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<p>Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber invited fans to <a href="http://tweeter.faxo.com/Justin_Bieber_My_World_Tour" type="external">pick the destination</a> of his next tour. Some clever hooligans over at <a href="http://www.4chan.org/" type="external">4chan</a> decided to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10506482.stm" type="external">hijack</a> the vote and send the teen heartthrob to — where else? — North Korea. With a day and change left to vote, the Hermit Kingdom was beating out second-place Israel and third-place Poland by a few thousand votes.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>Given the fact that almost all citizens of North Korea are denied internet access and there are restrictive controls over all media, it is unlikely that any of the votes have actually come from within the country.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the North Korean Embassy in London told BBC News that any application for 16-year-old Bieber to tour would be dealt with by its mission to the United Nations, although the matter would be referred to Pyongyang.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10506482.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Internet Pranksters Ready to Send Teen Idol to North Korea | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/internet-pranksters-ready-to-send-teen-idol-to-north-korea/ | 2010-07-06 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he’s sending a letter to Donald Trump Jr. to ask him to testify.</p>
<p>Sen. Chuck Grassley says he’d subpoena the president’s eldest son if necessary. The Iowa Republican says he wants Trump Jr. to appear “pretty soon,” and it could be as early as next week.</p>
<p>Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton’s campaign.</p>
<p>The panel is investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Grassley wouldn’t say what he wants to hear from the president’s eldest son, but said members aren’t restricted “from asking anything they want to ask.”</p>
<p>Related</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Trump’s son releases emails regarding meeting with Russian</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Trump’s son hires lawyer for Russia-related investigations</a></p>
<p /> | Senate Judiciary chairman to ask Trump Jr. to testify for panel | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/senate-judiciary-chairman-to-ask-trump-jr-to-testify-for-panel/ | 2017-07-13 | 1 |
<p>Evan Vucci/AP</p>
<p />
<p>On Saturday, Donald Trump vowed to sue the 11 women who have come forward over the last few weeks with accusations of sexual assault against the Republican presidential nominee.</p>
<p>“Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign,” Trump <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/302329-trump-threatens-to-sue-women-accusing-him" type="external">claimed</a>. “Total fabrication, the events never happened—never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”</p>
<p>Trump’s threat came during a speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which was plugged as a major policy speech to lay out his first 100 days in office should he win the election next month. His promise to sue his accusers wasn’t the only notable moment.</p>
<p>While taking a hard line on his accusers, he seems to be softening on a key campaign promise: That the US will build a wall along its southern border and that Mexico will pay for it. Now, according to his speech, his position is that the United States will pay for the wall but Mexico will reimburse the US.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump also promised to break up Comcast and NBC as part of a response to media bias against him during the campaign.</p>
<p /> | Donald Trump Promises to Sue Women Who Accused Him of Assault | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/donald-trump-promises-sue-women-who-accused-him-assault/ | 2016-10-22 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Los Angeles might not immediately come to mind as a cleantech pioneer, what with gas-guzzling SUVs crowding the city's gridlocked 10-lane highways.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But LA officials are working to get off fossil fuels—in part by tapping into the innovations coming out of organizations like the <a href="http://laincubator.org/" type="external">Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator Opens a New Window.</a> (LACI), a non-profit founded by the city, the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP), and the former Community Redevelopment Agency.</p>
<p>At LACI, housed at the La Kretz Innovation Campus in the DTLA Arts District, cleantech startups can rent flexible office space and get access to capital, experts, CEO mentors, and strategic partners from schools and agencies like <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2480379,00.asp" type="external">Caltech Opens a New Window.</a>, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/news/351829/40-years-of-voyager-a-q-a-with-dr-ed-stone-at-nasa-jpl" type="external">NASA JPL Opens a New Window.</a>, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/news/345801/building-blade-runner-how-uclas-ideas-lab-envisions-the-fu" type="external">UCLA Opens a New Window.</a>, USC, and <a href="http://degrees.calstate.edu/" type="external">Cal State Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>"Each month, about 15 companies apply to become portfolio companies of LACI," Erik Steeb, LACI Chief Programs Officer and former Intel executive, told PCMag during a recent tour. "We accept one to two each month and, while we don't invest cash in these companies, we invest a significant amount of resources including work space, entrepreneurial training, the Advanced Prototyping Center, community, investor engagement programs, pilot demonstration facilitation and expert guidance from our EIRs (Executives-in-Residence).</p>
<p>"When we bring on a company, we expect to work with them for five years, getting them to market and helping them build a strong vibrant company," he said. "In return, there is a monthly membership fee of $500 per month and a small equity position in the company. In our eyes, this represents the best approach to align everyone on successful outcomes at the riskiest stage of a startup's trajectory."</p>
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<p>In 2015, LACI was <a href="http://laincubator.org/laci-ranked-3-on-ubi-list-of-world-top-university-associated-business-incubators-for-2015/" type="external">recognized Opens a New Window.</a> as the No. 3 Global Incubator with university association by UBI. Since launching in 2011, it has helped 60+ companies raise over $123 million, creating over 1,300 jobs and delivering $293 million in long-term economic value for the city.</p>
<p>As Steeb points out, the La Kretz Innovation Campus itself is a cleantech facility: "The Campus has LA's first public greywater filtration and microgrid systems, bioswales, to remove pollution from runoff water, a 175 kilowatt photovoltaic solar canopy, fast charger EV stations and numerous bike lock-ups."</p>
<p>As one might expect, many of those who work here have ditched the car, disembark at Little Tokyo, the local light rail station, or vanpool with one of LACI's own incubator companies, <a href="http://greencommuter.org/" type="external">Green Commuter Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Barton Sidles from Green Commuter was waiting for us in the lot inside a Tesla Model X, currently the only EV van with seven seats, the minimum for vanpool services. "We want to improve the gridlocked traffic situation in L.A. and reduce CO2 emissions through not only electric vehicle-only vanpool, but also repurposing the vehicle during the day for carshare, especially for underserved areas," Sidles told PCMag.</p>
<p>Green Commuter is a typical LACI incubated company, melding cleantech (reducing CO2), mobile tech (an app assesses cost savings and manages carshare hours and vanpool bookings), and futuristic aspects. Green Commuter owns its fleet outright so, as in Minority Report, if something goes awry, it can use GPS to locate the vehicle while calling the cops.</p>
<p>It was time for a tour of the 60,000-square-foot facility. Kay Yang, director of the Advanced Prototyping Center, handed us protective eyewear.</p>
<p>"We have everything a startup company needs, right here, on site," she told PCMag. "It's the highest caliber facility for prototyping on the West Coast. We have wet, core, cell, chemistry and electronics labs, a CNC center, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2470038,00.asp" type="external">3D printers Opens a New Window.</a> and premium CAD software, welding shop, laser cutters, a precision waterjet, training centers, and assembly bay."</p>
<p>Essentially, everything startups used to have to source in Shenzhen, China, for prototyping and small scale production, can now be done here.</p>
<p>In the robotics section of the Advanced Prototyping Lab, we meet with Dr. Helena Yli-Renko, a specialist in entrepreneurship and industrial automation systems back in her native Finland. She now holds the Orfalea Director's Chair at USC Marshall's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and is the co-founder of <a href="http://www.perceptionrobotics.com/" type="external">Perception Robotics Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Part of LACI's current crop of incubated companies, Perception Robotics is commercializing touch- and vision-based sensing solutions for modern industrial robots and next-generation assistive robots. The company's GeckoGripper product, which integrates an adhesive material made of nanoscopic "hairs" with electrostatics, is built on an exclusive license with NASA JPL for <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2486053,00.asp" type="external">the technology tested on the International Space Station Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="javascript:OpenImageWindow('http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1740,iid=525731,00.asp',%20'800',%20'1200')" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a>One of Perception's first customers was Del West, an engineering firm that specializes in automotive and aerospace parts. "Robots equipped with our PolySkin-compliant tactile sensors can pick small, shiny, and expensive engine valves for Ferrari and Formula 1 cars out of a bin without dropping them," said Dr. Yli-Renko.</p>
<p>During a demo of PolySkin and GeckoGripper, Dr. Mohammad Dadkhah Tehrani, senior mechanical engineer, ran the robots through their paces as they picked up fragile glass panels and held them firmly, but didn't crush, break, or drop them, using Instantaneous Attachment, which is 10,000 faster than vacuum.</p>
<p>So what made Perception Robotics apply to LACI? "As a startup with limited funds, we needed a space like this, for our chemical lab and robots, from day one. It wouldn't have been possible to grow as quickly as we have without them," Dr. Yli-Renko explained.</p>
<p>In an interesting generational shift, Dr. Yli-Renko has also noticed how many of her USC students are being drawn to cleantech ventures.</p>
<p>"Cleantech, as a sector, is increasingly attractive for people who want to find solutions to society's problems," she pointed out. "LACI is playing a critical role for entrepreneurs who otherwise wouldn't have the resources, connections, working spaces, investors, potential customers and like-minded people to work with."</p>
<p>Kabira Stokes, founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.isidorerecycling.com/" type="external">Isidore Electronics Recycling Opens a New Window.</a>, is one of these entrepreneurs. She started her full service e-waste recycling social enterprise company, which provides employment to those who were previously incarcerated inside the criminal justice system, in 2011, and brought it to LACI in 2013. Last month, it emerged from LACI, rebranded as Homeboy Recycling after a sale to <a href="http://www.homeboyindustries.org/" type="external">Homeboy Industries Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>"Simply put, I wanted to create green jobs for people who are left out of the grey economy," Stokes explained. "The electronics recycling, refurbishment and data destruction waste market is estimated at $8.4 billion in the USA and is growing at 15 percent per year, so I knew there was a business there.</p>
<p>"Since 2011 we've recycled over 2 million pounds of electronics which would otherwise have gone into a landfill, releasing harmful toxins into our water system, and helped many formerly incarcerated people, who would otherwise face hurdles getting employment, stay out of the prison cycle," she said.</p>
<p>The cleantech company handles all aspects of e-waste. If you live in LA, you can schedule a pickup, request repairs or data destruction to ensure all passwords and old memorabilia are off your hard drive. Stokes confirmed they don't employ anyone jailed for fraud or identity theft.</p>
<p>"I'd known about LACI, and we'd chatted before, but suddenly, in 2013, the warehouse we'd been sub-letting burned down," Stokes told PCMag. "LACI said, 'Come on in. You need a team, and you need support.' And they've been amazing."</p>
<p>With the sale and rebranding, Stokes is staying on as CEO, and her company is a salutary example of how LACI supports cleantech company founders.</p>
<p>In stark contrast to many other incubators and/or accelerators, LACI does not have VCs in suits behind closed doors while tense cubicle-dwellers keep their heads down in an effort to meet the next shipment date. It might just be because this is laid back LA, but the whole place is light, airy, and there's a real excitement about what's being built. Because, in a very tangible way, cleantech will save LA and, by extension, the planet, from an apocalyptic fate where fossil fuels expire and we're screwed. Just saying.</p>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/news/352822/los-angeles-eyes-a-cleantech-future" type="external">originally appeared Opens a New Window.</a> on <a href="http://www.pcmag.com" type="external">PCMag.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Los Angeles Eyes a Cleantech Future | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/04/los-angeles-eyes-cleantech-future.html | 2017-04-04 | 0 |
<p>Former Assistant Secretary of State, Bob Hormats, on the U.S. trade deficit with China and how trade imbalances can be resolved.</p>
<p>Former Assistant Secretary of State Bob Hormats on Wednesday explained why American companies don’t want the United States to become involved in a trade war with China.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“American companies do not want a trade war with China. They want the United States to take an assertive position, but they have a big market in China. For many of these companies.... the China market is growing,” he told FOX Business’ Bob Hormats.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, the annual U.S. trade deficit with China has averaged roughly $300 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.</p>
<p>The Kissinger Associates Vice Chairman also discussed why China has a trade surplus over the United States.</p>
<p>“The Chinese have a big surplus in part because a lot of other Asian goods that were produced elsewhere in Asia have moved into China because China is a competitive supplier,” he said.</p>
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<p>Hormats also added that “Intellectual property protection is a big issue” between the U.S. and China.</p> | American companies don't want a trade war with China, says Bob Hormats | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/19/american-companies-dont-want-trade-war-with-china-says-bob-hormats.html | 2017-07-19 | 0 |
<p>The&#160;72nd Annual&#160;Golden Globe Awards on Sunday&#160;night were filled with surprises,&#160;as Amazon and Netflix beat dominant broadcast networks ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox in honors and suggested that a television revolution may have quietly taken place over the past year. However, the Golden Globe after-parties seemingly went just as they always do, with USA Today reporting that each party was filled with big name celebrities, their dates, a lot of alcohol, and some interesting pairings on the dance floor.</p>
<p>Taylor Swift was the star of the&#160;InStyle&#160;and Warner Bros. after-party, as the 25-year-old singer and&#160;Giver&#160;actress danced to the party’s mixture of hits from the ’90s and 2000s for several hours. She and her friends Lorde and Jaime King positioned themselves right in front of the DJ booth, making it difficult to consider anyone else the center of attention. Fans tried taking a picture of the singer on the dance floor, but her security team and entourage used their hands to block any camera phones that were pointed in her direction. Fans quickly shifted their attention to best-actor winner&#160;Eddie Redmayne and 50 Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan, who made an appearance together at the party’s VIP section. Celebrity stylist&#160;Brad Goreski also made an appearance at the party, and told&#160;USA Today&#160;that he’s too excited to be nervous about his&#160;Monday night debut on&#160;Fashion Police.</p>
<p>“I’m super excited! There’s so much to talk about, so much to break down,” said Goreski. “I can’t wait to hear what Giuliana (Rancic) and Kelly (Osbourne) and Kathy (Griffin) have to say. I think there’s going to be a lot of battling back and forth and differing opinions. I have to go home and get my beauty sleep.”</p>
<p>Benedict Cumberbatch was the focal point of the Weinstein Co. and Netflix after-party, since he spent the evening on a couch with his pregnant&#160;fiancée, Sophie Hunter. Fans of Cumberbatch expressed their outrage last month when the&#160;Sherlock&#160;star announced his engagement, but the couple made it hard not to love them as they&#160;refused to let go of each other’s hand for several hours. Jeffrey Tambor, who won a best-actor Golden Globe for his Amazon Prime show Transparent,&#160;danced his way into the party and happily announced that a season two of the series will definitely be happening. Backstage at the award ceremony, Tambor admitted that his trophy meant much more&#160;than a typical Hollywood honor, since it was for his portrayal of a 70-year-old coming out as transgender.</p>
<p>“This is about changing people’s lives,” said Tambor after accepting his award and dedicating it to the transgender community.</p>
<p>The&#160;Weinstein Co. and Netflix after-party was also filled with dancing celebrities, as&#160;Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum danced to Beyonce’s&#160;‘Single Ladies,’ Orange is the New Black stars Danielle Brooks and Taryn Manning danced&#160;to Madonna, and Joshua Jackson and Diane Kruger were seen rocking out to ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.’ Saturday Night Live&#160;star&#160;Kristen Wiig and supermodel Cara Delivingne made for an interesting pairing as they sang&#160;along to&#160;Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’ together.</p>
<p>USA Today&#160;noted that one of the&#160;highlights of the Fox after-party was seeing Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo conversing together at the same VIP section, since Ruffalo was Norton’s replacement in Marvel’s&#160;Incredible Hulk&#160;franchise. Globe nominee David Oyelowo and winner Ruth Wilson kept fans happy at the HBO party and stopped for their countless selfie photo requests throughout the evening. &#160;Since HBO said the event&#160;was&#160;“black tie optional,” EDM DJ Avicii and his crew turned heads in their&#160;casual attire of&#160;leather jackets and jeans.</p>
<p>Eddie Redmayne was unsurprisingly the main attraction at the NBC Universal and Focus party, thanks to&#160;the&#160;Theory of Everything&#160;star’s best actor win. There, he and his co-star Felicity Jones gave their&#160;director James Marsh a minute-long hug, though Redmayne refused to let go of his trophy.</p>
<p>“I just love those guys so much. We’re such a beautiful team, the three of us,” said Jones, minutes later. “We’re trying to enjoy this all. It doesn’t happen every day…&#160;It’s been so fantastic here. Such a great night.”</p>
<p /> | Swift, Redmayne and Cumberbatch make it big at the Golden Globes | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/12/taylor-swift-eddie-redmayne-and-benedict-cumberbatch-were-among-the-highlights-of-this-years-golden-globes-after-parties/ | 2015-01-12 | 3 |
<p>For when you want some good, clean onscreen lovin’ that’s not porn, I’ve found an array of sexy films available on Netflix. There are foreign flicks, romantic comedies, period pieces, and everything in between (the sheets) —&#160;perfect for solo watching or date night. So hop into bed with one of these steamy movies tonight! <a href="http://www.popsugar.com/love/Sexiest-Movies-Netflix-Streaming-33503049#photo-33503049" type="external">Read more on Tres Sugar…</a></p> | 17 Sex-Filled Films To Stream On Netflix | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-08-20/17-sex-filled-films-to-stream-on-netflix/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dpartner | 2018-10-05 | 4 |
<p>Cedric Hatto/Zuma</p>
<p />
<p>A new government agency is going to take over the process of performing background checks of existing and potential government employees. The news comes about six months after it was revealed that hackers had broken into the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) computers and stolen the sensitive personal information of nearly 22 million past and current federal employees, a scandal that cost former OPM Director Katherine Archuleta her job.</p>
<p>“This is primarily about recognizing the evolving threats and national security importance of the background investigation systems and data,” Samuel J. Schumach, OPM’s press secretary, told the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/23/us/politics/storage-of-records-of-background-checks-shifted-after-last-years-security-breach.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss&amp;_r=1" type="external">New York Times</a>. “Utilizing what DOD can provide—a large and trained cybersecurity work force to protect against and respond to cyberintrusions, and a strong focus on national security—is the right step to take.”</p>
<p>The new agency will be called the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB), according to <a href="http://federalnewsradio.com/opm-cyber-breach/2016/01/opm-announces-major-update-to-security-clearance-policy/" type="external">Federal New Radio</a>, and it will take over the Federal Investigative Services, a bureau of the personnel agency that has been responsible for running most background checks. The Department of Defense will design and build the new agency’s information technology and cybersecurity systems, Federal News Radio reports, and will also operate the data storage and security of the system. The NBIB and its staff will still work within the Office of Personnel Management, but a presidential appointee will run it, <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/23/federal-background-check/" type="external">notes Engadget</a>. It’s unclear when the agency will get off the ground, but work on the project will begin this year.</p>
<p>The new agency is the result of a 90-day review of the government’s information security policies and practices that <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/07/09/fact-sheet-administration-cybersecurity-efforts-2015" type="external">President Barack Obama ordered in July.</a> The president will ask for an additional $95 million in his 2017 budget to pay for the new agency.</p>
<p>This is the second time Obama has addressed problems associated with the government’s background clearance process. After&#160;an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/fbi-police-detail-shooting-navy-yard-shooting/2013/09/25/ee321abe-2600-11e3-b3e9-d97fb087acd6_story.html" type="external">IT contractor killed 12 people</a> at the Washington Navy Yard office complex in September 2013, Obama called for a complete evaluation of the security screening procedures of contract employees. In March 2014, the administration announced it <a href="http://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2014/03/white-house-backs-13-recommendations-to-improve-security-clearance-process/" type="external">had accepted 13 recommendations</a> of an interagency review, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/omb/reports/suitability-and-security-review-fact-sheet.pdf" type="external">which included</a> ongoing reviews of workers and contractors rather than sporadic checks, better access to state and local information for federal background checks, and consistent background requirements for federal employees and contractors.</p>
<p>Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was unimpressed, <a href="http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/management/agency/2016/01/22/opm-announces-new-office-background-checks/79175820/" type="external">according to Federal Times</a>. He said the new agency won’t solve problems inherent in the federal government’s human resources department.</p>
<p>“Protecting this information should be a core competency of OPM,” said Chaffetz, the chair of the House Oversight Committee. “[This announcement] seems aimed at only solving a perception problem rather than tackling the reforms needed to fix a broken security clearance process.”</p>
<p /> | After Embarrassing Hacks, Feds Roll Out New Government Agency | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/new-government-agency-takeover-backgrounding/ | 2016-01-26 | 4 |
<p>WPP PLC (WPP.LN) said Friday that it will buy a minority stake in IR Media Ventures Corp., a U.S. digital media company that produces content for parents, for an undisclosed sum.</p>
<p>The FTSE 100-listed advertising company said the investment in IR Media is part of its strategy to focus on its technology, data and content offering.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The transaction is part of a round of Series A financing by IR Media, and other investors include Bertelsmann SE &amp; Co. KGaA, United Talent Agency Inc, Lerer Hippeau Ventures Management LLP and SoftTech VC, WPP said.</p>
<p>Shares in WPP were down 21 pence, or 1.6%, to 1,305 pence at 1352 GMT.</p>
<p>Write to Maryam Cockar at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 27, 2017 10:08 ET (14:08 GMT)</p> | WPP to Buy Minority Stake in IR Media Ventures | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/27/wpp-to-buy-minority-stake-in-ir-media-ventures.html | 2017-10-27 | 0 |
<p>LONDON (Reuters) – Any new head of the Federal Reserve will need to have the “flexibility of mind” to change tack during acute periods of crisis, the U.S. central bank’s outgoing Vice-Chairman Stanley Fischer said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Asked what characteristics were needed to navigate “never-say-never” crisis events, Fischer said: “You simply need someone who has the flexibility of mind to see that he or she needs to take a different route at a particular moment in time or over the next year or two.”</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to name who will head the Fed from February in the next 2-3 weeks.</p>
<p>Trump has previously suggested he may reappoint Fed Chair Janet Yellen to the post. Jerome Powell, one of the current governors on the Fed’s board, also met with Trump last month according to reports.</p>
<p>Other names that have been reported by media to be on the candidate list include another former Fed governor, Kevin Warsh, Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari and Stanford university economist John Taylor.</p>
<p>“Having the basic theoretical knowledge and experience increases your self confidence,” Fischer, who made the comments in an interview with Bloomberg television, added.</p>
<p>“Is it essential? I doubt it, there are very smart people who could figure this out in many ways, but is it helpful? Yes very much so.”</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Fed chief needs "flexibility of mind" in tough times: Fischer | false | https://newsline.com/fed-chief-needs-quotflexibility-of-mindquot-in-tough-times-fischer/ | 2017-10-04 | 1 |
<p>“Global warming deniers,” we skeptics have been called.</p>
<p>Much of our climate change skepticism stems from the government’s involvement and manipulation of the scientific data, and the subsequent creation of a cap and trade system, designed to punish and tax business. Cap and Trade is not about saving the planet; it is about revenues, and killing the California economy and jobs. <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Not long ago, it became abundantly clear that no one in the state has a handle on the implementation of&#160; <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California%27s_AB_32,_the_%22Global_Warming_Solutions_Act_of_2006%22" type="external">AB 32</a>, California’s <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm" type="external">Global Warming Solution Act of 2006</a>, or the potential repercussions from the vast law.&#160;California continues to forge ahead blinded by the potential revenues extorted from businesses and customers, despite the phony science and altered data.</p>
<p>Since Gov. Jerry Brown decided to monetize CO2 carbon emissions, and approved plans to tax utility customers, business owners and taxpayers for the emissions, the state stands to take in an extra $1 billion in revenues.</p>
<p>The Daily Caller <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/23/u-s-and-europe-tried-to-cover-up-data-showing-lack-of-global-warming/#ixzz2gOCoV500" type="external">recently reported</a>about this phony science. “Leaked documents&#160; <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/09/20/warming-lull-since-18-haunts-climate-change-authors/" type="external">obtained</a>&#160;by the Associated Press show that the U.S. government and several European governments tried to get climate scientists to downplay the lack of global warming over the past 15 years.”</p>
<p>“The U.S.&#160; <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/23/u-s-and-europe-tried-to-cover-up-data-showing-lack-of-global-warming/" type="external">government</a>&#160;along with some European nations tried to convince the report’s authors to downplay the lack of warming over the past 15 years,” the DC <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/23/u-s-and-europe-tried-to-cover-up-data-showing-lack-of-global-warming/#ixzz2gOD86SeS" type="external">said</a>.&#160;“The highly anticipated United Nations report on&#160; <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/23/u-s-and-europe-tried-to-cover-up-data-showing-lack-of-global-warming/" type="external">global</a>&#160;warming is expected to affirm the link between human activity and global warming, but scientists are still having trouble explaining away the lull in rising global temperatures over the past 15 years despite rapidly rising greenhouse gas levels.”</p>
<p>And now, one&#160; <a href="http://www.coalblog.org/2013/09/27/mit-scientist-richard-lindzen-rips-latest-ipcc-report/" type="external">MIT scientist rips</a> the latest <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch" type="external">International Panel on Climate Change</a>&#160;report:</p>
<p>MIT Climate Scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen told Climate Depot on September 27, 2013:</p>
<p>“I think that&#160;the latest IPCC report&#160;has truly sunk to level of hilarious incoherence.&#160; They are proclaiming increased confidence in their models as the discrepancies between their models and observations increase.”</p>
<p>…&#160;in attributing warming to man, they fail to point out that the warming has been small, and totally consistent with&#160;their&#160;being nothing to be alarmed about.&#160; It is quite amazing to see the contortions the IPCC has to go through in order to keep the international climate agenda going.</p>
<p>“For years, the Elites of the West have cranked up the myth of Man Made Global Warming as a means first and foremost to control the lives and behaviors of their populations,” Pravda writer Stanislav Mishin&#160;wrote in&#160;” <a href="http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/04-01-2013/123380-global_warming-0/" type="external">Global Warming, the tool of the West</a>.”</p>
<p>“What better way to staunch protests at worsening economic and life conditions than to make it feel like an honourable job/duty of the people to save ‘Gia.’ At the same time, they used this ‘science’ as a new pagan religion to further push out the Christianity they hate and despise and most of all, fear?” Mishin asked.</p>
<p>“Gia worship, the earth ‘mother,’ has been pushed in popular culture oozing out of the West for a better part of the past 1.5 decades. This is a religion replete with an army of priests, called Government Grant Scientists.”</p>
<p>Mishin is right. Global warming, climate change hysteria and environmentalism has become a ‘religion’ of irrational proportions. But it has also become a giant financial scheme as evidenced by the many government subsidized ‘Solyndra-type’ clean-energy scandals.</p>
<p>And, even as the <a href="http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2009/11/time_magazine_c.html" type="external">TIME magazine cover</a> spoof showed in 2009, the <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/" type="external">United Nations IPCC</a> lied about the effects of global warming by using phony science and doctored data. It was revealed that The International Panel on Climate Change science was a deliberate hoax.</p>
<p>This very expensive climate change hoax appears to be thriving today under the careful manipulations of the California Air Resources Board, and Gov. Jerry Brown.</p>
<p>But in a 2012&#160;interview, Dr. Richard Lindzen&#160;told the&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/science/earth/clouds-effect-on-climate-change-is-last-bastion-for-dissenters.html" type="external">NY Times</a>,&#160;“You have politicians who are being told if they question this, they are anti-science. We are trying to tell them, no, questioning is never anti-science.”</p> | Govt. global warming hoax ‘hilarious incoherence’ | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/09/30/govt-global-warming-hoax-hilarious-incoherence/ | 2018-09-20 | 3 |
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<p>Eleven people were hurt, one critically.</p>
<p>The attacker was identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan. He was born in Somalia and was a legal permanent U.S. resident, according to a U.S. official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The FBI joined the investigation.</p>
<p>The details emerged after a morning of conflicting reports and confusion, created in part by a series of tweets from the university warning there was an “active shooter” on campus and students should “Run Hide Fight.” The warning was prompted by what turned out to be police gunfire.</p>
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<p>Police vehicles and ambulances converged on the 60,000-student campus, and authorities blocked off roads. Students barricaded themselves inside offices and classrooms, piling chairs and desks in front of doors, before getting the all-clear an hour and a half later.</p>
<p>Ohio State University police Chief Craig Stone said the assailant deliberately drove his small Honda over a curb outside an engineering classroom building and then began knifing people. A campus officer nearby because of a gas leak arrived on the scene and shot the driver in less than a minute, Stone said.</p>
<p>Angshuman Kapil, a graduate student, was outside Watts Hall when the car barreled onto the sidewalk.</p>
<p>“It just hit everybody who was in front,” he said. “After that everybody was shouting, ‘Run! Run! Run!'”</p>
<p>Student Martin Schneider said he heard the car’s engine revving.</p>
<p>“I thought it was an accident initially until I saw the guy come out with a knife,” Schneider said, adding the man didn’t say anything when he got out.</p>
<p>Most of the injured were hurt by the car, and at least two were stabbed. One had a fractured skull.</p>
<p>Columbus police Chief Kim Jacobs, asked whether authorities were considering the possibility it was a terrorist act, said: “I think we have to consider that it is.”</p>
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<p>Republican Vice President-elect Mike Pence called the episode “a tragic attack” and said “our prayers are with them all.”</p>
<p>U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the bloodshed “bears all of the hallmarks of a terror attack carried out by someone who may have been self-radicalized.”</p>
<p>“Here in the United States, our most immediate threat still comes from lone attackers that are not only capable of unleashing great harm but are also extremely difficult, and in some cases, virtually impossible to identify or interdict,” he said.</p>
<p>Ohio State’s student newspaper, The Lantern, ran an interview in August with a student named Abdul Razak Artan, who identified himself as a Muslim and a third-year logistics management student who’d transferred from Columbus State in the fall.</p>
<p>He said he was looking for a place to pray openly and worried how he would be received.</p>
<p>“I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what media portrays me to be,” he told the newspaper. “If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen. But I don’t blame them. It’s the media that put that picture in their heads.”</p>
<p>In recent months, federal law enforcement officials have raised concerns about online extremist propaganda encouraging knife and car attacks, easier to pull off than bombings.</p>
<p>The Islamic State group has urged sympathizers online to carry out lone-wolf attacks in their home countries with whatever weapons are available to them.</p>
<p>In September, a 20-year-old Somali-American stabbed 10 people at a St. Cloud, Minnesota, shopping mall before being shot to death by an off-duty officer. Authorities said he asked some of his victims if they were Muslim. In the past few years, London and other cities also have seen knife attacks blamed on extremists.</p>
<p>Artan was not known to the FBI prior to Monday’s attack, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Neighbors said Artan was always polite and attended daily prayer services at a mosque.</p>
<p>Leaders of Muslim organizations and mosques in the Columbus area condemned Monday’s attack while cautioning people against jumping to conclusions or blaming a religion or an ethnicity.</p>
<p>“It is particularly heartbreaking to see this random act of violence come to this community I hold so dear,” said Ohio State graduate Nicole Ghazi, who is active in Islamic organizations.</p>
<p>Surveillance photos showed Artan in the car by himself just before the attack, but investigators are looking into whether anyone else was involved, police said.</p>
<p>The bloodshed came as students were returning to classes following the Thanksgiving break and Ohio State’s football victory over rival Michigan, which brought more than 100,000 fans to campus on Saturday.</p>
<p>“There were several moments of chaos,” said Rachel LeMaster, who works in the engineering college. “We barricaded ourselves like we’re supposed to since it was right outside our door and just hunkered down.”</p>
<p>LeMaster said she and others were eventually led outside the building and she saw a body on the ground.</p>
<p>Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>The officer who killed the attacker was Alan Horujko, a member of the force for just under two years. Department of Public Safety Director Monica Moll said Horujko had done a “fabulous job.”</p>
<p>The initial tweet from Ohio State emergency officials went out around 10 a.m. and said: “Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College.” University President Michael Drake said the warning was issued after shots were heard on campus.</p>
<p>“Run, hide, fight” is standard protocol for active-shooter situations. It means: Run away if possible; get out of view; or try to disrupt or incapacitate the shooter if your life is in imminent danger.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell and Eric Tucker in Washington, Collin Binkley in Boston and Mark Gillispie in Cleveland contributed to this story.</p> | Terrorism suspected in car-and-knife attack at Ohio State | false | https://abqjournal.com/897012/fire-officials-ohio-state-shooting-sends-7-to-hospital.html | 2016-11-28 | 2 |
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<p>As an entrepreneur, you will undoubtedly have to make some tough decisions. Where to open up shop, who to hire, how much to charge and who to fire.&#160;While all are important, the toughest decision may come if and when you have to shut your doors.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>For a small business owner, deciding if it's time to close up shop can be a lengthy, draining process, according to Peter Raffalski, executive vice president,Wealth &amp; Wellbeing Institute at Gibraltar Private Bank &amp; Trust.</p>
<p>“You are talking about people who have made a significant investment, not just financially; they are often sacrificing things like family and friends, other things that are important to them,” Raffalski said.</p>
<p>However just because one business venture has not proven to be a success, that doesn’t mean your days as an entrepreneur are done for good,he said. So many factors come into the success or failure of a business--some that&#160;an owner has no control over--&#160;that it’s impossible to tell what will and won’t work out.</p>
<p>“I’m sure that history will show there are a lot of successful businesses run by successful folks that had numerous past business failures, “ Raffalski said. “Sometimes the difference between successful business people and not&#160;is the ability to make a hard decision, pull the plug and move on.”</p>
<p>So how do you know when its time to call it quits? Raffalski identified four signs it’s time to move on and close your doors.</p>
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<p>No. 1: Profitability. For most business owners, it can take years to turn a profit. However, Raffalski said if you hit the five-year mark and fail to break even, it may be best to eat your losses and close up shop.</p>
<p>“Its always a good idea to have a time frame in mind where if the business is not profitable, you need to move on,” he said. “Whether you’re in business by yourself or with partners, have a time frame for at least break-even profitability.”</p>
<p>No. 2: Time investment. You may have to work hard to get your business off the ground, but working nonstop without an end in sight can’t sustain.</p>
<p>“If you find yourself having to work basically 24-7 to make the business work, that may be a sign it's time to exit,” Raffalski said. “Even if you’re able to compensate yourself financially, if you are unable to take time off or be sick, you have a business issue and exiting might be the only strategy in that case.”</p>
<p>No. 3: Personal fulfillment and happiness. Although these factors may be harder to measure, when it comes down to it, entrepreneurs need to be happy with their chosen path.</p>
<p>“Partnerships, time commitment, there should really be a fulfillment. If the business is no longer fun, it's time to consider moving on. For most people, it's intuitive.”</p>
<p>No. 4: You have maxed out your value. If you can no longer gain value from the business, Raffalski said closing isn’t the only option you have.</p>
<p>“It might be appropriate to sell a business. You may not have value in a year from now, or it may have grown to the point where its not longer sustainable because of capital, or a skill set. If a profit can be achieved [in the sale] then all the better.”</p> | Four Signs it Might Be Time to Close Your Business | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/08/18/four-signs-it-might-be-time-to-close-your-business.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>RichLegg/Getty</p>
<p>Forty percent of America’s gun owners have not received any formal firearms training, according to a <a href="http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2017/07/11/injuryprev-2017-042352" type="external">new study</a>&#160;from the University of Washington (UW) School of Public Health.</p>
<p>The study, published in the journal <a href="http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2017/07/11/injuryprev-2017-042352" type="external">Injury Prevention</a>, is the first of its kind in more than 20 years. In those two decades, “that number hasn’t meaningfully changed at all,” says <a href="https://epi.washington.edu/faculty/rowhani-rahbar-ali" type="external">Ali Rowhani-Rahbar</a>, an associate professor of epidemiology at UW and the study’s lead author. In 1994, <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/385426" type="external">two</a>&#160; <a href="https://www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Cook-et-al.-1996-Guns-in-America.pdf" type="external">surveys</a>&#160;found that about 56 to 58 percent of US gun owners had received formal firearms training. “Now that number stands at about 61 percent,” says Rowhani-Rahbar. “It basically shows that, while training programs do exist—those that the NRA is running and that other gun advocacy groups are running—the reality is that they’re not reaching a larger fraction of gun owners than they used to many years ago.”</p>
<p>The study uses data from a nationally representative online survey of nearly 4,000 people. It found that among gun owners, men reported receiving more training (66 percent) than women (49 percent). People who purchased a gun for protection were far less likely to have received training (57 percent for handgun owners and 47 percent for long gun owners) than those who owned guns for hunting and sport shooting&#160;(approximately 68 percent). Training includes instruction on gun storage, safe handling, and preventing accidents.</p>
<p>Only 14 percent of non-gun owners living in gun-owning households said they had received training. “Why care about that?” Rowhani-Rahbar asks. “We have plenty of evidence that shows that living in a gun-owning household is associated with a higher risk of suicide and unintentional injuries. It’s important they know something about firearms.” Only 15 percent of gun owners had been exposed to any material related to suicide prevention.&#160;</p>
<p>The survey was not designed to evaluate how effective current firearms training is. “That is the next step—to compare those who have received training to those who haven’t and see whether it actually translates to saving lives,”&#160;says Rowhani-Rahbar.&#160;</p> | Only 3 In 5 Gun Owners Have Received Firearms Training | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/only-3-in-5-gun-owners-have-received-firearms-training/ | 2017-07-24 | 4 |
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<p>TEMPE, Ariz. — Officials say a self-driving Uber SUV was operating on its own when it was struck by another vehicle making a left turn at an intersection in Arizona, where the company is testing autonomous vehicles.</p>
<p>No one was seriously injured. Uber says its vehicles have been grounded as it investigates.</p>
<p>Police in Tempe say the self-driving SUV was obeying the law and the driver in the other car who didn’t yield was cited for a moving violation after the Friday night crash.</p>
<p>An Uber statement Saturday says there were no passengers in the self-driving Volvo SUV at the time of the crash but there were two operators in the front.</p>
<p>Police say the Uber rolled over onto its side as a result of the collision.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Self-driving Uber SUV struck during Arizona accident | false | https://abqjournal.com/976164/self-driving-uber-suv-struck-during-arizona-accident.html | 2 |
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<p>ATCHISON, Kan. (AP) — After most of the world’s population is wiped off the map by a wayward meteorite or hail of nuclear missiles, the survival of the human race might just depend on a few thousand people huddled in recreational vehicles deep in the bowels of an eastern Kansas mine.</p>
<p>That’s the vision of a California man who is creating what he calls the world’s largest private underground survivor shelter, using a complex of limestone caves dug more than 100 years ago beneath gently rolling hills overlooking the Missouri River.</p>
<p>“I do believe I am on a mission and doing a spiritual thing,” said Robert Vicino, who has purchased a large portion of the former U.S. Army storage facility on the southeast edge of Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City, Mo. “We will certainly be part of the genesis.”</p>
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<p>Before it comes time to ride out Armageddon or a deadly global pandemic, though, Vicino says the Vivos Survival Shelter and Resort will be a fun place for members to take vacations and learn assorted survival skills to prepare them for whatever world-changing catastrophe awaits.</p>
<p>Jacque Pregont, president of the Atchison Chamber of Commerce, said some people think the shelter plan sounds creepy or that Vicino has “lost his mind,” while others are excited because they will finally get a chance to tour the property.</p>
<p>Atchison is known as the birthplace of Amelia Earhart and one of the most haunted towns in Kansas, Pregont said, so the survival shelter is likely to add to the town’s tourism draw.</p>
<p>“It’s quirky, and quirky gets attention,” she said.</p>
<p>Recent Hollywood movies have done big business exploring themes about the human race, either through climate shifts, meteor impacts or zombie invasions. And the National Geographic Channel show, “Doomsday Preppers,” documents the efforts of Americans who are preparing for the end of the world with elaborate shelters and plenty of freeze-dried rations.</p>
<p>Paul Seyfried, who belongs to a group that promotes preparing for manmade or natural disasters, said Americans have become complacent ever since the death of John F. Kennedy, the last president who urged people to build fallout shelters.</p>
<p>“There has been no war on our soil in over 100 years, so the horror of war is not stamped indelibly in Americans’ minds,” said Seyfried, a member of The American Civil Defense Association’s advisory board.</p>
<p>Ken Rose, a history professor at California State University-Chico, is an outspoken critic of underground shelters. Though he acknowledged that interest in underground shelters is growing, he called projects like the Kansas facility a “colossal waste of time and money.”</p>
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<p>“Some people are just obsessed by this idea,” Rose said. “… Without minimizing the terror threat here today, the threats were much greater at the height of the Cold War. At least then anxiety was based on a realistic scenario.”</p>
<p>The Kansas caverns are 100 feet to 150 feet below the surface and have a constant natural temperature in the low 70s. They are supported by thick limestone pillars six times stronger than concrete and will have blast doors built to withstand a one-megaton nuclear explosion as close as 10 miles away, Vicino said.</p>
