up for the gym.</p>
<p>But not for Torben Bertram. Fed up with colleagues who kept pressuring him to join workout sessions during his lunch break, the 39-year-old Berliner founded Germany's first couch potato club.</p>
<p>Bertram says his Sofa Sports Association is proudly geared toward the non-vegan, non-overachieving, non-career-obsessed masses.</p>
<p>"I just didn't like this constant pressure to improve myself," Bertram said, adding that he is the antithesis of many young people in Berlin: Skinny, well-groomed but stressed.</p>
<p>Club activities include swaying back and forth, like in a beer hall; the "Tarzan yell" — beating your chest with your fists and yelling; and the potato chip competition, consisting of eating a plastic cup full of chips without using one's hands — a favorite among the club's child members.</p>
<p>The club has been meeting for about a year at bars and pubs in the German capital and now boasts 25 members from 8 to 64 years old. Men, women and children are all welcome. Bertram's wife initially thought sofa sports was "nonsense" — but she joined anyway, Bertram said with a smug smile.</p>
<p>The father of two, who works in political communications, sports a goatee and has a penchant for cycling shirts that are too tight around the belly. He speaks with eyes full of mischief, suggesting one shouldn't take everything he says at face value.</p>
<p>Lounging on a worn-out couch at one of his favorite bars in Berlin, Bertram said the club only meets in bars with sofas, where everyone is encouraged to participate in the club's unique fitness program.</p>
<p>The association's "sofa exercises" aren't just bar games, Bertram said with a deadpan expression. Some strengthen back and arm muscles, or burn calories. The beer-hall sway, for example, is said to combine popular German traditions with eastern-Asian forms of body awareness including elements from the Chinese Qigong system of body coordination.</p>
<p>"We are no regular couch potatoes because we're not idling away our time in front of the TV," he said. "We've put some serious thought into this."</p>
<p>It was the traditional beer-mug hoisting that convinced Patricia Bernreuther to join the club.</p>
<p>"It's really just a variety of what we've been doing in Bavaria for generations," the 28-year-old parliamentary aide said while holding a heavy glass of beer in her outstretched hand with ease. "It makes me feel like I'm back home."</p>
<p>Unlike southern Germans, who competitively carry more than 20 mugs at the same time, the Berliners are satisfied to exercise with one glass at a time, at a sloth-like speed. Most importantly, sessions are fun.</p>
<p>Norbert Buddendick, a 50-year-old lobbyist, said the couch potato meetings are much more fulfilling than his previous gym workouts.</p>
<p>"I like the whole-body approach," he said, tongue-in-cheek, as he ordered another glass of wheat beer. "And it's really great to mingle with like-minded people."</p>
<p>It's not just fun and games — the club wouldn't be German without some serious rules and order. Bertram has taken out accident insurance for the group, registered it with fiscal authorities and applied for membership in the regional sports association.</p>
<p>And the couch potatoes have their own ambitions, too.</p>
<p>"We are convinced that we will grow and expand across country borders," Bertram said. "For 2019, we envision a European championship in sofa sport exercises."</p> | New Year's resolutions? German couch potatoes say forget it | false | https://apnews.com/amp/59335660963f4f559d4491e4f151a291 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>BUIES CREEK, N.C. — George Braswell grew up “marching to a different drum” and, at 77, he still does.</p>
<p>Braswell — a highly-regarded Baptist expert on world religions — spent much of his early life on the “wrong” side of the railroad tracks in a small Virginia town, according to his recently-released memoir, Crossroads of Religion and Revolution. As a teenager, he earned his undergraduate degree at Wake Forest University — then located in Wake Forest, N.C. — and met his wife, the former Joan Owen. Twice while in Wake Forest, he lost jobs because he stood up to managers who were cheating their customers.</p>
<p>After completing their degrees, the young Southern couple set out for the North, where he studied Christian missions at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.</p>
<p />
<p>Though he explored interests in medicine and baseball, Braswell eventually became pastor of <a href="http://cullowheebaptist.com/" type="external">Cullowhee Baptist Church</a> in the mountains of North Carolina where he says the couple had some of the most fulfilling years of their lives. Amidst the race riots of the early 1960s, African and Native Americans were serving through this college town church.</p>
<p>In the summer of 1966, the Braswells took their youth to Ridgecrest Conference Center for its annual Foreign Missions Week. There they began a journey of exploring overseas missions service. Their first inquiry was discouraged by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign (now International) Mission Board because Braswell had graduated from Yale, not a Southern Baptist seminary, which he was told was a prerequisite for missionary appointment.</p>
<p>But one letter of refusal was not enough to keep Braswell from following the path he felt was God’s will; he pursued it further and the mission board approved his appointment without additional work at an SBC seminary.</p>
<p>Continuing to “march to a different drum,” the Braswells were the only two out of 100 missionaries assigned to the Middle East; they would be the first Southern Baptist missionaries to Iran.</p>
<p>Following appointment, the Braswells went back to Ridgecrest for missionary orientation, a 16-week boot camp of intensive cross-cultural and life-skills training. Attendance at the numerous learning sessions was mandatory. At one point, Braswell felt he had to get away. He and a fellow missionary skipped classes and played golf. A stranger at the course offered to pay their way and play with them. The stranger was Billy Graham, the budding evangelist who was already rising to world recognition. Braswell and his friend were reprimanded by the director of missionary orientation but became the envy of everyone at Ridgecrest.</p>
<p>In Iran, their family would be among a handful of Americans among millions of Iranians, an expanded version of his experience as a minority in Emporia, Va., where he grew up among African-Americans. He taught English and world religions (minus Islam) to Muslim clergy at the University of Teheran. He also was associate director for university relations at Armaghan Institute, a Presbyterian language and cultural center across the street from the campus.</p>
<p>In his autobiography, Braswell says that being a professor was a highly-respected occupation and they were doubly welcomed because he was an American professor. “My family and I felt the safest in Iran of any place we had lived,” he wrote.</p>
<p>While serving there from 1968 to 1971, they were able to start Bible studies and other witnessing opportunities. “Christian minorities in Iran during my residence lived basically under the protection of the Shah’s government and the laws of the land,” Braswell wrote. Some of his friends would become martyrs when the Shah was deposed.</p>
<p />
<p>While home on an extended furlough, Braswell enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned a master’s degree in cultural anthropology and at the same time earned a doctor of ministry degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest.</p>
<p>The Braswell family was back in Iran for only seven months when he received a call to come back to Southeastern to teach missions and church history. Before he left, however, he had a very unusual experience. As part of his teaching responsibility at Damavand College, a Presbyterian college for women, he became acquainted with many female Muslim students. One of them invited him to a Sofreh, “perhaps the heart of the religious world for Iranian women,” and he went to the all-female gathering and observed from a distance. His other varied religious and cultural experiences had been among men.</p>
<p>In 1974, he returned to Southeastern to teach and started work on a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, graduating in 15 months. Thirty-one years later, he retired as distinguished professor emeritus of missions and world religions, never having signed the controversial 2000 Faith and Message SBC doctrinal statement. This was long after many of his friends had left the school because of changes in administration but only weeks before he started teaching at <a href="http://divinity.campbell.edu/" type="external">Campbell University Divinity School</a> as senior professor of world religions.</p>
<p>The theological controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s and ’90s had not boxed him in; he continued to “march to a different drum.” In his memoir, he compares some of the happenings in the last quarter of the 20th century in SBC life with the revolution in Iran.</p>
<p>In 2007, Braswell founded the <a href="http://divinity.campbell.edu/NewsEvents/WorldReligionsandGlobalCulturesCenter.aspx" type="external">World Religions and Global Cultures Center</a> at Campbell, a one-of-a-kind missions learning experience, where students are taught world religions and are trained and given opportunities to teach churches and individuals. More than 1,000 students have been through his world religions courses and more than 100 have taken the intensive teacher training courses.</p>
<p>“This center has been a culmination of a life given to the understanding of and a gospel witness to the world’s tribes and nations,” says Andrew Wakefield, dean of Campbell University Divinity School.</p>
<p>Of all Braswell’s life experiences, the hardest was losing his 14-year-old granddaughter to cancer. “The death of my granddaughter, Dana, with cancer at the age of 14, remains unanswerable for me,” he writes.</p>
<p>Braswell says the most universal cultural attribute in all societies might be death. “Everyone dies. Some die too young. I know.” But in the midst of his pain, Braswell says he remembers the pain of Jesus who made the choice to die on the cross for the salvation of the world.</p>
<p>Crossroads of Religion and Revolution is published by <a href="http://www.xulonpress.com/bookstore/bookdetail.php?PB_ISBN=9781625092342&amp;HC_ISBN=" type="external">Xulon Press</a> and may be purchased there or at other major book stores. Profits from the sale of the book through Xulon will be donated to the World Religions and Global Cultures Center at Campbell.</p>
<p>Irma Duke ( <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>) is director of church relations at the Campbell University Divinity School.</p> | World religions expert George Braswell marches to different drum in life, witness | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/worldreligionsexpertgeorgebraswellmarchestodifferentdruminlifewitness-2/ | 3 |
|
<p>JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Nigerians weren’t happy with their president, and so they voted him out.</p>
<p>It seems simple, but given Nigeria’s messy political past, the results of presidential polls announced Tuesday are a major step forward for democracy in Africa’s most populous country — and an indictment of Goodluck Jonathan's five years in office.</p>
<p>Muhammadu Buhari, a gap-toothed former military dictator, has made history by becoming the first opposition candidate to be elected president. In other words, for the first time since Nigeria's independence from Britain in 1960, there will be a democratic transition of power to a different political party.</p>
<p>Jonathan is reported to have telephoned Buhari to concede defeat and offer congratulations, a move hailed as defusing tensions in a country prone to post-election violence. Though it doesn't ensure the calm will hold.</p>
