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<p>Elizabeth Martinez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, declined to provide details of the investigation, citing Department of Justice policy. “We cannot comment on matters that are not on the public record,” she said.</p>
<p>Marc Lowry, an attorney representing the business, said no charges were filed because the allegations were without merit.</p>
<p>“We consider the (FBI’s) source of information to be misinformed, uninformed or have some kind of axe to grind with the company,” he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He said his clients learned the FBI completed its investigation in August.</p>
<p>Four company executives were suspected of spending “thousands of dollars” on personal purchases with their corporate credit cards, according to the FBI’s unsealed search warrant, which The Daily Times obtained this week.</p>
<p>The FBI searched the business in April 2013.</p>
<p>The four executives are Tsosie Lewis, the CEO; Darryl Multine, the chief financial officer; Leonard Scott, chief operations officer; and Lorraine Gould, the CEO’s assistant, according to the warrant dated April 9, 2013.</p>
<p>The warrant was unsealed later that month.</p>
<p>During their search, FBI agents seized travel-expense reports, credit card receipts, bank statements, bank records, audited financial statements, an accounting policy and procedures manual, another audit and other documents, according to federal documents.</p>
<p>The business’ employees were confined to an area during the roughly eight-hour search, according to a Daily Times story last year. No arrests were made during the search.</p>
<p>The FBI warrant lists two unidentified informants as the sources of information.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Documents one source gave the FBI indicated the executives spent thousands of dollars on their corporate credit cards at restaurants, jewelry stores, grocery stores, gas stations, electronics stores and mechanic shops, all appearing to be personal purchases, according to the warrant. Other expenses were listed for alcoholic beverages and cash advances.</p>
<p>That source told the FBI that he or she believes the executives did not reimburse the company, according to the warrant.</p>
<p>Lowry said the allegations are reckless and unfounded.</p>
<p>He said the four executives were not making personal expenditures on their corporate credit cards.</p>
<p>NAPI is a successful Navajo enterprise, he said, and the FBI’s search was an unfortunate misunderstanding.</p>
<p>NAPI is a agribusiness entity owned by the Navajo Nation. It farms potatoes, alfalfa, pinto beans, corn and winter wheat on 72,000 acres of land south of Farmington, according to The Daily Times story.</p>
<p>The business employs more than 400 people and earns about $400 million a year in revenue, according to the story.</p>
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<p /> | FBI drops case without filing charges against NAPI exec | false | https://abqjournal.com/460282/fbi-drops-case-against-napi-execs.html | 2 |
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<p>(Keegan Allen and James Franco in ‘King Cobra.’ Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>The first trailer for “King Cobra” has been released and it promises plenty of sex, thrills, and of course, murder.</p>
<p>“King Cobra,” tells the true story of gay porn producer Bryan Kocis’ (Christian Slater) battle with fellow porn producers Joe (James Franco) and Harlow (Keegan Allen) over the gay porn industry’s hottest young star Brent Corrigan (Garrett Clayton.) The rivalry ended with Kocis’s murder in 2007.</p>
<p>The film, based on the book “Cobra Killer” by Andrew E. Stoner and Peter A. Conway, will be released on Oct. 21. It also stars Alicia Silverstone and Molly Ringwald.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Alicia Silverstone</a> <a href="" type="internal">Andrew E. Stoner</a> <a href="" type="internal">Brent Corrigan</a> <a href="" type="internal">Bryan Kocis</a> <a href="" type="internal">Christian Slater</a> <a href="" type="internal">Cobra Killer</a> <a href="" type="internal">Garrett Clayton</a> <a href="" type="internal">James Franco</a> <a href="" type="internal">Keegan Allen</a> <a href="" type="internal">King Cobra</a> <a href="" type="internal">Molly Ringwald</a> <a href="" type="internal">Peter A. Conway</a></p> | Gay porn thriller ‘King Cobra’ trailer released | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/09/27/gay-porn-thriller-king-cobra-trailer-released/ | 3 |
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<p>CIA Director-designate Rep. Michael Pompeo, R-Kan. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. S(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)</p>
<p>New Mexico’s U.S. senators both voted against the nomination of Mike Pompeo for CIA director Monday night, citing concerns about his views on government surveillance, Iran, Muslims and other issues.</p>
<p>Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas, was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/us/politics/mike-pompeo-cia-director.html?_r=0" type="external">confirmed</a> by the Senate 66 to 32 after a lengthy debate.</p>
<p>Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was deeply troubled by a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Pompeo authored in which he wrote that&#160;“Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database.”</p>
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<p>“The federal government has no business collecting “lifestyle information” on its own citizens,” Heinrich said on the Senate floor. “And innocent Americans should expect that their private financial data is just that…private.”</p>
<p>Watch Heinrich’s floor speech <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZV1YL6knSs&amp;feature=youtu.be" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said he was equally troubled by Pompeo’s record.</p>
<p>“Congressman Pompeo supports invasive and unconstitutional government spying programs that violate the privacy of law-abiding American citizens,” Udall said. “He has defended the use of torture programs – programs that were a stain on our history, contrary to our principles as a nation, and fundamentally ineffective. Congressman Pompeo says that he wants the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which is a potent recruiting tool for terrorists and hurts our standing around the world, to remain open, and he thinks detainees can be imprisoned indefinitely.”</p>
<p>Both senators’ full statements are below.</p>
<p>Heinrich’s full floor statement:</p>
<p>Thank you M. President, and thanks to my colleague Senator Wyden for leading this important discussion.</p>
<p>I joined the Senate Intelligence Committee four years ago; just a few short months before the public release of thousands of classified documents forced our country to have a debate over the reach and scope of America’s surveillance programs.&#160;</p>
<p>That debate has formed the backdrop for national security policy decisions ever since.</p>
<p>I am proud of the positive steps we’ve made toward reclaiming our civil liberties, while still giving our intelligence and law enforcement communities the tools they need to anticipate threats, track terrorists, and keep America safe.</p>
<p>It is because of Congressman Pompeo’s opposition to those important reforms that I rise today to oppose his nomination to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.&#160;</p>
<p>Congressman Pompeo has a long legislative and rhetorical history on surveillance, torture, and other issues that I believe we simply cannot overlook in considering his nomination.</p>
<p>In our conversations, in answers to written questions, and during his confirmation hearing, Congressman Pompeo has often said the right thing, or tried to give answers that – on their face – give the impression that he has changed his position on these issues.&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>But we need to carefully review the Congressman’s votes and public statements to be sure that he understands the importance of protecting Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties and meeting the needs of our national security.</p>
<p>I was proud to help lead the effort to pass the USA FREEDOM Act in 2015 to finally end the government’s dragnet collection of law-abiding Americans’ personal information and provide the intelligence community with an updated legal framework that ensures they have the tools they need to focus on the records of actual terrorists, while protecting the privacy of Americans.</p>
<p>Although the Congressman voted to support the USA FREEDOM Act in 2015, within a year, he quickly backtracked, writing a column for the National Review that said: “Those who today suggest that the USA FREEDOM Act, which gutted the National Security Agency’s (NSA) metadata program, enables the intelligence community to better prevent and investigate threats against the U.S. are lying. I use that word intentionally….”</p>
<p>A few weeks later, Congressman Pompeo, in the Wall Street Journal, wrote: “Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database.”</p>
<p>Let me read that one more time: “Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database.”</p>
<p>Now let’s unpack that sentence.</p>
<p>First, when asked by Senator Wyden and I to clarify what metadata he believes should be collected, Congressman Pompeo made clear that he was referring to a rollback of the USA FREEDOM Act, and a return to the warrantless, and unnecessary collection of billions of communications records from millions of innocent Americans not suspected of any crime.</p>
<p>Shortly after Congressman Pompeo’s Wall Street Journal column was published, the NSA’s General Counsel, wrote in a column in Lawfare that: “Largely overlooked in the debate that has ensued … is the fact that under the new arrangement, our national security professionals will have access to a greater volume of call records subject to query in a way that is consistent with our regard for civil liberties.”</p>
<p>But it’s the second part the Congressman’s position that gives me far more concern.&#160; What does he mean by calling for the collection of “publicly available financial and lifestyle information” and placing it into a “comprehensive, searchable database”?&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>When asked to clarify his proposal, Congressman Pompeo declined.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>However, it’s clear from the context of both his columns and his public statements that he believes that the U.S. government ought to be collecting dramatically more private information from innocent Americans who are not under investigation for any crime.&#160;</p>
<p>Let me be clear. The federal government has no business collecting “lifestyle information” on its own citizens. And innocent Americans should expect that their private financial data is just that…private.</p>
<p>This all flies in the face of the Fourth Amendment.</p>
<p>On torture, Congressman Pompeo’s record is also clear: he supports it.</p>
<p>Congressman Pompeo thinks it was a mistake to stop the “enhanced interrogation” program.&#160; He issued a personal attack against then-Committee Chairman Feinstein when the Committee released its report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program.&#160;</p>
<p>While he acknowledges that CIA interrogation techniques are currently limited to those contained in the Army Field Manual, Congressman Pompeo said to our committee that he will: “consult with experts at the Agency and at other organizations in the U.S. government on whether the Army Field Manual uniform application is an impediment to gathering vital intelligence to protect the country or whether any rewrite of the Army Field Manual is needed.”</p>
<p>One could easily infer that the Congressman would ask the CIA officers who participated in the torture program whether they believe the techniques contained in the Army Field Manual are sufficient.&#160;</p>
<p>If he is told they’re not, he has left open the option of re-writing the Army Field Manual. This is problematic for a number of reasons, and should be of deep concern to my colleagues.</p>
<p>Finally, the day before his nomination was announced, Congressman Pompeo tweeted that he was looking forward to “rolling back” the Iran nuclear agreement, which ended each and every pathway for Iran to develop a weaponized nuclear device, including a covert path.</p>
<p>When I asked him about this in our hearing, Congressman Pompeo said: “That communications was approved before I was aware that I was going to be the nominee to the Central Intelligence Agency.”</p>
<p>The Congressman went on to say that in his view, the Iran nuclear agreement was a “mistake for American national security,” but that as CIA Director he would “work to make sure it is fully implemented and will endeavor to provide straight information” about the progress made in reducing Iran’s nuclear capability.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>However, given his deep antipathy toward the Iran Agreement, I have serious concerns about his ability to be objective on this issue, which is critical to the stability of the Middle East and to our efforts to ensure that Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>Having said all of this, if the Congressman is confirmed, I hope he will fulfill one of his commitments to me: to improve the communications and relationship between the oversight committees in Congress and the CIA.&#160;</p>
<p>It is my hope that a CIA Director coming from outside the agency will give greater weight to informing the Intelligence Committee of the CIA’s activities than his immediate predecessor has.&#160;</p>
<p>Congressman Pompeo, if confirmed, will have the opportunity to recalibrate this relationship, and if given the chance, I hope that he seizes that opportunity.</p>
<p>Rep. Tom Udall’s floor statement on Pompeo:</p>
<p>“America draws strength from our values, and Americans put their lives on the line every day to defend those values. I believe that Congressman Pompeo’s views on a set of fundamental questions – including human rights, constitutional rights, and the rule of law – will undercut our nation’s moral authority and undermine our national security. For those reasons, I must oppose Congressman Pompeo’s nomination as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.</p>
<p>“Though I respect his background and service to the country, I believe that Congressman Pompeo’s views on several key issues put him at odds with our nation’s core values of promoting civil liberties, the rule of law, and human rights. Congressman Pompeo supports invasive and unconstitutional government spying programs that violate the privacy of law-abiding American citizens. He has defended the use of torture programs – programs that were a stain on our history, contrary to our principles as a nation, and fundamentally ineffective. Congressman Pompeo says that he wants the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which is a potent recruiting tool for terrorists and hurts our standing around the world, to remain open, and he thinks detainees can be imprisoned indefinitely. And he has made extremely troubling comments about Muslims, stating that Muslim leaders who have no involvement in terrorism are nonetheless ‘potentially complicit’ in acts of terror, even when Muslims across the globe have strongly condemned the violence of extremists.</p>
<p>“The Central Intelligence Agency is an essential pillar of our national security. Every day, the men and women who serve at the CIA work tirelessly and courageously to keep our nation safe. These patriots – and the American people – deserve a CIA director who will lead the agency in a way that keeps America secure and keeps our fundamental values as a nation secure. As we undertake the serious work of protecting our homeland, we can never forget the founding principles that make America the strongest and greatest nation on earth.”</p> | Heinrich, Udall oppose Pompeo for CIA director | false | https://abqjournal.com/934586/heinrich-udall-oppose-pompeo-for-cia-director.html | 2 |
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<p>Sudan on Monday night expelled Kenya's ambassador in Khartoum after a High Court judge in Nairobi issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the <a href="http://www.sudantribune.com/Kenya-Sudan-relations-veering,40851" type="external">Sudan Tribune</a> reported.</p>
<p>Bashir is wanted by the <a href="http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC?lan=en-GB" type="external">International Criminal Court</a> (ICC) over alleged crimes against humanity and genocide in the western region of Darfur.</p>
<p>The High Court issued the arrest warrant on Monday after Bashir was permitted to visit Kenya in August 2010.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/111114/sudan-rebels-alliance-khartoum" type="external">Sudanese rebels form alliance to fight Khartoum</a></p>
<p>Handing down his ruling, Judge Nicholas Ombija said Kenya, being a signatory to the <a href="http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/statute/romefra.htm" type="external">Rome Statute</a>, which established the ICC, was obliged to arrest Bashir "should he set foot in Kenya in future."</p>
<p>Following the ruling, Sudan ordered the Kenyan ambassador to leave the country within 72 hours, while also recalling its ambassador in Nairobi, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15932019" type="external">the BBC</a> reported.</p>
<p>The case was brought by the local chapter of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).</p>
<p>ICJ deputy and programs director Mwaura Nderi praised the ruling:</p>
<p>"If the government does not execute this court warrant, it will not only be failing in its obligations as set out in the Rome Statute but also putting unnecessary and undue strain on the already bruised human rights records of the country after post-election violence serious crimes."</p>
<p>It is not clear if the Kenyan government intends to appeal the High Court decision, the Sudan Tribune reported.</p>
<p>Bashir, the first head of state to be indicted by the ICC, denies the charges against him.</p>
<p>The United Nations estimates that 300,000 have died 2.7 million people have been displaced since the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Darfur" type="external">war in Darfur</a> began in 2003.</p> | Sudan expels Kenyan ambassador | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-29/sudan-expels-kenyan-ambassador-0 | 2011-11-29 | 3 |
<p>SCAPE Landscape Architecture DPC for The Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery</p>
<p>Hurricane Sandy hit the quiet beach community of Tottenville on Staten Island hard. Two of the more than 14,000 people who lived there&#160;were killed when&#160;the storm&#160;surge sent waves up to 16 feet high destroying homes.&#160;Five years later, many haven’t been rebuilt.</p>
<p>Disasters often spark efforts to prevent similar problems in the future. When it comes to the flooding of coastal communities during hurricanes, the approach typically&#160;has been to keep water out by either erecting&#160;sea walls or encouraging&#160;residents&#160;to move inland.&#160;In&#160;contrast,&#160;planners preparing for the next big storm&#160;in Tottenville are&#160;creating a project&#160;that, instead of keeping water out,&#160;“embraces” it. The project is called Living Breakwaters, and&#160;it’s&#160;designed&#160;to substantially reduce the size of massive and destructive&#160;waves during&#160;major&#160;storms&#160;by creating&#160;a barrier that protrudes out of the water.&#160;That barrier contains&#160;an oyster reef that will, in turn, establish an ecosystem&#160;further protecting the coastline and diminishing the power of the waves.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Sandy hit in October 2012, causing more than <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/31/politics/hurricane-harvey-recovery-money/index.html" type="external">$70 billion</a> worth of damage. At least <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6220a1.htm" type="external">117</a> people died from the storm and&#160; <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/29/hurricane-sandy-impact-infographic_n_4171243.html" type="external">650,000</a> homes in New York and New Jersey were damaged or destroyed.&#160;Government officials&#160;scrambled&#160;to respond to the devastation and prevent such destruction in&#160;the future. The F <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2012/12/03/fema-surprise-aid-checks-hurricane-sandy/1742157/" type="external">ederal Emergency Management Agency</a> administered checks for emergency repairs and brought <a href="https://www.fema.gov/blog/2012-11-03/sandy-update-6-registering-assistance-over-100-million-already-approved-disaster" type="external">food</a>, fuel, and water into hard-hit areas. The <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/region02/sandy/web/html/" type="external">Environmental Protection Agency</a> helped fix damaged sewage treatment plants and assessed the condition of drinking water. Even the Army Corps of Engineers and Homeland Security were&#160;involved in the recovery effort.</p>
<p>The Department of Housing and Urban Development&#160;was responsible for&#160;giving localities money to work on longer-term recovery efforts through the <a href="https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/cdbg-dr/" type="external">Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program</a>.&#160;In the past, most of that effort focused on rebuilding damaged areas, but&#160;after&#160;Hurricane Sandy, HUD also&#160; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/08/congress-gave-billions-for-sandy-relief" type="external">prepared for the future</a>. The agency invested nearly $1 billion in a competition aimed at finding creative ways to do just that.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/our-work/sandy-projects" type="external">Rebuild by Design competition was</a>&#160;launched by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force,&#160;headed by former Obama&#160;HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Ten teams designed innovative resiliency plans for specific communities with financial support from private sources such as <a href="https://ipk.nyu.edu/about/" type="external">New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge</a>, which supports research into areas of public concern,&#160;and the <a href="http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/our-work/sandy-projects" type="external">Rockefeller Foundation</a>. In 2014,&#160;HUD awarded&#160;six&#160;projects&#160;a total of&#160; <a href="http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/about/awards/gsa-federal-award-for-innovation" type="external">$920 million</a>&#160;through the Community Block Grant Disaster Recovery program. The competition led to the creation of a private organization called Rebuild by Design, which now works with communities around the world to develop projects focused on resilience.&#160;</p>
<p>The project, which received $60 million from HUD, was designed by Kate Orff,&#160;the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/for-the-first-time-macarthur-foundation-has-given-genius-award-to-a-landscape-architect/2017/10/18/06baae68-b2a0-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.4fa7f0f03283" type="external">first</a> landscape architect to be awarded the <a href="https://www.macfound.org/fellows/993/" type="external">MacArthur fellowship</a>.&#160;Sandy damaged not just homes and businesses, but also&#160;the entire southern shoreline,&#160;which had already&#160;been receding. She explains that her firm SCAPE&#160;wants&#160;“to literally make this a living piece of infrastructure.” The oysters&#160;would not only have a habitat but&#160;“could help the breakwater become more of an artificial reef that can grow and expand with climate change.” The breakwaters will attract sea life and sea water&#160;will be further purified by the presence of the&#160;oysters—creating&#160;a healthier ecosystem.&#160;She describes this approach as “the value of nature-based infrastructure.”&#160;Over an extended period of time,&#160;she explains,&#160;offshore ecosystems have the potential to&#160;“help to reduce wave action and erosion.”</p>
<p>The Tottenville community has generally been positive about this project, says&#160;Jim Pistilli, who heads the Tottenville Civic Association.&#160;But some neighbors worry it will bring in too many visitors, and others doubt whether&#160;a novel, untested approach will even work. But Pistilli says&#160;the more traditional approach of building&#160;a seawall&#160;wouldn’t make sense. “We don’t want something out in the ocean that’s jetting up, obstructing the view,”&#160;he says.&#160;“In&#160;Tottenville we look very favorably toward the breakwaters—doing the job but at the same time being aesthetically and ecologically very pleasing.”</p>
<p>The project was approved in 2014, and the last three years have been spent in an intensive permitting and environmental review&#160;process, which&#160;Dan Greene, a lawyer in the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery in New York state,&#160;describes&#160;as one of the most rigorous he&#160;has ever seen.&#160;</p>
<p>“Innovative projects are looked at with a high degree of scrutiny by regulatory agencies,” he says, “because they have responsibility for permitting these permanent structures in our waterways and nobody wants to get it wrong.”</p>
<p>For&#160;Greene, the breakwaters illustrate an important shift in infrastructure planning. Instead of having an unattractive&#160;and potentially ineffective&#160;gray barrier protecting Tottenville, the breakwaters will potentially&#160;be an aesthetically pleasing project that revitalizes an ecosystem in the water, restores the shoreline, and helps connect the community with the water.&#160;“These are intended to be model projects that can be replicated elsewhere,” he says.&#160;The construction process is slated to begin in 2019 and finish sometime in 2021.</p>
<p>Pippa Brashear, director of planning and resilience at SCAPE, tells Mother Jones&#160;that breakwaters aren’t supposed to work alone in reducing risk along the shoreline. “The breakwaters provide a first layer of defense upon which other elements can be layered,” she explains. HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program is also funding another resiliency effort&#160;to build&#160;dunes,&#160;which Brashear describes as “a second line of defense,”&#160;near the shoreline.&#160;</p>
<p>Living Breakwaters also invokes the past to reconnect residents with the water. In the 19th century, Tottenville was known as “the town the oyster built” because its economy and culture developed from oyster fishing. Pistilli can imagine the future, with a&#160;shoreline that will have not only “enriched…the people on the beach, but will have provided an enriched sea line for the entire community to enjoy.”</p> | Five Years After Sandy, One New York Town’s Flood Prevention Plans Are So Crazy They Just Might Work | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/five-years-after-sandy-one-new-york-towns-flood-prevention-plans-are-so-crazy-they-just-might-work/ | 2017-10-27 | 4 |
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<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mirkmirk/" type="external">Sarah Mirk</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" type="external">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>This post originally ran on <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/129528499495" type="external">Robert Reich’s web page</a>.</p>
<p>The Republican assault on Planned Parenthood is filled with lies and distortions, and may even lead to a government shutdown.</p>
<p />
<p>The only thing we can say for sure about it is it’s already harming women’s health.</p>
<p>For distortions, start with presidential candidate Carly Fiorina’s contention at last week’s Republican debate that a video shows &#160;“a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says, ‘We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.’ “</p>
<p>Wrong. In fact, the anti-abortion group that made that shock video added stock footage of a fully-formed fetus in order to make it <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/17/carly-fiorina/cnn-debate-carly-fiorina-urges-others-watch-planne/" type="external">seem</a> as if that’s what Planned Parenthood intended.</p>
<p>But as Donald Trump has demonstrated with cunning bravado, presidential candidates can say anything these days regardless of the truth and get away with it.</p>
<p>At least elected members of Congress should be held to a standard of responsible public service.&#160;</p>
<p>Yet last Friday, the House voted 241-187 to block Planned Parenthood’s federal funds for a year.</p>
<p>This may lead to another government shutdown. Funding for the government runs out at the end of the month, and several dozen House Republicans have said they won’t vote for a funding bill that includes money for Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>This is, quite frankly, nuts.</p>
<p>A strong moral case can be made that any society that respects women must respect their right to control their own bodies.&#160;</p>
<p>There’s also an important economic case for effective family planning.</p>
<p>Public investments in family planning—enabling women to plan, delay, or avoid pregnancy–make economic sense because reproductive rights are also productive rights.</p>
<p>When women have control over their lives they can contribute even more to the economy, better break the glass ceiling, equalize the pay gap, and much more.</p>
<p>Consider Colorado’s highly successful <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage-pregnancies-is-a-startling-success.html" type="external">family planning program</a>. Over the past six years, the Colorado health department has offered teenagers and low-income women free long-acting birth control that prevents pregnancy over several years.</p>
<p>As a result, pregnancy and abortion rates plunged—by about 40 percent among teenagers across the state between 2009 to 2013.</p>
<p>In 2009, half of all first births to women in the poorest areas of Colorado occurred before they turned 21.</p>
<p>But by 2014, half of first births did not occur until the women had turned 24. This difference gives young women time to finish their education and obtain better jobs.</p>
<p>Nationally, evidence shows that public investments in family planning result in net public savings of about $13.6 billion a year—over <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/17/4/gpr170402.html" type="external">$7 for every public dollar</a> spent.</p>
<p>This sum doesn’t include the billions of additional dollars saved by enabling women – who may not be financially able to raise a child and do not want to have a child or additional children – to stay out of poverty.</p>
<p>Despite what Republicans claim, Planned Parenthood doesn’t focus on providing abortions.</p>
<p>In 2013, the most recent year for which data are available, its services <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1510281" type="external">included</a>nearly nearly 500,000 breast examinations, 400,000 Pap tests, nearly 4.5 million tests for sexually transmitted illnesses and treatments.</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood’s contraceptive services are one of the major reasons we don’t have more abortions in the United States.</p>
<p>The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1510281" type="external">calls</a> Planned Parenthood’s contraception services one of “the single greatest effort[s] to prevent the unwanted pregnancies that result in abortions.”</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood’s services are particularly important to poor and lower-income women. At least <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/05/429641062/fact-check-how-does-planned-parenthood-spend-that-government-money" type="external">78 percent</a> of its patients have incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level.</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood gets around <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7c4297fcab4741f5bdd424fc8f9b6079/why-shut-down-government-over-planned-parenthood" type="external">$450 million a year</a>from the federal government. <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7c4297fcab4741f5bdd424fc8f9b6079/why-shut-down-government-over-planned-parenthood" type="external">Most of this is Medicaid reimbursements for low-income patients, according to the nonparti</a>san Congressional Budget Office. The rest is mainly for contraceptive counseling, pregnancy testing and other services.</p>
<p>Federal money can only be used for abortion in rare circumstances.</p>
<p>Even so, over the last five years congressional Republicans have cut 10 percent of the Title X federal budget for family planning, which pays for services such as cancer screenings and HIV tests.</p>
<p>And now they want to <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2015/06/16/house_republicans_and_title_x_they_want_to_zero_out_federal_funding_for.html" type="external">do away with it</a> altogether.</p>
<p>This never used to be a partisan issue. After all, Title X was signed into law in 1970 by <a href="http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/elections-politics/blog/gop-budget-would-completely-eliminate-us-family-planning-program-and-cut-almost-all-sex-ed-funding-were-fight/#sthash.nmLhxpOs.dpuf" type="external">Richard Nixon</a>.</p>
<p>Obviously, the crass economic numbers don’t nearly express the full complexity of the national debate around abortion and family planning.</p>
<p>But they help make the case that we all benefit when society respects women to control their bodies and plan their families.</p>
<p>The attack on Planned Parenthood is not just morally wrong. It’s also economically stupid. &#160;</p>
<p /> | Why the Republican Assault on Planned Parenthood Is Morally Wrong and Economically Stupid | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/why-the-republican-assault-on-planned-parenthood-is-morally-wrong-and-economically-stupid/ | 2015-09-21 | 4 |
<p>Editor's note:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate" type="external">China's Bubble</a> is a four-part <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/video/commerce/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate" type="external">multimedia</a> series on an emerging threat to China's booming economy — a residential real estate bubble, particularly in the business and finance hub of Shanghai. The series also looks at the <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate" type="external">underlying causes</a> of the bubble, and explores one of Shanghai's hottest <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate-development" type="external">residential developments</a>.</p>
<p>SHANGHAI, China&#160;— In what may be the hottest real estate market on the planet, one fact of life seems extra cruel. In Shanghai, young women expect their boyfriends to buy a home before proposing.</p>
<p>“There’s a joke that goes Shanghai women can’t find husbands because they want a house, a car and a RMB1 million [$150,000] income,” said 28-year-old (male) sales rep Su Bei.</p>
<p>In truth, choosier women even go as far as to require that a spouse-to-be have paid off the mortgage entirely before popping the question.</p>
<p>With prices as high as they are today, young men are under enormous stress to accumulate enough money to get hitched. An eligible suitor must present an adequate dowry, in the form of a home, to the bride’s family as evidence of his suitability and ability to provide.</p>
<p>“I have seen many compatible couples break up because the girl’s family disapproved of marrying a man who could not afford a house,” said Ge, a Shanghainese broker whose daughter is in her 20s.</p>
<p />
<p>Though the total area of newly constructed homes sold doubled last year in Shanghai, supply is vastly inadequate to meet the demands of both investors looking to profit — wealthy Chinese and foreigners descending upon Shanghai — and the 1980s baby boom generation now of marrying age, and who would rather not move in with their parents.</p>
<p>Over the last five years, Shanghai’s average property prices have doubled to a record RMB14,986 ($2,204) per square meter, according to Shanghai’s Uwin Real Estate Information Services, far outpacing the rise in middle class income. The average home in the city's center costs about RMB34,638 ($5,094) per square meter — or the equivalent of $473,216 for a 1,000 square foot condo.</p>
<p>For about RMB1 million ($150,000), Su Bei purchased a yet-to-be-built 90 square meter (970 square feet), two-bedroom condo last June on the edge of Jiading District, the outermost suburb of Shanghai. As Su has only been in the working world for about five years and was earning a typical salary of RMB45,000 ($6,600) a year, his parents put down about 80 percent of the down payment.</p>
<p>“If my parents didn’t help me out, I would never even think about buying a home,” said Su.</p>
<p>Su’s parents ran the year-long home search process as well, going out nearly every weekend to see new and recently built condos. When they watched prices jump 20 percent in April alone, they panicked. They called friends and, through a back door connection, jumped the waiting line for a condo in this building.</p>
<p>Su’s best friend, 28-year-old Ni Ying Shi, has not bought yet, but is sweating under the pressure from his parents and girlfriend.</p>
<p>“How can anyone on an average salary afford it when Shanghai housing goes up by 50 percent every year?” said Ni, glumly.</p>
<p>He says he doesn’t want to be a member of the “keng lao zhu” — a term that literally translates to “clan gnawing away at the older generation.” It means those young folks who depend on their parents to support them.</p>
<p>“I told my girlfriend, we could get a place&#160;—&#160; a smaller place, maybe 50 to 60 square meters, maybe in a building built in the 90s,” Ni said. “If we wanted to we could manage it, but the truth is I don’t really want to buy a house.”</p>
<p>“Most girls want their boyfriends to own a house,” said 24-year-old KPMG analyst Li Meng Hua. “If he shows no sign of working toward buying a home, then parents will say that he is not very good to you.”</p>
<p>Li met her boyfriend of four years in college. He is a Ph.D. student and doesn’t yet have a home to his name, but she says that she wouldn’t break up with him over it.</p>
<p>“But if we ever separate, and I date again, it would be one of the first things I would consider before going on a date,” said Li. “This is reality.”</p>
<p>Paul Schittek contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Read the complete "China's Bubble" series:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate" type="external">China's Bubble: Is real estate about to pop?</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/video/commerce/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate" type="external">China's Bubble Video: StreetLife Shanghai</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate-development" type="external">China's Bubble: "Shanghai Dream"</a></p> | China's Bubble: No house? No bride. | false | https://pri.org/stories/2010-03-03/chinas-bubble-no-house-no-bride | 2010-03-03 | 3 |
<p>An Aug 19 ad in Nevada from the liberal Democratic group MoveOn.org Voter Fund attacks Bush for breaking a promise he never made,&#160;falsely claiming&#160;Bush vowed to veto legislation making Yucca Mountain a nuclear dump. Actually, all Bush promised was to&#160;veto temporary storage of nuclear waste in the state, pending&#160;final safety studies for permanent storage which he later approved.</p>
<p>Bush-Cheney ’04 in turn attacked Kerry Aug. 23 with a misleading ad claiming&#160;the senator&#160;long supported a Yucca Mountain disposal site before promising recently do all he can to block it if elected. In fact, Kerry voted against singling out Yucca Mountain as a storage site as early as 1987.</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ym_repository/index.shtml" type="external">Yucca Mountain</a> issue might have changed history. Four years ago neither Bush&#160;nor Gore promised to block the Yucca Mountain site —&#160;100 miles outside Las Vegas — as a permanent repository for used nuclear fuel rods, which are intensely radioactive.</p>
<p>MoveOn.org Voter Fund Ad: “Waste”</p>
<p>Announcer: It’s coming to Nevada… radioactive waste headed for Yucca Mountain. Why? Because in 2000, George Bush misled Nevada. That’s right. After promising Governor Guinn he’d veto legislation making Yucca Mountain a nuclear dump Geoge Bush personally approved the disposal of radioactive waste in Nevada.</p>
<p>John Kerry’s fighting to stop Yucca Mountain.</p>
<p>MoveOn.org Voter Fund is responsible for the content of this advertising.</p>
<p>Gore now has reason regret not&#160;catering more strongly to Nevada voters’&#160;dislike for the nuclear dump.&#160;He lost Nevada by&#160;46 percent to&#160;Bush’s&#160;50 percent. Had just&#160;under 11,000&#160;of those Bush votes gone to Gore instead, the Democrat would have won&#160;the state’s four electoral votes — and the presidency — even without Florida.</p>
<p>This time John Kerry is promising what Gore didn’t —&#160;to keep nuclear waste out. It’s a clear difference between the candidates: Bush&#160; <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020723-2.html" type="external">signed</a>&#160;legislation July 23, 2002, clearing the way for the&#160;Department of Energy to go forward with the Yucca project despite objection from the state’s governor, after earlier&#160; <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020215-10.html" type="external">urging</a>&#160;Congress to clear the way.</p>
<p>The ad says those actions by Bush broke a promise&#160;to “veto legislation making Yucca Mountain a nuclear dump,” but that’s false. Bush never made such a promise. What he said during the 2000 campaign, in a letter to Nevada’s Gov. Kenny Guinn, is this:</p>
<p>Bush (letter to Gov. Guinn, September, 2000): The Department of Energy (DoE) has not completed its impact study of Yucca Mountain and important questions of environmental protection and safety have not yet been answered. Therefore, I would veto legislation that would provide for the temporary storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. (emphasis added).</p>
<p>That of course is not a promise to veto legislation making Yucca Mountain a permanent dump,&#160;and that&#160;was clear at the time. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal <a href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2000/Sep-30-Sat-2000/news/14505409.html" type="external">reported</a>:</p>
<p>Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sept. 30, 2000): On the question of permanent storage, the two presidential candidates have both said science should determine if the permanent repository is suitable. Neither has suggested they would block the permanent site if scientists say it is safe.</p>
<p>And that’s what Bush reiterated in the letter which the ad mischaracterizes. The ad show the&#160;words, “Dear Kenny, I would veto legislation…” scrawled across the screen, but the&#160;ad leaves out&#160;Bush’s&#160;crucial&#160;qualifier:</p>
<p>Bush (letter to Gov. Guinn, September, 2000): As I’ve said before, I believe the best science must prevail in the designation that would send nuclear waste to any proposed site — either on a permanent or temporary basis — unless it has been deemed scientifically safe.</p>
<p>The Review-Journal report noted that language, and said “That appears to suggest that if the environmental and safety questions were addressed to his satisfaction, Bush would approve such a bill” for permanent storage, which is exactly what Bush did two years later.</p>
<p>Of course, what constitutes “scientifically safe” is a matter of hotly debated opinion. Many&#160;Nevada residents maintain that the site isn’t safe, and the matter is currently tied up in a court dispute over whether sufficiently strict standards are being applied. Still, Bush made clear he considered the safety issue settled when he approved the site July 23, 2002. At that time&#160;White House press secretary Ari Fleischer <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020723-2.html" type="external">said</a>:</p>
<p>Fleischer (July 23, 2002): The successful completion of the Yucca Mountain project will ensure our nation has a safe and secure underground facility that will store nuclear waste in a manner that protects our environment and our citizens.</p>
<p>The measure Bush <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020723-2.html" type="external">signed</a> that day was&#160;a joint resolution passed overwhelmingly by the House (H.J. Res. 87) and Senate (S.J. Res. 34). The House <a href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll133.xml#Y" type="external">passed</a> the resolution with a bipartisan margin of 306-117. The Senate passed the resolution by a voice vote, after a key procedural&#160;measure was approved 60-39.</p>
<p>The ad says radioactive waste “is coming to Yucca Mountain” and shows trucks rolling, but the fact is that it would be&#160;years before any radioactive waste in actually transported, even if all legal hurdles are cleared.</p>
<p>The bill Bush signed in 2002 gave the green light for the Department of Energy (DoE) to apply for a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to start construction of permanent facilities at Yucca Mountain. Now, two years later, the DoE says it will apply by December. By law, the NRC must approve or disapprove the application in no more than 4 years, and Sue Gagner, an NRC spokesperson, said it would take at least 3.</p>
<p>Once the DoE completes construction, however, the agency would still need to obtain an additional operating license before transport of the waste could begin. The site recommendation sent by DoE Secretary Spencer Abraham to Bush in 2002 set the total timeline at a minimum of 8 years before Yucca Mountain becomes operational.</p>
<p>The Bush campaign responded with an ad giving the false impression that Kerry was a long-time, strong supporter of Yucca Mountain before turning against it. In fact, though Kerry’s record is indeed&#160;somewhat mixed, he cast a clear vote against singling out Yucca Mountain as early as 1987 and the Bush ad cites his votes selectively and in a misleading way.</p>
<p>Bush-Cheney ’04 Ad: “Kerry’s Yucca”</p>
<p>Bush: I’m George W. Bush, and I approve this message.</p>
<p>Announcer: Listening to John Kerry, you’d think he’d been against Yucca Mountain his entire career. But Kerry voted to establish the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain. Kerry voted 7 times to make it easier to dump waste at Yucca and said, “A repository for nuclear waste could be established there and be made functional by 2015.” He even tried to speed shipment of nuclear waste from Massachusetts to Yucca. There’s what Kerry says and then there’s what Kerry does…</p>
<p>The ad claims Kerry “voted to establish the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain,” a&#160;reference to a huge 1987 budget bill&#160;that included a provision singling out Yucca Mountain as the only site to get further study as a nuclear waste facility. At the time, sites in Texas and Washington state were under study as well. The legislation has come to be known as the “screw Nevada” bill. Kerry did vote for the budget measure, and Nevada’s senators opposed it because of that one provision. The budget measure was&#160;adopted 61-28 on Dec. 21, 1987. However, it was not a straight up-or-down vote on Yucca Mountain. The key vote came more than a month earlier, on Nov. 18.</p>
<p>The “screw Nevada” provision was then part of an energy appropriations bill, and&#160;Kerry voted to remove it. That was the&#160;key vote on Yucca Mountain, and Kerry joined Nevada’s two senators in voting “aye.” The&#160;measure was defeated 34-61. As The Associated Press reported at the time, “That was the last of several attempts, including a short-lived filibuster, to scuttle the plan” to make Yucca Mountain the only site under study.</p>
<p>The Bush ad also says Kerry has “voted 7 times to make it easier to dump waste at Yucca,” and the campaign cites seven votes in which Kerry voted one way while Nevada’s Sen. Harry Reid, a die-hard Yucca opponent, voted the other.&#160;It is true that Kerry has sometimes voted for measures that included&#160;provisions for a nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, including the 1987 budget bill. But&#160; The Associated Press has reported, “Each time Kerry has faced the simple choice of voting whether or not to send waste to Yucca Mountain, he has voted against it.”</p>
<p>That was true in 2002, when Kerry&#160;voted&#160;against&#160;the Senate version of the&#160;Yucca Mountain measure that Bush signed. And it was true two years earlier, when Kerry voted in May 2000 against override of&#160;President Clinton’s veto of a bill that would have provided for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel rods in Nevada. The veto was sustained.</p>
<p>At one point the Bush ad quotes from a&#160;letter&#160;that Kerry sent in 1996 stating that a nuclear dump could be “made functional by 2015.” Not mentioned in the ad is that the letter urged the Clinton administration to follow congressional directives to provide more money for testing the Yucca facility. The ad also says Kerry “tried to speed shipment of nuclear waste from Massachusetts to Yucca,” which refers to a 1999&#160; <a href="UploadedFiles/KerryLetter-to-Murkowski.pdf" type="external">letter</a> signed by the four senators from Massachusetts and Connecticut urging “an accelerated waste acceptance schedule” for waste from de-commissioned nuclear plants such as those in their two states.&#160;“This provision would give high priority to spent fuel currently stored at commercial reactor sites undergoing decommissioning,” the letter said. However, both of those letters were sent at a time when Congress had already fixed on Yucca Mountain as the only site being considered for nuclear waste storage, despite Kerry’s objection.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&lt;iframe style="width: 500px; height:300px;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen src="https://video.factcheck.org/play/legacy-91-1"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">View Kerry’s 1996 letter urging more funds to study Yucca Mountain</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">View Kerry’s 1999 letter urging legislation providing for “accelerated waste acceptance schedule” for fuel from decommissioned nuclear plants</a></p>
<p>Federal Election Commission, “2000&#160; <a href="http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/2000presgeresults.htm" type="external">OFFICIAL PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS</a>”&#160;Accessed 23 Aug 2004.</p>
<p>“President Signs Yucca Mountain Bill; Statement by the Press Secretary,” White House Office of the Press Secretary,&#160; <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020723-2.html" type="external">News Release</a>&#160;23 July 2002.</p>
<p>George W. Bush, “Presidential&#160; <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020215-10.html" type="external">Letter</a>&#160;to Congress: Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate,” 15 Feb 2002.</p>
<p>Jane Ann Morrison, “ <a href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2000/Sep-30-Sat-2000/news/14505409.html" type="external">Republicans hail Bush letter</a> &#160;on nuclear waste; Guinn says presidential candidates’ positions on issue now equal, but Democrats disagree,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, 30 Sept 2000.</p>
<p>Cy Ryan, “ Bush Says He’d Veto Yucca as Interim Site ,” Las Vegas Sun,&#160;29 Sept.&#160;2000.</p>
<p>Ari Fleischer, “ <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov" type="external">President Signs Yucca Mountain Bill</a> ,” 23 July 2002.</p>
<p>Lee Byrd, “Senate Approves Major Overhaul Of Program For Dumping Nuclear Wastes,” The Associated Press 18 Nov 1987.</p>
<p>U.S. House of Representatives, 107th Congress, 2nd Session, H.J. Res. 87, Proposed&#160;11 April 2002.</p>
<p>U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 107th&#160;Congress – 2nd&#160;Session On the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Proceed to Consider S.J. Res. 34 ) <a href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_107_2.htm" type="external">Record Vote Number: 167</a> &#160;9 July 2002</p>
<p>U.S. House of Representatives Roll Call Votes 107th Congress – 2nd Session H.J. Res. 87,&#160; <a href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll133.xml" type="external">Vote #133</a> , 8 May 2002.</p>
<p>U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 106th Congress – 2nd Session, On Overriding the Veto (Shall The Bill S. 1287 Pass, Over The Objections Of The President ) Veto sustained&#160; <a href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm@congress=106&amp;session=2&amp;vote=00088" type="external">Vote #88</a>, 2 May 2000.</p>
<p>“ <a href="http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ymp/sr/documents.htm" type="external">Recommendation by the Secretary of Energy Regarding the Suitability of the Yucca Mountain Site for a Repository Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982</a> ,” Feb. 2002.</p>
<p>John Kerry, ” Candidate Says Yucca a Non-Starter If He’s Elected ,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, 16 May 2004.</p>
<p>“Face-to-Face with John Ralston,” KLAS-TV, 17 May 2004.</p> | Yucca Mountain Mudslide: Both Sides Dissemble on Nuclear Waste Dump in Nevada | false | https://factcheck.org/2004/08/yucca-mountain-mudslide-both-sides-dissemble-on/ | 2004-08-25 | 2 |
<p>Gary Oldman as Churchill in “The Darkest Hour.”</p>
<p>Thanks to my membership in New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO), I am the recipient of a virtual wheelbarrow of DVD’s sent out by studio publicists hoping to sway my vote for best movie at our annual awards meeting on December 9th. These are generally films I tend to avoid through the year so I look forward to seeing them if for no other reason to help me pass judgement on the likely finalists in our deliberations. No obscure neorealist, radical, foreign-language films are likely to make the cut.</p>
<p>It turns out that two of the films are set in 1940 and have to do with the evacuation of British soldiers from Dunkirk, a city on the coast of France. The first is Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk”, a film that I would never spend good money to see since I detest his work. It is still playing in theaters everywhere. The second is “Darkest Hour”, a biopic about Churchill that opens on December 21. Like Nolan, director Joe Wright is English. After seeing the two films, the only award that I would consider making is for best work by a makeup artist. Whoever turned the lean and angular Gary Oldman into the spitting image of Churchill in Wright’s film deserves one. Needless to say, Oldman did not have to work too hard at conveying Churchill’s character since he is every bit as racist and reactionary, stating in a 2014 Playboy interview that Mel Gibson’s reputation as an anti-Semite was unfair but to be expected in a “town run by the Jews”.</p>
<p>For Nolan, the decision to make “Dunkirk” was probably not that different from making a film about Batman. He told <a href="" type="internal">Indiewire</a>: “Dunkirk is something that you grow up with as a British person. The telling of the story that you get is simplistic and mythical in a way, almost like a fairy tale.” I can’t gainsay this. His film is simplistic, mythical and almost like a fairy tale.</p>
<p>As for Joe Wright, he told <a href="" type="internal">the Guardian</a>&#160;that his portrait of Churchill is a rebuke to Donald Trump. Why? Because “He kicked and he screamed and got a lot of things wrong in his career, and in his personal life, but one thing he got right was he resisted the tide of fascism, bigotry and hate. And that seems to speaking to America now, and Britain, too.” Naturally, Wright made a film that emphasized Churchill’s ostensibly heroic and lonely battle to take the war to Hitler, resisting the cowardice of his fellow Tories Nevil Chamberlain and Lord Halifax who serve as his foils in the same way that Francis Preston Blair served as Lincoln’s foil in Spielberg’s biopic. Like Chamberlain and Lord Halifax, Blair was soft on the enemy, hoping to engage the Confederate government in peace negotiations just as the other two sought a peace treaty with Hitler that would allow him to control Europe as long as Britain remained independent. It is apparent that Wright had little insights into the overarching motivation of all three Tory politicians: to destroy Bolshevism and preserve the British Empire.</p>
<p>Turning to the films themselves, “Dunkirk” is not much of a war movie, as Nolan forthrightly admits. Instead, it is a film about withdrawal from war—not that England had any choice in the matter. Even if wasn’t a war movie, there was little justification for it being so bereft of character development. What will make a classic like “Sahara” outlive “Dunkirk” was the vivid portrayal of the men in its tank battalion led by Humphrey Bogart whose backstory was much more interesting in many ways than the battle scenes. Since the screenplay was written by CP’er John Henry Lawson, it is not surprising that the characters are imbued with such humanism—all except of course the hateful Nazi prisoner.</p>
<p>“Dunkirk” keeps shifting between three different scenes that are supposed to epitomize the drama of the evacuation. Tom Hardy plays a British RAF pilot who engages in dogfights with Nazi fighter planes throughout the film until he runs out of fuel and lands on the beach at Dunkirk to be captured by the Nazis. If you like staring at fuel gauges, machine gun tracers, and that sort of thing, this is your kind of film. We also meet an unnamed shell-shocked soldier played by Cillian Murphy who has been rescued from a sinking ship departing from Dunkirk by a small craft piloted by Mark Rylance. When he learns that Rylance is headed back to Dunkirk, he goes berserk and stages a mutiny that costs the life of a youngster on the boat. Finally, there’s a group of soldiers trapped inside another sinking ship who are trying to figure out a way to save themselves without being gunned down by the Nazis once they reach the surface. I confess to finding this less exciting than the vastly underrated “The Poseidon Adventure” about passengers trying to make their way out of a capsized luxury liner. You really can’t go wrong with a film featuring Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine that is based on a Paul Gallico novel, about which the NY Times wrote: “Mr. Gallico collects a Grand Hotel [a reference to the 1930 Vicki Baum novel] full of shipboard dossiers. These interlocking histories may be damp with sentimentality as well as brine—but the author’s skill as a storyteller invests them with enough suspense to last the desperate journey.” Unfortunately, Christopher Nolan’s storytelling skills are rather poverty-stricken by comparison that fail to be compensated for by wide-angle shots made by a 70 millimeter camera.</p>
<p>In a way, Nolan is very good at telling stories in the sense of making things up at least when it comes to the historical incident he has decided to dramatize. Most film critics neglect to comment on the film’s veracity, assuming that it was exactly like it happened. But Nolan unwittingly revealed the film’s inaccuracies when he spoke of simplistic fairy-tales.</p>
<p>Despite the wide divergence between the neoliberal <a href="" type="internal">New York Review of Books</a>&#160;&#160;and the British radical daily <a href="https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-6acf-When-myth-overrides-fact" type="external">The Morning Star</a>, they both provided much-needed alternatives to Nolan’s version.</p>
<p>Writing for the NY Review, the Telegraph’s one-time editor-in-chief Max Hastings notes that the German army hardly interfered with the evacuation, nor was there any ground fighting in the town itself. Since Nolan’s film begins with a frantic escape by a British soldier fleeing oncoming and overpowering Nazi infantrymen on those streets, you can understand why Hastings found the opening scene “spurious”.</p>