<p>Other than being surrounded by more than a mile and a half of 6-foot-high chain-link fence topped with sharp rows of barbed wire, the land above ground isn’t distinguishable from expanses of hills and trees that surround it. The proposed shelter’s entrances — nondescript concrete loading docks tucked discretely into the wooded hillside — are easily defensible against any potential intruders provided there’s not a full-scale military attack, Vicino said.</p>
<p>The Army used the caverns — created by limestone mining operations that started in the late 1880s — for decades as a storage facility before putting them up for auction last year. The winning bid in December was $1.7 million, but financing fell through and the site was put up for sale again.</p>
<p>Springfield, Mo., investor Coby Cullins submitted his winning $510,000 bid for the property in early April, and he immediately started looking for ways to use it. One of his ideas was to lease the land to a company that builds survival bunkers.</p>
<p>Vicino, whose company is based in Del Mar, Calif., said he received an email from Cullins and flew to Kansas two days later to check out the property. Vicino agreed to purchase 75 percent of the complex, rather than lease it, while Cullins retained the rest and is marketing it to local businesses.</p>
<p>The complex consists of two fully lighted, temperature-controlled mines with concrete floors. The east cave, which Cullins owns, encompasses about 15 acres and contains offices, vaults, restrooms and other developed work spaces. The much larger west cave, which covers about 45 acres, is mostly undeveloped and will be converted into the Vivos facility.</p>
<p>The shelter will have enough space for more than 1,000 RVs and up to about 5,000 people. Members will be charged $1,000 for every lineal foot of their RV to purchase their space, plus $1,500 per person for food. That means a person who plans to park a 30-foot vehicle in the shelter with four people inside will pay $30,000 for the space and $6,000 for food.</p>
<p>Actual sales won’t begin until a “critical mass” of reservations are received and processed, Vicino said, which hasn’t happened yet at the Kansas shelter.</p>
<p>Vivos also owns a shelter in Indiana with room for 80 people to live comfortably for up to a year. There, members pay $50,000 per adult and $35,000 per child, so a family with two adults and two children would have to come up with $170,000 to be part of the post-apocalyptic generation.</p>
<p>Purchasers will be required to pay for the full balance before taking possession of their shelter space, though the company has offered limited financing in the past with a sizable down payment.</p>
<p>Vicino says he won’t say specifically where the Indiana shelter or any of his smaller facilities are located because he fears there would be anarchy in the event of a world-changing catastrophe.</p>
<p>And it doesn’t matter who comes knocking at the “moment of truth,” Vicino said, they’re probably not getting in.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard people say, ‘I will just show up at the door,'” he said. “Our response is, ‘great, where is the door?’ At our secret shelters, you don’t know where to go, and your cash will be worthless at that time.”</p> | Could Kansas caverns save human race? | false | https://abqjournal.com/212529/could-kansas-caverns-save-human-race.html | 2013-06-20 | 2 |
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<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of dry bulk shipper Diana Shipping (NYSE: DSX) stock jumped as much as 17% in early Friday trading before retracing to about an 11.9% gain as of 1 p.m. EDT.</p>
<p>Investors can thank J.P. Morgan for the gains. This morning, an analyst at J.P. Morgan upgraded Diana Shipping shares from neutral to overweight, and assigned the stock an $8 price target.</p>
<p>Priced now at $5.90 per share, Diana Shipping stock has already more than doubled over the past year. But as reported on <a href="http://thefly.com/news.php?symbol=DSX" type="external">TheFly.com Opens a New Window.</a> earlier today, J.P. Morgan thinks the stock has "plenty of runway" to score more gains in the year ahead.</p>
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<p>Dry bulk shipping stocks are riding high. Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>This is because, says the analyst, the recovery in pricing for dry bulk shippers "is real and can be sustained for some time."</p>
<p>J.P. Morgan's commentary, by the way, echoes similar sentiment from Morgan Stanley voiced late last month. At the time, Morgan Stanley argued that the dry bulk market had "passed through its cyclical lows" and was now firmly on an uptrend. That news sent shares of Diana Shipping -- and also rival dry bulk shippers such as Star Bulk Carriers (NASDAQ: SBLK) -- <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/05/why-star-bulk-carriers-scorpio-bulkers-diana-shipp.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">flying last month Opens a New Window.</a>, and in the echo chamber that is Wall Street, the same thing is happening today. In addition to upgrading Diana, J.P. Morgan also predicted today that Star Bulk Carriers stock will rise to twice its previous price target -- all the way to $20 a share -- and Star Bulk stock is up 3% in response.</p>
<p>Don't be surprised if we soon add other dry bulk names to that list of quick gainers -- and more names to <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/08/01/wall-streets-buy-list.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Wall Street's buy list Opens a New Window.</a> as well.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Diana ShippingWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=30bc8de9-b67d-42b7-904e-dacf203b4fff&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Diana Shipping wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=30bc8de9-b67d-42b7-904e-dacf203b4fff&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDitty/info.aspx" type="external">Rich Smith Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Diana Shipping Stock Soared 17% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/07/why-diana-shipping-stock-soared-17.html | 2017-04-07 | 0 |
<p>DALLAS (AP) — Zack Moss took a third-down handoff and burst through the line into an opening in the middle of the field. Utah was off and running to another bowl victory.</p>
<p>Moss ran for 150 yards, including a <a href="http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=21885199" type="external">career-long 58-yard run for a touchdown</a> on the Utes’ opening drive in the Heart of Dallas Bowl as they went on to a 30-14 win over West Virginia on Tuesday. Utah is now 11-1 in postseason games under Kyle Whittingham, who matched Alabama’s Nick Saban for the most bowl wins by an active coach.</p>
<p>“He knows how to coach the team and he always caps the year off right,” Utah sophomore quarterback Tyler Huntley said.</p>
<p>Huntley <a href="http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=21886127" type="external">scored twice on 2-yard keepers</a> , but the Utes led for good in their fifth straight bowl victory after Moss broke free early on a drizzly and chilly day in Cotton Bowl Stadium.</p>
<p>“It was very important for us to come out of the gates with a big play early on and set the tone,” said Moss, who like Huntley still has two seasons left with the Utes (7-6).</p>
<p>West Virginia (7-6) finished the season with its third straight loss. The Mountaineers had only 153 total yards without junior quarterback Will Grier, who broke a finger Nov. 18, and 1,000-yard rusher Justin Crawford, a senior who bypassed the bowl game in advance of the NFL draft.</p>
<p>“It was a pretty disappointing loss to end a pretty disappointing season,” Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen said. “You never hear me use it as an excuse. If you lose guys, you need guys to step in and play at a high level and that is the bottom line.”</p>
<p>Whittingham’s debut as head coach was a Fiesta Bowl win at the end of the 2004 season. He co-coached that game with Urban Meyer, who had taken the Florida job three weeks earlier but returned to be part of Utah’s postseason win over Pittsburgh after his defensive coordinator had been promoted to head coach.</p>
<p>Under Whittingham, the Utes prepare for bowl games like regular season games, often in full pads and with continuing conditioning work. There is also a little bit of peer pressure.</p>
<p>“We’ve got a group of guys and have had several groups of guys come here that take a lot of pride in their bowl performance and the bowl record that we have,” Whittingham said. “This group was no different. Each subsequent group doesn’t want to be the group that lets the previous groups down. They want to keep that bowl prowess alive.”</p>
<p>THE TAKEAWAY</p>
<p>Utah: Both of Huntley’s TDs came after West Virginia miscues. The first came after a <a href="http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=21885902" type="external">muffed punt return</a> set Utah up at the Mountaineers 13, and the second came after an offside penalty on a short punt gave the Utes a second chance on fourth down. Huntley then completed a 25-yard pass on the fourth-and-3 play before scoring on another short run.</p>
<p>West Virginia: The Mountaineers missed Grier, who broke the middle finger on his throwing hand early in a loss against Texas. Grier, whose 34 TD passes were the second most in a season for West Virginia, already has said he will return next year for his senior season.</p>
<p>SABAN’S TIEBREAKER?</p>
<p>Saban has a chance, maybe two, to add a bowl win this season. The Crimson Tide will play Clemson in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in the College Football Playoff. Two other active coaches can get their 11th bowl wins before then: Miami’s Mark Richt and Meyer, who is now at Ohio State.</p>
<p>ONE SHORT OF 1,000</p>
<p>KaRaun White’s 18-yard TD catch with 2 minutes left for West Virginia put him over 1,000 yards receiving this season, along with teammate Gary Jennings. But David Sills V, who had 18 TD catches, had no catches Tuesday and finished 20 yards shy of giving the Mountaineers three 1,000-yard receivers.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Utah: The junior seasons for Huntley and Moss begin at home on Aug. 30 against Weber State. For the start of what will be Whittingham’s 14th full season, the Utes could have back 14 of their starters from the bowl game (eight on offense, six on defense).</p>
<p>West Virginia: Grier can be back in the lineup for the 2018 season opener Sept. 1 against Tennessee in Charlotte. It will be the third time in five years the Mountaineers will open a season against another Power Five opponent in an NFL stadium.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">https://collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>DALLAS (AP) — Zack Moss took a third-down handoff and burst through the line into an opening in the middle of the field. Utah was off and running to another bowl victory.</p>
<p>Moss ran for 150 yards, including a <a href="http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=21885199" type="external">career-long 58-yard run for a touchdown</a> on the Utes’ opening drive in the Heart of Dallas Bowl as they went on to a 30-14 win over West Virginia on Tuesday. Utah is now 11-1 in postseason games under Kyle Whittingham, who matched Alabama’s Nick Saban for the most bowl wins by an active coach.</p>
<p>“He knows how to coach the team and he always caps the year off right,” Utah sophomore quarterback Tyler Huntley said.</p>
<p>Huntley <a href="http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=21886127" type="external">scored twice on 2-yard keepers</a> , but the Utes led for good in their fifth straight bowl victory after Moss broke free early on a drizzly and chilly day in Cotton Bowl Stadium.</p>
<p>“It was very important for us to come out of the gates with a big play early on and set the tone,” said Moss, who like Huntley still has two seasons left with the Utes (7-6).</p>
<p>West Virginia (7-6) finished the season with its third straight loss. The Mountaineers had only 153 total yards without junior quarterback Will Grier, who broke a finger Nov. 18, and 1,000-yard rusher Justin Crawford, a senior who bypassed the bowl game in advance of the NFL draft.</p>
<p>“It was a pretty disappointing loss to end a pretty disappointing season,” Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen said. “You never hear me use it as an excuse. If you lose guys, you need guys to step in and play at a high level and that is the bottom line.”</p>
<p>Whittingham’s debut as head coach was a Fiesta Bowl win at the end of the 2004 season. He co-coached that game with Urban Meyer, who had taken the Florida job three weeks earlier but returned to be part of Utah’s postseason win over Pittsburgh after his defensive coordinator had been promoted to head coach.</p>
<p>Under Whittingham, the Utes prepare for bowl games like regular season games, often in full pads and with continuing conditioning work. There is also a little bit of peer pressure.</p>
<p>“We’ve got a group of guys and have had several groups of guys come here that take a lot of pride in their bowl performance and the bowl record that we have,” Whittingham said. “This group was no different. Each subsequent group doesn’t want to be the group that lets the previous groups down. They want to keep that bowl prowess alive.”</p>
<p>THE TAKEAWAY</p>
<p>Utah: Both of Huntley’s TDs came after West Virginia miscues. The first came after a <a href="http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=21885902" type="external">muffed punt return</a> set Utah up at the Mountaineers 13, and the second came after an offside penalty on a short punt gave the Utes a second chance on fourth down. Huntley then completed a 25-yard pass on the fourth-and-3 play before scoring on another short run.</p>
<p>West Virginia: The Mountaineers missed Grier, who broke the middle finger on his throwing hand early in a loss against Texas. Grier, whose 34 TD passes were the second most in a season for West Virginia, already has said he will return next year for his senior season.</p>
<p>SABAN’S TIEBREAKER?</p>
<p>Saban has a chance, maybe two, to add a bowl win this season. The Crimson Tide will play Clemson in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in the College Football Playoff. Two other active coaches can get their 11th bowl wins before then: Miami’s Mark Richt and Meyer, who is now at Ohio State.</p>
<p>ONE SHORT OF 1,000</p>
<p>KaRaun White’s 18-yard TD catch with 2 minutes left for West Virginia put him over 1,000 yards receiving this season, along with teammate Gary Jennings. But David Sills V, who had 18 TD catches, had no catches Tuesday and finished 20 yards shy of giving the Mountaineers three 1,000-yard receivers.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Utah: The junior seasons for Huntley and Moss begin at home on Aug. 30 against Weber State. For the start of what will be Whittingham’s 14th full season, the Utes could have back 14 of their starters from the bowl game (eight on offense, six on defense).</p>
<p>West Virginia: Grier can be back in the lineup for the 2018 season opener Sept. 1 against Tennessee in Charlotte. It will be the third time in five years the Mountaineers will open a season against another Power Five opponent in an NFL stadium.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">https://collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Moss, Utah run past West Virginia 30-14 in Heart of Dallas | false | https://apnews.com/5749f9e1d05e4e10b50cb761c5f743e3 | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
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<p>Stephany Haswell, a vet tech at Denkai Community Veterinary Clinc in Eaton, Colo., checks on a dog as it comes out of surgery. Her pit bull Dominic rests with dogs as they wake up. (AP Photo/Greeley Tribune, Dan England)</p>
<p>EATON, Colo. – During the first month of his life, Dominic was underfoot and in the way. Stephany Haswell, vet tech at Denkai Community Veterinary Clinic, wondered if she was going to have to find him a home.</p>
<p>Dominic was just a puppy, so the staff gave him a little leeway. But they needed to give him something to do.</p>
<p>They found their answer when they watched Dominic cuddle with a dog coming out of surgery. He now has one of the most important jobs in the Eaton clinic.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Dominic is adorable, with a gray coat the color of storm clouds and rainy blue eyes, so Haswell put him in a temporary foster home. Haswell brought Dominic to work because he could be a handful. He was haranguing the other three dogs to play and she knew they needed a break during the day. “And you can’t put him in a kennel,” Haswell said, “because he screams like a girl.” So Dominic bugged the workers at the clinic.</p>
<p>Then, one morning, they set a dog just out of surgery on Dominic’s huge red pillow just outside the operating room. Dominic immediately came over to cuddle. That was just his nature. He cuddled with everyone, from Haswell’s kids to dogs.</p>
<p>Haswell, though, remained a little skeptical. Dominic was cuddling with the new dog because he was cold, she thought. She changed her mind later that day, when Dominic lay in the middle of a pile of dogs out of surgery and rested his head on their bodies when they cried. The dog who cried the most got the most cuddle time from Dominic.</p>
<p>Dominic would even cuddle with cats out of surgery, though they weren’t as receptive as the dogs.</p>
<p>What’s more, it made things easier on them. Dogs coming out of surgery could be wild, even aggressive, and bites were a little too common.</p>
<p>But when Dominic lay with them, they woke up calm, rested and happy.</p>
<p>Dominic now seems to understand his job. When a dog is under anesthesia, Dominic waits at the foot of the door until clinic workers bring the dog out of surgery and set it on Dominic’s pillow, and he immediately goes over to rest with them.</p>
<p>Dominic cries and paces if another dog is crying in the clinic. He even acts irritated when Haswell rubs a dog’s body in an attempt to wake it up, as if Dominic’s saying, “Hey, I got this.”</p>
<p>“I’ve never, ever seen anything like this,” said Floss Blackburn, who has seen a lot as the founder of Denkai. “He’s got such a sweet heart.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | Dog comforts sick canines at Colo. clinic | false | https://abqjournal.com/320808/dog-comforts-sick-canines-at-colo-clinic.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Photo source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Borrowers are going home again to home equity loans, that is.</p>
<p>Shunned after the financial crisis, home equity loans have been making a <a href="http://www.corelogic.com/research/home-equity-lending-landscape/home-equity-lending-landscape.pdf" type="external">comeback Opens a New Window.</a>in recent years, as home values have rebounded and banks have reopened the lending spigot.</p>
<p>Total home equity loan originations reached $183 billion in 2015, an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2012, though originations remain far below the pre-crisis peak of $430 billion reached in 2006, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.</p>
<p>Home equity lending "has been growing briskly since 2013," said Inside Mortgage Finance's publisher, Guy Cecala. "Lenders have become more confident."</p>
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<p>With a home equity loan, you borrow against the equity in your home, which is the value of the property, minus the mortgage. Homeowners will often use such loans to fund home improvement projects, pay for college or to pay off more expensive debts.</p>
<p>But just because home equity loans are available, doesn't mean you should pounce. It's important to educate yourself before borrowing against your home.</p>
<p>Here are five things you should know about home equity loans:</p>
<p>The first is a standard home equity loan. You borrow money in a lump sum and pay it back in fixed amounts over a specified period of time. Interest rates on standard home equity loans are often fixed.</p>
<p>The second and more common type of home equity loan is a home equity line of credit (HELOC). Here, a lender gives you a credit line and lets you draw down funds up to a maximum amount, functioning much like a credit card.</p>
<p>"It allows you the flexibility to borrow as needed," said Bruce McClary, a spokesman for National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC).</p>
<p>HELOCs generally have a "draw period"often ten yearsduring which time you can borrow. After the draw period ends, the loan might have a "repayment period," a set period of time during which a borrower must repay the loan.</p>
<p>It's important to understand how repayment works. Some home equity loans allow borrowers to make interest-only payments during the draw period. When the repayment period kicks in, <a href="http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2016/03/29/banks-want-more-owners-tap-equity" type="external">payments can surge Opens a New Window.</a>by hundreds or thousands of dollars a month.</p>
<p>In some cases, a borrower might be required to pay back the loan in one full lump sum after the draw period ends or otherwise refinance the loan or the loan and the existing mortgage together.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind, HELOCs generally have variable interest rates, tied to an index, such as the prime rate. That means your rate might fluctuate, and if the prime rate increases, so too will your HELOC interest rate. And small differences in an interest rate can really add up.</p>
<p>Like a mortgage, under certain circumstances, the interest on a home equity loan might be tax deductible. Check with a tax professional to see if your loan might be eligible.</p>
<p>Another potential advantage: rates on home equity loans tend to be lower than rates for unsecured loans, such as credit cards.</p>
<p>However, such loans also come with significant risks. When you take out a home equity loan, your property serves as collateral. That means if you find yourself unable to repay what you owe, you could <a href="http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201204_CFPB_HELOC-brochure.pdf" type="external">lose your home Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Separately, if the value of your home drops as happened across the U.S. during the housing crisis, you may find yourself borrowing against an asset that isn't worth as much as it once was.</p>
<p>In the years leading up to the financial crisis, banks rushed to offer risky home equity loans unmindful of the potential for widespread decline in property values, missed payments and foreclosures.</p>
<p>Today, banks have much more stringent underwriting requirements. Before the housing bubble burst, some lenders allowed borrowers to borrow against 100 percent of the equity in their homes. Now the <a href="http://www.corelogic.com/research/home-equity-lending-landscape/home-equity-lending-landscape.pdf" type="external">ceiling</a>for a home equity line of credit is generally around 80 percent, according to real estate research firm CoreLogic.</p>
<p>At the same time, banks are requiring higher credit scores. For instance, the average credit score at origination for a HELOC last year was 774, more than 30 points higher than in 2006, according to CoreLogic.</p>
<p>The annual percentage rate (APR) of a home equity loan is just one of many costs you need to consider.</p>
<p>Depending on the type of loan you choose, there might be other fees and charges. There could be a property appraisal fee, an application fee, upfront charges (sometimes called points), attorneys' fees, and other types of closing costs. On top of that, you might have to pay annual membership and maintenance fees.</p>
<p>All in, depending on all these fees, you could end up paying hundreds of dollars to set up a home equity line of credit. If you were to draw down a small amount, these charges could substantially increase the cost of the funds you borrowed, the <a href="http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201204_CFPB_HELOC-brochure.pdf" type="external">Federal Reserve</a>warns.</p>
<p>Some people take out a home equity loan to pay off more expensive credit card debt. That could be a good thing. But remember you have now traded an unsecured debt for a debt secured by your home.</p>
<p>"Understand, you're now putting your home on the line," McClary said.</p>
<p>If you use a home equity loan to pay off your other debts, it's important to fight the urge to start racking up debts again, he added.</p>
<p>It can also be dangerous to use money from home equity loan to make a bet on the stock market or other type of investment. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has <a href="https://www.finra.org/investors/alerts/betting-ranch-risking-your-home-buy-securities" type="external">warned Opens a New Window.</a>investors against using home equity loans to purchase securities.</p>
<p>Some individuals hope that the investment will not only pay the mortgage, it will generate additional income. But if those securities plunge in value, investors face the risk of failing to meet their home loan payments.</p>
<p>"Investors who bet the ranch could lose it," FINRA cautions.</p>
<p>The bottom line: Home equity loans, when used responsibly, could help you invest in home improvements, fund an education or help you get on a more sound financial footing. But you need to understand the costs, conditions and the risks.</p>
<p>Think about whether you can comfortably repay the loan and avoid the temptation to turn your home into a piggybank. Buying jewelry or going on fancy vacations won't give you much pleasure, if you lose your home in the process.</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.thealertinvestor.com/five-things-to-know-about-home-equity-loans/" type="external">thealertinvestor.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thealertinvestor.com/" type="external">An Alert Investor is a smarter investor Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Robert Gates has been called the best secretary of defense in recent memory. On the other hand, he has a reputation with some as a slick career bureaucrat with a knack for avoiding blame but pocketing credit. Both are true.</p>
<p>“Best in recent memory?” It would have been hard for Gates to have been a bigger tower of ego, bluster and incompetence than Donald Rumsfeld, more of a non-entity than William Cohen, or a more fervent technology huckster than William Perry. Nonetheless, with a very small number of worthwhile decisions that he had the smarts to make stick, Gates has won himself the swooning accolades of the vast majority of the media, most (but not all) think tank Pooh-Bahs from the left, right and center, and just about every politician in the country.</p>
<p>Why would I be negative about a respected personality who did, indeed, exercise some very long overdue discipline on the recalcitrant military services? They had, for example, busied themselves running around Donald Rumsfeld and his predecessors to keep alive sacred – but outrageously expensive and under-performing – hardware programs like the F-22 (lately priced at over $400 million per copy). They also had tried to stiff much needed reforms to improve wounded veterans care at dysfunctional facilities like Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Gates fired the malefactors and stuffed the porkers in Congress when they tried to resuscitate the F-22. Those actions alone earn him the “best in recent memory” accolade.</p>
<p>The negativity comes – at least to me – when I realize the authority Gates achieved for himself with those actions and a few well-worded policy journal articles and speeches. Then, I compare that power to what he accomplished, or just tried to accomplish. Having won for himself recently unprecedented power as secretary of defense, what did he use his power to do?</p>
<p>Here is my list of important things that Robert Gates didn’t fix and didn’t even try to fix.</p>
<p>The Audit Problem</p>
<p>The Defense Department does not know how it spends its money. For example, as Gates has acknowledged, he does not know how many contractors work for DOD, what they do, and what they are paid. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Public estimates of the size of the overhead in DOD vary from 40 to 50 percent, if not more. No one knows, and no one even raised an eyebrow when a Lockheed executive said recently that overhead for the F-35 fighter-bomber program was 85 percent.</p>
<p>Gates runs a Pentagon that neither knows nor apparently cares. Gates’ solution is to pretend to be ready for a superficial-level audit in 2017. That would be 27 years after a deadline for that and more was imposed by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990. All the talk now going around about getting the cost of weapons under control is complete drivel unless and until the Pentagon can solve this problem. You can’t control costs if you can’t measure them accurately and completely.</p>
<p>Our Decaying Forces</p>
<p>In addition to the $1.2 trillion spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, presidents Bush and Obama and Congress also added another trillion dollars to the “base” (non-war) Pentagon budget. With that extra money, we now have an Army that has grown by just one brigade combat team (two percent); we have a Navy with ten percent fewer ships, and we have an Air Force with 50 percent fewer combat aircraft squadrons.</p>
<p>These are not smaller, newer forces; they are smaller, older forces. In category after category of major combat equipment, Congressional Budget Office analysis shows that the forces are – on average – older than they have ever been before. Available data on combat-readiness training shows that we have serious problems there too; sadly, too much of our training has been “on the job” in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Gates plan for this is to make it all worse. The budget increases Gates advocates will translate into even smaller, older, less ready forces.</p>
<p>DoD’s Broken Acquisition Apparatus</p>
<p>Gates and Congress bathed themselves in praise for the Weapon System Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 to fix DOD’s broken acquisition system – measured by the Government Accountability Office to have had more cost growth and schedule delays than ever before.</p>
<p>With Gates’ Pentagon avidly cheering it on, Congress assiduously filled almost every provision of the bill with gaping loopholes to make it easy – and inevitable – to circumvent every reform. Exactly that has happened. The unaffordable F-35 was resuscitated when it “breached” the cost control provisions of the Nunn-McCurdy Act.</p>
<p>The allegedly reformed act was supposed to obviate underperforming, ultra-high cost programs just like the F-35, which by the way is about to have another cost increase that DoD’s cost-estimating bureaucracy – the one reformed by the reform act – is busily sweeping under the rug. The Gates solution? F-35-like “concurrency” – buying a weapon before you test it – is the way to go. Just read some of the latest news articles about Global Hawk, Littoral Combat Ship, Gorgon Stare and just about any Major Defense Acquisition Program. Gates (and Congress) didn’t fix the acquisition problems; they merely pretended to.</p>
<p>Counterproductive Global Interventionism</p>
<p>Having told one audience a few months ago that anyone who wanted to deploy American ground forces to several continents “should have his head examined,” Gates more recently lectured NATO that it doesn’t follow America’s lead enough in interventions and it doesn’t spend enough.</p>
<p>Why on earth would they want to do either? They are many fine examples of the brilliant success of American interventionism and defense spending practices, aren’t there? It’s a wonder that some in NATO didn’t laugh in Gates’ face.</p>
<p>Mind Numbing Bromides</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom in Washington frequently gets itself wrapped around stupid bromides. One from the past is that national strategy should be decided separate from budget and the former must lead the latter. That available resources are an essential ingredient to what one can and should do in the world has escaped from this formulation, but it is ardently embraced by those who want to maximize spending.</p>
<p>A new formulation of this comes to us from Robert Gates; it is that in an era of budget constraints, there must be no “across the board cuts,” that is top down instructions to and across bureaucracies to cut spending by set amounts. It must, instead, come from the bottom. What hogwash. First, everybody, including Gates’ DOD does top down, “across the board cuts.”</p>
<p>One recent example: The House Armed Services Committee and the House Appropriations Committee just recommended some uniform and arbitrary (“across the board”) cuts that they mask as “unobligated expenditures” and “revised economic assumptions.” In the past, the data for these actions have come to the Committees from the DOD Comptroller’s office; they should be seen not as arbitrary cuts from Congress, but from DOD and Congress. Second, since when have bureaucracies, especially DOD ones, been forthcoming in producing cuts in their own budget?</p>
<p>You can expect the bureaucracy’s bottom-up cut ideas to come about as quickly as DOD has been permitted to take to get itself ready for an audit – an audit of such superficiality that only the bureaucracy could have suggested it as a target, 27 years late.</p>
<p>Who is Leon Panetta? The only thing I really know about him is that he is a smart politician. I came to appreciate that during his June 9 confirmation hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee. Joining himself at the hip with virtually everything Gates has said and done, Panetta took advantage of Gates’ high reputation in Congress (and the country) to assure everyone that he and Gates will be a seamless transition. How better to avoid any confirmation controversy than to promise no meaningful differences from the consecrated master?</p>
<p>I don’t know who Leon Panetta really is, but there is one thing I do hope: I hope Leon Panetta is not really Robert Gates.</p>
<p>Winslow T. Wheeler is the Director of the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information in Washington, DC. He is also the editor of the new anthology “The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It.”</p>
<p /> | What Gates Didn’t Fix | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/06/17/what-gates-didn-t-fix/ | 2011-06-17 | 4 |
<p>Steve Watson and Paul Watson <a href="http://Prisonplanet.com" type="external">Prisonplanet.com</a> Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010</p>
<p><a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:H.R.3590:" type="external">H.R. 3590, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,</a> to give it its full title, is rammed full of tax increases which will further economically cripple Americans already laboring under the worst financial crisis since the great depression.</p>
<p>The partnering Reconciliation Act, currently in the Senate, also contains a raft of pork barrel and tax hikes, there to fund the trillion dollar cost of nationalizing medicine.</p>
<p>As reported by <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&amp;sid=ake7tOWwUT6E" type="external">Bloomberg News</a>today, analysis by the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation reveals that the bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes by 2019.</p>
<p>In addition, the Congressional Budget Office states that the bill also levies almost $69 billion more in penalties for those who fail to meet mandates to buy insurance.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Web/20102724.htm" type="external">Journal of Accountancy</a> boils down some of the tax hikes and penalty fees in H.R. 3590 and the Reconciliation Act – the highlights include:</p>
<p>Excise Tax on Uninsured Individuals – Individuals who fail to maintain minimum essential coverage will be subject to a penalty equal to $750. The fee for an uninsured individual under age 18 is one-half of the adult fee.</p>
<p>Excise Tax on High-Cost Employer Plans – The federal government would impose a 40% tax on the value of employer-sponsored health coverage exceeding certain thresholds. Those levels are projected to be $8,500 for self only and $23,000 for any other level by the year 2013. This excise <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/health/policy/16health.html" type="external">was announced with fanfare</a> by the White House and labor unions in January and remains in the final bill.</p>
<p>Increase in additional tax on distributions from Health Savings Accounts and Archer Medical Savings Accounts not used for qualified medical expenses – An increase from 10% to 20% on taxes of money in a health savings account not used for qualified medical expenses. For Archer medical savings accounts, an increase from 15% to 20%.</p>
<p>Additional Hospital Insurance Tax on High-Income Taxpayers – High income tax payers, making on a joint return over $250,000 and a standard return over $200,000, are required to pay an additional 0.5% of wages. This applies to both self-employed, and regularly employed individuals.</p>
<p>Fees on Health Plans – A fee applied to all health insurance providers based upon net premiums and any third party fees associated with the administration of those programs. The fees will total $6.7 billion annually. This figure begins at $8 billion in the Reconciliation Act and rises to $14.3 billion by 2018.</p>
<p>Tax on Indoor Tanning Services – The act imposes a 10% tax on amounts paid for indoor tanning services. Like a sales tax, the tax will be collected from the person tanning when payment for the tanning services is made.</p>
<p>Business Insider boils down 15 more tax hikes <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/healthcare-bill-new-taxes-2010-3#" type="external">here</a> – highlights include:</p>
<p>Tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage – A 2.5% income tax on individuals who do not have health care coverage, limited to a cost less than the average national health care premium.</p>
<p>Excise tax on elective cosmetic medical procedures – A tax of 5% is levied upon the am mount paid for any cosmetic surgery. This does not include the need for such surgeries created by trauma or a disfiguring disease. If the tax is not collected by that professional completing the procedure, their business is still liable for the requirement.</p>
<p>The Reconciliation Act also legislates for the following surcharges: 1% surcharge on individuals making more than $350,000, 1.5% surcharge on individuals making more than $500,000, 5.4% surcharge on individuals making more than $1 million.</p>
<p>Yet more tax provisions in the bill are highlighted by INvestors Business Daily in their piece titled <a href="http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/index.php/home/35-politicsinvesting/1563-20-ways-obamacare-will-take-away-our-freedoms" type="external">20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms</a> – highlights include:</p>
<p>Taxes On Employers – If you are a large employer (defined as at least 101 employees) and you do not want to provide health insurance to your employee, then you will pay a $750 fine per employee (It could be $2,000 to $3,000 under the reconciliation changes) (Section 1513).</p>
<p>Taxes on Pharmaceutical Companies – The government will extract a fee of $2.3 billion annually from the pharmaceutical industry (Section 9008 (b)).</p>
<p>Taxes on medical device manufacturers – The government will extract a fee of $2 billion annually from medical device makers (Section 1405).</p>
<p>As a candidate and President, Barack Obama has had one core message for middle class Americans: I won’t raise your taxes.</p>
<p>By putting his name to the health care reform bill today he has swiftly put to bed any pretence that he would uphold that pledge (multi-trillion dollar bailouts aside).</p>
<p>While the new taxes on individuals are bad enough, the penalties imposed on pharmaceutical corporations, health insurers and employers are will inevitably serve as a double whammy as the hikes will undoubtedly be passed on to the general public in the form of higher costs.</p>
<p>“Simply, you have nationalized healthcare by proxy.” writes Jonah Goldberg of the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg23-2010mar23,0,6611246.column" type="external">LA Times</a>.</p>
<p>“Insurance companies are now heavily regulated government contractors. Way to get big business out of Washington! They will clear a small, government-approved profit on top of their government-approved fees. Then, when healthcare costs rise — and they will — Democrats will insist, yet again, that the profit motive is to blame and out from this Obamacare Trojan horse will pour another army of liberals demanding a more honest version of single-payer.”</p>
<p>“The Obama administration has turned the insurance industry into the Blackwater of socialized medicine.” Goldberg concludes.</p>
<p><a href="http://grendelreport.posterous.com/obama-plans-propaganda-blitz-to-boost-accepta" type="external">A swift dose of propaganda</a> is sure to silence some critics. However, if the softly softly approach fails, the myriad of new taxes and regulations contained in the Obamacare bill will be aggressively enforced by no less than 16,500 new “combat trained” <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-cost-of-defying-obamacare-2250-a-month-and-irs-goons-pointing-guns-at-your-family.html" type="external">IRS agents armed to the teeth</a> with shotguns, who will also closely scrutinize Americans’ income tax returns and be waiting to pounce should they find evidence of anyone trying to avoid paying for mandatory government health care.</p>
<p>Even if you agree with socialized health care in principle, the fact is that this will only benefit <a href="" type="internal">the insurance companies who wrote it</a>. Meanwhile millions of Americans will be subjected to more taxation, harassment, and oppression at the hands of a federal government run amok. An out of control leviathan, hell-bent on an agenda to control every aspect of your life, as they lay in wait to exploit the momentum achieved through the passage of Obamacare by ramming through <a href="" type="internal">nightmare cap and tax levies</a> to further financially castrate already beleaguered Americans.</p>
<p>Find out who your enemies are and why Obamacare is merely the next step in the new world order agenda to regulate every aspect of your existence.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://infowars-shop.stores.yahoo.net/inemnewwoord.html" type="external">Get Invisible Empire on DVD</a> or <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.tv/" type="external">watch it first in high quality at Prison Planet.tv</a>.</p> | Obamacare: Taxing The American People Into Oblivion | true | http://infowars.com/obamacare-taxing-the-american-people-into-oblivion/ | 2010-03-23 | 0 |
<p>Does anyone just watch TV anymore? The dramatic shift toward online and mobile viewing is driving television set makers to design as much for streaming video as for watching broadcast or cable channels.</p>
<p>Traditional TV is far from dead, but these days viewers care less about watching shows live and even prefer saving certain series to watch all at once in an evening or weekend of binge-watching. Broadcast networks and hundreds of cable channels share viewer attention with thousands of online services, including amateurs creating their own series on YouTube. Already, Netflix has outbid traditional channels for hits such as "House of Cards." And Dish this week announced it will sell online access to a bundle of channels including live sports network ESPN for just $20 a month. Online video will account for a third of all video viewing in 2020, up from about 10 percent in 2013, predicts The Diffusion Group, a research firm that specializes in Internet video.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So how to keep the television set, that focal point of the American living room for decades, relevant? Design for online video.</p>
<p>At the International CES gadget show this week in Las Vegas, TV makers unveiled new models with 4K resolution, or four times the clarity offered by today's high definition TVs. They are pushing the features even though not a single TV channel is yet available in 4K. But Internet services such as Netflix, Amazon and M-Go are starting to offer 4K video.</p>
<p>Sony on Monday promised to create more 4K content to watch on those sets. Four popular shows from its entertainment division — "The Goldbergs," ''The Blacklist," ''Masters of Sex" and "The Night Shift" — will soon be available in 4K and it's working with partners including Netflix and YouTube to deliver more 4K streaming video.</p>
<p>"It's going to be the first format primarily driven by streaming," says Jim Funk, a senior vice president at Roku Inc., which makes streaming TV devices.</p>
<p>Beyond 4K, Sharp developed an engineering trick to make its high-end set look even sharper. Samsung added a nanocrystal semiconductor layer to make colors purer and the screen brighter. LG is pushing organic LED screens with richer colors and pure black — the kind typically limited to smaller displays such as phones because of price.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>And Internet connectivity is becoming standard in sets, the way all TVs are color now. LG and Samsung also have ways to easily switch video between TV and mobile devices, so that if you're watching a movie on a phone, you can continue it on your TV as soon as you get home.</p>
<p>The Consumer Electronics Association expects TV sales to increase 2 percent to 251 million units this year. The average screen size is projected to be 40 inches, up from 31 inches in 2007. CEA predicts more than 23 million of the units will be 4K TVs this year, about 2.5 times the shipments in 2014. That's even with the explosion of viewing on tablets and smartphones.</p>
<p>People tend to use phones and tablets while traveling or for shorter video, says Tim Alessi, head of new product development for home entertainment at LG Electronics USA. For a full-length movie, viewers want to replicate the theater in the home. That's only done through a big TV set.</p>
<p>"When I want a full home-entertainment experience, especially with my family and friends, the TV is still the best way to do that," agrees Tim Baxter, president and chief operating officer of Samsung Electronics America.</p>
<p>And just as TV makers are hopping on the online train, so are content providers. Traditional channels are becoming available without the need for a cable or satellite subscription. Satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp. is the latest, offering its Sling TV package of channels, including ESPN and CNN, for delivery entirely over the Internet. The availability of ESPN addresses a major reason people still keep their TV service — live sports. Sony also has an Internet television service expected to debut by the end of March — PlayStation Vue — and HBO and Showtime plan to debut Internet-only subscription offerings this year. The packages are aimed at the millions of so-called cord-cutters or "cord-nevers" that find cable and satellite bundles too pricey and don't subscribe to either, turning instead to Hulu, Google's YouTube and Amazon.</p>
<p>Lesley H. Stahl, 31, is one potential customer of an Internet-only offering. She and her husband never considered cable when they bought a new house in Sunnyvale, California, figuring they had been mostly watching video online anyway. But Stahl says she would be cautious about subscribing to new channels, as she's used to just waiting until Hulu or Amazon gets the show. She said costs for individual subscriptions add up, and there's only so much time to watch.</p>
<p>"There's not any one TV show I'm so addicted to that I'm going to pay extra," she says. "At a certain point, we're just spending a whole lot of money."</p>
<p>These Internet offerings alone won't accelerate cancellations of cable or satellite services, says Joel Espelien, senior analyst for The Diffusion Group. But they might get more people to downgrade to lower tiers, he says, and use the savings to buy specific channels or services of interest.</p>
<p>Or a brand-new 4K TV?</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Technology Writer Brandon Bailey contributed to this report.</p> | TV isn't dead, but set makers and service providers focus design on growing online viewership | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/01/06/tv-isnt-dead-but-set-makers-and-service-providers-focus-design-on-growing.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — University of New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs has confirmed that San Diego State will remain a member of the Mountain West Conference rather than move to the Big East later this year.</p>
<p>Krebs said that, with 12 league members for football, the Mountain West will have two divisions and will stage a football championship game this fall.</p>
<p>Look for more coverage on this breaking story on Thursday’s Journal.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | It's Official | false | https://abqjournal.com/238660/its-official.html | 2 |
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<p>BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — Tyler Nelson scored 19 points to help Fairfield beat Saint Peter's 70-61 on Thursday night in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opener.</p>
<p>Nelson was 6 of 13 from the field, made four 3-pointers and a game-high five steals. Matija Milin and Omar El-Sheikh each added 11 points for Fairfield (6-6), which has won three of its last four games and has beaten Saint Peter's in three straight.</p>
<p>Elijah Gonzales scored 16 points to lead the Peacocks (6-6). Nick Griffin added 13 points and Sam Idowu 12.</p>
<p>Nelson's 3-point play gave the Stags the lead for good midway through the first half as they built a 10-point halftime lead. Saint Peter's pulled to 56-50 with 5:24 remaining. Jesus Cruz and Nelson each made 3-pointers as part of a 7-4 spurt that made it 63-54 with 2:40 to play.</p>
<p>BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — Tyler Nelson scored 19 points to help Fairfield beat Saint Peter's 70-61 on Thursday night in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opener.</p>
<p>Nelson was 6 of 13 from the field, made four 3-pointers and a game-high five steals. Matija Milin and Omar El-Sheikh each added 11 points for Fairfield (6-6), which has won three of its last four games and has beaten Saint Peter's in three straight.</p>
<p>Elijah Gonzales scored 16 points to lead the Peacocks (6-6). Nick Griffin added 13 points and Sam Idowu 12.</p>
<p>Nelson's 3-point play gave the Stags the lead for good midway through the first half as they built a 10-point halftime lead. Saint Peter's pulled to 56-50 with 5:24 remaining. Jesus Cruz and Nelson each made 3-pointers as part of a 7-4 spurt that made it 63-54 with 2:40 to play.</p> | Fairfield beats Saint Peter's 70-61 in MAAC opener | false | https://apnews.com/amp/13007b7357a748039723636ae20999de | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
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<p /> HASSAN GHANI, TRNN CORRESPONDENT, RAWALPINDI: We're overlooking Islamabad from the Margalla Hills. It's a beautiful view, especially at night. But see if you can spot what's happening down below.