<p>As the final ballots were counted, Buhari, the candidate for the opposition All Progressives Congress, led by some 3 million votes over Jonathan from the People’s Democratic Party, a lead seen as insurmountable.</p>
<p>Buhari's wife Aisha tweeted:</p>
<p>Nigerians are aware now more than ever that the people have the power to sway the fate of a nation.</p>
<p>— Mrs. Aisha Buhari (@MrsAishaBuhari) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrsAishaBuhari/status/582972065680089088" type="external">March 31, 2015</a></p>
<p>We must see this as a triumphant show of democracy. A change for the better.</p>
<p>— Mrs. Aisha Buhari (@MrsAishaBuhari) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrsAishaBuhari/status/582971062608068608" type="external">March 31, 2015</a></p>
<p>Observers had warned the elections could be a step backward for democratic process. There were fears from British and American diplomats of political interference during the vote counting, and broader worries of Boko Haram insurgents targeting polling stations.</p>
<p>An estimated 50 people were killed on election day, March 28, most of them in an attack by Boko Haram in the country's northeast.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/150113/graphic-boko-haram-baga-attack" type="external">This graphic shows just how brutal Boko Haram really is</a></p>
<p>There were also concerns about the possibility of political violence after what was a tightly fought race between Buhari, a Muslim from northern Nigeria, and Jonathan, a Christian from the southern Niger Delta. Following the 2011 polls — in which Buhari and Jonathan also faced off — riots broke out in the country’s north and more than 800 people were killed.</p>
<p>But the 2015 vote went relatively smoothly, despite a few hitches along the way.</p>
<p>The elections were originally scheduled to be held Feb. 14. They were delayed by six weeks after Nigeria’s military said it would be unable to provide security sooner because its soldiers were busy fighting Boko Haram. They're an extremist militant group that recently <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/article/6411337/2015/03/07/boko-haram-leader-pledges-allegiance-islamic-state-group-audio-message" type="external">claimed allegiance</a> to the Islamic State.</p>
<p>The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, has won praise for shepherding the country through generally fair and free elections, which for the first time made use of biometric voting cards and hand-held electronic card readers.</p>
<p>Some of the country's 150,000 polling stations were beset by technical problems, as well as late delivery of election materials, leading to a second day of voting in certain areas. Jonathan himself had trouble voting due to a technical glitch.</p>
<p>But Nigeria's Transition Monitoring Group, which had observers stationed across Nigeria, said the impact was limited: "These issues did not systematically disadvantage any candidate or party."</p>
<p>The PDP has ruled Nigeria since the country's return to civilian government in 1999.</p>
<p>Buhari will now govern a population of 170 million and the continent's biggest economy —&#160; though one plagued by corruption, electricity shortages and an Islamist insurgency.</p>
<p>Having escaped an attack by Boko Haram on his convoy in July, Buhari promised to end the insurgency within months if elected president.</p>
<p>But there are questions surrounding his leadership. While this is the fourth democratic election he has contested, the 72-year-old ex-general ruled Nigeria for 20 months after seizing power in a military coup in December 1983.</p>
<p>His rule is chiefly remembered for campaigns against government waste, corruption and indiscipline — and for accompanying human rights abuses, as well as restrictions on press freedom.</p>
<p>Buhari has since declared himself a born-again democrat.</p> | Nigeria's first opposition win since '60 puts an ex-military coup leader back in power | false | https://pri.org/stories/nigerias-first-opposition-win-60-puts-ex-military-coup-leader-back-power | 3 |
|
<p>BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the presentation of the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California (all times local):</p>
<p>9:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The newly minted Golden Globes winners had a good reason to stop by the official show after-party this year, and it has nothing to do with the booze.</p>
<p>For the first time, winners could have their Globes trophies engraved at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's party. Among those who stopped by to get their names etched into their new awards were James Franco, Sterling K. Brown and Aziz Ansari.</p>
<p>Allison Janney, who won for her supporting role in "I, Tonya," set off a flurry of camera flashes when she arrived at the engraving station.</p>
<p>"Three Billboards" writer-director Martin McDonagh was double-fisting at the trophy engraving table after his film, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," won for best screenplay and best drama picture. Best director winner Guillermo del Toro was also spotted at the table.</p>
<p>— Sandy Cohen (@APSandy) at the official Golden Globes after party.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8:05 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>The fierce revenge tale "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" has won the Golden Globe Award for best film drama.</p>
<p>Frances McDormand stars as a raging mother seeking answers for her daughter's murder. Directed by Martin McDonagh, the movie has garnered widespread praise for McDormand's fierce performance.</p>
<p>The movie won the honor moments after McDormand won the Globe award for best actress in a film drama. Sam Rockwell also won the Globe award for best supporting actor.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8 p.m.</p>
<p>Frances McDormand is the winner of the best actress in a drama film for her role in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."</p>
<p>McDormand plays the mother seeking justice for her daughter, who was raped and killed, and takes on the small town police force who she doesn't believe is doing enough to solve the case.</p>
<p>The actress accepted the award saying she would buy tequila for all the other nominees in the category.</p>
<p>She also ribbed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the Globes, saying she still didn't know who they are but credited them for electing a female president.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:50 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Gary Oldman is the winner of the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a drama film.</p>
<p>Oldman won for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour," which focuses on the British statesman's efforts to persuade his countrymen to fight the Nazis in World War II.</p>
<p>The actor quoted Churchill, saying he was surrounded by the very best people in the industry, while working on the film.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Greta Gerwig's directorial debut, "Lady Bird," has won the Golden Globe Award for best film comedy or musical.</p>
<p>"Lady Bird" stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character, a teenager in Sacramento, California, who is navigating her last days of high school and her tense relationship with her mother. The film has earned Gerwig, Ronan and her co-star Laurie Metcalf widespread praise.</p>
<p>The movie's producer ceded his speech to Gerwig, who profusely thanked everyone who worked on the film and Ronan, who moments earlier won the best actress in a film comedy Globe award.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:35 p.m.</p>
<p>Saoirse Ronan is the winner of the best actress in a film comedy or musical Golden Globe Award.</p>
<p>Ronan won for "Lady Bird," in which she plays a teenager in Sacramento, California, who's juggling her last year in high school, college ambitions and a tense relationship with her mother.</p>
<p>With Sunday's ceremony running long, Ronan had to deliver a rushed speech. She profusely thanked her mother, who she said was on a video call.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:30 p.m.</p>
<p>"Big Little Lies" is the winner of the Golden Globe Award for the best television limited series or movie.</p>
<p>The series follows a group of mothers in Northern California who each has her own secrets threatening them and their families. The show won the Emmy Award last year for best limited series and will return for a second season on HBO.</p>
<p>The show dominated the Globes in the limited series category on Sunday, with wins for Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgard.</p>
<p>Reese Witherspoon, who starred in and produced the series, said of women who have been abused, "''We see you, we hear you, and we will tell your stories."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:25 p.m.</p>
<p>The bathrooms at the Golden Globes are more like hair salons.</p>
<p>The A-list stars attending this year's show always look picture perfect for a reason: When they head to the restroom they meet up with hair stylists who touch their hair and makeup, giving them a refreshed looked before they return to their seats.</p>
<p>They are also a place where stars get to praise one another.</p>
<p>During one bathroom break before the show started, Sarah Paulson declared to anyone who could hear her in in line for ladies' restroom: "Ladies and gentlemen, Claire Foy is here and nothing else matters. We don't have to pretend we don't all feel the same way."</p>
<p>Moments earlier, Paulson and actress Amanda Peet gushed directly to "The Crown" Star about her performance. Foy blushed is response, then dashed into an open compartment.</p>
<p>— Lynn Elber and Sandy Cohen (APSandy) from inside the Golden Globes ceremony.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:20 p.m.</p>
<p>Guillermo del Toro is the winner of the best director Golden Globe Award for his Cold War fairy tale "The Shape of Water."</p>
<p>The film stars Sally Hawkins as a mute cleaning lady who falls in love with an amphibious creature kept confined in a government lab. The movie has become of the front-runners for best picture at March's Academy Awards. Del Toro's acceptance speech, which was interrupted by the orchestra at one point, was an ode to his love affair with monsters.</p>
<p>He thanked the film's cast, before continuing: "My monsters thank you."</p>
<p>The category was dominated by male directors, which drew criticism since 2017 featured several acclaimed films from female directors, including "Wonder Woman," ''Lady Bird" and "Mudbound."</p>
<p>It was a point that presenter Natalie Portman accentuated before the names of the nominees were read Sunday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:10 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Oprah Winfrey has accepted a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes by saying she hopes as the first black women to accept the honor, it has an impact on young girls watching Sunday's ceremony.</p>
<p>The actress and businesswoman accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at Sunday's Globes ceremony and received a lengthy standing ovation, which she tried to calm down.</p>
<p>She spoke about the feelings she had as a young girl watching Sidney Poitier win the best actor Academy Award in 1964. She likened the pride she felt watching Poitier, the first black man to win the best actor Oscar, to the impact she hoped she could have on young women.</p>
<p>Winfrey also addressed the sexual misconduct scandal roiling Hollywood and beyond, telling those watching "speaking your truth is the most powerful tool you all have."</p>
<p>Reese Witherspoon introduced Winfrey and described their friendship, forged over long sessions in a makeup trailer while filming "A Wrinkle in Time." Witherspoon said sitting in the room with Oprah was like taking the best business classes, and her hugs could end wars.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Aziz Ansari has won the best television comedy actor Golden Globe Award for his role on "Master of None."</p>