<p>He also dismisses the notion of small craft rescuing the 250,000 stranded British soldiers out of hand. “In the film, all the big ships seeking to rescue troops are sunk in dramatic circumstances, leaving small craft to do the business. This is a travesty. The Royal Navy sent thirty-nine destroyers to Dunkirk, of which only six were sunk, although many were damaged. Two thirds of all the men brought home sailed in big ships, notably including the destroyers, just one third in smaller ones.”</p>
<p>His comparison between “Dunkirk” and “Saving Private Ryan” endears Hastings to me no matter his other more questionable views on British politics that veer to the Conservatives. “It possesses many of the virtues and vices of Steven Spielberg’s epics, wrapped in a Union flag instead of the Stars and Stripes.” As a matter of fact, both films offer the same flag-waving nostalgia so dangerous in a time when the increasingly toothless British and American empires might strike out like a cornered rat.</p>
<p>Writing for The Morning Star, Ian Sinclair pokes some more holes with even greater contempt for the official story drawing from a variety of “revisionist” sources:</p>
<p>After the Germans had started cutting off supply lines “stealing from civilians soon became official policy,” according to Nicholas Harman in his 1980 book Dunkirk: The Necessary Myth. And with morale at rock bottom and troops under extreme physical and psychological stress, historian Glyn Prysor notes there was “widespread British antagonism towards refugees and other innocent bystanders.”</p>
<p>Prysor records the story of artillery NCO William Harding who remembers a fellow soldier shooting an old woman in the street in Calais. When challenged by Harding, the perpetrator replied: “Anybody dressed as old women, nuns or priests or civilians running around get shot.” Harman notes that “British fighting units had orders to take no prisoners” except for interrogation.</p>
<p>Turning to Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour”, you are faced with the same genre found so frequently on PBS’s Master Race Theater. This is a film replete with overstuffed furniture, men in waistcoats, and all the other accoutrements of forgettable dramas such as “Victoria” or “Downtown Abbey”.</p>
<p>The film begins with Winston Churchill being served breakfast in bed while in his pajamas and a lit cigar dangling from his fleshy mouth. Churchill is played as a lovable but cantankerous character of the sort that Lionel Barrymore perfected in the 30s and 40s. It is May 1940 and he has just learned that will be replacing Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister.</p>
<p>“Dunkirk” ends with a rescued British soldier reading Churchill’s famous June 4, 1940 speech about “We shall fight them on the streets” that is also the finale of Wright’s film. With his bulldog like appearance, Churchill is a perfect symbol of British resolve so much so that the “Churchillism” of this period was embraced by the entire political spectrum throughout the war and even lasted into the 80s, with Margaret Thatcher striking Churchillian poses as if poor bedraggled Argentina’s bid to regain the Malvinas that had been stolen from it in Victorian times had anything in common with Hitler’s vast military machine.</p>
<p>The film’s drama, such as it is, consists of Churchill sparring verbally with Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax who are trying to win a majority of his War Cabinet into supporting a sit-down with Mussolini who volunteered to negotiate between the rival imperial powers.</p>
<p>Starting out as a fire-breathing warrior, Churchill begins to waver as news of the stranded British army begins to unfold. He begins to consider the possibility that such a deal might be in Britain’s best interest but forsakes it after his hatred for Nazi totalitarianism overcomes his Hamlet-like indecision.</p>
<p>Fifty years ago such a portrayal of Churchill, problematic as it is, would have been out of the question for the simple reason that the archives of the War Cabinet had been kept in secret. The popular view of Churchill, buttressed by his own self-aggrandizing writings, would have not even allowed for what amounted to a momentary hesitation about going to war with the Nazis.</p>
<p>In the Fall 1993 edition of World Affairs, there’s an article titled “Churchill in 1940: Myth and Reality” by David Carlton that provides copious detail about Churchill’s affinities with Neville Chamberlain, whose “appeasement” had more to do with unleashing Hitler against the USSR than anything else.</p>
<p>Carlton’s article is basically a review of “revisionist” historians who challenge the dominant narrative of Churchill that Wright’s film only departs from by a fraction of an inch. Besides Churchill’s own presentation of that history, the other major source is A.J.P. Taylor who called him the “savior of his country”.</p>
<p>Among them is Clive Ponting, who is one of my heroes. He wrote “ <a href="" type="internal">The Green History of the World</a>” that belongs on anybody’s bookshelf as a source of how capitalism began destroying the planet in the name of progress. Ponting is not a historian by trade. He was a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Defence who sent two documents to Labour MP Tam Dalyell in July 1984 about the British sinking of an Argentine navy warship, the General Belgrano, that was widely regarded by the left and anti-war activists as a war crime. For this act, Ponting was charged with Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act of 1911. Facing a long prison term for this courageous act, he was acquitted by a jury not swayed by Thatcher’s Churchillism.</p>
<p>Ponting’s revisionist history is titled “ <a href="" type="internal">1940: Myth and Reality</a>” and contains this summary of the closeness between Churchill and the so-called appeasement faction:</p>
<p>It is clear from the widespread evidence of war&#160; cabinet discussions and approaches via the&#160; Swedes and the Americans that in May and June 1940 not only did Britain seriously consider making peace with Germany, but that some members of the government went as far&#160; as to ask what terms the Germans would offer. Within the war cabinet there was a spectrum of views: from Halifax who favoured trying to&#160; make peace before the military situation became even worse; to Churchill, who wanted to fight on for a few months.</p>
<p>Let me conclude with a reference to Nicholson Baker’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416572465/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Human Smoke</a>, a most controversial book written in the “revisionist” spirit of Howard Zinn and Clive Ponting. While Baker is a novelist by trade, this book is nonfiction assault on the bogus reputation of the “good war” with Winston Churchill and FDR getting the brunt of his well-researched darts. I want to particularly call attention to this vignette on Churchill:</p>
<p>Winston Churchill was readying his book Great Contemporaries for the press. It was August 1937. In it was his article on Hitler, written a few years earlier. “Those who have met Herr Hitler face to face in public business or on social terms,” he said, “have found a highly competent, cool, well-informed functionary with an agreeable manner, a disarming smile, and few have been unaffected by a subtle personal magnetism.” Despite the arming of Germany and the hounding of the Jews, “we may yet live to see Hitler a gentler figure in a happier age,” Churchill wrote. He was doubtful, though.</p>
<p>Churchill also included a short piece on Leon Trotsky, king in exile of international bolshevism. Trotsky was a usurper and tyrant, Churchill said. He was a cancer bacillus, he was a “skin of malice,” washed up on the shores of Mexico. Trotsky possessed, said Churchill, “the organizing command of a Carnot, the cold detached intelligence of a Machiavelli, the mob oratory of a Cleon, the ferocity of Jack the Ripper, the toughness of Titus Oates.”</p>
<p>And in the end what was Trotsky? Who was he? “He was a Jew,” wrote Churchill with finality. “He was still a Jew. Nothing could get over that.” He called his article “Leon Trotsky, Alias Bronstein.”</p>
<p>Winston Churchill, the Mel Gibson of his day.</p> | The Churchillian Myths of 1940 | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/12/08/the-churchillian-myths-of-1940/ | 2017-12-08 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Acadia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACAD) is probably in better shape now than it's ever been. The biotech won approval last year for its lead product, Nuplazid, in treating Parkinson's disease psychosis. Acadia's stock is up more than 30% over the past 12 months. Additional studies are under way that could expand the number of indications for Nuplazid. But plenty of uncertainty remains. Just how risky is Acadia's stock right now?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Acadia received the green light from the FDA for Nuplazid on April 29. The company kicked off the commercial launch of the drug just over a month later. It had a national sales force of over 130 representatives. Nuplazid is the first drug to receive approval for Parkinson's disease psychosis, so there wasn't any real competition to go against.</p>
<p>So where do things stand? As of Sept. 30, sales for Nuplazid totaled $5.4 million, most of which was made in the third quarter. During that quarter, though, Acadia spent over $50 million on selling, general, and administrative expenses. There's clearly a long way to go. In fact, Acadia's management team acknowledges that the company will continue to lose money for at least the next few years.</p>
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<p>Launching a new drug isn't free -- and it isn't easy. That's especially true when the drug carries a black-box warning that sayselderly people with dementia-related psychosis taking antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death, as Nuplazid does.</p>
<p>A successful launch is even more challenging the first time around for a company. This is Acadia's first approved drug. The biotech doesn't have experience with rolling out a new product, which increases the risk that the launch might not successful.</p>
<p>Acadia's market cap currently stands at $3.8 billion. There are some high expectations for Nuplazid baked into that valuation. To achieve those expectations, Acadia needs to win approval for additional indications.</p>
<p>The company is exploring the potential for Nuplazid in treating five other indications. A late-stage clinical trial is under way forevaluating the drug as an adjunct treatment of schizophrenia in patients with an inadequate response to current antipsychotic therapy. Another mid-stage study began in November for Nuplazid as anadjunct treatment in patients with negative symptoms of schizophrenia.</p>
<p>Acadia is also advancing to a late-stage clinical trial evaluating Nuplazid in treating Alzheimer's disease psychosis. This could be a huge opportunity for the company if it can ultimately win approval for the indication.</p>
<p>The company reported positive results from a mid-stage study focusing on Alzheimer's disease psychosis. If you looked at the details from this clinical trial, though, there were reasons for concern. Reduction of psychosis was observed in patients after six weeks of taking Nuplazid, but the level of reduction was just below the point of being considered statistically insignificant.</p>
<p>It's possible that the larger late-stage study will clearly show Nuplazid to be effective in treating Alzheimer's disease psychosis. However, there is significant risk for Acadia with its clinical trials. A pipeline setback would likely take a big bite out of the company's stock price.</p>
<p>Acadia definitely faces considerable risks with the commercial launch of Nuplazid and the possibilities for clinical study disappointments. However, the biotech also still has tremendous potential.</p>
<p>Although sales for Nuplazid didn't soar right out of the gate, part of the problem related to Acadia's providing samples of the drug to physicians earlier in 2016. That should be only a temporary issue.Nuplazid could still reach peak annual sales of up to $1 billion for the Parkinson's disease psychosis indication. Additional approvals would drive that number even higher.</p>
<p>There's also a decent chance that Acadia attracts interest from larger companies looking to make an acquisition. Several biopharmaceutical companies could be good fits. I'd put Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) high on the list.</p>
<p>Lilly experienced a big setback with the late-stage clinical study failure forsolanezumab in treating Alzheimer's disease. Despite this major disappointment, the big drugmaker continues to invest in developing drugs targeting the disease. Lilly also has early-stage programs focused on dementia and schizophrenia.</p>
<p>Nuplazid would be a solid addition to Lilly's neuroscience portfolio. The company could also bring plenty of experience to bear in marketing the drug. If Lilly is looking to make a significant acquisition in the near future, I wouldn't be surprised to see Acadia in its cross-hairs.</p>
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<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%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=1caf65a4-7612-4936-a481-0380bba237e3&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 January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFishBiz/info.aspx" type="external">Keith Speights 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> | How Risky Is Acadia Pharmaceuticals Stock? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/30/how-risky-is-acadia-pharmaceuticals-stock.html | 2017-01-30 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Wednesday’s <a href="" type="internal">Republican debate</a> was long, very long. Its length may have altered its political impact.</p>
<p>WATCH: <a href="" type="internal">The CNN Republican Presidential Debate in 90 Seconds</a></p>
<p>Carly Fiorina was the big winner, especially in the first part of the debate. Her answers were crisp and she won game, set, match in the brief exchange about <a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump</a>‘s boorish comments on her looks.</p>
<p />
<p>But she lost some ground as the debate wore on. The exchange with Trump over her stewardship of Hewlett-Packard went to Trump. Here, Chris Christie beat them both in what was his best moment. “Stop playing the games,” he said of their back-and-forth about their respective careers, saying they should speak instead to “the 55-year-old construction worker … who doesn’t have a job, who can’t fund his child’s education.” Christie showed how he had won in a Democratic state.</p>
<p>There was a harshness to Fiorina’s attacks on liberals and the left, although this probably didn’t bother conservatives. She was a net winner, but not by the margin she built up at the start. And in opening up her business record, Trump may have created future problems for her.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Ben Carson</a> did not entirely disappear, but he came close at times. You would think this hurt him, but a similar performance in the first debate actually kicked off his ascent in the polls. A hunch: Fiorina may pick up some of Carson’s support, and some from the non-Trump, non-Carson crowd.</p>
<p>Jeb Bush had a complicated debate, sometimes looking beleaguered, sometimes on offense. He did well defending immigration and (for a Republican audience) defending his brother. He opened up a fascinating line of continuing inquiry by saying that Trump lobbied him to legalize gambling in Florida; there will be a lot of reporting on this. Bush got plenty of time and scored well enough that he may pick up at least a few points in the polls. But he will lose in comparisons with Fiorina, who was tougher on Trump.</p>
<p>Scott Walker needed to do the most, and he didn’t do it. Marco Rubio had some strong moments, especially toward the marathon’s end. Rand Paul was best when he repaired to libertarian purity on drug legalization and war. This may win back some of his father’s partisans who thought the son had strayed from the true faith. Christie gained some ground, and seemed thoroughly comfortable with himself. Mike Huckabee was not a big factor. John Kasich reinforced his brand as the reasonable, amiable alternative. He probably strengthened himself most with the non-Republicans watching. Ted Cruz played to type as the purest conservative. He at least held his own — and may pick up a bit if Trump starts losing support. In the undercard debate, Lindsey Graham was dominant, and distinctive: humane on immigration, a super hawk on foreign policy, and often funny. He might sneak into the top tier.</p>
<p>Yes, I left Trump for last because his situation is confusing, at least to me. He was not dominant. Fiorina got to him, and while Trump won some of his exchanges with Bush, he lost some, too. He avoided severe damage on foreign policy, a win for him. There will be no new Trump surge, but I am not persuaded that he lost as much ground as some of my pundit colleagues seem to think. The debate suggested that as the Trump phenomenon is normalized, it will become less interesting.</p>
<p>The first Republican debate captured the public imagination. This one seemed to drone on, and the Republicans said little (and weren’t asked much) about issues that will affect middle-class and working-class swing voters. The exceptional moments were Christie’s intervention in the Trump-Fiorina exchange and Trump’s remarkable — and I thought effective — defense of progressive taxes. The Club for Growth, the tax-cuts-above-all group that has been running ads against Trump, will no doubt double down. Otherwise, Wednesday gave us old, tired GOP economics.</p>
<p>Whether out of political need or genuine conviction, Republicans take very hard-line foreign policy positions that are well to the right of where a majority of the country is. Here, Kasich — who had the nerve to say the U.S. needs allies — may be closer to the dominant mood. But he has to get through the primaries. Fiorina, the unapologetic hawk, is closer to the Republican heart.</p>
<p>This debate won’t alarm Democratic strategists. The Republican infighting will make them happy, and so, too, will the portrait it painted of an extreme, angry party that is also — Rubio and Bush are exceptions — very pessimistic about the future of our nation.</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne’s email address is [email protected]. Twitter: @EJDionne.</p>
<p>© 2015, Washington Post Writers Group &#160;</p> | Winners and Losers in the GOP Debate That Went On and On | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/winners-and-losers-in-the-gop-debate-that-went-on-and-on/ | 2015-09-18 | 4 |
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) - An assistant U.S. attorney in Texas has been named at least temporarily as the top federal prosecutor in Nevada.</p>
<p>U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Wednesday that Dayle Elieson will replace Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre (MEYE?-ree), effective Friday.</p>
<p>Myhre will return to his role as first assistant U.S. attorney.</p>
<p>Elieson has been a lawyer in Texas since 1994, and served a stint as a local prosecutor in Dallas before she became a federal prosecutor more than 15 years ago.</p>
<p>Sessions says she has handled fraud, money laundering and terrorism cases.</p>
<p>Elieson was one of 17 interim U.S. attorneys appointed by Sessions in districts from Guam to Manhattan.</p>
<p>As temporary appointees, each can serve 120 days before President Donald Trump must nominate a permanent U.S. attorney and seek Senate confirmation.</p>
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) - An assistant U.S. attorney in Texas has been named at least temporarily as the top federal prosecutor in Nevada.</p>
<p>U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Wednesday that Dayle Elieson will replace Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre (MEYE?-ree), effective Friday.</p>
<p>Myhre will return to his role as first assistant U.S. attorney.</p>
<p>Elieson has been a lawyer in Texas since 1994, and served a stint as a local prosecutor in Dallas before she became a federal prosecutor more than 15 years ago.</p>
<p>Sessions says she has handled fraud, money laundering and terrorism cases.</p>
<p>Elieson was one of 17 interim U.S. attorneys appointed by Sessions in districts from Guam to Manhattan.</p>
<p>As temporary appointees, each can serve 120 days before President Donald Trump must nominate a permanent U.S. attorney and seek Senate confirmation.</p> | US prosecutor in Dallas to be top Nevada federal prosecutor | false | https://apnews.com/bc01fab006764d61a976a1285cefbafe | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Monster Energy will replace Sprint (NYSE:S) as the sponsor of NASCAR’s top series.</p>
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<p>The energy-drink maker and NASCAR announced a new multi-year pact on Thursday that places Monster Energy atop what is now the Sprint Cup Series. The deal will begin at the start of 2017. NASCAR said it will reveal the name and logo of the revamped series at a later date.</p>
<p>Under the agreement, Monster Energy will also sponsor the NASCAR All-Star Race and serve as the sport’s official energy drink.</p>
<p>NASCAR didn’t disclose financial details of the deal. According to ESPN, Monster is paying about $20 million annually for naming rights to the main series, less than Sprint’s $50 million contract.</p>
<p>Sprint entered into a relationship with NASCAR through its 2005 merger with Nextel. The Sprint Cup Series was born in 2008, and the original 10-year deal—signed in 2004—was extended through 2016. <a href="" type="internal">In December 2014, Sprint announced that it would not seek to renew the deal when it expired, citing its intent to focus on the company’s core business</a>.</p>
<p>Monster Energy will become the third title sponsor in the history of the premier series, following in the footsteps of RJ Reynolds and Sprint. NASCAR’s second-tier circuit, the XFINITY Series, took on Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) as its leading sponsor in 2015.</p>
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<p>NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France believes Monster Energy will expand the sport’s fan base, particularly among young consumers.</p>
<p>“They’re a fun brand.&#160;They get at a millennial audience in a different way clearly than we’ve ever been associated with, particularly at this level, and they know what they're doing.&#160;This is their DNA,” France said during a press conference Thursday.</p>
<p>Monster Energy, a division of Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST), is a close No. 2 behind Red Bull in the energy-drink market.</p>
<p>Like its main rival, Monster Energy has established itself as a steady presence in auto racing and action sports. The brand is already a co-primary sponsor of Kurt Busch’s No. 41 car, a deal that will remain in place after Monster Energy takes over the Sprint Cup Series. Monster Energy also sponsors Formula 1 racing.</p>
<p>The Corona, Calif.-based company expects to leverage its new NASCAR deal to strengthen its position among competing brands like Red Bull, according to Mark Hall, chief marketing officer of Monster Beverage.</p>
<p>“We're in a competitive industry. To the extent we can get a leg up on our competition, of course we like that,” Hall said. “Do I think this will help? Yes, I think it will.”</p> | Monster Energy to Power NASCAR's Top Series | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/12/02/monster-energy-to-power-nascars-top-series.html | 2016-12-02 | 0 |
<p>in Tokyo</p>
<p>Japan’s “top priority” in new talks with North Korea opening Saturday, February 4, in Beijing, will be the case of 15 of its citizens abducted to Pyongyang between 1977-83. But absent from Tokyo’s agenda will be another unresolved disgrace: decades of enforced removal to Japan for work-slavery of a million Koreans — including 12,000 laborers compelled to work under grotesque conditions in coal mines owned by a firm still run by the family of Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Aso.</p>
<p>The kidnappings of Japanese men and women to teach their language at North Korean spy schools could eventually total 70, it is suspected. The outrage, constantly covered by the Japanese media, continues to upset people and is an international scandal by any standards. The older, but incomparably worse mistreatment of Koreans over three decades, is hardly mentioned in Japan, and the foreign minister’s connection remains taboo. Yet in other countries such an episode would be regarded as intolerable in such an important government official.</p>
<p>The Korean pit workers were systematically underpaid, overworked, underfed and confined in penury. They suffered chronic ill-health, frequent death from insanitary conditions or work accidents, were under 24-hour watch by brutal secret police, yet still managed to escape out of desperation. Only with Japan’s 1945 defeat in war were they finally released, to be sent home uncompensated. Neither they nor their surviving families have since received a penny in personal reparations, despite pleas from both Koreas.</p>
<p>Aso cannot argue that a generation separates him from such family odium, for he shares Japan’s national lack of atonement for the brutalities and atrocities committed against Asian people during its imperial war of aggression from 1931-45. Even in his remarks before becoming foreign minister last October and since, he displays unfeeling insensitivity to Korean feelings — as well as expressing unabashed racial supremacy. (Last year in a remark echoing 1930s fascism, Aso described Japan as “one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture, and one race, the like of which there is no other on this earth.”)</p>
<p>He ran the Aso Cement Company, as the former Aso Coal Mines was then called, in Fukuoka prefecture in the southern island of Kyushu from 1973-79, when he entered politics. During that time never addressed its terrible corporate legacy of peonage labor. He remains connected to the company today. In 2001 it entered a joint venture with the French cement manufacturer, Lefarge, but remains under the management of his younger brother, Yutaka Aso. Only last December, the French ambassador in Tokyo presented Yutaka with the Legion d’Honneur at a ceremony where honored guests were foreign minister Taro Aso and his wife.</p>
<p>It seemed a fitting tribute to a family steeped in the finest traditions of Japan’s recent history. Aso prominence goes back to his great-great grandfather, Toshimichi Okubo, a samurai and one of five powerful nobles who led the 1868 overthrow of the centuries-old shogunate era that ushered in modern times. His great grandfather Takakichi founded the Aso mining firm in 1872 and at one time it owned eight pits in Kyushu’s rich Chikuho coal fields and was the biggest of three family corporations mining an area that produced half of Japan’s coal.</p>
<p>As the scion of landed gentry, Aso graduated from the university that traditionally educates the imperial family, spent time in London at its university, joined what was then Aso Industries, and quickly became a director before moving to the top. Completing the aristocratic tradition, he was part of the Japanese rifle shooting team in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.</p>
<p>Following his samurai ancestor, a grandfather was Shigeru Yoshida, prime minister of Japan five times between 1946 and 1954, and an autocratic conservative who, conveniently for the Aso family, conducted a 1950s purge of “reds” in the coal mining unions. Taro Aso’s wife adds to the family’s power luster as the daughter of Zenko Suzuki, Liberal Democratic Party (conservative) prime minister from 1980-82. There is even a royal link. Aso’s sister Nobuko married Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, the emperor’s cousin, who recently hit the headlines over his opposition to the proposal — for an imperial family starved of male heirs — to allow a woman to occupy the chrysanthemum throne. Tomohito suggested continuing the male line through concubines, an imperial tradition that would move Japan back several centuries.</p>
<p>Despite the fine lineage, it does not seem to have turned Aso into a gentleman. He not only ignores his company’s history, but has insulted the Korean people who sacrificed so much for his family’s fortune.</p>
<p>By force of arms, Japan annexed the entire peninsula in 1910 and ran it as a colonial property for 35 years, with the people serving as inferior citizens and servants of their imperial masters. In 1939 as Tokyo’s grip tightened in the escalating war, its parliament passed a law forcing Koreans to adopt Japanese names, penalizing those and their children who declined to do so. Yet not long before he became foreign minister, Aso referred to these forced name changes as “voluntary” and further suggested that the Republic of Korea’s people had fared better under Tokyo’s iron heel.</p>
<p>Perhaps Aso’s attitude derives from having at the family’s disposal thousands of servile Koreans for so many years. The exact history of this time is not officially recorded — certainly not in the Aso-Lafarge version, where the years from the 1930s to 1950s are blank. But three local amateur historians in the Fukuoka prefecture of Kyushu, Eidai Hayashi, Takashi Ohno, and Noriaki Fukudome, assisted by a Korean living in Japan, Kim Guan-yul, have put together the relevant facts and figures to present a shocking picture, much of it recorded in their various books.</p>
<p>Although Tokyo did not pass until 1939 the National General Mobilization law that forced all colonial subjects, including those in Taiwan and Manchuria in China, to work wherever it suited Japan, the historians found that well before that year, Korean laborers were being shipped to Aso mines in Kyushu. Precise numbers are unknown, but it was several thousands, especially after a famous strike of 400 miners at an Aso mine in 1932. In the years after 1939, the historians calculate, the Korean numbers in Japan swelled to over a million — their figure is 1,120,000 — although Tokyo’s official government number is only 724,287. The miners’ task was to descend into difficult seams to dig coal shipped exclusively for military use.</p>
<p>They were paid a third less than equivalent Japanese laborers. For the Koreans it amounted to about 50 yen a month, but less than 10 yen after mandatory confiscations for food, clothes, housing and enforced savings for unmarried workers. Young single men were thus fined to prevent them joining the large numbers that frequently escaped, but even then, the “savings” often remained unpaid and just missing from their pockets. All workers toiled underground for 15-hour days, seven days a week, with no holidays at all.</p>
<p>Their “housing” was cramped and dirty dormitory huts with six to seven tiny rooms in each, and single men living and sleeping on one tatami mat, measuring three by six feet. There was no heating and no running water. Lavatories were in earthen pits. A nine-foot high wooden fence topped with electrified barbed wire ringed the outside. So they were prisoners, scrutinized by their keepers, the hated kempei-tai secret “thought” police who terrorized both Japan and its colonies during the fascist period.</p>
<p>But the kempei-tai did keep statistics, which the three historians obtained. They found that in March of 1944, Aso mines had a total of 7,996 Korean laborers of whom 56 had recently died, and a staggering 4,919 had escaped. Across the province of Fukuoka, the total fugitives amounted to 51.3 per cent but at Aso Mines it was 61.5 per cent because conditions there were “even worse”, said Fukudome.</p>
<p>Most workers suffered malnutrition, as they received only a handful of rice a month supplemented by inferior cereals. No meat was provided, for what is a more carnivorous people than the Japanese, who to this day prefer fish.</p>
<p>What of the dead? In the Chikuho region, where the last Aso mine closed in the late 1960s, the Hoko Buddhist temple still stands. Here a lonely priest tends hundreds of nameless graves where the remains of the dead Koreans lie. Elsewhere hundreds more resting places are mostly unmarked, according to the historians.</p>
<p>But this is Confucian country, where the remains of ancestors is a deeply important matter. It is here that international relations have intervened. In 2004 the Seoul parliament voted unanimously, with one exception, to form the Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization Under Japanese Imperialism, headed by its chairman, Dr Jeon Ki-ho, and composed of eight others, including two government ministers. It began inquiries early last year and toured 234 cities in 16 Korean provinces to find survivors or their families, conducted hearings, and took evidence from many witnesses. Dr Jeon also visited Japan to investigate and clarify what he boldly called its “atrocities”.</p>
<p>In what at first appeared to be a political master stroke, the Koreans also reported that they had compiled a list of 2,600 Japanese companies that exploited forced Korean labor, and would have knowledge of the remains of those who died. One firm prominently on the list was Aso Mines, but the company has declined to answer the request. A spokesman says only that the firm could not investigate the whereabouts of the remains, adding in what may have been an accidental truth, that “even if we could”, the records were not available. “There were dozens of mining companies in Kyushu at the time and all used forced labor,” said spokesman Akira Fujimoto.</p>
<p>The commission, which is also investigating the scandal of “comfort women”, the insulting euphemism that describes thousands of Asian women forced into sex slavery to service the imperial warriors of Japan’s army, has yet to issue its promised report. So far Japanese media have almost entirely ignored its proceedings.</p>
<p>A major argument of those seeking redress from a shamefully reluctant Japan, is that while it has made numerous “apologies” of varying sincerity, none amounts to proper atonement. And atonement includes financial compensation of which, it is estimated, Japan has paid one per cent of Germany’s disbursements.</p>
<p>One example of a glib apology came from Taro Aso himself in December last year, on the 40th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and South Korea. He said: “Japan seriously takes to heart the sentiments of South Korean people involving the past and will sincerely deal with various issues originating from the past from a humanitarian standpoint. We believe that in the process of making such efforts, mutual understanding and a relationship of trust for building a future-oriented Japan-South Korea relationship will be reinforced.”</p>
<p>Note that this does not contain the all-important word “apology” and of course there is no mention of atonement or anything on the vital issue of reparations. Here, the argument Japan uses constantly is that the normalization treaty signed in 1965 agreed on what was to be paid — a paltry $800m, but this was mainly for grants and low interest loans. Nothing went to personal payments for injury or harm suffered. Perhaps most important, in 1965 much knowledge about the extent of Japanese atrocities was still unknown. Two examples: Neither its biological warfare attacks in China through its notorious Unit 731, nor the vast army of “comfort women” were public information then.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the world is left with Japan’s foreign minister and his “sincere dealings” over his nation’s unresolved war crimes. From his record there can be little expectation he will help to clear the shame. He eagerly supports the Yasukuni war shrine visits in Tokyo that have caused severe disruptions to its foreign relations with China and the Koreas, in particular, since prime minister Junichiro Koizumi made his fifth trip there last October. Just the other day, Aso made this worse by urging the emperor to visit, something the imperial household has sensibly avoided since the 1970s.</p>
<p>What makes nonsense of claims by Aso and Koizumi is that they are just paying their respects to war dead, like a US president intoning a prayer at Arlington national cemetery. However, Yasukuni shrine is shinto, so the souls of its 14 class A war criminals enshrined there are regarded as “kami”, which means gods. One is wartime premier General Hideki Tojo, who approved Unit 731 among other crimes, and another the general in charge at the Rape of Nanking, where in 1937 Japanese soldiers hideously butchered over 300,000 mainly civilian Chinese in a seven-week bestial rampage.</p>
<p>In the Beijing “normalization” talks with Japan, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea may well raise the question of the enforced laborers, while the Japanese emphasize the abductions. Just two days before the talks began, its media identified a North Korean kidnapper wanted for extradition. The war of propaganda continued.</p>
<p>But for any semblance of what is normal in our modern world — in a nation like Germany for instance — surely there are minimum requirements? Would not one of these be a foreign minister with hands clean of vile associations with a war atrocity, especially one so dangerously close to another kind of abduction, but on a mass scale?</p>
<p>CHRISTOPHER REED is a journalist who lives in Japan. His email <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Foreign Minister Taro Aso’s Dirty Secret | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/02/02/foreign-minister-taro-aso-s-dirty-secret/ | 2006-02-02 | 4 |
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<p>We know. As Tammy points out, you are not the first family anywhere.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/hillary-at-church-here-we-are-not-the-first-family?" type="external">Hillary at church: ‘Here we are not the First Family’</a></p>
<p>While visiting the Methodist Church that she frequented while First Lady with her daughter Chelsea and her husband, former President&#160;Bill Clinton,&#160;Hillary Clinton&#160;stated that while at church, they are “not the First Family.” Clinton stated that she and her family, rather, are “just our family,” according to&#160;ABC News&#160;on Sunday.</p>
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<p>The pastor, J. Philip Wogaman, is a real hoot. He introduced Bill as Hillary’s husband and Chelsea’s dad. The congregation laughed. He even had some advice for Hillary’s flagging campaign—be nicer to the press. Wogaman is known as having a progressive religio-political point of view. He was a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/talk/zforum/wogaman121698.htm" type="external">sympathetic defender</a> of Hillary’s husband during the Lewinisky scandal and one of the three spiritual counsels trotted out for public pacification.</p>
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<p>My impression is that the people who were with him at the prayer breakfast continue to believe in the sincerity of his repentance. There remains considerable dispute about whether he is being “truthful,” but he certainly has acknowledged having misled the American people. I know that there are some who would not be satisfied with any phrasing of that, short of an outright confession of perjury. I think he has probably apologized enough.</p>
<p>From the Clinton family photo album:</p>
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<p>WASHINGTON : President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton arrive at church, Sunday, in Washington. Monday, when President Clinton testifies via satellite before the grand jury, he’ll become the first sitting president to do so. AP/PTI</p>
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<p>Is it a desperate enough time for Hillary to take a conspicuous walk with Bible in hand?</p>
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<p /> | true | http://tammybruce.com/2015/09/hillary-we-are-not-the-first-family-while-at-church.html | 0 |
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<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Elizabeth Harrington</a> October 16, 2013 5:00 am</p>
<p>The federal government is studying how to use Twitter for surveillance on depressed people.</p>
<p>The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) began a study financed by the National Institutes of Health last month that will provide "population level depression monitoring" through the social media site.</p>
<p>The project, "Utilizing Social Media as a Resource for Mental Health Surveillance," is costing taxpayers $82,800.</p>
<p>While Twitter has been used by government agencies, such as the <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/secret-service-asks-americans-report-tweets-concern-you" type="external">Secret Service</a> and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/us-usa-homelandsecurity-websites-idUSTRE80A1RC20120111" type="external">Department of Homeland Security</a>, for national security related monitoring, the project suggests the social network can be used for public health surveillance as well.</p>
<p>"Major depressive disorder is one of the most common debilitating illnesses in the United States, with a lifetime prevalence of 16.2 [percent]," the project <a href="http://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=8510292&amp;icde=18022174&amp;ddparam=&amp;ddvalue=&amp;ddsub=&amp;cr=2&amp;csb=default&amp;cs=ASC" type="external">grant</a> states. "Currently, nationwide mental health surveillance takes the form of large-scale telephone- based surveys."</p>
<p>The project argues that Twitter is preferable to phone surveys on the mentally ill because the site offers a "multilingual source of real time data for public health surveillance."</p>
<p>"We propose using&#160;twitter&#160;and [Natural Language Processing] NLP as a cost-effective and flexible approach to augmenting current telephone- based surveillance methods for population level depression monitoring," the grant said.</p>
<p>The researchers will create algorithms to determine if people are depressed through their tweets, which they hope will serve as a basis for monitoring mental illness. They will also engage with depressed individuals on Twitter directly.</p>
<p>"Developing these algorithms and resources will provide the bedrock for building social media based surveillance systems," the grant said.</p>
<p>The study will also look into ethical and privacy issues for using Twitter to survey the mentally ill.</p>
<p>Mike Conway, Project Scientist in the Division of Behavioral Medicine at UCSD, is leading the study. His <a href="http://users.sdsc.edu/~mconway/" type="external">research interests</a> include "using social media to track health behaviours [sic]."</p>
<p>Conway’s most recent research subject was <a href="http://www.jmir.org/2013/8/e174/" type="external">monitoring</a> tweets about tobacco use.</p>
<p>The project’s "public health relevance statement" states that monitoring Twitter for depressed tweets has "public health at its core." The researchers say the project is innovative because "microblogs have not been used before for mental health surveillance."</p>
<p>The project differs from a 2011 <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077631/Is-Twitter-making-depressed-Study-tweets-reveals-63m-users-unhappy.html" type="external">study</a>, which suggested Twitter itself is making its users unhappy.</p> | Feds Studying How to Use Twitter For ‘Depression Surveillance’ | true | http://freebeacon.com/feds-studying-how-to-use-twitter-for-depression-surveillance/ | 2013-10-16 | 0 |
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<p>By <a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&amp;peopleID=1373" type="external">JOSEF ADALIAN</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&amp;peopleID=1496" type="external">MICHAEL SCHNEIDER</a></p>
<p>The Big Four networks have a new head of scheduling: George W. Bush.</p>
<p>With military action against Iraq now a near-certainty, perhaps as soon as Wednesday, webheads Monday scrambled to adjust their skeds and storylines in preparation for what's expected to be up to two days of wall-to-wall news coverage of the war.</p>
<p>Everything from the opening tipoff of the NCAA tourney to the timetable for the selection of the next "American Idol" promises to be impacted once the bombs are over Baghdad.</p>
<p>ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox all plan to cede programming decisions to their respective news division chiefs when the war starts, letting them determine how long to remain with commercial-free coverage of hostilities. The WB will likely simulcast CNN coverage for a few hours of fighting.</p>
<p>UPN is the sole broadcaster planning to stick with regular programming, though CBS News will produce hourly UPN-branded primetime war updates.</p>
<p>Just how much shuffling will need to be done once the nets revert to entertainment programming depends on when the war actually starts -- and what sort of programs each net had already skedded.</p> | TV forging a battle plan | false | https://poynter.org/news/tv-forging-battle-plan | 2003-03-18 | 2 |
<p>(Reuters) - American International Group Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AIG.N" type="external">AIG.N</a>) on Monday said it would buy reinsurer Validus Holdings Ltd ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VR.N" type="external">VR.N</a>) for $5.56 billion in cash, ending a long period of retrenchment for AIG as new Chief Executive Brian Duperreault plots an expansionist path.</p> FILE PHOTO: A banner for American International Group Inc (AIG) hangs on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York, U.S., on October 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
<p>Duperreault initiated the deal to buy Bermuda-based Validus, which comes four months after U.S. regulators said AIG was no longer “too big to fail,” a designation that carries more stringent government oversight and capital requirements. AIG has dramatically shrunk since the New York-based insurer’s near-death experience during the 2008 financial crisis.</p>
<p>Bermuda’s insurance industry is familiar turf for Duperreault, who was born there and founded and ran the Bermuda-based Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd before heading to AIG.</p>
<p>Validus has four parts, spanning reinsurance, U.S. specialty lines, asset management and a Lloyd’s of London underwriter.</p>
<p>AIG said the deal would boost AIG’s earnings per share and return on equity but did not provide details on cost cuts or projected returns.</p>
<p>“The deal is not predicated on cost cuts or synergies. In fact, it’s the opposite,” Duperreault said in an interview. “The deal hinges around that it puts us in businesses that we are not in now.”</p>
<p>AIG’s $68 per share offer represents a 45.5 percent premium to Validus’ Friday close.</p>
<p>“It’s well worth the price and we’ll get our money’s worth out of it,” Duperreault said. “I’ve thought this through.”</p>
<p>Shares of Validus were trading at $67.32, close to the offer price, in afternoon trade. AIG shares were down nearly 1 percent.</p>
<p>The acquisition is AIG’s largest since the financial crisis, when the insurer received a $182 billion bailout, based on the U.S. government’s belief that an AIG failure would cause more damage to the economy than using public money to keep it afloat, a concept known as “too big to fail.” AIG paid off its last debt to the U.S. government at the end of 2012.</p>
<p>The deal marks AIG’s reentry into the Lloyd’s insurance market, where underwriters get access to a wide variety of international insurance and reinsurance business, often in complex or hard-to-cover areas, which can be risky but also offers more profit potential.</p>
<p>“I was really thrilled to see the news,” Lloyd’s of London Chief Executive Officer Inga Beale said in an interview. “We are delighted to have any of these big reputable players as part of Lloyd’s.”</p>
<p>AIG’s deal will also expand its reach in other areas such as the reinsurance market at a time when the insurer, like its rivals, is facing stiff pricing pressure. Validus Re, a major Validus business, sells property-casualty reinsurance for disasters such as hurricanes.</p> FILE PHOTO: American International Group Inc. (AIG) Chief Executive Officer Brian Duperreault seen at AIG headquarters on the day of the companyÕs 2017 annual shareholder meeting in New York, U.S., June 28, 2017. REUTERS/Suzanne Barlyn/File Photo
<p>Other Validus businesses include AlphaCat, which manages $3.2 billion on behalf of clients who invest in insurance-linked securities products, a repackaging of insurance risk as debt that is often linked to natural catastrophes.</p>
<p>The deal will also add crop insurance to AIG’s product lineup.</p> ‘LIKE A GLOVE’
<p>“I particularly like the reinsurance business as additive to what we do. There are a lot pieces to this company that fit us like a glove,” Duperreault said on a conference call with analysts.</p>
<p>Reinsurers play an important role in the financial industry by assuming risks that are either too large or too unpredictable for their insurance clients to take on their own.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AIG.N" type="external">American International Group Inc</a> 54.52 AIG.N New York Stock Exchange -- (--%) AIG.N VR.N
<p>“We would be buyers (of AIG) as we focus on the accretion from this transaction, the strong underlying margins VR brings and the fact that AIG will still have excess capital after this deal is done,” Wells Fargo Securities analyst Elyse Greenspan said in a note.</p>
<p>AIG revenue fell in three of the past four quarters and the company has been plagued by losses related to prior-year accident claims.</p>
<p>Duperreault, who replaced Peter Hancock last year, is seen as a turnaround expert and has promised to streamline AIG’s operations and boost profitability.</p>
<p>As his first major restructuring action since taking over, Duperreault reorganized AIG into three new units. The new structure is expected to reflect in the company’s fourth-quarter results on Feb. 8.</p>
<p>The Validus deal is expected to close in mid-2018.</p>
<p>Citigroup Global Markets Inc, Perella Weinberg Partners LP and Debevoise &amp; Plimpton LLP advised AIG. Willkie Farr &amp; Gallagher LLP represented Perella as financial advisor to AIG in this transaction. Validus was advised by J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &amp; Flom LLP.</p>
<p>Reporting by Nikhil Subba and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh, Frances Kerry and Will Dunham</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fund managers have begun to ditch so-called FANG stocks that powered the U.S. stock market to record highs in January and are slowly rotating into commodity-related shares and other value stocks which typically outperform in late-cycle recoveries.</p>
<p>Portfolio managers holding shares of Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Netflix Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>), and Google-parent Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) say they are increasingly concerned that the data scandal that has sent shares of Facebook down nearly 15 percent year-to-date will spill over into all of the FANG stocks, imperiling the broad market’s momentum at a time when there are no clear companies or sectors to take their place.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, an index which tracks the FANG stocks along with six other mega-cap technology stocks tumbled 6.3 percent, the biggest decline since September 2014.</p>
<p>Facebook rose as much as 1.5 percent in early trading Wednesday before falling into the red, one day after sources told Reuters that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before Congress. Amazon.com dropped 4 percent, while Netflix fell 5 percent. Google-parent Alphabet was slightly positive.</p>
<p>“There are legitimate concerns over the business models of these companies, and I expect that they will be ironed out in legislation” that will likely eat into their profit margins, said Michael Cuggino, a portfolio manager of the $17-billion Permanent Portfolio funds.</p>
<p>Cuggino, who would not say whether he was selling any of his shares in Facebook, said that commodity and industrial stocks look more attractive now given rising inflation and continued global economic growth.</p>
<p>Each FANG company rose more than 33 percent last year, helping power the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> to a nearly 20-percent gain. Yet those gains have left the broad S&amp;P 500 trading at a high trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 21.7, leaving it overpriced despite a boost to margins from the Republican-led corporate tax cut at the end of 2017.</p>
<p>“Rising volatility and changing market leadership are now pointing towards the possible conclusion that the stock market peaked in late January 2018,” said Douglas Kass, president of Seabreeze Capital Management.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 is now down 2.2 percent for the year, and down nearly 10 percent below the high of 2872.87 it reached on Jan. 26.</p> Slideshow (2 Images) UNFRIENDED
<p>Fund managers say that the high valuation of FANG stocks and the likelihood of regulation are pushing them into traditional value stocks like energy and defense companies.</p>
<p>Connor Browne, a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, said that he sold his shares of Netflix and Amazon.com last year after both companies blew through his price targets. He used those gains instead to increase positions in energy stocks such as pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners LP ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EPD.N" type="external">EPD.N</a>) and crude oil shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=OSG.N" type="external">OSG.N</a>) that stand to benefit from the recovery in the price of oil.</p>
<p>“We noticed that in all of this excitement over the FANGs taking over the world, there are parts of the economy that seem really out of favor and offer more compelling opportunities,” he said.</p>
<p>Even after the selloff, FANG stocks continue to trade at higher valuations than the broad market. Netflix trades at a P/E of 210 and Amazon.com trades at a P/E of 327. Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet, both of which have been directly linked with privacy concerns, now trade at valuations near 52-week lows.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 153.03 FB.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) FB.O AMZN.O NFLX.O GOOGL.O .SPX
<p>The overhang of increased government oversight has sunk the fortunes of large technology companies in the past. Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) reached a settlement in an antitrust case with the Department of Justice in 2002 that lasted until 2011, contributing to a long period of underperformance that kept the stock below the high it reached in 1999 until 2016. Since then, the stock is up nearly 60 percent on the strength of its cloud-based services.</p>
<p>Margaret Patel, a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds, said that she has been adding to defense stocks like Raytheon Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RTN.N" type="external">RTN.N</a>) that should benefit from increasing military spending in both the U.S. and overseas. At the same time, she is increasing her exposure of non-FANG technology stocks like Adobe Systems Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ADBE.O" type="external">ADBE.O</a>) and Microsoft that have been hurt by the recent sell-off in the sector.</p>
<p>“It’s very hard to see another sector that still has all the fundamental drivers for growing much faster than any other sector,” she said.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) shares fell almost 5 percent on Wednesday, wiping more than $30 billion off its market value, after news website Axios reported that U.S. President Donald Trump is obsessed with the world’s largest online retailer and wants to rein in its growing power.</p> The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
<p>Trump has talked about using antitrust law to “go after” the company because he is worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out of business by Amazon, Axios reported, citing five sources it said had discussed the issue with him.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-amazon-com-trump/no-u-s-policy-changes-on-amazon-at-the-moment-white-house-official-idUSKBN1H42IY" type="external">No U.S. policy changes on Amazon at the moment: White House official</a>
<p>Trump also wants to change Amazon’s tax treatment, the Axios report said, an issue the president raised publicly last year when he called for an internet tax for online retailers, even though Amazon already collects sales tax on items it sells direct to customers.</p>
<p>“The president has said many times before he’s always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses and this is no different,” said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, when asked about the Axios report. “He’s always going to look at different ways, but there aren’t any specific policies on the table at this time.”</p>
<p>Trump has been complaining about Amazon in private, believing the company has become too powerful, another administration official confirmed to Reuters.</p>
<p>The official said Trump links this to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos’ private ownership of the Washington Post, which he has called “fake news” for its critical coverage of his administration. Trump regards the newspaper as a mouthpiece for Bezos’ business interests, calling it #AmazonWashingtonPost on Twitter.</p> The logo of the web service Amazon is pictured in this June 8, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/Illustration
<p>Amazon did not reply to a request for comment on the Axios report.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1431.42 AMZN.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) AMZN.O FB.O FAVORITE TARGET
<p>Trump has criticized Amazon over taxes and jobs in the past, without offering evidence. The president urging the use of antitrust law to selectively thwart a company would be unprecedented, according to Jeffrey Jacobovitz of the law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP.</p>
<p>Amazon’s stock, which fell as low as $1,386.17 on Wednesday, was last down 4.6 percent at $1,427.83. The shares have nearly quadrupled over the last three years.</p>
<p>Tech stocks have been under pressure after Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) acknowledged this month that user data had been improperly harvested by a consultancy.</p>
<p>“With Facebook and regulatory worries, the last thing nervous tech investors wanted to see was news that Trump is targeting Bezos and Amazon over the coming months as this remains a lingering cloud over the stock and heightens the risk profile in the eyes of the Street,” GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Diane Bartz and Amanda Becker in Washington; Sinead Carew in New York; writing by Chris Sanders; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares fell sharply again on Wednesday, reeling from a credit downgrade of the electric car maker by Moody’s Investors Service, federal probes of a fatal crash and concerns about Model 3 production.</p>
<p>Shares tumbled 9 percent before ending down 7.7 percent at $257.78. On Tuesday, Tesla tumbled 8.2 percent to its lowest close in almost a year after the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened a field investigation into a fatal crash and vehicle fire in California on March 23.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, a second federal regulator, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), said it was sending a team to California to investigate the crash.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-tesla-stock-options/extreme-bearish-options-on-tesla-making-money-as-stock-dives-idUSKBN1H434B" type="external">Extreme bearish options on Tesla making money as stock dives</a>
<a href="/article/us-tesla-crash/u-s-auto-safety-agency-to-probe-fatal-tesla-california-crash-idUSKBN1H42X1" type="external">U.S. auto safety agency to probe fatal Tesla California crash</a>
<p>Late on Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Tesla’s credit rating to B3 from B2, citing “the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3 electric vehicle.” It also noted “liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds.”</p>
<p>Tesla has $230 million in convertible bonds maturing in November 2018 and $920 million in March 2019.</p>