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<p />What you're seeing is the effect of power outages on the city. Sector by sector, the electricity is cut off for an hour at a time, for several hours every day. Pakistan's electricity network is struggling to fulfil the country's power requirements, and it's wreaking havoc with people's lives, destroying jobs and even affecting education.
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<p />For those without generators or UPS systems, the high summer temperatures coupled with no power to run fans or air conditioners make it near impossible to sleep at night and difficult to work or study during the day.
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<p />To further add insult to injury, as the power outages have grown, electricity bills have also risen sharply over the years, adding further strain to Pakistani household budgets.
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<p />Occasionally, the frustration, especially among the impoverished and worst affected, boils over into anger and riots on the streets of Pakistan's cities. This was the city of Faisalabad earlier this month, where furious residents attacked government offices in protest over the situation and were then themselves beaten by the police.
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<p />The energy crisis really highlights class divisions in Pakistan. The most affluent areas, like Islamabad, tend to suffer fewer power outages. Here in Rawalpindi, Islamabad's bigger neighbour with many working class areas, the power goes out for around 12 hours a day. But rural areas have it the worst, where the power's off more than it's on, with up to 18 or even 20 hours of load-shedding a day.
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<p />This is a printing press in Rawalpindi's Saddar district. Like many small businesses dependent on the mains supply, work comes to a standstill several times a day as the power goes off, the workers left languishing in the heat.
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<p />By the time we're ready to start our interview, the power has indeed been cut, to nobody's surprise. For the last few weeks, as the temperature has risen, load-shedding has been even worse than normal here.
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<p />M MURSALEN, POLYGON PRINTING PRESS (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Load-shedding has made life extremely difficult. All printing machinery runs on electricity, so when there's no power, our work suffers a lot. If you have expensive machinery and it isn't working, you're going to suffer losses. It's at the point where we use our savings (to pay workers). God only knows how we're still open. The light is on for 2 or 3 hours, then we suffer without for 3 or 4 hours. We request from the new government that they make load-shedding their first priority. You can see the darkness here in front of you.
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<p />GHANI: The power outages have been ongoing for several years, worsening under the last government. They've crippled businesses and industry, particularly those unable to afford to run their own generators.
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<p />But there's another destructive consequence to this crisis. This is the University of Management and Technology in Lahore. It boasts more than 6,000 students and an excellent academic record. But here too, life has become an exercise in frustration, as the students find their lessons interrupted and scientific experiments disrupted.
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<p />HIRA FAROOQ, LECTURER IN APPLIED PHYSICS, UMT: This happens mostly in the lab, because we have lab for three consecutive hours. Right? And the lab is, like, ongoing throughout, because there are a lot of students, a lot of classes, so a lot of labs going on. So whenever, like, there is a power failure, the students who were already taking the data, they're all lost, because they have to go through the same system again to the forefront, where they started it, and take that data again, because it's, like, consecutive data that is coming, because they have just three hours lab and they have to perform one experiment, and they might be unable to perform that.
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<p />Students physically suffer as well, because, you see, when I'm taking a lecture, I suffer myself physically because I'm unable to deliver the lecture with no light or light coming in and out. I have the multimedia on. For one and a half hours, if I teach in a room which is having a temperature of, like, 40, or 41, or 46, like nowadays it's going on, so I will not be able to deliver my lecture with the same energy as I would have with a better environment. Same as with the students. They're going to lack concentration.
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<p />GHANI: To help, the University has been working to reduce overall power usage and investing vast sums of money into newer and bigger generators that can match the mains supply. But that's money that would have otherwise gone towards improving educational facilities.
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<p />FAROOQ: While the university has to incorporate the research and development scholarships and everything, area like that, their priority would be shifted towards taking control of the electricity and taking control of the energy. When I see the students, they say, this is the thing, how do we study, we don't have light at home, we don't have light over here, so how can we study actually, and they're losing their interest towards studies, because the environment is not friendly at all. So if the environment is not friendly at all, they might be losing more of their interest, and it would be badly, badly affecting our young generation.
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<p />GHANI: But of course, it's rural areas that are hit hardest.
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<p />This is Maqsood Ilahi, proud grandfather of two. He lives in the village of Sood Gangal, west of Rawalpindi, where the summer temperature sits at around 45&#160;degrees Celsius. He remembers a time when the electricity supply was relatively reliable and the electricity bill reasonable.
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<p />MAQSOOD ILAHI, RESIDENT OF SOOD GANGAL (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): There was load-shedding five years ago, but not as much as this. In 24 hours, there was maybe two or three hours of load-shedding. But in those last five years, they've pushed us back into the stone ages. Now it goes for 18 or 20 hours on a daily basis. Neither the children nor the adults can sleep. It's hot during the day and hot at night. You can't relax during the day or at night. In my opinion, these people sitting in Islamabad, under the air conditioning, they only consider themselves human beings, only they are the "public" that deserves facilities. The rest of us in the villages, or the other poor classes, whether in villages or cities, we're just like garbage, just cattle, not human beings; we can just be left like animals.
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<p />GHANI: And the chronic energy shortages are not limited solely to electricity.
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<p />Many vehicles in Pakistan, especially small ones like this, and public transport like taxis, vans and buses, run on compressed natural gas. It's a much cheaper alternative to petrol. But it too is being rationed. Here in Punjab province, at best, the gas stations are open for three or four days a week, and this is the queue to get in.
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<p />This is a quiet period. On Monday mornings, when the gas pressure is first turned on, the queue can stretch for half a mile, leaving drivers standing in line for hours.
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<p />The gas shortages also hit domestic supplies, households in rural areas again the worst affected.
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<p />Mazhar is a Rawalpindi taxi driver. He doesn't earn particularly much, but he's finding his income being squeezed even further as natural gas is rationed and customers are unhappy about paying more to cover the raised costs of running on petrol.
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<p />MAZHAR, RAWALPINDI TAXI DRIVER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): This time the gas has been closed for a whole week. And this is a real cause of worry for us, and for our customers, for everyone. It especially worries us because this is the only source of income for us and our children. If you look at basic life necessities, the cost of 20&#160;kilograms of flour has gone from 300 to 800 rupees. Oil was 80 rupees per kilogram. It's now 300 rupees. Nothing is cheap anymore. Only humans are still cheap. Nobody drives a taxi by choice, only through necessity. Now it's a become an incredibly difficult job, in fact impossible. If you go back ten years, driving was great work. Now even feeding the kids is difficult. The children don't relax, and we don't relax. Where we used to drive for 4 or 5 hours, we now drive for 16 or 18 hours, and it's still not the same, because the price of everything is so high.
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<p />GHANI: It's worth mentioning that in Pakistan vehicles are retrofitted with CNG kits of varying quality, and substandard gas cylinders have led to explosions in the past, with fatal consequences. But its affordability means the working classes have little choice but to use CNG.
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<p />So what's going on? Why is Pakistan, a nuclear power that had a surplus of electricity production a decade ago, today unable to fulfil the basic energy needs of its own citizens? Let's start with electricity.
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<p />DR. SAMAR MUBARAKMAND, NUCLEAR SCIENTIST AND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT EXPERT: The installed power generation capacity in the country is in excess of 20 thousand megawatts, and the demand is about 16,000 to 17,000 maximum. So if all the installed capacity is in operation, we should be generating more than the required amount of electricity.
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<p />GHANI: Dr. Samar Mubarakmand is a well-respected nuclear physicist and energy expert, at one point the head of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission. He played a leading role in developing Pakistan's nuclear capability. Today, he's working on developing new power projects to secure the country's energy needs in the long term.
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<p />He says the failure of previous governments to invest in new energy projects is part of the problem, while existing power plants are not in good health.
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<p />On top of that, the government doesn't pay power companies on time, so they don't pay fuel companies on time, who then don't supply enough fuel to run the power plants at full capacity.
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<p />MUBARAKMAND: Average power generation cost from our plants, all our sources, is at the moment about 15 cents per unit. The government sells this power to the consumer at ten cents per unit. Now, first problem: there is wastage of electricity down the transmission lines and inefficient transformers, as well as corruption at the collection end, the revenue collection end, where people do not pay their bills, big industrialists avoid paying their bills. People sitting in parliament have large land estates, they don't pay their bills on their tube-wells and their industrial meters, and so on. So this loss of recovery of revenue amounts to about 45&#160;percent. So out of the ten cents per unit, the government only gets five and a half cents.
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<p />So when this huge gap per unit is being suffered as a loss by the government, this mounts the circular debt issue very rapidly.
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<p />GHANI: Pakistan's circular debt for energy production has now reached $5&#160;billion. The new government came to power promising to resolve the energy crisis and is acutely aware of the public's expectations. It's now announced plans to clear the debt within the next two months. But that alone will not be enough.
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<p />MUBARAKMAND: If the government clears their past debt now as they say they will do it within 60 days or so on, the new debt will again pile up. So first of all they have to pull up their socks on the administrative side and recover the full cost of electricity which the people are billed. That is an administrative issue. But secondly, the power generation cost has to come down, from 15 cents to ten cents, or even lower, so that government can make a little profit on the power they sell.
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<p />GHANI: But with the cost of electricity now so high, how can the price be brought down to a level that Pakistan's working classes can afford?
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<p />MUBARAKMAND: In future we don't want to use furnace oil, which has become very costly, and use coal instead of furnace oil for power generation, because we have our own coal in Thar, which will be mined shortly, and which will be available in three to four years' time. But in the meantime, if we immediately replace those boilers with coal-fired boilers and we import coal and we use imported coal on those boilers up to the time till our own coal from Thar is made available, then we can have about an additional 6,000 to 7,000 megawatts right away, within a period of about two and a half years.
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<p />The most important source of renewable energy which I can think of in Pakistan is that the water is coming down from the rivers, down the rivers from a height of something like 6,000 metres to sea-level, and this tremendous source of potential energy, as in physics we call it, is available to us for exploitation which we have not yet exploited. Of course, it's true that we have built very large dams, like the Mangla Dam and the Tarbela Dam, and each of these dams take ten years to build, and the feasibility is five years, and so on, and they cost mammoths, costing tens of billions of dollars.
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<p />But in the extreme north of Pakistan, in the Swat area, there are lots of small streams. When the glaciers melt, this water flows down into the Swat River in the valley, at the bottom of the valley, and people over there, on a co-operative basis, have set up small turbines and generators on these small streams of water. And after sunset everybody in their homes, they have free electricity, because they contribute equally to the generators. So this is a concept which is also practiced all over the world, in many countries of the world, where there is fast-flowing water in streams and rivers and canals. And Pakistan has a potential of about 50,000 megawatts to be generated from our fast flowing rivers and streams. And the investment in these projects is not very high. In China they have put rubber buffer dams across rivers, and they inflate them with compressed air and they stop the water, and they have a fall of about 20, 30 metres, and they put up turbines downstream, and this generate power. So it doesn't cost very much.
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<p />We have to experiment on these and we have to refine this technology. This is the only way to go. If you keep getting oil from the Middle East, we are going to sink deeper and deeper into the circular debt issue, which ultimately translates into more IMF loans.
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<p />GHANI: In terms of Pakistan's gas shortage, experts are divided on how to proceed. But Dr. Mubarakmand believes the answer lies at home.
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<p />MUBARAKMAND: By the time the Iranian--if the gas pipeline is commissioned in two years' time and we get gas from Iran, the shortage will be about 2,250&#160;MMCFT per day, and Iranian gas pipeline will provide 750, which is one-third of the shortage. So it'll only meet about 30&#160;percent of our shortage at that time, in two years' time. And at what cost? At the moment our gas is about $5 per MMBTU. Iranian gas is at the moment $15 per MMBTU. It's three times the cost of our own natural gas.
<p />
<p />So we have suggested to the government that we go for intensive underground coal gasification in the Thar coalfields, where the coal is very amenable to gasification, which we have in plenty. It's 175 billion tonnes. We may resort to mining of that coal, certainly, for power generation, but we can also do gasification of this coal and utilise this coal-gas for power generation, for diesel production, for methanol production, for fertilizer production, for plastics, for pharmaceuticals. And there are 20 different items you can produce from coal-gas. And of course you can use it for burning in the home, in domestic kitchens.
<p />
<p />GHANI: Some environmental groups have expressed concern about burning coal to meet Pakistan's energy needs and are worried about the construction of two new nuclear power plants, which will add to Pakistan's existing three.
<p />
<p />But after years of load-shedding and price hikes, the average Pakistani is, for the moment, more concerned with getting the lights back on, and at an affordable price, than with how that power is generated.
<p />
<p />It's obvious that administrative corruption, both at lower and higher levels, needs to be tackled; the industrialists, landowners, and even government institutions that refuse to pay their bills brought to book; and ultimately a competent long term plan for Pakistan's energy needs put in place, if things are to get any better. What happens next is down to the new government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
<p />
<p />But back in the village of Sood Gangal, Maqsood Ilahi has a warning for the politicians in Islamabad.
<p />
<p />ILAHI: We hope they'll consider us humans, that God softens their hearts, and they work for us. If not, they'll suffer the same fate as the last government.
<p />
<p />GHANI: Hassan Ghani, for the Real News, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Pakistan's Energy Crisis: "They've pushed us back into the stone ages" | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10391 | 2013-07-02 | 4 |
<p>BLENHEIM, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say a mother and 4-year-old daughter from Georgia were killed in a Christmas Day car accident in South Carolina.</p>
<p>Marlboro County Coroner Tim Brown tells local media outlets 27-year-old Tyesha Terry and her daughter Mackenzie were killed in a crash just before 4:30 p.m. Monday south of Blenheim.</p>
<p>South Carolina Highway Patrol Cpl. Sonny Collins says a 1998 Ford SUV was traveling south on Hwy. 38 when it ran off the left side of the road into the median, lost control and then ran off the right side, where it flipped several times.</p>
<p>Brown says four other people in the vehicle were taken to hospitals to be checked out. He says the family is from Hapeville, Georgia.</p>
<p>The Highway Patrol is still investigating the crash.</p>
<p>BLENHEIM, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say a mother and 4-year-old daughter from Georgia were killed in a Christmas Day car accident in South Carolina.</p>
<p>Marlboro County Coroner Tim Brown tells local media outlets 27-year-old Tyesha Terry and her daughter Mackenzie were killed in a crash just before 4:30 p.m. Monday south of Blenheim.</p>
<p>South Carolina Highway Patrol Cpl. Sonny Collins says a 1998 Ford SUV was traveling south on Hwy. 38 when it ran off the left side of the road into the median, lost control and then ran off the right side, where it flipped several times.</p>
<p>Brown says four other people in the vehicle were taken to hospitals to be checked out. He says the family is from Hapeville, Georgia.</p>
<p>The Highway Patrol is still investigating the crash.</p> | Mother, 4-year-old daughter killed in Christmas car crash | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e4142c5b76b2490fb52f7902ceca281c | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
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<p>Evidence of teacher bias against Trump exists across the country. One such example was the middle school boy, Jason Newberry, who refused to kneel for his class’s pledge of allegiance. Apparently his liberal teacher wasn’t too happy about this, and she decided to shame him in front of the whole class, which prompted the students to call him names such as KKK, Nazi, and racist.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Silence is Consent</a> already previously reported on the matter, noting that one teacher “showed the entire class liberal propaganda” of NFL thugs kneeling and disrespecting our flag, and then conducted a rigged poll on what the class thought about the matter.</p>
<p>After a Jackson Hole High School teacher just issued an online quiz that may be encouraging Trump’s assassination however, parents are absolutely furious. The quiz was given in Carin Aufderheide’s English class, and was on the topic of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The question read:</p>
<p>Napoleon has the gun fired for a new occasion. What is the new occasion?</p>
<p>Many conservative parents have grown furious after discovering that this teacher was making a joke about assassinating President Trump. Others have noted that if a teacher even breathed a word of assassinating President Obama, the liberal media would completely destroy his reputation and secret service would be on him in a second.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, in this country liberals tend to get away with murder. <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/08/parents-anger-over-quiz-question-including-shooting-at-trump-as-possible-answer/" type="external">Breitbart</a> reports:</p>
<p>According to the news report, junior Rylee McCollum took a screenshot of the question and showed it to his father, Jim McCollum, who was angered by the question.</p>
<p>“It’s about respect for the office more than anything,” McCollum said. “That’s enough of this. No way.”</p>
<p>McCollum reportedly voted for Trump in the 2016 election, though he admits he “cringes at some of the things he says.”</p>
<p>“It was so inappropriate to show a name of a sitting president in that question,” McCollum said. “To me, that is so wrong in light of the situation in our country and the divisiveness and all.” Many other parents agreed with McCollum, one of them stating that “liberal bias” has infected the high school</p>
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<p>This question is of paramount importance, in the wake of the tragic Las Vegas massacre which specifically targeted country fans. The left has been normalizing violence against conservatives for over a year now, and some have pointed out that if we don’t stop it soon, we may just see another massacre.</p>
<p>James Hodgkinson, the Stephen Scalise shooter, was allegedly influenced by the liberal media to carry out his sick deed. Every single day CNN, MSNBC, and the other liberal news outlets spread hatred and fear, encouraging liberals to attack conservatives…and if they don’t stop soon enough, we may have an all out civil war on our hands.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Teacher Gives An “Assassinate Trump” Quiz – Look At The Question She Asked Students (VIDEO) | true | http://silenceisconsent.net/disgusting-teacher-gives-assassinate-trump-quiz-look-sick-question-asks/ | 2018-04-05 | 0 |
<p>Aug. 26 (UPI) — The R&amp;B vocal group Boyz II Men is releasing a new album called Under the Streetlight on Oct. 20.</p>
<p>The set will feature “a personal selection of timeless songs chosen by founding member Nathan Morris, tenor Shawn Stockman and Wanya Morris, plus one original song — all with a Boyz II Men twist,” a press release said. The album will also include guest appearances by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brian_McKnight/" type="external">Brian McKnight</a>, Amber Riley and Take 6.</p>
<p>“Growing up and experiencing doo-wop music definitely influenced Boyz II Men’s sound,” Nathan Morris said in a statement. “Under the Streetlight has been a passion project that we’ve wanted to create for a while to bring us back to our roots and make the music that inspired us when we first started the group.”</p>
<p>Boyz II Men is in residency at the Mirage in Las Vegas. The group also frequently tours.</p> | New Boyz II Men album set for release on Oct. 20 | false | https://newsline.com/new-boyz-ii-men-album-set-for-release-on-oct-20/ | 2017-08-26 | 1 |
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<p>She was to headline a telethon Tuesday from Nashville, featuring performances from Reba McEntire, Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams Jr., Chris Stapleton, Cyndi Lauper and more. The telethon was to be broadcast on Great American Country, AXS-TV, RFD and The Heartland Network at 8 p.m. Eastern and streamed live on USAToday.com and affiliate newspapers in Tennessee.</p>
<p>Parton set a lofty goal of giving $1,000 to every family that has lost their primary residence through the Dollywood Foundation My People Fund.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t sound like a lot of money but we’re talking about thousands of people, hundreds and hundreds of people,” Parton said Tuesday. “If we could give $1,000 a month for six months, that would give people a chance. And if we raise more money than we hope to, then we’ll just do more.”</p>
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<p>This Christmas, she’ll return home to East Tennessee to see the damage from the fires that spread to more than 2,500 structures in Sevier County and killed 14 people.</p>
<p>“I’ll get to have Christmas with my family in those warm cozy houses, but we know that there are so many this time of year that are not going to get to have Christmas in a warm cozy house because they are gone,” Parton said. “So that’s why it is so important that we do what we can. But I am sure I will be devastated when I see some of the stuff.”</p>
<p>Her famous friends stepped up to help before the telethon even began, with large donations from Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift, the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.</p>
<p>Parton said she feels a kinship to all the hard-working mountain people who have lost so much around her.</p>
<p>“We are mountain tough,” Parton said. “They have to be tough. You have to be physically tough, you have to be emotionally tough, and you have to be strong. People have to scrape their living out of the soil in a lot of ways.”</p>
<p>She added: “That’s why it is so important because all of these people, even though they are not blood kin, they really do feel like my people.”</p>
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<p>For more information, visit dollywoodfoundation.org</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Follow Kristin M. Hall at Twitter.com/kmhall</p> | Dolly Parton gives support to wildfire victims, ‘my people’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/908242/dolly-parton-gives-support-to-wildfire-victims-my-people.html | 2016-12-13 | 2 |
<p>Thursday on “Varney &amp; Co.” former New York Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent sat down to talk Charity and Major League Baseball salaries with host Stuart Varney. Dent may be best remembered for his home run in a one-game playoff in 1978 that put the Yankees in the playoffs over the Boston Red Sox.</p>
<p>Dent talked to Stuart Varney about the game and how much it meant to him and fans across the country. “I have a lot of people come and talk to me about that because it was such a unique day. “ Dent said, “It was a one game playoff, two great teams, two great cities. That’s something you just don’t forget. “</p>
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<p>He also spoke about salaries in Major League Baseball. “When I was a rookie the minimum was 15 thousand,” Dent said. “So the minimum now is higher than I made in my highest earning years.”</p>
<p>Dent added that he had to work in the winter to supplement his income. “I drove a crane,” he said. “I made more money driving a crane than I made playing baseball.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.</a></p> | A Legend in Pinstripes | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2010/08/05/legend-in-pinstripes.html | 2016-03-18 | 0 |
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<p>Oil&#160;prices were little changed on Monday as supply disruptions in Iraq dented exports by OPEC's second-largest producer and U.S. drilling rates showed a slowdown.</p>
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<p>Oil&#160;exports from southern Iraq have fallen by 110,000 barrels per day this month, according to shipping data and an industry source, adding to the drop in flows caused by a shortfall from the northern Kirkuk fields.</p>
<p>Brent crude settled at $57.37 a barrel, down 38 cents. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude ended the session up 6 cents at $51.90 a barrel.</p>
<p>"It seems like there's an awful lot of competing drivers ...</p>
<p>and crude seems confused," said Stewart Glickman, head of energy research at CFRA Research in New York.</p>
<p>"Volatility has actually been tame, and there's no sustained trend lately that can break us out of this $45-$55 a barrel range."</p>
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<p>The number of U.S. rigs drilling for new&#160;oil&#160;fell by seven to 736 in the week to Oct. 20, the lowest level since June, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday.</p>
<p>But analysts said the reduction in drilling rigs in the United States could prove temporary as activity had been restrained by hurricane threats.</p>
<p>"We think the fall in shale&#160;oil&#160;activity is an indication of rising costs, higher break-evens outside of geological sweet-spots, falling initial well productivity and cash-flow constraints at unsustainably low prices," Standard Chartered said in a note.</p>
<p>"However, the turn down in drilling has yet to temper the optimism of most forecasts of U.S. output growth in 2018."</p>
<p>Market participants also await data from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) later in the week for clues on the pace of rebalancing. U.S crude inventories likely fell for the fifth straight week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.</p>
<p>Prices have been supported over the past few sessions by supply disruptions in northern Iraq, where tensions have been high since the Kurdistan region's vote in favour of independence last month.</p>
<p>Crude&#160;oil&#160;exports through the Iraqi Kurdistan controlled-pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan rose to 288,000 bpd on Monday afternoon, from 255,000 bpd earlier in the day, a shipping source told Reuters.</p>
<p>Typically, the pipeline transports about 600,000 bpd.</p>
<p>Security sources told Reuters Iraqi forces were deploying tanks and artillery near a Kurdish-held area of northern Iraq where a section of the Kurdish&#160;oil&#160;export pipeline is located.</p>
<p>U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan region on Monday to resolve their conflict over Kurdish self-determination and disputed territories through dialogue.</p>
<p>Potential further steps by OPEC, rising global&#160;oil&#160;demand and the reduction in U.S. drilling and its crude&#160;oil&#160;stocks are some of the factors that could raise&#160;oilprices in the short term, said Frank Schallenberger, head of commodity research at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg.</p>
<p>"I wouldn't be surprised to see WTI going up to $55 a barrel and Brent to $60 a barrel before the beginning of November," he said.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Karolin Schaps in Amsterdam and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Edmund Blair and Cynthia Osterman)</p> | Oil steady, supported by Iraq disruptions and drop in US rigs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/22/oil-holds-gains-supported-by-iraq-disruptions-and-drop-in-u-s-rigs.html | 2017-10-23 | 0 |
<p>President Donald Trump has shifted his sharpest economic criticism away from the southern U.S. border and toward the neighbor to the north.</p>
<p>His tougher talk on Canada -- over longstanding dairy and lumber disputes -- is raising concerns that a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement could grow more complicated and affect Ottawa as much as Mexico City.</p>
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<p>"We can't let Canada or anybody else take advantage and do what they did to our workers and to our farmers," Mr. Trump said Thursday at an unrelated trade announcement on steel. "We're going to have to get to the negotiating table with Canada very, very quickly."</p>
<p>The president's latest comments follow similar rhetoric while he was in Wisconsin this week. Mr. Trump also has increasingly aired frustration about the delays he faces in working with Congress to get started renegotiating Nafta, including during an interview this month with The Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>At the same time, Mr. Trump has largely avoided confrontations with Mexico since quarreling with President Enrique Peña Nieto over who would pay for a border wall, a spat that led to a canceled visit.</p>
<p>The critical tone toward Canada contrasts with his warm words for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the Canadian leader visited the White House in February. At the time, Mr. Trump said, "We have a very outstanding trade relationship with Canada," adding that they would be only "tweaking" Nafta.</p>
<p>"Canada needs to prepare for any eventuality and be ready to vigorously defend Canadian interests, but overreacting to the president's rhetoric would be a mistake," said Roland Paris, professor of international affairs at University of Ottawa and Mr. Trudeau's former foreign-policy adviser.</p>
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<p>At the heart of objections from Mr. Trump is Canada's supply-management system for the dairy industry. Under this scheme, prices for dairy products are set based on the average costs of production. Production is controlled through a regulated quota system, and foreign competition is thwarted through steep tariffs.</p>
<p>The governors of Wisconsin and New York said in a letter to Mr. Trump this week that a recent move by Canada closed off the Canadian market for U.S.-produced ultra-filtered milk, which is used for cheese-making.</p>
<p>U.S. unease has been brewing for years over the dairy restrictions, and the issue complicated negotiations of a Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, an unratified 12-nation trade deal that Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. out of in January.</p>
<p>In Toronto on Thursday, Mr. Trudeau defended Canada's supply-management system, arguing it was working "very well" for the country.</p>
<p>"Let's not pretend we are in a global free market when it comes to agriculture. Every country protects for good reason its agricultural industries," he said at an event organized by Bloomberg News, before Mr. Trump's comments.</p>
<p>Next week will present another test in the U.S.-Canada trade relationship when the U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to rule on whether Canada unfairly subsidizes its lumber industry. A judgment against Canada could result in a fresh set of tariffs applied to lumber imports from Canada.</p>
<p>Another decision focusing on dumping, or whether Canadian lumber was sold into the U.S. at a price less than fair value, has been delayed until June. Both the lumber and dairy issues are important to key members of Congress who have influence on trade policy.</p>
<p>Part of the problem for the Trump administration is that its pick for U.S. trade representative -- Washington lawyer Robert Lighthizer -- hasn't been confirmed by the Senate. Administration officials expect the Senate to move a waiver needed for Mr. Lighthizer's confirmation as a part of spending legislation at the end of the month.</p>
<p>Once Mr. Lighthizer is in place, the administration is expected to consult key lawmakers on Nafta, then send formal notification that it intends to start negotiations with Canada and Mexico in 90 days.</p>
<p>"We'll be reporting back sometime over the next two weeks as to Nafta and what we're going to do about it," Mr. Trump said Thursday.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 20, 2017 17:59 ET (21:59 GMT)</p> | Trump Toughens Talk on Canada | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/20/trump-toughens-talk-on-canada.html | 2017-04-20 | 0 |
<p>Provided by Legacy Recordings</p>
<p />
<p>Elvis PresleyElvis: That’s the Way It Is (Deluxe Edition) RCA/Legacy</p>
<p>How many versions of Elvis singing Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” would you like to hear? Is eight enough? That’s what you get on this mammoth eight-CD (plus two-DVD) set. Revisiting one of the true high points of his career,&#160;Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (Deluxe Edition) chronicles his summer 1970 run of shows in Las Vegas, when The King was in undeniably fine voice and great spirits. Contents include the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That%27s_the_Way_It_Is_%28Elvis_Presley_album%29" type="external">original album</a> of the same name, six complete shows (with not-quite-identical set lists), a fun disc of rehearsals, and, on the DVD side, the original theatrical release of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis:_That%27s_the_Way_It_Is" type="external">film</a> chronicling the shows, as well as the special edition from 2001. Yes, it’s overkill, but also surprisingly, compulsively entertaining—assuming already you’re a fan. Encompassing the rollicking rock of his youth and the grandiosity of his grown-up self, Elvis would never sound this great again, whether belting out “Hound Dog” or getting convincingly angsty on a latter-day gem like the soaring “Suspicious Minds.” If it becomes disconcerting to hear him cover other people’s hits (for example, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”), or indulge in corn like “The Wonder of You,” or break the mood with dopey wisecracks, ultimately Elvis’s obvious delight in being onstage transcends any shortcomings in the repertoire. Binge-listening is permitted. &#160;</p>
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<p /> | A New Album From Elvis? Sort of. | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/elvis-thats-the-way-it-is-new-cd-set/ | 2014-08-11 | 4 |
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<p>Image source: PayPal.</p>
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<p>Everybody loves tech stocks, and for good reasons. When considering factors such as growth potential, opportunities for profitability, and availability of investment choices for different risk levels, the tech sector is one of the most promising areas of the market.</p>
<p>Extraordinary growth potentialYou can find companies with attractive potential for growth in all corners of the market. Growth is mostly about the company's culture and innovative drive, so opportunities for above-average expansion aren't limited to a particular sector. Nevertheless, technology is an especially fertile ground for innovation, so the tech sector is an ideal place to go hunting for companies with superior potential for sustained growth.</p>
<p>Netflix is a great example to consider. The online streaming leader is already quite a big business, expected to generate $8.78 billion in total revenue in 2016. However, the company is growing at a speed you don't typically find in companies of that size. Total revenue grew by an impressive 23% year over year in 2015.</p>
<p>Even better, Netflix still offers significant room for growth. The service is now available almost everywhere in the world, amounting to what management says is a total addressable market of nearly 550 million homes. Given that Netflix had 75 million subscribers as of the end of 2015, there's abundant room left for global expansion.</p>
<p>Similarly, digital-payments leader PayPal is expected to produce $10.66 billion in total sales this year, and the company announced a big 19% increase in constant currency revenue in 2015. Management calculates that the total market opportunity for PayPal is worth around $2.5 trillion when considering both online and mobile digital payments, so PayPal is far from reaching any kind of market saturation levels at this stage.</p>
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<p>Most companies face slowing growth as they gain size over the years. After all, it's increasingly difficult to sustain rapid growth from a bigger revenue base. On the other hand, companies such as Netflix and PayPal are the leading players in emerging growth industries such as online streaming and digital payments, and this provides exceptional opportunities for sustained growth over the long term.</p>
<p>Superior profitabilityNot every tech company offers above-average profitability, but you can find some amazingly profitable businesses in the tech sector if you know where to look. Priceline Group is a global leader in online travel agencies, meaning the companies that provide access to hotel rooms, plane tickets, and rental car reservations online. The company is not only growing at a rapid rate but also retaining a huge percentage of sales as profits.</p>
<p>Priceline operates mostly under the agency business model. The company allows industry operators to list their own offers and prices on Priceline's platforms, and it makes a commission on every transaction. That means Priceline doesn't need to worry about inventory risk and associated costs, which is a major positive in terms of profitability.</p>
<p>Based on financial reports for 2015, Priceline produced $9.2 billion in revenue during the year, with constant-currency gross bookings increasing 25% versus 2014 levels. Operating profit was almost $3.3 billion during the year, equating to a stratospheric 36% of revenue.</p>
<p>Reducing risk via diversificationInnovation can be a double-edged sword for investors. Companies in innovative sectors benefit from above-average potential for growth and profitability. On the other hand, these areas of the economy are especially dynamic and always changing. The winner of today can easily turn out the be the loser of tomorrow in the tech industry, so investors need to keep a close eye on the competitive landscape when picking stocks in the sector.</p>
<p>Investing in technology via exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can be a powerful strategy to capitalize on the opportunities in the tech industry while reducing company-specific risk via diversification.</p>
<p>Vanguard Information Technology is a great vehicle to consider. The ETF offers a widely diversified portfolio consisting of over 380 stocks in different subsectors of the tech industry, including areas such as hardware and peripherals, software, and Internet companies, among several others. Not only that, but this diversification comes at a conveniently low cost. Vanguard Information Technology has a razor-thin annual expense ratio of only 0.1%.</p>
<p>For investors who think picking individual stocks in the tech sector can be too risky, an ETF such as Vanguard Information Technology sounds like a smart choice to invest in technology via an efficiently diversified and low-cost strategy.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/13/3-reasons-to-love-tech-stocks.aspx" type="external">3 Reasons to Love Tech Stocks Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/acardenal/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Andrs Cardenal Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Netflix and Priceline Group. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix, PayPal Holdings, and Priceline Group. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Reasons to Love Tech Stocks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/13/3-reasons-to-love-tech-stocks.html | 2016-04-13 | 0 |
<p>“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.&#160;If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to&#160;keep your&#160;health care plan. Period.” Repeated for more than three years by President Barack Obama, &#160;this is a phrase nearly everyone in America now knows.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>The problem is, for millions of Americans,&#160;it is not true. Millions of previously insured Americans have received cancellations from insurance companies. Doctor groups are not part of the exchanges.</p>
<p>And the problems are only getting worse — now you may not be able to keep your prescriptions.</p>
<p>“If you like your medicines, you may not be able to keep them under Obamacare,” health policy analyst Scott Gottlieb&#160; <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottlieb/2013/12/09/no-you-cant-keep-your-drugs-either-under-obamacare/" type="external">wrote</a>&#160;in Forbes. “Health plans are cheapening their drug formularies — just like they cheapened their networks of doctors. That’s how they’re paying for the benefits that President Obama promised, everything from free contraception to a leveling of premiums between older (and typically costlier) beneficiaries, and younger consumers.”</p>
<p>The Affordable Care Act is one big ponzi scheme.</p>
<p>The system won’t work without doctors.</p>
<p>“An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state’s Obamacare&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/health-care-exchanges" type="external">health insurance exchange</a>&#160;and won’t participate, the head of the state’s largest medical association said,” the <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/doctors-boycotting-californias-obamacare-exchange/article/2540272" type="external">Washington Examiner</a> recently reported.</p>
<p>“California offers one of the lowest government reimbursement rates in the country — 30 percent lower than federal <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/medicare-and-medicaid" type="external">Medicare</a>&#160;payments,” the <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/doctors-boycotting-californias-obamacare-exchange/article/2540272" type="external">Examiner</a> said. “And reimbursement rates for some procedures are even lower.”</p>
<p>Doctors can’t work for free. Many doctors run small businesses.&#160;“We need some recognition that we’re doing a service to the community,” California Medical Association President Dr. Richard Thorp told the Examiner. “And we can’t do it at a loss. No other business would do that.”</p>
<p>One California doctor said Medicare reimburses a return doctor office visit at $76 in San Diego, California. The Medicaid reimbursement is only $24. <a href="http://www.medicaid.gov" type="external">Medicaid</a> is government health coverage for low-income and welfare recipients.</p>
<p>Covered California has been secretive about its plan reimbursement rates, and doctors now say rates will be close to the Medicaid reimbursements. Doctor networks cannot afford to work for a fraction of the cost.</p>
<p>IT experts are now warning the Healthcare.gov Obamacare computer system directs users to fraudulent health care websites.</p>
<p>Some Healthcare.gov users are reporting they were told their user password was incorrect, and then the website directed them to a “forgot password” page — which asked for highly personal information.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/dc-health-link-scam-100793.html#ixzz2n5Rk4Y96" type="external">Politico</a> reported The D.C. insurance exchange where thousands of Hill aides are shopping has confirmed that an outside scammer is redirecting customers to a fraudulent website.</p>
<p>“Some shoppers are being directed from the insurance website to an outside site that appears nearly identical to the real exchange, officials confirmed Friday,” Politico <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/dc-health-link-scam-100793.html" type="external">reported</a>. “The fraud is widespread enough that they’re considering adding disclaimers to its website to warn users against divulging their check card or PIN numbers.”</p>
<p>“Yes, we have heard of it. There is definitely a phishing scam from an outside source,” said Richard Sorian, a spokesman for D.C. Health Link.</p>
<p>A&#160; <a href="http://disb.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/disb/page_content/attachments/Scammerstakeadvantageofhealthreformconfusion_0.pdf" type="external">notice&#160;</a>on the exchange’s website warns consumers against being “fooled by fake websites claiming to help you.”</p>
<p>How do you know if you are on a fake Obamacare exchange website? If it doesn’t crash.</p> | Obamacare docs ‘just say no’ | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/12/10/obamacare-docs-just-say-no/ | 2018-12-20 | 3 |
<p />
<p>McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD) said on Thursday it is replacing Jan Fields, president of its U.S. business.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The move comes a week after the world's largest hamburger chain reported its first monthly decline in global restaurant sales in nine years.</p>
<p>Fields, 57, will be succeeded by Jeff Stratton, currently the company's global chief restaurant officer.</p>
<p>Company spokeswoman Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem said the move was "a business decision by senior management."</p>
<p>"We feel that now was the right time to make a change in leadership for the U.S. business," Shekhem said. She said she did not know what Fields's future plans were.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>McDonald's replaced its chief executive officer in July.</p>
<p>Fields has been with McDonald's for more than 35 years.</p>
<p>(Reporting By Martinne Geller in New York; editing by John Wallace)</p> | McDonald's Replacing Its U.S. Chief | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/11/15/mcdonald-replacing-its-us-chief.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s unconventional policy tools have successfully fought of the threat of deflation and will eventually raise inflation back to target, ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“By keeping a sufficient degree of monetary policy accommodation we can be confident that our goal will eventually be reached, in accordance with our mandate,” Constancio told a conference in Frankfurt.</p>
<p>Having undershot its target for over four years, the ECB is now contemplating whether to ease back on stimulus, accepting that inflation will take longer to reach its target of almost 2 percent.</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | ECB will eventually hit inflation target: Constancio | false | https://newsline.com/ecb-will-eventually-hit-inflation-target-constancio/ | 2017-09-12 | 1 |
<p>AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — Jordan Goodwin scored 19 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists and Saint Louis rolled to 66-47 win over Massachusetts on Saturday.</p>
<p>Goodwin was 8 of 15 from the field including a pair of 3-pointers for the Billikens (10-10, 3-4 Atlantic 10). Hasahn French added 12 points and 10 rebounds, Davell Roby had 10 points and Javon Bess had nine points and seven rebounds.</p>
<p>Saint Louis shot 52 percent compared to 35 percent for UMass and had a 37-25 rebounding edge. The Billikens scored first and never trailed, building to a 38-27 lead at the break.</p>
<p>Jalen Johnson drained a 3-pointer to make it 58-38 with 8:04 to play and UMass made just three field goals after that.</p>
<p>Luwane Pipkins scored 17 points with four rebounds for the Minutemen (10-10, 3-4). Carl Pierre added 13 points.</p>
<p>AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — Jordan Goodwin scored 19 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists and Saint Louis rolled to 66-47 win over Massachusetts on Saturday.</p>
<p>Goodwin was 8 of 15 from the field including a pair of 3-pointers for the Billikens (10-10, 3-4 Atlantic 10). Hasahn French added 12 points and 10 rebounds, Davell Roby had 10 points and Javon Bess had nine points and seven rebounds.</p>
<p>Saint Louis shot 52 percent compared to 35 percent for UMass and had a 37-25 rebounding edge. The Billikens scored first and never trailed, building to a 38-27 lead at the break.</p>
<p>Jalen Johnson drained a 3-pointer to make it 58-38 with 8:04 to play and UMass made just three field goals after that.</p>
<p>Luwane Pipkins scored 17 points with four rebounds for the Minutemen (10-10, 3-4). Carl Pierre added 13 points.</p> | Goodwin with 19, Saint Louis rolls to 66-47 win over UMass | false | https://apnews.com/amp/da4c46b511c24cf693e33bc519837f76 | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
<p>An elderly Massachussetts woman who wrote a letter to the Boston Globe denouncing Donald Trump now fears for her life after the Ku Klux Klan responded to her legitimate criticism of their favored presidential candidate. Louise Mayerson has been through a lot in her 84 years on this planet, coming from a &#160;family who was forced to flee Austria when she was a child to escape Adolf Hitler’s regime — but now she is forced to relive the terror her family felt as they fled the Nazis.</p>
<p>Mayerson ‘s letter, <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2016/03/02/trump-wavering-over-kkk-member-poses-chilling-threat/9EXOa1212uH6L1F7v32IbO/story.html" type="external">published March 2</a>, criticizes Trump’s initial reticence in denouncing the numerous, numerous white supremacists who have publicly endorsed him:</p>