<p>Ansari is a co-creator of the Netflix series that focuses on his character, Dev, as he navigates relationships and his growing television career.</p>
<p>The show's second season expanded to tell the backstories of some of Dev's friends, including an episode that focused on the life of ordinary New Yorkers and another that explored the coming out story of a lesbian character played by Lena Waithe.</p>
<p>Ansari accepted the award by saying he didn't think he would win it since so many websites had predicted he would lose Sunday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:55 p.m.</p>
<p>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the winner of the Golden Globe Award for best television comedy.</p>
<p>The freshman Amazon series stars Rachel Brosnahan as a 1950s housewife who pursues a stand-up comedy career. It's been a big evening for the show — Brosnahan won the best actress in a comedy series award earlier in the ceremony.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:45 p.m.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor has won the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a television limited series or movie for his dual roles in the third season of the FX series "Fargo."</p>
<p>McGregor plays brothers, one a successful businessman and the other a parole officer, who find themselves at odds over the paths their lives have taken.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Germany and France's "In the Fade" is the winner of the best foreign language Golden Globe Award.</p>
<p>The film stars Diane Kruger as a woman forced to cope with the death of her Turkish husband and their young son in a terrorist attack. It is from director Fatih Akin, a German-born filmmaker of Turkish descent.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Allison Janney is the winner of the best supporting film actress Golden Globe Award for her role in "I, Tonya."</p>
<p>Janney won for her portrayal of figure skater Tonya Harding's mother, who unleashes abuse on her daughter to try to make her a better athlete.</p>
<p>She thanked co-star Margot Robbie and profusely thanked Harding, who was in the ballroom for Sunday's ceremony.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:20 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>"Coco" has won the Golden Globe Award for best animated film.</p>
<p>The Disney and Pixar collaboration is considered a leading contender for an Academy Award for best animated feature. It tells the story of a Mexican boy who dreams of being a musician despite his family's wishes and falls into the realm of the dead.</p>
<p>"Coco" has drawn widespread praise for the culturally authentic way it presents Mexico's "Day of the Dead" culture.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:05 p.m.</p>
<p>James Franco has won the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a comedy or musical for his portrayal of the mysterious man who created what many consider the worst movie ever made.</p>
<p>Franco directed and starred in "The Disaster Artist," which tells the story of the mysterious filmmaker Tommy Wiseau and his passion project, "The Room." Savaged by critics, "The Room" has since gained a cult following, and Franco has received considerable Oscar buzz.</p>
<p>Franco opened his speech by inviting "The Room" creator Wiseau up onstage and giving him a hug and reading a passage he said Wiseau wrote 19 years ago.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>"This is Me" is the winner of the best song Golden Globe Award. The track was created for the film "The Greatest Showman."</p>
<p>"The Greatest Showman" song is the work of Oscar-winning duo Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, who won an Academy Award for their song "City of Stars" in "La La Land." The "Showman" tune appears in the musical starring Hugh Jackman about the life of P.T. Barnum.</p>
<p>It beat out songs created by stars such as Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey, who was onstage at the Globes moments before the best song award was announced.</p>
<p>Carey, who was nominated for her song "The Star," helped announce the winner of the best original score honor, which went to Alexandre Desplat for "The Shape of Water."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:55 p.m.</p>
<p>The group that bestows the Golden Globe Awards is giving $1 million apiece to two journalism groups.</p>
<p>The Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Meher Tatna announced the awards to the International Consortium Of Investigative Journalists, which led the investigation that yielded the Panama Papers, and the Committee To Protect Journalists.</p>
<p>The grants are the first to ever be announced during the Globes telecast.</p>
<p>The awards are part of the HFPA's charitable giving, which now totals millions a year, thanks to the broadcast rights the group receives from NBC.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:50 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>The dystopian series "The Handmaid's Tale" is the winner of the best television drama Golden Globe Award.</p>
<p>The Hulu series stars Elisabeth Moss as one of the few fertile women left in a world ruled by a totalitarian regime that treats women as property. The show is based on Margaret Atwood's best-selling novel of the same name.</p>
<p>It is the series' second win of the evening. Elisabeth Moss won the best actress in a television drama earlier in the ceremony.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Sterling K. Brown is the winner of the best television drama actor Golden Globe Award for his role on "This is Us."</p>
<p>Brown plays a family man recovering from a nervous breakdown and the complicated dynamics of the family that adopted him when he was a baby.</p>
<p>Brown opened his speech by remarking on Oprah Winfrey's presence in the room — she is receiving a lifetime achievement award — before quickly saying he needed to thank his wife before he forgot. He also told his children that he would take them to school in the morning.</p>
<p>Brown profusely thanked "This Is Us" creator Dan Fogelman for engaging in colorblind casting and giving him great material to work with.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:35 p.m.</p>
<p>"The Handmaid's Tale's" Elisabeth Moss has won the Golden Globe Award for best actress in a television drama.</p>
<p>Moss plays one of the few fertile women left in a world ruled by a totalitarian regime where women are considered property. Moss attempts to keep her identity and humanity in the Hulu series, which is based on Margaret Atwood's best-selling novel.</p>
<p>She dedicated her award to Atwood, reading some of the author's words and saying that women are now "writing the stories ourselves."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Rachel Brosnahan has been awarded the best television comedy actress Golden Globe Award for her role on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."</p>
<p>Brosnahan plays a 1950s mom who decides to pursue a stand-up comedy career. The show is also nominated for best comedy series at Sunday's Globes.</p>
<p>The actress won the award on her first nomination.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:20 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Sam Rockwell has won the best film supporting actor Golden Globe Award for his role in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."</p>
<p>Rockwell won for his role as a small town cop with anger issues in the revenge tale starring fellow-Globes nominee Frances McDormand. He thanked McDormand and "Three Billboards" director Martin McDonagh, who he thanked for giving him such beautiful words to say.</p>
<p>Rockwell called McDormand a "force of nature" who made him a better actor.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Nicole Kidman has won the Golden Globe Award for best actress in a limited television series or movie for her role in the HBO series "Big Little Lies."</p>
<p>Kidman plays a lawyer who gave up her successful career to be a full-time mom in a rich coastal Northern California town. Her life is not as idyllic as it seems — her husband frequently beats her.</p>
<p>She referenced her character in her acceptance speech, urging others to keep the conversation about abuse and the treatment of women alive.</p>
<p>The actress also thanked her "Big Little Lies" co-stars, saying she was sharing the honor with fellow nominees Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Reese Witherspoon.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:05 p.m.</p>
<p>Seth Meyers has opened the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards with jokes about the sexual misconduct scandal, saying it's the first time in three months that it won't be terrifying for male actors to have their names read out loud.</p>
<p>Meyers started his monologue by saying, "Good evening ladies and remaining gentlemen!"</p>
<p>He also jabbed disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein who has been accused by dozens of women of sexual harassment and abuse. Meyers noted that Weinstein isn't present for Sunday's ceremony, but said that he'll be back in 20 years — when he'll be the "first person ever booed during the In Memorium" segment.</p>
<p>The joke was met with some groans in the ballroom.</p>
<p>Meyers mixed his comments about the sexual misconduct scandal with jokes about the nominees and a few barbs directed at President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:40 p.m.</p>
<p>There's more to occupy the Golden Globes crowd than awards.</p>
<p>They can get their face copied atop a cappuccino or latte. How many stars are taking advantage before the show? So far, a barista says none: they're focusing on the alcoholic drinks.</p>
<p>Stars often rush into the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel at the last minute, so the Globes this year are attempting to get people in their seats earlier in the evening. Red carpet interviews are supposed to already be done, and an announcer has told the group it's 30 minutes to show time.</p>
<p>— Lynn Elber in the Golden Globes ballroom.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:20 p.m.</p>
<p>Dinner is served so early at the Golden Globes it can be confusing.</p>
<p>More than hour before the show, "This Is Us" star Milo Ventimiglia asked castmate Chris Sullivan if it was time to sit down at one of the tables already set with salads. When Sullivan said he'd been in place for a half-hour, Ventimiglia started chowing down. It's a good thing — the three-course meal is served and cleared fast, so all the eating is done before the ceremony starts. But the wine and Champagne keep flowing throughout the three-hour ceremony.</p>
<p>Among the other early arrivals were the cast of "Stranger Things," ''Get Out" stars Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, Meryl Streep and John Goodman, who enjoyed a cigarette on the terrace while he watched a live feed of the arrivals.</p>
<p>— Lynn Elber and Sandy Cohen (APSandy) in the Golden Globes ballroom.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:10 p.m.</p>
<p>Debra Messing has made her point about gender equality by calling out E! Entertainment Television on the issue while doing an interview with the network on the Golden Globes red carpet Sunday.</p>
<p>Messing was explaining why she wore black to support Hollywood's whistleblowers and the Time's Up initiative, then referenced the recent departure from E! of host Catt Sadler, who has said she learned she was making about half the pay of her male counterpart, Jason Kennedy.</p>
<p>Messing tells E! host Giuliana Rancic, "I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn't believe in paying their female co-hosts the same as their male co-hosts. I miss Catt Sadler."</p>
<p>Messing says it's crucial to "start having this conversation that women are just as valuable as men are."</p>
<p>— Jocelyn Noveck</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4 p.m.</p>