<p>Moody’s said its negative outlook “reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”</p>
<p>It said Tesla’s weekly production target is now 2,500 Model 3 vehicles by the end of March, down sharply from its year-earlier target of 5,000 per week by the end of 2017. Tesla’s weekly target for the end of June is 5,000.</p>
<p>Tesla declined to comment on the downgrade. The company plans to provide an update on Model 3 production next week.</p>
<p>Tesla shares have experienced big swings in the past, as worries about losses have vied with enthusiasm for Chief Executive Elon Musk’s ambitious plans.</p>
<p>The sell-off has left Tesla’s stock market value at $44 billion, below General Motors Co’s $49 billion. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla has at times had a larger market value than GM, the largest U.S. automaker by vehicle sales.</p> A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton, just outside London, Britain, February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
<p>Since the end of February, the median analyst price target for Tesla has dipped by $10 to $356, about 37 percent higher than Wednesday’s price, according to Thomson Reuters data. Nomura Securities analyst Romit Shah has the highest Tesla price target, $500, or nearly double the current price. All the targets were set before the March 23 crash.</p>
<p>In last week’s accident in which the Tesla struck a highway median, it was unclear if the vehicle’s automated control system called Autopilot was driving, the NTSB and police said.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old driver of the Tesla died at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash.</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, Tesla said in a blog post it does “not yet know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash,” but added that data shows Tesla owners have driven the same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged “roughly 85,000 times ... and there has never been an accident that we know of.” The statement did not say if the crashed vehicle was in Autopilot mode.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Alexandria Sage and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | AIG to buy reinsurer Validus for $5.56 billion FANG stocks' bite has U.S. fund managers looking for alternatives Amazon shares fall after report Trump wants to curb its power Tesla shares dive again, stung by fatal crash, credit downgrade | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-validus-m-a-aig/aig-to-buy-reinsurer-validus-for-556-billion-idUSKBN1FB1FP | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
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<p>SALT LAKE CITY — The conference shuffle has restarted.</p>
<p>Or, at least, there are invitations out there waiting for a response.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Mountain West Conference announced on Wednesday that it has invited Fresno State and Nevada of the Western Athletic Conference to leave the WAC for the MWC. The Mountain West is losing Utah — and possibly BYU — next season but gaining Boise State, another WAC school.</p>
<p>The MWC announcement came just minutes after league member BYU acknowledged reports that the Cougars could be going independent in football and joining the WAC in all other sports. The BYU statement stopped well short of confirming any of the reports, saying only that the school will explore its options.</p>
<p>Milt Glick, the school president at Nevada, issued a statement saying the Wolf Pack would explore the Mountain West invitation.</p>
<p>“We are seriously considering the invitation, and do so with the best interests of our athletics program, University, community and Wolf Pack fans as our priority,” Glick said.</p>
<p>Fresno State president John D. Welty issued a remarkably similar statement, adding that the Bulldogs were honored by the invitation and would consider it.</p>
<p>WAC commissioner Karl Benson was out of the office Wednesday and did not immediately return calls and e-mails seeking comment.</p>
<p>MWC commissioner Craig Thompson was also unavailable for comment on what may or may not be another round of the conference shuffle.</p>
<p>The Mountain West lured Boise State in early June, but learned less than a week later that Utah was leaping west to a higher-profile spot in the Pac-10 along with Colorado. So the Pac-10 becomes 12 and the Big 12, which also lost Nebraska to the Big Ten, settled at 10 members when Texas agreed to stay and keep the remaining parts of the league intact.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>BYU, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was left out of the various realignments and athletic director Tom Holmoe said last month that going independent was an option the Cougars would consider. BYU already has its own television network — BYU-TV — which would get the Cougars out of having to share the Mountain West’s TV network with the league’s other eight members.</p>
<p>“We have a national base. We can go all over the country and people can see that,” Holmoe told reporters last month. “That is a very important thing to us right now — exposure.”</p>
<p>The Salt Lake Tribune published Holmoe’s comments on Wednesday after the rumors that the Cougars were going back to the WAC surfaced, then erupted when somebody apparently hacked Colorado State’s athletics Twitter account and said an announcement was imminent.</p>
<p>The Tribune, citing an unidentified WAC source, said BYU’s move was awaiting approval of church leaders. A church spokeswoman referred calls back to BYU, which released a brief statement late in the day after media relations workers were bombarded with calls and e-mail.</p>
<p>The statement did nothing to tone down speculation on whether conference realignment was really back again two months after it appeared settled for at least a little while.</p>
<p>“BYU has been reviewing, and will continue to explore, every option to advance its athletic program,” the statement read. “At this point, BYU has no further comment.”</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Josh Dubow in San Francisco and Scott Sonner in Reno contributed to this report.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Mountain West Conference Invites Fresno St., Nevada | false | https://abqjournal.com/8935/mountain-west-conference-invites-fresno-st-nevada.html | 2 |
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<p>Albuquerque’s Diego Sanchez, who faces England’s Ross Pearson Saturday night in a featured fight on UFC Fight Night Albuquerque at Tingley Coliseum, weighs in Friday afternoon to cheers from his hometown fans.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | UFC: Diego weighs in | false | https://abqjournal.com/411861/ufc-diego-weighs-in.html | 2 |
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<p>Drug dealer. Rapper. Businessman. Cultural icon. Jay-Z has come a long way from the gritty streets of New York City. Now, he is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/opinion/jay-z-meek-mill-probation.html?_r=0" type="external">writing op-ed articles</a> for The New York Times and making documentaries that <a href="http://deadline.com/2017/12/jay-z-trayvon-martin-snoop-dogg-george-zimmerman-rest-in-power-the-trayvon-martin-story-paramount-network-weinstein-1202228921/" type="external">raise awareness of social injustice</a>.</p>
<p>Could politics be next for the man who was born <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay-Z" type="external">Shawn Carter</a> and once said, “I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of not trying”?</p>
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<p>At 48, Jay-Z is worth $800 million yet understands poverty. He grew up in Brooklyn’s drug-infested Marcy Projects and survived. He is a family man who cheated on his wife and asked for forgiveness, then went into therapy to heal himself and his relationship in public. His mom is a lesbian, and they are good friends.</p>
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<p>Jay-Z is not who you think he is. He has money, power and compassion. He has been at war and found peace. He’s media savvy and fearless. He understands America and can relate to any American. He may be just who—and what—America needs to heal from 400 years of suffering and <a href="" type="internal">bring peace to the world</a>.</p>
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<p />
<p>Jay-Z is America. And he might be able to wake up the masses.</p>
<p>“The goal is not to be successful and famous. That’s not the goal,” Jay-Z said of being black in America during a recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/29/t-magazine/jay-z-dean-baquet-interview.html" type="external">New York Times interview</a> with Dean Baquet, the paper’s executive editor. “The goal is, if you have a specific God-given ability, is to live your life out through that. One. And two, we have a responsibility to push the conversation forward until we’re all equal. Till we’re all equal in this place. Because until everyone’s free, no one’s free, and that’s just a fact.”</p>
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<p />
<p>Jay-Z has been in the game a long time. He is one of the most successful musicians of all time, selling over 100 million records and winning 21 Grammy Awards. But unlike some U.S. leaders, his worldview has grown to be <a href="https://www.bet.com/music/2017/12/19/jay-z-444-essay.html" type="external">grounded in humility</a>. Now, he has young children and wants a <a href="https://www.bet.com/music/2017/12/06/jay-z-loses-beyonce-blue-ivy.html" type="external">better future for them and future generations</a>.</p>
<p>“And it’s just certain tools that you would hope for your child to have,” he explains. “You know, like, again, fairness and compassion and empathy and a loving heart. And those things translate in any environment. Those are the main base things that you want—well, for me, I would want my child to have. You know? Treat people as they are, no matter who they are, no matter where they sit in the world, not to, like, be super nice to someone at a high position or mean to someone who they’ve deemed to be below them. I can’t buy you love, I can’t show it to you. I can show you affection and I can, you know, I can express love, but I can’t put it in your hand. I can’t put compassion in your hand. I can’t show you that. So the most beautiful things are things that are invisible. That’s where the important things lie.”</p>
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<p>As he approaches 50, Jay-Z continues to stay relevant and evolve. He <a href="https://apnews.com/5591494bee3e44789fab4ef0856b7c58" type="external">leads the 2018 Grammy nominations</a> with eight, as rap and R&amp;B take center stage at the annual celebration of music.</p>
<p>The world needs unifying voices of compassion and healing now more than ever. Jay-Z’s heart and soul may be able help America find its humanity.</p>
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<p />
<p>Jay-Z is fair in his assessment of Barack Obama and believes America’s first black president lived up to expectations.</p>
<p>“Yes, because all he could do was the best he can do. He’s not a superhero,” Jay-Z said of Obama, during his conversation with Baquet. “And it’s unfair to place unfulfillable expectations on this man just because of his color. You’re actually doing the opposite. It’s like, what do you think is gonna happen? He’s there for eight years. And he has to undo what 43 presidents have done. In eight years. That’s not fair.”</p>
<p>That response shows Jay-Z has masterful diplomatic skills. And if a Hollywood movie actor like Ronald Reagan or a reality TV show conman like Donald Trump can be president of the United States, there’s no reason a poet and humanist like Jay-Z couldn’t sit in the Oval Office and call the White House home.</p>
<p>“Usually, when things are darkest, light is on its way,” he said of the current state of America, in an interview with BBC Radio 1. “I am not fearful. I believe that we are resilient. We’ve been, especially us as black people, especially the culture, we’ve been through so much more than this guy [Donald Trump]. You know, I’m looking at him, like this is a joke. … He’s not a very sophisticated man, especially when it comes to the ideas. … Until everyone is free, no one is free.”</p>
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<p />
<p>It does not matter that Jay-Z has no prior government experience. All that matters is if he could put more money in the paychecks of the 99 percent, make the trains work safely, create a more fair and just country, and ensure a sustainable planet.</p>
<p>Some media outlets have <a href="http://torontosun.com/2016/11/17/jay-z-to-run-for-president-in-2020/wcm/bf80393e-de97-45e2-807f-80efa2dded14" type="external">speculated about a Jay-Z candidacy</a>, and one congressman (Andre Carson from Indiana) even is <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2017/12/01/jay-z-for-president-congressman-andre-carson/" type="external">urging him to run</a> and make Trump a one-term president.</p>
<p>In fact, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter might do the job better than anyone in history.</p>
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<p />
<p>Jay-Z in 2020?</p>
<p>Only in America.</p>
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<p />
<p><a href="http://www.poll-maker.com/" type="external">PollMaker</a></p>
<p /> | Could Politics Be in Jay-Z's Future? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/jay-z-president-united-states/ | 2017-12-20 | 4 |
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<p>There is no knowing without believing, and believing is the way to knowing...</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It’s hard to believe, but the S&amp;P 500 remains relatively flat week-to-date, month-to-date, quarter-to-date, year-to-date, and really has been on auto-pilot since the end of 2014! With U.S. 10-year Treasury yields 80 basis points (bps) lower and gold $140 higher as compared to the end of 2014, how many would guess rightly that the stock market would today – after two years – be languishing around unchanged?</p>
<p>Currently, markets are waving off dust that is far from settled including: another earnings season, middling worldwide growth, exhausted monetary policy measures, political instability and very aggressive 2017 earnings assumptions. Are investors scared?&#160; Should investors be scared? Or, have they obtusely preferred not to fall for the “banana in the tailpipe” trick again in that similar to the angst of August 2015 (Chinese surprise currency devaluation) or February 2016 (recession fears), the latest -5.7% two-day cratering of the market (Brexit) was met with immense fervor, pulling the S&amp;P 500 back to the same ledge it was perched on for most of June.</p>
<p>The most recent V-shape snap-backs could mean something or absolutely nothing. Is the framework for the equity markets perfect? No! Particularly compelling? No! Perhaps it’s nothing other than a migration away from the seven-year tendency for investors to conflate short-lived economic disruptions with real, granular changes in the fundamentals. In other words, perhaps we’ve stopped comparing every event to Lehman Brothers!</p>
<p>There is no doubt the present marketplace is riddled with the stickiness of selection and the command of preference. But for those willing to receive it, our current state of affairs can be a long-lasting and fruitful gift. No doubt the obstacles often stand taller than we realize and our best words fall short.</p>
<p>Here are some random thoughts to help encourage investors through our current market confusion.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Causation Not Correlation</p>
<p>Search for causation, not simply correlation. Example: As beer sales increase, the rate of drowning deaths increases sharply.&#160; Therefore, beer drinking causes drowning. This is correlation, not causation. On the other hand, if S&amp;P 500 2017 earnings-per-share estimates drop from $130 to $110, then the stock market should correct. The fact that lower earnings-per-share causes an effect is causation!</p>
<p>Watch Not Volatility But Volatilities Vigor</p>
<p>Both the intensity and the frequency of investors’ changing beliefs about market fundamentals will directly affect stock market volatility. When investors’ sense of what the future holds is in flux, stock prices and option volatility will change rapidly, frequently, and significantly. This lesson is not necessarily intuitive, since one might expect uncertainty to generate only tentative volatility oscillations rather than huge waves of selling. However, such irrational behavior is what causes an investor to be convinced on Monday that the world is ending and by Friday to be equally convinced that the world has weathered the storm.</p>
<p>Don’t Look In The Rear-View Mirror</p>
<p>The next wave of crises is sure to be different from the last. Money is made and money is lost in crises. Those who lose money typically set up safety measures to avoid incurring loss in the same fashion twice. As institutions evolve, those who profit during crises and other periods of volatility look elsewhere for weak points. From this simple dynamic, it follows that the next series of financial crises will be distinctive and different from previous debacles.</p>
<p>Verify And Don’t Trust</p>
<p>Don’t automatically trust the person on financial television (CEO, CIO, hedge fund guru, etc.) just because he or she is on television. If they are so smart, why do they need so badly to tell you? Similarly, be extra wary of those in media who relish their good calls and dismiss the bad ones. In my January 4, 2016 column, <a href="" type="internal">Warning about Tomorrow: A 2016 Market Forecast Opens a New Window.</a>, I can bask in my boldness to depart from consensus in calling for a lower U.S. dollar and higher gold prices. Yet somehow I can simultaneously manage to sweep my call for higher 10-year Treasury rates under the rug.</p>
<p>What seems to be happening in our investing media culture is a falling apart, a disconnection between the subjective and objective poles.&#160; We have an illusion – a type of objectivity being spewed, of a kind of knowledge of what we call the “facts” which involves no personal commitment, no risk of being wrong, something which consumers have merely to accept without question. This is a mark of a tragic loss of nerve and respect in our current investing culture. To me it is a preliminary symptom of investor insanity and it causes me to dread what lies ahead.</p> | Seek Don't Hide | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/08/seek-dont-hide.html | 2016-07-08 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When it comes to charter schools, autonomy and accountability must go hand-in-hand, said Rick Hess, education author and pundit, who made a stop in Albuquerque Tuesday.</p>
<p>Hess shared his thoughts on charter schools and what they can mean for the nation’s education system during a noon-hour talk at the Marriott Pyramid hosted by the Rio Grande Foundation.</p>
<p>A supporter of charter schools, Hess said the charter model works because schools are given freedom to try new ways of teaching and successful schools are allowed to keep working. But he said it’s equally important that poor-performing charter schools are weeded out.</p>
<p>“It’s a misnomer to suggest all charters are inherently better,” than traditional schools, Hess said, adding it is the role of authorizes to make sure they’re producing good results. In New Mexico, charter schools are either authorized by the state or by local school districts.</p>
<p>For more on Hess’ talk see tomorrow’s edition.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Education pundit Rick Hess discusses charter schools during ABQ visit | false | https://abqjournal.com/441146/441146.html | 2 |
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<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>Chip and Joanna Gaines have become HGTV superstars flipping homes in Waco, Texas on their popular show “Fixer Uppers” but their pastor Jimmy Seibert’s views on same-sex marriage have left a big question mark around the couple’s LGBT views.</p>
<p>In a piece written for <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/chip-and-joanna-gaines-church-same-sex-marriage?utm_term=.ka92kBPoN#.xlbAPEez2" type="external">BuzzFeed</a> by Kate Arthur, the Gainses are criticized for their association with Seibert, a pastor at Antioch Community Church with staunch anti-LGBT views.</p>
<p>Seibert has been open in his belief that marriage between anyone other than a man and a woman is “wrong” and called the Supreme Court’s <a href="https://vimeo.com/132144294" type="external">decision</a> to legalize same-sex marriage “a clear biblical admonition.” Seibert has also said he considers the Gainses “dear friends.”</p>
<p>The couple’s stance on LGBT issues are unclear, although they have always been vocal about the importance of their faith. In the film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA7Qaj-3pJw&amp;t=229s" type="external">“I am Second”</a>they discuss how religion has played a large role in their relationship, family and business.</p>
<p>The Gainses&#160;have not responded directly to the controversy, but Chip did send a series of tweets on Thursday morning possibly addressing the story.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">BuzzFeed</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chip Gaines</a> <a href="" type="internal">Fixer Uppers</a> <a href="" type="internal">HGTV</a> <a href="" type="internal">Joanna Gaines</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kate Arthur</a></p> | Chip and Joanna Gaines under fire for church’s anti-LGBT views | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/12/01/chip-joanna-gaines-fire-churchs-anti-lgbt-views/ | 3 |
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<p>We’ve given you the <a href="/news/feature/WHcoffee.html" type="external">coffees</a> and the <a href="/news/feature/1997/03/WHguests_intro.html" type="external">sleep-overs</a>, and now, to complete the package tour (food, lodging and travel), the MoJo Wire presents another Web exclusive: the searchable database of White House flights taken by financial supporters of Clinton and Gore.</p>
<p>Throughout the 1995-96 campaign season, Air Force One criss-crossed the country shuttling the president from one canned stump speech (and fundraiser) to another, while Air Force Two did the same for Al Gore. Turns out, a few <a href="/cgi-bin/Database_search/db_search.cgi?setup_file=airforce.setup&amp;su%20bmit_search=yes&amp;passenger=Bernard+and+Audre+Rapoport" type="external">big spenders</a> got to hitch a ride: This month the White House released a list of 56 fliers who gave at least $5,000 to the Democratic National Committee or raised at least $25,000 for the DNC or the Clinton/Gore campaign.</p>
<p>Who were the lucky travelers? Well, 39 of the 63 went to <a href="/news_wire/WHcoffee.html" type="external">White House coffees</a>, and eight appear on this year’s <a href="/coinop_congress/97mojo_400/mojo_400.html" type="external">MoJo 400</a>. Some were DNC finance staff and other political operatives, including our No. 2 frequent flier, <a href="/news/special_reports/coinop_congress/97mojo_400/moss.html" type="external">Terry McAuliffe</a>.</p>
<p>Curious about our <a href="/cgi-bin/Database_search/db_search.cgi?setup_file=airforce.setup&amp;su%20bmit_search=yes&amp;passenger=Maurice+Tempelsman" type="external">“frequent-flier” mileage winner</a>" Hint: He hitched a ride all the way to Moscow, he’s a diamond dealer, and he’s an old friend of both Jackie O and ailing Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Wondering who rubbed elbows with <a href="http://www.hormel.com/" type="external">Spam</a> heir James Hormel on a <a href="/cgi-bin/Database_search/db_search.cgi?setup_file=airforce.setup&amp;su%20bmit_search=yes&amp;date=06/22/95" type="external">June 22, 1995 flight</a> from San Francisco to Portland" Find out here. Or just <a href="/cgi-bin/Database_search/db_search.cgi?setup_file=airforce.setup&amp;su%20bmit_search=yes&amp;sort_by=8" type="external">browse the list</a> and imagine yourself sipping, napping and jetting through friendly skies — with America’s elite campaign contributors.</p>
<p /> | Frequent Fliers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1997/04/frequent-fliers/ | 1997-04-28 | 4 |
<p>On Friday, Republicans in the House will vote for the 40th time to repeal the Affordable Care Act, wasting another day and thousands of taxpayer dollars on a bill that has no chance of becoming law.</p>
<p>In the 36 months that Republicans have been in control of the House, they have spent nearly 100 hours and more than $50 million in taxpayer funding on repeal votes. When it comes to legislation other than repeal measures, they haven’t <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/07/17/the-least-productive-congress-ever/" type="external">gotten much done</a>.</p>
<p>Among those who will vote to take away health insurance coverage from millions of Americans are Republican representatives whose constituents are actually the most likely to lack health care. An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Center for American Progress Action Fund found that there are 30 counties which rank among the nation’s worst in five key health insurance factors. Of those, 20 are represented by Republicans who have voted a combined 589 times to repeal Obamacare.</p>
<p>Here’s a breakdown of that data:</p>
<p>On Friday afternoon, the House <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/363335014173265920/photo/1" type="external">passed</a> the “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act” by a 232–185 vote.</p> | Many Of The Counties Most In Need Of Obamacare Are Represented By Republicans Who Want To Repeal It | true | http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/08/02/2405451/counties-most-in-need-obamacare/ | 2013-08-02 | 4 |
<p />
<p><a href="/news/special_reports/1996/05/tp2.html" type="external">Part 2</a> | <a href="/mother_jones/MJ96/tp3.html" type="external">Part 3</a> | <a href="/mother_jones/MJ96/qt.html" type="external">QuickTime clips</a></p>
<p>(Editor’s Note: In March 1994, ABC killed the “Turning Point” documentary that follows. ABC Executive Vice President Paul Friedman called “Tobacco Under Fire” a “boring” rehash. We disagree. Even two years later, the tape presents significant news breaks. The MoJo Wire invites you to decide yourself.)</p>
<p />
<p>[fade in: Camel Comedy Caravan presents the Ed Wynn show]</p>
<p>Meredith Vieira, Narrator: For cigarettes it’s always been the sell that mattered most.</p>
<p />
<p>[commercial] It’s important that you get all the pleasure possible from your cigarette, so have a Camel.</p>
<p>[song] [TV commercial montage starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Ronald Reagan, Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble]</p>
<p>[Marlboro commercial]</p>
<p>Narrator: Cigarette smoking is not a natural act. You’ve got to learn to smoke.</p>
<p />
<p>[commercial] Take a puff. It’s springtime, it’s springtime, it’s springtime.</p>
<p>Janice Dupree: I felt like my lungs was on fire.</p>
<p />
<p>[commercial] Fine tobacco.</p>
<p>Dupree: And I got nauseous.</p>
<p />
<p>[commercial] Fine, light, naturally mild tobacco.</p>
<p>Dupree: That’s your body rejecting it right there.</p>
<p>[commercial] That gives you smoothness and mildness and never a rough puff.</p>
<p>[song] [print ad that reads: “You’re safer smoking Philip Morris. . .”</p>
<p>Narrator: The tobacco industry’s biggest challenge has always been convincing people it’s good to smoke.</p>
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<p>[commercial] So good, good, good.</p>
<p>[commercial] According to a recent nationwide survey, more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.</p>
<p>Dupree: They said this was good and that it’s okay if you do it; and it was a lie. It’s no good, it’s poison, and you’ll die eventually if you keep doing it.</p>
<p>Narrator: Janice Dupree is 36 years old. She suffers from kidney and heart disease. She first lit up at age 13, and even though her doctors say cigarettes are making her condition worse, she still smokes.</p>
<p>Dupree: It’s not a question of whether it’s right or wrong or whether it’s killing you or not, you just do it.</p>
<p>Narrator: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Hospital, New York. It’s full of people like Janice who bought the tobacco industry’s line. For many it’s their last stop as a smoker. Yet even here the addiction is greater than the disease. Every day cancer patients make their way outside for a nicotine fix.</p>
<p>Woman: When I didn’t have a cigarette at times, I just, I took it. But my God, it’s like worse than a drug addict.</p>
<p>Narrator: Now that we know that smoking-related disease killed more than 400,000 Americans last year, the tobacco industry is under fire as never before, and it’s fighting for its life too. For the cigarette companies to survive, they must replace those smokers who quit or die. So the recruitment never stops.</p>
<p>Richard Schraeder: And who are the most likely targets? It’s kids. Ninety percent of all smokers begin smoking before the age of 18. Half of all new smokers begin smoking before they’re 13. The new smoker is a kid, sometimes not even a teenager, and those kids are the targets of the most sophisticated and the most manipulative advertising campaign we’ve seen by a corporation–the tobacco industry.</p>
<p>Narrator: Richard Schraeder, a consumer activist, has studied the marketing techniques of the tobacco industry.</p>
<p>Schraeder: Kids smoke because of peer pressure; they smoke because they want to be cool.</p>
<p />
<p>[Kool billboard]</p>
<p>Schraeder: Cigarettes will make you successful.</p>
<p />
<p>[Kool billboard]</p>
<p>Schraeder: Cigarettes will make you popular.</p>
<p />
<p>[Kool billboard]</p>
<p>Schraeder: They used all the symbols and all the codes that really matter and push the buttons of the constituency they’re trying to get, and in this case it’s teenage kids.</p>
<p>Narrator: Schraeder led a successful fight in New York City to pass the toughest law in the nation, designed to keep kids out of Marlboro Country–and with good reason. Two thousand New Yorkers die every year from violent crimes, but smoking kills 14,000.</p>
<p />
<p>[City inspector and girl walking down the street]</p>
<p>Narrator: You could mistake this couple for father and daughter, but they are actually an undercover law enforcement team. Their job is to crack down on the city’s number one killer, and they’re about to make a bust.</p>
<p />
<p>[Girl to shop clerk] “Hi, can I have a pack of Newports.”</p>
<p>Narrator: The law prohibits the sale of tobacco to anyone under age 18. Wendy is only 13.</p>
<p />
<p>[Inspector to shop clerk] “City Inspector, I’m with Consumer Affairs.”</p>
<p>Narrator: If you sell cigarettes to a minor in New York City, it can cost you. The inspectors can fine violators as much as $1,000, but the stings haven’t solved the problem. Kids are still sold cigarettes 90 percent of the time.</p>
<p>[storekeeper] “What else you want? That’s it.”</p>
<p>Narrator: The new law also forced cigarette ads from city property, like phone booths. This one was removed. But that didn’t stop Joe Camel; his face adorns private property all over the city. Joe Camel is bigger than any law.</p>
<p>Schraeder: They use this camel on a surfboard; they use the camel shooting pool; they use the camel listening to rock music. Before Joe Camel, only 1 percent of consumers under the age of 18 bought Camel cigarettes. A year after saturation of Joe Camel commercials, 33 percent of those consumers under 18 years old bought Camel cigarettes. It’s been profoundly successful.</p>
<p>Narrator: But when R.J. Reynolds Tobacco was first accused of targeting children with Joe Camel, spokesman Tom Griscom denied it.</p>
<p>Griscom: Our market is not kids; our market is trying to reach 35 million smokers who smoke another brand.</p>
<p>Narrator: The emergence of old Joe as a cult figure has been a bonanza for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. Industry observers say that success is forcing the nation’s largest cigarette company, Philip Morris, to defend the number one brand among teenagers, Marlboro. “The Marlboro Adventure Team” is Philip Morris’ answer to Joe Camel–a fleet of Marlboro vans from coast-to-coast, driven by young, enthusiastic workers. The vans are chock-full of free gifts, from baseball caps to camping gear–free, that is, if you buy enough Marlboros. It is one of the most expensive promotions in the history of the industry–by some estimates more than $300 million. And the campaign has provoked the wrath of anti-smoking groups.</p>
<p />
<p>[demonstration]</p>
<p>Narrator: “Turning Point” wanted to learn more about the Adventure Team controversy, so we followed this van to a working class neighborhood in South Boston, where it was scheduled to spend the day outside this smoke shop, but when the driver learned “Turning Point” was there, he packed up his van.</p>
<p>Driver: I’m not allowed to comment, and I’m also leaving.</p>
<p>Reporter: Why are you leaving?</p>
<p>Driver: Because I’m not allowed to talk to you.</p>
<p>Reporter: Why?</p>
<p>Driver: Because that’s what I’m instructed.</p>
<p>Reporter: Who gave you those instructions?</p>
<p>Driver: Philip Morris. If you have any questions, call them.</p>
<p>Narrator: And so we did. I dialed the number on the card to get more information about the Adventure Team.</p>
<p />
<p>[recording] Thank you for calling consumer affairs. All lines are busy…</p>
<p>Narrator: It took three hours before I reached a public relations spokesperson willing to take my questions.</p>
<p>Philip Morris [over the phone]: Do you mind holding a minute?</p>
<p>Narrator [on phone]: No, not at all. Thanks.</p>
<p>Narrator: She wouldn’t tell me how much was spent on the campaign or what their long-range plans are, but she did answer this question:</p>
<p>Narrator [on phone]: You do not want kids to smoke?</p>
<p>Philip Morris [over the phone]: No, we sure don’t.</p>
<p>Narrator [on phone]: Do you think kids would be attracted to the kinds of products that your van program promotes, like backpacks and the shirts and the jackets and the caps?</p>
<p>Philip Morris [over the phone]: I think that individuals who are interested in outdoor adventure and who smoke might be interested in participating in our promotion. I can’t tell you what interests kids, I have no interest in that.</p>
<p><a href="/news/special_reports/1996/05/qt.html" type="external" />Narrator: To find out more about the Marlboro team we went to this diner with a hidden camera for a job interview to drive one of the vans. John Rosano runs a dozen Marlboro vans in the Brooklyn area.</p>
<p>Rosano: When you’re dealing within, like pretty good local neighborhoods, in family-type neighborhoods, you know, and you’re trying to con the young smokers to switch to Marlboro, you know what I mean? <a href="pub:/news/special_reports/1196/05/rosano.mov" type="external">(QuickTime video, 2.4 Mb)</a></p>
<p>Greg Connolly: They go to the baseball parks with their Marlboro billboards; they go to the monster truck rallies; they go to the auto racing; they take their Marlboro vans to low income communities and they park them in front of the convenience stores and they peddle death and disease on the most vulnerable in our society and they don’t care. And if the tobacco industry doesn’t get teens they’ll be out of business, and they know it.</p>
<p>Narrator: Greg Connolly is trying to put them out of business with commercials like this one.</p>
<p />
<p>[commercial] Last November, the voters of Massachusetts took a stand…</p>
<p>Narrator: Connolly runs the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program. Despite intense industry opposition, voters approved a proposal to spend $50 million to create this anti-smoking campaign.</p>
<p />
<p>[commercial] …It’s time to draw the line; it’s time for a show of strength; it’s time we made smoking history…</p>
<p>Connolly: Marlboro is fighting back because they don’t want to give these youngsters Camels rather than Marlboro. They’re trying to link smoking Marlboro with, you know, adventure–with white water rafting. To get the kayak raft, you’ve got to smoke 7,200 Marlboro cigarettes. Now, if you can inflate that raft, blow it up, after smoking 7,200 Marlboro cigarettes, you’re a real super hero.</p>
<p>Narrator: Criticism of Marlboro’s Adventure Team has begun to spread beyond the anti-smoking community.</p>
<p>Frank Blethen: Tobacco is so addictive, that if it was discovered today, this country wouldn’t allow it to be a legal product.</p>
<p>Narrator: Newspapers have always depended on cigarette ads, but that’s not true anymore at the Seattle Times. The Adventure Team’s emphasis on outdoor sports gear offended publisher Frank Blethen.</p>
<p>Blethen: We believe the tobacco company’s targeting of the groups, particularly kids and women and minorities, has become more obvious.</p>
<p>Narrator: So the Seattle Times became the latest big city daily newspaper to ban tobacco ads, and publisher Blethen claims to have no regrets about losing $100,000 this year alone.</p>
<p>Blethen: All you have to do is read your daily newspaper to read the scientific articles about what smoking does to your lungs.</p>
<p>Reporter: But the tobacco companies deny the cause and effect.</p>
<p>Blethen: And if anybody believes that, it’s only the tobacco companies.</p>
<p>Connolly: And the hypocrisy is, the people that are doing this, the CEOs of these companies, they wouldn’t touch the stuff.</p>
<p>Reporter: None of them smoke?</p>
<p>Connolly: Not one.</p>
<p>Narrator: We wanted to ask the chief executives of the major tobacco companies why they don’t use their own product. All declined to be interviewed. John Rosano, who directs the Marlboro vans in Brooklyn, does smoke.</p>
<p>Rosano: Well, it’s free choice. You know what I mean? I choose to smoke; you choose not to smoke. You know what I mean? If I had a half a brain I never would have started smoking. You know what I mean? Come on.</p>
<p>[Marlboro billboard]</p>
<p>[commercial]</p>
<p>[fade out to commercial]</p>
<p><a href="/news/special_reports/1996/05/tp2.html" type="external">Part 2</a> | <a href="/mother_jones/MJ96/tp3.html" type="external">Part 3</a> | <a href="/mother_jones/MJ96/qt.html" type="external">QuickTime clips</a></p>
<p /> | Tobacco Under Fire – Part 1 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1996/05/tobacco-under-fire-part-1/ | 2018-05-01 | 4 |
<p>The Jordan Press Association (JPA) says it plans to sue police after 15 journalists were clubbed, punched and kicked as they covered a pro-democracy demonstration in Amman on Friday.</p>
<p>The announcement comes a day after <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/07/2011717182711748618.html" type="external">four policemen suspected of attacking</a>the journalists were arrested, Al Jazeera reported.</p>
<p>The attacks reportedly began when police tried to stop clashes between pro-reform demonstrators and government supporters in central Amman. Police used batons to disperse the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/jordan-police-beat-nine-journalists-covering-demo-151952446.html" type="external">clashes outside city hall</a>, beating and injuring at least nine journalists, an AFP reporter at the scene said Friday.</p>
<p>An AFP photographer, a female Islamist activist and Al Jazeera's senior journalist in Jordan were among the injured. "We were beaten by police, although we were wearing special press vests," said the photographer. "We thought we would be safe when we stood next to the police and away from the clashes."</p>
<p>A photographer who works for another international news agency said he was ordered by police not to take pictures, while New York Times reporter Kareem Fahim was beaten by 10 policemen, AFP reported.</p>
<p>The protest was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/world/middleeast/16jordan.html" type="external">organized by youth groups</a>and attended by labor unions and the Muslim Brotherhood, and began after Friday Prayer at the Husseini Mosque, the New York Times reported. By early afternoon, hundreds were marching through a market district chanting, "The people want to reform the government," and "We are citizens, not subjects."</p>
<p>Police officers surrounded the march and demonstrators faced off against a group of government loyalists. At one point, dozens of police officers charged the group, swinging batons.</p>
<p>During a protest in March, one person was killed and more than a hundred people were injured, but for the most part, the demonstrations in Jordan have not been as large or had the impact of those in Egypt and Tunisia.</p>
<p>Opposition leaders have blamed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_II_of_Jordan" type="external">King Abdullah II</a> for offering "inadequate concessions", including a vague promise that the country's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/world/middleeast/16jordan.html" type="external">prime minister would be elected</a>, not appointed, in the future.</p>
<p>Pro-reform protesters say they will escalate their protests.</p> | Journalists sue police over beatings in Jordan | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-07-18/journalists-sue-police-over-beatings-jordan | 2011-07-18 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>I know already it is pointless to argue with you.</p>
<p>Your mind is made up, isn’t it? You’re already mesmerized by the shiny, pretty advertising inserts full of shiny, pretty things to buy.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>You have your game plan. You’ve mapped out the stores. You’re ready to shop, even if it means that traditional game of Trivial Pursuit with the family, that extra piece of pie, that togetherness thing when you sit and talk and complain but not really complain about being soooo stuffed on Thanksgiving is not on the table anymore.</p>
<p>You’re not about to let the etherizing fog of turkey tryptophan lull you into a relaxing Thanksgiving evening. No, you’re prepared to down enough black coffee and Red Bull to shoot you into peak performance.</p>
<p>Holiday bargains will be out there long before Black Friday dawns, and you’re going for it.</p>
<p>Because Thanksgiving is now Thank$giving.</p>
<p>I warned you this would happen.</p>
<p>Last year, several big store chains promoted the idea of forgoing aprés Thanksgiving — and, in some cases, all of Thanksgiving — in lieu of starting the holiday shopping season even earlier than the predawn hours of Black Friday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Target, Macy’s, Best Buy, Kohl’s and others opened their doors at midnight Thanksgiving last year. Walmart opened at 10 p.m.; Toys R Us beat them all and opened at 9 p.m.</p>
<p>On Thanksgiving. Before the turkey was cold.</p>
<p>This year, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and Sears will open at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving night; Target opens at 9 p.m. And Kmart gives up the bird altogether by offering its door-busters at 6 a.m. Thanksgiving morning, right when the Macy’s Parade is on television.</p>
<p>(Note: Kmart has traditionally opened on Thanksgiving but waited to start its holiday sales on Black Friday.)</p>
<p>Speaking of Macy’s, it as well as Kohl’s and Best Buy are showing some restraint this year, if barely, by waiting until midnight Thanksgiving to open. Who needs sleep anyway, right?</p>
<p>Who needs Thanksgiving?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>That’s what retailers are telling you, you know. Hold off on the thanks and the family until you have GIFTS for the family. Then they can thank you.</p>
<p>Call it the Christmas creep, which is, at least to me, kind of creepy.</p>
<p>You early birds gave retailers enough of a sales boost with their Black Thanksgiving sales last year that they’ve decided to encroach even further on our day of thanks. So, thanks a lot.</p>
<p>Decades ago when I served my time in retail — in this case, manager of the bedding department at the dearly departed Meier and Frank in Portland, Ore. — I growled at a boss for making me schedule employees to work on Memorial Day, unusual in those days.</p>
<p>No one shops on a holiday like that, I argued.</p>
<p>But people came. Lots of them, shopping their hearts out on a day I had assumed was meant to honor those who fought and died for our country, hit the beach, pack the picnic basket, watch the Indy 500 until our eyes spun.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And now, Thanksgiving is under the same retail assault.</p>
<p>Last year, Target employee Anthony Hardwick of Omaha, Neb., launched an online petition to save Thanksgiving by asking shoppers to demand that the store roll back its Black Friday opening time to the more normal 5 a.m. (which, unless you’re a rooster, is hardly normal).</p>
<p>More than 200,000 signed the petition. Others, however, called Hardwick a whiny worker who should be grateful to have a job. Thousands more showed up to shop Thanksgiving night, wallets at the ready, just as retailers had hoped.</p>
<p>This year, more than 40 petitions have been launched through the website Change.org demanding that retailers go back to the good old Black Friday days and let store employees and shoppers spend Thanksgiving as it was intended: at home, with family nearby and turkey leg in hand.</p>
<p>Those efforts, like Hardwick’s last year, won’t do a thing. Thanksgiving is now officially over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house and Best Buy we go.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. I wish nothing but the best for retailers. I hope they jingle all the way to very merry profit margins, and I expect I will do my share to help.</p>
<p>Just not on Thanksgiving, not even at midnight.</p>
<p>So go, you early birds, have fun, shop till you drop on Thanksgiving. But ask yourselves this: When is a good deal bad for the ones you are buying those good deals for? And when does Thanksgiving become a day to be thankful not for family, friends and country, but a steal on cashmere sweaters and flat-screen televisions?</p>
<p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or follow her on Twitter @ jolinegkg. Go to ABQjournal. com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor. — This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Shopping Devouring Thanksgiving Turkey | false | https://abqjournal.com/147437/shopping-devouring-thanksgiving-turkey.html | 2012-11-19 | 2 |
<p>A Mississippi police officer is thanking his lucky stars after his life almost changed in a flash.</p>
<p>Gautier police Sgt. Mark Rodriguez was driving his cruiser through stormy weather last Tuesday morning when lightning struck just feet in front of him. Dramatic footage from his patrol car's dash-cam shows a flash exploding from the cloudy sky, right in front of the car as it drove across a bridge in Jackson County.</p>
<p>"The lightning struck approximately 30 feet from me, striking the bridge and actually causing damage to the bridge. I saw the concrete pieces flying," Rodriguez told NBC News.</p>
<p>"The flash was very bright," he added. "It didn't blind me, it just kind of made my eyes blurry for a moment."</p>
<p>A couple days later, Rodriguez returned to the bridge over the Tchoutacabouffa River on Interstate 10 where the bolt touched down, and took photos of the concrete that had crumbled off of it.</p>
<p>Rodriguez said the Christian music he had been listening to when the bolt hit helped keep him calm.</p>
<p>"It was called 'Holy Spirit, You Are Welcome Here.' By the time that was playing, it came down," he said.</p>
<p /> | Police Officer Mark Rodriguez Narrowly Misses Lightning Strike | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/weather/video-captures-lightning-striking-just-feet-away-patrol-car-n368261 | 2015-06-02 | 3 |
<p>In making his pitch to repeal the estate tax, Sen. John Thune grossly inflated an out-of-date statistic about the percentage of businesses forced to liquidate because of the tax.</p>
<p>Thune claimed that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office “said a third of businesses who owe the death tax owe more in taxes than what their assets are worth.” But Thune botched the statistic, leaving out several crucial qualifiers. In fact, the same CBO report that Thune cited concluded the “vast majority of estates, including those of farmers and small-business owners, had enough liquid assets to pay the estate taxes they owed.”</p>
<p>Thune went on to claim that “about a third of the farms in South Dakota” are “liable to pay the [estate] tax,” and that as a result, the tax is discouraging people from passing along the “family farm or business on to the next generation.” However, due to various exemptions in the law, only a tiny fraction of farms in South Dakota, or any other state, actually paid the estate tax in 2013.</p>
<p>Thune cited the statistics during a Fox Business News interview on March 25 in support of his efforts to permanently repeal the federal estate tax. The following day, Thune’s amendment passed the Senate in a <a href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=114&amp;session=1&amp;vote=00114" type="external">54-46 vote</a> that fell almost entirely along partisan lines.</p>
<p>Effect on Small Business</p>
<p>Currently, the estate tax rate can be as high as 40 percent, though, in 2015, the first $5.4 million of the estate’s value (nearly $11 million for a couple) is exempted. As a result, roughly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/28/us/long-night-in-senate-but-real-budget-work-awaits.html?_r=0" type="external">3,700 estates</a>, about 0.12 percent of the total, had to pay any estate taxes last year. The estate tax is a tax on the transfer of an estate through a will or other means after a person dies.</p>
<p>Thune argued the tax, which he calls a “death tax,” hits businesses and farmers particularly hard.</p>
<p>Thune, March 26: The Congressional Budget Office in 2009 said that a third of businesses who owe the death tax owe more in taxes than what their assets are worth. So, what typically happens is they have to liquidate the business in order to pay IRS.</p>
<p>In fact, as Thune’s office later confirmed, the South Dakota Republican was actually referring to a <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/07-06-estatetax.pdf" type="external">decade-old CBO report</a> on the effects of the federal estate tax on farms and small businesses. Here’s the key sentence on which Thune’s claim was based.</p>
<p>CBO, 2005: As a consequence, one-third of estates claiming the QFOBI deduction and owing [estate] taxes in 2000 could not pay the estate tax out of their reported liquid assets.</p>
<p>What is QFOBI? It stands for “qualified family-owned business interest.” To qualify, half of your estate has to be in the family owned business. (See Box 2.) That excludes all estates where less than half of assets are in the family owned business. In other words, it’s a subset of all businesses. Thune left out that important qualifier. He also left out that the CBO was referring to “liquid” assets — in other words, specifically excluding the value of the land and equipment — leaving the mistaken impression that the estate tax bill came to more than the value of the estate in total.</p>
<p>In the very line preceding the one cited by Thune, the CBO report does speak more generally to the universe of small businesses and farms. And, the report states, among small-business owners, the “vast majority … had enough liquid assets to pay the estate taxes they owed.”</p>
<p>CBO, 2005: The vast majority of estates, including those of farmers and small-business owners, had enough liquid assets to pay the estate taxes they owed. However, estates involving farms or small businesses were less likely than the average estate to have sufficient liquid assets to cover their estate taxes. In 2000, about 8 percent (or 138) of the estates of farmers who left enough assets to owe estate taxes faced a tax payment that exceeded their liquid assets, compared with about 5 percent of all estates that owed taxes.</p>
<p>Thune is also citing an outdated statistic. The report referred to 2000, when the estate tax exemption was $675,000. It’s now $5.4 million. But even with the lower exemption, the CBO found that there were just 138 farms in the whole U.S. that might not have enough liquid assets to cover the amount they owed in estate taxes. The report also ran calculations with a few hypothetical figures, including if the exemption were $3.5 million. (In inflation-adjusted dollars, that comes to about $4.8 million in 2015, so it’s much closer to the actual estate tax exemption today.) Assuming that higher $3.5 million exemption, the report estimated there were 13 estates of farmers that would have insufficient liquid assets to pay the estate tax liability. The value of farmland has outpaced inflation since 2000, so presumably that number could be higher now. But we’re still talking about a very small number of farms.</p>
<p>The Effect on Farms</p>
<p>Thune went on to claim that “about a third of the farms in South Dakota are actually over the exemption amount, so they would be liable to pay the tax.” As a result, he argued, the estate tax is discouraging people from passing along the “family farm or business&#160; on to the next generation.”</p>
<p>Thune’s office says the statistic came from a <a href="" type="internal">calculation</a> by the American Farm Bureau Federation — which <a href="http://www.fb.org/index.php?action=newsroom.news_article&amp;id=267" type="external">supports</a> repeal of the estate tax — based on <a href="http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/Full_Report/Volume_1,_Chapter_2_US_State_Level/" type="external">U.S. Department of Agriculture reports</a> about farm and cropland values. According to AFBF, because of the rapid appreciation of farmland —&#160; particularly cropland due to strong commodity prices —&#160; a growing percentage of South Dakota farms are exceeding the estate tax exemption level. In 2013, the AFBF states, 12 percent of farm real estate and 32 percent of cropland exceeded the exemption level of $5 million. So Thune used the 32 percent figure for cropland, even though he said simply “farms,” which is 12 percent.</p>
<p>Moreover, even if the value of a third of the farms in South Dakota did exceed the exemption limit of $5.4 million, it’s quite another thing to be legally liable to actually pay the tax. According to <a href="http://www.irs.gov/uac/SOI-Tax-Stats-Estate-Tax-Statistics-Filing-Year-Table-1" type="external">IRS data</a>, only 660 estates that listed any farm assets had to pay the estate tax in 2013 (and 100 of them had assets of $20 million or more). That’s nationwide.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42959.pdf" type="external">Congressional Research Service</a> report in 2013, less than 1 percent of farm operator estates is projected to pay any estate tax.</p>
<p>And that’s because there are exemptions for farmers and small businesses written into the estate tax code that allow most farmers — with a bit of estate planning — to avoid the estate tax altogether. For example, if the heirs agree to farm the land for another 10 years, they can get up to a $1 million exemption by valuing land at its farm use value rather than development value. An additional $500,000 exemption is possible if one agrees to a perpetual conservation easement restricting the use of the land. It is also possible to reduce the value of an estate by giving portions of the estate to heirs as a gift over a number of years. For a full description of exemptions available to farmers, see this <a href="http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42959.pdf" type="external">Congressional Research Service report</a>, starting on page 2.</p>
<p>The law also includes a provision that allows those who inherit a farm, and are having trouble paying the estate tax, to spread those payments over 14 years at a low interest rate.</p>
<p>We reached out to <a href="http://www.econ.iastate.edu/~harl/" type="external">Neil Harl</a>, an Iowa State University professor of economics and agriculture,who has been studying the estate tax’s impact on small business and farms for decades. He said it is “absolutely untrue that [the estate tax] is a significant problem in the agricultural sector.”</p>
<p>“I have been involved in this area since 1958 and I have never seen land that had to be sold to pay the federal estate tax and I have conducted more than 3,400 seminars in 43 states which included federal estate tax planning,” Harl wrote to us in an email. The italics are his.</p>
<p>Harl said the push to repeal the estate tax is “being funded by a small number of very wealthy families. … The problem, if there is one, is that very large investors want the tax repealed and try to spread the word that it is harming family farmers and ranchers. It is not.”</p>
<p>Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center who spent 22 years at the Congressional Budget Office, agreed. Thune’s claim “just doesn’t jibe with common knowledge,” Williams said.</p>
<p>According to an <a href="http://taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?DocID=3776" type="external">analysis by the Tax Policy Center</a>, only roughly 20 small business and small farm estates nationwide owed any estate tax in 2013. TPC defined a small business or small farm estate as one with more than half its value in a farm or business and with the farm or business assets valued at less than $5 million. Those 20 estates owed, on average, about 4.9 percent of the estate’s value in tax.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42959.pdf" type="external">Congressional Research Service report</a> on Feb. 15, 2013: “About 65 farm estates (or approximately one per state) are projected to be subject to the estate tax, and constitute 1.8 percent of taxable estates. Less than a fourth (0.4 percent) [of all taxable estates] is projected to have inadequate liquidity to pay estate taxes. Less than 1 percent (0.8 percent) of farm operator estates is projected to pay the tax.”</p>
<p>As for small businesses, CRS said: “About 94 estates (about two per state) with half their assets in small business and who expect their heirs to continue in the business are projected to be subject to the estate tax; they constitute 2.5 percent of total estates. Less than a half (1.1 percent) [of total estates] is projected to have inadequate liquidity to pay estate taxes.”</p>
<p>— Robert Farley</p> | Thune’s Estate Tax Distortions | false | https://factcheck.org/2015/03/thunes-estate-tax-distortions/ | 2015-03-31 | 2 |
<p>By Jeff Brumley</p>
<p>It’s much quieter these days in West, the tiny Texas town partially flattened by a deadly fertilizer plant explosion in April 2013.</p>
<p>Gone are the convoys of semis and church trailers hauling debris and construction supplies, lawn equipment and food. Missing are the masses of teen, middle-aged and senior citizen volunteers, decked in fluorescent T-shirts, wielding shovels, wheelbarrows &#160;and coolers filled with ice water.</p>
<p>And most of the residential mowing and weed-eating nowadays is being done by local residents, not visitors from Oklahoma, Arkansas and other parts of Texas and the nation.</p>
<p />
<p>But another sign that West is moving on from the blast that killed 15 and injured 226 is that John Crowder and his wife, Lisa, are set to move into a newly constructed home on their lot of some eight years —&#160;probably this week.</p>
<p>“Yesterday, the developer showed me the certificate of occupancy and that it’s OK for me to move home,” Crowder, the pastor at First Baptist Church of West, said Oct. 8. “That was a very moving time.”</p>
<p>While the Crowders aren’t unique among West residents for feeling emotional about moving back into permanent homes, the family is among the last in town to do so. Of about 120 houses destroyed, only 10 or fewer remain either to be built, finished or move into, Crowder estimated.</p>
<p>‘Put himself … last’</p>
<p>And that’s because Crowder, 50, has spent the better part of the last 17 months consumed with <a href="" type="internal">leading local efforts</a> to help others rebuild their lives and homes, said Marla Bearden, disaster recovery specialist with Texas Baptist Disaster Recovery.</p>
<p>Crowder served on the board of the long-term recovery effort, worked with other religious leaders in town to coordinate financial aid and opened his church to volunteers and volunteer coordinators for numerous recovery projects in the city, said Bearden, who helped coordinate the “Loving West” recovery effort that drew nearly 800 volunteers to West for a week in June 2013.</p>
