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<p>Evidence is continuing to mount that the Islamic State is responsible for the crash of Russian Metrojet Flight 9268. Many intelligence agencies are confirming the Islamic State’s claim that they took down the Russian passenger plane, killing all 224 persons on board, a little more than a week ago.</p>
<p>What the world’s intelligence agencies are really trying to determine is how the Islamic State planted the bomb on the plane, according to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/09/middleeast/russian-plane-crash-egypt-sinai/" type="external">CNN</a>. The airliner was headed from a resort town in Egypt to the Russian city Saint Petersburg when it crashed in the Sinai desert for no explicable reason other than the explosion.&#160;United States intelligence agencies are reporting that they believe that it is “99.9 percent certain” that it was, indeed, an Islamic State bomb that took down the plane.</p>
<p>Several countries’ intelligence agencies are working to confirm the Islamic State declarations but no one is really willing to say for certain that it was a bomb. Much of the evidence rests on the intelligence efforts of American and British intelligence agencies. They intercepted Islamic State radio traffic shortly after the crash. ISIS&#160;claimed responsibility, but did not reveal how they did it. The Islamic State had been known to highly publicize its actions in an effort to feed&#160;their propaganda machine.</p>
<p>Investigators from European countries have said that they have already analyzed the recordings from the plane’s black box and have determined that the crash was not accidental. The flight recorder has shown that an explosion did occur moments before the recordings stopped. At that time the plane was ascending and on autopilot. Doubters of the bomb theory point to a possible mechanical breakdown or a lithium battery failure and explosion.</p>
<p>Most of the passengers aboard Metrojet Flight 9268 were Russian citizens. So far, about 100&#160;of the bodies have been positively identified using DNA analysis. The Russian media has also been reporting that many of the passengers had left children at home to take a vacation. The Russian media has been advocating for all of the orphans left behind by the disaster.</p>
<p /> | Evidence Mounts That Islamic State Bomb Brought Down Russian Metrojet | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/11/09/evidence-mounts-that-islamic-state-bomb-brought-down-russian-metrojet/ | 2015-11-09 | 3 |
<p>Several hundred DACA supporters marched down the Strip Sunday evening to call on President Donald Trump and Nevada elected officials to protect the Obama-era initiative that has shielded 800,000 so-called Dreamers from deportation.</p>
<p>After congregating near the Trump International for the “We Rise for the Dream” Rally, demonstrators then moved to the Strip to make their case, marching peacefully south to the New York-New York.</p>
<p>The protest came less than a week after President Trump’s decision to begin a winding down of DACA — the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — program and to strip deportation protections for DACA recipients beginning in March.</p>
<p>Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Grant Rogers estimated some 400 people participated in the rally and march.</p>
<p>There were no immediate reports of arrests or major traffic issues from the march.</p>
<p />
<p>Patricia Hernandez, 33, said she has been in the United States since she was 2. She said DACA has given her a chance at a normal life. She said she has been able to buy a car and a house, and said she doesn’t fear going out in public.</p>
<p>“We’re not asking for a free ride,” she said. “We’re just asking for a chance to work.”</p>
<p>Hernandez has lived in Las Vegas for 17 years and works at a hotel on the Strip. She said her kids are afraid of the possibility of deportation.</p>
<p>The march drew the support of several Democratic politicians, including U.S. Rep. Reuben Kihuen, state Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford and state Assemblyman Edgar Flores.</p>
<p>Other than a few head shakes and brief arguments, the demonstration did not appear to draw much opposition from onlookers or counterprotesters.</p>
<p>However, representatives of two Republican organizations shared opposing views later Sunday night.</p>
<p>Terry Ochal, who works for the Clark County Republican Party, said anyone who is frustrated by Trump’s announcement should blame Barack Obama. He called the 2012 White House policy change unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Jacob Deaville, president of the College Republicans at UNLV, said he also believes the Obama-era policy change was overreaching.</p>
<p>“He had no authority to put in place a change to immigration law,” Deaville said.</p>
<p>Deaville said Trump’s decision to rescind DACA returns power to voters by making congress work on immigration legislation.</p>
<p>Contact Blake Apgar at [email protected] or 702-387-5298. Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/blakeapgar" type="external">@blakeapgar</a> on Twitter.</p> | Hundreds of DACA supporters rally in march on Las Vegas Strip | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/hundreds-of-daca-supporters-rally-in-march-on-las-vegas-strip/ | 2017-09-10 | 1 |
<p>Twenty Wal-Mart shoppers –including children — were victims of pepper spraying attacks just minutes after the Porter Ranch, California store opened its doors for an early Black Friday sale. Police are searching for an unknown woman who attacked her fellow shoppers Thanksgiving evening to gain an advantage and access to limited quantities of Wal-Mart specials.</p>
<p>“This was customer-versus-customer ‘shopping rage,’” Los Angeles Police Lt. Abel Parga.told <a href="http://www.google.com/news/url?sa=t&amp;ct3=MAA4GEgAUABgAWoCdXN6AWjYAQE&amp;usg=AFQjCNEeMXG-XMZRm3eQ5MkJUOV2v-dfIw&amp;rt=HOMEPAGE&amp;url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/woman-pepper-sprayed-adults-children-at-wal-mart-sale-police-say.html&amp;sig2=cvvVjJTWMbU87YXepckGVg&amp;ei=gKjPTqGhKcLKsgfPSw" type="external">the L.A. Times</a>.</p>
<p>The woman used the spray in more than one area of the Wal-Mart “to gain preferred access to a variety of locations in the store,” said Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson. “She was competitive shopping,” he said.</p>
<p>Reports of pepper-spraying by police, mostly on Occupy Wall Street protestors, have drawn the ire of the nation, but the fact is that pepper-spray — a chemical weapon valued for its effectiveness and low cost — is legal for purchase in most states.</p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | Wal-Mart Shoppers Pepper-Sprayed | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/wal-mart-shoppers-pepper-sprayed/news/2011/11/25/30666 | 2011-11-25 | 4 |
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ These Louisiana lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Easy 5</p>
<p>09-11-15-26-33</p>
<p>(nine, eleven, fifteen, twenty-six, thirty-three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $130,000</p>
<p>Lotto</p>
<p>04-07-16-25-37-38</p>
<p>(four, seven, sixteen, twenty-five, thirty-seven, thirty-eight)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $350,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $306 million</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>9-5-4</p>
<p>(nine, five, four)</p>
<p>Pick 4</p>
<p>3-4-3-6</p>
<p>(three, four, three, six)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>03-09-16-56-60, Powerball: 3, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(three, nine, sixteen, fifty-six, sixty; Powerball: three; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $337 million</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ These Louisiana lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Easy 5</p>
<p>09-11-15-26-33</p>
<p>(nine, eleven, fifteen, twenty-six, thirty-three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $130,000</p>
<p>Lotto</p>
<p>04-07-16-25-37-38</p>
<p>(four, seven, sixteen, twenty-five, thirty-seven, thirty-eight)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $350,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $306 million</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>9-5-4</p>
<p>(nine, five, four)</p>
<p>Pick 4</p>
<p>3-4-3-6</p>
<p>(three, four, three, six)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>03-09-16-56-60, Powerball: 3, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(three, nine, sixteen, fifty-six, sixty; Powerball: three; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $337 million</p> | LA Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1f2c8b5acfc14558b2cb15a400319aea | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>California prosecutors can bring money laundering charges against the creators of a website that prosecutors label an online brothel, a judge ruled Wednesday. But he dismissed other charges months after another judge threw out the entire case as violating free speech and federal protections.</p>
<p>Prosecutors filed new and expanded charges against Backpage.com chief executive Carl Ferrer and website founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin this spring. The three pleaded not guilty after the judge allowed the money laundering charges.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Larry Brown also dismissed 15 pimping conspiracy and other charges against Backpage.com's operators.</p>
<p>He ruled that those charges relate to their publishing of sex-related advertisements and cannot be filed because of a federal law protecting free speech that grants immunity to websites that post content created by others.</p>
<p>Brown sided with California's state attorney general that 25 of the original 27 money laundering charges alleging illegal bank fraud can proceed.</p>
<p>Prosecutors have said that Backpage's operators illegally funneled money through multiple companies and created various websites to get around banks that refused to process transactions.</p>
<p>Backpage.com is a classified advertising webpage that prosecutors say gets more than 90 percent of its revenue — millions of dollars each month — from thinly disguised ads for prostitution.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The website shuttered its adult services section in January, but officials have said much of the same advertising has migrated to the site's dating and massage sections with similar provocative photographs and wording.</p>
<p>California prosecutors and U.S. Senate investigators contend that Backpage leads the market in commercial sex advertising and has been linked to hundreds of reported cases of sex trafficking, including the trafficking of children.</p>
<p>But federal and state officials have been struggling with how to deal with the website without violating free speech protections. The U.S. Supreme Court in January left in place a different lower-court ruling that said Backpage's ads are protected by the federal Communications Decency Act, which is designed to protect internet publishers.</p>
<p>Congress is considering amending the act to omit sites that aid sex trafficking and to specifically allow states to file criminal charges.</p>
<p>Brown said Congress would have to act to allow criminal charges related to internet publishing.</p>
<p>Brown said in court that federal law provides broad immunity but added that "immunity afforded to internet service providers is not without limit. Even the most ardent defenders of a vigorous world wide web would have to concede that if a provider engaged in their own criminal acts, versus those of their customers, immunity must fail."</p>
<p>Prosecutors and defense attorneys each praised their partial victories.</p>
<p>"We're pleased that all of the charges that have to do with pimping or prostitution or content of the website have all been thrown out, and we think that's the right ruling in support of internet free speech and the First Amendment," said defense attorney Jim Grant.</p>
<p>Defense attorney Cristina Claypoole Arguedas labeled the remaining charges "technical financial crimes" and predicted they would be dismissed later.</p>
<p>Supervising Deputy Attorney General Maggy Krell prosecutors look forward to proving their case and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in a statement said the ruling brings prosecutors closer to convicting "those who would prey on vulnerable young women and men."</p>
<p>The company has claimed it merely publishes advertising created by third parties and is not responsible for the content.</p>
<p>But documents recently seized from a Backpage contractor in the Philippines seem to show it soliciting and creating sex-related ads for Backpage. Senators including California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein are now asking the U.S. Justice Department to consider fresh criminal charges.</p>
<p>Lawyers representing Backpage and the California attorney general have not commented on the new documents. The site and its operators also face civil lawsuits in several states filed on behalf of victims, many of whom allege they were under age 18 when they were sold for sex using the site's classified ads.</p>
<p>The original charges were filed when Kamala Harris was attorney general, before she took her seat in the U.S. Senate in January. Her successor, Xavier Becerra, amended the charges after he took office.</p>
<p>Arizona residents Lacey and Larkin, both age 68, once owned a chain of alternative newspapers, including the Village Voice in New York City. The site also offers non-prostitution related classified ads.</p>
<p>A U.S. Senate subcommittee said that far from merely publishing advertisements created by others, Backpage edited up to 80 percent of the adult ads to conceal that they are for sexual transactions.</p> | Judge allows money laundering charges against Backpage execs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/23/judge-allows-money-laundering-charges-against-backpage-execs.html | 2017-08-23 | 0 |
<p>Jan. 6 (UPI) — Philadelphia Flyers captain <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Claude_Giroux/" type="external">Claude Giroux</a> managed to score a goal off of an opponent’s butt.</p>
<p>Giroux pulled off the odd play Saturday in the Flyers’ 6-3 win against the St. Louis Blues at the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wells_Fargo/" type="external">Wells Fargo</a> Center in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Scott Laughton got the scoring started at 17:45 in the first period. The Flyers went on a breakaway with about 13 minutes remaining in the opening period.</p>
<p>Giroux skated down the right flank on a 2-on-1. He attempted a pass to Travis Konecny, but the puck bounced off of Blues defenseman Colton Parakyo’s backside. It deflected over <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jake-Allen/" type="external">Jake Allen</a> for the second goal of the game.</p>
<p>Philadelphia built the lead to 4-0 after goals from Jordan Weal and Sean Couturier in the second period. St. Louis made the score 4-2 at the start of the third period, before <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wayne_Simmonds/" type="external">Wayne Simmonds</a> scored the Flyers’ fifth goal. The Blues added another goal in the final frame, but Couturier scored for a second time with a feed into an empty net.</p>
<p>“I think we don’t wait to see how they are going to play or what they are going to do,” <a href="https://www.nhl.com/flyers/video/postgame-stl-vs-phi-giroux/t-277437426/c-56458903" type="external">Giroux told reporters after the game</a>. “We kind of play our game and it has been working well for us. We have a couple good games and we slack of how we play, so we’ve got to keep going.”</p>
<p>Giroux had two assists, in addition to the butt goal. He is in second place in the NHL’s scoring race with 51 points.</p> | Philadelphia Flyers’ Claude Giroux scores goal off of player’s butt | false | https://newsline.com/philadelphia-flyers-claude-giroux-scores-goal-off-of-players-butt/ | 2018-01-07 | 1 |
<p>Photo courtesy of Projet Sol'r</p>
<p />
<p>Here’s another <a href="" type="internal">bright, green idea</a> to save the world.</p>
<p>Within the next few weeks, a solar powered blimp sponsored by the French <a href="http://www.projetsolr.com/english/" type="external">Projet Sol’r</a> will <a href="http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/07/07/premier-solar-powered-blimp-set-to-fly-across-english-channel/" type="external">fly across</a> the English Channel. The timing is a clear homage to <a href="http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Bleriort_1909/EX1.htm" type="external">Louis Bleriot</a>, the first person to fly across the channel in an airplane on July 25, 1909. When Bleriot embarked on his flight in his <a href="http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Bleriort_1909/EX1G2.htm" type="external">rinky dinky airplane</a>, few could have imagined the advances in flight technology that would soon take us to the moon, or send hundreds of civilians across the world within hours.</p>
<p>This month’s blimp flight, a century later, will mark an exciting era of exploration into the practical uses of alternative energy. For now, the significance of this project is mostly symbolic. But with transportation companies looking for new ways to cut costs, and the government threatening to <a href="" type="internal">crack down</a> on <a href="" type="internal">emissions</a>, the flight could indicate whether cutting out traditional fuel and deflating carbon emissions will become part of the equation.</p>
<p /> | Solar Blimp to Debut on English Channel | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/solar-blimp-debut-across-english-channel/ | 2009-07-08 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>In a 12-page filing to U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said inmates whose health is worsened by heat over 88 degrees (31.11 Celsius) will be moved from the Pack Unit prison to state prisons that have climate-controlled, air-conditioned housing.</p>
<p>The department also said it would post signs around Pack Unit to inform inmates and officers where in the prison they can find respite if they become ill from the heat.</p>
<p>Ellison said last month that the prison system was “deliberately indifferent” to the heat risks. His preliminary injunction did not require the prison agency to install air conditioning in areas where heat-sensitive inmates are housed at the Pack Unit, about 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) northwest of Houston, but said those inmates needed to reside where temperatures are no higher than 88 degrees (31.11 Celsius) by reconfiguring areas already cooled.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The judge also said the heat-threatened inmates could be moved to other prisons around the state, the step the prison agency is taking. “Other options were considered but determined not to be practical or their effectiveness could not be guaranteed,” prison system spokesman Jason Clark said in a statement.</p>
<p>“Adding temporary air conditioning in a prison not built for AC would be costly, and it’s unknown whether untested equipment would bring the heat index to a level required by the court,” he said.</p>
<p>The inmate transfers would be temporary because the facilities receiving them lack the infrastructure required long term, Clark said.</p>
<p>The judge’s order, resulting from a lawsuit by six inmates who argued the intense heat at the Pack Unit threatened their health and violated their constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment, covered hundreds of the unit’s nearly 1,500 inmates who already have a variety of health conditions or are at least 65 years old. More than 700 inmates, for example, have high blood pressure, according to court documents.</p>
<p>Evidence presented to the court during a nine-day hearing in June showed the heat index at the prison, the combination of temperature and humidity, topped 100 degrees during 13 days in 2016, and was between 90 and 99 degrees on 55 days. On July 19, the date of Ellison’s ruling, it was 104. On Thursday, it was in the mid-90s with a heat index of more than 100.</p>
<p>Prison system officials argued they provide inmates with showers, fans and ice water, other ventilation, unlimited rest periods in air-conditioned areas and education concerning heat precautions. The prison infirmary at the Pack Unit is air conditioned along with administrative offices, visitation areas, the education department, the barbershop and a small portion of the prison craft shop, although housing areas are not.</p>
<p>Records show 23 Texas inmates have died of heat stroke since 1998, although no heat-related deaths have occurred at the Pack Unit, which was built in 1983. Texas has 106 prisons, 28 of them fully air conditioned.</p>
<p>Under the injunction, the prison agency also was told to install screens on windows in housing areas to keep out insects and develop a heat wave policy for the Pack Unit.</p>
<p>In a statement, the inmates’ attorney, Jeff Edwards, called the state’s proposal “a common-sense victory” that still falls short of a long-term solution to a long-ignored problem.</p>
<p>A hearing on the case is set for next week so attorneys for the inmates can respond.</p>
<p>The state has said it will appeal Ellison’s ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.</p>
<p>The prison agency had “substantial precautions … in place to protect inmates from the summer heat,” according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He also said Texas taxpayers “shouldn’t be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars to pay for expensive prison air conditioning systems, which are unnecessary and not constitutionally mandated.”</p> | Texas to move about 1,000 inmates because of prison heat | false | https://abqjournal.com/1043328/texas-to-move-about-1000-inmates-because-of-prison-heat.html | 2 |
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<p>There’s an Anglican church, St. Luke’s, a few blocks up Old Georgetown Road from my parish in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.. St. Luke’s recently posted a large sign on the church lawn: “Whoever who you are, whatever you believe, you are welcome at our table.”</p>
<p>Which is, in one sense, a noble sentiment: if it’s meant to convey that, look, we’re all sinners, and no matter how awful you may think you are, you’re welcome in the communion of Christ’s Church if you’re truly repentant. Judging from recent events in the Anglican Communion, however, St. Luke’s sign isn’t a synopsis of the parable of the prodigal son and his merciful father; it’s a succinct, if unwitting, statement of why the Anglican Communion is coming apart at the seams.</p>
<p>No Catholic serious about the Catholic commitment to the unity of Christ’s Church can take any satisfaction from today’s Anglican meltdown. It now looks as if John Henry Newman was right when he concluded that Anglicanism was not a “third branch” on the tree of historic Christian orthodoxy, of which the other branches were Catholicism and the Orthodox churches of the Christian east; rather, Newman decided, Anglicanism was Protestantism in English guise. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, as hopes for ecclesial reconciliation between Rome and Canterbury ran high, it seemed, briefly, as if Cardinal Newman might have been wrong. With the Anglican Communion now fracturing into a gaggle of quarreling communities no longer in communion with each other, it looks as if Newman had the deeper insight into what King Henry VIII wrought.</p>
<p>But neither the late cardinal nor the multi-uxorious king could have imagined that&#160; Anglicanism’s breakup would result from some Anglicans’ insistence that sodomy can be sacramental.</p>
<p>Yet that is precisely what is happening. As Canada’s finest Catholic commentator, Father Raymond de Souza, wrote last year (reflecting on the attempts of Dr. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, to hold the Anglican Communion together), “Some [Anglicans] argue that [homosexual acts] are sinful; others that they are sacramental. This is an unbridgeable gap and it appears impossible for Canterbury to straddle it, try as he might.” Dr. Williams has tried mightily; he seems to have failed. There are indeed unbridgeable gaps, and it turns out that it does matter what you believe, if you wish to be seated at “our table” — at least in the minds of the majority of the world’s Anglicans, who disagree with the Episcopal Church USA’s determination to bless same-sex unions and ordain practicing homosexuals to priestly and episcopal ministry.</p>
<p>An American Anglican clergyperson, debating all this on PBS’s NewsHour, said that, if schism were the only answer, she and her Pasadena congregation would choose “the Gospel” over “the institutional Church.” From a theological point of view, no more throughly Protestant posing of the issue could be imagined. And what does standing up for “the Gospel” have to do with embracing the Zeigeist of the more delirious suburbs of the People’s Republic of California?</p>
<p>Shortly after Rowan Williams was named to Becket’s chair, we spent a cordial ninety minutes together at Lambeth Palace, Canterbury’s London headquarters. I gave him a copy of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II; we spoke of John Paul’s theology of the body, and then fell to discussing the difference between “sacramental” and “gnostic” understandings of the human condition. The former insists that the stuff of the world — including maleness, femaleness, and their complementarity — has truths built into it; gnostics say it’s all plastic, all malleable, all changeable. The sacramentalists believe that the extraordinary reveals itself through the ordinary: bread, wine, water, salt, marital love and fidelity; the gnostics say it’s a matter of superior wisdom, available to the enlightened (which can mean, the politically correct). Dr. Williams seemed convinced that the gnosticism of a lot of western high culture posed a great danger to historic Christianity and the truths it must proclaim.</p>
<p>He was right. The gnosticism that infects the Episcopal Church USA has just about driven the Anglican Communion over the cliff.</p>
<p>George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | The End of the Anglican Communion | false | https://eppc.org/publications/the-end-of-the-anglican-communion/ | 1 |
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<p>BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Christina McHale of the United States upset 11th-seeded Alize Cornet of France 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 Monday to reach the second round of the Aegon Classic.</p>
<p>The 23-year-old McHale tumbled out of the top 100 in the rankings from a career-high 24th after contracting mononucleosis two years ago but showed excellent movement on the grass against Cornet, who stunned Serena Williams at Wimbledon last year.</p>
<p>She trailed 0-40 when serving for the match, but recovered to clinch the win. She said “I’m very glad I closed it out then, because we always have long battles.”</p>
<p>Ninth-seeded Garbine Muguruza also lost 6-3, 6-1 to Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, who won the title here six years ago.</p>
<p>Top-seeded Simona Halep has a bye into the second round, where she’ll face local wild-card entry Naomi Broady.</p>
<p>BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Christina McHale of the United States upset 11th-seeded Alize Cornet of France 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 Monday to reach the second round of the Aegon Classic.</p>
<p>The 23-year-old McHale tumbled out of the top 100 in the rankings from a career-high 24th after contracting mononucleosis two years ago but showed excellent movement on the grass against Cornet, who stunned Serena Williams at Wimbledon last year.</p>
<p>She trailed 0-40 when serving for the match, but recovered to clinch the win. She said “I’m very glad I closed it out then, because we always have long battles.”</p>
<p>Ninth-seeded Garbine Muguruza also lost 6-3, 6-1 to Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, who won the title here six years ago.</p>
<p>Top-seeded Simona Halep has a bye into the second round, where she’ll face local wild-card entry Naomi Broady.</p> | McHale beats Cornet to reach 2nd round in Birmingham | false | https://apnews.com/96194a8f6ce84ef392726fb7d1110b8a | 2015-06-15 | 2 |
<p>Sept. 15 (UPI) — The Canadian province of Quebec will offer free naloxone, a drug used to counter the effects of opioid overdoses, in order to prevent an overdose crisis, officials said Wednesday.</p>
<p>The drug is currently available to first responders and ambulance drivers, but the new initiative will make it available anybody in the general public who feels they might need it, reported the <a href="http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/addiction-centre-launches-fentanyl-information-campaign" type="external">Montreal Gazette</a>. The drug will be made available free of charge through pharmacies.</p>
<p>“Making it available free is the answer for today, but the real answer to this growing situation is about prevention,” said Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette. “We are not in a crisis situation today. Each and every overdose is a sad situation that we wish we could prevent. It’s impossible to prevent everything, but there are measures to be taken and will be taken in order to limit this as much as possible.”</p>
<p>Quebec officials said they want to prevent what they are seeing in British Columbia, where more than four people per day are dying of drug overdoses, many of them connected to fentanyl, a powerful opioid, reported the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/naloxone-opioid-crisis-quebec-free-1.4288039" type="external">CBC</a>.</p>
<p>People who work with drug addicts said the initiative to offer free naloxone is a step in the right direction towards helping those with opioid addiction but that more needs to be done.</p>
<p>“What we need to face the opioid crisis is to have an increase of the hours of the safe injection sites and give community organizations the possibility to distribute naloxone,” said Louis Letellier de St-Just, the president of <a href="http://cactusmontreal.org/?lang=en" type="external">Cactus Montreal</a>, a community group involved in preventing blood-borne and sexually transmitted infections, which are often transmitted through intravenous drug use.</p>
<p>Nationwide, Canada has seen an approximately 20 percent spike in hospitalizations from opioid overdoses this year, according to a report released Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.</p>
<p>“No area of Canada is necessarily safe from this crisis,” Dr. Theresa Tam <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/09/14/rising-hospitalizations-due-to-opioid-crisis-puts-a-burden-on-canadas-health-system-report.html" type="external">told reporters</a>.</p> | Quebec to offer public free naloxone to prevent opioid overdoses | false | https://newsline.com/quebec-to-offer-public-free-naloxone-to-prevent-opioid-overdoses/ | 2017-09-15 | 1 |
<p>Congressman Denny Rehberg’s legislation “The Montana Land Sovereignty Act”, as well as similar legislation with identical goals introduced by Utah and Idaho representatives, is a cynical attempt to shackle the President’s prerogative to create national monuments. Collectively these bills represent an effort to undermine the 1906 Antiquities Act which history has shown to be a valuable tool for land protection. The Act gives the President authority to designate national monuments on federal lands without local or Congressional approval.</p>
<p>Many of these monuments are later proven to be so popular they are upgraded to national park status by Congress. &#160;Some of our most cherished national parks were originally established by Presidential decree using the Antiquities Act. They include Grand Canyon, Arches, Death Valley, Olympic, Glacier Bay, Saguaro, &#160;Lassen Volcano, Joshua Tree, Petrified Forest, Zion, Kenai Fiords, Wrangell St Elias, Gates of the Arctic, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Bryce Canyon, Great Basin, Grand Teton, among others. In nearly all instances, there was local opposition to designation of these national monuments.&#160; If it had been left to local approval for designation we would not now be enjoying many of these parks and monuments.</p>
<p>For instance, Teddy Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act in 1908 to designate an 800,000 acre Grand Canyon National Monument over the objections of local miners, loggers, and ranchers. Arizona’s Congressional delegation responded to Roosevelt’s action by blocking any appropriations for the new monument, and later succeeded in shrinking the size of the monument.&#160; But by the 1990s attitudes towards the Grand Canyon had changed dramatically such that when the federal government was shut down by intransigence in Congress, Arizona official pleaded &#160;to keep the Grand Canyon National Park operating , even volunteering to pay with state funds the salaries of rangers and other employees.</p>
<p>Similarly after President Franklin Roosevelt designated a portion of what is now the Grand Tetons National Park as a national monument, Wyoming’s Congressional delegation introduced legislation to abolish the monument. It was only Roosevelt’s veto that saved the monument which was later incorporated into Grand Teton National Park.</p>
<p>Locals in Jackson predicted the creation of the national monument would so harm the area’s economy that Jackson would become a “ghost town.” &#160;Some Jackson residents openly questioned why anyone would pay good money to come look at a bunch of mountains.&#160; We know today that lots of people are willing to pay good money to look at a bunch of mountains, and that Grand Teton National Park is one of the economic engines of Wyoming. Such is the lack of imagination that often resides among locals who have a very narrow perspective on the value of natural lands.</p>
<p>We can find many other examples of the short-sighted perspective of local residents. When President Jimmy Carter designated Kenai Fiords as a national monument in 1978, locals in Seward Alaska at the entrance to the new monument burned him in effigy. Go to Seward today and you will find that nearly all locals either economically dependent upon or at least glad that Kenai Fiords was established as a national monument and later a national park.</p>
<p>National Monument designation by executive order has proven to be a valuable conservation tool and any attempts to modify it should be opposed.</p>
<p>George Wuerthner of Helena, Montana is an ecologist, writer and photographer. He is the author of 35 books, many dealing with national parks.</p> | War on the Monuments | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/09/29/war-on-the-monuments/ | 2011-09-29 | 4 |
<p>In the wake of nation-wide demonstrations calling for stronger government regulation of banks and investment firms, draft legislation was introduced in the House on Tuesday that targets a less conspicuous multi-billion dollar industry that still affects everyday Americans: the collection and distribution of personal information. At a time when everyone from Tea Partiers to Progressives is complaining that the government isn’t looking out for the people, US Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL) offered their proposal for meaningful privacy protection legislation.</p>
<p>The long-awaited bill, which many privacy experts assumed would only cover online data collection, is broader than expected. It applies to any non-governmental entity that collects personal information (including names, numbers and addresses) from more than 5,000 people a year, whether online or off. They would be required to provide “a clearly-written, understandable privacy policy that explains how information about individuals is collected, used and disclosed.” The bill would also allow individuals to opt out of data collection for purposes such as behavioral marketing, and would require opt-in consent for the collection of sensitive personal information such as medical or financial records, sexual orientation, Social Security number, or precise geographic location.</p>
<p>From a regulatory standpoint, this discussion draft is a significant move because it begins to close the gap between the US and countries with omnibus data protection laws. Commenting on the bill’s comprehensive requirements and the new obligations it would impose, Lisa J. Sotto, head of the privacy and information management practice at the law firm of Hunton &amp; Williams, noted that “outside the US, we are perceived as lagging behind the EU when it comes to providing data privacy protections for individuals.”</p>
<p>This bill should also resonate on a personal level. Despite Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that people don’t really care about privacy anymore, there is no shortage of outrage when users feel their privacy had been violated. In March, a federal judge approved a $9.5 million settlement in a class-action suit over Facebook’s “Beacon” program. The program tracked online activities not related to Facebook, such as video rentals or purchases, and added them to the users’ “news feeds,” making them visible to their Facebook friends. The ACLU spearheaded a campaign that successfully led to a change in Facebook’s privacy policy. Unfortunately, while the change did increase protection for some types of information, it relaxed it for others. The ACLU continues to petition for more user control over Facebook profiles.</p>
<p>Marketers and social networking sites claim the data they collect helps them select ads and suggest products tailored to consumers, which enhances the user experience and benefits retailers. Data collectors argue that people want this kind of personalized service. However, a study conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley titled Americans Reject Tailored Advertising indicates otherwise. According to the 2009 study, “most adult Americans (66%) do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests. Moreover, when Americans are informed of three common ways that marketers gather data about people in order to tailor ads, even higher percentages–between 73% and 86%–say they would not want such advertising.” Although Zuckerberg would like us to believe that it’s nothing more than a generation gap, and the social norm of privacy is “just something that has evolved over time,” the research tells a different story. The study also found that “86% of young adults say they don’t want tailored advertising if it is the result of following their behavior on websites other than one they are visiting, and 90% of them reject it if it is the result of following what they do offline.”</p>
<p>The statistics show that the vast majority of Americans feel there should be laws giving them the right to know everything that a website knows about them, and require websites to delete all personal information upon request. In light of these opinions, it seems surprising that there is not more public awareness of the proposed legislation. The authors of the UPenn/UC Berkeley study may have an answer. As they write, “Whatever the reasons explaining Americans’ dislike of behavioral targeting, our findings indicate that they expect companies to take privacy rules extremely seriously. Our results show that American consumers believe (albeit mistakenly) that an array of strong laws prohibit companies from the sharing or selling of data about them.” Unlike the debate over health care reform, which was fueled by hope and fear of change, it seems people aren’t concerned with this legislation because they believe it already exists. The unfortunate reality is that, even if the bill passed, Americans’ assumptions about regulation would still exceed the reality of the law. The bill was also drafted with business in mind. Rep. Boucher carefully reassured advertisers that the bill would not present a threat to their profits. Recognizing the importance that advertising plays in the financing of free online content, he said, “Online advertising supports much of the commercial content, applications and services that are available on the Internet today without charge, and this legislation will not disrupt this well-established and successful business model.”</p>
<p>In the end, a lack of public interest may lead to legislation in the public’s interest. There was little fanfare when Obama signed his landmark crackdown on credit card companies, but mercifully there was little or no public opposition. With a relatively new FCC chair, a Democratically-controlled FTC, a bi-partisan draft before the House, and no reactionaries yelling “keep your government hands off my Internet,” the administration may be able to follow up credit card and health care reform with an overhaul of online policy.</p>
<p>TIMOTHY MacBAIN currently works for The Nation magazine, and produces podcasts for TomDispatch.com and Lapham’s Quarterly. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Privacy Reform | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/05/07/privacy-reform/ | 2010-05-07 | 4 |
<p>How are we to assess the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign?</p>
<p>There are three reasons that one runs a candidate for president. One is the hope of winning, second is to influence other candidates to modify their views, and third is to use the campaign to build for the future, either educationally or organizationally.</p>
<p>Though there are some who do not rule out the possibility that <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/06/22/hillary_clinton_is_going_to_lose_she_doesnt_even_see_the_frustrated_progressive_wave_that_will_nominate_bernie_sanders/" type="external">Sanders could win</a>, I consider that chance to be remote and so for me the question is what the Sanders campaign might accomplish assuming he doesn't win. I will first consider possible educational benefits.</p>
<p>The educational value of a campaign depends on several factors. One relates to the positions that the candidate takes. The better the candidate's positions, the more the American people come to understand what's wrong with current policy and what better policies could be. Sanders has many admirable positions, on inequality, campaign financing, the environment, and much more. However, quite a few of his <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/6/18/8800683/bernie-sanders-foreign-policy" type="external">foreign policy</a> stances, especially on <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2015/05/sanders-leftwing-economic" type="external">Israel-Palestine</a>, have been poor (on the liberal end of Senate opinion, but still poor). He doesn't even list foreign policy on the issues page of his <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/" type="external">presidential website</a>. His position on <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/13/why-the-most-liberal-candidate-for-president-opposes-strict-gun-control/" type="external">gun control</a> (no doubt a result of his representing rural Vermont) is weak. And while he takes the right nominal positions on racial and gender issues, he downplays these and has often been content to rely on <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/i-m-right-and-everybody-else-is-wrong-clear-about-that-20140618" type="external">economic justice</a> as the cure-all (race and gender are also absent from the issues page of his <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/" type="external">website</a>). And his connection to African-American movements <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/us/politics/bernie-sanders-lags-hillary-clinton-in-introducing-himself-to-black-voters.html" type="external">has been rather limited</a>. So any leftist support for Sanders, if it's to have a positive educational impact, will need to push him and criticize him on these issues.</p>
<p>Another aspect of what people might learn from a Sanders campaign is the exposure that left ideas will get in the mainstream. Of course, socialists of one kind or another have run in every U.S. election for more than a hundred years. But as minor party candidates, these socialists have rarely been able to reach many Americans with their messages. Because Sanders is running as a Democrat, he is assured a degree of coverage that far exceeds what third party candidates have generally been able to receive. The media attention <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2015/06/sanders-gaining-hillary.html" type="external">draws crowds</a> which attracts more media attention and drives up polls (he's now in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/25/new-hampshire-poll-shows-bernie-sanders-in-dead-heat-with-hillary-clinton/" type="external">dead heat</a> with Clinton in New Hampshire), which attracts still more media attention. When Sanders can go on Late Night with Seth Meyers and explain why <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAq-4Vv5c0" type="external">socialism is not a dirty word</a> and get his host to more or less accept his argument, this is a real boon for the left.</p>
<p>One indication of how the Sanders campaign has broadened the conversation for the general public was a <a href="http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/like_it_or_not_sanders_socialism_is_mainstream_edi.html" type="external">remarkable editorial</a> in the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. The Star Ledger of Newark is a liberal paper: it takes progressive positions on most issues (with the usual exception of Palestine) and with the glaring exception of its hatred of public employee unions, which led it to its horrendous endorsement (to its eternal embarrassment) of <a type="external" href="">Chris Christie</a> for governor in 2013. But here is what they said in a June 15 editorial -- not an op-ed, but an editorial -- titled <a href="http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/like_it_or_not_sanders_socialism_is_mainstream_edi.html" type="external">Like it or not, Sanders' socialism is mainstream</a>:</p>
<p>On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said that "in virtually every instance, what I'm saying is supported by a significant majority of the American people," which is a bold claim for someone who has been broadly labeled a "socialist" candidate in Democratic camouflage.</p>
<p>But it makes this a good time to consider whether that term is being applied accurately in the early innings of this 2016 campaign, rather than as a pejorative to dismiss Sanders' ideas.</p>
<p>Because so far, the Senator is showing the electorate that a rejection of this "socialism" – the concept, not the brainless epithet – is something that most voters would probably find unthinkable.</p>
<p>And if you consult the polls, Sanders' claim is not only right, he is positively mainstream.</p>
<p>And then the editors listed Sanders' positions that were supported by the majority of the American people: raise taxes on the rich, take money out of politics, reducing student debt, fighting global warming, a $15 federal minimum wage, and shrinking Wall Street banks.</p>
<p>A lot of Americans realize, said the Star Ledger, that "socialist precepts, in large part, represent the civic and cultural foundation of our nation." In fact, "[m]any things we take for granted today were conceived by leftist coalitions that included Socialists and other Progressives, such as the eight-hour workday, women's suffrage, Medicare, and Social Security."</p>
<p>Now of course many of us socialists consider socialism to mean something far more radical than these valuable reforms. But where neoliberalism and unregulated capitalism have seemed for so long as the only political options in mainstream discourse in the United States, Sanders has been able to deliver an alternative message to more people than has been the case in many years. And he is likely to have greater access to televised debates than any socialist in U.S. history.</p>
<p>Allowing the public to hear a debate on the real questions before us cannot fail to push politics in a favorable direction.</p>
<p>There is said to be one other educational outcome of the Sanders campaign -- a negative one. Because Sanders is running as a Democrat, some argue, people will learn the false lesson that the Democratic Party offers us hope, that real social change is possible through this party that in fact represents the liberal wing of capital. As <a href="" type="internal">Jason Schulman has argued</a>, there are good reasons to think that the Democratic Party is not the same sort of ideologically-determined organization as political parties are in most other countries of the world. Voting for one of the two dominant parties in the United States doesn't commit you to anything; indeed, running as the candidate of one of these parties doesn't commit you to anything. ( <a href="http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/21/13395825-priebus-gop-platform-not-the-platform-of-mitt-romney" type="external">Recall</a> those Republican presidential candidates who explicitly disagree with their own party's platform.) But in any event, the concern expressed here -- that the experience of supporting Bernie in the primaries and losing will convince people that Hillary should be supported -- doesn't seem very realistic.</p>
<p>Some who support and vote for Sanders in the primaries will vote for the Democratic nominee -- presumably Clinton -- in November. But they won't be doing so because Sanders told them to. They will be following their own inclinations to support the lesser evil. (To be sure, some exaggerate the difference between the Democrats and Republicans. But it's also true that many leftists minimize these differences -- claiming, for example, that Obama turned out to be " <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31570-we-re-in-an-age-of-the-statistically-unlikely-green-party-candidate-jill-stein-announces-presidential-run" type="external">Bush on steroids</a>" -- which leads many of those who benefit from those differences to become alienated from the left.) Others will vote for Clinton because their original reason for voting for Sanders in the primary was to push Clinton to the left. But the question is whether there are very many people who were originally inclined to support a third party candidate in the general election but who will vote for Hillary because Sanders challenged her in the primaries. I can't imagine why this would be so. Why would anyone who voted for a Ralph Nader in 2000 or a Jill Stein in 2012 vote for Clinton in 2016 just because Sanders ran and lost in the Democratic primaries? On the contrary, the opposite seems rather more likely. Someone who considers themselves a good Democrat might be convinced by the Sanders campaign that the times call for significant change, and when the Democratic Party, by nominating Clinton, precludes that change, they might feel bitter and betrayed and seek some other outlet for their desire for change.</p>
<p>The exception would be if the dynamics of the primary campaign forced Clinton sufficiently to the left that dissident Democrats were won over to her new positions. This might strengthen the Democrats among progressive voters. But if Clinton did adopt some significant aspect of Sanders' program, that would represent a victory for the left -- influencing other candidates in a positive direction is one of the reasons one runs a campaign. Obviously she would be doing this as a way to defeat the threat from her left, but the left can't very well object to this. Hoping that the major parties offer the most reactionary candidates so that voters will have no choice but to cast votes for a socialist is not something that strengthens the left in the long run.</p>
<p>Note that if one's sole goal is to push Clinton to the left, a Sanders challenge in the Democratic primary is likely to be more effective than a Sanders third party challenge. Why? Because in an electoral system (like that of the United States) that uses a first-past-the-post plurality voting system a third party challenge in the general election will always be plagued by the "spoiler" problem; voting for the third party could really end up helping the Republican candidate. So Clinton can safely ignore the threat from the third party. On the other hand, in the Democratic primary there is far less risk that voting for your preferred candidate will benefit the worst candidate. If the preferred candidate wins, great. But if not, you haven't ended up helping the Republican. So the primary challenger is likely to be a greater threat to Clinton, and hence one that puts greater pressure on her to move left. I think this is what explains a good deal of the labor support for Sanders (such as the endorsement by the <a href="http://www.laborpress.org/sectors/municipal-labor/5505-south-carolina-afl-cio-supports-bernie-sanders-candidacy" type="external">South Carolina AFL-CIO</a>): not that Sanders has brought them into the Democratic Party, but that Sanders' presence in the Democratic primary allows them to try to pressure the frontrunner to take more pro-labor positions.</p>
<p>A close election campaign will raise tough problems for progressive voters in swing states. But I would expect a failed Sanders campaign to lead to more third party votes than we've seen in comparably competitive elections -- regardless of whether Sanders ultimately endorses Clinton.</p>
<p>Consider what happened in New York State in 2014. There was a left challenge to Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for governor by Zephyr Teachout. After she lost, many of her supporters voted for Howie Hawkins of the Greens, more than tripling Hawkins' vote total over 2010. (Teachout did not endorse Cuomo, but nor did she endorse Hawkins.) Hawkins on the Green line got 50 percent more votes than Cuomo did on the Working Families line.</p>
<p>Obviously if the Greens or other leftists denounce those who support Sanders as dupes of the Democratic National Committee, this may disincline the Sanders voters from moving left after Sanders' defeat. But absent such sectarianism, I think the Sanders campaign will help propel more radical electoral movements in the future.</p>
<p>Had Sanders opted to run as an independent from the beginning, he would have given up certain advantages. In addition to losing support from those who are interested exclusively in pushing Clinton to the left, he would also have given up his much greater access to debates. (Obviously, justice demands that third party candidates be given access to debates. But as a practical matter, it's far easier to secure access to the Democratic primary debates when you are polling 20 percent plus among Democrats, than it is to secure access to the general election debates when you are polling around 5 percent nationally as a third party candidate.) But in return for these advantages, the advantage in Sanders' running as an independent is that he could have had a more positive impact organizationally, helping to build a party that could continue on after 2016, something that won't happen given his current course. This would by no means have been assured; many third party efforts have been one-off affairs that have left nothing in their wake. And of course many current Sanders supporters would not have offered their time and money to support a third party effort, since a considerable fraction of his volunteers and money come from folks who have not yet given up on the Democrats; it will take the defeat of Sanders in the primaries to convince some of them to jump ship. Nevertheless, some of the money and time invested in Sanders today could have directly contributed to building third party efforts for the future, more than will be the case with a Sanders primary run.</p>
<p>So should Sanders have run as an independent? I'm not sure. I think his current campaign will greatly advance the prospects for the left. It's also possible that had he run as an independent, his positive impact would have been greater. But it's also possible that an independent run would have resulted in less benefit. Like <a href="https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/support-bernie-sanders-but-how/" type="external">Michael Albert</a>, I think modesty is required here. ("Before the fact, all outcomes are conceivable, and no outcome after the fact should be treated as having been inevitable, nor should those on the wrong side of the prediction be deemed less worthy than those on the right side.") The impact is hard to measure and we should not be denouncing those whose assessments (i.e., guesses) are different from our own.</p>
<p>Given that Sanders is running, I think it makes sense to critically support him. That means we continue to speak out on issues where his positions are problematic and that we push for the building of lasting organizational structures and activism during and after the primaries. It's those things that in the long run will be crucial for achieving real change.</p>
<p><a href="/filter/tips" type="external">More information about formatting options</a></p> | Assessing the Sanders Campaign | true | http://newpol.org/content/assessing-sanders-campaign | 2015-06-29 | 4 |
<p>Patrick Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, presently, The Independent. Among the most experienced commentators on Iraq, he has written four books on the country's recent history. Cockburn's latest book is The Age of Jihad.</p>
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<p /> SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore.
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<p />The Pentagon has released an assessment saying that the Islamic State has lost control over a quarter of the territory in Iraq that it once controlled a year ago. The announcement comes about two weeks after Iraq declared majority victory against the Islamic State in retaking the city of Tikrit.