<p>Golden Globe nominee Michelle Williams says that she just wants to listen to what #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has to say, and that's why she brought her to Sunday's Golden Globes.</p>
<p>Williams tells The Associated Press, "I'm so much more interested in what you have to say than what I have to say."</p>
<p>Burke says the solidarity and the support behind Time's Up and #MeToo is something we've never seen before.</p>
<p>Williams is one of eight actresses who are attending the Golden Globes with advocates for gender and racial justice.</p>
<p>Burke says the actresses are generous in sharing their platform so they could highlight their causes and turn the spotlight back on the survivors and solutions rather than the perpetrators.</p>
<p>Williams is nominated for her role in Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World." When asked about working with Christopher Plummer who replaced Kevin Spacey in the film after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct, Williams says she's "not talking about that."</p>
<p>— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:25 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Alison Brie says that the Time's Up initiative has made her realize how powerful women can be when they all stand together.</p>
<p>The actress is nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in the Netflix wrestling show "GLOW." Brie, who also appears in the Golden Globe nominated films "The Post" and "The Disaster Artist," wore a dramatic strapless black dress with a sweetheart neckline to show solidarity with Time's Up.</p>
<p>Brie says she thinks change will come when more women are in power at the top. She says a lot more listening needs to happen across all industries.</p>
<p>— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:15 p.m.</p>
<p>"Get Out" star Daniel Kaluuya says that the fact that the film is still in the conversation is "mind-boggling."</p>
<p>He noted Sunday on the Golden Globes red carpet that the film came out almost a year ago in February.</p>
<p>Kaluuya wore a black tux with a Time's Up pin on his lapel. He is nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy, and "Get Out" is up for best picture in the same category.</p>
<p>He says he feels privileged to stand by the women fighting against the unnecessary evils that are happening in the industry.</p>
<p>— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:55 p.m.</p>
<p>Alfred Molina says he feels terrible for his "Frida" co-star Salma Hayek's experiences with Harvey Weinstein. Hayek detailed sexual harassment from Weinstein during the production of "Frida" in a New York Times essay in December.</p>
<p>Speaking Sunday on the Golden Globes red carpet, Molina says that Hayek is not one to exaggerate and is a serious, forthright woman and he was struck by her bravery. He says it's saddening and heartbreaking that she had to carry that weight for so long.</p>
<p>Sporting all black, down to his tie and his shirt, the "Feud" star said that it was a very small gesture of solidarity but hoped that out of small gestures comes big ones.</p>
<p>Chris Sullivan of "This Is Us" did not wear an all-black outfit, but painted his fingernails black for Sunday's ceremony.</p>
<p>— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:40 p.m.</p>
<p>The highly anticipated wear-black protest at the Golden Globes got off to an early start Sunday as soon as the red carpet opened, including Michelle Williams in an embellished off-the-shoulder look and "Me Too" founder Tarana Burke at her side.</p>
<p>Turning the Globes dark on the fashion front had been anticipated for days after a call for massive reform following the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and numerous others in Hollywood, media, fashion, tech, publishing and other industries. The new initiative Time's Up, backed by more than 300 women in Hollywood, doled out pins intended for those who might already have locked in more colorful looks.</p>
<p>Allison Williams provided a pop of orange and silver on the bodice of her black column gown.</p>
<p>Not everybody supports the protest. Rose McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of rape, has loudly and persistently called the effort an empty gesture.</p>
<p>— Leanne Italie</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Michelle Williams has arrived at the Golden Globes with the first of several gender and racial activists who are accompanying actresses to Sunday's awards gala.</p>
<p>Williams has brought #MeToo founder Tarana Burke to the awards show to help highlight gender inequality. Seven other actresses, including Emma Stone and Meryl Streep, are bringing activists to the ceremony, which is the first major awards show since the sexual misconduct scandal roiled Hollywood.</p>
<p>Both Williams and Burke wore black dresses. Many actresses are planning to wear black to Sunday's ceremony to show solidarity for the victims of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>— Andrew Dalton (@andyjamesdalton) in the fan bleachers outside the Golden Globes.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2 p.m.</p>
<p>Al Roker and Carson Daly have drawn quite the crowd of spectators as they made their way past the champagne and photographers on the red carpet and into the Golden Globes ballroom, trailed by a crew of cameras and lights.</p>
<p>Roker <a href="https://twitter.com/alroker/status/950105463818936320" type="external">tweeted</a> earlier that he's never seen security like this for the Globes. He said there was checkpoint after checkpoint and that they were not kidding around.</p>
<p />
<p>Elsewhere on the red carpet, Mario Lopez filmed an early segment and other TV reporters fanned themselves down amid the rising temperatures.</p>
<p>— Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:55 p.m.</p>
<p>Temperatures pushed into the 70s in the hours before the limousines began arriving at the Golden Globes.</p>
<p>Security of all kinds lined the scene Sunday. Motorcycle officers cruised down the red carpet. A sniper in military attire put a large rifle on a tripod on a low rooftop of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.</p>
<p>Workers sneaked quick photos on the red carpet while they could.</p>
<p>Fans who crammed into a small set of bleachers stood and strained to see any celebrity bigger than the gathered reporters.</p>
<p>The red carpet was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Pacific, but will get busier closer to the start of the Globes ceremony at 5 p.m.</p>
<p>— Andrew Dalton (@andyjamesdalton) in the fan bleachers outside the Golden Globes.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:25 a.m.</p>
<p>Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Emma Watson and Amy Poehler are just a few of the actresses who are planning to bring gender and racial justice activists as their guests to the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday evening.</p>
<p>Streep will attend with Ai-jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Williams with Tarana Burke, the founder of the "me too" movement; and Watson will bring Marai Larasi, the executive director of Imkaan, a black-feminist organization.</p>
<p>In a statement Sunday, the advocates say they were inspired by the Time's Up initiative. They say the goal in attending the awards will be to shift focus away from the perpetrators and back on survivors and creating lasting change.</p>
<p>Many attending the Golden Globes will also be wearing black to protest sexual harassment.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8 a.m.</p>
<p>The Golden Globes, once the stomping grounds of Harvey Weinstein, will belong to someone else this year.</p>
<p>The 75th Golden Globe Awards is considered wide open, with contenders including Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water," Steven Spielberg's "The Post" and Martin McDonaugh's "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."</p>
<p>But whoever takes home the hardware Sunday, the spotlight is unlikely to stray far from the sexual misconduct scandals that have roiled Hollywood ever since an avalanche of allegations toppled Weinstein. Out of solidarity with the victims of sexual harassment and assault, many women have said they will be dressing in black.</p>
<p>Red carpet arrivals are expected to begin around 5 p.m. EST, with the broadcast starting on NBC at 8 p.m. Oprah Winfrey will receive the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p>
<p>BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the presentation of the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California (all times local):</p>
<p>9:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The newly minted Golden Globes winners had a good reason to stop by the official show after-party this year, and it has nothing to do with the booze.</p>
<p>For the first time, winners could have their Globes trophies engraved at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's party. Among those who stopped by to get their names etched into their new awards were James Franco, Sterling K. Brown and Aziz Ansari.</p>
<p>Allison Janney, who won for her supporting role in "I, Tonya," set off a flurry of camera flashes when she arrived at the engraving station.</p>
<p>"Three Billboards" writer-director Martin McDonagh was double-fisting at the trophy engraving table after his film, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," won for best screenplay and best drama picture. Best director winner Guillermo del Toro was also spotted at the table.</p>
<p>— Sandy Cohen (@APSandy) at the official Golden Globes after party.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8:05 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>The fierce revenge tale "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" has won the Golden Globe Award for best film drama.</p>
<p>Frances McDormand stars as a raging mother seeking answers for her daughter's murder. Directed by Martin McDonagh, the movie has garnered widespread praise for McDormand's fierce performance.</p>
<p>The movie won the honor moments after McDormand won the Globe award for best actress in a film drama. Sam Rockwell also won the Globe award for best supporting actor.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8 p.m.</p>
<p>Frances McDormand is the winner of the best actress in a drama film for her role in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."</p>
<p>McDormand plays the mother seeking justice for her daughter, who was raped and killed, and takes on the small town police force who she doesn't believe is doing enough to solve the case.</p>
<p>The actress accepted the award saying she would buy tequila for all the other nominees in the category.</p>
<p>She also ribbed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the Globes, saying she still didn't know who they are but credited them for electing a female president.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:50 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Gary Oldman is the winner of the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a drama film.</p>
<p>Oldman won for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour," which focuses on the British statesman's efforts to persuade his countrymen to fight the Nazis in World War II.</p>
<p>The actor quoted Churchill, saying he was surrounded by the very best people in the industry, while working on the film.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Greta Gerwig's directorial debut, "Lady Bird," has won the Golden Globe Award for best film comedy or musical.</p>
<p>"Lady Bird" stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character, a teenager in Sacramento, California, who is navigating her last days of high school and her tense relationship with her mother. The film has earned Gerwig, Ronan and her co-star Laurie Metcalf widespread praise.</p>
<p>The movie's producer ceded his speech to Gerwig, who profusely thanked everyone who worked on the film and Ronan, who moments earlier won the best actress in a film comedy Globe award.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:35 p.m.</p>