<p />
<p>And it was a massive effort involving local, state and federal agencies. It was also volunteer-intensive, Bearden said, because extensive media coverage created great interest in the response and recovery of West.</p>
<p>As many as 2,500 volunteers have moved through West just from Texas Baptist efforts. Crowder would likely have dealt with most of them directly or indirectly.</p>
<p>“John was right there working with the community and with those [long term recovery] case managers,” Bearden said. “He really put himself and his family last, and members of the community first.”</p>
<p>‘We were overwhelmed’</p>
<p>All the while, Crowder and his wife were living a nomadic existence, staying in borrowed spaces while the rest of the town was rebuilding.</p>
<p>Their original house on Northridge Circle was located about a quarter mile from the West Fertilizer Co. plant. The ammonium nitrate explosion that flattened it created immense structural damage to the Crowder home and across the entire neighborhood.</p>
<p>“The rafters were poking through the roof and most of the ceilings had come down,” Crowder said. “In the bedrooms that faced the plant, there were shards of glass imbedded in the wall on the far wall from the windows —&#160;so we were blessed that we were not home.”</p>
<p />
<p>The home, which eventually had to be demolished, and the entire neighborhood were cordoned off by authorities.</p>
<p>Next, there came a series of temporary dwellings.</p>
<p>“We moved four times in six weeks,” he said.</p>
<p>The night of the explosion, they stayed in the home of a First Baptist deacon, and remained there about a week.</p>
<p>From there, they moved into the home of a church member on an extended vacation. That was followed by a brief hotel stay.</p>
<p>Finally, the deacons purchased a double-wide trailer in which the family has lived ever since.</p>
<p>“I didn’t know they made mobile homes that nice. We were overwhelmed.”</p>
<p>‘Grand Central Baptist’</p>
<p>But Crowder quickly found the rest of his life overwhelming, too.</p>
<p>Within hours of the tragedy, First Baptist began getting inquiries from both those who wanted to help, and those who needed it.</p>
<p>Pretty soon, the Crowder found that it was all he could do to keep up with that unfolding process and meet his obligation as the pastor of a church.</p>
<p>“In disaster recovery, you pretty much throw out your job description,” he said.</p>
<p>“For me, everything changed except I still preached Sunday mornings —&#160;which in itself is a challenge when you are going through personal trauma and the community is suffering.”</p>
<p>One job that had been relatively low-stress before was that of treasurer for the local ministerial alliance. After April 2013, its existing voucher system came into great demand —&#160;and worked through the treasurer.</p>
<p>First Baptist was even busier. The congregation quickly became the de facto headquarters of agencies like Texas Baptist Men, the Baptist General Convention of Texas and others.</p>
<p>First Baptist also began coordinating free demolitions, facilitating 60 of them altogether and saving families between $12,000 and $24,000.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, individuals were coming in for the vouchers and sometimes showing up individually to volunteer. Most of those services were eventually taken over by the Long Term Recovery Center, but for many months FBC was a place on the move.</p>
<p>“We nicknamed it ‘Grand Central Baptist,’” Crowder said. “It became the hub of activity for the recovery effort there for a while.”</p>
<p>‘We are coming home’</p>
<p>Crowder said West is still very much in recovery mode, but is now mostly on its own and that’s just the way residents want it.</p>
<p>“It has stopped being the primary point of conversation,” he said of the blast. “But that is by choice —&#160;people are so emotionally exhausted they don’t want to talk about it anymore.”</p>
<p>The visible volunteer support in West is much less than it was. Crowder said residents are not resentful of that because they understand there are others in need.</p>
<p>But he said there remains a strong need for financial and prayer support in West.</p>
<p>Crowder acknowledged that his family still needs to recover, too. He said the new house will help with that.</p>
<p>The new home was built on the same lot and using the same floor plan, the same brick, the same colored shingles “so we feel like we are coming home.”</p>
<p />
<p>So, like in most every other part of West, the Crowder family is on the verge of returning to life as it was before April 17, 2013.</p>
<p>“It’s almost like the end of my personal recovery,” Crowder said of moving into the home.</p>
<p>“The night it happened, we could not come home and we have not been home yet. So going home —&#160;that means something.”</p> | For West pastor and family, new home means recovery | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/for-west-pastor-and-family-new-home-means-recovery/ | 3 |
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<p>In 2000, Cook County’s mixed-income areas were largely confined to the South and West sides of Chicago. There were no mixed-income areas in more than 35 Chicago community areas and dozens of suburban towns. However, in Chicago, Burnside on the South Side, Rogers Park on the North Side and the Lower West Side were home to the city’s heaviest concentration of mixed-income residents. In suburban Cook County, more than three of every 10 residents living in Riverdale and Dixmoor lived in mixed-income areas.</p>
<p>Note: Market-rate families were those earning at least $40,000, roughly 60 percent of area</p>
<p>median income in 2000.</p>
<p>Source: U.S. Census Bureau; analyzed by The Chicago Reporter.</p> | A Natural Mix | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/natural-mix/ | 2008-05-21 | 3 |
<p>San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who made headlines for his obstinate refusal to stand during the national anthem, turning him into a <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/2016/9/5/12795542/colin-kaepernick-heroes-national-anthem-captain-america-nfl" type="external">icon and hero</a> for leftists, showed how much he truly cared about America on Tuesday – he <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colin-kaepernick-didnt-vote_us_5823a553e4b0e80b02ceb707?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=The%20Morning%20Email%20111016&amp;utm_content=The%20Morning%20Email%20111016+CID_e3928076704c5f46ba8fd200616c6c1c&amp;utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&amp;utm_term=Landess%20Kearns%20HuffPost" type="external">didn’t even vote</a>.</p>
<p>Reporter: Have you voted? Colin Kaepernick: "No." Reporter: Are you going to vote? Kaepernick: "No." <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/49ers?src=hash" type="external">#49ers</a></p>
<p>On Wednesday, the intrepid hero <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/49ers/2016/11/09/colin-kaepernick-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-election/93569110/" type="external">told reporters</a>, “I've been very disconnected from the systematic oppression as a whole. So, for me, it's another face that's going to be the face of that system of oppression. And to me, it didn't really matter who went in there, the system still remains intact that oppresses people of color."</p>
<p>Kaepernick had been protesting during the national anthem for months; he <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-protest-of-national-anthem" type="external">told</a> NFL.com, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”</p>
<p>Barack Obama had <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/28/politics/obama-colin-kaepernick-nfl-national-anthem-presidential-town-hall-cnn/" type="external">defended</a> Kaepernick, stating, “Well, as I've said before, I believe that us honoring our flag and our anthem is part of what binds us together as a nation. But I also always try to remind folks that part of what makes this country special is that we respect people's rights to have a different opinion."</p>
<p>Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith abandoned his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt_X9paRIBM" type="external">previous support</a> for Kaepernick, asserting on ESPN’s “First Take”:</p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned, Colin Kaepernick is absolutely irrelevant. I don’t want to see him again, I don’t want to hear from him again, I don’t want to hear a damn word about anything that he has to say about our nation, the issues that we have, racial injustices, needing change. He comes across as a flaming hypocrite, as far as I’m concerned. ... To turn around and not to even take your behind to the polls to vote for a particular candidate — it is shameful, absolutely shameful.</p>
<p>“I've been very disconnected from the systematic oppression as a whole."</p>
<p>Colin Kaepernick</p>
<p>He concluded by tweeting:</p>
<p>"For him not to vote...as far as I'm concerned, everything he said meant absolutely nothing!" - <a href="https://twitter.com/stephenasmith" type="external">@stephenasmith</a> on Colin Kaepernick <a href="https://t.co/gShvVfVoAt" type="external">pic.twitter.com/gShvVfVoAt</a></p> | Kaepernick Won’t Stand For the Anthem, Didn’t Even Vote | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10689/kaepernick-wont-stand-anthem-didnt-even-vote-hank-berrien | 2016-11-10 | 0 |
<p>SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — San Jose rookie Joonas Donskoi wasn't very happy with his overall game. He felt he had to make up for a tripping penalty that led to Calgary's second goal of the first period.</p>
<p>Everything turned out all right in the end.</p>
<p>Donskoi scored the winning goal in a shootout, and the Sharks rallied to beat the Flames 3-2 on Thursday for their third straight victory.</p>
<p>"You've got to put some streaks together," said Joe Pavelski, who scored his eighth goal of the season. "To win three in a row, you can't be satisfied. You've got to go for four or five. I don't know if this is the time or not, hopefully you can start creating a little separation."</p>
<p>The Sharks were stymied for most of the night by Flames goalie David Rittich, but they got a late goal in the third period on Timo Meier's re-directed shot.</p>
<p>Pavelski, who scored San Jose's first goal, got the puck past Rittich in the first round of the shootout. After Calgary missed its first two attempts, Donskoi deked Rittich and then wrapped a shot around the goalie for the game-winner.</p>
<p>It was a welcomed sight for Donskoi, whose tripping penalty set up a power-play goal by Mikael Backlund.</p>
<p>"That's a pretty big penalty to take, especially so when they score a PP goal after that," Donskoi said. "It never feels good. I didn't feel good about my game today at all. Good we got two points and that's all that matters."</p>
<p>Martin Jones made 32 saves for San Jose.</p>
<p>Both teams missed multiple scoring chances in the extra period, including a one-timer by Calgary's TJ Brodie that was stopped by Jones.</p>
<p>Rittich made 30 saves in his fourth career start. Garnet Hathaway also scored for the Flames, and Jaromir Jagr took another step toward breaking Gordie Howe's record for games played.</p>
<p>Calgary lost for the first time this season when leading after two periods.</p>
<p>"We just need to manufacture some extra points in the game so we can hold leads," Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We had some real good looks in overtime. If we could have gotten a goal on one those other power plays we would have won this game."</p>
<p>Jagr entered early in the first period, tying Ron Francis for third place on the NHL's games list with 1,731. Jagr, who played 13 minutes, turns 46 in February and needs 37 games to break Gordie Howe's record of 1,767.</p>
<p>Hathaway took advantage when the Sharks had trouble clearing the puck from in front of the net and tapped in his second goal of the season to put Calgary up 1-0 early in the first period.</p>
<p>After Pavelski tied it with a power-play goal, Backlund re-directed a power-play shot by Tkachuk past Jones to make it 2-1 Flames at 15:45 of the first.</p>
<p>NOTES: Pavelski's goal was his 200th since 2011-12, fourth-most in the NHL during that time. ... Jagr had missed the previous two games with a lower-body injury. ... The Sharks have scored at least one power-play goal in nine consecutive games. ... Calgary's Michael Frolik left the game in the second period after taking a puck to the face off a shot by Burns. . Sharks C Logan Couture missed his fourth straight game because of a concussion, but is making progress and took part in the morning skate before the decision was made to hold him out. ... Rittich made his NHL debut in San Jose in the final regular-season game last year.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Flames: Play at Anaheim on Friday.</p>
<p>Sharks: Play at Dallas on Friday.</p>
<p>SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — San Jose rookie Joonas Donskoi wasn't very happy with his overall game. He felt he had to make up for a tripping penalty that led to Calgary's second goal of the first period.</p>
<p>Everything turned out all right in the end.</p>
<p>Donskoi scored the winning goal in a shootout, and the Sharks rallied to beat the Flames 3-2 on Thursday for their third straight victory.</p>
<p>"You've got to put some streaks together," said Joe Pavelski, who scored his eighth goal of the season. "To win three in a row, you can't be satisfied. You've got to go for four or five. I don't know if this is the time or not, hopefully you can start creating a little separation."</p>
<p>The Sharks were stymied for most of the night by Flames goalie David Rittich, but they got a late goal in the third period on Timo Meier's re-directed shot.</p>
<p>Pavelski, who scored San Jose's first goal, got the puck past Rittich in the first round of the shootout. After Calgary missed its first two attempts, Donskoi deked Rittich and then wrapped a shot around the goalie for the game-winner.</p>
<p>It was a welcomed sight for Donskoi, whose tripping penalty set up a power-play goal by Mikael Backlund.</p>
<p>"That's a pretty big penalty to take, especially so when they score a PP goal after that," Donskoi said. "It never feels good. I didn't feel good about my game today at all. Good we got two points and that's all that matters."</p>
<p>Martin Jones made 32 saves for San Jose.</p>
<p>Both teams missed multiple scoring chances in the extra period, including a one-timer by Calgary's TJ Brodie that was stopped by Jones.</p>
<p>Rittich made 30 saves in his fourth career start. Garnet Hathaway also scored for the Flames, and Jaromir Jagr took another step toward breaking Gordie Howe's record for games played.</p>
<p>Calgary lost for the first time this season when leading after two periods.</p>
<p>"We just need to manufacture some extra points in the game so we can hold leads," Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We had some real good looks in overtime. If we could have gotten a goal on one those other power plays we would have won this game."</p>
<p>Jagr entered early in the first period, tying Ron Francis for third place on the NHL's games list with 1,731. Jagr, who played 13 minutes, turns 46 in February and needs 37 games to break Gordie Howe's record of 1,767.</p>
<p>Hathaway took advantage when the Sharks had trouble clearing the puck from in front of the net and tapped in his second goal of the season to put Calgary up 1-0 early in the first period.</p>
<p>After Pavelski tied it with a power-play goal, Backlund re-directed a power-play shot by Tkachuk past Jones to make it 2-1 Flames at 15:45 of the first.</p>
<p>NOTES: Pavelski's goal was his 200th since 2011-12, fourth-most in the NHL during that time. ... Jagr had missed the previous two games with a lower-body injury. ... The Sharks have scored at least one power-play goal in nine consecutive games. ... Calgary's Michael Frolik left the game in the second period after taking a puck to the face off a shot by Burns. . Sharks C Logan Couture missed his fourth straight game because of a concussion, but is making progress and took part in the morning skate before the decision was made to hold him out. ... Rittich made his NHL debut in San Jose in the final regular-season game last year.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Flames: Play at Anaheim on Friday.</p>
<p>Sharks: Play at Dallas on Friday.</p> | Sharks rally to beat Flames on Donskoi's shootout goal | false | https://apnews.com/amp/bd6fb100df814a03a5c0406e541bdb94 | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
<p>Last year, Koch Industries began employing New Media Strategies (NMS), an Internet PR firm that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Media_Strategies" type="external">specializes</a> in “word-of-mouth marketing” for major corporations including Coca-Cola, Burger King, AT&amp;T;, Dodge and Ford. It appears that, ever since the NMS contract was inked with Koch, an NMS employee began editing the Wikipedia page for “Charles Koch,” “David Koch,” “Political activities of the Koch family,” and “The Science of Success” (a book written by Charles). Under the moniker of “MBMAdmirer,” NMS employees edited Wikipedia articles to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:David_H._Koch&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=411170214" type="external">distance</a> the Koch family from the Tea Party movement, to provide <a href="http://toolserver.org/~betacommand/UserCompare/MBMadmirer.html" type="external">baseless</a> comparisons between Koch and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/MBMadmirer/Archive" type="external">conspiracy theories</a> surrounding George Soros, and to generally delete citations to liberal news outlets. After administrators flagged the MBMAdmirer account as a “sock puppet” — one of many fake accounts used to manipulate new media sites — a subsequent sock puppet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/MBMadmirer/Archive" type="external">investigation</a> found that MBMAdmirer is connected to a number of dummy accounts and ones owned by NMS employees like <a href="http://nms.com/about/our-team/Jeff-Taylor" type="external">Jeff Taylor</a>.</p>
<p>Soren Dayton, a GOP operative and executive at New Media Strategies, is <a href="http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=48AFDC2A-E10F-4DC3-A8A9-15DBEBA3F8F2" type="external">reported</a> to be the contact for Koch Industries at NMS. Reached by phone yesterday by ThinkProgress, Dayton exclaimed, “I’m not going to talk about this, thanks,” before hanging up. Lyndsey Medsker, a senior account director for NMS, spoke to ThinkProgress today. She explained that NMS also maintains the Koch Industries Twitter page, Facebook page, and has an active team working on promoting Koch Industries in the comment section of blogs and news websites.</p>
<p>As ThinkProgress has <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>, the billionaire Koch brothers maintain contracts with over a dozen public relation firms and lobbying firms. Pushing back again recent scrutiny, the brothers have also <a href="" type="internal">relied</a> on a conservative media infrastructure owned by the Koch brothers or closely linked to them by way of their <a href="" type="internal">donor conferences</a>. We have documented how the Koch message machine has <a href="" type="internal">targeted</a> ThinkProgress and even <a href="" type="internal">placed</a> hit-pieces against a New Yorker journalist investigated the Kochs. But now it seems the Koch brothers are at work manipulating Wikipedia to polish their image.</p>
<p>New Media Strategies at one point tried to lie about its affiliation with Koch Industries. The account “MBMAdmirer” <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:MBMadmirer" type="external">wrote</a> in December on Wikipedia: “I am a citizen who has read about and admires the Koch family. I was not pleased with the way that they have been presented in the media. And I thought that I could come to Wikipedia to try to make sure that there are balancing facts. Nothing I do is in coordination with Koch or authorized by Koch.”</p> | Koch Industries Employs PR Firm To Airbrush Wikipedia, Gets Banned For Unethical ‘Sock Puppets’ | true | http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/koch-wikipedia-sock-puppet/ | 2011-03-09 | 4 |
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<p>MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to drug-test Medicaid recipients and increase premiums on poor people drew five fully positive comments out of more than 1,000 submitted by the public, with one of the supportive letters coming from his own lieutenant governor, according to a review by The Associated Press.</p>
<p>The supportive remarks amounted to less than half a percent of the comments submitted by doctors, religious leaders, insurance companies, foster parents and others during a 30-day period for the public to weigh in before Walker submitted his plan to the federal government. The Republican needs a waiver from President Donald Trump’s administration for any changes to take effect.</p>
<p>The plan would make Wisconsin the first state in the country to require a drug screening as a condition for Medicaid eligibility.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It doesn’t surprise me at all because there was certainly no public push for these changes,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of the advocacy group Citizens Action, which helped organize comments against the plan and submitted more than 650 in opposition from individuals, doctors, nurses and others.</p>
<p>A total of 1,050 comments rolled into the state Department of Health Services starting on April 19, in emails, letters, public testimony and phone voicemails. The AP used the state’s open records law to obtain the comments, many of which were redacted by the state to remove names and other identifying information.</p>
<p>Walker — who has touted the proposal as a way to move people off public aid programs and into the workforce — said he made changes in response to the public comments before submitting his waiver request two weeks ago.</p>
<p>Those changes included scaling back the new premiums he wants to charge and reducing the cost of a new co-payment for emergency room visits. The plan also now allows people who refuse a drug test to reapply for Medicaid benefits when they consent to treatment, rather than getting shut out for six months.</p>
<p>But the core proposals remained unaltered.</p>
<p>In response to the AP’s tally, Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said the governor’s plan has generated support through other avenues.</p>
<p>“The governor hears from employers all the time who say they are looking to hire people who are ready to work and able to pass a drug test,” Evenson said. “If someone fails the test, we offer treatment at no cost to them so they can get healthy and back into the workforce.”</p>
<p>Evenson called the proposal “reasonable, common-sense reforms to help people move from government dependence to true independence.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Walker, who is up for re-election next year, has defended drug tests as a way to get people into treatment, which he wants to be funded by federal Medicaid money, so they can get a job.</p>
<p>Hundreds of people who submitted comments made clear they didn’t like them.</p>
<p>“Drug testing has been determined to be expensive, ineffective, and illegal,” wrote Bobby Peterson, executive director of ABC for Health, a nonprofit Madison law firm that helps people get health care.</p>
<p>Others described Walker’s proposal as cruel, sad, demeaning or ineffective.</p>
<p>“You have espoused Jesus and are embracing the devil and demons that have gained control of the political process,” said another email, the name of the sender also redacted. “May God have mercy on you in this time of reckoning for surely you are cursed.”</p>
<p>The handful of supportive comments thanked Walker.</p>
<p>“As a hardworking citizen of the state and of my country, I think the drug testing should be required and not based on a health assessment screen,” one person said in a voicemail.</p>
<p>Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and state Rep. John Nygren also wrote in support, citing their jobs as co-chairs of a governor’s task force on opioid abuse. They called the drug-screening proposal an important tool in identifying Medicaid recipients in need of treatment.</p>
<p>The Trump administration could make a decision by this summer. The new requirements are slated to take effect in April 2019.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/sbauerAP" type="external">http://twitter.com/sbauerAP</a></p> | AP Exclusive: Records show scant support for Walker’s plan | false | https://abqjournal.com/1020899/ap-exclusive-records-show-scant-support-for-walkers-plan.html | 2017-06-20 | 2 |
<p>A look at the 10 biggest volume gainers on Nasdaq at the close of trading:</p>
<p>American National Insurance Co. : Approximately 255,100 shares changed hands, a 1,268.1 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $8.83 or 8.4 percent to $96.46.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Authentidate Holdings Corp. : Approximately 1,359,200 shares changed hands, a 2,475.4 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.29 or 47.3 percent to $.33.</p>
<p>Carver Bancorp : Approximately 49,500 shares changed hands, a 1,999.3 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.65 or 11.5 percent to $5.00.</p>
<p>1st Constitution Bancorp : Approximately 97,600 shares changed hands, a 1,613.5 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.11 or .9 percent to $11.80.</p>
<p>Heat Biologics Inc. : Approximately 594,400 shares changed hands, a 1,421.9 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.95 or 12.9 percent to $8.30.</p>
<p>Meru Networks Inc. : Approximately 1,729,400 shares changed hands, a 1,628.2 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.76 or 32.2 percent to $1.60.</p>
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<p>Pendrell Corp. : Approximately 4,376,500 shares changed hands, a 2,002.6 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.01 or 1.0 percent to $1.00.</p>
<p>RMG Network Holding Corp. : Approximately 8,874,500 shares changed hands, a 33,806.8 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.69 or 65.7 percent to $1.74.</p>
<p>Recro Pharma Inc. : Approximately 480,800 shares changed hands, a 2,334.9 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $1.21 or 36.8 percent to $4.50.</p>
<p>Seneca Foods Corp. : Approximately 893,200 shares changed hands, a 4,759.8 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.50 or 1.9 percent to $26.54.</p> | Top 10 Nasdaq-traded stocks posting largest volume increases | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/11/17/top-10-nasdaq-traded-stocks-posting-largest-volume-increases.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>AUSTRALIAABC NewsThe vicar-general of the Bathurst diocese says ongoing debate about the future of Australia's Governor-General, Dr Peter Hollingworth, is sad for everyone involved.</p>
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<p>A woman from the region was involved in one of a number of sexual abuse cases recently investigated by the Anglican Church.</p>
<p>The inquiry found Dr Hollingworth, who was the Archbishop of Brisbane, acted unfairly and insentively in response to her claims and other claims.</p>
<p>Vicar-general Peter Danaher says it has painted the church in a very poor light.</p>
<p>"It's sad for those who suffered abuse as young people, it's sad for their families, it's very sad for the church and it gives a poor light to the church, but it's also very sad for Dr Hollingworth and his family," he said.</p> | Vicar-general laments G-G debate | false | https://poynter.org/news/vicar-general-laments-g-g-debate | 2003-05-06 | 2 |
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<p>Table game players can also join in the haunting fun during “$40K Cauldron of Prizes Hot Seats” on Tuesdays this month including Oct. 11, 18 and 25. There will be two winners drawn every two hours between noon and 8 p.m. Each winner will roll one dice to try to win up to $1,000 in table games free play.</p>
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<p /> | More than hocus pocus: Sky City Casino Hotel scaring up big prizes in October | false | https://abqjournal.com/862235/more-than-hocus-pocus.html | 2 |
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<p>If you intend to see "Amour," and you should, then you should do so before reading this review. Certain dramatic details are revealed below in order to explore the film's deeper meaning.</p>
<p>As Michael Haneke's "Amour" opens, Georges and Anne (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, both superb) are French music teachers in their 80s who return happily from a concert to their loving lives. The next morning, however, she suffers a stroke and is hospitalized. When she comes home, she makes him promise never again to place her under institutional care. He begins nursing her at home - and makes a patient, uncomplaining job of it, as her decline proceeds apace.</p>
<p>That's all that happens in this quite beautiful film, which is essentially a compilation of minor events. People (notably Isabelle Huppert, playing their daughter) drop in for visits, though eventually Anne refuses to see them as her appearance fades. There are incidents, benign and not so benign, with the nurses Georges hires to spell him, but mostly the movie consists of him feeding her, bathing her, doing her hair. You would not think this amounts to much - and maybe it doesn't - but such is the intimate power of Haneke's camera that these interactions exert a sort of hypnotic force on the film. Somehow, you are never tempted toward impatience with - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602620/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" type="external">Amour</a>.? And it is a very tender movie.</p>
<p>Until, all of a sudden, it is not. At a certain point, when Anne's decline has reached a level of near total incomprehension, Georges grabs a pillow and suffocates her. There is no preparation for this act of violence, no foreshadowing. It simply comes out of nowhere. And we don't know whether it is an act of love or an act of rage. Stunned at first, we come to realize that it was inevitable, that the whole film was preparing us for this event.</p>
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<p>This is the reason for the spoiler alert above. You cannot talk intelligibly about "Amour" without reference to the event. It is, by no means, the climax of the film, though it is obviously its dramatic high point. Georges stays on in the apartment, with Anne laid out prettily in her bed, while he awaits discovery. There are a couple of amusing incidents involving an intrusive pigeon (of all things) and then, improbably yet persuasively, the film veers toward a happy ending. Suddenly Anne is restored to health and vigor. This is fantasy, of course, but there she is, bustling about, preparing to go out for a walk with Georges, reminding him to take his coat.</p>
<p>I think the message of the film, if it may be said to have one, is that love is sometimes - probably rarely - eternal. If that's true, "Amour" does not state it with particular good cheer. It is an objectively observant film, which is greatly to its credit. And it is an impeccable film. That is to say, it never raises its voice, never grows hysterical no matter how increasingly dire the circumstances the couple confronts become. What it's saying, I think, is that our inevitable, inescapable final crisis is life's endgame, the business of conducting someone we love to the end of life (in the process of which we must inevitably confront our own mortality). What is singular about "Amour" - pretty much unique in the annals of cinema in my experience - is that it does so with such calmness. There is no question in my mind that when they leave their apartment (a very handsome, indeed enviable, place) for the last time, they are crossing over into eternity, where possibly their love will love on - eternally. I don't happen to think that's a possibility, curse my rationalism. But, for the moment, it is a pretty thing to think. And this limpid, almost perfectly executed, film, if it does not save a perfectly wretched movie year, at least stirs some faint hope. Simple is good and excellence is, albeit rarely, attainable.</p>
<p /> | A Simple, Excellent and Surprising Film | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/a-simple-excellent-and-surprising-film/ | 2012-12-20 | 4 |
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<p>Boom! Check it.</p>
<p>A Christian radio show host asked me the other day how I could, as a believer, be cool with waterboarding terrorists for intel crucial to our national security—or, as I like to call it, the implementation of the Irrigation for Information Act. Irrigation sounds so much more pleasant than torture, oui? Oui.</p>
<p>I told my inquiring host that as a patriotic white male Christian redneck, as far as I can deduce from the holy text, Jesus and the balance of Scripture seem to be okay with dunking Achmed if said butt munch has the 411 regarding the 10/20 of the next mass slaughter of innocent Americans. Call me crazy. I’m well aware, however, that I could be committing an exegetical error given the fact that I’m white and male and all. This is my cross.</p>
<p>Please note: If Christ wasn’t cool with irrigating irate Islamicists for facts, I must admit, I would still have to green light our boys getting data from enemy combatants 007 style. Stick a fire hose up their tailpipe and turn it on full blast. I don’t care. I’m not as holy as most of you super saints or as evolved as some of you progressive atheists purport to be. Security beats spirituality in this scenario, as far as I’m concerned.</p>
<p>Now, as you can imagine, the holier-than-I show host was a tad bit taken aback by my confidence and giddiness over teaching captured terrorists how to snorkel minus the snorkeling gear if it would keep our country safe. He saw that as somehow incongruent with the Clay Aikenization of the sassy Christ a stack of Americans now worship. He then asked me, in kind of a tsk-tsk tone, for a proof text or two from Jesus’ lips and la Biblia that would come even close to him wishing or implementing ill on those who would harm or kill the innocent. This was like taking candy from a baby for me.</p>
<p>How’s this for starters, Slappy? In John 2:12-17 Jesus whipped religious hacks who were turning God’s temple into a Costco for religious crap. According to San Juan’s account, it was the second thing Jesus did after John baptized him in the river Jordan. The first thing he did was turn water into wine. That’s two things lame evangelicals can’t imagine Jesus doing: making wine or using a whip, but I digress.</p>
<p>Yep, Jesus opened up a can of whup ass on charlatans in the temple. He didn’t pray for them or write them an angry email with the caps lock on or call them “man-made religious disasters” that we need to apologize to for forcing them to sell overpriced spiritual curios. Nope, he methodically sat down, got ticked, made a whip and cleared the punks.</p>
<p><a href="http://clashdaily.com/2014/12/wwjt-jesus-torture/" type="external">This article continues on&#160;clashdaily.com</a></p> | WWJT: Who Would Jesus Torture? | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/wwjt-jesus-torture/ | 0 |
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<p>Since 1999, Farajii Muhammad has been working in the youth development field. As co-founder, president and spokesman for the youth-governed organization, New Light Leadership Coalition (now New Learninig Leadership Center) he often worked to develop young leaders, connect youth to resources, and bridge the gap between youth and local government. Plus, as a social entrepreneur, Farajii has used his passion for young people to stand as a voice for youth, advocate for their concerns, and an example of a leader and community servant. This work has led him to serve in many avenues including speaking at community and national events, presenting workshops at conferences across the country, and consulting with community organizers, young leaders, and political figures. Finally, since 2005, Farajii has been making his mark in broadcasting by using his radio show "Listen Up!" that airs on public radio 88.9 WEAA FM (Morgan State University), as a medium to empower, inform and uplift the consciousness of the next generation of leaders. Presently, Farajii joined the AFSC team in August 2014 to serve as the Youth Empowerment Coordinator for Baltimore. He has already started using all of his experiences, skills and resources to develop the Young Leaders for Peace (YLP) program. YLP will serve as a means and platform that will encourage the mobilizing and organizing of young leaders to strategically address pressing social justice issues facing themselves, their peers and their communities. Farajii Muhammad can be reached by phone at (240) 707-0384 and by email at [email protected].</p>
<p>Activist attorney Kamau K. Franklin was based in New York City for over eighteen years and represented activist, police misconduct victims and others. He has been a leading member of several grassroots groups and worked on various issues including youth development, police misconduct, and creating sustainable urban communities. Kamau has helped develop community cop-watch programs, freedom school programs for youth and electoral work. He traveled to Palestine as part of a delegation monitoring Israeli human rights abuses. He is now based in the south and is the political editor for Atlanta Black Star. . He also blogs at grassrootsthinking.com and can be followed on twitter @kamaufranklin. - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/author/kamau-franklin#sthash.mJvXbEod.dpuf</p>
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<p /> SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome back to The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore.
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<p />This is the second segment with our conversation with Kamau K. Franklin and Faraji Muhammad. Thanks to you for joining us again.
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<p />And thank you, gentlemen, for joining us.
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<p />KAMAU K. FRANKLIN, ATTORNEY AND ACTIVIST: Thank you.
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<p />FARAJI MUHAMMAD, YOUTH ORGANIZER, BALTIMORE AFSC: Thank you so much.
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<p />PERIES: So, in our earlier segment, Faraji, Kamau, we were talking about a national day of action that you're organizing on January 15 that's going to bring together the community, and also some action on Martin Luther King's birthday. However, you guys have been organizers for quite a long time. You since you were 16, perhaps before that. I have a feeling that you have some ideas in your head in terms of the kinds of things that the community should be supporting in this day of action. So let's talk about what some of those strategies are.
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<p />FRANKLIN: I think what we want to do is to set the basis to really work on not only short-term strategies, but medium-term and long-term strategies. So short-term there are some things that are out there that are low-hanging fruit, because everybody's been talking about them. And we need to know that these things aren't panaceas. They're not going to solve the problem completely. But there are tools that we need to have in terms of our day-to-day actions with the police. So strengthening civilian complaint review boards is something that's been talked about. The body cams issue something that's been talked about. I think those things in particular, as well as the Justice Department looking into more investigations into police departments, I think those particular items--and we can throw in there bringing federal charges, civil rights charges, against the officers who have beat two grand juries now, both in Ferguson and in New York. Those things are there, those things are attainable things, and those are the things that I think that if we put some power behind in the short-term, as communities, we can achieve and we can win.
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<p />But we all know that those are not sort of long-term things that are going to bring power to our communities, right? And one of the things that we've been talking about in general, not just within AFSC, but in general conversations, is the continued lack of power of our community. We're at the same place where we were 20 years ago, the same place we were at potentially 40 years ago in terms of the power that we have to either stand up against or create new institutions in our community.
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<p />And we were talking during the break a little bit about Venezuela. And it's example for a lot of us that I don't think we consider a lot. Like things in Venezuela, how communities, poor communities, working-class communities came together to form a political basis for change, not only in day-to-day activities, but changes in how resources are used and how resources come into different communities and who has a say in how those resources come into communities.
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<p />So we want to use this day as a startoff, but it's definitely a way in which we want to move forward into how do we begin to create institutions that again really delve into economic issues within our community, institution building within our community. We've given up that fight. We've been so focused in on the day-to-day issues of policing, the day-to-date issues of post the recession, important issues. But we have no vision anymore for what should happen in our communities and who should be the folks really in charge of making those decisions. We have some tired civil rights organizations--I don't need to be disparaging, but some organizations that are just tired, and they have no new vision, they have no new ideas, but they take up resources and they take up space.
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<p />So we have to challenge those folks, as well as challenging our youth to know that being out there in the front lines is important work, but you have to have a strategy behind it, because those mobilizations, they burn out. And after they burn out, if you don't have coherent strategies around next steps, then you are leading yourself down a rabbit hole. You're going out there, you're building yourself up for something. These things are not going to change. And then you're going to be pointing fingers at each other, which is something that, unfortunately, has happened generation after generation. So we really need to look closely at what not only this particular day can do, but what we want to see happen longer-term in this movement moment that we're all experiencing.
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<p />PERIES: Okay. Kamau, one would think that you've had that political moment and political opportunity to make the kinds of changes that is necessary, at least as far as the legal structure and framework is concerned. You had Eric Holder as your attorney general. You've had President Obama, an African-American who's had experiences and has been a organizer in the community himself. They were not able to shake the system. Why?
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<p />FRANKLIN: I think because, one, they didn't try. Two, it wasn't what they felt they were elected to do. So, again, this goes back to the power within the community to put pressure on elected officials, black, white, Latino, whatever, to do things in response to community needs. I don't think Obama has felt, and Holder to the same extent has felt, that they have needed in the past to answer or be responsive to the black community in particular and other communities that are experiencing this kind of police violence. Instead they felt that they can go to these communities and in most part chastise communities for their individual behavior and for things that we have to do, and actually try to get us to get on board to their program around what change means. Right? So a moderate Democratic platform about what change means. And they've not been put in a position where they've felt that they needed to listen and respond to the real demands of working-class and poor folks, because there's not a movement to push them to do so. No elected official, at least, to my knowledge, not many of them, will get out front of issues and stand strong with them when those folks are not necessarily in a position to either pay their bills or in a position to threaten to kick them out of office. We have to be in a position not only to do that, but, and again, to build other resources within the community, other institutions in the community, that whether or not some of the system is working or not for the community, there's some the self-sustaining aspect of how we do our business within the general black community, I would say.
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<p />PERIES: Faraji, talk to the kind of sustainable community organizing that needs to take place and what are some of the longer-term strategies that you think needs to be put into place now.
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<p />MUHAMMAD: Well, I think right now we need to figure out what's going to be the infrastructure in terms of how we organize. I know that the work that we're doing, of course, with AFSC is coalition building. So we come to the table with the idea in mind that it's not one organization that's going to save all of the black community, or it's not one black organization that's going to save all of the young people. So our model is based upon coalition-building, and let's look at what strengths you bring, what resources you bring, both individually and organizationally, and see how we can kind of create this larger skills bank, where we know exactly who is responsible and who is able to do what.
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<p />I think that that's [what] Kamau mentioned is that we have to not just have that infrastructure, but a lot of times when we organize with young people, you've got to break through a couple of mentalities, one being that we don't know it all. And so we need to be surrounded by individuals or elders who are going to--or even not just elders, but individuals who are going to just give us right guidance. They're not going to be weak in their guidance, but at the same time, they can give us right guidance to kind of channel the direction. So I think we've got to break down that you know, just because I'm young, I got it. I don't want to move forward that way, and I think that shooting ourselves in the foot when we're considering we're dealing with some very, very long-term issues and challenges and we need to be surrounded by people that know what they're doing or how to get through all of that. That's one. So I think that needs to be a part of that infrastructure.
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<p />The other part of it is that we have to look at, okay, as Kamau mentioned, institutional building. Well, what role would the next generation play into that? And we have to figure out--and, again, that goes back to the skills. But we have to be ensured that we're part of those conversations [if] there's going to be new think tank, if there going to be a new school. Young people need to be at the table.
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<p />Young people should be involved in that. So what we're hoping, for example, from the day of action, if you're talking about doing any type of civilian review board, there should be a young person who is qualified that is able to be a part of the board. So that way, when issues dealing with young people come up, that there's--that voice is needed right there at the civilian review board. If you're talking about body cams, to make sure that the body cam legislation includes--suppose police are attacking little children and young people. So we need to make sure that the interests of young people is protected.
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<p />But you're talking about long-term sustainability, then we need to take make sure that, one, that young people and the next generation, the interests--and I'm speaking of high school college students, young professionals--they need to be intimately involved in this whole process. And so it cannot just be this windowdressing that we often see. There has to be some very, very direct action, and there has to be some intimate involvement, and we have to make sure that the next generation is reconnected with those who have gone before them to ensure that this whole path that we're on is a very victorious path.
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<p />And as Kamau mentioned, low-hanging fruit, very, very important. We're going to--I know that for us is that we're going to focus on the low-hanging fruit stuff. And then, as we get to the bigger stuff, then we're going to bring out the big dogs and ask for that assistance. But we need to start small, because you're dealing with a generation that have the smarts, the intelligence, the fearlessness, but they don't always--they need to know where to go and how to start off. And I think that's the process we're taking.
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<p />PERIES: I was recently in Brazil at a huge youth conference that culminated in São Paulo. Here we are dealing now with a youth that is highly preoccupied with popular culture, that are individualized through various commercial activities in our culture. And the desire to really socially organize and build institutions, creating that desire is a huge challenge.
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<p />So tell me the kinds of strategies you are engaged in that are not only providing people with the historical context--I mean, one of the great challenges for us is that in the current youth, that historical memory of what brought us here has been lost. You know, why do we find ourselves in this situation is completely lost. So you have to remap that history to build a sense of urgency, to be able to build a movement that could sustain itself. Tell me about the kind of training, workshops, engagement you are involved in.
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<p />MUHAMMAD: Whenever I get a chance to talk to young people, I always tell them, get off of Facebook, get off of Instagram, get off of Twitter. And it's funny, because I read an article where they say that young people between, like, the ages, I think, of 18 to 30 get 50 percent of their news from Facebook. And a lot of [incompr.] information that we get on Facebook is just half-truths or just straight out lies, they're not fully researched information, and it's like, you know, everything that you can think of.
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<p />So the fact is is that if we're going to have this kind of movement, we have to stop from being distracted. And I think that the way we can do that is by first putting it out there that just because you post a hashtag--#Mike Brown, #Eric Garner--that doesn't change the situation. Social media can be a tool to organize if used productively. Social media could be a tool for awareness. But at the end of the day, you're going to have to get off of the phone and go down to City Hall or go out into the streets are go into that school or go into that neighborhood, and you're going to have to put in that work. So it's not just enough to just do it on social media, because that's so easy and that doesn't take any sacrifice.
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<p />The fact is that this type of moment that we're in, this time period that we're in, requires sacrifice. So that means that it requires more of what you're willing to give. It takes you into that uncomfortable zone for organizing. And I think that's where we are right now. We've got to get out of our comfort zone and say, well, I just want to do it like this. We have to get off of that and not allow those things to distract us from the very, very critical moment. And I think that if we allow those things to be removed, then we can come to the table.
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<p />But I want to definitely point out that for, like, our national day of action, that of course we're going to use social media, of course we're going to let folks know. But it's really about what is it that you can bring to the table and how we can turn this movement that may have started off with even Trayvon Martin, that continues with Mike Brown and Eric Garner--but how can we make this movement relevant and realistic for us right here in Baltimore? And I think that's the piece that's missing.
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<p />We've got a lot of social justice issues, a lot of young people. I went to high school a couple of weeks ago. They told me about some of the issues that--I mean high school students getting beat up by the police and their families and seeing that. There's a lot of issues here in Baltimore. We should have a movement of young people that's involved in that, making sure that these things change. And we can. We really can. We've just got to remove all the other distractions at this point.
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<p />PERIES: Faraji, you are a unique asset to the community. But, Kamau, we need so many more Farajis who are conscious, who are engaged, who really wants to change the world by thinking about it, not just, you know, doing it because somebody's telling you to, but the strategies come from--if when it originates inside you and you put it out there and the community accepts it, you know, it gives you the incentive, motivation to keep going. And I can see that Faraji is a product of that. What do you have to say to Faraji to build more Farajis?
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<p />FRANKLIN: I think that the things that I've seen that really work and what was good for me was that when I got involved in organizing--and I went through several organizations. At one point, in terms of my young organizing life, I probably joined every organization that was political that I could find. In fact, I was so desperate to join an organization, I actually researched the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which was Malcolm's last organization he created, just to see if it was still around, if I could join that. So I found a place that I thought had a good mentor-mentee relationship for what I needed at the time with elder activists and organizers who some of which provided some guidance for how to move forward, how to organize, what were their experiences, but allowed enough room for me to go out and make my mistakes. Right? And I think that's extremely important for young organizers. I think having folks that you have seen go through it before, who can tell you certain things about what--some things that could be traps in their way, it's very important, I think, making sure that people get as much political education and training and workshops. And people actually build skills through movement organizing. It's amazing the skill-building that happens in terms of writing skills and speaking skills, things that people don't imagine that they do get out of this work, and then providing a lot of folks in our community who are interested in cultural issues, they're interested in economic issues, providing the space too to explore those channels.
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<p />So there's been a time where sometimes if we did things--and there's a group [we've] been working with now, and they want to do community gardens, and we've done those in the past. I don't think those are sort of revolutionary things that will change the way we sort of--our community feeds ourselves, but I think they're good starting points for learning how to get involved with sustainable food growth, learning how to get involved with some forms of economics, in terms of how do you grow the food, how do you pay for seeds to get the food, distribution channels, and that kind of thing. I think there are entrepreneurial skills that we need to teach the community.
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<p />And there's things like that that I think that's how you build young Farajis. Like, I don't know if you're going to quite get another one like this brother, but that's how you try to build young Fridays is that you give them sort of the benefit of whatever it is that you may have. But ultimately you also let them make their mistakes. You help guide them such as possible. But folks are going to make mistakes, right? And that's a great thing. I've probably learned more from my errors than I ever have from any success I've had. And I think that's true for most of us.
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<p />So I think there's, again, a moment here in what's happening in the United States where more young people are coming out participating in civil disobedience, direct action, mobilizations, and we want to make sure, as folks who've sort of somewhat been through some of this before and those who are older than me who've been through a lot more than I have, that we can be there to help support those young folks, to help say, well, I might not do it that way, but in the end, you try it and let's see what happens kind of thing, as opposed to potentially the sort of co-opting or taking over of young folks and them never having the ability to sort of make a move without checking in.
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<p />So I think we have to be careful about that. We have to help guide those folks. We have to remember there is a place for older folks in terms of movement organizing. But we also have to remember that this struggle now, particularly around the issue of police violence, is something that's been experienced by teenagers, by 20-year-olds, and by some 30-year-olds. Those are the folks who most need to be out there and the folks who need to change the system and make things different than what they are right now.
<p />
<p />MUHAMMAD: I mean, and who knows how far or how much impact that if we activate a group of young people today, not ten years down the road, but even two or three years down the road, how that will play out for them in their personal lives? And they're going to grow up and they're going to be influence and impact [sic]. And so their view of the community is going to change. So they're going to be the next ones in City Hall, they're going to be the next ones in the police department and in the school system, and in all of these institutions that serve as support for the community. That's really what it is. This is all about planting a seed of a new idea. That's what it is. It's not about--we're going to work on issues. But at the end of the day, we're talking about really planting a seed of a new idea of freedom, justice, and inequality in a generation that has what it takes. You've got people around it.
<p />
<p />This is really our time. I can feel it. I wake up with a passion like, man, you can feel it in the air that something major is happening. I get it on Facebook, get it on Twitter. Everybody is, like, talking about, yo, what do we do? Can we get involved? People are being activated, and I think the consciousness of this particular time is what's going to just--is so big and overwhelming that change has got to happen. I was always taught 100 percent dissatisfaction brings about 100 percent change. And that's what we're seeing today, and that's why I'm very happy that even though these are unfortunate incidents, I truly believe that these are the incidents that we need to wake up and these are the incidents that's going to cause our generation, my generation, to take its rightful role as being fulfillers of the prayers and the hopes of the community.
<p />
<p />PERIES: Faraji, Kamau, thank you both for joining us. And please feel free to use The Real News as a tool to do the work that you're doing.
<p />
<p />FRANKLIN: Thank you so much.
<p />
<p />MUHAMMAD: Thank you.
<p />
<p />PERIES: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network. And don't forget to Tweet us at The Real News.