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<p />Now joining us today to discuss all of this is Patrick Cockburn. Patrick is the Middle East correspondent for the Independent, and author of the newly released book, The Rise of the Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution.
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<p />Thank you so much for joining us, Patrick.
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<p />PATRICK COCKBURN, JOURNALIST, THE INDEPENDENT: Thank you.
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<p />PERIES: So Patrick, what do you make of the release by the Pentagon of the territory that they have taken back from ISIS?
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<p />COCKBURN: It's a bit optimistic. First of all, it refers only to Iraq. I think it says elsewhere that the Islamic State is expanding in Syria, and they've just taken a part of Damascus. But even in Iraq, again, it's a little misleading. The Islamic State has been driven out of various areas around Baghdad which are quite important, and Tikrit and elsewhere, it hasn't really fought back. I mean, this is at least in part a guerrilla organization, in terms of military tactics. It's not like a regular army that holds front lines. Therefore, exactly how much territory it holds is a bit irrelevant.
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<p />Also, if you look at that map and you don't know Iraq, it's not quite clear that most people in Iraq live in cities and towns along the great big rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. And in between, there's desert and semi-desert which isn't that heavily populated. So I think the purpose of this is to give a sense that present policy of bombing selectively is working in weakening and ultimately eliminating Islamic State, and I think that that's just straight untrue, unfortunately.
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<p />PERIES: And further, the Pentagon, or the U.S. military reported, at least according to some of the Arabic local press, that they had carried out fifteen air strikes in Iraq last week, compared to two in Syria. Does this have anything to do with the gains they're making, or the gains they're reporting that they're making?
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<p />COCKBURN: It does point to something pretty significant, which is in Iraq they've been bombing in support of the Iraqi Kurds in the north, of the Iraqi army in the west. They say they're not bombing in support of the Shia militias, but in practice they're bombing the same places that are under attack by Shia militias.
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<p />Now, in Syria the situation is different because the biggest military power in Syria is the Syrian army, under the Syrian government, run by President Bashar al-Assad. And they rather deliberately have not been bombing Islamic State where it's in confrontation with the Syrian army, because there's this rather contradictory policy of opposing Islamic State, but also opposing Assad. So they're only really bombing, or mainly they're bombing in support of the Syrian Kurds, right up in the northeast of the country, in order to destroy some of the oil facilities that Islamic State has captured.
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<p />PERIES: Patrick, on Sunday you authored an article in the Independent titled, In the Middle East, our Enemy's Enemy Must be our Friend. Al-Qaeda-type movements are gaining ground, and there's only one way to stop them. How do you see that stopping taking place?
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<p />COCKBURN: Well, there's this extraordinary policy of the U.S. and its European allies, its other allies in the region, which was summed up by this, what to my mind is a very silly slogan saying the enemy of our enemy is not our friend. Which means that the fact that let's say the Syrian government in Damascus is opposed to Islamic State, or the Houthis down in Yemen are opposed to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, doesn't make them our friend. But try to think of that in practical terms. When Islamic State is advancing west and is fighting the Syrian army, do we deliberately not bomb Islamic State because they're fighting the Syrian army, which is much in the interest of Islamic State, which gives them a good chance of winning.
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<p />Similarly down in Yemen, if we're trying to put pressure on the Houthis, this movement that the Saudis have been attacking and describing as Iranian-run, I don't think it is. That's the way they've been presenting it. But that is one of the enemies of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. So again, if we don't support them and regard them as just as bad as Al-Qaeda, then that is good for Al-Qaeda.
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<p />It's a pretty simple point, but I think it's one that governments have been avoiding taking on board.
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<p />PERIES: Some critics who are criticizing the air strikes by the United States and Saudi Arabia in the region in order to fight back the IS would argue there are other ways to achieve the same thing. Would you agree with that?
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<p />COCKBURN: Well, then they'd have to spell out how you do it. I think Islamic State is pretty bad. In some ways it's the equivalent of the Nazis in Europe. I don't mean that the enemies of the Nazis in Europe were all good, but the Nazis were pretty bad. And Islamic State has conducted massacres of communities, like the Yazidis whom it regards as pagans. It's massacred the villagers, it's taken the women and raped them and sold them as slaves. It's distributed them among its own fighters. It's massacred, conducted massacres of 1700 Iraqi army young cadets of tribes who've opposed them.
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<p />So exactly what do we do about this? The Islamic State has many enemies. But they spend so much time hating each other and confronting each other that they've let the Islamic State off the hook.
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<p />PERIES: Well, some people argue that of course infusion of social and economic development, greater democratic development in the state and also rebuilding some of the most destroyed sections of the two countries would go a long way in terms of reestablishing a society that we would like to achieve in the region, and that would be--the resources spent and the military right now would be better used in those efforts.
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<p />COCKBURN: I just don't think that that's realistic. These are long-term reforms, difficult to implement in countries like Iraq and Syria. But the threat is much more immediate. I mean, what do you do at the moment if Islamic State vehicles are coming down the road and they're going to massacre villages if they take them over, particularly if they think they're of a different Muslim sect, or they disapprove of them for other reasons. These long-term social economic reforms are really not very relevant to stopping them.
<p />
<p />PERIES: And the efforts at the United Nations are in your opinion also futile?
<p />
<p />COCKBURN: Well, I--you know, the United Nations have just come together to condemn the Houthis, who are these one faction in Yemeni politics who have taken over most of the country, and to support essentially the blockade of Yemen. Yemen imports most of its food. That's kind of a vote to starve the Yemeni people as a whole. Saudi bombing isn't going to evict these people from power. And when the Israelis were bombing Gaza last year there were many international protests, quite rightly, but there are very few protests over what's happening in Yemen, though it may end up by killing a lot more people.
<p />
<p />PERIES: The Prime Minister of Iraq is here in Washington, D.C. trying to get more resources, both from the U.S. as well as the World Bank and the IMF in order to address the problem of the humanitarian crisis created by all of this conflict that's going on. It's cumulative now, and the UN declares this huge humanitarian crisis. What did you observe when you were there, and what can be done at this point in order to address the humanitarian crisis?
<p />
<p />COCKBURN: Well, it is gigantic. You know, millions of people have been forced to flee Islamic State, or they've been forced to flee the fighting elsewhere. When I was in Northern Iraq a few weeks ago, from a distance you see half-built modern buildings like you might see in the U.S. or European city. And then you get close to them and you see there are people living in these half-built malls and hotels and apartment buildings. These are the refugees, living in tents set up in this row of concrete. We're getting towards summer now, it's incredibly hot there. There's a shortage of drinking water. There's a shortage of everything.
<p />
<p />This combines with the price of oil being down. So the Iraqi government doesn't have anything like the resources it had, or thought it had, a year ago. The money isn't there. They hope to get some money from the U.S. and from the World Bank and the IMF. I think they might get a little, but I don't think it's going to be that great because these organizations really aren't in a position to give large loans to the Iraqi government of the kind they need. So these refugees are all in a desperate situation.
<p />
<p />PERIES: And the financial conditions in Iraq are getting graver, as there's such a disruption in terms of oil revenue that the country would otherwise have at this point. Is that part of the reason why the prime minister's here asking for assistance?
<p />
<p />COCKBURN: Yeah, I mean, they're very short of money. This has always been true since 2003. I remember a friend of mine who had been a minister in the Iraqi government saying he'd never seen other ministers panic except when the price of oil went down. Now the price of oil is right down. That's the only sort of revenue there. The only other thing that Iraq exports is a few dates from the date palms, so they're very broke.
<p />
<p />Secondly, this is one of the most corrupt governments on the planet, so all the money they've been spending over the years, hundreds of billions of dollars, trillions of dollars, on the army, on facility to produce water--everything else just aren't there. So it's a pretty weak structure to begin with. And it's sort of kept going by this constant flood of oil money. Used to be about $100 billion a year, and everything was geared to that. And suddenly the taps haven't been turned off, but they're not producing anything like what they did before.
<p />
<p />PERIES: The last time we reported on the budget of the Iraqi government it was actually 50% below what they had anticipated in terms of having revenue, primarily because of the fall in the oil prices. Now this plea for assistance by the IMF and the World Bank, and the $200 million that President Obama had actually signaled that he would allocate for Iraq doesn't come close to addressing the budgetary problems it's facing. So what will it do?
<p />
<p />COCKBURN: Well, it will--people will go hungry, or people will be drinking bad water. People are already doing that inside Islamic State. The places like Mosul, the water is very dirty but people don't have much alternative. So a consequence is the local hospitals are full of people with hepatitis and other illnesses, which comes from drinking polluted water. So things are simply going to get worse.
<p />
<p />It's also just the size of the problem. You know, in Syria and Iraq just millions of refugees have moved in from Syria to Turkey into Lebanon, into Jordan. In Iraq they've sort of, there've been whole movements suddenly. Over a couple of months, half a million people were moved, then the next couple of months, the same figure. It could be very difficult even for a well-organized country to sustain these mass movements of people. And this is a country which is already very fragile, which has been shattered by war over the last 30 years.
<p />
<p />PERIES: And if as you say corruption is such a problem, what are the chances that the IMF or the World Bank will be giving any financial assistance to it on one hand, and then second, is this not a way of dragging Iraq into the international financial machine that then puts it in a situation that it is unable to pay back, these loans?
<p />
<p />COCKBURN: Yeah. I don't know about that. I think that probably the Iraqi government isn't really capable of producing definite projects that they need financed. They're just sort of producing general demands for money. But even if they did get it, and I don't think they'll get enough, it wouldn't be sufficient to deal with the scale of the problems that they're facing.
<p />
<p />PERIES: So Patrick, thank you so much for joining us today on The Real News Network. We always appreciate your insights.
<p />
<p />COCKBURN: No, thank you.
<p />
<p />PERIES: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Pentagon Declares Airstrikes against ISIS a Success in Iraq | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D13662 | 2015-04-16 | 4 |
<p>Bobby Fischer was a child prodigy who was an American chess champion by the time he was only 14. Because he came of age during the Cold War, it was his fate to become part of the ideological symbolism of that struggle. He was well aware of that when he beat Spassky in 1972, �This is really the big match. Even this little thing with me and Spassky is sort of a microcosm of the whole world political situation.� �When Bobby appeared, nobody can imagine in the Soviet Union that somebody can win the world chess championship except Soviets,� that's the son of the former Soviet leader Kruschev, �Chess was the national game in the Soviet Union, like baseball in the United States. After the Second World War, the world chess champions were all from the Soviet Union. And then it was like lightning. Somebody, some young man from United States just defeated everybody and defeated them not in a long battle, but he was like Napoleon in the battlefield.� So Fischer was popular in the Soviet Union even if in a negative sort of way. This woman played competitive chess as a youngster in Moscow. She now directs the Russian Programs at the National Archives in Washington. She says the Soviet media always portrayed Fischer in sharp contrast to their own. Spassky for instance was seen as a superhero with an almost perfect brain, whereas Fischer was seen as strange and emotional and an outsider in his own country, �Although because of the beginning of sense in the Soviet society, there were a lot of secret admirers of Fischer among the Soviets who were interested in chess and who were following the chess matches.� She says chess permeated Soviet society at the time. She herself was a serious enough competitor to beat a tenth grader in a regional championship when she was only in second grade. She remembers chess as exhilarating partly only for reasons she came to understand later, �That in the Soviet Union, chess was absolutely a little free area in the society which in many cases was tightly, tightly controlled. In chess you knew you'd be judged completely on your merits, whereas in any other areas, even in school, there was a very strong dose of ideology and uncertain understandings, that you had to say or do certain things to be successful. Chess was absolutely unconstrained.� She says chess in that period provided a forum for contact during a thaw in relations with the West. As such chess was useful, but that link was always intended more as a showcase for Soviet superiority than anything else, a superiority Bobby Fischer punctured during that epic Cold War match in 1972.</p> | Chess champ Fischer remembered | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-01-18/chess-champ-fischer-remembered | 2008-01-18 | 3 |
<p>Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Alphabet CEO Larry Page, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at the meetingEvan Vucci/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Executives from Facebook, Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, and other Silicon Valley tech giants had a much-anticipated meeting with Donald Trump this afternoon, despite the rocky relationship between tech groups and Trump during his campaign. According to the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/top-tech-execs-to-meet-trump-to-talk-jobs-regulations-1481724004" type="external">Wall Street Journal</a>, the president-elect struck a “conciliatory tone,” leading off the meeting with the reassurance that he wants “to help you folks do well.”</p>
<p>“We want you to keep going with the incredible innovation,” he <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/12/14/trump-tech-giants-meeting-trump-tower-nr.cnn" type="external">continued</a>.&#160;“Anything we can do to help this go along we’re going to be there for you.”</p>
<p>That tone is in sharp contrast to the more critical, sometimes hostile words exchanged between Silicon Valley leaders and Trump in the months leading up to his election. Many tech moguls repeatedly lambasted Trump, characterizing his views on immigration and trade as “ <a href="https://shift.newco.co/an-open-letter-from-technology-sector-leaders-on-donald-trumps-candidacy-for-president-5bf734c159e4#.k33nhq4wk" type="external">a disaster&#160;for innovation</a>,” while Trump castigated tech executives for, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/donald-trump-tech-targets-220288" type="external">among other things</a>, sending jobs overseas. In one notable instance, Trump also <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/13/technology/donald-trump-jeff-bezos-amazon/?iid=EL" type="external">accused Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos</a> for buying the Washington Post— <a href="" type="internal">temporarily blacklisted by Trump</a> for its unfavorable coverage of his campaign—to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/not-an-appropriate-way-for-a-presidential-candidate-to-behave-bezos-fires-back-at-donald-trump/2016/05/18/b72f5054-1d1a-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html?utm_term=.3a436be1ee83" type="external">keep taxes low</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/13/donald-trumps-antitrust-attack-on-jeff-bezos-doesnt-make-much-sense/?utm_term=.e749ef561cf0" type="external">avoid</a> antitrust scrutiny.</p>
<p>The only tech billionaire at the meeting who&#160;supported Trump during his campaign was <a href="" type="internal">Peter Thiel,</a> the entrepreneur and venture capitalist who founded PayPal. Thiel, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in July and is now on Trump’s transition team, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/investor-peter-thiel-is-helping-mold-techs-ties-to-donald-trump-1481672805" type="external">helped</a> decide who from Silicon Valley should be invited to the meeting. One striking omission from the guest list was&#160;Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who was&#160;reportedly excluded as&#160;retribution over <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-twitter-emoji-crooked-hillary-232647" type="external">a failed “crooked Hillary” emoji hashtag</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/investor-peter-thiel-is-helping-mold-techs-ties-to-donald-trump-1481672805" type="external">According</a> to sources close to the meeting, the official agenda was focused on jobs and the role of technology in government. It’s unclear whether other issues important to the attendees were topics of discussion at the meeting. Climate change, for example, which Trump has repeatedly denied, is a priority&#160;for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2016/11/07/is-teslas-elon-musk-throwing-a-hail-mary-for-the-solarcity-deal/#171050cd1736" type="external">acquired the solar panel company SolarCity</a> only a week before the election. <a href="http://gawker.com/sheryl-sandberg-gives-paul-ryan-enemy-of-women-the-l-1737915488" type="external">Sheryl Sandberg</a>, COO of Facebook and author of Lean In, has forcefully advocated better women’s workplace rights.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Bill Gates paid a visit to the president-elect only a day after <a href="http://qz.com/859860/bill-gates-is-leading-a-new-1-billion-fund-focused-on-combatting-climate-change-through-innovation/" type="external">launching a $1 billion fund</a> to fight climate change with clean energy innovation. “We had a good conversation about innovation, how it can help in health, education, impact of foreign aid, and energy,”&#160;Gates <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/video/trump-meetings-reactions-from-one-on-ones-with-donald-trump-833103939548" type="external">said</a> after the meeting.</p>
<p>Many in Silicon Valley remain wary of how a Trump presidency will change the industry following its exponential growth during the Obama administration. But Trump is doing his best to be liked. “I’m very honored by the bounce,” he <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/14/trump-to-tech-leaders-no-formal-chain-of-command-here.html" type="external">said</a> during the meeting Wednesday in reference to the recent uptick in stocks. “Everybody’s talking about the bounce, so everybody in this room has to like me at least a little bit.”</p>
<p /> | Trump and a Bunch of Silicon Valley Moguls Had an Awkward Little Talk Today | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/tech-executive-trump-silicon-valley/ | 2016-12-15 | 4 |
<p>Asian stock markets were mostly higher on Monday, with U.S. politics in focus. Investors are digesting the U.S. Senate's passage of the tax bill and implications of the guilty plea by President Donald Trump's former U.S. national security adviser.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Japan's Nikkei 225 dipped 0.2 percent to 22,774.38 while South Korea's Kospi added 0.3 percent to 2,484.30. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.5 percent to 29,230.85 and the Shanghai Composite Index was flat at 3,318.40. Australia's S&amp;P ASX 200 rose less than 0.1 percent to 5,993.60. Stocks in Southeast Asia were mixed. Singapore stocks fell but the benchmark in Indonesia surged 1 percent.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>ANALYST'S TAKE: "The reaction of investors is unpredictable in light of positive market moves ahead of the vote and suggestions that corporate tax cuts are to some extent already priced in," Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said in a daily commentary. "While the reduction in tax rates is widely viewed as stimulatory, and therefore supportive of higher share prices, the stellar run and record levels of U.S. share indices have some fearing a "sell the fact" reaction.</p>
<p>U.S. WATCH: U.S. politics took central stage for Asian investors at the week's start. On early Saturday, Republicans rammed a nearly $1.5 trillion tax overhaul through the Senate, a sweeping revamp of the nation's tax code that would cut individual rates and slash the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent beginning 2019. The move reinforces risk-on sentiment, analysts said. Former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and said he would cooperate with the probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election.</p>
<p>DATA WATCH: Investors will be looking at a string of data releases due this week. China will release monthly trade data on Friday and Japan will issue consumer confidence later in the day and its growth figures on Friday. U.S. payrolls data are also due on Friday.</p>
<p>WALL STREET: On Friday, U.S. stocks finished lower. The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index fell 0.2 percent to 2,642.22. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 0.2 percent to 24,231.59 and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.4 percent to 6,847.59. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gave up 0.5 percent, to 1,537.02.</p>
<p>OIL: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 41 cents to $57.95 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 96 cents, or 1.7 percent, to settle at $58.36 a barrel on Friday. Brent, the international standard, lost 39 cents to $63.34 per barrel in London. It added $1.10, or 1.8 percent, to close at $63.73 a barrel on Friday.</p>
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<p>CURRENCIES: The U.S. dollar rose to 112.75 yen from 112.13 yen while the euro weakened to $1.1872 from $1.1896.</p> | Asian stock markets advance; US tax bill, politics in focus | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/12/03/asian-stock-markets-advance-us-tax-bill-politics-in-focus.html | 2017-12-03 | 0 |
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<p>Carlos Valderrama, practicing at St. Pius on Sept. 11, came to Albuquerque to promote the Legends Cup, but he didn’t play. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>When it comes to Albuquerque sports flops, this one was legendary.</p>
<p>Promoters said they expected between 15,000 to 20,000 fans and a worldwide TV audience for the International Legends Cup — an old-timers soccer match featuring ex-World Cup players from South and Central America — on Sept. 13 at University Stadium.</p>
<p>The game did come off. Eventually.</p>
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<p>Just not as planned.</p>
<p>TV was nonexistent. The crowd was fewer than 1,200 — nearly half of those getting in for free — and the star of the show, Carlos “El Pibe” Valderrama, was a no-show.</p>
<p>“I felt badly for those who paid,” said Mark Koson, director of ticketing services at the University of New Mexico. “We had a number of complaints.</p>
<p>“There was a conflict between the promoters. They didn’t advertise, and their expectations just weren’t realistic.”</p>
<p>The Cup was the brainchild of Dallas-based International Sports Group (ISG) and the Albuquerque Sol.</p>
<p>Bill Pletch, owner and president of ISG, said he was obligated to pay the players and their expenses. He said the Sol — president/co-owner Ron Patel and general manager Larry Espinoza — were responsible for all local marketing.</p>
<p>“We paid for all the expenses in the local market,” Patel said. “We paid for the marketing; we paid for the radio, paid for the TV. We paid for a lot of the operational expenses, like the SUVs to drive the players around. (Pletch) ended up paying for all the players to come in and the Marriott (Pyramid, where they stayed).</p>
<p>“… The event did not do well. I understand that. But we’re not going to point fingers and blame anybody.”</p>
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<p>Pletch, however, is pointing fingers, and sounded as though he would like to give the middle one to the entire city.</p>
<p>“I never want to hear the word ‘Albuquerque’ again,” said Pletch, who said he lost nearly $500,000 on the event.</p>
<p>“They only have one thing in that town — a freaking balloon festival. That’s it,” Pletch said. “We wanted to bring something else that’s an annual event, that draws tourism dollars to the marketplace.</p>
<p>“… We had agreements with worldwide television coverage. But you think I’m going to bring worldwide television coverage on an event the city doesn’t support? I see 900 people in the stands? That’s an embarrassment.”</p>
<p>Pletch said he canceled the telecast, which he said was going to be produced by a company from Colombia and shown on DirecTV, the week of the game. He said he was upset that UNM officials wouldn’t allow him to paint over the lines of the football field, but he made the final decision because of low ticket sales.</p>
<p>Despite just 263 tickets having been sold by the end of the business day Sept. 11 — two days before the event — Espinoza, at the time, said he still expected between 15,000 and 20,000 to attend. In addition to the game, two bands from Mexico were scheduled to perform.</p>
<p>“The local promoters had expectations for this huge walk-up,” Koson said, “and there was just no way it could happen. Walks-ups are directly related to how advance sales are. And the advance sales were almost nothing.”</p>
<p>UNM reported final ticket sales at 630 for the 39,224-seat stadium. Adult ticket prices started at $33, with UNM charging $5 for parking.</p>
<p>Mike Haggerty, assistant athletic director of events at the school, said UNM was paid what it was owed for use of its facility, but didn’t say how much. He didn’t have further comment.</p>
<p>The show must go on</p>
<p>Promoters tried to boost the paltry ticket sales by taking the players around town for meet-and-greets in the days leading up to the game at places like IHOP, Flying Star and Hooters.</p>
<p>Espinoza said they also gave out “4,000 to 5,000” free tickets.</p>
<p>Espinoza said about 7,000 attended, but Pletch said it was about 1,200 — counting all the freebies. UNM reported the total crowd at just more than 1,100. That didn’t count the players, many of whom didn’t show up as scheduled.</p>
<p>Koson said the game, slated for 4 p.m., didn’t&#160; start until 5:50 p.m. A Journal reporter arrived at University Stadium about 6:15 p.m. with the first half in progress.</p>
<p>Last week, Espinoza said the delay was because “the Colombians are notorious for running late, which I didn’t know. And then as they were getting ready to leave the hotel, they got mobbed. … A bunch of people were there waiting for signatures, for autographs.</p>
<p>“Then they went to get in the van, and they saw a couple dressed up like Batman and Wonder Woman, and they all got down and wanted pictures with Batman and Wonder Woman. … Basically there was a misconception of time with the players.”</p>
<p>Pletch, however, said the delay was for other reasons.</p>
<p>“We had to pull additional cash from my partners, who actually flew into the town for the game,” Pletch said. “We were late getting it. When we got to the hotel, the players were dressed and ready to go. We just had to pay them the balance of their money.</p>
<p>“… Some of the Mexican players had already been paid in full, and some had not received all of their balance yet. So they said just pay us when you get there and we did. But the Colombian players — we owed them — so to get them on the field we had to pay them in full.”</p>
<p>Pletch, however, couldn’t get one guy on the field — Valderrama.</p>
<p>The 53-year-old Colombian, known for his distinctive blonde hair, came to Albuquerque to promote the event at a news conference in early August. He was in town days before the game, but Espinoza said he “sprained something” and couldn’t play.</p>
<p>Pletch said it was a matter of wouldn’t, not couldn’t.</p>
<p>“His attitude was so bad,” Pletch said. “He just said, ‘No pay, no play.’ Valderrama got his money in full for doing the press conference. He also got three-fourths of his money the day before he even came to town. The balance he didn’t get, because he was acting (like) a jerk at the last minute.”</p>
<p>Pletch blamed the media, the soccer community, the Sol, the UNM athletic department and Albuquerque city officials for not doing more to help the event. But Patel said there is nobody to blame but the organizers.</p>
<p>“The city was great to us,” Patel said. “They scheduled a meeting with all the people around. The ACVB (Albuquerque Convention &amp; Visitors Bureau) gave a ton of support by promoting the event to cities around the region. I don’t know if we were caught up in the allure of the big names, but for whatever reason, it didn’t sell in this market.</p>
<p>“… It was a big lesson for us. We learned a lot about how to run a big event. We will try to run them again in the future. There is no one to blame but us.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | Soccer exhibition had little Sol, fewer fans | false | https://abqjournal.com/465948/soccer-exhibition-had-little-sol-fewer-fans.html | 2 |
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<p>In 2016, a few negative market trends converged on SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR) all at once. Falling solar panel prices put pressure on margins as the year went on, investors demanded higher rates of return for solar projects the company sold, and the investment tax credit (ITC) extension led to little urgency for utilities to sign new solar contracts.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>SunPower responded by laying off a quarter of its staff and cutting back production of its E-Series solar panels that have lost most of their efficiency advantage over the competition. That will lead to a reduction in solar shipments over the next year as the company converts production to the lower cost P-Series product and the high efficiency X-Series. With those strategic changes in mind, here's what to watch in 2017.</p>
<p>Image source: SunPower.</p>
<p>One of the big moves SunPower made in 2016 was to change its strategy in utility scale solar. The company updated its Oasis power plant design to be lower cost and more versatile in the hopes of winning more business in the future. But a key part of the utility strategy will be the P-Series solar panel that's just beginning production.</p>
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<p>P-Series is a panel construction that layers solar cells like shingles, allowing for a higher efficiency panel than the traditional panel construction. The cost is slightly higher than conventional panels per watt, but also slightly higher efficiency. The company is hoping the combination will allow SunPower to better compete with commodity solar competitors, something it wasn't able to easily do with the E-Series product.</p>
<p>We won't know for some time what the margin of Oasis and P-Series will be, but in 2017 we should look for SunPower to start winning competitive bids to build solar farms with these two products. If that takes place SunPower will be able to grow its gross profit from low levels in 2017 and the hope is that will eventually lead to higher profitability. Contract wins will be the first sign the combination of P-Series and Oasis are paying off.</p>
<p>Image source: SunPower.</p>
<p>The one bright spot for SunPower in 2016 was the residential solar market. High efficiency X-Series panels are in high demand and the Equinox system design is proving to be a timely product introduction. Gross margins in residential solar were 20.6% in the third quarter, which makes it the most profitable business SunPower was in during 2016.</p>
<p>What's been difficult for SunPower is growing the residential solar business beyond 300 MW-350 MW per year. Long term, SunPower needs to see the residential solar business trend toward a 1 GW business annually, which isn't unreasonable given the market's over 10 GW size globally and 2 GW market size in the U.S. alone.</p>
<p>Rooftop solar is the one place high efficiency has a significant competitive advantage and SunPower needs to gain as much market share with its X-Series product as possible. In 2017, investors need to see increased traction and market share gains in the residential solar market. As the one bright spot in the business, this will be a key segment for SunPower.</p>
<p>I've outlined how SunPower plans to improve its utility and residential businesses in 2017 and beyond, but a key that shouldn't be overlooked is the balance sheet. SunPower still has $2.1 billion of debt on the balance sheet, about half of which is associated with specific projects and the other half is mainly in convertible notes that begin coming due in 2018. For the next year, deleveraging that balance sheet by selling projects (something that's already begun) and remaining cash flow positive will be key.</p>
<p>While I think the strategies the company is taking in utility and residential solar are positive, they'll also take time to pay off. 2017 is about survival with a solid balance sheet, building a foundation for growth in 2018 and beyond.</p>
<p>Another factor that shouldn't go overlooked is SunPower's majority owner Total, which has demonstrated its financial backing of the company. Total could help provide bridge financing for SunPower's business in the next few years and provide demand by developing its own solar projects in tandem with SunPower. With a 66% stake in SunPower, Total has every incentive to help the company succeed. And that may give it the leeway it needs until new products begin taking hold in the marketplace.</p>
<p>The massive drop in SunPower's stock during 2016 was driven by uncertainty about 2017 and as time goes on the uncertainty starts to clear up. What we know is that demand for 2018 is already starting to materialize with 517 MW of projects already signed. As the year goes on, I would expect more backlog for 2018-2020 to start to fill in, giving investors more confidence in the company's future.</p>
<p>While there are risks ahead, the technological advantages, design innovation, and backing from Total gives me confidence 2017 will be a better year for SunPower's stock than 2016 was. Despite the dark days of the past, the solar industry does have a bright future and SunPower should benefit as an industry leader.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than SunPower When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=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=8b20b2f9-b035-472d-bdeb-3659a20c8caf&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and SunPower wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=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=8b20b2f9-b035-472d-bdeb-3659a20c8caf&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/TMFFlushDraw/info.aspx" type="external">Travis Hoium Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of SunPower. 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> | 2016 Was a Disaster For SunPower, Will 2017 Be Better? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/11/2016-was-disaster-for-sunpower-will-2017-be-better.html | 2017-01-11 | 0 |
<p>November is here, and with the arrival of the eleventh month of the year comes the start of the best six-month period for stocks.</p>
<p>On a historical basis, November is indeed a strong month for U.S. equities. Over the past 20 years, the S&amp;P 500 has averaged a November <a href="http://charts.equityclock.com/sp-500-index-seasonal-chart" type="external">gain of 1.5 percent Opens a New Window.</a>, tying with December as the fourth-best month of the year for the benchmark U.S. equity gauge.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>As is the case with the other months of the year, November brings sector-level opportunity for tactical traders. With November being the start of what is usually a period of strength for equities, it may not be surprising to some investors that this month's best-performing sector exchange-traded funds track cyclical sectors.</p>
<p>Going back to 1999, the first full year of trading for the sector SPDR suite of ETFs, the best-performing fund in November is the Materials Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLB). XLB, the largest materials ETF by assets, averages a November gain of almost 3 percent, <a href="https://www.cxoadvisory.com/4408/calendar-effects/sector-performance-by-calendar-month/" type="external">according to CXO Advisory data Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>When November ends, that does not mean traders should depart XLB because the materials ETF is also the best of the sector SPDR suite in December.</p>
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<p>Due in large part to strength in aerospace and defense stocks, the industrial sector performing well this year. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLI) is up about 14.5 percent year to date, a performance that could be bolstered in November if historical trends hold true to form.</p>
<p>XLI is usually November's second-best sector SPDR behind XLB, averaging an eleventh month gain of about 2.5 percent, according to CXO.</p>
<p>As cyclical sectors, industrials and materials could be bid higher this month as traders anticipate a December interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Cyclical sectors often perform well following rate hikes with industrials being one of the best-performing group after the Fed boosts borrowing costs.</p>
<p>Speaking of interest rates, it is worth noting that the Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLF) averages a negligible November gain, making it one of the worst sector ETFs in November. However, XLF could break from its usually benign November performances if traders price in an all but assured December rate hike.</p>
<p>The Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLU) is usually the worst-performing sector SPDR in November, but that is not a grave concern. XLU typically generates flat showings in November, not big losses, according to CXO data.</p>
<p>Related Links:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/17/10/10252705/you-dont-say-nafta-risks-linger-for-mexico-etf" type="external">NAFTA Risks For The Mexico ETF Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/17/10/10229123/international-exposure-for-thrifty-investors" type="external">A Cheap International ETF Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/investing/best-brokerage-for-online-stock-trading/" type="external">Our guide for online stock trading Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Todd Shriber owns shares of XLF.</p>
<p>2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p> | Best Sector ETFs For November: Let's Get Cyclical | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/01/best-sector-etfs-for-november-let-get-cyclical.html | 2017-11-01 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Source: Helmerich &amp; Payne</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Helmerich &amp; Payne(NYSE: HP), North America's largest land rig contractor by market share, believes that its value-added productivity enhancements should help garner higher dayrates for its rigs than peers earn. The Tulsa-based rig contractor believes that by offering superior execution and better performing rigs, it can meaningfully help customers reduce well costs over an extended period of time - and earn higher rates for themselves.</p>
<p>While this approach could hit revenue and pressure margins in the immediate future, it could potentially help Helmerich wrest a greater share of the US rig market in a protracted oil bear market, as well as in an eventual market recovery.</p>
<p>Bleak days immediately aheadTo be fair, Helmerich &amp; Payne's management is expecting rig revenue days to decrease by up to 20% for the second fiscal quarter of 2016. Total revenue, as a result, should fall even further. This shouldn't be surprising given the market's general view that US shale oil supply needs to shrink in order to balance global crude oil supply and demand. The total onshore US rig count has already dropped a massive 73% over the last 17 months, with more active rigs expected to go offline in the first half of 2016. Needless to say, the next year is going to be rough for rig operators like HP.</p>
<p>...but management's focus is on the longer term However, during last month's quarterly earnings call, Helmerich's management made it clear that the company isn't looking to further reduce dayrates for its best-in-class AC drive rigs, in spite of the storm clouds ahead. These AC drive rigs are used for drilling horizontal wells, and while that is precisely the type of rig that is being retired these days, this move means cash margins for active rigs shouldn't take a huge beating despite falling rig counts. This strategy is not without risks. Due to higher dayrates for its rigs, there's a risk that Helmerich may lose existing contracts as well as find it difficult to pocket new ones. Yet management feels that this move is the right one. Let's investigate.</p>
<p>Tailor-made for complex yet cost efficient wellsOil producers are giving increasing importance to the quality of wells fracked as opposed to simply increasing the fracking, or lateral, length in shale wells. Oil exploration and production companies, looking for the biggest bang for their buck, are ensuring that they are drilling the sweetest spots, which involves geo-steering the drill-bit electronically. Helmerich's management argues that its computerized AC-drive rigs can control down-hole parameters more precisely.</p>
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<p>In addition, Helmerich's FlexRigs are designed to facilitate multi-well pad drilling. Pad drilling helps eliminate rig-up and rig-down costs. From a single pad, multiple wells can be drilled, thus bringing down per well costs.</p>
<p>On an organizational level, Helmerich continues to improve efficiencies and performance on a daily basis. This, too, should contribute to lowering overall well costs. The following chart spells out Helmerich's value proposition in terms of efficiency. It also explains why a higher dayrate per rig helps to reduce overall well costs for the customer.</p>
<p>Source: Helmerich &amp; Payne investor presentation</p>
<p>So far, so goodOver the past 18 months, as the oil industry has suffered its worst downturn in decades, Helmerich &amp; Payne's market share in the US has actually gone up from 15.4% to 19.5% -- a testimony to its efficient services and superior rig performance. This is despite total US rig count dropping from 1,874 in July 2014 to 619 at the end of January 2016 -- in other words, Helmerich's rigs are falling idle at a much lower pace than those of peers.</p>
<p>Source: Baker Hughes rig count data &amp; H&amp;P investor presentation</p>
<p>So far the signs look positive. Helmerich &amp; Payne's strategy to price its rigs higher than those of peers hasn't really affected its overall market share. Should oil prices move north and oil producers increase drilling activity, Helmerich &amp; Payne's superior services could be in considerable demand.</p>
<p>Downside risks exist, though While the above strategy appears sound, risks do exist. For example, customers may choose to stop drilling altogether until oil prices move north. That might not happen until 2017, or until global supply and demand balances are restored and crude oil inventories fall from their current sky-high levels. Already 226 rigs, or almost two-thirds of the company's US land rig fleet, are lying idle.</p>
<p>Also, Helmerich's economic moat looks narrow. A competent rival such as Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) can easily offer similar services. The reason is that while Helmerich manufactures its own proprietary, high specification AC-drive rigs, crucial components such as the AC top-drives are sourced from third party hardware manufacturer National Oilwell Varco(NYSE: NOV). Technological superiority alone doesn't give Helmerich a huge advantage in the long run.</p>
<p>Foolish bottom lineHelmerich &amp; Payne is definitely the best positioned US land driller today. While its peers can definitely catch up in the future, it looks highly unlikely. In a protracted oil bear market, the amount of investment required for competitors to catch up would be too much, and the rewards too little. That leaves Helmerich a lot of breathing space, and almost certainly warrants closer attention by Foolish investors.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/08/helmerich-paynes-short-term-troubles-positions-it.aspx" type="external">Helmerich &amp; Paynes Short Term Troubles Position It for Significant Long Term Gains Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFPetra/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Isac Simon Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends National Oilwell Varco. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Helmerich & Paynes Short Term Troubles Position It for Significant Long Term Gains | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/08/helmerich-paynes-short-term-troubles-position-it-for-significant-long-term.html | 2016-03-28 | 0 |
<p>Photo by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | <a href="" type="internal">CC by 2.0</a></p>
<p>In 1820, a law known as the Missouri Compromise was passed in the US Congress.&#160; The law made Missouri a slave state and Maine a free state. In addition, the law prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude line. The Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.&#160; This act gave each new state the power to decide whether or not it would be a slave state via the popular vote.&#160; In turn this decision created a situation where pro and anti-slavery forces would flood each new state in an effort to affect the vote. Three years later the Supreme Court declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision.&#160; That decision ruled that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.&#160; It is also perhaps best known for the phrase in the majority opinion that stated that blacks “blacks had no rights which whites had to recognize.”</p>
<p>As almost any US resident knows, the refusal by the US government to end slavery once and for all resulted in the Civil War.&#160; No matter what anyone might argue, the reason the civil war was fought was because the slave owning states wanted to continue owning slaves.&#160; It was not about any other freedom but the freedom to enslave other human beings and trade in their flesh.&#160;&#160; Although the slavers attempted to frame their cause in moral terms, the fact is there is nothing moral about owning another human being.&#160; This fact is lost on those who support the Confederacy.&#160; That truth is immutable.</p>
<p>This is why there is a clamor to remove statues across the United States that honor the men who led the armies of the Confederacy.&#160; The continued presence of those statues is not a reminder of a blighted history; such reminders can be made in museums and history books.&#160; No, they are exactly what they seem to be: honorifics to men who killed and died for the right to own, buy, breed, and sell other human beings.&#160; That war was fought to protect the monetary assets the slaves represented—their actual value, their potential value in offspring and their labor value.&#160; The men represented by these statues are no more honorable than the men who organized the German Nazi Party, enslaved millions in concentration camps and ultimately murdered millions, most of them Jewish.&#160; The only memory such humans deserve is as a reminder of a place humanity must never return.</p>
<p>The current attempts among various extremist elements to revive the ideology of the Nazis and of US slave-owners is testament to the need for white supremacy to be refuted.&#160;&#160; The fact that this ideology is being defended by two of the most powerful men in Washington, DC is some cause for alarm.&#160; Not only has Donald Trump tweeted out veiled support of the slavers’ heritage in his messages of support for Republican Ed Gillespie, Trump’s chief of staff, General Kelly recently told FoxNews reporter Laura Ingraham that the reason the US Civil War occurred was because there “was a lack of an ability to compromise.”&#160;&#160; He continued, telling Ingraham that Confederate General Robert E. Lee was an honorable man.&#160; To address the latter statement first, let me just say that even if Lee was an honorable man, the fact is that his cause—defending slavery and slavers—was not honorable in any definition of the world.&#160; It isn’t honorable in hindsight and it wasn’t honorable then, a fact the growing numbers in the nineteenth century abolitionist movement makes clear.</p>
<p>As to Kelly’s claim that the reason for the war was an inability to compromise, I have a few questions.&#160; Exactly what does the General consider a compromise in terms of human lives and freedom?&#160; Should the anti-slavery forces have allowed more states to enslave Africans and their descendants?&#160; Should the anti-slavery forces have agreed to allow slave breeding for sale in more states?&#160; Should the anti-slavery forces insisted that all slaves be freed when they could no longer physically serve their masters?&#160; Or perhaps the anti-slavery forces should have agreed to wait two, three, four or more decades for slavery to end, thereby allowing the slavers and their politician friends a chance to re-invest their ill-got holdings in livestock, gold or land?&#160; Or maybe they should just have let the slavers decide how the issue would be resolved, just like they had been doing for decades already?</p>
<p>On a related matter, a recent poll of US military members acknowledged the presence of white supremacists in all branches of the military. Although this phenomenon is not new (I know from my years as a military dependent how prevalent racism is in the institution), it becomes easier to understand how such a phenomenon exists when men with views like General Kelly command an entire branch.</p> | The Missouri Compromise and General Kelly | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/11/01/the-missouri-compromise-and-general-kelly/ | 2017-11-01 | 4 |
<p>By Scott Dickison</p>
<p>If you ask the Lanier clan of the west side of HW 121 near the border of Immanuel and Candler counties in South Georgia (not sure about the other Lanier clan, who hail from just across the road on the east side) where they’re headed when they die, the answer is simple and said with confidence: Rosemary.</p>
<p>Rosemary Cemetery lies off of 121, down Rosemary Church Road, adjacent to the Rosemary Primitive Baptist Church, and all the Laniers are there.</p>
<p>We assembled at Rosemary this past weekend to lay to rest my wife’s great uncle, our oldest son’s namesake through his grandfather. He was a great man and will be sorely missed. In the days leading up to the funeral, as the family spread word of the arrangements, relaying the name of the church, which was in the closest town, and the time of the meal to be shared beforehand, the news always ended with familiar words of comfort, “…and then of course we’ll head down to Rosemary.”</p>
<p>As eternal resting places go, there’s nothing remarkable about Rosemary. It’s well maintained, carved from the surrounding pine tree farms, the contours of each of the family plots lined with native red clay and sand. Though for as old as it is there are surprisingly few trees in the cemetery itself, which becomes viscerally true when the entire family is huddled in the very limited shade, cast by the funeral home tent in the hot South Georgia sun.</p>
<p>To an outsider, or even a married-in member of the family, the gravitational pull of Rosemary isn’t always perceptible at first glance. Put simply, we don’t recognize the names. In fact, it’s not until you see the effect the place has on the people for whom it is holy, and the space it occupies in the spiritual fabric of their collective lives, that the holiness begins to bleed through, like sweat through your dress shirt.</p>
<p>Rosemary is sacred in a way that might seem quaint today if it weren’t so honest and essential. But it’s a sacredness that’s become increasingly rare and is probably only a generation or two away from being the stuff of stories you tell when family gathers for funerals. Here is your family, all there together, reminding you that life is fleeting and death is real, but also making concrete, or perhaps “marble,” Jesus’ words of comfort, “I have prepared a place for you.”</p>
<p>This is the true power of Rosemary for those who call it their own: knowing a place has been prepared for you. And not just any place, but this place that you’ve known from childhood when you played tag with cousins between the headstones, where you make pilgrimage from time to time, and where your beloveds already lay.</p>
<p>We’re a fragmented and disembodied people. It’s not hard to think of all the ways this is true, in our relationships, our work, our homes, our spirits. How often do we find ourselves entranced by the faces we hold on a screen in front of us at the expense of the ones sitting beside us or in the next room (their faces entranced by their screens!).</p>