<p>Saoirse Ronan is the winner of the best actress in a film comedy or musical Golden Globe Award.</p>
<p>Ronan won for "Lady Bird," in which she plays a teenager in Sacramento, California, who's juggling her last year in high school, college ambitions and a tense relationship with her mother.</p>
<p>With Sunday's ceremony running long, Ronan had to deliver a rushed speech. She profusely thanked her mother, who she said was on a video call.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:30 p.m.</p>
<p>"Big Little Lies" is the winner of the Golden Globe Award for the best television limited series or movie.</p>
<p>The series follows a group of mothers in Northern California who each has her own secrets threatening them and their families. The show won the Emmy Award last year for best limited series and will return for a second season on HBO.</p>
<p>The show dominated the Globes in the limited series category on Sunday, with wins for Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgard.</p>
<p>Reese Witherspoon, who starred in and produced the series, said of women who have been abused, "''We see you, we hear you, and we will tell your stories."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:25 p.m.</p>
<p>The bathrooms at the Golden Globes are more like hair salons.</p>
<p>The A-list stars attending this year's show always look picture perfect for a reason: When they head to the restroom they meet up with hair stylists who touch their hair and makeup, giving them a refreshed looked before they return to their seats.</p>
<p>They are also a place where stars get to praise one another.</p>
<p>During one bathroom break before the show started, Sarah Paulson declared to anyone who could hear her in in line for ladies' restroom: "Ladies and gentlemen, Claire Foy is here and nothing else matters. We don't have to pretend we don't all feel the same way."</p>
<p>Moments earlier, Paulson and actress Amanda Peet gushed directly to "The Crown" Star about her performance. Foy blushed is response, then dashed into an open compartment.</p>
<p>— Lynn Elber and Sandy Cohen (APSandy) from inside the Golden Globes ceremony.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:20 p.m.</p>
<p>Guillermo del Toro is the winner of the best director Golden Globe Award for his Cold War fairy tale "The Shape of Water."</p>
<p>The film stars Sally Hawkins as a mute cleaning lady who falls in love with an amphibious creature kept confined in a government lab. The movie has become of the front-runners for best picture at March's Academy Awards. Del Toro's acceptance speech, which was interrupted by the orchestra at one point, was an ode to his love affair with monsters.</p>
<p>He thanked the film's cast, before continuing: "My monsters thank you."</p>
<p>The category was dominated by male directors, which drew criticism since 2017 featured several acclaimed films from female directors, including "Wonder Woman," ''Lady Bird" and "Mudbound."</p>
<p>It was a point that presenter Natalie Portman accentuated before the names of the nominees were read Sunday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:10 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Oprah Winfrey has accepted a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes by saying she hopes as the first black women to accept the honor, it has an impact on young girls watching Sunday's ceremony.</p>
<p>The actress and businesswoman accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at Sunday's Globes ceremony and received a lengthy standing ovation, which she tried to calm down.</p>
<p>She spoke about the feelings she had as a young girl watching Sidney Poitier win the best actor Academy Award in 1964. She likened the pride she felt watching Poitier, the first black man to win the best actor Oscar, to the impact she hoped she could have on young women.</p>
<p>Winfrey also addressed the sexual misconduct scandal roiling Hollywood and beyond, telling those watching "speaking your truth is the most powerful tool you all have."</p>
<p>Reese Witherspoon introduced Winfrey and described their friendship, forged over long sessions in a makeup trailer while filming "A Wrinkle in Time." Witherspoon said sitting in the room with Oprah was like taking the best business classes, and her hugs could end wars.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Aziz Ansari has won the best television comedy actor Golden Globe Award for his role on "Master of None."</p>
<p>Ansari is a co-creator of the Netflix series that focuses on his character, Dev, as he navigates relationships and his growing television career.</p>
<p>The show's second season expanded to tell the backstories of some of Dev's friends, including an episode that focused on the life of ordinary New Yorkers and another that explored the coming out story of a lesbian character played by Lena Waithe.</p>
<p>Ansari accepted the award by saying he didn't think he would win it since so many websites had predicted he would lose Sunday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:55 p.m.</p>
<p>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the winner of the Golden Globe Award for best television comedy.</p>
<p>The freshman Amazon series stars Rachel Brosnahan as a 1950s housewife who pursues a stand-up comedy career. It's been a big evening for the show — Brosnahan won the best actress in a comedy series award earlier in the ceremony.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:45 p.m.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor has won the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a television limited series or movie for his dual roles in the third season of the FX series "Fargo."</p>
<p>McGregor plays brothers, one a successful businessman and the other a parole officer, who find themselves at odds over the paths their lives have taken.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Germany and France's "In the Fade" is the winner of the best foreign language Golden Globe Award.</p>
<p>The film stars Diane Kruger as a woman forced to cope with the death of her Turkish husband and their young son in a terrorist attack. It is from director Fatih Akin, a German-born filmmaker of Turkish descent.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Allison Janney is the winner of the best supporting film actress Golden Globe Award for her role in "I, Tonya."</p>
<p>Janney won for her portrayal of figure skater Tonya Harding's mother, who unleashes abuse on her daughter to try to make her a better athlete.</p>
<p>She thanked co-star Margot Robbie and profusely thanked Harding, who was in the ballroom for Sunday's ceremony.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:20 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>"Coco" has won the Golden Globe Award for best animated film.</p>
<p>The Disney and Pixar collaboration is considered a leading contender for an Academy Award for best animated feature. It tells the story of a Mexican boy who dreams of being a musician despite his family's wishes and falls into the realm of the dead.</p>
<p>"Coco" has drawn widespread praise for the culturally authentic way it presents Mexico's "Day of the Dead" culture.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:05 p.m.</p>
<p>James Franco has won the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a comedy or musical for his portrayal of the mysterious man who created what many consider the worst movie ever made.</p>
<p>Franco directed and starred in "The Disaster Artist," which tells the story of the mysterious filmmaker Tommy Wiseau and his passion project, "The Room." Savaged by critics, "The Room" has since gained a cult following, and Franco has received considerable Oscar buzz.</p>
<p>Franco opened his speech by inviting "The Room" creator Wiseau up onstage and giving him a hug and reading a passage he said Wiseau wrote 19 years ago.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>"This is Me" is the winner of the best song Golden Globe Award. The track was created for the film "The Greatest Showman."</p>
<p>"The Greatest Showman" song is the work of Oscar-winning duo Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, who won an Academy Award for their song "City of Stars" in "La La Land." The "Showman" tune appears in the musical starring Hugh Jackman about the life of P.T. Barnum.</p>
<p>It beat out songs created by stars such as Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey, who was onstage at the Globes moments before the best song award was announced.</p>
<p>Carey, who was nominated for her song "The Star," helped announce the winner of the best original score honor, which went to Alexandre Desplat for "The Shape of Water."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:55 p.m.</p>
<p>The group that bestows the Golden Globe Awards is giving $1 million apiece to two journalism groups.</p>
<p>The Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Meher Tatna announced the awards to the International Consortium Of Investigative Journalists, which led the investigation that yielded the Panama Papers, and the Committee To Protect Journalists.</p>
<p>The grants are the first to ever be announced during the Globes telecast.</p>
<p>The awards are part of the HFPA's charitable giving, which now totals millions a year, thanks to the broadcast rights the group receives from NBC.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:50 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>The dystopian series "The Handmaid's Tale" is the winner of the best television drama Golden Globe Award.</p>
<p>The Hulu series stars Elisabeth Moss as one of the few fertile women left in a world ruled by a totalitarian regime that treats women as property. The show is based on Margaret Atwood's best-selling novel of the same name.</p>
<p>It is the series' second win of the evening. Elisabeth Moss won the best actress in a television drama earlier in the ceremony.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Sterling K. Brown is the winner of the best television drama actor Golden Globe Award for his role on "This is Us."</p>
<p>Brown plays a family man recovering from a nervous breakdown and the complicated dynamics of the family that adopted him when he was a baby.</p>
<p>Brown opened his speech by remarking on Oprah Winfrey's presence in the room — she is receiving a lifetime achievement award — before quickly saying he needed to thank his wife before he forgot. He also told his children that he would take them to school in the morning.</p>
<p>Brown profusely thanked "This Is Us" creator Dan Fogelman for engaging in colorblind casting and giving him great material to work with.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:35 p.m.</p>
<p>"The Handmaid's Tale's" Elisabeth Moss has won the Golden Globe Award for best actress in a television drama.</p>
<p>Moss plays one of the few fertile women left in a world ruled by a totalitarian regime where women are considered property. Moss attempts to keep her identity and humanity in the Hulu series, which is based on Margaret Atwood's best-selling novel.</p>
<p>She dedicated her award to Atwood, reading some of the author's words and saying that women are now "writing the stories ourselves."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Rachel Brosnahan has been awarded the best television comedy actress Golden Globe Award for her role on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."</p>
<p>Brosnahan plays a 1950s mom who decides to pursue a stand-up comedy career. The show is also nominated for best comedy series at Sunday's Globes.</p>
<p>The actress won the award on her first nomination.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:20 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Sam Rockwell has won the best film supporting actor Golden Globe Award for his role in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."</p>