<p>I AM an Austrian refugee from the time of Hitler who has been a US citizen for more than 70 years. I have found some alarming rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that is apparently finding approval from large numbers of my fellow Americans. With Trump’s rather ambiguous response concerning his disavowal of the support of former Klansman David Duke, I have reached my breaking point ( <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/02/28/trump-wavers-disavowing-david-duke/Dj5GRPh70A47N1fSCUa3UJ/story.html" type="external">“Trump wavers on disavowing ex-KKK member,”</a> Page A2, Feb. 29).</p>
<p>We all know the opinions and actions the Ku Klux Klan stands for. Among the fellow Americans the KKK has sought out for its venom are American Jews. Trump’s failure to immediately repudiate Duke chilled my blood.</p>
<p>I can see myself needing to flee once more and perhaps return to my native country in Europe, where hateful rhetoric is now strictly forbidden and punishable by law.</p>
<p>“My outrage grows and grows and grows,” Mayerson said in an interview following the publication of her letter. “And it’s flamed by the irresponsible actions, frankly, of Donald Trump.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the 84-year-old’s expression of her completely legitimate misgivings about Trump’s association with white supremacists was enough to throw them into a fit of rage. Days later, she received an envelop postmarked in Boston, There was no return address — after all, the Klan isn’t exactly known for being forthcoming with their identities. There wasn’t even a letter. <a href="http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/hate-on-display/c/blood-drop-cross.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/#.Vuw2fPkrKUk" type="external">Enclosed was a single Klan symbol</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“I believe somebody just read that letter, it touched a nerve, and that’s the way they reacted,” Mayerson said. She contacted Arlington police, who are currently investigating the matter. They also contacted the&#160;Human Rights Commission, which assists hate crime victims. Mayerson says she is pleased with law enforcement’s response, and that she is distressed by the&#160; “poisonous atmosphere that has been created” by Trump’s rhetoric that can ” lead to some pretty unpleasant things for all of us.”</p>
<p>Robert O. Trestan, regional director of the <a href="http://newengland.adl.org/" type="external">Anti-Defamation League</a>, says that Trump’s rhetoric will help this sort of thing to become commonplace:</p>
<p>“The more that hateful and denigrating speech becomes commonplace in the public realm from leaders, the greater the likelihood that people will start acting up, whether it’s harassment via the mail or violence.”</p>
<p>A Trump spokeswoman refused to comment on the incident, though she did point out that the candidate&#160;did finally denounce his David Duke endorsement after he was unable to handle the media scrutiny:</p>
<p>“Mr. Trump has disavowed David Duke, the KKK and all other groups that espouse similar views. He will continue to do so.”</p>
<p>Trump may&#160;say he disavows the KKK and other white supremacists, but in the past <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/11/23/donald_trump_retweets_racist_factually_challenged_infographic_about_black_on_black_crime/" type="external">he has tweeted some of their propaganda</a>. In fact, based on a week of data collection, <a href="http://www.getlittlebird.com/blog/data-62-of-the-people-donald-trump-rted-this-week-follow-multiple-white-supremacist-accounts" type="external">62 percent of the people Trump retweets are white supremacists.</a>&#160;Unfortunately, The Donald is exactly the sort of person who is popular with the White Power Rangers in&#160;the United States — and as long as we tolerate his hate speech, we can expect that this sort of thing will become the new normal.</p>
<p>Featured image via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js-JruvsB10" type="external">YouTube</a></p> | KKK Just Threatened An 84-Year-Old Woman Who Fled Hitler After She Criticized Trump | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2016/03/18/kkk-just-threatened-an-84-year-old-woman-who-fled-hitler-after-she-criticized-trump/ | 2016-03-18 | 4 |
<p>CARACAS, Venezuela — The US government is kicking out three Venezuelan diplomats, the latest tit-for-tat move against South America’s loudest critic of Washington.</p>
<p>The State Department said late Tuesday it had told Venezuela’s charge d'affaires in Washington, Calixto Ortega, and two other diplomatic corps members they had 48 hours to leave the United States — an echo of a similar order by Venezuela to the US Embassy in Caracas earlier this week.</p>
<p>"It is regrettable that the Venezuelan government has again decided to expel US diplomatic officials based on groundless allegations, which require reciprocal action. It is counterproductive to the interests of both our countries," the State Department said.</p>
<p>On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he’d ordered the expulsion of three US Embassy staff members, including Washington’s top envoy to Caracas, accusing them of meeting with the Venezuelan “far right” and funding economic moves to sabotage the economy.</p>
<p>"Yankees go home! Get out of Venezuela! Enough of this abuse!" Maduro said Monday on state television, giving them 48 hours to leave.</p>
<p>Below is a YouTube video from Venezuelan television of his address in Spanish.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Venezuela has expelled several US officials and <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130605/timothy-tracy-venezuela-frees-expels-us-filmmaker" type="external">citizens</a> since Maduro took over after his mentor Hugo Chavez’s death in March. The allegations have ranged from spying to working to destabilize the oil-rich South American country.</p>
<p>This latest accusation is not new. "Far right" is a label the leftist government uses to criticize the opposition, which is made up of politicians of various political stripes. The Venezuelan government has long accused Washington of colluding with them.</p>
<p>As far as heightening tensions with Western foes, it has been a busy few weeks for Maduro.</p>
<p>He’s leveled accusations that France-based aircraft maker <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130925/venezuelas-maduro-considers-legal-action-against-airbus-over-fa" type="external">Airbus sabotaged</a> his presidential plane and that <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130926/venezuelas-maduro-skips-unga-citing-us-led-death-thr" type="external">the United States plotted to kill him</a>.</p>
<p>Last week, he had a phone call with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and voiced his support for the embattled regime amid wide international condemnation.</p>
<p>What Maduro may lack in his predecessor's charisma and cult-like popularity, many observers say, he has sought to make up for with attempts to imitate Chavez’s characteristic anti-Western imperialist bravado.</p>
<p>Beyond revolutionary heroics, critics say Maduro’s mostly unsubstantiated allegations point to troubles at home.</p>
<p>Prices here have risen more than 45 percent in the last year. Shortages of basic items such as toilet paper and newsprint persist, as the US dollar becomes more difficult to obtain thanks to currency controls enacted a decade ago.</p>
<p>Maduro's allegations against the US diplomats recalled another important problem. Venezuela has suffered blackouts for years. In September, when a big power outage hit, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130903/venezuela-hit-blackout-government-blames-sabotage" type="external">Maduro blamed his "far right" opponents</a> once more. Now he's alleged the embassy staff worked to "encourage actions to sabotage the power system and the economy."</p>
<p>US officials deny the accusations.</p>
<p>“We completely reject the Venezuelan government’s allegations of US government involvement in any type of conspiracy to destabilize the Venezuelan government,” the US Embassy said in a statement. The statement did acknowledge holding meetings with politicians across Venezuela's political spectrum.</p>
<p>Opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski, a centrist who lost elections against both Chavez and Maduro in the last year, reacted to the latest US diplomat expulsions <a href="https://twitter.com/hcapriles/status/384773163155873792" type="external">over Twitter</a>: “It’s just a smokescreen to cover up their inability to manage the country.”</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130903/venezuelan-economics-newspaper-shortage" type="external">Venezuela's press is dying from a paper shortage</a></p>
<p>Venezuelans judge Maduro harshly against his predecessor. As divisive as he was, Chavez was wildly popular during his 14-year presidency and won his final election in October by 11 percentage points.</p>
<p>Maduro, on the other hand, mustered an election victory in April of fewer than 2 points. His approval ratings have now dropped, according to some local pollsters, lower than his opponent.</p>
<p>To counter that, observers say, government rhetoric is following the same line it did under Chavez — sometimes with even more bite. The moves are designed to play well at home, analysts say, regardless of the damage they do in international circles.</p>
<p>Maduro boasted of his 20-minute phone conversation with Assad, who had given a rare interview to Venezuela’s pro-government Telesur TV channel.</p>
<p>“I told him that the Venezuelan people support and accompany the people of Syria in their fight against the terrorist armies that the United States and the West armed to overthrow him [Assad],” Maduro <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euH4c7_h8jo" type="external">said</a> on state television late on Thursday night. “Syria is not alone.”</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130829/venezuelan-syria-war-assad-Abdel-el-Zabayar-Maduro" type="external">Venezuelan lawmaker vows to fight for Syrian army</a></p>
<p>Indeed, Syrian authorities say they’re keen on Latin America as a model for their own region.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Assad&amp;src=hash" type="external">#Assad</a>: Arab states should follow the path of Latin America if we want to make a mark in the world, to be independent and advanced.</p>
<p>— Syrian Presidency (@Presidency_Sy) <a href="https://twitter.com/Presidency_Sy/statuses/383046281091747842" type="external">September 26, 2013</a></p>
<p>Maduro said Assad told him Syria's government — which has waged a bloody two-and-a-half-year war against partly Western-backed rebel groups — this week would announce plans to send a “high-level delegation” to Latin America to “bring the truth” to the region.</p>
<p>Maduro was foreign minister under Chavez for six years and is responsible for implementing his firebrand predecessor’s policies abroad. They've been highly controversial: Venezuela warmed up not just to Assad but to international pariahs from&#160;former Iranian leader <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/120622/chavez-and-ahmadinejad-affair-remember" type="external">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</a> to late Libyan dictator <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/news/regions/americas/venezuela/chavez-speaks-out-gaddafi-death" type="external">Muammar Gaddafi</a>.</p>
<p>With those friends, Caracas shared a love of hating the Great Satan of American superpower.</p>
<p>The fraught relationship between Chavez and the US came to a nadir in 2006 at the United Nations General Assembly when the self-styled socialist stood at the lectern and theatrically sniffed the air. “The devil came here yesterday,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOsABwCrn3E" type="external">he said</a>, referring to then US President George W. Bush. “It smells of sulfur still.”</p>
<p>Maduro missed the latest UN General Assembly last week. Yet his trip that ultimately avoided the New York event did feature drama of its own.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, before the 50-year-old president even took off to China to sign oil and lending agreements, he <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130919/venezuela-says-us-bans-maduro-flying-over-puerto-rico" type="external">accused US authorities</a> of refusing to allow his plane to fly over the US airspace of Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>“Denying a head of state permission to fly through airspace that they [the US] colonized, as in Puerto Rico, is a grave error,” Maduro said on state TV.</p>
<p>But the US flatly denied Maduro’s accusation, saying Venezuelan authorities failed to make a proper request yet permission was granted regardless.</p>
<p>It’s not clear why the row erupted. Puerto Rico is far from any direct flight path between Caracas and Paris (Maduro’s stopover on the way to Beijing).</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130501/signs-venezuela-us-washington-rocky-relations" type="external">5 signs Venezuela-US relations are still rocky after Chavez</a></p>
<p>On his way back from China, Maduro stopped off in Vancouver before the UN General Assembly in New York. However, intelligence of “ <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130926/venezuelas-maduro-skips-unga-citing-us-led-death-thr" type="external">provocations</a> that could threaten [his] life” led him to skip the UN meeting entirely and fly straight back to Caracas.</p>
<p>When he arrived here, Maduro <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=Xjdn4S7hczU#t=31" type="external">added Airbus</a> to the list of those out to get him.</p>
<p>After five months of maintenance in France, Maduro said technicians here found a “serious fault” in one of the wings of his presidential plane. The company, he said, would have to answer for the fault, as legal action is prepared.</p>
<p>Airbus in response said that it would help Venezuela investigate.</p>
<p>After the “provocations” that persuaded Maduro and his entourage to sidestep New York and the UN, the president suggested that the headquarters of the international organization be moved to a “safer” location such as “Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro or some other place in Latin America.”</p>
<p>On Saturday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua spoke at the UN in lieu of his boss to little of the fanfare received by Chavez seven years ago.</p>
<p>“Sadly,” he <a href="http://t.co/s9KpYf0sVk" type="external">said</a>, “it still smells of sulfur.” &#160;</p> | Venezuela's 'smells like sulfur' diplomacy | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-01/venezuelas-smells-sulfur-diplomacy | 2013-10-01 | 3 |
<p>President Obama downplayed his foreign roots while on the campaign trail. Now his African heritage, and multi-ethnic family are part of the presidential narrative. Mr.Obama doesn't appear to have family in Sudan. But that doesn't mean people there aren't claiming him for their own. Some are even borrowing his name to drum up a little business. Heba Aly has the story</p>
<p>Aly: In a suburb of Khartoum, a big, professional-looking sign marks the Barack Obama Salon. It has the new president's picture and his name written in Arabic.</p>
<p>Inside, the walls are painted deep yellow. A TV plays an American show as a barber shaves a client's head. Yassir Yagoob is the owner's brother.</p>
<p>Yagoob: "We opened the day after Obama was elected, Yagoob says. As soon as the results came out, we brought out the sign with his picture and hung it up. For the president of America to be an African is an amazing thing. We're proud. Not just as Sudanese, but as Africans."</p>
<p>Aly: Not only are they proud, but they have high hopes too.</p>
<p>Yagoob: "The most important thing, Yagoob says, is for Obama to bring peace to the Middle East. I hope Obama creates peace in Gaza, Afghanistan and Iraq and to help bring peace to Sudan, Darfur."</p>
<p>Aly: A Sudanese flag and a picture of Obama are taped to the wall. One barber wears an Obama t-shirt. A n other, Nizar Mohammed Ahmed, describes the Obama special.</p>
<p>Ahmed: "A lot of people wanted something of Obama. We made a haircut and called it Obama. In a day, 10, 15, 20 people come from far away places looking for the Obama haircut. It's a beautiful haircut. It looks just like Obama's cut. It's very normal. Short near the ears and a little more on top."</p>
<p>Aly: The barbers here say just the name has brought in new business. Some come in for a shave just because they see the sign. People driving by on the bus stick their hands out the window and cheer. But the Sudanese government isn't quite so enthusiastic about the new president.</p>
<p>Yassir Yagoob outside the Barack Obama SalonYassir Yagoob outside the Barack Obama Salon</p>
<p>Aly: Analysts say Khartoum had been hoping for a Republican administration. The perception was that Democrats would be tougher on the issue of the conflict in Darfur. Still there are signs that even the government sees hope in President Obama's message of change. Ali Sadig is a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry. When Obama was first elected, he said he was optimistic.</p>
<p>Sadig: "We believe that the democrats are calling for change and we would like this change also to reflect on the foreign policy of the United States."</p>
<p>Aly: Back at the barbershop, Yagoob hopes his shop can contribute.</p>
<p>Yagoob: "God Willing, our sign and our little store can fix the relations between Sudan and America. God Willing, he says. These small things sometimes have a big impact."</p>
<p>Aly: For the World, I'm Heba Aly in Khartoum, Sudan</p> | Sudan's ''Barack Obama salon'' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-01-22/sudans-barack-obama-salon | 2009-01-22 | 3 |
<p>[On June 20, 2004, EPPC Senior Fellow George Weigel delivered the commencement address&#160;for the Religious Studies Division of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook, Pennsylvania.]</p>
<p>Your Eminence, Cardinal Rigali; Bishop Burbidge; Father Prior; Father Costa; Dr. Chapp; distinguished members of the board of trustees; members of the faculty; graduates, students, families, and friends: Thank you for inviting me to share this commencement with you this evening, and for honoring my work with the gift of a degree.</p>
<p>My first words must be of congratulation to you, my fellow-members of the class of 2004 of the Religious Studies Division of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Over the past several years you have become participants in a conversation — the living dialogue of theology and the related disciplines of religious studies —&#160;that has shaped the civilization of the West, and indeed the civilization of the entire world, for millennia. Too much of our contemporary high culture has forgotten its debt to theology. This forgetfulness, and theology’s occasional acquiescence in it, seem to me profound misreadings of the role that the life of the mind plays in the Church and in our culture. Catholic intellectual life has many missions, but its most important mission is evangelical. Since Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Ignatius of Lyons, the Church has fostered the life of the mind in order to teach the world that salvation history, the story of God’s action in history, does not run parallel to world history; salvation history is the world’s history, the world’s story, read in its depth and against its proper, transcendent horizon. Thus your task, in the years ahead, is to put what you have learned to work, in order to help the world understand its true story — the story whose chapter headings are Creation, Fall, Promise, Prophecy, Incarnation, Redemption, Sanctification, and Glorification.</p>
<p>In that story is found the path to genuine human flourishing.</p>
<p>In that story lies the fulfillment of the human aspiration to freedom.</p>
<p>In that story is the satisfaction of the human longing for the truth.</p>
<p>In the fall of 1995, shortly after his pilgrimage to New York, Brooklyn, and Baltimore, Pope John Paul II asked me what the reaction to his visit had been. I told him that a friend, a native of Texas and a high-ranking figure in the Southern Baptist Convention, had said to me, “Down where I come from, we say, ‘You folks have finally got yourself a pope who knows how to pope.’” For once, the polyglot John Paul, who speaks eight languages fluently, was utterly baffled — until I explained that in Texan, a unique form of English, “pope” was both a verb and a noun. And then we both laughed.</p>
<p>My Southern Baptist friend was on to something here, of course. We have all seen many, many ways in which this Pope “knows how to pope”: to be an agent of evangelization, a catalyst for change, a voice of justice for the voiceless, a bridge across chasms of historic misunderstanding and distrust, a witness to hope. The question my friend’s remark specifically poses for us here today is, what does this Pope who knows “how to pope” have to teach us about the vocation of theology&#160;— which I take to be the heart of religious studies&#160;— in the 21st century?</p>
<p>Let me suggest there are four lessons that we can all glean for our future work from the pontificate of John Paul II.</p>
<p>The first lesson is that doctrine is liberating.</p>
<p>In the biblical view of reality, truth binds and frees at the same time. This is a difficult notion for our contemporary culture to grasp. For the better part of two generations now, our culture has been dominated by the idea of freedom as personal autonomy — “I did it my way,” as Frank Sinatra sang, in the theme-song of this ultimately degrading concept of freedom. If we are to help the world recover its true story, we must help the world enlarge its concept of freedom, linking freedom to the liberating power of the truth.</p>
<p>And this means reminding ourselves of the liberating power of doctrine.</p>
<p>It has been said thousands of times before, but it bears saying again: too much of today’s theological debate is conducted through the essentially political and analytically sterile categories of “liberal” and “conservative” approaches to doctrine. These are, we must insist, wholly inappropriate categories for thinking through ancient and complex religious traditions. No one asks whether the Dalai Lama is a “liberal” or a “conservative” Buddhist. Why? Because we instinctively understand that these are the wrong categories to apply to this subtle, learned man and the tradition he represents. The same self-denying ordinance should be applied to contemporary Christian life and the nature of Christian doctrine.</p>
<p>The issue here is not simply one of semantic hygiene. Theology parsed according to these defective criteria — theology that asks whether a given position is “liberal” and “conservative” — distorts the very thing it tries to grasp, for it misses the relationship between tradition and innovation, the static and the dynamic, in the life of the Church. What can seem static in the Great Tradition of Christianity in fact reflects the Church’s internal dynamism and creates the impetus for the unfolding of new, dynamic elements in Christian life. What can seem dead tradition is in fact the engine of development and innovation. Let me take three examples.</p>
<p>The first is Holy Scripture. We know that the canon of Scripture is fixed and that new books are not going to be added to the Old or New Testaments. But the fact that the Church does not add new books to the canon of Scripture does not make Scripture a dead letter. Rather, the canon insures that what is truly the Word of God can be received freshly and in its integrity by every generation of believers, inviting them to a deeper faith through the mediation of the Bible.</p>
<p>Then there is the Church’s sacramental system. The sacraments are not simply traditional rituals, performed because previous generations performed them before us. Rather, the sacraments enable each new generation of Christians to experience the great mysteries of faith — the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord — anew. Every day, the sacraments remind each generation of Christians that just on the far side of the ordinary — water, salt, and oil; bread and wine; marital love and fidelity — lies the extraordinary reality of a God who so loved the world he created that he entered that world, in his son, to redirect the world’s history back toward its true destiny, which is eternal life within the light and love of the Trinity.</p>
<p>Finally, there is the matter of authority. The Church does not have structures of pastoral authority in order to impede human creativity. Rather, authority in the Church exists to insure that Christians do not settle for mediocrity. Authority in the Church is meant to help all of us hold ourselves accountable to the one supreme criterion of faith, the living Christ. This is the great service that pastoral authority does for theology and other forms of Catholic intellectual life, and it should be acknowledged as such.1</p>
<p>All of which means that one of your tasks, as you take up “life after Borromeo,” will be to retrieve and renew the concept of tradition. In the distinctively Christian understanding of the term, “tradition,” which from its Latin root, traditio, means “handing on,” begins inside the very life of God the Holy Trinity.2 That “handing-on” — that radical self-giving that mysteriously enhances both giver and receiver — took flesh in the life of Christ and continues in the Church through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus a venerable formula distinguishes between tradition, the living faith of the dead, and traditionalism, the dead faith of the living. In the theological creativity of John Paul II — in his groundbreaking “theology of the body,” in his social doctrine, in his concept of the “Marian Church” of disciples that makes possible and makes sense of the Petrine Church of jurisdiction and office, in his analysis of the life issues crucial for the human future — we may see at work innovative and compelling teaching, rooted in tradition, reminding the world of the story it too often forgets and creating the foundations for a springtime of evangelization.</p>
<p>Thus the first lesson we might well learn from John Paul II is that we ought to grasp, welcome, and convey to our contemporaries the liberating power of doctrine. Doctrine is not excess baggage weighing us down on our journey of faith. Doctrine is the vehicle that enables the journey to take place.</p>
<p>The second lesson for theology and for the Catholic intellectual life from this Pope who knows “how to pope” is that we must learn once again to think on our knees, not simply at our desks or in our libraries.</p>
<p>During his fourteen years as archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyla did his intellectual work in the chapel of his residence, at a table set up before the Blessed Sacrament. It was a habit he brought with him to Rome. For more than a quarter-century, John Paul II has done much of his intellectual work in the chapel of the papal apartment. That is where he crafts his homilies, his audience addresses, his magisterium. That, he believes, is where Christian thinking is best done, for Christian intellectual life, rightly understood, is another way to “practice the presence.”</p>
<p>Given the circumstances of our lives, not all of us can do our intellectual work&#160;— our study, our writing, our class-preparation, and so forth&#160;— before the Blessed Sacrament. But we can always do that work, quite self-consciously, in the presence of the Lord. If we are to do this, though, we must recognize another ancient truth: namely, that theology&#160;— the heart of Christian intellectual life&#160;— does not take a neutral standpoint, looking at the Church and its tradition from “outside,” as if examining a specimen through a microscope. Theology in the proper vocational sense of the term is always done within the community of faith. And while theology may have multiple audiences, including the world of secular scholarship, theology’s primary audience must always be the community of believers, the Church.</p>
<p>To do theology “on our knees,” to “practice the presence” while doing our Catholic intellectual work, does not mean abandoning critical intelligence. Rather, it means grasping again, like the doctors of the Church, that true wisdom emerges from a dialectic between critical intelligence and a reverent reception of the Great Tradition. The resolution of that dialectic, under grace, is wisdom.</p>
<p>To participate in this dialectic requires that we understand the tradition before we begin critically analyzing it. In an important address to the faculty and students of the Pontifical Gregorian University on December 15, 1979, John Paul II enthusiastically welcomed theology’s new dialogue with contemporary science and modern philosophy, arguing that the signature phrase of his pontificate — “Be not afraid!” — applied to what he termed “the great movements of contemporary thought.” Whatever deepened our understanding of the “whole truth” about humanity and its world, deepens our understanding of Christ, the redeemer of the world, he suggested. Yet genuine theological development in dialogue with modernity, the Pope continued, had to be based on a “responsible assimilation of the patrimony” of Christian wisdom. A good theological education, he implied, does not begin with dismantling the tradition. It begins with learning the tradition. The same can be said of good religious education.</p>
<p>To insist on this ongoing, prayerful dialogue with the Lord as an essential part of your work is more than a methodological consideration. Our times have given us too many examples of what happens when the dialectic between a reverent, prayerful reception of tradition and critical intelligence breaks down, and the tradition is regarded as simply another tool in the theologian’s kit-box, of no greater importance than any other . One of the most frightening of those examples is that of the Deutschechristen, those German Christians who sold the birthright of the Great Tradition for the lethal mess of pottage that was Nazi ideology. As a Deutschechristen pastor once put it, “For us, what Jesus said is not decisive. And Church councils, too, err and have erred. We gladly let ourselves be labeled heretics for this knowledge, for it has always been heretics that have saved the Church’s life.” In plain fact, of course, it was not the Deutschechristen who “saved” the Church during the Third Reich, but theologically astute witnesses like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Edith Stein who exemplified the dialectic of the Great Tradition and critical, contemporary intelligence. And if that suggests that part of the Christian intellectual’s vocation must always be the risk of martyrdom, of giving full and public witness to the truths of the faith, however uncomfortable they may be, then that, too, is something to reflect upon this afternoon.</p>
<p>The third thing we learn from this Pope who “knows how to pope” is that the Catholic life of the mind today must be ecumenical in its sensibility. I use the word “ecumenical” here in several senses.</p>
<p>Theologians and other Catholic religious educators must practice what the great Russian Orthodox theologian, Father Georges Florovsky, once called the “ecumenism of time.” The Catholic conversation today must include, as honored partners, the master theologians of the past. For truth is not confined by the boundaries of chronology, and there is much to be learned today from those who have practiced the vocation of theology in the past, including the very distant past. As the Second Vatican Council understood well, aggiornamento, “updating,” must always proceed from ressourcement, a return to the sources of Christian wisdom in Scripture, the Fathers, and the medieval masters. The ecumenism of time promotes a truly open theological conversation that is prof against the cult of the contemporary.</p>
<p>As Pope John Paul II has demonstrated time and again, most poignantly during his epic pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Catholic theology today, and Catholic religious education today, must also take account of the Church’s roots in the revelation of God contained in Hebrew Bible, as we must take account of Christianity’s common moral border with the Jewish people and of Christianity’s divinely-mandated engagement with living Judaism, the people of the covenant.</p>
<p>And Catholic thinkers today must also be in active conversation with followers of other great world religions, in the confidence that all truths point to the one Truth, who is God. The world doubts that the most deeply-held convictions of human beings can be put into genuine conversation; the world suspects that the encounter between those convictions can only lead to conflict. Catholics in the 21st century must demonstrate how a commitment to the truth is also and always a commitment to an open and respectful conversation with others. In doing so, you will be doing far more than observing the academic proprieties; you will be helping the world recover a crucial lost part of its story.</p>
<p>Finally, we learn from John Paul II that the Christian intellectual life is a vocation to holiness. True theology, the Pope told the Gregorian University in 1979, is an encounter with Christ, and genuine theological teaching is a way to “convey to the young a living experience of him.” That is true of any authentically Christian form of teaching. Theology and the other disciplines you have studied here do not, in other words, exist for themselves; they exist for the Church and for the “formation of Christians.” What we ought to love, the Pope concluded, is not our own skills, formidable as they may or may not be, but what St. Thomas Aquinas called the “excellence of truth.” That is the path to sanctity for all Christian teachers, who share in the universal call to holiness and who are charged with the responsibility of helping lead others to holiness.</p>
<p>In reminding the Church of the liberating nature of doctrine, you will both serve the household of faith and enable our society to understand that genuine freedom is always ordered to truth and finds its fulfillment in genuine human flourishing.</p>
<p>In doing your intellectual work “on your knees,” you will emulate the Master who came not to be served but to serve; and you will remind the world that self-giving, not self-assertion, is the royal road to human happiness.</p>
<p>In pursuing the ecumenism of time, the Christian ecumenical dialogue, the essential conversation with living Judaism and the encounter with the other great world religions, you will remind that world that tolerance means the engagement of differences in respectful dialogue, not the avoidance of differences or the acceptance of a public arena shorn of religiously-grounded moral convictions.</p>
<p>And in pursuing your work as a vocation to holiness, you will sanctify both the Church and the world. The world may have forgotten its story. But it remains, nonetheless, a world that is, in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins, “charged with the grandeur of God” — a world that is yearning for the truth that the followers of Christ are uniquely positioned to offer it.</p>
<p>My fellow-alumni of St. Charles Borromeo seminary, let us be messengers and servants of that truth.</p>
<p>Godspeed on your vocational journey.</p>
<p>George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p>
<p>_________________</p>
<p>NOTES</p>
<p>1 On these points, see Hans Urs von Balthasar, In the Fullness of Faith: On the Centrality of the Distinctively Catholic (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988), pp. 55-57.</p>
<p>2 See Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Drama IV: The Action (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994), pp. 92-93.</p> | Telling the World Its True Story | false | https://eppc.org/publications/telling-the-world-its-true-story/ | 1 |
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<p>BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A crash in western Michigan involving two tractor-trailers has damaged and closed a highway overpass.</p>
<p>Michigan State Police say the semi-trucks were carrying an oversized shipping container Friday night when they struck the 100th Street overpass on U.S. 131 in Byron Township, south of Grand Rapids. Nobody was hurt.</p>
<p>The highway was shut down for about an hour but the overpass remains closed as inspections continue.</p>
<p>BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A crash in western Michigan involving two tractor-trailers has damaged and closed a highway overpass.</p>
<p>Michigan State Police say the semi-trucks were carrying an oversized shipping container Friday night when they struck the 100th Street overpass on U.S. 131 in Byron Township, south of Grand Rapids. Nobody was hurt.</p>
<p>The highway was shut down for about an hour but the overpass remains closed as inspections continue.</p> | Michigan crash involving semi-trucks damage, close overpass | false | https://apnews.com/ea4739eccd85448fb83f06838bdbbb8a | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p />
<p>I was reminded today, during the Bush presidency, there was a daily tracking of both the deaths of US troops serving in the war and rising gas prices.:&#160; The media was outraged over it.:&#160; The people were as well.</p>
<p>Where is the outrage now?</p>
<p><a href="http://icasualties.org/OEF/Fatalities.aspx" type="external">Two U.S. troops were killed</a> in eastern Afghanistan today by hostile small arms fire.:&#160; Their names have not yet been released.:&#160; Have you heard of this?</p>
<p>Five days ago, Sergeant Louis R. Torres, only 23 years old, was killed in Kandahar by an IED attack. :&#160;Have you heard of that?</p>
<p>Three and half years ago I would pull up to a gas pump, swipe my debit card, and grumble over the fact I was paying almost $2.oo dollars per gallon of gas.:&#160; This week, I go to the gas station, swipe my card and cringe over the fact I’m paying almost $4.oo a gallon.</p>
<p>Last month gas prices dropped locally to almost $3.25 a gallon and I remember thinking, oh, gas prices are so good now.:&#160; What?:&#160; Someone slap me.:&#160; Since when did I become so desensitized over ridiculous costs at the pump?:&#160; I should be angrier this.</p>
<p>What’s changed?</p>
<p>Here’s what has changed.:&#160; The divisional tactics of our current President and the death of journalism as we once knew it.</p>
<p>In 2007, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081401939.html" type="external">The Washington Post</a> reported that then Senator Barack Obama claimed in an interview he would be the person who could unite our country and escape from the current “ideological gridlock.”:&#160; But what the now President has done has created a division the likes of which we haven’t seen since the civil war.</p>
<p>The classes are effectively divided.:&#160; Success is now “bad” and the poor are now “owed”.:&#160; Words and issues like the “right to birth control” and the “war on women” were not even part of our rhetoric three and a half years ago.:&#160; Not one Republican is stating women should not have access to birth control, only that it:&#160;isn’t:&#160;the Government’s job to pay for it.</p>
<p>There is a frightening division among the races and religions.:&#160; The country feels as though it is swept up in an out of control wild fire with Obama smugly standing holding kerosene instead of a bucket of water.</p>
<p>Everything Obama has done has forced Americans to choose a side.:&#160; Comments like “you:&#160;didn’t:&#160;build that” and “pay their fair share” show this.:&#160; With heels dug in deep, the main stream media has done exactly the same thing.:&#160; It would be foolish to say there was no media bias before 4 years ago.:&#160; That’s not true.</p>
<p>Has it ever been to the hostile degree of bias it is now?</p>
<p>John Hawkins's book 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is filled with lessons that newly minted adults need in order to get the most out of life. Gleaned from a lifetime of trial, error, and writing it down, Hawkins provides advice everyone can benefit from in short, digestible chapters.</p>
<p>It’s us against them.:&#160; And with what was once only reserved for opinion columnists, every report and every article is written with spin and a harsh agenda fueling it.</p>
<p>I ask myself constantly, where is the outrage over losing our Constitutional rights?:&#160; How many armed drones will it take flying over your back yard, snapping photographs of your children or even reading the mail you hold in your hands, before you will get angry?</p>
<p>We are about to <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/314895/16-trillion-debt-threshold-looms" type="external">hit $16 trillion dollars in debt</a>.:&#160; How much debt will we have to accumulate before you realize that type of debt is unsustainable and must be stopped, yesterday?:&#160; At the rate we are going and if Obama is re-elected and his budget enacted, the debt is predicted to be at well <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-budget-debt-enacted/2012/08/24/id/449640" type="external">over the $20 trillion dollar</a> mark.:&#160; It will lead us to a total economic collapse.:&#160; Why is the main stream media showing no anger over this?</p>
<p>They are angry today because Mitt Romney made a birther joke.:&#160; Really?:&#160; This is the news and this is what is important to them?</p>
<p><a href="http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/07/12/new-numbers-show-obamacare-will-cost-3-times-more-than-president-promised/" type="external">ObamaCare will now cost three times more</a> than what was originally told to us it would.:&#160; Is anyone upset about this?:&#160; We are about to experience the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillmatthews/2012/06/29/is-obamacare-the-largest-tax-increase-in-u-s-history/" type="external">largest tax hike on Americans</a> in our entire history. :&#160;And this is okay?</p>
<p>We are taking drastic measures toward socialism and moving as far from capitalism and the very ideals that made this country the great power that it is.:&#160; Winston Churchill, whose bust which was a gift from the people of Great Britain was removed immediately from the White House and sent back upon the Obama’s occupation of it, once said that socialism’s “inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”</p>
<p>No wonder President Obama:&#160;doesn’t:&#160;like him. :&#160;He stands for all Obama is against.</p>
<p>The time to be outraged is now. Don’t allow this President or the current media to sugar coat the truth.:&#160; The truth is this President is systematically destroying our country and he is hurting Americans.:&#160; He is destroying our past and already destroying our future. And we show our outrage by removing him from office.</p>
<p>Today, the average cost of gas in the nation is $3.75.</p>
<p>Today, two soldiers died in a war Obama swore to end and has now extended indefinitely.</p>
<p>And quite frankly, I’m outraged and you should be too.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Where is the Missing Media Outrage Over President Obama? | true | http://rightwingnews.com/barack-obama/where-is-the-missing-media-outrage-over-president-obama/ | 2018-08-20 | 0 |
<p>Author, activist and founder of the global environmental movement 350.org Bill McKibben was arrested outside the White House on Saturday along with 64 others protesting the construction of a pipeline from Canada’s tar sands sites to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. Vermont Law School professor and former White House official Gus Speth and gay rights activist Lt. Dan Choi were among those arrested. All face fines of up to $600 and two nights in jail.</p>
<p>Though the destructiveness of tar sand extraction and refinement has been <a href="http://www.pembina.org/pub/203" type="external">well documented</a>, the Obama administration is expected to approve the pipeline’s construction. More than 2,000 people from all 50 states were expected to join the protest through early September. –ARK</p>
<p>Rutland Herald Online:</p>
<p>McKibben and 64 other protesters kicked off a two-week sit-in at White House on Saturday to oppose a $7 billion, 1,700-mile oil pipeline planned to cross the nation’s Great Plains.</p>
<p />
<p>U.S. Park Police had warned demonstrators that each would be arrested and quickly released with a $100 fine for trespassing. But after authorities learned that more than 2,000 people from all 50 states plan to join the protest sometime between now until Sept. 3, they jailed McKibben and his peers until a court hearing Monday — all in hopes of deterring future participants.</p>
<p>The police action, however, didn’t appear to stop pipeline opponents. McKibben used his one phone call from jail to tell fellow protest organizers that despite heat in the nation’s capital, all arrested were in good spirits and urged their peers to continue on.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110821/THISJUSTIN/708219826" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Pipeline Protesters Jailed Outside White House | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/pipeline-protesters-jailed-outside-white-house/ | 2011-08-21 | 4 |
<p>Welcome back to another installment of Fucking with Feministing! This is Feministing’s sex advice column where we answer questions from you.</p>
<p>I’m Sesali and I’ll be your resident sexpert with the help of our friends at the Center for Sex &amp; Culture (CSC) who have partnered with us to make sure that we have ‘smart’ and ‘safe’ with our sexy. We’re looking forward to helping you stay informed (and hopefully have some great sex, because my feminism wouldn’t be complete without it). Send your questions to [email protected] and we’ll pick a question to talk about here. Questions will remain anonymous. We’re so glad that you’re Fucking with Feministing!</p>
<p>Q: I’m about to buy my first strap-on and I have some questions. What should I know about buying one? Experimenting with it? Harnesses? Etc?</p>
<p>NOTE: Because the wonderful world of dildos is so vast, we have decided to answer this question in a series of posts. And because dildos are indeed wonderful, we’ve decided to name this series the ‘Dildo Extravaganza.’ So strap in (or in this case, strap on) and take notes!</p>
<p>I have to admit, I don’t think there is a better team out there to tackle this subject. Carol Queen has 25 years of experience at <a href="http://www.goodvibes.com/main.jhtml" type="external">Good Vibrations</a> and her new book, <a href="http://thesexandpleasurebook.com/" type="external">The Sex &amp; Pleasure Book: Good Vibrations Guide to Great Sex for Everyone</a>&lt;, includes a wealth of information on dildos. Marlene is also not only an expert, but designer of dildos. And as for me? Let’s just say that my expertise is in how NOT to use… or store… or clean dildos. In this introductory post, we’ll be going over some general information about dildos.</p>
<p>Here is Carol on Getting Started with Dildos:</p>
<p>Dildos are not for everyone: not everybody likes insertive sex. You don’t have to like it, either—it’s one lovely option among many erotic things. But if you find yourself hunting for that one shampoo bottle when you masturbate, measure it and go shopping! Or if you don’t already include insertion, except maybe your fingers, use the old-school Good Vibrations method, developed in the ‘70s: Get a few zucchinis of varying sizes (I’d go organic if I were you), wash them well, trim those scratchy stems and ends, and party down. Then choose your favorite and measure it! The trick here is not to just pick the last one because you have gotten more and more turned on as you play. Use some discernment, as you are going to use these measurements to select a friend for life! (Or until it breaks… Or some future girlfriend steals it, damn her.) Zucchini bread recipe you use afterwards is optional.</p>
<p>Bigger is not always better. If you like it large, you probably already know this about yourself. If not, work up to it, or never go there in the first place. Lots of people like it smaller, so you be the judge. Many people who use dildos care WAY more about girth than length. Make sure you‘ve measured your favorite zuke around its circumference, not just its length. Hint: The greater the circumference, the better an idea it is to have some lube handy.</p>
<p>Dildos are obviously great for both penetrative and frictive masturbation. But it’s worth adding that if you’re into penetration, dildos are a great addition to sex with a partner as well. For example, if the shape or size of your partner’s penis (or whatever they like to call their penetrative organ) does not suit you, you can use a dildo to guarantee that you’re experiencing sensations that are pleasurable to you. Or you can use a reasonably sized dildo to explore anal. Double penetration? It’s just a dildo away (make sure you check out <a href="" type="internal">our column on anal sex</a> beforehand and <a href="" type="internal">use lube</a> anytime there’s butt play). And using a dildo manually during cunnilingus has been the best thing to happen to my orgasm since that ‘corporate CEO gangbang pays off my student loans’ fantasy.</p>
<p>Design</p>
<p>With most things sex-related, variety and adaptability are key. So after you get your sizing right, there are some things to consider. For example, what aesthetic are you going for? If you’re interested in a realistic dildo, I have several friends who swear by <a href="https://www.pureromance.com/shop/Adult-Sex-Toys/For-Women/Dildos/Mr-Dependable-Lifelike-Suction-Cup-Toy" type="external">Mr. Dependable</a>. Made by Pure Romance, this dildo is sculpted in the shape of a 6 inch penis, veins and all. He also comes with a suction cup for hands free play. Mr. Dependable is purple, taking away some of his realism but there are other lifelike dildos that feature skin-like textures and a diversity of complexions. Penis replicas not for you? Carol reminds us:</p>
<p>If you’re all “ewww dick” then there will be many non-representational dildos for you to select instead. (Although we do, at the Center for Sex &amp; Culture and Feministing, encourage you to respect other people’s body parts; there is no need to engage with them personally if you don’t feel like it.)</p>
<p>Here are some other helpful nuances.</p>
<p>Most silicone dildos, and many others too, have a slight or very prominent curve. Part of the reason is G-spot (or prostate) stimulation; you won’t get much of that from a ramrod-straight toy. The other part is that those seem to be the most pleasing to the most people, partly because the curve may be less likely to directly contact the cervix; some cervix-owners do NOT like that feeling, though I have it on good authority that some definitely do. Since the cervix protrudes a bit into the vaginal canal, a curve may help the dildo slide next to, and not straight at, the cervix.</p>
<p>Should you get the kind with lil’ love bumps all over it? Or a prominent head or some other comparable round end? Or just smooth all the way? Really, there is no answer that will be right for everyone—as with all sex toys (and all things sexual), your mileage may vary. Prominent or bulbous ends may add G-spot value. Lots of texture may be lovely or frankly somewhat irritating. The more texture-y, the more aroused you’d better be before commencing, and the more lube might be a good idea to add to the party.</p>
<p>Some dildos are equipped with a hollow to hold a vibrator, and hence can vibrate. Vibrators are often made in a shape that is insertable, and if you do that, I guess vibrators can be dildos, too; especially if you don’t bother to turn the vibrator on! Vibration is optional; some really like it, some barely notice it.</p>
<p>See, there is obviously a dildo for everyone. Right now my favorite is a ridged glass number (which was cause for alarm from Marlene. More to come on that in the next edition). Before that, it was a 9 inch, waterproof, handheld one with a built in adjustable vibrator that I named Bizzy Bone.</p>
<p>Obviously, this is a lot of information to take in, dildos have a rich history and are continuously evolving and updated to meet our sexual needs. If you are considering a dildo to use with a partner, keep an open line of communication to evaluate what both of your needs are. It might very be that the dildo you like may not be the same one they like. There is nothing wrong with having multiple dildos on deck. Once you have a sense of what textures and shapes might work for you, check back to read Pt. 2 where we’ll talk about different materials and dildo care.</p>
<p>Thanks for checking out Fucking with Feministing! Send all of your sexy, salacious questions to [email protected] and maybe your question will be featured!</p> | Fucking with Feministing: Dildo Extravaganza! Part 1, Dildos 101 | true | http://feministing.com/2015/12/11/fucking-with-feministing-dildo-extravaganza-part-1-dildos-101/ | 4 |
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<p>This undated photo provided by the Prince George's County Police Department shows officer Jacai Colson, a 4-year veteran of the Maryland county's police force. A gunman fired outside a Maryland police station on Sunday, March 13, 2016, prompting a gun battle that killed Colson and wounded the suspect, authorities said. (Prince George's County Police Department via AP)</p>
<p>CHEVERLY, Md. - The Latest on charges against three brothers accused in a shootout at a Maryland police station that left an officer dead from friendly fire, according to police (all times local):</p>
<p>11:40 a.m.</p>
<p>The legal guardian for a man accused in a shootout at a Maryland police station that led to a police officer's death from friendly fire says the man was diagnosed as bipolar and received Social Security disability payments.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Forty-year-old Hyacinth Tucker took over as legal guardian for 22-year-old Michael Ford when Ford was 16. That's when Tucker says Ford's mother kicked him out of the house. Tucker tells The Associated Press that Ford was homeless for a while and had brushes with the law.</p>