<p>Tom Long has said that the ancient heresy of gnosticism, or “the gnostic impulse,” once again threatens authentic Christian faith today, in the form of an easy spirituality that floats around us, demanding very little, devoid of flesh and bones — having no skin in the game, so to speak. Certainly no wounds.</p>
<p>I think about this as we near the end of the Lenten journey. How it’s so easy to pass quickly from the triumph of Palm Sunday to the glory of Easter morning, hurrying past the intimacy of Maundy Thursday and the utter darkness of Good Friday. Will your Christ have flesh and bones this Easter? Will he have wounds?</p>
<p>If mine does, it will be in part because of my visit to Rosemary.</p>
<p>Looking at all those names, some growing more familiar with each trip, especially after the honor of helping lay some to rest, it occurred to me that there is no holiness in general, just holiness in particular. Just like there’s no forgiveness in general, there’s no love in general, no hope, no peace, no joy. These things must start some place small and familiar and go from there.</p>
<p>If an argument is needed for the worth of small sacred places like Rosemary — and for those who are fortunate to have one of their own, there isn’t — it’s that they teach us there must be flesh and bones before there can be spirit. But the spirit is real, too.</p>
<p>My wife’s family likes to say among themselves that one way or another, “we all end up in Rosemary.” I’m starting to believe this is true for more than just the Laniers.</p> | We’ll all end up in Rosemary | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/we-ll-all-end-up-in-rosemary/ | 3 |
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<p>West Virginia has two good reasons to feel confident heading into next season.</p>
<p>Announcements by quarterback Will Grier and wide receiver David Sills earlier this month that they will return instead of enter the NFL draft has amped up excitement in Morgantown, West Virginia, about the Mountaineers’ potential to compete for a Big 12 championship.</p>
<p>“Getting those juniors back is important,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “We’ve got some momentum going into 2018.”</p>
<p>That potential might be possible only if the defense has a turnaround. But the offense should be set.</p>
<p>Grier threw for 3,490 yards and 34 touchdowns <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/west-virginia-qb-will-grier-hurts-throwing-hand-vs-texas" type="external">before breaking a finger on his throwing hand</a> Nov. 18 against Texas and missed the rest of the season. He’ll be the top returning quarterback in the pass-happy league with the departures of Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph.</p>
<p>“He came here to win the Big 12 and to be the best that he can be,” Holgorsen said. “I just don’t think we’re there yet. That was kind of my message to him, and he agreed. There’s just unfinished business here.”</p>
<p>With Grier out for most of the final three games, West Virginia lost three straight and finished 7-6, including <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/moss-utah-run-past-west-virginia-30-14-heart-dallas" type="external">a 30-14 loss to Utah</a> in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“I feel like we have a lot to prove next year,” Sills said. “The Big 12 was really good this year.”</p>
<p>West Virginia’s offensive line will return mostly intact and Sills will be back to anchor a solid receiving corps.</p>
<p>Sills led the nation during the regular season with 18 touchdown catches while Gary Jennings finished with a team-high 97 catches for 1,096 yards. West Virginia also has speedster and return man Marcus Simms and adds transfer wide receiver T.J. Simmons from Alabama.</p>
<p>West Virginia must replace two-time 1,000-yard rusher Justin Crawford but have experience at running back in Kennedy McKoy and Martell Pettaway.</p>
<p>Now, about that defense. The Mountaineers were eighth in the Big 12 in total defense and gave up points in bunches at times, including <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/mayfield-leads-no-3-oklahoma-past-west-virginia-59-31" type="external">59 to Oklahoma</a> and 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter of <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-23-west-virginia-survives-baylor-38-36" type="external">a close victory over one-win Baylor</a> . Their 31.5 points allowed per game was their highest total since 2013.</p>
<p>The Mountaineers return most of the starters on a unit that was picked apart by injuries. The clear leader will be linebacker David Long, who had 16 tackles for loss, including a school-record seven against Oklahoma State.</p>
<p>With Grier, the offense scored at least 20 points in a quarter nine times, equaling the output from the previous four years combined. But it <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-24-wvu-has-gone-scoreless-second-half-last-2-games" type="external">also had puzzling droughts at other times</a> and issues with dropped passes and turnovers.</p>
<p>The schedule could be in West Virginia’s favor in 2018. In even numbered years the Mountaineers play five league games at home, as opposed to four in odd-numbered years. The most intriguing game might be the opener Sept. 1 against Tennessee and new coach Jeremy Pruitt in Charlotte, North Carolina, just south of Grier’s hometown of Davidson.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>West Virginia has two good reasons to feel confident heading into next season.</p>
<p>Announcements by quarterback Will Grier and wide receiver David Sills earlier this month that they will return instead of enter the NFL draft has amped up excitement in Morgantown, West Virginia, about the Mountaineers’ potential to compete for a Big 12 championship.</p>
<p>“Getting those juniors back is important,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “We’ve got some momentum going into 2018.”</p>
<p>That potential might be possible only if the defense has a turnaround. But the offense should be set.</p>
<p>Grier threw for 3,490 yards and 34 touchdowns <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/west-virginia-qb-will-grier-hurts-throwing-hand-vs-texas" type="external">before breaking a finger on his throwing hand</a> Nov. 18 against Texas and missed the rest of the season. He’ll be the top returning quarterback in the pass-happy league with the departures of Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph.</p>
<p>“He came here to win the Big 12 and to be the best that he can be,” Holgorsen said. “I just don’t think we’re there yet. That was kind of my message to him, and he agreed. There’s just unfinished business here.”</p>
<p>With Grier out for most of the final three games, West Virginia lost three straight and finished 7-6, including <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/moss-utah-run-past-west-virginia-30-14-heart-dallas" type="external">a 30-14 loss to Utah</a> in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“I feel like we have a lot to prove next year,” Sills said. “The Big 12 was really good this year.”</p>
<p>West Virginia’s offensive line will return mostly intact and Sills will be back to anchor a solid receiving corps.</p>
<p>Sills led the nation during the regular season with 18 touchdown catches while Gary Jennings finished with a team-high 97 catches for 1,096 yards. West Virginia also has speedster and return man Marcus Simms and adds transfer wide receiver T.J. Simmons from Alabama.</p>
<p>West Virginia must replace two-time 1,000-yard rusher Justin Crawford but have experience at running back in Kennedy McKoy and Martell Pettaway.</p>
<p>Now, about that defense. The Mountaineers were eighth in the Big 12 in total defense and gave up points in bunches at times, including <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/mayfield-leads-no-3-oklahoma-past-west-virginia-59-31" type="external">59 to Oklahoma</a> and 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter of <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-23-west-virginia-survives-baylor-38-36" type="external">a close victory over one-win Baylor</a> . Their 31.5 points allowed per game was their highest total since 2013.</p>
<p>The Mountaineers return most of the starters on a unit that was picked apart by injuries. The clear leader will be linebacker David Long, who had 16 tackles for loss, including a school-record seven against Oklahoma State.</p>
<p>With Grier, the offense scored at least 20 points in a quarter nine times, equaling the output from the previous four years combined. But it <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-24-wvu-has-gone-scoreless-second-half-last-2-games" type="external">also had puzzling droughts at other times</a> and issues with dropped passes and turnovers.</p>
<p>The schedule could be in West Virginia’s favor in 2018. In even numbered years the Mountaineers play five league games at home, as opposed to four in odd-numbered years. The most intriguing game might be the opener Sept. 1 against Tennessee and new coach Jeremy Pruitt in Charlotte, North Carolina, just south of Grier’s hometown of Davidson.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | With Grier, Sills returning, West Virginia pumped for 2018 | false | https://apnews.com/dfd98847bacb4e82a8d333991c101b02 | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
<p>MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico and the European Union should complete a new free trade deal "within the next few weeks," despite the fact there are still a few difficult areas to agree on, a senior Mexican official said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>In a radio interview after the conclusion of the eighth round of talks between Mexico and the EU, Mexico's deputy economy minister, Juan Carlos Baker, said negotiations will resume in the week beginning Feb. 5, with a quick end in sight.</p>
<p>"We're working to get this done within the next few weeks," he said.</p>
<p>The two parties are aiming to update their 2000 trade accord, which covers industrial products, by adding farm produce, government procurement and investment.</p>
<p>They also want to demonstrate their embrace of open markets as the United States turns inwards under President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>For Mexico, a deal with the European Union would be part of a strategy to reduce its reliance on the United States, the destination for nearly 80 percent of its exports. This has become even more urgent given Trump's threat to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement.</p>
<p>Reporting by Diego Ore; Editing by Richard Borsuk</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>DAMASCUS (Reuters) - International inspectors were to try on Monday to visit the site of a suspected gas attack which brought U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria and heightened the diplomatic confrontation between the West and Assad's main ally Russia.</p> A man is washed following alleged chemical weapons attack, in what is said to be Douma, Syria in this still image from video obtained by Reuters on April 8, 2018. White Helmets/Reuters TV via REUTERS
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday more Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs, and Washington prepared to increase pressure on Russia with new economic sanctions.</p>
<p>Moscow also condemned the Western states for refusing to wait for the findings of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspection team on the alleged attack before launching the strikes.</p>
<p>But the U.S. envoy to the global watchdog said on Monday Russia may have tampered with the site of the incident on April 7 in Douma outside of Damascus.</p>
<p>"It is long overdue that this council condemns the Syrian government for its reign of chemical terror and demands international accountability those responsible for these heinous acts," U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Ward said in comments seen by Reuters.</p>
<p>In London, British Prime Minister Theresa May was facing criticism over her decision to bypass parliament and take part in the air strikes against Syria.</p>
<p>The United States, France and Britain launched 105 missiles targeting what the Pentagon said were three chemical weapons facilities in Syria in retaliation for the suspected poison gas attack in Douma on April 7.</p>
<p>The Western countries blame Assad for the Douma attack, which a Syrian medical relief group said killed dozens of people and thrust Syria's seven-year-old conflict into the forefront of global concern once again. The Syrian government and its Russian ally deny involvement.</p>
<p>Inspectors for the Hague-based OPCW met Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in the presence of Russian officers and a senior Syrian security official in Damascus for about three hours on Sunday.</p>
<p>The inspectors were due on Monday to attempt to visit Douma, but the British delegation to the OPCW said they had not yet been granted access, citing the agency's director general.</p>
<p>Douma, which lies in the eastern Goutha district on the outskirts of the capital, was one of the last bastions near Damascus of rebels fighting to topple Assad, and the alleged attack took place amid a ferocious government offensive.</p>
<p>In the aftermath, the remnants of the rebel army evacuated, handing Assad one of the biggest victories in a war that has killed about half a million people and laid waste to whole cities.</p>
<p>The U.S.-led strikes did nothing to alter the strategic balance or dent Assad's supremacy and the Western allies have said the aim was to prevent the further use of chemical weapons, not to intervene in the civil war or topple Assad.</p>
<p>British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson made this clear on Monday as he arrived at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, telling reporters: "I'm afraid the Syrian war will go on in its horrible, miserable way. But it was the world saying that we've had enough of the use of chemical weapons."</p> MORE SANCTIONS
<p>The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Sunday the United States would announce new economic sanctions aimed at companies dealing with equipment related to Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons.</p>
<p>Responding to Haley's remarks, Evgeny Serebrennikov, deputy head of a Russian parliamentary defence committee, said Moscow was ready for the penalties.</p>
<p>"They are hard for us, but will do more damage to the USA and Europe," RIA news agency quoted Serebrennikov as saying.</p>
<p>Although U.S. President Donald Trump had declared: "Mission accomplished" after the strikes, U.S. Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie at the Pentagon acknowledged that elements of the program remained and he could not guarantee that Syria would be unable to conduct a chemical attack in the future.</p>
<p>Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which fights alongside the Syrian army, said the U.S. military had kept its strikes limited because it knew a wider attack would spark retaliation from Damascus and its allies and inflame the region.</p>
<p>The Western leaders were also facing scrutiny at home over their actions.</p>
<p>Britain's May will make a statement to parliament on Monday on her decision and will repeat her assertion that Assad's forces were highly likely responsible for the attack. The allies could not wait "to alleviate further humanitarian suffering caused by chemical weapons attacks", according to excerpts of her speech.</p> VERBATIM: U.S. plans new Russia sanctions for Syria chemical attack
<p>But she will be questioned over why she broke with a convention to seek parliamentary approval for the action, a decision that she and her ministers say was driven by the need to act quickly.</p>
<p>Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, has questioned the legal basis for Britain's involvement.</p>
<p>Britain has said there are no plans for future strikes against Syria, but Johnson warned Assad that all options would be considered if chemical weapons were used against Syrians again.</p>
<p>Reporting by Leila Bassam in Damascus, Jack Stubbs and Andrey Ostroukh in Moscow, ing by Jeff Mason, Susan Cornwell and Joel Schectman in Washington, Michelle Nichols in New York, Samia Nakhoul, Tom Perry, Ellen Francis and Angus McDowall in Beirut, Kinda Makieh in Barzeh, Syria, Elizabeth Piper, Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge in London, Laurence Frost, Michel Rose and Ingrid Melander in Paris, Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Janet Lawrence</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Russia may have tampered with the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria's Douma, the U.S. envoy to the global watchdog said on Monday, urging the body to condemn the continuing use of banned chemical weapons.</p> A man is washed following alleged chemical weapons attack, in what is said to be Douma, Syria in this still image from video obtained by Reuters on April 8, 2018. White Helmets/Reuters TV via REUTERS
<p>The comments came during a closed-door meeting at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, convened after an April 7 attack in the town of Douma, outside the Syrian capital, in which dozens of people were allegedly killed with poison gas.</p>
<p>"It is long overdue that this council condemns the Syrian government for its reign of chemical terror and demands international accountability for those responsible for these heinous acts," U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Ward said in comments obtained by Reuters.</p>
<p>"It is our understanding the Russians may have visited the attack site. It is our concern that they may have tampered with it with the intent of thwarting the efforts of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission to conduct an effective investigation."</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-chemicalweapons/british-envoy-opcw-must-act-to-prevent-further-barbaric-use-of-chemical-weapons-idUSKBN1HN15F" type="external">British envoy: OPCW must act to prevent 'further barbaric use of chemical weapons'</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-chemical-weapons/eu-calls-on-russia-iran-to-prevent-syria-from-chemical-weapons-use-idUSKBN1HN155" type="external">EU calls on Russia, Iran to prevent Syria from chemical weapons use</a>
<p>The United States, Britain and France fired more than 100 missiles at three alleged chemical weapons facilities on Friday, angering Syria's military backer Moscow, which threatened to retaliate.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump said the strikes had accomplished their aim of undermining efforts by the Syrian government to produce and use chemical weapons again in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.</p>
<p>OPCW inspectors were visiting sites in Douma on Monday where they were aiming to collect samples, interview witnesses and document evidence to determine whether banned toxic munitions were used.</p>
<p>It has been more than a week since the attack in which witnesses and Western governments described helicopters dropping sarin and chlorine bombs that killed many children and women hiding from clashes between rebels and government troops.</p>
<p>A diplomatic source told Reuters evidence may have been removed while inspectors negotiated access with Syrian authorities.</p>
<p>Syria and Russia deny chemical weapons were used in the final offensive that captured Douma, a rebel-held territory east of Damascus.</p>
<p>The British envoy to the OPCW said it had recorded 390 allegations of the use of banned chemicals in Syria since 2014, and that a failure by the OPCW to act risked allowing "further barbaric use of chemical weapons".</p>
<p>Syria joined the OPCW, the organization tasked with monitoring adherence to the 1997 convention, in 2013 after a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people in Ghouta. The move was part of a joint Russian-U.S. deal that averted military action threatened by then-president Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that further Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs, as Washington prepared to increase pressure on Russia with new economic sanctions.</p>
<p>Members of the 41-seat executive council of the OPCW were due to discuss the alleged use of prohibited toxins in Syria, but were not expected to reach any agreement about a response.</p>
<p>The organization, which needs a two-thirds majority to take decisions, has been undermined by deep political division over the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.</p>
<p>The OPCW inspectors will not assign blame for attacks. A joint United Nations-OPCW mission concluded that troops under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons several times in recent years, including in a sarin attack a year ago in the town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed nearly 100 people.</p>
<p>Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Kevin Liffey</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said a visit on Monday by chemical weapons inspectors to the site of a suspected gas attack in Syria's Douma had been delayed as a result of Western air strikes, RIA news agency reported.</p>
<p>The British delegation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Russia and Syria had not yet allowed access.</p>
<p>"This is the latest conjecture of our British colleagues," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by RIA.</p>
<p>Reporting by Maria Kisleyova; Editing by Robin Pomeroy</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The global chemical weapons organization has recorded more than 390 alleged incidents of illicit use of poisonous munitions in Syria since 2014, the British envoy to the organization said on Monday, calling for members to take collective action.</p>
<p>The comments were made at a closed door meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is holding a special session on the April 7 attack in Douma, Syria.</p>
<p>"The time has come for all members of this Executive Council to take a stand. Too many duck the responsibility that comes with being a member of this council. Failure to act to hold perpetrators to account will only risk further barbaric use of chemical weapons, in Syria and beyond," British Ambassador Peter Wilson said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Janet Lawrence</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Mexico-EU free trade deal should be finished in a few weeks: official Inspectors push to visit suspected Syria gas attack site after Western strikes Russia may have tampered with chemical attack site, U.S. envoy says Russia says chemical weapons inspection delayed due to air strikes British envoy: OPCW must act to prevent 'further barbaric use of chemical weapons' | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-eu-mexico-trade/mexico-eu-free-trade-deal-should-be-finished-in-a-few-weeks-official-idUSKBN1F70CS | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>KAIROUAN, Tunisia — The father of the gunman who killed at least 39 people on a tourist-filled beach in Tunisia said Sunday he is “shocked” and “ashamed” by the violence his son unleashed Friday.</p>
<p>The suspected gunman — identified by Tunisia's Interior Ministry as 24-year-old student Seifeddine Rezgui — died during the Friday attack after <a href="" type="internal">killing and injuring dozens of vacationers</a>, most of whom were British, German and Belgian. At least 30 Britons died in the attack, NBC News has learned.</p>
<p>The assault was claimed by ISIS.</p>
<p>“I have no idea who influenced him or who put these ideas in his head,” Rezgui’s father, Hakim, told <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/story/2015-05-22/british-bombmaker-jailed-for-minimum-of-38-years/" type="external">NBC News' British partner ITV News</a>. “I am so shocked … I am so ashamed,” Rezgui said.</p>
<p>After hours of being questioned by police, Rezgui said he was grieving for the families of the 39 people who were killed. “I feel the loss of the families so strongly. I feel like I have died along with the victims,” he said.</p>
<p>Rezgui’s aunt, Zara, said the family didn’t know of his radicalism. “He told us nothing of his secret,” she told ITV. “God has cursed us.”</p>
<p>While the family said they were unaware of Rezgui’s extremism, people who knew him from school said his violent ways had long been apparent at school.</p>
<p>“Regui is very extremist, a jihadist, always fighting with those who don't agree with his ideas,” said a classmate, Najib Haji.</p>
<p>Ameni Sassi, general secretary of a leftist student union, described how Seifeddin Rezgui helped lead attacks against them. The group Rezgui was a part of “said it is war between the believers and the infidels," Sassi said.</p>
<p>Three of Rezgui's roommates and were also detained for questioning Sunday in connection with the assault, Interior Ministry spokesman Ali Aroui told The Associated Press. Aroui said that "we are sure that others helped but did not participate" except indirectly.</p>
<p>Mohamed Mijbary, who prays at the mosque next door to an apartment that Rezgui lived with six other students until about a month ago, said the suspected attacker was polite, but never stopped to talk.</p>
<p>"He kept to himself. He dressed normally. There was nothing to suggest he was an extremist, a radical," Mijbary said.</p>
<p>He said some of the students Rezgui lived with were observant Muslims, while others were not, and he never saw Rezgui pray at the mosque.</p>
<p>The site of the massacre, in front of the Imperial Marhaba Hotel, was guarded by extra security officers Sunday, while people left flowers and notes at a growing makeshift memorial in the still-bloodied sand.</p>
<p /> | Father of Alleged Tunisia Beach Attack Gunman ‘Ashamed’ | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-tunisia-beach-gunman-showed-no-signs-extremism-aquaintance-n383351 | 2015-06-29 | 3 |
<p>* Italo aims to export business model to Europe</p>
<p>* Spain, Germany and France among possible targets</p>
<p>* But faces long, costly task against state rivals</p>
<p>* Co-founder tells Reuters about IPO plans:</p>
<p>By Agnieszka Flak</p>
<p>ROME, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Italian high-speed rail group Italo plans to export its flexible business model to other European countries such as Spain, Germany and France following its planned stock market listing in February, its chairman told Reuters.</p>
<p>The company, Europe’s only profitable privately owned high-speed train operator, has enjoyed rapid growth domestically by offering long-distance rail passengers a wider range of prices, including budget tickets, and reducing costs by largely selling online.</p>
<p>It now aims to capitalise on the EU push to create a single market for the sector from 2020 with an obligation to open routes to competitive services in member states, where networks are often controlled by state-owned rail monopolies.</p>
<p>“In the next few years trains will be extremely important in Europe and our business model can be exported very easily elsewhere,” Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Italo’s co-founder and chairman, told Reuters in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Rome.</p>
<p>The rewards could be large in a European high-speed rail market that is estimated to grow by 70 percent to over 27 billion euros ($33 billion) in annual revenue by 2025, according to data from TRA Consulting.</p>
<p>However industry experts warn European expansion will not be an easy ride, and that the company faced risky, lengthy and costly struggles to compete with dominant state-owned players like Spain’s Renfe, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn and France’s SNCF.</p>
<p>Italo was founded in 2006 and took a decade to make a profit in Italy, where it faced fierce opposition from state-owned rail giant Ferrovie dello Stato. Its entry helped boost demand for domestic long-distance railway travel by 80 percent and cut average prices by 40 percent.</p>
<p>Italo copied the tiered pricing system of airlines, where passengers can travel at rock-bottom prices if they book early and choose off-peak times, or splash out and have meals served to their seats.</p>
<p>Core investors are now hoping to cash in by listing the group in Milan. Italo expects to complete the share offering by February, however potential volatility around a national election on March 4 could delay the flotation by a few weeks or months, Montezemolo told Reuters.</p> ‘FIGHT THE BATTLE’
<p>Following the listing, the group is preparing to launch new routes at home, like the Turin-Venice one that will open in May. Next it will look to Europe to take advantage of the EU reforms, which analysts describe as the biggest step in transport liberalisation since the bloc opened up its skies two decades ago.</p>
<p>Montezemolo said Spain, France and Germany were possible targets, despite the monopolies Renfe, SNCF and Deutsche Bahn hold in their respective markets.</p>
<p>Italo will look to find a partner, get some core investors on board, including a local lender, and act as a minority shareholder in the venture to provide expertise, he said.</p>
<p>“We plan to look and have contacts very soon in at least one or two countries,” added 70-year-old Montezemolo, a former chairman of Ferrari and Fiat who has headed the powerful Italian business lobby Confindustria.</p>
<p>“We are not the ones to fight the battle, we will be a minority investor ... but they can save time, avoid our mistakes and we can have synergies tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Analysts said Italo’s strength lies in its flexible business model, where fixed costs are minimised and various tasks outsourced.</p>
<p>However it will not be easy for the company to replicate its success abroad, they added.</p>
<p>In Germany, various operators have tried and failed because they did not have the clout to rival incumbent Deutsche Bahn, said Michael Holzhey, a transport analyst with ETC.</p>
<p>“(Italo) would need a local partner with lots of capital, someone that knows the market in and out and can deal with politicians and regulators,” Holzhey said.</p>
<p>Each high-speed train, which run at above 250 km/h, costs around 25-30 million euros, analysts said. Italo’s shareholders put in 1 billion euros to start their Italian venture and it took a decade before they turned a profit.</p>
<p>“They would need to come in with a fleet of at least 13-15 trains to attack one of the key routes and start from there,” Holzhey said. “Eventually they might make a profit, but you need patience because it would take years and DB wouldn’t stand still.”</p>
<p>But Montezemolo remains convinced the gamble could pay off because it had succeeded in Italy, against all odds.</p>
<p>“At the beginning we were the first in Europe, the first in Italy ... we made lots of mistakes,” he said. “Looking back, we made a miracle.”</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8165 euros)</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Pravin Char</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GSK.L" type="external">GSK.L</a>) has quit the race to buy Pfizer’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PFE.N" type="external">PFE.N</a>) consumer healthcare business, endangering an auction the U.S. drugmaker hoped would bring in as much as $20 billion.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear whether there were other offers for the business, which includes Advil painkillers and Centrum vitamins, following this week’s deadline for binding bids.</p>
<p>GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which announced its withdrawal on Friday, was seen as the frontrunner to buy the assets after Reckitt Benckiser ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RB.L" type="external">RB.L</a>) left the race late on Wednesday. Johnson &amp; Johnson ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JNJ.N" type="external">JNJ.N</a>) stepped away from the auction in January.</p>
<p>A source familiar with the matter said GSK declined to make a final bid for the assets in the end.</p>
<p>“While we will continue to review opportunities that may accelerate our strategy, they must meet our criteria for returns and not compromise our priorities for capital allocation,” GSK Chief Executive Emma Walmsley said in a statement.</p>
<p>GSK shares rose nearly 4 percent, as investors’ concerns about a potential dividend cut eased.</p>
<p>Pfizer said on Friday it continued to evaluate potential alternatives for the business, which include a spin-off, sale or other transaction, as well as retaining it.</p>
<p>“We have not yet made a decision, but continue to expect to make one in 2018,” a spokesman said.</p>
<p>Sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday it was possible there were other bids. On Friday, a source said that if not, Pfizer could try to tap private equity funds.</p>
<p>Pfizer is the world’s fifth-largest player in consumer health with 2.5 percent of a market bolstered by aging populations and growing interest in health and wellness.</p>
<p>The business, which also includes Chapstick lip balm and Caltrate supplements, is seen as attractive but has come to market at a bad time. GSK and Reckitt are under shareholder pressure to exercise financial discipline, while other potential suitors, such as Bayer ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAYGn.DE" type="external">BAYGn.DE</a>) and Sanofi ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SASY.PA" type="external">SASY.PA</a>) are busy with other projects.</p> FILE PHOTO: The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in New York, U.S., April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
<p>What is more, the global consumer health market has slowed, from 4-6 percent like-for-like sales growth to 0-3 percent growth, Morgan Stanley analysts said in December. Major players in the over-the-counter market have been grappling with pricing pressure stoked by online players such as Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) and private label competitors.</p>
<p>Pfizer’s hope of fetching around $20 billion translated to a multiple of about 20 times the unit’s core earnings, according to Bernstein analysts, in line with past deals in the sector during faster growing times.</p>
<p>Differences in price expectations also hobbled German drugmaker Merck KGaA’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MRCG.DE" type="external">MRCG.DE</a>) attempts to sell its consumer products unit, where a price tag of up to 4 billion euros ($5 billion) deterred initial suitors such as Nestle ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NESN.S" type="external">NESN.S</a>), Perrigo ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PRGO.N" type="external">PRGO.N</a>) and a private-equity consortium.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GSK.L" type="external">GlaxoSmithKline PLC</a> 1315.6 GSK.L London Stock Exchange +41.80 (+3.28%) GSK.L PFE.N RB.L JNJ.N BAYGn.DE
<p>Reckitt’s early interest in the Merck assets also waned as the Pfizer auction gained momentum.</p> SPLIT OPINION
<p>Buying the Pfizer business would have been the boldest move to date for Walmsley, who took over at GSK last April. But the wisdom of a deal split opinion among investors, with some worried about the risk to the company’s dividend.</p>
<p>Acquiring additional consumer health assets at a reasonable price could have been a fairly safe way to boost earnings, since scale is key in over-the-counter remedies, but it could have distracted from fixing GSK’s core pharma division.</p>
<p>That is a particular headache for Walmsley - a consumer products veteran who worked for 17 years at L’Oreal ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=OREP.PA" type="external">OREP.PA</a>) - since she has her work cut out to persuade the market she is the right person to lead Britain’s top pharmaceuticals company.</p>
<p>Last month, in a bid to reassure investors, she spelt out that her first priority was improving performance in prescription drugs, followed by dividend payments and only after that acquisitions.</p>
<p>The overhaul of the drugs business, which has produced fewer blockbuster medicines than rivals in recent years, is underway in both the commercial and research fields.</p>
<p>GSK runs its consumer healthcare business via a joint venture with Novartis ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NOVN.S" type="external">NOVN.S</a>), which complicates any acquisitions. Novartis has the right to sell down its 36.5 percent stake, valued at around $10 billion, from this month, although it has previously indicated it is in no rush to do so.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Paul Sandle and Ben Hirschler; Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">BAC.N</a>) will pay a $42 million fine and admitted wrongdoing to settle claims by New York’s attorney general that it fraudulently routed clients’ stock trades to outside firms, including one run by swindler Bernard Madoff.</p> FILE PHOTO: A customer leaves a Bank of America ATM kiosk in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
<p>New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the settlement on Friday, and called the fine the largest collected by the state to resolve an electronic trading probe.</p>
<p>The attorney general said Bank of America Merrill Lynch had undisclosed agreements with several electronic trading firms from March 2008 to May 2013 to handle client trades.</p>
<p>He said the bank told clients it was processing the trades in-house, even going so far as to alter trade confirmations, as part of an effort to make its electronic trading services appear safer and more sophisticated than they were.</p>
<p>Schneiderman said the “masking” scheme affected more than 16 million trade orders and 4 billion shares, benefiting such firms as Madoff Securities, Citadel Securities, D.E. Shaw, Knight Capital and Two Sigma Securities.</p>
<p>The bank also admitted to having told traders in its “dark pool,” a private venue where they expected protection from high-speed traders, that up to 30 percent of orders came from retail traders, when the percentage was closer to 5 percent.</p>
<p>“Bank of America Merrill Lynch went to astonishing lengths to defraud its own institutional clients about who was seeing and filling their orders, who was trading in its dark pool, and the capabilities of its electronic trading services,” Schneiderman said in a statement.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">Bank of America Corp</a> 29.17 BAC.N New York Stock Exchange -1.38 (-4.52%) BAC.N BARC.L CSGN.S DBKGn.DE
<p>Bill Halldin, a bank spokesman, said in an email: “At all times we met our obligation to deliver the best prices to clients. About five years ago, we addressed the issues concerning communicating to clients about where their trades were executed.”</p>
<p>The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank also admitted that its masking activity violated New York’s powerful securities fraud law, the Martin Act.</p>
<p>In 2016, Barclays Plc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BARC.L" type="external">BARC.L</a>), Credit Suisse Group AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CSGN.S" type="external">CSGN.S</a>) and Deutsche Bank AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>) settled separate electronic and high-speed trading probes by Schneiderman’s office for a respective $35 million, $30 million and $18.5 million. They also reached related settlements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.</p>
<p>Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term for running a huge Ponzi scheme involving his investment advisory business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Phil Berlowitz</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Steve Wynn, the former chief executive of Wynn Resorts Ltd, has disposed his entire 11.8 percent stake in the firm for $2.1 billion in a dramatic exit of the casino and hotel enterprise he founded over 16 years ago.</p>
<p>In an unexpected separate move, Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment said it has agreed to buy 5.3 million primary shares of Wynn Resorts at $175 per share, giving them around a 5 percent stake in the operator which has resorts in Las Vegas and Macau.</p>
<p>Galaxy is one of six licensed operators in the world’s largest gambling hub of Macau and competes with Wynn along with Sands China, MGM China and Melco Resorts.</p>
<p>The casino mogul’s share sale comes a week after Wynn Resorts said Steve and Elaine Wynn, who has a 9.26 percent stake, had scrapped a shareholder agreement that prevented them from selling their stakes.</p>
<p>Steve Wynn resigned as CEO of the Las Vegas-based company last month, following claims he subjected women who worked for him to unwanted advances. He has denied the accusations.</p>
<p>In a joint statement by Galaxy and Wynn on Wednesday, Galaxy Vice Chairman Francis Lui said it was a unique opportunity to “acquire an investment in a globally recognised entertainment corporation with exceptionally high quality assets and a significant development pipeline.”</p>
<p>A Galaxy spokeswoman could not comment further on whether Galaxy would look to increase its holding in the future.</p>
<p>Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox said Galaxy shared many of the same core “operating philosophies and values.”</p>
<p>The announcement also follows the settlement two weeks ago of long standing litigation between Wynn Resorts and Universal Entertainment Corporation.</p>
<p>Wynn said two long-term institutional investors, currently holding stakes in Wynn Resorts, have agreed to purchase the remaining eight million shares held by Steve Wynn also at $175 a share.</p>
<p>A Thursday filing showed the embattled founder sold 4.1 million shares of Wynn Resorts at $180 per share - effectively exiting his entire 12.1 million shares, or 11.8 percent stake in the firm, for a total of $2.14 billion.</p> Steve Wynn, Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake WYNN IMPACT
<p>Wynn, who started in Las Vegas casinos in the 1960s, created some of Las Vegas’ most iconic landmarks – the Mirage, Bellagio and Treasure Island.</p>
<p>He was forced to sell his multi-billion dollar operation Mirage Resorts to tycoon Kirk Kerkorian in a hostile takeover in 2000. Kerkorian then created MGM Mirage and Wynn went on to create Wynn Resorts with his ex-wife in 2002.</p> An exterior view Wynn hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Steve Marcus
<p>The 76 year old businessman, whose signature denotes the company’s logo, had built two lavish resorts in the former Portuguese colony of Macau where only six firms have licenses to operate casinos.</p>
<p>Vitaly Umansky, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in Hong Kong, said the implications of the Galaxy’s investment goes beyond what looks like a passive move at this stage.</p>
<p>“Wynn and Galaxy may be looking at collaborating on future development opportunities in Asia, with Japan being the critical development initiative.”</p>
<p>Galaxy’s octogenarian founder Lui Che Woo, one of Asia’s wealthiest billionaires, has a net wealth of $22 billion according to Forbes. Lui who started his career in construction has grown his casino company into one of Macau’s biggest operators over the past decade.</p>
<p>“There are other large gaming companies who do not have a presence in Macau, but who desperately want to be in Macau, and we would not be surprised to see them angling for a seat at the acquisition table too,” said Grant Govertsen, analyst at Union Gaming in Macau.</p>
<p>While Galaxy has been primarily focused on Macau with its three casinos, it this week received a license to operate a roughly $500 million resort in Boracay, the Philippines most famous holiday island.</p>
<p>Wynn, which operates a resort on Cotai and Macau’s main peninsula, focuses on premium and VIP customers, while Galaxy targets both the high end segment and the broader mass. Both companies have reported strong earnings growth in the fourth quarter with Galaxy posting a 67 percent surge in 2017 profit.</p>
<p>Shares in Wynn Macau and Galaxy dropped 3.9 percent and 2.9 percent respectively on Friday against the benchmark Hang Seng Index which was down 3.1 percent.</p>
<p>Reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong and Philip George in Bengaluru; Editing by Shri Navaratnam</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders called on U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday to make permanent an EU exemption from U.S. metal import duties, saying they reserved the right to respond “in a proportionate manner” to protect the bloc’s interests.</p>
<p>The 40-day reprieve granted by Washington was like U.S. President Donald Trump pointing a gun at Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a summit in Brussels.</p>
<p>“We will talk about anything in principle with a country that respects WTO rules. We will not talk about anything when it is with a gun to our head,” he told a news conference.</p>
<p>The EU’s trade chief demanded that the United States drop “artificial deadlines” and her boss, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said it was impossible to reach agreement by May 1.</p>
<p>Trump said on Thursday he would suspend tariffs for the EU, the United States’ biggest trading partner, as well as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. The tariffs are suspended until May 1 as discussions continue.</p>
<p>EU heads of state and government said in a joint statement that the measures were regrettable, could not be justified on national security grounds which was the basis cited by Washington and the exemption should be permanent.</p>
<p>“Sector-wide protection in the U.S. is an inappropriate remedy for the real problems of overcapacity,” they said.</p>
<p>The leaders also said they supported steps taken by the European Commission to respond to the U.S. measures “as appropriate and in a proportionate manner”.</p>
<p>Cecilia Malmstrom, the trade commissioner who negotiates on behalf of the 28 nations, said Europeans did not want to be penalised by actions prompted largely by accusations of Chinese dumping and said Washington and Brussels should be cooperating.</p>
<p>She told Reuters it was still unclear what Trump wanted in return for granting a permanent waiver and said the EU could bring up a list of its own “trade irritants” if he insisted that EU car import duties be cut. [L8N1R55IY]</p>
<p>Allies should not be subject to “artificial deadlines”, she said.</p> Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker attend the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2018. Olivier Hoslet/Pool via Reuters TEMPORARY EXEMPTION
<p>German industry, aware that Trump has warned he could raise duties on EU cars, welcomed the reprieve but said the threat of a trade war had not disappeared.</p>
<p>“We still have the threat of escalating global trade conflict. And U.S. President Donald Trump will demand a price for the tariff exclusion,” Thilo Brodtman, head of Germany’s VDMA engineering federation said in a statement.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe was trying to avoid a trade war in which everyone would lose.</p>
<p>European steelmakers group Eurofer said the danger to the EU market had not disappeared, with the exemption only temporary, and the EU needed its own quotas or tariffs to stop steel otherwise bound for the United States from flooding into Europe.</p>
<p>Europe says it wants to avert a trade war but the European Commission has proposed a series of measures if the White House hits EU producers.</p>
<p>It would launch a challenge at the World Trade Organization, consider measures to prevent a surge of metal imports into Europe and impose import duties on U.S. products to “rebalance” EU-U.S. trade. Malmstrom said the EU was keeping its options open.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-eu-malmstrom/still-unclear-what-trump-wants-from-europe-eu-trade-chief-says-idUSKBN1GZ2GZ" type="external">Still unclear what Trump wants from Europe, EU trade chief says</a>
<p>The counter-measures would include EU tariffs on U.S. orange juice, tobacco, bourbon and Harley-Davidson Inc motorbikes.</p>
<p>Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel underlined the irritation among some EU leaders at Trump’s negotiating tactics.</p>
<p>“I have the impression that the U.S. leader wants to negotiate with the European Union by putting a gun to our head,” Michel said, in an expression that was later echoed by Macron.</p>
<p>“That’s a strange way to negotiate with an ally.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt and Paul Carrel in Berlin; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Noah Barkin and Edmund Blair</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Destination Europe for Italian high-speed rail upstart GSK pulls out of $20 billion race for Pfizer consumer assets Bank of America pays $42 million fine in New York 'masking' probe Steve Wynn sells stake in company he founded, Macau casino Galaxy buys in EU complains of Trump's 'gun to our head' over tariffs | false | https://reuters.com/article/italo-ipo-strategy/destination-europe-for-italian-high-speed-rail-upstart-idUSL8N1PH629 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>How much did it cost to shut Boston down? People have been throwing around some large numbers, arrived at by multiplying the number of people who stayed home by their wage, or some variant on this method.</p>
<p>But of course, this isn't right. Most of the stuff that wasn't done on Friday will instead be done on Monday, or sometime in the next week. The salaried employees who stay home will work harder than usual. The hourly workers will, in many cases, pick up extra shifts.</p>
<p>Of course, not all the activity will be restored. Many events like banquets and charity balls that were cancelled will not be rescheduled, because planning those sorts of events takes months. Ancillary vendors from caterers to dry cleaners have lost revenue that will not be made up. Tourists who couldn't go out will go home with their money unspent. Restaurants and airlines permanently lost the opportunity to sell a spot in those seats. So there has been some real loss of "truck barter and exchange" that is simply lost, not delayed.</p>
<p>But those losses are likely to have been small relative to Boston's overall economy. The real loss was the fear, and the lost enjoyment. That is, people who would rather have spent their Friday day at the office and their evening socializing with friends had instead to spend it cowering in their homes--and some people very close to the action had to leave their homes and go somewhere else. But the economic impact of this is hard to calculate. Not least because some people might have been happier having an unexpected day off and making up the work later.</p>
<p>Then there's the non-economic cost. Many progressives, and especially, many libertarians, are criticizing this as an overreaction that involved immense intrusions into personal liberty. An overreaction it may have been, but I'm less worried about the liberty aspect, because as far as I can tell, compliance with the shutdown was pretty much entirely voluntary. I haven't seen any complaints about jackbooted police officers forcing people back into their homes when they tried to come out, and I have heard reports from folks who drove into the office without getting hassled. I'd imagine that most people were quite willing to stay inside for a day if that would help the police capture the marathon bombers.</p>
<p>Obviously, we don't want to make a habit of this sort of thing. But I'm actually less worried about this sort of large-scale operation than I am about smaller, more pervasive erosions of civil liberties, like airport security, theaters, and warrantless wiretapping. When it comes to shutting down a city, it's very unlikely that we're going to make a habit of this sort of thing: it's immensely costly for the government, somewhat costly to the economy, and except in very extraordinary instances, people don't like it. On the other hand, stop-and-frisk became widespread, and not-infrequently abusive, precisely because it's invisible to most voters. We should be worried about the seizure of our liberty in small, manageable doses, not enormous chunks.</p> | The Cost of Boston | true | https://thedailybeast.com/the-cost-of-boston | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>The latest development in the saga of the so-called "birther" challenges to Barack Obama’s presidency comes from Hawaii, Obama’s native state. Yesterday, Gov. Linda Lingle <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8680916.stm" type="external">signed a law</a> allowing state agencies to ignore requests for information if they determine the requests duplicate or are substantially similar to earlier ones. The law targets those who contend Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and thus, under the Constitution, can’t be president; they still are sending <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_BIRTH_CERTIFICATE?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2010-05-12-21-14-39" type="external">10 to 20 e-mails every week</a> asking the state’s Health Department for verification of his birth certificate. Some file the same request even after receiving a response.</p>
<p>(As journalists, we wonder, "Since when has a government official needed a law to ignore a request for information?" But we assume Hawaii officials have their reasons.)</p>
<p>Hawaii officials tell requesters the same thing over and over: State law prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who doesn’t have a tangible interest in the matter. For those coming in late, Obama requested and obtained a copy of his own birth certificate and released it publicly in 2008, after which <a href="" type="internal">we examined it and found all in order</a>. The document is legal proof of citizenship, and it’s the <a href="http://www.starbulletin.com/columnists/kokualine/20090606_kokua_line.html" type="external">only type of birth record the state issues</a>. Nevertheless, some wanted more. So Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the state health director, <a href="http://hawaii.gov/health/about/pr/2009/09-063.pdf" type="external">issued a statement saying</a> that she has seen the original vital records verifying that Obama was born in Hawaii and "is a natural-born American citizen." But that hasn’t stopped the inquiries.</p>
<p>Linda Lingle, we’d note, is a Republican, and <a href="http://www.lvrj.com/news/31095744.html?numComments=26" type="external">stumped for Sen. John McCain</a> in 2008.</p>
<p>In other news on this front, the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has <a href="http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/unpub/ops/200915418.pdf" type="external">upheld a $20,000 sanction</a> against Orly Taitz, the most visible of those pressing the Obama-as-foreigner theory. <a href="" type="internal">As we wrote</a> in January, a lower court judge <a href="http://ia311028.us.archive.org/1/items/gov.uscourts.gamd.77605/gov.uscourts.gamd.77605.28.0.pdf" type="external">imposed the fine</a> to punish Taitz’ "misconduct" in filing "frivolous" legal claims on behalf of an Army officer who didn’t want to deploy to Iraq on the grounds that Obama’s presidency was illegitimate:</p>
<p>Judge Clay D. Land, Oct. 13 2009: While the Court derives no pleasure from its imposition of sanctions upon counsel Orly Taitz, it likewise has no reservations about the necessity of doing so. A clearer case could not exist; a weaker message would not suffice.</p>
<p>Land was named to the bench by another Republican, former President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Another lawsuit filed by Taitz on the subject was <a href="http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/04/judge-dismisses-suit-by-birther-activist-orly-taitz.html" type="external">dismissed in April</a> by no-nonsense federal Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C. "This court is not willing to go tilting at windmills with her," Lamberth said, referring to Taitz.</p>