<p>Rockwell won for his role as a small town cop with anger issues in the revenge tale starring fellow-Globes nominee Frances McDormand. He thanked McDormand and "Three Billboards" director Martin McDonagh, who he thanked for giving him such beautiful words to say.</p>
<p>Rockwell called McDormand a "force of nature" who made him a better actor.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Nicole Kidman has won the Golden Globe Award for best actress in a limited television series or movie for her role in the HBO series "Big Little Lies."</p>
<p>Kidman plays a lawyer who gave up her successful career to be a full-time mom in a rich coastal Northern California town. Her life is not as idyllic as it seems — her husband frequently beats her.</p>
<p>She referenced her character in her acceptance speech, urging others to keep the conversation about abuse and the treatment of women alive.</p>
<p>The actress also thanked her "Big Little Lies" co-stars, saying she was sharing the honor with fellow nominees Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Reese Witherspoon.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:05 p.m.</p>
<p>Seth Meyers has opened the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards with jokes about the sexual misconduct scandal, saying it's the first time in three months that it won't be terrifying for male actors to have their names read out loud.</p>
<p>Meyers started his monologue by saying, "Good evening ladies and remaining gentlemen!"</p>
<p>He also jabbed disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein who has been accused by dozens of women of sexual harassment and abuse. Meyers noted that Weinstein isn't present for Sunday's ceremony, but said that he'll be back in 20 years — when he'll be the "first person ever booed during the In Memorium" segment.</p>
<p>The joke was met with some groans in the ballroom.</p>
<p>Meyers mixed his comments about the sexual misconduct scandal with jokes about the nominees and a few barbs directed at President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:40 p.m.</p>
<p>There's more to occupy the Golden Globes crowd than awards.</p>
<p>They can get their face copied atop a cappuccino or latte. How many stars are taking advantage before the show? So far, a barista says none: they're focusing on the alcoholic drinks.</p>
<p>Stars often rush into the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel at the last minute, so the Globes this year are attempting to get people in their seats earlier in the evening. Red carpet interviews are supposed to already be done, and an announcer has told the group it's 30 minutes to show time.</p>
<p>— Lynn Elber in the Golden Globes ballroom.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:20 p.m.</p>
<p>Dinner is served so early at the Golden Globes it can be confusing.</p>
<p>More than hour before the show, "This Is Us" star Milo Ventimiglia asked castmate Chris Sullivan if it was time to sit down at one of the tables already set with salads. When Sullivan said he'd been in place for a half-hour, Ventimiglia started chowing down. It's a good thing — the three-course meal is served and cleared fast, so all the eating is done before the ceremony starts. But the wine and Champagne keep flowing throughout the three-hour ceremony.</p>
<p>Among the other early arrivals were the cast of "Stranger Things," ''Get Out" stars Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, Meryl Streep and John Goodman, who enjoyed a cigarette on the terrace while he watched a live feed of the arrivals.</p>
<p>— Lynn Elber and Sandy Cohen (APSandy) in the Golden Globes ballroom.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:10 p.m.</p>
<p>Debra Messing has made her point about gender equality by calling out E! Entertainment Television on the issue while doing an interview with the network on the Golden Globes red carpet Sunday.</p>
<p>Messing was explaining why she wore black to support Hollywood's whistleblowers and the Time's Up initiative, then referenced the recent departure from E! of host Catt Sadler, who has said she learned she was making about half the pay of her male counterpart, Jason Kennedy.</p>
<p>Messing tells E! host Giuliana Rancic, "I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn't believe in paying their female co-hosts the same as their male co-hosts. I miss Catt Sadler."</p>
<p>Messing says it's crucial to "start having this conversation that women are just as valuable as men are."</p>
<p>— Jocelyn Noveck</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4 p.m.</p>
<p>Golden Globe nominee Michelle Williams says that she just wants to listen to what #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has to say, and that's why she brought her to Sunday's Golden Globes.</p>
<p>Williams tells The Associated Press, "I'm so much more interested in what you have to say than what I have to say."</p>
<p>Burke says the solidarity and the support behind Time's Up and #MeToo is something we've never seen before.</p>
<p>Williams is one of eight actresses who are attending the Golden Globes with advocates for gender and racial justice.</p>
<p>Burke says the actresses are generous in sharing their platform so they could highlight their causes and turn the spotlight back on the survivors and solutions rather than the perpetrators.</p>
<p>Williams is nominated for her role in Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World." When asked about working with Christopher Plummer who replaced Kevin Spacey in the film after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct, Williams says she's "not talking about that."</p>
<p>— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:25 p.m.</p>
<p />
<p>Alison Brie says that the Time's Up initiative has made her realize how powerful women can be when they all stand together.</p>
<p>The actress is nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in the Netflix wrestling show "GLOW." Brie, who also appears in the Golden Globe nominated films "The Post" and "The Disaster Artist," wore a dramatic strapless black dress with a sweetheart neckline to show solidarity with Time's Up.</p>
<p>Brie says she thinks change will come when more women are in power at the top. She says a lot more listening needs to happen across all industries.</p>
<p>— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:15 p.m.</p>
<p>"Get Out" star Daniel Kaluuya says that the fact that the film is still in the conversation is "mind-boggling."</p>
<p>He noted Sunday on the Golden Globes red carpet that the film came out almost a year ago in February.</p>
<p>Kaluuya wore a black tux with a Time's Up pin on his lapel. He is nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy, and "Get Out" is up for best picture in the same category.</p>
<p>He says he feels privileged to stand by the women fighting against the unnecessary evils that are happening in the industry.</p>
<p>— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:55 p.m.</p>
<p>Alfred Molina says he feels terrible for his "Frida" co-star Salma Hayek's experiences with Harvey Weinstein. Hayek detailed sexual harassment from Weinstein during the production of "Frida" in a New York Times essay in December.</p>
<p>Speaking Sunday on the Golden Globes red carpet, Molina says that Hayek is not one to exaggerate and is a serious, forthright woman and he was struck by her bravery. He says it's saddening and heartbreaking that she had to carry that weight for so long.</p>
<p>Sporting all black, down to his tie and his shirt, the "Feud" star said that it was a very small gesture of solidarity but hoped that out of small gestures comes big ones.</p>
<p>Chris Sullivan of "This Is Us" did not wear an all-black outfit, but painted his fingernails black for Sunday's ceremony.</p>
<p>— Nicole Evatt (@NicoleEvatt) and Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:40 p.m.</p>
<p>The highly anticipated wear-black protest at the Golden Globes got off to an early start Sunday as soon as the red carpet opened, including Michelle Williams in an embellished off-the-shoulder look and "Me Too" founder Tarana Burke at her side.</p>
<p>Turning the Globes dark on the fashion front had been anticipated for days after a call for massive reform following the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and numerous others in Hollywood, media, fashion, tech, publishing and other industries. The new initiative Time's Up, backed by more than 300 women in Hollywood, doled out pins intended for those who might already have locked in more colorful looks.</p>
<p>Allison Williams provided a pop of orange and silver on the bodice of her black column gown.</p>
<p>Not everybody supports the protest. Rose McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of rape, has loudly and persistently called the effort an empty gesture.</p>
<p>— Leanne Italie</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Michelle Williams has arrived at the Golden Globes with the first of several gender and racial activists who are accompanying actresses to Sunday's awards gala.</p>
<p>Williams has brought #MeToo founder Tarana Burke to the awards show to help highlight gender inequality. Seven other actresses, including Emma Stone and Meryl Streep, are bringing activists to the ceremony, which is the first major awards show since the sexual misconduct scandal roiled Hollywood.</p>
<p>Both Williams and Burke wore black dresses. Many actresses are planning to wear black to Sunday's ceremony to show solidarity for the victims of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>— Andrew Dalton (@andyjamesdalton) in the fan bleachers outside the Golden Globes.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2 p.m.</p>
<p>Al Roker and Carson Daly have drawn quite the crowd of spectators as they made their way past the champagne and photographers on the red carpet and into the Golden Globes ballroom, trailed by a crew of cameras and lights.</p>
<p>Roker <a href="https://twitter.com/alroker/status/950105463818936320" type="external">tweeted</a> earlier that he's never seen security like this for the Globes. He said there was checkpoint after checkpoint and that they were not kidding around.</p>
<p />
<p>Elsewhere on the red carpet, Mario Lopez filmed an early segment and other TV reporters fanned themselves down amid the rising temperatures.</p>
<p>— Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) on the Golden Globes red carpet.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:55 p.m.</p>
<p>Temperatures pushed into the 70s in the hours before the limousines began arriving at the Golden Globes.</p>
<p>Security of all kinds lined the scene Sunday. Motorcycle officers cruised down the red carpet. A sniper in military attire put a large rifle on a tripod on a low rooftop of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.</p>
<p>Workers sneaked quick photos on the red carpet while they could.</p>
<p>Fans who crammed into a small set of bleachers stood and strained to see any celebrity bigger than the gathered reporters.</p>
<p>The red carpet was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Pacific, but will get busier closer to the start of the Globes ceremony at 5 p.m.</p>
<p>— Andrew Dalton (@andyjamesdalton) in the fan bleachers outside the Golden Globes.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:25 a.m.</p>
<p>Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Emma Watson and Amy Poehler are just a few of the actresses who are planning to bring gender and racial justice activists as their guests to the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday evening.</p>
<p>Streep will attend with Ai-jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Williams with Tarana Burke, the founder of the "me too" movement; and Watson will bring Marai Larasi, the executive director of Imkaan, a black-feminist organization.</p>
<p>In a statement Sunday, the advocates say they were inspired by the Time's Up initiative. They say the goal in attending the awards will be to shift focus away from the perpetrators and back on survivors and creating lasting change.</p>
<p>Many attending the Golden Globes will also be wearing black to protest sexual harassment.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8 a.m.</p>