<p>Tucker says she spoke to Ford last week, when he told her he wanted to talk in person. She says he came by her house on Saturday but she wasn't home. The shootout at the police station occurred Sunday afternoon.</p>
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<p>11 a.m.</p>
<p>Two brothers who filmed another brother shooting at drivers and police officers outside a Maryland police station will appear in court Wednesday for a bond review hearing.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the Prince George's County Office of the State's Attorney, John Erzen, says Malik and Elijah Ford each face 15 charges related to Sunday's shooting outside a Prince George's County police station in which an undercover officer was killed.</p>
<p>Police say the two brothers recorded the attack on their cellphones as a third brother, Michael Ford, began the gunfight. The charges against them include multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder.</p>
<p>Michael Ford is still hospitalized and has not been charged, but Cpl. Harry Bond said once he is released, he would be transferred to the Department of Corrections.</p>
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<p>Erzen says prosecutors will ask at Wednesday's hearing that 21-year-old Malik Ford and 18-year-old Elijah Ford continue to be held without bond.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:15 a.m.</p>
<p>Police say they may never be able to satisfactorily explain why a man with a death wish shot at drivers and officers outside a police station in suburban Maryland while his brothers filmed the firefight on their cellphones.</p>
<p>Undercover narcotics officer Jacai Colson was killed in Sunday's gunfight outside the station in Prince George's County, wounded by a bullet fired by one of his colleagues.</p>
<p>Prince George's County police Chief Hank Stawinski said Monday he couldn't explain the "frightening" actions of the shooter or his two brothers.</p>
<p>Police say the gunman, 22-year-old Michael Ford, dictated a "last will and testament" just minutes before his brothers drove him to the station.</p>
<p>Ford was hospitalized but expected to survive. The chief says all three brothers were arrested and will face dozens of charges.</p> | The Latest: Guardian: Man accused in police shootout bipolar | false | https://abqjournal.com/740830/the-latest-guardian-man-accused-in-police-shootout-bipolar.html | 2 |
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<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Congress would postpone its August recess by two weeks in order to make headway on a variety of legislative goals, including raising the debt limit, which he said he hopes will be raised before the third week in August despite widespread disagreement over exactly how that will happen.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“We've got defense authorization, we've got the debt ceiling, we've got the FDA user fee and other important legislation that we need to address and we simply, as a result of all this obstructionism, don't have enough time to address all of these issues between now and the originally anticipated August recess,” McConnell said during a press conference Tuesday. “Ideally, we would deal with the debt ceiling before the [new] August recess.”</p>
<p>However, as lawmakers also work out a revised bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, expected to be released Thursday, an unresolved debate over the debt ceiling could render the August timetable unattainable for Congress. While conservative members of the Republican Party in the House Freedom Caucus, and even Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, favor attaching spending reform riders to the debt limit increase as a way to move toward a balanced budget, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wants to pass a “clean” bill.</p>
<p>“When we've already committed to pay for things, we have to honor those commitments,” Mnuchin said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “And the debt limit is about paying for things that we've already committed to. It's different than the budget process.”</p>
<p>Mulvaney acknowledged last month that the administration had not yet decided how to move forward.</p>
<p>"There are various thoughts about how to get something passed, but I don't think we've settled on how to move forward yet," Mulvaney told reporters in mid-June. "Will it be a clean debt ceiling vote? Will it be a debt ceiling vote with some type of reforms attached to it? I don't think we've settled on that.”</p>
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<p>In response to a question Tuesday about where he lands on the debate, McConnell offered little clarity: “We'll see. But the debt ceiling must be raised.”</p>
<p>However, time – and money – are wearing thin as days pass without a deal. Mnuchin offered the August recess as a deadline for lawmakers to strike an agreement, but has said the government had a “backup plan” should Congress fail to meet that timetable. He said last month the government could be funded into September, but refused to give a timeframe as to exactly how long funding would last without an agreement among Republicans and Democrats.</p>
<p>A deal will raise the United States’ borrowing authority in order to cover the annual deficit it accrues. President Obama temporarily suspended the debt ceiling until March 2017—since then the government has been paying its bills using “extraordinary measures.” The worry now is how much longer it can sustain those measures, which, as indicated by the administration, appears to be sometime in the early Fall.</p>
<p>A disunited front from the administration could complicate matters, considering raising the debt ceiling tends to be a contentious debate by nature. The government also has a tall agenda for the remaining summer months, including passing a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare, as well as introducing a formal bill to overhaul the U.S. tax system. The administration has insisted it will have a tax bill by the end of the year, something businesses and the markets have counted on to fuel economic growth.</p> | White House, Congress shooting for debt ceiling deal in August as time & money wear thin | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/07/11/white-house-congress-shooting-for-debt-ceiling-deal-in-august-as-time-money-wear-thin.html | 2017-07-11 | 0 |
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<p>Because they’re both open to <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/05/11/obama-open-to-joining-mccain-on-trail/" type="external">traveling the campaign trail together</a>.</p>
<p>Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday that if he were to become the Democratic nominee, holding joint town hall-style campaign events with Republican Sen. John McCain would be a “great idea.”</p>
<p>“Obviously, we would have to think through the logistics on that,” Obama continued. “But … if I have the opportunity to debate substantive issues before the voters with John McCain, that’s something that I am going to welcome.”</p>
<p>Recently, advisors to the all-but-certain GOP nominee have said the Arizona senator is open to the idea, and his campaign has touted the fact that he and Democrat Bill Bradley held joint campaign events when the two ran for the presidential nomination in 1999.</p>
<p>Obama is better when he commands a room by himself — he is, as everyone knows by now, an impressive speaker. McCain is not, and these joint town halls would definitely play to his strengths. One gets the feeling that David Alexrod might pull Obama aside sometime soon and put the kibosh on this idea.</p>
<p>Update: Noam Scheiber <a href="http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/05/11/obama-should-nix-the-unmoderated-debate-idea-fast.aspx" type="external">agrees</a>, and adds that joint town halls would give the cash-strapped McCain lots of free media.</p>
<p /> | Obama-McCain Could Create Some Fun Moments | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/05/obama-mccain-could-create-some-fun-moments/ | 2008-05-12 | 4 |
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<p>Mayor Richard Berry signed a special assessment district into law Friday that will allow the city to start building streets and other infrastructure in the area. The property owners will repay the city.</p>
<p>Berry said some landowners have been waiting 30 years for a chance to develop and build homes.</p>
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<p>“These folks have been fighting long and hard to get to this point,” Berry said in a news conference.</p>
<p>Normally, a developer will build the infrastructure for a subdivision when it’s first created. In this case, however, there’s no single builder for the project. Instead, the hundreds of individual property owners will pay district assessments that will be used to cover the city’s cost of providing streets and other infrastructure.</p>
<p>It’s how Tanoan was built, for example.</p>
<p>Councilor Dan Lewis, who sponsored the legislation, said Friday’s signing was the culmination of years of hard work.</p>
<p>“This is a remarkable area,” he said.</p>
<p>The biggest chunk of the district lies between Petroglyph National Monument and Unser Boulevard, with Kimmick as the northern boundary.</p>
<p>“It has fantastic views of the valley and mountains,” said Dave Heil, president of the Volcano Cliffs Property Owners Association.</p>
<p>Approval of the assessment district will spur economic activity, Berry said.</p>
<p>“In a country that was founded on personal property rights, this is a major win for our citizens because it allows property owners to realize their investments,” he said.</p>
<p>Volcano Vista High School lies northwest of the main part of the new special-assessment district. — This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Property Owners To Get Streets | false | https://abqjournal.com/141659/property-owners-to-get-streets.html | 2012-10-27 | 2 |
<p>FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Organizations that serve children are invited to participate in training that aims to help prevent child sex abuse.</p>
<p>A statement from Attorney General Andy Beshear says his office, the Kentucky Association of Children’s Advocacy Centers and Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky will offer two sessions on Feb. 22 at Kosair Charities in Louisville. The training will help organizations develop an “action plan” to protect children from abuse. The sessions will focus on entities that serve children such as daycares, summer camps and churches.</p>
<p>Kentucky Association of Children’s Advocacy Centers Director Caroline Ruschell says organizations that implement the right strategies can create an atmosphere that encourages open dialogue and decreases the possibility for abuse to occur.</p>
<p>Beshear said the new training is a key step in protecting children.</p>
<p>FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Organizations that serve children are invited to participate in training that aims to help prevent child sex abuse.</p>
<p>A statement from Attorney General Andy Beshear says his office, the Kentucky Association of Children’s Advocacy Centers and Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky will offer two sessions on Feb. 22 at Kosair Charities in Louisville. The training will help organizations develop an “action plan” to protect children from abuse. The sessions will focus on entities that serve children such as daycares, summer camps and churches.</p>
<p>Kentucky Association of Children’s Advocacy Centers Director Caroline Ruschell says organizations that implement the right strategies can create an atmosphere that encourages open dialogue and decreases the possibility for abuse to occur.</p>
<p>Beshear said the new training is a key step in protecting children.</p> | Training offered to help organizations prevent child abuse | false | https://apnews.com/420c04283b94465a8f298a43af73d174 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>Move over, <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/portland-school-sees-racism-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches" type="external">peanut butter and jelly sandwiches</a>.&#160; Now, it seems that even a painting of the baby Jesus can be considered racist.</p>
<p>On Saturday, the New York Post <a href="http://nypost.com/2015/12/06/lawsuit-claims-jesus-is-too-white-in-met-paintings/" type="external">reported</a> that Justin Renel Joseph sued New York City’s&#160;Metropolitan Museum of Art because he considers a painting of the baby Jesus to be racist and sacrilegious.</p>
<p>The Post reported:</p>
<p>The masterpieces are “offensive aesthetic whitewashing” of the reality that the Savior, as a native of the Middle Eastern region, had “black hair like wool and skin of bronze color,” says Joseph, 33, who is acting as his own lawyer.</p>
<p>He says he suffered “personal stress” after viewing “The Holy Family with Angels” by Sebastiano Ricci; “The Resurrection” by Perugino; “The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes” by Tintoretto; and “The Crucifixion” by Francesco Granacci.</p>
<p>They are especially offensive to him, he claims, because he himself has “black hair like wool and skin of bronze color.”</p>
<p>“The implication that someone who possesses physical features like the plaintiff could not be the important historical and public figure of Jesus Christ . . . caused the plaintiff to feel, among other things, rejected and unaccepted by society,” said papers filed in court.</p>
<p>Elyse Topalian, spokeswoman for the Met, explained: “When they were painted, it was typical for artists to depict subjects with the same identity as the local audience. This phenomenon occurs in many other cultures, as well.”</p>
<p>But that’s not good enough for Joseph.&#160; “They completely changed his race to make him more aesthetically pleasing for white people,” he said. “I’m suing a public venue which by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 can’t discriminate on a protected basis.”</p>
<p>Blogger Jeff Dunetz <a href="http://lidblog.com/met-museum-of-art-is-sued-because-jesus-is-portrayed-too-white-in-paintings/#" type="external">responded</a>:</p>
<p>Humans tend to portray their deity in a way they can relate to. &#160;It’s why the Greeks portrayed their gods as scheming, jealous beings who have sex with anything that moves and is also why 500 years ago in&#160;Italy Perugino saw Jesus as blonde— because that related to him.</p>
<p>Unless he was&#160;around&#160;two millennia ago, Justin Renel Joseph has absolutely no idea what Jesus looked like, so his lawsuit is nothing more than the idiotic political correctness which has infected our society in recent years.</p>
<p>Dunetz suggested Joseph, “close his eyes and try to find Jesus in his heart instead of on a wall in the&#160;Metropolitan Museum of Art.”</p>
<p>Sage advise.</p>
<p>Related:</p>
<p>If you haven’t checked out and liked our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">Facebook</a> page, please go <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">here</a> and do so.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Metropolitan Museum of Art sued for ‘racist’ painting of too-white Jesus | true | http://conservativefiringline.com/metropolitan-museum-of-art-sued-for-racist-painting-of-too-white-jesus/ | 2015-12-06 | 0 |
<p>Scandal-tarred former congressman Anthony Weiner has a new job as a part-time public relations consultant.</p>
<p>The firm MWW announced Thursday that Weiner will join its board of advisers. The company said Weiner will be a consultant on public policy and new business development and will not service clients directly.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Weiner represented a Brooklyn and Queens district in Congress until he resigned over sexually explicit texts and social media posts in 2011. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor of New York City in 2005 and 2013.</p>
<p>MWW is based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Its clients include Netflix, Southern Comfort and Samsung.</p>
<p>The firm's founder, Michael Kempner, was a national finance co-chairman for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.</p>
<p>Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin (HOO'-muh AB'-uh-deen), is a longtime Clinton aide.</p> | Former congressman Anthony Weiner has new job as part-time PR consultant | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/23/former-congressman-anthony-weiner-has-new-job-as-part-time-pr-consultant.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>(“When AIDS Was Funny” screen capture from Vanity Fair)</p>
<p>The almost eight-minute film explores the Reagan Administration’s initial response to the AIDS epidemic from the early-mid ’80s. In particular, it focuses on the volatile exchanges between journalist Rev. Lester Kinsolving and Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes from 1982 through 1984.</p>
<p>Calonico added the audio from these press junkets overplayed with photos of dying AIDS victims from&#160;Seattle’s Bailey-Boushay House in the ’80s.</p>
<p>Kinsolving is heard consistently inquiring about the increasing AIDS epidemic to Speakes who responds in an almost flippant manner with jokes or ignoring the question. The press room frequently erupts in laughter over the exchanges between the two.</p>
<p>In their first public press exchange on the issue, Kinsolving asks Speakes if the president has any reaction to “A-I-D-S” becoming an epidemic with more than 600 cases.</p>
<p>“I don’t have it…Are you? Do you?” Speakes replies.</p>
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<p>—</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">AIDS epidemic</a> <a href="" type="internal">Bailey-Boushay House</a> <a href="" type="internal">HIV/AIDS</a> <a href="" type="internal">Larry Speakes</a> <a href="" type="internal">Lester Kinsolving</a> <a href="" type="internal">Reagan Administration</a> <a href="" type="internal">Scott Calonico</a> <a href="" type="internal">Vanity Fair</a> <a href="" type="internal">When AIDS Was Funny</a> <a href="" type="internal">World AIDS Day</a></p> | Vanity Fair premieres ‘When AIDS Was Funny’ | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2015/12/01/vanity-fair-premieres-when-aids-was-funny/ | 3 |
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<p>(Reuters) – Citi Private Bank (CPB), a unit of Citigroup Inc (NYSE:) that caters to wealthy individuals and families, appointed Andrew Keating as UK Private Banker.</p>
<p>With over 20 years of investment experience, Keating joins from LGT Vestra, where he managed UK and Irish ultra high net worth clients.</p>
<p>Based in London, Keating will report to Giles Thompson.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Citi Private Bank appoints Andrew Keating as UK Private Banker | false | https://newsline.com/citi-private-bank-appoints-andrew-keating-as-uk-private-banker/ | 2017-11-29 | 1 |
<p>The nonprofit organization Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) based in Washington, DC, announced Wednesday that UnitedHealth Group, an organization based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, that provides its customers health care coverage, benefits, and services, will lead its effort to record and make public the costs of health care services across the U.S. The effort is based on cost information released by Medicare in the past two years under plans developed by the Obama administration. These published costs related to services rendered by both hospitals and physicians.</p>
<p>The initiative promises to provide “reference pricing” for health care services that are relevant to the individual customer’s community. The reference prices are to be derived from aggregate insurer data and will help customers predict their out-of-pocket expenses for the services they need or desire.</p>
<p>“The public has been clamoring for this,” said David Newman, executive director of HCCI. “This was the next natural step for us as an institute to evolve to.” Newman anticipates that the pricing service will become available in early 2015.</p>
<p>This new effort expands on the original mission of HCCI when it was established in 2011. Before then, most health care pricing data comes only from Medicare and other government programs. They key feature of the HCCI project is that it will reveal what insurers are paying for specific health care services. These amounts are typically much lower than the amounts the providers initially attempt to recover through billing. Both physician and hospital industries have objected to the program.</p>
<p>Three health care benefits organizations will participate. In combination with UnitedHealth, Aetna and Humana will potentially share information on billions of individual medical claims and more than $1 trillion in spending.</p>
<p>“We’re looking to reorient the health care system around the consumer, and we see this as another step in that process,” said Ethan Slavin, a spokesman for Aetna.</p>
<p>Kaiser Permanente was originally involved in 2011 but has since discontinued participation. Cigna and WellPoint declined invitations to participate, according to company sources.</p>
<p /> | UnitedHealth Group to lead health care costs disclosure effort | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/05/14/unitedhealth-group-to-lead-health-care-costs-disclosure-effort/ | 2014-05-14 | 3 |
<p>As the presidential candidates butted heads on domestic policy, those watching turned to the Internet to follow and participate in the first presidential debate. News organizations live-blogged the action, politicians hosted Google+ Hangouts, Tumblr <a href="" type="internal">live-giffed</a> the debate, and voters voiced their frustrations on social networks. In a flurry of 140-character messages, people from all across the country gathered on one platform, Twitter, to discuss the 2012 election, making Twitter the clear winner of last night’s debate. Generating over 10 million tweets, last night’s presidential debate was the most tweeted about event in U.S. politics.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>This chart provided by Twitter’s official <a href="https://twitter.com/gov" type="external">@gov</a> account shows the peaks of tweets generated during the 90 minute debate:</p>
<p />
<p>At around 9:34 p.m., conversation spiked around Romney’s Big Bird comment, reaching 135,322 tweets per minute.&#160;Romney’s exact quote was as follows:</p>
<p>I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it. That’s number one.</p>
<p>And then, a meme was born.</p>
<p />
<p>Parody accounts like&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/bigbirdromney" type="external">@BigBirdRomney</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/sadbigbird" type="external">@SadBigBird</a>&#160;were created within minutes of the comments, showing the power of Twitter as a tool for users to report on events in real-time.&#160;The official <a href="https://twitter.com/sesamestreet" type="external">Sesame Street</a> Twitter account even got in on the joke, tweeting:</p>
<p />
<p>Did you follow the first presidential debate online? If so, who do you think were the winners and losers of last night’s debate?</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Twitter, Big Bird: The Winners and Losers of the First Presidential Debate | false | https://ivn.us/2012/10/04/twitter-big-bird-the-winners-and-losers-of-the-first-presidential-debate/ | 2012-10-04 | 2 |
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<p>New Mexico ranks among the worst in the country for both its violent and property crime rates.</p>
<p>And its population of women in prison is on track to exceed capacity next year, according to national analysts.</p>
<p>A bipartisan legislative panel began diving into these challenges Monday – part of what’s expected to be a two-year effort to address crime, with legislation proposed in each of the next two sessions.</p>
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<p>The legislative effort comes amid increased public concern and outrage over rising crime in New Mexico. In Albuquerque, new efforts by local government officials, prosecutors, business leaders and the judiciary are under way to address the issue.</p>
<p>The Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee – newly revived after a three-year break – began its work in Downtown Albuquerque with a blunt look at how New Mexico compares with the rest of the country.</p>
<p>Carl Reynolds of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a nonpartisan group, told lawmakers the state has an unusually high crime rate.</p>
<p>The violent crime rate per capita is third-worst in the country, after Alaska and Nevada, based on 2015 data reported to the FBI. The property crime rate is second-worst, after Hawaii, according to the data.</p>
<p>New Mexico is somewhere in the middle, though lower than the national average, when it comes to the rate of people incarcerated. New Mexico’s prison population has been climbing, however, even as other states are seeing reductions, Reynolds said, and the female prison population is projected to exceed capacity by next summer.</p>
<p>Some lawmakers asked whether the lower-than-average incarceration rate is a factor in the preponderance of crime.</p>
<p>Reynolds said there doesn’t seem to be a correlation between incarceration rates and crime but that understaffing in police departments can affect the crime rate.</p>
<p>The size of Albuquerque’s police force fell 24 percent over a recent 5½-year period, though city officials and prosecutors say changes in court deadlines and other factors in the courtroom have pushed the crime rate up.</p>
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<p>Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said Monday that they want to take care to make effective changes, rooted in research into what’s worked elsewhere and the conditions in New Mexico specifically.</p>
<p>State Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, described the situation in his city as a “crisis,” with too many criminals allowed to re-offend. If more incarceration isn’t the answer, he said, then lawmakers better have strong evidence to back up the effectiveness of other approaches.</p>
<p>“Right now,” Rue said, “the public is demanding this pound of flesh.”</p>
<p>State Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, an Albuquerque Democrat who’s worked as a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, said his colleagues in other parts of the state may not realize “how underfunded” the criminal justice system is in Albuquerque. The volume of cases can be overwhelming for the prosecutors, public defenders and others working “in the trenches,” he said.</p>
<p>“It’s like the post office – the mail keeps coming,” Maestas said.</p>
<p>Rue and Maestas are co-chairmen of the subcommittee.</p>
<p>Lawmakers didn’t settle on any firm proposals Monday.</p>
<p>But they discussed the possibility of increasing speciality and treatment courts that focus on substance-abuse treatment and can keep people out of custody, among other ideas. They also broached the ideas of hiring the Council of State Governments to help carry out research and craft new policies that could be considered in the 60-day legislative session that begins in 2019.</p>
<p>Reynolds, of the Council of State Governments, said New Mexico is well below the national average when it comes to supervising defendants through probation or parole – one potential area for strengthening.</p>
<p>A 30-day session of the Legislature will begin in January. Rue said lawmakers could propose a smaller package of bills in the session, followed by more extensive changes in 2019.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, is expected to include proposals to toughen criminal penalties on the agenda of next year’s 30-day session, which is largely focused on the state budget otherwise.</p>
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<p /> | Lawmakers face challenge of rising crime in New Mexico | false | https://abqjournal.com/1048171/lawmakers-to-tackle-rising-crime.html | 2017-08-15 | 2 |
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<p>Chicago-based bluegrass band Henhouse Prowlers will make its New Mexico debut at the Wildlife Music Festival.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Ben Wright is gearing up to start a new tour.</p>
<p>This means getting rest before heading out on tour because there are going to be some long drives – well, at least one.</p>
<p>“We’re going to drive 23 straight hours at one point,” he says during an interview from his Chicago home. “We decided to do this at the beginning of the tour to make it somewhat easier.”</p>
<p>Wright is the banjo player for the Chicago-based bluegrass outfit Henhouse Prowlers. The band has been around for more than a decade and consists of Dan Andree, Jon Goldfine and Starr Moss.</p>
<p>It has released its latest album, “Breaking Ground.”</p>
<p>Henhouse Prowlers will be <a href="" type="internal">part of the Wildlife Music Festival in Edgewood</a>. The band performs at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, July 26; 1 p.m. Sunday, July 27 and will host a workshop at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.</p>
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<p>“We’ve never been out to Albuquerque to perform,” Wright says. “We’re looking forward to introducing ourselves to the audience.”</p>
<p>Wright and crew have been a busy bunch. The band recently got back to the States after a tour in Africa.</p>
<p>“When we have days off, we’re working on band business,” he says. “It’s a cycle that we’ve grown to enjoy. It does get easier as time goes on.”</p>
<p>On “Breaking Ground,” Henhouse Prowlers worked with Grammy-nominated producer Greg Cahill. Wright says the album took about two months to complete, though getting it released took longer.</p>
<p>“The great thing about working with someone like Greg is that he made all the difficult decisions,” he says. “When we were done with a song, Greg was the one who decided if it would go on the album or not. We didn’t have to have that argument this time. This is why producers make the money they do. And Greg really made those heavy decisions.”</p>
<p /> | Breaking ground: The Henhouse Prowlers perform in Edgewood for the first time | false | https://abqjournal.com/434857/edgewood-bluegrass.html | 2 |
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<p>Why does it seem that whenever government makes changes they claim will enhance our democracy, they usually end up enriching political parties instead?</p>
<p />
<p>You can look at efforts being undertaken at both the <a href="" type="internal">federal</a> and <a href="" type="internal">provincial</a> level right now to see it happening.</p>
<p>Federally, the Liberals are trying to <a href="" type="internal">change our electoral system</a> in ways that will ultimately give more power to backroom party operatives, and in Ontario, Kathleen Wynne is intent on changing election finance laws in a way that will do much the same and benefit her party the most.</p>
<p>Watch as I explain the latest change Wynne wants to make after <a href="" type="internal">getting caught</a> in embarrassing ‘cash-for-access’ schemes.</p>
<p>Instead of demanding common sense ethical behaviour from elected officials, Wynne is committing what amounts to a perversion of democracy and using taxpayer dollars to do it.</p> | Wynne’s election finance reforms use taxpayer subsidies to kill democracy | true | http://therebel.media/wynne_s_election_finance_reforms_use_taxpayer_subsidies_to_kill_democracy | 2016-10-27 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 9 Dec, 2017 17:43</p>
<p>The moment a shooting star rocketed over the coast of Mexico has been captured from a vantage point so unique that one could say it’s simply out of this world.</p>
<p>NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik filmed the streak of burning rock from the orbiting space lab of the International Space Station (ISS) Friday.</p>
<p>Bresnik, a member of NASA Expedition Crew 52/53 which has been aboard the ISS since June, was filming a timelapse video of the Earth when the phenomenon occurred right before his very eyes.</p>
<p>Pictures posted to Bresnik’s Twitter feed show the shooting star passing in the sky above Mexico, lighting up the surface of the planet. “That is so cool how it lights up the surface of the planet and then turns into a traditional shooting star formation,” Bresnik tweeted.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/369379-siberia-meteorite-blast-video/" type="external">READ MORE: Meteor explodes over Siberian city, turning night into day (VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>With the space station travelling at 17,500 miles per hour – faster than a speeding bullet – Bresnik had to slow down the footage in order for viewers to get a clearer glimpse of the high-speed meteorite.</p>
<p />
<p>Here is a closer look at that meteor strike. That is so cool how it lights up the surface of the planet and then turns into a traditional shooting star formation. <a href="https://t.co/zplhYKU8Z4" type="external">pic.twitter.com/zplhYKU8Z4</a></p>
<p>— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) <a href="https://twitter.com/AstroKomrade/status/939213505638600704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 8, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Made up of rock and dust, millions of these particles come into contact with Earth’s atmosphere every day.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/405838-meteor-explodes-china-videos/" type="external">READ MORE: Great ball of fire! Stunning VIDEOS capture huge meteor in night sky over China</a></p>
<p>While space is no doubt an incredible place to observe such phenomena, the view from the ground can be just as breathtaking, as residents in China’s Shangri-La City recently found. In October, a motorist captured a shooting star illuminating the night sky much like the burning rock featured in Bresnik’s footage.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p> | Out of this world: ISS astronaut captures stunning images of shooting star above Mexico (VIDEO) | false | https://newsline.com/out-of-this-world-iss-astronaut-captures-stunning-images-of-shooting-star-above-mexico-video/ | 2017-12-09 | 1 |
<p>Like the zephyrs blowing through my underpants, there is a new breeze ruffling the assorted toupees and comb-overs in our nation’s capitol. It is the fresh wind of change, eddying through the pall over the Mall, bringing with it a faint fresh smell: the scent of true righteousness, which is like the aroma of a cherry blossom in a roomful of decaying badger carcasses. This change is drifting over Washington with an agonizing slowness, results achieved by subtle but inexorable erosive process like dust grinding down a marble edifice over millennia–results that really ought to be achieved in a long weekend by sixty thousand intoxicated Visigoths wielding mallets. What is this desirable result, the first whiff of which we are now catching? It is the collapse of the Bush maladministration’s credibility, and with it its operatives’ dreams of a Thousand-Year Right.</p>
<p>Surely, as my numerous detractors on the right-hand end of the speculum will point out, it is wrong to make mock of a president struggling so manfully against such dire evils as are abroad in the world? Surely we, the American people, should get behind him and support our troops? There’s a silly frigging idea. Bush is surrounded by concrete barriers and electric razor wire in Washington, DC. Our troops are sucking dirt in some hellhole on the other side of the world, overworked, underpaid, and going swiftly insane slaughtering the locals. You want to support our troops, get Bush in front of them. They’ll be home on the first transport out of Kuwait. Bush has had all the support he could ever ask for, and six trillion times more support than he ever deserved (I’m rounding the number to the nearest trillion for ease of reading). I for one am well pleased that the noisome brown paste is finally clinging to his shoes and ankles, and Rumsfeld’s, and Condi’s pumps, and on down the line of them, the whole vile, varicose, villainous gang of them embrindled with poo at last. O schadenfreude, O schadenfreude, Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!</p>
<p>The ruination of Bush’s utterly spurious credibility has been a long, slow process, entirely unaided by such old fallbacks as the free press and Congress, two entities that (in the good old days when a bottle of pop cost a nickel and you could purchase cocaine over the counter to alleviate toothache) Americans used to rely upon to moderate the behavior of even the most madcap Executive troupe. For two years no action by the Bush junta, be it ever so perfidious, got the slightest rise out of any of the traditional watchdogs. They were sunk in some kind of narcoleptic trance. Trample the Bill of Rights! Destroy our common weal! Wage unprovoked wars on the wrong moustache! Throw firecrackers at our fission-capable enemies! Capering like maniacs across the national and world stages, not an eyelid could the Bush operatives cause to bat, watchdog-wise. But Bush, or properly the Buffalo Bob types operating the monofilaments attached to his limbs, have finally started to get results. Through constant diligence, Bush and his gaggle of suck-buttock familiars have managed to force the slumbering Chihuahuas to react, however slightly. And it looks like there’s more to come.</p>
<p>One can only assume that all of the men and women in the Bush Precision Marching Corps were the same precocious brats as children, always pushing and pushing to get the attention of their distant progenitors (important people with other things on their beautiful minds). No matter what they did–drowning siblings in the maid’s bathroom, torturing cats on the lawn, setting the stables afire–they got no reaction. Then, while smashing a priceless Sung Dynasty vase in the music room, these attention-starved poppets were interrupted by the sudden entrance of the red-faced whiskey-scented father and subsequent application of a thorough, cathartic beating. How else to explain their behavior as adults? The Bush cabal has committed treasonous outrages against country, against mankind, against the very God they smirkingly adore. The word ‘naughty’ barely begins to describe it.</p>
<p>Over and over again they have been caught with hands red as a mandrill’s pootie, then lied about everything and denied whatever could not possibly be lied about. Weapons of Mass Destruction? Iraqi terrorists? Diplomat’s wives? Take it on home, Reverend. How about that global warming? It’s just a coincidence- throw some more coal on the fire, Gracie. A job market sagging like the tits of an ancient dowager under the gravitational influence of Jupiter? Try tax cuts for the wealthy! A brilliant solution to the problem of out-of-work millionaires. What about the matter of America’s wildernesses, those great sacred lands held in common trust? Fuck you, hippie. Get off my mineral rights. The same could be said of our nation’s airwaves, which have been clearcut–or Clear Channeled–if I may be permitted a little pun. We so enjoy these little games with words, don’t we, Mopsy? I may be a crab in high dudgeon or Dungeoness, but at last payback is coming for these insatiable world-pillaging piratical gawwads, and I’m starting to enjoy myself.</p>
<p>This little shiver of delight is at the expense of everything, of course. Our nation has lost every last vestige of its honor and prestige in the gathering of nations, like a belligerent vomit-soaked drunk that started a fistfight on the dance floor with an unattractive midget. We Americans are now looked upon as bloodthirsty, ignorant, and intolerant. The very world we live in is rebelling against our predations as the climate bends to human will and serves us with hurricanes and fires and droughts of record-breaking proportions. America is not the first nation to disgrace itself in this manner, but then again America ain’t Germany or Imperial Rome. You expect those cats to misbehave, and back in those days the end of our species wasn’t such a big concern. For America (the last best hope of this world, they used to say) to fall so low is like catching Superman in bed with the Vienna Boy’s Choir, a bunch of bananas, and a quart bucket of lard. And what with all the angry extremists swarming around taking one-way flying lessons and strapping on Gelignite fanny packs, this is a piss-poor time to extinguish the beacon of Truth, Justice, and Liberty we used to shine around these parts. We are well and truly yfuckt.</p>
<p>Things can only get worse before they get better. It makes me sad. But then I remember there’s a presidential campaign getting into full swing, and I think about how very much lipstick the Boy Emperor’s people are daubing on the pig, and how very often they contradict themselves, and now they’re starting to squabble, and I catch another faint whiff coming from Washington. It’s the scent of fear, as refreshing in its way as a sea breeze (one measure vodka, two measures grapefruit and cranberry juice). Mission Accomplished, indeed. Bush threw a press conference recently, and one of the half-awakened members of the press asked him about the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner that flew from the poopdeck of the aircraft carrier he so bravely arrived on. Bush denied his people had anything to do with the banner–apparently modern aircraft carriers have banner printing services onboard these days, and probably one-hour photo processing as well. In denying responsibility for this banner, El Residente said, and I quote, “I know it [the banner] was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff–they weren’t that ingenious, by the way.” Senior Navy officials confirm the banner did in fact come from the White House, not the Navy. Either Bush or the US Navy is lying. In at least one respect, Bush did tell the truth, however: his advance men aren’t that ingenious. They have squandered everything–all the money, all the goodwill, all the freedoms, all the accumulated IOU’s of generations of bold diplomacy and the riches of our legacy for the future–in half a term of office.</p>
<p>But as it says in Congreve’s play, “‘Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good. Well, you may rejoice over my ill fortune, since it paid the price of your ransom.” We’ve been ransomed, all right, and there’s ill fortune aplenty; we’ll be paying the price for centuries to come. Yet still we may hope the ill wind gathering in Washington blows nobody good into the Potomac, where the concrete overshoes of hubris will sink them into the ignominious mud. Then it’s sea breezes all around.</p>
<p>BEN TRIPP is a screenwriter and cartoonist. Ben also has <a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/tarantulabros" type="external">a lot of outrageously priced crap for sale here.</a> If his writing starts to grate on your nerves, buy some and maybe he’ll flee to Mexico. If all else fails, he can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | It’s an Ill Wind | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/11/01/it-s-an-ill-wind-2/ | 2003-11-01 | 4 |
<p>The U.S. trade deficit increased less than expected in July as both exports and imports fell, suggesting that trade could contribute to economic growth in the third quarter.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department said on Wednesday the trade gap rose 0.3 percent to $43.7 billion. June’s trade deficit was revised down slightly to $43.5 billion from the previously reported $43.6 billion.</p>
<p>Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade shortfall widening to $44.6 billion in July. When adjusted for inflation, the trade deficit increased to $61.6 billion from $60.8 billion in June. The so-called real goods deficit in July was below the second-quarter average of $62.4 billion.</p>
<p>While that suggests trade could add to gross product in the third quarter, economists at Wrightson ICAP cautioned that Hurricane Harvey could significantly impact commodity prices and trade volumes, and push up the trade deficit in September.</p>
<p>The politically sensitive U.S.-China trade deficit increased to an 11-month high in July. That ongoing deficit has grabbed the attention of President Donald Trump, who has blamed it for helping to decimate U.S. factory jobs as well as stunting U.S. economic growth.</p>
<p>Trump, who argues that the United States has been disadvantaged in its dealings with trade partners, has ordered the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was signed in 1994 by the United States, Canada and Mexico.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Trump threatened to withdraw from a free trade deal with South Korea.</p>
<p>The government reported last month that trade contributed two-tenths of a percentage point to the economy’s 3.0 percent annualized growth pace in the second quarter.</p>
<p>In July, real goods exports slipped despite petroleum exports hitting a record high.</p>
<p>Exports of goods and services fell 0.3 percent to $194.4 billion in July. Exports of motor vehicles and parts fell by $0.6 billion, but exports of capital goods rose by $0.9 billion.</p>
<p>Exports to China increased 3.5 percent, while those to the European Union tumbled 9.8 percent.</p>
<p>Imports of goods and services slipped 0.2 percent to $238.1 billion in July. Imports of motor vehicles and parts fell by $0.8 billion and crude oil shipments declined by $1.0 billion.</p>
<p>Imports of goods from China increased 3.1 percent. The politically sensitive U.S.-China trade deficit increased 3.0 percent to $33.6 billion in July, the highest level since August 2016.</p>
<p>The United States saw a 3.7 percent drop in goods and services imported from the EU in July. The trade deficit with the EU increased 7.9 percent to an eight-month high of $13.5 billion.&#160;</p> | Trade Gap Widens as Deficit With China Hits 11-Month High | false | https://newsline.com/trade-gap-widens-as-deficit-with-china-hits-11-month-high/ | 2017-09-06 | 1 |
<p>Jan 18 (Reuters) - Phosphagenics Ltd:</p>
<p>* PHOSPHAGENICS PLACEMENT SECURES A$1.37 MILLION Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - As adult-film actress Stormy Daniels looked on, a federal judge ordered U.S. President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen to cough up the name of client he had hoped to keep secret at a Monday court hearing: Sean Hannity.</p>
<p>Hannity is a conservative television host known for passionately advocating for Trump on his Fox News show, and often receiving public praise from Trump in return. Calls to a Fox News spokeswoman were not immediately returned.</p>
<p>Cohen, Trump's fiercely loyal and pugnacious lawyer, was in court to ask a judge to limit the ability of federal prosecutors to review documents seized as part of a criminal investigation. The investigation has frustrated the White House as it has spread to enfold some of Trump's closest confidantes.</p>
<p>But in the background, Cohen also had to contend with Daniels' efforts to keep attention on her story, relating to what she says is a past affair with Trump.</p>
<p>Daniels is engaged in a separate civil legal fight over $130,000 she received in a 2016 agreement arranged by Cohen to stop her from discussing a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.</p>
<p>Photographers knocked over barricades outside the courthouse as they scrambled to get pictures of Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, arriving dressed in a lavender suit. Inside, she quietly took a seat in the public gallery with her lawyer.</p>
<p>Cohen has argued that some of the documents and data seized in last week's raids are protected by attorney-client privilege or otherwise unconnected to the investigation. But Judge Kimba Wood rejected his efforts to mask the identity of Hannity, a client Cohen had said wanted to avoid publicity.</p> U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen arrives at federal court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar
<p>"I understand if he doesn't want his name out there, but that's not enough under the law," Wood said, before ordering a lawyer for Cohen to disclose the name.</p>
<p>Cohen has asked the court to give his own lawyers the first look at the seized materials so they can identify documents that are protected by attorney-client privilege.</p>
<p>Failing that, they want the court to appoint an independent official known as a special master, a role typically filled by a lawyer, to go through the documents and electronic data seized under a warrant and decide what prosecutors can see.</p> Slideshow (10 Images)
<p>Prosecutors have asked that the documents be reviewed for attorney-client privilege by a "filter team" of lawyers within their own office, who would be walled off from the main prosecution team.</p>
<p>A lawyer for Trump, Joanna Hendon, asked in a filing on Sunday to be allowed to review documents that in any way relate to the president, which she described as being seized amid a "highly politicized, even fevered, atmosphere." She also appeared in court on Monday.</p>
<p>A person familiar with the raids said last week that the information Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were seeking included information about payments to Daniels.</p>
<p>Reporting by Brendan Pierson, Karen Freifeld and Jonathan Stempel in New York, Writing by Jonathan Allen, Editing by Susan Thomas and Rosalba O'Brien</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Fox News television host Sean Hannity said in a statement Monday that he has never retained U.S. President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.</p> FILE PHOTO: Conservative TV and radio personality Sean Hannity gestures during remarks during the opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual gathering of conservative politicians, journalists and celebrities at National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Theiler
<p>"Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter," Hannity said in an e-mailed statement provided to Reuters. "I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective.&#160; I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third party."</p>
<p>At a hearing in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, a judge ordered a lawyer for Cohen to disclose that Hannity is a client of Cohen.</p>
<p>Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; editing by Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Commerce has banned American companies from selling components to leading Chinese telecom equipment maker&#160;ZTE Corp for seven years for violating the terms of a sanctions violation case, U.S. officials said on Monday.</p>
<p>The U.S. action, first reported by Reuters, could be devastating to ZTE since American companies are estimated to provide 25 percent to 30 percent of the components used in ZTE's equipment, which includes networking gear and smartphones.</p>
<p>The ban is the result of ZTE's failure to comply with an agreement with the U.S. government after it pleaded guilty last year in federal court in Texas to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping U.S. goods and technology to Iran.</p>
<p>The Chinese company, which sells smartphones in the United States, paid $890 million in fines and penalties, with an additional penalty of $300 million that could be imposed.</p>
<p>"If the company is not able to resolve it, they may very well be put out of business by this. Many banks and companies even outside the U.S. are not going to want to deal with them," said Eric Hirschhorn, a former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce who was heavily involved in the case.</p>
<p>As part of the agreement, Shenzhen-based ZTE Corp promised to dismiss four senior employees and discipline 35 others by either reducing their bonuses or reprimanding them, senior Commerce Department officials told Reuters. But the Chinese company admitted in March that while it had fired the four senior employees, it had not disciplined or reduced bonuses to the 35 others.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-china-zte-britain/uks-ncsc-says-national-security-risk-from-equipment-from-chinas-zte-cannot-be-mitigated-idUSKBN1HN1ZY" type="external">UK's NCSC says national security risk from equipment from China's ZTE cannot be mitigated</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-china-zte-suppliers/zte-ban-hits-shares-of-u-s-optical-component-suppliers-idUSKBN1HN1ZQ" type="external">ZTE ban hits shares of U.S. optical component suppliers</a>
<p>Under terms of the ban, U.S. companies cannot export prohibited goods, such as chip sets, directly to ZTE or via another country, beginning immediately.</p>
<p>Shares of big U.S. ZTE suppliers fell sharply on the Commerce ban. Acacia Communications Inc, which got 30 percent of its total 2017 revenue from ZTE, tumbled 35 percent, hitting a near two-year low.</p>
<p>Shares of optical companies including Lumentum Holdings Inc fell 6.6 percent and Finisar Corp dropped 2.7 percent. Oclaro Inc, which got 18 percent of its fiscal 2017 revenue from ZTE, lost 13.1 percent.</p>
<p>ZTE "provided information back to us basically admitting that they had made these false statements," said a senior department official. "That was in response to the U.S. asking for the information."</p>
<p>"We can't trust what they are telling us is truthful," the official said. "And in international commerce, truth is pretty important."</p>
<p>ZTE officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>The ban on supplying ZTE comes two months after two Republican Senators introduced legislation to block the U.S. government from buying or leasing telecommunications equipment from ZTE or its Chinese rival Huawei Technologies Co Ltd[HWT.UL], citing concern the companies would use their access to spy on U.S. officials.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Britain's main cyber security agency said on Monday it has written to organizations in the UK's telecommunications sector warning about using services or equipment from ZTE.</p> ?DEVASTATING?