<p>Taitz, undeterred, is hoping to <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/10/EDP71DB7T5.DTL" type="external">capture the Republican nomination</a> to be California’s secretary of state. In that race, she claims that her primary opponent is ineligible to run, though for different reasons than his place of birth. <a href="http://totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com/2010/05/12/suit-filed-on-behalf-of-obama-birthplace-lawyer/34921/" type="external">Taitz contends</a> that Damon Dunn was too recently registered as a Democrat to be a candidate in the GOP primary.&#160;</p> | The Obama Birth Chronicles, Chapter CCXCVIII | false | https://factcheck.org/2010/05/the-obama-birth-chronicles-chapter-ccxcviii/ | 2010-05-13 | 2 |
<p>It has been said by some of the original Black Panthers that, in their view, it wasn’t their armed self-defense against police violence that brought the full weight of state repression down on them. What brought it was their establishment of alternative institutions—schools, food programs, and medical clinics etc., based on collectivist principles. What the (economically) captured state fears most, then and now, is factual demonstration that the established ways of doing things not only aren’t the only ways to do them; they aren’t even in the range of sane and workable ways of doing them.</p>
<p>The Occupy encampments that arose around the country last Fall offered a similar contrast. While I only knew the encampment at Zuccotti Park in New York, multiple reports had it that the same collectivist principles of mutual aid and the establishment of alternative institutions such as free medical care, food programs, open schools, free stores and the free library began to fill the broader needs of nearby communities. In so doing, the absence of a functioning political economy within the capitalist-state was laid bare.</p>
<p>Most readers are likely unaware of the breath and intensity of the state strategies of repression against Occupy. And given the high level of rampant criminality in the boardrooms and executive suites surrounding Zuccotti Park, it is no accident that the state chose to focus its energies on crushing what it believed to be the actual threat to the existing order. Systematic criminality is what the NYPD and the FBI are being pitted against Occupy to protect.</p>
<p>This undoubtedly reads like brave talk for what Occupy has accomplished to date. But the scale and scope of state repression suggests that the state doesn’t think so. Additionally, the premises that lie behind the criticism of mismatched scale: wee little Occupy as in some sense a model, or series of models, to replace the giant, integrated plutocrat-state, assume (1) that we, broadly speaking, really want or need most of what the plutocrat-state “provides,” and (2) what could be recovered in terms of functional political economy and institutions couldn’t replace what currently exists. I believe neither of these to be true.</p>
<p>The for-profit economic system is premised on economic elites taking what they can from us and returning as little as they can get away with returning in ‘exchange’. This describes our health care system, our educational system, our food system, and to the extent that they still exist, our jobs. As health care, education, food and sustaining economic existence are basic human needs, it is the profit system that stands between nominal and factual provision of these services.</p>
<p>The plutocrat-state claims that it is the only political economy that can provide these services and then it doesn’t provide them. If it is agreed that these are necessary for human well being then the choice is to stay with the system that by design doesn’t provide them or to establish alternative institutions without the restraint and withholding of the profit system. (The plutocrat’s claim of scarcity might be more credible if they didn’t have so much of our social wealth in their own pockets).</p>
<p>Sure the experience at Zuccotti Park (and Oakland, Chicago, etc.) has to date been limited, and supported in some measure from without. But what was demonstrated is that not only is the profit system not the sole motivation of political economy, for most of us it only enters as a consideration when it is forced on us. A large part of the liberation felt at Occupy encampments was freedom from market mediation of our relationships. And ongoing resistance to co-optation springs from the insight that other modes mediation similarly mis-directs our efforts.</p>
<p>The anarcho-collectivist model that broadly describes my experience with Occupy has (rightly) been challenged from the left, but to date for the wrong reasons. The questions proffered presuppose the shell of nation-state and ask how an anarcho-collectivist model would populate that shell with workable institutions? First, to put the question back—how has the existing order done so and would we be out there protesting if we found it workable?</p>
<p>Certainly the current and recent past governments in the U.S. and their masters in the oligarchy don’t take the object of nation-state as indelible fact, as evidenced by their wiping their asses with founding documents like the Constitution. Furthermore, they use our institutions as instruments of control and repression and us as cannon fodder and slave labor to make themselves ever richer.</p>
<p>And in a real sense, form has followed function in the U.S. in that three hundred years of varying degrees of plutocratic and oligarchic control have gone into building the existing nation-state.&#160; Could the shell serve, in the sense that Marx and Bakunin debated the issue, as a container into which a different political economy could be inserted? Or would it remain an irresistible attractor back toward oligarchy and plutocracy?</p>
<p>While Marx may have had it right for his time and place, my reading of U.S. history tends toward the irresistible attractor thesis. (Bracher’s The German Dictatorship outlines right wing strategies of state control that credibly require military annihilation of the state to undo. A number of these strategies find their mirror in recent U.S. history). And the tragedy of the Egyptian Revolution seems at the moment to lend credence to this view. If the existing order can’t be shoved aside, it must somehow be gotten around.</p>
<p>Alternatively, what isn’t being confronted with ‘efficiency’ critiques (radical democracy often results in nothing being decided) is that it is the efficient systems that are killing us. What is capitalist efficiency in the local sense is world-ending environmental destruction in the global sense. This is both fact and metaphor. So while it is unlikely that a system of amended consensus (90% or more vote in favor) would take us into yet one more pathetic slaughter (war) for the benefit of a few connected insiders, what possibly could be regained through it is community and an unmediated sense of ourselves.</p>
<p>The idea that Occupy was, or ever would be, a ‘military’ threat to the established order, given that killing and crushing people is the one thing that the American plutocrat-state does really well, makes no sense. The state has had to manufacture phony “terrorist” plots to even plant the idea that we could be. This suggests that even the state doesn’t believe that this is the threat Occupy poses.</p>
<p>Rather than obliterating our institutions (medical care, kitchen, library) in the raids on Occupy encampments, why didn’t they just pack up their contents and tell us to pick them up in some distant county? The answer is that it was our community and our alternative institutions that the state sought to obliterate. The Panthers were most probably onto something in arguing that it is the building of alternative institutions that the plutocrats and their state find most threatening. (Flip the question: if we had stayed at Zuccotti Park without the protests, would they have let us stay? No way).</p>
<p>Forty years ago capitalist reformers took the stage. At this point the burden of proof that their system could under any circumstances ever work lies squarely with them. If we are to provide for basic human needs, the plutocrat-state has given every indication that we are on our own. We can accept the increasingly meager crumbs that those institutions drop in our direction or we can provide for ourselves. This includes fighting to retain the social wealth that is still nominally in our hands.(homes, pensions, insurance schemes etc.).</p>
<p>Hindsight is with the cautionary tales from the moderates from the 1960s, but not for the reasons that they think. The treatment that the original Black Panthers received from the state became personal tragedy, but it was also a series of crimes committed against them by the state. The murder of Fred Hampton in his bed next to his pregnant wife was a crime. Sending the Panthers to prison for decades on false charges (the state admits this) was a crime. The Panthers built schools so the state murdered them. So who’s to blame, the criminal state or the Panthers who fought for their communities?</p>
<p>The Weather Underground blew up buildings and occasionally themselves. What they didn’t do is murder three million Vietnamese. The Weather Underground was right in their condemnation of the war in Vietnam. The critique from the moderates was with their tactics. But had the Weather Underground succeeded, would the subsequent wars for plutocratic profit have occurred? (I don’t know). The moderates can criticize action, but what did they achieve? Neither the Panthers nor the Weather Underground caused the capitalist revival that is decimating the world. So at what point does personal tragedy become collective tragedy? What part of ‘not in our names’ don’t the moderates get?</p>
<p>The choice at present is not between competing institutions. If we need health care, schools, food and jobs the plutocrat-state has put us on notice that we are on our own. Occupy has provided a hint at possible alternatives. The state and their plutocrat masters will fight us even if we surrender today because in their system, our loss is their gain. It is our subjugation that sustains them.</p>
<p>Last, as a believer in radical democracy, this is my voice. Others can, and should, speak for themselves.</p>
<p>Rob Urie is an artist and political economist in New York.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Occupy in History | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/06/15/occupy-in-history/ | 2012-06-15 | 4 |
<p>U.S. stocks on Monday pivoted narrowly higher in late-morning trade, aided by buying in technology and consumer-staples shares, which offset firm declines in the energy sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 30 points, or 0.2%, at 20,945. Share gains in Apple Inc. , Walt Disney Co. and Caterpillar Inc. was contributing more than 20 points to the blue-chip gauge. The S&amp;P 500 index was trading flat, and bouncing in and out of negative territory at around 2,378, with the consumer-staples sector, up 0.1%, and tech shares, climbing 0.3%, muting a 0.7% decline in energy , which was dragged lower by crude oil declines . Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.2% at 5,911, and had set an all-time intraday trading high of 5,915.12 earlier in the session. Wall Street traders were closely watching a House Intelligence Committee hearing, <a href="http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2017/03/20/fbi-director-comey-testifies-to-congress-live-video-and-updates/" type="external">including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey Opens a New Window.</a>, centered on Russia's involvement with the election of President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Apple, Disney Stocks Help To Tip Nasdaq To Intraday Record | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/20/apple-disney-stocks-help-to-tip-nasdaq-to-intraday-record.html | 2017-03-20 | 0 |
<p>A new study finds that many people newly covered by Medicaid under the federal health law are seeking treatment in hospital emergency rooms. That's one of the most expensive settings for health care.</p>
<p>The analysis released Monday by the Colorado Hospital Association provides a real-time glimpse at how the nation's newest social program is working.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It also found signs that newly insured Medicaid patients admitted to hospitals may be sicker than patients previously covered by the program, which serves more than 60 million low-income and disabled people.</p>
<p>Taxpayers could save millions of dollars if newly insured Medicaid patients with routine needs are steered to community health centers or urgent care clinics, not service-intensive ERs.</p>
<p>The study looked at 25 states. Thirteen of them expanded Medicaid, and 12 did not.</p> | Study: Medicaid expansion prompts rise in ER visits; hospitals also treating sicker patients | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/09/08/study-medicaid-expansion-prompts-rise-in-er-visits-hospitals-also-treating.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>TAJI, Iraq — In two weeks, each of these men will be handed a gun and sent to guard checkpoints in one of the most dangerous sections of Baghdad. Their outlook is poor: Dozens of fellow officers have been killed by car bombs in the northern edge of Khadamiya this year.</p>
<p>The new recruits arrive on foot at Camp Taji for their first day in the Iraqi federal police. Most of the men are middle aged, all in civilian clothes, some are wearing municipal jumpsuits, others are in plastic sandals.</p>
<p>Following a fatwa from influential Shia leader Ayatollah Ali Sistani, thousands of Shia volunteers rose up to help in the fight against an alliance of Sunni militants with their sights on the capital. While most of these new recruits were funneled off into the Iraqi military, many are also being used to shore up the capital’s police force, an institution struggling to keep Baghdad safe from a recent rise in suicide car bomb attacks. Iraqi officials say they need the extra manpower as they set up new checkpoints and increase the frequency of neighborhood patrols.</p>
<p>But their inexperience and lack of training, say Iraqi police commanders and former officials involved in the US-led training program, may prove a liabilitly that outweighs the advantage of the extra manpower, suggesting that the drive to quickly increase the number of men in uniform is more for the sake of appearances than tangible improvements in security.</p>
<p>“A lot of them they don’t have any experience,” admits General Malik Maliki of the 8th division of the Iraqi federal police. His men patrol the mostly Shia northern Baghdad neighborhood of Khadamiya, a frequent target of car bomb attacks — and his base, camp Taji, has absorbed hundreds of volunteers over the past month.&#160;</p>
<p>Maliki explains while most Iraqis learned how to use a weapon in some capacity during the country’s brutal 2005-2007 civil war, these volunteers “just don’t have the capacity to go straight into the field.”&#160;</p>
<p>“My concern — while there and now — is the training piece,” says retired Lt. General Mark Hertling, who was the top US commander in northern Iraq from 2007-2009. Casting doubts on the possible effectiveness of “crash courses” for volunteers, he explains that even the standard training program for Iraqi police, which comprises several weeks at the police training academy, is not long enough “to get a professional policeman on the streets.”</p>
<p>Hertling explains that in addition to the immediate dangers associated with having a large number of inadequately trained, inexperienced, armed men patrolling the streets of the capital, the new wave of volunteers threaten long term problems for Iraq’s police force.</p>
<p>From PRI: <a href="" type="internal">Baghdad's police are just waiting for the next car bombing</a></p>
<p />
<p>“The call to arms by Sistani … resulted mostly in the recruitment of young Shia men.” Because of that, Hertling predicts, the police force will become a more sectarian organization, rather than one based on procedure and the rule of law. “[The new volunteers] will be more prone to make arrests based on sectarian versus legal reasons.”</p>
<p>The responsibility for training these volunteers generally falls to the commanding officers at the base or checkpoint where they’re assigned. At Maliki’s base, Taji, he’s developed a quick 14-day program of weapons training, checkpoint etiquette and drills.&#160;</p>
<p>In south Baghdad, at a checkpoint outside Saydiyya, Taji’s two-week program sounds luxurious. Here the commanding officer says volunteers arrive without a single hour of instruction, leaving him to provide a crash course.</p>
<p>“We just don’t have enough time to train them well,” explains General Ali, the commanding officer at this checkpoint. With violence on the rise in the capital, Ali says all he has time for is instructing the men with “the basics.”&#160;</p>
<p>Right now, four volunteers are working with General Ali’s men and he’s thankful it’s not more.&#160;</p>
<p>“This is an important checkpoint, it's the main way to enter the Saydiyya neighborhood,” he explains. “You can’t have everyone here be a volunteer, they just don’t have enough experience for that.”</p>
<p>Ali says for his men, the most important skill is time spent on the job. Like most Iraqi officers at checkpoints, they use profiling to identify suspicious cars that they then pull over for further questioning and searches. Ali says being able to spot a suspicious car is a skill that comes from years of experience. It’s not something that can be taught in days or weeks.&#160;</p>
<p>“[The volunteers] are obviously a Band-Aid to try and close a gaping wound,” said Stuart Bowen, the former Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, a post from which he closely monitored US training programs for the Iraqi police force.&#160;</p>
<p>“The training [of volunteers] is certainly not efficient,” Bowen says. “It would require multi-level integrated efforts, much beyond what Iraq’s police forces are capable of at the moment.”</p>
<p>At the Saydiyya checkpoint, in addition to the volunteers, there’s another new feature, one that the commanding officer says is helping: a white pickup truck with unmarked plates parked just off to the side.&#160;</p>
<p>The truck belongs to two men in civilian clothes who are standing among the officers in uniform. These men identify themselves as intelligence officers based in Baghdad’s so-called green zone, but they’re widely believed to be members of the powerful militia Assab al-Haq.</p>
<p>General Ali says they’re indispensable. “They are the ones who bring us information,” Ali explains, gesturing to one man in a white button down shirt concealing a sidearm. “Maybe he’s even better than me. Sometimes the civilians are scared of me because of my uniform, but maybe they’ll trust him instead.”</p>
<p>Then, referring to the volunteer officers also scattered about the checkpoint Ali concedes that “their training, it's not like mine. I was trained under the Americans because back then we had enough time. Right now, we just don’t.”</p>
<p>Editor's note: Susannah's reporting from Baghdad is part of a GlobalPost partnership with <a href="" type="internal">PRI's The World</a>.</p> | Baghdad's police force is being flooded by inexperienced volunteers | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-08-01/baghdads-police-force-being-flooded-inexperienced-volunteers | 2014-08-01 | 3 |
<p>Chinese stocks hit a seven-year high as investors pinned their hopes on further economic stimulus while other Asian markets were subdued ahead of a speech by Fed chair Janet Yellen.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Japan's Nikkei 225 index added 0.2 percent to 20,233.61 and South Korea's Kospi rose 0.8 percent to 2,138.74. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.4 percent to 27,918.27. The Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China jumped 1.9 percent to 4,617.02, the highest level since 2008. Australia's S&amp;P/ASX 200 was practically unchanged at 5,660.80. Southeast Asian indexes were mixed.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>CHINA RALLY: Investors who weren't allocated shares in recent initial public offerings are plowing the money back into the market, sending it higher, said Andrew Sullivan, a sales trader at Haitong Securities. They're also betting that the economic stimulus that has powered the Chinese rally will continue after recent poor reports such as a disappointing manufacturing index on Thursday. "Even when you've got bad news, stocks are going up anyway," Sullivan said. "It is just pure liquidity, it's not fundamental in anyway.</p>
<p>JAPAN STIMULUS: The country's central bank meeting made no changes to its 80 trillion yen ($660 billion) annual stimulus program, as its policy board reaffirmed its assessment that Asia's second biggest economy was recovering moderately.</p>
<p>US ECONOMY: Global investors are awaiting a speech later Friday by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on the outlook for the world's biggest economy. Stock markets are hitting record highs as investors bet the U.S. central bank will delay raising interest rates based on mixed reports on the world's biggest economy. Data out Thursday showed U.S. home sales in April slipped on tight supply while jobless benefit applications fell to a 15-year low.</p>
<p>GOLDIN BOUNCE: A Chinese horse breeding, winemaking and financial conglomerate's Hong Kong-listed units rebounded strongly a day after they plunged more than 40 percent. Goldin Properties Holdings Ltd. jumped 10 percent while Goldin Financial Holdings Ltd. rose 3.4 percent. Earlier this week, another Chinese firm, Hanergy, tumbled in Hong Kong for no apparent reason before being suspended. The volatility is a sign of the rising flow of money from mainland China after the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges opened a trading link last year.</p>
<p>WALL STREET: Major U.S. stock indexes eked out another record close as energy companies gained on rising oil prices. The Standard &amp; Poor's closed up 0.2 percent at 2,130.82 while the Dow Jones industrial average edged up 0.34 point to 18,285.74. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.4 percent to 5,090.79.</p>
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<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude slipped 16 cents to $60.56 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.74 to close at $60.72 a barrel on Thursday. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil used by many U.S. refineries, lost 16 cents to $66.38 in London.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar declined to 120.77 yen from 121.05 yen on Thursday. The euro rose to $1.1145 from $1.1110.</p> | China stocks rally to 7-year high, other Asian markets restrained ahead of Yellen speech | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/05/22/china-stocks-rally-to-7-year-high-other-asian-markets-restrained-ahead-yellen.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>Photo by Addy Cameron-Huff | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>A brand new World Bank <a href="" type="internal">report</a>, The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018, offers evidence of how much poorer Africa is becoming thanks to rampant minerals, oil and gas extraction. Yet Bank policies and practices remain oriented to enforcing foreign loan repayments and transnational corporate (TNC) profit repatriation, thus maintaining the looting.</p>
<p>Central to its “natural capital accounting,” the Bank uses an “Adjusted Net Savings” (ANS) measure for changes in economic, ecological and educational wealth. This is surely preferable to “Gross National Income” (GNI, a minor variant of Gross Domestic Product), which fails to consider depletion of non-renewable natural resources and pollution (not to mention unpaid women’s and community work).</p>
<p>In its latest world survey (with 1990-2015 data), the Bank concludes that Sub-Saharan Africa loses roughly $100 billion of ANS annually because it is “the only region with periods of negative levels – averaging negative 3 percent of GNI over the past decade – suggesting that its development policies are not yet sufficiently promoting sustainable economic growth… Clearly, natural resource depletion is one of the key drivers of negative ANS in the region.”</p>
<p>The Bank asks, “How does Sub-Saharan Africa compare to other regions? Not favorably.” Contrary to pernicious “Africa Rising” <a href="" type="internal">mythology</a>, the ANS decline for Sub-Saharan Africa was worst from 2001-09 and 2013-15.</p>
<p>Other regions of the world scored strongly positive ANS increases, in the 5-25 percent range. Richer, resource-intensive countries such as Australia, Canada and Norway have positive ANS resource outcomes partly because their TNCs return profits to home-based shareholders.</p>
<p />
<p>Africa’s smash-and-grab ‘development policies’ aiming to attract Foreign Direct Investment have, even the Bank suggests, now become counter-productive: “Especially for resource-rich countries, the depletion of natural resources is often not compensated for by other investments. The warnings provided by negative ANS in many countries and in the region as a whole should not be ignored.”</p>
<p>Such <a href="http://triplecrisis.com/can-natural-capital-accounting-come-of-age-in-africa-part-1/" type="external">warnings</a> – including the 2012 <a href="http://www.gaboronedeclaration.com/" type="external">Gaborone Declaration</a> by ten African governments – are indeed being <a href="" type="internal">mainly ignored</a>, and <a href="http://triplecrisis.com/can-natural-capital-accounting-come-of-age-in-africa-part-2/" type="external">for a simple reason</a>, the Bank hints: “The [ANS] measure remains very important, especially in resource-rich countries. It helps in advocating for investments toward diversification to promote exports and sectoral growth outside the resource sector.”</p>
<p>Africa desperately needs diversification, but governments of resource-cursed countries are instead excessively influenced by TNCs intent on extraction. Even within the Bank such bias is evident, as the case of Zambia shows.</p>
<p>Zambia’s missing copper</p>
<p>Last year, the Bank appointed Zambia the main pilot country study within the project “Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services” ( <a href="http://www.wavespartnership.org/" type="external">WAVES</a>). Zambian forests, wetlands, farmland and water resources were <a href="" type="internal">considered</a> the “priority accounts.” Conspicuously missing was copper, the main component of Zambia’s natural wealth.</p>
<p>Was copper neglected in WAVES because such accounting would show a substantial net loss? One Bank <a href="" type="internal">estimate</a> of copper’s annual contribution to Zambia’s declining mineral wealth a decade ago put it at a huge 19.8 percent of GNI. Were such data widely discussed, it might compel a rethink in Zambia’s desperate privatisation of mines and export of unprocessed ore.</p>
<p>Naturally most World Bank staff work not in Zambians’ interests, but on behalf of other international banks and TNCs. This compels them to squeeze Zambia’s scarce foreign exchange: first, so TNCs can take profits home, and second, so Lusaka repays loans no matter how unaffordable and no matter how corrupt the borrowing government. Repayment is now especially difficult given that the kwacha declined from a level around 1 to the US$ in the 1990s to around 5 to the US$ from 2003-15, to the 9-12/US$ range since.</p>
<p>From 2002-08, the Zambian government led by Levy Mwanamasa (1948-2008) came under <a href="" type="internal">severe pressure</a> from the World Bank to sell the most valuable state assets to repay older loans, including those taken out by his <a href="" type="internal">corrupt predecessor</a>, Frederick Chiluba (1943-2011). That debt should have been repudiated and cancelled.</p>
<p>Even then, when selling Africa’s largest copper mine at Konkola, Mwanamasa should have ensured at least $400 million went into Zambia’s treasury. But the buyer, Vedanta chief executive Anil Agarwal, laughed wickedly when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98yKosnwb-Y" type="external">bragging</a> to a 2014 investment conference in Bangalore, India, that he tricked Mwanawasa into accepting only $25 million. “It’s been nine years and since then every year it is giving us a minimum of $500 million to $1 billion.” (Agarwal is now in the process of buying Anglo American’s South African mining assets, having purchased 20 percent of the firm in 2016-17.)</p>
<p>Against the looting of Africa: top-down or bottom-up?</p>
<p>Zambia is not alone. The Bank reports that from 1990-2015 many African countries suffered massive ANS shrinkage (a process termed ‘dissaving’ as a polite substitute for ‘looting’), including Angola (68 percent), the Republic of the Congo (49 percent) and Equatorial Guinea (39 percent). As commodity prices peaked in the 2007-14 super-cycle period, resource depletion was the major factor for Africa’s wealth shrinkage.</p>
<p />
<p>What can be done? There are really only two ways to address TNC capture of African wealth: bottom-up through direct action blocking extraction, or top-down through reforms.</p>
<p>The futility of the latter is exemplified by the African Union’s 2009 Alternative Mining Vision (AMV). It <a href="https://issuu.com/africanmineralsdevelopmentcentre/docs/africa_mining_vision_english" type="external">proclaims</a> (without any reference to natural resource depletion capital accounting), “arguably the most important vehicle for building local capital are the foreign resource investors – TNCs – who have the requisite capital, skills and expertise”</p>
<p>South African activist Chris Rutledge <a href="http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/press_releases/the_african_mining_vision-_repackaging_an_old_paradigm.pdf" type="external">opposed</a> this neoliberal logic last year in an ActionAid report, The AMV: Are we repackaging a colonial paradigm?: “By ramping up models of maximum extraction, the AMV once again stands in direct opposition to our own priorities to ensure resilient livelihoods and securing climate justice. It is downright opposed to any type of Free Prior and Informed Consent. And it does not address the structural causes of structural violence experienced by women, girls and affected communities.”</p>
<p>The first strategy – community-based opposition – could be far more effective. According to a pamphlet prepared by Johannesburg faith-based mining watchdog <a href="http://www.bench-marks.org.za/" type="external">Bench Marks Foundation</a> for the civil society <a href="http://altminingindaba.co.za/" type="external">Alternative Mining Indaba</a> in Cape Town this week, “Intractable conflicts of interest prevail with ongoing interruptions to mining operations. Resistance to mining operations is steadily on the increase along with the associated conflict.”</p>
<p>The Alternative Indaba’s challenge is to embrace this resistance, not retreat into <a href="" type="internal">reformist NGO silos</a> – and not continue to ignore mining’s adverse impact on energy security, climate and resource depletion as it <a href="https://www.pambazuka.org/land-environment/disconnecting-minerals-energy-climate-dots" type="external">often has</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, three years ago, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani <a href="" type="internal">conceded</a> that due to community protests, “There’s something like $25 billion worth of projects tied up or stopped,” a stunning feat given that all new mines across the world were valued that year at $80 billion. (A map of these can be found at the Environmental Justice Atlas, <a href="http://ejatlas.org/" type="external">http://ejatlas.org</a>.)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the World Bank’s lending staffers (distinct from the Changing Wealth of Nations researchers) are still subject to protests over mining here. Women living in the Marikana slums, organised as <a href="" type="internal">Sikhala Sonke</a>, remain disgusted by the $150 million financing commitment made to <a href="" type="internal">Lonmin</a>, which from 2007-12 the Bank bizarrely considered its ‘ <a href="" type="internal">best case</a>’ for community investment – until the police massacre of 34 workers there during a wildcat strike. (Bank president Jim Yong Kim even visited Johannesburg two weeks after that, but <a href="" type="internal">didn’t dare mention</a> much less visit his institution’s ‘best case’ mining stake.)</p>
<p>The Bank’s other notorious South Africa operations included <a href="" type="internal">generous credits to the apartheid regime</a>, relentless <a href="" type="internal">promotion</a> of neoliberal ideology after 1990, a <a href="" type="internal">corrupt $3.75 billion Eskom loan</a> in 2010 (the largest-ever Bank project loan, which still funds the most polluting coal-fired power plant under construction anywhere in the world), and ongoing lead-shareholder investments in the <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/world-banks-role-sas-social-grants-payment-system/" type="external">CPS-Net1 rip-offs</a> of South Africa’s 11 million poorest citizens who receive social grants.</p>
<p>To top it all off, in spite of the embarrassing revelations about TNC exploitation unmistakeable in The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018, the Bank is a financial sponsor of this week’s <a href="https://www.miningindaba.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=283869&amp;" type="external">African Mining Indaba</a> at the Cape Town convention centre. Each year, it’s the place to break bread and sip fine Stellenbosch wines (though perhaps <a href="" type="internal">not water</a> in this climate-catastrophic city) with the world’s most aggressive mining bosses and allied African political elites, conferring jovially about how to amplify the looting.</p> | New Evidence of Africa’s Systematic Looting, From an Increasingly Schizophrenic World Bank | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/02/05/new-evidence-of-africas-systematic-looting-from-an-increasingly-schizophrenic-world-bank/ | 2018-02-05 | 4 |
<p>Highlights from our latest update of the statistical record of President Obama’s time in office:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>As we do every three months, we offer here a fresh update of selected statistical indicators of what has happened since Barack Obama first took the oath of office in January 2009. Some are positive and some are not, but all are from sources we consider solid and reliable. And as usual, we caution that no single number or collection of numbers can tell the entire story.</p>
<p>Jobs &amp; Unemployment</p>
<p>Number of Jobs — The jobs figure for March stands 835,000 higher than we reported three months ago. The economy has now <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001" type="external">added 7,206,000 jobs</a> since Obama first took office.</p>
<p>Unemployment Rate — Meanwhile the <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000" type="external">unemployment rate</a> ticked down another tenth of a point, to 5.5 percent. That’s a decline of 2.3 percentage points since the recession-plagued month of January 2009, when the president first took the oath of office.</p>
<p>Historically, the jobless rate is now a bit better than it has been most of the time since 1948. The historical median is 5.6 percent.</p>
<p>Long-term Unemployment — February also saw the number of <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13008636" type="external">long-term unemployed</a> — those who have&#160; been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer — drop below the level Obama inherited. The number went down to less than 2.6 million in March, which is 136,000 fewer than when the president first took office and less than half the 6.8 million figure chalked up in April 2010.</p>
<p>Job Openings — The <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/JTS00000000JOL" type="external">number of job openings</a> rose in January (the latest month on record) to just under 5 million, the highest level since January, 2001. The number of openings has gone up 81 percent since the month when the president entered office.</p>
<p>Business Startups — New businesses are opening at a rapid pace. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cewbd.t08.htm" type="external">220,000 “births” of new establishments</a> in the three months ending last June, the most recent period on record. That’s an increase of just under 18 percent compared to the quarter just prior to Obama’s first inauguration.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the number of business establishments shutting down permanently — business “deaths” — has gone down by just over 18 percent. The most recent figure is for the third quarter of 2013, because the BLS must wait a year before counting any shutdown as a permanent closing. Establishment birth and death figures are adjusted to compensate for seasonal variations.</p>
<p>&#160;Prices &amp; Wages</p>
<p>Consumer Prices – Overall inflation in consumer prices has remained moderate over Obama’s first six years, rising by only 11 percent between January 2009 and February, the most recent month for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the&#160; <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0" type="external">Consumer Price Index</a>.&#160; The average yearly rise under Obama of 1.9 percent is well below the post-World War II average of 3.7 percent. And thanks mainly to falling fuel prices, the CPI has actually dropped 0.8 percent since our last report.</p>
<p>Real Weekly Earnings – As a result, the purchasing power of weekly paychecks took another big jump since our last report.&#160; The BLS measure of <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000012" type="external">average weekly earnings for all workers</a>, adjusted for inflation and seasonal factors, was 3 percent higher in February than it was when Obama first took office.</p>
<p>Most of that gain is recent. Real weekly earnings have gone up 2.5 percent since fuel prices started dropping last June.</p>
<p>Gasoline –&#160; The national average price of regular gasoline has rebounded somewhat since the plunge that took it down to just over $2 a gallon in January. As of the week ended March 30, it stood at $2.45, according to the&#160; <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&amp;s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&amp;f=W" type="external">U.S. Energy Information Administration</a>.</p>
<p>That’s 33 percent higher than the unusually low point at which it stood on Inauguration Day 2009, but also 32 percent lower than it had been at the end of March 2014.</p>
<p>&#160;Food Stamps</p>
<p>The number of persons receiving food stamps edged down only slightly since our last report despite the rapidly improving economy. As of December, the most recent month on record, nearly 46.3 million Americans were receiving the food aid, now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance.</p>
<p>That’s only 3 percent below the record level set three years earlier, in December 2012, and nearly 45 percent higher than it was when Obama took office in 2009.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Obama does not quite qualify for the label that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came up with during his 2012 run for the Republican presidential nomination. Gingrich called Obama the “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXcyX8blbu0" type="external">food stamp president</a>” and claimed he had added more recipients to the rolls than any previous chief executive. But that was <a href="" type="internal">not true at the time</a> , and only later did the gain under Obama exceed the number added under his predecessor. Now, however, the title has gone back to George W. Bush; 14.7 million were added to the rolls during his time in office, and 14.3 million were added during Obama’s.</p>
<p>Home Ownership</p>
<p>The rate of home ownership has slipped again since our last report, to its lowest point in more than 20 years.</p>
<p>As of the final quarter of 2014, the percentage of U.S. households who owned their own homes was 64.0 percent, according to the <a href="http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/histtab14.xls" type="external">most recent release from the U.S. Census Bureau</a>. That is lower than at any time since the third quarter of 1994.</p>
<p>Home ownership peaked at 69.2 percent in 2004, but it has declined 5.2 percentage points since then. Most of the decline — 3.5 percentage points — has taken place since Obama first took office.</p>
<p>&#160;Profits &amp; Markets</p>
<p>Corporate Profits — <a href="" type="internal" />Corporate <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=qTS#" type="external">profits have soared</a> under Obama, smashing all previous records.</p>
<p>After-tax corporate profits have slipped a bit since the record level reflected in our last report. However, they were still running at a yearly rate of over $1.8 trillion in the final three months of 2014,&#160; according to the&#160;most recent figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.</p>
<p>That was an increase of 174 percent over the recession-plagued quarter six years earlier, just before Obama entered office. And it was also 30 percent higher than the best quarter prior to his taking office, which was the third quarter of 2006.</p>
<p>The highest profits ever recorded were in the third quarter of 2014, when they were running at a yearly rate of just under $1.9 trillion.</p>
<p>Stock Markets – Stockholders continue to do quite well under Obama. The&#160; <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=626307&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2016&amp;num=30&amp;ei=-O2vVMnfAsL7rAGT4IAw" type="external">Standard &amp; Poor’s 500-stock index</a> was 157 percent higher at the close last week than it was the day Obama took office. Other stock indexes show similarly robust gains. The&#160; <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=983582&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2015&amp;num=30&amp;ei=buyvVIn8N8L7rAGT4IAw" type="external">Dow Jones Industrial Average</a> also has more than doubled, rising 123 percent during Obama’s tenure, and the&#160; <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=13756934&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2016&amp;num=30&amp;ei=te6vVNDeOcmQqwGPm4GgCg" type="external">NASDAQ Composite index</a> has tripled, rising 239 percent.</p>
<p>Obamacare</p>
<p>Information about the effects of the Affordable Care Act continues to accumulate. The verdict so far: Millions have gained health insurance, but the percentage of the uninsured has declined by only about a third.</p>
<p>The administration, based on extensive polling by the Gallup organization, states that <a href="http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2015/uninsured_change/ib_uninsured_change.pdf" type="external">16 million persons have gained coverage</a> as a result of the law, the main provisions of which took effect last year. The claimed total includes an estimated 14.1 million adults who gained coverage since the start of the first open enrollment period in October, 2013, plus an estimated 2.3 million young adults age 19 through 25 who previously gained coverage after the law began requiring that insurance plans allow children to remain on their parents’ plans until age 26.</p>
<p>Those figures are roughly consistent with recent <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/insur201503.pdf" type="external">findings by the National Center for Health Statistics</a>, which estimates that only 11.9 percent of all Americans lacked health insurance at the time they were interviewed last year, down from 14.4 percent in 2013. However, that still left an estimated 37.2 million without insurance coverage, more than twice the number the administration figures have gained insurance.</p>
<p>The NCHS findings are preliminary, based on interviews conducted during the first nine months of 2014.</p>
<p>Federal Debt</p>
<p>The federal debt has continued to swell since our last report. The <a href="http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current" type="external">debt owed to the public now exceeds $13 trillion</a>, an increase of 108 percent since Obama first took office.&#160; The debt has also gained dramatically even when measured as a percentage of the nation’s economic output, or gross domestic product (GDP).</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/45069-2015-03-BudgetDataProjections-2.xlsx" type="external">estimates</a> that the debt at the end of this fiscal year will amount to 74.2 percent of GDP, up from 52.3 percent at the end of fiscal 2009, which was the last budget year in which spending and revenue levels were <a href="" type="internal">mostly determined</a> by Obama’s predecessor.</p>
<p>&#160;CBO projects that the FY 2015 deficit will come in at $486 billion, about the same as last year’s $485 billion deficit and about one-third of the $1.4 trillion deficit racked up in FY 2009.</p>
<p>But while CBO projects that deficits would decline slightly for the next few years under current taxing and spending policies, the annual shortfalls will resume their upward path fairly soon. In 2019, unless something is done, the debt will begin growing again as a percentage of the economy. By 2025 CBO estimates that the debt would amount to 77 percent of GDP, and interest payments would consume 13 percent of all federal spending (up from 6 percent this year).</p>
<p>Total debt, counting money the government owes to itself, currently stands at nearly $18.2 trillion, up 71 percent under Obama.</p>
<p>&#160;Energy</p>
<p>U.S. Crude Oil Production – The historic boom in U.S. crude oil production has continued to accelerate under Obama. In fact, 2014 saw the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=20572" type="external">largest increase in domestic petroleum production in more than a century</a>.</p>
<p>In the fourth quarter of last year, the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/query/index.cfm?periodType=QUARTERLY&amp;startYear=2008&amp;endYear=2015&amp;formulas=x13x4x78x8x7xg" type="external">U.S. produced nearly 83 percent more crude oi</a>l than it did in the three months before Obama began his presidency.</p>
<p>Oil Imports &amp; Dependency — With domestic production surging, U.S. reliance on imported oil has been cut by more than half. Under Obama, as of the October-December quarter of 2014, net imports were down 59 percent.</p>
<p>And as a result, the U.S. <a href="http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec3_7.pdf" type="external">imported only 26.5 percent</a> of the petroleum and refined products that it consumed in 2014, the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/browser/xls.cfm?tbl=T03.03A&amp;freq=mhttp://www.eia.gov/beta/MER/index.cfm?tbl=T03.03A#/?f=A&amp;start=1949&amp;end=2014&amp;charted=10" type="external">lowest level of dependency on imports since 1971</a>. That was in the Nixon administration, before the first Arab <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/mar/03/1970s-oil-price-shock" type="external">oil embargo of 1973/4</a>.</p>
<p>To be sure, the U.S. oil boom is due mainly to advances in drilling technology rather than to any change in government policy. The decline in dependency on imports actually began in 2006, after peaking at 60.3 percent the year before. But the trend has continued and accelerated under Obama.</p>
<p>Wind &amp; Solar –&#160;Electricity generated by wind and solar power in the&#160; <a href="http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01_a" type="external">most recent 12 months on record</a>&#160;(ending in January) was 252 percent higher than the total for 2008.</p>
<p>The increase in solar power in particular has been spectacular. The US generated nearly 22 times more electricity from solar power in the most recent 12 months than it did in the year before Obama took office.</p>
<p>These trends are partly due to large&#160; <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-09/wind-energy-companies-prepare-for-tax-credits-end" type="external">federal tax subsidies</a>&#160;for wind and&#160; <a href="http://www.sunlightelectric.com/subsidies.php" type="external">solar generation</a>, all supported by Obama.&#160; But several states, independent of federal policy, have also imposed <a href="http://www.seia.org/policy/renewable-energy-deployment/renewable-energy-standards" type="external">renewable energy standards</a> that require electric utilities to generate a certain portion of their power from wind or solar. Market forces have also been at work; the price of an installed photovoltaic panel has <a href="http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-industry-data" type="external">dropped by 63 percent</a> since the end of 2010, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.</p>
<p>The U.S. produced <a href="http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/0?agg=2,0,1&amp;fuel=vvg&amp;geo=g&amp;sec=g&amp;linechart=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.COW-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.HYC-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.SUN-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.WND-US-99.M&amp;columnchart=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.COW-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.HYC-US-99.M&amp;map=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M&amp;freq=M&amp;start=200101&amp;end=201410&amp;chartindexed=0&amp;ctype=linechart&amp;ltype=pin&amp;rtype=s&amp;maptype=0&amp;rse=0&amp;pin=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M%7E%7E%7E%7EELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.M%7E%7EELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.M%7E%7EELEC.GEN.WND-US-99.M%7EELEC.GEN.SUN-US-99.M%7E%7E%7E%7E%7E%7E" type="external">4.9 percent of all its electricity</a> from wind and solar last year, up from 1.4 percent in 2008. But coal still accounted for the biggest share — 39 percent — followed by natural gas at 28 percent and nuclear power at 19 percent.</p>
<p>&#160;Unfulfilled Promises</p>
<p>Exports – In January 2010, the president said in his State of the Union address, “ <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-state-union-address" type="external">We will double our exports over the next five years.</a>” But Obama didn’t even get halfway to that goal before the clock ran out.</p>
<p>As of the final quarter of 2014, according to the <a href="http://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?reqid=62&amp;step=6&amp;isuri=1&amp;6221=1&amp;6220=1,2,3,4,5,6,7&amp;6210=1&amp;6200=1&amp;6224=&amp;6223=&amp;6222=3&amp;6230=1#reqid=62&amp;step=6&amp;isuri=1&amp;6221=1&amp;6220=1,2,3,4,5,6,7&amp;6210=1&amp;6200=1&amp;6224=6224&amp;6223=6223&amp;6222=3&amp;6230=1" type="external">most recent report of the Bureau of Economic Analysis</a>, U.S. exports of goods and services have gone up by only 38.6 percent since Obama took office — and by only 34.7 percent since he uttered the promise.</p>
<p>Obama (and most economists) did not foresee the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-spence/global-economic-growth-decline_b_6414138.html" type="external">economic sluggishness of the world economy</a> over the past five years. That has held down the ability of U.S. trading partners to buy its goods and services.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31483274" type="external">Japan was in a recession</a> last year, for example, and Italy is still in the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-13/italy-fails-to-rebound-from-recession-challenging-premier-renzi" type="external">longest recession</a> in its history. While the U.S. economy grew by 2.4 percent last year, the total growth of all 34 member countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was 1.8 percent, according to <a href="https://data.oecd.org/gdp/quarterly-gdp.htm#indicator-chart" type="external">OECD data</a>.</p>
<p>Car Mileage — In his <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/president-barack-obamas-state-union-address-prepared-delivery" type="external">2013 State of the Union Address</a> Obama said “We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas,” which was not true. What he meant was that the administration was doubling the efficiency that it would call for in the future, putting in place <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/08/28/obama-administration-finalizes-historic-545-mpg-fuel-efficiency-standard" type="external">requirements that cars and light trucks average 54.5 mpg</a> by model year 2025.</p>
<p>We <a href="" type="internal">said at the time</a>, “it remains to be seen whether automakers can produce — and consumers will buy — vehicles that achieve such a doubling of average mileage a dozen years from now.” And now low gasoline prices have led car buyers to temper their enthusiasm for smaller, more efficient cars and trucks, stalling progress towards Obama’s goal.</p>
<p>As of March,&#160; according to the <a href="http://www.umich.edu/%7Eumtriswt/EDI_sales-weighted-mpg.html" type="external">University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute</a>, the average EPA city/highway sticker mileage of light duty vehicles sold was 25.4 miles per gallon, exactly the same as those sold in the previous March. In fact, the average for the first six months of this model year (October 2014 through March 2015) is also exactly equal to the mileage recorded during the preceding 12 months — 25.3 mpg.</p>
<p>The March average is 21 percent higher than it was when Obama first took office — still a long way short of “doubled.”</p>
<p>Guantanamo – Since our last report, 5 more prisoners have been released from&#160;the U.S. detention facility for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. But&#160; <a href="http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo" type="external">122 prisoners remained</a>,&#160;a figure that is still not quite 50 percent lower than it was at Obama’s first inauguration. Obama&#160; <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ClosureOfGuantanamoDetentionFacilities/" type="external">ordered the facility closed</a>&#160;two days after he first took office, but he is not quite halfway to fulfilling that promise.</p>
<p>Military War Deaths</p>
<p>Despite the fighting raging in the Middle East, no U.S. military men or women have been killed there since our last report. The <a href="http://icasualties.org/" type="external">total who have died in the Iraq conflict</a> since Obama took office still stands at 267, and the number of&#160;U.S. military fatalities in the Afghanistan conflict remains at 1,726. The U.S. formally <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/28/us-afghanistan-war-idUSKBN0K60FB20141228" type="external">ended its combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014</a>, but thousands of U.S. troops remain there.</p>