<p>The Golden Globes, once the stomping grounds of Harvey Weinstein, will belong to someone else this year.</p>
<p>The 75th Golden Globe Awards is considered wide open, with contenders including Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water," Steven Spielberg's "The Post" and Martin McDonaugh's "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."</p>
<p>But whoever takes home the hardware Sunday, the spotlight is unlikely to stray far from the sexual misconduct scandals that have roiled Hollywood ever since an avalanche of allegations toppled Weinstein. Out of solidarity with the victims of sexual harassment and assault, many women have said they will be dressing in black.</p>
<p>Red carpet arrivals are expected to begin around 5 p.m. EST, with the broadcast starting on NBC at 8 p.m. Oprah Winfrey will receive the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p> | The Latest: New Globes winners get their trophies engraved | false | https://apnews.com/amp/8392ccde4a684e3c887864e474cd9025 | 2018-01-08 | 2 |
<p>Hate crime race murder is such an embedded social pathology in US culture, not to mention the historical precedent of violence as entertainment, that it requires no introduction. The many Amadou Diallos in the procession of anonymous victims of racial profiling assassinations committed by police and vigilantes, speaks for itself.</p>
<p>But what was different about the murder of charismatic Chicago Panther Chairman Fred Hampton, was the determined killing of an idea as well. Namely, to extinguish the call to the oppressed everywhere in the US – workingclass and people of color – to rise up not simply against injustice, but in positive struggle for revolution and socialism.</p>
<p>In <a href="" type="internal">The Murder Of Fred Hampton</a>, currently in re-release on DVD, director Mike Gray and the Chicago Film Group Collective chronicle the brief but extraordinary life of 21 year old Hampton, executed as he slept on December 4th, 1969, along with other Panthers during a brutal home invasion by a special unit of Chicago police tied to the State Attorney’s office. Despite an elaborate coverup by police insisting that that they fired 99 bullets and left Hampton’s brains splattered across his mattress in ‘self-defense,’ movement lawyers, as documented in this devastating film, proved otherwise. This people’s investigation challenging at the same time Nixon Administration repression and Cointelpro, resulted in the indictment of several Chicago police, the State Attorney for Northern Illinois, and his assistants.</p>
<p>The Murder Of Fred Hampton illuminates the magnetic fervor, militant eloquence, and sheer infectious ideological energy of ‘living high on the people,’ that Chairman Fred embodied, much like Malcolm. And it was that threat to the state and the status quo, a combination of political rage transcending fear and the passionate pursuit of broad popular unity against social and economic injustice, that invoked Hampton’s valiant iconic immortality and also abrupt victimhood. Rendering The Murder Of Fred Hampton a visual and oral blueprint of cautionary wisdom and mass inspiration.</p>
<p>PRAIRIE MILLER is a WBAI film critic, and host and executive producer of The WBAI Arts Magazine. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Murder of Fred Hampton | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/05/19/the-murder-of-fred-hampton/ | 2007-05-19 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Dear Bankruptcy Adviser,&#160;</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>My checking account, mortgage and credit card are with my credit union. My car loan is with their sister branch in another state. I am planning on filing for bankruptcy, but know my credit union will close/freeze my account when I do so. Will their sister branch still work with me, such as by letting me open an account with them? Thanks.&#160;</p>
<p>-Mary</p>
<p>Dear Mary,&#160;</p>
<p>Credit unions are afforded special treatment in bankruptcy, but burning a credit union by eliminating their debt will end any current and future association with them. Discharging a debt with a bank doesn't mean you never get to bank with these institutions again, but eliminating a credit union debt ends all current and future associations.</p>
<p>When a client comes to me with your situation, I explain these three scenarios you could also attempt.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Keep your mortgage and your credit card/personal loan. Clients who continue to pay on the mortgage and the credit card or personal loan can keep banking with the credit union. Prior to filing, I have the client contact the credit union and inform them of the pending filing. The credit union will note the individual account, and the bankruptcy will not interrupt banking activities.</p>
<p>This option will require you to reaffirm the credit card/personal loan balance and may require the same for the mortgage. By doing this, you will be legally forced to pay all or a portion of the debt that may otherwise have been subject to discharge in your bankruptcy case.</p>
<p>In layman's terms, the lender wants the right to sue you for any unpaid balance in the event you do not pay on the loan after the bankruptcy, and the reaffirmation agreement gives them that right. Credit unions have a specific exemption in the bankruptcy code to allow you to reaffirm a loan with them after filing bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Keep your mortgage, but eliminate your credit card/personal loan. You are allowed to keep paying the credit union mortgage loan but eliminate the credit card in the bankruptcy. They can't foreclose on your home as long as you continue paying the mortgage, but you will no longer be able to bank with the credit union anymore.</p>
<p>Prior to filing, you must stop putting money into the credit union account. The credit union will not let you close the account completely if you owe them any money, but you don't want to put any new funds into that account either. They have the right to seize any funds in the account once you stop paying on the credit card/personal loan.</p>
<p>Walk away from your mortgage and your credit card/personal loan. If you choose to go this route, the solution is the same as the option above. Do not put any more money into your credit union account, as your relationship with them will be over.</p>
<p>As for your main question, I'll assume in your situation that using a sister branch means you applied for a car loan with the same credit union with a branch in another state. If you file bankruptcy, it will mean your banking relationship is over with all credit union branches and divisions. You can still keep your vehicle even though your banking relationship with the credit unions would end.</p>
<p>In my opinion, I do not believe the relationship with any credit union is worth reaffirming a credit card or personal loan. I know most credit unions personalize banking, as you may know the bank manager and other employees by name. I guess I have seen the nasty side of credit unions and do not believe that relationship is worth it. However, many clients do reaffirm debts with credit unions and do continue receiving future benefits. So it is not a crazy idea, just not one I would advise.</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 Credit Union Still Want you Post-Bankruptcy? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/08/06/will-credit-union-still-want-post-bankruptcy.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>In the midst of the holiday season, as feelings of generosity and goodwill&#160;abound all over the globe, gifts of all shapes, sizes and costs are exchanged. Many gifts are given in the form of a monetary donation to a charitable organization. But the way Politico's Kelsey Snell <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/wealthy-donors-in-mad-dash-for-year-end-gifts-and-tax-perks-101474.html?hp=f2" type="external">tells it</a>, those charitable donations are a result of a change in fiscal policy:</p>
<p>Why the big push this year? This is the first tax year steeper tax rates on investment income kicked in, a consequence of last January's fiscal cliff deal extending some Bush-era tax cuts.</p>
<p>And donors can't cash in on big gains in the market without paying up to a 20 percent tax to the IRS on their capital gains.</p>
<p>Unless they turn those highly appreciated stocks into big charitable gifts.</p>
<p>"Higher capital gains and higher marginal rates, combined with an investment market that has been red hot for the year," is pushing individuals to act, said Benjamin Pierce, president of the charitable endowment at Vanguard, the world's biggest mutual fund company with $2 trillion under management.</p>
<p>The fiscal cliff package from January boosted marginal tax rates for individuals earning more than $400,000 and couples earning more than $450,000 a year from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. Those same taxpayers also face a 20 percent tax rate on all long-term capital gains and dividends, on top of new Obamacare taxes.</p>
<p>Those changes have been driving tony donors to wealth advisers across the country this year. From a tax perspective, it makes perfect sense. In addition to skipping capital gains taxes on any stocks they donate to charity, they can turn around and deduct the fair market value of the stock when they file taxes.</p>
<p>The article does note that charitable donations always spike towards the end of the year. But the next several years of a tax-hiking President, combined with a history of dysfunctional governments seem to have put a scare in donors, according to Politico:</p>
<p>Fears about future tax code changes also have donors racing for their checkbooks. The months-long standoff in Washington over the fiscal cliff late last year drove wealthy individuals to shore up donations before big tax changes took hold. Now they're rushing to take advantage of smaller breaks, commonly known as extenders, that are set to expire at year's end.</p>
<p>You're welcome, charities.</p>
<p>Signed,</p>
<p>The Government.</p> | Christmas Miracle: Politico Credits Obama for Surge in Charitable Donations | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/christmas-miracle-politico-credits-obama-surge-charitable-donations | 2018-10-07 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Rickie Lee JonesBalm in Gilead Fantasy Records</p>
<p>It took a couple spins of <a href="http://www.rickieleejones.com/" type="external">Rickie Lee Jones</a>‘ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Balm-Gilead-Rickie-Lee-Jones/dp/B002NLI1AU" type="external">new album</a> to make me a fan. There’s nothing groundbreaking or overtly powerful about Balm in Gilead, but much like Jones’ weathered voice, its unassuming grit snuck up on me.</p>
<p>For one thing, the album moves much more slowly than I was accustomed to. But while it initially felt foreign, the record eventually felt refreshing—as if it were recorded on a back porch rather than a slick studio.</p>
<p>This authenticity is also evident in Jones’ ability to move through genres without feeling forced. While she seems most at home with bluesy romps such as “Old Enough” and “Blue Ghazel,” her smoky voice also lends itself nicely to the countrified “Remember Me” and sultry “The Moon Is Made of Gold.” Her lyrics, too, feel more sincere than cunning: It’s a dark night to feed a stranger, when I don’t have enough to feed myself, she sings affectingly on “The Gospel of Carlos, Norman and Smith.”</p>
<p>It’s these touches that ultimately make this new album intimate and real, a welcome respite from an overwrought music universe. By the time Jones croons You hurt me bad this time on one of the last and best tracks, “Bonfires,” she feels like an old, confiding friend—plaintive and genuinely heartbreaking.</p>
<p /> | Music Monday Review: Rickie Lee Jones’ Balm in Gilead | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/11/music-monday-rickie-lee-jones-balm-gilead/ | 2009-11-02 | 4 |