<p />
<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Why the American Justice System Is Failing Us (2/2) | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12772 | 2014-12-06 | 4 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-138796595/stock-photo-two-business-men-high-five.html?src=HxFLqBWcYdlz70uEYdCJOA-1-57"&gt;auremar&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock</p>
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<p>A recent decision from the Federal Elections Commission could overturn 70 years of precedent and defang a long-standing law that bars companies from buying favorable election results to gain federal contracts. Goodbye anti-pay-to-play laws, hello corporate America profiting off lucrative government deals based on campaign donations.</p>
<p>The trouble all stems from a single contribution made during the 2012 election. On October 7, 2012, oil giant Chevron donated $2.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), a super PAC tied to John Boehner and House Republicans that spent almost $10 million in 2012, largely on ads attacking Democratic House candidates.</p>
<p>That raised the ire of Public Citizen, a liberal consumer advocate group. In a complaint <a href="http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3828" type="external">sent</a> to the FEC last year, Public Citizen and a handful of other groups claimed that Chevron and CLF violated a federal law (referred to as pay-to-play) that bans any corporation that holds a contract with the federal government from contributing to a political campaign. The complaint was sent after&#160;Public Citizen checked a public database of federal contractors and noticed that Chevron was listed as working with the government. Last week the FEC dismissed those complaints with an&#160;argument that could create a loophole a million dollars wide for other companies to exploit.</p>
<p>The FEC bought the company’s argument, which is that Chevron Corporation (the organization that donated to CLF) and Chevron U.S.A. (the organization with government contracts) are entirely different entities.</p>
<p>By any normal sense Chevron Corporation and Chevron U.S.A. look like the same company. Chevron USA is a subsidiary of the brand name company. Chevron Corporation owns a 100 percent stake in Chevron U.S.A. They share the same CEO and list the same mailing address. They may have different staffs and work on separate projects, but anyone&#160;might&#160;view that as separate projects housed in the same larger entity. “This is a distinction without a difference,” says Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen.</p>
<p>The FEC dismissed those similarities.&#160;The commission hasn’t released its full decision yet—that should become public within the next few weeks—but last week Public Citizen <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/Chevron_FEC_Decision.pdf" type="external">published a letter</a> it received from the FEC that explains its reasoning. Per the FEC, it doesn’t matter that both companies are headquartered at the same address in San Ramon, California, since Chevron is incorporated in Delaware and Chevron U.S.A. is incorporated in Pennsylvania. The letter spells out the maze of how Chevron has parsed itself into separate subsection to avoid legal liability:</p>
<p>Chevron holds 100% of the stock of Chevron Investments, Inc., which in turn owns the stock of other companies, including 100% of the stock of Texaco, Inc. Endries Decl. Texaco, Inc. owns the stock of other companies, including 100% of Chevron U.S.A. Holdings, Inc., which in turn owns 100% of the shares of Chevron U.S.A.</p>
<p>Chevron says&#160;it shouldn’t be treated as a federal contractor since the larger company technically doesn’t hold any government contract—it just wholly owns and derives its profits from the subsection of the company that makes deals with the federal government.&#160;“That sort of artificial division of the families of one corporation could cause widespread evasion of federal pay-to-play laws,” Holman says.</p>
<p>Recent FEC decisions have tended to be deadlocked, with the commission split 3-3 between Democrat and Republican appointees. But the fact that they reached a decision on this case implies that a majority of the commissioners agreed with the logic of the case.</p>
<p>There’s an irony to the FEC’s decision on the Chevron donation: the commission is currently <a href="http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/wagner.shtml" type="external">defending</a> the pay-to-play rules in court. While the commission lets companies circumvent&#160;the rule, they’re devoting federal dollars to costly litigation to keep the rule on the books.</p>
<p>For now the FEC’s ruling on Chevron’s $2.5 million donation is a standalone decision, but it could set a standard for other companies to evade the intent of the prohibition in the future. “So far it’s an isolated case,” Holman says, “but it has the potential of turning into a very broad problem.”</p>
<p /> | Critics Say Chevron Flouted Pay-to-Play Law. FEC Says It’s All Good. | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/chevron-super-pac-fec-pay-play/ | 2014-03-24 | 4 |
<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>Ellen DeGeneres gave a message of hope during Thursday’s episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” following Donald Trump’s shocking win to become 45th President of the United States.</p>
<p>“You may have heard that there was a presidential election on Tuesday. The big winner was alcohol. A lot of alcohol,” DeGeneres&#160;began “Obviously, a lot of people were disappointed by the results. My job is to be hopeful and to make everybody feel good. And I’m gonna keep doing that for as long as I can.”</p>
<p>The comedian continued that she would keep staying positive because she loves her audience before reciting the Eleanor Roosevelt quote “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”</p>
<p>“And I think that is a beautiful thing and I believe you should also remember what Kanye West once said: ‘Blocka, blocka, blocka, blocka, Pour a little champagne, cranberry vodka,’” DeGeneres joked.</p>
<p>She went on to show a clip from “Planet Earth II” featuring a baby iguana who narrowly escapes from a group of hungry snakes.</p>
<p>“And that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re all gonna do that. If you feel like there’s snakes coming at you from every direction,” DeGeneres continued. “The snakes may be the fact that you don’t feel heard. Or nobodies on your side. Or that you don’t like what’s on the Starbucks Holiday Cups this year. No matter what your snake is, there is hope for your little iguana.”</p>
<p>Watch below.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ellen DeGeneres</a> <a href="" type="internal">Planet Earth II</a> <a href="" type="internal">The Ellen DeGenres Show</a></p> | Ellen DeGeneres gives hopeful post-election message | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/11/10/ellen-degeneres-gives-hopeful-post-election-message/ | 3 |
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<p>Allow me to go out on a limb here to predict that O.J. Simpson has not had his last tango with law enforcement.</p>
<p>Yes, he recently got a Nevada parole board to approve his release from prison on or about Oct. 1. But I got the impression Simpson – after serving nine years for kidnapping and armed robbery – really doesn’t think he did anything wrong back in 2007.</p>
<p>A parole commissioner asked him about the night he and a posse of pals, two of whom were armed, stormed into a Las Vegas hotel room and demanded the return of Simpson’s memorabilia.</p>
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<p>“What were you thinking?” Commissioner Tony Corda asked.</p>
<p>“It was my property,” Simpson said with a shrug and a smile. “I wasn’t there to steal from anybody.” And he proceeded to launch into one of his famously long soliloquies.</p>
<p>“I never should have allowed those security guys to be there,” Simpson told the board, referring to the two men with guns. “They were just out for themselves.”</p>
<p>One of those armed men was Walter Alexander, who readily admits he used to be the guy who got the drugs for his buddies during their long weekend get-togethers. But these days, Alexander says, he has found God and turned his life around.</p>
<p>I watched O.J.’s parole hearing sitting next to Alexander on the New York set of a cable TV program. He looked stunned as O.J. gave his revisionist version of events from a decade ago. Early on, Alexander turned to me and whispered, “He is not telling the truth.”</p>
<p>“What is he talking about, that we were out for ourselves?” Alexander asked. “Why does he keep calling us ‘security guys’ like he didn’t know us? He asked us to come with him to get his stuff back!”</p>
<p>Back on the TV screen Simpson expressed open-palmed surprise that there had been guns in the room. Alexander, who had told me he hoped his longtime ex-friend would win his freedom that day, sat upright in his seat.</p>
<p>“He just blew it. They will know he’s lying,” Alexander said as he sadly shook his head. He was convinced O.J. had just lost his parole bid.</p>
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<p>Alexander was sure the commissioners remembered his own trial testimony and that of Michael McClinton, the other gunman in the hotel room. Both testified during O.J.’s trial that they had firearms at O.J.’s insistence and that right before they entered, Simpson instructed them to “show the guns and look menacing.”</p>
<p>“I feel sorry for him,” Alexander said as he sank back down in his seat on the set. HLN host Erica Hill and I passed a glance, wondering if he was right. Would the Nevada parole commissioners see through Simpson’s golly-gee-I-didn’t-know-anything guise?</p>
<p>Then those jaw dropping comments from Simpson.</p>
<p>“I have, basically, led a conflict-free life,” prisoner No. 1027820 told the parole board.</p>
<p>Really? How many people do you know who have faced four separate court trials as Simpson has? One in 1995 on that infamous charge of double murder, a 1997 civil proceeding at which he was ordered to pay the family of murder victim Ron Goldman a settlement of $33.5 million, a 2001 road rage trial that found him not guilty of burglary and battery and, of course, the 2008 trial in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>He has led a “conflict-free” life? Does O.J. Simpson think we’re stupid?</p>
<p>When Simpson said, “Nobody has ever accused me of pulling any weapon on them,” I thought of two people who would argue with that if only they weren’t dead – Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman.</p>
<p>“I don’t think anybody’s ever accused me of having an alcohol problem or any kind of substance problem,” Simpson said when a commissioner asked why he’d failed to take an alcohol abuse program in prison as he’d promised. From the seat to my left, Alexander said, “He had been drinking all day (in 2007). He was totally drunk when we went to that room.”</p>
<p>My own reporting during the 1995-96 double-murder investigation and trial contradicted that statement, too. I whispered to Alexander that back in the day sources had told me Simpson was a frequent drinker and drug user.</p>
<p>“Cocaine and ecstasy were his favorites,” Alexander said in a matter-of-fact tone.</p>
<p>I could continue to pick apart Simpson’s statements to the parole board, but why? The commissioners chose to ignore Simpson’s discrepancies and seemed to have pre-determined the outcome of this televised extravaganza.</p>
<p>So, O.J. walks free in a couple of months. His fate will, once again, rest with his own behavior. Given his propensity to blame everyone else for his problems, I’m betting he’ll find it tough to stick to the strict restrictions of his parole. I wonder if O.J. realizes that no matter where he goes, countless cellphone cameras will be ready to capture his every move.</p>
<p>Simpson says he just wants to go back to his family in Florida and live quietly. Good idea. Then he can finally fulfill his 1995 promise to, “pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman.”</p>
<p>www.DianeDimond.com; email to [email protected].</p>
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<p /> | Pal says O.J. lied to parole board | false | https://abqjournal.com/1040207/pal-says-oj-lied-to-parole-board.html | 2 |
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<p>NEW YORK, Oct 23 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BLK), the world's largest asset manager, is lambasting the architects of market indexes like the S&amp;P 500 for ostracizing companies that deny equal voting rights to shareholders, saying that doing so could limit the opportunities of investors in index funds.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Snap Inc, the parent company of messaging app Snapchat, made waves when it went public in a $3.4 billion offering last March with a class of common stock granting no voting rights, and it was later excluded from some market indexes.</p>
<p>BlackRock has said it supports all shareholders getting an equal vote. Yet, in a report published on the company's website on Monday, the manager of nearly $6 trillion in assets said it is up to regulators to set corporate-governance policies, not index providers.</p>
<p>BlackRock said that, without regulatory changes, corporations should seek shareholders' approval of capital structures that deprive some of voting rights, and that they should let shareholders exercise equal voting rights on specific topics, such as executive pay, that pose a conflict of interest.</p>
<p>"While we understand entrepreneurs' desire to maintain control of their company following an initial public offering, we believe that shareholders should have a say in critical decisions," the BlackRock report said.</p>
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<p>"However, we disagree with index providers' recent decisions to exclude certain companies from broad market indices due to governance concerns. Those decisions could limit our index-based clients' access to the investable universe of public companies and deprive them of opportunities for returns."</p>
<p>FTSE Russell and S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices LLC said in July they would exclude Snap and companies with similar structures from certain stock indexes, citing concerns over their lack of voting rights. MSCI Inc in June proposed a plan that would exclude Snap and companies like it, and invited feedback.</p>
<p>BlackRock's opinion on the role of index providers in resolving the fraught corporate governance debate, which has not previously been reported, carries special weight because the company is a top provider of funds that track indexes.</p>
<p>Vanguard Group, with $4.5 trillion in assets, has also said it believes companies like Snap should not "be excluded solely on the basis of voting limitations at this time."</p>
<p>BlackRock and Vanguard are top shareholders in companies around the world, and they vote proxy ballots that can change company directors and influence management policies.</p>
<p>An MSCI spokeswoman said the company is still consulting with clients and will make a decision based on what clients think. S&amp;P and FTSE Russell declined to comment on BlackRock's views.</p>
<p>Snap also declined to comment. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York; Additional reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston and David Ingram in San Francisco; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Leslie Adler)</p> | BlackRock opposes banning companies from indexes over voting rights | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/23/blackrock-opposes-banning-companies-from-indexes-over-voting-rights.html | 2017-10-23 | 0 |
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<p>The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/arts/television/08conc.html?_r=1&amp;hp&amp;oref=slogin" type="external">thought they were pretty funny</a>: New Zealand’s “fourth most popular folk-parody duo” Flight of the Conchords are taking their HBO show about being, well, wildly unsuccessful, on a wildly successful tour, and they just played in New York to an appreciative crowd. The TV show, while not exactly a breakout hit, ratings-wise, was pretty much the second-best thing on HBO last year, both for the hilarity of their song parodies ( <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zV4pJ8MwM" type="external">“Bowie’s In Space,”</a> anyone?) and for the low-key quirkiness of their heavily-accented banter. So, it’s a good show on TV, but isn’t there something a bit awkward about parody songs plopping down into the real-life rock context of an actual concert hall?</p>
<p>After the jump: What happens when the highest-charting death metal band of all time is, um, a joke?</p>
<p>Of course, Spinal Tap, the apex of parody-rock, have had a successful live career, although I’ve often suspected a lot of the audience just thinks they’re watching a real heavy metal band. LA’s <a href="http://www.myspace.com/steelpantherkicksass" type="external">Steel Panther</a> and Adult Swim’s <a href="http://www.myspace.com/dethklok" type="external">Dethklok</a> (the hightest-charting death metal band of all time!) fit in there as well: are audiences laughing with them, laughing at them, or just making devil-horn signs cause they rawk? Semi-parodic geek rock is generally more tolerable, like Bloodhound Gang or They Might Be Giants. But then there’s The Dan Band, whose shtick of covering tracks originally sung by women for the amusing gender-inversion factor gets old in about a nanosecond, and Tenacious D, whose take on overwrought rock-star self-indulgence is even more overwrought and self-indulgent.</p>
<p>As amusing as Flight of the Conchords (the show) is, Flight of the Conchords the live band still seems like an iffy proposition. Is there a limit to how far comedy rock can go, a kind of physical law of joke bands that states “balancing humor and musicianship requires both to remain below a certain level or the equation becomes unstable”? Or am I just a fuddy-duddy who needs to loosen up and go out for a night of chuckles? Riffers, tell us: is live comedy rock worth the ticket price?</p>
<p>Photo used under a creative commons license from Flickr user <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/lesliemiperry/" type="external">Lesliemperry</a>.</p>
<p /> | Comedy Bands: How Far Can they Go? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/05/comedy-bands-how-far-can-they-go/ | 2008-05-09 | 4 |
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<p>HOUSTON — Texas’ highest criminal court Wednesday upheld a former justice of the peace’s conviction and death sentence for killing a district attorney’s wife in what prosecutors said was a revenge plot that left three people dead.</p>
<p>Attorneys for Eric Williams argued to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that there were 40 errors at his December 2014 trial, where a jury decided he should die for the killing of 65-year-old Cynthia McLelland. She and her husband, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, 63, were shot to death in their home in Forney, a suburb east of Dallas, in 2013.</p>
<p>Williams, 50, has been charged but not tried for the deaths of Mike McLelland and his chief assistant prosecutor, Mark Hasse. Hasse, 57, was fatally shot two months earlier outside the Kaufman County courthouse.</p>
<p>Authorities said Williams was upset because the prosecutor’s office had pursued charges alleging that he stole some county-owned computer equipment and the conviction cost him his law license and job.</p>
<p>Williams’ appeals lawyers, from the state Office of Capital and Forensic Writs, did not immediately reply to a phone message seeking comment.</p>
<p>In their appeal, they questioned whether the evidence presented at the trial was sufficient to merit a conviction or death sentence.</p>
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<p>In its ruling, the appeals court found that the severity and the number of bullet wounds Cynthia McLelland and her husband suffered “left no room for doubt concerning (Williams’) intent to kill the couple.” She was shot five to eight times and her husband at least 10 times.</p>
<p>The court also found that evidence showing Williams “planned and executed the murders of three people in two separate incidents” supported the jury’s finding that he was a future danger, one of the questions jurors must answer affirmatively in deciding a death sentence.</p>
<p>Williams’ appeal also challenged the jury selection, the wording of instructions and verdict forms given to jurors, whether the trial judge properly excluded some defense evidence, and testimony from some prosecution witnesses.</p>
<p>Williams’ wife, Kim, testified that she drove the getaway car in Hasse’s death and helped her husband dispose of weapons used in the shooting of the McClellands. She also said her husband had a hit list that included a former judge and another prosecutor.</p>
<p>She subsequently pleaded guilty to her role in the slayings and is serving a 40-year prison term.</p> | Death sentence upheld in Texas prosecutors slayings case | false | https://abqjournal.com/1086444/court-upholds-conviction-in-texas-prosecutor-slayings-case.html | 2017-11-01 | 2 |
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<p>Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles TimesThree dips, clockwise from bottom, hesandin dip, piyas and Riha ezme, are specific to Kurdish cuisine.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>When you browse the menu at Niroj Kurdish Cuisine in Agoura Hills, Calif., you’ll probably be tempted to order the cold mezze platter. It’s a colorful display of five dips served alongside a basket of warm homemade bread.</p>
<p>“Two of the dips, the hummus and baba ghanoush, are very Middle Eastern but I would not claim them as Kurdish,” says Nîroj chef-owner Luqman Barwari. But the other three – hesandin dip, piyas and Riha ezme – are specific to Kurdish cuisine.</p>
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<p>“They are like recipes back home, but with my twist,” Barwari says.</p>
<p>Hesandin means “stuffed,” and the dip is similar to muhammara, containing a blend of roasted red peppers pureed with fresh carrots and walnuts, and flavored with notes of garlic, pomegranate molasses and a touch of Aleppo pepper. Piyas, meaning “onions,” is a vibrant sort of salad, a diced blend of colorful fresh bell peppers, red onions and parsley, brightened with a squeeze of fresh lemon and lightly sweetened with pomegranate molasses. Riha ezme is named after the city of Riha, which is known as Urfa in Turkish. The dip, a puree of roasted peppers with a variety of fresh herbs, also has a hint of spice from pepper paste and ground Aleppo pepper.</p>
<p>“Riha is where Aleppo pepper comes from, and I use the pepper a lot in my cuisine.”</p>
<p>Barwari, who has lived most of his life in the United States, is a former scientist but switched gears a few years ago to follow his other passion: cooking. “Being in America for so long, I realized how much we were lacking in good Kurdish food; no one really claims our cuisine here.”</p>
<p>Nîroj celebrated its fourth anniversary in February. The restaurant’s name is a take on “Newroz,” which means “new day” in Kurdish; the holiday, celebrated in a number of countries throughout the Middle East, commemorates the arrival of spring.</p>
<p>“Each nation celebrates Newroz a little differently,” says Barwari. “The Kurds generally go out from the cities and villages to the mountains to picnic.</p>
<p>“The Kurds lived in Mesopotamia for thousands of years,” says Barwari. The area is mountainous, and the cuisine relies heavily on the plants and vegetables, herbs and spices collected locally.</p>
<p>For Barwari, “Kurdish food is not very spicy, but it is the most flavorful, in my opinion, in the Middle East.”</p>
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<p>At Nîroj, Barwari has developed close relationships with many of the farmers at the nearby farmers markets, centering his dishes around the local produce.</p>
<p>Riha ezme especially highlights the fresh herbs the chef finds at the markets, and he loves to eat it not just as an appetizer but also with his rice and as part of a wrap. “It’s not on the menu, but I make my own lavash, and I add the sauce, along with kebabs and vegetables and onions.” Sounds like perfect picnic food.</p>
<p>“Yes,” he says, laughing. “It is.”</p>
<p>Note: Pepper paste, pomegranate molasses and Aleppo pepper are generally available at Middle Eastern markets and well-stocked supermarkets, as well as online.</p>
<p>PIYAS</p>
<p>Makes about 2 quarts</p>
<p>3 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped</p>
<p>3 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped</p>
<p>Piyas is a vibrant salad of fresh bell peppers, red onions and parsley.</p>
<p>1 bunch parsley, leaves chopped</p>
<p>1 small red onion, chopped</p>
<p>1 (15½-ounce) can white northern beans, rinsed and drained</p>
<p>2 tablespoons Aleppo pepper, or to taste</p>
<p>1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil</p>
<p>1/3 cup pomegranate molasses</p>
<p>1 tablespoon sea salt</p>
<p>Juice of ½ lemon, more to taste</p>
<p>In a bowl, mix together the bell peppers, parsley and onion. Stir in the beans, Aleppo pepper, oil, molasses, sea salt and lemon. Taste, and adjust the seasoning and flavorings if desired. This makes about 2 quarts piyas, which will keep, covered and refrigerated, up to 5 days.</p>
<p>PER 2 TABLESPOONS: 21 calories, 0 g protein, 2 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g sugar, 114 mg sodium</p>
<p>RIHA EZME</p>
<p>Makes about 1 quart</p>
<p>6 to 8 bell peppers, assorted colors</p>
<p>Leaves from 1 bunch basil</p>
<p>Riha ezme is named for the city of Riha, where the Aleppo pepper is grown.</p>
<p>Leaves from 1 bunch oregano</p>
<p>Leaves from ¼ bunch sage</p>
<p>Leaves from 1 bunch Italian parsley</p>
<p>1 tablespoon mild red pepper paste, or to taste</p>
<p>2 tablespoons hot red pepper paste, or to taste</p>
<p>1 clove garlic</p>
<p>½ cup (about ¼) chopped red onion</p>
<p>1/3 cup pomegranate molasses</p>
<p>1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper</p>
<p>Salt, if desired</p>
<p>Roast the peppers: Place the peppers on a rack set over a gas stove-top burner at high heat. Roast, turning frequently, until the skin on all sides of each pepper is charred, about 5 minutes. (If you have an electric or ceramic stove-top, roast the peppers in the oven using the broiler setting until charred on all sides.) Wrap each pepper in plastic wrap and set aside until cool enough to handle, then peel the skin (the skin should stick to the plastic wrap). Rub the plastic wrap against the skin to loosen and remove it. Do not rinse the peppers to remove the skin, as rinsing will remove flavor. Stem and seed each pepper.</p>
<p>Place the peppers, basil, oregano, sage and parsley in the bowl of a food processor, along with the pepper paste, garlic, onion, molasses and pepper. Puree until smooth. Taste and adjust the flavorings or seasoning if desired. This makes about 1 quart dip, which will keep, covered and refrigerated, up to 5 days.</p>
<p>PER 2 TABLESPOONS: 18 calories, 0 g protein, 4 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 0 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 g sugar, 81 mg sodium</p>
<p>HESANDIN DIP</p>
<p>Makes about 1 quart</p>
<p>4 to 6 red bell peppers</p>
<p>6 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped</p>
<p>9 ounces (about 2¼ cups) walnuts</p>
<p>Hesandin dip is a blend of roasted red peppers with fresh carrots and walnuts.</p>
<p>1 clove garlic, finely grated</p>
<p>3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses, or to taste</p>
<p>½ cup extra-virgin olive oil</p>
<p>1 tablespoon salt, or to taste</p>
<p>1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper, or to taste</p>
<p>Roast the peppers: Place the peppers on a rack set over a gas stove-top burner at high heat. Roast, turning frequently, until the skin on all sides of each pepper is charred, about 5 minutes. (If you have an electric or ceramic stove-top, roast the peppers in the oven using the broiler setting until charred on all sides.) Wrap each pepper in plastic wrap and set aside until cool enough to handle, then peel the skin (the skin should stick to the plastic wrap). Rub the plastic wrap against the skin to loosen and remove it. Do not rinse the peppers to remove the skin, as rinsing will remove flavor. Stem and seed each pepper.</p>
<p>Place the peppers, along with the carrots and walnuts, in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped.</p>
<p>Place the pepper mixture into a bowl, and stir in the garlic, molasses, oil, salt and Aleppo pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning and flavorings if desired. This makes about 1 quart dip, which will keep, covered and refrigerated, up to 5 days.</p>
<p>PER 2 TABLESPOONS: 97 calories, 2 g protein, 4 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 9 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 g sugar, 227 mg sodium</p>
<p /> | Discover Kurdish with 3 dips | false | https://abqjournal.com/982404/kurdish.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Volkswagen AG has agreed to pay $175 million to U.S. lawyers suing the German automaker on behalf of 475,000 polluting vehicle owners, two people briefed on the agreement said Friday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In August, lawyers representing the owners sought up to $332.5 million in fees and costs for their work in a $10 billion settlement. The latest costs means VW has agreed to spend up to $16.7 billion to compensate U.S. owners and address claims from states, federal regulators and dealers.</p>
<p>(Reporting by David Shepardson)</p> | Report: Volkswagen to Pay $175M to Vehicle Owners | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/14/report-volkswagen-to-pay-175m-to-vehicle-owners.html | 2016-10-14 | 0 |
<p>By Ken Camp</p>
<p>A Louisiana prison warden known for pioneering faith-based programs wants to see urban and suburban churches work in partnership to reintegrate ex-offenders into society and minister to inmates’ children.</p>
<p>“We want to make the urban church into the agent for change it ought to be,” Burl Cain, warden of <a href="http://www.doc.la.gov/pages/correctional-facilities/louisiana-state-penitentiary/" type="external">Louisiana State Penitentiary</a> at Angola, said at a recent restorative justice ministry conference in Dallas.</p>
<p>Cain has seen transformation occur inside Angola — a 73 percent decline in violent incidents — since he arrived in 1995 at what was called “the nation’s bloodiest prison.”</p>
<p>After 14 years as warden of Louisiana’s Dixon Correctional Institute, he concluded traditional approaches in the correctional system had failed, and he committed to trying something different at Angola.</p>
<p>“I don’t do traditional. If it doesn’t make sense, I don’t do it,” Cain told the conference.</p>
<p>Angola sought to give hope and purpose to inmates serving life-without-parole sentences by equipping them to serve as teachers in a wide variety of educational and vocations classes — from auto mechanics to welding, to carpentry, to culinary arts.</p>
<p>The programs went a long way toward changing the attitude of men serving life sentences, and the job placement rate for ex-offenders in the program rose. Still, Cain realized rehabilitation requires a change of heart.</p>
<p>“If you teach people skills and trades without the moral component, you just made a smarter criminal. You have to change the person. Criminals are selfish people. They don’t care about you or your feelings. They do what they want and take what they want. Moral people do not do that. So, the cure for that problem is the moral component, and that’s found in religion.”</p>
<p>Cain worked with New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Leavell College to launch an extension center at the prison that offers Bible college degrees. Prisoners are required to complete the Experiencing God discipleship program as a prerequisite to the classes the seminary offers, he noted.</p>
<p>Angola recently received private funding for an 11,000-square-foot building that will house classes offered by the seminary, Cain reported.</p>
<p>Angola also built two large chapels — a “nondenominational Catholic chapel” constructed in 38 days using inmate labor and funded by donations from Mexico and a “nondenominational Protestant chapel,” he said.</p>
<p>But beyond worship services led by prison ministry volunteers from outside the prison, Angola also houses Bible college graduates who serve congregations within the prison.</p>
<p>“We have 27 churches in Angola with inmate preachers,” Cain said.</p>
<p>In 2005, Angola prison worked with the AWANA ministry to launch Malachi Dads — a program to help incarcerated fathers who have experienced spiritual transformation reconnect with their children. The initiative takes its name from the Old Testament prophet’s promise God will “turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.”</p>
<p>The program focuses on breaking the cycle of criminal behavior by equipping Christian fathers in prison to leave a godly legacy to their children, Cain explained.</p>
<p>Many of the children of inmates live in urban areas, but for inner-city churches to make an impact on their lives and the lives of ex-offenders who re-enter society, they need suburban churches to stand alongside them to provide volunteer and financial support, Cain insisted.</p>
<p>“God can heal our prisons. God can heal our communities.”</p>
<p>Related stories:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Minister on death row surprised by only one thing: fellow Baptists’ support for capital punishment</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Ministry to more than 100,000 women in prison requires distinctive approach</a></p> | Warden calls for churches to help break cycle of criminal activity | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/warden-calls-for-churches-to-help-break-cycle-of-criminal-activity/ | 3 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal" />CARSON CITY, Nev. - The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld Steve Wynn's $7.5 million judgment in a civil defamation case against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis.</p>
<p>A three-justice panel in an order dated Thursday rejected arguments by Francis that a default judgment granted by a Clark County judge in 2012 should be set aside because his attorneys had withdrawn and he was unable to defend himself.</p>
<p>Justices said the soft-porn video empire founder's last-minute attempts to challenge the default were an attempt to stall proceedings.</p>
<p>Wynn sued Francis in 2008 amid a legal tussle over a $2 million gambling debt Francis incurred the year before at the Wynn Las Vegas resort.</p>
<p>In 2012, Wynn was awarded $21 million against Francis after a separate slander trial in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Wynn wins $7.5M against 'Girls Gone Wild' founder | false | https://abqjournal.com/393557/wynn-wins-7-5m-against-girls-gone-wild-founder.html | 2 |
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<p>By Andrea Shalal</p>
<p>BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany may need to change its constitution to allow it to strike back at hackers who target private computer networks and it hopes to complete any legal reforms next year, a top Interior Ministry official said on Monday.</p>
<p>The plan could include disarming servers used in attacks and reflects growing concern about the frequency and intensity of such attacks. Industry is also raising pressure on government to respond to the barrage, which ultimately could hurt Europe’s leading economy.</p>
<p>State Secretary Klaus Vitt told Reuters the government believed “significant legal changes would be needed” to allow such “hack back” actions.</p>
<p>“A constitutional change may be needed since this is such a critical issue,” Vitt said on the sidelines of a cyber conference organized by the Handelsblatt newspaper. “The goal is to get it done by the end of next year at the latest.”</p>
<p>Vitt said much would depend on the outcome of coalition talks in Germany of which cyber capabilities formed a part.</p>
<p>Experts say it may be easier to enact the legal changes under a right-center-left coalition, which has ruled for the past four years, than under a three-way coalition with smaller parties that Chancellor Angela Merkel initially tried to forge.</p>
<p>Top German intelligence officials told parliament last month they needed greater legal authority to strike back in the event of cyber attacks from foreign powers.</p>
<p>Vitt told the conference that changing threats and new modes of attack required different responses from government agencies including more “offensive” capabilities.</p>
<p>“We must assume that purely preventative measures will not be sufficient to counter future attacks,” Vitt said.</p>
<p>He said no one would question the need for police to enter a house and disarm a sniper shooting at innocent people. “But what about servers that are used to launch cyber attacks that paralyze the IT (information technology) of hospitals or utilities, affecting hundreds of thousands of people?”</p>
<p>Andreas Jambor, chief information security officer for RWE Generation SE, a unit of German energy giant RWE (DE:), welcomed the moves.</p>
<p>“There’s a war underway on the internet …. We want things to be sorted out,” Jambor said. “Other countries are doing it and we should do it here as well.”</p>
<p>Andreas Ebert, head of security for German carmaker Volkswagen (DE:) said any offensive action should be taken by the government.</p>
<p>Arne Schoenbohm, president of Germany’s BSI federal cyber protection agency, declined to give details about the legal concepts being developed. He said the need to target servers would likely make up just “0.01 percent of all cases.”</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> | Germany may need constitutional change to allow it to strike back at hackers | false | https://newsline.com/germany-may-need-constitutional-change-to-allow-it-to-strike-back-at-hackers/ | 2017-11-27 | 1 |
<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Authorities have determined that the death of a toddler in Colorado Springs was a homicide.</p>
<p>Police Lt. Howard Black says 3-year-old Bella Ritch died at a hospital after she was knocked unconscious Oct. 2. The El Paso County coroner’s office says she died of blunt-force trauma, and the investigation remains active.</p>
<p>No arrests have been made, and no other information was released.</p>
<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Authorities have determined that the death of a toddler in Colorado Springs was a homicide.</p>
<p>Police Lt. Howard Black says 3-year-old Bella Ritch died at a hospital after she was knocked unconscious Oct. 2. The El Paso County coroner’s office says she died of blunt-force trauma, and the investigation remains active.</p>
<p>No arrests have been made, and no other information was released.</p> | Coroner: Toddler’s death in Colorado Springs was homicide | false | https://apnews.com/7ca8089163b04f2d9cf259992b8b1dce | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>“Stopping Traffic” premieres at the Global Cinema Film Festival in the Boston suburb of Belmont on March 11.</p>
<p>The film is the first by Sadhvi Siddhali Shree, a 33-year-old Jain monk, Iraq War veteran and child abuse survivor who intends to distribute it free of charge to universities, nonprofits and government agencies.</p>
<p>The film, which was financed through online donations, comes as President Donald Trump is promising to bring the “full force and weight” of the U.S. government to combat human trafficking. He says he will order the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to closely examine the resources they’re devoting to the issue.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Shree gives credit to the Republican billionaire for placing an emphasis on human trafficking early in his tenure, but stressed it still remains to be seen what is actually done.</p>
<p>“We need action to back that up,” she said. “We will need a lot of resources, legislation and law enforcement.”</p>
<p>If Trump is serious about addressing the issue, he should take cues from Canada, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, France, Ireland and other nations that have enacted laws harshly punishing pimps, traffickers and clients, rather than the prostitutes, said Rosi Orozco, an anti-trafficking activist in Mexico City who is featured in the documentary.</p>
<p>“These are very good words from your president,” she said. “This could be most the important issue to unite U.S. and Mexico.”</p>
<p>Shree, who is spiritual director at the Siddhayatan Spiritual Retreat Center and Ashram in Windom, Texas, acknowledges she wasn’t aware of the extent of human trafficking and was shocked at what she learned from Orozco and other activists.</p>
<p>Estimates vary, but the International Labour Organization believed some 21 million people were being trafficked worldwide in a 2014 report.</p>
<p>The illicit activities earned captors roughly $150 billion, with nearly $100 billion coming from commercial sexual exploitation, the report by the Geneva-based special agency of the United Nations found. The remaining $50 billion came from other forms of forced labor.</p>
<p>While trafficking is a global issue, it’s also important to remember that America isn’t immune — and that it’s not just foreigners being trafficked, said Stephanie Clark, executive director of Amirah, a Massachusetts nonprofit that helps sexually exploited women but isn’t featured in the film.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“This is an extremely prevalent issue that is right here, hidden in plain sight,” she said.</p>
<p>It’s not just women being trafficked either. Young men and boys are often abused at far higher rates than what’s recorded because many cultures still don’t accept the notion that boys can also be rape victims, said John King, a child abuse survivor and activist in Grapevine, Texas, who is featured prominently in the film.</p>
<p>The filmmaker, who became a monk in 2008 after serving as an army medic during the Iraq War, said she deliberately avoided delving deeply into the personal experiences of those recently escaped from trafficking in the final product.</p>
<p>The documentary features interviews with activists in Mexico, Philippines and the U.S. cities of New Orleans and Houston, as well as actor Dolph Lundgren and other celebrities who raise awareness about human trafficking. Shree also shares her experience of being sexually abused as a child in the film.</p>
<p>“We wanted to show the empowerment, not the sad and suffering side,” she said. “It’s more about the motivation and the inspiration. That where there’s dark, there’s also light.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo. His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/philip-marcelo" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/philip-marcelo</a></p> | Film spotlights human trafficking as Trump promises action | false | https://abqjournal.com/962606/film-spotlights-human-trafficking-as-trump-promises-action.html | 2017-03-06 | 2 |
<p>In April 1940 the Paris-based Russian Menshevik journal, Sotsialisticheskii Vestnik (SV), published an article by the famous Austrian Marxist Rudolf Hilferding entitled "State Capitalism or Totalitarian State Economy?" Hilferding argued that the Soviet Union should be understood as the harbinger of a new type of social formation'totalitarianismand that the emergence of such a formation posed a major challenge to Marxist theory.</p>
<p /> | Marxism and Totalitarianism: Rudolf Hilferding and the Mensheviks | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/marxism-and-totalitarianism-rudolf-hilferding-and-the-mensheviks | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>Lamar Jordan is the first-team quarterback for coach Bob Davie's Lobos, but he still will face stiff competition in fall preseason drills. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>For those who'd like to see the ground-oriented New Mexico Lobos throw the football around like Baylor or Washington State, tonight just might be your chance.</p>
<p>The Lobos will conduct their 15th and final spring practice this evening with a session expected to include plenty of footballs in the air.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The public is invited at no charge, and coach Bob Davie - greatly encouraged by the work of his quarterbacks and receivers in workouts one through 14 - wants to see how they perform in front of an audience.</p>
<p>He's also eager to see how his re-formatted secondary, with five defensive backs instead of four, reacts to the air assault.</p>
<p>"I'm kind of anxious for (tonight)," Davie said. "We're gonna try to throw and catch with people in the stands, see if we can play some man-to-man coverage, see if guys can cover guys."</p>
<p>The No. 1 story this spring has been the contest at quarterback between incumbent starter Lamar Jordan and transfer Austin Apodaca, a record-setting Colorado high school passer who came to UNM from Washington State by way of Mesa (Ariz.) Community College.</p>
<p>Apodaca has not disappointed. The velocity on his throws came as a shock to the Lobos' receivers, though they gradually have adjusted. Apodaca has appeared comfortable running with the ball, as well, though quarterbacks have not been tackled to the ground.</p>
<p>Jordan, however, remains clearly in charge of the first-team offense. Beginning his third season in UNM's system, his running ability is a given and his passing clearly has improved.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>"I knew Lamar Jordan would be a guy that wouldn't back down," Davie said. "He just has that kind of personality."</p>
<p>Redshirt freshman quarterback JaJuan Lawson, Davie said, has had a solid spring as well. Davie noted that Lawson, as the No. 3, is in the same position Jordan was entering the 2014 season. Then, because of injuries to starter Cole Gautsche and uneven play by backup Clayton Mitchem, Jordan became No. 1.</p>
<p>Davie has challenged his receiving corps this spring, mentioning more than once that UNM signed four wide receivers in its 2015 signing class.</p>
<p>The receivers - wideouts and tight ends - appear to have responded well. During Wednesday's practice, senior Marquis Bundy caught two touchdown passes. Lawson, beating a safety blitz, hit tight end Chris Edling for a long TD.</p>
<p>Senior wideout Carlos Wiggins and junior Dameon Gamblin have had productive springs, Davie said.</p>
<p>When tonight's focus is not on the passing game, it will shift mostly to special teams.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Lobos are set on kickoff return with Wiggins and Ridge Jones, who both returned kicks for touchdowns last season. But auditions still are being held for a punt returner.</p>
<p>"We've been so poor on punt return," Davie said.</p>
<p>Wiggins, he said, wants the job. But there are several other candidates.</p>
<p>Davie also wants to see if sophomore kicker Jason Sanders is ready to take the field-goal duties away from incumbent Zack Rogers.</p>
<p>"I think Jason Sanders has been really impressive, really impressive," Davie said. "He's got a strong, long leg."</p>
<p>Rogers, who Davie said is nursing a calf injury, seems certain to retain the punting duties he handled last season.</p>
<p>The Lobos will do some tackle-to-the-ground scrimmaging, Davie said, but mostly involving backups.</p>
<p>This evening's activities include inflatables for the kids, bargain prices on concessions and a post-workout autograph session. <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p />
<p /> | Lobos expect to feature passing game in spring finale | false | https://abqjournal.com/570770/lobos-spring-into-action-one-last-time.html | 2 |
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<p>Nancy Reagan had one next to the bed, and before you know it, Barbie's wardrobe may include one. The pearl-handled hairbrush on the dressing table ofAmerican women may soon be joined by a pearl-handled revolver.</p>
<p>Even more important than the fact of gun ownership by women is the gun imagery in the minds and hearts of some American women legislators. The gender gap that many feminists believed was to help us achieve a kinder, gentler government has considerably narrowed. A clear majority of white women (55 percent) voted for Republican congressional candidates in the 1992 election. One of them, Helen Chenoweth of Idaho (described as a soft-voiced grandmother by the Wall Street Journal), symbolically displays a stick of dynamite alongside the "Contract With America" that she and a number of first-time women members of Congress support. Chenoweth and Representative Linda Smith of Washington have stated that they have met with militia representatives, whose membership includes a good percentage of women. In Idaho, for example, of the state's five hundred militia activists, one-third are women.</p>
<p /> | Pistol-Packing Mammas | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/pistol-packing-mammas | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>New Mexico State Police said officers responded to the crash about 10:27 p.m. near mile post 150, which is around the Mesquite exit.</p>
<p>Officers learned that a 2000 Oldsmobile sedan was travelling west in the eastbound lanes of travel when it collided with a 2016 Chevrolet coupe, a news release said.</p>
<p>The driver of the Oldsmobile was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the name is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification. The driver of the Chevrolet coupe was not injured in the crash, the release said.</p>
<p>This crash is still under investigation, police said.</p>
<p>The New Mexico Department of Transportation reported road closures from the time of the crash until 6 a.m. Sunday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2017 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)</p>
<p>Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at <a href="http://www.lcsun-news.com" type="external">www.lcsun-news.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p> | Driver going wrong way killed in Interstate 10 crash | false | https://abqjournal.com/1085255/driver-going-wrong-way-killed-in-interstate-10-crash.html | 2 |
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<p>(Repeats with no changes to text. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)</p>
<p>* GRAPHIC - China LNG imports vs spot price: <a href="http://reut.rs/2DJxrjH" type="external">reut.rs/2DJxrjH</a></p>
<a href="http://reut.rs/2DJxrjH" type="external" />
<p>By Clyde Russell</p>
<p>LAUNCESTON, Australia, Jan 18 (Reuters) - There is little doubt that China’s voracious appetite for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the prime mover behind the spot price for the fuel reaching its highest in more than three years, but what happens next?</p>
<p>The current market view seems to be that China will suck up the super-chilled fuel as it continues efforts to switch to natural gas from coal as part of efforts to lower air pollution.</p>
<p>While that’s a reasonable assumption, it doesn’t answer the question as to how the Asian spot LNG price LNG-AS will be affected by the seasonal drop in demand over the northern summer.</p>
<p>The rise of China as a major driver of LNG pricing in Asia will no doubt have an influence on what happens during the lower demand periods. Thus, it is key to understand how seasonal China’s LNG demand is likely to be in 2018.</p>
<p>Similar to the other major North Asia LNG buyers - Japan and South Korea - China does show considerable seasonality in LNG import demand.</p>
<p>In the 2016/17 winter, China’s LNG imports LNG-CNIMP peaked at 3.73 million tonnes in December 2016, before dropping to a low of 1.99 million tonnes in March 2017.</p>
<p>The prior winter, imports topped out at 2.46 million tonnes in January 2016, before dropping to a low of 1.43 million tonnes in May of that year.</p>
<p>The 2016/17 winter saw a drop of 46 percent to the subsequent seasonal low, and the prior winter witnessed a decline of 42 percent.</p>
<p>The problem is how much China’s LNG imports have surged in 2017, yielding a winter peak that is far higher than what it was in previous years.</p>
<p>Official customs figures for December aren’t available yet, but vessel-tracking and port data compiled by Thomson Reuters indicates record LNG imports for the month of around 5.18 million tonnes.</p>
<p>This is up from the previous record high of 4.22 million tonnes in November as estimated by shipping data.</p> CHINA RISKS
<p>If the pattern of prior years is followed, a 40 percent drop in imports from December to the seasonal low of 2018 would result in about 3.1 million tonnes as the lowest monthly volume for the year.</p>
<p>This may be somewhat optimistic given the nature of China’s LNG consumption, which is mainly used in heating and industrial processes such as glass manufacturing.</p>
<p>With heating demand likely to tail off sharply after winter, and slower manufacturing growth expected in 2018, it’s possible the fall from winter peak to summer lull may be larger than usual for China’s LNG demand.</p>
<p>In other words, the seasonal nature of China’s LNG demand may be amplified by current policy, with demand ramping up sharply in winter as the cleaner-burning fuel is used instead of coal for heating, but then also falling sharply in summer.</p>
<p>By itself, this would imply spot prices may experience a larger than usual seasonal decline this year, but China isn’t the sole factor influencing the cost of LNG.</p>
<p>A further bearish factor is the increasing supply of LNG from newly-commissioned units in Australia, the United States and Russia.</p>
<p>In Australia, Chevron’s 8.9 million tonne per year Wheatstone project continues to ramp up, while Inpex’s similarly-sized Ichthys venture is coming closer to production, as is Royal Dutch Shell’s 3.6 million tonne floating Prelude project.</p>
<p>In the United States, Dominion’s Cove Point plant is in the process of commissioning and Russia’s Yamal facility loaded its first export cargo in December.</p>
<p>On the bullish side is that LNG demand in Asia, outside of the big three of Japan, China and South Korea, has been growing and could help absorb the new supply coming to market.</p>
<p>But as things stand, the risk has to be that spot prices will drop by at least as much in percentage terms as they have in previous years.</p>
<p>The peak last winter was $9.75 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), and the trough in summer was $5.40, a decline of 45 percent. The winter of 2015-2016 saw a drop of 49 percent from the peak in November 2015 to the nadir in April 2016.</p>
<p>Spot LNG fetched $11.50 per mmBtu in the week to Jan. 12, and it may not yet have reached its winter peak. If it does experience a decline similar to previous years, it suggests a summer low in the region of $6.33 per mmBtu.</p>
<p>Editing by Tom Hogue</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said four of its members were killed in an apparent accidental blast in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.</p> A Palestinian man looks at the scene of an explosion in the southern Gaza Strip, April 14, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
<p>The group said in a statement that it was “mourning its fighters who were martyred during preparations”.</p>
<p>It usually employs those terms to refer to casualties caused by the accidental detonation of weapons or explosives used in attacks against Israel.</p> Palestinians react at a hospital following an explosion in the southern Gaza Strip, April 14, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
<p>The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed four fatalities in the incident. Medics at the scene in the Rafah area said the explosion was caused by Israel. But an Israeli military spokesman said the army was not involved.</p>
<p>“Contrary to reports currently circulating I can tell you that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is not aware of any IDF fire in the area surrounding Rafah,” the spokesman said.</p>
<p>Violence has flared in the Gaza Strip since March 30, when Palestinians began protests along the border area with Israel.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Israeli troops have shot dead 31 Gaza Palestinians and wounded hundreds since the protests began, drawing international criticism of their lethal tactics.</p>
<p>The border area remained largely quiet on Saturday.</p>
<p>Protesters have set up tented camps near the frontier as a protest dubbed “The Great March of Return” - evoking a longtime call for refugees to regain ancestral homes in what is now Israel - moved into its third week.</p>
<p>Israel has declared a no-go zone close to the Gaza border fence.</p>
<p>Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinian enclave is ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement, designated by Israel and the West as a terrorist group.</p>
<p>Citing security concerns, Israel maintains a naval blockade of the coastal territory, keeping tight restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and goods across the frontier.</p>
<p>Egypt, battling an Islamist insurgency in neighboring Sinai, keeps its border with Gaza largely closed.</p>
<p>Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; writing by Maayan Lubell; editing by Angus MacSwan</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) - Britain’s foreign minister and United Nations human rights rapporteurs separately called on Thursday for the release of two Reuters reporters detained in Myanmar, after a judge rejected a request for their case to be dismissed.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone gestures to the media as he is escorted by police after a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang
<p>Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Twitter that Myanmar must show its “commitment to media freedom” while the U.N. special rapporteurs said in a joint statement that the pursuit of the case against Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, gave rise to “grave concern for investigative journalism”.</p>
<p>A Myanmar government spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.</p>
<p>A court in Yangon has been holding preliminary hearings since January to decide whether the journalists will be charged for possessing secret government papers under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.</p>
<p>Judge Ye Lwin rejected on Wednesday a defence request to dismiss the case against the two reporters, who have been held since December, for lack of evidence. The judge said he wanted to hear the eight remaining prosecution witnesses out of the 25 listed, according to defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, seven Myanmar soldiers were sentenced to 10 years “with hard labor in a remote area” for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in northwestern Rakhine state last September, the army said.</p>
<p>Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar, and David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, noted the journalists could be sentenced to longer terms if found guilty.</p>
<p>“The perpetrators of a massacre that was, in part, the subject of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo’s reporting have been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. And yet these two reporters face a possible 14 years imprisonment. The absurdity of this trial and the wrongfulness of their detention and prosecution are clear,” they said in a joint statement.</p>
<p>Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the U.N..</p>
<p>The country’s ambassador to the U.N., Hau Do Suan, said last month that the journalists were not arrested for reporting a story, but were accused of “illegally possessing confidential government documents”.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo is escorted by police before a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang ARMY CRACKDOWN
<p>An army crackdown, unleashed in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces in August, has been beset by allegations of murder, rape, arson and looting. The U.N. and United States described it as ethnic cleansing - an accusation which Myanmar denies.</p>
<p>Nearly 700,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and crossed into southern Bangladesh since then.</p>
<p>After the U.N. experts made their comments, Johnson took to Twitter on the case. “Very disappointed to hear Burmese @Reuters journalists Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone are now to face trial,” he said. “Reiterate my calls for their release: Burmese authorities must show their commitment to media freedom.”</p>
<p>At this stage the prosecutor is trying to persuade the court to file charges. The preliminary proceedings are still underway and only after they are completed is the court expected to decide whether to send the two reporters to trial.</p>
<p>Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and William James; editing by David Stamp</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Western powers said on Saturday their missile attacks struck at the heart of Syria’s chemical weapons program, but the restrained assault appeared unlikely to halt Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s progress in the 7-year-old civil war.</p>
<p>The United States, France and Britain launched 105 missiles overnight in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack in Syria a week ago, targeting what the Pentagon said were three chemical weapons facilities, including a research and development center in Damascus’ Barzeh district and two installations near Homs.</p>
<p>The bombing was the biggest intervention by Western countries against Assad and his superpower ally Russia, but the three countries said the strikes were limited to Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities and not aimed at toppling Assad or intervening in the civil war.</p>
<p>The air attack, denounced by Damascus and its allies as an illegal act of aggression, was unlikely to alter the course of a multisided war that has killed at least half a million people.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump called the operation a success.</p>
<p>He proclaimed on Twitter: “Mission accomplished,” echoing former President George W. Bush, whose use of the same phrase in 2003 to describe the U.S. invasion of Iraq was widely ridiculed as violence there dragged on for years.</p>
<p>“We believe that by hitting Barzeh in particular we’ve attacked the heart of the Syrian chemicals weapon program,” U.S. Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said at the Pentagon.</p>
<p>However, McKenzie acknowledged elements of the program remain and he could not guarantee that Syria would be unable to conduct a chemical attack in the future.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-sarin/u-s-official-says-information-points-to-sarin-chlorine-use-in-syria-attack-idUSKBN1HL172" type="external">U.S. official says 'information' points to sarin, chlorine use in Syria attack</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idlib/france-warns-of-humanitarian-disaster-in-syrian-city-idlib-idUSKBN1HL1C2" type="external">France warns of humanitarian disaster in Syrian city Idlib</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-un/russia-fails-in-u-n-bid-to-condemn-u-s-led-strikes-on-syria-idUSKBN1HL0S9" type="external">Russia fails in U.N. bid to condemn U.S.-led strikes on Syria</a>
<p>The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Trump told her that if Syria uses poisonous gas again, “The United States is locked and loaded.”</p>
<p>The Western countries said the strikes were aimed at preventing more Syrian chemical weapons attacks after a suspected poison gas attack in Douma on April 7 killed up to 75 people. They blame Assad’s government for the attack.</p>
<p>In Washington, a senior administration official said on Saturday that “while the available information is much greater on the chlorine use, we do have significant information that also points to sarin use” in the attack.</p>
<p>Speaking at a summit in Peru, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence seemed less sure of the use of sarin, saying that Washington may well determine that it was used along with chlorine.</p> ASSAD ‘RESILIENCE’
<p>Ten hours after the missiles hit, smoke was still rising from the remains of five destroyed buildings of the Syrian Scientific Research Center in Barzeh, where a Syrian employee said medical components were developed.</p>
<p>There were no immediate reports of casualties.</p>
<p>Syria released video of the wreckage of a bombed-out research lab, but also of Assad arriving at work as usual, with the caption “Morning of resilience”.</p>
<p>Late on Saturday Syria time, a large explosion was heard in a Syrian government-controlled area in a rural region south of Aleppo, according to the Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory said the cause of the explosion was unknown, as well as its target.</p>
<p>Russian and Iranian military help over the past three years has allowed Assad to crush the rebel threat to topple him.</p>
<p>The United States, Britain and France have all participated in the Syrian conflict for years, arming rebels, bombing Islamic State fighters and deploying troops on the ground to fight that group. But they have refrained from targeting Assad’s government, apart from a volley of U.S. missiles last year.</p>
<p>Although the Western countries have all said for seven years that Assad must leave power, they held back in the past from striking his government, lacking a wider strategy to defeat him.</p>
<p>Syria and its allies also made clear that they considered the attack a one-off, unlikely to do meaningful harm to Assad.</p>
<p>A senior official in a regional alliance that backs Damascus told Reuters the sites that were targeted had been evacuated days ago thanks to a warning from Russia.</p>
<p>Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the strikes were “unacceptable and lawless.”</p>
<p>Syrian state media called them a “flagrant violation of international law,” while Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called it a crime and the Western leaders criminals.</p>
<p>Russia had promised to respond to any attack on its ally, but the Pentagon said no Russian air defense systems were used. Syria fired 40 unguided surface-to-air missiles - but only after the Western strikes had ended, the Pentagon said.</p>
<p>“We are confident that all of our missiles reached their targets,” McKenzie said.</p>
<p>British Prime Minister Theresa May described the strike as “limited and targeted,” with no intention of toppling Assad or intervening more widely in the war.</p>
<p>Washington described the strike targets as a center near Damascus for the research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological weapons; a chemical weapons storage site near the city of Homs; and another site near Homs that stored chemical weapons equipment and housed a command post.</p>