<p>Douglas Jacobson, an exports control lawyer who represents suppliers to ZTE, called the ban highly unusual and said it would severely affect the company.</p>
<p>"This will be devastating to the company, given their reliance on U.S. products and software," said Jacobson. "It's certainly going to make it very difficult for them to produce and will have a potentially significant short and long-term negative impact on the company."</p>
<p>ZTE has sold handset devices to U.S. mobile carriers AT&amp;T Inc, T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp. It has relied on U.S. companies including Qualcomm Inc, Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp for components.</p>
<p>The U.S. action against ZTE is likely to further exacerbate current tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade. After the U.S. placed export restrictions on ZTE in 2016 for Iran sanctions violations, the China's Ministry of Commerce and Foreign Ministry criticized the decision.</p>
<p>A five-year federal investigation found last year that ZTE had conspired to evade U.S. embargoes by buying U.S. components, incorporating them into ZTE equipment and illegally shipping them to Iran.</p>
<p>ZTE, which devised elaborate schemes to hide the illegal activity, agreed to plead guilty after the Commerce Department took actions that threatened to cut off its global supply chain.</p>
<p>The U.S. government had allowed the company continued access to the U.S. market under the 2017 agreement.</p> Visitors pass in front of the Chinese telecoms equipment group ZTE Corp booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 26, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Perez
<p>The new restrictions stem from a Jan. 16 report by a U.S. monitor appointed by a federal judge in Texas who accepted the guilty plea in March 2017. Although Commerce Department officials would not discuss the report, they said the department followed up in February.</p>
<p>The U.S. government's investigation into sanctions violations by ZTE followed reports by Reuters in 2012 that the company had signed contracts to ship millions of dollars' worth of hardware and software from some of the best known U.S. technology companies to Iran's largest telecoms carrier.</p>
<p>(To read the Reuters report that exposed the practice, click Special Report: <a href="" type="internal">here</a></p>
<p>Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York and Steve Stecklow in London; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Netflix Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>) added more international subscribers than expected in the first quarter as a slate of original shows including "Altered Carbon" kept viewers hooked to the video streaming service provider.</p> The Netflix logo is pictured on a television in this illustration photograph taken in Encinitas, California, U.S., January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake
<p>The company said on Monday it signed up 5.46 million subscribers internationally in the quarter compared with the average analyst estimate of 5.02 million, according to data and analytics firm FactSet.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">Netflix Inc</a> 307.78 NFLX.O Nasdaq -3.87 (-1.24%) NFLX.O
<p>Netflix said it added 7.4 million total subscribers compared with the average analyst estimate of 6.5 million, according to FactSet.</p>
<p>Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Phosphagenics Says Placement Secures A$1.4 Mln Trump's personal lawyer coughs up name of mystery client: Sean Hannity Sean Hannity says he never retained Trump lawyer Michael Cohen U.S. bans American companies from selling to Chinese phone maker ZTE Netflix subscriber growth beats on strong original content | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-phosphagenics-says-placement-secur/brief-phosphagenics-says-placement-secures-a14-mln-idUSFWN1PC1D5 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>Although I never met Gary Webb in person, he was a friend who helped save my tail-end from the long arm of the FBI.</p>
<p>I had just finished up a major expose about former FBI agent Lok Lau in October 2003. The story exposed the fact that the Bureau had used Lau to spy on China in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Lau claims that in the wake of his dangerous spying mission, the FBI discarded him, eventually firing him in 2000.</p>
<p>The newspaper that I wrote the story for, a small weekly in Texas, went to press on Wednesday and hit the streets on Friday. The story detailed Lau’s career and was based, in part, on court documents filed with the federal court in Sacramento, Calif. — where Gary lived.</p>
<p>I recall that while reading over the paper the Friday the story came out, I got a call from a source. She told me the U.S. Attorney’s office in Sacramento had filed a motion with the court seeking to declare the public court records I had based the story on as classified for national security reasons. The court pleadings even went a step further: They asked that the government be allowed to seize and scour clean any computers that the FBI suspected might have stored copies of the documents exposing Lau’s covert China spying mission.</p>
<p>That meant my computer as well.</p>
<p>What was mind boggling about the whole affair is that when we went to press on Wednesday, the court documents — pleadings in Lau’s employment discrimination case against the FBI — had been on file with the federal court for some three weeks. They were clearly public documents. However, two days later, after the newspaper was printed and to the readers, the government was trying to put the documents back into the vault under the shroud of national security.</p>
<p>That’s where Gary Webb came in. I had communicated with Gary previously by e-mail concerning my investigative reporting. He would offer me insight and suggestions on my stories, but mostly he would give me encouragement. When you,re in the bunker, with shells going off all around you, it’s good to have a warrior like that to turn to, someone who’s been in that bunker many times before and survived to write yet another story.</p>
<p>So after learning my computer was being targeted by the FBI, I gave Gary a call. At the time, he was working as an investigator for the California state Legislature. I remember asking him, “What the hell do I do now? I gave him a rundown on the story. He suggested I get the documents being targeted by the government out into the sunlight. He gave me a contact at the California First Amendment Coalition. I reached out to them and that same day, Friday, I wrote a story about the whole affair for the coalition, and they posted the story with the court documents on their Internet site. I also sent a copy of the documents along to Al Giordano. He too put the documents up on the Net.</p>
<p>The next week, the story went global after the Associated Press picked it up. I believe the media exposure, coupled with the brave souls who stood up to the FBI’s bluff and posted the court documents on the Internet, created enough of a blowback that the federal judge in the case decided to back away from the FBI’s strong-arm request to seize computers. The judge rejected that part of the government’s motion and to this day has not reconsidered that decision. However, he did rule that the public court documents should be redacted and sealed. (Lau’s case is currently on appeal.)</p>
<p>But Gary didn’t stop there. He took up the charge and dove into Lau’s story himself and several weeks later published a long expose on the case through the Asia Times Asia Times. He had advanced the story even further and in the process provided me with more shelter from the storm.</p>
<p>Gary and I stayed in touch over the course of this past year, off-and-on by e-mail. He was a big Roxy Music fan, and I remember sending him some obscure stuff I hunted down on the Web about the band’s history. We also communicated about the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism held this past summer in Bolivia. He had been a professor at the school the prior year and was invited back again. I was looking forward to finally meeting him in person.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Gary said he couldn’t swing the trip to Bolivia. I figured we would hook up another time for a beer and a war story or two. His final words to me were to make sure I said hello to Narco News, Luis Gomez, a fellow authentic journalist for whom Gary had great respect.</p>
<p>So I never met Gary before his untimely death this past weekend, but I didn’t need to. He was a friend in my heart, as he continues to be, even now.</p>
<p>And as I read the obits in the commercial media about his death, all of which mention his famous series for the San Jose Mercury News exposing the CIA/Contra crack connection — and all of which go to great lengths to discuss how the “big dogs of the commercial press discredited the series — I keep in mind the words of social theorist Erich Fromm:</p>
<p>Historically…those who told the truth about a particular regime have been exiled, jailed, or killed by those in power whose fury has been aroused. To be sure, the obvious explanation is that they were dangerous to their respective establishments, and that killing them seemed the best way to protect the status quo. This is true enough, but it does not explain the fact that the truth-sayers are so deeply hated even when they do not constitute a real threat to the established order. The reason lies, I believe, in that by speaking the truth they mobilize the (psychological) resistance of those who repress it. To the latter, the truth is dangerous not only because it can threaten their power but because it shakes their whole conscious system of orientation, deprives them of their rationalizations, and might even force them to act differently. Only those who have experienced the process of becoming aware of important impulses that were repressed know the earthquake-like sense of bewilderment and confusion that occurs as a result. Not all people are willing to risk this adventure, lest of all those people who profit, at least for the moment, from being blind.</p>
<p>Gary did speak the truth, and in so doing, opened many eyes and has changed the world in the process. His story continues…</p>
<p>BILL CONROY writes for <a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/" type="external">Narconews/Narcosphere</a>, where this essay originally appeared.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Gary Webb was the Real Deal | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/12/16/gary-webb-was-the-real-deal/ | 2004-12-16 | 4 |
<p>Stanley Black &amp; Decker (NYSE:SWK) saw its fourth-quarter earnings increase sharply amid strong construction and do-it-yourself sales.</p>
<p>Net sales climbed 4% to $2.67 billion, driving a profit of $492.1 million, or $2.99 a share, that topped $164 million and per-share earnings of 98 cents a year earlier. Excluding merger and acquisition charges and other items, adjusted earnings rose to $1.37 a share from $1.22.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The company last month projected adjusted per-share earnings of $1.28. Analysts had anticipated sales of $2.62 billion.</p>
<p>“The close of 2012 marked a transformational year for the company as we continued our successful evolution into a diversified global industrial enterprise well-positioned for long-term value creation,” Stanley Black &amp; Decker's chief executive John F. Lundgren said in a statement.</p>
<p>Sales in Stanley Black &amp; Decker’s largest segment, construction and do-it-yourself offerings, rose 8.3%. Its industrial segment reported a sales increase of 1.5%, while sales in the security segment declined 1.7%.</p>
<p>For 2013, the company said it expects adjusted earnings of $5.40 to $5.65 a share, below analysts’ forecast of $5.69 a share. Stanley Black &amp; Decker added that it foresees a continuation of the modest growth in U.S. housing, which should help offset slowly recovering security and industrial end markets.</p>
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<p>Stanley Black &amp; Decker, which was created after the 2010 merger of Stanley Works and Black &amp; Decker, has suffered in recent quarters from integration costs. It announced plans to cut jobs and suspend acquisition activity to focus on the company’s growth.</p>
<p>“The success of the Black &amp; Decker merger further validates our Company's acquisition integration capabilities. Looking forward, we are confident in our ability to adapt and apply our expertise and specialized skills in this area to fuel organic growth initiatives,” Lundgren added.</p>
<p>The New Britain, Conn.-based company sold its hardware and home improvement group last month for $1.4 billion to Spectrum Brands Holdings (NYSE:SPB). It earlier agreed to acquire Hong Kong’s Infastech, a fastener manufacturer, for $850 million.</p>
<p>Shares of Stanley Black &amp; Decker were down 47 cents to $77.49 a share Thursday morning.</p> | Stanley Black & Decker 4Q Profit Soars | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/01/24/stanley-black-decker-4q-profit-soars.html | 2016-01-25 | 0 |
<p>Soccer-loving cynics have long predicted problems now growing worse here in South Africa because of World Cup hosting duties:</p>
<p>• loss of large chunks of government’s sovereignty to the world soccer body Fifa; • rapidly worsening income inequality; • future economic calamities as debt payments come due; • dramatic increases in greenhouse gas emissions (more than twice Germany’s in 2006); and • humiliation and despondency as the country’s soccer team Bafana Bafana (ranked #90 going into the games) became the first host to expire before the competition’s second round.</p>
<p>Soon, it seems, we may also add to this list a problem that terrifies progressives here and everywhere: another dose of xenophobia from both state and society.</p>
<p>The crucial question in coming weeks is whether instead of offering some kind of resistance from below, as exemplified by the Durban Social Forum network’s 1000-strong rally against Fifa on June 16 at City Hall, will society’s sore losers adopt right-wing populist sentiments, and frame the foreigner?</p>
<p>This is not an idle concern, as the FaceBook pages of hip young Johannesburg gangstas exploded with xenophobic raves after Uruguay beat Bafana last week. Wrote one young punk, Khavi Mavodze, “Foreigners leave our country, be warned, xenophobia is our first name.”</p>
<p>Even the ordinarily defensive African National Congress national executive committee and the Cabinet have both recently expressed concern about a potential repeat of the May 2008 violence that left 62 people dead and more than a hundred thousand displaced.</p>
<p>This at least is progress, for 30 months ago, the Africa Peer Review Mechanism panel of eminent persons issued a warning that went unheeded: “Xenophobia against other Africans is currently on the rise and must be nipped in the bud.”</p>
<p>The then notoriously out-of-touch president, Thabo Mbeki, replied that this was “simply not true”, and after the xenophobia calamity began six months later, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad called it “a totally unexpected phenomenon” – notwithstanding dozens of prior incidents.</p>
<p>So when the current president, Jacob Zuma, told his party executive in May that “The branches of the ANC must start working now to deal with the issue of xenophobia”, it was depressing when another politician combined denialism and stereotyping.</p>
<p>Replying that “There is no tangible evidence,” Police General Bheki Cele added, a few days later: “We have observed a trend where foreigners commit crime – taking advantage of the fact that we have an unacceptable crime level – to tarnish our credibility and image.”</p>
<p>Generalizations against ‘foreigners’ as prolific perpetrators of crime are baseless, as no scientific ‘trend’ can be discerned because no reliable data exist to confirm whether immigrant ‘tsotsis’ (thugs) represent a greater ratio of their numbers than indigenous tsotsis. (We don’t even know roughly, to the 500 000th, how many immigrants there are in South Africa, because of the porous borders.)</p>
<p>Cele’s finger-pointing at immigrants for crime is just one of the scapegoat strategies. The Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa this week called xenophobia a ‘credible threat’ in part because “some perpetrator appear to believe they have the tacit support of local political actors.”</p>
<p>In addition to increasing its moral suasion, prosecuting those guilty of xenophobic attacks, resolving local leadership turf battles that have xenophobic powerplays, and establishing emergency response mechanisms, the state has an obligation to address root causes for the social stress which is often expressed as xenophobia: mass unemployment, housing shortages, intense retail competition in townships and South Africa’s regional geopolitical interests which create more refugees than prosperity.</p>
<p>The state won’t tackle these root-cause problems, however, because making substantive progress would probably throw into question class relations and the mode of production itself.</p>
<p>To illustrate, if observers believed (as did I) that the replacement of Mbeki with Zuma in September 2008 might mean a change in Pretoria’s foreign policy so as to end the nurturing of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe repression, then that was naïve, as Zuma showed in London by lobbying hard for an end to smart sanctions against Mugabe’s Zanu(PF) ruling elites a few weeks ago.</p>
<p>South Africa’s post-apartheid leaders are simply unwilling to reverse a 120-year old structural relationship of exploitation, by which Johannesburg-based companies – such as those involved in eastern Zimbabwe’s bloody Marange diamond fields, controlled by Mugabe’s army – rip off the region’s resources. Marange is the world’s largest diamond find since Kimberley, South Africa in 1867.</p>
<p>How does this work? Consider the case of a victim of elite SA-Zimbabwe minerals-extraction collusion, the courageous civil society researcher Farai Maguwu (a former student of mine at Africa University). Maguwu was jailed on June 3 because, according to his (ordinarily very reliable) account, a South African named Abbey Chikane set him up for an arrest and maltreatment by Mugabe’s police.</p>
<p>Chikane is a leading officer of the Kimberley Process, a deal cut exactly a decade ago between industry, government and international civil society watchdogs, meant to halt trade in blood diamonds. The sign-on by the monopolist DeBeers was crucial, for the formerly-South African company (now London-based) needed to deal with the growing global diamond glut and to restore some Public Relations after a gloomy period.</p>
<p>In a hotel room in the eastern Zimbabwe city of Mutare on May 25, Maguwu provided Chikane information about hundreds of murders at Marange since 2006, at the hands of Mugabe’s army.</p>
<p>Instead of using the information to write a critique of Marange, Chikane turned out to be a narc, reporting Maguwu to the Zimbabwe police. When cops drove up at his modest house the next day, Maguwu went underground. During the search, the police beat and tortured family members, leading Maguwu to surrender. After a week in prison, he was hospitalized last Friday due to maltreatment, and then was denied bail on Wednesday by a pro-Mugabe judge.</p>
<p>There’s a great deal at stake in this story, emblematic of so many aspects of Africa’s ‘resource curse’ corruption and poverty.</p>
<p>The army leadership’s inflow of illicit diamond funding (via Dubai where the Kimberley Process is apparently ignored) represents the prime source for their own embourgeoisement, as well as for waging Zimbabwe’s next national election campaign. (Looting state resources is much harder for Mugabe’s men since January 2009, when Zimbabwe lost its currency and with it, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s money-printing, hyper-inflationary, crony-capitalist patronage.)</p>
<p>Chikane soon issued an official report finding that Marange complies with international diamond trading guidelines, leading this week’s Kimberley Process meeting in Tel Aviv to deadlock over whether to continue excluding Zimbabwe. Because of its cutting industry and the threat of boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigning, Israel has become a strong supporter of Zimbabwe’s, insisting that Marange stones not be labeled blood diamonds.</p>
<p>According to the respected newspaper The Zimbabwean, several SA mining houses will benefit if Chikane’s whitewash continues, including his cousin Kagiso Chikane’s African Renaissance Holdings and black tycoon Patrice Matsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals – with whom his brother Frank Chikane (formerly a leading anti-apartheid cleric) works – as well as two financiers supporting Johannesburg diamond miner Reclam: Capital Works and Old Mutual.</p>
<p>Abbey Chikane has, in the process, wrecked the Kimberley Process’s reputation for monitoring blood diamonds in the same way that Mbeki-Zuma soiled Pretoria’s when it comes to justice and democracy for wretched Zimbabwe. The last decade has witnessed a variety of similar betrayals of their people by the SA and Zimbabwe elites.</p>
<p>Given such relationships, it’s not surprising that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees last week reported that there are 158,200 Zimbabweans currently seeking formal asylum internationally, of whom 90 per cent are in South Africa. (That’s more than three times as many as the second-place country, Burma, which was followed by two Washington-backed regimes: Afghanistan and Colombia.)</p>
<p>There are at least a couple million Zimbabweans in South Africa, many illegal as low-waged but often highly-skilled workers, who regularly come under intense pressure from the unemployed locals. A genuine solution to workers’ plight across the region would include not only a reversal of Pretoria’s geopolitical approach, but also its macroeconomic policies.</p>
<p>(Statistics South Africa announced last week that another 79,000 jobs were lost in the most recent quarter-year, bringing to nearly a million those shed since the world crisis hit hard in 2008.)</p>
<p>Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma did make some concessions for Zimbabweans, allowing a somewhat longer stay in the country and work permits (so as to better collect taxes), but at the same time radically reduced the inflow from Lesotho to South Africa, even though a large share of Lesotho’s GDP comes from migrant workers.</p>
<p>If SA police chief Cele were actually serious about foreign criminals he might concentrate a bit more of his force’s effort on a really dangerous crew: Fifa. With the possible exception of Wall Street and the City of London, no more larcenous gangs of white-collar thugs are to be found than in Zurich, both in the banks which financed apartheid when no one else would, and at the soccer body’s temporary hideout south of Johannesburg.</p>
<p>The latter mafia is so self-confident in dealing with General Cele’s mentally-corrupted South African Police Service that last Friday, Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke openly bragged how they will spirit away $3.2 billion in pure profit (50% more than the $1.8 billion taken from Germany four years ago).</p>
<p>Fifa pays no taxes, ignores exchange controls, and is quite likely preparing South Africa for a currency crash in the process.</p>
<p>To ensure the heist is complete, Cele’s police are obviously on the take, observers confidently conclude – but not because there’s evidence of Fifa’s fabled fraud squad at work. No, just as debilitating is the above-board commercial, contractual corruption in evidence these past few days:</p>
<p>• in the service of the main company providing security at the World Cup games, Stallion – a firm which should have been banned last year, as promised by Labour Minister Shepherd Mdladlana, and which in 2001 was responsible for a soccer stampeded in Johannesburg that left more than 40 fans dead – the police enforced Stallion’s exploitative low-wage regime, heaving stun grenades and tear gas at hundreds of unpaid workers after a night game in Durban, and even shooting a Cape Town bystander multiple times with rubber bullets in similar confrontations;</p>
<p>• no wonder, because Linda Mti – the former prisons commissioner linked financially to the notorious, privatized Lindela transit camp for arrested immigrants (as well as a triple arrestee on drunk driving charges) – is head of security for Fifa’s Local Organising Committee;</p>
<p>• defending that pissy US beer Budweiser, the police were again at Fifa’s service when they arrested two Dutchwomen during the Holland-Denmark game, because their subtle ‘ambush marketing’ amounted merely to wearing orange dresses with a tiny Bavarian beer logo;</p>
<p>• at a Fan Fest at Durban’s South Beach, police arrested local environmentalist Alice Thomson last Monday for passing out anti-Fifa fliers regarding the June 16 march to City Hall; and</p>
<p>• a man caught with 30 game tickets ‘and no explanation’ got a three-year jail sentence, while hardened criminals roam the streets freely.</p>
<p>Thieving and trademarking the local culture, as well, Fifa and corporate partner CocaCola also tried to steal Africa’s soul by paying Somali singer K’naan to raise spirits with his easy ‘Wavin’ Flag’ lyrics. But that won’t work, for much more challenging tunes for Fifa to digest have been produced – and are free to download on the internet – by hip-hop artists Nomadic Wax and DJ Magee (‘World Cup’), Chomsky AllStars (‘The Beautiful Gain’) and, best of all, Durban’s own Ewok (‘Shame on the Beautiful Game’).</p>
<p>On July 3, another City Hall rally – this time against xenophobia – will let Durban reproduce a genuine African ubuntu spirit that can withstand Bafana’s defeat, Fifa’s profiteering and all the other losses we are suffering.</p>
<p>PATRICK BOND directs the Durban-based Centre for Civil Society, an institute dedicated to furthering the memory of SA’s greatest political economist of sport, Dennis Brutus, 1924-2009. Brutus was a Robben Island prison veteran; a critic of corporate athletics including Fifa; the primary organiser of 1960s Olympic Boycott of white South Africa, of expulsion of white SA from Fifa in 1976, and of 1970s-80s cricket, rugby and tennis anti-apartheid campaigns; a leading poet and literary scholar; a global justice movement strategist; and at time of death, a Centre for Civil Society Honorary Professor. Until his last breath, he opposed the World Cup™ &#160;being held in a country characterized by what he termed ‘class apartheid’.</p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
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<p /> | What South Africa Really Lost at the World Cup | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/06/25/what-south-africa-really-lost-at-the-world-cup/ | 2010-06-25 | 4 |
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<p>Where do you go to connect with talent? <a href="https://www.kornferry.com/press/futurestep-survey-motivations-and-drivers-trump-skills-and-experience-when-sourcing-job-candidates/" type="external">According to Korn Ferry Opens a New Window.</a>, 52 percent of executives turn to their professional networks, and another 28 percent say they turn to <a href="http://web.boardroominsiders.com/what-linkedin-isnt-telling-you" type="external">LinkedIn Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What if you could build relationships with talent face to face&#160;before even needing to make a hire? If you want to be more proactive in your <a href="https://www.recruiter.com/recruiting.html" type="external">recruiting Opens a New Window.</a> efforts, consider going where the talent goes: industry events. Building relationships with talent at industry events can ensure you always have a lineup of&#160; <a href="http://web.boardroominsiders.com/executive-talent-acquisition-best-practices-in-creating-a-world-class-team" type="external">skilled pros Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;in your back pocket.</p>
<p>Why Industry Events?</p>
<p>First, if people are&#160;being sent to industry events by&#160;their companies, they are no doubt top performers who are there to represent their employers, learn, network, and possibly even present.</p>
<p>Second, attending a conference can offer a solid way to assess&#160;a potential candidate's&#160;skills and cultural fit. For example, if the person&#160;gives a presentation or sits on a panel, you can evaluate their expertise and their communication skills. Meanwhile, other attendees at these break-out sessions might capture your attention with their questions and comments.</p>
<p>Third, talent is more accessible than usual at industry events. Everyone is looking to network, giving recruiters the prime opportunity to&#160;get to know up-and-coming industry talent.</p>
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<p>Christian Henning, research manager, global talent acquisition at Microsoft, tells me being proactive is a key part of Microsoft's executive talent acquisition strategy. His colleagues regularly attend industry events to network with talent and cultivate relationships. They play the long game by going where the talent goes, learning more about them and their ecosystems, and building relationships with them before any hiring needs arise.</p>
<p>Make the Most of Industry Events</p>
<p>So, how do you make the most of attending industry events to scout for talent? Here are a few tips:</p>
<p>Try to get the attendee and presenter lists in advance of the event, or at least as soon as you arrive at the conference.</p>
<p>Once you have these lists, do some homework.&#160;Learn as much as you can about the people who spark your interest. Using these insights, you can develop some talking points for those with whom you would like to connect.</p>
<p>Scan the lists for people you may already know. Do some homework to get up to speed on what they're doing now and what they're interested in. Then, reach out to let them know you'll be at the same event. Try to schedule time with them.</p>
<p>Keep it casual. This is the time to build relationships. It is not&#160;an active recruiting trip. No one wants to feel stalked.</p>
<p>Follow up after the event. Ask questions that hit the issues the person is focused on, perhaps based on their presentation or panel discussion.</p>
<p>By attending the events top professionals and executives attend and doing the right prep work in advance, you put yourself in the position to connect with the best talent in the game. Think about it: How often do you have the chance to connect with dozens or even hundreds of potential candidates in person?</p>
<p>Given how quickly business environments change, being at these events keeps you far more up&#160;to date on&#160;who's doing what than LinkedIn ever could. Plus, these events can&#160;introduce&#160;you to up-and-coming talent that the market may not yet have discovered.</p>
<p>Sharon Gillenwater is the founder and editor-in-chief of <a href="http://www.boardroominsiders.com/" type="external">Boardroom Insiders Opens a New Window.</a>, which maintains an extensive database of in-depth executive profiles.</p> | Leverage Industry Events to Find Talent Before You Need It | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/24/leverage-industry-events-to-find-talent-before-need-it.html | 2017-08-31 | 0 |
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matthew_Stafford/" type="external">Matthew Stafford</a> agreed to the richest contract in NFL history last week. He’ll start earning some of that money in the season opener Sunday at Ford Field against one of the league’s premier defenses.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Detroit-Lions/" type="external">Detroit Lions</a> quarterback, who received a five-year, $135 million extension, faces an Arizona defense that has given him fits in the past. The Cardinals have won their last seven games against the Lions, a streak that dates to 2006.</p>
<p>Stafford was benched after throwing three interceptions in a 42-17 home loss to the Cardinals two seasons ago, the last time the teams met.</p>
<p>Arizona allowed the second-fewest yards and topped the league with 48 sacks last season.</p>
<p>“They’re unique in their scheme,” Stafford said. “The guys in the secondary, they’re ballhawks out there. No. 21 (cornerback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Patrick-Peterson/" type="external">Patrick Peterson</a>) and 32 (free safety Tyrann Mathieu) have done it for years and some of the other guys that are new to the team or their role are playing really well, too.</p>
<p>“And then they have guys who can really rush the passer up front. So they do a really nice job. Traditionally, they’ve been a very good defense and I don’t expect to see anything different.”</p>
<p>The Lions reshuffled their line during the offseason to provide better protection for Stafford and open more holes in the running game. They signed right tackle Rick Wagner and right guard <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/TJ-Lang/" type="external">T.J. Lang</a> during free agency, then traded with the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/los-angeles-rams/" type="external">Los Angeles Rams</a> for left tackle <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Greg_Robinson/" type="external">Greg Robinson</a> when Taylor Decker suffered a shoulder injury during minicamp.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ameer-Abdullah/" type="external">Ameer Abdullah</a> returns as the starting running back after playing only two games last season because of a foot injury. Pass-catching specialist <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Theo-Riddick/" type="external">Theo Riddick</a>, who was limited to 10 games because of wrist injuries, will back him up.</p>
<p>“When we’re healthy, we’re obviously better,” Stafford said of the running game. “Those two guys are a big part of what we do, as are most backs in this league.</p>
<p>“We have talented guys that can take a handoff and go the distance and make people look pretty foolish trying to cover them in the pass game, too. The more those guys can touch the ball and we can get them in space, the better.”</p>
<p>Stafford engineered a series of fourth-quarter comebacks last season that allowed the Lions to reach the postseason as a wild card. Seattle made their postseason stay a short one.</p>
<p>The Cardinals came into last season as one of the favorites to reach the Super Bowl but didn’t qualify for the postseason, finishing at 7-8-1.</p>
<p>Arizona got off to a 1-3 start last season and plays its first two games on the road this year. It heads to Indianapolis next weekend.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to get off to a good start,” Cardinals coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Bruce-Arians/" type="external">Bruce Arians</a> said. “There’s no excuses about 10 a.m. (Pacific time start) and all that (nonsense). We all know the schedule. So yeah, we’ve got to get off to a good start and we’ve got to get off to a good start in those games. You don’t want to get behind on the road in a domed stadium, for sure.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carson_Palmer/" type="external">Carson Palmer</a> is back behind center, but the Cardinals’ biggest weapon is running back and fantasy football darling <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/David_Johnson/" type="external">David Johnson</a>. He scored a combined 20 touchdowns a year ago while rushing for 1,239 yards and catching 80 passes for an additional 879 yards.</p>
<p>“I’ve always said, he’s the closest thing I’ve been around to <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marshall_Faulk/" type="external">Marshall Faulk</a>,” Arians said. “Marshall could start at wide receiver and probably on defense as a safety or corner. They’re very smart guys. If a guy isn’t real smart, you overload him to where he can’t play fast if you put a bunch of things on his plate. Obviously, David’s very bright and it’s good to see Andre (Ellington) back healthy because he can do a lot of things like that, too.”</p>
<p>Ageless <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Larry_Fitzgerald/" type="external">Larry Fitzgerald</a> remains Palmer’s top target.</p>
<p>Defensively, the Cardinals will be without linebacker Deone Bucannon, who underwent offseason ankle surgery. Rookie Haasan Reddick is expected to start in his place. Defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche is dealing with a calf injury.</p>
<p>Detroit’s top pass rusher, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ezekiel-Ansah/" type="external">Ezekiel Ansah</a>, is expected to play despite missing the preseason with a knee injury. Rookie wide receiver Kenny Golladay has been limited in practice with an ankle issue but is also expected to play.</p> | Detroit Lions, Arizona Cardinals preview: Matthew Stafford leads Lions into opener | false | https://newsline.com/detroit-lions-arizona-cardinals-preview-matthew-stafford-leads-lions-into-opener/ | 2017-09-07 | 1 |
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<p>Katherine A. Ramirez. Photo: Santa Fe County jail.</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe police said a woman arrested Tuesday on heroin and cocaine possession charges told them she had over $700 with her “to buy clothes for her kids and the rest to buy more drugs,” court documents state.</p>
<p>According to a criminal complaint and statement of probable cause, police arrested Katherine A. Ramirez, 29, of Santa Fe after an afternoon traffic stop at St. Francis Drive and Siringo Road after a report of a stalled vehicle and an unconscious driver.</p>
<p>Officers conducted field sobriety tests and they said Ramirez admitted taking sleeping pills before driving. In the pickup truck she was driving, police said they found heroin, cocaine, morphine and other pills and $717 inside Ramirez’s purse.</p>
<p>She was charged with seven criminal counts including trafficking in heroin and cocaine, possession of morphine and various traffic violations, the court documents state. Ramirez is being held at the Santa Fe County jail on $5,000 bond.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | SF police: mom had $700 for her kids clothes, drugs | false | https://abqjournal.com/449774/sf-police-mom-had-700-for-her-kids-clothes-drugs.html | 2 |
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<p>Before anyone asks whatever happened to Danny Romero, just know the former world champion’s Hideout Boxing Club is a happening place.</p>
<p>On a recent evening at his North Valley gym, Romero, his father, Danny Sr., and their assistants were putting perhaps 40 kids through a training regimen similar to the one that helped make Albuquerque’s hard-punching “Kid Dynamite” a champion.</p>
<p>Danny, Romero’s 3-year-old son with his girlfriend, Michelle Alves, has the run of the place. Danimarie, his 18-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, helps out at the gym.</p>
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<p>Romero, 38 and not at all contemplating a comeback, says almost 200 kids are signed up for his program.</p>
<p>“If everyone showed up at the same time, we’d need a bigger gym,” he says. “It’s crazy. This thing has really taken off.”</p>
<p>Hideout these days is a boxing gym, Romero says, that isn’t really about boxing. It’s not about finding the next Danny Romero or Johnny Tapia.</p>
<p>“We’re focusing on their lives,” he says.</p>
<p>OK, that’s what Danny Romero is doing. But what became of Kid Dynamite?</p>
<p>Danny Romero, right, puts on gloves on Matthew Grant, 13, during training at Romero’s Hideout Gym on Tuesday, May 21, 2013.(Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>After his last fight in 2006, Romero got into the training/managerial/promotional side of the sport he loved. While not the headline machine he’d been as a fighter, he was no stranger to television and the newspapers.</p>
<p>He took fighters to Montreal, Puerto Rico, Knoxville, Tenn., and Tunica, Miss.</p>
<p>He promoted or co-promoted cards at Sky City, Santa Ana Star and Isleta casinos.</p>
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<p>Eventually, though, Romero and his professional fighters parted ways. His last scheduled promotion, in January 2011, was canceled due to slow ticket sales.</p>
<p>Since then, Romero has barely been heard from – surfacing only to be quoted in sad reaction to the death last year of Johnny Tapia, his friend turned nemesis turned friend.</p>
<p>His absence from the spotlight, he says, was largely by design. Working with the pros was not bringing him the post-career satisfaction he sought.</p>
<p>He will always love boxing, he says. To managing or promoting again, he won’t say never. He continues to work occasionally with MMA fighters such as Carlos Condit and Heather Clark to help them with their striking.</p>
<p>But, he says, bored with the trappings of professional boxing and weary of the politics, he prefers the kids.</p>
<p>“I wanted to get away from the Danny Romero stuff,” he says.</p>
<p>Hideout – founded by Romero Sr. about 25 years ago after the Police Athletic League shut down its boxing program – has had more than a half-dozen North Valley locations. About three years ago, Danny Jr. found himself looking for yet another site.</p>
<p>Romero talked to some people he knew in city administration. They connected him with Chris Baca, president and CEO of Youth Development Inc., an Albuquerque nonprofit dedicated to helping at-risk kids.</p>
<p>Yes, said Baca, who had known Romero casually for years. There was some space available in YDI’s building on 4th Street. And Baca was comfortable with the sport; YDI had sponsored some youth boxing events in the past.</p>
<p>But if YDI was to have a boxing gym as a tenant, Baca said, his organization’s mission would need to benefit.</p>
<p>“What I worked out with (Romero),” Baca says, “is an opportunity for some of our kids that needed that kind of constructive physical outlet to train in his boxing club.</p>
<p>“And vice versa, if he had any kids in his boxing club that needed intervention or clinical therapy … he could refer them to us. I told him, ‘Let’s do something a little creative here.’ ”</p>
<p>The joint venture, Baca says, did not blossom overnight.</p>
<p>“It took (Romero) a while to understand that some of the angry kids weren’t angry for the heck of it, that they had a lot of issues going on in their personal lives,” he says. “… He’s picked up on it; it’s working now. It took a while to click, but now it’s happening.”</p>
<p>Romero made good money during his 14-year career, and he had advisers who helped him invest wisely. Kids 18 and under participate at Hideout free of charge. He does seek sponsors to help with equipment repair and replacement, etc.</p>
<p>His payment, he says, comes from stories such as the following:</p>
<p>“One of the girls wasn’t doing too well in school,” he says. “… I told her, ‘Look how you focus on the (punching) bag for three minutes. Why don’t you (concentrate like) that in school?’</p>
<p>“Then she brought us her report card, a 3.0 (GPA). Right away, I was like, ‘It’s working.’ That has intrigued me, big time.”</p>
<p>The Romero training regimen is rough, he says, and he pulls no figurative punches. But most of the kids have responded with enthusiasm.</p>
<p>“We work with special-needs (kids), too,” he says. “… They’re happy all day long, and they’ll do anything, and they’ll work hard. It’s good for the other kids to see that, too.”</p>
<p>Some of his Hideout kids, Romero says, have displayed talent for the ring. If they want to pursue the sport, he’s fine with that and will help. If they don’t, that’s fine, as well.</p>
<p>“It’s something much more than boxing,” he says, sitting in his office gesturing toward the gym proper. “… This right here is the gratification that I wanted to feel.”</p>
<p /> | Ex-champ Romero helping children | false | https://abqjournal.com/239763/exchamp-romero-helping-children.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Health Connections has been bleeding about $20 million in red ink a year, and its capital reserve was dangerously low, even with a $10 million sale effective Jan. 1 of its larger commercial customer base to an out-of-state for-profit company.</p>
<p>The entire Health Connections board departed after June 30 last year, with three new members listed on the company’s Sept. 30 financial statements. Those no longer serving include insurance expert Chris Krahling and cancer doctor Barbara McAneny, president-elect of the American Medical Association.</p>
<p>The company attributed the change to normal election cycles, but wholesale substitution of a corporate governing body raises questions. Where is the institutional memory in the boardroom? And the company’s top executive team, including CEO Martin Hickey, will move to the new for-profit company, True Health, a subsidiary of Virginia-based Evolent Health. So in essence, Health Connections has new governance and new management to tackle its old financial worries.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Insurance Superintendent John Franchini signed off on the sale despite testimony from Presbyterian Healthcare, the University of New Mexico and Blue Cross Blue Shield focusing on Health Connections’ finances and questioning its ability to meet claims its members already have incurred.</p>
<p>Presbyterian and UNM said they were owed a combined $28 million – roughly nine times the amount of Health Connections capital as of Sept. 30, even with the $10 million sale to Evolent – for services provided to people insured by Health Connections. The argument could be made that the company was insolvent as of Sept. 30, though Health Connections would likely dispute the numbers.</p>
<p>Franchini noted only a few of the co-ops were still in operation around the country and said he thought Health Connections made a valuable contribution to competition in the New Mexico market. That’s despite the fact the remaining 18,000-member customer base for the individual coverage line is dwarfed by others in the market. Presbyterian Health Plan, for example, has about 470,000 total members. That leads to much lower per-member costs for administrative and other services.</p>
<p>Franchini also acknowledged in an interview with Journal reporter Marie C. Baca that Health Connections had been operating under the “financial supervision” of his office since June.</p>
<p>It’s not clear exactly what that means, nor did he provide details on how the existing liabilities of the company left behind in the sale would be handled if its cash flow doesn’t improve. Further, is True Health on the hook for pending claims attributable to the customers it has acquired?</p>
<p>These questions are important. Both UNM and Presbyterian submitted testimony detailing issues with pending claims, with Presbyterian raising the possibility that it could be forced to seek payment directly from Health Connections customers if it doesn’t get paid by the company for providing hospital care, emergency room and other services.</p>
<p>One question not addressed in any of the sale discussion is what happens to the roughly $77 million in federal loans that brought Health Connections into the world. Do they have to be repaid? If so, when?</p>
<p>Franchini can’t be faulted for wanting to keep another competitor in the market. But having chosen this path, the burden is on him to make sure that both health care providers and New Mexicans insured with Health Connections are protected.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: Is $10M Health Connections sale the right Rx for NM? | false | https://abqjournal.com/1113541/is-10m-health-connections-sale-the-right-rx-for-nm.html | 2 |
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<p>During a rally last Friday in Alabama, President Trump decried how soft the NFL is purportedly getting.</p>
<p>“Today, if you hit too hard, if they hit too hard, ’15 yards, throw him out of the game,'” Trump said. “They had that last week, I watched for a couple of minutes. Two guys, just really, beautiful tackle — ‘Boom, 15 yards.’ The referee gets on television, his wife is sitting at home she’s so proud of him — they’re ruining the game! Right? They’re ruining the game… they want to hit.”</p>
<p>Trump then segued into <a href="" type="internal">his now-infamous tirade against players who kneel during the national anthem</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>Last Friday was far from the first time Trump publicly complained about the alleged softness of the NFL. During an <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeAndMike/status/512404602567020544" type="external">interview on Mike &amp; Mike’s show in September 2014</a>, Trump said that increased unnecessary roughness penalties are “making the NFL really boring.”</p>