<p>Wasn't the digital economy supposed to help all of us gain access to meaningful work? &#160;Computers would do the boring jobs while people did the stuff that matters? Instead, we've got workers replaced by robots and taxi drivers losing out to Uber. What went wrong? Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff has a word for it: growth.</p> | How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-05-15/how-growth-became-enemy-prosperity | 2016-05-15 | 3 |
<p>&amp;amp;lt;i&amp;amp;gt;This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.juancole.com/2016/03/top-5-signs-trump-is-wrong-islam-doesnt-hate-us.html" title="Juan Cole’s website"&amp;amp;gt;Juan Cole’s website&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;.&amp;amp;lt;/i&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Republican presidential candidate and billionaire bigot Donald J. Trump &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/09/politics/donald-trump-islam-hates-us/%20"&amp;amp;gt; said in a CNN interview last Wednesday&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; that “Islam hates us.”&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;blockquote&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt; “I think Islam hates us” . . . deploring the “tremendous hatred” that he said partly defined the religion. He maintained the war was against radical Islam, but said, “it’s very hard to define. It’s very hard to separate. Because you don’t know who’s who.”&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Asked if the hate was “in Islam itself,” Trump would only say that was for the media to figure out.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;div class="sidebar__ad-label"&amp;amp;gt;Advertisement&amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;broadstreet-zone zone-id="58577"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/broadstreet-zone&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;So since Mr. Trump wants journalists to figure all this out, and since I’m both a journalist and an academic with a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies, let me inform him that he is just wrong here, &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015-12-21/fact-checking-website-donald-trump-lies-76-percent-of-the-time%20"&amp;amp;gt; as he wrong in about 76% of the things&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; he spews past the silver spoon in his mouth.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Islam, of course, isn’t capable of sentiment, being just an abstract conception. The issue is people, i.e. Muslims. So let me help Trump rephrase his question. Do Muslims hate the USA and/or its citizens? Mind you, he is implying that he thinks it is possible that all do.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Trump’s arrogance disregards the possibility that Muslims might have reason to have hard feelings toward the US. In Iraq, the US aggressively invaded and occupied a major Muslim country, and created the conditions in which hundreds of thousands died, millions were wounded, and 4 million were displaced, not to mention throwing the country into long term instability. If the word ‘America’ grated on the ears of Iraqi Muslims, could you blame them? Or there was that time the US CIA overthrew the democratic government of Iran and set it on a path to authoritarian governance ever after. There might be some resentment. Or the US support for turning the Palestinians into permanent stateless victims, often refugees, might, you know, raise some hackles. What is amazing is that despite the horrible things the US government has done to Muslims, most of them nevertheless admire our country.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Here are the reasons that the answer to his leading and hateful question is ‘no.’&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;1. The countries that are friendly to the US are its allies. One tier of allies is those formally pledged to defend the US from an attack, which is to say, NATO. NATO &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/nato_countries.htm%20"&amp;amp;gt; has 28 members&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;. They include Turkey, a Muslim-majority country of 75 million people, and Albania, another Muslim-majority country. If “Islam” hated ‘us,’ why are two important Muslim countries in a military alliance pledged to defend us from an enemy attack (article 5 of the NATO charter)? Why did Turkey send troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan alongside the US and other NATO forces? We can ask another question, which is whether a president Trump could keep Turkey and Albania in NATO, given his virulent hatred for their citizens.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;2. The US also has &amp;amp;lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/22/120.32%20"&amp;amp;gt; “major non-NATO allies,”&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; a formal legal category, and 16 countries fall into this category. They include Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Tunisia and Republic of Korea. Tunisia, by the way, &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2015/07/11/tunisia-nato-us/30020909/%20"&amp;amp;gt; has just been added&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; to this list, in recognition of its so far turbulent but so far promising democratization process. Of this list, the vast majority of the citizens of the following countries are Muslims: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, and Tunisia. That is, &amp;amp;lt;strong&amp;amp;gt; half &amp;amp;lt;/strong&amp;amp;gt; of all our major non-NATO allies are Muslim-majority nations. Egypt and Pakistan are among the more populous and influential countries in the Muslim world. It seems clear that the US has more active allies in the Muslim Middle East than in any other area of the world save Europe itself. So why are they our major non-NATO allies if they hate us?&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;3. The citizens of many Muslim countries have a favorable view of the United States. The following list is based on a sampling of countries by Pew and is by no means exhaustive, it is just information easily at hand and recent (Dec. 2015): &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/database/indicator/1/%20"&amp;amp;gt; Some 80% of Senegalese, who are mostly Muslim,&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; view the US favorably. So to do 76% of Nigerians, who are 50/50 Muslim and Christian; 62% of Indonesians, citizens of the largest Muslim country in the world (this is about the same percentage as the citizens of Australia, our close ally!); 54% of Malaysians, with a Muslim majority. The citizens of these Muslim-majority countries listed above all give the US higher favorability ratings than do Germans, our NATO ally (50%). Some Muslims love us even if we treat them like dirt. We have completely screwed over the Palestinians for decades, but even 28% of them have a favorable view of the US! Even where Muslims say that they view the US unfavorably, they say they mean by that that they dislike US policies, such as helping Israel steal the land of the West Bank Palestinians or backing unpopular autocrats in the region; many Muslims say that one of the things they dislike about the US is its disrespect for the Islamic faith, so Trump is actually creating the phenomenon about which he is complaining.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;4. Muslims admire American political freedoms, and they view the US even more positively in this regard than they do other Western democracies, as &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://media.gallup.com/MuslimWestFacts/PDF/GALLUPMUSLIMSTUDIESIslamandWest2107FINALrev.pdf%20"&amp;amp;gt; Dalia Mugahed’s Galllup polling&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; discovered. Even Iranians feel this way, despite the decades of tension between the two governments:&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;blockquote&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;” . . . large percentages in most of the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed associate the idea of liberty with the United States more than they do other Western democracies, such as Britain, France, and Germany. For example, 68% of Iranians say citizens of the United States enjoy many liberties, compared with only 39% who say the same about Britain, 36% about France and 24% about Germany.”&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;5. Most Muslims are themselves &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/17/in-nations-with-significant-muslim-populations-much-disdain-for-isis/%20"&amp;amp;gt; worried about extremists&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; like Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). Who have been American allies against Daesh on the ground? The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, the YPG Kurds of northeast Syria, who are of Sunni Muslim heritage even if they are socialists; the Shiite Muslims of Iraq; and the Sunni Syrians of the Free Syrian Army.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;6. The Muslim scripture, the Qur’an, speaks well of Christians and Jews, the religions of most Americans. I wrote elsewhere,&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;blockquote&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;“Dangerous falsehoods are being promulgated to the American public. The Quran does not preach violence against Christians.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt; Quran 5:69 says (Arberry): “Surely they that believe, and those of Jewry, and the Christians, and those Sabeaans, whoso believes in God and the Last Day, and works righteousness–their wage waits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow.”&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;In other words, the Quran promises Christians and Jews along with Muslims that if they have faith and works, they need have no fear in the afterlife. It is not saying that non-Muslims go to hell– quite the opposite.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;When speaking of the 7th-century situation in the Muslim city-state of Medina, which was at war with pagan Mecca, the Quran notes that the polytheists and Arabian Jewish tribes were opposed to Islam, but then goes on to say:&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt; 5:82. ” . . . and you will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say: ‘We are Christians.’ That is because amongst them are priests and monks, and they are not proud.”&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Trump claims to be a Presbyterian, so he falls into this category of those who are ‘nearest in love to the believers,’ at least as Muslims view the matter.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Trump’s hateful rhetoric should not be being headlined by the US press except in the form of editorials denouncing it.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;</p> | Top Six Signs Donald Trump Is Wrong and Islam Doesn’t ‘Hate Us’ | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/top-six-signs-donald-trump-is-wrong-and-islam-doesnt-hate-us/ | 2016-03-14 | 4 |
<p>Protesters gathered in Paris Sunday near the Eiffel Tower to rally against sexual misconduct and discrimination against women, in solidarity with marchers in the U.S. and elsewhere marking one year of protest against Donald Trump's presidency. (Jan. 21)</p>
<p>Protesters gathered in Paris Sunday near the Eiffel Tower to rally against sexual misconduct and discrimination against women, in solidarity with marchers in the U.S. and elsewhere marking one year of protest against Donald Trump's presidency. (Jan. 21)</p> | Hundreds Gathered In Paris For Women's March | false | https://apnews.com/amp/600bc8f2b4ba4cb2a219d37b1df42b12 | 2018-01-21 | 2 |
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