<p>The Pentagon said there had been chemical weapons agents at one of the targets, and that the strikes had significantly crippled Syria’s ability to produce such weapons.</p>
<p>Trump spoke to May and French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss results of the strikes, the leaders’ offices said.</p> A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer, deployed to Al Udeid Air Base, launches a strike as part of the multinational response to Syria's use of chemical weapons is seen in this image from Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar released on April 14, 2018. U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS
<p>U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all Security Council members to exercise restraint and avoid escalation in Syria, but said allegations of chemical weapons use demand an investigation.</p> WEAPONS INSPECTIONS
<p>Inspectors from the global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW were due to try to visit Douma on Saturday to inspect the site of the suspected gas attack. Moscow condemned the Western states for refusing to wait for their findings.</p>
<p>Russia, whose relations with the West have deteriorated to levels of Cold War-era hostility, has denied any gas attack took place in Douma and even accused Britain of staging it to whip up anti-Russian hysteria.</p>
<p>The Western countries took precautions to avoid unexpected conflict with Russia. French Defence Minister Florence Parly said Russians was warned beforehand to avert conflict.</p>
<p>Dmitry Belik, a Russian member of parliament who was in Damascus and witnessed the strikes, told Reuters: “The attack was more of a psychological nature rather than practical. Luckily there are no substantial losses or damages.”</p>
<p>In Douma, site of the suspected gas attack, the last buses were due on Saturday to transport out rebels and their families who agreed to surrender the town, state TV reported. That effectively ends all resistance in the suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta, marking one of the biggest victories for Assad’s government of the war.</p>
<p>The Western assault involved more missiles than a U.S. attack last year but struck targets limited to Syria’s chemical weapons facilities. The U.S. intervention last year had effectively no impact on the war.</p> Slideshow (18 Images)
<p>Syria agreed in 2013 to give up its chemical weapons after a nerve gas attack killed hundreds of people in Douma. Damascus is still permitted to have chlorine for civilian use, although its use as a weapon is banned. Allegations of Assad’s chlorine use have been frequent during the war although, unlike nerve agents, chlorine did not produce mass casualties as seen last week.</p>
<p>Reporting by Phil Stewart and Tom Perry; additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Steve Holland, Idrees Ali, Yara Bayoumy, Matt Spetalnick and Joel Schectman in Washington; Michelle Nichols in New York; Samia Nakhoul, Tom Perry, Laila Bassam, Ellen Francis and Angus McDowall in Beirut; Kinda Makieh in Barzeh; Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge in London; and Jean-Baptiste Vey, Geert de Clerq and Matthias Blamont in Paris; Polina Ivanova in Moscow; writing by Doina Chiacu; editing by Yara Bayoumy, Alistair Bell and Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | COLUMN-China may cause larger seasonal swings in LNG prices: Russell Four Palestinian militants dead in Gaza blast U.N. experts, Britain demand release of Reuters reporters in Myanmar U.S. says air strikes cripple Syria chemical weapons program | false | https://reuters.com/article/column-russell-lng-china/column-china-may-cause-larger-seasonal-swings-in-lng-prices-russell-idUSL3N1PD2Q7 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>From Sac Bee:</p>
<p>A coalition representing Northern and Central&#160; <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/California/" type="external">California</a>&#160;contractors and union construction workers launched a radio campaign this week applauding the state’s proposed high-speed&#160; <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/rail+system/" type="external">rail system.</a></p>
<p>The group’s 60-second spots, narrated by comedian&#160;Will Durst, are running at least twice daily — during morning and evening commutes — on six Sacramento and nine Bay Area radio stations.</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/02/high-speed-rail-touted-in-jobs-coalition-new-radio-campaign.html" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p> | High-speed rail touted in jobs coalition’s new radio campaign | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/high-speed-rail-touted-in-jobs-coalitions-new-radio-campaign/ | 2012-02-09 | 1 |
<p>Dear President Bush,</p>
<p>You and your White House have been sitting on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) since your arrival in January 2001, thus assuring the giant auto companies that NHTSA-toothless under President Bill Clinton and previous administrations– continues morphing even further away from the technology-forcing, life- saving regulatory agency it is supposed to be, to an industry consulting firm.</p>
<p>The result has been tens of thousands of American fatalities and serious injuries that could have been prevented had you and President Clinton simply urged NHTSA to follow its statutory obligations, lately under Congressionally mandated deadlines, with readily feasible, practical safety technologies.</p>
<p>Instead, you stacked the deck with your Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, former president and CEO of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association (AAMA). The rest, as they say, “is commentary.”</p>
<p>NHTSA is now set to replace an obsolete motor vehicle roof crush resistance standard that became effective in 1973. You can continue to condemn thousands of Americans to preventable deaths by permitting NHTSA to issue a new, deficient standard, or you can take command and smoke out the corporate lobbyists from Detroit and allow NHTSA to issue FMVSS 216—Roof Crush Resistance at a strength-to-weight (SWR) ratio of at least 4 from the present inadequate standard of 1.5.</p>
<p>Eight models from such companies as Volvo, Saab, Toyota, VW and Honda already meet or exceed the SWR of 4. Note the countries of origin. Note the absence of U.S. manufacturers. The Dodge Ram pickup truck and the Ford F-250 pick-up truck have a SWR down at 1.7.</p>
<p>You may wish to brief yourself about the horrible toll on our country’s highways during the past 35 years due to marshmallow structured roofs. The American fatalities and serious injuries alone total more than the entire number of soldiers you have driven to Iraq, many of whom were deployed without adequate body and Humvee armor.</p>
<p>Then there are the quadriplegics and the paraplegics and the thousands of other human beings left defenseless by an auto safety agency under your command that has been at a standstill for years instead of functioning as a law enforcement branch in the Department of Transportation.</p>
<p>You need to see the visuals. You need to see the pictures of the crushed, the pictures of the vehicles whose roofs displaced the “survival space” of the drivers and passengers. You need to speak to the families of the victims who were on the receiving end of such obstinate, criminal negligence by the auto manufacturers’ executives who will not let their own engineers put in the simple technical fixes year after year.</p>
<p>Remove the corporatists from your White House schedule for a day and invite some of these suffering citizens, their families and champions. Include Senators Mark Pryor and Tom Coburn who will preside over a Senate hearing on this subject in early June.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that even NHTSA, in its industry-indentured cautious fashion, managed to declare the obvious in 2005:</p>
<p>“In sum, the agency believes that there is a relationship between the amount of roof intrusion and the risk of injury to belted occupants in rollover events. But the agency still mimics the resistance of GM, Ford and Chrysler to any dynamic rollover test that safety advocates favor to assure effective compliance.”</p>
<p>A President is not selected or elected to close the doors of state courts to wrongfully injured people who want and need to hold their corporate perpetrators accountable. You must recall your oft-repeated phrase about holding people responsible for their behavior, and actions, with the exception of yourself, and drop your attack on our civil justice system. Therefore, delete the federal pre-emption clause expected in the forthcoming standards that prevent the state judiciaries from hearing product liability suits in this area of vehicle design and construction.</p>
<p>Your legal advisors should point out that in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, there is a specific provision that reads: “Compliance with a motor vehicle safety standard prescribed under this chapter does not exempt a person from liability at common law.”</p>
<p>Those words were put in the law to prevent just such a federal pre-emption as NHTSA now prepares to facilitate. Twenty-six State Attorneys General opposed pre-emption in a letter to NHTSA back in 2005.</p>
<p>With your invited guests, suggested above, hold a White House news conference. Point to the CEOs in Detroit, and exclaim “Bring ‘em on.” Remember, you’re either with the American people or you’re with the big auto bosses.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>RALPH NADER</p>
<p>RALPH NADER is running for president as an independent.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | You’re Either with the American People or You’re with the Big Auto Bosses | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/05/14/you-re-either-with-the-american-people-or-you-re-with-the-big-auto-bosses/ | 2008-05-14 | 4 |
<p>Mike Pence speaks at a 2011 anti-abortion rally on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Alex Brandon/AP</p>
<p />
<p>The sweeping abortion bill that&#160;Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law in March gained national attention for prohibiting women from electing to have an abortion due to the race, gender, or disability of the fetus. But the bill contained another unusual provision: It required that aborted fetuses receive what amounts to a funeral.</p>
<p>Pence, whom Donald Trump announced as his vice presidential running mate on Friday, signed the law that made Indiana the second state ever, after North Dakota, to pass a ban on abortions carried out for certain reasons. The law also imposed liability for wrongful death on doctors that perform an abortion motivated by one of the prohibited reasons. And, as Mother Jones reported <a href="" type="internal">in March</a>, the law also required that health care facilities inter or cremate the remains of an aborted fetus, and prohibited fetal tissue donation.</p>
<p>Following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down several Texas abortion restrictions in June, a federal judge <a href="" type="internal">blocked</a> the Indiana law from going into effect.</p>
<p>“By enacting this legislation, we take an important step in protecting the unborn, while still providing an exception for the life of the mother,” Pence said in a <a href="http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/24/pence-signs-new-abortion-restrictions-into-law-prayer/82225890/" type="external">statement</a> when he signed the bill. “I sign this legislation with a prayer that God would continue to bless these precious children, mothers, and families.”</p>
<p>This sort of fetus funeral provision has recently <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/state-mandated-mourning-for-aborted-fetuses/482688/" type="external">gained traction</a> in legislatures around the country: Arkansas and Georgia have similar laws on the books, while Ohio, South Carolina, and Mississippi have all <a href="" type="internal">considered similar measures</a> in the last year.</p>
<p /> | Pence Signed a Law Requiring Burial or Cremation for Aborted Fetuses | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/trumps-vp-pick-passed-law-requiring-funerals-aborted-fetuses/ | 2016-07-15 | 4 |
<p>In a <a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2014/02/12/1056971.pdf" type="external">decision</a> issued earlier today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the California law conditioning the right of “responsible law-abiding” citizens to carry firearms in public for self-defense purposes on a showing of “good cause” unlawfully restricts Second Amendment rights.</p>
<p>California prohibits the open carry of firearms and imposes limits on concealed carry. In particular, San Diego County requires applicants for concealed carry permits to produce supporting documentation to establish not just that the applicant is concerned for his or her own safety, but that the applicant can identify “circumstances that distinguish [him or her] from the mainstream.”</p>
<p>As the Second Amendment states, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”</p>
<p>The Ninth Circuit explained, “[C]arrying weapons in public for the lawful purpose of self-defense is a central component of the right to bear arms.” Accordingly, it concluded, “[I]f self-defense outside the home is part of the core right to ‘bear arms’ and the California regulatory scheme prohibits the exercise of that right, no amount of interest balancing under a heightened form of means-ends scrutiny can justify San Diego’s policy.”</p>
<p>The Ninth Circuit’s decision contributes to a split in the circuits that makes Supreme Court review likely.</p>
<p>The Seventh Circuit is on the side on the Ninth, but the Second, Third, and Fourth go the other way.</p>
<p>A petition for certiorari seeking review of the Third Circuit’s decision has been filed in the Supreme Court. In addition, a petition for certiorari that raises the question whether there is a Second Amendment right to bear arms in public has been distributed for the Supreme Court’s conference on February 21.</p>
<p />
<p>The right to “bear arms” is an individual right that should have some meaning, but States and localities are entirely too prone to give it as little scope as they can get away with.</p>
<p>The Ninth Circuit gets it right in holding that California cannot both bar open carry and crimp the ability of law-abiding citizens to get concealed carry permits.</p>
<p>(Featured Image Source: <a href="" type="internal">Veteran stands up for 2nd Amendment at Chicago anti-gun forum</a></p>
<p>—————</p>
<p>Jack Park is a lawyer practicing in Atlanta. He has practiced law for more than 30 years, including as as an Assistant Attorney General for Alabama and in private practice, and as a Visiting Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He contributes to spectator.org and executivebranchproject.com.</p> | 9th Circuit rejects California “good cause” limitation on 2nd Amendment carry right | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/02/9th-circuit-rejects-california-good-cause-limitation-on-2nd-amendment-carry-right/ | 2014-02-13 | 0 |
<p>The largest outside buyer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s exchange-traded funds might soon become its biggest competitor.</p>
<p>That client is USAA Capital Corp., an early adopter of the latest trend in the $619 billion smart beta industry: multifactor funds. The rules-based ETFs buy stocks that exhibit multiple characteristics — like low volatility or cheap valuations — that have been shown to beat the market over time.</p>
<p>The San Antonio-based insurance and financial planning firm first sought out exposure to the quant-based strategy through Goldman’s “ActiveBeta” line of ETFs. As of its last filing, USAA held more than $513 million in market value of the Wall Street behemoth’s large-cap, emerging market and international ActiveBeta funds. The only larger buyer of Goldman’s ETFs is Goldman itself.</p>
<p>Now, USAA has filed for permission to start its own line of multifactor ETFs. The firm expects to launch the funds in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>“The gap is that USAA doesn’t offer ETFs,” Lance Humphrey, executive director of global multi-assets at USAA Asset Management. “This will be filling that gap with a brand that our members trust.”</p>
<p>Trusting Clientele</p>
<p>Many newcomers’ ETFs have a hard time finding an audience and exceeding the $50 million threshold needed to make a profit and attract big brokerages. It’s especially daunting for multifactor ETFs, complex products whose appeal has more to do with math than, say, the industries they track.</p>
<p>In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission updated last week, USAA detailed its plans to launch four multifactor funds that track MSCI Inc. indexes. They blend momentum, which tracks the market’s best performing stocks, and value, which seeks out cheaply priced stocks relative to assets. Using that strategy, USAA will offer a large-cap, small-cap, international and emerging markets version. Fees for the funds are from 20 to 45 basis points. The firm also filed for two actively managed fixed income ETFs.</p>
<p>But USAA should have an easier time attracting assets than most of its competitors because it won’t need to court outside buyers. The firm already has a built-in trusting clientele.</p>
<p>Internal Talent</p>
<p>“Our investment products are available to all investors,” Humphrey said. “But our core focus is serving our membership.”</p>
<p>Relying on internal talent to build out investment products is a well-trodden path for USAA. The firm manages over $150 billion, about half of which is in its mutual funds. Now, it may tap into the $5.5 billion it holds in third-party ETFs, about a third of which are smart beta.</p>
<p>What’s more, USAA’s ready-made portfolios use ETFs as well. Goldman’s multifactor funds are in those products at the moment, but USAA isn’t saying whether it plans to keep them.</p>
<p>Goldman’s fate in all this is uncertain. USAA is the largest investor in its most popular $2.4 billion ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF, with 16 percent of shares outstanding. However, Goldman’s five ActiveBeta ETFs have built up a $4.6 billion following, leaving plenty of cushion should the insurance giant leave.</p>
<p>BYOA Party</p>
<p>Goldman declined to comment on USAA specifically. But Mike Crinieri, the firm’s global head of ETF strategy, noted that typically existing clients of ETFs aren’t affected if a large investor exists the fund.</p>
<p>“In a traditional fund, that could be a concern, because you would have costs of that investor exiting the fund that would be borne by the fund itself,” he said. “But because with an ETF all the transaction costs are external and isolated to that one investor, you shouldn’t have a concern.”</p>
<p>The two firms’ asset gathering strategies are somewhat similar, catering to existing clients. And they aren’t alone. For bigger finance companies that enter the ETF industry late, most of the money comes from capturing existing clients who’d otherwise leave to seek out cheaper, passively managed funds, said Eric Balchunas, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence focused on ETFs.</p>
<p>“Whether you’re GSAM or USAA, the ETF party is still going strong. It’s just more of a BYOA party: Bring Your Own Assets,” Balchunas said. “Having a brand and having customers who trust you is a huge deal.”</p> | Goldman's Biggest ETF Customer, USAA, Readies Own Rival Funds | false | https://newsline.com/goldmans-biggest-etf-customer-usaa-readies-own-rival-funds/ | 2017-08-31 | 1 |
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<p>Regents on Monday approved a ground lease form, the second in a series of steps to bring restaurants and retail to the land around the Pit, which UNM has selected Fairmount Properties to do. The lease is for 74 years.</p>
<p>Although Fairmount and the university have yet to work out the price of the lease, university officials Monday said they expect to profit about $1.5 million to $2 million annually based on a preliminary estimate. The actual price that Fairmount and UNM will eventually agree on will be based on market value of the land and other factors.</p>
<p>The lease is for three parcels of land off Avenida César Chávez and University SE. The largest plot of land, south of the Pit and bordered by University and Interstate 25 on the east and west and by Gibson Boulevard on the south, will likely be developed first. That parcel is 39 acres.</p>
<p>According to the agreement, Fairmount also will have exclusivity rights over the two other parcels, which are off Avenida César Chávez between the Pit and Lobo Village and west of Lobo Village. That means that although Fairmount does not have to develop the land yet, it holds rights over it. It will pay $1,000 a month on each of those plots, an amount that initially did not sit well with Regent Gene Gallegos.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Gallegos at a regents finance committee meeting on March 1 said the $1,000 monthly was too low a price.</p>
<p>“It’s a very valuable piece of land. It’s a finite resource to this university,” Gallegos said.</p>
<p>University officials said it’s uncommon for developers to pay lease on a land they are not yet developing, and that Fairmount was essentially being generous with their agreement to compensate the university for holding the land.</p>
<p>By Monday, Gallegos had been convinced, and the board unanimously approved the ground lease. Regents still need to several phases of development, including plans, budgets and schedules for the project, followed by an agreement over the price of the lease. — This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | UNM hopes to make $2M a year on development deal | false | https://abqjournal.com/177237/unm-hopes-to-make-2m-a-year-on-development-deal.html | 2013-03-12 | 2 |
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The chief financial officer of the Oklahoma State Department of Health says he was on the job only a few weeks before he started to notice major problems with how the agency was handling its finances.</p>
<p>CFO Mike Romero, who was hired at DHS in April, testified for more than three hours Friday before a special House committee investigating financial problems at the agency.</p>
<p>Romero says he first became concerned about vague financial documents being presented to the agency's governing board. He also said agency leaders perpetuated a culture of fear in which veteran employees were afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.</p>
<p>Several top officials at the agency have been fired or resigned, and lawmakers have appropriated $30 million to keep the agency afloat.</p>
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The chief financial officer of the Oklahoma State Department of Health says he was on the job only a few weeks before he started to notice major problems with how the agency was handling its finances.</p>
<p>CFO Mike Romero, who was hired at DHS in April, testified for more than three hours Friday before a special House committee investigating financial problems at the agency.</p>
<p>Romero says he first became concerned about vague financial documents being presented to the agency's governing board. He also said agency leaders perpetuated a culture of fear in which veteran employees were afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.</p>
<p>Several top officials at the agency have been fired or resigned, and lawmakers have appropriated $30 million to keep the agency afloat.</p> | Chief financial officer testifies on health agency problems | false | https://apnews.com/amp/f1abe1a2a771455d9fb204f82ca612ff | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
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<p>NEW YORK — Down is up. The sky is red. Dogs are birthing kittens. Facts? Nope. Try “alternative facts.”</p>
<p>The internet went wild after a top Trump adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said the administration was supplying the media with “alternative facts.” The comment came after she was asked why Trump press secretary Sean Spicer mischaracterized the size of inauguration crowds.</p>
<p>Spicer made two unprovable statements in his briefing with reporters: that photographs of the audience at Donald Trump’s inaugural were intentionally framed to minimize the appearance of support, and that Trump drew the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration. He also made statements that were quickly disproven, including an assertion that the Washington Metro system recorded more riders on the day of Trump’s inaugural than when Obama was sworn in for his second term.</p>
<p>“Alternativefacts” quickly became a popular hashtag on Twitter, where users supplied their own such facts, including “cigarettes are good for you” and “it’s not Monday. It is still the weekend.”</p>
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<p>The hashtag “spicerfacts” followed. Widely shared #spicerfacts included “Yoko Ono broke up the Monkees. Period.” and “The KKK is a peaceful community outreach organization.”</p>
<p>But even amid the snarky mockery, many users pointed to eerie similarities to George Orwell’s “1984,” a dystopian novel about a totalitarian regime. One quote reads: “The Party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”</p>
<p>Veteran journalist Dan Rather told The Associated Press on Sunday that while past press secretaries have misled reporters before through the omission of information, the weekend’s demonstrably false assertions about the inauguration crowd size was the first time he could recall false material being delivered in this way.</p> | ‘Alternative facts’ quip from Trump adviser sparks mockery | false | https://abqjournal.com/933828/alternative-facts-quip-from-trump-adviser-sparks-mockery.html | 2017-01-23 | 2 |
<p>Thomas Hagan, formerly known as Talmadge X Hayer, was the only one of Malcolm X’s killers to cop to the crime. After spending 45 years in jail and on work-release, the contrite Hagan has been <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8647881.stm" type="external">paroled</a>.</p>
<p>Elsewhere: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/nyregion/28malcolm.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss" type="external">AP</a></p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>Hagan, who has repeatedly expressed regret for his actions, applied for parole 16 times before a board approved his request last month.</p>
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<p>He had been allowed to spend five nights a week at his Brooklyn home on a work-release programme for the past 22 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8647881.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Malcolm X Shooter Set Free | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/malcolm-x-shooter-set-free/ | 2010-04-28 | 4 |
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<p>Since the outcome of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game no longer decides home-field advantage in the World Series, the league is motivating participants in Tuesday’s showcase event with cold, hard cash.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Players from the All-Star Game’s winning team will receive a $20,000 bonus, while members of the losing team receive nothing. The total prize pool for the winning team is $640,000, which is distributed equally amongst 32 players. The bonus system is in place as a result of changes in MLB’s new collective-bargaining agreement, which came into effect last December.</p>
<p>“I think it’s better for the players,” Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano, who is set to appear in his eighth All-Star Game, told the <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/07/10/were-going-to-miss-when-the-all-star-game-really-had-meaning/" type="external">New York Post Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The cash payments replace the league’s previous incentive for winning the All-Star Game. From 2003 until 2016, the game’s outcome decided whether the American League or the National League received home-field advantage in the World Series.</p>
<p>Former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig introduced that concept after the 2002 All-Star Game ended in a tie, prompting backlash from fans. The American League won home-field advantage in the World Series for 11 out of the 14 years the system was in place.</p>
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<p>The 2017 MLB All-Star Game will air at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.</p> | MLB All-Star Game cash bonuses replace home-field advantage system | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/11/mlb-all-star-game-cash-bonuses-replace-home-field-advantage-system.html | 2017-07-11 | 0 |
<p>In a surprising ruling that runs counter to the agreements made at the Paris Climate Summit, the World Trade Organization has said that India may not protect local production of solar energy cells.</p>
<p>The ruling came in response to a complaint from the United States, which claimed that India’s requirement that 10 percent of its solar panels be produced domestically amounts to restraint of trade.</p>
<p>The WTO case raises serious doubts about the Obama Administration’s commitment, under the Paris Climate Agreement, to help developing countries use climate-safe energy to stimulate local jobs and economic development, according to some observers.</p>
<p>It also appears to contradict promises made by the president in January 2015 in New Delhi when he visited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</p>
<p>“The ink is barely dry on the Paris climate accord and yet we're seeing in this action that trade trumps climate,” says Sam Cossar-Gilbert of Friends of the Earth. “A number of developing countries see local green jobs as a key way to stimulate the economy, and this ruling really goes against that.”</p>
<p>India plans to install 100 gigawatts of solar power in the next six years as part of its commitment to the Paris Climate Summit, where Prime Minister Modi launched what’s called the <a href="http://newsroom.unfccc.int/clean-energy/international-solar-energy-alliance-launched-at-cop21/" type="external">International Solar Alliance</a>. The alliance would mobilize a trillion dollars by 2030 to harness the sun’s power for the developing world and help build new clean energy economies.</p>
<p>But now this ruling against India by the World Trade Organization casts a shadow over the country’s hopes for a homegrown solar economy. India has not said whether it will appeal the ruling.</p>
<p>“It's quite ironic,” Cossar-Gilbert says, “because the United States and a number of states within the US also use a similar ‘buy local’ clause in their solar programs.”</p>
<p>Asked for comment, US trade representative spokesman Andrew Bates responded with a <a href="https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2016/february/united-states-prevails-wto-dispute" type="external">statement</a> that says, in part:</p>
<p>“The single, specific policy that the United States challenged at the WTO, which comprised one small portion of the National Solar Mission of India, discriminated against American solar exports and required the use of more expensive and less efficient solar equipment, thereby raising the cost of generating clean energy across India."</p>
<p>“Governments should be free to use common sense climate policy in the way that they see fit,” Cossar-Gilbert argues. “If India or other developing countries cannot enact policy to support the creation of domestic industries, it's much less likely that these policies will see the light of day.”</p>
<p>“Supporting infant industries, like the Indian solar industry, is a well-known economic development model,” Cossar-Gilbert says. “India is only using a small percentage of the program as domestic content — around 10 percent — and India continues to import about 100 million solar panels. So that argument is, I think, self-interested, and in the case of India, it is real hypocrisy from the US government, which uses similar policies to support their industry.”</p>
<p>This article is based on an <a href="http://loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=16-P13-00010&amp;segmentID=1" type="external">interview</a> that aired on PRI's <a href="http://loe.org/index.html" type="external">Living on Earth</a> with Steve Curwood</p> | A US trade complaint may hinder India's plan for a homegrown solar industry | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-03-21/us-trade-complaint-may-hinder-indias-plan-homegrown-solar-industry | 2016-03-21 | 3 |
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<p>It’s just that they’ve got caught up a few times passing the ball too much.</p>
<p>After poor ball movement plagued the team in a Nov. 22 loss to Massachusetts, New Mexico coach Craig Neal harped on his team to make the extra pass, reverse the ball from one side of the court to the other with a quickness to get open looks.</p>
<p>Not only has his team responded, they’ve often times overcompensated by looking too much to pass in the past two games.</p>
<p>“Being a little more selfish I think would help this team,” said senior guard Kendall Williams, whose 6.3 assists per game easily lead the Mountain West Conference.</p>
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<p>Frankly, it’s hard to say that the Lobos’ (5-1) offense has really been struggling too much as their 85.2 points per game ranks No. 2 in the MWC and No. 29 out of 345 Division I programs across the nation.</p>
<p>But after seeing his team pass up open shot after open shot in Saturday’s win over San Diego, Neal tends to agree with his senior guard.</p>
<p>New Mexico’s Kendall Williams leads the Mountain West with 6.3 assists a game. He says the Lobos could benefit from being a little more selfish. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>“I maybe say too much about play together and share the ball,” Neal said. “And we worked on it, because I thought in the UMass game, even though we had a bad run and we got a little bit tired, our ball movement really suffered. And we spent a lot of time (last) week really trying to reverse sides of the ball quicker and get some things on the other side.”</p>
<p>UNM’s 1.43 assist to turnover ratio (106 assists to 74 turnovers) is third best in the league and ranks 35th nationally, so the team is finding success in finding open teammates in positions to score without forcing the issue to the point of turning the ball over, but the players admit that sometimes they get too caught up in that.</p>
<p>“Yeah, probably,” Williams said when asked bluntly if the team actually passes to much. “That might start with me honestly. I’m a two guard and sometimes I pass up shots, but it is what it is. I think we just need to start shooting the ball more. We need to start shooting the ball more in practice, shooting the ball more in games.”</p>
<p>Neal pointed to a comment sophomore guard Cleveland “Pancake” Thomas recently made in a game he was struggling to shoot. Thomas told Williams it might be a good idea to stop passing to him because his shot wasn’t falling.</p>
<p>“You can’t play that way,” Neal said, referring to Thomas and also to junior guard Hugh Greenwood who has struggled in recent games to find his shot (he was 1-of-6 on Saturday).</p>
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<p>Neal said he wouldn’t put those players on the floor in those positions if he didn’t trust them to shoot when they’re open and the last thing he wants any of his players to do is pass up open shots when they’re available, whether they’re struggling or not.</p>
<p>TV: Wednesday’s UNM/NMSU game in Las Cruces will be televised on Root Sports, which can be seen on Dish 414, DirecTV 683 and Comcast 261 (Albuquerque area).</p>
<p>TOP 25 POLLS: The Lobos’ hiatus from both major college basketball polls extended to week No. 2 on Monday.</p>
<p>UNM remained unranked in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches top 25 polls released on Monday. The Lobos fell out of both polls in the Nov. 25 poll after losing to Massachusetts on Nov. 22.</p>
<p>Mountain West rival San Diego State (5-1) broke into the AP Top 25 (at No. 24) and received votes in the coaches poll. Boise State (6-0) received votes in both polls.</p>
<p>UNM’s 71 points in the AP poll leaves it three spots out of that poll and the team’s 36 points leaves the Lobos two spots out of the coaches poll. UNM, despite going 1-0 with a win over San Diego since the last polls, lost points in each.</p>
<p>Five of 65 AP voters who had UNM ranked last week have it unranked this week and six others dropped it to a lower ranking since the Nov. 25 poll.</p>
<p>UNM appeared on 17 of 65 AP ballots with a high vote of No. 19 by Seattle Times reporter Percy Allen.</p>
<p>MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: San Diego State senior point guard Xavier Thames on Monday was named the MWC Player of the Week after leading the Aztecs to a 3-0 week and win in the Wooden Legacy tournament in Fullerton and Anaheim, Calif. He averaged 21.3 points per game and hit 11-of-15 (73.3 percent) 3-pointers.</p>
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<p /> | Lobo basketball notebook: Is UNM playing too unselfishly? | false | https://abqjournal.com/312708/lobos-may-be-a-little-too-unselfish.html | 2 |
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<p>When I heard the news that ISIS is bulldozing the ancient city of Nimrud, I cried.</p>
<p>I am clinging to the hope that this is just propaganda from the Iraqi government&#160;to further blacken the name of the ISIS. After all, there have&#160;been no pictures or videos of any destruction, nor any claim or comment by ISIS.</p>
<p>But ISIS has already destroyed a multitude of historical artifacts and&#160;archaeological sites as part of its campaign against what they call paganism and idolatry. So the odds are against all of us who hold dear the common heritage of mankind.</p>
<p>The destruction of Nimrud would take ISIS'&#160;culture war to a whole new level. The reports of its demise&#160;have&#160;brought an avalanche of international criticism;&#160;UNESCO, the UN's cultural preservation agency,&#160;says there’s no doubt that it would be a war crime.</p>
<p>They say Nimrud represents part of the common heritage of humanity. Western civilization traces its roots to the first agricultural civilizations in what we call the Fertile Crescent. They were the scene of the first laws, the first writing&#160;and new forms of government beyond the village and tribal level.</p>
<p>Time is not kind to historical sites:&#160;Fires, floods, earthquakes and simple erosion alone are constant threats. It&#160;seems unbelievable that anyone would deliberately attempt to destroy a place of such beauty and significance, a site that’s survived not only nature but the&#160;Crusades, the Mongols, both world wars and countless conflicts&#160;between the Persians and the Turks.</p>
<p>Nimrud lies about 20 miles southeast of Mosul.&#160;It was founded by the king of the Assyrians — one of a succession of empires in what historians call the Fertile Crescent —&#160;in about 1250 BC, more than 3,000 years ago. Just to put that date in perspective, that was just 150 years after the death of Moses.</p>
<p>Nimrud’s actual name was Kalhu, and was recorded in the Bible as Calah. It was not called Nimrud until the 18th&#160;century AD, when a western explorer mistakenly associated the site with the Biblical character named Nimrud, who appears in the Book of Genesis and the Chronicles.</p>
<p>Kalhu&#160;became the capital of the Assyrian empire around 850 BC, when the Assyrian&#160;empire was on one its upswings. It remained the capital for about 150 years.</p>
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<p>Assyrian attack on a town with archers and a wheeled battering ram; from a relief dated 865–860 BC, taken from the North-West Palace of Nimrud; now in the British Museum.&#160;</p>
<p>Creative Commons/Capillon</p>
<p>I've never been lucky enough to visit the site myself, but I have seen the colossal statues —&#160;known as "lamassus"&#160;—&#160;of winged man-lions and man-bulls and reliefs in <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/n/nimrud_ancient_kalhu,_iraq.aspx" type="external">London's British Museum</a> and the <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rdas/hd_rdas.htm" type="external">New York Metropolitan Museum of Art</a>. Other artifacts can be seen everywhere from&#160;Chicago and Paris to Baghdad and Mosul.</p>
<p>Kalhu may have held as many as 100,000 people, which is pretty staggering when you realize&#160;that northern Europeans were all living in mud-hut villages at that time. The main Royal palace alone&#160;covered 12 acres.</p>
<p>It was a state of laws, and it established eastern Aramaic as the lingua franca for the Middle East. Jesus probably spoke something similar to Kalhu's residents.</p>
<p>But we shouldn't look at the Assyrians through rose-tinted spectacles. Like all empires, the Assyrian Empire was built on violent conquest.&#160;Many of the monuments at Kalhu commemorate great victories and the torture&#160;and massacre&#160;of Assyria's enemies.</p>
<p>The Assyrians fell into bitter civil wars in the 6th century&#160;BC. That allowed the Babylonians to re-emerge as the pre-eminent power in the Middle East. The demise of the Assyrians, and the end of Nimrud, therefore, roughly coincides with the exile of the Israelites to Babylon.</p>
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<p>Possible depiction of Jehu, King of Israel, giving tribute to King Shalmaneser III of Assyria, on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III from Nimrud (circa 827 BC) in the British Museum (London).</p>
<p>Creative Commons/Steven G. Johnson</p>
<p>But the Assyrians did not disappear. The countryside around Nimrud is still populated by people who identify as Assyrians. They still speak Aramaic, and most practice Christianity rather than Islam. That might explain the hostility of ISIS, but, as UNESCO says, Nimrud is part of the common heritage of all mankind.</p>
<p>There are some glimmers of hope for the treasures of Kalhu. About 90 percent&#160;of the city is still underground and has not been excavated. Much of the art —&#160;the statuary and reliefs, gold, ivory and jewels —&#160;has been removed to museums over the last two centuries. But the aboveground structures,&#160;many of which still hold these priceless reliefs,&#160;are very vulnerable — and hopefully still in existence.</p>
<p />
<p>Map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire&#160;</p>
<p>Creative Commons/Ningyou -&#160;Own work, derived from a map in 'Atlas of the Bible Lands', C.S. Hammond &amp; Co (1959)</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 'When I heard that ISIS is bulldozing the ancient city of Nimrud, I cried' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-03-06/baghdad-government-accuses-isis-destroying-ancient-city-nimrud | 2015-03-06 | 3 |
<p>The Colin Powell chronicles capture <a href="/topics/washington/" type="external">Washington</a> for all it has to offer a retired general, statesman and esteemed member of the ruling class.</p>
<p>In his exposed emails, the nation’s capital is not only a stage for a cast of liars and incompetents but also a place to make sound investments and snare lucrative speaking fees. In his spare time, there is great TV featuring “chicks” and Irish chitchat.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a>’s personal emails were hacked for a second time and displayed by the thousands last month on DCleaks.com. A hacker now behind bars — a Romanian with the nom de guerre “Guccifer” — previously invaded his privacy in cyberspace.</p>
<p>As a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and secretary of state, <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> is a proud member of the capital’s feted establishment and one of the most respected men in America.</p>
<p>That is what makes a trip into his <a href="/topics/washington/" type="external">Washington</a> world so interesting. The latest hack shows that the first theft and exposure did not curtail <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a>’s joy for email conversations. He touched on weighty issues such as NATO and gossiped about who should join ABC’s “The View.”</p>
<p>The mainstream media’s coverage of the hack focused on <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a>’s distaste for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and harsh criticism of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for trying to drag him into her email scandal. He called Mr. Trump a “national disgrace.” He said Mrs. Clinton was caught lying, and “everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris.”</p>
<p>There are other sharp profiles.</p>
<p>On retired <a href="/topics/army/" type="external">Army</a> Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s main surrogate on defense issues, <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> said: “I’ve followed him. He was eased out of DIA (eg-fired.) A little on the loopy side, but smart. Trying to find a new podium in his life.”</p>
<p>A regular email confidant is Washington power lobbyist Kenneth M. Duberstein. President Reagan’s chief of staff for two years, Mr. Duberstein backed Barack Obama for president after rival John McCain declined his request to head a transition office, ABC News reported.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> told Mr. Duberstein in 2014 that Vice President Joseph R. Biden was insufferable at a White House event.</p>
<p>“Just suffered through Joe Biden talking for two hours after lunch in a hot tent,” he said. “He turned off the entire audience.”</p>
<p>“Why do u still do this stuff to yourself,” Mr. Duberstein replied. “Joe is becoming too much. And seems to have no clout inside that I can detect. Becoming a joke. Not the serious guy he was in Senate.”</p>
<p>In addition to politics, interview and speech requests, board meetings and travel plans, the stolen emails show the retired <a href="/topics/army/" type="external">Army</a> general’s mischievous side as he opines on popular culture.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> likes an African TV channel and Irish programming that shows up on the same number. His favorite is a show modeled after ABC’s “The View.” He likes the show’s salty banter and attractive “chicks.”</p>
<p>He said he watches only foreign news channels.</p>
<p>“I was surfing through the foreign channels and came to the Ethiopian channel which usually only has Ethiopian music videos,” he said. “However, I discovered that the channel at 1 pm has a ladies talk show that is an Irish version of The View and Tall from Dublin. The four chicks are talking about hairy legs and whose boobs are biggest.”</p>
<p>“‘Blonde hairy legs are probably ok. You can’t see it,’” he quoted the show as saying.</p>
<p>As for “The View,” he said the bombastic Rosie O’Donnell was not a good fit.</p>
<p>“I find Rosie an objectionable person,” he wrote in 2014. “She can’t just talk about her kids. ABC sounds lost. How does that other all women daily talk show do on the other channel?”</p>
<p>Miss O’Donnell’s second stint on The View ended in early 2015.</p>
<p>On other TV watching, <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> wrote: “A very nice day. I got caught up watching a cute chick show of LIFETIME. Four black women take a plain white chick and do a makeover. Kinda cute. Almost over.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a>, now 79, was once the darling of the Republican establishment, which methodically elevated him to the epicenter of Washington power.</p>
<p>He was Reagan’s national security adviser. President George H.W. Bush named him Joint Chiefs chairman, the top military officer in the land. He presided over Operation Desert Storm to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991. President George W. Bush made him secretary of state, where he defended a less-successful war, the 2003 invasion to oust Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.</p>
<p>Perhaps because he presented a nationally televised argument to the United Nations that turned out not to be true, <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> made a pronounced shift to <a href="/topics/washington/" type="external">Washington</a>’s liberal establishment.</p>
<p>He backed Mr. Obama. He said in 2012: “There is a level of intolerance in parts of the Republican Party.”</p>
<p>He said in 2015, “So I want to continue to be a Republican because it annoys them.”</p>
<p>He is involved in a billion-dollar private equity firm run by big Democratic donor Jeffrey Leeds. It was Mr. Leeds who told <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> in an email that Bill and Hillary Clinton refer to Mr. Obama as “that man.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> received — and declined — a stream of interview requests.</p>
<p>A documentarian wanted <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> to talk about his old boss, Dick Cheney, who ran the Pentagon when he was Joint Chiefs chairman. <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> said no because the theme was Cheney-only. He generally disparaged Mr. Cheney and his daughters. One office worker hoped that the aggressive peace group Code Pink would disrupt their public appearances.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> also declined a request from The Washington Post to do a video interview on the use of the “N-word” in sports.</p>
<p>His chief of staff wrote to The Post: “General Powell believes that such a video will just raise the ‘n-word’ again rather [than] further bury it deeper. He believes coaches are in charge and should fine or fire any player that utters the word. He does not wish to participate in the video.”</p>
<p>In May, <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> assessed the Black Lives Matter group. His discussion came in an email on the topic of black female cadets at West Point raising their fists in a pre-graduation photograph. The women said the gesture was to symbolize unity and pride. They were cleared of any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>“I was afraid the <a href="/topics/army/" type="external">Army</a> was going to do something even dumber than the counseling,” <a href="/topics/powell/" type="external">Mr. Powell</a> wrote. “I just saw a bunch of great young ladies who made it through West Point following a tradition.</p>
<p>“So they raised their arms. I see groups raising their arms all the time. Some guy writes that they are expressing support for Black Lives matter. Don’t know if they were, but what if they were? Black Lives matter is a movement that will fade. Noble, but has probably caused more opposition than support. I refer to it when appropriate, but follow with most black lives are being taken by black men and boys,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2016/oct/13/colin-powell-emails-packed-with-political-gossip-p/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Colin Powell’s hacked emails packed with political gossip, pop culture banter | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/13/colin-powell-emails-packed-with-political-gossip-p/ | 2016-10-13 | 0 |
<p>Why does the FBI orchestrate fake terror plots?</p>
<p>The latest one snared Osman Mohamud, a Somali-American teenager in Portland, Oregon. The Associated Press report by William Mall and Nedra Pickler (11-27-10) is headlined in Yahoo News: “Somali-born teen plotted car-bombing in Oregon.”</p>
<p>This is a misleading headline as the report makes it clear that it was a plot orchestrated by federal agents. Two sentences into the <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101127/ap_on_re_us/us_portland_car_bomb_plot" type="external">news report</a> we have this: “The bomb was an elaborate fake supplied by the [FBI] agents and the public was never in danger, authorities said.”</p>
<p>The teenager was supplied with a fake bomb and a fake detonator.</p>
<p />
<p>Three sentences later the reporters contradict the quoted authorities with a quote from Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon: “The threat was very real.”</p>
<p>The reporters then contradict Balizan: “White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said Saturday that President Barack Obama was aware of the FBI operation before Friday’s arrest. Shapiro said Obama was assured that the FBI was in full control of the operation and that the public was not in danger.”</p>
<p>Then Shapiro contradicts himself by declaring: “The events of the past 24 hours underscore the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism here and abroad.”</p>
<p>The story arrives at its Kafka highpoint when President Obama thanks the FBI for its diligence in saving us from the fake plot the FBI had fabricated.</p>
<p>After vacillating between whether they are reporting a real plot or an orchestrated one, the reporters finally&#160; come down on the side of orchestration. Documents released by US Attorney Dwight Holton “show the sting operation began in June.” Obviously, the targeted Portland teenager was not hot to trot. The FBI had to work on him for six months. The reporters compare “the Portland sting” to the recent arrest in Virginia of Faroque Ahmed who was ensnared in a “bombing plot that was a ruse conducted over the past six months by federal officials.”</p>
<p>Think about this.&#160;The FBI did a year’s work in order to convince two people to participate in fake plots.</p>
<p>If you are not too bright and some tough looking guys accost you and tell you that they are Al Qaeda and expect your help in a terrorist operation, you might be afraid to say no, or you might be thrilled to be part of a blowback against an American population that is indifferent to their government’s slaughter of people of your ethnicity in your country of origin. Whichever way it falls, it is unlikely the ensnared person would ever have done anything beyond talk had the FBI not organized them into action. In other cases the FBI entices people with money to participate in its fake plots.</p>
<p>Since 9/11, the only domestic “terrorist plot” that I recall that was not obviously organized by the FBI is the “Times Square plot” to which Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty to trying to set off a car bomb in Manhattan. This plot, too, is suspicious.&#160; One would think that a real terrorist would have a real bomb, not a smoke bomb.</p>
<p>In the May 19, 2009, online site, <a href="http://sott.net/" type="external">sott.net</a> (reprinted Nov. 27, 2010), Joe Quinn collects some of the fake plots, some of which were validated by <a href="http://www.sott.net/articles/show/184730-The-Tortured-and-Manipulated-Terrorist-Threat-Evidence" type="external">torture confessions</a> and others by ignorant and fearful juries. The US government comes up with a plot, an accused, and tortures him until he confesses, or the government fabricates a case and takes it to jurors who know that they cannot face their neighbors if they let off a media-declared “terrorist.”</p>
<p>Perhaps the most obvious of these cases is “the Miami seven,” a hapless group of Christian-Zionist-Muslims that called themselves the “Sea of David” and were quietly living in a Florida warehouse awaiting biblical end times. Along came the FBI posing as Al Qaeda and offered them $50,000 and an Al Qaeda swearing in ceremony.</p>
<p>The FBI told them that they needed to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and various government buildings. An honest reporter at Knight Ridder revealed: “The Justice (sic) Department unveiled the arrests with an orchestrated series of news conferences in two cities, but the severity of the charges compared with the seemingly amateurish nature of the group raised concerns among civil libertarians,” who noted that the group had “no weapons, no explosives.”</p>
<p>The Justice (sic) Department and tamed media made a big show out of the “militaristic boots” worn by the hapless “plotters,” but the FBI had bought the boots for them.</p>
<p>The biggest piece of evidence against the hapless group was that they had taken photos of “targets” in Florida, but the US government had equipped them with cameras.</p>
<p>The US government even rented cars for its dupes to drive to take the pictures.</p>
<p>It turns out that the group only wanted the $50,000, but an American jury convicted them anyhow.</p>
<p>When the US government has to go to such lengths to create “terrorists” out of hapless people, an undeclared agenda is being served. What could this agenda be?</p>
<p>The answer is many agendas. One agenda is to justify wars of aggression that are war crimes under the Nuremberg standard created by the US government itself. One way to avoid war crimes charges is to create acts of terrorism that justify the naked aggressions against “terrorist countries.”</p>
<p>Another agenda is to create a police state. A police state can control people who object to their impoverishment for the benefit of the superrich much more easily than can a democracy endowed with constitutional civil liberties.</p>
<p>Another agenda is to get rich. Terror plots, whether real or orchestrated, have created a market for security. Dual Israeli citizen Michael Chertoff, former head of US Homeland Security, is the lobbyist who represents Rapiscan, the company that manufactures the full body porno-scanners that, following the “underwear bomber” event, are now filling up US airports. Homeland Security has announced that they are going to purchase the porno-scanners for trains, buses, subways, court houses, and sports events. How can shopping malls and roads escape? Recently on Interstate 20 west of Atlanta, trucks had to drive through a similar device. Everyone has forgotten that the underwear bomber lacked required documents and was escorted aboard the airliner by an official.</p>
<p>The “war on terror” provides an opportunity for a few well-connected people to become very rich. If they leave Americans with a third world police state, they will be living it up in Gstaad.</p>
<p>This despite the fact that everyone on the planet knows that it is not lactating mothers, children, elderly people in walkers and wheelchairs, members of Congress, members of the military, nuns, and so on, who are members of Al Qaeda plotting to bring aboard a bomb in their underwear, their shoes, their shampoo and face creams.</p>
<p>Indeed, bombs aboard air liners are a rare event.</p>
<p>What is it really all about? Could it be that the US government needs terrorist events in order to completely destroy the US Constitution?&#160; On November 24, National Public Radio broadcast <a href="http://www.npr.org/2010/11/24/131574360/obama-administration-weighs-indefinite-detention" type="external">a report</a> by Dina Temple-Raston: “Administration officials are looking at the possibility of codifying detention without trial and are awaiting legislation that is supposed to come out of Congress early next year.” Of course, the legislation will not come out of Congress. It will be written by Homeland Security and the Justice (sic) Department. The impotent Congress will merely rubber-stamp it.</p>
<p>The obliteration of habeas corpus, the most necessary and important protection of liberty ever institutionalized in law and governing constitution, has become necessary for the US government, because a jury might acquit an alleged or mock “terrorist” or framed person whom the US government has declared prior to the trial will be held forever in indefinite detention even if acquitted in a US court of law. The attorney general of the United States has declared that any “terrorist” that he puts on trial who is acquitted by a jury will remain in detention regardless of the verdict. Such an event would reveal the total lawlessness of American “justice.”</p>
<p>The United States of America, “the city upon the hill,” “the light unto the world,” has become Nazi Germany. It was the practice of the Gestapo to ignore court verdicts and to execute or hold indefinitely the cleared defendant in the camps. The Obama regime is in the process of completing Dick Cheney’s dream by legislating the legality of indefinite detention. American law has collapsed to the dungeons of the Dark Ages.</p>
<p>This Nazi Gestapo policy is now the <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26919.htm" type="external">declared policy</a> of the US Department of Justice (sic).&#160;</p>
<p>Anyone who thinks the United States is a free society where people have liberty, “freedom and democracy” is uninformed.</p> | Fabricating Terror | false | http://foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/12/01/fabricating-terror/ | 2010-12-01 | 1 |
<p>His name is Willie J. Parker, and he’s an OB/GYN. He’s the author of a new book, Life’s Work, all about the joy of performing abortions. And now he’s the subject of a fawning <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/magazine/willie-j-parker-changed-his-mind-about-abortion.html" type="external">New York Times interview</a>.</p>
<p>Parker used to oppose abortion. Now he’s for it. Why? That answer isn’t really clear, but we’re supposed to sympathize with him because he clearly wants to help women. Here’s Parker’s explanation for his shift from pro-life to pro-abortion:</p>
<p>I had to come to a crisis moment regarding a religious understanding that left me unable to help women when I felt deeply for their situation. So I needed to convert from a religious understanding that left me paralyzed to act on my deepest sense of connection to one that empowered me to do what I felt to be the right thing. It felt as life-altering for me to move from being unable to do abortions to being able to do them as it did to move from being a nonbeliever to becoming a believer.</p>
<p>It’s actually rather morally disgusting to compare the ideological movement from not killing babies to killing babies to a religious conversion. And the notion that he felt bad because he couldn’t help women who wanted abortions, and thus abortion had to be correct, is license to commit all sorts of moral atrocities.</p>
<p>But here’s the amazing thing: Parker admits that abortion is a “life-ending process.” He says, “If I thought I was killing a person, I wouldn’t do abortions. A fetus is not a person; it’s a human entity.” So it’s a quasi-human, which means it should have quasi-human rights, even by that logic, no? Not according to Parker – he thinks that so long as you’re not fully human by his vague definition, you have no rights whatsoever, and can be killed for the sake of convenience. “In the moral scheme of things,” he says, “I don’t hold fetal life and the life of a woman equally. I value them both, but in the precedence of things, when a woman comes to me, I find myself unable to demote her aspirations because of the aspirations that someone else has for the fetus that she’s carrying.”</p>
<p>Again, this is perverse. He doesn’t value them both. If he did, he’d at least put some sort of conditions on the termination of “fetal life.” Instead, he just says that a woman’s desire for a promotion at work outranks some outsider’s “aspirations” for her fetus. But what about the fetus’ aspirations? Is the value of a baby’s future truly just subjective? What if the baby is already born, and the mother wants to kill it – should an outsider’s aspirations for that baby trump the mother’s desires?</p>
<p>Parker speaks about making abortion easy for the woman, using his rhetoric to inure the woman to any sort of emotional struggle. He calls this, creepily enough, verbicaine. He then says that elite white women are responsible for people worrying about abortion – and that’s…you guessed it…racist:</p>
<p>When women acquiesce to a role determined primarily by their biology of reproduction — even if it’s unconsciously — they judge each other for rejecting that primary identity. So if you think that the most essential role for a woman is to procreate, and humanity doesn’t go on unless you do that, then anything to interrupt that process is to be counterintuitive or immoral. The biggest insult is the notion that there’s such a thing as a black genocide, as if the people who care about abortion really care about black women and black babies.</p>
<p>People who don’t want to kill black babies in the womb care more about black babies, by definition, than Dr. Parker. But when you’re talking with The New York Times, it’s always convenient to pull the race card.</p>
<p>It’s also worth noting here that women are not “acquiescing” to some sort of arbitrarily defined societal role when they talk about the inherent value of motherhood. This is called biology. The perpetuation of the human race only occurs because women get pregnant and have babies. To see this as some sort of curse rather than the greatest blessing on the planet is morally sick.</p>
<p>Parker finally compares pro-life people to slavers:</p>
<p>People often struggle with why, as a man, I am deeply committed to feminism, reproductive justice and gender equality. I come from a heritage of people who know what it’s like to have your life controlled by somebody else. What’s most proximate to that reality right now is the direct control of women’s bodies and their reproduction, because if you don’t control your reproduction, you don’t control anything else about your life.</p>
<p>If Parker truly wanted a working analogy to slavery, he could start with what he does every day: deny the personhood of another person for convenience and profit, and treat that person instead as property to be discarded. If Parker’s truly worried about controlling the lives of others, perhaps he should stop ending them.</p> | This Doctor Wrote A Memoir About The Joy of Doing Abortions. Now The New York Times Is Fawning Over Him. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/13323/doctor-wrote-memoir-about-joy-doing-abortions-now-ben-shapiro | 2017-02-09 | 0 |
<p>By Neal Gabler / <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/donald-trump-learned-pt-barnum/" type="external">Moyers &amp; Company</a></p>
<p>President Trump giving remarks at the Unleashing American Energy event at Energy Department headquarters in June. (Simon Edelman / Wikimedia Commons)</p>
<p>Political pundits have been intoxicated lately by explanations as to why Democrats always seem to be behind the eight ball — never mind that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote; that liberal positions on issues like <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/06/28/suffolk-poll-obamacare-trump-senate-health-care-plan/103249346/" type="external">health care</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/21/climate/how-americans-think-about-climate-change-in-six-maps.html" type="external">climate change</a> and <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/190775/americans-say-upper-income-pay-little-taxes.aspx" type="external">income inequality</a> are held by a majority of Americans; or that <a href="http://cookpolitical.com/story/10414" type="external">Republicans are more unpopular</a>.</p>