<p>– by Brooks Jackson</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001" type="external">Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National); Total Nonfarm Employment, Seasonally Adjusted.</a>” Data extracted 3 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000" type="external">Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey; Unemployment Rate, Seasonally Adjusted.</a>” Data extracted Data extracted 3 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13008636" type="external">Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey; Number Unemployed for 27 Weeks &amp; Over</a>, Seasonally Adjusted.” Data extracted 3 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/JTS00000000JOL" type="external">Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey: Job Openings, Seasonally Adjusted</a>” Data extracted 1 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cewbd.t08.htm" type="external">Private sector establishment births and deaths, seasonally adjusted</a>.” 12 Feb 2015.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0" type="external">Consumer Price Index – All Urban Consumers.</a>” Data extracted Data extracted 1 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000012" type="external">Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National); Average Weekly Earnings of All Employees, 1982-1984 Dollars.</a>” Data extracted 1 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&amp;s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&amp;f=W" type="external">Weekly U.S. Regular All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices (Dollars per Gallon).</a>” Data extracted 1 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. “ <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/34SNAPmonthly.pdf" type="external">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Data as of Dec 5, 2014).</a>” Data extracted 3 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Census Bureau. “ <a href="http://www.census.gov/econ/currentdata/dbsearch?program=HV&amp;startYear=1956&amp;endYear=2015&amp;categories=RATE&amp;dataType=SAHOR&amp;geoLevel=US&amp;adjusted=1&amp;submit=GET+DATA" type="external">Time Series: Seasonally Adjusted Home Ownership Rate.</a>” Data extracted 1 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. “ <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CP" type="external">Corporate Profits After Tax (without IVA and CCAdj) (CP).</a>” Data extracted 1 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Congressional Budget Office. “An Update To The Budget And Economic Outlook: 2014 To 2024 —&#160; <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/45069-2014-08-BudgetProjections.xlsx" type="external">Aug 2014 Baseline</a>.” 27 Aug 2014.</p>
<p>Google Finance. “ <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=626307&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2013&amp;num=30&amp;ei=yOIkUZDBLoOV0QGU9AE" type="external">S&amp;P 500</a>.” Historical prices. Data extracted 2 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Google Finance. “ <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=983582&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec.+31%2C+2013&amp;num=30&amp;ei=EN8kUdikBo7K0AHCXg" type="external">Dow Jones Industrial Average</a>.” Historical prices. Data extracted 2 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Google Finance. “ <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=13756934&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2013&amp;num=30&amp;ei=juMkUZCsNYis0AH9YA" type="external">NASDAQ Composite</a>.” Historical prices. Data extracted 2 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Department of Health &amp; Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. “ <a href="http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2015/uninsured_change/ib_uninsured_change.cfm" type="external">Health Insurance Coverage and the Affordable Care Act.</a>” 16 Mar 2015.</p>
<p>Martinez, Michael E. and Robin A. Cohen. “ <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/insur201503.pdf" type="external">Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, January – September 2014.</a>”&#160; National Center for Health Statistics. 15 Mar 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury. “ <a href="http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current" type="external">The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It.</a>” 7 Jan 2015. Data extracted 3 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Congressional Budget Office. “ <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/45069-2015-03-BudgetDataProjections-2.xlsx" type="external">March 2015 Baseline</a>” from “ <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/49973" type="external">Updated Budget Projections: 2015 to 2025</a>” 9 Mar 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=20572" type="external">U.S. oil production growth in 2014 was largest in more than 100 years.</a>” 30 Mar 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/query/index.cfm?periodType=QUARTERLY&amp;startYear=2008&amp;endYear=2015&amp;formulas=x13x4x78x8x7xg" type="external">U.S. Crude Oil Production</a>.” Short Term Energy Outlook. 10 Mar 2015. Data extracted 1 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec3_7.pdf" type="external">Table 3.3a. Monthly Energy Review</a>.” Mar 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. Electric Power Monthly, “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01_a" type="external">Table 1.1.A. Net Generation from Renewable Sources: Total (All Sectors), 2005-January 2015.</a>” 27 Mar 2015.</p>
<p>Solar Energy Industries Association. “ <a href="http://www.seia.org/policy/renewable-energy-deployment/renewable-energy-standards" type="external">Renewable Energy Standards</a>” Undated Web page, accessed 1 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>Solar Energy Industries Association. “ <a href="http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-industry-data" type="external">36% of All New Electric Capacity in 2014 From Solar</a>” Dec 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Affairs. “ <a href="http://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?reqid=62&amp;step=6&amp;isuri=1&amp;6221=1&amp;6220=1,2,3,4,5,6,7&amp;6210=1&amp;6200=2&amp;6224=&amp;6223=&amp;6222=3&amp;6230=1&amp;605=1&amp;604=91&amp;603=0&amp;602=3#reqid=62&amp;step=6&amp;isuri=1&amp;6221=1&amp;6220=1,2,3,4,5,6,7&amp;6210=1&amp;6200=2&amp;6224=6224&amp;6223=6223&amp;6222=3&amp;6230=1&amp;605=1&amp;604=91&amp;603=0&amp;602=3" type="external">Table 1. U.S. International Transactions: Exports of Goods and Services.</a>” 19 Mar 2015.</p>
<p>Spence, Michael “ <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-spence/global-economic-growth-decline_b_6414138.html" type="external">Five Reasons for the Slow Growth of the Global Economy.</a>” Huffington Post. 5 Jan 2015.</p>
<p>BBC News. “ <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31483274" type="external">Japan comes out of recession but growth still disappoints</a>” 16 Feb 2015.</p>
<p>Totaro, Lorenzo and Alessandra Migliaccio “ <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-13/italy-fails-to-rebound-from-recession-challenging-premier-renzi" type="external">Italy’s Economy Fails to Rebound</a>” Bloomberg News. 13 Feb 2015.</p>
<p>Sivak,Michael and Brandon Schoettle “ <a href="http://www.umich.edu/~umtriswt/EDI_sales-weighted-mpg.html" type="external">Average sales-weighted fuel-economy rating (window sticker) of purchased new vehicles for October 2007 through March 2015</a>” University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. 3 Apr 2015</p>
<p>New York Times. The Guantanamo Docket. “ <a href="http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo" type="external">A History of the Detainee Population.</a>” 14 Jan 2015.</p>
<p>iCasualties.org “ <a href="http://icasualties.org/" type="external">Operation Enduring Freedom/Afghanistan; Afghanistan Coalition Military Fatalities by Year.</a>” Data extracted 3 Apr 2015.</p>
<p>iCasualties.org. “ <a href="http://icasualties.org/" type="external">Operation Iraqi Freedom; Iraq Coalition Military Fatalities by Year.</a>” Data extracted 3 Apr 2015.</p> | Obama’s Numbers (April 2015 Update) | false | https://factcheck.org/2015/04/obamas-numbers-april-2015-update/ | 2015-04-06 | 2 |
<p>HOUSTON (AP) — Scott Frost has one final award to share with the University of Central Florida.</p>
<p>The former UCF coach and new Nebraska boss received the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“It’s an honor. Obviously, he’s one of the greats,” Frost said about Bryant. “This is a team award. I’m just happy to represent the players and coaches that had such a phenomenal year.”</p>
<p>Frost is first since former Boise State coach Chris Petersen in 2009 with a non-Power 5 program.</p>
<p>This completes the awards season for Frost. In the past few weeks, Frost also claimed the Home Depot Coach of the Year, American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year, AP Coach of the Year and Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year awards.</p>
<p>UCF rolled past Memphis 62-55 in the American Athletic Conference Championship game, and beat Auburn 34-27 in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl to finish 13-0. UCF finished ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll of the season, receiving four first place votes.</p>
<p>“If this year taught me anything it’s that with the current structure I don’t think a Group of 5 team has a chance,” Frost said. “(The CFB Playoff Committee) kept us at a comfortable distance from the Top 5 and Top 10 for a long time, even when we were undefeated. Continued move two and three loss teams ahead of us. It’s obvious to me that they don’t have that intention to have that debate. Hopefully that will change.”</p>
<p>When asked about the current state of the College Football Playoff, Frost said he believes it should be expanded to eight teams. This would include the five conference champions and then three at-large bids.</p>
<p>Steve Spurrier was honored with the Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award.</p>
<p>“It’s very nice,” Spurrier said. “I was telling somebody I’m the only coach here that Bear Bryant recruited me out of high school. I visited Alabama way back in 1962. Alabama was playing Miami that day. ... It was only 3-3 at halftime and Alabama won 36-3. They clobbered them in the second half.”</p>
<p>Spurrier finished his career as the winningest coach at Florida (122-27-1) and South Carolina (86-49).</p>
<p>“He was really good to all the coaches all over the country,” Spurrier said about Bryant. “A really fun guy to be around.”</p>
<p>HOUSTON (AP) — Scott Frost has one final award to share with the University of Central Florida.</p>
<p>The former UCF coach and new Nebraska boss received the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“It’s an honor. Obviously, he’s one of the greats,” Frost said about Bryant. “This is a team award. I’m just happy to represent the players and coaches that had such a phenomenal year.”</p>
<p>Frost is first since former Boise State coach Chris Petersen in 2009 with a non-Power 5 program.</p>
<p>This completes the awards season for Frost. In the past few weeks, Frost also claimed the Home Depot Coach of the Year, American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year, AP Coach of the Year and Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year awards.</p>
<p>UCF rolled past Memphis 62-55 in the American Athletic Conference Championship game, and beat Auburn 34-27 in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl to finish 13-0. UCF finished ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll of the season, receiving four first place votes.</p>
<p>“If this year taught me anything it’s that with the current structure I don’t think a Group of 5 team has a chance,” Frost said. “(The CFB Playoff Committee) kept us at a comfortable distance from the Top 5 and Top 10 for a long time, even when we were undefeated. Continued move two and three loss teams ahead of us. It’s obvious to me that they don’t have that intention to have that debate. Hopefully that will change.”</p>
<p>When asked about the current state of the College Football Playoff, Frost said he believes it should be expanded to eight teams. This would include the five conference champions and then three at-large bids.</p>
<p>Steve Spurrier was honored with the Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award.</p>
<p>“It’s very nice,” Spurrier said. “I was telling somebody I’m the only coach here that Bear Bryant recruited me out of high school. I visited Alabama way back in 1962. Alabama was playing Miami that day. ... It was only 3-3 at halftime and Alabama won 36-3. They clobbered them in the second half.”</p>
<p>Spurrier finished his career as the winningest coach at Florida (122-27-1) and South Carolina (86-49).</p>
<p>“He was really good to all the coaches all over the country,” Spurrier said about Bryant. “A really fun guy to be around.”</p> | Scott Frost wins Paul Bear Bryant Coach of Year Award | false | https://apnews.com/3f902214fbde40daba608a7595154052 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would not allow transgender people to serve in the U.S. military in any capacity.</p>
<p>“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow … Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote in a series of posts on Twitter.</p>
<p>He specifically cited the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” that would be created by allowing transgender people in the military.</p>
<p>After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890193981585444864" type="external">July 26, 2017</a></p>
<p>….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…..</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890196164313833472" type="external">July 26, 2017</a></p>
<p>….victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890197095151546369" type="external">July 26, 2017</a></p> | Trump Bars Transgender People From US Military | false | https://newsline.com/trump-bars-transgender-people-from-us-military/ | 2017-07-26 | 1 |
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<p />
<p>In fact, the singer doesn’t stay in the country lane.</p>
<p>He throws in New Mexico music, classic country to pop music.</p>
<p>“It all depends on the venue,” he says during a recent interview. “We’ve been having fun performing at all the venues around town.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Solis is a native New Mexican.</p>
<p>He grew up in Guadalupita in northern New Mexico.</p>
<p>The small town has become a musical muse.</p>
<p>“As I’ve gotten older, I do mention a lot about my home and what it’s like to be from there,” he says. “Living that country life, it’s coming out in my lyrics. When I was younger, I didn’t want to refer to that. Then I started making memories there. It’s the pine mountains. The cold winters. The cool summers and campfires. Fishing in the stream. Those are all great things in my life and inspire me in music.”</p>
<p>Solis and his band have been together for two years.</p>
<p>Currently the band is performing five originals in its set.</p>
<p>“I do have two CDs that I’ve produced and released in the past eight years,” he says. “We’re performing a lot from my most recent album, ‘My Kind of Friday Night.’ That was released last year.”</p>
<p>Some of Solis’ music also comes from his honky-tonk side.</p>
<p>“I’ve been married for 10 years,” he says. “I like to write about what life is like. It’s about capturing the current moment of life. We only have one life to live, and we should live it to the fullest.”</p>
<p>Solis and the band haven’t made the move to being full-time musicians just yet.</p>
<p>The band plays close to 100 shows a year.</p>
<p>“I enjoy the challenge of playing a completely different show each time,” he says. “Over the course of my music career, I’ve never played the same show twice. That is what is exciting about being able to get on stage and perform. There’s always something new to experience. Making the connection with the audiences has been some of the most rewarding times for the band. We’re slowly introducing ourselves with these shows. I think it’s working well for us to show how diverse we can be with our music.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | Changing lanes: Daniel Solis Band blends pop, country, New Mexico music | false | https://abqjournal.com/1109222/daniel-solis-band-blends-pop-country-new-mexico-music.html | 2 |
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<p>The markets were nearly all in the red as the Hong Kong political protests continued for the sixth day and the first case of Ebola in the United States was confirmed in Texas. The slightly better than expected ADP Jobs Report was offset by weaker than expected ISM Manufacturing data which sent the markets down to their session lows.</p>
<p>Market Radar - % Change</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Crude Oil prices continued to slide settling at $90.65 per barrel down 0.51% or $0.56.&#160;Gold scratched out one of the few gains on the day climbing $3.90 to settle at $1,215.5 per ounce up 0.32%.</p>
<p>All of the major benchmarks saw steep declines today.&#160;The Dow Jones Industrials (INDEXDJX:DJI) continued a three day slide slipped 1.4% to close at 16,804.71 down 238.19 points and had the steepest intraday drop since July 31. The S&amp;P 500 (INDEXSP:GSPC) fell 1.32% to close at 1,946.16 down 26.13 points.</p>
<p>The NASDAQ Composite (NASDAQ:IXIC) fell 71.3 points to close at 4,422.09 down 1.59%.&#160;The NASDAQ 100 saw the steepest percent loss of the major benchmarks losing 1.6% to close at 3,984.74 down 64.70 points.</p>
<p>The Small cap Russell 2000 entered correction territory, a loss of 10% or more from its all-time high close on March 4 falling 16.27 points or 1.48% to close at 1,085.41. The Fox50 closed at 1,385.59 losing 1.36% or 19.11 points.</p> | Markets Plunge On China, Ebola Concerns and Data | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/10/01/markets-plunge-on-china-ebola-concerns-and-data.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>Several places in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, were attacked Thursday morning. But a massive security response quickly killed the&#160;five assailants. One policeman died in the altercation, as did a civilian, a Canadian citizen.</p>
<p>ISIS has claimed responsibility.</p>
<p>Sandra Siagian was close to the attacks. She's an Australian who works for the UN in Jakarta.</p>
<p>"I was in the office. I'm on the 7th floor. Just before 11 a.m. my colleagues and I heard what sounded like a loud bang. My colleague actually thought it was thunder, but I said no, this doesn’t sound like thunder.”</p>
<p>“So we walked over to the window, and we looked outside and we could see smoke coming up from what looked like the parking lot from a building maybe two doors down.&#160;Then when we looked to the left, out to the main road, we could see more smoke coming up, and later on we heard that was a bomb blast that had gone off near the Starbucks across the road from our office.”</p>
<p>“After that, everyone was in a bit of a panic in the office,” said Siagian. She says the instinct was to bolt. “Initially everyone wanted to do that, and everyone’s like: grab your wallet, grab your phone, let’s go.”</p>
<p>But the UN’s security team quickly told everyone to stay; move away from the windows and sit together in the center of the room, as the building went into lockdown. The security people said it was safer to stay and avoid the lobby and entrances.</p>
<p>“We were sitting down, and then we heard after that another bomb go off. And we just kept hearing them until we counted about seven blasts altogether. Well, we thought it sounded like explosions; I’m not sure if they were all explosions. It could have been gunfire as well.”</p>
<p>Siagian admits she was panicking, “but everyone was trying to calm everyone [else]&#160;down, just comforting each other. All we could do was just sit and wait.”</p>
<p>Speaking in the evening after the attack, Siagian said “I’m fine now. Earlier this morning I was pretty shaken up, and I was feeling really scared. But my colleagues helped comfort me, and I think just knowing that there was other people in the office together, it was fine.”</p>
<p>Siagian says her thoughts turned to her family during the attack. “I’m living in Jakarta, and most of all my family is back in Sydney, Australia, and so my first reaction was ‘do I call them? Do I call my friends? How do I tell everyone?’ I’m not even sure what’s going on, because at that point I wasn’t even sure like do I waste my battery on my phone, or do I get on my email, or even just check what’s going on, on news sites online.”</p>
<p>The worst part was not knowing what might happen next. “Is something else going to happen, or what? So, yeah, it definitely was a moment where I thought, is this the time where I make the phone calls home.”</p>
<p>Siagian joked that it was good to have an easy commute home, as the streets were quiet. “I feel safe now that I’m at home.” &#160;</p> | Witness tells her story from the Indonesia terror attack | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-01-14/witness-tells-her-story-indonesias-terror-attack | 2016-01-14 | 3 |
<p>Three hurricanes are churning across the Pacific right now. Cameron Beccario/earth.nullschool.net</p>
<p />
<p>Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are marveling at a particularly awesome view from orbit right now. This week marks the first time that three major hurricanes—dubbed Kilo, Ignacio, and Jimena—have been captured simultaneously churning across the Pacific Ocean, according to the United Kingdom’s Met Office. (The National Hurricane Center <a href="https://twitter.com/EricBlake12/status/637729647246094336" type="external">agrees</a>.)</p>
<p>The storms are being fueled by warmer waters caused by this year’s El Niño, the global climate event that occurs every five to seven years, bringing drought to places like Australia, while heaping rain on the Western United States. The Met Office says temperature anomalies in this part of the world are currently at their highest since 1997-98.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/09/02/active-pacific-tropical-cyclone-season-continues/" type="external">According to the Met Office</a>: “Hurricanes Kilo, Ignacio and Jimena were all at category 4 simultaneously in the Pacific east of the International Dateline—the first time three major hurricanes have been recorded at the same time in this region.” The Met Office says tropical cyclone activity across the northern hemisphere this year is about 200 percent above normal. Six hurricanes have crossed the central Pacific, more than in any other year on record, the agency says.</p>
<p>The view from space is incredible:</p>
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<p>The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration <a href="http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/global-warming-and-hurricanes" type="external">says</a> manmade global warming is likely to drive up the number of intense hurricanes like these around the world—despite a predicted overall drop in all types of weaker, tropical storms. By the end of the century, hurricanes will likely produce substantially higher rainfall—up to 20 percent more—than present-day hurricanes.</p>
<p>So far, Hawaii appears to be safe, and no humans are in the paths of destruction, allowing us to enjoy the spectacular view.</p>
<p /> | 3 Hurricanes Are Hitting the Pacific at the Same Time, and the View From Space Is Amazing | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/three-hurricanes-pacific-photos/ | 2015-09-02 | 4 |
<p>Exito Education Academy first tried to be an alternative school. Then it tried to be a voucher school. Finally, it ended up as a lesson on the potential dangers of both.</p>
<p>In 1994, Exito lost its alternative-schools contract with the Milwaukee Board of Education because of numerous contract violations, including the falsifying of attendance data and teacher certification documents.</p>
<p>Despite that, the state accepted Exito for the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which allows students to attend private non-sectarian schools at the state’s expense. However, the school’s reincarnation was short lived. In early February, the school closed amid allegations of questionable finances and exaggerated enrollment numbers, leaving more than 100 students scrambling to find spaces elsewhere, including public schools.</p>
<p>Exito Director Adrian Hipp faces criminal charges of writing $47,000 in worthless checks. Although Hipp has denied any connection between the charges and the school’s operation, a criminal complaint says that the checks were deposited in the school’s account.</p>
<p>Exito is one of two choice schools that have closed in the last two months. Milwaukee Preparatory Academy had opened in September with promises of a rigorous curriculum tailor-made for African-American youth. However, the school’s director abruptly left town a couple of months ago, just as the school’s enrollment numbers were being questioned by the state’s Department of Public Instruction.</p>
<p>The district attorney’s office is investigating enrollment numbers at both Exito and Milwaukee Prep, which had generated a total of $600,000 in state funds for the schools. An audit by the state Department of Public Instruction found that the schools owed the state nearly $400,000 because of the inflated enrollment numbers.</p>
<p>The closings reignited the voucher debate in Milwaukee, the country’s only city to have such a program. While the program is limited to non-sectarian schools, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is deliberating the constitutionality of expanding the program to religious schools. With several states considering voucher legislation, the case has received nationwide attention. Oral arguments were scheduled for Feb. 27.</p>
<p>In the wake of the closings, critics of vouchers have called for stricter monitoring and regulation of choice schools, which are exempt from most state education rules and regulations.</p>
<p>“Anybody could have seen this coming,” Alex Molnar, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee education professor told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “This is what happens when you make education policy based on ideological zealotry instead of the best interest of the children.”</p>
<p>However, former Milwaukee Schools Supt. Howard Fuller, now an education professor at Marquette University, told the paper: “The risks are necessary if we are going to develop something new and different.”</p> | Failed alternative school reignites voucher debate | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/failed-alternative-school-reignites-voucher-debate/ | 2005-07-25 | 3 |
<p>20th Century Fox and Fox Networks innovation unit <a href="http://variety.com/tag/foxnext/" type="external">FoxNext</a> has hired&#160;Marc Zachary as its new senior bizdev VP of&#160; <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/foxnext-acquires-aftershock-kabam-mobile-game-studios-1202453866/" type="external">FoxNext</a> Destinations. In that role,&#160;Zachary&#160; is going to be tasked with striking business deals and partnerships for theme parks and other location-based entertainment worldwide, according to an announcement made Wednesday.</p>
<p>“As&#160;we look to&#160;aggressively&#160;expand our&#160;plans&#160;around&#160;theme parks and location-based entertainment,&#160;we are&#160;fortunate&#160;to have&#160;an executive as&#160;skilled and&#160;passionate&#160;as&#160;Marc&#160;on&#160;the team,” said&#160;FoxNext&#160;President&#160;Salil&#160;Mehta in a statement. “His expertise will help us expand our portfolio&#160;to&#160;locations around the world.”</p>
<p>Before joining FoxNext,&#160;Zachary served for six years as the VP of bizdev and operations at Disney Consumer Products and Interactive. Previous career stints included a SVP role at video advertising specialist Auditude.</p>
<p>FoxNext is currently developing the&#160;20th Century Fox World theme park in Malaysia, but the unit is also actively involved in next-generation entertainment destinations, including VR arcades and more. One of the projects currently&#160; in development in that real is an untethered “Alien” VR&#160;experience.</p>
<p>Fox is also an investor in Dreamscape Immersive, the <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/amc-dreamscape-vr-center-partnership-1202570835/" type="external">location-based VR startup that just teamed up with AMC to open six VR destinations next year.</a></p>
<p /> | FoxNext Hires Former Disney VP Marc Zachary to Lead Destination Biz | false | https://newsline.com/foxnext-hires-former-disney-vp-marc-zachary-to-lead-destination-biz/ | 2017-09-27 | 1 |
<p>The British Defense Ministry is investigating 33 cases of alleged abuse of Iraqi civilians by its soldiers. Many of the allegations, which include sexual attacks and torture, reflect U.S. soldiers’ acts depicted in photos from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. — JCL</p>
<p>The Guardian:</p>
<p>The Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is investigating 33 cases of alleged abuse, including rape and torture, of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers. The lawyer representing the alleged victims, Phil Shiner, said there could be hundreds of uninvestigated claims of abuse.</p>
<p>One claimant alleges that soldiers based the abuse they allegedly subjected him to on photographs of the abuse at the notorious US detention centre at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, the Independent reported. In one case, British soldiers are accused of piling up Iraqi prisoners on top of one another before subjecting them to electric shocks.</p>
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<p>Shiner served a pre-action protocol letter on the Ministry of Defence last week and is asking for a judicial review of the cases. In the letter, it was reported, Shiner said the allegations raised questions of collusion between Britain and the US over the ill-treatment of Iraqis.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/14/iraq-abuse-claims-british-troops" type="external">Read more</a></p> | U.K. Probes Alleged Abuse of Iraqis by Soldiers | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/u-k-probes-alleged-abuse-of-iraqis-by-soldiers/ | 2009-11-14 | 4 |
<p>When Australian teen, Kim Ho set out to write a monologue for a writing contest he certainly didn't anticipate winning, nor could he anticipate the buzz that his monologue-turned-short film has created on the internet.</p>
<p>"The Language of Love" is about an Australian teen named Charlie who's in the middle of taking a French exam.</p>
<p>He's having a dialogue with himself, contemplating typical teenage stuff when he suddenly realizes something big; he's in love with his best friend, another boy named Sam.</p>
<p>17-year-old Kim Ho wrote and starred in The Language of Love:</p>
<p>The Language of Love: One Aussie Teen's Short Film on Unrequited Love By Nina Porzucki â?? July 17, 2013 â?? Post a comment (Photo: Fresh Ink)</p>
<p>(Photo: Fresh Ink)</p>
<p>When Australian teen, Kim Ho set out to write a monologue for a writing contest he certainly didn't anticipate winning, nor could he anticipate the buzz that his monologue-turned-short film has created on the internet.</p>
<p>"The Language of Love" is about an Australian teen named Charlie who's in the middle of taking a French exam.</p>
<p>He's having a dialogue with himself, contemplating typical teenage stuff when he suddenly realizes something big; he's in love with his best friend, another boy named Sam.</p>
<p>17-year-old Kim Ho wrote and starred in The Language of Love:</p>
<p>Ho says his 9-minute film was inspired by this commercial that aired on Australian TV:</p>
<p>His other inspiration was a love song of course. "This Old Love" is by Israeli-Australian singer songwriter, Lior:</p> | The Language of Love: One Aussie Teen's Short Film on Unrequited Love | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-07-17/language-love-one-aussie-teens-short-film-unrequited-love | 2013-07-17 | 3 |
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<p>___</p>
<p>THE ORIGINS</p>
<p>Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners got federal permits for the $3.8 billion pipeline in July, about two years after it was announced. The project is projected to move a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois, for shipment to Midwest and Gulf Coast markets.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Supporters say the pipeline will have safeguards against leaks, and is a safer way to move oil than trucks and trains, especially after a handful of fiery — and sometimes deadly — derailments of trains carrying North Dakota crude.</p>
<p>But the Standing Rock Sioux, other tribes and environmental groups say that the pipeline could threaten water supplies for millions, since it will cross the Missouri River, as well as harm sacred sites and artifacts. Protesters, sometimes numbering in the thousands, have gathered since April at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers in southern North Dakota.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>IN THE COURTROOM</p>
<p>The Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border, are suing federal regulators for approving the oil pipeline. They have challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings and argue that the pipeline would be placed less than a mile upstream of the reservation, potentially affecting drinking water for more than 8,000 tribal members and millions downstream.</p>
<p>The tribe hasn’t fared well in court so far. A federal judge in September denied their request to block construction of the entire pipeline. Three federal agencies stepped in and ordered a temporary halt to construction on corps land around and underneath Lake Oahe — one of six reservoirs on the Missouri River.</p>
<p>The corps is reviewing its permitting of the project and has given no timetable for a decision. Meanwhile, the tribe’s appeal is still pending in federal court.</p>
<p>Energy Transfer Partners has said construction is nearly complete elsewhere.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE PROTESTS</p>
<p>The tribe’s fight grew into an international cause in recent months for many Native Americans and indigenous people from around the world, with some traveling thousands of miles to join the protest.</p>
<p>“Divergent” actress Shailene Woodley also protested and was arrested. “Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman was charged with rioting and trespassing stemming from her coverage of a protest, but the charges were later dropped.</p>
<p>More than 260 people have been arrested since the larger demonstrations began in August.</p>
<p>As of Wednesday, nearly all of the $6 million in emergency funding earmarked for law enforcement costs related to the protest had been used up. The state’s Emergency Commission approved the money in late September, and the Department of Emergency Services plans to ask for more.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>LATEST DEVELOPMENTS</p>
<p>The protests entered a new phase over the weekend when some 200 protesters moved onto private land along the pipeline route that had recently been acquired by Energy Transfer Partners.</p>
<p>Law enforcement asked protesters to leave peacefully on Wednesday and were refused. On Thursday, some 200 officers in riot gear moved in to remove the protesters, wielding pepper spray and firing bean-bag rounds from shotguns.</p>
<p>Donnell Hushka, a spokeswoman for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, said 141 people were arrested.</p>
<p>Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said officers would stay on the site to make sure protesters don’t re-occupy it or block highways in the area.</p>
<p>Protesters burned three vehicles overnight and used them to set roadblocks along a state highway. About two dozen demonstrators engaged in a standoff near the blockades Friday afternoon, refusing authorities’ orders to clear the roadway.</p> | AP News Guide: Pipeline activists swept off private property | false | https://abqjournal.com/877185/ap-news-guide-pipeline-activists-swept-off-private-property.html | 2016-10-28 | 2 |
<p>BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Funeral services are scheduled Saturday for longtime former North Dakota lawmaker Byron Langley.</p>
<p>Langley died Jan. 13 in a Carrington hospital, at age 91. Gilbertson Funeral Home in Devils Lake says his funeral is 11 a.m. Saturday at the high school gym in Warwick.</p>
<p>Langley was a farmer and rancher who spent parts of three decades in the Legislature. The conservative Democrat served in the House from 1973-1980 and in the Senate from 1985-1996, when he retired from politics.</p>
<p>U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says Langley "was a dedicated public servant and a larger-than-life figure."</p>
<p>BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Funeral services are scheduled Saturday for longtime former North Dakota lawmaker Byron Langley.</p>
<p>Langley died Jan. 13 in a Carrington hospital, at age 91. Gilbertson Funeral Home in Devils Lake says his funeral is 11 a.m. Saturday at the high school gym in Warwick.</p>
<p>Langley was a farmer and rancher who spent parts of three decades in the Legislature. The conservative Democrat served in the House from 1973-1980 and in the Senate from 1985-1996, when he retired from politics.</p>
<p>U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says Langley "was a dedicated public servant and a larger-than-life figure."</p> | Funeral set for former longtime state lawmaker Byron Langley | false | https://apnews.com/amp/6a3c9ea08bc849d88d8d2fb4f087ee31 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>The Standard &amp; Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier, a slight increase from the 5.6 percent annual increase in December, according to a report Tuesday.</p>
<p>"The pace of U.S. home value growth has been picking up bit-by-bit over the past few months, driven in large part by stubbornly low inventory in most markets that creates competition and drives up prices for those homes that are available," said Svenja Gudell, chief economist at the real estate firm Zillow.</p>
<p>Home values have risen 2.6 times faster than average hourly wages, which have improved just 2.2 percent, according to a government report earlier this month. Tight supplies of homes on the market have fueled much of the price growth, as low mortgage rates and steady hiring have sparked demand.</p>
<p>Denver, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle each registered double-digit annual price increases. Home values rose in all 20 metro areas markets, which account for roughly half of the U.S. housing stock.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The index remains more than 11 percent below its mid-2006 peak, when subprime mortgages pushed the market to heights that triggered the Great Recession in late 2007.</p>
<p>Existing homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million in February, the National Association of Realtors said earlier this month. Sales dipped 7.1 percent from a relatively healthy pace in January, but an increase in the number of signed contracts to buy houses indicates that purchases should rebound in March.</p>
<p>Despite the demand, listings in February declined 1.1 percent from a year ago. Many homeowners are reluctant to sell, because they lack the equity to cover the down payment for upgrading to a new house.</p>
<p>"The low inventory of homes for sale - currently about a five month supply - means that would-be sellers seeking to trade-up are having a hard time finding a new, larger home," said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices.</p> | US home prices rise faster than incomes in January | false | https://abqjournal.com/747854/us-home-prices-rise-faster-than-incomes-in-january.html | 2 |
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<p>IRVING, Texas (AP) — Anthony Spencer quietly worked his way back without knowing when he would return from left knee surgery that threatened his career.</p>
<p>The Dallas defensive end finally has an answer, or so it appears. He's expected to play Sunday night against New Orleans, almost a year to the day since the microfracture procedure.</p>
<p>Spencer played just one game last season after dealing with the troublesome knee throughout the 2013 offseason. He had surgery last Oct. 1.</p>
<p>The 30-year-old Spencer skipped practice Friday and was listed as questionable a day after defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said he was likely to play. He went through limited workouts earlier in the week.</p>
<p>The eighth-year player isn't likely to see many snaps against the Saints, but the Dallas front four can use the help. The defensive line has just half a sack, and the team only three, through three games.</p>
<p>The Cowboys (2-1) are facing Drew Brees, who was sacked just once total in games against Dallas the past two years. He threw for 838 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions, in part because he was rarely bothered in the pocket.</p>
<p>"It's coming at a point in time where we need his strength with his pass rush," cornerback Brandon Carr said. "His ability to get off the ball will be big for us if we can find a way to get him into the game and get him after the quarterback."</p>
<p>Spencer, who wasn't available in the locker room Friday, had a career-high 11 sacks his last full season in 2012, which was the second of consecutive years under the franchise tag.</p>
<p>He earned $10.6 million a year ago, but is getting just $250,000 guaranteed in his current $1.25 million deal signed late in free agency because of uncertainty over his recovery.</p>
<p>"It has been a long year and a lot of hard work on his part," said his agent, Jordan Woy. "It was major surgery and you never know how a player will recover. But he has put in the sacrificial hours to get back to being football-ready."</p>
<p>Spencer never put a timetable on a return, always telling reporters he would simply wait until his body felt the time was right. The Cowboys decided not to put him on the physically unable to perform list to start the season, which would have meant missing six games.</p>
<p>"He's a pretty reserved person," Carr said. "His work ethic speaks for itself. Whatever peaks and valleys he went through, he fought it out to this point now where we can get him for a big game Sunday night."</p>
<p>When he started his recovery, Spencer couldn't be sure this day would come.</p>
<p>NOTES: LB Rolando McClain (groin) practiced for the first time in two weeks and was listed as questionable along with DT Henry Melton (groin), who practiced for the first time this week. ... DT Terrell McClain (concussion) missed practice all week but was listed as questionable rather than doubtful.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>AP NFL website: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/apschuyler" type="external">https://twitter.com/apschuyler</a></p>
<p>IRVING, Texas (AP) — Anthony Spencer quietly worked his way back without knowing when he would return from left knee surgery that threatened his career.</p>
<p>The Dallas defensive end finally has an answer, or so it appears. He's expected to play Sunday night against New Orleans, almost a year to the day since the microfracture procedure.</p>
<p>Spencer played just one game last season after dealing with the troublesome knee throughout the 2013 offseason. He had surgery last Oct. 1.</p>
<p>The 30-year-old Spencer skipped practice Friday and was listed as questionable a day after defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said he was likely to play. He went through limited workouts earlier in the week.</p>
<p>The eighth-year player isn't likely to see many snaps against the Saints, but the Dallas front four can use the help. The defensive line has just half a sack, and the team only three, through three games.</p>
<p>The Cowboys (2-1) are facing Drew Brees, who was sacked just once total in games against Dallas the past two years. He threw for 838 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions, in part because he was rarely bothered in the pocket.</p>
<p>"It's coming at a point in time where we need his strength with his pass rush," cornerback Brandon Carr said. "His ability to get off the ball will be big for us if we can find a way to get him into the game and get him after the quarterback."</p>
<p>Spencer, who wasn't available in the locker room Friday, had a career-high 11 sacks his last full season in 2012, which was the second of consecutive years under the franchise tag.</p>
<p>He earned $10.6 million a year ago, but is getting just $250,000 guaranteed in his current $1.25 million deal signed late in free agency because of uncertainty over his recovery.</p>
<p>"It has been a long year and a lot of hard work on his part," said his agent, Jordan Woy. "It was major surgery and you never know how a player will recover. But he has put in the sacrificial hours to get back to being football-ready."</p>
<p>Spencer never put a timetable on a return, always telling reporters he would simply wait until his body felt the time was right. The Cowboys decided not to put him on the physically unable to perform list to start the season, which would have meant missing six games.</p>
<p>"He's a pretty reserved person," Carr said. "His work ethic speaks for itself. Whatever peaks and valleys he went through, he fought it out to this point now where we can get him for a big game Sunday night."</p>
<p>When he started his recovery, Spencer couldn't be sure this day would come.</p>
<p>NOTES: LB Rolando McClain (groin) practiced for the first time in two weeks and was listed as questionable along with DT Henry Melton (groin), who practiced for the first time this week. ... DT Terrell McClain (concussion) missed practice all week but was listed as questionable rather than doubtful.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>AP NFL website: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/apschuyler" type="external">https://twitter.com/apschuyler</a></p> | Cowboys' Spencer set for return year after surgery | false | https://apnews.com/amp/f601dec2aa414f848672cbcb0d77614b | 2014-09-26 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Netflix.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It's the moment of truth for Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), as the top dog in premium video streaming gears up to report fresh quarterly results a few minutes after the market close. It's easy to be jittery if you're a shareholder. Netflix stock plunged 14% the day after posting disappointing second-quarter results. Those same shares soared 19% the day after deliveringbetter-than expected <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/17/netflix-inc-earnings-subscriber-growth-surges-abro.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">third-quarter results Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Volatility has clearly been on the menu, and with the stock hitting new all-time highs on Tuesday, it's easy to wonder if even another blowout quarter will be greeted by a sell-off. Netflix is a 40-bagger over the past decade, but it hasn't gone up in a single straight line. There's a sound argument to be made that investors that have been riding the rally -- the stock is trading 55% higher since the day after posting its Q2 bombshell six months ago -- will take some of their chips off the table no matter how solid the numbers may look.</p>
<p>Let's go over a few of the reasons why no matter which way the stock swings in after-hours trading tonight that the actual fundamentals are likely to be impressive.</p>
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<p>When Netflix announced a rate hike in the springtime of 2014 -- going from $7.99 to $8.99 a month -- it did so by telling existing streaming accounts that they would be grandfathered in to the earlier rate for two years. The rate would go on to increase to $9.99 a month for Netflix's most popular streaming plan.</p>
<p>Netflix didn't just turn on the switch when the two-year anniversary rolled around, though seemingly old news of the hike may have played a part in Netflix's rough second quarter. Netflix aimed to go through the process gradually, with most of the longtime subscribers experiencing the increase to $9.99 a month during the summer.</p>
<p>What does this have to do with the the last three months of financial performance? Well, the fourth quarter was the first time that most early subscribers were paying the new rate. This could result in some retention issues, but it should ultimately result in a favorable surprise when it comes to revenue.</p>
<p>Few saw the second quarter's debacle coming. Netflix with its historically conservative guidance actually overestimated its subscriber targets. Rocked investors weren't very trusting when the third quarter rolled around, and that pessimism set the stage for the third quarter's blowout.</p>
<p>We expected good things in Q2 and got garbage. We expected garbage in Q3 and got good things. The market's holding out for a healthy report this time around, but the climate isn't the same as it was when the second-quarter stunner took place. The numbers should be good if not great. The market may not react favorably given the big run in the shares in recent months, but the actual fundamentals should be solid.</p>
<p>Netflix's subscriber target in mid-October was for 91.94 million worldwide subscribers. It's a big number, especially since the dot-com darling can divide its content costs across a growing base of video buffs.</p>
<p>The target suggests that Netflix topped 90 million streaming accounts at some point in December. CEO Reed Hastings didn't brag about it on social media. He's been laying back when it comes to breaking news that way. However, it did happen, and even if the market's knee-jerk reaction will be to take some profits tomorrow, the psychological power of reaching an audience north of 90 million is massive. The media can play up all of the tech giants either winning original content awards or making a push to jump into this video smorgasbord niche, but Netflix itself is succeeding regardless of what's happening around the category that it dominates.</p>
<p>Let the stock swing tomorrow. As long as Netflix's fundamentals continue to improve, it will keep being a rewarding investment over the long haul.</p>
<p>Find out why Netflix is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now</p>
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<p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now. Netflix <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%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;impression=bc9881aa-ce4c-41e9-9fbe-e9ac5bdf55fa&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">is on the list Opens a New Window.</a> -- but there are nine others you may be overlooking.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBreakerRick/info.aspx" type="external">Rick Munarriz Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix. 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> | 3 Reasons Why Netflix Might Impress You This Afternoon | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/18/3-reasons-why-netflix-might-impress-this-afternoon.html | 2017-01-18 | 0 |
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<p>Centennial Care — New Mexico's new name for the Medicaid program starting in 2014 — had its final meeting in Rio Rancho at Loma Colorado Main Library on Thursday, drawing about 25 people.</p>
<p>That's far fewer than previous meetings in Rio Rancho, according to Jeannette Gurule of the state's Human Services Department. One brought in more than 100 residents.</p>
<p>Several people who attended the meeting had specific questions about their Medicaid coverage, but got no answers. Gurule said she spent six days in the southern part of the state, holding meetings in Las Cruces, Anthony and Columbus. She and other Human Services Department employees are traveling all over the state, she said.</p>
<p>She's heard a lot of questions, and none of them is "typical."</p>
<p>One resident who said he has state coverage insurance asked about how it would change. Another said she uses her Medicaid coverage to pay someone to help care for her son, who has a disability. She said she wants to know how things will change for her. Another asked for details about how a woman who makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid and then gets pregnant, and so would qualify, would go about getting coverage.</p>
<p>Right now, and continuing under the Medicaid expansion, pregnant women who make below 185 percent of federal poverty guidelines — $1,722 a month for a single adult — qualify.</p>
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<p>Depending on the circumstances, a single adult, including a woman who isn't pregnant, would have to be at or near the poverty level, which is about $950 a month for a single-family household. That is set to change.</p>
<p>Under the Medicaid expansion, which starts Jan. 1, Medicaid benefits will be available for adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $1,274 per month for a single adult. Those who qualify were allowed to sign up starting Oct. 1.</p>
<p>But rather than going into depth on the calculus of who qualifies, ways coverage will change and how to apply for the programs, the bulk of the meeting, which lasted about an hour, was taken up by representatives from Presbyterian, Molina Healthcare, United Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield.</p>
<p>All four health care providers are offering incentives for people to sign on to their individual plans, including between $100 and $250 a year for those who sign on to use Hispanic traditional, Native American and/or alternative medicine. Some of the providers' representatives said a receipt is not always necessary to get the money.</p>
<p>For more information about health care reform, go to hsd.state.nm.us/pdf/Health%20Care%20Reform%20FAQ.pdf.</p> | State wraps up RR meetings on Centennial Care | false | https://abqjournal.com/282799/state-wraps-up-rr-meetings-on-centennial-care.html | 2013-10-16 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque police are investigating the suspicious death of a man found dead in his home Sunday morning.</p>
<p>Police said the man’s caretaker found his body in his bedroom on the 1200 block of Delamar Ave. NW before 8 a.m., and police who arrived noticed signs of trauma. That prompted a full call-out by the APD’s Mobile Crime Lab to search for any clues about how the man died.</p>
<p>A neighbor said the man, who had not been identified, is a military veteran and had lived in the home for years.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Police look into death of man found in home | false | https://abqjournal.com/331692/police-look-into-death-of-man-found-in-home.html | 2014-01-06 | 2 |
<p>The mayor of Sochi told a reporter that there are no gay people in the city hosting the Winter Olympics — but the patrons of one bar didn't get the memo.</p>
<p>The same BBC reporter had visited a gay tavern in the Black Sea resort town the night before he interviewed Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov, who said the whole city is straight.</p>
<p>"We do not have them in our city," Pakhomov flatly told the BBC.</p>
<p>Pressed further, the mayor backtracked a bit: "I am not sure, but I don't bloody know them."</p>
<p>But drag queen Madame Zhu-Zha told the network there is a gay community in Sochi, just like the rest of Russia — where President Vladimir Putin has banned "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations."</p>
<p>"There are very many clubs for gay people in Moscow — in Sochi we have two gay clubs as well. In some places there's serious prejudice against gay people. In other places it's not as bad," the performer said.</p>
<p>Pakhomov, who is a member of Putin's United Russia party, said gays will be welcome at the games, which open Feb. 7, for the most part.</p>
<p>"Our hospitality will be extended to everyone who respects the laws of the Russian Federation and doesn't impose their habits on others," he said.</p>
<p>Asked whether they had to keep their sexuality under wraps in Sochi, the mayor added: "No, we just say that it is your business, it's your life. But it's not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. "</p>
<p>Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader, scoffed at Pakhomov's assertion.</p>
<p>"As far as I know there are several gay clubs in Sochi," he said. "How do they survive? Why they are not bankrupt?"</p> | Sochi Mayor: We Have No Gay People — That I Know | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/sochi-olympics/sochi-mayor-we-have-no-gay-people-i-know-n17346 | 2014-01-27 | 3 |