<p>“I’ve seen some of the best tackles of the year, let’s say go back even to last year, where the tackle is vicious, violent and incredible entertainment, and instead of being praised, they’re called for a 15-yard penalty and sometimes get thrown out of the game, thrown out of a number of games and in fact, get fined,” Trump said. “And I think it’s making the NFL really boring.”</p>
<p />
<p>During that Mike &amp; Mike interview, Trump went on to characterize the greater policing of violence in football as just another way that American society is becoming more politically correct.</p>
<p>“Football is a vicious game and that’s the way it is. And if you’re gonna make it not that, it’s going to be politically correct like everything else in this country,” he said. “They want everything to be politically correct. You can’t use the wrong inflection, you can’t use the wrong words. They’re going to destroy football with all of these flags. They’re going to destroy football by not allowing the great tackles.”</p>
<p>While he was campaigning for president, Trump <a href="http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/10/donald-trump-mocks-the-nfls-soft-concussion-protocol" type="external">mocked the NFL concussion protocol</a> during a rally in Wisconsin, saying of a woman who passed out at one of his events: “That woman was out cold, and now she’s coming back. We don’t go by these new, and very much softer, NFL rules. Concussions… ‘oh, oh! Got a little ding on the head. No, no, you can’t play for the rest of the season.’&#160;Our people are tough.”</p>
<p>Considering his bloodlust, Trump went to bed a happy camper last night if he was watching the Green Bay-Chicago game. In the fourth quarter, Green Bay receiver Davante Adams was waylaid by one of the “vicious, violent” hits that Trump has publicly celebrated in the past.</p>
<p />
<p>The Bears player who laid the hit on Adams, Danny Trevathan, received a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty but <a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/20861292/davante-adams-green-bay-packers-released-hospital" type="external">was not thrown out of the game</a>.&#160;Adams was taken off the field on a gurney and brought to the hospital. Thankfully, he has since been released and is expected to make a full recovery.</p>
<p>While the president might approve of hits of that sort, there’s a good reason the NFL is cracking down as more light is shed on the link between football and degenerative brain diseases. In July, a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association examined the brains of 111 former NFL players, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/football/nfl-cte.html?mcubz=1" type="external">all but one of them were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy</a>, or CTE.</p>
<p>Last Friday — just hours before Trump railed against the softness of the NFL in Alabama — researchers at the CTE Center at Boston University disclosed that former NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez, whose career ended after he was arrested and ultimately convicted of murder, <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/ct-aaron-hernandez-severe-case-cte-20170921-story.html" type="external">had the most severe case of CTE they’d ever seen</a>.</p>
<p>For Trump, however, concern about players’ short- and long-term health take a back seat to entertainment. His attitude is the sort one takes <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/09/28/spike-lee-says-trump-treats-nfl-owners-like-plantation-owners.html" type="external">toward property</a>, not human beings.</p> | Trump wants more violence in the NFL. Last night, he got his wish — and it wasn’t pretty. | true | https://thinkprogress.org/trump-violence-nfl-davante-adams-bce62aac0d27/ | 2017-09-29 | 4 |
<p>By Nelson Bocanegra and Helen Murphy</p>
<p>VILLAVICENCIO/BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) – Thousands of victims of Colombia’s five-decade war will seek blessings, guidance and a path to forgiveness from Pope Francis on Friday, during his visit to a region that for years has been known as an epicenter of violence.</p>
<p>The Argentine pope has received a rapturous welcome in Colombia, a majority Roman Catholic nation, bringing with him a message of peace and unity as he seeks to strengthen faith and heal the scars of civil war.</p>
<p>In the city of Villavicencio, Francis will hold a prayer meeting with 6,000 survivors of a brutal conflict that has left millions scarred by kidnappings, massacres, rape, land mines and displacement.</p>
<p>He will also bless the Cross of Reconciliation, a plain white memorial to the victims, and hear personal testimonies of those who have suffered.</p>
<p>“There has been too much hatred and vengeance. The solitude of always being at loggerheads has been familiar for decades, and its smell has lingered for a hundred years,” the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics said on Thursday.</p>
<p>“We do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life,” added the pontiff, who delayed visiting Colombia until a peace deal between the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels was in effect.</p>
<p>Colombians have suffered from war between right-wing paramilitaries, Marxist rebels, and government forces since 1964. More than 220,000 have been killed and millions more displaced as the war spilled into towns and rural communities.</p>
<p>“SO EMOTIONAL”</p>
<p>The 80-year-old Francis will also beatify two victims as martyrs.</p>
<p>He will take the first step to make saints of Pedro Maria Ramirez, a priest who was killed in 1948 during the period of political violence known as “La Violencia,” and Bishop Jesus Emilio Jaramillo, killed in 1989 by the National Liberation Army (ELN) for suspected collaboration with the military.</p>
<p>The pontiff wants his message of reconciliation to resonate with the war victims and he urged his Church to help spread the message. “You are not bureaucrats, nor politicians, you are pastors,” he said, addressing bishops in Bogota.</p>
<p>In Villavicencio – the capital of central Meta province, a vast cattle ranching area which has been a hotbed of paramilitary and rebel violence – Francis will see a destroyed statue of Christ brought from western Choco province for his visit.</p>
<p>The effigy was recovered from a church attacked by the FARC in 2002 in the rain forest village of Bojaya. About 80 people were killed as they sought refuge from rebel bombings inside the humble church.</p>
<p>The plaster figure, without arms or legs, has become an enduring symbol of the bloody war.</p>
<p>Forgiveness is pivotal if Colombia is to forge lasting peace, break cycles of revenge and rebuild once-hostile communities.</p>
<p>But Colombians are deeply polarized as they prepare to receive 7,000 former fighters of the FARC into society and aim to repair divisions from the war.</p>
<p>Many are furious that under last year’s peace deal, FARC leaders accused of kidnapping, displacements and murder will avoid jail sentences and instead may receive seats in congress as members of a civilian political party.</p>
<p>But at least during the pope’s visit, people seem willing to forgive.</p>
<p>“I’ll be up at 3 a.m. to queue. It’s so emotional, just to see him on television makes me tearful,” said Francis Alvarez, a 59-year-old housewife, who hopes to attend the Mass in Villavicencio. “It will consolidate peace in this region that’s been so forgotten.”</p> | Pope Francis to bless Colombia's war victims | false | https://newsline.com/pope-francis-to-bless-colombia039s-war-victims/ | 2017-09-08 | 1 |
<p>SAO PAULO (AP) — Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cancelled a trip to Africa on Thursday after a Brazilian judge ordered federal police to seize his passport hours before he was to depart.</p>
<p>The development came a day after an appeals court upheld da Silva’s conviction on corruption and money laundering charges, reducing his chances to run in the October presidential election, but the order was issued by a judge involved in a different case facing the ex-leader.</p>
<p>A da Silva spokesman, Jose Chrispiniano, told The Associated Press that his boss “is not going to travel anymore” because of the order.</p>
<p>Da Silva had been invited to speak in the African nation of Ethiopia at a forum on hunger organized by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization.</p>
<p>Brasilia-based Judge Ricardo Leite issued the passport order, but his ruling had not yet been published. He is a substitute judge in a case involving influence peddling allegations against da Silva. Prosecutors say he received bribes through one of his sons in a scheme to influence his successor as president, Dilma Rousseff, between 2013 and 2015 to buy Swedish fighter jets for Brazil’s air force.</p>
<p>The former president denies that accusation along with other charges that are to put him on trial later. Rousseff said in an interview with the AP on Monday that the decision to buy Saab fighter jets in 2014 was made only by herself and Brazil’s military, under no influence from da Silva. The contract is worth $5.4 billion.</p>
<p>One of da Silva’s defense lawyers, Cristiano Zanin, expressed shock at the passport order.</p>
<p>“Former President Lula has the right to go wherever he wants, which could only be restricted if he had final conviction, with no further appeals, which is not the case and will never be because he did not commit any crimes,” Zanin said. “Today’s decision reinforces that there are the human rights violations against the former president.”</p>
<p>SAO PAULO (AP) — Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cancelled a trip to Africa on Thursday after a Brazilian judge ordered federal police to seize his passport hours before he was to depart.</p>
<p>The development came a day after an appeals court upheld da Silva’s conviction on corruption and money laundering charges, reducing his chances to run in the October presidential election, but the order was issued by a judge involved in a different case facing the ex-leader.</p>
<p>A da Silva spokesman, Jose Chrispiniano, told The Associated Press that his boss “is not going to travel anymore” because of the order.</p>
<p>Da Silva had been invited to speak in the African nation of Ethiopia at a forum on hunger organized by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization.</p>
<p>Brasilia-based Judge Ricardo Leite issued the passport order, but his ruling had not yet been published. He is a substitute judge in a case involving influence peddling allegations against da Silva. Prosecutors say he received bribes through one of his sons in a scheme to influence his successor as president, Dilma Rousseff, between 2013 and 2015 to buy Swedish fighter jets for Brazil’s air force.</p>
<p>The former president denies that accusation along with other charges that are to put him on trial later. Rousseff said in an interview with the AP on Monday that the decision to buy Saab fighter jets in 2014 was made only by herself and Brazil’s military, under no influence from da Silva. The contract is worth $5.4 billion.</p>
<p>One of da Silva’s defense lawyers, Cristiano Zanin, expressed shock at the passport order.</p>
<p>“Former President Lula has the right to go wherever he wants, which could only be restricted if he had final conviction, with no further appeals, which is not the case and will never be because he did not commit any crimes,” Zanin said. “Today’s decision reinforces that there are the human rights violations against the former president.”</p> | Brazil’s da Silva cancels trip to Africa after judge’s order | false | https://apnews.com/ef4b157924cc4b9abdaad922c38a4616 | 2018-01-26 | 2 |
<p>In the popular mind, the history of Imperial Rome consists of the scandalous biographies of Emperors at the center and the battles of military textbooks at the periphery, linked by marching and countermarching iron-shod legions building bridges and roads, and constantly revolting and hoisting one of their number aloft on their shields and onto the Imperial throne – rather without meaning as we understand history. The life and works of Tacitus are themselves a revelation of meaningful history in the first generations of the Empire. He was born in the onset of the collapse of the first principate, grew to maturity in the dark days of the reign of Domitian, wrote his greatest works under the benign Trajan, and probably lived on into the reign of Hadrian, the first Roman Emperor to achieve the omnipotence of the Hellenistic King of Kings, Basileos Soter, which the passionately philhellene Nero had so barbarously failed to even understand.</p>
<p>In Tacitus, Senatorial history reaches its anticlimax, for he is the propagandist of the caste that in Chinese affairs we call the scholar-gentry, which would never again, if the plot of the historical drama is the shifts and conquests and losses of real power, play a major role on the stage of Western history. After the Punic Wars, Roman Senators were hardly gentry. They certainly never were scholars. On the face of it, each book of Tacitus – The Germania, The Agricola, The History, and The Annals – is a party pamphlet; yet we believe them because of their unparalleled trenchancy. Succeeding ages assumed that his Histories suffered only from the commendable virtue of Republican party enthusiasm and took it for granted that the perverts and gangsters of Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars were figures of embittered, comic romance. Tacitus persuades us that Tiberius and Claudius must have been the sort he says they were.</p>
<p>Modern historians and the experience of a century more embittering than the first of the Christian era prove us wrong on both counts. Today we know that clowns and blood-drinking perverts climb to the summits of power, pushed on by the enthusiastic applause of the majority; nor is it now unbelievable that a Roman Emperor enjoyed being sodomized on the public stage. But the destructive policies of morose Tiberius, the sloth and foolery of Claudius, the lunacy of Nero are not substantiated by research.</p>
<p>In Tacitus’s day the economic, social, and political system against which his work is a polemic came to its full power. Devoted to the imaginary frosty virtues of the Republic of Livy, he lived to see the midsummer of Empire. He first appears as the prosecutor in the Senate of the crooked Proconsul Marius Priscus for “conduct unbecoming a gentleman.” In youth he visited Germany and married the daughter of Agricola, the Governor of Britain. In the first work attributed to him, he bemoans the decline of oratory and says flatly that the art of persuasion has passed from the halls of justice to the study of the historian. His life of his father-in-law is a celebration of an ideal Roman gentleman of the oldest school, a Cincinnatus reborn; his description of the heir-apparent Germanicus, the romance of a new aristocrat, stainless, decorative, and as politically ineffectual as Sir Philip Sydney.</p>
<p>Roman history as Tacitus knew it in his own time began with the last days of the struggle to reorganize the Republic, while preserving its ceremonial forms, into an imperial-palace system of the Mesopotamian-Egyptian-Chinese-Byzantine type. It was necessary to deprive the senators and all other Republican castes of every vestige of real power. Before Tacitus was born they had already lost all power; but he was to establish for posterity their oligarchic mysticism as it expressed itself in impotent resistance two generations after actual total defeat. The social role, the moral qualities, the political competence the Senate imagined it still might reclaim, Tacitus sculptures out of granite into an image for all time.</p>
<p>The real Roman oligarchy – the gentleman-farmers, scholar-statesmen, amateur but indomitable warriors of legend – in Tacitus’s day were precisely the new technocrats, proprietors of immense slave-operated estates, court poets, holders of imperial franchises. They were creatures of the court, eunuchs and freedmen, mostly highly cultivated Greeks and Levantines who had never heard of the right and wrong defined in the pages of aristocratic history and were beyond the good and evil of the heroes of oligarchic myth.</p>
<p>It is because Tacitus knew this bitter truth in his heart, although every word he wrote was devoted to countervailing it, that his is perhaps the most mordant style in the history of prose. It was as though he sensed that long legend of martyrdom working out in pitiful reality which lay ahead of him – Boethius defying Theodoric, Arnold of Brescia, Rienzi, Daniele Manin, Matteotti. So his prose gnaws and chews with a grimness unknown to Burke, Gibbon, and their French congeners, for these men believed that a European scholar-gentry, which in reality was to play so fleeting a role, would succeed and all the world would be united under the benevolent sway of enlightened Whigs and Girondins, brave and learned landlords.</p>
<p>In Thucydides, Plutarch, Livy, and, above all, Tacitus, we willfully suspend disbelief and enjoy the ceremonial stateliness of the drama and, in Tacitus’s case, the grandeur of his malice, a style like a tray of dental instruments. So deeply is this style embedded in the narrative, in every inflection of perception and judgment, that even the most inept and donnish translators have never been able to erase it. We read it for its relentless bite. Tacitus’s images of two great Roman emperors are mirrors of contemporary figures who have created out of aristocratic republics the all-encompassing structures of the oriental palace systems, the imperial bureaucracies, of our own day. Tacitus too speaks against The Palace and for his Founding Fathers, although he certainly never met a contemporary Roman who bore the slightest resemblance to one, just like our own Jeffersonians.</p>
<p>In spite of disaster, Thucydides had the confidence of a man who could see no threat to his own kind on any horizon. Alexander and the constellations of perfumed and jeweled Ptolemys and Antigonids were rising slowly from the nadir of time and some day would dominate the Greek empyrean, but of this Thucydides never dreamed. His heroes, for all their folly and pride and covetousness, are like the self-determining personalities caught in the dooms of Sophoclean tragedy. The figures of Tacitus act out a melodrama in which powerless men are whirled through catastrophe by impersonal force. The mask that garbs such force, the Emperor as the embodiment of a dark, inscrutable Imperial will, can never be more than a figure of gruesome farce, like the Fu Manchus, Mad Scientists, and Master Bolsheviks of our own fictions; his opponents can never rise above the condition of marionettes of pathos. Neither can be fully fleshed as complete men, as heroes of a tragic history like Thucydides’s, because they can never generate their own motives. The sharpness of Tacitus’s bite makes it easy to forget that melodrama prevents him from being a writer of the first rank, from having a genuine political morality or philosophy. Many a disgusting old fraud in Roman literature managed to convince himself he was a Stoic. Even this was not permitted Tacitus. His personal life attitude must have been like that of one of the gloomier Existentialists of the present day – a clerkly individual who has discovered that his kind is no longer useful and who therefore has lost hope in the future, faith in natural process, and charity toward his fellows. Tacitus, writing in the Empire’s most halcyon season, could survey its human relationships and come only to the judgment: no exit.</p>
<p>KENNETH REXROTH, a native of Indiana, became an icon of the San Francisco Beat movement. He was a political anarchist, poet, and gifted translator. Rexroth died in 1982. Many of his writings are available on the excellent <a href="http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/" type="external">Bureau of Public Secrets</a> site.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Imperial History According to Tacitus | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/02/05/imperial-history-according-to-tacitus/ | 2007-02-05 | 4 |
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<p>The shootings occurred just after 4 a.m. Saturday at the family’s home at 458 Jarales Road. Wesley J. Hobbs, 54, was shot two or three times in the head, and was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff said.</p>
<p>Hobbs’ daughter, Amanda, 24, was shot once in the head. She died at 3 p.m. Sunday at the University of New Mexico Hospital. His wife, Patricia, was also taken to the hospital but was treated and released Saturday afternoon. Burkhard said Patricia Hobbs was also shot, but the bullet grazed her head.</p>
<p>“She was very lucky,” Burkhard said of Patricia Hobbs’ injury.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Burkhard said detectives have been working day and night since receiving the 911 call that Patricia Hobbs made that morning. The sheriff said when the woman called dispatch, the only information she gave was that there was a triple shooting, but no other details.</p>
<p>When deputies and emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene, they immediately tried to save Wesley Hobbs, and they were about to airlift him from the Jarales fire station when he died.</p>
<p>After the victims were found and medical personnel finished with the patients, Burkhard said the detectives worked on obtaining search warrants and notified the District Attorney’s Office. He said they also called in the New Mexico State Police crime scene unit to help collect evidence.</p>
<p>“We don’t believe this was as a result of a domestic situation or that any of the victims (were responsible),” Burkhard said. “We have received a number of tips and leads, and we’re working on those. Our detectives have been there nonstop since the shooting and tracking down people. They’ve done a number of interviews, so we’re working very hard on this investigation.”</p>
<p>Burkhard said investigators are following up on leads, but he would not say whether they have a specific suspect in their sights.</p>
<p>“We do have some pretty good information, and we have to sort that out,” the sheriff said. “We don’t discount anything or anyone at this point.”</p>
<p>While a weapon wasn’t found at the scene, Burkhard said detectives believe the murder weapon was a handgun based on the casings found.</p>
<p>Burkhard said his detectives have spoken with the couple’s son, who was in Jemez Springs at the time of the shooting. The sheriff said the son is not a suspect.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We have several detectives working on this, and they’ve been pretty much nonstop,” the sheriff said. “They were able to speak with Patricia briefly at the hospital, but they’re hoping to do a more in-depth interview (Monday).</p>
<p>“I think this was more targeted to the family,” he said. “This wasn’t a random act.”</p>
<p>The sheriff said the shooter possibly “knew of” the family, but he wasn’t sure of the exact relationship.</p>
<p>Burkhard says he hopes an arrest will be made soon.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Family in triple shooting was targeted, sheriff says | false | https://abqjournal.com/260292/family-was-targeted-sheriff-says.html | 2013-09-10 | 2 |
<p>Among the most durable myths of American public life is that conservatives are more authentic in their religious faith than liberals and progressives. Certainly this arrogant presumption prevails on the religious right, where commentators and politicians routinely denigrate the sincerity of Christians such as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, whose irredeemable sin is that they also happen to be Democrats and candidates for president.</p>
<p>With characteristic condescension, an editor of the right-wing Weekly Standard dismissed public expressions of faith from the left as both pointless and worthless. He declared that the Democrats can only attract Christians who are “religious in the way that Hillary Clinton is religious, which is to say a very liberal Protestant sort of view, in which they believe in everything but God.” That quip is quite mild compared with typical fiery denunciations from the religious right, branding the Clintons as instruments of Satan and Obama as an Islamist in disguise.</p>
<p>Both senators are fully capable of expressing their personal beliefs and defending their theological views whenever that seems appropriate. Like other presidential candidates on both sides of the partisan aisle, they can offer substantial evidence of their religiosity to churchgoing voters. Of course, that won’t discourage conservative critics from noisily denigrating them (and all Democrats) as apostates and heretics.</p>
<p>In these endless squabbles over the faith of politicians, however, it is striking how rarely right-wing officials and preachers find themselves on the defensive about their faith — no matter how hypocritical and even hateful their behavior may be. These supposed men of God may be adulterers; they may be crooks and liars; they may cultivate the wealthy and corrupt while despising the poor and lame; yet somehow, their adherence to Scripture isn’t subject to doubt.</p>
<p />
<p>It is time to stop being so damned polite — and to start asking them a few hard questions.</p>
<p>The lucrative business known as “Christian broadcasting,” for instance, is also the source of the most fervent, widely heard attacks on the sinfulness and apostasy of liberals, progressives and Democrats. Now may be the time to ask: What exactly is so “Christian” about these multimillionaire Republican televangelists, who plainly look upon their flocks as so many fat sheep to be fleeced?</p>
<p>From the preeminent Pat Robertson of Christian Broadcasting Network to Paul Crouch of Trinity Broadcasting Network to lesser but rising figures such as Rod Parsley and John Hagee, these mountebanks persuade their hopeful viewers to send in checks, frequently promising that the Lord will bring prosperity to the poor and restore health to the ill if only those “tithes” are sufficiently generous. When the expected miracles fail to materialize, say the preachers, it is only because the faithful didn’t believe strongly enough — or didn’t donate enough money. Contributions are routinely misused to purchase luxury estates, private jets and lavish vacations in Vegas, rather than to propagate the Gospel in Asia or to relieve suffering in Africa, as advertised.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, these fundamentalist shepherds promote hostility toward homosexuals, liberals, feminists and Muslims and toward Christians who don’t share their dogmas, all in the name of the Prince of Peace. They steer their followers toward right-wing ideology and Republican candidates, skirting or ignoring the laws that prohibit churches from engaging in partisan politics. They abhor Social Security, Medicare, national health insurance and every kind of government assistance to families, even while they eagerly cash in on “faith-based” federal handouts.</p>
<p>Now presumably the faith healers and prosperity preachers can cite biblical verses to justify their dubious behavior, but it is hard to imagine that any of this is what Jesus would really do. Too many times in recent years the blustering enforcers of family values and public piety have turned out to be frauds. The unhappy examples range from Ralph Reed’s gambling connections and Newt Gingrich’s infidelities to Ted Haggard’s secret gay lifestyle. The latest episode involves Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), another conservative Christian moralist, whose name just turned up in the phone book of the “D.C. Madam.” (He once said that Bill Clinton deserved to be removed from office for his sexual infidelity, but now shows no sign of resigning his own seat.)</p>
<p>When these Christian gentlemen are caught with their pants down or their hands in the cookie jar, they invariably claim that they have repented and prayed for forgiveness. In a spirit of generosity that they often lack, let us hope that they can cleanse themselves of wrongdoing. But let us remain skeptical whenever an ostentatiously pious conservative presumes to judge the faith of liberal Christians — including candidates for president.</p>
<p>Joe Conason writes for The New York Observer.</p>
<p>(c) 2007 Creators Syndicate Inc.</p> | Phony Piety on the Far Right | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/phony-piety-on-the-far-right/ | 2007-07-14 | 4 |
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<p>DENVER - A record number of people are believed to have died in motorcycle accidents in Colorado last year, surpassing the triple digit mark for the first time.</p>
<p>The Colorado Department of Transportation says preliminary data shows 106 motorcyclists died last year. That's nearly 12 percent more than in 2014 and 20 percent more than in 2013.</p>
<p>The data shows that 94 percent of those who died were men and that 40 percent of the deaths happened in Denver, Jefferson and El Paso counties.</p>
<p>CDOT is revamping its campaign to encourage riders to take safety training courses as the weather warms up. This year's Ride Wise campaign includes messages like "live free, die old" and "train for the wind, before you ride like it."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Colorado motorcycle deaths hit triple digits for 1st time | false | https://abqjournal.com/768200/colorado-motorcycle-deaths-hit-triple-digits-for-1st-time.html | 2 |
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<p>A Florida sheriff on Wednesday issued a warning to sexual offenders and those with warrants for their arrests that they are not allowed in hurricane shelters in his jurisdiction.</p>
<p>If you go to a shelter for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Irma?src=hash" type="external">#Irma</a>, be advised: sworn LEOs will be at every shelter, checking IDs. Sex offenders/predators will not be allowed</p>
<p>— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolkCoSheriff/status/905438093527928834" type="external">September 6, 2017</a></p>
<p>If you go to a shelter for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Irma?src=hash" type="external">#Irma</a> and you have a warrant, we’ll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail <a href="https://t.co/Qj5GX9XQBi" type="external">https://t.co/Qj5GX9XQBi</a></p>
<p>— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolkCoSheriff/status/905438240278278144" type="external">September 6, 2017</a></p>
<p>Polk Country Sheriff Grady Judd later appeared on <a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/09/07/hurricane-irma-florida-sheriff-grady-judd-no-sex-offenders-active-warrants-shelters" type="external">Fox News’ “Fox &amp;&#160;Friends”</a>&#160;to explain&#160;that no Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will be performing checks at shelters, and that “Everyone here is welcome at our shelter, unless you’re a sexual predator or a child offender. Then we’re not going to have you here.”</p>
<p>“Keep in mind, the kids that are in a daycare today may very well be in a shelter this weekend. Do you want a sexual offender or predator sleeping next to them?” he continued. “Not happening here.”</p>
<p>The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida objected to Judd’s statement that those with warrants will be arrested if they attempt to seek shelter.</p>
<p>Our response to the dangerous <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HurricaneIrma?src=hash" type="external">#HurricaneIrma</a> tweets of <a href="https://twitter.com/PolkCoSheriff" type="external">@PolkCoSheriff</a> Grady Judd, threatening arrests for people seeking shelter. <a href="https://t.co/V4MKC9nfTw" type="external">pic.twitter.com/V4MKC9nfTw</a></p>
<p>— ACLU of Florida (@ACLUFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/ACLUFL/status/905487915148615681" type="external">September 6, 2017</a></p>
<p>“I tell the ACLU, grab all those people up and take them home with you,” Judd said. “We don’t arrest people people for simple traffic offenses. ACLU is just blustering like they normally do.”</p>
<p>“We were trying to give all of those people a five-day heads-up, so that they could find safe shelter as well, either with us at the county jail or someplace else if they don’t want to come to jail,” he added.</p> | Fla. Sheriff: Sex Offenders Not Welcome in Polk County Shelters | false | https://newsline.com/fla-sheriff-sex-offenders-not-welcome-in-polk-county-shelters/ | 2017-09-07 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Charitable donations can do more than help your favorite cause, they can save you a lot of money come tax time. Whether you are looking to give $50 or $5,000 there are a slew of ways to maximize the gift of giving.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“The benefits primarily center around tax deductions,” says Patrick Lee, a certified public account at Kruggel Lawton CPAs in South Bend &amp; Elkhart, Indiana. “You are able to take dollar-for-dollar deductions.”</p>
<p>The rules surrounding deducting charitable contributions vary depending on what tax bracket you fall into. People who are in higher income tax brackets are limited in the amount they can write off. Single people making over $254,200 and married couples filing jointly who make over $305,050 for 2014 will face limitations. For people in lower income tax brackets they can deduct 100% of their donations.</p>
<p>Regardless of your tax bracket, in order to get the deduction you have to&#160; itemize on your tax return, which means you’ll need to have deductions greater than $6,200 if you are single and $12,400 if you are married and filing jointly in 2014. What’s more, your deduction can’t be greater than 50% of your taxable income, no matter which tax bracket you fall into. While $6,200 or $12,400 may seem like a lot, allowable deductions such as real estate taxes, mortgage interest and medical expenses can quickly add up. “Charitable homeowners are usually able to reach those amounts pretty easily,” says Lee.</p>
<p>Donate Appreciated Stock To Avoid Capital Gains</p>
<p>In addition to getting dollar-for-dollar deductions for your donations, people who own appreciated stock that they have held for longer than one year can donate the shares to their preferred charity and avoid any long-term capital gains taxes. “Maybe you bought a stock ten years ago for $500 and now it’s worth $1,000. Normally if you sell you are subject to the long-term capital gains tax on the $500 gain,” says Lee. “If you give directly to the charity you’ll get a charitable deduction of $1,000 for the fair market value and avoid the long-term capital gains tax.” Lee says charities are well aware of this strategy and are more than willing to work with donors to accept appreciated stock as a donation.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Set Up a Charitable Trust To Save On Taxes</p>
<p>Another way to get tax deductions on your charitable giving is to set up a charitable trust in which you give to a charity and they use it as income for a set number of years. At the end of the period, whatever is left goes to a non-charitable beneficiary like your children, grandchildren or even yourself.&#160; According to Joe Franklin, president of Franklin Wealth Management, with this strategy, typically used by the wealthy, people often get a current income, gift or estate tax deduction on the assets donated to the trust.</p>
<p>Donate from your IRA if you are over 70 and-a-half</p>
<p>Since the IRS requires everybody over 70½ to take money out of their IRA and retirement plan, Franklin says a popular strategy over the last few years has been to give that withdrawn money to a charity. By doing that you get the deduction from your charitable donation and don’t have to worry about the tax implications.&#160; The IRA Charitable Rollover provision allows individuals who have reached age 70½ to donate up to $100,000 to charitable organizations directly from their IRA, without treating the distribution as taxable income. Franklin says the rule allowing money from the IRA to go to a charity hasn’t passed in the Senate yet this year, but it tends to pass at the 11th hour each year.</p>
<p>Contribute to IRS Approved Charities</p>
<p>Consumers have to remember that in order to get the deduction this year, any charitable donations have to be made before Jan. 1 2015. In the case of appreciated stock, Franklin says people shouldn’t wait until the end of the year. It’s better in that case to give it away when the stock has appreciated enough instead of waiting in hopes it will go higher.</p>
<p>The type of charity people invest in will also impact their deductions.&#160; In order to benefit on your taxes you can only contribute to charities that are qualified by the IRS.</p>
<p>Whether you are giving a lot of money one time or a little throughout the year, experts say you need to keep good receipts for all your donations. It’s particularly important if you are giving a lot to a charity or charities.&#160; Experts say a red flag for the IRS is a tax return with a large charitable donation when there hasn’t been one in the past. “When you are giving large gifts, especially property, you need to keep good records,” says Yu. “When the IRS comes to look at your return you have to have documentation, otherwise you have no standing for the deduction.”</p> | Get The Most Out Of Your Charitable Giving | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/10/24/get-most-out-your-charitable-giving.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>BERLIN — German police hunting for a Syrian-born man suspected of planning a bomb attack have arrested three people connected to him but haven't found him yet, officials said.</p>
<p>Police found explosives while raiding an apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz after receiving information from Germany's domestic intelligence agency Friday night about the alleged attack plans, Saxony police spokesman Tom Bernhardt told reporters.</p>
<p>"The cordoned-off area is so wide that we can almost rule out a threat to the local population," Bernhardt said.</p>
<p>Police appealed to the public to call them with any information on Jaber Albakr, 22, who was last seen in the eastern city of Chemnitz wearing a black hooded top with a bright pattern on the front.</p>
<p>"The search for the suspect is ongoing," Saxony state police tweeted. "At the moment, however, we do not know where he is and what he is carrying with him. Be careful."</p>
<p>Saxony police put out an alert, identifying the suspect as 22-year-old Jaber Albakr from Damascus, urging anyone with any information of his whereabouts to contact authorities. They released a photo of the suspect, a dark-haired man wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and said he was last seen wearing similar clothes.</p>
<p>"We have to assume that he is dangerous," Bernhardt said.</p>
<p>Police have asked residents to stay indoors.</p>
<p>The German press agency dpa reported, citing unidentified German security sources, that the suspect is believed to be connected to Islamic extremist groups. Bernhardt would only say that he was "known" to German intelligence.</p>
<p>Authorities released no details about how long the suspect had been in Germany, and Bernhardt said it was unclear whether he had come in the wave of asylum-seekers in 2015. Germany took in 890,000 asylum-seekers last year, and Syrians fleeing civil war were the single largest group.</p>
<p>Neighbors reported hearing an explosion during the raid, but that was the police assault team blowing open the apartment door, police spokeswoman Kathlen Zink told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Germany has been on edge since two attacks this summer in Wuerzburg and Ansbach, claimed by ISIS in which multiple people were injured and both assailants died. Two other attacks unrelated to Islamic extremism, including a deadly mall shooting in Munich, have also contributed to fears.</p> | Three Arrested as German Police Hunt for Syrian-Born Bomb Suspect | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/world/german-police-hunt-suspected-syrian-born-bomber-n662421 | 2016-10-08 | 3 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration moved Thursday to vastly expand offshore drilling from the Atlantic to the Arctic oceans with a plan that would open up federal waters off California for the first time in more than three decades.</p>
<p>The new five-year drilling plan also could open new areas of oil and gas exploration in areas off the East Coast from Florida to Maine, where drilling has been blocked for decades. While some lawmakers in those states support offshore drilling, the plan drew immediate opposition from governors up and down the East Coast, including Republican Govs. Rick Scott of Florida and Larry Hogan of Maryland, who pressed President Donald Trump to withdraw their states from consideration.</p>
<p>Democratic governors on both coasts blasted the plan. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it "another federal assault on our environment" while California Gov. Jerry Brown vowed to block "this reckless, short-sighted action."</p>
<p>Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the plan, saying that responsible development of offshore energy resources would boost jobs and economic security while providing billions of dollars to fund conservation along U.S. coastlines.</p>
<p>The five-year plan would open 90 percent of the nation's offshore reserves to development by private companies, Zinke said, with 47 leases proposed off the nation's coastlines from 2019 to 2024. Nineteen sales would be off Alaska, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, nine in the Atlantic and seven in the Pacific, including six off California.</p>
<p>"This is a draft program," Zinke told reporters during a conference call. "Nothing is final yet, and our department is continuing to engage the American people to get to our final product."</p>
<p>Industry groups praised the announcement, which would be the most expansive offshore drilling proposal in decades. The proposal follows Trump's executive order in April encouraging more drilling rights in federal waters, part of the administration's strategy to help the U.S. achieve "energy dominance" in the global market.</p>
<p>"To kick off a national discussion, you need a national plan - something that has been lacking the past several years," said Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. President Barack Obama blocked Atlantic and Pacific drilling under a five-year plan finalized in 2016.</p>
<p>A coalition of more than 60 environmental groups denounced the plan, saying it would impose "severe and unacceptable harm" to America's oceans, coastal economies, public health and marine life.</p>
<p>"These ocean waters are not President Trump's personal playground. They belong to all Americans and the public wants them preserved and protected, not sold off to multinational oil companies," read the coalition's statement, which was signed by leaders of the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters and other environmental groups.</p>
<p>The proposal comes less than a week after the Trump administration proposed to rewrite or kill rules on offshore oil and gas drilling imposed after the 2010 rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The accident on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and triggered the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.</p>
<p>The Trump administration called the rules an unnecessary burden on industry and said rolling them back will encourage more energy production. Environmentalists said Trump was raising the risk of more deadly oil spills.</p>
<p>The Obama administration imposed tougher rules in response to the BP spill. The rules targeted blowout preventers, massive valve-like devices designed to prevent spills from wells on the ocean floor. The preventer used by BP failed. The rules require more frequent inspections of those and other devices and dictate that experts onshore monitor drilling of highly complex wells in real time.</p>
<p>The Gulf of Mexico is still recovering from the BP spill, said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for the marine conservation group Oceana.</p>
<p>"Americans have seen the devastation that comes from offshore drilling," she said. "Will we allow Florida's white beaches or the popular and pristine Outer Banks to share a similar fate? What about the scenic Pacific coast or even remote Arctic waters?"</p>
<p>Zinke's announcement "ignores widespread and bipartisan opposition to offshore drilling," including from more than 150 municipalities nationwide and 1,200 local, state and federal officials, Hoskins said.</p>
<p>Scott, the Florida governor, said he has asked for an immediate meeting with Zinke to discuss his concerns. "My top priority is to ensure that Florida's natural resources are protected," Scott said. Hogan, of Maryland, said he would oppose the plan "to the fullest extent that is legally possible."</p>
<p>California was the site of the first offshore drilling in the U.S. more than 120 years ago, but the region was tarnished by one of the worst spills in U.S. history in 1969, when more than 3 million gallons of oil poured into the ocean near Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>Thousands of sea birds were killed, along with dolphins, elephant seals and sea lions. Virtually all commercial fishing near Santa Barbara was halted, and tourism dropped dramatically.</p>
<p>Public outrage generated by the spill helped spark the modern environmental movement, and no federal leases have been granted off the California coast since 1984.</p>
<p>Democratic Govs. Jerry Brown of California, Kate Brown of Oregon and Jay Inslee of Washington issued a joint statement slamming the proposal, which they said ignored science and the devastation of past offshore spills.</p>
<p>"For more than 30 years, our shared coastline has been protected from further federal drilling and we'll do whatever it takes to stop this reckless, short-sighted action," they said.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration moved Thursday to vastly expand offshore drilling from the Atlantic to the Arctic oceans with a plan that would open up federal waters off California for the first time in more than three decades.</p>
<p>The new five-year drilling plan also could open new areas of oil and gas exploration in areas off the East Coast from Florida to Maine, where drilling has been blocked for decades. While some lawmakers in those states support offshore drilling, the plan drew immediate opposition from governors up and down the East Coast, including Republican Govs. Rick Scott of Florida and Larry Hogan of Maryland, who pressed President Donald Trump to withdraw their states from consideration.</p>
<p>Democratic governors on both coasts blasted the plan. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it "another federal assault on our environment" while California Gov. Jerry Brown vowed to block "this reckless, short-sighted action."</p>
<p>Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the plan, saying that responsible development of offshore energy resources would boost jobs and economic security while providing billions of dollars to fund conservation along U.S. coastlines.</p>
<p>The five-year plan would open 90 percent of the nation's offshore reserves to development by private companies, Zinke said, with 47 leases proposed off the nation's coastlines from 2019 to 2024. Nineteen sales would be off Alaska, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, nine in the Atlantic and seven in the Pacific, including six off California.</p>
<p>"This is a draft program," Zinke told reporters during a conference call. "Nothing is final yet, and our department is continuing to engage the American people to get to our final product."</p>
<p>Industry groups praised the announcement, which would be the most expansive offshore drilling proposal in decades. The proposal follows Trump's executive order in April encouraging more drilling rights in federal waters, part of the administration's strategy to help the U.S. achieve "energy dominance" in the global market.</p>
<p>"To kick off a national discussion, you need a national plan - something that has been lacking the past several years," said Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. President Barack Obama blocked Atlantic and Pacific drilling under a five-year plan finalized in 2016.</p>
<p>A coalition of more than 60 environmental groups denounced the plan, saying it would impose "severe and unacceptable harm" to America's oceans, coastal economies, public health and marine life.</p>
<p>"These ocean waters are not President Trump's personal playground. They belong to all Americans and the public wants them preserved and protected, not sold off to multinational oil companies," read the coalition's statement, which was signed by leaders of the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters and other environmental groups.</p>