<p>The idea, promoted in The New York Times with three different op-eds in the past month alone, is that Democrats don’t plug into traditional American values the way Republicans do, and it’s those values that swayed the last presidential election, especially in the Rust Belt, and in the recent special congressional elections, Trump’s general unpopularity notwithstanding.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/opinion/democrats-religion-jon-ossoff.html" type="external">Daniel K. Williams</a>, a religious historian, attributed the Democrats’ recent loss in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District to the fact that the party had become too secular to appeal to religious minorities and baby boomers, too removed from America’s religious traditions.</p>
<p>Democratic pollster Mark Penn and former Manhattan borough president Andrew Stein <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/opinion/center-democrats-identity-politics.html" type="external">penned an op-ed</a> in which they called for the Democrats to reject the “siren calls of the left” and move to the center to attract working-class voters “who feel abandoned by the party’s shift away from moderate positions on trade and immigration, from backing police and tough anti-crime measures, from trying to restore manufacturing jobs.” In short, Republicanism lite.</p>
<p>And then there is the analysis of Times columnist David Brooks, inaptly titled “ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/opinion/republicans-government-programs.html" type="external">What’s the Matter With Republicans?</a>” because it really was aimed at what’s wrong with Democrats, since in his view nothing really seems to be wrong with the GOP. Republicans subscribe to traditional American values forged on the frontier, things like self-reliance and self-sufficiency, independence, loyalty, toughness and virtue; Democrats seemingly do not.</p>
<p>None of these criticisms is new. In fact, they are pretty hoary. But they actually seem a lot less persuasive now that Donald Trump is in the White House. There has never been a president whose values are so antithetical to traditional American ones — never one less self-reliant, loyal, tough, disciplined, religious or virtuous — so the argument doesn’t hold much water to me.</p>
<p>I want to suggest something else entirely that helps explain the love for Republicans and Trump in the supposedly old-fashioned precincts of the South, Midwest and West. I want to suggest that beneath or beside these so-called “traditional” frontier values — which we ourselves promote so self-aggrandizingly — there’s another set of values, no less American, and probably much more so. According to some historians, they, too, were forged on the frontier as a form of survival.</p>
<p>They have nothing to do with the Protestant ethic — quite the contrary. They are not values of virtue but of success, promoting deception and the fast con, easy cash, hustling and the love of money. If the first set of values might be called “Algeresque,” after Horatio Alger, the popular 19th-century American author who wrote stories about poor ragamuffins rising to great wealth through hard work, this second set might be called “Barnumesque,” after P. T. Barnum, the 19th-century promoter, hoaxster and circus impresario, who played on his countrymen’s gullibility.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/president-trump-impeachment/" type="external">Michael Winship wrote on this site</a> recently in astutely pointing to Trump’s hucksterism, Trump is a chip off of P.T. Barnum’s block. I’d like to focus here on something else: Unfortunately, he isn’t the only one. For all our pieties about the benefits of hard work and decency, this is far more Barnum’s country than Alger’s, which may be the Democrats’ real problem. If anything, they are too virtuous for their own good, too beholden to moral values.</p>
<p>Of course, no one wants to come right out and say that America is a land of hustlers, least of all politicians and pundits. It is a kind of sacrilege. Everyone prefers the Alger scenario of social mobility, which historian Henry Steele Commager described as one in which “opportunities lie all about you; success is material and is the reward of virtue and work.” This is one of the bulwarks of America. To say otherwise is to engage in class warfare, and class warfare, we are often told by conservatives, is a betrayal of American exceptionalism.</p>
<p>But as much a bulwark as this is, just about everyone also knows it isn’t exactly true — even, it turns out, Horatio Alger himself. “He constantly preached that success was to be won through virtue and hard work,” writes his most perspicacious biographer, John Tebbel, “but his stories tell us just as constantly that success is actually the result of fortuitous circumstance.” Or luck, so long as you aren’t lucky enough to be born rich. Those idlers — the Trumps of the world — are Alger’s villains.</p>
<p>Perhaps it was because the American dream was so riddled with inconsistencies, contradictions and outright lies that Americans constructed (and lived) an alternative in which success goes not to the industrious but to the insolent. This is the thesis of historian Walter McDougall’s provocative story of the early republic, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060957551/freedom-just-around-the-corner" type="external">Freedom Just Around the Corner</a>. As he writes, it is the unexceptionalism of so many Americans that really makes America exceptional.</p>
<p>“To suggest that Americans are, among other things, prone to be hustlers,” McDougall notes, “is simply to acknowledge Americans have enjoyed more opportunity to pursue their ambitions by foul means or fair, than any other people in history.” And: “Americans take it for granted that ‘everyone’s got an angle,’ except maybe themselves.” This idea, that you succeed through grift and guile, has made many Americans more cynical than idealistic, more Barnum than Alger, and, yes, more Trump than Obama.</p>
<p>Barnum understood the financial implications of the swindle. He was a brilliant self-promoter and ballyhoo artist who sold an unsuspecting public on things like seeing George Washington’s 160-year-old nurse, or an “authentic” stuffed mermaid, and then made additional money by exposing his own frauds, realizing that people actually liked being fooled and being debriefed on the foolery. In this, he was merely a progenitor of what would be a long string of knaves, cheats, con artists and rascals who became an American type and who later turned the heist movie into an American staple. Virtuous heroes were dull. These rapscallions weren’t, and it wasn’t lost on most Americans that these con men were subverting those hallowed values David Brooks celebrates.</p>
<p>But as evident as the financial rewards were, it has taken a long time for anyone to see the political implications of the hustle, and now Trump has. He prides himself on not having earned his wealth, on his serial bankruptcies, on stiffing contractors and on gaming the tax system, the last three of which he regards as just clever business. Even his hint of having taped his conversations with former FBI director James Comey was a form of deceit.</p>
<p>Many of us, myself included, wondered why this didn’t bring him public scorn and create not just a credibility gap but a credibility canyon, but that’s because, as political observers, we were working from the traditional values manual and not the subversive one. I suspect, for all that platitudinous op-ed nonsense about the attraction of traditional values, this is a very real source of Trump’s appeal, as it is of the Republicans’.</p>
<p>Working within this other tradition, Trump makes no bones about being a hustler. He is shameless. Some people admire that. The Republicans, for their part, give lip service to virtue and are as self-righteous as they come, but everyone knows they are really about gaming the system, too. This is America the Deceitful. And many Americans like it, I presume because it seems to let them thumb their noses at their supposed social betters, just as Trump has done.</p>
<p>So, while people bemoan the end of moral certitude and a lost halcyon past, Trump the trickster and his Republican henchmen are creating a new America adrift in moral chaos. This, too, has a Barnum antecedent. As Barnum biographer and cultural historian Neil Harris wrote of Barnum’s destruction of traditional forms of evidence and authority, “When credentials, coats of arms and university degrees no longer guaranteed what passed for truth, it was difficult to know what to believe. Everything was up for grabs.”</p>
<p>Not a bad description of contemporary America. The pundits may say that what ails Democrats is insufficient religiosity or moderation or self-reliance or whatever the cliché happens to be, but in a time of moral turpitude, it may be insufficient rascality that really hurts them.</p>
<p>Trump has gambled that many Americans would enjoy his unpresidential, con-man antics. He hasn’t entirely won that gamble. Most Americans don’t. But there are enough who do, especially among Republicans, to let him wreak havoc. After all those years of our hearing Algeresque bromides, President Barnum is now in charge, and he is working hard to reveal America as one great big con game.</p> | Trump Bet Americans Would Like His Un-Presidential Antics. He May Be Right. | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/trump-bet-americans-would-like-his-un-presidential-antics-he-may-be-right/ | 2017-07-16 | 4 |
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<p>Demonstrators burn flares during a protest in Paris, Thursday, March 31, 2016. Some French train drivers, teachers and others are on strike to reject a government reform relaxing the 35-hour workweek and other labor rules. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)</p>
<p>PARIS - Tens of thousands of workers and youths took to the streets of France to protest, sometimes violently, a government reform meant to make it easier to hire and fire employees and to relax the country's strict 35-hour workweek.</p>
<p>As train drivers, teachers and others went on strike, student organizations and seven employee unions combined to condemn the Socialist government's bill, which they argue will badly erode hard-won worker protections.</p>
<p>"It's shocking that a Socialist government introduced this law," said Zoe Farre, 23, during a peaceful gathering in the driving rain in central Paris. About 28,000 people marched in Paris' streets, according to the police.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The government and businesses claim the reforms would help the economy and reduce unemployment, which is at a high 10 percent, by making it easier for companies to take on - and lay off - workers.</p>
<p>Farre, who is unemployed, said she understood the argument that more flexibility means more jobs, but she had doubts about the kinds of jobs officials were talking about. "It's going to be like the U.K. where you're on a zero-hour contract or like the U.S. where they make you hold a sign in the street and call it a job", she said.</p>
<p>Eric Beynel, spokesman for the Solidaires union, said "the reality is that it's already easy for companies to lay off their workers," referring to an administrative process that allows companies to pay off an employee.</p>
<p>Deborah Boke, a 26-year-old school worker, said she was "totally against this law."</p>
<p>Boke, who said she was going into teaching after struggling to find work after her master's degree, accused the government of "doing the opposite of what it was elected for. The exact opposite."</p>
<p>Earlier in the day, a few dozen protesters that were mostly hooded or wearing masks broke off a peaceful student demonstration in eastern Paris to hurl paint bombs at banks and stores. Some smashed cash machines with bats or set of off smoke canisters while confronting the police.</p>
<p>Clashes also broke out between a small group of young protesters and the police in the cities of Nantes, Rennes and Toulouse.</p>
<p>The strike affects public transports, schools, public hospitals and state-owned broadcasters. It is not affecting Paris? Charles de Gaulle airport, though 20 percent of flights at Paris? Orly airport have been canceled.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>State railway company SNCF has warned of disruptions to national and regional train traffic. International lines to London and Brussels are not affected.</p>
<p>Paris? Eiffel tower is closed all day. The company operating the monument said in a statement there are not enough staff to open the tower with "sufficient security and reception conditions".</p>
<p>"We are quite disappointed because we are here only for three days," said Zsolt Bencze, a tourist from Hungary who had already booked tickets to visit the tower. "So now we are planning to visit the Louvre. I hope it's open and not closed due to some strikes or something."</p>
<p>The government proposal technically maintains the 35-hour workweek but allows companies to organize alternative working times. Those include a workweek of up to 48 hours and 12-hour days. In "exceptional circumstances," employees could work up to 60 hours a week.</p>
<p>The bill is to be debated in parliament in April.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Raphael Satter, Alex Turnbull and Nicolas Gariga in Paris contributed to this report.</p> | Thousands take to streets in France to protest labor reform | false | https://abqjournal.com/749122/thousands-take-to-streets-in-france-to-protest-labor-reform.html | 2 |
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<p>By Jill Serjeant and Piya Sinha-Roy</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. comedian Louis C.K. on Friday admitted allegations against him by several women of sexual misconduct were true and apologized for his actions.</p>
<p>“These stories are true,” he said in a statement emailed to Reuters and other news outlets.</p>
<p>Five women detailed sexual misconduct allegations against the Emmy-winning comedian in a New York Times report published on Thursday, including three women who said he had masturbated in front of them. The allegations dated back 15 years.</p>
<p>C.K. released his statement after his upcoming film “I Love You Daddy” was scrapped for release on Friday, and Netflix Inc (O:) canceled a planned special with the comedian because of the allegations.</p>
<p>Television network FX, a unit of 21st Century Fox (O:), also severed its ties with C.K.</p>
<p>“He will no longer serve as executive producer or receive compensation on any of the four shows we were producing with him – ‘Better Things,’ ‘Baskets,’ ‘One Mississippi’ and ‘The Cops’,” FX Networks and FX productions said on Friday in an emailed statement.</p>
<p>C.K. said in his statement that he has “been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves ” his statement added.</p>
<p>He is the latest celebrity in the entertainment business to be accused of sexual misconduct by people coming forward in the wake of allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Kevin Spacey.</p>
<p>C.K., 50, said he had “spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.” He did not make clear how long he would be stepping back for.</p>
<p>The comedian, best known for his TV comedy series “Louie,” acknowledged he had misused used his power over the women, who were in the early stage of their careers at the time.</p>
<p>Two of the women in the New York Times article, comedians Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, said C.K. had invited them to his hotel room after a comedy festival in Aspen, Colorado, in 2002 and then masturbated in front of them.</p>
<p>“The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly,” C.K. said, adding that he thought it was ok to show his genitals to women if he asked them first.</p>
<p>“You asked but we never said yes,” Goodman and Wolov tweeted on Friday after his apology.</p>
<p>Netflix said earlier that what it called C.K’s “unprofessional and inappropriate behavior with female colleagues” had led the streaming service to decide not to produce a planned second stand-up special with him.</p>
<p>Film distributor The Orchard said it would not be moving forward with the release next week of “I Love You, Daddy.” The movie was written and directed by C.K. and he also appears in the film as the father of a 17-year-old girl who has a romance with a 68-year-old filmmaker.</p>
<p>Time Warner Inc’s (N:) HBO said on Thursday that C.K.’s past projects with the network, including 2006’s “Lucky Louie” series, would be removed from its on-demand services and that the comedian would no longer participate in its Nov. 18 televised “Night of Too Many Stars: America Unites for Autism Programs.”</p> | Comedian Louis C.K. admits sexual misconduct, entertainment outlets cut ties | false | https://newsline.com/comedian-louis-c-k-admits-sexual-misconduct-entertainment-outlets-cut-ties/ | 2017-11-10 | 1 |
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<p>KGUN-TV in Tucson reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1Ne9pQB)" type="external">http://bit.ly/1Ne9pQB)</a> that kennels that have dogs racing at the Tucson Greyhound Park are seeking out adoptive or foster homes for between 300 and 400 greyhounds.</p>
<p>Michael Racy, the attorney for the track, says the facility is preparing now though the legislation would take effect until next year.</p>
<p>Gov. Doug Ducey is expected to sign the bill into law Wednesday.</p>
<p>Tucson Greyhound Park owners are supporting the legislation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Under the bill, they will continue to collect about $500,000 a year for two years from horse racing operators that operate off-track wagering at the track.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KGUN-TV, <a href="http://www.kgun9.com/news/" type="external">http://www.kgun9.com/news/</a></p> | Tucson track searching for homes for hundreds of greyhounds | false | https://abqjournal.com/766455/tucson-track-searching-for-homes-for-hundreds-of-greyhounds.html | 2 |
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<p>Funny how homelessness and the displacement of low income families by inordinate rent increases get turned against each other as issues. They are shunted into separate political domains, though building affordable housing would resolve both. The homeless are given shelters sufficient for 10% of their numbers, and the tenants facing displacement are given subsidy money to tide them over for a couple of months until the next threat of eviction. This, at least, is the extent to which City Council has seen fit to make positive policy with respect to these allegedly dual problems. The shelters guarantee that the problem of homelessness will not be reduced, and the city will continue to respond to it with increased policing. And addressing displacement only through monetary channels guarantees that for housing, the city will continue to turn to for-profit developers who will build market rate housing that induces displacement, and that the displaced cannot afford. Homelessness and housing get turned into policing and profiting, and people get thrown into the streets because there is no affordable housing. The outcome is the inability of the city to protect the majority of its people, the two-thirds of the population who are renters.</p>
<p>Alex Vitale has recently published a book called <a href="" type="internal">The End of Policing</a>, in which he discusses not the goals of policing, but rather how to end the police as a problem for contemporary society. He goes over such topics as the school-to-prison pipeline, the police tendency to traumatize or kill people with emotional problems because they don’t obey commands while going through emotional crises, the misguidedness (as a foregone failure) of the war on drugs, the immorality of criminalizing sex-work, among other things. As he goes along, he gives several reasons why reforming the police is really an exercise in futility, given the nature and structure of policing itself. A good example is the iniquity of criminalizing the homeless through policing.</p>
<p>When a city administration polices the homelessness, it is using an administrative process that is irrelevant to the problem. It sets people flowing through circular channels from court to jail to the street to court to jail, and sadly, too often to prison sentences for incorrigibility because a person turns to real crime in an effort to escape this merry-go-round. The money spent to run this machienry turns out to be far more than it would cost to give these “victims of procedure” a home and a job. Researchers at the Univ. of Southern California showed that the “total cost per person of public services for two years living on the streets was $187,288, compared to $107,032 for two years in permanent housing” also with support services (a 43% difference). [Michael Cousineau, et al, Homeless Cost Study, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, 2009] In other words, “cost” is not the reason cities do not house the homeless.</p>
<p>In reality, addressing the problem of homelessness through policing and criminalization is a trick to fool people into thinking that they need bigger police departments and larger jails, despite the costs. Civil society then picks up the tab for financing an agency whose primary objective is general regimentation of the populace. Through this trick and others, police departments have become so large they constitute a political force without equal at the urban level.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Vitale argues, stopgap measures such as shelters and temporary housing have no effect for decreasing the homeless population. Homelessness, he says, “is about a mismatch between incomes and housing costs.” He references research by the National Low Income Housing Coalition that shows that “75% of extremely low income renter households spend more than 50% of their income on housing.” [“Rental Inflation Drives Homelessness and Housing Instability for the Poor,” May 1, 2015] For the more than “10 million extremely low income rental households in the US, … only 3.2 million rental homes … are available and affordable to them.” (Vitale, p.103) And I might add, on the basis of a survey I made of rent controlled units in West Berkeley during the fall of 2016, the majority of tenants in controlled apartments are actually paying 70% to 75% of their income for housing, with a substantial number paying more than that.</p>
<p>“Extensive research now exists that the ultimate solution to homelessness involves increasing pay for low-wage work and creating more affordable housing, with support services for those who need it. Emergency shelters, transitional housing, life-skills training, and forced savings programs do nothing to reduce the overall amount of homelessness. The housing market on its own cannot house the growing number of people who are left out of the formal economy or have a tenuous relationship to it. In such a situation, the state has no choice but to intervene directly.” (Vitale, p. 102)</p>
<p>That means that government “must either dramatically raise the value of transfers to stimulate new low-cost housing construction or provide the housing itself.” We are not speaking about government choosing radical solutions. What Vitale is arguing is that a radical solution is the only one left. Any other, such as income support, welfare payments, or earned income tax credits will fail to keep pace with housing costs, and get lost in a supply-and-demand cycle of their own, owing to the influx of new low income renters.</p>
<p>Two years ago, the city of Berkeley admitted that the only real solution for the problem (aka travesty) of low income tenant displacement was building affordable housing. (“Affordability,” on HUDs standard, means that the maximum rent chargeable is 30% of the tenant’s income). Building “market rate” housing has put the city on a treadmill, huffing and puffing to get housing built, and getting nowhere in terms of resolving the affordable housing crisis. In fact, Berkeley has glutted itself with market rate housing, having fulfilled its requirement under Plan Bay Area. Today, one sees banners on big apartment buildings over a year old still announcing “Now Leasing” and “Apartments available.” Indeed, in the face of this glut, developers are now approaching the Planning Dept. with a demand that they be able to condo-ize. With respect to homelessness, that would only set the city on another treadmill.</p>
<p>The point of a treadmill is that it allows some people to crow that they are dealing with the problem while those who suffer from the problem see that the situation only getting worse.</p>
<p>Okay, lets get real – which means getting radical. City zoning only asks that 20% of each new housing project be affordable, which developers can avoid by paying a mitigation fee. That rate is a drop in the bucket given the need for low income housing. It also provides a pittance for the Housing Trust Fund (to use to build affordable housing) since the mitigation fee is only $34,000 per unit. The urgency of the situation calls for housing projects that will provide from 80% to 100% affordable units.</p>
<p>The city could change its zoning to require that by changing one number in its municipal code (Sect. 22-20-065D). There is a formula there, with a “20%” in it. Change it to “80%” and raise the mitigation fee to $120,000 per unit (which would put real money in the Housing Trust Fund) and the city could resolve its affordable housing problem. The benefits from doing so would be many.</p>
<p>First, these increases would not violate the Palmer decision (which holds that if a city mandates affordable housing units, then that city must make up the difference in developer earnings). The way the law is written in Berkeley, if 20% doesn’t violate Palmer, than 80% won’t either. The developer can still pay a mitigation fee to not include affordable units – that is, inclusion of affordable units remains voluntary. Second, it would defend the city against developers who opportune on the Housing Accountability Act that neutralizes the city’s ability to give democratic power or at least some choice concerning development to neighborhoods. And third, regulations like this would probably drive away some of the profit-hungry developers and their financial backers (aka banks). That might not be a bad bargain since all they can offer is a product (market rate housing) that we don’t need, while refusing to provide a product (affordable housing) that we do need.</p>
<p>There are those who would cry out that this would insure that nothing gets built. They only reveal that they worship the god “profit” and use the “law of supply-and-demand” as gospel. It is a religious argument. After chasing the unneeded for-profit developers away, the task would be to take over the land they will no longer be using (there are ways of doing that), and give it to any of the non-profits in the area who build affordable housing. We have several organizations in this town – SAHA, RCD (Resources for Community Development), and others waiting in the wings, who would love to take this on. Raising the bar on affordable housing might (could, would, should?) violate the developers’ fixation on profit, but it does not mean that nothing will be built. It simply implies that it won’t be built by profit-fixated developers.</p>
<p>The real job would be figuring out where to find alternate forms of financing. But alternate financing should be possible. There are many versions of mortgages to choose from, or bond issues, or federal subsidies (maybe a problem), or taxes on the rich and the huge corporations (maybe a virtue), or actually humanitarian investment, etc. But we already face this task. These would be the same means, using the same ideas and alternative sources, that would be needed to resolve the homeless crisis. There would have to be subsidized apartments for homeless people, until they get jobs and a stable income. And services will have to be provided in the meanwhile, since homelessness is a traumatic experience – one created by our socio-economic structure. To police the traumatized homeless is like breaking a man’s leg and then arresting him for vagrancy because he can’t walk.</p>
<p>But as long as I’m talking “radical,” lets go for it. What we need is a suit against the Pentagon for spending money on unneeded, redundant, and useless warmaking technologies, where that money is needed by the people of the US. We have a recent precedent. Two California counties and a city have sued 37 oil, gas, and coal companies for selling their products in the knowledge that they were causing serious climatic disruption. Other cities are suing a smaller number of oil companies for the same reason. It is like the suits against the tobacco companies. The dangers of climate change are not just against human health, however, as with the tobacco plague. We face rising sea levels, the fact that entire species are moving northward, and there is an accompanying and on-going mass extinction in progress. All of this poses severe threats to the planet, to society, and to human life in general.</p>
<p>This raises the interesting question of the kind of courage it would take to sue the Pentagon for hoarding the funds that would provide housing and free education and free healthcare for all the people of the nation. The only people who might object to such a suit and such courage (other than the usual corporate executives and investors) would be the white supremacists and white nationalists, since they do not want to be involved in national programs in which black and brown people have access equal to whites.</p>
<p>But we should heap unending scorn on cities and states that whine about not having funds to provide a decent life for people. There is plenty of money, squandered and wasted by the five-sided institution. Its sole function is to kill people, and it does that to us as well by hoarding the funds we need to live better. Or at all. Every month, some homeless people die on the street.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | It’s Time to Drive Away the Developers | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/11/03/its-time-to-drive-away-the-developers/ | 2017-11-03 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Tesla.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>TeslaMotors' vehicles far outpace its competitors' when it comes to electric range capacity. The Model S has a 75 kWh battery with a range of at least 240 miles, while its closest competitors -- the Nissan Leaf, theBMW i3, and General Motors' Chevrolet Bolt -- fall far short.</p>
<p>One reason is that Tesla uses larger battery packs than its competitors. But the company also tweaks existing battery technology to make it more efficient, and benefits from using mass-produced cylindrical batteries that are found in most laptops.</p>
<p>Watch the video below to find out how Tesla's battery technology has helped the company keep its closest all-electric competitors at bay.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/14/heres-why-teslas-batteries-are-better-than-the-com.aspx" type="external">Here's Why Tesla's Batteries Are Better Than the Competition's Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewsie/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Chris Neiger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool recommends BMW and General Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Here's Why Tesla's Batteries Are Better Than the Competition's | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/14/here-why-tesla-batteries-are-better-than-competition.html | 2016-05-14 | 0 |
<p>Documentary filmmaker <a href="http://variety.com/t/bruce-brown/" type="external">Bruce Brown</a>, known for surfing movie “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/endless-summer/" type="external">Endless Summer</a>,” died Sunday in Santa Barbara, Calif. of natural causes, his <a href="https://www.brucebrownfilms.com/" type="external">official website</a> reported. He was 80.</p>
<p>Brown was born in San Francisco and grew up on Long Beach, Calif. before briefly moving to Hawaii where he began making films and worked with submarines for the U.S. Navy. Brown became a documentary filmmaker and released his first film “Slippery When Wet” in 1958. He was Oscar nominated for the 1971 motorcycle racing film “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/on-any-sunday/" type="external">On Any Sunday</a>,” on which Steve McQueen was a producer.</p>
<p>The 1966 “Endless Summer” was narrated by Brown and starring surfers and board shapers Mike Hynson and Robert August.</p>
<p>Coming out at the height of the Beach Boys’ popularity, “The Endless Summer,” with its distinctive pink and orange pop art poster, turned surf culture into a sun-kissed dream lifestyle that swept the world.</p>
<p>In 1994, Brown made “The Endless Summer II,” retracing the footsteps of the original surfers and looking at how the coastline had changed from California to South Africa. His surf films were staples</p>
<p>“At the time, surfers were considered losers. You didn’t want to tell anyone you were a surfer,” Brown, a life-long surfer himself, said in an interview with the Orange County Register. “It showed the general public we were good guys.”</p>
<p>In 2009, Brown was inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame and was awarded the first Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In 2015, the Smithsonian Institute held an exhibit called “Wave of Innovation: Surfing and the Endless Summer.”</p>
<p>“I think he helped shape our culture. He gave us all that idealized lifestyle,” Barry Haun, creative director for the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, told the Los Angeles Daily News. “It’s always summer. You go, ‘That’s what I want. I want it to always be warm and sunny and fun.’ I think that was the main thing, he made it look really fun.”</p> | ‘Endless Summer’ Filmmaker Bruce Brown Dies at 80 | false | https://newsline.com/endless-summer-filmmaker-bruce-brown-dies-at-80/ | 2017-12-11 | 1 |
<p>The place we asked you about in today's Geo Quiz is a resort town on the Adriatic coast. It's not as well known as other spots on the Adriatic such as Dubrovnik and Budva.</p>
<p>But it does have a fascinating history that includes pirates and an African community that dates back centuries. The answer is the Montenegrin town of Ulcinj.</p>
<p>lcinj looks like a picture postcard. On this afternoon small waves splash against the rocky shore as fisherman bring in their afternoon catch. Ulcinj is a sleepy seaside resort city in Montenegro; 500 years ago, though, Ulcinj had a different reputation.</p>
<p>"It was like a city of pirates," said Driton Abazi, sitting at a beachside café. He said maritime piracy turned Ulcinj into a melting pot, with people coming from many different countries.</p>
<p>If you believe the local legend, Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes spent several years as a slave here during the 1500s. Cervantes is said to have named Don Quixote's muse, Dulcinea, after the Italian name for Ulcinj, Dulcigno. While's there's no evidence that Cervantes was in Ulcinj, there is a legacy of slavery here; African slavery.</p>
<p>Resit Kastrati is a local fisherman with a common Albanian name. He's also one of Ulcinj's very few black residents. Kastrati said his ancestors came here as slaves about 400 years ago, and they eventually integrated into the predominately Albanian community. By the 1870s, about 150 black families lived in and around Ulcinj.</p>
<p>Now it's just Kastrati and his ailing mother. The black population declined dramatically after World War II, with death, intermarriage and emigration taking their toll.</p>
<p>But Kastrati insists that racism wasn't a factor.</p>
<p>"Ulcinj is a special city," Kastrati said. "There is no racism here." Kastrati, the son of a white Kosovo Albanian man and a black woman from Ulcinj, doesn't see himself as belonging to a particular group. He refers to himself simply as "crnac," or black man, in Montenegrin.</p>
<p>That gets him a lot of attention here in Ulcinj. In fact, Kastrati said people here have treated his family like a mascot. He said that he likes that because it's not about skin color. He sees it as recognition of his family's place as one of the oldest in town, a family that's made a lot of contributions. Kastrati's friend, Mensur Kaleziq, who owns a local bar, said cultural tolerance comes naturally in Ulcinj.</p>
<p>"Nobody is from here," Kaleziq said. "Maybe everyone is from Arabia or Albania or mixed."</p>
<p>Kaleziq himself is Arab Sudanese and Albanian. According to him, Ulcinj embraces its diversity more than other places in the Balkans. "This city is always different — not like how people think. Everybody respects from where you are from."</p>
<p>Ulcinj recently became a little more diverse. Two of the newest additions to the city's pro basketball team, KK Ulcinj, are African-Americans. Rickey Young, who formerly played for West Virginia Tech, said that they were surprised by the reaction they got in Ulcinj.</p>
<p>"Where we're from, there's a lot black people, a lot of white people. You get here, you're like the only black face they see," he said. "They're pretty excited to see us."</p>
<p>This summer, KK Ulcinj signed Young and Paul Kirkpatrick, who played at Howard University before a brief pro stint in Morocco. According to Kirkpatrick, while the reaction here is friendly, it occasionally borders on the offensive. He said people will sometimes stop their cars and turn around on the street. "People just yell out our names 'Black man,' everything, the N-word," Kirkpatrick said. " Yeah, they say the N-word a lot."</p>
<p>Rickey Young added that took some getting used to.</p>
<p>"When I first was hearing it, I was like, 'What did you just say?' But they don't really understand where the word comes from. They hear it on TV. They see black people call other black people the N-word, and they're getting like the wrong portion of it over here," Young said. "You can't get offended because they don't even understand what they're saying. It's kind of awkward."</p>
<p>Still, Resit Kastrati, one of Ulcinj's last black residents, said all the attention he receives comes from a fundamentally positive place. "I wouldn't stay here if it weren't like that," Kastrati said.</p> | Slideshow: An Old Pirate Town on the Adriatic Coast | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-16/slideshow-old-pirate-town-adriatic-coast | 2011-11-16 | 3 |
<p>Last week Barack Obama announced that he wants to cut $400 billion in military spending and said he would work with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs on a “fundamental review” of U.S. “military missions, capabilities and our role in a changing world” before making a decision.</p>
<p>Spokesman Geoff Morrell responded by hinting that Gates was displeased with having to cut that much from his spending plan.&#160; Gates “has been clear that further significant defense cuts cannot be accomplished without future cuts in force structure and military capability,” said Morrell, who volunteered that the Secretary not been informed about the Obama decision until the day before.</p>
<p>But it is difficult to believe that open display of tension between Obama and Gates was not scripted.&#160; In the background of those moves is a larger political maneuver on which the two of them have been collaborating since last year in which they gave the Pentagon a huge increase in funding for the next decade and then started to take credit for small or nonexistent reductions from that increase.</p>
<p>The original Obama-Gates base military spending plan – spending excluding the costs of the current wars – for FY 2011 through 2020, called for spending $5.8 trillion, or $580 billion annually, as former Pentagon official Lawrence Korb noted last January.&#160; That would have represented a 25 per cent real increase over the average annual level of military spending, excluding war costs, by the George W. Bush administration.</p>
<p>Even more dramatic, the Obama-Gates plan was 45 per cent higher than the annual average of military spending level in the 1992-2001 decade, as reflected in <a href="" type="internal">official DOD data</a>.</p>
<p>The Obama FY 2012 budget submission reduced the total increase only slightly – by $162 billion over the four years from 2017 to 2020, according to the careful research of the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA).&#160; That left an annual average base military spending level of $564 billion – 23 per cent higher than Bush’s annual average and 40 percent above the level of the 1990s.</p>
<p>Central to last week’s chapter in the larger game was Obama’s assertion that Gates had already saved $400 billion in his administration.&#160; “Over the last two years,” he said, “Secretary Gates has courageously taken on wasteful spending, saving $400 billion in current and future spending. I believe we can do that again.”</p>
<p>The $400 billion figure is based primarily on the $330 billion Gates claimed he had saved by stopping, reducing or otherwise changing plans for 31 weapons programs.&#160; But contrary to the impression left by Obama, that figure does not reflect any cut in projected DOD spending.&#160; All of it was used to increase spending on operations and investment in the military budget.</p>
<p>The figure was concocted, moreover, by using tricky accounting methods verging on chicanery.&#160; It was based on arbitrary assumptions about how much all 31 programs would have cost over their entire lifetimes stretching decades into the future, assuming they would all reach completion.&#160; That methodology offered endless possibilities for inflated claims of savings.</p>
<p>The PDA points out that yet another $100 billion that Gates announced in January as cost-cutting by the military services was also used to increase spending on operations and new weapons program that the services wanted.&#160; That leaves another $78 billion in cuts over five years also announced by Gates in January, but most of that may have been added to the military budget for “overseas contingency operations” rather than contributed to deficit reduction, according to the PDA.</p>
<p>Even if the $400 billion in ostensible cuts that Obama is seeking were genuine, the Pentagon would be still be sitting on total projected increase of 14 per cent above the level of military spending of the Bush administration. Last week’s White House fact sheet on deficit reduction acknowledged that Obama has the “goal of holding the growth in base security spending below inflation.” The “fundamental review” that Obama says will be carried out with the Pentagon and military bureaucracies will be yet another chapter in this larger maneuver.&#160; It’s safe bet that, in the end, Gates will reach into his bag of accounting tricks again for most of the desired total.</p>
<p>Despite the inherently deceptive character of Obama’s call for the review, it has a positive side: it gives critics of the national security state an opportunity to point out that such a review should be carried out by a panel of independent military budget analysts who have no financial stake in the outcome – unlike the officials of the national security state.</p>
<p>Such an independent panel could come up with a list of all the military missions and capabilities that don’t make the American people more secure or even make them less secure, as well as those for which funding should be reduced substantially because of technological and other changes.&#160; It could also estimate how much overall projected military spending should be reduced, without regard to what would be acceptable to the Pentagon or a majority in Congress.</p>
<p>The panel would not require White House or Congressional approval.&#160; It could be convened by a private organization or, better yet, by a group of concerned Members of Congress. They could use its data and conclusions as the basis for creating a legislative alternative to existing U.S. national security policy, perhaps in the form of a joint resolution.&#160; That would give millions of Americans who now feel that nothing can be done about endless U.S. wars and the national security state’s grip on budgetary resources something to rally behind.</p>
<p>Three convergent political forces are contributing to the eventual weakening of the national security state: the growing popular opposition to failed wars, public support for shifting spending priorities from the national security sector to the domestic economy and pressure for deficit and debt reduction.&#160; But in the absence of concerted citizen action, it could take several years to see decisive results.&#160; Seizing the opportunity for an independent review of military missions and spending would certainly speed up that process.</p>
<p>GARETH PORTER is an investigative historian and journalist with Inter-Press Service specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, “ <a href="" type="internal">Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam</a>“, was published in 2006.</p>
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<p /> | The Obama-Gates Scam on Military Spending | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/04/21/the-obama-gates-scam-on-military-spending/ | 2011-04-21 | 4 |
<p>ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Numbers Evening" game were:</p>
<p>0-5-7, Lucky Sum: 12</p>
<p>(zero, five, seven; Lucky Sum: twelve)</p>
<p>ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Numbers Evening" game were:</p>
<p>0-5-7, Lucky Sum: 12</p>
<p>(zero, five, seven; Lucky Sum: twelve)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Numbers Evening' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/403605d709204ffc92eba0e11f1947fe | 2017-12-30 | 2 |
<p>NEW YORK — A controversial <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/11/dispatches-putting-10-year-olds-work-doesn-t-solve-poverty" type="external">new law in Bolivia</a> makes it the first country to legalize work by 10-year-olds. One justification offered by officials sounded awfully familiar: “Kids want to work.”</p>
<p>We’ve spent the last year investigating child labor in the United States, where children at age 12, and even younger, work for tobacco farmers like Paul Hornback, a Kentucky state senator.</p>
<p>“Children need to experience things,” Hornback said on <a href="http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/l0fvyd/nicoteens" type="external">The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</a> last month. “When I was a 7-year-old, I was wanting to work.”</p>
<p>Hornback wasn’t the first person to try to justify child labor that way.</p>
<p>We’ve heard that argument in our work around the world — whether about children working on gold mines in <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/12/06/mali-artisanal-mines-produce-gold-child-labor" type="external">Mali</a>and <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/08/28/tanzania-hazardous-life-child-gold-miners" type="external">Tanzania</a>, children harvesting sugar cane in <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2004/06/09/el-salvador-child-labor-sugar-plantations" type="external">El Salvador</a>, or child domestic workers in <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/15/morocco-abuse-child-domestic-workers" type="external">Morocco</a>. Bolivia’s regressive new law was influenced by pressure from a union of child workers arguing they need to work to support their families.</p>
<p>We’re asked, “Don’t these children want to work?”</p>
<p>The short answer is sometimes, yes. But that’s only part of the story.</p>
<p>Many children feel compelled to work because their families are struggling to make ends meet. Twelve-year-old “Miguel,” a tobacco worker in North Carolina, said he wanted to start working on a tobacco farm “because I need money.”</p>
<p>Natalie, an 18-year-old farm worker in North Carolina, said she started working on a tobacco farm at 12 because “I saw what my mom was going through, how tired she was, and… wanted to help.” Most children we interviewed for our <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/14/us-child-workers-danger-tobacco-farms" type="external">tobacco farming report</a> started working to earn money for their basic needs: family bills, clothes, school supplies. They wanted to work because their families were living in extreme poverty, and their parents couldn’t get by on minimum wage jobs.</p>
<p>Poverty and child labor create <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/standards/subjects-covered-by-international-labour-standards/child-labour/lang--it/index.htm" type="external">a vicious cycle</a>. Poverty drives children to work, often at the expense of their education, which limits their opportunities to secure better paying jobs when they grow up. <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOCIALPROTECTION/Resources/0514.pdf" type="external">Studies show</a> that people who enter the workforce at an early age typically end up with less education and lower earnings, and will be more likely to send their own children to work.</p>
<p>While child labor may seem like a short-term solution in times of hardship, it actually perpetuates poverty.</p>
<p>Children may also “want to work” because they don’t recognize their jobs are harmful to their health and development. Child tobacco workers in the US are exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides, and child miners in Mali and Tanzania can suffer great harm from the use mercury to extract gold from ore. But most of the children we interviewed — and their parents — had no idea how harmful this toxic exposure could be over time.</p>
<p>Evidence shows that child labor harms child health, impedes education, and perpetuates poverty. Given a real choice, nearly all the child workers Human Rights Watch has interviewed in many places around the world said they would rather be in school.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/ILOconventionsonchildlabour/lang--en/index.htm" type="external">International Labor Organization</a> says that 14 is the earliest children should begin working (and age 15 in developed countries). Ignoring these standards because children want to help their families is doing these children a disservice. Perversely, Bolivia’s new law may increase child labor, by sending parents the message that it’s okay to send their 10-year-olds to work.</p>
<p>There are better ways to protect young children than legalizing their work. The International Labor Organization reported last year that globally, child labor rates had dropped by 30 percent since 2000. The countries with the most success have expanded access to education and established and enforced protective child labor laws. They have also tried to address the economic desperation that often drives parents to send their children to work.</p>
<p>Bolivia’s new law sets a bad example. Governments have responsibilities to enact laws that protect children from child labor, not facilitate it. Arguing that children want to work is a poor excuse.</p>
<p>Jo Becker is children’s rights advocacy director and Margaret Wurth is a children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. &#160;</p> | ‘Kids want to work’ is a poor justification for laws that legalize work by 10-year-olds | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-09-05/kids-want-work-poor-justification-laws-legalize-work-10-year-olds | 2014-09-05 | 3 |
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<p>LONDON - Maybe he should have stuck to writing songs - former Smiths frontman and lyricist Morrissey has won the annual award for the poorest quality writing about sex.</p>
<p>The award that writers don't want to get was given on Tuesday at a gala ceremony in central London.</p>
<p>The prize was given for Morrissey's first novel, "List of the Lost." The judges cited a scene between relay runner Ezra and his girlfriend Eliza in which the couple "rolled together into the one giggling snowball of full-figured copulation."</p>
<p>Morrissey is the 23rd winner of the not-so-prestigious prize awarded by the Literary Review magazine to spotlight "poorly written, perfunctory or redundant" passages of sexual description. Explicitly pornographic works aren't eligible.</p>
<p>Past winners include Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Morrissey wins annual 'Literary Review Bad Sex' award | false | https://abqjournal.com/684064/morrissey-wins-annual-literary-review-bad-sex-award.html | 2 |
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<p>You've heard it before: The Internet has revolutionized organizing. It brought you the Arab Spring, the Indignados and Occupy. But it has also produced legions of armchair clicktivists - those who only participate online and won't budge off their butts.</p>
<p>While there is, of course, truth in both the half-full and half-empty views of online activism, there are also many innovations changing how we think about what online organizing is capable of and building clear pathways to support offline, real-world actions.</p>
<p>It's high time to do a review of what's out there. Not all these tools are brand new, but they are being used and matched with traditional organizing to leverage online entry to campaigns that will lead to offline support.</p>
<p>This past week, Strike Debt launched its <a href="http://rollingjubilee.org/" type="external">Rolling Jubilee</a>, an inspiring plan to buy up debt for pennies on the dollar and then abolish it. While relieving real, offline debt burdens, the action is intended to dramatize an unjust system and spur more widespread organizing and resistance.</p>
<p>Supporting this work are scores of folks who have lent their Twitter feeds or Facebook accounts to promote the campaign. <a href="http://donateyouraccount.com/" type="external">Donating your account</a> is an easy way to amplify the message of a group you agree with. For a campaign like Strike Debt, it ensures that your messages not only get out, and get out exactly as you designed them. Donors determine the number of tweets or messages to give, and they can start or stop at any point.</p>
<p>Another interesting social media tool being used now by Making Change at Walmart and other groups allows people to sign up for a program that will identify their Facebook friends who work, or have worked, at Walmart and send them a message about OUR Walmart - the organization of Walmart employees who have joined together to demand their rights on the job.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://shareforrespect.com/Login.aspx" type="external">Share For Respect</a> app is a creative response to Walmart's many attempts both to silence and to retaliate against workers who have spoken out about abuses they face. It turns Facebook into an educating, organizing machine.</p>
<p>Share for Respect is only one of the e-tools lifting up the Walmart worker campaigns. In advance of several weeks of strikes and other activities planned for Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, a geographic, <a href="http://corporateactionnetwork.org/campaigns/black-friday/events" type="external">zipcode-based tool</a> is being used to help people locate events closest to their entered zipcode, sign up for an event that was already created, or adopt a store and start their own event at "unadopted" stores.</p>
<p>This tool is embedded in a platform that includes a number of other social network-powered capabilities that help people find physical storage space for materials, create event pages, and use tracking programs for petitions and letters-to-the-editor.</p>
<p>Since the striking workers will be foregoing even their usual low-wage pay, a WePay account was <a href="https://www.wepay.com/donations/dont-let-walmart-silence-workers-support-worker-leaders-who-are-calling-for-change" type="external">set up to donate</a> grocery gift cards. Online donating is not new, but alongside this suite of other tools, this "Support a Worker" effort rounds out a whole set of options for supporters to choose from along the proverbial ladder of engagement, ranging from one click on a petition to donating to showing up at a store.</p>
<p>Harnessing the online world for offline activism has the added benefit of decentralizing the campaign and spreading both information and leadership to places that organizers involved in on-the-ground work are not able to reach. This can result in actions and strikes taking place where no other previous activity has happened, without direct connection to initial organizers in groups like OUR Walmart or Warehouse Workers United.</p>
<p>Additionally, a wide variety of information-gathering tools are being used by campaigns in different ways. Many campaigns begin with research - even just by documenting stories from the lives of people who have been affected by the issue in question. Currently on the Corporate Action Network website there is just such a survey, which is collecting information confidentially about returning veterans' experiences at for-profit universities.</p>
<p>Such institutions are making it tough for military veterans returning to the United States to get an affordable education. They have a history of targeting veterans and are becoming notorious recently for deceptive recruitment practices, low-quality instruction, crippling tuition, high dropout rates, and poor job placement. Documentation of theses stories can support a strategic campaign. Soon, the website will also include a secure link for corporate whistleblowers to use in reporting abusive practices within their institutions.</p>
<p>However cool these tools are, some people will still see the glass of online activism as half empty. <a href="http://www.meta-activism.org/2012/11/slacktivism-is-like-a-first-kiss/" type="external">"You can't make a baby by kissing"</a>; clicks alone won't bring about the change in the real world. But there's no telling what a click can eventually lead to once things heat up. Clicks can be gateways to significant actions that bring about real change.</p>
<p>So take all this with a grain of salt, but keep in mind that it's worth a shot. The $64,000 question for organizers or campaigners has always been how to move people along the engagement ladder, especially in people-power movements in which levels of participation directly correspond to the chances of success.</p>
<p>You probably won't win with the Internet alone, but with tools like these it is becoming a better and better place to start.</p> | Off Our Computers and Into the Streets! | true | http://occupy.com/article/our-computers-and-streets | 4 |
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<p>As The Daily Wire reported Wednesday, the Clinton Camp despicably <a href="" type="internal">used a 10-year-old girl</a> in order to attack GOP front-runner Donald Trump as a sexist and to evoke the "war on women." The real-estate mogul pointed out that this was probably not a good idea for Hillary to pursue, for endless and obvious reasons.</p>
<p>A little girl sitting in the front row at a Hillary rally (totally random) on Wednesday asked Mrs. Clinton about “bullying.” She then talked about how she was bullied for her asthma after being prompted by the Democratic presidential candidate; this conveniently paved the way for Hillary’s ad hominem attacks on Trump where she evoked her go-to campaign platform: the “war on women.”</p>
<p>Trump, not one to roll over when being attacked, shot back via Twitter, one of his favorite mediums, where he warned Hillary to “be careful” and steer clear of playing this “war on women” card.</p>
<p>The Hillary Clinton staged event yesterday was pathetic. Be careful Hillary as you play the war on women or women being degraded card.</p>
<p>Hillary, when you complain about "a penchant for sexism," who are you referring to. I have great respect for women. BE CAREFUL!</p>
<p>Trump is absolutely correct; Clinton (choose either one) happens to be the face of the “war on women.” Hillary's continuous choice to evoke the gender card leaves her dripping with hypocrisy.</p>
<p>"Hillary, when you complain about "a penchant for sexism," who are you referring to. I have great respect for women. BE CAREFUL!"</p>
<p>Donald Trump</p>
<p>One way such hypocrisy is illustrated is through recorded audio of Mrs. Clinton laughing and fondly reminiscing about her heroic work of <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/20/alleged-child-rape-victim-reportedly-says-hillary-clinton-lied-about-her-in-75.html" type="external">getting a child rapist off</a> with a lesser sentence after working to get the one piece of physical evidence thrown out. The victim was 12 years old.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, Clinton alluded to knowing that the rapist was fully guilty via the leaked tape. “He took a lie detector test. I had him take a polygraph, which he passed, which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs,” laughed Clinton.</p>
<p>“Hillary Clinton took me through Hell,” the victim has since said.</p>
<p>Also, did Hillary forget to whom she was married? Former president Bill Clinton has allegedly sexually <a href="" type="internal">victimized</a> at least 14 women, has visited the disgusting “Orgy Island” multiple times with his pedophile pal, spent much time on the crassly nicknamed “Air Force F*ck” and reportedly had a busty blonde mistress code-named “Energizer” by secret service.</p>
<p>But through it all, Hillary “stood by her man," or, as Kurt Schlichter put it on CNN before <a href="" type="internal">getting his mic cut by Don Lemon</a>, “enabled” the philandering and alleged sexual assaults which even included alleged rape.</p>
<p>It doesn’t stop there. Hillary and Bill <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2015/03/14/hillarys-war-on-the-women-who-boinked-bill-n1970596/page/full" type="external">reportedly</a> acted to threaten, harass and burglarize the victims of her husband’s sexual deviance. Hillary appallingly bullied and threatened women in attempt to silence Bill’s numerous victims.</p>
<p>\]As Donald Trump has suggested, it is not wise for Hillary to pursue this course of action, and yes, Hillary should “be careful” when she embarks on this “war on women” in which she happens to be the foremost aggressor.</p> | Trump Warns Hillary Not To Use The ‘War on Women’ Card. He’s Right. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/2133/trump-warns-hillary-not-use-war-women-card-hes-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2015-12-24 | 0 |
<p>In the widescreen version of Missoula, a day in the life of the city includes chemistry class at the University, towels on sale at Penney’s, the thud of videos in the drop-box, cars in line for coffee at Malfunction Junction, the soft pink lunchbox packed with Gogurt, the worn-out scraper on the windshield and the dog who picked a fight with your dog at Blue Mountain. A score of habits, a dozen cares. The same thing on Monday as Friday. It’s the way we live.</p>
<p>Except on Wednesday nights. In the past year a mid-week fever has broken out after dark, the uncommon energy of many people gathered in a dangerous way. Boxing at the Wilma has gradually taken root as Missoula’s best way to step outside the way we live. Like the characters in Fight Club, the boxers, promoters, managers and patrons of Boxing Night are not, in fact, dangerous, but they all court a high that is almost forbidden in its carnal thrill, and they do it in a cinema cathedral.</p>
<p>The story of boxing at the Wilma begins with a run-down theater in desperate need of revitalization, a theater built to be grand in 1920, an elegant theater of rumors that never quite settle to rest. This distinctly urban structure overlooks the banks of the Clark Fork River and was built to house a hotel, apartments, offices, retail space, a restaurant and a swimming pool, as well as a magnificent movie house heavy on velvet and adornments. In the ’20s, the Wilma–at first known as the Smead-Simons–provided travelers with a place to remember, a place San Franciscans could admire and that could make Missoulians proud.</p>
<p>The Wilma belongs to another age, and like a dottering great-aunt, she seems eccentric and confused now, uncomfortable with the changes around her. She has not yet, however, succumbed to the familiar fate of other great movie palaces, which is closure and scrapping. Her underground swimming pool was finally bricked over a couple of years ago, now calm beneath the dance floor of the Green Room and Red Light Bar. The Wilma signals Missoula’s identity as a gentle, quirky town of contradictions. In the past decade, owners have struggled to reinvent her identity, in the process holding up a mirror to Missoula’s as well. For years, Ed Sharp presided over the building with his legendary Chapel of the Dove, the set of subterranean rooms that opened one upon another to reveal glassed cabinets filled with theater programs and bits of decaying costumes, dozens of portraits of his cherished pigeon, the stuffed edifice of the pigeon itself and, finally, Sharp, propped against pillows in his large chair, his IV drip perpetually beside him. He welcomed visitors with a dull nod, barely a sign of being awake, and his specter added to the indescribable weirdness of the building.</p>
<p>The building feels like it should be peopled, but it isn’t. Endless renovations transform the spaces, but no workers are seen at the task. The installation of a new elevator occupied the better part of year, but it never seems to be used. Subtle changes mark each visit. Weren’t the mailboxes over here? Was the floor always marble? Portland developer Tracee Blakeslee, who bought the building in 1996, lavished funds upon the movie theater and refurbished the seats, replaced the sound system and reinstated a high-quality screen. Greyed carpet and shabby wallpaper gave way to bright fabrics and golden flocking. Still, she has felt unattended: movie screens shuffled then disappeared, the overdone glow of Marianne’s restaurant faded into another closure. At last, the Wilma settled into her present identity: small apartments, a basement nightclub, and the grand theater for movies, ballets, concerts and symphonies. And boxing.</p>
<p>Boxing is not Missoula’s regular life. Boxing has no regular venue as bowling does nor a ubiquitous presence like the casinos. Boxing in Missoula has an unreal hype to it, like Brad Pitt or Ted Turner. Big-money games–“real boxing”–are publicized and broadcast on cable, fighters granted celebrity that tempts us to read about them in the checkout line at Safeway, watch Barbara Walters interview them.</p>
<p>But boxing is here now, and it makes an odd sort of sense for it to end up, one night a week, winter or summer, at the Wilma, another institution not exactly indigenous. These fights have a hometown feel to them, the makeshift initiative of the square dance in the barn. The crowd is composed of friends and kids, groupies and on-duty cops who high-five audience members they know. Young men and women gather in groups outside for a smoke beneath the marquee’s yellow bulbs. Big guys in t-shirts stamped SECURITY keep an eye on the entry, and the lobby buzzes for hours with opening night energy.</p>
<p>I have spent a great deal of time in the Wilma Theatre, usually by myself, attending a movie for work on a weeknight when no one else showed, and I would pick a seat out of the 1,000 and submit to the thunderous pulse of the sound system. Just me. This bred its own kind of energy, a high of solitude and space that many Missoulians find in the wilderness and I find in a movie theater.</p>