<p>SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said about 51,000 illegal firearms, a fifth of all illegal guns in the country, were surrendered in a three-month amnesty ending Friday.</p>
<p>Turnbull said Australia’s tough gun ownership laws, which ban all semi-automatic rifles and semi-automatic shotguns, severely limits the chances of a Las Vegas style mass shooting.</p>
<p>“The killer there (in Las Vegas) had a collection of semi-automatic weapons which a person in his position would simply not be able to acquire in Australia,” Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.</p>
<p>American Stephen Paddock, 64, armed with multiple assault rifles opened fired on an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas from a high-rise hotel window on Sunday, killing 58 people before killing himself in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.</p>
<p>The shooting has focused attention on gun ownership rules in the United States.</p>
<p>Australia’s tough gun ownership laws were introduced after the massacre of 35 people by a lone gunman at the former prison colony of Port Arthur in the island state of Tasmania in 1996</p>
<p>The country has had no mass shootings since.</p>
<p>The illegal weapons surrendered during the three-month gun amnesty, the first in 20 years, will be destroyed.</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> | Australians hand over 51,000 illegal firearms in gun amnesty | false | https://newsline.com/australians-hand-over-51000-illegal-firearms-in-gun-amnesty/ | 2017-10-05 | 1 |
<p>In a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hLivou9-_wmsZuzKI2pCGQu0KHVIgYfJSaYhvTgO0Wo/edit" type="external">Google document</a> forwarded to faculty members of the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, Professor Cynthia Bailey Lee outlined a list of “inclusive community” guidelines for computer science instructors to consider while preparing this year’s class curriculum.</p>
<p>“This list is designed to be something you can put on your wall and glance at from time to time. Many of the tips are little things you could do on any given day in a few minutes. Please feel free to share widely,” Lee posted to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.b.lee/posts/10157389236205274" type="external">Facebook</a>, encouraging students and faculty members to send in their own suggestions as well.</p>
<p>The document begins by asking the lecturers to have students “email you to introduce themselves,” naming their core values and how those values relate to computer science. In the middle of the term, they are to “congratulate” the college-age students who do well on their homework assignments and “show- the class that students can still pass the course even if they did poorly.”</p>
<p>“Start class today by telling the students you’re proud of them and how hard they are working,” the lecturers are told.</p>
<p>Students who are either female or minority are to be given extra attention both in and out of the classroom, because they “often fear the worst about their position relative to the class,” according to the list of guidelines.</p>
<p>“Personally invite a woman or a minority student who did well in your class to major in CS, apply to an internship, or go to grad school,” the lecturers are instructed. They are additionally told to “remove very masculine or heavily CS-stereotyped movie posters” and “write a tally of how many times you call on students of different genders in class” because “people of all genders are prone to calling on men more often.”</p>
<p>The guidelines instruct professors to “review today’s lecture slides to make sure that your slides are free from gendered pronouns, especially those used in ways that conform to stereotype,” and “review today’s lecture slides to make sure that stock photos and illustrations with people in them include diverse races and genders in non-stereotyped roles.”</p>
<p>“Use of ‘they’ (and their/them) as a singular pronoun is now widely accepted as a neutral alternative, and better than the awkward ‘he or she’ construction because it also includes genderqueer and non-binary,” the document explains.</p>
<p>Names such as “Jane Doe and John Smith” are too non-inclusive for examples in course lectures, the document states. The lecturers are advised to use names from a “broader selection” such as “Juan, Neha, Maria, Minseo, and Mohammed.”</p>
<p>In a “General Do and Don’t Advice” section, the lecturers are told to “never say, ‘This UI is so easy your mom could use it’ or ‘How would you explain this to your mom?’ or other phrases that equate women with lack of tech savvy.” Terms such as “boys” and “girls” are to be avoided in examples as well.</p>
<p>The lecturers are told to “ensure that you and your TAs call each student by their preferred name and their correct gender pronoun—including allowing students to write their preferred name on homework and exams—even if these do not match their current legal or registrar records of name and sex.”</p>
<p>Finally, Lee urges the lecturers to not ask questions when female students ask for course accommodations because they were sexually assaulted. The lecturers are to give a simple response such as “I believe you” and “do everything necessary to accommodate that student.”</p>
<p>Follow Pardes Seleh on <a href="https://twitter.com/PardesSeleh" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Stanford Faculty Advised to Drop Gendered Pronouns, Stop Calling On So Many Males in Class | true | https://dailywire.com/news/8906/stanford-faculty-advised-stop-using-gendered-pardes-seleh | 2016-09-05 | 0 |
<p>Millions of Americans use e-cigarettes to break their addiction to tobacco. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about half of all current cigarette smokers had tried e-cigarettes, and that more than half of people who had recently stopped smoking tobacco had tried e-cigarettes.</p>
<p>Many of those who smoke e-cigarettes were relying on early studies that suggested they were up to 99 percent healthier than traditional cigarettes. But recent studies have found that electronic cigarettes may not be safe at all, and researchers from West Virginia University found that the vapor from a single e-cigarette may be enough to damage vascular function.</p>
<p>In an animal study, they found that arteries narrowed by 31 percent within an hour of being exposed to vapor from electronic cigarettes. Long-term exposure caused aortic stiffness to increase two-and-a-half times when compared to the control group which was exposed to normal room air. In short, the vapor caused premature aging, an indicator of cardiovascular disease.</p>
<p>The study concluded that e-cigarettes should not be considered safe.</p>
<p>Other recent studies have also found that electronic cigarettes are harmful.</p>
<p>Greek researchers found that e-cigarettes have an immediate effect on pulmonary function. They studied 54 young cigarette and e-cigarettes smokers; 27 had mild controlled asthma and the others were healthy. After smoking e-cigarettes, measurements of airway obstruction and inflammation were worse in both groups, but were more severe in asthmatics.</p>
<p>A study from the University of Rochester Medical Center found that electronic cigarettes damage gums and teeth just as much as conventional cigarettes. Researchers found that vapors from e-cigarettes cause cells to release inflammatory proteins, which could lead to oral diseases.</p>
<p>The study, which was published in Oncotarge, also found that the flavorings added to e-cigarettes made the damage worse, some more so than others. In addition, e-cigarettes also contain nicotine, which is known to harm gum tissue.</p>
<p>Other studies have found electronic cigarettes to be just as dangerous as traditional cigarettes. A Harvard study found that of 51 e-cigarettes tested, at least one toxin was found in 47 of them, and 75 percent contained diacetyl, a chemical linked to a severe respiratory disease called bronchiolitis obliterans or “popcorn lung.” Even more frightening, the amounts of diacetyl found in 39 of the e-cigarettes contained amounts higher than the laboratory was capable of measuring.</p>
<p>A 2016 study found that e-cigarettes contain high levels of a cancer-causing substance called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The researchers found that levels of PAHs, a byproduct of burning petroleum, were at least 1 million times higher than found in heavily polluted Hong Kong air.</p> | E-Cigarettes Accelerate Cardiovascular Aging | false | https://newsline.com/e-cigarettes-accelerate-cardiovascular-aging/ | 2017-08-14 | 1 |
<p>USA Today‘s Susan Page</p>
<p>“Democrats on one side, Republicans on the other” is the way conventional Beltway reporters seem to see the world–and it’s reflected in their reporting on political events.</p>
<p>On the front page of USA Today ( <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2013-06-07-obamaanalysis_ST_U.htm" type="external">6/7/13</a>), <a href="" type="internal">Susan Page</a> has a piece wondering if the unfolding scandals surrounding the White House and surveillance will threaten the president’s “agenda.” That’s a strange concern for the moment, but we’ll put that aside. The most unusual part of the piece is the very premise: That Obama’s actions have verified Republican criticisms of his presidency. As Page puts it, the current story</p>
<p>is especially problematic for Obama because it stokes controversies he already was struggling to contain and reinforces criticism that has dogged him from the start.</p>
<p>Republicans have long depicted Obama as an advocate of a big, dangerous and overreaching government, back to the federal bailout of the auto industry he undertook during the financial crisis that greeted his first inauguration. That has been their fundamental philosophical objection to his signature Affordable Care Act, now just months away from implementation of its major provisions.</p>
<p>So Obama is a “big government” something-or-other, which is what Republicans most certainly are not. Thus, big government spying shows that Obama is just as Republicans have “long depicted” him.</p>
<p>The Washington Post‘s Karen Tumulty recently made the same argument (FAIR Blog, <a href="" type="internal">5/17/13</a>)–Beltway scandals are scandals because they reinforce partisan criticism. It’s an illogical jump even when it comes to most Republican criticism of Obama, like the argument that the new healthcare law is a Big Government power grab.&#160; Of course accusations that come from partisan critics reinforce&#160; partisan criticism–how could they not?</p>
<p>But this line of argument makes even less sense in the case of surveillance, as Page acknowledges deep within the article: “To be sure, Obama didn’t launch the data-mining initiatives, which were started during the Bush administration.” So Republicans, if we’re to buy the premise here, are mad about Obama carrying out a policy begun under a Republican administration.</p>
<p>The real story, on a political level, is one of continuity: The <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/lindsey-graham-m-glad-nsa-collecting-phone-records-151211411.html" type="external">elites in both parties</a> basically agree on the policy in question, which is why there are not all that many politicians of either party speaking out forcefully right now in criticizing the administration’s policies. But that’s not the way most political journalists are trained to look at the world.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Pointless Partisanship on Surveillance | true | http://fair.org/blog/2013/06/07/pointless-partisanship-on-surveillance/ | 2013-06-07 | 4 |
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<p>LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — The Los Alamos school district plans to pull out of a federally subsidized school lunch program but officials say that there’ll be funding to cover qualifying students currently served.</p>
<p>The Los Alamos Monitor (https://goo.gl/XI5Wjw ) the district has decided to have its five elementary schools leave the National School Lunch Program by next school year because the portions are too small and the selection of choices slows the service.</p>
<p>District officials say the change means students will have bigger portions of food, more variety and faster service.</p>
<p>Under the plan approved by the district board, schools will provide free and reduced lunches for students who qualify through applications and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.</p>
<p>The district’s middle school and high school don’t participate in the program because they don’t qualify.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Los Alamos district to pull out of subsidized lunch program | false | https://abqjournal.com/957290/los-alamos-district-to-pull-out-of-ubsidized-lunch-program.html | 2 |
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<p>Joe Biden appears to have his eye on 2020. Or something. The former vice president founded a political action committee months called American Possibilities, actively soliciting public donations. Mr. Biden has a new book arriving next month, and will embark on a 19-city “American Promise Tour” in late November.&#160; Is the 74-year-old striking a presidential posture? Could be. He’s also changed his tone, transitioning from “smilin’ Joe” to aggressive attack dog, his ire aimed directly at President Trump.</p>
<p>“We have an American president who tweets about <a href="/topics/national-football-league/" type="external">NFL</a> ratings while 3.4 million American citizens face a desperate search for food and water in Puerto Rico. We have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between Neo-Nazis and those who would oppose their venom and hate. Who has emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support,” Mr. Biden notes in a new public outreach for his PAC.</p>
<p>“Every week, it’s something new. And I know it’s tempting to throw your hands up — to give up, shut down, or tune out for the next three years. But we cannot grow weary. We cannot grow discouraged. And we cannot give an inch. Folks, it’s up to us now to do what our president has not: Uphold America’s values. Defend our constitution. Say, full-throated and together, this is not who we are,” Mr. Biden proclaims.</p>
<p>“Our children are watching. We can make them proud of what we did with this moment. And I believe we will,” he concludes, an initial volley in the Democratic Party’s effort to regain territory and re-establish a narrative.</p>
<p>TRUMP REMAINS TRUMP</p>
<p>“Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t fail.”</p>
<p>— President Trump, regarding his current diplomatic relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.</p>
<p>DONALD TRUMP THE ARTIST</p>
<p>Yes, he knows the art of the deal. But President Trump also knows the art of art, apparently. A stark drawing he once did of the Empire State Building in black magic marker is going up for auction later this month.</p>
<p>“Billionaire real estate mogul, reality TV personality, the 45th President of the United States. Much is known of the many high profile roles Donald Trump has played as one of the most talked about cultural figures of our time. But less is known of Trump’s talents as an artist. A rarely seen drawing has surfaced revealing the future President’s artistic inclinations in the early ‘90s during his days as a real estate developer,” reports <a href="https://www.juliensauctions.com/" type="external">Julien’s Auctions</a>, a Los Angeles-based auction house with a heavy concentration in the art and objects from the film, music and sports worlds.</p>
<p>“The 12” x 9” piece depicts a sketch of the Empire State Building, a significant symbol of Trump’s ascent as a real estate mogul as he brokered the sale of New York’s most iconic symbol. He created the work during the opening of his Mar-a-Lago club and used it as an entry point into the Palm Beach social set by donating the piece for a charity auction,” the auction house says.</p>
<p>The piece raised less than $100 back in the day. It now could fetch around $12,000, the auctioneer advises.</p>
<p>THE POT VOTE</p>
<p>There a demographic for everyone. Two interest groups have joined forces to promote “cannabis voters” among those who, well, appreciate cannabis for one reason or another.</p>
<p>The National Cannabis Festival and HeadCount.org have just launched the WeCannaVote campaign — a “joint project” they say — with the goal of registering 4,200 voters in the next six months.</p>
<p>“Our goal is to educate as many people inside and beyond the cannabis community about voting rights and voter registration,” says Caroline Phillips, founder of the aforementioned festival, which is geared toward marijuana legalization, legislation and retail business.</p>
<p>“For cannabis legalization to advance, it’s important that activists, patients, medical professionals, business leaders and enthusiasts come together to demonstrate the power of our collective vote. This campaign and the festival itself give us an opportunity to show the scope, size and values of our community,” Ms. Phillips observes.</p>
<p>The festival itself will be staged about a mile from the U.S. Capitol in April. In its security message, the group advises participants: “No poles and staffs (sorry wizardry folks!)” and no weapons of any kind, “including nunchucks and magical wands.”</p>
<p>A MOMENT WITH NEWT</p>
<p>Tired of the contemporary caterwaul? Newt Gingrich will have a say on several decades worth of politics, appearing Monday at the Heritage Foundation in the company of historian Craig Shirley, author of “Citizen Newt: The Making of a Reagan Conservative,” published just last month. The pair will compare notes on several decades worth of political strife.</p>
<p>“In one way or another Newt Gingrich has been leading a revolution for most of his life,” Mr. Shirley says. “The book captures the events, ideas, successes, and failures of Newton Leroy Gingrich — one of the most complex, influential, and durable political figures of our time.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the feisty former House speaker and author of the much imitated “Contract with America” 23 years ago has pretty well seen it all. Heritage fellow Lee Edwards will moderate the discussion. See it live streamed at noon EDT, at <a href="https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/event/citizen-newt-the-making-reagan-conservative" type="external">Heritage.org/events</a>.</p>
<p>POLL DU JOUR</p>
<p>• 67 percent of Americans who say athletes and celebrities who protest can be effective; 56 percent of Republicans, 67 percent of independents and 75 percent of Democrats agree.</p>
<p>• 49 percent of Americans say the <a href="/topics/national-football-league/" type="external">NFL</a> should require athletes to stand during the national anthem; 84 percent of Republicans, 46 percent of independents and 23 percent of Democrats agree.</p>
<p>• 47 percent say athletes should not be required to stand; 15 percent of Republicans, 49 percent of independents and 72 percent of Democrats agree.</p>
<p>• 49 percent of Americans say athletes do “wrong” by kneeling during the national anthem; 87 percent of Republicans, 48 percent of independents and 21 percent of Democrats agree.</p>
<p>• 43 percent overall say such athletes are doing “right”; 11 percent of Republicans, 43 percent of independents and 72 percent of Democrats agree.</p>
<p>Source: A CNN/SSRS poll of 1,037 U.S, adults conducted Sept. 26-28.</p>
<p>• Murmurs and asides to [email protected].</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/xGjXcUKYsKxMeCUl1" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | All fired up: Joe Biden goes after Trump | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/1/joe-biden-goes-in-attack-mode-with-ire-aimed-direc/ | 2017-10-01 | 0 |
<p>Photo Credit: via youtube</p>
<p>In a column entitled “ <a href="//ow.ly/ycbWE" type="external">Bush’s toxic legacy in Iraq</a>,” terrorism expert Peter Bergen writes about the origins of ISIS, “the brutal insurgent/terrorist group formerly known as al Qaeda in Iraq.”</p>
<p>Bergen notes that, “One of George W. Bush’s most toxic legacies is the introduction of al Qaeda into Iraq, which is the ISIS mother ship. If this wasn’t so tragic it would be supremely ironic, because before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, top Bush officials were insisting that there was an al Qaeda-Iraq axis of evil. Their claims that Saddam Hussein’s men were training members of al Qaeda how to make weapons of mass destruction seemed to be one of the most compelling rationales for the impending war.”</p>
<p>There was no al Qaeda-Iraq connection until the war; our invasion made it so. We have known this for nearly a decade, well before the murderous ISIS even appeared. In a September 2006&#160;New York Times&#160;article headlined “ <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/middleeast/24terror.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat</a>,” reporter Mark Mazetti informed readers of a classified National Intelligence Estimate representing the consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ the analysis cited the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology: “The Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,’ said one American intelligence official.”</p>
<p>The Bush administration fought to quash its conclusions during the two years that the report was in the works. Mazetti reported, “Previous drafts described actions by the United States government that were determined to have stoked the jihad movement, like the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.”&#160;Apparently, these were dropped from the final document, though the reference to jihadists using their training for the purpose of “exacerbating domestic conflicts or fomenting radical ideologies” as in say, Syria, remained.</p>
<p>On the one hand, it is impressive how well our intelligence agencies were able to predict the likely outcome of the Bush Administration’s foolhardy obsession with invading Iraq. On the other, it is beyond depressing how little these assessments have come to matter in the discussion and debate over US foreign policy.</p>
<p>As we know, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the other architects of the war did everything possible to intimidate, and when necessary,&#160; <a href="//thinkprogress.org/politics/2006/02/02/3529/cheney-on-uranium/" type="external">discredit those in the intelligence agencies who warned of the predictable consequences of war</a>.&#160;Cheney and his deputies made repeated trips to Langley to challenge professional intelligence work and used pliant members of the media — including Robert Novak of the Washington Post&#160;and Judith Miller of the New York Times, among many, many others — to undermine the integrity of people like&#160; <a href="//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/plame/Plame_KeyPlayers.html" type="external">Joseph P. Wilson and Valerie Plame</a>&#160;lest the truth about the administration’s lies come out. Rather incredibly, they even went so far as to ignore the&#160; <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/world/struggle-for-iraq-planning-state-dept-study-foresaw-trouble-now-plaguing-iraq.html" type="external">incredibly detailed planning documents, created over a period of a year</a>&#160;at a cost of $5 million by the State Department, that had a chance of providing Iraq with a stable postwar environment. Instead, they insisted on creating an occupation that generated nothing but chaos, mass murder and the terrorist victories of today.</p>
<p>One of the many horrific results was the decision to support Nouri al-Maliki as a potential leader of the nation. Maliki’s sectarian attacks on Sunni Muslims on behalf of his Shiite allies are the immediate cause of the current murderous situation. And his placement in that job, as Fareed Zakaria&#160; <a href="//ow.ly/ycpQU" type="external">aptly notes</a>, “was the product of a series of momentous decisions made by the Bush administration. Having invaded Iraq with a small force — what the expert Tom Ricks called ‘the worst war plan in American history’ — the administration needed to find local allies.”</p>
<p>One could go on and on about the awful judgment — the arrogance, the corruption, the ideological obsession and the purposeful ignorance — by the Bush administration that led to the current catastrophe. As Ezra Klein recently noted, “ <a href="//www.vox.com/2014/6/17/5817910/the-undeniable-proof-that-the-iraq-war-was-an-utter-disaster" type="external">All this cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives</a>.” And this is to say nothing of the destruction of our civil liberties and poisoning of our political discourse at home and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died, the millions of refugees created, the hatred inspired in the world toward the United States.</p>
<p>But to focus exclusively on the administration begs an obvious question. How did they get away with it? Where were the watchdogs of the press?</p>
<p>Much has been written on this topic. No one denies that the truth was available at the time. Not all of it, of course, but enough to know that certain catastrophe lay down the road the administration chose to travel at 100 miles per hour.&#160;Top journalists, like those who ran the&#160;Times&#160;and the Washington Post, chose to ignore the reporting they read in their own papers.</p>
<p>As the&#160;Post&#160;itself later reported, its veteran intelligence reporter Walter Pincus authored a compelling story that undermined the Bush administration’s claim to have proof that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. It only made the paper at all because Bob Woodward, who was researching a book, talked his editors into it. And even then, it ran on page A17, where it was immediately forgotten.</p>
<p>As former&#160; <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/world/struggle-for-iraq-planning-state-dept-study-foresaw-trouble-now-plaguing-iraq.html" type="external">Post</a>&#160;Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks later explained, “ <a href="//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58127-2004Aug11.html" type="external">Administration assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the administration were on A18 on Sunday or A24 on Monday</a>. There was an attitude among editors: ‘Look, we’re going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?”&#160;The New York Times&#160;ran similarly regretful stories and its editors noted to its readers that the paper had been “perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper.” (Bill Moyers’ documentary special “ <a href="//www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/citations.html" type="external">Buying the War: How Big Media Failed Us</a>&#160;tells the story, and in conjunction with that Moyers report, you can find an&#160; <a href="//www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/timeline.html" type="external">Interactive Timeline</a>&#160;as well as&#160; <a href="//www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/citations.html#postwar" type="external">post-March 2003 coverage</a>&#160;of Iraq.)</p>
<p>Many in the mainstream media came clean, relatively speaking, about the cause of their mistakes when it turned out that they had been conduits for the Bush administration lies that led to catastrophe. But what they haven’t done, apparently, is change their ways.</p>
<p>As my “Altercation” colleague Reed Richardson&#160; <a href="//ow.ly/ydXpH" type="external">notes</a>, the very same people who sold us the war are today trying to resell us the same damaged goods: “On MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ this past&#160;Monday, there was&#160; <a href="//www.politico.com/story/2014/06/paul-bremer-iraq-us-troops-107888.html" type="external">Paul Bremer</a>, the man who summarily disbanded the Iraqi Army in 2003 in one of the biggest strategic blunders of the war, happily holding court and advocating for ‘boots on the ground.’” Not to be outdone,&#160;Politico had the temerity to quote&#160; <a href="//www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/05/douglas_feith.html" type="external">Doug Feith</a>&#160;blithely lecturing Obama about how to execute foreign policy. Don’t forget the throwback stylings of&#160; <a href="//prospect.org/article/torture-apologist-marc-thiessen-joins-liberal-media" type="external">torture apologist</a>&#160; <a href="//prospect.org/article/torture-apologist-marc-thiessen-joins-liberal-media" type="external">Marc Thiessen</a>&#160;either, who was writing speeches for Rumsfeld during the run-up to the Iraq War. On Monday, he, too, weighed in with an op-ed in the&#160;Washington Post&#160;unironically entitled&#160; <a href="//www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-obamas-iraq-disaster/2014/06/16/7151391e-f55b-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html" type="external">“Obama’s Iraq Disaster.”</a></p>
<p>Among the most egregious examples of this tendency has been rehabilitation of neoconservative thinker Robert Kagan and his frequent writing partner, the pundit and policy entrepreneur William Kristol. Back in April 2002, the two argued that “the road that leads to real security and peace” is&#160; <a href="//www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/086zzete.asp" type="external">“the road that runs through Baghdad.”</a>&#160;In an article titled “ <a href="//ow.ly/ycRg3" type="external">What to Do About Iraq</a>,” they added that not only was it silly to believe that “American ground forces in significant number are likely to be required for success in Iraq” but also that they found it “almost impossible to imagine any outcome for the world both plausible and worse than the disease of Saddam with weapons of mass destruction. A fractured Iraq? An unsettled Kurdish situation? A difficult transition in Baghdad? These may be problems, but they are far preferable to leaving Saddam in power with his nukes, VX, and anthrax.”</p>
<p>Recently, Kristol could be heard on ABC’s idiotically named “Powerhouse Roundtable” explaining that the problem in Iraq today was caused not by the lousy decisions for which he argued so vociferously but “by our ridiculous and total withdrawal from Iraq in 2011.”</p>
<p>Both men made this argument over and over, and especially in Kristol’s case, often in&#160; <a href="//delong.typepad.com/egregious_moderation/2009/10/eric-alterman-kristolism-from-mccarthy-or-is-it-mccarthyism-from-kristol.html" type="external">McCarthyite terms designed to cast aspersions on the motives and patriotism of their opponents</a>&#160;and those in the media. For his spectacular wrongness Kristol has been punished by being given columns in&#160;The Washington Post,&#160;The New York Times,&#160;and Time&#160;magazine, not to mention a regular slot on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” (These appointments came in addition to a $250,000 award from the right-wing Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; an occasion that inspired&#160; <a href="//www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/apr/24/william-kristol-bradley-prize-iraq" type="external">this collection</a>&#160;of just a few of his greatest hits.)</p>
<p>Recently, Kristol could be heard on ABC’s idiotically named “Powerhouse Roundtable” explaining that the problem in Iraq today was caused not by the lousy decisions for which he argued so vociferously but “ <a href="//abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/week-powerhouse-roundtable-ii-24146405" type="external">by our ridiculous and total withdrawal from Iraq in 2011</a>.” (Surprise, surprise, he did not mention that our 2011 withdrawal from Iraq was the product of the 2008 “Status of Forces” agreement negotiated by none other than President George W. Bush.)</p>
<p>Similarly, last month, Kagan was given 12,700 words for a cover essay in the (still hawkish)&#160;New Republic&#160;entitled&#160; <a href="//www.newrepublic.com/article/117859/allure-normalcy-what-america-still-owes-world" type="external">“Superpowers Don’t Get to Retire,”</a>&#160;which he used to make many of the same sorts of unsupported assertions that underlay his original misguided advice. As a result, he found himself not only celebrated in a&#160; <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/us/politics/historians-critique-of-obama-foreign-policy-is-brought-alive-by-events-in-iraq.html" type="external">profile in&#160;The New York Times</a>&#160;that all but glossed over his past record, but also called in for consultations by the current President of the United States.</p>
<p>One often reads analyses these days that grant the no-longer ignorable fact that American conservatives, especially those in control of the Republican Party, have become so obsessed by right-wing ideology and beholden to corporate cash that they have entirely lost touch both with reality and with the views of most Americans. As the famed Brookings Institution analyst Thomas Mann recently wrote in the&#160; <a href="//www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/dysfunction/371544/" type="external">Atlantic Monthly</a>, “Republicans have become a radical insurgency — ideologically extreme, contemptuous of the inherited policy regime, scornful of compromise, unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of their political opposition.”</p>
<p>This tendency was the focus of the coverage of the shocking defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in his local primary by a man with no political experience and little money, who attributed his victory to “ <a href="//www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/david-brat-victory-cantor-shines-spotlight-background-article-1.1826497" type="external">God act[ing] through people on my behalf</a>,” and warns that unless more Americans heed the lessons of Jesus — as he interprets them — a new Hitler could rise again “quite easily.” These right-wing extremists have repeatedly demonstrated their contempt for the views of most Americans whether it be on economic issues, environmental issues, issues of personal, religious and sexual freedom or immigration, to name just a few, and&#160; <a href="//www.gallup.com/poll/170741/conservative-lead-social-economic-ideology-shrinking.aspx" type="external">Americans are moving away</a>&#160;from them as a result.</p>
<p>This is no less true, it turns out, with regard to the proposed adventurism in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East by those who sold us the first false bill of goods back in 2003.&#160; <a href="//www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm" type="external">A strong majority of Americans now agree that removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq was not worth the trillions of dollars and lives lost</a>. Barely&#160; <a href="file:///C:/Users/winshipm/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.Outlook/AWVFMD78/1,%20read%20soon.docx" type="external">one in six</a>&#160;want to go back in. There is also strong&#160; <a href="//www.cnn.com/2013/09/09/politics/syria-poll-main/" type="external">opposition to military intervention in neighboring Syria</a>. And yet not only do the same armchair warriors continue in their demands for more blood and treasure to be sacrificed on the altar of their ideological obsession with no regard whatever for Americans’ desire to do the exact opposite, they remain revered by the same mainstream media that allowed them to get away with it the first time.</p>
<p>The conservative foreign policy establishment, it needs to be said, is no less out of touch with reality — and democracy — than the tea party fanatics who control the Republican domestic agenda (and are fueled by the cash of the Koch Brothers and other billionaires who stand to profit from their victories). That so many in the media pretend otherwise, after all this time, all this death and all this money wasted, demonstrates not only contempt for their audience but utter disdain for knowledge itself.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Neocons' Shocking Iraq Revisionism: How They Are Utterly Divorced from Reality | true | http://alternet.org/news-amp-politics/neocons-shocking-iraq-revisionism-how-they-are-utterly-divorced-reality | 2014-06-20 | 4 |
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<p>As President Trump prepares on Tuesday to deliver his first address to Congress, many older Americans are anxiously awaiting any potential updates on his plans for the future of Medicare and Social Security.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>While on the campaign trail, then-candidate Trump promised, if elected, budget cuts for the so-called entitlement programs would be off the table.</p>
<p>“I am going to protect and save your Social Security and your Medicare. You made a deal a long time ago,” Trump said in November.</p>
<p>And AARP, one of the largest-spending lobbying groups in the country, wants to hold him to it.</p>
<p>“Before the president addresses Congress [on Tuesday], AARP staff and volunteers in all 50 states are contacting their members of Congress&#160;to underscore the importance of Medicare to its 57 million beneficiaries as well as the millions of hard working Americans who are paying in to the program. AARP is also encouraging Americans of all ages to contact their members of Congress and tell them ‘to get to work for the American people by protecting Medicare from cuts and attempts to turn it into a voucher system,’” said AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Prior to Medicare being enacted, nearly 1 in 2 older Americans had no health insurance, according to AARP. Some of those individuals confronted with a serious illness would often deplete their savings or forgo healthcare all together due to the cost.</p>
<p>While some GOP lawmakers have proposed tweaking the programs to better balance the government books, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told FOX’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that the president’s budget plan does not include cuts to Social Security or Medicare.</p>
<p>"We are not touching those now. So don't expect to see that as part of this budget, OK," said Mnuchin. "We are very focused on other aspects and that's what's very important to us. And that's the president's priority."</p> | Older Americans On Edge, Await Trump Speech for Medicare, Social Security Updates | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/28/older-americans-on-edge-await-trump-speech-for-medicare-social-security-updates.html | 2017-02-28 | 0 |
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<p>The Swiss supermarket chain Coop, to a bit of domestic hoopla, has begun selling burgers and balls made from insects. It’s being billed as a legal first in Europe, a continent more accustomed to steak, sausage, poultry and fish as a source of protein.</p>
<p>The goal is to convince leery consumers to try a nutritious, if unusual food that “preserves the planet’s resources,” Coop says.</p>
<p>About one-third of the burger is mealworm larvae. A burger weighing 100 grams (3.5 ounces) has about 10 grams of protein in it — about the same amount found in a child’s-size beef burger.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>For now, only seven of Coop’s nearly 2,500 stores in Switzerland are serving up the critters concocted by the Zurich-based food startup Essento. The chain says the insect products have been flying off shelves during their limited rollout in the Alpine nation and a broader launch is planned by year’s end.</p>
<p>Insect promoters say Switzerland isn’t the first European country to allow retail sales, just the first to have those sales so clearly authorized. A change in Swiss law in May allows the sale of three types of insects: mealworm larvae, house crickets and migratory locusts.</p>
<p>“It’s the first time that a state has authorized human consumption of insects in such a firm, explicit way in Europe,” said Christophe Derrien, chief of the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed.</p>
<p>Insects can be found on the shelves in Belgium, Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands, but that’s due to a “legal void” in European Union rules, he said.</p>
<p>New legislation taking effect in January will smooth the way for bug burgers to turn up on picnic plates across the EU, however.</p>
<p>The chain says it has a policy of not releasing sales numbers, but spokeswoman Andrea Bergmann said the insect burgers and balls “have been very successful from day one and have been sold out quickly everywhere.”</p>
<p>The burger itself has little white specks of rice inside with traces of carrot, paprika, chili powder and pepper. After a hesitant bite, the main flavors that come out are the spices. The texture is curious, a bit like a meaty falafel with a crunch. An aftertaste lingered — but maybe that was just my subconscious playing tricks.</p>
<p>The insect burgers, like the meat variety, can be accompanied by buns, tomatoes and lettuce. The insect balls — a mixture of mealworms with cilantro, onions and chickpeas — seem to fit best in pita bread, perhaps with a spoonful of yogurt.</p>
<p>The U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization has promoted insects as a source of human food, saying they are healthy and high in protein and minerals. The agency says many types of insects produce less greenhouse gases and ammonia than most livestock — such as methane-spewing cattle — and require less land and money to cultivate.</p>
<p>Still, there’s no telling how long a true conversion in consumer tastes from beef to bug burgers might take — if it happens at all.</p> | Yuck or yum? Swiss offer insect burgers of mealworm larvae | false | https://abqjournal.com/1060388/yuck-or-yum-swiss-offer-insect-burgers-of-mealworm-larvae.html | 2017-09-08 | 2 |
<p>RICHMOND—What's in a name?</p>
<p>For churches seeking a new minister, the bottom line is collecting names of candidates—and lots of them. That's not always an easy task, and search committees typically discover it takes a variety of approaches to create a critical mass of potential pastors.</p>
<p>“You have to look at multiple ways in today's world,” said Jim Vaught, church minister matching specialist for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. “We never know how God is at work. God works in multiple avenues and channels. And the goal is always to find the right fit between a church and a minister.”</p>
<p>Finding the “right fit” between a church and the tools it uses in its search process is critical as well, say veterans of congregational search committees. Factors such as church size, geographical location and extent of financial resources all play a role—as does a church's perception of a method's compatibility with its spiritual undertaking.</p>
<p>“The trick is to find the tool that works best for the church,” said Mike Lipford, who chairs the pastoral search committee at First Baptist Church in Richmond. “God is the ultimate recruiter, but he's given us talents and abilities to discern the person that's right for the church.”</p>
<p>Most churches seem to be employing a combination of the five approaches:</p>
<p>• The Network.Word of mouth has always been an effective way of finding of potential ministerial candidates and still may be the most widely used approach. “I tell churches to talk to pastors who they like and trust in their areas and ask for recommendations,” Vaught said.</p>
<p>While abuses by the “good ol' boy network” have tarnished its effectiveness, networking is a familiar procedure for laypeople who generally fill church search committees. It smooths the wheels of most business operations, and it is compatible with Baptists' decentralized polity.</p>
<p>• Madison Avenue. Religious newspapers and magazines across the nation report that a greater number of churches is advertising to fill ministerial posts. “We took out ads in a number of publications that had wide circulation and consequently had résumés come in from all parts of the country and even outside,” Lipford said.</p>
<p>Advertising for a pastor hasn't always been widely accepted. Twenty years ago, the Religious Herald, routinely declined any ads to fill ministerial positions.</p>
<p>“I think advertising carried with it a whiff of the secular market,” said Jim White, the Herald's editor. Today such ads represent a significant percentage of its overall advertising.</p>
<p>Though little research has been done to track the extent to which ads generate names, the increased volume suggests satisfaction and success.</p>
<p>• Headhunters. Consulting firms have long been a pillar of the secular job market but are only beginning to make inroads in Baptist churches—possibly because, like earlier attitudes toward advertising, “headhunters” still retain a hint of the secular.</p>
<p>“We discussed that possibility (of a consulting firm) and decided not to unless we had to” to generate names, Lipford said. “And so far we haven't had to.”</p>
<p>Consulting firms are, of course, profit-making ventures—and that may at times conflict with a church's perceived mission.</p>
<p>“Someone from (a consulting firm specializing in locating church ministers) cold-called one of our staff members at our church,” a Texas pastor said. “This staff member was shocked and even asked if I had given them his name thinking that something might possibly be wrong. After assuring our staff member that I had not given them his name, I called (the firm) and spoke with its president. He said that cold-calling church staff was an acceptable practice and that he did not believe it to be unethical. I asked him and his staff to refrain from calling our staff as a courtesy, but he would not give me a guarantee.”</p>
<p>• Click on this. Soliciting résumés on church websites to fill staff positions is an inexpensive and, potentially, wide-reaching way of gathering names. Old Powhatan Baptist Church in Powhatan, Va., includes a “Prospective Pastor” link on its website that offers a demographic profile of the 236-year-old congregation.</p>
<p>“We would like to share a little information about our church and community in order to give you the opportunity to begin prayerfully considering Old Powhatan Baptist Church for your next ministry position,” the church's search committee notes in a “Dear Prospective Pastor” letter, which includes a profile of the community and its schools and cultural offerings.</p>
<p>• The matching game. Increasingly sophisticated computer data bases link ministers and churches with detailed information that more effectively match the two. One of those is a collaborative effort by the Baptist General Association of Virginia, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Launched in February, the Leader Connect database can be accessed from the websites of each of the collaborators.</p>
<p>“I think a smaller church will find the matching service and its database of names is a good place to start,” Lipford said.</p>
<p>“We contacted lots of friends, and they used many sources—some of which likely were matching services.”</p>
<p>And what happens if a committee winds up with too many names?</p>
<p>“When you cast a wide net and generate a lot of resumes, you'll have a number of candidates' names to wade through that are not necessarily the person you're looking for,” Lipford said. “But on the other hand, you can generate a lot of interesting names as well.”</p> | Churches seeking pastors put plenty of hooks in the water | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/churchesseekingpastorsputplentyofhooksinthewater/ | 3 |
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>In the fictional town of Lake Woebegon, all of the children are above average. But in the real world of California, all of the counties are disadvantaged.</p>
<p>Or so it seemed at a recent <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm" type="external">California Air Resources Board</a> meeting as officials from all over the state poor-mouthed their districts to gain a share of cap-and-trade funds set aside for “disadvantaged communities.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/capandtrade.htm" type="external">Cap and trade</a> is one of the main greenhouse-gas-reduction components in the implementation of AB32, <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm" type="external">the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006</a>. It’s projected to raise $832 million in the current fiscal year that will be doled out to various state agencies.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0501-0550/sb_535_bill_20120930_chaptered.pdf" type="external">Senate Bill 535</a>, passed in 2012, mandates at least 25 percent of cap-and-trade spending must benefit disadvantaged communities, with at least 10 percent going to projects located in those communities.</p>
<p>CARB, which implemented and administers the cap-and-trade program, identifies “disadvantaged communities” based on their <a href="http://www.calepa.ca.gov/" type="external">California Environmental Protection Agency</a> <a href="http://www.oehha.ca.gov/ej/pdf/CES20Finalreport2014.pdf" type="external">CalEnviroScreen</a> score.&#160;Each of the state’s 8,000 census tracts are scored from 0 (least disadvantaged) to 100 (most disadvantaged), based on 12 pollution and environmental factors and seven population characteristics and socioeconomic factors.</p>
<p>The most disadvantaged communities are generally those with the highest levels of pollution and the poorest population. They are predominantly in the agricultural Central Valley from Sacramento to Bakersfield, along with urban pockets in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego.</p>
<p>“CalEnviroScreen shows clearly what we in the San Joaquin Valley know all too well: that many of our communities are among the most disadvantaged in the state,” said Fresno Mayor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Swearengin" type="external">Ashley Swearengin</a>,&#160;&#160;as quoted in a <a href="http://www.oehha.ca.gov/public_info/press/ces2pressrelease2014.html" type="external">CalEPA press release</a>. “By reinvesting funds in areas of the state with high pollution levels, California is demonstrating its commitment to a cleaner and more prosperous future for all.”</p>
<p>In the November election, she is <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/California_down_ballot_state_executive_elections,_2014" type="external">running</a>for state controller&#160;as a Republican against Democrat Betty Yee, a member of the state Board of Equalization.</p>
<p>But not so fast, said numerous officials and advocates who spoke at CARB’s recent&#160;hearing on the issue.&#160;Particularly angry was CARB member and San Diego County Supervisor <a href="http://ronroberts.com/" type="external">Ron Roberts</a>, who produced a map:</p>
<p>Color code:</p>
<p>Roberts didn’t like the CalEnviroScreen white coloration on the southern end of his county near the Mexican border.&#160;“Where those two freeways come together in that white zone is the busiest border crossing in the world,”&#160;he said.</p>
<p>As Roberts was talking,&#160;CARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols interrupted, “You don’t have a hard time convincing me. You need to go take this argument to CalEPA.”</p>
<p>“The fact that’s not a bright purple, it is disadvantaged in every way, shape, or form,” said Roberts.</p>
<p>Nichols again interrupted, “All I can tell you is –“</p>
<p>“Let me finish,” said Roberts. “The EnviroScreen may be good for some things, but this is being missed. That whole area should be bright purple, not just the white. The fact that it’s not, should signal somebody that the model we have is not accounting for what’s happening on the ground. There is no way that I can support something that basically ignores the situation like this.</p>
<p>“That’s one of our most impacted areas in the whole county, for certain, and it’s one of our lowest income areas. This is a miscarriage of justice. And you talk about environmental justice, and there is none in that map right there.”</p>
<p>There is also disadvantaged disgruntlement from officials at the other end of the state. Alan Abbs, the Tehama County air pollution control officer, is concerned &#160;his county’s census tracts are in the 25-30 percent most disadvantaged ranking, although the cutoff for funding might be at the 20 percent most disadvantaged level.</p>
<p>“Tehama County as a whole has a population with a median household income 33 percent below the state median,” Abbs told the board. “We have the highest asthma rates in the north state. And like any county in California, we have pockets that are significantly less well off than other pockets. So at the outset, I would urge the board to consider going beyond the 20 percent level when you’re looking at disadvantaged communities.</p>
<p>“When we look in the future about how rural areas of California are going to be receiving funds through cap and trade, especially when fuels get added into cap and trade [starting in 2015], I think we’ll find out a lot of rural areas of California are going to be [left] out, even though the residents in those areas are going to be paying into the program through higher fuel costs.”</p>
<p>Also concerned that the CalEnviroScreen rankings may not provide the whole picture, particularly in rural areas not in the Central Valley, was Tehama County Supervisor Bob Williams, representing the <a href="http://www.rcrcnet.org/rcrc/" type="external">Rural County Representatives of California</a>.</p>
<p>“CalEnviroScreen multiplies pollution burdens by the social and economic characteristics of the community, basically eliminating areas of the state with good air quality from being defined as disadvantaged communities, no matter their socioeconomic status,” said Williams.</p>
<p>“Using strictly the CalEnviroScreen as a source for recognition could potentially eliminate a minimum of counties from consideration, including counties such as Lake, Modoc, Plumas, and Lassen. If you’ve been to those counties, you would be hard pressed to deny they have disadvantaged areas.</p>
<p>“RCRC recommends that additional flexibility be allowed so local jurisdictions can demonstrate that a community smaller than a census tract can meet the definition of a disadvantaged community. Rural areas cannot compete in many AB32 programs because projects usually cost more to complete in more remote areas. Being excluded from the disadvantaged community designation all but eliminates these counties from access to funds.”’</p>
<p>Nichols was sympathetic to their concerns.&#160;“We do understand this issue about rural areas, which undoubtedly are among the poorest of areas within the state of California, but are not the ones that fit the criteria of being impacted the most in terms of multiple sources of pollution,”&#160;she said.</p>
<p>“And we agree that it’s not just an issue of fairness. It’s an issue of addressing opportunities that are there to do things that could ultimately benefit all of us when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. So we want to make sure that there is a way to appropriately recognize and make sure there are funds flowing to rural communities in the overall AB32 cap-and-trade spending program.”</p>
<p>But advocates for poor urban areas aren’t keen on spreading the disadvantaged money around to less disadvantaged areas. They want the most disadvantaged communities, particularly those with minority populations, to get most of the money.</p>
<p>“I think all of us here understand that historically low-income communities of color have been disproportionately burdened with pollution, which remains true today,” said Bill Magavern with the <a href="http://www.ccair.org/" type="external">Coalition for Clean Air</a>. “So we have the opportunity now to go a little ways towards redressing that inequity, that environmental injustice, with some of the funds that are available.”</p>