<p>The proposal comes less than a week after the Trump administration proposed to rewrite or kill rules on offshore oil and gas drilling imposed after the 2010 rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The accident on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and triggered the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.</p>
<p>The Trump administration called the rules an unnecessary burden on industry and said rolling them back will encourage more energy production. Environmentalists said Trump was raising the risk of more deadly oil spills.</p>
<p>The Obama administration imposed tougher rules in response to the BP spill. The rules targeted blowout preventers, massive valve-like devices designed to prevent spills from wells on the ocean floor. The preventer used by BP failed. The rules require more frequent inspections of those and other devices and dictate that experts onshore monitor drilling of highly complex wells in real time.</p>
<p>The Gulf of Mexico is still recovering from the BP spill, said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for the marine conservation group Oceana.</p>
<p>"Americans have seen the devastation that comes from offshore drilling," she said. "Will we allow Florida's white beaches or the popular and pristine Outer Banks to share a similar fate? What about the scenic Pacific coast or even remote Arctic waters?"</p>
<p>Zinke's announcement "ignores widespread and bipartisan opposition to offshore drilling," including from more than 150 municipalities nationwide and 1,200 local, state and federal officials, Hoskins said.</p>
<p>Scott, the Florida governor, said he has asked for an immediate meeting with Zinke to discuss his concerns. "My top priority is to ensure that Florida's natural resources are protected," Scott said. Hogan, of Maryland, said he would oppose the plan "to the fullest extent that is legally possible."</p>
<p>California was the site of the first offshore drilling in the U.S. more than 120 years ago, but the region was tarnished by one of the worst spills in U.S. history in 1969, when more than 3 million gallons of oil poured into the ocean near Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>Thousands of sea birds were killed, along with dolphins, elephant seals and sea lions. Virtually all commercial fishing near Santa Barbara was halted, and tourism dropped dramatically.</p>
<p>Public outrage generated by the spill helped spark the modern environmental movement, and no federal leases have been granted off the California coast since 1984.</p>
<p>Democratic Govs. Jerry Brown of California, Kate Brown of Oregon and Jay Inslee of Washington issued a joint statement slamming the proposal, which they said ignored science and the devastation of past offshore spills.</p>
<p>"For more than 30 years, our shared coastline has been protected from further federal drilling and we'll do whatever it takes to stop this reckless, short-sighted action," they said.</p> | Trump moves to vastly expand offshore drilling off US coasts | false | https://apnews.com/amp/97e57e5f0f7045909757e87b452fd2a5 | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>By: WKRC</p>
<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio (WKRC) - A Butler County man who repeatedly raped his 22-month-old son will soon be out of prison. The Ohio Parole Board decided to parole Mark Sprague on Jan. 25.</p>
<p>Sprague was convicted of raping his son in 1994, after pleading no contest.</p>
<p>Christopher Sprague died. His mother, Della Sprague admitted to hitting him on the back due to his frequent coughing spells. An autopsy showed Christopher suffered an artery tear. Dell pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She is already out of prison.</p>
<p>During the autopsy, the damage done by the rapes was also revealed, leading to Sprague's conviction.</p>
<p>A Butler County parole board recently recommended his release, saying he has completed programming to help manage his risk to the community.</p>
<p>Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser says he believes Sprague is still a high risk. An assistant to the Butler County prosecutor even told the parole board that a psychiatrist says Sprague is likely to reoffend if around young children.</p>
<p>At least 2,400 people agreed with Gmoser. They signed a petition against Sprague's release.</p>
<p>Ultimately, parole board members in Columbus disagreed.</p>
<p>Sprague will eventually be released to a halfway house in Cincinnati or Columbus.</p> | Butler County, Ohio man who repeatedly raped his toddler son will be paroled | false | https://circa.com/story/2018/01/25/nation/butler-county-ohio-man-who-repeatedly-raped-his-toddler-son-will-be-paroled | 2018-01-25 | 1 |
<p>The only two US reactor projects now technically under construction are on the brink of death for financial reasons.</p>
<p>If they go under, there will almost certainly be no new reactors built here.</p>
<p>The much mythologized “nuclear renaissance” will be officially buried, and the US can take a definitive leap toward a green-powered future that will actually work and that won’t threaten the continent with radioactive contamination.</p>
<p>As this drama unfolds, the collapse of global nuclear power continues, as two reactors proposed for Bulgaria have been cancelled, and just one of Japan’s 54 licensed reactors is operating. That one may well close next month, leaving Japan without a single operating commercial nuke.</p>
<p>Georgia’s double-reactor Vogtle project has been sold on the basis of federal loan guarantees. Last year President Obama promised the Southern Company, parent to Georgia Power, $8.33 billion in financing from an $18.5 billion fund that had been established at the Department of Energy by George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Until last week most industry observers had assumed the guarantees were a done deal. But the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group, has publicly complained that the Office of Management and Budget&#160; <a href="http://nukefree.org/vogtle-loan-guarantee-not-yet-done-deal" type="external">may be requiring terms that are unacceptable to the builders</a>.</p>
<p>Southern and its supporters remain ostensibly optimistic that the deal will be done. But the climate for loan guarantees has changed since this one was promised. The $535 million collapse of Solyndra <a href="" type="internal" />prompted a rash of angry Congressional hearings and cast a long shadow over the whole range of loan guarantees for energy projects. Though the Vogtle deal comes from a separate fund, skepticism over stalled negotiations is rising.</p>
<p>So is resistance among Georgia ratepayers. To fund the new Vogtle reactors, Southern is forcing “construction work in progress” rate hikes that require consumers to pay for the new nukes as they’re being built. Southern is free of liability, even if the reactors are not completed. Thus it behooves the company to build them essentially forever, collecting payment whether they open or not.</p>
<p>All that would collapse should the loan guarantee package fail.</p>
<p>A similar fate may be awaiting the Summer Project. South Carolina Electric &amp; Gas has pledged to build the two new reactors there without federal subsidies or guarantees. But it does require ratepayer funding up front. That includes an apparent need for substantial financial participation from Duke Power and/or Progress Energy customers in North Carolina who have been targeted to receive some of the electricity projected to come from Summer.</p>
<p>But resistance in the Tar Heel State is fierce. NCWarn and other consumer/anti-nuclear organizations&#160; <a href="http://nukefree.org/ncwarn-north-carolina-can-kill-south-carolina-nuke-project" type="external">are geared up to fight the necessary rate hikes tooth and nail</a>. Should they win—and in a troubled economy there is much going for them—nuclear opponents could well take Summer down before it gets seriously off the ground.</p>
<p>Progress already has its hands full with a double-reactor project proposed for Levy County, Florida. Massive rate hikes granted for CWIP by the Florida legislature have ignited tremendous&#160; <a href="http://nukefree.org/ncwarn-north-carolina-can-kill-south-carolina-nuke-project" type="external">public</a>&#160; <a href="" type="internal">anger</a>. Unlike Vogtle and Summer, Levy County has yet to get NRC approval.</p>
<p>Progress is also over its head at Crystal River. Upwards of $2 billion has been poured into botched repairs at this north Florida reactor. Odds are strong&#160; <a href="http://nukefree.org/editorsblog/nuclear-powers-green-mountain-grassroots-demise" type="external">it will never reopen</a>.</p>
<p>The same may be true at California’s San Onofre, now shut due to problems with its steam generator tubing, a generic flaw that could affect up to about half the currently licensed 104 US reactors. Nukes at Vermont Yankee, New York’s Indian Point and Pilgrim, in Massachusetts, among others, are also under fierce attack.</p>
<p>These elderly reactors have been routinely issued extended operating licenses by the NRC.</p>
<p>But as their physical deterioration accelerates, official licenses may now be beside the point for these old reactors….and for new nukes as well. The major financial trade publications such as Bloomberg’s, Fortune et. al., now regularly concede that increased efficiency and renewable projects are cheaper, faster to build and more profitable than new reactors. The Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal agency, could conceivably pick up the corpse and try to build new reactors, as it did at the dawn of the nuclear age, when no private utilities would touch the untested but clearly dubious promise of the “Peaceful Atom.”</p>
<p>In the decades since, the promise of electricity “too cheap to meter” has proven to be a tragic myth.</p>
<p>And all these years later, the financial pitfalls of what may be America’s last two proposed reactor projects may write the final epitaph for an industry whose fiscal failures are in the multi-billions.</p>
<p>At the end of the road, it will still take citizen activism to finally bury this industry. But we may be very close to making it happen, and now is a critical time to push extra hard.</p>
<p>Harvey Wasserman, a co-founder of Musicians United for Safe Energy, is editing the&#160; <a href="http://nukefree.org/" type="external">nukefree.org</a>&#160;web site. He is the author of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030</a>, is at&#160; <a href="http://www.solartopia.org/" type="external">www.solartopia.org</a>. He can be reached at:&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | New Nukes on the Brink | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/04/06/new-nukes-on-the-brink/ | 2012-04-06 | 4 |
<p>ORLANDO, Fla. — Scientists studying the way lobsters sniff around for food on the sea floor say they have found a clue to developing technology that could help soldiers detect land mines and hidden explosives from a safer distance than current technology allows.</p>
<p>A lobster's "nose" is actually a pair of hairy antennules that capture odor molecules and help the creatures locate an odor, researchers at the University of Florida said. They are studying an olfactory neuron that emits bursts of electrical pulses, much like radar systems use pulses of radio energy to detect airplanes or thunderstorms.</p>
<p>The team's findings, published in the Jan. 15 issue of the <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/3/941.short" type="external">Journal of Neuroscience</a>, may provide hints on ways to improve the devices to detect explosives, said Jose Principe, an electrical and computer engineering professor on the research team.</p>
<p>Current detectors "sniff out" explosive materials, but need a human handling the electronic nose to pinpoint the exact location, Principe said. A new device using a "lobster nose" could direct human handlers to the source from a safe distance.</p>
<p>For a lobster, each bursting neuron responds to a whiff at a different frequency, according to Barry Ache, a distinguished professor of neuroscience and biology and director of the University of Florida's Center for Smell and Taste. Sensing the time between whiffs helps the lobster pinpoint the source, Ache said.</p>
<p>Computer modeling of the lobster olfactory cells helped the team understand how a lobster was extracting and processing information from the environment, Principe said.</p> | Lobster-Style Sniffer Could Catch the Scent of a Land Mine | false | http://nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/lobster-style-sniffer-could-catch-scent-land-mine-n56256 | 2014-03-19 | 3 |
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<p>Earlier this month, the Arizona Open Government Committee officially launched its campaign to bring a top-two style open primary system to the Grand Canyon State by ballot initiative in next year’s elections.</p>
<p>On August 3rd, the group unveiled their proposed constitutional amendment, entitled “The Open Government Act,” that would do away with the state’s current semi-closed partisan primary elections and instead institute a top-two open primary system similar to that adopted by California voters last year.&#160;&#160; Under the top-two open primary, all candidates for a given office – regardless of their party affiliation – run on the same primary ballot, and all registered voters – regardless of their party affiliation – are eligible to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice. &#160;The two candidates who receive the most number of votes then proceed to the November general election, regardless of their respective party affiliations.&#160; Thus, it is possible that voters may end up with a choice between two Democrats, two Republicans, one of each or any other possible combination on the November ballot.</p>
<p>The new system would be implemented for all partisan elections except those for President and Vice President of the United States.&#160;&#160; The proposed amendment would guarantee that all qualified voters have an “unrestricted right” to vote for the candidate of their choice. &#160;Under the current system, Republicans cannot vote for Democratic primary candidates and vice versa.</p>
<p>“No longer will primary elections exist in which Democrats are limited to just choosing among Democratic candidates and Republican voters cast ballots just for Republican candidates, while Independent voters are largely left out altogether,” stated former Republican State Senator Carolyn Allen.</p>
<p>Yet, Independents are not completely left out of the present system.&#160; Though, while they may opt to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary, they cannot cast a primary vote for a Republican in one race and a Democrat in another.</p>
<p>Proponents also argue that the new system will open the political process.</p>
<p>“Currently, partisan candidates seeking the nominations of their party often simply address the issues of a narrow group of voters who vote in the primary election,” said Paul Johnson, a former Democratic mayor of Pheonix who has since registered as an Independent, and is spearheading the movement.&#160; Under the new system, “candidates will be forced to address issues of importance to all of us – Independents, Democrats and Republicans alike,” he stated.</p>
<p>Johnson and Allen are among those spearheading the effort, as reported <a href="http://azivn.org/content/new-open-government-committee-makes-case-nonpartisan-primaries-arizona" type="external">here</a> at AZIVN last month.</p>
<p>Opponents of top-two style open primary systems object to the fact that it limits voter choice to just two candidates in the general election. &#160;“In practice, it would eliminate minor party and independent candidates from the November ballot,” wrote ballot access expert Richard Winger in an op-ed for the Sacrameto Bee arguing against California’s top-two initiative.&#160; Winger points out that this was indeed the case in Washington after the state instituted its own brand of top two in 2008.</p>
<p>“Washington, for the first time since it became a state in 1889, had no minor party or independent candidates in November for any statewide state race or for any congressional race,” he stated.</p>
<p>“I call them Choke Point primaries, because that is precisely what they are – they create a choke point so general election voters have less choices,” writes Solomon Kleinsmith at <a href="http://www.stoptoptwo.org/straight-talk-vs-political-obfuscation-on-top-two-choke-point-primaries/" type="external">Stop Top Two</a>, an organization founded in opposition to the California initiative.</p>
<p>The group notes that there are numerous reform alternatives to the top-two open primary system that would incentivize political participation and lead to more representative government in the United States.&#160; It suggests, for example, proportional representation, instant runoff voting, approval voting, and multi-member legislative districts.</p>
<p>The Open Government Committee is set to begin collecting signatures to get its initiative on next year’s ballot later this month. &#160;They must collect nearly 260,000 valid signatures by July 5th 2012.&#160; For more information about the initiative, see the <a href="http://azopengov.org/opengovernment.aspx" type="external">Open Government Committee’s</a> website.</p> | Open Government Committee launches top-two open primary ballot initiative in Arizona | false | https://ivn.us/2011/08/15/open-government-committee-launches-top-two-open-primary-ballot-initiative-arizona/ | 2011-08-15 | 2 |
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<p>City councilors last week voted to approve all nine board members. A task force had reviewed more than 120 applicants and recommended the members.</p>
<p>The board will replace the Police Oversight Commission. The co-sponsors of the legislation, Council President Rey Garduño, a Democrat, and Council Vice President Brad Winter, a Republican, said the new body is significantly more powerful than its predecessor.</p>
<p>The board will review civilian complaints against police officers and make discipline recommendations to the police chief. If the chief doesn’t follow the board’s recommendation, the chief will have to explain the disagreement in writing.</p>
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<p>The board can also review investigations into police officers who shoot people and make policy recommendations for the department.</p>
<p>“I’m taking this on with the expectation that we can do something positive for the city of Albuquerque,” said Moira Amado-McCoy, one of the board members.</p>
<p>She said policymakers relied on the community’s input in crafting the legislation the created the board, and she said there is bipartisan support for a strong civilian oversight system in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Beth Mohr, another member, said the plans are for board members to go through several weeks of training prior to the first meeting.</p>
<p>The board will meet the second Thursday of every month.</p>
<p>The City Council overhauled the civilian police oversight system after it was slammed in a Department of Justice investigation into the police department for being ineffective. The DOJ investigation found the lack of civilian oversight was a contributing element to APD’s pattern of excessive force, which included police shootings.</p>
<p>Garduño said one of the board’s first tasks will be to hire the first executive director of the Civilian Police Oversight Agency.</p>
<p>“Neither the mayor nor the City Council or the police administration will be involved in that,” he said.</p>
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<p>That agency and its executive director will replace the city’s Independent Review Officer and Office.</p>
<p>The board will manage the new oversight system’s budget, which will be one half of 1 percent of the police’s department’s overall budget.</p>
<p>The nine members of the board are:</p>
<p>• Moira Amado-McCoy, president and CEO of All Innovation Kairos Solutions.</p>
<p>• Jeannette Baca, a retired counselor and professor of counseling.</p>
<p>• Eric H. Cruz, an acquisition program manager at Kirtland Air Force Base.</p>
<p>• Joanne Fine, a former communications director for the United Way of Central New Mexico and project director at the Family Advocacy Center.</p>
<p>• Beth Mohr, a retired police officer and a forensic accountant and investigator and a managing partner at McHard Accounting Consulting.</p>
<p>• The Rev. David Z. Ring III, a retired pastor at United Methodist Church.</p>
<p>• Eva P. Sandoval, a former human resources director.</p>
<p>• Leonard Waites, a NAACP member formerly on the Police Oversight Task Force.</p>
<p>• Jeffrey Scott Wilson, director of the Victims Assistance Unit at the Domestic Violence Resource Center.</p>
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<p /> | Albuquerque’s first Police Oversight Board to meet March 12 | false | https://abqjournal.com/540297/police-board-to-meet-march-12.html | 2 |
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<p>`Last week, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel <a href="" type="internal">granted</a> Dylann Roof’s request to represent himself at his trial for murdering nine black people at a church in Charleston, SC, in the summer of 2015. But now Roof wants his lawyers back during the <a href="http://www.postandcourier.com/church_shooting/dylann-roof-wants-attorneys-back-until-penalty-phase-of-hate/article_526b69d2-ba4a-11e6-b110-8f505f81dd8a.html" type="external">guilt phase</a>:</p>
<p>After a two-sentence formal motion filed by his advisory lawyers, Roof hand-penned a note to the federal judge overseeing his case. In block letters on lined notebook paper, he wrote: “I would like to ask if my lawyers can represent me for the guilt phase of the trial only. Can you let me have them back for the guilt phase, and then let me represent myself for the sentencing phase of the trial?”</p>
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<p>Gergel <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dylann-roof-real-test-attorney-hearing-43976657" type="external">told</a> Roof he may have his lawyers back, but said he cannot “change his mind again.”</p>
<p>Roof’s lawyers <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/us/dylann-roof-charleston-trial.html?_r=0" type="external">have remained</a> on as legal advisors, but pushed for more involvement in the trial. They had concerns “that Mr. Roof may not present evidence that could sway a jury to spare his life – an omission that could violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.postandcourier.com/church_shooting/dylann-roof-wants-attorneys-back-until-penalty-phase-of-hate/article_526b69d2-ba4a-11e6-b110-8f505f81dd8a.html" type="external">lawyers</a> will now “take over for opening statements and the portion of the trial when prosecutors must prove Roof’s guilt.” During the sentencing phase of the trial, Roof will “control over what evidence is presented on his behalf when the time comes for the defense to try to sway jurors to give him life in prison.”</p>
<p>In June 2015, Roof <a href="" type="internal">opened fire</a> at the historic Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, murdering nine black people during a meeting. Roof faces numerous <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/25/us/dylann-roof-competent/index.html" type="external">charges</a>:</p>
<p>Roof faces 33 federal charges: nine counts of violating the Hate Crime Act resulting in death; three counts of violating the Hate Crime Act involving an attempt to kill; nine counts of obstruction of exercise of religion resulting in death; three counts of obstruction of exercise of religion involving an attempt to kill and use of a dangerous weapon; nine counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Roof also faces nine counts of murder and other charges in the state court system. His trial in that case is scheduled to start in January.</p>
<p>He <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/dylann-roof-charleston-massacre.html?_r=0" type="external">tried</a> to plead guilty “in exchange for a life sentence, but prosecutors refused the deal.” He could receive the death penalty if found guilty.</p>
<p>The jury selection <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/07/us/dylann-roof-trial/index.html" type="external">began</a> in November, but Gergel stopped the process after Roof and his defense team filed a motion “concerning the young man’s competency to stand trial.” A psychiatrist examined Roof and presented Gergel with the findings, who then <a href="" type="internal">declared</a> Roof competent to stand trial. He decided to seal the psychiatric document under the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.</p> | Now Dylann Roof Wants His Lawyers Back | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/12/now-dylann-roof-wants-his-lawyers-back/ | 2016-12-05 | 0 |
<p>On Monday, Tulsa police released video of the shooting and killing of Terence Crutcher, a black man who had stopped his vehicle in the road. One of the witnesses told 911 that Crutcher ran from the car, stating it was going to explode. “I think he’s smoking something,” said the caller.</p>
<p>In the video, Crutcher appears to walk away from the police with his hands in the air, back toward his vehicle; he then leans into his vehicle, at which point officers obscure the view and his hands are obscured by his proximity to the vehicle. One officer shot Crutcher with a stun gun; another shot him and killed him. The officer who killed Crutcher was female, and said in the dispatch recording, “I’ve got a subject that won’t show me his hands,” although video shows Crutcher with his hands up. “Time for a taser, I think,” said one officer as four other officer surrounded him. “That looks like a bad dude, too,” said another officer.</p>
<p>Crutcher, 40, was unarmed.</p>
<p>(Warning: Graphic) <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerenceCrutcher?src=hash" type="external">#TerenceCrutcher</a> was unarmed when fatally shot by police: <a href="https://t.co/CgvOfSZ2xo" type="external">pic.twitter.com/CgvOfSZ2xo</a></p>
<p>After the female officer shot Crutcher, video shows her crumbling to her knees and other officer surrounding her to console her.</p>
<p>Police Chief Chuck Jordan said, “I’m going to tell you right now, there was no gun on the suspect or in the suspect’s vehicle. I want to assure our community and I want to assure all of you and people across the nation watching this: We will achieve justice.”</p>
<p>The FBI and Department of Justice have already announced investigations.</p>
<p>The reaction on social media has been virtually unanimous: this looks like a terrible shoot, worthy of the full force of the law. But that hasn’t stopped commentators from turning the terrible incident into evidence that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is right to boycott the national anthem: America is cops who shoot unarmed black men for no reason, not Americans who mourn when unarmed black men are shot for no reason.</p>
<p>Here are some of the most retweeted takes on the shooting:</p>
<p>The world we live in: People upset when a black man takes a knee, but unaffected when a black man takes a bullet. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerenceCrutcher?src=hash" type="external">#TerenceCrutcher</a></p>
<p>If you're outraged at the protest Kaepernick started, but not outraged about the murder of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerenceCrutcher?src=hash" type="external">#TerenceCrutcher</a>, you are part of the problem.</p>
<p>Since <a href="https://twitter.com/Kaepernick7" type="external">@Kaepernick7</a> attempted to raise awareness about police reform in America, police have killed 67 people. In 22 days. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerenceCrutcher?src=hash" type="external">#TerenceCrutcher</a></p>
<p>There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder." -- Colin Kaepernick <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerenceCrutcher?src=hash" type="external">#TerenceCrutcher</a> <a href="https://t.co/RbdTesh5g6" type="external">pic.twitter.com/RbdTesh5g6</a></p>
<p>Add "car breaking down" to the seemingly ever-growing list of things that can get you killed by cops if you're Black. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerenceCrutcher?src=hash" type="external">#TerenceCrutcher</a></p>
<p>This is the reason why America has become so polarized: half of the country thinks the other half of the country doesn’t care about people like Terence Crutcher. They assume racist motives by the police – including the police departments that investigate such incidents and release such footage -- and they assume bad motivations on the part of other Americans who want to stand up against both bad shootings and racist shootings.</p>
<p>We should all stand together as Americans when innocent people are killed. But so long as some people refuse to stand together with their fellow Americans, and treat their fellow Americans as enemies, unity becomes impossible. That’s tragic.</p> | Unarmed Black Man Shot By Tulsa Police, Americans Outraged...Left Blames America | true | https://dailywire.com/news/9272/unarmed-black-man-shot-tulsa-police-americans-ben-shapiro | 2016-09-19 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Police said a man fled from a police stop and caused a T-bone crash early Monday morning.</p>
<p>The driver was pulled over near Lomas and Betts for an expired license plate, Albuquerque Police Officer Fred Duran said in a news released.</p>
<p>The driver fled from the stop and drove through a traffic signal at Juan Tabo and Constitution. The driver of the other vehicle did not suffer life-threatening injuries.</p>
<p>The driver of the fleeing vehicle drove over a curb after the crash and collided into a convenient store. That driver then fled on foot and hasn’t been found, according to police.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Driver flees stop, causes crash | false | https://abqjournal.com/416328/driver-flees-stop-causes-crash.html | 2 |
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<p>NEW JERSEYThe Jersey JournalBy Jeff Diamant Newhouse News Service</p>
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<p>The former pastor of a Guttenberg church was sentenced in Montreal Thursday to two years of probation, three weeks after he pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a 16-year-old male prostitute.</p>
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<p>Quebec Judge Claude Gillette also barred the Rev. Eugene Heyndricks from having contact with minors during the probationary period unless accompanied by another adult, Heyndricks' attorney said.&#160;Heyndricks was pastor at St. John Nepomucene Church in Guttenberg when he was arrested in July, along with the Rev. William Giblin, former headmaster at the Seton Hall Preparatory School, in a gay-friendly Montreal neighborhood in what authorities called the dismantling of a male prostitution ring that frequently drew patrons from the United States.</p>
<p>Police charged that Giblin negotiated terms of an encounter between Heyndricks - who was his traveling partner - and the prostitute. Prosecutor Sophie Lavergne decided to drop the charge against Giblin last month.</p> | Probation for ex-Guttenberg priest caught in Montreal sex ring sting | false | https://poynter.org/news/probation-ex-guttenberg-priest-caught-montreal-sex-ring-sting | 2003-05-03 | 2 |
<p>(Reuters) – The Russian military has built a bridge across the Euphrates river near Deir al-Zor to move troops and vehicles to the other side to support a Syrian army offensive, Russian TV reported on Tuesday, showing footage of trucks moving across the bridge.</p>
<p>Russian TV channels reported that the military had erected the bridge under fire from Islamist militants in less than 48 hours and that it could also be used to deliver humanitarian aid and to evacuate the sick and wounded.</p>
<p>Up to 8,000 vehicles weighing up to 50 tonnes would be able to cross the bridge in any 24 hour period, including tanks, TV channels reported, saying the bridge was located east of Deir al-Zor.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Russia builds bridge to move troops across Syria's Euphrates river: TV | false | https://newsline.com/russia-builds-bridge-to-move-troops-across-syria039s-euphrates-river-tv/ | 2017-09-26 | 1 |
<p>President Obama urged Congress to support an income tax hike on the nation's most affluent citizens during his State of the Union address Tuesday, earning the ire of many conservatives who say the proposal is nothing short of class warfare. On Wednesday, billionaire <a href="" type="internal">Bill Gates</a> called the policy something entirely different: Justice.</p>
<p>In an interview with the BBC, the co-founder and Chairman of <a href="" type="internal">Microsoft</a> said Obama's revival of the so-called "Buffett Rule" -- named after his friend, billionaire <a href="" type="internal">Warren Buffett</a>, who has spoken out against a tax code he says favors the wealthiest Americans - is necessary to pay down the country's formidable budget deficit.</p>
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<p>"The United States has a huge budget deficit, so taxes are going to have to go up. I certainly agree that they should have to go up more on the rich than everyone else. That's just justice," Gates said.</p>
<p>Obama called for tax reform that he said would ensure middle-class Americans don't pay a tax rate higher than their wealthier counterparts. The president called on eliminating several tax subsidies or deductions that he said "subsidize" millionaires and advocated small tax increases on annual incomes over $1 million.</p>
<p>On his Web site, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, described the Buffett Rule suggestion as "the politics of envy and division," while <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/287582/20120125/sotu-2012-florida-primary-marco-rubio-reaction.htm" type="external">U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told Fox News it was an "assault on free enterprise." Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>While Buffett, the billionaire chairman of <a href="" type="internal">Berkshire Hathaway</a>, and Gates are in favor of a progressive tax, Gates acknowledged that many of his peers have objected to such a plan. Still, Gates said a millionaires' tax is necessary to reignite the U.S. economy and reduce&#160;the federal debt.</p>
<p>"I hope we can solve that deficit problem with a sense of shared sacrifice, where everyone would feel like they're doing their part. Right now I don't feel like people like myself are paying as much as they should," he said.</p>
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<p>Gates, whose net worth is estimated at $56 billion, is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people - in fact, <a href="" type="internal">Forbes</a>' 2011 assessment of the world's wealthiest individuals ranked Gates second, while Buffett came in third, with a net worth of about $50 billion.</p>
<p>Both Gates, 56, and Buffett, 80, have publicly pledged to give away a majority of their wealth to philanthropic organizations. The two billionaires play bridge together and have a long friendship. Through their long-term charitable organization, The Giving Project, dozens of wealthy Americans have similarly promised to give away a majority of their fortunes.</p> | Bill Gates Says Higher Taxes on Wealthy is 'Justice' | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/01/25/bill-gates-says-higher-taxes-on-wealthy-is-justice.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>In the tragic wake of <a href="" type="internal">Justice Scalia’s death</a>&#160;earlier today, Senate Majority Leader,&#160;Mitch McConnell (R) came out swinging. Despite his tendency to cave to the president’s wishes, McConnell argued against nominating a new Supreme Court Justice, saying:</p>
<p>From <a href="http://www.ijreview.com/2016/02/537417-mitch-mcconnell-says-no-new-justice-until-next-president/?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=owned&amp;utm_campaign=ods&amp;utm_term=ijamerica&amp;utm_content=breaking" type="external">IJR</a>:</p>
<p>“Justice Scalia’s fidelity to the Constitution was rivaled only by the love of his family: his wife Maureen his nine children, and his many grandchildren. Through the sheer force of his intellect and his legendary wit, this giant of American jurisprudence almost singlehandedly revived an approach to constitutional interpretation that prioritized the text and original meaning of the Constitution. Elaine and I send our deepest condolences to the entire Scalia family.”</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”</p>
<p>Here’s what Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D) has to say…</p>
<p>“The President can and should send the Senate a nominee right away. With so many important issues pending before the Supreme Court, the Senate has a responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible. It would be unprecedented in recent history for the Supreme Court to go a year with a vacant seat. Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate’s most essential Constitutional responsibilities.”</p>
<p>In the hours since Scalia’s death, there’s already dissent in the midst of the Senate. The idea of Obama nominating a new Justice should instill fear in the heart’s of conservatives. Only time will tell….</p>
<p>0 comments</p> | FACEOFF: Senate responds to Justice Scalia’s death. Obama’s not gonna like this…. | true | http://freedomsfinalstand.com/faceoff-senate-responds-to-justice-scalias-death-obamas-not-gonna-like-this/ | 0 |
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<p>The White House predicts this year's budget deficit will register at $455 billion, less than it forecast in February and the lowest yet of Barack Obama's presidency.</p>
<p>The new figure is slightly less than 2014's deficit of $483 billion. In February, the administration predicted a deficit of $583 billion.</p>
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<p>During Obama's first term, deficits topped $1 trillion each year. That reflected a severe financial crisis and the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.</p>
<p>But as the economy has recovered, revenues have gone up. The rates of inflation for expensive health care programs like Medicare have fallen and annual agency budgets have remained tight, contributing to the improved deficit picture.</p>
<p>The 2015 budget year officially ends on Sept. 30.</p> | White House lowers estimate of 2015 budget deficit to $455B, slightly less than last year | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/14/white-house-lowers-estimate-2015-budget-deficit-to-455b-slightly-less-than-last.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Police say a man has been scamming people on Craigslist by responding to postings for a roommate and then stealing their belongings.</p>
<p>The Colorado Springs Gazette <a href="http://bit.ly/2lRvutO" type="external">reported</a> Wednesday that 23-year-old Tyshawn L. Gayle is accused of stealing from at least three people who posted on Craigslist in search of a roommate and at least one other person who did not use the website.</p>
<p>Gayle is not in custody. He is wanted on suspicion of second-degree burglary of a dwelling in a November case and the same charge plus misdemeanor theft in a December case.</p>
<p>He is accused of stealing the belongings after staying with the victims for nearly a month. The victims were at work when their belongings were stolen.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Gazette, <a href="http://www.gazette.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.gazette.com" type="external">http://www.gazette.com</a></p>
<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Police say a man has been scamming people on Craigslist by responding to postings for a roommate and then stealing their belongings.</p>
<p>The Colorado Springs Gazette <a href="http://bit.ly/2lRvutO" type="external">reported</a> Wednesday that 23-year-old Tyshawn L. Gayle is accused of stealing from at least three people who posted on Craigslist in search of a roommate and at least one other person who did not use the website.</p>
<p>Gayle is not in custody. He is wanted on suspicion of second-degree burglary of a dwelling in a November case and the same charge plus misdemeanor theft in a December case.</p>
<p>He is accused of stealing the belongings after staying with the victims for nearly a month. The victims were at work when their belongings were stolen.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Gazette, <a href="http://www.gazette.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.gazette.com" type="external">http://www.gazette.com</a></p> | Craigslist renter accused of stealing from homes in Colorado | false | https://apnews.com/d65b04e280644d6a9b031bb91569df28 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
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<p>“The president,” says the Constitution, “shall have the power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate” (emphasis added). Today’s case concerns whether Barack Obama made recess appointments when the Senate was not in recess and made them to fill vacancies that did not happen during a recess.</p>
<p>In 2012, the National Labor Relations Board rendered a decision adverse to a soft-drink bottler in Yakima, Wash. The bottler asked the court to declare the NLRB’s intervention unlawful because the board did not have a legitimate quorum, three members having been installed by Obama when the Senate was not in recess as the Framers understood this term.</p>
<p>Republicans, wanting to block some Obama nominations, used a practice Democrats used in 2007 when they controlled the Senate and wanted to block some George W. Bush nominees.</p>
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<p>Under a unanimous consent agreement – no Democrat objected – pro forma sessions occurred on Jan. 3 and Jan. 6 of 2012. Obama declared the Senate in recess Jan. 4 and made his NLRB appointments, thereby disregarding the Senate’s determination of the rules of its proceedings and the settled practice both parties have used to remain not in recess even when most senators are away.</p>
<p>The Obama administration argues that the word “happen” is a synonym for “exist.” And it rejects the argument that an intra-session Senate break is a synonym for “adjournment,” not “recess.”</p>
<p>This, however, ignores the reasonable reading of the definite article: Recess appointments fill vacancies that “happen,” meaning come about, during “the” recess of the Senate – the one break that occurs between sessions, which until the Civil War usually lasted only three to six months.</p>
<p>The first president made the first recess appointment in the first year of his first term, in 1789, when travel was slow and arduous, and Congress was usually not in session.</p>
<p>The Recess Appointments Clause was written when conditions made such a power crucial. Obama, however, contends that, in today’s world of instant communication and easy travel, he deserves a much larger – almost unlimited – recess appointment power.</p>
<p>His administration argues that “at least 14 presidents have, collectively, made at least 600 civilian appointments (and thousands of military ones) during intra-session recesses.”</p>
<p>But Obama’s action regarding the NLRB is characteristic of his aggressive expansion of presidential power. He is the first president to make recess appointments when the Senate was convening pro forma sessions every three days and he has articulated an anti-constitutional defense of his aggression:</p>
<p>“I refuse to take no for an answer. … When Congress refuses to act … I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them.”</p>
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<p>If he really can refuse a “no” answer, then the Senate’s role in the appointment process is vitiated. Now the court should apprise him of what he cannot do without Congress. Which means a Madisonian dialectic is occurring: The executive’s usurpation of power has provoked the legislature, precipitating an overdue judicial intervention to clarify constitutional boundaries. The Constitution’s text, and perhaps its original meaning, may be at odds with historical practice.</p>
<p>Because the ability to defeat by filibuster some presidential nominees has recently been restricted, perhaps not for the last time, presidents will have less need to resort to recess appointments.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, were the court to uphold Obama’s action, two of the Senate’s constitutional powers would be substantially reduced – the power (which the House also has) to “determine the rules of its proceedings” and the power to reject presidential nominees.</p>
<p>Many presidents have chafed against limits to their power but, in progressive presidents, normal political ambition is alloyed with a validating ideology. Woodrow Wilson provided the progressive template by disparaging the separation of powers as an anachronistic impediment to the presidential power requisite for the modern age.</p>
<p>Today’s argument will be another manifestation of America’s intermittent efforts to tame executive power, efforts that predate nationhood: The Declaration of Independence is a menu of complaints against “a long train of abuses and usurpations” by “the present King of Great Britain.”</p>
<p>The present president’s cavalier approach to statutes (as with his unilateral rewriting of the Affordable Care Act) and the Constitution (see four paragraphs above) make today’s argument important.</p>
<p>Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
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<p /> | Taming rampant executive power | false | https://abqjournal.com/335486/taming-rampant-executive-power.html | 2 |
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<p>The White House posted a short video Tuesday on its “Ready to Work” website, featuring Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry discussing the benefits and achievements of the skills-based hiring program, which launched last year with city funding.</p>
<p>Mayor Richard Berry discussed Talent ABQ with White House.</p>
<p>The federal website highlights successful strategies from across the country to help workers gain skills needed for good-paying jobs as part of a national-level initiative to improve job-training programs.</p>
<p>Berry had discussed Talent ABQ with the White House last spring.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The video was made in response to a direct request from Vice President Joe Biden’s office,” said Albuquerque Economic Development Director Gary Oppedahl. “We just made it last week.”</p>
<p>White House recognition was one of the achievements discussed Wednesday morning at the Albuquerque Economic Forum, where program directors reviewed Talent ABQ’s accomplishments over the past year and goals for the future.</p>
<p>The program helps job seekers assess their individual skills, improve their abilities through online training, and then match them with job opportunities.</p>
<p>The aim is to unite job seekers with potential employers based on skills rather than educational degrees, said Jamai Blivin, CEO of the Santa Fe-based nonprofit Innovate+Educate, which runs the program in partnership with the city, the state Department of Workforce Solutions and CNM.</p>
<p>CEO Jamai Blivin says program emphasizes job skills</p>
<p>Thanks to a $200,000 grant from the city and matching funds from the Kellogg Foundation, the program now has 29 “skills labs” around Albuquerque where job seekers can get free talent assessments and online training.</p>
<p>“About 5,000 individual skill assessments have been done to date, with more than 300 employers participating in the program,” Blivin said.</p>
<p>Hundreds have been hired for public and private sector jobs since last year based on the assessments and job-matching services, Blivin said.</p>
<p>Brewer Oil, for example, has hired 72 people since January for its statewide chain of gas stations and convenience stores, 90 percent of them based on skill assessments.</p>
<p>Innovate+Educate is working to expand the program to more states. It will launch in September in parts of Ohio, thanks to a $1 million grant from some national foundations, Blivin said.</p>
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<p /> | City jobs program featured on White House site | false | https://abqjournal.com/434376/citysponsored-jobs-program-featured-on-white-house-site.html | 2 |
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