<p>The Wilma is no average movie theater. It flaunts its glamour and size, honors its past decadence. How rare it is to walk into any space so large devoted to just one thing, especially in a city of this size. Missoula can’t afford Safeco Field or Golden Gate Park. For outdoor bigness we have Glacier, and for indoor bigness we have the Wilma, palace of movies, a giant space meant to be dark, meant to be glimpsed only in a dim glow.</p>
<p>The Wilma really takes your breath away, not only because it is splendid and regal and imposing and not only because Blakeslee has spent such a sum restoring it, but because it’s a dream. This romantic notion of going to the movies died decades ago and sputters weakly against the glare of the multiplex. Only a few current patrons could possibly have experienced movie-going when it last looked like this, and the regular teenaged customer is likely to refer to Jim Carrey’s movie, The Majestic.</p>
<p>Movies place quotation marks around experience. What I knew of boxing, until a few weeks ago, I knew from movies, where the fights revealed themselves in gorgeous angles of slow-motion against a surging score. Movie boxing showed off Brando, Douglas, Holden, Quinn, Stallone, De Niro, and a meaty power that even in defeat had nobility. Movie boxing meant punks and retribution, salvation through endurance, the irresistible cinematic marriage of corruption and principled decency. Movie boxing did not smell.</p>
<p>Ringside in the Wilma, you smell sweat and rank effort, the plywood of your table is damp with spilled beer, blood flecks the air, you can see the doctor’s skin through his latex gloves, and the table beneath your hands shudders. The crowd growls and roars for blood and triumph, for victory and dominance, measured in strength and bodies. Here in the Wilma, the sport is blood sport, a modern gladiator exhibition, the crowd screaming for the kill.</p>
<p>American movies of the West have their own tradition, and no matter the story, somewhere in the middle of the picture, the action moves from horseback to barside, rough arrogance thrust up alongside scrappy spunk, each embodied equally in the roles of the new sheriff in town and the beautiful, resourceful madam. Male and female roles are sharply accentuated. And there’s Marlene Dietrich, who embodies both and confuses each. The real West grasps at its romanticized image: she used to be called Miss Kitty, now she’s called a ring girl.</p>
<p>The woman of Wednesday nights is uber-female, glossed, oiled, waxed, robust and displayed. She is, and would you please welcome, the Budweiser Ring Girl! We’ve already met her, standing at attention in a row of her sisters for the national anthem. They are dressed in matching Old Glory bikinis and each one has her hand cupped over her left breast as she sings. Our ring girl picks her way up the metal steps, steadied by a helpful man’s hand, her six-inch heels (in Lucite, white vinyl and rhinestone) wrong for the job and dangerous for her. She swings a leg up and through the ropes, which he holds apart for her (in this she is accorded the same benefits as the fighters), and she hefts the number board into the air and struts a square around the ring. She preens before the audience, which rates her with cash appreciation and roars of approval. Bills wadded into tight stones hail down at her feet, tossed by friends and patrons. Her revealed flesh demands attention, and up on the stage of the ring, her platform heels set her upon another stage still. Music bursts in: “All I’m asking for is a little respect!” She waves a baby-doll wave to the crowd, smiles and blinks and smiles bigger as the wadded money flies into the ring to bounce off her body and fall to the floor.</p>
<p>When the ring card has been thoroughly exhibited, Bill, the announcer in tuxedo and hair gel, introduces the fighters. His voice throws a Las Vegas curve around the word “Stevensville,” giving the town a reputation it has never deserved. The ring girl crouches from the height of her heels and tries to gather her cash with delicacy, but of course it’s not delicate because she must hurry and get out of the ring and she is in her underwear. In the final moments, Russ “Big Dad” Hansen kicks a few balls of cash across the mat to her and she clutches them to her pierced navel as she descends those treacherous steps. Back on firm ground, she shivers and pulls on a jacket or slips her cutoffs up over gleaming legs. Then she serves beer.</p>
<p>Many women revile the idea of the ring girl, the very concept, but in this context, these women are on equal ground with the men who approach the ring. These young, hapless fighters rip off their grubby t-shirts and strap athletic protectors around their shorts. With their protective helmets allowing for only a glimpse of face, they flash just as much anonymous flesh, parade their prowess, strengths and frailties in the same ways the ring girls do. We inspect their maleness and rate their masculinity, scoring aggression, build and stamina. In boxing–fighter, spectator or supporting cast–we are all reduced to impulses.</p>
<p>Our favorite legends of the West hang on physical hardship and human endurance, the American heritage of raw physical power. On Wednesday nights, right here on Higgins, that power springs to life again, so much bare skin visible, so much nakedness shimmering for inspection. The boxing scene–loud, rowdy, inebriated and chaotic–has the flame of predatory, sexual energy, not because it is particularly sexy (though some may be stirred by bikini-ed breasts and flexing forearms) but because it raises a hallelujah to our epic heritage of mate selection. What recommends modern society is that we all wear clothes and speak in relatively low voices, but some primitive truth buried deep in our cerebral cortex knows this is also our predicament, and it is from here, for the sake of the perpetuation of the human race, that we respond to boxing.</p>
<p>Who boxes? Who chooses hand-on-hand combat with another man, ready to be pummeled and broken? These men (there’s usually a women’s fight as well) pop out of the corners of Missoula, from behind cash registers and restaurant sinks, from the high schools and Frenchtown. They answer the ads on The Blaze: Males wanted aged 18 to 48. You think you’re bad, call Big Dad. They show up Monday nights at The Inn on Broadway for weigh-in and approval, fork over a fee for a license and two nights later step into the ring. Men say to themselves and to each other, “I can fight and get paid.”</p>
<p>It’s a rush, and you can see it. The fighters bounce at the back of the theater from foot to foot waiting their turn, pumping up their blood until their names are called. Then they run down the aisles as their friends urge them on. They bound into the ring, assess each other. The announcer calls for the fight and Big Dad steps forward. He locks them in the brief prayer of sports: good conduct, no dirty fighting, watch the ref. This is about bodies and flesh, appearance and entertainment. Then with a bell, they’re at each other and their focus narrows to a laser zone of opponent and aggression.</p>
<p>Sure, the occasional man knows a bit about boxing, but for the most part, these Wilma Wednesday boys are not good fighters, and these are not good fights. ESPN main events have dictated expectations, but what we get here at home are two rangy, loose, unstructured bodies flying at each other and taking over the ring with no agenda. Within seconds, these men have spent themselves, blown all the energy that adrenaline would carry, and what’s left, for another two and half rounds, is a restless, juvenile lunging punctuated by spurts of poor judgement.</p>
<p>The ref, Big Dad again, keeps a tight eye on his fighters, dancing at their edges with piercing attention, breaking them apart when they seem too close to danger. Hansen, in his pressed black pants, brightly colored dress shirt and stiff black bow-tie, offers a startling contrast to the pale naked boys collapsing in their dirty sneakers.</p>
<p>Big Dad knows it’s a show, and he tells his boys as much before the fights begin. Why do people come? It’s a silly question to him. “You come for the entertainment. You’re sitting in a movie theater and watching live boxing!” He pronounces it “thee-yater,” highly aware of the old-fashioned circus nature of the show. In other words, you can have it all. You can sit in those Wilma seats, face the stage, be a watcher and still have the air fill with the sparks and sweat of gladiators. You’re sitting in a movie theater, and you have permission to scream at the top of your voice that is hoarse and hard with beer, “Knock his fucking skull in!”</p>
<p>The Wilma’s main-floor seats are filled almost to capacity with patrons who have paid ten or 20 bucks apiece sprawled out in various states of attention and repose, Bud beer in hand, coats slopped over the chair in front. They chatter and crane their necks, men eye women, and the cocktail waitress, breasts first, ambles the aisles hawking medical beakers filled with schnapps. On a good night, boxing pulls in about 900 people. This is not the same crowd that has shown up over the years for the annual “Nutcracker Suite” or MCT’s “The King and I.”</p>
<p>Now the stage, with the sudden transformation of all theater, provides the platform for the makeshift ring, its mustard-yellow mat roped in bright red. The ring is crowded by tables and ringside seats, some for the judges, some for the regulars and business groups who buy out the season tickets. Stage right, Dr. Bill McNulty leans back against the gathered curtain and keeps a deceptively disinterested eye on the action. Stage left, a gaggle of women in swimwear help each other with hairbrushes and shoe straps. Ringside, you strain to overhear what the trainer shouts in the fighter’s ear before he wipes him down and tosses the towel inches from your face. You can’t look anywhere else, waiting for the ring girl to squat down to her cash reward or swing her leg through the ropes, ass facing you and covered by only three square inches of cloth printed with the American flag.</p>
<p>The sport gets better and faster and tougher, the tension tightens. The fights mean more, the promoter pairing the experienced fighters as the night goes on. Better matched, the sparring men keep each other going, teeth bared, upper cuts controlled. The tables pushed up against the ring shake with their footwork and the air rings with cries of “Hit him!”</p>
<p>Boxing at the Wilma is nobody’s real life. Even the theater herself has a day job, a demure identity welcoming couples to middling comedies with the smell of popcorn. Not one person present at the fights, it seems, confines him- or herself to this world. Such a high is meant only for the occasional hit, the temporary release and escape. This boxer is a high school student at Hellgate, that one a manager at Holiday; this Ring Girl is a marketing major at the U, that one a stripper. Big Dad, who drives an immense white Dodge Ram with plates that read “BG DAD,” runs a tanning salon and cuts hair. The ringside doc has a real practice in the Bitterroot, the trainers are contractors and carpenters. Then, of course, there’s Shane and Michelle.</p>
<p>Shane and Michelle Cole are ICU nurses at St. Patrick Hospital. Outside hospital hours, they’re a legend in the tight, small, brief world of Wednesdays. Michelle works as a substitute ring girl and Shane judges fights now while he recuperates from an injury. He has been one of the best, going right to the championship in Missoula last year where, after losing his final fight, he famously proposed to Michelle, his Ring Girl, down on one knee in the ring. The winner had to concede the spotlight and step aside. As Shane tells it, 3,000 people leaped to their feet with roars of congratulation. “I wanted it to be something we’d always remember,” he says, explaining how he planned the event meticulously for weeks. Even though he had been throwing up before the fight and even though he’d lost, he and his bride were embraced by their chosen family. Most of the older men managing and supporting the event come from “boxing families,” and most of the fighters have been boxing in one form or another since they were 6 or 8. Shane seems puzzled by the question, “Why do you box?” “It’s in you,” he says.</p>
<p>By the second time I return to the Wilma for boxing, I’m hungry for it. I can’t get the rush from my mind, and this time I want to be closer, drifting up in a haze to find myself clad in shorts and gloves in the center of the ring, the ref with his hand upon my shoulder. I can feel it. I feel the desire to interlock with my opponent, power coursing through my arms. It doesn’t feel aggressive or fearful, only primal. I hear the crowd but I’m not part of it, lost in my thoughts, waiting like Mia Farrow in Purple Rose of Cairo for someone to step down, take my hand and guide me into this dream.</p>
<p>SUSANNA SONNENBERG lives in Missoula, Montana. This article originally appeared in the excellent Missoula Independent, <a href="" type="internal">click here to see the stunning photos that accompanied Sonnenberg’s article</a>. She can be reached at: <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Boxing Missoula | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/02/22/boxing-missoula/ | 2003-02-22 | 4 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — If Cam Newton has the type of Super Bowl debut Troy Aikman did, the Carolina Panthers will be in good shape for the Super Bowl.</p>
<p>Newton will be making his first appearance in the Super Bowl next month against Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, who is playing in the big game for the fourth time.</p>
<p>"I feel that experience is often times overrated because of my own experience," said Aikman, who 22 of 30 for 273 yards and four touchdown passes as the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl 27 when the Dallas Cowboys routed the Buffalo Bills 52-17.</p>
<p>"The year we went to our first Super Bowl in 1992 we were the youngest team in football. We played in the Super Bowl against a team that had a wealth of playoff experience and Super Bowl experience, and we dominated that football game."</p>
<p>Aikman, a Hall of Famer, said Newton has also shown he can handle pressure during his career.</p>
<p>"I just think Cam Newton is a guy who doesn't get overwhelmed by the moment," he said. "He seems to thrive in the spotlight. I don't think this stage will impact him in a negative way."</p>
<p>Coming off a dominating win over Arizona in the NFC championship game, Carolina enters the Feb. 7 game in Santa Clara, California, as a favorite.</p>
<p>However, Aikman, who won all three Super Bowls he played in, thinks Denver shouldn't be overlooked, especially with Manning making possibly the final start of his career.</p>
<p>"Denver's a great story, Peyton Manning's a great story," he said. "Denver is really good defensively and that's certainly going to be a key.</p>
<p>"I think he's (Manning) going to be the sentimental pick in what will likely be his last game, but it's going to a tough, tough task against this Carolina team."</p>
<p>Aikman, who dealt with concussions in his playing career and retired after the 2000 season, said he sees a big change in how the league handles the issue now.</p>
<p>"Back when I was playing, there was none of those things (protocols) in place," he said. "If someone suffered a concussion, it was unlikely they would ever miss a game, and now we're seeing players miss multiple games because they haven't shown signs that they're capable or ready to come back."</p>
<p>And he said despite the league's improved handling of the issue, hard hits are not going away any time soon.</p>
<p>"As long as we're wearing helmets and shoulder pads, there's collisions between these big, physical, fast guys, head injuries are going to be a part of it.</p>
<p>"As far as the play on the field, "Aikman added, "the rules that have been implemented, it seems the league has done just about as much as it possibly can do, short of just taking the pads off and saying 'we're no longer playing contact football.'"</p>
<p>Aikman is on a tour to raise awareness of melanoma through the "Melanoma Just Got Personal" initiative, which was developed to help patients and supporters understand advanced melanoma.</p>
<p>About 73,000 people in the United States are newly diagnosed with melanoma annually, but if the disease becomes advanced (known as unresectable or metastatic melanoma), it's difficult to treat and can be fatal. Only about 20 percent of people will survive for at least five years following a diagnosis of late-stage disease.</p>
<p>Aikman said he noticed a spot on his left shoulder in 1998, went to a dermatologist and was diagnosed with stage II melanoma a week later.</p>
<p>He said at that time he didn't know much about it, but got educated about it pretty quickly.</p>
<p>"Once it gets beyond the early stage, like when I caught mine, it's tough," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Melanomajustgotpersonal.com</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — If Cam Newton has the type of Super Bowl debut Troy Aikman did, the Carolina Panthers will be in good shape for the Super Bowl.</p>
<p>Newton will be making his first appearance in the Super Bowl next month against Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, who is playing in the big game for the fourth time.</p>
<p>"I feel that experience is often times overrated because of my own experience," said Aikman, who 22 of 30 for 273 yards and four touchdown passes as the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl 27 when the Dallas Cowboys routed the Buffalo Bills 52-17.</p>
<p>"The year we went to our first Super Bowl in 1992 we were the youngest team in football. We played in the Super Bowl against a team that had a wealth of playoff experience and Super Bowl experience, and we dominated that football game."</p>
<p>Aikman, a Hall of Famer, said Newton has also shown he can handle pressure during his career.</p>
<p>"I just think Cam Newton is a guy who doesn't get overwhelmed by the moment," he said. "He seems to thrive in the spotlight. I don't think this stage will impact him in a negative way."</p>
<p>Coming off a dominating win over Arizona in the NFC championship game, Carolina enters the Feb. 7 game in Santa Clara, California, as a favorite.</p>
<p>However, Aikman, who won all three Super Bowls he played in, thinks Denver shouldn't be overlooked, especially with Manning making possibly the final start of his career.</p>
<p>"Denver's a great story, Peyton Manning's a great story," he said. "Denver is really good defensively and that's certainly going to be a key.</p>
<p>"I think he's (Manning) going to be the sentimental pick in what will likely be his last game, but it's going to a tough, tough task against this Carolina team."</p>
<p>Aikman, who dealt with concussions in his playing career and retired after the 2000 season, said he sees a big change in how the league handles the issue now.</p>
<p>"Back when I was playing, there was none of those things (protocols) in place," he said. "If someone suffered a concussion, it was unlikely they would ever miss a game, and now we're seeing players miss multiple games because they haven't shown signs that they're capable or ready to come back."</p>
<p>And he said despite the league's improved handling of the issue, hard hits are not going away any time soon.</p>
<p>"As long as we're wearing helmets and shoulder pads, there's collisions between these big, physical, fast guys, head injuries are going to be a part of it.</p>
<p>"As far as the play on the field, "Aikman added, "the rules that have been implemented, it seems the league has done just about as much as it possibly can do, short of just taking the pads off and saying 'we're no longer playing contact football.'"</p>
<p>Aikman is on a tour to raise awareness of melanoma through the "Melanoma Just Got Personal" initiative, which was developed to help patients and supporters understand advanced melanoma.</p>
<p>About 73,000 people in the United States are newly diagnosed with melanoma annually, but if the disease becomes advanced (known as unresectable or metastatic melanoma), it's difficult to treat and can be fatal. Only about 20 percent of people will survive for at least five years following a diagnosis of late-stage disease.</p>
<p>Aikman said he noticed a spot on his left shoulder in 1998, went to a dermatologist and was diagnosed with stage II melanoma a week later.</p>
<p>He said at that time he didn't know much about it, but got educated about it pretty quickly.</p>
<p>"Once it gets beyond the early stage, like when I caught mine, it's tough," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Melanomajustgotpersonal.com</p> | Aikman: experience can be 'overrated' going into Super Bowl | false | https://apnews.com/amp/2d9a558b26a74608857491b20d6653bf | 2016-01-28 | 2 |
<p>Everybody now seems to love the French. The current President and self serving lifetime politician Jacques Chirac will soon give way to Nicholas Sarkozy who apparently wants to dance with, not damn the US.</p>
<p>Roger Cohen writing in the New York Times, May 9, “Sarkozy’s Victory Shifts French Political Truths,” along with other US commentators / cheer leaders, have suggested that the French election produced the US-friendly President Sarkozy because the French have finally woken up to the error of their ways!</p>
<p>According to this perspective, the French social safety net is anachronistic. And so it goes, in a repetitive narrative that is tiresome and politically misinformed. Hard won rights and adjustments managed by thoughtful policy makers in Paris over the past 10 years, such as the 35 hour week are bad! No explanation as to the reason the 35 hour week was introduced ­ to keep people in work, for one thing. Long holidays are a disgrace for Protestant work-a-holics writing against hard-won victories for working people in France. No doubt, if someone argued that drinking French wine could be shown to cause socialism, that would get a run as well.</p>
<p>Where do US commentators get off providing half-informed analysis of the election results? The short answer is that they are pathologically opposed to social justice policies.</p>
<p>Watching France 24, on C-SPAN during the French election analysis on Sunday, May 6, a Bloomberg correspondent on the panel launched a diatribe against one of his fellow panelists who had explained the complex relationship between various elements of the French Left.</p>
<p>“Wake up and smell the coffee, people,” this Neanderthal bleated. He continued that leftist political parties are irrelevant and have been for 20 years in every other country in the world and so it went.</p>
<p>The facts on the ground are of course, dramatically different. French politics and the French Left is a highly fragmented, even nuanced beast. It cannot be reduced to the Tweedledum and Tweedledee model preferred by limited-attention-span commentators in the US. Nor can it be reduced to the econometric madness of simplistic business school positivism ­ some countries do have social policies!</p>
<p>For millions of people around the world, the French left has operated since World War 2, as the academic and creative gold standard. The French left has produced the riches of a deep and abiding intellectual inquiry, manifested since the Revolution(s) (whether Marat Sade or even Karl Marx writing on the Paris Commune), and in recent years by the work of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Louis Althusser, Roland Barthes, Claude Levi Strauss, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Simone de Beauvoir, Fernand Braudel, André Malraux, Jean-François Lyotard, Felix Guattari, Giles Delleuze, Guy Debord, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Baudrillard (too few women).</p>
<p>We ciould include film makers and articts, but the point stands on the academic intellectual community alone who have made a monumental contribution to creative and critical thought. Has any other country offered such a diversity of perspectives for progressive knowledge production and improved governance?</p>
<p>Could it be that the real agenda of the US mainstream media is to deny and destroy the contributions that French intellectuals have made to democratic theory and practice? Could the loud cheers in favor of Sarkozy’s election really be masking the endless efforts of the right to roll back taken-for-granted progressive policies? In this case, destroy the generation of 1968, in much the same way that Vice-President Dick Chaney and Former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld wanted a victory in Iraq to undo the liberalism they associated with the US loss in the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>Sarkozy claimed during the election campaign that the the heritage of 1968 should be “liquidated,” as much as for its success in reform as for what (“The Economist,” May 12) claimed Sarkozy said was their “moral and intellectual relativism.”</p>
<p>Perhaps some solace can be taken from the substantial youth vote for Socialist candidate Segolene Royal. Alternatively, US commentators like Cohen failed to note that Sarkozy pickup up the votes of the racist Jean-Marie Le Pen.</p>
<p>France gave the US The Statue of Liberty. This symbol of French achievement in the quest for human dignity ­ liberty, equality, fraternity – should not be permitted to turn into the Statue of Bigotry, as Lou Reed argued in “Dirty Boulevard’s” from his New York album. It remains to be seen if Sarkozy’s friendship with the US is part of a larger strategy to undermine those other shared ambitions of liberty and equality.</p>
<p>MARCUS BREEN teaches in the Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University, Boston. His most recent book is <a href="" type="internal">Rock Dogs: Politics and the Australian Music Industry</a>. He can be contacted at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Cheering Sarkozy | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/05/12/cheering-sarkozy/ | 2007-05-12 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON — When he was growing up in Barrington, Rhode Island, Sean Michael Spicer would watch newsmakers in Washington and wonder, “How did that person get that job?”</p>
<p>Now 45, he’s White House press secretary. Every day Spicer tangles with a demanding and skeptical press corps. What makes the task harder is that he has to answer their questions in a way that works for a big-league grudge-master, President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>He also has become <a href="" type="internal">a punchline on “Saturday Night Live,”</a> where comedian Melissa McCarthy plays a caricature of the solidly built communications pro. And when he goes shopping, he risks having angry liberals call him names, as happened recently at an Apple store.</p>
<p>He may well have the hardest job inside the Washington beltway.</p>
<p>How did Spicer get the job? The path began at a Catholic boarding school in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Political science teacher J. Clifford Hobbins recalled, “When Sean attended Portsmouth Abbey, it was an all-boys school; it was a tough place, a competitive place. You really had to learn to make your way, to survive. You had to learn to be part of the group, a contributing member of the community. These lessons served Sean well after he left the school and throughout his career path.”</p>
<p>In high school, Spicer got a taste for politics and began volunteering in Republican campaigns. Hobbins helped Spicer win a senior-year internship with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, a Democrat. Then Spicer went back to the GOP.</p>
<p>He attended Connecticut College, where his conservative politics did not escape the notice of the school paper, which once referred to him as “Sean Sphincter.” Spicer wrote a letter to the paper to complain; the College Voice blamed spell-checker for the error.</p>
<p>As a college student, Spicer was passionate about sailing and politics, but the ambitious Rhode Islander was open to advice. During a school trip to New York, a Wall Street titan suggested that students study Japanese. Spicer enrolled in a Japanese course but fared so poorly that a college administrator wrote a note of concern. Spicer took the hint and dropped the class. The lesson he learned was to trust his gut, Spicer later said, and to focus on the things he loved – like politics.</p>
<p>After graduating in 1993, Spicer worked as an unpaid volunteer compiling clippings for Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas. He then served on the staff of a series of GOP congressmen and committees.</p>
<p>“Many of us in our 20s really wanted to be press secretary for the president of the United States. That’s your dream,” said Ron Bonjean, a GOP strategist who became friends with Spicer when they both worked for rank-and-file House Republicans. “And he stayed long enough to achieve it.”</p>
<p>BRIEF EXIT FROM POLITICS</p>
<p>In 2004 when he was a spokesman for the House Budget Committee, Spicer married Rebecca Miller, then a TV news producer, a union announced in The New York Times. Rebecca Spicer worked in the White House during the tenure of President George W. Bush before she became communications strategist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association.</p>
<p>Spicer, who refused to be interviewed for this story, and his wife now have two children and live in Alexandria, Virginia.</p>
<p>Spicer left government when he co-founded a boutique public relations firm, Endeavor Global Strategies, in 2009. But he was drawn back into politics at the Republican National Committee in 2011.</p>
<p>“He didn’t get the combat out of his system yet,” Bonjean said with a shrug.</p>
<p>Spicer found himself drawn into the Trump orbit in 2016, when it became clear that the reality TV star could win the GOP nomination. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus saw a need to provide Trump with organizational support. It fell to Spicer, as an RNC strategist and communications pro, to move into Trump Tower in September to help groom the GOP nominee.</p>
<p>After Trump won, a series of cable TV talking heads and other hopefuls knocked on Trump’s door to audition for the job of press secretary. In the end, Trump went with Spicer, who had fought so hard for the candidate during the campaign.</p>
<p>Spicer actually took a pay cut to work at the White House. According to a recent financial disclosure form, he earned $260,000 when he worked for the RNC and now earns $179,000 as White House press secretary.</p>
<p>RULES FOR LIFE</p>
<p>In 2014, Spicer returned to his high school alma mater to share his “17 rules for life.” His rules, Spicer told students, aren’t original or mind-blowing. They’re just common-sense values that should work for everyone.</p>
<p>It turns out those 17 rules could be especially helpful for Spicer’s new boss. Spicer’s second rule is “Think before you speak (tweet, post, upload).” His ninth rule: “Perception is reality,” which means, he explained, “what people think of you is what matters.”</p>
<p>And Spicer’s fourth rule: “Take responsibility when you screw up. You will be rewarded.”</p>
<p>Spicer didn’t quite stick to his rulebook during his first White House briefing. It was a hastily announced affair the day after the inauguration during which Spicer took no questions but used the opportunity to berate reporters for “deliberately false reporting,” while the press secretary himself made a number of factually incorrect statements about Inauguration Day crowd size.</p>
<p>“Photographs of the inaugural proceedings were intentionally framed in a way, in one particular tweet, to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall. That was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe,” Spicer told the press.</p>
<p>‘PANTS ON FIRE’</p>
<p>To most eyes, Spicer’s debut briefing was a flop. PolitiFact rated Spicer’s talking points “pants on fire” false. The Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler gave Spicer “four Pinocchios. “This is an appalling performance by the new press secretary,” Kessler wrote. “He managed to make a series of false and misleading claims in service of a relatively minor issue.”</p>
<p>“He’s had a long reputation for being a straight shooter, but from the first day of Trump’s presidency, when he blasted the press for writing things that were factually true, he lost a lot of credibility,” noted Marc Sandalow, a former journalist who now serves as associate academic director of the University of California Washington Center.</p>
<p>“If Sean Spicer insists on something from the podium,” Sandalow said, “you don’t know whether or not it’s him being earnest or his boss telling him to spin, if not say things that are outright not true.”</p>
<p>Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary to President George W. Bush, agreed that the first briefing got Spicer off to a bad start.</p>
<p>“But he very quickly” made up for it, Fleischer said. “I think he’s doing very well. The press secretary’s job is to represent the boss, to say what the boss wants to be said and in some ways to say it the way the boss would say it.”</p>
<p>“He’s even bringing humor into the room, which is really important,” Fleischer observed.</p>
<p>It’s especially important to enjoy a good laugh when “Saturday Night Live” turns you into a parody character, Spicey, who guzzles industrial-sized gum and uses his podium on wheels to mow down pesky reporters.</p>
<p>“Don’t make me make the podium move,” Spicer joked during a recent briefing.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean he loves every minute of “SNL.” He told “Extra” he found the Alec Baldwin portrayal of Trump to be “mean,” not funny.</p>
<p>Spicer’s sense of humor was evident when he sent his Portsmouth Abbey teacher a photo of himself dressed as an Easter Bunny at a White House Easter egg hunt during the Bush presidency, with a note that said, “Look at me now.”</p>
<p>You can laugh, but know this: In real life, Bonjean said, none of his friends ever call the White House spokesman “Spicey.”</p>
<p>Contact Debra J. Saunders at [email protected] or at 202-662-7391. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/DebraJSaunders" type="external">@DebraJSaunders</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>SPICER’S RULES FOR LIFE</p>
<p>Rule 1: “There is no job for anything.”</p>
<p>Rule 2; “Think before you speak. (tweet, post, upload)”</p>
<p>Rule 3: “Showing up is half the battle… showing up early and often is the other half”</p>
<p>Rule 4: “Take responsibility when you screw up. You will be rewarded.”</p>
<p>Rule 5: “Never give up”</p>
<p>Rule 6: “Be prepared”</p>
<p>Rule 7: “Have a plan… but be flexible”</p>
<p>Rule 8: “Trust your gut”</p>
<p>Rule 9: “Perception is reality” Means: “What people think of you is what matters.”</p>
<p>Rule 10: “Get beyond Cory’s Lane… and Newport”</p>
<p>Rule 11; “Make good friends/find a mentor”</p>
<p>Rule 12: “Say thank you.”</p>
<p>Rule 13: “Your mail can always be addressed to occupant.”</p>
<p>Rule 14: “Have a relationship with God.”</p>
<p>Rule 15: “It’s true, it is who you know.”</p>
<p>Rule 16: “Follow your mother’s advice. It’s not what you say but how you say it.”</p>
<p>Rule 17: “Life is short, leave it on the field.”</p>
<p /> | Could Sean Spicer have the hardest job inside DC beltway? | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/could-sean-spicer-have-the-hardest-job-inside-dc-beltway/ | 2017-04-04 | 1 |
<p />
<p>By now you’re sick of hearing about John McCain’s <a href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/18/a_mccain_gaffe_in_jordan.html" type="external">gaffe in Jordan</a>—although definitely worth the attention, I’d argue—but <a href="http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=03&amp;year=2008&amp;base_name=oneliner_of_the_day" type="external">this quote</a> from the Obama campaign is worth passing along. From campaign spokesman, Bill Burton: “We wish the McCain campaign well as they try to figure out the difference between Iran and Al Qaeda.” That’s pretty funny right? Only it’s not so much funny as it is scary that a man, who may very well not <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/03/19/bloggers-mccain-iran-iraq/" type="external">have more of a clue</a> than our current commander in chief, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/03/19/bloggers-mccain-iran-iraq/" type="external">might one day replace him</a>. So, definitely not funny ha-ha.</p>
<p /> | Obama Spokesman Jabs McCain on Al Qaeda-Iran Gaffe | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/03/obama-spokesman-jabs-mccain-al-qaeda-iran-gaffe/ | 2008-03-20 | 4 |
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<p>WICHITA, Kan. — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected arguments that a Kansas law can shield from federal prosecution anyone owning firearms made, sold and kept in the state — a ruling that casts doubt on the legality of similar laws passed in nine states across the nation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The decision handed down by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten allows federal firearms charges against Shane Cox and Jeremy Kettler to stand. The ruling clears the way for their sentencing on Monday.</p>
<p>Jurors in November returned eight guilty verdicts against Cox, the owner of Tough Guys gun store in Chanute, under the National Firearms Act for illegally making and marketing unregistered firearms, including a short-barreled rifle and gun silencers. Kettler was found guilty on one count of possession of an unregistered silencer.</p>
<p>The Kansas Second Amendment Protection Act, which passed in 2013, says firearms, accessories and ammunition manufactured and kept within the borders of Kansas are exempt from federal gun control laws. Kansas modeled its law on a Montana law that an appeals court has found to be invalid, according to court filings.</p>
<p>Similar firearm nullification laws have been signed into law in nine states. In addition to Montana and Kansas, other states having them include Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, which advocates common-sense gun control laws.</p>
<p>Noting the significant interest the case against Cox and Kettler has generated in Kansas and beyond, Marten wrote in his 13-page decision that he is bound to uphold the U.S. Constitution and laws as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge then proceeded to cite those earlier rulings in rejecting every constitutional argument raised by the defense in the Kansas gun case.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“As a district court judge, I am not empowered to do what I think is most fair — I am bound to follow the law,” Marten wrote.</p>
<p>Defense attorneys argued that the National Firearms Act — a part of the Internal Revenue code enacted under Congress’ power to levy taxes — is unconstitutional because it amounts to “regulatory punishment” rather than imposition of a valid federal tax. They also contended that the federal law violated the Second Amendment as well as Tenth Amendment state rights protections of the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>But Marten was unpersuaded, noting that the nation’s highest court ruled 80 years ago that the National Firearms Act is valid exercise of Congressional taxing power. As such, it supersedes a state law, he said. Marten also rejected the Second Amendment arguments raised.</p>
<p>Kettler’s attorney, Ian Clark, separately asked the court for leniency at sentencing, calling his client a good man “caught in the crossfire of a political strong arm contest.” The two men, like many other Kansans, were under the mistaken belief that the Kansas Second Amendment Protection Act was valid and protected them from federal prosecution.</p>
<p>“Now that this prosecution has taken place and received fairly wide media attention, any need for deterrence has been satisfied simply by making the community aware that the federal government will prosecute possession of firearm accessories like these regardless of the Kansas law,” Clark said.</p> | Judge: Federal firearms regulations trump Kansas gun law | false | https://abqjournal.com/939862/judge-federal-firearms-regulations-trump-kansas-gun-law.html | 2017-01-31 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Despite what you may think as a boss, there's a good chance your employees don't have much faith in you, new research finds.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Just 40 percent of workers said they don't have a high level of trust in their individual bosses, or in their organization as a whole, according to a new study from Interaction Associates, a workplace performance improvement company.</p>
<p>The research shows that trust, which researchers define as the willingness to accept personal risk based on another person's actions, is going from bad to worse within many businesses. More than one-quarter of those surveyed said they trust their boss less this year than they did in 2013.</p>
<p>Overall, employees have much more trust in their co-workers than they do in their supervisors. The study found that 54 percent of workers feel safe communicating their ideas and opinions to colleagues and peers, compared with 38 percent who feel the same about their company's leaders.</p>
<p>Linda Stewart, CEO of Interaction Associates, said their research consistently points to how critical trust is in driving business results. <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/1404-characteristics-good-boss.html" type="external">[5 Signs You're a Great Boss] Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>"Yet, we see such a high rate of mistrust among the working population this year," Stewart said in a statement. “The results are alarming, especially in light of the importance people place on trusting their leadership – some 82 percent of all respondents say that trusting their boss is essential for them to be effective in their job."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The study revealed that companies that have a high level of trust among their employees are 2.5 times more likely than those that don't to be leaders in revenue growth. In addition, businesses that lead in trust significantly outperform all other organizations in achieving key business goals, including customer loyalty and retention; competitive market position; ethical behavior and actions; predictable business and financial results; and profit growth.</p>
<p>The research also discovered that 80 percent of employees believe high levels of trust inside an organization foster both innovation and investment in new projects. Interaction Associates listed the top five actions leaders can take in order to build trust.</p>
<p>The study was based on surveys of more than 500 employees at companies worldwide in a range of job functions and industries.</p>
<p>Originally published on <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/" type="external">Business News Daily. Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 5 Ways Bosses Earn Employee Trust | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/11/05/5-ways-bosses-earn-employee-trust.html | 2016-04-07 | 0 |
<p>You've heard of actors and writers in Hollywood who say they really want to direct. Now meet a director who really wants to write.</p>
<p>Haifaa Al Mansour is the author of the just-published young adult novel " <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Green-Bicycle-Haifaa-Mansour/dp/0525428062" type="external">The Green Bicycle.</a>" It was inspired by a film she directed, called "Wadjda."</p>
<p>Mansour hopes the book will in turn inspire young girls across the globe.</p>
<p>"I wanted to create this character who lives in a harsh world, but believes in herself and tries to reach her dreams regardless," she says. "For me, I think young adults need those kind of superheroes."</p>
<p>She created the character, Wadjda, an 11-year-old girl who wants to buy a bicycle. How she goes about making this happen is magic.</p>
<p>Below is an excerpt from " <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Green-Bicycle-Haifaa-Mansour/dp/0525428062" type="external">The Green Bicycle</a>."</p>
<p></p>
<p>CHAPTER TWO</p>
<p>The warm smell of cardamom and saffron teased Wadjda awake. Traditional blond Saudi coffee was boiling in the kitchen, and she could hear the soft sounds of her mother moving from room to room, preparing for the day ahead.</p>
<p>Wadjda loved the familiarity of their house. It was old and cozy, the place where she’d been born. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Of course, it wasn’t perfect. The walls were so thin that the slightest noise echoed through the whole space. The electricity went out now and then, sometimes because her mother didn’t pay the bill, but mostly because a fuse blew or a switch broke. Over time, Wadjda had learned to fix these things. Between the constant repairs and the monthly mortgage, her mother was always complaining about the house being a money pit. But while their home had its issues, it was Wadjda’s safe spot, the only place where she and her mother could be themselves, relaxed and happy and tucked away from the world outside. 
 it was barely five in the morning. Despite the early hour,</p>
<p>Wadjda was already in her gray school uniform, tugging a brush through her hair. She liked to get up early, before her mother set out on the long journey to the remote school where she taught. She liked being there for her mother, liked to take care of her and make sure things were all right. Getting up at the same time was a silent act of support.</p>
<p>With the flick of a switch, Wadjda turned on the radio. Her radio. She smiled and brushed her fingers across its metal sides. This was the thing in her small room that she loved most. Music moved her, lifted her. As she straightened the sheets on her bed and threw her slippers underneath, she rocked her hips and shook her shoulders in time with the beat. It was going to be a fun day, and Wadjda was ready for it to begin.</p>
<p>It was going to be hot, too. Already, the sun was burning through the small window above her desk. Wadjda had covered the window with wallpaper, but even that thick sheet failed to block the intense desert heat. Climbing onto her desk chair, Wadjda added a few pictures to the collage she’d started on top of the wallpaper, using images cut from magazines. Her father brought them back from the oil company on the east coast where he worked.</p>
<p>Scrambling down, Wadjda flipped through one of those magazines now, looking for pictures of girls her age. They smiled out at her from the glossy pages: two girls on skateboards hovering at the top of a jump; a girl strumming a guitar; a group of kids sitting on the beach, boys and girls together, arms slung around one another’s shoulders. The heat burned against Wadjda’s fingers as she climbed up again, pressing these new pictures onto the wallpaper. Her collage was her checklist, a reminder of all the things she would do as soon as she got the chance.</p>
<p>On the radio, the DJ introduced the next song. Wadjda dashed to her tape deck and hit record as the new single from Grouplove began. She wasn’t sure what the DJ had been saying about the song, or what the band was singing about—her English couldn’t quite keep up with the fast pace of the lyrics. But she loved the feeling the song gave her. Flinging out her arms, Wadjda spun in a circle, closed her eyes, and let the beat move her. She knew the song was good. The DJs had played it more than a dozen times in the last few days. Only a hit would get so much attention.</p>
<p>Wadjda prided herself on her taste in music. Nine times out of ten, the songs she picked to record went on to become hits. And as much as she loved music, she loved sharing it even more. The mixtapes she made sold for real money at school—five Riyals each. And this latest mix was so good that her classmates would probably buy it even if she charged a lot more!</p>
<p>The thought of selling the tape made Wadjda pause in her dance. Better be safe. Quickly, she clambered up onto the bed and ran her fingers along the length of cord she’d strung in through the window, making sure it connected properly to the back of the radio. The cord led to the roof, and from there to the makeshift antenna Wadjda had rigged up to capture songs from stations all over the world.</p>
<p>She’d found the antenna discarded next to a garbage bin on one of her rambling walks home from school. Who still uses these? Wadjda had thought, squatting in the dirt. I bet it’s someone old, because there’s a satellite dish on every roof in Riyadh!</p>
<p>Not till later, when she was sitting in their satellite dish- less house, straining to make out the song buzzing through her radio’s fuzzy speakers, did Wadjda realize the antenna was perfect—for her. But what if she’d missed her chance? In Riyadh, if you didn’t take something when you saw it, it was usually gone by the time you went back.</p>
<p>Still, she had to try. The next day, she erupted out of school the minute she was dismissed and raced through the streets, her heart thudding against her chest. Magically, the antenna was still there. Waiting for her like a gift.</p>
<p>Dragging it all the way to the roof took hours of panting, sweaty work. But it was worth it. The antenna was Wadjda’s tunnel to a faraway world. The music it carried into her room created a private space, a place far from the shrieky Turkish soap operas her mother adored, from the gloomy news reported daily on TV. Wadjda’s radio played music made especially for her.</p>
<p>Turning over the English name of the song she was re- cording in her mind, Wadjda carefully wrote down her own version of its title, translating it phonetically into Arabic. The full track list was labeled wadjda’s awesome mixtape, vol. 7. Next to the growing stack of cassettes, she counted out handmade bracelets. Jewelry brought in decent money from kids who didn’t like music. And just in case, Wadjda specialized in everybody’s favorite treats— candy and chips—which always sold out. The school strictly forbade leaving the grounds during the day, so it was impossible to sneak away and get snacks during lunch. Wadjda had the market cornered.</p>
<p>Her mother hated the idea of Wadjda selling things to her classmates. “Like a common beggar,” she’d say, shaking her head. But she didn’t seem to mind the extra money when they needed things around the house. Over time, they’d come to an understanding: It was all right as long as they didn’t talk about it—and as long as Wadjda didn’t get caught.</p>
<p>Today, if she sold all the bracelets and tapes, and maybe a few bags of candy and chips, she could easily clear fifty Riyals. More than enough for a large pizza and two Cokes on Thursday night, when she and her mother always ordered dinner in. Wadjda smiled, pleased, and searched the floor for her high-tops. The song was nearing its end. Bobbing her head in time, she looked through the half- open door of her room and saw her mother, drying her hair in the living room.</p>
<p>Wadjda thought her mother was the most beautiful woman on earth. Her silky hair fell to her slim waist like a black river. It was so thick that it was hard for Wadjda’s mother to control it all under her abayah and burka. She had to buy a special cap to keep it from falling out of her veil in public. Thick lashes framed her wide, dark eyes. When she outlined them with black lines of kohl, she looked almost cartoonishly glamorous, like a star from a Bollywood film. She should be in a movie, Wadjda thought.</p>
<p>Of course, her mother would never allow herself such a dream. It wasn’t proper. Still, there was something impossibly elegant in her movements, even as she struggled to do simple tasks, like attach a broken brush accessory to the top of her hair dryer. A smile stole across Wadjda’s face as she listened to her mother curse under her breath. Finally, her mother tossed aside the broken part and dried the rest of her hair without it.</p>
<p>But Wadjda was wasting time. The clock read 5:30 a.m. Time to go. She jumped up and left her room—but seconds later she was back by the radio, shifting from foot to foot, drumming her fingers against the dial as she waited for the song to end. At last, she hit stop on the recorder and dashed out, hoping her mother wouldn’t curse her for making them late, yet again.</p>
<p>Today, though, her mother was also rushing, twisting her hair quickly around her fingers and adding little colored clips to hold it in place. Wadjda waited near the door, underneath a gold-framed picture of her father. The picture had been taken on her parents’ wedding day. Her father practically glimmered, his crisp white thobe and checked ghutra complemented by the beautiful brown bisht, or traditional cloak, draped over his shoulders.</p>
<p>Had the bisht been more expensive than her mother’s simple wedding dress? Wadjda had seen her mother’s gown in the closet, had even run her fingers gently across the white silk, but she didn’t know if there were any pictures of her mother wearing it. She couldn’t remember ever seeing one around the house.</p>
<p>Following her daughter’s eyes, her mother glanced at the picture, too. At the sight of her husband, she suddenly looked so tired. Wadjda frowned, feeling the familiar twist in her stomach. Something troubling was happening be- tween her parents, but she didn’t like to think about it. Thinking about it made it real.</p>
<p>Now her mother looked away, sighing. She’d almost finished her hair. Each strand was locked into place, creating a strange mixture of curls and bows. Only my mother could pull off a look like that, Wadjda thought. On her, it was beautiful.</p>
<p>“Turn off the stove before the coffee boils over,” she called. Wadjda ran to the kitchen and twisted the knob, letting the gas sputter out. The sandwich her mother had made her waited on the counter—Wadjda’s favorite, a delicious mix of melted cheeses rolled tight in white Arabic bread. Her mother had made her kerk chai, too, tea and warm milk. Smiling, Wadjda breathed in the rich smells of cardamom and saffron.</p>
<p>Her mother ran into the kitchen and tended to her coffee, adding a few scoops of cardamom and a pinch of saffron. Smiling down at Wadjda, she said gently, “Lots of caffeine in there. Hopefully it’ll keep you going—at least through morning period.”</p>
<p>Wadjda nodded. Recently, she’d heard one of her teachers say that caffeine was bad for kids. In Riyadh, though, people didn’t give habits up easily—not even bad ones. For as long as she could remember, Wadjda had been drinking tea and coffee. She liked the little kick she got from kerk chai. These days, she needed it to get through her endless boring classes. And her cousins and friends drank it, too, so surely it couldn’t be that bad.</p>
<p>Outside, a car horn honked. With a jolt, Wadjda and her mother whirled toward the door. Wadjda’s mother moved too fast, though, and splashed boiling coffee across her hand, scalding her pale skin. Sighing in frustration and pain, she wrapped the wound with a wet towel.</p>
<p>“I guess he’s already here,” Wadjda said, rolling her eyes.</p>
<p>Her mother spoke without looking up from her burned hand.</p>
<p>“Well, he can just wait. I’m doing everything I can to be ready on time.”</p>
<p>But there was worry hidden in her tone. And when she moved, she moved. Her mother poured the coffee into a thermos, grabbed her notebooks, donned her abayah and burka, and made for the door, all in a rush. Wadjda hurried along behind, carrying the rest of her mother’s sup- plies in a jumbled heap in her arms.</p>
<p>At the door, Wadjda’s mother paused to tug the keys from their hook, knocking a string of blue prayer beads to the floor as she did so. These were Wadjda’s father’s. He always had the beads dangling from his hands, and he’d roll them over his index finger with his thumb when he talked. Sometimes he even swung them around an extended finger as he paced the house, letting the long blue string slap rhythmically against the fabric of his white thobe.</p>
<p>Wadjda’s mother picked them up and put them back in place. For a moment, she covered them with her palm, letting her hand rest tenderly against the beads, the way she touched Wadjda’s cheek before bed. Then she turned to Wadjda and pulled her veil over her face, businesslike once more.</p>
<p>“Don’t forget your key, and don’t lock the upper lock. Your father may be coming home after his night shift.” Her tone was the one she reserved for the times that Wadjda came home late or didn’t finish her homework—so not really that often, Wadjda thought. Not a regular occurrence. Well, not a tone she’d heard for a few days, at least.</p>
<p>As they exited through the front gate, Wadjda frowned, twisting her lips and setting her jaw like a superhero face- to-face with her archnemesis. Before them stood Iqbal, her mother’s Pakistani driver-for-hire. He was in front of his old van, plastering a broken headlight on with duct tape. When he saw Wadjda, he matched her glare with a deadly evil eye. But then he saw her mother, and he began to act showily exasperated.</p>
<p>“It very long way, Madame!” He yelled at her in bossy, broken Arabic. “Other teachers we are taking, very long way. You late every day! No taking you late!”</p>
<p>Rolling her eyes at the familiar show, Wadjda put her hands on her hips and squared her shoulders. Iqbal towered over her, but she did not yield.</p>
<p>“She no late! You just came! I see you—five minutes not even!” She used the same broken Arabic for emphasis.</p>
<p>“I no talk to you, little girl. I talk to your mother. She is late!”</p>
<p>Without letting Wadjda or her mother reply, Iqbal got into the car and slammed the door. A picture of a smiling child in shalwar kameez, the traditional tunic and trousers worn in Pakistan, fell to the floor. Iqbal picked it up and cleaned it tenderly before putting it back on the dash- board. Time seemed to pause; he stared into the eyes of the little girl in the picture, looking as if his mind and heart were very far away.</p>
<p>Then he looked up and found himself back in Saudi Arabia, staring right into Wadjda’s face, which was pressed up against the glass. Leaning back, Wadjda stuck her tongue out, just to make sure Iqbal knew who he was dealing with. He honked again, waving his hands at her with ever more exaggerated impatience.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry about him,” her mother said from beneath her face covering. “Okay, yalla, bye!” She took her things from Wadjda, ruffling her daughter’s hair as she stepped into the car. Wadjda heard her parting words faintly: “There’s no problem, Iqbal. You take lots of money, so let’s have some quiet for the long drive.”</p>
<p>The minivan bumped away in a cloud of dust and clanking of engine parts. As Wadjda was about to go back into the house, she saw the minivan swerve wildly to avoid an oncoming car. In its recovery, it almost crashed into the garden wall of a nearby house. Wadjda flung her arms wide in dismay. What was Iqbal doing? Nervous, she watched the battered car disappear around the corner, the familiar fear that Iqbal would drive her mother straight off a cliff somewhere tickling its way into her mind.</p>
<p>In the living room, Wadjda rushed to grab her back- pack. But catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she stopped and looked hard at her reflection. Slowly, she lifted her hair, wrapping it around her hand and piling it loosely on her head. Could she ever look as effortlessly elegant as her mother? If Wadjda pinned her curls and tilted her chin slightly to the left, catching just the right light, could she be as beautiful?</p>
<p>Sunbeams flickered across her face and reflected off the glass. Sighing, Wadjda put on her abayah, turning away from the girl in the mirror.</p>
<p>Outside, bright sunlight beat down on the rows of concrete houses lining the streets. A tall wall fronted each home, and a thick layer of dust coated everything: the trees, the trash heaped in the gutters, even the cracked gray sidewalks. In Wadjda’s neighborhood, it was difficult to tell one thing from another. Beneath its blanket of dust, the street seemed boring and lifeless, a giant beige blur stretching endlessly into the distance. Aluminum foil or tightly drawn curtains covered the windows, offering the people inside protection from the sun—and from the curious eyes of the outside world.</p>
<p>Here and there, groups of girls walked to school, their bodies completely covered with black abayahs and veils. Only different backpacks or eyeglasses distinguished one from another. Taxis and minivans passed by with a roar, leaving dust clouds hanging in the air behind them. Women were not allowed to drive in Saudi, so each car was packed with female passengers, all pressed tightly together, all dressed in black. Clusters of foreign-looking men, mostly Indian and Pakistani, moved toward their places of work. They had on worn, faded clothes, most of which looked as if they’d been beaten with a dusty broom in place of cleaning. The women instinctively kept their distance from the men, moving to the other side of the street or waiting for them to pass so they could avoid any accidental contact.</p>
<p>She couldn’t wait any longer. With a sigh, Wadjda turned toward school—and flinched, her body jerking back as, crash! A rock skipped past her, knocking against a discarded soda can and sending it clanking away across the sidewalk.</p>
<p>Startled, Wadjda looked up to see her father, smiling and tossing another rock up into the air. Her heart swelled. From the accuracy of the throw, she’d known it was him even before she turned around. Her father was always showing her how to skip stones, and there were endless targets on Riyadh’s trash-ridden streets. Discarded cans and fast-food wrappers seemed to fill the sidewalks as soon as the street sweepers passed through, the new garbage easily taking the place of whatever trash had been re- moved.</p>
<p>Wadjda’s father ran his hand through his short black hair and drew his fingers across his neat mustache. Wadjda could almost feel its soft tickle against her cheek. She liked how his uniform from the oil rig had faded, turning a cool, sun-bleached gray. When he’d left home, it had been bright blue and ugly. It looked much tougher after a little wear and tear. Like my sneakers, she thought.</p>
<p>“Watch this!” her father called, and flung a rock toward a jumbo-sized fast-food cup, which someone had left on the wall behind Wadjda. Even as she ducked, Wadjda saw the cup fly from its place, lid and straw exploding in opposite directions. Impressed, she grabbed a stone from the dusty road, hefting it in her palm, feeling its weight.</p>
<p>“Oh yeah? Check this out!” She searched for her target, chest puffed out bravely, and zeroed in on a dusty milk carton lying a few meters away. Though she gave it her best shot, the rock fell short. In silence, Wadjda and her father watched it tumble to a stop near her father’s foot.</p>
<p>“Close, my girl! Keep practicing. You’re getting there.”</p>
<p>Wadjda couldn’t wait any longer. She ran over and hugged him. “Where have you been, Abooie?” she blurted, wrapping her arms around his chest and squeezing tight.</p>
<p>Her father didn’t answer. He just held her out in front of him, smiling. “Look at this,” he said at last, pulling a shiny black rock from his pocket. “It’s volcanic, from the Empty Quarter. It’ll fly straight and fast—think how that will help your aim! Now, you have school, yes? Better get going.”</p>
<p>Wadjda took the rock from his hand, beaming. He patted her on the head. They stood side by side for a moment as Wadjda rolled the glossy stone in her hand. She didn’t want to leave, not yet. She wondered about her father’s lonely life on the rigs, out in the middle of nowhere. In her mind’s eye she saw him pacing the Empty Quarter, imagined a glint of light on a stone catching his eye. She thought about him picking up the shiny black rock, holding it in his hand, and thinking of her. His daughter.</p>
<p>With a surge of glee, she tossed her new prize up high once, then again. On the third throw, she snatched it from the air and started off toward school, running fast, her shoes slapping exuberantly against the sidewalk.</p>
<p>“We left the door unlocked. Ummi’s been waiting for you all week!” she called over her shoulder.</p>
<p>Her father’s eyes flickered at the mention of her mother. Once more, he passed his hand over his hair. Then he patted the dust off his overalls and moved toward the front gate of the house.</p> | A girl rides a bike to to upend Saudi Arabia's patriarchal society | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-10-27/girl-rides-bike-upend-saudi-arabias-patriarchal-society | 2015-10-27 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Living things can show us how to keep society safe. So says biologist Raphael Sagarin of Duke University in a fascinating interview with <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19726422.100-interview-using-nature-to-tackle-terrorism.html" type="external">New Scientist</a>. “You can look at virtually any question about security through a biological lens,” says Sagarin, “from how to develop weapons systems to how to organise government departments. One clear lesson is that the species or systems that have been around the longest, adapted to many different environments and captured the most resources have a structure of fairly limited central control, with a lot of autonomy. You can see this… in the immune system, for example, or in colonial organisms such as <a href="http://www.antweb.org/" type="external">ants</a> and <a href="http://www.coralreefalliance.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=62&amp;Itemid=72" type="external">corals</a>.”</p>
<p>“In stark contrast, says Sagarin, is the US response to 9/11, “which was to create this enormous <a href="/news/featurex/2007/09/homeland-insecurity-the-blame-game.html" type="external">Department of Homeland Security</a>. You can see the results: individual organisations do not get enough autonomy and cannot make decisions in a timely manner. They cannot respond and adapt without having to go up through many layers of command. It’s more to do with keeping power and maintaining committee memberships, jobs and budgets than security.”</p>
<p>Furthermore, he says, “organisms inherently understand that there is risk in life. The idea that we can eliminate these risks would be <a href="http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/selection/selection.html" type="external">selected against</a> quickly in the natural world since any organism that tried to do so would not have enough resources left for reproduction, or feeding itself.”</p>
<p>Sounds vaguely familiar.</p>
<p><a href="http://julia.whitty.googlepages.com/home" type="external">Julia Whitty</a> is Mother Jones’ environmental correspondent, <a href="http://julia.whitty.googlepages.com/juliawhittylectures" type="external">lecturer</a>, and 2008 winner of the <a href="http://www.research.amnh.org/burroughs/medal_award_list.html" type="external">John Burroughs Medal Award</a>. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, <a href="http://julia.whitty.googlepages.com/books" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | Nature Does Anti-Terrorism Better | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/02/nature-does-anti-terrorism-better/ | 2008-02-20 | 4 |
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