<p>Monika Shankar, representing <a href="http://www.psr-la.org/" type="external">Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles</a>, argued for “a ranking system to prioritize investments in communities with the greatest needs. For example, many of the census tracts in the top 5&#160;percent score markedly worse than the next set of census tracts in the top 6&#160;to 25 percent. And we need to be cognizant of that.”</p>
<p>Also in favor of concentrating the money where it’s needed most was <a href="http://www.publicadvocates.org/marybelle-nzegwu" type="external">Marybelle Nzegwu</a>, a <a href="http://www.publicadvocates.org/" type="external">Public Advocates</a> attorney representing the SB535 Coalition.</p>
<p>“We would like to see the guidelines at least provide guidance that scoring and ranking should prioritize certain types of projects, should prioritize projects that benefit the most disadvantaged communities, should also prioritize projects that provide the most benefits in the most significant way,” she said.</p>
<p>CARB&#160;voted 9-1 (with Roberts voting no) to adopt the disadvantaged communities spending guidelines outlined in their <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/board/books/2014/091814/14-7-4pres.pdf" type="external">staff report</a>. They also agreed to send a message to CalEPA that they feel there are some discrepancies in the CalEnviroScreen map ratings they would like addressed.</p> | Counties vie for ‘disadvantaged’ cap-and-trade bucks | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2014/10/16/counties-vie-for-disadvantaged-cap-and-trade-bucks/ | 2018-10-20 | 3 |
<p>Congressional staffers <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/12/11/staffer-walkout-ferguson.html" type="external">staged a walk-out today</a>&#160;to protest the non-indictments in the Mike Brown and Eric Garner cases. (Image via <a href="https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly" type="external">@ryanjreilly</a>)</p>
<p>Former supermodel&#160; <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/12/bill-cosby-beverly-johnson-story?mbid=social_twitter" type="external">Beverly Johnson tells the story of when&#160;Bill Cosby drugged her</a>. “I couldn’t sit back and watch the other women be vilified and shamed for something I knew was true.”&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/us/school-discipline-to-girls-differs-between-and-within-races.html?_r=0" type="external">Black girls in public schools&#160;are&#160;suspended</a> at a rate of 12 percent, compared with a rate of just 2 percent for white girls.</p>
<p>Insurers in New York can <a href="nytimes.com/2014/12/11/nyregion/in-new-york-insurance-must-cover-sex-changes-cuomo-says.html?_r=3&amp;referrer" type="external">no longer deny trans people</a> transition-related health care.</p>
<p>A new I <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11279726/Indias-new-comic-superhero-Priya-the-rape-survivor.html" type="external">ndian comic book features a&#160;female rape survivor as its superhero</a> who fights gender-based sexual violence around the world.</p> | Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet | true | http://feministing.com/2014/12/11/daily-feminist-cheat-sheet-467/ | 4 |
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<p>ROME — The first soup kitchen worthy of a Michelin star is set to open this week in Milan.</p>
<p>The project is the brainchild of Massimo Bottura, whose three-Michelin-starred restaurant Osteria Francescana this week finished second at the annual <a href="http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners" type="external">"World's 50 Best Restaurants"</a> awards in London.</p>
<p>Forty of Italy's most prominent chefs will cook gourmet dishes using leftovers from the nearby Expo 2015, this year's edition of the World's Fair being held in the northern Italian city.</p>
<p>The food will then be delivered to a soup kitchen run by the Catholic humanitarian agency Caritas.</p>
<p>Not only will the diners be treated to gourmet food, the center's furniture has been donated by some of Italy's most famous designers and brands.</p>
<p>Some 47,648 people used soup kitchens or homeless shelters in Italy in 2011, when <a href="http://www.istat.it/it/files/2014/06/17915_Senza_dimora.pdf" type="external">the latest figures were collated</a> by the country's National Institute for Statistics.</p>
<p>Although northwestern Italy is a relatively wealthy corner of the country, it has a disproportionately high number of homeless people, <a href="http://www.thelocal.it/20150115/a-portrait-of-modern-italy-in-ten-stats" type="external">The Local Italy reported in January</a>.</p> | Michelin-Starred Chef Massimo Bottura Is Cooking for Milan Soup Kitchen | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/world/italy-open-soup-kitchen-conceived-michelin-star-chef-massimo-bottura-n368921 | 2015-06-03 | 3 |
<p>There has been much ado — and rightly so — over the goings on at Fox News Channel - sexual harassment, hush money allegedly paid to victims, a string of high-profile resignations (some of which were really firings).</p>
<p>Less in the news is a lawsuit by 13 plaintiffs against Fox, alleging racial discrimination (although CNN covers the story <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/26/media/fox-news-racial-discrimination-lawsuit/" type="external">here</a> [but the author writes "Jim Crown" where we're guessing he meant to write "Jim Crow"]).</p>
<p>But even less in the news is a massive lawsuit against CNN. The class-action suit has been growing by leaps and bounds ever since it was first filed in December. Now, some 175 current and former employees have contacted lawyers about joining the case.</p>
<p>Only a few publications followed up on the story at the end of April, when the case exploded.</p>
<p>"The lawsuit against CNN, meanwhile, claims the company’s Atlanta headquarters is rife with racism," The New York Post wrote on April 27.</p>
<p>Minority employees had to endure bigoted remarks such as “It’s hard to manage black people” and “Who would be worth more: black slaves from times past, or new slaves?,” according to a complaint by former workers Celeslie Henley and Ernest Colbert Jr. filed in Atlanta federal court.</p>
<p>Colbert Jr. also claims he was paid thousands less than white colleagues as a manager at the affiliated Turner Broadcasting System.</p>
<p>Henley, a former CNN executive assistant, says she was fired in 2014 for complaining that black employees were being paid less than white counterparts.</p>
<p>Writes <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/cnn-faces-growing-racial-discrimination-lawsuit-991036" type="external">The Hollywood Reporter</a>:</p>
<p>Unlike the lawsuit against Fox News, the one against CNN and sister companies is much broader, claiming among other things that African-Americans receive lower performance ratings in evaluations, that there are dramatic differences in pay between similarly situated employees of different races and that the promotion of African-American employees is blocked by a "glass ceiling." The complaint (see here) cites hiring and advancement statistics while alleging that African-American employees have endured slurs from superiors, including "It's hard to manage black people" and "Who would be worth more: black slaves from times past, or new slaves?"</p>
<p>While the Fox News suit has grown by one additional employee, the case against CNN may soon become bigger by many multiples.</p>
<p>That's because after the defendants moved for dismissal or at least a more definitive statement about specific allegations, also raising the prospect that some of the claims may be barred by statute of limitations or by plaintiffs not exhausting administrative remedies, the plaintiffs' attorneys told the judge of their wish to file an amended complaint.</p>
<p>According to a plaintiffs' motion to amend that was filed March 23, "Since the filing of this action, counsels for the plaintiffs have been contacted by more than 175 people, both former and current employees of the Defendant, requesting to be members of the putative class action, all having similar complaints of intentional racial discrimination, discrimination impact and discriminatory practices employed by the Defendants."</p>
<p>The attorneys also write that many of the potential members recently coming forward are within the administrative process at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and awaiting their 90-days right-to-sue letter.</p>
<p>The number of people now suing CNN is ten times higher than those suing Fox, writes Ken LaCorte on Mediaite — "yet how many stories have you read about that?"</p>
<p>CNN star Jake Tapper has clearly forgotten about the lawsuit against his own network:</p>
<p>But hey, if it's not on CNN, it must not be news, right?</p> | Here's Something You Don't Hear Much About: The 175 People Suing CNN For Racial Discrimination | true | https://dailywire.com/news/16140/heres-something-you-dont-hear-much-about-175-joseph-curl | 2017-05-07 | 0 |
<p>A porn star who performed in an adult film “liked” by Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) Twitter account says she is “not a fan” of the senator.</p>
<p>“With his stance against the porn industry and adult entertainment, I’m not a fan of Ted Cruz,” Cory Chase, 36, told <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/porn-star-cory-chase-doesn-sen-ted-cruz-article-1.3491437?utm_content=bufferd193c&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw" type="external">The New York Daily News</a> Tuesday.</p>
<p>“But I’m happy to see that he could be a fan of mine though,” she added. “I do hope he enjoys the video if he watched it.”</p>
<p>Some Twitter users on Wednesday mocked Cruz after his official Twitter account liked a pornographic video clip two nights ago.</p>
<p>Chase said she was initially unaware of Cruz’s account liking a video of her late Monday as her home’s internet was out following Hurricane Irma hitting southern Florida last weekend.</p>
<p>The erotic entertainer added that if Cruz himself performed the like, he would be the first politician to openly enjoy her work.</p>
<p>“You never know if someone has a pseudonym,” said Chase, who has performed in adult entertainment for 13 years.</p>
<p>Cruz on Tuesday blamed “a staffing issue” for his Twitter liking a 2:20 segment from the adult film website Reality Kings.</p>
<p>“There are a number of people on the team who have access to the account and it appears that someone inadvertently hit the like button,” he told reporters.</p>
<p>“It was a staffing issue, and it was inadvertent,” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate added when pressed if he personally liked the tweet.</p>
<p>“We’re dealing with it internally, but it was a mistake, it was not malicious conduct. It was not a deliberate action.”</p>
<p>The video Cruz’s account liked was initially tweeted by “Sexuall Posts,” an account pledging “Full-Length HD Porn Posted Every Day.”</p>
<p>Cruz is a married father of two daughters, and the Texas senator is known for his conservative views on social issues.</p>
<p>These celebrities ended up deleting their Twitter accounts.</p>
<p /> | Porn star Cory Chase is 'not a fan' of Ted Cruz, but happy 'he could be a fan of mine' | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/09/13/politics/cory-chase-not-a-fan-of-ted-cruz-but-porn-star-happy-he-could-be-a-fan-of-mine | 2017-09-13 | 1 |
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<p>MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The attorney for a Tennessee woman accused of trying to end her pregnancy with a coat hanger says the woman will not face attempted murder charges.</p>
<p>Public Defender Gerald Melton told a Murfreesboro judge Monday morning that the prosecutor is planning to bring a new indictment against Anna Yocca before the grand jury next week. Melton later told reporters he anticipates the new charge will be aggravated assault.</p>
<p>Assistant District Attorney General Hugh Ammerman declined to comment.</p>
<p>According to a Murfreesboro Police Department report, Yocca filled a bathtub with water and attempted to self-abort last September. After she began bleeding, her boyfriend took her to a hospital where doctors delivered a 24-week-old, 1.5-pound baby. Doctors said the child will need medical support for the rest of his life.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Woman who tried to self-abort won't face attempted murder | false | https://abqjournal.com/732299/woman-who-tried-to-self-abort-wont-face-attempted-murder.html | 2 |
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<p>US government damage assessments from the WikiLeaks imbroglio are to be delivered to a military judge ahead of the trial of the accused leaker Bradley Manning, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/04/24/us/ap-us-manning-wikileaks.html?ref=us" type="external">according to The Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>The news agency said Colonel Denise Lind ordered the disclosures to be made to her directly so that she can determine if they should be made available to the defense for Manning, who stands accused of the greatest official secrets leak in US history.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/united-kingdom/120419/suigenerisjen-wikileaks-julian-assange-jennifer-robinson-twitter-australia" type="external">Australian lawyer for WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, '@suigenerisjen,' on travel watch list, she says</a></p>
<p>WikiLeaks in 2010 published classified video of a mistaken and deadly helicopter gunship attack on civilians in Baghdad, secret military records from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and progressively unveiled nearly a quarter of a million US diplomatic cables.</p>
<p>Manning, 24, is accused of leaking all of this to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, who is himself currently under house arrest in a separate case.</p>
<p>Colonel Lind ordered that the files be provided to her by May 18, according to the AP, which said defense lawyers had claimed in heated arguments that prosecutors were withholding potentially exculpatory evidence.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/120312/burma-economy-myanmar-sanctions" type="external">Promises, pitfalls await investors in Burma's frontier economy</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="external">According to the Agence France-Presse news agency</a>, the damage reports come from the CIA, FBI, the State Department and the military's Defense Intelligence Agency.</p>
<p>The news agency said Col. Lind said the State Department would be allowed to present arguments against disclosing its own report.</p>
<p>AFP said the reports could cast doubt on prosecutors' claims that the WikiLeaks disclosures caused damage to US interests or endangered lives. &#160;</p> | WikiLeaks: Manning judge orders disclosure of US damange reports | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-24/wikileaks-manning-judge-orders-disclosure-us-damange-reports | 2012-04-24 | 3 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The City of Albuquerque wants to tap into your experiences as a cable TV customer or potential customer as it moves toward renewing a multi-year franchise agreement with Comcast Cable.</p>
<p>The current franchise agreement for cable television services between the city and Comcast expires in October 2017.&#160; The city has set up an online survey where people can describe their experiences with Comcast and offer suggestions.</p>
<p>The survey is accessible at <a href="http://www.cabq.gov/cable-franchise" type="external">http://www.cabq.gov/cable-franchise.</a></p>
<p>The survey is part of a broader assessment of community needs, which will also include an evaluation of Comcast's technical and financial compliance with the city's ordinance and cable television service performance, according to a release from the city. Focus groups and public meetings were held with stakeholders from local and state government, broadcast television stations, the business community, higher education and public schools.</p>
<p>For more information, visit <a href="http://www.cabq.gov/cable-franchise" type="external">www.cabq.gov/cable-franchise</a> or call 311 locally or 505-768-2000 (Relay NM or 711).</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | City looking for feedback on Comcast | false | https://abqjournal.com/698589/city-looking-for-feedback-on-comcast.html | 2 |
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<p>Slide via &lt;a href="http://www.polluterwatch.com/2010/01/polluterwatch-exclusive-the-many-faces-of-fred-palmer/"&gt;PolluterWatch&lt;/a&gt;.</p>
<p />
<p>In recent years, the coal industry has worked hard to convince us that coal is “clean.” Now, they’re going one step further and claiming that it’s “green.” Last week, a veteran climate change denialist pushed this idea to Obama administration officials and congressional staffers.</p>
<p>In a <a href="" type="internal">policy briefing</a> sponsored by the <a href="http://www.usea.org/" type="external">United States Energy Association</a>, Fred Palmer, a coal industry lobbyist and <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming/debate/palmer.html" type="external">notorious climate change denier</a>, touted the wonders of “green coal” as a “path to zero emissions.”&#160;Greenpeace’s new PolluterWatch program—a kind of oppo research team targeting global warming skeptics and energy interests—managed to sit in on the talk, which it said was attended by close to 100 administration and congressional staffers and policy experts.</p>
<p>Palmer has a solid history of undermining climate science on behalf of big polluters. He’s the head of government affairs at <a href="http://www.peabodyenergy.com/Profile/ManagementTeam.asp" type="external">Peabody Energy</a>, the world’s largest coal company, and was formerly president of the Western Fuels Association and chairman of legal affairs for the National Mining Association.&#160;</p>
<p>At the Western Fuels Association, Palmer headed the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Greening_Earth_Society" type="external">Greening Earth Society</a>, which claimed that increased emissions would actually help ecosystems and economies. He even argued in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr9kanvxa6A" type="external">an interview</a> that “every time you turn your car on and you burn fossil fuels and you put CO2 into the air, you’re doing the work of the Lord.”</p>
<p>With his new call for zero emissions via “green coal,” it seems Palmer has put the Lord’s work on hold. (A cynic might wonder if that’s because Peabody is among the many coal companies lining up for massive funding for carbon-capture-and-storage technology). Instead, he’s now touting coal as a “low-carbon”&#160;solution and the “fuel of social progress.” One of his slides lists these “simple truths” about coal:</p>
<p /> | Climate Skeptic Touts “Green Coal” to Govt Staffers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/climate-skeptic-touts-green-coal/ | 2010-01-19 | 4 |
<p>"God," said Tolstoy, "is the name of my desire." This remarkable sentence could haunt one a lifetime, it reverberates in so many directions. Tolstoy may have intended partial assent to the idea that, life being insupportable without some straining toward "transcendence," a belief in God is a psychological necessity. But he must also have wanted to turn this rationalist criticism into a definition of his faith. He must have meant that precisely because his holiest desires met in the vision of God he was enabled to cope with the quite unholy realities of human existence. That God should be seen as the symbolic objectification of his desire thus became both a glorification of God and a strengthening of man, a stake in the future and a radical criticism of the present.</p>
<p>Without sanctioning the facile indetification that is frequently made between religion and socailist politics, we should like to twist Tolstoy's remark to our own ends: socialism is the name of our desire. And not merely in the sense that it is a vision which, for many people throughout the world, provides moral sustenance, but also in the sense that it is a vision which objectifies and give urgency to their criticism of the human condition in our time. It is the name of our desire because the desire arises from a conflict with, and an extension from, the world that is; nor could the desire survive in any meaningful way were it not for this complex relationship to the world that is.</p>
<p>At so late and unhappy a moment, however, can one still specify what the vision of socialism means or should mean? Is the idea of utopia itself still a tolerable one?. . .</p>
<p>Today, in an age of curdled realism, it is necessary to assert the utopian image. But this can be done meaningfully only if it is an image of social striving, tension, conflict; an image of a problem-creating and problem-solving society.</p>
<p>In his "Essay on Man" Ernst Cassirer has written almost all that remains to be said:</p>
<p>A Utopia is not a portrait of the real world, or of the actual political or social order. it exists at no moment of time and at no point in space; it is a "nowhere." But just such a conception of a nowhere has stood the test and proved its strength in the development of the modern world. It follows from the nature and character of ethical thought that it can never condescend to accept the "given." The ethical world is never given; it is forever in the making.</p>
<p>Some time ago one could understandably make of Socialism is a consoling day-dream. now, when we live in the shadwo of defeat, to retain, to will the image of socialism is a constant struggle for definition, almost an act of pain. But it is the kin...</p>
<p /> | The Last Page | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/the-last-page-9 | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>RICHMOND —Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond will hold classes in a new, still-to-be-determined location this fall, following action by its trustees March 18 to authorize President Ron Crawford to sign a leasing agreement to house the 21-year-old <a href="http://www.btsr.edu/s/918/start.aspx" type="external">seminary</a>.</p>
<p>The trustee action, taken during the board’s spring meeting, was the next step in developing a new business model which includes relocating the seminary from its campus on Richmond’s Northside, where it has been since 1997.</p>
<p />
<p>At a called meeting in January, trustees <a href="http://www.religiousherald.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=6600&amp;Itemid=43" type="external">approved the sale</a> of two of the seminary’s four buildings to <a href="http://www.veritasschool.com/" type="external">Veritas School</a> — action which the board reaffirmed March 18.</p>
<p>Though the new location is not yet settled, “several locations are under consideration and an agreement could be reached within weeks,” Crawford said in a statement.</p>
<p>Since relocation depends on completing the sale and transferring the property, the move may not occur until Aug. 1 or later, Crawford said, though he added it will be finalized by the opening of classes on Sept. 9 and likely in time for summer classes which begin on Aug. 5.</p>
<p>The seminary’s May term will be held on the current campus. Interim office space will be found for faculty and staff in June and July, when classes are not in session.</p>
<p>In March 2011, <a href="http://www.religiousherald.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=4901&amp;Itemid=43" type="external">trustees approved</a> the “orderly selling” of BTSR’s campus and eventual relocation, both to broaden its mission and to achieve financial stability. The school moved to its current location in 1997, when it bought buildings originally owned by the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, across the street from Union Theological Seminary.</p>
<p />
<p>Included in the sale to Veritas — a private K-12 Christian school with about 270 students currently based at a Presbyterian church in Richmond — are Graves and Virginia halls and two nearby parking lots. The seminary will temporarily retain ownership of Kraemer Hall but will sell it on or before June 30, 2020. Veritas has first right of refusal on that building. The fourth building — the former nursing dormitory of a closed hospital nearby — is on the market but not part of the sale to Veritas.</p>
<p>Crawford said the remaining contingency on the sale is approval by the Richmond City Council of a zoning change to allow a K-12 private school. The property’s current special use permit restricts it to graduate educational programs. The council will consider the change May 28 and if approved, the sale and transfer will occur soon after, he said.</p>
<p>During the spring meeting, trustees also discussed BTSR’s developing strategic plan, which will be finalized by the board in October. Priorities include greater accessibility for additional students; producing highly-skilled, innovative and creative ministers; raising adequate financial resources; and effective recruitment of students and placement of graduates.</p>
<p>“These strategic priorities are guiding the seminary’s decision to relocate and create a more effective business model,” said Crawford.</p>
<p />
<p>To further those goals, trustees approved a motion to allocate for student scholarships contributions from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist General Association of Virginia, beginning with the 2014-2015 academic year.</p>
<p>Each year, the BGAV <a href="http://www.vbmb.org/About/Cooperative-Missions/Giving-Plans.cfm" type="external">budgets</a> through its World Mission Giving track about $118,000 to BTSR and the CBF <a href="http://issuu.com/fellowship/docs/viewbook1213/15" type="external">allocates</a> another $65,000. Those budgeted funds previously supported the seminary’s overall operating budget. Crawford said the use of other designated gifts channeled through either the BGAV or the CBF would not be impacted by the policy change.</p>
<p>“This action has been discussed for several years by trustees and reflects the institution’s strategic plan for the future,” he said.</p>
<p>In other action, Crawford announced the retirement of <a href="http://www.btsr.edu/s/918/index.aspx?sid=918&amp;gid=1&amp;pgid=358" type="external">Stephen Brachlow</a>, professor of spirituality and the John F. Loftis Professor of Church History. Brachlow will be recognized in a chapel service and reception on April 17.</p>
<p>Robert Dilday ( <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.</p> | BTSR trustees authorize president to sign leasing agreement to relocate seminary by this fall | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/btsrtrusteesauthorizepresidenttosignleasingagreementtorelocateseminarybythisfall/ | 3 |
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<p>Chicago based&#160;rapper Lupe Fiasco released his fifth studio album, Tetsuo and Youth, last Tuesday.</p>
<p>After an instrumental introduction, Tetsuo and Youth begins with an almost nine-minute marathon track called&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGsRBNX2kDg" type="external">Mural</a>. The track follows a revived&#160;trend in hip-hop of discarding the “hook” or chorus in favor of uninterrupted rap. Though other tracks on the album follow more conventional&#160;song form, Fiasco’s ambitious&#160;Mural is clearly a bold statement about his lyrical ability and longevity as a performer.</p>
<p>Fiasco has long been one of the most <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/01/21/lupe-fiasco-escorted-off-stage-after-anti-obama-comments/" type="external">politically outspoken</a>musicians in the entertainment industry. Throughout his career, Fiasco’s raps&#160;have dissected matters of social inequality, race relations, consumer culture and also serve as a direct critique of hip-hop music itself.</p>
<p>Growing up in West Side&#160;Chicago, Fiasco despised the very music he now creates professionally. He resented the <a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/lupe-fiascos-hurt-me-soul-tackles-hip-hop-misogyny-93485" type="external">inherent themes of misogyny, violence and materialism</a> that pervaded popular gangster raps. Over time, Fiasco began to appreciate artists like Nas, who posited themselves as intellectual&#160;street poets rather than cutthroat gangsters.</p>
<p>However, the young Fiasco experimented with his image by&#160;releasing mix tapes which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaUB0Ygce9I" type="external">glamorized&#160;criminality</a> and gang activity. He became closely involved with Charles “Chilly Chill” Patton, who served as his mentor and financier. As time progressed, Fiasco’s&#160;music began to&#160;strike&#160;a more socially conscious tone.</p>
<p>In 2005, after meeting hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and signing to Atlantic records, Fiasco was catapulted into the mainstream. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkwQbuAGLj4" type="external">He rapped a verse</a>&#160;on fellow Chicago native Kanye West’s legendary&#160;album&#160;Late Registration.</p>
<p>Fiasco narrowly avoided trouble with the law in 2007 after Charles “Chilly Chill” Patton was sentenced to <a href="http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.5310/title.lupe-fiascos-mentor-sentenced-to-44-years" type="external">44 years in federal prison</a> for drug trafficking. Having just released his first studio album, Fiasco was implicated&#160;in court of being involved with Patton’s illegal activity. He denied the charges and escaped conviction.</p>
<p>He <a href="http://music-mix.ew.com/2011/06/08/lupe-fiasco-president-obama-terrorist/" type="external">courted controversy</a> in 2011 after referring to President Barack Obama as “the biggest terrorist in the United States.” Though his rhetoric was brazen and ill-suited for the era of the soundbite, Fiasco refused to back down from his statement. He criticized Obama&#160;for the hundreds of innocent Middle Eastern people who are <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/obama-drone-program-anniversary_n_4654825.html" type="external">inadvertently killed</a>by&#160;United States drone strikes every year.</p>
<p>Four years later, Lupe Fiasco has <a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/09/03/major-accusation-lupe-fiasco-sued-hiding-drug-money/" type="external">withstood&#160;further turbulence</a>to arrive at&#160;Tetsuo and Youth. During a candid interview with&#160;Sway in the Morning,&#160;Fiasco referred to his latest album as a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2UA4KdxGu4" type="external">“masterpiece”</a> and commented that it was his greatest work as a musician.</p>
<p>Though Fiasco refuses to&#160;be labeled a political activist&#160;on the track&#160;Deliver, it is apparent&#160;that social issues still weigh heavy on his mind. His primary goal appears to be uplifting disenfranchised black communities, and&#160;this complex struggle is detailed&#160;at length throughout&#160;Tetsuo and Youth.</p>
<p>Fiasco points his finger at many culprits throughout the album, namely the media. In&#160;Prisoner 1 &amp; 2&#160;he contemplates the compounding problem of mass incarceration using dual perspectives. The first segment of the track argues that criminals deserve rehabilitation and love from society. &#160;The second segment explores the cynical mentality of the disenfranchised&#160;and illustrates how such attitudes can become culturally pervasive over time.</p>
<p>A duality in his own right, Lupe Fiasco will remain a polarizing&#160;figure in the music industry for years to come. His abrasive nature&#160;might not be for everyone, but Fiasco’s valuable&#160;perspective&#160;continues to challenge&#160;the daunting&#160;social issues which plague&#160;our societies.</p>
<p /> | Embattled rapper Lupe Fiasco paints his mural | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/27/embattled-rapper-lupe-fiasco-paints-his-mural/ | 2015-01-27 | 3 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55276233@N00/295998206/"&gt;Vicki Wolkins&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
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<p>“I am 47 years old and I still carry, tucked away in my briefcase, the note Mrs. Charlene Snyder wrote in my yearbook when I graduated from high school. ‘Please know,’ she wrote, ‘what a fine person you are and the great ability you possess. A little confidence never hurt anyone.’ Whenever I read it, I remember how I felt. Those words gave me wings. I strive to live up to her view of me every single day.” —Peyton Taylor, Public Insight Network</p>
<p>As the editor of <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones</a> <a href="" type="internal">‘ Mission High School series</a>, I’ve developed a new respect for how hard many teachers work to help the kids in their care. I started wondering: What moments do kids and parents remember years later about the teachers they loved or respected? In what ways did these educators change people’s lives?&#160;Below, teacher tales from&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones</a> <a href="" type="internal">‘ recently launched Public Insight Network</a> ( <a href="http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/user/signup/contact_signup.php?id=motherjones" type="external">join here to help</a> <a href="http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/user/signup/contact_signup.php?id=motherjones" type="external">MoJo</a> <a href="http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/user/signup/contact_signup.php?id=motherjones" type="external">reporters with a range of future stories</a>):</p>
<p>“I’m Hmong-American and grew up in a very poor family. I was always self-conscious of those two factors that made me so different from my peers. One of my favorite teachers was Mrs. Grover in 6th grade, because she treated me no differently that she did others. I never felt out of place in her class. I remember telling her about the foods we ate at home and teaching her Hmong words. She showed interest in my culture and in my life at home, and that meant a lot.” —May Chang, Wisconsin</p>
<p>“The best teacher I had was Mike Hill, my English teacher and newspaper adviser. One week I was working on a staff editorial with another student in my newspaper class, but our ideas kept falling through. My partner ended up backing out on me and eventually I had to do everything on my own. When Hill asked me, in private, how the story was going—he knew I’d been having trouble with it—I broke down and began to cry. I was ashamed that things were not going well for me, but I couldn’t help it. I tried to explain, between sniffles, all the stress I was under, and finally Hill interrupted and said, ‘What class is this?’ I was confused, and replied, ‘Um. Newspaper?’ He said, ‘No, it’s high school newspaper. It doesn’t matter.’ I laughed his remark off, but he was serious; he explained that no one is going to care that I missed an assignment for a high school class. He wasn’t going to hold it against me, he could see how hard I’d been working on it, and he said that there would be more important things later. Then he added, with a wink, ‘You know things are bad when people like Rachel start losing it.’ (It’s true, I was that kind of goody-two-shoes in high school.) Then, in typical editor fashion, he told me to get back in the newsroom and get back to work. After wiping away a tear or two, I did. And he was right, I was absolutely fine.”—Rachel Jackson, Michigan</p>
<p>“I was extremely shy in the third grade and Mrs. Sampley was extremely outgoing. It would have been so easy for me to have gotten lost—classroom sizes were much bigger then and there were no teacher’s aides. Mrs. Sampley saw something in me though and pulled it out in a way that respected my shy personality. By the end of third grade I had come out of my shell. Instead of being happy on the last day of school that year, I cried.” —William Sowka, Connecticut</p>
<p>“Pat Jurek encouraged me to go to university when I was overlooked by others. She knew I wanted to become a drama teacher, and when my parents did not have enough money to send me on the senior trip my last year of school she paid the rest of the money. She wanted me to go to New York, the Shakespeare festival in Canada, and finally the International Thespian Convention that was held in Muncie, Indiana, just to make sure that theatre was what I wanted to do. Almost 21 years of teaching later, I have no regrets.”—Mark Webber, Texas</p>
<p>“Mr. Druck was my child’s second grade teacher. From the first day of school he’s been so supportive of a child that struggles to make it through a school day. He made an effort to get to know my son, adjust certain environmental factors to make it easier for him to learn, and interacted with him like he cared. Mr. Druck recognized that my son is such a tactile learner that he literally can’t hear if he just has to sit there without touching anything. He has to move his hands, touch something, to keep his ears working. Second grade teachers love to make kids sit on the carpet for instructions and sitting still is what you have to do. He moved my son’s “spot” to the corner, pulled up the edge, and told him to fiddle with the carpet and listen. Immediately my son’s ability to know what to do when he got back to his desk changed.”—Jaelene Smith, Arizona</p>
<p>“My child has High Functioning Autism—a diagnosis that has mostly meant fighting tooth and nail to get him any kind of help and having him constantly labled as a behavior problem. Mrs. Missy Hill sees potential instead of problems and finds success for every student in her room. Also, she taught him to tie his shoes after his OT said that he would never be able to do it.”—Julie Atwood, South Dakota</p>
<p>“In 12th grade Civics, Mr. Johnson was no-nonsense, focused, and determined to get the best from each student. It didn’t matter if you came into his class as an overachiever or underachiever, he expected you to participate.”—Tracy Bramlet, Ohio</p>
<p>Do you have a tale of a teacher who made a difference in your life? Share it in the comments below, or <a href="http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/user/signup/contact_signup.php?id=motherjones" type="external">join MoJo’s Public Insight Network to contribute to future stories on education, health care, and the economy.</a></p>
<p /> | The Teachers You Loved | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/public-insight-network-teachers/ | 2011-04-21 | 4 |
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<p>On a recent Sunday night, we found El Farol mysteriously uncrowded. We were, possibly, too early – we left about 7:30, after several rounds of tapas and just as Chris Abeyta took up his guitar. El Farol is also lodged in one of those old Santa Fe houses that are veritable rabbit-warrens of rooms, so perhaps more was going on somewhere far in the back.</p>
<p>The menu offered tapas hot and cold, as well as entrees ranging from traditional Spanish paella to fish, fowl and steak with trimmings. My guest was intent on exploring the tapas menu, however, certainly one of the main reasons for visiting El Farol.</p>
<p>We ordered six of these “little plates” and found plenty of food for our appetites, admittedly heavily skewed toward eating lightly in the evening. Two of what we thought were the best selections were served first: a warm casserole of artichoke hearts smothered in Parmesan cheese ($9), and gambas al ajillo ($12), or shrimp sautéed with plenty of garlic and a hint of paprika. It took some willpower not to gobble up both immediately.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It was a chilly evening, so we chose mostly from the warm side of the tapas list. My guest selected an unusual combination of sliced Spanish-style chorizo with figs in a red wine reduction ($9). It was quite exotic, harking back to ancient combinations of spice-preserved meats and sweet dried fruit. She enjoyed it, but I confess it was too exotic a combination for me. Also, I found the chorizo very tough – it should have been cut into smaller pieces. The dried figs, though, were luscious with the wine sauce.</p>
<p>Next up was a nice dish of mejillones – mussels in a cream and mustard sauce. That too was unusual, at least to me, but excellent. The mussels were delicious, although quite small. The creamy sauce was a rich foil, though I would have appreciated just a little bit less of the sturdy, whole-grain mustard that finished off the flavors.</p>
<p>We also ordered a bowl of fideo, or Spanish noodles as fine as angel hair pasta and intriguingly garnished with a combination of chorizo and shrimp ($12). In the end, we took most of this home for later, though we both enjoyed the smoky tones of the chorizo together with the shrimp (and garlic).</p>
<p>Our single choice from the cold side of the tapas menu was ceviche ($9), a citrusy combo of avocado and (a very little bit of) fish enlivened by very spicy diced jalapeño.</p>
<p>For the record, my guest pronounced herself too full for dessert. But she agreed to split one between us and made an excellent choice: tres angelitos, a sampler of El Farol’s chocolate and lemon mousses and crème brûlée ($10). (El Farol also offers the very Spanish dates and figs stuffed with mascarpone and topped with chopped pistachios and oranges, as well as churros with chocolate. Flourless chocolate cake with cherry port sauce and tres leches cake, together with, incongruously, carrot cake, round out the sweets menu.)</p>
<p>We loved all three of the “angelitos.” Each was perfect in its own way. The dark chocolate mousse arrived in its own very thin chocolate “eggshell.” The crème brûlée, with its crunchy topping, made a rich contrast, and the lemon was wonderfully light and tart. We ate nearly every bite of each.</p>
<p>The service was also very good, although perhaps a little over-watchful for such an unpopulated place as El Farol turned out to be the evening we visited. It was quite clear the wait staff was used to dealing with crowds.</p>
<p>We enjoyed the quirky decor, including murals contributed through the years by various Santa Fe artists. In the summer, the patio is pleasant and the front porch the perfect place from which to see and be seen.</p>
<p /> | Tapas hit the spot on a chilly evening at El Farol | false | https://abqjournal.com/961172/tapas-hit-the-spot-on-a-chilly-evening-at-venerable-el-farol.html | 2 |
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<p>Win or lose today, Mitt Romney did something in the late innings of this campaign that I didn’t expect or think possible: he became a good candidate, one that, judging from the huge and enthusiastic crowds he drew late in the race, many people decided they wanted to vote for, rather than just use as a vote against Obama (though that is a fully sufficient reason).&#160; This in the end may be the factor that puts him over the top.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/powerline.wpengine.com/ed-assets/2012/11/Romney0291.jpeg" type="external" />One thing I noticed a while ago is that when we used to write about Romney a year or more ago on this site, there were always lots of comments from readers saying “No way I’ll vote for that RINO Romney!”&#160; There were lots of similar comments over on NRO’s Corner, too.&#160; All such comments disappeared weeks ago.&#160; Sure, there’s still reason to doubt whether we’ll get Massachusetts Mitt or a born-again Reaganite (and I’ll have extensive thoughts on that if he wins), but he showed something real starting with the debate performance in Denver.&#160; I’ll just say for now that Romney’s ideological “flexibility” might serve him well in the White House in the current closely divided political environment.</p>
<p>Ross Douthat put it well in his NY Times blog yesterday, in “ <a href="http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/let-us-now-praise-mitt-romney/" type="external">Let Us Now Praise Mitt Romney</a>”:</p>
<p>But win or lose, the Romney comeback&#160;— one great debate performance, two effective follow-ups, and a late-in-the-game transformation, amazingly enough, from the most awkward and uncomfortable-seeming of candidates to a politician that <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/romney-rises-in-favorability-obamas-pushback-is-intensity/" type="external">voters actually seem to like</a>&#160;— should probably change the way we think about his trajectory as a candidate, both for the Republican nomination and then the presidency. . .</p>
<p>He outdebated a sitting president famous for his eloquence, and he followed up on that success with a highly effective closing pitch, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/opinion/sunday/douthat-it-could-be-his-party.html" type="external">coming into his own as a candidate</a> at the moment when it mattered most.</p>
<p>Romney has his faults, to be sure.&#160; But he turned out to be a far superior candidate to Bob Dole or John McCain.</p> | The Surprising Mitt Romney | true | http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/11/the-surprising-mitt-romney.php | 2012-11-06 | 0 |
<p>President Trump campaigned to eliminate the “carried interest” loophole used by financial managers to lower their taxes, but like many other campaign-trail pledges, it looks as if this one won’t become a reality.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at a press event Monday evening that the Trump administration will not close that loophole for most Wall Street billionaires, saying that it can remain for firms that “create jobs.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-21/mnuchin-hints-at-keeping-carried-interest-break-for-some-firms" type="external">Bloomberg</a>&#160;elaborates:</p>
<p>“We will close the loophole for hedge funds in carried interest,” Mnuchin said at an event in Louisville, Kentucky, where he appeared alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “What we are focused on is there are many other types of funds that do create jobs and we want to make sure we don’t discourage investment.”</p>
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<p>The so-called carried interest loophole enables investment-fund managers to pay a tax rate as low as 20 percent — roughly half the top rate for ordinary income — on much of their income. Trump&#160;highlighted&#160;the carried-interest tax break during his populist presidential campaign, labeling some hedge fund managers as “paper pushers” who are “getting away with murder.”</p>
<p>The Trump administration tax proposal, released in April, was called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/business/dealbook/trump-tax-plan-silent-on-carried-interest-a-boon-for-the-very-rich.html" type="external">“thin in details”</a> by The New York Times, which pointed out the lack of information on how carried interest would be taxed. The Times also noted that the president’s plan could help fatten private equity execs’ wallets:</p>
<p>Several tax experts and Wall Street lawyers said that by not mentioning the matter at all, the administration seemed to be signaling that the tax proposal would effectively eliminate the unique taxation of carried interest.</p>
<p>That does not mean carried interest would be taxed at a higher rate than it is today. Instead, experts say, the tax rate for carried interest may well go down.</p>
<p>That reading is based on the proposal subjecting pass-through entities — which include partnerships like private equity firms and hedge funds — to a 15 percent tax rate, which is lower than the rate on capital gains and much lower than the top rate on ordinary income.</p>
<p>In other words, it appears that if the Trump plan is enacted, private equity executives would not just avoid higher taxation; their taxes would actually decline.</p>
<p>Thus, hedge fund and private equity managers would have avoided any real-world consequences of Trump’s populist campaign promises to have carried interest taxed as ordinary income instead of capital gains.</p>
<p>Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus was quick to speak to concerns about the lack of mention of carried interest in the tax plan, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-idUSKBN17W0ON" type="external">insisting</a>&#160;at the time that “[c]arried interest is on the table” and that “[t]he president wants to get rid of carried interest so that balloon is not going to stay inflated very long, I assure you of that.”</p>
<p>While the president might believe that leaving the loophole for firms that “create jobs” is effective rhetoric, particularly for 1 percenters, some among that demographic have already disagreed. Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth Americans “united in their concern about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America,” <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/08/22/patriotic-millionaires-slam-mnuchintrump-selling-out-country-carried-interest" type="external">claimed</a>&#160;Wednesday in a press release that the remaining loophole would cover “most Wall Street billionaires, including the vast majority of private equity and real estate fund managers.” Morris Pearl, the chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former BlackRock executive, said in the release:</p>
<p>Secretary Mnuchin’s friends in private equity are rejoicing today, as the U.S. Treasury is now parroting industry talking points about their alleged benefit to U.S. workers. Hundreds of thousands of pink slips tell the real story. Furthermore, there is no intellectually justifiable reason why fund managers – who do not actually invest their own capital – should pay half the tax rate of Americans who actually work for a living. Mnuchin’s statement either proves a profound lack of understanding of the difference between being an investor and being an investment manager (doubtful) or a calculated political ploy designed to appease BOTH Trump’s base and Wall Street billionaires like David Rubenstein. It is past time for this country to have a public debate on the carried interest loophole. If you want to know who will stand up for working Americans and who won’t, look no farther than the politician’s position on the carried interest loophole. It will tell you everything you need to know.</p>
<p>“We believe strongly that not one penny go to the top 1 percent and that any tax reform must be deficit neutral,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer remarked about the conditions for Democratic support of Republican tax legislation. “When Republicans figure out what they want to do, we’d be happy to work with them if they can agree on these broadly supported principles.”</p> | Mnuchin Backpedals on Tax Loophole That Helps Billionaires | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/mnuchin-floats-possibility-keeping-tax-loophole-helps-billionaires/ | 2017-08-22 | 4 |
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<p>The Harlem Globetrotters will be in Rio Rancho tonight.</p>
<p>The Globetrotters are appearing at the Santa Ana Star Center at 7 p.m.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Tickets are $23.</p>
<p>To get tickets, call 888-694-4849, or visit ComcastTix.com, or harlemglobetrotters.com.</p>
<p>The Globetrotters will also be performing at the Pit on Sunday afternoon.</p>
<p>Courtney Lawson scored a career-high — and school record — 31 points Friday night, leading the Cleveland High School girls basketball team to a 66-50 victory Friday night against Manzano.</p>
<p>Lawson broke her own record, set opening night of this season when she had 30 versus Highland.</p>
<p>The Storm (8-12) is at Cibola on Tuesday in a District 1-5A opener.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>♦ Cleveland’s boys fell 61-50 at Manzano on Friday. Kaydon Sneed and Desmond Branch each had 11 points to pace the Storm (4-15) which plays host to Cibola on Tuesday night in a 1-5A opener for both.</p>
<p>♦ Bernalillo’s boys outlasted Santa Fe 51-49 in overtime on Friday in a District 2-4A matchup.</p>
<p>Tristan Arnett, who missed a layup late in regulation that would have won the game for the Spartans, hit two free throws with two seconds left in OT for the win.</p>
<p>Bernalillo is 15-6 overall, 3-0 in 2-4A. Brandon Saiz led the Spartans on Friday with 20 points.</p>
<p>♦ On Thursday night, La Cueva’s girls downed Rio Rancho 48-25. Deanna Lucero had 11 points in the loss for the Rams (9-11), who open 1-5A action Tuesday against Volcana Vista.</p>
<p>The Santa Ana Star Center will host a “Bellator MMA” event later this month.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The card is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28. World champion boxer Holly Holm, who also dabbles in MMA, will be fighting against an opponent yet to be determined.</p>
<p>There will also be six additional bouts featuring local MMA fighters, according to a news release sent out on Friday.</p>
<p>Bellator MMA advertises itself as the world’s largest tournament-based Mixed Martial Arts organization.</p>
<p>Tickets will start at $25, and already are on sale at <a href="http://www.ComcastTix.com" type="external">www.ComcastTix.com</a>.</p>
<p>Demos Quintana dominated the standings in a recent Pentathabowl five-game bowling tournament at Tenpins &amp; More in Rio Rancho.</p>
<p>He rolled games of 300, 256, 296, 279 and 227. Gil Chavez finished 23 pins behind.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Third place went to Gary Benton, followed by Jessika Gregor who tied with Sara Vargas.</p>
<p>Quintana will be one of the bowlers in Sunday’s ninth annual Super Bowl Sunday Doubles Marathon starting at 4:30 p.m.</p>
<p>♦ Also, Danny Cobine of Rio Rancho won a Junior Bowlers Tour title in exciting fashion at Starlight Lanes last week. Other area youth who finished well included Tim Baribeau, Hannah Stedman, Josh Helmick, Joey Balistreri and Brad Harvey.</p>
<p>♦ Justin Medina of Rio Rancho had a recent 810 series at Tenpins, the highest of his life.</p>
<p>Rio Rancho and Cleveland rank first and second after the first day of the Albuquerque Metro Wrestling Championships at La Cueva.</p>
<p>The Rams have scored 74.5 points, the Storm 62.5 through Friday. Volcano Vista, Rio Grande and Atrisco Heritage round out the top five.</p>
<p>Action continues all day today at La Cueva, with the finals tonight at about 6.</p> | Sports in brief | false | https://abqjournal.com/165579/sports-in-brief-4.html | 2013-02-02 | 2 |
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<p>HOUSTON - Lightning strikes have been blamed for a refinery fire near Houston and an oil storage tank blaze along the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
<p>Emergency responders say nobody was hurt in either fire Thursday as storms rolled through parts of Texas.</p>
<p>CenterPoint Energy reported about 14,000 customers in the Houston area without electricity amid storms that could linger through Friday. Rain also soaked the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Electric provider Oncor (ON?-kor) reported about 4,000 customers lost power Thursday.</p>
<p>Lightning struck an electrical transformer at a Valero refinery in Texas City. Fire department officials say there's no danger to residents and the blaze would be allowed to burn itself out.</p>
<p>Authorities say lightning caused an oil storage tank fire near Crystal Beach. Flames and black smoke could be seen across Bolivar (BAHL?-uh-vur) Peninsula.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Lightning strikes blamed for refinery, tank fires in Texas | false | https://abqjournal.com/631147/lightning-strikes-blamed-for-refinery-tank-fires-in-texas.html | 2 |
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<p>Gas South customer service representatives Jomicka Green, left, and Liliana Tapia sit at their call-center cubicles in Marietta, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/MCT)</p>
<p>ATLANTA – One winter ago, Liliana Tapia had a young son, a closetful of unfulfilled dreams and not enough hours of work in a job at a local restaurant. A 2012 graduate of Tri-Cities High, she was living with her boyfriend and searching for opportunities when she came across an online listing for something called Year Up.</p>
<p>If she made the cut, the program offered six months of training, classes and college credits followed by a six-month internship at a local company, then a chance – a chance – of getting hired.</p>
<p>“I had to prioritize,” she said. “Either stay with Year Up and be something or stay with the hostess job and be nothing. I decided I had nothing to lose.” She started in March, 4½ days a week in Year Up’s downtown Atlanta classrooms. In late summer, she was placed in a Gas South call center.</p>
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<p>“Business is like a language, a new language for me,” she said. “I see the call center as a stepping stone. This is a learning phase. I am not going to do this forever.” Beyond the internship is a different trajectory than the one she had been on. She sees herself in a company, rising.</p>
<p>“When I was little, I loved soap operas and I saw people in suits and I became in love with suits. It’s being somebody in life.” Maybe after graduation, she’ll be hired at Gas South or another local company, she said. “If I don’t have a job, I’ll be working hard at getting one. I am very good at that – working hard.”</p>
<p>There are many internships, some run by not-for-profit groups, some by individual companies. Some that pay, some that do not. Most often they are aimed at students.</p>
<p>At their best, internships are two-way tryouts that benefit employer and intern: The company gets a motivated worker – on the cheap. The young person gets a firsthand, low-commitment look at life in the corporate world – along with a chance to get hired for good.</p>
<p>Year Up does pay a $175 a week stipend, but it does not target students. Instead, the group aims at young Atlantans with little education and limited resources, but no lack of motivation. The idea is to offer what may be their first shot at a career when the odds are stacked against them.</p>
<p>The unemployment rate for job seekers between 16 and 19 years old is 22.2 percent, roughly three times the overall rate. For job seekers between 16 and 24, the most recently reported rate is 16.3 percent, and it’s twice that high for African-Americans.</p>
<p>But not just anyone can get a leg up from Year Up. Belinda Stubblefield, executive director, said Year Up is aimed at “the middle of the bell curve” – not overachievers who already have high odds of success, nor those with little chance of making it.</p>
<p>“You have to know if they have the driving motivation. We offer this to people who want to take advantage of the opportunity,” she said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Year Up provides “an introduction to business communications,” Stubblefield said. “How to dress, how to respond to people – shaking hands, looking them in the eye. Just preparing them for what the real world will look for.” Interns who do well have a shot at being hired, said Meredith Hodges, Gas South vice president. New employees at the Gas South call center receive at least $13.85 an hour, she said.</p>
<p>From the perspective of the company, internships are a sort of an extended, in-depth interview, Hodges said. A few months watching a potential employee lets a company avoid hiring mistakes, she said: If an employee doesn’t have the needed skills or temperament, it can be costly – as well as awkward.</p>
<p>Year Up training seems to make candidates a better fit, Hodges said. “I believe the Year Up program helps mitigate those risks. I wish everybody we hired that is young could go through this class.”</p>
<p>About a quarter of those who sign up do not get through the program, Stubblefield said.</p>
<p>Of those who do get through the training and internship, 85 percent are hired for fulltime jobs within four months of graduation or are in college, she said.</p>
<p /> | Internships a 2-way tryout | false | https://abqjournal.com/339408/internships-a-2way-tryout.html | 2 |
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<p>Shares in <a href="http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&amp;q=NASDAQ:WTSLA" type="external">Wet Seal Inc</a>plunged as much as 18 percent today after the struggling teen clothing retailer sacked chief executive Susan McGalla due to falling sales, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/23/us-wetseal-ceo-idUSBRE86M0UF20120723" type="external">Reuters reported.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://ir.wetsealinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=694075" type="external">California-based Wet Seal said</a> in a statement that the company's president, Ken Seipel, and chief financial officer, Steve Benrubi, would steer the clothing chain while it searched for a new CEO.</p>
<p>The announcement came as Wet Seal downgraded its sales guidance for the current quarter as it struggles to attract young shoppers whose parents are tightening their belts due to the economic downturn.</p>
<p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120723-711158.html" type="external">According to the Wall Street Journal,</a> Wet Seal expects same-store sales to fall 10-11 percent in the three months to the end of July - the lower end of its earlier guidance - after a sharp fall in sales in stores opened at least a year in the third week of this month.</p>
<p>Benrubi <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/wet-seal-fires-ceo-susan-mcgalla-as-the-teen-retailers-summer-sales-sink-cuts-2q-outlook/2012/07/23/gJQA8CM53W_story.html" type="external">told the Associated Press</a> that the decision to fire McGalla was based on the financial performance of the company and not a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by three former managers, who have accused Wet Seal of favoring white workers over their black colleagues.</p>
<p>Wet Seal shares were down nearly 11 percent at $2.63 in afternoon trading in New York.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/120723/nexen-shares-soar-after-cnooc-makes-151bn-takeover-b" type="external">Nexen shares soar after CNOOC makes $15.1BN takeover bid</a> &#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Wet Seal dumps CEO Susan McGalla as sales fall | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-07-23/wet-seal-dumps-ceo-susan-mcgalla-sales-fall | 2012-07-23 | 3 |
<p>Even the Wall Street Journal says California has a crises of housing:&#160;&#160; high-price housing “hurts economic productivity, increasing poverty rates, lowering homeownership, increasing crowding, and lengthening commute time….” The S.F. Examiner reports that California has the highest rate of poverty in the nation if the cost of housing is “taken into account” and more than 2.5 million people in the state “have been forced to leave” as they look for an affordable home. The state legislature should be considering bills to end the Ellis Act and Costa-Hawkins Act—two state laws passed for real estate interests that have enabled much affordable housing to be destroyed.</p>
<p>In August, 2017, Governor Brown and the state legislature are considering Senate Bills 2, 3 and 3 aimed at increasing funding for low income housing projects and easing development restrictions. Senate Bill 2 would have a $75 fee on mortgage refinancing and other real estate transactions having the fees going for building low-income housing. Senate Bill 3 if passed puts a $3-billion bond for building low-income housing on the state ballot in 2018. Both bills, if passed, would finance 14,000 new homes/year leaving a deficit of 65,000 homes statewide still needed. Senate Bill 35 would limit cities’ and counties’ environmental and planning regulations of low-cost housing—speeding building and lowering cost of building new housing. Still California cannot build enough new housing from these three bills if passed as a way to end the housing crises. The state would still need another $10 billon/year it won’t have to construct affordable housing to help those suffering from too high rents.</p>
<p>The Ellis Act, passed by the state legislature in 1985 to please the powerful real estate lobby, has caused 22,132 apartments of affordable housing to be destroyed in Los Angeles alone since 2001 or 1478 rentals/year every year.&#160; The real estate lobby got the state legislature to pass the Ellis Act to undermine rent control by letting landlords evict tenants if the landlords are destroying the building or changing to condos.&#160; The Huffington Post says speculators have “abused the Ellis Ac by demolishing older buildings in order to build newer, expensive market-rate projects.” Also some landlords illegally evict tenants under the Ellis Act only to rent the same apartments at higher rent or transform apartments into Air B and B. The only way to end the housing crises is for the state legislature to repeal the Ellis Act protecting the affordable housing it has.</p>
<p>The Coalition for Economic Survival (C.E.S.) created an Anti-Eviction Mapping Project showing in Los Angeles from &#160;April-June 2017 landlords have filed 638 Ellis Act eviction applications equivalent to losing 7 apartments/day or 212/month.&#160; Last year 1,400 units were taken away from LA housing market, and at this year’s rate Ellis Act evictions in LA alone will mean loss of close to 2,000 affordable apartments under rent control. Larry Gross, executive director of C.E.S., said, “Ellis Act has ravaged our city’s affordable rent controlled housing stock. Unfortunately, we are also able to see how evictions are increasing and spreading across LA ….”</p>
<p>The average rent for a 2-bedroom in Los Angeles is $2169/month. To be affordable, a family must spend not more than 30% of their income on rent, so a family needs to earn $38/hour or $86,760/year to afford L.A.’s average rents. The median renter household income in the city is $36,036, so renters’ double and triple up to afford the rent. &#160;One in three Californians play 50% or more of their income on rent, not having money for other necessities.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles City Council passed bill for small modifications in the Ellis Act, but small modifications will not change much. The quickest way to stop the affordable housing crises is for the state legislature to repeal the Ellis Ac since the repeal would stop encouraging developers from buying rent-controlled apartments and destroying them to build hugely expensive rental apartments or McMansions.</p>
<p>The state legislature should also repeal the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which was &#160;passed for real estate interests in 1995, that severely stops cities from passing “strict” rent control:&#160; 1) it prohibits cities’ from having rent control over single family dwellings and new construction; 2) it allows a rent increase on a subtenant when a tenant leaves; 3) it prohibits municipal “vacancy control” or stopping landlords from raising rents after a tenant leaves also called “strict” rent control. On February 17, 2017, California Assembly Members Chiu, Bonta and Bloom introduced AB 1506, a bill that would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.</p>
<p>Both the Ellis Act and Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act have let speculators destroy a great deal of rental housing.&#160; At the same time as repealing the Ellis Act and the Costa Hawkins Act, California’s cities need stricter rent control laws and laws to keep rents from rising ever higher. A statewide coalition called Housing Now! California has formed that includes grass root groups, small landlords, labor unions, and community groups to repeal Costa Hawkins Act. Coalition for Economic Survival, Los Angeles’ leading tenants’ rights group, has asked for repeal of the Ellis Act. If California wants to stop&#160; more people leaving the state, the economy going downhill, more severe overcrowding housing, and more communities destroyed, the state needs to repeal both Ellis Act and Costa Hawkins Act as well as spend more than $3 billion/year for affordable housing.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Which Way California: Destroyed Communities or More Affordable Housing? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/08/29/which-way-california-destroyed-communities-or-more-affordable-housing/ | 2017-08-29 | 4 |
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<p>However, a teacher at the same school had a child with hydrocephalus — a build-up of fluid within cavities in the brain — and noticed McCully showed symptoms of the condition. The teacher advised her to get a hydrocephalus test.</p>
<p>The test revealed that McCully was indeed suffering from hydrocephalus, not Alzheimer’s.</p>
<p>After treatment, she has returned to living a normal life.</p>
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<p>McCully is set to give the keynote address at the local Hydrocephalus Association fundraiser, the Black and White Gala Dinner and Auction, set for 6 p.m., Aug. 24, in the Rio Rancho High School cafeteria.</p>
<p>The money goes to research to find a cure for hydrocephalus, which now can only be managed.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be a fun, fun time for (people) to come out,” said Karen Stanton, a Rio Rancho resident and member of the Albuquerque Hydrocephalus Association.</p>
<p>Dress is casual.</p>
<p>Stanton said RRHS culinary arts students are catering the dinner as a community project. Even if people don’t know about hydrocephalus, she urged them to come to support the students.</p>
<p>The menu is chicken wellington with mushroom sauce, green beans, wild rice pilaf, strawberry-spinach salad and assorted desserts. Diners can choose among coconut lemonade, coffee or water to drink.</p>
<p>The night includes a silent auction and a “ticket auction,” in which participants put tickets in a container and a drawing determines who wins the prize.</p>
<p>Stanton said items such as paintings, jewelry and spa packages come from local merchants and artists.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The band Forgotten Sky, lead by Jon Shodean, is scheduled to perform Christian pop music.</p>
<p>Seating is limited to 100 people, Stanton said. Admission is $30 per person, $50 for two people or $20 per person for groups of six or more. The cost is tax-deductible.</p>
<p>The City of Vision Civitans, of which Stanton is a member, is helping put on the event.</p>
<p>The dinner is an early fundraising effort for “Team Amy,” a group participating in the Hydrocephalus Walkathon set for Oct. 19 at Hartnet Park, 6718 Rio Grande Blvd. in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. Registration begins at 8 a.m., and the walk starts at 10 a.m.</p>
<p>Local Hydrocephalus Association chairwoman Kathy Carillo said there’s no registration fee, but participants are encouraged to raise money and recruit sponsors. Prizes are available for people who hit certain fundraising levels.</p>
<p>Team Amy is named after Carillo’s 9-year-old daughter, who developed hydrocephalus before birth.</p>
<p>The girl has had 12 brain surgeries, Carillo said.</p>
<p>“Amy is thriving,” Carillo said.</p>
<p>Even so, Amy has experienced some delays and more surgery is a constant possibility.</p>
<p>“It’s a difficult thing for people with hydrocephalus,” Carillo said. “You just don’t know when.”</p>
<p>Every time her daughter gets a fever, she wonders if it’s a problem with the shunts that drain the excess fluid from Amy’s brain and thus prevent brain damage or even death.</p>
<p>When Amy was diagnosed, there was a lack of information and support for families and no pediatric neurosurgeon in New Mexico, Carillo said.</p>
<p>To help change the situation, Carillo became one of six founders of the Hydrocephalus Association, which has branches across the country.</p>
<p>For more information, gala tickets or to make a donation, contact Stanton at 892-8221 or [email protected], or Carillo at 440-3573 or [email protected].</p> | Help find a cure and have dinner for a cause | false | https://abqjournal.com/247360/help-find-a-cure-and-have-dinner-for-a-cause.html | 2013-08-14 | 2 |
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<p>Available in more than a dozen color, style, and option configurations, Ruger's compact LC9 semiautomatic pistol was a big contributor to Q1 profits. Image source: <a href="http://www.ruger.com/products/lc9s/models.html" type="external">Sturm, Ruger</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Gunsmith Sturm, Ruger reported fiscal Q1 2016 earnings on Monday -- and the news was quite simply fantastic. As good as investors were expecting Sturm's report to be, when the numbers finally came out, they were far better than anyone had hoped -- and sent Sturm, Ruger stock soaring 5.5% Monday, then a further 1.5% yesterday.</p>
<p>The newsHere's how <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sturm-ruger-company-inc-reports-210500753.html" type="external">the news</a> went down:</p>
<p>Immediately deciding to share the wealth, Sturm, Ruger management declared a 40% dividend on these profits, promising to pay shareholders $0.48 per share.</p>
<p>The specificsSturm, Ruger stock benefited from the popularity of several firearms in particular, according to management, including both long guns (the "Precision Rifle" and AR-556 modern sporting rifle), and handguns (the American Pistol and LC9 semiautomatics). Each of these firearms was introduced within the last two years, and Ruger noted that such "new products" made up 29% of its sales in the quarter.</p>
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<p>With weapons flying off the shelves, Ruger noted that its inventory of finished goods dropped by 14,600 units. Distributor inventories declined by 54,300 units in the quarter. More importantly for investors, with all of this inventory being converted into cash, Ruger generated positive free cash flow of $23.1 million in the quarter, which equated to about 99% of reported net income -- but it was down 19% from Q1 2015.</p>
<p>Valuation Despite the decline in free cash flow, Sturm, Ruger stock now sports trailing free cash flow of $78.5 million for the past 12 months, comfortably ahead of reported net income of $69.9 million. Valued on earnings, the stock sells for an 18.6 P/E ratio. Valued on cash profits, it costs 16.6 times free cash flow. Are those prices cheap or expensive?</p>
<p>It depends.</p>
<p>If Ruger succeeds in continuing to grow its profits at anything like the pace set in Q1, Sturm, Ruger stock would clearly be remarkably cheap. In fact, though, according to estimates relayed by <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence</a>, the few analysts who follow this stock are only expecting to see profits rise about 5% annually over the next five years -- Q1's success notwithstanding. Even with dividend yields now averaging 2.5% annually, that growth is probably too slow to support Sturm, Ruger's current valuation. Accordingly, despite the stock performing so well in Q1, I'm not optimistic about it going forward.</p>
<p>In fact, if you ask me, right now looks like a very nice time to cash in on Q1's success -- and cash out of Sturm, Ruger.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/07/sturm-ruger-stock-explodes-in-a-good-way.aspx" type="external">Sturm, Ruger Stock Explodes (in a Good Way)</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Fool contributor <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDitty/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Rich Smith</a>does not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him on <a href="http://caps.fool.com/?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Motley Fool CAPS</a>, publicly pontificating under the handle <a href="http://caps.fool.com/ViewPlayer.aspx?t=01002844399633209838&amp;source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFDitty</a>, where he's currently ranked No. 294 out of more than 75,000 rated members.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | Sturm, Ruger Stock Explodes (in a Good Way) | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/07/sturm-ruger-stock-explodes-in-good-way.html | 2016-05-07 | 0 |
<p>Briana Popour said an administrator at Chesnee High School where she is a senior told her that she had to change her shirt or go home. (Screenshot/WSPA)</p>
<p>CHESNEE, S.C. — Administrators at a South Carolina high school earlier this month suspended a student who wore a T-shirt that read, “Nobody knows I’m a lesbian.”</p>
<p>Briana Popour <a href="http://wspa.com/2015/09/09/chesnee-hs-student-questioning-suspension-for-lesbian-shirt/" type="external">told WSPA,</a> a local television station, that an administrator at Chesnee High School where she is a senior told her that she had to change her shirt or “go home.”</p>
<p>Popour said the administrator took her out of class and brought her to the front office where he said the T-shirt was “disruptive.” She told <a href="http://wspa.com/2015/09/09/chesnee-hs-student-questioning-suspension-for-lesbian-shirt/" type="external">WSPA</a> she pointed out the student handbook contains no reference about clothing that refers to sexual orientation.</p>
<p>The school district told the television station that Popour’s shirt was “offensive and distracting.”</p>
<p>Popour’s mother told <a href="http://wspa.com/2015/09/09/chesnee-hs-student-questioning-suspension-for-lesbian-shirt/" type="external">WSPA</a> that the administrator who objected to the T-shirt does “not like people in his school wearing anything that says anything about lesbians, gays or bisexuals.”</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Briana Popour</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chesnee High School</a> <a href="" type="internal">lesbian</a> <a href="" type="internal">South Carolina</a></p> | Student suspended for lesbian-themed T-shirt | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2015/09/16/student-suspended-for-lesbian-themed-t-shirt/ | 3 |
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<p>Sept. 5 (UPI) — A man is seeking money for a new bathroom window after his Tinder date got stuck while attempting to clean up an embarrassing accident.</p>
<p>Liam Smyth of Cabot Ward, England, <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/9wvxt9-replacement-window" type="external">launched a GoFundMe page</a> and retold the bizarre story that occurred after his date had trouble flushing his toilet.</p>
<p>“I went for a poo in your toilet and it would not flush. I don’t know why I did this, but I panicked,” Smyth’s date said. “I reached into the toilet bowl, wrapped it in tissue paper, and threw it out of the window.”</p>
<p>He went on to describe that due to a “design quirk” the dubious package was left lodged between a narrow gap between his home and a non-opening double glazed window.</p>
<p>Smyth planned to smash open the other window with a chisel, but his date decided to try to fit into the space and retrieve the “poo” herself.</p>
<p>“Being an amateur gymnast, she was convinced that she could reach into the window and pull the poo out, using the tried and tested “inside out bag as glove” technique,” he said.</p>
<p>After several attempts she successfully managed to reach into the space and grab the toilet-paper wrapped turd and pass it back into the toilet.</p>
<p>Unfortunately when it came time to wiggle her way out of the space between the windows, she found herself stuck.</p>
<p>“I grabbed her waist and I pulled. But she was stuck. Stuck fast,” Smyth said. “Try as we might, we could not remove her from the window. She was stuck fast, upside down in the gap.”</p>
<p>After about 15 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to pull his date from the window, Smyth called Avon Fire and Rescue.</p>
<p>“Bristol’s finest were on scene sirens blairing in a matter of minutes,” he said. “Once they had composed themselves after surveying the scene in front of them, they set to work removing my date from the window using all of their special firemen hammers and tools. It took them about 15 minutes.”</p>
<p>The helpful fire rescue crews were forced to decimate the window to rescue his date, but he managed to raise 445 pounds ($580 USD) to repair it.</p> | 'Amateur gymnast' gets stuck in bathroom window on Tinder date | false | https://newsline.com/amateur-gymnast-gets-stuck-in-bathroom-window-on-tinder-date/ | 2017-09-05 | 1 |
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<p>Despite campaign stops by Hillary Clinton in recent weeks and the possibility of the presidential race coming down to the wire for the first time in two decades, the Democrats only chipped away at Arizona’s conservative history Tuesday. But they were heartened by the progress.</p>
<p>“We bucked the trend. We’re going to pick up House seats, we’re going to pick up state Senate seats, we knocked off Joe Arpaio,” said Alexis Tameron, chair of the state Democratic Party. “We went deep last night.”</p>
<p>Trump was leading by less than 5 percentage points Wednesday, well below what has been seen in previous elections. More than 600,000 votes remain to be counted.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But Sen. John McCain handily beat his Democratic rival, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, in a tough race that focused on his evolving support of the GOP presidential hopeful.</p>
<p>“I think Arizona is still a red state — had it been another candidate, Arizona wouldn’t even have been a battleground state,” said Doug Cole, a longtime Republican political consultant. “Here you have the senior senator, a Republican, not voting for him, the junior senator publicly not voting for him. A lot of your more traditional Republicans did not support the nominee.”</p>
<p>Cole and analyst Paul Bentz, both from consulting firm HighGround, said Democrats don’t appear to have dramatically overperformed Republicans on Tuesday, other than the tight presidential race.</p>
<p>McCain, the Republican White House nominee in 2008, beat Barack Obama by about 9 percentage points, while Mitt Romney in 2012 bested Trump in Arizona by about the same amount. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win here was Bill Clinton in 1996, and before that, Harry Truman in 1948.</p>
<p>In the Legislature, more races were becoming competitive as additional votes were tallied, but as of Wednesday, it appeared the Senate would remain at a 17-13 GOP majority. The House was heading toward being one Republican seat shy of last year’s 26-24 split.</p>
<p>In the sheriff’s race, Arpaio was not undone by Democratic turnout alone, Tempe pollster Mike O’Neil said. Instead, it cumulative effect of his legal troubles, including being charged with a crime two weeks before Election Day, losing a racial profiling case and racking up $130 million in taxpayer-funded legal costs.</p>
<p>“His act just wore thin,” O’Neil said. “Remember: He has been around for 24 years.”</p>
<p>Protesters gathered Wednesday outside the sheriff’s headquarters in Phoenix, putting up a giant inflatable figure of Arpaio in jail garb and handcuffs. Students from several schools also marched to the state Capitol to decry Trump’s election, mirroring protests that played out in other states.</p>
<p>While Arpaio and Trump shared common views on combating illegal immigration, the president-elect had political messages on other subjects, O’Neil said.</p>
<p>“Illegal immigration was only a component of the Trump appeal,” O’Neil said. “With Joe Arpaio, it was almost the essence of his posturing. It really defined him, and for Trump, it was one of the things that defined him.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud contributed to this story.</p> | Democrats make some headway, but Arizona far from blue | false | https://abqjournal.com/885931/dems-make-some-headway-but-arizona-far-from-blue.html | 2016-11-09 | 2 |
<p>This week on <a href="" type="internal">Truthdig Radio</a> in association with <a href="http://kpfk.org" type="external">KPFK</a>: The CodePink co-founder tells us why Egypt thinks she’s a threat to national security. Also: Making sense of Ukraine, Uganda bans homosexuality, and the Advocate’s Matthew Breen on AIDS breakthroughs.</p>
<p>(Trouble listening? <a href="" type="internal">Right-click to download the podcast here</a>.)</p>
<p>Guests, in order of appearance: Medea Benjamin, Robert Scheer, Matthew Breen and Sara Weschler.</p>
<p>{g_podcast_box}</p>
<p /> | Medea Benjamin on Her Egyptian Detention | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/medea-benjamin-on-her-egyptian-detention/ | 2014-03-07 | 4 |
<p>The late Mike Kelley made this drawing, and it’s now in the fascinating <a href="http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/nyc-1993-experimental-jet-set-trash-and-no-star" type="external">New Museum show</a> of art from New York in 1993. The image is from a series based on the “Sad Sack” comic strip, except that Kelley has erased everything except the trash that is everpresent around the strip’s eponymous hero, a private in the U.S. army who gets everything wrong. I love the way erasure becomes a tool for depiction and emphasis, and failure becomes a heroic condition.</p>
<p>For a full visual survey of past Daily Pics visit <a href="http://blakegopnik.com/archive" type="external">blakegopnik.com/archive</a>.</p> | Mike Kelley at the New Museum is the Daily Pic by Blake Gopnik | true | https://thedailybeast.com/mike-kelley-at-the-new-museum-is-the-daily-pic-by-blake-gopnik | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>Australian cockroaches (Blattidae – Periplaneta australasiae)</p>
<p>The Australian cockroach is similar to the American cockroach, but slightly smaller. The yellow markings on the thorax are much more distinct on this roach and it has a yellowish marking on the outer edge of each wing or the “shoulder.” It is found from central Florida to east Texas. It has been found in some northern states, but usually in greenhouse environments.</p>
<p>Richard Fagerlund.</p>
<p>I have seen two cases recently of Australian roaches in homes in Albuquerque. They normally infest attics and crawl spaces and then wander in the living areas for food. I would suggest dusting attics and crawl spaces with food-grade diatomaceous earth. Niban Bait works well with these roaches.</p>
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<p>Turkestan cockroaches (Blattidae – Blatta lateralis)</p>
<p>Turkestan cockroaches are closely related to Oriental roaches. They are about in inch in length with color variations between the male and female. Males are red/brown with pale or white lateral stripes on the ventral side of the wing base.</p>
<p>The male also has wings that cover the entire abdomen. Females are dark brown in color with short lateral white dashes at end of the wing. The female wings are very short in comparison to the male and do not cover the entire abdomen.</p>
<p>They are common in north Africa and the Middle East and probably came to America with military personnel returning from that area in the 1970s and 1980s. Although they are found in the Southwest from California to Texas, they usually do not infest homes. They can be found in sewer systems, water meters, compost piles, potted plants and large cracks in pavements. Niban Bait is a good product for controlling these insects.</p>
<p>Pharaoh ants (Myrmicinae – Monomorium pharaonis)</p>
<p>This species is commonly called “pharaoh ants.” They were first described in Egypt in 1758, hence their common name. They are very small, yellowish ants that are monomorphic, meaning all the same size. They are found in many areas of the United States.</p>
<p>I have seen these ants in Farmington and in Los Alamos. They will nest in any small, dark voids such as old boxes, empty bags, stacked newspapers, wall voids, under flooring, and especially near hot water pipes or heating systems and even unused salt shakers.</p>
<p>Outdoors they will nest under objects on the ground, in potted plants, in stacked firewood or piles of bricks. They are primarily nocturnal and mainly come out to feed at night.</p>
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<p>They have very large colonies, often exceeding a quarter million ants and a couple of hundred queens. They do not swarm to reproduce as most ants do, but use a system called “budding.” This is where reproductives just crawl off and mate nearby.</p>
<p>Colonies of pharaoh ants usually contain many nests and it is essential to control all of them or you will never get rid of them. Never use synthetic pesticides in trying to control these ants as all you will do is cause them to split up and make the problem worse.</p>
<p>Place baits such as half-and-half fruit juice and aspartame in soda straws. Cut the straws into 1-inch segments and put the segments where you have seen the pharaoh ants foraging. You can even tape them to the underside of tables.</p>
<p>You can change the baits periodically by mixing peanut oil, sweet syrup, jelly or honey with a little boric acid or food grade diatomaceous earth. Place the straw-filled baits as close to the nests as possible.</p>
<p>You can also put strained liver baby food, honey or peanut butter mixed with boric acid or borax in small cups. Treat any cracks and crevices around the outside of the home with Greenbug for Outdoors or an EcoSmart product.</p>
<p>Pharaoh ants are a major pest in hospitals where they have been associated with over 20 disease- causing pathogenic organisms and they often enter isolation wards, operating rooms and patient rooms where they feed on blood and blood products and then contaminate sterile areas.</p>
<p>They are not native to the western U. S. and are brought in on commerce. They normally infest apartment complexes, hospitals and large commercial buildings in this area. They rarely infest homes, but it happens on occasion.</p>
<p>If you have any pest questions, you can contact me at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | RICHARD FAGERLUND: Other species of pests are making way into our state | false | https://abqjournal.com/454157/other-species-of-pests-are-making-way-into-our-state.html | 2 |
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<p>According to a report recently made public, early this year, ISIS specifically identified 15,000 <a href="" type="internal">Christian Americans</a> for death and instructed jihadists already in America to begin widespread murder.</p>
<p>The Kill List report comes in the wake of ISIS <a href="https://www.bethanyblankley.com/isis-announces-warning-to-u-s-british-christians-youre-next-our-battle-on-your-land-has-not-started-yet/" type="external">already publicly warning</a> American and British Christians that “they were next.” British police last week publicly warned its 5.4 million Christians to be on alert and in some areas increased security.</p>
<p>But, <a href="http://circa.com/world/security-threats/circa-exclusive-fbi-didnt-warn-americans-they-were-named-on-secret-isis-kill-lists" type="external">Circa News</a> reports that the FBI did not notify American Christians who are on the ISIS “Kill Lists.” On its website it states:</p>
<p>“The FBI did not alert numerous Americans that they were placed on secret Islamic State kill lists or notify their local police about the potential dangers, a lapse in the government’s efforts to combat the terrorist group’s evolving strategy to target everyday citizens.</p>
<p>“To date, the terror group that goes by the acronym ISIS has published on encrypted web sites several hit lists naming more than 15,000 people it would like to see killed by sleeper cells or lone wolves in New York, Texas, Florida and California.”</p>
<p>Circa News was able to obtain copies of some of the lists and several individuals named on the lists. In Texas, for example, Circa News contacted 24 people marked for death. Of them, 22 had no idea that there was such a list or that they were on it.</p>
<p>It is believed that the list was purportedly created from <a href="" type="internal">an Internet search of church directories</a>.</p>
<p>Michael Snyder of <a href="http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/58788-how-an-entire-church-ended-up-on-an-isis-kill-list" type="external">Charisma News</a> remarked that the FBI did inform him that he and his wife are on the list. After further research, they discovered that his pastor and other members of his church were also on the ISIS Kill List.</p>
<p>Leaders of Christian organizations and Christian pastors should contact their local FBI and law enforcement to investigate if they are on the list and also request that security measures be taken to protect their congregation.</p>
<p>Despite the warning, good news does exist. Snyder pointed to a <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2016/02/05/feds-dearborn-hts-man-supports-isis-planned-attack/79906302/" type="external">Detroit News</a> article that describes how a 21 year-old Islamist from Dearborn Heights, Michigan, Khalil abu-Rayyan, decided that because he couldn’t commit Jihad overseas—he would find a mega-church in Detroit.</p>
<p>He purchased a gun and identified his target—which seats up to 6,000 people. But the God of the <a href="http://amzn.to/2ar41qW" type="external">Bible</a>had other plans—an undercover FBI agent who had been in correspondence with him since last year was able to thwart abu-Rayyan’s plans.</p>
<p>The Detroit News reported that according to court records, abu-Rayyan said he didn’t know the name of the church but knew it was one of the largest churches in Detroit. He bragged:</p>
<p>“I had it planned out. I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced a lot with it. I practiced reloading and unloading. But my dad searched my car one day, and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask I was going to wear.”</p>
<p>The Detroit News also mentions that <a href="" type="internal">abu-Rayyan</a> “told an undercover FBI employee that attacking a church would be ‘easy.’” According to a court affidavit, abu-Rayyan claimed:</p>
<p>“A lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church. Plus it would make the news. Everybody would’ve heard. Honestly I regret not doing it. (If I) can’t go do jihad at the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here.”</p>
<p>He also told the undercover FBI agent that he carried a “large <a href="http://amzn.to/2ar4z03" type="external">knife</a>or sword in his car” and if he got into a fight, said, “it is my dream to behead someone.”</p>
<p>His arraignment occurred around the same time that Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump announced the need to ban Muslims from entering the country. Incredibly, Trump’s assertion continues to be criticized even though existing federal law already prohibits providing any aid, visa, Green Card, citizenship status, or rights to Islamists seeking entrance into the country— <a href="http://constitution.com/immigration-law-has-prohibited-islamists-socialists-communists-totalitarians-from-becoming-citizens-since-1952/" type="external">since 1952</a>.</p>
<p>The Obama administration and previous administrations have intentionally and repeatedly chosen to break the law. In fact, the last TEN presidents <a href="https://www.bethanyblankley.com/why-havent-the-last-ten-presidents-protected-our-borders-video/" type="external">chose not to secure</a> the U.S. border.</p>
<p>The intentional ongoing failure to uphold the U.S. Constitution has obviously created the dire situation in which Americans, and especially Christians, find themselves.</p>
<p>But what the local church can teach ISIS and America’s failed government, is that the church is where people turn first in times of crisis. The refuge they seek is only found in the eternal God who promises to shield them in times of trouble with the shadow of his wings. The safest place for the church is the church itself.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/isis-kill-list-names-15000-american-christians-targeted-for-death/" type="external">Freedom Outpost</a></p>
<p>Article reposted with permission from <a href="http://constitution.com/isis-kill-list-names-15000-american-christians-targeted-death/" type="external">Constitution.com</a></p>
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<p /> | ISIS Kill List Names 15,000 American Christians Targeted for Death | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2016/08/06/isis-kill-list-names-15000-american-christians-targeted-for-death/ | 2016-08-06 | 0 |
<p>Voters are “embarrassed” by President Donald Trump’s conduct in three key states that won him the election last year – Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – where his approval ratings have fallen below 40 percent, according to the latest <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/trump-s-approval-rating-stands-below-40-percent-three-key-n794061" type="external">NBC News/Marist polls.</a></p>
<p>Nearly two-thirds of voters in those states say Trump has “embarrassed” them (64 percent in Michigan and Wisconsin, 63 percent in Pennsylvania, while just 25 percent say he has “made them proud,” according to the report.</p>
<p>Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to carry those states since the 1980s, winning by a combined 80,000 votes.</p>
<p>The poll results:</p>
<p>The NBC/Marist polls were conducted Aug. 13-17 — after the Charlottesville, Virginia, violence and amid Trump various responses. Around 800 registered voters were polled with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.</p> | NBC/Marist Poll: Three Key States 'Embarrassed,' Turn on Trump | false | https://newsline.com/nbcmarist-poll-three-key-states-embarrassed-turn-on-trump/ | 2017-08-20 | 1 |
<p>OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Highway Patrol says a 22-year-old Olathe woman died when she was hit by her own car after it was struck by an another driver.</p>
<p>The patrol says Kendyl Walter was involved in an accident on Interstate 35 in Olathe Thursday evening, leaving her car disabled in the interstate.</p>
<p>The patrol says a 59-year-old Overland Park man hit her car, which spun and hit Walter while she was standing near the highway.</p>
<p>Walter died at the scene.</p>
<p>The driver stopped and is cooperating with the investigation.</p>
<p>OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Highway Patrol says a 22-year-old Olathe woman died when she was hit by her own car after it was struck by an another driver.</p>
<p>The patrol says Kendyl Walter was involved in an accident on Interstate 35 in Olathe Thursday evening, leaving her car disabled in the interstate.</p>
<p>The patrol says a 59-year-old Overland Park man hit her car, which spun and hit Walter while she was standing near the highway.</p>
<p>Walter died at the scene.</p>
<p>The driver stopped and is cooperating with the investigation.</p> | Kansas woman dies after being hit by her car after crash | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1e3a8aa8aa58417a804eed3d3397cc9c | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>Self-employment has become an increasingly popular lifestyle choice in the US: The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in 2015, just over 10% of the working population was self-employed. Fortunately, retirement savings options for independent contractors and small businesses have grown to include some extremely appealing choices.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/what-is-a-sep-ira.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=d75d53d8-9039-11e7-8f56-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plans Opens a New Window.</a> are usually the best choice for small business owners who don't have employees. SEP-IRA accounts are easy to set up and have low or no account fees and extremely flexible contribution rules. If you don't have employees you can contribute as little or as much as you want to your SEP-IRA, up to a maximum of 25% of your total compensation or $54,000 (in 2017), whichever is lower. And you can make your contributions at any time during the year.</p>
<p>If you have employees, you can still have a SEP plan -- but contribution rules get a bit more complicated. Basically, if you contribute to one SEP-IRA (including your own) you have to make equivalent contributions to every other employee's SEP-IRA. You can set certain requirements as to which employees are eligible to have SEP-IRA accounts: Typically, an employee must have worked for you for a certain number of years, must be a certain age, and must have earned a minimum amount.</p>
<p>Another option for solopreneurs is the individual 401(k) (sometimes also called the self-employed 401(k)). To open an individual 401(k), you can't have any non-owner employees. It's best to stay away from this type of retirement savings account if you think you'll likely have employees in the future, since adding non-owner employees to your business will require you to completely restructure your 401(k) plan in a complicated and often expensive manner.</p>
<p>Individual 401(k)s have the most generous contribution limits of all the small business retirement accounts because you can make contributions as both an employee and as an employer. As an employee, the contribution limits are the same as for any 401(k): In 2017, the limit is $18,000 per year, or $24,000 per year if you're 50 or older -- not to exceed your compensation for the year. In addition, as an employer you can contribute up to 25% of your compensation for the year. For the purposes of this calculation, your compensation is your earnings minus one half your self-employment tax and minus any contributions you made as an employee.</p>
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<p>Like SEP-IRA plans, individual 401(k)s are simple to set up and cheap to maintain. However, once you have over $250,000 saved in your 401(k), you must file Form 5500 annually with the IRS. You can't withdraw funds from your individual 401(k) unless a "trigger" event happens (trigger events include closing the business, terminating the 401(k) plan, or reaching age 59 1/2).</p>
<p>The best choice for small business owners with employees, a <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/what-is-a-simple-ira.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=d75d53d8-9039-11e7-8f56-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">SIMPLE IRA plan Opens a New Window.</a> is an option for any small business with 100 or fewer employees. SIMPLE IRAs are fairly easy to set up. You need only find a bank or brokerage to act as the plan trustee and fill out one of the IRS SIMPLE IRA template documents. SIMPLE IRAs usually have low or no account maintenance fees.</p>
<p>With a SIMPLE IRA plan, you're required to make contributions every year. You can choose one of two contribution systems: either a 3% matching contribution, or a 2% contribution regardless of whether or not the employee contributed to the account themself. You can't contribute more than that as an employer, although you can contribute as an employee to your own account -- up to $12,500 (in 2017) or $15,500 if you're age 50 or older, not to exceed your total compensation. Whichever system you choose, you're required to apply it to each and every account.</p>
<p>You may be wondering why you shouldn't just stick with a basic IRA, which is a whole lot simpler to set up and maintain than the above options. The answer is simple: IRA contribution limits are too low for you to save enough money to retire comfortably. The IRA contribution limit for 2017 is $5,500, or $6,500 if you're 50 or older. Most workers will need to save at least 10% of their income, although <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/05/13/how-to-create-a-retirement-plan-in-15-minutes.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=d75d53d8-9039-11e7-8f56-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">15% or more Opens a New Window.</a> is a better goal. But once you are earning more than $55,000 per year, you won't be able to hit even a 10% contribution rate using just an IRA. So by all means, open an IRA (or even better, a <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/08/30/would-a-roth-ira-save-you-money.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=d75d53d8-9039-11e7-8f56-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Roth IRA Opens a New Window.</a>) to complement your employer retirement savings account -- but don't limit yourself to the extremely low savings rate that a basic IRA requires.</p>
<p>The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.&#160; <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=d75d53d8-9039-11e7-8f56-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=d75d53d8-9039-11e7-8f56-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How the Self-Employed Can Save for Retirement | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/09/how-self-employed-can-save-for-retirement.html | 2017-09-09 | 0 |
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<p>NEW YORK — It took less than a week for two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey to go from admired stage, TV and film star to a pariah, under investigation by the police and fired from his Emmy-winning role in “House of Cards.” Here’s a look at key developments in his still-unfolding case.</p>
<p>BLOCKBUSTER CLAIM</p>
<p>Sunday, Oct. 29</p>
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<p>In an interview with BuzzFeed, actor Anthony Rapp said he attended a party at Spacey’s New York apartment in 1986, when he was 14. At the end of the night, an inebriated Spacey picked him up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him, Rapp said. Rapp said the 26-year-old was holding him down tightly, but he was able to get away and left the apartment. Rapp said he was inspired to come forward in the wake of allegations swirling around Harvey Weinstein.</p>
<p>APOLOGY… AND MORE</p>
<p>Monday, Oct. 30</p>
<p>Spacey posted on Twitter that he didn’t remember the Rapp encounter. “But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior,” he said. Spacey, who has fiercely protected his private life, had never disclosed his sexuality before but said Rapp’s story encouraged him to speak and he came out as a gay man. Many observers thought it was an odd time for Spacey to address his sexuality or was even an attempt to deflect blame.</p>
<p>ONLINE FIRESTORM</p>
<p>All day, Spacey faced condemnation from gay activists and fellow performers, including actor Zachary Quinto, comedian Wanda Sykes and musician Lance Bass, as well as the gay rights group GLAAD. Netflix and the “House of Cards” producer, Media Rights Capital, announced the show would end after the conclusion of season six (though they added that such a decision had been made before the allegations) and some show executives arrived in Baltimore, where the series is shot, to make sure actors and crew “continue to feel safe and supported.”</p>
<p>ANOTHER ALLEGATION</p>
<p>Tuesday Oct. 31</p>
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<p>Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos wrote on his Facebook page that he encountered Spacey at the bar of London’s Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey was artistic director from 2004-15, and the actor tried to fondle him against his will. “It was more common for this guy, when he was in the bar of his theater, grabbing whoever caught his attention,” Cavazos wrote. “I didn’t stand for it, but I know some people who were afraid to stop it.” In a statement, the Old Vic expressed “deep dismay” at the sexual assault allegations and said “inappropriate behavior by anyone working at The Old Vic is completely unacceptable.” Spacey did not respond to requests for comment. Tuesday’s episode of the NBC drama “This Is Us,” which had initially referred to a Spacey film, was reedited to replace him with Christian Bale.</p>
<p>‘TOXIC’ SET</p>
<p>Thursday , Nov. 2</p>
<p>CNN reported that eight current or former “House of Cards” workers claimed that Spacey made the production a “toxic” workplace and one ex-employee alleged the actor sexually assaulted him. CNN reported that all of the people described Spacey’s behavior as predatory. The report accused Spacey of allegedly targeting staffers who were typically young and male with nonconsensual touching and crude comments. More fallout came when Spacey’s talent agency Creative Arts Agency said it was no longer representing Spacey, and his publicist also parted ways with the actor.</p>
<p>DEEPENING CRISIS</p>
<p>Friday, Nov. 3</p>
<p>London police said they had begun investigating an alleged 2008 sexual assault reportedly linked to Spacey. The Sun newspaper said the new allegation comes from a man who was in his early 20s at the time. In America, Netflix said it would cut all ties with Spacey, and will not be involved with any further production of “House of Cards” that includes him. The company also said it will not release the film “Gore,” starring Spacey, which was in post-production. In another blow to Spacey’s wallet, a Dutch business forum canceled his headline appearance at their conference Nov. 29 in Rotterdam.</p> | The swift unraveling of Kevin Spacey in less than a week | false | https://abqjournal.com/1088026/the-swift-unraveling-of-kevin-spacey-in-less-than-a-week.html | 2017-11-04 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Hollande used a meeting on Ukraine to address Western concerns that Russia's airstrikes would serve to strengthen Syrian President Bashar Assad by targeting rebels - perhaps including some aligned with the U.S. - rather than hitting IS fighters it has promised to attack.</p>
<p>Allies in a U.S.-led coalition that is conducting its own air campaign in Syria called on Russia to cease attacks on the Syrian opposition and to focus on fighting the Islamic State group. A joint statement by France, Turkey, the U.S. Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Britain expressed concern that Russia's actions will "only fuel more extremism and radicalization."</p>
<p>The Russian Defense Ministry released images showing that its jets hit an Islamic State-held area near its de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria on Thursday. It said there were 14 new missions Friday, including targets in Idlib and Hama provinces.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Hollande said he told Putin that only one of Russia's strikes in three days hit at the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, ISIS and Daesh. The other strikes, Hollande added, were on areas controlled by the opposition.</p>
<p>"Russia has always been involved in Syria. Since the beginning, Russia has supported the regime of Bashar Assad and furnished him weapons, even if it goes further now," Hollande told reporters. "But what I told Mr. Putin is that the strikes must concern Daesh, and only Daesh."</p>
<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also attended the meeting with Putin, added that the leaders "said very clearly that Daesh was the enemy that we needed to fight."</p>
<p>"We also said that we needed a political solution for Syria that should take into consideration the opposition's interests and that opposition has always had our support," she added.</p>
<p>In Washington, President Barack Obama said Russia's military campaign fails to distinguish between terrorist groups and moderate rebel forces with a legitimate interest in a negotiated end to the civil war. He called Russia's military involvement, including airstrikes, a self-defeating exercise.</p>
<p>Obama also said that Syria would not turn into a "proxy war" between the United States and Russia.</p>
<p>Putin left the Paris meeting without comment - and without appearing alongside the French and German leaders.</p>
<p>His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the leaders "talked at length about Syrian affairs," and the Russian leader briefed Hollande about how the Russian operation is going. Putin reiterated Russia's commitment to coordinate its airstrikes "with the interested parties," Peskov added.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected suggestions that the airstrikes were meant to shore up support for Syria, Moscow's main ally in the Middle East. He insisted Russia was targeting the same militant groups as the U.S.-led coalition: IS, the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and other groups.</p>
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<p /> | France tells Putin to confine airstrikes to Islamic State | false | https://abqjournal.com/653352/france-tells-putin-to-confine-airstrikes-to-is.html | 2 |
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